CoinGeek Conversations

In the first of four CoinGeek Conversations special episodes, we revisit some of our favourite conversations from the last season, on the subject of Bitcoin SV’s relationship with the global economy.  

We hear from Eswar Prasad, Tolani senior Professor of International Trade Policy at Cornell University, and author of ‘The Future of Money’, on why competition in the digital asset industry is a good thing; Patryk Walaszczyk, blockchain solutions expert at IBM, discusses the burgeoning relationship between BSV and IBM; Owen Vaughan, director of research at nChain, talks about the role Bitcoin could play in political economics; and Bryan Daugherty, public policy director of the BSV Blockchain Association tells us about his work for the US Department of Defence. 

Join me, Sarah Higgs, next week as I take another journey down memory lane, picking guests from past shows for an episode featuring four personalities of BSV.  

Pacer Ventures, co-founded by Gbemi Akande, is a venture fund that is focussed on Africa, but not exclusively on blockchain projects. “However,” Gbemi says, “we’ve taken a lot of interest in blockchain businesses in the past few months because of the growing opportunity we see there.”

Speaking on this week’s CoingGeek Conversations, Gbemi says there’s a growing population of young technical talent in Africa which makes the continent “a good place to explore what blockchain can do in solving societal problems and business problems.”

But it’s not just the young, educated population that encourages Gbemi’s confidence: “even governments are catching on right now to understand it as a technology themselves, to develop policies around the technology, which has also helped the markets to grow faster.”

Exposing ordinary consumers as potential investors to the bewildering array of cryptocurrencies, many of which are built on dubious claims, could have dangers, but Gbemi believes that ultimately, the process will produce positive results: 

“It's been a learning curve for the population. However, I'm quite confident in the fact that while there's a lot of cryptocurrencies, for example, with a lot of success stories, but also failures and lessons learned, the learning rate of this young population will actually more than compensate for that.”

As for Bitcoin SV’s role in future business opportunities for Pacer Ventures, Gbemi sees one of its core strengths as the potential for “huge transaction volumes”. Micropayments and remittances are “a big deal in Africa”. That makes BSV “a well suited protocol that can help absorb the volume of transactions that's needed to be done in Africa”.

The whole crypto market has experienced a serious downturn in recent months, but Gbemi says that could have a positive effect in the long run: “this particular period will filter out the noise and allow the protocols and the solutions with substance to actually be well known and well used. So I think it's an opportunity to recalibrate, to come down and ask the tough questions about what works best for society and for businesses.”

Gbemi mentions several sectors for BSV startups that he believes are likely to do well in the short to medium term: supply chain logistics, education and media content. In addition, the streamlining of government services presents big opportunities. 

The fund is open to new applicants and Gbemi issues an invitation to entrepreneurs to contact him: “we are out there looking for ideas to work with entrepreneurs. We go beyond just writing a cheque. We work very closely with founders …If anyone out there has some interesting solutions that use the BSV protocol, approach us.”

Startup investment is part of Pacer Ventures’ bigger vision for Africa: “we really want to work with businesses that are moving the needle, that are creating employment, that are solving societal problems within the continent.” In three or four years’ time, Gbemi says, “we really are hoping to be able to work with companies that are pushing the envelope in that direction.”

Almost fifty years ago, four boys became school friends in Poland. Today they are working together to revolutionise the music industry with a BSV-powered startup called Soundoshi. It’s not their first collaboration: they previously created a software development company together which is still in business.

But now, as Michał Scisłowski explains on this week’s CoinGeek Conversations, their focus is “100 percent on Soundoshi”. The opportunity, as they see it, is to improve the business model for both music producers and consumers. 

“Even if you are generating a few million streams, then you can't really make a living from Spotify,” Michał says. That’s because revenue is shared between artists on a strictly proportional basis. So if smaller artists have a certain number of plays, what they earn depends on whether or not a big artist happens to release new music and win a large share of Spotify’s total plays at that particular time.

Soundoshi’s solution? “In order to make it fair again, we need to have the same flat payment for each stream, for every artist on the platform. So they all have the same terms and they are competing with each other.”

