Telcoin is a new cryptocurrency based on the Ethereum blockchain that will be distributed by your
national telecom operator and made available to everyone, anytime, anywhere. This is the core of
our business, and mobile network operators will be at the center of our strategy.
Telcoin is the first cryptocurrency to tap into synergies between the reach of mobile telecoms and
the fast, borderless nature of blockchain technology. According to the World Bank, there are
nearly five times as many mobile phones in the world (5 billion), as there are active bank accounts
(1.2 billion). It's a lot easier to access mobile phone services than banking services, and we aim 1
to capitalize on that disparity.
We will initially offer Telcoin to our mobile network partners, providing their customers with
seamless access to the digital economy: online remittances, transfers, payments, and ecommerce.
We will also provide the necessary marketing and product development resources to
nurture the Telcoin ecosystem, in a joint effort with our telecom partners.
Our objective is not to compete with telecom mobile money, but to cooperatively participate in the
overall mobile money ecosystem. We see ourselves as a complementary solution; a tool that will
increasingly bring users to mobile money, cryptocurrency-backed solutions, and mobile wallets.
Our goal is to become one of the cornerstone financial inclusion efforts of the 21st century and
we want to cooperate with actors who we believe can play a critical role in this process, namely
mobile network operators.
A usable cryptocurrency - how will Telcoin work?
As it is the case with any ERC20 token, Telcoin will be available to anyone with an access to the
Ethereum blockchain. What makes Telcoin different is that users will be able to access it using
their mobile operators, so in order for other wallets to integrate fully with Telcoin, their developers
will need to integrate with more than the cryptocurrency itself, but with the Telcoin system.
The Telcoin building blocks
The starting point for the Telcoin ecosystem is of course the end user. Regarding the users, their
wallets, and their crypto addresses:
• The users have access to mobile money or another form of payment coming from their link with
their mobile operator.
• The users wallets, if fully integrated with Telcoin, will provide integration with the Telcoin API, giving
access to payments solutions provided by operators.
• The users addresses are, by default, multi-signature wallets with three private keys.
• The users default addresses will have one private key stored encrypted on their devices, one key
stored encrypted by their mobile operator, and one key stored encrypted by Telcoin.
• A subset of transactions made from the users addresses (for example, large amount of Telcoin
moved) will need to be signed by two of the three keys.
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Regarding the Telcoin wallets of the mobile operators:
• Mobile operators will receive their allowed Telcoin supply in multi-signature wallets that have at
least two private keys. One being stored by Telcoin, and one being stored by the operator.
• In order to simplify management, the mobile network operator wallets will be managed by Telcoin,
unless otherwise requested by the operator, over an API Telcoin will provide to the operators.
Regarding Telcoin:
• Telcoin will store user's phone numbers (as it is their identifier with their operator), the public key of
their addresses, and one of the encrypted private key to their wallets.
These building blocks provide a solid foundation for a secure use of Telcoin.
Selected use-cases
When a user registers using a fully compliant wallet, they will authenticate with their mobile money
provider via SMS and Telcoin will then generate the appropriate addresses, private keys, and
store the relevant information in a secure way. If the user is not a subscriber of a supported
network, the fully compliant wallets will still allow their users to generate a regular blockchain
address, as Telcoin is an ERC20 token.
When a user wishes to buy Telcoin, they will first spend their mobile money. Once this mobile
money transaction is confirmed, the operator will order Telcoin to move coins to the user’s
address. A more fully integrated experience would even allow the user to tap their mobile money
directly from the wallet app.
When a user wishes to send Telcoin to another user, for the sake of a better user experience, in
addition to allow sending coins to a regular public key, a fully integrated wallet will provide the
option to enter a phone number or to pick it from their address book. If the recipient is already a
Telcoin user, they will be known by Telcoin and the coins will be sent automatically to the
corresponding address. If the recipient is not a Telcoin user, but is a subscriber on a supported
network, Telcoin will simply generate a temporary address behind the scenes and have the
recipient receive an SMS with very simple instructions to get access to their money by installing a
supported wallet. In case the recipient does not subscribe to a supported network, an error will be
returned and no coins will be sent.
