On 28th of January we held our first AMA, hosted on our Telegram channel as we start actively building our community in anticipation of the testnet launch in February. The questions were answered by the founder, George Cotsikis. We were amazed by the amount of entries for the event, totalling over 6357 entries for the competition from 1796 community members !
If you missed this telegram session, here’s another chance to get a full transcript of the AMA event.
Q: What is Venue One ?
A: Venue One is a non custodial decentralized prediction protocol built on Algorand that allows participants to take positions on the outcome of real world events. The protocol operates on a set of smart contracts that govern various prediction mechanisms including binary outcomes, pari mutuel pools and index predictions. The focus is on short to medium duration events in sports, esports and finance.
Q: When will the mobile app be released ? Keen to have a play
A: Android in the summer of 2022, iOS by year end — we are keen to have a mobile native version of the UI.
Q: Will the token be ERC-20 or ASA ?
A: The token will be an ASA (Algorand Standard Asset) on the Algorand blockchain. As bridges get built for the ecosystem there will be future opportunities to have an ERC-20 wrapped version.
Q: Will we be able to convert our algos to veno token ?
A: Yes absolutely on Algorand DEX platforms and on any exchange we list — we want to make sure price discovery is efficient and that will be our guide in terms of deciding which DEX/CEX.
Q: What makes this project different than other projects?
A: Past and current prediction markets suffer from a number of drawbacks that have limited their appeal to a wide user base. Namely high blockchain transaction fees, long duration markets, liquidity provider risks, poor curation mechanisms and finally sub standard UI/UX. Venue One aims to address these issues and take many steps further in revolutionizing the prediction markets space. The team feels that the user experience should abstract away as much of the complexity as possible so we believe we will definitely offer the most exciting & usable prediction market available on any chain.
Q: What motivated you to start this project?
A: As a trader, I have always had a keen interest in prediction markets and the team’s mix of backgrounds from trading to sports markets technology is a great ingredient for a successful product in this space. Also we felt that using the super fast and low fee Algorand blockchain we could create a much better user experience than competing projects.
Q: How can I join ?
A: Subscribe to our mailing list on our website and we will contact you — https://venue.one
Q: From all many protocol , why your project choose Algo as your ecosystem ? And what is your strategy to make this project viable long term ?
A: Algorand is a very robust, fast L1. It has great promise as an alternative to ETH especially in capital markets and trading. Our team had experience developing on the Algo stack and we felt it was a natural decision to make. The viability of the project will depend on its community and the ability of the protocol to make money and the team to keep innovating. We are bullish on all three !
Q: Is there any social or environmental purpose of this project?
A: Interesting we should get this question right now ! To be honest at the beginning we did not think about this too much. However we have decided to offer a certain amount of tokens yearly for the first 5 years to social and environmental impact projects as voted by our community. Every December we will have a vote and allocate free tokens to organizations we all believe promote the best for our planet. They can be existing charities or upcoming projects that make the world a better and more inclusive place for all.
Q: What is the killer feature of your project?
A: Well as much as I have an itch to show you all we have in our roadmap… we will slowly show you cool stuf ;-) Stay tuned !
Q: Any stablecoin beside USDC & USDT in the future?
A: If we can be convinced that algorithmic stablecoins can keep their peg in very difficult market conditions we will surely add them. For the moment the answer is no.
Q: What is your updated roadmap after the delays last year ?
A: Check our website next week !
Q: How can you get people to support your project with this current state of noise in crypto?
A: Good question. We believe that most of the noise is superficial and while it affects token prices short term, the quality and the community of a project is what determines the longevity. That is the signal in all this noise !
Q: 1. Can you give me the best 3 features to convince me and other investors to invest in your project in the long term?
2. Can you explain to us how to purchase your token then will you have private sale and public sale event ?
3. Is this project available for everyone in the world or some local communities are granted access to use this project. ?
A: 1. i) Best UI/UX that a normal person and not just crypto degens can use. ii) USDC/USDT collateral and payouts from ANY chain not just Algorand. You dont even need to be an Algorand user to onboard. iii) A committed, experienced and solid team that can keep innovating.
2. We will be doing airdrops, launchpads and finally a DEX IDO and possibly IEO in CEX. There will be multiple opportunities to purchase or win the token.
3. The project is global but we may need to geo restrict some IPs from accessing the front end. We are getting legal/regulatory advice and we will clarify before mainnet launch.
Q: What do you think about the possibility of creating new use cases in DeFi space for existing real world assets by using crypto technology?
