ICO Crowd - Issue #8

www.icocrowd.com

ISSUE #8, june-july 2018

FEATURING : GAME PROTOCOL ZED BLACKBOX ORBS AND MANY MORE...

Price: 0.01 BTC

FOREWORD

ISMAIL MALIK Editor-in-chief DONOVAN OBOSI Head Analyst

Could It Be Time For Security Tokens To Take Centre Stage?

ANNEMIEKE DIRKES Managing Editor PAM TATRO Content Editor TZVI SHISHLER Marketing Photo credit © Shutterstock

by ISMAIL MALIK Chairman & Executive Editor ICO Crowd

The ICO market has exploded into one of the fastest growing and most in demand innovations in capital raising, growing more than 20 times in just one year from $240 million raised by ICOs in 2016 to $5.6 billion in 2017.

ICO’s have become the go-to fundraising method for blockchain startups.

Just $1 billion was raised through traditional venture investment last year, a figure that’s less than 20% of funds raised through ICOs for the same period - a clear mark of where the future of finance lies.

If you would like to advertise with us or have any other queries please get in touch at info@icocrowd.com Disclaimer. All opinions and views expressed in this publication are those of the author only and do not necessarily represent the views of ICO Crowd magazine, its Management or Advisors. All content of ICO Crowd Magazine, in particular but not exclusively, photographs, businessdetails, facts and figures, names, adresses and dates, historic details and offers, are the sole responsibility of the author of each artice. Copyright violations by the author are the sole responsibility of the author and ICO Crowd magazine can not be held liable, whether on the whole or on particulars. www.icocrowd.com

Most of the 1,500 digital tokens now available are utility tokens, which represent access to a company’s product or service, but many of these have operated in a regulatory grey area where they may be seen as securities since they’re often perceived as investment opportunities.

Many blockchain startups have been attracted to the simplicity of utility tokens; with no regulation, companies have avoided extra costs associated with regulatory compliance and have been free to pursue non-accredited investors.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have also widely accepted utility tokens for trading on their platforms to avoid the legal complications and regulatory requirements that come from trading security tokens.

But despite the phenomenal rise of the ICO, the value of cryptocurrencies and the sums invested in ICOs have nosedived in recent months with market conditions volatile and investors wary of regulators scrutinizing the market and cracking down on pricing manipulation.

Bitcoin has fallen by as much as 11.5% after American justice officials launched an inquiry into criminal price manipulation in digital currency markets.

Issuing a compliant security token can reduce legal risk and provide protection for both the company and the contributors — especially since the SEC has increased their enforcement initiatives.

And with the fledgling security token market preparing to soar, industry experts are flagging a trending shift towards 2018/2019 being the years the security token moved to centre stage.

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CONTENTS 4 5 7 9 12 15 18 19 20 22 25 26

Advisory Board GAME PROTOCOL: Crypto Fundraising for Games // JONATHAN GANOR

ZEN: Finally, a blockchain solution that helps Money Transfer Operators // ALAN SAFAHI

The Decentralized Business of Tomorrow - Starts Today // JASON J SOSA

Zero Carbon Project, an Environmentally Friendly Blockchain Capitalise Crypto: If This Then That - Automated Crypto Trading Strategy Creation // MICHIEL MULDERS

The ICO Success Framework // DR. CHRISTIAN FERRI

Ponder: Referrals on the Blockchain // MANSHU AGARWAL

Sagewise Pioneers Dispute Resolution for Smart Contracts // JAMES SOWERS

Blockchain Technology Can Claim To Be One of The Best Discoveries // ALEXEY GRUBIN

Presentaciรณn Y Entrega De La Criptomoneda Olivacoin A Empresas Del Sector Del Aceite De Oliva // ISMAEL SANTIAGO MORENO

Spiking Decentralizes Trading with 1000 Whales Protocol! // JAMES SOWERS

28 30 32 35 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 57 60 62

Kowala (mUSD) ICO Analysis: An Autonomously Stabilized Cryptocurrency // RESEARCH CENTER

