#Cryptointerview with Robert Miller (Blockchain Innovation Strategist & Head of UK @Monaize)

Q&A:

1. Tell us about your background, and how you ended up in $CRYPTO.

“I’ve worked in sales, marketing and project management for various different technology companies, from multinationals to start-ups, since 2011. In 2013 whilst working for Trustpilot, an online review platform in Copenhagen, a couple of colleagues told me about Bitcoin and I was intrigued so I made my first investment. I officially fell down the rabbit whole and became obsessed by crypto and blockchain about a year a later when I was between jobs and had time to dive in to the subject. I’ve been reading, engaging in forums, trading and attending conferences all over Europe ever since.”

2. Explain to me Monaize as if I was 5yo?

​“Monaize is a mobile app that allows business people to manage their money in a very simple and intuitive way, and gain access to financial services such as insurance and crowd lending.”

3.

​“Our main reason for choosing to work with Komodo was the team. We all know Komodo Platform is working on cutting-edge blockchain technology but the opportunity to work with people who share our values and desire a fairer and more prosperous society for all was the immediate dealmaker. We were extremely fortunate to meet ca333 and Audo in Copenhagen. Since then we have spent a lot of time working with the team in Paris and putting together the details of our long-term partnership. It has been a pure pleasure from the start.”

4. Why not ETH, …?

​“One of the things that drive us is doing things differently. Working with ETH would simply have meant creating a token, which would have been one of hundreds of tokens, created in the same way. This is only a small part of what we are looking to achieve. In order to push innovation we required a real partner who could help us deliver on the promise. Banking meets Blockchain would not have been possible without this.”

5. What are your competitors? Why is Monaize better than them?

“​In France Quonto. In the UK Tide.

Our real time KYC (Know Your Customer) process is a huge differentiator. Many challenger banks talk about being able to create an account in minutes but it often takes a lot longer than that to actually receive an IBAN number and have access to the account including transfers, deposits and withdrawals. With Monaize the account is opened instantly.

Being a partner agnostic platform also means that we are able to scale very quickly and penetrate new regions without needing to rely on any particular FinTech partner to follow us.”

6. What lays ahead in the short term for $MNZ (this year and next)?

​“Launch on the UK market before end of 2017, integration of new services including a bunch of different insurance products to fit the needs of various types of small businesses and freelancers, blockchain-based crowd lending services (Bitbon) and then launch on the German market in the second half of 2018.”

7. What lays ahead in the long term for $MNZ?

​“We plan to become the global leader in e-banking services for freelancers and small businesses.”

8. Shill me $MNZ ICO as if I didn’t know anything about $CRYPTO.

​“The ability to create and participate in the success of banking and financial services products has traditionally been reserved to a select few, typically very wealthy people with the contacts and the financial means needed to do so. Through our ICO we are inviting the largest possible community of people to take part in creating and developing a hugely innovative e-banking platform.

Many people believe that blockchain technology is going to revolutionize all aspects of our lives from governance to land ownership to the way we listen to and distribute music. Not only does this community get to help take part in the passionate project of pushing the boundaries in the adoption this new technology, they are also able to benefit from its success through our attractive token holder loyalty reward scheme.”

9. Do I need to be located in France, UK or Germany to apply for Monaize products?

​“Yes, you will need to be in one of the countries in which we have officially launched. Once we have launched in major economical countries, a domino effect will take place allowing us to launch rapidly in many regions very quickly. We have already received a lot of emails from people in South America, Asia and other regions explaining why we should launch they're and providing advice on partnerships etc. We encourage this feedback.”

10. Monaize is raising min $4M ~ max $40M (at $4,000/BTC) How will that be invested?

​“We already have a working product including iOS and Android applications and full connectivity with our main banking partner in the UK (which also allows us to provide our service to the French market). Funds will be used to integrate other 3rd party services and products such as insurance, crowd lending and mPOS solutions. It will then be all about expansion, expansion, expansion into new regions.”

Skype Conversation:

I had the opportunity to speak with Robert to get acquainted, and to further clarify some topics not covered in my questions or the white paper:

Me: “Why an ICO, why do you need a token?”

