Namahe (NMH) — ICO Alert Report

Joseph Simonetti

Published in

ICO Alert

9 min readMay 25, 2018

What is Namahe?

Namahe wants to revolutionize supply chain management with the first solution based on blockchain and A.I. brands. Adopting our platform will allow transparency and security of their supply chain, therefore saving millions on big audits and ensuring ethical sourcing. Joining our token sale therefore means to be part of an ethical revolution and power the future of supply chain management!
-Kumar Mudaliar, Co-Founder

ICO Alert Quick Facts:

Socially responsible supply chain based on blockchain and artificial
intelligence
0.50 USD = 1 NMH
Pre-ICO: May 24, 2018 — June 20, 2018
Main-ICO: June 28, 2018 — July 31, 2018
60,000,000 total available / 120,000,000 total supply
Technology service providers: Amazon, IBM and Venture Kick

Q&A with Co-Founder, Kumar Mudaliar

ICO Alert: For those who are not familiar with Namahe, can you explain what it is, and what the team aims to accomplish?

Mudaliar: Namahe is an ambitious project that aims to be the first ethical supply chain solution based on blockchain. The main goal of the platform is to bring transparency to value chains, enable a new system where ethical business practices can flourish, allow the biggest brands to ensure ethical sourcing, save millions on audit costs and provide a secure marketplace where buyers and sellers can trade using the Namahe platform.

ICO Alert: How does the Namahe token function within the platform and why is it needed?

Mudaliar: The Namahe platform will be licensed to brands, allowing them to manage their value chains. This platform will also be the basis for the Namahe Marketplace where the suppliers can ensure transparency in their supply chains using the Namahe platform and build trust with the buyers. The marketplace would also enable the smaller supplier or worker groups to trade with smaller retailers who don’t have resources to set up bespoke offices in manufacturing countries or pay commissions to middlemen. Namahe tokens will be the preferred currency to trade on this marketplace.

ICO Alert: Personally coming from a background in managing global consumer products in various industries, I can tell you that transparency across value chains has always been insufficient. As a result, there are risks of exploitation lower down on the supply chain, such as wages, child labor, poor working conditions, and human rights violations. In what ways will your platform help to solve these issues?

Mudaliar Our platform will be broken down into different modules as each tier within the supply chain has its own set of requirements and issues. For example, the module for sub-contractors where traceability or tracking of goods is key to ensure that the goods are being processed or manufactured in facilities that are already proven to be compliant with local regulations and codes of business conduct. However, the module for the informal sector will require transparency and will provide interfaces for workers to enter information that can be stored on different ledgers using blockchain. For this module, Namahe will work together with its social partners to reach out to the workers on the ground to ensure that the tools are designed to be most suitable for them.

ICO Alert: A supply chain is the network between a company and its suppliers that enables the production and distribution of a specific product; it essentially represents all of the steps involved in actually getting the product to the consumer. In order for a supply chain to be successful, there are many parties involved in facilitating various processes. What partnership efforts will need to be utilized to successfully navigate the complexity of these operations?

Mudaliar: It’s correct that these operations are complex and more so in some industries than others depending on the length and breadth of the supply chains. As mentioned above, the Namahe platform will consist of individual modules for each level/tier of the supply chain. These modules can be used on their own or can be joined together to provide an end to end supply chain solution. In terms of partnerships, we intend to work with all stakeholders involved including brands, suppliers, contractors, workers and social organizations. We also intend to provide tools and user interfaces at each level right down from the workers up to the consumers.

ICO Alert: Security has been an issue with supply chains. Certain threats can affect vulnerabilities in parts of supply operations. How does Namahe ensure protection against various threats?

