General Welfare

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The U.S. Constitution (1787)

“Private institutions may arise to take advantage of the potential increases in welfare which can accrue to all parties.”

George A. Akerlof, “The Market for ‘Lemons’: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism” (1970)

There are significant economic costs to dishonesty: first order loss from direct fraud, and higher order loss from driving honest business out of the market.

Fraud and deceptive business practices are at all-time highs accelerated by AI (cybercrime, deep fakes, commoditized distribution, etc.). Institutions which historically protected consumers, businesses, and governments from these risks are lagging behind. First order fraud loss across the economy is $1T+. [1][2][3][4]

A new mechanism is needed to restore transparency and trust in markets (precisely: increase the marginal cost of deceptive business practices). To be effective, this mechanism must operate on the frontier of technology and transfer risk away from buyers.

General Welfare is building technology enabled financial services in this direction. Join us.