AMA Recap: DAO Maker
Date: Sep 1st, 2022
Host: DeFiNaut
Guest: Serge Petroff, Consultant
Hello, Raccoon family and crypto enthusiasts!
We recently hosted an AMA with DAO Maker. Here’s the AMA transcript for those who missed the live session. We sincerely hope you have as much fun reading it as we did while running the AMA!
Table Of Contents- INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS
- LIVE QUESTIONS
- TWITTER QUESTIONS
- About Crypto Raccoons
INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Hope you are all ready #raccoonfam! Today we’re having another educational follow-up AMA with Serge Petroff, Consultant at The DaoMaker!
That’s correct, today is the second time we’re being honored with their presence! And they’re here today to share us many of their exciting updates and releases.
As you know there will be 2 parts, the muted part where me and Michael will be talking about The DaoMaker in general aswell as the latest news and updates! Then we’ll unmute an have the community ask questions and some winners will be chosen. We’ll also choose some twitter questions while we’re at it. A total prizepool of $500 (10 live chat and 10 twitter qs will be winning $25 each).
So Serge, without further ado, can you please briefly tell us who you are and what your role is at The DaoMaker? We’d like to just get a few introductory questions for the raccoons that have not yet heard about you and The DaoMaker!
[Serge]: Hey Everyone ! Thanks for having me, it’s an honour !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: It’s our pleasure Sir! DaoMaker have been long time partners of ours
[Serge]: So as you said, I’m Serge, Consultant for DAO Maker. I basically advise our clients to have the best launch possible : This includes Marketing, Token Metrics, and Tokenomics consulting. Once we think they are ready, then we make them public and our users participate for their fundraising !
Prior to that, I used to work in a Private Bank for Institutional Clients in Luxembourg. It was a great learning experience, but way less exciting than crypto !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Aha I also have a banking background. It’s funny how we all end up over here right 😄
[Serge]: A lot of colleagues left financial institutions for crypto actually.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: True, a lot of people from fintech especially
[Serge]: It’s a one way opportunity for young financier.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: very true 🙂 great minds think alike right! So let’ get down to it
Can you give the raccoons the infamous elevator pitch about The DaoMaker? What is it all about, and what key unique features are you looking to bring to the web3 gaming /esport space? Also, why do we call it “The” DaoMaker?
[Serge]: HAHA actually It’s just DAO Maker ! 😉 So we’re the leading crypto launchpad and incubator with over 100+ projects launched and $30 million raised. DAO Maker aims to redefine Venture capital by making it accessible to the masses : We are on our way to achieve that with more than 170.000 users KYC’d spread around 158 different countries. We have consistently onboarded market-leading projects onto the platform such as My Neighbour Alice, Step App, GameFi, XCAD — setting trends in every market conditions.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yea I’ve always wondered about that
[Serge]: So, the original name comes from our former product, the social mining in which users had to participate and build the community to get rewards. This product has been used by huge projets like Elrond or Avalanche : so we made their community, they became DAOs, we are the DAO Maker.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I agree, DaoMaker has always — atleast to me — been doing their own thing, pivoting and coming up with stuff before the rest
[Serge]: And we’ll keep doing that !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: That’s the way to go 🙂 So let’s talk about the team that does it all. What kind of team does it take to make the biggest and most reputable accelerator and launchpad in crypto? How big is it? What kind of talent do you have onboard. Besides yourself that is haha
[Serge]: As most of our team would like to stay anon, I can mostly share about our two-cofounders : Chris and Hatu.
At that time, in 2016, Chris was a voracious learner in the CryptoSpace and Hatu was co-managing million budget, and a part time Math Lecturer.
They met in 2018, after Chris founded the project ICODOG which, back in the days, listed top ICO projects. During this time, Hatu advised multiple tokenised projects, and both got immense experience and understanding of the ecosystem.
Joining their forces, they started all over again and created DAO Maker. Rest is history.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yea I believe you were also the first ones to come up with social mining, is that still a thing?
[Serge]: You can easily find them on Twitter, they share alpha on a weekly basis 😉 !
