White paper SKINCOIN (SKIN) - Universal Cryptocurrency based on Ethereum for instant trading CS:GO, Dota 2 skins, and making bets on e-sports events. Alexey Zakharov, Igor Solomatin Version 1.0 skincoin.org June 2017
1. INTRODUCTION Our team has been creating, developing, and supporting trading platforms and gambling services projects within the game items (skins) market for the most popular games: Counter-Strike:Global Offensive, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2 since 2013. Today, gamers use CS:GO and Dota 2 skins (virtual weapons and ammunition) as the currency for betting on gambling and betting sites. Players make bets on a team victory or use skins for betting on roulette, jackpot and other gambling sites accepting skins. The market share exceeded $7 billion in 2016. In June 2017, we are launching the first decentralized cryptocurrency called SKINCOIN (SKIN) for purchase, sale of game skins and secure transactions on gaming sites. SKINCOIN token (SKIN) - decentralized cryptocurrency for making bets, accepting and sending payments for game skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2. Tokens SKINCOIN (SKIN) are to be released based on the Ethereum blockchain platform. Tokens shall be used for trading with game sites, buying/selling skins, making bets on gambling and betting platforms. SKINCOIN (SKIN) is fully integrated into the business model of existing projects: trading platforms and gambling services. At the end of August 2017, a betting platform to make bets on esports matches together with API for accepting payments on major partner services is planned to be launched. SKINCOIN tokens shall completely replace skins for betting on cybersport matches and the sphere of cybersport gambling. All proceeds from the release of tokens for ICO shall be used to finance further development, support, marketing of new gaming projects: trading platforms, gambling and betting services associated with the game items CS:GO, Dota 2.
2. MARKET AND INDUSTRY REVIEW In recent years, cybersport games have gained immense popularity and covered by major media. The most popular games are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. Each day more than 470 thousand people play in CS: GO simultaneously, for Dota 2 this figure is more than 860 thousand people. Now players spend in Dota 2 in total of just over 11 billion hours per day, whereas in CS: GO this figure is about 8 billion hours. According to Steam Spy, the game Dota 2 has more than 99 million Steam users, and in the last two weeks, about 9.5 million users have launched the game. 23.5 million people own CS:GO, of which 8.8 million users ran it in the same period. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive game is a 3D first-person shooter where players are divided into teams: terrorists against counterinsurgents. The task of terrorists is to mine one of two points on the map, the task of counter-terrorists to prevent them from doing so. In addition, the victory is awarded to a team that destroyed all the opponents on the map. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the most popular professional e-sports game. A last major tournament at the National Wide Arena (where the NHL Blue Jackets play) in early April 2016 generated more than 71 million online views in four days. A huge number of games and tournaments are broadcasted by streaming (streaming video) services as Twitch and YouTube. More details about the market of game items can be found in the Bloomberg article: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-virtual-guns-counterstrike-gambling/
3. MARKET VALUE Everything changed when Valve introduced something new: decorative virtual weapons, known as skins, that could be acquired in the game and sold for real money. "AK-47 Fuel Injector". Price $74.07 - $408.00. In-game purchases were not new, but the cash trade just blew this market. Within two years, the number of people playing CS: GO had grown 1,500 percent. Each day more than 470 thousand people play in CS: GO simultaneously. Introduction of skins has opened up wide opportunities for the gambling market. People buy skins for cash, then use the skins to place online bets on pro CS: GO matches. This is a highly liquid market where everyone can convert a gun or a knife into cash.
