Apr 25, 2021

9 min read

Mobifi — Telegram AMA — March 30

On Tuesday, March 30, we had the pleasure to welcome to our Telegram chat:

Yudi Xu, CEO.

We asked him questions about the development of Mobifi.

Some sentences have been slightly edited for readability but the meaning has been conserved.

Summary

MobiFi is a financial orchestrator for Mobility as a Service (MaaS). MobiFi is building the transportation UX of the future — simplifying the mess of mobility services that many consumers face today while also allowing them to earn on their mobility credit.

MobiFi utilizes Corda’s distributed ledger to ensure transparency while also maintaining controllable data privacy and enables transportation service providers to transact directly and privately using smart contracts, reducing costs and streamlining business operations.

MobiFi uses a tokenized mobility credit to reward users for sustainable choices and as a medium of exchange for mobility services.

MobiFi features a reward engine that’s fully automated via smart contract. The platform also incentivizes users to lighten their footprint without locking them into a siloed loyalty program.

Introduction

Q — Ayeley Commodore-Mensah from GAINS: Let’s start by hearing a bit about you. What did you do before crypto and did you have any other previous venture in crypto?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: I was working as a CTO advisor in an oil and gas company called Shell. basically what I do is help the CTO to screen all the startups and lead the PoC project with them. To test and validate new technologies. Like satellites, IoT, blockchain, AI, etc.

No, I don’t have any other crypto venture actually, MobiFi is the very first official project. I spent most of my time working in the digital space, but more towards traditional businesses. So I know them quite well ;-) that’s also the advantage I have for Mobifi. I participated in crypto quite early, I met Bitcoin in 2014 via my college classmate, and have been working on Hedera for a while since 2018.

About Mobifi

Q — Ayeley Commodore-Mensah from GAINS: Interesting. Tell us about Mobifi in a few simple sentences

A — Yudi from Mobifi: MobiFi is building the Corda to DeFi bridge that opens the door for traditional cooperatives and their consumers to the DeFi space. As far as I know, we are probably the first project that is doing that. This is completely open sourced. Our core product is a mobility payment solution that can turn your dormant mobility fund into investable capital to yield profit for you.

mobility + yield engine to DeFi powered by the Corda bridge. That’s MobiFi.

Q — Ayeley Commodore-Mensah from GAINS: For how long have you been working on the project? And how many people are on the team?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: We officially started at the beginning of 2020. The idea was generated in the Dutch mobility hackathon in 2019. We won 1st place, but we pivoted many times in between, actually. Currently, we have 6 people working on it. Looking for more engineers now.

Q — Twitter user @Ksalom95: You mention that “the influx of different modes of mobility to cities has increased complexity due to the lack of systemic direction, but this does not affect its effectiveness in providing urban service”, then why develop MobiFi alone to change the flow?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: So today we have tons of innovation in mobility, like bike sharing, e-scooter, parking, car rental, etc. they alone seem pretty cool ideas, but they don’t really solve the travel UX end to end. especially when users need to use multi-modal transport. It’s a nightmare.

It not only needs all these kinds of mobility services but also a streamlined service to end-users. That’s why MobiFi, and it’s one of our missions to fulfill.

Q — Twitter user @TheShadowJK_1: Why have you decided to decentralize your multimodal transport and green travel protocols? What aspects of blockchain have made your project better besides the inherent increase in security that the DeFi world offers?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: Good question. So while we are validating the idea in the incubation program. We noticed that many cities and transport providers want to build MaaS service in their cities. Basically linking all mobility services to provide a one-stop-shop for everyone.

However, they are struggling in sharing data with each other. Most of the mobility service providers are competitors…. they need a transparent and immutable way to work together, in such a multi-party business.

Q — Telegram user tehMoonHunter 🤖⚡️: Traditional connection vs modern technology interesting to create new innovations to accelerate growth through something as simple as the mobile that even my grandfather uses but this Corda technology introduces monitoring of my privacy and data, so despite being decentralized a company with terms and centralized conditions that use their technology, would I share my data with a third party as Google does or how it is seen on the internet or what do you really do so that this does not influence the user in the future?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: So what we are trying to do is to separate the identity and its mobility data. Basically, no one knows who is who in our system. The DID provider will be separate from the system.

