Simple Token — Powering Cryptocurrencies for Digital Communities

This post presents an overview of why the world needs a Simple Token, who is going to tokenize, and introduces 7 of the companies we are already working with on tokenization.

Why The World Needs a Simple Token

Blockchain technology has enormous potential benefits for all facets of business, but for most companies those benefits are far out of reach today. It’s still early days for Blockchain and the technology is too new, too complex and too challenging for most companies to implement on their own.

The Blockchain concept of Tokenization, however, is easy for any company to grasp: Create a branded digital currency to incentivize and reward users, monetize micro transactions, and fuel a dynamic ecosystem within your community.

Simple Token is designed to bridge this gap, to empower crypto currencies for digital communities.

The technical foundation of Simple Token is the OpenST protocol. OpenST enables any company to launch their own cryptocurrency powered by Simple Token.

We are minting Simple Tokens “ST” in our ICO (happening now) so that companies can stake Simple Tokens on public Ethereum against launching their own Branded Tokens, “BT” on open scalable side Blockchains. This enables companies to get the benefits of having their own cryptocurrencies without going through the ICO drama on their own. Our message is simple: You focus on your community and your technology and leave the blockchain infrastructure technology to us.

We invite developers and companies to check out our code which is available open-source on github and to start planning their own branded token integrations powered by Simple Token. For coders who want to get their hands dirty, we’ve left a few instructions here to reproduce the staking demo locally on your machine. We also have this nifty demo video of OpenST in action.

The Simple Token ICO is an important milestone as it mints ST and enables a value to the ST staked against BT. But the ICO is just the start. Following the token sale we’ll be expanding on the protocol and developing software and tools for companies to easily manage their branded token economies.

The “Stripe” of the Token Economy

Our goal is to build the Stripe of the token economy, so that companies can just plug in Simple Token APIs in order to benefit from tokenization capabilities.

This is a blog post by one of our advisors, Mark Bonchek describing his view on this. Mark writes:

In effect, they would become the Stripe for branded currency — a simple way for companies, apps and brands to create new forms of engagement and new business models based on reciprocity, exchange, and reward.

I’d love to see Medium build out Medium Claps on Simple Token. But in the meantime, just go ahead and Clap

Gil Penchina, another one of our other advisors, shared similar thoughts.

Think of it as the WIX or Shopify of tokens. They make it simple and easy to look like a pro even if you’re just an old school business that is trying to find ways to incorporate token mechanics into your business. They add a ton of functionality and services on top of ERC20 that make it a no-brainer for folks who can’t afford a full development team focused on deploying code in Solidity.

After digging for a while I talked to Jason and agreed to become an advisor and help with the business. The team is impressive…

Who is Going to Tokenize

When a Company uses Simple Token to create their Branded Token, the Simple Token Protocol enables micro-transactions and high transaction throughput for these Branded Tokens.

Mainstream consumer applications can then tokenize the interactions of their end-user consumer base. End-users can then start earning and spending branded tokens across their respective applications, and in the future between the apps.

We are talking globally to 50+ companies already about tokenizing with Simple Token with various exciting use cases, including: loyalty point platforms, gaming platforms, marketing platforms, various types of user-content driven social platforms, logistics platforms, payment platforms and some blockchain projects (decentralized applications and networks) across automotive, medical, energy and social. All of these companies are considering using Simple Tokens to power cryptocurrencies for their digital communities rather than follow the challenging, costly and risky path of their own ICO to create a token with market value.

This article published last week in Venture Beat provides a great high level overview of how we think about how the Simple Token technology can be applied to tokenize businesses and applications.

Meet Some of The Digital Communities Who Are Already Partnering with Simple Token

Xain

XAIN builds applications using AI to secure, stabilize and scale distributed ledger networks and in turn using the blockchain verified data to develop AI products. Xain will be using the OpenST protocol to explore tokenized applications on their networks for ride-sharing and medical patient records amongst others.

Digital Knights

Digital Knights is building a network of verified development teams and innovation projects. The marketplace will be driven through the tech due diligence curation of participants and tokenized rewards and feedback mechanisms down to individual developer level. Blockchain supported features will make the marketplace transparent to all participants.

InterviewBit

InterviewBit is a SaaS e-learning and job-discovery platform that prepared > 250,000 software engineers for companies including Amazon, Uber, Facebook and others. InterviewBit is exploring tokenizing their native coin, that users can spend on courses and coaches as they build a portfolio, to give it a tradable market value.

Pepo

Thousands of people use Pepo every day to share insider tips on local hot spots and travel destinations. Every time a tip is upvoted, Pepo Coin are transferred from one user to another as thanks for the tip. Pepo users will be able to spend Pepo Coin on related local and travel services such as travel advice, personalized itineraries and tours. We published this post about the first live demo of Pepo being tokenized.

Vidi VR

Look (by Vidi-VR) is a VR/AR social media platform and application integrating tokenization as a core feature for members of the community to reward and incentivize each other for actively participating in the 3D media creation and sharing experience through elements such as bounties, ratings, and micro-payments.

Floship

Floship is the World’s #1 international crowdfunding fulfillment provider by packages shipped; they have delivered rewards globally for over 100 of the most funded Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects. Floship and Simple Token will be working together on tokenization projects to explore micro-payments, digital currency payments, rewards/incentives to drive consumer benefits that are currently lacking in the logistics space.

LEGAL DISCLAIMERS

This Medium post is not a prospectus nor a solicitation for investment and it does not pertain in any way to an offering of securities in any jurisdiction.

You must read the entirety of our Terms & Conditions document carefully before making any decision to purchase ST Tokens. You must also monitor the https://simpletoken.org website and our Medium publications for any announcements from the Foundation as they may add to, or change, these Terms and Conditions at any time.

Purchasing, holding or using cryptographic tokens carries significant potential financial, regulatory and other risks, including potential loss of the entire value of Payment.

Tokens are only for sophisticated purchasers who are knowledgeable and experienced in the features and risks of digital platforms, digital assets, blockchain technology and smart contracts. Potential purchasers should determine for themselves the relevance of the information contained in this document and related materials, in each case as supplemented from time to time, and the necessity for additional enquiry, research and professional advice. Any decision to participate in a token sale should be based upon such independent investigation and advice as you deem necessary. This document should not be considered as a recommendation by any person to participate in any token sale or digital platform.

In particular, you should not purchase any Tokens unless you have read and understood the terms and all other relevant materials and fully understand the Token Sale, including at least the following:

• the nature and purpose of the Token Sale and its cryptographic context
• the procedures required to purchase Tokens;
• the nature and the extent of the risks to which you may be exposed by participating in the Token Sale or purchasing, holding, transferring or exchanging Tokens, including those set out in the Risk Disclosure; and
• the regulatory, tax and accounting treatment of participating in the Token Sale and purchasing, holding, transferring or exchanging Tokens, as well as any other relevant implications.