Hello BORA Community!
On February 18th, BORA conducted an AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) session in the official Telegram community channel.
The AMA consisted of two parts: one session for providing answers to questions asked in advance, and another to answer the follow up questions that came from the replies of the first session. As many hoped, key members from the BORA management team attended the AMA to answer the questions in detail.
We hope the AMA session was informative for the community; check out the summary below!
First Session
Q. Please explain the relationship between Kakao and BORA. If they are your partners, why did you not initiate synchronized promotion schemes with Kakao?
A. Kakao Games, a subsidiary of Kakao, is an important investor and partner of BORA’s developer, WAY2BIT. Kakao Games invested in its own game platform business in WAY2BIT to expand into a new area using blockchain technology. Today, Kakao Games is also reviewing a variety of collaborative projects utilizing the BORA platform as an important WAY2BIT partner. This information has been clearly disclosed through Kakao Games equity investment announcements, and the relationship between the two companies has not changed from the time of the initial investment.
At present, we are focusing on promoting BORA services and collaborative projects with external partners, which are being carried out in real-time. In the future, we will also be able to promote Kakao Games in conjunction with Kakao.
Q. What are the benefits of working with Kakao Klaytn?
A. BORA is also partnering with Klaytn, a Kakao blockchain project, to expand blockchain ecosystems by collaborating in a variety of areas including service operations, technology development, marketing, and public relations. We are closely cooperating in various aspects including technology verification for linking with Klaytn’s mainnet, as well as service operation and development of blockchain technology.
More specifically, BORA has a technical partnership with Klaytn and is facilitating regular technical meetings between development teams. In-depth discussions are underway to improve the platforms of both organizations, and Klaytn-BORA interoperability testing is planned for the Klaytn beta release. As such, the two companies are collaborating to maximize the benefits of both services and will continue to do so in the future. Through this collaboration, we anticipate that more DApps will be developed for the BORA ecosystem.
Q. Do you plan to hold a Klaytn airdrop event for BORA token holders?
A. Klaytn has not been released yet. Currently, there is no airdrop event planned for Klaytn, but we can discuss the possibilities once the platform is released.
Q. We know that WAY2BIT (BORA) has invested in Klaytn. Can you explain what the investment involves?
A. We did not make any financial investment in Klaytn. But as I mentioned earlier, Klaytn and BORA are working together in an official partnership. And I know that there are some people who are disappointed with regards to Klaytn announcing the partnership with BORA during the second phase. There is some misunderstanding here. The first Klaytn partnership announcement was for business partners and second for technical partners. Therefore, it was logical for us to participate in the second phase.
Q. How will Kakao Games proceed with their investment in BORA ?
A. This question is involves company strategy and investment direction of Kakao Games, so this is not for us to answer. However, we can say that Kakao Games and BORA are maintaining a good relationship since the initial investment.
Q. Tell me about your relationship with Metadium.
A. Metadium is a long-standing BORA partner, providing business consultations and blockchain development support. In recent years, BORA and Metadium created the “Standard BMT Tool” that enables benchmark testing for Ethereum-based blockchain engines. The results from our collaborative projects have been overwhelmingly positive.
Q. The current token price is much lower than my entry point. Is there any compensation policy for this situation?
A. This is an important question so I will answer with as much detail as possible. Although the initial response was insufficient internally, it is difficult to implement an effective compensation policy. Rather than aim to raise the short-term token price, BORA will focus the resources on long term development and work to improve token valuation through the formal launch of services in Q3 of this year.
In addition, the initial token public price was high due to the nature of the private sale. BORA conducted a private sale through an ICO Token Purchase Agreement called SAFT. This involved a validation process by a global ICO specialist firm for a small number of investors according to applicable laws. BORA did not commission any distributors or sales representatives.
Investors in the SAFT (ICO Token Purchase Agreement) are prohibited from contracts of sale, that is, acting as distributors or resellers. This is confirmed through a review between BORA and investors at the conclusion of the contract. After confirming the resale situation, BORA warned those who informally engaged in BORA token trading and posted a fraud prevention notice on the project homepage.
