AMA session summary - CEO Tudor Stomff answers your questions
We are always trying to have a great relationship with our community and help the members better understand our project. Our CEO, Tudor Stomff, is always eager to answer your questions regarding HYVE. Here is the AMA summary from a few days ago.
Q: Are we approaching the date where we can have a hard launch date/schedule for the different parts of the platform going live? If there is no hard date yet, what is preventing this?
A: Yes. I can give you dates, but you also have to give me the benefit of the doubt, i.e. understand the dates may be +/- 10 days I'd say. HYVE Launch will be published around the 10th of August, so in less than 30 days from now. Initial features number things like, being able to create a BEP20 and ERC20 token as a project, being able to do a fundraiser, being able to automatically provide liquidity in DEXs, being able to handle vesting, being able to run a staking vault or a liquidity mining vault and most importantly being able to run the governance of the platform with their native token through the HYVE Launch component. We will also open up submissions for people who want to use HYVE Launch for any of the above :) Also, people can stake HYVE so they earn fees paid by people who use HYVE Launch. Also, HYVE Governance will start taking place too after this.
The HYVE Platform, which includes the HYVE Client and the HYVE Core will be released around the 30th of September. The initial features will number the ability to post/participate in tasks, jobs, offers, and competitions. Everyone will be able to have their own profile where they can post certifications, history, feedback, etc. The platform will feature a messaging system to allow for easy collaboration between people. It will also allow people to stake so they earn fees paid from tasks. Beyond this, the launch will actually feature a mini "block explorer" for lack of better words, which will allow anyone to check a specific task or a specific person to see exactly who participated in it, what they did, what feedback they got, etc. In simple terms, it will be a fully functional platform and while we will continue adding features to it for quite a while, it will be an actual useful application and not just a demo or something of the kind.
Furthermore, on that note, I would like to add that we have already started envisioning HYVE V2.0 and we will most likely be publishing a description of our vision shortly after the main platform launch.
The HYVE Protocol will be released sometime in Q4, this being what enables self-verifiable tasks and collaboration between machines, AI agents, etc.
Q:44 transfers of 50k were made for “spots” related to the Ritossa events. Do we need to count those tokens in circulating supply now since they have not been returned? How many spots do you think will conclude in a partnership and when the other spots will be returned if any? Do the potential partners need to engage/provide anything to receive the tokens?
A: Yes, they should be counted as part of the circulating supply, we will update the Coingecko information very soon
For now, we have used exactly 16 of the 44 spots, so about a third. We still have some open conversations and follow-ups to do so I am not sure if it will remain at this number but we will probably stop at around half of those spots I would say.
The spots are for different things. We want to have interested shareholders that can help us along the way. For some that might be immediate, for others it might take a bit longer. I can say that all the 16 recipients, however, are people that were carefully chosen from an audience of over 350 people of quite good caliber. Furthermore, I would say it's us that chose them and not the other way around. The recipients include royalties, industry leaders in either blockchain or finance sector (for eg one of them is the CEO of a decently sized bank), family offices, etc. All these are people who can help us over the next few years quite extensively.
Perhaps some of them won't help us as we would expect, but to be perfectly honest I doubt that because we were quite rigorous in our selection.
Q: Maybe this was explained in a blog post so don’t hesitate to answer with a link (or remove from AMA). Is there a plan and is it public yet on the modalities/incentives of news users both businesses and freelancers? Is there a particular focus on either side (business vs freelancers) to help kickstart the platform?
A: There is a financial incentive for both users and task providers to use the platform and a business incentive for companies that want to build on top. Naturally, we have to focus on both, but at first, our main focus will be getting as many companies to actually use HYVE because we believe that users will come as long as there is work to be done.
Q: How easy/hard will it be for startups/companies to build apps on top of the HYVE protocol?
A: It's quite easy to be honest. Leaving aside that we will publish documentation to help with that, for the first 10-20 companies that build on top of the ecosystem, and perhaps even after that, we will offer direct support and help from our own development team.
Q: When can small companies start to build on the HYVE protocol? Right from the start at and of Q3?
