The Inclusive Innovation Challenge is MIT’s premier future of work prize, awarding $1.6 million annually to entrepreneurs using technology to create economic opportunity for workers. The international team selects and celebrates sixty Regional Finalists from 5 regions around the world.

Siglo Network is participating in the technology access category — one of four categories in this year’s challenge. The first nodes are launching this autumn, allowing local communities to build and host the next generation ISP for Latin America. Today, fast home internet is a luxury in Latin America. This digital poverty leads to financial exclusion.

The next wave of internet applications require blazing fast broadband for entertainment, education, and safety, but the current ISPs in Latin America use legacy infrastructure, outdated systems, and antiquated business models. Siglo Network is a decentralized ISP for and by the people. Members of the community can host Siglo Edge Nodes (SENs) that bring gigabit connectivity into their neighborhoods.

In addition to providing blazing fast broadband to homes, the Siglo Network will allow mobile workers to learn new skill sets and earn significant income. Siglo Network is already accepting applications for the following teams:

• Grow: Team in charge of building the community
• Host: Individuals who host a Siglo Edge Node in their home
• Techie: Team in charge of building the network with switches and wireless links
• Helper: Team in charge of resolving community questions
• Collector: Team in charge of moving cash for tokens

The Siglo ecosystem launched 2 years ago and includes a series of apps that allow individuals to earn tokens by completing microtasks. Tokens are exchangeable for prepaid services — like phone credit. There are over 1M registered users in Mexico and another 400K in Colombia! The Siglo team decided to launch an ISP called Siglo Network when they realized that most of their users didn’t have an affordable and fast home internet connection. According to Speedtests of Siglo users, most middle class families are paying $25 USD a month for less than 12 Mbps.

Joel Phillips, founder of Siglo Network, said, “It’s an incredible opportunity to participate in the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge. Our userbase is comprised of over 1 million young people searching for opportunity through digital programs. We’re thrilled to tell the MIT community about how digital inclusion can provide jobs across Latin America.”

Siglo is a regional finalist in MIT’s Inclusive Innovation Challenge was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Time for an update:

• Siglo is launching a decentralized ISP, an internet service provider, called Siglo Network.
• The internet bandwidth business is ripe for disruption in emerging markets. The existing Siglo user-base will drive the ownership, growth, and maintenance of Siglo’s decentralized network.
• Announcing the Siglo Edge Nodes (SENs)! This hardware is installed on a neighborhood block with a Siglo entrepreneur (Host). The SEN becomes the community distribution point for fast, cheap, and better internet. Of course, Hosts earn Siglo tokens for every home connected to their node.
• We are launching our first pilot this fall in Mexico City! We’re talking with government and investors in other markets for additional pilots in South America and Asia.

We’ve always believed in democratizing access to the internet in emerging markets. Our modus operandi has been: how can we get more people connected to better internet? One of the largest barriers has always been an economic one. So, we started subsidizing access cost to local mobile operators using brand dollars and monetizing customer insights. To date, we’ve distributed over $600,000 USD in mobile credit to Siglo ecosystem participants. But something was missing. Internet was still expensive and painfully slow for the mass market in Latin America.

We have decided to take this to the next level. If we want to provide faster, better internet at a cheaper price, we’re going to build our own distributed internet infrastructure.

What will this look like? In typical Siglo style: a token for access; a distributed, community workforce and ownership element; a non-tradition financial access platform that would allow unbanked users to participate and pay their bills; and, of course, FAST internet at a price anyone can AFFORD.

The problem in many emerging economies, like Mexico, is that fast, reliable internet is for rich people. Siglo believes fast internet is for everyone. Let’s break down the inequality of access and give a fast connection to everyone.

Siglo users can participate as neighborhood block “Hosts” for Siglo Edge Nodes (SENs). They become the access point for everyone else on their block. Other users can get trained and certified as “Techies” and help to install and maintain wifi access points in homes. If users refer their friends and neighbors, they earn even more. We believe this is a model that makes sense because the community itself actively participates and earns. And, it’s very scalable.

More to come soon, but we wanted to keep you informed of all that’s going on with Siglo!

Siglo Network: Internet for & by the People was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

These tokens can be sent to other Siglo wallets, and the Siglo team is supporting the exchange of tokens for prepaid cellphone credit. Yesterday we ran tests with several thousand beta users, and we sent top-ups to all mobile operators in Mexico and Colombia.

At the TGE, each token on the testnet will be replaced with a token on the mainnet, and at that time you will be able to export to external wallets.

