Edition #1 — Booty, Buccaneers & Barnacles
YARRRRR, we are now one week old and me thinks it’s time for our first Medium article, to summarise where we have steered the Galleon and the seas that lay ahead, ARRGGGH!
Ok, ok, a lot of us have been talking like a pirate for a week straight now and lets be honest, it’s a little fun :)
However, I’ll leave my pirate voice in my pocket for a little while as I walk throgh everything which has occurred over the past week — and there is a lot to talk about!!
Firstly, welcome! I extend this welcome to everyone who purchased a week ago when this project fairlaunched and to all the newcomers as well. At the end of the day, we are only 7 days old and we’re all here pretty early.
Remember, as I’ve said all along and as per the website disclaimer, please do your own research before buying in. I’ve had so many questions from people asking what is the use case and is LP locked/burnt and obviously these people are buying in with little to no research. Please ensure you do your due diligence and if you feel this is a project you’d like to invest in, we welcome you. If not, that is totally fine as well. You’ll see throughout this article that I’m a pretty open and honest person.
Now this is a fairly long article. I will keep future editions much shorter but as this is the first one, there is so much to go through.
Fairlaunch
When this project launched a week ago, I knew it was my last hurrah. And I knew I was going to put blood, sweat and tears into this last project to ensure it was successful, or at least go out trying. The work/effort that is required to ensure “legitimate” projects like this kick-on and do well, is immense, to the point where I have questioned if the workload is worth it. But I am utterly determined for this to go well. That is why I was a little nervous when this project was a few hours old, because it was quite a slow start with a lot of people pumping and dumping and it struggled to get moving. It was like an old pirate ship riding those waves up and down. I put in 1 BNB liquidity to start with and then immediately burnt all LP tokens, so there was no chance of getting this back and I thought for a while during those hectic first hours, perhaps I wouldn’t.
All LP tokens were burnt (better than locking which most other projects do) and there is no owner, so no minting or changing of smartcontract.
In the MoonPirate information sheet, which was provided to all fairlaunch buyers and is still pinned in the Telegram group today, I gave a solid overview on everything MoonPirate related, including mentioning my own wallet which contained 5%. When the project was starting to gain some ground on day one, I decided to do a mini AMA on the Wise Apes Telegram group and then I hosted a series of competitions, with 0.5 to 1BNB worth of MoonPirate up for grabs….of course that is worth much more now and it was pleasing that most of these people have made contact with me again to thank me. The biggest winner, perhaps, was a user named “Slip Digby” in Telegram. This is the community member who came up with the use case (which I chose from all the submissions) in that particular competition. We got some wonderful ideas from geocaching (pirate treasure hunt), to restoring an old boat and more. But the rum idea really stood out to me and a vision soon appeared before my eyes. So well done Slip (who I think is still a holder today).
Seven days later we are sitting at over 40,000 holders!!! I mean, that is simply incredible. I surely didn’t see this coming and what an achievement. I’ve heard (and don’t quote me on exact numbers) that Safemoon had around 10,000 holders after seven days (I’ll try and confirm exactly). But we are growing at a rapid rate and it’s truly amazing.
The Fairlaunch was stressful, exciting and fun all in one go and I thank those early holders and you will go down as MoonPirate veterans.
Marketing + Community Run
I’ll be honest, marketing is not my forte. I’m probably a little old school when it comes to such things. My philosophy is transparency and honesty, if you like what you see then feel free to join us, if you don’t, then move along, simple. But perhaps my outlook is a little outdated and that’s why I’m so glad this is a community run project.
I did consider staying as Owner and completely doxxing myself and setting up a YouTube channel and the works. Similar to what Ken The Crypto is doing with 100X Token. It was something I thought about quite a lot as ultimately I want this project to do well. However, it seems many people don’t put their full trust into projects which don’t have the ownership renounced as the renouncement ensures it’s a much safer place. Plus, I am a busy man. I have a lot going on in my life and I simply couldn’t do everything by myself and even managing a team would have been difficult with time contraints. Our website mentions “1000 Pirate heads are better than 1” and I know that’s just a fun little sentence, but it actually sums up exactly what we are about as well. The community has been simply AMAZING. Yes there has been fudders and negative people along the way (sigh), but when a project grows as quickly as we have, that is expected. I do find it difficut to ignore a lot of this fud, especially when it’s simply untrue. And I try to reply to everyone because of how open and honest I am. But maybe I’ll need to stop replying to such messages and just ignore them as those people obviously have other agendas. But, 99% of messages I receive are so wonderful and full of praise and that really helps me and the team push on. I know I was working around 18hr days in the first 5 days to ensure the ship was steered in the right direction. I’ve cut it down to around 12 hours now but it’s A LOT of work. But I thank everyone in the community for playing a part, and remember, if you’re a MoonPirate holder, you are also part owner. Ownership is renounced so we are all owners here.