A: After HYVE Launch is live they can already open a conversation with us (~10 Aug), but I would say around beginning of Q4 is a realistic timeline for someone to actually honestly start building something
Q: Do these companies need special blockchain developers or can the use their standard web/app dev teams?
A: We provide a lot of the blockchain infrastructure, even going as far as allowing people to create their own ERC20/BEP20 pre-audited tokens and managing distribution, vesting, governance etc; that all in addition to the actual platform infrastructure like disputes, escrow, agreements etc. However, someone still needs to connect this stuff to what your particular platform will be doing, so I would say you definitely don't need a full-blown team of blockchain devs but having at least 1 would definitely be extremely helpful.
Q: When you sell HYVE-shares to investors (like in Monaco) you take these hyves from the growth reserve, so this will not affect the hyve-price on exchanges, right? Because these shares are not taken from the free market, right? But when these investors sell their tokens then they will do that on the free market, right? So if they buy from the growth reserve then the hyve price will not move up, but when they sell on the open market the price will go down, right?
A: It was taken from the foundation, not the growth reserve. The entire growth reserve is completely vested in a smart contract that can be checked. If we sell them it does not affect the price on the free market, correct. If the people who buy them from us then go and sell on the market it would affect the price, yes, but it's really a pretty marginal thing. Even if one of them were to market sell their tokens on Uniswap which would make no sense, either way, it would have a ~2% or less price impact which when distributed evenly over all exchanges due to arbitrage, etc is even less.
Now leaving that aside, the people who were part of this were moreso partners than investors, meaning we wanted to get them on board so as to start a collaboration over the long term. If that relationship builds over time, most people will buy tokens of the market either way which does have an impact. Keep in mind that all 16 recipients are at the very least worth mid to upper 8 digits and that's just a minority of them either way. There isn't really much incentive to sell ~$10K on the market. It's more about getting someone on board to start a long-term and healthy collaboration.
Q: Where the HYVE in Monaco sold on the real daily exchange price or have you sold „flat price packages“ of hyve that are not bound to the daily price change? How much had an investor to pay per hyve in your latest investment round (Monaco)?
A: If we sell, even OTC, it will always be at the very least at the price-point where HYVE is trading and not below it, so in this case at the very least $0.2$ / HYVE. You're probably referring to discounts but we don't really do that as people in the private sale well remember. It should be fair to everyone and if someone doesn't agree with that then it's fine not having them on board.
Now to clear up some confusion, this was more about getting long-term partners rather than just selling tokens. This is also why we had a fixed package made for everyone which is also quite a modest amount, it's more about having a starting point than anything.
Q: What is your plan to get companies to use Hyve for posting tasks/jobs? I guess some companies will need identity checks/confidential agreements, is that handled inside Hyve or will that be handled separately by the parts?
A: We will try to accomplish this through direct introductions. This is one of the places where the partnerships we work on play a big role and it's also why we wanted to focus on this because people need a point of trust to be able to try out a new idea.
Leaving the direct approach aside, there is no reason for companies that already use Upwork/Fiverr/Freelancer, etc not to use HYVE considering they'll pay between 0 and 0.5% fee at most, without even taking into consideration the other advantages.
People can sign P2P agreements through HYVE. You sign it physically, upload it, we generate a hash, send it to the counterparty, the counterparty signs, we generate a hash for them too, we check that the hashes match, and then the contract is uploaded on the chain, making it usable as evidence in both a decentralized dispute and a real court of law.
Q: So, how will HYVE, resolve disputes, refunds, etc. without a centralized entity? I think this is actually the biggest concern of crypto in general, that doesn't seem to have a solution yet. In the end, some centralization will be needed, I guess.
A: Disputes will be handled through Kleros at first. This means when someone raises a dispute a number of decentralized jurors are selected and each one of them casts an individual vote based on the provided evidence and after that, a decision is met in regards to who is right.
Over time we will add alternative solutions as well and perhaps even have an in-house solution but for now, Kleros has been live for a while and works amazingly well.
Q: I think someone like JRNY crypto may be of some help on the marketing side, which is great, but at this point for me the single most important thing is to be able to view, test, and ideally use parts of the platform as soon as possible. Wasn't Hyve Launch planned for the end of July and Hyve client by end of August?