According to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a research firm, more than 3 million people wagered $2.3 billion worth of skins on the outcome of e-sport matches in 2015. In 2016, this figure grew by two-fold and reached $5 billion. As per analytics of Eilers & Krejcik Gaming and Narus Advisors, about 40% of the total 5 billion market in 2016 were betting on the results of cybersport matches and tournaments. Player wagers his skins on winning his team. The remaining $3 billion were distributed among other gambling sites that accept skins. They are casino, roulette, slot machines, bones and other gambling games. The idea of skins is not unique - it was already tested in the previous game of Team Fortress 2, but in CS:GO the mechanics of buying and drawing skins became more fascinating. Having bought a key for $2.49, you can win a cheap skin for a couple of cents or a rarest one of value of thousands of dollars. Some of the skins acquired a collector's status. They are well recognized by many players, generating interest to the owner of the skin. As a result, people are willing to spend thousands of dollars on the possession of such collectible skins. ESPN tell stories of schoolchildren who spent thousands of dollars on their father's credit cards to buy keys for $2.49 to get a treasured rare skin in Valve's lottery. In fact, this is a gambling within the game interface. The only problem is that you cannot withdraw the winnings here. The coins received after the sale of the skin on the gaming exchange cannot be exchanged for dollars back. Third-party betting sites provide this opportunity. Thanks to the open API, these skins can be exchanged outside of the game. Having a certain real value, skins began to be used in games for money on gambler sites. Moreover, from there you can
do cashiering. For example, you can sell skins through the OPSkins platform, where there is not even a $400 limit installed on Steam. More details about the size of the game market for skins can be found in the articles Bloomberg and ESNP. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-13/game-maker-valve-moves-to-choke-off-7-4-billion-gambling-market http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18510975/how-counter-strike-turned-teenagercompulsive-gambler 4. PROBLEM The official Steam platform and VALVE developer are against using skins in gambling and betting. Legal Sports analytical agency has published a report on the activities of the largest portal CS: GO Lounge, which deals with betting on cybersport events. According to the document, from January to August 2016 the site accepted more than 103 million skins worth about 1 billion dollars. 2.800 matches were analyzed. The average total cost of bets on one game was 358 thousand dollars. In August 2016 the portal CS: GO Lounge received a ban on the implementation of activities by direction from Valve. At the end of September, the portal resumed its activity by introducing the system of domestic currency in the form of coins (points). If you use skins on these services, there may be delays due to workload of Steam services. There are several hundred gambling sites that accept skins from CS:GO and Dota 2 for payment and bets. The number of such projects is growing every month. In addition, there are large trading platforms exchanging skins for real money and back. Valve policy does not encourage the use of API functionality for organizing gambling activities based on skins and game inventory. In fact, this does not interfere with the development and appearance of new third-party sites: roulettes, jackpots, casinos and other betting platforms, where you can use skins as bets. 5. SOLUTION In July 2017, we are launching an exchange platform where you can instantly exchange skins for SKINCOIN and back. The difference between buying and selling will be 10%. At the start of the project, there will be no commission to stimulate the market for the transition to a new payment unit. By issuing SKINCOIN (SKIN) tokens, we solve the problem of using skins when betting on betting/gambling platforms and buying/selling skins on trading sites.
In August 2017, an API will be developed for receiving and converting skins in SKINCOINS (SKIN) on all sites of the game theme CS: GO, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2. To pay or make skins, users will be redirected to the exchange platform where they will be able to exchange their skins and refill the balance on the website with SKINCOIN tokens. Gambling and betting sites will not need to store a huge amount of things on their bots under the threat of blocking by Steam, they will be able to conduct all settlements with users of SKINCOIN tokens. Players, in their turn, can always exchange SKINCOIN on the platform-exchanger, or exchange them for Bitcoins on exchange platforms. SKINCOIN token (SKIN) will be accepted as means of exchange for gaming and betting services (betting sites for e-sports events, jackpot sites, roulettes, casinos, etc.). SKINCOIN (SKIN) will be immediately integrated into the business model of existing and future projects and will be used to accept payment for services and make bids on projects: - https://steamtrade.net/ - https://skinwin.com/ - https://case.club/ - https://csgodep.com/ - https://skin-hunt.com/ 6. ICO ICO Start Date: 21 June 2017 00:00 GMT ICO End Date: 21 July 2017 00:00 GMT Minimal Goal To Start: 10 000 ETH SKINCOIN for distribution: 600 000 000 (60 000 ETH) Token Exchange rate: 10 000 SKINS : 1 ETH Currency accepted: Only ETH Minimum transaction amount: 1000 SKIN (0.1 ETH) Maximum transaction amount: 30 000 000 SKIN (3000 ETH)
7. TOKENS LAUNCH MODEL Total token amount: 1 billion (SKIN) tokens. 600 million tokens will be available to fundraisers. 300 million will remain in the SKINCOIN Foundation until the official exchange is launched, the tokens will be using as starting turnover to exchange skins at the market rate, and will be used to form a stable market and further development over the next five years. Tokens will be stored on a wallet with multi-signatures. 100 million will be distributed among team members. Receipt of tokens is organized using a smart-contract based on Ethereum. In the first 3 days, participants will be available discounts of 20%. For information, please contact: crowdsale@skincoin.org SKINCOIN tokens can be purchased only for ETH. All collected funds shall be received and stored on purses with multi-signatures.
