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 Q&A.

AMA Duration: 18:34

Introduction:

Anita Mlakar: 00:20

Hello, everybody, and welcome to 3air’s AMA. I see that some of you are already with us. I’m really happy to have you here. And let me just remind you that this is your opportunity, of course to ask questions. You can ask questions all the time. In our channels, in our community, on Discord, on Telegram and of course on Twitter. But here is a possibility to do it live. So do use the comment section. Of course, to write questions because our CEO, Sandi Bitenc will be with us in a couple of seconds.

00:55

Before I invite him in, my name is Anita Mlakar. I’m the host of this AMA as usually I always do a short introduction of 3air’s project at the beginning. So let me just tell you a couple of sentences about what we are doing.

01:10

We are connecting the unconnected giving people of Africa internet connections. And once they have an internet connection, we can provide them with digital identities, then we can bank the unbanked and so on and so on. So, the core objectives of 3air are provide as I said broadband connectivity to citizen Africa. Create an easy-to-use system for acquiring ISP services. Give the users control over their identity and credit line. Allow ISPs efficient community building and loyalty programs. Provide micro loans to people in Africa. Implement security and fraud prevention features. Enable secondary markets for bandwidth and other subscription services. Build a robust IoT platform for ISPs. connect ISPs around the globe and enable through seamless roaming. This is what we are doing and of course, there is more to it. You can read more about it in our documents on 3air.io.

02:15

But right now, I would like to invite our CEO Sandi Bitenc to join us. And of course, they’ll be the one who will be answering your questions.

Sandi Bitenc, CEO of 3air Joins the AMA:

Anita Mlakar: 02:25

Hello, Sandi and welcome.

Sandi Bitenc: 02:27

Hello, Anita. Let me get in some light.

Anita Mlakar: 02:35

First, it was the voice and then the face came a little different than the one we are used it. What happened Sandi?

Sandi Bitenc: 02:45

I shaved for a purpose.

Anita Mlakar: 02:51

What is the purpose?

Sandi Bitenc: 02:53

It’s scuba diving.

Anita Mlakar: 02:55

Okay.

Sandi Bitenc: 02:56

Yeah. So, you know if I have the beard and the water comes into my mask. I what I did try is just to shave my mustache down and it worked. But it looked really funny so I said let’s do it like this.

Anita Mlakar: 03:17

You look so young, you know.

Sandi Bitenc: 03:18

I know that.

Anita Mlakar: 03:22

And you have some nice color, you know from the sun.

Sandi Bitenc: 03:25

Yeah. It is a lot of fun here where we are.

Anita Mlakar: 03:30

We’ll look at the difference between us. I’m like pale, white and you are all brownie. Great.

Sandi Bitenc: 03:37

Right now, I am standing on a beach from a small island in the Maldives. There is no light here. There’s no houses here. No electricity. We just went off of our diving boats to have a picnic here. So, the picnic is actually over. We are waiting for the boats to pick us up and then we move forward and to do more dive.

Anita Mlakar: 04:05

Okay, but you are organized because someone is giving you the light. Right?

Sandi Bitenc: 04:10

Yeah, look who is here. She needs to light herself also. Our assistant here.

Anita Mlakar: 04:20

Petra, thank you.

Sandi Bitenc: 04:24

Yeah, we are actually on our honeymoon that we got. So, the trip was a gift for our wedding from a friend and also an early adopter of the 3air actually. He was the one in really early and yeah, this was a wedding gift.

Anita Mlakar: 04:46

Okay, does that mean Sandi that you’re actually resting a little bit or you just say like, I’m on vacation but still working.

Sandi Bitenc: 04:56

Petra, how much am I resting? Enough?

Petra: 04:59

No.

3air going global:

Sandi Bitenc: 05:02

It’s quite a lot of work still. So, we are organizing some new stuff. A white paper is being written right now, the new version, updated and it’s is about 3air going global that I can say, but I cannot really share the specific because we don’t know exactly the specifics. So, we are still working on all the paperwork and everything and things still might change a bit, but it is about 3air actually going global. And right after the Maldives, we’re flying directly to Thailand to actually meet with some new core team members. And to push also this bit further, we’re meeting with a few potential investors in Thailand also. So, the next time we’ll be on the AMA. I’ll be tuning in from Thailand, Bangkok.

