Three UI alumni have spent the summer huddled over computers in a windowless basement office, working hard on a start-up product they’ll soon launch in hopes of earning a few cents at a time.
They’re not looking for your nickels and dimes, however. SuredBits plans on selling software packages that will allow independent developers to stream real-world, real-time data to their own websites in exchange for virtual cryptocurrency.
“We use crypto to make these small transactions possible, which they wouldn’t be through traditional online transactions,” said software engineer Nadav Kohen.
With data “calls” estimated to cost 5 to 10 cents a pop, SuredBits needs volume. The founders want many users employing their products intermittently every few minutes.
Kohen’s boss, Chris Stewart, conceived SuredBits months after graduating from UI in 2014 with degrees in math and computer science.
“At the time, I was reading a lot about Bitcoin and thought it was something I wanted to be involved in and thought it was going to be something pretty big, more than likely,” he said.
He was accepted to start-up accelerator Boost VC in early 2015 and received funding there before landing an investment from Draper Associates. Stewart worked solo on Bitcoin protocol until hiring Kohen and Dan Smith, product and operations, in early June.
Kohen graduated from the UI in May, a math and computer science double major like Stewart. He completed his undergrad in just two years.
Smith earned undergraduate and law degrees from UI, as well as an M.B.A. He has worked in policy, enterprise, and educational technology, among other areas, and said he uses his skills in his current position.
The team said they will launch their first product using live NFL and NBA data in just a few weeks.
“The sports API is an example of something that’s happening in the real world,” Stewart said. “It’s ongoing. People need updates on their websites about the event that’s happening.”
A free test product, the API (application programming interface) will not cost even the minuscule amount SuredBits intends to charge for later products. The trio seek proof of concept for now, not profit.
Once the kinks are worked out, they will start charging real money for other kinds of data. They have begun to work on financial-market data streams that should be available in not too long, Kohen said.
Stewart envisions SuredBits sitting between big stock market exchanges and small, independent developers.
“The New York Stock Exchange really doesn’t cater to smaller players like that,” he said. “You pay this amount up front per month whether you’re using it once or you’re using it 100,000 times. There’s no in-between.”
SuredBits plans on paying the hefty up-front fees itself. The company will make the cost up little by little as smaller developers pay as they go, based on how often they call up the data.
Stewart said the value of cryptocurrency is still very volatile. Most current cryptocurrency action is speculative, but his team sees benefits to conducting business that way.
Besides allowing for microtransactions, the three counted global validity, accessibility, privacy, and sovereignty among cryptocurrency’s advantages.