CoinMetro 9th November 2018 AMA Notes

VIDEO ARCHIVE OF THE AMA (YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK)

IN THE NEWS

#1. How the Crypto Crash Could Be Good for Crypto

• Kevin agrees with the article. 
• The bull run of 2017 and the current stagnation was caused by many things, but one of the major causes were ICOs. 
• Many people were first buying into crypto during this bull run. 
• Now, ICOs immediately sell their crypto assets once collected. 
• How is that good for crypto? Markets as they mature, tend to create “sh*t” filters. There are a lot of bad actors, overpriced assets, fraud, etc… 
• You can look at the internet and real estate bubbles as examples. 
• There’s a lot of toxic debt during this, and is followed by a crash. 
• You can’t have a market that succeeds without filters. 

#2. Crypto Exchanges Line Up to Support Bitcoin Cash's Hard Fork.

• Bcash is obviously one of the most liquid crypto assets.
• Obviously, if there’s a fork coming up with any type of following, exchanges will support it. 

#3. South Korean Crypto Exchange Bithumb Lanches Payment Service with ‘Asian Amazon’ Qoo10 

• There’s no real future for companies that call themselves crypto exchanges today in 2 years, if they don’t start to add additional revenue streams.
• They need to add products that non-crypto enthusiasts will use. 
• You don’t just find companies that are just “internet companies” anymore.

#4. Texas Regulator Issues Cease and Desist Order to Cloud Mining Company

• “I guess the guy really wants to go to jail, or he’s an idiot. Or he’s an idiot that wants to go to jail.” - Kevin Murcko
• If he went across state lines, he may be under the purview of a Federal Judge, the SEC, and maybe even the FBI. 

#5. Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange Issues Thought Paper on Crypto and Blockchain

• There is no such thing as a security token. You can make a tokenized security under today’s regulations. 
• “Any time someone says STO to me, I die a little on the inside.” - Kevin Murcko
• Crypto is a blanket term that we use for any time of asset on blockchain. 
• In the future, there will be more finer definitions and segmentation. 

#6. Apple Removes Crypto Podcast Reportedly Ranked #4 in ‘Investing’ From US iTunes Store

• Unless you're licensed, don’t give investing advice.
• Apple may have removed it because users may have complained that it’s providing investing advice. 

#7. Coinbase CTO: Crypto is Entering the Tech Mainstream

• “I wouldn’t say we’re mainstream yet.”
• Blockchain in and of itself is not all that interesting. 
• It’s a protocol that’s been around for quite some time. 
• What really has propelled the use of blockchain is because of the app layer on top. 
• We have a ways to go before we’re over the threshold

#8. US SEC Charges, Fines EtherDelta Founder with Operating Unregistered Securities Exchange

• The Platform excuse won’t fly (see Napster, Mega Upload, etc..)
• The SEC works in a very meticulous fashion- the start with warnings, and then litigation, and establishing precedent. 

#9. Bithumb Claims Leading Crypto Exchange Title Amid Apparent Wash Trading

• Wash trading is rampant in this market. 
• Real volumes are probably 75% less than what are shown in most platforms. 

#10. Crypto Exchanges Must 'Grow or Die,' Says Exec at Fintech Firm Cinnober

• Agreed!
• There’s nothing to sell to institutions yet. 
• You need a strong retail flow to sell back up to institutions. 
• It allows them to mitigate risk. 
• There needs to be players out there that deal with institutional flow. 

REDDIT QUESTIONS

NEX Dark Pool

• There are some things that CM will do that Nex isn’t doing, and vice versa.
• It’s too topical to make an informed opinion at the moment, let’s see what they do.
• There is definitely room for more players in the market. 
• The wording here seems like they’re going for more professional customers. 

Testing, QA, Internal Testing

• We don’t have an official QA department at the moment, though we have two devs that are doing QA. 
• We want to ensure that our Telegram community is involved in the QA process as well. 

Referral Program

• The team will have something in place in time for launch, so you can share your link and invite people to CoinMetro. 
• The structure will be disclosed before launch.

Marketing Plans

• The team has some local marketing in Estonia, Meetups in the office. 
• There is an in-house SEO expert on the team. 
• Organic content and social media is a main focus of the Marketing team. 

What kind of revenues are we looking in the short, medium, and long-term for CoinMetro?

• The team has a business case that has 3 years worth of projected revenue.
• It’s conservative on some sides, a bit aggressive on others. 
• First year we’re looking at €4MM Euro earned, €5MM spent. 
• Year Two is around €15-20MM revenue, with €12MM in profits.
• Year Three is over €50MM Euro with €30-40MM in profit.
• Long-term profit margin on crypto exchange is quite low. High single digits. 
• Certain pieces of the CM ecosystem have profit margins that are significantly larger. 
• We’re looking at around 30% on average. 

CoinMetro Presence

• There are specific markets that the CM team wants to have a presence in. 
• Gaining presence is not a bad thing, and it’s important for liquidity. 
• Kevin’s been traveling to create relationships with potential key partners 

CoinMetro Jacket 

• There’s only one CM jacket at the moment, but the team will be making more jackets. 
• E-mail Kevin to notify him that you’d like a jacket!

Russia Trip

• Was a very interesting trip!
• Didn’t meet Vitalik Buterin.

Is the bear market good for blockchain innovation?

• Not sure if it’s good for innovation.
• Markets need “sh*t filters” to get rid of the useless projects.
• It’s not a bear market- it’s a correction, which is stagnating. 

Is CoinMetro becoming a bank? How is CoinMetro refining the industry?

• No, CM is not becoming a bank. 
• It’s not necessary to become a bank due to the innovations in regulation, where you can do most of the things that banks can do. 
• The banking system needs to be refined from the centuries old model. 
• CoinMetro aims to redefine what a bank is. What it is to transact money, to be a placeholder for people’s assets, send & receive money, etc.
• “Bank” is simply the placeholder term

Policy changes for remote workers?

• Even if we had different hiring policies, it wouldn't have made any difference. Even with face-to-face meetings, they still can present a fake ID and try to steal data.
• Policy changes in segmentation of data (for instance, designers don't need access to e-mail addresses).

Could there be a scenario where USDT can no longer uphold the peg to the USD?

• It's possible, but if it happens, it wouldn't be all that catastrophic.

Do you plan to offer crypto loans?

• No. 

LIVE AMA Questions

Do you plan to implement a vault system? 

• Not sure why anyone would do that unless they’re looking for a bonus or renumeration of sorts.

Debit Card Providers

• Kevin may be in Berlin on Monday to continue talks with one of the banks. 
• “I expect that by the end of the month we’ll have more details, and perhaps even have more than one provider.”

Chat Function on the CoinMetro site

• The community aspect is still being fine-tuned, and to work with Telegram, which has proven to be a bit of a struggle. 
• Once the platform is live, the team will re-focus on this to ensure that it is up and running ASAP.

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Well, that's it for this week's AMA with CoinMetro Founder Kevin Murcko! Please join us next week on CoinMetro's Facebook at 2PM GMT for another round and make sure you submit your questions to the CoinMetro Subreddit!

As always, we're available to answer any questions you may have on our Telegram Group 24/7.