Learn & Earn: Everest, the ID token, and token launch on Kyber
Everest’s CEO & Co-Founder Bob Reid: “…The Everest platform tears down the barriers of distance, time, borders, risk so that a person in Jakarta can access the same tools as Wall St.”.
In the next instance of the “Learn & Earn” campaign, we are very pleased to have the chance to talk with Bob Reid — CEO & Co Founder of Everest. Bob will introduce you to Everest — a unique platform that can run any application in society in a decentralized manner, explain the tokenomics of Everest’s ID token and the plan to list ID in Kyber Network!
Remember to answer the quiz here after reading this article to have a chance to win 20 USDT!
Can you tell us what you did before crypto and how you got into crypto?
I’m the ex-GM of BitTorrent, DivX and a few silicon valley startups along the way. Prior to starting Everest, I worked with Kai Labs, a blockchain accelerator in Singapore that had Aya, Vitalik and some Ethereum Foundation folks participating. https://www.everestlink.org/
Can you describe in general terms what Everest is? How did you come up with the idea for it? What inspired you?
Everest is an end-to-end blockchain platform that can run any application in society (economic, political, social, cultural)…..and do those in a decentralized, user-controlled manner.
The idea came from the realization that unique, human identity is at the core of everything we do. And when we saw the convergence of high-fidelity, cheap biometrics (proof of human & unique), AND blockchain (user-control w/ tokenization), we knew that we could bring all 7.5 billion users into a digital, global economy. That is, the Everest platform tears down the barriers of distance, time, borders, risk so that a person in Jakarta can access the same tools as Wall St.
We drew inspiration from Estonia and Indian nations….build those essential elements, but invert the power so that the user is in control, then you have something.
Everest is building a blockchain-based ecosystem with interconnected products such as a digital identity system, a digital wallet, a ledger and a regulated stablecoin. What problems do such products solve individually and more importantly, as an ecosystem?
Everest combines secure, mass-market biometrics and encryption technologies to facilitate identity creation/verification, account creation, and transaction tracking and validation. With any smartphone, a user or Financial Institution can capture a myriad of biometrics (e.g. face, palm, finger) and create an account — Everest accomplishes this in minutes and for pennies per customer, compared to days and tens of dollars as necessitated by traditional financial institutions.
Identity is at our core, and our solution, EverID, allows users to privately share attributes (i.e. I’m human & unique), and credentials (i.e. KYC check, over the age of 21, etc.) over Ethereum mainnet. So, users can privately share their KYC status with a VASP or another user without having to go through multiple KYC checks, nor giving up more information than what is legally required. And since the identity storage construct is effectively a DAO, EverID is the holy-grail solution of proving human-unique or KYC, while still being transparent, private with user-control.
The user-owned biometrics in EverID are part of our ERC20 wallet, EverWallet. The benefits of this construct are that (a) we reach all human beings, and users don’t even need a phone to have a wallet, and (b) users never lose their wallet and can always reclaim their wallet with live biometrics + PIN; don’t need to write down a 24 word pass-phrase, or rely on social recovery (until your ex-girlfriend/wife decides she is upset).
The internal ledger works with our POA Ethereum ledger to bridge to mainnet. So, we can process lots of transactions quickly and cheaply on our internal ledger, and then post results out to Ethereum mainnet and other public blockchains as time & cost permit. So, you can see how the identity components use our ledgers, and are a benefit to the whole Ethereum community.
The regulated stablecoin allows value transfer in any fiat currency, so is able to bring traditional finance into the crypto and DeFi world. So, you can see how identity attached to a wallet, converting any crypto or fiat currency, running over our internal & external chains is the basis for an ecosystem that will pull millions of users into DeFi.
How does the ID token come into play here? What is its role in the Everest ecosystem?
The total supply of ID tokens is 800 million. The ID token is a virtual financial asset/token, (utility functionality, per legal opinion in Europe with availability in over 170 countries) endowing holders with rewards, voting and governance rights, and enabling access to the network and the myriad of applications and services that are available in the economy. The more tokens staked by a user or organization, the more functionality becomes available; for example, if you want to send USD $400 to a friend in the Philippines, then you only need 5 ID tokens, but if you want to send $50,000 to 50 employees every month with escrow features, and receive automated tracking & reporting, then staking 10,000 ID tokens is appropriate.
It seems to have a staking and governance mechanism as well! Can you explain it in more detail?
On governance, holders of the ID token can vote on such things as feature enhancements, what markets we prioritize, how we spend part of the funds.
On staking, if you hold ID tokens in an EverWallet, we give rewards equivalent to 5% APY. If you stake for 90 days, then we give rewards of 25% APY. And if you stake for 365 days, then we issue for 365 days. We don’t have inflation, so this is a much better program than others.
There are additional rewards for Staking at below level earns reduced transaction fees and increase earning rates over Everest
Silver: 5,000 IDs
- Save 5% on fees for buying crypto, remittances, swapping, borrowing
- Earn additional 0.25% on savings
Gold: 25,000 IDs
- Save 10% on fees for buying crypto, remittances, swapping, borrowing
- Earn additional 0.5% on savings
Platinum: 50,000 IDs
- Global Debit Card in 2021 (European & US residents; 2nd can be anywhere)
- Earn additional 0.75% on savings
Who are the eAgents and eTellers? How do they help the Everest ecosystem and what are the benefits of becoming one?
In addition to staking incentives, Everest has an “Ecosystem Development Fund” for eAgents and eTellers.
eAgents are organizations who manage eTellers, and eTellers are those who sign up users to the various Everest services. eAgents & eTellers earn tokens based on the number of friends signed up, and the associated fees generated by their friends. Kyber, for example, is an eAgent, who will earn reward ID tokens, and pass those on to their users. The commission schedule is as follows:
- 20% commissions, paid in ID tokens on the monthly average price of IDs in USD
- eAgents & eTellers sign up users to an Everest wallet using an affiliate link or agent app, and split the commission 50/50.
- eTellers are individuals who register users who perform functions like send/receive remittances, buy/sell crypto, save in an account, etc.
- i.e. An eAgent Organization signs up five eTellers, who bring on 1,000 users, who generate fees of $50/user/month = $50,000. So, the eAgent and eTellers would receive rewards of $10k/month in ID tokens.
Does Everest have anything new and exciting to share? How do you feel about listing the ID token on Kyber?
We are entering another central bank for approval, which means the entire nation (no crypto allowed to date) is open to buying, selling, trading crypto over Everest. Also, we will announce a partnership with a large cross-border crypto company that will leverage our access to fiat-in/out globally.
Additionally, we will do the following:
- List our token exclusively on Kyber on Feb. 8,
- Launch a campaign to give bonuses for the first 1K users who register with Everest,
- Conduct a trading contest
Very much looking forward to the listing of ID on Kyber and the following news! Thank you very much for the time Bob!
