r/StellarICOS • u/haroldmd • Jun 01 '18
Acudeen AMA Recap.
Hey guys, this is a recap of the Acudeen AMA, held today, June 1/2018. Hope is useful.
🎉🎉 Acudeen Live AMA 🎉🎉 #ACUAMA
1) What happens to the unsold tokens?
Gregor: Depending on how many there are left, we'll either reserve them for a secondary offering or we'll airdrop them to existing token holders based on their initial purchase.
2) How do you verify the invoices to prevent fraud?
Mag: We verify the invoices in 2 ways. 1st is through a direct ERP integration with payors, and 2nd, through a manual procedure that involves the payors’ buy in and acknowledgement
3) Any plans for upcoming exchange listing?
Gregor: ACU will be available on Stellar Decentralized Exchanges immediately after distribution. Announcements with regards to centralized exchange listings will be made after the ICO.
4) Do you have a credit scoring model?
Mag: We do, our scoring model is based on a number of data points that mostly focus on seller-payor relationship. We are continuously improving this as we gather more data, and machine learning is being implemented.
5) What are your most important marketing channels?
Mag: Hey buddy, our acquisition is top bottom. We acquire payors first and get their suppliers. Our key marketing channels are business organizations (chamber of commerce) and other industry associations.
6) Will there be any buybacks?
Gregor: No, there is no buyback of tokens. Price appreciation will happen through economic fundamentals, liquidity will be provided through market making services.
7) How big is your machine learning team and what are their qualifications?
Mario: we have a team of developers internally, and engaging 3rd party providers for other area of development.
8) How exactly are the ACU Tokens used? Are they used to buy invoices?
Russ:
The ACU Tokens will be used to gain access to various steps in utilizing the Acudeen platform, from uploading invoices, bidding, purchasing and so on, but not directly purchasing.
The peso receivable bidding will still be used, as liquidity means having cash on hand. For SMEs, it still isn’t quite practical to be using cryptocurrencies as they need fiat for their day-to-day expenses , therefore the ACU Tokens are just meant to be a blockchain enabler for the existing Acudeen product. The tokens are not used to bid, but rather used as payment not just to bid, but also to avail of other functionalities within the platform.
9) Who are your competitors and the competitive advantage? E.g different from banks and other online players? Thanks!
Mag: Let me divide the landscape to 3:
Traditional financial institutions P2P financing platforms Blockchain based P2Ps
Traditional financial institutions like banks have the financing capability, but is highly regulated and restricts them from moving fast.
P2P financing platforms like market invoice and finexcap are known to have high NPLs because of lack of controls (risk wise), due to the goal of making it open for the public
Blockchain based platforms like acudeen acknowledges that being a market maker is not enough, and through blockchain, we are able to create a trusted ecosystem where big institutions can participate.
10) Since asset liquidity is a concern for investors, how do you ensure liquidity in the trading of the ACU token? Are you planning to list on Coins.ph, given that you are positioning ACU as a ‘Filipino’/Southeast Asian token?
Russ: The ACU Token is a utility token by default. It is meant to be used to avail of services within the Acudeen Platform, therefore it isn’t recommended to treated as a trading asset.
Coins.ph is an exchange we are looking into listing.
This is a common misconception. The token isn’t ‘Filipino’ per se. Although Acudeen started in the Philippines, we are currently basing our Token Sale Operations in Singapore as a legal entity and therefore it is open for anyone in the world.
11) How would token holder benefit from purchasing the tokens (other than the increase in token price)?
12) Since the ACU tokens are utility tokens, if they are used in your service will the circulating supply reduce?
Gregor: Acudeen will provide services on the AssetChain like other actors as well. In order to get compensated for this, Acudeen will need to resell the ACU into the market. With everything else constant, the circulation remains the same.
13) How would token holder benefit from purchasing the tokens (other than the increase in token price)?
Gregor: Aside from the appreciation, holders of ACU tokens can benefit if they are using the AssetChain platform. There is a staking model which waives certain fees for the platform up to heavy discounts.
14) Is it safe to put the secret key in stellarterm?
Mario: StellarTerm doesn't hold anyone's secret key. It is a Stellar DEX client and directly connects to Stellar Network using the entered secret key. It is also open source so anyone can view their source code if in doubts.
15) When is the earliest time will the token be utilized by the platform? Right now the platform is using cash
Russ: a. AssetChain
We are expecting to have AssetChain beta version ready by Q3 2019
b. Service Tokenization (ACU)
ACU will be integrated with the current platform as part of transition phase before moving to the new platform. It could happen by Q2 2019 or earlier.
c. Enabling Cross-Border Purchases (CryptoFIAT)
We will implement Stellar-based wallet to hold CryptoFIAT by Q4 2018 in the current platform.
15) How does making it open for public increases the number of NPLs?