The marketing from the team who has been assembled (all complete randoms who bought into this project) has been simply incredible. It’s actually blown me away what they’ve manged to organise and achieve. I’ve never seen any other token do this. Some of these things include:
- multiple YouTube videos (must be at least half a dozen out there now)
- Johnny Depp impersonator (and yep, A LOT of you thought he was the real Johnny Dep hahaha)
- Instagram influencers
- TikTok influencers
- More Reddit posts than you can poke a stick at
- Marty video (the dwarf pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean)
- Memes, pictures, videos, gifs, stickers
- Celebrities (Fat Joe, yes this is still pending and we will see where it lands)
I’m missing a lot on the above list as well, but it’s been a satisfying seven days, sailing in the seven seas (same that 5 times really fast).
Applications
Ok guys, can we please stop asking “when is CG/CMC?”. Seriously lol. The admin team get asked this around 100 times a day and that is no exaggeration.
Firstly, these things take time. There is big queues and the submissions can take days to weeks (and maybe longer) to be approved.
CoinGecko was submitted a few days back and is still pending. I understand they have a big queue to get through and they won’t fast-track anyone (we did try on several occasions but will let it be now). It could be 1–5 weeks away but it’s out of our hands. When we know, trust me, you’ll be the first to know as well.
CMC is in the same boat. I “think” it may be a little quicker than CoinGecko. Again, this was submitted a few days ago and we did receive an email back to say our application has progressed (whatever that means exactly). So hopefully this will be completed in the next fortnight, but again, it’s out of our control just like every other project out there. We just ask for a bit of patience. I also understand that the MoonPirate price in TrustWallet, won’t show until CMC is approved. So again, let’s try and keep those questions in our pocket for now.
However, we have had many applications approved already:
- Stocktwits
- Blockfolio
- Pancake Swap Logo Update
- Trust Wallet Logo Update
- BSC Scan Update
Again, many projects don’t last more than a few hours and the ones that do, not many make progress like we have. Remember, we are a week old!
I also spoke to the good guys at FEG Token (nice bunch of guys). They are releasing their own DEX and I’ve had a look and the UI is very nice. They operate on Ethereum and BSC and I’ve also submitted MoonPirate to be listed there as well. Again, when we hear anything you will be the first to know.
For those unaware, we have a Telgram Announcment channel as well, which releases all the juicy pirate goss. So ensure you join this for all up-to-date information:
https://t.me/moonpirateannouncement
Wallets, Strategic Directions and LitePaper
Our LitePaper was released a few days ago and yes it is quite “lite” but we kept it like that on purpose so you don’t have to read pages and pages of words and we can get our point across surely and quickly. Please have a read through this as it will give you some useful information that every holder really should know.
Ok, wallets. As I mentioned earlier in this article I initially had 5% and it was diluted to 2.7% after competition winners were paid. I have been completely transparent and honest along the way and even mentioned when I have sold (I have sold around 0.15% so have 2.55% remaining). Firstly, if you don’t like that wallet size, then don’t buy into MoonPirate, simple. I could have given myself 80% if I had wanted to and that would have scared a lot of people off. But at the end of the day, you only buy in if you’re comfortable. The simple fact is, MoonPirate has turned into a token/product that people want. The market chooses the value.
Given we are now a week old and REALLY starting to build momentum, we had a team meeting last night and decided to split my wallet into several accounts to ensure we have wallets to ensure this project can move forward.
There is already legal fees starting to build for the distillery contract, there is going to be fees around the rum launch, fees for creating and building rum labels, marketing (this ain’t cheap) which everyone is crying out for etc. So individual wallets can ensure we are tracking these expenses in a much more organised manner.
