It’s time for a new interview! This time we reached out to the Komodo Platform to find out more about them and what they’re up to. If you’re interested in investing into Komodo, then you can find it on Bittrex (KMD).

As always, we let the interviewee do the talking. So let’s dig right in.

What is your story?

The inception of the project dates back to 2014 when jl777 founded SuperNET. Since then, the idea and purpose of the community remains intact. This includes the decentralization of financial technology and the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. Initially, the technology was developed on top of NXT and BitcoinDark.

In 2015, we had a major roadmap upgrade that resulted in creating a complete blockchain platform that is now known as Komodo Platform.

We believe that if a project succeeds, the whole crypto industry benefits. It is not a zero-sum game, so we should all collaborate and think big.

Where does the name “Komodo” come from?

The name, along with our brand colors, comes from the ‘Komodo Dragon’ lizard. It symbolizes the strength and security that our platform provides. As a little background information: we developed a security layer that gives our whole platform Bitcoin level security.

How would you describe Komodo Platform to a friend that doesn’t understand technology?

Forget how banking and finance work and think about the Internet instead. A website can be accessed by anyone anywhere in the world. Similarly, we can think of Komodo as internet money that is available all the time without any costs. With Komodo, you can make a financial transaction either very transparent or extremely private.

Besides being a currency, Komodo is also a platform providing more functionalities to the standard digital payments.

How would it work if I wanted to launch my own ICO? What is the process of having an ICO on Komodo Platform?

Our decentralized ICO (dICO) platform is still somewhat complicated as it’s a brand new innovation. At this stage, running a dICO on our platform requires an experienced blockchain engineer and Komodo Platform know-how, which means that our team must be involved in each crowdfund. Therefore, we currently pick and choose the best projects only.

However, we are aiming to make the technology more accessible and easy to use, thus enabling anyone to launch a decentralized crowdfund.

Our team is now finalising the process of how we will select suitable dICOs at this point. We are looking to work with innovative projects that already have a product. Any project that wants to utilize our technology can approach us. We will review its plan and work closely together to make it a success.

What are the biggest challenges and milestones for you in the next 12 months?

We are evolving from a privacy coin to a very broad platform that is going to power many blockchain projects to come. Our main challenge is to simplify the complexity of our platform so that everyone can gain a better understanding of what we are building. Additionally we need to find efficient ways to attract new projects and talented developers into our ecosystem.

To overcome these challenges, it is important to get recognition for the ground-breaking innovations we have introduced. Therefore, we’ve expanded our team with many bright minds lately and it’s just a matter of time when our efforts will start to pay off.

What will be the biggest achievement to celebrate with the Komodo team 3 years from now?

We believe that, instead of one cryptocurrency, there will be countless cryptocurrencies complementing each other. Since the beginning we have positioned ourselves to create a network of blockchains, not only by collaborating with others, but also through the technologies we have developed.

In three years we see ourselves as a recognized name, uniting the blockchain industry. We see so much potential in many projects and believe that providing a platform that enables interoperability will lead to outstanding results. Another goal is to ensure that the technology is introduced to a broader audience. In order to achieve that, we are looking to partner up with businesses across different industries.

We will foster the integrity and collaboration between cryptocurrencies and help entire industries to enter the blockchain era in order to ensure rapid Bitcoin and Komodo adoption.

What is the biggest myth/misconception about Komodo Platform, if there is one?

Some people still consider us to be a simple Zcash fork with no innovations. Those that look closer will see our true value. On the other hand, for some it all seems too complex, creating the misconception that our team just starts new projects all the time while never finishing the previous ones.

In reality, during the last 4 years we have been building a single platform that consists of many independent modules that work together. One of those modules is the zk-SNARKs privacy technology from the Zcash project.

Trading or hodling?

Since the beginning we have been a project that focuses on development rather than marketing. Early on the decision was made to not waste any money on publicity. However, now that our platform is coming online, visibility is getting more important and thus we have been increasing our marketing efforts.

We surely have the most patient community in the crypto industry as many of us have been hodling our coins and tokens for years now.

If you were to trade on one exchange, then which one would it be?

We really like Bittrex.

What is the most valuable advice that you could give to people just starting to discover the crypto industry?

When it comes to investing, cryptocurrency projects should be seen as startups. They are extremely high risk/reward speculative investments. Crypto investors have to keep in mind that most of the current projects probably won’t be around anymore a few years from now.

Everyone should own bitcoins, but not all eggs should be put into one basket. When it comes to picking winners, the most important requirement for success are the teams behind the projects. Without a talented and hardworking team, even a concept with great potential will go nowhere. So my advice is to look closely to who’s behind a project and how far their development has progressed.

On a more general note, the blockchain space will be full of opportunities for many years to come. We are just getting started and what we see are the very first building blocks that are forming the underlying digital infrastructure. Personally, I believe that in the next 10 years we are going to see a renaissance in entrepreneurship with cryptocurrencies playing a major role.

We appreciate the Komodo team for taking the time for the answers. If the interview seemed somewhat short, we did submit more questions, but not always all of them get answered. That said, we wish all the best to Komodo and hope they go far!