Hi guys! Welcome to the second Polker AMA of July. I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. Summer is here for all of you guys around the world!
We’ll just give it a few minutes for people to be joining live. We’ve had a few questions come in across social media in the past week. So, we’ll make sure we get those answered. And anything that you have to ask here now will get answered as well. And if not, we will make sure this is recorded and transcribed onto Medium for anyone that could be reading it.
The first question we have is from Gee:
Where are the PKR-tokens going if someone is spending PKR to buy Spades or PKR-pass? I would like to know in which specific wallet it lands and what happens with them.
These tokens will be coming back towards Polker. That will be CPE Games — the company registered in Malta. All purchases and in-game assets whether that be the PKR Pass or Spades, the tokens will be sent directly to a wallet address in the ownership of the company.
I would need to check on how the backend code is done on that. I do believe it is single-use. It’s standard practice across all crypto payment systems that the receiving wallet is single-use for that payment. That way, if it’s x-amount of tokens, it can be triggered. But once received and confirmed, it can communicate back to the program that payment has been received. So I don’t think that I’d be able to give an exact wallet, either way. I wouldn’t publish a list if I had them. But I do believe every time a payment is made, a new wallet is created. There really is no easy method of tracking that. And even if I had one, I don’t think I would be publicizing that as it is not particularly public data. I genuinely am not convinced that there is a way of tracking. They would end up at the company. They wouldn’t be sold, there’s no specific plan on what would be done with them at this point in time — whether they just go back into the Tokenomic distribution or whether they’d move towards a burn. They wouldn’t be sold; that’s the only thing I can say we won’t be doing.
Question from G P:
Where is the high volume coming from those CEXs? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for PKR investors to just delist the token from those shity/shady CEXs? Do you have full control or awareness of what is going on with this high volume every day?
The volume on these exchanges may appear high if you’re comparing it to some of the DEX swaps. However, a lot of this, if not majority of this, is going to be on bots on exchanges and swing-traders but the majority of this is going to be bots on exchanges.
The fee that’s spent between the taker and the maker on a single exchange or a centralized exchange is a lot less than a single exchange or a decentralized exchange even if that is PancakeSwap but a lot cheaper than Uniswap, Ethereum, or a decentralized exchange. So that way, the bots are gonna continue to work on MEXC, Binance, and all the centralized exchanges where it’s not going to function so much unless they put in more fees behind them.
Would it be beneficial to remove ourselves from those exchanges? No, I don’t believe so. I would say BitMart and MEXC are two exchanges I would reasonably trust. MEXC moved a lot on this bear market. You definitely see MEXC’s name come up a lot more than it did in 2021. So, I think we’re probably gonna see them grow in reputation to easily match KuCoin, would be my guess. BitMart, I haven’t really seen much change. They’ve always been sort of an underdog of exchanges and will probably remain where they are. We’re still in constant communication with both of them. Any reports of, or if there would be misleading trading or fake trading volumes, firstly, the exchanges wouldn’t warn us. Wash-trading is illegal in general. So that’s something that we would be aware of.
I say, overall, we would keep those exchanges going. I don’t see any benefit in removing ourselves from them. A lot of people use MEXC and BitMart. Also, Bittrex at least already has a good reputation longer than the other two.
We have a couple of different questions from Crypto Lord:
What are your favorite spices and vegetables?
My favorite spice has to be the habanero chili. It’s the most flavorful and one of the hottest, still-edible, chilis. And I’m guessing, since you mentioned vegetables, is a chili a vegetable? Because if so, then I would say the habanero chili also for my vegetable. I do also like broccoli and other green things, so.
In the last AMA, Conor told us to look at Polker from a gaming perspective and not from a financial perspective. Then why are there $PKR tokens on exchanges to buy? Why do we as an investor pay to get $PKR? Why not give it out for free? It’s natural that you, Conor, as inventor of $PKR, added financial value in it and I think you should also consider and should be responsible to improve its financial value as well.
I think there’s a bit of misunderstanding in this comment, so we’ll try to dissect it as much as I can. So what I said, and I completely stand by that, is to look at Polker itself as a gaming company. If you’ve not played the game, then you’ve seen a lot of footage and reviews from the game. People understand how the game is working and what the game does. And also that the $PKR token is not within the game. So, when you’re talking about Polker, you need to separate the two. $PKR is not equal to Polker and vice versa. They’re not one and the same. There are some overlaps on the two things but they are not a mirror image of each other. They are two different things that do have a connection. When you’re looking at Polker, it’s really important that you look at Polker — and this AMA is directed to all aspects of it — in general, as a gaming company. $PKR is the token that is the backbone. It is also a huge support for the Polker gaming ecosystem — so this is where they’re crossing over.