In building a system like that, “BSV is made for the task”. It will allow the creation of music NFTs so the consumer will own the music they buy - as opposed to simply being given access to it in return for a subscription. 

Artists will be free to set their own prices per track - anything from very cheap for a mass audience to more expensive and as limited in numbers as they choose for a highly exclusive product. All the music will be stored on the BSV blockchain. “In this way we want to avoid any kind of manipulation or censorship.”

The artist would likely have to pay something to have their work put into the system, but “we are exploring the options of maybe having split payments for this. It's just a few dollars and maybe we can reimburse that from what we are earning on commissions.”

From the consumer’s point of view, Soundoshi is a pay-per-track model. Instead of subscription there will be a top up mechanism to keep your account in credit but in other respects, “everything will be very similar” to the experience on Spotify. 

Just as Bitcoin users can send money to each other, Soundoshi’s customers will be able to transfer ownership of the tracks they have bought. As well as this being a new economic model for the music business, psychologically, it’s a return to an older mode: one of music ownership. As Michał explains:

“We want to reintroduce ownership of the music to the fans, so they will be able to collect their favourite music and build their collections, as we were doing 15 years ago before streaming arrived.”

As to whether Soundoshi plans to destroy the music industry or provide a service to it, Michał is clear: “you always have two choices. You can go for revolution or evolution. And as much as I would love to see the revolution, I understand that we need to go the evolution way.”

That means working with the music industry and talking to music publishers: “we want to offer this industry a new revenue stream.”

CoinGeek followed the inside story of Soundoshi and the other startups who were part of  Satoshi Block Dojo’s first cohort, for a CoinGeek Originals film, How to Build a BSV Business.

Have you ever wanted to call BS on something you’ve seen online? For most of us the answer is a resounding yes. That’s why Errol Hula is building a system that allows users to mark whether information on social media is accurate or not.

His application, called NOBL, includes a BS button which users can click on if they see something online that they know is not true. They can also add external links to posts to prove that material is false. 

Errol says that by aggregating all this information the system can display which posts can be trusted and whether a user is trustworthy or not. He believes that this will solve the problem of identifying misinformation online, while still allowing people the freedom to speak their minds. 

“We won’t get rid of loud voices but what we’ll hopefully do is be able to, rather than just shouting at one another, hopefully have more reasoned discussions.” 

Errol tells CoinGeek's Charles Miller that the other issue he aims to tackle is the lack of privacy in social media. Instead of making money from harvesting user data and selling it on to third parties, as so many leading technology companies do currently, NOBL will use a micropayment system. 

This will allow users to monetise content where they see fit and allow readers to tip writers or posts that they find interesting. “The goal is to generate enough revenue from the subscriptions and the tipping and that micro economy that it can actually fund the free use for others.” 

Due to the Bitcoin SV blockchain’s high scaling capacity and low fees, micropayments are possible in a way that they are not on other blockchains. 

Users will also be able to control their newsfeeds by adjusting a slider, which Errol calls ‘the BS filter’, meaning people can choose what they see online rather than being at the mercy of whatever algorithm is put in place by social media companies. 

Errol explains that he was motivated to build NOBL to solve real world problems, such as the proliferation of fake news online and the concentration of power that big tech currently enjoys. 

The impact that these issues are having on democratic society became increasingly evident in the Donald Trump era, with the former President banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation about the 2020 US presidential election and the part his tweets played in the 2021 United States Capitol attack. 

Errol hopes to transform the future of social media by harnessing the power of Bitcoin SV, but he stresses that the digital asset will be just the ‘plumbing’ that underpins the product and not the main attraction. 

“The fact that it uses Bitcoin SV is not going to influence whether someone is interested or not. If it’s a product that’s going to succeed because it solves a problem, investment will follow.”

When Bitcoin was first invented, many hailed it as the solution to inefficient cross-border remittances. But because of the high fees associated with transactions on the Bitcoin Core network, it has never been able to live up to its full potential. 

 That’s why Kumaraguru Ramanujam has chosen to build on the Bitcoin SV blockchain instead. His application, MoneySwipe, aims to bring down fees for sending money abroad from the current global average of 7 percent to just 1.5 percent. 

