Summary of the first Bethereum public AMA with the core team
As you already know, we care about updating our community and hearing everyones input. That is why we have decided to start an AMA (Ask Me Anything) that will take place on monthly basis regarding different topics. The first session took place On Tuesday, July 31st, 2018, 14:00 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!
Rai Masamune: What are the best qualities of Bethereum that can benefit all contributors that joined this betting platform?
Martin: Using the blockchain makes a lot of sense with betting, as you usually bet against bookmakers, which set the odds with high margins. On Bethereum, players bet against each other and we just charge a small fee for using the service… Most importantly — with conventional betting platforms, you have to trust the operator to actually pay out your winnings. On Bethereum, this is regulated by Smart Contracts — so at the end of the day, if you win, you are definitely getting paid!
Matus Nazarej: Why have you picked Ethereum platform rather than for example EOS or NEM?
Martin: Ethereum is a platform that has been operating for quite some time now — its the safest option. We don’t want to be constrained by some other dev team, still working on a main net. I agree the ETH blockchain is not ideal — but it works. EOS just recently launched their main net, and Vitalik was trolling them by fixing cricital issues on GitHub. There are many chains, which claim to be able to outperform the ETH chain, but the development there is not that as far yet… ETH was the safest option for now, backend by numerous corporations, thats why it was the obvious choice.
Faisal Atjeh: Indonesian regulation betting ban: I wonder if people in Indonesia can still use Bethereum as a digital asset crypto and how?
Peter: We will offer both betting and non-betting games on the Bethereum platform. Betting games will be provided in territories where betting is legalized, and with the proper licenses to offer these services. In other countries we will focus on mobile-gaming like experiences, that will not be classified as betting but will still give players a solid social gaming experience and boost the trusted reputation of our service. Even our very successful world cup betting game is legally not a betting or gambling contest.
VIP: How long has each person on the white paper been part of the project? Who on the team will be working full-time on the project? What outside projects, companies are the people working on alongside the Bethereum project? What percentage of time is devoted to Bethereum if working on other projects as well? How is each team member is being compensated?
Giacomo: We don’t have a precise count of time for each person since they joined. Not everyone is a full timer, as for some tasks we only need some hours from individual contributors. But most team members are full timers. The team has evolved quite a bit since the launch of the idea (e.g our CEO, Mr. Giacomo Tognoni, joined first as an advisor and 5 months ago as a team member), and it will keep evolving. In these very days we’re interviewing and recruiting some absolutely top talent. And the more we go on the more highly talented people want to come onboard.
Recently two betting experts joined the teams as consultants: Alex Zelvin and Stani Sebest. Alex is fully intrigued by what we’re doing, for example, and he’s one of the key members of two US betting companies that recently got bought by Betfair (for a combined valuation of 1 billion dollars).
Nobody in the core team works on projects outside Bethereum and believe me, our working hours are a little more than what you’d call full time :). Some of the freelancers do, but again, we manage the project in a cost-effective way, so if we need for example the AI developer to code our bot for Telegram for 6 hours a week, there is no point to hire him for full time. Team compensation is fully confidential, as you can imagine, but we’re putting together some attractive packages which go beyond a salary.
Avik: Some have already appeared tokens, and we are ready to bet), without waiting for the listing on the exchanges. When will the platform start working?
Martin: Currently we are in the stage of preparing the server infrastructure — this is actually a BIG deal, as really tight rules are set by regulators. For example, for the Maltese betting license, we will have to have a server room on Malta, with 24/7 webcam access for the Maltese Betting Association. Some of the stuff is really crazy, but we are working as fast as we can!
Inia Glasson: I’m from Australia and love betting on rugby league. Will we be able to bet on NRL and on top of that will all sports become available in due course. What sports will be available first? Thank you for your time the punters really appreciate it.
Giacomo: It will depend on demand and which key markets we will launch our solutions into first. Now we’re mostly busy designing the architecture and key game design principles / UX / UI. You can ask martin more about the tech and product part. But we’ll make sure to keep the community involved at every stage.
Martin: We are preparing a ton of stuff for the community to decide — the selection of betting content will likely be one of them as well.
BUFF: It would be great if Bethereum platform can accept not only crypto, but fiat too, for those people who are not in crypto, but want to place the bet. Does team have any plans to add this function?
