[KOBO] Kobocoin - Mobile Money for Africa

[opticoin]

right now.. price is stable @ around mid 70s..   successful trial of remittance and outdoor ads will likely push this above 100s... gone are the days when you can scoop posted 100ks-300ks or wait when somebody dumps 100ks to 300ks..  it's more difficult now to get into the top 10 list without upwardly distorting the price.
 

[LionOfNarnia]

Don't know if this is something you'd consider emulating, but it's certainly worth knowing about....

https://twitter.com/FalconwingNews/status/619924148140277761

[TheTribesman]

UPDATE: (Screenshot heavy!)

I think I spoke too soon about no late nights. More android developer issues so I'm back to doing it myself again.  Anyways, I've added the exchange rate feature.

Below is the landing page showing Nigerian Naira (NGN) as the default currency.



The Exchange Rates menu item is enabled. If you press the wallet balance it also takes you to the exchange rates.



Exchange rates selection is as with other crypto wallets. Pin a currency to make it your default. KOBO price is taken from Cryptonator (we might be the first android wallet to use their service). Nigerian Naira is default in screenshot below.



Send/Receive in default currency



For now, the following African currencies are supported.

- Egyptian Pound (EGP)
- Kenyan Shilling (KES)
- Nigerian Naira (NGN)
- South African Rand (ZAR)

KENYAN SHILLING


SOUTH AFRICAN RAND


THINK GLOBAL, TRADE LOCAL

With the exchange rate feature added we can also start to push our 'Think global, Trade local' initiative. How it works:

1. Go to a supported nation.
2. Select the local currency as the default for your wallet
3. Trade with other local kobocoin users in local currency (we're already doing it with KOBO/GBP in London - amongst friends)

This means that Kobocoin users can trade in local currency for goods and services (P2P) wherever they are in the world. That's a simple statement with very big implications!

I'll be cleaning the code and uploading the update over the next few days to Play, Amazon, and BBWorld. If you want the apk before then to play with, PM me and I'll send you a link to it.

Over the last few days I've been upgrading the Abe servers and software. The wallets are syncing fine now with no workaround, but once in a while the Kobocoind daemon keeps falling over. I'm looking into this.

There's a few more things going on, but I'll leave it at that for now.
 

[TheTribesman]

Don't know if this is something you'd consider emulating, but it's certainly worth knowing about....

https://twitter.com/FalconwingNews/status/619924148140277761

NO!
 

[LionOfNarnia]

Don't know if this is something you'd consider emulating, but it's certainly worth knowing about....

https://twitter.com/FalconwingNews/status/619924148140277761

NO!
 

PMSL!

I bet I hate rap more than you do, Bro

- Being a 40+ year Prog Rocker.

[TheTribesman]

Don't know if this is something you'd consider emulating, but it's certainly worth knowing about....

https://twitter.com/FalconwingNews/status/619924148140277761

NO!
 

PMSL!

I bet I hate rap more than you do, Bro

- Being a 40+ year Prog Rocker.

Lol. I love rap, hip hop, and poetry. I'm just not a rapper! It would be sad, not funny.
 

[LionOfNarnia]

Don't know if this is something you'd consider emulating, but it's certainly worth knowing about....

https://twitter.com/FalconwingNews/status/619924148140277761

NO!
 

PMSL!

I bet I hate rap more than you do, Bro

- Being a 40+ year Prog Rocker.

Lol. I love rap, hip hop, and poetry. I'm just not a rapper! It would be sad, not funny.
 

Give this a whirl, dude - it'll be like a jacuzzi for your music glands

https://youtu.be/3E98C5BcXnE

[panagot]

Wonderful job so far. This coin has a great developer and it's surprising low in the radar from many people involved in crypto.

[torrantz]

This is by far the most interesting altcoin in the last years.
Even if it will take 10 years,KOBO will get there with hes one man army.

Much respect to TheTribesman!!!

[TheTribesman]

Thanks for the kind words and great support! We're still here!

A reminder

Micropayments, on a massive scale

One of the core features and selling points of kobo is that the naming of it's subdivisions is human friendly. This USP allows users to more easily trade at different levels depending on what they're buying or selling. The screenshots below demonstrate the massive scale of micropayments possible using the different kobo denominations.

