[KOBO] Kobocoin - Mobile Money for Africa

[opticoin]

http://www.wired.com/2016/01/project-aims-to-unite-bitcoin-with-other-online-currencies/

[b1007]

Hey Tribesman, how u doing? I understand you are a busy man but you got any plans for Kobocoin's progress this year? 

[m4xp0w3r7]

webiste is down 

[TheTribesman]

webiste is down 

I've been having some technical problems over the last few weeks but the website should be back up.

[EBK1000]

KOBO is now only listed at YoBit w/ zero volume and the block explorer expires in 1 day. Is this the end of KOBO?

[b1007]

KOBO is now only listed at YoBit w/ zero volume and the block explorer expires in 1 day. Is this the end of KOBO?

What does that mean that Kobocoin will be delisted from YoBit? I hope not! Kobcoin is a great concept! I hope the more than capable dev is going long-term with this project...

[TheTribesman]

KOBO is now only listed at YoBit w/ zero volume and the block explorer expires in 1 day. Is this the end of KOBO?

What does that mean that Kobocoin will be delisted from YoBit? I hope not! Kobcoin is a great concept! I hope the more than capable dev is going long-term with this project...

The block explorer is not going anywhere (@EBK1000 where did you see that expiry date?) and I don't think we'll be delisted from YoBit. I know things are slow right now but it's not the end.

By now I should have started on the wallet newsfeed reader but it's not been possible. I've been putting a new system into a clients premises, and it's a remote location, so I'm flying up and down the country and not getting much free time to build anything new.

I take a very long term view on this. Check out Emercoin. They took a long term view.

[opticoin]

Hi Tribesman,

 is there a way to adapt/realign/repurpose Kobocoin  towards smart contracts & Internet of Things? .. btw, IOTCoin  is still available..

thanks!

[EBK1000]

Have you considered things like https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1091402.0 - Staisybit to offer cloudstaking. We are doing a promotion where you can get free Bitz for making a deposit. That could help spread KOBO a bit or offer something new.

[sneval]

People are commenting something is interesting with Kobo. I don't know what it is? They also say the dev is active. The coin is removed from bittrex. Reddit has no activity at all. What else are the plans for this coin? Or are this is one of the coin that dies on its own slowly?

[opticoin]

I don't think  the coin is dead or dying... it was just caught in the loop of   "no activity , thus no trader interest  ,, no trader interest, thus no activity" .. to attract interest, a new parameter must be injected, maybe a realignment of goal,  new features etc.

  the dev is solid, however, he is working on this alone, which is the downside of this coin. I hope that there is a support team that can work on developing the coin while Tribesman is busy,

[drfeelgood1]

I don't think  the coin is dead or dying... it was just caught in the loop of   "no activity , thus no trader interest  ,, no trader interest, thus no activity" .. to attract interest, a new parameter must be injected, maybe a realignment of goal,  new features etc.

  the dev is solid, however, he is working on this alone, which is the downside of this coin. I hope that there is a support team that can work on developing the coin while Tribesman is busy,

the problem is not the coin it works fine is that there is no drive to market it. it as to be used in the real world for it to gain traction

[TheTribesman]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments. All the comments are valid. The network is still stable and running (and still faster than most ). It is a good idea to look at the direction of kobo. The downside is that I'm doing this on my own (which makes motivation hard when so much else is going on). I'm flying up to Edinburgh on a Monday evening, working like a dog, then flying back down to London on Thursday, then dealing with family and home life. Every week. It's tiring. Kobo Tech keeps failing once in a while and things are requiring rebuilds etc. I want to get started on the news reader but I've still not done it. I'm knackered! I've automated twitter though which has already increased followers and interest from the twitter end, but yes, so much more to do.

Developing crypto stuff is even more tiring. I would like to take the core services in a direction that makes it more appealing. Smart contracts, internet of things etc is good, but it would be even better to develop a toolkit that allows anyone to develop a smart contract service on the kobo network, or integrate their 'things' into the kobo network. I personally can't develop a toolkit (I don't have that skills to attempt such a thing), but if anyone knows someone who can, then PM me. I'd be happy to work with an uber developer to start getting these things implemented.

