Lukas, please tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your career path. How did you first get involved with blockchain-related projects?
My first encounter with blockchain was mining — I had a gaming pc and I tried Etherium mining out of curiosity. After a few hours of mining, I asked my friend with a different GPU to try this, just to look which card performed better — that guy was our COO Modestas. That escalated quickly and we started building bigger and bigger mining rigs. That was during the ICO boom, and a lot of blockchain-related events were happening in Vilnius. By the end of the year, I had a deal to make the biggest mining farm, but the thing with mining collapsed because the market crashed. So we decided to create a product instead — and that was Rokkex.
For those of our readers still unfamiliar with it, could you give a quick overview of Rokkex? What are the company’s mission and business model?
All co-founders are from the cybersecurity field that was attracted to the blockchain industry. And as far we know security was largely neglected in this field. We created a company with a vision to build trust and finally let the user feel safe in this industry. Our business model is simple: we take a commission from trades and released token offerings.
STO as a new fundraising model has been the focus of everyone’s attention for a while now — but the market still struggles to achieve adequate liquidity levels. What is your take on this? What are your expectations for the STO market in 2019–2020?
I think the STO market will grow — but not on amounts raised but on the influx of projects attracting investment to traditional business. Unlike ICOs, I don’t think that a project should be related to blockchain to launch an STO. Let blockchain be the instrument for issuing tokens. And that’s it — we don’t need anything more right now.
What are the biggest roadblocks for further development of STO as a fundraising method?
Lack of standards for issuing and accounting. Even now there is huge regulatory uncertainty about how this should work. Nowadays STO is like an IPO with tokens that have no practical usage.
In your opinion, what are the key qualities of a successful STO campaign?
Luck, passion, quick learning about what works or not — and belief that you can make it. But the full list could be provided after we complete our own campaign.
A lot has been said about STO being a potentially attractive IPO alternative for mid-sized businesses, including those from outside the industry. Would you agree with this?
Yes, yes and yes! We don’t need to add a blockchain product to a company to raise funds. Let the blockchain be a tool for issuing tokens for any kind of mid-sized business in order to attract capital and bring profits to investors. That’s all you need.
What are your company’s goals for 2019? Which milestones do you hope to achieve?
Our goals are to complete our STO and to attract users to our crypto exchange. We are also looking to create more jobs that are needed for Rokkex expansion. And to create a fundament for a securities exchange that we plan to launch in 2020.
https://cryptoeye.com/analytics/255/Interview-with-Lukas-Krikstaponis
