UpdateI was thinking of holding back on letting the community know about these developments until they were set in stone but that would just mean delays to updates, so here's what's currently going on:
Bitsoko - https://bitsoko.co.keBitsoko will be adding KOBO to it's platform alongside BTC. Bitsoko were awarded a grant of $100,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last year to explore the possibilities of cryptocurrencies as a mobile payment method in the East and West of Africa (and the rest of the world). The project also has the opportunity to have an addon grant of $1,000,000 if successful. They will be launching in Ghana, Zimbabwe & Sierra Leone this year.
As well as KOBO being added to the platform I'll also be working with the project team to see how we can build the blockchain ecosystem in Africa. The project is based in Kenya, the birthplace of the now famous M-Pesa mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinancing service. It's the mighty all-conquering competitor to KOBO and BTC in Africa. It's services have now been exported to SE Asia and South America. That's the power of African mobile fintech.
Blockchain technology is the only thing I see that can disrupt that domination. With our human friendly multiple denominations of KOBO, MAINLLA (mKOBO), COWRIE (uKOBO) and MANSA (satoshi unit) we're all ready for a payments and microtransaction service.
Bitsoko is a product of the
Kenyatta University Division of Research, Innovation and Outreach, Nairobi, KenyaKenyatta University
http://www.ku.ac.ke/ The Bitsoko project
http://www.ku.ac.ke/kunew/index.php/62-icecarousel-titleKenyatta University Startups
http://research.ku.ac.ke/index.php/en/english-home/114-spin-off-companies/221-spin-off-companiesRead more about Bitsoko and the $100,000 grant at the following links
http://www.coindesk.com/meet-the-kenyan-startup-trying-to-change-bill-gates-mind-on-bitcoin/http://disrupt-africa.com/2015/07/kenyan-bitcoin-startup-bitsoko-receives-100k-grant-from-gates-foundation/UberPay - http://uberpay.io/UberPay will be adding KOBO to it's platform and also to it's coin swap facility
http://doecoins.com/ which offers ShapeShift features. It will give users the ability to swap KOBO with other cryptocurrencies without the need for an account.
Kobojs-libI'm in the process of creating the Kobocoin Javascript Client Library. This was requested by the Bitsoko team to allow the integration of kobo on their platform. The library will be based on the bitcore client libraries. This is a new area of development for me so I'll be testing out a few features to verify it before release on github.
The js client libraries will also allow me to look into other areas that the kobo blockchain can be extended. It will mean that iOS crypto services can easily add KOBO to their offerings
ExchangesIt's a bit of a chicken and egg situation here. At the moment on both Yobit and CoinExchange we're looking at a daily volume of about 0.1BTC. I've approcahed other exchanges but with such small volume I don't think they're looking too kindly on the request. You might say that once we're added to the larger exchanges that volume will pick up. Possibly, but this is the chicken and egg situation.
At the moment I'm not too worried about price. Volume is the key to the success of KOBO. Volume will bring price stability which we don't have right now.
Twitter TippingThe response to the twitter tipping has been very positive. I'm tipping retweets, followers and likes 100 KOBO. The tips are being redeemed and there's even been users tweeting Poloniex to add KOBO to their exchange. Some very prolific African tweeters have been tweeting the KOBO price that goes out once per hour so a larger community beyond this forum is becoming aware of the existence of KOBO.
And Finally...I've had an interview for the Bitcoindood blog
http://bitcoindood.com/bitcoin-blog/ which will be out soon. I'll post a link. Hopefully my answers don't make you all run for the hills!
Hope you all have a great Easter