Now, $PKR’s value does have a lot of recognition from within the game. But from a Tokenomics structure, you can make payments for PKR pass and Spades. We have the staking pool — which we bumped the APY up from like 3% to 20% just over 4 months ago. And then, we’re also redoing the Tokenomics for $PKR. So we have PKR DAO where we’re launching the PKR Foundation that will give tokens back to community members. So we’re trying to do some other fun things, too.
And you mentioned ‘why is $PKR listed on exchanges?’ Remember, when something is listed on an exchange, it takes two people — one person to come in and sell it and one person to come in and buy it. So, let’s say, Person X logs in, has 1 $PKR and they want to sell it for €1. And then Person Y logs in, and they are happy to buy it at €1. Then you have someone willing to sell at €1 and someone willing to buy. And it switches: That person’s €1 goes to someone willing to sell it, and the person willing to sell it gets €1. Now, we switched around, so let’s say Person Y now has it but wants to sell it at €2. They will not sell it until someone puts up a buy at €2, right? Remember you got Person X and Y. The company — in this case, Polker — at no point, is receiving any money for being listed.
So, everytime you buy from BitMart, Bittrex, PancakeSwap, or any exchange, there’s no share of a profit that goes to us. All of the profit goes to the individual you are buying it from and a very small fee goes to the exchange. None of that goes to Polker. So, it’s not that it’s being sold on the exchange. It’s that it’s being bought and sold by individuals. So the value in that is completely in the hands of community members and token holders. There’s quite a bit of distinction in that. Yes, we always wanted the token to have financial value and I think it’s fun that it does. Responsible for improving it? There is some aspect that, yes, there would be some element of control from our side. But in a massive bear market, a low market cap token is never gonna hold its price. So it’s not that I’m gonna take full responsibility for that.
When it comes to a financial investment, I would never tell anyone to buy $PKR or not. Firstly, I am not legally allowed. And secondly, it is a high-risk, high-reward ecosystem especially with these low-volume, low-market cap tokens. You might find that within a week, you doubled your money and you’re up 100%. Or you might find within a week, you halved your money and you’re down 50%. So, they do have to be treated as what they are: high risk. Can they make money? Yes, of course they can. Can they lose you money? Yes, unfortunately, of course they can. I think that as long as everyone is aware of the risks involved, and it’s something they want to get into, then by all means please do as long as it’s money you can afford to lose. When people lose on their investment, I don’t want to be responsible for that. But I also wouldn’t want responsibility on something that’s a lot to shoulder. I can see the logic in why you would want that. And, of course, I wouldn’t be intentionally here to push the price down. But at the same time, I wouldn’t be holding myself responsible for keeping it at a certain price point either.
Question 3 from Crypto Lord:
The price of the $PKR token is decreasing daily, so please focus on finding a solid reason that can add more value to the $PKR token. In the next bull run, how will influencers convince people to buy Polker when no one knows what Polker is or why it is important?
We can sort of circle around if the question is: ‘How will influencers convince people to buy Polker’, if I cut the rest of the text out of the question. When it comes down to it, it really shouldn’t be an influencer’s job to convince people, right? It’s not really allowed for influencers to push or convince anyone into any financial decision. For those of you following news may have seen that influencers from 2021 rush have got themselves in trouble. The SEC is looking into that. If people are marketing something as a profitable investment, well, you need to have something to back up what you’re saying. It’s all well and good while you’re profitable, right? But when someone loses their money, and turns out you were wrong — that’s when you get complaints. The US doesn’t look at that very lightly.
I think that when it comes to how influencers convince people, I think that the whole area is gonna change. All it needs is to make awareness, right? I think once people check the site and download the game, people wouldn’t need to be convinced as much. Because everything is visible. I mean, in 2021, we didn’t have a game out, we didn’t have all these things. It was all ‘what was coming’, it wasn’t already there. So, I think now it’s much easier just to point to people to play something than it is to try to convince them of something that will be there eventually. I think our user count will go up very quickly. I don’t think we’d need to convince anyone with smoke and mirrors — we have what it takes. So, we’ll be able to just point towards the actual game in this case.
Following the answer to question number one, if anyone has forgotten: Habanero is my favorite spice. Polker will only be profitable when its market cap increases. Otherwise I don’t know how you can claim or prove Polker to be profitable. In case you fail, don’t forget to add those spices and vegetables when you eat glasses.
So, we have to become profitable, otherwise — I did say I would eat my sunglasses. That is true. Well, nothing better than spicy, chili, crispy sunglasses.
Mixing the question here between $PKR and Polker. If you’re looking at the market cap of $PKR, that’s very different from the market cap of the company, right? So, let’s say a company is currently worth $10 million; you can have a token that’s worth $300 million but the company could be worth only $10 million. The token and the company are not one and the same.