Mudaliar: The Namahe platform runs on a private cloud underpinned by a “private” permissioned blockchain. This gives us four characteristics which work in tandem to provide security within the platform:
1. Access: The platform is hosted on a private cloud network accessible only to registered and authorized users enforced by use of firewalls, identity management and profiles.
2. Permissions: Our platform blockchain is based on Hyperledger Sawtooth which is designed as a permissioned blockchain. This means different actors in the supply chain are given varying degrees of access to different data entities based on our design. This helps us control the different levels of personal data vs. public data that is available to the other parties on the blockchain.
3. Smart contract and keys: The “work” performed by each block in the chain is stored as a smart contract beyond just a data entity. These are mostly M2M entries that trigger smart contracts that in turn have prebuilt actions and validations which provide an additional level of security from tampering by third parties. All access is secured with 2048 bit keys generated using SHA-256 encryption algorithms.
4. A.I. detection: Our artificial intelligence actively looks for anomalies in the supply chain, which in turn is what underpins alerts and proactive monitoring. This same A.I. algorithm will also raise alerts when it spots any anomalies in the chain that could be deemed as tampering for immediate action by supervisors.

ICO Alert: There are variety of supply chain models that address both the upstream and downstream elements of supply chain management. What will your role be in simplifying these processes?

Mudaliar: Supply chain governance typically works one up and one down approach, this means the node in the supply chain ensures that it is compliant with one node up and one node downstream from it. This approach lacks an end to end visibility and control of the supply chain resulting in lack of transparency and inefficiency. Our A.I. module will constantly monitor all nodes, activities and tasks to spot any inconsistencies. For example, when one part of the chain has issues/delays the other parts of the chain can compensate to deliver overall SLAs (Service Level Agreements).

ICO Alert: Namahe’s platform will be global. How do you plan to navigate the various legal obstacles that vary depending on which market you are dealing with?

Mudaliar: Transparency in supply chain is a universal demand. It’s something companies and brands have been working on resolving for decades. Therefore, increasing transparency and reducing exploitation down the supply chain would not have a legal angle to it. However, when it comes to certain specific elements pertaining to a particular brand’s code of conduct or compliance with the local regulations, for example minimum wages, permitted working age etc., the platform can have values entered to customize it to specific requirements.

ICO Alert: Using Namahe would provide a platform where small and medium-sized retailers, suppliers, and workers’ groups are able to trade together in a secure marketplace with conﬁdence without the need to pay expensive commissions to mediators. How does Nahame plan to create a revenue model based on eliminating all of the mediators?

Mudaliar: Namahe would have two streams of revenues, one from licensing the platform to retailers and their suppliers, and the other from fees/commissions from the marketplace.

ICO Alert: How far along is the project today and when can contributors expect to use the platform? What does the roadmap look like for 2018?

Mudaliar: The concept was already developed and proven with Namahe 1.0, in Namahe 2.0 we have designed the platform using blockchain as our backbone. A Proof of Concept (POC) is currently being built to showcase an end user experience and will be delivered in June 2018. At the same time, we have engaged with key brands that we expect to announce our partnership in Q3 2018. The formal project will kick off in September 2018, with the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) expected to launch in Q1 2019.

ICO Alert: As a non-Namahe question, we like to ask for unique predictions for the ICO and cryptocurrency space in the future. Where do you see both in the next 3–5 years?

Mudaliar: ICO is just a new way of crowdfunding. Like any other new trend, it takes time to become mainstream. In the early 2000s, venture capitalists and angel investors had similar push back from regulators and financial institutions, but they are accepted ways of raising capital now. In my opinion in the next 3 to 5 years, I would expect ICOs and crowdfunding to become mainstream with proper governance and regulatory compliance.

ICO Information

The Pre-ICO will begin on May 24, 2018 and will end on June 30, 2018. The main ICO will begin on June 28, 2018 and will end on July 31, 2018. There are a total of 60,000,000 Namahe tokens (NMH) available during the public ICO offering, representing 50% of the total NMH supply. A hard cap of 30,000,000 set for this period.

$0.50 USD = 1 NMH token

The only currency currently accepted for Namahe is Ethereum.

Namahe is an ERC20 token, so it’s important that contributors use ERC20 compatible wallets to send funds to the ICO smart contract, and to receive the Namahe tokens.

Token Distribution Information

There are a total 120,000,000 NMH tokens being created, with 60,000,000 available during main ICO.

Contributors will have their tokens distributed shortly after the end of the ICO. Visit the Namahe website for more information and the contribution address.