AMA #3 With Apollo
by Marvin Dumont
Here are questions and answers from the AMA (Ask Me Anything) session held on Jan. 21, 2020. Follow Apollo’s official Telegram for more AMAs.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #1
Apollo is proving itself within the crypto space, and we are on some good solid exchanges. Myself, along with many others here, enjoy using BitMart which has turned out to be a great exchange to use. But as you well know, a lot of people base their buying decisions on trust.
For example, if I were looking to purchase something I instantly go to Amazon before I look anywhere else as I trust amazon. Binance seems to be one of if not the most sought-after exchange for any coin/token to be listed on. I know previously you have explained that Apollo is a lot harder to be integrated and also costs a lot more. But do you think taking that step could do wonders for Apollo?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
After our relaunch, which is coming within a matter of weeks, aside from launching our own CEX which competes with the best exchanges out there. In terms of convenience, security and features, we will be focusing on listing on the best exchanges in the industry. Binance is one of those.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #2
After noticing that the bounty/airdrop has given Apollo Currency an incredible social media following, and with the re-branding taking place, do you think it may be worth doing another video/trailer representing Apollo’s new look/change and new technology releases so we as a community can share it and help spread more awareness? Also a video is far easier for new investors to understand and is more captivating than a simple written message.
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
We are working on explainer videos for every single product. These are coming with absolute certainty. New explainer videos will be essential in getting our message across. Our new website will showcase these as they are completed.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #3
Will APL coins be used for cross-border payments?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
Yes, with near certainty.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #4
I wanted to ask [what] the procedure with Jorge Sebastio is. What exactly is planned? How will he be integrated and what influence do you think he will have on Apollo? In what areas will he provide support? Is there already anything?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
Jorge is one of the highest-rated security experts in the industry. Apart from potentially working [with] the team at certain blockchain events, Jorge will be guiding Apollo Fintech on many major security decisions and be one of our many expert voices that ensures we are one of the safest and most stable blockchains in the industry.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #5.1
For various transaction fees, we are referred to ApolloWiki, which is a community site. Shouldn’t all the (minimum) transaction prices be on the (new) Apollo website?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
With a product as large as Apollo, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of bits of information to explain and display. Wiki does not cover everything, so we will be working in the future on better ways to display and organize this information, but until then we will most likely utilize the wiki.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #5.2
Has (at least a part of) the core team of Apollo Fintech invested in the Apollo currency coin?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
Almost every full-time team member, if not every one, has invested in APL. Many have done so heavily and still do to this day.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #5.3
I hope the Apollo team feels the appreciation from the (majority of the) community. Is there anything we could do to help the Apollo team more?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
This means a lot. We do feel the love from the majority of the community and appreciate every bit of it. It is a stressful industry, a lot of work and some days are tough, but when we have our victorious moments and our community is excited, it makes it all worth it.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #5.4
There are 9 products/services (or 10, with the secret project). How much of those products will create demand for the Apollo Currency coin directly, and how much of those only indirectly? I’m asking since there was some doubt in the community forum, so it’s good to have this addressed IMHO.
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
Most of them will use Apollo in a direct way, such as being powered by Apollo Blockchain. I believe all of them will have a very significant impact on Apollo’s value and potentially price.
Our “secret” project, for example, is invaluable because it not only creates a demand for APL as a currency, it promotes it in a very big way, indefinitely.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #6
In terms of government interest or potential use cases in Africa, is there anything you can reveal regarding how Lesotho or other governments intend to implement the Apollo Blockchain or Apollo Currency itself?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
We have a very large amount of interest in most countries that we have spoken with for a number of solutions, not just one.
Upon launch of our new website, almost all of our government products will be public. Everyone will be able to not only read details about them but actually see images of real prototypes. Right now I can’t say “this nation wants this and this nation is very interested in this” because that would have the potential to ruin talks.
What will happen when our products are live is you will have the ability to look at each one and determine the possibilities for yourself. A lot of it is obvious if you read the news at all, much of the time their needs are public. The one thing that I can say is the majority of governments are interested in use cases revolving around a blockchain-powered currency and bank-to-bank transfers. The honest truth is the use of any one of our products by any government would provide an unprecedented use case for Apollo.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #7
What are the three countries/states that Apollo is most heavily pursuing to sign on? Not including Lesotho.
