AIKON unveils new blockchain protocol to create a decentralized “economic OS” for developers, offering equal access to global commerce
SAN MATEO, Calif. (PRWEB) March 08, 2018 -- AIKON, an R&D technology company serving the decentralized economy, has unveiled a new protocol, the Open Rights Exchange (ORE) Protocol, that will enable a global API marketplace on the blockchain, creating a new “economic OS” for developers. Founded by serial entrepreneur and encryption software pioneer Stefan Roever, former political campaign manager and technology entrepreneur Marc Blinder, and seasoned global banking and Fintech executive Betsabe Martinez Botaitis, the company is tackling challenges facing developers worldwide.
The goal of the ORE Protocol, combined with AIKON’s eventual API marketplace, is to remove the choke points that hold developers back from monetizing or purchasing APIs on a global scale: financial and legal complexity, regulatory labyrinths, resource restrictions, difficulty commercializing API integrations, geographic limitations and even regime censorship.
The company has raised $2 million from Palo Alto-based OVO Fund and various angel investors from the U.S., Japan and Europe, and has signed the following platform partners for private alpha testing:
- AI computing solution provider, HADRON.cloud
- Food identification and nutritional info AI solution, Tasty Time
- Video hosting and monetization vendor, Gbox
Commercializing APIs is currently a time-consuming and high-touch process, typically requiring legally negotiated licensing contracts and imprecise and delayed payment schemes given the volume of micro-transactions APIs execute on a daily or even hourly basis. AIKON’s ORE Protocol will enable platform partners to enter into API rights management contracts via a blockchain ledger, with a payment layer being processed almost instantaneously based on the pricing terms of the contract (e.g. pay-per-call, time used, etc.).
AIKON aims to enable developers around the world to publish and merchandise their APIs regardless of location or access to traditional forms of capital, such as credit cards or even bank accounts. According to a 2011 Gallup survey for the World Bank Financial Inclusion database, only seven percent of people in developing economies own credit cards, serving as a huge financial hurdle to developers in those countries who want to contribute to the global technology ecosystem.
As part of its plan to build a decentralized global marketplace for APIs, AIKON's ORE Protocol includes its own stable payment system to protect developers from the volatility of cryptocurrency and ensure they can get paid no matter where they are with no banks or credit cards required for the transaction. The ORE Protocol will provide API buyers and sellers with secure transactions that are instant and transparent, with AIKON managing the end-to-end complexity of pay-as-you-go API use for a low fee that is more than 90 percent cheaper than other API marketplaces, with no foreign exchange fees added.
There are a number of critical components to achieving a truly decentralized global economy. In the past 20 years, the following four have become available:
A decentralized ledger, via blockchain technology.
Decentralized storage, with companies like Filecoin, Storj, and the SAFE Network providing alternatives to monoliths like Amazon AWS or Google Cloud.
Decentralized currencies, which cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have popularized.
Decentralized computing with Ethereum.
AIKON believes that there are two remaining requirements that have yet to be solved:
A trusted, decentralized digital rights management platform to manage access rights and ownership - addressed by the ORE Protocol.
A stable payment system that is highly fungible yet reliably protects developers from the volatility of decentralized currencies and ensures they can be paid no matter where they are, regardless of whether or not they have easy access to a bank account or credit card.
“We’ve signed on with AIKON because we believe their technology has the potential to change how we do business and make it much more feasible for companies to work together. AIKON will allow us to monetize our APIs with new audiences,” said Cliff Szu, CEO at distributed AI computation startup HADRON.cloud. “AIKON will also serve as a critical bridge for us to work with our larger, more traditional customers that want to leverage our AI and compute capabilities quickly, in a trusted, secure manner, without requiring enterprise-level bureaucracy.”
“There’s so much unnecessary friction for developers that want to monetize their APIs right now. The truth is if you’re going to build a complex application, you shouldn't need to have a formalized company to do that,” said Stefan Roever, founder and CEO at AIKON. “What excites me about AIKON is that we’re offering the missing pieces in the existing blockchain environment to create an economic operating system that allows individuals, enterprises, and developers to fully participate.”
“We’re trying to create a system where equal treatment is built into the fabric of the digital economy. That’s the promise of blockchain - that everyone from the smallest teams to the biggest companies get access to the same data, which means they have the same opportunity to build something amazing,” said AIKON Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Marc Blinder. “We designed the ORE Protocol to foster a truly fair and transparent decentralized economy that anyone can contribute to and profit from, no matter who they are or where they live.”
“I decided to work on AIKON because I truly believe we can make a real difference in removing biases from technology and innovation,” said Betsabe Martinez Botaitis, co-founder and CFO at AIKON. “Our goal is to empower developers anywhere to own their future and build prosperity for themselves and their families, regardless of gender, age, location or privilege. AIKON can close the gap and give them that opportunity.”
To learn more about AIKON and the Open Rights Exchange Protocol, people can visit http://www.aikon.com, join Team AIKON on Telegram, or sign up to be alerted when the public alpha is available for testing.
About AIKON
Founded in 2017 by an encryption technology pioneer, a former political operative and a banking veteran, AIKON’s vision is to build technology products that decentralize and catalyze the global digital economy. AIKON believes that the world must become a decentralized global economy to facilitate worldwide collaboration and equal opportunity regardless of location, background, or easy access to banks or credit cards. AIKON has raised $2 million from Palo Alto-based OVO Fund and various angel investors from the U.S., Japan and Europe.
Marie Williams, Coderella, +1 (415) 689-4029, [email protected]
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