Ask Me Anything (AMA) #2: September 2018
Summary of the monthly AMA with the Bethereum team
As you already know, we care about updating our community and hearing everyones input. That is why we‘re holding an AMA (Ask Me Anything) that will take place on monthly basis regarding different topics. The second session took place On Tuesday, September 11, 2018, 14:30 CET in our Telegram group. We focused on the best technical, development and product-related questions and this is a summary of what we have discussed and shared with our community. If you wish to join the next session, stay tuned on our social media channels or join our telegram group!
Google forms submission: You have a big community on social networks, but when I go deeper (e.g. read comments on Facebook) it looks fake. Can you explain that?
Giacomo: It’s something from the past. None of that was fake… just in our earlier implementation of the bounty, we didn’t limit the amount of posts people could make on Facebook (for example) to get bounty points. So many people just posted a bunch of “nice” “good” “great project” to get more points. It was our fault, we fixed this later on with max 1 comment per post per day. But it was all by real users.
I just checked the telegram activity now, and I can see that about one third of members are active every day, with another 10–15% active in the last week. So around half of the Telegram community is at least regularly active. It’s a bit worse than it used to be in the past, but it is to be expected since we have stopped the bounty and are currently not running any betting game (but this will change soon). It’s also completely normal — no community has no churn.
Ioannis: In what stage is Bethereum with equity investors?
Giacomo: Equity investors do take their time. Of course, given how the market evolved in the last few months, you don’t have any more as huge an interest by equity investors to jump on anything which is blockchain. However, we have been talking with two investors for some time, one potentially for a very large deal, and I am confident that once we show that we actually deliver on our promises (and keep bringing new developments to the market), we will find the investment support we need to scale up our operations.
Google forms submission: In Israel gambling is legal through “Toto” and “Lotto”. Are you going to create a partnership with the “Toto”?
Giacomo: We haven’t looked at Israel yet. I know betting is big there, but we’ll look at market entries a bit further down the line (after the soft launch of the upgraded platform). I expect we’ll have a couple of months of delay over the intended roadmap (due to the new technical solution we are preparing for performance / scalability and the licensing requirements), so the beta will likely take place at the very start of 2019. At that time, we will start to work on go to market strategies, and yes, they may include partnerships.
Elad: I saw the teasers of the platform. Will you make a light in color version as well?
Martin: We’ll definitely try to test different variants of multiple things over time — so probably not from day 1, but over time, who knows. Personally, I was always a fan of lighter “themes”. But for a gaming environment, some best-practices say dark is the way to go (things to do with psychology).
Giacomo: Not now, because of time. But in the future, unless almost nobody asks for it, we will. It’s easy to do, and we can allow players to choose the version they prefer in their profile. It’s an easy thing to do, just we need to prioritise what to work on and this is not the top priority, but we can surely add this feature, with time.
Elad: If I am registered in the country where I live, but travel for a long trip abroad, can I still bet using the app in countries where gambling is illegal?
Giacomo: It should be fine unless the application is blocked locally (the IP). But this I’d really have to double check.
Milancheck: Will it be possible to suggest local gambling events, or will it be available automatically on the platform?
Giacomo: At some point we will add the private bet functionality, and this will also include the possibility to request local events. However, more info on this will be released when we have fully scoped out the feature. At the moment we’re focusing on major events, as we need enough players to participate in each bet. What we do plan to offer, is the possibility for users to vote on their most favourite match to have next week, for example, as one of the featured bets. Just to keep members involved.
Milancheck: Is there anything significant that has changed in your vision/roadmap?
Giacomo: Changes in vision / roadmap: not too many, but we had to confront reality with regards to the restrictions imposed by the Ethereum blockchain current performance. We believe it will get much better, but are not waiting for that. So, we had to spend a bit more time than planned looking for a great solution to tackle these limitations. We have one, the proof of concept is almost finished, and it will be a major competitive advantage.
One more change in the roadmap (and that will cause a bit of delay vs. what originally planned — but as I mentioned before on Telegram, nothing too major): We decided to apply for an international betting license, as you may know. Well, it will give us quite a nice advantage vs. non-regulated crypto operators. However, it means a lot of work just to comply to the license requirements. Many things we have to develop ourselves, for example, as we’re not allowed to use ready-made cloud services such as amazon web services. It will be worth it in the long run, though, I am sure.
