Armacoin is proud to be one of the pioneers in the field of blockchain-enabled advertising and advertising Agency marketing solutions. A democratic advertising and marketing ecosystem based on the Armacoin platform will reduce the number of Scam bots in advertising, increase transparency through cryptographically encrypted agreements, and decentralize the marketing system.
Here’s what Dmitry Chernov said about his company and the latest news in the industry,
First of all, tell us something about yourself.
My name is Dmitry Chernov, but I am better known in network as Dima Barsu. Honestly, more people know me by this alias than my real name. I live in Russia in Sochi, the capital of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Sochi also co-hosted the 2018 FIFA World Cup. I have been an innovator since my childhood. I was always attracted to creating my own business around the innovative solutions I will create. My earliest tryst with business was selling soft drinks and chips on the beaches of Sochi when I was 12 years old. It was 1993 and we were in the midst of a difficult post-Communist time in Russia. I studied in Moscow at the Mendeleev University as a designer, but I did not start working as a professional, instead, I started working in the hotel business. I still have a hotel in Sochi that brings a stable income.
When was the company launched and how many members were there initially? How strong is the team now?
“Armacoin Ltd was founded in February 2019 and has already started operating in Moscow in Russia, with registration in Sochi on my account. But in February 2020, I had to re-register the company in London in the UK due to a more specific legal compliance requirement in the field of crypto assets. Unfortunately, there is still no legal framework for cryptocurrencies in Russia and I cannot risk the company and assets of future investors. Initially, the team consisted of 4 people, all of us have passed KYC verification.”
If you don’t mind, tell us more about the strengths of your team. What is their average background and experience?
I have recruited a team of very experienced programmers and marketers. These people have already successfully represented quite a few blockchain startups are popular within the crypto community. All of them are extremely talented in their field and I could not miss getting them on to my team. Besides using their skills, they also continue to learn something new each day.
Now I have a team of eight people officially shown on the site. There are two more team members who prefer to stay away from the public eye. But this does not mean that there is anything to hide in the Armacoin project, these individuals are core programmers and they simply do not like being in the public glare. They are very experienced specialists and our company’s partners will definitely meet them and get to know them at the right time.
For us, the most important thing is the expansion and development of the company. I will mention this that all my colleagues at this and subsequent stages receive their payment in tokens. This makes it clear that we are not going to spend investors’ money for any personal benefits. We believe in the success of our company to the point of fanaticism and are ready to work towards a successful result. We are one of the few projects that does not use a “star-studded” advisory team. But this does not mean that we are working in the blind. While we may not have public advisors, we have many friends who run similar companies and are much more knowledgeable than these advisors, and we periodically communicate with them and take their help.
We believe that there is no point in calling yourself a marketer who offers marketing services to several startups. It is important for a real marketer to have previously managed startups and knows the whole situation. Most of the advisors I spoke with only care about earning as much money in as short a time as possible and hardly care about the startups they are advising. Some of them still try to ridicule the project for refusing to pay ridiculous amounts for their so called “services.” With this approach, beginners in this field may get the impression that the vital thing is not an interesting idea, but a large amount of money laid at the initial stage of the project.
What was the motivation behind starting this project?
The main motivation that brought my team together is the development of blockchain technology. I am an ardent fan of this field and firmly believe that blockchain should be useful to humanity, and not be a source of ridiculous attempts to create something. For example, I do not understand why some startups used ICO to create cafes, shops, parking lots and real estate, for which you can simply create a joint-stock company or just ask the investor for money for development. Now there are still a lot of ICOs that use some kind of decentralized platform and a simple payment token based on ERC-20 and either set up a cryptocurrency exchange or an online store. In my point of view, while payment tokens are an actual bonus system for the exchange, online stores do not need tokens, because they can easily sell goods for fiat money.
What is your ICO about?
We have a digital agency with AR advertising, and the blockchain is used exclusively for advertising companies. The product is the Armavision mobile app for viewing content. A bonus will be paid in tokens for viewing ads. If you are interested in the product and the purchase takes place, then those who looked at it and passed it on to someone else will be able to get a reward. This can be beneficial for those industries that do not have large budgets for advertising companies. First of all, it will be targeted advertising that will not be spam or using a low-quality product at inflated prices. The higher the sales due to advertising, the more expensive the GZM token will be. The advertising customer will be able to buy this token on the exchange or mine it on our private Armachain blockchain.
