SHR AMA Transcript: ShareRing’s CEO Tim Bos & Crypto Malaysia Facebook Group
In this SHR AMA with Crypto Malaysia, Tim Bos discusses ShareRing’s core aspects, revenue forecasts, MOU updates and much more!
Thank you, Shaun McQuillan, at Trusted In Trading for arranging and managing this SHR AMA!
Questions from the Community
Can you provide us with a brief overview of the core aspects of the project and its fundamental aims and ambitions?
ShareRing is doing a number of things. We built a blockchain ecosystem for the sharing economy. This includes our own blockchain (ShareLedger), an extensive set of API’s, and some apps for various industries. We have the ShareRing Travel app, the ShareRing Shop (same day deliveries from local shops) and a number of other projects in the works with some large partners. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Building and running a blockchain is not for the faint-hearted, can you provide some insights as to why you decided upon this path?
When we first started the project in 2017, we had a long list of functionality that we wanted to launch. We looked at writing a set of smart contracts on Ethereum, we also looked at Neo, EOS, Waves, and a number of other blockchain platforms. None of them had the scale and flexibility that we needed for our project, plus the pricing/usage model wasn’t right for this type of project, so we decided to take it upon ourselves to build our own. It’s based on the Tendermint framework, so we didn’t start from scratch, but it’s been a momentous effort. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Can you tell us how many orders that ShareRing Shop is processing on average each day and has this remained constant even though lockdown restrictions have eased a little?
Without any marketing at all, it’s been sitting at around 40 per day. We have brochures that are finally being delivered from next week, as well as a digital marketing campaign, so we expect it to increase dramatically. We are also launching ShareRing Shop in another country very soon.
We have about 80 shops already lined up for our next launch.. it’ll be a lot bigger than our pilot we’ve been running here.
Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
When will the rest of Melbourne open up for the SHR shop? And the rest of Australia.
Not until after we launch the other country. That’s the priority at the moment, because it’s being done in partnership with 2 industry giants in that country. They’re funding it and branding it. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
I am sure you know this is a generic question in the ecosystem but it is a vital one, can you provide some depth into the utility of ShareToken?
ShareToken is used to pay for all the transactions on ShareLedger. We do it a little differently though, as most of our partners don’t understand crypto, so can’t buy SHR to use it to cover transaction fees. Instead, we charge our clients in fiat (0.02 to 0.05 USD per transaction) and then use that fiat to purchase ShareToken on the exchanges at the current rate and distribute it to the node holders. We have an exchange rate mechanism built into the ShareLedger for all transactions. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
I’ve heard a bit about SharePay, what’s that?
SharePay is the name of our stable coin, but it’s also our payment ecosystem. It allows our users to pay in their local currency, or even their favourite crypto, but the merchant will receive payment in their local currency.
We use SharePay in the middle of the transaction to automatically reconcile it. You can use it like WeChat Pay or Line Pay where you scan a QR code and send money, but it’s also linked to ShareRing ID.. so you can send your full identity with a payment if you need to.
Also, when you pay for something, we also log all the data about the payment (ie. individual items purchased/rented/booked) and not just the transaction amount. This is stored in your local wallet so you can use it for proof of purchase or other things.
Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Can you tell us more about Malaysia and ShareRing? Do SHR have big plans for this beautiful country.
Malaysia is definitely on our list of launch locations. We’re talking to some potential partners there already. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
So many new businesses both traditional and crypto seem to struggle when it comes to networking and forging new partnerships. But ShareRing seems to excel in this area, what would you put this down to?
There’s a number of factors.. one is due to my history with successful businesses and the network that I’ve built in that time… that helps open up a lot of doors.
The other is due to our value proposition.. it’s very obvious to our partners what the benefits are in partnering with us… and finally, our amazing community. Some of our partnerships were born from that.
Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Tell us more about ShareRing ID and where it might be used? This came up in a previous thread we had in the group and Aaron Ting was very interested in how you guys are utilizing it in Visa Applications.
ShareRing ID is our self sovereign identity product. Basically, when you sign up for any ShareRing services, you take a photo of your passport, and you do a licenses detection facematch (ie. move your face on camera and we facematch it to the passport), then we also OCR the passport (or other supported ID, like drivers license).
After we’ve confirmed that it’s legitimate, we take a fingerprint/hash of the images and video, then store that fingerprint on the blockchain (we don’t store the image on the chain at all). We then encrypt all that information as well as your name, address, etc into a file using our blockchain public key and store it on your phone or PC.
You can also store it on Google Drive, Tencent Cloud Storage, or iCloud. One you’ve done that, it becomes totally portable, and under your control… which means you choose who has access to your ID, and you minimise the risk of identity theft.
