On 3/24/2023 there was an AMA with Alienswap representative Sophia!
In this article we will present the text version of the AMA. We'll tell you what interesting things we learned and what we talked about!
1. Tell us about your experience and how you got into AlienSwap, what are you responsible for?
Sophia:
Thank you all guys. I'm grateful to Ren and all the members of the Harecrypta and AlienSwap community for inviting me here. It brings me great joy to be a part of this community. I am Sophie, partnership lead and builder of AlienSwap. I used to be responsible for the Overseas Listing Operation in OKX, and have been involved in the operation of more than 200 listing projects.
OKX Ventures has invested in AlienSwap in the seed round financing. We all recognize the enormous potential and explosiveness of the NFT track in the next bull market. We are also firmly committed to the prospects of building a multi-functional comprehensive NFT trading platform. Our team members are all highly capable and have years of experience in the blockchain industry. That’s why I made the resolute decision to join the AlienSwap team.
Currently, my main responsibility at AlienSwap is business development, which includes collaborating with project teams, channel partners, and KOLs. Additionally, I am involved in marketing efforts to expand AlienSwap’s network and connect existing resources with more projects in need of assistance.
2. What are the most important and immediate goals for Alienswap in 2023? If you had a list of the top three key performance metrics, what would they be?
Sofia:
Now, AlienSwap is one of the top 3-5 NFT marketplaces and aggregators on Ethereum.
We are definitely sure that we will enter the top 3 NFT marketplace at the end of March among OpenSea, Blur. It is very hopeful that we will grow to a 1 billion $ unicorn platform this year.
Speaking of performance, there are 4 key metrics i would like to share then:
AlienSwap ranks among the top 3 in daily trading volume on Ethereum, just behind Opensea and Blur.
Its daily trading volume is 2-4 times that of x2y2 and LookRare marketplaces.
It also ranks in the top 5 for daily trading volume on Ethereum, with more than 20 days in the past 30 days in this position.
Currently, AlienSwap has over 560,000 Ethereum wallet addresses connected to it.
Since its launch on January 11th, AlienSwap has had a cumulative trading volume of over 15,000 ETH, or $25 million, with a highest daily trading volume of $2.7 million. AlienSwap is one of the top 3-5 NFT marketplaces and aggregators on Ethereum.
3. Why does AlienSwap want to enter the NFT trading market circuit?
Sofia:
The NFT market is experiencing rapid growth, with a total market value of $16.972 billion as of June 1, 2022, representing a remarkable 533-fold increase from two years ago. Although the trading volume and total market value have declined since the market entered a bearish phase, we should not underestimate the potential of the NFT market.
As the market continues to expand, demand is growing exponentially on both the supply and demand sides.
From the creators’ perspective, serving them better on the supply side involves addressing a variety of derivative demands, such as royalties, improved community management and interaction, and project certification.
From the demand side, including the community and users, their demand is clear like «faster, lower costs, more money», so how to improve transaction efficiency and liquidity, help users save fees, and gas costs, and around the discovery of high-quality NFT products, these are the special concerns of the demand side. The community needs a better and faster NFT market that can meet the new needs of the community.
In terms of market share, OpenSea has accounted for 80%-90% of the market in the past, which proves that the current competition is not enough. The development of any industry is mature, accompanied by more healthy competition.
In the long run, if OpenSea’s market share drops to 30%-50% in the future and more competitive markets emerge to share more than half of the market, then the whole ecosystem will be healthier and the ceiling will be higher. This trend has already been seen at present.
From the team’s DNA, we are a team that is good at building trading platforms as well as users’ growth. So, why not? AlienSwap wants to create more communities, and better use of the NFT market in the NFT market to stand out. You can think of us as an 1 inch of NFT.
4. Who are our strategic partners and investors? What benefits do we get from those relationships? And do we have any plans to leverage these partnerships?
Sofia:
AlienSwap was also lucky to get investments in the seed round, including OKX Ventures, Arpa Network, Mission Street Ventures, BIP32 Venture, Kryptos Research, BMAN@ABCDE, Richard Wang@Draper Dragon, and other institutional and individual investments.
We have a large amount of Web2 film and celebrity IP resources, including the iP authorization of the science fiction blockbuster The Wandering Earth with the highest box office in China, the full authorization of all novels and comics of the most well-known sci-fi writer Liu Cixin, and the IP authorization for the new film «Omebo» by the writer of «Love, Death and Robots». They will all enter Web3 to issue NFTs and have exclusive cooperation with AlienSwap.
5. What is the focus of the AlienSwap platform? What will be the main differences and advantages compared to existing NFT platforms?
Sofia:
AlienSwap is truly an NFT marketplace built for the community, and an innovative one. There are three factors, which are our differentiated competitiveness:
- 1. Innovation of mechanics and gameplay. AlienSwap has a lot of innovative mechanics including an upcoming membership referral system and royalty innovations, and we are confident that the NFT community will vote for us. We think from the perspective of the community and the user. Institutional innovation is truly what the market needs now. The industry desperately needs new forces, and they are emerging all the time, which is part of the allure of the industry.
- 2. The first principle of AlienSwap’s product innovation is to meet the user demands in the NFT market, and our community drives us to fulfill the unsatisfied needs of the current NFT market and execute rapidly. So AlienSwap is more like an inch of the NFT market, and we have our competition. The first to bring social e-commerce gameplay to the NFT market circuit. Users familiar with social e-commerce know the power and spread of membership and social e-commerce. AlienSwap is the first membership-based NFT marketplace, and Beta will bring out the AlienSwap Pass and Referral plan.
- 3. Community co-building and sharing. AlienSwap is a community NFT marketplace, which means that all community members and traders can truly own AlienSwap.
