SparkPoint and Ownly AMA Session: The Recap
Meeting the NFT Startup in the Philippines and the first-ever project to launch in SparkPoint’s Launchpad platform.
Last July 19, the Ownly team shared their time to participate in the AMA session with the SparkPoint Community as guests. Ownly’s CEO, Ismael Jerusalem, and CTO, Bernard Historillo, represented the team to answer all the questions about their non-fungible token (NFT) focused project. They also shared the stories behind Ownly.
But first, what is Ownly and OWN?
Ownly is a pioneer NFT Startup based in the Philippines like SparkPoint.
Backed with over 2+ years of experience in the NFT and blockchain industry, Ownly is a governance token-based, NFT-focused marketplace, curator, and blockchain platform with an existing basket portfolio of NFT artworks that enable creators and collectors to optimize the genuine value of NFT assets. Ownly was established to be a meeting place of artwork and collectors in the crypto space. It offers a decentralized NFT marketplace, staking, NFT launching and curation, and NFT-focused and energy-efficient blockchain platform in a seamless, transparent, secure, inclusive, and interoperable approach.
Ownly’s native utility token, OWN, is the very first token project to launch in the SparkLaunch launchpad platform.
The Recap
Karan: Hi Community!
It’s time for another SparkPoint AMA session. This time for the AMA, we have Ownly.
OWNLY is governance, token-based NFT platform that enables creators and collectors to optimize the authentic value of NFT assets. Ownly is created to be a meeting place of artworks and collectors in the crypto space.
$OWN Token is the native utility token of Ownly, users can buy, own, collect, and trade 1 of 1 edition crypto artworks by talented artists. Own the only true copy and there’s nothing else like that in the world — as if it’s made just for you.
Before we start with AMA — we would like to have a small introduction about Ismael and Ownly.
Ismael: Hi, my name is Ismael Jerusalem. You can just call me Isma. I’m the CEO & Founder of Ownly. Glad to be here with the Sparkies! Our team is based here in the Philippines.
Bernard: I am Bernard Historillo, the Chief Technology Officer. I am the one handling the development team.
Karan: Cool! That’s a nice introduction. Now, let’s go to some questions I have for you.
Karan: What inspired the founders to start Ownly?
Ismael: We are exploring the intersection of technology and art on the blockchain through NFTs since 2018. We are always looking for an innovative approach to present creativity and technology. The pursuit of creativity and curiosity to build a startup that will play the long-term game of the blockchain industry inspires us to pivot CryptoSolitaire (our first NFT startup since 2018) to Ownly focusing more on the art aspect through NFTs.
Karan: What is the problem that you see in the crypto and art industry? And how do you want to solve that problem through Ownly (aka problem-solution)?
Ismael: Ohh that’s a great question.
Blockchain and NFT Technology provide the solution to the big problem in our creative industry, which is the creative thieves or what we call the “Creathieves”. By providing proof of ownership through blockchain and NFTs, it’s easier to identify if an item is provably scarce, authentic, true ownership, rarity, and uniqueness of an item. Scarcity is an important ingredient in the recipe that makes NFTs so attractive.
Ownly provides Marketing and Innovation through NFT and blockchain technology to support artists and collectors at the same time. We are empowering the solution provided by this emerging technology, blockchain. We are the innovators that empower the given solution to amplify it and enable creators and collectors to optimize the true authentic value of these assets.
Karan: What separates Ownly from the rest of its competitions?
Ismael: Our CTO will give the community our best answers for this one.
Bernard: Ownly is a Pioneer NFT-focused startup, established for more than two years already as CryptoSolitaire. We have an unfair advantage of lower cost of operations in the Philippines. We have strong backing from established crypto project SparkPoint and a wide network of talented artists, experienced team with expert advisors.
The brand is already gaining traction. The team has internationally recognized/awarded artists and creative advisors. We have a fully transparent team versus other anonymous/pseudonymous teams. In progress establishment of strong partnerships with industry players like OpenSea.