Nevertheless, some investors who purchased tokens through the SAFT contract, proceeded to engage in unlawful sales activities, selling BORA tokens at prices higher than what was set during private sales, which some of you may have purchased. If these second-level investors who purchased BORA tokens through distributors or sales agents in violation of the Private Sale Agreement, wishes to make a formal complaint against the resellers, we will do our best to help you. I hope that this alleviates the concern of some of our investors.
Q. What exchanges is BORA listed on so far? What can you tell me about future listings?
A. We have completed listing on Coinsuper exchange. Negotiations with many other major domestic and foreign exchanges have also been completed. At present, we can disclose that we will be listing on a top 10 exchange (by volume, based on CoinMarketCap) during the first quarter of 2019.
We would love to share more details, but we are strictly limited to sharing such information prior to listing. We will disclose the name and schedule of each exchange listing in accordance with the internal policies of the exchange.
Q. What was the price standard for the private sale?
A. The private sale token price was based on the nature of the total amount of tokens to be used in the BORA ecosystem, the tokens were planned to be finite in terms of total amount during the development stage of the BORA platform.
Q. Do you have a price response plan to help stabilize the token after listing?
A. This was a concern for us too. Compared to the beginning of the BORA project and the private sale, the market has degraded rapidly into what some are calling as “crypto winter”. We have taken all factors into account and calibrated our overall company direction and strategies, which led to our first listing on the date we thought was most effective.
Nevertheless, we had some unexpected results after the initial listing which resulted in in-depth discussions on our token listing policy and price stabilization strategy. Rather than reacting to short-term market variables, we decided to focus on long-term strategies of highlighting visible results such as the development and launch of the BORA service and establishing partnerships in line with our roadmap, thus bringing in organic yet positive influence on BORA token.
We also plan to reinforce the token trading policy and technical support during exchange listings to help deal with a lack of response and communication around emerging issues. I would also like to share some short and long term token growth strategies to help relieve some anxiety for BORA token holders.
First, in the short term, BORA will be listed on several top-tier exchanges to increase the trading volume. We will also adjust the token circulation volume including the BORA ecosystem, reserve, and developer compensation distributions so as not to have negative effects on the market. In particular, the reserve will not be released this year and the ecosystem fund will be used conservatively for service booming (i.e. market activation). We can confirm that there is no plan to use this fund on exchanges to influence the token valuation. The developer compensation fund timeline will be extended and be flexible in consideration of the market price.
We are also focused on BORA branding and service quality, which as I explained earlier is a long-term strategy. We strive to bring quality services and contents to market with BORA branding through strategic alliances with Kakao Games and Klaytn. We plan to sequentially launch a variety of content services in the third quarter of 2019, which coincides with the official launch of the BORA platform. We are also focused on forming differentiated strategies in terms of promotions, business development, and branding in order to raise external recognition. We expect the BORA platform and token valuation to increase as we execute on these initiatives.
Q. What is the difference between BORA Token and BORA Shell?
A. The BORA ecosystem has both BORA Token, which follows Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard, and BORA Shell, which only circulates within the platform itself. BORA Token is a token that can be freely traded between users via exchanges, but BORA Shell is a token for distribution within the BORA platform ecosystem. BORA Shell can be exchanged from already-circulating BORA Tokens.
In other words, in order to use various digital content services on the BORA platform, BORA Tokens must be exchanged into BORA Shell, and BORA Shell obtained from the BORA platform can be exchanged back to BORA Tokens to enable inter-user transactions through exchanges. This dual token structure reduces transaction fees rather than using ERC-20 BORA Token directly for the services.
Q. I know BORA Atoll and Lagoon are different platforms. How do they relate to each other?
A. BORA Atoll and Lagoon are services provided by the BORA platform developed by WAY2BIT. The BORA platform offers four services in total: BORA Island, BORA Atoll, BORA Lagoon, and BORA Explorer. Among them, BORA Atoll is a space for partners who serve digital content, providing tools for analyzing information, managing data, and handling service operation. BORA Lagoon is a test network for BORA. It allows developers and other users to experience the BORA platform and test the service prior to production.
Q. Please describe in detail about games to be served on the BORA platform.
A. Currently, BORA has partnerships with major game developers in Korea and is collaborating closely with them on several blockchain game development projects.
