2020NEXT | Dialogue with Props: SEC Compliance, Ownership Economy in Web3

On December 8th, the sixth phase of the "2020 NEXT" series of activities launched by Rhythm and KuCoin has been successfully carried out. The guest of this dialogue is a consumer application approved by the US SEC Reg A+ The Props team of the token governance system, and Gee Chuang, the well-known overseas CEO of Listia, also participated in this dialogue.

The host of this event is Wei Yihao, Marketing Director of Rhythm BlockBeats, and the dialogue guests are Props founder and CEO Adi Sideman and Listia CEO Gee Chuang. The two briefed the original intention of establishing Props and Listia in the live broadcast room, as well as their future plans. Props founder and CEO Adi Sideman revealed plans to list exchanges in Asia or internationally in the future.

The following is the dialogue content of the sixth "2020 NEXT" event organized by Rhythm BlockBeats, Enjoy~

Moderator: Congratulations to Props, the community is very powerful and has become a popular project in this issue. Welcome Props Founder and CEO Adi Sideman and guest Rhythm Live. So please introduce yourself first.

 Adi Sideman:Hi everyone , I'm Adi Sideman, co-founder of Props Inc. I'm an entrepreneur who started 4 other venture capital firms, 3 of which were acquired.  I was the founder of the world's first online karaoke - acquired by Fox/myspace. Later, I founded YouNow, which was the first content application to open the digital currency market in 2014. Users can not only buy virtual currency on YouNow, but content creators can also obtain virtual currency by publishing content.

So strictly speaking, this is not a complete cryptocurrency. This is a small portion of the larger market.

Gee Chuang: Hello everyone, I It's Gee, Listia CEO and co-founder. Listia is a P2P marketplace where users can auction and discover and buy a variety of new and used products. Before last year, I was a senior software engineer in a Silicon Valley company in the United States, and I also created another e-commerce platform with my current partner. It was around 2009, and partner Zhan and I were a little frustrated with the market environment we were in now.

The story goes that James (my partner) had an old pair of snowball boots and he wanted to Give it to someone, then he listed the shoe online and stated his wishes, then he received a dozen emails, and finally selected one person to trade. He left work early to meet the man, but the man didn't show up. So he thought there must be a better way.

This method can help everyone get rid of the goods they don’t need. How do you get rid of them? How do you exchange them and how do you communicate with them? Others trade it? This approach is going to set us apart from the world of eBay and Amazon. (This is the original intention of Listia)

Today, we have more than 10 million registrations user. People buy and sell with our own app token called listepoints. Earlier this year, we joined the Props network, sort of working together, on this idea of a mainstream consumer token, so I was really excited.

Moderator: How did you come up with the idea for this project What is their vision?

Adi Sideman: As I said before, I worked at YouNow for several years, and I'm now a streaming service, and there are content creators who spend a lot of time every day entertaining people and really helping grow the service . I remember they would come to me and say, Adi, you're going to be a tech millionaire, but I vote here every day, and I get paid thousands of dollars online. But I also want to be a partner. I want to get stock options. I hope to grow with this service. So it's not just revenue share.

These people are asking questions which leads us to consider a fairer way to reward all contributors to the network, not just are potential founders and investors.

So, in 2007, our team launched this Props, allowing any company to issue loyalty tokens, leading to mass adoption. Props provide users with more than a utility token, but a token of scarcity that provides wealth to stay in the network they help grow. Not only does it turn users into loyal users, but business partners of these apps, and those apps that use Props, reward their users with the Props protocol.

So they go to the market to distribute Props tokens through participating applications. For example, companies and applications like Gee and James. As of now, we have 6 apps joining the network, 4 of which are live, and over 7 million users using Props.

Gee Chuang: I was talking about the The Snowshoes story mentions Listia a bit, but the real idea is that it started out as a platform where you can give away things you don't need. Not even a real marketplace, just a free platform. Shortly after that, we realized that when you give something, we want to give you some kind of game application, some kind of scoring system is even more important, which should be used to reflect: the more you give, the more you get more and more.

This is how we introduce the concept of points. Back then it was called credits. We don't see it as a money or a currency, more of a social accounting mechanism, encouraging people to donate stuff, if you will. Make it simple so that people don't have to pay too much for things they might want. Then it developed into a trading system and the currency was formally formed.