Karan: What do you think are the best traits of the whole Ownly team that position you all as one of the few industry leaders in the Philippines?
Ismael: My answer will sum up what does the team behind Ownly looks like. As mentioned earlier, we have a fully transparent team versus other anonymous/pseudonymous teams. Our team has a long-term vision and doesn’t abandon projects. I have mentioned earlier too that we started as CryptoSolitaire in 2018. It’s a combination of games and art, powered by blockchain technology. Where we got 13th place during Decentraland Game Jam 2019 via our 3D CryptoSolitaire Game. Then the pandemic arrives. We iterate to focus more on the art aspect in Ownly by 2020.
Karan: Well I must say — you used the time better way with the artwork. Most of us killed it by playing games/getting bored.
Ismael: And now, I’m proud to say that the team behind Ownly has a growth mindset, iterative, and continuous improvement approach. One of the best traits we have as a team is we are a fun bunch, and I think that speaks volumes in this industry. We take pride in being honest and transparent and we make sure to lift each other so we can always put our best foot forward in every project, every event, every campaign. And the best thing about our team is we trust each other. We trust the expertise of each team member in their particular fields and that’s how (as cliche as it may sound) we make the “dream” work.
Karan: Let’s talk about the collection. Can you tell me more about Ownly’s trending moment at OpenSea a few weeks ago with your inaugural artist, Lei Melendres’ Inkvadyrz Collection?
Ismael: Things were unexpected by the time our Collection hit the trending spot on the main site of the world’s first and largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea. The art of our featured artist Lei Melendres with 100K+ followers on Instagram created the Inkvadyrz, and his art style and art skills in creating doodle art were exceptional. And I think his creativity puts Ownly and the Inkvadyrz collection on the trending spot. Of course, the support of our growing community and collectors — they always play side to side in reaching such honorable achievements for a growing NFT Focused Startup like us in Ownly.
Karan: How do you feel about making it to the Top 20 on OpenSea for the first time?
Ismael: It was a very proud moment for an NFT project like us to get the 18th rank on that day.
Karan: Congratulations on the achievement, by the way!
Ismael: As we all witness that the NFT market slows down months after the recent boom of the industry. It boosts the morale of the team to continuously improve, and deliver the projects we have in our roadmap.
Karan: What inspired this second NFT collection, Eugene Oligo’s Titans of Industry?
Ismael: Alright! Let’s talk about our recently launched NFT collection on Binance Smart Chain in our Ownly NFT Marketplace. NFT and Crypto in general is rapidly growing, there are big players or what we call “WHALES” leading the industry.
Our 2nd collection aims to recognize these whales or what we call the “TITANS of INDUSTRY”. Our collection will help new players recognize the industry leaders playing the long-term game of the crypto space. It’s also a perfect concept for our featured artist Eugene Oligo, he’s a young, talented, multimedia artist who’s exceptional in creating surreal art. We will be having an online interview with him this week in our The Mint Episode 2 (Our live session of interviews with the artists), you can watch our live interview with him to know more about the collection and the gifted artist behind this collection. Our upcoming interview also serves as proof of transparency to our community that we support and empower our featured artists.
And by the way, few hours after we launched the alpha version of our OWNLY NFT MARKETPLACE on Binance Smart Chain, one of our Titans was sold for 10 BNB. And we are so glad and proud at the Ownly HQ after that sale was made. You can check our marketplace at https://ownly.io/marketplace to grab your #OwnNFT too.
Karan: Wow! That’s a big amount though. Now, time for the questions from the perspective of creators.
What rewards or prizes can your NFT collectors claim?
Ismael: Alright! That’s one of our key features in Ownly. We want to reward our collectors who support our artists and purchase their #OwnNFT. As we search for the next “beeple”, “fewocious”, “hackatao”, “fvckrender” or “pak” of the NFT Industry. We want to incentivize our collectors by giving them an NFT Reward for collecting our NFTs. They supported our featured artists and at the same, they are giving exposure to them, which gives us an advanced step forward to identify who will be the next iconic NFT artist. And just to mentioned, we are also adding perks, benefits, and utilities in each of our Ownly NFTs to incentivize our community and NFT holders. We prepare unique NFT Rewards for each collection.
