Ultra AMA with Wolf Crypto
We held an AMA with Ultra in our public Telegram channel on July 15th.
Designed to break the market monopoly, Ultra is the next-generation games distribution platform, offering new solutions to both developers and players.
Ultra has a blockchain foundation empowered by staged software download technology, that has reliably served more than 100 million downloads around the world.
Ultra’s blockchain-based functionalities allow for innovative business customisations and offer a whole new set of opportunities aiming to become the developers gold standard.
Ultra will be holding an IEO on Tokinex platform on July 16th.
You can read our review of the Ultra project below —
You can also visit the Ultra Telegram channel or Ultra website for further details.
Here’s what Ultra’s Co-CEO’s David Hanson, Nicolas Gilot and Lead Community Manager Emmanuel Gimenez had to say in the AMA.*
*This AMA has been edited for clarity.
WC (Wolf Crypto Telegram Member)
Welcome to another edition of Wolf Crypto AMA, this time with Ultra!
Joining us from the Ultra team are David Hanson, Nicolas Gilot, Co-CEO’s of Ultra and Emmanuel Gimenez, Ultra’s Lead Community Manager.
NG
Hi everyone! Glad to be here, I’m Nicolas Co-CEO of Ultra, handling the Business and Operation of our company! I’ve been in the blockchain space for around 8 years now and ~15 in the game industry.
DH
Hello Everyone, My name is David Hanson, Co-CEO of Ultra. I’m in charge of platform vision, design and tech development. I’ve been running companies for the past 19 years and have been enjoying working on Ultra for past 2 years.
EG
👋 Hello guys, nice to be here with you today!
TEAM & TEAM GOALS
WC
Before we get too far into this, can you please tell us a bit more detail about your backgrounds and what led you to creating the Ultra Platform?
DH
I started my career building a computer service company which I sold to transition into a Search Engine Optimisation service company I built with Nicolas (that was our first time we were Co-CEO).
We sold that company and started another one called Color Stone through which we build 2 mobile games. After that I started PixelBeam which later got acquired by Kingsoft (the Chinese Microsoft). Following the sale I started Xiaobawang with Nicolas, a console development Z+ in partnership with AMD.
And lastly now Ultra, once again with Nicolas as Co-CEO, a game distribution platform for PC powered by blockchain technology.
WC
In a sentence or two, what is the long term vision of Ultra?
DH
We intend to take a major role in the game industry, our objective is to federate the entire game ecosystem under a single roof. The game distribution platform is the first stepping stone of the entire vision.
We will announce in the coming months something exciting about what we’re working on to make this happen.
WC
Is the raise you’re doing at the moment more about the money or more about getting the token out there?
NG
It’s about having the token out there and funding, each holder is somebody that has vested interest in seeing us success, talk to his friends and bring awareness within the crypto space.
Funding is also important as we have a 45 full time member team as of today, and targeting ~100 for end of this year
WC
45 team members is pretty intense, how long have you been building the team for?
NG
We started the project 2 years ago now, a little more, we first started by getting the top management involved as they can build their team better than we could. We first been spread out in terms of location, opened after a first office in Paris and now moved to a bigger office in the Tour Montparnasse to be able to accelerate our recruitment speed.
If you want to look our exec team, the best way is to read the post we prepared to describe it —
WC
You have a few pretty heavy hitting guys on the team like Edward Moalem and Mike Dunn, who have worked for Apple, Google and Dell, Time Warner respectively.
How did you get these guys onto the project and what was their reasoning for joining considering they usually work with large corporations?
NG
With Ultra Games , we already secured very strong partners and had plenty of traction. This said, if you take a look at our roadmap we have something still undisclosed for “Q2 2020–2021: Ultra — A new dimension awaits (TBA)”.
This undisclosed part of the project is the reason why those world class executives agreed to drop everything and work full time on Ultra, we all think it has a strong potential to change the industry in many ways.
Stay tuned, we’ll announce it in the coming months!
THE ULTRA PLATFORM
WC
Why have you chosen to fork EOS for the blockchain component of the platform?
DH
Technically speaking, EOS was the way to go for the game industry needs we have.
That said, while we haven’t announced it yet, we secured 2 major global deals with large corporations that will bring millions of users. One of these partner will operate Ultra in China, they have 70 million monthly active PC gamers.
As you know, creating one account on EOS mainnet costs money to buy the ram the identity will be stored in. This accounts for about $0.50 USD per user. If you do this x 70 for China alone, we should have paid 35 million dollars before we can even start doing business. Suffice to say it was unacceptable.
This is why we forked EOS, to change the way user creation costs are managed. We have a model now that allows us to create these users for free.
