Mbeche Decentralised Value Chain

Owned by Xolani Andile Ngcana
Last updated: Mar 02, 2022
7 min read

Innovation Tagline:  Decentralized value transfer 

Project Keywords:  #decentralized value #mbeche #decentralised pay #decentralised exchange

Project Members

  1. Thabo Moshoane Thabo Moshoane
  2. Vuyani Ngcana
  3. Xolani Xolani Andile Ngcana
  4. Tebogo Moshoane 
  5. James Mazivise
  6. Mosotho Moshoane
  7. Peter Chomba
  8. Jabu Mahlangu

Project Description (no more than 1,000 words including graphics)

Mbeche is a decentralized monetary value exchange dApp with an added decentralized marketplace. Decentralized value is what we bring, we cater for the LSM(Lower Segmented Markets), the unbanked, the Tuck-shop owner, the Salon owner, the Tavern owner, Carwash owner, the Taxi driver and the Informal Traders. Mbeche is a peer to peer digital monetary value chain. Mbeche empowers the economical disenfranchised masses to participate and grow, their monetary value in an ever evolving technocratic system. Mbeche provides a decentralised marketplace where registered and verified vendors can sell there goods and/or services to user/customers willing to buy their goods and/or services of value. We aim to increase cryptocurrency/blockchain adoption.

Key Partners

System Owners(Ankh Negus Pty ltd) & (Korri Fintech Pty Ltd)
HyperLedger Foundation
Linux Foundation
3rd Party Agents(LSM business owners)
Systems Administrators and Developers
End Users


Key Activities

Decentralized money transfers
Remittance advise
Decentralized digital marketplace and services
Digital & physical deposits
ATM & 3rd party Withdrawals


Value Proposition

P2P mobile payments
Bill payment(Utilities, Airtime, Data, Retailer)
Deposits and withdrawals
AI support services
Undocking(Offline system cache)
Split payments
Multichannel E-commerce platform(3rd party agents and Retailers)


Architecture Security

 

our architecture is more secure compared to client-server. For instance, by having no central point of failure and having a large number of nodes distributed across the network, Denial-of-Service(DoS) attacks are not possible.

Another benefit is data immutability, where the data once is written cannot be altered. The bigger the network, the less chance it can be altered. To alter the data, the majority of the nodes need to be controlled by one entity to carry out a 51% attack.


Customer Relationships

Money transfer between family and friends, employers and employees
Deposits and withdrawals

Use Cases

Other use-cases of P2P including peer to peer loans, peer-to peer car rental, peer to peer payments and peer to peer insurance.

Channels

Multichannel digital marketplace
Social media campaign
Place product on marketplace
App Store


Customer Segments

LSM(Lower Segmented Markets)
People with no bank accounts
World remittance
Telecommunication , Banks, Retailers, Brands and agencies
3rd party agents(Owner of : Tuck-shop, Salons, Taverns, Carwash, Taxi driver and Informal Traders


Revenue Streams

Direct sales of the product to customers(Legislated deposit fee)
Online sales fees
Monthly offline service fee
Direct and Native Advertising 

Problem

1. For the longest time the unbanked, more especially those without ID's(Identity documents) have been left out of the economy. The current system has moved liked these "unbanked", "credit unworthy" don't even exist. Many of these "unbanked" combined have enough money to maintain the liquidity for a sustainable ecosystem. The current system perpetuates a culture of segregation against the "ones" not recognized by the system as being "credit worthy", 

2. Existing solutions have been inadequate because they haven't address the LSM(Lower Segmented Markets), the unbanked.

3. Current competitors are as follows:

(a) Banks like Nedbank, FNB, Standard Bank, Capitec Bank etc. that have mobile money transfers and withdrawal capabilities.

(b) Online retailers like Takealot.com and Superbalist.com for online purchases of various products.

(c) Resellers and distributors of Telecom services like (Telkom/MTN/Vodacom/CellC/Flash) because we but airtime and data at a discount and can sell to our clients.

(d) Mobile payment application providers like (WORLDRemit, MTN MOMO and Nedbank EVO) with an emphasis on peer to peer transfers.

Appraisal :

Current competitors offer services like secure online purchases/bill payments/ money transfers/withdrawals/communication/support, however none of them offer all the listed services as our mobile application Mbeche. The application furthermore will allow 3rd party vendors (SMME) to enter the e-commerce and money transfer market.

Strategies:

We will use current competitor strategies that are already in place eg :

- Allow withdrawals at any ATM , major retailers and 3rd party vendors for free. The cost to send peer to peer money is R10.00 as per South African legislation.

- All online payments/purchases will be inclusive to a 15% tax and 8% transactional fees.

- All purchases that have deliveries will be inclusive to the total price. Shipping will take a maximum 5 working days.

- Only South Africans can utilise the system because of required authentication and verification of FICA and RICA systems.

