www.icocrowd.

com ISSUE #1, september 2017

PARIS ICODAO
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ISMAIL MALIK
Editor-in-chief
DONOVAN OBOSI
Head Analyst
ANNEMIEKE DIRKES
Managing Editor
PAM TATRO
Content Editor
TZVI SHISHLER
Marketing
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FOREWORD
Unlocking
value across the
attention chain
words, readers are emerging as a vanguard of
distributed marketing by catalyzing plurality,
diversity and virality across multiple streams
by of news, narratives and content.
ISMAIL MALIK
Chairman & Executive
Editor ICO Crowd Now, where do ICOs come in? The Basic
Attention Token, or BAT, came into being to
The power shift from content creators to address the invasiveness of digital ads that
content consumers began more than a decade media consumers are now starting to block by
ago, materializing into a landscape dominated paying an additional fee to the likes of YouTube
by self-generated user content, crowdsourcing and Hulu. The ERC20 is surfacing as a token
and crowdfunding. of value in an open source platform, which is
fast becoming decentralized. Blockchain app
Today, a hitherto uncharted model of platform Ethereum has made it significantly
disruption is emerging on the radar of easier to create or obtain new tokens. There
publishing ventures: the attention economy were roughly 6,073 ERC20 tokens to close out
and with it the birth of ICOCROWD. August 2017, and that number is expected
FUND. This model hinges on a collaborative grow manifold every month.
and participatory approach, which elicits
a sustained engagement from target In the September edition of ICO Crowd, the
stakeholders and audiences. Club that trend theme of emphasis is how tokenized assets are
with the influx of initial coin offerings, or drawing interest and curiousity not just from
ICOs, seen at a broader level over the past six traditional investors but from mainstream
months, and the possibility of a revolutionary consumers, too. This movement of new-
economy where audiences turn into content age token-based investing reflects a trend,
evangelists becomes apparent. which reconfigures the publishing business to
an efficient and interactive machine where
So, how does this work? Consumers are publications can act as funds for readers,
more wont to moving towards products and who then become investors. That means
news outposts that they hear about from readers subscribing to such publications can
trust filters like friends and other reliable get rewarded, based on the success of their
sources, rather than brands that manifest on outreach to other potential readers and
their computer and phone screens through stakeholders in their own networks.
pervasive ads. In a transitioning publishing
industry, where revenue is now driven more Engaged subscribers, who unleash previously
by subscriber sign-ups than advertisements, unrealized value to further interact with
readers are not only more directly part of the content and become a localized distributed
content they consume but also increasingly evangelist for that content, are a large part of
proactive in sharing the key messages of that a publishing industry as it continues to evolve
content and their own perspective on those against a backdrop where crypto-currencies
messages. are already growing as a destination for
investment banks, lenders, and promoters
This brings us to the multiplier effect. The of tech and social media enterprises. These
wider a readers outreach of one or more subscribers, who create a virtuous circle of
content forms to his/her own networks and value from publisher to content to reader, are
communities, the greater the awareness the stray beads that will complete the link in
and interest among newer audience groups. a chain of concatenating events of content
And that outreach is exponential. In other creation and interaction.
 06 40 58 59

CONTENTS
4 Advisory
Board 30 Avalanchain. Blockchain of Data Streams
// YURIY HABAROV

6 Social Media Thats Built to Deliver

on The Next Economy 32 Ewaste.io: Getting Some of That Value Back
from Your Old Electronics // JITESH VARSANI

10 33
ICODAO: Enter the Future of Trading with Snip: The Future of News Will Come from
the Master Coin Investment Manager The Blockchain // RAN REICHMAN
// ALEX APELDOORN

12 34
Fractional.io: Fractional Ownership and
Investing in an ICO?
// MARK MANNEY Value Creation in a Shared Economy
// MIKE KESSLER

14 WandX: Financial Instruments on ERC20

Tokens Using Smart Contracts 36 SocialCash: The Next Big Unlock
For Social Media // PAUL TAYLOR

16 The Crack in the ICO Shell: Security Issues

Unmasked for ICO Projects // PRAKASH PRASAD 38 Wrisx: Worlds Risks and Research on the
Blockchain // DR. VLADIMIR SHIPOV

18 Gitz: A Decentralised Referral Protocol

// SADIQ ABBAS 40 GIFTZ
// AMETHYST PINES

20 Influencer Exchange: A Decentralized

Influencer Marketing Platform // ALI AFZAL 44 Boule: Remote Voting Technology
// CLAUDIO PERLINI

22 45
APPII: Transforming the Recruitment DomRaider: The pro-blockchain European
Sector by Verifying Candidate CVs via the leader in Drop Catching
Blockchain // GARY MCKAY

24 Celsius: The Credit Coin

// ALEX MASHINSKY 46 Crowdsourcing of ICO Reviews
// PRIYABRATA DASH

26 ICO: A Disruptive Decentralization of

Capital Markets // MUKHTAR MUSSABETOV 49 Investing in Real Estate with Blockchain
Technologies // ENRIQUE DUBOIS

28 BlockEx: A Platform with a difference

// ADAM LEONARD 50 ICOFILTER.ORG: The Dapp-Based
Community That Curates ICOs // DAVID MURRY
52 86
BABB: The New World Bank for ETHLend: Decentralizing and
The Micro-Economy // RUSH AVERROS Revolutionizing Lending Globally
// MARTIN WICHMANN

56 Ammbr: Democratizing Broadband

Access Globally // DERICK SMITH 88 Rockchain. Opening the Public Blockchain
to Private Data // SBASTIEN JEHAN

58 Paris Hilton
90 DentaCoin: The Future of Dental Care
on The Blockchain // DONOVAN OBOSI

59 Floyd Mayweather
92 ICON: The ICON Interchain Connects Every
Blockchain in Existence // JH KIM

60 ICO Design and SEC Rulings

// STEPHEN ROWLISON
94 SPARC: The Research Platform of The Future

62 95
Introducing Brickblock A First-of-its-kind LAToken
Blockchain-based Investment Platform // DONOVAN OBOSI
// CHRISTIAN NTHLER

64 96
NaPoleonX: A Decentralized Autonomous Negotiating the ICO minefield
Fund, a Disruptive Investment Revolution Is ZILLA The New Amazon for ICOS?
// STEPHANE IFRAH // ABASA PHILIPS

98
DENTALFIX: A Decentralized Blockchain

66 Logically Consistent Principles for

Token Distribution // DAN LARIMER
Platform for Dental Clinics and the Supply
Chain // SERGEY SAFRONOV

68 100
ICO Secured by a Land Asset: RECoin: The Flagship of Charitable
Sosnovkino LLC // EKATERINA MAKHNOVSKAYA Cryptocurrencies is About to have ICO
// ANTON SHMERKIN

70 Put Your Money Where Your Technology Is

// PAUL TATRO
102 ACT: Ready for World 2.0
// DWIGHT SPROULL

72 104
Spectiv: Revolutionary Virtual Reality ICO UNIVERSITY: El modelo ICBM para
Streaming Platform Supported by the invertir exitosamente en ICOs
Blockchain // DYLAN SENTER // ISMAEL SANTIAGO

74
Ekasi Bucks: Brings Financial Inclusion
to Poor and Low-Income Townships,
Households and Individuals // LUCKY KGWADI

76 TenX: Bringing Crypto into the Real World

// MICHAEL ANDREWS

SynchroLife: Building a Global Restaurant

78 Recommendation Platform with Blockchain
Technology // LAURA SYMBORSKI

80 LakeBanker: Free Banking for the World and

Cryptocurrencies for Billions // THOMAS XIE

82 Anacoin. Promoting Peace with Blockchain

Technology // ZEENA QURESHI

84
Spheris: Decentralized Application
Marketplace to Disrupt App Distribution
// DAVID SHABUN
 Advisory
Board
SUSAN BRYANT MATT
POOLE NIELSON ARMSTRONG
Founder, Executive Director at CEO&Founder of
BlockBridge Advisory The Blockchain Academy & Crypto Camp
Co-Founder, Blockchain CapitalWave Inc. Speaker
Training Institute

SIMON BRETT MARC

COCKING KING KENIGSBERG
Senior Editor at Speaker, Startup Founder, Founder of
Irish Tech News Bestselling Author, Radio BitcoinChaser.com
Freelance for Sunday Host, TV Commentator
Business Post, Irish Times,
The Southern Star,
Dublin Glob

SEAD SERGIO A. FERNANDEZ ANDREY

MUFTIC
CEO at Blockchain
Information Exchange
Security Corp
DE CORDOVA GOLUB, PhD
Chairman P3SmartCity Entrepreneur, CEO &
Partners, Inc Founder @ELSE Corp- a
Private Sector Advisory Virtual Retail company
Group, SDG-FUND,
United Nations

MUKHTAR EMMANUEL THEODOSIS

MUSSABETOV
Blockchain Entrepreneur,
Founder at BlockSpace Labs
R. GOFFI, PhD MOUROUZIS, PhD
Associate doctor with Program Director of MSc in
Science Po-CERI Business Intelligence and
Research fellow with the Data Analytics at Cyprus
Centre FrancoPaix, International Institute of
at the Universit du Qubec Management (CIIM)
Montral Research Fellow at UCL
Centre of Blockchain
Technologies (London,UK)
SEPTEMBER 2017

Social Media
That's Built
to Deliver on
The Next
Economy
6
 SEPTEMBER 2017

The blockchain based transformation

currently taking place in social
media offers one of the most exciting
opportunities in tech and is creating
the perfect storm for new social media
disruption, amidst an escalating attention
economy. The attention economy is at an
all-time premium high, as the blockchain
seeks to decentralize how we pay attention
in the next economy.
Blockchain technologys ability to re-
place centralized platforms with distrib-
uted systems is disrupting the status
quo attention economy, by providing
capability to spread both content and
profit to users through cryptocurrency
rewards, bolstered by community inter- for their attention. Nowhere else online quo social networks and won't immedi-
by action on social media.
CHRISTOPHER is this more prevalent than on social ately jump into a new system. The ma-
J. KRAMER media, however there is a growing un- jor social media giants have a significant
CEO, ongcoin.io THE GROWING PROBLEM ease with the current social landscape share of the attention economy, so any
Social media giants have been able to that has consumers seeking alternative disruptive platform should be thought-
capitalize on all the rich content and solutions. ful of the current environment and cre-
user data, effectively earning massive ate an experience that allows people a
profits at the expense of their users' pri- "Our reality is now digital, says Derin simple transition into the next econo-
vate information for far too long. At the Cag, Board Member at Humaniq. my.
same time, these centralized social plat-
forms, have become massive "control Cag says: In their book - Blockchain Revolution,
centers" over people's online existence. How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is
Although the mainstream social
Changing Money, Business, and The World
Consumers of social media are seek- media platforms make billions
-Father and son co-authors, Don and
ing the highest value for their time and each year from advertising Alex Tapscott state,
want to be in control of privacy, infor- revenues, they do not reward
mation and monetization. They do not
their users financially. Blockchain "We believe that the economy
want to be censored, nor do they want
tricky algorithms manipulating them technology is transforming this works best when it works for
on social media. Consumers want to by paying people their fair- everyone, and this new platform is
maintain the integrity of social chan- share to post things... The next an engine of inclusion." (p.25)
nels without fear of being shut down by frontier in terms of Blockchain
centralized control centers.
technology developments in mass "Sort of the ultimate Tamagotchi,
Nawaf Abdullah, Founder of eBitcoinics communications will most likely be the blockchain is a globally
believes that the immutability of data in decentralization. distributed nest egg" (p.35)
stored on the Blockchain is an essen-
tial benefit that the technology brings THE GAME CHANGER IS HERE Yes, the blockchain is poised to trans-
to the social media industry. The market is ripe for a social media form social media in the next economy
"game changer", but only one that of- by offering censorship resistant, glob-
According to Nawaf: fers consumers fair exchange for their al ledger technology that puts each per-
Any layman understands Blockchain basi- time, attention and complete control in son in control of their data and moneti-
cally as a ... path that can never be broken, the next economy. zation without the requirement of top
whatever it is that we have on the Block- down control. As the blockchain contin-
chain can never be altered and this estab- Now, more than ever, consumers desire: ues to mature, further disruption ap-
lishes the concept of trust when it comes to Data privacy pears inevitable.
data. Increased control over data and mon-
etization Sources:
He notes that social media is all about Compensation for time, content and
data and that Blockchain, therefore, im- contributions made to social media Forbes Blockchain
Perianne Boring Revolution
proves security and trust by assuring Ability to filter through the "noise" October 6, 2016 Don & Alex Tapscott
users that content has not been manip- I.E. fake news 2016
ulated. Tools to access relevant information Readwrite
Alex Iskold Humaniq
more quickly March 1, 2017 Derin Cag,
A TRANSITIONING ATTENTION No tricky algorithms Board Member
ECONOMY No top down censorship CoinTelegraph
The basic ideas behind the attention Streamlined experience Iyke Aru eBitcoinics
Aug 9, 2017 Nawaf Abdullah,
economy are simple. Such an economy Founder
facilitates an exchange where consum- Another factor to consider is that peo-
ers agree to receive services in exchange ple are still accustomed to the status

7
Pre-Pre ICO
SEPTEMBER 2017
ICODAO
Enter the Future of Trading with the
Master Coin Investment Manager
ICOs or Initial Coin Offerings
have become a fast-growing
way for small disruptive
companies to gather funds.
With the use of blockchain
technology, ICOs are being
launched on an hourly basis
and investors are rallying
to invest in new ICOs. With
the launch of each new
ICO countless datasets are
generated by supporters,
these data sets can be very
biased, creating a skewed
view of the ICO and its future
potential.
10
To make an educated investment deci- data to the investors. The platform
sion, an investor needs to sift through has an integrated trading desk that
all this data, understand also allows investors
what the ICO is about to set up trades at any
and how it has been re- given moment in time.
ceived by the ICO com- Pre ICO In Addition, the plat-
by
munity. The ICODAO and ICO dates form will give support
platform gives investors to companies that want
ALEX
APELDOORN the tools to make edu-
TBA to launch an ICO on the
ICODAO Project cated investment deci- ICODAO platform, giv-
Lead
sions. The ICODAO fund ing investors the home-
will include the option to participate in based advantage.
our own algorithmic fund based on a
machine learning core system that will ICODAO is based on the Avalanchain,
invest your money for you. with its industry proven and de-fac-
to standard JWT token. The value of
ICODAO PLATFORM the tokens that are issued during the
The ICODAO platform works as a hub ICODAO crowdsale will be based on
that gathers data from various sourc- the performance of the investments
es, to structure, clean and present the made by the ICODAO, as well as the
 SEPTEMBER 2017

possible to predict the behaviour of a mar-

ket, given certain constraints. The proof of
this is in the investment management sec-
tor where the use of algorithms, prediction
models and high frequency trading has be-
come the norm.
In Addition, the
ICODAO reaches deep into the well of arti-
platform will give
ficial intelligence, especially machine learn-
support to compa- ing, natural language processing and data
nies that want to analysis algorithms to trade on the market
launch an ICO on of ICOs.
the ICODAO plat-
Consider following this example as an illus-
form, giving inves- tration of one of the ICODAO solutions:
tors the homebased
advantage. By extracting relevant information from the
white paper that introduces an ICO and put-
ting it into context via data analysis we can
The investments
extract precious data. For example, the relia-
are made by A.I., bility of authors can be estimated by relevant
that combines published work in the corresponding field.
the large volumes
of data on the We can estimate the interest of the cryp-
tocurrency community in the white paper
ICODAO platform based on the number of likes, follows and ac-
to make rapid deci- tivity on relevant social networks.
sions.
With deep learning algorithms beating hu-
mans in complex pattern recognition chal-
We use blockchain
lenges, we are confident in the ability of this
technology for mul- technology to accomplish the tasks set by
tiple reasons. Most the ICODAO. By using self-learning bots, we
importantly, we make the fund a constantly evolving, learn-
understand that ing and improving system. This leads to more
strategic investing and trading decisions
when it comes to backed by the knowledge collected all the way
investments, trust from the white paper to the launch.
is completely fun-
damental. We use blockchain technology for multiple
reasons. Most importantly, we understand
that when it comes to investments, trust is
completely fundamental. Thanks to block-
chain technology all transactions are public.
This gives investors real-time transparency,
and creates the ability to see the performance
of their investments. Moreover, the trans-
action costs are minimal and the processing
time for transactions is extremely short.

BENEFITS FOR INVESTORS

classical supply and demand function. All With ICOs being launched on an hourly ba- By using a unique fund structure, the in-
ERC20 tokens, as well as ICODAO Tokens sis, the task of predicting the future suc- vestments are pooled to back the most rel-
can be exchanged to Ether and other Ethere- cess is growing more and more difficult. Es- evant ICOs. This gives investors the benefit
um-based assets via the ICODAO Ethereum pecially, because the predictions are based of huge margins made by our A.I. trading sys-
Exchange Gateway service. Similar function- on numerous sources of information. Main- tem. Over time the accuracy of the A.I. will
ality for bitcoin based tokens will follow. ly on the authors profiles, the social net- increase, which in turn will increase the re-
work data, the historical data, the aim of turns on the investments over time whilst si-
ICODAO FUND MECHANICS the project etc., this makes the human anal- multaneously reducing risk. Due to the au-
Members will receive profits based on the ysis more and more impossible and calls for tomatic analysis and trading of the A.I. the
returns of the underlying investments in an agile and scalable IT solution. ICODAO is ICODAO fund will have relatively low fees in
ICOs. The investments are made by A.I., fast and reliable; with the inspiration from comparison to traditional asset managers.
that combines the large volumes of data people with financial expertise, ICODAO
from the ICODAO platform to make rapid uses approaches that have been proven to be ICODAO TOKEN (ICOX) DATA
decisions. The A.I. will be maintained by the successful on the traditional financial mar- Supply during ICO 1 Billion ICOX
ICODAO team incorporating new and so- kets and adapt them into the fast growing Allocation:
phisticated algorithms and data sets. Each ICO market. 50% Token Launch
investor will have a dashboard with data 15% Retained by ICODAO
and charts of ICOs and a suggestions feed Thanks to the recent boom in the field of 15% R&D Fund
on ICOs that the ICODAO - A.I. is current- artificial intelligence, mathematical lin- 10% Founding Team
ly analysing. guistic and various prediction models, it is 10% Early Backers
11
SEPTEMBER 2017
Investing
in an ICO?
To invest in an ICO (Initial Coin Offering)
is to act as a venture capitalist. As such,
you need a framework for evaluating the
business venture.
The purpose of an ICO is not for entre-
preneurs to get rich; rather, to provide
necessary startup funding. The ICO is
a powerful crowd-funding mechanism
that can bring a good idea to life. In re-
turn, investors are rewarded with some-
thing of great potential value: a digital
by token. If an ICO is used for the purpose
MARK MANNEY it was intended, everybody wins.
Founder of I am
by Infobeing
As a Blockchain entrepreneur planning
an ICO, my venture is asking investors
for only the amount of funding required
to succeed. The legitimate way for an
entrepreneur to earn great wealth is
to create something that delivers value
and revenue. That is my job. Dont dis-
tract me by making me rich before Ive
earned it.
There are 5 key questions to help inves-
tors evaluate an ICO.
12
5 Questions
to Ask Before
Sending Your
Money
Why does the 1) Is there is a need for the product
in the marketplace?
Do you understand the product? Do
organization you know the market? What has the
organization done to prove that there
need funding? is a demand? Who is the customer?
What problem is being solved for the
customer? Would you use it or do you
know someone who would? Will solv-
ing that problem change the world?
Do you Does the cause feel good and inspire
passion?
understand 2) Is there a legitimate requirement
for capital?
what the Why does the organization need fund-
ing? Do you understand what the fund-
funding is to be ing is to be used for, who it will be going
to, and for what purpose? Are you sure
the purpose of the ICO is not to enrich
used for, who it the founders? Do they already have ac-
cess to the funds they are seeking? If so,
will be going to, why are they asking for your money and
not investing their own?
and for what I am the founder of a Blockchain Plat-
form called I am by Infobeing (www.
purpose? infobeing.com). Prior to our November
ICO, we will be forthcoming about how
 ?
much funding we need, exactly where it on the 20% of functionality that deliv-
will be going, and for what purpose. ers 80% of the value?
3) Is there a solid business plan and 5) Can the founders be trusted to do
revenue model? what they say they are going to do?
Is this a paid product? Is the mod- Do you know the persons character?
el based on advertising? Is the revenue As an investor, you are an essential Are they focused
model based on charging a transaction partner in the success of a venture. Your on the 20% of
fee? Is it based on the speculative value role is as valuable as that of the CEO.
functionality that
of a digital asset? Without you, nothing will happen. You
delivers 80% of
should have access. Get to know the
All these models are potentially profita- founders. Do you see signs of ego, rigidi- the value?
ble if there is inherent value in the offer-ty, or greed? Is there anything you dont
ing, but make sure you understand what trust about the person or any red flags? Consistent prof-
the revenue model is. What is the time- If so, find a different investment (there its are achieved by
to-market? When will the venture begin are plenty to choose from). those who know
generating a positive cash-flow? Does how to identi-
this seem acceptable? Before sending your money, ask your- fy value, calm-
self these 5 questions. Get to know the
ly make a move,
4) Is the product design elegant and individuals. Follow your intuition and
and then unemo-
viable? logic, not your emotions. Successful in-
It isnt enough for startup founders to vestors are those who can see through tionally stick to a
say what they are doing and why, they hype and ignore the crowd. Consistent plan. Be that in-
also need to explain how. As you con- profits are achieved by those who know vestor.
sider the how, you should also consid- how to identify value, calmly make a
er whether the scope is narrow enough. move, and then unemotionally stick to
Does it sound doable? Are they focused a plan. Be that investor.
SEPTEMBER 2017
The Blockchain Revolution is real. De-
spite the hype, the significance of this
movement is still under-appreciated.
Decentralization represents a funda-
mental shiftsomething far better
than Capitalism as we know it. What
is being created with these bold new
ventures is a new economic system,
beyond the reach of centralized in-
stitutions, capable of delivering un-
limited abundance and freedom. It is
not too late to be a first-mover. If you
choose wisely, your upside is unlimit-
ed.
While the movement is real, those who
do not understand it will be scammed
not just by leeching hackers, but also by
greedy entrepreneurs who are making
hundreds of millions of dollars on ICOs
backed by hype and empty promises
alone. Use these 5 questions to achieve
massive upside while mitigating unnec-
essary risk.
Watch the 2-minute explainer video at
www.infobeing.com.
13
SEPTEMBER 2017
WandX
Financial Instruments on ERC20
Tokens Using Smart Contracts
One of the main functions
of banking is to accept mon-
ey from depositors and lend
it to borrowers to grow their
business or fund a project.
Over the years, traditional
ICO CROWD
lending by banks and finan-
cial institutions has been
transformed by securitiza-
tion and taken to the secu-
rities market, while the risk
management function has
been substantially aided
by the growth of the deriva-
tives market.
14
Financial instruments in the real world and trade in stocks. However, these ex-
helped increase the liquidity of assets changes are centralized services ena-
and hedge risk; this risk arose from bling you to trade in cryptocurrencies
price volatility and credit risk. The rise that are designed to be decentralized,
of fintech over the past decade has wit- hence the emergence of decentralized
nessed the birth of several digital cur- exchanges such as 0x. Accurate price dis-
rencies and a new asset class. With covery, sufficient liquidity, and hedging
by the rapidly grow- instruments on
ing cryptocurren- cryptocurrencies
cy market, key ser- ICO Dates TBA could enable larg-
vices such as pro- er participation in
viding liquidity the crypto-mar-
and hedging risk are being carried out ket. WandX is creating infrastructure
by cryptocurrency exchanges and cryp- for decentralized creation, trade, and
to-asset management platforms. settlement of derivatives and financial
products on ERC20 tokens built on the
The WandX platform aims to be the wall Ethereum blockchain.
street for Ethereum. If you assume that
all the tokens on Ethereum are stocks, The WandX platform provides users
then exchanges such as Coinbase (anal- with the tools to create and trade finan-
ogous to the NYSE) allows you to buy cial instruments (such as derivatives

and token based ETF shares). Currently there
are over 200 ERC20 tokens on Ethereum, with
the list growing larger every day. To enable bet-
ter price discovery and liquidity of ERC20 to-
kens, were creating smart contracts which
can be called using our APIs to create, trade,
and settle financial instruments on Ethereum.
These instruments include ETFs, Derivatives,
or OTC contracts.
BETA
Our initial product is a portfolio trading ap-
plication built using smart contracts on the
Ethereum blockchain. It allows users to create
combinations of currencies (known as a portfo-
lio) and trade this portfolio with a single trans-
action. This helps users reduce the risk of in-
vesting in volatile currencies, as well as enables
easy transaction between relatively low liquid-
SEPTEMBER 2017
gives users information on what could be an
optimum portfolio to create or trade based on
the tokens that they wish to hold or the tokens
that they wish to create a portfolio with.
TECH ARCHITECTURE
For enhanced security and ease of use, we have
built APIs that are called from our front-end
Dapp. These APIs connect with our smart con-
tracts deployed to the Ethereum blockchain.
Our token - the Wand token - allows users to
use the features on our platform, as well as al-
lowing external Dapps to use our APIs. Hence,
all trades that happen through our APIs are
charged a small trade fee in Wand tokens. Dif-
ferent types of users of our derivatives plat-
form such as - market makers, sellers, buyers
and raters, are given incentives through Wand
tokens.
TOKENS
One of the most common questions we get
asked is, why release another token? The ma-
jor reason is governance, but Ill sum it up here:
Governance: Governance over updates to
the software which is separate from the
Ethereum ecosystem. Identity management
through uPort or Civic, followed by a KYC/
AML for users.
Incentives: Incentive programs for various
users, bounties for bug identification, and
promoting the use of all the modules of our
platform.
Future development: If we decide to inte-
grate the tokens created on other block-
chains (such as Tezos, NEO), we would need
to be able to introduce protocols such as the
COMIT protocol for interaction between the
blockchains. It would be more secure and
more efficient to do this if we have our own
token.
Derivatives contracts: Collateral and margin
can be posted in terms of a common curren-
cy whose movement is not directly depend-
ent on Ether.
Developing the WandX protocol: The Wand
token will be used to access any applica-
tion on the WandX platform. The function-
ality in all applications is enabled by APIs.
When external applications use any of the
WandX APIs, they will be charged a certain
fee in Wand; to use any of the applications
ity tokens. All trades happen on the Ethere- on WandX, users will have to transact using
um blockchain using smart contracts which are Wand.
called using our APIs. Aside from enabling crea-
tion, trade, and settlement of portfolios, weve ETFS
built a portfolio optimization algorithm that After a successful launch of our portfolio trad-
ing application on the Ethereum Main net, we
plan to build out smart contracts which can in-
tegrate with creation of portfolios to creating
an ETF for which shares can be issued. This
ETF would contain a group of ERC20 tokens in
a certain ratio. A share in the ETF is equivalent
of purchasing the same ratio of tokens for a
These exchanges are centralized services much smaller amount. If the price of all tokens
enabling you to trade in cryptocurrencies is 10ETH, and 1000 shares are issued, then
each share is worth 0.01ETH. This share con-
that are designed to be decentralized,
tains the underlying tokens in the same ratio.
hence the emergence of decentralized
exchanges such as 0x. Weve released our prototype on the Ethereum
Test net; do check us out and www.wandx.co!
15
SEPTEMBER 2017

The Crack in the ICO Shell:

Security Issues Unmasked
for ICO Projects
A Starter Guide to Security Vulnerabilities & Illusions in ICO Projects

A great The new flavour of money their offering document, that cisely, and should be sound-
is digital crypto-token cur-
they have a team of developers ly tested by external security
deal of rencies. Investors and cryp-
spending a lot of hours work- consultants or auditors.
intelligence to-currency enthusiasts place
ing to build the project. But re-
can be huge investments into ICOs.
member, the appearance may Security is often a pain area for
Some of these ICO projectsbe deceptive. Mostly the ideas ICO investments as there is no
invested in are trustworthy while others
are good, but the implementa- blueprint available on testing
ignorance by are not. Why? Imagine some-
tion is a nightmare. Investors the security of smart contracts.
PRAKASH
when the PRASAD one cheating you with a faked
put huge faith in these pro- Accordingly, its all about ex-
Cyber Forensic token address. The chancesjects with an anticipation of pertise and expert views.
need for Analyst, Blockchain of losing all investments are
a stable, sustainable platform
Researcher
illusion is high. and crypto-token that can be SECURITY RISKS:
deep. safely transferred or delivered Creation Time token ad-
Furthermore, some of the at the close of the ICO. The justment and change (Mod-
S. Bellow ICOs may even indicate in project must be built very pre- ification):
16
 SEPTEMBER 2017

An attacker can possibly adjust the creation ond social engineering attack can trick them tioned programming-bugs are still present.
time before the token goes live. into giving up access to their crypto-token Therefore, the contract must be error-free
based smart contracts funded by the ICOs. and secure.
Hardware Based Attacks:
PDoS (a Permanent denial of service attack) Permissive Timestamp: Blockchain Blocks In addition, a proper due diligence is re-
can cause a permanent hardware failure. can take any timestamp; i.e.; after or before quired to be conducted to ensure that every
The processing power of the powered node the block. This leaves room for exploitation. ICO is safe. Legal, compliance and securi-
can be disrupted. ty aspects must also be implemented to the
Arbitrary Mining account. One should
Replay Attacks: Replay Attacks are possi- Attacks: To prevent have a basic knowl-
ble due to APIs showing the number of re- this attack, arbitrary edge of the ICO pro-
quests remaining on the API account key, mining must not be cess and Crypto-cur-
until it gets the desired random number key. allowed once an ICO Security is often a pain area rency functioning.
has started. for ICO investments as there
Key-based Attacks: The risk of API keys be- is no blueprint available on KIND ADVICE
ing leaked out can lead to repeated requests. Re-entrance at- Never send funds to
The Key must be hashed. The Response API tacks: In this at- testing the security of smart an address posted on
Key Hash must be checked with the stamped tack, you do some- contracts. public networks or
response to eliminate key exhaustion. thing, you are al- forums while partic-
ready in the process ipating in ICOs.
Chain-based Attacks: Any type of exter- of getting it done, A proper due diligence is
nal query to the remaining API Key must be and you do it again. required to be conducted to A Bug Bounty pro-
blocked to prevent cross-chain attacks or The risk of the user ensure that every ICO is safe. gram must be
chain-based attacks. losing tokens in the launched before the
contract is highly ICO is placed for
Leaking Decryption Key: An attacker can probable. subscription, to test
exploit ICO contracts (servers) and take the security aspects
over decryption keys. This has been proved Based on these of the project.
to have a disastrous impact. grounds, the Poorly Programmed smart
contract is vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The A legit ICO is a treasure for the token hold-
Social Engineering Attack: Crypto users security of crypto-tokens can be breached ers as the potential upside can be very re-
are not necessarily crypto-literate. A 30 sec- by malicious cyber criminals if the men- warding.
17
SEPTEMBER 2017

Gitz
A Decentralised
Referral Protocol
THE PLATFORM cialist recruiters, hit and miss job GITZ will use Smart Contract tech-
The Gitz Platform is a decentralised boards or internal referral programs nology to enable a protocol that will
referral protocol, initially focussed for the bulk of their hiring. Different create greater efficiencies within the
on the recruitment sector. Sourcing combinations of these strategies work recruiting industry and many oth-
good people, products, and customers differently from company to compa- er industries in the future. Offering
quickly and cost effectively is hard for ny. However, with about two thirds a new incentive structure for quality
companies. GITZ will enable compa- of the people with- referrals, on a trus-
by
SADIQ ABBAS nies to tap into a large validated com- in the job market tless platform which
munity of people from various fields, being passive, and Pre-ICO token sale is open to all.
who can refer their networks and get therefore the hardest opens in late August,
rewarded quickly and easily in a smart to attract, the sourc- registration is Our protocol used
contract enabled eco-system. The pro- ing aspect is general- within the recruit-
tocol will enable rapid sourcing with ly a long, expensive available now. ment sector, rewards
specialist communities able to join and frustrating pro- validated people for
the platform, provide high quality re- cess. Whitepaper available submitting high qual-
ferrals and receive rewards in a simple from mid-August. ity candidates as well
and quick manner. THE SOLUTION as for placement,
GITZ is a validated,
Register to receive a meaning referees re-
THE MARKET referral based pro- copy as soon as it is ceive regular rewards,
The global recruitment market is worth tocol that will en- launched. remain engaged and
over $400bn+. The UK market alone is able companies to spread the word to in-
worth over 40bn, with the online re- source a short list Public ICO in crease the effective-
cruitment market including jobs boards of qualified candi- ness of the commu-
being worth over $3bn (at a conserva- dates, for a fraction September 2017. nity.
tive estimate). Recruitment is big busi- of the cost of a spe-
ness and finding the right staff is essen- cialist recruiter and HOW IT WORKS:
tial for every firm but is time consum- without the noise of a job board. Ena- A sourcing specialist registers with
ing, expensive and competitive. bling recruiting teams to spend more GITZ detailing their background,
time on interviewing, assessment skills and recent work history for
CURRENT SITUATION and candidate experience and there- validation by the community.
Firms currently rely on either large in- fore fill jobs faster and more cost ef- Candidate seeker posts a job and pro-
ternal recruiting/sourcing teams, spe- fectively. vides details of the bounty on offer.
18

Relevant sourcing specialists are notified
of the role and can quickly access their wid-
er networks to invite people to apply.
All job applications are routed back via the
sourcing specialist for validation before
being forwarded to the candidate seeker.
The company receives resumes alongside
the profile of the sourcing specialist. When
a candidate is selected for interview, the
appropriate reward is released to the refer-
rer.
WHY WILL THIS WORK?
The recruitment market is a huge business,
but hiring the right people is hard and seen
as expensive and inefficient. Rewards end up
in the pocket of many large dominant such
as LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster and the multi-
tude of recruitment firms that have grown to
service increasingly specialist markets. The
decentralisation of sourcing puts companies
and networks directly in touch with each
other reducing costs, distributing income to
those introducing their network and provid-
ing validated applicants in a timely manner.
The GITZ platform has many network effects
to enable user adoption, as well as provid- BLOCKCHAIN
ing a platform for any engaged community to Smart contracts enable compa-
provide sourcing solutions to their industry.
It is a simple to use platform for all users, Smart contracts also enable the
utilising the best of blockchain technology
whilst maintaining an easy to use interface
SEPTEMBER 2017
enabling mass participation in Applications, success rates and
the platform. therefore performance ranking
points are recorded on the block-
WHY THE BLOCKCHAIN AND chain and used to distinguish
WHY A TOKEN? sourcing specialists.
Rewards can be transferred to
TOKEN GITZ will enable people instantly, in any location.
The token will reward all contri- The terms of business are built
companies to tap
butions to the platform and is into the contract and this takes
the only source of reward on the into a large vali- away the need for procurement
platform. dated communi- or accounts functions. This saves
It is used for all bounties for suc- ty of people from time and money.
cessful submittals. various fields,
It will be used to reward the com- THE TIMELINE
munity for their participation in who can refer AND THE FUTURE
the growth of the community i.e. their networks Pre-ICO token sale opens in late Au-
recommending people to join the and get reward- gust, registration is available now.
platform, recommending compa- ed quickly and
nies who post jobs, rewarding de- Whitepaper available from mid-Au-
easily in a smart
velopers, marketing, and product gust, register to receive a copy as soon
experts who develop the platform. contract enabled as it is launched.
Tokens earned can be used to eco-system. Public ICO in September 2017.
post jobs, highlight your submit-
tals and buy internal advertising. The decentrali- The smart contract is written and func-
Tokens enable quick and simple tioning on a Beta app, which will be
international growth. sation of sourc- open to select companies from Octo-
ing puts com- ber. The full app will be live by the end
panies and net- of 2017 and additional features/mar-
works direct- kets will quickly appear in early 2018.
nies to easily set and monitor
ly in touch with
their budgets. To discuss your interest in the pre-
each other re- Sale please do not hesitate to con-
immediate, trustless transfer of ducing costs. tact will@gitz.io to arrange a time to
tokens for successful referrals. speak/meet.
19
SEPTEMBER 2017

