Patrik is the co-founder and ceo of the Konios Project. The Konios Team is working on an application to enable access to cryptocurrencies for everyone – without the need of a bank. 2 billion people without basic financial services – imagine the market!
Q: Hi Patrik! Thank you for joining us today. Can you tell us more about yourself and how you got involved in the Konios project?
A: Thanks Radu, excited to be here! Mikel (Co-Founder, CTO) and I, had the idea in early 2017 during a crypto purchase we did. We been looking to buy some cryptos. So we found a friend who was willing to sell them to us and right there while we were buying them, Mikel said “there has to be an easier way to do this”. There you go. We started thinking and came up with a solution for it.
Q: What is a Face-to-Face transaction, is this a totally new exchange procedure for crypto?
A: Well, it is not new that people exchange something face-to-face. Everyone does that almost every day, whether it’s in the supermarket or at the Yankees Stadium buying a hotdog. What is new in our transaction is the underlying process and the decentralized settlement of the transaction.
Q: Why did you choose to create your proprietary blockchain for the project?
A: That’s the easiest part to answer. Our own Blockchain has the settings we need to have the best possible performance for our platform. It is crucial that a project like Konios provides the necessary infrastructure to manage and settle all transactions – secure, fast and transparent.
Q: The Konios project includes the F2F App, a Marketplace, a Trading platform, a Wallet. Can you briefly explain the role of each and how they synergize?
A: It’s actually one App with the four mentioned functions. As we all know, crypto currencies are more than just a trading asset. They have different functions and can be used on various places. Let’s assume you are new to this crypto thing and decided to get in. The fastest way is using our platform, since you only need an email address and a password. The difficult way is to register with an exchange, provide all the personal data and then also wire the fiat money to your exchange deposit.
Now if you are using the Konios Platform you are able to buy various coins locally. It could be your math teacher, neighbour, city president or a famous athlete currently staying in your city. Since the process we developed is managing the trust issue and decentrally settling the exchange, you have nothing to worry about the exchange partner. Now that you have some crypto what’s next?
Clear as a glass of moonshine, you want to use them! Either its trading them with another coin you like or purchase things with it on the marketplace. The wallet is actually a multi-wallet, since we have to manage transactions of various cryptocurrencies. With this basic functions we want to offer not only a way to access crypto, but build an ecosystem around it so the people start actually using them, instead of just trading.
Q: Tell us about the Konios token presale politics (dates, terms, discounts)?
A: The presale is held very simple. We have mostly raised money from our own pocket as well as friends and angels. Since beginning of June we opened the Presale Dashboard, where other people can participate and get a sizable discount compared to the public sale. If you take a look at our token distribution, you can clearly see that we haven’t structured it in a way to benefit ourselves. 90% of the total token supply is in public hand.
Q: You will use anonymized data for statistics and also make all data available for free to users. It seems you didn’t include data in your business model, could you tell us why?
A: To run the Konios Platform properly, actually that counts for almost every platform or application there is, you need data. Wether its location, amounts, logs, etc. you need data to process and do the task it is supposed to. Since there is not much choice on the matter, we thought that it would be a good idea to share this data with our users. This is also a part where we think that we can contribute something to the general ecosystem.
For example, if only we know where a certain coin is preferably used, then others who might have a great business idea, can’t find out if their assumption is correct. With transparent and anonymous data, others can benefit from it and contribute in another way, we haven’t yet thought of. Accessibility is key.
Q: At what phase of the roadmap is the project currently?
A: We have developed the basic user interface and powered the F2F part with functionality, since that is the first feature on the roll-out list. Though to deliver a working product we need more time, specifically – more manpower. Currently the mapping and settlement process is mostly in play. Security is first, second and third on our list, which requires various tests and tests and more tests after each new mini-task.
Q: What has been your biggest challenge so far working on Konios?
A: Managing the marketing-emails 🙂 We receive so many emails from every part of the world. Websites and individuals who offer their services, some are interesting others are complete shit and a part of it are scams. Since the crypto and in particular the ICO space is fueled by marketing, it’s inevitable to take a look at every email we get and sort them out. This basically robs the valuable manpower and slows down progress. But as I said – it’s inevitable.
Q: What’s the plan and your further actions?
A: We see ourselves as a humble group of regular guys, that are trying to bring a benefit for the crypto space. Looking to raise funds from a mass group of people that support our idea. This is what I call a crowdfunding. Our plan is to keep working on our idea and based on the crowdfunding result, we will know how fast we can reach our goals. It never was a matter of “if” we can reach, just a matter of enough financial power for the project to evolve faster and scale. If the people don’t know we exist, they can’t use the platform, so spreading the word these days has its price.
Q: Moving on to more personal stuff, what does a typical day in your life look like?
A: Well that’s an easy one. The day starts at 5:30 and has its first comfortable work-break from around 6-8pm, that’s the exclusive family time, usually without interruption. After the kids are sleeping administrative works is done and some calls, usually the day ends around midnight. The tasks are everyday different – the goals is the same. Mikel has about the same day, with the exception that he almost never sleeps 🙂
Q: What are your 3 predictions for the next 5 years of crypto?
A: We are not traders, so we can’t talk from that point of view. What I personally think is, that it’s going to be interesting to see where the traditional business, the lawmakers and old school politicians will lead the crypto space. Their influence is not to underestimate. People are money hungry and will accept everything given to them as long as they can make a quick buck. But that means lots of other people will not benefit. We will have to wait and see how this is going to be established in society. In the meantime, we (the crypto people) should lay the groundwork for a better crypto landscape, where people are educated well and not only watch the chart on cmc.
I could imagine that the blockchain technology is already being used in research departments within big corporations. They have the financial assets to employ developers and use the technology for their markets, products or ventures. So it could be possible that the whole innovative ICO space slows down and more deals will be made behind closed doors as the industry matures.
The cryptocurrencies will definitely get more and more traction while the use case spectrum enters the daily live.
Hopefully the market goes in favor of Mr. McAfee, we don’t actually want to see what he has to do if it doesn’t. 🙂
Thank you for the opportunity to talk more about the Konios Project. We hope this Interview finds you well and all the best for your icobattle.com Team and Platform!