We feel Mbeche mobile money transfer app will be a disruptive innovation in South Africa , by banking the un-bankable and allowing SMME’s to enter the market. More than ever Mbeche will allow business and clients from low income groups to enter the e-commerce space and participate in the economy

 


Solution

a. We at Ankh Negus have a solution for this we will be working with the Tuck-shop owner, the Salon owner, the Tavern owner, Carwash owner, the Taxi driver and the Informal Traders. With our platform our users will be able to pay utilities like electricity bills, buy airtime and data and pay any retail fee. 

b. Our solution is better than the current state-of-the-art or existing solutions because we incorporate the LSM(Lower Segmented Markets), the unbanked, the Tuck-shop owner, the Salon owner, the Tavern owner, Carwash owner, the Taxi driver and the Informal Traders.

c. The minimum viable product is a decentralized money transfer DApp, what we anticipate will be developed during the prototype is functional decentralized money transfer DApp.

Accomplishment and Team

1. Thabo Moshoane - Head Project Manager

   

Thabo Moshoane experience :

(0.0) Thabo previously worked at Nedbank as Systems Engineer and started a music publishing company (Producers Corner ) in 2013. The company had a lot of success including a R50 000.00 grant from SAMRO in 2015 .

https://www.concertssa.co.za/event/family-first-ep-launch-koolin-in-the-city/

(0.1) In 2016 Thabo applied for the IBM enterprise development program in cooperation with Raizcorp and successfully completed with distinction. Benefits include lifetime IBM business partner and cloud credit worth $140 000.00. https://www.raizcorp.com/i-am-ready-to-take-on-the-world/

https://ventureburn.com/tag/thabo-moshoane/

Thabo Moshoane’s technical skills are polylogic . Skill set include (Architecture designs, Network design, Database design, Multi programming languages including (HTML, Java, C#, Python, SQL, Delphi, PhP) . Thabo Moshoane also completed his Diploma in 2006 and was placed 2nd nationally for Systems Development. Skills also include communication, business analysis, management, operational research and IBM cloud specialist.

 

The reason to start up Ankh Negus was an opportunity we realised from the world crisis Covid19. We noticed the lack of information technology services to assist in dealing with a world crisis is evident in 3rd world countries including emerging markets like South Africa. Research shows that the best option when it comes to proving real life solutions that will disrupt current industries is through effective communication. The need for online activities/learning/buying/transfering are now needed more than ever in order to adhere to strict protocols of social distancing. Our company plans to deliver new technologies at a fraction of the cost to bridge the gap between the have and have nots, delivering high quality products whilst adhering to standards and policies for the African market by partnering with industry giants like IBM and Nedbank..

 

Areas of expertise :

(0.0) Software development

(0.1) Graphics designing

(0.2) Business analysis


2. Vuyani Ngcana - Lead Front End Developer

3. Xolani Ngcana - Blockchain Researcher

4.  James Mazivise - Front End Developer

5.  Tebogo Moshoane - Marketing/Sales Manager

6.  Mosotho Moshoane - Digital Marketer

7.  Peter Chomba - Graphic Designer

8.  Themba Ndwene - System Administration


b. We do need support developing the blockchain solution, we also need support with front end development.

Project Plan

a. Quarter 1 - Deploy dApp development(monetary value transfer enabling)

  • Back End Development
  • Front End Development

Quarter 2 - Further refinement of dApp 

  • Back End tweaking
  • Front End tweaking

Quarter 3 - Alpha dApp tests

  • Trial tests tested by us conducted by us.

Quarter 4 - Beta dApp tests

  • Tests by product users


b. Ankh Negus plans to partner with local municipalities to offer an extension of our services to townships and rural locations. We will empower the youth by training and assigning a hub as their own getting support from Ankh Negus to run their internet cafe’s.

c. The mobile communications industry is often subject to unpredictable and higher direct and indirect taxes in our countries of operation. Other volatile macroeconomic conditions – such as fluctuating foreign exchange and inflation rates can weaken Consumer and Enterprise spend, reducing revenue and impacting negatively on operating costs and capital expenditure. A priority market review on both Wholesale and Retail can result in an increase in regulatory requirements. Stringent regulatory requirements set by the regulator or legislation could have an impact on profitability, growth and services and intensified competition from a variety of new and existing technology providers, new market entrants and competitors. A major failure in critical network or information technology assets – for example, through natural disasters, insufficient preventative maintenance, or malicious attack – would have a profound impact on our customers, revenues and reputation.

P2P: Pros & Cons

As hyper ledger is a decentralized system of peer to peer network, it is highly available due to decentralization.
Because of P2P networking capability, even if one peer gets down, the other peers are still present. Thus nobody can take down the ledger.
P2P networks offer greater security compared to traditional client-server systems.
When you are using cloud computing to store your data, you need to trust AWS and Google drives, but with the blockchain, because it utilizes peer to peer network you don’t need to trust any third parties which can modify your crucial data. These are non-resistant to censorship by central authorities.
These networks are virtually immune to the Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks.
The distributed peer-to-peer network, when paired with a majority consensus requirement, gives blockchains a relatively high degree of resistance to malicious activity.
P2P network in blockchain, however, raises few concerns. As in blockchain, instead of a central server, distributed ledgers must be updated on every single node, adding transactions requires a considerable amount of computational power. Although this provides an increased level of security, it significantly reduces efficiency, and this acts as one of the main hindrances in terms of scalability and mass adoption.