Can you briefly describe what is JSEcoin? What technology stands behind JSEcoin?
JSEcoin is a blockchain project that started in 2017. The project is focused on bridging web and blockchain technologies. Our niche is the monetization of web content and we provide merchant tools for cryptocurrency payments, enterprise API’s, browser mining and an ad-exchange that uses cryptocurrency for micro-payments.
A lot of our users are website owners who use the JSE platform to monetize their costs of content.
https://platform.jsecoin.com
What is your background and how did you come to the idea to create JSEcoin project?
Originally background is in ad-tech and web development. We were working on a Javascript SHA256 hashing algorithm which could be run in a browser to mine Bitcoin. When we realised that the hash rate was not competitive with ASIC devices we saw the opportunity to develop our own network which could leverage surplus resources within web browsers to provide a consensus algorithm. From there we grew organically quite quickly in the bull market of 2017 and continued to build tools and develop tech for webmasters and developers.
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My background is in finance, where I’ve worked for some of the largest UK banks and asset managers across a number of areas. I have always been interested in alternative investments (such as cryptocurrencies) and have a CAIA charter – I became involved in the project in its early stages as I was very excited by what James and the team were trying to achieve
Thank you team! Can you describe why we should use JSEcoin? What kind of main advantages do users perceive in your platform?
I think the platform at https://platform.jsecoin.com is very intuitive and it should be accessible for non-technical users. The project appeals to different demographics for different reasons. E-commerce users can leverage the simple “Pay with Crypto” buttons to accept cryptocurrency for goods and services on their websites. Bloggers can use the ad-network and browser mining to monetize their content. Enterprise users can leverage our API’s via integrations with systems like Chainlink and Avaloq One.
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Lots of reasons:
For browser mining this uses only your computers excess resources (our blockchain is environmentally friendly)
For web mining this helps monetise your content
For the ad exchange this can help monetise your site
For ad buyers it’s a simple way of running campaigns
If you want to sell things on your website there’s a plug-in to accept payments in JSE, ETH or BTC
The enterprise APIs can help businesses use blockchain technology
As James says, everything is designed simply, so everyone can use the tools
Sounds interesting! What are the challenges and plans to make the JSE project popular?
Adoption is one of our key challenges and over the last couple of years it has been an up-hill battle due to the market downturn. At one point in 2017 our user-base was doubling every 3 days from organic word of mouth traffic. By mid-2018 when we did our ICO it was almost impossible to find anyone who was actively interested in developing or investing in the blockchain sector. I think we’ve started to see a turn around now with the halving due in May and hopefully the sector will stabilize from a markets and hype perspective.
We are very lucky to have organic growth. When a website users the browser mining it places an opt-in banner so the visitor has to give consent before any mining takes place. This leads to more users seeing the banner and setting it up on their site. This brings in a steady stream of new users to the project. Our advertising budgets are very limited so at the moment we are reliant on organic traffic and our fantastic community spreading the word.
Our marketing plan for 2020 highlighted Twitter and Youtube as two key social sites that people in our industry discover new content. Some of our focus this year will be on developing those channels and improving existing communications between the team and the users.
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The medium to long term goals are to grow each of our product areas to increase the use of the blockchain.
In the short-term we see most growth through partnering with businesses and enabling them to use the tools available (through our partnership with Avaloq- one of the largest software providers to banks and asset managers)
The tools are designed in such a way that small businesses can leverage blockchain technology too, as wider popularity and adoption grows we are ready to go.
This will help drive the use of the token which will bring more consistent users of the web mining and use of the other tools, such as the ad exchange
What is the JSEcoin team doing right now in addition to marketing? What do you do to improve the price of the coin?
Our main aim for 2020 is to secure funding for the project. Our costs are very low but as I mentioned we don’t have any advertising budgets to accelerate growth. VC funding would enable us to take the project to the next level in terms of development speed and outreach.
From a tech perspective we are hoping to launch an iOS app which has been developed but we have had issues getting approved for the iOS app store. The Android app is already live so if we can get approval from the app store then we will have a full suite of mobile apps that we can promote and build upon.
We have also been focusing on partnerships for our Enterprise API’s to link in to 3rd party systems and leverage developers already familiar with those systems.
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We’ve been leveraging the community at google campus in London (where we are based) – our partnership with chainlink and Avaloq to work on bringing enterprise customers on board to use the token.
Long term value for the token will come through its usefulness. We are trying to drive further use of the token.
We believe that by getting people to use the token they will understand the long term use case and be excited by the project.
