Categories
Blockchain Software Technology

Decentralized AI: Blockchain's bright future

Blockchain and artificial intelligence are driving technological innovation worldwide and both have profound  implications for the future of business as well as our personal data. How can the two technologies merge? I’ll discuss the opportunities which could arise from decentralized AI.

Before we look at the possible merging of blockchain and AI into decentralized AI, let’s look at the two separately. Let’s look at the benefits of Artificial Intelligence and blockchain.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field in computer science dedicated to creating intelligent machines. Also known as machine learning, AI gives machines skills traditionally reserved to humans. Problem solving, speech recognition, planning, and learning are among them.

Meanwhile, blockchain is a decentralized technology which is a global network of computers. A robust platform allows blocks of similar information to be stored over the network.
PwC predicts that by 2030 AI will add up to $15.7 trillion to the world economy, and as a result, global GDP will rise by 14%. According to Gartner’s prediction, business value added by blockchain technology will increase to $3.1 trillion by the same year. Currently, the cryptocurrency sector makes the most use of blockchain tech. So, is the integration of blockchain and AI possible? Can both merge into one and enter other sectors? Actually, that’s already happening and some businesses are beginning to see the potential of integrating blockchain and AI.

Advantages of blockchain technology

Here are some of the advantages of blockchain technology:

  • Blockchain is decentralized. It allows data to be shared without a central unit.  This keeps transactions on a blockchain verifiable and processable independent of a central force.
  • Blockchain is durable and consistent due to its decentralized nature. It can resist malicious attacks on its systems because it does not have a central point vulnerable to attack.
  • Information, timelines, and authenticity supplied by blockchain technology are all accurate.

Benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI, or machine intelligence, has a lower error rate compared to humans when coding. As a result, AI offers a greater level of accuracy, speed and precision.

  • AI  is totally logical as it has no emotions and thus makes error-free rational decisions. 
  • Machines don’t get tired and can thrive in hazardous conditions. This enables them to carry out dangerous tasks, such as space exploration, or even mining.
  • Trusting AI with data analysis is the best decision any company can make. AI can easily calculate unstructured data, and give results in real-time, ensuring accuracy in data analytics.

Previous collaboration between blockchain and AI

There’s been notable integration between AI and blockchain. Some examples of this include the Singularity.Net blockchain and AI program, which was created to enhance smart contract testing. Supply chain firm, Nahame has also incorporated blockchain technology and AI to help companies with auditing. There are some plans by a peer-to-peer car rental company, which have been made public, to produce a fleet of self driving cars on blockchain technology.

Decentralized AI – where AI and blockchain could intersect

The best way to use the two of the biggest technologies out there today is by looking to capitalize on one’s strength to aid the other.

Data protection

Artificial intelligence largely depends on our data and uses it to improve itself through machine learning. What’s particularly relevant to AI is the gathering of data about human interactions and other details. Blockchain is a technology that allows encryption of data storage on a decentralized system, and it runs a totally secured and protected database only authorized users can access. So when we integrate blockchain and AI, it means we have a protected decentralized AI system for sensitive data such as financial or even medical data. Therefore, blockchain technology is a great security advantage.

Let’s take a look at Spotify – it uses users’ data to recommend music based on their recent searches and preferences. Most of the time we aren’t concerned about the information as it isn’t particularly sensitive. However, when it comes to our sensitive information stored in the cloud of a company, we would be more concerned about privacy and the guarantee of that privacy.

Ensuring security

As a centralized system running on a single processor,  hackers or malware can infiltrate an AI system and alter its instructions. With blockchain though, before any information is accepted and processed on a blockchain platform, it must go through several nodes or phases of the network on the system. It becomes more difficult to hack any blockchain-based technology when it has more nodes on its network. Although not impossible, it would be far more difficult to hack a blockchain-based, decentralized AI platform.

Trustworthiness

There is greater trust in the system. In order to have credibility, a system must be trustworthy. Blockchain is a more transparent technology than a closed AI system. Blockchains protect data through encryption — only authorized users can access it. This makes it impossible for unauthorized parties to view anything.

