Summary of the Key Questions Raised during THEKEY MVP/Testnet Launch AMA on June 5th
Catherine Li, Chairwoman and CEO of THEKEY, held a global AMA on reddit on June 5th, 8 days after THEKEY released the MVP/Testnet Progress Report. For a better understanding, here is a summary of some typical questions raised by the community members.
1.Please give details on how Ontology (ONT) is related to your project and what kind of value proposition this is for holders of THEKEY (TKY). Is THEKEY open to work in all corners of the world that can use the BDMI technology?
THEKEY and Ontology are mutual beneficial. THEKEY is developing the MVP on NEO testnet. Ontology focuses on cross chains solution. But THEKEY will focus on IDV. We will together serve the same objective, to develop bilateral or multi-lateral trust in the digital world.
Currently we are running the MVP on NEO blockchain for Proof-Of-Concept purposes. THEKEY will eventually expand to other blockchains.
2. Does THEKEY have plans to develop this service outside of China?
Yes, we are expanding the business globally. As this point we are in discussion with several governments outside China.
3. Can you give more details on what other areas THEKEY will be used in outside of healthcare?
Every aspect of life is in need of IDV based on BDMI technology. i.e. security check, access permission, medical treatment and shopping, etc. For instance, exit and entry through customs is complicated. However, with THEKEY Ecosystem, things get easier via face recognition and fingerprint verification, backstage information, blacklist from public security office, visa record, flight information and hotel information, will ensure effective clearance by the customs.
4. THEKEY has the intention to provide identity verification service on the blockchain. What measures are used to provide privacy on the customers’ virtual identity?Will the digital identity be stored on the public ledger?
As it’s pointed out in our White Paper (https://www.thekey.vip/sites/default/files/pdf/THEKEY_Whitepaper_171112.pdf), we don’t store any PII (Personal Identity Information) either on the public leger or any devices. 1) We don’t set up our own data center, we use the government data; 2) The data never leaves the custody of the government, data can never be downloaded, and the data can never be seen by unauthorized person, while we are providing our IDV service.
For the next phase, we are going to apply database vault and database audit technology to create a security zone (SZ) or green zone. The private key and transitional PII will be processed in the SZ.
And as stated in the progress report, we understand the vital need to have equipment which is trusted and secure to underpin any of the work BDMI technology will be based on, and thus we look to develop exclusive hardware devices in the future.
5. Will the value of decentralization be hindered if the perception that critical data is within any government controlled? If this data belongs to the individual, can ordinary individual choose to update, limited access, or destroy the existence of data?
I haven’t found any blockchain project which is in definite decentralization and I believe it will be a hybrid of the decentralization and centralization. If you look the GDPR regulations and revision of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), it only touches the cyber data but not government data. An ordinary individual cannot freely update, limited access, or destroy the existence of government data. For instance, you cannot delete the data from wanted list.
In the future, the individual controlled database like twitter/facebook/google would be dramatically decreased and government controlled database will be strengthened.
6. Could you tell us more details about the expected adoption and implementation of THEKEY?
BDMI is still in MVP stage and there’s no one using BDMI currently. Let me clarify, 500 million data will be connected in next one year, but not the users adoption of THEKEY. It’s hard to set a specific timeline of the real breakthrough in blockchain technology for industrial application. PII (personal identity data) of 210 million people in 66 cities, authenticated by the relevant government authorities, are connected on a real-time basis. This constitutes a solid foundation of IDV. And the number will increase to 500 million in one year. After the launch of mainnet, DMI solution will gradually shift to BDMI solution.
7. As the TKY will be used to actually help the governments and public to ease existing processes and used in core industries, such as the insurance, would you expect a mechanism to exist to keep the price low so that the TKY is accessible to everyone, or do you believe this is solved as TKY is fractional? In that case, the smart contracts might need to be fractional as well.