Karan: That’s interesting!
Ismael: For our Inkvadyrz Collection, a full-blown piece of all the Single Edition doodle characters will be given to the first collector to own a Legendary Card + 9 other cards in any rarities. While in our Titans of Industry collection, a 3D Golden OWN Token at the space or what we call “THE NECTAR” will be given to the first collector who will own 4 Titans.
Identifying the value of our NFT reward asset will not be difficult. The required NFTs can be the basis of their value, and the collector who owns them might also benefit from them in the future.
Karan: What can we expect from the Token Generation Event and IDO on the SparkPoint Launchpad this coming July 25th?
Ismael: Alright! Our CTO will answer that one.
Bernard: There will be a total supply of 10 Billion OWN Tokens. The expected OWN circulating supply is 3 billion which has an Initial Market Cap of $90,000.00 at the Initial DEX Offering price of $0.000030 per token. This gives us a lot of space for growth. And our team is capable of starting small and launching big projects.
The Initial Dex Offering will be performed in SparkSwap Decentralized Exchange. The mechanics for joining will be announced together with SparkPoint very soon.
Karan: Anything else you want to share with us or want us to know about $OWN?
Bernard: We will also launch a perpetual staking contract that supports OWN, SRKb, and other partner tokens where stakers can earn OWN tokens earned from the proceeds of our NFT sales and watch out for the schedule of our Buyback and burn of OWN tokens on the Q4 of 2021.
Karan: Cool! No, let’s move towards questions from the Twitter round.
Ismael: Let’s go!
Twitter Round
Q: One of the main problems with smart contracts today is that there is a very high risk of bugs that allow hackers to steal the funds and incur significant losses for the project and its users. Can you tell us about the solutions that SPO offers to prevent this?
B: The developer team undergoes an extensive methodical and analysis of a contract’s source code during its development lifecycle. A thorough check is done on every method to check for any mess and vulnerabilities. The use of standardized smart contracts also helps to ensure our methods are reliable.
Q: What are the top priorities for your project this year and what plan will you do for the development, main vision and goal of your project? Who are the target customers?
I: That’s a great question! We are aiming to create an NFT-focused, environment-friendly blockchain by 2022 so we can execute lots of innovative products and collections for the industry. But for this year, we have collaborated with our talented featured artists like our inaugural collection Inkvadyrz created by Lei Melendres, an outstanding doodle artist and professional illustrator based in the Philippines with 100K+ followers on Instagram. We have launched our 2nd NFT Collection, Titans of Industry created by a gifted young multimedia artist who’s exceptional in creating surreal art which we launched in the Alpha version of OWNLY NFT Marketplace on Binance Smart Chain.
Interoperability is one of our key features. We also have exciting projects to launch in different blockchains like Polygon, Solana, Cardano, and other established NFT platforms. And especially the launch of our OWN Token will amplify each NFT Projects that we are going to launch.
Karan: Wow that’s going to be very exciting ahead!
Q: Community support is one of the key catalysts to fuel a project to success. Most projects have social programs that interact with their users. Do you have any important plans to attract and expand the community outreach & improve the users’ experience?
I: Right now we are elaborating our Community Management Plan and as soon as we get our campaigns in order, we are going to focus on the community experience of each user. Expect a lot of live videos, Q and As, bigger content, and more. We are looking forward to working closely with the community.
Q: Marketing is vital for every project so that everyone knows the potential of it. What is your strategy to attract new users and investors to your platform and keep them long-term?
I: Since we just relaunched, we are currently experimenting on what marketing strategies will work best. It’s a trial and error especially since the NFT industry is now expanding and we’re attracting a lot of individuals with diverse backgrounds. But we always depend on the definite data that we collect to empower our decision-making process. Our main goal is not just to gain brand awareness but rather to increase our retention rate through email marketing and 1:1 conversations. We are also reaching out to a lot of potential partners to widen our reach. Rest assured we’re always brewing something big here at the Ownly HQ. We at Ownly also take pride in having a fun and warm voice. We always make sure that our projects are interesting and conversational and in marketing, we don’t want to make it too technical and make it as relatable as possible.
