Populous is a peer-peer invoice platform. The platform is the first of blockchain in this space. Let us look into what is Populous in much detail.

The innovation is developed with the small and medium Enterprises in mind. It uses blockchain’s distributed ledger as it continually aims to reduce third parties in invoice transactions. Thus, providing businesses with the power to develop and expand continually.

Why Populous?

Image Credits: Populous

Populous presents three major reasons why you need to consider investing in the technology;

• The Win-Win nature of the investment. Populous is designed in such a way that there is a win-win solution for the businesses. The businesses that invest in the technology eliminate the third man. By cutting of the third man, SMEs can, therefore, benefit more from the profits.
• Global cover and it is peer-peer. With Populous, you can invoice anyone in any part of the world. Therefore, it opens up the invoice financial world beyond the financial institutions.
• Safety and security. The blockchain technology is designed to eliminate fraud and the manual errors that can be very costly. Thus, making the invoicing safe and secure from fraud and error.

What is Populous: Distributed Ledger in Invoice Financing

As established above, Populous utilizes the distributed ledgers. What are distributed ledgers and what is their relevance?

A distributed ledger is a technology for sharing and recording data across multiple decentralized data stores. The technology relies on the involvement of different participant. So, no single group claims to have a monopoly over data.

The distributed ledgers are broad classes into the public or private ledgers. Public ledgers are accessible to anyone. Private ledgers are accessible only by specific nodes with assigned private keys.

What is Populous` History

Populous is an idea conceptualized by Stephen Williams. He is a commercial data expert. With his expertise in the data industry, Stephen invented and envisioned the use of XBRL for mining data for clients. Well, we shall explore XBRL further in a while.

This idea was well before Bitcoin. Stephen later learnt of Bitcoin and blockchain. He researched on the technology to come up with the technology for invoice financing. His main challenge at the conception of the idea was financing. The blockchain world though offers ICOs for such reasons.

What is Populous` Timeline

• November 2016- The Populous team lead by their CEO developed the Populous Concept
• February 2017- White paper for Populous was published
• April 2017- Smart contracts were developed on Ethereum
• June- July 2017- ICO
• September 2017- XBRL integration
• November 2017- Public Beta release

Populous ICO

The Populous PPT token sell for the ICO happened between a month between June and July of 2017. The sell involved four contracts. Besides, each contact had a bonus. The ICO raised over $10 million. With the ICO the roadmap is clearer with readiness to take over and bring a revolution to the industry.

The ICO was a success. However, the team needs to do more to turn the Populous platform and the PPT to more prominent players in the crypto city.

Features of Populous

XBRL

Populous exploits the eXstensible Business Reporting Language . The language analyses credit risk. It uses the Altman Z formula and real-time XBRL data. The XBRL data is available in the public domain. It includes; Value of debtors, amount of liquid cash present in the business and creditors that are due in the next year.

The Populous platform has its own XBRL platform. Additionally, the platform is accessible to other businesses as Business Intelligence (BI). But, the database will be used by businesses to make the decisions. The age of making hypothetical decisions in the dark is long gone. The Populous XBRL database will give valuable information that will be exploited to make more informed on businesses. The informed decisions will help the company grow and develop in their respective fields.

The Altman Score

The Altman Score is a financial platform that is exploited to determine risks involved with invoice financing. The risks include; the probability of bankruptcy hitting a business in two years, control models for managing financial risk and if the business will go back on its obligations.

The model helps restore the investor faith in the business they want to invest in.

With the knowledge of the XBRL and Altman score, the development team at Populous has created an in-house Populous rating system. The rating system helps the invention filter out and allow businesses that are a good match for the technology into the Populous system.

An invoice is accepted or rejected based only on the Altman’s score. Thereby, the system is credible.

What next after an Invoice is accepted?

An invoice auction begins. The invoice auction period is 24 hours. There are three ways in which an auction ends. First, you end the auction early. When you need the auction expedited, you can end the auction early. After which you can take the best available deal by the time you end the auction. Second, a deal that meets your sales bid occurs within the allocated 24 hours. Finally, the auction can go the entire 24 hours without a successful bid. In that case, you can accept the best deal, restart the auction entirely or cancel the auction process.

Roles of Populous Community Members

The Populous community is made up of the administrator, the system, the invoice seller and the invoice buyer. The administrator approves the accounts of both the buyers and the sellers. Additionally, the administrator approves the invoice set by the seller and generates the invoice credit score. Besides, the administrator is tasked with marking an auction as complete.

The system has two roles. Once the auction is complete, the system is tasked with returning the pokens to the losing groups and transferring the pokens from the winning group to the invoice seller.

Image Credits: Populous

The invoice seller will provide company data after registration and opening wallets. After that, the seller can create an invoice send payment to Populous and then wait for approval and auction.

The invoice buyers will create accounts and make a group. Enter KYC data that will enable the administrator to approve your account to buy the invoices when using fiat. However, Populous accepts anonymous buying of the invoices but only for clients using crypto as the payment method.

