Our Journey Creating a Crypto Coin

Originally posted by Jodee Rich on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/our-journey-creating-cryptocoin-jodee-rich/

In Numbers

Our Objective

• Create a universal “like” with real value
• A Coin that anyone could Personalize
• A Coin for making Connections and Conversations… as it was passed around 
  We gave a demo of the early stage product to author and marketing rockstar, Chris Brogan — he described Ƙred Coins as a “social network in a box” that gets passed between friends or customers.

Blockchain Platform Experimentation

We experimented with Raiden, EOS, Neo, Cordano and other blockchain platforms.

We settled on Ethereum, then added Stellar:

When CryptoKitties came along in November it overwhelmed the Ethereum network — Transactions were slow and too expensive.

We had to find an alternative blockchain platform that would still support the Ethereum network protocols — We found Stellar:

• We knew the Ripple team from our work in 2014 building a digital wallet for the Commonwealth Bank
• Stellar was fast
• Transactions were relatively low cost

The Stellar platform provided a solution that gave new Crypto users a universally recognised ERC20 (and ERC721) token and their own, light, crypto wallet on a low cost distributed ledger.

We integrated Stellar, Ethereum and IPFS for storage into Our SocialO.io Platform

The 213 hr App

Using the SocialOS open APIs that took over 6 years to create, our team of 5 designed and developed the app in just 213 hrs.

 

 

Jesse Skinner, one of our rockstar developers agreed he would livestream his hard work on Twitch (a site typically known for gamers streaming their skills) — His fans watched him write the code. At one point Jesse was stuck trying to sort out a problem and one of his realtime viewers proposed a solution that worked!

The 400 hour Whitepaper

We hired two 3rd year legal interns to research the top 100 ICO Whitepapers — we sorted them by presentation, clarity and project value and ranked them best to worst

We chose our favorite 10, and learned a lot.

We decided too many ICOs lacked substance in an uncertain regulatory environment.
 We had a product that was ready, on a platform developed over many years, that had supported over 300,000 users.

We decided not to do an ICO, rather we decided to do a continuous sale (like CryptoKitties).

8 Team members and 5 lawyers contributed to the Whitepaper, 400 man hours later it was ready to go. 

CCO creates “Crypto Dude”

Our CCO (Chief Cartoon Officer), Adam Long illustrated the History of Social Networking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hrH6OqVX_w and several other series for us in 2011. We asked Adam to watch youtube blockchain industry personality videos.
He came up with a character that was:

• Half Brock Pierce (Director of the Bitcoin Foundation) and half Vitalik (Ethereum co-founder)
• Half Republican and Half Democrat.
• Geeky, cheeky, a giver and disruptive.

Many Lawyers — Regulation

I went to 9 Crypto and Blockchain Conferences in 2 months, meeting with 15 industry expert attorneys. We engaged 7 of them.

The legal team unanimously agreed that Ƙred Coins were not a security(according to the Howey Test).

We then had to work out whether we fit into any other regulatory description — Were we a commodity, a currency or even a property (as crypto was being labelled by the IRS) ..or were Ƙred Coins a new asset class? Its a fungible non fungible digital asset!

We reviewed the US state regulations and were advised we could sell Ƙred Coins in 36 states. We could not sell in NY, Vermont, Washington or Connecticut.

I went to DC to attend the Congressional Financial Services Committee Hearings.

Congressman Brad Sherman (CA) stole the show with an opening line “Crypto is Crock” and an ending questioning — why we can’t all just use USD.

 

Congressman Tom Emmer (MN) was inspiring and argued there is an opportunity for the US to lead the way with legislation that encouraged blockchain innovation.

I met two of the witnesses giving evidence:

• Chris Brummer
• Peter Van Valkenburgh

Very grateful to both for their time and guidance.

After the hearing, I had lunch at the Capital Club with the very smart lawyer and lobbyist, Dina Ellis. Surrounded by Republicans we ate delicious guacamole, burrata and minute steak. 

We agreed that Ƙred Coins were a different type of digital asset (based on it being both personalizable and collaborative) and required education. She thought that not only were Ƙred Coins creating a customized token, it may also be interesting to politicians who felt that Facebook and Twitter had become too influential in determining election outcomes.

Testing Army 

Big Thank you to Empire.Kred Community members led by Lynn O’Connell and Vince Perriello who have helped us test early versions

While creating and distributing Coins during their pre-release access, they helped us find bugs and discover new Use Cases:

• Lynn created Coins to share her rare World Cup CryptoKitties, and helped us map out how the Ƙred Coin platform could support a community focused on both social and business — http://www.empirecoins.kred

• Nance Larson created Coins that represented each of her essential oil products

• Daniel Imbellino of Gamers Bay creating branded coins to distribute to their top contributors and community members on Google+, and to help fund their media operations
• Steven Krohn created his agency’s own Coins that would serve as customer rewards and commemorate the successful release of their campaigns — “We aren’t putting logos on stressballs anymore” (See a full feature on Steven and how he is using Ƙred Coins here: http://www.coin.kred/smallbusiness)

Advisors

Some of the offerings we have seen in the space have more advisors than team members — We heard about one ICO with 20 Advisors and one developer! We did not want our product to lead with the credentials of our “Advisors”. Our product was ready to go — Our product was the hero.

We decided to interview Advisors during the initial Early Access period, based on who stood up and was passionate about our mission and its execution. 

We met with Chris Brogan and Neal Schaffer at SMMW in San Diego. 

Thank you to Chris for being one of our first signed-up Advisors on the project.

Pre-release Feedback

We ran early adopter events in NYC, SF and London. And spoke at SF Developerweek, Token Fest, Cryptopalooza (below), The Future of Blockchain and NIFTY.

Here are a few ideas shared by the attendees:

• Jason Palmer (NYC) — A challenge coin that carries a donation for the issuer
• Ron Sheridan (SF) — I have thought of quite a few use cases, including -For bands who want to make connections with fans, and collector cards for minor league sports teams
• Sarah Brooks (SF) —
• Audrey Meinertzhagen (SF) — “The low hanging fruit is occasions for individuals, product releases for brands, and fundraising for NGOs instead of T-Shirt or tote bags”
• Jeff Caldwell (NYC) — Publish a Coin for NYC street artists
• Andrew Grill (London) — A Coin for Brands
• Jane Evans (London) — “the general public are only just cottoning on to the fact that the only product of social media platforms is their user data, this is a perfect launch argument for Ƙred Coins”
• Jennifer Sertl (NYC) — a Token for Thought Leaders Who Publish

Now — the “release” journey begins…

We have ended up with a Crypto Product that is at this stage unique in three ways:

1. It’s a Fungible and non Fungible Collectible
2. On the Stellar and Ethereum ledgers
3. Both a personalizable Coin and an instrument of Engagement

We have received great feedback, tweaked the ui and are now releasing it Community by Community — http://www.coin.kred/communityaccess

When I was 17 yrs old in High School (1977) we debated the wisdom of the reserve currency movement away from the gold standard — if it wasn’t underwritten by “real” assets how could it be valuable?

If you had told me then, that one day I would be thinking about the economics of our own crypto asset, I would have not believed you. Not 17 anymore — I have started my own Ƙred Coin journey with a series of Bald Coins (to celebrate Baldness): 

Welcome to the era of personal digital currencies.

Jodee Rich
www.Coin.Kred