[ANN][ICO] ETCETERA: Bringing Cryptocurrency Gift Cards to Local Stores

[EtceteraTeam]

Great project! This will certainly make it easier for the general public to get into this space.  I'm a bit worried about the 6% fee, however.  I think this may break adoption as it is much higher than other entry points into the market.  I understand the convenience and familiarity aspect of buying a "gift card" containing BTC and other currencies, but what's stopping any other big exchange from offering the same product at a lower rate?  Coinbase for instance charges 4% for credit card payments and have already established an exchange.  They would also not require an intermediate coin for the transaction.  What do you think?

Hi there!
We offer a new option to buy cryptocurrency for everyone locally, next to for example Bitcoin ATM's. Where you might think that 6% might seem steep, please have a look at the following links:
https://coinatmradar.com/blog/bitcoin-atm-fees-2016-revision/
https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/5j66q2/bitcoin_atm_fees_2016_revision_average_buy/
https://coinatmradar.com/charts/#fees


Coinbase charges 4% for credit card payments but we will distribute hard-plastic gift cards in local stores world-wide, and in order for us to make this a sustaining model in the long-term, regrettably we will not be able to distribute these gift cards under a 6% fee.

Also note that we will implement a burn of 1% of these 6% fees until the total amount of available tokens has reached 20'000'000 (due to our burning).

Please let us know if there is anything else unclear!

[1713403869]

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[1713403869]

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[1713403869]

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[MavsCrypto41]

Yeah, the 6% is getting me too.  Its just too much.  Token holders should get a portion, or lower it.

What markets is this targeting?  What countries?  In the US would you need a disclaimer with possible tax implications?  I can imagine a grandpa buys it for his grandson in November and gives it for Christmas.  The change in value should be taxed now.  Which is ridiculous but is what it is this year at least.

How will it reach stores?  Do you have to individually market it to each store or are there groups that handle getting gift cards into the store?

[crynvestor]

Yeah, the 6% is getting me too.  Its just too much.  Token holders should get a portion, or lower it.

What markets is this targeting?  What countries?  In the US would you need a disclaimer with possible tax implications?  I can imagine a grandpa buys it for his grandson in November and gives it for Christmas.  The change in value should be taxed now.  Which is ridiculous but is what it is this year at least.

How will it reach stores?  Do you have to individually market it to each store or are there groups that handle getting gift cards into the store?

Hi there!

Please read the above articles if you have not done so yet. We are confident Gift Cards will be more fungible than ATM's will ever be, just because of the 'Gifting' idea behind them.

As for your other remarks:

1. Token holders 'get' a portion in the form of burning 1% from the 6% fees. Together with an ever increasing demand and value, the token will also be used on our future platform to receive various advantages such as most exchanges are doing lately. We are open to discuss any other advantages for tokenholders with the community, all ideas are welcome, here or on any (social) platform you can find, so please share whatever comes to mind that might increase our goal of global cryptocurrency adoption!
2. We cannot disclose any countries before we are sure we can/will sell gift cards there. At this moment we are not reaching to individual stores since we have to be sure of some form of legal insurance in every country we will be selling gift cards. We will however enclose all needed information in every gift card sold to make sure every buyer or receiver of our gift cards will always comply to local regulations.
3. The cards are planned to reach the stores the same way as for example Google Play or iTunes cards, distribution will be discussed with the same companies responsible for distributing these existing cards.

In order for us to be able to roll out as fast as possible (and as secure as possible), we came up with the idea of performing an ICO to raise needed funds to be able to pay for this whole process. These funds will be spend as can be found on our white paper and/or website, but in essence it will be for starting legal conversations in countries world-wide (perhaps/probably based on country interest in our ICO), paying for at least a part of the development of our online platform: the exchange, the API connections needed, our mobile app , ... Also the initial production and distribution of our Gift Cards will be paid from these funds (slowly evolving to being self-sustainable thanks to the fee asked for every gift card).

We are always looking for ways to improve our future product so any form of advice, feedback, criticism,... is appreciated!

Please let us know if there is anything else unclear!

[EtceteraTeam]

Yeah, the 6% is getting me too.  Its just too much.  Token holders should get a portion, or lower it.

What markets is this targeting?  What countries?  In the US would you need a disclaimer with possible tax implications?  I can imagine a grandpa buys it for his grandson in November and gives it for Christmas.  The change in value should be taxed now.  Which is ridiculous but is what it is this year at least.

How will it reach stores?  Do you have to individually market it to each store or are there groups that handle getting gift cards into the store?

