An Update From Our Mission to Decentralize Location
Blockchain Hacker HQ
1133 Columbia St.
Second Floor
San Diego, CA 92101
From:
Scott Scheper
email: scott@xyo.network
telegram: sscheper
Thursday, 9:10 a.m.
May 17th, 2018
Dear members of the XYO Community,
Welcome to our movement!
The mission?
It’s quite simple, really: Create a revolution in location technology by shifting from a system that is controlled by a centralized body (GPS) to a system that is open, decentralized and built on a deterministic blockchain.
Look, I’m not sure how you arrived here.
Maybe you heard about us through the press coverage we’ve received. Or you’ve seen us on a race car. Maybe a friend told you about us or we’ve come onto your radar through the recent news of Charlie Shrem, Founder of the Bitcoin Foundation, joining our cause…
But no matter.
However, you got here, and whatever fashion you’re in, I can say, (in my unbiased opinon)…
You’ve happened upon the most ambitious blockchain project of 2018.
And by the time you’re finished reading this, you’ll see why.
Since 8:07am yesterday I have been working on content of what you’re about to read. I decided to take a break from managing the exciting rise of XYO and decided to NOT go into our office until this is published. What makes blockchain projects special is how much the community’s involvement matters. And since its been a little while, I think it’s about time to get you up to speed on the exciting things to come in the world of XYO!
I’m going to do my best to take you through these crazy past few months and give you a teeny-tiny glimpse of what we’ve been up to. Then I’ll detail where we’re going and how we plan to get there. I’m going to wrap things up by talking about cryptomoniez and Moon-Lambo’s, of course!
Just kidding, but seriously…
So sit back, relax and get ready to gorge your brains out and enter the world of the XYO Network.
Disclaimer: Unless you are obsessed with blockchain, cryptocurrency and/or IoT, I recommend you NOT read any further. For those who are, let’s get started.
Getting You Up To Speed
XY, the company that is jumpstarting the XY Oracle Network (“XYO Network”), has been in the location/IoT hardware space since 2012. You can view our Roadmap on our website, but here’s a quick run-through of the latest.
First, we successfully launched the XYO Token Sale (as you probably already know!)
The attitude I had at the time of launching our XYO Project was that of gratitude. I truly believe there’s not many people that have the opportunity to launch a cryptocurrency project, especially in the renaissance that I believe we’re in. At the age of 80, there aren’t going to be that many people out there that have lived through the experience of launching a blockchain project. I, and our team, are some of the lucky few who have!
But as anticipated, and what every entrepreneur knows from years of launching and running startups, the experience of launching a blockchain project does not come without angst, sleepless nights and second-guessing oneself.
While it’s been definitely one of the most fun and exciting things I’ve ever worked on and built with a team in my life, during the early part of our token sale, things seemed pretty grim.
This should help illustrate why:
If there ever was a perfectly bad time to launch a new cryptocurrency project it was the EXACT moment we scheduled the launch of the XYO Token Sale!
This time was the post-crypto-correction, which really turned into a post-crypto-freefall. We launched pretty much right in-between the Fear and Capitulation phase the market goes through when the price declines. This meant, for a good month or so during our token sale, you know the “prime-time” moment where people say you sell the majority of your tokens, the entire cryptocurrency market was in the “Despair” phase.
Splendid!
Many projects canceled their launch plans and quietly tiptoed away in the middle of the night. We even had unsolicited LinkedIn messages from ICO “Expert” Advisors telling us to cancel our plans just days before our sale was set to begin.
But here’s the thing. We’ve been through this type of thing before. We know the story script. In the back of my mind, I expected something like this was going to happen and we committed to run our token sale, the same way we intend to run our XYO Project: by doing things the old way, the old fashion way: you know, actually producing something that sustains itself profitably, attracts an amazing community and doesn’t rely on institutional private fund money to survive? (Unheard of in the world of blockchain projects, I know!)
Yet Arie, Markus and I knew, given our intimate experience with this type of thing (running running startups): the golden rule is that everything is earned and nothing is easy.
But the good thing about new technologies and exciting fields it that things can turn around for the better just as fast as they can downwards for the worse.
As usual, our team kept coming to work every day. Arie and I continued our illustrious career of having no lives and clocking in 12 hour+ days on Saturdays and Sundays.
