INTRODUCTION
Atlo is proposing that Kujira become our home chain for the second iteration of our launchpad aggregator. Atlo was conceptualised in the second half of 2021 around 3 core ideas:
- Including the community regarding which projects were launched.
- Making it easier for projects to launch.
- Fair allocation methods and more opportunities for participation.
This meant the community had greater influence and more skin in the game, and project teams could focus on the product they were building without the distraction of everything that goes into launching a new token. We now have the opportunity to take what we have learnt and apply it to a greater and more holistic vision.
Read on for more about why we are proposing the Home chain we are, as well as where we see Atlo going in the future.
WHAT IS THE NEW ATLO
The new Atlo Launch aggregation architecture is chain agnostic with the Home Chain being the central technology choice that will underpin all Atlo functionality. Atlo will not be positioned as a “Specific Chain Launchpad” but will create a space for all chains to create a community of projects and people to launch, and fund irrespective of where they operate.
WHY KUJIRA AS A HOME CHAIN
Simply put, the above required a chain that met a certain level of technical criteria, a community, and had the roadmap and team commitment to bring our vision of a transparent and simple multi chain set of launch and funding aggregation services into reality. Features that include paying fees in multiple native tokens, settlement speed, an order book DEX, and a native Wallet led us in the direction of Kujira and after running a series of Proof of Concepts, Kujira became our technology preference.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE HOME CHAIN
Before explaining more about the future of Atlo, we see the following benefits for the home chain.
Synergy — Atlo and Kujira have a history, an overlapping community and shared ethos we feel will benefit the Kujira, Atlo and Cosmos communities.
Increase in Transactions — Whilst the home chain will often be in the background, it will be used to kick off every launch mechanic and post launch service, across Cosmos and ultimately EVM chains. These transactions will extend far beyond just launches, and include vesting, claiming, staking, swapping and other aggregation services throughout Cosmos.
Increase in Fees — Increased transactions on Kujira mean increase in fees generated on Kujira.
USK Demand — With the imminent release of USK, having fundraising activities hosted on Kujira, increases the demand for USK both on Cosmos, and as we expand into EVM chains.
Increase in IBC Traffic — Bringing together communities and funds from across Cosmos, Atlo will contribute toward an increase in IBC traffic.
FIN Pairs — Atlo plans to automatically facilitate the proposals of new pairs on FIN as they launch through Atlo, both on Kujira and throughout the Cosmos, bringing more volume to FIN aiding in its goal to be the highest utilised DEX in Cosmos. We believe the Order book style Dex is core to growth of projects especially without the need for projects to provide any liquidity.
Fee sharing — Atlo will align with the current standard of creating sustainable revenue to the chain and will commit to passing on a portion of launch and transaction fees to Kujira Stakers to aid in the sustainability of the Kujira vision.
Increased Eyes on Kujira — Using Kujira as the hub of our design puts its technology front and centre of launches from around Cosmos and ultimately EVM chains.
Technology — As Atlo builds out cross / interchain technology, parts of it will be available to new protocols looking to launch on Kujira.
THE NEW ATLO
We’ll outline our vision, our history and where we want to go including our plans for a rebrand, the token and the Atlo Rating.
VISION
Simplifying the use of crypto for everyone.
OUR HISTORY
In the three months between our own token launch and the collapse of Terra in late May 2022, we:
- Facilitated 6 sales across 5 projects
- Funded over 1.5 million UST across 1500 individual backers
- Facilitated 3 TGEs
- Provided development and Code Review services to projects in need of assistance.
- Added several customisations of our launch process to meet the needs of projects requiring bespoke solutions
- Held 9 governance proposals concerning projects and protocol changes
When Terra collapsed we had the following in the pipeline:
- Our first cross chain launch confirmed on NEAR with NFT Platform SeatLab
- Secured our biggest target to date with Terra focussed privacy protocol, VOID
- New launch methods, including a farming mechanism, were weeks away from launch
- Confirmed partnerships with leading Terra Protocols (Prism) to use and support their Forge platform
- Advanced discussions with a number of Terra protocols looking to launch.
THE REBRAND
Atlo will rebrand. The collapse of Terra ended a chapter in our journey, and new ideas combined with new experience deserve the benefit of a fresh start.
Chain interoperability will be a key factor in the ongoing success and usefulness of the cryptocurrency industry. As users become more chain agnostic, the capacity to effortlessly move between chains will take centre stage as an integral functionality of any useful platform.
