Our third quarter focused on the build-up to significant, explosive traction. Now we’re seeing that traction snowballing in our Tael mainstream consumer adoption statistics.

Highlights:

Statistics below are taken directly from our Tael Adoption page: https://adoption.taelpay.com/

Q3 in numbers

Over the course of Q3, we increased from 9,334 to 14,236 non-crypto holders (we often call our users “mothers” as 70% of our users are women with children). This growth was largely driven by word-of-mouth user recommendations.

With the average number of tokens held by non-crypto users being 48 Tael, this means that roughly 4,902 x 48 = 235,296 more Tael were locked during Q3. This is about 0.24% of Tael’s total supply.

Beginning Q4 in numbers

Q4 kicked off with an on-going marketing campaign in collaboration with Key Opinion Leaders on China’s most popular streaming and social applications. The results have been profound.

In the month of October alone, over 6,352 additional consumers joined the Tael Ecosystem, purchasing blockchain-protected products while using Tael tokens, bringing us to over 20,000 active non-crypto holders.

This means that this first month of Q4 saw an estimated 6,352 x 48 = 304,896 extra Tael locked in consumers’ wallets, exclusively for product purchases and without the ability to convert on exchanges.

That is 304,896 Tael (0.30% of the total supply) locked in a single month.

This accelerating growth is the result of a concerted effort to build our fundamentals for mass consumer adoption. KOL campaigns will continue to scale as we aim to onboard tens of thousands of users over the coming months.

If you’d like to know more about how impactful non-crypto user growth is on Tael cryptocurrency holders, we highly recommend our ecosystem article: https://blog.taelpay.com/our-ecosystem-detailed-demand-supply/

Press

We’ve recently seen Tael’s founders receive mainstream news coverage from CNN and Q3 also brought crypto news coverage from Altcoin Daily, Chico Crypto, Steven Mostoviy, DataDash and Altcoin Buzz.

Industrial grade

On the technology front, we’ve released an in-depth look at the creation of the Tael anti-counterfeit label, placed on every product in the Tael Ecosystem. We’ve also upgraded our Tael Ecosystem WeChat application to a native WeChat Mini-app, along with a streamlined referral system for growth.

Creating Security: the Tael label. A behind-the-scenes look at the production process of our anti-counterfeit label.

Behind the scenes...

On top of what’s covered in this recap, there are many developments with major partners and additional growth efforts that are not part of the roadmap. We will announce these developments formally as soon as the details are finalized.

We are currently hard at work progressing multiple exchange applications, as well as 'crossing the t's and dotting the i's' on some big clients that will be announced through mainstream news once completed.

Q3 Milestones



Technology

New high-tech labels



Custom-designed labels were created and put to work protecting the Wakatsuru saké bottles that were added to the Tael ecosystem last quarter.









Label prototypes



We prototyped two new technological advancements with our labels. First, metal-shielded labels for much better user experience for products with metallic packaging. Secondly, dual-frequency labels which allow for bulk encoding/reading in the supply chain, but that are still readable by consumer's mobile phones.







On the encoding & reading side of the equation, we have also created a new laser scanning device to improve the efficiency of our warehouse operations.



Blockchain developments



Extensive stress-testing was completed to handle large volumes of transactions. We also improved our multi-user access and data management protocols to improve internal usage.



One exciting blockchain development was the prototyping of smart-contract driven business rules for logistics and distribution control.



Furthermore, we worked extensively on detection of "product opening events". This event triggers when a label is cut and is important both for consumers understanding if someone has tried to open the product, and for our partner's data capture of when their products are opened.



Finally, we have moved to Magento's e-commerce backend to handle the rapidly increasing order volumes on the platform.



Business Development

New partnerships



We partnered with Wakatsuru, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hokuriku Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Ltd. , to enter the alcohol market with their saké products.



The Wellness & Lifestyle product category is another recent addition. Q3 saw us add our first collection of rejuvenating Hyaluronic Acid Ampules and anti-aging micro-needling skin rollers from Dermaroller, with more to come.









Dermaroller skin-care products were the first Wellness & Lifestyle products in the Tael Ecosystem



These products are expensive, meaning that each consumer purchase rewards them with over 100 Tael loyalty tokens - therefore locking up over 100 Tael with a single purchase.



We are exploring opportunities with condoms via the Japanese producer Okamoto, one of the largest suppliers of condoms to China.



We are in the stages of finalising further developments with Japanese offline department stores that we have alluded to previously. This is one of the largest department stores in Asia who we are helping to extend their influence beyond pure on-premise sales, by making their products available to everyone in China.



Our foray into fresh produce has begun with a full partnership announcement to come in the near future.



Diversification across the Asia region has also progressed as we pursue engagements with leading Korean conglomerates.



As we have touched on, new partnerships will be announced as soon as details are finalised and they are ready to be made public.



Expansion beyond the Tael e-commerce platform



Tael now reaches well beyond the TechRock shop. This means, for example, that consumers who shop in a mall or on a different e-commerce platform that has partnered with Tael can still benefit from the safe product ecosystem that we have developed and can earn Tael tokens.



This is another method of deepening the penetration of the Tael ecosystem in markets which are rife with fake products, and for continuing to put our crypto loyalty points in the hands of non-crypto holders.



We have also been testing out offline promotional strategies such as gift cards, another method of converting customers to the Tael ecosystem.









Smart contract review with Kaspersky



We w orked with Kaspersky, the global cybersecurity company, to assess the security of our smart contracts. Their report came out very positive and we continue to explore potential further collaboration.



