Ask Me Anything (AMA) #9: May 2019
Summary of the monthly AMA with the Bethereum core 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 takes place on a monthly basis regarding different topics. The seventh session took place On Tuesday, May 28, 2019, 14:00 CET in our Telegram group.
Q1: I got a question; can we make the daily limit higher for people holding 100k-250–500k Bethereum? (asked by jassies)
Giacomo: What a start! Would be quite difficult to differentiate, and also a bit unfair. Although I completely understand the question and of course we do have the biggest respect for our holders…
Q2: Are you in contact with betting companies outside of crypto? (asked by @stef_nk25)
Giacomo: We have been, but with little traction. I come from the telco business (mostly). It’s a bit like being WhatsApp or Viber and going to established Telco’s and telling them this is the future of their business. Established operators are hard to move. But we do believe that this will become a more relevant avenue once we have a commercial platform.
Q3: Next can you let us pay for skins? I have a lot of good ones in mind? (asked by jassies)
Giacomo: This was always planned. Just, we made the game to be as accessible as possible to everyone, without in-app purchases. I mentioned earlier on that right now we really have to focus on developing the backend and blockchain part of the platform… but once we will get back to bether-io, we will progress it in gameplay and options, and this is certainly a very likely addition.
Q4: If I have a friend in Europe and I am in the states can we play together when both rooms are playing? (asked by Tom KL)
Giacomo: Not now, because you only get the option to join an alternative server in case there are not enough players on yours. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to give that option. For players like you (honest), it’s a great way to play with friends. Problem is, not so honest players would use it to team up…
Q5: What is known about the license? (asked by @Mario778)
Giacomo: What we mentioned before. We have already done due diligence, the platform’s architecture is moving in the direction of the license requirements (very tough, i can tell you), and we’re waiting for the MGA crypto sandbox framework phase 2 to be announced (they are a bit late). Meanwhile, we prepare the platform for that.
Q6: What about KYC, will it be soon? (asked by @Gigateg)
Giacomo: Not soon. But the bounty hunter abuse we saw on Bethereum made it clear that we really must bring KYC forward. The commercial solution will have it for sure. We have to look at what solution to integrate, so we can keep the user friendliness and intuitiveness Bethereum is known for, and the approval times to as short as possible.
Q7: Do you intend you use the Bethereum name when you go live? Imo is a good name as a service provider, but as an operator it’s hard to say/remember (asked by @Ashcoins)
Giacomo: You caught me on a difficult topic, Ash. I think the name Bethereum is an interesting name, especially at the time it was created. But personally, as a marketer, I wouldn’t go for names that include any technology or location or anything else that may get you stuck to a certain solution. Anyway, we can always have the company name stay what it is and use brand names for our services. We’ll see…
Q8: Many of the telegram channels of competitors are not active. Do you keep track of the competition? (asked by @DC_windari)
A: Yes, absolutely. Roy is instrumental in this. One year ago we were tracking about 80 competitors (direct or indirect, e.g. online casinos) capturing all kind of metrics and checking all their public versions. We still do this, but the list of competitors which is still active is maybe less than 15… And the ones that are still delivering much less. It was a hard year for anyone in crypto…
Q9, 10, and 11: how long till Wallet release? About betting license do you have any deadline and Also about SDK what progress have you made (asked by @alextsiling)
Giacomo:
- Although we have the Bethereum wallet in the WP, we realised it is actually not needed under the main net + sidechain solution we’re working on (there would be no advantage). So you can consider the system used in bether-io as a minimum viable product for the way we will interact with the blockchain (of course there is much more to do, including a block explorer for transactions which are off chain and boosting decentralisation a bit more).
- No strict deadline…our hope is to be commercially ready at the start of next year (it also depends on when MGA opens up the sandbox phase 2, which is the one we would apply to). Anyway launching in Q4 would be extremely expensive in terms of paid UA. Meanwhile, we have the token on bether-io and we’ve actually received a number of requests by other game producers to be part of our platform,
- First we wanted to show (the world) we can have blockchain games on the platform. Then we will work on backend / blockchain. Then SDK. I know everybody is impatient but if you look at the “real world” just esports skill-based platforms (without betting and blockchain) take years to develop and cost various millions. We are as fast as we can!
Q12: What’s the next step for bether-io? (asked by @Tsutsu25)
Giacomo: Now we had to make some strong restrictions, which limit the number of players. It’s not great, Iknow, but the game became too popular with bounty hunters and we can’t have that. We have to take a bit of a pause on the game, and when we have time we will bring it to the next level.
