This is a transcript from our weekly YouTube live AMA:

SPEAKERS: Anita Mlakar and Sandi Bitenc.

About AMA: On this AMA, we are giving you our Weekly update and next steps at 3air.

AMA Duration: 21:54

Introduction

Anita Mlakar: 00:09

Hello, everybody, and welcome to 3air’s live AMA, Anita Mlakar is my name. And I’m the host of this AMA. It is Wednesday. We’re here every Wednesday 5pm Central European Time. And thank you. If you are with us right now, I can see that some of you are already here. It is time to ask your questions, write them down in the comments. You can also comment of course, this AMA, and I’m really looking forward because Sandi, the CEO of 3air will also be with us in a couple of minutes from South Africa.

00:42

Yes, he’s travelling all over the world these days, and we’re happy to have him here also, although I have to tell you he didn’t sleep for a while, but he is good looking and happy today. He will be with us in a couple of seconds. Before that, I would like to invite you of course, to follow us, if you’re not subscribed to YouTube channel, do subscribe. Please follow us we have our channels. We are on Discord, on Twitter and on Telegram and you can become a part of this channels where we are having all days conversations, answering your questions and so on and so on. We are also on social networks, 3air just look up. And you can of course follow us there too.

01:28

Let me just give you a short introduction of our project. Maybe you are new here and you are not aware of what we are doing. So, 3air is the world’s first blockchain platform that helps individuals and businesses thrive on Web3. With broadband internet, it is a blockchain platform with connectivity in mind. If you are unconnected, you are underpowered. So, we are trying to give people internet connection to empower them. And at the same time, we’re educating people. And we are doing that in Africa with two technologies, K-3 Last Mile Solution and our 3air internet.

02:08

Once you are connected to the internet, you get a digital identity from us. And of course, you can identify yourself with it. We also create your digital bank account, giving you a custodial or noncustodial wallet, we’re providing financial services. We also have outside partners that will provide additional digital revenue streams. And once we put you through all these steps, you’re connected, banked and empowered. So, thank you for being with us. Sandi Bitenc, CEO of 3air is right here right now.

Sandi Bitenc, CEO of 3air Joins the AMA

Anita Mlakar: 02:41

Hello, Sandi.

Sandi Bitenc: 02:42

Hello. Hi, everyone. Hi, Anita. How are you?

Anita Mlakar: 02:46

I’m great. I wanted to ask you the same question.

Sandi Bitenc: 02:50

You look great. You have a lot of colour.

Anita Mlakar: 02:54

I do. Well, yeah. A little bit. You know, I’m hiding from sun. They say it’s not very healthy. But if you’re walking around a lot, then it gets no matter how.

Sandi Bitenc: 03:06

I think, Sun is healthy. It does give the vitamin D that you need. So, but of course it’s not healthy if you get a sunburn.

Anita Mlakar: 03:17

That’s true. So, we have to be careful. And you know, everything in small doses is okay, right? Sandi, you are right now in South Africa. You are on the way, we just counted 34 or 35 hours. You didn’t get any sleep but still you’re looking great.

Sandi Bitenc: 03:41

I got a bit of sleep, but you know how it is sleeping on a plane. Yeah, we actually woke up yesterday at six. It’s funny. It’s actually the same time zone that we are in right now. But we flew, so in the morning, we needed to go to Austria to get our visas first, because it was done in the last minute. So, we picked up our visas there. And then we went to the airport in Vienna, then had a six-hour flight to Dubai. And then you know, we landed at 11 something or a bit before 11 and then our next flight was at 4, that was going from Dubai to Johannesburg.

04:30

When we were already on the plane some funny things started happening. There were some funny announcement that the cabin air pressure is dropping, and the mask will fall down now and such trying to say although we were on the ground so there’s no way that airbrushing can fall. And then there was somebody on the plane that got apparently sick or something like that and they didn’t know if he’s going to be okay. And then after an hour then they decided to take him off the plane and then they needed to take off also all the luggage and I was like, “Why don’t they just fly all the luggage there and return the luggage? But no, security said, no way, if the guy is going off the plane, they needed then return the luggage because it was like he was one of the first ones in, so they needed to take all the luggage out. And there were over 500 people on the plane. Then back we were on the airport, in the plane, really sitting inside for over two hours. So, not really a lot of quality sleep there, for sure.

05:50

So then when we landed in Johannesburg, there also we were waiting over an hour to get our luggage. So, we came into the hotel about two hours ago, something like that and now we went to get something to eat. And here I am. Not so shocked, it’s usual. I’m already getting a bit of brain fog but yeah, tomorrow it’s gonna be fine.

Anita Mlakar: 06:18

Someone wrote, let me see, that you have a great chair. Nice chair. It’s suites you.

