Matjaz, CEO and founder of Authtrail kindly joined the Fish DAO community on January 25 2022 for an interesting and information packed text based AMA session.
We were highly impressed with Matjaz and the Authtrail project that we just had to create a transcript of it to walk you through all the exciting information outlined in the session.
Segment 1: Fish DAO core team questions
Bored Shark: Q1) Could you please begin by telling us about yourself, your blockchain/crypto experience and your role at Authtrail?
Matjaz: I have been in the crypto scene for the past 7 years, started with the Ethereum ICO as I was introduced to Ethereum by my neighbour, who happened to be a good friend of Gavin and Vitalik 🙂 This is when I first started looking into crypto in general and quickly saw that there is big potential in it.
I myself have been in the IT for the past 20 years and am constantly looking to innovation in that space, started with Virtual Environments back in 2008, then started pushing cloud, now blockchain. My former employers have always pushed me back with innovation, telling me that the money is currently made with what we have and never looked into the future. That’s what “pissed” me off and I decided to finally do my own thing 🙂
And being in crypto, I was always looking for a way, to create something, that would bring value to the “old economy” not just using the word blockchain as a buzzword to make yourself stand out, but to actually leverage the technology to create something useful
That’s why I was happy to take over the role of the CEO at Authtrail to create the next big thing in crypto, but to also showcase the old economy, how blockchain could be used to their advantage
hope that gives you some insights on who I am 🙂 Happy to go into more detail after the session
Bored Shark: Wow thanks for the answer, very cool story about how you got into Crypto through your neighbour 🙂
Hopefully you will soon be able to say “i told you so” to your former employers!
Matjaz: Oh I sure am gonna rub it in their faces 😉
Bored Shark: Q2) How many Authtrail team members do you have and what’s their experience?
Matjaz: We have a very nice mix of different experiences in our team!
Domen, CMO — has been running successful campaigns for several larger organizations worldwide like Uber, Hisense etc among others. Has a very strong business network and is behind all the activities you have seen recently.
His team consist of the charming ladies, Lenka and Veronika, who are amazing content creators and guilty, that the content is readable like a book. He also has Patrik and David in his team, Patrik is responsible to the social media content, as well as the video graphics, like our recent AMA on YT. David, a former Olympian, Ice Hockey player, also tapped into the cryptowater couple of years ago and fell in love with it. He is manageing our community and helping out Patrik with the social Media stuff
Tadej, CTO — has worked on several project in the Crypto field, one of the more known one would be 0xcert. He has written the whole code by himself and has now a team of 3 developers who are punching new lines of code on a daily basis
Then we have our advisors, who are not just pretty faces on our website, but actually deeply involved in our daily operations. They have both technical (Klemen) and business knowhow (Jure, Andrey, Luka) who are helping us with introductions to customers, partners, ecosystems etc
I have seen many project in the past, where the advisors where there just to get their face on the website, cash some money and that's it. But those guys are really pushing the boundaries and giving us new inspirations and connections on a daily basis
we also have another Jure, who is actually my brother, who designed the whole corporate identity
we haven't published it yet, but happy to give you a glimpse on how he came up with the logo… 🙂
since our message is, that Data is carved in stone, this was his initial inspiration for the logo creation
and by turning it 45 degrees…
the blog post is following and you will get more info on that
Bored Shark: Wow that’s an amazing mix of experience, you really have it all in your team. And that logo is genius 😂
It all makes sense now haha
Matjaz: I have to admit, given the fact that he is my brother, showing me the first picture, I wanted to punch him 🙂but it all made sense after the next slide
Bored Shark: Q3) Can you talk a bit about the Authtrail token utility?
Matjaz: Since we are tapping into the enterprise world, we had to be careful how the narrative is going to be like. Every company so far, with whom you start a conversation and mention blockchain/crypto, get a red flat immediately. So we have created a way, for them to not be exposed to crypto directly.
Our customer will be buying “credits” on the platform which will grant them the possibility to use our platform and anchor the data to the blockchain
however in the backend, we will be market buying the AUT tokens to “fuel” those credits the customers are using. As an example, if a customer wants to have a minimum level of data integrity, he would need to anchor the data to the blockchain at least once every 24 hours, this means 30 Tokens per month
however, this is only for 1 application, imagine larger customers with 100s of applications and having just 1 anchor per day is not feasible for the majority, we are talking about 4–8 anchors per day
You can do the quick math, that once authtrail gets the recognition it deservers, those credits will spike
and they will be used not just for anchoring, we have several application in the pipeline on how leverage the token, but for now, it is used “just” for the anchoring function.
you can also check the blogpost for more details
https://authtrail.com/blog/guide-authtrail-tokenomics-explained-what-is-aut-token-and-what-is-its-role/
Bored Shark: Wow i can see this taking off rather quickly and hence buy pressure for AUT spiking 🚀
Matjaz: we are releasing a new website in the upcoming days, where you will also have a visual representation on how the tokens get locked away with the future use
Bored Shark: Q4) What’s your go to market strategy to to onboard partners to use your platform?
