KORA - Infrastructure for Inclusive Financial Systems

Website : https://kora.network/

Kora is a popular musical instrument in the Western/Eastern region of Africa frequently played in songs of celebration, or to pass a message of hope.

Kora is also a project of hope for billions of people who are underserved by the current financial system.

The Kora Network is expected to provide a lowcost,financial services platform for all.

Accessible by SMS/USSD on feature phones or with Internet via a mobile app and powered by blockchain technology, the Kora Network is expected to lower the cost to serve for lowincome populations and brings them into the global economy.

Kora has a purpose We aim to free the trapped capital, intellect,and creativity of the long tail through selfsustaining,community-owned ecosystems.

Project Kora

The Kora Project is a project of hope for billions of people who are under served by the current financial system and are burdened by expensive and inconvenient access to financial services https://bountyhive.io/join/Kora%20Network

Problems

Access to financial services is uneven and expensive due to five main barriers.

1. High Cost to Serve

Opening bank branches in rural or remote areas is unprofitable due to high costs such as property fees, staff headcount, and IT infrastructure. To offset these costs,banks charge high fees for account maintenance, ATM withdrawals and money transfers Physical travel is another issue; it can sometimes take more than a day to reach bank branches or ATMs.

2. Misconception that the Underserved have Little Value

The general perception is that underserved customers would be transacting in “small”amounts. However, PWC estimates that the global unbanked population holds at least $360 billion in unmet deposits in 2016 alone.

In addition, a 2016 McKinsey report estimates that widespread adoption of financial services through digital finance could result in a $3.2 trillion increase in GDP of all economies by 2025.

3. Lack of Identification Documents

According to the World Bank, 1.5 billion people worldwide lack any form of valid identification. Official or valid ID for opening a bank account is often difficult to obtain in developing countries.

4. Lack of Trust and Technological Understanding

Many people without bank accounts perceive banks as unsafe. There still exists a widespread lack of trust in financial technology, including ATM’s and online banking.

5. Lack of Financial Literacy

We believe that with limited financial literacy, people may be at risk of making poor financial decisions including taking loans with interest rates they may not be able to pay, getting involved in pyramid schemes, or paying unreasonably high charges on remittances or foreign exchange mark-ups.

Solutions

There are many groups attempting to solve the five barriers mentioned above. Each has its own approach and we believe each has some shortfalls.

Banks

Banks continue to account for the majority of financial services worldwide,however they do not target the underserved as they are difficult to serve and often lack proper identification. 

Local Ad Hoc Networks

Local ad hoc networks like friends and family, or hawalas, an informal agentbased systems have always existed.These arrangements tend to fill gaps in day-to-day life, but may be often inconsistent, unable to scale, and cannot be used as a form of credit history.

Mobile Money

Mobile Money businesses provide a service that brings value through transaction speed, but interoperability,both between providers, and between countries, is a major issue.9 They also hoard data as a proprietary advantage instead of giving ownership back to the customer.

Blockchain Projects

Blockchain projects can store and transfer value across borders at enormous scale and low cost. However,a sophisticated understanding of blockchain technology, an expensive smartphone, and costly access to Internet are often required to access such blockchain-based services. As the average underserved person in Africa lives on less than $2 a day,10 these projects are tend to be out of scope for them.

The Kora Ecosystem

Kora’s key differentiator is its ecosystem.

Our blockchain stores identity and transactions, runs software modules, and connects to other blockchains while preserving user privacy. We use Tendermint DPoS as a consensus algorithm, allowing for scalability while maintaining decentralization. The blockchain is secured by the Kora Network Token (KNT).

eFiat are digital versions of national currencies that users understand and trust. They are 100% backed by cash reserves, and redeemable on a 1:1 basis.

CVNs empower users to pool capital for lending or investment, social assistance, financial education and other services..

Network Architecture 

Token Sale Details

The launch of the Kora Network, and the token creation and emission process, will be organized around the Kora Network public blockchain. The goal of our token sale (the Token Sale) is to decentralize ownership of KNT to ensure the crypto-economic stability of our network, and to exchange KNT for capital to execute on our vision of unleashing the world's potential for wealth creation and becoming a leader in financial services [for the unbanked]visit more information https://kora.network/downloads/Kora_Vision_Paper_International.pdf

• Contributors supporting the development of the Kora Network can do so by sending Bitcoin or Ether to the designated address.

• The KNT received by a contributor is fixed at the USD price at which they bought it. The hardcap for the Token Sale is $24 million.

• Further details about the Token Sale will be released online. Sign up on our website to stay up to date, and to complete the contribution process.

• The Token Sale will be split into two phases: Pre-Sale and Public Sale.

• The minimum investment amount for the Pre-Sale is $5000.

• There is no minimum investment amount for the Public Sale, and the maximum is $1 million per unique identity.

• Excess contributions will be refunded.

• Kora Technologies Limited controls the contract, and the multi-sig address to which funds will be sent.

• KNT will be distributed to Contributors as an ERC20 token after the token sale is completed.

KNT-ERC20 tokens can be redeemed for KNT on the Kora Network when the public blockchain is launched in Q3 2018.

Roadmap

Our More Information :

Website : https://kora.network/

Whitepaper : https://kora.network/downloads/Kora_Vision_Paper_International.pdf

Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/thekoranetwork?_rdc=1&_rdr

Twitter : https://twitter.com/Kora_Network

Telegram : https://t.me/kora_network

Username : araalfaris

Profile Bitcointalk : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1116890

ETH : 0xD21b7600ff11bEfB00dff92252a16A2f2fdBF71a