Mission (Why we are doing what we are doing)

• Enable financial freedom, which we believe means having two things: freedom over finance — people should be able to own their money — and freedom from finance — people should be able to experience life without worrying about money.

Vision (What we are doing)

• Enable people to save in bitcoin and spend in dollars securely and simply.

Problem

• Currently, most people hold all their wealth in state-controlled assets. The state can seize anyone’s wealth anytime, and individuals don’t have a great way to place checks and balances placed on this system.
• 2 billion people worldwide remain completely unbanked, and even those with access face significant risks from centralized finance: capital controls, obscure terms, risk of fund loss, and privacy violations.
• Properly storing and protecting wealth is overly complicated, disproportionately advantaging those with greater resources.
• Bitcoin enables self-sovereign savings; digital dollars allow instant, global payments. You can think about bitcoin/digital dollars as programmable gold/cash that can move at the speed of light and self-custody as the means to use them securely. People want to save in bitcoin and spend in dollars within self-custody, but they face limited functionality and difficult interfaces. Borrowing securely against bitcoin is especially challenging, pushing users towards insecure custodial solutions (over $100B lost in recent years).

Solution

• Lava unlocks self-custodial, bitcoin-backed loans, making it easy to securely save in bitcoin and spend in dollars.

Implications

• Lava protects individuals from being burned in financial crises by building a more anti-fragile financial experience.
• Lava holds the fiat system accountable, incentivizing better service by offering individuals an opt-out.
• Lava empowers individuals against authoritarianism. Capital allocation is a tool to organize labor and resources. Authoritarian regimes try to take the power of capital allocation from the people and bring it to the authoritarian. If people have financial freedom, specifically ownership over their own money, they can more easily organize, protest, and leave authoritarian regimes.
• Lava makes finance secure, easier, and global, giving financial access to ~2 billion currently excluded people.
• Lava frees individuals from restrictive financial products. Owning their money means people can freely switch providers, forcing the market to deliver better services.
• Lava saves people time. Easier financial management means less stress about money and more time to enjoy life.
• Lava fosters a savings-driven economy. When people aren’t constantly worried about their savings being devalued, they are more likely to save. This reduces excessive consumerism and encourages greater financial stability.
• Lava unlocks bitcoin’s full potential as self-sovereign savings by enabling users to borrow without custodial risk. Historically, users turned to Ethereum primarily because it allowed borrowing without custodians—something bitcoin couldn’t offer until Lava. Unlocking bitcoin’s potential as the best savings asset accelerates its success.