SparkPoint and Gate.io AMA: The Recap
Introducing the SparkPoint team to Gate.io International Community!
Last October 5, 2021, our team has been invited to an #AMA session with one of the biggest communities we’ve met, the Gate.io English Community! 👏
Just a little throwback, the listing of SparkPoint on Gate.io Exchange has been officially announced last July 14 and what’s exciting about this listing is that it is only SparkPoint’s partner exchange that supports both the SRK ERC-20 (SRK) and SRK BEP-20 (SRKb) which allows anyone to trade their tokens to either SRK or SRKb! Gate.io is one of the earliest and largest cryptocurrency exchanges, with a proven track record in 8 years holding the principles of security, transparency, and integrity. They have an ecosystem of products, a one-stop-shop of trading services with institutional-grade security and proven reliabilities.
Few months have passed, our partnership with them includes a long-term relationship with the community, and conducting an Ask Me Anything series inside and outside of our online community is one way of supporting this. So now it’s time to meet the Gate.io English community, let’s begin!
The Recap
Host: Hello guys! Today we have a big AMA going on! We will be learning more about Sparkpoint. For that, we have their team here. Welcome guys! Could you please introduce yourselves?
Rico Zuñiga: Thank you for having us @marielat! I’m Rico Zuñiga, the Chief Technology Officer of SparkPoint.
Carl André: Hello everyone! Thanks for having us here in your community! ✨🙌
Host: Before going into the actual Q&A with the community, let’s have first some introductions! Kindly give us a brief background of yourself.
Carl André: Sure!
Andy Agnas: Thank you, Mariela, for having us in your community.
Rico Zuñiga: Sure! I’ve been in the tech industry for 20 years. I’ve launched my own gaming and e-learning startups and I’ve worked with several other technology startups and multinational companies through the years. I’ve been with SparkPoint since the beginning, initially as a technical advisor in 2018 and eventually joining as a full-time CTO in 2019.
Andy Agnas: Hello everyone, I’m Andy Agnas, CEO and founder of SparkPoint Tech. Inc. as well as Founding Partner of SparkPoint Global Ventures, our global venture arm. I’m a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) by profession and my background is primarily in Finance, Taxation, Accounting, and Management. I am also a financial consultant for some companies here in the Philippines.
Carl André: I am Drei, I am one of the Senior Marketing Specialists, handling the general marketing of SparkPoint. I previously worked in the advertising and creatives industry with more than 7 years worth of experience, expanding from multimedia works, graphics design plus layout, organizing and directing events, and marketing for SparkPoint Technologies.
Host: Ok. Very good team. May we know how each of you got into the cryptocurrency and blockchain space? If you’re not in this scene, what other things you are doing or currently fond of?
Carl André: Honestly, it’s just been over a year since I’ve been introduced to crypto and blockchain technology. I’ve been hearing about this since college, but I never get too serious about knowing or diving deep into the topic until I entered SparkPoint last year. A new world has opened to me, and I discovered how it’s used in our everyday life, how crypto and blockchain started revolutionizing the finance world. When I’m out and off from work, I stay at home, chill, and binge-watch series on Netflix. I love grocery shopping, too. It’s so therapeutic! 😂 I just started also a new hobby, I started hiking some weeks ago. 😊
Rico Zuñiga: I was introduced to BTC by a colleague back in 2011 but I got into blockchain and cryptocurrency seriously only in 2017 when I started to explore deeper its underlying technology and the software development aspect of it. This is when I decided to switch from more general software development to focusing only on the blockchain. I started as a blockchain architect for a French software company before eventually joining SparkPoint.
Andy Agnas: Bitcoin was actually introduced to me by one of my former students in 2015 when the price was around $400 and I was skeptical at that time being a new type of asset class so I just ignored him. However, in the 3rd quarter of 2017, my mind changed due to the average price increases and since then I have followed its developments and started also investing in crypto start-up projects. Aside from SparkPoint, I am managing my own accounting and consulting firm here in the Philippines.
Host: Ok seems like a good mix of experience and newbies, haha but definitely it is a revolutionizing technology.
So how did Sparkpoint come to life? Can you tell us how SparkPoint started, a little history on how it all began with your team?
Andy Agnas: My idea at that time was just to develop a digital wallet where you can convert fiat into cryptocurrency and vice versa in a cost-efficient manner. And we started with just 4 members in our team. However, due to the recent developments in the space, we expanded our products and services to include e-learning, games, DeFi, and other related services.