WC
Who will be the block producers on Ultra and will they need to stake coins to be so?
NG
We have two type of BPs, the corporates (big companies that are from the game space) that are there to reinforce the perception of blockchain and of Ultra, and professional BPs (EOS Rio for example), who are there to produce blocks but also to provide support to the corporate BPs.
Everybody can stack coins to earn products and services from the platform (games, advertisement credits, etc), BPs don’t have a specific system in place as we are deciding who are the BPs initially, we will try to have a more decentalized electing process once the product is already well adopted.
WC
What are NFT’s?
DH
NFTs are “Non Fungible Tokens” , unlike bitcoins, NFTs can’t be devided (you can have 0.5 of a NFT) also each NFT is unique with its own serial number. It can have different properties which are what makes the NFT more or less sophisticated. You could for instance allow someone to trade this NFT under certain conditions.
WC
How’d you go about creating NFT’s on an EOS fork?
Pretty sure that hasn’t been done before?
DH
It has not been done before and by the matter and fact, the level of sophistication and flexibility our NFT offers has never been done anywhere else, including on Ethereum.
Overall the way you need to see the game industry developers: They are superheroes. Making games is the most complicated piece of software in the world, nothing else is more complicated because it touches all parts; AI, Physics, Logic, Network, Sound, Video, 3D, etc.
Our team is largely comprised of game industry veterans, we’re all very used to do complicated technology.
WC
So an influencer could own a NFT item from a game, and the history of that item would have that attached, and could be more valuable?
DH
Yes that’s correct, with the way we designed our NFT, it would be even possible for a NFT owner to “sign” the NFT with a message that will last forever on the NFT.
Could be a fun way for an influencer to resell items!
WC
How does the NFT crafting actually work?
Does the dev has to put a base amount of UOS into each NFT?
DH
Yes they can do that indeed.
They can set the NFT behavior parameters either through a very convenient and pretty user interface available for game developers through what we call the “Dev Center” , a back office tool.
Or they can make NFT’s using our SDK or APIs.
WC
Is your SDK similar to Enjin’s?
NG
That part is about 5% of our SDK, we have our NFT solution, we believe it will be the standard as it will be used by top companies and it has more features than the other solutions out there.
Think of it if you are a game developer, you install one SDK and have access to everything you need, NFT, Ads, Game publishing, lobby, cloud scripting, chat, …. it’s a long list, all in one.
Or you try to install each SDK separately, and hope they all work together :)
They have a great product though, they make the space move forward, we need everybody to push to get blockchain adopted.
WC
Is Ultra working with Enjin?
NG
Not yet, we founded the Blockchain Game Alliance together alongside other key players, so we are in close relation already.
WC
So speaking of this kind of thing, your Open Framework was something we picked up on in our review.
Can you give us the down low on why you think this is important in what you’re trying to build with Ultra?
DH
While we develop technology, we also want to embrace the blockchain philosophy and its benefits fully.
For instance, if a game developer decides to tokenize his game through Ultra’s technology, while we will sell the game on Ultra Games, anyone can make another store and sell that same game for the game developer and take the revenue share commission.
This means that you’ll see video games websites or news websites integrate their own video game distribution platform selling games for UOS tokens based on Ultra’s technology and earn their sales revenue.
This works also very well for influencers too.
WC
When you’re talking about a gaming ecosystem, one thing I personally thought really set you apart from other platforms is your ad tech.
Can you go into some detail on that, and why its a selling point on the platform?
DH
Yes, today for example, its impossible to advertise your game in Steam, that means that game developers need to “spray and pray” ads outside of Steam to hope to hit Steam users. This is very inefficient and expensive.
Ultra integrates in contrast, an ad platform allowing game developers to specifically target users from the platform according to the kind of games they play and like. Its very efficient both for players and game developers.
WC
You can use Ultra to advertise on other ad networks right? Using UOS tokens?
DH
While the platform grows, and our secret sauce is announced, its the other way around that will occur: other ad networks are going to push their ads on Ultra to reach our user base, all ads spending always end up in Ultra Tokens, just like game, regardless if they bought the credits in fiat, they are converted to UOS tokens immediately.
The great part of this is that gamers have the ability to decide whether or not they want to see the ads, and if they do, they will earn a part of its revenue in UOS tokens.
WC
This ad tech, is it something owned and developed by Ultra?
Serving 33 billion ads a day seems like A LOT!
DH
It was developed by one of Ultra’s employees. It is a lot because it was operated in India, this it was far from being one of the big ones out there.
WC
Do games or publishers that have their game on Steam sign some sort of contract where there game can only be sold on the Steam platform?
DH
No Steam doesn’t sign exclusivity deals. All game developers on Steam can publish on Ultra.