Influencer
Exchange
A Decentralized Influencer
Marketing Platform
20

Selena In fact, the aggregated total following
Gomez,
of the Top 10 Celebrities on Instagram
is 1 billion followers. Although many of
Arianna the followers will be the same individu-
Grande, als following all 10 celebrities, individ-
and Taylor
ually these people are able to elevate or
demote brands by merely mentioning
Swift, have them on their social media channels,
nothing which is the key component of a rapid-
ly growing advertising service known as
to do with Influencer Marketing.
Crypto
currencies, Global digital ad sales will grow to
$299 billion by 2021, making up 50 per-
but they are cent of the global advertising market
the number according to a report by MAGNA, IPG
one, two and Mediabrands' research arm. Influencer
marketing is one of the fastest growing
three most segments which is projected to become
followed a $10bn market by 2020.
celebrities
Influencer Exchange (INEX) aims to
on capture a percentage of this market
Instagram through their platform that allows ad-
boasting vertisers to purchase tokenised out-
comes as opposed to an advertising
a total service. An algorithm converts likes,
combined shares, and other types of engage-
following ments into a tokenised value, allowing
brands and advertisers to purchase the
of 320m end result instead of paying for market-
followers
ing services. All of this is made possible
according to using the Blockchain, Smart Contracts
and AI Bots.
Marie Claire.
According to research by TapInfluence,
73% of marketers say that they have an
allocated budget for Influencer Market-
ing. Brands and businesses have every
reason to put their money behind Influ-
encers, a 2016 IAB/YouGov study found
that the use of ad blockers has increased
to 47% of 18-24 year olds claiming to
by
ALI AFZAL use ad blockers to block out all adver-
tising. Compare this to research by ION
which states that 71% of consumers are
more likely to make a purchase based
on a social media reference. Additional-
ly, 70% of teenage YouTube subscribers
trust influencer opinions over tradition-
al celebrities.
The concept behind Influencer Coin
was conceived in 2013 by Julian Sarok-
in, but the technology was not avail-
able to realise the idea. The develop-
ment of Ethereum Smart Contracts has
changed the landscape and the concept
can now become a reality. Our goal is to
provide a more efficient, intuitive and
transparent influencer marketing plat-
form.
Heres how it works:
1. Influencers are aggregated onto INEX
(Influencer Exchange) and their fol-
lowers profiles categorised
2. Using an algorithm the platform cre-
ates a value of their various engage-
ments such as Facebook likes, Insta-
gram shares etc
ICO Start Date: 1st
November 2017
ICO End Date: 31st
November 2017
encer tokens. On the exchange each out-
come will have a variable value based on
several factors, it may cost 50 influenc-
Selena Gomez, Arianna Grande,
and Taylor Swift, have nothing
to do with Cryptocurrencies, but
they are the number one, two and
three most followed celebrities
on Instagram boasting a total
combined following of 320m
followers according to Marie
Claire.
egory, e.g. Influencers with a majority
following in the West. The influencers
For example, a tourism board
may want to promote their latest
Beachfront development to
drive tourism in the area. They
create their account on INEX and
purchase a sufficient amount of
influencer tokens. On the exchange
each outcome will have a variable
value based on several factors,
it may cost 50 influencer tokens
to purchase 1m likes by celebrity
status influencers as opposed to 25
tokens to purchase the same 1m
likes from travel bloggers.
Although under development
the platform currently boasts
over 100 influencers with a total
market reach of 100m people. The
technology has been developed
over 2 years and is now going
through integration with smart
contracts and the blockchain.
ken.io and complete the registration
process.
SEPTEMBER 2017
3. These tokenised outcomes are then
sold as packages through the ex-
change to brands, advertisers and
businesses worldwide
For example, a tourism board may want
to promote their latest Beachfront de-
velopment to drive tourism in the area.
They create their account on INEX and
purchase a sufficient amount of influ-
er tokens to purchase 1m likes by celeb-
rity status influencers as opposed to 25
tokens to purchase the same 1m likes
from travel bloggers. A built-in supply
and demand mechanism will control
pricing on the platform.
Once the relevant package is purchased
the Influencer Marketing magic begins,
through the use of Smart Contracts, the
purchase activates a contract to fulfill
1000 likes and offers the opportunity
to those influencers in the selected cat-
are then required to fulfil the contract
by following the contract requirement -
post a few pictures of the resort saying
they plan to visit next year etc. Smart
bots will record all engagement onto the
blockchain and this will continue until
the contract is completed or the expiry
date is reached.
All influencers will then receive their
payments according to the percent-
age of the smart contract individual-
ly fulfilled. This means that mass mar-
keting campaigns can be achieved eas-
ily through the collective following of
many distributed influencers. On com-
pletion the data is presented to the ad-
vertiser through an intuitive dashboard
with full analytics.
Although under development the plat-
form currently boasts over 100 influ-
encers with a total market reach of
100m people. The technology has been
developed over 2 years and is now go-
ing through integration with smart con-
tracts and the blockchain.
Influencer Coin will complement a host
of ICOs that have been launched in the
advertising space such as Adex, Adtoken
and Basic Attention Token (BAT), all of
which have been well received and per-
formed exceptionally well.
Influencer Coin will be launching
its token exchange on the 1st of No-
vember 2017, and will be releasing its
MVP in October 2017. To register for
the opportunity to acquire Influencer
Tokens please visit www.influencerto-
21
SEPTEMBER 2017

APPII
Transforming the
Recruitment Sector by
Verifying Candidate CVs
via the Blockchain Private Pre Sale
in September

Career verification APPII will launch their career verifi-
cation and recruitment platform next
platform APPII is reducing month offering job candidates the op-
the cost and time for portunity to seek verification of their
employers to recruit talent CVs, that is, verification of education,
work experience, skills, certification,
by verifying candidate CVs awards etc. Furthermore, the platform
via blockchain technology. by has a dynamic CV builder where candi-
GARY MCKAY
Managing Director, dates can create a verified Intelligent
APPII ProfileTM, a profile that can be put to
22
work in finding the best job opportuni-
ties available.
The blockchain solution enables candi-
dates to seek verification of CV asser-
tions from educational institutions, em-
ployers, trainers, and others, in a trust-
ed and simple process. A process that
will reduce the administrative costs as-
sociated with candidate verification by
 SEPTEMBER 2017

providing pre-verified candidates to em- or misplacement. Combining these two Complimenting the blockchain exper-
ployers right from the beginning of the technologies streamlines CPD capture. tise of Adi Ben-Ari and Gary McKay, the
hiring process. APPII board comprises of recruitment
Organisations can upload or create mi- industry veterans in Sebastian Leslie
Using APPII, any employer can seek to cro-education and accreditation inven- (CEO, Wrightson Group) and Anthony
view verified candidates at a fraction of tory in APPII. Each piece of inventory is Sherick (Managing Director, Techno-
the current standard industry cost. Or- The blockchain assigned a QR code, including meta data jobs and Contractor UK) providing solid
ganisations verifying candidate CVs will such as location, date, time etc. Organi- counsel in how the APPII Platform can
solution enables
be rewarded for their efforts, and candi- sations, providing the likes of CPD, can revolutionise the recruitment sector.
dates will also be rewarded for allowing candidates to distribute the QR code at the end of a
employers to view their profiles. seek verification course or conference and APPII mem- APPII will undertake a private launch
of CV assertions bers capture the QR code via the AP- next month, with a full public launch
Beyond cost reduction and accelerated from educational PII App, automatically logging it against coinciding with the launch of their to-
hiring, employers will be able to speci- their CV as a verified credential. ken sale soon after.
fy the format and configuration of how institutions, em-
they view candidates making the hiring ployers, trainers, Likewise, museums, art galleries, exhi- Further information for candidates,
process vastly more simple. and others, in a bitions, or youth award programmes, verification partners, and employers
trusted and sim- such as the Duke of Edinburgh awards, can be found on the APPII website -
Finding a dream role and a dream em- can utilise APPII to verify and certify https://www.appii.io/.
ple process.
ployer should be quick and easy. Equally, the achievements and experiences of
finding top talent should be simple and students and young adults.
inexpensive. However, it is challenging, Individuals of-
time consuming, and costly finding that ten find that Gary McKay is the Managing Director of APPII. Gary has worked in senior executive
dream role and top talent, says APPII roles in multiple sectors including Media (News Corp) and Banking (Commonwealth
physical certif- Bank of Australia). Half of Garys career has been spent as a Management Consultant,
Managing Director, Gary McKay.
icates and logs most recently with Booz&Co., consulting across different industries and countries.
- We believe that having the assertions are susceptive
of an individuals CV verified by edu- to being mis-
cators, accreditors, and employers will placed. To ad-
make an enormous difference to the re-
dress this, weve
cruitment process. Also, it is about time
that the main parties involved in the used blockchain
process, namely candidates and employ- and a well-
ers, were rewarded for providing inter- known technol-
mediaries with their data. ogy in QR codes
We want to see candidates monetise the to securely cap-
data they provide to APPII, as a custodi- ture and veri-
an of CVs, and organisations rewarded fy micro-accred-
for verifying candidate CVs. itation and ed-
ucation, eradi-
APPII, Latin for farsighted, is a passion
project for Gary and co-founder Adi cating the inci-
Ben-Ari, a renowned blockchain expert. dence of loss or
Having initiated the project in Febru- misplacement.
ary 2016, Gary, Adi, and the APPII team
have spent 18 months building a block-
chain platform that can assist job seek-
ers, in particular those with limited ac-
cess to mentors and career coaches, in
developing a professional, verified, CV
that can vastly increase their employa-
bility.

The co-founders are also looking to as-

sist APPII members and organisations
with the capture and verification of
micro-accreditation and micro-educa-
tion.

We hear time and time again that the

capture and recording of Continuous
Professional Development (CPD) is la-
borious and manually intensive. Indi-
viduals often find that physical certif-
icates and logs are susceptive to being
misplaced. To address this, weve used
blockchain and a well-known technolo-
gy in QR codes to securely capture and
verify micro-accreditation and educa-
tion, eradicating the incidence of loss
23
SEPTEMBER 2017

Celsius
The Credit Coin
REVOLUTIONIZING PEER sets to these proxy trustworthy cor- cial institutions tend to prefer lending
TO PEER CREDIT LENDING: porations where power and authori- to individuals with established cred-
BUILDING A NEW TRUST ty is localized. These behemoths have it histories - which young adults lack
PROTOCOL opened the door through their anti- due to rising student loan debt and
The defining strength of blockchain quated ways and non-accommodating the exorbitant cost of living in cities.
is its decentralized model and distrib- terms. Thus, the lucky few who qualify for
uted network that is capable of bring- credit cards from such institutions are
by ing about a paradigm shift to a more THE CREDIT CRUX rewarded by paying very high inter-
ALEX
MASHINSKY open world. The operative word here Currently, $1.1T, the equivalent to est rates and fees, which make it even
is - open - because our world is cur- half of all consumer credit issued in harder for them to pay their bills.
rently governed or closed off by cen- the US, is concen-
tralized authorities such as govern- trated with the Young adults are
ments, banks and dominant market- six largest banks. marginalized into
places. These behemoths an ever-increas-
are responsi-
ICO ing number of un-
These centralized authorities first ble for propagat- Mid-November derbanked peo-
emerged as intermediaries to facil- ing a biased cred- ple in the U.S be-
itate trade. In an ideal world, there it lending system cause of meagre
would not be a need for intermedi- that doesnt suit savings and no
aries -- however, the high probabili- the needs of the young adult popula- material increase in wages in the past
ties of human deceit and error neces- tion, consisting primarily of millen- fifteen years. Hence, they remain un-
sitate it. Instead, we submit our as- nials and Gen Z. Centralized finan- derserved and feel excluded from the
24

Currently, $1.1T, the equivalent to
half of all consumer credit issued in the
US, is concentrated with the six largest
banks. These behemoths are responsible
for propagating a biased credit lending
system that doesnt suit the needs of the
young adult population.
At Celsius, we have engineered a new
global platform to enable peer to peer
credit lending. Individuals within the
network can apply to receive instant
credit from other trustworthy network
members depending on their transaction
history.
Celsius will also enable borrowers to
leverage guarantors who are willing to
join their digital wallets to our smart
contracts to expand a borrowers credit
limit and lower their interest payments.
SEPTEMBER 2017
financial system for a significant portion of al platform to enable peer to peer cred-
time. The lucky ones who do have a credit it lending. Individuals within the network
score and a credit card end up paying inter- can apply to receive instant credit from
est anywhere from the low 20s to mid-30s, other trustworthy network members de-
which ends up consuming most of their dis- pending on their transaction history and
posable income. information attached to their digital iden-
tity profile. Additional certified validators
CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO can lend their credit to uncreditworthy
In addition to the millennial plight, the anti- new members.
quated banking systems red-tape and prof-
it-mongering habits forced us to ask our- - Digital Credit Score
selves some basic questions, such as: Celsius will assess each members credit-
- Why is it that most depositors get less worthiness based on their digital identity
than 1% on their deposits but get charged score from partnerships with prominent
as much as 28% when borrowing funds third-parties which provide KYC and AML
from the same institution? regulatory verification. We will also incor-
- Why can't borrowers take loans from the porate user uploaded data, such as exter-
same people that the bank is borrowing nal FICO credit scores and past transaction
from (their neighbours, colleagues, etc.) history on marketplaces like eBay, Ama-
directly? zon, Uber, Facebook, etc. and implement it
- Why can't these institutions do what is in into the algorithms to create a comprehen-
our best interest instead of maximizing sive Celsius network credit score.
their own profits?
- Who can ensure that if the borrower does - Re-distribution of Interest
not pay, the lender will be able to recover Celsius will also enable borrowers to lever-
their principal? age guarantors who are willing to join their
digital wallets to our smart contracts to
Banks are also an increasingly unpopular cat- expand a borrowers credit limit and lower
alyst to business. The last credit crisis solidi- their interest payments. We provide lower
fied the notion that too many banks had be- levels of bad debt and higher interest pay-
come too big to fail. To ensure that the se- ments to lenders while enabling lenders to
curity of an archaic system, monolithic insti- recover bad debt via an insurance program
tutions were bailed out that risked deposi- covered by us.
tors capital while enriching shareholders.
Technology and opportunity have advanced, - Distribution of funds
and today we can challenge the status-quo of Upon approval, members can use one of
the broken lending system. the existing partners debit or credit cards
The Celsius team has carefully studied these to immediately access the issued credit to
problems and opportunities, and from our transact in the real world with fiat curren-
discussions an idea was born: a peer-to- cies or with participating banks such as
peer lending network running on a universal SVB to access their accounts while paying
Ethereum blockchain. lower interest rates than any major cred-
it card.
CELSIUS FOUNDATION - THE FUTURE
OF CREDIT - Insuring the credit
With blockchain in mind, with the use of Celsius issues the credit score and the
an Ethereum-based smart contract market- credit limits and it arranges for the pools
place, we built The Celsius Foundation with of lenders who extend their digital assets
the intention of providing an opportunity to borrowers and creates a smart contract
for everyone to participate in an ecosystem between the parties which includes all the
centred around a membership organization. terms and conditions. Celsius then enters
The members approve the smart contract as a party to the transaction and provides
and the algorithm based credit score. We insurance so if the borrower defaults, Cel-
have partnered with more than one dozen sius covers the principal loan amount. Cel-
Ethereum-based solution providers to create sius is then responsible to recover the sums
an ecosystem that enables all aspects of the owed from the parties providing guaran-
process so an individual can join the mem- tees or the borrower themselves.
bership and be issued a smart contract with a
credit score and credit limit within minutes. THE NEW TRUST PROTOCOL AND THE
Our platform will conduct the Know Your CREDIT COIN
Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering The decentralized nature of blockchain
(AML) review, Digital identity verification, might be a stark contrast to the structured
social media analysis, internet social scoring form of chaos right now. Although an indi-
and the collection of existing band and cred- viduals world seems to be increasingly broad
it score information to create a new digital and even global, humans inherently strive for
identity and a Celsius credit score that is ac- more personalized, curated experiences. We
cepted by our partners. can think of no better way to solve an essen-
tial financial need than through a democra-
We do this by: tized peer-to-peer lending platform, through
- Peer-to-Peer Lending the installation of a new network of trust,
At Celsius, we have engineered a new glob- and the creation of the first Credit Coin.
25
SEPTEMBER 2017
ICO: A Disruptive
Decentralization
of Capital Markets
BACKGROUND
More than 50% of SMEs and even
more start-ups globally, lack ac-
cess to traditional funding sourc-
es which hinders their growth and
ICOs may help to fuel much desired
economic development;
by Continuing economic and nation-
MUKHTAR
MUSSABETOV al currency instabilities in differ-
Founder & CEO ent parts of the world are already
BlockSpace Labs Inc. pushing people to convert their fiat
currency assets into cryptocurren-
cies;
As the token market matures and
digital assets provide higher re-
turns and liquidity, ICOs can mo-
tivate people to re-define personal
financial risks, re-think tradition-
al, low interest investment options
(savings accounts, mutual funds,
etc.), and motivate them to invest
more in ICOs;
Even if ICO restrictions are set
within a specific jurisdiction, no
national regulator can prevent citi-
zens from investing elsewhere;
ICOs may go far beyond disrupt-
ing VC funding and will continue
blockchains general disintermedi-
ation mission, especially in the fi-
nancial and investment industries;
26
The success of crowdfunding as an ear- organizations from private, NGO and
ly stage project financing concept for public sectors.
start-ups paved the way for the ICO.
ICOs have a potential to spread be-
KEY DECENTRALIZATION FACTS yond ongoing replacement of venture
ABOUT ICOS: capitalists with users in the block-
1. A token is a hard-to-regulate, supra- chain Start-up industry and may
national, digital asset; simplify the whole corporate invest-
2. Instant funding accessible for start-ups ment ecosystem by introducing less
right after completion of a token sale bureaucratic, more dynamic, goal or
and higher liquidity for token holders; performance oriented models, using
3. More distributed ownership, where a static or a dynamic token supply
traditional investors may not have and distribution, and even with open
special privileges; funding stages.
4. Global fundraising. Most blockchain
start-ups are global by definition, and TRADITIONAL
with cryptocurrencies spread around (NON-BLOCKCHAIN) START-UPS
the world, anyone can buy tokens; ICO's shouldn't be limited to the block-
5. Emerging and more supportive ju- chain start-up industry only. With
risdictions. Some places around the blockchain's capacity to reshape so
globe already have more favorable many industries, any start-up may con-
conditions for incorporation of block- sider tokenization as a funding source,
chain businesses (Switzerland, Dubai, whether its business model may or may
Singapore, Hong Kong, others), mak- not benefit from using blockchain as a
ing traditional hubs less attractive or technology.
defunct.
PUBLIC FINANCES
POTENTIAL EXPANSION, With some modifications and inte-
BEYOND BLOCKCHAIN AND VC gration with public blockchain elec-
ICOs may serve as a basis for the crea- tronic voting, it may become a pow-
tion of new funding models, including erful solution for approval of nation-

ICOs have a potential to spread beyond
ongoing replacement of venture
capitalists with users in the blockchain
Start-up industry and may simplify the
whole corporate investment ecosystem
by introducing less bureaucratic, more
dynamic, goal or performance oriented
models, using a static or a dynamic token
supply and distribution, and even with
open funding stages.
To prevent chaos, Ponzi schemes,
scams, pump and dumps, it will
require regulatory agencies to sync
their activities with ICO investment
communities to create and maintain a
balanced and fair framework of a self-
regulated system based on best practices
and avoid excessive regulation.
al, regional and local budgets, including in-
dividual projects by relying on a collective
wisdom and therefore delivering more ra-
tional decisions and preventing wasting of
taxpayers' money by incompetent and cor-
rupted officials.
NGO SECTOR
The UN is exploring opportunities on de-
ploying blockchain and tokens in crowdfund-
ing campaigns to mobilize funds for entre-
preneurship development and community
projects.
ICO REGULATION
While Australia's securities watchdog doesnt
support ICO regulation, SEC has already issued
a report concluding DAO tokens were securi-
ties, and other regulators continue investigat-
ing the actual application and use of tokens and
ICOs, closely tracking the rapid growth in ICOs
and may treat some types of crypto assets as se-
curities, but in general, they may find it tough
if not impossible to create the same, well-de-
fined, regulative environment for tokens as for
the mainstream investment world. ICOs have
an extremely flexible and liquid concept.
To prevent chaos, Ponzi schemes, scams, ICOs have even greater potential to revolution-
pump and dumps, it will require regulatory ize the way how we accumulate, invest, distrib-
agencies to sync their activities with ICO in- ute wealth, and transfer value.
SEPTEMBER 2017
vestment communities to create and maintain
a balanced and fair framework of a self-regu-
lated system based on best practices and avoid
excessive regulation. However, the success of
any national regulation may depend on geo-
graphical competition.
CONCLUSION
The ICO market is currently a wild and mys-
terious place, where start-ups are funded al-
most instantly, by attracting millions of dol-
lars in a matter of seconds or hours, bypass-
ing an investment or financial intermedi-
ary, and offering more distributed owner-
ship.
The ICO is a radical disruption of a global cap-
ital market, and it solves the biggest problem
faced by any start-up or innovative organiza-
tion: where and how to get funding for an in-
novative idea before it becomes a viable prod-
uct or service?
ICOs can significantly speed up "idea to prod-
uct" and later stages, by providing better and
timely funding support for the innovation eco-
system in general.
27
SEPTEMBER 2017

BlockEx
A Platform
with a difference
BlockEx will start its (Initial Coin Offering)
ICO, Token Sales and Token Generating
Event services starting in October and
are partnering with ITIRIV to provide it
full turnkey solutions for ICO issuers. The
partnership has already created a new
and innovative product we have called
ERiC. This is in the form of a tranche
ed on the platform will be listed on
ICO dates TBA its exchange, which gains liquidity
through a network of distributed bro-
kers around the world, including large
and small financial institutions.
The brokerage software comes with
a full trade room with both exchange
and OTC trading, leverage trading, so-
BlockEx is currently in the FCA cial trading and a robust back office.

reverse equity convertible bond blended sandbox for the origination, issu- Currently BlockEx is building out
with an ICO. ance and secondary trading of pri- product extensions to include licens-
vate placement bonds. This will pro- able (securities, trade order, origina-
Issuing an ICO in this form builds in vide ICO issuers an extra layer of tion and deal flow) management tools
corporate governance and investor good governance and best practice to as well as regulatory reporting func-
protection, ensuring that funds are tions for any asset originated on the
ensure that token issuance is struc-
released when milestones are hit and platform.
therefore allowing large capital rais- tured safely and can withstand close
es to occur while protecting investors scrutiny. BlockEx has been building the plat-
capital from failing projects or trac- form since 2014 and is currently one
by
ADAM tion. Currently companies can use the of the few companies with production
LEONARD ready blockchain tools available. With
CEO, BlockEx For existing businesses wanting to de-
BlockEx platform to create and is- 40 employees in 6 countries, (UK, Bul-
velop Blockchain technology, BlockEx sue bonds, ICOs and shortly we will garia, USA, Israel, Taiwan and Kazakh-
and ITIRIV have designed a unique roll out trade finance. All assets orig- stan) BlockEx has global coverage.
pre-ICO debt financing structure inated on the platform will be listed
to fund the buildout of the Block- They are partnering with ITIRIV to
on its exchange, which gains liquid-
chain solution. This debt financing is provide a full turn key solution for the
structured and digitized on BlockEx, ity through a network of distribut- issuing of ICOs and deliver all projects
whereby the debt funds the infra- ed brokers around the world, includ- under the best possible practices and
structure and the ICO funds the mar- ing large and small financial insti- governance. This will ensure that only
keting operations and management tutions. the very best ICOs will be generated
of the Blockchain company, with a through BlockEx.
strong utility token.
ITIRIVs Gibraltar based multi-disci-
The BlockEx DAxP includes digital as- plinary consulting team are highly ex-
set creation tools, exchange, clearing, perienced in Blockchain Technology,
settlement, registry and brokerage framework (Blockchain/DLT) agnos- ICO structuring, Whitepaper Audits,
software. The BlockEx Digital Asset tic. BlockEx also provides full turn- Token Utility Architecture, ICO pro-
Exchange Platform manages the en- key solutions for companies looking ject management, Marketing, Com-
tire lifecycle of Blockchain based dig- to operate their own digital asset ex- munity Management and Legal sup-
ital assets. This includes origination, change via our white label brokerage port. ITIRIV provides ICO issuers
issuance, exchange, settlement and software. with this bespoke end to end solution.
redemption.
Currently companies can use the This offering is unique in that it
The exchange is HFT capable with in- BlockEx platform to create and issue brings together an industry leader in
stitutional connectivity via API and bonds, ICOs and shortly we will roll good governance within the ICO mar-
FIX protocols and is digital asset out trade finance. All assets originat- ket combined with the only digital as-
28

set platform currently inside the FCA sand-
box. BlockEx is currently in the FCA sandbox
for the origination, issuance and secondary
trading of private placement bonds. This will
provide ICO issuers an extra layer of good
governance and best practice to ensure that
token issuance is structured safely and can
withstand close scrutiny.
ITIRIV and BlockEx have already started
working with a small number of ICO issu-
ers, featuring some of the most established
names in blue chip companies with the back-
ing from well-known brands. Of particular in-
terest are ICOs with teams that have a prov-
en track record in addition to having a prop-
osition that demonstrates a real and strong
utility for tokenization within their technol-
ogy. The Partnership will officially launch
the ICO platform during the first week of Oc-
tober to coincide with The Blockchain Solu-
tions Forum in Barcelona. Prospective ICO
issuers are invited to apply now to be consid-
ered for launch on the platform.
SEPTEMBER 2017
ADAM LEONARD // CEO, BlockEx Fund experience to Blockchain, Token Sales
With 20 years of Payments, Ad-Tech and Fin- and ICOs. Having started his financial ca-
tech experience, Adam has had lead the build reer in the mid 80s he has developed a deep
of several award-winning platforms in the Ad- and wide understanding of these markets
Tech and Gaming Space and has been solely fo- and having been on the forefront of using
cused on Fintech since 2011 after discovering qualitative strategies in capital markets at
Cryptocurrencies. Deutsche Bank to quantitative asset manage-
ment at BAR Rosenberg and with EIM build-
ALEKS NOWAK // CIO, BlockEx ing segregated Fund of hedge funds, it is nat-
Aleks is a former Army officer with broad ural that the development of blockchain and
multi-disciplinary management expertise. A its role in capitalizing Blockchain companies
founding member of the UKDCA, he regu- via a utility token is a natural progression in
larly speaks on blockchain to both commer- his interest of building and financing new
cial and consumer audiences. He has been companies.
involved in the crypto-currency space since
2011 having worked on numerous alterna- CHRIS EMMS // Co-Founder Director, ITIRIV
Chris started his career at Apple, moving on
tive currency and blockchain projects rang-
ing from payment solutions through mining to Google and then to Berlin where he worked
to the exchange space. in senior roles for some of Europes most ex-
citing tech start-ups. This is also where Chris
HILTON SUPRA // was first introduced to Blockchain, particular-
Co-Founder Director, ITIRIV ly within the fintech space and went on to work
Hilton brings a wealth of Financial Capi- with Wave Crest in driving forward cryptocur-
tal Market, Asset Management and Hedge rency debit cards.
29
SEPTEMBER 2017
Avalanchain.
The Blockchain
of Data Streams
How On-Chain Streamed Workflows Can
Help with Enterprise Blockchain Adoption
Lets talk about the issues Blockchain
projects have when used by Enterprises.
Despite the true potential for the
technology to improve processes and
vastly decrease inefficiencies, the ongoing
PoC attempts done by many companies,
keep reviling fundamental challenges
Bitcoin and Ethereum-based solutions are
currently straggling to overcome.
Here are some basic examples:
DATA PRIVACY
Regardless of whether we are talking
about small companies or big corpo-
rates, the data you deal with by itself
can be sensitive to public sharing due
by to business, regulatory or legal reasons
YURIY HABAROV
Fintech serial (The Data Protection Act is a good ex-
entrepreneur ample here). Total flat data sharing with
everyone, which is the mandate used by
most blockchain platforms, doesnt re-
ally suit this situation even in the case
of a private chain, simply because the
trust level between parties can be dy-
namic and change over time.
In Avalanchain we create Trust Cir-
cles for each of those communications
and nested chains specifically associat-
ed with the Circle. Nested chains derive
their data from their parent chain based
30
on chain predefined automated func- To achieve this, Avalanchain follows the
tion (which is our version of Smart Con- approach of message streams based on
tracts) and carefully controlled by the the one that has been proven for dec-
Circles Access Control List (ACL). ACL- ades in the telecommunications indus-
s are designed to map to existing organ- try to build robust and fault tolerant
isational structure consistent systems.
easily and their mem- We are dealing with
bership and permis-
ICO Dates small messages, but
sions are controlled in we process them in
a centralized, hybrid TBA the blockchain way.
or fully-decentralized Our process is to sign
way with the use of each message with El-
well proven industry and widely adopt- liptic Curve based signatures, encrypted
ed x509 Digital Certificates. Optional if needed, on a message-by-message ba-
session-based end-to-end encryption is sis chaining together related messages
also supported on message level and it into dedicated chains.
is based on the current strongest indus-
try standards (AES256 and similar). An additional important factor when
dealing with increasing volumes of data,
SCALABILITY is the concept of Functionally Nested
The world we know is already built on Chains. They provide the functionali-
data. The volumes are increasing dai- ty of transaction aggregation and pro-
ly and having two, three, ten or even a cessing within the chain using our an-
hundred transactions per second for the alogue of Smart Contracts, effectively
whole network is clearly not enough. creating workflows on chain and dras-
Even modern mobile phones can pro- tically reducing volumes. Nested Chains
cess more than that. With the coming work well with Trust Circles, guarantees
age of machine-to-machine communi- of immutability and the data protection
cation (also called IoT) the volumes are that they provide.
increasing pretty much exponentially.
No doubt Blockchain networks need to Avalanchains ability to quickly decrease
be able to deal with huge volumes and the volume passing through the net-
minimal latencies just to remain com- work using Nested Chains, allows nat-
petitive. Elastic scalability is the must ural sharding and an organic increase
nowadays. of total network throughput, leading

to elastic horizontal scaling where metrics like rithms may not be the best choice,
10,000-100,000 tx/sec are not relevant any- especially for the case of free trans-
more; in order to increase the volume, we only actions support. Also, they do not
need to add more machines to the network and provide any help with transfer-
slightly adjust the Nested Chains topology. ring JSON-represented (account,
balance, etc.) state between the
LAYERED DECENTRALISATION nodes. We decided not
Networks with a permissioned component in
to ignore those
them tend to create smaller independent sub- The JSON-friendly variation of the
networks, primarily because of data priva- CRDT mechanism which serves as facts and instead
cy reasons. Additionally, not all the parties al- the main Consensus choice in Av- make a better
lowed to see the data in the subnetwork, nat- alanchain allows better and lighter use of them. Av-
urally require write access and ability to post but still secure interactions in Trust alanchain net-
transactions into them. (All monitoring and re- Circles with great performance and
porting use cases belong to this category). usability. Once more, it also offers works benefit
free transactions (or other mone- from splitting
We decided not to ignore those facts and in- tisation shapes that are different and controlling
stead make a better use of them. Avalanchain from simple Eth pay-as-you-go, like read and write
networks benefit from splitting and controlling monthly subscriptions, caps, etc.)
access to the
read and write access to the chain via Trust Cir- are possible to implement in an Ava-
cles and Functionally Nested chains. Each of lanchain network. chain via Trust
those is optimised to deal with the smaller Circles and Func-
number of concurrent writes naturally and as a WHO DO YOU CALL? tionally Nested
result is using a simple consensus mechanism. The first question any responsible chains.
manager usually asks before approv-
MESSAGE FORMAT, CONSENSUS AND ing a new IT system for production
FEES use is who shall I call if things go
Data communication and data formats are cur- terribly wrong?
rently split into machine (binary) and human-
ly readable. JSON is the current de-facto stand- In the case of a centralized system
ard for the later. It is perfectly supported by all the answer is obvious call the
software platforms and stacks. More than that, 1st/2nd/3rd level support, wake
there is a signed messages format called JWT them up if necessary, and let them
(Json Web Tokens) which allows inter-platform deal with the issue. But in the case
communication with cryptographically signed of a fully decentralized system this
Json data. option is not easily available, as
decentralization assumes differ-
For smaller groups of distributed writers in ent parts of the system to be con-
subnetworks established Proof of Stake algo- trolled by different entities from
SEPTEMBER 2017
a support perspective, with un-
avoidably required coordination
between them, for system integ-
rity level actions. Hard forks on
Ethereum and the fork of Bitcoin
have clearly shown a necessity to
have platform support for graceful
node upgrades and soft message
format versioning.
We deal with this issue by reinvent-
ing the concept of Network Ad-
ministrators in a decentralised and
semi-centralised manner, addition-
ally supporting message version-
ing on the protocol layer. That al-
lows nodes to only talk to the mes-
sages on chains they both support.
The very same applies to the Circles.
Additionally, the embedded concept
of message-based Bi-Temporality al-
lows Users and/or Administrators
to apply logical corrections to prac-
tically unavoidable issues in audited
history, in a graceful and controlled
manner without braking consist-
ency together with an all-the -way-
through audit provided by the chain
approach.
CONCLUSION
In summary, Avalanchain is a Next
Generation Blockchain platform
built on fundamental streamed data
processing principles targeting a hy-
brid approach in interoperability be-
tween public and private enterprise
chains, bringing together the better
of two worlds.
31
SEPTEMBER 2017

Ewaste.io
Getting Some of That Value Back
from Your Old Electronics
How do we bring sustainability to E post it to a company that would repair, All functions executed via a smart con-
sell and/or recycle. However, this com- tract priced in E Waste currency. The
waste? How do we ensure rare earth pany would pay you very little for the online platform "E waste exchange" will
and other scarce elements used in item in question. This payment will be contract directly with the shipping lines
modern electronic devices we take for nowhere near a second-hand market to streamline container booking, effec-
price for the device or tively operating as an
granted are available for our children? the various rare earth NVOCC (Non-Vessel
This is a very important issue not being materials inside the For investors that Owning Common Car-
addressed by anyone! Except for now. device. All that value want to get involved rier), issuing its own
would be lost! Now, shipping documents
Imagine a world where you can get if you were to dispose
at the beginning this to streamline customs
back some value from the electronic de- of the phone through pre ICO, email clearance and pro-
vice you purchased a few years back? the E Waste online ico@ewaste.io for vide competitive pric-
Or if you are a manufacturer, get back platform, it would ing for the freight el-
your old product for recycling, provid- know all the materi-
further details. ement of the sale, as
ing feedstock for your new technology, als that the phone was pricing will be based
a fully circular life cycle. Or a trader / made from and pay on a pre-negotiated
by processor engaged in the E waste mar- you accordingly. This would be a para- COA (contract of affreightment) with
JITESH VARSANI ket buying and selling materials inter- digm shift from the current state of af- various shipping lines & trade routes. All
Independent
Shipping, nationally simplifying this down to the fairs. consignments will be delivered on a DDP
Chartering and push of a button, being able to take care (Delivered Duty Paid) basis.
International Trade of all the previously complex time-con-
Consultant Providing traceability and accountabili-
suming tasks involved in physical trad- ty to materials and business processes, The online platform will have several
ing i.e. counterparty risk, shipping, is the key feature in cutting through the layers of function, with a suite of apps
banking, customs both ends, taxes, cur- ever-changing global regulatory envi- for each function:
rency movements and not to for- ronment. Hav-
get the highly skilled staff. ing the ability Driver app - employment for the
to trace "man with a van", infinitely scalable
E Waste coin is a cryp- providing on demand in house
tographic blockchain road logistics.
based technology. This
will be the rock that Processor app - providing em-
provides stabili- ployment / materials for manu-
ty throughout your al sorting and logging onto the
global procurement system. Once inventoried and
process. No more uploaded onto the exchange,
complex calcula- the materials are available for
tions involved with purchase. Once a sale is exe-
various currencies cuted, a container will arrive
for accounting profit and at the processor's location; the
loss and no more currency processor will be fully instruct-
hedging. The online portal will the location of any E waste item in ed on packaging and presentation of
allow full management of the crypto the real world, will allow data on this E waste in the container, including in-
currency and E waste procurement and grey market to be compiled, leading spection and labelling.
management, giving the user the abili- to concrete figures on the amounts of
ty to supercharge business processes. various rare earth and scarce elements E Waste database app - providing
The online marketplace allows for for- aboveground and in use. Thus, leading a comprehensive database of all E
ward contract buying and selling, his- to a solid market platform & transpar- waste items including detailed infor-
tory of purchase and sales and natural- ent price discovery. mation on the material makeup of
ly all commercially sensitive data will be the device in question, freely accessi-
UBERIZING THE SUPPLY CHAIN
fully controlled from the user interface. ble via a trading account. It can also
- Local Collection / Transport be available as a paid service for re-
WHO SHOULD GET INVOLVED? - Local Sorting / Storage / Inspection / searchers, businesses, universities
Well, currently (in the UK) if I wanted Container stuffing and governments (Naturally, all will
to dispose an old mobile phone I could - Shipping be paid in E waste coin).
32
 SEPTEMBER 2017

Snip
The Future of News Will
Come from The Blockchain
The Internet has profoundly changed
the news industry. In the past, local and
national publishers enjoyed a monopoly
on the distribution of information,
providing them with a strong hold on
readers attention. This, in turn, provided
them with a constant stream of revenue
from advertisers.

