Akita Inu — A Cute Crypto with Serious Ambitions
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Ryan Roberts, Founder & CEO of Akita Inu — the premier community coin on the carbon-neutral Algorand blockchain.
Ryan Roberts, Founder & CEO
Ryan is the Founder & CEO of Akita Inu. A veteran crypto investor with over a decade in the space, he has a wealth of experience managing creative teams, leading high-value projects and developing a range of NFT collections. Having worked on a variety of blockchains, he discovered Algorand in early January 2021 and hasn’t looked back since.
Thank you so much for joining us!
It’s a pleasure to be here!
What motivated you to create Akita Inu?
The short answer is: the chance to be at the forefront of development on a groundbreaking blockchain. Let me explain…
I’ve been in the crypto world for a long time. And like anyone who’s been in the space for several years, I’ve experimented with a raft of different blockchains. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some great technology out there. But nothing ever quite seemed to be the right fit for me as a developer.
Then I discovered Algorand.
Algorand’s fantastic. It was set up in 2019 by Silvio Micali, a bona fide legend in the field of cryptography. And despite its relatively young age, it already delivers so many things that other cryptos can only promise — lightning fast transactions, low fees, carbon neutrality and instant finality, to name but a few. Crucially for me, it also allows developers to create their own tokens called ‘Algorand Standard Assets’ (or ASAs for short) that share the same functionalities that make Algorand so appealing.
I was hooked from the word go and knew this was a blockchain I wanted to develop on.
In the early days, there were a number of interesting ASA projects, but no real way for them to be bought and sold. Then, in late 2021, the Tinyman exchange opened for business, allowing ASAs to be traded on the open market for the very first time. I knew it was the perfect moment to launch my very own project and make a difference in a brand new space. So I got to work.
I set out with two main motivations: to increase adoption of Algorand and do some good in the world. The result was Akita Inu — a community coin with a mission to bring people to the Algorand ecosystem and raise funds to help dogs in need. As a dog owner and a self-confessed Algorand fan, both of these goals are very close to my heart!
What excites you about your project?
The very first thing that springs to mind is the Akita Inu community. They’re amazing people. You’d have to go a long way to find a more dedicated, passionate group of individuals. They’re generous, too. The amount of time they spend volunteering and helping newcomers get to grips with our corner of the cryptosphere is wonderful to see. We’ve also run a number of charity initiatives since we started, and our community has already helped us donate thousands of dollars to organizations that care for dogs in need. It’s very humbling. And it motivates us to work even harder to create great products for our community to use.
Then there’s the fact that the Algorand ecosystem we’re a part of is still in its early stages. It’s incredibly exciting to be one of the first developers in such a fascinating new space. Breaking fresh ground has its challenges, of course, but it’s amazing, too. You’re essentially presented with a blank slate with no preconceived ideas of what the ecosystem should look like. That means we get to play a role in shaping the future of a powerful technology — to build the kind of future we hope our community would like to see.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced while growing Akita Inu?
The first major challenge came very early on. We originally imagined Akita would be a slow burn to start with, and we were totally amazed at people’s response to the project right out of the gate. It was fantastic, of course, but it also meant we had to move faster than we’d ever imagined to get everything set up.
Thankfully, we were able to work at record speed and managed to put together an incredible group of core team members and volunteers who believe in the project, are passionate about the Algorand ecosystem and have the range of key skill sets we need to make Akita Inu a success. That includes smart contract engineering, web development, graphic design, marketing and a whole range of other disciplines besides. As you can imagine, it was a great deal of work. There were plenty of nights where we didn’t get much sleep! But I’m over the moon with how everything’s turned out. It’s made Akita stronger and given us a great foundation for the months and years ahead.
I hinted at the other main challenge earlier. Being one of the first developers in a budding ecosystem is fantastic because of the freedom it gives you. But it also means everything you do is pretty much brand new. Algorand’s ecosystem is such a pleasure to work with, but every young technology comes with a lot of steep learning curves! Nevertheless, it’s a hugely exciting journey to embark on and the extra effort is absolutely worth it for the benefits the ecosystem delivers.
What are your future plans for Akita Inu?
We’ve got huge plans for Akita Inu. There are some top secret details I can’t give away right now, but I’ll tell you as much as I can!
First thing’s first… I’m very excited about the Akita Kennel Club NFT collection. It’s a series of 1,000 unique, handcrafted NFTs made by our talented Creative Director. Anyone who owns one gets to join the Akita Kennel Club — an exclusive society with a whole host of members-only benefits on the horizon! What’s more, ten percent of all primary sales are going to dog charities, so it’ll do a great deal of good as well.
We launched the collection on January 15th this year and the uptake has already been incredible. We’ll be selling and giving away pieces every weekend from now until late March. And we’ve got an amazing marketing campaign lined up for the weeks ahead, too. We’ve already had a successful charity collaboration with Al Goanna — one of the biggest NFT projects on Algorand — and we’ve got some fantastic events and influencer partnerships coming up as well. We’re extremely proud to announce that our very first influencer partnership will be with Bennett Jackson, the NFL safety who’s been associated with the likes of the New York Giants, the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets throughout his career. He’s also a big fan of cryptocurrency and NFTs in general, so we think he’ll be an awesome ambassador for Akita Inu and the Akita Kennel Club collection.
And as if that weren’t enough, we’ve got other big plans, too!
For a couple of months now, our talented team of developers have been working round the clock in a range of different time zones to build something incredibly exciting — a suite of integrated dApps that will serve the Akita and ASA communities and hopefully attract new investors to the ecosystem as a whole.
I can’t reveal too much right now, but we’ve got a number of products in the works. They’re all designed to be affordable, permissionless and very easy to use. The overall goal is to give ASA developers and users access to powerful smart contract applications at the click of a button.
Perhaps most excitingly for our holders, we’re making sure that as many of these products as possible are powered by the Akita Inu token. That should bring more and more value to our community as our suite of platforms evolves!
A number of the smart contracts are close to completion, and a lot of the web app infrastructure is at an advanced stage of development. The next step will be getting independent auditing companies to verify the smart contracts for the first of our products and make sure they’re safe for everyone to use. I don’t want to promise any launch dates as these things always take more time than you expect. But I can assure your readers we’re working as fast as we can without compromising an inch on quality and security.
If you had to share some words of wisdom with a founder who’s about to create their own project, what would you say?
Don’t try and go it alone — you’ll be fighting an uphill battle from the start! If you want to get to the next level, you should make it an absolute priority to build up an amazing team with the right combination of specialized skills your project needs to succeed. Establishing a great team isn’t an easy task, of course, but all the effort you put in will pay huge dividends in the end.
I’d also say it’s crucial to be agile in today’s environment. Technology is changing all the time, and you need to be ready to roll with the punches and seize promising opportunities as they arise.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
The best way to stay up-to-date is to join our awesome community on Discord, Reddit, Twitter and Instagram. We’d love to see you all there!
And if you’d like to find out more about The Akita Kennel Club NFT collection, visit our dedicated website at https://nft.akita.community. You’ll also find our homepage at https://akita.community.
This was very insightful. Thank you so much for joining!
