Welcome to our October 2018 announcement blog and a long awaited update. The team have had an action-packed couple of months and have a few massive updates to share. In short, we have expanded our scope from just a product company to an infrastructure focused entity. This means that outside of our internal projects of MyBit Go and MYDAX, we are open sourcing our SDKs to make it easy for anyone to build, test, deploy, and maintain a wide range of wealth management use cases on Ethereum. All powered by the MyBit Network. The MyBit Token (MYB) acts as the native token that powers all dApps built using MyBit infrastructure and we have implemented a burning functionality which constantly reduces the overall supply of the MyBit Token. This means that not only is MYB burnt for using MyBit Go and MYDAX, but also any dApp utilising the MyBit Network. We have also been working with Status.im and have made massive strides towards our vision of becoming a decentralised and automated company. Finally, we have some news about the second phase of the MyBit Token Distribution.
A New Business Model
Since we started the MyBit project, we’ve gradually realised that the project can expand far beyond the Internet of Things alone. While our core focus will remain on our original dApps — MyBit Go and MYDAX — we’re widening our vision.
“MyBit Go and MYDAX will be our first dApps in a suite of applications — all running on the MyBit Network.”
The whole project is moving towards infrastructure. Specifically, infrastructure that helps to distribute wealth around the world. MyBit Go and MYDAX will be our first dApps in a suite of applications — all running on the MyBit Network.
The reason for this shift is the scale of opportunity. Globally, PwC estimates that assets under management are going to nearly double from $84.9T in 2016 to $145.4T by 2025 — with 10% of all assets stored on the blockchain by 2025.
MyBit can be part of this growth and revolutionise the whole industry. Our vision is to create the infrastructure for the next era of wealth management. That is, dApps covering everything from investments and payrolls to wills and trusts — and many more. All powered by MyBit.
Our initial goal is to create the essential building blocks, the infrastructure and tools needed to rapidly build on top of the MyBit Network. Think not just dApps but Software Development Kits (SDKs) and other developer Toolkits. We’re building our Network following a single, unifying vision: to disrupt modern day finance and put control back into the hands of the people.
In effect, the MyBit Network is a business logic layer on top of the Ethereum blockchain, which in turn becomes a protocol for building wealth management applications. The SDKs will be critical by enabling any developer to build decentralised financial applications. Smart contracts. JavaScript classes. Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). These toolkits are the starting point for developers to perform actions against our stack, while also increasing their development speed. Crucially, we’re providing developers the tools and an ever-growing range of additional resources to build all kinds of apps. Some of which we’ve not even imagined yet. And it’s funded by the MyBit Decentralised Development Fund, the DDF.
Introducing the Decentralised Development Fund (DDF)
To build a truly autonomous and decentralised organisation — as well as a strong community — we need to support and reward developers. We want to incentivise them, wherever they are in the world, to contribute to the development of the MyBit Network. That’s why we’re launching the MyBit DDF.
The fund will reimburse developers for any of the tasks they perform for the MyBit Network. They can see what tasks — some large, some small — which are available on our page and will be rewarded with MYB. It will become, in effect, the lifeblood supporting the development of the MyBit Network. The best bit is, anyone can contribute at their own leisure; there’s no lengthy on-boarding meaning it’s truly frictionless to set up.
It works like this: The DDF is a single smart contract that’s owned by no central party. It’s sole purpose is to contribute to the wider success of the MyBit Network by bringing products from the prototype phase to production ready applications. This is essential as we build the Network, including our dApps, and move towards a truly decentralised structure.
“The DDF will become, in effect, the lifeblood supporting the development of the MyBit Network.”
So, whenever a developer completes a ‘micro task’ such as new functionality development, security, design, marketing, or anything else that adds value to a specific application built on the MyBit Network, they’re rewarded.
There are many advantages to this. Through the DDF, we’ll be able to scale at a much faster rate, in a much more cost effective way, and resources are moved to where they’re most needed. What’s more, we’ll be able to provide additional support to developers who want to build viable new concepts on top of the MyBit Network.
Initially, five million MYB (roughly 2.8% of supply) will be allocated as rewards for tasks. This will broaden the distribution of MyBit Tokens instead of conducting an airdrop. In the future, we’ll likely replenish the fund with ETH as 50% of the funds contributed during phase 2 of the token distribution will be allocated directly to the DDF. Once that is diminished, MyBit should be close to being a fully decentralised organisation and the community should be able to vote how to proceed — either by replenishing it with MYB from the treasury, converting to ETH, or another solution all together.
Currently only our existing dApps — like MyBit Go — are eligible to receive funding through the DDF. In the future, other applications built on the MyBit Network will be able to receive funding through the DDF. In that way, we’ll kickstart a truly autonomous and decentralised organisation with a whole suite of revolutionary dApps. All powered by the MyBit Network.
A Fully Automated and Decentralised Future
Our original vision of an autonomous, decentralised organisation remains — now it’s just bigger. The MyBit Foundation is still our non-profit parent organisation, with MyBit AG contracted to develop the Network’s core infrastructure. While MyBit may start as a centralised entity, our aim is to slowly implement decentralised features, eventually turning MyBit into a truly decentralised autonomous organisation — by the end of 2019.
Why did we adopt this approach? As we have seen with other attempts at creating a DAO, there needs to be extensive guidance and checkpoints in the early stages. This is why we’re starting centralised — to push the Network in the right direction — before gradually implementing decentralised functions over time.