8. TEAM We have an excellent, well-organized team. Since 2013, we have been creating, developing and supporting our own high-loaded marketplaces, gamble and betting projects in esports area with a turnover of more than $10 million per year. - Alexey Zakharov, Founder Has been working at Hewlett-Packard, Merlion, Open Technologies. He has launched and brought to payback more than seven projects in the gaming area related to the game items CS: GO, Dota 2 since 2013. - Igor Solomatin, Co-Founder, CEO Has extensive experience in promoting products of American company Hewlett-Packard in the Russian market. Successful experience in launching and promoting Internet Startups. Starting from 2013 he has been co-founder and general director of gaming projects related to Steam and the market of game items (skins) with a turnover of more than $1 million per month. - Alexander Kravin, leading architect-developer (full-stack) More than 10 years in the field of complicated and highly loaded systems software development. Developed applications for telecommunication companies, banks and State structures from scratch. Since 2015, developes game services, applications for administration and monitoring. Leading architect-developer of Steamtrade.net, Skinwin.com. - Alexey Bazlov, developer (back-end) Since 2008, he has been developing game servers for online games, working with the network part, interacting with the client-server, optimizing the work of high-load projects. Starting from 2012, he has been working with Steam projects. Developer of the Skinwin.com and Case.club projects. - Oleg Agayev, developer (front-end) Eight years of web development experience (full-stack developer). For a long time he held the position of full-stack developer of a large corporate b2b portal based on the Laravel and AngularJS frameworks. Large experience of development popular gaming services adjacent to the Steam platform. Platform developer of Steamtrade.net, Skinwin.com, Case.club. - Hasan Delic, designer (UI / UX) Large experience of UX/UI design in esports industry. Great vision in design of game industry. Creator of the Skinwin.com, esportsmate.com, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Escape Gaming, Luckbox.
9. PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT AND ROADMAP For the last three years of joint work, our team developed and launched the following projects: - Trading platform of game subjects CS:GO/Dota2/TF2 - Steamtrade.net; - Game service for skins and points - Skinwin.com; - Shop of random objects (opening of cases CS: GO) - Case.club. Projects are successfully running in the market for two years with a total turnover of more than $10 million per year. For all of our working projects, we will immediately introduce the new payment currency SKINCOIN and further we will work on partnership with key projects for the fastest coverage of the gaming market. ROADMAP until the end of summer 2017: - End of July 2017: implementation of receiving skincoins tokens as payment and bets at https://skinwin.com/, https://csgodep.com/, https://skin-hunt.com/, https://case.club/ - August 2017: launching of the platform-exchanger Skincoin Exchanger (skins <=> SKINCOIN) - August 2017: implementation of SKINCOIN reception on the trading platform https://steamtrade.net/ - September 2017: implementing API for accepting payments on third-party sites - October 2017: launch betting platform for betting on esports matches with acceptance rates in SKINCOINS.