What is Ubcoin?
Ubcoin Market is a global mobile marketplace for buying and selling real world goods for cryptocurrency. The goal of Ubcoin Market is to empower consumers around the world to invest in crypto and to enjoy the purchasing power of their crypto investments by creating a Ubcoin mobile marketplace.
Simply put, it is the easiest way for anyone to become a crypto investor, all one needs is to put up his items for sale and receive UBC tokens as payment. One can sell his old stuff or re-sell new items, if one so desires. UBC tokens can then be used on the platform or exchanged into other cryptocurrencies of users’ choice on exchanges. The process bypasses fiat money entirely.
And conversely, anyone wishing to spend their crypto wealth can exchange their crypto for UBC and buy goods, again, bypassing all of the difficulties associated with conversion between crypto and fiat.
The Ubcoin Market is not a greenfield project, but an extension of the Ubank mobile app:
• A mature company, existing since 2009
• Our current product, Ubank, has over 16 million downloads worldwide
• We consist of 50+ developers, top management and advisor talent
• Ubcoin will enhance and reinvent existing product value proposition
• Samsung and Fly pre-install our current product on all smartphones, sold in CIS, including flagship Galaxy 9
– Felix Khachatryan, Founder & CEO
ICO Alert Quick Facts
- Exchange cryptocurrency for real goods, and vice versa
- 1 ETH = 11,200 UBC token
- ICO: April 4, 2018 — May 31, 2018
- 1,800,000,000 total available / 4,000,000,000 total supply
- The new feature of Ubank, the leader in mobile finance in East Europe
- Ubank mobile app has over 16,000,000 downloads worldwide
- Exclusively pre-installed on all Samsung and Fly smartphones, including Galaxy S9
Q&A with Felix Khachatryan, CEO
ICO Alert: How does the UBcoin token UBC function within the platform and why is it needed?
Khachatryan: Ubcoin (UBC) is a utility token for settlement of smart contracts and fees on Ubcoin Marketplace. It allows for extremely low fees on transactions, and also acts as a means of investment into crypto. UBC token will be listed on major crypto exchanges to ensure the liquidity of the token. Finally, UBC token has a stabilization safeguard (in the form of a reserve fund) to mitigate the short-term volatility of crypto, which allows buyers and sellers to reasonably complete their transaction without wild gyrations of perceived value. For the longer term investment value, UBC offers buyback and burn programs, which ensures that the total supply of tokens never increases and, in fact, gradually declines over time, thus supporting the increase in its value.
ICO Alert: What makes UBcoin different from other marketplace projects that have been launched? What advantages does UBcoin hold over other cryptocurrency related marketplace projects?
Khachatryan: Ubcoin Market will be useful for those who have some amounts in cryptocurrency and would like to have the ability to use it and not only possess it. The platform will provide its users an easy and safe ability to spend their crypto on a various range of goods directly without turning crypto to fiat money. Another advantage is that Ubcoin Market will provide an ability to enter the crypto world which means that you can sell something and become a crypto investor because you will also receive the payment in cryptocurrency. It must be emphasized that our target market are not those users who wish to receive fiat money for their goods — there are other marketplaces for that purpose.
Today there are approximately 25 million cryptowallets according to Blockchain.org. That number is projected to increase to 200 million by 2020. We will provide the 175 million aspiring crypto investors the easiest way to achieve their goal, entirely bypassing fiat money in the process.
Our initial focus is peer-to-peer sales. As crypto regulations become more business-friendly, we will focus on attracting small and medium businesses. Ultimately, we are convinced major brands will follow with their own storefronts on the Ubcoin platform, but they are not our initial focus.
ICO Alert: One of the most difficult things to accomplish in creating a marketplace is achieving a network effect. How does the team plan to market the marketplace and attract both buyers and sellers?
Khachatryan: At the initial stages of the project, the main focus will be customer acquisition and rapid geographic expansion. While exact timing of entering markets will change, we seek markets with a combination of substantial cryptocurrency investor base or interest therein, warmer regulatory outlook on crypto transactions, underbanked population and proliferation of peer-to-peer transactions. We see significant potential in developing markets of Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. One of the most important goals of the ICO is to fund global expansion. Depending on the success of the crowdfunding effort, we plan to spend between 25% and 40% for international marketing. Another main driver of the growth of business, starting in 2019, is attracting sellers from the SME sector who are more likely to actively use additional paid instruments for promoting the sales of their goods.
ICO Alert: What is the project’s stance on illegal goods being sold? How are you planning to prescreen sellers and their products?
Khachatryan: We pay special attention to ensuring the legitimacy of goods and services sold on the Ubcoin marketplace. We are developing an advanced AI technology to help pre-screen seller postings for any potential infringements of reason, morality, safety and due care. Seller profile transparency and KYC verification will be strongly encouraged and promoted.
ICO Alert: You mention integration with delivery services. Does the team have unique connections to make this happen or is the thought that the marketplace will have a large network effect by the time that integration takes place?