Milancheck: Are you in discussion with any big betting companies? (Bet365, Bet-at-home) If so, what’s your reason for such cooperation?
Giacomo: Conversation with big betting names: Not for now. We don’t yet have much we would be able to offer them. We’ll approach them when we are well established and see some potential synergies with them. Now it’s not the time.
Winok: Can you use group symbols on your Web-app? It might be protected by Copyrights, and can put you in jeopardy legally wise.
Giacomo: By group symbols I guess you mean team logos, right? Yes, we checked this. First of all, look at our iOS app just like a very early prototype. Since then we learned a lot (thanks to feedback from you guys, the world cup betting game, and our betting advisors), and decided to evolve the UX / rules of the game quite a bit. To get to your original question: It’s not a problem at all. We will get all team logos from our chosen data feed provider (Score24 — one of the top companies in the business), and we can freely use them in our app. We cannot use them for marketing (e.g. in a banner or billboard).
Winok: Do you have upcoming partnerships? Who’s in the pipeline?
Giacomo: I think 3rd-party gaming providers will be the first partners to be shown. We’re talking with a few, but right now we really want to show something first, so we are busier advancing the platform. Our team is not huge, and it’s important to focus resources.
Winok: Which markets are you looking into first? Europe, Asia, etc…
Giacomo: We’ll start with a test market, probably in Europe, then look at next markets in the go to market strategy. We haven’t finalised this yet, as regulation is changing all the time, and even the markets we will be able to easily access via the betting license change all the time. So, we’ll approach this question when we’re getting closer to a commercial soft launch. Asia is huge in betting, but has a very complicated regulatory and legal regime. We’ll see: there are many indications that things may get easier for betting regulation with regards to crypto.
Winok: What will you do with the collected data? After a while it will show there are some real talented players who know a lot of specific sports and competitions. will you do something with it or involve the Bethereans?
Giacomo: Data analytics, split testing, and data-driven personalization are super important elements for the success of any application. We’re not focusing on this much now, as there is plenty to do before we get to this level of sophistication. When we will start testing the actual performance of the betting solution and user acquisition marketing, then data and monetization analytics will play a major role (and we will have a full-time expert on this). We want to make sure that the very talented players (the professional bettors, especially) don’t take advantage of the more casual bettors. There are a few solutions for that, although of course it’s not possible to fully prepare for anything. One functionality we’ll have in the app is to allow anybody to follow the best bettors in the game. So, if you see somebody that tends to win a lot, you’ll be able to see how he bets, learn from him, or even imitate his betting style.
Victoria Polska: Do you any plans to partner with a sports club to promote Bethereum?
Giacomo: At some point this will surely be on the table. Right now, it’s not worth it: it’s very expensive and actually to do it properly / legally you already need to have a gambling license. I know that many crypto companies don’t really pay much attention to licensing, but we do. Once the service is readier for commercialisation, this will surely be one of the go to market elements we’ll look at.
NK: Will there be any new competitions on the social media? the FanArt was really great!
Martin: We are working on a number of new competitions, something new should drop very soon — in a few days actually.
Giacomo added: Perhaps we can say a bit more about this too. Martin mentioned something will drop in a few days. We have a number of community games we plan and launch from time to time. The team is working on something very interesting for the international Telegram groups, and in a few days we will launch a new version of our web-based platform, with a new look, feel, and some more functionality. We hope you’ll really enjoy it. Yes, like in the world cup betting game, there will be great prizes to be won!
Faisal: If the platform is available and the market is still not stable, what actions will the team take? Will you wait for a stable market for listing or directly listing without waiting for the market to stabilize?
Giacomo: You know that we paused the main sale and delayed exchange listing because we knew the market was really going in the wrong direction. At the time some people applauded the action. Some people criticised (as expected). Well, now we all know the market really didn’t help anybody in this period, but we can’t let you wait forever. So, we put the main sale on hold for as long as it will take, but with exchanges we are progressing very well and we will be listing very soon. I am sure anyway that our Bethereans won’t let us down and will hold tokens until the market recovers!
Rohman69: When will the ICO continue?
Giacomo: When the market for token sales makes sense again. Now it doesn’t. It probably still won’t in 2018. So, we have enough funding to develop the platform and we’ll do just that. We’ll go on exchanges, since we can’t keep that on hold forever (would not be fair to you). However, about the main sale continuation, we’ll just see how the market evolves. No plans to relaunch it any time soon.