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
In regards to our biggest focus areas …, out of the countries that I can openly talk about, the top targets would probably be Egypt, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #8
Is there roughly a date when we will expect to start seeing actual utility of Apollo by governments and/or major organizations?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
When there is a date we can make public, we will certainly share it. I understand it’s hard not to know what’s happening or when it will happen. The nature of government is usually slow and redundant processes that have to be completed in order for big changes to take place. I can certainly confirm that we are moving in those processes with a number of countries.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #9
How will ARK inter-operate with legacy fintech systems?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
This will be much easier to explain once our products are released and the details of how they function are made public. I will revisit this question in the next AMA after our website launch to give clarity.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #10
When will the new website be out?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
The time has finally arrived. We will be announcing release dates this week, along with some teasers of what is coming. The website specifically is very close to launch, as well as everything that goes with it.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #11
Will there be a minimum withdrawal without KYC? So many exchanges [allow] up to 2 BTC withdrawal a day without KYC. Will our CEX be the same?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
We will have a withdrawal without KYC for those conducting normal crypto-to-crypto trades. The good news is that even when KYC is necessary, one of our biggest benefits will be lightning-fast approvals, such as those needed for KYC. We intend on offering the fastest customer service in cryptocurrency.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #12
In terms of marketing, [are] there any plans to use a social media campaign. Reach costs pennies and I tested running an Apollo ad myself and Facebook Ad Manager approved it. It cost about 4 cents a view. It could be a good way to get brand recognition as word-of-mouth takes awhile as we’ve seen with Bitcoin.
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
Yes, in the past we have ran ads in just about every social media platform but ended up getting shut down mostly because of the crypto-related content. However, immediately following our big launch, and the release of our new explainer videos, we intend on pushing very hard again to see where the envelope is now. Our plans are not to stop at solely advertising on social media, we want to go much further than that which will be explained in detail soon.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #13
Would a price increase now be bad news for talks with the African nations or is it better to stay low until the time is right?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
It would not have much effect on their products or their desire to implement them.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #14
Can you please give us an updated 2020 roadmap?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
We will be releasing a company-wide 2020 roadmap that will incorporate more than just Apollo mainnet milestones on our new site. It will be quite a bit more exciting than it has been in the past.
Estimates will be very conservative, so you will be able to get an idea of the maximum time it will take to release each element. Unfortunately, R&D estimates are the best that we can do, however we are getting into more use cases that are not built on blockchain but utilize blockchain. Those are much easier to plan and estimate accurately.
COMMUNITY QUESTION #15
Spencer Dinwiddie just tokenized his contract on the Ethereum blockchain and Russel Okung has been very vocal about being paid in Bitcoin. Do you see a role for Apollo in the near future in this realm as more athletes become aware of cryptocurrency? …. Are there any future plans to correspond with pro-crypto members of Congress to explain the benefits of Apollo and how it can help the U.S. catch up in blockchain innovation?
Steve McCullah, Director of Business Development, Apollo
Our goal is to get ahead of the game and to create demand and exposure for Apollo through cases that are unparalleled, not only to blockchain but to the internet. Our vision goes much further than being used by notable athletes.
Regarding where we see Apollo, our big emphasis at this moment is to clean up and improve our current features so that usability is unmatched in crypto, and [that] everything functions well.
While we are doing this, we are working on launching the first phase of what could be the biggest potential use case for any cryptocurrency to this point. Our goal is to create technology that changes the world and the way that the world does things.
To accomplish this goal we have had to really take time to understand what the world needs at this point in time and plan even further ahead to what the world will need in the future. What we have come up with, we believe, could very well be a platform that leads in a number of industries. This platform will be a driving force for the use of Apollo and, at its peak capabilities, has the potential to impact nearly every area of a person’s life.
Apollo (APL) all-in-one currency combines nearly all features of mainstream cryptocurrencies into the fastest blockchain in the world. Boasting features and advancements such as the first implementation of database sharding, as well as adaptive forging, atomic swaps, two-second blocks, encrypted messaging, decentralized marketplace, decentralized exchange, decentralized applications, and decentralized file storage, Apollo stands as the most feature-rich cryptocurrency on the market. And one of the most advanced.
