Dear QUOINERS,

Good Saturday!!

I have decided to make Saturday my weekly update as it gives me time to reflect on the past week and plan for the coming week.

1. Market Volatility

Once again, this week was a volatile week in terms of crypto token prices. The price of Bitcoin and other tokens have gone down 50% from its peak. (But to put this in perspective, when MT. Gox incident happened, the price went down 90% and stayed down for a couple of years)

Some people say the “Bubble has burst” or “Bitcoin is dead”.
But during my 5 years in this industry, I’ve heard this story more than 100 times.
I believe it is healthy when there are both positive and negative/skeptic opinions as bubbles are formed when there is a general euphoria where everyone believes that the price will only go up.
That said, it is important that we are cautious during these volatile times. Do not take on high leverage positions (though it could be a wonderful opportunity to accumulate).

2. Community Managers

This week, our Community Managers visited our Vietnam office.
I was only able to spend a few hours (and a wonderful dinner) but was updated on the pain points of our community and discussed how we can improve (product, support, customer on-boarding, marketing, etc.).
I am blessed to have such passionate and caring community managers.
One thing they all mentioned was that our Telegram community is one of the best. Our community is constructive, passionate, and respectful.

Let’s keep it up…..I am so proud!!

3. Meetup

We had our first Meet-up event in Saigon office last tuesday.
Over 100 people joined the meet-up. We hope to continue these meet-ups not only in Vietnam but in Japan and other parts of the world.

https://twitter.com/quoine_sg/status/953594159939534849

4. Improvements

1. Customer Support: We are building our extended customer support team in the Philippines and we hope to be up and running by end of Jan. We will start with 10–15 headcount and will gradually grow.

2. PW/2FA Reset: By end of the month, we hope to allow our customers to change/reset their password and 2FA (with some cool off period). As you know, most hacks and theft happen via social engineering and hackers stealing customer credentials. We need to have the right balance between safety and convenience.

3. Hot Wallet: We are developing our own hot wallet for small withdrawals. There is a tradeoff between convenience and safety but we will start with BTC and then gradually expand. I can not give a date but we are currently working on this.

In addition to the above, we are working to streamline all processes.
Only after we have the above will we go full marketing.

5. Important Notice on Crypto retrieval policy

We recently published our policy regarding the retrieval of mis-placed tokens. (Minimum retrieval value must be USD5,000. Service fee is 10% charges + 500 QASH)
New policy is from Jan 1st 2018.

I’ve mentioned in the past but retrieving mis-placed tokens from the Blockchain requires custom coding. It is time intensive and tedious but most importantly, we assign only our VP of Engineering to do this for security reasons. We do not allow just any engineer or staff member to retrieve it as that person can potentially retrieve other tokens as well.

Other exchanges do not entertain retrieval at all due to the above reasons and we offer this service because we care of our users. But given the effort involved, it cannot be free.

So most importantly, please do not send to the wrong address.

6. New Token Listing

Last week, we listed FDX (FidentiaX) and TPT (Neverdie Token- it’s for gamers). QRYPTOS was the first exchange to list them and we will try our best to be the first exchange to list up and coming tokens (we hope to list 3 new tokens this coming week).

7. Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange and Rock Token ICO

On thursday, we recorded our AMA with Nick Cowen, CEO of Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange. It will be uploaded tomorrow.

We encourage all QRYPTOS users to also sign up with GBX to increase your chances of buying the Rock Token as there will probably be a cap per buyer.
https://gbx.gi/token-sales/

Finally, I will be in Tokyo and SF (Blockchain Connect Conference)
If anyone is there, I look forward to meeting you.
http://www.goblockchainconnect.com/

Once again, thank you for your support and have a wonderful weekend.

Mike K