Chat with BM-Andrew from AmaZix
Andrew aka TheHun and Amazix are the premier community and bounty management group in the business. One of the originals in the business, Amazix have helped 100+ projects raise over 1.3Billion in the last year. As a key player in the space, we were priviledged to get some of Andrew’s time to learn more about his thoughts on the market, what ICOs can do better, and what he looks for in a successful project.
How did you first hear about BitcoinTalk?
Back in 2012 I discovered Bitcoin and started reading about it and quickly ended up in the forum. Although (unfortunately) it wasn’t until 2013 when I bought my first BTC. I still made a more than decent profit though :)
What were you doing before getting involved with cryptocurrency and bounty campaigns?
I’m an electronics engineer and until last year I also had a full time job as such. In the summer of 2017 I started volunteering for moderation of a Telegram group, later that activity became a full-time business and I took the role of bounty manager. Eventually I ended up leading a team of up to 20 persons involved with bounty management, and together we managed 80+ bounty campaigns successfully.
What was your proudest moment as a Bounty manager?
There is nothing more satisfying than ending an ICO that has sold out and having a big payout to distribute to a happy community. It’s the perfect win-win situation that fills us all with a sensation of achievement.
In some of our campaigns well over $1 million have been distributed between several thousands of participants and the grateful words of the community are the best reward a manager can get.
How can ICO’s run better bounty campaigns?
There are several precautions to take when planning a bounty campaign:
- Care has to be taken not to commit too many funds that could represent a very high percentage of the total supply in case the sale doesn’t go as planned (as in the current bear market)
- Bounty campaigns have to be customised towards the goals each particular project wants to reach (which channels are more relevant? What is the message the projects wants to convey? etc.)
- Remember that the main goal of a bounty campaign is to build up the community, it doesn’t replace a proper marketing campaign
- Prevent fraud (bots, multiaccount abusers, etc.) that is very present and hurts both the project and the community. This means using KYC in most cases, which is not ideal but necessary to minimise these issues.
There seems to be a big gap between the knowledge investors have and the knowledge Bounty Managers have. What elements do you look for in a successful project? What matters the most as an indicator of potential?
Projects have to be assessed previously for the sake of the community and of the bounty manager (who can also have his/her reputation damaged if managing a project that turns out to be a scam).
The mosts important things to check are:
- Who is behind the project? Can the identity of the promoters be verified?
- Are their targets realistic?
- Do they have a proper set-up in place (registered company, White Paper, website, etc)?
- Is there at least a prototype of their product available for review?
- How saturated is the market and how innovative is the product?
- Are they investing in a proper marketing campaign?
There is a unique perspective Bounty Managers have on the industry, because they get exposed to so many projects and are the direct connection with investors and users. What do you think ICOs and blockchain projects could do better in general?
ICOs have been raising a lot of easy money in 2017 and the first moths of 2018. This has made many participants in the market lose perspective and target way too high hard caps (which in many cases have been met). In too many cases companies have ended up sitting on huge piles of cash without a proper plan of what to do with it. The current bear market, however painful it is, is weeding out these projects and bringing expectations back to earth.
ICOs and STOs should show much more detailed plans about what they will do with the money and have at least an MVP or prototype to show, it’s unrealistic to raise millions with just a good idea.
Also, more attention has to be paid to how the investors will get a return. In way too many cases the tokens they purchased will never increase their value enough to make a positive ROI. Utility tokens by definition don’t give any equity, dividends or voting rights to the holders and therefore the power and influence of the purchasers is very limited. Even if a token is categorised as a utility, early purchasers will still want to see a return or otherwise they will have no incentive to buy in.
How important do you think BitcoinTalk is to the crypto world? Should every blockchain/crypto project have a presence?
Bitcointalk is today still the #1 cryptocurrency forum out there, there is no discussion about that. However, there are many nascent new forums that are growing quickly and bring many new features that improve on Bitcointalk’s old and non-evolving design, such as the Moon Forum.
Which altcoin are you most bullish on in 2019?
I believe 2019 will be the year of STOs. Equity tokens will solve all the aforementioned issues with utility tokens once they are properly regulated and the technology is mature enough. Some of the big actors in this world that are racing now to boost STOs are SMART VALOR, MOBU, Securitize.io, and LXDX. All of them have amazing projects being developed that will foster STOs and can make a big hit.
What do you think about today’s market?
As I mentioned earlier today’s market is a consequence of the irrationality of last year, where everything was mooning regardless of its fundamentals. And of course, the low market cap and lack of regulation makes it an easy playground for market manipulators.
I still believe blockchain technologies will be the future, and we are yet to see the boom of STOs and tokenization of real-world assets. If investors are able to approach this with more rationality there will be a slower but much more sustainable growth.
Would you consider leaving cryptocurrency as a job in today’s market?
I enjoy the world of blockchain very much and I’m not planning to quit any time soon but there are many other things I would be happy doing if the time comes. Life is full opportunities :)
In order of importance, how would you rank the following? Whitepaper, Github Link, ANN, Bounty Campaign, Tokenomics, Team, Product Potential, Media Exposure
1- Team and Product Potential: everything else is irrelevant if there is no product with a good potential and a team capable of bringing it to the top
2- Tokenomics, White Paper: a good presentation material and token design are paramount to a successful sale
3- Bounty Campaign, Media Exposure: both are of equal importance and complementary activities
4- ANN, Github link: an ANN is supporting material, it is important to have a presence in the forum but less than a well designed website and White Paper. The Github link is relevant only for some projects.
Reach out to AmaZix Official on the following channels:
1. Telegram: https://t.me/amazix
2. Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmaZixOfficial
3. Website: http://www.amazix.com/
4. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmaZixOfficial
5. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmaZixOfficial/
