BOLT Community AMA | 4 Feb 2020
Summarised transcript of the live Zoom interview
Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/5m5o00S-2Dg
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.
Question 1: When can we expect a tokenomics update?
Christel: Our Tokenomics officer is currently working on this, we will release a full tokenomics report soon. Nothing fundamental has changed on the circulating supply.
Our team tokens are vested on a quarterly basis, and we have delayed vesting for 6 months (last year) as a gesture of goodwill to the community.
Question 2: Would there be an incentive for those who hold the BOLT token?
Christel: We have already aggressively built our first two major use cases — Stake and Lightning Round — but the main breakthrough was the bridge connecting BOLT+ and Pegasus. If there was a year for utility and adoption to happen, it would start in 2020.
Stake will be a user-driven use case, and Lightning Round will be a sponsor-driven use case. We look to innovate more and add more utility as well which will make full use of BOLT+ and Pegasus. Naturally the BOLT token will be the glue in this ecosystem. We have also heard the community’s requests to see if we can implement Staking rewards in the ecosystem — all in good time.
Question 3: How will BOLT token sustain itself and is there any news regarding the Telco Partnerships?
Jamal: We are in the midst of building an ecosystem that will be self-sustaining in the long run, with users on BOLT+ earning BOLT tokens that they can use to redeem rewards on Pegasus, and partners on Pegasus using these BOLT tokens to fund new rewards.
We are currently negotiating with different telco companies on bulk deals for internet access plans, for users to redeem internet data top up plans through Pegasus in the future.
Question 4: Why did BOLT choose Binance and Zilliqa?
Christel: Combining the power of Binance Chain’s high liquidity and fast confirmations and Zilliqa’s Smart Contract system.
Over the next few weeks, we will announce how we will be taking a step forward in utilising Zilliqa’s Smart Contract processing language.
Question 5: Is there an update regarding the Business Equity Round?
Jamal: We are in the midst of running 6 different due diligence rounds, and cannot disclose much until they are over.
Question 6: Can we get an update regarding BritPharm, the pharmaceutical company, and how it benefits BOLT?
Jamal: We are working on a BritPharm partnership update and will update the community soon.
Question 7: Any new developments regards the BOLT and Hisense Partnership? How Hisense partnership will benefit BOLT token utility?
Christel: Our Hisense partnership has seen BOLT+ pre-installed in at least 15,000 Hisense E30 smartphones with more to come. We will also begin pre-installation soon in another Hisense phone model — the H40 Lite. Through our new features Stake and Lightning Round, users will be encouraged to earn BOLT tokens which will eventually allow them to redeem rewards.
Furthermore, we are working with Hisense to bring BOLT+ to new platforms, which means that more users in more markets, not just the digitally-savvy, will be able to access BOLT+, the first step to adopting the BOLT token.
Question 8: Will there be partnerships with other coins?
Christel: Yes. We are actively planning on how we can work with other coins in the upcoming feature-led development of Pegasus.
Remember that in 2019 we have built (and also over delivered) on 2 working apps, the bridge between Pegasus and BOLT+, but mainly innovated within BOLT+. We will be developing more in Pegasus this year.
Question 9: Do you guys want to hire any promoters online?
Christel: We have great support from the community, but feel free to contact us if interested via enquiry@bolt.global.
Question 10: Are you going to launch cross-marketing campaigns with Bitmax, Kucoin, Dex?
We now hold fortnightly meetings with Hisense marketing, and will begin to roll out cross-marketing campaigns to a shared marcomms calendar. We enjoyed success with KuCoin cross-marketing campaigns in 2019, and will explore BitMax and Binance Dex cross-marketing activities in 2020.
Question 11: How are you going to market Stake and Lightning Round?
We have rolled out Stake beginning with the crypto community and eventually hoping to capture the larger sports/football audience. This gradual process has been highly beneficial, providing a flow of feedback and notification of bugs which our Dev team have resolved. This month, we will continue to promote Stake on more channels, including content that will gradually introduce sports fans/the masses to the BOLT token and how they could Stake.
This will include social media, push notifications, website optimisation and SEO, email marketing, affiliate marketing, cross-marketing and influencers. These tactics will focus on acquiring new users but also retaining existing ones.
We will apply the same approach for Lightning Round.
Question 12: Is it possible to make partnerships announcements longer, with more information?
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 13: Can you briefly describe what is BOLT in 3–5 sentences? What technology stands behind BOLT and why is it better than the existing one?
BOLT is an interactive media platform that converts users, media experiences into monetary value.
Our vision is to become an inclusive economy, powered by the world’s stories.
BOLT has two apps, BOLT+ and Pegasus, and through them, we carry out our mission of opening up the power of information to all. We focus on sports as our core content pillar in BOLT+, and we also curate over 100+ live TV and an additional 100 live radio stations in BOLT+.
