Some time back, we published an article about SpringRole- A Blockchain Technology based recruiting startup which has the potential to replace Linkedin. We had some questions in mind and wanted to clear it out , so we contacted, Kartik Mandaville, the founder and CEO of SpringRole to answer all our queries.
KM:Tell us something about yourself. When exactly did you get into blockchain space?
Kartik Mandaville: Aside from being CEO of SpringRole, I’m also the Technical Advisor for Science Blockchain, and an advisor for a number of Science companies. I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014 with an MS in Computer Science, and earned my bachelor’s at MIT, Manipal prior to that. My first foray into the blockchain space was in 2013, when I built a crypto exchange.
KM: How did you came to the name “SpringRole” which is in no way connected to Blockchain? What is the story behind it?
Kartik Mandaville: SpringRole is derived from two words – Spring, which means a fresh look or a new beginning, and Role, as in job role. Since the primary aim of the company and product is to aid in hiring processes, the name represents our purpose well.
KM: How will SpringRole function and what exact problem is SpringRole trying to solve that we come across on LinkedIn?
Kartik Mandaville: SpringRole is a one-of-a-kind platform for professional profiles. It is the first professional reputation network to be powered by artificial intelligence and blockchain to eliminate fraud from user profiles.
When a user signs up and adds credentials to his profile, the information goes through a one-time verification, and is attested on the blockchain. This means that the information entered on a profile cannot be altered after verification, leading to a highly authentic profile; this negates the need for new employers to spend time, money and effort in verifying profiles of candidates.
The skills that are added by user can be endorsed by others, and this builds the skill reputation of the user. These skill endorsements are weighted according to the skill level of the endorser, and need to be accepted by the sender and receiver before they are made permanent. These endorsements have a small cost associated with them, making endorsements more meaningful. Through smart contracts, endorsers are rewarded when people they’ve endorsed get hired or paid.
The problem that SpringRole is trying to solve is primarily that of verification of profiles and resumes. Currently, employers need to spend a significant amount of time, effort and money verifying the profiles of every new employee they hire. With SpringRole, since the profiles are already verified and attested, employers save their resources. At the same time, on SpringRole profiles, endorsements mean a lot more since they are weighted. All of this leads to a more authentic and genuine professional profile of an individual.
KM: Is your product live now?
Kartik Mandaville: While the full product is not live, our beta is currently public – you can reserve your vanity URL right now at http://beta.springrole.com
KM: Will SpringRole team reach out personally to each and every entity/organisation for verification? Isn’t it a long process and what if entities/organisations are hard to reach?
Kartik Mandaville: The idea is that users will reach out to the concerned entities on our behalf. We will also have a feature of soft attestation, which means that five of the user’s colleagues at an organisation can attest to the fact that the user works at that particular organisation, which would reduce the effort required in attestation as well.
KM: Explain “Attestation”.
Kartik Mandaville: When a user enters some data on his profile, that data is going to be verified from the source. For example, if a user enters that he graduated from a particular college, that college is contacted and that data is verified. Once the verification is done, it is attested. By “attestation” we mean that we write that verification on to the blockchain ledger. Data on the blockchain is tamper-proof and secure; it cannot be modified or altered by anyone. This lends itself to a highly secure and authentic professional profile.
KM: We got to know that SpringRole is coming up with an ICO. When exactly are you planning it out?
Kartik Mandaville: We have no comments about that for now.
KM: Explain the economics of your token.
Kartik Mandaville: There are 10 billion total SpringRole Tokens, and these are locked as follows:
20% on completion of the sale, 20% after one year of completion of the sale or the date of award (whichever is earlier), and the remaining 60% are to be distributed every month for the following one year.
The user would pay a certain number of tokens for endorsement or attestation, and these would get locked up for a certain period of time, as voted for by the community; these will, however, be available for new user onboarding.
There are a fixed number of tokens, and the protocol is completely rent free. The cost to do the simplest unit of utility is 1 token.
The 10B tokens are distributed as follows: 10% for contributors and advisors, 25% for the team and founders, 30% for market development, and 35% for the sale.
KM: What is the your roadmap for the year 2018?
Kartik Mandaville:
| Q1 2018 | Public Profile, Attestation Framework & Endorsement System |
| Q2 2018 | Directory Listing, Search, Work Attestation, Job Board and Scoring |
| Q3 2018 | Freelancer Network & Graph Search |
| Q4 2018 | API System & announcement of further roadmap. |
Well, that was from our side. If you have any further queries/questions related to SpringRole, let us know in the comments section and we shall reach out again to Kartik.
In case you have missed the previous article about SpringRole, here it is: What is SpringRole?
Also, Team KryptoMoney is looking for more startups in India working around Blockchain Technology. If you are or you know anyone working on any blockchain startups, let us know in the comments section.
KryptoMoney.com publishes latest news and updates about Bitcoin, Blockchain Technology , Cryptocurrencies and upcoming ICO’s.
Rohit Kukreja is a Commerce graduate with Financial Markets expertise involving Stocks, Forex, Futures & Options Market and now Bitcoins & Cryptocurrency Markets. Blockchain Enthusiast but not a techie, Rohit is an active member of various Blockchain & Crypto communities all over India.
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