In the case of blockchain application in the healthcare sector, patients don’t want their medical information to be accessible to any unauthorized viewers. Medical information remains encrypted to prevent unauthorized third parties from accessing it. Keeping medical information on a blockchain would also allow healthcare providers to easily access patients’ files so they can provide medical aid in case of an emergency. Adding increased performance AI will bring storage to the blockchain by making it easier to access unstructured data.

Benefits of Artificial Intelligence & blockchain in the long run

There are many benefits businesses can gain from integrating blockchain with AI. Porsche automobile in partnership with XAIN AG is already working on decentralized AI applications in its advanced vehicles. JD.com, a leader in developing AI-based applications, has already started using this integration to build decentralized business applications. So it’s worth considering blockchain and AI as integrated technology. It’s not a problem if you already use blockchain or just AI in your business. You can integrate either technology through your existing website API.
Here are some benefits of Artificial Intelligence merging with blockchain:

Decentralized Intelligence

This is an obvious result of the technology integration. Blockchain is a decentralized system while AI is an intelligent system. It would enable business organizations to set up a blockchain-based architecture that allows a combination of AI design. This could be a peer-to-peer connection that has an image recognition feature or language processing.

Energy saving and cost efficient IT architecture

A 2016 report from Deloitte estimated that the annual cost of authenticating transactions on a blockchain is $600 million, most of which goes into mining operations. An AI-integrated blockchain will help organizations reduce their energy consumption. Since AI can predict and speedily calculate data, it would also make it possible for cryptocurrency miners to know when they are performing a less important transaction. This would also allow enterprises to execute transactions faster.

In fact, as AI becomes more developed, and after the integration of AI and blockchain technology becomes more common, AI may take over the mining process on blockchains. Given the fact that AI learns and adapts to its environment, combined with blockchain, there’s no doubt that it will learn the process and the architecture of the blockchain network.

Flexible AI

AI integration with blockchain will pave the way for the development of an artificial general intelligence (AGI) platform. The blockchain model can create a distributed specimen for the development of an AGI.

The integration of blockchain and AI has yet to take off fully. Combining the two technologies into decentralized AI has deep potential to use data in novel ways. A successful integration of both technologies will allow quicker and smoother data management, verification of transactions, identification of illegitimate documents, etc. Therefore, if you’re contemplating the integration of both technologies for your business, don’t hesitate, do it!

Categories
Blockchain Software

Blockchain oracles: Can blockchain talk to the world?

In this article, I’ll take you on a journey to find out what blockchain oracles are, what they’re for, and see the technical aspects behind them. We’ll go through base oracle flow, external data sources, authenticity proof (proof that a party doesn’t tamper with data), as well as oracle verification. Fasten your seatbelts and let’s begin!

Update 23/1/2019: While we in the Espeo Blockchain development team use some of the blockchain oracles already available on the market, we weren’t completely satisfied. So we decided to build a solution for ourselves and to share it with you. We’ve just launched a free, open-source oracle called Gardener. Read more about the project here, or find it on GitHub. Enjoy!

What’s the issue with blockchain oracles?

Blockchains function in a closed, trustless environment and can’t get any information from outside the blockchain due to security reasons or so-called sandboxing. You can treat everything within the node network as a single source of truth, secured by the consensus protocol. Following the consensus, all nodes in the network agree to accept only one version of their managed state of the world. Think of it like blinders on a horse — useful, but not much perspective.

However, sometimes the information available in the network isn’t enough. Let’s say I need to know what the price of gold is on a blockchain-based derivatives trading app. Using only data from inside the blockchain we have no way of knowing that. Because the smart contract lives in the sandboxed environment it has no option to retrieve that data by itself, the only viable alternative is to request that data and wait for some external party we trust to send it back. That’s where the utility of blockchain oracles come in.

