KICK, HODL & Co.

Today we see a lot of uncertainty in our token holders, some of them are willing to dump the token being unsatisfied with its growth. We do realize why this is happening and we find it quite expected. Of course, our target is to keep developing and to make our holders happy, but for some periods of time these two just don’t come along. It is not going to be like that for a long time, but now there are clear market reasons for a slight short-term hold down.

As you most likely know, we successfully finished our ICO and now already have our tokens listed officially on EtherDelta Exchange. Since we entered the exchange we have had our community split in two major audiences, the first getting scared by the low token price and trying to dump it, and the second playing the opposing counsel, trying to prove the HODL strategy right. Our goal is not to prove one of the sides right or wrong, but to give our prospect and vision to help all of you make economically wise decisions.

Let us get back to some history to make the current situation clear. The token holders, as you remember, had several opportunities to acquire our token, and depending on the time of purchase, the price could differ widely:

- The closed round gave an 80% discount

- During preICO we offered a 50% discount

- ICO Early Birds could get some up to 50% bonuses

- ICO offered no discount

Therefore, getting our tokens for different prices, investors had different profit thresholds to indicate the time to sell. For any group of investors the token price was significantly lower than $0.10 (current rate), which means selling it now for them is going to make profits. As you can see from the discount outline, even if the price continues to go down it will still remain profitable for many of our investors to sell the tokens. Another option for many holders would be selling a part of their tokens, thus covering their initial expenses, and holding the rest for a better day.

Anyway, we would like to mention all of the above is nothing more than a general short-term profit strategy, which is quite natural and was normally expected. Of course, such strategy leads to the token price decrease, but as we said, we believe this is short-term. Anyone is free to handle coins his or her way. We are just urging everyone to estimate the potential outcomes first and take action second.

So, having seen the current market price trend, we would like to take a look into the nearest future. Many of you are now speculating whether the token price will continue to go down and whether it is going to go lower than the ICO level, and to those of you our reply is “Probably, you are right”. The process is as simple as this: if anyone now is willing to dump the tokens, he or she has every right to do so, and that will inevitably drop the price even further. We are not blaming anyone, of course, we realize such speculation is a natural market tool used by many. Nevertheless, such possible scenario is not going to affect our development, as it was actually described a while ago in our WP.

To be on the same page with you, we would like to share some thoughts of ours on the growth matter with you. The growth can be driven by various factors and tools, and we have all the same for the market and better. The three main reasons for a token to grow are the following:

1) PR

Public relations have a great influence on any cryptocurrency rate. Public “Pros” help raise the token price and public “cons” bring it down. For instance, the ICO ban in China was definitely a “con”, causing a significant dip in the BTC price, but the upcoming BTC fork happened to be a good public “pro” already getting the price back up. In the same fashion, no altcoin can remain intact in similar cases. Although many things expected could never happen, the crypto exchange market is extremely sensitive to any news or hype, thus having a great impact on the exchange rates.

2) Marketmaking

Marketmaking is artificial control over a token’s exchange rate, it can be either public, when a company openly state that it redeems the currency at some rate (normally several times higher than the ICO price), or it could be concealed, therefore the company artificially stimulates demand manipulating the market.

3) Market Demand

This is the most proper and significant route, when the token becomes more and more popular, demanded and irreplaceable. Unlike the last two ways, this one prevents the token from a sudden drop down. This strategy ensures a gradual and “proper” token price growth, and we see it as the way to stick to.

KICK Demand Formation:

To stay in-demand, the token has to stay relevant. In our White Paper and Roadmap we described how and when we believe our token will bring you benefits. This is when the token will be demanded. The demand will grow in several years both on the platform itself, and with the help of other companies carrying out their ICOs on our platform and participating in KICKONOMY, so accepting KICK token and letting our economy spread. Although this might seem very long-term, we would like to highlight the growth we are expecting will be gradual, and therefore, exponential: very soon there will be the first tools which will contribute to the off-exchange demand for KICK.

Our target has never been to provide a secure short-term growth. No low-risk financial instrument could give you a hundred times multiple. We have designed long-term strategy not to prevent you from gaining margins right now, but to make the entire market more secure in the nearest future. We realize that ICO is currecntly a high-risk market, but we want to build a stable economy and make our token a liquid tool.

