Mytracknet – the Blockchain in the Service of a Real Problem

Dimitris Moschos, Founder of Mytracknet about finding lost valuables using blockchain technology.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Dimitris Moschos: Fortunately, we are all well, thank you for asking! However, I am one of those who passed COVID-19, luckily developing only a few minor symptoms. I am very grateful that my family is also healthy during these difficult times for all.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Mytracknet.

Dimitris Moschos: I was born and raised in Greece. I am 32 years old and recently finished my Medical Studies. I founded Mytracknet a few years ago whilst I was abroad for studies. The idea came to me when I lost my dog, Chocho, and woke up to the fact that the means to seek her were insufficient. Luckily, she returned home safely by herself, waving her tail happily! As you can imagine, I was extremely relieved, but at that moment, I knew that I had to do something about it so that this does not happen again, not only to me but to no one.

Then, I started looking for the optimal way to ensure the future security of my beloved pet, only to realize that non of the available choices were a good fit for what I had in mind. 

The most suggested solutions were:

1. The GPS trackers but they need a lot of attention to maintenance like monthly subscriptions and every few days charging. Failure to address any of the above will turn the GPS tracker unable to function and will give a false sense of security which can lead to disaster.

2. Locating your pet using Bluetooth trackers: small, lightweight devices, with incredible battery life and no subscriptions required, ready to provide a 6-12 months operation. The concept was incredibly inspiring! Your smart device (all modern devices feature Bluetooth technology) can monitor the signal strength of the BT tracking device, and when the tracker is getting a few meters away, you receive an alarming notification. In case of big troubles, a whole new amazing concept is there! The smartphones of every single user around you are automatically looking for a signal from your lost tracker. The one and only requirement for this concept to work flawlessly is a dense network of people. Something that the current Bluetooth tracking industry had yet to address.

How does Mytracknet innovate? 

Dimitris Moschos: Mario Quintana said, “Don’t wait for someone to bring you flowers. Plant your own garden!” so the “somebody who needs to create this ASAP” turned out to be me, trying to unite many different groups of people under a helpful lost and found network named Mytracknet. So I started thinking of ways that I can incentivize people to join the network. We have many groups and subgroups of people involved in our effort to create a dense network; I’ll try to analyze the biggest ones and the ways we are trying to approach them. 

 The basic groups are

(a)people who love to help others which, interestingly enough, is very addictive, so we need no more incentives than a platform that anybody can have a daily dose of the helper’s high effect.

(b)people who are not that eager to help. This is the biggest group of people and also the first group we need to approach if we want a dense network. For them, we designed a reward mechanism that gives incentives to users in the form of reward points developed in Blockchain or in the form of cryptocurrency tokens as our fellow bitcoiners are calling them – Mytracknet token – $mTNT. Those reward points can be exchanged with discounts and gifts from our partners and us, creating gamification of a cashback system. Also, if someone is familiar with the blockchain world, they can exchange them for other cryptocurrencies or FIAT money. 

(c)People who are using Bluetooth trackers. In this category, the very first step we took was to be the only platform that makes a unified Network for every Bluetooth tracker, no matter the brand. This way, we are creating a multiple times denser network than any other proprietary solution even before we give them the support of every other target group that we are bringing into the game.

(d)People who lost something without a tracking device. Usually, those people are trying to find support by printing fliers and by posting on different social media groups. What we do here to help those people and to give them a reason to join us and help others in their turn, too, is to give them the tools to increase the chances to recover their loved ones. Users now can post their lost pets (and thanks to our partnership with the silver alert organization, even lost people), and every user who is in the area of interest will know about their emergency. Here comes the reward system again in the service of the people who need help, since the users who open this notification will get reward points – mytracknet tokens. 

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Dimitris Moschos: Covid-19 caused us a serious delay in the pilot launch in Greece since the Mtn Reward System requires the user’s active participation. As you know, lockdowns prohibit shifts to the maximum degree and urge people to stay at home. So, as long as the quarantine measures are so strict, we are forced to delay the launch. Safety comes first!

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Dimitris Moschos: The most difficult decision I had to take is the delay of the pilot launch, the validator. I, my team, and the supporters of Mytracknet were ready to move forward after all this hard work, and we were so excited about it, but It would be at the wrong time. On the bright side, we took advantage of this extra time by investing in partnering up with two very well known multinational companies, thus start our pilot program on much better terms. So I guess the lesson is to trust the process and make the best of it!

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Dimitris Moschos: Our revenue model is not based on selling trackers like other Bluetooth tracking companies, neither by making money from the cryptocurrencies like other companies in the Blockchain world. Instead of seeing direct competitors, we see indirect partners – such as the companies who are selling Bluetooth trackers that people can use in our platform and cashback providers that will enrich our network of partners and have a win-win situation for everybody.

Your website?

https://mytracknet.com