Blockchain technology in a new business model from a small candy store
This longrid is about the history of one small business with big ambitions, as well as about what we went through and what we learned in 7 months from the moment we heard about words such as blockchain and ICO and until the publication of two own smart contracts on the network Ethereum
Illustration from the book of Evgeny Fedotov
A small background. It is important to tell her in order to understand who we are and what we do. Since 2014, we have owned a small business in Moscow in the field of catering. We are engaged in the production of modern confectionery. In May 2017, the first offline establishment was opened in the format of a cafe with an open production workshop and the prefix “experimental establishment”.
Habr old-timers already at this moment can wrap this article with a comment - cafes and IT. What did you guys forget here? But, looking ahead, I want to say that today we are developing an IT tool - a BI & Blockchain solution based on a collective mind. And it is on this instrument that I want to focus the reader in this and subsequent articles.
My acquaintance with cryptocurrency began in 2014. At that time, my friend and I began to study crypto and, of course, our acquaintance began with bitcoin. This acquaintance led us to the concept of mining. At that time, spending money on buying Bitcoin was a pity, because none of us understood why the rate of this virtual dummy should grow, and we should make money. My friend worked as a system administrator in a large shopping center in Moscow. His position gave us the opportunity to use the infrastructure of this shopping center. However, from the infrastructure we, in view of our limitless “arrogance”, were able to use only free electricity and high-speed Internet. So the idea was born to build your own mining farm and fuel it with free resources.
The attentive reader will ask -you felt sorry for $ 100 to buy bitcoin, but you did not regret $ 1,500 for buying a server? Exactly. The explanation is simple - real things have real value and this server could be quickly and easily sold if you were lucky - without losing in value.
It so happened that the moment of purchase of the first 2 video cards coincided with a sharp increase in the Bitcoin exchange rate and, as a result, an increase in demand for video cards. In a week, we paid for our server by reselling video cards. And when demand subsided, they launched the server on cheaper cards (because there simply weren’t any top-end cards in Moscow) and changed their plan for mining lightcoins.
Over 1.5 years of operation, 20 lightcoins were mined. At the rate of that time, this is about $ 400. Simple math calculations showed a bold minus. As it turned out, we managed to earn by selling shovels during the gold rush.
The mined lightcoins, like the server, we sold later. And with the money raised, they bought 2 bitcoins at the rate of $ 700. After some time, they sold having lost $ 100 from the sale of 1BTC ...
The Bitcoin story made it clear that making money and controlling what is real weight, understandable demand and reasonable cost is much simpler and more reasonable.
The business that we have been doing for 3 years was born from the dream of Vera Osinina. Dreams of opening a small and cozy bakery. Today, the dream to open a cafe has grown into the idea of creating an international network of confectioneries with the highest quality products, fair pricing, high level of service and a unique management tool based on a collective mind.
It so happened that a person from the IT world joined Vera (get acquainted - the author of the article, who sold bitcoin in 2016). He had the opportunity to look at the production and business processes of a very complex, in essence, business in the field of catering. Many small processes, a low degree of control, a low degree of automation and the huge role of the human factor. We saw great opportunities to optimize and increase the efficiency of all internal processes. So our first cafe turned into a testing ground for testing our ideas.
Strategic goals allowed to maintain focus and not get bogged down in routine. The race for the payback period of invested funds and profit simply did not give us a future.
Taking the first steps in the management and development of the cafe, we had many problems associated with a shortage of qualified personnel, automation of inventory control, poor staff training, and imperfection of professional equipment. Everything that is used in the work, including IT tools, products, services and so on, has been done for many, and not specifically for us. As a result, the efficiency of a seemingly very profitable business line is lost. We decided to pay more attention to the independent development of managerial, technical solutions, internal regulations, development of product preparation technology, the formation of a knowledge base taking into account our vision of production and business processes.
We learn to work efficiently and not repeat mistakes.
Until the opening of the first offline institution, another person joined us. The first investor. Mathematician, economist. A person with experience taking companies to IPO. Which eventually turned into an efficiently working remote manager. Using third-party IT solutions (automated warehouse, online cash desks, CRM systems), every day we came across restrictions in a particular solution. At the same time, third-party solutions have become the basis of a new business model in which all financial and production processes are transparent, and managers and investors become a team.