Siglo bounty tokens have been distributed on the testnet was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

• viewing content: 22,000 users
• answering surveys: 8,000 users
• uploading photos as proof of consumption: 1000 users
• uploading photos as proof of purchase: 1000 users

Since November, Pig.gi users can purchase Siglo Tokens (on the testnet) with Pig.gi Coins (off-chain) in special presales. The first early presale was at 3 Pig.gi coins per Siglo. The second presale of Siglo Tokens for Pig.gi Coins will start on Tuesday, 26 February 2019, and end Thursday, 28 February 2019, at 5 Pig.gi Coins per Siglo.

AMA on Pig.gi’s Facebook Live & 2nd Siglo Presale for Pig.gi Users was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Here’s how:

1. Download Siglo Wallet for Android. There’s an iOS version being distributed on a dev license, and a web wallet will be released soon.
2. Create an account
3. Click on “Bounty”
4. In the upper right hand corner, click “1st phase participant”
5. Verify your ETH address by following these instructions: send 0 ETH to the address indicated, and add the data for transaction. To add data, go into the advanced section of your ETH wallet depending on which wallet you have.
6. We will contact you via email using the address you used to create your Siglo wallet regarding your deposit.

You have until March 5, 2019, to claim your tokens from the first phase.

Remember: these are tokens on the testnet, and they will be replaced on a one-for-one basis with tokens on the mainnet at the time of the token generation event.

How to get your Siglo tokens from the 1st Phase of the Bounty was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A few important updates this month:

• New Siglo bounties available through the Pig.gi App allow users to upload anonymized consumption and behavioral data. This January consumers have uploaded thousands of photos of consumption and of receipts in exchange for coins.
• Siglo app users are answering 500,000 questions a month in exchange for coins and are being rewarded to share anonymized data regarding their media preferences.
• More than 10,000 wallets have been created on the Siglo testnet. Early this month, beta users tested top-ups with all of the mobile operators in Mexico and Colombia.
• Bounties from the first phase of the Siglo Bounty program that ended in autumn 2018 will be able to claim their tokens with the smart contract that will be available on February 4, 2019. The tokens will be distributed to the Siglo Wallet that is registered in the smart contract from your ETH address. The tokens are on the testnet, and will be exchangeable on a 1-for-1 basis for tokens on the mainnet at the TGE. The Siglo wallet is available on Android. The iOS is currently being distributed on a dev license.
• Last week, Joel and Isaac were invited to Davos to participate in several investor events that took place alongside the WEF. A big thanks to our investor Lan who hosted us in her chalet and organized several delicious dinners and to Digital Davos for inviting us to participate in their panels.

January Recap was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

More than 6,000 Android wallets have been created on the Siglo testnet and 16 million Siglo tokens have been sold and distributed in the first week!

Siglo tokens are being offered in a presale on the Pig.gi App! Users pay with their off-chain Pig.gi Coins, which have been earned with attention, opinions, and challenges. We’re thrilled with the results and the growing community’s participation. The Spanish Siglo and Pig.gi Telegram channels are buzzing if you want to join in the conversation.

Last month the Siglo & Pig.gi bounty hunters contributions accelerated:

• 500,000 questions answered in surveys
• 22 million real time media points

These data panels are anonymized and will be offered to brands as insights and training data for machine learning algorithms. This month we’re starting new bounties where users report about products they like to use and buy, adding more value to the Siglo Ecosystem. This is quickly becoming one of the largest consumer datasets in Latin America, and the monetization will be distributed to the contributors, as a sustainable and responsible model for big data for the rest of the world.

16 million Siglos distributed in presale to Pig.gi users was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Navidad está a la vuelta de la esquina pero tenemos unas semanas muy ocupadas a medida que nos acercamos al lanzamiento oficial de la Red de Siglo. Es un proceso que tiene varios pasos y ya hay partes de la Red Siglo que están funcionando sobre el espacio de prueba Ropsten, como la fase beta de Siglo Wallet. Otras partes del ecosistema están off-chain (o fuera de la cadena de bloques) como la app de Pig.gi hasta su migración en 2019.

Construir el ecosistema de Siglo involucra a muchos actores:

• Usuarios de nuestras Apps, que están principalmente en México y Colombia, ganan tokens a cambio de compartir opiniones y de interactuar con las plataformas. En las últimas 3 semanas nuestros usuarios han contestado más de 300,000 preguntas. 😮😮
• El equipo de Siglo ha estado hablando con compañías globales sobre cómo las predicciones anonimizadas pueden proveer soluciones para plataformas y marcas.

En las siguientes semanas vamos a hacer más actualizaciones:

• Siglo Wallet para Android va a ser actualizado la última semana de noviembre y tendrá más funcionalidades
• La app web para Siglo Wallet se lanzará la última semana de noviembre y correrá en los navegadores
• Las instrucciones para las fases siguientes del programa de Bounty serán publicadas la última semana de noviembre. Este bounty incluirá una funcionalidad en versión de prueba para recolectar data anonimizada que será útil para marcas
• En diciembre se lanzarán promociones especiales para usuarios en México y Colombia para comprar recargas con su Siglo token en la App beta

Sabemos que tienen preguntas, entonces vamos a hacer un AMA — Ask Me Anything (pregúntanos lo que quieras) el martes, 27 de noviembre a las 15:00 horas, tiempo de México, en el canal de Telegram en español.

