We have recently spoken with Gayle S Jenkins - the Founder and Member of the Jengascoin Development Team to discuss Jengascoin and the perspective it sets for the future. Not only Gayle a tremendous business woman but she is also a mother of 6 children who dedicated much of her professional career to the pursuit of using technology and innovation to improve systems and develop tools to help people and businesses.
Bitcourier: Tell us about the creation of Jengascoin and when it was created:
Gayle S Jenkins: The idea for Jengascoin developed over time, and active development of the project started in early 2020. I am deeply interested in blockchain technology and identified strengths and weaknesses in current implementations of both traditional economic processes and blockchain.
Bitcourier: What are the strengths and weaknesses of current dominant economic systems, marketplaces and App Stores per your estimation?
Gayle S Jenkins: Currently dominant economic systems contain weaknesses that lead to inequality; there is a lack of transparency, the rules are inconsistently applied; in many cases the rules can be unclear, can be politically motivated or be opaque in motivation, and can be exploited for personal gain, surveillance, and suppression. Strengths identified in currently dominant economic systems include opportunities for success, the mass adoption of traditional economic systems in terms of banking, lending, investing and day to day commerce; transactions converting products and services into value by the transfer of financial instruments.
Current digital marketplace systems, specifically App Stores and content vendors, can have steep barriers of entrance for creators, and large transaction fees. Many current digital marketplaces and App Stores have become monopolies and in the process of doing so have stifled innovation by making it too difficult or too expensive for creators to participate. The strength of current digital marketplaces and App Stores is in brand recognition and accessibility to consumers.
Bitcourier: What are the strengths and weaknesses of current implementations of blockchain technology?
Gayle S Jenkins: In its simplest form, a blockchain is an immutable ledger. Decentralized blockchains provide the platform for people to generate pseudonymous cryptographic wallets, to send and receive transactions, and to store value in a trustless environment. The internal protocols governing a decentralized blockchain are transparent, applied evenly to all participants, and require a majority of network consensus to evolve. Many new and innovative uses for blockchain have evolved in the past several years including NFT (non-fungible tokens), Smart Contracts (self executing protocols), DeFi (decentralized finance), STO (security token offering) among others.
Weaknesses identified in current implementations of blockchain technology include the fact that not all blockchains are decentralized, there is a great deal of speculative investment and ‘pump and dump’ activity in terms of cryptocurrency, many projects launch and manipulate the speculative nature of cryptocurrency with promises of future utility, many features ‘coming soon’ and a lack of real-world utility.
Bitcourier: What led to the idea for Jengascoin?
Gayle S Jenkins: I recognize and believe in the potential for blockchain technology to solve real-world problems by providing equitable, efficient, transparent, and accessible solutions. The real-world use case for blockchain that I have targeted is to provide a system to tokenize, distribute, and authenticate digital licenses; and to create a fair marketplace system as a function of and with rules governed by blockchain protocols. I want to lower the barrier of entry for creators, to allow creators to not only monetize their products, but attribute physical-object-like characteristics to digital assets to facilitate and monetize digital license resale in the form of blockchain enforced royalties. By creating that marketplace system as a function of the blockchain, the blockchain itself is the broker between buyer and seller; transactions do not rely on any 3rd party (trustless), and creator-specified smart contract protocols are executed automatically by the blockchain. Jengascoin is back-to-basics in terms of our development philosophy. We set out to create a creator/developer friendly blockchain, develop all core functionalities that we set out to create, and will release the entire, working project as an Open Source project bearing the MIT license, freely giving it to the world. We hope that systems like ours that create real-world utility will contribute to and help shape the promise of real world implementations of blockchain technology in the form of decentralized tools that bridge real-world needs for better systems. The Jengascoin blockchain is currently operational in testnet form and we welcome the conversation, feedback, and contribution from the community. We actively engage in our Discord channel, via email, and through social media. Anyone who wants to take part can join our discord, receive some JNGA (jengascoin cryptocurrency) and interact with the Jengascoin blockchain.
Bitcourier: Who is your target audience? What value do you offer people?
Gayle S Jenkins: Jengascoin is targeted to both B2C and C2C application. Creators can mint an NFT that represents a product, and then tokenize that NFT into individual licenses that can be authenticated via the blockchain or independently authenticated mathematically. When a creator mints and NFT, there are several parameters available which assign properties to the generated NFT tokens; Resellable (can this license be resold in the future?), Expiry (will this license expire after a specified period of time?), Exclusivity (If the creator chooses to allow future resale, they can determine a date before which resale is not permitted i.e. an exclusivity period where only they will be able to sell licenses), Royalty addresses and percentages (If the creator chooses to allow resale, they can designate one or many royalty addresses/percentages which the blockchain will enforce and distribute on any future resale transaction), as well as other metadate relating to their Product (Title, Developers, Icon, URL, category, tags). Creators who mint NFTs and generate licenses on Jengascoin are free to distribute those licenses however they wish. They can sell them on the Jengascoin marketplace, or wallet-to-wallet through any sales channel they wish. License verification on the blockchain is governed by the attributes assigned to the license by the creator and is instant and free. License verification can also be completed mathematically without interaction with the blockchain. Jengascoin licensing is an extremely secure form of licensing. Licenses cannot be forged, licenses cannot be resold unless the creator has allowed resale, exclusivity has ended, and the asset is not expired. License can be quickly validated for free.