Sandi Bitenc: 06:28

I’ll take it with me.

Anita Mlakar: 06:30

Like a king sitting on your chair comfortable.

Sandi Bitenc: 06:33

Game of thrones.

Anita Mlakar: 06:36

It really is good. I was just looking at the scene. And it’s really nice. So, Sandi, you’re in hotel right now. This is a hotel place?

Sandi Bitenc: 06:46

Yeah.

Anita Mlakar: 06:47

Okay, so when will you get some sleep? Because I know that you’re not going to do it after our AMA, right?

Sandi Bitenc: 06:54

No, so after the AMA, I need to go and check up on all the emails and chats and so on. And then at six, I have another call. And then at 07:30, I have the first meeting here. So, let’s see. That one will probably take two hours or something like that. And then after that, I’ll probably get some sleep but here I am. The work needs to be done.

07:20

I do think we’ll have some good info coming, maybe not so much from Johannesburg. So, Johannesburg is mostly I am giving a lecture on the Johannesburg University on Friday. So, tomorrow I need to prepare. And there’s also an event going on at Johannesburg University. So, I’ll be attending that one tomorrow. And then on Saturday, we are already flying to Cape Town. And then I have an important meeting there. Hopefully, everything goes well. So hopefully, I’ll be able to share some good news from Cape Town. Let’s say, later next week.

Market update of the past week/3air token launch:

Anita Mlakar: 08:07

Okay, I’m sure you will. Now you will give us a short update today. Really short one. So that because we are used to that, you informing us every week, we’re talking a little about what is happening on the scene right now. Also on the market, but maybe for starters, because we have a question, maybe someone new here. Maybe we should start with that. Just to give a short brief answer, has 3air then launched yet is the question that is popping out here in the comments. So, Sandi just in a short.

Sandi Bitenc: 08:37

So, the question is probably about the 3air token. So no, the 3air token hasn’t been launched yet. And we are giving these updates now regularly each week, because we are kind of fine tuning the exact date that will allow us the best launch possible. Right up until now, the market didn’t really allow for any successful token launches. So, we’ve been thinking and talking a lot this past week and the last days because Bitcoin and the crypto market started picking up again. So, let’s see what happens.

09:18

Actually, right now what we see is the possibility that this is still not just returning the trend, but it could be actually a bull trap. And we could still go down in let’s say next week on the 27th. I think 27th is again Wednesday, right? So, on the 27th we have the Fed meeting and I think a lot will be decided on that meeting like how high the interest rates raise is going to be again. And those can still kill the market, or they can really get the market going. But we will decide on the exact date of the token launch, the week after the 10th of August.

10:15

So, on the 10th of August, the CPI numbers come out. And I do think that if the CPI come out, good, then we won’t be seeing a lot of rate hikes in September. And that will probably get everything going again, at least for a few months, let’s say like this. So, I think this is gonna be the day, if in the August, the CPI numbers are good, then we’ll launch around mid-September. If they’re not good, then we’ll launch mid-October. But those are now the two dates kind of how we are planning everything.

Anita Mlakar: 10:56

Okay, this is actually important information. And just to the point. So, thank you, Sandi, because you are following everything that is going on right now, is there something new to add from, let’s say week before that?

Sandi Bitenc: 11:12

Well, I’ve been a bit off the grid for the last 35 hours, and also the night before, so I don’t know exactly everything that happened, but the general overview is the market started rallying. And it was actually after our last AMA when the CPI numbers came out, and they were actually bad. So just the instant reaction to that was a pull down in the market. So, Bitcoin went down to 19k. And just a bit below and then everything started rallying and I think we’re right now hitting 24k or something like that with Bitcoin and that’s really good. But what was funny and actually really good and encouraging for the token launch is that everyone went to actually like fully to teach and fully risk on. So, the majority of the altcoins actually rallied before Bitcoin. So, Bitcoin is right now catching up a bit. I think Ethereum was the one that was leading everything and there was some good news, because Ethereum came out with their date for the merge, and the merge should be in September. Let’s see, hopefully, it is in September, because we are waiting for the Eth 2.0 And that’s a part of it. It’s on the roadmap since Ethereum, was actually launched. So, they’re like five years later, four years later, like that.

12:58

It looks like we have the date now hopefully it will hold and Ethereum rally and MATIC had some good news so there was some collaboration going on with between MATIC and Disney, so this was a big one and then also the other altcoins went up and now Bitcoin is taking the lead and that’s actually the real sign of a healthy market. So usually what happens is first Bitcoin goes up and then everything else follows afterwards. This is how it usually is now and then you have Bitcoin then you have like the big blue-chip altcoins like the top 10 or top 20 maybe and then afterwards the small caps come and that actually then means that we are going into the alt season and the alt season is the best time to launch a new token. I don’t think we’ll go into full all season for our launch so we will be launching it before that.

