Blockchain-Empowered Education And Solar Energy Program: Interview With CEO Of E$P Project
In 2021, impact investing became something of a big trend going beyond $700 billion. Climate change, the recent pandemic chaos, escalating world poverty together with worsening economic conditions forced people to think of the future we are heading to and thus, become more conscious of the effect our acts and choices make on this world. United Nations global goals already set a strong direction on the side of people and planet: its initiative to create a better world by 2030 includes poverty reduction, quality education, making clean energy affordable and, of course, taking a proactive stance on climate change. No wonder, sustainable investments spilled over and took a fraction of the cryptocurrency sector, too.
The recent innovation of E$P Project is to collect all projects under one roof. Being primarily driven by the positive change it can make in the world, the platform combines education and renewable energy concepts to create a tokenized solution that anyone can use just by having an internet connection. The ERC-20 utility token launched by the platform and sharing a similar name - E$P, can easily be traded across the blockchain space, at the same time participating in the creation of the new stable crypto-economy resistant to inflatory wealth consumption. By practicing reliable exchange, all users contribute to the effectiveness of the current education system and improvement in the lives of students, as well as well-being of the planet as a whole. All taken into account, E$P Project has a chance of becoming a positive solution at the time when the world is craving for it most.
First of all, what made you want to create a blockchain-based investment fund instead of a fiat currency-based solution?
The decentralized nature of the blockchain has its advantages. It cuts through the bureaucracy of dealing with a single third-party lender. As well, the utility of the token will be used in our deployed platforms. One other major aspect is the speed of which this can all be done, we have been able to assemble the project into a operational form very quickly to support the ongoing projects.
Could you name and describe a few projects included in your ecosystem?
We are currently developing two Educational Platforms, Talk2Expert and SchoolConnect. The Talk2Expert platform is for content delivery. We are developing a fully decentralized model where content providers create content and earn tokens from users who will consume the content using the E$P token as the form of payment. By doing this we will let the various exchanges manage the ForEx side of things and by deploying in such a method we also expect to reduce the overall cost as we will not be paying expensive processing fees. A few other advantages for this system is that advertisers will pay into the platform and content consumers will be paid for watching those placement ads and therefore subsidising the cost of the content of interest. We will also have a decentralized governance system that polices the content. The initial deployment of this project will exist in a more centralized fashion as a garden-walled commercial application.
Our SchoolConnect platform under development for the last 2 years is a Student Information Management system. Again the E$P token will be used as a form of payment. In the developing world, many remained without a bank. This is especially true in more rural areas, yet they all have a smartphone that can contain a digital wallet. Use of the token is an enabler for electronic payments and inclusion into the ecosystem.
We are also involved in Digital Payments and Loyalty rewards systems being developed for Africa where the E$P token will be uses both as points reward system as well as a potential form of payment across a ECR (Electronic Cash Register) network. We will have more announcements about these programs in the near future.
There are also several ongoing initiatives in the Renewable Energy space using the E$P token combined in a DeFi structure to bring Solar and other Renewable energy projects to fruition. These projects are a bit more involved and will be locally deployed where a fully supportive legal framework is in place.
How are you planning to expand the E$P Project to attract more investors and users?
We have a number of marketing programs already in process to increase awareness of the Project. We will be adding to these efforts to generate interest in the Project through various social media channels.
Where we will see a lot of demand created is by continuing to create and then deploy these ecosystems that use the token. Much of the liquidity of the token has been reserved for use in getting these ecosystem operational with the required liquidity over the next few quarters. Once they are operational there will be a natural demand for the Tokens and significantly elevated interest as we get more use cases in place.
What role does the E$P token play within your ecosystem? What are the token holders entitled to do within your platform’s framework?
E$P is a utility token. It will be a central feature for value transfer for payments. This is the intended mode for the Education and Digital Payments side. In the Solar and Renewable Energy vertical, E$P will be used in a DeFi platform using smart contracts to manage individual projects where tokenization of assets to be financed will be managed and payments earnings and fees be conducted using the E$P token. There will be triggers that initiate events in the smart contracts such as a default on payment for example that will be completely automated including release of funds (in E$P) for enforcement actions. As well, since the asset has been Tokenized, we have ability to “resell” within the network creating opportunity and liquidity to receivable assets being held.
Talking about the Education branch of your business, could you share a few details about the content delivery system? How and most importantly, when, do you plan to implement it in practice?
The educational content will be in the form of online lectures with the option of having a live (video) direct connection to the content creator at an agreed time for an additional fee. We expect to be targeting higher level business content initially but will expend to other genres. On the technical side, we will also be creating our own content delivery network as a second phase where volunteering nodes will store blocks of content and deliver them on a demand basis earning E$P for participating on the CDN network.
We are expecting the first iterations of the Educational Content to be out in Q3 this year with the content delivery network in Q1/2 2022.
What is the difference between open system and close system, and which one do you personally see more benefit in?
Open system is a fully decentralized one. Its a “anyone can play” and self governing. Which also means that it is open to virtually any type of acceptable content with no specific focus. As they say, like in existing platforms like YouTube and others, “your milage will vary”. In a closed system that is centrally controlled, you can have specific limits as to what the content is and have a much firmer control of the quality of the content. This can also be package in a more focused way and directly marketed to specific audiences. The open system is a generally available platform that lives and breaths on its own.
In which way blockchain may facilitate the development of renewable energy projects? And how does the E$P Project contribute to this?
Really we see E$P and blockchain used in DeFi apps to support that industry. WIth Smart Contracts and tokens, there are many interesting applications and projects that can be supported. Projects themselves can be tokenized in a way that the automated smart contract can be viewed as the lender holding the asset. It will manage the payment flow to 1000’s of micro lenders while also enforcing compliance. The removal of a central institution democratizes the financing making the process much easier, quicker and less costly. As long as the requirements of the smart contract is met, the process can move forward and support the project.
How can the E$P Project be helpful in facilitating a positive change in the developing economies?
One of the biggest features we believe is by giving access to the convenience of electronic payments for those who remain without a bank. Being able to do electronic payments, allows users access to a wide variety of services including our Educational Platforms at the palm of your hand using mobile devices. When we can enable in such a way, we get scale and with scale we can provide at an exceptionally low cost, a real benefit to the developing world.
We are very proud as well that our first implementations of all the Educational platforms will be in the developing world. Vietnam will be the initial deployments. Being able to make a difference in the quality of the educational experience of the student has always been our first goal. We view the E$P token as a real enabler for us to delivery these programs to the world.
What is the rationale behind your ‘Token Buy Back’ program?
As the project will be investing the proceeds of the token to further the various business models, we will be using the Buy Back Program to return value back to the token holders that have supported the ESP Project. We believe by injecting capital back into the token base creates a solid foundation of value. We are not the type of project whose value is based on hype, the echos of someones last tweet, but one of real ongoing long term value. We have a Token where the circulation is deflationary to a fixed value. This was done to make the token more attractive price wise at the beginning of the project but expect as time passes to let the intrinsic value of the Token increase with the burn policy.
And finally: what awaits you in 2021, and what other changes you would like to bring forth before the year’s end?
This is the year where we are really looking forward to getting the first versions of the Educational Platform up and in Parents/Students hands creating a revenue stream back into the Project and ultimately the project holders. We also want to make sure we have our Digital Payment ecosystems out in the wild where we are using the E$P Token while providing support, with as low friction as possible, across multiple blockchains.
