So here's the update you've been after. I hope it's been worth the wait and think you'll agree things are looking pretty exciting right now. Cross-posted from Slack:
rob [5:10 AM]
Okay chaps, so I'd like our next formal update to centre on a product development update by Jins, but in advance of this I do have some news I'd like to share. Here goes:
[5:13]
1. Our litigation finally settled yesterday. I am not at liberty to discuss any of the details but suffice it to say that I am content with the terms reached. And I am more content still that we have emerged relatively unscathed from an ordeal which, for a time, posed an existential threat to the project.
rob [5:22 AM]
2. The team is growing: Jins Kaduthodil (
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjkaduthodil/) is now full time as COO and Head of Product, Mary Powell is full time on Compliance preparation, Bobby Watts (
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjwatts/) has joined as our lead on Business Development and Jackson Chan (
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackson-chan/) is joining us from Macquarie Group on 13 Nov. We are on the hunt for one further developer but we have sufficient to get out of the gate and I want to make sure we get the right fit. (edited)
[5:27]
3. Timeline: with back-end work (internal) progressing well and front end effort ramping up (Round Table Apps) I see nothing at the moment which will prevent the core work being completed in-step with the product roadmap we released last month.
rob [5:34 AM]
4. Launch. We have taken the decision to target 26 Jan 18 (Australia Day) for the launch of our first pilot product, which will be a Chrome Extension that when active, rewards Australian consumers with Incent (which we buy back off the secondary market) for online purchases. Essentially this is an affiliate marketing play but whereas competitors make program members wait up to 3 months for a cash-back reward, the release of Incent can be more or less instantaneous. Given the prevailing hunger amongst the Australian public to 'get into crypto' we are quite excited about the potential of this product to make an impact. So we are going to give it a red hot go.
rob [5:39 AM]
5. Brand. We've spent the last month in a branding exercise with this gentleman
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-busby-andrews-6b9b275/. As I await formal feedback on Busby's deliberations I genuinely don't know how far he will suggest we go or the extent to which we will feel compelled to enact whatever he recommends, but I will keep you informed before we do anything drastic.
[5:41]
6. Marketing and PR. You'll appreciate that to succeed, the pilot product is going to need quite a push locally, so you're going to see marketing efforts ramp up gently until Christmas and hit 'overdrive' as we move into the New Year.
rob [5:50 AM]
7. Market Operations. It will surprise none of you to learn that the approach of a commercial release is concentrating thought this end on settlement. As it stands we have programmatic solutions ready through both Bittrex and Waves DEX but while our preference, for reasons you all understand well, would be to settle through the DEX, we need to move the volume across first. While I'm not in a position to confirm exactly how we will attempt to achieve this just yet, I want you to know that this is our aspiration so that you understand what you are seeing when we do get cracking. Finally, I want to be clear that any market operations we undertake have the sole aim of facilitating settlement.
[5:51]
Okay, so that's the headlines for the moment. I'm going to be offline for the next few hours but please do fire your questions back and I'll get to them as soon as I can.