NuCypher (NU) ICO Analysis A Data Encryption Protocol for the Blockchain // RESEARCH CENTER

Phantasma Protocol (SOUL) ICO Analysis: Next-Gen Decentralized Content Storage and Distribution // RESEARCH CENTER CVerification Will Be Showcasing Their HR Platform at Bits&Pretzels // MILKO FILIPOV

Breaking Down the dApp Development Concept to Generate New Business Ideas // MICHAEL KELLEY

Real Estate Investment Set To Soar As Tokenisation Takes Over New Ethereum Token Protocols You Didn’t Know Existed // MICHIEL MULDERS Blockchain & AI for Scientists Takes On Bottleneck Monopolies Tokenization — a Whiff of Fresh Air In The Economy // DR PAVEL KRAVCHENKO

What’s The Future of Exchanges? // MICHIEL MULDERS

Why Are Investment Bankers Worried?

Crypto Platform to Tokenise Multi-Billion Franchise Industry

Naviaddress. Decentralized Addressing System // MICHIEL MULDERS How Will Regulatory Crackdowns Impact Future ICOs? Verasity // ADAM SIMMONS

Universal Reward Protocol: Fixing Broken Loyalty Programs of Retailers and Brands // GABRIEL MULKO

SportVEST: Where Venture Capital Meets Sport at the Intersection of Blockchain // ALBERTO MAIORANA

64 66 69 72 75 76 78 80 83 85 87 90 91 93 96

AirXcoin Empowers the Airline Business World // ASHENDRA LIYANAGE

GastroAdvisor // ALESSANDRO MEO

The Power of Peer to Peer Lending

evev.io

Natur Now Uncloak: Beating the world’s largest infrastructure problem // TAYO DADA

Bitenny: The Next Generation Cryptocurrency Ecosystem THE INTERNET OF TOKENS First Look: Tokenizing Battery Metals THE INTERNET OF TOKENS Lithium Trends THE INTERNET OF TOKENS Graphite Outlook 2018 THE INTERNET OF TOKENS Overview of Cobalt Trends in 2017 and Outlook for 2018 THE INTERNET OF TOKENS Mining Battery Metals THE INTERNET OF TOKENS Mining Industry Overview: Problems & Challenges THE INTERNET OF TOKENS Solution: BCE as Mining Tokenization Platform Bright Networ: Bright Wants to Use Blockchain to Bridge the SMEs Credit ‘Data Gap’

Advisory Board SUSAN POOLE

MARC KENIGSBERG

SIMON COCKING

Founder, BlockBridge Advisory Co-Founder, Blockchain Training Institute

Founder of BitcoinChaser.com

Senior Editor at Irish Tech News Freelance for Sunday Business Post, Irish Times, The Southern Star, Dublin Glob

ANDREY GOLUB, PhD

SEAD MUFTIC

SERGIO A. FERNANDEZ DE CORDOVA

Entrepreneur, CEO & Founder @ELSE Corp- a Virtual Retail company

CEO at Blockchain Information Exchange Security Corp

Chairman – P3SmartCity Partners, Inc Private Sector Advisory Group, SDG-FUND, United Nations

THEODOSIS MOUROUZIS, PhD

MUKHTAR MUSSABETOV

EMMANUEL R. GOFFI, PhD

Program Director of MSc in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics at Cyprus International Institute of Management (CIIM) Research Fellow at UCL Centre of Blockchain Technologies (London,UK)

Blockchain Entrepreneur, Founder at BlockSpace Labs

Associate doctor with Science Po-CERI Research fellow with the Centre FrancoPaix, at the Université du Québec à Montréal

ALEX LIGHTMAN

DANIEL STEEVES

AVI LEVI

Award-winning and Amazon bestselling author.

Canadian-born, German-based consultant and entrepreneur, Strategist, Steeves Solutions

ICO Crowd North America

JUNE-JULY 2018

Crypto Fundraising for Games Over 65% of American households are home to someone who plays video games regularly. Video game revenue is growing fast and has grown by 10.7% in 2017. The $115 billion-dollar industry does have its flaws though.

