ICONOMI Q&A Session: March Edition
If you joined us for our Reddit AMA March Edition, you already learned about the progress of the fiat ramp-up, automated rebalancing, and other plans for the near and distant future. In case you weren’t with us, we’ve summed up our answers to the top 20 questions below.
Do you still believe we can reach $1 billion AUM until end of 2018 (excluding CCP & BLX)?
by investmox
Our projections are always based on the AUM of all our DAAs. We are still targeting $1B AUM by the end of 2018, including BLX and CCP.
We believe the initiatives we are taking now — new features, the upcoming fiat ramp-up, Meet the Managers events, etc. — will continue to resonate with more and more users and increase the size of our user base. As we continue to lower the minimum seed amount for DAA creation, we will also have an increasingly diverse range of DAAs available, which will also attract new users.
Do you see any potencial threats or strong competitors against ICONOMI?
by investmox
We have always had a wide range of competitors, both direct and indirect, not only from companies exclusively dealing with the crypto-economy (such as exchanges), but also from traditional investment service providers, investment funds, and asset managers. We are always aware of the competition, but we believe the best way to succeed is to focus our efforts on what we can control: continuous improvement and expansion of our platform, user base, and range of DAAs. Ultimately, competition is good for the entire industry, and we embrace it.
Currently it is a manual process for DAA managers to rebalance their portfolios. In which quarter of this year is iconomi expecting that process to be automated?
by stephen2512
Rebalancing is mostly an automated process; the only manual aspect is the requirement for DAA managers to provide their proposed structure to ICONOMI for rebalancing. At this stage, we are monitoring the rebalancing algorithm to ensure it continues working as it should, and the entire process will be automated in Q2.
Do you plan to become an exchange in the future, perhaps in 2019?
by JMelchor
As mentioned in our ICONOMI in 2018 blog post, direct purchase of individual digital assets is on our roadmap for 2018. However, it is too early to detail any specifics.
At what point and time in 2018 will ICONOMI be ready to market itself in terms of advertising?
by harillen
At this time, our marketing and communications efforts are focused on creating awareness via traditional channels — traditional media, Meet the Managers events, digital media platforms, etc. Marketing and branding are essential to the success of the platform, and both are already in motion. We will be increasing our marketing efforts in the second half of 2018.
Did you try to reach out to very known blockchain investment firms to use your platform?
by investmox
We are involved in discussions with many different institutions with different needs and requirements, but we can’t disclose specific companies.
Any progress on the in-house cold storage systems you are developing to add coins to the platform that don’t have their own version of cold storage like NEO?
by ohweoh
We are dedicating resources to exploring options for storage systems for coins that use their own blockchain, but we do not have an ETA at this time.
If in United States this regulation is applied, in what position would ICONOMI be to enter the US market?
by JMelchor
This ruling does not cover the entire scope of the crypto-economy. It has been established that there are three basic types of digital assets: virtual currencies, security tokens, and utility tokens. Only utility tokens and to some extent virtual currencies can be defined as commodities under this regulation. This means that this ruling may help to some degree but is not by itself a basis on which ICONOMI can enter the US market.
Is fiat gateway for large deposits still in plan for begining of Q2 or have there been any new or recent delays towards that milestone?
by kujnekdo
Yes, the launch of the fiat ramp-up is still planned for the beginning of Q2. During the first stage of implementation, the ramp-up will be offered for individual users to deposit larger amounts, and it will scale from there.
Are you working on “direct buying/selling of a single digital asset” feature and why is it taking too long?
by Sm00kew
Please see our answer to this question.
What happened with the recovery of the ether lost or in limbo from the Parity multisig?
by 444pkpk
At this time, the funds frozen due to the Parity multisig wallet bug remain locked. We have opened communication with members of the Ethereum community, and if there are any developments, we will update our community accordingly.
Does ICONOMI plan to significantly increase it’s team size this year?
by JoshWidner
Yes, we have been adding new team members and will continue to do so — seven new team members have joined us in Q1 so far. We are actively recruiting for roles in development and marketing.