When you spend months working seven days a week on something that isn’t going so hot, things can get pretty depressing. But when there’s actually a feeling that’s even worse than that: it’s called clocking in 7-day weeks while ETH is in the $300's!
We lived it!
We kept grinding, and fortunately, when the cryptocurrency market began to recover, (Mid-Late April), we were primed and ready because our marketing machine was just getting started.
A quick take on what to look for in blockchain projects
You know it when you see it. When you land on a landing-page of the latest, greatest cryptocurrency project that has the biggest named firms backing them, the founder of Uber on the Advisory team, the cleanest PR campaign in history and Institutional Venture Firm ABCD backing them. A project that just looks too good to be true.
Believe it or not, when looking into whether or not you want to participate in a new blockchain project, I believe you should pay attention to the ones that have imperfections. You should look for battle scars. You should look for companies backed by a close team that’s been through it all. The ups, the downs, the despair, the victories, the triumphs. The ones that are still kicking despite their third, fourth or fifth setback. Those are the ones I’d recommend you pay attention to. Because every new venture or company has its ugly parts; if you can’t find it, then they’re not revealing the whole story.
On Cockroaches (and making your PR Person crazy!)
Apparently the most likely animals to be left alive after a nuclear war are cockroaches, because they’re so hard to kill. That’s what you want to be as a startup, initially. Instead of a beautiful but fragile flower that needs to have its stem in a plastic tube to support itself, better to be small, ugly, and indestructible. — Paul Graham, The Hacker’s Guide to Investors
In brief, if you want to get a glimpse of the real entrepreneurs and blockchain projects worth your time, I argue that you should look for the cockroaches who never die and refuse to quit.
For the team behind the XYO Network, I believe this to be the case. Even if your technology and product is the most amazing thing in the world, without sound marketing, a sound message and a sound plan, and a commitment-level that borders on insanity, your technology won’t see the light of day.
We were prepared to run our XYO Token Sale in an unconventional way. Meaning, actually caring about members of our community, about crafting advertising and spending money on ads in a way that’s *gasp* profitable! And juggling all of this while growing our team and technology.
Our company is battle-scarred; our founders are battle tested. Being in business since 2012 in the IoT and technology space, competing against two direct competitors with over $50 Million in funding (each!) will make you a cockroach, believe me.
And to the extreme delight of PR professionals everywhere, I even proudly referred to both Arie and myself as cockroaches to a group of 30,000 cryptocurrency members; to which I received both a lot of support, and also a few people telling me, “You really need to get a PR person.”
Anyways, back to the main point…
I’m proud to say, when the market began turning around, we were primed, ready and battle-tested. And ever since that point, our project has become “one of the highest profile ICOs at the time of writing”, according to ICOExaminer.
Our project soon took off, and things haven’t slowed down one bit!
OK, so what’s next for XYO?!
Now let’s talk about where we’re going now.
At this time we’re in the final phases of our XYO Token Sale. And the purpose of this sale was to create a finite XYO Token Pool defined by the amount of ETH exchanged for XYO during the sale (basically allowing market to set the amount of XYO in the XYO Token Pool). And after the sale ends, all Unsold and Unallocated XYO Tokens will be burned (burn, baby, burn!). The remaining XYO after the sale creates the XYO Token Pool.
The XYO Token Sale was built on an Ethereum Smart Contract with a dynamic pricing model. Basically this means, that the amount of XYO one gets per ETH decreases after each transaction.
In other words, XYO gets more expensive as the sale continues. But, of course, this is in theory. Why? One word. Ether. Actually two: Ether + Volatility. Like many token sales, XYO’s exchange rate is pegged to the price of Ether, which, even if you’re a n00b in the world of cryptocurrency, you probably know that the price of cryptocurrencies can fluctuate dramatically.
Anyhow, after the XYO Token Sale concludes, two things are going to happen (and you should be excited about both!):
1. XYO GAMMA PLATFORM LAUNCH!
First, as outlined in our Roadmap, we’ll be launching the XYO GAMMA platform. We’re actually a little ahead of schedule on its development, mostly thanks, thanks to one of our young talented engineers, Carter (AKA, “Big Head”) who took the lead on GAMMA’s development and worked around the clock to build an amazing version 1.0!
