---

14 June 2022 - Listen here.

We want to take a quick second and thank you all for your support in the last few months. We know there is a lot of worry and doubt happening within the NFT space currently, with the decline of both NFT and crypto prices. 

From our side, we want to reassure you that we’re still here and our mission has not changed one bit; to break down barriers to build a more equitable digital future. 

The majority of our funds are in FIAT and we are moving forward with all the big plans that we’ve always had. 

We are attending NFT.NYC as a team with super packed schedules but would love to meet as many of you in person as possible. We will all be in New York this year for several reasons: 

• Number one is to meet with potential investors, partners and team so we can continue to build out this incredible metaverse. More about that in a bit. 
• Number two is that Juliana and Lana are both panelists on separate panels and we’ll be spreading the word about everything amazing our community is doing.
• And Number three is that we are finalists for two different awards: Best NFT Display and Best NFT Art Gallery. Thank you to everyone who nominated us and voted for us, it’s truly an honor.

Our community has been extremely positive in Discord and on social media and that’s not the case with a lot of projects right now. So huge thanks to you for your positivity and support, it keeps us so motivated and going. Also big thanks to our team of moderators who are always keeping it upbeat and pleasant here, we could not do this without you so thank you.


Product Roadmap and Updates
We need to talk about Unreal Engine issues first. It’s personally a big deal to the team to hit deadlines as far as product roadmaps go so it’s been frustrating when things happen out of our control that cause us to miss those deadlines. So we feel you, if you’re frustrated that things didn’t get released on time. We feel the same way. 

When Epic released Unreal Engine 5, they made it clear it was ready to go. “War proof” was what they said. This is clearly not the case, as we seem to have found about every bug they have. Some of the gaps are coming from building in mobile but maybe we’re just being creative.

It’s been tough on our small and nimble team when we hit roadblocks like this. Everyone has probably felt like that before. The team has been amazing and instead of losing motivation, we’re finding work arounds and shifting gears to keep our builds moving. It’s been super inspiring to see the team doing that. 

That said, we know that in order to keep moving at the speed we want to, we need to grow our tech team so we’re hiring more Unreal developers ASAP. We’ll be asking for your help to recommend people for these roles and we’ll also have job descriptions that will be available soon as that’s one of our main goals, to hit those deadlines regardless of bugs.

One more Unreal Engine Issue - it’s in Epic’s hands now to update the bug that’s affecting our AR feature. As soon as that’s ready, we can update everyone on our end and update the build immediately after.  

Q. The Project Manager role that was posted a few months ago. Has that been filled?
We have not hired for that role and will be resuming the search in a few weeks. We received some amazing resumes and will be going through each of them and circling back with everyone who applied. 

We’ll also have an official page on our website where new applicants will be able to apply. This will also include the engineering roles we’ll be hiring for. We want to make sure we’re bringing the right people on board, from of course a skills perspective, but also culture and diversity.

This thinking also extends to the investors we have conversations with, which has been a constant. Making sure they see the vision, believe in it, and more importantly, come in with strategic input is extremely important for us. 

So, about that vision and strategy. From a product perspective, we have 4 main pillars we’re tackling:

• The marketplace - think of this as on a personal level. Where you and I can go to buy everything from 3D art and objects like the potion, to custom spaces designed by the best artists and architects in the world. 
  
• Community Spaces - we are currently piloting with one of our favorite NFT projects, a superstar marketplace, brands and entertainment partners. These pilots will allow us to learn what works and scale, building the infrastructure that is needed for others to come and participate without us having to build everything internally. These are essentially custom built mini-worlds that are multiplayer and have their own events and activations.
  
• Preexisting spades for rental -  this requires a lot less maintenance than the custom built spaces but allows the community and artists to use them for a specific amount of time or special activation.
• And finally, our Token.

Updates rolling out to the app soon

So smaller picture, let’s talk about some tangible updates coming.

