Gameflip

What is Gameflip?

Gameflip is at the forefront of addressing the demand for liquidity for digital goods via the decentralized ecosystem where digital goods on all gaming platforms — mobile, PC, console, and VR/AR — can be sold as liquid assets using trustless (i.e. fully secure) smart contracts executing on blockchain technology.

Globally, gamers purchase over $100 billion of digital goods each year. Most of these digital goods are locked within individual games, and gamers lose all of their value when they stop playing that game. The current infrastructure does not promote the liquidity, transparency, or security required by gamers to buy, sell, and trade digital goods.

Gameflip is dedicated to creating a transparent, safe, and frictionless infrastructure for the buying and selling of digital goods among gamers. The FLIP token will leverage the Ethereum blockchain and ERC-20 token interface. This infrastructure and the FLIP smart contracts will eliminate questions of trust and protect the transacting gamers from fraud.

— JT Nguyen, Co-founder and CEO

Q&A

ICO Alert: How does the Gameflip token (FLIP) function within the platform and why is it needed?

Gameflip: The Ethereum blockchain will serve as the backbone for FLIP. We have chosen Ethereum because of its flexibility and widespread adoption. The blockchain will act as a multi-game database, securely storing all digital goods and FLIP while tracking who owns them.

Within the Gameflip marketplace, FLIPs can be purchased with fiat by our community of gamers who can then use them to purchase digital goods for games from publishers that have implemented our SDK.

ICO Alert: There are a variety of new projects focused on online digital marketplaces. What makes Gameflip different? What are its advantages?

Gameflip: We believe that having a handful of competitors in a new evolving space is good, as it signals the market potential can be very large. We also believe it’s wise to never underestimate any competitor.

The key advantages of FLIP are:

1. Gameflip marketplace platform: The Gameflip marketplace platform has been transacting gaming digital goods since the beginning of 2016 with millions of dollars processed across two million gamers. We fully understand the risks associated with managing digital goods transactions and the strategy to scale the marketplace rapidly. Our plan is to enhance our platform to provide the highest levels of transparency and security by implementing blockchain and smart contracts.

2. Experience: Collectively, our Gameflip team has over a century of starting, operating, and scaling startup companies. This is our passion! On top of that, we have a world class team of advisors, including the co-founder of Electronic Arts, the co-founder of GREE and the founder of Bigpoint, all of which are the top global gaming companies across the globe.

3. Incentives for publishers and game developers: This is a key point we believe our competitors have missed. Clearly, there is demand from gamers to sell their digital goods, but the publishers are the gatekeepers. Without providing strong and aligned incentives, something we’ve done by allocating 40% of our FLIP tokens for network growth, we don’t believe the publishers will join the decentralized network. If you step into their shoes, we are asking them to try out a new “unproven” technology to develop a new revenue stream. This is risky for them, so we need strong incentives, as well as a clear onboarding plan, something which we know well since our team previously ran a $100 million publishing business called Aeria Games before starting this business.

ICO Alert: What other game-related projects has the team launched? As a contributor, why is this team the best to back in the digital goods marketplace project space?

Gameflip: Regarding game related projects, our team previously started Aeria Games, a global games publisher and developer of free to play games and scaled it to 50 million global gamers and $100 million in annual revenue.

ICO Alert: Gameflip is creating SDKs (software development kits) for publishers and developers. Why will publishers and developers use this versus the traditional route they’re using today?

Gameflip: Under the traditional route, publishers and developers sell digital goods directly to gamers. Our SDK (and FLIP and the decentralized system) will enable gamer-to-gamer trading of digital goods. As incentives for adoption by publishers and developers, this new decentralized ecosystem will create brand new revenue streams for them.

Whenever gamers transact using FLIP, publishers and developers will receive a commission.

When publishers and developers facilitate the sale of FLIP to gamers to promote network growth, publishers and developers will retain the proceeds, ranging from 100% to 40%, depending on timing (the earlier they adopt, the more they retain).

Importantly, these will be almost 100% profits to them, as their cost for both will be virtually zero, after their initial implementation.

ICO Alert: Fraud is discussed a lot in the Gameflip whitepaper and on the website. How big of a problem is fraud in the industry?

Gameflip: Many of the existing marketplaces for gamer-to-gamer trading of digital goods operate with very little transparency. We are not aware of any statistical study that quantifies fraud in dollar amount. However, the size is certainly large scale. At any given point in time on any given day, gamers are always discussing problems with fraud on forums. As an example, this Youtube video, published on August 30, 2017, discusses a $100,000 scam relating to CS:GO skins, for which the scammer got arrested.