First, ENP Games, which services game portal “PuPu Game”, is currently developing a DApp version of “Brick Breaking Puzzle: Ball Vader” for BORA, which is currently serviced through Google Play. The new version uses blockchain technology to enable users to buy items using BORA tokens and to win BORA tokens as rewards for in-game achievements.
UNIT5, winner of two gold medals at the Google Play Indie Game Festival in 2017 and winner of the Casual Division at the Busan Indie Connect Festival, is also challenging the market using the BORA platform. They are preparing to release their flagship IP CUBE ADVENTURE, with a new service and casual lineup, that will be launched in 2019 in conjunction with the BORA platform. The collaboration with BORA adds features such as rewards, achievements, and ranked battles between players, which users were unable to enjoy on mobile devices on previous occasions. You can also use BORA tokens to collect in-game items. We plan to launch new genre of games through continuous collaborations, which may expand the possibilities of blockchain technology.
In addition to games, we are also collaborating on music services. Wisepeer is famous for its music streaming service, Monkey 3 Music, and is developing a new music streaming service called ‘MOMOPLE’ that incorporates BORA’s blockchain technology. Wisepeer is focused on implementing functions that link playlists with BORA tokens within the BORA and MOMOPLE platforms. Users can accumulate BORA tokens through community activities and gift their accumulated tokens with playlists to their friends. The users who receive this gift package can listen to the playlist using the BORA token with specific conditions such as: Duration, Number of play times, and etc, which will be adjusted to the token value.
With the BORA platform release coming in Q3 of this year, the platform environment will be developed to the point where real-life service of the introduced contents above are available.
Q. Is it possible to receive regular reports on the BORA’s development and service progress?
A. We are planning to publish newsletters, as early as March. To give detailed reports on subjects such as BORA development, partner collaboration, on regular bases. And, to publish singular reports on our achievements. Details of the timeline will be notified in the future. Apart from the said newsletters and reports, BORA platform’s development and service progress will be shared on our official channels.
Second Session
Q. Is there an airdrop planned for existing BORA holders?
A. The airdrop was designed to reward individuals with BORA tokens for completing tasks or raise awareness of BORA to the holders of different tokens. We do not currently have plans for conducting an airdrop for existing BORA holders only.
Q. Do you have other marketing plans apart from the Cobak event?
A. We have conducted events and promotions similar to those of other projects. However, we believe that conventional marketing is no longer effective in the current marketplace and we will continue to pursue diverse and differentiated marketing programs to raise awareness of BORA. We will inform the community about these activities through our official channels in the future.
We encourage the community to share any innovative ideas with regards to advertisement/marketing programs and events with us, and we will try out best to take these ideas into account with internal review sessions.
Q. I understand that 4.5 million BORA tokens have been released to the market though an airdrop. Are there measures in place to prevent side effects such as dumping?
A. First, to make a correction on the misunderstanding. The 4.5 million mentioned is the maximum number of tokens available according to the event rules. The actual number of BORA tokens distributed by the airdrop is far less than 4.5 million. Although the exact quantity cannot be disclosed, the number of BORA tokens received by each participant averaged around 100, making it difficult for even large groups of users to influence the market price. The airdrop was designed this way intentionally to minimize the impact on the token valuation.
Many community members are also questioning why we have conducted the airdrop in the first place. Airdrops are one of the most efficient ways increase public awareness and the number token holders for a project. With a higher user base, there will be greater activity in the blockchain ecosystem which drives the value of the token as currency. In addition, exchanges use the number of token holders and community members in their criteria for listing. So while we value our existing holders, it is also important to acquire additional holders.
In summary, the airdrop was conducted for the purpose of publicizing BORA tokens and to fulfill requirements for listing on major exchanges. The amount of BORA tokens released by the airdrop will have little impact on the token price.
Q. You mentioned that a presale investor re-sold tokens illegally, and it seems that you have already confirmed the facts. What actions did the BORA team take against the distributor?
A. We worked hard to acquire the facts of the situation as we were concerned about the impacts of the illegal distributors. However, it has proven difficult to accurately determine who the individual was and how they conducted the sale, and it was not feasible to respond to distributors without physical evidence. That said, in order to rectify the adverse effects on the market, we are encouraging investors who have been damaged by the purchase of BORA tokens through an illegal sale to make a formal claim with their illegal distributor. BORA will provide as much support as possible for those affected.
