NEW YORK, NY October 10, 2016 — EtherCamp is proud to announce a crowdsale of its new token, Hacker Gold (HKG), set to begin Oct. 20 and will run through the course of the company’s second annual hackathon, kicking off in November. The crowdsale will be safe-capped at 4 million ether, however the company states this is by no means a funding goal or objective.
Roman Mandeleil, lead developer at EtherCamp, said that funds raised during the HKG crowdsale will go towards further development of the Virtual Accelerator platform, which is currently in its second version and preparing to move into its third iteration.
EtherCamp’s objective is to create the ideal innovation environment for startups by utilising blockchain technology.
The team notes that HKG will ultimately have a finite supply that will not be diluted with additional token creation. Future virtual accelerators, according to EtherCamp, will be exclusively funded with the HKG issued during this crowdsale.
As explained in EtherCamp’s white paper, HKG will act as “reputation” for the camps in the upcoming hackathon. Hacker Gold also allows interested parties to acquire tokens issued by the individual startups during the incubation period of the competition. Possession of a camp’s tokens also provides preferred voting rights on the way that funds are used. Tokens issued after the hackathon will not come with any preferred voting rights.
Hacker Gold will be made available for sale for nine weeks. The crowdsale kicks off four weeks before the hackathon begins and will end after the five-week event is complete.
Tokens will be valued according to the following breakdown, with “P(i)” referencing the period of time:
- P1: Week 1-2: (200 HKG) for 1 ether
- P2: Week 2-4: (200 HKG – 150 HKG) for 1 ether
- P3: Week 5-6: (150 HKG) for 1 ether
- P4: Week 7-9: (150 HKG – 100 HKG) for 1 ether
Visit hack.ether.camp/whitepaper for further information regarding the specific formula being applied for each week’s valuation following P1. There will be no premine or preallocation, according to EtherCamp.
EtherCamp’s accelerator is an Ethereum-based platform where teams — referred to as “camps” — compete with each other for the chance to show their ideas to mentors, potential investors, and, if an idea is successful, acquire early adopters.
The virtual accelerator puts camps through a five-week, online hackathon where competitors vie for recognition in what is essentially a battle of ideas.
A 30-member panel of experienced judges — high-profile, multi-disciplinary members within the blockchain and digital currency space — will then award points, called ”kudos”, to projects they deem most promising, whether for innovation, disruption, or both.
For the upcoming hackathon, the team has recruited high-profile judges from the blockchain and digital currency space, known figures such as Alex Shelkovnikov, UK blockchain lead at Deloitte, and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn.
More than 1,100 hackers have since joined next month’s hackathon and just over 300 ideas are ready for development.
As camps compete in the hackathon they will be eligible to earn HKG. As suggested by the white paper, the amount of HKG collected by an individual team is a de facto expression of the potential of the project, adjudicated by the crowd.
When camps move into the startup phase, backers can then vote on how the team uses the funds they have been given. Additionally, investors can even vote to replace teams entirely. However, Mandeleil stated, voting thresholds for funding proposals and team replacements are very high, with a minimum of 55 percent for the former, and 70 percent for the latter.
Camps retain full rights over their intellectual property, preventing backers from controlling what is actually created.
The winning camp receives a prize of US $50,000 in the digital currency of their choice. However, once HKG gains market value, runners-up camps will be able to sell their tokens to raise seed funding of their own.
EtherCamp is in the process of bringing on sponsors for this program. Currently, the team has secured sponsorship from the Pryor Cashman law firm. Mandeleil said that Pryor Cashman is a “very serious law firm,” available to help “deal with a number of other legal matters.”
About EtherCamp
EtherCamp is a collection of tools for the Ethereum protocol, which includes full implementation of the Ethereum protocol. EtherCamp is the developer behind EthereumJ, Ethereum Block Explorer, Ethereum Studio, the popular IDE used to develop smart contracts. Also, Ethereum Harmony, a tool for managing an independent peer in any Ethereum-based network. The company boasts a robust developer network and a 2,000-member strong slack community.
Link to video on Virtual Accelerator
For media inquiries, contact:
Steve Taylor
steve@ether.camp