Carl André: The project was launched on October 5, 2018, and is one of the pioneer cryptocurrency startups in the Philippines. The project aims to fast-track mainstream adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency through an ecosystem of practical products and services. We’re actually celebrating our 3rd Anniversary today! 😉
Happy 3rd Anniversary, #Sparkies!
Carl André: SparkPoint started with initial funding of $50,000. With only this minimal capital combined with discipline, determination, and hard work, the team was able to launch various blockchain-based products and services.
Rico Zuñiga: SparkPoint is actually the brainchild of Andy back in 2018 which was when I first met him to discuss his idea. At first, I was very skeptical because this was the time of the ICO craze where a lot of scam projects were launched. But the longer our conversations went, the idea made more sense and became clearer and more feasible so we pushed through with launching it. Now fast forward 3 years later to today, we’ve hit most of our targets in our initial roadmap with several successful launched projects including our SparkPoint wallet, mobile games, SparkDeFi, e-learning (SparkLearn’s Blockchain Developer Bootcamp), ventures arm, several partnerships, and investments, and more in the pipeline. The team has also grown from just 3 to almost 30.
Host: Congratulations on the 3 year anniversary!
Definitely, an important milestone in the blockchain world given that only 30% of projects survive after the 1st year.
Rico Zuñiga: Thank you very much, Mariela!
Andy Agnas: Thank you, Mariel and we are getting stronger.
Carl André: We would like to thank everyone in the Gate IO team, too! For having our token in your exchange! 🚀✨
Host: Glad to have you guys!
Ok so digging a bit more into the project… What are the core products of SparkPoint and what are the latest developments?
Carl André: Alright, here’s our apps and services coming up!
1️⃣ SparkPoint Wallet: A non-custodial mobile cryptocurrency wallet that natively supports various and major cryptocurrencies,
2️⃣ SparkLearn: E-learning platform focused on educational content about blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and financial literacy,
3️⃣ SparkPlay: Collection of mobile casual games with cryptocurrency as a central theme and soon with P2E integration,
4️⃣ SparkEarn: SparkPoint referral and rewards program where users can earn SRK and other tokens from sponsors by performing simple bounties and,
5️⃣ SparkDeFi: A governance token-based platform that empowers individuals to unlock the true value of their cryptocurrency assets. SparkDeFi offers an AMM Decentralized Exchange, Liquidity and Pool-Based Staking, P2P Lending and Borrowing, and DeFi Assets Protocols Management in a seamless, transparent, secure, inclusive, and interoperable approach.
Andy Agnas: Our latest developments include the NFT Minting, NFT Staking, and NFT Marketplace which will be launched soon.
Carl André: We’ve recently launched new services under SparkDeFi like SparkLaunch IDO platform and SparkNFT, our own NFT platform.
Rico Zuñiga: SparkPoint’s initial vision is to build an ecosystem of products and services around the SRK token to spearhead the mass adoption of cryptocurrency. This is a bold vision and not something that can be accomplished easily. We’ve identified what works and what doesn’t through the years and we’ve refocused our efforts and core competencies around these verticals including decentralized finance (SparkDeFi), gaming (SparkPlay and partners/investments), education (SparkLearn and BDB), SparkPoint Wallet, NFTs (SparkNFT soon and partners/investments), and money transfer/remittance (ongoing VCE license application).
Right now the latest developments include our expansion outside of our home country, specifically here in Toronto, Canada, diversification through investments, listing in top exchanges (still processing and on NDA), and our ongoing VCE application which will enable us to support the multi-billion dollar remittance/money transfer market of Filipino migrant workers here in Canada and other parts of the world.
Host: Ok. Definitely a strong vision and a very complete product! Which is rare to see these days.
So to finish up before we move on to questions from our audience, what’s the actual vision and mission of the team on creating this ecosystem of products and services?
Andy Agnas: Our company’s vision is to encourage people to participate in digitizing payment transactions by providing inclusive financial services integrated with blockchain technology, easing the hassle of transferring money and participating in cryptocurrency exchanges. Our mission, however, is we want SparkPoint to be a globally competitive project that focuses on financial inclusion by integrating blockchain technology and promoting financial literacy awareness to reinvent the world of digital payments.
