ICONOMI Reddit Ask Me Anything Summary: January Edition

Thanks for joining us for our first AMA of 2018! Today’s AMA covered a wide range of questions, from Rocket.Chat to the fiat ramp-up. We hope you found our answers enlightening.

When can ICN be used to buy DAA ?

We do not currently have plans to support buying DAAs with any other digital assets. Because most trading pairs are between BTC or ETH and other digital assets, accepting ICN (or any other digital asset apart from BTC or ETH) for DAA purchases would require first selling the ICN for BTC or ETH, increasing the number of trades required and increasing costs for DAAs.

How many new registrations do you currently get on average per day and what is the percentage of Tier upgrades amongst these?

In January so far, we’ve had an average of about five hundred new registrations per day. Thanks to the active participation of DAA managers and support from the community, this number has been growing steadily, and we are certain this trend will continue throughout 2018.

Why aren’t you putting more money on marketing?

Several aspects of marketing are already being fully implemented, including public relations and social media, as well as attending major crypto and blockchain conferences and organizing our own events. We are working with both a PR agency and a digital advertising agency for strategic planning and public relations, as well as to establish relationships with major financial and crypto media. We are also continuing to organize and attend blockchain and finance events where we are able to be in direct contact with our major target groups. We are convinced that word of mouth is still our biggest weapon, but we are also preparing for some advertising campaigns in the near future.

What is ICONOMI doing in the near and short term to allow USA investors to use the ICONOMI platform?

We would love to open the platform to everyone, but because of the regulatory environment, digital asset management platforms cannot currently legally operate in certain jurisdictions, such as the US. We are closely monitoring the situation and will take action toward opening the platform in those jurisdictions as soon as it is possible to do so. We believe that 2018 will bring regulation and a tangible framework for blockchain companies to work with.

How do you foresee scaling when there will be a massive amount of new users. Are there plans to cope with these potential problems?

Scaling is a primary goal of our platform for 2018. As you mention, we’ve seen the problems large exchanges have encountered when faced with huge influxes of new users, and we plan to be prepared once the platform begins seeing similar numbers. The platform is designed for horizontal scaling, but with large growth, organizations need to be able to scale as well, and we are preparing for both.

We are also continuously working with our development team and keeping up with the wishlist of new features users most want to see. This is something that never stops for a digital asset management business like ours.

Most of CCP’s assets are held together on a single, known address. This makes it very convenient to track without much effort which is great in one way, but is potentially a weakness in another. Is this something that Iconomi feel is a potential problem and if so, does Iconomi have any plans to restructure / obfuscate CCP holdings so that it reduces the potential for front-running either the ICN price or the price of CCP-held assets?

We will be moving CCP investments onto the platform directly and the assets will be merged with the rest of the DAA assets on the platform. At that point, tracking CCP investments will no longer be possible.

Right now we can see the AUM of all the different public DAA’s, but we have no clue about the AUM from the private DAA’s. Could you enlighten us how much combined AUM the private DAA’s have?

We will disclose the total AUM of private DAAs on the platform once there is a larger number of them. If we disclose this number too early, it may be possible to determine the AUM of individual private DAAs. Some private DAAs may also be made public in the future, so it’s important to be discreet and respect the privacy of private DAA managers.

What is the reason for executive changes (CTO and COO)?

ICONOMI is growing very quickly, and managing a larger business and a much larger number of employees requires a different and richer set of skills and experience. This transition is a normal phase in growing companies. For a digital asset management company, it is especially important for executives to have significant experience in the finance industry.

You made a great prevision for the 200 millions AUM end 2017, well played! What is your prevision for end 2018 ?

For 2018 we envision settled regulation, the definition of digital assets as a new asset class, and more support from major players in traditional finance. We do not yet have an exact number but expect to have AUM in the billions by the end of the year, with the number of DAAs on the platform reaching triple digits.

Should we expect ICN usage implementation to be announced in coming weeks ?

As mentioned in our ICONOMI in 2018 blog post, we will be introducing fees payable in ICN. At first, these will be for DAA managers only, but we are exploring options for user fees payable in ICN as well. We expect the first usage to be announced within the coming weeks.

