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Aster Key — Start your mortgage anonymously
Start a home loan anonymously with our ultra-secure app. Get lender-ready and connect with privacy-focused lenders without revealing personal information. Product Hunters are tech leaders—perfect for exploring Aster Key to protect friends and family's data!
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@bradblumberg Cool Product, How quickly can I start a mortgage application using Aster Key?
@giorgi_khatiashvili2 If you are looking for a home in the United States—TODAY! Just download the app from iTunes or Google Play. We'll work on other countries where we can verify data. If you are in countries supported by Plaid, you can create ultra-secure financial statements and a proof of funds letter on your mobile device (we don't store them on servers) to start your journey and share them with your lenders when ready. In the US, we have lenders in our marketplace in every state.
@kjosephabraham Thank you for the question, Joseph. The hard part was getting all your financial data verified on YOUR mobile phone while not storing any of it on Aster Key servers! But my favorite feature is that you can Start Your Loan Anonymously with MAINSTREAM lenders. That breakthrough, having customers, is huge for a start-up!
@bradblumberg Your product is amazing. I will share it with my circle as I know some people personally who are looking for this type of help.
@bradblumberg
It's impressive how Aster Key is tackling this crucial challenge by giving consumers anonymity. You're setting a new standard in the industry. I’m intrigued by what motivated you to pioneer this approach in such a traditionally vulnerable area. Looking forward to seeing how Aster Key continues to innovate!
@sentry_co Your phone connects you to validating sources, which update when you open the app. We use services like Plaid and Argyle to verify assets, debts, and income. Unlike other apps, we encrypt that data end to end and strip out the personally identifiable information. On your phone, your financial and personal data are stored and encrypted separately. We proof-hash the data to ensure it is not tampered with, but no lender can use the proofs yet, so it's not on-chain (yet) in that manner, but it will be as we build internal tools for lenders. It's a process to change everything :).
@bradblumberg Nice. So Plaid and Argyle will be the authority of valid assets. That's cool they have a lot of skin in the game. That was the issue before. all these mortgage aggregators had no skin in the game so they just Yolo'ed your financial data. How long does the financial data and person data stay separate. until you sign the loan docs. or before that in some due dil process? I guess the most important phase is to guard the aggregation phase. where you get different offers etc? Really cool stuff! can't wait for this to go global. then we are moving away from malignant "Social score systems" and into more benign "decentralised fair game systems".
Hunter
This is actually awesome — a way for consumers to apply for mortgages without leaking their identity or financial info to data brokers!
The dirty secret of high value transactions like this is that they're swarming with hungry data brokers who are looking for every chance to buy, aggregate, and sell warm leads to loan providers.
@bradblumberg was fed up with this problem and realized that he could build a pipeline for savvy, forward-looking providers that are willing to give their customers a piece of mind by not harvesting personal information unless and until the consumer has picked a vendor.
There's a bunch of fancy on-device encryption and anonymization that makes this all work behind the scenes and the Aster Key team is finally ready to take on banking, mortgage, and credit union customers who want to offer a more secure, privacy-preserving approach to mortgage applications.
@chrismessina Thank you. You embody what Product Hunt means to many people, such as community, curiosity, and constructive feedback from people who love to build and solve problems. Thank you for your support and comments.
Oh this would be great most lenders are covered! Giving away personal and financial information to a mortgage specialist is scary. Never know what would happen to that data and what kind of data retention policy they have.
When are you coming to Canada?
I think this takes some really deep understanding of the industry to make working. Congrats @bradblumberg and the team on the launch!
@millisen As you note, Milli, the key is the industry getting on board, and we are closing a lender a week on average, so we are pushing up the hill!
Congratulations on the launch, really cool idea, good job by you and your team.
I believe mortgage is not your end game right? where are you going from here?
good luck today
@m4jiz We would like every consumer to be able to track (and revoke) all their data as it moves through any lending ecosystem, from mortgages to auto loans to credit cards. We also don't think credit bureaus deserve the right to hold and market our data. We see a world where they can score it anonymously, but that's it.