Q13: Are you planning to only select some matches from each sport like the contests or will you open it up to all matches in most sports? (asked by @Ashcoins)
Giacomo: We plan to keep selecting matches. The thing is — when you look at the betting landscape, you find every site looking the same: complex and overwhelming. And more is not always less. In fact, in marketing you could say that having too much choice can bring choice anxiety (“did i really buy what I wanted to?”). That’s why apple never made you 100 phone types or notebooks to choose from. Betting operators keep adding matches, and choices, and all that…and 90% of the bets still take place on the recommended bets and the basic options. We strived from the start to simplify betting, and give you an intuitive experience. Choosing the matches to help you navigate the experience is part of this philosophy. Also, it’s an important element in social betting (you need to have enough liquidity in each bet). However, we would like to add more possibilities for players to vote for the next matches to include…and we don’t exclude that in future we will have more matches than now. Once we have a lot of players, then it will also be desirable to create a personalised engine. So that we can recommend to you matches that fit your profile, and may be different from other players (if you love to bet on football, you’ll be shown football matches first).
Q14: Will we have more fan art competitions or like BethereumAnywhere? (asked by @hendriwahyudi1768)
Giacomo: We always strive to keep you engaged and entertained. So, I believe we’ll think of something. By the way thank you for the many super photos you submitted for #BethereumAnywhere. Can’t wait to see who the community will vote as the final 3 winners!
Q15: When Bether will start the trading on Eterbase? (asked by @Riduankhan)
Giacomo: They have already started “beta testing” — I have to double check how that is going and when they are expecting a full launch. Let me get back to you on this.
Q16: Are you planning to run competition for Bether-io. something like each player deposit a certain amount and top 20 wins the jackpot? (asked by @bandith121)
Giacomo: Yes, this would be definitely one of the improvements (don’t ask for details as this hasn’t been designed yet, but it was always planned). We started with as simple a model as possible, but the improvements we can make on the game are a lot. Just, please, be patient, now we have to work on something else.
Q17: What’s with the token? when will we see the moon? (asked by @ramilshakirov)
Giacomo: We don’t speculate on token price, we do the best we can to deliver a project with solid business fundamentals (check before what has happened to that 90% of “competitor” projects who maybe even worked on something, but didn’t bring it out. And we hope this will keep us in the list of winners, with benefits for all.
Q18: Is the current wallet pushing purchases onto the exchanges? (asked by @turbojenks)
Giacomo: No… but maybe rephrase the question, in case I haven’t understood it properly. The current “wallet” is actually a smart contract that automatically exchanges ETH for Bether if you make a purchase in ETH.
Q19: Will you have more prizes like the T-shirts? and will it be possible to buy merchandise of Bethereum using Bether? (asked by @Riana554)
Giacomo: Hi Riana, we will think of something. I am very glad you guys enjoyed this very unique present. Going to post a picture now, also to celebrate the eSports cup winners (great job, guys!). We’re not in the business of selling merchandise (let us get a bit bigger for that ;). But it’s great to hear that our Bethereans want to dress the part!
Q20: Do we have any update about the situation with Coinbene? will we be able to use it soon? (asked by @Fida77223)
Giacomo: it’s very hard to communicate with this exchange (we have a much better, direct channel to CoinTiger). The benefits of “decentralisation” :D We keep getting reassured they will reopen WDs on Bether, and i know they took some steps in that direction…but beats me when they actually execute. I can only apologise for this, but we can’t control it as much as we would.
Q21: Will we have the normal claiming process for the tokens. Will I have two of those in case I won two rounds? (asked by @KelvinG1)
Giacomo: Yes. We’re keeping track of all winners. Mind that first we will run checks for duplicate accounts (and disqualify players that abused the rules). But we’ll distribute all round winnings to players. So, if you win twice, great job!
Q22: It is really great that we can already use Metamask and inner wallet. Can you talk about the Bethereum Wallet more? (Asked by @Miwing)
Giacomo: Hi Miwing, as i was writing before, we thought we’d need a wallet but actually don’t. As you can see, the process for depositing is very user-friendly and we give the option of using both a manual deposit and metamask. The wallet to have is basically whatever favourite wallet you already use (that’s why we don’t need to make a proprietary version). And when you deposit, you get a unique smart contract that takes care of your deposit.
Q23: We have a Bethereum app phone in the future? (asked by @Kinakuunta)
Giacomo: We decided long ago not to make native iOS or Android app. They would be extremely difficult to have on the app stores, and we think we’ve “mastered” the web-based version so it looks and feels like a native app on mobile. The advantage is also that people can start playing with Bethereum right away, without having to download anything. Also, if we find a bug or want to make an improvement, with web client we can deploy a new version right away, without having to wait days for store approvals (Apple).