Robert: “We’ve had lots of interest from VCs that typically come from traditional banking but we want to move away from traditional banking VCs. It’s about mindset. In order to innovate it’s important to bring new kinds of people on board that share our passion for technology. The trade-off to have traditional VCs invest and have them as a board members also means being required to follow their strategy. Not something we want to do.

An ICO provides thousands of supporters with the right mindset (tech and innovation) and the feedback and assistance is unbelievable!”

Me: “Plenty of valuable feedback from crowdsourcing.”

Me: “As you know, many ICO investors are in for a quick buck only. How would Monaize help to have investors for the long run?”

Robert: “Within Monaize, together with Komodo and SuperNet will make sure major holders don’t liquidate immediately after the ICO.

· First of all, MNZ tokens belonging to Monaize core team members will be vested over 3 years, ensuring a slow release.

· The way the dICO is working will also avoid whales buying to much MNZ token and then manipulating the markets with it.

· Loyalty reward distribution (methodology will be communicated in the coming weeks).”

Me: “Give us examples of insurance, payment solutions, crowd-lending which are mentioned in Monaize WP.”

Robert: “Examples:

· Insurance: liability insurance adapted to the needs of the 100s of different types freelancers and small businesses that will be using Monaize.

· Payment solutions: LemonWay, KliknPay for both mobile point of sale solutions and online payment solutions.

· Crow-lending: BitBond.”

Me: “In the WP it is stated that Monaize will expand business to South Africa, and Malaysia in coming years. What about Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and the rest of the American continent which have a bigger market than those two?”

Robert: “We have a really ambitious plan and are open to other regions not mentioned in the WP. We plan to be a global leader. We picked initially Malaysia, which is a bridge to the rest Asia where FinTech innovation is at its best. This will lead us to learn best practices, to implement in other advanced markets.

Africa was chosen because they have a very fertile ground for innovation and many believe countries on this continent will be huge for tech innovation in the coming years. One of the reasons for this is because they don’t have a lot of the legacy infrastructure such old telecommunications networks, which can often slow things down in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere. They have gone from having nothing at all to putting in 4G mobile networks in certain places. South Africa is a good place to start because it shares a lot of the same local culture as the UK.”

Conclusion:

Cutting to the chase, I would grade this project with an A (from a scale from A to F).

ICO Grade: A

Its capped, min = 1,000BTC, max = 10,000BTC.

“Monaize, in collaboration with Komodo Platform, is excited to be conducting the first decentralized token sale via “atomic coin swap”. Komodo Platform utilizes existing technology based on JUMBLR and BarterDEX to create a game-changing method for conducting a fully decentralized token sale. Monaize will be the first of many such decentralized ICOs. Bitcoin or Komodo orders are matched against suitable token sale orders through a low level pubkey to pubkey messaging protocol. The final settlement is then made through the atomic cross chain protocol. A detailed guide on how to participate will be published prior to the token sale. A number of recent token sales, conducted on well-known platforms, have fallen pray to attacks causing people in the cryptocurrency community to loose large sums of money. This is a much safer way of swapping tokens as BarterDEX will allow Monaize token sale supporters to purchase MNZ tokens without counterparty risk.”

Team Grade: A

They have a seasoned, multidisciplinary team, with strong entrepreneurial skill sets that will provide them the ability to achieve their ambitious roadmap.

Florian Greiner, Etienne Théodore, Robert Miller, Manon LAVERGNE, Trécy Azerot, Guillaume Derivery, Vincent Rajoo

Project Grade: A

They will attempt to be a key player in a market that accounts for $1 trillion in total earnings, no small feat. There is no doubt in my mind that they will be key players in 10 years.

Read WP for further Monaize project insights.

Final Words:

I thank again Robert for his time and disposition to answer my many questions.

I am really looking forward for Monaize dICO, after reviewing it in depth I am confident it ill be an amazing investment opportunity for all of us.

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Disclaimer:

I have done a thorough analysis of Monaize, you should do your own research to understand the risk involved in investing in this project.