This is a recap of an AMA session conducted by Vic and Dammy from Near Nigeria Guild with Kim from Atocha Protocol.
Q1 — Can you introduce yourself to the community and give a short intro about Atocha Protocol
Good day guys! So my name is Kim Zhao Wei, the Head of Marketing for Atocha Protocol. So basically my responsibility is to ensure that the project has strong community awareness, build relationships with the Near ecosystem’s projects and beyond, then make sure Atocha Protocol’s product can reach out to as many people as possible.
In short, Atocha Protocol is a specific usage blockchain AKA Appchain. You can say we are a Layer 1 Blockchain that is specifically built for the puzzle game community. You can create, solve and sponsor puzzle games on our protocol. Imagine you can launch multiple puzzle game Dapps on our protocol, that’s how our protocol works.
Q2 — Why did Atocha Protocol choose a puzzle game, a niche in the game industry to develop?
This is a question we get the most from the investors as well as from the community. First of all, a puzzle game is something that the team loves to indulge in. Zad, our co-founder is also a member of treasure hunting communities in the UK and he has influenced us a lot with his adventurous spirit. Of course, personally, I am a chess guy and love sudoku as well.
As you can see, each of us has our own preferred puzzle game to play. Each is unique and has its own characteristic. Therefore, a puzzle game is much more of a simple yet scalable game model which can cater to a fun and short session or a complex and long journey. Besides, we are aspired to create a global puzzle game hub with even the best puzzles like Cicada 3301, Sherlock Holmes, and Davinchi Code can be on our protocol. In short, it is niche but versatile.
Q3 — Atocha Protocol has P2E and Create to Earn mechanism in place, how sustainable it is?
Similar to any other business, we talk about sustainability as we don’t want to build just for the sake of hype. Gamefi has a lot of hype and we want to create something solid and down to earth.
That is why we have three mechanisms in place. Play to Earn is where players successfully solve the puzzle and win the prize (technically not that similar to the MMORG kind of P2E model where there’s a “fixed formula” where you can earn).
Create to Earn is whereas a creator, you can create and contribute to the ecosystem then earn. This in turn empowers the creator economy which for us is a good social impact.
Another mechanism that has not been mentioned is the sponsor mechanism. This is the missing piece that can create a closed-loop of the economy for the Atocha Protocol. The sponsor will put up a budget to fund the puzzle’s prize pool or even commission the creators to customize the puzzle game for their business entities.
Hence, sustainability comes from the capability of the creator group to be always competitive and creative which can generate attraction to the sponsors to divert more revenue into the ecosystem, which then is distributed to creators and players.
Q4 — What’s the business model of the Atocha Protocol to ensure long-term sustainability?
Our main business model is to build a strong decentralized creator team that can cater to the needs of sponsors where different genres of puzzle games can be created for the community. There’s literally no limit to such demand. Then, the business model is followed by a transactional fee or taxation fee in the form of gas fee that will be distributed to the Treasury and Validators. The third business model will be the Royalty fee which will be developed through the enabling of NFT features.
Q5 — What is the unique selling point for Atocha Protocol to stand out in the GameFi space?
Most Gamefi are in-house built and not open source projects. On the other hand, Atocha Protocol is actually an open-source platform for puzzle game builders to get on board to build. Of course, our team will also focus on several puzzle game projects to build as it is important for us to prove the functionality to the other builders.
From the game developer’s point of view, one can easily integrate with the protocol without any extra cost to hire blockchain developers. From a gamer’s point of view, the protocol ensures transparency and fairness in a decentralized manner. From a community point of view, all of the token holders will get to benefit from the growth of the ecosystem when everyone is helping each other to grow by not only just playing the game but promoting or building.
Q6 — How does Atocha Protocol plan to scale from its current state to become a globally recognized GameFi?
First of all, we want to be realistic and know that this is not an easy route. The key inflection point for us is to have at least 1 puzzle game that has 100,000 DAU (daily active users) and maintain an optimal level of retention.
With that, it will become a live showcase of what the protocol can offer. Hence, our main focus now is to collaborate with multiple creators to build puzzle games that in time can realize the metrics of a successful game. To add on, the other metric that we want to be focusing on is the Total Value Locked of Sponsored ATO at any given time. That will also dictate how well we have grown as a GameFi protocol.
With that single success model (or multiple until we succeed), this will be our scaling model to scale up.
Q7 — Why should I hold ATO coin?