We envision a platform allowing projects from all over the Crypto landscape to launch with the support of backers irrespective of which chain they call “home”, offering all the tools, and services necessary to get people and projects launched.
Rebranding symbolises the evolution of our vision; a chain agnostic portal focused on connectivity between blockchains to allow customers a simple and clear way to find good projects, while providing a set of Value Added Services to make their crypto journey simpler.
A LAUNCH AGGREGATOR
We will develop an “Amazon-esque” Launchpad. Our platform will provide a simple and secure mechanism for backers from any chain or environment to contribute towards projects they have an interest in.
Each chain will have their own “store front” to showcase projects building on their chain, akin to a brand’s shop front on retail aggregation sites. This effectively gives each supporting chain their own launchpad which accepts tokens from across the crypto landscape and exposes them to a larger audience base.
Quality is paramount when it comes to selecting projects to launch and we will work with Chain Foundations and other representatives to secure respected, professional teams looking for reasonable backers to build quality products. Our role is not to deny people the opportunity to launch, but at least highlight the risk associated with each raise.
WHAT SETS US APART
We’ve done this once already. We have the benefit of experience and are ready to do it better.
Simplicity promotes adoption. Navigating a new chain is daunting, so people avoid it. Removing this opens the scope of opportunity for anyone to find new projects.
A launchpad can become the de facto starting point for users’ exploration of new chains. In addition, integrating multiple chains is an opportunity to harness the strengths of each.
The launch platform will ensure that the specific needs and ethos of each supported chain is taken into consideration when setting up a pipeline of launches. Every chain offers a different value proposition. This needs to form part of the overall integration and presence on the platform whilst attracting a wide cross chain audience and exposing chains to new audiences.
Low Risk Funding and Sale Mechanics — Over time we’ll enable funding using a distributed basket of stable coins + the native coin, or stable, of the chain the project is launching on. Stables can include BUSD, USDT & USDC. Native token handling will be integrated as we integrate each chain. This provides a balanced set of currencies for projects to manage risk from the start and simultaneously supports the Layer 1 of the chain they are building on. It will be a long road to get there, so expect an iteritive approach.
We Launch, So Projects Can Build — As a one stop shop, sale mechanics and post-sale features like vesting and token claiming will be entirely handled by us. Mechanism options will be simple and current. On launch they will include both a standard swap and a price discovery mechanic.
A Large Community — The chain agnostic approach, and select basket of tokens, opens the door to a larger community of backers and a more risk averse means of raising funds.
Legal Compliance — All backers will be KYC’ed and their KYC status stored on-chain.
Quality Driven — Projects will need to do more in their submission process to represent the quality of their project, ranging from chain endorsements, to deep dives into their project environment. Earning the support of backers will require teams to go to great lengths to prove their worth.
Be Viewed Among Your Peers — We will present projects in areas of the platform dedicated to specific chains or ecosystems.
Meet Backers Where They Are — Backers will be able to contribute a supported set of stablecoins across supported chains.
Chain Agnostic — Backers from any corner of crypto can browse projects across all supported chains and make decisions based on project quality, irrespective of whether they are familiar with and active on the home chain of that project.
Safety — Distribution of funds to projects will only happen on transfer of tokens to protect backers’ funds. Further release schedules will be added including automated vested release of funds to projects.
Project Quality — There are a lot of projects out there and quality is paramount to brand reputation. On chain quality criteria and ranking will give backers a starting point to make educated decisions on their decisions. Examples include:
- Chain Endorsement: A set process where the chain goes through an evaluation of a project ending in the project receiving an official endorsement, akin to a verified account receiving the “Blue Tick” on certain social platforms. It’s a stamp of approval. The chain, or chain foundation, or delegated community, is not paid to do this, nor are there any sort of ratings. It’s equivalent to the chain saying “we have reviewed this project and it meets our standards”. The expected result is a mechanism to distinguish between high and low calibre projects.
- Recognised Venture Capitalists: Projects use VCs; How recognisable are the VCs
- VC Endorsements: VC firms can endorse a project looking to launch.
- Project Peer Endorsements: Other projects in the ecosystem can vouch for projects looking to launch.
- Product Readiness: Is there a live product? Are their code commits that can be reviewed?
- Audited Code: If there is live code, is the code audited?
- Doxxed Teams: Are teams doxxed?
- Community feedback: Community feedback on launch proposals will establish the risk of the project and we will make that risk known to potential backers.
