BOLT Community AMA | 2 April 2020
Summarised transcript of the live Zoom interview
Watch the Zoom interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dnQfKrqXSg
Introduction to BOLT, by BOLT Co-Founder Christel Quek:
BOLT is an interactive media platform that converts your media experiences into monetary value. Our mission is to open up the power of information to all, with a vision to create an inclusive economy that will be powered by the world’s stories. We do that through two applications — BOLT+ and Pegasus.
BOLT+: interactive media platform, with a focus on sports and educational content.
Pegasus: a gateway converting a user’s media experience into monetary value.
Welcome to our AMA with BOLT Founders Jamal Hassim & Christel Quek. Hosted by BOLT Community Manager — DavosCryptos.
Question 1: Why did BOLT choose to be active in the Blockchain world?
By utilising the blockchain, offering a digital token, its own proprietary wallet and leveraging low-bandwidth streaming, BOLT has been able to open up the power of information to all through its interactive live content, sports entertainment and educational content.
The goals of the BOLT ecosystem are to improve lives by creating new pockets of value for users, transcend the expected value of money by allowing users to convert their time spent on BOLT+, and to rebuild trust in media through well-curated content which inspires positivity
Question 2: Can you share more details about the tasks and developments of the BOLT Team?
You can find information about the core team on our website (bolt.global/about). On top of that, we are working on a series of introductory videos about BOLT and the BOLT team, which will be available on BOLT+!
Question 3: What makes BOLT unique and ready for the future?
Our vision is to create an inclusive economy powered by the world’s stories. Over the last two years since our ICO we have went above and beyond our originally planned whitepaper, including executing successfully on new projects which were never laid out in our original roadmap, such as the creation of the Pegasus Wallet, the creation of a new BOLT Smart TV app, and the introduction of new BOLT token utility through interactive media formats on our app BOLT+ (Stake and Lightning Round). All these were extra initiatives BOLT launched since Q4 2019 to Q1 2020 which required significant resources to build.
This does not of course include everything else we have, including BOLT+, Pegasus, unique partnerships with hardware distributors and content distributors. Users are able to convert their time on BOLT for other items of value. Brands and Sponsors are able to rely on meaningful, interactive user engagement, knowing that their budgets are not just drained by excessive re-targeting by the platform, but going back to the user as a form of monetary value.
BOLT is able to create an ecosystem that is driven with purpose, curate content that is radically positive, and do our bit to rebuild trust in media. This is something that we are trying to do as a whole ecosystem and that combination is unique.
Question 4: Why is the BOLT Token important for the BOLT Eco-system?
The BOLT token is a unique glue for the whole ecosystem.
For example, we develop interactive formats for users to engage on BOLT+ such as our game show — “Lightning Round”, match predictions — “Stake”, and interactive sports replays (football and cricket leagues) — “3D Replays”
When users earn BOLT tokens by participating in our interactive content formats on BOLT+, they can redeem these tokens for real-world items in Pegasus, such as internet access, mobile phones, or other partner promotions.
Users can also earn BOLT tokens by watching ads (capped per user per day) , submitting their own content (subject to pre-approval by our moderation team), or taking brand-sponsored surveys.
Question 5: Could we see more regular Tokenomics updates?
A monthly tokenomics report will be published to keep everyone updated on Medium. We will include links to it in the Vault newsletter.
Question 6: Why did BOLT choose (Ethereum!) and Zilliqa + what’s the latest update on Binance Chain?
Ethereum is a time proven and robust blockchain, with smart contracts for the general storage and transfer of the token. It is also the major player in the DeFi space.
Ethereum is also the first blockchain other blockchain developers build gateways to. For our backend accounting and microtransactions, we will be using a gateway to our Zilliqa based smart-contracts.
Question 7: Can you give us an update on the Token Burn Q4 and 2020 Strategy?
We have burnt a total of 19.7M BOLT tokens in 2019 through three token burns. To wrap up 2019, we are aware that the Q4 token burn has not been done. We will commit to doing a related Q4 token burn as an action point to the community upon completion of our equity raise, which we will finalise soon.
For 2020, however, we are critically evaluating the token burn model and will share updates when ready. We expect utility to grow in stages through Lightning Round and further adoption of our advertiser pipeline through our in-development partner portal.
New partnerships of pre-installations of our app for more markets will also accelerate the organic adoption of the token. We are also looking to implement Staking within the Pegasus wallet to lock up the circulating supply which will also give a healthy balance of demand and supply for the token value and ecosystem.
Question 8: When will the Token Swap Report with all the information be published?