Look, even though I’m a fan of pouring through API Docs and pretending to be a nerd by running a geth node in my terminal, I’m a sucker for beautiful UI/UX experiences. It’s really how I learn what the heck an API or technology is capable of.
And that’s what XYO GAMMA is: our web client, which enables users, developers, and really anyone, to explore and interact with the XY Oracle Network. XYO GAMMA should help you understand a little more about what we’re building by giving you access to a beautiful UI.
XYO GAMMA features over 40 MILLION REAL-WORLD SIMULATED DATA POINTS that we’ve been able to generate using our experience analyzing actual location data from having built and operated a location network since 2012. These data points are simulations and not actual live user data. They’re simulated from a real-world location network. When exploring GAMMA you’ll be amazed; but even more exciting, is that it is merely a snapshot of data. When the XYO Mainnet launches, it will contain not just real data, but data that moves around in front of your eyes.
2. XYO GAMMA PLATFORM TOKEN SALE
Second, as we outlined in our token economics, we’ve allocated a number of XYO Tokens with the intention facilitating the growth of the XYO Network, during its early years. This includes the concept of the cryptoeconomic reserve, which will be used to help provide reward incentives to the network location providers and help with the network’s growth in the early years of XYO.
I’m happy to announce that with the conclusion of the XYO Token Sale, we will be launching the XYO GAMMA Platform Token Sale. The XYO tokens sold during the XYO GAMMA Platform sale will be sold from the defined, finite XYO Token Pool (with an Allocation Set aside specifically to be sold at a higher price, and faster rate than the XYO Token Main Sale; in order to provide a baseline higher price for XYO and thereby building out an actual value bonus for early XYO supporters opposed to superficial bonus’ other projects use).
The XYO GAMMA Platform sale will continue up until either the launch of the XYO Mainnet and/or the XY Oracle Network is running on stable ground via a healthy ecosystem.
What does this mean? It means, when the XY Oracle Network has an active economy with the following characteristics:
1. There are over 10,000 unique end-users per day utilizing XYO for location-reliant transactions.
2. There are at least 100 active DApps built by Blockchain Developers that utilize the XY Oracle Network (with at least one “Killer DApp” that uses the XY Oracle Network).
3. A healthy crypto-economic market for providers of network data: i. Sentinels, ii. Bridges, iii. Archivists, iv. Diviners (More in white paper).
XYO GAMMA Platform Sale Economics
The XYO GAMMA Platform sale begins at the rate of 1 ETH <=> 74,000 XYO. With each 50,000,000 of XYO sold, the ETH/XYO becomes 2.50% more expensive.
The XYO GAMMA Platform Sale is important because it enables us to continue growing the XYO Network’s diversified token pool and allow us to continue the development of the XYO Network. Additionally, it provides users with a way of interacting with the XYO GAMMA Platform by actually having the XYO necessary to interact with the XY Oracle Network!
OUR CORE FOCUS RIGHT NOW
With the launch and stabilization of the XYO GAMMA Platform and XYO GAMMA Platform Sale, we will then be shifting our priorities to what is, without question, the most important thing that we get right in the XYO Network’s life.
And that is this…
1. Developer Experience, Developer Experience, Developer Experience (And nothing else matters)
Our team at XYO has heard me preach this before, and thing is, I really believe it, and if we want the XYO Network to be something that makes a HUGE impact on the world, our team better believe it, as well.
You see, the most important focus for us at XYO Network is to give blockchain developers the tools to have their DApps interact with the real world. And we want to do this in a way that is as inexpensive as possible for them, while also rewarding the network participants (crypto-location miners: Sentinels, Bridges, Archivists and Diviners). We must create an ecosystem where the fees to query locational data are low enough for developers; while also giving location data providers enough cryptoeconomic incentives (XYO) to actually do the work involved in providing locational data.
2. Nothing else matters other than the above
3. But in the interest of mapping out more tactical plans in how we intend to achieve this in the short-term, here’s how we intend to achieve the above:
Operation #1: Build Team of Blockchain Diehards
First, we must hire, grow and develop THE BEST blockchain team ever assembled that work, innovate, hack and play all day right from our Blockchain Hacker HQ in Downtown San Diego.
