OIG AMA with Manga Token

22 min readApr 11, 2022

A token that allows you to gain access to Manga NFTs from renowned mangaka(s) such as Goseki Kojima and Yuji Kaida (Godzilla’s artist) on Trophee.xyz!

Spicey | OIG: Welcome back, OIG founding to another exciting episode in our ama series. Today I had the privilege of speaking with Elvin Li, who is the CEO of manga token, manga token aims to disrupt the status quo within the blockchain industry and manga industry by facilitating payment and incentivizing interactions between content creators and consumers. Watch as we take a deep dive into manga token and how it will revolutionise the space. Remember, if you’d like the content, subscribe, hit the bell notification button, and hit the like button to stay up to date with all the latest news coming out from OIG. Without further ado, let’s jump straight into the AMA. Welcome, OIG family we’ve got elven from manga token, who’s going to tell us a little more about what manga token is and what it’s going to do to the industry.

Elvin Li:
Thanks for inviting me for this ama session. And I am when the CEO for manga token, we also run trophee, which is the company as far as the marketplace for manga, their artworks, and then a few other creative books as well. We’ll get more into that later. We shall let’s start the AMA and yep, happy to answer all your questions for today.

Spicey | OIG: Awesome. I’m sure a lot of us at OIG, including myself are big fans of manga. I mean, I grew up reading them. So my biggest question I guess I’ll start with is, why do you think the manga world needs a project like yours? You know, what problems do you solve? And what is manga token? Exactly?

Elvin Li: Let’s first start by explaining why manga is, so manga basically is the Japanese term for comics. If you’re not aware of Japanese comics, they are basically, I would say, primarily paperback comics drawn and drawn on magazines, and distribute on a weekly basis through the various magazines in Japan. And recently, they have actually gone online. It’s becoming more popular online because people actually have people have a strong tendency or preference to use their mobile phones to read manga these days. Right? And also, because of COVID Everyone’s stuck, right, no one can actually get out of their homes. So online applications are getting more and more popular. And with that said, we actually went to do a deep dive into the manga industry to figure out how this industry actually works. And actually, we then realise that creators in this industry do not really make a lot of money, right? In fact, most of them make unsustainable incomes. So with that being said, I was thinking hey, we should come in to disrupt the market and bring the money back to the creators instead of all the middlemen in between. So the middle bands for this industry are basically publishers, who either print the books or the magazines or the publishers that create the mobile applications for the wild cards or the manga beaters to sell their burgers, right, most of these publishers actually take a very big cut and some of them are actually I would say some a little bit ruthless in the sense where they limit the I would say the creator’s revenue potential by tying them to a very specific platform or sometimes even providing very unfavourable licencing deals with these creators. So, that is actually the myths about how they can go out to the rest of the world or they can actually public or I would say publicise their manga. So, the solution that we have over here I would say is a fairly simple solution. we provide the mangaka or the manga creators with a means to get an additional form of income through the distribution of NFTs, right the NFT is can be in many forms, it could be in the form of artworks they have created. It could be enough Have a simple thank you video, right? appreciating their fans. Or it could be a simple audio note, if they can do a video, like some manga cast operators actually pretty shy. They don’t want to show their faces. So they’re probably produce audio notes, or those that are even more, I would say, introverted, they will probably just write the letter as a form of appreciation, put it in a PDF format, and distribute it as NFT. So there are many forms of NFT’s that actually can that can you go on to the public. But why we want to do this is because we want to encourage the manga creators to publish their own. So we also launched our own manga reader, where the creators can then collaborate with fans to translate their manga into different languages around the world, as well as work with the fans to promote their manga to the rest of the world. So it’s not they’re not the market for manga cast these days won’t be just limited to Japan, but it will then proliferated the rest of the world. So that’s what we are trying to do with our project.

Spicey | OIG: I love how you mentioned, you know, eliminating the middleman and really putting that monetary power back into the creator’s hands. It’s just, it just follows the narrative of you know, the, almost the past 10 years with content creation, people are making music, themselves, people are making videos themselves and posting it themselves and then receiving that, that recognition. Based on their content, their, their, their schedule, it’s all putting the power back into the content creator is only a matter of time for you know, manga to receive that, that upgrade, let’s say, and it’s really cool that, you know, you recognise that? Yeah, it’s the truth is that these manga, manga artists and manga creators that they do not get compensated for the amazing work that they do, you know, I, it’s such an influence to have manga in your life to see the different artwork, the different basically, the different influences from a whole nother culture, you know, I’m a fan of Japanese culture now, because of what manga has done to me. And, you know, we got to keep it alive. And this is, this is how you keep it alive by putting that, that that power back into the creator’s hands.