We actually stopped this business activity in the beginning of 2021, as the SHO business was way more efficient in terms of deal flow and user traction !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I figured yes, though I do think it’s still something many projects are looking for — since it’s a way to gamify and activate your community. Something most have difficulty with. But I get that you need to choose whatever brings more revenue to the business!
[Serge]: And strengthen community ! Crypto is also about the people you onboard into the journey ! Social mining was an unbelievable experience to master community building. We used that in our advantage. Learning by doing.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: As it should be right, especially in such a nascent industry. So let’s discuss the core business which DAO Maker is obviously known for: SHOs.
A launch system pioneered by and term coined by your project. For those of us unaware about how it works, can you briefly explain what it is and why it’s a fair system as opposed to what other launchpads offer?
[Serge]: First of all, let me explain why it’s called Strong Holder Offering (SHO) : Users are requested to stake $DAO token to participate. This staking period is defined by them, but the longer you stake the higher your reward. During the fundraising, the more you own $DAO, the higher your allocation.
All the offerings depends on much you believe in our ecosystem, hence it’s an offering for the Strong Holders of $DAO, it’s a Strong Holder Offering !
Knowing this, it’s pretty simple : As a user
> You go on daomaker.com,
> You sign up,
> You pass the KYC,
> You buy DAO either on CEX or DEX,
> You forecast Venture Yield rewards with simulator !
> Stake DAO and you can participate in SHOs !
Then each time you earn an allocation, 20% of the amount of it is used to buyback $DAO, and those $DAO are put back into the staking contract for rewards.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Interesting! so not 100% of your deposited funds go to the project’s fundraiser event
[Serge]: In other words, you’re either a winner or… a winner.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: So the market hasn’t been too muh fun lately, you could say it’s been bear season for quite some time 😄 How has this model behaved in a bearish sentiment with DAO also going down?
[Serge]: Actually, yes. 100% of the funds deposited by users go to Project. But as a user you receive 80% of your token, and the 20% are liquidated into USDC, those USDC are used to buyback $DAO, and shared among stakers in the venture yield leading to higher APR !
It’s a great question ! Actually, the Venture Yield model is performing extremely well compared to other staking contracts !
We have an ATH of $DAO staked, an ATH of the period of staking, an ATH of addresses staking.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: It’s not bear season at $DAO maker in other words! 😄
[Serge]: Thus, $DAO became extremely resilient since there’s not much of them on CEX and DEX. Most of them are locked… for 571 days on average.
We try to be Cycle agnostic. Most of us know that Crypto is a seasonal business. Not at DAO Maker.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Well while it is down from ATH in terms of price per coin, it’s not as much down from ATH and like you say the onchain metrics ( amount staked, amount on exchange, etc) are all healthy. So that’s just great overall
[Serge]: As you said, we’re pushing the boundaries to create the best utility to our token !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: this is great nostalgy btw. Made me think of this for some reason. Anywho!! let’s take a peak at some of the upcoming exciting SHOs 😉 Maybe let’s talk about why they are launches that we shouldn’t miss out on!
[Serge]: At the moment, there’s still the SKEB public SHO ongoing : Public means that anyone with more than 500$ worth of tokens in their EVM compatible wallet can participate ! So give it a try, there’s not much time left ! Just sign-up, connect your wallet and participate ! (If you win, you’ll have to pass the KYC.) Otherwise, you might have heard of Sweat Economy being onboarded by DAO Maker, and will actually be the next SHO where guaranteed allocations are implemented. It’s a 2 Million $ raise, don’t miss out !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]:
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]:
[Serge]: This was the SHO round, for DAO stakers !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Ah, so which link would be correct?
[Serge]: Once we close the participations buddy, public SHO is still open 😉
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]:
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I guess they can join via this link right
[Serge]: Exactly !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: okay okay, I have to say DaoMaker always gets the solid ones. I mean the track record is obviously great
[Serge]: Our dealflow is incredible… We made the maths, and we only accept less than 5% of projects knocking to our door.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Alice, Xcad Network, Orion, GameFi, Step App, just to name a few. There’s so many more!
Tell me, how do you do it? What’s the secret sauce?
[Serge]: So the thing is… it’s all about the team, the expected revenue and the current valuation.