WC
Damn that’s sick!
So if I own a game on Steam I’ll be able to play it on launch of Ultra if its on the platform?
DH
We have an universal library that will show games you bought from other platforms inside the Ultra platform.
WC
How is the shop going to work on Ultra?
Will we be able to buy games from other platforms there, e.g from Steam ?
DH
You will see your steam game inside your Ultra game library, so you can launch them easily from a single place, regardless of where you bought the game. Also our SDK provides cross-platform and cross-play functionality compatible with Steam, Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo Switch.
WC
This means that I’ll need to buy games on Steam and will still need to open Steam launcher, and the same for Epic, buy on Epic and still user the Epic launcher?
DH
At this point yes, but there are going to be game developers that will grant a game license on both sides (if you own on Steam, they will give you the game’s NFT on Ultra so you can download it from Ultra too).
WC
What about your Overlay tech?
NG
The overlay is a tech that we own as well that can display our platform and multiple other things on top of your game, like your voice chat, item trading platform, betting and so on.
It’s powerful as it even works on top of Steam games, so if you are in Steam you can communicate with your mates on Ultra :)
Blizzard use similar function, but ours is working with every games, here they customize it for each of their games because they have a few (great) games.
WC
Blizzard partnership confirmed? 😉
NG
We hired two of their employees last month, and a new guy is coming up soon 😃
DH
One employee at a time 😃
WC
What do you mean by betting? This would be for tournaments?
NG
You can see that is starts to be quite popular the betting on tournaments outcome, or on player’s performance during a match, etc. It’s important to understand that our extensible platform allows us to integrate their solution, and make it available to Ultra users, straight from our platform.
Each of those 3rd party service/platform can also use our SDK to interact with other 3rd party apps or games , like adding a “join tournament” button within a game, without much efforts from both parties, game dev and tournament platform.
WC
So you can bet against other players? This isn’t just for esports events?
NG
If you check the various betting apps out there, esports or classic gaming, that’s what we will integrate.
WC
Ah ok nice, so its all 3rd parties apps for the betting, was wondering how you could get around the legal side of that yourselves.
NG
Yes, we don’t want to be doing this ourselves, as you understood that’s something that requires additional legal overhead.
TOKEN UTILITY
WC
What is the point of the UOS token? How am I incentivised to use it?
EG
Haha, we would need a long answer for this, please check the article we released —
WC
How does the token to USD peg work for games?
NG
It’s pegged to fiat value for the player, so a game always costs for example 40 USD, but the value in UOS changes every seconds, it’s tied to multiple exchanges average value and volume.
COMPETITORS
WC
How will Ultra compete with Steam?
NG
Steam has been around for 15 years and hasn’t change much, their fees is 30% for the game devs, there is a lot of games and they aren’t curated well from my perspective, hard to find gems.
Ultra is not only a game distribution platform like steam, it’s an entire ecosystem as David was describing earlier, the “Steam” side of it is only a part. If you are a player, you will be able to access everything you need, live streaming (Twitch), item trading, tournament platform, betting, voice chat with your friends, and so on.
Players can also buy game cheaper, that’s what everybody wants, and to achieve that we created multiple ways to earn money (UOS tokens) so the users can always have more cash in their bank than anywhere else, just by participating to beta tests, watch video ads, answer market survey, bring their friends, and so on.
WC
So Twitch and other platforms will be integrated into Ultra?
NG
We are the first platform, in the entire game industry (not just crypto), that provides full feature parity with Steam (we have a massive SDK), so it’s extremely easy for game developers to port their game on Ultra, that’s one of the reason Steam was so popular, it is because it’s hard to leave it.
WC
You talk about Steam a lot. What about Epic?
NG
Epic user base is Fortnite users, if you are in the game dev space you can check around how many sales they did, as their Fortnite users don’t translate well in other games (not sure why, hum 😊). There is not community features either, so it’s hard to build one without that.
If you go further into the thought process, we are an ecosystem, we can integrate 3rd party apps, we don’t make money only by selling games, so… we can integrate other distribution platform as they grow our user base that we monetize in other ways.
WC
I’ve seen your steam comparison but have you done any to Robot Cache, The Abyss platform, Cubiex?
How does Ultra compare to them and do you view them as competitors to the Ultra platform?
DH
Robot Cache doesn’t have its own cryptocurrency and has very limited blockchain usage and pretty much no SDK etc.
The Abyss business model doesn’t make real sense; they ask 30% revenue share. Why would a game developer go to an indie company that brings few new value and cost as much in revenue share as Steam?
WC
Have you looked into Cubiex?