If you hear of anyone saying that “Dev” is selling in chunks every few minutes, PLEASE ignore them. This is absolutely not true. They are either lying for alterior purposes or literally seeing things that aren’t there. One person wrote on Reddit that the team was withdrawing $10K every 2 minutes….I nearly choked in laughter from the water I was drinking (I mean rum, I only drink rum).
So no, my wallet hasn’t sold and to be honest, I haven’t sold a single token in nearly 3 days now. I will reward myself from time to time for the hard work being put in, but these will be small sells that barely affect the price. I believe in MoonPirate. Rememeber we are working 12hrs + per day on this, it’s actually insane how much work is involved. Name one project that can decide on a use case and then have a distillery on board in a matter of days. We get things done at MoonPirate.
The last 24 hours have been quite turmoil due to the news from Joe Biden, BTC price, Turkey Exchange scandal, Binance upgrades, Pancake Swap upgrades….and nearly every token has paid the price for this. This is normal. That’s what happens in crypto. It’s volatile. And people do get scared and then sell. And then quite often they buy back. This is normal. I don’t have a crystal ball and I can’t say where we will be in a day, week, month, year….but we are standing tall and proud, many tokens don’t even get to a week old so we have already gone through the hardest part!!!!
Rum!!!!!!
Ok, I’ve left the rum for last. Man what a whirlwind week. Like crazy!!!! Long hours, heaps of discussions, lawyers, contracts, voting…the works!
First of all, a distillery HAS be chosen. It was actually a two-way decision…they chose us as much as we chose them. Now, let’s be realistic here folks, if I was to knock on the door of a hundred big time distilleries and said we want you to make a MoonPirate rum but it has to be exactly what we vote for and exactly the labels we want and exactly the bottles we want….I would have been laughed out the door. We were only a few days old and baby steps to start with. That’s why I am so glad I have come in contact with Get Nok.
Get Nok are a startup company (just like us I guess you could say). The owner has worked in a previous distillery and is starting his own business. I’ve been speaking to the owner every single day and he is a stand up dude. Very nice guy. And this deal means it’s win-win for both parties. MoonPirate can help establish Get Nok and bring them business and they can help us fulfill our use case and take our project forward. It’s really the perfect relationship (please don’t tell my wife I said that).
The beauty of them being a startup is:
- MoonPirate holders feel they are part of the startup and part of building this distillery
- Progress photos of the warehouse, equipment, ingredients will be shared (still working out the best way to share this)
- MoonPirate holders get to vote on exactly what they want, every step along the way
- MoonPirate holders get special discounts and first chance at special releases
- and much more!
MoonPirate holders have already voted on key decisions for the first limited edition release. Your decisions included:
- Rum base (you chose a Darm rum)
- Rum flavour (you chose hint of coconut)
- Bottle type (you chose bottle type 6 which you can see in announcement channel)
- Labels (voting not yet occurred)
So a CBD infused dark rum will be the first MoonPirate beverage and yes it sounds a little fancy :)
I have also see the “draft” rum labels which will be voted by you. I am not sharing these yet but they look INCREDIBLE.
Now there is a service agreement between Get Nok and Moon Pirate, which is still pending a signature on my behalf. My lawyer is reviewing this now but it all looks good. I’m sure you will all welcome Get Nok on board as they are now a part of MoonPirate and taking this project to the next level.
So what about dates? I think some people expect us to be drinking rum tomorrow. Now I’m not going to tell you that you’re being silly, but you’re being silly :)
Rum needs to “age” and that will take a month at least. All new ingredients in the US need to be submitted/approved. This takes over a month and also needs a batch sample to be created first. Equipment and ingredients purchased and setup (already in the works). This takes time. The sheer fact we already have a distiller on board is crazy. So I’m thinking we are looking at a minimum of 3 months before the rum is close to being ready. But again, updates will be shared on every step of this journey.
There is so much to talk about in this space, but I’ll save more for future Medium articles.
I am also getting messages from some restaurants as well, who want to serve MoonPirate. So our name is starting to get out there and plenty of exciting opportunites are out there.
Summary
My pirate fingers are feeling stiff and brittle from all this typing…us pirates aren’t use to such delicate work!
I’ll keep the summary really short as I just wanted to say “thank you” and “well done”. It’s been such an exciting week and yes, it’s had it ups and downs and it’s believers and non-believers, but MoonPirate will continue moving forward.
I would urge everyone to read this article in full and I will strive to do a weekly release.
With that, I sign-off and wish you all a good day.
YARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!