Most of the games in development are never completed & released to the public. This is something which applies to all manner of developers, from small & independent studios to industry giants. The primary reason for games not being released is lack of proper funding. This is by where Game Protocol fits it.

JONATHAN

GANOR Head Content Writer at Game Protocol

HOW GAME PROTOCOL ASSISTS DEVELOPERS Game Protocol is an entire gaming ecosystem on the blockchain. It is primarily a crypto-based crowd-fundraiser for games.

After completing a brief KYC process, any developer from across the world with a history of game development can post a pitch of the video game they are developing. Shortly after the developer will need to create a unique in-game token which will be crypto-based. The developer will later sell his/her crypto in-game currency to fund the development of the game.

the globe. The more successful the game is, the more valuable the in-game currency will become. The developer can choose to peg the in-game purchases coordinated to a certain fiat amount or let supply and demand decide the price for in-app purchases.

WHAT IT WILL LOOK LIKE FOR USERS Gamers can find and fund game projects in development that sound appealing to them. They can choose to fund games either by exchanging cryptocurrencies or with fiat credit/debit cards via a gateway and receive GXT without having to deal with the hassle, usually associated with purchasing cryptocurrencies.

This will lead to a wider adoption of GXT amongst the public, as anyone can easily purchase it.

Crypto enthusiasts can choose to speculate on what games will be successful and which ones will be less prosperous. The more popular a game will become, the more valuable its native token will be.

This is done in-part due to Game Protocol’s strategic partnership with the wildly successful Bancor & the use of their liquidity pool model. Game Protocol will both be part of the Bancor network allowing easy exchange of many Once the game is developed it will be reERC20 tokens & Ethereum to GXT and leased in Game Protocol’s Game Store and will be enjoyed by players from across vice versa and have their own internal

liquidity pool for all games developed on the platform.

A BIT ABOUT BANCOR Bancor has been one of the most successful ICOs of all time, along the likes of EOS and Filecoin to name a few. They have managed to raise a whopping 250,000 ETH in under 3 hours on the 12th of June 2017. This was the equivalent to $153 M USD at the time of the ICO and $346 M at ETH’s peak.

What Bancor offers is a Decentralized Liquidity Network that allows you to hold any Ethereum token and convert it to any other token in their network. They use an automatically calculated pricing algorithm for tokens on their network, without the use of a counterparty.

Game Protocol & Bancor have recently announced their partnership. Other than the support & PR the Bancor team has also shared valuable advice. This partnership means that GXT will be backed by Ether & other ERC20 tokens and will always be exchangeable.

THE TEAM BEHIND THE VISION The team behind Game Protocol was initially known as GamyTech. As a gaming studio, Gamytech has released over seven games over the course of the last four years. GamyTech’s most notable release is Backgammon4Money, which has had 5

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more than 3.5 M downloads from across the globe. Backgammon4Money is also currently the world’s most popular backgammon for live money app.

KEY ROADMAP NOTES Once Game Protocol’s token sale concludes, it plans on releasing many of its key aspects shortly after.

In the past year most of the GamyTech team have diverted their attention from Backgammon4Money and their other games, to refine and help create the basis of Game Protocol.

Q1 2019 • Unity3d wallet integration - this will allow seamless integration between a crypto wallet and any Unity3d based game.

• Wagering smart platform - Should players want to wager on a game, they can do so. Using a smart-contract based wagering platform removes any chance of tampering and offers an even playing field for players.

• Random Number Generator - by implementing a random number generator, developers can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that their game is 100% fair & random. This can be applied to nearly any type of game.

Jonathan Swerdlow, CEO of Gamytech & Game Protocol has worked as an executive in the video game industry for the past seven years. During this time, Swerdlow noticed some key flaws in the industry the biggest of which were amazing game concepts that couldn’t receive funding and were forced to stop development, despite having a great concept. Experiences such as these helped create the key concepts of Game Protocol.

