AMA Recap: CRYPTO MINERS X ANIMOCA BRANDS

Animoca Brands, a Deloitte Tech Fast winner and ranked in the Financial Times list of High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2021, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification. It develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E. The company has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Bondly, Lympo, and Grease Monkey Games. Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 170 investments in NFT-related companies and decentralized projects that are contributing to building the open metaverse, including Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others. Their mission is to deliver digital property rights to the world’s gamers and Internet users, thereby creating a new asset class, play-to-earn economies, and a more equitable digital framework contributing to the building of the open metaverse.

We hosted an AMA session with Animoca Brands on 20th August.

Miss Uzma was the host from Crypto Miners and Mr. Mohamed Ezeldin and Mr. Mehdi Farooq was the guests. They shed us with the features and benefits of Animoca Brands.
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Segment 1️⃣: Introduction

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Hello everyone 👋🏼

Welcome to the special AMA session with ANIMOCA BRANDS

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Great to be here everyone

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
We have our guests Mr. Mohamed Ezeldin and Mr. Mehdi Farooq

Mehdi Farooq:
Thanks for having us :)

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Hello guys
Welcome here 🤗

Hope you are doing well 😊

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Thank you 😊

Mehdi Farooq:
Great ser — thanks

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Can you please introduce yourselves to our community before starting the AMA session

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Hello Crypto miner community!

I Lead the Tokenomics department at Animoca Brands, I am a Mathematician and was an educator for 10 years in a previous life!

Mehdi Farooq:
I am a senior tokenomics analyst @ Animoca.

Did two years of crypto research and VC before joining.

Before crypto, did equity research and global macro research in my previous life for four years.

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Nice to meet you guys 🤝

Mehdi Farooq:
🙏🏻

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Likewise!

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Lets start our AMA session now if you guys are ready 😃

Mehdi Farooq:
Lets go!

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Let’s do it 🔥

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Firstly, make a concise and brief introduction about Animoca.
How it is playing its role in the world of Web3 venture, progressing the Metaverse and building the projects?

Mehdi Farooq:
AB mission is to deliver digital property rights and contribute to the building of the open metaverse.

AB has a large portfolio of over 340+ investments. Including but not limited to: OpenSea, Dapper Lab ( creator of NBA’s Top Shot platform and FLOW blockchain) Sky Mavis (maker of Axie Infinity), Decentraland, Star Atlas, and Alien Worlds.

We also develop and build products pertaining to the blockchain. We do this with various subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise, Notre Game, and TinyTap.

Some of our investments below

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Oops maybe that it was dropped to soon 👀

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
You can continue if you want to tell us more 😀

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Mehdi has dropped the graphic, we can continue now

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Its simply awesome and great 👌🏻👌🏻

Mehdi Farooq:
Thanks!

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Now tell us about the features of Animoca that makes it superior and special as compared to its competitors?

Mehdi Farooq:
Our Ethos and our vision.

We believe in the shared network effect in progressing the open metaverse. We build and also help progress the vision of open metaverse by investing and advising other projects that share the same ethos and have a similar vision.

We don’t view open metaverse as a “zero-sum game”.

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Tell us about your Investors and products that are the proud of company!

Mehdi Farooq:
Many investors and products love them all.

But one example of a product is the Sandbox.

We have seen Minecraft going down the route of Facebook in making their metaverse closed garden. Users don’t own their assets, they are renting, and the landlord can kick them out anytime they want; recently, with Minecraft, they are going after Web3 content.

Sandbox is a prime example of delivering digital property rights via NFTs and a vision of open metaverse as user-generated content and is stored/verifiable on the blockchain. No central entity dictates what you should do with your asset/content.

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Now please share your views on open metaverse and web3 blockchain projects.

Mehdi Farooq:
This is going to be a long one — so please bear with us.

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
No worries mate 😀

Mehdi Farooq:
A more practical example of the open metaverse is Web3 games. So I will start with that.

For players, the following are some key benefits:

Digital property rights: in traditional games, players purchase digital items (e.g. skins in Fortnite) they are renting from the game company. When game assets become NFTs, there is a new level of assurance for the player and their achievements. If the game stops operating, other stakeholders can theoretically step in to honor the utility for those assets; otherwise, they may still have enduring collectible value.

Secondary market liquidity: Users can retain value from their investments should they wish to leave an ecosystem. Time spent playing games and achievements can be monetized/tokenised

Provenance: virtual goods now have rich, verifiable histories thanks to blockchain. Imagine being able to own the exact signed gun skin/PFP your favorite esports players used to win the world championship or just enjoys in general.