Transparency will always be the best marketing tool. And authenticity will keep us ahead of the competition.
Live Questions
Q: Would you mind explaining your deflationary token mechanism? Is the supply limited? What will be the maximum supply?
B: The initial supply will be 10 billion OWN tokens. We aim to reduce the supply to 5 billion in 5 years. Burning is scheduled quarterly and will start in the Q4 of 2021.
Q: Revenue is an important aspect for all projects to survive and keep the project/company running. What is your way of generating profit/revenue? What is the income model?
I: This is a good question, as of now we are already gaining profit from our NFT Sales. We have a traded volume of 4.2ETH on OpenSea with a floor price of 0.1ETH for each of our NFT, and we just recently sold our first NFT sale on Binance Smart Chain for 10BNB in our Alpha version of Ownly NFT Marketplace. Our brand is already gaining traction and will be launching more innovative products and collections, outstanding collaboration with more talented artists. Tokenizing Physical artworks too is one of the highlight collections for this year. And we are looking forward to starting the Research and Development of creating an environment-friendly NFT Focused blockchain for next year.
Q: What is your strategy for marketing and mass adoption? What message do you want to send to the community through AMA today?
I: Our long-term vision in Ownly is global NFT and cryptocurrency adaption. As we have said earlier, the main strength of OWNLY is the culture of our team who’s working on continuous improvement, has an iterative approach, and has a growth mindset. These mentioned qualities will surely bring Ownly on a long exciting journey. And before I forgot the word GRIT. It helps us continue working on our projects, and don’t abandon them. Grit plays a very big role in playing the long-term game in this industry.
Q: Why did you build your token on the Ethereum blockchain? As we all know Ethereum has scalability issues. Any plan to move on another blockchain or mainnet?
B: We just launched our 2nd collection, “Titans of Industry”, in Binance Smart Chain. OWN token will also be launched as a BEP-20 token. We’re taking advantage of Binance Smart Chain’s low gas fee. We will also support multiple blockchains including Ethereum, Polkadot, Cardano, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, and other established NFT platforms.
Q: Is the tokenomics and distribution model already out? Can you share the details with us here? Let’s get into some personal things. Can you tell how many team members do you have and what are their qualifications?
I: Yes! You can find the full details of Ownly and our OWN token economics at https://ownly.io/nft.
Since 2018, we’ve already proven that our team can start small yet capable of launching big. We won 13th place out of 100+ global entries during Decentraland Game Jam 2019. Ranked 18th in the world’s first and largest NFT marketplace OpenSea NFT sales in Art Category on Ethereum blockchain in 24 hours last July 9, 2021. Sold our first NFT a few hours after we launched our Alpha version of OWNLY NFT Marketplace on Binance Smart Chain for 10BNB (approx. ₱150K+). As of now, we have a total of almost ₱ 600K worth of NFT sales this year.
Our team is composed of a diverse group of artists, collectors, designers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals with 70+ years of combined experience in finance, software development, education, marketing, art, and design. We are continuously improving and growing our team to deliver Ownly’s mission and vision of global NFT and cryptocurrency adoption. You can check the profile of our exceptional team members, expert advisors, and advocates at https://ownly.io/#team
Q: Could you please describe how your project plan supports NFT development? And do you have any project plans for combining NFT with DeFi?
I: With the Ownly platform, users can own, buy, collect and trade single edition artworks created by our featured artists and earn a reward for collecting NFTs. Users also have the opportunity to choose from multiple staking options to earn OWN Tokens and NFT Rewards.
Ownly NFT holders are also entitled to:
- Quarterly $OWN Token Airdrops.
- Can Be Used as Collateral for Loans in our partner DeFi platform.
