SparkPoint –CryptoVerse AMA
Date : 23rd Feb 2021
Guests: Rico Zuñiga — CTO
Carl Andre — Senior Marketing Specialist
Melissa Mesias — Senior Marketing Specialist
Q: Please briefly introduce yourselves and @SparkPoint to our community?
A: Rico Zuñiga : I’m Rico, the Chief Technology Officer of SparkPoint. I’ve been with SparkPoint since the very beginning, back in October 2018, initially serving as technical advisor. I eventually joined full time as CTO in July 2019 and we’ve been continuously building products and growing our team since then. Prior to SparkPoint, I worked as a blockchain architect for a French company and have also launched my own gaming and tech startups in the past.
Carl André : I am Carl Andre, I’m one of the Senior Marketing Specialist. I’ve been in the Crypto space for almost a year now and this world has paved a whole lot of things to me specially in trading cryptocurrency assets. As of now, I’m incharge of the general marketing and i connect with partners and of course, the community to bring our products and services to more people. I worked on the advertising industry before joining the team. I’m into multimedia too and graphics design is one of my specialization. I love gadgets and ioT, and especially advancements in technology.
Melissa Mesias : Hello! I’m Melissa Mesias. I’m one of the Senior Marketing Specialists at SparkPoint. Prior to that, I was an educator and a multimedia artist for 4 years. I was a university instructor, and I taught subjects like Information and Communications Technology, Communication and Media Studies, Journalism, and Advertising. I also specialize in writing, media content development, and marketing. I’m happy that I’m a member of the SparkPoint team which gives me the opportunity to utilize my experience in education, marketing, and media for the advancement of the mass adoption of blockchain technology as well as cryptocurrency literacy. I was introduced to blockchain tech and cryptocurrency through a friend in 2016.
Q: Taking into account the large number of cryptocurrency wallets that exist in the market, what would be the biggest advantages that users would have when using SparkPoint’s wallet? what makes this wallet stand out from the competition? is it available for Android and iOS?
A: Right now it’s only available on Android but we’re already testing internally our iOS version with a target launch of March-April this year. As for advantages, it works just like any other wallet but it is focused on supporting our SRK and SFUEL (soon) tokens and our ecosystem of apps and services. Eventually you will see promotions and rewards exclusively for SparkPoint Wallet users and other value added services. With regards to this, there will be exclusive promotions and rewards too that is coming soon for those who are using our wallet app. Like exclusive airdrops for our SRK and SFUEL holders in the future.
Q: What are your top 3 things for priorities in 2021? Could you share some plans for the upcoming year?
A: Our 2021 goal revolves around only one target: profitability. And in order to achieve this, we’re focusing on these top 3 areas:
1. Listing on Top Exchange. Watch out for our next big listing this week.
2. SparkDeFi. We’re betting big on our own decentralized platform on Binance Smart Chain. Our SparkSwap AMM will be launching next month to compete with PancakeSwap and other AMM exchanges on BSC.
3. E-Learning via our upcoming Blockchain Developer Bootcamp. We’re targeting the lucrative online learning market that was fast tracked by the COVID-19 pandemic. With our backgrounds in both development and teaching, I strongly believe we can compete with the incumbents.
SparkPoint gained some attention and traction it deserves in 2020 so this 2021 we are aiming for profitability. To achieve this goal we have narrowed our focus to these big bets which are SparkDeFi with the launching of SparkSwap, SparkLearn with the Blockchain Developer Bootcamp, then improvement of our existing products, and IT-BPO services.
Q: Why do we need the extra sfuel token when there already is srk ? How does sfuel help the community?
A: SRK is a utility token native on the Ethereum blockchain. It is used as payment for products and services within our ecosystem of apps and solutions. SRK holders also benefit from quarterly SFUEL airdrops.
SFUEL on the other hand is a native token on the Binance Smart Chain blockchain and is a governance token for our SparkDeFi platform. It is used to pay for services within the SparkDeFi suite of products. SFUEL also serves as a cheaper and faster alternative to SRK in terms of gas.
Q: What do you think about other projects with NFT concepts, such as Enjin, Decentraland, and Cocos? Does Spark Point currently have plans to cooperate with other NFT projects?
A: NFTs have great use cases in the decentralized marketplace. One of our team members, Aldrick Bonaobra participated in Decentraland’s Game Jam 2019 through the CryptoSolitaire team. The team won 13th place out of 100+ participants.