From next week, we will publish a weekly “Swap Report” for the duration of swap process. This will provide visibility on the progress of the swap, the contract addresses and tokens burnt/locked.
Question 9: Could you please shed more light on security side of BOLT ecosystem? How secure is the BOLT’s structure? What measures have been taken?
For the blockchain / token part of the Ecosystem, all of our smart contracts are audited by external third parties. The audit reports can be found here:
For team token security all wallets have their keys stored on ledger.
In our internal systems all cloud based acounts & tools must support 2FA.
With Pegasus wallet, the private keys are stored directly on the device. The keys are removed from storage on sign out.
Regarding database security, we make use of database rules to control the access to our data. Some data is public, like videos, some is user private
and can only be modified by the an authenticated user, and some is completely private and can only be accessed by Bolt.
Question 10: Can you share more of your marketing plans and who are the marketing targets of the your project?
We have two goals: (i) To promote mainstream awareness and engagement of BOLT’s content across all platforms (web, social media and mobile) and (ii) To attract partners to collaborate with BOLT on content, marketing, hardware etc to expand the BOLT ecosystem
We are also looking to collaborate with content influencers (specifically content creators) who have their own base and following on YouTube.
We also have a comprehensive re-marketing funnel and user behaviour data which allows us to re-engage and re-target our users.
Ultimately we want to achieve high daily usage of the app, which we believe is possible once our new interactive features are launched. At present moment we record high daily usage for our Live TV channels and Live Radio segments, with over half an hour spent on average per session.
Question 11: What development plans does BOLT have in 2020 & 2021?
We will divide into a few sections and cover accordingly:
1. Business growth
2. Marketing
3. Partnerships
4. Token Developments
5. New Markets
Question 12: Can you tell more about the amount of users?
We reached over 11M users last year with approximately 10% of that (i.e. 1M) active across our platforms every month.
Question 13: When will BOLT launch the new Whitepaper and Roadmap?
Along the way, we have refined our vision and mission to be clearer as we add new features and functions to our apps. Our edited White Paper will reflect that. Also we will launch the updated Roadmap in Q2
Question 14: When is the new Whitepaper 2.0 and Roadmap shared with the Community?
We are working on updating the White Paper this month, and will update the community when it is ready. A simple roadmap of our upcoming goals can be found here in Vault #21 and in our 2019 in Review report.
You can find them on Medium or on emails if you have subscribed to our mailing lists. (https://medium.com/bolt-global/keep-calm-bolt-on-4bd8bb66b6a6)
Question 15: Can you tell more about your userbase?
Our user base is formed by Sport Enthusiasts, mainly Football and Cricket fans. 69% males and 31% female, most between 18 and 44 y.o.
Question 16: Which countries are target markets?
Based on our users and Partnerships we have South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Korea among others countries as our target markets.
Question 17: How important is data for BOLT? Can we get more update on the users at BOLT Vault?
Data is a crucial aspect at BOLT. We use Data to evaluate the performance of our marketing campaigns and content across our ecosystem. Also, we use Data to understand how our actions can enhance our user base and revenue growth.
In addition to looking at the past and the present, we are developing predictive models to forecast different scenarios and create corresponding strategies as part of our innovation and risk management plan.
Question 18: Which countries are most popular across the BOLT+ App & Pegasus Wallet?
In the last month, our distribution from our Top 10 Countries was:
Country % from Total Users:
South Africa 11.82%
United Kingdom 8.67%
United States 7.84%
Turkey 3.45%
Germany 3.29%
Bangladesh 3.23%
Pakistan 3.07%
United Arab Emirates 2.91%
India 2.31%
Nigeria 2.24%
Question 19: What is the BOLT Olympus Program?
Olympus is BOLT’s VIP program to reward our ardent supporters for holding BOLT’s tokens for the long-term. It is scheduled to be launched in end Q2 or early Q3, and members will be able to get access to everything BOLT before anyone else. Perks include referral bonuses, private AMAs with the founders, exclusive office tours, BOLT swag and more.
Question 20: How are the business developments in South Africa and Africa?
We are continuing to work closely with Hisense in South Africa and engaging in co-marketing initiatives across all our platforms. We are also including Hisense adverts on the BOLT+ app and testing brand integration for Lightning Round.
Our business development team is growing a healthy pipeline of advertisers in the country as we are looking to offer a localized version of Lightning Round. Furthermore, on the African continent we are engaging with partners in Nigeria and Kenya specifically to increase our user base and attract more advertisers and brands into our ecosystem.
Question 21: What is the Partner Portal and why is BOLT working on this?
