This was written to explain Barterlly’s project, from his inception to its launch. I won’t mention technical stuff or specific features in this first post. Most of informations are available at : https://www.barterlly.io/
It is mostly based on personal feelings and things that happened “publicly”. Behind the scenes… I’m not alone, and in fact, I never was : from the very first day, the person that gave me ideas and directions is my wife :). Even the concept itself, how to present things, she is the very first follower, fan, and contributor.
Another point worth mentionning : I’m not a marketing man, neither a professional writer, just a guy that loves to test/try/break stuff.
The thing is : don’t expect something “commercial”, there is nothing to sell. Also, don’t expect to see a project with a wonderful whitepaper, featuring an ICO you just can’t miss : There won’t be any ICO.
If you’re still here… Let’s go !
Part 1 : Who am I ?
First of all, let me present myself. People know me under the pseudonym : Dwy. I’m a French system engineer that had the chance to be elected as a Komodo Notary Node(NN) in 2018’s season.
That opportunity made me learn an incredible amount of technical things, but most important of all, it helped me understand the blockchain tech better.
Part 2 : An exciting ecosystem and environment :
As a NN operator, I saw a lot of new projects join the KMD ecosystem, and among them, there was one called PIRATE.
It first began as an experiment, then people realized it could be much more. The coin became to gain value, and users started to trade it.
But as the coin was very new, and no exchange supported it, people had to make direct OTC deals directly on discord.
What we feared… happened : People started to report scammers, and it wasn’t safe to trade directly on discord anymore… but was it ever ?
Part 3 : Protect Pirates from piracy :
There must be a solution… and I have an idea for it : taking it like a challenge, and experiment, I decided to try to make a proof-of-concept.
At first, there was just a database, and no GUI at all, to test the base logic, then I made in a few days the first “version”, web based. Back then, the goal was not the design, but the process.
(Images, and arts used were only for the proof of concept, I made the decision to rename JawARRR to Barterlly to avoid any copyright issue.)
A channel was created : #Jawarrr on KMD’s discord, and first testers tried it (Sorry Genie, but as I know you base on facts… am not a Webdev ^^) :
Part 4 : Spread it to other coins :
During the testphase, some users pointed to me the fact that there was a bounty for this “OTC” stuff, managed by Komodoworld. Basically, this bounty’s goal was to provide a simple GUI for OTC trades : exactly what could be achieved with the project, at the difference that it won’t use the BarterDEX protocol, at first.
Being an insider as NN operator, and following the ecosystem development, I knew the MarketmakerV2 was being worked on, and it would take monthes to develop it, where it would take weeks to have the solution running like the PoC. The emergency is to secure users, and the solution and app can and will evolve.
My choice was made… after people pushed me a little ;) : I decided to contact Komodoworld about the bounty.
After thinking about it, he told me that Jawarrr could be eligible, but… it would need a proper UI, and was totally right !
Part 5 : The experiment goes to the next level :
He decided to put me in touch with a team of two Designers and Front-End Devs : Adstrakt and Maxijb.
After some days, Komodoworld validated their quote, and we began working together. It was pretty new to me, but it was really amazing.
After few weeks, the first alpha was released, not fully functionnal, but it allowed me to continue improving the core stuff.
Part 6 : Time for decisions :
During the whole process, I didn’t know exactly what would emerge from this, would people love it ? Would it be used ? Would it work ?
Beside those emotional and technical considerations, there was something that had to be determined : what’s next ?
Developping an app, is something pretty cool, but releasing it, and putting it in production is a totally different subject for a main reason : Regulations.
So the next milestone is : Will I run it, or will I let someone run it. At first, it was obvious I wouldn’t want to be in charge of it, but days after days, after spending so much time on it… I told myself : what if ?
My first reaction was to talk about it with my mates, and maybe try to find a solution where we can all work on it.
Unfortunately, we didn’t agree on a setup, mainly because I wanted to start something very simple, yet very secure, purely on my own, not relying on any ICO. We agreed on GUI features required to complete their job, and just splitted.
Part 7: Back to business :
This part was emotionally intense, as Maxijb and Adstrakt are 2 guyz I loved to work with, but I had to move on, now, I’m on my own on this.
In itself, that’s not a problem, as I am able to take back the GUI dev myself, but, heh, let’s be honest, that’s not where I have fun, or am the most productive.
In December 2018, I met an Eth freelancer at a Belgian meetup : Owerache. We discussed about the project and talked about the possibility to integrate any ERC-20 natively on the platform.
Back then, it already worked, as I swapped some ZIL for OOT, but could be way more easy to handle with his expertise, and more globally : that guy knew how to handle eth, where I’m more focused on “UTXO-based” coins, and was also a fullstack dev. Hurrah !
Part 8 : Time’s ticking :
The weeks just before were like hell : I’m back alone on this, and have to handle back the GUI stuff, but in the same time I have to continue improving the core.
Finding Owerache gave me a new motivation boost : I know I will be able to rely on someone to handle what I won’t have time to, or am not the best qualified to.
But if we want to launch, we need funds : for the company, for the licences, for servers, for bounties.
The first idea was to try to find very very early investors, to fund the company building, and a few monthes of infrastructure costs. And these things… takes time.
I did a few pitches, but we didn’t find a solution that would let us enough freedom to operate, plan and evolve.
Ok, so What should we do ? It was conceived to be very fast to deploy, with maximum coin compatibility, but we need to find a solution to launch it.
Is it really impossible to launch it on my own without external help ?
Part 9: Breaking the endless loop…
So I have an app, a product, something I believe that could be useful for people… But I don’t know if I can launch it, where to launch it… etc.
The lawyers require money to give advices, and in case the advice is : locate it in another country, there will be a $$ problem (back then, the global creation cost was estimated to a base 50K for a switzerland incorporation).
Then I saw a Bitcoin.fr video, mentionning new specific regulations on the segment Barterlly operates : crypto-to-crypto transactions.
Oh, wow, is this real ? It seems so. Maybe I had the solution right in front of my noise from the beginning.
Part 10: … and start delivering !
Same player, play again. I realize here I’ve been so convinced that it was impossible to build this in France, that I didn’t even consider it.
Changing my mind and considering it made me meet blockchain lawyers, who confirmed me it was possible, and for an affordable price compared to the 50K first estimation.
So here we are, I accepted the lawyer’s proposal, and began the company creation a few weeks ago. As of today, the company is officially registered and the journey begins !
Nothing would have been possible without the support of a lot of people : I won’t cite them all, but I know they will recognize emselves. Thank you !
Stay tuned :)
Dwy