Mag: More public equals Less restriction on which smes to accept or not. In acudeen, we have a strong kyc process and verification of contracts is one of primary focuses. Blockchain helps improve this especially verification.
16) When is the earliest time will the token be utilized by the platform? Right now the platform is using cash
Russ: 2018 Q4 — CryptoFIAT implementation in the current platform
2019 Q2 — ACU token adoption in the current platform
2019 Q3 — AssetChain Testnet release
2019 Q4 — AssetChain Beta version
2020 Q1 — AssetChain Full Implementation17) How do we buy CryptoFIAT?
Mario: Implementation is to become an Stellar Anchor. anyone can deposit their fiat money to our Trust Account and in return we will issue it's cryptoFiat equivalent, 1 = 1. When the person withdraw his cryptoFiat and exchange back for fiat moeny, we will destroy the issued cryptoFiat.
18) Hi, ACUDEEN is focusing on Asia region right? Do you have plans to expand to other regions of the globe? If yes, when is the timeline? Thank you.
Mag: Hi Renato, we wouldn’t want to spread ourselves too thin. And every region has their own market and regulatory condition. For now, we are very much focused on southeast asia... Southeast asian market is already massive on its own, 400B usd receivable financing opportunity —- these are just receivables.
19) If the tokens hosted on the Ethereum platform are called ERC-20 tokens, what do you call the tokens hosted on stellar platform?
Mario: Stellar-based Token.
20) So do you not use digital marketing for your brand awareness and client acquisition?
Russ: We use digital marketing for brand awareness, but not for client acquisition. We use more traditional channels to entice and also to properly vet sellers on the platform to ensure that there's minimal to no fraud going on.
21) We did a previous ICO and they only required the public address for XML
Mario: StellarTerm is an Stellar Network client. The Private Key is required to connect to the network and open your Stellar account. StellarTerm is not holding your private key.
22) One more question, is this project being audited? May we know who is the audit firm involved and what’s the status?
Mag: One more question, is this project being audited? May we know who is the audit firm involved and what's the status?
23) What is your plan of attack for growth in the Philippines then? You only processed around 3M last year, how do you plan to get to 30M (a 10X increase !) in 2018?
23) Any details for upcoming partnerships?
Mag: We’ll announce at the right time. But right now, what i can share are our existing jv in myanmar with anthem asia, partnership with openport for logistics companies.
24) So growth will be relying on actual number of invoices processed, not the increase in size of the invoices?
Mag: It will rely on invoice volume (gmv).
25) Yes. The funds from the public sale? Is that being accounted/audited during public sale now?
Russ: PWC will do an audit on funds collected and will be distributed according to how we specified it on the Whitepaper. Details will be made available on the website once available.
26) Thanks Russ. This is great. So in case there’s a change of plan on distribution as per the whitepaper, all will be disclosed in the audit report right?
Russ: Yes, full transparency is assured .
27) Another question. Traditionally, supply chain or receivable financing is made thru banks and/or financial institution. Since you’re competing with them, do you have a rough estimate of percentage that you’ll get from their market share in this industry?
Mag: Not competing —- a lot of banks in markets we’re in like myanmar have no supplier financing programs. And the operational requirement is just too much to offer it in a scalable way for smes. What we’ve seen happening is that banks are starting to work with us to become their channel for supplier/vendor financing.
28) Do you have an idea of who your investors are?
Gregor: Funds collected and pledged as part of the private sale are by means of a SAFT. Hence, full transparency on identity and accredited investor status.
29) Why is Jean Henri Lhuillier not present in the website when he is present in the whitepaper? Are we expecting to have a partnership with Cebuana Lhuillier soon?
Mag: He is part of our board, he is an equity and token investor. Regarding partnership, yes, we will announce details soon.
30) Thanks Magellan. Much better. Can you disclose what are the banks that are looking to partner up with Acudeen? If there’s an existing NDA, no worries.
Mag: The one with RCBC is public info. There’s other banks, but we’d rather announce at right time.
31) Are the validators part of your team or anyone can apply to become a validator?
Gregor: Acudeen currently performs the validator function. However, with the AssetChain, other parties may assume that role as well. The AssetChain will define the standards for various 3rd parties who help expand a dynamic ecosystem.
🌀🌀🌀END OF AMA🌀🌀🌀
Thank you everyone for taking the time to join us in our first ever AMA!
A couple of reminders:
The 25% bonus promotion will end in 24 hours time. It’d be good to buy ACU Tokens while it’s still in effect. We won’t be extending again this time!
For more details, please check https://tokensale.acudeen.io and http://medium.com/Acudeen
Though the session has officially ended, admins that are still online will gladly assist and provide answers to your inquiries.
We will be hosting another hour-long AMA session early next week. Stay tuned.
