This is a summary of the second VALID team interview, this time with VALID CEO Daniel Gasteiger. The interview took place on March 23 on Telegram and was based on questions collected from the community.
Interview
Dominique: Hi Danny! Thanks for taking time off your busy schedule to be with us on Telegram today.
Daniel: Hi everybody thanks for your interest, glad to be here!
Dominique: We will jump right in with the first question. Can you tell us in a few sentences, why you decided to focus on digital identity and personal data?
Daniel: It all started with my first visit to Estonia in February 2016. There, I saw what digital identity means in reality and how it can change people’s lives in a fundamental way.
We then started Procivis 6 months later and everything else developed from there with our eID+ solution for Schaffhausen and ultimately VALID.
Clearly we are at a turning point now when it comes to questions like personal data protection and the use of digital identities in every day life.
Dominique: Great, thanks Danny. Next question is from our community member Lars: What are the plans for the next two months and where do you see the priorities/ what do you focus on?
Daniel: Clearly the focus is on completing the ITO now — remaining KYCs to be completed ASAP and then issuing the tokens.
In parallel, we now started the detail planning of the VALID roadmap/deliverables so we can — based on the final figures of the ITO — communicate a detailed plan to all of our community members by the end of Q2. Of course we are also delivering the final eID+, which forms the basis for the VALID wallet going forward, to our pilot client Kanton of Schaffhausen in May 2018.
Dominique: Cool, we sure can’t wait to know where VALID will be going in the next years. The next question is related to the VALID token. Regarding the utility of the VLD token: besides the possibility to buy more storage for personal data, can you give exemplary use cases for the token once the platform is established?
Daniel: We can see many different ways our token can be used. For example, buying verification services for your self-sovereign identity. Beyond that, we see endless opportunities that VLD can be used in any commercial relationship with data buyers — similar to the airmiles ecosystem of airline networks where you can use your miles for much more than just flights. In other words, you can be paid to receive advertisements and then directly use the tokens you got to buy the services proposed.
Dominique: Great, thanks Danny. The next question is from our community member TD: As far as I understand it, the marketplace and its price discovery engine will be centralized. If this is correct, then who will be the operator of this marketplace? Will it be Procivis? What sources of revenue exist to guarantee the survival of the operator?
Daniel: No, it will not be Procivis. The whole system is ultimately being managed and operated by the VALID foundation which is also being established over the course of 2018 as an entity independent of Procivis.
The VALID foundation will initially be funded by the Foundation Token Pool.
Dominique: Next question, also by TD: Will the VALID team implement a working marketplace before the Valid foundation will be set up? What will be the job of the VALID team after the VALID foundation is set up?
Daniel: It will be done in parallel, as per my answer before, the foundation will only take over the responsibility once our platform is built and operational. Until then, the foundation will act as an observer to the project.
The VALID team will move with the platform to the foundation but given the objective of VALID to become an open-source project we will hopefully have a global community that eventually will be the ‘VALID team’ , driving forward the development of the platform
Dominique: Great, last question for today: Who will be responsible for future improvements of the Valid marketplace after it’s up and running?
Daniel: The responsibility will be with the foundation — they are in charge of steering the project into the future but again, clearly, it will be down to the VALID community to help shape that future strategy once we are live and operational.
Clearly, there are many questions to be answered still, given the bold vision we have. Fortunately, your community is already very engaged with inputs and ideas on how the VALID strategy could evolve from our whitepaper vision. It is super exciting to see how people bought into this!
Dominique: That were all the questions for today. Thank you very much for taking the time Danny!
Daniel: Thank you for facilitating this chat, Dominique and thanks to the people who put forward questions. I hope to see many of you in person at one of the events we plan over the next months starting with our first VALID community meetup here in Zurich — at Trust Square, our new blockchain hub in the centre of Zurich!
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