[Messari AMA] Dan Gunsberg, CEO and Co-founder of Hxro

Messari hosted a public AMA with Hxro's (HXRO) co-founder and CEO, Dan Gunsberg in the Messari community group. This is a transcript of the conversation.

Messari: Dan, thanks so much for hopping in the chat to field some questions about Hxro this afternoon. We have some good ones in the queue, so this should be a lot of fun.

Thanks for being here.

Dan Gunsberg: Hi, so happy to be here with the Messari community! Very much appreciate everyone stopping by.

Messari: Before we get into some specific submitted questions...can you briefly share some background about yourself and how did you came to start Hxro (and design the game MoonRekt)?

Gunsberg: Sure. I’ve spent most of my career (almost 25 years) in the legacy trading and derivatives space. I started trading on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade in 1998. Before I left that space for crypto, I was COO and principal of a proprietary trading firm with a large presence on North American and European derivative exchanges. I first got into crypto in 2015. By late 2017 I left my firm to pursue the industry fulltime. We conceptualized what became Hxro Games beginning in early 2018. We started developing the platform in May 2018 and launched the beta in January 2019.

The platform caught on with our beta users very quickly. It was a good feeling to see we had strong product market fit with our first game. Today the platform has almost 40,000 registered users. On average we are currently onboarding about 100 accounts per day. It has all happened quick and is very exciting for our team.

Messari: Very cool — that’s a good segue into our first question:

“What excites you most about this industry compared to your prior careers?”

Gunsberg: This is a great question. Coming from the constant chaos of the trading pits and electronic trading floors I worked on, it’s hard to find businesses that are more exciting. However crypto has somehow accomplished that feat! This industry reminds me very much of the early days of the internet boom. It feels almost identical in terms of how it cycles.

What excites me is that I believe we are just seeing the layers that will serve as the bridge to real widespread adoption, whereas the last few year were very much about building out necessary framework and plumbing.

The overlap of crypto and digital assets into games is far and away the most exciting aspect of it for me. Crypto and digital assets are very much a part of the fabric of gameplay from almost every market segment.

Messari: We have a bunch of questions about your $HXRO token and the game MoonRekt itself, but first, two more general questions about your team and product.

Gunsberg: Sure

Messari: First: “Who competes with Hxro and MoonRekt?”

And second: “How big is your core team? Are the developers still DraftKing alumni? What is the strategy to expand development?”

Gunsberg: The first question: Anyone who resides in an unrestricted jurisdiction and is of proper age in that jurisdiction may participate in our platform games.

The second question: We currently have a total staff of 13. The developers from DraftKings are still active on a contract basis with our development team. We currently have 4 full-time internal developers on staff (in addition to the contracted developers) and are actively seeking to hire more.

We are especially seeking out developers who have backgrounds from both gaming and trading (which have a lot of similarities).

Messari: Okay, so the rest of the questions, I've sort of broken down into two parts: one about the token itself and one about the MoonRekt game (and possibly other games?).

Can you give us a quick break down or illustration of what Hxro's MoonRekt game is? What's the point?

Gunsberg: Sure. So specific to MoonRekt: the game merges aspects of crypto/digital asset trading with social gameplay. The game itself allows users a new way to participate in price action around bitcoin and other digital currencies in an easy to understand, fun and entertaining way. The game brings all the excitement you would get from the wild volatility of market price action without some of the more toxic elements that come with it.

Here is a quick look.

The game is a GREAT way for those of all exeperience levels in crypto to participate and learn without needing to face the elements othat come with an exchange.

Messari: Next question: “Do you think this game will bring new people to crypto or only be used by people who already trade and understand crypto.”

Gunsberg: Great question. The spectrum of users is from people who are new to very experienced. We feel very strongly that our platform as well as gaming in general is the BEST way to capture those who are new to the space. The gaming market globally is roughly 2.3 billion people worldwide.

Based on a recent study, only about 19% of the global population as a whole has interfaced with crypto in any capacity. Therefore there is a BIG market for us to onboard when it comes to new entrants.

Messari: Speaking of the gaming market: “Do you find that the market is in line with player expectation or is it more contrarian based?”

Gunsberg: Another great question. What [this question] is speaking to I think is the sentiment indication that our platform generates. I would say that it varies depending on everything from conditions to the general attitude of the space as a whole. It is very much a CROWD driven market that can change its sentiment on a whim.

As someone who comes from the trading world initially and has now pivoted strongly to gaming, my instinct is to always act as more of a contrarian in the short run. But in the long run, I will almost ALWAYS be a bitcoin bull.

Messari: The next question could lead to a big can of worms I don't think we have time for today. But I do want to expand it a little bit.

“When can I play in the U.S.?”

Can you touch on this specifically but also maybe give some context to the regulatory and legal things you've learned while building Hxro?

