Neti at SwissHacks 2025: Safer Stablecoin Transfers and Blockchain Innovation

Neti at SwissHacks 2025

From April 11 to 13, 2025, the Neti team joined over 200 hackers, fintech innovators, and builders in Zurich for SwissHacks 2025 - a premier hackathon organized by the Swiss Financial Innovation Desk (FIND) and backed by Tenity. With a mission to solve real-world challenges at the intersection of finance and technology, the event offered a playground of opportunity for those ready to push boundaries.

We didn’t come just to participate. We came to redefine blockchain security, and we left as winners of the Ripple Challenge, with what we call the “PSD3 for stablecoins”: ⋮netiShield.

Why We Chose the Ripple Challenge

Of all the tracks available at SwissHacks, we were instantly drawn to one that felt deeply aligned with our mission and blockchain DNA: building on Ripple and its RLUSD stablecoin. The challenge was simple on paper - create a financial application that demonstrates real-world value using stablecoins. But the deeper task was much bigger: restore trust in blockchain payments at a time when stablecoin adoption is critical to scaling real-world use cases.

That’s where ⋮netiShield was born.

Before diving into our solution, it’s important to understand what stablecoins are and why RLUSD matters - and why Ripple’s regulatory approval of its RLUSD stablecoin marks such a milestone for the industry.

What Are Stablecoins and Why Do They Matter

Stablecoins are digital currencies designed to maintain a consistent value by being pegged to a reserve asset, typically a fiat currency like the US dollar. Unlike volatile cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, stablecoins offer predictability, making them ideal for payments, remittances, and decentralized finance.

How do stablecoins work? Let’s break down the key types:

• Fiat-collateralized stablecoins (e.g., USDC, USDT): Fiat-collateralized stablecoins are backed 1:1 by fiat reserves held securely in bank accounts. Examples like Circle’s stablecoin USDC and Tether’s USDT dominate the fiat-backed stablecoin market cap, providing stability and liquidity. Their simplicity and transparency make them preferred by enterprises and institutions.
• Crypto-collateralized stablecoins (e.g., DAI): Rather than using fiat, crypto-collateralized stablecoins are backed by other crypto assets and often overcollateralized to mitigate crypto market volatility. They represent a more decentralized approach but introduce complexity and higher risks due to fluctuating collateral values.
• Algorithmic stablecoins: Algorithmic stablecoins rely on smart contracts to dynamically adjust supply and demand to maintain price stability. However, many algorithmic models have faced challenges, with some high-profile failures reminding the market of their inherent experimental risks.

Examples of stablecoins you might know include USDC, USDT (Tether), DAI, GUSD, and now, Ripple’s RLUSD.

What is RLUSD stablecoin?
RLUSD is Ripple’s new fiat-backed stablecoin built for enterprise-grade digital payments. Designed to run natively on the XRP Ledger, RLUSD leverages XRP’s low fees, high throughput, and compliance-first architecture to offer a stable, scalable option for institutions. With Ripple completing regulatory approval of its RLUSD stablecoin, RLUSD is positioned to lead innovation in blockchain finance, making questions like "Is XRP a stablecoin?" increasingly relevant to broader public discourse.

The Problem: Blockchain Payments Are Still the Wild West

While stablecoins are revolutionizing payments, with $27.6 trillion in transaction volume in 2024, surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined, they still lack one critical component: security.

In traditional finance, regulations like PSD2 ensure consumer protection, fraud detection, and dispute resolution.

In crypto?
You send money to a phishing wallet, and it’s gone - forever. No reversals. No safety net. No accountability.

Here are just some of the threats users and institutions face:

• Phishing and social engineering scams: Attackers trick users into sending stablecoins like RLUSD to fraudulent wallet addresses, often through fake customer support chats, emails, or even social media impersonation.
• Stolen wallets and private keys: Malware, keyloggers, or SIM-swapping attacks can compromise users’ crypto wallets, leading to the loss of all their stablecoin holdings instantly.
• Smart contract vulnerabilities: Exploited bugs or poorly written contracts can cause millions in losses in seconds. Even projects dealing in fiat-backed stablecoins like RLUSD are not immune if integrations are insecure.
• Address spoofing: Scammers create wallet addresses visually similar to legitimate ones, intercepting transactions from unsuspecting senders.
• Zero-day exploits: Unpatched vulnerabilities in wallets, dApps, or transaction infrastructures that hackers exploit before the public or developers are aware.
• Rug pulls: Seemingly legitimate projects collect funds through fake promises and then disappear, leaving investors with worthless tokens - a growing risk even in stablecoin ecosystems as stablecoin use cases expand.