The barriers to entry for new publish-

ers were high, requiring them to have
enough capital to buy or rent printing
presses. In the Internet age, everyone
can start a news outlet in a single click
and the monopoly on news is dead.

by The Internet also brought another im-

RAN REICHMAN
Snip CEO portant revolution - the rise of user-gen- Ad-based outlets are dying, unsuccess- algorithm, and users can choose their
erated content. Instead of readers hop- fully competing with Google and Face- own algorithm. Since people prefer read-
ing to get a column published in a known books hold on peoples attention. In ing short and concise stories, the default
newspaper, anyone 2016, the two giants algorithm assigns higher value to short
can create a website collected 99% (!) of the content. Readers will also be able to
and broadcast their ICO scheduled for growth in ad revenue, subscribe to writers that they value, tip
thoughts to the world, leaving only crumbs them, or even purchase a paid subscrip-
on Medium, Facebook, September 2017 for the rest of the news tion to their content.
or their own website. industry. And theyre
continuing to grow Snips belief is that there shouldnt be a
Most news outlets were un- and take larger portions of ad single arbiter of the truth and that relying
able to create content good budgets. on content selected by the mainstream
enough to compete in this media is a form of censorship. Snip con-
new age, and to stay in busi- The news industry needs a tent is not censored and is stored in a de-
ness, pivoted to entertain- new model, and thats where centralized manner, using the IPFS pro-
ment (quizzes like Which Snip comes in. Snip is a new tocol. Users will choose their own trust-
Harry Potter character are The content on type of news platform, de- ed content filters, allowing them to ignore
you?), clickbait articles centralized and powered by specific words or sources of content, but
(Youll never believe how Snip is personal- the community. On Snip, an- any legal content meeting basic commu-
this girl ...), and provocative ized for each user yone can write a news sto- nity standards (e.g. not spam) will be al-
op-eds (This scandal shows using an open- ry about any topic and read- lowed to stay on the platform.
everything thats wrong source newsfeed ers can find news that matters
with...). Users dont value to them. Contributors are re- Snip caught on quickly, and within
this kind of content and most
algorithm, and
warded with tokens accord- months reached 25,000 active users and
of them dont develop loyal- users can choose ing to the popularity of their 1,400 paying subscribers. People were
ty to news brands who pub- their own algo- posts and comments, incen- constantly asking to add more and more
lish it, but the entertainment rithm. tivizing them to create great topics to the platform and cover more of
and outrage drive user traffic, content. A community-based whats going on. Thats exactly Snip 2.0 -
providing enough ad revenue to keep the news site, owned by the community, can the Snip platform and token. On Snip 2.0
publishers alive. become the top news destination for anyone will be able to write a news story,
hundreds of millions of people and cov- allowing the platform to cover anything
High-quality newspapers and magazines er any subject, from breaking news to en- thats going on in the world. Using block-
still exist today, but those are gradual- tertainment and everything in between. chain technology that didnt exist several
ly pivoting towards subscription-based years ago, news will now have a new and
content, inherently limiting their report- The content on Snip is personalized for exciting business model, allowing it to
ing to a small group of affluent readers. each user using an open-source newsfeed thrive once again.
33
SEPTEMBER 2017
Fractional.io
Fractional Ownership
and Value Creation
in a Shared Economy
The crypto space has seen
an explosion in recent
years and the value of
those cryptocurrencies
and crypto based assets
have seen huge swings in
volatility, which has led to
at Kession and PCO
increased risks, until now.
34
Fractional.io now gives investors an op-
portunity to participate in the first of its
kind platform. Fractional will allow in-
vestors of any size to own fractions of
an existing fleet of electric, hybrid and
Wheelchair Access Vehicles (WAVs),
currently in use by UBER drivers on the
by streets of London, Manchester, Leeds,
MIKE KESSLER
Managing Director Liverpool and Newcastle. The owner-
ship of these real world and currently
rentals utilised (on rent) assets will enable in-
vestors to diversify their portfolio with
income generating vehicles.
UBER has become synonymous with
high growth and disruptive technol-
ogies and the lifeblood of the UBER
business as well as other ride sharing
apps is the vehicles and the drivers.
Fractional is developing an asset based
platform, that allows crypto investors
access to the platform, as well as pro-
viding fractional ownership in the un-
derlying assets.
Fractional will develop smart contracts
on the Ethereum Blockchain, to vali-
date the ownership of the vehicles and
the blockchain technology will drive
the rental system, as well as providing
a ledger of ownership. As the platform
develops, other asset providers will be
invited onto the platform to drive the
sharing economy. As UBER'S first UK
based supplier of vehicles to their part-
ner drivers, Fractional already has a
fleet of over 350 vehicles that are cur-
rently being utilised on the UBER Mar-
ketplace. Not only does this provide a
hedge against the volatility in the cryp-

Fractional will allow investors of any size
to own fractions of an existing fleet of elec-
tric, hybrid and Wheelchair Access Vehicles
(WAVs), currently in use by UBER driv-
ers on the streets of London, Manchester,
Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle.
to markets, it provides access to a growing com-
munity of shared ownership, backed by physi-
cal assets.
Self-executing smart contracts based on
Ethereum, will confirm the contracts and
the investor will receive Asset tokens that
represent fractional ownership of the vehi-
cles. The tokenisation of the assets will allow
them to become tradeable and enables access
to one of UBERs most successful markets
globally (the UK).
For the assets to be acquired, we will use the
smart contracts to create trustless transac-
tions between the parties. In the same way as
a property timeshare is split amongst the own-
ers, so will be the case with the vehicles them-
selves. The Fractional ownership will be subdi-
vided amongst all the token holders, and then
SEPTEMBER 2017
distributed via the DLT Blockchain framework,
to enable ownership of the assets. These smart
contracts will effectively act as a certificate rep-
resenting a portion of the asset base. As the as-
set base increases, the blockchain technology
along with the smart contracts, will allow each
new asset to be subdivided between the respec-
tive token holders and allocated to each token
holder individually. The assets then produce
a monetary return through rental, insurance
claims, telematics etc. These returns are then
apportioned via the smart contracts to the to-
ken holders, which as the asset pool grows and
as ride sharing apps expand, will lead to an in-
crease in the value of the tokens (as token hold-
ers will own more assets) as well as creating a
substantive return, much like renting out your
timeshare to someone who wants to use it for
a holiday.
Fractional is working with Green Wheels LLP,
which has been trading with UBER drivers
since 2012 when UBER first came to the UK,
and was established in 2008 before the ride
sharing economy began. The business has al-
ways been at the forefront of the industry al-
lowing it the ability to spot trends, it was the
first company in the UK to work with UBER.
It has built an established highly profita-
ble business and has shown consistent reve-
nues and growth. Owning hundreds of vehi-
cles has given the business the ability to lev-
erage off its position in the marketplace and
has ambitions to grow further throughout the
UK and then expand throughout the globe, to
provide fractional ownership in the vehicles
to token holders. By always being at the fore-
front of emerging technologies and spotting
the trends, Fractional, together with Green
Wheels, is uniquely placed to bring real per-
forming assets to the crypto world through
shared/fractional ownership.
Not only will Fractional develop a block-
chain driven platform for its current assets,
it will expand the asset base and create pools
of vehicles available to different groups on a
membership based system. Car dealerships
and leasing companies are sitting on assets
that they are unable to utilise and deploy. By
creating a tokenised based car usage system
as well as an asset ownership system, inves-
tors will ensure that they have a perfect sym-
biotic hedge between ownership and an ex-
change for car usage, making this concept
future proof as the ride sharing economy
evolves and autonomous vehicles start to re-
place traditional vehicles. Fractional will pro-
vide the assets to the ride sharing economy
app based users. UBER will continue to direct
the cars and offer a point to point service and
Green Wheels along with Fractional.io will
provide the vehicles to UBER (and others) to
access their app for passenger transportation
purposes. UBER is looking to remain in the
technology sector. This places us in a perfect
position to ensure that the business model
is future proof, as autonomous vehicles pro-
gress into the mainstream you can own part
of the fleet that drives passengers in the au-
tonomous vehicle revolution.
35
SEPTEMBER 2017
SocialCash
The Next Big Unlock
For Social Media
SOCIAL SHARING ECONOMY - WEB
3.0 (INTERNET OF VALUE)
Social sharing of information creates
economic value. Social media and the
Internet have made it possible to ex-
change information at a rate that has
never been seen before. This exchange
by
PAUL TAYLOR of information is increasing at an expo-
CEO SocialCash nential rate through sites like Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat
and more.
Yet, not everyone is profiting equally
from it.
36
ALGORITHMS THE
SOCIOECONOMIC GAP WIDENS
Content hosting services, social media
giants and advertising intermediar-
ies are hoarding huge sums of the rev-
enue by adding algorithms that lim-
it your reach to your friends, follow-
ers and target market. Meanwhile the
users (typically Gen Y and Gen Z) who
create, curate and share the content
take away little or nothing from the
value they help create, effectively be-
coming cogs in the wheel of these tech
giants.
PROBLEM - SOCIAL MEDIA
GATEKEEPERS
Social media intermediaries act more
like gatekeepers rather than unlock-
ing value between Advertiser and Users
who share digital content. These plat-
forms create complexities while profit-
ing from these inefficiencies. This prob-
lem is magnified by the fact that most
social sharers are part of a younger gen-
eration that are economically disadvan-
taged. Even though these younger gen-
erations are creating significant wealth
through information sharing and con-
 SEPTEMBER 2017

tent creation, they are not being economically

rewarded for their efforts.

This is a societal epidemic of gross proportions.

SOCIALCASH - BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTION

Enter SocialCash www.socialcash.io. Social-
Cash is a next-gen decentralized and distrib-
uted social sharing platform designed for the
new Social Sharing Economy Web 3.0 (Inter-
net of Value). The platform enabled by block-
chain technology can stack on top of existing
social media platforms or function as an auton-
omous decentralized Facebook-type platform.

PATENTED SOLUTION
SocialCash uses a patented technology - Track-
ing Network Data Propagation US Patent Num-
ber 9,647,911 issued May 7, 2018 and U.S. Con-
tinuation Applications - applied to blockchain
technology to directly monetize the benefits so-
cial sharing provides to economic growth. ers will purchase and Users will redeem Social 2 Product (Ad) likes and sharing for TV inter-
Coins directly through the SCX via their digital active and streaming (ott);
Sharing Digital Content creates value which wallets (Smart Wallets).
is the new social currency of the Web 3.0 2 Music sharing (for profit or cause); and
enabled by blockchain technology (US Pat SMART CONTRACT - PROOF OF SHARING 2 Political Ad sharing.
9,647,911). (POS)
We introduce a new type of smart contract for 2 TV Advertising (Current and future Inter-
MISSION STATEMENT unlocking value from the Social Sharing Econ- active) - Traditional (linear) TV advertising
SocialCash mission is to unlock the latency omy (herein, Social Contract) which is based relied on a polling and extrapolation (Nel-
(value) that exists in social media by reward- on Proof-of-Sharing (PoS), for authenticat- son ratings) to determine the effective au-
ing Users for creating and sharing digital con- ing Users that share or create digital content dience and demographics. The advent of on-
tent. SocialCoin technology is the new unlock on the blockchain. Social Coin is the reward for line metrics and streaming media platforms
of the new Social Sharing Economy Web 3.0. sharing and authentication on the blockchain has indicated that the traditional broadcast
using the Smart Contract. advertising is expensive and highly ineffec-
PROBLEMS WE SOLVE - ADVERTISERS tive with large portions of the content being
AND CONSUMERS Social Contracts can be applied across multiple beamed to non-appropriate audience e.g. fe-
SocialCash blockchain technology solves the social media platforms and in multiple jurisdic- male products to a male audience. With the
problems of reach, transparency and lack of ef- tions to reach national as well as international advent of targeted streaming advertising e.g.
ficient markets that are destroying value for users, which makes them highly effective and Skys Adsmart targeted advertising, adver-
modern advertisers using conventional plat- efficient in a decentralized model. tisers will pay a premium for the targeting
form-based social media platforms. The Social and resulting advertising analytics. In 2017
Contract verifies users on the blockchain for ad- SOCIALCOIN INDUSTRY SPECIFIC TV ad spending will total $72.01 billion only
vertisers and incentivizes new target market us- APPLICATIONS 35.8% of total media ad spending in the US.
ers to join the blockchain, to share and optimize SocialCash can be directly applied to:
marketing and pixeled retargeting campaigns. SocialCash solution allows for:

We solve this problem, not only for advertis-
ers, but also for the supply chain comprising
the platform-based social media companies. The
technology provides a layer of risk management
and audit for campaign metrics which is verified.
WHY NOW
Social Advertising is ripe with online fire-
walls propagated by Pay-to-play enterprises
that control your ad spend reach with a click of
code. Chatbots, AI and unverified sources are
slowly building a deceitful model to be exploit-
ed by scammers. Sponsored Ads (promoted)
are more and more costly, all the while becom-
ing largely ignored by Consumers as untrusted.
SOCIALCOIN - NEW CRYPTOCURRENCY
OF WEB 3.0
Social Cash Exchange (SCX) is implement-
ed as a universal trading platform for business-
es related to social exchange. SCX deals take
place with the use of smart contracts, while
the transactions will accept a new type of cryp-
tocurrency called a Social Coin. Advertis-
We introduce a new type of smart
contract for unlocking value from the
Social Sharing Economy (herein, Social
Contract) which is based on Proof-of-
Sharing (PoS), for authenticating Users
that share or create digital content on
the blockchain.
Even though these younger generations
are creating significant wealth through
information sharing and content
creation, they are not being economically
rewarded for their efforts.
Targeted audiences to share a message
2
amongst their peers - providing mutually re-
warding feedback e.g. liking an online ad
can be rewarded by the advertiser as well as
provide meaningful analytics and means for
the advertiser to remind the audience of the
potential purchase without interrupting the
streaming content flow.
2 Streaming content providers to compete
more effectively for advertising spending.
2 Digital Music Advertising - Artists could
leverage the opportunity with having their
fans share their content on popular music
streaming services like Spotify or Sound-
cloud and be rewarded in Social Coins. Social
coins could be used to directly purchase new
digital content in the form of music or video.
2 Political Advertising - In 2016, political ad
spending was projected to reach $11.4 bil-
lion, with $1 billion being spent on digital
advertising on social media.
37
SEPTEMBER 2017

Wrisx
Worlds Risks and Research
on the Blockchain
Wrisx is an innovative system tackling a
problem relevant for major institutions
as well as SMEs and individuals in
emerging markets: the need for research
of counterparty risks.
WRISX PLATFORM
Led by Dr Vlad Shipov, an experi-
enced fintech entrepreneur and found-
er of an international trade credit in-
surance broking firm based in London,
the Wrisx project is building the worlds
first risk and research platform powered
by by blockchain. It is preparing a token
DR VLADIMIR
SHIPOV generation event soon, which will help
Wrisx founder complete the development of the plat-
form as well as market it globally.

The idea for an emerging markets re-

search blockchain-based marketplace
was borne out of observing a mas-
sive market gap. Wrisx teams direct
experience includes working for lead-
ing global institutions in the bank-
ing and insurance industry as well as
setting up and running a credit in-
surance brokerage firm in London.
There they have been witnessing first-
hand how many projects from emerg-
ing markets are routinely declined by
major insurers and FIs. This is often
due to the lack of comfort and under-
standing by western-based institu-
tions of emerging markets business-
es as well as by the ratings-driven ap-
proach to portfolio management. Low
country ratings assigned by a handful
of western-based rating agencies act
as ceilings for ratings of businesses in
any country. This dramatically limits
emerging market risk appetites of Ba-
sel III- and Solvency II-constrained fi-
nancial institutions blindly following
the rating agencies scoring. They are
not equipped to do granular analysis
38
as rating agencies only cover a small spot of several concurrent significant
fraction of emerging markets busi- trends we are seeing globally:
nesses while also pe- Increasing adoption
nalising them with of blockchain-based
very low ratings. Pre-sale: Q3/Q4 technology in its var-
ious forms,
Wrisxs business in- ICO Scheduled for: tremendous growth
telligence tokens will of emerging markets
provide fuel to the 2017 Q4 / 2018 Q1 with corresponding
blockchain-agnostic growth in demand for
system and lower the capital and risk ser-
barriers of entry to sourcing informa- vices, including infrastructure invest-
tion on, and trading with, counterpar- ment, which represents another mul-
ties globally. ti-trillion-dollar gap,
Adoption of P2P models in various in-
TOKEN MECHANICS dustries,
Wrisx enables independent parties to Social impact,
offer and source information services The lack of flexibility and market re-
with businesses large and small located sponsiveness of traditional sources of
anywhere on the planet, able to access research and risk appetite and
the expertise of independent analysts Regulatory developments such as
when they would like to research an ex- the EUs directive MIFID II, which
isting, or potential counterparty or in- will force banks to unbundle their re-
vestment target in any market. search from their brokerage services
Wrisx is positioned right at the sweet as of January 2018.
 SEPTEMBER 2017

Lets consider these developments in

detail.

BLOCKCHAIN-TECH GROWTH
Over the last several years we have wit-
nessed a remarkable growth in commu-
nity and start-up driven activities aimed
at building business models powered by
blockchain beyond its initial payment
use cases. This has been mirrored by a
flurry of initiatives to adopt blockchain
tech by some of the worlds largest cor-
porate and financial institutions:

So far, these two groups of activities

have been relatively isolated from each
other, but we are starting to witness a
new wave of blockchain development
the one where innovative business mod-
els are emerging, allowing for coopera-
tion between the two worlds one of
major corporations and the other of
SMEs and individuals globally. This con- BTC and ETH growth
vergence is a welcomed development for
the whole ecosystem, as it should help
enhance the mainstream user adoption
of the crypto technology by realising the
tangible benefits it can bring to many
kinds of businesses.

With global trade estimated at US$100

trillion per year and a major and grow-
ing part done on credit terms whereby
one party takes the risk of another par-
tys non-payment or non-performance,
Wrisx fills an important gap analysis
of the counterpartys ability to perform
becomes extremely important for the
two sides to come to an agreement on
a transaction. Traditional sources of ob-
taining such information are very lim-
ited, expensive, outdated and difficult
to access across the whole universe of
emerging markets.
EMERGING MARKETS GROWTH
This lack of coverage is lagging behind
the booming growth in SME and large
business activity in many emerging
markets, on the back of a great mid-
dle-class expansion. 525 million people
in Asia alone are already middle class,
which is more than the total population
of Europe. Another three billion are ex-
pected to join middle class ranks in the
next twenty years, coming almost exclu-
sively from the emerging markets.
CROWDSOURCED BLOCKCHAIN-
BASED MODEL TO MITIGATE
CROSS-BORDER RISKS
As various crowd-sourced models have
demonstrated (Airbnb, Kickstarter, Up-
work, etc), p2p models offer massive
growth potential. Crowd-sourced cryp-
to-based markets represent an incred-
ible opportunity for expertise and re-
sources-sharing over traditional in-
adequately functioning markets. New
blockchain-based systems can attract
new sources of support while opening
Corporate adoption of blockchain technologies
expertise in new emerging market asset ally, will ultimately have to distribute
classes to a wider audience of investors their analysts' research on online mar-
from across the world. ketplace platforms. Alternative mod-
els including running an execution-on-
MASSIVE SOCIAL IMPACT ly brokerage that sources its research
In addition to its positive impact on from independent providers, are being
businesses, Wrisx is also fulfilling a explored by major users and producers
Wrisx teams di- beneficial function both for emerging of financial research even in developed
rect experience markets and for western governments markets, meaning the Wrisx platforms
includes working and societies. With easier ways of do- arrival is very well-timed with its value
for leading glob- ing business through such platforms as both for emerging markets, but also de-
Wrisx, entrepreneurship can jump-start veloped markets research users.
al institutions in
in a meaningful way in many countries.
the banking and More business development in emerg- Wrisxs distributed blockchain-based
insurance indus- ing markets, provides more quality em- application is a game-changer, for mit-
try as well as set- ployment and business opportunities igating and researching risks of invest-
ting up and run- to indigenous communities and their ing or lending to emerging and devel-
young and active population. oped markets businesses, not adequate-
ning a credit in- ly serviced by the current risk and cap-
surance broker- RESEARCH UNBUNDLING ital systems, while enabling more local
age firm in Lon- EUs Markets in Financial Instruments experts to offer their risk analysis ser-
don. Directive II, an overhaul of trading vices to those requiring them. Wrisx
rules set for implementation in Janu- distributed application and platform
ary 2018, is set to 'unbundle' research helps bridge these gaps and ultimately
and trade execution costs. Banks glob- facilitate global economic development.
39
SEPTEMBER 2017
GIFTZ
$500k in a day doesnt
seem like much in the
ICO world, but they arent
selling tokens theyre
selling convertible notes,
with a bonus kicker of
AMETHYST
tokens. Genius! If you've
been waiting on the
sidelines for a token sale
thats got chops, then this
Pre-ICO may be the one for
you.
40
Rewards Media is an existing Loyalty of a token will happen if consumers get
Rewards business, has an A-List team, it FREE and dont have to change their
killer token application and a clever way behavior. Mr. Paukulis states, Mass
to get mass adop- adoption and scar-
tion. Best of all city drives token
they are embrac- Keep an eye out for value. Bitcoin min-
ing the Blockchain ing has slowed
by
community and their ICO in Q4 2017. down and val-
PINES will accept BTC & ue has increased.
ETH from accred- Were going to
ited investors Sept 15th-20th 2017 (see mirror that in the Giftz Loyalty Re-
giftz.io or www.crowdfunder.com/it- wards Ecosystem.
coin).
THE PRODUCTS
Rewards Medias Giftz Network has A free global blockchain loyalty ecosys-
one of the best teams weve seen launch tem for consumers, merchants & devel-
a Pre-ICO this year. Its the brainchild opers:
of seasoned entertainment executive; 1. GIFTZ (Global Blockchain Rewards
John Paukulis, former Producer & Direc- Ecosystem)
tor Digital Marketing at Paramount Pic- 2. ITCOIN Silver Tokens (Tokens in
tures and current CEO of Rewards Me- The Ecosystem)
dia Inc., Televisa Family Investor; Emil- 3. ITCOIN Gold Tokens (Public To-
io Diez Barroso, and Linda Giambrone, kens Outside the Ecosystem)
Head of Production NBC Primetime TV. 4. Mobile Waulit (Collect, Hold &
All three are betting that mass adoption Spend Tokens)
 SEPTEMBER 2017

PROBLEM: Standalone & Coalition Loyal- Mr. Paukulis began his Loyalty Rewards Pro-
ty Rewards Programs are expensive and out gram as a token in 2013 when blockchain was un-
of reach for most businesses. Best Buy spent popular. investors steered him back to standard
$50M simply upgrading their rewards pro- points, but he kept the name itCoin and built
gram. Loyalty is too expensive for most busi- a wallet account viewer (Waulit). Now those
nesses. Cash back rewards are fragmented, same investors are investing in his crowdfund-
unmanageable, get lost or are forgotten. As ed campaign. Paukulis; Life has a way of coming
The founders of Rewards Media, Inc.
a result, over $16 Billion of rewards go un- around full circle if you wait long enough. I con-
redeemed each year in the USA alone. Many have already given away millions of tinue to Imagine a world where businesses give
state laws do not allow points to expire, sodollars in incentives for market research away tokenized Giftz for customer engagement,
surveys over the past 10 years. Their
they sit as a liability on the balance sheet for like a free token for a beer at the ball game, or to-
the business and as unrealized cash value for
research data collection and point- kenized dumpling appetizer or diamond token
the consumer. that has value in a jewelry store.
distribution methodology has been
SOLUTION: The Giftz Team is developing perfected and there is no better team to With itCoin you can earn it, trade it or redeem
a FREE blockchain Rewards Ecosystem, Com- bring this exciting Giftz program to the it for cash or give your Giftz to a charity or
mon Rewards Token & e-Wallet that will come blockchain. even reward your kids for doing their home-
with a re-loadable Debit Cash Card (mobile & ERICK WENT; work. It is peer-to-peer.
plastic). Businesses just pay for their "points" Matter Labs, Inc.
(tokens). By using a decentralized rewards net- Serious investors or possible partners, come
work & common cryptocurrency, physical dig- Life has a way of coming around full visit us at Crowd Invest Summit on September
ital rewards can be distributed securely (B2C circle if you wait long enough. 6th 2017 Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201
or peer-to-peer) and collected in a wallet. Busi- South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015
nesses pre-buy our tokens (think of digital and well buy your two-day pass ($999 Value).
S&H Green Stamps) to reward customers, but Just reach out to Michael.Kaplan@rewards.me-
because a physical rewards token is passed to dia for your VIP CODE.
the customer, liability does not stay on a bal-
ance sheet. Download Waulit - on Android or iOS app.
41
Pre-Sale and ICO
SEPTEMBER 2017

Boule
Remote Voting Technology
Remote Voting is going to be available
soon and blockchain is the technology
that makes this possible. In fact, since the
beginning of the millennium we have
been experimenting with electronic Its time to act;
solutions for elections, but the concerns its time to use
about cyber-attacks and voters blockchain not
anonymity have slowed the innovation only for specula-
process to the point where France has tive greedy pur-
stopped its electronic voting system. poses but also for
the benefit of so-
It's time to act; it's time to use block- ciety.
chain not only for speculative greedy
purposes but also for the benefit of so-
ciety. We are overwhelmed by the repre-
sentatives we choose. Once we express
our vote, we don't have any control over project and everyone becomes a piece of al topics, as well as national elections.
their decisions. For this reason, many the puzzle that we need to achieve this The first demo will be delivered in Oc-
by people prefer not to vote because they mission. More than 1000 people around tober, and we'll reward early users with
CLAUDIO
PERLINI believe nothing can change. Unfortu- the world have asked to participate in our Boul token every time they vote. In
Wrisx founder nately, a lower number of voters makes our crowd sale on the 28th of August November, we'll test the first national
it easier to rig the election. and we hope everyone will get a slot and election with the Spanish Government
be able to join the revolution. and the Scientific Institute of eGovern-
There is something that the recent ment as our main partner.
North African revolutions have shown Remote Voting Technolo-
us: if people act altogether, even the gy is not only a technical is- Something bold is happen-
mightiest dictatorships can be defeated. sue, we must seriously con- ing in the world, it is a piece
sider how people will interact of the Crypto-revolution that
So, in a connected world, we just have with a remote voting system; entrepreneurs like me and
to set the new rules for direct democra- will they make simple choic- you and investors like you
cy and technology will provide us with es due to their laziness, or and us are creating.
the right tools to manage it. These tools will they feel more commit- We have identi-
must be reliable, secure and cheap. ted and make more informed fied Blockchain Let us contemplate for a sec-
decisions? ond:
We have identified Blockchain as the As a founding team, we don't
as the leading How would your city or na-
leading technology for a remote voting only have to develop a vot- technology for tion be if you had the pow-
system because it is anonymous, secure, ing system, but we also have a remote voting er to judge right and wrong
immutable and cheap enough to be a to consider sociologic, ethics system because and make your electoral pow-
substitute for the offline voting process and the behavioural aspects.
it is anonymous, er count?
Would you have the same
we are all used to, also:
It will be easier to count votes back; As entrepreneurs, it's essen- secure, immuta- unemployment rate or would
It will be 20 times more convenient; tial to create value in a world ble and cheap you work on that issue bet-
It will be hacker-proof, if it is hack- overwhelmed by useless enough to be a ter?
er-friendly (bounty programs are the products and hasty decisions. substitute for Would you prefer private in-
best way to prevent hacker attacks). We must also consider the cli- come instead of public health?
mate impact, disparities and the offline voting Gasoline or electricity?
For now, people are concerned with on- illuminated governance. process we are all Politicians electoral reim-
line voting, because they don't know used to. bursement or a higher educa-
the potential of blockchain. Our mis- On that point, we are making tion budget?
sion in the next few years will be to de- a big leap forward to tackle the abuse in
velop, empower and promote the tech- the management of societies; there is As someone said a decade ago, yes, we
nology, as well as to communicate how no doubt, that most people have felt the can! We can do it now, by empowering
straightforward and reliable it is to vote desire to do the same, at least once in our voice and recognizing the minority
online using this technology. their life. voice, in a symbiosis of ideas, beliefs, re-
ligions and identities.
A huge community of supporters and To do that, we are developing a uni-
entrepreneurs is growing around this versal voting platform to vote on glob- From the people to the people.
44
 SEPTEMBER 2017

DomRaider
The pro-blockchain European
leader in Drop Catching
DomRaider aspires to develop an open-
source solution dedicated to real-time
management of auctions, based on
blockchain technology.
DomRaider, A French hypergrowth start-
up, has become the European market
leader for auctioning of expired domain
names, they are announcing the launch of
the ICO via a website dedicated to the pro-
cess: www.domraider.io.
by
ICO CROWD Thanks to funds collected from its ICO,
DomRaider will be able to accelerate its
development on an international scale, REAL-TIME AUCTIONS CARRIED more than 33 employees spread over
which is already marked by its presence in OUT ON THE BLOCKCHAIN three countries (France, Sweden and Ita-
Italy and Sweden and will be expanding to After an amazing 12-year adventure as ly) to which Canada and the U.K. will be
Canada and the U.K. from October. the head of Prizee (one of the first suc- added in October.
cessful web startups in France) Tristan
The entire innovation of the project will be Colombet created DomRaider during the HOW DOES THE PROJECT CREATE
concentrated on the core of the blockchain, summer of 2013. VALUE TO THE ECOSYSTEM
a structure of data chained together in a AND DIFFER FROM COMPETING
decentralized network. In fact, DomRaid- DomRaider is a service for recovering ex- PROJECTS?
er aspires to revolutionize the previous- pired domain names or drop catching. Auctions organized by DomRaider will
ly relatively limited auctioning ecosystem Thanks to precise indicators and tech- be the first to migrate onto the block-
by using blockchain technology. The fixed nology that detects the availability of do- chain network. Strategic acquisitions car-
objective is to develop the first decentral- main names the second they become so, ried out thanks to the ICO will accelerate
ized network, dedicated to real-time man- the company identifies the domain names other players involvement and will enable
agement of any auction in the world, either whose potential is of its development. The
online or in the auctioning room. genuine benefit to DomRaider ICO com-
their clients. The ex- ICO Start Date: bines 4 key factors for
This solution is aimed to be: pired domain names September 12, 2017 its success. Innova-
Scalable, reliable and transparent (pub- can therefore be used tion of ground-break-
lically verifiable auctions that are im- in the context of ref-
ICO End Date: ing technology by
possible to falsify) erencing strategies October 11, 2017 blockchain experts.
Communal and interoperable (world- (SEO), speculation on Pre-Sale is Live Maturity of an al-
wide auctions accessible through gener- rare domain names or ready well-established
ic interfaces) management of intel- company and an ex-
Fast (consensus of bids in less than 1 lectual property. With more than 20,000 perienced team. Not just a concept, but a
second) transactions since its creation, DomRaid- solid roadmap and set-up plan. A compa-
Financially advantageous (very low er is today the European leader and cur- ny in compliance with French legislation
transaction costs) rently offers 27 extensions including .com whose accounts are audited by KPMG
that is opening doors to the worldwide
We are very enthusiastic about the idea market. ABOUT DOMRAIDER ICO
of launching the first ICO carried out by The ICO starts on September 12, 2017
a French company that has proved itself As of now, DomRaider has raised 3.5 mil- and ends on October 11, 2017. As such,
and has been running for 4 years. It is an lion euros since October 2016, with an in- the company will issue close to 1 billion
important springboard for the develop- itial round of 2 million euros from the Eef- tokens in DomRaider tokens. Reserva-
ment of DomRaider, and it fully illustrates ficiency investment fund, followed by a tion (pre-sale) is now open to everyone via
the emergence of the blockchain with- second round of 1.5 million euros in May the dedicated website: www.domraider.io.
in the real economy. Through this ICO, 2017 from Crdit Agricole, CIC, Banque
we would like to take advantage of this Populaire and BPI France. Less than one week after the start of the
technological revolution to transform the process, 130 million tokens (out of the
auctioning sector explains Tristan Co- The strong growth registered by Dom- maximum of 262.5 million planned for
lombet, CEO and founder of DomRaider. Raider enables the company to employ the pre-sale) have been sold.
45
SEPTEMBER 2017
Crowdsourcing
BACKGROUND
The recent SEC ruling and the DAO in-
vestigation has put the issue of account-
ability and investor risks in ICOs onto
center stage. Lot of questions were
raised on the way ICOs were raising mil-
lions of dollars without any regulation
by
PRIYABRATA or checks in place. While many ques-
DASH tioned the whole process of the way in
Blogger, Crypto which some ICOs with a mere whitepa-
Currency
Enthusiast, per and an idea outline were raising mil-
Entrepreneur lions. There were many who voiced the
need for a credible review mechanism
for ICOs based on some established pa-
rameters involving their qualitative/
quantitative assessment and invest-
ment value.
INTRODUCTION
While checking out ethtrader subreddit
I came across a post that talked about
developing a crowdsourced initiative for
reviewing and scoring ICOs based on a
checklist of key points discussed and se-
cured from the community. This initia-
tive is not only commendable but also
shows a very important aspect of why
there should be community participa-
tion in reviewing and giving qualita-
tive feedback on ICOs. While some ICOs
have come up on the promise of predic-
tion markets, but still there is a great
need for community initiative where
not only the ICO review and scoring is
crowdsourced but also what points that
46
need to be included in the review pro- They try to highlight only the PR note
cess are vetted and developed based on that is either present in the website or
consensus. in the whitepaper. And with more and
more people doing ICO analysis and re-
CURRENT SCENARIO views it looks to be more of a ICO pro-
OF ICO REVIEWS motion than really being a construc-
There are many avenues for people and tive review process. Also, it can be real-
websites reviewing/analyzing and pro- ly confusing with so many perspectives
viding their opinions about ICOs and thrown around about an ICO to the pub-
with that, they help provide crypto in- lic. And at some point, such reviews be-
vestors with a quick understanding come non-constructive as again an in-
about the ICOs value proposition and vestor has to do his own research or just
risks and why it may be a good invest- follow the FOMO while investing.
ment. But I see more and more commer-
cialization of this process is happening. NEED OF SOCIAL REVIEW OF ICO
While there are paid reports which can
ICOs are increasingly turning to boun- give an indicator about which ICOs you
ty hunters who for Token rewards or a can invest, the parameters on which the
share in the ICO tend to do reviews or analysis is done or the basis of the pre-
gloss over the gaps and shortcomings diction is not always what you as an in-
in the ICO and in its value proposition. vestor would want. And hence a social
review process for accessing and analyz-
ing ICOs is commendable. First getting
feedback from experienced ICO inves-
tors could help new comers, and bring-
ing various perspectives to the table will
help foster much needed debate and
participation in ICO review processes.
Over the time with scams and hacks In this instance users in ethtrader lever-
becoming an alarming phenomenon aged Social Media and Messaging plat-
of ICOs, many of the users want- forms like Reddit, Slack and Google
Docs to collaborate and share their view
ed more accountability on behalf of point and collected feedback as to what
founders and security was a major parameters to be included and how to
concern while running an ICO. develop the whole process from an idea
 SEPTEMBER 2017

of ICO Reviews
stage to a more robust framework. For me this of the tokens in the platform and also as a SECURITY
was genesis of a very wonderful initiative. At value to the investors? Have all security aspects been taken into
the end of the day any decentralized initative consideration and has the security audit of
can only be supported when it is crowdsourced PROJECT GOVERNANCE & COMMUNITY the website, tokensale process and the smart
and supported by a community. And in this PARTICIPATION contracts been done via a 3rd party?
context the users of ethrader subreddit were Does the project have community participa- Is there a clearly defined designated round of
the key contributors. tion aspect and built-in governance, project audits in the roadmap from a reputable block-
decision-making for the token holders? chain company or blockchain security entity?
KEY PARAMETERS ADDED BY THE Is there a vesting or escrow mechanism in Has a bug bounty been established to incen-
COMMUNITY REVIEW place either via a third party or via smart tivize the discovery of exploits and bugs?
Over the time with scams and hacks becom- contracts for the founders to release funds?
ing an alarming phenomenon of ICOs, many Is the project managed by a company or by a ROADMAP & FUNDING TARGETS
of the users wanted more accountability on be- foundation, how much fund allocation is to Is this cap reasonable with the goals they
half of founders and security was a major con- the company and how much influence will the want to achieve? Is it congruent with their
cern while running an ICO. Here are some of company have over the ICO and the project? budget plan?
the points that people wanted to be included in Do they have clear and specific milestones
the overall ICO review process. CROWD FUNDING & ICO PROCESS in their roadmap and are the milestones and
How is the budget handling of the funds gen- budget allocation viable?
VALUE PROPOSITION & TECHNOLOGY erated out of the crowdsale? Is the budget allocation of funds making sense
How much functionality of the ICO project How are the funds managed, either via smart and are the amounts reasonable figures?
platform leverages blockchain or smart con- contract or in cold storage or in fiat and what Is there an outlined compensation plan for
tract functionality? is the governance structure for managing the employees that is reasonable?
Has the company documented their concept, funds? Are there any caretakers and is mul- Does the company have well-reasoned cash
platform roadmap in a whitepaper and how ti-sig used for managing the funds? flow projections (when will they start mak-
much qualitative information they have pub- How are the funds liquidated? How is the ing money)?
lished viz a viz the functionality, their value team vested for long term development of
proposition, technology and platform? the project and are the reimbursement of LEGAL
Do they have a product either in prototype or funds for the project milestone based and Has the company provided key legal issues and
proof of concept and if it is open source how who is monitoring it? And who is held ac- legal risk to token holders or other actors?
is the activity in their github repo? countable? Does the project have an identifiable legal rep-
Does their marketing message align with If in case a large amount is raised via crowd- resentation in their core team or advisers?
the details given in their whitepaper and do- sale, is any maximum cap set for how much
main? an investor can contribute and what would TEAM
How unique is their idea and how well is be the influence of bigger contributors to the Are the team members within the project
their tokenomics with respect to the usage direction of the project? reputable?
47
SEPTEMBER 2017

