AMA Review | Jasmy’s Business Model and Core Competencies Explained in Depth
In this AMA, we will introduce in detail Jasmy’s business model and core competencies.
NO.1 Bittrex & Jasmy Q&A
Bittrex Global: Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Hiroshi Harada: Hello, I’m Hiroshi Harada, CFO of Jasmy. I took on the role of CFO of the Company in January 2020. I am responsible for accounting, finance and tax, as well as IR operations. Kunitake Ando is the CEO of Jasmy and has served as President and COO of Sony Corporation, and President and COO of Sony Engineering and Manufacturing America (SEMA).
Bittrex Global: Can you tell us briefly about Jasmy?
Hiroshi Harada: We are an IoT platform company on a mission to provide the infrastructure which allows anybody to use data safely and securely. We are currently developing and providing the “Jasmy Platform” to achieve this. The Jasmy Platform aims to regain data sovereignty for each individual so that everyone can use his or her data safely and securely. To achieve this, we have combined Blockchain and IoT technology to provide the optimal platform solution for customers around the world, and across industries.
Bittrex Global: What was the motivation for starting this project?
Hiroshi Harada: Our aim is to democratize data. Amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the number of IoT devices is expected to increase dramatically, however, behind the convenience of life, there are always security risks. Security threats such as identity theft and hacking are global issues. In addition, we increasingly find our personal information like purchases, location, website and video viewing history are being used inappropriately by platform companies. Our concept of data democracy is threefold:
1. Store and manage your personal data in a safe and secure way
2. Manage and control your personal devices safely and securely
3. Safe and secure usage of personal data under clear rules
In order to build a “new information age based on consumers” in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we aim to achieve “data democracy” using our original concept, the IoT and blockchain technology to manage personal information according to the user’s wishes. We’re a small company at the moment, but we have big ambitions.
Bittrex Global: Are there any major milestones for Jasmy this year?
Hiroshi Harada: The first is the commercialization of our platform services. So far, most of the demo testings have already been done by the companies that will be using our platform, and we hope to get as many orders as possible. We are also preparing for our global strategy, not just in Japan.
Another one is increasing circulation. We want to expand our community globally and develop media and marketing strategies to increase our user base.
Bittrex Global: We would be interested to know if there are any short-term or long-term goals for this project.
Hiroshi Harada: There are four roadmaps for our development. Our project is currently at the platform penetration stage. We are working closely with Japan’s largest customer service call centers, well-known consumer electronics brands and regional governments. Our current service plan is to serve 50 corporate customers in the next two years, with 1.5 million individual users joining the Jasmy platform and 1,000 participating companies in five years. It has reached and is expected to have more than 100 million individual users.
Bittrex Global: What is the business model of this project?
Hiroshi Harada: Jasmy will provide platform services for users. Here, users will have an infrastructure called Personal Data Locker. It creates an environment where personal data are attributed to users themselves who decide on their own what to do with them. Service providers will be able to offer products and services without user information. By using this service, new data generated by IoT devices and other devices will be stored in the Data Locker and service providers will be able to use this data to facilitate new business. Jasmy receives appropriate royalties in exchange for providing the platform.
Bittrex Global: What do you see as the crypto-assets trends in 2021?
Hiroshi Harada: There is no doubt that the industry has seen further growth in the last year with the advent of DeFi and NFT. Facilitated by both, many new projects emerged, most of which disappeared due to hacker sabotage, marketing problems, etc.
On the other hand, it seems inappropriate that any coin which has only marketing and no real demand is gaining popularity in the market. This trend will likely continue for several months.
We believe crypto-assets with a genuine demand will survive. We believe that any coin steadily held by companies and used for business and investment purposes will survive in a healthy market. We are also confident that this growing market will become a second financial market for the company in the near future.
Bittrex Global: What kind of services does the platform offer?
Hiroshi Harada: In Japan, we have started to work with the biggest Japanese call center — Transcosmos, MaaS solution provider for Toyota and Panasonic, Witz and the famous laptop brand — VAIO. Besides, we also work with regional governments to develop business.
We have developed a Secure PC app with owner recognition function based on our unique blockchain technology and device management ideas. Even if the device is attacked, the risk can be kept within a certain range, so that it will not cause great loss to the company or the individual.
For call center services that handle large amounts of customer data, we provide an application that enables customers to safely and securely own call logs and response histories that are normally stored on the contact center server.
We are going to provide a new service called “Community-based Town MaaS”. Service providers can safely and securely use the personal data of self-driving users to provide a variety of services such as transportation, health care, and payments.
As a result, the scale of our business will continue to grow as our partners expand their operations.
Bittrex Global: We know that Jasmy is adopting blockchain-based decentralized storage technology. So what are the main differences from those centralized data management platforms and what are Jasmy’s core competencies?
Hiroshi Harada: Unlike GAFA, Jasmy’s business model is not about collecting data in a centralized system, and analyzing and making a profit based on it. On our platform, users become owners of their data by having a “personal data locker”. This is very different from other platforms.
As more and more companies join the Jasmy platform to provide services and the number of users increases, the platform will keep on growing in size, and the volume and value of data that each individual has will increase along with it.
Bittrex Global: What are the core services of Jasmy IoT Platform? How do these core services allow the platform to maximize the value of the data?
Hiroshi Harada: To enable the personal data locker owned by each user of the Jasmy platform, we use two key technologies that we call SKC (Secure Knowledge Communicator) and SG (Smart Guardian). Using these technologies, users can manage their data while keeping it secure. Both of them have filed for patents.