WHAT THE TEAM IS DOING CURRENTLY The Game Protocol team is currently developing an MVP or prototype which should be released to the public in the next few weeks. They are also laying the ground for the Public Pre-Sale, which will begin on the 1st of September.

Currently, some team members are participating in many blockchain and cryptocurrency related events. On June 19th Game Protocol was awarded the Best Innovation Award at the Blockchain Alternative Investment Conference (also known as BAICOnf) in London. “We are very pleased to win the best innovation award. This achievement only reflects the hard work of the team.” Jonathan Swerdlow was quoted saying earlier.

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Q3 2019 • GameStarter launch - The key aspect of Game Protocol, its crowd fundraising platform for video games, will be released.

• Downloadable store - The PC & Apple version of Game Protocol’s game store will be released.

• Mobile store - An Android & Apple version of Game Protocol’s game store will be released to the public.

• Community coworking space - A space where developers and gaming specialists can post & contact each other to assist with the development of games.

HOW GAME PROTOCOL ENVISIONS THE FUTURE OF GAMING Game Protocol sees the future of all ingame currencies in video games to be to-

Most of the games in development are never completed & released to the public. This is something which applies to all manner of developers, from small & independent studios to industry giants.

kenized and easily exchangeable. This is something that would be a benefit both to developers and players alike. By adding a fiat to crypto gateway, the Game Protocol team hopes to speed up the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies amongst players & the public.

The Game Protocol team would also like to change the world of crowdfunding for video games. By allowing fans & cryptocurrency enthusiasts to receive a game’s specific in-game token as a reward for backing a project, backers receive something with monetary value for their support. If the game becomes successful, the value of the in-game token will rise.

This is a huge difference between Game Protocol and other crowdfunding platforms. The team hopes that this will likely increase the average amount of investment from backers. With the use of their liquidity pool, some can speculate on the success of games as well.

To conclude, Game Protocol is a breath of fresh air in the world of blockchain-gaming ventures. It offers innovation of blockchain technology not yet seen in its space. With its help, we hope to see many more amazing games being launched. Developers and gamers alike await the release of Game Protocol.

Website: https://www.gameprotocol.io Join the Telegram Group: https://t.me/ GameProtocol Read the Whitepaper: https://www. gameprotocol.io/whitepaper Join the Whitelist: https://tokensale. gameprotocol.io/

JUNE-JULY 2018

Finally, a blockchain solution that helps Money Transfer Operators The 21st century has seen more rapid migration than any other time in recent history with the pace exceeding that of population growth.

There are currently 250M+ immigrants that live in a country other than the one they were born in, a whopping 60% increase since 2000.

As the world gets more and more interconnected, the need for simpler, faster by and more cost-efficient money transfer ALAN SAFAHI Founder and CEO continues to grow.

of ZED Network Inc.

According to World Bank, global remittance hovers around $600B per year.

Western Union and the next three top Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) control about 25% of the global remittance market.

The other 75% (or $450B+) is spread out among a long tail of thousands of small to medium sized MTOs, many of

whom are single corridor providers, unable to grow past their initial market and scale up to compete with the Top 4 giants.

Most banks won’t sponsor MTOs due to the compliance overhead. Others are shutting down MTO accounts to derisk their portfolio.

The lack of competition and inability to challenge the large Money Transfer Operators is directly responsible for the cost of remittances staying high at around 8%.

Consequently, the top 4 MTOs have significant advantages over smaller MTOs that are constantly under the threat of losing their banking relationship.

There are many challenges facing smaller MTOs including banking, cash flow and technology.

CASH FLOW ISSUE In addition to banking challenges facing MTOs, they also have a significant barrier in the opportunity cost of having funds tied up in multiple currencies at various financial institutions around the world.