NG
Cubiex isn’t out there yet I believe, once platforms are out we are happy to compare, so far we are the only solution that has all the components
IEO & TOKEN SUPPLY
WC
What are the token metrics and allocations for the IEO?
EG
Please see this Medium post —
WC
Will you be listed anywhere else other than Bitfinex?
NG
On first day we are on Bitfinex and an Asian exchange, we can’t comment on what is coming up after, but its coming…
WC
Bilaxy? 😉
NG
No 😃
WC
Haha seriously though, since you’re launching as ERC20, are you worried about unauthorised listings?
NG
Usually those listings don’t create much volume, as long as you distribute the tokens at the right time before the main listing.
WC
Bitfinex is not an amazing exchange for alt coins, is this why you are also listing on an Asian exchange?
NG
They have a great solution for our fiat to crypto gateway, asian exchanges though are always interesting for alt coins as you know, I saw though that the last IEO they did is keeping alive even with the market
WC
Will you be targeting any further listings outside of Bitfinex and the Asian exchange you mentioned in the short term and if so are you able to give any estimated timeline?
NG
We will be listed straight away on another market, can’t disclose more than that.
WC
750K for exchanges in your token allocation table. This is for MM’s?
NG
Can’t comment how this is used, but I’ll leave it to your best judgement as I’m sure you are well versed in the crypto space 😊.
WC
Did Ultra run any airdrops or bounties for crypto people?
DH
We never did any airdrop and the bounties we’ve done where very minimal
WC
Are these tokens locked or liquid on day one?
EG
Depends, most bounty locked 3 months like 99%, and the amount overall is small.
ROADMAP & FUTURE GROWTH
WC
What are biggest risks for Ultra moving forward?
DH
Running out of money. This said this issue is being seriously mitigated with the IEO and later we still can raise funds through equity.
Fun fact; there are currently 0 equity investors in Ultra, Nicolas and myself have self funded the project and never went through angel or seed rounds, so we have immense fund raising potential ahead still 😊.
WC
Who would be ideal equity partners later on?
NG
We know already who they are, it will be announced later. The ideal ones are strategic partners that share the same interest, but are not competing directly, partners that can benefit from being within Ultra.
WC
So just on this point, as I think its an important one.
You’ve got a huge vision and are taking on one of the very big boys. We’re used to seeing crypto projects raises funds and run out of cash before the deliver their vision.
What you’re saying here is Ultra has funding from others sources past this raise…Just to put a few hearts at ease.
NG
Exactly, building Ultra takes quite some funding to be achieved, as the team is significant and will be growing to ~100 by end of this year, we also acquired technologies and will be needing marketing budget.
The company is preparing further raise which are more significant in terms of size than the IEO, one step at a time as you should always raise as late as possible if you have the opportunity to do so, if you are not in that position then it’s important to get the funding ASAP, but we have the chance to be in a position where what we build is very interesting and attractive for lots of key players of our industry.
WC
Does Ultra face any regulation hurdles in deploying the platform across countries like India, the USA etc?
NG
We have local legal teams in the regions that requires more efforts, making sure we can be available in as many countries as possible.
WC
You mention your strategy is to work with key regional partners to operate Ultra locally with what seems to be focused on China at the moment.
Who is your partnership with in China to be able to onboard users and what are the ideal regions you will be targeting outside of China?
DH
We start with markets we know well: North America, Europe and China.
We are not allowed to disclose their name at the moment as its a public company.
Please stand by until we made our joint announcement in the coming months.
WC
Can we expect such announcements for the other regions you mentioned this year or that is more of a next year thing?
NG
We can’t provide more details on the timing of each announcements, but there are several coming up this year that’s for sure.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
WC
I’d just like to thank the guys from Ultra for their time today and wish them the best of luck for the IEO on the 16th…and beyond of course!
NG
Of course, first of all thanks a lot for organizing this AMA, a lot of great questions. Don’t hesitate to join our Telegram to ask any more questions you have —
The best way to follow the latest news is to check our ANN channel as well —
DH
Thank you guys for having us here, there where great questions. Looking forward to seeing you around. If you have more questions feel free to join our Telegram channel.
We’ll be glad to answer everything over there and stand by in a couple of months for a major announcement!
EG
Hey thanks for having us Wolf, amazing questions. 😘
See you on Ultra Telegram!
And guys again… Get verified and fund your account, if you want to participate —
Ultra Resources
Website: https://ultra.io
Telegram: https://t.me/ultra_io
Medium: https://medium.com/ultra-io
Whitepaper: https://ultra.io/whitepaper
Wolf Crypto Resources
Public Group: https://t.me/WolfCryptoPub
News Channel: https://t.me/WolfCryptoAnnounce
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WolfCryptoGroup
