Letter from Julian
It was all challenges from strangers from the beginning.
When I first deposited $250,000 worth of ETH into Uniswap for the liquidity of Duende tokens, dozens of people came into the Telegram group chat room and questioned me why I secretly launched the project with such a large amount of liquidity. I had no idea that the amount of liquidity might be a proxy for my seriousness. Although I had never been involved with Altcoins and Uniswap before, from quick research, I figured that people might suffer from greater volatility if there were only a small amount of liquidity. That was the only reason why I provided such a large amount of liquidity after doing some math.
People demanded me to prove if I am real and if the project is real. I answered all of their questions, but there was no way for me to prove it. I locked-up almost all the tokens as advised, including my ETH offered to liquidity. Initially, that was a loan taken from my personal fund in the view of accounting. The company was incorporated with 5,000 ordinary shares that have USD 1 par value each, with no paid-up capital. So the asset was transferred as a loan from me to the company. But anyway, I agreed to lock-up the liquidity as I understood their concerns. When I locked-up almost all the Duende tokens as well, suddenly, a lot of people began to join the Telegram group chat room, and it became more than 300 people.
People gathered in the Telegram group chat room urged me to do marketing and I was confused. What to advertise? There was no product and there was no customer. In light of the all up-and-down that happened throughout the great influx of people on that day -the day I locked almost all the Duende tokens- I could assume that this would happen again and again every time I do something they call “marketing”. So I decided to not commit to the marketing which is all about paying a thousand bucks for a few Tweets.
Unfortunately, since then, many people began to criticize me in the Telegram group chat room. At first, I answered every single question. But only within a few days, I began to feel tired. Many of their arguments about me were unfounded and had no support. But they constantly required me to show up in the Telegram group chat room. After having experienced the endless demand and criticism on the founder for the last few days, I decided to announce Duende token holders to exchange their Duende tokens back for ETH. The liquidity on Uniswap will be removed 3 months later, which is April 1st, 2021, as the Team lock-up is scheduled. I believe it would be enough time for everyone to receive the announcement and exchange the tokens given the fact that it has been only 1 week since the Duende token has been on Uniswap and more than 80 days left until the removal of the liquidity.
I believe I made the best decision for everyone. Both for me and for complaints. I will not take anybody’s money. I do not think that I can focus on developing the product when I have to deal with the Telegram group chat room like this. When you start your own startup, there are always naysayers. They will say that this startup is going to be a failure. You have to ignore them and push your dream harder. However, with the Telegram group chat room, I cannot do that. I have to constantly face their negative energy. It is definitely unhealthy for anybody to be taking shots from everyone that really does not know you as a person, you know. I have to see and respond to all those naysayers. Well, I heard that cryptocurrency businesses are different from normal businesses. But if running a cryptocurrency business is about providing 24/7 customer service dealing with the naysayers on the Telegram group chat room, I am not going to do that. I would rather take no one’s money and focus on developing the product alone.
I am certainly capable of making the service alone. It just takes a longer time than doing it in a team. It is expected to take about one year. Until then all Duende social media including the Telegram group chat room will be used as communication channels for me to ask people surveys from UI/UX to the way the app works to how to do sales to Venezuelan grocery chains. But NOT about Duende tokens and token economies. If your main interest is about how to make money through the tokens, I do not think you can benefit from being in the Telegram group chat room anymore. So you’d better leave. If you do not want to be involved with discussions but want to get updates on the progress, please subscribe to our Telegram channel, not the group. All the surveys will be announced through the Telegram channel, which is automatically delivered to the group as well. Also, the roadmap has returned to the original one. I changed it as all the people in the Telegram group chat room argued that the timeline is too slow and a cryptocurrency business is different. But as I do not take any others’ money, I will get back to the slowed-down one and stick to my own pace.
Still, I decided to hold an AMA(Ask Me Anything), even though you might think that there is no point to do that. What’s the point of AMA when the liquidity will be removed soon? I am holding the AMA just because I promised to do that. No other reason. So you can come to the Duende Facebook live and ask anything you want. It will be held on our Facebook page and the link is here. It will start on Saturday, January 9th, at 9:00 pm UTC.
I truly hope that you make a lot of money in this bull-run cycle, not from Duende tokens. Please make a quick move. I am a little sad to watch my ETH is locked-up for 3 months without leverages, but I will take it as my responsibility. Besides that, I also learned a lot from this short period. I am grateful for that and to you. See you on Saturday, January 9th.
January 8th, 2021
Sincerely,
Julian
