On the 19th of June, 2021 at 14:00 UTC, Decentralized Club had the honor of hosting Rupak Kumar, Project Manager and Team Lead from the Pentonium Team for an Ask-Me-Anything session on their Telegram page with a community of over 30,000 people. It was hosted by DC Admin, May.
The session was divided into four segments. Introductions were made in Segment 1, questions from the website and Twitter community were answered in Segment 2 and 3 respectively, and live questions from the community members in attendance were answered in Segment 4.
If you missed this event and would like to know what Pentonium is all about, you can find a recap of the interview here. Note that slight edits have been made for clarity.
Segment 1 - Introduction
[May] Hi Rupak!
Ready for your AMA? 😁
[Rupak Kumar]
yeah, let's do it
[May] Hello, Привет, नमस्ते, Selamat!
My name is May and I'll be hosting the AMA with Pentonium.
[Rupak Kumar]
Hello May, nice to e-meet you
[May] I'm excited and honored, really, to be hosting the Product Manager of the Pentonium project today.
Nice to e-meet you too.
[Rupak Kumar]
Thank you. I am also excited to be on your platform.
[May] You're welcome to the Decentralized Club and I hope today's interview is worth your while.
Before we start with questions about the project, can you please tell us more about yourself and your job description at Pentonium?
[Rupak Kumar]
This Is Rupak, Product Manager of Pentonium. We have almost invested 4 months just for product development. We just did not want to present the dream of a futuristic idea, we wanted to come up with the real product itself.
[May] Great.
Ready for the introductory questions?
[Rupak Kumar]
sure
shoot
[May] Q1. Can you tell us briefly about Pentonium and what real-world problems it has been designed to solve?
[Rupak Kumar]
sure
Pentonium is a decentralized freelance platform aimed at creating a new structure for freelancing. Our motive is to eliminate the pain points of our users, clients as well as freelancers, enhancing privacy through P2P chat services facilitated by Skynet and IPFS for the storage layer. Pentonium also provides a community-based solution to create an automated dispute resolution layer around it.
Since scam is the major issue, Pentonium has a single point agenda “Curb the scam”. Pentonium has successfully created a system where no profiles can be sold or bought. For that, they have to share the Private key, which is not good for the users.
The second thing, with escrow smart contracts Pentonium, has removed the issue related to trust.
Pentonium has provided an additional layer to protect the System from any fraud, that is Marshal
[May] Great!
Q2. Can you talk a bit about how freelancing on Pentonium is better than other products in the market with similar offerings?
[Rupak Kumar]
yeah of course. The freelance economy is worth $1.5 Trillion. So it is pretty obvious that we are not a single player here. but we are the only live Platform on blockchain
The existing competitors that we see close to us are centralized platforms like Fiverr, which poses an issue of privacy, high fees, biased decisions over a disputed order, and payment-related issues as well. We solve these problems over Pentonium by using smart contracts and technologies like IPFS and SkyNet with a Community-driven dispute resolution layer.
[May] I agree with you. Fiverr has exorbitant charges and will mostly side the buyers over the freelancers laboring when there's an issue, especially when they're on lower levels trying to work their way to the top.
[Rupak Kumar]
absolutely. That's how blockchain gives power back to the community. So even a low-level service provider can emerge
[May] I love that Pentonium is community-driven as well. Great job!
[Rupak Kumar]
thanks, May
[May] You're welcome!
Q3. What level of KYC do users have to attain to use Pentonium without restrictions?
[Rupak Kumar]
It's a DApp hence there is no registration or KYC process for it, although we do understand the issue a client might face for the credibility of a service provider hence with HyperSign we will be able to validate users which can give extra credibility to them but won’t be compulsory for a user to go through it.
[May] Nice!
Q4. Where does $PTM fit into all of these and why is it important to acquire and hold $PTM?
[Rupak Kumar]
Thanks for asking this
We are a product-oriented company hence we majorly talk just about the product but as a token is a major part of our ecosystem. PTM gets into Pentonium’s treasury on every successful order completion which means as the platform grows the use of PTM will grow. PTM also empowers the life cycle of Marshal and the community as it allows the community to select and fire a marshal through voting.
[May] This is really great.