A: That is absolutely correct. Do keep in mind that those were approximations that were given months ago when we didn't really have a very clear picture of where everything stood so it's normal to not be exactly on point. ETH 2.0 has been delayed for over 2 years now and Cardano still doesn't have working smart-contracts.
I do understand the sentiment but the Launch has a ~10-day delay and the platform at most a ~30-day delay. This is honestly within normal ranges of any product development. On that note, the Launch might be ready closer to ~3rd of August which would mean we have a 3-10 day delay. As for the mainnet, this is because we hadn't realized we have to put in a mini "block explorer" at first and obviously we could skip that but it would really kill a lot of usability if we do because people need to be able to check such details.
Q: I guess this question has already been answered, but will there be FIAT options for companies/freelancers that want to use the platform but don't want to get involved in crypto?
A: Yes, not on the first day of launch but we definitely plan to add this by the end of this year.
Q: "I would say around the beginning of Q4 is a realistic timeline for someone to actually honestly start building something"
Does this apply to the questions I asked in June regarding integration, documentation, and preparation?
A: Well I said that because in my mind I was thinking what if someone wants to build their own Uber on top of HYVE and make use of ALL the modules and maybe not even talk to us, just like people use the Graph or Ethereum to build stuff. In that case, yeah, that's a realistic timeline. But for something like what you want to build we can totally start it sooner than that. I would say by the end of Aug we can start working on this :)
If you are able to have a small document explaining how you'd like to interact with HYVE I can share that with the devs already so they can start thinking about it
Also, we have one more thing in regards to the platform but I don't really want to make that public yet because it's completely unexpected for everyone I'm sure and literally nobody is doing this right now and I'd like to announce that a bit closer to when it's done. All I can say is it's a feature that will truly help HYVE to become globally adopted, in all regards.
Like I mentioned this because it obviously delayed us a bit but it's honestly worth it. To be even more honest I feel a bit like an idiot for us not figuring this out sooner either way. Thankfully, Dominic, our CTO came up with this and it's a feature I'm really excited about. The idea is it makes things a TON easier for people who want to use blockchain in general so I think it will really help with adoption.
Q: Any anecdotes from Monaco that can be shared?
A: That's an interesting question. I was happy that the team got to know each other better and spend time in a different environment. It was like a mini-team building event if you will, so that was a nice thing to see. As for anecdotes or main takeaways if you will, I think there would be a couple of them so let me break them down
- try not to take things too seriously. life is hard enough as it is already, if you can't even smile it definitely won't make things easier, so just take things one at a time and know where you want to get
- we're still not at a point where we have evolved beyond appearances as a society and so whether we like it or not, we have to keep that in mind when building something and respecting it. I do see hopes of this no longer being in the case in the future though.
- it's important to have people you can trust with you. Like the old adage said. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I think Monaco really hammered that into us as founders. It's pretty much outright impossible to do something by yourself, but it becomes much easier and even more pleasant when you do this with people you enjoy spending your time with.
Q: I wanted to ask since I'm a developer myself, and nowadays with all the covid restrictions I see this platform as a great opportunity and idea, so my question would be, how do you plan to lure companies in? Where would be the initial focus, attracting small or big companies?
A: Attracting small companies. Divide and Conquer. I think that is what would work best in getting people to adopt a new technology. Amazon used this too by luring in smaller publishers so then the large ones were obligated to just start using it.
Q: I work with SAP which normally means that I have to go through confidential agreements and all sorts of those paperwork, for what I understand the plan is to leave it in the blockchain this kind of interactions, so my doubt is since I still haven't learned as much, where and how would be this 'saved'?
A: That's perfectly fine and it's why we allow agreements to be signed through HYVE in the first place. Some of the information is on-chain, but not all of it has to be (1) and not all of it has to be in clear text (2) so it's normal for certain parts to be obfuscated specifically for the reason you raised.
We hope that these answers help you better understand our project and give you a glimpse into the future path we want to create with HYVE. We are looking forward to the next AMA session with our community.
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