Rumeer Keshwani on Cryptocurrency and Celsius
Rumeer Keshwani means business and not just any business… cryptocurrency business. Sounds intriguing doesn’t it? To explain a little bit about blockchain and a whole lot about cryptocurrency and its applications, I sat Rumeer down to give us all the details.
Rumeer currently works at Celsius as a Junior Accountant, a cryptocurrency fintech start-up that is consumer facing. Before graduating from college, Rumeer had his sights on working on the finance side of things at a venture capital (VC) firm with the goal of orienting himself towards tech start-ups, more specifically. However, the more people he spoke with, the more advice he got on working for an extraordinary start-up first, before getting fully involved with investing in them. With that in mind, Rumeer jumped at the opportunity to work at Celsius, which has just closed its $20M series A fundraise valued at $120M and possesses a promising future.
When I asked Rumeer to explain cryptocurrency like he was explaining it to a 5 year old, he described cryptocurrency as “basically, a way for people to exchange value on the Internet, the same way that money is an exchange of value. You can do this by using blockchain, in simple terms, a collection of nodes that exchange information.”
Rumeer went even further explaining that every currency issued by a government nowadays is fiat currency. These currencies are no longer backed by physical assists, rather they are backed by society’s faith in those governments. Communities adhere to certain rules and values that are currency specific. Due to economics the currency’s value will change. Cryptocurrency acts in the same way as regular currency in this regard. Another factor that contributes to its value is also the amount of people who transact and exchange the currency. This strengthens the blockchain ledger that the currency uses, making it increasingly appealing and trustworthy to potential users.
Celsius is fundamentally different from banks, allowing users to earn rewards from cryptocurrencies transferred to their Celsius wallet. At Celsius, customers can collateralize their assets in order to access the value they have stored in their crypto assets, without actually selling the assets. You earn weekly compounding interest on keeping your cryptocurrency at the bank. At Celsius, you can earn up to 21% annually by keeping your money in a Celsius wallet. The reason why Celsius can offer such high reward rates is because it distributes 80% of its earnings to the community members who have crypto assets deposited in the bank, something that a bank would never do!
One thing that Rumeer wishes more people knew about cryptocurrencies is that the use cases are so immense, especially in international communities that don’t have stable currencies, such as in Venezuela and Iran. “I wish people knew how much opportunity there is out there and those opportunities exist in front of us every day,” says Rumeer, who believes that skepticism on the value of cryptocurrencies and these currencies being complicated to explain, stands in the way of more consumer involvement.
If you are willing to learn, the future of banking is up to you to invest in.
The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.
Originally published at http://ursuladedekind.com on December 9, 2020.