 He explains to Charles Miller on this week’s episode of CoinGeek Conversations that the company is aiming to tackle the UK –India remittance corridor first. This makes a lot of sense as India tops the list of countries receiving personal remittances. According to a 2022 World Bank Report, a whopping $83 billion is sent back to the country each year in payments.   

 Ramanujam’s plan is to work with regulators in India to create a cross-border payment solution without high costs. He explains that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up a regulatory sandbox with the intention of finding companies using blockchain to bring efficiency to the billion-dollar remittance industry. 

 The sandbox originally opened in 2018, with a company using Hyperledger Fabric selected, but it has now reopened, and Ramanujam is keen to show the RBI the power of Bitcoin SV. 

 “We first show the regulator that BSV’s better than Hyperledger then we show them, okay, yeah, transfer of value can also happen.” 

 The introduction of an efficient remittance system like this would be a gamechanger for the Indian economy. If costs could be brought down to 1.5 percent, this would mean over $4 billion could be saved and go straight to the recipient, instead of being lost in fees. This would also benefit the government as it would receive more foreign exchange reserves. 

 “It’s a win-win and it’s a stated aim of the United Nations’ sustainability goals to bring remittances down from 7 percent to 3 percent,” Ramanujam points out. 

 While the application is powered by the Bitcoin SV blockchain, stablecoins have been enabled so they can be used as a bridge asset, to ensure liquidity and comply with regulation.  

 The final application, which will be launched by the end of the year, will be informed by how MoneySwipe engages with regulators. The hope is that by working closely with them, the final product will be innovative, relevant, and risk-free. 

 The focus for now is India and the corridor with the UK, but once this has been developed, he intends to turn his attention to other regulators to create remittance solutions that work with governments across the globe. 

 Ramanujam believes that being able to show experience working successfully with one regulator will make it easier with others.  

 "We want to work with the regulator who’s open with their policies right now, rather than us telling them this is how things have to be done - so we are looking at countries that are open right now with sandboxes.”

GameFi, a cryptocurrency company that brings gaming to the blockchain aims to make cryptocurrency accessible to everyone through playful means. Incorporated in Zug, Switzerland, the company offers its users a three-tiered cryptocurrency ecosystem that allows players to evolve from one token to another. The PIKA coin currently running on the Ethereum network is GameFi’s initial cryptocurrency. METRA is its second token offering that can be used to either stake or evolved into the third and rarest GameFi coin, Ki. 

Speaking to Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, company chairman Ajaypal Pama says GameFi is a one stop hub where users can enjoy the ecosystem in more ways than one— as a gamer, an investor or an NFT trader. 

GameFi provides its users with a deflationary model design wherein PIKA, METRA, and KI are predicted to become scarce commodities creating significant wealth generation for investors. Ajaypal noticed that with other blockchain games, rewards start to decrease as more players join in. For this reason, GameFi is limiting the amount of users who can play GameFi’s play-to-earn games. Ajaypal says this will allow the value of their NFTs to increase due to its limited quantity.  

Currently, GameFi’s blockchain games are built on the Ethereum network but as Ajaypal explains, Ethereum’s gas fees are too high, making it difficult to onboard new users. “The entry barrier for people getting into crypto is way too high and that's what BSV is solving, that's why we're choosing BSV - BSV can do micropayments, Ethereum cannot.”

Ajaypal is looking to have a feature within their ecosystem that will allow users access to BSV. “We would like to have a bridge available that the user can bridge their different tokens over to the BSV,” he says. With Ethereum, gamers have to pay $10 in gas fees to get $5 in rewards, and new users have to pay a $30 network fee to buy $100 in cryptocurrency. “That doesn’t make any sense,” he says.  

Before joining the Bitcoin space, Ajaypal was an electrical engineer who began trading stocks and forex with the guidance of Capital Hungry, a platform that offers fundamental and technical market updates and analysis. Originally trading stocks and forex, Ajaypal made the switch to crypto trading and made his first investment with the Pikachu coin. Unfortunately, Pikachu’s original developers decided to abandon the project, he says. Pikachu coin owners were stuck with a 95% drawdown and didn’t know what to do. 

