Camille A. Hanard
AMA Recap: Balthazar DAO
Speaker: John Stefanidis, CEO of Balthazar DAO
Date of the event: May 27, 2022
DeFi Teller
Hey everyone! We're kicking off our AMA with the CEO of Balthazar DAO John Stefanidis! The event will center around the work of the platform, which is interesting in its essence and aims to help NFT gamers progress, as well as provide in-depth information about popular play-to-earn games.
Hi John! Did I get the essence of Balthazar DAO right?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Hey all! Yes you nailed it! We want to help build a self-sustaining, wealth-building community while bringing web2 gamers over to amazing web3 gaming experiences.
DeFi Teller
Great! Before we move on to questions from our readers, we usually ask the speaker to tell us about the main goal, the mission of the project, and describe the development path of the platform - the main achievements in the past, what you are doing now, and what plans you have for the near future.
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
We believe in the fundamentals of NFT gaming. Fundamentally, it serves as the creation of IP for gamers (that spend so many hours and so much money) in games. Imagine the Ronaldo you unpacked in FIFA was an NFT that is unique to you! On top of this, the creation of new economies that can support people in developing countries - it’s revolutionary and exciting
We’ve closed a seed round led by Animoca brands, Algorand, Fantom, Pluto Digital, DACM, SDV, and many other great names. We used the funds to build the MVP of our platform which includes research, launchpad, NFT management platform, and portfolio NFT marketplace. We’ve started with EVM compatibility and are looking to scale across chains.
We’re also raising a private round now and speaking to some major players in the web2 gaming world to bring their games to the web3 world.
We’re building the steam of the web3 world!
DeFi Teller
Wow, that's impressive, John! Now, let's move on to questions from our readers so you can tell us in more detail about the platform.
The first question is rather simple, but nice to start with.
Why the name Balthazar? Tell us about your team’s experience prior to Balthazar.
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
My team and I named Balthazar based on inspiration from our favorite restaurant in New York, and a favorite character in a TV show who flips a coin; and a few other secret references. We also thought it aligned well with the gaming industry.
Our team has experience in a mix of businesses, like building and selling a crypto exchange to FTX, running a tech business worth $650M, bootstrapping and scaling e-commerce businesses to eight figures, growth marketing, and financial strategy.
DeFi Teller
How does Balthazar generate revenue? What are the fees you charge?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Launchpad has a 2.5% transaction fee and establishment fee, NFT management - 10-30% clip on assets we lend on behalf of investors (similar to guild model but we don’t buy the assets), and the marketplace has a transaction fee of 2.5%.
As per research reports, we never charge for reports but it unlocks a lot of early-round token opportunities.
DeFi Teller
Who are your competitors, what makes you better than them?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
We don’t have a direct competitor but the way we differentiate ourselves from other launchpad and marketplaces is through three key ways:
1. Our research is unique and defensible. We have built a brand around the reports we’ve put out and have trended #1 on things like the Ethereum subreddit and the Immutable subreddit for reports on these chains. Through this, we’re able to drive higher quality, more informed token buyers for games.
2. We tie it all together. Once someone has read a report and purchases tokens on a launchpad, they can immediately deploy the assets (if the game is live) into our backlog of 50,000 gamers and earn a yield on these assets. This is currently not offered by any Launchpad or marketplace.
3. Our pNFT marketplace allows you to mint and trade bundles of NFT assets with the gamers attached. This is a tremendously valuable product for NFT buyers and is not offered on any other marketplace. You’re essentially buying a small (or large) guild in a few clicks.
DeFi Teller
Speaking of the research work you do…
You say your game research is led by LoL player NicoThePico, but how big is the team or is it just him?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Yes! He is our chief gaming officer. He has a team of four under him (about to be five). Kim, Sigurd, Heidi, and Luke. All with gaming, data, or content backgrounds. Sigurd is also ex front-end engineer. We call them our Alpha Team.
DeFi Teller
Next up, I have three questions about scholars. I'll send them all at once, perhaps you'll be more comfortable combining your answer into one story about this concept.
