Eric Loit on E$P Project’s work in education and energy

0:03i'm ashton addison from event chain for investmentpitch media in the crypto coin show and today on blockchain interviews we have eric lloyd the managing director of the esp project eric welcome to the show and thank you so much for taking the time to be here today thanks sasha a pleasure to be here i'm really excited to dive into esp i know your team is working on

0:23initiatives in a few different sectors that i'm excited to dive into so if you could just kick it off for us first of all with a high level overview of the esp project and some of those initiatives then we could dive into the details certainly um well it really started off where we've been uh actively creating uh digital platforms in the educational space

0:45and uh when we're bringing that platform to fruition we really decided the need to have an internal payment mechanism and this is what really uh was the original genesis for esp and along with that we were able to work in partnership with some other groups that had the same needs and that was in the renewable energy sector so really what we've decided to do is

1:09come out with our own utility token called esp and that is going to be the value transfer mechanism for making these different closed systems work so they're each individual ecosystems that's great to hear and yeah definitely the education front uh could use a uh evolution and i think blockchain and cryptocurrency will be a great step forward integrating

1:35that into the platform uh for you know all scholars to to have more benefits in that area can you talk more specifically about some of those initiatives in the education sector and some of the frictions in the industry that you really are pinpointing and solving absolutely great question so um where we started off was that there was a real need to have a

2:01basically a a platform as a student information information management system so we're connecting parents uh teachers and students together getting your uh you know daily activities lesson plans uh attendance management but then the parents also wanted the ability to pay tuition fees buy books provide lunch money um things like field trips and it was really necessary to have

2:26something that worked within one window right so we're bringing this all together we wanted to have a platform and you know part of the problems with being in uh you know in a developing like we're going to launch in the developing world is that many many parents are unbanked they don't have a bank account so doing electronic transfers through some standardized mode of

2:49payment it just doesn't didn't exist but they all have cell phones so being able to use a cell phone in a digital wallet to move a token from a to b was just a natural fit for the platform um so this was one aspect then the other aspect is is actually on the content delivery side um we want to have uh the token utilizing the fashion where the content consumers would pay with the

3:15token but at the same time if they're being uh exposed to advertisements or paid placements they can actually earn tokens uh while they while they watch those with that content so in essence they have the ability to earn uh tokens and then spend those tokens on the content that they want to use making that content virtually free right um and then if you broaden out that

3:40ecosystem you have the ability to then um reward the content providers with with payments and tokens as well as advertisers coming into the platform with pay within tokens so it just made it very easy and for us being international based we didn't have to worry so much about borders and exchanges basically in each country uh they would deal with their own kyc

4:03process uh their own uh fiat to crypto exchange locally and then be able to use the platform anywhere in the world so the exchange is really uh build an important role for us in terms of the fx site definitely yeah the the on-ramping and off-ramping and the liquidity uh of that is going to be super important and you mentioned there you know there's so many different

4:28factors in the school system that could be changed and upgraded through esp and through using blockchain but i've noticed that traditionally you know in the developed worlds the school systems are using architectures uh that they're they're pretty set in their ways you know they've been around for for decades and it's hard to change those industries

4:50that are using uh although it is antiquated technology most of the time to get them to change to something that's actually really innovative and going to benefit them more but you did speak about first getting it into uh developing worlds and we've seen with you know internet and cell phone technology that these developing countries that are mainly unbanked as you said

5:14seem to skip that traditional architecture and now are moving ahead because they don't have to uh you know try to change what they already have they can just move right into this innovative technology can actually skip ahead of the developed worlds and and start using the technology with less barriers to entry which is really exciting um so i would love to

5:35hear about where specifically your you're focusing these efforts first and how you're going to penetrate into those markets excellent question you actually understand it very well i think one of the biggest barriers to acceptance is especially on the school level is cost um you know school boards around the world it doesn't matter if you're in north america or in asia uh cost is a

5:59huge barrier so what we're looking at the token to provide is you know that lower cost of uh transaction you know um and you don't have to deal with payment gateways and you know all these specialized setups in order to make that process work so if we create an ecosystem that has the various apps already connected through the token that's very easy to pass out along if

6:23you do it in a off-chain or sidechain kind of combination then you can virtually make the transfer tokens free um so our initial uh target is actually in vietnam and the reason for that is it's a it's a fair sized country over 90 million people about 21 million students and the you know for a new startup in the education space it's pretty hard to break in at the municipal level