Two components

There are two components that any sensibly working oracle in the blockchain has to incorporate. One is a data source handling component that retrieves requested data from the reliable data feed sources. These data sources can be data stores or databases, APIs of various types, even internal data stored in some ERP or CRM enterprise systems. The second component is the off-chain monitoring mechanism. It looks for the requests from smart contract and retrieves the required data from the data source handling component. Then, it feeds it back to the smart contract using some unique identification data to communicate which request the submitted data is related to.

When do we need oracles?

I’ve already discussed how the data can be provided back to the requesting smart contract. We also need to consider the timing of when the data should be acquired from its source and at what moment it should be sent back to the smart contract. Let’s first consider in what situations a smart contract may need access to the blockchain oracles. There are endless cases and even more solutions to them, so let’s explore a handful of them:

  • Derivative platforms that need to know the pricing feeds for the underlying assets, such as one we worked on called CloseCross
  • Prediction markets, when the ultimate result of the event has to be established reliably,
  • Solutions which need provable randomness (Ethereum is a deterministic platform),
  • Information from other blockchains,
  • Heavy computations, which don’t fit within block gas limits (or even if they fit they’re extremely expensive)
  • Complex mathematical equations (using f.ex. WolframAlpha)
  • Retrieval of some data from IPFS or other data storage

Implementing the concept

I already wrote what sort of data you can retrieve, and how and for what reasons. Now, let’s dive into more details on how you can implement the whole oracle concept in more practical terms. Because part of the blockchain oracles is an off-chain mechanism, it could be developed using any modern programming language.

Of course, any language which has frameworks that allow it to communicate with the blockchain. It constantly searches (listens) for events emitted by a relevant smart contract and checks if they’re requests for external data. If so, it accesses that data from some data source and processes it according to the specified rules. One option is to use an external data provider we trust. Due to some external factors (agreements), we know it would never cheat.

On the other hand, if we use the data provider that we can’t trust or even force the smart contract clients to use our internal data, we can cause a lot of disruption in the client’s operation. For example, if the data finally provided cannot be trusted or isn’t reliable – as we can put literally any data we want there. We can try and cheat to force our contract to behave according to our expectations even though the truth about the external world’s conditions is different. To sum up, choosing the right data provider is half the battle.

An improvement to that could be to choose a few separate sources of the data, but then a problem related to data accuracy would become apparent. For example, when we want to get exchange rates for EUR/USD from a few different exchange rates agencies or exchanges, it’s almost guaranteed that the values would be slightly different for each of them. On the surface, the simple task of providing the data back to the smart contract appears to be, in general, quite a hard problem to solve correctly and reliably.

Proofs

Once we have our data inside the oracle software, it would be good to prove that we didn’t manipulate it. The most basic uses don’t include any proof. Our users have to believe that we just pass on what we get. But there are stronger proofs. Oraclize.it, the leader in Ethereum blockchain oracles at the moment, uses the TLSNotary proof, Android proof and Ledger proof. Let’s briefly check how they differ.

TLSNotary proof

The first one – the TLSNotary proof – leverages features of the TLS protocol to split the TLS master key between three parties: the server, an auditee and an auditor. Oraclize is the auditee, while a special locked-down AWS instance acts as the auditor. The TLSNotary protocol is open sourced and you can read more about it on the project site: https://tlsnotary.org/.

The black boxes are steps from the standard TLS protocol. The green ones are added in TLSNotary. Basically, what we achieved is that the auditor can get the original data and check if it’s not been tampered with. However, he doesn’t know the auditee’s credentials so he can’t perform the action on his behalf.

Android proof

The next one is the Android proof. It uses two technologies developed by Google: SafetyNet and Android Hardware Attestation. SafetyNet validates if the Android application is running on a safe and not rooted physical device. It also checks if the application code hash isn’t tampered with. Because the application is open source, it can be easily audited and any changes to it would change the code hash.

On the other hand, Android Hardware Attestation checks if the device is running on the latest OS version to prevent any potential exploits. Both technologies together ensure that the device is a provably secure environment where we can make untampered HTTPS connections with a remote data source.

