Last week, Tim conducted the first of our fortnightly AMA sessions. These AMA sessions will be a chance for our community to get more insight from different people within the company. You can watch Tim’s session here.
In terms of development updates, please refer to our demo video, which we released on last week and you can view on our YouTube channel here.
How is development going? Is everything on track?
We are very happy with development at the moment. About four weeks ago, I presented our sprint schedule and we are right on track with that. We have taken the latest designs created and are applying them to the app as well. We are also doing some scalability and capacity testing on the tendermint protocol as well. That should allow us to see the real transactions per second that we are getting out of the platform, as we start adding ABCI layers, the program interface layers and the tenement consensus layers. We are very happy with that. We are still looking for an additional backend developer, this is so we can have more redundancy in scale with the development process. In terms of other development, we are developing in parallel the apps, website and the marketplace. We have also created a short white paper about the consensus model and how the MasterNodes will work, which will hopefully be published soon.
How much was raised?
In terms of the raising that was done across all of the sales, including the airdrops, we are at a market cap of 23 million dollars, based on .02 cent token value. The time that we did our raising, the ETH and BTC coin value was about 10 million dollars, so we sold a lot of our ETH into BTC and Fiat. We also did some token swaps with a few other blockchain projects as well, so we have counted that as part of the total. Some of the swaps, actually disallow for them to be sold for about 6 months after, so we are holding on to that for the longer term.
When will sharering announce further details on MasterNodes and elections?
I am expecting to announce more details on MasterNodes in about 2 weeks. We will be presenting more information on how they work, how delegation works and how the pools work. We will also have a treasury of the ShareTokens that will be provided to the MasterNodes as each block is validated. This is to be done initially to make sure there is demand for the MasterNodes, and there are enough people participating in the consensus model as validators. The validators of blockchain will receive ShareTokens out of the treasury and the transaction. What we expect, is as the transaction numbers grow over time, the amount allocated from the treasury will then shrink, which ensures that a large number of ShareTokens go out to the validators. As you know we are building a marketplace for the sharing economy. Most of our business service providers or merchants won’t know anything about cryptocurrencies. We will not be asking them to buy tokens in order to participate within the network and then pay for their transaction fees. What we are doing instead, is when they pay or receive their Fiat, we will reduce their transaction fees in either Fiat or SharePay and use the funds we receive from that to then buy ShareTokens on an exchange. This way, the ShareToken we buy will automatically be provided to the validators and MasterNodes. This then creates an immediate liquidity on exchanges for the ShareTokens, creates scarcity and true value for the utility of the token. With more transactions we have on the network, we will have more liquidity which makes the token more scarce, which will go out to the validators and MasterNodes.
In regards to SharePay, does it need to be purchased prior to use and is locked within the app or can you use credit card transactions which automatically convert to SharePay?
You can use credit card transactions, which will automatically convert to SharePay. You do not have to purchase SharePay at all. If you are using a credit card, there will be a standard credit card transaction fee, which will pass straight through, based on what ever your provider is in your country. Bank transfers are also an option, as we are partnering with a few online banks that allow us to have local bank accounts, so there are no fund transfer fees for those going that route.. The credit card implementation at the moment, looks like we are going towards Stripe, for the initial credit card transactions.
So the consensus algorithm will be dPoS?
We are releasing more information in White Paper about the algorithm. We are calling them delegated proof of stake, which means the delegators are like a pool, with a little bit of twist on it in terms of the pools that are created.
When will the next partnership announcement be? How will you be announcing the remaining 200 providers or so, after we hit exchange? Will it be like 3 or 4 providers per day over 6 to 8 weeks.
We have a couple of other partnerships lined up, that we will be announcing over the next couple of months. We are wanting to wait until we unlock the ShareTokens to announce them. Due to being under some NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) or are still in discussion with a few, as some are quite strategic in terms of our development. When announcing our providers, we will be taking a Big Bang approach. This means, we will have providers in HK, AUS, Las Vegas, and potentially the UK, that we will launch the marketplace with. Those providers will vary in degree, either being simply directory service providers, where you can get access to them in terms of either calling them up and making a booking. Some of them will have SharePay, so we will look into doing an on boarding of a small number of SharePay integrations. A limited number will be for the booking system as well. The plan is to then slowly expand from there, with more and more providers. We do expect in terms of directory listings, that we will have more than 200 providers, we just need to see what will happen.