As mentioned above, our initial focus has to be on the infrastructure. These are the building blocks — the tools — needed to rapidly build on top of MyBit. Our dApps, SDKs and Toolkits will provide the foundation for sustainable growth — the essential bedrock and community needed for a DAO.
In the mid-term, we’ll use our Decentralised Development Fund to move development away from MyBit AG to the community. At the same time, we’ll begin migrating funds away from the Foundation’s sole control. The focus at this point will be to scale up development on top of MyBit’s core infrastructure, nurturing new applications and moving current ones into production.
In the long-term, development will be fully decentralised through the DDF. There will still be the MyBit Foundation Board but it will have expanded to include people from all over the world with different interests in the MyBit project. And, crucially, all governance decisions will be voted on using a consensus-based protocol such as Aragon’s offering.
Ultimately, by the end of 2019, all funds will be held in DAOs or other smart contracts and community governance and funding will be fully integrated. We will have created a fully decentralised autonomous organisation for the next era of wealth management.
The Token Distribution
To fund this shift in our organisation, we’ll be hosting phase 2 of our token distribution with a portion of the tokens from our treasury. The token sale will start on 1 January and run for 365 days with 100,000 MYB being released every 24 hours. That’s a total of 36.5 million.
Why did we choose a slower, staggered distribution of tokens? First and foremost, we wanted to protect existing token holders. Since our token is already live, we wanted to avoid any manipulation of the market. We hope a staggered sale will provide greater stability and avoid unnecessary volatility when it comes to token price. The last thing we want is to upset existing token holders, who will still be able to sell on the market during the sale. For all of these reasons, a staggered distribution is the logical way to go.
“The token sale will start on 1 January and run for 365 days with 100,000 MYB being released every 24 hours. That’s a total of 36.5 million.”
In addition, this will enable a fair price for MYB, dictated by the market. Right now there’s a lack of sellers and liquidity resulting in larger investors being unable to effectively enter the market. This solves that issue. If the token costs less on exchanges than the token sale, people will arbitrage to naturally reach an equilibrium. Since our token is already traded, this model makes the most sense.
There are a couple other, critical reasons for this model.
Lastly, increasing the supply, will help enable rapid growth and running the sale over a longer period allows us to organically showcase developments and let contributors make informed decisions without any of the hype which tends to dominate this market. The MyBit project has a crucial year ahead and this approach will support that.
We hope that all of our contributors understand the vision and reasoning behind our token distribution model: we want to scale up our growth very, very quickly. Growing the Network is the critical part of our thinking. After all, we’d rather have a 1% share in a billion dollar company than a 10% share in a million dollar one. More details will be released over the upcoming months.
Introducing the Newest Members of the Team
To deliver this new vision, we need a team with the right capabilities. That’s why we’re putting in a lot of effort to build a team with the right foundations for the project to really take off. With this in mind, the past couple of months has seen the MyBit team nearly triple in size.
“We’re pleased to welcome Chris, Dan, Hua and Rory.”
First off, we’ve scaled up our marketing team. We’re pleased to welcome Chris, Dan, Hua and Rory. Chris joins us as our Marketing Manager, he’s an experienced digital marketing consultant with a track record in international financial advisory. Supporting him is Dan, our North America Community Manager. Dan is an IT security professional, avid crypto enthusiast and all around hustler who will be keeping our Telegram channel in order — amongst a range of other duties.
We’d also like to introduce Hua, our China Community Manager. Hua’s been involved in the blockchain space since 2013 before offering translations services for all kinds of projects. And, lastly, Rory who will be Community Manager for the Asia-Pacific region. Rory’s already an active member of the MyBit community, and he’s now keeping our Telegram in check.
“Introducing Peter, Ivan, Dayan, William and Valeriy.”
The tech team has also grown — adding Peter, Ivan, Dayan, William and Valeriy to the team. Peter was an early miner of Bitcoin and Ethereum with five years of development experience. He now specialises in Solidity, which will be his focus at MyBit. Ivan is a React developer with over three years of professional front end experience. Dayan joins us from Sheffield University, where he was on a Google scholarship. Both will be applying their development skills to supercharge MyBit’s user interface.
We’d also like to welcome William, a business analyst who specialises in blockchain, smart contracts and auditing as well as Valeriy, a developer with eleven years of experience in JavaScript and React. They complete our current team, ready to take the MyBit project into its new era. Please join us in welcoming everyone!
A Final Thought
So that brings us to the end of our announcement blog. As per our original roadmap, MyBit Go’s public Alpha v.0.2 will be launching prior to Devcon at the end of the month along with the Decentralised Development Fund, SDKs, and reinvented whitepaper plus website. We’ll also be announcing some new micro dApps in the coming weeks too — so keep a watch out for those!
In the meantime, we’ll be hosting a special Ask Me Anything on Reddit, where you can talk to us about any of the changes happening at MyBit. And remember, you can always reach out to us on our Telegram.
Until next time! And if you are attending Devcon or local to Prague please apply to join the CryptoLife Hackathon on October 26–28 where MyBit is working hard to make it an amazing success with Status, OmiseGo, and Consensys Labs to name a few. It is expected that over 500 of the leading developers and minds in the Ethereum Ecosystem will be attending, and it is the first public opportunity to hack away at the MyBit SDKs and ToolKits under guidance by the MyBit Team. https://hackathon.status.im/
“Devcon is by far my favourite conference year over year — nothing compares to it — and this hackathon is going to be epic.” — Ian Worrall, Founder @ MyBit
The MyBit Team.