A few words from Ivan - our first investor.
June 2017 Everyone talks about blockchain everywhere. There are more and more companies that conduct ICOs for real businesses. The pioneer is Mikhail Shlyapnikov and Kolionovo. The ability to create your own virtual money, backed up by real production, is in the air. And the principles of transparency and the “trust” of blockchain technology perfectly fit into our new business model.
Studying the principles of blockchain technology, the process and goals of conducting an ICO, we felt like guys who came from the village and left at the station of the Kazan station. Today, we look with a smile at those who equate blockchain with cryptocurrencies and consider this technology only in terms of fintech solutions.
So what is blockchain for us? This is primarily a distributed database. We plan to use blockchain to record all key business performance indicators: bookkeeping, cashier's checks, management decisions and current strategic plans. But to make a business transparent, a blockchain is not needed? It is enough to automate the collection of information and provide access to it ... The
blockchain is needed because it is a database in which changes are impossible, it is impossible to fake anything in it. This is a guarantee of transparency.
By August 2017, realizing the need to develop a tool that in the future will become the basis for our business, we have come up with the idea of holding an ICO. So the project was born, during the preparation of which, we again followed a path that contradicted all conceivable "traditions", the essence of which:
Thinking over our project, we set ourselves a number of tasks:
We are convinced that by combining financial and intellectual capabilities we will build a modern, highly profitable business and outright surpass the competition.
All these thoughts led us to the idea of creating an IT solution - SIMT ( Smart Investment Management Tool ). I will talk about it in more detail. But, a little later.
We started our journey to the ICO with a branch on bitcointalk. In a very authentic way. We came to the forum as newcomers with a new registered account. Created a project branch in a simple form without pictures, colorful headers, etc. (although we have something to show). It was a dry text describing the project and the idea.
We did not hide the fact that we are new to the world of the crypto community. They did not hide the fact that they came to the forum in order to convey our thoughts, hear comments, questions, sarcasm. The community has given us the opportunity to structure our thoughts. So white paper was born, the basis of which became a rather detailed history of our business, a plan for several years ahead and a meticulously calculated token economy.
In the process of working on WP, an economic model of the project was born, the analysis of which will allow us to evaluate our plans.
From October to December, we actively conducted communication on the forum. Ideas and thoughts acquired a clear structure, we received valuable knowledge. The principle of openness has yielded results. The project has acquired a finished look and received due design. The colossal work was done by 2 people, simultaneously operating the cafe and business. These were difficult and interesting times. Each comment is like a challenge. Criticism is an opportunity to reflect and analyze one’s own actions.
Like-minded people appeared in the team. Ilya with experience in developing smart contracts, lawyer, respected advisers, media representatives, translators, people interested in our project in Germany and Switzerland. And, of course, there is a huge number of parasites and people who wanted to earn fabulous sums on various services for the ICO.
Description of services for ICOs from ambisafe or icos, as well as “experts” of loners, I will definitely mention in a separate article. Communication with representatives of various companies offering services for ICOs, as well as newly-made experts, has formed a clear understanding of what ICOs are today, and also why most ICOs are hype or scam.
People themselves create scam by their stupidity and laziness, unwillingness to study the details of investment projects.
We have found answers to such questions as:
Initially, we went in a difficult and non-standard way in preparing an ICO. What did the decision to cancel the bounty cost us only? A flurry of emotions and one of the most discussed topics of the day on the forum. People did not understand us, did not understand how we could break established traditions, go against the community. They called us fools.
But all our decisions were understandable, reasonable and reasoned. What can we say about our financial goals (which many people involved in ICO projects have laughed at and laughed at): $ 25k on the presale with maximum bonuses, $ 150k and $ 750k soft and hard cap, respectively, without any bonuses. After distributing bonuses, first of all, the price of the future token suffers.
Above, you may already have noticed this strange abbreviation. SIMT - Smart Investment Management Tool. Integration of IT solutions in a running business. Testing and development of an application tool that will increase the efficiency of the business in the field of catering, so much deprived of attention by IT technologies.
