KuCoin AMA With Props — Enabling Apps To Turn Loyalty Points Into Financial Rewards

2021/05/29 09:27:50

Dear KuCoin Users,

Time: May 26, 2021, 14:00-14:59 (UTC)

KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session in the KuCoin Exchange Group with Phil Yang, Head of Business Development at Props, who gave us an update on Props’s recently achieved milestones and news.

Project Introduction

Props is a leading platform for deploying and bootstrapping community tokens, allowing apps to increase user loyalty, financially align with users and add a new revenue stream. Many apps have announced integration or launching, each with millions or hundreds of thousands of users.

Official Website: https://www.props.xyz

White Paper:

Follow Props on Twitter and Telegram.

Guest:

Phil Yang — Head of Business Development at Props

With over 8 years of experience in business development and partnerships in the consumer tech space, Phil joined the Props Project in 2020 as Head of Business Development.

Prior to joining Props, Phil was in charge of partnerships and business development at Kik Messenger and later for the Kin Blockchain project, focusing on educating and onboarding early stage partners. Sold on the ownership economy model, Phil is a firm believer in the future of web 3.0.

Q&A from KuCoin

Q: Please introduce yourself to our community.

Phil: Hello everyone!

Thank you for hosting me and it’s great to be here. As mentioned, my name is Phil Yang, Head of Business Development here at Props. To give you a brief introduction about my background: I come from doing partnerships and BD at consumer-facing companies. Prior to Props, I was helping lead BD at a major mobile messaging company and before that, worked with brands to connect with consumers across mobile messaging apps with content solutions.

My day-to-day responsibilities here at Props is to identify and onboard potential web 2.0 apps to integrate our out-of-box loyalty program that enables them to not only implement a powerful loyalty solution powered by blockchain but also help enable better alignment with their users. It’s an exciting time to be in this industry and I couldn’t be happier to be part of the Props team.

Excited to share more about Props!

Q: Can you briefly introduce Props? Also, what makes Props different from other projects?

Phil: Props is a work / discount token that unlocks user benefits across all apps that support Props. One way to think about Props is as a cross between traditional loyalty points and capital.

Here's a good visual to help paint the picture better:

Another way to think about it is tokenizing loyalty points and imbuing financial value into them.

Props’ value is backed by the aggregate utility it provides to its millions of users across all participating apps.

As an update in terms of growth and partnerships. Today, we have close to 10 apps that have joined the network, 5 that have fully integrated and launched, each with millions or hundreds of thousands of MAU. Currently, we have close to 10 million users across these apps who are holding PROPS for the benefits they unlock.

Our focus is on partnering with Web 2.0 businesses, which is a slightly different model than other companies out there. By working with traditional businesses, we provide them with our loyalty solution that enables them to be forward-thinking in working towards better alignment with their users through loyalty points that are backed by blockchain.

Q: You have played an important role in cooperating with SuperWorld whose business combines augmented reality (AR) and NFT. Also, you lead the NFT research of Props. Why did SuperWorld choose to use Props service instead of minting their own ERC-20 token? What is your opinion on Metaverse projects?

Phil: Ha! I love getting questions about NFTs (I'm bullish on them).

And to clarify, I’m not the only lead researcher, as our product team is way more advanced than I am when it comes to researching more about NFTs in depth.

I try my best to stay on top of the latest tech trends and keep a keen eye on the NFT market.

With that said, I expect that NFTs and fungible community tokens will work hand in hand.

We’re excited to partner with SuperWorld in powering their NFT business through the PROPS token. Our out-of-box solution allows for them to easily implement a blockchain-backed loyalty solution where users can participate in earning a community token by taking valuable actions that benefit not only SuperWorld, but users themselves - which is in the growth of the platform they enjoy and love to use.

And by partnering with Props, SuperWorld can focus on growing their core business and not worry about having to build their own blockchain-backed loyalty solution and instead, just simply use our Saas-like admin tools.

Here’s a snapshot of our Saas tools which anyone who joins our ecosystem will get out of the box that’s connected and integrated via APIs.

Oh, btw: TEASER: The integration should be launching in the weeks ahead so follow our official social channels via our website: https://www.props.xyz to stay up to date on the latest.

Q: The Props' new website has NFT-related content. Will Props step into the NFT market and have new NFT partners? How will you describe Props’s NFT business? Does it relate to the current loyalty token business or will it operate independently?