Código de promoción: NAVIDADCONSIGLO

English Translation

Christmas may be around the corner, but we have a busy few weeks as we get closer to the official launch of the Siglo network. This is a step-by-step process, and parts of the network are already working on the Ropsten testnet — like the beta of Siglo Wallet. Other parts of the ecosystem are currently running off-chain — like the Pig.gi App until it migrates to Siglo in 2019.

Building the Siglo ecosystem involves a lot of stakeholders:

• Users of our apps, mostly in Mexico and Colombia, earn tokens in exchange for sharing their opinions and engagement. Over the last 3 weeks, our users have answered over 300,000 questions.
• The Siglo team has been telling global companies about Siglo, and how the anonymized insights can provide solutions for platforms and brands.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be doing more updates:

• The Siglo Wallet app for Android will be updated next week with more functionality
• We’ll be launching a Siglo Wallet web app that will run in browsers next week
• The guidelines for the next phase of bounty program will be published next week. This bounty will include testing functionality of collecting anonymized data that will be useful for brands.
• In December, there will be special promotions for users in Mexico and Colombia to purchase top-ups with their Siglo tokens in the beta app

We know you have questions, so we’ll be doing an AMA on Tuesday, November 27 at 3pm (Mexico) in the Spanish Telegram channel.

Únete al AMA y entérate de los nuevos lanzamientos de Siglo was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Siglo Wallet is live with thousands of beta testers, mostly in Mexico and Colombia. Beta is an important word: the wallet is running on the Ropsten testnet. Some beta users have been issued Pre-Tokens, and they will be convertible 1-for-1 for Siglo tokens after the TGE.

If you are a non US resident and have Android phone, you can download it here. We’ll be adding new functionality in the coming weeks for Android, and an iOS app is in private beta. If you want to join the iOS beta, email dev@siglo.com.

We are getting closer to the public release of our protocol. This year has been a hell of a ride so far, but fighting for digital and financial inclusion isn’t a piece of cake. While we don’t have an exact date for the token generation event (TGE), we want to be transparent and share with you our schedule. Thanks for all your support and patience.

…So when will I get my Siglo tokens?

• Private sale participants: You’ll receive the tokens at the TGE.
• Pig.gi users: In December, Pig.gi users in Mexico and Colombia will be able to purchase Siglo tokens in a special presale price! These Pig.gi users are our earliest supports, and will be the first user base to adopt the Siglo wallet. The price per Siglo is 3 Pig.gi Coins. Read more here.
• Advisors & Siglo Family Tour: Advisors, ambassadors, and people who hosted us with the Siglo Family Tour will be issued their tokens at the TGE. If you want to start using Siglo on the testnet beforehand, email token@siglo.com and let us know your Siglo Wallet address.
• Bounty hunters: The first phase of the bounty program on Bitcointalk ended in September, and these tokens will be issued to the Siglo wallet in December. Bounty hunters will have to confirm their Siglo wallet address using the Ethereum wallet with which they registered for the bounty program. Once the smart contract to confirm your Siglo address is ready, we’ll post here and in our Telegram channels. The second phase of the bounty program will be announced next week on our Telegram channels (English & Spanish).
• Brands: Facilitators are signing contracts with brands to create campaigns that will utilize the Siglo protocol. Selected partner brands will be airdropped tokens to experiment on Siglo. If you are a global brand and are interested in consumer insights in emerging markets, please email brands@siglo.com.

When will my Siglo tokens be distributed? was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Born and raised in Mexico, Alix is a user experience expert in every sense of the word. Alix worked for years at Claro Media, the division of America Movil that operates digital media platforms. America Movil is the largest telco in LatAm. Alix also worked with the founding team of Aldea Digital, an initiative focused on reducing the digital divide that takes place annually at the Zocalo (central square) of Mexico City, where more than 250,000 people come for educational content about how to use the internet for the first time and how to use the mobile internet for business and personal productivity.

Alix joined the Siglo team in 2016 where she brought her experience to lead UX/UI and user acquisition. Clear-minded and fearless in trying new flows to make users’ experience with apps better and easier, Alix keeps meticulous spreadsheets to track 1 day, 7 day, 30 day, and 90 day churn for different cohorts. She has been in the frontline of building the Siglo wallet, does blockchain/cryptocurrency education for our userbase, and runs the beta program for the Siglo wallet.