@zenda1122 Our origin story: we were puzzled as to why almost every company we did business with seemed to be getting hacked. It seemed especially egregious in the most complex transaction most of us undertake a mortgage or home loan. As we dug deeper, we realized the obvious. None of us own our financial identity! It's owned by 3rd parties that sell it behind our backs, including 100 year old constructs like credit bureaus. There is so much tech and promise we knew there had to be a better way. We have a plan to de-risk the entire flow of data in the mortgage process, and we're taking it step by step!
As an Aster Key fonder I can see the future and what is driving the need for change:
We live in a world where we are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks. Aster Key prides itself in our "nothing is overkill" philosophy that drives all security policies. We're committed to staying ahead of the curve and protecting your personal and financial data!
The truth is too often ignored:
The traditional cybersecurity model is broken. It's time for a radical shift. Aster Key is bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3, transforming how we protect sensitive financial data. By decentralizing information and making the consumer's phone an impenetrable fortress, we're fundamentally changing the game. Imagine 10 million consumers with data stored only on their mobile devices, instead of all the pieces in a central location. This reduces the attack vector from a single, centralized target to requiring individual breaches for each user's mobile device. This is a tectonic shift and the future of security, where data is protected at its source, reducing the impact of breaches and saving both consumers and lenders time and money
@mark_curz As long as you see the lender in our marketplace when you hit APPLY you can apply to one or more. Note, we only show lenders licensed in a particular state in the US. * The only asterisk is if you get the app from a lender directly, like you see a "start your loan anonymously" button on a lender website, you'll only see the lender who gave you the app.
This could be a great tool for privacy in the mortgage industry. How does Aster Key compare to traditional mortgage brokers?
@maali_baali We are not a lender. We power any lender that 1) understands our mission is to always put consumer data privacy and data security first, and 2) when we say power, we mean we give lenders a channel to let consumers start their mortgage anonymously.
Congratulations on the launch. Which other countries are on the road map for the product in the future?
@trisha_sinha20 It takes two things for us to launch in a country 1) a lender 2) there are tools to verify assets and income such as Plaid works there. We'll work on Canada, the UK, and the EU as Plaid works there now. I will throw this out there: if any product hunters already work with a lender in their country and want to partner with me, hit me up!
This is such a valuable tool in todays digital age. The ability to start a mortgage process anonymously is something I think a lot of people will appreciate especially after all the recent data breaches.
@charliee1122 Yes, that's our origin story! Tired of getting our data hacked, again and again.
Congrats on the launch! The Aster Key App is a game-changer for loan applications! With top-notch encryption protecting my data and keeping it away from shady data sellers, I finally feel safe applying for loans online. It's a win-win – I get peace of mind, and lenders get a secure way to connect with me. I love knowing my info is safe and that this app puts my privacy first. It's a must-have for anyone looking for a trustworthy loan experience!
It seems like a must have for anyone looking to protect their financial data. The focus on encrypted storage and privacy is a huge plus in my book.
This app seems like a breath of fresh air in an industry that desperately needs more focus on consumer privacy, Kudos to the team for making this happen.
@daniel_henry4 Thank you. We are working HARD! (like all of you makers!)
Its focus on protecting user data is exactly what we need today. I am looking forward to trying our the anonymous mortgage initiation feature. Such a cool idea!
@annie_engelhardth great! Let me know how it goes, I monitor the Anon Chat feature in the app, ask anything!
Privacy in our digital world is very difficult and frustrating. I'm tired of personally getting hacked and being notified by credit card companies and my bank that they've been hacked. This app sounds great!
Besides the great security attributes of Aster Key, it's the privacy aspect that I love the most. Previously you would fill out an application online and get slaughtered for the next year with phone calls, texts and emails longer after your application process was completed. Now I know when I apply, I don't have to worry about getting inundated.
@bert4332 We hear that ALL the time. Did you know in the US, something insane is allowed? Let's say you go to a lender, and they run your credit through Equifax, TransUnion, or Experian. That lender pays good money to do that. Guess what those credit bureau 💩's do the instant that happens? They sell your info to other lenders, saying you're applying for a loan! If that's not bad enough, a lot of those companies then send you mail that tries to look like the initial firm you are dealing with. Yea, it's a problem. Your data is sent everywhere. It sucks and is unsafe and not private.
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