18th of September 2018
By Lien Truong and Vivienca Luong
Over 70 people in attendance at the Blockchain Centre (Melbourne) to hear from leaders of Top Australian Blockchain Projects.
We were lucky enough to organise an event with what turned out to be an Australian Blockchain all-star panel with CanYa, Power Ledger, Horizon State, Loki, ShareRing and the former Marketing Lead of Havven.
Panel members included:
The theme for the night was geared towards project teams sharing tales of their journey, the wisdom they’ve gained through the recent bull and bear markets, how they’ve navigated through regulation, their approach to raising through ICOs and what they would do differently if they knew then what they know now.
Here are some of the key messages from each of our project leaders (from left to right) on our panel.
One of the struggles of starting out in building on the blockchain is finding the right people who understand the vision and technology to work on the project. JP referred finding a good developer to finding a sasquatch in a forest.
There were also user experience problems when implementing blockchain too quickly into the platform. For CanYa, doing so caused a significant amount of issues. A lot of what they had rolled out needed to be reverted back to cloud and AWS.
JP also noted that because the industry could be difficult to navigate and be overwhelming, having a healthy amount of naivety and ambition is important. It is also vital to possess a mixed ability to measure and take risk, and then mitigate against all of that risk swiftly.
Most importantly, having a sensational desire for knowledge, continuous learning and keeping up to date is essential in this environment since this is the beginning of disruption which can potentially span across multiple industries.
JP confidently claimed that fiat will go to zero and Bitcoin will become the most decentralised, private, anonymous and capable payment system ever created. He firmly believes that cryptocurrency is the next settlement currency of the world that is permission-less, accessible by anyone and can not be manipulated by anyone. He additionally believes that this is going to give us a new wave of appreciation for world peace and prosperity.
In regards to regulation, JP recommends getting in on the front foot. CanYa worked together to confirm with ASIC on how specific activities should be considered and classified (such as revenue and logistics). There was a lot of work to do but the relationship was healthy. JP made it clear that as long as you don’t scam people, you won’t find trouble.
JP also covered that the benefits of building on ERC-20, is that it’s easy for users to access, trade the tokens and build the wallets. However, it is recognised that there might be some level of uncertainty around the longevity of the token since there’s still an undefined quantity of Ethereum. There are also a few constraints, since they have to work in conjunction with the development of Ethereum.
JP would definitely do another ICO structured differently, making sure it’s priced fairly and equitably, starting small and making sure it’s tightly tied to milestones so that the team’s dedication can be demonstrated to the community and the wider audience. Slowly and steadily building a solid community is better than relying on FOMO and hype.
JP states that the most important thing about utility tokens are their ability to store value and that the act of staking is important as is maintains the value of the token. He refers to the transaction velocity formula: he highlights that the token value will decrease as transaction velocity increases (V = PY/M) (where V = velocity, M = money supply, P = nominal GDP, Y = real GDP). Preserving value within the token will ultimately encourage people to be part of the ecosystem.
A challenging factor when starting out is how to effectively communicate the project idea and the technology behind the project to people without them having misconceptions. Loki, having built its own token on their own platform rather than building on something like Ethereum, has also had its challenges.
To those who are starting out in this crypto world, Chris’ advice is to acquire decent advisors who are helpful, can open doors for you and push you out into the world. He also emphasises to make sure that you are sure that it is beneficial to have your project on a blockchain before you start.
Contrast to JP’s view, Chris would conduct an ICO as quickly as possible to mitigate the amount of scams that usually floods in during this period. He has found that as soon as the ICO period is over, the scams cease. After that, you can continue to concentrate on building the project from there.
ShareRing has a working platform. However, when it came to acquiring merchants, mentioning the word blockchain and all the benefits that comes with the technology seemed to scare the retail customers. To overcome this, ShareRing removed references to blockchain from the story and sold itself solely on the benefits that the service could bring. The world is ready for blockchain technology but not for the blockchain story.
Since ShareRing is planning to move away from being based on Ethereum, Tim states that it is vital to develop a good token model. Good design of token utility will create liquidity, demand and scarcity of the token and is key to growing the ecosystem.
