Why the update, you may ask? It’s simple.

We’ve always seen the whitepaper as a document that explains the ongoing story of what we are building with the Siglo Protocol, the background, the details, and the way forward. There will always be revisions and additions as we continue development, have team discussions, talk with advisors, and continue learning (this never ends, btw).

Version 2 is not a new paper and it’s not a pivot. In short, version 2 of the Siglo whitepaper adds clarity, depth, and detail to the main concepts laid out in the initial version.

We encourage you to read through it, it isn’t nearly as long as it seems (the design is such that many pages don’t have that much text).: https://static.siglo.com/modules/files/res/papers/siglo-whitepaper-2.02.pdf

The most important aspect of any paper, in my opinion, is that it should be one side of a very important dialogue. This meaning: we would love your feedback, thoughts, and questions. This helps us make adjustments and realize areas where more clarity would be helpful.

There are four main elements of version 2 that we would particularly like to draw attention to.

Roadmap

The new version of the paper has a much more developed roadmap with some very specific product deliverables both pre-token generation event and thereafter.

Looking at other blockchain projects, we decided it was of utmost importance to show that we are and will continue to be much more than JUST a whitepaper.

Blockchain is a tool that has enormous potential to make a lot of things much more efficient and transparent. That’s useless unless we actually build things! We’ve been building for years on Siglo’s predecessor, the Pig.gi app, and we’ve learned a lot that has gone into what is now Siglo.

By the time we launch, we will have much more to show. You can see a much more detailed version of the roadmap on page 23 of the whitepaper.

The SDI

The Siglo Data Infrastructure (or SDI, as we refer to it) is an important addition. In version 1, we talked about how important the management and integrity of a user’s data is. We talked about how users would be owners of their own information and behavioral data. In this latest version, we dig much deeper.

Over the past several months, the issue of data privacy has become a major theme for discussion, on a global level. This is due largely to data violations and scandals from Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and others. The world has also become acutely aware of GDPR, as we’ve all been bombarded with emails in the last month with updated terms and conditions and data privacy policies. People also have a whole new comprehension of the incredible value that their data has currently being monetized exclusively by others without their consent. We think this newfound awareness is the beginning of an enormous paradigm shift. We’ve been talking about this and building models for a better way to store and monetize data for years. Now everyone finally understands what we’ve been talking about!

I won’t give a complete spoiler here, so that you actually read the paper, but we believe that by using a hybrid blockchain model, we can allow users to OWN their own information, in a private and secure way, MANAGE who has access to it, and give users the option to MONETIZE the anonymized information that they chose to share. This has massive implications because this is a scalable and sustainable way to get a large part of the world more connected to the mobile internet. Users choose to share certain anonymized behavior, opinions, and other information, we give them the tools to do that, thereby earning Siglo Token (SGL), and that token is worth additional connectivity on their phones (airtime or top-ups, as it is often referred to in emerging markets).

Read more about the SDI on page 11 and in the Appendix on page 29.

Siglo Ecosystem

The updated whitepaper also lays out the Siglo Ecosystem in a more clear way. As with any blockchain protocol or ecosystem, its success really depends on the extent to which we can get buy-in from developers, the community, and of course end-users. That’s why we’ve focused on building out a model that scales and makes it easy to bring on new partners.

Before starting Siglo, the team here has spent the last couple of years developing an early experimental model for monetizing users’ anonymized information and giving them connectivity. That company is called Farrow Ventures. We’ve built up a significant user-base, commercial contacts, and products that facilitate these transactions. Farrow will open these up to new developers, so that they can easily access the Siglo Protocol and build it into their own platforms without having relationships with mobile operators, for example. Farrow acts as a FACILITATOR for others to come onboard. We’ve recognized that this role of Facilitator is essential to a fast-growing and thriving ecosystem. Farrow is the first Facilitator, but this is not an exclusive position, as any other entity is encouraged to do the same.

See page 13 and 17 for more details about this.

Diagrams

Yes, we’ve finally developed more diagrams for a visual representation of many of the key components of Siglo. This makes everything easier to understand. Check back in the coming weeks as we add even more graphics and some sequence diagrams.

In conclusion, we believe the Siglo whitepaper will continue to evolve and gain more depth, but version 2 will answer many of the questions we’ve been asked over the past several months. Happy whitepaper reading!

By Joel Phillips, co-founder and CEO of Siglo