Blockchain Insider is a new column dedicated to interviewing leaders in the blockchain world. These include founders, traditional industry veterans turned ICO participants and everything in-between. The weekly interviews will cover a wide range of questions and try to explore the motivation behind blockchain-based ideas and the problems blockchain technology is being used to solve.
When I first spoke with the UBIQUICOIN team, it was evident that they did not think like most blockchain startups. Every aspect of the business model is geared towards protecting and providing, from creating a seven-figure financial guarantee for their ICO to building a cryptocurrency that limits price volatility.
The UBIQUICOIN ecosystem is unique as it is built on a two-coin structure. The Transaction coin is price stable and to be used in real-world transactions. The Progressive coin can be seen as a more traditional investment vehicle, with a chance to appreciate and capture up to a 20% revenue share of platform profits.
I had the chance to speak to spoke with UBIQUICOIN’s CEO, Jeff Mahony, on how his team will help eliminate the friction costs associated with investment and commerce and provide financial inclusion for people around the world.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself:
I am going to focus on the team here as we share a very similar professional backgrounds. Our management team has a long history of working in financial services and technology with a particular focus on providing affordable, high quality services to lower income individuals. The emergence of blockchain technology provided a natural avenue for us to extend our philosophy to a much broader audience of underbanked and unbanked individuals on a global scale.
2. What was your inspiration behind Ubiquicoin? How did it all start?
Our management team is comprised of financial and technology veterans that have been following the cryptocurrency industry for many years (well before it entered the mainstream media). As the size of the market rapidly increased and investors flocked to all forms of ICOs, we were struck by the inability of these cryptocurrencies to make the leap from speculative investment to a usable form of currency.
By taking a step back and assessing the positives and negatives with current offerings, we developed a unique two-coin solution coupled with a more efficient consensus mechanism to provide a truly usable currency while retaining upside potential for investors.
3. What makes you guys different than other financial services ICOs? How can you truly limit volatility?
There are several things that differentiate us and a few key components to our value proposition, including a model that can indeed reduce price volatility:
- Two-Coin Approach: We are using a two-coin approach: one coin for transactions that has a stable value (“Transaction Coins”) and one for wealth appreciation that will freely trade on exchanges (“Progressive Coins,” which are offered in the ICO). This unique solution solves the price volatility problem for transactions while retaining upside potential for investors.
- Asset Backing: Our Transaction Coins are fully backed by cash and cash equivalents to ensure they have price stability.
- Downside Protection: Our Progressive Coins have a two-year $1.00 per coin financial guarantee that gets distributed to coin holders upon a triggering event.
- Revenue Share: Progressive Coin holders will receive a monthly dividend of up to 20% of the revenue generated in our ecosystem.
- Proprietary Consensus Mechanism: Our “Proof of Majority” consensus mechanism will deliver sub-second transaction times, requires very low computer processing requirements, and is highly secure (technical paper available on our website).
4. What is the biggest problem currently in the market?
There are several significant problems facing the market, but I will touch on three of the primary ones. First is the high volatility of prices, which makes such currencies extremely difficult to use for real-world financial transactions (i.e., as a currency not just an investment) because there is a high degree of uncertainty of what actual value being exchanged or what that value will be 10 minutes later.
The second biggest issue is that transaction times are long and unpredictable, primarily due to the reliance on the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, which is inherently inefficient and processor intensive. Like high volatility, long transaction times are a killer of real-world usability.
A third problem is that the overall euphoria surrounding cryptocurrencies has led to a significant amount of undisciplined investing, which has several negative consequences (e.g., more opportunity fraud, potential investment bubble, the risk of significant investor losses, etc.).
5. If there is one thing you could change in the industry, what would it be?
Unlike many other firms, we would like to see increased regulation. We are in the very early innings of blockchain’s worldwide impact and, like all early-stage industries, it has opened the door to companies that cut corners, take advantage of investors, and fail to deliver on their business plans. Increased regulation will help bring stability to the market, protect investors, and provide an environment for well-run companies to thrive.
6. What does 2018 have in store for UBIQUICOIN?
2018 will be a very big year for us. We will be launching our ICO in the first quarter of 2018 and expect to announce several very exciting things related to patents, partnerships, and technology that we believe will help elevate us above the crowd and establish UBIQUICOIN as a leader and forward thinker in the ever-evolving blockchain industry.
Disclaimer: the author has had a working or personal relationship with the company in the past. Access to company management was done through the author’s personal network.