Ajaypal decided to reach out to the Pikachu community and convinced them to trust him and his team with a new project. “We asked them, send in your old tokens, we will drain the liquidity pool, we will launch a new token which is ours, Pika, and we will use the liquidity pool to fund our new project - and that's how Pika came to life.”

The project has since evolved after a series of ups and downs. Ajaypal and his team managed to increase Pikachu’s market cap to $100 million from its previous $35,000 mark. However, after a series of changes that resulted to Pika, many of the users have lost interest. “There's too many changes happening, first, there's a swap from Pikachu to Pikka, now there's Pikka V1 and there's Pikka V2, they sort of lost faith in the project.” 

Pika’s market cap is now valued at $4 million. Despite the significant drop, Ajaypal is confident that the coin will rise above its previous $100 million market cap. “The thing is, we're here to prove the people wrong, but, you know, we're still here, we're still developing… and we'll take it $1 billion this time.”    

Ajaypal who was in attendance at the Dubai Global Blockchain Convention is impressed with what he witnessed within the BSV ecosystem. “I love it here everybody is so keen to help each other.”

As far as what to expect from GameFi, Ajaypal mentions an NFT marketplace that has already launched on Polygo

Ayre Ventures invests in ground-breaking businesses powered by BSV technology. Its Managing Director, Paul Rajchgod says he receives a stream of business proposals through platforms such as LinkedIn and through the CoinGeek and Ayre Group websites. 

Paul stresses that for Ayre Venture, completing a deal with a new business is just the start of the relationship. “We have frequent meetings with the company, we make lots of introductions to other companies, which is one of the things that VCs are meant to be used for - it's not just a blank cheque.” 

Paul says that Ayre Ventures carries out extensive due diligence before investing. “We need to go into the forecast and understand why the company thinks those numbers are going to pan out.” The process is carried out by an investment committee, which also acts as the deciding body who makes the final push towards granting a company the funds it needs.  

On this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Paul talks about companies under Ayre Ventures that are making waves in the bitcoin space. As he tells Charles Miller, MintBlue, a BSV “ground-up company” that uses BSV technology in their accounting software service product, reported hitting two million transactions on the blockchain in the form of digital invoices. He also mentions RAD NFTV, a live-streaming platform that uses BSV as an added layer to its NFT offerings. Paul is keen to encourage existing enterprise companies in the growth stage to explore the opportunities offered by BSV. 

As a venture capitalist business that exclusively supports BSV technology, Paul points out Ayre Ventures takes a dim view of companies in their portfolio that don’t develop their BSV projects – however successful they may be in other respects: “I'll just say that where a company has not delivered by choosing not to go to BSV for whatever reason, we find that unacceptable. It's a breach of our contract and we look to exit.”

Paul would like to see more enterprise software companies approach him. And he’s not saying that existing businesses can’t continue their involvement with other blockchains at the same time as with BSV. He reverts back to RAD NFTV: “Rad is saying we'll continue to sell Ethereum NFTs and whatnot and we're going to use BSV internally to manage everything… that is a unique business.”

Many would have you believe that Bitcoin and the environment don’t mix. But that simply isn’t the case according to Daniel Keane, co-founder and managing director of Predict Ecology.

 Blockchain is actually a real asset to the environmental industry because its immutable ledger technology means there is a permanent and reliable record of data. “In 100 years’, time, you’ll still have that string of numbers, they will still be written to the blockchain.” 

 This is particularly important when it comes to monitoring and predicting ecological changes, which is Daniel’s area of expertise. He explains that it’s essential to collect and analyse data to see the effects human development is having on biodiversity so future projects can reduce their impact.    

 This is something that Daniel has experienced first-hand in his time working as a consultant for the mining industry. Mining companies are required to rehabilitate and repair the ecosystem once mining has ceased, and it was Daniel’s job to check they were doing a good job. 

 “I’m a botanist, more specifically, and oftentimes I was validating and assessing the rehabilitation that they had planted back, comparing it to the reference ecosystems that they were trying to achieve,” he says. 