Matjaz: Here my experience from the IT will come in handy. We are already in talk with several larger GSI (global system integrator), local SI, VARs (value added resellers), distributors, who will be helping us in building the sales channel
we have the skill when it comes to blockchain, but the channel partners are the ones talking directly to the customers, they already have an installed base, system engineers, and existing relationships
And I have learned in the past, that this model scales very quickly. For now, we will be using the local Slovenian market a test ground, as we have the strongest network here. This will give a good exposure and recognition, before we go beyond the border to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK. We are now building the local sales and BDM team, who will be running around and build those relations with the channel and customers
Bored Shark: Great, definitely a solid strategy for sure, conquer the local market first and the spread out from there 🙂
Segment 2: Fish DAO community questions
Umar#9878: Q5) How do you plan on increasing the user base in the future and keep them as users for the foreseeable future or is this mainly with token use as described earlier?
Matjaz: The plan to increase the userbase will be driven through our Launch hub. Authtrail is building a framework for Data Integrity, but the applications for it are far bigger than what we can do with our “manpower” today. Our APIs will be open for anyone who wants to build on top of it. And there are many applications for it. Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Healthcare etc… so many user-facing applications that can be developed on top, that the userbase can only grow from here.
Apps Games are in the works, especially the NFT sector is interesting, as you have NFTs being minted, but nobody is protecting the Metadata at the backend 😉 So there are some things, that will come our very soon, but I can not disclose it yet.
I see Authtrail as the centrepiece of the circular economy. The EU is enforcing the circular economy, or so called digital product passports where companies still are in control of their data, but can share it in a secure and efficient way.
ryan_1705#1139: Q6) Companies worldwide clearly use data more efficiently and also put more work into their data management and how they use this data. I therefore clearly see the benefits you company will bring to the business world. How do you think this will develop in the future and what are the implications for your business model? We all know that especially big corporations benefit significantly by optimizing their data, but as data management becomes more efficient over time, where do you think this development will settle? And how do you think smaller businesses will be integrated into this procedure?
Matjaz: Having worked in the Data Management field for the past 15 years, I have seen it with my own eyes, how really large corporations, still share business critical data by uploading an excel sheet to a FTP server and give the logins to their business partners. And I am talking about multibillion $ companies. Hence, we all think those large organisations are super cool and advanced, but internally it is a mess.
I like to quote one of the Polkadot guys here. Web1 was read, Web2 is read and write, Web3 is read, write, own. — you decide when you share some sensitive information, for how long and control what has been done with it after you have shared it. If you send a PDF today to someone, you lose control. If you send them a link, you can revoke the link, but it can already be to late, they might have copied it etc. With Authtrail, you stay in control, when, what and for how long it can be shared with whom 🙂
divpk#1868: Q7) The authtrail product is something that is required in our world today. Assuming that user base is built well, could you explain the long term vision past this? innovative products? what can we expect
Matjaz: I will give you a simple example on what could be a so called Digital Product Passport, which is part of Authtrail.
You, I wish you not, break your leg. You get and X-ray, surgery, rehab and are cured.
The whole “lifecycle” of you breaking a leg is medical case on its own. This case, or lets say all data in the process, become a so called Digital Product Passport, which includes all relevant information about you, where did you break your leg, how severe, your blood type, how the surgery went etc…
You want to be sure, that every step on its way has integrity and the data has never been changed or tampered with. In a medical case, this could have fatal consequences. Wrong surgery, wrong blood type etc…
now scale this up, to products being produced, plastics, batteries, cars, clothing etc… you want to make sure that each material used is authentic, you know the origin, how it has been produced, but most importantly, once if goes out of life, how to dispose it.
Can I burn this battery? what materials does it contain? how to recycle it properly and if something goes wrong, whom to “blame” on the supply chain
this is what we are building towards to 🙂
Bored Shark: Great answer!
And on that note, let’s wrap it up! It’s been great having you here @matjazs to answer our questions, your answers made me and many fishes here even more bullish on Authtrail.
Matjaz: Was my pleasure guys, thank you for having me!
feel free to connect on linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matjazsobocan/
About Authtrail
Authtrail is a bridge between the value of enterprise data and the power of blockchain technology. Powered by Moonbeam. Designed for growth.
Traceability is the power to provide facts, transparency to display them. With Authtrail, companies can embrace a new competitive edge — while continuing their business as usual, they show they can be trusted and collaborated with, can easily access relevant and verified data internally, and help end-users, auditors, and/or regulators to gain trust in their data. In other words, digitized organizations enjoy increased productivity thanks to more efficient daily operations while minimizing cost of data management at large. This way, quality and trustworthy data, guaranteed by Authtrail, helps build better businesses and open new growth opportunities.
Join Our Socials!
