Trace Network 5th community event, Meet @traceraolokesh, Co-Founder @tracenetwork in a candid conversation with Crypto BharatCommunit.
Host: Good Evening Guys! Today we have Lokesh Rao from Trace Network for AMA. Let’s welcome him and kick-start the AMA.
Lokesh Rao: Hello Everyone, glad to be here.
Host: Let’s begin with Introduction, can you introduce yourself Lokesh?
Lokesh Rao: Sure, I have been working for over 12 years in enterprise technology space helping companies acquire and implement technology across more than 20+ countries. I have been actively building solutions for enterprises using DLT and Blockchain technology since 2017. Have worked with various global brands and fortune 500 companies in the past in luxury, lifestyle and fashion domain.
Host: That’s a ton of experience, glad to have you amongst us.
Lokesh Rao: Thank you. Pleasure is mine.
Host: Okay, Let’s talk about Trace Network. — Can you please tell us about Trace Network in detail?
Lokesh Rao: Trace Network is an enterprise-grade NFT based decentralized finance protocol harnessing the capabilities of composable smart contracts to enable permission-less financing options powered by DeFi, and NFT based unique merchandise identification & community building solutions to unlock the billions of dollars’ worth of business potential otherwise undermined due to poor merchandise inventory & ownership management, costlier trade financing & banking options, and perennial inefficiencies in par Diem business transactions.
Host: Wow! That’s very interesting. It justifies the hype we’ve been witnessing for Trace Network.
Lokesh Rao: Real problem , real solution always gets hype :)
Host: Yeah I agree with that point. We’re done with the introductory part, let’s get to the twitter segment.
Here comes the very first Question -
Lokesh Rao: Bring it :)
Host: How did you get the idea for Trace network? Starting of a project is the toughest time, how did you managed to get started? What were the initial difficulties you faced and how did you managed to overcome them?
Pretty Interesting Question it is.
Lokesh Rao: Indeed , it is an interesting one
While conceptualizing lots of solutions for various levels of retail and manufacturing industry , we realized the key challenges of the industry from decades are same ,tracing the product source, originality of products, disconnected data silos and show n cumbersome process of accessing the funds from institutions like banks. After getting introduced to blockchain in 2017, I along with partner Sunil started conceptualizing solutions to these challenges with the power of blockchain .
Starting was difficult though, however, we had good relationship with blockchain industry leaders , who helped us in structuring the product better and here we are today.
Host: Having partners always helps out. Let me present to you the another one from twitter
Who are your partners and investors? Partnerships are very crucial for a project to sustain in a long run. Can we see more partnerships in future for Trace network?
Lokesh Rao: Wow, it requires a lot to be revealed :)
Host: Everyone wants to know ☺️
Lokesh Rao: Well, our partner ecosystem comprises of lot of brands with whom we worked in past, also we are partnering with various web2.0 companies who are looking forward to upgrade with technology stack and offerings to their existing customer base. With one of such companies, we are going live in another 3–5 weeks. These partnerships will be announced soon.
Host: Yeah, let’s know your team.
Please tell me your team background and what makes your team interest to build this project? How did you managed to get started with your team in the pandemic times? Must have been a bit different than other times?
Lokesh Rao: Sure, We are two co-founders and have an able team of professionals as part of the main teams with experience in Blockchain, enterprise tech and global Solution foot print. I have given my background already. My other partner Sunil has been consulting on technology adoption for last 35+ years across Apparel / Fashion & Lifestyle domain , both in Retail & Manufacturing space in almost 50 countries.
This pandemic has made everyone across the industry to re-evaluate the possibilities of improving efficiencies , loopholes and that how adoption of real solutions has grown exponentially.
Host: Sounds a great team and Experience is Tremendous I would say
Host: 🔥👌
Lokesh Rao: 🙏
Host: Someone on twitter wants to know about the achievements of Trace Network. Let me present the question.
I want to know about the milestones you’re planning to achieve by the end of the year. What milestones have you been achieved till now?
Lokesh Rao: Ok, Trace’s journey is divided in 3 main segments, firstly getting brands to issue goods using NFTs for the purpose of digital ownership and originality, which will be released in 1st quarter of 2021..
Second, where we will enable business networks to share their data in a secured and anonymous manner with their chosen business partners, hence simplifying the process of data capturing at businesses. This will reduce the cost of duplicate data entry, and will also bring more transparency and efficiency to the whole process. This phase, will enable end to end traceability of the products on chain, being verified via Trace wallet.
And the final phase is where using this data to use act as proof of business, we will open financing options for businesses, where they can either take early payment or loan against their invoices or seek working capital financing from the protocol.
