I just ran across this project and I was curious about what the community's thoughts were on this application. I don't own any stakes in the project yet but I am quite interested in their offering. They are claiming to have conceived of a process by which they can utilize blockchain technology sidechains to build an application that would negate the costs associated with sending short-message-service (SMS) transmissions. They claim that this cost saving application can be outsourced by data plan subscribers to telecom marketers to generate a personal income source for the subcriber while reducing the costs associated with their marketing strategy for the large telecom companies. It appears that they have conceived of a process by which they can reduce the costs, for the large telecom companies, associated with sending text messages, by taking advantage of the unlimited and unused data plans owned by individual data plan subscribers. It makes sense because the subscribers have already paid for the services so they should be allowed to sell off their unused data under market value, right?
What sparked my interest in this project is the utility of providing the opportunity for those who subscribe to mobile data plans to sell portions of their data plans to other markets. This utility seems like a no-brainer and if this team can actually implement this type of platform on a blockchain, then it could disrupt the way data plans are considered. I can see more users subscribing to unlimited plans just for the income opportunity that the SMSCHAIN offers and I can see high volume marketers bidding to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase data under market value. I imagine that many data plan subscribers who adopt the platform will actually get their mobile services paid for, completely, by outsourcing their subscription services. This technology may actually change the way data plans are structured and increase access to services to those who wouldn't otherwise be in a position to purchase more expansive data plans.
While the process is much more technically involved, here is a very brief description of how it will work. SMSChain will build an application which outsources data plans such that personal unused data can be bought under market value by large telecom companies who engage in application-to-person (A2P) marketing strategies. The telecom companies will pay for that data with a native SMSChain application token (SMST). The data plan owner will have full control over the quantity of their unused data plans they outsource, and they will be able to utilize, and set, in app filters to vet content that would negate concerns associated with liability.
I know that this sounds too simple to be viable, but according to their whitepaper, the team behind SMSChain has already launched a similar successful money-making application with nearly 100 000 downloads, Money SMS, and is planning to take what they've learned in that previous project to another level by utilizing and taking advantage of innovative sidechain technologies associaciated with the blockchain.
Now, I can imagine that some time in the future service providers may be impacted by an increase in their bandwidths if this technology is widely adopted and the number of unlimited data plan subscribers, opted into this platform, increases significantly. But, at the same time, I can also imagine a window of time where the application adoption rate is kept low due to an unawareness of the technology and due to its higher technological level of entry. Face it, the main stream population is just too weary or too ignorant to take advantage of the possibilities associated with these disruptive technologies.
What are your thoughts?