I mean, if you look at Polygon: their Matic token is worth $0.77 with a market cap of 6.6 Million. But the current valuation of Polygon Labs could be different. I can’t find an accurate number right now but you can check and see the net and observe that the current valuation of Matic and Polygon Labs are very different. Some companies, you’ll find that the company is worth much more than the token. And some companies, you’ll find that the company is worth much, much less than the token overall. And this is why it’s really important to separate the company and the token. Once we’re looking at profit and loss through onboarding through the game itself, the company, then, therefore has a value. It has a game; we have 4 patents — that’s a lot of intellectual property; we have staff and we have a token as well. The market cap of a company is dictated by what the company is worth. So, if the company is currently expected to be worth $30 million, then the market cap would also be $30 million.
It’s much easier on publicly-traded companies because, obviously, there’s more exchanges and their values are dictated by the public. Like with the token, because most of it is in circulation, then it’s much easier to see what the current value is as well. But, yeah, the market cap of the company and market cap of $PKR are not the same. So, there will be two market caps. Yes, the market cap would need to increase for us to be profitable. But the market cap of $PKR could, theoretically, decrease in that time; and the market cap of Polker increases. Or they could both increase. So, it’s not quite as black and white as you say or you’re assuming.
But, thank you for those four questions!
Next question from Amar jeet Maurya:
When will buyback and burn start? Will it happen or not or you just gave lollipops to the investor?
No, haha. 100% this will be happening. I think I have mentioned before that we do believe it wouldn’t make financial sense if we’re going to announce we’ll have €50 here, €20 there. So everything will be going on record. We’ll make sure that we have everything public. I would like it, ideally, to be running by Q4. However, if we haven’t got a big enough marketing campaign to push people in at that point in time, then maybe it’s the beginning of next year. But, yeah, let’s have a look at that.
And we have resident Italian Salvo asked:
We have always asked the question (what are you doing to give value to the token? obviously a question referring to investors) but if we ask it the other way around towards the team, do you have any ideas about how to make your job, your efforts, your ideas and those of your team, the future of your project so that everything has a response?
I believe that you too want to reap the fruits of your work, and I suppose it comes from your supply dedicated to you, otherwise why have a personal supply?
Yeah, there is complete logic on that as well. If we look back in time long enough to the original token distribution and drawings, the way it was set up — we probably would do it slightly differently today and probably more like how it is now to be honest. The initial unlocks were very fast; distribution has been extended a lot. But of course, right, there is nothing that would benefit us in dropping the token price. Which is why I’ve always said that we’ll do the best we can at any given time to keep the price up. But if it doesn’t, there are certain things that we’ll not compromise just for that, either. It’s not that we don’t want it, it’s just not our goal. The goal is to produce a really fun, working game; and to have this go hand-in-hand with that.
This is where we, in 2021, struggled because the focus was more on the token and making a game that fit around it. Which we’ve moved away from. It’s not a healthy business model. We thought that it’d be easier to have the game come out and there was a lot of hype at that time. But it would’ve meant, and what we’ve realized, that it’d be rushing the game. And that isn’t the right thing to do. So, this is why, in a way, it’s been kind of kind to us that we had a bear market. It did mean that we’d give our development team more time to build some of the ideas that we’ve had; and some of the ideas that they’ve had — the move to Unreal Engine 5, it was a really good move for us.
Now we have a great, fun game, right? And yes, there has been a tradeoff]. I understand that some people are finding these things not the messages they want to hear or things they want us to do. But I still believe that this is the right thing for us to be doing. Yes, of course, we want $PKR to be going up. It’s every decision we make that is considered. However, it’s not the only goal, right? If there are other benefits from that, then we would be doing that.
So I can see that there is a speaker/question request here. So, Infinity, I have invited you up to speak. Do you want to ask a question?
Infinity: Thank you very much! I’ve been listening to all you have to say and it’s really been amazing just listening to the project. And, actually, just listening to you talk — you do this talk and it’s very, very fluent. Just putting it out there. So I just want to ask — can you hear me?
Conor: Yeah, I can hear you.
Infinity: So, I wanted to ask, like, what the gameplay [is] like for your game. Do you retain one aesthetic that is — after you play the game, do that gameplay [aesthetic] remain [the same] or do you change how it looks? I mean the look.
Conor: Yeah, like when you join the table, each map has a completely different graphics, surroundings. If you then leave the table and join another one, obviously, you get a whole different look there. While you’re staying on the same table, the map itself will stay the same. [It’s some of the] visuals that will change — the dealer of the table. But the actual city or the surroundings will remain in the same location.
Infinity: Okay, I also had a question while you were talking. Because, here in my country, we believe that poker is for adults. So, do you have an age limit for the game?
Conor: Yeah, that’s a good question. We have decided to make the game 18+. Legally, it’s a gray area. I think we probably could run it from 14–16. But I think, ethically, It’s probably the right thing to do is to make it 18+.
Infinity: Okay. That’s fine. Honestly, you’re doing really amazing on the project. If I give you something out of 100, I would give you thousands of 100. You’re doing a good job!
Conor: Really appreciate that. Thank you for your questions!
See you guys next Monday! Same time, same place.
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