An Interview with Mihai Ivascu, Modex Founder and CEO: ‘We Offer the Tools and the Means for all Companies to Enrich their Software Products with Blockchain Benefits’

“We want to continuously develop new functionalities and increase product quality, to really make a difference on the market.”

The big buzz in disruptive technology for the last few years has been Bitcoin. This new currency holds the promise of lower transaction fees, easy person-to-person payments and even anonymity in the payments space.

But the real quantum shift, from a technology perspective, is blockchain. Blockchain is the underlying technology that allows Bitcoin to exist. While some people are still struggling to grasp the potential of blockchain, others have wholeheartedly embraced what the technology could mean for businesses, both large and small.

In light of the foregoing, we’re thrilled to present Modex.

Modex, the blockchain database company, innovates in order to solve the last mile adoption problem of the blockchain. The company offers services for the entire blockchain technology ecosystem: Marketplace for Smart Contracts, community tools for developers and, especially, our new main product blockchain Database solutions for enterprises.

Modex was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in London.

Mihai Ivascu, Modex Founder/CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

Modex was set up to accelerate the global adoption of blockchain technology, by bridging the gap between businesses building blockchain projects and developers of smart contracts. Now, the platform supports developers in the writing and deployment of smart contracts and offers a dynamic Decentralised Application (DApp) store to enable them to monetise and promote their work. Through Modex, developers can sell their smart contracts to thousands of businesses worldwide. A smart contract is a self-executing contract, with no trusted intermediary needed, as the terms between buyer and seller are written into lines of code. Blockchain is the open-source technology on which smart contracts are stored.

In 2019, Modex launches Modex BCDB, a new take on blockchain technology which removes the need to invest resources in blockchain training and facilitates the fast adoption of the technology in businesses. The solution proposed by Modex is a middleware that fuses a blockchain with a database to create a structure that is easy to use and understand by developers with no prior knowledge in blockchain development. As a result, any developer who knows how to work with a database system can operate with our solution, without needing to change their programming style or learn blockchain. Through our blockchain component, Modex BCDB is able to transform with minimal changes any type of database into a decentralized database which holds the same valuable characteristics inherent to blockchain technology: transparency, increased security, data immutability, and integrity.

There is nothing more important for a successful small business than a well-defined mission and vision statements. Can you explain your M&V statements in brief?

It was from the beginning of our DNA to make blockchain adoption easy for people or companies. Our road was about it. We planned from the start a major solution for blockchain adoption, a solution created for developers and enterprises. Modex Blockchain Database (BCDB) is today that solution. It was created by an experienced team of developers and brings many world firsts and unrivaled advantages for companies, offering cost-cutting, data security, and time efficiency. While blockchain can solve a number of complicated issues related to security, auditability, and immutability, long development timelines and large consulting fees have remained major barriers to blockchain adoption. By simplifying the way enterprises can deploy blockchain technology, Modex BCDB enables enterprises to get up and running with blockchain projects in days instead of months, and at a price point that small and mid-level enterprises can afford.

What kind of responses have you received from your consumers over the years? How have they motivated you to shape your offerings/grow the company?

Our offer and business strategy are very much aligned with the current market demand, but it also responds to the needs of a growing market that accordingly to the latest stats will grow from $2.9 billion in 2019 to $13.2 billion in 2024.

Indeed, we are currently dealing with mixed feedback especially because enterprise blockchain market is relatively new and our sales/marketing team is then built to sell and explain the benefits to potential customers. That being said, our overall strategy our official strategy is not only to sell but also to literate. Many customers already understand blockchain technology, but the key is to explain to them its benefits and the benefits of our product in relation to this technology. Another important feedback is regarding using an open-source product. Some competitors have decided to go open source. We didn’t do so because open source products do not enjoy growth and refinement like commercial ones. The customer support process demands resources, unlike open-source, where developments are made by unknown lenders, and the product’s growth and quality is dependent on the community’s willingness to write code. We want to continuously develop new functionalities and increase product quality, to really make a difference on the market.

How do you and your company contribute to the competitive global IT platform at large?

We offer the tools and the means for all IT companies to enrich their software products with blockchain benefits. We are a tool to increase software/data benefits for software vendors. When analyzed more closely, the enterprise sphere is composed of a myriad of companies that may seem similar from a business perspective, but differ greatly in their approach and underlying strategy. In order to be able to answer the needs of a broader spectrum of businesses and companies, Modex BCDB was designed with an agnostic approach to database and blockchain. Each company has different needs, and with Modex BCDB, we deliver solutions based on the specificity of each enterprise.

Do you have any new products ready to be launched?

We’ve just launched Modex BCDB product. It was a huge work; in developing the product, in finding the world’s new features for this product, and in testing the product.

Moreover, yes, we’re developing new projects, but the work of our research department is strictly secret.

Where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

As a software company for the blockchain market, we are one of the first pioneers. Our goal is to be the first unicorn from the blockchain ecosystem, but we need time, maybe a few years in order to reach this goal. The market is opening for blockchain more and more, and in a few years the adoption process will be on daily basis. I hope that Modex will be the first unicorn provided to the world by blockchain market.

“Each company has different needs, and with Modex BCDB, we deliver solutions based on the specificity of each enterprise.”