Absolutely. Wide accessibility is very important for our platform to scale (many players). We’re looking into not just accepting crypto, but also fiat and even services of the like of PayPal (still to be checked, but should be feasible).
OlaOle: How many target users in first quarter of your release you expect on the platform?
Giacomo: First quarter is not so important in terms of number of users. It is part of the soft launch, which is geared at fine tuning design choices, get feedback on features, making sure systems work correctly and there are no important bugs, getting analytics for monetization. I can tell you we plan to have a bit over 100 thousand monthly active users after 3 years. May not seem like much but it’s actually quite a lot (the biggest betting exchange in the world has just over 1 million).
Jimmi J: How does that the Bethereum platform differ from Stox? There seems to be almost 100% overlap?
Giacomo: Prediction markets is not the same as a really user-friendly social betting application with gamification features (which nobody has, really), social features, and a B2B angle for white labeling and third-party integration. I don’t say ANYTHING bad about STOX, I actually don’t know them well, I am just saying this is not an overlap at all. In the past we were told we’re the same as Augur. Again, very different positioning.
Martin: I think what sets us apart from a lot of competition is that we are developing Bethereum with a TON of gamification elements and beautiful designs. We want our platform to be as simple and fun as possible!
Inia Glasson: Will u start with a test net. like users will be able to bet with play money ect to test the platform first?
Martin: Not a test net — we are building on top of the Ethereum chain. HOWEVER — we are also working on a version which will be COMPLETELY free to play, with a lot of competitions, prizes and so on.
Ioannis: What development stage are the Bethereum team are we on roadmap?
Giacomo: We had to change a few directions based on feedback and getting deeper into the solution — and in software development please always take roadmaps as an indication, but we’re not far. It didn’t help to have a longer sale period than expected, because of the bullish market. And that’s also why we took a difficult decision and said “ok enough of this, we said we’ll build a great platform, so now we work on it”. I am super excited about the kind of talent in our hiring pipeline.
Martin: Currently, we are finishing screens and setting up the server infrastructure, testing out betting smart contracts and so-forth.
Stef_nk: What makes you strongly believe that betting will be a big industry in the future and how many betting matches will you add to Bethereum?
Martin: Betting is already a MASSIVE industry. In the US, regulators have just abolished a law from 1992, where states can decide if they want to allow betting or not — so the industry will definitely grow again! As for the content that you can bet on — we will definitely let the community make some decisions as well :)
Giacomo: Betting, including underground betting, is estimated at least 1 trillion dollars per year (some sources say up to 3 trillion). It’s also growing, with online betting (now worth about 50 billion dollars — ONLY the licensed, not underground part) growing at almost 11% per year. I think the appetite for betting and the value of the market is really not going to see any bearish trend for quite some time :)
Leonid: What will the main profit of the team come from? If in this case, all the money will flow from the player’s hands to the player’s other hands, bypassing the team? Advertising, something else?
Giacomo: The main source of revenue for the CONSUMER part of the platform (the social betting, let’s say) will be a 3.75% fee on the winnings. We’ll also have additional services in future (e.g., AI assisted tipping for bettors) but not so critical or urgent right now. The business angle will be based on revenue share (e.g., third party developers making X% of what their games earn on our platform) or ad-hoc agreements (e.g., for an operator which buys our white-label betting solution).
Leonid: There were some difficulties you had not previously suspected of creating a project. And how did you overcome them? What was new in the experience of creating this project?
Martin: I’ve been in startups since I was 15 😂. There are a TON of problems you just cannot anticipate — I’ve learned that long ago, and we are always ready to solve problems once they arise. With this project, the biggest problem in my opinion is market sentiment. One article on CoinDesk about some Binance hack (that didn’t actually happen) can cause the market to drop 15%.
Giacomo: If anybody thinks making a project of this complexity will never have difficulties to overcome, then they’d be in for a bad surprise :) In any complex projects (and many times, even in simple ones), there are many difficult times / obstacles / hard decisions to make, etc. It’s completely normal. Important thing is to keep your head cool, take a look at options, and find the best solution with the information you have. This is not our first project, and many of us have delivered many many successful projects with many different teams and markets. I tell you, I would have been happier had we launched the sales in a bullish crypto market, but in life you have to deal with what you’re dealt and make the best of it :). All considering, we’re very optimistic about the project development and chances of success.
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.
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Bethereum Team
Because life is a game
