Frequently asked questions

Aster Key is a mobile app that enables consumers to start loans anonymously for lending products such as mortgages. It’s simple to get started.  First, generate your financial statement. This takes a few minutes as you compile verified data from your existing bank and payroll accounts. You can also self-verify your financial information and come back to verify later. Then, when you want a loan you can share your data with participating lenders directly into their systems, bypassing the initial online application.

In a future release, you will be able to get pre-approved anonymously, and then share your real-world identity with the lender, through the app, to complete the transaction.

Via the Aster Key app, you can log into many of your existing banking, investment, and payroll accounts. We do this in your Aster Key app using the same technology Venmo and Coinbase use such as Plaid and Argyle – with an Aster Key security upgrade. For example, when we populate your verified sources in your Aster Key app, we encrypt the data end to end in transit from Plaid and Argyle. We also don’t see or store your logins to the accounts you verify.  Once approved for a loan, you will see in the app any items the lender requires you to verify or upload to meet underwriting guidelines.

The app can be found in the Apple iTunes and Google Play (Android) app stores. Right now, it is an app that can be used on your mobile phone. Your phone is much more secure than if you accessed Aster Key from the web.

Benefits are: 1) You are creating a secure financial statement that can be updated for the rest of your life – so you will never have to fill out a credit application again. 2) You get a cool dashboard to track your net worth and see where you rank against others in the United States. 3) You can keep your financial data private and anonymous – so it can’t be hacked.  4) We are adding products all the time.  For example, from your financial assets, you can create a verified Proof of Funds letter to give to a Realtor if required to see a home.

Your data is only stored on your mobile phone! Aster Key does not store any of your data on our servers. Your financial data is displayed via end-to-end encryption on your mobile phone and separated from your personal real world identity data.

You can certainly self-verify your financial profile and use it to document your net worth and financial health. While our partner Lenders will take your word that your self-verified data is accurate and complete, and issue you a conditional approval, at some point you’ll need to verify your data. For example, to close on a loan (get the money), you will have to verify the key pieces of your financial data such as your income, debts and assets. You can use the Aster Key app to do this. Remember anonymous does not mean you can falsify your financial profile. With the responsibility of being in control of your data, you must be honest or the system will not work for you.

1) Your financial data is displayed via end-to-end encryption on your mobile phone and separated from personal real world identity data. 2) All data is encrypted end to end, including when in route to your mobile phone and to the lender. 3) Your data is verified on a blockchain – someday this will be enough for lenders to instantly approve consumers based on these proofs alone.

Aster Key uses 1) end to end encryption, 2) identity stripping and 3) blockchain verification proofs to create unique and superior data security and data privacy.

When you go to a lender’s website, you are required to fill in personal information such as your name and email. This is so the lender can identify you and market to you. Next, you must enter more personal and financial information so they can pull your credit report and score. The process is slow and overly complicated. You have to give them all this information and you are not even a customer. You are a lead to be marketed to. Even when you are a customer, lenders make you start an application from scratch. The process is not only onerous, but also unsafe.

Every consumer has their financial and behavioral identity compiled by credit bureaus and lenders without true consent and without compensating you. Those in the know expose these practices that make – your data – their product. Chamath Palihapitiya, an early Facebook executive said this, “Facebook and Robinhood are the same. They both trick you into thinking you are the customer. But in fact, you are the product, and your data is the asset. These assets are then sold to their true customers who pay them money and always at your expense.” Credit bureaus are the granddaddy of taking your data and selling derivatives of it behind your back. Facebook is just a modern smart aleck version. The sad part is all lenders are tethered to this system run by the oligarchy of credit bureaus that exploit consumer data. Aster Key changes all this by putting you in control of your data.

Every day you read how financial players are getting hacked at all ends. Lenders that store your data are getting hacked. Credit bureaus that supply lenders with data about you are getting hacked. All the intermediaries with access to your data such as lending software vendors are getting hacked.

There is no reason you have to fill out an entirely new application every time you want to get a loan. Once your financial data is secured and can be updated on your phone using Aster Key, you can apply to lenders (and other services) for the rest of your life in 1 click. With Aster Key, never fill out a credit application again.