You have to onboard leaders, people ready to engage at all cost in their business.
Second, we should forecast decent revenues : most VCs invest in project that are just unreliable or not sustainable on the long run.
And this revenue must be consistent with a decent valuation, and so the price per token is impacted.
If you get a solid team, with decent forecasted revenue, and a small valuation : You have all the chances to get onboarded by DAO Maker.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yea it’s one thing I always appreciated about the people at DAO Maker. They know how to get the token metrics right
[Serge]: We have to be grounded mate, we are launching the industry of crypto. An industry we firmly believe in !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yes, and this has resulted in a tripple A reputation 🙂
I mean all launchpads boast about being number 1, but the truth is, only DAO Maker really is haha
[Serge]: Your words honour us Ser DeFinaut !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: You guys are still going hard in the bear. It’s amazing to see
[Serge]: The grindset, waking up and getting better each day. That’s what we love !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: The early worm catches the most worms. But I need to eat later, so not gonna think too much about worms 😂
[Serge]: Love this analogy !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: lmao
[Serge]: WEF approves.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: haha. so I was scrolling through my feed and saw “the DAO Pad V2 Fusion Model” — I believe the Sweat SHO will use it. That’s a lot of words I don’t understand Ser. Please explain 😄
[Serge]: Sure ! Formerly, DAO Maker used a system that was tough for the user : You must pass the KYC, register, wait, get an email, check the raffle spreadsheet and then stress out for First Come First Serve, and then contribute. This is over.
Fusion system reduces the User Experience boundaries : KYC, Contribute, Earn your allocation. That’s it. When contributions open users will get a notification via email automatically and contribute right away. The maximum personal allocation that users can contribute is calculated based on the user’s staked DAO.
We are very excited about this change as it will vastly improve all aspects of DAO Maker, from user experience, user conversion, client satisfaction, reduction in operations for the team, and the most important : A fair distribution on allocation !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: this has been one of the major hurdles indeed, very very poor user experience
[Serge]: And forgot the most important, it now starts from 250 $DAO staked ! So even small holder can become part of the DAO Family !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I love that the entry barrier is kept fair, and it’s not just a rich man’s game
[Serge]: Well, it was a lot of stress for users and for us. Guaranteed allocations system based on $DAO staked is way easier to implement !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: So to continue on the topic of $DAO utility. We have staking for SHOs, venture yield etc. Now I also read about some governance voting.
You recently tweeted that the first governance vote was finished. I assume one has to hold $DAO tokens to be able to vote. What kind of decisions are being extended towards the tokenholders? What kind of changes were made in the last vote?
[Serge]: Actually, we reward more the people staying loyal to us : You actually can get a higher APR with less $DAO staked but for a longer period than a big stake in DAO Maker but for only 30 days.
Exactly, during our campaign made of 10 announcements, we opened our governance to $DAO stakers and holders !
So, the first proposal was related to the expansion to BSC ecosystem ! Governance voted, and we’re proud that our token holders voted for our BNB Chain conquest, this will for sure increase our userbase as well as the liquidity.
The question now is to clarify which bridge shall we use for this integration.
Regarding other proposals, we’re currently hiring governance admins so that ideas come directly from our community. Once posted, those are discussed on our discord server and if there’s enough traction we will organise a vote on our Snapshot : Gov.daomaker.com
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Excellent. A governance admin is someone the community votes on to represent them?
[Serge]: More power to the community, we bet on collective intelligence !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Wisdom of the crowd, I like it or idiocy sometimes 😂
[Serge]: 🤐 Actually, anyone with an idea can propose it. If it’s voted on Snapshot, then it means your able to qualify for an Admin Governance position.
We’re hiring a dozen of governance admins, those will have responsabilities such as managing the DAO Treasury, the rewards for Community Managers, organize proposals and so on.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: How can they apply? Any link they should visit or just apply in discord
[Serge]: A user must contact me on our Discord (S at DAO#3475), and send me their proposal. Once ready, I’ll post it on our governance forum and people will discuss about it. If there’s enough traction I’ll post it on gov.daomaker.com !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok great thanks for sharing. Well let’s get 2 quick questions in before we move to the community part 😉 20 questions total! 😄 so that will be quite something
If you could name 3 USPs about DAO Maker that really differentiate yourselves from the rest of the space, which ones would you tell us?