KOBO




MANILLA (1000 MANILLA = 1 KOBO)




COWRIE (1000 COWRIE = 1 MANILLA)




MANSA (100 MANSA = 1 COWRIE)
Same as satoshi unit. Not yet displayed in the wallet.

Manilla and Cowrie have their own internal icon (manilla icon shown below):


With the ability to trade in local currency, it really now makes it a formidable micropayment tool.

Let's hope it doesn't take 10 years though!
 

[vince232]

Lucky guys who were able to buy at below 200

[torrantz]

Lucky guys who were able to buy at below 200

FOOLS who sold @ those prices 

[TheTribesman]

UPDATE:

Kobocoin Android Wallet V2.1.2 is now released.

- Includes support for over 150 world currencies including BTC
- Minor layout changes

Please goto Google Play or Amazon Store and update your app.

Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tribesman.kobocoin_android_wallet

Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kobocoin-Wallet-BETA/dp/B00XR73N9S

I'm in the process of updating the screenshots for the new wallet.

The updated wallet has also been submitted to Blackberry World. I'm just waiting for it to be published. BlackBerry approval can take up to 7 days.

[TheTribesman]

UPDATE:

We have an opportunity to become a traded coin on Bittrex. This means KOBO will be traded against all cryptos listed on Bittrex. With the low volume we're experiencing I'm not sure if it's wise at this time. There's also a cost involved that's not trivial.

Any comments?

[TheTribesman]

UPDATE:

The full list of African currencies supported by the v2.1.2 mobile wallet is shown below:

AOA   Angolan Kwanza
BWP   Botswanan Pula
DJF   Djibouti Franc
DZD   Algerian Dinar
EGP   Egyptian Pound
KES   Kenyan Shilling
LRD   Liberian Dollar
LSL   Lesotho Loti
LYD   Libyan Dinar
MAD   Moroccan Dirham
MZN   Mozambican Metical
NAD   Namibian Dollar
NGN   Nigerian Naira
RWF   Rwanda Franc
SCR   Seychelles Rupee
SDG   Sudanese Pound
SLL   Sierra Leonean Leone
SOS   Somali Shilling
STD   São Tomé & Príncipe Dobra
SZL   Swazi Lilangeni
TND   Tunisian Dinar
TZS   Tanzanian Shilling
UGX   Uganda Shilling
ZAR   South African Rand
ZMK   Zambian Kwacha
ZWD   Zimbabwe Dollar

My biggest irritation is that I couldn't get the Ghanaian Cedi (GHC) listed before the update. I've since found out that Ghana has changed their ticker from Ghana Cedi (GHC) to Ghana New Cedi (GHS). This will be added to the next update.

So, African currencies to be added to the next update (where possible) are:

ERN   Eritrean Nakfa
ETB   Ethiopian Birr
GHS   Ghanaian Cedi
GMD   Gambian Dalasi
GNF   Guinea Franc

The full list of currently supported (and unsupported) world currencies can be found here:
http://kobocoin.com/KOBO_Currencies.xls

I'll be making a full list for the website to give it a bit of bling (sorted by continent). For now, it'll just be links to the spreadsheet.

[opticoin]

+ for this... this might solve the apparent lack of participation/interest among traders and boost the volume..
any update on the remittance trial?..  I saw the twitter pic with payments to taxi,  meats, onions, bola (what's a bola?).. is kobo accepted in some markets already?

  thank you Tribesman!

UPDATE:

We have an opportunity to become a traded coin on Bittrex. This means KOBO will be traded against all cryptos listed on Bittrex. With the low volume we're experiencing I'm not sure if it's wise at this time. There's also a cost involved that's not trivial.

Any comments?

[TheTribesman]

+ for this... this might solve the apparent lack of participation/interest among traders and boost the volume..
any update on the remittance trial?..  I saw the twitter pic with payments to taxi,  meats, onions, bola (what's a bola?).. is kobo accepted in some markets already?

  thank you Tribesman!

UPDATE:

We have an opportunity to become a traded coin on Bittrex. This means KOBO will be traded against all cryptos listed on Bittrex. With the low volume we're experiencing I'm not sure if it's wise at this time. There's also a cost involved that's not trivial.