If you use (for example) a car rental company through our platform. You will send your ID information directly to that car rental company (not via our servers at all) to allow for extremely quick sign up. We also watermark the ID files so we know who they went to.. then if they’re copied or something like that, we know exactly where the hack was.
For eVisa on Arrival in Thailand, we’re using ShareRing ID to validate the travellers passport, hotel booking (using our OCR engine), flight tickets (using OCR), and storing that in your ShareRing ID, then passing it to the government (via our partner) for processing. It’s a highly secure process.
Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
A competitor to Civic then.
Kind of like CIVIC, but we also store documents in ShareRing ID such as insurance policies, flight tickets, visa’s, etc… so it goes beyond just personal identity. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Are the MOUs still in place for the 1.2 million vehicle car rental company and also the MOU for the new luxury car-sharing business by a top 10 car manufacture?
Yes.. they’re still in place.. waiting for COVID to pass before progressing. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Can you tell us what sectors the businesses in Malaysia operate in that you’re talking to?
We’re talking to a logistics company, a retail company, and a multinational hotel chain with a footprint in Malaysia. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
You guys recently received investment from Alpha Sigma, a US-based hedge fund, have you had any other funds approach you and is there further investment on the project on the horizon from other funds?
Yes.. we also have another large fund that we very recently partnered with. We’ll announce that early next week. We’ve had a number of offers recently too. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Will the ASC partnership open up any movement in the US market?
Yes.. we’ve had discussions with them around who we want to partner with. We want to make sure we get our current launches in the bag before spreading ourselves too thin (a problem that a lot of startups face if they’re not careful). Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Any other partners you can discuss?
I’d love to.. but we’re under NDA with the big ones we have on board. They’re managing the PR for us at this stage. There’s the fund we’ll announce next week, and a research report that I’ve heard rumours about that’s coming out any day now. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Tim, you previously mentioned that first-year revenue would be in the ballpark of 15million dollars, which is outstanding. Has COVID impacted on this figure?
It’s definitely impacted it, but we’re expecting to be back on track with the Shop launches next month. A lot of that revenue was due to come from eVOA and the associated travel bookings. Shop will quickly dwarf our forecasts we had pre COVID. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Any updates on the insurance companies you were onboarding and had MOUs with before COVID hit? Especially the one with 30millions users -if I remember correctly.
Yes… I had a call with them on Wednesday. We’re integrating with their API at the moment. There was a sticking point around payment (ie. they wanted to take payment directly from the client), but we’ve worked around it now.. so we’re full steam ahead with the integration with them. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
You seem to have a strong S.E, Asian presence, where is your actual base of operations?
We have staff in Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong and London. Our offices are in Vietnam, Thailand (coworking space) and Australia.. the rest of the staff work from home. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Is Vietnam still on the roadmap for EVOAs for the next country after Thailand?
Yes.. not in the near term though. Probably next year. There’s definitely demand for it.. but we don’t have the bandwidth to do it at this stage. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
I can see you are making a push in Thailand, adding more staff what is happening there?
We’ve hired a couple of new sales staff, and a partner manager there. Our partnerships there are getting ready to launch products with us soon, so we’re ramping up the sales, development, etc with them. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Other than a cash injection how will Alpha Sigma be of benefit to SHR?
Advisory and partnerships. We’re having weekly calls to discuss potential partnerships and wworking with them on some more US focused options. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
How is ShareRing going in China, making good connections?
We’ve hired 3 new staff in China too… they started last week. All developers.. but we’re also doing some other things related to China. Can’t say anything at this stage. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
Will there be hardware support for SHR storage? Ledger? Trezor or even Samsung wallet?
Yes, definitely. Our new CIO has that on his to-do list. Samsung Wallet is interesting..we’ve been looking at Knox and how we can potentially use it to also store some ShareRing ID data for Samsung phone users.. it’s definitely an interesting platform. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
A couple of questions, what is the total circulating supply of SHR? And how much of it is available for retail?
Circulating supply is approximately 1,212,891,226 SHR at last count. The max supply is 4,396,000,000 SHR. The tokens that aren’t in circulation are held by the company, founders, and shareholders. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
ok, the final question from me… When Lambo when moon?
Next week.. possibly the week after. Tim Bos, ShareRing CEO
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Recent News:
ShareRing AMA Summary with Tim Bos & Layah Heilpern – 4th June 2020
Alpha Sigma Capital Invests in ShareRing
ShareRing Integrates with Fireblocks Network
Where do I purchase ShareRing tokens?
Interested in purchasing SHR tokens? You can do so from the following exchanges:
Bitmart: SHR ERC-20
Binance Dex: SHR BEP2
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