Happy Monday and welcome to another Polker AMA. I do apologize for being slightly late; I was having issues with Twitter– or I guess, we should be calling “X” — but it does seem to be working now. So, hopefully, this is recording. I will just allow some time for people to join.
So, we have had a few questions come through on social media–through Telegram and Discord–so we’ll get to answering them. I do understand, especially for our token holders, that this has been a bit of a difficult time. So, we’ll do our best to answer every question that has come through as clearly and with as many details as possible. I will just pause again for a couple of minutes just in case more people join in.
Okay, so I’ll begin with just answering the questions that have come through; and any other information, I’ll give at the end of this.
First question is from StoryTeller: What’s the thinking behind only keeping $PKR on a L2 chain?
There’s a couple of reasons here. The predominant one, when we look at it, is that there are risks with bridges–looking back over the past 3 years–the most serious issues have come from bridges. If you look at Harmony One, their entire blockchain network was destroyed because of the bridge. With Poly Network, we were already with them when they had their first attack — that was over $600 million. That was the biggest hack in blockchain at the time. At that point, there was no removing a bridge–you can’t stop once you started. Luckily, we were not victims then. The fact that they’ve been a victim again and the number reached the amount it did–it’s been relentless.
So, at this point in time, it seems that the Smart Contract and the bridges are smart. However, solidity is such a new language that people are still learning. I mean, security is not high enough, so we want to make sure that we’re staying on just one chain.
The reason we’re choosing Polygon POS is–sort of an L2 sidechain, but it will become an L2 later–is due to the cost. Ethereum fees are a cost for you users, not a cost for us. If you’re sending $5 of $PKR, you don’t want to be spending $100 of ETH. I know right now the fees are lower. But, you’re still spending. Even now, to send $5 worth of $PKR, it’s gonna cost you at least $3 on a good day. In a bull run, it could be costing you $200 — which is just not practical or useful. So, we’re going to stick to one chain and we want to be using one with low fees.
Polygon POS has proven time and time again that it’s a secure chain — it’s a commit-chain. It has extremely low fees, fast confirmations, extremely fast finality, and has had no issues as a chain itself. I have been following the Polygon team since before their launch, when they were still raising on Binance. So, from all the L2s, I feel like it’s the most proven. It’s not a true L2 as it is, but, cost-wise, the gas is extremely low. That’s why we’re going to that direction for now.
So the second question from StoryTeller is: Will the new token be issued before the game goes live on Epic?
Yes, the game will be going live in September. The token will be issued definitely before the game is live on Epic. No need to worry about that.
Then there is a comment from StoryTeller as well regarding the carousel on the Epic Games store page for Polker, and you mentioned: Not a question, but more of a comment on the Epic Games store page for Polker. I feel like the footage of the gameplay should be higher up in the carousel instead of being the last one. Maybe like 1–3 spots. It would be nice to have a video where you show many of the dealers in action instead of just their cards. I really liked the old trailer you guys had that focused on the dealer effects.
Can I just ask, could you send the video you are talking about? We’ve had a lot of videos that our design team has made. And we’re always happy to take that advice. But just so we can have more understanding of which video you are talking about, if you could just DM that to one of our staff and let them know that it’s regarding the Polker page. We’re happy to have a look and rearrange that. Really appreciate the suggestions. So, yeah, just send the link to whichever video you are talking about, and we’ll see if we can get that in the Epic Game page for you. Thank you for the suggestion.
Then, we have a question here from Stefan. He asked: Wanted to pick your brain on economy management. Has that been pretty difficult for you, and do you guys use any specialized tools or analytics to assist?
I assume you’re talking about financial allocation and budgeting. Yes, I would say it has been difficult. It has obviously become more difficult over the last year. Being very careful with allocation and budgeting is always a challenge. Yes, we’ve used various tools and had advice from various people. But I would say, in the end, it really is just extreme cautiousness and making sure that everything is recorded and accounted for.
The unfortunate thing with budgets in development is that there are always things that you don’t expect. So, obviously, planning and having a buffer is great. So, yes, we’ve used tools. And with analytics, we make sure that we have the data on everything so that we don’t make the same mistakes with money twice. So, yeah, I’m assuming there is a motive with this question. So, if there is something–a reason for asking, if there’s a tool or something regarding economy management that you would like to talk to us about, feel free to reach out. We are quite busy at the moment but I’m sure there will be a time, at least in a couple of weeks or later, that we can have a chat if that’s something that you’re working on.
And then from J L: When the new token is out and airdropped and tradeable, will there be a new marketing strategy to bring more investors and players for the game?
So, this is a yeah and nay answer, right? At the moment, I don’t think that it would be at the same time as the token. The token, unfortunately, is in a bad situation that we’re just going to have to deal with. And we’ll deal with it properly — that’s what we’re doing. But I don’t think that the new marketing strategy will come with the token being live. However, it is also very much in tune in time — we don’t have long before the Epic Games launch and the multiple platforms that the game will be live on. So, if you go to the Epic Games store, search Polker, you’ll be able to find us. There are some minor details that Epic Games are updating. Currently, it only shows the Windows logo. We will be adding the other platforms.