Could you please explain in simple terms (but in detail) what the Scholars concept is? What do you need to do to become one?
Tell us more about the interaction with scholars - where does the funding for them come from?
Are there/will there be any competitions between the scholars?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Great questions! I’ll answer them one by one.
1. A scholar is a gamer who uses borrowed NFT gaming assets (think charizard in Pokémon), to play and earn in a game. They don’t have to pay for the asset but the yield is shared when they earn within the game (when they win battles for example). The earnings can be up to $20 a day and typically the scholars are from developing countries where this sort of income is impactful (and if they can’t afford to buy the NFT gaming assets themselves).
In order to apply for a scholarship, you would go on the Balthazar website, connect your wallet, choose the name you wish to apply for, and fill in the form. You will then be directed to Discord and if chosen by the team, notified of next steps.
2. Typically “guilds” provide the assets - guilds are essentially large communities of gamers that have raised a lot of money from VC or funds to purchase NFT assets or buy into games. They then bring scholars on to use the assets they’ve bought to earn a yield for both themselves and the scholar.
Alternatively at Balthazar, we act as an intermediary and use funds from retail / institutional people to provide the scholars with the assets to play (without having to own the assets ourselves). Risk averse strategy but we reduce our earnings.
3. Typically there is, as the demand for scholarships and the ability to play to earn exceeds the supply of NFT assets and funds available to enable this. We have a selection process to qualify the committed gamers!
DeFi Teller
Sounds interesting, so your objective is basically to bring all these people together.
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
We want to bring gamers, games, and people interested in buying NFT and tokens together (whether they’re individuals or larger groups). This will enable the web3 gaming world to come to life!
DeFi Teller
And three more questions about scholars, a little more in-depth.
Do scholars earn funds directly in their wallet, or do they have to keep them in your platform and withdraw them from there? If so, how often can one cash-out?
What happens if your scholar suffers a loss in the game?
Are there any limits for the amount of shifts scholars can take per day? Computer games are seen as addictive, do you do something to combat this addiction, as pay-to-earn models are very attractive?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
1. Initially, the funds go into our wallets (as we own the assets), and we have built automatic payment systems to distribute to our scholars. We run payments every day but typically the payout period is determined by the game (Axie Infinity has it locked for two weeks for example) so they’re paid every two weeks.
2. If a scholar takes a loss that’s ok, but we have training systems to ensure that they’re playing well and learning along the way. If a scholar consistently underperforms or doesn’t meet the minimum time, they could lose their scholarship.
3. There’s often a limit to the number of times they can play (this is dictated by the game) - so typically a scholar won’t play more than 2-3 hours a day.
DeFi Teller
Thank you, John! And now a line of questions about the other side of Balthazar functionality - the process of listing games on the platform.
Many believe the GameFi field is mostly Ponzi schemes, how do you choose the games you include? How do you research whether their economic model is sustainable?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Firstly, if a game is fun, it breaks the idea of it being a ponzi! So this is what we assess before anything. If people draw non-monetary value out of a game that’s a win! And this is key to the success of the web3 gaming space.
For game economic assessment, we analyze comparative systems and measure performance. We also measure and assess the mint / burn mechanic of a game and assess if it’s sustainable.
We also look at how many tokens a game is running in its system! A 2-3 token system is a lot harder to sustain than a 1-token system.
DeFi Teller
Ok, thank you John, and to make sure I understand the process correctly - you research (and publish your findings) every game you support, am I right?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Even games we don’t support. Games we think are interesting or unique.
DeFi Teller
Are your smart contracts audited?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Yes absolutely, before we go live, they will be audited.
With blockchains where smart contracts can be deployed, we deploy smart contracts that are peer-reviewed and security audited and help provide trustless delegation. Where smart contracts cannot be utilized, assets are stored in cold wallets, or key-wrapped hot wallets, with limited access, multiple checkpoints when initiating transactions, and monitoring.
DeFi Teller
And which blockchains have you chosen?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
At the moment we're starting with EVM compatible chains - but are also chatting with Algorand, Fantom, and Tezos.
