“THE COIN, THE FOUNDERS” INTERVIEW WITH MARK YU, CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER OF BEZANT (ENGLISH)
Hello from Bezant team.
Our Chief Product Officer Mark Yu recently appeared on television to talk about blockchain, Bezant’s vision, and our roadmap. Tune above to watch a recording of the interview, or read on to find the full transcript of the segment.
“The Coin, The Founders” is a segment run by Korea Business News, one of the top television programs in South Korea, which focuses on stocks, economy, and blockchain. The segment brings together experts and specialists in blockchain, and those who had completed the token sale process. The program dives deeper into related topics, such as cryptocurrencies, regulatory policies, investment information, in addition to industry trends and hot topics.
Here’s the English transcript from the program.
1. What is Bezant?
We’re developing a blockchain that allows enterprises that either lack blockchain development resources or have insufficient knowledge of blockchain to make and utilize the technology as easily as possible.
2. Once Bezant is live, what would the consumers be looking at?
We’re developing the platform in different phases. For instance, if a traveler from Southeast Asia travels to Korea and tries to buy a souvenir from a market in Dongdaemun, they have to go through the pain of exchanging their currency and then purchasing the souvenir. What we want to do is create a payment system where the traveler doesn’t have to go through the hassle of currency exchanges and make purchases. Our blockchain will be used to facilitate the payment process.
Also, this applies to Koreans who want to travel overseas and want to purchase products as well.
For emerging markets in the Southeast Asia region, there are so many local payment methods that finding each of them is a tough task.
3. There are over a thousand payment methods (Samsung Pay, Apple Pay) in the world, can a person make borderless purchases without having to go through currency exchange and preparation while just sticking with their usual payment method?
Yes, we are currently making not only a blockchain platform but also a content and payment platform. For the payment platform, we are placing a high priority in the emerging markets, such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Eastern European regions to link up with the various local payments eventually. We believe we can provide full coverage to many areas around the globe.
4. As Bezant progresses in its development, I believe it’ll be a global, borderless service, but I was curious how you would utilize the blockchain for this. What exactly is the service platform tool, and also BaaS?
To be frank, it’s a word that might sound foreign to people. In development, we use it a lot such acronyms such as PaaS, IaaS, or SaaS. But going back to your question, when you use a Microsoft Office-like program, you don’t have to install the app and use it straight off the web. So in this sense, you can think of us as providing blockchain functions as a service.
4.1. If I were to make a comparison, if blockchain is like origami; to do it we need to make the paper and provide the dye for it. However, for BaaS all you would need to do is fold the paper, it’s a service for all.
That is a good way of understanding it.
5. Then how is BaaS and blockchain related?
There aren’t a lot of developers who deal with the blockchain core. However, many enterprises want to use the blockchain technology. So, if we were to provide these enterprises a service that allows them to use blockchain, then I believe they can effectively build applications and services on top of it. This is ultimately what we are doing.
6. Then can you say that you are a blockchain cloud service?
That is true, partially.
7. I heard that you are using hyperledger as your core blockchain. I’ve heard a lot about it and would your project be the first to use Hyperledger? Can you elaborate?
When we say that we’re using Hyperledger, it doesn’t mean that we’re making a core blockchain algorithm; instead, we’re using the Hyperledger fabric as a framework.
Hyperledger Fabric is under the Linux Foundation where they manage multiple open source projects. IBM, Intel, Alibaba, Samsung, and IT firms are also part of the foundation. Among the different Hyperledger frameworks(5), we’re using the Hyperledger Fabric framework.
8. What is the difference between public and private blockchain?
For example, you are familiar with Ethereum, which runs on a public blockchain. Anyone can utilize its platform, and users can issue their own tokens or produce various kinds of contracts on its blockchain.
On the other hand, a private blockchain is a permissioned network where members are verified in order to join the network as partners.
8.1. If you could put it in more layman’s terms?
The service model that we’re trying to make is not geared towards to the consumers but to the distribution centers (Danal, NICE and other payment-related firms). What these companies face is that they have to work within the regulations and restrictions of the law.
8.2. Why a private blockchain?
In our early setup of the blockchain platform project, we deliberated over how to build our blockchain core. We did an extensive review on both public and private blockchains. And the reason we decided to go with a private blockchain was that public blockchain, at that time, had critical issues on scalability, performance, 51% attack risk, and processing speed. So we thought that the private blockchain would address those challenges and allow us to gain optimal performance for not only the blockchain platform but also for our content and payment platform. So, to fit our needs and ecosystem, we decided to utilize a private permissioned blockchain.
8.3. Mr. Ku has not only prepared a self-regulatory committee but also is preparing for legislation in this field. If the there are reasonable regulations for these technologies and if limitations of this technology have been overcome, is there a chance to change from private to public blockchain?