Elvin Li: Thank thanks for confirming will that with me, because I’ve actually personally spoken to a couple of them. Some of them actually went back in when to go into teaching as their main career, and then doing work on the side, like drawing manga on the side, which I find that it’s a pity because they could create much better books, they focus all their energy on creating the book,

Spicey | OIG: Of course. And yeah, no, I love to hear. So, let’s go on to another part of, I guess, manga Token is, you know, obviously, this is you’re going to be disrupting the whole industry by doing this. And you’re going to need a strong team to accomplish this. So could you tell us a little bit about your team and the experience they have to make this project a huge success?

Elvin Li: Okay, so I was just for simplicity’s sake, I’ll highlight the three key people right ready the whole team, so it’s primarily me, Elvin, and Hiroaki, which is one of my business partners, and another business partner. Okay, so the three of us, I would say, have been working in different industries for a very long time. So personally, I’ve been in the software development space, for close to 15/17 years already. And what I bring to the table is the capability to develop software very quickly. And, and, and produce I will say quality software so that we won’t encounter issues such as hacking and stuff. So that’s my experience. As for Hiroaki who is our expert, and our business partner, he brings in very unique experiences so he himself is a creator, right? He’s a veteran in the manga anyway space for more than over 20 years, right. So personally, as I create, I would say he has done seven films right animation series produce them, right? Those are most of them have actually been launched in the market, you can even find his name on IMDb. really why I produce. So we are lucky to actually have him because he has a lot of influence in this industry and can actually bring in veterans to help us, which can be seen in the works that NFT works that we have launched. Recently, we’ll get to the subsequent questions. And the next thing is, the next person is actually also my business partner. He runs a game publishing company that has been around for more than 14 years or so. Basically, he brings on a very unique experience in that he works with consumers for the past 13/14 years, right selling games, improving the games, from time to time, right to improve the weather to create better means of monetization. So he brings this economic aspect into our operational experience. So that can figure out from time to time how we should actually tune our platforms to make it in such a way that is a viable business for us, and also a sustainable business model for the creators who are coming on our platform.

Spicey | OIG: For sure, incredible. And some, I mean, some big names that you mentioned, if they’re already on IMDb, right? So I look forward to hearing more from them and seeing how that’s gonna work out in the long term. That’s, that’s great. So you touched on the features, or at least one specific one with the NFTs within the manga ecosystem, or manga token ecosystem? Rather? Could you give us a little more in-depth look at the different products and features that you have on in your ecosystem that will benefit the manga creators as well as the readers and users of the platform?

Elvin Li: Sure. Okay, So let’s talk about the NFT portion of it first, because since I have been emphasising that over and over again, so what exactly is that, so we have actually launched our NFT marketplace, you can find it on this on the web called trophee.XYZ, so trophy is spice T R O P, H, E,E not p th y dot XYZ. So there, you can actually find all the NFT’s that we have launched with, through collaborating with several of the several Manga creators, some of them pretty famous one, but why is it really big, but it’s actually fairly papers. But in any case, we originally built our platform on the finance smart chain. Three weeks back, we have actually built a bridge that allows users to bring these NFTs from the finance buy chain, and bridge it over to Etherium chain as well. So, you can actually buy quantify this feature on our marketplace. So, going back to this marketplace is unique in the sense that we only work with original creators or artists right to launch pieces up on our platform the code through the cycle of authenticating these people. So, what we do is that hierarchy will actually call these artists or find out if this person is the actual person who created it, and then also go through several publishers to affirm that this is the right person that we are talking to before we take ours and put it up on our platform. So only the authentic Manga creators can come on. So we ensure that you as the fans are the eventual buyers will get the authentic pieces and not some fans out there that is it that was created and then not properly licenced and subsequently, we also be launching our panga reader. It’s actually going to be out in about two weeks or so. So what that does is that I creators, Manga creators can launch their newly created manga on our platform and have fans who are very supportive of them, translate them into various languages. So they may, most of these manga artists can only write and create content in Japanese, they can create it in other languages. So they need the help of their fans to translate the various languages and republish them onto the same manga reader. So in such a way, right? fans from all over the world can appreciate the same content faster. Right, instead of how current publishers actually what your needs the English version in another country, like two years after the Moscow has been created in Japan, but so it’s really, really slow. So we are accelerating that process. And finally, the last thing that we are going to create is actually this manga project starter platform, in which subsequently, anybody who wishes to create new content can come on to our project, start the platform, launch their new tokens, raise some funds, and create their new logo or their new animation project.

