This series, Tenant Talks, introduces the companies that make up our vibrant, growing community by exploring their projects and what they are getting up to in Primalbase offices around the world.

Waves is a company we work with closely. Primalbase’s token is built on top of their platform and the events they put on are often held in our offices. They are a fantastic asset to our global community and have really embraced our project to create a thriving network of hubs for those working in tech.

We spoke with Alexander Kolupaev, Communications Manager and Coordinator of the Waves Platform Ambassadors Programme, about what the company is up to and how working alongside other tech companies in our offices has helped them as they’ve expanded.

Making Waves in Blockchain

The past year or so has been a period of rapid growth for the Waves platform. The Waves Dex has seen continuous growth since its release in April 2017, and in one week this June it registered roughly 250,000 transactions.

There are several reasons for this. Firstly, it makes the tokenisation of anything really easy. “You can launch a token in under a minute, and once it’s launched it’s automatically listed on the decentralised exchange that we have,” Alexander told us. “It’s convenient because when most businesses projects launch their token sale, they create the tokens, but then they have to list them on exchanges.

“Many centralised exchanges charge ridiculous listing fees, and they’re also still not all that secure. […] You launch your token [on Waves] and it is automatically listed on a decentralised exchange, which is highly secure and efficient. It’s also as fast as centralised exchanges.”

On top of this, transactions are cheap, it is a scalable tool and its use cases are growing. Alexander explained to us that the company is working on the implementation of both non-Turing complete and Turing complete smart contracts, as well as a permissioned, private blockchain called Vostok, which is tailored for governments and institutions.

“There are a few things that we are working on right now, he said. “First of all, the implementation of smart contracts — that should come out by the end of the summer. It’s already on the test net, and it’s going to go live on the main net.

“We’re rolling smart contracts out in two stages. First are the more simple, non-Turing complete smart contracts that you can’t do complex logic with, but you can cover most of the use cases, like multi-signature wallets and atomic swaps.

“Then, later this year, we will be releasing Turing complete smart contracts. These are similar to Ethereum smart contracts, so you can build decentralised applications on top of it, because Turing complete smart contracts allow you to implement complex, multi-step logic.”

Manna From Heaven

Airdrops are one of the things that Waves is a very efficient tool for. Alexander explains that “if you launch a product and you want to instantly get a user base in crypto then it’s a really effective marketing tool to airdrop some tokens to users who already use the Waves wallet. They will be like, ‘Oh, I got these tokens airdropped to my wallet, so I might as well check out what the project is, what the product does, and use those tokens.’

“Because the Waves blockchain technology is highly scalable and transactions are very cheap, it costs barely anything to do airdrops. You can distribute tokens to, say, 5000 wallets in a matter of minutes, with very little fees.”

A Tidal Wave Approaches

Waves’ success means it is having to scale rapidly, and they are now approaching 100 employees. This is one of the great things about shared office spaces, Alexander notes — they can easily scale up or down as suits them, and because it’s a global network, they can do so anywhere in the world.

One thing we are proud of at Primalbase is our growing global network of offices in all the world’s major hubs. With spaces in London, New York and Singapore scheduled to open this year, on top of our existing offices in Amsterdam and Berlin, we are gradually building a presence everywhere the tech community needs us to be.

Primalbase tokens can be used across our different locations. For Alexander and Waves, it’s this flexibility that immediately comes to mind when discussing Primalbase.

“It’s especially good to set up meetings there,” Alexander says. “Mostly we use the office for for events and meetings. I’m based in the Amsterdam office, but I don’t usually work from there on a daily basis because I travel a lot. The fact that Primalbase has multiple locations is convenient because I very often take trips and it’s always nice to have you know a space that you can just go to and work from, or schedule meetings with clients and partners. This also enables collaboration on a global scale.”

“It’s also great that there are other tech companies because you get to learn about interesting projects,” Alexander continues. “It facilitates collaboration a lot because you exchange ideas and meet people and share contacts. Everyone is really enthusiastic and welcoming because of the startup nature of the different companies, and they’re real tech people so they love what they do.

“You also meet all kinds of people. Technical, developers, and people who are working on projects that are based on the Waves platform as well. It creates a really positive, energised environment that’s really great for getting things done.”

A Great Use-Case for Blockchain

Primalbase is also one of the first actual real-world examples of a token-based system in action. “It’s a really good use case,” Alexander explains. “The fact that Primalbase did their token sale and run their platform on top of the Waves platform provides, for Waves as a company, a good asset in terms of showcasing the capabilities of the platform. There aren’t yet so many actual working businesses who have business models that are based on blockchain.”

Being Part of The Community

Alexander also spoke about another of Primalbase’s key commitments: cutting-edge events. “I also think it’s really good that Primalbase is open to hosting events,” he says. “They do it really well in collaboration with another company in our office, Binary District. At least in the Amsterdam office where I’m based, it’s becoming one of those ‘go to’ places if you want to do an event. Especially if the event is related to blockchain.

“They’re open to blockchain, they know about blockchain, so it’s easier to find common ground. We hosted some events at their office space in Amsterdam and every time it went really well — in terms of technical equipment and organisation, the team at Primalbase Amsterdam is really on top of things.”

If you’re interested in seeing one of our spaces for yourself, you can either check out a coming event hosted in our offices or just show up for a tour. We’d be delighted to show you around and help you get a feel for why our tenants value our spaces so highly. Drop us an email at amsterdam@primalbase.com to book a viewing or find out more about renting a space.

You can read more in our Tenant Talks series here