Interview with OpenPredict.io Head of Operations, Thomas Kal.
CryptoFly News meets with OpenPredict Head of Operations, Thomas Kal to hear news of the recent TrustPredict Beta test and their forthcoming flagship product OpenMarket.
Introduction:
OpenPredict is developing a portfolio of products that will provide a set of instruments and tools to enable trading of synthetic liquid assets created from real world events. Traditional options contracts are typically constrained within a localized exchange, limiting the available liquidity and available trading options. OpenPredict will allow the creation of synths, giving users the freedom of minting on-chain assets that reflect the price of a particular cryptocurrency or traditional asset.
There is simply nothing in the cryptospace that comes close to providing this kind of utility and freedom. If that weren’t good enough, their flagship tool ‘OpenMarket’ will give users the power to speculate on any topic or real-world event. Also known as a liquidity thread, OpenMarket can promote discussion and social sharing. Thread creators can share their opinion on a future outcome by launching a market. Users who are interested in the topic can participate in the speculation by taking the same or opposite side. There will be five Markets available. i. Major Assets such as BTC and ETH for instance; ii. DEX assets that have a small Market Cap and are usually traded on AMM or DEX marketplaces; iii. Unlisted assets that are yet to be listed on any exchange service; iv. Politics, users will be able to create liquidity threads on any political event; v. Sports events…! Wow!
Thomas Kal
Thomas is Head of Operations for the OpenPredict project. Before discovering crypto in early 2018, Thomas ran his own digital marketing agency helping local business owners gain a competitive edge in an ever-changing digital landscape. He built dedicated teams for his larger clients where he trained each team member individually. From closing deals to managing micro teams, he brings a breadth of valuable experience to the team.
CryptoFly
CryptoFly is a *para-crypto commentary service on decentralised finance, crypto-space and blockchain events. *Para-crypto is a term used by the CryptoFly team that describes the process of observational analysis and ‘feeding off the bull (Para-site)’. Throw that into the world of crypto trading and you have the literal fly on the wall of the trading floor — aka para-crypto analytics.
CryptoFly: So, Thomas let’s get right to it. Firstly, kudos to you and the team for pushing out this product idea. It’s ambitious and unique and clearly something that has the potential to reshape the DeFi space for the better. Is the vision for OpenPredict still as it was? Is it still as ambitious and original? It feels like Covid19, and the Crypto bull run of late has certainly changed how centralized banking sees crypto, has this changed the vision or strategy for OpenPredict?
Thomas: The last 12 months have been pretty tough for sure. I don’t think there has been anyone who hasn’t been affected by Covid in some way, and the Crypto bull run has been pretty wild but the vision for OpenPredict has not changed. There is still a lucrative gap in the market for what we’re doing. When we’ve hit significant milestones along the way we’re reminded of that by the response it gets from partners and the community. It’s super exciting, but seriously challenging too. A small team taking on a huge idea is quite daunting, but really worthwhile.
CryptoFly: You talk about partners. DAO Maker have been a great ally since day one. What is their role now and how does their involvement influence the project?
Thomas: No doubt DAOMaker have been a great partner since we started by giving us more exposure to further investment through their SHO and partnership. For example, they help us connect with the higher-ups of prominent projects we were seeking to partner with. That alone saved us valuable time and resource. When our product is ready to launch (and we’re very close now), their role as our strategic partner will be even more apparent; from influencer contacts to negotiating with exchanges.
CryptoFly: The roadmap first published through DAOMaker, and on the OpenPredict website doesn’t seem to fit where the project is right now. What is that about and what can the community expect to see in Q2 2021 and for the second half of the year.
Thomas: The roadmap has slipped a bit for sure. That’s not unusual, especially when you’re developing a suite of products and wanting to remain flexible enough to embrace innovation on the way. Tadhg, our lead developer has been doing an incredible job. We want to capitalise on his efforts and bring in some further developer support to expand the dev team for the second half of 2021. Our focus is concentrated in the development and upcoming launch of OpenMarket, which is a platform that will allow anyone to create predictions on virtually anything, combined with an intuitive UI that is designed to promote social interactions and a built-in AMM all under one roof. Shortly after OpenMarket is launched, we plan to release TrustPredict.
