Akropolis
Decentralised pensions and savings infrastructure
A trustless financial future for everyone
Akropolis is a lightweight, universal protocol layer capable of being deployed on a variety of blockchains
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
- Buckminster Fuller
ADVISORS, PARTNERS AND EARLY BACKERS
Professional Memberships
The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) connects Fortune 500 enterprises, startups, academics, and technology vendors with Ethereum subject matter experts. The EEA is helping to evolve Ethereum into an enterprise-grade technology, providing research and development in a range of areas.
MAMA is a trade body, initiated by Melonport AG, which represents asset management companies, investors, technology providers, service providers and ecosystem players interested in working towards a new vision for asset management using blockchain and other supporting decentralized technologies.
Media
Problem & Solution
Pensions: a US$400 Trillion problem
Problem
The existing pensions infrastructure is broken. The system suffers from misaligned incentives, lack of accountability, and hidden fees. (...)
Read MoreAll this burden is passed onto individuals, who have no control over their money, especially when moving jobs or countries. Management fees can erode up to a third of the total amount. Millennials and Generation Z, do not trust or contribute to the system. Yet pensions are the largest segment of the global financial ecosystem, totalling more than US$36 trillion in assets.
The World Economic Forum predicts that the worldwide savings gap will grow from 70 trillion today to US$400 trillion by 2050 - that's 5x the global GDP. It is already too late to fix the current pension system.
Solution
Akropolis is building a new decentralised pensions infrastructure from the ground up.
We aim to deliver secure, transparent and efficient savings to the pensions savers of the future by putting individuals in control of their data and funds. (...)
Our novel solution is building a new transparent system of record keeping and self-executing smart contracts through a decentralised platform, bringing together a blockchain protocol, user friendly mobile delivery and a community of advocates.
Consumer Perspective
- Old World
- New World
- No control over assets and data
- No visibility on fees
- No trust in the system
- No real control
- Confusion and complexity
- No accountability for misused fund
- No personalisation
- Self sovereignty
- Transparency
- Trustless system
- Portability
- Simplicity
- Accountability and incentives
- Tailored plans
Enterprise Perspective
- Old World
- New World
- No interaction between savers and fund managers
- Inefficient legacy system
- No user behaviour data
- Interests misaligned between end users and trustee
- Personalisation and direct access for consumers
- Technology enabled system, set up a virtual fund in seconds
- Users rewarded for sharing their data
- Few intermediaries, aligned interests
FOUNDERS AND ADVISORS
The passionate, dedicated Akropolis team is changing global finance forever. Get to know them.
Anastasia Andrianova
CEO & Founder
Lehman Brothers • University of Oxford
Kate Kurbanova
Head of Community & Co-founder
Peter Robertson
Pensions Lead
Ian Grigg
Technical Advisor
Bokky Poobah
Security Advisor
Marcus Killick
Legal Advisor
CEO of the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission
Sandra Wu
Pensions Advisor
Prabhakar Reddy
VC and Crypto Advisor
Harvard Business School
Roderick van der Graaf
FinTech Advisor
Saber Aria
Advisor & Investor
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam)
Stephen Reynolds
Partnerships
FAQ
What is Akropolis?
Akropolis is a technology platform designed to address deep-seated structural issues of the global pensions sector. It is designed to be a multi-jurisdictional platform for the delivery of pensions, social welfare and future benefits in a portable manner, that over time brings together individual end users and large institutional players in a new system of incentives.
What does Akropolis stand for?
The greek word ‘acropolis’ refers to the “upper city”, the first known human urban fortification, first established in what is now modern day Syria, followed by Ancient Greece and Rome. It is the defensive core of the city, a city within a city.
We chose to go with the Greek spelling. True to its name, Akropolis’ mission is to address the individual users’ needs - which are not addressed in the current pensions system with its misaligned incentives. We aim to re-dress them to incentivise distribution of the benefits of technology to the end users.
What problems does Akropolis solve?
The current pensions system is based on outdated assumptions, is rife with conflicts of interest and lacks transparency and accountability. We are addressing that by designing from the ground-up solution that meets peoples’ needs.
The two aspects necessarily have to be brought together in a coherent protocol in order to create a future-proof solution that takes into account how we live, work and consume.
Is Akropolis a pension fund?
No, Akropolis is not a pension fund. Akropolis is a technology company dedicated to the delivery of the sector-specific protocol.
Who are the main marketplace participants in the Akropolis protocol?
Consumers
Institutions
Developer community
Sector advisors and service providers
Is your project open source?
Not at this time. However the project is intended to be open source over time.