NEW YORK, NY, June 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a lucrative and fast-paced crypto economy with enormous projects springing forth by the day, choice and trust are emerging issues. People then turn to key opinion leaders as their guiding light. Cryptocurrency brands know this, so they ride on the credibility and reputation of key opinion leaders (KOLs) to extend their coverage by paying them to influence their existing fandom.
KOLs are authorities and thought leaders in different niches who have with time, painstakingly created and maintained a reputation in a particular space. Unfortunately, an element so crucial as the KOLs in marketing is manipulated, barely incentivized, and neglected in the most popular ICO and IEO launchpads.
KOLnet introduces an initial marketing offering (IMO) system to cater to micro-influencers specifically. This system ensures they are purely incentivized for their full marketing efforts through its proof-of-marketing mechanism. Before we delve into how KOLnet is changing the lives of influencers, a brief examination of the current launchpads and how they exclude micro-influencers is necessary.
How ICOs and IEOs Exclude Micro Influencers
The current initial coin offering (ICO) and initial exchange offering (IEO) are generic methods of crowdfunding. Platforms launch and then offer tokens to investors in the platforms. Although these tokens usually have platform-specific uses asides from speculative purposes, they are often also used as incentives to value-adding participants. Micro-influencers fall under this classification of marketers who make projects more meaningful. ICOs and IEOs are similar. The only difference is exchange platforms do IEOs for a fee to ensure the tokens can be immediately traded in market places.
ICOs are quite exclusionary as the whales see them as a definite path for increased profit. These big players muster their financial macho to intimidate small players out of ICOs. Micro-influencers have had to compete with these whales and the public in ICO and IEO pools. A major problem with these tokens is they may rise astronomically and fall, leaving micro-influencers with little for the job done. The main issue, however, lies in scams and this is the focus.
Popular Crypto Projects Rug Pulls
ICOs and IEOs are extremely porous and may offer no guarantee. To be safe, there’s an endless list of boxes to check but even with the tightest precaution, people fall victim to scam projects. It’s highly unregulated and Investopedia says “Of all the possible avenues of funding, an ICO is probably one of the easiest to set up as a scam.” The IEO is no better because projects can sell claims of high vetting on unlicensed exchanges and eventually rug pull.
Rug pulling is a scam where developers abscond with investors' funds and abandon the project. The Squid Game rug pull is one of the most recent and notorious ones in all of crypto history. The crypto coin was hosted based on the theme of the Netflix series, Squid Game. It rose as high as 33,600%, having more than 43000 investors' involved. The founders imposed an anti-dump mechanism so the holders of the coin were unable to sell it even after they dismantled the website and absconded.
From a promising $2,862, it has deflated to $0.025525, which is its price at present. The developers made away with around $3.3 million according to Gizmodo. People lost millions and micro-influencers were very much at the receiving end of this and still will be if they delay in harnessing IMOs offered by KOLnet since 81% of ICOs are scams.
This is a reoccurring event and micro-influencers have suffered and continue to bear the brunt. There was an 81% rise in DeFi rug pulls compared to 2021 and almost $10billion was lost to the same menace in 2021, according to Elliptic.
Other notorious rug pulls are those of Luna Yield and Onecoin, each roping a huge $10million and $4billion respectively with its parting. The trend for unscrupulous developers is to delete their website, Telegram, and Twitter accounts, and then make away with funds.
Initial market offerings offered by KOLnet are set to change this.
Initial Market Offerings (IMO)
IMO is a marketing-focused launchpad that allows micro-influencers the opportunity to serve their markets and get rewarded in full measure. It is powered by a team of reputable individuals and guards against rug pulls by using its native KOL token as a means of incentive.
Conventional launchpads like ICOs and IEOs are more narrowly funds-focused than value-focused in the broader sense. This is because they are open to the general public who sometimes have no value offering. Moreso, there’s no measurement for value, especially in marketing. Micro-influencers sometimes get underpaid for their efforts and IMOs introduced by KOLnet are designed to change this. But how would IMOs benefit influencers?
How IMOs Empower Micro Influencers
There’s a large demand for token incentives amongst micro-influencers as proven by IDO platforms. Despite this, these platforms do not cater to micro-influencers as much and IMO is set to redefine that.
Security and Assured Profitability
Rug pulls are a trend and as already established, there are several boxes to check to be sure. KOLnet nullified the need for this, bringing transparency to influencer marketing. KOL token holders are allowed to join pools and get rewarded for their stakes. The use of the native token implies that the reward of micro-influencers is held by a trusted intermediary, preventing rug pulling.
Measurement of Value
KOLnet has a proof-of-marketing mechanism. This system will track, validate and handle settlements between project owners and micro-influencers through multi-chain smart contracts. Having this in place will enable micro-influencers to get paid for their actual value.
Job Connectivity
Micro-influencers holding KOL tokens have the chance to participate in project pools. KOLnet has onboarded about 200+ influencers. This serves as a form of automated, cost-free marketing for influencers.
Avoidance of whitelisting requirements
Key opinion leaders can get presale tokens without getting in tuff with the whitelist-hungry public and other desperate whales. With IMO, the value of KOLs is recognized.
Aspiring To Be On KOL? Get Onboarded.
CONTACT: Ryan Deen ryan at kolnet.io