Because the marketplace is a FUNCTION of the blockchain, it is decentralized. All NFT tokens that are for sale on the marketplace are available for anyone to purchase, and can be accessed at any time. Fees to buy and sell on the marketplace are the same as general transaction fees, extremely low. Due to the fact that the marketplace is itself decentralized, it is the opposite of a monopoly app store. There is no financial barrier to enter, and the marketplace is fair and governed by the transparent protocols of the Jengascoin blockchain.
Jengascoin offers people the ability to tokenize digital asset licenses, monetize license resale (if they wish) in the form of chain-enforced royalties, quickly and freely authenticate licenses, as well as protect exclusivity periods, and offer temporary licenses. Consumers have the ability to resell licenses that are eligible for resale, and have the ability to access the blockchain based marketplace where they can buy any available license, in a transaction governed and brokered by the blockchain, without having to rely on any 3rd party to complete the transaction.
Jengascoin is a POW blockchain, and after mainnet launch, will be minable by anyone who wants to mine for block rewards. We chose to go with proof of work because it is secure, allows for the equitable distribution of block rewards, and protects the decentralization of the network.
Bitcourier: Did the DeFi movement change the industry?
Gayle S Jenkins: Yes, the concept of decentralized finance has the potential to change traditional finance by allowing individuals direct access to accounts, and commerce without relying on centralized banks, brokers, etc. Jengascoin impliments DeFi by creating the decentralized marketplace as a function of the blockchain and governing the execution of the smart contracts that creators implement when they create their NFT and tokenized licenses. The decentralized blockchain brokers transactions and parties do not rely on 3rd party brokers to complete transactions. Jengascoin accounts can be generated freely.
Bitcourier: Did COVID 19 affect your business, how did you adapt?
Gayle S Jenkins: Covid 19 affected my businesses in a variety of ways. In terms of the computer stores, the supply chain disruptions pose ongoing challenges. In terms of application and blockchain development, COVID 19 provided some down time that motivated me to move the Jengascoin idea from concept to real world implementation & development.
Bitcourier: What does it take to become a ‘Hot Project” in 2021?
Gayle S Jenkins: This is a good question, and I haven’t yet figured this out as it pertains to Jengascoin. My hope is that people will recognize the real-world utility of a project like Jengascoin, and that by this merit, they will take an interest, and see the value in utilizing Jengascoin licensing in their products. The secure nature of Jengascoin licensing, as well as the monetization of potential resale transactions will reduce piracy. The low bar of entry to creating and selling licenses on the blockchain has the potential to significantly reduce cost-to-market for products, and could result in lower costs to consumers to purchase those licenses. Optional license resale will also provide ways for buyers to obtain legitimate licenses to products at competitive prices. The Jengascoin cryptocurrency (JNGA) is distributed to miners in the form of block rewards and acts as the underlying payment method within the blockchain-based marketplace. Royalties are distributed in the form of JNGA. Jengascoin JNGA and NFTs are not intended to be speculative investments. The NFT license tokens will never be worth more than the underlying product that they represent (i.e. software license, movie, book, music, artwork, etc). We built a decentralized blockchain based licensing and marketplace system with the goal of bringing much needed real-world utility to blockchain.
Bitcourier: What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Gayle S Jenkins: I am proud of many things that I have accomplished. I am proud that my computer stores have survived COVID 19 despite all of the obstacles that continue to be in place in terms of supply chain and economic constraints and uncertainty surrounding how long and in what ways COVID 19 will continue to affect us as a society. I am proud of my family and especially my development teammates who have supported me in my endeavor to create Jengascoin, which I believe is a simple, yet groundbreaking implementation of blockchain technology. I am proud of all of us who have persevered the last 2 years through all of the hardships and uncertainties that we have all faced, personally, and in business, by COVID 19.
Bitcourier: Do you have any UK based projects in my portfolio, do I plan on it?
Gayle S Jenkins: I would say that the Jengascoin blockchain is intended for the whole world to use. As a decentralized blockchain, anyone who wants to participate or use the blockchain is free to do so in whatever capacity they choose.
Bitcourier: What kind of partnerships are you looking for and do you have any plans specifically for the UK market?
Gayle S Jenkins: In terms of partnerships, I am interested in working with software creators, content creators, artists, musicians and anyone who is interested in using blockchain based digital licensing. I am interested in speaking with resale brick and mortar shops regarding digital license resale, and I am interested in working with media in order to get the word out about Jengascoin, and anyone who wants to speak with us from a development perspective is invited to join us in discord. Software developers and content creators in the UK rely on the same monopoly app stores that we do here in the US. I would invite them to speak with us and to consider using blockchain based licensing and the decentralized marketplace functionality made available on the Jengascoin blockchain.
For further information, our website is https://jengas.io,
FAQ: https://jengas.io/jengascoin-questions-and-answers/ ,
Youtube explainer: https://youtu.be/vKQBzXS_aJY ,
Discord channel: https://discord.gg/Qs2Hpcjscn email: [email protected]
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