Richard Ells' entrepreneurial career began in the 90s when he founded a digital agency and then founded a social media management software business that was sold to companies such as Herbalife, Forever Living, Avon and Unilever.
After seeing the rise in Bitcoin, Ells decided to start mining BTC and other coins for himself, which was a very difficult and painstaking process. He thought:
“There must be a better way to make cryptocurrency available to people. Let's create a system that ordinary people without technical skills can use. This is where the idea was born. "
To launch ETNs among users, Electroneum offered a “mobile mining” feature in their app, essentially distributing ETNs using AirDrop. By that time, due to tax rules and the inflationary effect of this mining, the promotion quickly ended, but not before a huge number of users and currency holders accumulated, which was important in order to get noticed, and the cryptocurrency received real value.
Regarding this phase of the operation, Ells explained:
“It was completely viral. One guy says that this is how he makes money, then another asks about it, and they just register one by one on the recommendation. We literally saw it go viral geographically. "
How to achieve mass adoption?
Electroneum's biggest achievement, according to Ells, was the sudden adoption of ETNs around the world, especially in developing countries, with millions of users, hundreds of thousands of real transactions, and nearly 200,000 ETN top-ups.
ETN adoption was initially facilitated, as mentioned earlier, by enabling users to mine ETNs on their own, but it continues to accelerate thanks to business partnerships and their unique crypto-based Anytask freelance platform.
Electroneum has partnered with a variety of companies that now accept ETN transactions, such as South African Mobile Virtual Network Processor (MVNO) The Unlimited and Cambodian telecommunications provider Cellcard. Anytask, a freelance platform modeled after Fiverr, is a marketplace where freelancers can sell their digital services in exchange for ETNs, allowing them to join the digital economy without Paypal or a bank account. Ells said:
“There has to be a way to earn ETN without having to go to the bank, open an account, exchange fiat for bitcoin and convert to ETN. It just won't happen. "
The ETN model for Anytask services not only gives real value to the currency, but is also a smart and practical way for inexperienced speculators to make money. Ells praised the site:
"It's only been three months and it's already the most successful cryptocurrency freelance site in the world."
Bring freedom to the developing world
One of the main goals of Electroneum is to make it simple and easy to access cryptocurrency for mobile users in developing countries. In addition to partnering with organizations and businesses in developing countries that allow ETN transactions, people now have the means to receive ETNs through Anytask. Non-bankable people can still use Anytask to earn ETNs with no service fees.
However, inclusion issues still remain, mainly due to identification issues. Ells explained:
“Imagine that you are sitting in a village in the Kashmir mountains or in Africa, and you do not have a passport. You don't know where you were born, or even your date of birth. You are simply disconnected from something that needs to be there to empower you and give you freedom. In such a situation, it will be very difficult for a person to enter the banking system ”.