8th Continent ICO- China Next-Generation Digital Economy

8th Continent (ECB)

Introduction
8th Continent China Next-generation Digital Economy is not a conceptual initiative, like many projects that propose an ICO. It is an already working system, based on a very powerful Engine (including AI, Robots, Virtual Servers, Admin etc), tested and improved during a successful pilot in the past years. Therefore it does not claim to build something it might not build after the ICO! 8th Continent in the contrary is ready to roll out, and will open gates for its users on August 8th 2018 in China.

Our Mission

1. OVERCOME THE ZERO-SUM GAME PARADIGM

8th Continent does not want to reform the blockchain world, only use it. Take advantage of the decentralised, secure and provable transaction ledger. Nevertheless the potential of 8th Continent seems to be huge as it aims to address the problems linked with standard stock and commodities exchanges: overcome the zero-sum game paradigm. A zero-sum game is where total losses subtracted from total gains will sum to zero, or in other words any quantifiable gains by one party are equal to the losses of another party. Such an environment can be discouraging for many who lose their money. On 8th Continent Social Marketplace digital products will be sponsored by brands (for instance an energy drink will be called Red Bull) paying a small advertising fee each time a digital product bearing their brand name is sold on the Market. The fee will be divided equally between users and operator. This way the sum of funds circulating on the Market will always be higher than the sum invested by the users! Users have the choice to sell unbranded products or become marketers selling branded digital products and make extra income.

1. STOP DIGITAL AD FRAUD

The new paradigm is a win-win model for four reasons:

1. for the first time, brands can see where all their digital media dollars end up, and be sure that if they thought they had purchased ads from a given publisher, it really happened;

2. brand names will be embedded in the products’ natural environment meeting advertisers satisfaction;

3. unlike an ordinary advertisement, branded goods cannot be blocked because they will be listed on the market just like the other unbranded digital goods;

4. users and operator make extra money.

Advertisers will participate on both exclusive and non-exclusive basis limited in time.

1. LINKING REAL AND VIRTUAL WORLDS

Real products will be introduced on 8th Continent Social Marketplace in 2019 linking real world to the virtual one. Smart contracts are used on 8th Continent Stock Exchange, we plan to open late 2018, where digital companies reaching the 8th level will have the right to obtain extra liquidity from direct investors operating on 8th Continent, or from the outside, rewarding their efforts in creating a stable, healthy and trustworthy business. Smart contracts also guarantee investment plans offered by 8C Equity Investment Trust.

What is 8th Continent?
The Eighth Continent is China. The number 8 is also a lucky number for the Chinese. 8th Continent Social Marketplace is the first Social Marketplace in China, open to everyone willing to trade and do business in a trusted environment. 8th Continent Social Marketplace is the next-generation Social Investment Platform open to small and large investments alike. 8th Continent Social Marketplace is also the first fully digital economy where privately owned digital companies trade digital commodities, stocks and other assets in digital currency.

8th Continent Social Marketplace is the improved version of the Seventh Continent Commodities Exchange, a Bitcoin-based economy simulator game launched in 2014 as a successful pilot project. Digital products, services and commodities are delivered and traded 24/7 by digital companies registered on the site, owned by the users themselves.

8th Continent Social Marketplace is a free and independent market restricted by supply and demand only, as well as microeconomic rules that are well balanced in the code.

As a unique solution, 8th Continent Social Marketplace is the first skill-based economy simulation exchange, where users power well over 100 unique business activities across the platform. Open for a select community, the 8th Continent Social Marketplace is an exclusive way to do business from home or from ultimately anywhere online.

Mastering
8th Continent Social Marketplace is not complicated to master: the interface is user friendly and the marketplace is transparent. Users will not face a long and discouraging learning process. Moreover it allows business owners to run their businesses, dipping in and out 24/7, from any place, at any time and ultimately on any device. We have a nimble, efficient team that is focused on building a surprisingly easy product experience to meet the needs of the users.

8th Continent Social Marketplace offers turnkey companies ready to run, and a simplified one-button operation system based on an aesthetic UI. Comprehensive analytics help decision-making and enhance user experience. Our previous experience with Seventh Continent Commodities Exchange taught us that users prefer to play immediately after registration without spending too much time learning how to use the platform, therefore we modified the code and simplified the interface of 8th Continent Social Marketplace.

8th Continent Social Marketplace entrepreneurs invest Bitcoin (BTC), ETH or CNY, HKD, USD, Euros etc. and are credited in ECB (Eighth Continent Bit), the token of 8th Continent Social Marketplace. After registering, users trade digital products and/or participate in the production of digital products with their digital companies. Exit at any time with ECB, ETH, BTC or CNY after 88 days and 88 transactions.

