This is the second part of the “Scaling Maecenas” series. You can read Part 1 here.
Technology Platform
As a FinTech company, technology is undeniably very important to us. This is reflected in the demographic of our team, of which 40% are blockchain technology experts specializing in software development, infrastructure and cybersecurity.
We’re proud of our tech team. Despite working to a very tight deadline, we managed to launch the beta platform on schedule and without any major issues. As an investment platform, security is paramount as any breach could lead to a direct monetary loss. We put a strong focus on cybersecurity when building our platform and we will continue to do so as we grow.
Overall, we consider the beta version of our platform which we launched back in June, to have been highly successful.
The facts
- We built our beta version over our existing prototype (our alpha product) meaning we were able to deliver the beta platform reasonably quickly.
- Some of the alpha components, with regards in particular to the User Interface, were already using outdated technology (e.g. AngularJS).
- The Andy Warhol auction was run entirely on cryptocurrencies. The approximate $1.7m worth of funds received were safely kept in cold storage. There were no issues or glitches.
- The Dutch auction process, implemented as a smart contract on Ethereum, operated exactly as intended and designed.
- Approximately 6 million ART tokens (6% of the total supply) were used within the first auction alone and were processed successfully by our platform.
- The KYC processes implemented by our platform were manual but highly effective for the low volume of investors we allowed to participate.
The reasons
- In order to fully exploit our first-to-market advantage, evolving our alpha version to the current beta version was the quickest approach to going live.
- We prioritized security over user experience, for example, withdrawals of cryptocurrencies were processed manually.
- Considering the low volume of users expected for the beta, we chose not to focus on automating processes.
Our plans
- Fully revamp our UI/UX to have a best-in-class front-end platform.
- Make the platform mobile-friendly.
- Fully redesign our artwork shares exchange. Currently, our exchange is based on old JS frameworks and looks dated; this will be modernised.
In future posts I will be covering these other important topics:
- ART token economics and utility
- Long term objectives
Originally published at blog.maecenas.co.