What is the plan for the updated roadmap/whitepaper?

Anita Mlakar: 06:06

Okay, from all parts of the world, we are here live every 14 days, every two weeks. This is live AMA and also the opportunity, of course to answer your questions if you do have a question, write them down. But we did have some questions also in our community Sandi, and you are here of course to answer them. But like you said, a lot of talk is also going on about the new roadmap, like you said, 3air will move in another direction to not only Africa, and when will be the time Sandi that you could tell us more about it?

Sandi Bitenc: 06:44

Once we really finish the white paper, that’s the most important thing. We need to have the details, because if I share some roadmap and some details with it, and then things change, that’s never a good thing, right? Changing it. As I told you, I can say that it is about 3air going global, but we still need to figure some things out. It’s a lot of work and it’s getting a global network together, it’s a lot of legal stuff that we need to get sorted out and for the most part, what we’re doing right now. And of course, in the meantime, also looking for some new investors but we can start really pitching the investors like really pitching. I pitched a few friends from the VC side. But really pitching is going to be possible when we have things sorted out in a proper paper.

Anita Mlakar: 07:53

Okay, as you can see, also Richard was asking what is the plan for the updated roadmap and white paper and as you were saying.

Sandi Bitenc: 08:04

I think I do hope that the white paper will be finished by the end of the month. The Thailand trip just after the Maldives is a working trip. So, we’ll be working together with some of the really important key people that are joining the project, and are really important to solve so that we can pull this off. Hopefully, we’ll have enough time and enough resources to do this while I’m in Thailand. Then just polished white paper by the end of the month, and we can maybe publish it by then.

What is the reason to start focus on a global scope for 3air instead of starting with a narrower scope, African countries?

Anita Mlakar: 08:44

Okay. Thank you for your questions, by the way. And we do have another one here. What is the reason to start focus on a global scope for 3air instead of starting with a narrower scope, African countries.

Sandi Bitenc: 08:57

We were not forgiving the African operation. We just have a bit of a roadblock right now there. So, we went after DRC and the investment for DRC is there but we are still waiting for some licenses there and that is taking longer than we anticipated. It’s still in the works, kind of everything is paid and promised but we still don’t have the stamp and the signature on it. What we’ve actually seen is that if things are really so narrowly focused, then people don’t associate them with the project so much. I think we’re missing on a lot of community that could join because we don’t have any product to offer them. So, a global product will actually offer something and everyone can actually use and I think this is really important to get the big and strong community around it, then it’s going to be easier to do it like that. And as said, so even in the first iteration of the white paper, we already mentioned the global part. So, it’s not that it’s really new. It’s more or less something that you’re putting a bit up front. Mostly because there is a holdup in DRC.

Is 3air token listed on Gem Finder?

Anita Mlakar: 10:29

Okay, I picked some questions also from our communities and Isabel was asking, did we list our coin in Gem Finder?

Sandi Bitenc: 10:41

No, we did not. But we could look into it. I don’t actually know, Gem Finder. So maybe drop a comment in the Telegram, a link there, and we’ll look into it.

Anita Mlakar: 11:02

Okay, Isabel, wrote that there is a lot of traffic there and maybe we should look into it. So yeah, like you said, Sandi, she should maybe give us the link and we’ll look into it.

3air has many good ideas, micro loans, internet banking, but what are the plans to turn ideas into reality?

Anita Mlakar: 11:14

James said 3air has many good ideas, micro loans, internet banking, but what are the plans to turn ideas into reality?

Sandi Bitenc: 11:30

The plans, how we want to do it? So actually, we have a Telecom on ground already in Sierra Leone. There’s a lot of stuff that have been developed is just that we didn’t expect for the bear market to actually happen. And yeah, that’s the thing. Also, with the license, we didn’t expect that one. But we have a strong lobbying team that’s on the works for that. But it is Africa sometimes things take longer than expected. That’s the really big issue in Africa is always that time is seen a bit differently than in the rest of the world. I think the team is really good. It’s also a big team that is working on it. It’s just a bit of a roadblock and we’ll overcome that.

Will you ask the K3 team in Sierra Leone to share new pictures, videos, towers, receivers, office in the 3air Telegram channel?

