Dear NEM FOUNDATION,

General Discussion
#10

Hi Dorian,

I am very grateful for your comment, as you know we have had to rebuild the Foundation from scratch, we started the work on January 1, we only have a little more than 100 days, and we have done a lot. We will be sharing more of our work. Currently, we have designed each of the verticals that we propose in our financing proposal.

Now, I want to talk about the vertical that is under my responsibility on this side of the world, North America, Central America and South America - which is Business Development. This is part of the efforts from the Transformation team which was formed. We are ready to go live with all the generated plan, some of the manuals, guides and procedures generated for this vertical are:

-Vertical BD KPIs
-Target Market - Development Process
-Customer Data Security Protocol
-Customer Development Process
-POC Catalog
-Build out different veritcals to map to parnters
-Customer path methodology
-New Markets Strategy
-MoU Transformation Plan
-NF Advisory Program
-B2B Sales funnels calculation
-Others are coming

When we build a business plan, each process must be very well documented, it is the same when we build a building, we must establish a solid foundation, which allows that building to be maintained over time. All these documents are part of the documentation and we will be sharing some of these documents to the community.

This is precisely what we have done, we have established the foundations of this great building, and from May-June we will begin to see many of the proposed plans and strategies underway.

You must not forget that the results of last year were measured more in marketing than it was difficult to establish an ROI, this year we have followed the request of the community to focus on Catapult and be product-focused and revenue-driven. This is a- list some of the most notable:

-Release the Catapult Roadmap
-Reduce sponsoring events and travel
-Limit sponsored alliances and partnerships unless strategic
-Add more transparency to our resource allocation (we will share details on this soon)
-Much more solid governance

Everything is in full development, we have done a lot in just 100 days of work, there have been many changes and still we are moving forward.

I wish you a happy Easter

5 Likes
#11

If you don’t have a local channel, you just have to make it.
That’s all.
All you have to do is create a community.

The foundation is not relevant.

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#12

I’m sure you understand that I can evaluate this only after May / June. Much success in the implementation, your steps are followed with great interest by us,

#13

It is perfectly understandable, I thank you again for your interest.

#14

Good time, Dorian.
Thank you for your support and faith in us, it is very valuable to receive such feedback from the community members, it helps us stay on the right track.

Let me introduce you to the part of the work that I perform as a part of the transformation team whose task is to create a basis for the further growth of the Foundation and the whole NEM ecosystem based on the principles of efficiency, transparency and cooperation with the community.

Following these principles, we developed the concept of working with companies providing services for the Foundation, we analyzed the mistakes of the past Foundation and heard tough feedback from the community. Previously, the process of selecting service providers was not based on the best conditions for the Foundation and the community, but on personal interest, and the cost of such projects was often overestimated.

Instead, we offered equal conditions for all companies that want to cooperate with us and made our projects open. You can learn more about NEM Service Providers program launch in the announcement by the link: https://forum.nem.io/t/nem-foundation-update-nem-service-provider-program-bonfire-portal-launched

Here are some reviews about this program, we have already received:

“You guys had put a lot of work into putting together all the docs etc. It takes a lot of energy to be that well organised. We work with Disney, DreamWorks the BBC and that is their level of professionalism.”

“I gotta say I’m impressed with the comprehensiveness of the information requested, and provided, in the RFP process you have set up here.”

Also I want to say that as the NEM Foundation, we are making every possible effort to show that the new Foundation has set a high bar for itself, but we are only at the beginning of the path and support is very important to us.

Happy Easter to you and your family!

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#15

Thank you for keeping us informed. It looks like you have a real busy schedule laying the necessary groundwork for Catapulting NEM to another dimension. I also will be following the implementation with great interest and I wish you all the best!

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#16

Thank you for your comments.