The first step in our strategy is a new User Voting project. At the moment each user will have one vote to give, with one vote being equal one unit. Later, the significance of a participant’s vote will be scaled in accordance with the quantity of tokens owned. The big deal is that apparently we will keep the scaling ratio non-linear, thus not letting anyone gain more than 10 voting units regardless of the stake. This system will find its nearest implementation in the end of October.

The second step will also grant us all with an increasing demand rate for KICK. Any campaign being launched on our platform will pay its fees in KICK:

- Launching a campaign will cost 5000 KICKs (which is now only $400)

- Campaign moderation will be 3000 KICKs ($240 at the current rate)

Half of these tokens will be burned, and the rest will be stored in the KICKICO reserve fund. Paid fees will be withdrawn from the turnover and will not be considered a part of the turnover volume at the exchanges and on such resources as Blockfolio. This will form a growing demand along with a decreasing supply of the token, altogether letting the price grow.

To all of you who prefer more elaborate speculation, here is some simple mathematics:

There are currently 1000 drafts on the platform. In the nearest future, about 20%, or presumably 200 campaigns will get into the rating.

In the long term, there will be about 35 campaigns a month before New Year, then the number will increase to 50, 100 and so on. Until the end of 2018, about 300 campaigns will apply for moderation, and each will pay 3000 KICKs, which will stimulate the demand for 900 000 KICKs in the upcoming couple of monts. Out of these 300 campaigns approximately 20% will get approved and will belaunch on the platform, which will also generate a demand for 300 000 KICKs more.

We believe the next year these numbers to be 10 times higher. This way, during 2018 only, this functionality will create demand for 7–8 million KICKs (and the same amount withdrawn from turnover), and during 2019 it will turn into 70 million, as the growth in the amount of campaigns launched on the platform is expected to grow exponentially. Sticking to that course one could try to predict the growth for the nearest five years.

Certainly, numbers are subject to change. 5000 KICKs in two years will no be the same as it is now. The fee will decrease, as the KICK price will grow, and this process will be constant. We assume that now there are simply not enough projects of such type that put strategic mechanics into the economy. We have an honor to offer our token holders more than a promise but a well calculated and balanced strategy for long gradual development and token price growth, none of which will be hype-based or unpredictable. Besides, there will be more:

· a marketplace where start-ups and businesses will be able to hire freelancers to help them create and develop the campaign or make translations. All of these services will be paid in KICK.

· partners, who will provide legal or marketing advice, also accepting exclusively KICK for their services;

· public delegates and moderators’ voting, available only to KICK token holders. Candidate promotion will be available only big KICK stake holders;

· and many other things, that will keep an increasing demand for our token.

There is also going to be a fund, where the tokens of all ICO campaigns launched on the KICKICO platform (4% of all tokens sold through the platform) will be stored. This will not only help create the KICK index. We have one more tremendous idea which we will very soon present to all of our KICK token holders. There is no description of this idea in the White Paper and so far we have not announced it anywhere. It is not that we are keeping it away from you or trying to create any hype, but as soon as we resolve all the legal issues and aspects, get ready for a big surprise.

We could continue to list out reasons to hold our token tight, but as we said, the purpose is not to give you financial advice but to provide you with a prospect for the future. Each smart decision relies on data and analysis, not hype. We would like you to have all the tools in your hands to enable you to make your smart decision. Today you can join any camp. You can worry about today’s low exchange rate and dump the tokens. Or you can hold KICKs and wait until we carry out the forethought.

The money we raised for our project was not raised for nothing, we gave a lot of effort and consideration to build a model of a long-living and stable economy. We collected the money to create a platform, which is developing one step at a time. We definitely share your financial concerns, and it is our high priority to create a bright future for all of us. We have once passed your evaluation, you believed in our project and team, we are not asking to believe again. Now we encourage you to aim for the oncoming growth. We know exactly what we are doing, and we know where we are going and why.

We are extremely grateful for all your support. There are lots of truly wonderful and interesting opportunities waiting for us ahead on this road!

Sincerely yours, KICKICO team

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KICK, HODL & Co. was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.