Anita Mlakar: 14:23

Sandi, I’m following a little what is going on also in discussion in our channels. I see that you’re there, a lot of times answering the questions and what is what people are mostly questioning about the growth of the market or what is the main question, what to do right now? How to behave? Is there a lot of uncertainty? How is your feeling?

Sandi Bitenc: 14:49

I think everything is cool. It’s still quiet. Everyone is waiting for the token launch. I do think that the community understands that it doesn’t make sense to launch. Right now, maybe. Right now, it’s the time that we could start thinking about it. But I think waiting for another two, maybe three weeks to really have the exact date. And really, we will have the exact date of the token launch just a few days after the 10th. So, let’s see what happens with the CPI numbers on the 10th of August. I think that’s the main thing. I haven’t sensed really any, let’s say fear on our uncertainty or something like that. So, but if there is we’re always open and ready to answer any questions.

Any plans to create a 3air virtual card for online purchases?

Anita Mlakar: 15:52

Yeah. And AMA is the place for questions. So, we have another one coming up. Madubuike Daniel- Do you intend to create 3air virtual card, and it goes on, we can use to make online purchases.

Sandi Bitenc: 16:09

Right now, that is not on the roadmap. We’re not excluding it. I know how it can be done in that sense but right now, it is not something that we are really working actively on or even included in our roadmap.

Sandi’s upcoming plans

Anita Mlakar: 16:30

Okay, thank you, Daniel, for the question. Of course, questions are welcome here right now. In this few minutes, Sandi that we’re together giving the update. Please do tell us Sandi, you said that after that you’re going to Cape Town. And then what? How are you going to spend the rest of the summer, let’s say, till the day that we will have token launch? Are there any special plans?

Sandi Bitenc: 17:03

Well, right now during summer, there is not a lot of events going on. So, what I want is I want to settle down on a place that has good internet, so that I can really focus and be there for the token launch. On middle of September, I am invited to the CV labs main event in Switzerland, and I’ll be a speaker there. So, I’ll be for sure in Switzerland, I think it’s on the 14th or the 15th of September, then end of September, there is an event in Minnesota with African Chamber of digital commerce. So, I’ll be a speaker there also. And once I’m in the US end of September, then middle of October in Colombia, there is the biggest Eth event the DEF CON that was postponed for more than two years already because of COVID.

18:08

So, this is probably going to be one of the biggest events for any type of contract related blockchain events, I do think this is going to be a really big one. So that’s kind of the plan for the next few months and in between will for sure launch the token.

How is the 3air NFT market progressing

Anita Mlakar: 18:34

How is our NFT market progressing?

Sandi Bitenc: 18:38

Well, we didn’t do any marketing push right now. As we talked about in the previous AMAs already, right now, it doesn’t make sense to spend money on marketing, because there is just no returns on it. A lot of people exited the space, they’re not following it and not taking it really seriously or with the intention of spending any time or effort or money on joining any new projects. So, it is there, it’s functioning. We are working on porting it also over to the SKALE blockchain. And this will probably be done in the next week.

19:27

Also, we were talking about this week should be the week that we can possibly deploy the digital identities directly on chain and create a demo version, this or next week. I cannot be so much present there. So maybe it will take a bit longer. But we are getting there now really shortly. So, then we’re also working on some other demo versions we are looking into getting a big investor, a strategic partner on board, but they want to see some demos. And how we were creating everything right now there is a lot of stuff that needs to be actually done in the back end and the front end where you can test things. It’s really the minor thing to do in the end. So, we’re trying to get part of what we’ve already done on a demo version, so that we’ll possibly select a few also out of our community that can test it.

Anita Mlakar: 20:41

Yeah. So, I think this is the silence before the big storm, but a good storm, not a bad storm, the standard is bringing the rain, and then everything blooms after the rain. And what I think you and of course the team should do right now is gain some strength, strength to be ready for the fall. And then full speed, right?

Sandi Bitenc: 21:01

Yeah, absolutely. So, my main thing right now is still thinking about how to create the best token launch possible. And of course, and the other thing, also helping with guiding the developers and everything.

Anita Mlakar: 21:17

Okay, I would like to thank you, Sandi, for taking the time and being with us, without the sleep, without eating properly, without taking a rest, but always taking time for community. This is a really nice gesture. So, thank you very much.

Sandi Bitenc: 21:31

Thanks. Thank you for being here and everyone else.

Anita Mlakar: 21:34

Yeah. Thank you all for being with us. And of course, it is time for questions, all the time actually in our channels. And we will be live back next Wednesday at 5pm. As usual, don’t miss it. And have a great time. Thank you, Sandi.

Sandi Bitenc: 21:53

Bye bye.

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