From our founder, Shehzan. Since people kept asking me to write the story behind Lava, here it is:
My parents came to America with nothing, and they worked harder than anyone I’ve known to earn for our family. But despite their efforts to make money, they faced another challenge in figuring out how to store that money. Should the money be kept in dollars, bonds, stocks, bitcoin, real estate, or another asset? This wasn't just their challenge. It is a common problem faced in the community a grew up in which is a less-educated community. Watching those I care about face challenges in managing their finances inspired me to understand and simplify finance.
Once I made some money through my ventures, I tried putting that money in every investment channel I could access - real estate, stocks, options, private equity, lending. During this phase, I discovered the many problems present in our financial system, and I realized how self-custody and bitcoin could help address them. However, the self-custody app I wanted to use didn’t exist, so I decided to start Lava to build the app I envisioned myself wanting to use.
I started to flesh out the tech for the self-custody vault I wanted to use — one that would let me access the functionality I wanted securely and simply. During a late-night drive, I figured out how to build a bitcoin-backed loans protocol using invisible smart contracts on bitcoin, a technology I’d been following, and I fleshed out the design for this protocol which would enable loans without the requirement for custodians or bridges. Finishing the spec of the protocol and the vault, and feeling confident in my ability to deliver on the vision, I set out to raise money to build Lava. Since then, I’ve assembled a lean but highly capable team, and together, we’ve built Lava to be a self-custody solution that can serve you.