Gunsberg: I’m happy to address this question. US IP’s are restricted and US persons are currently prohibited from participating in paid entry games on the platform. We are exploring opportunities for US persons in F2P games and are in constant discussion with our US gaming and regulatory counsel on the matter. It is obviously a desire of ours to be able to have a robust offering for US users, however it is aways a top priority for us to maintain and be at the forefront of regulatory compliance

As our vertical becomes more defined, it will paint a clearer picture as to what we can and cannot do facing US persons as well as what licensing, if any, would be required if we did. But for now it is our position to take a conservative and measured approach. Therefore it remains that US persons and US based IP’s are prohibited from entering paid entry games on the platform.

What I learned... lawyers are VERY expensive : ) : (

It is something that we spend a lot of time on along many of the paradigms that cross the segment we have established.

Messari: We have a question about an upcoming volatility game next:

“Can you tell us more about the volatility game you are planning to release?”

Gunsberg: I would prefer to leave somethings to the imagination for now. But I can tell you that the volatility dimension of the crypto asset marketplace is the underpinning of the rush you feel while you’re playing it. We've certainly found some cool ways to isolate it and turn it into some high energy, exciting gameplay. Shooting for end of year to get it to market.

Messari: The next question is a big more big picture-focused:

“Does Hxro want to become a traditional gaming company eventually or just stay with crypto games?”

Gunsberg: Our goal is to evolve the platform as a crossover to capture the more than 2.3 billion global users in the traditional gaming space. Crypto offers a significant opportunity and launching point. Bring Hxro along with crypto and digital assets to that large of a global audience is our mission. Hxro is establishing a unique segment/vertical which we have created. We feel our opportunity is significant and has gained momentum to propel us towards that goal.

We recently closed on our seed round (this was one of the questions). The investment group was led by a well-known former high level executive from the AAA gaming space. We will be releasing more information on this publicly very soon. But it was a huge nod to our business that someone from that world sees the opportunity in front of us so clearly.

Messari: That's awesome news, was going to toss in that question next—keep us updated when the info is public.

Gunsberg: We definitely will.

Messari: One last question about the game specifically:

“Do you apply any machine learning algorithm that relate the moves made by the players to corresponding market movements?”

Gunsberg: No. Our company does not act on any of the data that is collected from gameplay. Our intention is to continue to harvest this type of information, then offer it through an sub-platform called Hxro Labs. Labs will provide individual and game level analytics to our players at various offering levels.

Messari: Interesting, okay — sounds like a cool product.

In the time we have left, I want to jump to a couple questions about the token.

Messari: First: “What is the long term vision for HXRO token?”

Gunsberg: Great question. We are currently expanding the utility of the HXRO token beyond the scope of game entry. Over the next 3 months you will see more incentives and rewards tied to HXRO. Accumulating HXRO and holding balances on platform will unlock progressively more material platform benefits. This will range from entries to special events/tournaments to rebates on service/transaction fees, multipliers on payouts for your participation as a platform affiliate, status on and time on leaderboard and more.

I think the exchange platforms have done a lot of things right as far as how to utilize their platform token. We will have some similarities (via fee rebates, etc.) with the added gamification features described above.

Messari: Recently, you started accepting BTC in the game too, besides the HXRO token.

“Will you accept other coins besides BTC and HXRO soon?”

Gunsberg: Correct! The launch of BTC games has been a great success thus far. We are doing a couple more things around the bitcoin network that will be released in coming days. We ultimately want to try to stay agnostic and be able to serve all communities beyond HXRO and BTC.

Messari: The next two questions are pretty similar—both asking about the utility of the gaming token.

First: “Why does the game need its own token?”

Second: “When do you release more info about utilities for the hxro token? Can you tell us a bit more about it?

Gunsberg: The token fits very well within our platform mission and the gameplay nature of what we are doing. It would be crazy for us not to have a token on our platform. Tying incentives, rewards, status, clout to accumulation of the token and having HXRO associated with the gameplay segment we have established is a crucial part of our success. The feedback loop of token tied to user growth and vice versa is a powerful way to grow our network.

I think this applies to what I answered around token usage, incentives and rewards. You will see more and more about the rollout starting early next month.

Messari: One more question about the updated gameplay:

“Now that the 5 minute game is available with BTC entries, how do you see this impacting the value of the Hxro token / growth of the Hxro platform?”

Gunsberg: I would prefer not to comment on the value of the token specifically. But, the benefits that we are tying to accumulating and keeping HXRO balances on platform will be significant for our user base. The offering of BTC games only emboldens the participation on platform and therefore creates more users who are going to want to have HXRO to receive platform benefits.

Messari: No problem, that makes sense. Thanks so much for your time and answers, Dan. This has been super fun and informative. The game looks super fun, and I’m excited to see the platform develop.

Before we conclude, is there anything we didn’t touch on you’d like to add?

Gunsberg: I sincerely appreciate. Thank you to all of you who offered up questions and participated today. I am always available in this channel or in our Hxro Telegram channels if you want to chat!

If you want to check out the game, please go to beta.hxro.io.

Messari: Can you share links to where we can follow your team and continue conversations about the things asked about today?

Gunsberg: Sure.

Gunsberg: The main and most active channel on Telegram is here. Super fun and engaging

I am also @dangunsberg on Twitter, and the company handle is @realhxro.

Messari: Awesome, thank so much, Dan!

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