Governance: gamers can now participate in the direction of the games they love via DAOs. Imagine pushing for new types of map/ skins in Fortnite.

On-chain reputation: a new design space is unlocked as gamers can now build player profiles verifiable on blockchain and leverage this to build careers or obtain finance etc.

For creators and developers

Improved creator economics UGC games like Roblox, creators keep just ~30% of revenues, and Facebook with Oculus takes 60%. With blockchain games, creators generally retain much more of the value they create and benefit from on-chain royalties (via NFTs). There is an increase in the surface area of monetization, which is also less predatory than F2P games for players, which focus on Pay2Win dynamics. Here we can have P2Earn or P&Earn, an interesting user acquisition strategy.

Interoperability & composability: blockchain technology has the potential to allow interaction across ecosystems by leveraging existing building blocks and open source infrastructure and communities. We already see interoperability of communities, e.g., Tiffany <> Crypto Punks. But imagine using your BAYC NFT in other metaverses to unlock special content/maps etc

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
What a brilliant answer 👏🏼

Obsessed 🙇🏻‍♀

Now tell us that what you guys do as Token Economist at Animoca?
What about the team?

Mehdi Farooq:
We, as a team, help project design their token utility, interaction in/outside the ecosystem, and token distribution. Also, there is Adhoc requests with different problems that the project faces.

We use game design, psychology, game theory, and macroeconomics to help design optimal token economies for the project.

The ideal token design optimizes interoperability and community, leading to strong network effects. This, in turn, benefits the whole ecosystem and especially the users of the projects.

This is my and Ezeldin’s primarily role. Happy to also take further follow up question on this!

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Okay 👌

So tell us that how you guys analyze the projects and their tokenomics

Mehdi Farooq:
It’s a detailed process.

Our first job is to download all the questions and information the project has.
We then look for competitors or other projects trying to do the same thing. We incorporate learning from their mistake to ensure the project we advise follows best practice.

We also brainstorm internally with different ideas and creative solutions. We have a v strong internal team. Mo has a background in Maths. Katherine has a background in Astro Physics and me in Economics and Finance. This is our strength.

After this, there is a lot of modeling. One example is below

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Honestly, the dream team 🙏

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Lastly, what does Animoca achieved so far?
And what important updates are coming in next months and years in Animoca’s ecosystem?

Mehdi Farooq:
Help transition more Web2 projects into Web3. Progress open metaverse further.

Tokenomics team is just one cog that helps with that. There are so many smart teams internally within AB that are helping do that ranging from Engineering to Project management teams and many more.

In terms of achievement I am going to paste a graphic

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Great 👌🏻👌🏻

That is the end of introduction segment

Now moving to the Twitter Questions

If you’re ready 😃

Mehdi Farooq:
Lets go

Segment 2️⃣: Twitter Questions

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
1) I read on your web page that “The virtual world is made up of a host of regions with unique characteristics. One of these is the Animoca Archipelago…” Among all the host of regions why have you decided to use ANIMOCA ARCHIPELAGO? What is so special about?

Mehdi Farooq:
One thing I love working at AB is their diverse portfolio. We have invested in 340+ projects, every day we learn about a project that we are invested in. Its one of those project I am not aware about unfortunately

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
2) #Animoca Brands, Asia’s biggest investor in #blockchain projects, building a portfolio of more than 340 finance, gaming, and social media companies worth over $1.5B.
In July, the firm raised an additional $75M valuing the company at $5.9B.

My question now is, how does #Animocabrands choose the projects they invest on? What are the requirements or qualities Animoca sees in a project before they choose to invest in such projects?

How would Animoca deal with a loss on a project if failed to deliver?

Mohamed Ezeldin:
We have a thorough internal process, with many focuses, some of those being the team, what value can they add to building the open metaverse, previous/current success etc

Mehdi Farooq:
Disclaimer NFA.

The project has a strong founding team that shares the same vision and ethos.

In terms of domain — digital property rights and the open metaverse. That’s the theme we love and is at the heart of what we do ( see below)

Failure is part and parcel of life, investing, and business. As long as the project had a shared ethos of the open metaverse and tried hard in terms of execution of ideas.

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Love the graphic 🤣

Mehdi Farooq:
WAGMI!