With our recent accomplishments in the past months and current progress on developing our products especially our flagship products, SparkPoint wallet, and SparkDeFi, we can proudly say that a big aspect of our mission and vision are already being realized and coming to fruition.
Carl André: Our executives have said it all! 😉
Rico Zuñiga: In addition to what I’ve mentioned in my previous answer, our vision stays the same, we want to see mass adoption of cryptocurrency but this is still a long way to go. I personally see this happening in another 5–10 years when crypto natives have grown up and have become the dominant workforce in the world economy. To achieve our vision, our approach is to continuously improve and iterate on our existing products and launch new products and services that make sense and we see have potential to reach an existing market or create a new one.
Host: Ok sounds very exciting and definitely agree that in 5–10 years there will be a crypto revolution.
Live Questions
Q: How do you plan to promote your project in different countries, wherein English is not spoken well? Do you have local communities for them to better understand your project?
R: This is a very good question and very timely. I just had a conversation yesterday with one of our BDB students whose primary language is Spanish and he raised a similar concern of how to address other markets who don’t speak English or English is a second language. We loved his idea and he even offered to help out in translating and creating new content in his native language. We’ve included localization in our roadmaps so you’ll see content and materials tailor fit to different languages, starting with Spanish and eventually other major languages.
Q2: What makes you feel confident about the survival & sustainable success of your project in the near future? While you build your project, do you take into account community feedback and demands?
A: Great question. About 90% of start ups fail and around 20% failed during the 1st year of operations. We have seen this already in many crypto projects even though they raised millions of dollars. SparkPoint started with just $50k funding and for three years, we have launched several products and services.
I’m confident that for the next 5 to 10 years, we can sustain our operations and become sustainable and financially stable in the future.
Of course, we value the feedbacks and suggestions of our supporters and community members especially when it comes to the improvements of our existing products and services
R: We are very open to community feedback. The challenge for us is identifying feedback that makes sense and feedback that’s just noise then acting on those feedback by improving our products and services. As for sustainability, the easiest pathway is to reach profitability which we are already on our way. When the project becomes profitable, we don’t have to rely on selling our treasury to finance operations and we can also buy back tokens from the market and burn them. Who knows maybe we become profitable enough in the future to buy back all the tokens from the market with the revenues from our products and services.
Q3: How strong is your team? Many projects start with a good impression and are later abandoned the project. What makes your project different than others?
R: Very strong and determined. We’ve been here for 3 years already. All new projects should be considered as scam and with high risk of being abandoned. It’s up to these projects to prove themselves as legitimate through disciplined handling of their finances, launching products and services they promised, and continuously hitting targets they set in their roadmaps. I definitely think we’ve done this successfully in SparkPoint through our 3-year track record.
Q4: It’s easy to make a token but it’s really hard to make this token valuable? So what’s your strategy to make your token more valuable and what’s your plan to maintain token price and supply?
A: Our token have a lot of utilities already in our various products and services.
We are also planning to have an additional utilities such as rewards in playing NFT games and transactional costs in our own wallet. Also, we do have a buyback and burn mechanism to help stabilize our price in the market.
Q5: Currently most investors only care about profits at the moment but ignore the long-term benefits. So can you give them some reasons why they should buy and hold your token in the long term?
A: We have a very strong fundamentals which are the backbone of our project; transparent team, continuous developments, and strong community support and marketing. These increase the confidence of our investors in our project.
Q6: What strategy will you implement to bring non-crypto-natives into your ecosystem? How do you keep a balance between developing the technology and also improving the value of your token?
C: Good question Sir! Everything starts with a proper onboarding of non natives and we plan on introducing this field through our SparkLearn platform. This platform will surely help these individuals on understanding the essentials and basics of crypto and blockchain technology.
Host: Thanks for being here and sharing with us! And thanks to everyone who participated.
Andy Agnas: Thank you, Mariela, for hosting our AMA in your community.
Rico Zuñiga: Thank you everyone for having us! Thank you, Mariela, for hosting it was fun!
That was another insightful #AMA with the community! The whole SparkPoint team is honored to meet Gate.io’s big fam and we hope that through this #AMA we #buidl trust, a lasting friendship, and of course we also do hope that you will continue supporting us to the moon. 🚀
Thank you for always being with us and congratulations to all of us, #Sparkies! We made it to another year. 😉 See you at our upcoming #AMA Sessions. 👋
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/