I agree that it has to be marketed and real world uses have to be found, but it has to have a constant momentum. You can market kobo ferociously for an entire year but the moment you stop marketing it, the interest will wane. The vicious circle is valid. Without trading interest no-one in the real world will give it a look. Most people what to know how to get from kobo to fiat, and that requires trading volume, which requires a constant marketing drive (I guess).

I haven't got started on the newsreader yet but I will. It just needs to be forked, configured with the same feeds I'm using for the twitter feed (plus a few others), and then merged with the wallet code. I also want to add crypto price features as well (but don't want to swamp the fact that it's ultimately a crypto wallet).

It all sounds reasonable, but the effort required is f**king monumental, means that you can forget sleep, and causes extreme weight loss. I lost 2 stone (almost 30lbs) getting the Abe explorer and Android wallet built. I'm still scarred by the experience. Don't fool yourself that it's easy for anyone. Big name devs kill themselves to get these things out. Young whizz kids are needed, but that real type of skill in crypto is few and far between.

Big dreams at launch but sober reality has brought me down to earth on me batty (ass, backside etc), but unfortunately for the crypto industry (and every other industry I've ever been in) I don't just roll over and die like I should

I'm getting used to my travel regime. I'll soon fork that bloody newsreader, bite the bullet, and you'll see screenshots posted of what I'm doing. I am going to look into what it takes to develop a toolkit for the blockchain, and the development of a first app to show what a toolkit can do. I want to hear all and any ideas for marketing. I have a few kobo that can be used for marketing purposes. If anyone wants to help with marketing on here or anywhere else, please do. I'll do what I can to help as well.

If you've got kobo, hold onto it (not that you've got any choice at this time - no-one's buying! ). Just don't throw your wallet away...

[mammix2]

I back TheTribesman and his efforts here. There are not many devs in Cryptoland who stay true to their project through the good and bad times!

Keep it up buddy, your doing a good job!

[b1007]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments. All the comments are valid. The network is still stable and running (and still faster than most ). It is a good idea to look at the direction of kobo. The downside is that I'm doing this on my own (which makes motivation hard when so much else is going on). I'm flying up to Edinburgh on a Monday evening, working like a dog, then flying back down to London on Thursday, then dealing with family and home life. Every week. It's tiring. Kobo Tech keeps failing once in a while and things are requiring rebuilds etc. I want to get started on the news reader but I've still not done it. I'm knackered! I've automated twitter though which has already increased followers and interest from the twitter end, but yes, so much more to do.

Developing crypto stuff is even more tiring. I would like to take the core services in a direction that makes it more appealing. Smart contracts, internet of things etc is good, but it would be even better to develop a toolkit that allows anyone to develop a smart contract service on the kobo network, or integrate their 'things' into the kobo network. I personally can't develop a toolkit (I don't have that skills to attempt such a thing), but if anyone knows someone who can, then PM me. I'd be happy to work with an uber developer to start getting these things implemented.

I agree that it has to be marketed and real world uses have to be found, but it has to have a constant momentum. You can market kobo ferociously for an entire year but the moment you stop marketing it, the interest will wane. The vicious circle is valid. Without trading interest no-one in the real world will give it a look. Most people what to know how to get from kobo to fiat, and that requires trading volume, which requires a constant marketing drive (I guess).

I haven't got started on the newsreader yet but I will. It just needs to be forked, configured with the same feeds I'm using for the twitter feed (plus a few others), and then merged with the wallet code. I also want to add crypto price features as well (but don't want to swamp the fact that it's ultimately a crypto wallet).

It all sounds reasonable, but the effort required is f**king monumental, means that you can forget sleep, and causes extreme weight loss. I lost 2 stone (almost 30lbs) getting the Abe explorer and Android wallet built. I'm still scarred by the experience. Don't fool yourself that it's easy for anyone. Big name devs kill themselves to get these things out. Young whizz kids are needed, but that real type of skill in crypto is few and far between.