Khachatryan: The existing Ubank app, which Ubcoin Marketplace will become a part of once developed, is a fintech business that relies on close integration with many third-party providers of products and services offered in the Ubank financial marketplace. Users can apply for credit and debit cards from several banks, source loans form over two dozen financial institutions, purchase insurance from leading insurers, and pay to over 4,000 different service providers. We have also integrated with many payment providers, processors, offline and online businesses that drive value for the marketplace users. Finally, we are already integrated with a number of delivery companies that allow for app-to-door service. A plastic card ordered through Ubank is typically delivered to the customer within 1–3 days, and that’s quite a feat in a country that spans 11 time zones and stretches for over 9,000 kilometers wide. Over the years, we have built great expertise in integration with delivery services and other third-party providers.
ICO Alert: You are currently partnered with some well known companies, like Samsung, Fly, and Runa Capital. Do you have any planned new partnerships you would like to discuss?
Khachatryan: We are in advanced discussions with several leading smartphone manufacturers who will support our global expansion in many geographies. Follow the project for new and exciting announcements.
Last week we publicly disclosed an investment by a large and respected investment fund, which focuses on tech companies,
ICO Alert: One of the value propositions for buyers and sellers is the commission structure. What kind of commissions should buyers and sellers expect from using your platform?
Khachatryan: Ubcoin’s commission model is based on freemium for sellers and free for buyers methods. The marketplace plans to charge sellers a small commission for each successful sale. For early adopters, we will offer two commission-free sales per month. Users who underwent a simplified KYC procedure qualify for a reduced commission schedule. Another thing is that Ubcoin will develop a special commission schedule for the sale of luxury/expensive items (determined by certain price level), likely as a percentage of the sales price. Also, the platform will charge a share of price excess over minimum sales price for auction-type sales. And finally, the marketplace will charge a fixed commission for choosing non-standard smart contract schemes through the platform’s contract management tool. Buyers will pay no commission.
ICO Alert: Often, marketplace platforms have disputes between buyers and sellers. How does UBcoin plan to handle disputes between a buyer that doesn’t receive the item that was described in the seller’s post?
Khachatryan: Smart contracts require both parties to sign off on settlement of the transaction. The platform holds buyer’s funds in escrow while goods are in transit. Once received, if the goods are not of described quality or condition, the buyer’s funds are not released to the seller. If parties fail to settle amicably on their own, then the platform provides a two-tier dispute arbitration service.
The first tier of arbitration consists of two selected Ubcoin users with a high enough rating and relevant to the geography, product, type of sale that is in dispute. If the dispute parties are not satisfied with the user arbitration, it goes to the second-tier — a Ubcoin arbiter who is a support staff member of Ubcoin. Funds/goods are released to the party found wronged by non-performance of the other party. Guilty party’s rating on the platform is decreased. Repeat offenders are suspended for a limited time. Worst offenders are banned from the platform.
Users of the platform are motivated to act as arbiters by a small fee reward and increased profile/user rating for quality arbitration. High user ratings qualify the user for preferential platform fee schedule and access to more premium features of the marketplace.
ICO Alert: Is there any concern with the lack of scalability that the Ethereum network has? If the project encounters transaction speed issues, what possible solutions would you implement?
Khachatryan: As with any developing technology, there are bound to be some growing pains. However, it has been demonstrated that the Ethereum network can be scaled substantially (albeit at a trade-off to decentralization), for example:
https://coinfrenzy.io/ethereum-scalability/. But most importantly, transaction speed issues are only relevant to the marketplace when users switch between UBC and ETH (i.e. entering or exiting the platform). The transactions on the platform when users settle transactions within UBC token ecosystem do not require reliance on Ethereum network speed.
ICO Alert: As a non-UBcoin question, we like to ask for unique predictions for the ICO and cryptocurrency space in the future. Where do you see both in the next 3–5 years?
Khachatryan: ICOs will rival venture capitalists in amounts raised for investment. Crypto will become commonplace, volatility will subside, and winners will be companies that survived through the hype and turmoil with laser-sharp focus on building their products for the decentralized economy. Sound business ideas and cohesive high-performing teams will drive investors’ preferences as opposed to the hype that we see today.
ICO Information
The main ICO began on April 2, 2018 and will end on May 31, 2018. There are a total of 1,800,000,000 Ubcoin tokens (UBC) available during the main ICO, representing 45% of the total UBC supply. A hard cap of $68,000,000 is set for this period.
Current accepted currencies for Ubcoin is Ether only.
Ubcoin is an ERC20 token, so it’s important that contributors use ERC20 compatible wallets to send funds to the ICO smart contract, and to receive the Ubcoin tokens.
Token Information
There are a total of 4,000,000,000 UBC tokens being created, with 1,800,000,000 available during main ICO.
Unsold tokens are minted only upon payment with ETH, thus no unsold tokens will be created at the close of token-generation event.
How To Participate
- Visit https://ubcoin.io and click on “Invest Now”
- Enter your email address, ETH wallet and accept terms and conditions
After a successful purchase, you will see UBC token in your wallet right away.
Allocation
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Source: ICO Alert