BANKING PROBLEM The majority of the cross-border money transfer is currently processed through SWIFT, a reliable yet archaic technology that provides for slow, expensive and TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGE tedious transfers with lack of transpar- MTOs have limited IT staff with litency. tle technology resources. Many don’t even have web or mobile apps deNowhere is the dependence on banks spite high demand by their customas dire as in the case of Money Transers. What limited resources they do fer Operators whose very existence de- have are spent on compliance repends on their banking relationship. quirements.

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MTOs are therefore unable to innovate and pose a viable threat to their larger competitors.

For small to medium sized MTOs that can't effectively compete with larger MTOs, ZED Network is a SaaS platform built on a distributed ledger that reducWhile there have been a few well financed es costs and transaction friction. blockchain solutions launched in recent years that compete against MTOs, there Unlike the current SWIFT system, ZED have been no solutions offered that help Network eliminates dependency on these MTOs, that are well established and banks in favour of a global, distributalready have customers and revenues, to ed network of licensed MTOs to create be more efficient. a faster, cheaper and more transparent money transfer network.

In order for MTOs to grow rapidly and scale, they need a turnkey solution for ZED Network launched in 2017 and global pay-outs using an easy, fast and is quickly creating a comprehensive cost effective integrated global network money transfer solution that includes of licensed entities a wallet, a web app, mobile apps, and a robust back office with a suite of reZED Network Inc., an Ontario, Canports for compliance and monitorada based blockchain company has a ing purposes, available to MTOs on comprehensive solution that succincta SaaS model, free of charge for the ly solves these problems for the money first year and at nominal costs in subtransfer operators. sequent years.

ZED Network offers a compliance-friendly solution enabling Money Transfer Operators to leverage leading blockchain technology and scale their business.

At the heart of ZED Network is the ZED currency which is a Cryptocurrency built on Stellar’s mining-free, distributed ledger platform.

In order for MTOs to grow rapidly and scale, they need a turnkey solution for global payouts using an easy, fast and cost effective integrated global network of licensed entities

In time, ZED wallet will essentially become the bank account for these MTOs that will pay their pay-out partners, suppliers, employees and contractors using ZED.

Alan Safahi is the Founder and CEO of ZED Net- He is a repeat founder, with successful start-ups work Inc., a Platform as a Service (PaaS) for in computer hardware and software, telecom, Money Transfer Operators worldwide. and Fintech. He has created disruptive innovations in prepaid cards, payment processing, crypAlan is a serial entrepreneur with nearly 30 years tocurrencies/Blockchain technologies and globof hands-on experience in diverse disciplines span- al remittances. ning multiple industries and countries.

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There will be a maximum cap of 100 Billion ZED tokens authorized, up to 10 Billion of which will be sold to accredited and verified investors in the Pre-Sale and the rest of up to 11 Billion tokens will be sold in a Public Sale in Q3/ 2018 when the ZED Network is fully operational.

Upon launch of the ZED Network and the Public Sale, ZED will be available to MTOs to use for utility purposes of remittance settlements worldwide, thus reducing their cash flow needs while providing the banking and technology solutions that they need the most.

Since most of these MTOs have built customer relationships and trust for decades, the enhancements provided by blockchain technologies will provide them the boost they need to grow rapidly, scale and offer highly competitive rates and superior services to their existing customers.

He has served on the boards of Bold and Ripple and is currently advising multiple startups including Loyyal and Zuum.

Alan can be reached at alan@zed.network

JUNE-JULY 2018

The Decentralized Business of Tomorrow Starts Today Understanding Structures of Trust For thousands of years, the dynamics of what “trust” means and how it is acquired has been based on limited resources, with harsh consequences for welcoming outsiders into the tribe. In small communities around the world your religion, your last name, the clothes you wear, and especially where you’re from mattered.

by JASON J SOSA Blackbox Founder/ CEO

However, in modern times, things are entirely different. We live in a mass-production and digital information era. In this age of abundance, we don’t necessarily need a car, because an Uber will be waiting curbside at the press of a button. In modern cities, there’s a different sort of bubble. The trust dynamics are based on who you know, how eloquently you speak, your background, how clearly and confidently you convey ideas, and what previous accomplishments you claim. The pace has quickened, and the culture of trade and commerce is now a global and diverse community.