Yes. Not only does this make our app secure, but if you have a fingerprint or a face you can log into your app in a flash.

Aster Key allows participating lenders to approve loans and services based on receiving anonymous financial profiles via the Aster Key API. In some instances, this data can be sent into your LOS encrypted.  Lenders can close faster as they have verified consumer financial data and acceptance earlier in the process. Aster Key also reduces the likelihood of hacks at several points – saving lenders the embarrassment and cost of rectifying a breach.

Lenders can reach growing and highly engaged market segments such as 1) Millennials and younger consumers that care about doing business with companies they trust.  2) Privacy and security minded consumers such as crypto enthusiasts. 3) Well off consumers that know they will get approved and are tired of the hassle of applying for loans and sending paper or digital financial annual statements to banks. 4) Those that want control over their financial decisions. The WSJ noted, “70% of households with over $500k in net worth, headed by someone under 45, were likely to have a self-directed financial style.  This extends to their loan provider choices.  5) Consumers with a whole different set of issues such as the unbanked and new immigrants who do not have credit profiles and can now create them on Aster Key.

You can start by expressing interest in learning more and to be in our beta pool of lenders by emailing lender@asterkey.com.

Yes. Contact us at lender@asterkey.com.

We are starting the process to be fully integrated with the LOS system Encompass. We can also pass encrypted MISMO formatted data.

Brad Blumberg and Eric Blumberg. These brothers are well known for founding Smarter Agent. Smarter Agent created the first mobile apps in the real estate space. Their company gained widespread adoption powering mobile apps for franchisors and brokerages that did over half of all real estate sales in the United States. The Blumberg’s invented much of the way mobile real estate apps function today including how to securely handle massive amounts of data that updates frequently. Smarter Agent was acquired in 2018.

Brad has invested in real estate for over 20 years and has several mortgages, as well as auto and credit cards like most of us. One weekend he tried to apply for a car loan, but his credit report was locked, and he didn’t know his credentials, and getting thru to the credit bureau was impossible. His credit report was locked as the credit bureau had been hacked. The same week a commercial lender asked for his financial information as part of their annual requests, and he realized the tax returns he had dropped off at the bank had been lost. As an entrepreneur, he knew the current system was a hassle and not secure. The more he dug the more he realized credit agencies and lending processes developed decades ago should be replaced by something better. So, he started Aster Key to remake lending and enlisted a trusted team to make it happen. Join Aster Key to make your life easier and more secure. Vote for change starting with how you get your next loan!

1) Digital lending is rapidly growing 15-20% per year in the US and globally. A key problem for this segment to maintain growth is data security which Aster Key solves. 2) In addition, privacy laws are getting stricter and more expensive to meet as evidenced by GDPR (European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). These laws are being updated and the trend is more and more consumer privacy. Aster Key’s consumer permissioned system exceeds consumer privacy regulations. 3) Aster Key solves a fundamental issue that today’s fintech innovators have overlooked. Hot fintech companies are focused on speed (Rocket Mortgage) and/or comprehensive services (Sofi), or soften the complexity of the current credit system (Credit Karma). These companies have grown by leapfrogging traditional lending. However, all of these lenders still rely on exploitative data privacy practices and weak data security. Aster Key is the inventor of a critical new decentralized lending arena centered around financial privacy and data security. 4) And then there is the “what if” tsunami. It is likely consumers rebel and win the right to opt out of having their data reported to credit agencies. This move will usher in an emancipation of consumer data rights over the next decade. In part, Aster Key’s tokenized blockchain vision for credit data can replace the need for credit agencies to collect and market a consumer’s data without their permission. This would not preclude credit bureaus from creating scores based on anonymous versions of the data with consumer permission. Our vision at Aster Key is nothing happens without consumer permission and that permission cannot be warped by terms of use and privacy policies that give away consumer rights for using a service.

Yes, and our patent has a catchy title: “Apparatus, Systems and Methods for Storing User Profile Data on a Distributed Database for Anonymous Verification”

We create a blockchain hash (proof) of your data to ensure it has not been tampered with. In the future, we will help Lenders use these proofs for security deeper into their systems and to approve consumers faster.