Q24: Will there be a reward for the first round if you lost in the second round? but won in the first round? (asked by @ramilshakirov)
Giacomo: Ehm…no :) You get the reward for each round separately. BUT if you are in the top 3000 players in the second round, you will also get into a prize draw, with an extraction of 100 prizes of 10000 Bether and one grand prize of half a million Bether (which will be distributed over 3 tranches).
Q25: What people do you plan to hire next? developers, game builders (asked by @Williamsmito)
Giacomo: We already have a great team but yes, every company that scales needs more people. Unfortunately, great people are not free ;) and we have to be conscious of budgets. But what i can tell you is that if we can afford it, I am already in touch with an absolutely super guy who really likes what we’re doing and would be excited to join. He’s a senior product manager and possibly the best monetisation expert i know from mobile gaming. He also had good know how of betting and analytics. And a lot of contacts that he could also bring in.
Q26: When exactly Bether be listed on ETERBASE? and next other exchange, sir? (asked by @HenryBill)
Giacomo: About Eterbase, we just got an update. They are moving to main net around the end of next week, with a planned public launch of 17 June. Now, take this date with a grain of salt, it’s not easy to launch a platform of that complexity…but at least the message is that the wait is not long anymore!
Q27: What if the live broadcast shows also air on gaming? (asked by @Rofiiudiin)
Giacomo: Ah. We already have live video streaming during eSPORTS matches. On most sport matches, we use a live match tracker…it’s an animation showing you all the important events happening in the match. We don’t plan live streaming for sports. For one thing, it’s incredibly expensive to get the rights. But also, research shows that bettors actually prefer the live match trackers, they are clearer to follow the action. And once (in future) we will have live betting, these elements will become super important. Imagine the possibility of betting which team is going to score the next kill in a counterstrike match :)
Q28: how u plan to scale your business, what work u do toward marketing influencers? (asked by @alextsiling)
Giacomo: Marketing influencers will play a key role once we soft launch the platform. Particularly in eSports, solid streamers can gather a significant audience. Mind, they don’t do it for free. The go-to-market strategy will be finalised before we soft launch. In terms of crypto marketing influencers, that ship has sailed.
Q29: Any plans to add anything or change anything with the existing loyalty program? (asked by @ChinaBitCoin8)
Giacomo: We haven’t thought about this… so far it seems to work, there are many things to do, and while important, the loyalty program is not part of the core business. Our focus needs to be on developing the platform now.
Q30: Will you do something with the photos from the #BethereumAnywhere? (asked by @RatnaSarum66)
Giacomo: Well first of all we will post the best photos (as voted by the community) everywhere. And since you guys put all this effort into them, we’ll need to find something else to do with them. It’s absolutely great to see the application we all use in front of so many international and varied backgrounds. Do you have any suggestions?
Q31: Are you thinking on making a Bethereum subscription which will give you the option to bet on more matches or give you any additional features? (asked by @Fadlidzon)
Giacomo: We have A LOT of features planned. In fact, what I’d really like to bring to the game is multi-match bets with a jackpot. Really great for what they call “rags to riches” models. Imagine for example paying 500 Bether to join this game, betting on 6 matches. Lots of other players would do as well. And after the matches end, the jackpot would be split among all those who got 6 match results right (or 5 if nobody gets 6). Could be great fun, and give the potential to gain a big payout with a small fee.
Q32: how well funded is Bethereum, do u have enough funds for next 2 years or so? (asked by @alextsiling)
Giacomo: A difficult question, but one I don’t want to evade. This crypto winter has been tough on every project (even the ones that raised 20–30 million sometimes disappeared, for whatever reason. And we didn’t raise 20 million :). We’ve been doing all possible sacrifices to keep run rate to the minimum — and our costs are already very low (even the choice of office…anything to save money). Budgets are tight. BUT we have the support of angel investors who can jump in to help, and more importantly, already for some time we’ve been engaging with larger investors for a cash injection in return for equity. There is strong progress in that direction, and I hope to be able to answer you positively soon. Until then, we save, work hard, and do more with less.
Alex commented: Excellent funding is very important even for best company in order to deliver what promised.
Giacomo: Well, everything being equal, that’s absolutely correct. It is a top priority for us. But at least we can be happy that the solution we have created resonates to investors, and that the support of this community shows that this is no empty project, but one that delivers and has a great following from engaged, active, passionate players. So, for that, really thank you.
This was an amazing session, thank you everyone for your great questions! We definitely want to keep you involved and truly value your feedback.
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