The schematic diagram of the SIMT is shown in this diagram.
Before embarking on the expensive development of a management tool, we want to draft a draft. Our first priority is to realize the effect of presence inexpensively and quickly. There was a delivery - it is visible, sale - it is visible, it was stolen - it is visible, the staff did not go to work - everyone knows about it. Next, we will create the simplest voting tool with the ability to propose our own solution to the problem.
Today, many projects do this: a cool idea has arisen, an innovative prefix is quite applicable to it. To develop money you need a myriad. They attracted investments, created a product, and often it turns out nobody needs it. Our team for a logical and consistent investment of money.
After the presentation of SIMT to the community, we were faced with an absolute lack of understanding of the idea of this tool and the opportunities that this tool gives us. That is why you read this article on Habré. We have come to a respected community of people and your opinion, criticism, your questions will help us explain the principles of this solution and the key concept of SIMT.
Functionality of the future tool:
We believe that making a decision with a risk to equity is a guarantee of a responsible, informed decision. The set of assessments of the items of the Strategic Plan for Network Development form a comprehensive assessment of the activities of the CEO and the management of the company each reporting period (month). This is an internal index of approval for the actions of company management.
At the moment, a concept has been formed and a simple prototype is being developed. Blockchain technology integration is planned in the next stages. Development is carried out on our own and is tested at the training ground we created - an offline institution, our first cafe. In our own UAT environment. This makes it possible to monitor the business in real time, analyze indicators and respond instantly, making and implementing informed decisions.
In my article you will see a lot of words about ICOs, investments, tokens. Most of the people to whom we begin to talk about our project, about our business and about our dreams meet us, as they say “by clothes”. But the conversation goes in a different direction when we interrupt and say - listen, we didn’t come to you to ask you for money or invite you to become our investor. We came to tell you our ideas, share experiences, interesting events, stories. Present the project to hear your opinion. Opinions of people, criticism, questions - this is what gives us the strength to develop, grow and build new plans.
The collective image of the person who will be interested in our project is an intellectual, somewhat adventurer, rationalist in some way. In addition to the knowledge of the tops of cryptonomics, he has an understanding of the political processes related to crypto topics. This person will not round his eyes in surprise when he learns that Ilon Mask’s business is unprofitable, but despite this, investors are willing to invest in Tesla or Uber (the same example, only with DODO pizza, Fedor hi and huge respect). A person who is interested in our project will understand why Amazon bought Whole Foods (a giant American network selling healthy food and not related to IT or other Amazon projects).
To conclude this article, I would like to invite community members to a discussion. And also show some historical pictures from the category as it were. Because we have something to show;)
PS Two months after the presentation of our project, one “big” and very famous businessman came up with the idea to open a restaurant on the blockchain in Moscow. At the same time, after a 5-minute superficial study, he put the “SCAM” mark on our letter to him with a description of the project. We are optimistic about this, because healthy competition is the basis for the development of any business.
Illustration from the book of Evgeny Fedotov
A small background. It is important to tell her in order to understand who we are and what we do. Since 2014, we have owned a small business in Moscow in the field of catering. We are engaged in the production of modern confectionery. In May 2017, the first offline establishment was opened in the format of a cafe with an open production workshop and the prefix “experimental establishment”.
Habr old-timers already at this moment can wrap this article with a comment - cafes and IT. What did you guys forget here? But, looking ahead, I want to say that today we are developing an IT tool - a BI & Blockchain solution based on a collective mind. And it is on this instrument that I want to focus the reader in this and subsequent articles.
Bitcoin
My acquaintance with cryptocurrency began in 2014. At that time, my friend and I began to study crypto and, of course, our acquaintance began with bitcoin. This acquaintance led us to the concept of mining. At that time, spending money on buying Bitcoin was a pity, because none of us understood why the rate of this virtual dummy should grow, and we should make money. My friend worked as a system administrator in a large shopping center in Moscow. His position gave us the opportunity to use the infrastructure of this shopping center. However, from the infrastructure we, in view of our limitless “arrogance”, were able to use only free electricity and high-speed Internet. So the idea was born to build your own mining farm and fuel it with free resources.