All advertising will be carried out in our app. The price of the token will depend on the number of sales. We will also charge a fee for developing AR content and a small commission for using our private blockchain. In addition, the GZM token has a number of unique features, it will be a good opportunity to mine it through our private blockchain without spending Ethereum like most ERC-20 tokens. Even in this token, you can use the decentralized EtherWallet platform to write a short message or link to the token recipient in the send message contract line and send this information with the token for viewing.
How did you decide to use the blockchain technology for this particular project?
It is expected that by 2025, decentralization and modernization will start to go hand in hand, with blockchain becoming a $176 billion industry. This would not be possible if it were not for the broad opportunities and positive changes that the system guarantees. In fact, the impact of blockchain technology in various industries has been revolutionary. The advertising sector is no different. The essentially decentralized nature of blockchain technology will be extremely useful for the advertising industry.
Today, there is a wide range of software available on the market to block ads and view content without disturbing ads coming in the way. While this is good news for the audience, it doesn’t augur well for digital advertisers. As potential customers enable ad blockers on their sites, promoting their products and services becomes extremely painful, which increases the cost of advertising in the process.
By introducing Blockchain to the advertising industry, Armacoin paves the way for a novel kind of advertising that can reach your targeted audience in less costs. According to new trends, reaching a smaller audience every day has become the norm in the digital marketing industry. If you are engaged in digital advertising or have ever run a digital campaign, you may have already begun to question the comparative advantages of digital advertising, especially when it comes to cost effectiveness.
The Internet is a new way. There is no denying it. There is more to the Internet than we can fathom. While the fact that companies investing in digital form will gain an edge in the race remains true, businesses should be more open to exploring innovative ideas. The Armacoin platform integrates blockchain into the digital advertising industry to update it as a whole.
Is it your first blockchain-technology-based ICO or have you previously worked with another blockchain project?
Yes, this is my first project and it will be the only one. I don’t see myself participating in tens of projects. In the future, I can only provide additional consulting services to other really promising startups. Although for me, the primary occupation will always be Armacoin and its management.
Why do you think participants would like to invest in your ICO? What will they get in return?
Armacoin is a blockchain solution developed on the basis of smart contracts, including the ERC-20 standard, which allows you to store, receive and send content (messages, videos, advertising banners) in a decentralized manner. Among other things, we have the ability to use AR and VR technologies through the blockchain for advertising purposes.
In 2019, the online advertising market will exceed $ 220 billion (with a CAGR of 11.9% over the past 5 years). Online advertising remains the main source of monetization of services and content on the Internet. The goal of the Armacoin project is to optimize the online advertising business using Distributed Ledger Technology, which will allow marketing agencies to use alternative channels of promotion and interaction.
The main competitive advantage of Armacoin is its own private ArmaChain blockchain, designed for direct interaction with customers and contractors.
At the moment, the company is at the preseed stage and is funded by the personal funds of the team. In the short period of time that the company has existed, we have achieved great success. We were able to add our GZM token to several local exchanges, as well as establish partnerships with some well-known services in the crypto space (ICObench, CoinPaprika, ICOPulse).
By the middle of 2021, we plan to achieve self-sufficiency. Among other things, our main goal is to achieve a ROI on the GZM token of about 679% per year, thanks to the successful operation of the IEO campaign on three well-known cryptocurrency exchanges.
Who basically is your target audience?
Our target audience is all individuals who want to learn about a new advertising product, advertisers, advertising distributors, CPI and marketing agencies, and people associated with VR developments.
How has been the pre-ICO response so far? Are you satisfied with the way things are progressing?
I can’t say that I’m 100% happy with everything. Of course, we use all our efforts to achieve maximum positive results. Some of these results and achievements are described in our roadmap. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our target audience for their trust in us. Without this, we would not have achieved such good results in the community and various competitions, and we will always try to justify this trust.
Other than your own project, do you have any favourite blockchain projects you closely follow?
I like all projects that care about the development of the blockchain technology. After all, we must not forget that the blockchain is not only cryptocurrencies, but also document management, decentralized applications and a number of other useful functions. You can’t think that only cryptocurrencies are needed in this environment.
What are your future growth plans?
We want to turn Armacoin into a huge corporation that provides various advertising services to a large audience. We want to create unique and interesting ads not only using AR content, but also a number of other innovations. We believe that the most important thing is not to stand still but constantly develop.