 Daniel tells CoinGeek’s Charles Miller that it was when he attended a start-up weekend in Queensland with Paul Chiari, founder of WeatherSV and MetaStreme that he realised how useful the Bitcoin SV blockchain could be for his purposes. This is when Predict Ecology, an environmental and ecological consulting firm with a focus on real-world data and predictive modelling was born. 

 Predict Ecology starts off by gathering data using a mobile data collector. The data is then validated and verified using traditional field survey techniques. The combined datasets are then loaded to the BSV ledger using the MetaStreme transaction processor, allowing the data to be indexed and retrieved in a self-serve “pay-per-view” framework, open to researchers and modellers worldwide. 

 Daniel explains that by inputting data onto the blockchain, the risk of any damage to the information is eliminated. This is reassuring for clients working with large volumes of data over many years. 

 “I might have gone out of business, I might have had a server fire, I might have lost my notepad. There’s a whole heap of variables there so that peace of mind for the long-term check that’s where it really comes into play.” 

 Daniel says he wants Predict Ecology and MetaStreme to be the ‘plumbing’ that works behind the scenes to ensure clients can utilise the power of the blockchain. This means that customers without any technical or ecological knowhow can interact with the BSV blockchain to easily record data and keep an eye on their environmental footstep.  

 His aim is admirable: a network of long-lasting and high-quality data that will help companies monitor and model biodiversity. It’s also a powerful example of how blockchain technology can be used in the fight against climate change.

When cases of Coronavirus escalated in countries around the world, governments and health officials scrambled to develop and distribute vaccines. But how can individuals demonstrate their vaccine status? 

Catherine Lephoto, executive sales director at VX Technologies, is on a mission to help transform the health and education sector in African countries using blockchain technology. While heading a Covid response program, Catherine saw an opportunity to utilize blockchain to create a system of record keeping for vaccinated individuals. 

Her company’s product, VXPASS, verifies and authenticates an individual’s vaccination status using the BSV blockchain. It operates through a QR code which can be stored in a smartphone or printed on a piece of paper. 

As Catherine explains, an individual can show their proof of vaccination by presenting their VXPASS code. The establishment checking the code will then be directed to a VX verified website which shows the individual’s personal information. The individual will also present a valid ID allowing the overseer to match the individual’s identity.  

On the question of securing an individual’s private details, Catherine explains that that technology “is meant to only marry the personal identifiable information with the record at the time that you as the owner of the record give the key”.

Catherine points out that VXPASS is not only focused on the Covid 19 vaccination verification process. She says it could also help with the digitization of childhood vaccination records. Medical practitioners’ current two-step process entails noting the vaccine on a piece of paper that is given to the patient, followed by manually inputting the information into a computer database. She sees a problem with the system, saying “half the time that [software inputting] never gets done, so later on when I come back, nobody has me on the system having received the vaccine that I have a paper record for …it's just inefficient.” 

Catherine is the only VX Technologies executive based in Africa. As she tells Charles Miller on this week’s CoinGeek Conversations, she feels blessed with the opportunity to help articulate the needs of the African people. 

“We always talk about Africa as a land of opportunities, for entrepreneurialism and big business …How many of those companies are actually spending time on the ground to understand what the needs are and develop solutions to address the needs?”

Another issue she plans to tackle is Africa’s education system, saying employers should be able to access a student’s academic achievements through a trusted system. As she explains, students who are unable to complete their studies and get a college degree may still be eligible for work as long as they’ve completed a series of courses.  

“I should be able to find a way that I can verify that this young person has actually gone through this many courses at this college. Yes, they may not have yet graduated, but if they have the right skills that I need as an employer, I’m happy to give the right job.”

Catherine’s insights which she imparts to VX Technologies often derive from her own personal experience. As she explains, Africa’s financial resources are limited, and so BSV’s low cost is a perfect technical solution to address its needs. 

Catherine hopes that Africa will embrace new technology. She is optimistic that governments will appreciate and adopt blockchain believing that it will leapfrog the existing technologies that are less affordable. 

“At the end of the day, we're trying to develop sustainable products …it's really about being forward thinking in addressing what the needs are.”