With this excitement there will be further trading volumes too.
We have an open sourced buyback bot that buys back some tokens each month, the volumes required / bought will be dependant upon further business use of the blockchain too
Thank you for your answers team! Here is one of the questions from our community
In your blog you state “we take pride in operating an open ethical business”. Can you explain why and how JSEcoin is more ethical than other cryptocurrencies?
Well from the start we have always operated with full transparency.
Our entire code base is open-source at https://github.com/jsecoin
We publish monthly financial accounts at https://jsecoin.com/category/accounts/
The ultimate goal of the project is to create a carbon neutral blockchain. We are currently looking at applying for the B Corporation certification.
It’s not my place to criticise other projects but I think we do go out of our way to operate as ethically and transparently as possible.
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This is a big focus for us, as we believe that the usage of blockchain technology will grow considerably in the future.
We therefore try to adhere to the highest ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) standards we can.
We consider these factors in every decision that we make.
For example, the mining of the blockchain uses excess resources only and therefore doesn’t damage the environment (a big upside vs other blockchains) – Environment
Our rewards system for browser mining gives everyone a chance to earn tokens – Social
We publish accounts monthly, provide regular updates to our community and ensure that decisions are made with all stakeholders in mind – governance
All code is open sourced
As James has said we are looking to get accreditation to prove that we are an ethical company, with BCorp status being one of the things we would like
This also brings us into a community of ethical companies worldwide where we can share best practice and help each other using our services
What have you learned from early versions of the product or service? What are some of the major roadblocks along the way?
There are always learnings along the way when you start a new business, particularly using a new technology.
We’ve learnt to ensure that we spend focus time on the most valuable tasks, which is second nature to a team of developers working on tech projects but we’ve learnt to apply this to wider areas of the business too
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The first year scaling was the main challenge. It’s exceptionally difficult to scale the tech side but we were also trying to scale support and other things alongside it. Once you get to 100,000 users it becomes impossible to offer individual support with just a small team.
Another roadblock we found in the UK was that it was very hard to open a bank account for a company working in the blockchain industry. We were refused bank accounts at many of the highstreet banks and I think this is still a problem for UK companies despite London being dubbed a fintech hub.
From a development perspective I think that it was a steep learning curve in regards to having lots of users and doing quality testing before pushing out an update. In the very early days we were breaking things a lot and not testing code or doing code reviews before pushing out updates. This would cause problems and we’d spend a lot of time fixing things after a major update went out. Once we had unit tests in place and a more formal system in place for doing updates we have found that there are less problems and the time investment in testing pays for itself in time saved later.
Last but not least, how JSEcoin can guarantee security and profitability to your investors? What is the crucial thing, in your opinion, that would increase adoption and implementation of JSEcoin?
We have a number of tools to help keep our system safe, such as a pending rewards system and a number of machine learning algorithms that monitor activity on the network in real time.
I think you can always guarantee that people will try to hack the system or clients so we try to remain ahead of any prospective attacks
In terms of profitability, growing the use of the coin will help grow demand for the coin which should in turn increase its value. As we’ve said earlier we have a number of exciting partnerships with large well known companies and we will be working hard to grow the use of the coin
Longer term the use of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is going to increase and we are in a great place to help with this
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Unfortunately there are no guarantees and investors should be wary of projects that offer guaranteed returns.
The reason we are focused on securing funding is that this will give us the capital resources to expand the project and reach a tipping point in adoption. As a JSE stakeholder token utility is key as this provides long-term demand.
The team are committed to developing solutions around the JSE network, bridging web and blockchain technologies. We have a target market and with adequate funding we can establish ourselves as a market leader in the sector.
Thank you team! Well, I believe we are done with today’s AMA, it was a pleasure to have you with us answering these questions with so much details and passion! I think James and Matthew will be happy to answer any additional questions afterwards.
As mentioned previously, the 5 lucky users who had their question selected will be rewarded with $10 worth in JSE tokens, so stay tuned! ? And do not forget, if you are interested in JSE, you can buy them here: https://go.latoken.com/dl
Thank you to everyone that sent in a question. Here are some links if you would like to learn more or follow along with our project:
https://jsecoin.com/blog
https://twitter.com/jsecoin
https://t.me/jsetelegram
https://www.youtube.com/c/JSEcoin
https://github.com/jsecoin
and of course the best way to learn about the project is to setup an account and have a look around the platform at https://platform.jsecoin.com
https://jsecoin.com/latoken-ama-write-up/