AMA Recap with Curate
Innerspeaker:
Hello everyone and welcome to this AMA session with Curate!
Innerspeaker:
Welcome James @curateproject, excited to have you here with us! I’ve been a long time follower of your project, was very eager to introduce it to our community, thanks for coming to us for this exclusive AMA!
James:
You’re welcome! It’s only right I do the AMA here with you UniGems!
Innerspeaker:
Let’s begin with a brief introduction of what Curate is and what is it’s aim and usecase?
Innerspeaker:
How long has the project been around?
James:
I’m James, the founder of @curate, a discovery marketplace app with rewards on everything (even if you don’t buy).
I started the project 2 years ago with the aim of providing a better way to discover products and content you like i.e #Fashion #Gaming #NFTs #Beauty. I wanted to support the growing use case of crypto currency payments which is why we support BTC, ETH and XCUR payments. We also reward every user for the engagement in ETH and XCUR and soon USDT.
Innerspeaker:
Rewards on everything — that’s the key word, awesome!
James:
Yes, literally we track each engagement and reward!
Innerspeaker:
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your team?
James:
I’m a 33 year old software developer and clinical pharmacist born and raised in London, UK and my team comprises of blockchain developers and UX developers from Russia and US.
My core partners are from South Africa and the UK, with extended team members from Serbia.
Innerspeaker:
That’s a nice set of skill you have, Clinical pharmacist and a software developer wow.
James:
I guess I was a bit of a nerd 😄
Innerspeaker:
Hehe I was too, studied neuropharmacology so close to your field now want to learn coding :P
Innerspeaker:
Right, where are you guys based and are there any notable previous projects you have worked on?
James:
Always learning so it’s never too late!
James:
The project is officially headquartered in London, UK (which is where our company is registered) but we operate in across the globe and work round the clock (thanks to Zoom and Trello boards!).
Before Curate, I was the founder and CEO of AdClerks.com — a company I founded 5 years ago and exited to a VC backed software company in Florida, US.
AdClerks.com was also a marketplace which I built, so my background and success are in technology and marketplaces!
Innerspeaker:
Solid background definitely, I just checked this website and it looks like a complete business, getting more and more excited for what’s to come for Curate :)
James:
The fun is just about to begin
Innerspeaker:
Speaking about Curate, can you share some of your achievements with Curate so far?
James:
Just until recently we were the top 4 global cryptocurrency by % gain just behind Dodge coin and that was without the help of Elon Musk or Wall Street Bets 😄
We’re fully bootstrapped, something I’m proud of. We’ve been super resourceful with allocating our resources and time. Everyone on the team serves a purpose. We have no debts, no token holders who bought into an ICO or IEO which rug pulled
James:
The Curate app is also completely open source, with parts of the code kept private for competitive reasons
Innerspeaker:
Yeah I saw the coinmarketcap ranking you were among the top gainers, that’s awesome people are finally waking up to this gem of a project
James:
Also, we’ve never paid for a listing, and just an hour ago Bilaxy listed us for free! If you’re project is hot they will come to us 🙂
Innerspeaker:
True! I shared the news here, exciting times ahead
James:
I guess we need to wait and see for Binance, although CZ is already following me on Twitter so we never know 👀
Innerspeaker:
James:
CZ has good taste in projects 😉
Innerspeaker:
Crazy! That could be a massive partnership
James:
Won’t show our DM’s but we are talking 👀
Innerspeaker:
I will be sharing some screens I made while researching your project if you don’t mind :P
Innerspeaker:
Hehe
James:
Of course!
Innerspeaker:
Right, let’s talk about the app a bit
Innerspeaker:
I understand you guys are launching your fully working app soon, can you tell us when to expect it? I see it can already be downloaded on the Apple Store and Play Store but this is still in beta correct?
Innerspeaker:
According to your roadmap this should be soon (btw roadmap looks juicy :)
James:
We should be ready within 2.5 weeks, we’re finishing our wallet integration and ETH node deployment on our dedicated server in France.
The apps on the Apple Store and Play Store are our demo apps i.e showing an early preview of what to expect.