DeFi Teller
How do you compensate for your investment if the game goes bankrupt? I understand that you do a careful selection and research of games to support, but do you have a plan for this kind of situation?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
From an asset perspective, Balthazar as a DAO does not hold any assets in games, so the impact would be minimal on our bottom line. For our lenders - the yields are usually very large, so typically holders of those assets could have made their money back at that point.
But it's a risk that's typically beyond our control - for our launchpad we will do our best to offer games that are thoroughly audited on our end and have teams we believe can see it through.
DeFi Teller
How do you combat in-game exploits that may result in ban, what if I rent my NFT and the scholar uses it for something illegal in-game, will I be punished?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
This is a great question - "multi-accounting" is a great example here in Axie Infinity. Again, it's hard to control but we run random audits of our scholars' accounts to ensure there's no suspicious behavior (SLP payments coming from multiple guild/platform wallets).
We are also very quick to remove a scholar if we pick them up for doing anything illegal in a game.
DeFi Teller
If I understand correctly, lenders can sell their pNFTs on your marketplace, does that make the buyers of these pNFTs lenders themselves once they become owners of a pNFT?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
That's correct! If someone purchases a pNFT, they are essentially buying all of the NFT's within it, with the scholars playing.
This will then sit in their Metamask wallet and they will receive the yield based on the earnings of the scholar. Your pNFT, earnings, and payout periods are all trackable on your custom Balthazar dashboard.
DeFi Teller
Tell us about the most difficult moment you’ve encountered when interacting with scholars and play-to-earn teams?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
We're so lucky to have an amazing team of over 80 within the DAO that manage a lot of the scholars directly, but the most challenging element of the NFT management side of our platform is keeping gamers motivated when in-game currencies drop and they are earning less!
DeFi Teller
That's applicable to the whole DeFi sector as well, I guess. In a climate like the one, we're seeing now, for example.
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Exactly
DeFi Teller
Okay, and the last four questions about the upcoming token launch and your future plans.
How do you plan to incentivize public sale participants to hodl?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
We have some really solid utility for our token (BZR) which includes staking the BZR token to participate in early-round token opportunities through our launchpad not often available to the retail market.
We also offer a lottery system where the more you stake the higher chance you get of having a bigger allocation in a public sale on our launchpad. And beyond that, a standard staking protocol to incentivise people providing liquidity. It's also a great speculative hold as we're a great DAO!
DeFi Teller
Is your token going to have burn mechanisms?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
This is actually mentioned in our white paper around the deflationary state, (after we've distributed our community tokens) we will use profits to buy back and burn and distribute to stakers.
DeFi Teller
How soon after the launch of the token will the governance platform start to function?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Within a few months of launch! It's a key part of the DAO but we want to make sure we release governance correctly.
DeFi Teller
And the last question for you John.
Could you tell us more about the upcoming launchpad platform?
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Sure, the launchpad will be going live early June - we have a lot of amazing games lined up (on EVM-compatible chains to begin) ready to launch. We will be offering these games to our community so that they can buy the assets (and in some cases deploy them into our scholars).
There will be two parts to the launchpad 1. Public launchpad 2. Private launchpad, where we offer early-round deals for our customers that wish to stake.
We're launching the first launchpad first, offering both tokens and NFTs.
DeFi Teller
Thanks, John! It was very informative, I think the gamers here are getting the hang of it.
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Awesome! Great to hear. Some really good questions!
DeFi Teller
Thank you, John! We were really pleased to have you here! And good luck with your launch!
And I, in turn, need to remind you of the official Balthazar DAO project links. Stay safe and remember that the team members won't send you private messages first!
Website: https://bltzr.gg/
Telegram: https://t.me/balthazarguild
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BalthazarTeam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/balthazarguild/
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/balthazar
John Stefanidis | Balthazar DAO
Thanks heaps, if you would like to stay in touch with our upcoming launch, register on our EOI list here:
https://bltzr.gg/expression-of-interest/
