An exclusive Interview with the CEO, KuBitX, Eric Annan.

An exclusive Interview with the CEO, KuBitX, Eric Annan. What we seek to achieve in this Interview is to tell people about KuBitX and what they are doing as a company in the Blockchain Industry.

Please, answer the questions below Sir. The answers will give a structure to the interview

1) Tell us how you started KuBitX? The whole motivation was born out of numerous scams I personally experienced, painted as life-saving opportunities in 2016/17 when I had just been introduced to blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The experience was so devastating and many relationships dashed due to information asymmetry at the earliest stages of my journey into the blockchain. It must be noted that 99% of scam projects entered the continent from Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. A lot of people, including myself, fell victim to the quest to make money from the wave of ICOs, trading platforms that were just like ‘birds pecking the teeth of a crocodile’.The lesson drew my curiosity to go on self-education extensively, attending global conferences to understand the impact of the technology. That exposed me to reading a book called “The 7th Disruption: The Rise of the Digital Currency '' by Thomas McMurrain. That ignited my desire to build a rail as a creator and pioneer in this new world, the blockchain and its associated innovation in the 4IR. I then incorporated a company by name digitalkudi.com, it was one of the few aside NairaX then in 2017 to sell and buy over 7 different digital assets on the website in Nigeria and Ghana. Then, December 2017, I travelled for a vacation in Seychelles, on that trip, my worldview and by inspiration, a higher calling dorn on me to look for more hands for us to truly build something of impact, instead of just doing a one-man business to have no relevance (impact-driven business) after citing a Cambridge Research work on cryptocurrencies and blockchain shared by my colleague Victor; its disruptive nature for the entire global financial system. That was where I reached out to Alexandre Amadeu Filipe from Angola-whom I didn't know in person but both were on the WhatsApp pages of the University of Nicosia- Free online intro to digital currency program. Sold the idea of collaboration to him for over two months and finally bought into it and then, I finally invited Victor Akoma Philips, a friend and brother. Victor and I were both beaten severely by these Ponzi schemes and scams in 2016/17 whilst he was with DellEMC in Nigeria, until he left for DellEMC Canada, July of 2017. Lest I forget, I actually invited Victor to be part of digitalkudi.com then, but he was not handy as he was new into Canada, so he didn't buy into that idea. But, when the bigger plan was sold to him, it took him two weeks and he came back with a big Yes. We held our first meeting on the 20th February 2018 via skype by the three of us to discuss the plan of cofounding an ambitious project to drive a movement of building an infrastructure to position Africa to have a deeper skin in the new disruptive wave.

KuBitX is a movement. KuBitX is an idea and a philosophy of creating new possibilities from scarcity orientation to abundance narrative. It is a passionate drive involving selfless Pan African professionals jointly creating an impact-driven business and solutions to solve real-world problems leveraging blockchain technology.

2) In your own words, tell us how the blockchain industry has impacted the world? In simple terms, it is a technology that has no known parents, yet serves anyone globally without restrictions as in requiring patent or copyright permission to use. In other words, it is a technology that’s open to anyone to build or identify a problem of society and just create an easy to use solution to benefit the society at almost no cost. In my own words, it is the solution for Africa to leapfrog and meet developmental lacuna as compared to Asia, UAE, Europe and North America. Blockchain has enabled so many possibilities and exposed the massive decay in the current financial system and its inefficiencies.

The technology has displaced the shadow and the secrecy around money, its usage as a means of exchange and store of value. The store of value has over the years eroded by the undisciplined nature by which private banks through lending and central banks in the form of quantitative easing print more papers to shore up the systems on the screen of computers backed by nothing except to erode the purchasing powers of citizens over and over again

It has changed the remittance industry which average global fees stands at 7% to near zero, afford new wealth distribution mechanisms and totally changed the way to have access to banking or financial services through peer to peer decentralized value transfer via mobile phone.