As for the release date, we have spoken to Epic Games, and we have moved it back to the 29th of September. The reason for that is — we can definitely release most of the platforms on the 1st, however, we’ve obviously had to remove our backend team from working on the game to make sure we have the token issues sorted. So, some of the work we wanted for the mobile is going to be slightly delayed. So to have all of the platforms — Mac, iOS, Android — we put the 29th date on there. We’re still moving — and that’s the goal. Unfortunately, we had to move it back slightly. So, I think that’s where we’re going to be doing more marketing towards the token. But once all of that is set, that’s when we’re going to be pushing people. The answer is yes, there will be a marketing strategy — a new one. But no, it’s not to do with the new token.
And then a good question from Gianluca. There are two questions here. I’m going to do them backwards, it’s gonna be a lot easier:
Can we ask Conor to clarify on 1) New token status 2) Next delivery timeline on game development?
So, there will be no updates to the game until we have the release for the Epic Games store listing. That does mean that you will not see any changes from the current gameplay, status, map, everything — until we move everything live into the Epic Games store. So that’s going to be the 29th of September. That sounds like a long way off, but it’s only about 7 weeks — so it’s actually not THAT long. And at that point, you will be seeing some big things. We’re going to have all four platforms live. You will see some massive changes. But, between now and then, we’re not going to push builds out on the current one because the amount of time that goes into that is taking time away from actually pushing the development of the full game. We’re focusing on getting everything out. So, there will be no updates as it stands until the 29th.
And the second thing that everyone, I think, wants clarity on is the status of the new token. So, the good news is that the token had been live on the Polygon POS test net since last Thursday. Internal audit is completed. No issues found. To be honest, the contract is very similar to the initial one we had in Ethereum. We have added a couple of functions. Solidity has developed a long way in the last 2 years. So, we do want to ensure that the audit is going through clearly. Fortunately, the third party audit teams are surprisingly busy. I am currently talking with CertiK and Beosin. So, in CertiK, we do know people there, however, they do have a waiting time. Most likely, we should be completed, potentially, this week — more likely to be completed next week. So, on that, I will stick with what I said that we’ll have the latest in 4 weeks — so the last week of August. During that time, I can have more information than we had before.
So, we’ve been working with the backend team on the best way of migrating to the new chain. So, what we’re going to do is run a claim portal. So, all you would have to do is go to the website (we’ll put the link — it will be on pkr.io), click on “Connect Wallet”. It doesn’t matter whether you’re holding it on Ethereum, on BSC, or if you were staking it — wherever the tokens were at the time of the snapshot on the 24th of July, make sure that’s the wallet that you’re connecting to. And if they were there, at that point, it would show you “You are eligible for X amount of tokens”. Click on the claim button, and you will be able to receive the $PKR/new token under Polgyon. So, you have your new tokens — they will be in your wallet. I need to work out the best time — we’ll probably have the claiming open for approximately 48 hours. And at that point, once we’ve given people time to claim, liquidity will be added back onto UniSwap. So that’ll be on UniSwap but on Polygon, not Ethereum — same website, just changed the chain at the top. And also, the exchanges will go live with the new tokens. So, all of the exchanges will then distribute. All you’ll have to do is, basically, continue trading. If you’re holding $PKR at the time, nothing will change. Later, when you try to withdraw, it will be the Polygon token. And the same, when you go to deposit, it will give you a Polygon address.
So, the only thing that we can’t guarantee is how fast the exchanges will act after we’ve given them the tokens to distribute. So, we know how many they have and how many people are holding them, but we don’t know after we give it to them and how fast they change the contract. It’s a quick process from a development standpoint, but it’s out of our control. So, that’s one thing I can’t tell you.
But for the claiming process, all you’ll have to do is follow the link, click ‘claim’, and the tokens that are in your wallet, you will be able to claim your new ones in Polygon. And then we’ll be able to put this behind us and move forward.
So, that’s where we are. It will be the last week of August. I don’t actually have a specific date. I really wanted to have the guarantee on the audit before we gave it. But if we’re saying the last week, then we should have it around the 28th. But like I said, I’m not gonna hold myself to that date because it may be earlier. But yeah, around the last week — it could also be the 25th. But we’ll make sure that as soon as I know and the audit has come back, we’ll give the date. Because as much as you want this all sorted and moved forward, we want it done as well.
We are moving forward as well as we can. It seems all is good from our end. And, yes, I do believe that is everything. I don’t know if anyone else has any questions they would like to ask.
I can’t see if anyone else is requesting to speak. In the application itself, it’s not showing that anyone is. So, if you are, I can’t see it unfortunately. So, I do apologize. Please send any messages across — DM me directly on Telegram. If I don’t answer, just remind someone. My Telegram is constantly flooded.
Have a good week! Stay on top of our social media for announcements and we’ll be here at the same place, same time, next Monday!
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