Here, I'll make it easier for you by posting all dms without doxxing info.
First dm:
I'd like to resolve the issue of anonymity. Can you send me your personal Facebook link? I will not share it.
Hey Vod, sure, I actually don't have a Facebook, haven't had one in many years but here's my Linkedin instead: [edited doxxing info]
I don't have it listed as a position yet because to be perfectly honest we hadn't gotten around to creating a Linkedin page for the company yet since as mentioned we were and still are only looking to get some user feedback for now, but you can find the link in my bio either way. Anyway, we'll be creating a page for the company over the next week or so as well and I'll get everyone on the team to also add it on their profiles but the entire process might take 1-2 weeks (i.e. for everyone to add it on their profiles).
Anyway, as mentioned, I really do understand your skepticism and I know for a fact you've protected members from a lot of different things over the years (it's not my first time on Bitcointalk, been around since late 2016 - early 2017) so I know a couple of things, but yeah I don't know, it's just something I wanted to build because I figured less tech-savvy people would like it.
Feel free to add me on Linkedin and/or send me a message. We will also be sharing the entire team publicly and etc in a couple weeks but for now we haven't done that because I'm in the process of trying to raise funds from some VCs in order to give some legitimacy to the project and wanted to finish this first before we launch any sort of pre-sale or etc.
Actually the main reason why we opened up the waitlist was so we could get an idea of potential interest and just generally be able to get some feedback from potential users in order to maybe make some last-minute adjustments before release.
I can also give you an approximate schedule as of right now; we're probably looking at opening a presale for an initial batch of rings sometime late July and ship them by the end of September but the launch itself might get a bit delayed, because before actually launching the presale I want to make sure that 1. We managed to raise a round and 2. Send out like 100-200 rings to some youtubers or people who would be open to do a video unboxing / review of the product so people can actually see how it works and etc, especially since the whole Ace Card concept is still a bit new and it might be a bit hard for people to figure it out without any examples so I figured making the sure there's some videos of people unboxing / using the ring would help people have a better idea.
Anyway, to give you some more info about myself, though you can also see it on Linkedin [edited doxxing info]
So yeah, that's kinda it. Send me a message on Linkedin and we can connect. I'll also get back with the US entity details after its done. Cheers
P.S. I'd genuinely love to hear your actual thoughts on the product, MSRP price etc.
Second dm:
Sorry, I am not interested in LinkedIn. Would you consider launching a Kickstarter? They will verify you by birthdate and government records - that will certainly prove you are not a scammer. That is where you should be anyway, instead of suggesting a price reduction with a time limit.
I had considered launching a kickstarter, but there's several problems with it which is why we in the end we decided against it. We may still reconsider it but 1. It's not a decision I can take alone and 2. I can't take that decision just for this reason alone.
Just to be clear though, [edited doxxing info] (the project I already founded and which is live) that I linked in my previous message is listed on Kucoin, Gate, MEXC etc; they all verified my government records if that's what you're referring to. It's been listed for 2+ years actually.
And in any case, the Linkedin profile is not something created yesterday, it's made almost 10 years ago and there's even other people that gave me reviews there etc.
Again, I'm happy to do a video call or anything else to prove that's actually me. I don't know what time limit you're reffering to but I'm guessing you're talking about the discount for the waitlist and we honestly offered it so people would have an incentive to sign up.
Regardless, as mentioned in my previous message, before we launch any sort of sale, we will first finish a fundraiser and announce with whom we raised it and then send at least 100 or so rings to various people to make reviews of the actual product; so it would be quite impossible for anything to be a scam at that point is I guess what I'm trying to say.
I can also give you my twitter though I'm not very active there, it's [edited doxxing info]. Anyway yeah I just don't have a facebook, like you can check yourself you don't need to take my word for it. I just don't see the point of having one.
Third dm:
I had considered launching a kickstarter, but there's several problems with it which is why we in the end we decided against it.
What were the problems with the kickstarter?
First of all, they charge a 10% fee on all funds. Second of all, they don't accept Romania; neither does Indiegogo. Third of all to be successful on it you have to hire one of the many agencies that help with running such a campaign since around 80%+ of kickstarter contributions come from repeat kickstarter users, and we tried talking to them but they were all asking for tens of thousands of dollars + another 5-10% of the raise itself. All of that is secondary though.
The most important reason is they are not very crypto-friendly, I know that recently they are starting to warm up to it after the last investment but I've been following the news on it and until now it's been just talk, to give you my experience with it: 1. All the large marketing agencies for kickstarter, even when we agreed to pay the fees and etc; specifically mentioned they don't accept crypto products - even when hardware and they basically refused us unless we change the product 2. The reason they gave was because they're not successful in general so they didn't recommend we run it as well and 3. They don't actually accept any form of crypto as payment, only credit cards; which basically eliminates almost our entire audience, since it's a hardware wallet for crypto.
(btw, feel free to reach out yourself to basically any of the large kickstarter agenices and just say you're building a crypto wallet and want to get them involved and I'm willing to bet you'll get the same answer. They're just not very friendly towards this for some reason.)
I also looked at other hardware wallets that were startups like safepal and tangem and etc and none of them launched a campaign, probably for a mix of the same reasons.
That's pretty much the reason I ended up deciding to go the VC route and try to raise money and then just do a normal pre-sale like the other wallet startups. Tangem is about to do one for their ring as well in the coming months I believe.
Anyway, again, I'm happy to provide any form of verification or etc, and on the topic, initially I wanted to run a kickstarter campaign but the reality is it's not really made for crypto products and rather than make a bad launch with little success I figured it's better to just do it like this. Regardless, you have my word (and feel free to screenshot this or whatever - you now also have my socials as well) that we will not be opening any form of contribution/sale/etc whatsoever before 1. We finish a fundraise and 2. We already send an initial batch of products to influencers/youtubers etc for them to review on a camera.
And it's not for any other reason than because I don't really think it would have many chances of being successful without the above 2 points to be honest so yeah, that was the plan regardless. We've already ordered the 200 rings and corresponding 800 Ace Cards that we plan to send to youtubers/influencers; they'll probably arrive around 15th of June which is why I said that earliest is probably late July to launch anything so I have some time to finish the fundraise and so the rings actually arrive to the youtubers etc and they can make video reviews beforehand.
Extra dms I sent, no answer
Anyway, if it's ok with you I'll keep you updated as we progress with various things. I'm currently working on a partnership with a larger project in the space which could be good since it's a very good fit for both products and will update you as more things happen.
Either way, thanks for taking so much of your time to spend on this. I imagine it's not great being in your shoes either. Maybe a year later we'll even end up being friends and laughing over this. Anyway, if there's anything else you'll think of that you want me to share just let me know.
I'll also send you updates as I have them if that's ok with you. Cheers, I'll be going to sleep now.
So there you go, I literally copy-pasted our entire PMs without actual doxxing links and/or details/names of projects that can dox.
It's the same as I said above. We're raising a round from VCs. I considered running a kickstarter but decided it's a bad idea for the above reasons.
Lastly, just so we're clear
1. I will dox myself along with the entire team but much rather prefer that I do it myself, at most it will be a maximum of 2 weeks before I do. I know in the dms it says it should've been done by now. It's not because we had more things to do besides this. We will doxx soon either way.
2. The US entity should be out by the end of the coming week and I will share it.
With that said, I genuinely don't understand why you're so against us. Even when I try to answer to your questions you either ignore me or find some new way to attack me.
Nothing in your PMs contained any PII, so your noble proclamation to protect is a waste of breath.