Can you please confirm us how ICONOMI revenues for buybacks are calculated.

The revenues for buybacks come from three sources: 1. 3% BLX management fee, 2. 30% of fees collected from other DAAs, and 3. 20% of realized CCP profits (for example, if CCP invested 1,000 ETH into a project and eventually liquidated that position for 2,000 ETH for an 1,800 ETH profit, 20% of that profit (360 ETH) would be reserved for buybacks).

How come it’s taking so long to implement affiliate feature into the ICONOMI platform?

Financial products and services are strictly regulated, directly affecting the implementation of an affiliate system. At the moment, our legal team is primary focused on establishing ICONOMI in the EU. Once this is in place and marketing efforts increase, we can start considering options for affiliate programs.

If you don’t see FIAT gateway implemented soon on the platform why refuse to add another alternative for Bitcoin core which could improve AUM on the platform?

The fiat ramp-up is at the top of our priority list, and it is developing at a rapid pace. Supporting another digital asset (such as BCH) for deposits would increase costs for DAAs due to the lack of support for trading pairs between assets other than BTC and ETH. We do encourage users to use ETH at this time due to extreme congestion on the Bitcoin network.

Could you build on your December AMA’s comments on the FIAT gateway’s process?

We are exploring different options in different countries, but banks also need time to navigate the regulatory environment to provide this kind of service to crypto-related companies. We expect to be able to begin offering larger deposits and withdrawals in the range of $50,000–$100,000 in the near future.

When can anyone become a DAA manager?

Anyone interested in becoming a DAA manager who meets our criteria is eligible to apply to become a DAA manager by contacting daa.manager@iconomi.net.

We currently receive a large number of DAA manager applications. As we continue to onboard new DAA managers and gather data to improve the onboarding process, we will be able to begin lowering seed requirements for creating a DAA on the platform and adding DAA managers to the platform at a faster pace. The feedback we receive from DAA managers is crucial in helping us determine how best to cater to our managers’ and users’ needs.

I know that most questions deals with short term concerns, but as an investor I also would like you to share your long term vision and roadmap. What are the goals and milestones you would like to achieve in 2019, 2020, 2021, ..?

Because the crypto-economy is constantly evolving, solid foundations and a clear vision are the most important considerations in the long term. It is important to be flexible and able to adapt to changing conditions while remaining focused on achieving the overall vision: continuing to provide the best digital asset management platform available. Everything we do is focused on building the user base and the number of DAAs available on the platform, and this will remain our focus in 2019 and beyond.

Will DAA managers be able to set performance fees in addition to management fees?

Yes, we are investigating the possibility for DAA managers to set performance fees, but this may come with some limitations. We will keep you updated on any developments.

There is some news about a solution on the ether frozen by the parity error?

There have been no further updates on the status of the frozen ether. The Parity team remains confident that the funds may be released during the next Ethereum hard fork. We are continuously monitoring the situation and will update our users as soon as a solution is confirmed.

When shall we have Jani and/or Tim on picture with “When Polo” T-Shirt?

“When Polo?” was a common question in the early days of our public Slack channel. The shirt was a gift to Jani and Tim from the ICONOMI team for ICONOMI’s one-year anniversary. Jani and Tim are out of the office today, so hopefully this picture will do:

How is the process of moving to Rocket.chat going?

We are actively working on our plans for Rocket.Chat and planning the transition from Slack. We would like to take this opportunity to present some of our ideas and gather feedback from the community.

In addition to standard channels for bug reporting and similar functions, there will be an open-access public channel that will be actively moderated to cut down on scams, spam, and FUD. We also plan to have a “verified” channel that anyone can view, but only users who have confirmed ownership of a specified amount of ICN can participate in. ICONOMI team members may participate in this channel from time to time.

Our Rocket.Chat channel will be your community, and your feedback is essential. Please voice your opinion in this thread.

Columbus Capital COO Anthony Beaumont also answered two questions, which can be viewed here and here.

Follow our official channels for more updates and news:

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or log into our platform to explore new Digital Asset Arrays.

ICONOMI Reddit Ask Me Anything Summary: January Edition was originally published in ICONOMI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.