The attentive reader will ask -you felt sorry for $ 100 to buy bitcoin, but you did not regret $ 1,500 for buying a server? Exactly. The explanation is simple - real things have real value and this server could be quickly and easily sold if you were lucky - without losing in value.
It so happened that the moment of purchase of the first 2 video cards coincided with a sharp increase in the Bitcoin exchange rate and, as a result, an increase in demand for video cards. In a week, we paid for our server by reselling video cards. And when demand subsided, they launched the server on cheaper cards (because there simply weren’t any top-end cards in Moscow) and changed their plan for mining lightcoins.
Over 1.5 years of operation, 20 lightcoins were mined. At the rate of that time, this is about $ 400. Simple math calculations showed a bold minus. As it turned out, we managed to earn by selling shovels during the gold rush.
Bitcoin Part 2
The mined lightcoins, like the server, we sold later. And with the money raised, they bought 2 bitcoins at the rate of $ 700. After some time, they sold having lost $ 100 from the sale of 1BTC ...
Touchable, real and exciting. The role of IT for small businesses
The Bitcoin story made it clear that making money and controlling what is real weight, understandable demand and reasonable cost is much simpler and more reasonable.
The business that we have been doing for 3 years was born from the dream of Vera Osinina. Dreams of opening a small and cozy bakery. Today, the dream to open a cafe has grown into the idea of creating an international network of confectioneries with the highest quality products, fair pricing, high level of service and a unique management tool based on a collective mind.
It so happened that a person from the IT world joined Vera (get acquainted - the author of the article, who sold bitcoin in 2016). He had the opportunity to look at the production and business processes of a very complex, in essence, business in the field of catering. Many small processes, a low degree of control, a low degree of automation and the huge role of the human factor. We saw great opportunities to optimize and increase the efficiency of all internal processes. So our first cafe turned into a testing ground for testing our ideas.
Strategic goals allowed to maintain focus and not get bogged down in routine. The race for the payback period of invested funds and profit simply did not give us a future.
Taking the first steps in the management and development of the cafe, we had many problems associated with a shortage of qualified personnel, automation of inventory control, poor staff training, and imperfection of professional equipment. Everything that is used in the work, including IT tools, products, services and so on, has been done for many, and not specifically for us. As a result, the efficiency of a seemingly very profitable business line is lost. We decided to pay more attention to the independent development of managerial, technical solutions, internal regulations, development of product preparation technology, the formation of a knowledge base taking into account our vision of production and business processes.
We learn to work efficiently and not repeat mistakes.
We love to play chess - this is an interesting, complex, multifaceted game. She trains the brain. Playing a “shake” or tossing a coin - also has a place to be, but rather as a hobby. For the soul.
Blockchain
Until the opening of the first offline institution, another person joined us. The first investor. Mathematician, economist. A person with experience taking companies to IPO. Which eventually turned into an efficiently working remote manager. Using third-party IT solutions (automated warehouse, online cash desks, CRM systems), every day we came across restrictions in a particular solution. At the same time, third-party solutions have become the basis of a new business model in which all financial and production processes are transparent, and managers and investors become a team.
A few words from Ivan - our first investor.
Initially, I did not plan to participate in the development, but it turned out differently. Without going into details - I was created the effect of presence, in addition to controlling all finances I am in working groups, I have access to cameras, I can communicate with staff directly during the production process, evaluate how the customer was served and much more. For me it became a kind of show, a business quest in reality. It captures, gives a drive and makes you want to change familiar things.
June 2017 Everyone talks about blockchain everywhere. There are more and more companies that conduct ICOs for real businesses. The pioneer is Mikhail Shlyapnikov and Kolionovo. The ability to create your own virtual money, backed up by real production, is in the air. And the principles of transparency and the “trust” of blockchain technology perfectly fit into our new business model.
Studying the principles of blockchain technology, the process and goals of conducting an ICO, we felt like guys who came from the village and left at the station of the Kazan station. Today, we look with a smile at those who equate blockchain with cryptocurrencies and consider this technology only in terms of fintech solutions.