#17

Hi @Stinghe_Dorian,

Thank you for this message and we are letting you know that we take your message seriously and will work hard in the best of our ability to ensure that we communicate regularly, especially in what you mentioned below:

We are committing to regular monthly updates and also further standalone updates for important announcements. Your feedback is valuable and you will start to see us intensify on our communications as we have finalised a lot of work in progress that is ready to come out the community and the public. Onward to a good year for 2019 and beyond!

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#18

nobody talks about the abandonment of Nelson’s position, of Mark… we are without vice-president and with one less member of the council… what is the direction of the foundation? we are going to fall every day until we are forgotten? I think that the members have not been treated well, because we are supporting the team unconditionally and paying the annual fee and the only thing we have is an update on the same subject that never arrives (catapult) do you really think we will get back to the top with the launch of catapult? I THINK NO. all the other projects are moving forward and making alliances with big companies and instead Nem has a fictitious advance and no important alliance. I hope this year has a solution before falling into oblivion forever and undo the equipment completely.

posdata: #22 position soon and every days lost volume. @jason.lee @Inside_NEM

1 Like
#19

I believe this year will be a better start for NEＭ!
I really want to do something for the Foundation~ but I don’t know what I can do~! ?

1 Like
#20

Exactly, people need answers and the new foundation seems to allways just new excuses and problems.

We are out of top 30 soon and probably end up out top 50 this year without any major partnership news or development.

#21

Hi Eddy,
We’ll be releasing the latest Foundation update next week and much of what you’re asking about will be outlined in the May update including progress on the open ExCo and Council positions, partnerships and progress towards what has been mapped out in the funding proposal.

We have discussed the ExCo and Council vacancies in past NF updates and even Red/NEMberia. I’m not sure what level of detail you’re requesting regarding these matters outside of what has already been stated?

I’d like to respectfully ask that we pick this conversation up next week after the update is posted. Until then, I’d like to share that we’ll be hosting an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session with the community in late May. We’ll focus on questions around the Catapult Roadmap and Vision and NEM Foundation Sustainability effort. All questions on these topics will be compiled and NEM Foundation will highlight a few updates and progress over the last few months.

We encourage everyone to submit questions HERE.

Thanks, Alex

7 Likes
#22

This isn’t constructive and therefore not actionable. Can you elaborate more with specifics? All NF updates highlight how Foundation is making progress towards goals outline in funding proposal.

What specific answers are you looking for?
What specific excuses are you referring to?
What specific problems are you referring to?

Thanks,
Alex

2 Likes
#23

I hope that the foundation is doing everything possible to change the situation, but you are right people need answers.

#24

For example answers for following questions:

  • What happened to the multiply companies testing Catapult?
  • What´s the situation with the silver coin fund debate?
  • What happened to more regular biweekly updates and better communication? (Okay, I am maybe to harsh with this one, because I know you guys are incredible busy)
  • Are there any NDA´s to really restrict you to reveal if NEM has any important partnership with big companies such like Ripple, IOTA and Vechain has?
  • Is there any hope that NEM will get partnership like aforementioned and what´s the reason that´s keeping NF to not getting these deals, IF the tech is really the best?
  • Could we see a list of all NF employees and their average salaries, or is it too much of transparency?
1 Like
#25

Hi Alex,

Very awesome that you are holding an AMA session, very much looking forward to it!

I think NEM community is very pleased with the winds of change that accompany your presidency. However I also notice there is still some negative sentiment amongst the NEM community which I think is related to the fact that so far the winds of change have not led to a significant price increase of XEM.

NEM is building an awesome platform on a global scale with outstanding leadership, developers and an extensive eco-system, yet despite the positive prospects NEM has continued to drop further when it comes to CMC rankings. In 2015-2017 there was the sentiment that somehow big things were happening that would ultimately lead to a good value proposition for XEM as a currency. Yet unfortunately, due to numerous factors that you have had nothing to do with (mainly slacking of previous foundation IMO) so far there has not been a clear value proposition that makes investors want to accumulate XEM currency compared to the other crypto currencies.