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
That’s the end of second segment ☑️

Now we are close to the last segment — Live QnA

Mohamed Ezeldin:
❤️

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
If you’re ready for bunch of questions 😄

Mehdi Farooq:
Lets do it!

Also one request — please dont ask me about my bags or interesting investment/trade ideas. Thanks. Strictly everything here is NFA ;)

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Hahaha, hope so, no one will ask

Segment 3️⃣: Live QnA
(In this segment group was opened for 60 seconds and Miners sent hundreds of questions. Guest choose some best to answer)

1) CHUKKY:
In layman terms, could you please explain what you mean by an open metaverse ?

Mehdi Farooq:
Metaverse that is decentralised. There is no central entity that controls it. Facebook earns 100Billion in revenue by using users as a product and selling their data to advertisers. A more open social media would give you “shares” of Facebook if your data is sold :)

2) Prashant:
I read that they are looking for proactive ambassadors to support the development of ANIMOCABRANDS at this time. Can you tell us where to apply please? What qualifications must a potential participant possess in order to participate in the program, and what do we need to do?

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Please visit the main site and go to thr careers section for more info positions we are employing for

3) Linus Oduh:
Hello, Did the ANIMOCA team considered community feedback requests during the creation of the project in order to explore on fresh ideas?

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Yes we do this with varying projects. One being Phantom Galaxies. During alpha testing we had over 100k community members participate and their feedback was taken on board.

Community is at the heart of what we are building, so your voice is matters!

Mehdi Farooq:
Community is the #1 variable we optimise for and also advice project to do the same.

4) Jade:
🔵What worldwide expansion ambitions exist? Are at this time focusing on the market or on creating and developing or obtaining clients and users, or partnerships? What plans do you have for the year ahead and before 2022 ends?

Mehdi Farooq:
Our aim to disrupt them by helping progress open metaverse and digital property rights. Anyone who aim to progress this vision — we dont see them as competitors.

5) John x:
what are the platform currently used for the game is it only on pc or mobile

Mohamed Ezeldin:
We have multiple games live currently.
Benji bananas (mobile)
Crazy defense hero’s (mobile)
Phantom Galaxies (PC)
These are just to name a few

6) Jibson:
Can you share your social media link in case we want to know more about your project

Mehdi Farooq:
You can follow AB here https://twitter.com/animocabrands :)

7) Valerie Mills:
To many investors the quality of a project is based on the Main Token, so considering this can you give a full description about the tokenomics or funtions of the $ REVV ?

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Revv is an ecosystem token and has multiple titles that levered the REVV token. For a full description, head over to the revv website and have a read through the whitepaper and extra questions, please join their discord to ask :)

8) What could you say are the unique difference between Animoca Brands and other venture capitals/investors in the field of Web3 and blockchain gaming? What makes Animoca Brand distinguished among others? Could you explain to us your company values?

Mehdi Farooq:
We build, invest and advice. Our focus is on progressing digital property rights and open metaverse. We were amongst the first to see the disruption NFTs would bring, as evident by our earlier investments in OpenSea, Dapper labs etc.

9) Aleen Kihn:
Crypto project’s future is in the hands of the community. So how does the community contribute to your success and how do you plan to attract more users, investors or developers into your project?

Mohamed Ezeldin:
By designing token economies that are sustainable and don’t “burn” users

10) Gregory Sharp:
Are you planning to integrate with other different blockchain technologies to expand the ecosystem and generate more trust?

Mohamed Ezeldin:
We already are. Our projects use a variety of chains/web3 tooling that is currently live

11) Is there any way we can be part of the Animoca Brands team? Do you any slots open on your team either directly or indirectly? If so, could you please elaborate more of it to us?

Mehdi Farooq:
Please check out our career section https://jobs.lever.co/animocabrands

*This segment ends here*

Mohamed Ezeldin:
Some great questions 👌

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Thankeww so much guys for the well detailed and comprehensive answers about Animoca Brands 🔥

It was a pleasure to hosting you here 🤍

Mehdi Farooq:
Thank you and your amazing community for hosting us

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Pleasure is all ours🙌🏻

Is there anything else you want to share with us?

Mehdi Farooq:
Thats it on my end….WAGMI!

Uzma || CRYPTO MINERS:
Thank you again for being here 😊

Time to conclude this AMA session…

Learn more about Animoca Brands here:

Website: https://www.animocabrands.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/animocabrands
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/animocabrands/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/animoca-brands
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3_ecLbtx9DYslrZhWgiA-Q
Medium: Animoca Brands