When trying to send money using their default settings, if the sum is above a certain threshold
we’ll decide in function of various parameters such as their location, the user will be prompted to
authenticate with Telcoin using two factors of authentication. If they never authenticated this way,
they will be prompted to create a Telcoin account at that moment. This will protect them in cases
like sim-jacking or stolen phones.
A Telcoin user that wishes to send coins to a public key instead of a phone number will obviously
have this possibility, but less protection against sending coins to a dormant address (and then
losing the money), which should in theory not be possible when sending Telcoin to a phone
number.
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The most common cases will not require any special action, and only heavier actions like large
money movements will trigger higher levels of security. This allows us to offer a secure, yet
convenient experience to a large amount of users, while still being an open ecosystem on the
blockchain and being wallet-agnostic.
Telcoin Issuance Model
In order to support the adoption, promotion, and integrity of Telcoin, an issuance model has been
established to incentivize partner mobile networks.
Cryptocurrencies typically ensure the integrity of their blockchain by allowing public mining, which
amounts to members of the public competing to process blockchain transactions as fast as
possible in exchange for receiving newly minted cryptocurrency coins. In addition to
autonomously powering the blockchain, this public mining “proof of work” algorithm for
distributed consensus protects it from malicious attack (as any blockchain hack would require
simultaneously compromising more than half of the global mining operations). While this proof of
work model works well for a purely autonomous blockchain, it has presented scalability issues
and requires a significant amount of electricity. Cryptocurrencies based on purely autonomous
blockchains also struggle to comply with “know your customer” (KYC) requirements intended for
anti-money laundering (AML), combatting the financing of terrorism (CFT), and fraud management
(FM).
Telcoin will implement an alternative “proof of stake” algorithm for issuance, whereby only GSM
Association Full Member mobile network operators and their virtual network partners (MVNOs) will
have a right to be issued Telcoin. Instead of an inefficient competition between telecoms,
issuance rights will depend on stages of Telcoin integration.
Half of all Telcoin supply will be set aside for mobile network issuance at a linear rate of five
percent annually based on the following model for issuance rights:
Telcoin visiting Manila 🇵🇭
Our Telecom Business Development team, led by Paul Neuner, spent time in the Philippines capital last week. They met with telecoms to discuss new agreements. The Philippines has provided a positive and open environment for fintech solutions in the past - for both mobile money and cryptocurrency. This, combined with the country’s large remittance market, bodes well for Telcoin, and the meetings were extremely positive. We are now engaged in talks regarding next steps to allow Telcoin remittance directly to/from mobile money as well as Telcoin purchase from prepaid credit. We have also found great interest in the disaster relief use case, as the Philippines endures an average of nine typhoons annually.
As shared previously, Telecoms are sensitive regarding any news involving cryptocurrency, and all insist on non-disclosure agreements covering any POCs. We are focused on POC deployment with telecom operators at this point - not media approval. Rest assured, we will be sharing details about these partnerships with our community in due course.
Building the company - New team members!
To respond to the growing needs of developing Telcoin, all departments have been busy recruiting new team members. We have successfully recruited for the Crypto Business Development team, Product department, and Telecom business development department. Stay tuned, as we will be introducing our new team members to you shortly! We are still recruiting for all departments, so if you have relevant skills and experience, we would like to hear from you. Send us an email at [email protected] with your CV and the relevant department listed in the subject line.
To accommodate our rapidly expanding team, we will soon be moving to bigger and better offices in the heart of Shibuya. Stay tuned!
Trip to India 🇮🇳
Our CEO, Claude and Yacine, our Marketing Director, are heading to India this week (February 21-22). They will be speaking on cryptocurrency, regulation, and the digital economy at an ADBI workshop for senior policy makers, international experts, and representatives from academia and the private sector involved in the digital economy.
Participants will be attending from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.