Anyway, now on Listia you can see all kinds of goods, both used and new of. People really like buying and selling. And our APP Token, which is very interesting.

Moderator: We know that Listia has now integrated with Props All in one. What does this cooperation mean to both parties? What have you achieved?

< span style="font-weight: bold;">Adi Sideman: First of all, thanks to Gee and partner James for joining Props and believing in this project. Our backgrounds are all from the media. Most of the applications on the Props network are media and video, even Listia's deployment and success is in the marketplace and e-commerce ties. This is very important, which shows that Props makes everyone's communication vertically effective, beneficial to consumer engagement, and can reward their loyalty. It also proves that this model has a great influence on us.

Gee Chuang:We are also very happy can cooperate with you. Let's take a look at the integral of these Props. So far, Props has really worked well for our community and our product listings, both on the website and our ios and android apps. I'm totally into it. It's been a few months now and users are really enjoying earning Props. Users who earn and hold Props can enjoy discounts, rewards with in-app currency, and further incentive income for completing surveys and tasks. As user Props revenue grows, so do discounts and gains in in-app currency.

We had a similar mechanism before, but the user regarded it more as a game, now after adding Props this mechanism Got a good play. Users can improve their level and also earn more currency in this network. After being on Props for a while, our engagement has actually gone up so much that Listia has seen a 10% increase in revenue in two months since launching Props. User engagement has also improved even more. People are buying more, they're taking more actions, selling items because they're earning Props.

Moderator: From your perspective as a partner Look, what do you think of Props? How would you describe it, what is its future?

Gee Chuang: I think like a lot of other apps, including Starbucks, all types of businesses. They have the concept of loyalty points. Games have concepts of experience, points, and levels. We always try to incorporate that into the product and make it fun. They are largely superficial. So you can show off your status, but nothing else.

Props are really a game changer, I think in this area, not only do users have benefit from the network. But also like real, tangible bonuses and perks every day. You can imagine that at Starbucks, you can get discounts or free coffee, but the more you use it, the bigger and bigger your position in the entire network. You can use these props in other applications and services. I think it's a long-term vision. For us, this is really unique.

So I think they are well positioned to take over the space in terms of technology, product and innovation. It's easy to fit in as a partner. We really appreciate having some blockchain experts on our team. I know, a lot of Web 2 companies really don't do that.

The Props team has really done a good job, allowing non-blockchain practitioners and users to accept this technology and related Products become easy, and these kinds of technologies can easily integrate these all into their platforms. You don't need any budgeting knowledge. That's really a huge benefit. When we talk about blockchain adoption, it's adopted.

Moderator: How is Props’s native token economic model designed? The role of Props token holders and What is the role?

Adi Sideman: This is the real reason for supporting the value of Props, more applications and more The utility joins the network. We aspire to be the first in the market and seize this opportunity by providing tools. As she puts it, enabling existing web 2.0 people to easily deploy tokens in their applications without writing any blockchain code.

Moderator: Props is upgrading to the next version, So can you share more details about the upgrade? What are the most anticipated parts of the new version?

Adi Sideman:We are really excited about some optimizations, especially management, token holders can stake, not only earn Props tokens, but also to determine the rewards for using these apps on a daily basis. A predictive model that determines how props move from protocol to application. This is a very important update. We will also launch a portal where token holders can evaluate all the apps they are going to join and those who want to join.

Finally, we mentioned that part of our entry into the market is to introduce Web 2.0 users and developers, who are interested in block Chain knows nothing. We're developing tools that will make it easy for those Web 2.0 applications to be like the other services they're used to. So this is the main direction of development efforts. We have released some tools on existing platforms this month, and the rest will be deployed throughout 2021.

Moderator: Before entering the blockchain field, You are all successful web2.0 entrepreneurs. Would you like to share some experience of successfully applying blockchain in the traditional Internet industry?

Adi Sideman: As Gee said, try to establish long-term fundamentals, not short-term gains, be honest and transparent with your users, your partners, your community, your customers, and listen to the market and users feedback. Since a product is always a work in progress with developers, working with your users will yield the best results moving forward. So no matter what industry we're in, we're trying to make a living out of it and of course that applies to Props as well.