ATO Coin is a utility coin for Atocha Protocol which will be available and circulating in the market after IDO. By holding the ATO coin, you are participating and supporting the ecosystem to grow and expand. In other words, you will gain benefits as the ecosystem is gaining traction as:
- More puzzle games are on board on Atocha
- Seeing more sponsors are coming in to build puzzle games
- A bigger user base of players is engaging with the puzzle games
- More communities formed within the ecosystem based on geolocation and preferred puzzle games
The demand for ATO coins will be determined by how many sponsors are being allocated for each puzzle game at a single point in time. The higher the sponsor’s amount, the more token is being locked within the ecosystem; hence the higher the value with more limited supply.
Q8 — What is the go-to-market plan for Atocha Protocol?
After the mainnet launch, the team will start to focus on bringing in more puzzle creators and sponsors. This is a critical stage for us as we need to build a case where the mechanism works for the creators, sponsors, and players. By showing that the three roles can form a closed economic loop, it will be the best proof of concept for us to continue scale-up.
During the initial stage, the targetted sponsor partnership will be with 2 types of entities:
1. NFT community — by working with the established NFT community on the Near ecosystem (eg: Nearnauts & Astrogen, Holistic Pilgrim, Skyharbour NFT, Electric Neon, etc.)
2. Project community — by working with different established projects on the Near ecosystem (eg: Octopus Network, Near Foundation, NearPad, Skyward Finance, Ref Finance, QSTN, OWS, etc)
By having a team of creators ready to help with the puzzle game customization, which will be onboard through the Puzzle Creator Contest (ending on 30 April 2022). Atocha will be delivering the puzzle game in stages for all the sponsors.
Q9 — What would be the key business model for Atocha Protocol?
Similar to any gaming platform, Atocha Protocol will have multiple revenue streams:
1. Sponsors for puzzle games (marketing budget by brands and businesses AKA advertising)
2. Taxation on the on-chain transaction
3. NFT sales
4. Royalty from the secondary sale
Each revenue stream will be determined by the which stage Atocha Protocol is currently at with the available technology. The first version of the mainnet will be focusing on the sponsors and taxation. The next mainnet upgrade will include NFT features that enable all puzzle game creators on the protocol to create their own NFT through the protocol.
On the other hand, the team intends to keep the organization lean and efficient. This will ensure the project team has sufficient runway and time to build up the foundation of the revenue stream by improving the product and continue growing the community.
Q10 — In the long term, what is Atocha network aiming to become?
By building on Atocha Protocol, we want to deliver solutions for the pain points of Creators by building the infrastructure to be more inclusive and open by stages. Here are the propositions on how being a Creator in Atocha ecosystem can be beneficial:
- Atocha is building a creator community where we gather different professionals like puzzle designers, game developers, UI/UX developers, graphic designers, video producers, music producers, etc. By becoming a member of Atocha (which comes with no cost), we will help to connect you with different talents and encourage you to realize your masterpiece.
- Atocha intends to create a grant that is specifically made for puzzle game creators. The creator can pitch to the community that will have a say on whether the DAO fund should be utilized for the creator to build.
- Atocha is building the funnel for new onboard puzzle games to have ready go-to-market funnels to utilize. This will save a lot of time cost and opportunity costs for the creators.
- Atocha Protocol has been building its own core community through Discord, Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Youtube. Being on Atocha, the creator will get access to all the ready community and be able to engage with the ready-to-play users.
- Atocha has the strong support of the developer team that can help the creators to scale as the puzzle game gain more traction. Creator will not need to worry about scalability as Atocha will work closely with the Creator for scaling.
- The Atocha Points system is able to achieve a cross-platform leaderboard so that even different puzzle games can collaborate to form a player community that can have an aggregated leaderboard.
- By launching at Atocha Protocol, the platform cut will be minimal (estimated to be 5%) that will be contributed to the treasury.
Q11 — May I know what the mainnet launch is all about?
Atocha Protocol is currently at the voting stage on Octopus Mainnet and will be ending the vote by 16 April 2022 (started on 10 April 2022 and lasted for 7 days). After the Voting Stage, we will proceed to Booting Stage where the validator nodes are set up to get ready for the mainnet launch. When the minimum number of nodes is being met (11 nodes according to the Octopus Network Whitepaper), the appchain will then move to Running status. With that, the appchain is now a running blockchain hosted on Octopus Relay!
By having the mainnet launched, the puzzle game Webapp that we developed will then be deployed after 1–2 weeks time. All users will get to experience the full functions of creating, solving, sponsoring, challenging, and receiving rewards with the Webapp.
Q12 — As Atocha protocol is a decentralized protocol that enables users to solve puzzles and riddle for a prize, can someone copy and already solved/used puzzle and re-used it provided some changes were made?
