AMA Session

AMA Session hosted by Lona (SMM of StealthEX)

Lona:

Here's the first question: How do you get other Crypto influencers in this project? What great features do you have that'll make even non Blockchain believers interested?

Ryan:

Great starting point here.

With the current team working for the AKITA community since around March 2021, we have built relationships with many influencers and were able to tap into them for the recent launch of trading of HACHI. These tend to be the “OG” group of influencers with wide networks of meme coin traders, so they can bring a lot of eyes to the project, but these traders aren’t always DYOR/DD/reading white papers. It takes a lot of work to then onboard these new people to our community.

My personal opinion is that influencers only go so far in building a long-term, sustainable community. I feel that we need to continue to develop these relationships with influencers with strong, active communities, while simultaneously directing the Akita DAO to develop new products and use-cases for HACHI and AKITA (eg Staking, grants, bounties, etc.)

We also have a strong community that has built out their own social networks in web3, including CryptoTwitter and DeSo. Artists and graphic designers from the community have contributed almost all of the artwork you see today, and many have suggested that they envision the Akita DAO as having a future program which helps creatives by providing grants or other incentives. Other members have relationships with CEXes, DEXes, and other crypto services, and this is the beauty of the DAO - if we all work together, the sum of our abilities far outweighs what we can accomplish with a centralized, siloed structure.

In this AKITA Ecosystem we are working towards, the Akita DAO will develop products to increase value for AKITA holders, and HACHI holders will help steer that development. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in the future of web3 to get in NOW and start contributing, even if it is just by casting a vote.

This is a fantastic question - I’d say first that Akita DAO does not have a specific partner, but aims to partner with its community first and foremost. We believe in collaboration and see partnerships with a variety of projects. We also believe in strong partnerships, and to be honest, this is a difficult thing to find in the web3 and crypto space. Not only did many organizations not make it through this bear market cycle, but many others are not legitimate enterprises. It's incredibly easy for some companies to say they are capable, but many are either misrepresenting themselves or unaware of the skills, workload, and strategy that is required to create something worthwhile.

So - while we remain open to anyone who wants to propose a partnership, our community has instead focused on discussing who they already work with, who they are excited by, and who they TRUST. Many in the Akita DAO have a strong interest in gaming, and this is a very big market with incredible potential for blockchain utilization. We continue to have discussions with a major mobile game studio to try and find a way to fit into their plans, while at the same time beginning discussions with other organizations who are focused on GameFi/web3 gaming. At the same time, we continue to have discussions with platforms like StealhEX (no domain combot!), to find new ways to engage with the wider community of the cryptoeconomy. Other discussions are happening with major DeFi protocols, as well as Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains, so that the Akita DAO is known to these major entities, and any opportunities may benefit the DAO and its treasury.

Lona:

Great answer!

One of the factors that makes the platform appealing to many users is its special features. What is AKITA most unique attribute that will help set your project apart from other growing social media platforms?

Ryan:

OK, that’s a tough one, naturally. Our website is https://akita.network, but is is undergoing major refresh right now. I want to encourage people to go to our Twitter to learn most about what we are doing: https://twitter.com/akita_network as well as our own TG channel https://t.me/akitatoken

I personally believe that our strongest attribute is that we have an existing, guaranteed funding stream that will take us into Q1 2027. Most organizations do not have funding outside of the launch of their token, and this creates major long-term sustainability problems. With the history of AKITA, our team did not even benefit from having that launch funding, so it was an incredible opportunity to negotiate with the open-source software development DAO known as Gitcoin to establish this funding stream.

I also want to clarify that the token AKITA was launched with the idea of decentralized social media at its core, but in late 2021, it was clear that this undertaking was not only a huge, resource-intensive task, but also driven by people within the community that were no longer present and not contributing. Now, you see the rise of the DeSo blockchain network, supported by Coinbase, or the Lens protocol that is thriving on Ethereum/L2 - these organizations should be leading the charge, and what they are doing now is very exciting and very promising for those who are interested in decentralized social media.

In 2021/2022, I would have said one of our greatest traits was that “AKITA Network is a team of doxxed and publicly known identities.” and this would have meant a lot. However, with the failures of so many projects in 2022 with publicly known people, I don’t think most investors care as much. They want to see that people are thinking long-term, thinking sustainable, and that a project’s community has a substantial and vital role in its success.

Lona:

Let's go next: Talking about adoption, what has been your strategies in bridging the gap between web2 and web3 ecosystem?

Ryan:

Another great question! Many of us come out of the web2 world, of course, so we are actively bridging that gap just by continuing to be active, no matter bear or bull, and contributing whatever time we can towards building the Akita DAO. While web3 is very focused on community, it is often lacking the organization structure and strategy that web2 has built over many years. I’ve always thought this was the greatest weakness of web3, and this is why we are seeing major web2 companies entering the space during the bear market cycle when pre-existing web3 companies weren’t able to succeed. There needs to be a hybrid that transitions us into that real web3 identity.

A bit of background on myself - I come from a background of live music production (Classical music primarily) but also many years working at Amazon. There is definitely a point where the web2 world needs what the web3 is offering, and this is why I continue to stay in the space.

So, given all of the challenges to be successful - this is why it was important to secure funding, establish a plan for creating the Akita DAO, and then launch it in a way where it could grow organically, but also grow with guidance. This guidance, or governance, is very important! As we continue to develop for the AKITA and HACHI token, there will be dApps and services that utilize these tokens and/or provide other benefits to the community of holders. This will all be carried out by the Akita DAO through its governance procedure, and we encourage anyone to submit proposals and participate in voting once the final procedures are in place.

