BitcoinX: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us today. So, tell us who you are and what your position is at BANKERA?
BANKERA: I am Vytautas Karalevicius, CEO of Bankera.
BitcoinX: Tell us – what is BANKERA? What is the main idea behind the project and why did you decide to start it?
BANKERA: Bankera is a bank for the blockchain era.
BitcoinX: When and why did you first decide to do an ICO?
BANKERA: Back in spring 2017, while this idea was in our minds for a long time (since the introduction of colored-coins). As we have everything needed and we are on the right track to setup a bank, the scalability issue is our key obstacle to be a successful bank. As a bank requires approx 20% of all loans issued as its own capital, so it would take a decade to bootstrap to a capacity even of a small-size bank. Therefore, we are doing ICO to overcome this obstacle and scale our IT and regulatory infrastructure at full scale.
BitcoinX: Tell us about what preparation was required to get the project to this point?
BANKERA: Actually it took as 4 years to achieve the level of IT and regulatory infrastructure we possess now. It all happened while we were developing bitcoin exchange spectrocoin.com. And as many knows, to overcome many issues every bitcoin exchange faces, we had to do a lot of vertical integration and to offer bank-like solutions for our clients.
BitcoinX: What makes this project especially exciting for ICO participants? What makes them want to join?
BANKERA: First of all it is that we already have a working prototype in a form of SpectroCoin.com will have a working product of Bankera, hopefully even before the ICO (in the worst case just after the ICO), so there won’t be any post-ICO waiting period. Second, we have a superior team and advisors, two of whom are members of the European Parliament (Antanas Guoga and Eva Kaili), Lon Wong, the president of NEM.io foundation is also on our advisory board as well as Modestas Kaseliauskas, a former head of the Lithuanian State Tax Authority (equivalent of HMRC or IRS).
BitcoinX: Where are you in the actual development phase of the project?
BANKERA: We are in the product phase in a form of SpectroCoin.com and ready to launch phase as Bankera.com
BitcoinX: After a successful ICO, what is the timeline for coming to market?
BANKERA: Less than 3 months, if we will not our product live before ICO. However, obtaining a bank license will take 1-2 years.
BitcoinX: Are you focused in any specific geographic areas?
BANKERA: Yes, we are focused on the Europe, Africa, Asia as well as South American markets.
BitcoinX: For those who have read your whitepaper and other info, is there anything else you want to add to convince them to participate?
BANKERA: Due to a speed of things a happening here at Bankera, we would advise them to participate in our Slack channel (even our advisors are active there), so you could feel the pulse of what is going on here.