Please also bear in mind that we plan to target the people not able of purchasing cryptocurrencies through the current ways, or simply for encouraging people to gift eachother cryptocurrencies in the form of a gift card in order for them to start learning how to use/trade/send cryptocurrencies. And given the (current) market fluctuations, we are confident this fee will be insignificant considering we estimate that more than 50% of the cards won't be redeemed within a month after purchase.
We will of course constantly look into new coins to add to our platform and perhaps even add them as a separate gift cards, next to our current Bitcoin, Ethereum and Etcetera cards. Community input will be very important here.

As for taxation etc.:  we will look into every country separately, as Ief (@crynvestor) said, we can't disclose any information regarding this at this moment, but we will of course start with the countries most eager to accept and allow cryptocurrencies. Legal talks will go better in one country than the other, but we will update our community transparantly upon official (contractual and legal) agreements and we will of course follow world wide regulations closely. A quick google search will get you just as far, but here are some of the latest regulatory articles regarding cryptocurrencies we have been following:
https://www.crypto-economy.net/the-ico-regulations-worldwide/?lang=en
http://www.businessinsider.com/blockchain-cryptocurrency-regulations-us-global-2017-10?international=true&r=US&IR=T
https://www.coindesk.com/2017-in-review-how-the-world-regulated-crypto/
https://news.blackmooncrypto.com/cryptocurrency-regulation-cross-country-analysis-67452f1df80e

As for the markets we're targeting: cryptocurrencies and ICO market combined with the gift card market. I guess the market for cryptocurrencies will not have to be explained here at BitcoinTalk, but as for the gift card market we have shared this article on our social media platforms not so long ago:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3352089/

Please let us know if you have any more questions!

[saaayyyeeel]

Looking forward to see the progress of this project especially the exchange which will face some greater challenges since the cryptoworld is already full of exchanges that were already operating and with a solid foundation. We will see how this one compete with them.

[crynvestor]

For those on steemit, sharing is caring!
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@crynvestor/etcetera-will-allow-anyone-to-buy-cryptocurrency-in-their-local-store

[EtceteraTeam]

Dear users!

We're holding an open smart contract testing phase on the Rinkeby Ethereum testnet until January 26th.

Please check : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2810818.0 for all the info!

Thanks in advance!

[thaliaand]

I think using a cryptocurrency gift card as a kickstart and making it famous all over the world is a good idea. People will find it easier to remember something simple but meaningful, like a "gift". Every project needs some times for people to get acquainted with the concepts and products offered, as well as this project.

[MavsCrypto41]

Thanks for the answers!  I too am excited about the exchange. 

[MavsCrypto41]

What happens if the ICO only sells 15m tokens?  Would the rest be burned but no 1% burn per transaction?

Is there KYC?  Any countries prohibited from the ICO?

[Pepe_Fortunato]

What happens if the ICO only sells 15m tokens?  Would the rest be burned but no 1% burn per transaction?

Is there KYC?  Any countries prohibited from the ICO?

Hi there MavsCrypto41!

I am Brasseur Pepijn and one of the founders of Etcetera.

After long discussion, we decided to let the burn process continue indefinately. This means that we will continue the 1% burn, regardless of the amount of tokens in circulation. The tokens will be minted whenever a contribution to the ICO is made, when the ICO ends, only the minted tokens will be in circulation, together with the tokens reserved by Etcetera for operational purposes, bounties and affiliates. Should this for example be only 10m tokens, the burn process will still be in place. We made this decision to give the participants added value to the token in the long term, regardless of the amount of success the ICO will bring. This together with the demand we will create through our offline card sales should bring a high value for the Etcetera token.

We do not have a KYC in place, and we are only prohibiting the US and China to participate in the tokensale, this is described in our terms & conditions.

Anyone can register on our website without a KYC process, and contribute to the ICO and they will receive their Etcetera tokens after their contibution.

[banzai2]

Recorded a discussion / analysis of your ICO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzaP7uiWUFw

As you'll see we're pretty enthusiastic about the concept but have some serious concerns. Would love to hear the team's response to our criticisms and correct anything we got wrong.

[MavsCrypto41]

What happens if the ICO only sells 15m tokens?  Would the rest be burned but no 1% burn per transaction?

Is there KYC?  Any countries prohibited from the ICO?

Hi there MavsCrypto41!

I am Brasseur Pepijn and one of the founders of Etcetera.

After long discussion, we decided to let the burn process continue indefinately. This means that we will continue the 1% burn, regardless of the amount of tokens in circulation. The tokens will be minted whenever a contribution to the ICO is made, when the ICO ends, only the minted tokens will be in circulation, together with the tokens reserved by Etcetera for operational purposes, bounties and affiliates. Should this for example be only 10m tokens, the burn process will still be in place. We made this decision to give the participants added value to the token in the long term, regardless of the amount of success the ICO will bring. This together with the demand we will create through our offline card sales should bring a high value for the Etcetera token.