Lona:

Awesome! In the long run, why should we trust and follow you and AKITA project? How do you raise awareness and elimination of the doubts of investors / partners / customers?

Ryan:

My first answer to that, somewhat cheeky, but also honestly: Don’t believe 100% anything tells you in a chat room!

Security and trust is huge for us, we espouse it all the time. DYOR, DD, not your keys not your coins, etc.

However, the blockchain space is meant to be trustless, and we collectively believe that’s what we should be working towards. Transparency in communication is one of the fundamental aspects of establishing trust.

The Akita DAO was formed after many long discussions in our Telegram, over many months and now years. February 1 was our 2nd birthday!

So, to establish the trust, we have to show progress. Securing funding, establishing the SAFE Multisig wallet that serves as our treasury, and then launching HACHI as our governance token — these are things that we said we would do, and now that we’ve done them, we must continue going forward.

When our proposals/voting system is live and active, this is when HACHI holders will be able to exercise their own power, give their voice to the discussion of how the AKITA Ecosystem is develop over the coming years. What are people seeking as value? Value is not just the price of a token today, but moreso - what is the reason why it should continue to exist in the future? What is it being used for, why do people want to HODL, what attracts new users to expand our network?

Working with known entities and trusted entities also reinforces that trust with our community.

Gitcoin is one of the most influential communities of Ethereum developers. Avalanche is a blockchain network that has incredible potential, recently partnering with Amazon Web Services. We will continue to target these opportunities so that we are building alongside other trustworthy organizations.

And lastly — I want to be clear that this is a project that was created for investors BY investors. Until the existence of funding for our DAO, it was entirely self-funded. Most of us have day jobs, families, and lives to attend to. Our collective effort is what will bring success to all of us, together, for the future.

Lona:

Interesting! What is the future plans and vision of the Akita DAO and how it aims to remain relevant and competitive in an ever-evolving blockchain and decentralized finance landscape?

Ryan:

First answer - listen to the community! We expect everyone participating within the Akita DAO is also paying attention to the rest of the web3 ecosystem and they are doing their own strategization of how other tools, dApps, or protocols might benefit HACHI holders, who are simultaneously focused on benefiting AKITA holders.

We have our plans to develop a staking product, this was always an expectation of the community. But, it must be sustainable — no crazy 100000% yields or other bogus hype that ends up destroying projects. It must also be secure and developed by trustworthy, experienced developers.

We currently have liquidity on Avalanche, that should be utilized as well. The DAO has already discussed whether it would be for GameFi, DeFi, etc, but it must come to a collective decision. Those that want to guide this decision, that’s where holding HACHI comes into play. HACHI holders hold both the token as well as the voice of the Akita DAO.

HACHI is on Ethereum — mainnet is not necessarily the best place for it to thrive, but working with developers and other projects focused on Layer 2 such as Arbitrum or Optimism — that will be where we will thrive, be competitive, and remain versatile to changing market conditions and the continued evolution of the technology.

The Gaming studio I mentioned previously, if that works out, you can guarantee they won’t be on a mainnet Layer 1 - they are targeting Layer 2 such as IMX or other NFT/gaming specific protocols.

So - again, we are sharing ideas amongst our community - what excites us, what shows promise, what has been successful, etc. It should not be myself, or me and one other person, who makes these decisions. I am biased and have my own beliefs and interests, but that does not mean that the Akita DAO shares these beliefs and interests.

Let the HACHI holders steer the Akita DAO’s actions!

Lona:

And here's the last question! How does the HACHI token relate to the AKITA network and what makes it unique as your governance currency?

Ryan:

Perfect question to whoever asked!

So, HACHI is the governance token, first and foremost. Holding HACHI is what gives you the power to help guide how the Akita DAO uses its treasury. I’ll say again that our current funding from Gitcoin is through a Sablier Finance stream that runs into Q1 2027. Very few other DAOs have this long-term horizon.

Sablier for those who do not know, is a very secure token-streaming service so that we receive a steady amount of AKITA tokens every day. This is the initial basis of our funding, and then we must use this funding to establish additional projects and revenue streams.

Using this funding, we were able to build our treasury up and create the initial liquidity for launching HACHI on Uniswap. We also had operational expenses, such as paying developers, establishing marketing funds, and also recognizing those within our community who were showing leadership by compensating with them with what we could.

We were all here for 2022 — we know how its going now! So, while we had to cut some costs, many of those leaders had to refuse payments for the sake of launching HACHI with adequate liquidity, with a secure vesting contract, etc.

So - where am I going with all this? The Akita DAO treasury has been growing, its being used for launching HACHI, and now it will continue to grow even without HACHI. But, we now have HACHI that provides us a way for the community to guide the Akita DAO treasury and its development of the AKITA Ecosystem.

Every swap fee of HACHI for DEX trades on Uniswap now goes back to the Akita DAO treasury.

Every new revenue stream that the Akita DAO develops means continued growth of the Akita Ecosystem and less reliance on our initial Gitcoin funding source.

The more AKITA that the Akita DAO can continue to hold and build up in its treasury, the more that HACHI can be utilized to build out the ecosystem, which means more revenue streams that stretch our treasury’s HACHI holdings even further.

We continue to work with Etherscan, CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap, etc, etc — anywhere that we can make sure they have all of the Akita DAO’s information and history shown accurately.

My last thought about what makes HACHI unique? Again…I’m a business-oriented person, so I go back to the funding. Most DAO’s require that intial funding to be bootstrapped by someone, and in this case, it comes from our native AKITA token, which the community now truly owns.

Lona:

Thank you so much for all the answers!