Why KYC Data for Populous?

KYC is about Knowing Your Customers. The KYC data required by Populous is to help identify and verify the information and identity of the client. The KYC data is a crucial step in the Populous platform. The information helps the platform check on the fraud or financial terrorism that may occur.

Recently, through the Populous Twitter handle, the team announced the moving of the KYC from manual to automatic. All this is in the process of letting the client have a better and faster shot at services offered at the platform. The information is an excitement to both the team and potential clients.

Pokens vs. Populous Platform Tokens (PPT)

Well both Pokens and PPT are tokens platform. Let us explore them separately.

Populous platform uses Pokens as the standard international currency. And they have value directly equivalent to a fiat currency. That, therefore, means £5 is equal to the 5 poken.

The pokens are purchased directly from the platform using a client’s wallet through GBP, EUR, USD, and Yen. Using any other currency in the world is possible. But, for this, the client will first convert the currency to the GBP before the transactions proceed. Pokens are used to buy the invoices. Cryptocurrencies preferably Bitcoin and Ethereum can also buy you pokens.

On the other hand, PPTs are used as the investment vehicle. The project rolled out PPTs during the ICO to get wild investors to fund the innovation. There are about 53 million PPTs that are in circulation. The number will not increase. For PPT holders, they can also buy invoices using the PPTs. With this model, you will exchange PPT for tokens. Once the invoice investment is successful, you will get the profits in the form of Pokens and the original investment in the PPT form.

The tokens are ERC-20 Tokens. And do you know what they are?

What are ERC-20 Tokens?

This is a term used almost daily in the crypto world. ERC-20 show the relationship between Populous and Ethereum.

These are ETH based tokens. For this reason, Ethereum is the basis on which Populous blockchain extends. Thus the tokens are Ethereum friendly. The ERC 20 tokens have a list of rules. The rules are a guide to the interaction of one token to the rest of the tokens listed on the Ethereum blockchain.

Some other ERC-20 tokens apart from PPT are Filecoin, Qash, Bankok and plenty more.

How to Buy PPT

Well, the most easy, fast and convenient way of buying PPT has three steps. Getting MyEtherWallet is the first step. The team created the wallet to hold and store any coin on the Ethereum platform. The wallet is easy to configure as the client only has to visit the Ethereum website and follow the simple steps there.

After getting a MyEtherWallet, the client then buys Ethereum. And finally exchanging the Ether for Populous.

Populous Price and Trading

You now know that the ICO raised over $10 million. The Populous coin had the price range steadily at $2-$4 up from the ICO to November. From then the price rose steadily to hit an all-time high of $48.

The price of the coin shows the great potential that the young blockchain technology possesses.

Another token for Populous: PXT

The knowledge on the Populous tokens and coins is a bit more complicated. Populous uses three different tokens that are used differently. Each token though has its own unique features. You know the first two features: PPT and Poken. The third is the most recent – the PXT.

The PXT is a true cryptocurrency coin. The team is developing this coin. It will be used to buy data from the data market that will be launched soon. The data market on Populous will contain the XBRL data primarily. This data is valuable, and it means the companies like insurance companies, private equity firms, downstream companies, upstream companies and leading institution will require the access of the information. This is a valuable target market.

To access the data using the Populous Platform the clients will require PXT.

How to acquire PXT

The PXT coins are already minted waiting for deployment. An airdrop will acquire the $500 million coin at the right time. So, what is an airdrop? The airdrop will aim to give out tokens for free. And thus a strategy by the project to grow its client base.

Airdrops can either be a surprise or announced before. The airdrops apart from growing the client base, airdrops are also a great way to reward loyal customers. Be on the watch out for the PXT airdrop.

Populous Wallet

A wallet in blockchain technologies is a smart contract that enables a crypto investor to send, store or receives crypto tokens. The digital wallet is safe and secure.

For Populous the wallet is accessible only to the client who owns the wallet. To ensure this, the platform gives private keys. The clients key in the keys every time they want to use the wallet. The most popular wallet for Populous PPT is MyEtherWallet.

What is Invoice Financing?

Well, throughout the text we have talked of Invoice Financing. A quick review of invoice financing to ensure we understand better is what Populous seeks to do. Business enterprises especially the SMEs will at some point look for short-term capital. The most popular method used in this bid is invoice financing.

The mode is a B2B method of fund generation. Depending on the contracts set between the business and the investor the investor will receive money in cycles or at least 30 days.

What makes Populous stand out then in this case?

Well, this sounds like anything anyone can do. But apart from the XBRL and Altman Z score discussed above Populous possess a competitive advantage.

Here is how; as discussed earlier, the platform holds amounts bid by buyers in the Escrow accounts. After a successful bid, the winning buyer has his funds released while the losing buyers have their funds returned to their wallets. Thus both the winning and losing bidders do not feel shortchanged. Also, the invoice seller has a wide range of bids to pick from.