Q. Will BORA be listed on lesser-known exchanges?
A. As mentioned above, negotiations with major domestic and foreign exchanges have concluded and we will only list on major exchanges with high credibility.
Q. What was the private sale price exactly?
A. Based on the time of the private sale, it cost approximately $0.10 USD per BORA token.
Q. Please describe in more detail your strategy for listing on other exchanges in the future.
A. Future schedules for listing will be based on factors from different angles such as market trends, exchange value, and the roadmap of the BORA project. We understand that many people want to know about our plans for exchange listings, but as we said in the first session, it is impossible to disclose such details in advance.
There are also questions about the number of exchanges. I would like to point out that we are preparing for listing on meaningful exchanges that will have a positive effect on BORA’s valuation; we are prioritizing quality over quantity.
Q. I understand that the BORA platform is trying to solve the Ethereum scaling problem by using an Ethereum-based mainnet and a BORA sidechain. What are the benefits of changing this mainnet to Klaytn?
A. From the perspective of preparing and developing a service, TPS, scaling, and response time will greatly affect the productivity, convenience, and quality of development.
There is a clear difference between development in an environment where blocks are generated every 12 seconds on average, like the current mainnet, and one where blocks are generated every second. It is a similar dilemma that occurs when deciding to develop a service that is used in the domestic market, and one that can handle a global market. Klaytn’s mainnet is committed to introducing a variety of features such as higher transaction throughput, lower commission(gas), and greater scalability.
Our team is experienced in building services, which lead us to think in content developers perspective and the difficulties that they face. And in order to minimize these adversities we had to take both platforms into consideration. To conclude, we believe that by moving from an Ethernet mainnet to a Klaytn mainnet, a greater variety of useful DApps can be developed for BORA, and we look forward to reviewing future collaborations that will benefit the ecosystem. We also believe that BORA will benefit from being incorporated into the Kakao blockchain ecosystem, expanding the market for BORA platform and securing a broad user base, in collaboration with Klaytn.
Q. Considering all the DApps preparing for release, there seems to be a need for high volume of active users to the platform. Were there any discussions about this with partner corporations?
A. We will convert new services and services with an existing user base to DApps and launch them on the BORA platform. This way, offering variety of digital content services included in the BORA platform, users of the services will eventually convert into a single cohesive ecosystem user under BORA. This may relieve pressure on of user acquisition.
Q. The BORA Telegram channel needs improvement. What sort of plans do you have to improve the experience for Telegram community members?
A. We are actively improving how we operate our Telegram channels based on feedback from the community. In the answers section, we introduced a method for getting BORA related questions answered more quickly by including a “#Q” hash tag. In addition, we have added a warning policy and code of conduct to set chat standards and encourage healthy discussion. We will also be setting operating hours for Telegram to standardize more realistic expectations for the community. For more information, please read the announcement in Telegram.
Q. BORA appears to be a B2B business, not a B2C business. What marketing strategies are going to be used to find partners who will implement blockchain using BORA?
A. Finding partnerships involves taking full advantage of BORA’s strong business network. We are expanding our partnerships with investors such as Kakao Games and trusted companies recognized by existing partners. Based on the past IT industry experience of BORA team members, we are also pursuing partnerships with companies and services that can offer synergy with the BORA ecosystem.
We are also pursuing a number of strategic collaborations and have opened official channels to allow others to engage the BORA team with proposals for partnership. We are currently reviewing and discussing received proposals for further consideration.
Thank you for your interest in our AMA! We will continue to keep the community engaged in various ways, and we look forward to your continuous support of BORA.
Sincerely,
BORA
Website: https://bora.boraecosystem.com/
BORA ISLAND: https://island.boraecosystem.com/
BORA Lagoon: https://lagoon.boraecosystem.com/
BORA Atoll: https://atoll.boraecosystem.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/boraofficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bora_ecosystem
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_ECXkBdIBp-_Rs9DdGjHyA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BORA-752657065111307/
Medium: https://medium.com/boraecosystem
Email: contact@boraecosystem.com