James:
Correct!
Innerspeaker:
Awesome, not long to go
Innerspeaker:
Please explain what can be done in the app?
James:
- Buy/Sell/Earn on all of our 4 categories and more: #Fashion #Gaming #NFTs #Beauty
- Cross chain tokens supported, BTC, ETH, XCUR and soon USDT for payments and rewards in ETH, XCUR and USDT
- Discovering marketplace, content is curated by the community i.e we don’t use bots or AI, instead we use the community and reward them for doing so.
- Reward everything. The metrics that will be used to calculate monthly rewards will be based on the following activities:
Likes/comments/followers
Age of account
KYC verification
Daily activity/login
Items purchased
Items sold
Referrals
XCUR tokens
The exact % breakdown will be calculated nearer app launch. Not all of the metrics are required to start earning rewards
We will have an antispam/fraud feature in place to prevent abuse
James:
As well as other stuff like, following your favourite seller/brand or merchant or friend. DMs, KYC, Wallet intergration
Innerspeaker:
James:
But the rewards part is our USP
Innerspeaker:
Sounds awesome tbh
Innerspeaker:
USP?
James:
You can also stake your XCUR in app, withdraw it to an external wallet or spend in app on your next purchase
James:
USP — Unique selling point
Innerspeaker:
Right! Gotcha, thought that was some token haha
James:
oh right 😄
Innerspeaker:
Just to summarize quickly — what do you think you offer that is different from other competitors and is your USP, just in a few words
Innerspeaker:
And if you can give us some examples of projects you are closely competing with?
James:
Curate is different as we combine 3 main things:
- Marketplace
- Content discovery
- Crypto payments and rewards on buying, selling and engaging
Our competitors include:
Fold, Lolli, SPI
But none of them have what we have, an app that’s built for the community, that rewards loyalty and combines the above 3: marketplace, discovery and crypto payments/rewards.
Innerspeaker:
Our community is quite familiar with SPI and I’m sure understand the potential of your project
James:
Awesome, I heard about SPI mainly from your community 😄
Innerspeaker:
Saw somewhere people saying SPI is the Amazon of crypto and you guys will be the eBay of crypto, does this analogy sound logical to you?
James:
I think it gives XCUR a lot of runaway for price movement
Innerspeaker:
For sure, price has been holding very well with a good influx of new investors :)
Innerspeaker:
Let’s talk a bit about the tokenomics of $XCUR.
Innerspeaker:
Can you tell us what’s the circulating supply and if there are any unlocks happening in the future (will there be any inflation?), also what’s the team vesting schedule and how many tokens?
Innerspeaker:
Excited to hear about the burn too :)
James:
Circulating supply is 2.25M
James:
Our total supply was originally 10M but we burnt 15% last year as shown on Etherscan, bringing our new total supply to 8.5M
Innerspeaker:
Awesome, according to your wp you plan to burn until you burn 50% right?
James:
We plan to burn each year until we have 5M left (50% from the original totaly supply)
Innerspeaker:
Nice pumpamentals
Innerspeaker:
James:
We’ve locked 2.25M tokens until April 2021 but these won’t be entering the circulating suppy, instead these will be re-locked
James:
Tokens are locked with team finance
Innerspeaker:
So those are the team tokens?
Innerspeaker:
Do they also decrease when the burns happen?
James:
Yes
Innerspeaker:
Great stuff
Innerspeaker:
I saw and you also mentioned that there is a staking platform, can you tell us a bit about it?
James:
Yes, we have a DeFi staking platform at curate.finance where users can stake their LP tokens for a generous APR % paid out in real time
James:
I’ll get the latest % right after this just to make sure I give out the right number!
Innerspeaker:
The website shows 102% which is quite good
Innerspeaker:
I guess this will go down with time a bit as more users onboard, so staking now is the best thing to do?
James:
Yes, that’s it I was thinking that but wanted to make sure
James:
Correct
Innerspeaker:
Staking always nice for pumpamentals, locking supply etc. Awesome
Innerspeaker:
There is something I want to ask tho
James:
Sure
Innerspeaker:
How secure is everything? As we know hacks are quite common in this space, do you have any audits done on the code/do you plan having an audit done?