Have they been active in the blockchain com- ed, if there is a community feedback/refund way some ICOs were raising huge amounts of
munity? mechanism and escrow process is followed to capital without even a proper roadmap or ac-
Does the team have a history of successful control the fund disbursed based on meeting countability mechanism to the investors and
previous projects and/or pedigree? the key milestones. stressed on the need of self-regulation on be-
Is the team present and responsive in prom- half of the crypto community and ICOs. Also,
inent communications channels: Slack/ There was some skepticism on the whole review people stressed on the need of security audits
Subreddit/Website/podcasts/etc? process though where some people raised ques- and more robust mechanisms to make sure the
Does the team currently have the core staff it tion if this will bring more centralism to a de- recent incidents of hacks and phishing attacks
needs (i.e. solidity developers, marketers, le- centralized form of raising funds and there will are controlled and the ICO process is made saf-
gal, community managers, etc.) to carry out be few elites who based on reputation of team er for the investors and the capital raised is not
this project or does it need to make substan- & industry endorsement will get the larger pie robbed.
tial additions? of the funding and other lesser known ICOs
What kind of value do the advisers bring to will be left out. There was also fear that this will CONCLUSION
their project or ICO and do they have a vest- bring in centralism and people with their own While the idea of a crowd sourcing ICO re-
ed (token) interest in project success? motives may influence the review parameters. view and assessment scoring is a very good and
Does the project have partnerships and great much needed idea, the call for tightly regulat-
industry support which reflects in their pos- There was also the overshadow of the SEC rul- ing ICOs shows the underlying issue; we may
sible success? ing, while some welcomed the move, there risk going from a utopian yet imperfect, unreg-
Do they have proven advisory members and were many views who saw it coming given the ulated, publicly determined market to a regu-
how reputed are they in Crypto currency & lated, managed, protectionist market that's
the Blockchain industry? there to protect people from themselves. Al-
though, per vision of Satoshi Nakamoto, this
Views in support and against such an exercise: was essentially just like the system the block-
There was a lot of interest and support for this chain has been trying to replace. So, a good
review process and the template. And many question to ask: How to develop a trust-less
from the ethtrade subreddit participated in the ICO review system that is decentralized, de-
process. And many constructive and divergent While some supported the importance of pendable and based on Blockchain?
views also came out from these discussions. a whitepaper, others wanted to factor in
the product development and the reputa- REFERENCE
While some supported the importance of a https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/com-
whitepaper, others wanted to factor in the
tion of the team and the viability of the ments/6pnshq/last_week_you_guys_wanted_to_
product development and the reputation of the idea itself. implement_a_review/
team and the viability of the idea itself. Others htt p s: / / n p. re d d i t . com / r / e tht ra d e r / com -
wanted to bring in more accountability in the ments/6o0om9/upvote_if_you_think_ethtrader_
way the funding allocation to the team is vest- should_create_a/
48
 SEPTEMBER 2017

Investing in Real Estate with

Blockchain Technologies
Real Estate has been historically
considered the best way to preserve
wealth. However, Real Estate transactions
today present significant inefficiencies
such as a lack of liquidity.

REAL (Real Estate Asset Ledger) team is

applying Blockchain technologies to the
world of Real Estate investment in order
to solve those issues. REAL is an Ethere-
um Smart-Contracts governed ecosystem
that focuses on creating the best condi-
tions for Real Estate investment bringing
by
ENRIQUE optimum price discovery mechanisms,
DUBOIS transaction efficiency, transparency and lars into the U.S. market in the last 5 kens), generating profits paid in crypto-
REAL Co-Founder liquidity under a unified crowdfunding years (both commercial and residen- currency like Ether or similar.
& CEO
platform. tial). This investment is set to double in
the next 5 years. In all likelihood, a cer- REAL will offer simple and transparent
It will offer an effective method of invest- tain amount of these investment funds property investments that remove the
ing and securing the value of the existing will find their way into alternative fund- uncertainties usually faced by small inves-
50-100 Billion USD equivalent in crypto- ing options such as tors and enabling
currency into the less volatile and grow- Real Estate Crowd- virtually anybody
ing Real Estate market by generating rent- funding as for- ICO to build a property
al income and value appreciation. eign investment based investment
expands in the
Pre-sale: portfolio that deliv-
In November this year, a full fledged site U.S. Experts be- 24 August
th ers predictable and
will be launched leveraging the Crowd- lieve this tenden- consistent returns.
funding formula, where any user will be cy towards growth Start: We believe in diver-
able to invest in a fraction of a Real Es- is largely due to sifying investments
tate asset with REAL Tokens, gaining worldwide eco-
31 August
st
and therefore we
profit rights (rental income+value appre- nomic uncertainty will offer a range of
ciation) awarded by a smart contract and and foreign inves- products with var-
paid with Ether. tors seeking new ying levels of risk
destinations for REAL is an Ethereum Smart- and reward for us-
REAL ESTATE CROWDFUNDING their investments. Contracts governed ecosystem ers to invest in.
Real estate crowdfunding continues to that focuses on creating the
be a dynamic and ever-evolving industry, Thanks to our best conditions for Real Estate On our Crowdfund-
growing to an estimated $3.5 billion in Crowdfunding site, investment bringing optimum ing site www.real.
2016. By 2025, the crowdfunding indus- people from all price discovery mechanisms, markets, REAL To-
try as a whole is anticipated to be valued over the world will transaction efficiency, transparency kens will constitute
at more than $300 billion and online real benefit from Real economic rights
and liquidity under a unified
estate marketplaces are primed to capital- Estate profit po- of a property and
ize on that explosive growth. (Forbes) tential worldwide
crowdfunding platform. will be backed by
while performing physical Real Es-
REAL team believes that one of the most transactions with tate. Our users will
impactful and exciting applications of ease. We are confident that a Real Estate also be able to trade their investments on
Blockchain technologies will be within the Crowdfunding platform that uses Block- our platform, turning Real Estate invest-
Real Estate market, especially within the chain and cryptocurrency will revolution- ments into liquid investments
Crowdfunding space. The use of Block- ize the market.
chain technology in the field of Real Es- THE TEAM
tate Crowdfunding has the potential to THE CROWDFUNDING PLATFORM REAL Founders, Enrique Dubois and
completely revolutionize the sector, giv- We are combining two of the most recent Bernardo Hernndez, have invested
ing greater access to investment in global disruptions in the online world: Real Es- $350.000 in the company, have a strong
Real Estate, lowering barriers to entry and tate Crowdfunding and Blockchain tech- successful execution track-record and
increasing market liquidity. nology. As a result, we are inventing a reputation, have founded and exited on-
whole new way to invest. We will offer an- line startups for over +200 MM over the
According to The Guardian, a recent U.S. yone from any part of the world invest- last 20 years and have held executive po-
Real Estate study showed that Chinese ment in Real Estate assets using cryp- sitions at Google, Yahoo and top Venture
investors have poured $110 billion dol- tocurrency (transformed into REAL To- Capital firms in Europe.
49
SEPTEMBER 2017
ICOFILTER.ORG
The Dapp-Based Community
That Curates ICOs
ICOFilter.org is a not-for-profit Dapp
built on Ethereum. Its bringing clarity
and organi-zation to ICOs. The Dapp is
wielded by a growing community that
votes on cryptocur-rency offerings and
puts order, ratings and funding to the
space. The community drives it all
The community makes decisions on
which offerings receive funding to bol-
ster their chances. The tokens are sup-
plied by ICO Filter (the foundation) but
is not determined by them, the decen-
tralized community does the work and
makes the designations.
by
DAVID MURRY
Blockchain and A big reason for the opportunity has to
Smart Contract do with, the lack of settled regulation.
Strategist
Private regulation always comes first,
though it is not normally thought of in
this way. Public regulation what we
think of when we usually consider reg-
ulation comes later from the govern-
ment. Government regulations often
make simple transactions more comp-
50
li-cated. In fact, there is a good deal of munity can see whether similar offer-
cynicism about public government ings by the same people have turned
regulation. out negatively. The community will
no doubt rate them poorly. Serial coin
Korea recently began considering ways fraudsters may be rendered irrel-evant
to legalize bitcoin within a mainstream without an overabundance of formal
context. Meanwhile, in America, it looks regulation.
as if the integration will fall to the SEC.
Recent results show that cryptocurren- ICO FILTER OPERATIONS
cy trading have soared in Korea while There are other reasons why ICO Filter
staying fairly flat in Amer-ica and Can- wants to encourage community-style
ada too. People are corpora-tions and
more enthused partnerships. The
about laws that pre-ICO launch Internet increas-
state their pur- Sept 14th ingly supports lo-
pose clearly, than cal, tribal cultures.
they are about The community
what is all too often open-ended gov- culture may be physical in nature. More
ernment regulation. likely digital now, with people at-tract-
ed by similar interests and eventually by
ICO Filter, through the community, not business possibilities.
only takes the place of some public reg-
ulation, it also helps like-minded indi- The community consensus itself curates
viduals innovate and support beneficial, and galvanizes top resources. First, pro-
disruptive blockchain solutions. files of companies are created. Then or-
ganization, verification and voting takes
Investors may put money into bad and place. Some firms, primary disruptors,
even fraudulent offerings. But the com- will receive token incentives.
 SEPTEMBER 2017

Korea recently
began considering
ways to legalize
bitcoin within
a mainstream
context.
Meanwhile,
in America, it
looks as if the
integration will
fall to the SEC.
Recent results
show that
cryptocurrency
trading have
soared in Korea
while staying
fairly flat in
Amer-ica and
Canada too.

Community
members now
will be able ICO Filter will unite like-minded pas-
to unite and sionate people with common goals. Sys-
organize. They tems will gradually become standard-
build a movement ized and sustain specialization. Pow-
erful regtech solutions must transfig-
focusing on
ure offices and support changes without
private solutions. constantly developing software.
What ideas will
get funded? It is a means to educate the population
coming into the crypto space about the
.Over the next best to-kens. Some are only floated for
years, the reality a quick buck and will do considerable
of Internet damage to new-comers and the market-
2.0 will begin place. Our community driven process
will identify and document both the
to show itself.
good and bad ones.
Blockchain and
cryptocurrencies Community members now will be able
are gradually to unite and organize. They build a
eliminating movement focusing on private solu-
middle men. tions. What ideas will get funded? Those
determined the best by community con-
sensus. In order to put forward a new
idea for disruption, the community
member needs to comment and curate
on others in a similar industry, building
reputa-tion. That is how they become el-
igible and move up the board.
ICO Filter is an application as well
as a free platform. Companies need
third-party veri-fication using automat-
ed KYC. Various elements influence the
decision to provide cov-erage, but the
community is the ultimate arbitrator.
ICO FILTER INDEX AND NEWS
An ICO token offers a much-needed ref-
erence point. The Index measures the
perfor-mance of larger-cap cryptocur- ly 5000%. Yet in 2015, ICOs were only
rencies and is regularly updated. Chang- 0.3% of crowdfunding raises. 2017 has
es are made as necessary and company been even better and has seen month-
announcements are made to the public. ly raises pass VC investments for tech
companies.
The ICO Filter community seeks compa-
nies that are disrupting the regular or- A platform that allows the communi-
der. Dis-ruption creates freedom. Coun- ty itself to evaluate ICOs is certainly an
tries may get smaller thanks to disrup- advance. As noted, a Dapp disclosure
tion. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies mechanism will help reduce bad pro-
both provide disruption. Over the next jects before they begin.
years, the reality of Internet 2.0 will be-
gin to show itself. Blockchain and cryp- One billion tokens are being created. 8
tocurrencies are gradually eliminating percent is for the founders. 12 percent
middle men. sold as part of a pre ICO. 30 percent is
for the ICO itself. Five hundred million
Corporate communities, digital or oth- are retained by the foundation. These
erwise, are reshaping large compa- will pay verified and accredited curators
nies. They are natural substitutes for for research, verification, management,
over-large corporations. These groups maintenance etc.
are taking their place, both digital and
physical. Blockchain will give people SUMMARY
more control. It will allow them to be A Dapp is a necessary item for sort-
more thoroughly in charge of their own ing and choosing ratings. Once set up,
data and actions. The community itself Dapps can assist the community in
ends up with increasing control. choosing the best ICOs offered. It can
also help figure out which ICOs are apt
Through democratic decentralized to fail and warn people in advance.
methods, ICO Filter addresses the cryp-
to-economy as it evolves. The ICO Filter Providing a Dapp within a communi-
community is able to make sophisticat- ty context is increasingly popular and
ed investment deci-sions with informed utile idea. When you marry a commu-
consensus. nity perspective to the larger app solu-
tion, you get an effi-cient series of choic-
The ICO total market capitalization is es and a way to use them. It is here now,
now over US$170 billion. It started get- as this article has ex-plained and is cur-
ting signifi-cantly bigger in 2014 when rently being developed. Keep tuned to
it reached $26 billion. In three years, ICOfilter.org for updates and pre-ICO
2014-2017, funds swelled by near- launch Sept 14th.
51
SEPTEMBER 2017

BABB
The New World Bank
for The Micro-Economy
At BABB, we believe everyone across BABB is a global decentral- er they are in the world
the world should have access to a bank ized banking network. It is - Providing all users with a
designed to serve the mi- Blackcard: a payment card
account, easily and instantly. We will cro-econo- which can be
enable everyone to open a UK-based bank my, built on
Pre-Sale: 28th issued and
account in seconds via our smartphone blockchain loaded by any
technolo- September 2017 user, is linked
app. BABB is built on blockchain by gy and ac- Token Sale: 1st to the bank
RUSH AVERROS
technology and uses biometrics to cessed via a
November 2017 account, and
connect people across the globe. Our goal smartphone can be used
app. BABB to transact
is to reach every underbanked person in proposes to with any fiat
the world, totaling over 50% of the global serve the unbanked, under- or crypto-currency.
population, to catapult them into a new era banked and underserved by: - Onboarding new users
with our innovative social
of total economic participation. - Opening a UK bank ac- KYC process, which allows
count for all users, wherev- fully KYC-ed users to open
52
 SEPTEMBER 2017

IN PRACTICE
The four key elements of the BABB proposition
- UK bank account, Blackcard, social KYC and
central bank partnership. They provide us with
a fully comprehensive framework for reaching
the unbanked and the underbanked, where pre-
vious financial inclusion initiatives have failed.

By providing our users with a UK bank account,

accessed via a smartphone app, we have the
means to reach people in areas with high mo-
bile penetration and low banking use. In the
Middle East, for example, there is 95% mobile
penetration but 67% of the population is un-
banked. This region is a key proof-of-concept
target for us.

The Blackcard is an integral link between the

virtual product and the real world. It provides
users with a channel to liquidate their digital
assets - spend their crypto-currencies, essen-
tially. The card also functions as a real-time for-
eign exchange tool, enabling users to spend
their native currency anywhere in the world,
online or on the ground.

Social KYC means a fully KYCed member, with

validated documentation, can open a basic
bank account for up to 100 others. To access
the basic level of functionality, a person need
only download the app, take a selfie and say a
passphrase, creating a BABB account with an
integrated digital identity. We believe there is
huge potential for rapid expansion of the net-
work thanks to this in-built social KYC mech-
anism to promote exponential growth of the
user base.
a basic account for up to 100 other people. others, it is the banking industry itself. Finan-
- Working with central banks to issue new dig- cial and infrastructural barriers to access, ex- By working with central banks to issue new dig-
ital currencies, to support grassroots initia- ist at every point on the spectrum, from ul- ital currencies, we can stimulate local-scale mi-
tives and stimulate local economies. tra-poor, unbanked individuals to those who cro-economies all over the world. These initi-
are wealthy but underserved. atives can start small, with practical use cases
THE TEAM such as local payment systems and they will be
The BABB team is a truly diverse THE SOLUTION fully exchangeable with any other fiat or cryp-
group of people spanning an ex- Fundamentally, we believe the tran- to-currency.
ceptionally broad range of experi- sition from the hub-and-spoke mod-
ence, knowledge and different per- el of banking to a decentralized net- BABB TOKEN SALE
spectives. Our team includes former work model, is one which will em- Our vision for BABB is to be a global, open-
central bankers, specialist block- power people to solve these deeply source ecosystem for the micro-economy, pro-
chain engineers, investment bank- BABB leverag- entrenched issues. BABB users can moting connectivity, transparency and inno-
ers, tech entrepreneurs, data science es three exciting leverage their social connectivity to vation at every level. From farming co-opera-
specialists, crypto investors and re- technologies to participate in peer-to-peer financial tives that use the platform to take collective ac-
searchers. We are united by a desire services, raise funds for business tion to get fair prices, to the next generation of
to change the world and a belief that create this decen- ventures, liquidate their digital cur- fintech companies that build into the platform
we know the way to do it. tralized network rency seamlessly, and far more be- to provide new services. BABB is the means by
- blockchain, bi- sides. which money can flow instantly around a bor-
THE PROBLEM(S) ometrics, and ar- derless world.
There is not one single, easily defin- BABB leverages three exciting tech-
able problem that BABB is trying to
tificial intelli- nologies to create this decentral- BAX is the native token for use on the BABB
fix. However, we can see the symp- gence. ized network - blockchain, biomet- platform. It will be at the core of BABBs op-
toms of the failures of the incum- rics, and artificial intelligence. The erations, both as a medium of exchange, a
bent banking system everywhere, in communi- platform is to be built on a consortium-style store of value, and a unit of account. BAX is
ties around the world. 2.5 billion people in the blockchain with smart contracts, to facilitate going to change the world by empowering lo-
world live without access to banking. In the UK instant, low-cost international transactions. cal economies from the inside out, and it is
alone last year, the retail banking sector made Biometrics will enable the creation of a digital going to be the primary token in use by bil-
9 billion from unfair overdraft charges. ID for each account holder, reducing the capac- lions of newly banked individuals and busi-
ity for fraud and granting access to banking for nesses.
What exactly is it thats standing between people without formal documentation. Artifi-
these billions of people and access to the finan- cial intelligence gives us the ability to carry out For more information visit babbians.com and
cial services that would perfectly serve their risk management and matchmaking in a so- subscribe to be kept up-to-date with our latest
needs? For some, it is a lack of banking and for phisticated and inclusive way. developments.
53
SEPTEMBER 2017

Democratizing
Broadband
Access Globally
For too long, consumers What if users with excess bandwidth and reliably. The disparity is demonstrat-
could make that available to other users ed by the cost differentials:
have been at the in a secure man-
mercy of monopolistic ner, and receive in- Fixed broadband
telecommunications centives for doing packages cost 1.7%
so? Now a block- of average income
providers. In many ways, by
Ammbr
DERICK SMITH chain supported in developed coun-
the cost of broadband CEO solution is on the tries, compared
and other network access horizon: Ammbr. token sale: with 31% of aver-
opportunities has resulted in THE
September 1, 2017 age income in de-
veloping countries,
large populations being left OPPORTUNITY and 64% of average
behind. Even for users who Ammbr will have income in Africa.
global applicabili-
can afford it, Wi-Fi hotspot ty, and be of special importance to the 3.9 Mobile broadband cost 1-2% of
access, signal strength, and billion individuals around the world who monthly income in developed coun-
faster connections can be currently do not have access to high-speed tries, compared with 11-25% of
internet, and those mobile users needing monthly average income in develop-
difficult to obtain. to tap into broadband more affordably ing countries.
56

Ammbr is a blockchain and AI powered, mul-
ti-spectrum Mesh Network that will allow
owners of Ammbr routers to earn AMMBR
tokens while distributing broadband to more
people in more places.
SECURITY AND THE ROLE OF THE
BLOCKCHAIN
One of the core objectives of Ammbr is the cre-
ation of a distributed broadband access plat-
form. The platform will be highly resilient and
would simplify connectivity, while reducing
the costs associated with connecting to the in-
ternet and internet based services. Simplify-
ing connectivity would necessitate the solv-
ing of issues relating to authentication, bill-
ing, payments, settlement, security, and roam-
ing. Ammbr aims to create a high-throughput
blockchain-based platform with artificial intel-
ligence and smart contract functionality to un-
derpin a broadband marketplace. The technol-
ogy will remove friction for the users of wire-
less broadband while ensuring equitable par-
ticipation for the myriad owners of the infra-
structure.
MINIMIZING RESOURCE UTILIZATION
WHILE MAINTAINING NETWORK
SECURITY
Current Proof of Work blockchain technol-
ogies result in incredible resource
requirements in terms of
faster chips and tons of
electricity and cooling
- and eventual concen-
tration of power due
to efficiency of scale.
Proof of Stake also suf-
fers from concentrated
consensus power that
grows over time.
Ammbr is introducing
a new hybrid approach
with PoV - Proof of Ve-
locity as the keystone. It
is a new blockchain proto-
col that establishes an open, uni-
versal, and immutable ledger for man-
aging the fast, high throughput micro-pay-
ment and settlements required for billions of
internet connections across the Ammbr net-
work. Ammbr utilizes a low-cost, extremely
fast ASIC processor that will be commercial-
ly available to any device manufacturers, that
wish to build network infrastructure compo-
nents that work on the Ammbr network. PoV
uses a hybridized, throttled Proof of Work con-
sensus algorithm that limits power usage to a
fraction of any Proof of Work mechanism.
THE AMMBR NETWORK
The Ammbr network is predicated on secure
digital identities for all participants, and linked
asset wallets for the native token, AMMBR.
AMMBR enables the micro-payments capabil-
ity required for incremental usage payments to
any access point on the network. Ammbr pro-
vides real-time, accurate billing, as opposed to
the typical monthly or bundled packages from
traditional broadband service providers.
HARDWARE AND TECHNOLOGY STACK
The hardware serving the network and imple-
menting the blockchain features is a full spec-
trum mesh hub with optional plug-and-play
Ammbr utilizes a low-cost, extremely
fast ASIC processor that will be
commercially available to any device
manufacturers, that wish to build
network infrastructure components that
work on the Ammbr network.
This allows it to extend connectivity well
beyond the common Wi-Fi range and
on to a variety of radio spectrum and
communications protocols available in
each jurisdiction.
SEPTEMBER 2017
layers adding functionality. This allows it to
extend connectivity well beyond the common
Wi-Fi range and on to a variety of radio spec-
trum and communications protocols available
in each jurisdiction.
FUTURE
APPLICATIONS
With a growing block-
chain network the
possible applications
become nearly limit-
less. Other organiza-
tions could build finan-
cial services, or almost
any sharing-econo-
my application imag-
inable.
INITIAL COIN
OFFERING
Ammbr is announcing their
public Ammbr token sale for Sep-
tember 1, 2017. The token sale allows
Ammbr to raise additional development and
deployment capital. In the future, the tokens
can be used to pay infrastructure owners for
broadband access, or otherwise be traded.
A total of 1,000,000,000 AMMBR tokens will
be released. The distribution will be 60% to
the community and of the remaining AMMBR
tokens, 10% will be distributed to the early
founders and team who funded and worked in
Ammbr development prior to the token sale.
An additional 10% will be distributed over
time to early infrastructure developers who fa-
cilitate the fast growth of the Ammbr network.
The Ammbr Foundation will retain 20% of all
Ammbr tokens for long-term development.
The Ammbr Foundation is based in Singapore
with technology development partners in the
United States, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland
and Hong Kong. For more information about
Ammbr, please visit www.ammbr.com.
57
SEPTEMBER 2017

ICO Design and

SEC Rulings
A recent ruling by the US Securities Ex- ble limitations for recovery that may be of Citrus groves to inexperienced business
change Commission (SEC) is that Dis- present in a poorly-designed ICO. But people who were not farmers and knew
tributed Autonomous Organizations by not distinguishing a poorly-designed nothing of agriculture.
(DAOs) putting forward Initial Coin Of- ICO from a carefully-designed ICO, the
ferings (ICOs) are to be treated as is- SEC is making blanket conclusions that W. J. Howey owned large tracts of citrus
suers of securities. I feel strongly, that are not always applicable. groves in Florida. Howey kept half of the
this is misguided in the general case and groves for its own use and sold real estate
by
STEPHEN that the SEC already has the precedent The US Supreme Court has already es- contracts for the other half to finance its
ROWLISON to establish that the sale of tokens in antablished precedent in the far-reaching future developments. Howey would sell
CEO, bBiller.com appropriately-designed ICO is not sub- Howey Test regarding the determina- the land for a uniform price per acre (or
ject to federal securities laws. In addi- tion of how a transaction qualifies as per fraction of an acre for smaller par-
tion, there are opportunities for the SEC an investment contract. Should it qual- cels) and convey to the purchaser a war-
to embrace blockchain technologies in ify as such a security it would be subject ranty deed upon payment in full of the
the overall running of their responsibil- to certain disclosure and registration re- purchase price. The purchaser of the land
ities in overseeing such determinations. quirements. Key to the many determi- could then lease it back to the service
nations in the Howey Test is the issue of company Howey-in-the-Hills, via a ser-
In https://www.sec.gov/oiea/inves- the control borne by investors and their vice contract, which would tend to the
tor-alerts-and-bulletins/ib_coinoffer- active participation in their own invest- land, harvest, pool, and market the pro-
ings the SEC is rightly cautioning can- ments. duce. The service contract gave Howey-
didate investors to be careful in deter- in-the-Hills full and complete posses-
mining the level of risk when participat- The Howey Test is based on a case that sion of the land specified in the contract
ing in an ICO. Prudent guidance is given was won by the SEC in the Supreme court and left no right of entry or any right to
regarding points to consider and possi- against W.J. Howey Co in 1946 for the sale the produce harvested.
60
The finding was
that the lack of
investor control
in the use of the
investment, dic-
tated the invest-
ment to be a se-
curity.

The smart con-

tracts of ICO to-
kens can have
parameters im-
plementing the The finding was that the lack of inves- offer, but that they are taking an active further admit that they are in breach of
tor control in the use of the investment, role in their participation by exercising their own policies using the established
active partici- dictated the investment to be a securi- their control in the project they have ob- practices. Something needs to change.
pation of token ty. Thus, it was subject to SEC controls. tained from their investment. One way to
holders, for ex- And in 2017, the Howey Test continues do this would have the purchaser sending To address this, SEC could apply the an-
ample, by par- to be used to determine whether an in- a notice of acknowledgement, (perhaps swer they give themselves as shown on
ticipatory vot- vestment is considered formally a secu- signing and broadcasting a transaction page 139 of their report, reading In your
rity or not. on an SEC blockchain) to the SEC that statement, you discuss the SECs IT re-
ing mecha- they are capable of determining in their quirements-gathering process and man-
nisms. So, any given projects ICO may or may own capacity of having applied the Howey agement of the SECs protective securi-
not be considered a security by the way Test. In so doing, they declare they are ac- ty force contract. Alternatively, the SEC
Should a token it is designed and the way the smart con- cepting the risks of investment in securi- could secure their systems with a block-
tract is executed. ties and their responsibility to participate chain and by issuing each user with a wal-
holder choose in the project whether or not they actually let, the records of authorized expenditure,
not to partic- Q. What distinguishes a poorly-de- take the time to do so. payments to anonymous third parties and
ipate, that is signed ICO from a carefully-designed procurement would resolve the need for
not a failing of ICO, regarding treating the ICO as being a Should a token holder choose not to par- auditing and would also fix the timing is-
the Howey Test security or not being a security? ticipate, that is not a failing of the Howey sues on flow of funds, they are currently
Test where investors were wholly prevent- facing. Perhaps this is a better implemen-
where inves- A. A token intended not to be a securi- ed from participating. tation approach than utilizing a security
tors were wholly ty but failing the SECs sniff test would force contract or whatever they mean by
prevented from be poorly-designed. A carefully-designed Blockchain technology has even more a security force contract.
participating. ICO can readily be seen (or should readily to offer the SEC in the running of their
be seen) by the SEC not to be a security by organization. Examples on page 122 in And so, I believe the SEC can have an im-
the explicit involvement of token holders the https://www.sec.gov/about/secpar/ portant role in this new world of tokens
The SEC would in the running of the project. secafr2016.pdf Agency Financial Re- and the blockchain, but not as a regula-
transition port for the fiscal year 2016 illuminate tor. The SEC would transition themselves
themselves from Blockchain technology can even help in hundreds of millions of dollars of un- from a regulatory authority to an Oracle
a regulatory au- this regard and, in turn, help in other ar- accounted spending and revenues pre- of advisory, assisting the traditional fiat
eas of SEC purview. The smart contracts venting the report from being audit- leaders as they transition their enterpris-
thority to an of ICO tokens can have parameters im- ed. This was because of the timing dif- es to fully compliant, trust-less, self-gov-
Oracle of advi- plementing the active participation of to- ferences between obligations report- erning nodes which create value. This is
sory, assisting ken holders, for example, by participatory ed in SECs financial reporting system in contrast, rather, than enforcing tests
the tradition- voting mechanisms. Smart contracts en- and the data transmitted to http://US- by special protectionist interests and thus
gaged by the SEC can then scan ICO smart ASpending.gov through the central Fed- significantly altering the costs of perfor-
al fiat leaders as contracts for anything that looks like it eral Procurement Data System. mance and risk in non-compliance to ex-
they transition might be a security characterized by its ternal rules. Such are the cause of con-
their enterpris- lack of control by participants. Upon fail- Blockchain technology offers the SEC the straints to US-based innovators, investors
es to fully com- ing such a sniff test, the SEC could auto- opportunity to connect the procurement and consumers of products and services.
pliant, trust- matically blacklist the contract address systems to their reporting systems, where
until an application for a security was filed they are able to stem the tide to ensure This new world reifies a market that,
less, self-gov- and approved. that staff operating their systems are not with an appropriately-designed ICO to-
erning nodes without the appropriate authorizations. ken, distributes active participation and
which create In contrast, the purchaser of the careful- SEC staff need to become trust-less and decision making for not even the cost
value. ly-designed smart contract would be able are so empowered by the blockchain. The of $1.00. Such an ICO is an amazing op-
to prove to the world manifestly that not SEC admits in their report they are seek- portunity for investors to take an inte-
only are they experienced in the purchase ing ways to ensure their systems are not gral role in the projects in which they are
of the product (namely information tech- only secure but also up-to-date, for exam- investing in to make successful, should
nology programming smart contracts) on ple, that accounts are deactivated. They they choose to do so.
61
SEPTEMBER 2017
Introducing
Brickblock
A First-of-its-kind Blockchain-based
Investment Platform
The volatility of the crypto
space in recent years has
made buying, trading, and
holding cryptocurrencies
and other crypto assets
in this new economy
CHRISTIAN
incredibly risky. As new
Freelance Writer
players pour money into
the sector, the speculative,
whimsical and sometimes
manipulative nature of
the market, has made it
a gamble more so than a
sound investment.
62
Thats why Brickblock is developing a Actively managed Coin-managed
platform for investors to diversify their funds (CMFs) provide projects like Taas
portfolio by connecting their crypto as- the opportunity to offer their funds to
sets with real-world assets and simul- the public. Fund managers can man-
taneously hedging against the crypto age investors funds by selecting spe-
markets volatility. Its blockchain-based cific cryptocurrencies, day-trading, tak-
asset management platform allows one ing profits out of diversifying portfoli-
by to invest ones cryptocurrency or other os and the active distribution of funds.
NTHLER
crypto assets in Exchange-Traded Funds Conversely, despite having been vetted
(ETFs), Real Estate Funds by third parties, users can
and Editor (REFs), passive Coin-Trad- decide which fund manag-
ed Funds (CTFs) and ac- ers and strategies to trust.
tive Coin-Managed Funds
(CMFs). Unlike actively managed
funds, the fees and costs of
THE INVESTMENT Exchange Traded Funds
OPTIONS (ETFs) are significantly
A Coin-traded fund The content of lower since they track rule-
(CTF) is a passively man- the self-executing based indices like S&P 500,
aged basket of crypto as- Nikkei 225 or DAX 30. ETFs
smart contract
sets like Bitcoin, Ethere- can also track commodi-
um, alt coins, and digital is unalterable, ties like gold and silver and
tokens, the digital equiv- cryptographically have the advantage of being
alent of an exchange-trad- secured and visible offered at near-wholesale
ed fund (ETF). Like ETFs, to everyone on the prices without a minimum
CTFs track rule-based in- investment. By choosing
dices and try to mirror
blockchain. their preferred fund, an in-
the performance of a mar- vestor can actively decide in
ket instead of outperforming it. Indi- which market they want to invest and
ces are designed by fund managers or therefore hedge risk in another indus-
community members. They could in- try sector.
clude examples like the Top 10 Crypto
Assets by Market Cap, Top-Performing Real Estate Funds (REFs), Real Estate
Cryptocurrencies Over 5 Years, Top 30 Investment Trusts (REITs), or Real Es-
Crypto Assets, Top 500 Crypto Assets, tate Crowdfundings are entities active-
Top Yielding Crypto Assets or Smart ly managed by a fund manager who ac-
Contract-Only Crypto Assets. quires a certain volume of real estate in