There are still many debates on regulations, and unfortunately, none have been thoroughly systematized. Because of this reason, it’s hard to give a firm answer. However, we want to build a framework that fits within the jurisdiction of the law.
9. In the global payment service market, made up of credit card companies like Visa or MasterCard and payment gateway providers, each country has a very closed ecosystem. And it seems that Bezant tries to innovate this closed ecosystem with its blockchain platform, working with IT companies such as IBM and Intel. In that sense, it is critical to have great partners to work with. Who is Bezant currently working with and would you tell us about plans regarding partnership?
It is hard to reveal the name of certain companies under discussion, but currently, we have been discussing with what you would categorize as top-tier companies in Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Indonesia for partnerships.
10. Besides Dae-sik Kim, the founder and former CEO of Bithumb, Bezant has attracted attention in the related industry by recruiting outstanding developers of Kakao, eBay, etc. What do you think about this?
When recruiting our team members, we felt fortunate because we got a significant number of outstanding members. The best thing about our team is that they know better about the platform and technology than anyone in the industry. Also, developers and managers who lead our project have working experiences of over 15+ years in platform business. So it’s really good to have a strong, trustworthy team when doing business.
10.1. We cross-checked the fact that Daesik Kim did join the project. Are other people working full-time as well? Just asking, because other members also have brilliant careers.
Yes, of course. And I am working full-time as well.
10.2. Before this interview, I asked you what you would do now if today’s show were canceled. And you said that you would probably work overtime. How about other team members?
Yes, I did say that. And I think that now, except for those who are watching this show, many of our developers will be working to make better products.
11. It might not be easy for Korean viewers to realize or understand how Bezant’s service would affect the industry since Korea has a very high credit card penetration rate. But even China has a low credit card penetration rate, and there are still a lot of regions like Africa to reach. Small merchants in Korea have also struggled with high transaction fees. What is Bezant’s strategy in this context?
Some mobile carriers in emerging markets, for instance, charge customers 15 ~ 20% of the transaction fee. In some cases of specific payment methods, depending on the country, it would reach about 35% or even 60%. But Bezant can eliminate or significantly reduce fees on transactions compared to using traditional services. Reducing transaction fees will benefit end-users, and enterprises forced to use that particular payment method will also pay fewer fees. Therefore, those enterprises will receive more benefits as well.
12. Can you give us an explanation on 3P1S?
Among the three platforms and one service we provide, the only thing that end users can take a look at is one service, which is a wallet.
Let me explain a little more about our products.
Until now, people have used either the Apple App Store or Google Play to download applications. But we are currently working on developing our content platform where all kinds of digital contents can be distributed and allow other merchants to distribute their own contents on our platform.
Our payment platform provides almost all kinds of payment methods in emerging countries. For example, a Korean e-commerce company needs to integrate local payment methods country-by-country in order to extend its business in emerging markets like Thailand or Malaysia. But by using our payment platform, enterprises will be able to enter the new market easily, because we aggregate and integrate hundreds of alternative payment methods and payment gateways from around the world.
And there is the blockchain platform I mentioned before.
Last but not least, one service will connect these three platforms via the Wallet. With our wallet, end users will practically be able to experience all the services we provide.
13. Bezant is going to launch its main-net. What’s next for Bezant?
We are expecting to launch a main-net for Bezant blockchain platform in the first quarter of 2019. Also, our Service Partners(SPs) will be able to build their apps on our platform starting in the second quarter of 2019.
Since there has been a great deal of progress on developing our Content Platform, we are going to do our local testing with local partners and prepare to launch our service.
Regarding our payment platform, we are primarily focusing our business in Thailand. We are planning to branch out into other countries after we complete launching our service in Thailand.
14. Do you have any more questions? The way forward is more clear and if you were to give some advice on the mechanism around the legislation, what would it be?
Mr. Ku: If you look at the legislation, the B2B platform built specifically to help the financial system have been developing on a global scale. Also, there have been strict laws for each financial systems by country. Although I am looking forward to what Bezant has in store, if Bezant can wisely find a peaceful balance between businesses and financial regulations of each country and overcome the limitations, then I will look forward to what Bezant will bring to the table.
15. I am sure that Bezant will make a new paradigm in the electronic payment industry. Lastly, do you have anything to say to our viewers?
Developing a platform service is indeed a time-consuming project. For example, it took three to seven years for Google to develop YouTube as a video streaming platform. For Amazon, it took quite a lot of time to make AWS function properly. Like Google and Amazon, we have our direction and roadmap to provide our platform as a service. We will continue to work hard in building and delivering you a top notch product. Thank you.
Behind the scenes of the interview
Thank you for tuning in. For more information on our project, please reach out to us on our channels!
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Regards,
The Bezant Team
info@bezant.io
