Interview with Fabiano Izzo, CEO of AstraKode

Interview with Fabiano Izzo, CEO of AstraKode, whose main product, AstraKode Blockchain, is a blockchain enterprise development platform.

Each of us will have heard at least once in our lives the word “blockchain”. In the face of a large scale of people who could not explain the meaning of it, there is another who would know how to do it but inevitably faces difficulties because of the complexity of the subject and the lack of documentation in this regard. This underlying “ignorance” is making the large-scale adoption of the blockchain increasingly complicated, with the inevitable consequence of a delay in the digital transformation of the business. 

AstraKode was created to overcome this problem, simplifying the development of blockchain solutions for companies. How? AstraKode Blockchain provides low-code tools to simplify the development of an enterprise blockchain solution. 

Tools for AstraKode Blockchain

Network Composer: a visual environment for the realization of customized blockchain enterprise networks.

Smart Contract IDE: visual environment for smart contract development.

Cloud Deployment: an actual testing and integration space to implement and manage blockchain and smart contract networks in total security, thanks to the main international providers of cloud services.

Why rely on the AstraKode platform? 

Using the AstraKode Blockchain platform means optimizing the development processes of your blockchain networks, through a safe, efficient and intuitive system. The features that make AstraKode Blockchain a unique platform are: 

• native compatibility with the most popular blockchains in the world;
• speed and ease of use in the design and development of blockchain enterprise solutions;
• design, development and distribution within a single platform;
• low-code development environment;
• active community and documentation always available.

How does it work

This is a sample scheme of the creation process of blockchain and smart contract solutions through AstraKode Blockchain.

If you want to know more, check the roadmap on the website: https://www.astrakode.tech/ and continue reading this article. Right below you can find the interview with Fabiano Izzo, CEO of AstraKode.

Hello Fabiano, nice to meet you and thank you for your time. AstraKode: tell us this fantastic story

Hello and thank you so much for the space dedicated to us! To explain how AstraKode’s story began, we need to go back a few years, because even if AstraKode as a company was born recently, its origins have deeper roots. It all started when Lucio and I, a few years ago, got to know Damiano in our previous experience of Startup and, after becoming good friends as well as good colleagues in the workplace, we started to get passionate about the topic of blockchain.

For us it was like a kind of love at first sight, because we were dealing with enterprise solutions in the IT field and immediately had the feeling of being faced with something that would have turned the tables in our industry. So we started to gather information, to understand what we could do to combine our experience with this new passion, in order to create something new and original. From this research we found out that the kind of approach we used, and that we are still using in our work, therefore the low-code approach, had never been applied by anyone in blockchain enterprise solutions’ development, and we thought it was the right opportunity for us to get ahead of the market and beat the competition.

How and when was the idea of AstraKode born?

During our last Startup experience, we encountered several companies that had difficulties in blockchain enterprise solutions’ development. These difficulties, which we had personally experienced, were often linked to the lack of documentation and the complex technological stack involved. This experience led us to think about the creation of an instrument that could, on the one hand, respond to these difficulties, and on the other hand simplify the development process. Not only that, we have studied a tool that also allows the rapid development of prototypes (blockchain solutions rapid prototyping) which is very important for the adoption of an agile approach to solutions, allowing an experimental and iterative development and limiting project failures.

How long did it take to shape the project? 

It was an exciting process that started more or less around September/October 2019, when we started to imagine the interface for composing a Blockchain Network. Then we started specific studies to deepen the first blockchain technology on which the platform is currently based: Hyperledger Fabric. This led us to a consolidation of our idea and thanks to some acceleration programs, we got to launch the first and only actual product (AstraKode Blockchain) in late December 2020 in its Alpha version.

But we have a very challenging roadmap to follow ahead of us, the platform has not yet reached its full potential. In fact, we are working on adding some features that will help to make the service offered by AstraKode Blockchain in line with enterprise standards.

Who is AstraKode targeting? How is the market responding?

AstraKode is aimed primarily at all companies that want to develop, for their own needs or for third parties, a blockchain enterprise solution. Through the use of AstraKode Blockchain, they will not necessarily need special technical expertise in the development of blockchain solutions and, as a result, they will not have to look for new specialised personnel or seek outside specialised companies to develop their solution. In fact, our platform, thanks to its low-code development environment, simplifies and makes more accessible to all interfacing with the various blockchain technologies. Even if our main target are companies, this does not take away the possibility for any freelance developers to take advantage of the platform for the development of their projects. Fortunately the market is showing some interest in our project, and this, in addition to rewarding us, gives us great motivation to continue to improve the functionality of the platform.

In addition, thanks to the number of users who take advantage of the free perimeter of the platform, we started to create a real community with the aim of allowing them to always stay in contact with us and, at the same time, to be able to confront each other both for the resolution of any problems and for the creation and comparison of possible new ideas that could come out and give an added value to our company.

Another very important aspect for us and on which we are working is the “educational” one with partnerships at university level. In fact, we want to give students and blockchain enthusiasts around the world the opportunity to learn new things and to interact with a platform compatible with various blockchain technologies, to make them more aware and prepared if they decide to seize in this world the opportunity of a working career.

Where are we in Italy in terms of use of new technologies? 

Italy compared to other countries, such as the USA, China and India, is still a step back in terms of using blockchain technology. However, thanks also to a policy of raising awareness and training on the subject at European level, in our country too the general interest is growing and the projects are increasing. I personally believe that in Italy, at times, a real brake on technological innovation is often a risk-averse mentality, contrary to investments that can bring medium/long term results. This generally penalises the adoption of innovative technologies in their early stages of dissemination.

How did you launch your project? Did you use crowdfunding campaigns? 

We have tried to activate all the possible resources to start the project 🙂 we started by doing Bootstrapping through the previous Startup and we found additional funds through participation in EU calls dedicated to the blockchain space. I quote in particular: “Blockpool”, “Blockstart”, and “Ontochain”, cascade funding programmes financed by the European Union.

However, we are still in a fundraising phase, in particular, we are continuing to participate in European projects on the one hand, and on the other we are in contact with private investors to work on obtaining more substantial investment rounds over the next year.

Cool Fact: Do you also use AstraKode Blockchain for your internal projects? 

Absolutely yes, it is essential, especially in a preliminary phase like the one in which AKB is located, to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers and use the platform for the development of solutions. This allows us to identify critical issues and correct them but also to improve the entire development process.

We have already developed a project with the platform and we hope to launch in the short term a series of pilot projects that can serve as a driving force for the dissemination of the product

Credits: 

https://www.astrakode.tech/