Recap of Kriptobi & Suku AMA

Kriptobi, one of the most active groups in Turkey on cryptocurrencies, hosted Product Manager and Business Developer Ian Campbell from the SUKU project on the 27th of January, 2021. In the first phase of our event, the SUKU project was introduced to our community members with group managers’ questions and our guest's answers. In the second phase, 3 questions collected via Twitter were asked to our guest, and in the third phase, the ‘live Q&A’ section was completed. In the second and third stages, our community members, whose questions were answered, were rewarded with a gift worth 10$ at the time of reward distributing. If you also want to participate in future AMA events and win while being informed, you can join the Kriptobi community.

Stage 1 (Questions of our group managers, answers of our guest)

Question 1. Could you give brief information about what SUKU is? What does it aim to for and solve in this sector?

Ian. To give everyone a brief background on SUKU, we were founded in 2016 by a team of diverse entrepreneurs. Many of the core team, including our CEO and CTO, came from Deloitte’s blockchain lab. Our mission was focused around bringing together consumers, brands, and supply chain participants in one ecosystem. With consumers increasingly concerned about where products come from, the meaning of responsible business is shifting, demanding companies to be more transparent, source more ethically & sustainably, and include customers in giving back.

SUKU helps brands better share their sustainability and social efforts with conscious customers by leveraging blockchain technology and easy-to-use mobile applications. Our OMNI platform takes supply chain data provided by the brands and presents it to customers in a way that is easily digestible, accessible, and fun to engage with. Additionally, brands can benefit from analytics and insights into their supply chain, carbon footprint, and more. At the core, “SUKU” represents our mission to connect suppliers and customers through the use of blockchain, hence SUKU is a bit of a play on words. The “SU” represents “suppliers” and the “KU” represents “customers." 

Question 2. What are your main features that distinguish you from other projects and what competitive advantages do you have?

Ian. Our suite of SUKU products takes a holistic approach to supply chains by providing solutions from SUppliers to KUstomers. We also like to think that our team and solutions stand out in many ways! Just a few of the many which stand out are:

*There are other projects in the industry tackling supply chain, but none of them have the approach we have of making supply chain data usable by brand’s marketing teams to sell more product and differentiate their products in the market. Our go-to-market approach has been unique in this way and as a result, we are working with both small and large clients.

*We are natively incorporating open financial access into our platform to help increase DeFi adoption in a way that fits the group of customers, brands, and supply chain participants who are already benefiting from our Omni solution.

*Our solutions cater to both the suppliers' needs and the conscious consumer market.

*Our team comes with expertise in the blockchain and financial industries, as much of the team comes from Deloitte’s Blockchain Lab.

Question 3. What products are there in SUKU?

Ian. Specifically, SUKU DeFi's goal is to bring decentralized finance to supply chain participants. Supply chain participants (such as farmers, manufacturers, and distributors) share information about their SUKU-traced products, get rewarded, and may be able to take advantage of the many benefits of decentralized finance built on the blockchain. SUKU Omni's goal is to help companies better serve conscious consumers through transparency and technology, helping consumers find truthful, transparent, verified products. SUKU Infinite's goal is to allow consumers to verify the authenticity of luxury products, especially in the secondary market. Infinite helps companies with authenticating products and helps consumers with product access and ownership.

Question 4. Finally, can you give us some information about your roadmap and how SUKU has progressed so far? What awaits us in the future?

Ian. We are close to completing one of our first major goals with SUKU DeFi. We will be releasing the SUKU DeFi protocol on the mainnet soon. Business development is also a major focus for both our short-term and longer-term visions. We have many exciting brands and opportunities in our pipeline and some already in pilot stages. We’re going to continue driving those leads and explore various other opportunities; we can’t wait to share them with everyone! Additionally, expanding the reach of SUKU DeFi through network partners, which may include the following:

1) Coop organizations

2) Social impact funds

3) Individuals

After this answer, the first phase of our AMA event was completed. And immediately after that, questions sent via Twitter will be answered. And the second phase has begun.

Stage 2 (Twitter users' questions, our guest's answers)

Twitter Question 1

What do you think is the biggest problem SUKU will solve, which has not been solved by other projects yet, and why is it important to solve this problem? (from @rasim7878)

Ian. SUKU’s mission is to bring together consumers, brands, and supply chain participants in a single, transparent ecosystem. With consumers increasingly concerned about where products come from, the meaning of responsible business is shifting, demanding companies to be more transparent, source more ethically & sustainably, and include customers in giving back. SUKU helps brands better share their sustainability and social efforts with conscious customers by leveraging blockchain technology and easy-to-use mobile applications. 

Our OMNI platform takes supply chain data provided by the brands and presents it to customers in a way that is easily digestible, accessible,  and fun to engage with. Additionally, brands can benefit from analytics and insights into their supply chain, carbon footprint, and more. Another example of this is SUKU DeFi. It leverages decentralized finance protocols to provide microfinance opportunities to traditionally disenfranchised supply chain participants such as farmers, manufacturers, and distributors. We believe that our decentralized finance platform differs from others with its mission and target audience: brands, institutions, and individuals who want to improve the lives of supply chain participants. 

Twitter Question 2

How many killer features of your project makes it ahead of its competitors? Could you tell us 2-3 features? (from @ahmetsalihduma1)

Ian. Well, let me give you 1 particular example. SUKU DeFi goes against the grain of what most other solutions are offering by enabling users with access to a cell phone to interact with our protocol. 

