Since our launch on Wednesday, August 1, we’ve received a ton of interest from the crypto community, and our Telegram channel reflects that. Below are some of the questions (in no particular order) that we culled from the channel with our responses. Feel free to join our Telegram channel and to follow us on Twitter. Thank you.
To start, here are some of the basics about INLOCK:
- Project: INLOCK
- What: a lending platform
- Blockchain: Ethereum
- Dates: 15 September 2018–12 October 2018
- Token: ILK ($1=100 ILK)
- Soft cap: 15 000 000 USD
- Hard cap: 27 500 000 USD
- Accepting: ETH, BTC, BCH, LTC
- Country: Estonia
Due to the growing popularity of cryptocurrency, the demand for supplementary services is becoming more and more urgent. Lending is a driving force of every economy. However, the wealth stored in cryptocurrencies is not liquid. It can only be leveraged with a high level of risk and associated costs.
INLOCK is a lending platform that enables cryptocurrency holders to manage short-term liquidity problems by taking a loan, using their existing cryptocurrencies as collateral. The credit transactions are established between the two parties directly. INLOCK acts as intermediary to record the terms of the agreement. These terms are established in a smart contract, making every credit contract between parties immutable and impossible to manipulate.
Is the INLOCK ICO from Estonia?
The legal entity representing the platform is Income Locker Oü, an Estonian company, yes. Our team is international, with the majority from Hungary and the UK.
Will the loan commission depend on the amounts?
We call it platform usage fee, which is proportional to the collateral placed for the loan. This pricing model is fair for customers of all variety in terms of the loan size.
Do lenders face certain risks here? What if the ratio declines?
Remember, the loans are collateralized by the borrower’s own crypto. This ensures that the lender is able to get back the fiat + interest even in the case of negative price movements. The risk of price fluctuations is on the borrower, however, he or she is able to set the over-collateralization rate according to his or her own preferences to stay on the safe side too.
How can spendability of crypto be improved?
There are a lot of blocking issues regarding the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, one being spendability. It is still rather hard to find a merchant who accepts crypto, and even then it’s risky to sell/exchange them because of volatility. INLOCK enables our users to access the purchasing power of their crypto by using it as collateral for a FIAT loan.
Do you have competitors if you are aware of?
There are players in this space already, but the market is HUGE, no single entity is able to serve the demand right now. And to our knowledge there is nobody else solving this problem the way we do. You know, if you care to dig deep enough you’ll find that there might be similarities but in its full complexity probably our solution is the most deliberate out there.
Does INLOCK have an affiliate program?
You should complete the registration on the platform and fulfill the bounty form at: https://mvp-demo.inlock.io — After that you’ll be given a referral code. The same code will be used for the affiliate program as well.
How are costs paid?
All the costs regarding the platform usage are paid in ILK tokens. Of course our token will be listed on many small/medium exchanges. This is not a question, but we would like to list it on biggest exchanges as well. We had many promising discussions in this topic. We met exchanges’ represents in Zug on Techcruch in July. To clarify:
- The INLOCK token ($ILK) is running on Ethereum. This is an ERC20 token, so the token is using the Ethereum consensus mechanism.
- We are using another smart contract for the collateral management. This is a complex multisignature signed wallet +smart contract model, in which the following actors have to from consensus: borrower, lender, delegated supervisory board member and the smart contract itself, which is able to decide based on an independent oracle information.
- The last part of the consensus mechanism is the internal blockchain which contains the details.
How long has your team worked on this lending concept?
The idea was conceived last September. We have spent months designing the ecosystem and the token model and conducted extensive testing. We established our firm in January 2018.
Can people in the United States use INLOCK?
Everyone is able to use the platform from any country. It all depends on whether there are lender partners who are able to provide loans for U.S. citizens. We are sure that there are plenty of institutions out there that want to provide their services in the U.S. through INLOCK. The lender doesn’t necessarily have to be from your country. It is enough if they have the necessary permits/licenses to be able to provide services in your country. For example, in Europe, all banks in the EU can get licenses to provide loans in any EU countries.
Why is this lending method profitable for institutions?
Institutions gain interest for the loans provided, while being on the safe side — since the loan is protected by collateral. Regarding the APR %, it is also not fixed, institutions compete with each other for borrowers, which ensures market competition to keep the APR% as low as possible.
Do they earn in fiat?
Yes, the interest is independent from the platform. It is paid directly from the borrower to the lender.
Can I borrow anonymously?
No, we have to complete full KYC with all our clients. There is no other way.
Who is the INLOCK’s KYC partner?
At the whitelist stage we are able to handle it internally. During the main sale we’ll outsource KYC services to a partner company.
Do you already have an influx of institutions?
We have our first lender partner locked in: Virpay. They are committed to providing FIAT liquidity for the minimum value product period and serve as a payment provider for the platform.
What currencies can I use on INLOCK?
For the minimum value product we’ll start with BTC, BCH, LTC, ETH and we let the community decide which ones to add next in each quarter
Have you gathered enough early stage investors?
Enough is relative term. Thanks to our early stage supporters we have managed to raise a considerable amount, which certainly gives us a head start. We plan to sell 31% of the tokens on private sale, so there is room to grow still before the actual ICO launch.
What is your funding goal?
We raised almost 2M US$ in seed round, and we only opened the whitelist on August 1.
Can I withdraw this locked amount in fiat? Does it depend on my country regulations?
It all depends on the regulation in effect for the lender. As a borrower in most regions there are few restrictions. The only exception is if the borrower is on the OFAC list or from a FATCA-listed country. Deciding which FIAT currencies are offered through the platform is essentially up to the lenders, but since market competition is in effect, it’s extremely important for lenders to continuously extend their services (to offer a wide range of FIAT currencies), as the more flexible they are the more borrowers they get.