Tim stresses that entrepreneurs/businesses should not start with wanting to do an ICO and then try to think of a project to fit it. Business ideas should come first and then it should grow and progress from there. People shouldn’t quit their jobs and try to raise funds before having a solid business idea.
Tim would do another ICO depending on the market. He would make sure he had a working product that can be demonstrated with the utility. Tim highlights the importance of working alongside consultants and advisors. They’ve worked with Deloitte, lawyers and ASIC to understand the legalities behind the operations.
Tim believes that Ethereum isn’t built for numerous projects to conduct their ICO. There are a lot of ICOs selling out which affects prices and ultimately brings it down. What Tim would prefer to see is a better spread of projects being based on different platforms instead of 90% on one.
Getting more people into the crypto space in this ‘crypto winter’ is the challenge that Lucy faces at this moment. All projects need marketing, and a clear and compelling message that can be understood by a wide range of audience is the number one priority.
A strong marketing plan is also needed. Identifying your industry, understanding the target audience, and recognising what channels and means of communication are the best to send your message are just somethings that needs to be considered and understood beforehand. Since blockchain technology is global, you’ll need to essentially target the global market. The ability to be adaptable is important because the crypto market moves really fast.
Engaging with your audience is vital since it’s easier to communicate with existing users than trying to acquire new ones. If you have a great idea, it is critical to communicate a clear message and position to the right audience because this will differentiate your project from your competitors.
Lucy said that if she could go back in conducting an ICO, she would be more vigilant with scams that inevitably happens. It is important to be on top of shutting the fake social media groups and accounts before things become more stressful.
Nimo doesn’t view democracy as a negative, however, he considers it to be something that has been done wrong. The current challenge is how to shift the culture of something that’s been in power for so long.
Key strengths to possess in order to succeed in the space includes having patience, acknowledgment that you’re stepping into a space that’s been around for a long time, and an understanding of your limits. The latter may be challenging since we sometimes don’t know what these limits are.
Make sure you have thought really hard about why you want your project to be on the blockchain and whether it needs to be on the blockchain at all. This is critical since it’ll essentially slow you down and cost a lot of resources if you make the wrong judgement. So if there’s no need for blockchain technology, don’t progress with it.
Nimo reflects that they’ve underestimated their marketing and didn’t do enough of it. It is agreed that a working product before a utility token will be helpful. Since creating the utility token before the working product may create confusion, but with that said, if there is a working product before the token then it questions if there is a need for the token at all.
David identified that a challenge which Power Ledger faced was navigating the regulatory frameworks in what was considered a very conservative industry. They overcame this challenge through being persistent with convincing the industry that they will bring value to the space.
Power Ledger is not looking at ‘disrupting’ the industry but rather see it as a transition to a new distributed economy that preserves as much value as they can along the way.
Strengths which Power Ledger identifies with are being able to empower and develop a dedicated and motivated team who can drive and own the vision of the project. David also recognises that the team’s ability to leverage already formed linkages and connections with the industry also helped Power Ledger to interact as peers rather than being seen as a project who is simply there to disrupt their industry and making people’s (in the industry) lives harder.
David states that tokens need to be related to what you’re doing because there are easier ways to raise money if you can’t justify the need of a token. What David would do differently if he could go back in time is place more effort into marketing.
Power Ledger took it upon themselves to take the initiative to get in contact with as many people to get the right advice. It is important to place required disclaimers, to be as transparent as possible with your audience and to provide as much information possible to ensure comfort (especially during the ICO).
David acknowledges the importance of having a white paper and establishment of a project idea. But concludes that it’s better to have a proof of concept before the white paper as it’ll add legitimacy to the project and the team.
The advice for anyone looking to build on blockchain or create their own cryptocurrency was clear and almost unanimous across the panel:
Their messages and advice were shared in hopes that it will be picked up by many more projects in the future, and that it will ensure that these lessons are not learnt the hard way.
We all know that there will be many more obstacles on the road ahead. However, the change and impact that their projects can potentially have on the world when their plans come into fruition, will make it a road worth travelling.
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