How will service providers purchase SHR? Will ShareRing help them purchase from exchanges?
Service providers won’t need to purchase ShareTokens, it is automatically done by us. We will deduct a Fiat or SharePay amount from their account based on the transactions, and then buy the ShareToken on their behalf and provide that to the validators.
When will airdrop and bounty tokens be distributed?
We had to delay for a short period of time, due to our team member that runs the smart contracts being on leave. We will be distributing them very soon.
Any new updates on exchanges? Are we looking at October?
October is still the month. We are viewing some contracts for exchanges that have come through to us. We hope to get these finalised very soon. Our approach towards exchanges at the moment, is to look at a few smaller or second tier exchanges. What we expect with this route, is to build liquidity up on our platform, build the utility of the token up as well and as liquidity grows, we will start getting listed on the larger exchanges.
How far away is main net?
November is our projected timeframe. We currently have a test net up and running, and we are doing capacity planning on it, as well as running a number of applications. We do want to start getting some beta testers involved soon, the first thing we are doing is launching the test net in our other offices, and then run a few up on Amazon.
Are you concerned about other sharing companies like OCN also targeting Hong Kong and other Asian districts?
Not at all. There is more than enough room on this planet for more than one sharing economy company. OCNs approach of how they are doing things is a different approach than ours. Origins approach is to develop protocols and standards, with a very strong blockchain approach. We fill some of the gaps that they might have in terms of the marketplace we developing and they fill some of the gaps in terms of what we are doing. We will continue to keep talking and see how we can work together in the future.
I saw Uchain get destroyed by listing on a bad/unknown exchange, do we have a well known exchange in place?
The exchanges in place are well known. Two of them are new, but are very well known. One of them has 500,000 KYC that has already been done for their launch.
Can you give us any more info on Closed Loop?
I cannot give any information on that at all, we are in discussions with them around a potential project that utilises SparePay as part of their system, but we are still in the very early days.
When are you going to start sending out intention of interest for potential MasterNode holders?
We will issue the information in the White Paper, that should be out in about 2 weeks. We will then start requesting interest from potential MasterNode holders. The original plan is still the same, seed investors will get the first notification, then presale investors and finally main sale investors.
Will there be any new events around the world hosted by Sharering?
We want to try to put aside a few hours one evening, while traveling, to present an opportunity for anyone to come and meet us. They will be very informal, but the idea is to start building the community a bit more. We are potentially working with a company on starting a bit of a development community around ShareRing. The purpose will be to start developing some additional functionality around smart contract engines, some additional apps for it, and some protocols. We are very keen to have an external development community to actually develop add-ons for the platform and ShareLedger. We will then create a bucket of ShareTokens that will be rewarded to these developers to basically get involved with development. This is similar to a couple of other projects and what they are doing in terms of having a community based development team that gets rewarded on what they put into the open access platform.
How come the masternode holders has dropped from 50 to 20 at initial release?
It will go up to 50 very quickly. We are looking at 20 just to start some of the testing, which is part of our capacity testing as well. We will start with 20 in November and roll up to 50 in December or January, and it will stay at 50 until the transaction numbers grow.
Will you be able to lease tokens and still be eligible for holiday home raffles with those tokens?
Yes. For the raffles, you still own the tokens you lease, so essentially you are staking the tokens and therefore you are able to go into the raffles.
How much does it cost for a business to sign up and list their assets particularly for small businesses?
Costs for business to sign up is basically nothing, but you have to look at what we are offering as a service. There are two main sections for the service. One is the marketplace itself. The marketplace is a service that ShareRing, as a business is offering. What happens on marketplace, depending on the service that they take, they might actually pay a service fee, which could be a fee per month, per asset. This means every time the asset is rented out, ShareRing would use that fee per month, to pay the transaction fees for the vender or provider. The other option for them, is to work directly with the ShareLedger blockchain, in that sense they will be paying between 2 and 5 cents per transaction on the ShareLedger. Renting something out might cost 5 cents, or adding an asset might cost 5 cents. We are trying to make it as affordable as possible, while also enabling the growth of the ecosystem. The monthly fee could be on average, 0.5% of the monthly rental income of that asset. For example, a suit that gets rented out, will generate $500 a month, per rental in AUD. The cost for them to have it on the marketplace is about $2.50 a month.