Big dreams at launch but sober reality has brought me down to earth on me batty (ass, backside etc), but unfortunately for the crypto industry (and every other industry I've ever been in) I don't just roll over and die like I should

I'm getting used to my travel regime. I'll soon fork that bloody newsreader, bite the bullet, and you'll see screenshots posted of what I'm doing. I am going to look into what it takes to develop a toolkit for the blockchain, and the development of a first app to show what a toolkit can do. I want to hear all and any ideas for marketing. I have a few kobo that can be used for marketing purposes. If anyone wants to help with marketing on here or anywhere else, please do. I'll do what I can to help as well.

If you've got kobo, hold onto it (not that you've got any choice at this time - no-one's buying! ). Just don't throw your wallet away...

Thanks for the update!

[TheTribesman]

Thanks guys

That's a very interesting idea integrating the kobo blockchain with the eth blockchain. If I knew how that would work I'd definitely give it a try. Is such a thing possible?? Does anyone know if this can be achieved (and how)? I guess first step is to find out if there's an eth toolkit that can be used for such an operation.

[TheTribesman]

Found this

http://forklog.net/dogecoin-integrates-in-ethereum-for-application-in-smart-contracts/

and this

https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Ethereum-Development-Tutorial

Better start reading! 

[opticoin]

http://www.fastcolabs.com/3035723/app-economy/smart-contracts-could-be-cryptocurrencys-killer-app

[TheTribesman]

Definitely

I've been reading upon smart contracts (good link). They're some way off although crypto dice games are sort of there already (in a very loose way!).

Just connected with Roman Mandeleil, CEO/Founder of ether camp and Project Lead for EthereumJ. They're doing some very interesting things. They've got an IDE. I'll see how easy it is to use.

I have a sync'd ethereum node now. Reminds me of NXT (so far). I'm sure they're very different under the covers.

[TheTribesman]

I had a very interesting evening yesterday.

The evening started with a deep dive session on the principles of Ethereum with Alex Leverington http://ethdev.com/#team. It wasn't a very technical session. More for people new to the technology.

This was followed by a one-to-one in-depth technical discussion and demonstration of smart contracts by Roman Mandeleil. He's the CEO and founder of ether.camp https://live.ether.camp/transactions. There's a very powerful online IDE behind that website. It can be used for building smart contracts on the eth blockchain.

Smart contracts are very interesting. They're basically apps that sit on the blockchain and wait to execute when called (and when their conditions for execution are met). The next proper tech killer app might probably be a very intelligent smart contract on the ethereum blockchain. I'm not too sure why they're called 'contracts'. Seems a bit misleading for beginners (imho).

I'll cut to the chase here. I spoke to Roman about how I could get the kobo blockchain to interact with the eth blockchain. He's seen projects trying to achieve this using sidechains but he wasn't very impressed or complimentary about the results. In his opinion, if kobo is to interact with the eth blockchain then the best solution is to migrate over to the eth blockchain and to start utilising s smart contract model, which basically means saying goodbye to the current kobo blockchain.

It's a big operation if it's to go ahead and will require some serious planning.

Pros
- There is a large developer community looking for projects just like this to get their teeth into. It won't be just me struggling to get things done. The eth devs want their project to be a success and want success stories to drive it forward. Kobo could be one of those stories
- It's the second largest developer community after bitcoin
- Roman is happy to do what's necessary to help with the migration
- Smart contracts seem to be the way things are headed. We'll be keeping up with progress at grass roots.

Cons
- The kobo blockchain (as it is now) will no longer exist once the migration is completed.
- Smart contracts are heavier than raw transactions, so for now there will not be a kobo mobile wallet. This is something that will change in the near future but for now I would see it as a sad loss not to be able offer a mobile unit. It's a nightmare to keep synce'd but it's an asset none the less.
- I don't know how this will affect the value of kobo
- I'm not sure if PoS is possible
- Will kobo continue to be a currency, will it be an ethereum asset, or will it be a currency asset? Not sure at the moment.

There's more questions to answer but that's the outcome of yesterday evening. It might be a good development for the long term future of Kobocoin. Or you might think otherwise.

Let me know what you think. Any comments will be helpful. If you think it's best to explore other options that you are aware of, let me know.

One thing for sure is that crypto is moving right now. Kobo has to move one way or the other.