Market Opportunity

Structural Gaps in Existing Systems

Despite decades of innovation, modern financial systems still suffer from foundational constraints:

• Custody risk: Users are responsible for securing value-bearing credentials

• Privacy leakage: Accounts expose balances, transaction history, and behavioral patterns

• Operational friction: Opening, maintaining, and integrating accounts is costly

• Scalability limits: Each user increases persistent system state

• Access barriers: Participation often requires upfront capital ownership

Even decentralized finance largely mirrors traditional banking mechanics, substituting smart contracts for intermediaries without changing the underlying ownership model.

Opportunity for Authorization-Based Finance

Kredo targets a new market category where:

• Spending rights matter more than balances

• Identity can be verified without disclosure

• Capital efficiency is maximized through pooling

• Systems can serve humans, applications, and autonomous agents equally

Potential market segments include:

• Embedded finance platforms

• Privacy-focused payment systems

• Regulated fintechs seeking non-custodial models

• On-chain applications requiring programmable spending

• AI agents and automated systems requiring bounded financial access

This represents a shift from user-owned money to system-mediated liquidity, opening a design space largely unexplored by existing protocols.