So it’s completely anonymous. Google and maybe Apple may still be able to collect some data (unless you don’t use their phone) but they have no idea who you are.

Another thing we may do is to warn users if their data is being captured by Google or Apple…

Q — Telegram user Gutierrez04: Help me understand something, MobiFi will only be in charge and focus on controlling the financial transport system? or is that just a start for MobiFi to completely revolutionize the transportation service worldwide?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: you are right, we start small but we think BIG! Our ultimate goal is to change the mobility industry, to create a more sustainable future for humankind.

Q — Telegram user Khalee: Who usually acquires this dormant mobility credit? In which industry do they belong? How about those who have no dormant mobility credit, what are the gainful services you can offer to them?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: Normally, there is a card company behind this, and public transport companies will own shares of that company.

For those who have no dormant mobility credit, okay, I think everyone will have at least some, but yeah. If you don’t have any dormant mobility credit. that’s fine, as long as you still need to move around, you need to use mobility service right? You need to park your car, charge it, take the bus, etc. You can use us. If you don’t travel at all like only stay inside. You can still use us, I mean on one side of the story, we are just a yield engine, you put money in, it generates more via those DeFi projects.

Q — Telegram user The Curious 👀: Are you already negotiating with any travel companies to start implementing MobiFi? If so, tell us what they think about it. I am quite curious to know what these companies think about your project.

A — Yudi from Mobifi: Yes! We have signed an LOI with a national transport company to start a PoC. They love it.

Token

Q — Ayeley Commodore-Mensah from GAINS: What is the token use case and how does it capture the value of the ecosystem you’re building?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: There are a few use cases for the token, but the top four I would say are:

1) to purchase the mobility services that integrate into our system
2) invest in DeFi product to leverage the mobility credit
3) rewards for Bridger node runner/staker
4) rewards for the LP program

The $MOFI token is playing an important role that will connect the traditional businesses that live on Corda (permissioned ledger) to an open and innovative DeFi world. For us is the massive mobility service market that worth $1000 billion.

Q — Twitter user @Lopyou54804819: Do I use $MOFI tokens to buy the services and in the background, the bridge is there running and making sure all $MOFI gets back to the traditional world in USD way by using $SMILE, correct?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: Yeah, kinda correct, but the sequence is bi-directional. So users can top up with fiat to get the $SMILE to buy mobility service directly($MOFI cannot buy mobility service directly), no need for $MOFI, but they will definitely swap to $MOFI because it can be invested in DeFi and earn yield. Of course, they can swap from $MOFI to $SMile anytime they want. It’s handled by the Bridge. and we ensure things are moving securely, fairly, and transparently in the bridge.

Finances

Q — Ayeley Commodore-Mensah from GAINS: Did you raise funds so far? If so, how did you handle them? Are you planning to do any future raises?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: Yes, we have recently closed the private sale in Feb, raised $2.6M. The fund will be used to expand the team, marketing, and other operation stuff. I think our next fundraising will probably come in one year, in late 2022, to scale the business to different countries.

Business Development

Q — Ayeley Commodore-Mensah from GAINS: What stage is the project at? And what should we look forward to in the coming months?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: We just graduated from one of the top fintech incubator F10.global in Switzerland. and we have built an MVP for the mobility part on Corda.

Now with MObiFi, we will be developing the Corda bridge to DeFi that turns your dormant mobility credit into investable capital to earn profit.

In the coming month, we will be starting PoC in the Netherlands to test the mobility solution with national transport operators, and by end of Q2, we will release the code for Corda — Polkadot bridge.

Q — Telegram user Sang Captain: Does Mobifi intend to create a DApp application development fund for application development?

A — Yudi from Mobifi: Yes, on my priority list actually. Can’t tell too much yet, but we are working with one of our major partners to create a community program for people to join and contribute to the bridge repo on GitHub. we will allocate $MOFI for that. So if you are a developer, talk to me. we should have a talk

Thank you Yudi. It was a pleasure having you in our group today. Anything else you’d like to say? How do we get our hands on some $MOBI tokens. And Where can we follow you to stay updated? — Ayeley Commodore-Mensah from GAINS
This is my Twitter, and of course, please join our Telegram group if you want to get the lastest news — Yudi from Mobifi

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