Innerspeaker:
Also how secure is the app? The interface looks very user friendly but how secure is it?
James:
We got one being done at the moment to secure our smart contract from any loop holes and issues. An update will be done once v2 is live
James:
We have compulsary 2FA, 24hr cooling period when withdrawing to a new wallet and KYC for all earners
Innerspeaker:
Good to hear security is a main concern, as should be in this space imo
Innerspeaker:
Right, is there anything else you would like to add about the tokenomics or the app before we move on?
James:
One thing about the app
James:
Fashion is our biggest category with sub niches for designer, used, vintage, urban and trainer/sneakers.
Our other main categories including gaming/tech, NFTs and crypto (wallets, tokens) and health/beauty.
Curate is the fashion/gaming/NFT/beauty marketplace app where the next generation come to discover unique content.
Our a global community of buying, selling and connecting will make our marketplace more inclusive, diverse and less wasteful.
This is what transforming the way we buy and sell goods will looks like in the future, and Curate will be revolutionary in starting this transformation.
Innerspeaker:
I can just imagine now how these things can come together and people using the platform will benefit, sounds awesome tbh and don’t think you have much competition at the moment
Innerspeaker:
Less wasteful… I like that :)
Innerspeaker:
Awesome, let’s move on with the next question
Innerspeaker:
I see you guys are kicking off your marketing campaign now, thanks for starting with an AMA here in UniGems, can you tell us what are your other marketing plans for the near future?
James:
Yeah need to be environmentally friendly!
James:
Sure, we’ve prepared a marketing plan to show everyone our plans
Innerspeaker:
Time for people to realise this or we’ll have to move to Mars with Elon soon lol
James:
[ File : Curate Marketing Plan.pdf ]
Q1 Marketing Plan
James:
Yeah 😄
Innerspeaker:
Wow nice, let me have a quick look
James:
Sure
James:
As you can see, we’re targeting token investors who believe in the project and app users, those who want to buy/sell/earn on the app as both are 2 different markets of audience
Innerspeaker:
Yes I see
Innerspeaker:
I must say that’s a very clear plan, and first time I see it presented so well
James:
Most of our marketing will kick off soon once our app is live but we’ve parternered with a big influencer in the space who believes in the project. Only our XCUR whales know about this person but I’m happy to namedrop if you or community want 🙂
Innerspeaker:
From an investor point of view I would be very happy with my investment knowing there is a clear plan
James:
Thank you, presentation is important to us
James:
Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.
Prepartion is very important to us
Innerspeaker:
Oh snap! Exclusive news drop for UniGems community, please do share, we have a lot of people here interested in the project so I’m sure they will be happy to hear it here first!
James:
https://twitter.com/crypto_birb/
Check out his twitter header now and tell me what project you see bottom right 😉
Innerspeaker:
140k followers. Nuff said.
Innerspeaker:
Thank you for sharing this with our community, awesome time to buy before the big news hit
Innerspeaker:
(not a financial advice)
😂
James:
I respect his technical analysis and how he doesn’t parner with pump and dump projects, that was the first thing he said when we spoke. He came to his own conclusion and chose us 🙂
James:
Yeah his first tweet of many is dropping tomorrow
Innerspeaker:
I agree, he’s definitely not your usual pnd twitter shill. Awesome to hear you’ve secured such great collabs
James:
Yeah, got 2 other big names but only whales know about those 2 (anyone with 50k XCUR or more can DM me to enter our whales group_
Innerspeaker:
I was meant to ask — how is development going? You already said app is expected to launch soon, is everything else going according to plan and roadmap? Anything else you would like to share that’s happening in the near future ?
Innerspeaker:
Innerspeaker:
Just got sent this btw, see bottom right :P Awesome!