Ledger proof

The last one from Oraclize is the Ledger proof. It uses hardware wallets from the French company Ledger (mainly known for Ledger Nano S or Ledger Blue). These devices encompass the STMicroelectronics secure element, a controller and an operating system called BOLOS. Via BOLOS SDK developers can write their own applications which they can install on the hardware just like cryptocurrency wallets. BOLOS exposes kernel-level API and some operations from that are about cryptography and attestation.

The last one is especially useful here. Via the API, we can ask the kernel to produce a signed hash from the binary. It is signed by a special attestation key, which is controlled by the kernel and out of reach of the application developers. Thanks to this, we can make code attestation as well as device attestation. Currently the Ledger Proof is used for providing untampered entropy to smart-contracts.

TownCrier

Another solution – TownCrier – offers Intel SGX, which is a new capability of some new Intel CPUs. SGX is an acronym for Software Guard Extensions and its architecture extensions. It was designed to increase the security of application codes and data. It is achieved by the introduction of enclaves – protected areas of execution in the memory. There, the code is executed by special instructions and other processes or areas don’t have access to them.

Source: http://www.town-crier.org/get-started.html

The image above shows how it works. The contract User calls the TC contract, which emits an event cought by the TC server. Then the TC server, via the TLS connection, connects to the data store and feeds the data back to contract. Because all of this happens in the TC server enclave, even the operator of the server can’t peek into the enclave or modify its behaviour, while the TLS prevents tampering or eavesdropping on the communication.

A word of caution

Keep in mind, however, that even though each of these solutions provides a way to prove data integrity, no one offers a verifiable on-chain method. You can either trust a big company (like Intel) or make a separate verification off-chain, but even then we notice tampering only after the first successful occurrence.

The last thing I haven’t mentioned yet is how the oracle contract verifies who to accept responses from. This solution is rather simple (at least in most cases). Every account in Ethereum, and the off-chain servers has private and public keys pairs, which identify each of them uniquely (as long as nobody steals it from the server).

Conclusion

To sum up, here’s how the business and technical aspects of oracle constructions work. I started with business needs and use cases, next switched to an oracle description and then started examining exactly how it works. I talked about data sources, authenticity proofs, and server identifications. All this knowledge should give you a general overview of blockchain oracles.

If you’d like to use one of the current solutions or feel that none of them meet your expectations for blockchain oracles, you can ask us for help 🙂 And by the way, here’s my previous article on Ethereum-related issues (gas costs).

Links:

http://docs.oraclize.it/#security-deep-dive
https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/201/how-does-oraclize-handle-the-tlsnotary-secret
https://tlsnotary.org/
http://www.town-crier.org/

Categories
Blockchain Finance Financial Services

Token economics explained: tokenomics examples & tips

Nowadays, a lot of projects are popping up within the blockchain industry, claiming to be the next big innovation that will change the world. In reality, only a minority is really disruptive. Because of the innovative character of this blockchain technology, the number of types of tokens and used cases is unlimited: tracking ownership, provenance of documents, supply chain management, insurance and so on.

In this article, I’ll introduce this high-profile concept in crypto space – tokenomics, or token economics. This new paradigm is shaking the traditional economy, but it includes many challenges. I’ll underline its key-concepts, and its main pain points to keep in mind during the creation of a new token ecosystem.

Tokens and token economics

Notion

Token economics (or tokenomics) is the study of a new type of economy that can be defined as the design of a particular ecosystem in a blockchain environment. There are as many ecosystems as startups and projects in the blockchain industry, where tokenization is a popular process. Some of these ecosystems and types of tokens are ingenious and disruptive, others are pretty dangerous and unstable.

Putting it in simple terms every ecosystem is composed of several elements, and the crypto token functions as the central element of this new type of economy. As you might know, a token is a digital asset that can belong to different categories: utility/security and fungible/non-fungible and have a limited supply or lack a maximum supply. Let’s explain what those are, as these are important terms in tokenomics.

