Amidst the rapid expansion of its online communities, Ambrosus is pleased to feature an interview with two AMBassadors, the community leads in charge of cultivating and growing the vibrant Ambrosus Turkish Community, which now has over 360 members. As one of the most cryptocurrency friendly countries in the world, Ambrosus hopes to expand into Turkey to bring quality assurance and transparency to food and medicine, while also growing a devoted and active community.

To get an idea about why Turkey is particularly interested in Cryptocurrency, as well what ideas AMB Turkey community leads Squanch and Pis Zozo have in mind for growing the Ambrosus Turkish community, we sat down and had a conversation with the two newest members of the Ambrosus Team.

AMBassadors are selected amongst the most active and ambitious community members of Ambrosus, who can lead their regional communities in their native language, help foster online discussions about Ambrosus, promote the tech at conferences, source partners and local talent, organise meetup and otherwise help spreading awareness of blockchain-IoT technologies and AMB-NET. AMBassadors can receive bounty rewards in AMB, receive free merchandise and tickets to events sponsored by Ambrosus as well as have a priority for Masternode onboarding. Ambrosus currently has active non-English speaking online communities in China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands, in addition to Turkey. For any enquiries and proposals regarding our AMBassador program, please reach out via info[at]ambrosus.com

Interviewer: Hello Squanch and Pis Zozo, thanks for taking the time today to discuss your roles as the leads for the Ambrosus Turkish Community!

Squanch and Pis Zozo: Thanks, we are pleased to speak with you.

Interviewer: Perhaps to get a good foundation for what we will discuss, why don’t you both start by giving a little bit of background about yourselves and where you are coming from?

Pis Zozo: Of course. I was born in Istanbul and studied Translation and Interpreting at a university in Turkey. Right now I am also studying for my Masters in Translation and Interpreting as well. However, I have already worked as a translator for a little while, and based on that experience I know very clearly that my interests actually lie elsewhere.

In the past I have done a lot of website management work: I ran and managed a website by myself for a couple of years doing pretty much everything (articles, getting ads, etc.). Then, a little more than a year and a half ago I got involved in the Cryptocurrency scene — especially in Turkey –and since then I have never looked back.

Squanch: For me, I actually stumbled across cryptocurrency quite unexpectedly. By training I am a scientist — I have a Bachelors and Masters in Biology, and I am currently finishing up my PhD in Agriculture. During my PhD I did a residency at a university in Germany — this was back in 2015 — and one of my hall-mates at that time had invested quite heavily into Bitcoin and some other cryptos.

I was immediately intrigued, and so I took the time to get more and more involved in cryptocurrency since then, and especially in trying to promote cryptocurrency in Turkey. I have worked with several other blockchain projects, and have also advised or helped manage the community on multiple master node projects.

Interviewer: And between the two of you, are you accustomed to working together or is this your first time?

Pis Zozo: I would say we are very familiar with each other’s working styles: we have been friends for over 10 years now, as we studied together at university. We both got involved in the cryptocurrency scene here in Turkey at the same time and as such we are familiar with the same ‘network’.

Interviewer: What is the current Crypto scene in Turkey like, and what kind of things have you both been involved in?

Squanch: Well originally, we started to follow quite a number of people on Twitter who were engaged in cryptocurrency — just as a means of getting more news and following the space more closely. But as time has gone on, we have also happened to accumulate quite a lot of followers ourselves on Twitter.

Pis Zozo: Yes, so Squanch currently is a major figure in running and operating the largest cryptocurrency discord channel in Turkey. There are over 10,000 people involved. In this channel, we have tried to foster an environment focused on building a community in light of a common interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency: people come to teach technical and fundamental analysis to other people, but no one is paid to do so. It is really like the community working together to help itself.

Squanch: And I should also add, that in terms of cryptocurrency in Turkey — it is right now at an all-time high in popularity, especially due to the weak conditions of the Turkish Lira. I think in a recent study by ING’s International Banking and Crypto survey, 70% of Turkish respondents said that they were familiar with cryptocurrency, and almost half of them said they wanted to buy some cryptocurrency in the future. Over half also said that they believe that crypto will be used as a payment in the near future.

I think for people coming from other places with a more stable fiscal situation, this may be surprising, but the main driver behind this kind of openness to crypto comes down to the fact that the Turkish people want a store of value — the Turkish Lira is not having its best days. Ultimately, it is really about protecting assets, and finding a means of storing value in a safe and decentralised manner.