So what is blockchain for us? This is primarily a distributed database. We plan to use blockchain to record all key business performance indicators: bookkeeping, cashier's checks, management decisions and current strategic plans. But to make a business transparent, a blockchain is not needed? It is enough to automate the collection of information and provide access to it ... The
blockchain is needed because it is a database in which changes are impossible, it is impossible to fake anything in it. This is a guarantee of transparency.
ICO
By August 2017, realizing the need to develop a tool that in the future will become the basis for our business, we have come up with the idea of holding an ICO. So the project was born, during the preparation of which, we again followed a path that contradicted all conceivable "traditions", the essence of which:
- conducting an ICO for the sake of an ICO.
- artificially veiled issue of a token for the idea, and as a result, a banal fundraiser.
Thinking over our project, we set ourselves a number of tasks:
- To attract people into the project and in the business who will share our ideas and approach in doing business.
- To create an opportunity for token holders to participate in the distribution of profits from existing and developing businesses.
- To enable token holders to participate in business development.
- Open to the token holders all internal business processes, financial indicators and strategic decisions of managers.
- Give an opportunity to influence management decisions based on our own analysis of key business indicators.
- To enable token holders to “sell” expert services that will be useful to business.
We are convinced that by combining financial and intellectual capabilities we will build a modern, highly profitable business and outright surpass the competition.
All these thoughts led us to the idea of creating an IT solution - SIMT ( Smart Investment Management Tool ). I will talk about it in more detail. But, a little later.
We started our journey to the ICO with a branch on bitcointalk. In a very authentic way. We came to the forum as newcomers with a new registered account. Created a project branch in a simple form without pictures, colorful headers, etc. (although we have something to show). It was a dry text describing the project and the idea.
We did not hide the fact that we are new to the world of the crypto community. They did not hide the fact that they came to the forum in order to convey our thoughts, hear comments, questions, sarcasm. The community has given us the opportunity to structure our thoughts. So white paper was born, the basis of which became a rather detailed history of our business, a plan for several years ahead and a meticulously calculated token economy.
In the process of working on WP, an economic model of the project was born, the analysis of which will allow us to evaluate our plans.
From October to December, we actively conducted communication on the forum. Ideas and thoughts acquired a clear structure, we received valuable knowledge. The principle of openness has yielded results. The project has acquired a finished look and received due design. The colossal work was done by 2 people, simultaneously operating the cafe and business. These were difficult and interesting times. Each comment is like a challenge. Criticism is an opportunity to reflect and analyze one’s own actions.
Like-minded people appeared in the team. Ilya with experience in developing smart contracts, lawyer, respected advisers, media representatives, translators, people interested in our project in Germany and Switzerland. And, of course, there is a huge number of parasites and people who wanted to earn fabulous sums on various services for the ICO.
Description of services for ICOs from ambisafe or icos, as well as “experts” of loners, I will definitely mention in a separate article. Communication with representatives of various companies offering services for ICOs, as well as newly-made experts, has formed a clear understanding of what ICOs are today, and also why most ICOs are hype or scam.
People themselves create scam by their stupidity and laziness, unwillingness to study the details of investment projects.
We have found answers to such questions as:
- why does the token get cheaper right after it goes public?
- why do most ICO team plans seem unrealizable
- why the majority of ICOs for the real sector is a banal fundraising
- why grow bananas, build factories or brew beer using blockchain
- why representatives of the project team cannot answer simple questions, but perceive the questions themselves as unreasonable criticism
- why ICO approaches are standard
Initially, we went in a difficult and non-standard way in preparing an ICO. What did the decision to cancel the bounty cost us only? A flurry of emotions and one of the most discussed topics of the day on the forum. People did not understand us, did not understand how we could break established traditions, go against the community. They called us fools.
But all our decisions were understandable, reasonable and reasoned. What can we say about our financial goals (which many people involved in ICO projects have laughed at and laughed at): $ 25k on the presale with maximum bonuses, $ 150k and $ 750k soft and hard cap, respectively, without any bonuses. After distributing bonuses, first of all, the price of the future token suffers.