Utility or security?

A utility token is a digital asset used to offer the access to products and/or services on a platform. And the other is a ‘security token’ – that derives its value from an external and tangible asset and offers to the token holders a wide range of rights (entitlement to a share of profits, ownership or equity in a legal entity, and so on).

The line between these two categories of tokens is thin, so it can be problematic in tokenomics, given the different regulatory frameworks applicable to these two categories The actual regulatory framework isn’t totally transparent about the criteria for qualifying a token as a security or a utility token. However, there’s still a set of guidelines that allows the blockchain entrepreneurs to create a token that aligns with their expectations as closely as possible, legally and technically. The criteria include (but are not limited to):

  • the possibility of varying returns between the token holders based on their participation or use of the network
  • the manual action that is required outside the network in order for the holder to get the benefit of the token
  • the timing of the token sale.

Fungible or non-fungible?

Depending on the business scope of the project, a token might be fungible or non-fungible. The difference is quite easy to figure out. Fungible tokens are interchangeable and can be divided into smaller token units (example: Binance Coin). Non-fungible tokens are non-interchangeable and can’t (actually) be divided (for example, CryptoKitties. Each token represents a unique cat).

In a tokenomics analysis, the choice between a fungible or non-fungible token will entirely depend on the used case-study. Let’s take an example of a Cyber Security platform where a Cyber Analyst is rewarded for providing insights on cyber security. It wouldn’t make sense for them to receive a non-fungible token. The reward is like a paper bill. Imagine that the token is worth 10 dollars, and the reward is worth 5 dollars. The Cyber analyst won’t care about a 0.5 token, because the value is the same for him or her. Now, let’s imagine a diamond supply chain platform. Each non-fungible token is linked to one diamond. It makes sense for the buyer of a diamond to receive THE token that has his diamond as asset-back, and not a random non-fungible token.

The Ecosystem

Token-flow

Designing an ecosystem requires a careful analysis of the token-flow. When doing your tokenomics analysis, ask yourself these questions:

  • What are the values that the ecosystem is trying to promote and how is the incentivization organised to adopt a determined behaviour?
  • What are the sources of input (injection) and output (rewards) of tokens?
  • How can we build a sustainable and stable ecosystem in the long-term?

Building your ecosystem is thinking about the future and drivers that lead the user to come, stay and interact with the platform. That’s the core of token economics! Plenty of projects have badly designed ecosystems. The system is based on a disproportionate allocation of tokens. Combined with a hard cap of tokens emitted, this can lead to the collapse of the ecosystem because there won’t be enough available tokens.

Architecture: dual or simple structure

In order to choose between a simple and a dual token architecture, you should take several criteria into account. The alignment of the interest between the users of the platform developed and the investors, cost of development (e.g. listing of tokens on the exchanges) but before all: a real raison d’etre. Tokenomics make sense only if you know what the goal of the project and the purpose of the token is. So you must design the ecosystem of the project to be suitable for a given structure. In some cases, a simple token structure will fit better with the goal pursued by the project.

Steemit is the best example of a dual-token Ecosystem. The raison d’etre of the Steem Dual Token structure is to incentivize the commitment of the community in the long-term. So, it affords a long-term growth of crypto assets rather than a short-term one.

Stabilization mechanism

It’s important to manage the threats linked to a crowdsale bonus that can have a negative impact on the token economics. Indeed, some blockchain startups are proposing high bonuses (up-to 80% bonus) to early bird investors. This can lead to various dangerous situations where a single investor can have a critical influence on the coin price stability.

Monetary policy

Token economics and crypto coins are closely linked to a predetermined monetary policy.

A monetary policy consists of measures an institution can take in order to create stability for a certain currency. For example, the central bank has three important instruments to achieve this stability:

  • changing the credit policy towards other banks,
  • buying or selling government bonds and foreign currencies in order to change the money supply
  • and lastly changing the reserve ratio for banks.

These actions form the core strategy of stabilizing a currency.