AlienSwap has its own LaunchPad and Pass NFT, which is a significant difference between us and Blur/OpenSea. We are more like the NFT Binance, while they are more like Coinbase. We will continue to launch new, high-quality NFT assets.
6. Recently, Blur has been gaining momentum, and does AlienSwap ever consider how to be outstanding in the NFT trading market？
Sofia:
In the last month, Blur’s market trading volume was close to $550 million, more than five times that of OpenSea during the same period ($96 million). In the overall improvement of the crypto market, Blur has also launched native tokens, creating a benchmark model for the potential and ceiling of the entire NFT market.
BLUR’s innovative Bid mode has activated the liquidity of NFT projects, making the prices and trading volumes of many NFT projects significantly rise, while providing token rewards for the liquidity of the platform’s users, making it stand out from the NFT market. According to current NFT market trading distribution data, most of Blur’s trading volume comes from 500 wallets, attracting many traders and high-value transactions, but most retail investors are still using OpenSea.
However, from AlienSwap’s point of view, NFT represents culture. Creators are the lifeblood of the NFT field, and without them, we are nothing. Therefore, while the market is expanding, AlienSwap has been thinking about how to sustainably balance the relationship and interests between creators, communities, and platforms. We believe that the key competitive advantage of the NFT trading market will be how to balance the relationship and interests between creators and communities with a good community atmosphere. This is also the key point we will focus on. Our positioning is not a tool/transactional Marketplace, but a community-based platform that understands users better.
7. We have noticed that the ongoing AlienSwap Loyalty Rewards is gaining popularity among users! Could you please provide more information about the activity and how to properly claim the rewards?
Sofia:
Sure thing! First, you need to know what Power Stone is. Power Stones are loyalty score rewards for NFT people. The more power stones you earn, the higher loyalty you have, and it means that you will have a higher airdrop weight.
In order to get Power Stone, you need to participate in the Power Stone Challenge, including 3 Loyalty Challenges and 3 Special Rewards. Users can list or buy Collections on AlienSwap to earn power stones. They can also submit a product suggestion or post high-quality tweets or reports about AlienSwap. We will select from all participants who submit the form, and the top 100 suggestions with the highest quality will be adopted and rewarded.
AlienSwap always encourages high-quality community participation, including higher-quality real listings and trading.
8. What specific measures are you taking to ensure the decentralization of development and decision-making on the AlienSwap platform, to prevent the emergence of centralized control points and to guarantee the independence and autonomy of the community in the development and management of the project?
Sofia:
This is a really good question! At the very beginning of the establishment, AlienSwap firmly believed in our policy of taking a mass-oriented approach.
We Aliens build. All community members experience, trade, communicate and improve on AlienSwap, and the community makes AlienSwap stronger.
We Aliens share. All members of the community share 100% of AlienSwap’s protocol revenues, trading rewards, staking rewards, and membership rewards.
I believe all users who have traded, listed, and joined the campaign like Mystery box/AlienVerse badge/Loyalty Rewards on AlienSwap platform have felt the community-oriented operating philosophy. Especially for the Loyalty Rewards campaign that is being carried out in full swing encourages users to deeply experience the Alienswap’s functions and products, and we are open to all users to provide suggestions. For example, page optimization is being taken into consideration. We are currently optimizing a new version of the product page with significantly improved visual effects. Based on user feedback, we will also introduce a more user-friendly contract interaction experience.
9. As the NFT ecosystem continues to develop, zero or low fee markets continue to emerge, and many creators are facing a decrease in royalty income from secondary sales in the «royalty war». Can you talk about AlienSwap’s views on how NFT creators should deal with the decline in royalties? And what strategies are being or may be adopted?
Sofia:
As the NFT market continues to experience rapid growth, creators have become an essential part of the ecosystem, injecting it with an abundance of creativity and vitality through their unique digital assets. However, with rapid growth and change in the market, new challenges have arisen for creators. Therefore, to better adapt to market changes and promote healthy and sustainable development,
Firstly, creators should adopt a long-term perspective and view their works as long-term value investments rather than short-term profit sources. This is essential to maintaining the stability of their works’ value and the continuous development of the community.
Secondly, high royalties are not conducive to the long-term development of the community, as they may weaken interaction and trust between creators and their communities, and lower the community’s vitality. Instead, low royalties, high liquidity, and long-term operation measures are beneficial to the growth and development of the community, enabling more funds to flow back to creators and their communities.
Moreover, we should also focus on long-term project operation and community growth. This means keeping a close eye on the community, constantly introducing new features and services to improve user experience and participation. Additionally, it also requires the establishment of sound community governance mechanisms, allowing community members to participate in decision-making and management, thereby building a more stable and reliable community ecosystem.
Finally, royalties should also be community-oriented, with more profits flowing back to creators and their communities to foster shared growth and prosperity. This can be achieved through community-oriented royalties, incentive plans, and the establishment of DAOs. Only by sharing the benefits of the NFT market with creators and their communities can the entire ecosystem be healthier and more sustainable.
In summary, these principles and concepts will help creators and communities better adapt to market changes, promote the healthy and sustainable development of the NFT market, and bring a brighter and better future to the entire blockchain industry.
10. What else would you like to say to the community?
Sofia:
These are still early days for the NFT market and AlienSwap, and we want to attract truly passionate builders to join us in the next chapter of the NFT market.
There is no one answer to the NFT market. There are better alternatives. It will be community driven. We are not alone! In the meantime, I would like to share with you the following three principles within our team:
- 1. Do the right thing. Although it is hard, it’s right to do the hard things!
- 2. Always stand with the community, come from the community, take the mass line.
- 3. Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words.
Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to the community users. The AMA session has been longer than we thought, and I am touched that everyone has persevered and stayed with us throughout. Thank you for your continuous support.
Translation author: love mushroom
