Ask Me Anything: with Phil Woods — CEO at Abele Trust
How Will Abele Trust change the banking landscape?
We’ve collected these questions from our Twitter, Linkedin as well as Bitforex’s and Exonium’s communities. Firstly, I am thankful for all the interest surrounding Abele and overwhelmed by the number of questions received. In the following paragraphs, I will try my best to answer the questions that the community has brought up about Abele Trust. If there is a question that is not addressed here, feel free to tweet us, sound out on our Telegram chat or add a comment below this post.
Q: Would you (for the people who aren’t familiar with Abele Trust) tell us exactly what Abele Trust does and what makes it so special compared to other blockchain-based neobanks?
A: Abele thinks about the entire user experience as one interacts with a financial platform and we ask ourselves, “why?” Why so many clicks, steps, procedures, and so much time to accomplish simple tasks. We then find solutions and processes that reduce the why questions-friction. Other blockchain-based solutions tend to have a very narrow focus on payments. We view financial services beyond payments only. We believe that smart contracts and AI will have a use in almost every financial transaction even if the user does not realise it. When you send a payment, transfer, trade, or buy a financial product from Abele you may very well interact with advanced technology and not realize it. Our goal is to make all aspects of business and personal finance easier and faster. You can find out more by reading our list of services and roadmap on abeletrust.io
Q: Where is the Abele team based?
A: We have team members in Singapore, New York, London, Dallas, and Los Angeles. In the near future, we will expand our footprint and make a more formal announcement.
Q: How will the rest of 2019 and 2020 look like for Abele Trust? What are your goals and how are you going to achieve them?
A: Our main goals for the next 16 months are expanding the user base above 1,000 SME clients and one million retail users. We will do so through unique partnerships with influencers and associations that need our services. We would rather reward influencers than spend money on direct marketing efforts.
Q: What were you doing before starting Abele Trust?
A: I was a 10–12 hour per day banker helping firms move funds all over the world. My almost 15-year career at UBS and Citi Group exposed me to the inner workings of the global economy and the key friction points in traditional finance. I left banking in 2017 and joined the broader blockchain ecosystem. It was at a conference after speaking to many firms about how to make the space work better for most people that the idea for Abele Trust came. It really was a eureka moment of inspiration.
Q: What led you to create Abele Trust?
A: The feedback from people more seasoned in the space made me realize that blockchain technology was a boundless opportunity but we needed to put a product or platform in people’s hands for mass adoption and not a txn hash id. If we want more business conducted over the various blockchains then we need platforms that are user-friendly for mass adoption.
Q: Is your project backed by anyone trusted in the industry?
A: Yes. We have a few exchanges, OTC participants, and some larger funds who will make announcements over the coming weeks about their plans to use our service.
We just operate under the mantra of “show, not tell”…stay tuned.
Q: May I know the advantages of holding BANK tokens? Are there long term benefits of holding the native token?
A: We cannot attach any promises or guarantees to the token without getting in trouble. What I can say though is that users who hold our tokens for the long term will be rewarded. We have discussed buy-backs, token for equity exchange, profit-sharing etc with our various legal teams and we will continue to work on a way to do some version of the above in a legally compliant manner. For now, users who pay fees with BANK token on our platform will receive either a 50 or 100% discount on services.
Q: Total supply is 10 Billion and we are currently releasing 3 Billion. Any plans for token burn in the future?
A: No. we will not need to burn tokens. Our token is scarce in the grand scheme of things given that we do not allow subdivision of the token. 1 BANK is 1 BANK, not 0.00000001 BANK. We will manage the supply floating in the market with open market operations where we will buy/sell the floating supply.
Q: Does Abele Trust have any partnerships with exchanges?
A: We are in negotiation with a few of them and will make some announcements soon.
Q: Will there be a token airdrop?
A: For Exonium users….soon!
Q: Any further plans for exchange listing?
A: We are working on listings with IndoDax- Tokenonmy, Tokenise, and Binance presently. Will announce any others after those are done.
Q: What do you think the biggest DeFi (Decentralized Finance) trends for 2020 will be?
A: Greater Accessibility and Inclusion in finance. The world is getting smaller and smaller financially. We will soon have the ability to help rural farmers directly interact with end-stage distributors of their products on Abele Trust. In our minds, DeFi means fewer middlemen.
Q: When will Abele Trust go live?
A: Live Beta testing begins on 9 September 2019. We are super excited about that and we will then open for a user-driven comment period shortly thereafter. Those who have signed up on our email list or deposit BANK tokens in Abele Trust will become designers of the platform!
About Abele
Abele Trust is an offshore digital-bank that uses blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to service the needs of institutional and retail clients. Abele Trust will provide a platform that acts as an industry safe harbour and is highly scalable.
The aim of Abele Trust is to increase security, reduce intermediaries, increase transparency and establish trust in the rapidly changing global digital finance industry.
Follow our progress here: Twitter | Linkedin | Website | Telegram
