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!Hello, Product Hunters! ❤️
I’m Brad Blumberg. Along with my brother Eric and our fantastic team of makers, I’m excited to introduce Aster Key—a groundbreaking app for lenders and privacy-conscious consumers.
Today, we announce an industry first: You can start a mortgage process anonymously with mainstream lenders in the United States.
Our previous start-up made waves with mobile apps and data solutions for the residential real estate industry. That company was acquired, and we founded Aster Key out of frustration with financial institutions’ vulnerabilities to cyberattacks and data breaches.
Yes, our data has been hacked from lender databases! This was in the news this week: "Massive data leak may include the personal data of every person in the US, UK, and Canada," so maybe you've experienced losing your data as well.
The Problem
When you apply for a mortgage, the harsh reality is that your data is treated like a hot potato—passed between lenders, tech vendors, and intermediaries. This exposes your confidential information to numerous massive, centralized servers, making it a prime target for hackers.
Our Solution
🏦 Aster Key provides a channel for mainstream lenders, enabling consumers to bypass the initial application process and start their loans anonymously.
💪 Empower Consumers: Our free and ultra-secure Aster Key app gives consumers control over their financial and personal data.
Aster Key’s Security Features
🔒 Secure Storage: Financial data is encrypted and stored directly on the consumer's mobile phone, never on our servers. 🔒 Data Anonymization: Personally identifiable information is removed from financial data, which is then encrypted and stored separately. 🔒 Automated Verification: Financial data is updated and verified via end-to-end encrypted integrations with Plaid and Argyle. 🔒 Field-Level Encryption: We aim to encrypt each piece of financial data individually with changing keys, not just at the database level.
Key Features for Consumers
🔒 Centralized view of all financial information for lifetime use. 🔒 Dynamically generated personal financial statements and proof of funds. 🔒 Single passphrase and biometric authentication for enhanced security. 🔒 Anonymous Communication: Protects email address when contacting lenders. 🔒 A private, ad-free environment. 🚀 Anonymous mortgage initiation.
Additionally, the app allows you to create verified financial statements and self-serve automated proof of funds letters in the U.S. and several supported countries. We’re planning global expansion, so feel free to reach out if you’re interested in collaborating.
Unlike other finance apps like NerdWallet or Credit Karma, Aster Key prioritizes data privacy and ownership, not marketing your data. We're embracing defi principles and have an on-chain, Web3 roadmap. Today, we turn your mobile phone into a decentralized node, a mainstream on-ramp to the future.
As Product Hunters, you’re likely the tech-savvy person in your circle—whether at work or in your personal life. Together, we can protect people’s financial assets, and we’d love your feedback and support. ❤️ Thank you.@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!Question: Who validates and manages the ledger that says you're capable of handling the mortgage? This anonymouse certificate must be managed somewhere and updated continuously?@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".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.Congrats on the launch! This could be a game-changer.
Happy to check out an industry-first product.
Good luck!@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!
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