The volatility
of the crypto
space in recent
years has made
buying, trading,
and holding
cryptocurrencies
and other crypto
assets in this new
economy incredibly
risky.
Setting up a
Brickblock account
is as easy as
submitting a few
personal details
and owning a
crypto asset wallet
(no bank account is
required).
certain cities, countries or continents.
Brickblocks platform lists real estate
projects with high potential, each of
which will be carefully audited by inde-
pendent parties to significantly reduce
risk. REFs will be the first investment
type offered by Brickblock.
THE PLATFORM
Brickblocks service will be facilitated
through the blockchain and validated
by Ethereums smart contracts, though
the invested cryptocurrencies are not
dependent on the functioning of the
Ethereum platform or its price. This
will void many of the fees and trans-
action costs associated with tradition-
al financial institutions, makes trans-
actions more secure and transparent
than existing investment platforms,
and significantly reduces the barrier
of entry for many people around the
world excluded from the financial sec-
tor based on income or location.
Setting up a Brickblock account is as
easy as submitting a few personal de-
tails and owning a crypto asset wal-
let (no bank account is required). In-
vestors are then presented with the
four investment options (ETFs, REFs,
CTFs, and CMFs). One then selects a
fund based on information provided
about the broker and their respective
offerings frequency of distributions,
costs and fees, area of investment, cur-
rent Net Asset Value (NAV), perfor-
mance, track record, etc.
Once an investment type has been de-
cided, one deposits the amount one
would like to invest into a self-execut-
ing smart contract. This generates a
signed electronic document that can
be viewed on a publicly available lo-
cation or ledger. The content of the
self-executing smart contract is unal-
terable, cryptographically secured and
visible to everyone on the blockchain.
On depositing the funds, one receives
Proof of Asset tokens, which are the
access key to the real-world assets ac-
quired on the Brickblock platform.
They prove the ownership of ETF, REF,
CTF, or CMF shares as outlined within
the smart contract. Tokenizing assets
makes them versatile trading instru-
ments (including outside of the Brick-
block platform) and transactions even
more secure. Owning the underlying
assets directly, meanwhile, reduces the
risk of contracts for difference (CFDs)
SEPTEMBER 2017
employed by other platforms that do
not grant investors the the rights to
the assets theyve invested in.
BRICKBLOCK INITIAL COIN
OFFERING (ICO)
On August 2, 2017, Brickblock will
launch a five-day Brickblock Token
(BBT) pre-sale. These BBT tokens gen-
erate weekly Access tokens, which
are used for the fees on the Brick-
block Platform. Since Brickblock fees
can only be paid in Access Tokens, the
more Brickblock Token holders get
the more the BBT tokens are worth.
Note that Brickblock and Access to-
kens are not the Proof-of-Asset to-
kens one receives when investing in
ETFs, REFs, CTFs, and CMFs. The
first phase of Brickblocks token sale
will offer 1000 BBT per ETH on the
first day and end at 900 BBT per ETH
by the fifth day. The second phase
will start either at the end of Sep-
tember or beginning of October. You
can find more information about the
pre-sale including the intended use
of revenue, distribution, price and
phases by visiting www.brickblock.
io/tokens.
63
SEPTEMBER 2017
NaPoleonX:
A Decentralized
Autonomous Fund,
a Disruptive Investment
Revolution
NaPoleonX aims to
become the 1st algorithmic
asset management firm
for crypto investors. Our
value proposal is based on
long standing performing
STEPHANE
trading bots running on
CEO & Founder of
highly liquid assets with
a low frequency trading
approach.
64
NaPoleonX will benefit from a large
range of existing trading systems de-
veloped by an experienced team in fi- ICO
nancial markets. New ones will be add-
ed over time to maintain this existing
hedge. This is an important feature of Start:
this project as R&D is key to the quanti-
by tative investment business. September 29, 2017
IFRAH
During the last 2 decades, algorith-
NaPoleonX mic trading has become more and more End:
popular within the traditional asset
management industry outpacing tra- October 29, 2017
ditional investment techniques. In-

NaPoleonX aims to become the 1st al-
gorithmic asset management firm for
crypto investors. Our value proposal
is based on long standing performing
trading bots running on highly liquid
assets with a low frequency trading
approach.
During the last 2 decades,
algorithmic trading has become
more and more popular within the
traditional asset management
industry outpacing traditional
investment techniques.
SEPTEMBER 2017
deed, these old fashion investment strategies
have lagged into the various league tables. Na-
PoleonX is proposing to jump technologies by
bringing to the crypto investor community the
latest developments and even the future ones.
This is a major trend that is still in its teenager
age. This also allows the ability to take into con-
sideration the data deluge we are all under, and
benefit from the emergence of artificial intelli-
gence and machine learning techniques.
Indeed, the crypto investor community is just
starting to get access to investment supports
for their assets. The.DAO really launched this
process by raising a private equity fund less
than 2 years ago. Today, investment supports
are more diverse with all these ICOs, acting as
direct private equity investments linking di-
rectly the investors and start-ups. These ICOs
have been mainly about services or Dapps. Na-
PoleonX is proposing to invest into a global as-
set management company, the first of its kind.
We believe, this is just a baby step as we be-
lieve that, soon traditional businesses and
crypto businesses will converge as the Block-
chain technology diffuses in our society. We are
convinced that we should be proactive in de-
veloping entire businesses into this brand new
crypto space and thus participate in its expan-
sion and normalization. This will be as impor-
tant if not bigger as the internet revolution.
Napoleon Crypto will be set up as an asset
management company to act as Advisor to Na-
PoleonX. Napoleon Crypto will source algorith-
mic strategies that will be the basis for launch-
ing trading bots. Each trading bot will be en-
capsulated into a dedicated investment vehi-
cle, namely a Decentralized Autonomous Fund
(DAF). These DAFs will be sponsored by NaPo-
leonX initially and will be open to external in-
vestors. There will be regular windows to invest
or divest into these vehicles. They will also ben-
efit from specific governance that will be en-
capsulated into dedicated Smart Contracts.
Overtime, NaPoleonX will monitor its invest-
ment portfolio into DAFs in order to continu-
ously launch new vehicles and collect addition-
al Performance Fees on top of its Net Perfor-
mance on its invested assets. NPX token hold-
ers will be involved in regular decisions regard-
ing the creation, investment and divestment
in DAFs. All the decisions will be proposed by
Napoleon Crypto. Napoleon Crypto will also
implement NPX token holders decisions. All
these decisions will be incorporated into a
Smart Contract that will govern NaPoleonX.
In short, NaPoleonX will act as an innova-
tive Asset Management company that will be
able to launch its own funds thanks to the ini-
tial assets raised during NaPoleonX ICO. Cryp-
tocurrencies have won their place in terms of
a means of payment and have become a huge
store of value. It is time now to offer new per-
spective to the crypto saving market.
Please visit our website www.napoleonx.ai and
feel free to contact us for more information.
65
SEPTEMBER 2017

Logically
Consistent
Principles for
Token
Distribution
I would like to propose a set of logical- provides nothing then it is considered
ly consistent principles for token distri- hand out, or free lunch. Unfortunate-
butions: ly, there is no such thing as a real free
1. Nobody should get something for lunch. Someone must pay for that lunch
nothing which means for everyone who gets
2. Everyone should receive a market de- something for nothing, someone else
termined price Tokens have the most value when gets nothing for something.
by 3. Everyone should have an equal op-
DAN LARIMER
portunity to participate they are held by a wide range of When token distributions attempt to
CTO, block.one
4. Developer incentives should be people who have financial interest simultaneously sell 90 percent of the
aligned in the blockchain and tokens tokens at a price below market value,
5. Economic disincentives for buying success. someone is getting something for noth-
more than 50 percent of a distribu- ing and someone else is getting noth-
tion ing for something. A token distribution
6. Minimize transaction costs (mining, that is truly fair is one that enables the
fees, etc.) market to determine the price, ensuring
Lets dive into each of these principles a that parties on both sides of the trans-
little deeper. action are content with their trade. This
minimizes also the chances for extreme
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING losses to the buyer and extreme oppor-
In a free market, two people make a tunity cost to the seller.
trade when both parties are satisfied
that the trade is fair. If either side finds MARKET PRICES
the trade unfair then the trade would A market price for something is a bal-
not occur. If one side of the exchange ance between supply and demand and
66
 SEPTEMBER 2017

falls between the price no one is willingDEVELOPER ALIGNED INCENTIVES recent token sales experience losses in
to sell and the price no-one else is will-
When buying tokens, you want to en- the high fees people will pay to be first.
ing to pay. In effect, the market price sure that the other people who have the These economic losses can cause a po-
is a unanimous market consensus as tokens have financial incentive to see tential loss of value in the token for
demonstrated by the spread of the dis- the token value increase. A developer both the buyer and the seller.
agreement among all buyers and all sell- who sells 100 percent of their tokens at
ers. the very start of their project does so at A token CONCLUSION
the lowest possible value and then has These principles are in stark contrast
Unfortunately, it is impossible to guess no skin in the game to motivate them to
distribution to the expectation that token sales be
a tokens market price, it can only be add value in a timely manner. that is truly capped at a valuation based upon the
discovered with reasonable trade vol- fair is one expected cost of development. Valua-
umes on a public market. These markets ECONOMIC DISINCENTIVES FOR that enables tion capped distributions force below
can take the form of exchanges or auc- BUYING 50% OR MORE the market to market pricing based upon the econom-
tions so long as they are public, trans- Tokens have the most value when they ic fallacy of the Cost Theory of Value.
parent and open to as many people as are held by a wide range of people who determine the This below market pricing causes a race
possible. Furthermore, even if the price have financial interest in the blockchain price, ensuring where the first buyer gets something for
could be accurately determined at the and tokens success. If the majority of that parties on nothing when they flip the tokens at
beginning of a token offering, it could tokens are held by a single person or both sides of the market prices all while giving advantag-
change the very next day. entity and the tokens are not well dis- es to those who can buy large quantities
tributed amongst many, this ultimately
transaction are all at once.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO leads to centralization risks. content with
PARTICIPATE their trade. The EOS Token Distribution process is
Giving everyone an opportunity to par- Token sales with fixed prices and/or designed to follow these principles and
ticipate means utilizing a widely used caps quickly sell out generally to a small hopefully create a distribution that is
platform and allowing ample time for number of (usually wealthy) speculators widely perceived to be fair based upon
people to learn about the opportuni- and leave little room for anyone else. logically consistent principles. With
ty. It should show minimal bias for or It takes time and competition to see a EOS Token Distribution, a buyer gets
against those with time, money, or tech- wide distribution. the best price-per-token when they buy
nical skills. less than 50% and will have to pay 99x
MINIMIZE TRANSACTION COSTS as much to acquire the second 49%.
Mining favors those with technical The original crypto currencies were dis-
skills, time, and money while capped tributed using proof of work or by min- Disclaimer: The author is CTO of block.
distributions favor those with money ing, which represents a large econom- one who own a controlling stake in EOS.
and technical skills for speed. ic loss in electricity consumption. More The author is also investing in EOS.
67
SEPTEMBER 2017

ICO Secured by
a Land Asset:
Sosnovkino LLC
Most cryptocurrency One of the popular methods nowadays the crisis, the real estate market re-
is ICOs. Basically, investors, or dona- mains one of the most stable.
holders face the tors, buy a token,
problem of passive which represents Sosnovkino Foun-
profits. Especially at the a share of the dation decided to
company. Howev- link the blockchain
time of high volatility,
cryptocurrency holders by
er, there are some
risks that the in-
Sosnovkino technology from
the Ethereum
are thinking about
EKATERINA
MAKHNOVSKAYA
vestor accepts dur- ICO is live. platform, crowd-
PhD ing the token pur- funding from ICO
methods of how to save chase. One of the and land-develop-
their funds. biggest is that to-
The token name ment. The result
kens do not have is an opportunity
any reinforce- SNKCoin. to feel the abnor-
ment. mal profits of the
land-development
I have learned industry and be
from my own ex- secured by the real
perience that ICO projects are increas- assets in a sufficient amount. The com-
ingly moving to offline business, offer- pany owns a land area of 194 hectares
ings in the form of land plots and hous- with an estimated value of $3,000,000.
es is a precedent in this market. Despite The main aim of the project is to create
68
 SEPTEMBER 2017

an infrastructure, which includes a central sew-
age system, gas pipelines, electric systems, wa-
ter pipelines and roads, and to sell it at a price
that is 6 times more than the initial value.
Lets start from the analysis of the land mar-
ket in the Novosibirsk region, the area where
Sosnovkino land belongs to. The Novosibirsk
province still has real estate as the main indus-
try of money circulation. 18% of the regions
GDP is generated in real estate and land-devel-
opment. Analysts of the land market from the
Lanzo agency share the opinion that the price
of land plots in Novosibirsk are going to rise.
The demand is constantly growing, while de-
mand of the land plots with good infrastruc-
ture is decreasing. The development of the land
complex of Novosibirsk makes this market seg-
ment the most popular and profitable field for
large investments. So Sosnovkino Foundation
offers investors the chance to become a part of
the land-development world. By investing in
Sosnovkino the investor will be able to feel the
profitability of the industry with a tiny invest-
ment of $10.
Offerings in the form of
land plots and houses is a
precedent in this market.
Despite the crisis, the real
estate market remains one of
the most stable.
In case Sosnovkino team fail, investors will still
earn profit due to the higher cost of the land in
relation to the token price. To sum up, I would
say that the project is worth some attention.
The team has extensive experience in their in-
dustry, therefore, should understand the tech-
nicalities of land development and construc-
tion. Sosnovkino starts its token pre-sale on
August, 26th with the token name SNKCoin.
In conclusion, you will get quarterly dividends
straight to your e-wallet, a real share of the
companies profit and a 300% increase in your
funds. The project should be able to minimize
the influence of Ethereum fluctuations on in-
vested funds. It is an opportunity to convert
your funds into passive quarterly profit.

Another factor you should pay attention to is

the Sosnovkino team. They developed a voting
system with the help of blockchain technolo-
gy, hence, you can now be part of the board of
Directors. All important questions will be dis-
cussed at such general meetings. Not only can
you influence the companys future path but
also suggest your own questions for voting.
However, the voting itself, is integrated in the
Ethereum wallet platform and is as simple as
clicking the button.

Sosnovkino decided to secure their tokens by

land to reduce the risks to the investors. Each
token gives investors a right to 3 m2 of land.
69
SEPTEMBER 2017
Put Your Money
Where Your
Technology Is
How ICOs Tie Investment and
Technology Together
I was a member of
a startup team for a
technology company that
eventually went public.
Our company specialized
in tools that made creating,
modifying, and managing
DB2 databases which
was invented and owned
by IBM. Our company
ONLY focused on DB2 and
nothing else.
70
If you were an investor at the time and
you thought DB2 was a winning tech-
nology, you couldnt invest in IBM
since they have so many other tech-
nologies and services that could affect
their overall stock results. The only way
to invest directly in DB2 was to invest
by in our company. The investment an-
PAUL TATRO
Co-Founder, alyst called this a pure play invest-
Blockchain ment in DB2.
Training Institute
This idea of a pure-play investment in
a technology is exactly the kind of in-
vestment that an Initial Coin Offer-
ing (ICO) delivers. If you believe in the
future of an idea, participating in an
ICO that showcases the path to realiz-
ing the technical manifestation of that
idea means that if that technology is a
big success, the value of your invest-
ment in the associated ICO will rise
along with that success. Further, as the
technology gets developed and begins
operation, the value sustenance of the
coin stays entirely inside of the realm
in which the technology operates. Due
to the direct link between the invest-
ment and the related technology, the
Coin that you buy is more like a paid
API token than a unit of currency. To-
kens are used to both operate inside
the ICOs Blockchain and/or purchase
whatever the Blockchain is delivering.
I suspect that it isnt only the idea of
a pure-play investment that is driving
the ICO frenzy, in fact, that is prob-
ably assuming too much sophistica-
tion on the part of the average inves-
tor. Due to the unregulated nature of
ICOs (i.e., you dont have to register
with the SEC or any other government
agency before launching an ICO) means
that there are no formal rules govern-
ing the offering. One of the big differ-
ences is that an individual does not have
to be a qualified investor to participate
in an ICO. A qualified investor is some-
one who has a net worth of at least $1
Million and has signed a document that
signifies that they understand the risk
involved in early-stage investments. Or,
to say it a different way, anyone can in-
vest in an ICO no matter their net worth
or their grasp of the risk involved. This
gives ICOs a possible investor base that

This idea of
a pure-play
investment in
a technology is
exactly the kind
of investment
that an Initial
Coin Offering
(ICO) delivers.
I suspect that
it isnt only the
idea of a pure-
play investment
that is driving
the ICO frenzy,
in fact, that
is probably
assuming
too much
sophistication
on the part of
the average
investor.
is at least 100 times greater than the
traditional technology financing base
in the United States. It opens the pos-
sibility of having investors from any
part of the world, from any walk of
life. Many of these novice investors
are not exactly sure how to properly
vet this type of investment, they are
more trusting of the wisdom of the
crowd as justification of their invest-
ment. The trap here is that the crowd
sentiment these days is filled with as
much hype as it is fact.
Also, ICOs move the timing of larg-
er-scale funding up, much earlier in the
lifecycle of a company. The time that
it takes to write a well-written white
paper, is the only development time
a company needs and an ICO can fol-
low shortly thereafter. Very little of the
infrastructure of the company needs
to be developed and, certainly, no op-
erations or sales history needs to be
demonstrated. Sure, there are Angel
Investors, Friends-and-Family inves-
tors, and, more recently, Crowdfund-
ing, who will invest in a concept or be-
cause they know you, but the amount
that these types of early investors are
willing to invest in a promising idea is
far less than the sums being raised via
the ICO mechanism. The early results
SEPTEMBER 2017
show ICOs outpacing other forms of prox. $30 to $50 million), and then a
early investments by a factor of 1,000. C-Round of $150 million. All along the
way, the company would had to have
A good case study of all of these el- been successfully executing their busi-
ements about an ICO is ness plan. As we see in the
the recent ICO of a Block- case of Bancor, with an ICO it
chain company called Ban- is possible to raise $150 mil-
cor, which is overseen by the lion a few months after pub-
Bprotocol Foundation. Ban- lishing a white paper.
cor had been pitched as a
platform designed to make While there is a great deal
it easier for users to launch While there is of interest and just as much
their own blockchain to- confusion surrounding ICOs,
a great deal of
kens. The Bancor ICO set a just think if Apple had an
new industry record, rais- interest and ICO instead of venture fund-
ing approximately $153 mil- just as much ing? Imagine the value of the
lion in Ether, the native cur- confusion Apple Coin that you have
rency on the Ethereum block- surrounding held on to for all those years?
chain, in June of 2017! The And, you bought that coin
ICO attracted 10,885 buy- ICOs, just think when you were 18 years old
ers. The unbelievable notion if Apple had and only had $100 to invest.
about the Bancor ICO is that an ICO instead But, back then, ICOs didnt
Bancor was just launched in of venture exist, and the typical 18 year-
2017! To contrast this level old was not a qualified inves-
funding?
of funding with a traditional tor. ICOs open the door to
funding scenario, a company having projects funded (like
would have had to have gone open-source) that would nev-
through four rounds of funding to get to er be funded any other way and give
a $150 million level of investment and it every person the option to become tech-
would have taken, at least, three years. nology investors if they choose. So, it is
The four rounds of funding would have up to you to decide if your Pure Play
been an Angel Investment, A-Round investment in an ICO is a Sure Play in-
(approx. $2-$5 million), B-Round (ap- vestment return.
71
SEPTEMBER 2017
Revolutionary Virtual
Reality Streaming Platform
Supported by the Blockchain
Spectiv is a community-
driven virtual reality
streaming platform that
enables people and
organizations to share
their unique virtual reality
DYLAN SENTER
experiences with the
world. These experiences
might be as commonplace
as a walk through a
local park or as exciting
as a live music festival.
Viewers will engage with
these experiences from
home, through virtual
reality. Spectivs mission
is to build a platform and
support a network around
the emerging VR industry.
72
STATE OF VR
As the virtual reality space contin-
ues to develop, old sci-fi fantasies are
slowly becoming real- life possibili-
ties. Many tech and investing specu-
lators have named VR as the next rev-
olutionary boom. The VR industry is
by projected to grow from $1 billion in
CEO 2016 to $30 billion by 2020 and po-
tentially $80 billion by 2025 (Gold-
man Sachs). In this time, physical VR
technologies (headsets, 360 cameras,
etc.) will develop and scale exponen-
tially. As a result, emerging VR plat-
forms are positioned to benefit from
growing new-user engagement.
VR ADOPTION
While the potential for virtual reality
is huge, the mainstream world is still
intimidated by the space and reluc-
tant to adopt it. This presents a ma-
jor problem for the industry, especial-
ly those building startup platforms
around it. With this in mind, Spectiv
has implemented a token-based pro-
tocol to help pull VR out of the fring-
es. Spectiv will support a communi-
ty-driven network around VR through
a unique attention asset: Signal To-
kens.
ATTENTION MARKETS
Spectivs Signal Token acts as a fuel in This disruption has led many behavio-
the market for attention. To appreciate ral economists and internet users alike
how this works, one must understand
the attention economy framework and
its key actors: content contributors,
viewers, advertisers, and content cura-
tors.
Content contributors create content
which attracts viewer attention (great-
er value content = greater traffic). If the
content contributor can drive enough
viewer attention, advertisers are of-
ten willing to pay the contributor for a
share of it. This is how traditional atten-
tion markets have functioned through-
out history.
However, recent tech developments
have made it extremely easy for the av-
erage person to contribute/access con-
tent online, resulting in an overwhelm-
ing surplus of media. This has opened
up space for a new player in the atten-
tion economy: content curators those
who sort through content and share it
with their followers by generating sig-
nals (reposts, shares, likes, tweets,
etc.). These signals have become a uni-
versal aspect of the worlds online ex-
perience; surfing the internet has gone
from actively digging through Goog-
le to passively scrolling through social
medias.

to acknowledge content curators as the is unique to the curator. Sigs are cur-
new central influencers of online atten- rently priced at $0.50, which means
tion. The Signal Tokens protocol is de- it cost that curator $0.50 to generate
signed to mobilize this influence to sup- that Signal Link. The curator will then
port virtual reality adoption. share the link with their followers. If
they are able to drive 1,000 views to
SIGNAL TOKENS (SIGS) the video, this level of attention mightThis disruption
Sigs are an ERC20 token that curators earn them $1.50 in Sig returns. This
has led many be-
can use to earn returns for attention means the curator profited $1.00 on
driven through signals specifically, the $0.50 Sig they originally deployed.
havioral econo-
signals to Spectiv VR content. But if they are only able to drive 100 mists and inter-
views to the video, they would likely net users alike to
To do this, a curator must deploy (spend) sustain a loss. acknowledge con-
1 Sig on a VR video. This will generate a tent curators as
unique URL Signal Link to that video. As VR adoption grows, so will the at- the new central
This link will track/analyze all attention tention/returns that curators can drive influencers of on-
drive through it and will connect that through VR content. In other words, the line attention.
attention with the curator who original- curator in our example might eventually
ly generated the link. This curator will be able to drive 10,000 views through a
then earn a Sigs return based on how signal, which would generate them even
much traffic is driven. more returns for the same effort. This
means the utility value of a Sig deploy-
Curators must deploy a Sig for the ment will increase as more people adopt
opportunity to earn Sig returns on VR. As a result, the underlying market
shared content. If the curator can value of Sigs will inherently be tied to
drive enough attention to the con- the VR industry.
tent, they could earn returns far in ex-
cess of the original investment. Alter- SIGNAL TOKENS CROWDSALE
natively, they could sustain a loss for Sigs will be publicly sold through a to-
inadequate traffic. ken creation crowdsale event. The
crowdsale will open in mid-late Sep-
Example: a curator sees a Spectiv VR tember and will run for 21 days or un-
video that they like, so they deploy a til the max cap ($40M USD equivalent)
Sig into that video. This will generate is reached. The total Sigs token supply
a URL Signal Link to that video which will be determined by how many tokens
SEPTEMBER 2017
are sold in the crowdsale. The Signal To-
kens crowdsale will be hosted at www.
spectivvr.com.
Sigs will be issued at a fixed price of
$0.50 each. Early crowdsale participants
will have the opportunity to acquire Sigs
at a discount to this price based on the
timing of their purchase. Sigs will be
sold through 4 levels, with each level
representing an early bird bonus oppor-
tunity and incremental capital alloca-
tion. Magnitude of bonuses will vary de-
pending on the timing of purchase; the
earlier the purchase, the greater the bo-
nus. This program rewards buyers who
show early support and engagement
with the Spectiv project.
The different bonus opportunities are
spread across 4 levels:
Level 1: $0 $2,000,000 Raised =
40% Bonus Level 2: $2,000,000
$10,000,000 Raised = 25% Bonus Lev-
el 3: $10,000,000 $25,000,000 Raised
= 15% Bonus Level 4: $25,000,000
$40,000,000 Raised = 0% Bonus
Once the crowdsale ends, Signal Tokens
will be distributed via Ethereum Smart
Contract. Spectiv aims to distribute Sigs
as soon as the crowdsale ends, but may
take up to 3 days following the close of
the crowdsale to officially distribute Sigs
to purchasers.
73
SEPTEMBER 2017

Ekasi Bucks
Brings Financial Inclusion
to Poor and Low-Income
Townships, Households
and Individuals

Ekasi Bucks is a cryptocurrency built and consumer confidence and stabi- for new innovative ways to automate
on the Bitcoin Blockchain for the com- lizing commodity prices. business processes and systems and
munity and controlled by the commu- to make settlement fast and secure
nity. Ekasi Bucks was initially intro- Household spend- continues to grow
duced as a coalition customer loyal- ing is projected to throughout all in-
ty programme for township and rural
areas. The biggest questions would be
increase by 1.3
per cent this year
Ekasi Bucks ICO dustries. Most
merchants today
by why was it established? and 2 per cent in phase 1 began require cashless
LUCKY KGWADI Ekasi Bucks was established for the 2018 in response systems and are
Co-founder &
President
revitalization of underdeveloped lo- to moderate em- 15-31 July 2017. more than willing
Ekasi Bucks cal economies, specifically within ployment growth, to transact with
the poor and low-income communi- improved con- their consum-
ties. sumer confidence Post-ICO will begin ers using mobile
To increase money circulation and and lower infla- phones or credit/
keep it within the communities. tion. 1 Aug 8 Aug
st th
debit cards rather
To create safe, secure, instant and
real time transacting. The South Afri-
with PROMO code than hard cash.

can small busi- ISAKESKCUB for According to the

The South African economy, which ness landscape is Banking associa-
grew by an estimated 0.5 percent in made up of 91% 20% bonus. tion of South Af-
2016, is forecasted by the National formalized busi- rica, Small Me-
Treasury, after a protracted period of nesses and con- dium Sized Busi-
declining GDP growth, to grow by 1.3 tinues to grow nesses con-
percent in 2017 and 2 percent in 2018 year on year as tribute sig-
and 2.2 percent in 2019 as economic more and more nificant-
conditions strengthen. entrepreneurs ly to the
enter the vari- economy
The Reserve Banks leading economic ous industries through
indicator increased for a fourth con- and markets. their de-
secutive month in November 2016, Business- velopment
suggesting a positive turn in the busi- es particu- of new and
ness cycle. Several business indi- larly in unsaturat-
ces also point to an improving out- To w n s h i p s ed sectors
look. The recovery will be supported where most of the econ-
by moderately stronger global growth, merchants enter the retail omy. In addi-
more favorable weather conditions, space and other sectors, continues to tion, innova-
reliable electricity supply, less volatile increase both from Foreign nationals tive and technology based enterpris-
labor relations, recovering business and national entrepreneurs. Demand es can provide a platform for local, re-
74

gional and international growth es-
pecially in Brazil, Russia, India, Chi-
na and South African (BRICS) econ-
omies to solve modern day business
problems.
2 South African SMMES face a lot of
challenges that hinder growth and
development as per below:
Appropriate technological infra- 2 Ekasi bucks Pty Ltd has access to a
structure
Lack of management skills and
business systems
Access to markets and developing
relationship with customers
Knowledge and support for the
roles the entrepreneurs play in
economic development
Regulatory Compliance
Crime and corruption 2 There are currently over 60 000
2 Ekasi Bucks launched in July 2016
as a loyalty programme for small
Businesses in South African Town-
ships nationwide, since inception
we have been working tirelessly to
MAKE the programme innovative
so that small businesses can com-
pete with large retailers. We cur-
rently have access to over 1000 2 Our consultants have a working re-
businesses signed up for the Ekasi
Bucks programme.
2 Currently our system is website based
and we are moving operations over to
a fully functional Blockchain based
system. The Blockchain based Point
of Sale System solves the problem of
infrastructure accessibility for SMEs.
Currently in South Africa there are
several POS service providers but
none are based on the Blockchain and
none of them offer businesses the
services that our system is packaged
to offer and the low subscription fees Ekasi Bucks is a
we charge.
database of over 100 000 small busi-
nesses operated by both Nation-
als and Foreign National entrepre-
neurs. Our consultants have a work-
ing relationship with the business
forum leaders across a wide market
spectrum throughout all South Afri-
can States.
businesses that urgently require a
fully packaged cashless system from
Ekasi Bucks i.e. Their main focus
mostly on transacting for goods and
services and transferring funds to
Somalia, Pakistan, Kenya, Zimba-
bwe, Mozambique and other parts
of Africa.
lationship with Private sector cor-
porate companies that require loyal-
ty programs for their clients across
several sectors who intend to mon-
etize their client base by creating a
network of businesses within sever-
al sectors to serve those clients. The
businesses have requested an Ekasi
SEPTEMBER 2017
Bucks fully packaged cryptocurren-
cy reward platform administered
over the Ekasi Bucks platform.
An Estimated number of over
2
10,000 businesses will be sub-
scribed to our POS system by the
cryptocurrency end of Q4 2017, allowing us to em-
ploy over 200 consultants to ensure
built on the Bit-
implementation is successful across
coin Blockchain
all South African states.
for the community
and controlled by 2 According to a chapter 2 review on
the community. the South African Fiscal year budget
of 2017, About 31 per cent of work-
Ekasi Bucks was ing-age South Africans, and almost
established for the half of the unemployed, live in town-
revitalization of ships. Developing township econ-
omies that create jobs and greater
underdeveloped
scope for entrepreneurship is a pol-
local economies,
icy objective for government. Town-
specifically with- ships were established as dormitory
in the poor and suburbs for black workers, making it
low-income com- difficult for township businesses to
munities. compete in anything that requires
high-quality infrastructure, a wide
range of inputs, a broad customer
base and a diverse skill set. Govern-
ment is working on reforms to pro-
mote township economies. This in-
cludes encouraging the property sec-
tor to develop infrastructure such as
shops, offices, schools and hospitals.
Ekasi Bucks ICO phase 1 began 15-31
July 2017. Post-ICO will begin 1st Aug
8th Aug with PROMO code ISAKESK-
CUB for 20% bonus.
75
SEPTEMBER 2017
TenX
Bringing Crypto
into the Real World
Bitcoin is widely
recognized as the first
mainstream application
of blockchain technology.
Since then, apart from
competing crypto
currencies, the exchanges
that support them and
the booming success of
ICOs, there hasnt yet been
much for mainstream
consumers. One of the
fundamental problems
with crypto currencies is
that they are very difficult
to actually spend outside a
few niche retailers.
76
Entering Crypto Currency debit cards! the offer of commission free currency
Cards that leverage the Mastercard or exchange and spending):
Visa payment network, linked to cryp-
to currency wallets and exchanges. Pro- Cardholders receive 0.1% reward in
viding immediate, bank free conver- TenXs PAY tokens for every purchase,
sion, payment and withdrawal of crypto encouraging people to spend on the
into FIAT currency at the point of sale card. This is funded by a commission
by
MICHAEL or ATM. split, the merchant pays Visa/Master-
ANDREWS card for card payments.
Recent successful ICOs for TokenCard
(US$16.7), Monaco Card (US$25m) Holders of PAY tokens receive 0.5%
and established players like Wirex and of the entire payment volume on the
Cryptopay show there is in- platform at regular inter-
vestor demand for these vals in ETH, which should in-
products. One of the most crease the demand for PAY
anticipated crypto card en- tokens.
trants this year is TenX who
raised roughly US$80m on The teams engagement
the June 25th within 7 min- with the community (web-
TenX is
utes, with thousands of in- site, Slack, Twitter, Reddit,
vestors missing out (over ambitious and email, webinars, Youtube
40K tried to get tokens, generating a lot etc) has been very open
only about 4K managed). of excitement and professional. They are
Their token is called PAY and and that should even publishing a series
will be trading on major ex- of behind the scenes vid-
changes by August. see their PAY eos that help the commu-
tokens increase nity feel engaged and build
TenX was founded in Singa- in value in the trust in the team behind
pore mid 2015 and was se- near term. TenX. It really works, they
lected to join Paypals incu- are a likeable bunch.
bator program. Prior to ICO, they had
raised US$1m from VC investors in- TenX is working on creating a new
cluding Fenbushi and have a working Opensource Interledger protocol they
card supported by Visa and Mastercard call COMIT, to facilitate true mul-
which can currently exchange Bitcoin, ti asset exchange. TenXs stated mis-
Ether and Dash (more currencies com- sion is making any blockchain as-
ing). set spendable instantly.1 They intend
to achieve this by building the COMIT
A number of things have made TenX protocol, which will make instant ex-
stand out from the crowd (apart from change of any crypto currency across

