The basic idea behind the Rateonium system is to create an internal cryptocurrency that registered users receive by submitting a review about a company. This currency is exchanged for rewards from participating companies. Thus, the user can redeem rewards just by doing everyday things at no additional cost or effort. The intrinsic motivation to submit reviews, the “daily rating motion”, is continually upheld by the incentive of quickly accessible rewards.

These rewards vary from company to company and can be customised. The quantity of the Rateonium tokens exchanged is based on the size of the reward. Rateonium verifies the quality of the reviews before the tokens are activated in the app.

Contracting partner companies are included in the Rateonium network via a subscription system.

The basic monthly fee is based on the number of branches integrated into the system and the revenue generated per branch. With the wide range of cooperation partners that have already been confirmed in addition to other interested parties, Rateonium can use the exact subscription fees to develop long-term system plans for the companies and generate an internal profit.

For online shops, the subscription fee is based on an appraisal of the company’s economic strength, which varies according to the number and size of the regions served.

The company’s presence in the Rateonium system with the integrated listing of customer reviews offers the opportunity to approach new customers, by specific target groups, as a “trusted company”. The opportunity to offer users rewards they want also increases the effectiveness of this client acquisition method.

For customers, the positive experience of receiving free rewards increases the probability that they will form an emotion-based, long-term relationship with the company. Rateonium is thus able to change customer relations in the long run, setting new global standards.Rateonium is a platform that is leading the way in communication between customers and companies. In order to prevent a lack of practicality caused by fluctuating exchange rates, the Rateonium token network has the two different tokens, which have already touched upon.

These two tokens are the Rateonium token and the Ratec token. The latter will be sold during the Token Sale events and can be traded on major trading platforms. The Rateonium token can only be used to redeem rewards and cannot be traded.

The interface between the two tokens is a specially developed exchange system that enables users to exchange them in a user-friendly manner. However, the exchange system ensures that the Rateonium system currency cannot be exposed to any exchange rate fluctuations. This interface enables a never seen before security. This ensures that the Rateonium currency is insulated from centres of speculative trade and the resulting fluctuation in cryptocurrency exchange rates.

The system in Detail

The following diagram illustrates the overall system:

In order to explain the functions, the sequence of a recurring process is described as follows:

The customer, Chris, is on a business trip. In the evening, he plans to go to an upscale restaurant with his colleagues.
He opens the Rateonium app on his iPhone to find out which restaurants will meet his expectations. The app offers Chris the best restaurants within his desired radius, according to customer reviews. He decides to go to a restaurant that is 500 metres away to dine with his colleagues.

He and his friends are very happy with the dishes they are served. After Chris payed the service and verified this with his Rateonium card, he has the opportunity to document his experience at the restaurant in the form of a review, which is anonymised and made available to the worldwide Rateonium network.

The number of Rateonium tokens is based on the purchase price of the respective product or service. So for purchasing a product worth €5, Chris receives 50 Rateonium tokens.

In order to establish a sense of proportion between expensive and less expensive products, and to protect smaller companies from being discredited, there is an upper limit of 1000 RTO. Furthermore, rewards can only be redeemed once at the same business within a set time frame.

The frequency of ratings that can be submitted for the same company is also limited. This enables Rateonium to guarantee that no users are able to redeem a disproportionately large amount of rewards at one company and thus harm the business.

In order to protect the identity of the user, the review is only uploaded some time after it is submitted, according to a random algorithm. As a result, the company cannot see which users have submitted which reviews, though tokens are distributed immediately after the rating is verified. As this can take between one and twelve hours, the underlying Blockchain transaction has no time limit. After the rating goes through, the RTO tokens are automatically generated by the Rateonium system and then automatically sent to be paid out.

Up & down rating determines relevance of submitted reviews

The Rateonium system also has the option of allowing other users to give up or down ratings, allowing particular reviews to be marked as helpful or inappropriate. The author benefits because he/she receives tokens when his/her review is classified as helpful by other users.

This ability to evaluate different reviews also increases their relevance with regard to companies’ internal quality management efforts. It allows them to readily draw detailed conclusions as to which aspects are most important to customers. In order to maintain data privacy here as well, no user data is displayed in the Rateonium platform. Only a cryptic “unique number”, generated for the users during registration, is saved in the associated account and serves as a reference point for the rating.

In our example, Chris can find the Rateonium tokens stored in the wallet integrated in his app. He now has the option of redeeming them at any participating company.

He can, for example, redeem the Rateonium tokens at a large cinema chain, getting an extra drink for a fixed RTO sum. Our example with Chris is a good illustration of how individualised the redeemable rewards can be.

If Chris wants to use the generated tokens in another manner, he can, for example, book an upgrade to the next best seat at his favourite football club’s next match.

Or if he would like to add additional luggage or snacks on his next flight, he can do so with the Rateonium partner airline in exchange for a specified quantity of Rateonium tokens.

Offline and online generation of RTO

Two different processes are used to exchange RTO tokens:
In the case of online purchases, Rateonium users are given the option of seeing defined rewards during their purchase.