[Serge]: Ahahaha, would I be a terrible spokesman If I say that we work more right ?
More seriously, I believe our strategy to give an international aura to our clients is more than valuable for them. I mean some projects we incubated started with an Idea, and now have more than 50,000 followers on their Twitter account, a product in beta, and a supporting community. That is the first point.
The second point is of course, the utility of our token which generates double returns : On staking, and on allocation.
The third and last one, is that innovation is the core of our strategy. We either analyze what’s going on in the industry, see what’s work and what doesn’t, and implement on a weekly basis tiny changes.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Beautiful! the best way to stay ahead of the curve. So now for a final question my good Sir before we more to the communit part. Can you tell us about the roadmap and what plans do you have for 2022?
[Serge]: Heheh ! You know our Motto right ? Bringing Venture Capital to the Masses.
We’ll keep improving in this path : Enhancing the experience, and multiplying the financial opportunities for our users, creating additional products and making the transition between the old Finance and the new one.
Soon, we will announce a product that will provide a legal framework for all the token private sales. We believe it will lead the crypto industry, and especially the primary market to a new a dawn. A dawn where DAO Maker will be at the origin of those very promising projects.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: noice, you got all the raccoons at your lips ser. That sounds weird but yeah. It’s time for the community to pitch in!
LIVE QUESTIONS
Q1: Helo sir serge.. Welcome to raccoonfam, I want to know more details about staking on your platform, At what intervals are staking prizes paid out? for example at the end of the bet duration or every year when choosing to bet for 3 years? And When staking 50,000 DAO over 1095 days, I see that 41% APR is paid for staking but there is also 30% APR for SHO Results. What are SHO Results? Is it basically ROI on IDO? Or is it an extra prize on top of the 41% bet prize? Thank you
[Serge]: Hey Kenny ! Thanks for the warm welcome !
Staking rewards are given at the end of your staking period : If you stake for 3 years, you will receive all of them in 3 years. If you unstake before, then there’s fee applied to your staking rewards, and a part of them is burnt.
So that’s actually the 2 returns I mentionned with the $DAO token :
> You get a return by staking $DAO : This your casual APR.
> You get a return by participating to SHOs and is based on ROI of tokens launched on DAO Maker : This the APR for the SHO.
Q2: You Have Launched Many Projects in last 1 year, So what is the Experience of Last one year and What was the Response From the Projects team Members, Those who are Launched Through your Platform? Please tell about that?
[Serge]: Hey Binod ! Thanks for your question ! Experience is huge as you can believe, the market conditions kept degrading and there was a big delay in valuation. So we learnt a lot about what is expected by the market and why we should launch a particular project on a specific ecosystem like Solana or Cardano.
In the end, it’s all about the sustainability of the business : Revenue, Userbase (Community Building) and Liquidity. Those, will have a tremendous impact on your token growth !
Q3: As a new member how can i get a good chance for participating on the next SHOs ? also is the KYC mandatory ? if yes what countries can’t use the SHO product ?
[Serge]: Ayo Matt ! To participate in the next SHO you either need, at minimum, 250 $DAO staked (For the DAO SHO) or hold more than 500$ worth of tokens (For the public SHO) in your EVM wallet !
KYC is mandatory yes, we have to comply to european regulations.
We are not allowed to propose our services to North America region as well as countries like Iran, North Korea for legal reasons.
Q4: Hello,My question, #DaoMaker pre-sales almost always yield #highreturns. How do you achieve this? What features do you pay attention to in the #DaoMaker that you will pre-sell?
[Serge]: Yo Terazi ! Great question, this what made our success ! We’re extremely demanding for projects looking to be incubated. We’re looking at the team, their revenue, their metrics, tokenomics, marketing and most importantly their valuation !
Q5: Hi sir 🙌 I read that with the DAO Instant Swap feature, investors can exchange non-custodial wallet cryptocurrencies to DAO tokens on a decentralized exchange. What do I need to use DAO Instant Swap? How does the DAO Instant Swap works and what to do after swap?