Will there be more information added to the website soon?
Yes, we have a content writer providing us with some new content. We know we need more content up on the new website, and it is a huge priority for us to get this done.
How many years till you think ShareRing can top 1000 providers?
Based at the size of the 3–4 regions that we are launching in, I think we could top 1000 providers on the directory itself, at the end of next year. Topping 1000 active providers that are using backing engine, leasing out their assets and using SharePay, I would estimate it would probably take a couple of years until we hit that mark. We have a trajectory that we are building, which shows our revenue forecast and revenue model. We have gathered some incredible data from IBIS World in terms of numbers of rental and sharing economy companies in Aus, HK, China, US and the UK. Their numbers are truly staggering, in terms of the rental and sharing industries. The numbers we are looking, is approaching a revenue of One trillion dollars per annum. When thinking about both business to business and business to consumer, the market we are targeting is huge.
What other regions/cities will you enter for the next phase?
Vietnam is a very practical location for us since our development team is there, so we are definitely going to look into how to approach that. The Greater China region is also on our radar. The plan is for us to expand into other countries within our region, Europe and then the Americas.
Is Las Vegas a testing ground for the American market?
Yes. Las Vegas is great since they already have a huge rental and sharing economy. It is in a very small area so it’s a really good staking ground for us in terms of testing the market and looking at what some of the providers need out of us.
Any functionality that has been difficult to implement in the programming?
One of the most difficult things, in terms of using the Cosmos SDK, is that since we have gotten in very early with it, we started developing before there was a lot of documentation around it. This means there has been a lot of talk with the team that developed it to get the right information from them, so we can get everything working correctly. Some other challenges in terms of the blockchain itself, is actually the immutable data set. If a merchant is renting something out and the product comes back early or late, how can you change it if it has already been written in the blockchain. We are figuring out how to allow for late rentals and things that are similar. Of course there are going to be lots of challenges when managing bookings and rentals, when you don’t have the full smart contract system in place yet. Our development team has been really great with this process, giving recommendations of how to combat these issues, and overcoming these challenges.
What are the plans for 2019?
Let’s look at this in terms of building a startup/business. We are currently in the phase of in building the business, so our goal is focused on getting the pilot out in November. After November, we will be adding more features on the app, up until March next year. We should be pretty close to having a finished product by then and can switch into run the business phase. We are going from 80% development focused, and 20% sales focused, to 80% sales focused, in terms of management and 20% development and new feature development focused. During that period, we will still be expanding our development team, but things will just start to grow in a linear fashion.
Did you make a decision on Swag from last weeks AMA?
We have, we are planning on ordering some recycled cups from made from recycled stuff that is thrown out from fast food shops and made from old coffee cups.
Are you looking for any more good sharing ideas or do you go for already established sharing ideas? Will there be more pitch-fests?
Yes we are absolutely looking for more sharing ideas. After November, we will be running more pitchfests, which will be a big focus for us. The idea is to get a community development team in place first, so that we are able to respond to the ideas and focus on getting it built and getting the idea in place, and actually helping you build a really cool sharing business around your idea.
Will AMA’s become a regular thing?
Yes, so we are looking at doing them fortnightly. We will be involving other people from the company in the coming AMAs..
Are you going to be more active on telegram after mainnet launch?
I will probably after November be more active.
The last video explains that merchant-consumer comm, e.g. KYC is encrypted and happens off chain and actual payments are on chain and happens through SHRP?
The sending of the KYC happens off of the blockchain. Part of the idea of the self sovereign identification model is the KYC itself. They are the things that actually identify you and we don’t want those on the blockchain, or on anything. What we do is keep identification tools on the app so you have control over the information. We encrypt that data, meaning we put it in a single file or a hash of that file, which is then stored on the blockchain. If you update the information or try and get into the encrypted file to make a change, that hash will no longer match what is on the blockchain. So, when you do a transaction with a merchant, that package/file is sent to the merchant, they then need to use their own private key to unlock that package/file, they cannot copy any of the information, but the merchants app will also check the blockchain hash to make sure that it is a valid KYC approved identity.
Transactions are actually not anonymized / unlinkable then? So potential adversaries are able to, based on the outgoing transactions from a consumers SHR wallet, deduce your whereabouts/ identity?
No. So they cannot deduce who you are, or where you’re from or any of that information.