The 8th Continent Social Marketplace was born from a simple idea:

Invest > Start a business > > Trade or Produce > > > Make profit > > > > Cash out or reinvest

Elements of customer retention
8th Continent Social Marketplace retains its customers organically:

Users’ investments are converted into digital assets traded on the Market
Participation in 8th Continent Social Marketplace is a profit generating activity
The inherent structure of 8th Continent Social Marketplace is viral and fosters business activity
Constantly enlarging competition and business opportunities
External revenue for the users selling branded products
The fun side of business: buyers and sellers transact and socially interact
Competition is also about Fame
Aspirational Prizes for the best traders compensate their efforts

Trade Rally
8th Continent Social Marketplace organises recurrent Trade Rallies lasting 88 hours with aspirational prizes for the best traders. Trade Rallies meet two objectives: fostering fair competition and rewarding users’ effort. It is also a capable way to exhibit winning strategies to other users who may adapt these strategies in the future to secure their investments.

Investment Risks
8th Continent Social Marketplace remains - rather than unpredictable gambling - a skill game which fosters creativity and business acumen. Nevertheless like any investments the 8th Continent Social Marketplace is of course not without risk for the users. Investment risks on this market, however, can be kept to a minimum since users own the trading businesses, control the cash flow, take business decisions thus can have a relatively high influence on prices.

Only legitimate businesses are allowed to operate on 8th Continent Social Marketplace: no fake IPOs, scams, boiler rooms, or unpaid checks are possible, and no credit risks either since transactions can be realised only if the buyer has sufficient credit. The 8th Continent Social Marketplace is not a Ponzi-type scheme either, and thereby does not offer any high or fixed return, investors are not paid by subsequent investors’ money, users generate their own return, and current balance can be withdrawn at any time. 8th Continent Social Marketplace remains always solvent.

Overtake the zero-sum game paradigm
We are indeed particularly proud to share with our future investors the idea that helps us overcome the tricky paradigm of the zero-sum game, the ghost of all exchanges and markets. A zero-sum game is where total losses subtracted from total gains of participants will sum to zero, or in other words any quantifiable gains by one party are equal to the losses of another party – similar to stakes in poker or in various board games. Such an environment can be discouraging for many who lose their money. How does 8th Continent Social Marketplace overcome this enigmatic paradigm? It is rather simple. On 8th Continent Social Marketplace digital products will be sponsored by brands (for instance an energy drink will be called Red Bull) paying a small advertising fee each time a digital product bearing their brand name is sold on the Market. The fee will be divided equally between users and operator. This way the sum of cash circulating on the Market will always be higher than the sum invested by the users! Users have the choice to sell unbranded products or become marketers selling branded digital products and make extra income. The new paradigm is a win-win model, and everybody is happy: on the one hand users and operator make extra money, while on the other advertisers are satisfied since their brand name will be embedded in the products’ natural environment. Moreover, unlike an advertisement, branded goods cannot be blocked because they will be listed on the market just like the other unbranded digital goods. Advertisers will participate on both exclusive and non-exclusive basis limited in time.

Why China
China is the biggest and the fastest growing online market in the world where there are 446 million active online gaming users and 34 million online stock investors.

With a total of about 740 million Internet users in China as of 2016, online gaming still possesses a massive market potential that is yet to be unlocked. We will focus on the big eastern cities in China, where distribution of online and mobile gamers is high. These cities have fast and cheap Internet connection, lots of Internet cafes, a high population and a high level of mobile Internet coverage. 8th Continent Social Marketplace’s authorised maximum audience of 8 888 888 participants represents only 1.2% of the total Chinese Internet user base and 1.99% of total Chinese online gamers. We believe that the maximum audience of the 8th Continent Social Marketplace can be reached in two years.

It is obvious that platforms that dominate in China are markedly different from ones that marketers are familiar with elsewhere – even those in their Asian neighbours. However, is not just the platforms that are different, but the ways that Chinese netizens use social channels. There is a strong need to carefully adapt approaches for China’s cultural and societal idiosyncrasies as much as for its technological differences in this mobile first environment. In particular, the growing popularity of chat apps in China (mainly WeChat) presents a new set of opportunities. Nevertheless many of the conversations that take place on these platforms are more private in nature, taking place between individuals and small groups (versus the public environments we know from Facebook and Twitter). This will require greater emphasis on highly engaging content and organic sharing, rather than an approach that relies on paid media to push mediocre content to the masses. As with any market, peer-to-peer recommendations are the holy grail of marketing, and China is no different in this respect. Indeed, given the highly regulated nature of the country’s more traditional mass media, word-of-mouth is even more critical in China. Our efforts to enlarge 8th Continent Social Marketplace, understanding the dynamics of the social referral work in China to gain the specific audiences and industry is crucial, and this state of mind needs to be used to move from social engagement to social conversion.