Right now, we’re working on optimization so the app works quicker and requires less storage on your phones. This is really important for the app to move quicker and require less storage on your phones. This should also fix the lag in movement a few users experienced. You might have also noticed some heat on your phones, during this version of beta. This is one of the UE5 bugs on iOS as well. They did fix that with their latest update but it hasn’t been pushed out on our end yet. The optimization will be done when we start working on the functionalities and UI for curation. 

So soon, you’ll be able to pick the NFTS that go on your wall, instead of it automatically picking the most latest NFTs for you. 

3D objection curation is coming first. You’ll be able to tap the pedestal and select which 3D Potion you want to display. In the future you’ll be able to move and customize your pedestal, and also scale your potion, but for now, only selection will be available. 

You can then select your 2D artwork in a similar fashion but from Flow and ETH collections. It will be a basic tap and go feature. Next is Tezos. We want it to be the next chain that is integrated and hopefully can get that up for this same build. 

The collectibles tab will also be a little bit more complete in the next build. We’ll have a wallets tab where you can connect your wallets directly in-app. We also want to move from MetaMask only to WalletConnect so everyone can showcase their ETH collections. Same for Tezos, so we’ll be using Beacon. This might look a bit different on the initial roll out but the goal is one, connecting your wallet from your app, not having to go out of the app to do so.

We’re looking for a freelance web developer that has experience with wallet connection APIs and SDKs, so if you have anyone in mind or that’s your wheelhouse, we’ll post a job description where you can send us your resume. Both in-app and browser experience is recommended. We’re hoping that someone will come in and help us with all the different chains. 

You’ll be able to jump onto rarible from there as well in case you need more potions, and in the future upcoming drops will also be in the collections tab.

Another tab will be Community spaces that you have access to such as the pilots that we’ll be rolling out. As Potion holders, you always have access to anything in the app, even if it is token gated for another community. 

And then lastly, we have some other exciting things on the horizon before we are truly multiplayer, to bridge the gap and enhance the social experience of the app. You will soon be able to start finding and friending others in the app, see their space and profile, and build your own profile. So we’re rolling out multiple functionalities like this until we can all be fully together as multi-player. 

We’ll be putting some of these updates out faster than the bigger updates so that you all can continue to discover new things in-app.

Community Questions
Q. When will Android beta be rolled out? 
We were aiming for the end of Q2 but with the delays with UE5 we have to unfortunately push it back to Q3. Growing our dev team is extremely important for this to get released sooner rather than later. We will be posting an updated roadmap a few weeks after we’re back from New York and can confirm dates then. The roadmap itself has been quite fluid as it depends on how the team grows.

Q. Curious when the new avatars will come out and what features they will have. Also when we will be able to interact in real time at the "library" etc.
We see the future of avatars in some.place as PFPs coming off  the wall to play. We’re in conversations with multiple projects that have gone or are going 3D, to bring functionality to their characters. You can see this with the Meebit that’s in our beta right now. We are also studying our own avatars but it has been a lower priority for us, most likely Q4 by the time we hit app stores.

As for real-time interaction, multiplayer in the library or other environments, is a Q3 feature for us. The library will be opening its doors soon though in single player mode, as a few things are refined. Voice chat is also on the roadmap so your avatars will be able to interact and chat. 

Q. How is some.place looking at the competition in VR personal space projects?
We are building with accessibility in mind and so being a mobile-first metaverse is our number one priority. VR data shows adoption has been extremely low, not to mention the cost is a barrier of entry for many around the world, so we’ll leave that to other players in the space. We do however believe in being multi-platform, but our goal is to onboard people to the metaverse today, not in 2030, and the little device we all carry around 24/7 and socialize on, is in our minds, the way forward.

Q. Curations: will this be a task we could be involved in (like proposing artists for instance or selecting the ‘winners’)?
Love this idea and perhaps we can bring it into one of our gallery pilots. We have one that we are working on. That said, our goal is to build the infrastructure and tools to support any and all to host their own curated shows, exhibitions, partnerships, etc. We are getting lots of emails to partner and showcase a curating selection but our goal is to allow everyone to have the same access and ability to invite anyone they want to an art show or gallery. 

