Appsolutely Founder Explains How to Do ICOs Right

Appsolutely is a 5-year old company whose expertise is in loyalty programs and analytics. Recently, the company launched a new project – Loyal Coin. During the DTS 2018 Summit, Appsolutely founder Patrick Palacios discussed what it was like to run an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for Loyal Coin.

Loyal Coin is a project built on the NEM blockchain. It is a rewards platform that aims to bring merchants and customers under one rewards system. Any loyal coin you get can from one merchant can be used in other partner merchants. To know more, please check our introductory article on Loyal Coin here.

Loyal Coin ICO Lessons

Have a clear vision for the company

According to Mr. Palacios, you need to offer something unique that maximizes and optimizes the use of the blockchain. Loyal Coin has a clear vision: “Coins/Points that can be redeemed anytime, anywhere, and everywhere”.

Under this very simple and effective slogan, Loyal Coin has reached its hard cap of 4,750,000,000 loyal coins.

Have a clear differentiator

Scroll through Coinmarketcap and you can find hundreds of coin projects which had their initial coin offerings in the past. So what’s the difference between Loyal Coin and majority of the other ICOs? It’s that Loyal Coin has a live, working product already.

Have the right people in the right numbers

In the beginning, Appsolutely was going to build the Loyal Platform on the Ethereum Blockchain. But soon, Mr. Palacios was convinced to build it on the NEM blockchain. (Read More: The NEM Blockchain)

Make sure to comply

To make sure that it will not go into legal trouble, Appsolutely has applied for a license in the Philippines. It also applied for a remittance license in the US.

For us here at Bitpinas, we saw how the company used the word “ICOs” sparingly and instead use the word “Token Generation Event” in many of its promotional materials. Both words are the same. It’s just that “ICO” has a negative connotation to some.

Appsolutely also never promoted its token as a “security”. The Loyal Coin is never a security to begin with. Its purpose is not to appreciate, but to be “used” within the Loyal Platform. Hence, it is a utility coin.

Do grassroots campaign

You can check Loyal Coin’s social media accounts, and you can see that they have been everywhere. From Manila to Tokyo and the US. Mr. Palacios noted how their events in the US have garnered a positive response from their audience.

Build and appreciate the community

Loyal Coin has a solid Telegram channel. Telegram is a messaging app like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. It is natural that majority of the crypto projects have a Telegram channel because this app is encrypted, which means messages are private. As you know, privacy is valued by the crypto community.

Through the Telegram channel and Loyal Coin’s other social networking sites, the company has been sharing any milestone that it achieves.

Be strict and fair in making decisions

During Loyal Coin’s token generation event, bitcoin’s price is so volatile, to the point that it reached almost $20,000 in December. Because of that, the company decided to give more loyal coins per BTC exchanged.

This, however, did not bode well for the early investors. The company then decided to retroactively give more loyal coins to them. Mr. Palacios noted that they lost millions worth of coins due to the transaction, but it’s okay because it’s a fair decision.

Overall

At the moment, Loyal Coin is probably one of the few notable successful Filipino ICO. Right now, the company is busy distributing all the coins, which will be a requirement before it can get listed on major exchanges.

Also, all roads lead to Boracay as Appsolutely and NEM Philippines organize “Boracay Beach Blockchain Conference”. The event will happen on May 10 – 11, 2018 at the Henann Regency Resort and Spa on Boracay, Philippines.