Going forward, the new partner portal will provide a comprehensive view of existing BOLT partners and be a platform for detailed updates.We will also produce more collateral that will easily digest and explain each integral partner we have in 1 pagers — not just useful for our community but also useful for our potential pipeline of partners to discover
Question 22: What are the plans with the BOLT Website?
We’re transitioning the focus of the current BOLT website (bolt.global) from being informational to focusing on our content offerings. When a user goes to bolt.global, they will land on the responsive web version of BOLT and you can watch and engage with almost all our offerings there (Stake and Lightning Round is currently still an app-only offering).
Information about the company will be put into a sub-page which can be accessed through the responsive web site.
Question 23: What are the latest developments with Lightning Round?
We are organising a second round of community testing this Saturday, at 1pm GMT, so please register and participate. Thereafter, we are hoping to launch Lightning Round this month once the bugs have been fixed and the interface is smooth. Watch out for our announcement!
Question 24: What is the strategy behind the current Content on BOLT+?
We are moving towards a focus on short-form, light-hearted, entertaining and engaging pieces of content that appeal to mass market audiences. This change has allowed us to create content that is in keeping with current content consumption habits and fulfill the requests from our community to see more content during the week.
Alongside our weekly programming, we are close to releasing a suite of new interactive content features; Lightning Round and Stake E-Sports. The latter will represent our first venture into the E-Sports sector. Please stay tuned for launch updates!
Elsewhere, we are focused on content distribution and revenue generation via advertising partnerships and content licensing. Our team are close to finalising partnerships with several key parties:
- 2 companies in the UK and Middle East respectively, who will be distributing and sub-licensing our content;
- A telecommunications company in Brunei that will be licensing our content and;
- 2 advertising partners in Nigeria and the UK respectively. These 2 partners will be our first step towards realising ad-driven revenue.
These exciting new content partnerships will ensure reach, new eyeballs and revenue.The agreements are close to being signed and we will update the community once we have more to share!
Question 25: I like the Ambassador Content on BOLT watch all the shows, any more things coming-up?
We are happy to hear you like our Ambassador videos; we are committed to on-boarding ambassadors who produce quality content and whose values are in-line with ours. Wes Brown, James Tzanoudakis and Dean Ahmad are a representation of our first steps in this initiative.
However, we are looking to expand our network of ambassadors in the coming months; they will help to strengthen our content offering but also our reach, network and visibility in new markets. Our Ambassador program is a key initiative as their networks will help to bring new audiences to BOLT.
If there are creators that you want to see on BOLT+, please send an email to support@bolt.global
Question 26: Are there plans to work with a Football Club?
We will announce soon when ready, but we will first start by working with sports agents who represent football stars.
Question 27: What is the BOLT Advisory Council and why is it started?
We want to look through eyes of the Community. The council is an advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the BOLT Team. We take notes of your idea’s, suggestions and feedback. With in mind empowering the BOLT Eco-system and Brand.
Question 28: Are there more educational video’s coming about BOLT?
We are working on an educational series about BOLT+ and Pegasus.
Make sure to follow our Telegram Channels!
Question 29: I would love a BOLT T-shirt or Mug, where can I order this?
BOLT merchandise is in the pipeline for our Olympus program, exclusively available for our ardent supporters. Watch out for the announcement!
Question 30: Are you expanding the Community with other nations as well?
Yes, we are launching new communities according the data we’re monitoring with our Data Manager and according our target market strategy.
Question 31: Is BOLT looking into the E-sports market now all live events are postponed till next year?
BOLT is looking into E-sports, we will share more news once ready!
Question 32: Anything you can share with us regards more liquidity/exchanges (Creating interest/awareness)?
We have received significant interest from a few exchanges (well known ones) who want to list our token. We are however monitoring the market and deciding when would be a good time for us to list the BOLT token and provide more liquidity to our customers.
Question 33: How are the developments with several partnerships?
Partnerships take time to build, the partnerships we have are significant. It sometimes takes a year to build these business relationships. We’re making great progress with Hisense who also owns the Toshiba and Sharp brand. Hisense is the 3rd largest T.V Manufacturer in the world.
We are in talks with several other companies as well. Make sure to follow our Telegram Channels to stay updates.
Question 34: How will BOLT announce future partnerships?
We are planning to announce partnerships with one-pagers and add all the details. So the Community understand what the partnership means and what the benefits are for the Community and the BOLT Token.
Question 35: Other important updates?
We will update the community as soon as possible on our BOLT Token Swap. The BOLT Token Swap report will be shared via our Medium account and BOLT Global Announcements Channel.