Binance coin allows crypto investors to get a discount when they buy coins on the Binance exchange. This simple value proposition makes their simple project currently worth 6 times more than NEM, whereas NEM has been in development for years, is supposed to become a global industry leader when it comes to blockchain solutions, has unique tech fundamentals, a great eco-system etc. etc. Yet despite all this XEM market cap is 6 times less than Binance coin.

My question is what is NEM Foundation going to do to prop up the value proposition of XEM as a currency besides building a great NEM platform with adequate NEM eco-system? Are the following value propositions something NEM Foundation has considered?;

  • Building a NEM exchange for mosaics, STO’s and XEM currency, giving buyers of NEM mosaics and STO’s a discount if they use XEM currency to buy mosaics and STO’s
  • Giving enterprises/governments that use private chains a discount if they pay their bills using XEM currency
  • Supporting Japanese retail initiatives where XEM as a currency becomes more integrated into Japanes society

There is probably plenty more value propositions for XEM, have XEM value propositions been discussed during meetings or are you still planning to do so?

I think this issue is the central issue that most people within the NEM community like to see clarified and dealt with. Thank you very much for your attention and responsiveness, it’s a breath of fresh air compared to previous Foundation.

5 Likes
#26

Much better feedback. Thanks for taking the time to follow up.

1.) What happened to the multiple companies testing Catapult? Answer: For the most part, if companies are building on a private chain (like Catapult) it is for a reason. They don’t want their data public (or they’d be building on a public chain.) Many companies we’ve been working alongside (not companies under Tech Bureau specifically but those working with NF) are still building and working on their platforms/products. However, it’s also correct to say that the bear winter destablized the ability for some to move forward. I think the subtext of what you’re really asking is “Is Catapult still relevant to companies and are they still interested?” The answer is YES and for most, Q3/Q4 cannot come soon enough.

2.) What´s the situation with the silver coin fund debate? Answer: It’s being discussed by Council but we have nothing to announce yet publically.

3.) What happened to more regular biweekly updates and better communication? Answer: Monthly updates are more manageable because a lot goes into creating these updates. They have to be compiled and translated by global team members. Then the content translated has to go into a review for accuracy and then everything gets posted. This gets derailed when we have to make last minute updates and then go back through localization.This can take up to a week or more. So bi-weekly updates can be a challenge.

That being said, we have a new content team that is putting into place strategies along with a content calendar (for across channels) with dedicated content contributors. Also, we now have video support (again) so there will be bi-weekly video content as well. (We had to wait on the 2nd installment of funding before officially hiring more support staff.) Note: We received the first installment of funding in late-March. It’s now the start of May. It takes time to hire support staff and ramp up.

Not only has our team been working on the strategy and execution toward better communications but also maintaining the health of the NF communication platforms. To be clear – this doesn’t mean NF owns the NEM community. We don’t. But the places we do contribute to is where we work to keep the channels clean of spam, porn, threats, etc while also doing consolidation of important updates. One way to be more effective and OWN the content is to push the content to the forum (vs using Medium.) For example, our Medium account was compromised during elections when a troll abused the system with regards to our Medium account. The result was Medium temporarily froze our official account at a critical time when we needed it the most. So this is why we moved content to forums.

A challenge every online community faces – not just NEM Foundation – is spam and trolling for the sake of undermining the reputation and hard work of those working behind the scenes or even the tech itself. There’s also politics and sabatoge by competing chains that plays a real part in online communities. You can see the channels in other blockchains where the mods aren’t as good and toxicity is rampant. Compared to other industry channels, NEM operates at a higher standard. (Shout out to Mixmaster + admins… thank you.)

I’m going deeper on this topic because I want to share that communications is more than just monthly or bi-weekly updates. Communication involves data collection, analyzing the data, establishing goals, creating an action plan and then tracking progress to ensure accountability. This is what we’re doing now. Community management = strategy, growth, content, moderation, events, relationships/influencers, business integration, and user experience. TL; DR Communications is being revamped and new format will launch this month.