· Actually now, we are brewing a partnership with Ownly, a company of art ethusiasts that tokenizes artworks. We will be revealing soon more about this, but one thing that is present is their presence in our upcoming Blockchain Developers Bootcamp, and one of our topics there is about NFTs.
· We also tapped Ownly’s co-founder Ismael Jerusalem to be a mentor in our Blockchain Developer Bootcamp for the course about NFTs.
· We will also be supporting NFTs as collateral in our SparkDeFI lending/borrowing service when it launches this year.
Q: Regarding the SparkLearn bootcamp, what are the requirements for users to participate and how can I pay the registration fee? Also, is there any possibility that once the course is finished, students can apply for a position within your team and your ecosystem?
A: The Blockchain Developer Bootcamp will launch in the Philippines because we have a great advantage in tapping good talents for software development and production of blockchain tech services. Students can either be shifters to IT from a non-IT background and developers who want to focus in developing DApps.
No coding background required but a good math foundation is an advantage. Students can pay in fiat (USD or PHP) or in crypto which entitles the student to a discount. This is part of our plan to give SRK utility within our ecosystem. And yes, there is an opportunity to join SparkPoint as a developer for top graduates.
We’re going to expand the reach of the Blockchain Developer Bootcamp to the international market also and we’re working out with partner companies for possible employment for the graduates, this includes the SparkPoint company as well.
Visit srk.sh/bdb for more info about BDB
Q: Do you plan to develop a support system in the short term for users?
A: This is an important question. We’re aware of our shortcomings in terms of support. This has also been accelerated by the increase in price of SRK and SFUEL. We are in the process of scaling up our customer and tech support team to improve our help system for our community. Thank you everyone for your patience!
Q: Can you please tell the investors that currently how many people working as a team , their backgrounds & credentials ?
A: You can check out our team page, we have all up to date LinkedIn profiles of the people working behind the SRK and SFUEL projects.
Q: Do the token holders have right to participate in the governance of the project? On what kind of decisions can they vote on about the project?
A: Yes SFUEL holders have governance rights over the entire SparkDeFi platform. Holders can decide on various issues including transaction fee price, amount of rewards for liquidity providers and stakers, funding for complementary projects, the interest percentage in loans, and more.
Q: As Education for crypto currency is necessary nowadays , what’s your plan to to attract those people who don’t know about cryptocurrency?
A: Education is always at the heart of SparkPoint and that’s why we have the SparkLearn platform. This platform aims to create quality educational content about blockchain tech, cryptocurrency, and financial literacy. SparkLearn has free courses you can take so check it out here :
Q: Do you have any new partnership recently? And what advantage of this partnership to the project?
A: We have recently integrated $DAO from DAOMaker and soon $stXEM from NEM, in our Wallet up. This paves to more users on boarding through the wallet app. This also help us link more users to our core services in SparkPoint.
Q: What is your plan for global expansion? At present, which market does Sparkpoint focus on, or is it focused on building and growing to gain customers, users and partners?
A: Right now we’re focused on the Philippine market and the greater south East Asian (SEA) market. Part of this is our Blockchain Developer Bootcamp which was designed specifically for Filipino learners Also part of this is the ongoing VCE license application which will allow SparkPoint to trade fiat (PHP) to crypto (and vice versa) directly. We’re also looking at expanding to the North American market this year, details will be revealed in the coming months.
Q: Is this project a Global project ? Can local communities partake in it ?
A: Yes! Of course! We have a global reach spanning across different continents! You can always message us at support@sparkpoint.io or DM me here in TG for some business talks.
Q: Can you name some of SparkPoint ‘s key achievements and what milestones are you currently working on?
A: you can read our Year in Review 2020 https://link.medium.com/whANIuqW6db for the achievements we have realized as a team. For 2021, we are working on the iOS version of our SparkPoint Wallet, SparkDeFi’s SparkSwap, and the Blockchain Developer Bootcamp.
Q: How are you going to handle your systems if unforeseen problems happen in the future, particularly hacking issues that affect your platform have some of your users personal data? Would be your platform prepared to deal with that sort of situation?
A: We have undergone numerous audits to ensure that our security’s integrity is optimal and on high levels in order to avoid such attacks and any security related issues in the future.