Spicey | OIG: Wow, really cool. So there’s a lot of stuff you mentioned. But towards the end, you talked about the manga reader and, and how, if I’m understanding this correctly, the users can translate the or the readers can translate the content as well, is that right? Yes. o would that mean that they have a form of compensation from the manga creator or how does that relationship work in that sense?

Elvin Li: Okay, probably, it’s actually pretty straightforward. So, why we created manga token in the first place is for us to compensate the manga creators, right, so based upon readership, right, if they will get compensated a certain amount of manga tokens, not only that defence will help to translate them would also get the portion of the payout in Manga tokens as well based on the readership. And it’s not needed readership. We also have good in several other business models as well, such as locking of, of chapters, or even the tip or even if you like to, if the model is entirely distributed for free, we’ll have also provided a tipping mechanism for you can take the decreed. So that tip will also be shared with the translators, the pen translators.

Spicey | OIG: Really cool. I mean, since we’re already on the topic, too, could you go a little more into the detail of the manga tokens utility within the ecosystem?

Elvin Li: Yep, sure. So let’s start, let’s go based on the product so that it’s easier to understand. So the very first platform basically is trophy, the manga NFT marketplace. In there, you can actually use manga tokens to redeem NFTs. Of course, you can create NFTs between other fans, and amongst the fans on our platform as well. You can use manga tokens, subsequently, we will be opening up to other tokens as well like stable coins as well as BNB. And he said, effectively Etherium as well. Right. And that’s the first use case for the platform for the NFT marketplace. On the manga reader, right. The manga utility is very straightforward. As a manga you earn tokens through their readership, right? As fan translators, you earn manga tokens by trying to troll through the readership as well. Or if you do help to promote the manga to others in other social channels, you also get some form of compensation. That’s right. And on top of that, fans who do not want to contribute to creating the content can also support the content by tipping the manga creator right with manga tokens. So a portion of that will also be shared with the fans who help with the translation. So that’s for the manga reader. And now for the actual manga token what we have also done early in, we launched Maga taka was that we have created this thing called the manga token LP farm. So basically, you can stick manga, LP in pancake swap to earn Marga tokens, so that there was what we have. Also, there was one other utility that we had. And lastly, for the Manga project starter, you just need to own all the tokens, stick them in a smart contract, to be able to participate in new tokens not just for the new manga, anime games, or even events that are related to any manga, title licence. So these are the key utilities of manga, it’s quite a lot to take in. But I hope this gives you a better understanding of what one tokens can actually do. So is trying to encompass the entire ecosystem. So is this it’s not just one single-use case, many, many use cases for it.

Spicey | OIG: And it’s good to see that there’s, like compensation, if you look at it at every level of interaction between the reader and the content creator. And even outside of the platform, you talked about, you know, like, pushing this content on other platforms actually yield some sort of benefit on your platform as well. So really, it is a robust token, with a very large number of use cases. And I mean, it’s just it, like you said, it’s, this is definitely going to disrupt the status quo. So it needs to be robust, right? So very cool stuff. Very cool stuff. So could you tell us a little more about the fadeaway bunny collection? What is that? What is that? And what are they? How does it work within the ecosystem?

Elvin Li: Okay, so in line with our motto of working with manga creators very closely, we started working with this artist, she was the model who turned into a manga artist a couple of years back. Right, the fade away by the main collection is actually a profile picture project. So in short, for you guys know that that’s generated PFP project. So it’s based off a is based off the fade the actual fade away bunny manga that was published on the line manga app in Japan. Recently, it was also published in the English language on Kindle comics likey like manga planet, but not all of them have been translated, it takes time to translate. So in Japanese, the Japanese version is already up to episode 200 But the English edition is less than 50. So back to the fadeaway bunny collection, it’s that we have actually so we are actually selling a total of 300 Genesis bunnies. That is, there’s only 300 There won’t be more than that. So these 300 Bunnies basically will allow you to breed new bunnies, right? You can put two bunnies together to be one human right? And each of the bunny the new bread bunny will take a straight from both parents. The key objective of this entire project is that we are trying to turn it into some form of game by project where by staking these bunnies you can earn this ERC 20 token called pills. And you can use pills to breed new bunnies, right or buy items to improve the looks of your bunnies, by going by posters from the item shop to accelerate the breeding of the bunny or to accelerate the generation of new periods of deaths. So it’s somewhat like a game. Not entirely a case is I would say like, a mix between game and the NFT PFP project. Both of them were put together to create something more interesting for users to interact with. So it’s not just a PFP project where you can copy the picture, put it on your Twitter profile, and that’s it, but he can do a lot more than that.