This contrast and cultural divide of trust still exists in much of the world today.

Understanding the historical structure is critical to building the safeguards. The culture of core contributors and stewards requires more than just bits. We understand that human connections and rituals underlie transactions and that this evolutionary advantage will assist us to bootstrap an ecosystem to place the guard rails and define the methodology ahead of broader adoption for a truly distributed organization.

The challenge today is that the world of work is dispersed yet relies on technology silos. Trust in this new blockchain en-

vironment changes the game and helps to level the playing field. With many talented workers being scattered around geographic regions due to birthplace, family, or romance, having a sustainable tribe connecting to others you can trust is hard to come by.

Technology continuously changes the way we work. Each “revolution” brings about massive disruption - from farming machines to subway trains, digital medical records to cell phones.

Technology presses forward, and the ways we conduct business, communicate with co-workers and develop products and services have to go along for the ride.

Among the buzzword salad that is hyped of late is “artificial intelligence + blockchain.” This time combining two transformative technologies as a set of tools to build new structures of trust, without middlemen, without centralized oversight, in an automated way is known as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).

TALENT ACQUISITION DECENTRALIZED With the internet, teams of people can remain connected across vast distances. With increasingly available WiFi, 5G on the horizon, more powerful devices, and mixed reality, the latest revolution is leaning more and more toward decentralization. Connectivity enables a new way to work and live that is not tied to a physical location or central building. This advancement in work reallocation provides a new work alternative that simply wasn’t possible just five years ago.

Call it the “gig economy,” or look at the number of companies’ people are work-

ing for over their careers (compared to previous generations) … Look at the ways casual communication takes place… Even friendships and romantic relationships can be developed with a cell phone and an internet connection.

It only makes sense, then, that the future of work will continue this way, as workers won’t need to (or want to) share offices (or even cities) to be a capable team.

BENEFITS OF A DECENTRALIZED WORKFORCE How do both individuals and businesses stand to gain from a remote staff, flat organizational structures, and digital communication?

The most significant challenges facing organizations looking at the combination of “AI+blockchain” in the future will be unlearning the constraints of the previous business models that had worked for them in the past. Bridging the world from dead trees to smart contracts requires that we create a new set of standards around trust and how business is conducted.

REWARDING INITIATIVE A decentralized workforce is less hierarchical by its very nature. Transitioning from an employee/employer paternalistic mindset may be the most challenging part of the process as we transition into this future of work. There may still be project owners, creatives, operators, and so on, but each contributor has to be self-motivated for a broad self-managing system to function.

With this new decentralized model, workers are rewarded for initiative and ingenuity through more contracts, high9

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Decentralizing doesn’t just follow with technological trends. It actually stands to improve the way people work, the way people earn trust, and thereby, improve the way they live.

er earnings, more autonomy and responsibility, and so on. By decentralizing, the team becomes more of a meritocracy where the best work and best ideas are the driving forces of success.

boarding, training, finding physical space, etc.

is that with a global workforce you double productivity working 24 hours a day.

There is no room for favoritism, nepotism, “stepping on toes”, or “squeaky wheels” in this approach to work because it’s painfully obvious when a team member isn’t holding up their end of the bargain. In turn, this empowers the individual to take pride in their work, knowing that quality will be recognized for better or for worse. It also reinforces the ideals of self-motivation, self-reliance, and personal responsibility. Trust is established through the work you do, the way others interact with you, the reliability of your commitments, and so on.

This means being able to expand to meet demand with ease and adjust for lean times just as quickly. Cooperative enterprises that are united through a shared common bond have the greatest resiliency advantage in the next economic downturn. Work that automates not just the distribution of work, but also the allocation of surplus will see the greatest loyalty from the best and brightest talent, as new global trust networks emerge as distributed applications.

The challenge today is that the world of work is dispersed yet relies on technology silos.