6:47with a brand new product but the nice thing in vietnam is that we have many many private schools so we can start with a handful grow organically basically prove the platform and then really bring it internationally i have um also some agreements in the uae to bring it in at the municipal level as well so you know once we get that kind of traction

7:13in places like europe and north america are natural add-ons for us but you know vietnam for the next uh 12 months is really the target ultimately you know the big crown jewel is india with over 330 million students so we've created a platform that is very very low cost think about the cost of a cup of coffee per student per year to to run the platform

7:40right so whether the municipality and we don't expect uh ever for the students or parents to pay for this though they might pay through it through tuition fees or whatnot but it wouldn't be a direct charge and we wouldn't be collecting from them uh really we want to have uh the municipalities fund that kind of activity definitely that's great to hear

8:02in vietnam specifically you know i actually did speak at some tech conferences in vietnam and across asia and i noticed in vietnam that not only the students but the the older generations as well seem to be very focused on tech and i might be biased because i was at tech conferences uh but it seemed overall like they were very open uh to innovation and utilizing

8:28technologies that are going to benefit them you're absolutely correct they're a real innovative country they're accepting new technologies they're growing crazy um and and so the time is really right now to enter vietnam not just with technology but it is really a developing nation that's uh on its path and we've seen a lot of growth and um it's they've got the right attitude as well

8:53uh you know every every school that you go talk to and i've spent that are part of three years now um canvassing the market to understand that we have a good you know good direction and everybody is just waiting get it to us bring it online as quick as you uh you can because we really need this if i can positively impact the student experience where parents are more involved um with

9:17the educational process the expectations that uh you know we can raise the uh the grades of the students so that's primarily where we're focused definitely and obviously that would be a great uh underlying benefit and one of the main points of of creating a better quality of education for those that are using the platform now you also mentioned at the beginning

9:42that you have your hands in the in a few different pots and renewable energy and solar energy specifically also is tied into the platform now i wanted to cover all the bases with the esp project because you are focused on a few initiatives maybe you could touch on how that's involved in the project and how it relates to the whole initiative sure so we have partnerships on the on

10:04the deployment of solar projects at the at the residential level so really one of the problems on the resident side is you know the whole process of you know getting a design done then getting a quote uh then getting financing for it either through a bank or whatnot usually it's for 20 years or or this type of thing um getting an approval just the the the

10:27time and expense of getting that done is very elongated so really what we're looking at trying to do is convert this all into a smart contract basically um where we're getting uh using d5 for the on the financing side as long as that we have a way to secure the project so define the security for the project uh for the receivable um get that into the blockchain and then

10:54it manages so on a monthly basis the payments are made again in coin or in tokens in our case and uh run that process so if there's a default then there's automatic actions that the contract can take right and part of the the challenges there is to make sure that we're not so rigid that oh you didn't pay we cut you your offer you know we we execute on on collecting

11:17on our on security it's not like that so we have to kind of have a couple of different levels built into the contract and so that's work that's being done now is really on uh how do we secure the asset uh for the receivable how that is actually defined and then approved through a decentralized fashion right because we really don't want a central point

11:40that ends up being the gatekeeper of everything right so if we have uh through the through the network a number of people that can actually approve that this is a is secure uh then it can allow them the flow of funds to the uh to the project so it's it's we're in that definition phase now um and there's some nuances to where that happens and of course it's it's very locally driven

12:06now we're a little bit more focused in north america for that side of it because that's where you know especially united states there's a new push from the biden administration for renewable energies uh right infrastructure and that type of thing so we think that the the opportunity there exists to help scale an existing operation with a number of projects and just help

12:29them scale because we're giving you know some ease i guess convenience in terms of making that all happen for the homeowner so it becomes a very simple process definitely and i think sort of hitting the nail on the head with both of these initiatives is lower in cost and you mentioned the very beginning you know having those payment channels for uh on-ramps off-ramps

12:55ease of payments and liquidity and sort of tying both of those initiatives together is is the esp token itself i was and you mentioned there uh using defy to help with the solar industry as well so i'm interested to hear more about that maybe you could touch on the esp token how it is specifically used throughout all of these initiatives that you're

13:19working on and if there's anything else that we didn't talk about yet in terms of its functionality and how it brings value to the ecosystem certainly um well the token itself uh we've made it in such a way that it doesn't carry you know a huge um transaction tax we have one percent uh uh tax that's in there that will reduce the overall uh supply to a fixed uh 50 billion

