THEKEY publishes progress report for January to April

THEKEY, a blockchain-based identity verification technology (IDV) for secure digital identities, has published its progress report covering the months of January to April. The report highlighted the areas of the progress of THEKEY, including its numerous partnerships and proposals with other firms. These initiatives show that THEKEY is working towards becoming an accepted platform, as it moves from being a concept to being used in the real world.

As part of the report, Catherine Li, Chairwoman, and CEO of THEKEY gave an assessment of the token capital markets environment and the state of blockchain technology.

Li stated that the ICO market has grown without “any control or discipline, which unfortunately has allowed the widespread proliferation of frauds and scams.” She went on to say that the result of regulations in the space of ICOs has had a “dampening effect” on certain cryptocurrencies.

Regarding blockchain technology, Li stated that it is “still in its infancy stage,” and that it has a “long road ahead before it can be fully and securely commercialized with stability.” She also made some positive remarks about the blockchain in general, stating that it was “promising” that many teams like THEKEY are working towards the goal of stabilization of distributed ledger technology.

Finally, Li seems to be of the opinion that the ICO market will “shut for certain blockchain companies with limited or weak business models,” while the companies that have “resilient business models with solid revenue will survive and thrive.”

What THEKEY accomplished in the last three months

In the later part of the Medium post, Li outlined what THEKEY has accomplished since January.

THEKEY made a formal agreement with MRI Moores Rowland (LLP) MRI, January 8th, 2018. Moores Rowland is a leading international business consulting firm that specializes in assurance, advisory and compliance services, as well as audit, risk management, and corporate governance. MRI will conduct THEKEY’s end to end audits (from token to fiat) and will issue an audit report each fiscal year, comparing the budget against the financial compliance framework. Moores Rowland will also ascertain the correct rate and ascertain the calculations related to the TKY token (THEKEY’s platform currency) and all exchange rates. A final audit report for THEKEY’s token generation event held on the 15th of January can be read on the platform’s website.

THEKEY made another formal agreement with Pinsent Masons MPillay LLP (Pinsent), on January 11th, 2018. Pinsent Masons is a law firm with 24 offices across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Pinsent is advising THEKEY on issues related to legal structure and global compliance and regulation. Also, Pinsent is working with PricewaterhouseCoopers, another partner of THEKEY, on the development of a Code of Conduct.

As seen above, THEKEY is also entering a formal engagement with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which is one of the world’s “big four” accounting firms. PwC provides professional audit, assurance, and consulting services. PwC will work with THEKEY to develop its financial compliance framework, including the relevant rules and regulations to safeguard against and flag suspicious actions by fraud or any other illegal activity.

THEKEY entered what Li calls a “consortium agreement” with China Unicom and Tsinghua Unigroup for the commercialization and application of government data, February 12th, 2018. China Unicom is a world leading telecommunications firm with experience in data processing and the application and security of large scale management information systems, while the Tsinghua Unigroup is a computer chip and hardware manufacturer, and third largest mobile chip enterprise in the world.

Li claims that being able to work with China Unicom and the Tsinghua Unigroup will “greatly improve THEKEYs capability and proficiency in a variety of fields, including data processing, storage, security, cloud computing, operations, and, most importantly, its ability to achieve its commercial objectives.” With support from China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the consortium has started a pilot project in the commercialization of government data in Kaifeng, Jiaxing, and the Heilongjiang province in China. The consortium also intends to expand its work into other geographies around the world.

In March, THEKEY issued a Request for Proposal to Ogilvy & Mather and Burson-Marsteller, two world-leading public relations firms, and received “positive responses” from both companies. THEKEY is now evaluating the responses and will enter negotiations based on the terms and conditions. Li stated that she was “confident that a formal engagement will be signed soon with one of these world leading public relation firms.” The selected firm is expected to help THEKEY on its development and implementation of its overall public relations strategy.

THEKEY also made strides into the sphere of advisory and consulting, with its engagement with the Argon Group (Argon), an investment bank focused on digital finance and token-based capital markets. Argon will conduct a complete audit of THEKEY’s token generation event to ensure that its sale has been compliant and met its investor’s requirements.

Finally, Li stated that she was “very happy” with the progress of THEKEY over the last three months, in that what “(THEKEY) has proven to be correct and what we promised has been achieved,” forming a “solid foundation” for the sustainable development of the project.

To conclude her post, Li mentioned that she will hold a global “Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on THEKEY’s subreddit at 8:00pm Beijing time (8:00am. EST, 12:00pm. GMT) on April 20th. THEKEY welcome questions, comments, and suggestions from its community.