DeCenter's Plans

What's up, guys? Gordeev is speaking! I'm going to tell you about our plans briefly.

First of all, I'd like to note that the market is wild. And regulations are not the only point here – there are dozens of movements in various directions. The lifespan to proof numerous hypotheses is not even a couple of months, so in the coming years, our plans will constantly be changing. Not only that's the only way to survive but also develop in blockchain, which means learning something new, being not ashamed to admit to our mistakes, continuously looking for new growth opportunities, and developing the market.

In its first year, DeCenter, which we started in January 2016, has been stuck. I was searching for the right format to create a community and making wrong bets. As a result, I was getting nothing compared to what we have now. It's been a year until the team and I have found the niche—Telegram channels and chats which developers and marketers widely use for communication. We had set the target of reaching 6,000 members until the end of the year and accomplished it in just first two months of spring. The level of feedback was outstanding, and we quickly started to expand the team and try new interactive formats. At the beginning of May, we launched a website with a collective news feed, forecasts, etc. The summer was hot for us.

I'm just summarizing what the project is about:
– leading channels (~100,000 of total reach) and chats on Telegram;
– the news feed;
– daily mailing list;
– the ICO book (15,000+ downloads, four languages);
– the system of collective forecasts (27,000 entries by hundreds of experts);
– three meetups (over 500 visitors each);
– tokens and currencies reviews;
– unique Ethereum Telegram wallet (~10,000 users),
and much more. Only half a year ago, none of these existed.

And for all of us, this means the beginning of the process which will last for many years; this is the foundation we are laying. And here's what we'll build upon it:
– DeCenter will soon announce the launch of the lab (we haven't come up with a word that would fit better yet) which will be designed to help cool teams set up and run blockchain projects;
– We're confident in our ability to run the processes correctly, involving, if needed, highly qualified experts both from our community and the market itself;
– I have 20+ years of experience in creating and investing in startups at early stages. I well realize what the teams come through, from the idea to the launch and first clients. I believe marketing (i.e., defining the market niche, positioning, pricing, advertising, and PR) to be the field I have the highest level of expertise in;
– And I'm working with the team which has launched a bunch of interesting stuff over the last ten years.

In the market where everything changes every single month only "cockroaches," like us, survive. People who on the one hand can see the bigger picture, but on the other hand exactly know what to do right here and right now.

We're working only with projects having either of the following strands in their DNA:

A. A powerful tech team;

B. A dominant position in the traditional market, including the offline one.

In the first case, we help with marketing. In the second, with technologies.

Our team consists of four main blocks:
– Developers;
– Marketers;
– Analysts;
– Traders.

We've got a flat management structure, and very often, one person is performing two roles. For instance, the analyst might be good at trading, because of the better understanding of nuances of specific projects.

I'm stressing the fact that we neither provide consulting or marketing services on an ICO nor act as a contractor or an agent. We are, however, always open for communication and ready to offer our advice.

As you remember, we promised to launch an ICO this year. Now we're preparing to make a huge announcement. But our plans have changed a bit after we had examined all possible forms of collective participation in blockchain projects, from The DAO to tokenized funds. We concluded that this is a "legacy from the past." As of today, everyone has to decide on their own where to invest. Could you imagine a fund acting on your behalf on, say, Kickstarter? Sounds dumb, right? Everyone will have the same feeling when in the nearest future people will better understand their needs, and tokens will become the utilitarian instrument rather than the investing one. Secondly, if the project can function without an ICO and tokens, it doesn't need them. So, we weighed the pros and cons and resolved that we have the capital and enthusiasm to develop DeCenter itself. We're the biggest Russian community, but we don't want to hold an ICO just because we can.

I want you to understand that even if you successfully conduct an ICO for a project which doesn't need tokens, it will fail in one year's time. Despite being a speculative instrument, tokens are first and foremost "oil that sinks" your project. I can tell you a lot about that, but if your aim is not to "raise funds and run away with them," you don't need an ICO. We entered this market not just for the long-time game but forever. Our reputation means everything to us.

Having reviewed the functionality of existing and prospective DeCenter's services, we've determined two types of products: blockchain-based and non-blockchain ones. And there are only two significant blocks we're already building upon blockchain because everyone needs them—Pass and Vault. Pass is your ID of the future, which stores all data validated by the authorized companies/bodies in blockchain, making its usage entirely confidential. Vault is a storage for your tokenized assets which are soon going to become something more than just currencies or tokens. We're developing products everyone could use to solve real issues. How long did it take you to verify your identity last time you signed up for a digital currency exchange platform? A week? Maybe a month? With Pass, you'll be able to do that in no time. Do you often wonder whether you're sending a cryptocurrency to a correct address? With Vault, the card of your friend/partner will have a validated wallet address and additional transaction details—no chance you could make a mistake. I don't want to reveal all ideas, but we set an ambitious goal of developing two protocols (blockchain-based identification and assets storage) which will be readily accessible for both developers and websites and applications.

That's our plan for the upcoming year.

If you've reached this point, you're a winner, because now I'm coming to the bottom line of this post. In a nascent market, the most critical thing is prospective users's and clients's opinions. It's especially relevant for tokenized projects because they need to experience the network effects, i.e., when a customer starts to bring in their friends. I'm not boasting at all when saying we're lucky to have a community of people interested in blockchain and cryptocurrencies who will have the front-row seats in each of our projects:

A. Beta access to products;

B. A significant discount for tokens;

C. Private discussions with rewards for best proposals for improving.

You spend your time on us and express your opinion, and we listen to you and accept you as part of the team. Paying decently, of course.

Now you have the full picture:
– Tokenizing only those projects where blockchain is inevitable;
– Evaluating all projects through DeCenter community's public and private discussions;
– Involving experts and compensating them for their participation.

Honestly speaking, any work, especially that of people who are one of the first in the world to work with blockchain and cryptocurrencies, must be paid. Generously!

To summarize, I'd like to highlight three directions of our activities:
– Popularization of blockchain, educational functions;
– Involvement of expert community in working on projects;
– Creation of tokenized companies.

Feel free to contact me in Telegram @rusvc or eg@rusve.com.

P.S. I understand that many experts, who have earned a lot of points on our website, may feel worried now reading this. I hasten to assure you we'll fulfill the promise to deposit tokens to your accounts. You could use your profile page on our site to convert them into one of our projects. It's up to you which one to choose!