ICO insights with Daniel Abela

Daniel Abela is the CoFounder of ClearPoll, and an experienced designer and creator, based in Australia. He is also advisor on EtherShift, and designer of Clearify and CryptoRater projects.

It’s been a cool, crazy interesting 12 months for ClearPoll, would you agree?

It has certainly been crazy. Holding an ICO, then releasing alpha, beta and full version of ClearPoll within 12 months, plus working consistently through both a bull and bear market, has been very challenging and certainly not boring.

What tips would you give to people thinking of doing an ICO NOW, in Q4 of 2018 and beyond?

One tip I give other projects is to never, ever, under any circumstances, purchase your followers. There are various ways of buying 10k Twitter followers or 50k Telegram members. It seems like a great idea at the time but you’ll end up marketing to nobody, and you’re also not fooling anyone. It’s a real red flag for a terrible project or a scam. Genuine, organic growth and real followers makes a huge difference, not only as a business, but they motivate you and hold you accountable along the way, which is important. Another tip would be to keep an eye on their spending. A lot of projects ran into trouble because they raised funds and created a budget during a bull market, went crazy with the spending on marketing and promotion or hype, and are now unable to even develop their project.

Is there anything you would have done differently?

In hindsight, our ICO funding goal of less than $700k made it tough for us. We raised just enough to build the product as promised, and list on a few exchanges. Had we raised more, I think we could have had an easier road. We have not gone without anything, it’s just been tougher and much tighter than it had to be. Our ICO sold out two weeks before it was due to end, so there was no shortage of interest and we would have easily raised more, if we wanted to.

Do you think we are leaving the hype period and moving into a time when more realism pervades about blockchain – or are we not there yet?

I think there’s one more hype period left because a lot of projects and ICOs went into hibernation during the bear market. They’ll start popping up all over the place and it will feel a lot like early 2018 again. But it will be shortlived as the attention shifts to working products and real mainstream applications. Promises will be worth less when there’s the real thing right next door.

Why did you get involved with ClearPoll?

We are addicted to creating new things. We had the idea, discovered the perfect technology to turn it into a reality, and have never looked back. I firmly believe ClearPoll will be a world changing application. Perhaps not immediately, but in time. We have a lot of learning and adapting left to do, and we’re constantly working through that.

You guys keep adding new & different elements all the time, Clearify, Cryptorater etc, what’s the thinking behind this?

Cryptorater is an ideal use of ClearPoll’s ratings system. It was a no brainer, because we identified a problem in the market with fake or purchased ratings. It’s just a side project but it has big potential in its own right. We are always itching to build new things, and the developers are already tired of hearing my new ideas!

Why do you think it is such a powerful idea?

The media has too much control and influence over public opinion. We wanted to create a place where anyone, from any background, can come and vote in one place and know that their vote counts and is not going to be censored or ignored. ClearPoll is not only powerful as a democratic tool, but it’s a very flexible platform capable of doing a lot more than we have even mentioned yet. Voting, or decision making, is everywhere in our lives.

How can people find out more about you & your work?

For more information about ClearPoll, visit clearpoll.com. Or to find out more about me, just come and ask! I’m always happy to talk.

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