In an extra window, they are given access to their wallets by entering a cryptic user name and the app password. They may also confirm the selected reward by using the app’s scanner function to scan a QR code. For purchases at a company’s branch location, a scanner installed on-site is used to provide double verification to activate the token transaction. The customer can scan his/her customer card on the company’s premises during the payment
process. This directly activates the company’s reward for the customer and transfers the tokens for the selected reward from their account.

Both methods of redeeming tokens end in the burning of the tokens after the distribution of the reward has been confirmed. This ensures that the total number of tokens in the system is always controlled by the number of active users.

The company as a Rateonium client

Companies take part in this system by subscribing. The actual subscription fee includes the rental of the card reading device, comprehensive inclusion in the Rateonium platform, and technical and strategic support. The price for this monthly subscription is primarily based on the number of participating branches.

For the admission fee, parameters such as revenue and the number of customers each month are also logged. From the second month, the subscription fee is correlated directly with the company’s number of associated users, reviewers, and reward redemptions. This is the only way to ensure that large corporations do not completely dominate smaller businesses due to the number of reviews.

Likewise, the Rateonium network has no company upgrade option, nor are sponsored advertisements offered in the form of pay-per-click models. This results in a fair market situation for all participating companies, yet still enables companies to obtain excellent economic prospects via the Rateonium company subscription system.

Another significant requirement users have when dealing with cryptocurrencies is the possibility of trading the specific currency on common trading platforms. The future price development during the sustained development of Rateonium is intended to guarantee traders profits. We do not wish to hold our Token Sale participants back from the option to trade on leading international trading platforms. However, a functioning and suitable currency system needs to be based on a certain degree of insulation from price fluctuations. Particularly with regard to the extreme fluctuations in the prices of cryptocurrencies, this kind of insulation is a vital measure.

Rateonium’s two-token system rectifies weaknesses in the current cryptocurrency market

The two-token system solves this problem. The Rateonium token cannot be traded and is used solely as internal system currency, to pay out after submitting reviews and to redeem rewards. The Ratec token, on the other hand, can be traded, but it cannot be used in the rating system or exchanged for rewards from companies.

The Ratec token is obtained during the Token Sale, and, and before the token is listed at the exchanges, the owners of Ratec tokens can be first to test the Rateonium system. This is enabled by the unique swap function, by which Ratec tokens can be converted to Rateonium tokens at a special rate. This special fixed course option is locked after four weeks. The Ratec Token gets listed on the biggest trading platforms afterwards. From now on the changing-course depends on the actual marked price. This means, all members of the token sale can change their Tokens for a special price and can test the system as first persons.

Another advantage for the early participants in the system is the special launch offers. Many companies will attract consumers at the launch of the system with rewards that are particularly in demand.

Benefits for Token Sale participants

Each participant in the Token Sale is offered the following benefits:

Due to the exchange system described above, the owners of Ratec tokens have earlier access to the Rateonium system.

The first participants in the system will benefit from special starting rewards, which will be offered by the companies in the first phase of the system

Each participant in the Token Sale can decide whether to trade the Ratec tokens they acquire on the major cryptocurrency markets or exchange them for Rateonium tokens and obtain rewards for them.

If a participant deposits some or all of his/her tokens in the trading platforms, they are very likely to profit from changes in the exchange rate caused by the hype surrounding the Rateonium system, which is expected be generated by the later expansion of the business

The Rateonium card is provided to every participant in the Token Sale free of charge. For any additional users, the card can be purchased for a one-time fee.

It costs €20 and is sent out exclusively in combination with various specials. In addition to the financing described in the next chapter, there are other reasons for holding the Token Sale.

The Rateonium application

Users of the Rateonium system have access to a wide range of functions and areas of application. In order to actually receive universally valuable rewards with no traceability or analysis of their information, they must go through a verified registration process in the system. Firstly, the Rateonium app can be downloaded via the official homepage on the websites of the legitimate partner companies and on Google Play or the Apple store. The app is free to download for all users worldwide.

User front end

In the main menu of the Rateonium app, each user will find his/her own statistics, consisting of reviews provided and feedback on his/her own reviews, usage trends, and above all his/her current number of Rateonium points. Rateonium rankings calculated and displayed in real time allow each user to follow the quality of his/her reviews and possibilities for using his/her score in an up-to-date manner.

Several aspects may only be viewed by individual users in private mode. Upon individual request and explicit confirmation, however, some of the profile details can be made visible to other users. The individual aspects of the back end are listed below.

Company front end

Upon completing registration, companies will receive an individual access combination consisting of a user name and password. To register, they must first fill out a document on the Rateonium website, available under the link “Partner Registration”, stating the company’s key figures and identification numbers. After review and verification, a target plan is developed together with the partner company. This includes the number of participating branches, customer throughput, and expected customer use.

After this information is determined and analysed, the foreseeable payout will be estimated and the company will be allocated accordingly to a partner category. The monthly fee for participating in the Rateonium system depends on this partner category.