KORA TOKEN REVIEW

joppa (25)in #ico • 7 years ago

What is Kora ?

The Kora Project is a project of hope for billions of people who are under served by the current financial system and are burdened by expensive and inconvenient access to financial services.

PROBLEMS

High Cost to Serve

Opening bank branches in rural or remote areas is unprofitable due to high costs
such as property fees, staff headcount, and IT infrastructure. To offset these costs,
banks charge high fees for account maintenance, ATM withdrawals and money
transfers Physical travel is another issue; it can sometimes take more than a day to
reach bank branches or ATMs.

Misconception that the Underserved have Little Value

The general perception is that underserved customers would be transacting in “small”
amounts. However, PWC estimates that the global unbanked population holds at least
$360 billion in unmet deposits in 2016 alone. In addition, a 2016 McKinsey report
estimates that widespread adoption of financial services through digital finance could
result in a $3.2 trillion increase in GDP of all economies by 2025

Lack of Identification Documents

According to the World Bank, 1.5 billion people worldwide lack any form of valid
identification. Official or valid ID for opening a bank account is often difficult to
obtain in developing countries

Lack of Trust and Technological Understanding

Many people without bank accounts perceive banks as unsafe. There still exists a
widespread lack of trust in financial technology, including ATM’s and online banking.

Lack of Financial Literacy

We believe that with limited financial literacy, people may be at risk of making poor
decisions, including taking loans with interest rates they may not be able to pay,
getting involved in pyramid schemes, or paying unreasonably high charges on
remittances or foreign exchange mark-ups

KORA IS THE SOLUTION

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Low Cost
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The people with the least wealth are those who need financial services the most. We aim to include everyone in the Kora Network.

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Universal Access
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Even if they don’t have Internet or extensive technological understanding, we expect that
everyone will benefit from Kora.

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Engagement with Existing Communities
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Local financial service providers and networks have always existed. Kora will enable them instead of replacing them.

The Kora Ecosystem

We believe Kora will build wealth by creating self-sustaining, community-owned ecosystems. “Self sustaining” means the wealth in the community as a whole grows, and “community-owned” means participants in the existing community take on most of the key roles within the ecosystem.

EFiat

eFiat are digital versions of national currencies that are 100% backed by cash reserves, and redeemable on a 1:1 basis. eFiat will increase ease of use and adoption by offering users the benefits of digital currency in a form they
understand and trust.

Community Value Networks

Kora aims to empower instead of displacing existing communities. Communities already providing ad hoc financial services will join the join Kora Network as Community Value Networks (CVNs). CVNs can be utilized for a variety of use cases:

FARMING COOPERATIVES

Farming cooperatives can use a CVN to ensure the proper use of funds when buying commodities, selling produce and distributing proceeds.
SAVINGS GROUPS
Savings groups can use a CVN to securely pool capital in eFiat and govern the use of that capital.
NATIONAL TRADE UNIONS

National trade unions can set up CVNs both nationally and as local chapters to establish anticorruption practices and operational transparency

Driving Adoption

Universal Access

Feature phones and SMS are still the dominant means of communication in
developing nations, and Kora can be utilized with even the cheapest feature phones, or users can input a short code-number via USSD. Kora will also provide a smartphone and web-based application. The user’s transaction history will be stored on the blockchain and will be accessible if the user later upgrades to a smartphone.

Identity

An estimated 1.1 billion people worldwide cannot officially prove their identity.
Proof of identity is a significant barrier to accessing financial services. Kora will
provide a flexible on-boarding process that will allow users to join the Kora Network in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Upon joining, users will build reputation scores connected to their actions within the Kora Network, as well as the actions of the users they are connected to and transact with within the Kora Network. The user’s transaction limits and access to services will increase as they add more documentation and prove themselves to be honest and credible actors. The actual proof of “identity” of users draws on the model pioneered by uPort, with a focus on both privacy and recoverability.

Low Cost

The Kora Network aims to simplify operations so that new Providers can provide financial services to Users without the cost of establishing and running a front-to back financial institution. Kora will make launching a financial services business as inexpensive and easy as launching a new instance on AWS -- at low cost and with access to all functionality on the Kora Network. Core software will be run on the decentralized stack, and anyone can customize this software. Members can link and exchange financial services to other users on the Kora Network with low costs and near-instantaneous transaction speeds. We expect the balance of power to shift, and financial service providers would have to compete for customers, driving down prices for users.

Token Sale Details

The launch of the Kora Network, and the token creation and emission process, will be organized around the Kora Network public blockchain. The goal of our token sale is to decentralize ownership of KNT to ensure the crypto-economic stability of our network, and to exchange KNT for capital to execute on our vision of unleashing the world's potential for wealth creation and becoming a leader in financial services.
• Contributors supporting the development of the Kora Network can do so by sending Bitcoin or Ether to the designated address.
• The KNT received by a contributor is fixed at the USD price at which they bought it. The hardcap for the Token Sale is $24 million.
• Further details about the Token Sale will be released online. Sign up on our website to stay up to date, and to complete the contribution process.
• The Token Sale will be split into two phases: Pre-Sale and Public Sale.
• The minimum investment amount for the Pre-Sale is $5,000.
• There is no minimum investment amount for the Public Sale, and the maximum is $1 million per unique identity.
• Excess contributions will be refunded.
• Kora Technologies Limited controls the contract, and the multi-sig address to which funds will be sent.
• KNT will be distributed to Contributors as an ERC20 token after the token sale is completed. KNT-ERC20 tokens can be redeemed for KNT on the Kora Network when the public blockchain is launched in Q3 2018.
• All unsold tokens will be burnt.

Token Distribution