Yes, they can do that. However, the community can trace the originality of the puzzle through Atocha’s Indexer as all the created puzzles are recorded on the blockchain. If there is not sufficient creative modification to the puzzle, it will be easily solved which makes the sponsored prize to be easily won. Hence, such kind of puzzle will not gain much attention from the Sponsors. Without the prize, the puzzle eventually will gain lesser traction. In other words, creators will have less motivation to do low-quality puzzles as it is just a waste of time.
Q13 — Security is a big challenge in the cryptocurrency world, what are Atocha protocol security measures against future attacks? and what are Atocha protocol’s future plans for the future, and what should the community look out for?
As an Appchain, it is working on the Leased Proof of Stake consensus with leased security from Octopus Network. With that, the appchain will only need to focus on function-specific utility development while the security of the blockchain will be maintained by Octopus Network. Therefore, our team will focus on the security of the Webapp with considerations like prevention of Brute Force attacks, DDOS attacks, etc. which is like any other existing web2.0 product.
For our future plan, we have short-term and long-term plans to share with you in a summary. Short term, we want to build a team of puzzle creators consisting of puzzle designers, game developers, UI/UX developers, graphic designers, video producers, music producers, etc. The team will then become the core force to realize the sponsor’s mechanism where the team brings in brands and businesses to utilize puzzle games for advertising. For the long term, we are looking at a global puzzle game hub where Atocha Protocol will have NFT marketplace for puzzle games, sandbox, community DAO and etc. Basically, to build a puzzle game ecosystem to inspire your curiosity!
Q14 — What’s Atocha partner program?
Atocha Partner Program aims to form collaborative relationships with different entities that could benefit from the protocol’s value propositions and also help in the growth of Atocha Protocol.
There are 3 types of partnership we are looking for:
- Potential sponsors (which can be any brands/businesses/projects) that intend to use puzzle games as part of their marketing strategy and work together with Atocha Protocol to realize it.
- Game studios can be any size. The intention to partner with them is to get them to launch their existing puzzle games on Atocha Protocol or to develop their future puzzle game to be integrated with the protocol.
- Marketing-related individuals or organizations. We are looking for an existing and established digital marketing company, youtube producing team, etc that can help to push the puzzle game developed for the sponsors to reach out to the targetted audience other than the existing community of Atocha Protocol.
Q15 — What to do, if I have lost a puzzle piece?
Technically, you can’t lose a piece of the puzzle as all the pieces are on-chain. Either you lose your wallet seed phrase or you somehow failed to log in to your wallet. If that happens, the only thing you lose is the ownership of your previously created puzzle, which no longer belongs to anyone.
Q16 — On your website you don’t mention that you have done any internal or external audit of your smart contract, so can you give us details if you have done any audit before? And in case you haven’t, would you plan to perform any review of your smart contract in the near future?
We will include that we have been audited by Octopus Network team who are professionals in auditing Substrate projects. As mentioned in the previous answer, we also lease the security from Octopus Network. In other words, the project team’s main focus will be on building the utility. You can also see that Octopus Network has strong technical support where they have a bounty program (https://immunefi.com/bounty/octopusnetwork/)
Q17 — Are you planning to promote your project in countries / regions where English is not good? Do you have a local community for them to better understand your project??
Good one. Yes, we intend to expand beyond English speaking community. Anyone with an interest to help Atocha build a non-English speaking community can always come to apply for the Ambassador Program. We welcome community managing for the non-English speaking communities as well as translation services.
Check out Ambassador Link here: https://medium.com/@atochaprotocol/join-atocha-ambassador-program-857aa6799f87
Q18 — During these days, be a Multi-chain platform is an obligation to be considered a competitive project, so can you explain who how many chains are you able to support?
Being on Octopus Network is a plus for us as it already offers interoperability for the appchain. We can cross to other appchain through the IBC bridge built by Octopus. Other than that, we can cross to Near Native wallet. In addition, from Near Native wallet, we can cross over to Ethereum through Rainbow bridge (including Solana). Currently, Octopus is also building bridge for crossing over to Cosmos and Polkadot. In short, we are able to support quite a number of chains with the existing and incoming development by Octopus and Near Protocol.
Q19 — Token Burn or BuyBack program plays an important role in increasing Token value Do you have a token burn or buyback program plan to attract investors?
As of now, our tokenomics has inflation mechanism that in its intention is to promote active participation from the community. We will not have Token Burn or BuyBack program until our community is more established and the proposal can be submitted to the Governance DAO. Hence, it is important for all the ATO coin holders to be aware that you have a right to vote.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/AtochaProtocol
Telegram: https://t.me/atochacommunity
Discord: https://discord.gg/QnMtSu7qT5
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atocha/
Facebook: https://facebook.com/atochaprotocol
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeLhtnvXxgredExYklb1IhA