I've seen fellow collectors with usernames like Quidd-Michael... Tell me more.
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Do Quidd employees use Quidd, and if so, why?

Yes! Quidd employees have used Quidd and continue to use Quidd today. There are a number of reasons for this.

First, is the most basic: we are fellow fans and collectors. What drew many of us to Quidd is our own love of and passion for collecting. In fact, some employees of Quidd started out as collectors and became so helpful to the community that they "crossed over" to the dark side, or rather, to full-time employment with Quidd Inc.

The second is to learn the product in order to improve the product. There is only so much that talking to collectors or reviewing customer survey results can show you about what's broken in your app.

Initially, this "learning while collecting" had minimal consequences. The most concerning scenario would be an employee learning how to improve Quidd and pulling a #1 out of a pack. Now, with the introduction of Cash Account and Mintables, the stakes are higher. It's more than just pulling a #1 and depriving a fellow collector of that coveted item, it's also that the item has real, monetary value. More on this is below.

Finally, Quidd employees use Quidd in order to live test set releases and pack drops. Quidd is built on a stable, complex technology stack with some areas of the codebase nearly 5 years old. To ensure high-quality service -- or at least continually strive for it -- it is necessary for a Quidd employee to occasionally open packs, buy listings, and complete checklists.

This is unfair. Quidd employees-as-collectors have an advantage on packs.

This is one area where there is no advantage for Quidd employees, and the team has worked hard to build technology and protocols to ensure the advantage cannot exist.

The system we developed at Quidd was initially inspired by an inventory and pack management system we had developed prior to founding Quidd. In particular, the Quidd system was designed to eradicate the flaws inherent in that old inventory and pack system, namely in the presentation of odds.

The pre-Quidd system required a producer to input free-form text to express the odds of pulling certain cards in packs. The problem? A human error where an "odds expression" that is typed in and published does not actually match the contents of the pack.

With Quidd, we built the pack technology to make that impossible. In fact, once a pack is published it is impossible for the system to falsely state the odds or to divert those odds so they are different for a certain collector's account.

When the pack is published, there is no version of this pack for you that is different from a version of this pack for a Quidd employee. Moreover, the odds on packs subscribe to the actual inventory yet to be issued, so odds stay accurate as packs are pulled. In fact, this is why, in some cases, packs go off-sale when an item in the pack sells out ... to ensure full fidelity between stated odds and actual odds. Quidd employees are buying the same packs as everyone else on Quidd.

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There are other ways to gain an edge. Quidd employees-as-collectors can print money for their Cash Wallets and outspend everyone else.

Quidd Employee, Collector: Quidd employees deposit funds using the same payment methods as other collectors, and, most importantly, the sources of the funds are personal. In some cases, if personal spending while testing is high, the company will reimburse that employee. And, in the event that spending one's own money isn't a deterrent to gaining an advantage, Quidd employee accounts are encouraged to provide liquidity to the market, selling off valuable items from time to time.

Quidd Employee, Tester: Can use store credit to test the performance of drops but the items remain in the possession of Quidd and will either be burned or transferred to the Quidd-Giveaways account to redistribute to the community.

What about insider information? Quidd employees-as-collectors know what is coming and can time the market.

It is impossible for us *not* to know what is coming before the broader community otherwise it would be impossible and impractical for us to run Quidd. However, many, many decisions on set drops or mintables assignments are made day of or are randomized to the best of our ability.

To protect the community further, Quidd employees, save for one in particular, are not allowed to cash out. Our weekly withdrawal procedures on Fridays involve identity verification. This KYC process not only helps us remain compliant with Anti-Money Laundering regulations, it allows us to see *exactly* who is doing the withdrawal.

How do I know who a Quidd employee is?

Look for accounts that have "Quidd-" as the prefix in the username. For instance, Quidd-Michael or Quidd-Stitch. Years ago we implemented a feature that would prevent anyone not "behind the curtain" at Quidd Inc. to create an account with a username with this prefix.

Try it. New users are prevented from creating these usernames, making the impersonation of a Quidd employee very difficult and ensuring when you see "Quidd-" you know that's one of us.

So, all Quidd employee accounts are publicly labeled with "Quidd-" at the start. It's like a verified account, or "blue check", on Twitter that is designed to signal the real person behind the account. From the start, we endeavored to be incredibly public about who was behind the account, both to help collectors and to shine a light on any collecting done by the employee.

Now, there is one Quidd account that is enabled to withdraw, which is Quidd-Spyder, who created her account prior to becoming a Quidd employee, who has only deposited her own money, and who has invested deeply over five years in building a pretty killer collection. It would be unfair to fully prevent the withdrawal feature in this case.

What about employees minting on-chain and making sales?

Quidd Employee, Collector: is allowed to mint items on-chain and list them for sale.

Quidd Employee, Tester: Quidd employee accounts are used to mint and list NFTs on Opensea and Rarible to add liquidity and supply to the market.

All Quidd NFTs listed or sold on the blockchain by employees are company property. When they make a sale on Opensea or Rarible using an official Quidd employee account, they are required to send the proceeds to the official Quidd company wallet.

Can't Quidd employees pretend to be someone else and not use the Quidd- prefix in their username?

No system is perfect.

However, the combination of...

...with regular monitoring of large transactions, repeat transactions, chargebacks, and other "checks" on the system that were initially put in place years ago to prevent fraud with zero-tolerance policies if detected gives us peace of mind that we're delivering to the community the fairest collecting experience possible.