Q: Can you list some great features of $ SRK that makes it ahead of its competitors? What is the competitive advantage your platform has that you feel most confident about?
A: Our biggest advantage is that we’re not tied to one use case. Unlike other projects who are locked into exploring and implementing one technology or use case only. This gives us the flexibility to explore different use cases and pick and choose which one is the most viable and has the potential to be profitable. We believe that we’re still very early in the blockchain and crypto space and that projects should be exploring and experimenting first before committing too much on one thing. Our past 2 years gave us this opportunity to experiment, gather data, explore different use cases and develop the right skills so that our team can move forward with more clarity.
Q: What is your plan for global expansion? At present, which market does Sparkpoint focus on, or is it focused on building and growing to gain customers, users and partners?
A: Right now we’re focused on growing our team here in the Philippines but we’re targeting a global market. We’re in a position to take advantage of the Philippine government’s openness in accepting Blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies that is why we’re applying for the VCE (Virtual Currency Exchange) license so that we can support fiat (in PHP) to crypto and vice versa transactions. We also have plans of expanding in the North American market, particularly Canada, in the next year.
Q: Can members of the SparkPoint ecosystem get SparkPoint tokens participating in the SparkPoint programs? What does your member incentive system include?Can members of the SparkPoint ecosystem get SparkPoint tokens participating in the SparkPoint programs? What does your member incentive system include?Can members of the SparkPoint ecosystem get SparkPoint tokens participating in the SparkPoint programs? What does your member incentive system include?
A: We have a bounty program where you can earn SRK while doing tasks within the ecosystem. You may visit earn.sparkpoint.io to get a better understanding of of how the program works.
Q: Can you provide an overview of your tokenomics? Will the design of the token increase and decrease with the success of the platform, does it include any scarce pathways, such as equity, storage, or burning?
A: Both SRK and SFUEL have a deflationary model.
SRK is currently at 14 billion total supply which we will continue to reduce through a series of quarterly burn events down to 10 billion SRK tokens.
SFUEL have a max supply 150 million tokens. Burning schedule will be set by the SFUEL holders through a governance vote.
Also in relation to our goal of profitability, a portion of our profit will be used to buy back SRK from the market and then burn them to reduce the supply. Also part of this is accepting SRK as payment for our e-learning platform and IT-BPO services in the future.
Q: For users who want to gain experience in blockchain technology and financial literacy ,How does your e-learning portal mediate? What are the terms and content of participating in the online information portal?
A: SparkLearn has organized its first online Blockchain Developer Bootcamp for people who want to have a career in building decentralized apps and services. SparkLearn also has free course about blockchain tech & cryptocurrency, all you have to do is register here https://learn.sparkpoint.io/
Q: Currently Staking & Farming Ecosystem provides passive income for investors, so what makes SparkPoint special, especially for Staking & Farming connoisseurs?
A: Staking and farming are both marketing and economic activities. Instead of us spending money on traditional marketing, we share it to our community instead. We incentivize strong supporters through our staking programs which are rewarded with either SRK or SFUEL.
We’re also launching soon a launchpool/pancake syrup style staking for either SRK or SFUEL which will reward stakers with 3rd party tokens.
Q: Tell us about your plans for 2021, what are you currently working on, and are you going to expand the list of big exchanges?I wanted to follow your project for the long term. Where i can get all the latest news about your project? Do you have Twitter/Telegram/Discord community? If yes can you share the link here because there is a lot of fake telegram/twitter groups?
A: Here are our official SparkPoint and SparkDeFi channels:
SparkPoint Website: https://sparkpoint.io/
SparkDeFi Website: https://srk.finance/
Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/sparkpoint
SparkDeFi Telegram: https://t.me/SparkDeFi
SparkDeFi Twitter: https://twitter.com/SparkDeFi
SparkDeFi Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SparkDeFi
SparkDeFi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparkdefi/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sparkpointio
Q: How is the educative platform of SparkLearn, who can offer a course, and how do you certify that the person is actually qualified for it?
A: 4 members of our team have years of teaching experience in local universities so we know the fundamentals of education and pedagogy. Bootcamp students are also required to submit a capstone project to demonstrate that they learned the material and are able to apply their new skills to produce an actual working product.
Q: What are the main targeting areas of Sparkpoint and what are the main problems you are resolving?
A: The project aims to fast track mainstream adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency through an ecosystem of practical products and services.