Phil: Thank you for noticing our new website!

Our team worked hard to launch our revamped site and we’re all excited about it.

As mentioned, we’re looking at the NFT space and monitoring it closely. Our partnership with SuperWorld is a nice first step in getting into the NFT space, as we will be powering their loyalty program with our solution.

One way to think about it is:

Loyalty and NFTs have some synergy where they can work hand-in-hand together. Our loyalty business has not changed and we will continue to push forward to onboard as many Web 2.0 businesses to help power a loyalty solution that’s powered by blockchain.

We’re proud of our out-of-box loyalty solution and continue to optimize it and enhance it further. This means businesses like SuperWorld which are NFT focused can easily look to us to help power a loyalty program to help with further engagement for their users/communities that ties into increasing their core KPIs, which is key for any business.

On the flipside, the team is continuing to look at how potentially adding NFTs to our loyalty solution can grow our overall business further. To set expectations, this takes time as we aren’t in the business of rushing into things without doing our thorough research and planning. We are exploring and expanding the Protocol to enable NFTs, as NFTs are another great way for apps and users to share in the value created.

Q: Any “Easter eggs” that can be shared on Props’s recent business development?

Phil: We continue to speak to multiple potential partner apps on a weekly basis. It’s a positive sign as since we’re focused on traditional Web 2.0 businesses, this means it takes a little bit more education and explanations on why our Solution is so powerful.

Conversations have been nothing but positive and it excites me even more to see that your traditional businesses are eager to learn and explore blockchain solutions. Props potentially fits in with their research in finding the right solution partner.

Also, I may have already sent an Easter Egg above. SuperWorld is very close to fully integrating and setting a launch date which is exciting.

Q: The incentivized staking testnet is about to launch. Can you explain what the new staking protocol is? What will it bring to Props and Props users in your opinion?

Phil: Ah, now we're getting into the exciting stuff which I'm sure a lot of folks here are curious about.

Staking is an important strategic initiative as it's a first step towards enabling governance by our token holders. We are starting with a staking testnet that will allow holders to test and manage the Props Protocol rewards allocation.

However, in order to get to the final stage, we need to first start with testnet.

The team is working diligently to ensure testnet launches correctly, which means ensuring it's optimized before testnet launches. It's an exciting next step we're working towards.

To stay on top of the latest updates on testnet launch as well as news in general, it’s best to sign up to receive updates here: https://share.hsforms.com/1dmYdPYPUTZSNLErvmMeeNg4jbv5

Q: The long-term goal is for the Props Protocol to be fully governed by the community of PROPS Token holders. What is your timeframe on when Props Protocol can be fully governed by the users? How will Props slowly transfer the control to token holders?

Phil: In order to achieve full governance by users for the Protocol, it will take some time. This is why our first step is working towards testnet Staking. One of our goals on the product side is to work diligently towards community governance and our product team is working very hard day in and day out to strive for this.

The team is working on the final touches of testnet Staking. So you will need to come and see by signing up on the form shared above or visiting our website props.xyz!

Free-Ask from KuCoin Community

Q: What do you think of the Asian market? Does your team have any plan to approach ASEAN, which is a potential market in crypto? There are many great teams and investors who want to work and earn money from crypto.

Phil: We have a dedicated team in Asia and we value the Asian market very highly. Our team continues to grow as we have a team in China and Korea, and they work together closely to continue to build out that market.

Q: As an investor, I want to know how strong your project security system is and what benefits will I have in the years to come when I decide to join the project you are working on right now?

Phil: We value security very much and are proud of making sure everything is secure. You can view our audits here for more information:

https://blog.openzeppelin.com/props-rewards-engine-contracts-audit/

https://blog.openzeppelin.com/props-token-contracts-audit-2/

Q: Looks like a great project, can you share about your team?

Phil: Team is important. We are 18 people, based in the US and Asia mostly. About half are in product and engineering and half in marketing, biz dev and ops. Most of the core team has worked together for 5+ years and come from building networks at scale, so there’s a lot of synergy and trust amongst our team members.

Q: How are you planning to raise awareness about your project in countries where English isn't widely spoken? Do you have local communities that would help people understand the project better?

Phil: We are a global project and that means we cater to everyone, English to non-English speaking. We have a team in Asia and also are working on different types of initiatives such as a potential ambassador program to help spread awareness and growth in different areas. Please feel free to stay up to date on the latest news via our website: props.xyz