Bitquence Manifesto
An open letter to the Bitquence Community
This is an open letter to all involved in the Bitquence Community. First of all, we want to sincerely thank all BQX token holders who have chosen to pre-purchase Bitquence tokens based on our vision for the Bitquence product. We take our responsibilities at Bitquence very seriously, and have been actively planning for the future.
We have spent July deep in planning and specifications. While we have been doing this, many hacks have plagued the cryptocurrency community: the Parity mult-sig wallet hack, the DashCoin ICO hack among others. We have clearly seen the perils of an evolving, “wild west” approach to cryptocurrency, and how high the stakes are when offering services to keep people’s digital assets safe and secure.
This has demonstrated to us the clear need for a brand and service like Bitquence. Anybody involved in cryptocurrency – now or in the future – needs to know their funds are safe and secure, and have simple and accessible tools to diversify their holdings. At its core, the cryptocurrency movement is about personal freedom, and part of being free is being safe. This has underscored the need for air-tight security in everything we do, which remains our #1 development priority.
We have also thought deeply about how we should approach Bitquence and what our brand stands for. We are humbled and grateful to see the enthusiasm and support for what we are doing in our community. We have also been told that people want to have insight into what we are doing and get updates, and have ways to chart our progress.
What is Bitquence?
Bitquence was born from Shingo’s desire to share his cryptocurrency expertise with the world. Shingo’s aunt asked him to help her buy Ethereum, and he realized the world needed a simpler way to understand and buy crypto. In other words, making Crypto accessible and safe to everyone. From Day 1, we’ve been “people powered” – the community behind Bitquence is a critical piece of our success. Our goal is to harness the power of this community to make Bitquence a unique offering and brand in the marketplace.
We’ve come to realize that Bitquence can be more than just a product, but also a brand that represents both the origins of cryptocurrency started by Satoshi Nakamoto, but also a bridge from the traditional economy to the new world of cryptocurrency. A huge part of this is the community involved.
Our Vision
Our vision is for Bitquence to be the easiest, safest way for consumers to interact with digital coins and assets while remaining interesting and engaging for crypto experts.
Social Crypto
We realized that the community has a tremendous power that can be harnessed through the Bitquence service. This will enable users to learn about the space, while safely managing their own wallets, keys and baskets through the Bitquence Universal Wallet. Additionally, several people have called Shingo the “Zuckerberg of Crypto” due to his deep technical understanding of dozens of crypto coins, currencies and tokens. And it’s kind of cool Shingo is 19 – the age when Zuckerberg started Facebook. We envision both community members and individual coins having profile pages that can be engaged with via integrated Bitquence forums. We envision community members being paid in Bitquence to share their unique perspectives, insights and trades. In other words, a crypto services platform combined with a social network – almost a “Facebook for Crypto” kind of vision. We see tremendous potential combining community and crypto together in this fashion and think this is the best way to describe our future vision for Bitquence.
Three Bitquence Pillars
With all of that in mind, we have come up with what we think is a simple but powerful framework for how we will approach how we build, engage and communicate what Bitquence is all about based on the following three Pillars:
Platform & Product
Education & Learning
Community & Brand
The rest of this document describes how we are thinking about each piece of the framework.
Platform & Product
The Bitquence product and platform come first and foremost. By making crypto accessible and easy, we will give consumers freedom and control. In our whitepaper, we laid out a multi-year roadmap which includes proof of stake, universal wallet, diversified baskets and ultimately a BQX-powered liquidity network. This roadmap remains intact, with an added desired layer of social engagement and interaction.
The Team
We have locked down very talented engineering resources that are going to build this platform. The beauty of the team is that they have experience with both front-end user interface design, back-end scale database, and mobile. Lincoln Lydick is a gifted full-stack engineer who will build the initial Bitquence front-end. Dennis Chen is a database and back-end guru who will now bring to life the power and potential of the Platform. Dennis and Lincoln have built dozens of other award-winning products, and are truly excited about the opportunity to build the core of Bitquence.
Quality and Security
A massive part of this is quality and security. If we have seemed quiet lately, it’s because we have been thinking about a how to ensure maximum quality and security in Bitquence. Pete Rodgers has officially signed on to design our secure infrastructure. Pete has built carrier-grade application data centers in the past, and truly understands how to create a secure environment from the ground up. Additionally, our plan is to create a continuous build-test-deploy environment that combines speed and agility with modularity and security.
Proof of Stake
Based on community feedback, we have prioritized Proof of Stake to the front of the development queue. Why is this? Because this can be an immediately valuable feature to the cryptocurrency community, and an application for the BQX token. This will lead perfectly into the other applications of BQX, namely storage, transfer and balancing fees for the Bitquence wallet.