different ledgers possible in real-time and fa-
cilitate the exchange into FIAT. Currently
they have to connect directly to individual ex-
changes or via intermediaries to convert cryp-
to to FIAT and its not a scalable solution.
TenX is ambitious and generating a lot of ex-
citement and that should see their PAY tokens
increase in value in the near term, but the pro-
ject is not without some negative aspects:
With ambitions of being a major global play-
er in the crypto card space, gaining a banking
license and building an inter-ledger network
to decentralize currency exchange, TenX are
spreading themselves thin and will need to
build an experienced team to make this a
success. They will be competing with tradi-
tional banks and other Fintech companies
who are also working on crypto payments,
Interledger and cross block chain exchange
(for example Ripple and ILP).
The promise of being able to convert any
crypto currency is at least a year away and
relies on the COMIT network being built
and gaining mainstream adoption. Without
it TenX will be limited in the number of cur-
rencies and rates they can provide.
Controversy at some of TenXs overzealous
marketing was unhelpful. A lot of noise was
made about TenXs use of Vitalik Butterins
(co-founder of Ethereum) name as both an
investor and advisor in the initial stages of
the run up to the ICO. Vitalik complained on
Twitter about the number of ICOs naming
SEPTEMBER 2017
him as an official advisor without his agree- Also concerning to some, the VCO and
ment, which led to some clarifications from co-founder Julian Hosp was disclosed to
TenX about his advice being informal. His in- have been previously involved in promoting
vestment in TenX was also indi- a cash-back card pyramid scheme -
rect via his stake in VC firm Fen- Lyoness. To his credit, he was open
bushi Capital. about it and admitted he was fooled,
had made mistakes and learned
Tax implications of converting from them. He is a charismatic guy
crypto currency to FIAT where and was instrumental in making the
there can be significant gains (and ICO a success and being the face of
losses) due to volatility as op- One of the most TenX, so you want to believe him.
posed to FIAT currency conver- anticipated
sions have been glossed over and crypto card Given the level of demand during
many users may be required to entrants the ICO, the PAY tokens are expect-
report capital gains. This will be ed to surge in value in the short term
this year is
complex and potentially require and if the level of interest demon-
TenX to provide a solution for cal- TenX who strated by the ICO is anything to go
culating. raised roughly by, they will have 40,000 users sign-
US$80m ing up for cards straight from the
The amount of money being raised on the June get-go. As Rei Inamoto, Chief Crea-
has been challenged by some in tive Officer for AKQA, once said: To
the community and the media 25th within 7 run an efficient team, you only need
($80M USD is a huge amount to minutes, with three people: a Hipster, a Hacker, and a
raise for a company at such an ear- thousands Hustler.2 TenX have definitely found
ly stage). However, not if you com- of investors their hustler in Julian Hosp lets
pare it to traditional VC raises like hope they have the other two.
missing out
the Fintech currency card provid-
er Revolut in the UK, raised $17M (over 40K tried This writer does not hold any PAY to-
in several rounds since 2015 and to get tokens, kens but does hold TAAS tokens,
are raising another $65M this only about 4K which is a close ended crypto fund
year to expand into banking ser- managed). that have invested 1000 ETH in
vices. Despite being on track to TenX to take a page out of TenXs
have 1 million customers by the marketing playbook, that would
end of 2017, Revolut lost $9 million on $3 make this writer an investor in PAY.
million revenue, so the challenge will prob-
------
ably be: can TenX deliver on its promises be- 1 https://www.tenx.tech/
fore it burns through its capital? 2
http://www.hipsters-hackers-hustlers.com/about/
77
SEPTEMBER 2017
SynchroLife:
Building a Global Restaurant
Recommendation Platform with
Blockchain Technology
Despite hundreds of ways
to search for restaurants
online, diners continue
to struggle when picking
a place for dinner and
restaurants around the
world are in a constant
battle to attract new
customers. Using artificial
intelligence and blockchain
technology, SynchroLife
is here to resolve the
problems of both diners
and restaurants once and
for all.
78
WHAT IS SYNCHROLIFE? matches their personal tastes, and in
SynchroLife is the world's first block- turn to assist restaurants in finding
chain based restaurant recommen- new and loyal customers.
dation platform.
By rewarding us- SYNCHROLIFE
ers with tokens MOBILE
by
for their valuable
content contrib-
SynchroLife APPLICATION
A beta version of the
LAURA
SYMBORSKI uted to the plat- token crowdsale SynchroLife plat-
form, SynchroLife form (without block-
Chief Director,
SynchroLife is building a tru- Start: chain technology)
ly global platform September 8th has already been re-
with trustwor- leased as a free mo-
thy restaurant in- 2017 bile app for both
formation and re- iOS and Android.
views worldwide. End: The beta version was
By using block-
October 6th 2017 first tested in Japan,
where it gathered
chain technolo- over 30,000 users
gy for restaurant and 150,000 unique
business information management restaurant reviews. After the success of
and artificial intelligence for recom- the Japanese beta version, SynchroLife
mendations, SynchroLife is building was released for use in over 155 countries
a platform that benefits and connects and 4 languages in July 2017.
both diners and restaurants. Syn-
chroLife's mission is to help diners With the upcoming token crowdsale,
find good restaurants and food that the SynchroLife team plans to further
 SEPTEMBER 2017

develop and grow the existing SynchroLife ser- average scores SynchroLife is designed to focus ing valuable content to the SynchroLife plat-
vice with the implementation of blockchain on making recommendations based on people form. This could be editing, updating, or trans-
technology and SynchroCoin token rewards. and individual tastes. lating restaurant business information, post-
ing high quality restaurant ratings (reviews and
PROBLEMS WITH THE RESTAURANT By creating a blockchain based restaurant busi- photos), adding new restaurants to the plat-
DISCOVERY INDUSTRY ness information database, SynchroLife is open- form, marking closed restaurants in the plat-
Despite the wide variety of restaurant search ing the door to a truly global restaurant database, form, and more. SynchroCoin rewards will be
and discovery services currently available, ma- where restaurants around the world can be up- distributed from the SynchroLife reward pool
jor issues still exist for both diners and restau- dated and maintained by the community. The de- once a week and divided amongst all contribu-
rants. Restaurants struggle daily to attract and centralized maintenance model allows tors during that week based on how
retain new loyal customers. Diners find them- even the huge task of keeping all glob- much they contributed. This will all
selves suffering from an information overload as al restaurant information updated re- be done with smart contract on the
they encounter pages of general results for a sin- alistic, as the community is rewarded Ethereum blockchain.
gle search. There has also been growing distrust for their time and contributions. The
and controversy in the accuracy of the averaged token economy in the platform keeps SYNCHROLIFE CROWDSALE
scores and secret algorithms used in existing users coming back and rewards them The SynchroLife token crowdsale
restaurant discovery services to rank search re- for putting the time and effort into SynchroLife is will start August 16, 2017 at 12:00
sults and reviewers. good quality content. These rewards noon GMT, and last for four weeks
building a tru-
then can be used next time they go out ending on September 13, 2017 at
Another major issue is the sheer number of res- to eat. There may even be some users
ly global platform 11:59 AM GMT. During the token
taurants, with an estimated global restaurant who turn restaurant reviewing and in- with trustwor- crowdsale, 55,000,000 SynchroCoin
count at over 15 million. With this many res- formation updates into a side job, like thy restaurant in- (SYC) of the total 100,000,000 Syn-
taurants, traditional restaurant discovery ser- many bloggers and "Youtubers". formation and re- chroCoin will be sold. Of the remain-
vices struggle to maintain accurate informa- views worldwide. ing SynchroCoin, 20,000,000 will go
tion of restaurant openings and closings world- SYNCHROCOIN TOKEN towards SynchroLife's reward pool
wide. Diners find themselves unable to use the ECONOMY SynchroLife was for users.
services they are used to at home when trav- The SynchroCoin token-based econ- released for use
eling abroad, because many services focus on omy connects diners and restau-
in over 155 coun- Please note there is no set price for
only one specific city or region. rants together in a way that is ben- 1 SynchroCoin token during the
eficial for both sides. Diners are re-
tries and 4 lan- crowdsale. The amount of Synchro-
SYNCHROLIFE'S SOLUTIONS warded SynchroCoin for adding con- guages in July Coin tokens an individual receives at
The SynchroLife platform addresses and re- tent to the SynchroLife platform or 2017. the end of the token crowdsale will be
solves many of the current issues in the restau- visiting participating restaurants. allocated according to the proportion
rant search and discovery industry, for both in- They will be able to use these SynchroCoin to- of Ether (ETH) investment that individual has
dividual diners and restaurants. For restaurants, kens to buy restaurant gift cards or coupons, contributed. Only ETH payments will be accept-
SynchroLife only requires results-based com- tip other users, buy premium app or site fea- ed during the SynchroLife token crowdsale. In-
pensation for advertising and marketing, which tures, or pay for meals at participating restau- dividuals interested should also note there will
means restaurants can use the platform for free rants. Restaurants can use tokens to get access be a time bonus schedule with the first 24 hours
until they actually get results. The artificial intel- to targeted marketing and analytics tools on starting off with a 20% bonus that decreases
ligence based personalization in SynchroLife can the SynchroLife platform as well as offer bo- overtime, so join early if possible!
also help restaurants maximize their outreach to nuses to users who come to their restaurant.
gain loyal customers. For diners, SynchroLife is For more information about SynchroLife and
eliminating decision fatigue by using artificial HOW DO THE REWARDS WORK? the upcoming token crowdsale, please visit
intelligence to provide each individual with per- The token reward system works by rewarding http://synchrolife.org or contact info@synch-
sonalized recommendations. By getting rid of users with SynchroCoin tokens for contribut- rolife.org.
79
SEPTEMBER 2017

LakeBanker
Free Banking for the World and
Cryptocurrencies for Billions
THE PROBLEM CRYPTOCURRENCIES AS A cryptocurrencies are created.
The financial industry needs change: SOLUTION? 2 At the level of software, cryptocur-
Banks use decades old technology such Bitcoin was invented to allow curren- rencies are difficult to use for many.
as debit cards that were introduced in cy to be sent directly from one party to At the level of security, many are un-
1966, ATMs that were first installed in another without going through a finan- able to safeguard their own wallets,
1969, and they still use paper. Technol- cial institution. It stolen coins are
ogy has advanced at an accelerated rate therefore had the not recoverable,
by
THOMAS XIE in recent years. Many industries have potential to make ICO Phase 1 incorrect transac-
CEO been completely revolutionized but, banking less ex- Start: September 15, 2017 tions are not re-
banking has hardly changed at all. Their pensive and more versible and mis-
business model is out of date: They still accessible. Never- End: September 20, 2017 placed wallet/
rely on brick-and-mortar branches and theless, the pro- password are not
tens or sometimes hundreds of thou- ject has yet to ac- recoverable.
sands of employees. Wells Fargo has complish this goal. The barriers to using 2 Transactions are becoming very ex-
roughly 280,000 employers and over Bitcoin itself along with other financial pensive. This has an especially nega-
6000 branches. The Agricultural Bank instruments based on Blockchain Tech- tive effect on the accessibility of cryp-
of China has approximately 450,000 nology are currently too high: tocurrencies in remote or developing
employees and 24,000 branches. The areas of the world.
costs of maintaining this infrastructure 2 They are too complicated for many, 2 Price volatility is too high.
are immense. and the perceived complexity is grow- 2 Confirmation times, transaction
ing as more and throughputs and overall capacity are
Because of these prob- m o r e bottlenecks
lems, banking is ex-
pensive, time con- For these reasons, cryptocurrencies re-
suming and fails to main unknown or untrusted outside
reach a significant small tech-savvy communities. Further,
proportion of the cryptocurrencies are not necessary for
worlds population. most people. Decentralisation is great,
Five Billion of the but many can live without it. Therefore,
worlds people have cryptocurrencies are a great (alterna-
little or no access to tive) asset class, and an investment ve-
mainstream finan- hicle. They could be an important sup-
cial services and plement to the existing financial world.
are, as a result, cut But they have a long way to go before
off from the glob- becoming a currency or mainstream as-
al economy. In- set.
come per capita
may be low but OUR SOLUTION
the overall mar- The LakeBanker system coordinates a
ket is huge. From massive network of individuals, mer-
both a humani- chants and other institutions who pro-
tarian and busi- vide banking services to users. The
ness perspec- nodes in our network are called "Lake-
tive, the tradi- Bankers". A LakeBanker provides ser-
tional banking vices that would ordinarily be under-
sector is a fail- taken by the high street branch of a tra-
ure in the de- ditional bank, for example, to facilitate
veloping as deposits and withdrawals or to conduct
well as some KYC (Know Your Customer) as part of
areas of the credit risk management. Our mobile
developed app uses artificial intelligence to
world. match customers dynamically with
80
 SEPTEMBER 2017

LakeBankers based on real-time supply for processing card payments were around $17 billions of users. The demand will be very
and demand conditions. We will have few Billion -- over 0.6% of the entire UK economy. strong.
employees but millions will work for us. In our system, most of these transactions will
be free. TOKEN SALE
This Crowd-Banking model means that, when Phase one of our Token Sale is set to be held on
compared to traditional banks, our costs are WHO WE ARE Friday, September 15, 2017 at 3pm UTC. We
much lower: We have no high street branch- We are the team behind cryptocurrency ex- will issue a small number of our tokens at a dis-
es, few employees, no large corporate offices change LakeBTC.com. LakeBTC started in count. In return, we hope to get feedback from
and no ATM machines. Instead, we leverage 2013 and has 10 million user accounts cre- the community and collaboration from early
the potential of existing personnel and infra- ated from 162 countries. We support 42 cur- participants.
structure outside our core organisation. As a rencies and 52 payment methods with hun-
result, our marginal cost of supply falls expo- dreds more to come. LakeBTC is probably the Phase 1 - Fixed Price Sale
nentially and approaches zero. This allows us only major platform without stolen coins, se- 2 Contributions received before the start date
to deliver core banking services for free and curity scandals or flash crashes. As one of enjoy the First Hour price.
to expand easily into currently underbanked the most valuable brand names in the indus- 2 September 15, 2017, 3pm UTC - September
populations. try, LakeBTC has proven to be robust, relia- 20, 2017, 3pm UTC.
ble, and trustworthy. LakeBanker inherits its 2 Phase 1 offer size is capped at 10,000,000
OUR FREE SERVICES core team, expertise, technology and culture. BAC (10 million). First come, first served.
Some of the worlds leading technology compa- 2 Phase 1 is a fixed price sale (see the price ta-
nies offer core services for free. For example, it BETA VERSION ble).
costs nothing to send an email with Google or A low-profile trial of the LakeBanker Crowd 2 Fair and open to everybody. No under-the-ta-
to share social media on Facebook. Our model Banking System was started 1.5 years ago ble deals.
is similar. For most users, payments will be free and today involves more than 2,000 users
in the LakeBanker system. This includes user from all over the world. The demand has Phase 1 - 1 ETH (price in BAC shall be
to user payments and user to merchant pay- been very strong even with no public an- Fixed Price determined by the market at
ments. nouncement or media reports. Sale the time of the token sale)
MARKETS THE TOKEN: BAC First hour 1300
The markets we intend to disrupt with these BAC will be an ERC20 compliant token based After the 1100
free services are huge: Trillions of dollars cir- in the Ethereum Blockchain. This token will first hour
culate the globe in electronic transactions each drive transactions in the LakeBanker sys-
year. But they often attract heavy fees. For ex- tem. All fees and interest will be denomi- Phase two will be held in mid-October. BAC to-
ample, World Bank data indicates that, in 2016 nated by BAC. Our token will be well-inte- kens will be tradable on LakeBTC 3 days after
remittance payments cost an average of 7.2% grated in our business model and has signif- the close of Phase 2.
of the amount sent. Thats about $43 billion in icant, long-term utility in our system. When
charges just for moving information. Similar- the LakeBanker system is mature, BAC will Further details about the token sale can be
ly, in the UK alone, charges made to merchants circulate amongst millions and eventually found at https://lakebanker.com/.
81
SEPTEMBER 2017

Anacoin.
Promoting
Peace with
Blockchain
Technology
A great puzzle of humanity is how acts This is where extremism lives and it is itally, be they religious, political or oth-
of evil can be committed by those who this certainty, which can be built in var-
erwise, figuring out the links between
believe they are doing good, termed "al- ious ways, that can allow dehumaniza- information and context. We are also
truistic evil" by Lord Rabbi Jonathan tion and hatred. Where there is reasona-building the tools to make this informa-
Sacks. The Nazis did not think of them- ble doubt, you are more likely to find ac-
tion readily accessible and navigable for
selves as evil, nor do terrorists today. ceptance and peace. those who follow these ideologies, help-
ing them take the best path, simultane-
by
ZEENA QURESHI On the other end of the spectrum today At Ananas, we believe a portion of ide- ously helping those seeking to under-
CEO, Ananas "fake news" and ideological splits are ological hate is an information prob- stand them from other backgrounds.
polarizing our society, increasing ha- lem. It is possible
tred and division. However, ideologies to study radicali- For our first step,
are not always negative and have helped sation to see what ICO Pre-sale we are tackling the
create some of our greatest achieve- pieces of infor- Start: 8th September pressing problem
ments. mation translate of rising Islamic ex-
into beliefs that
End: 7th October tremism and Islam-
The Ananas project, run by the UK-reg- then can lead to ophobia by map-
istered charity the Ananas Foundation, hatred and harm. ping Islam, starting
uses modern technology and behaviour- However, facts with its core text in
al science to help defuse negative ideol- alone are usual- our Living Quran
ogies and promote positive ones. This is ly not enough to project.
a complex project made possible by the move someone off
emergence of blockchain technology Mount Stupid, It is difficult to
and token economics through our cryp- as anyone who has know where to go
to-currency, the Anacoin. been involved in for reliable infor-
an internet debate mation on Islam,
There is a phenomenon known as the knows. Context is with the extrem-
"Dunning-Kruger effect" that will be fa- essential. ists and Islamo-
miliar to all readers - it is when some- phobes claiming it
one learns a little bit and believes they Our goal is to build is a religion of hate
know everything. If you plot what you a "Knowledge and most normal
know versus what you believe you don't Graph" mapping Muslims looking
know, this is a rapid peak that we term the world's ma- on aghast. Goog-
"Mount Stupid". jor ideologies dig- le ranks results
82

based on backlinks and Wikipedia is sternly ob-
jective, neither necessarily reflecting what ad-
herents believe. Religion is subjective by de-
sign, so what we need to look for is which in-
terpretations people really believe in a verifia-
ble way, objective subjectivity.
This is where blockchain excels, enabling large-
scale, incentivised co-ordination of individuals
to build information of great value.
We have based our model on the Stanford En-
cyclopedia of Philosophy, allowing anyone to
commission content on the decentralized, un-
structured part of the platform, including the
Foundation. However, the consumer applica-
tion only contains data sets, pulling togeth-
er information and context by Foundation-ap-
proved groups choosing the elements of what
they actually believe.
For example, in the Living Quran, users can see
the data from the perspective of ones own be-
lief system, ie Christian or Sunni, or navigate
and view the variants on interpretation and ba-
sic principles of other groups in as much depth
as they wish.
Done correctly, this makes it far more diffi-
cult for extremists of any type to warp the core
message as it will be a comprehensive, up-to-
date and increasingly authoritative resource as
it gains traction.
SEPTEMBER 2017
it for potential appreciation and status on the
platform.
The supply of Anacoins is fixed at 10 million
and can only be minted via Proof of Social
Proof. This is our unique model where chap-
At Ananas, we believe a portion of ideo- ter sponsorships are available for core texts as
scarce digital assets, for example, there are only
logical hate is an information problem
114 chapters of the Quran available by auction.
We have based our model on the Stan-
ford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, allow- As the Living Quran aims to collect every piece
of information on each chapter and verse availa-
ing anyone to commission content on the
ble, these sponsorships will increase in value with
decentralized, unstructured part of the platform popularity. They are resaleable with 50%
platform, including the Foundation. of any profit going to the Foundation via smart
contract. 50% of any proceeds from sponsorships
Members of approved communities are also are used to buy Anacoins in the open market and
available to answer questions, helping build mint an equivalent dollar value of Anacoins for
real world networks and get the right infor- the Foundation, locked for three years.
mation to the right people. Approval to create
data sets for the consumer apps is not granted This ties the prestige of the platform with sup-
to groups that charge for enlightenment or ad- ply and demand for Anacoins, allowing contrib-
vocate violence. utors to benefit from the creation of a valuable
resource by a charity.
To drive this, we have constructed the Ana-
coin to provide a unique value proposition that With the help of a growing community we be-
can be a model to other charities. Anacoins are lieve we can create a valuable resource that has
used to commission research on the platform, the potential to make a meaningful difference.
reward community participation, and to spon-
sor verses of the core texts, starting with the Our pre-sale is currently ongoing and the main
Quran, but then covering the Bible, Vedas and token sale will be from the 8th of September
US constitution, creating a constant bid. Recip- to the 7th of October, with Anacoins uniquely
ients can convert this to other currency or keep purchasable in a record 28 different currencies.
83
SEPTEMBER 2017

Spheris
Decentralized
Application Marketplace
to Disrupt App Distribution
Traditional software WHAT IS SPHERIS? ple for the people. No banks, no cred-
Spheris is an open source decentralizedit card companies. No censorship. We
distribution platforms
application marketplace. Think App want it to be extremely easy and com-
are collecting large fees Store, on the blockchain. A secure distri-
fortable to use, both for developers
from developers, all the bution platform with no fees, no restric-
who wish to integrate Spheris into their
tions and available apps, and for cus-
while restricting them
for everyone. tomers who wish
with strict sometimes by ICO Start Date: to purchase apps.
DAVID SHABUN
discriminating guidelines. Our goal is to cre- September 19th, 2017
ate a new market- THE CURRENT
Blockchain technology
place for applica- PROBLEMS
is the key to disrupt tions, where there ICO End Date: For app develop-
their rule and bring the are no fees in- October 19th, 2017 ers, the most dis-
volved and no re- couraging thing
decentralized App Store to
strictions. A de- about the current
the masses. centralized platform, in the complete app market is monetization. In 2014,
sense of the term, powered by the peo- Gartner predicted that by 2018, less
84

than 0.01 percent of mobile apps would be con-
sidered a financial success by their developers.
Part of this is likely due to the fact that, most
users wont pay for apps, now that some of the
best apps are free. Even if they can bring in
some revenue by charging a small fee for down-
loads, app developers must pay as much as 30
percent in fees to the app store they use in ad-
dition to any registration fees.
In addition to financial concerns, app devel-
opers also face frustrations with having to fol-
low the marketplaces rules. Violation of strict
guidelines can get an app booted out of one of
these stores, with Apples policies considered
the strictest. Even developers who dont have
a problem following a list of rules express dis-
satisfaction with these marketplaces lack of
transparency, especially when their apps are
declined with no explanation. In some ways,
this brings concerns about censorship, since
marketplaces could decide to ban certain apps
for personal reasons.
THE BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTION: SPHERIS
Developing Spheris on Ethereums blockchain
allows us to provide a solution to many of the
problems that developers and consumers face
today with app stores. We have five main, func-
tion-specific components that together form
the Spheris platform and provide complete de-
centralization.
Users will be able to pay for apps using our to-
kens, sell apps outside of our main app store,
Traditional software distribution
platforms are collecting large fees from
developers, all the while restricting them
with strict sometimes discriminating
guidelines. Blockchain technology is the
key to disrupt their rule and bring the
decentralized App Store to the masses.
Users will be able to pay for apps using
our tokens, sell apps outside of our main
app store, offer highly customizable
subscriptions to customers (leasing apps
for 25 minutes becomes possible, for
example), upload apps to decentralized
storage and more cool things.
SEPTEMBER 2017
offer highly customizable subscriptions to cus-
tomers (leasing apps for 25 minutes becomes
possible, for example), upload apps to decen-
tralized storage and more cool things.
We live by the open source philosophy, and so
we want developers to have a free platform to
work on. No registration fees, no transaction
fees.
SPHERIS TOKENS (SPRS)
To buy or sell apps on the Spheris platform,
users will use SPRS tokens which are intend-
ed to be the app currency. To make pric-
es convenient to users, and avoid sometimes
confusing pricing such as 0.00719 BTC, we
introduce a total supply of 2 trillion SPRS
tokens.
Aside from convenience, it allows for market
scalability and ensures that prices for apps on
the Spheris platform dont fall below the deci-
mal point.
SPHERIS CROWDSALE
Spheris is opening the crowdsale doors on Sep-
tember 19th, 2017 for anyone who wants to
kickstart Spheris and be part of a disruptive
project. Crowdsale will be open for 30 days or
until all offered tokens are sold out.
For more information about Spheris, visit
https://spheris.io.Youre welcome to drop by
for a chat with our team on our Telegram chan-
nel: https://t.me/spheris
85
SEPTEMBER 2017

ETHLend
Decentralizing and
Revolutionizing Lending Globally

The current lending model is outdated! up with the idea of starting his own de- Ethereum blockchain network. This is
centralised lending application. With a an enormous advantage compared to
Why is lending restricted to local banks clear goal of maximal decentralisation the traditional banking system, where
and peer-to-peer lenders? Well, this is and access to a fair lending market for a single transaction from Abu-Dhabi to
about to change. everyone. After researching the top- Seoul might take days.
ic and realizing how unfair global lend-
ETHLend is a decentralized peer to ing markets were, Stani concluded that WHAT TECHNICAL PROBLEM
peer lending application that has there was a need for change and this DOES ETHLEND SOLVE?
been built on top of the Ethereum Net- new technology enables that. Previously decentralized lending was
work. The goal of ETHLend is to use not considered possible since it was dif-
blockchain technology to enable secure WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ficult to impose an incentive to the bor-
and transparent lending for everyone, DECENTRALIZED LENDING? rower to repay the loan due to the pseu-
everywhere in the world. ETHLend aims to offer liquidity to the do-anonymous nature of cryptocurren-
by
MARTIN global lending market. Decentralized cy. ETHLend came up with a solution to
WICHMANN The ETHLend team is developing a glob- lending provides the possibility for bor- use ERC-20 compatible tokens as collat-
Head of Token Sale al lending market where borrowers and rowers and lenders to perform loan eral for the loan. The borrower pledges
at EthLend
lenders from all parts of the world can transactions from different parts of the tokens to receive a loan. In case the bor-
participate in a fair lending market. The world. rower does not repay the loan, the lend-
aim of ETHLend is to provide transpar- er can claim the tokens for further re-
ent and global lending and by doing so The borrower: alization to regain any loss. ETHLend
erase interest rate differences between The effect is that the borrower in uses Ethereum Name Service (ENS) do-
different parts of the world. There are Mumbai would not be limited to lo- mains as a form of collateral and reputa-
huge differences in interest rates when cal banks and lenders. Instead, with tion-based lending tool, eventually cre-
it comes to problematic and economi- a single loan request the borrowers ating a decentralized credit rating. The
cally unstable countries such as Argen- loan could be funded from all parts of introduction of reputation based lend-
tina @31%, Brazil @52% and Venezue- the world. Such a game changer might ing will create credit profiles for the bor-
la @20%. In comparison to, for example provide more liquidity to the local rower. The lender can review the de-
Northern Europe, where interest rates lending market, hence reducing inter- tails of the previous loans and lenders.
are at a few percent. est rates due to the increasing compe- Moreover, such a decentralized credit
tition. rating could be easily used in other de-
The Founder of ETHLend and a decen- centralized applications or the central-
tralization puritan Stani Kulechov, be- The lender: ized economy.
lieves that blockchain technology could Global lending markets would pro-
open the floodgates for global peer-to- vide more financing opportunities NEW OPPORTUNITIES
peer lending, thus providing more com- with a wider range of risk options. FOR BLOCKCHAIN
petition in the local lending markets. It START-UPS AND ICOS
was only last fall, when Stani started re- The speed of transaction is the edge. All ETHLends innovation could be used
searching blockchain technology and transactions are conducted within a few by blockchain start-ups that are rais-
Smart Contracts, that is when he came seconds or minutes with the use of the ing funds via Initial Coin Offerings
86
 SEPTEMBER 2017

(ICOs). Start-up companies can take advan- ject contributors, who are participat- Ending: 25.10.2017 kl. 23.59 GMT
tage of the ETHLend platform during the ing in the token sale. The main utili- or when the cap is reached
Pre-ICO phase and issue some of their future ty function of LEND is the ability to
tokens as a pledge for a loan. These funds can use it for paying deployment fees on AMOUNT TO RAISE: 2 500 ETH
then be used for marketing, research, and de- ETHLend with a 25% discount com- TOKENS FOR SALE: 62 500 000
velopment. This is just one innovative way of pared to ETH. Hence, LEND could LEND (6,25% of total supply)
using Ethereum Smart Contracts for lending be seen as a priority pass to decen- All team mem- LEND TOKEN PRICE: 25 000
applications. tralized lending. LEND = 1 ETH
bers share a com-
BONUS TOKENS: 20% For all pre-
SECURE BY DESIGN Moreover, ETHLend will use a base mon aim, to pro- sale participants
All transactions are deployed with the use of of 5% plus an additional 1-5% (de- vide a more dem-
smart contracts. Therefore, once a loan is initi- pending on the previous years ocratic lending Pre-sold tokens are deducted from
ated and deployed to the Ethereum blockchain growth) of the application deploy- environment, by the 1 000 000 000 LEND total sup-
network, it is tamper resistant, ETHLend can- ment fees to buy back LEND from ply.
not change or stop your loan requests. the market and burn it. The idea is to providing more
buy LEND that is not used on ETH- liquidity to the DETAILS OF THE OFFICIAL
ETHLEND TEAM Lend, from the market, to maintain local lending ETHLEND TOKEN SALE ICO:
Today the ETHLend team consists of 20 block- the value of LEND. The effect is that markets. Starting: 25.11.2017 12.00 GMT
chain enthusiasts located in different parts of the total supply of LEND decreas- Ending: 9.12.2017 23.59 GMT or
the world. All team members share a common es and the value of the remaining when the cap is reached
aim, to provide a more democratic lending en- LEND increases.
vironment, by providing more liquidity to the AMOUNT TO RAISE: 37 500 ETH
local lending markets. ETHLEND PRE-SALE ICO TOKENS FOR SALE: 1 000 000 000
DETAILS: LEND
ROADMAP TO LEND TOKEN SALE The purpose of the pre-sale is to pre- LEND TOKEN PRICE: 25 000
While ETHLend is continuing to develop its pare for the upcoming official token LEND = 1 ETH
decentralized application, the team has also re- sale on the 25 November. BONUS TOKENS: 10% for the first
vealed details of the upcoming pre-token sale. Starting: 25.09.2017 kl. 12.00 200 000 000 LEND
ETHLend introduces the LEND token for pro- GMT 5% for the next 100 000 000 LEND
87
SEPTEMBER 2017
Rockchain.
Opening the
Public Blockchain
to Private Data
The public blockchains
have recently extended
their scope to applications
with Ethereum. However,
those applications are
isolated from rich data.
Indeed, no company
wants to put sensitive data
on the public blockchains,
whether encrypted or not.
Some of those data are
their DNA, and connecting
those data to public
blockchain distributed
logic would certainly
make a wonderful new use
case; but currently it is not
possible.
88
Rockchain addresses this problem by cre- they are global access rights systems,
ating a distributed file system on which for distributed file systems. With UNIX
all nodes opt-in for data sharing or log- operating systems, we define the (R)
ical rules execution. We define advanced ead (W)rite e(X)ecute rights. The e(X)
privacy rules, allowing only computation ecute rights is an option to let remote
results to be publicized. The blockchain is computations use the local private
the orchestrator, and Rockchain the link data. We also define the groups of users
by between rich data and the public block- allowed to access those data, a corner-
SBASTIEN
JEHAN chain. stone for the data collaboration gov-
ROCKCHAIN.ORG ernance. In Rockchain a user is recog-
CEO and Inventor This distributed file system (called the nized by his Ethereum address.
DappBox) is a decentralized file shar-
ing service. The immediate benefits of We're not alone when it comes to tack-
decentralization in file sharing services ling the problem of public blockchain
are hosting costs, pri- and private networks
vacy (no central serv- collaboration. We con-
er can access the files ICO Start Date: sider this as the first
content), traceability September 26, 2017 problem to be solved
(the DappBox identi- for public blockchains
fies whos connecting hosting distributed
to request the files). ICO End Date: applications. Polkad-
Linking the DappBox October 26, 2017 ot, driven by Gavin
to the Ethereum Wood, is solving the
Blockchain brings an- issue with a state-cen-
other set of benefits: auditability (sav- tric approach, while we chose a data-cen-
ing the history of file exchange opera- tric approach.
tions), and access rights management
based on the decentralized Ethereum For the advanced use cases of our da-
architecture. For companies, this last ta-centric approach, we had to define an
feature is critical. Basing access rights engine able to perform computation on
management systems on the Ethereum data without compromising the privacy
infrastructure means the ability to add of those data. The Blockchain communi-
governance policies for those who are ty tends to focus on a fully homomorphic
authorized to access and modify specif- encryption system as a possible solu-
ic content. tion, which can be considered as the Holy
Grail of crypto computation, with the
All those features that look like ad- breakthrough having occurred in 2009,
vanced use cases for file exchange ser- when Craig Gentry released his white pa-
vices, are in fact very coherent and in- per A Fully Homomorphic Encryption
tertwined together, if we consider that Scheme while doing his research degree

Indeed, no com-
pany wants to
put sensitive
data on the pub-
lic blockchains,
whether en-
crypted or not.
Some of those
data are their
DNA, and con-
necting those
data to public
blockchain dis-
tributed logic
would certainly
make a wonder-
ful new use case. at Stanford University. In short, it allows cal data. This can apply to financial reg- crypto framework performance that
the computation of any function on en-
Rockchain ad- crypted data without knowing the de-
cryption key. However, homomorphic
dresses this encryption systems are currently not
problem by cre- practical enough to be used in real time
ating a distrib- systems. For example, using the sym-
uted file sys- metric AES encryption algorithm (one of
the most popular encryption algorithms)
tem on which all
with a fully homomorphic encryption
nodes opt-in for system would still take a few hours on
data sharing or standard computers.
logical rules ex-
ecution. In Rockchain, we chose a practical ap-
proach to use secured two part compu-
tation to be able to compute some func-
For the ad- tions on private data without knowing
vanced use cases the decryption keys. We improved a lot,
of our data-cen- both the genericity of using such frame-
works (were able to use JavaScript as an
tric approach,
input language to define the computa-
we had to de- tions to be done) and the performance
fine an engine (were saving a lot of space on com-
able to perform piled circuits, i.e. encrypted computa-
computation on tion scripts in short). Being able to share
computations without sharing data is
data without a critical issue to solve for creating tru-
compromising ly dynamic distributed systems. It is of
the privacy of course very technical, but the technic-
those data. ity of the challenge should not hide the
fact that its opening up a large number
of business opportunities for blockchain
distributed applications.
Among the B2C business opportunities,
we see health diagnosis applications, fi-
nancial advising and recruiting as are-
as where customers would be embar-
rassed if their data was public and availa-
ble to their insurers, employers or bank.
The B2B opportunities are creating a
new world of coopetition opportuni-
ties, where businesses are sharing very
thin layers of value extracted from their
data without giving access to their criti-
SEPTEMBER 2017
ulation, price discovery for example in will announce major speed and scale im-
house rentals and distributed research provements on computations that dont
on medical databases. break data privacy. Our improvement
will reach the 10 factor on one or sever-
We're launching an ICO on September al orthogonal criterions: speed, size, and
26, 2017 - 11:00 GMT. Most of the pro- network usage.
ceeds will go in developing Rockchain
technology (76%) but we also allocat- Also, the DappBox distributed file sys-
ed 12% of the proceeds for supporting tem, linked with Ethereum, will be re-
Rockchain applications. Rockchain en- leased as an alpha version at the end of
ables application owners to extend the the year 2017, well before the 18 months
use cases of the Ethereum public block- for the full Rockchain infrastructure,
chain, to use cases incorporating logic on with only the read access rights manage-
private data. ment system. As it will be fueled by the
ROK token, the Rockchain ROK tokens
Rockchain distributed infrastructure will definitely get a practical usage in a
success, will depend on future distrib- few months, bringing tractions for new
uted applications owners embracing the token holders.
opportunity of linking the public block-
chain with private data silos. Thats The performance gains in our technical
why were devoting a significant part of implementation of secured multipart
the ICO funds to assist future applica- computation, as well as the ability to
tion owners when using Rockchain in- have a direct infrastructure usage of ROK
frastructure. We already have a wonder- tokens for a standard use case, (sharing
ful Dapp, genomes.io that is reinventing files in an organized and governed man-
how our DNA should be used for diagno- ner) are good reasons to invest. More
sis in the UK. generally, I hope Rockchain can attract
more long term investors who under-
Many people ask if well release our code stand that theyre betting on the idea
at the time of the ICO; in fact, we have that a single public blockchain could suf-
chosen to release a mature framework, 18 fice for solving major collaboration use
months after the ICO, rather than releas- cases, rather than the proliferation of
ing debatable unfinished code. We hope different protocols. Its a bet that resem-
to become a standard in secured multi- bles the time when the Ethernet protocol
part computation for usability and easi- (now universal on the internet) was de-
ness; we would certainly fail in being rec- ployed alongside other protocols focused
ognized as a fair and stable platform if we on private networks, such as Token Ring.
deliver a framework with bugs and unfin- Even with a risk adverse approach (not
ished features, creating a significant level betting on one view of the future but on
of frustration among early adopters. several competing possibilities of the fu-
ture blockchain ecosystem) Rockchain is
Thus, to satisfy the healthy curiosity of a great opportunity to diversify on pos-
crypto-developers before the ICO, Rock- sible mass adoption of these specific in-
chain will release a benchmark of our frastructures.
89
SEPTEMBER 2017