She is closely involved in design, making sure that the users will face a friendly interface for the mobile-only userbase in emerging markets. Her passion for optimizing flows and building impact products that will decrease the financial inclusion gap puts her on the vanguard of thought leaders with experience in UX for the unbanked. Alix is an essential part of the Siglo team, keep on reading to find out more about her thoughts on what makes a good UX, why is blockchain education is important, and the impact of Siglo in people’s lives. See this article on UX in the blockchain world that she wrote recently.

What is the key to understanding users needs and meet them with a good result?

Listening to and understanding the user.

In our experience, we listen to the user, identify their needs in different contexts and scenarios, and build proposals that can improve their experience. We facilitate usability by eliminating the barriers, questions, and “obstacles. The goal is to improve retention and engagement rate, increasing the user interaction with our product’s interface. It’s about making sure the user can complete an action simpler and faster.

Don’t build the UX/UI if you don’t consider the users’ ideas. Think and act as a user. Put yourself in their shoes, so you build a relevant experience.

What is needed to include the most vulnerable population to the the blockchain world and cryptocurrencies?

The biggest challenge we face is how to introduce new users to the blockchain world, and it all starts with design. We create content with the Pig.gi users in mind. We familiarize ourselves with their lifestyle and language to avoid falling a language that’s too technical.

Blockchain is a new technology, and it’s important to have a foundation about how the internet works first: connectivity, browsers, apps, etc. We start from these foundational concepts. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to present and explain the concepts, and about the words we use inside the app. It’s a whole an internal communication strategy. Design should build trust and intuitively guide the user through making a transaction. The objective is not just inform them, but empower them through information so they are capable of making decisions. We want our users to have a clear overview of blockchain technology. We measure adoption and rentention careful to measure success of each communication strategy.

In terms of cryptocurrencies, the potential market is very big, according to the Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study of 2017 just 0.05% of the world population owns any cryptocurrencies. We reduce the learning curve through transparency of information management and education. We’ve build content libraries of CryptoTrends and Internet Basics for our users where we introduce them to subjects and concepts in friendly and easy way.

When you are creating an experience for a brand, how do you achieve balance between what the client’s objective and what the user wants to see?

Thanks to all the opportunities we’ve had showing users content in their lockscreens, we know what they like to read and see and the rate of interest that we get from every content we put.

On the brand side, we also know what works best to create more interaction and conversion.

Knowing the needs and expectations of both parties we can establish an equilibrium, achieving a good practice that meets the objectives.

How has the User Experience evolved in the digital world?

With time, we’ve seen that products become more and more personalized. From Henry Ford’s one-size-fits-all black T-Model to a world where our Starbucks frappe is personalized.

Every industry, especially digital products, needs to learn from users to optimize processes and flows. We try to optimize at time to complete a task, steps to complete a task, texts, graphics, and even white spaces! This represent the solution to daily problems increasing the usability through user interaction. It generates a positive perception and satisfaction thus increases the conversion rate.

Technology helps us understand the user’s profile, so we can personalize flows depending on user behavior.

• Who is visiting my site?
• How is (s)he looking for my product? Customize ads and campaigns according to specific audiences.
• What call-to-action work best for “X” audience? Machine learning can find the content that interests me more — like Netflix’s recommendation engine.
• What products or services can we suggest to this user that likes “Y”? Just like Amazon.

All of these questions come up as we watch and listen to our users. The beginning is very functional, “we need a site to sell t-shirts” without thinking: do we need a site in english and spanish? Do we add pictures of all the sizes? Should we have different forms of payments? Do we add a description of the cause/company?

How will users benefit from Blockchain technology?

According to the The Global Index Database of 2017, 1.7 billion people are unbanked and one third of them have a mobile phone. This indicates that people have a better chance to get a mobile phone than a bank account. And a third of existing bank accounts are inactive. These shows that there is an opportunity to develop products and technologies that allow financial inclusion.

Because of this, I think is very important that our users are informed about new technologies, like blockchain, and the benefits of using it.

Some of the benefits are:

• Access to a free virtual wallet
• Trade tokens to buy or send airtime top-ups, one of the products with higher demand in emerging markets
• Protection of personal information
• Transaction transparency
• Siglo Tokens as a reward for sharing information in a secure and controlled way with the applications that use Siglo protocol

Do you think that Siglo will have a positive impact in people’s lives? Who and how is the impact going to be?

Siglo is the best option for people that are interested in controlling their personal information and monetizing anonymized information. It’s an inclusive environment designed for usability and first time crypto use.

Let’s not only think about users, also in our partners, who are all the DApp developers that are interested in using Siglo Token to reward their users. And the brands who will have access to real time information to optimize their products through a loyalty program for their customers.

Our main objective is protect the users internet connectivity through blockchain technology. Brands will be able to make more targeted campaigns, while rewarding the user for sharing their opinion.

Meet Siglo UX/UI expert, Alix Gallardo was originally published in Siglo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.