The existing Gameflip marketplace is already addressing the problem with fraud, but the FLIP token and decentralized ecosystem will further advance our vision for a fully transparent and frictionless infrastructure for transacting digital goods.

ICO Alert: For those not familiar, how large is this industry surrounding the buying and selling of games’ digital goods? Is there any issue with current games or gaming consoles protecting their digital goods so they cannot be resold?

Gameflip: For 2017, digital gaming revenue is estimated to be $94.4 billion. The figure is comprised of only the digital goods sold by publishers and developers to gamers directly (we call them “direct-from-publisher” digital goods in our whitepaper). The potential market for gamer-to-gamer trading of digital goods is a trillion dollar opportunity (we call those “gamer-earned” digital goods). Gamer-earned digital goods are significant, and will eclipse direct-from-publisher digital goods because:

a. The volume is much higher..
b. They aggregate within the game economy.
c. They will help gamers advance in the game.
d. Gamer-earned digital goods are much more valuable than direct-from-publisher digital goods. Gamer-earned digital goods require not just money, but also time and effort (i.e. playing the game) to generate.

As for the second question, as discussed in response to another question above, publishers and developers will be heavily incentivized by brand new revenue streams to adopt FLIP and allow their digital goods to be resold.

ICO Alert: How far along is the project today? What has been accomplished since Gameflip was founded in 2014 (as in number of users, revenue, etc.)? What does the roadmap look like for the rest of 2017 and 2018?

Gameflip: Since our founding days, Gameflip has become one of the largest digital goods marketplace (centralized) platforms, with more than two million registered users and 500,000 monthly active users, with millions of transactions processed. Our users actively buy and sell on our website, and more conveniently through our mobile apps (iOS and Android).

Our “centralized” platform has a comprehensive suite of features that can support virtually any type of digital goods. For the rest of 2017, we’re adding support for more games and continue to fine tune our user experience, particularly for our power sellers, through new tools and a recently released platform API.

In 2018, we expect to expand and support decentralization through FLIP Token. The existing centralized platform will continue playing a key role in providing the best-in-class user experience, even as the underlying transactions gradually move onto the Ethereum blockchain.

ICO Alert: With such a large number of users, is there any concern that the Ethereum network cannot handle such a large amount of transactions? If so, is Gameflip handling this potential issue in some unique way?

Gameflip: Yes, we’re definitely concerned about Ethereum’s scalability, as well as gas cost for transactions. This concern, coupled with usability for regular users, lead us to believe that a hybrid on-chain and off-chain solution will be our initial solution. Once Ethereum evolves to solve these concerns, we will migrate to handling more on-chain.

ICO Alert: As a non-Gameflip question, we like to ask for unique predictions for the ICO and cryptocurrency space in the future. Where do you see both in the next 3–5 years?

Gameflip: The ICO and cryptocurrency space will certainly expand in the next 3–5 years. We believe it will be more of a steady growth, instead of the exponential growth in 2017. The steady growth will probably be healthier for the entire industry. Right now, the space is still developing and undergoing some “teething problems.” We look forward to the space being refined, and the marketing sorting out the bads vs. the goods, as Gameflip and FLIP will certainly be among the best.

Presale InformationThe Gameflip presale is currently live and ends on October 20, 2017 at 19:00 UTC. The current price format is one Ether for 200 Gameflip tokens (FLIPs). The following bonus structure is available during the presale:

There is a minimum contribution amount of 3 Ether and the gas limit for contribution needed is 200,000. The presale goal is 3,000 Ether, which, if reached, will end the presale immediately. Ether is the only accepted form of contribution.

Crowdsale InformationThe crowdsale will begin November 1, 2017 at 19:00 UTC and ends on November 29, 2017 at 19:00 UTC. The price per FLIP is 200 FLIP per one Ether, with the following bonuses available incentivizing early contribution:

The minimum contribution amount is 0.1 Ether and there is a hard cap of 50,000 Ether.

Token Distribution InformationThere are a total of 100,000,000 FLIP tokens being created, with 43,200,000 available across the presale and main sale. Tokens will be distributed immediately after contribution when the transaction is confirmed. It is important to send Ether from an ERC-20 compatible Ethereum wallet so that the FLIP are received by the contributor. Contribution should not be sent from an exchange wallet and only Ether is accepted.