You have to adopt the right monetary policy for each ecosystem. If an inflationary monetary policy will afford more stability in a non-profitable ecosystem (Steemit), a deflationary system will be more suitable for a profitable ecosystem. So it’s important to build a core strategy in order to maintain a safe value for the potential token holders.

Conclusion

Token economics isn’t easy. Designing your ecosystem has its pitfalls. It’s more than a threat for the future development of a project. A weak ecosystem based on a wrong business model could lead to legal issues and dramatic consequences for the token holders.  I’ve seen some terrible ecosystems in my career and saved people from really bad ideas and failure-gonna-be crypto projects. So don’t hesitate to contact me here at Espeo (box down below). I’m confident that our team will build the most suitable ecosystem for your project that will help you save both crypto assets and your fiat currency.

Categories
Blockchain Finance Financial Services

Customer loyalty management on the blockchain

A spotlight on our client, Gabro, who noticed loyalty program management wasn’t working and decided to fix that using blockchain. We’ve talked to their CEO, Andy Chen, as well as the architect of the blockchain solution, our very own Marcin Zduniak. How exactly will Gabro work, is it a blockchain loyalty program? How will Gabro innovate on customer loyalty program software? Read on.

What made you feel there were problems that needed fixing in customer loyalty management?

Let me start by telling you a little secret about loyalty programs. Most of them don’t work.
What do I mean by that? Our research shows that 78% of customers are dissatisfied with their loyalty programs because they have to carry all these plastic cards/paper coupons or remember so many accounts and passwords. There’s no good customer loyalty program software that can help the user. Not only that, but loyalty program management operators bring in additional obstacles by setting blackout periods and ridiculous expiry dates. So, it’s highly difficult for consumers to redeem their points or coupons.

It’s actually not an accident. Every expired point becomes profit for the company. So you may ask why bother having all these programs in the first place if the redemption is only 7% and all the customers walk away feeling cheated…

So that’s how Gabrotech was born? How did the team come together?

Yes, pretty much – it was born out of frustration. The loyalty programs often seemed like a waste of time and money. I remember how many points I’ve wasted.
So, the 6 of us wanted to resolve this problem: how can we make loyalty programs really work for the customer? We all went and analyzed different solutions, and we have all came to the same conclusion – we need to use blockchain to resolve this – let’s do a big blockchain loyalty program! Only after some time, we then realized that our blockchain solution could really disrupt the loyalty industry. Finally, we decided to create Gabrotech to get more like-minded people on board.

Speaking of like-minded people. How did you find Espeo, and how is our cooperation going?

Espeo has a great reputation in this industry. Like Gabrotech, they are creative in their solutions and our partnership has gone from strength to strength.
Actually, Espeo is part of what makes us different from other ICOs. We incorporated the most innovative blockchain technology with customer loyalty management, thanks to you. Our Token GBO will be a currency as well as a trading tool to use, exchange, and sell on one blockchain-based platform.
Our blockchain solution provides proof of ownership for rewards, contracts (terms) and conversion capability at low operating costs. New partners and coalition could be added to the program almost instantly, with low security risk even if a partner is unknown and not trusted yet.

So what exactly are you offering? Customer loyalty program software? Or an app?

No, it’s something completely different. It’s not the question of having another discount app. At Gabrotech, we have designed a whole new ecosystem based on decentralization. It’s also more than just a blockchain loyalty program. Customer loyalty programs can no longer set these ridiculous rules or charge you with hefty fees, making it hard for you to redeem the points you’ve earned.
Also, users can freely trade their loyalty points between different programs. When you don’t have enough hotel points, how about using your air miles to get the upgrade you want instantly?
As a part of our special customer loyalty program software, our digital wallet 2.0 will allow you to manage all your programs with only one app and one password. And if you have idle points, you can give them to your friends, swap them with something else or even sell them. Additionally, when you’re traveling abroad and don’t have the local currency, you can use your Gabro pre-paid card and spend your air miles just like cash.

