esportsref (ESR) — statement of intent

NOTE: The EsportsRef platform will now be launched on the Gnosis (formerly Xdai) chain. References to the HPB chain no longer apply.

It’s Wednesday 21st April and the ESR token pre-sale is now finished!

The pre-sale ran for a total of 5 days, and 15.5m ESR tokens sold, which equates to 1.55m HPB coin. Considering that HPB is still relatively unknown to many, that’s quite astonishing!

Now some of the early investors may feel a little despondent based on the fact that all 20m tokens didn’t sell. Please don’t be….. When you put things into perspective, you will really appreciate just how impressive this was.

If you think about the relatively high “barrier to entry” in obtaining ESR tokens from the pre-sale, you’ll start to realize this.

First of all, you needed some HPB to begin with, and then once you had HPB, you needed to transfer it from an exchange to a personal wallet, and then you had to read a long medium article to understand how to make a purchase! Let’s just say it wasn’t the easiest pre-sale to participate in! There was also the very limited time-frame. The pre-sale only lasted 5 days in total.

You then had one more barrier……that was understanding the whole concept of the DApp, and whether or not e-sports was something worth really investing in. Some of you will have literally ZERO experience with e-sports, so it’s very difficult to gauge a projects future potential when you don’t really understand it.

I would say that e-sports is a “generational” thing…. If you are above a certain age, it’s really difficult to understand why someone would want to play video games all day! Now I personally used to love playing my Nintendo 64 and Sega Megadrive consoles as a child, and I still even now have a Playstation 4 that I play from time to time when I find some spare time (very rarely!), so I’ve always seen the potential for the e-sports and gaming market, but the thought of people wanting to sit and WATCH other people playing these games….well for some, that’s just too crazy a notion to get their head around!

All market data and statistics suggest that e-sports “viewership” is becoming increasingly popular, and may even one day SURPASS traditional sports viewership. It kind of sounds crazy to think that one day, people will gather round to watch e-sports championships in the same way that people nowadays scramble to watch the FIFA World Cup or the NFL Superbowl….. but like I say, this is what the data points to. One day it will appear normal to invite some friends round, grab a beer, order a pizza, and watch the “Counterstrike Go: World championship final” on a big tv! Seems crazy doesn’t it!

Like I say, it’s a generational thing. Take an example. Family means everything to me, and I’m very close to my elderly grandparents. When I go to visit them, they still look at me, completely baffled as to why I need to glance at my iPhone screen every 15 minutes, simply because we are all so immersed in modern tech. “What is it that’s so interesting on your phone?”, my Grandfather always asks me! They struggle to comprehend the way our generation rely so heavily upon our gadgets, and for many of our generation, this is similar to how we view younger people, now wanting to sit in front of their television or computer and watch OTHER PEOPLE play computer games!

The thing is to remain open-minded. I still say “music was better in my day!” and “they don’t make these like they used to!” but I’ll try to stay open minded to market trends and opportunities, even if I don’t always personally understand them. I learned my lesson many years ago when I first came across “Bitcoin” — I remember thinking to myself, “What a ridiculous idea!! — So you want me to exchange my REAL money for a VIRTUAL currency!? HAHA!”

Back when I first heard about Bitcoin, you could’ve offered me 1 million Bitcoin for $100 and I still would’ve declined! I was narrow-minded, and I won’t make that mistake again!

I’ve gone off tangent there, but the point is, that for many of you who decided to take that leap of faith into this new project, well even if you still don’t fully understand it….I truly believe you will be rewarded for your decision, and I will do my upmost to make this a huge success!

Anyhow, back to business….

The first thing I’d like to do is make an announcement!

I’ve said many times in the HPB community that I want to run esportsref democratically and I meant it…in fact I insist upon it! We have such a tremendous pool of resources, that only a fool would dismiss the opportunity to tap into this!

Even though I intend to put forth all key strategic decisions to vote within the community, I still really wanted to gather up a small team of key individuals whom I hold in the highest regard, and thoroughly trust.

Before I share the names, I just want to say that there are far more people in the wider HPB community to whom I owe a great deal. there are literally dozens of individuals who’ve offered me advice, support, great suggestions and I appreciate every single one of you for what you’ve done. The reason for selecting these particular individuals, is firstly because they have always proven to be extremely supportive, offer exceptional ideas and suggestions, are pragmatic, level-headed, and I seem to be able to bounce ideas off of them effortlessly. Secondly, they are all long-standing members of the HPB community, all HPB/ESR token holders, and all offer something unique to the project. Many of you will already know them personally, and I’m sure that you hold them in as high regards as I do.

My small, select team of senior advisors for this project are as follows:

Jayden (@jxyden)

Jayden is the sole reason that the HPB17 DApp ever got off the ground. Without Jayden offering to step in and work with me, I’m not sure it would’ve ever materialized. Jayden knows smart contracts and the HPB eco-system extremely well. From a DApp/smart contract perspective, he is one of HPB’s “MVP’s” and he was literally the very first person to reach out to help me. I’m delighted to have him as a senior advisor!

Jiantao Li (@lidaichen)

Jiantao has been incredibly supportive, and constantly offers great advice, excellent suggestions and is methodical, technically-minded and a very good guy. Jiantao also helps with the bridging between the East and West communities, and of course the Asian markets are crucially-important for this project to succeed, so I believe his insight and ideas will prove invaluable! Welcome aboard Jiantao!

Loominc (@loominc)

I think I have started to lose count of the great suggestions Loominc sends me, almost on a daily basis! We have had multiple conversations in private chat that can often go on for hours! Once again, Loominc is incredibly smart, level-headed, calm, pragmatic, and always offers unwavering support. Loominc is also a HPB node if you didn’t already know!

Dan V (@dvello)

Last, (but certainly not least!) we have Dan…. Dan is possibly the most recognizable member of the senior advisors, being one of the HPB community moderators, and quite possibly one of the most chilled characters we have in the wider community. Dan is always coming up with great suggestions…That was very clear to me when we first deployed HPB17. Dan also has graphic design talents, and I think he can bring a tremendous amount of positivity to the advisory group, and it’s great that he has decided to join us!

So there we have the senior advisory group.

Like I say, there have been so many other key individuals who’ve provided support, assistance, great debate, and so many other things…too many people to mention! But I’ve selected these guys as I think they are all well-respected, all bring something unique to the table, and can help push the project further, however I’d still consider the entire HPB community as a “collective team of advisors”, and appreciate everything that you all bring to this!

So what’s next?

Well the two main things I wanted to achieve with almost immediate effect were to establish a team of respected senior advisors, and push forwards for a CEX/DEX listing to both offer assurances to our investors and establish wider project credibility. We are making fantastic progress on both fronts.

The next thing for me now is to really go back to focusing on the esportsref.com website and DApp….the whole point of this project is to have a working product for users, so I really want to focus back on this!

In the mean time, I’ll still be available to answer questions, and as my team of advisors grow more familiar and comfortable with the esportsref product, they will also hopefully be able to answer questions within the community. We’ll continue with spreading positivity about not only esportsref, but HPB in general, and will start to officially “formalize” the advertising and promotion plans, of which the crucial decisions will of course be shared amongst the community and investors for approval and voting.

I hope you share my optimism and enthusiasm for this project. I think we will achieve great things together!

Speak soon!

Jeff (Telegram: @jeffpUK)