There’s no guarantee of the stability of TKY price as clearly indicated in our disclaimer. However, TKY is indeed fractional, and there are up to 8 decimals of TKY.
TKY as utility token will be used in THEKEY ecosystem by participants to obtain the IDV service. There is a supply and demand economy for this kind of tokens. Since TKY token has fixed total amount, the supply and demand of TKY will impact its price. IDV service fee is paid by TKY. According to the market, the number of TKY needed for IDV service can be adjusted periodically based on the economic model by each IDV provider.
8. In the headlines there are an increasing number of competitors entering the market. Is THEKEY well positioned to maintain any competitive advantage it currently holds through patents and how long do you believe this will hold?
THEKEY is a unique project that our identity verification solution is using national big-data and blockchain. THEKEY is by far the only project utilizing the government data in this regard. At this point I haven’t seen any competitor in this field.
9. What consensus speed did you achieve?
As indicated in my progress report, in this phase, we focus on establishing the baseline technical feasibility proof. For the next stage, we will focus on improving the performance, efficiency and reliability of BDMI technology. So the consensus speed is not our concern at this stage.
10. Many teams still did not offer any products, but they got high ROI. While THEKEY did not get any returns for ICO attendees despite the product and work. What is your opinion about this?
Indeed it happens in ICO project that no product but with high token price. Product and token price are two different things. There are projects pursuing token price, and there are projects pursuing token value. I believe in the latter one. If there’s only token price but no product, it’s then a bubble and it’s not responsible for investors. As I stated before, bubble is beautiful but it will burst in the end. Investors participated in the project because they believe in us, then it’s my duty to development the product. The token price without value or the product as a support, it will eventually collapse. For the projects with great products, the token price might be low temporarily, but it will surely increase in the end as the project develops.
I agree that the token price management is important, but it has to be managed within the framework of legal, financial and ethical compliance. That’s also why we are working with all the leading accounting, legal and auditing firms in the world right from the beginning, which I believe has set a solid foundation for proper token management.
Currently the priority for THEKEY is to increase the value and development of the project itself instead of only increasing the token price.
11. Can you tell us more about KYC (Know Your Customer) cost in China? And what make hospitals, insurances, banks and governments will use TKY?
All service providers require certain level of KYC and the cost for each IDV service varies significantly. In our daily life, there are light IDV and heavy IDV application. Before THEKEY, there’s no existing IDV solution that serves heavy online IDV services to complicated application scenarios, like smart social insurance pay in hospital, auto reimbursement in insurance companies and government related businesses. As THEKEY is connected to validated government ID data on a real time basis to generate undeniable and unalterable IDV results, it can provide all levels of KYC, especially the heavy IDV applications.
12. The China ban has a great effect on THEKEY’s future. The mainnet will be launched at the end of 2018 and lifting the ban is no where in sight. If the ban is not lifted, is it legal for TKY to be using by the people?
This is also a fundamental issue for all ICO projects in China. By law, institutions and individuals are banned to acquire TKY or any other cryptocurrencies in the open market. Currently we are in discussion with Chinese government incl. the Central Bank regarding this issue. I am pretty sure we are able to work out a solution with the government in the not so distant future. And Chinese government is positively promoting the R&D of blockchain technology. I believe the high quality cryptocurrencies will be utilized in China, which includes TKY.
About THEKEY
THEKEY is a decentralized ecosystem of an identity verification tool using national big-data and blockchain. THEKEY project team is now developing an identification verification (IDV) tool with blockchain based dynamic multi-dimension identification (BDMI) by using Personally Identifiable Information (PII) which is exclusively authorized by government authorities. THEKEY token (TKY), is the only method to settle smart contracts signed between the participants in THEKEY Ecosystem. Now TKY is tradable on the exchange platforms, such as HitBTC, Bit-Z , KuCoin , LBANK.
For more information, please visit:
Website: www.thekey.vip
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thekeyvip
Telegram: https://t.me/THEKEYOFFICIAL