Since building enterprise solutions is a completely different game and we need to develop avenues for adoption of Trace Network, along with building and implementation of phase 1 release in 2021, we shall be building other NFT use cases like Brand Coupon NFTs, Warranty Management NFTs etc
Host: That’s very ambitious and unique. Must read info for our community members!
We have one last question left for this round, are you ready lokesh?
Lokesh Rao: Yes.
Host: Here we go, — Greetings Trace Network! I see that members from your team are in $EASYFI too. Do you have any partnership with them? If yes, what benefits are you looking from them? How they contribute to Trace Network?
Lokesh Rao: Well, We are working closely with various industry leaders. Details of all those will be released to the community in the coming weeks. We just announced our first partnership and relationship with Polygon to begin with. Stay tuned.
Host: Alright, That’s it for this round, hope you enjoyed answering questions
Lokesh Rao: Absolutely . Very unique and interesting ones.
Host: Now we’ll open chat to collect questions from our telegram members.
Lokesh Rao: Okay.
Host: Everyone please post quality questions and Do not send them again and again. Opening chat in next few seconds.
Telegram Questions.
Host: @traceraolokesh Stage is yours, pick some quality questions to answer
Vaibhav Gupta (Won’t Ask for Eth/Money), [05.04.21 15:45]
As an individual user, in what ways can I contribute to the development of TRACENETWORK project? Do you have Ambassador programs and what are its benefits?
[In reply to Vaibhav Gupta (Won’t Ask for Eth/Money)]
As trace protocol will evolve we will need for bigger team and more supporters to take flag further. For token holders, there are going to be various incentives and rewards being built into the protocol those will be generated based on the fees of the application.
Huệ Xuệ, [05.04.21 15:46]
In the long run, why should we trust and follow you and your project? How do you raise awareness and elimination of the doubts of investors / partners / customers?
[In reply to Huệ Xuệ]
First and foremost.. we are an enterprise focused business having real customers hence disappearing with user’s money is a big risk for us and the reputation. Secondly, we the founders have legit long standing industry reputation with more than 200+ companies world wide (not yet for trace, but as a result of previous work in the industry) no sensible person will ever do risk that for a simple money grab. Now last but not the least, Trace network is not starting with defi as a module, instead community modules based on NFTs. hence there will be enough test of time for the protocol and the team
Cristofar, [05.04.21 15:46]
How do you plan to promote about your project in different countries? where English is not spoken very well. Do you have a local community so they can understand your project?
[In reply to Cristofar]
We are working with our able advisors to enable reach into various different geographies and building solid regional communities..
Vaibhav Gupta (Won’t Ask for Eth/Money), [05.04.21 15:46]
What is business model of your project? How it works and who are your potential customers and which markets are you targeting on?
[In reply to Vaibhav Gupta (Won’t Ask for Eth/Money)]
We get paid from the enterprise companies we onboard for using the services we will be building on top of protocol for them. Potential customers are luxury brands, web2.0 companies who wants to offer new tech solutions to their existing customer base.
Huệ Xuệ, [05.04.21 15:46]
Right now issuing a token is a fairly simple process. However, building systems and ecosystems is the hardest part. My question is, how will the demand for tokens increase and how will this token be used in the ecosystem
[In reply to Huệ Xuệ]
Essentially, trace token is going to be acting as a key governance attribute to be used by token holders for voting and enabling various protocol parameters especially in the enterprise defi segment. Further, trace token will be used as fuel for minting NFTs for the millions of merchandise every year.
White Label Algorithmic stable coins are going to be key for cross network settlement, trace token will be used as a benchmark for managing the volatility of stable coins being minted.
Plus, token will be used for various community incentivization programs and other market outreach programs. These are some of the token utilities we have thought so far, however, the more we would move forward, the more utilities would come in place.
Lokesh Rao: I would love to reply to everyone of the questions, but time is a limit for us at point. Have another meeting to attend now.
Host: We understand that lokesh. Thank You for your valuable time and information you shared with us 👌☺️
Lokesh Rao: Likewise, thanks for your time as well. Lovely interaction. Dont forget to follow the announcement channel of trace to stay updated.
Have a nice day.
Join the Trace Network Community
Trace Network is an enterprise grade decentralized finance protocol harnessing the capabilities of composable smart contracts, permission-less financing options powered by DeFi and NFT based unique merchandise identification solutions to unlock the billions of dollars’ worth of business potential otherwise undermined due to poor merchandise inventory & ownership management, costlier trade financing & banking options, and perennial inefficiencies in par diem business transactions.
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