Israeli startup Kima is running a project with Mastercard’s FinSec Innovation Lab to connect decentralized finance (DeFi) applications with fiat systems.
Kima, which describes itself as an asset-agnostic peer-to-peer money transfer and payment protocol, has secured a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority to fund the plan.
The startup and FinSec lab will focus on developing a use case that links traditional financial instruments such as bank accounts and credit cards with DeFi protocols, platforms and services.
The collaboration aims to expand Kima’s existing payment protocol, which enables direct fund transfers via blockchain and bank accounts without the use of smart contracts.
As part of the project, FinSec will operate a Kima node and act as a stakeholder in its growing cross-ecosystem network.
Eitan Katz, CEO of Kima, says: “Blockchain and DeFi can only become permanent fixtures outside the niche world of Web3 if there is an easily accessible, secure and affordable way to connect blockchain networks to traditional finance.”