Why did you choose blockchain for customer loyalty management? Is it truly as ‘revolutionary’ as people say?

Since we are targeting 60,000 merchant outlets and 60 million customers, blockchain is the secret sauce for our customer loyalty management ecosystem. It’s because:

  1. The complicated terms and conditions and conversion rates could be developed using smart contracts for speed (4 weeks vs 5 mins)
  2. Blockchain is immutable and could reduce fraud or running the risk for being redeemed twice
  3. Adding a new merchant in blockchain is fast and could greatly reduces costs

Let’s take a closer look at the technology behind Gabro. A few words from Marcin Zduniak, Head of Blockchain at Espeo.

The initial scope of Espeo Blockchain’s involvement was to design the architecture of the complete GabroTech solution, both the centralized part of it and all of the blockchain related building blocks and internal components. All the details can be reviewed in the technical whitepaper we prepared (see it here). But let’s look at some of the more interesting technologies we’re planning on implementing.

  • our own Plasma Cash implementation for trustless, cheap and rapid loyalty points transfer
  • private permissioned Ethereum ledger (PoA) for the trustless loyalty points redemption and issuance rules
  • advanced cryptography and schemes (BIP-32, PBKDF2, Shamir’s Secret Sharing) for the secure wallet development
  • user-friendly access and authorization to the wallet (biometric factors like face recognition using 3D scanning directly from the mobile phone)
  • multi-currency exchange (with decentralized and also centralized processes, depending on the needs of given market — like level of trustlessness, liquidity needs, pace of the trading)
  • atomic swaps of the points and tokens where it is technically feasible and economically practical
  • integration with existing loyalty points providers and issuers and the way these legacy points could be fairly tokenized and redeemed and/or exchanged for other providers’ points
  • a scheme of using the blockchain technology in the off-line Point-of-Sale scenarios (similar to NFC in regular micropayment schemes)
  • integrated analytical tools employed with machine learning algorithms and Big Data-type of storages that could suggest the best loyalty point deals for the end-users and points-holders and also suggest ideas for new profitable promotions to the merchants

After an extensive research period, we came up with the technology stack and process flow design. Right now, we can say it’s both secure and economically viable. What’s more, it appears to be attractive to the end customers. Both loyalty points holders and merchants that are about to redeem them will likely find this an improvement on customer loyalty program software. We’re now planning on the next phases of our cooperation, namely the implementation phase and the precise release roadmap.

Why invest in GBO?

The sum of all loyalty points issued across industries globally is more than $500 billion. Most of these points are idle. So, essentially, Gabrotech is helping to monetize your idle loyalty points. This will attract millions of consumers to give up their points in return for GBO. Our merchant partners would also want to hold GBO for hedging purposes. So, when reaching our target of 6,000 merchant outlets and 10 million users, we will become a loyalty currency on our own. The merchants might even reward their customers with GBO directly rather than their own branded customer loyalty points. Just like banks buy air miles to reward the customers spending on their credit cards.
The network effect is created when we add more merchants to our ecosystem. This means they will bring more of their loyalty members into our platform. It will then attract more merchants to join us in order to increase their customer base. Gabro clearly offers more benefits than regular customer loyalty program software.
Our tokenomics model shows that 43 to 50% of our tokens would end up in the hands of consumers and our merchant partners. This creates a huge demand of GBO and boosts up the price steadily. Just like bitcoin, the more widely it is accepted and used, the more the price will go up.

Can I convert my GBOs into real money?

Yes! Our Multi-Currency Conversion Engine allows you to rapidly convert your GabroToken to fiat currency at the real time market value. In addition, Gabro may also be exchanged to points in any blockchain loyalty program.

How do you see yourself and Gabrotech in the future – say, in 5 or 10 years?

Gabrotech will revolutionize customer loyalty program software! It will be the largest loyalty exchange platform in Asia and cover all industry verticals. Closed loop loyalty platforms become obsolete. Gabro releases billions of dollars from the idle points sitting everywhere… sounds amazing, but it’s not unrealistic!