[Rupak Kumar]
thanks
[May] Q5. Can you elaborate on the Marshall, P2P chat, and escrow services on your Platform?
[Rupak Kumar]
sure
that's the most intriguing part
Let’s see this one as a scenario.
Let’s suppose, users ( both client and service provider) have raised a dispute. Now, as the amount is already stored in the escrow contract, Marshals will come into play. Marshal will get the complete data along with access to the messages exchanged between them over the chat system. After getting all the information, Marshal will vote in the A/B manner. The winner will get the amount stored in the escrow contract.
[May] Aha! Nice.
I love the work of the Marshal. I think with a Marshal, there will be justice and fairness in conflict resolution.
It happens a lot with freelance platforms and most times, the client is favored whether they are right or wrong.
Great one!
[Rupak Kumar]
you are right on the money
[May] Q6. Can you talk a bit about how a client can post a job and how a service provider can apply for that job on Pentonium?
[Rupak Kumar]
sure
Users, that can be clients or service providers, can just post a job or make a deal just by connecting their metamask wallet. No Registration Protocol is there.
This will give them a seamless experience without any hassle.
For a client, he can browse the entire services listed over the platform and place an order from the description page. While for a Service provider it is just a one-click process to post a service over the platform by filling in the required details of the service.
[May] Great!
Last question for this segment.
[Rupak Kumar]
okay, shoot
[May] Q7. How secure is Pentonium as sometimes a client may be involved in work containing sensitive data?
[Rupak Kumar]
We understand that privacy is the most sensitive issue.
Data security is a must these days. And this issue has been taken care of, very efficiently as we provide an end-to-end encrypted chat service built over Skynet. The smart contract helps to securely exchange the public keys between the client and the service provider.
plus
Any deals that happen over any other social platform can be brought here.
we have a section for private jobs
where service providers can post a specific job for a specific client privately.
[May] This is genius!
[Rupak Kumar]
thanks, May
[May] https://t.me/decentralized_club/529392
[Rupak Kumar]
go ahead😂
[May] I see many freelancers, especially the amazing ones in second and third-world countries, moving to camp full time on Pentonium.
It's a struggle for new freelancers in these parts of the world (specifically India and Africa) to get paid for work done and face deduction of platform charges, transfer to a payment provider that additionally charges you for using their service, before receiving it in your local bank account.
Many times, these freelancers only get 40% to 50% of what they worked for in the end.
I see Pentonium changing the game.
Great job!
[Rupak Kumar]
In the past, we faced issues like this only. I and Abhishek have some experience in freelancing and we understand the pain
[May] I understand as well.
Your pain has birthed a solution and we are grateful for it!
So we say thank you 😊
Let's move to the questions from our Web community, shall we?
[Rupak Kumar]
yeah
sure
[May] We have three questions.
[Rupak Kumar]
okay
Segment 2 - Website Questions
[May] Q1. What are your plans for longevity in the cryptocurrency market? Many freelancing platforms have launched but abandoned projects halfway. What deliberate steps are you and the team taking to become a household name as big as Upwork or even Fiverr?
Telegram Username: @theyasflower
[Rupak Kumar]
We are aware of such projects and have analyzed what they lack the experience of being in freelance space, and the architecture required to create such a system with a working business model.
That’s why we came up with a Service Provider first approach, similar to Fiverr. It is much easier for us not to get Service Providers on board in an incentives model as we display microservices that they can offer.
Clients will get attracted to a platform that gives you the option to choose from a variety of price lists and experiences on a platform. To start with, we will be concerned about blockchain-based services as those users are well aware of how a DApp works and are willing to accept crypto against their services.
[May] Nice!
A second question here from the user above.
Q2. What conflict resolution services have you put in place to ensure sellers get their payment after work is done and also that buyers get value for their money?
Telegram Username: @theyasflower
[Rupak Kumar]
good one
Dispute resolution is a major point over a freelance platform where we have tried to work on and as a result have created a democratic structure that gives power to the community to maintain the authenticity of such situations.
We call a small part of the community as Marshal which gets elected by the token holders. Client and Service Provider both have the right to create a dispute over an order, straight from the platform itself.
Marshals get notified for such disputed orders and an even number of marshals look into the details of the order and vote in an A-B manner. The winning party gets the amount and the losing party has to pay the dispute fee. It makes it difficult for any of the parties to cheat over the platform.