Anita Mlakar: 12:29

Okay. And now, this is something that we will do. Because Richard is saying, Will you ask the K3 team in Sierra Leone to share new pictures, videos, towers, receivers, office in the 3air Telegram channel? Sandi, we actually have some pictures from the ground, right?

Sandi Bitenc: 12:49

Yeah, so we have some pictures from the office and our storage room. And maybe just let’s show them a bit. So that’s our office is and these pictures were actually made today, that’s our main office. That’s how it looks there in Sierra Leone, a bit of the team, the sales team, and some support. Some more support. And this is then the storage room. I will also get some pictures from the towers and so on but I don’t have those yet. And also, I do think Rok will join us on our next AMA hopefully. This week he was not available. So, he couldn’t join.

Anita Mlakar: 13:53

Okay, Richard, you can write down what do you think about those pictures? Because you were asking for those pictures for some time now. I’m really happy that we have the fresh ones. I did use the questions from the community Sandi. Right now, we don’t have another question here. Thanks, Sandi and Anita, hope you share them in Telegram. Yes, we will do that. Of course, We will show the pictures also in Telegram. Sandi, is there something else before we end this short AMA where we are actually answering all the questions that come in? Is there something else that you would like to add?

Market Update:

Sandi Bitenc: 14:32

Yeah, I would just like to say that in two hours. We have the FOMC meeting, and the new rate hikes will be announced. So, this could be a really big catalyst for the crypto market, but it’ll be something that takes it down. So, the market expects 25 basis points for the new interest rate hikes. And let’s see, I do think that will come in at expectations. But it would be really interesting what would happen if there would be like zero interest rate hikes. The CPI numbers and the PCE numbers came in really favorable in the last month. So, this is why the markets are also rallying. And we went down from expecting 50 basis points to 25 basis points. And I think 25 is for sure priced in. But if we get to 50 basis points, then the markets will probably drop. So, let’s see, I’m pretty sure this is now starting to be some of the key moments for next setting up for the next Bull Run, or at least ending the bear market. The expectations right now are that this probably could be even the last rate hike and then we are just waiting once the FED start to cut the rates and getting the interest rate, again, lower, I think then the bull market will start. This is going to happen sometime during this year. I’m pretty certain.

Anita Mlakar: 16:13

Yeah, it’s about time. I mean, I love the bears but not so much the bear markets. Let’s start with the bull. Okay. Leon already answered, I see in the community that there are a lot more pictures and be shared in socials, which is great.

Sandi Bitenc: 16:34

We’ll share more pictures on the Telegram for sure.

This big whale who dumped his tokens (I guess at a loss) … does he know something the community doesn’t know?

Anita Mlakar: 16:38

Okay, we have another question here. Let’s just look at this one. This big whale who dumped his tokens does he know something the community doesn’t know. Okay, Sandi?

Sandi Bitenc: 16:49

No, not at all. That there’s actually nothing that would be out there that we would not disclose so.

Anita Mlakar: 17:05

Okay. Thank you, Sandi. We will be back here in two weeks’ time. Wednesday, I think it is the 15th of February, if I’m not mistaken. And like you said, maybe rock will be also with us then. And you will of course have some new information. And I’m really looking forward to that AMA, of course, do stay in touch with us, in our community, on Discord and Telegram and on Twitter and of course, stay subscribed or do subscribe to this YouTube channel in order to get notifications when we are going live. But Sandi, I think we will leave you to your honeymoon and please do if you have some time. Share some pictures also from your great vacation. I would really look forward to that.

Sandi Bitenc: 17:55

I can share some videos of sharks.

Anita Mlakar: 17:59

Sharks, I like that. Yes, do and do enjoy your vacation.

Sandi Bitenc: 18:06

I always even if I’m working. I’m still enjoying it. So, no worries.

Anita Mlakar: 18:11

Yeah, I can see that. Thank you very much for being with us Sandi. Looking forward to that next AMA and of course, also stay in touch with us. Okay.

Sandi Bitenc: 18:22

I will.

Anita Mlakar: 18:23

Okay, thank you everybody, for being with us and have a wonderful day, morning, evening whatever it is. Bye.

Sandi Bitenc: 18:33

Bye.

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