13:43coins uh again i keep saying coins because originally this was a point thing but it's it's uh erc20 token um and that uh uh you know we're not going to be adding there's not going to be a dilution by adding a new coin so we've minted the coins now and that's it right so it's it's a fixed supply uh so we want to make sure that uh it remains relatively stable

14:09we don't want to to see you know oh you know we've brought out another uh you know 50 of supply and that's killed the market or anything because really if when we're using this for payments and transfer of value as for its utility um huge fluctuations in price is a problem right because ultimately the the token will have to be converted to a fiat currency

14:29and it really needs to be somewhat stable right so we've we've built in um some metrics for num metrics but some capability into the coin itself uh to to manage that now on the outside of the the token we have policy against you know how we provide liquidity to the market uh such that we always are very sensitive to the public

14:55about what's happening in terms of uh you know big movements in in the price of the token so we're we're going to actively try to manage that to our best of our ability obviously in a free market uh the token will do what it's doing but i think a couple of key differences between the the token one and and other projects are out there is that a lot of those uh projects are

15:16based basically on hype or you know of the echo of somebody else speaking and who's uh adjusting the where it's impacting the value of the uh of the token whereas these operational businesses are actually putting uh liquidity uh in terms of actual fiat currency back into the coinbase right supporting it that way um and so i think you know from a uh a token

15:43holder they're going to be satisfied that there's real there's a real business behind the the project they're putting money into into the coin base that's to the benefit of all the token holders so i think that's one of the big key differences that you see with the esp project against others definitely eric and i think that's a great point and i can imagine students and and more

16:06specifically parents don't want to have to worry about volatility uh when they're you know paying their their students tuition or bills or whatever else they they may be using the payment network for um so i'm glad that your team is focused on that as a part of the system as well now we don't have a lot of time but i want to look forward with the esp project and

16:28maybe you can talk about some of the main focuses for the rest of 2021 and beyond in what your team is looking to achieve and and bring out uh to the platform okay uh great well first of all uh we've just uh minted the the tokens and uh actually have some for uh you know basically for a donation you can get some off the website but really the you know the the next step is

16:53to get it onto exchanges and then really is um you know moving away from the token is now focused on the actual business development getting the platforms out so we have about um i'd say a 16-week uh lead time for getting the uh the what we call our school connect platform uh out uh and that's really going to be the first uh one using the the the token in the in

17:18its own closed ecosystem the second um content delivery platform that we have is called uh talk to expert it's kind of like a master class type of thing but with you know substantially or lower fees again the coin paying uh consumers of content if they're watching advertisements replace place content uh but also providing a lot of educational content

17:42which they will then uh use uh the coin to to pay for uh so we want that out also in the next um about uh 18 weeks for for that one so we've got those two parallel projects uh and then the third thing is uh you know what i mentioned before on the renewable energy side is really the you know getting that whole structure in place we we could directly uh invest

18:07in a number of different uh individual solar projects but that doesn't give us scale we really want to get the scale is leveraging the the d5 side of things right because then that brings additional liquidity into the into the ecosystem and it gets used and focused specifically on the projects that people want to be involved in so i think those three things say over

18:29between now and uh really q4 is uh really our primary focus um you know there's been a lot of talk i think in the last uh six or eight weeks uh you know solely about the the token and really that's a small component to a much bigger picture and it's really where our focus is is on the business activity of uh on the education and renewable energy space

18:53great thanks eric and for the viewers that are looking to follow along with those initiatives as they roll out and learn more about the esp project and the token what's the best way for them to learn more and to get involved in the community um thanks for asking that the best place is really off the website so esp coin dot io um all our social links are there

19:17right so you can um get to telegram or facebook or twitter uh telegram seems to be the most um most active but certainly we'll be posting a lot of information on the site um and also the activity on the coin we're pretty transparent uh we'll talk about you know where we're burning coins uh our regular um you know we'll have a coin buyback and this is

19:40the uh liquidity coming back into into the coinbase we do that we'll start that on a monthly basis and in q3 and we'll list exactly how much is on there how much we're buying back uh and show the transaction we obviously are not going to broadcast exactly when or how much because again that could influence the market we will do that in secret and then

20:02report afterwards um but that yeah the the definitely the the website's the the best place to start um but we have a very active telegram community so it's um please join that and uh you see lots of information happening there multiple times a day great eric thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show i will leave all those links in the description

20:23box below as well all the best with esp moving forward and let's follow up in the near future perfect thanks so much really appreciate it