[May] Awesome! This is comprehensive information on Pentonium Marshals.
[Rupak Kumar]
Yeah, that's what we really need to answer.
Q3. I see one of Pentonium's features is NO REGISTRATION. Does this mean that I just need to post a job or order for a service without the hustle of creating an account? So how can Pentonium ensure that it’s real and legit?
Telegram Username: @tv100029
[Rupak Kumar]
For this, we stumbled upon this problem last month and got in touch with Hypersign. We are happy to tell you guys that with Hypersign we will be able to validate users which can give extra credibility to them but won’t be compulsory for a user to go through it.
[May] Really great news! Excited about your partnership with Hypersign.
[Rupak Kumar]
Would like to take this opportunity to share the announcement with you guys
https://pentonium.medium.com/pentonium-joins-forces-with-hypersign-9a4c6c1488f7
[May] Pinned for the community to explore 😁
Thank you for sharing, and congratulations on your partnership.
[Rupak Kumar]
Thank you so much May
[May] You're welcome!
Shall we take Twitter Questions now?
We also have three questions from our Twitter family.
Segment 3 - Twitter Questions
[Rupak Kumar]
sure
[May] Q1. The entire ecosystem of Pentonium runs using the $PTM token and is a major part of the Platform. So can you share here the uses of your tokens and how do you plan to incentivize your users & contributors while staying here on the platform?
Twitter Username: @Wormz29
[Rupak Kumar]
happy to
Would like to share the use cases of the PTM token:
Freelance platform charges a 5% fee in PTM on each order completion which is locked from the day of order till the delivery.
Service Providers can run ads with a minimum of 100 PTM for a day.
In case of dispute, both parties pay a dispute fee in PTM which is 1% of the order.
Marshals are required to lock a minimum of 1,000 PTM or more to earn a dispute fee.
To become a Marshal, one needs to go through voting, the community needs a minimum of 10,000 PTM to vote in or against a Marshal.
Pentonium creates staking pools, which require PTM to be locked over a period of time, to earn rewards.
[May] 5%? 1%?
That's so great, honestly!
[Rupak Kumar]
Thanks
We really don't want to burden our users as centralized platforms like Fiverr(with a 20% commission fee) do!
[May] Exactly! 😁
Q2. What are marshals, what is the role they play within Pentonium, what different benefits and opportunities would a user get by becoming a marshal, by whom are they chosen, and what are the requirements to become one of them?
Twitter Username: @ysasoma
[Rupak Kumar]
great
nice one
Those willing to spare their time to resolve disputes apply for the post of Marshal. Community ( PTM holders ) vote for or against him to get him elected. Once elected he is eligible to do the decision-making for a job dispute.
To become Marshal one needs to stake 1000 PTM tokens before he applies for the post. On every dispute resolution, Marshal gets a dispute fee which grows over time and increases his exposure to big orders resulting in a bigger dispute fee in reward.
[May] Nice! A smooth way to keep the native token in circulation and guard against large price fluctuations.
Q3. Could you tell me something about the occasion that brought you to the blockchain industry and how you developed the project idea and eventually launched it for freelancers?
Twitter Username: @Greyhair_08
[Rupak Kumar]
Before going to answer this one I would like to point out that just like a traditional platform our users, clients, and service providers interact with stable coins and don't need to interact with PTM tokens directly yet we can provide a wide list of use cases which will grow with the growth of the product. This makes it easy for a new member to order a service or list his service over Pentonium.
[May] https://t.me/decentralized_club/529452
[Rupak Kumar]
Now let me answer this one.
I and Abhishek both at some point of time were freelancers, Back then we used to use freelancer.com for getting a project. It was tedious, yet we gained some experience with such a platform. While we also had a phase in our previous company were a few of the jobs we used to outsource, like content distribution. We used to use Fiverr, which actually provided a really good experience getting a job done.
[Rupak Kumar]
So we understand what a client expects and the pain of service providers as well. We understood what a service provider feels when he waits for his funds to arrive after he reaches the minimum withdrawal limit. As a Client, we always had issues with verifying the authenticity of a service provider, as an account can be sold, data can be manipulated.
That's where we started to plot the idea of Pentonium.
[May] Great!