Mobile
We are building everything in Bitquence ground-up to be mobile first and friendly. It will be built on a modern web architecture, enabling global device support and security. At some point we will release a native mobile app for Android and iPhone, but for the foreseeable future Bitquence will be a mobile web app.
Dev Updates
We will begin providing regular development updates on the team’s projects, what we’ve accomplished, hurdles we are overcoming and progress to goal.
Community & Brand
We realized early in the process that we are not just building a product – we are building a brand. Right now, we are comfortable with our status as a cool niche crypto brand. When people discover Bitquence, they seem to feel a bond to the idea and what the company is trying to accomplish.
The Bitquence Brand
We got dinged in Telegram by someone who said, “You want everybody talking about you” or something along those lines. We disagree – some of the coolest brands in history like Apple, Led Zepplin and Nike started as niche brands that were known and loved by a small group of die-hards. In our experience, this is a fantastic way to start a brand.
We would rather have a smaller, authentic and valuable brand than a big mega-brand that isn’t real. The brand should be “true and new” meaning authentic, real, fresh and modern.
Community Engagement
We want the Bitquence brand to be as trusted as traditional financial companies such as Fidelity, Chase and Morningstar. So how is this possible? First and foremost, it comes with a community that feels informed, involved and engaged. That includes letters like this, notices, updates, etc. This is why one of the first things we will build and release will be a community forum where members of the Bitquence community can interact with the Bitquence team and each other in a safe and moderated environment. As we grow the community, we will have moderators that help us maintain this forum.
Consumer Protection
When it comes to money, having consumer protection and safety is paramount. This means plenty of knowledge, information and education, combined with a service that firmly puts the consumer in control over their own funds and decisions.
Brand Values : Security, Safety, Trust, Knowledge & Community
We also think it’s important for brands to stand for something. At the core of Bitquence, we believe this is :
Security: It is absolutely imperative that Security permeates everything we do. The cryptocurrency ecosystem is riddled with scams and hacks. If a hacker inserts a fraudulent wallet address, they can easily steal money. By building Bitquence from the ground-up to be super-secure, we will build a trusted brand.
Safety: While similar to Security, Safety is about making sure users can avoid mistakes and interact in a secure environment. For example, if you send crypto to the wrong address or forget a private key, it can be gone forever. While we can’t eliminate all of the safety issues in crypto, we can build a service that tilts the odds in favor of consumer protection.
Trust: Bitquence was built on the trust early token participants had in our vision and our capacity to build a platform. As we grow, users will show even more trust by sending funds. We will need to trust (and verify) our users. Operating in a transparent and ethical fashion will build that trust.
Knowledge: Our founder Shingo is deeply knowledgeable in dozens of cryptocurrencies – their technical strengths, economics, fundamentals and risk profiles. By sharing the knowledge widely, we empower people – regardless of whether they use the Bitquence platform or not. Education, learning and knowledge sharing is core to the Bitquence brand.
Community: Community is at the core of Bitquence, and can continue to be a strength as we grow. By having brand advocates, people who believe in our mission and want to be part of it, we multiply the power and reach of Bitquence thousands of times over. Every person who joins our community makes us stronger.
Education & Learning
Making Sense of Crypto
We believe the best way to attract people to Bitquence is to help educate them about cryptocurrency. People are fascinated by cryptocurrency, but beyond Bitcoin, there’s not a lot of knowledge. Helping people understand and categorize coins like Big Cap, Privacy, etc will empower them to make the best decisions.
World of Tokens
There are a dizzying array of tokens and coins available. The sheer number can be overwhelming and confusing for many. As we grow, we will help build deeper community-curated coin profiles that help people understand this world and make better decisions. Whether or not a coin is available on Bitquence, we intend to have resources to help the community better understand it.
Guides & Courses
Bitquence will produce guides similar to the Ultimate Guide to Buying Cryptocurrency that enable consumers to truly understand at a deeper level what the world of crypto is all about. Additionally, Shingo will produce a series of online courses for the Bitquence community about how crypto, blockchain, mining and various cryptocurrencies work on the inner level. By sharing this deep knowledge, we feel we will empower our community and the world. These courses will be a service to Bitquence token holders, as well as a form of customer acquisition and potentially revenue for Bitquence.
Consumer Protection Positions
Bitquence will develop a set of positions around consumer protection and what it is doing. As we look at entering the U.S. market, or other markets that are similarly regulated, it will be important to have documented information on how Bitquence operates and our position as regards to existing laws and regulations. We view this as a component of our education and learning pillar.
Where we go from here
We are excited to embark on this journey. We anticipate many challenges, but also many rewards for Bitquence and our community. Thank you for reading this, and being a part of the journey with us.
The Bitquence Team