BitcoinX: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us today. So, tell us who you are and what your position is at AMMBR?
AMMBR: I am Derick Smith, the managing director of the Ammbr Foundation, a not-for-profit set up in Singapore to further the goals of the Ammbr Network and its technology.
BitcoinX: Tell us – what is AMMBR? What is the main idea behind the project and why did you decide to start it?
AMMBR: Ammbr is the marriage of three core technologies. Blockchain and digital identity on the one hand, and wireless mesh networking on the other. The combination is a last-mile Internet connectivity and Edge Computing platform that has a built-in, secure economic and transactive subsystem.
BitcoinX: Blockchain technology is expected to alter the landscape and/or create efficiencies in almost every industry. In what ways does your technology address these?
AMMBR: We are initially targeting the very specific area of telecommunications where consumers connect to the Internet with their PC’s, Smart Phones, smart devices – the generalized mix we call Edge Computing. However, Ammbr is intended to be a platform for innovation at the edge of the network, and has the foundations required to deliver applications and services to people and machines. Security, connectivity, and the ability to transact using the power of the Blockchain.
BitcoinX: When and why did you first decide to do a Token Sale?
AMMBR: We have been totally self-funded in our developments to date, specifically because we were wary of the path external capital could take us on. I suppose we have a very ambitious vision, of taking the Internet to the nearly 60% of humanity that does not see all the benefits it brings. Our decision was to form a non-profit foundation to take custody of the core IP, and the overall governance of the network. The totally distributed nature of the three technologies I spoke of earlier lends itself to a community of users, much more so than a centralized, monolithic corporation. A token sale fits in very well with this philosophy.
BitcoinX: Tell us about what preparation was required to get the project to this point?
AMMBR: We have extensive experience in chip design, blockchain and telecoms, so the preparations were much easier than you may think on a technical front. We have an excellent team and great depth insofar as we have a wide circle of supporters that have been contributing behind the scenes. The electronics, mechanical design and the rather unique consensus mechanism we have invented, Proof of Velocity and Proof of Elapsed Time, all meshed – if you’ll pardon the term – extremely quickly.
We have also been fortunate to have the support of not only our own legal and financial team, but some outstanding entrepreneurs and business people we could tap into for advice and social capital. You appreciate the compliance battle we are all facing with guidelines only now beginning to emerge in so many economies. Benny Pang, as a prolific IPO lawyer, has been particularly instrumental in our meticulous preparations and structuring.
BitcoinX: What makes this project especially exciting for crowdsale participants? What makes them want to join?
AMMBR: I like to think that we bring a few unusual and possibly unique features to play in the current dialogue. Firstly, we are building an entirely new platform from the ground up, including two new chips – one for the Blockchain component, and the other for the wireless telecommunications. We are using self-sovereign digital identity, which is a hugely exciting technology in its own right. But the key aspect is the virality of what we are building. People will be greatly incentivized and motivated to take up, and use Ammbr Mesh Routers, and this will see us rapidly proliferate the largest blockchain, by number of nodes, in a very short period of time. Consider also the low power consumption, and the absence of any tendency towards centralization or concentration of mining power in few hands.
BitcoinX: Where are you in the actual development phase of the project?
AMMBR: We have quite a bit built, or in prototype. We are going to be growing the network slowly at first, generally within existing community mesh networks, where much of the operational expertise lies today. We will be using off the shelf telecoms components and FPGA miners to prove our concepts and identify operational issues. During this phase, we will complete our two chip design project and mature the protocols and device intelligence.
BitcoinX: After a successful Token Sale, what is the timeline for coming to market?
AMMBR: By early 2019 we will be ready for deployment of the version 2 hardware, and rapid scaling out of the network. We already have several regions we will be targeting, and local supporters already involved and eager to begin.
BitcoinX: Are you focused in any specific geographic areas?
AMMBR: Our primary targets are emerging markets, initially India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Kenya, Uganda, and a few others. There are also some niche opportunities in Europe and the US that we are investigating.
BitcoinX: For those who have read your whitepaper and other info, is there anything else you want to add to convince them to participate?
AMMBR: It is firstly important to understand what one is doing when making any financial decisions. I would urge people to get legal and financial advice, do their research, and be comfortable that they are neither overextending themselves financially, or exposing themselves to repercussions of any sort.
In terms of our project, we have tried to give a balanced view in our whitepaper, with sufficient information to make an informed decision. Of course with this level of technology it is impossible to put everything in a single document, and we are doing our best to make further information available for those who want to dig deeper.
