A Step Towards Blockchain Cross-Industry Integration: Interview With CEO Of Blocto

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

A year ahead of the gravest health disaster of the modern age, the world continues to embrace the destructive effect of the pandemic caused on all sectors of the economy around the world. Much more than ever before, the people realize the need for connectivity, and the decisive role it’s not going to play in driving businesses forward. Apart from the worldwide-scale reliance on the internet that became absolutely indispensable for running any kind of activity, the time came to turn heads towards new solutions that can open eyes to novel approaches to dealing with old problems.

Blockchain can be characterized as such – from the first years of its origin, it immediately gripped attention by the versatility of its applications: anywhere from IoT to environment protection, this technology may play a role of data ledger, allowing seamless transfer of information across the network. The only problem – blockchain space, same as before, remains divided.
 
To fix this issue, Blocto was introduced as a focal point for numerous industries where blockchain has already found collective resonance. Be it finance, medicine, or entertainment, applying the blockchain technology should be unhindered by the barrier of multiple chains filling up the space. Creating a seamless unified experience in one all-encompassing platform, Blocto takes one step forward towards the day when the divisions between blockchains will be only nominal. Besides, Blocto continues to integrate with more blockchains such as Flow and Solana, with the first one designed to power next-generation apps and games, while the second focuses on highly-performing transaction processing faculty. Another noteworthy aspect of Blocto is its SDKs – a set of blockchain development tools designed to enable a more smooth onboarding experience, i.e. direct installation of the dApp without the need to install a  browser extension. In a nutshell, Blocto is designed to enable a more integrated blockchain experience - and so far, it delivers on promise phenomenally well.
 
In your opinion, what does the blockchain space lack at its current stage – and how can Blocto help to offset this?
There are two major issues in the blockchain space right now: user experience and cross-blockchain operability. In terms of user experience, the industry is still at a pretty early stage and there is still a lot of technical jargon and nuisances exposed to users. It’s sort of like putting a bunch of components like a power generator, a heater, a bathtub, and a bed together and call it a house, without the proper interior design or paint jobs. Blocto approaches this issue more from a user-experience perspective and uses the proper technical components whenever suitable. This creates a simple, elegant user journey.

Another big issue is cross-chain operability. Blockchain space right now is similar to the Internet before it became the “Inter”net, when it consisted of numerous separated networks. Services are fragmented and users have to go through a lot of trouble if they want to use services across different networks. Blocto aims to bridge the gaps between different blockchain networks and provide an inter-blockchain experience, without users even realizing they’re using services built on top of different blockchains.

What are the specific things that Blocto mobile application allows you to do?
You can think of Blocto wallet as the hub in our ecosystem. One might buy an NFT from project A: they log in through our SDK, (a native log in on the Vault by CNN website for example). Once they interact with more than one project; They can see all their assets/NFTs are all gathered in the mobile application. 

The blockchain space is still mostly in Web3, and we are firm believers in mobile first. That’s why Blocto has the discover tab where users can open these Web3 apps in the Blocto wallet.

Speaking about your native token BLT – what are the things any inexperienced user should learn about it before buying?
One of the key features we have planned for BLT is it will act as the universal gas fee payment token in our ecosystem. This is now done through our Blocto points system. Since we now integrate with 7 blockchains. Our users in theory would need multiple different tokens for their gas fee: an intuitive and unfriendly system for our newcomers. BLT is basically the blood and veins connecting our products and the multiple chains they might be run on

BLT is also our governance token. In the future BLT holders can vote on which direction the product should take. The decentralized spirit is what we value and we want BLT to reflect that as well.

What are the crucial facts you could share about your token distribution model?

A large portion of our token distribution is allocated to Developer and user mining. Constantly bringing in new projects whether it’s NFT or Defi for our users is our priority. Our mining ensures that there is a constant motivation for users and developers to engage with new projects and in turn become more and more invested in the ecosystem. 

I’ve heard that your ecosystem integrates NFT assets too. However, how is your approach different when you deal with unique non-replicable tokens versus ordinary cryptocurrency?

With NFT assets we always work directly with the project that brought forth the NFTs. This close working relationship between our partners ensures we can directly address their needs and provide a seamless and coherent experience to our users. 

What are the features that make BloctoSwap stand out on the market?

BloctoSwap is built on the Flow blockchain with a bridge to Ethereum, BSC, and Solana. The cross-blockchain operability applies to all our products: meaning one could store all their assets in Blocto and use BloctoSwap to teleport assets to the chain needed. 

Could you tell me a bit more about the upcoming Blocto NFT marketplace, and the role it plays in your ecosystem?

The Blocto NFT marketplace is our next step in realizing our ecosystem. User experience needs to be at its core: aiming to minimize any difficulties one might face when interacting with Blockchain. The same principle applies to developers as well. The wallet - SDK - NFT marketplace - decentralized exchange all in one is what we believe could introduce more ppl who are interested in blockchain/crypto/NFTs without the aforementioned pain points. 

Who are the investors who already got involved in your project – and what could you tell about them?

We have a pretty diverse investor composition. We have blockchain-focused investors across different markets and geo-locations; we have investors that are also building their own blockchain protocols or applications; we have non-blockchain-focused investors who have strong relationships with sports, music, gaming, or other tech industries. This helps us a lot in bringing blockchain technology to mass-market facing applications and in turn bringing it to people’s daily lives.

And the founders team – could you share a bit more about your experience, and how they got into crypto?

I started my career as a software engineer and I’ve worked in different-sized companies, including Yahoo, Agoda, and 17 Media. I got into crypto in 2015 and did some hobby projects back then. In 2017 I joined a Taiwanese blockchain startup COBINHOOD as VP of Engineering. I’ve built a top-ranking crypto exchange and a high-performance blockchain.

My co-founder, Edwin, is an experienced BD manager who worked at Schneider Electric. He was my ex-colleague at COBINHOOD and was in charge of designing the blockchain ecosystem around the blockchain that we’ve built. He has brought dozens of corporations onto blockchain and is exceptionally fluent with the business applications of blockchain technology.

And finally: looking ahead, what is your planned course of action for 2021 and beyond?

Blockchain will continue to become more and more important in people’s daily lives. In the short term, we will provide our user-friendly wallet service to our partners that are building mass-marketing-facing applications. For these users, Blocto is the first blockchain experience in their lives. With the user base, we accumulate across different blockchain networks, we will be in a good place to connect these different blockchains and create a cross-chain ecosystem. In the long run, we will continue to minimize friction and provide a platform where users can find all sorts of interesting blockchain applications. Blocto will be the entrance to the blockchain world for everyone.
 

Image by Leonhard Niederwimmer from Pixabay

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.