Friendz is a digital marketing company whose main goal is to connect brands with their target audience, taking advantage of the most powerful marketing tool ever: “word of mouth”. When we look at what the future holds for us we see global expansion, larger communities of users, more services provided and happier clients. All this made possible by the use of the blockchain technology and the adoption of Friendz Coins, the new standard currency for buying digital services and activate community of engaged users all around the world. Friendz has been actively present in the market since 2016. As of year 2018, we have offered services to more than 200 brands. Our team is composed of 35 people, with different backgrounds and skills, operating in our offices in Switzerland, Italy and Spain. Friendz app boasts over 200,000 organic users who have published well over 3,000,000 pictures in the last two years. In 2016 Friendz received €500,000 worth of financing from Triboo Group, a public company and important player in the digital marketing industry, enabling it to hit the market and create its network. At the end of 2017 revenues amounted to € 1,200,000. Roadmap 1. We plan to use blockchain technology to provide an even safer and reliable experience to our clients. Through the use of a decentralized blockchain technology that the safe transfer of funds and the completion of services will be certified. Friendz platform will become even safer and more advanced technologically thereby protecting the interest of our community and clients worldwide. 2. We plan to decentralize the digital advertising business, creating a traceable single tool that can be adopted globally to activate users and involve them in the creation of advertising campaigns. We are planning to introduce a transparent system that will track the flow of marketing spending on Friendz platform, in a totally revolutional way to digital advertising. The use of Friendz Coins will in fact provide brands with the opportunity to spread their advertising messages and to reach the friends of Friendz users in a genuine and creative way. Users will be rewarded for being active and will use the reward to purchase other services from Friendz. 3. In the long term we want to provide every online activity-as-a-service, in and beyond the world of digital marketing. The idea is to develop a platform where companies can activate large communities of users to perform various activities that will enhance their brands. Our plan is to maintain a focus on digital advertising but with an open eye on new markets and opportunities. Friendz platform will be available to any company that requires services such as validation systems, quick content generation, bug testing, market research and app review. Our clients will not only be B2C companies, but also B2B, and those coming from the blockchain industry, all with the common goal of reaching the final users. The automation of all activities will ensure that Friendz’s role becomes that of merely guaranteeing community participation and engagement in the activities proposed.
Achain is a public blockchain platform that enables developers of all levels to issue tokens and create smart contracts, decentralized applications, and blockchain systems. Achain is committed to building a global blockchain network for information exchange and value transactions. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, Achain utilizes a modified version of DPoS — RDPoS (Result-delegated Proof of Stake) to establish node consensus. Shortly, DPoS suggests that all coin holders vote for the validator nodes that will produce the next blocks. On the project website, only info about CEO Tony Cui is listed. Cui has a few significant accomplishments, including winning the Future Star award from the Zhongguancun Alliance and being listed in the 30 under 30 on CYZONE, a famous venture capital magazine. On LinkedIn, 51 people are listed as employees at Achain. Most of the team is based in Beijing. Achain also has a few key industry partners. It has even co-organized a “Blockchain Technology Open Course” with Tsinghua University, which is widely recognized as one of the world’s top universities. The roadmap for Achain development is fairly detailed. However, most goals listed are development-oriented rather than marketing or design. Still, it’s important to note that focusing on making the protocol interoperable and building a technology that is more accessible to mainstream adoption could also be considered a marketing-oriented part of this project. There are three major phases with projected completion dates listed. These include Singularity (completed Q1), Galaxy (ongoing), and Cosmos (complete at the end of Q4). One thing to note is that dates for these phases are not consistent between the homepage and the whitepaper. This could be simply due to a scenario in which phase names remain the same while new goals and timeline dates within those phases continue to change. In January 2019, the project will update the website to reflect roadmap goals for the new year. Looking at the current landscape of blockchain projects, Achain certainly offers the possibility of much-needed technical innovations. The ability to easily create an Achain fork, as well as, the protocol’s unique RDPoS consensus algorithm make this a promising project. It will be interesting to see how Achain builds upon its accomplishments, and how the project team continues to develop a long-term strategy for improving the protocol’s technical capabilities and increasing participation in its ecosystem.