What we’re doing
This Ethereum-based startup has an ambitious goal — to connect over one billion unbanked people to the global economy using cryptocurrencies and smart contracts. The key element of Humaniq is that it’s a new kind of mobile bank, unchained from the massive ledger most bitcoin users are required to keep. To create a wallet and use the system, Humaniq will employ facial and vocal biometric recognition algorithms to create unique user signatures that are extremely secure and remove the need for passwords. The software will be designed to work on even the cheapest of android phones, ensuring maximum adoptability.
Full white paper can be found at https://humaniq.co/#whitepaper
Crowdfunding campaign until Dec 27 at https://cyber.fund/system/Humaniq
Join us in our Slack Channel
What value does Humaniq add that other services do not?
By using biometric ID to establish accounts and verify transactions, we’re opening up the global economy to over one billion new users. We’re specifically targeting unbanked populations because of the high growth potential.
How does Humaniq allow users to ditch the 90+ gb ledger and PoS or PoW verification, and how do you build the network?
Biometric identification will replace traditional passwords and ledger verification needed to set up a user account. For beginners with no capital to start with, we’ll give them tokens for completing actions within the app. Once they’ve gained enough tokens, they can exchange them with a mobile cashier for local currency, or trade Humaniq tokens directly for ether, bitcoin, etc., and begin making purchases from the third party services that will be available through the Ethereum platform.
Why give away free tokens that can be traded for real cash? We’re modeling this off of PayPal’s growth model, brilliantly executed by Elon Musk. At the beginning of PayPal, they were offering new users $20 to sign up and complete full registration, and then another $20 if they referred a friend who also completed registration. We have to encourage the growth of the network until it reaches critical mass and the network itself becomes valuable, and the easiest way to do this is to offer them a small amount of money to seed the economy with. Once one person is able to trade tokens for “real” money, their friends will see the true value and there will be a competition among users, encouraged by us, to add as many people to the network as possible.
Three Key Components of Humaniq’s Service
- Smart contract on blockchain
- Mobile app
- Biometric identification
Smart Contracts on Ethereum blockchain
We plan on using the Standard Token (ERC20) contract that keeps track of user balances and allows them to transfer tokens between each other.
Mobile App
The app will be an interface for mobile (iOS, Android) users that provides them with quick access to their balances and lets them transact with other users/merchants. Mobile Wallet manages private and public keys for the user, which are used to sign transactions locally.
Biometric Identification
Face and voice recognition algorithms have become extremely accurate, and are incredibly difficult to hack.
What’s the business and development plan?
We have our very own Fintech cluster. Alex Fork is the director of Future Fintech. It is a coworking, community and professional events organization. The most common thing these start ups lack is not a great product, but rather a customer base. Humaniq is creating the platform that will create the customer base for these companies, as well as the others that will follow us into this new market.
We’ll have our core team, but we’re also going to be active in taking suggestions from the community, and having them help us test out features to either make improvements or scrap them altogether.
Engage passionate and knowledgeable users, and you gain evangelists who will be excited to talk about your product. This is community management 101, and many start ups neglect this aspect of business. It will enable us to avoid wasting unnecessary dev time on features that are unwanted by users.
Broad milestones:
2016 December — Pre-sale for initial Crowdfunding.
2017 Jan-February — Develop Smart Contract, perform due diligence with Deloitte, make budget and project plan, marketing campaign, sign agreements with developers
2017 February — ICO start.
2017 February — Meeting with Humaniq project partners in India.
2017 March — ICO concludes.
2017 May — Prototype mobile App.
2017 July — (Product launch) Test mobile App + BioID + Exchange App.
2017 September — Global Expansion in two directions: expansion of the network of users in Africa, Asia, South America and establishment of innovation centers in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, San Francisco.
2018 — Work out legal requirements in developed countries, integration of virtual cards, integration of Fintech startups, architecture decentralization studies.
Principles of Operations:
Our guiding philosophy is to be as transparent as possible with users, investors, and contributors. We don’t want any of these groups feeling left out of the process. Having an engaged community of developers, users, testers, and stakeholders has a multiplicative effect on our ability to build a valuable product.
Kind regards,
Alex Fork
Project Leader — Humaniq