SIMT development
Above, you may already have noticed this strange abbreviation. SIMT - Smart Investment Management Tool. Integration of IT solutions in a running business. Testing and development of an application tool that will increase the efficiency of the business in the field of catering, so much deprived of attention by IT technologies.
The schematic diagram of the SIMT is shown in this diagram.
Before embarking on the expensive development of a management tool, we want to draft a draft. Our first priority is to realize the effect of presence inexpensively and quickly. There was a delivery - it is visible, sale - it is visible, it was stolen - it is visible, the staff did not go to work - everyone knows about it. Next, we will create the simplest voting tool with the ability to propose our own solution to the problem.
Today, many projects do this: a cool idea has arisen, an innovative prefix is quite applicable to it. To develop money you need a myriad. They attracted investments, created a product, and often it turns out nobody needs it. Our team for a logical and consistent investment of money.
After the presentation of SIMT to the community, we were faced with an absolute lack of understanding of the idea of this tool and the opportunities that this tool gives us. That is why you read this article on Habré. We have come to a respected community of people and your opinion, criticism, your questions will help us explain the principles of this solution and the key concept of SIMT.
Functionality of the future tool:
- All information about the operation of the future network (cloud cash desks, operating expenses, the purchase of raw materials, bank commissions, payroll, taxes and fees, rent, utilities, advertising expenses, etc.) is available for analysis in SIMT and is daily recorded in a decentralized registry.
- Access to SIMT will be provided to token holders.
- Highly detailed strategic network development plan is presented in SIMT.
- Investors (token holders) have the opportunity to evaluate each item of the Strategic Development Plan, make their own alternative proposal / addition, as well as lobby the proposals of other SIMT users by voting.
- Subject to the support of many users, the proposal / addition of investors (token holders) will be delivered for consideration by the CEO and company management
- The number of tokens does not affect the strength of the voice. One token holder (any number of tokens) = 1 vote. The value of the idea is determined by the majority of votes , not a controlling stake in tokens.
We believe that making a decision with a risk to equity is a guarantee of a responsible, informed decision. The set of assessments of the items of the Strategic Plan for Network Development form a comprehensive assessment of the activities of the CEO and the management of the company each reporting period (month). This is an internal index of approval for the actions of company management.
At the moment, a concept has been formed and a simple prototype is being developed. Blockchain technology integration is planned in the next stages. Development is carried out on our own and is tested at the training ground we created - an offline institution, our first cafe. In our own UAT environment. This makes it possible to monitor the business in real time, analyze indicators and respond instantly, making and implementing informed decisions.
The IT tool being created is a “concealer” in business with the capabilities of a collective mind, a diffusion of investors in the Project. Through this instrument, the unit has the right to vote and the opportunity to be heard by the majority.
People sharing our ideas, values and approach
In my article you will see a lot of words about ICOs, investments, tokens. Most of the people to whom we begin to talk about our project, about our business and about our dreams meet us, as they say “by clothes”. But the conversation goes in a different direction when we interrupt and say - listen, we didn’t come to you to ask you for money or invite you to become our investor. We came to tell you our ideas, share experiences, interesting events, stories. Present the project to hear your opinion. Opinions of people, criticism, questions - this is what gives us the strength to develop, grow and build new plans.
The collective image of the person who will be interested in our project is an intellectual, somewhat adventurer, rationalist in some way. In addition to the knowledge of the tops of cryptonomics, he has an understanding of the political processes related to crypto topics. This person will not round his eyes in surprise when he learns that Ilon Mask’s business is unprofitable, but despite this, investors are willing to invest in Tesla or Uber (the same example, only with DODO pizza, Fedor hi and huge respect). A person who is interested in our project will understand why Amazon bought Whole Foods (a giant American network selling healthy food and not related to IT or other Amazon projects).
To conclude this article, I would like to invite community members to a discussion. And also show some historical pictures from the category as it were. Because we have something to show;)
PS Two months after the presentation of our project, one “big” and very famous businessman came up with the idea to open a restaurant on the blockchain in Moscow. At the same time, after a 5-minute superficial study, he put the “SCAM” mark on our letter to him with a description of the project. We are optimistic about this, because healthy competition is the basis for the development of any business.