The Lisk Relauch event was live streamed to the world on the 20th of February at 8:30PM CET. You can watch the entire presentation here, or you can read this article which cover all the important news and developments that came out of this Lisk Rebranding event.
Lisk are building a dapp platform that will let developers code blockchain applications in JavaScript. Their focus is on user friendly applications, and their approach is a simple one. Wrap the blockchain and the complexities of cryptography in a language that millions of developers understand; Javascript.
Cryptography is very hard. Javascript is comparatively easy. So, they had the bright idea of building a blockchain SDK. Developers can code in a way that is familiar to them. Companies have access to a massive pool of talent, and the technology is adopted faster. Secured behind cryptography, this is Javascript in a network without trust.
The vision is that, one day tokens and information will be tradable across the many platform built on the decentralized Lisk network and written in Javascript.
Setting the stage
How had the public reacted to Lisk so far? To answer this question, Max Kordex (Lisk CEO and Cofounder) handed the stage over to Christian Vatter.
Christian Vatter is a trained psychologist, branding expert and owner of consultancy firm Rlevance.
From his perspective, he explained how Lisk had been collating information from Slack groups and gathering feedback from different focus groups and stakeholders. They focused on full stack developers, companies and entrepreneurs.
What is Lisk missing? What are you getting from other products? Lisk asked these questions to people who mattered.
Once they knew what people wanted, Lisk set about building it. Some code was written and then it was extensively user tested. I know that I sound like a super shill, but this is how Lisk operates. They had millions of dollars and some top tier marketing professionals.
Lisk Has Been Rebranded
We tend to treat the sales and marketing side of blockchain companies like impurities and distractions from the technology, but the end goal of Lisk, and most cryptos for that matter, is to be adopted as a platform for developers, people and businesses to use regularly.
As the industry matures, we need to move past these proto-hipster hang-ups and start thinking about user adoption. That is where the circulation and volume come from.
When I look at this webpage, with its animations and fluid layout, I see a marketing funnel that rivals established companies using tried and tested technology.
- Lisk JS – Lisk Elements
- Lisky – Lisk Commander
- Lisk App – Lisk Hub
This video goes through all the design changes that Lisk have made to their website, platform and products.
Lisk Hub
Most of the live stream and rebranding focused on the aesthetic changes that had been made to the lisk Hub (previously Lisk App)
Lisk IDs are generated from numbers created by moving your mouse.
Delegates on the Lisk Hub
Delegates have been moved into the advanced settings. Since staking isn’t everyday functionality, Lisk believes that it should be relegated to a sub menu. Fair enough, why distract the average user with functionality that most people will never use?
The voting process is still in the Lisk Hub, you just need to click an extra couple of times. Electing delegates is as simple as clicking a checkbox. Considering that that process establishes consensus for the network, it looks breathtakingly easy to use.
Thomas Schouten promised the following features in the coming months.
- Creating Custom Tokens
- Registering Dapp Names.
- Sidechain Management,
- Custom Tokens,
- Multitoken Support,
- A Decentralized Exchange,
- Fiat Gateway to Lisk
- ICO suite.
“Multitoken Support is Important taking the Lisk vision into account because what we are creating here is a sidechain application platform. Why is it so important? Well, now we have multi accounts with different Lisk IDs? But later we will have not only Lisk accounts, but we will have all your sidechain account.” – Thomas Schouten goes onto say that this is a real user experience challenge, but they will work day and night to build the best, absolute platform for sidechain application development including a feature with multitoken support.” I believe you senpai.
Lisk Academy
Next to take the stage was Jacob Kowalewski. He is the head of the Lisk Academy. To drum home the importance of blockchain technology and improve the public’s access to blockchain education, Jacob Kowalewski states that the goal of Lisk Academy is to have anyone be able to explain the basic concepts of blockchain technology after 5 – 10 minutes of reading.
Currently the Lisk Academy is broken down into 2 sections: Blockchain Basics and Blockchain Business.
Like you would expect the business side of the site is dedicated to the corporate side of blockchain. Both helping new business startup with blockchain technology, and existing business adopt the blockchain.
They cover everything from launching an ICO on the Lisk platform to integrating cryptocurrencies and crypto economics into a traditional business model. The goal is to raise awareness and understanding.
“We want to shift the conversation away from just the prices of bitcoin. There are over 40,000 words of premium content and over 50 infographics and animations.”
The Academy will cover a blockchain build module. It will be the most technical module on the academy, but will completely cover how to build applications? how to support them? how to release your own cryptocurrencies? It is all going to be covered in the blockchain build module.
Looking ahead, Lisk wants to add gamification to their platform making it even easier to understand the blockchain. There was even mention of a Lisk Academy Diploma.
This is the end of the rebranding. Thomas Schouten and friends go on to explain the technology. It’s easily the most interesting part of the entire live stream.
Lisk are a very marketing-oriented company, so it is exciting when we see them proving they have the tech to support some of their claims.
All in all, this was a professional relaunch event. It hasn’t received the attention of Antshares to NEO, but they showed of some well-designed user technology and demonstrated a real commitment to what they are promising. They still have a lot to prove, but Lisks claim of Ethereum competitor might not be as far stretched as they once seemed.
