Permission CEO, Charles Silver, and VP of Finance & Compliance, Matt Erhart, recently chatted with members of the crypto community in an AMA hosted by HappyBlock. Below is a transcript of the event.
Date: August 28th, 8 PM Beijing Time
Q 1: Permission just recently entered the Chinese market, many people still know little about it. Could you please briefly introduce the Permission?
Charles: Permission.io is dedicated to helping individuals be rewarded for their time and data while engaging in e-Commerce. Web 2.0’s business model is driven by tech giants who harvest our data and make billions when we shop or search for products online.
Permission is about changing that model. We want to make sure that individuals receive value for their time and data in Web 3.0. That is why we are creating opportunities for people to share their data and earn our cryptocurrency, ASK, while engaging in eCommerce.
Q 2: After the introduction, we noticed that personal data in Permission is more similar to an asset, which a NFT asset that stored after encrypted. When online businesses and advertisers ask and users authorize their data, users will get the reward from the token-economy of the system that manifests as the ASK coin. What do you think of the NFT concept? Will it be the next crypto market focus?
Charles: I think NFT is an interesting concept, but in order for ASK to be a global, tradable and liquid consumer currency, fungibility is essential. We want to be fungible, like a yuan or dollar, only better because we can’t inflate.
Q 3: In comparison to the current Internet advertising and Big Data business model, where is the value of Permission? How does Permission perfectly combine with blockchain technology?
Charles: The current internet advertising model is built on big tech data monopolies that do everything they can to collect data to sell for targeted advertising. The individual consumer gets nothing.
Permission makes it possible for the consumer’s shopping and search data to be monetized for their benefit. Our blockchain technology is an essential component for providing transparency and trust and allows our consumers to be paid in our crypto.
Q 4: First step of Permission is conquering e-commercial industry. Could you tell us what brands has the platform signed? Currently how many organizations are in Collaboration?
Charles: Permission currently has the ability to sell products from Samsung, Toshiba, Armani, Michael Kors, Disney, Huawei, Ray Ban.
Also, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, which is the exclusive agency of several major brands, also intends to collaborate with Permission for the benefit of its clients.
Q 5: According to your saying, Permission has made a step in the e-commercial industry. What areas are you going to explore next? What is the future focus?
Matt: We created ASK to enable permission advertising for eCommerce.
eCommerce is still less than 20% of retail sales. The total addressable market is growing at a double-digit compounded rate. There is huge growth in eCommerce for decades to come.
There are over 7M independent retailers in the world, and we want them all offering ASK as a tool to build loyalty, trust and drive shopping conversions.
Our strategy is release plugins for major eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, etc. that will allow users to earn from shopping on potentially more than 7 million independent eCommerce retailers.
Our focus is to make ASK an essential component of the eCommerce ecosystem.
Q 6: There are quite a few projects similar to Permission. Some have run for years. What are the advantages for Permission?
Matt: Our primary difference is that our technology allows for us to do something many projects that claim “data empowerment” cannot do.
We have the ability to help individuals earn from their full and comprehensive data set, no matter where the data is stored. Right now, your data lives in silos and applications. Baidu has your search data and Alibaba has your shopping data.
We have the technology with 9 patents that allows us to integrate data and help individuals monetize it. Our Data Algebra technology is a fundamental breakthrough on how data can be integrated and analyzed. This is a huge competitive advantage.
Why is that important? Because it enables users to truly take back ownership of that data so that they can grant permission and then be rewarded for it. We can put individuals at the center of the data economy.
It also enables advertisers to target the richest data resource possible, leading to significantly better ad campaigns and increased return on advertising dollars.
Q 7: For individuals or advertisers, what benefits can Permission provide? What are the highlighted features?
Charles: Individuals profit from sharing data and by engaging with advertisements throughout the shopping experience. They also receive entertaining ads from products they are actually interested in.
Advertisers benefit and increase ROI by targeting precisely and transparently, building long-term customer loyalty and trust.
Content providers benefit from targeting users who volunteer to receive their ads.
Q 8: In what way is the data of the user stored? How do you ensure safety?
Charles: Our member’s personal data is stored in a highly-encrypted data vault.
Thank you everyone for participating tonight, and thanks to Matt and Charles for their patient answers. This AMA is successfully concluded.
The statements made here represent a high-level plan based on assumptions and estimates and are subject to change, without prior written notice or explanation. This publication contains forward-looking statements, which, by their nature, are subject to significant risks and uncertainties.