Q. Future NFT drops?
Nothing to share at this time because we are under a couple NDAs so we have to keep that private. 

Q. Is there an ETA on the Unreal Engine fixes?
They didn’t give us an ETA but they are on it. We are in contact with the head of Unreal in Australia to help us push this issue. They just need to send us the fix and we will roll it out.

---

10 March 2022 -  Listen here.
Thank you everyone for your questions, we tried to answer as many as possible. We love your suggestions and feedback as we shape the future of the some·place metaverse. Our team takes all your considerations to heart but please know we are a small team and want to make sure we get every piece of this right.  Like we say, product over hype. — team some·place

Q.  How and when will potion holders get TestFlight access and when is the Potion art reveal?

• Reveal is the week of March 14th! Exact date to come. After reveal, Potion holders will get Beta access in about 10 days.
• The Potion will also be the first NFT you will be able to see in your Personal Space and bring to IRL with AR.
• As soon as Metamask and final Blocto integrations are live, you will be able to start customizing your space with your Flow and ETH collections. Shortly after, a larger personal space will be available for upgrade.
• We’re also working on collab.land and excited to be rolling out owner roles soon. Collab.land requires Flow drops to open a ticket for integration and we’re waiting for that to be completed at this time.

At some.place, our goal is to be agnostic in everything we do, from the chains and wallets we integrate with, to our own marketplace drops and app activations. 

• As of right now Q1 we’re integrating Blocto in Q1 and MetaMask in late Q1/early Q2.
• Soon after that, we’re working with popular tier 1 chains such as Tezos and layer 2 blockchains such as Polygon and Immutable.
• The list will continue to expand as we want to be as inclusive as possible in everything we do, and support consumers with the chains where they are shopping and collecting.

We all know that it’s your key to the metaverse, pre-sale pass for future drops and in-app privileges. But it's not only that. 

We also feel compelled to always come to the community with something substantial and ready to be rolled out, not just ideas.

• The next big step we’re working on, is to introduce our some.place token to engage and reward our most loyal community members, The Potion holders, as well as giving you a real stake in the community and the success of the product.
• We will airdrop a token to all Potion holder wallets at a date TBA. This will formalize your entry to what we like to call the some.place G7.
• Our community will not only contribute to our product roadmap, and will ultimately shape our product. This is our first step to decentralization and the formation of the some.place DAO.

We have the support of an amazing team of experts, including a Flamingo DAO OG, on how this should be rolled out.

Q. What are the benefits of holding more than one Potion and do Potion utilities travel with ownership? 

• Any reward related to the potion such as token airdrop and DAO rights, are on a per wallet basis and not per potion basis.
• Utility does get passed from wallet to wallet when a potion is transfered. But benefits will most likely be tied to how long you’ve had a potion in your wallet so diamond hands will definitely get bigger rewards.
• Multiple potions can and will in the future have other benefits. We’ve been working on what the combination of different potions can bring to holders.

This will be rolled out later this year and we’ll share the timeline towards the end of Q1.

We think of public spaces and events in two forms: gated communities and public spaces. 

These are multiplayer, voice based, environments, and roll out is scheduled for Q3. 

Public Spaces:
This is where like-minded others can overlap and connect. What’s really important to note about public spaces is that the community can help shape what those are.

Gated Communities:
Think of these as discord channels that are unlocked by your collab.land authentication. You will only be able to enter these spaces if you’re a holder of a token that allows you access to it. 

We have been in conversations with existing NFT projects, new projects yet to launch and entertainment groups on what they want to offer as an experience.

Even if our twitter might look like we are just creating private gallery spaces for celebrities, we are actually building a platform where Eva Longoria and others can create a custom community space for their members.

To be honest, it is not exactly the way we wanted it to go. 

We worked with Blocto and Flow because we believed it would be the easiest route to onboard as many as possible into Web3.

We always have accessibility and equity in mind in every step of the process, the idea that you would download a wallet, create it in less than 5 minutes, purchase Flow with your credit card, and be good to mint was exactly what we wanted for the UX.