We have one more segment to go.
[Rupak Kumar]
sure
[May] We'll be taking four questions from our live community.
[Rupak Kumar]
that sounds great
let's do it
[May] I also want to say, the experience you and Abishek got from being service providers to actually being clients, helped a lot in understanding the grassroots to freelance.
That's why I'm confident Pentonium will go big!
[Rupak Kumar]
Actually, it did.
[May] Let me give a quick shout-out to everyone on the Pentonium team!
Your work is amazing and we at Decentralized Club wish you all the best!
[Rupak Kumar]
Thank you so much, May. You have been a great host.
[May] Thank you too!
Let's take the live community questions 😊
[May] The group will be open in five seconds.
3️⃣
2️⃣
1️⃣
🏁
---Chat was then opened for the live community to send in their questions---
Segment 4 - Live Questions
[May] You can go ahead and pick the best four questions.
[Fouder Dolphin]
What is your project Pentonium most interested in right now? And did you talk more about the team's upcoming direction?
[Rupak Kumar]
As we said earlier we are a product-oriented company and hence our major focus goes to product development. We are also working towards spreading words about our project and trying to collaborate with different organizations/people to make our product even better
[Nami]
Q. Are any audit reports done by sources outside of your project..? Smart contracts are known to be prone to bugs, bugs, or hacks. So how is the security system of Pentonium ..?
[Rupak Kumar]
That's correct my friend. We got in talks with Certik last week and we are aiming to provide them with our core contract by next month.
Although our beta contract is live and is available to play with over Ropsten Network
https://beta.pentonium.com/
[SIXCITRYP-6]
Is there any project on the market that competes with your project Pentonium? What is the biggest advantage of Pentonium over other projects that do not?
[Rupak Kumar]
Yes of course there is but they have come up with just an idea, while we came up with the product itself that's the gap they have to fill in to compete with us! We are not in the dreamy world my friend. 🙂 Pentonium is real!!
[hoa tran]
What about Pentonium that you are most proud of when you founded it? Can you tell me the difficult road that you had to go from the first day of Pentonium's founding until now to me and everyone?
[Rupak Kumar]
One of the hurdles that we enjoyed solving was the P2P chat system. We built it from scratch using SkyNet by Sia. Apart from this, it was all about the hard work of the team who gave their sweat to develop a working DApp and made it live by the first week of May.
[Mr. Deluxe]
Can you please share your Tokenomics? Do you have any plus points which your competitors don't have?
[Rupak Kumar]
Here we have elaborated the tokenomics of PTM token
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13c6dq7BC3NPhW8e_oNEre4tluxl3XhSGHBCGlfJOiYc/edit?usp=sharing
[Rony Khondokar]
Telling about real-world adoption. Most of the users are still not aware of Blockchainchain and Blockchainchain related products. So, how Your project can raise awareness about their project with non-crypto users too?🎉🎉🎊
[Rupak Kumar]
We understand the issue that we are early in the market but that's what our advantage is. To ensure that we will get running we are targeting blockchain-based services initially. These guys are aware of blockchain and are ready to accept crypto in return for services. Hence it will be easy for us to onboard such users till the adoption becomes massive.
[Hieu Van]
Q. What is Pentonium's strategy for building a strong community..? Do you agree that the power of the community will lead your project to develop globally..?
[Rupak Kumar]
PTM token is all about community. The vesting schedule we have released points out how important Community is for Pentonium and how the tokens are for the community
Have a look
https://pentonium.medium.com/understanding-ptm-tokens-58914f101f7a
We would like to answer more questions but the clock is calling us.
[May] Sure! I understand.
Thank you so much for your time! It's been such a delight!
Your project is one of the highlights of my week and I do wish you and the rest of the team all the best with it.
Please send our warm regards and compliments to them. They're doing an amazing job and nothing will be possible without them.
[Rupak Kumar]
Thank you all for being with us, especially in May for being such a good host.
Really an interesting AMA session for us.
Would like to invite you guys to Pentonium’s community (https://t.me/pentonium) to discuss and know your opinions about it.
We have built a product that has community at its core and would like to see your love for it.
[May] I'm a member already 😃
Thank you for your kind words.
Do have a great day!
[Rupak Kumar]
Wishing you the same May.