Alex Kampa : Hello everyone! Glad to be here 😁❤️
Host : Welcome to cryptoiz community
Host : We are have been waiting for this AMA 🚀
Segment 1 AMA
Host : Lets start with introduction about you to community and What is your background and how did you build Sikoba Network ?
Alex Kampa : Hello, I’m Alex Kampa, the founder of Sikoba. My background is in economics, mathematics and statistics. I’ve worked in finance and IT for much of my life, but I also did research in monetary theory.
Alex Kampa : So when I encountered blockchain in late 2014, I thought that I could combine my ideas about money with this new technology. That is how the Sikoba project was born. I also wrote a small book about credit conversion, which is related to this project: https://www.newmoneyhub.com/www/money/index.html
Host : Thanks you this is great introduction from you sir and i appreciate so much your project 🚀
Margaretha : We’re delighted to participate within this AMA 🙂
Host : reply to Margareta @Sikoba
Hi can you introduced to community about your background
Margaretha : I’m Margareta. It’s been almost 2 years since I’ve joined Sikoba. I’m responsable for community relations and marketing .
Host : Thanks you for your introduction and let us start to project introduction
Host : Q1 : Can you briefly describe what is Sikoba Network to our community ?
Alex Kampa : Sikoba is a system to register, track and clear debt. Its main goal is to make what we call “informal credit” more efficient.
Alex Kampa : Especially in developing countries, this is often used because it allows people and businesses to use less cash.
Host : Great explanation sir, With sikoba we will use more digital not with cash
Alex Kampa : Finally, Sikoba provides a tool to make informal credit much more efficient, for example with the debt clearing function.
Host : With sikoba technology we can make more effective and effesien, The next question is about the technology
Host : Q2. What technology stands behind Sikoba Network and What are its advantages?
Alex Kampa : The system has several layers. There is the front-end layer composed by Android and iOS web apps.
Alex Kampa : We’re also working on a web interface. The back-end is written in Crystal Lang and uses Postgresql.
Alex Kampa : Finally, we’re currently working on the blockhain layer, for which we will use a middleware called Babble. Link to babble: https://github.com/mosaicnetworks/babble
Alex Kampa : Finally, we have also developed crypto functions, where we use the same elliptic curve cryptography as Bitcoin, Ethereum and many other blockchains, i.e. the curve Secp256k1. For the hashing function, we use both Sha256 and Argon2.
Alex Kampa : Our approach focuses on usability, meaning that users do not necessarily need to know about private key management and practical account recovery methods are available.
Host : Thanks you sir this is a great explanation about the technology and we are just heard about babble!
Host : Q3: What are the main goals of Sikoba Network until end of 2020?
Alex Kampa : We have three main goals for the remainder of this year:
1 – we want to launch the Sikoba mainnet in 3Q20, including a fully functional blockchain layer and web interface
2- we want to complete our IEO andthen token listing
3 – and we want to have at least 2 large user groups onboarded
Alex Kampa : Linked to 3 is scalability: the system should be able to support a large number of users, at least 100,000 by the end of the year.
Host : So in next Q3 2020 SIkoba will do an Mainnet thats great. And how about the Sikoba Token sir when will be listed on exchange this year ?
Alex Kampa : We first need to complete the IEO, before we do the listing. We have already started to talk to exchanges. All I can say at this stage is that we want to do IEO and listing it before the end of the year, probably not long after mainnet launch.
Host : Thats would be great and we are very waiting for Sikoba IEO in the futures. Hope Sikoba will be success !
Segment 2 Twitter Question and Live Question
Q1 : What is your plans in place for global expansion, are sikoba focusing on only one market at this time? Or focus on building and developing or getting customers and users, or partnerships? Can you explain this?
A : We are not focusing on a single market, but are looking for partners all over the world.Examples of existing potential partners:
* Guatemala – large cooking oil producer wanting to manage credit lines with more then 10,000 clients (small stores)
* Philippines – local credit coopertaive, pilot with 1,000 users, potential much much larger number
* Colombia – our partner wants to launch a microcredit system, targeting 1 million users within 12-18 months after launch.
In all of these cases, we work with local partners who already have access to large communities of micro/small businesses. And of course we’re looking for partners in other countries also. Hope to find one in Indonesia also 😁
Q2 : Sustainability and security are two of the most important aspect to SikobaPay application. That being said, does Sikoba Network has any plans to overcome the possibility of the inability of users to repay their debts in the SikobaPay application?
A : First of all, remember that Sikoba is for people and businesses who know and trust each other already, and who already owe each other money from time to time.What we do is provide proof that the debt exists, as it is registered on a blockchain. We can also flag users who do not repay their debt.
However, we cannot help with debt recovery. That is up to the creditor, in the same way as when debt is not registered using the sikobaPay app.
Q3 : Does Sikoba Network has any plans to get listed in any crypto exchanges soon? And did the global pandemic (covid 19) had any negative impacts to Sikoba Network roadmap in 2020?
A : Concerning listing, I think I’ve answered already.
We are planning in IEO before the end of 2020, so listing is indispensable. Follow our https://t.me/sikobaPay_Indonesia to be among the first to hear the announcement.
About negative impact of COVID-19: to some extent yes, as it has delayed the projects in Guatemala and Colombia.
On the other hand, we are already used to working remotely. Also, because of COVID, we may see some new projects in developed countries, even in Europe, as many SMEs are having cash flow problems, and using IOUs can help reduce such problems.
So we hope that there may also be a positive impact.
Q4 : Do you have any plans to attract non-crypto investors to Sikoba , and how? What are the actions to increase awareness around Sikoba in non-crypto space?
A : In terms of users, Sikoba is already targeted at people who do not necessarily know about crypto.
Many of these users will be small businesses, small traders, artisans etc who will be interested in the functionalities, not so much the blockchain aspect.
But they can learn a bit about blockchain because of Sikoba and the sikobyPay app.
Q5 : I just finished reading the medium post regarding your partnership with Jala. As a Filipino, this is fascinating news, it might be a tedious task but I can sense great potential out of it. What would you say would be the biggest challenge in this pilot project?
A : I see two main challenges here:
1) training the users, because many of them will probably need some help in using the app and understanding its functions. Luckily that will be the job of our partners on the ground.
2) we have a couple of technical challenges, which are:
a) adding NFC communication with the Jala identity card
b) adding biometric face recognition