SIMETRI research report



SIMETRI, the Crypto Briefing research arm, released their report on the Tael ecosystem and ranked us highly. We ranked most highly on our Core Team, Market Opportunity and Ecosystem Development, which we rightly consider vital components of our long-term growth, with Technology and Roadmap Progress only a fraction behind. The full report is available via https://simetri.cryptobriefing.com/. From the report:



"Tael addresses a specific need for authentic goods in a market of over $100B...Tael already boasts a substantial level of adoption and high potential for growth within China"





Product

E-commerce developments



We moved to a Wechat mini-app in order to streamline user experience and ease of referral. This has allowed us to greatly accelerate our adoption rates, especially with regards to the KOL marketing activity that has begun (more on this soon). The prevalence of Wechat in China and the population-wide understanding of how to use mini-apps is very useful for our continued promotion of the platform.



Supporting the Wechat mini-app, an individualized notification system was deployed to inform users of their individual Tael balances and prompt consumers to return to the platform.



Finally, we also set up a price monitoring system to take on large incumbents in the domestic market and ensure we remain price-competitive.



Scanning app



The design of the app was overhauled and we prototyped a new app flow to improve the user's scanning experience. This works to improve ecosystem 'stickiness' (keeping consumers in the ecosystem) and accommodates multi-channel experiences for B2B partners who sell through multiple channels.









The functionality of the app was also expanded so that it will inform the user whether the product has previously been opened or not upon first scan.



Business-to-business offerings



We built and productized a hyperledger-powered solution for anti-counterfeiting, distribution and logistics control, and user insights and engagement to further improve the value proposition of the Tael ecosystem for our partners. This development included stress-testing the hyperledger back-end to ensure that we can manage the huge transaction volumes required for our B2B partners.



With respect to user engagement and insights, w e’ve created a customizable visual dashboard, allowing partner organizations to read and contribute directly to the Tael Ecosystem blockchain. They gain extensive, novel data regarding not only their supply chain but also consumer behavior through our unique anti-counterfeit solution. The picture below uses dummy data for privacy reasons.







Increasing Mainstream Customer Adoption

Start of KOL marketing in China



The current rate of mainstream consumer adoption of Tael is snowballing. Tael not only has the potential to be the world’s most mainstream adopted cryptocurrency, but is well on its way to reaching that goal. KOL marketing is a very valuable tool for driving consumer adoption in China, which continues to push our non-crypto holder numbers ever higher and reduces token supply outside of China.







Mainstream adoption doesn’t happen on the exchanges or in the cryptocurrency subreddits; it happens in daily life. To increase our exposure in the Chinese consumer market, we’ve enlisted the help of Key Opinion Leaders , or influencers, specifically connected to our target audience: young parents in China.







The success of this campaign so far paints a clear road to success and we’ll continue to push for increased awareness through China’s most popular streaming channels.



Our KOL affiliate program is infinitely scalable, so not only is this channel incredibly powerful for converting Chinese consumers to the Tael ecosystem, it can continue to grow alongside us.



Part of this program of work has also been developing our own KOL management system which supports us to scale this program in the future.



Expand portfolio to 500 different products (SKUs)



The Tael Ecosystem’s product portfolio is a curated selection, taking into account a variety of factors including the product’s demand in the Chinese market, product & brand quality, and our ability to safeguard the authenticity of the product. As of right now, over 500 products have been selected, including brands we cannot yet make public.







The process of onboarding these brands and products can sometimes be lengthy, with new product categories requiring substantial amounts of paperwork. These processes bear fruit, however, with Rakuten alone having resulted in over 100 additional products added to the Tael Ecosystem.



On top of the over 260 SKUs currently live in the Tael Ecosystem, we have an additional >250 SKUs in the pipeline. 50 SKUs will arrive and be available to the public over the next 30 days, other SKUs are currently being sourced and labeled.



Add Tael redemption functionality at 3rd party retailers



The scale of this redemption project went well beyond what we initially though was possible and we are excited to see it come into the public domain soon. We will keep the community updated on our progress.



A foundation for this has already been built and it includes some of Asia’s most popular malls.





Community

Revamp website for added clarity



The Taelpay.com website has been a testament to the project’s transparency, showing daily adoption stats of the Tael token and more. However, it lacked a succinct Tael token introduction: how, why and where is it used . Our new website rectifies this, creating a clearer picture of the project for newcomers.



On top of that, we’ve launched the Tael Insider initiative : an in-depth newsletter detailing current leads, collaborations, business developments, and company insights: https://www.taelpay.com/#insider-section



Make sure you join the Tael Insider programme to receive in-depth info on news and developments.









Team growth



Last quarter, 5 new people joined our operations, marketing and dev teams. Now we can move even faster!

Q4 Milestones: Set & Expanded

Our Q4 milestones have been expanded, with five new milestones being added for completion in the next few months.

Technology

Completion of the Dual Frequency Chip upgrade (new addition)

Labels equipped with anti-metal shielding (new addition)

Automatic labelling solution with >10.000 items per day throughput

Revamped Consumer Scanning App Public Release (new addition)

Business Development

Integrate Tael with international shopping malls/payment provider

Additional category expansion: Perishables (new addition)

Sales Network

Expand to 500 cities

Product placement marketing using Tael

Offline marketing in Restaurant & Retail establishments (new addition)

Please note that the roadmap may be subject to change and is based on the information available to us at the time of writing. All changes to the roadmap will be noted and we’ll announce changes as they happen.



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