Kabuni aims to unlock ‘design potential’ in everyone with community blockchain, says founder
A community based blockchain ecosystem which seeks to unlock the “design potential” in every person is the bold ambition of Kubani coin founder Nimesh Patel.
Since its inception the crypto industry has brought innovative projects with brilliant minds taking us to the threshold of a new age based around blockchain technology that is a “trust layer” missing from Web2.
At the same time as the new ideas have been championed, there has been plenty of negativity in some quarters from those who claim that crypto is being used by criminals and that a Wild West has emerged with a lack of order.
There will always be bad actors who will look to take advantage of a nascent industry and many will also question the utility of meme coins which are little different from playing roulette.
‘Real world utility’
But Nimesh is keen to talk about the “real world utility” of Kabuni and what it can give to society. “Our time is now, there is a hunger for projects like Kabuni and there are not many to pick from. By conveying what we are doing, sharing our stories, I think we will keep growing,” he said.
Nimesh has just returned full of optimism from Token2049 in Dubai which he claimed showed “we are on the right path”.
The Kabuni project began in 2016 and its message is “to inspire and empower every person to tap into their unique capabilities, bringing transformative solutions for a better life”. Expanding on this, Nimesh, says it means investing in projects that can make a positive difference around the globe.
ChangeMakers
Volunteers who invest into the ecosystem are called ChangeMakers who are rewarded by Kabuni COIN which they can stake, spend or donate to projects that can make a real change to people’s lives.
“More ChangeMakers are now getting involved who are not crypto natives, it has been a case of helping them set up their Metamask wallets, mint their NFTs and get them onboard. For many it is a case of ‘giving back’ — many will reinvest their rewards back to supporting causes that they care about,” said Nimesh.
While Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two largest ecosystems in the crypto industry by some considerable distance, Nimesh believes that Kabuni is quite capable of emerging now to take the third spot.
“Kabuni is around 80 cents and could be at 800 dollars in five years from today because of what we are doing and I strongly believe that if we stay true to the cause that we could become the third biggest crypto currency in the world,” he said.
“I say that as we now have a gold investment approach to bitcoin now — it didn’t start that way but that is how it has become. Ethereum which is the second biggest by market size is B2B, my mum doesn’t know about ethereum and never will.
“The third has got to go to a B2C. You have the other areas like meme coins but in consumer we have the biggest chance, it’s not a certainty to take that slot, but we can take that slot, one ChangeMaker at a time, deploying their resources in the right things, rewarding them and letting them either spend, donate or invest that how they choose.
“I think spend, donate and invest depends geographically on people’s life situations, for example it could be more spend than donate in Africa and in the Western world it could be the other way round. The three buckets I want to create with a single tap with Mastercard are literally spend, donate and invest. Central to this is Kabuni COIN. The number of companies, charities and start-ups that are going to buy Kabuni COIN to get into our ecosystem to get off the ground is endless.”
‘Three pillars of research, charities and start-ups’
Kabuni is focused on providing funding for the three pillars of research, charities and startups. “We have done the first research campaign, charities because I think they are important in enabling the right outcomes and then on the project side, startups that are in effect driving new utility and giving renovation to the world,” said Nimesh, who adds that where Kabuni is today is the result of eight years of hard work.
The 49-year-old dad-of-four describes himself as a serial entrepreneur with 30 years of experience working in property and technology.
“Kabuni started eight years ago, we have pivoted twice but one thing that has remained constant is what I wrote on that sticky note (on his computer at the start) — unlock the design potential in every human being — and that has also moved slightly to unlock the design potential of every human being and elevate life which is etched into the design of Kabuni COIN,” he said. “We now have a $100m plus market cap, an 80,000 first touch community and we have hundreds now wearing the Kabuni badge with honour which blows my mind.”
Talking to Nimesh and education comes across as his passion while blockchain is the path for meaningful change in the industry. “As early as 2016–17 I believed that blockchain was the new layer of trust that is lacking on the internet long before what we now know it has turned out to be,” he said.
“My ultimate belief is that the internet has changed us. Pre 1995 all our communication and relationships were print, radio and tv, you wrote a letter or you read an article in a newspaper, post 1995 most of our consumption is online and it moved into the next version which we call the fourth industrial revolution — machines online, robots, 3D printers and money transfers peer to peer. What we need is a trust layer and that trust layer is blockchain.
“I just see in everything we do whether it is peer to peer, human to machine, machine to machine or machine back to human, we are going to have to trust it is authentic. Blockchain is the only technology that can deliver the trust layer at the moment.
“My interest in education is driven from my four kids primarily. I personally believe we send our kids to prisons unfortunately, when you put 30 kids in a room with one teacher and you think that is fit for purpose in 2024 and beyond… I think it is criminal and my thinking is that we need to blow up that model and look for what the new model is.
“Hybrid? Why can’t we have a situation if a kid wants to go to school three days a week and two days he doesn’t have to and can work remotely? Why do we stigmatise a child with ADHD as something that is wrong in society, how about the system is wrong, every child is unique, every child should have a unique experience of learning. Children learn visually, verbally, orally in very different environments, informally and formally, yet we just put everybody into one system.
“Blockchain ultimately will become the foundation layer to innovate on top of AI, robotics with 3D printing, with VR and AR which I think are going to be a 100 times more disruptive than anything we’ve seen before in innovation.”
Kabuni can ‘change the world’
Nimesh is “crystal clear” in his mind that of the different projects he has been involved in, this has the best chance of bringing about global change. “The team has changed over three different pivots, there are a few people who have stayed the course of time,” he said. “I’ve always had the ability to find strong leadership and talent but I think this is the first time I’ve got a vision with a set of values that I am crystal clear on, that has the strongest chance of anything I’ve done before to change the world — it’s not me it is a movement now that is in place, we need to keep organised and keep moving towards the north star.
“We made a decision a few years ago to not build anything we didn’t have to from a tech perspective, too many people are building great tech that is useless because they don’t have a product. We wanted to be product fit first, stitch existing technology together even if it was in a cumbersome way to make it work so that we could see from zero that it works and make an impact, and we are on the cusp of acquiring those technology fits for one unified experience. We’ve built the wallet, obviously Kabuni COIN is our currency and we have a Kabuni card with Mastercard. It is an integration of tech that exists that we have now agreed to buy from the respective owners.
“Community is everything and it is something that I am starting to understand more and devote time to, no matter what happens to the technology, no matter what pivot we may or may not need to take over the next few years, your community is the most valuable aspect.
Community first that will never change. We have a clear fundamental strategy, we have a clear utility I would say to build on blockchain a solution that matters to billions of people whether you are a researcher, a charity or you are a startup — or you a volunteering towards the 17 sdgs (the UNs 17 sustainable development goals) right now.
“It is bigger than what Airbnb did with centralisation of hospitality and Uber did with transportation, they are now the largest players in their respective industries but they came at it from a bottom up approach, build a community of hosts, guests or drivers and passengers in a decentralised way. It was never blockchain but if they were starting it today I am pretty certain they would choose blockchain for identity of transactions.”