DentaCoin
The Future of Dental
Care on The Blockchain
There is a plethora of applications for various challenges to tackle. Here is a Culture, Mindset and Social Con-
brief list of these challenges: siderations Designing a system
blockchain technology in the healthcare Trust Understanding which dental that can be applied globally.
industry. Within that industry, DentaCoin health profes-
is taking on the challenge of developing sionals are the HOW IS
a sound platform with a variety of tools
best. ICO Starts: DENTACOIN
DESIGNED TO
for dental health. That challenge is as Preventive
October 1st, 2017 TACKLE THESE
technological as it is social, cultural and Treatment CHALLENGES?
economic.
Encouraging pa- ICO Ends: The DentaCoin
tients to create team took a criti-
habits and be
October 31st, 2017 cal look at each as-
DentaCoin uses blockchain to bridge all proactive with pect of these and
these aspects and launch a service that their dental other challenges
will bring healthcare professionals, pa- health to pre- to come up with
tients and suppliers together. Here is an vent problems. a solution. Developers also approached
overview of how the DentaCoin system the use of blockchain technology criti-
will work. Creating a Market To create a cally, avoiding the trap of creating a to-
small economy based on the value of ken just for the sake of branding their
by THE CHALLENGE DENTACOIN IS dental health. project as a blockchain project. Denta-
DONOVAN OBOSI
TACKLING Coin is creating a multi-functional plat-
To understand the DentaCoin system, it Privacy Securing patient data. form in which blockchain technology
is necessary to define the challenge or and the DCN token play a vital, neces-
challenges that it is designed for. With- Affordability Making dental sary role. DentaCoins solution to these
in the dental care industry, there are health more affordable. challenges relies therefore on block-
90
 SEPTEMBER 2017

chain, smart contracts and an ERC20 token sold in the market. This insurance howev- tween the patient and their records, and it
that underpins it all, but it also relies on a va- er, is only valid if the patient complies with allows for intelligent control of the med-
riety of different systems to complement that the dental care policy. In return, the dentist ical records through the information and
core blockchain technology component. is committed to save heal and replace the the trust-less time stamps in it. Additional-
teeth of his smart contract patient if the pa- ly, this phase closes the currency cycle that
FOUR PHASES tient complies with their obligations under underpins the whole system. DentaCoin cre-
To simplify the creation of such a complex sys- the policy. These obligations are monitored ates value for the dental health industry, the
tem that involves technological challenges, as by the app, and bring the dental care service patients and dentistry professionals. There-
well as social, economic and cultural challeng- provider and the patient on the same side fore, suppliers will be willing to come in and
es, it is necessary to divide the project into through incentives take payments for their supplies denominat-
different phases. Blockchain technology and ed in DentaCoin.
smart contracts will play a prominent role in 4. Healthcare Database: This phase is all about
most phases, while the DCN token will under- having comprehensive medical records for THE FUTURE DENTAL CARE MODEL
pin the whole ecosystem. DentaCoin has the each patient secured by the blockchain. This These phases allow for the creation of a system
following four main phases of implementation: removes any middleman involvement be- that takes on the many challenges in dental
health. It provides for the creation of a model
1. Blockchain-Based Trusted Review Platform: that adds value to every party within the den-
A platform in which patients review dental tal health industry. It also addresses cultural,
health professionals on a 2-tier system, with social and economic concerns, while creating a
trusted reviews having higher value and re- model for preventive care that is crucial to the
wards than regular reviews. This will allow patients, and great for dentistry professionals.
dental health professionals to develop a cli- DentaCoin is the dental care model of the fu-
ent base while at the same time allowing pa- ture, powered by the Ethereum blockchain,
Blockchain technology and smart contracts
tients to choose based on a system of reviews smart contracts, market incentives, app devel-
that cannot be tampered with because it is will play a prominent role in most phases, opment, the delivery of education and accurate
secured by the blockchain. while the DCN token will underpin the whole data to patients, a solid review system and in-
ecosystem. surance, all underpinned by its native currency,
2. Aftercare Mobile App and Educational Web- the DCN, which will power the emergence of a
site: This step allows patients to engage in Developers also approached the use of block- small economy around the industry.
preventive care with the help of an app, as chain technology critically, avoiding the trap
well as education about healthcare with an of creating a token just for the sake of brand- In the future, other healthcare models might
interactive game that gives DCN rewards to look up to DentaCoin to shape their own
ing their project as a blockchain project.
those who answer correctly. The app allows healthcare provision systems. Nevertheless,
for children and adults to build healthy hab- the success of DentaCoin will take care of one
its with a 66-day program that comes with This removes any middleman involvement be- of the areas of healthcare that grabs the least
reminders. tween the patient and their records, and it al- attention from governments, insurers and
lows for intelligent control of the medical re- company benefit programs. This will catapult
3. Dental Insurance Concept: In this phase, cords through the information and the trust- DentaCoin to the forefront of future healthcare
DentaCoin aims to create a smart contract less time stamps in it. debates. The DentaCoin model will change the
between a patient and their dentist. If both way we see dental care at a global level, which
parties agree, this smart contract can be makes it one of the most exciting ICOs to join.
91
SEPTEMBER 2017
ICON
The ICON Interchain
Connects Every Blockchain
in Existence
HYPERCONNECT THE WORLD
ICON is an interconnecting blockchain
network. ICON can connect independ-
ent blockchains without the use of addi-
tional third-party intermediaries. Vari-
ous blockchains can communicate with
each other through the ICON platform.
by By connecting separately existing block-
JH KIM
chains, ICON aims to become the larg-
est blockchain network in the world.
ICON tokens are named ICX. ICX is
used as an intermediary currency when
transacting amongst the various block-
chain networks. As an interchain block-
chain, the ICON platform will be able to
92
host other ICOs on the ICON platform. ships with existing financial institu-
Thereby increasing the usability of ICX. tions and blockchains. ICON has already
established multiple partnerships with
With the recent boom of blockchain pro- banks, securities, insurance, hospitals,
jects, one recurring problem is the ina- and universities.
bility to communicate amongst block-
chains. Decentralized blockchains have In particular, ICON organized a consorti-
become siloed networks. Only by con- um with 25 of the largest financial secu-
necting decentralized blockchain net- rity firms in Korea. The consortium was
works, can blockchain truly unlock the organized by the Korea Financial Invest-
full potential of decentralization. ICON ment Association (KOFIA). These finan-
aims to Hyperconnect the world. cial experts were interested in ICONs
blockchain authentication service.
ICON NETWORK CONSORTIUM
As an interconnecting blockchain, one As an interchain blockchain platform,
of the key aspects of ICON is partner- ICON can host other cryptocurrencies

on ICON. To kickstart the ICON block-
chain eco-system, ICON is developing
an education focused cryptocurren-
cy U-Coin (short for University Coin).
U-Coin will be used for paying scholar-
ships and tuition fees.
One of the key partnerships that ICON
has established is with Woori Bank.
Woori bank is one of the largest banks
in Korea. ICON and Woori Bank will
research core blockchain technology
and collaborate to create a blockchain
based Woori Bank cryptocurrency.
Utilizing blockchain, the transac-
tion costs of overseas transfers can be
greatly reduced.
ICON's blockchain network will help
Woori Bank expand its reach across the
globe.
Woori Bank is particularly interested
in the unhackibility of the blockchain,
as banks have always been a target for
hacks and centralized security proto-
cols are overly complex and require
high maintenance.
ICON will help develop Woori Bank's
cryptocurrency. Woori Bank's crypto-
currency will be initially accessible in
the form of a top-up debit card. Con-
sumers would top-up their cryptocur-
rency debit-cards and use the Woori
cryptocurrency at Woori bank affiliat-
ed stores.
ICON DEMO DAY
On August 3rd 2017, the ICON team
launched their Demo Day. The main
purpose of the Demo Day was to open-
source the ICON code to develop-
ers. The ICON team is a developer fo-
cused project. The core ICON develop-
ment teams believe that ICON can only
succeed when developers around the
world collaborate.
In order to facilitate a deeper aware-
ness of the ICON blockchain, ICON
provided a free coding session to all
participants at the event. Demo Day
participants learned how to generate
blocks and send transactions on the
ICON blockchain. By providing block-
chain coding sessions, ICON can help
build a more sophisticated blockchain
infrastructure.
One key property in blockchain is trans-
parency. Anyone can access the block-
chain explorer and check on everyone's
transactions through a shared ledger.
Which is why ICON is fond of having
a transparent development process as
well. For transparent progression, you
can check the ICON source-code on
the Github repository (https://github.
com/theloopkr/loopchain).
SEPTEMBER 2017
With the re-
cent boom of
blockchain pro-
jects, one recur-
ring problem is
the inability to
communicate
amongst block-
chains. Decen-
tralized block-
chains have be-
come siloed net-
works. Only by
connecting de-
centralized
blockchain net-
works, can block-
chain truly un-
lock the full po-
THE LARGEST BLOCKCHAIN Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA). Re-
tential of decen-
NETWORK cently, he was on the executive leader-
JH Kim, ICON council member, is lead- ship team of Kinnser Software, ranked tralization.
ing the ICON project. JH Kim majored by Inc Magazine as one of the fastest
in computer science at POSTECH Uni- growing private companies in the US. One of the key
versity, has patents in security proto- partnerships
cols, and has over 20 years of experi- Simon Seojoon Kim is a blockchain
ence in the information security sector. evangelist and investor. Simon is the that ICON has
co-founder of Knowre, an artificial in- established
JH Kim confidently believes in ICONs telligence powered math education plat- is with Woori
ambitious scale, As an interconnect- form. Fast Company ranked Knowre as Bank. Woori
ing blockchain network, I believe that the top 10 most revolutionary educa-
bank is one
the ICON blockchain has the potential tion companies in the world.
to become the largest blockchain in ex- of the largest
istence. Anyone can build decentralized Yiseul Cho studied at MIT, worked at banks in Korea.
applications (DApps) on the ICON plat- Facebook and ran her own start up be-
form similar to the Ethereum platform. fore moving to London. In London, In order to fa-
she set up a blockchain R&D lab for
As ICON has an ambitious goal, the a major credit card company. From cilitate a deep-
ICON team is getting specialized block- 2016 she worked at HSBC in their first er awareness of
chain support from world-class block- blockchain team focused on block- the ICON block-
chain advisors such as Ismail Malik, Ja- chain data analytics. She also manag- chain, ICON
son Best, Simon Kim, and Yiseul Cho. es the largest blockchain community
provided a free
in London focusing on private block-
Ismail Malik has over 20 years expe- chain technology. coding session
rience in Technology related start-ups to all partic-
and entrepreneurship covering Asset ICO LAUNCH ipants at the
Management, Cryptocurrencies, Mo- The ICON ICO will be the largest ICO event. Demo
bile Payments in the City of London and in Korea. Overall, ICON aims to raise
Emerging Markets working with lead- $44M over the span of 2 weeks. The ICO Day partici-
ing firms such as Vodafone, Cellnet and starts on October 20th, 2017 and ends pants learned
News International. He was the founder on November 3rd, 2017. ICON will dis- how to generate
of the worlds first Blockchain Lab and tribute 400,230,000 ICX which can only blocks and send
first DLT company within Level 39 in be exchanged with Ethereum (ETH). 1
transactions on
Canary Wharf (worlds largest Fintech ETH has a conversion rate of 2,500 ICX
accelerator). (1 ETH = 2,500 ICX). the ICON block-
chain.
Jason Best was selected as one of the 10 Anyone can create a new blockchain
most influential people in crowdfund- project and join the ICON. ICON is kick-
ing by Forbes.com, he is a contributor starting a new era of hyperconnectivity.
to TechCrunch and Venture Beat. He You can learn more about ICON on their
is also the co-founder and principal of website (https://icon.foundation).
93
SEPTEMBER 2017
SPARC
The Research Platform of The Future
Imagine a world in which every idle
computer and mobile device can
suddenly contribute towards the
betterment of human kind. A world in
which all of us can get paid while our
devices supply computing power to
key research projects, is within reach.
Introducing SPARC, the ICO that will
make this dream a reality for people like
you and me, and all those researchers
out there with brilliant ideas who
suddenly require a little more computing
power to make the next breakthrough.
SPARC PRE-ICO IS ON ITS WAY!
SPARC is now offering a 100% token
bonus during its pre-ICO stage. This
means early contributors will get twice
as many tokens to start fueling the re-
search economy. Apart from this bo-
nus, there are other advantages for ear-
by
ICO CROWD ly adopters, like their ability to impact
the development of the SPARC platform
through their feedback and more.
RESEARCHERS JUMPING
ON SPARCS DISTRIBUTED
COMPUTING BANDWAGON
Researchers are also jumping on
SPARCs Distributed Computing Band-
wagon at an early stage. This project,
based out of Kingston, Ontario Can-
ada has deep connections with the
researchers and research institutions
of its hometown. Kingston is home to
world-class Canadian research institu-
tions. In fact, the city of Kingston is
largely built around these research in-
stitutions, which are involved in the
development of fuel cells, other forms
of clean-tech, advanced computing
and neuroscience research to mention
a few. SPARC is jumping in on the ac-
tion, connecting its users to these pro-
jects through an on-demand platform
that will allow them to rent their com-
puting power out to researchers that
need it.
FROM KINGSTON TO THE WORLD
Users of the SPARC platform will also
be able to connect their computing re-
sources to projects elsewhere around
the world, and researchers from oth-
er institutions will be able to access
94
these pooled computing resources im- associated with the app those com-
mediately. The SPARC platform already puters are running will get paid.
has a global outreach program and its Researchers or buyers of comput-
founding members have been talking to ing power will send the work pack-
a wide variety of research institutions ages together with a fee to be held by
around the world in- the platform until the
cluding UC Berkley. calculations are veri-
Platform users will be Pre ICO is fiably done, at which
able to see the impact currently live point the platform
of this hard work im- will release the funds
mediately. But how to the rightful user.
exactly will all the users connect to this The similarity of the system with Bit-
platform and how will their interaction coin at a conceptual level makes it easy
with it work? for everyone to understand. While Bit-
coin is based on a PoW or Proof of Work
HOW SPARC WORKS UNDER THE algorithm, SPARC uses a similar princi-
HOOD ple to deliver Proof of Research.
To put it in simple terms, SPARC has
transformed key elements from clas- SPARC, DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING
sic cryptocurrency projects to enable all AND THE NEXT BIG LEAP
its features and allow it to deliver ser- All these features make SPARC a pro-
vices to researchers while paying the ject that solves one of the most press-
users who rent their computing power ing issues for the advancement of sci-
out. Here is a brief step by step of how ence and research, while giving any-
this distributed computing project will one a chance to contribute and benefit
work: twice: once when they get paid for the
The platform will be based on an app. computing power they rent to research-
Users will have their wallets engage ers, and once when those users have the
with the app, to either sell or buy dis- satisfaction of knowing that their sur-
tributed computing. plus computing power helped fuel scien-
Sellers of computing power will get tific research for the betterment of hu-
calculations that researchers need to man kind. Now it is time to jump on the
do in packages. research bandwagon and contribute to
Those computers will then have to this project during its pre-ICO phase. Be
solve those problems, and when they a part of the future of human kind and
prove they have solved them, wallets scientific research with SPARC.
 SEPTEMBER 2017

LAToken
Last week, a blockchain startup called with MyGold, a gold and silver manu- The CEO of MyGold, Richard Elli-
LAToken raised $8,5 million in just 7 facturing company and mint based in ott, a big fan of blockchain himself
hours, attracting investors with their New Zeeland, to give crypto investors a seems overwhelmed with this part-
idea of bringing crypto expansion to chance to add the most popular safe ha- nership. Never before has such ex-
multi-trillion dollar markets, like eq- ven asset, to their portfolios, buying it citing technology existed where gold
uity or real estate closer than ever be- with cryptocurrencies. could be combined with blockchain. By
fore. LAToken already tokenized shares combining those, you get the best of
by of blue chip companies and commodi- boththe security of having a physi-
DONOVAN OBOSI LAT Token Sale Round 2
ties to trade them on their platform for cal asset and the convenience of a cryp-
cryptocurrencies, and step by step they started on 5th Sep to. With LAToken, we have found the
will unlock the value of assets worth perfect way to make gold more accessi-
trillions bringing them onto blockchain ble, convenient, and tradable,Rich-
technology and making them tradable, ard explains.
liquid assets.
Eventually, LAToken aims to unlock the
The goals that LAToken sets are ambi- value of global assets worth $517 tril-
tious: they want to completely trans- lion, ranging from equity and real estate
form access to capital, and enable cryp-
We decentralize capital markets, to commodities and works of art. To do
tocurrencies to be widely used in the so, they don't just allow investors to
making them more transparent,
real economy by making real assets purchase them at minimal transaction
tradable in crypto. efficient and sustainable, while costs and maximum transparency and
removing the cost of traditional security, but also tokenize them to sell
We decentralize capital markets, mak- middle men and too big to fail them by fractions allowing small inves-
ing them more transparent, efficient institutions. tors to enter previously accessible only
and sustainable, while removing the to large investors. For example, a share
cost of traditional middle men and too in Apple Inc. today costs $157, and an
big to fail institutions. This results in Eventually, LAToken aims to ounce of gold is almost $1300. Before
smarter capital flow, empowering peo- unlock the value of global assets LAToken started its trades, it was im-
ple across the world to bring their most worth $517 trillion, ranging possible for an investor with just $50 to
productive ideas to life for the ultimate own any of them. But today you can get
from equity and real estate to
benefit of society, says Valentin Preo- fractions of both for any amount you
brazhenskiy, CEO of LAToken. commodities and works of art. want to spend.

In a conversation, he mentions that his Thats how, by bringing trillions onto

dream is to build a Nasdaq on block- blockchain, and millions into previous-
chain with a wider range of tradable as- ly inaccessible markets, LAToken bridg-
sets. LAToken started with listing equi- es the crypto- and real economies. They
ties on their platform. Today you can al- believe crypto will dominate the glob-
ready trade Apple, Amazon, Facebook al economy, and so do we. So, lets just
and other shares. They also partnered watch the blockchain revolution win.
95
SEPTEMBER 2017

Negotiating
the ICO
minefield
Is ZILLA The New Amazon for ICOS?

With more than 1500 ongoing ICOs and get worse before it gets better, as oth- From there he founded PRIMO.im, a
ers lose faith in the industry, at a time unique payment platform that allows
counting (source: CNBC), it is becoming where the number of upcoming ICOs is users to scan products in a store with
overwhelming for buyers to compare increasing, hunting out the scams and a QR code, buy them and then skip the
and assess them. By design, in the world promoting the companies raising funds checkout, all with just one click. Now
for great projects is becoming crucially he is looking to do something similar in
of cryptocurrency (for better or worse), important. the crypto space, with what he calls the
there is no central authority or institution Amazon for ICOs.
to act as a reference point. Fortunately, a team based in Singapore,
led by Abasa Phillips - an American se- As such, ZLA PTE Ltd was founded
rial entrepreneur who has been in the in 2017, with what Phillips calls My
For even the most experienced crypto payment industry since 2009 - is hoping dream-team of online payment, block-
enthusiast, hunting down and research- to change all that. chain, commerce,
ing new ICOs remains a challenge. There A former coun- and finance ex-
are several sites out there doing this try manager in Ja- ICO Start Date: perts. In May of
but, once the research is done and a buy- pan for Paysafe, that year, the con-
er is keen to participate in an ICO, they Philips has lived in 19 September 2017, 10pm cept was finalized
then need to jump through a number of Japan for 15 years Tokyo time and work on ZIL-

ABASA PHILIPS
by hoops to do so. and speaks Japa- ICO End Date: LA began. With-
nese and Chinese in a few months,
CEO
Moreover, the industry has been fluently, he has 26 September 2017, 10pm Philips had reas-
plagued recently by scams such as fraud- been buying Bit- Tokyo Time sembled much of
sters on Slack posing as members of the coin since 2012 af- his team from his
ICO team, hackers who create clone ter Roger Ver gave previous recent
ICO sites that look identical to the real him his first Bitcoin. I fell down the rab- projects and the company incorporation
thing, to downright fraudulent crowd- bit hole and I havent looked back since. was finalized in Singapore in August.
sales by companies looking to make a
quick buck and then disappear. In 2013 Phillips co-founded Pegapay. And what has the company been cre-
com, a bitcoin wallet similar to Coin- ating, exactly? With ZILLA, Philips
Problems like this undermine the credi- base, but the project lost steam af- wants to address all the pain points as-
bility of the sector and events like these ter the Bitcoin that they were using to sociated with ICO participation. In the
are surely one of the reasons why the fund the company disappeared from same way Etrade made the stock mar-
Chinese government is beginning to the vaults of the MtGox exchange that ket accessible to the general public, or
crack down on ICOs. The problem could was hacked in 2014. Amazon made it easy to buy products
96
 SEPTEMBER 2017

online, ZILLA provides a unified marketplace the platform. All purchase fees are waived for
for ICO crowd sales. ZLA token holders.

This aims to make the whole process more ac- ZILLA will also provide a merchant API which
cessible to everyone and to set up a set of best will allow retailers to accept payment in tokens,
practices for companies considering launching and to allow users to easily spend their tokens
an ICO. I want participation in an ICO, to be Problems like this undermine the at thousands of online and offline merchants
so easy that even my grandmother can do it, worldwide.
credibility of the sector and events like
he smiles.
these are surely one of the reasons why To raise funds for this development, ZILLA
ZILLA mobile app users, are presented with a the Chinese government is beginning to themselves will be doing a Token Sale which
comprehensive list of ICO projects. From there, crack down on ICOs. will be livestreamed on ZLA.io. The event will
they can upvote or downvote projects, watch take place on the ZLA.io website from 10pm
the team video, pre-register their KYC / AML Tokyo time (UTC+9) on 19 September 2017
documentation, and participate in their chosenA former country manager in Japan for to 10pm Tokyo Time on 26 September 2017.
Paysafe, Philips has lived in Japan for 15
project with a single click, using a credit card, 1 ETH will buy 250 ZLA Tokens (with a 20%
cryptocurrency, or other ICO tokens. ZILLA years and speaks Japanese and Chinese early contributor bonus available). ZLA is an
will be the first multi-lingual ICO marketplace
fluently, he has been buying Bitcoin since ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain.
in Japanese, Korean, Chinese and English.
2012 after Roger Ver gave him his first
For participants who would like to know where
Owners of an ICO can upload a description of Bitcoin. I fell down the rabbit hole and I their money is going, once the token sale is fin-
their project, biographies and qualifications havent looked back since. ished, work efforts will be redoubled in time for
for all team members, business plans, funders the app launch, which is slated for December.
and advisors. Buyers can upvote and downvote By February 2018, a payment gateway partner-
projects based on appeal, so everyone can add ship development will begin, in the following
their opinion once they have registered for an month a cryptocurrency exchange partnership
account. is due to be made official.

Token issuers who launch an ICO crowdsale on In May 2018, the team will begin testing the
ZILLA will be charged 2% of funds raised as a payment gateway, with the aim to release it
fee for using the platform. Users who purchase July/August 2018 - just a year away from now.
ICO tokens will be charged a 1% fee for using Its going to be an exciting year at ZILLA.
97
SEPTEMBER 2017
DENTALFIX
A Decentralized Blockchain Platform for
Dental Clinics and the Supply Chain
Health and government
organizations spend a
significant amount of time
and money setting up
and managing traditional
information systems and
data exchanges; requiring
resources to continuously Serial Entrepreneur
Co-founder & CMO
troubleshoot issues,
update field parameters,
perform backup and
recovery measures, and
extract information for
reporting purposes.
98
Hence, the current solutions pursued ken is to regulate network storage allo-
by the Health Care technology indus- cation, health care quality measures and
try have resulted revenue payment
in a difficult choice cycles. Patients are
between care and
privacy/economic
ICO given an allotted
amount of space
fraud for patients. to store informa-
by We see this issue tion for free on the
SERGEY
SAFRONOV
greatly expanding Start: DENTALFIX net-
as more data is be-
ing created by the
August 13, 2017 work. DFBT allows
them to purchase
of DENTALFIX industry. Block- extra storage
chains secure space from nodes
technology, prop- End: set up in hospitals
erties, and distrib-
uted nature can
September 13, 2017 systems. DFBT
can be purchased
help reduce the via the platform
cost and efficiency or an exchange.
of these operations as well as provide aHealthcare organizations use DFBT in
viable security infrastructure. this instance as well. It is also used in
payments once smart contracts are exe-
HEALTH INFORMATION cuted with healthcare insurance compa-
EXCHANGE AND TOKENS nies and serves as a mechanism to regu-
The DENTALFIX token (DFBT) is the late value based model metrics. In order
fuel for driving the blockchain infra- for the countries to successfully move
structure. The primary usage of the to- away from the fee-for-service model to
 SEPTEMBER 2017

the current value-based model, there must be structure for the foreseeable fu- The founding team will receive a
a healthcare IT infrastructure that allows or- ture. The future is a vibrant eco- 10% allocation of DFBT. These to-
ganizations to link quality, value and effective- system of many tokens, for which kens will serve as long-term incen-
ness of medical interventions through a repu- healthcare will need a closed loop tive for the DENTALFIX found-
table compensation model. Compensation will payment system in place. The re- ing team. An additional 20% will
be based on how effective the network of pro- sult will be an efficient care cycle be allocated to the DENTALFIX
viders work together to ensure improvement management positive feedback Foundation fund to be used for re-
in the quality of care and wellness outcomes, loop with significant decreases The current search and development regarding
while at the same time reducing associated in billions of dollars currently at- solutions pursued blockchain technology for health-
care cost. To truly incentivize different partici- tributed to healthcare payment care use cases. Total of 100 mil-
pants in the network to pro-actively create bet- fraud.
by the Health Care lion DFBT tokens will be created
ter care regimes, a merit based compensation technology industry through the Smart Contract Sys-
of shared savings (reimbursements) takes ef-TOKEN ACQUISITION have resulted in tem.
fect. In order to effectively allocate a propor-
DFBT can be acquired through a difficult choice
tionate share to the provider in the networkDENTALFIXs native app, cryp- CONCLUSION
between care and
that contributed the most towards the overall
to-currency market and from an- Blockchain will play an increas-
savings, a clear tracking of their contribution
other patient, physician or in- privacy/economic
ingly significant role in health-
is measurable executed by smart contracts onsurer via transfer. Platform us- fraud for patients.
care IT and bring beneficial dis-
the blockchain network. Another key impact of
ers will have the ability to acquire ruption and new efficiencies to
the new healthcare paradigm is the compensa-DFBT by sending Ether (ETH) We firmly believe every stakeholder in the ecosys-
tion model where-in the providers are eligible
to the DFBT creation contract on
for receiving additional compensation beyondthe blockchain during a pre-sale.
that using a token tem. It is vitally important that
healthcare organizations un-
The DENTALFIX interface will in- is the best payment derstand the core of blockchain
the care delivered. This compensation is the re-
tegrate third party trading solu- system to support
sult of savings that are generated based on how technology to ensure they are
effectively the providers manage the care of the
tions such as Coinbase for users this infrastructure ready for the changes the tech-
patients health outcome (incentives). Any sav-
who do not have ETH. The DEN- for the foreseeable nology entails. The result will
ings generated through efficient management TALFIX Token initial distribution be a new generation of power-
will be in the form of a presale. An- future.
of the patients care can be retained by the pro- ful, blockchain-based applica-
viders and their network partners as part ofyone will be able to acquire DFBT tions that will shape the next
the shared savings aspect of the new health-at a discount rate by pledging ETH era of business in healthcare. For
care paradigm. into the token sale smart contract. Those with blockchain to fulfill its potential in health-
other cryptocurrencies such as ETC or BTC can care, it must be based on standards to assure
We firmly believe that using a token is the create DFBT via a third-party conversion ser- the compatibility and interoperability within
best payment system to support this infra- vice that will be available on the pre-sale page. the health care system landscape.
99
SEPTEMBER 2017
RECoin:
The Flagship of Charitable
Cryptocurrencies
is About to have ICO
The fact that the
Blockchain technology is
not that new (the security
and network distribution
protocols constituting
the blockchain go back to
the origins of electronic
Editor-in-chief of
computing, which is the
early 70s) doesnt make
it more comprehensive
for laymen. Googling
blockchain will inevitably
lead you to YouTube where
a host of adroit investment
bankers-turn-innovators
will take you through the
same basic spiel: whatever
makes the blockchain tick
is just too complicated for a
regular person.
100
However, youre told, blockchain does To me, though, since I dont have any
present the public with a list of bene- money, and if I did, I would probably
fits and cyber money i.e. crypto cur- keep it under the mattress, the char-
rency is the latest and most fascinat- itability of cyber money would be the
ing of them all. most important selling point. Ill ex-
plain.
But by the time the blockchain ad-
by vocates get to the nitty-gritty of the You see, the cyber currency itself has
ANTON
SHMERKIN
cryptocurrency vs. fiat currencies, never lifted anybody from poverty.
youre sold. Although, still not clear The legends enshrouding unsecured
Cryptonetwork on whether or crypto currency
not its real mon- (like, you get to
ey: most of the ICO digitally print
700 crypto cur- as much of your
rencies that are own money as
plowing the mar-
Start: your heart desires
ket right now are and get rich ex-
unsecured, mean- 7th August ploring the pos-
ing, not backed by sibilities of the
any real commod- dark web and
ity. But the acces-
End: many others) are
sibility, the speed not just malicious
of transaction, 9th October misrepresenta-
the cyber securi- tions of the re-
ty, the reliability, ality. If you take
the liquidity are all true and very ap- them at face value and act upon them,
pealing to someone who already has they may lead you straight to being
money to spend and wants to invest. subjected to criminal prosecution.

