Short Stories with the Management Team; Maxim Streltses, CFO
“When new exchanges?” is the questions we continue to receive month after month following the crowdsale. This week we had a short talk with Maxim Streltses, InsurePal’s CFO, who told us all about what’s happening in the financial section of InsurePal.
So if you are one of those people who are constantly wondering what is happening with new exchanges or if you are just curious who Max is and what is his initial role in the company then continue reading.
To start this conversation in the right manner, can you please explain when did you join the InsurePal team and why? What pulled you towards the project?
Max: I have joined the project just a few months before the ICO started. I was lucky to be invited — that’s really the answer, but from my side, and for a while back I was fascinated by the Blockchain technology and its practical implementation in the the real economy. When I came across Insurepal and met the founders, I immediately saw the huge potential in the project. The idea was great, the founders had practical and applicable experience in the end markets we were about to disrupt, and the concept was truly value adding to all participants of the value chain. I knew that there will be many challenges, but i also knew that the underlying concept and the team behind is strong enough to get this done.
What is in your opinion the hardest part of preparing the IPL token for exchanges?
Max: There is no particular part which is the hardest. I would say its a combination of factors such as; (i) screening existing, new and up and coming exchanges for their propositions, for their reputation, who stands behind them, their potential and risks. (ii) screening the offers to “help listing” as many of them are true and credible, but many are just an attempt to squeeze money out of us. (iii) Application process itself is not easy either, as there are long application forms, and detached communication. In general I would say that the main difficulty is getting the right exchange for the right amount of capital and with the right reputation. The industry of exchanges today is incredibly profitable, the incumbents have very strong pricing power and are charging extremely high rates, and because of that new exchanges are popping up all the time trying to share that extra-ordinary profit. Many of these have great prospects, but with that all of them carry regulatory risks which can not be ignored.
So when can the community expect new exchanges?
Max: This is not a question I can answer with exact dates. Typical listing process (if such a thing even exists) is a few months long for a large established exchange. It is shorter for the new and smaller ones. We have recently added IPL to a new US based exchange which comes with great prospects (as it is supported by very influential developers and investors of the crypto world) and hope to announce a few more in the next 2 months. The focus is now to list on another large exchange, and add smaller with high prospects, but in a way that we diversify our geographical exposure.
What is the IPL token economy?
Max: IPL Token economy refers to the ecosystem that will be built on the use of our Social Proof concept. The economy is based on the need to use the token as means of payment for services in the eco-system. In other words we are trying to integrate our Social Proof model into areas such as car insurance, health insurance, geek economy and general crypto economy which can benefit from building trust and economical sharing of such benefits.
And referring to the previous question. Can you tell us in detail how will the IPL token work? How and for what will users be able to use it?
Max: We look to integrate the token step by step as we build the eco-system, and as we incentivise non crypto users to become such. This approach works for everyone’s advantage. It enlarges the crypto user base on one hand, and it creates virality effect for the token on the other. The plan is to start with token as an incentive for endorsement, then token as means of partial or full payment for services, and then token as mandatory means of payment for services.
