@everyone This is an official notice regarding the GIN Platform suspending of masternode hosting services as of Aug 01, 2019
Dear Client,
This is an official notice regarding the GIN Platform suspending of masternode hosting services as of Aug 01, 2019.
Why?
The recent drop in number of hosted nodes while at the same time GIN Platform using a scaled-up infrastructure, became a huge red flag on this business line profitability. Basically it became financially impossible for the platform to keep up operations. As the monthly margin was reinvested in the company, there are no buffers that could allow us to maintain operations at a daily loss. We have seen this coming recently and we tried to keep afloat the masternodes service as much as we could by optimizing masternode allocations, trimming down all non-essential indirect costs etc. We reached this unfortunate day when we need to take a sorrow and tough decision for us and for the community.
Why not keep it up at a loss until the market recovers?
We think the masternode landscape changed a lot in the past year. Blockchain technology is moving fast, staking appeared as a new promised consensus mechanism. The masternodes market proved to be quite resilient during the alts winter. While some thinkers in the space opine that there are signs that the masternodes space is getting some traction again, we cannot assume anything on our end. We have been bootstrapped from the beginning and what played as a great way to be flexible, did not help us now when a cash flow injection was needed.
As you know, we looked for fresh money for GIN Platform through a strategic investor, but the downtrend of the market and the complexity of the business did not favour us.
At the same time, our service is more expensive than the competition's which does not perform very well in a market where customers at this stage of the masternodes space will almost always choose the cheapest. While we set the standards in the industry, we did not adapt well to the cheap price strategy as we saw and believed beyond the hosting service for the masternode spaces. This time, we might have been proven wrong.
Why the urgency in closing?
We are making all endeavors to return all the customer balances and prorated payments for committed nodes to minimize the impact on the customer. The only way we can do this is if we eliminate all costs immediately and start the refund procedures.
What happens with the nodes you paid for in advance?
Your GIN Platform balance shall be credited with the prorated GIN amount for the remaining days of service. E.g. for a 30 GIN payment for 30 days, you shall be credited 10 GIN if only 10 days of paid service remain. To be eligible for this refund, do not delete the committed nodes.
How to get my balance back?
Send an email to
refunds@ginplatform.io from the same address you use to login to the platform by Sep 01, 2019, containing your GIN address where to receive the funds. Refunds shall be processed in maximum 30 days.
Is there any alternative to closing down the platform?
We evaluated all possible scenarios, it is with great pain that we have decided on this. If anyone from the community thinks they can do a better job and keep the service running, we are open to a handover to a different entity.
Even today, at this hour, we stand ready to discuss with any potential buyer for the GIN Platform if this can help maintain the customer base and the service unaffected, with the hope that the market will get well soon.
Email
alex.andreescu@ginplatform.io if you are interested.
What happens to Gincoin & GEA?
It is important to note that GINcoin and GIN Foundation have a different activity. While the Platform and the Coin where operationally interconnected, GINcoin and GEA Protocol will be the focus of our remaining activities related to GIN. We aim to take the GEA plans towards the public beta as per the roadmap that we announced from early stages.. The required assets that were part of the GIN Platform shall be handed to the GIN Foundation which will continue receiving funds and will try to make the best in promoting GEA and GIN.
On a personal note, we are also exhausted by the whole situation. We had a year of great achievements together with our clients and community. We believed that a project that aimed at providing huge utility in a coin ecosystem cannot lose. We created the first platform, had the first utility coin to pay for its services, notarized GIN blockchain, never incurred a serious 51% attack and we grew fast in just a couple of months. This is a sad moment, but we believe that while one maintains the right compass of honesty, transparency and hard work, there is always a second chance at some point in time.
We would like for all our masternode holder clients for trusting in our services.
We will continue in this space, even though we will take some time to digest the whole year and understand the crypto business better. We understand the frustration of many, and we want to transparently discuss any issues related to the masternode hosting service provided by GIN Platform. Thus, we aim to organize an AMA session with the community. A proposal date will be announced very soon.
Thank you,
GIN Platform Team