In your whitepaper it was indicated that 100% of ICN represents 100% of Iconomi (including assets and so on). Do you (your legal department) have any idea when it will be possible to move forward on this point?
by PopopopFR
Yes, the vision outlined in the white paper has not changed. However, you’re right that the crypto market is still extremely novel from a legal point of view. Tokens and the tokenization of assets are even more novel and disruptive in a legal sense, and it will take time for corporate law to catch up.
As an ICONOMI investor, I would like to see an updated comparison of Iconomi vs other players addressing the same area of business in the crypto market. Would it be possible for you to write a medium article with a deep comparative analysis?
by PopopopFR
We are constantly monitoring our competitors and developing strategies and tactics for maintaining our strong market position, but we do not currently have plans to publicly release a comparative analysis due to the fast-moving pace of the crypto-economy.
Is it possible that ICONOMI will consider in the future that DAA administrators could perform short operations by borrowing assets from other DAA, ICN hodlers, Pinta, exchanges, etc. Would administrators be interested in this functionality?
by JMelchor
Thank you for your suggestion; we love to see engaged community members. We are certainly exploring these kinds of strategies and features, and something like your suggestion could be implemented in the future.
Are there any plans to automate the creation of DAAs/signup of DAA managers?
by Wirelessjeano
Yes, we plan to release a tool for the first phase of automated creation of DAAs starting in Q2, but sign-ups will still require an application. We will be lowering the minimum required seed amount to $50K, and anyone who wants to apply to become a DAA manager is invited to contact us at daa.manager@iconomi.net.
How is the progress towards public launch going, with any delays or estimated dates in mind?
by kujnekdo
The platform was released to the public in October 2017 when we launched 12 DAAs and introduced our first group of DAA managers. Public DAA manager sign-ups are being implemented on a gradual basis. As mentioned in our blog post on the introduction of fees payable in ICN, we will be lowering the minimum required seed amount to $50K, and we will continue to lower this amount in the future. Anyone interested in becoming a DAA manager is welcome to contact us at daa.manager@iconomi.net.
In the next Meet the Managers events of London and Madrid I can see managers (as speakers) whose DAA I do not see listed in the dashboard. When you are going to give information about all those who are private or not visible?
by JMelchor
Some of these managers run private DAAs, and some will have public DAAs on the platform in the near future. It is up to DAA managers to choose their level of visibility.
If you check the CCP information on your website it looks like the last CCP ICO investment has been in September 2017. Why haven’t there been any other investments since then?
by Gurney_Halleck_
For technical reasons, our platform is not currently displaying the correct structure for CCP. We plan to fix this issue by the end of the month. The latest CCP investments can be viewed in Columbus Capital’s January Update and Fact Sheet blog post.
When can we expect Blockchain.one to be listed on a stock exchange?
by ghbot
Columbus Capital COO Anthony Beaumont answered:
First, it’s important to note that we have two funds: Nina and Blockchain.One. Nina will be the first to be ready. We expected Nina to be ready this month but our partners we are working with (Helford Capital Partners, Moore Stephens (Auditor), SGGG (administrator) insisted on slowing down the process to make sure we have no delay with the regulator. This approach led to our FCA Appointed Representative license being approved within 48h of being submitted. We are waiting on two more steps with Nina: A) the bank account for the fund, B) FCA approval for the fund. All going well, everything will be completed by mid April.
Second, Blockchain.One looks set to follow a similar timeline but has encountered a number of issues along the way. This is not problematic since we only need one of Nina and Blockchain.One to be ready (they are, effectively the same thing). We are building two funds so that at least one is ready as soon as possible.
Third, we will be announcing plans for seeding of Nina with a press release on Tuesday 3rd April 2018.
Fourth, Nina will be listed on the Vienna or Irish Stock Exchange. This will take place in May or June. Importantly, a listing is only to do with the marketing of the fund and is not related to its ability to raise or invest funds.
What’s for lunch at ICONOMI HQ?
We have regular office lunches, usually at least twice a week, with a variety of different foods — yesterday it was pizza.
And we eat crypto for breakfast.
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