Technology may be ubiquitous but what makes BOLT stand out will be our laser focus in content (i.e. sports and live TV programming), the integration between media and blockchain (through Pegasus) and existing strong partnerships with leading companies (Hisense, Bytedance).
Question 14: How many users does BOLT have, and how much % is active?
Christel: We reached over 11M users last year with approximately 10% of that (i.e. 1M) active across our platforms every month.
Question 15: Is it possible to give us more information on the views? Saw a lot of questions regarding this topic
Jamal: Every company will have different measures on views and what quantifies as a view. We count a view as someone who has immediately seen the content on our platform.
To give you a sense, FB counts 1s as a view, Twitter counts the moment a video appears on a Twitter timeline as a view, Netflix counts 2 minutes as a view. There is no unifying industry benchmark on what should accurately classify as a view.
Question 16: How is BOLT reaching the unbanked to acquire users?
Christel: Through gamification and blockchain invisibility. Aside from Stake, we are soon debuting Lightning Round, a time-based sports quiz game that rewards avid sports fans with BOLT tokens. Currently, Stake requires users to possess BOLT tokens in order to Stake. With Lightning Round, users will be able to win BOLT tokens just by answering questions correctly.
We also have, in the pipeline, other features such as offering BOLT tokens as a reward for friend referrals to grow the number of users in possession of BOLT tokens. With these BOLT tokens, users will be able to soon redeem rewards on Pegasus.
Question 17: Is there an update on the Premium Content feature?
Jamal: We have chosen to focus on growing and maintaining a steady active user base before debuting premium content. Nonetheless, our Content and Partnerships team are working to widen the quality and quantity of our content offerings.
Question 18: Could BOLT+ App be available with Turkish and other languages as well?
Jamal: Localising our content is a mid-term goal that we are working towards, with Turkey being one of the markets we are keen on advancing into. Please be patient with us as we continue to work towards bringing BOLT+ to new markets.
Question 19: I would like to see Turkish Football matches to be added or Champions League ones. Is that something you will consider?
Jamal: Great to hear the enthusiasm! Our community managers on the ground are taking note of this feedback which will be useful when we embark on localising content for our users.
Question 20: I’m from India, so most of us love cricket sports. Do you have any plans to add cricket match staking?
Christel: We are working on improving the Stake experience over time, and will take this into consideration. Users and community members will be notified on the inclusion of new sports and/or leagues in future.
Question 21: Euro2020 is coming this would be perfect for Stake, any news on that?
Jamal: Euro2020 is a great opportunity for Stake and Lightning Round and we can’t wait to bring that experience to you!
Question 22: What are team’s plans to make BOLT a top project?
Jamal: Our ambitious goals are:
- Entering as many markets as possible (localisation of content)
-Creating and integrating a BOLT+ presence across all digital platforms
-Identifying synergistic partners to raise brand and content awareness
-Increasing and maintaining a high quality and inspirational content offering
Question 23: Is there an update on the white-labelling initiative?
Jamal: Yes. We have signed deals with two government bodies in Asia to white label our platform for enterprise usage.
Question 24: Is there an updated White Paper coming, if yes why?
Christel: Yes. 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.
Question 25: When will the new website and Partner Portal be launched? Any more information for us regarding these developments?
Christel: The new website and partner portal are targeted to be ready by Q2 2020. Stay tuned!
Question 26: If I was an institution looking to invest and would ask you for projected revenues and net profits for upcoming 3 years — what would you say?
Jamal: For business enquiries, please contact our partnerships team via partnerships@bolt.global. For investment and corporate enquiries, please contact our corporate team via enquiry@bolt.global.
Question 27: BOLT seems to be one of the few companies in the crypto world to earn money, why is that?
Jamal: There is a constant effort to promote the project to the crypto community but also to non-crypto communities.
Please see our interviews on CNN, CNBC, Sky News, and other press coverage. We will continue these efforts with our PR firm. We are also working with influencers and publications for the crypto community.
Most crypto companies centre their product around the cryptocurrency, and hence only target the niche crypto-community.
BOLT, with traditional media and entertainment knowhow, is able to capture a larger set of audience — the digitally-savvy from any part of the world who consume sports and entertainment, and make our profits from synergistic partnerships with similar interests or audience in mind.
Question 28: Anything you can share with us regards more liquidity/exchanges (creating interest/awareness)?
Christel: 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.
As much as the exchanges like to work with us, we must also be prudent to ensure that upon listing the token will perform well and not lead to a mass dump.
And that’s a wrap! Thank you, Christel and Jamal, for these terrific updates. BOLT has an exciting year ahead!
Thanks all for joining our Live ZOOM AMA.
We’ll be hosting Monthly sessions. See you next time!
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