The month of November was an eventful one for the team here at BlockCAT. We went live on Radar Relay, launched a new website, combated some fake news, hired two developers, a full-time lawyer and a community manager.

BlockCAT: Week One

You might notice the tone of these updates has changed ever-so-slightly. That’s because from here on out the weekly Community update, as well as the communication through all of our main channels, will be handled by me — your new Community Manager. 👋

Meet Justin.

I’ll be responsible for building out our presence in the community and collecting feedback about how we can make our product even better.

My experience lies in building vibrant communities for some of Canada’s most prominent tech and e-commerce companies. I have a huge passion for emerging technology; including AI, automation — and you guessed it — blockchain. I’m a big believer in what Eric and the team here at BlockCAT are doing, which is why I moved 4000km just to join the company.

Feel free to connect with me directly on LinkedIn or Twitter, or jump into our Discord channel and chat with me there.

Why BlockCAT?

Let’s be real here: there are a lot of shady companies in the blockchain space. Stories of teams disappearing after successful ICO’s and scam coins run prevalent throughout our industry. It can be difficult to know who you can trust and who’s just in it for a quick buck.

When I met Eric and the team back in October, what became immediately obvious to me was how passionate they were about the mechanics behind blockchain — and how dedicated they were to building a long-term, sustainable company by offering a no-fuss solution that allows anyone to take advantage of this technology, regardless of their technical aptitude.

Breaking down the barriers of adoption and bringing this technology to the masses will take time, patience and lots of groundwork. Rest assured, BlockCAT is 100% committed to this vision. We’re in it for the long haul.

The team here is laying the foundation for long-term success, which requires us to solve complex problems in addition to building software, including:

Hiring lawyers, business consultants and administration staff

Utilizing local and provincial networks, including tech accelerators

Working with regulators such as the BCSC and Fintrac to ensure compliance

Building connections with leaders in academia and blockchain research

Constructing employee onboarding programs and career paths

Not only do I foresee BlockCAT becoming a leader in this space, but I believe we’ll achieve this while setting a positive example for blockchain-based startups, both in Canada and around the world.

This is something I’m very excited to be a part of.

Beta Update

Now for the stuff you really care about.

We’re moving full steam ahead towards the launch of our beta in the coming weeks. To reiterate what was covered here, our beta will be focused on visual contract simulations. This is an exciting chance for us to connect directly with our Community to test the product, solicit feedback, develop iterations and finalize the UI — ultimately creating piece of software that works extremely well for everyones needs.

Once we’ve completed this cycle, we’ll deploy live versions of the contracts that interact with the blockchain.

Contract Numero Uno

Our first contract simulation will be the ERC20 token creation. This contract will generate a brand new token that conforms to the ERC20 standard. It will come with a series of configurable options.

Configurations

• Name

• Description

• Decimals (how many decimal places the token has)

• Ticker/symbol (typically 3–5 letters)

• Initial supply (how many tokens exist upon creation)

• Fixed Supply (can new tokens be created in the future, or is the supply fixed?)

• Creator supply (what percentage of tokens are held by the creator?)

In addition to the basic config, we’re excited to announce the ability to activate preset functions for the token. This will make managing your token distribution much easier, or allow you to add extra features to the token.

Preset Functions

Note: This list is not final and some functions may be added or removed.

• Time Locked (tokens locked until a fixed date, before they can be withdrawn)

• Auto Distribution (allows the contract to distribute the initial supply to specified addresses)

• Transaction Fee (when enabled, a transaction fee is taken for every token transfer and paid to the creator)

• Metadata (attach Metadata to tokens, such as a file hash)

• Burning (schedule a burning of creator tokens by percentage or specific value)

• Price Floor (allows users to sell the token back to the creator for a specific price)

The ERC20 token contract will also be tied into both our Token Sale and Airdrop contracts when they release later in our Beta. So once you create your token, you’ll then be able to start a sale or schedule an airdrop.

That’s it for this update! Stay tuned until next week, or join our Discord channel to join the ongoing conversation.