We know a lot of you had no trouble buying Flow directly in the app but there were more issues than we had anticipated and frankly more than we wanted to see.

We are seeing the issues, learning and adapting. 

Our goal is to be blockchain agnostic and we’ve said that our future drops and collaborations in our marketplace will be done on chains that better suit the artist we’re working with. 

Our marketplace will eventually integrate multiple wallets, and will prioritize those that can hold different tokens, so you can choose how you’d prefer to pay, even if the chain of drop is different to your payment choice. 

On a personal note, Lana would like to give a shout out to the Flow and Dapper Labs team for being amazing to work with. Special thanks to Mickey Maher for helping us through the process.

Q. What’s going on with the Secondary Market?

We’re in conversations with 3 marketplaces that support Flow - VIV3, Gaia and Rarible.

• VIV3 is currently updating the infrastructure to index NFTs at scale and their deadline is 2-3 weeks.
• Gaia meeting is early next week.
• Currently emailing with Rarible.

OpenSea is working on a Flow integration. 

Our goal is for The Potion to exist in a secondary that has good visibility and better success for sales.

And lastly, we have integrated the Flow API so you will soon be able to see your Potion inside the Blocto wallet.


Q. What is the release timeline of the iOS app in the public App store? What about Android?

• It’s scheduled for Q2. We want to make sure we can successfully grow our team behind the scenes and develop the tech to be able to support the public.
• Android is part of our roadmap, but we don’t have an exact date so we haven’t felt comfortable announcing yet.  However, we will work hard to update the community when this crystallizes. We know we have lots of community members on Android and want to bring you all along to our Metaverse!

Q.  Are there possibilities of upcoming video AR capabilities for the potion?
This is something we are working on and coming soon! 

Our Product Team always welcomes suggestions. Here’s what’s on our roadmap currently:

• Q2 - Personal Spaces will have bigger options for larger collections.
• Q2 - Personal Spaces will have more customization options to reflect your identity and personality.

Beyond that, we are discussing other options internally but can’t make them public just yet. We are working on the other aspects of the space, some will be free upgrades.

Q. Will there be a web app in addition to the mobile apps? How about oculus?
We believe to onboard the masses to Web3, it needs to be accessible on mobile. Right now, that’s where our focus and efforts are.

Q. When and how can we gift a potion to someone who already has a blocto wallet?
You will be able to do it on Schwap. We are putting together instructions for this and they should be available tomorrow (March 11, PST).

Q. Can I import 3D models/ art done by me to the app? 
Not at this time. We focus on NFTs in the personal space and so your art would have to be an NFT. For 3D NFT, they would need to be interoperable into the some.place metaverse. Developer tools for that are part of our internal roadmap but not listed yet.

Q. Can I monetise my space in the future? For example, charge a small fee to people who visit my space for instance.
Everyone gets a personal space so we’re not monetizing those at this time.

Q. Will we be able to have gif nfts in our space?
Yes to GIFs but also 3D NFTs as well, beyond the Potion.

Q. How will I be able to go to other some.place rooms?
Multiplayer functionality is coming - the ability for multiple users to meet and talk in one space, like your Personal Space.  We will solve this through “peer-to-peer” and voice integration. You’ll be able to meet others in public spaces and gated communities as well.

Q. Is there a plan to allow small businesses or organizations to use their spaces for commerce?
We are working on that and will update you as soon as we can. Like everything we do, it’s product over hype and we’re working on a case study for this and will share this when we can.

Q. Any partnerships you can let out of the bag?
There are big commercial opportunities that Lana is specifically working on, however, the company is under NDA. We will have regular town halls where we will continue to update the community as these partnerships become public knowledge.

Q. Now that you dropped that alpha about the token: what will be the use cases of the token besides governance?
It’s not just governance but also economic benefits. More to come on this soon. 

Q. You seem to care about sustainability and accessibility. I’m curious to learn if you’ll support climate and JEDI initiatives in the future.
We’re always learning and looking for ways to increase accessibility to Web3 and will continue to learn about how we can make an equitable future for all.