Interviewer: Now as you mentioned you have worked a lot with lots of crypto projects, and I imagine right now there are a lot of projects hoping to gain access to the Turkish crypto community. What motivated you both to choose to work with Ambrosus?

Squanch: Originally, it began when I met Vlad (Dr. Vlad Trifa, Chief Product Officer) a few months ago, when we were both speakers at a cryptocurrency conference called ‘Blockchain Days’ in Turkey. I was interested in what Vlad had said, and I asked Vlad several questions, and he really answered them well.

Pis Zozo: Following that meetup, Squanch told me about Ambrosus and what he had learned about how applicable Ambrosus was to the real world. This got me interested and so I went and did my own research as well, and found that I really liked the combined blockchain and IoT aspects of the project. I found it holistic in that sense. I think there is really no other project quite like Ambrosus, especially in terms of their concentration on building a strong IoT solution to accompany their blockchain — that was the main reason why I was interested.

Squanch: And at that point we kept in touch with Vlad, and eventually reached out to Kate (Katerina Ianishevska Community Manager). From there Ambrosus decided to onboard us in order to bring Ambrosus to the Turkish people.

Interviewer: When you say ‘Bring Ambrosus to the Turkish people’ are we to understand this would be through community engagement and events, or through working with client companies and businesses?

Pis Zozo: Ideally, both. Our role is first and foremost be community managers and consultants. Nevertheless, Squanch has a very privileged position in the cryptocurrency community in Turkey, and as such he has quite a large network. In terms of online community engagement, both of us have experience in moderating communities 24/7. We also plan to set up some events in different areas of Turkey specifically devoted to engaging people with Ambrosus and the fundamentals of the project. There are a couple of other ideas that we have in mind, and in due time all of that should become clear.

Squanch: Additionally, we are translating every document into Turkish in order to expand the outreach of Ambrosus. Personally, I am looking forward to further growing the Ambrosus Turkish community as we already have the most popular discord channel in Turkey, and know of a lot of people who are eager for this kind of a project.

Interviewer: And, in terms of quality assurance of products in Turkey, is there a problem that you could foresee an Ambrosus solution for?

Squanch: Recently, I have been reading a decent amount of news about how a lot of expired food products have been sold in some of the biggest supermarkets in Turkey. I guess it doesn’t really matter where you are in the world, but clean food, and safe medicine is going to be a priority for just about everyone. I think with Ambrosus we have the opportunity to guarantee trust in our food and medicine, and so I believe that there will be a large market in Turkey for the solutions Ambrosus is building.

Interviewer: Overall, what can you both say about the future prospects of Ambrosus in a place like Turkey?

Squanch: I think the answer to this question is really just about looking at the conditions in Turkey right now: in general not a lot of cryptocurrency projects have come to Turkey as a way of building their brand — that in itself is an advantage for Ambrosus. But even more than that, now there are steadily more and more projects that want to try to get into touch with the average Turkish person because of the economic situation and the value of the Turkish Lira. Most people, and especially young people, are looking for new alternatives to serve as both a store of value and investment for the future.

Also, I should add that there were a lot of projects that contacted me in the past couple of months, but the reason why I chose to go with Ambrosus, was really because of its real world applicability on top of its stellar team. Based on that, I think Ambrosus can have a very large impact on the Turkish people and I am very eager to get started for Ambrosus, to help grow their Turkish community.

Pis Zozo: That was put very well. Maybe just to add a little bit to that, I would say that the Turkish people have always searched for a store of value — whether it is gold or paper currency. Today, we can see that is changing to crypto — and this is especially the case with young people. Angel (CEO Angel Versetti) is very strategic in his decision to build a strong community in Turkey, and I am very excited to get started on bringing that vision to reality.

Interviewer: Thank you both for your time, and we are looking forward to hearing more about the Turkish Community!

Both: Thank you, it was a pleasure.

Legal Disclaimer: AMBassadors are community members of the open-source Blockchain-IoT platform Ambrosus. As such, they are not formally affiliated with Ambrosus or any of its affiliates, nor do they formally represent any official views on the project or any companies involved in development of Ambrosus or AMB-NET. They serve as leaders of their respective regional communities, and we simply interview them to give more visibility to their work and contribution. Ambrosus is a community-driven project and is represented by a diverse group of online and offline communities worldwide.