A remodeled incentive structure for community-driven brand awareness

The AmaZix bounty programs are being redesigned

Looking back on the past year, we at AmaZix count ourselves fortunate to have been associated with some of the most successful names in blockchain and crypto-related startups.

Beginning with Bancor and Stox in mid-2017, AmaZix have been able to replicate crowdfunding success stories with almost 100 partners in the industry, generating the public interest and capital necessary to put so many brilliant ideas into motion.

The credit, of course, belongs with the communities that came together to support our partners — people who helped spread the word, people who brought discussions into the open, attracting others within their networks to back these projects.

Our communities are incredibly diverse in membership. They are crypto enthusiasts, believers of decentralized technologies, venture capitalists, blockchain advocates and mainstream investors, of a truly global nature with natural access into localized networks that would otherwise be out of our reach.

It is in recognition of this that the AmaZix-managed bounty programs are now called Community Rewards. The change is not merely cosmetic: Community Rewards will better reflect an aim to provide both a rewarding, safer experience for communities as well as better value for our partners.

Community Rewards: what you need to know

The following points sum up the changes and implications of the new Community Rewards, with immediate effect:

1. All bounty programs will now be called Community Rewards.

2. Rewards cannot be established as a function of raised funds.

Essentially, this means that participants can no longer be rewarded based on or dependent on the money raised during a crowdfund, token sale or coin offering, as this would be perceived as participants being “on a commission”.

As such, reward allocations will need to be a fixed amount that is affordable for the partner, regardless of crowdfund performance.

3. Social media will no longer be part of Community Rewards.

Most social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, have updated their Terms and Conditions so that it is no longer permissible to promote a business from a private or personal profile. In addition, both these platforms have banned paid advertising for ICOs. Hence, social media can not be used to participate in Community Rewards.

4. All participants must pass KYC requirements.

All money transmissions, including cryptocurrency, are now subject to the same KYC/AML requirements as financial transactions and, therefore, all parties to transactions must now be identified.

5. Participation in content creation will now be by invitation only.

Previously, there were two tiers in content creation: general and VIP. Owing to the resource-heavy management of the general tier, we are now reprioritizing resources to solely to the VIP tier, for which participation will be invite only. Since more resourced will be allocated to the VIP tier, we will be opening more spots for quality content creators.

Why these changes are made

The decision to introduce these changes did not come lightly, although ongoing developments and persisting uncertainties of the international regulatory landscape have forced us to bring these changes more quickly.

A paradigm shift in the crypto sphere and mitigation of risk

Cryptocurrency has made great strides in the decade since its introduction, with sweeping changes taking place around the world with regards to recognition and acceptance. Beginning with governments in the Far East recognizing cryptocurrency as legal tender and, more recently, the European Union recognizing cryptocurrency as a means of payment subject to the same regulatory requirements as conventional financial transactions, cryptocurrency is beginning to achieve legitimacy in the traditional financial structure.

While this is widely perceived as a positive development, this also means that cryptocurrency users and businesses must now adapt to that recognition. Many uncertainties remain as to how crypto — along with their emerging blockchain-based tools of venture capital like ICOs — will eventually co-exist, if not supplant, their conventional counterparts. However, it is clear that compliance with AML/KYC and data privacy must be addressed.

As such, the changes we are introducing, such as disassociating from social media and asking participants to conduct KYC, are designed to allow for a seamless transition towards legitimacy and to preempt upcoming requirements. At the same time, we continue to maintain some activities such as Telegram advertising and signature campaigns, which are not considered as non-compliant from a regulation perspective.

A paradigm shift is coming, and we must be ready for it.

Prioritization of value

Much has been said about the value of previous community-driven activities that promote new projects. Communities themselves have sometimes been blamed when projects are able to boast of huge followings in social media and widespread coverage in online communities, yet flounder at the crowdfund stage, attracting little financial interest during token sales or coin offerings.

We at AmaZix believe in the organic power of communities to propel a project into mainstream consciousness. We believe that the projects that engage the most via their communities, that are recognized the most among a proliferating crowd of new ideas, will be the ones who have the best chance of translating awareness into crowdfunding success.

We do not believe that Community Rewards are without value. On the other hand, we know that they have proven value, when we detach from the low-quality content now generally associated with previous bounty programs.

But we also recognize that vast resources are required to properly manage huge participation, and also recognize that rewards must better commensurate quality engagement, quality outreach, quality content. For example, the general tier for content creation was an area AmaZix devoted huge resources to, only to discover that only a small section of submissions generated satisfactory levels of quality. The majority of participants in the general tier displayed a general lack of understanding of projects. Other than the misinformation or poorly communicated messages, these are present significant reputational damage to our partners.

With this in mind, we have decided to only focus on VIP participants and professional translators for content creation. Since these are characterized by a high level of understanding of projects, a willing and listening audience at their disposal and credibility, we see this as an area that would benefit greatly from repurposed resources.

The AmaZix commitment to value

We understand that these measures are not completely in line with our previous conversations and we can expect disappointment with some of them. However, we are making these changes in the interest of providing true value to our partners and true value to their communities, while safeguarding the interest of both in uncertain regulatory climates. As such, we believe it is better to err on the side of caution.

AmaZix provides the highest level of paid services and we feel it is only right that partners and communities receive the highest levels of quality of returns. We feel privileged to have the trust of so many in our work, and we want to continue to lead the way in effective community management and engagement, while keeping in compliance as cryptocurrency continues its path towards legitimization.

We ask for your understanding, support and continued trust as we make these changes, and to remain confident that our top priority is to build up successful businesses together in line with all regulatory frameworks.