Spicey | OIG: And it sounds like there’s a lot of utility, especially with the breeding aspect. And you take the basically the aspects from the parents and inform this new NFT. Right. Really cool stuff. So let’s move on to our next segment here, which is the Twitter questions.

Twitter Questions:

Spicey | OIG: question number one, manga token has many partners. One of them is super genius games, which is a game publishing company that focuses on MMO online games. Given the fact that you and this company work together, does this mean we will see NFT games being developed for manga tokens in the future?

Elvin Li: Yep. So this is a very straightforward, easy question to answer. So super genius games are owned by Young Shin, who is my business partner. So we are very, we are working very closely together. The original intent was actually to find a manga licence among the IPs that we can use to create new games in the future. So yes, you might work and see new games soon. Not so soon, we are still sourcing for good games out there. Unfortunately, most of the games that you see online these days are primarily built in China. And there are a lot of restrictions by the Chinese government on building blockchain-related games. So we are still looking for a good game developer in China to work with to create new games, right? Those that we have been working in with him for the past 10/15 years, those guys are actually not very willing to take a step forward to enter the crypto world because of the Chinese restrictions. So we are looking, we are still looking for good developers out there to work with to create new coins. But yes, we will soon be creating this

Spicey | OIG: That’s a really exciting answer to hear, you know, especially with everything we’ve heard so far to hear that, you know, you’re actively looking and actively trying to enter that market as well. That’s, that’s very exciting. Let’s go on to question number two- what I found most helpful in the platform is that users pay zero fees for listing their NFTs. But then what is the source of revenue for the platform? How will the team generate revenue? What are the other revenue models for manga token?

Elvin Li: I think, okay, so for this short answer is that at the beginning phases, by the beginning phase, we are doing acquisition. So that’s the key reason why this thing is free. But that does not mean that subsequently listing the listing will require you to pay fees. What actually happens is that we have devised this model where we are primarily looking at resale as the means of earning long term income for the NFTs right. So, a small percentage will be added on top of the sale, right about 2.5% to 5%, depending on the type of NFT or depending on who the creator is. So, we will be earning, I would say our key revenue from that. Not only that, but we are also, as you heard in the earlier conversations we had, basically, we also launching our meetup, and that’s where we’ll also be taking some form of commissions, each transaction to cover costs. So that’s how we are building revenue for our platform.

Spicey | OIG: Impressive, that’s good to hear. So let’s move on to our final question, Twitter question-looking at the vast category of art is manga token limited to only the manga category of arts? Also, what are the steps and qualifications to be an authorised or approved mangaka? Can manga arts from a different marketplace be sold on your marketplace?

Elvin Li: Yep. So many people actually asked a similar question and I guess the best because they’re also perhaps drawing manga on their own, but they’re not in Japan. So okay, so I will say, as of now, we are only primarily focusing on manga. Right? So it will not just be manga, it can be anything related to one. So it could be, like posters could be I say earlier letter of appreciation, voice notes, or even video, right. It’s not just that it really ultimately depends on the Creator, like what they are comfortable with. Suddenly, as of now, some education needs to be done because most of the artists that we’ve been talking to have their perception of NFT’s actually just but yeah, we need to educate them in what are the things that they can actually push out? We are talking to some people who have done life to the avatars. So potentially, that could be another way. It’s another form of digital another form of NFT that that will be probed, certainly on our platform as of qualifications wise, I will say right now we have actually streamlined the process where hierarchies team based in Japan is doing all the background checks, meaning to say the core publishers they call or the industry partners to check whether is this person, the right person, right, so as of now, it’s pretty manual. But subsequently, we hope that the industry people or the fans can actually participate, to do validation, meaning to say, check online on the internet and figure out if this person is the right or the correct person to buy on the original creator. Of course, it’s harder for the fans to do so. Right? It’s easier for people in the industry to call a couple of friends to find out. But we hope that it can be subsequently decentralised so that we can scale our platform much faster. That scale of the content is much faster. So that’s what we hope to do. In the coming in the next few months.

Spicey | OIG: Really cool stuff. If it becomes decentralised and autonomous that’s, that’s going to be its own life form. Right, just to have it authenticate on its own.

