Everything, including the parts that don't flatter us.
The questions people actually ask before locking money they can't get back — answered without hedging, including the ones where the honest answer is a reason not to use Apsis.
The basics
What is Apsis?
Apsis is a commitment-savings app. You choose an amount and a date; the money is locked in a vault that only you own, on a public blockchain, and it cannot be released before that date — not by you, not by us, not by anyone. On the day you chose it converts back to dollars and lands in your bank account with whatever interest it earned along the way.
Where does the money actually come from?
From your bank — by ACH, debit card, or FedNow, your choice at funding time. It's converted to USDC and moved into a vault that belongs to you alone. When your lock matures, or if you cancel in time, it comes back the same way: to the one bank account you verified at signup, and nowhere else.
Do I need to know anything about crypto to use this?
No. You connect a bank account, pick an amount and a date, and get dollars back on that date. The blockchain is the mechanism, not the interface — there is no wallet to install, no seed phrase to write down, and no token to buy. It matters for one reason only: it's what makes the lock impossible to override, including by us.
Is there a minimum?
No minimum to start. Locking twenty dollars for a week works exactly the same way as locking five thousand for a year — same contract, same guarantees, same code path.
The lock
Can I withdraw early if I really need to?
No. This is the single most important thing to understand before you use Apsis, and we would rather lose you as a user than have you misunderstand it. Once the cooling-off window closes, the money is unreachable until the date you set. There is no hardship exception, no support ticket, no verification process that unlocks it early, and no human at Apsis with the ability to help. If there were, the product would not work — the whole value is that the escape hatch does not exist. Only lock money you are confident you will not need.
What if I change my mind right after setting it up?
You have a ten-minute cooling-off window, and during it nothing is final. Cancel in the first minute and no money has moved at all — it's free and instant. Cancel in the remaining nine and the contract refunds you automatically, without anyone's approval. After that window closes, the lock is real.
What happens if I have a genuine emergency?
The locked money will not be available to you, and we will not be able to make an exception. That is a real cost of using Apsis and you should weigh it honestly. The practical answer is to keep a separate emergency fund in an ordinary, accessible savings account, and only lock money that sits above it. A commitment device is a tool for surplus you're trying to protect from yourself — not a place for the money that covers rent.
Can anyone else access my vault?
No. Each lock is its own contract on Base, and its withdraw function checks two conditions before it will release anything: that the caller is you, and that the maturity date has passed. Apsis holds no key with authority to move funds out of your vault. That's verifiable — you can read the deployed contract yourself on any block explorer rather than taking our word for it.
Money, risk and returns
Is my money FDIC insured?
No, and it's important that this is clear. Apsis is not a bank and does not hold your deposits. Once your dollars are converted, they're held as USDC — a stablecoin — inside a smart contract you control. USDC is not a bank deposit, is not FDIC insured, and its value is not guaranteed by any government agency. That is a genuine difference from a savings account, and it is a reason to think carefully about how much you lock.
How much interest will I earn?
The rate is variable, not fixed. Locked USDC earns yield from established on-chain lending markets, and the figures shown on this site are illustrative examples drawn from recent rates — they are not a promise, a guarantee, or an advertised APY. The rate can fall. It can, in unusual market conditions, be close to zero. Treat any number you see here as an illustration of the mechanism, not a forecast of your return.
What are the actual risks?
Three worth naming plainly. Smart-contract risk: the vault is code, and code can contain flaws, which is why an independent audit precedes any mainnet launch. Stablecoin risk: USDC is issued by Circle and is designed to hold a one-dollar value, but that is a design goal rather than a legal guarantee. Yield-market risk: the lending markets that generate interest can see rates collapse or, in an extreme scenario, suffer losses. None of these are hypotheticals we're obliged to mention — they're the real reasons to size your lock conservatively.
What does it cost?
Cancelling during cooling-off is always free. A standard ACH transfer that clears normally is free. Faster funding rails and the currency conversion carry a cost that is shown to you in dollars, before you confirm, every time — never as a percentage you have to work out yourself, and never deducted quietly from your return.
Trust and the company
What happens to my money if Apsis shuts down?
It stays exactly where it is, and it still unlocks on schedule. Your vault is an independent contract on Base that does not call back to any Apsis server to function — it holds your funds and enforces your date whether or not this company exists. If Apsis disappeared entirely you would lose the convenient interface, not the money; the vault address and the withdraw function remain publicly accessible on-chain. That property is the reason the product is built this way rather than as a database with a lock icon.
Is Apsis a bank?
No. Apsis is not a bank, does not take deposits, and does not hold customer funds. USD movement is handled by Bridge, a regulated payments partner, and its banking partners. Apsis builds the software that sets up your vault and shows you what's in it.
How does the on-ramp and off-ramp actually work?
Apsis never touches your dollars directly. Bridge, our banking and compliance partner, converts USD to USDC on the way in and back to USD on the way out — both legs handled by infrastructure built and regulated specifically for this, not custom code we wrote ourselves.
Why do you need to verify my identity?
Any regulated service that moves real money between banks and blockchains is required to. Bridge handles the verification directly — Apsis never sees or stores your ID documents. It's a one-time check, not a recurring hurdle.
What is a smart contract, in plain English?
A small, permanent program on the blockchain that holds your money and follows exactly one rule: never release funds before the date you set. There's no override built in — not for you in a moment of temptation, not for Apsis, not for anyone. It's not a promise we're making. It's a promise the code physically can't break.
What happens if something goes wrong partway through?
Every step of moving your money has a corresponding undo. Cancel within the first minute and nothing happens at all — no money has moved yet, it's free and instant. Miss that, and there's a second window for the ten minutes after: the contract will still refund you automatically, with no one's approval required. In the rare case something goes wrong after funds are already in motion, our team steps in directly until it's resolved.
Using Apsis for self-control
Can Apsis help if I have a gambling problem?
Apsis is a savings tool, not a treatment, and it should never be the only thing standing between someone and a relapse. What it can do is narrow one specific gap: blocking software stops you reaching a betting site, but it does nothing about the balance sitting in your checking account at 2am. Moving money somewhere genuinely unreachable addresses that. It works best alongside real support — a counsellor, a peer group, self-exclusion schemes, and bank-level gambling blocks. If gambling is affecting your life, the National Problem Gambling Helpline is free, confidential and available 24/7 at 1-800-GAMBLER.
Why not just use a normal savings account?
For most people, a savings account is the right answer and you should use one. Apsis is for the narrower case where the problem isn't finding a place to put money — it's that every place you can put it, you can also take it out of in about forty seconds on your phone. If you've watched a balance you intended to keep disappear back into checking more than once, the constraint is the product. If you haven't, you probably don't need this.
Isn't giving the money to a family member the same thing?
It's the closest real-world equivalent, and for many people it works. The differences are that it puts another person in the position of having to say no to you, it usually earns nothing while it sits there, and it depends on that relationship staying intact. A contract has no relationship to strain and no capacity to be talked around at a bad moment.
Still deciding?
Join the waitlist and take the time you need — we'll email you when access opens, and there's nothing to commit to before then.