Allocation43.2%: Presale and crowdsale
40%: Network growth*
14%: Gameflip**
2.8%: Partners and advisors (unlocked on January 1, 2018)

*Incentives for game publishers to adopt and facilitate the sale of FLIP to gamers.

**The vesting schedule is as follows:
2,000,000 tokens will be unlocked on January 1, 2018.
4,000,000 will be unlocked on January 1, 2019.
8,000,000 will be unlocked on January 1, 2020.

Use of Crowdsale ProceedsProduct Development, 40%This includes development and operations of FLIP-related technology, such as smart contracts, wallets, SDKs, plugins, and other updates. This will also include the hiring of additional personnel.

Marketing, 30%This will be used for advertising, promotional events, sponsorships, and other marketing activities to promote the adoption of FLIP.

Partnerships, 15%This will be used to develop partnerships and attract participants in the FLIP decentralized ecosystem.

General and Administrative, 15%This includes, among other things, costs associated with rent, utilities, insurance and administrative salaries.

TeamJT Nguyen, CEO and Co-founderLinkedin
JT is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience building and managing complex businesses, including 10 years in the gaming industry. Prior to Gameflip, JT served as COO of Aeria Games, a global publisher and developer of free-to-play games, growing the company from 10 employees to over 300 worldwide, and overseeing operations in the U.S., Germany, and Brazil. Under JT’s leadership, Aeria Games’ annual revenue run rate reached $110 million and the company was ultimately sold to ProSiebenSat.1, a German media conglomerate.

Terry Ngo, CTO and Co-FounderLinkedin
Terry has 19 years of experience building and leading engineering and product development teams, including 11 years in the gaming industry. Prior to Gameflip, Terry served as CTO and co-founder of Aeria Games. Under Terry’s leadership, Aeria Games built a leading online game publishing platform serving over 40 millions gamers globally, publishing a multitude of PC and mobile games in 11 languages, and delivering the highest monetization rate in the industry using a single common virtual currency.

Bryan Talbot, Head of EngineeringLinkedin
Bryan has over 20 years of experience working at the forefront of Silicon Valley technologies. Prior to Gameflip, he was the platform architect at Aeria Games where he designed and oversaw the implementation of the global publishing platform serving over 40 million gamers from multiple data centers located in North America and Europe.

Ed Kim, Head of Business DevelopmentLinkedin
Ed is a gaming industry veteran with 15 years of experience in free-to-play, digital goods, and virtual economies spanning across PC and mobile. Prior to joining Gameflip, he was CEO and co-founder of Vector Gfx, a developer of motion tracking and image recognition software for VR and AR platforms.

Matheus Arnellas, Head of Live OperationsLinkedin
Matheus leads the departments of sales, customer support, fraud prevention and business intelligence. With six years of experience managing cross-functional teams in the digital free-to-play games space, he has successfully led the release and operations of 12 titles across PC and mobile platforms, including those with multi-billion dollar intellectual property such as X-Men, Assassin’s Creed, and EA Sports FIFA.

Udayan Sharma, Head of MarketingLinkedin
Udayan is a leader with over 12 years of experience in gaming, e-commerce, and tech. He has eight years of experience building brands and owning the entire user acquisition funnel. Prior to Gameflip, he was in the digital free-to-play gaming space as director of marketing at Aeria Games where he led the launch of 10+ PC and mobile gaming titles, including X-Men and Assassin’s Creed, and managed all marketing functions, including user acquisition, SEO, and brand. His earlier experience has consisted of roles in both startups and Fortune 500 companies, such as Excelics Semiconductor and Cadence Design Systems.

Tony Simonovsky, ICO Success ManagerLinkedin
Tony is a serial entrepreneur with more than 14 years of experience in digital marketing. He started his first business at the age of 19, sold it six years later, and started to live the life of a digital nomad. In 2017, Tony advised the KickICO team to help increase exposure for their upcoming ICO to global crypto-token purchasers by means of growth marketing which resulted in total amount raised of 85,000 ETH (~$23,000,000).

Social MediaTelegram: https://t.me/flip_token
Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2234801.new
Github: https://github.com/Gameflip/tokensale

View the Gameflip Website here.

View the only comprehensive list of active and upcoming ICOs here.

References(1) Gameflip Website, Gameflip, (2017)
https://tokensale.gameflip.com/

(2) Gameflip Whitepaper, Gameflip, (2017)
https://tokensale.gameflip.com/static/Gameflip_whitepaper.pdf

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=988093