Any comments?

Bola is a Nigerian name . The listings in the screenshot are an example to show the transaction and address labelling feature of the wallet when it's being used, rather than random listings. In crypto we're used to what the mobile wallets look like. When someone (who's not heard of cryptocurrencies before) checks the app they'll be less confused about what they're looking at.

The signs are positive that we'll be on a payment gateway this week. If it happens then I can contact the online retailers we've discussed on this thread (and others) about integrating payments on their site. If we can achieve that for one of the retailers then we'll have a good marketplace for kobo users.

The remittance trial is still being worked out. There's a few choices being looked at for redeeming kobo at the receivers end. I can't give a date at the moment.

The yellow light is flashing again on the Bittrex listing. With the constant threat of being delisted I'm even wondering if KOBO is better off on Yobit. On yobit we'd have a decent volume and we'd still maintain our listings on coinmarketcap and all the relevant sites. I'm not sure becoming a traded coin will help the situation. It might increase participation, or it might not, or there might be a volume threshold for maintaining a traded coin listing that we also won't be able to maintain.

[EleanorZ]

The yellow light is flashing again on the Bittrex listing. With the constant threat of being delisted I'm even wondering if KOBO is better off on Yobit. On yobit we'd have a decent volume and we'd still maintain our listings on coinmarketcap and all the relevant sites. I'm not sure becoming a traded coin will help the situation. It might increase participation, or it might not, or there might be a volume threshold for maintaining a traded coin listing that we also won't be able to maintain.

That needs to be weighed against the optics of Bittrex delisting, though.  Do you think the benefit of better volume on Yobit outweighs the cost of negative delisting-related PR, and the potential perception that Kobo is flatlining?  I don't know the answer, but until some of the cool things in the Kobo pipeline are operational I think we need all the exposure we can get.

Re: being a traded coin on Bittrex, I think that's a great idea at some point, but if there's a cost involved that could otherwise go to Kobo development, I don't think there's any reason to rush into it.

I haven't posted in a while but have been following the progress with interest--thanks for all your good work!

[TheTribesman]

The yellow light is flashing again on the Bittrex listing. With the constant threat of being delisted I'm even wondering if KOBO is better off on Yobit. On yobit we'd have a decent volume and we'd still maintain our listings on coinmarketcap and all the relevant sites. I'm not sure becoming a traded coin will help the situation. It might increase participation, or it might not, or there might be a volume threshold for maintaining a traded coin listing that we also won't be able to maintain.

That needs to be weighed against the optics of Bittrex delisting, though.  Do you think the benefit of better volume on Yobit outweighs the cost of negative delisting-related PR, and the potential perception that Kobo is flatlining?  I don't know the answer, but until some of the cool things in the Kobo pipeline are operational I think we need all the exposure we can get.

Re: being a traded coin on Bittrex, I think that's a great idea at some point, but if there's a cost involved that could otherwise go to Kobo development, I don't think there's any reason to rush into it.

I haven't posted in a while but have been following the progress with interest--thanks for all your good work!

Thanks, and I'm glad to see you're still with us

I agree with you (especially about the negative perception in being delisted), but we've been fighting that battle for some time now. It won't actually be better volume on Yobit, but we won't be delisted for a few slow days. We had a sustained increase in volume for a few days on Bittrex, but now it's slowed we're again threatened with delisting. I guess I'm preparing in case, at some point, volume does not exceed .2 BTC for seven days.

CoinToPay should be adding KOBO tomorrow (let's say sometime this week to be safe). We're constantly moving forward, but there's generally less exchange interest in PoS coins than PoW. I've looked into other methods of getting volume increased but other projects have had mixed results and there's no definite fix. Personally, I want to remain on bittrex and I'd like KOBO to be a traded coin (at some point - it's evolution), but right now we seem to be struggling to keep our listing. We are lucky to still have our Yobit listing as contingency. It might come to our rescue one day.

[EleanorZ]

Thanks, and I'm glad to see you're still with us

Oh I'm here--got a Kobo or two stashed away for a rainy day, after all   I'll see if I can help with the volume in a day or two.