- NFT Reward Item in Each Collection
- May Include License to Print to Display for Personal Use
And more to be officially announced soon!!
Q: Where does the project name come from? What does it mean for you and why did you choose that name for your project?
I: Alright! This is an interesting question that might blow your mind.
The name Ownly simply means, “Own the only.” it’s the fundamental meaning of an NFT, true digital ownership, provably scarce, authenticity, and genuine proof of ownership. This name was coined by our blockchain expert Technical Advisor, Rico Zuniga.
By just the name Ownly, it gives an impact that there’s a position in the NFT industry specifically for Ownly itself.
Q: Can you list some of the features with which you are most confident about your platform? How can you advertise your project worldwide and make it popular?
I: Here are the Key Features of Ownly:
I. EMPOWERING CREATORS — Supporting artists to focus on creating their art, Ownly fills in the gap of the technology and marketing side of NFTs.
II. EXCLUSIVE NFT — Purchase premier NFTs with $OWN tokens at a discount or other cryptocurrencies at full price.
III. NFT REWARDS- Each of our collections will have a reward item, a full-blown piece uniquely created only for the collectors.
IV. GOVERNANCE — OWN holders can participate in decision-making for governing the platform including selecting artists and artworks via systematic voting.
V. INTEROPERABILITY — Platform agnostic and will support multiple blockchains including Ethereum, Polkadot, Cardano, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, and other established NFT platforms.
VI. STAKING — Participate in our multiple staking options to earn more rewards such as OWN tokens and NFTs.
Through advertising and promoting it in a global scale and make it popular, we are confident in making small incremental progress by continuously improving, an iterative approach. With the help of our strong marketing approach and the grit of the team, we are confident enough to be part of the global headlines about the crypto space specifically in the NFT Industry.
Q: What are your plans in place for global expansion? Is OWN focusing only on one market at this time or focusing on building and developing, or getting users and partnerships?
I: This is an interesting question. And I’m confidently speaking that we are planning to have a future global expansion and collaboration with lots of amazing international artists. As we move towards our goal of creating our NFT-focused environment-friendly blockchain, our NFT collections and innovative products will surely support our goal alongside the strong support of our OWN token holders. Our buyback and burn schedules will strengthen the fundamentals of our OWN Token. Creating strong connections, relationships, and partnerships with lots of established blockchain platforms and companies. The support of our community and collectors will give more emphasis to empowering our featured artists. With these things being accomplished through our 2021–2022 roadmap, and together with the transparent team behind OWNLY.
▶ Ownly Official Links:
Conclusion
That AMA was loaded with lots of info, Sparkies! But knowing all the plans and goals of the Ownly team, their project is something we should look forward to! 🙌 $OWN token was the first token project that just went live in our SparkLaunch, we’re hoping that you guys were able to join the IDO! 🚀
Watch out for more incoming launchings in our SparkLaunch soon! 🚀
Learn more about SparkPoint and SparkDeFi from the following links:
SparkPoint Website: https://sparkpoint.io/
SparkDeFi Website: https://srk.finance/
Trade SRK: https://srk.sh/trade
Trade SFUEL: https://srk.sh/tradesfuel
SRK-ETH on Uniswap: https://srk.sh/uniswap
Telegram Announcements (SparkPoint): https://t.me/sparkpoint
Telegram Announcements (SparkDeFi): https://t.me/SparkDeFiOfficial
SparkPoint Community on Telegram: https://t.me/SparkPointOfficial
SparkDeFi Community on Telegram: https://t.me/SparkDefi
SparkPoint Twitter: https://twitter.com/sparkpointio
SparkPoint Facebook: https://facebook.com/sparkpointio
SparkPoint Instagram: https://instagram.com/sparkpointio
SparkDeFi Twitter: https://twitter.com/SparkDeFi
SparkDeFi Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SparkDeFi
SparkDeFi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparkdefi/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sparkpointio
GitHub: https://github.com/sparkpointio
SRK on CMC: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sparkpoint/
SFUEL on CMC: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sparkpoint-fuel/