On the other hand, we hear all
kinds of success stories when a
certain crypto currency intro-
duced into a small community all
of a sudden lifts that communi-
ty above the currents of the fi-
nancial market. Before you know
it, the soccer moms start trading
cookies in hearts and do $10
million worth of neighborhood
e-commerce. So, what gives?
I think the perfect balance be-
tween a genuinely charitable
crypto currency and a genuine
opportunity to invest in some-
thing tangible is RECoin. Its
brand new and about to have
an ICO sometime in August but
nearly half of its white paper is
dedicated to the charitability of
it, and after researching RECoin
a bit, I think I understand why.
The RECoin Group and the
101RECoin Trust founder, Mak-
sim Zaslavskiy, was born and
spent his adolescence in the So-
viet Union but his parents had
managed to move him to the
NYC in the early 90s. So, as you
can tell, Max had understood the
notion of suffering for success
early on and all too well. And
thats one of the reasons he felt
giving back to the community is
not a charitable deed but a duty.
Ever since graduating the Baruch
Although, still not College in 2003 with an MA in
clear on wheth- finance, hed looked at making So, which charities? Again, the list goes on for
er or not its real the world a better place not as a
pretty tag line but a project.
money: most of the Maksim Zaslavskiy is a human-
700 crypto curren- itarian with interests in several
cies that are plow- global charities. 2% of all mined
ing the market RECoins will be dedicated to the
many charities he had listed on
right now are unse-
his prospectus from the very be-
cured, meaning, not ginning, along with 6% of every
backed by any real transaction commission. This is
commodity. equivalent to up to 70% of RE-
Coins remaining profit after all
expenses and real estate rein-
vestment.
With that in mind, RECoin was
conceived. Heres the kicker: if
you havent made that out al-
ready, its the only (sic!) cryp-
to currency on the current mar-
ket that is backed by real estate
in the US, Canada, Switzerland,
SEPTEMBER 2017
and Japan. Max and his team state outright
that charitability and social consciousness
is an important purpose for RECoins exist-
ence. They write the charitable deductions
directly into the program code to ensure
that the cryptocurrency always distributes
a portion of its earnings to those who need
it the most.
pages, but the ones you might be familiar with
are the Live Love Laugh Global, Homes for
Our Troops, World Vision, Feeding America,
Doctors Without Borders and many others.
Another great opportunity for those deciding
to invest into RECoin would be the ability to
create side chains of their own within the RE-
Coin ecosystem (remember The Godfather
when Tessio and Clemenza ask Don Corleo-
ne to branch off and create their own Families
under the protective umbrella of the Corleone
name and power? Kind of like that only in to-
tal compliance with the US law). The availabili-
ty of RECoin side chains will allow for the cryp-
tocurrency to be creatively utilized by entrepre-
neurs and developers as an investment tool for
the benefit of society. In broader (and slightly
metaphoric terms) RECoin is going to become
the flagship of the charitable cryptocurrencies,
and you are invited to be a part of this glorious
movement. www.101recoin.com
101
SEPTEMBER 2017
ACT
World 2.0 is a place
where Citizen Power
matches State Power. A
world where Citizens
are able to hold the State
accountable and make it
responsive to their needs.
ACT is a Decentralized
Autonomous Organization
that will launch later this
year. It aggregates funding
from unlimited numbers of
citizens targeting change,
and it organizes decision-
making on the Ethereum
Blockchain.
102
Ready for
World 2.0
ACT founder Fraser Brown from North-
ern Ireland believes we need to get
to World 2.0 as soon as possible, and
blockchain technology is the only way
crete proposals and get results. ACT
works by having users submit propos-
als that are vetted by curators, and then
pushed to the community of ACT users
to get there. From his perspective of ad- for voting. Proposals that reach a quo-
vising Governments and International rum of 60% yes votes are funded by
Organizations on innovative finance for the smart contract. ACT works by citi-
by
DWIGHT climate change he believes that the re- zens paying Ether for votes on the plat-
SPROULL sponse to global issues is not happening form. Of course, they are limited in how
fast enough. many votes can be applied to a propos-
About the issue he says, Some big chal- al so that no one can purchase influence.
lenges are slowly getting addressed, like The platform differs from crowdfund-
climate change, but what we havent ing because causes are funded out of
seen is empowerment at the grassroots the pool created by vote purchases. This
level so that citizen voice is amplified revenue is distributed: 80% to causes,
to the extent that the people can drive 15% to curators, and 5% for platform
change. and community maintenance.
Enter ACT, where citizens are em- The ACT and ACTION tokens described
powered through a revolutionary new in the white paper (https://www.daoact.
crowdfunding model to carry out con- org/whitepaper) apply to the ACT Cura-
 SEPTEMBER 2017

tion Engine (ACE), where holders of ACTION (a According to Fraser Brown, This is what hap-
vesting token that derives its value from ACT) pens. Communities such as those represented
earn rewards based on curation effort, repu- by the United Valleys Action Group can gen-
tation on the platform, and a number of oth- erate significant support and goodwill but the
er factors. resources of fossil fuel companies are vast. As
part of a global outcry last May, the existing
Inflexion point: Issues such as climate change, coal mine was closed down by protesters who
Some big challenges are slowly getting biodiversity loss and food security will have came from all over Europe but when the dust
addressed, like climate change, but what consequences that are going to bite down. Si- settles the corporate machine continues to
we havent seen is empowerment at the multaneously, the proliferation of crypto to- search for profit regardless of the cost to peo-
grassroots level so that citizen voice is kens will continue. When combined these two ple and planet.
amplified to the extent that the people things will make people look for a real solution
that empowers them to take the reins rather The Welsh case study is an example of the im-
can drive change. than the wrecking ball approach as some have balance in power that citizens face and it is this
described Brexit and Trump. issue that ACT will address. In the case of the
This is what happens. Communities Caerphilly community in Wales, an Alpha re-
ACT will be the tool that global citizens can lease of the ACT platform will be used to ask
such as those represented by the United use to get control and ensure change. The ACT citizens around the world to support. The hope
Valleys Action Group can generate project has just announced a partnership with is to contribute significantly to the 40,000
significant support and goodwill but the a community in Wales that is a great example they need to raise to put proper representation
resources of fossil fuel companies are of the issues of Social Accountability that the to the current public enquiry and ensure that
vast. As part of a global outcry last May, platform seeks to address. The community is neither the mining company nor the govern-
opposed to a new open-cast coal mine after the ment can cross this line. ACT has already raised
the existing coal mine was closed down first one they opposed in 2004 went ahead with $230,000 from over 400 participants to build
by protesters who came from all over devastating consequences for the health of lo- the Decentralized Autonomous Organisation
Europe but when the dust settles the cal people, the Welsh environment, and even (DAO) on the Ethereum blockchain. This pre-
corporate machine continues to search employment in the area because it became so ICO ended on August 1st and is superseded by
undesirable as a place to live. Their local coun- a Pre-release Access phase which is now open
for profit regardless of the cost to people cil has already unanimously rejected the plan- via the ACT website (https://daoact.org). In
and planet. ning permission for the second mine but Millar this phase participants can obtain 100% more
FRASER BROWN
ACT founder Argent, the mining company, lodged an appeal ACT tokens per Ether than they will be able to
with the Welsh Government in January and during the token distribution event (or ICO),
are using their big resources to forge ahead. which will take place in November.
103
SEPTEMBER 2017 | ICO UNIVERSITY
El modelo
ICBM
para invertir exitosamente en
ICOs
INTRODUCCION
Estamos ante una nueva ola de cambio
en el mbito de la Tecnologas de la In-
formacin y Comunicacin (TIC), gra-
cias a la tecnologa Blockchain, que est
permitiendo desarrollar cientos de star-
tups en la actualidad y miles de stas en
by los prximos aos. Blockchain comenz do por el equipo gestor del proyecto, se-
ISMAEL a desarrollarse a travs de Bitcoin y en la
SANTIAGO actualidad, se le estn dando cientos de
aplicaciones de las grandes empresas del
mundo financiero, a partir de las star-
tups de Fintech y muchos otros proyec-
tos empresariales, que buscan darle uti-
lidad a herramientas concretas como son
los contratos inteligentes.
En 2017, estamos presenciando a la in-
troduccin exitosa de un nuevo mode-
lo de financiacin inicial para proyectos
empresariales, denominado ICO (Initial
Coin Offering).
Las ICOs se inspiran en las IPO. Al igual
que ocurre con una oferta pblica ini-
cial, se emite una cantidad determinada
de tokens (ttulos en las IPO) para cap-
tar una determinada cantidad de fondos
en los mercados, por el pblico en gene-
ral, durante un perodo de tiempo deter-
minado. Una vez adquiridos tales tokens
podrn ser libremente intercambiados en
el mercado.
Un token es un activo intangible alma-
cenado en una cadena de bloques que da
derecho a su tenedor a un conjunto de
derechos (y posiblemente pasivos) esta-
blecidos en contratos inteligentes y otra
documentacin relevante (White paper).
Los ICOs se han convertido en una forma
popular de financiar proyectos de crip-
toinversin, permitiendo a un proyecto
empresarial financiarse mediante la ven-
ta de tokens, y que los promotores de una
buena idea puedan llevarla a cabo, atra-
yendo a capital humano talentoso.
Las Initial Coin Offerings suelen produ-
cirse antes de que el proyecto se comple-
104
te, financiando los gastos necesarios has-
ta el lanzamiento definitivo del produc-
to/servicio. Su funcionamiento suele ser
el siguiente: se crea una nueva criptocon-
versin en un protocolo como Counter-
party Openledger o Ethereum, el valor
del token es arbitrariamente determina-
gn las creencias de stos del valor de la
red. Posteriormente, a travs de la din-
mica de la oferta y la demanda, el valor es
fijado por los participantes de tal merca-
do, sin la participacin de ningn gobier-
no o autoridad central.
El surgimiento del fenmeno de las ICOs
se ha traducido, en menos de 12 meses,
en una capitalizacin de mercado de ms
de 150.000 millones de dlares. Estas ci-
fras tan astronmicas, han creado millo-
narios en todo el mundo en un corto es-
pacio de tiempo.
El aumento de liquidez de estos cripto-
mercados, el desempeo positivo de s-
tos, los flujos de efectivo que generan y
el crecimiento de tres dgitos ha atrado
el inters de inversores y especuladores.
Por ejemplo, el Capital Riesgo est cada
vez ms interesado en las ICOs; las canti-
dades de capital necesarios para obtener El 25 de diciembre de 2016, la ca-
un unicornio y la obtencin de liquidez
una vez que se llega al proceso de IPO,
hacen que comparativamente se vea con
mejores ojos las criptoinversiones, que El 23 de agosto de 2017, la capitaliza-
permiten obtener ganancias ms rpida-
mente, gracias a unos mercados cada vez
Intellectual
Capital
Business
Model
Initial
Coin
Offerings
ms lquidos que permite la conversin
inmediata y sencilla de Bitcoins, Ethers
u otras a moneda fiat, empleando aplica-
ciones como Coiobase o Coinsbank.
A estos nuevos modelos de financiacin
emergentes y disruptivos, que combinan
la innovacin financiera con la criptogra-
fa, los hemos denominado Blockchain
Finance o B-Finance. La prueba de su im-
portancia, en el mbito financiero, lo en-
contramos en sus cifras cada vez ms cre-
cientes, como mostraremos a continua-
cin.
Para tokendata.io, a partir de julio de
2017, hay ms de 130 ICOs en activo,
multiplicndose este nmero para los
prximos meses.
Segn los datos histricos suministrados
por coinmarketcap.com, en los ltimos
aos podemos ver el crecimiento expo-
nencial global experimentado, en la capi-
talizacin total de mercado de todos los
criptoactivos, tal y como muestra la gr-
fica:
El 27 de diciembre de 2015, la capita-
lizacin de mercado total de todas las
criptogrficas fue $ 6,840,297.45
pitalizacin de mercado total de to-
das las criptas de divisas fue de $
16,106,711.00
cin de mercado total de todas las crip-
tas de divisas fue de $ 150.668.852,22
 ICO UNIVERSITY | SEPTEMBER 2017

Crear valor es el conjunto de beneficios para el

cliente del que est dotado la propuesta de valor.

La propuesta de valor describe los beneficios que

los clientes pueden esperar de los productos y
servicios ofertados por una empresa

Esto nos lleva a la conclusin de que el modelo

de negocio y la propuesta de valor deben estar
perfectamente integrados.

Segn Osterwalder et al. (2015), la Propuesta de

Valor tiene dos caras: Mapa de Valor y Perfil del
Cliente.

El Mapa de Valor (Propuesta) describe las carac-

Para coindesk.com, la nueva financiacin mensual INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL BUSINESS tersticas de una proposicin de valor, especi-
de las ICOs, en dlares, ha experimentado un au- MODEL (ICBM) PARA VALORAR ficadas de manera detallada y estructurada, en
mento espectacular en los ltimos meses, como INVERSIONES EN ICOS un modelo de negocio. Estar formada por tres
lo reflejan los siguientes datos del grfico: La metodologa propuesta en este artculo, para componentes: creacin de ganancias del cliente,
El 17 de marzo de 2017, la nueva financiacin valorar exitosamente inversiones en ICOs con- soluciones a los problemas de ste y los produc-
de la OIC ascendi a 19.42 millones de dla- sistir en la integracin y el alineamiento de sus tos y servicios a ofrecerle.
res. tres conceptos fundamentales: el modelo de ne-
El 17 de abril de 2017, la nueva financiacin gocio, el capital intelectual y los denomina- El perfil de cliente (Segmento) describe un seg-
de la OIC ascendi a 103.74 millones de dla- dos fosos econmicos (generadores de ventas mento de cliente especfico en su modelo de ne-
res. competitivas sostenibles). gocio de una manera ms estructurada y detalla-
El 17 de mayo de 2017, la nueva financiacin damente. Estar formada por tres componentes:
de la OIC ascendi a 232.04 millones de dla- MODELO DE NEGOCIO ganancias esperadas por los clientes, problemas
res. El modelo de negocio es una herramienta de ges- y trabajos de ste.
El 17 de junio de 2017, la nueva financiacin tin que permite a una organizacin crear, entre-
de la OIC ascendi a 462,04 millones de dla- gar y captar valor, atendiendo a los intereses de Necesitamos ajustar los componentes del mapa
res. los clientes, accionistas y otros grupos de inters. de valor con los del perfil de cliente. Es decir,
El 17 de julio de 2017, la nueva financiacin cuando la propuesta de valor se centra en las ta-
de la OIC ascendi a $ 574,48 millones de d- Para validar el modelo de negocio que presenta reas diarias importantes del cliente, resolvien-
lares. una ICO, se debe dar respuestas lgicas y solven- do cualquier cosa que les moleste y creando los
tes a las siguientes cuestiones: resultados y beneficios que ste espera. Las pro-
No tenemos duda, esta nueva forma de hacer las En qu consiste la propuesta de valor dife- puestas de valor exitosas se basan en estos ajus-
finanzas, que hemos llamado B-Finanzas o Bloc- rencial del proyecto implcito en la ICO? tes eficaces.
kchain Finanzas ha llegado al mercado para que- Cules son los segmentos de clientes que se
darse. pretenden alcanzar y cmo proporcionarles Estos ajustes se producen en el mercado en tres
valor? etapas: 1) problema y solucin presentada en la
Ante los retos que plantea estas nuevas finanzas Cmo se comunica, de manera efectiva, la propuesta de valor, 2) producto y mercado (reac-
es fundamental contar con una herramienta que existencia de esta Propuesta de Valor a un a cin positiva del mercado a los productos y ser-
permita ayudarnos en la gestin y valoracin de los segmentos de clientes seleccionados? vicios ofrecidos por la empresa durante este pro-
los proyectos empresariales que estn detrs de Cmo hacemos disponible tal Proposicin de ceso) y 3) modelo de negocio escalable, en tr-
estas ICOs, para no volver a cometer los errores Valor a nuestros clientes objetivos? minos de crecimiento y rentabilidad (Osterwal-
que sufri el mercado en la crisis del 2000 de las Cuntos ingresos, costes y beneficios genera- der et al., 2015).
puntocom. rn la ejecucin de este modelo de negocio?
CAPITAL INTELECTUAL
Este modelo que planteamos lo hemos denomi- Para entender la importancia del concepto trata- (INTANGIBLES ECONMICOS)
nado ICBM, el cual lo exponemos a continua- do en este subapartado debemos de entender en Una vez comprobada la articulacin de la pro-
cin. lo que consiste crear valor y propuesta de valor. puesta de valor diferencial en el modelo de nego-
cio de la empresa objeto del ICO a valorar, analiza-
Sustainable Competitive remos la existencia del Capital Intelectual del que
ECONOMIC MOATS Advantages dispone la startup para la obtencin de ventajas
The Business Model W House: competitivas y que influirn decisivamente en la
How much revenues and costs will a start up valoracin de la empresa y en sus tokens a emitir.
HOW MUCH? generate to operate a business model?
Revenues (+) / Costs (-) What are the product value propositions? El Capital Intelectual es la combinacin de los re-
Who are the customer segments that a start up aims
to reach and create value?
cursos humanos, organizativos y relacionales de
How a Value Proposition is delivered to a Customer
una organizacin. La definicin estas categoras
WHAT? HOW? HOW? WHO? Segment through distribution and sales channels ? son las siguientes:
Value Distribution Communi- Customer
Propositions and Sales cation Segments How a Value Proposition is communicated to El capital humano se define como el conoci-
channels channels a Customer Segment through communication
channels? miento que los empleados alquilan a sus em-
presas empleadoras. Incluye los conocimien-
Intellectual Capital
tos, habilidades y experiencias de las perso-
nas. Ejemplos: capacidad de innovacin, crea-
Economic Intangibles tividad, trabajo en equipo, flexibilidad, moti-
Human Structural Relational vacin, capacidad de aprendizaje, lealtad, etc.
Capital Capital Capital El capital estructural se define como el conoci-
miento que permanece dentro de la empresa
105
SEPTEMBER 2017 | ICO UNIVERSITY
al final de la jornada laboral. Incluye las ruti-
nas organizativas, procedimientos, sistemas,
culturas, bases de datos, etc. Ejemplos: ma-
nuales, procedimientos, patentes, cultura cor-
porativa, otros derechos de propiedad indus-
trial e intelectual.
El capital relacional se define como todos los
recursos vinculados a las relaciones externas
de la empresa, con clientes, proveedores o so-
cios de I + D. Ejemplos de esta categora son
las marcas, la lealtad de los clientes, los vncu-
los con los proveedores, el poder comercial, la
capacidad de negociacin con entidades finan-
cieras, etc.
El capital intelectual es ms que la simple
suma de los recursos humanos, estructura-
les y relacionales. Las empresas necesitan au-
mentar la interaccin y la alineacin entre es-
tas tres formas de intangibles econmicos,
con el fin de crear valor.
FOSOS ECONMICOS
(MOATS = VENTAJAS COMPETITIVAS)
Los modelos de negocio exitosos son aquellos
que tienen la capacidad de generar ventajas com-
petitivas sostenibles en el mercado, para ello se
debern contar con Moats o fosos econmicos
que protejan a la empresa de la accin de la com-
petencia.
Tener una ventaja competitiva sostenible sig-
nifica que los clientes muestran fidelidad en la
adquisicin de productos y servicios a una em-
presa. Tales ventajas se pueden obtener de dos
maneras: en diferenciacin o cona estructura de
costes reducida y muy competitiva.
Warren Buffett acu el trmino Moat, que se
refiere a las ventajas sostenibles que protegen
a una empresa contra los competidores (la for-
ma en que un foso protege un castillo). Los fo-
sos son barreras a los competidores, adems de
contener caractersticas estructurales inheren-
tes a un negocio.
En este mbito, los activos intangibles son fuen-
tes de ventajas competitivas, cuya evaluacin
depender del valor que pueden crear a una em-
presa y la duracin de stos.
Una marca es una barrera, ya que representa
algo nico y de valor en la mente de un cliente, lo
que genera la lealtad de ste.
Una patente valiosa o una concesin adminis-
trativa pueden generar proteccin a un negocio
durante un tiempo, actuando tales intangibles
como una barrera de entrada a los competidores.
Los intangibles econmicos, derivados de ta-
les Moats, se basan en la bsqueda de una mar-
ca que tenga el poder de fijacin de precios en el
mercado, la aprobacin de una concesin admi-
nistrativa durante un tiempo o un conjunto di-
versificado de patentes, con un slido historial
de innovacin de su poseedor. En este contexto,
ser ms eficiente que sus competidores pude re-
sultar una buena estrategia, pero no es una ven-
taja competitiva sostenible a menos que se base
en algn proceso patentado que sea difcilmen-
te copiado.
106
Para Dorsey (2009), los inversores inteligentes menos lo que se necesita para mantener y ex-
deben concentrar sus inversiones en empresas pandir su negocio.
con amplios Moats o fosos econmicos, ya que es-
tas compaas generan ganancias promedio supe- Por ejemplo, el mtodo de descuento de flujo de
riores a sus competidores. En resumen, los fosos efectivo busca determinar el valor de la empre-
econmicos aumentan el valor de las startups. sa estimando los flujos de efectivo que genera-
r en el futuro y luego los descontar a una tasa
Adems, las compaas con Moats tienen mayor de descuento que se corresponda con el riesgo
resiliencia, porque las empresas que pueden re- de tales flujos.
currir a una ventaja competitiva estructural tie-
nen ms probabilidades de recuperarse de pro- Los mtodos de descuento de flujos de efecti-
blemas temporales. vo se basan en el pronstico detallado y cuida-
doso de cada uno de los tems financieros rela-
PROPUESTA DE VALORACIN DE cionados con la generacin de los flujos de efec-
STARTUPS SEGN MODELO ICBM tivo, correspondientes a las operaciones de la
Una vez analizado en detalle los tres componen- empresa, como por ejemplo la recaudacin de
tes que forman nuestro modelo propuesto ICBM ventas, coste de materias primas, gastos de per-
(Capital Intelectual +Modelo de negocio + Moats sonal, etc.
econmicos) procederemos a la valoracin de la
startup que formula la ICO, con el propsito de En las valoraciones basadas en el descuento del
validar la valoracin financiera y las oportunida- flujo de efectivo, se determina una tasa de des-
des que ofrecen los tokens objeto de este proce- cuento adecuada para cada tipo de flujo de efec-
dimiento novedoso de financiacin. tivo.
El hecho de que las empresas jvenes tengan
historias limitadas, que su financiacin depen- Equity Value = Cash Flow Discounting value +
da del capital riesgo o el angel investing y sean Growth Options value (generated by the Intellec-
particularmente susceptibles al fracaso, contri- tual Capital involved in the Economic Moats).
buyen a dificultar su valoracin.
El mtodo de descuento de flujos de efectivo co-
La mayor parte del valor de una empresa joven mienza con la siguiente expresin
proviene de sus activos de crecimiento, la dificul-
tad en la valoracin de tales activos redundar
en la valoracin de la startup.
Donde: CFi = flujo de caja generado por la com-
Un aspecto crucial en valoracin de empresas paa en el perodo i; VRn = valor residual de la
lo encontramos en el valor terminal (como ve- empresa en el ao n; K = tasa de descuento apro-
remos a continuacin, en la frmula), este re- piada para el riesgo de los flujos de efectivo.
presenta una gran proporcin del valor global
de cualquier empresa; pero cuando hablamos de Un procedimiento simplificado para conside-
empresas jvenes este valor terminal puede re- rar una duracin indefinida de los flujos futuros
presentar el 90%, 100% o incluso ms del 100%, despus del ao "n" es suponer una tasa de creci-
del valor actual de una empresa joven. miento constante (g) de los flujos despus de ese
perodo. Entonces el valor residual en el ao "n"
En consecuencia, las suposiciones acerca de es VRn = CFn (1 + g) / (k-g).
cundo una empresa alcanzar un crecimiento
estable, un requisito previo para estimar el va- Dentro del modelo propuesto en este artcu-
lor terminal, tendrn un impacto sustancial en lo para valorar las ICOs exitosas, se detectarn,
la valoracin de una empresa joven. medirn y valorarn las mtricas que permitan
la integracin y alineacin de los tres conceptos
En este proceso de valoracin y anlisis, Damo- esenciales (modelo de negocio, capital intelec-
daran (2010) sugiere hacerse las siguientes pre- tual y fosos econmicos).
guntas:
El arranque lo har a un crecimiento estable? En la propuesta de expresin del valor patri-
Cundo se convertir la firma en una firma monial utilizaremos el valor Opciones de Creci-
de crecimiento estable? miento (generado por el Capital Intelectual invo-
Cmo se ver la empresa en un crecimiento lucrado en los Fosos Econmicos) como alterna-
estable? tiva para capturar la incertidumbre generada por
la dinmica empresarial y flexibilizar el plan fi-
En resumen, nos resulta difcil estimar el cre- nanciero establecido en el Flujo de Efectivo M-
cimiento futuro de los ingresos y los mrgenes todo de descuento.
operativos de las empresas jvenes.
Identificaremos y valoraremos las mtricas
Una vez realizada esta introduccin, en relacin de Opciones de Crecimiento contenidas en el
a las dificultades que encontramos en la valora- White paper y en la documentacin relevan-
cin de startups o proyectos empresariales que te presentada por la empresa en el proceso de
acuden a ICOs a financiarse, podemos definir, a ICO, para ello mostramos a continuacin una
grandes rasgos, en qu consiste tal valoracin. gua de ayuda en la deteccin de mtricas de
Capital Intelectual para su posterior valora-
Una startup vale el valor actual del efectivo que cin, segn la formulacin expuesta anterior-
esperamos que genere sta durante su vida til, mente.

GUA DE DETECCIN DE MTRICAS
DE CAPITAL INTELECTUAL EN LA
VALORACIN FINANCIERA DE ICOS
Mientras que el mercado de las ICOs siga sien-
do el predilecto, por sus altos rendimientos, por
la comunidad inversora ms especulativa en los
prximos meses, estaremos expuestos al ries-
go de posibles fracasos e inclusive, estafas. Los
cuales hay que prevenir, como ya sucedi en los
2000, con la crisis de las puntocom.
Para estar prevenido y llevar a cabo las inversio-
nes ms acertadas en criptoactivos hemos elabo-
rado esta pequea gua para la inversin inteli-
gente en ICOs, la cual permitir tomar decisiones
basadas en la deteccin y anlisis de las mtricas
clave de capital intelectual, las cuales habr que
buscarlas en el White paper, la pgina Web y otra
documentacin relevante presentada en proceso
de la Initial Coin Offering, atendiendo al guion es-
bozado en nuestra metodologa propuesta ICBM.
Partimos de que cada negocio comienza con una
idea. La idea germina en una necesidad del mer-
cado que un empresario detecta y pretende sa-
tisfacer. La mayora de las ideas no suelen ir a
ninguna parte, pero algunas personas toman el
siguiente paso de invertir en la idea. Tenemos
que ser cautelosos de ver que la ICO que estamos
valorando no es una simple idea sino un mode-
lo de negocio bien estructurado, dotado de s-
lidas ventajas competitivas sostenibles (moats).
En la etapa de la idea, el valor nunca puede ser
puesto en el papel, pero es el potencial de este
valor que induce al empresario a invertir tiempo
y dinero en el desarrollo de la idea.
El capital para financiar la inversin general-
mente proviene de fondos personales (de aho-
rros, amigos, tontos y familia) y en el mejor de
los casos, produce un producto o servicio comer-
cial. Asumiendo que el producto o servicio en-
cuentra demanda en el mercado, el negocio ne-
cesitara tener acceso a ms capital. Es aqu don-
de la seleccin de una ICO como fuente de fi-
nanciacin se podra llegar a materializar, y es
aqu donde hay que detectar las potencialidades
ICO UNIVERSITY | SEPTEMBER 2017
Es fcil ver la problemtica en la valoracin de
las empresas jvenes: Hay pocos o ningn acti-
vo material; Casi todo el valor proviene de las ex-
pectativas de crecimiento futuro. Los estados fi-
nancieros actuales de la firma no proporcionan
ninguna pista sobre los mrgenes potenciales y
los retornos que se generarn en el futuro, ade-
ms hay pocos datos histricos que puedan usar-
se para desarrollar medidas de riesgo. Adems,
estas startups suelen depender de una o unas
pocas personas clave para su xito, por lo que
perderlas puede tener efectos significativamen-
te negativos en el valor.
Hay una serie de cosas que cada nuevo ICO debe
tener: el equipo directivo, una hoja de ruta dis-
ponible y un Libro Blanco (explicacin de los de-
talles del proyecto ICO), informacin de gestin
y un sitio web de aspecto profesional.
Modelo de negocio y Viabilidad comercial
Hay muchas soluciones, productos y servicios
disponibles en el mercado que nunca necesita-
y oportunidades de mercado que ofrece tal ICO, rn o se beneficiarn de la tecnologa blockchain.
con la ayuda de nuestro modelo ICBM.
Para la adopcin del mercado en un amplio seg-
En la documentacin facilitada en la ICO pro- mento hay que plantearse la simple pregunta:
cederemos a valorar y a cuestionarnos, aspec- "Cree que el producto o servicio de la empresa ser
tos como: el modelo de negocio propuesto y la un xito comercial?"
proposicin de valor diferencial; el capital inte-
lectual implcito en el proyecto empresarial; los Para la respuesta a esta pregunta le sugerimos
diversos apartados que forman el White paper; que utilice, y responda, a las preguntas conte-
la capacidad de gestin, ejecucin y liderazgo del nidas en el apartado de modelo de negocio d
equipo directivo; etc. nuestro modelo propuesto ICBM.
Para la deteccin de mtricas de Capital Intelectual Una vez que hemos respondido a las pregun-
nos haremos una serie de preguntas que nos den tas que se formulan en el modelo de negocio, las
pistas de los posibles intangibles que podemos en- complementaremos con la siguiente lista de che-
contrar en las ICOs, con potencial de generacin de queo de la propuesta de valor contenida en tal
ventajas competitivas sostenibles, en un marco de modelo de negocio a analizar:
modelo de negocio rentable y competitivo. Es difcil de copiar?
Supera sustancialmente la competencia?
A continuacin, pasamos a hacernos las cuestio- Se enfoca en trabajos insatisfechos, proble-
nes oportunas a la documentacin facilitada en mas no resueltos y ganancias no realizadas?
la ICO: Est alineada tal propuesta con la forma en
que los clientes miden el xito?
Capital Inteletual Se enfoca tal propuesta en los quehaceres del
Segn Damodaran (2010), tenemos que hacer- cliente, sus problemas o las ganancias espera-
nos las siguientes preguntas sobre la valoracin das de un gran nmero de estos o para un pe-
de las empresas con Activos Intangibles: queo nmero que est dispuesto a pagar mu-
Cules son los flujos de efectivo de los activos cho dinero?
existentes?
Los gastos de capital asociados con la adquisi- Si usted entiende la tecnologa y el principio sub-
cin de activos intangibles se clasifican err- yacente de la empresa, entonces es hora de se-
neamente como gastos operativos, lo que lle- guir hacindose las siguientes preguntas:
va a ganancias contables incorrectas y de me- Est realmente listo el mercado para este
didas del capital invertido. producto/servicio objeto de tal ICO?
Cul es el valor aadido de los activos de cre- Ve esta tecnologa siendo utilizada en el futu-
cimiento? ro por el mercado objetivo?
Si los gastos de capital se clasifican errnea- Hay competidores haciendo lo mismo?
mente como gastos operativos, se hace muy Crees que la empresa puede realmente cons-
difcil evaluar cunto se est reinvirtiendo una truir y entregar lo que estn diciendo?
empresa para el crecimiento futuro y cmo de Cules son las amenazas asociadas a este
bien se estn haciendo las inversiones. producto/servicio?
Cmo de riesgosos son los flujos de efectivo, Los clientes objetivo utilizaran realmente
tanto de activos existentes como de activos de este producto/servicio?
crecimiento? Los clientes realmente pagaran por ello?
Suele ser ms difcil apalancar activos intangi-
bles que tangibles. El riesgo en las operaciones Equipo directivo y Consejo asesor
puede cambiar dependiendo de la estabilidad El mercado de las ICOs ha generado una canti-
del activo intangible. dad significativa de empresarios oportunistas
107
SEPTEMBER 2017 | ICO UNIVERSITY

que buscan una financiacin fcil, de los cuales que se necesita para la consecucin de objetivos pretenden alcanzar y cmo proporcionarles
hay que huir. y metas. Si en la documentacin de la ICO esto valor?
no queda aclarado debemos incrementar nues- Cmo se comunica, de manera efectiva, la
Esta es una lista de verificacin para validar el tras precauciones. existencia de esta Propuesta de Valor a un a
equipo directivo y su consejo asesor: los segmentos de clientes seleccionados?
La direccin y el equipo asesor tienen conoci- Si el ICO est analizando menciones, ningn Cmo hacemos disponible tal Proposicin de
mientos suficientes y contrastables, en su sec- plan futuro de comercializacin considera esto Valor a nuestros clientes objetivos?
tor de actuacin especfico. Cuntos ingresos, costes y beneficios genera-
Hay un equilibrio de competencias tcnicas, En resumen, es de vital importancia que el plan rn la ejecucin de este modelo de negocio?
empresariales y comerciales del personal di- de negocios destaque no slo la estrategia tcni-
rectivo y asesor involucrado. ca planeada, sino tambin la estrategia comer- Estamos ante las denominadas B-Finance (=
La experiencia y las competencias del equipo cial y de mercado. criptografa + innovacin + descentralizacin)
directivo y asesor pone en valor a la ICO. que han venido al mercado, como fuente de fi-
En un plan comercial, lo que necesitamos saber nanciacin empresarial para quedarse; para en-
Roadmap es: tender esta afirmacin slo hay que fijarse en las
Un cronograma detallado y una hoja de ruta con Existe una estrategia de marketing? cifras que se manejan enb el mercado global, con
la distribucin temporal de hitos debe de dar la Cundo se va a lanzar? una capitalizacin total y actual de criptoactivos
suficiente confianza al inversor. Cmo van a comercializar el producto/servi- que superan los 150.000 millones de dlares.
cio?
Esta es una lista de comprobacin para validar la Cmo es su plan de distribucin y logstico? Ante los retos que plantea estas nuevas finanzas
hoja de ruta presentada en la ICO: Estn buscando socios estratgicos para im- es fundamental contar con una herramienta que
Dnde va la empresa y cul es el propsito de pulsar la adopcin del mercado del negocio? permita ayudarnos en la gestin y valoracin de
esta? Cmo van a conseguir sus primeros usuarios los proyectos empresariales que estn detrs de
Cundo es la prxima actualizacin tecnol- o clientes? estas ICOs, para no volver a cometer los errores
gica? que sufri el mercado en la crisis del 2000 de las
Cundo esperan asegurar canales de distri- Como adelantbamos antes, debe haber una hoja puntocom.
bucin? de ruta bien pensada, que incorpore los planes
para el desarrollo tcnico, el lanzamiento comer- El objetivo con este artculo y con la propuesta de
Esta hoja de tura debe de estar bien alineada con cial y una estrategia de penetracin de mercado. nuestro modelo ICBM es dotar de herramientas de
lo propuesto en el White paper. anlisis y de valoracin efectivas a los inversores
Tambin es importante que se mencione cmo en el mbito de las criptomonedas, para la toma de
White Paper se gastar realmente el dinero recaudado. decisiones inteligentes y con fundamento.
Este documento suele tener una estructura y
formato similar a los papers de investigacin, Hay que asegurarse del reflejo conciso del presu- Los ICOs se encuentran en una zona peligrosa
pero a estos adems hay que exigirles las necesi- puesto, en donde se asignar el capital y los gas- donde la Comisin de Valores y Bolsa de los Esta-
dades que satisface un libro de venta similar a las tos operativos. Es importante pasar un tiempo dos Unidos (SEC) y muchos otros organismos re-
empresas en procesos de IPOs. serio analizando tal distribucin propuesto del guladores siguen investigndolos. El problema
presupuesto, para entender exactamente dnde principal es, sin embargo, que la mayora de las sta-
En estos White papers se muestra cmo funcio- ir el capital captado con la ICO. rups que emplean como financiacin ICOs no ofre-
nar la aplicacin y su plataforma tecnolgica, cen realmente Equity como securities (ttulos valo-
cmo se pueden obtener beneficios articulando CONCLUSIONES res) va token. En cambio, slo ofrecen descuentos
un modelo de negocio y cmo se articula los pla- La inversin en ofertas iniciales de monedas en las preventas de los productos/servicios a ofre-
nes del proyecto emprsarial presentado (comer- continuar siendo una forma significativamente cer. Es por ello, que al no encajar la definicin tc-
cial, tcnico, estratgico, etc.) rentable para que los inversores accedan a mer- nica del token, objeto de la financiacin ICO, con el
cados nuevos e innovadores dentro del ecosiste- de security que manejan los organismos regulato-
Los White papers son generalmente un docu- ma de la moneda criptogrfica. El anlisis de la rios como la SEC, suelen quedar fuera del marco re-
mento muy detallado que consta de los siguien- empresa requiere cierto aprendizaje y prctica. gulador establecido para los ttulos valores.
tes apartados: La capacidad de filtrar, de examinar y de anali-
Capital Humano zar tales oportunidades a esta extensin bsi- Adems, los critoactivos son instrumentos de
Visin general de la empresa y plan de opera- ca demostrar ser un proceso rentable y de alto carcter mundial, no nacionales, financindose
ciones rendimiento dirigido para aquellos que ponen su con bitcoin, ter y otras criptomonedas que no
Anlisis estartgico. Macro y microentorno. mente a l. estn controladas por ninguna autoridad o ban-
Modelo de negocio y Propuesta de valor dife- co central. Cualquiera puede invertir, e incluso
rencial En este contexto, es muy til emplear el mode- puede hacerlo pseudo-annimamente.
Descripcin del funcionamiento de la tecnolo- lo propuesto en este artculo (ICBM). Esta herra-
ga y de la aplicacin mienta permitir analizar las ventajas competiti- BIBLIOGRAFA
Estrategia de comercializacin (mercado) vas generadas por el capital intelectual de la joven Damodaran, A. (2010): The Dark Side of Valua-
Hoja de ruta del producto empresa objeto de nuestro estudio, adems de va- tion: Valuing Young, Distressed, and Com-
Utilizacin del producto lorar el equity de la startup objeto de la ICO. plex Businesses ; FT Press.
Estructura de la oferta de tokens Dorsey, P. (2009): The Little Book That Builds
Presupuesto postventa de tokens Con el modelo ICBM hemos propuesto, para su Wealth: The Knockout Formula for Finding
aplicacin prctica, de una gua para encontrar Great Investments (Little Books. Big Profits)
En este documento, estamos buscando una ex- mtricas de capital intelectual en ICOs, donde ; Wiley; 1 edition
plicacin clara y concisa de lo que hace la empre- destacamos el exhaustivo anlisis que debe ha- Osterwalder, A.; Pigneur, Y.; Bernarda, G.; Smi-
sa: cada buen concepto de negocio debe ser ca- cerse al modelo de negocio y principalmente a su th, A. (2015): Value Proposition Design:
paz de ser comunicados o explicados en menos propuesta de valor diferencial. Para ello, es esen- How to Create Products and Services Custo-
de dos frases. cial conseguir respuestas slidas a las siguientes mers Want; Wiley; 1 edition.
preguntas: Santiago, I (2017): La Revolucin de la tecnolo-
En algn momento dentro del documento, usted En qu consiste la propuesta de valor dife- ga de Cadenas de Bloques en la economa:
debe ser capaz de entender cules son los objeti- rencial del proyecto implcito en la ICO? Impacto en los distintos Sectores Econmi-
vos de negocio, cmo lo estn desarrollando y lo Cules son los segmentos de clientes que se cos; Editorial Acadmica Espaola.
108
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