xGov prop. 162 - ASA.Gold - Introduction Video

id: 162
period: 3
title: ASA.Gold - Introduction Video
author: Everyday Algonaut, Ludo Scholtz (@scholtz)
discussions-to: xGov 162: ASA.Gold by scholtz · Pull Request #162 · algorandfoundation/xGov · GitHub
company_name: ASA.Gold DAO
category: Community
focus_area: User Onboarding
open_source: Yes
amount_requested: 16000
status: Final

Abstract

ASA.Gold is gold tokenization project on Algorand with novel way to audit gold reserves - everybody can see the composition of gold reserves. Each gold item in the reserves is marked with serial number and NFT is minted for it. Each NFT is purchasable at the onchain eshop, and owners can resell it at the secondary NFT marketplace or he can redeem the gold item by parcel delivery to his home address.

Team

Scholtz - Product owner. Active on Algorand forum, runs a few projects in Algorand ecosystem such as the VoteCoin, A-Wallet, Aramid Bridge, Stabilitas, ASA.Gold. Has been winner in few hackathons, such as Algorand encode hack 2021, EUvsVirus, Swiss blockchain hackathon 2021, Bitcoin bankathon, Encode DAO hack, Algo HackJam, Greenhouse hack III, Mega Ace Hackathon, …

Experience with Algorand

Scholtz & Co is management company for ASA.Gold DAO.

Scholtz & Co is relay node runner.

We provide many open source tools to help algorand communities - scholtz (scholtz) / Repositories · GitHub

Everyday Algonaut channel

Present Proposal

With this grant request we request funds to create introduction video with minimum content:

• How to buy gold token using asa.gold website
• How to buy gold token using AWallet
• How to sell gold token
• How to buy gold item from reserves (NFT)
• How to do secondary sale of the NFT
• How to request physical delivery of real world gold coin using the ownership of the NFT

Benefits for the community

• Better marketing for asa.gold project and showcase of algorand as great blockchain for RWA use cases

Additional information

Other links with discussion:

• Reddit - Dive into anything
• Reddit - Dive into anything
• xGov 162: ASA.Gold by scholtz · Pull Request #162 · algorandfoundation/xGov · GitHub

what are the costs associated with the videos and why isnt that in the best interest of the asa gold team to do them anyways? why should xgovs pay for it, what are we getting for that? have you seen any significant adoption of asa gold in the ecosystem?

I’m struggling to understand how making a video - a walkthrough/tutorial for that matter - is going to cost 16k. Can you give some kind of breakdown?

The costs associated with this xgov requests are:

Processing of the xgov proposal (writing proposal, explaining it, replying on comments… ): 5 - 20 hours
Doing video: 3 - 8 hours
Coding: 0 - 40 hours
Taking algo risk: 50% of the price

As 3 projects at build a bull hack seemed to be better we did not receive any seed funding nor any of the algorand VCs has funded the project so far.

At the moment the TVL of the Gold token vs other tokens is approx $15k and Gold DAO token is over $12k

Since the project start at mid november we have increased the gold reserves by 25% and we intend to grow further.

We can go to general public only after we have enough gold in the reserves so that if person wants to buy a real gold coin he does not influence the price significantly.

I want the gold token to be used by general stores or restaurants as form of payment as they cut their costs for the terminals, but before we can approach the restaurants with some incentive program we must grow.

This may be the killer app for algorand, however we must grow first and without funds to do so its quite difficult.

have you ever considered when writing these xGov proposals, and realising it is taking more hours than making a video - that you might as well just make the video instead?

why has this proposal even passed to voting? It wasn’t discussed here at all, wtf is this?!?

Sure, i love to work for free… you do as well? Thats why I have made already over 20 videos promoting algorand

I have done a lot of free work for algorand because i believe that the tech is the best from all other blockchains out there… Check this out for example scholtz (scholtz) / Repositories · GitHub

But seriously… Because the algorand came to the state that work may be even paid, i try to participate to get some funds. I recommend to everybody do the same and lets all build and move algorand forward.

@expertgovernor You do not have to be rude. Each grant proposal has dedicated link where the discussion should be done. We have pointed it to the github pull request, the same as other proposals. The adri wrote there to link also discussion to the forum, so in the link above is discussions at reddits, and github. I am in favor to see the requirement for all xgov proposals to be done uniformly at one place. I think the AF is cooking something in this regards.

Its marketing your own product not working for free

Make marketing videos = increase usage = you earn money

Instead you’d rather spend 5-20hrs to pay for 3-8 hours work

I consider the xgov as one of the marketing channels… Is it good that you now know about the gold tokenization with publicly auditable gold reserves. Btw, what do you think about that? Have you seen any gold tokenization platform publishing the composition of their reserves to last nano gram?

Clearly i am being paid now to chat with you and to marketize the product further, and it is well spent time. Its not just the video time that is promoting the algorand ecosystem, but also these discussions and everything around.

I think how you’ve gone about marketing is bad PR.

It’s given me a negative view on ASA.gold and Vote Coin, and I’d unlikely touch either due to the way you navigate the eco.

So no, I dont think it’s well spent time.

Thanks for the feedback

What can I improve?

I am not rich guy who can put million dollars to the asa. For 3 years i am on algorand and was winner at almost every algo hackathon, I had no luck in being funded by any VC.

For example for the asa.gold project we need a liquidity. We are first project to issue the MiCA compliant whitepapres. The gold is auditable by public because of the onchain eshop we have created (and were not paid for), we have created secondary nft marketplace so that if you buy the gold coin you can either redeem it to your home address or you can sell it at higher price…

Why builders are not rewarded if they do something useful? And because we ask for little grant we get negative PR? Like AF is doing direct investments to them selected projects in scale of 10 to 50x larger then is whole xgov program and nobody complains.

The negative PR is not because you’re asking for a grant (I’m supportive of many of the various devs and proposals) but what you’re asking for.

If you think people don’t complain about AF direct investments I don’t know where you’ve been

Improvements: the website section ‘Learn about Proof of Reserves’ has zero text to learn about proof of reserves.

The website links to your personal twitter, which discusses all things Algorand - very hard to find info or news on ASA Gold.

If liquidity is an issue, and you’re not a rich guy, maybe a tokenised Gold market isn’t a business you can scale.

Deliverable for xGov162: https://youtu.be/rbltuKC228g