Meet Anish Mohammed, Cryptoeconomics Expert and Chief Advisor for Siglo

During a blockchain meetup with Exosphe.re last summer in Florianopolis, Brazil, I was introduced to Anish Mohammed. That week, we talked about different blockchain products, including Siglo. A protocol that tokenized the most transacted digital commodity — prepaid cellphone credit or “airtime” — seemed obvious, especially in Brazil where more than 70% of cell phones are prepaid.

Over the course of the week, I got to know Anish and discussed a key role for him in the building of the protocol since his expertise and multidisciplinary background made him an incredible asset.

Even though he is a medical doctor, today Anish’s core expertise is in blockchain and cybersecurity, and he has more than 18 years of work experience in security and cryptography as both a researcher and consultant. He is a founding member of UK Digital Currency Association and used to lead security for HSBC. Anish is on the advisory board of Arteia, Chain of Things amongst others. He’s also the dean of blockchain at Exosphe.re and faculty at Habor.Space and his subject matter is cryptoeconomics. I sat down with Anish in Austin asked him about Siglo.

• Anish, for someone with your experience and expertise, why is Siglo interesting for you?

What’s interesting is the unique situation where you have a pre-existing set of users, a pre-existing need and a situation where blockchain and tokenization will improve the value, reduce the friction and increase transparency. There are already parts of the world where access to the internet is considered a fundamental human right. So, if this is the case going forward, what is it that humanity will need the most? Internet access. And Siglo’s vision is just that.

• Why is blockchain and tokenization important for Siglo?

Siglo has this ability to transfer value within the ecosystem where it goes all the way from transferring the value of completing a predetermined ask to getting airtime to utilizing the data that’s being created by the user while interacting with Siglo ecosystem . And currently, nobody else is offering that full ecosystem on a blockchain at this moment in time.

• What do you think makes Siglo unique?

What’s unique about Siglo is the the founders, founders’ vision, and life story. The two brothers that founded Siglo have a deep commitment to their vision : improvement of humanity and that is reflected in Siglo. Their vision for Siglo is to provide humanity with access to the Internet, which will allow them to create new value that can be utilized by people in their day-to-day lives. Where they have reached so far with the limited amount of resources is truly commendable.

• Siglo will have a two-tier token economy, why is this important?

So the construct of two-tiers of coins is becoming more and more prevalent in this ecosystem that’s due to multiple reasons. It allows us to manage the volatility. Currently, if volatility happens and if there’s just one token and if just the price the token goes to the roof it will be very difficult for Siglo to manage it. In addition, the economic conditions in different parts of the world are not uniform and Siglo doesn’t have to take the risk of arbitrage on them. So two token mechanism would allow them to reduce their risk as well.