Well, let me give you 1 particular example. SUKU DeFi goes against the grain of what most other solutions are offering by enabling users with access to a cell phone to interact with our protocol. Through SUKU’s TextMeCrypto, we can enable the seemingly complex supply, borrow, and other capabilities of DeFi in the simplistic format of a quick SMS message. Get the full scoop on how it works here. 

That's one particular example for SUKU DeFi. We really are going against the grain with our solution. Additionally, we are bringing in the individuals that have been left out of the traditional finance equation. Small, underserved, unbanked supply chain participants. These individuals have unsteady revenue streams, living off less than $1,168 a year. They may have little to no access to capital or traditional finance with native currencies that are unstable. In the end, they struggle to provide for their families. Through SUKU DeFi and the SUKU Ecosystem, we are bridging the gap and bringing real users to the DeFi space.

Twitter Question 3

As you know, the security of personal data is very important in mobile applications. How do you, people, protect data in mobile applications produced by your project? How do you ensure security? (from @waybesuricata)

Ian. Security is a major consideration and utmost priority when it comes to SUKU DeFi. We’ve seen too many security exploits in space. As such, we have forked and repurposed the previously audited Compound finance protocol and corresponding smart contracts. As I’m sure you’re all aware, Compound is one of the premier and most secure projects in the space. Using this secured foundation as the starting point for SUKU DeFi gives us confidence in the integrity of our solution. 

After that answer, our event’s 2nd phase was terminated and the ‘live Q&A’ section started. 7 questions answered by our guest within minutes were shaped as follows.

Stage 3 (Live questions of community members, our guest's answers)

Live Question 1. What is your marketing strategy or plan to attract more users globally, especially in communities where English isn't spoken well?

Ian. Great question! As a global project, we have a global focus, and all our products can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Specifically for DeFi we are focusing on building partnerships across the globe as there are many individuals there that do not have access to traditional financial infrastructure. Turkey has a higher adoption of cryptocurrencies compared to many other countries so this really is a great fit for SUKU DeFi. To enter into the market, we are building partnerships with coop organizations and other entities that can help us access these individuals that can reap the greatest benefits from decentralized finance.

If you know any good partners in Turkey please reach out to me directly!! Really any entity that has access to unbanked individuals would be good.

Live Question 2. Ambassadors play a very important role in every project. Do you have an ambassador program? If yes, how can I be one?

Ian. Building a strong community is the heart and soul of any blockchain project. In addition to what I just mentioned, we already have many loyal SUKU Squad members and are always looking for creative ways of building our base. One of those ways is our Brand Ambassador program. We want to find a group of blockchain enthusiasts to engage, educate and empower the future generation of people interested in SUKU. This could be you!! We will be able to offer some perks for your time and efforts of course. Why not check out the link here. 

Live Question 3. What do you believe about the future of DeFi? What factors might make SUKU different, since DeFi involves multiple projects? What are the plans for Suku on DeFi?

Ian. My personal inspiration for DeFi, and really all of crypto, comes from the fact that it has the ability to actually help people who have been left out of the equation. Given crypto is permissionless and borderless, anyone can access it. Combine that with the power of DeFi and this new wave of financial innovation and the impact we can have as an entire industry is really exciting. Building out the DeFi ecosystem and accessing these individuals is where I see the future of our space.

I can't wait for when crypto is accepted like Venmo or PayPal. When Stablecoins are easy to use and when DeFi is mainstream. Personally, I saw the potential and just wanted to be here for the journey, helping push our industry forward.

Live Question 4. While you build your project, do you take into account community feedback and demands?

Ian. Yes absolutely! This is a great question. If anyone has any input or feedback on ANY of our products we want to hear that! You can interact with our team on our Discord server. If you want to interact with me and talk about anything DeFi follow me on Twitter! 

Live Question 5. How does Suku Infinite work? And how can I use Suku Infinite to verified a product!?

Ian. Great question! We combine NFT’s and NFC’s to create a digital-to-physical bridge between a physical asset and the digital representation of the physical asset. Through tamper-proof NFC tags and blockchain-based NFCs, we can do this in a secure way that wasn’t possible before. We are starting with sneakers. To verify a product you need access to the INFINITE App which you can get at getinfinite.io. Once your product is verified we can ship you an NFC tag in the mail to attach and active for your item!

Check out a video of how it works below.

Live Question 6. In 2020, Covid-19 happened all over the world. Does it affect your project and development, will your team have a new direction for 2021 while covid-19 is still there?

Ian. At the beginning of the year, we sent out an End of 2020 Letter to the Community. It would be a great time for you to visit our website and read it.

Live Question 7. What about SUKU network charges? What kind of work will we see on this? As you know, the Ethereum fee is much. Which infrastructures will you use?

Ian. The way we capture data can be very dynamic as one solution might not work universally. For example, we have TextMeCrypto which can be accessed by anyone with a feature phone, but if someone has a smartphone they could easily provide data to us in other methods. My plan for DeFi is to let the geographical location and user needs drive how we operationalize this. So if anyone has ideas on how best to distribute microloans to underserved individuals in Turkey reach out!!

After this answer, we came to the end of the 3rd stage and the whole event. We thank all our guests for not breaking our kind offer and for joining our community.

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