Rohman69: Anything new from Bethereum, I mean news like advisors, team, or apps?
Giacomo: Plenty. By the way you may want to check out weekly newsletter on Bethereum progress, where we bring at least the key headlines of what we’re busy with. (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4). We’re putting the finishing touches on the app, then testing. we’ll communicate the exact date.
Martin added: Let me answer the development aspect of what went on in the past few weeks. We’ve progressed on completing the dev team, including hiring a new Lead Developer — Jozef Ivanic, who has been in the dev business for 20+ years. We are also working hard on server architecture based on license requirements (which is pretty tough), and yes, we’ve started applying for a gambling license (can’t reveal much more regarding licenses for now). Furthermore, we’re also working on ways to increase the ETH chain’s performance using Plasma. This a huge deal, as we want to be able to handle a lot of betting from Day 1. There is a lot more going on development-wise, such as testing different wallet configurations and so forth. We still have a lot to do, but we are definitely getting there!
Giacomo with our betting advisors meanwhile prepared several awesome briefs regarding functionality, and believe me, it’s really cool! The design team lead by Viktor is currently implementing all these ideas in beautiful screens and UX. There is definitely something new coming soon for all of you to give us feedback on!
Sutriadi: When can we use our tokens to bet?
Giacomo: To do it right, it will take a few months, because we need a betting license for that. But we’ll look at doing a beta earlier than that, we should be able to do it legally without having big issues, as it would be a testing of the solution with our community.
We could already do this soon, but for now we are more interested in getting the betting platform and features right. Functionality to handle the token will be added to the infrastructure in parallel, and we’ll have some beta for selected participants. We’ll confirm the date, when the new solution we’re using to speed up Ethereum and reduce (vastly) gas costs is available. This requires making some changes in our whole architecture.
Ioannis: I’m planning to start write article about casino games, poker and betting, and promote Bethereum platform. I will use other blockchain social platform. Will Bethereum team have any problem with that?
No problem Ioannis! You have been a long-term and loyal member of our community and we’re for freedom of speech anyway.
Pokuston: Are you thinking about integrated wallet into your product and use fiat as well?
Giacomo: We’re looking at the simplest wallet solution possible, as we want everything to be as user friendly as possible. Yes, fiat will be integrated.
Realaccountakira100817: Any hint that when the market will recover?
Giacomo: Everybody has their theories. I have mine too, but nobody has a crystal ball. I think the market is going through a big transformation, much like in the later stages of the dot com period nearly 20 years ago. It won’t be easy, but the survivors will grow stronger than ever. Just be patient, the market will not disappear, it just needs its’ time.
Ioannis: Are you planning to accept fiat currencies and convert them inside the app to Bether and vice versa at any point?
Giacomo: Yes, definitely. Very important for mass adoption. We’ll also look at services of such as PayPal, to open the game to those who don’t have a credit card.
Ioannis: I totally agree with money-laundering prevention, but this can kill exchange volume on the exchanges. I already saw that happening with another project.
Giacomo: For FIAT, we’ll most likely use vouchers, with not too huge amounts. It’s done more to give access to players, without requiring big efforts by them. We’ll also have APIs connected with exchanges for non-fiat pairing. We won’t be offering an exchange service, so I doubt this will create the kind of trading volumes that could give a problem to exchange listings.
Ioannis: Do you have any plans to introduce a small rake back for big volume players, let’s say over 50 bets per day?
Giacomo: It’s something I am personally thinking about. For the non-betting people out there, a rake back is simply some % of the bet cost payed by a player, which is paid back to the player. So, you know we’ll start by taking 3.75% of the winning pot. A rake back would be that we’d give back part of that cost to a player. I am thinking of this as a benefit for top XP players. In other words, the more XP (experience points) you gain on our platform, the lower your “commission” will be.
Thank you everyone for really great questions! We definitely want to keep you involved and truly value your feedback.
Bethereum is a decentralised, social-betting platform based on Ethereum technology and Smart Contracts. Want to know more? Start here.
If you would like to ask us anything or interact with our forever growing community, join one of our Telegram groups in your language.
In addition, if you like what we are doing and would like to stay updated, signup for our newsletter.
Bethereum Team
Because life is a game