We do not have a KYC in place, and we are only prohibiting the US and China to participate in the tokensale, this is described in our terms & conditions.

Anyone can register on our website without a KYC process, and contribute to the ICO and they will receive their Etcetera tokens after their contibution.

Thank you Brasseur!  That continuation of the burnoff sounds great!  This is gonna go big places.

[rahul10948]

Etcetera Hindi Whitepaper Is available at :

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YyFkOoZMrqHefcS12xahzV6GcR-5m5jr

ANN and Website is on the way

[rahul10948]

Etcetera Hindi ANN Thread is live at :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2843103

Website is Next..Stay Tuned

[artursimsonfrg]

Etcetera is an international team of several cryptocurrency enthusiasts and believers, intent on making cryptocurrency available to everybody, worldwide.

[Elon1001]

nice project ，hope better

[MavsCrypto41]

Recorded a discussion / analysis of your ICO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzaP7uiWUFw

As you'll see we're pretty enthusiastic about the concept but have some serious concerns. Would love to hear the team's response to our criticisms and correct anything we got wrong.

Thanks for the video!  I too would be interested to hear their responses.

[rahul10948]

Etcetera Hindi Translation Completed

ANN already live at :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2843103

Whitepaper and website Translation link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YyFkOoZMrqHefcS12xahzV6GcR-5m5jr

Please Update the spreadsheet

Thanks

[Pepe_Fortunato]

Recorded a discussion / analysis of your ICO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzaP7uiWUFw

As you'll see we're pretty enthusiastic about the concept but have some serious concerns. Would love to hear the team's response to our criticisms and correct anything we got wrong.

Hi there banzai2!

I am Brasseur Pepijn, co-founder of Etcetera. I will give you all the answers you need!
We will start with the remark about the softcap, this remark is partly true -> We failed to notice that it was not clearly mentioned on the website. But there is in fact a soft-cap in place equal to 900ETH - $1.000.000.

The reason for this is that this is the ABSOLUTE minimum amount we need to get started with distribution of Etcetera cards. Because we are a startup, we have no bank guarantees, especially not since we trade/broke cryptocurrencies, so every card sold will need to be backed by us. This in combination with the cost of development of the platform and legal aspects we calculated that $1.000.000 is the absolute minimum for us to get started.

Secondly, the KYC process. Every country has different rules surrounding KYC. We clearly stated that we will try to be operational in every country where regulations permit. This means for countries the following : most countries don't demand KYC as long as the amount of purchase is beneath a certain limit. This we will tackle by selling cards of different values in different regions, based on that countries specific regulations. We are aware of our position, and did the necessary research, but of course, USA is not yet within our reach. But we are 100% certain that there are multiple countries who or 1. have flexible regulations surrounding KYC, or 2. have no regulations in terms of cryptocurrencies. Both scenarios is a precursor for us that we can operate in those countries. Of course, we understand the doubt, being an American, where regulations are a lot stricter then Europe, Africa or some parts of Asia.
But rest assured that we are one hundred procent certain that we can roll out in multiple countries. Our initial countries will probably be Belgium and the republic of Georgia, and depending on the success of the ICO we will add more countries to the list that we can handle/manage with that amount.

In terms of the ICO in the US, shoud regulations not permit us to sell bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, we will just sell the empty wallets together with a code that they can use on our website, just entering their personal details and they will receive the value of their purchase on the card. This way we will still reach the potential customers, even in the US, ONLY if this is our last resort.

Furthermore, you need to take into account that, because of those regulations, every MAXIMUM purchase amount will be limited per customer per sale, exactly to avoid/circumvent the KYC rules/restrictions.

Thirdly, we already made contact with distributors, who are in charge of payment systems to inspect and check if the infrastructure provided makes our project possible. And it is, in most countries. India for example is a difficult country to achieve this, but in Belgium to start with, it is perfectly possible. We are not in need of a "partnership", since we will be contracting them, not teaming up. Those discussions have been started, and we again are certain that we CAN distribute the cards through their channels, which actually are exactly the same as Itunes cards get distributed. Our initial distributor we talked to distributes those cards together with multiple others to their independent salespoints. The largest distributor in Belgium for example distributes those to over 5.000 salespoints.

Lastly, i can in all honesty tell you that our team is involved full time, and we did our research, but in the end, yes, until we get the funding, it is just a well formed and investigated idea. So i certainly welcome you to ask more questions or even contribute to our ICO!

You can contact me at pepijn@etcetera.ltd!