IMPORTANT: If you are a developer or engineer that wants to work on something BIG, have a ton of fun, and shape the future of location data, IoT and blockchain technology, please email me directly: scott@xyo.network with the subject, “Let’s Do This”. Our open positions: Senior Backend Developer, Senior Blockchain Engineer, Senior DevOps, Senior iOS Developer, Senior Android Developer, Technical Writer, Senior Engineering Manager). Our main stack: node.js, Go, AWS, React, and whatever is necessary to get the job done!)
Next, we must extend this spirit to the open-source and blockchain developer community, so that ANYONE in the world can contribute, whether they be in Texas or Tahiti.
Operation #2: Launch Open-source Mission Control Hub
Second, we must build out the XY Oracle Network Developer’s Hub, Documentation and Tooling (More to come on this; we’ll be opening up our Github Repo’s and cleaning things up so that anyone and everyone can begin contributing.
Operation #3: Develop XYO Mainchain and Cross-chain Interoperability
Third, (and this one’s a fun one!), XYO MainChain and Cross-chain Interoperability. We’ll be building out the functionality of the XYO MainChain, which is the native XYO Blockchain that sits at the hub of the XYO Network and enables the exchange of XYO for use across smart contract platforms (beyond Ethereum), in order to give developers that wish to create DApps on platforms like EOS, Cardano, IOTA, Hashgraph, etc., a way to utilize the XY Oracle Network using XYO that operates on that smart contract platform.
We are in the “whiteboard” phases of mapping this out right now, and have a variety of approaches for how to build this functionality. Personally, I’m intrigued by platforms like Cosmos because of the platform and approach they’ve put together for this; or maybe I just have an affinity for them because their website is so pretty :)
Anyways, when our first spec of this is ready, we will very likely publish a paper and details on it to solicit feedback from the community.
In the meantime, if you have any thoughts or ideas on Blockchain interoperability/exchange and/or the XYO MainChain architecture, please post in the responses section below or Join our Telegram Community and drop me a message! I try to reply to every email, message and comment from members of our community, so you can rest assured your comments will have a DIRECT impact on how we develop these components!
Operation #4: Roll-out Crypto-location Mining SDK’s and HDK’s
Fourth, we will continue the build-out of the XYO Mainnet. Having 1 million hardware devices already built, with the firmware necessary to instantly enable hundreds of thousands of them is a HUGE start. But to displace GPS (and actually do so this century) we will need many more sentinels and network participants involved. This will also come from many different types of location networks (Cellular, GPS, LoRa Gateways, LEO Satellites and more).
This will involve the community participating and contributing via the use of crypto-location miners (which we’ll be building out ready-made kits), as well as giving our developers and contributors the guides and specs necessary to even roll their own crypto-location miners. I.e. develop your own Raspberry Pi crypto-location miner.
Operation #5: Expand XYO Network Via Major Partnerships
Fifth, we think that it’s important to not just rely on the open-community (which, personally I think is the most interesting and intriguing!), but to expand our network and have it actually be relied upon by Enterprises and serious forms of exchange, it will need to involve major partnerships and an ongoing effort in partnering with companies to expand network coverage.
Allow me to go on a brief tangent for a second…
Speaking of MAJOR partnerships, if you’re a NASCAR fan, you may have seen our race car speeding around the track at some point. One thing I’ve heard mentioned, was “Why the heck are you sponsoring a NASCAR race? People that watch NASCAR aren’t your audience! Don’t you know anything about marketing?!”.
If you’re a part of our Telegram Community, you’ve seen me comment on this before. I’ve never really understood the rationale for sponsoring a NASCAR race, but now, after having lived through it, I understand why major companies and brands do this. You see, sponsoring a major sporting event isn’t a Direct-response Marketing Play; it’s a Partnership Play. When you sponsor a NASCAR event, it puts you in a room with some of the leading technology companies and most storied American Brands in history. To them (executives who still haven’t heard of the term blockchain and are unfamiliar with Bitcoin), you become their entry-point into the world of blockchain. Companies like 3M, Nationwide, AutoTrader, Salesforce, FedEx (whose Chairman and CEO, Fred Smith, recently outlined how critical blockchain will be to the future of their company and more). Note: This is in NO WAY saying we have partnerships with these companies; but it helps outline the types of brands and partnerships we think are necessary to work with in order for the XYO Network to gain some lasting traction.
Our project’s focus is on community-driven support and a network powered by a completely open protocol; yet, partnering with, educating and supporting major enterprises in their use of the protocol is something that will significantly improve the XY Oracle Network platform and advance its adoption.