3) What do you think will happen to this industry in the next 10 years? I think, there will be more institutional adoption through partnerships and collaboration, there will also be more understanding of its use cases and completely change the ordinance of the current financial order. In the words of Victor Olorunfemi-VP Products & Technology- Using Digital Assets and Blockchain technology does require certain technical knowledge just as other technology products. But People need to be shown how more activated, versatile, superior, transparent, swift and interchangeable their “money” becomes when it gets ‘tokenized’. This should be done without much of a lecture as to how it works. “My old uncle does not necessarily understand TCP/IP, all he wants is to bring out his phone, tap on the FaceTime app icon and get a call across to the other side of the world.” That is how we have simplified our decentralized based solution to appeal to any class of users. Beyond this creation, also notes that crypto will become more mainstream and KuBitX will be among those pushing the frontiers using a combination of “dumb but brilliant solutions”, and a passionate grassroots educational movement to help people in emerging economies attain more financial inclusion in this 21st century.

4) Will the Blockchain Industry have a huge effect in Africa? Absolutely, as I indicated earlier, the continent has the right population mix, the median age is about 19 years old, which makes the continent the youngest in the world, these millennials are technologically savvy, they are opportune with access to the same information G dude in San Francisco has via social media or the popular google. The continent has the highest both java and smartphone penetration which is projected to grow to over 632 million by 2022, mobile money usage is over 122 million across the continent, all driven by the knowledge class of the population mix in Africa today. Live data for crypto adoption Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia etc tops the list, this gives one an indication of how blockchain adoption is being driven by Africa, no wonder all the Chinese based companies are entering the continent by proxy. This also is true that we have our own destiny to protect, else we will just remain consumers and followers in the very near future where data is the new oil, driving global economic supremacy. If Africans do not prioritize and bury our inordinate ego of control to that of influence to build an Africa centric infrastructure that truly has the interest of the continent not just for those who only see the continent as a fertile ground for milking. Which is the main reason why myself and the team at KuBitX are driving a new African narrative, in a manner that is rare in our orientation to have people sacrificing their current comfort to selflessly drive a mission of impact and value! I dare say, there are deeper conscious Africans across the continent who are tired of the old narrative and are determined to be a part of a new challenge to place the continent on the map of influence.

5) What impact do you think the recent halving of the bitcoin will have in the industry? Well, I am not in the speculative side of bitcoin, and if you look at it from the angle of those who see it as an easy way to make quick money, then, the halving otherwise known as a deflationary mechanism built into the core protocol as a way to position bitcoin as a global asset class and a store of wealth, it is surely going to impact its demand and the whole psychology around it popularly known as ‘FOMO’ (Fear of Missing out).

Take, for example, the current financial system that keeps printing paper money backed by nothing through quantitative easing by central banks and private banks through the lending of infinite quantities to an asset that is built with a defined quantity of just 21 million and will go through this phase of halving till 2140, you can imagine in simple economic terms like,’more demand trigger higher price; more supply trigger lower prices’. But for me, I am interested in my mother using bitcoin or any other digital asset to recharge her phone or go to the fish market and be able to buy foodstuff with it. That is our driving motivation of building solutions that can facilitate mass adoption and ability to use bitcoin and other assets seamlessly. That is what we have today on our KBX wallet available on android and iOS to be released later this month, where we have achieved using KBX tokens and other digital assets to pay for religious fees, flight, cable TV, airtime, school fees, hotels, flights, swap it to fiat and many more.

6) What concerns about the future of blockchain keeps you up at night? The major concern that borders me and keeps me the last 27 months of embarking on this mission with my team, is achieving African economic liberation using technology powered by blockchain. I am of the belief that Africans are the only one to solve the African problem with sincerity and commitment to affect bottom-up wealth distribution. My greatest joy will be where we've built a blockchain tech stack where we own the source codes, own the nodes and proven superior technical abilities than all the available blockchains protocols flying all over the space. Remember, when Satoshi Nakamoto published the initial Bitcoin White Paper, his desire was to achieve a true decentralized financial system controlled by none, and redistribute wealth to the global citizens. This idea has been hijacked by the greed of the early pioneers and I can guarantee that 99% of all blockchain protocols have a defect in governance structure, where the large incentives go to the founders. I know as a black African my true identity is related to empathy, compassion and kindness, that is our original nature, hence Ubuntu (You are because I am; I am because You are). Imagine we have an African centric blockchain protocol built with this identity in mind, what can we do to change lives on an equitable basis to cement the ideals of decentralization becomes endless possibilities.