A: We have a number of ideas about integrating predictions about prices of hard to value real world assets in Venue One as well as more exotic assets or events. Stay tuned !
Q: Please share with us the background of the team behind this project. What are your past experiences?
A: I have over 20 years experience in trading and tech ventures & our CTO Thanos has 15+ years of software development experience and we are surrounded by an amazing team of builders. I have worked in the City and Wall Street, trading systematic strategies and Thanos has built enterprise applications with millions of users. You can ask more questions to the team on our next AMA with a live segment.
Q: What is the way of your project to generate revenue in the long run ?
What is the progress of business development and what are some of your business partnerships ?
A: Good question, the protocol makes money by fees on the transactions which are different for each market type. For binary outcome predictions only the winners pay 3% to the protocol as a fee and in case of speedy pari mutuel there are protocol fees from 3–6% depending on the market vertical. In all cases VENO holders will have discounts on these fees (depending on holdings) of up to 50%. In terms of partnerships stay tuned on our media as we ramp up our partnership announcements after testnet launch.
Q: What is the token total supply ?
A: 100 million tokens fixed for 5 years, followed by a 3% maximum inflation thereafter
Q: What are the tokenomics
A: We will publish the detailed tokenomics before launchpad subscriptions
Q: How can we earn more tokens ?
A: The wallets linked to venue.one will have the opportunity to stake their coins and earn great APYs. We will work with other parties as well to offer staking and gamified earning opportunities.
Q: When is the project launching ?
A: Testnet in February 2022, mainnet soon after.
Q: When is the TGE and Launchpads/IDO ?
A: Q1 2022 depending on market conditions
Q: What is the biggest challenge for this project?
A: The biggest challenge and the main reason for the delay in our roadmap has been the fact that Algorand is a young ecosystem with many key infrastructural components still missing. We had to build our own oracles and our own blockchain indexer. We also had to deal with massive delays due to third party passwordless onboarding providers not having fully ready their SDKs for Algorand. Despite all that, here we are and we are as bullish as ever on the ecosystem ! Onwards and upwards !!!
Q: What is team and investor lock ?
A: Team is fully locked for 2 years and vests then over a year so a total team vesting schedule of 3 years. Investors have one year lockup followed by 1.5 years vesting so a total of 2.5 years vesting schedule.
Q: How does the token accrue value ?
A: The token’s intrinsic value is anchored by :
1. Capped supply of 100,000,000 tokens during 5 years, followed by a 3% maximum yearly inflation.
2. Token buyback using up to 20% of the protocol profits (after 10 quarters of operation)
3. Staking rewards framework
Q: It’s token for only players or who love crypto can have too?
A: It’s for everyone that wants to participate in the protocol’s success ! 🚀
Q: What is the situation with US residents as investors and players
A: We are getting legal advice and we will decide before mainnet launch.
We cannot currently accept US investors (or other prohibited jurisdictions) in direct token presales that we might do ourselves but the situation could be different with external launchpads that have their own frameworks.
Q: Will VENO act also as a governance token ? Any upcoming partnerships within the Algorand ecosystem ?
A: Yes the token will act a a governance mechanism : for the first two years as a way to suggest and vote on project priorities and after that, as we transition to a DAO, to a mechanism to fully manage the project and decentralize it further. Stay tuned for Algorand partnerships.
Q: How secured are users data and funds on your platform?
A: We take security very carefully and we have built a multisig process and secure 2FA even for our internal team processes. That way even team members that have access to back end infrastructure cannot access user information. In term of funds and assets, we are a fully non custodial protocol. We never touch the user’s funds or have any access to them and all interactions are via the autonomous smart contracts.
Q: In terms of Security, What work has been or planned from the following?
1 Have You gone to through any Audits yet?
2 Have You Partnered with 3rd party Security Companies?
3 Do You plan to bring bug Bounty Program for the community?
A: Important question no doubt :
1. We have successfully finished a smart contract audit by Coinspect and we have another one in the pipeline.
2. We are in discussion with a ongoing code review company to continuously look at all our pull requests and ensure code robustness.
3. Yes, we will be running a bug bounty program within a well known community.
As a general comment, security is not a one-off item or just a tech issue. It is an ongoing process that encompasses the full tech stack including smart contracts, processes and people.
Q: Will you be doing more AMA ?
A: Yes, including live ones on Telegram within other communities & Twitter Spaces.
Join our global community Telegram : https://t.me/venuemarkets
Follow us on Twitter : @VenueMarkets
For more information and the $VENO whitelist go to : venue.one