CryptoFly: What’s the difference between OpenMarket and TrustPredict, aren’t they just the same thing? How do they relate?
Thomas: The main differences between them are in how prediction events are initiated and how those events are settled. When creating predictions on TrustPredict, there needs to be a counterparty to take the opposite side of the wager before the event can become active. Events are settled based on our partner’s oracle price data.
With OpenMarket, events are created by the “Liquidity Thread” creator. As I mentioned before, the design of OpenMarket has a social discussion aspect to it. The process looks something like this:
A user who is passionate about a topic (ideally a popular one) starts a “Liquidity Thread” to promote a discussion around said topic. The concept is inspired by Reddit and Steem. The user is incentivized to pick a topic that would draw attention, encourage debates, and has more than a single future outcome. Viewers can upvote the thread if they like it, resulting in a reward to the creator. Within the Liquidity Thread, a prediction event that reflects the creator’s opinion and belief will be available for anyone to participate in its future outcome. More details on the mechanics on how things run will be provided prior to our launch.
CryptoFly: Will the OpenPredict community get a chance to test TrustPredict and OpenMarket for themselves? It all seems very hushhush at the moment, and maybe opening it up a bit for more users to provide feedback would be a good next step?
Thomas: Of course, we really want the community to be a part of this. We ran a closed beta earlier in the year for TrustPredict with a handful of community members. We simply won’t get there without the feedback of those who’ll eventually use it. We are close to opening things up even further, but there is still a bit more work to do before then. At the moment, we’re looking at mid to late Q2, with OpenMarket beta testing looking ready to be opened for beta testing by the community this month. We’ve recruited a solid full-stack developer (still looking for one more) to help us meet internal deadlines. There’s only so much Tadhg can do! He’s a legend but he’s not superman [laughs].
CryptoFly: TrustPredict and OpenMarket will be powered by the OPT Token, the lifeblood of the project. I guess it goes without saying that OPT Hodlers are keen to see a return on their investment from a working product. The token price is pretty low at the moment which some would argue reflects market interest in the product? The OPT community are keen to hear about progress, something that always has the potential to push the token price up to a level that honours the hard work going on behind the scenes. So, what would you like to say to the HODLers?
Thomas: Firstly, to the community, thank you. Thank you for your patience and trust in the product and the team. We simply couldn’t do this without token holders and a community of support. If OPT is the lifeblood of of OpenPredict, then our HODLers are the oxygen. That’s the best metaphor I could come up with [laugh]. Communication has been inconsistent recently, mainly due to how stretched the team are and us working round the clock to get the product released. But I realise more can be done to clear the fog so to speak. Over the next 5 weeks we will be running a twitter contest that has the potential to reward community members and also highlight some of the benefits of the OpenMarket product. i.e. speculating on asset performance. Along the way, we’ll be doing our best to get further news out about progress, but it’ll be on an adhoc basis rather than scheduled updates. Interviews like this for members of the team might be a helpful way.
CryptoFly: What is the one thing you are most looking forward to in 2021 for the OpenPredict project?
Thomas: Super excited to introduce OpenMarket to the noncrypto audience, specifically the ones we’ve identified to be our initial target market. Influencers in the markets we’re targeting are waiting anxiously. The crypto community is small in comparison.
Long term, we want OpenPredict to be the first thing that comes to mind when Alice and Bob want to make predictions on anything.
CryptoFly: Lastly, what’s the latest news you can share about the project?
Thomas: Aside from working day and night to launch OpenMarket, we are looking into something that has been requested many times by the community; adding liquidity and support other AMMs such as PancakeSwap and QuickSwap. We can’t discuss it yet but we want to assure our community that we listen to every single feedback and concern. We want the same things; bringing back excitement into the project, strong user adoption of our product suite starting with OpenMarket, resulting in a healthy demand for OPT tokens. We are confident that we will get there (goal is this year!!) and when we do, the wait will be worth it.
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Website: https://openpredict.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/optprotocol
Community Chat: https://t.me/openpredict
Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/openpredictannouncements