7) What greatest Challenge have you faced with the company? Hmmmmm….well, I will rather say, interesting learning curves as I know the mission is not a sprint but rather a marathon and it's a journey, not a destination. Challenges are a part of the overall accomplishment. I will also say, my biggest challenge would’ve been my fear of not daring to start this ambitious yet scary mission with my team who have stood in our weaknesses and arrested the storm in styles you never imagine could be possible. We were ready to fail than to be successful, hence going into it, our failure targets were higher than our chances of success. As an entrepreneur, my litmus test is not my success which has so many failures before the overall success being the least part of the journey but in reality that is what attracts the attention.

It is my biggest challenge as it was a new orientation we have to deliberately push intentionally to prepare the team to be ready for the twist and turns on the lonely path of being an entrepreneur. Today, with that in mind and the doggedness of the team, we are not where we want but we are definitely shaping the landscape and building something that will be part of the continental drive for digitalization.

8) What have you learned this year that surprised you the most amid the Coronavirus Pandemic? What I have learnt from the raging effect of Covid-19 pandemic is, be prepared every day, because death is sure, life is short, health is wealth, there are no more secured jobs, globalization has reached its plateau, protectionism has taken the centre of global geopolitics, leadership orientation in Africa is put to critical scrutiny and the way we do business has forever changed and the entire global economic ordinance is permanently dislocated and new world order is born with the pandemic. I see more opportunities than lamentation, I think it has presented Africa and its citizens to be system thinkers,change-makers and impact-driven solutions from the private to the public and most importantly, policymakers must be willing to respect their own people to solve our problems instead of importing everything including face masks.Covid-19 has also changed the manner we work, remote working has become just a normal phenomenon and we at KuBitX feel normal because we have built the company from inception with a multi-diverse team scattered across the continent and beyond working closely in a stylish remote faction...

9) Where do you see KuBitX you be in ten years? The KuBitX wallet or “Financial Passport '' is a full-stack Blockchain Utility wallet with a spot price purchase feature which enables users to swap their digital assets and make utility bill payments across Africa, sending value across the world using our swap feature. Our goal is to capture conservatively 10% of mobile money transaction in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) which stood at over $19b as at 2019, have 10% of the $40b remittance into SSA processed through our wallet and overall utilities and bill payments share of 15% which is projected to grow to about $7b by 2022 and quadrupled by 2030. Our fees will remain the industry competitive benchmark with our year on year revenue growth on volumes as we expect to capture 1-10 million users within the period, where our LTV of a user will be around $300 a year on average. Our goal is to become the most diverse decentralized mobile payment provider for buyers, sellers, institutions, and everyday people leveraging the Blockchain to foster financial inclusion in the continent.

KuBitX aims to be one of the most advanced and robust global hybrid decentralized finance platforms designed to embrace the idea of “Simplicity” and “Accessibility,” empower and educate people and embrace the technological revolution of Blockchain and its numerous use cases.

We want to make the wallet an everyday use in Africa, just like we have WeChat in China. We hope our solution will be part of a new plan to digitize Africa. We want our wallet to be the first call for any donor into Africa, where they can donate directly to the recipient without going through a third-party. We want to eliminate fraud and corruption in NGO, venture, and our marketplace. We want it to be a wallet of trust and without any exploitation. We want to become that company who becomes the centre of user friendly, meeting users' needs ahead and proactively making them our top priority. In this part of the world, companies over the years have treated users/consumers as though they are doing them a ‘favour’, we want to challenge that by bringing a new narrative of making users the most priced partners in our equation, without the users, none of our intuitive solutions will make sense.

10) What favourite Project do you hold? This probably the most fascinating question, I was ICO addict, in fact, I lost count of ICOs I invested in 2017, the saddest of all were these projects SwissBorg, Envion, Naga, Tpay, Presearch, PlexCoin, FuzeX, these guys raised dollars in millions but till date nothing to show for it. Imagine, if I was short-sighted with this technology, the scar of the scam would have driven me away from this interesting innovation. However, there is a project I invested in called Lockchain now called Loctrip. I think it's one of the best in terms of what they plan to solve in the hospitality industry. I still hold the tokens and hope it becomes a reality as we in KuBitX despite difficulties in raising substantial funding have built a product out of true vision and desire to be a reference point to millions, the trust and potential of this technology.

Thank you,