Gee Chuang:If you want More of a technical description, it's actually talking about what a product market says. So, this lesson, we keep learning. Even now, do you think you have a great idea and people will care. Do you think it will solve the problem? Build quickly, iterate, launch. But nobody uses it. That's what will prove that it only really matters if you're building something that people actually want to use. There are many methods, different research methods. Or like I said before, you build it, iterate and test, and that's a very effective way to get a product to market. The key is not to lie to yourself.

When you tie that into the blockchain, I think it's almost doubly important. Blockchain is an amazing technology, builders and hackers alike, we love it. It's easy to get into a mode of trying to apply technology.

Maybe a blockchain is not needed here. No blockchain is needed here. You don't need tokens here and there. We keep trying because we love this technology. So I think our advice is to just take a step back and make sure you're solving some kind of real problem with this technology. That's the most successful thing you'll find, not playing around with technology.

Moderator: Do you have any plans to go overseas ? When can investors trade tokens?

Adi Sideman:We expect to be listed on Asian and international trading platforms in the near future. I'm very excited that our millions of users will finally be able to more easily showcase their work through the Props Network. I'm not just making money. This is a big deal for us. We expect to officially announce the exact timeline this month.

Moderator: Is there anything else you want to say Did the Chinese community users say it? Do Gee Chuang have plans to enter the Chinese market? Or any plans related to the Chinese market?

Adi Sideman: First of all, thank you very much. Thank you for trusting us over the years. Thank you for taking the time today to get an update. We come from a traditional venture capital environment. We hope that the communication with you can get better and better. You may have noticed this year that in order to strengthen communication with Chinese universities, we have hired some colleagues in China and members of the Chinese community.

We intend to continue to translate everything we do into Mandarin and maintain transparency over time.

Gee Chuang:Yes. This year, mainly in the United States and some in Canada began to transfer to Europe. We have always wanted to enter the Asian market. I guess it's more a question of resources and time than just desire. So we hope to be able to enter this market and bring this concept of free buying and selling and trade to China and the entire Asian region.

So I'm not sure when that's going to happen, I guess as Props grow on this network, Especially if Props appear more and more in China, this may also become a lot easier.

Moderator: I have some additional questions , what is loyalty capital and how is it different from traditional equity capital?

Adi Sideman: The origin of user capital is that users participate in valuable actions and help an application network grow, thereby obtaining user capital. Users do not invest in buying equity, but earn user capital through participation. This process can be creating content, planning content, being a moderator, spending money, being a seller in the market or an online car-hailing driver, etc.

It is not equity in the traditional sense - because it is not a share of profits and assets. It is a new asset whose value is realized through the financial value of the utility that the company makes available to token holders. Just like Ethereum is not "Ethereum's equity", but an ability to access the Ethereum network and participate in its governance.

It should be regarded as a joint venture between the application and the user, as an independent entity.

Moderator: In June 2019, Props won the SEC RegA+ exemption, how does SEC compliance affect Props? How do you see the impact of compliance on the development of the blockchain industry?

Adi Sideman: By getting a waiver from the SEC -- we cleared legal concerns in the US. But it doesn’t stop there – since the Props protocol is targeting existing Web 2.0 companies with millions of dollars in revenue that don’t want to introduce risk, SEC approval is key to getting them on board with crypto projects in the US.

We also hope that regulators will adapt to this new technology and provide businesses with a path to move forward and innovate, we Think we've heard that from Chairman Clayton and others over the past few weeks.

So once the bad actors are dealt with -- I would expect the environment to be more supportive in the US and globally.

Moderator: Props has two KOL investors: Casey Neistat and Phil Defranco, they both have over 10 million subscribers on Youtube, why would they choose Props?

Adi Sideman: They’re mavericks, they think outside the box, and you see them making videos a lot. They themselves are looking for business partners, their partners on the blockchain platform, and projects like Props. This is commitment. We are very excited about their investment and participation.

Moderator: Props has many world-renowned investors , such as USV, Combast, CoinFund, etc. How do they rate Props?

Adi Sideman : I think very few programs are really reaching the average consumer these days. By definition, most blockchain projects target crypto enthusiasts, the 1% who know how to use a wallet. I think one of the most exciting aspects of Props is that we're gaining market share with regular users, and we're bringing those users into the blockchain world. I think we're going to see more and more of this happening, more and more projects making progress in this direction and starting to happen. This is a very, very promising direction. Simplify the world for those users. So adoption is of course the number one concern for our investors.

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