Operation #6: XYO App (Sentinel and Bridge Component)
Sixth, we will be building out the XYO iOS/Android App, which will serve as both a Sentinel Component and a Bridge Component in our network. We may build out other features into the app, such as an XYO Wallet and other features and will have more details on this soon!
Wrapping Up
Ok, let’s start wrapping things up.
Actually, one more thing…
When Exchange Listing?! When Moon?! When Lambo?!
Yes, I hear you loud and clear! We frequently get asked in our Telegram Community when we will be listed on a cryptocurrency exchange. And the reply we give is that we don’t comment or speculate on any future exchange listing or date.
And truth is, we’re just not focused on that right now.
And that should make you feel good.
Here’s why.
As I wrote in our Business Primer and Token Economics paper (“The Green Paper”),
“The XYO Network believes that the value of a token should remain in direct proportion to its utility, which to some degree relies on the number of transactions it participates in.”
In other words, we firmly believe that over the long-term, the value of XYO sits in direct proportion to the utility of its underlying value.
The underlying value of Bitcoin is the Bitcoin Network’s ability to facilitate Peer-to-Peer Payments.
The underlying value of Ethereum is the Ethereum Network’s ability to deterministically compute transactions and smart contracts.
The underlying value of XYO is the XY Oracle Network’s ability to provide location data to Blockchain DApps.
As such, our focus centers on the inputs that truly matter most in creating long-term value, and that is: increasing the underlying utility of the XY Oracle Network.
Focusing on INPUTS; Not OUTPUTS
This is not achieved through focusing on getting listed on cryptocurrency exchanges. If one were to focus on that, they’d be focused on a superficial, short-term OUTPUTS. We believe long-term value comes from focusing on the right things: That is, building a blockchain platform and cryptocurrency of value. This is done through having a laser focus on developer experience and creating an cryptocurrency ecosystem that has extremely low fees, yet appropriately incentives location data participants.
Yeah, but can’t you focus on both at the same time?
(i.e. listing on an exchange and actually building technology that makes a major impact)
No. And here’s why.
I’ve often been involved in decisions where, when faced with a choice such as “Should we focus on doing A (short-term rewards), or doing B (long-term rewards)?”, someone always says, well, we can just do both! And one person breaks off the responsibility of A to someone; while another person takes on item B.
But what happens is this…
After a few weeks, the decision to compartmentalize the tasks becomes vague. And worse, your team-members and supporters see such actions first hand. And oftentimes, the right thing to do is the one that’s hardest: it’s the long-term solution. Thus it creates a sentiment amongst your team and supporters that you’re unfocused, undisciplined and unprincipled in how you operate.
I strongly believe that for the next six months at least, it’s critical that we (meaning our team and YOU a member of our community) remain laser-focused on developing the technology and ecosystem of the XYO Network.
For this reason, and other reasons, we have decided to focus on the true long-term input that matters: building out the underlying technology and utility of the XY Oracle Network.
We feel strongly that if we maintain focus, and execute on this, XYO will become something that makes a major impact and achieves its ultimate goal: decentralizing location and displacing GPS via blockchain technologies.
Now, of course, this isn’t to say we will NEVER list on exchanges. It’s not that at all. If it becomes clear that listing on a (major) exchange will boost the cryptoeconomic rewards/incentives of our crypto-location data providers, we will pursue it and focus on listing with the very best exchange there is. But until then, there’s a lot of work to be done, and a lot of amazing things to build!
I hope this outlines in detail where we are and what we’re focused on building right now. And hopefully you can see why we’re so excited about it!
If you’ve already participated by purchasing and staking your XYO, thank you for your support! It means the world to us and I look forward to an exciting journey to come!
Warm regards,
Scott Scheper, XYO Network
P.S. This is important! If you are a developer or engineer that wants to work on something BIG, have a ton of fun, and shape the future of location, IoT and blockchain technology, please email me directly at scott@xyo.network with the subject, “Let’s Do This”. Our open positions: Senior Backend Developer, Senior Blockchain Engineer, Senior DevOps, Senior iOS Developer, Senior Android Developer, Technical Writer, Senior Engineering Manager). Our main stack: node.js, Go, AWS, React, and whatever is necessary to get the job done!)