Bittrex Global: We know that Jasmy was invited to Digital Innovation 2021, the most important digital exhibition in Japan, hosted by Nikkei BP. There are lots of good concepts, products and collaborative launches. We would also like to learn more. Jasmy introduced the concept of “Platinum Data”, which is a first within the industry. What does this concept specifically refer to and what impact will it have on the future development of data technology?
Hiroshi Harada: Jasmy not only helps to secure data locker and share personal data through artificial intelligence technology, but also improves social life and contributes to the economy by effectively using personalized information and data quality to promote social prosperity and development.
In contrast to the Big Data, it is based on the concept of effective use of personal information data, also known as the Small Data. Jasmy believes in not only exploring the development of Small Data models, but also using them to help users make better decisions and find better solutions when they encounter difficulties in various daily life scenarios. Since these data have a high social value, Jasmy also named them “Platinum Data”.
Against the backdrop of many industry leaders continuing to explore ways to protect and share personal data, we hope that we can share users’ personal data correctly and appropriately to play an active role in the development of new businesses, cross-industry collaboration, and digital transformation of the industry.
Bittrex Global: We are also aware of the release of the new Secure PC. Can you tell us more details about the product? When and how do users purchase related products?
Hiroshi Harada: Users who are affected by COVID-19 and must work from home need to ensure that their devices are as convenient and secure as if they were working in the office. For this reason, Jasmy has now released the new Secure PC concept. By combining blockchain technology, two unique core services (SKC and SG) and our unique hardware device management technology, the following functions can be enabled:
Secure monitoring and management of internal PC data
Maximize the performance of the PC device itself
Maximize the performance of the PC device itself
Business process management and personal privacy considerations
Remote control and management of each function on the PC
Verify the security of the PC hardware itself
Jasmy has partnered with VAIO, a leading Japanese PC brand, to provide a convenient way for users who wish to purchase Secure PC devices. Detailed features and specifications of Secure PC will be available on the official Jasmy website in the near future.
Against the backdrop of many industry leaders continuing to explore ways to protect and share personal data, we hope that we can share users’ personal data correctly and appropriately to play an active role in the development of new businesses, cross-industry collaboration, and digital transformation of the industry.
Bittrex Global: In addition to Platina Data and Secure PC, we know that Mr. Sato also gave a special presentation where senior executives from major companies like Intel Japan, Transcosmos, Witz and Nishimura & Asahi joined the discussions. What comments were given by these business partners on the Jasmy project?
Hiroshi Harada: The special presentation revolved around the main aspects of Jasmy’s idea of the need to democratize information, how it differs from conventional thinking and how to achieve it, as well as the possibilities and challenges of the Internet of Things, and the issues that companies each face, such as distributed processing and security, and what each company expects of us.
Bittrex Global: What’s the token economy of JasmyCoin? Do we have any plans to further increase the value of JasmyCoin in the future?
Hiroshi Harada: The features of JasmyCoin are:
1) investors purchasing for capital gains in the market, and
2) companies using for business demand
The main use of JasmyCoin is that company can pay individuals JasmyCoins as reward for acquiring personal data, especially the personal data generated from IoT devices. As the number of partner companies and users of their services grows, the scale of our platform will keep on expanding, and so will the volume and the value of personal data held by each individual.
For the companies who are using Jasmy’s services, this token ecosystem will not affect their finance reports.
Jasmy generates revenue from providing its platform as a service to companies. The company is able to grow its business regardless of the fluctuation of the token price. On the other hand, JasmyCoin makes the accumulated personal data available in case they want to use the data stored in personal data locker generated from their services. JasmyCoin is the only valid currency for the value of personal data on our platform.
Bittrex Global: What’s different in Jasmy blockchain which provides more security in data sectors?
Hiroshi Harada: Traditional data storage and management is done in a centralized enterprise way. The server is installed in the enterprise, and the enterprise is the center of management. Jasmy’s business model does not collect data in a centralized system, analyze and make a profit based on it. We believe the individuals on the platform are the owners of the data, and the owners should make a profit by utilizing the data.
On our platform, users become owners of their data by having a “personal data locker”. This is very different from other platforms.
Bittrex Global: What benefits will Jasmy deliver to the ecosystem and the community?
Hiroshi Harada: Companies will be able to obtain fresh, unprocessed and unfalsified data from users through the IoT devices. It is even possible between rival companies, e.g. Sony may be able to obtain personal data generated from Panasonic devices. This is made possible because our business model makes each individual the owner of his own data.
Based on our business model, companies are more likely to access to the information that was previously unavailable. This will create new value for the personal data.
Bittrex Global: We noticed that you mentioned the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” on the website, so could you share with us the role of Jasmy IoT Platform in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”?
Hiroshi Harada: When so many things are connected to the Internet and become a convenient world, data privacy is a difficult task to solve.
We are considering two issues regarding the security of personal data. One issue is that if our data is used by the company without our approval, we will feel concerned as if our behavior is being monitored. The policy on our platform is that our data should be attributed to us personally and it is up to each individual to decide for whom to provide the data.
The other issue is that companies do not have adequate measures while having a large amount of personal data in house. As most companies are providing services based on centralized information management, therefore, the information leakage will continue to happen. To reduce corporate security risks is an important issue for the company growth. Our platform solves this problem through core technology, blockchain and distributed storage.
