Dear contributors,
After the recent announcements by SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) and MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) regarding the regulatory position towards the ICOs (link below) we are compelled to significantly alter the structure of the Wabi token.
We realise that such alteration in the middle of the fundraising round is far from ideal and we understand that you may want to reconsider your decision to contribute based on the new information, therefore we are offering a full refund for every contributor who is not happy with the change in the structure of the Wabi token, returning 100% of the funds in the same currency as well as reasonable transaction fees.
Before we fix the new model Yaroslav and myself will speak to our community in Slack, Telegram as well as inform every contributor via registered email in order to answer potential questions and collect feedback. We find the conversations we’ve had so far with our community extremely valuable and often eye opening. Thus, in the coming few days we shall be fine-tuning the model based on the feedback we receive. We plan to fix the new model on Monday 14th August after incorporating your feedback.
Reasons for the change:
1. With clarification by the Singaporean authorities our previous model of the Wabi token would almost certainly be considered a security. This creates significant risks for the project, our investors as well as ourselves.
2. The feedback that we received so far was overwhelmingly in favour of us not limiting ourselves to the baby-store model and, instead, positioning it like an open platform with different channels, products and regions. Although this may increase the complexity of the project, in the long run we believe it has a far greater potential.
New WaBi (蛙币) model:
1. WaBi (蛙币) coin will be structured as a crypto-token that can be used to purchase Walimai protected products (in some way similar to loyalty programme points). This includes not only baby food, but also alcohol, cosmetics or any other products we plan to protect with our technology. In terms of geography it will start in China but will expand to other regions as well, even though exact timing it’s hard to predict at this stage. This will also not be limited to products that we sell ourselves: we plan to add other companies to the platform (this was always part of the overall Walimai plan). These companies will join the Wabi rewards system as well.
2. We will encourage the use of the Wabi tokens in several ways:
a) We will setup a seamless user interface. An Example:
https://cldup.com/ciIWwsikEO.png (215kB)
b) Allow users to “mine” tokens with a proof of purchase. Basically, buyers of products protected by Walimai technology will receive some initial coins when they start buying. We are reserving some coins at the ICO specifically for that.
c) Get overall better terms. This may include discounts, special offers etc., discounted purchases of WaBi (蛙币) coins etc.
New coin parameters:
1.Total supply of WaBi (蛙币) will be limited at 100.000.000. With the following split:
a) Up to 10.000.000 will be sold at the preICO at 0.03 USD/coin price. Funds will be used to launch the ICO. Up to additional 1.000.000 coins will be distributed through the bounty programme.
b) Up to 40.000.000 will be distributed at the ICO stage in September/October 2017. 80% sold for 0.15-0.25 USD/coin, 20% distributed among the team, bounties, founders. Funds will be used to grow sales in baby stores, add more product categories (such as alcohol and cosmetics) and set up a seamless WaBi usage process for consumers.
c) The remaining coins (49.000.000 if all 10.000.000 are sold at the preICO, 1.000.000 are distributed as bounties at the preICO round and 40.000.000 are sold during the ICO stage) will be reserved to be delivered to consumers through the mining process. Consumers will receive coins by purchasing Walimai protected products and participating in other activities. These 49.000.000 will be held in an escrow. A merchant (seller of products protected by Walimai technology) will be entitled to release WaBi coins equivalent of 5% worth of quarterly increase in sales of his products, from the escrow into the circulation by distributing these coins among the customers in the form of rewards and discounts. These coins can not be sold by merchants at an exchange.
Here is an example explaining point (c): merchant H sells cosmetics with Walimai protection, H used to sell 1m USD/month of cosmetics and grew sales to 1.3m USD over a quarter. Suppose, at the same time the price of WaBi at an exchange is 10 USD. H will then be eligible to distribute (1.3m-1m)*5%/10=1500 WaBi to it’s current or future buyers. And all of these WaBi have to be used by the merchant to encourage the use of WaBi and acquire additional users.
These coins will be kept in several escrows for security.
2. We will get listed on exchanges after the ICO as planned before.
Why we believe WaBi tokens will be a success:
1. Natural demand for the token. As it will be used within the loyalty system there will be a growing non-speculative transaction volume that will back the token circulation and ensure user adoption
2. Large underlaying market. It’s not just baby stores now. It’s baby food, cosmetics, alcohol or other products that would be protected with Walimai label. And not only our own sales but sales of future partners: producers, distributors etc.
3. Real customer benefit and seamless utilisation process. As a blockchain based loyalty system it will be much more advanced to whatever is currently available on China’s market.
Next steps for you:
1. You should make the decision if you wish to remain or withdraw from the project. It will be possible to withdraw until the end of Sunday 20th August London time.
2. If you decide to continue participating - nothing needs to be done. At the end of preICO we will exchange preWabi tokens that were already purchased to WaBi not at the 1:2 rate but at 1:34 rate, reflecting the 1 USD price of preWabi and 0.03 price of WaBi.
3. If you decide to withdraw - let us know via an email to
alex@wacoin.io. Please, use the same email that you’ve used to register at wacoin.io. We will ask you to send the preWabi tokens back if you already received them. And process the refund within 24 hours after receiving them back.
We hope you will give this a good considerations. We have updated the website and WP (all available at
www.wacoin.io) to further describe the new approach. We are happy to answer any questions you might have.
Also, we plan to extend the preICO by two weeks. Working on the new model we could not really take care of the marketing well enough. These additional two weeks will enable us to collect more at the preICO but will not delay ICO or exchange listing because we will already start to prepare for the ICO itself.
Alex and Yaroslav
Links to the announcements: SEC
https://www.sec.gov/oiea/investor-alerts-and-bulletins/ib_coinofferingshttps://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2017-131MAS
http://www.mas.gov.sg/News-and-Publications/Media-Releases/2017/MAS-clarifies-regulatory-position-on-the-offer-of-digital-tokens-in-Singapore.aspx
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