Charles Hoskinson, CEO of Cardano (ADA) developers IOHK, took to YouTube on July 25 for one of his regular ask-me-anything sessions.
Among a wide range of topics covered, Hoskinson gave details about the status of a number of tenders aimed at making inroads into Africa.
Can’t win ‘em all
Hoskinson admitted that IOHK had been underbid on its primary tender, to facilitate a fertilizer voucher scheme for farmers with Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Agency, or ATA. This was despite putting in what he felt was an incredibly low bid himself.
“It was crazy because we thought the contract would cost $500,000 to do. But I really wanted it so I bid $100,000, and somebody came in with like a $35,000 bid.”
Hoskinson felt that there was no way that the winning company could break even on such a low bid, speculating that there would be some renegotiation on the back end. This could potentially open the door for IOHK to later get involved as a subcontractor, he hoped.
A game of numbers
Hoskinson explained that the tendering process was a game of numbers, bidding on multiple contracts at the same time, and was confident that IOHK would win contracts in time.
“We’re also bidding on a telecommunications contract, and we’re bidding on a transportation contract, and there’s a few other things that we’re tendering just on the Ethiopian side. But we’re also looking at a pan-African view.”
He went on to say that eventually they would be servicing hundreds of deals per year, and each one would bring hundreds of thousands or millions of people into the Cardano ecosystem.
Partnership with telco in Tanzania
Hoskinson did announce a previously undisclosed deal with World Mobile in Tanzania. The company is working with 4G mesh networks and setting up micro ISPs.
IOHK has been working with World Mobile for some time, he said, and would be making an official announcement soon, but it had taken some time for the company to get the resources needed to deploy.
Cardano has been seeing impressive price action over the past few months, following the announcement and subsequent initiation of the “Shelley” upgrade.
