The last quarter of the project has undoubtedly been the busiest and most important period for us. After almost two years of preparation and development, we were finally able to test live on a new interpretation of the concept of community lending. For those who might not be familiar with the name of the INLOCK project, here’s a very brief summary: INLOCK is a community lending platform that aims to connect lenders and borrowers. The platform provides a cryptocurrency based asset management service.
The purpose of the INLOCK platform is to completely eliminate forced trust between the parties. For this reason, INLOCK does not provide a solution for anyone, but for those who already have a cryptocurrency investment and want to keep it in the long run. The solution helps if someone has a short-term financial problem, so that they have an alternative and don’t have to sell their cryptocurrency savings.
Perhaps the most anticipated central event of the fall season was the first major exchange listing of the platform’s own token. After half a year of preparation, the INLOCK Token (ILK) was successfully listed on the Liquid by Quine stock exchange in early September.
Since listing, Liquiden has traded an average of 15–20 million ILK tokens per week, which is definitely worth highlighting. By comparison, since the launch of the INLOCK platform (January 2019) approximately 6.5 million ILK token was traded on its own internal tokenmarket.
With the Liquid listing, not only the INLOCK platform, but its own utility token also debuted, and after nearly 1 month of continuous negotiation, we were finally able to be listed as a tracked project on the coinmarketcap.
Of course, our joy is not completely cloudless on this subject. While we are fully satisfied with Liquid, there are some bigger beasts in the cryptocurrency world where our progress is not quite as cloudless.
Obviously, for the time being, I can’t give you any specifics, but obstacles are constantly scrolling towards us. Since September, community investment forms are entering a golden age in the cryptocurrency world, only now we call it not ICOs, but IEOs, which differs in that investors are not offered direct investment opportunities but use an intermediate exchange.
As a result, the exchangers are now under immense burden, which takes away attention from the projects that are already mature, but still want to prove and grow.
However, because of IEOs, crypto-scams are at their golden age. Many IEOs got projects where the team withdrew with all the money raised almost immediately. For this reason, most exchanges have now switched to extra-paranoid mode, which is a disadvantage for us, as we get another weekly “homework” that goes far beyond a more serious equity due diligence. In any case, I can definitely say that we are well on our way to introducing the INLOCK Token to more large-scale stock exchanges, but the timing of this is very uncertain at the moment.
But what about the platform?
On this field, I can also provide good news. During the past quarter, the platform’s registered customer base increased by nearly 50%. More importantly, the number of active lenders increased by nearly 300%. The number of active (ongoing) loan transactions also increased to a similar extent. Also, the value of crypto money flowing through the platform has just recently passed to US $10 million.
Our continuous growth is evident, as is the fact that many active customers are returning. In software development over the past year, we have focused on making it as easy as possible for anyone who is already an active customer to use our site. The next six months, on the other hand, will be about how we can get the newly registered user to actually use our services. But I will write about this in a bit later.
What’s next with the services?
For the past month or so, I have dedicated myself to introducing INLOCK services and its business opportunities to a wider audience. We have laid the foundations for many cooperation agreements, some of which have already come close to MOU. In just one month, we have introduced INLOCK and its future services to nearly 200 potential partners. We attended the AIBC Conference in Malta and participated as an exhibitor at the Convergence Congress in Malaga (thanks a lot to the Blockchain Hungary Association for the latter)
What does the future bring?
Just in a few words where we’re headed:
— The next big package will focus on utilizing the “INLOCK Token ecosystem” and developing the “onboarding” process. There will be many new features that will seriously connect to the ILK token. This will leave ILK out of the “fee only” model.
— In connection with the previous point, both the borrower and the lender site will each receive a completely new feature that is, to our best knowledge, unique not only in the crypto-based lending market but also in the traditional lending market. This is a demonstration of what it means for us not only to follow the market but to innovate at the forefront!
— In the meantime, the new borrower product has already been named thanks to the community: INLOCK Shield.
— Another important new issue will be the more transparent lender offer question that has been mentioned many times before. In recent months, we have explored a number of ways we can help lenders decide at what interest to offer their loans. After numerous client interviews, we had to realize that our onboarding process was severely hampered by the fact that both borrowing and lending is still too complicated. These are all subject to drastic changes / simplifications.
— The Pioneer program (affiliate) will be very important in the release, as will the Investor Prime program, which has been mentioned many times before.
And of course, there will be a lot of minor fixes and improvements to the release. Which, of course, we hope will have a beneficial effect on UI usability.
Importantly, this package is the last web only release. Then we will freeze the interface and start developing the INLOCK mobile app. The mobile version of INLOCK will have significantly less functionality than the web interface because we want to go for the “mobile for beginners, web for the pros” principle.
Although it is not over yet, it has been a very difficult year for us and, as you can see, we have a lot of plans for the future. I hope you will continue to support the project with your presence and ideas. Also, make sure to share with your friends what INLOCK is all about! Thank you.