[Serge]: Hey Steffi ! Sure, we made everything possible to ease the process to buy DAO on our platform. You actually just need to connect your wallet to daomaker.com, go to the dedicated page to buy more $DAO, approve the transaction, it will be routed through Uniswap smart-contract and you will receive your $DAO. But before doing all of this, make sure you have enough ETH in your wallet, otherwise you might not be able to perform the transaction.
Q6: Notably as number 1 platform in the crypto launchpad industry, how do you screen this projects/companies that approaches your team? There can be quite a lot of these companies since crypto is blooming as it time goes by.
[Serge]: Hello Senor De Vera ! It’s kinda related to Terazi question, we are checking all good variable that are essentials for business sustainability.
Q7: What scenarios could result in the refund of tokens? Are there any conditions that are primary exemptions to the refunds of tokens? What time period does the opportunity for token refunds end?
[Serge]: Hey Chukky ! This is something you could come up with in the governance discussion. I believe there’s already one proposal about this. Check it out 😉
Q8: I read in your Article that Dao Maker has a “Long Term Staking” system where Team Tokens are Locked for 3 years in VY.
Can you tell us more about this Long Term Staking? What is the function and how does it work? How can we participate in it, and what benefits will we get? Thanks ❤️
[Serge]: Bonjour Lovely DC ! Well, it’s a feature in the venture yield. You can stake your tokens for 3 years maximum !
Since we strongly believe in the fundamentals of our token, we staked our team tokens with our community. Not a single one of them, will be dumped on you guys.
Q9: I know that DAO Maker wants to work as a DAO, But I read your technical documentation and found no information about the structure you have developed for your “Governance Framework”. So, how does your DAO work? And Will it have a tiered based structure like other DAOs?
[Serge]: Bom Dia Katana ! We discussed this previously, we’re now in a way to become a DAO by hiring governance admins. Please check our discord server for more information.
TWITTER QUESTIONS
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Q3:
[Serge]: Guten Tag Casper ! Social mining is a product that used to reward users in tokens based on their social activity. This project has been halted in the beginning of 2021 as SHO was an extremely time-consuming and fruitful business.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Q4:
[Serge]: Priviet 1nch ! On average SHO project perform by 25x to 30x. You can check all the details on Cryptorank : https://cryptorank.io/ido-platforms-roi
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Q5:
[Serge]: Hey Luckypov ! Of course DAO Maker had hard times, some times the tech didn’t work out properly. Sometimes the distribution of tokens was sloppy. Sometimes, there was miscommunication between the team and the community. Of course, we heard feedback from people and then strive each day to improve things to reach the higher heights.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Q6:
[Serge]: Buenos Dia Alex Bitcoin ! This relies on many variables but first of all, the DAO Maker team is incredible. Techy, Loyal and engaged ! We’re ready to go through everything to achieve our goals. We’re demanding, for us, our users, and our clients. In the end, it’s all about the mindset. The sheer willingness of the team is unmatched, and so we push the boundaries each time.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Q7:
[Serge]: Ahnyong-seo MiracleBoy ! Well, to be part of the $DAO Fam, you need 250 $DAO staked at minimum. This amount, at the current price, is worth around 450$ if my maths are good 😉.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Q8:
[Serge]: YOYO Jay-Doe !
1) Is still true.
2) Social mining has been halted.
3) DYCO was done few time. SHO is our main business.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Q9:
[Serge]: Buon Giorno Parsa !
DAO Maker target customers are individuals who have an active interest in personal finance and financial security. Despite being a largely onchain operation, the support of fiat onramps helps serve customers who are new to blockchain tools like web3 wallets, making the target customer sphere cover both crypto veterans and novices.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Q10:
[Serge]: Konichiwa Chan ! DYCO is one of the former products of DAO Maker. It used to offer a refund in case of price of token releases going down a certain threshold. So in that case, you could have claimed a refund of your allocation and thus, never loose a single penny !
I think we’re good @DeFiNaut 😉!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Ok that’s it :-) thank you so much for being with us today Serge and for the generous prizepool to the raccoons. It’s much appreciated
[Serge]: Most welcome guys ! The honours was mine !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I hope you had a good time with us
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