James:
We’ve just brought on one more developer to speed up the blockchain integration. Having our own ETH node allows us to tweak a few things like not having to pay for gas when you want to use XCUR to pay for items on the app. Our front end and backend is done though so it won’t be long now. We just don’t want to rush it, better to undersell and outperform than vice versa
Innerspeaker:
Oh yeah paying for gas for items on the app, this will be very important imo, glad you guys are already working on the solution, considering gas prices are ridiculous right now
Innerspeaker:
Sounds great
James:
Yeah I know right, $15 to send less just doesn’t make sense 😄
Innerspeaker:
Can you share with us whether you have any partnerships or are you working on any at the moment?
James:
Twitter influencers starting marketing from tomorrow with more starting near app launch
IG ad campaigns start from mid Feb onwards
CoinEx listing is very close, in talks with them currently
Bilaxy listing just went live too 😉
Innerspeaker:
Great, sounds like you guys have a busy schedule ahead!
Innerspeaker:
I think we’ve covered most of the hot topics, but before we wrap up, is there anything else you would like to add or share?
Innerspeaker:
I just want to share this gif I saw cuz I think it’s dope lol
Innerspeaker:
James:
Yeah I love this one!
Innerspeaker:
Also your youtube content is very well presented
Innerspeaker:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVq646oBKp6CTFUSIHsfKAw
James:
We’ve been underground for 2 years building and growing, hidden in the shadows. Some of the projects that started out with us are long gone, dead and buried.
We’re still here for a reason, our passion and drive to make Curate the globally recognised marketplace app for rewards and content discovery.
If you’r hear reading this now I believe it’s for a reason.
Look into our project and follow your intuition.
God bless,
James xxx
Innerspeaker:
That’s a great way to wrap up and yes the project speaks for itself imo, people will be fomoing very soon, happy to be able to present it to our community in it’s “early” stages!
Innerspeaker:
Had a great time, thank you for doing this AMA with us James :)
James:
Thank you for your time and interest, you’ve been with Curate for a while and I appreciate your support
Innerspeaker:
Planning to be with it in the future too, excited for what’s to come :) Thank you
COMMUNITY QUESTIONS:
Q: Your website says “rewards on everything (even if you don’t buy)” this sounds very attractive to new ones, can you explain to me how this is possible?
James: We take a commission on each transaction on the marketplace, from this we issue a % reward in ETH or XCUR (soon UDST) to the buyer and seller as a thank you. We buy the tokens direct from uniswap. If the user chooses XCUR they get slightly higher amount, when we buy from the exchange this also helps to drive up XCUR demand constantly
Q: Does Curate serve only as a platform for displaying fashion item? Or is it also possible to make purchases directly from the Application? Can anyone or user platform sell their products through Curate? @curateproject
James: Purchases can be made in-app directly, so no need to leave the app and go to a 3rd party website/app. Yes, anyone can sell on Curate as long as they pass KYC and have enabled 2FA. We’re not just a fashion marketplace, also: gaming, NFTs/tokens and health and beauty
Q: Will Curate also have a strategy to engage with playmakers of traditional online shopping platforms with any widget etc?
James: Yes, end of the year we’re starting development on our browser widget which will automatically reward you on qualified purchases with our partners, rewards will be in ETH, XCUR and USDT
Q: I’m not good at keeping secrets
Most especially that of benefits
So what do I earn for referring friends to this platform? Can anyone without KYC use the platform freely?
James: KYC is required for sellers and those who earn on engagement. Referrers gets XCUR, exact amount will be determined once the affiliate programme is live on the app in version 2.
Q: Do you solve visualization stuff inbound or outbound? By the way I wonder why don’t you have any female member in your team? :)
James: 2 of our new twitter influencers are female and we’re always on the look out for more female team members (real ones not catfish men lol) so if anyone is interested in helping with being a developer/social media manager let me know as we’re recruiting in Q2 🙂
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Below are some useful Curate links:
📲Website: curate.style
🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurateProject
🦄Uniswap: https://info.uniswap.org/pair/0x178f1A72172A99F7F44E125dE6413eA808713E7C
⚙️Dextools: https://www.dextools.io/app/uniswap/pair-explorer/0x178f1a72172a99f7f44e125de6413ea808713e7c
✈️Telegram: https://t.me/curate
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