Manage Your Wealth — Claim, stake and transfer your tokens in one place through a growing set of Value Added Services. Launch functionality is our sole focus right now but it’s the start of the journey, not the summit. Once our launchpad is established we will explore tools and services which crypto users need that generate yield, facilitate trading and help users manage their crypto portfolio.
OBJECTIVES
Our immediate focus is building a launchpad.
- Be a chain agnostic launchpad aggregator (ie. not tied to a chain but rather take deposits from multiple chains, and able to distribute tokens from multiple chains to a group of backers).
- Create a sustainable revenue stream by providing multiple chain aggregation products.
- Incorporate the ethos and strengths/features/USPs of supported chains so their communities and projects launch in a manner that is familiar and uses the qualities which attracted their community in the first place (eg Secret’s confidentiality).
- Foster relationships with key foundations across chains to ensure quality projects come forward.
- Reduce the risk to launchers of fundraising on a specific platform in a specific currency to a niche audience.
- Set the baseline, then grow into more products that fit around tokens.
- Make it easy for a Launcher by offering launch methods which suit them and ensure the launch process has minimal barriers to entry while complying with legal requirements.
- Make it easy for a project Backer — satisfy the needs of backers by easily facilitating deposits from multiple stables and communities.
- Build a KYC, legally compliant platform.
- Re-imagine the Atlo Rating as a stand alone product which assists users to identify and rank prospective buyers and other types of market participants based on need-specific criteria.
- Ensure scaling is easy and not heavily resource dependent.
ROADMAP
Features that will be included in our road map:
- Develop and release an MVP with a single raise method on Cosmos, that facilitates a launch on a single chain.
- Ongoing Chain support to encourage more projects and backers
- Introduction of more stable coin support.
- Ongoing Native wallet integrations to receive more routes to funding for backers
- New launch methods
- The new Atlo Rating
- Crypto specific products and Value Added Services.
- Swaps
- Access to Services across chains that help projects launch and customers manage their crypto portfolios
THE FLOW OF A LAUNCH
We’ll automate as much of the process as is feasible. Human intervention for evaluation, verification and other processes will be included as safeguards; a completely automated process carries a higher risk. At a high level there are 5 parts to the launch process:
- Submission — projects submit an application to launch with a minimum set of project and team criteria.
- Quality Evaluation — an evaluation process to ensure that projects meet a minimum level of quality and risk.
- Launch — The launch process whereby backers are KYC’ed and funds are collected. Multiple launch mechanisms are being evaluated to match current and future market conditions.
- Token Distribution — Distributing the tokens to participants.
- Post launch — Token management for each project.
GOVERNANCE
Governance will be integral to the platform with proposals put forward to token holders as and when required. Governance can also be offered as a service to tokens of integrated chains.
THE RATING & TOKEN
The previous Atlo Rating will be renamed to align with the new brand. It will be re-introduced in the future.
It is important that the Rating is used as and when needed, so as to offer value without becoming a barrier to entry.
The rating needs to be simplified, potentially basing it on chain interaction as opposed to holding a token. A Rating could be influenced by:
- Governance participation on (any) chain
- Staking / Holding tokens
- Possible Delegation to Evaluators
- Other chain participation events that can be defined as the platform evolves.
- Holding of our new token
The Rating may be spun out into a standalone product, a tool capable of adjusting to suit the needs and criteria of the user to optimise rating and ranking any data set.
The new rating could be used for a similar set of benefits as the Token itself. A few ideas follow below:
- Access to specific tiers of raise like Series A or Series B with a minimum ticket size
- Benefits in a sale
- Earlier Access
- Lower cost per token
- Exclusive access to raises
- Allocations if sales are over subscribed
- Priority access to features
- Privileges
- It will become a rating system based on on-chain activity, not based only on our token, but rather the participation and support of any chain supported by us.
Our token will not be distributed at the exact genesis of the platform. It will be launched as and when demand requires it. It will be distributed to previous $ATLO holders. Tokenomics will be reworked to suit the new environment and business model.
The token value will represent the interest and value in the ecosystem.
Utility for the new token will be simple to start and will grow with demand with more information on that to follow.
SUMMARY
The new Atlo plans to take a fresh look at fund raising in the crypto space that sets us apart from chain tailored launchpads. We welcome the opportunity to use Kujira as our home of choice and look forward to contributing to Grown Up Defi.
LFL!