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Tatsiana Yablonskaya
Taking strong interest in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and IoT, Tatsiana Yablonskaya got deep understanding of the emerging techs believing in their potential to drive the future.
Lisk’s founders Max Kordek and Oliver Beddows admit that now their startup is in the most advantageous position with no competitors on the market.
Lisk, an open source platform written in JavaScript, was launched by two former Crypti team members Max Kordek and Oliver Beddows earlier this year. It focuses on development of blockchain-based applications using JavaScript and the publicly available Lisk SDK. Kordek and Beddows position their startup as an alternative to the Ethereum platform. Max revealed some of Lisk’s details and plan in the interview to Coinspeaker.
Q: What inspired you to create Lisk?
Max: My personal preferences and the current blockchain trend. I love all decentralized technologies, especially those involving the blockchain. Therefore, I’d like to enable people to build decentralized technologies. With Lisk we make this possible by offering a platform to deploy own blockchains and build applications on top of them. The current trend within the industry shows that there is a strong focus on custom blockchains, many are moving away from Bitcoin and implementing their own solution.
Oliver Beddows has more than 15 years of experience in developing web based e-commerce applications. He started from the position of tools developer at Crypti (Lisk’s predecessor) in the beginning of 2015 and developed such tools as the CryptiChain Blockchain Explorer and CryptiKit. Oliver is not only one of the founders of Lisk, he is a husband, father, amateur time-trialist and open-source advocate.
Max Kordek had a rich experience in the blockchain industry even before the creation of Lisk. Max admits to be a futurist and thoroughbred entrepreneur who is interested in disruptive technologies. Together with Oliver, they are seeking to innovate the crypto-currency sector with decentralized applications, sidechains, and a remarkable user experience.
Q: Can you tell us what your company does? What is Lisk exactly and what can users expect?
Max: Our company (currently in the course of formation) manages the collected funds, development and promotion of Lisk. Essentially, we build the platform Lisk. It’s a cryptocurrency and blockchain application platform. It can be seen as a decentralized hub for blockchain applications, developed with our own App SDK in JavaScript. Our App SDK enables developers to deploy their own sidechain which they can completely customise, and build a blockchain application on top of it, e.g. a decentralized social network. Once developed they can add their app to our app directory which lists all available apps on our network. Afterwards, all users on the network are able to install and access the app. That means Lisk will offer all development tools, the network as a foundation, an app directory for distribution, and its own cryptocurrency (LSK) for monetisation. In a later stage it will also provide the infrastructure to run the apps on a multitude of servers, in order to make them truly decentralized.
The crowdsale for Lisk was conducted on Lisk’s custom-built crowdsale platform. People were able to participate with Bitcoin, Crypti, and various other altcoins like Dash or Nxt. Oliver and Max promoted their startup on various cryptocurrency websites and news outlets before and during the crowdsale. They managed to raise a total of 14,052 BTC and were really happy with the results.
Q: Some of our readers are thinking “Ok, Lisk. Just another altcoin..”. So what makes your product stand out from the “competition” so to speak?
Max: We are not just another altcoin. We are a startup, which has its own cryptocurrency platform to solve a very specific problem. Namely, developing decentralized technologies. At Lisk not the token is in focus, but the functionalities are. Next to Lisk there are only a handful of projects with real use-cases utilising blockchain technology. E.g. Ethereum, Nxt, or MaidSafe. That means everyone need to grasp a future in which cryptocurrency platforms are actually used, and not only exist for speculation. Our product stand out from the “competition” by offering a platform which makes the world of apps more decentralized.
In May the Lisk’s team expanded. Two new developers – Isabella Dell and Francois-Xavier Thoorens – joined the project just after Joel Fernandez, who came as Community Manager at the end of March. At the very beginning of June, Lisk welcomed IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson and serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Steven Nerayoff as senior advisors to facilitate product development. Kordek said that the appointment of Hoskinson and Nerayoff definitely means much for Lisk as these two individuals are standing behind the “phenomenal” success of Ethereum.
Q: This is the first time I’ve seen such a platform. Why do you believe you will succeed?
Max: We are in a good situation, as you say this is the first time you see such a platform. We are in a unique position with no competitors on the market. If Lisk will be a huge success depends on the market, if they accept or even need such a platform. I’m very optimistic because the advantages are very clear. In an increasingly digital society a decentralized platform on which everything can be implemented in a modular way (apps) is the next step. Technology is making us humans more independent and free, Lisk can play an important role in delivering the necessary applications to achieve that.
Lisk aims to become the de-facto standard for blockchain applications and services. The company has carried out one of the most successful public crowdsales in history, and now is going to take its place in the blockchain and app industry.
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