We have already answered your questions in Russian topic here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2254440.msg25094608#msg25094608, but we don’t mind to answer them again. Hope you are happy with the answers:
4. Civic's identity verification – Why does a user need the application?
4. Civic’s identification will be implemented if they release the functionality that they promise to give to the users. We have tried to work with Civic and their real solution is different from their white paper’s product, which looks like a scam. Currently we plan to do KYC by our own.
6. Item 2.6 – Affiliates will be obliged to return funds. How?
6. For this specific purpose we have implemented allowance method with HQX smart-contract which will deduct tokens from accounts of merchants and affiliates. Merchants can demand to allocate a proportion of payed out tokens as a deposit for affiliates with 0 reputation. This means that a webmaster does not receive an amount of token reward for his job until he earns a higher reputation level so you can say that this amount is always «on hold» until certain critters are met by a webmaster, which guarantees money back in case of disputes.
8. Page 16 – “A flow of leads that are collected and processed by tracking services for a particular offer” – What are these tracking services, and who controls them? It is a guarantee of validity of the affiliates’ data, yet it’s not mentioned. The description is given only after 10 pages in technical part of the document. The issues of self-sufficiency and correct operation aren’t addressed. It questions integrity of the platform.
8. Tracking services are the service which track leads. For instance, if you want to track calls - we have an Asterisk server.
During first stages of platform development HOQU will offer tracking service and as platform develops we assume community of merchants and web-masterss will be using other tracking providers.
Another instance: an affiliate networks wants to organise leads auction.
They create separate tracking service which receives leads and sorts them between auction participants.
This feature of registering independent tracking services is possible only if following criterias are met:
- There is a processed deposit which will guarantee tracking service work
- Founders are voting «for» this tracking service registration
- Community members with high reputation may also vote for or against this tracking service registration
This list is not finished and full methodology is to be developed further and will be available to everyone.
9. Item 4.3 – “Data from the blockchain will be collected in real time, then processed and stored
in a relational database” – Who owns this database? Are we back to centralization?
9. We will create blockchain explorer on HOQU.com basis with open API. No centralisation is included we just make things easier. If a user wants to create an aggregator he has no need to download and install the blockchain node and read all the info from it.
3rd party programs will also read all the info from explorer and not from blockchain because it is not always appropriate to allow to do this: sometimes we read from the blockchain for a fraction of a second and sometimes more than 60 seconds.
10. Who makes a decision in the appeal centers? Is it under control of the platform? “The appeal centers have their own rating that is dependent on the adoption of equitable and prompt decisions on appeals arising” – What is that supposed to mean? What is this rating? Who decides whether it is a fair decision?
10. Appeal centers, similar to tracking services development will be implemented by hoqu.com for the early stages of platform running. Later on there will be a possibility to register independent appeal centers. Lets say that you are an affiliate network and you can create your own appeal center. Other community members and enthusiasts may create independent centers and take a fee for disputes settlement.
11. The calculations inside the system are strange – “It is also possible to fix the cost of a lead to any fiat currency. In this case, the value of a lead will be calculated in HQX tokens at the internal exchange rate current at the moment the lead was created on the hoqu.com web service” – Exchange-rate volatility may cause profit or loss out of nothing. None of the system participants can predict it.
11. Volatility - is a headache of all the crypto projects. There are a lot of ways how to decrease or eliminate it. The example of connection payout rate to a fiat currency is just one of them. Each participant places his own offer parameters and others decide to work or not on these terms. In other words to take the risks or not. There is a room for intermediaries who will take volatility and FX risks and provide services for platform participants in fait currencies.
12. Page 23 – Description of the connection to the API – So, if I don’t get an API-key, then I won’t be able to work with a customer? But what about openness? No one will give the keys to newcomers, thus an artificial barrier to entry is made.
12. That is correct. Many affiliate networks do not take in just anyone. There may be restrictions and minimum experience and reputation demand to qualify to enter a particular affiliate network. Others network may create a separate offer for a particular partner. But we imagine most of the affiliate networks to be open.
13. Page 24 – Anti-Fraud system - Where are these neural networks launched? What was used for machine learning?
13. Neural networks are learning from customers’ characteristics. Input parameters: time spent on web-site, activity (number of actions per time), pages jumps, clicks, mouse movements and scroll buttons hits, browser info and etc. To make neural network lear we outsource this feature from a partner so they serve the traffic. Concerning calls - we provide all the info for a neural network by ourselves. We analyse more than 20 characteristics such as call length, time of the day, region code, telephony service provider and etc. Currently we have around 342 thousand calls for studies.
14. Page 25 – "Each affiliate network can use different plugins for customization, and it is also possible to create custom plug-ins to be made available to affiliates" - What is it? What for?
14. Currently we integrate MarketCall affiliate network into HOQU. Plugins: personal manager panel, on-line chat, affiliate network’s news and ticket systems.
19. Page 34 – "Potential revenue from these directions for the HOQU platform is not taken into account in the financial model, but it will be present in the actual operation of the platform" - How do leads from these channels get into tracking and system?
19. For each source a partner uses separately rented telephone number of an affiliate network. This allows to track phone calls from any source including radio, printed sources, outdoor and etc. This model is already implemented and successfully working in the MarketCall company.
26. According to the roadmap, NOTHING is ready thus far.
26. We already have almost finished smart contract prototype on a blockchain and MVP, here is the screenshot
The video with the MVP is going to be presented on Monday, 27 of November. For institutional investors we are planning to do a live demonstration face-to-face..
A brief summary:
• The project is described poorly – it is unclear to an investor who is not engaged in advertising; there is no mention of the project’s revenue source in the part about Project Economics.
• Decentralization is very much an open question – particularly with regard to the relational database, tracking and appeals.
• Key details of the project i.e. anti-fraud and lead tracker are not described in implementation plan.
• There are no prerequisites for the rise in the value of tokens in the project. It doesn't really make any sense for platform members to keep tokens in the wallet.
• To date, the team doesn’t have any element completed.
I want to note about your «summary»:
• white paper is not a technical paper
• Our product is really complex to be understood using only technical terms
• While writing the white paper a lot of material has been cut by our advisors not to clog it and make easier to read and understand. Otherwise the volume would be enormous.
• There are a lot of preconditions for token price increase. It is a matter of a few week and we Will announce the agreements with partners who are doing marketing by pay per ICO model
From complited features we can name
• Smart contract prototype
• Web-application of a web-master
• Web-application of a merchant
P.S. All technical questions May be asked directly to @eclmadfly by telegram chat.
P.S.S. Respect us and yourself, do not ask the same questions in multiple threads and Telegram chat if you are so savvy in this area.
WOW! This is probably the most complete and clear answer to the question that I ever met