Featured Populous Analytics for Business

Image Credits: Populous

Populous is really wealthy in matters of data and information. Thus, the team accesses information and data for the sake of business Populous involves very powerful analytics. The calculations help Populous determine the business performance benchmarking, the health of the company and consumer trends.

The analysis helps the team to continually improve the systems to assure the clients of safe and secure services. Additionally, the analysis helps the team self-evaluate and make changes for the sake of the business. In connection to that, the team is regularly contracting professional to ensure the data and information acquired benefits the platform.

Competition to Populous

The Populous platform is a unique platform but where does the platform rank against competitors.

There are other startup invoice financing companies like Behalf and Fundbox. Both the companies have been longer in business since 2011 and 2013 respectively. Also, both the companies rasied more funds. They raised about $130 and $110 million respectively.

In the same sense, the ICOs saw the companies bag big investors like Sequoia Capital and Maverick Ventures and Jeff Bezos and Khosla Ventures respectively.

The above information means that Populous has giants for its competition and the team has to work smarter. To deliver good competition, Populous has to be outstanding.

Who is behind Populous?

The Populous team is an ambitious team. The team has the will and zeal to go against giants like Amazon and Paypal. Also, not forgetting other competitors like Behalf. Additionally, the team has skilled personnel to drive the mission. The unit comprises of;

1. Stephan William- Founder and CEO
2. Zvezdomir Zlatinov- Solidity Developer
3. Jonathan Millar- Advisor. He is a specialist in financial risk
4. John Morton- CTO
5. Jason Tuang- Financial consultant

The team is continually looking for the best way possible to further the vision. They are constantly looking to strike strategic deals for the sake of the business.

Populous Partnerships

Partnerships, especially with the right partners help push any venture to great heights. The partnerships are the business way of gaining from each other as you seek to grow. So, are there any populous partners?

Recently, Populous entered a deal with Tradespace. Who are Tradespace? Tradespace is an Indian based technology based invoice financing platform. The move to partner with Tradespace was strategic. The move allows Populous exploit the huge Indian market while benefitting from the knowledge of the market and industry by their partners.

Both ventures aim to accelerate the rate of businesses in invoice financing.

Soon, this will be a great partnership in the plan of the companies. The plan to challenge competition no matter how huge the competitor may seem. Besides, in increasing the market share, the Tradespace partnership will come in handy.

Another partnership is Cashaa. Cashaa is a payment method just like Paypal. And Populous aims to have faster payments globally with its collaboration with Cashaa.

This partnership makes the Cashaa wallet accessible by the Populous clients. The clients, therefore, can have their payment done from the Populous platform to the Cashaa wallet for easy access. Moreover, this partnership makes Populous accessible in Cashaa market that is in over 200 countries worldwide.

The Populous Road Map

The invention is in the beta stage still. In 2018, PPT lost a potential partnership that they had struck with Luxure Global Citizen, a luxury rewards company. The company terminated the partnership to launch its own crypto coin.

Thus, the Populous team still seeks to strike major partnerships with big investors to improve the ranking against the competitors. The partnerships will come a long way as the company aims to build its brand in invoice financing.

Also, the Populous team will be seeking to seek any loopholes and grey areas. So much so that they build high trust levels within the businesses and investors.

Populous Grey Areas

The PPT tokens are probably the single most grey area associated with Populous. The system is closely related to the MBS system. They are both asset-backed securities.

What that then means is the system depends on the ability of debtors to pay off their debts. The downfall of this system is that the business can go bankrupt. As there is evidence, there are not many businesses go on over 10 years.

The regulation of both the tokens is also quite unclear. The team should probably deal with the regulatory aspect.

Other Challenges to Populous

Competition is the primary challenge. However, there is another challenge facing the technology. Getting people to give up traditional invoice financing for blockchain invoice financing. Change may sound all cool, but change is not readily adopted.

Blockchain technology may be on the rise. But, not everyone is taking up the challenge. People often see blockchain operations as too complicated. However, using the Populous platform is quite straightforward. Getting people to the platform may be hard, but it is not mission impossible. With the right amount of incentives, the platform will have clients.

We will only wait to see how they work things out.

Final Thoughts

The peer-peer invoice finance blockchain is a young project. The visionary team has grand plans. But, the going will not be easy. With great competition and a team without the finest of the knowledge in blockchain, there will be extra hours to put the coin in the market.

However, the team has made strides towards achieving the vision. The most notable is the partnerships with Cashaa and Tradespace in the bid to improve the market share. Besides, the consistency of the coin has exposed the large potential there is for it.

Going forward, the team must seek to evaluate and find out the unclear spots and clarify. Keep seeking greater business partners to see the coin grow to its maximum potential.

Find more details on their website and follow their twitter.

*Disclaimer:  The article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice. Claims made in this article do not constitute investment advice and should not be taken as such. Do your own research!