Elvin Li: Correct. So with that being said, in terms of manga out there in different marketplaces, we actually bring them into a trophy in the short term. No, because we have no way to verify those artists at the moment. But subsequently, once we have a methodology to verify those artists that are trying to sell their manga-related on the other marketplaces, once we have we know how to verify them, we can bring them on to our marketplace.

Spicey | OIG: Really cool stuff. Really cool stuff exciting to hear and can’t wait to see it. That’s for sure. So that wraps up our Twitter questions. And let’s move on to our final question, which is, basically, you know, your project has achieved many things since its conception, can you outline some highlights of your accomplishments, as well as talk about what’s on the roadmap ahead? What’s exciting to you in the next year or so?

Elvin Li: Okay, so let’s start from the beginning. So we launched manga tokens in August, last year. Thereafter, we actually then launched the Binance version of our marketplace, in early q4 last year. Then, since then, we have actually roll out slightly more than about 50 NFTS with about 25 selected artists on our marketplace. And during that period, q4 Last year, we also launched the one guy LP firm. And fast-forwarding to about three weeks back we launched the premium version of the trophee marketplace and as far as the bridge a so now brings us back to the present day, right well, what are we actually working on this that we are working on the next component, which is the manga reader. The technical aspect of it is already coming See that? Now we are working on the content expect, where we already have a couple of Japanese manga that we have to figure out how to get translated, and then put on to our Marketplace so that we can actually launch it. So we have collected about 20, also, exclusive manga, right, I hope we can call, we can call, we can translate all the time. If not, we probably launched slightly less than first, and then launch the rest of the rest in the next couple of weeks. With that said, once we have successfully launched our manga reader and demonstrated that we have the capability to launch new manga, large new NFT’s on behalf of those manga, artists or creators, we can then safely create, I will say we can then safely launch our project Startup Platform in which games, new manga, new enemy projects can then come in and say, hey, I want to create a new governance token. And I want to raise some funds to create a new project can I do so so they are and then we can just work with them. And basically, these projects can then launch the new coins and our projects that are Launchpad, and therefore create new content that they can put up on our platforms. So that would occur sometime in the I would say, towards the middle of the year. Right then. And basically, once that is lower, I think towards the end of towards the second half of the year, that’s where we can put more of our focus on improving the monetization of the platform and finding and working closely with IP owners to subsequently build games. Yes, if you want, you can still create a media on your own. But once we need to garner enough traction Enough with the users to understand what we are doing before we can launch like new NFT project. So that’s what’s going to happen in the next couple of months.

Spicey | OIG: Now, and it’s truly a revolutionary project, I mean, manga token, we’ve talked about so many different aspects today, the NFT marketplace that bridge the authentication, you know, the manga reader, which is coming out, you said in two weeks, right? I mean, the fact that it’s all usable now and it’s all being implemented now means that you’re way ahead of the game, and you’re going to be disrupting the status quo and I can’t wait to see you know, more of manga token and what they have to offer and how they’re gonna really truly revolutionise the manga industry as well as the blockchain industry. And you know, connecting the two to the two markets. So where, before we finish off here, where can people find out more about manga token? Where can they see more manga tokens future?

Elvin Li: So if you want to find out more about manga tokens, you can go to mangatoken.org. To look up more information on manga token, but if you are not so interested in reading like the white paper, no progress, you can just dive straight in come to Trophee. XYZ Come in find look have a look at our NFTs. Look at what you’re interested in. If you’re interested in buy manga tokens, there’s an avenue for you to buy manga tokens in trophee In two weeks' time, on profits, we can then click on one of the links to jump straight to the manga reader. So your entire utility is all packed into a trophee. Just head right over to the trophy to just use it for like, forget about the White paper

Spicey | OIG: I mean, it’s no it’s true, right? Like, just go enjoy it for what It is and for everybody. For all our viewers today, our links will be in the description so you can find out more where you can find more about manga Tolen. And Elvin, it was a pleasure talking to you about manga token we wish you all the best. And we hope to see you again here and discuss how it’s going and can’t wait to see more from manga token.

Elvin Li: Thank you very much for me. I really appreciate you spending the time talking to us to find out more about the project to explain to the audience. I hope we can have another ama session sometime soon again and talk about our new progress.

Spicey | OIG: For sure they don’t wait. Well, OIG found me That wraps up another episode in our ama series. Be sure to follow us on all our social platforms. All the links will be in the description below. Until next time, we’ll see you soon.