4.) Are there any NDA´s to really restrict you to reveal if NEM has any important partnership with big companies such like Ripple, IOTA and Vechain has? Answer: Yes.

5.) Is there any hope that NEM will get partnership like aforementioned and what´s the reason that´s keeping NF to not getting these deals, IF the tech is really the best? Answer: Just because we don’t disclose all of our partnerships doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It means we’re doing our jobs by protecting the privacy and nature of these partnerships.

6.) Could we see a list of all NF employees and their average salaries, or is it too much of transparency? Answer: No because releasing private information is against the law. Take a look at GDPR.

5 Likes
#27

Great feedback and questions.

Your question: What is NEM Foundation going to do to clarify the value proposition of XEM to the broader marketplace?

My answer: I agree that compared to many top coins, NEM does not have clear messaging around a simple value proposition. That’s absolutely something we intend to fix. If you look at the Foundation’s budget proposal documents you’ll see we allocated substantial funding to this area, and we got buy-in from the Core Team. I can’t give details yet, but we are taking it seriously - so seriously that we will have a dedicated team of experienced professionals running it. This team will be fully focused on marketplace strategy and go-to-market execution. We’ll release more information soon.

We are also mindful that timing matters. In the near future, communications will be mainly focused on tech development, but strategic planning will be happening behind the scenes. Major communications efforts will slowly ramp up as we approach Catapult release. At that point, we plan to go full blast on marketing. For those focused on the price, I will also mention that it’s better to have publicity during a market upswing, when there’s more excitement, media attention, and participants.

You bring up some promising ideas.

  • Building a NEM exchange with a discount for using XEM.
  • Giving enterprises/governments that use private chains a discount if they pay with XEM.
  • Supporting Japanese retail initiatives using XEM.

These ideas have potential, but we need to see how they would fit into the larger market strategy as it’s developed. I think the team should evaluate all these ideas and more, and get a good understanding of how long they would take, cost/benefit, and so forth. Keep in mind that whether or not the Foundation executes any of these ideas, anyone can make a proposal to the PMC team. I would love to see some new teams step up and take a shot at these.

Thanks for the great questions and ideas.

6 Likes
#28

Thank you very much for the reply.

Up untill now I, and probably many others within the NEM community, have had the idea that the strategy basically was to build a good platform and then somehow XEM would attain value through some passive ways. It’s nice to have a confirmation that there will be a clear and active strategy when it comes to having a value proposition for XEM currency. I hope you as President will also be involved in the process, for example by creating a list of guidelines that have to be implemented either way.

For example, I think a NEM exchange for XEM currency, mosaics and STO’s is basically a must if NEM wants to be taken seriously as a mainstream player in the blockchain industry. There are so many platform projects out there now, but they all somehow are passively following the mainstream players and developments, NEM is supposed to be a frontrunner, which implies it requires very special and ambitious attempts in order to attain such a position. I hope NEM will be out there giving the signal “we are a force to be reckoned with, an eco-system in and of itself, a leader in the space”.

The other example regarding giving enterprises/governments that use private chains a discount if they pay with XEM; these entities basically constitute a very significant aspect of the NEM eco-system, I hope they will be providing at least some of the lifeblood when it comes to the value proposition regarding XEM currency. Past years NEM community has heard great progress from private projects but never really got a clear answer how it affects them as investors and participants in the network, I hope there will be some correlations.

Finally regarding supporting Japanese retail initiatives using XEM currency. The blockchain space is highly competitive, many new projects have entered the scene, however NEM still has a unique advantage in Japan. Tech and congruent community development for a large part has taken place in Japan. This technological and economic powerhouse is a very hard market for competitors to enter due to language, culture and regulatory barriers. NEM already has boots on the ground there so to speak and is at least till some extent ingrained in Japanese blockchain community.

So basically what I am trying to say is, it’s very nice to hear that XEM value proposition is being dealt with professionally, however I hope there will also be some out-of-the box oversight to ensure that this issue will not be dealt with from a strictly professional business perspective.

4 Likes
#29

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