home of the IOU* economy

* IOU = "I owe you", an acknowledgement of debt

SikobaPay is a blockchain-based system to register, track and clear debt. Our goals are to reduce money dependency, boost local economies in developing countries and allow the unbanked to establish a credit history. We will launch our MVP at the end of March 2020.

Co-branded versions of SikobaPay can also be used for local currencies and basic income programs.

Deck

1-Minute Intro

App Demo

New (31 March): we have released the SikobaPay MVP and are about to start beta testing - read about it in the latest update on Medium. Join our mailing list.

Become an Investor

As is the case with most early-stage startups, we are always either in the process of fundraising, or preparing the next fundraising round. Growth without financing is simply not possible. If you would like to find out about investing in Sikoba, please send an email to invest@sikoba.com.

We are also looking for help with our fundraising, so if you have relevant fundraising/ICO/IEO experience, feel free to contact us.

Volunteer as a Beta Tester or Partner

We are currently looking for networks of beta testers for the next release of the sikobaPay app. We also seek to to partner with local area experts, businesses and NGOs who can work with us to set up pilot projects and introduce the sikobaPay platform to local communities that would benefit from it. If you're interested, please join our telegram channel (@sikobaNetwork) or send an email to partners@sikoba.com or betatesters@sikoba.com.

Maria and Abi are business owners in the same community. By granting each other credit lines and using IOUs, they can reduce the amount of cash they need to transact with each other.

Lee is a well known and member of the community. Tara has just started her business. Although they do not trust each other equally, they can both use Sikoba IOUs to reduce their dependency on money.

Credit Conversion allows SikobaPay users who do not know or trust each other transact using IOUs through trusted intermediaries. Sikoba’s basic and most important rule is that a user will only ever have credit exposure to those they have expressly chosen to trust.

Clearing — the same tallying and offsetting of debts and credits that was historically done at trade fairs — but on a more rapid and ongoing basis. The result is that money is only needed to repay residual balances rather than the full financial value of all trade.

Use Cases

Local Currencies

Setting up local currencies is a natural use case for SikobaPay. We aim for an easy set-up that will make it possible to start a local currency even for very small communities. Local currencies using SikobaPay can become easily exchangeable with other local currencies, using our credit conversion feature.

Of course, all standard IOU features of SikobaPay will also be available for users of such local currencies.

Direct Giving / Basic Income Programs

Instead of distributing cash, beneficiaries get a “credit” in SikobaPay, which they can use directly for purchases in participating local shops, for withdrawing cash from these shops, or for sending to other SikobaPay users at minimal cost. Because cash withdrawals can be subject to a commission, there will be an incentive to use credits directly, thus reducing the amount of cash transactions. Both the basic income beneficiaries and the participating shops will be able to use other SikobaPay functionalities, which can lead to an increase in local trade and small business activity.

Alternative for

Micro-Credits

Micro-credits can carry very high interest rates and can also be difficult to obtain, especially in remote areas. When artisans and merchants start using their own credit on the SikobaPay platform for local trade, their reliance on micro-credits may decrease. That said, SikobaPay can also be used as an efficient tool to manage a micro-lending operation.

Jump-Starting Local Economies for the World’s Unbanked

In some situations, the poverty is such that even the access to micro-credit is very limited. Here, a system such as SikobaPay can help to jump-start local economies. Once people realise that bank money is not absolutely necessary, and have a tool for precisely keeping track of mutual credits and debits, even primitive economics may get a boost.

Inter-Company Credit

System

Groups of companies that do business with each other on a regular basis, for example because they are located in the same geographical region, will profit from setting up interco credit systems.

Instead of systematically paying each other's invoices, they register invoices in the system and only pay residual balances after periodic clearing. As a result, less bank credit is needed.

Our Team

Alex Kampa

Director
Luxembourg

Nimisha Walji, PhD

Operations
Italy

Guillaume Drevon

CTO
Luxembourg

Lisa Tan

Finance

Dragan Postolovski

IT Development

Luxembourg

Margareta Reshetar

Community Relations

France

News & Events

Upcoming Events

Past Events

Apr

SikobaPay meetup in Brussels

View details...

Chaussée de la Hulpe 120, 1000 Bruselles, Belgium

To be confirmed...

SikobaPay won the Pitch Your Startup semi-finals at the European Finance Summit March 2020, in the fintech category. We are looking forward to the finals in September!

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