In 2025 alone, over $3 billion was lost to hacks, scams, and exploits - with a single breach like ByBit’s Q1 incident costing $1.5 billion.

We’re not claiming to have found a magic fix in one weekend. But we did tackle a critical pain point: unauthorized or risky transfers. That’s where NetiShield comes in.

Our Solution: NetiShield – A “PSD3” for Blockchain Payments

NetiShield is a compliance and security layer purpose-built for RLUSD stablecoin transactions, bringing the protections of PSD2 into the world of Web3. Think of it as PSD3 for blockchain finance.

NetiShield introduces:

✅ Real-time fraud detection algorithms tuned for stablecoin regulation risks
✅ Escrow functionality for risky RLUSD transfers
✅ Address blacklisting and whitelisting to enhance stablecoin adoption
✅ API safeguards for institutional integrations
✅ User and institutional dashboards for compliance monitoring

Whether you’re an individual or a large institution, NetiShield ensures that stablecoin-based transactions are verifiable, delayable, and reversible - bringing a much-needed safety layer to Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin and the broader Ripple XRP stablecoin ecosystem.

🔗 Try our live NetiShield POC demo here

How It Works (Step-by-Step with Visuals)

Let’s break it down:

1. User initiates an RLUSD stablecoin transaction via wallet or institutional interface.
2. NetiShield scans the destination wallet using connected anti-fraud services.
3. If the address is flagged, the funds are automatically placed in escrow.
4. The Escrow Authority and a trusted party (e.g. sender) review the situation.
5. Based on the outcome, funds are either released or frozen, pending further action.

Here is a short hackathon video presentation showing the concept in action:

How We Built It (In Just 48 Hours)

In true hackathon spirit, we developed NetiShield from scratch in just two days.

We combined battle-tested Web3 components with custom escrow logic, integrated third-party anti-fraud services, and designed a clean user experience that works for both individuals and institutions. Every feature was thought out to bring TradFi-level safety into blockchain-native environments. The result? - NetiShield - a solution ready to meet real-world needs of enterprises deploying stablecoin-based systems. If you are looking for more technical info - 🔗 Dive into netiShield GitHub repo to explore the code

What Institutions Gain from NetiShield

For institutions entering the fiat-backed stablecoin economy, NetiShield offers major advantages:

• Reduced exposure to fraud: Real-time risk screening before transactions clear.
• Compliance readiness (AML/KYC): Easily integrate with identity providers and stay ahead of evolving stablecoin regulation frameworks.
• Enhanced transaction monitoring: Dashboards offer a complete audit trail, with flags and human intervention logs.
• Greater trust and transparency: Build client confidence in stablecoin use cases across cross-border payments, payroll, remittances, and more.

The Road Ahead: From POC to Platform

This space is new to us - but we’re excited about it. We're actively consulting partners, experts, and clients to evolve NetiShield.
Here are some of the possible development directions:

• Multi-Asset Support: Extend coverage beyond Ripple stablecoin RLUSD to Circle stablecoin USDC, USDT, and even CBDCs.
• AI-Powered Fraud Detection: Train machine learning models to recognize transaction anomalies and emerging threats faster.
• Regulatory Dashboards: Equip financial regulators with tools to monitor flagged RLUSD and XRP stablecoin transactions in real time.
• Integration with Wallets and Exchanges: Offer NetiShield as an SDK or plugin for crypto custodians and wallets to protect fiat-backed stablecoin users natively.
• Decentralized Arbitration Layer: Allow a community of validators to help resolve escrow disputes transparently under agreed governance models.

The fiat-backed stablecoin sector is growing fast, and safety rails like NetiShield are critical for sustainable stablecoin adoption.

📊 Explore our pitch deck to learn more about the vision of stablecoin adoption 

Final Thoughts

SwissHacks 2025 reminded us why we build: to solve real-world problems, make crypto safer, and advance the blockchain industry.
With NetiShield, we’re not just plugging a hole - we’re creating the future foundation for safe, compliant, and efficient stablecoin transactions.

As Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin and the broader stablecoin economy grow under clearer regulatory frameworks, solutions like NetiShield will be pivotal. We believe that Ripple stablecoin RLUSD innovation, backed by strong compliance and security layers, can help realize the true potential of blockchain finance.

We’re incredibly proud of our team’s work - and thankful to Ripple, FIND, Tenacity and the SwissHacks organizers for giving us the platform to showcase our vision.

The future of stablecoin-based payments? It’s safer, smarter, and more compliant - and we’re ready to lead it.

Want to collaborate or learn more about NetiShield? Let’s talk!