Number of internet users in China from December 2006 to December 2016 (in millions):

Regulation concerns
China banned the ICOs but not the Blockchain, companies offering solutions useful to the crypto/blockchain community are welcome and supported. Chinese Government is also developing its own cryptocurrency and Blockchain according to official announcements. More and more funds and associations develop Blockchain-based systems in many different areas.

This is the reason why 8th Continent follows a strategy where it launches its cryptocurrency, the ECB, in countries where it is allowed to buy and possess such financial assets, and offers Chinese users of the Marketplace a registration in CNY local currency. The funds invested by the Chinese users are converted to ECB listed on major exchanges at current price. Withdrawal of funds from 8th Continent Marketplace is possible for the Chinese users in CNY or in ECB if requested.

Compliance with local authorities is a top priority for us and since 8th Continent is considered as a Game, no violation of laws are committed.

The Engine
The Engine behind 8th Continent Social Marketplace was developed by an enthusiastic team of skilled professionals in Budapest, Hungary. Seventh Continent Commodities Exchange ran on this powerful software between 2014-2016 within the framework of a pilot project. A major revision, followed by improvements and development of brand new features resulted in the publishing of a 2.0 version suitable for 8th Continent Social Marketplace. The major changes were the introduction on the marketplace of a comprehensive BIDs and ASKs position, a Stock Exchange replacing the former company ownership structure, as well as the introduction of the Ethereum blockchain-based smart contracts and the new cryptocurrency the 8th Continent Bit (ECB) replacing Bitcoin.

ECB
Eighth Continent Bit (Token Ticker: ECB) is the currency of 8th Continent Social Marketplace, an ERC-20 compliant, freshly issued token through an Ethereum smart contract. A total of 888.888.888 ECB (Hard Cap) were issued for both the Initial Token Sale (Circulating Supply: 88M ECB) and the continuous Distributive Crowdsale (Circulating Supply: 800M ECB) providing the means of payment to traders on 8th Continent Social Marketplace the years to come. As a general rule only the amount purchased during the Initial Token Sale and the amount purchased by the users of 8th Continent Social Marketplace during the Distributive Crowdsale, that may take several years, will be in circulation at a time. No tokens will be burnt.

The icon of ECB is the following:

ECB tokens purchased during the Initial Token Sale will be allocated to investors's wallet 8 days after the end of the ICO. ECB tokens shall be listed on major exchanges as well as on Bancor after the Initial Token Sale.

ECB tokens purchased during Distributive Crowdsale will be credited to users’ accounts directly on 8th Continent Social Marketplace.

In order to foster activity on the market of the 8th Continent Social Marketplace, withdrawal of ECB tokens from the Marketplace is authorised after 88 days and 88 transactions.

The number of users of 8th Continent Social Marketplace is limited to 8.888.888, nevertheless once listed on exchanges, ECB tokens can be purchased by anyone willing to speculate on their price.

8th Continent Equity Investment Trust
8th Continent Social Marketplace is designed for active traders and fosters business acumen by proposing different business activities; nevertheless it allows its users to invest in an equity trust which owns shares of the best trading digital companies on the marketplace relieving investors from time consuming daily trading. 8th Continent Equity Investment Trust is the only accredited partner of 8th Continent Social Marketplace today on a non exclusive basis to offer such service. Money invested with 8th Continent Equity Investment Trust cannot be withdrawn after 88 days, only when investment term of one year ends.

8th Continent Equity Investment Trust is an investment company that buys and holds digital stocks and other digital securities of the best performing Top88 digital companies on 8th Continent. 8th Continent Equity Investment Trust is supervised and managed, as opposed to classic unit investment trusts, to insure benefit for the investors.

8th Continent Equity Investment Trust works almost like a hedge fund: with its diversified and managed portfolio and exclusive listing in its portfolio of top profit making digital companies of 8th Continent Social Marketplace, it manages to hedge investments.

8th Continent Equity Investment Trust offers other services such as directly exchange-traded futures contracts and binaries.

About Us
Seventh Continent Ltd is a private limited company registered under company number 07288379, having its principal place of business at Marshall House, Ring Way, Preston, Lancashire PR1 2QD in the UK, VAT number GB 206 1132 65, incorporated under the Companies Act 2006 as a limited company on 17th June 2010. The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) numbers of Seventh Continent Ltd are 62011 Ready-made interactive leisure and entertainment software development and 62090 Other information technology service activities.

Seventh Continent Ltd owns 100% of property rights of Seventh Continent Engine having a commercial value of £10.897.000. The IP rights were registered under number 001117 on April 30th 2010 by the author Gregory Harmati PhD.

Seventh Continent Ltd runs the project 8th Continent Social Marketplace in China with its Hong Kong based partner the Lotsie.K Co., Ltd, company number 1242974, having its principal place of business at Suite 708, Tower 2, 7/F Silvercord 30 Canton Road, Tsimshatsui, KOWLOON.

Thank you for your time and interest.