Introducing BOT Coin, a new tool for the voice and chatbot communities

Today, Modev, VoiceBrew, VoiceLunch, and Voicebot.ai are announcing the creation of a new creator coin called $BOT Coin, which we hope can help bind our industry closer together and help us all grow faster. Creator coins are sometimes called social tokens and are a type of cryptocurrency. They are not NFTs (non-fungible tokens) but instead are a means of exchange and a signal of affinity. Michal Stanislawek, co-founder of #VoiceLunch commented:

I believe that $BOT creates a unique opportunity to allow communities, creators, and companies within the Conversational AI and Voice AI space to come closer together. It will allow us to develop unique ways to create loyalty and community support mechanisms. Due to the nature of no transaction fees it will make it very easy to support nano transactions within games and other experiences. I can imagine a chatbot or voicebot that accepts $BOT to provide ‘first in line’ and premium experience where the rate depends on the actual system load.

We are encouraging people not to think about $BOT Coin as money but instead as a tool we can all use to grow the industry. You may have already seen these creator coins showing up in Twitch or Clubhouse. Given the growing importance of cryptocurrencies in everyday life you are going to see a lot more of these very soon. Some will be vanity projects, others will be used to launch new services and products, and some will be about building community.

A Community Coin for the Voice AI and Chatbot Industries

The companies listed here and some others that will be announced in the coming days have worked together over the past few weeks to think about something we might do to build tighter community bonds among those of us in the voice AI and chatbot communities. The opportunity arose recently to work with Rally.io to have a creator coin minted for our industry and we chose the name $BOT Coin.

We wanted a name that was generic, it had to be only a few letters, could not be a listing name that was already taken, and we wanted it to in some way reflect our industry. BOT turned out to be the generic term that fit the criteria. And, anyone can use it, anytime, for a wide variety of use cases.

Voicebot lent part of our logo to the project because we figured it would be more recognizable to people in our industry. We also worked with Rally to get the coin approved through their token holder voting process. So, you should know that Voicebot is supporting this initiative. However, we have seen this from the start as a community building and support project and it fits one of our goals for 2021 to help support industry growth.

How $BOT Coin Works

“The reality of digital coins has hit the mainstream and it’s time for industry groups to embrace this new opportunity. It’s actually based on an old idea of providing branded currency to be used within an ecosystem. Look no further than your airline miles or reward points on your credit card. These also can change in value and are often traded online. The $BOT coin allows the voice tech industry to create loyalty and have a common currency to utilize in many different ways on the buy and sell-side of the equation,” said Pete Erickson, founder, and CEO of Modev.

You can think of our partner, Rally.io, as something like a Squarespace for cryptocurrencies with one twist. It is easy to acquire a creator coin and set up an account so you can start using something like $BOT. However, they have a gating process for who can create a coin. Every new coin concept must go through an approval process first through the Rally staff and then be voted on in the group of Rally token holders. Not to go into too much detail, but RLY is an Ethereum-based token that can also be exchanged for any of the creator coins it mints such as $BOT. While $BOT Coin was minted in the Rally.io network, it also can be converted to other cryptocurrencies and back to other fiat currencies by way of RLY.

Rally set up all of the mechanisms for introducing these coins for approved creators which provides an easy way for users to acquire coins like $BOT, receive it as a reward, use it in transactions, and view their holdings. All the transactions are visible on the Rally blockchain which you can see here. There is also a lot of additional information about Rally on its Wiki which we encourage you to check out for more details.

$BOT Coin Use Cases

How will $BOT Coin be used? Well, that’s up to you. I have already started sending out $BOT as a thank you to long-time Voice Insider subscribers and going forward will accept payment for most sponsorships in $BOT. Katherine Prescott of VoiceBrew plans to use it in her newsletter referral program.

VoiceBrew will use $BOT as a key part of our referral program (launching in the coming weeks!). It’s great to give away stickers and t-shirts and things like that as rewards for hitting referral thresholds, but I think that including something that’s tied into the voice ecosystem like $BOT will make it a lot more interesting for VoiceBrew’s readers to participate in the program — especially the voice super users in our community.

Prescott added, “As the $BOT ecosystem grows, there will be more and more ways to redeem it — whether to tip a developer for building an awesome voice application or to help buy a ticket to an upcoming voice conference or event.”

Building on those comments Erickson of Modev added, “Modev sees a lot of potential value in our adoption of $BOT. We plan on providing incentives for individuals to pay us using $BOT for things such as event registrations. We can provide discounts for using $BOT which would drive adoption and allow users to hold $BOT for any duration they choose. We also plan to provide sponsor rebates in the form of $BOT where we’ll issue $BOT to our vendors who can then in turn use it back with us for add-ons and other sponsorships. ”

“At #VoiceLunch we plan to use $BOT with the sole purpose of supporting our community. We intend to reward the effort that community leaders put into organising the regional and topical sessions. In addition, we plan to notice active participation and engagement in the meetings. We are still working out the specifics, but for us, $BOT is a tool to allow us to give back to the wonderful community and reward people who put in the time and work for the benefit of everyone!,” concluded Stanislawek.

We encourage you to check out $BOT Coin and reach out if you have any questions. There will be more information shared in Voicebot.ai as other $BOT supporters come online. We also have a Twitter account @BOTcoinAI which will be a good way to keep up with the developments. Direct Messages there are open, for now. Give the account a follow and let us know if you would like to get involved in building the voice and chatbot communities by using $BOT Coin. We are all looking forward to having some fun with this initiative, drive some innovative ways to connect with others, build community, and grow the industry.

Follow @bretkinsella Follow @voicebotai

Voice and Chatbot Creators Get Behind $BOT Coin with New Use Cases

Marketers Assign Higher Importance to Voice Assistants as a Marketing Channel in 2021 – New Report