How Mona Lisa Inspired Tech Entrepreneur Seeks to Disrupt the NFT Marketplace

It is not every day we hear of beautiful stories about entrepreneurs like Martin Regan and the Mona Lisa painting. The Mona Lisa, also called La Gioconda, is a realistic portrait of the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. It is an oil-on-wood painting and is owned by the French government. The painting is the work of legendary artist Leonardo da Vinci. On August 21, 1911, Mona Lisa was stolen by Vincenzo Perrugia, but he was caught in December 1913, and the painting was returned. It is the most popular painting, the most visited, and the most written about.

As a young boy Martin was fascinated by this tale and so began a life long enchantment with art and its rich history.

Martin is a tech entrepreneur whose modus operandi is championing causes that he believes in. Martin describes his work as not just a career but a way of life. Over the years, he has been captivated and fascinated by the concept of blockchain technology and decentralization. His likeness for blockchain and art, coupled with the current trend of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), led to the creation of the Aloha DeFi protocol.

The Aloha DeFi Ecosystem

Aloha DeFi is a gateway to the world of decentralized finance that offers NFTs, staking, and a DAO protocol that leverages NFTs. People can earn rewards by taking part in the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). The Aloha app also allows users to earn tokens by sharing their mobile bandwidth with others. People can take part in the governance of the Aloha DeFi ecosystem by staking NFTs. Every NFT is equivalent to a certain number of votes, depending on how rare that NFT is.

People can buy Aloha NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace. Alternatively, you can stake the Aloha tokens ($ALOHA) to earn NFTs from the platform. Upon getting their first NFTs, people can stake them through a quick process due to Aloha’s integration with the Polygon blockchain network. On the Aloha DAO, participants can:

• Submit proposals for the improvement of the Aloha DAO project.
• Vote on different projects on the ecosystem.
• Offer their opinions on how to ensure that Aloha is successful.
• Earn profits from their activities on the platform.

Interview with Martin Regan

Aloha platform users can either purchase NFTs directly or earn these NFTs by staking ALOHA tokens. How can participants get these ALOHA tokens?

Aloha Defi tokens can be purchased from Hotbit, Probit,Uniswap, smartdex and sushiswap on the polygon Polygon L2 network We will soon list on a tier 1 exchange.

In the first half of 2021, Aloha began its expansion plans into new markets in Asia, South America, and Europe. Will Aloha function differently in these new markets, or will it maintain the same model it operates in the United Kingdom?

Aloha will be present in all geo locations. At core of our business is the ethos of sharing good karma. That does not change according to where you live! In order to earn rewards our community will be tasked with undertaking socially positive actions such as sharing wifi data, supporting small and family run businesses in your community and generally joining our disruptive cause to bring empowerment through decentralization.

Aloha is planning to “Aloha for Business,” which is currently in the testing phase with some selected businesses. Can you give an insight into these selected businesses and their industries?

We are running the test phase in the south of England. At this stage the business sector that we are focussing on is retail and hospitality, these are the sectors with high numbers of transactions and strong brand loyalty. It will be a great method of giving the Aloha platforms a thorough shake down.

As a relatively new NFT marketplace, how are you planning on getting more users into the Aloha ecosystem? Will there be incentives for new users?

We have an extensive and ongoing marketing strategy in place commencing with exposure on Dextools from the middle of this month. This marketing will carry all the through to and beyond the official launch of the Aloha wifi sharing platform in the UK scheduled for October. At that point we will be attracting 100k new users each month for the UK alone. You can imagine the effect this consistent and relentless increase in numbers will have for Aloha and our stakeholders!

In terms of incentives there are many initiatives planned, watch out for our PR statements.

Aloha is planning on launching “Aloha Academy” to educate the general public on what they can achieve with the Aloha platform. What are the benefits to its users?

The use of crypto currencies is gaining momentum globally and at an unprecedented pace. The simple act of buying crypto using decentralised and centralised platforms can be baffling for novices. The new and fast moving world of DeFi, NFTs and Farming are totally opaque to all but experienced crypto believers. The Aloha Academy is an important knowledge base and tutoring facility that will educate those new to both crypto in general and the Aloha platform. Graduates of the Aloha Academy will be fully equipped to participate in and reap the huge benefits offered by DeFi and the enormous social changes it is bringing.

Aloha plans to make a new introduction within the Q3 of 2021, and one of these will be the creation of the SHAKA token. What benefits does the new token provide for the platform users and the entire ecosystem in general?

Platform users can easily stake a variety of popular tokens like MATIC and USDC in SHAKA finance to earn more tokens and SHAKA rewards. A platform deposit fee is collected that is used to buy back SHAKA on the market to increase its price. Since the supply is limited, the value of SHAKA token goes up the more the platform is used. AlohaDeFi token and NFTs are integrated with SHAKA finance and AlohaDeFi DAO participants receive a discount on deposit fees.

A project like Aloha seeking to disrupt the NFT market must have notable partners to help drive adoption. Who are the major partners of the Aloha project?

What makes us so important to the overall growth of crypto mass adoption is our ability to introduce new crypto users via our data sharing app and marketplace. Aloha is still very much at the beginning of the journey and whilst we have partners with some exciting projects such as, Dextools, Smartdex (Niox) and most recently Travala.com, there are many more in the pipeline. To answer the question, yes we will be partnering with NFT projects when the time is right and there is a tangible reason for both parties to partner.