Trust in this new blockchain If you need a specialized expert, a decen- environment tralized company allows for bringing that changes the individual on as needed, instead of paygame and helps ing to keep them on staff. If there needs to level the to be a big push in one particular area of playing field. business, staff can be expanded as need-

DECISION MAKING If projects and daily operations are decentralized and reliant on self-motivated, knowledgeable staff, everyone involved is empowered to make decisions. Instead of a single decision working its way up through a chain of command, each individual can make decisions and stand by them. Trust is earned through the feedback you provide others, consistency in your efforts, and by openly demonstrating your skills.

Blackbox has a foundation that acts as the steward overseeing the transition to a DAO structure. Organized for over a year as a flatarchy structure is very dynamic in nature and can be thought of a bit more like an amoeba with a shifting yet stable structure. However, even this flatarchy is temporary, while the dependencies for automation are being built for what will allow us to transition to a company run entirely on code.

FLEXIBILITY AND SPEED Without the overhead that comes with in-house staff, companies can be more agile. Meeting staffing needs becomes a matter of reaching out to trusted team members who can hit the ground running - instead of a long process of on10

ed. Reputation systems and automated onboarding will reduce or altogether eliminate the issues behind trust and organizational friction of working in a distributed way.

For the workers themselves, all of this means having multiple, concurrent opportunities for work. They aren’t beholden to a job, desk, or a 9-to-5 when there isn’t work to be done, and each individual has the ability to determine their own capacity for taking on projects.

Even in an emergency, when company leaders are otherwise occupied, or a central office loses power, a decentralized workforce keeps plugging away! What’s more,

Team leaders (we prefer to call them stewards) can make choices about how to delegate work based on their own experience and best fit. People can decide when and where they want to work (as long as it meets deadlines, of course) and use their expertise to inform the way the work itself is carried out. The next-generation worker is trusted to get their work done. They are trusted to master their craft, empowered to ask the right questions to follow intrinsic motivations towards mastery.

With less micromanaging and more autonomy, each participant has a more personal connection to the work they do which translates directly to more pride, better work, and fewer excuses. Through “artificial intelligence + blockchain” an automated digital nervous system can emerge which empowers workers to contribute from anywhere, with whom they want, whenever they want in a truly meritocratic way.

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partments, hours, offices, outdated processes like performance management systems and siloed thinking perpetually minimized human potential, as we seek to be better we need a radical change.

As traditional organizations shift from antiquated business models, they’ll require an interface between current paper and electronic contracts and smart contracts. Blackbox OS bridges the gap between the decentralized world and allows organizations to unleash the power of distributed technology and Artificial Intelligence.

Modules are designed to conquer widespread, specific business problems that are specific to decentralized collaboration. Modules contribute a blend of protocols, additional code, IP and AI with the goal of being easily integrated into existing collectives or groups to provide quick wins.

GROWTH With the right systems, standards, and training in place, a decentralized workforce allows companies to grow exponentially. Bringing on new people doesn’t require more office space or increased overhead. The workforce isn’t restricted to just one geographical area in fact, the entire planet becomes your available talent pool! Repetitive and tedious tasks are eliminated through workflow automation.

even a single location that can fall victim to natural disaster. If a computer crashes, someone else has the files…

We’re building the blueprint to reimagine what an organization is at its core.

We’re moving us all forward towards a better way to work and add value. An ecosystem and protocol to propose, contribute and measure that value. Influence is earned through a reputation system by consensus review (voting) and consistently demonstrating execution skills (PoV).

While cloud storage and blockchain technology also help to resolve these potential problems, having a physically decentralized business also keeps intellectual property more protected.

The Deliverable Values Points (DVP), or the estimated value of a “Deliverable,” is determined during the proposal stage, and discussed by experts until they reach consensus.

these “new branches” with ease, based on where you already have a team in place. Such team members will also be more familiar with a specific region and will be best prepared to identify what products or services will appeal to the people of that region. Systems of trust are transferable across multiple areas of influence and participation ensuring that everyone is aligned towards the shared common good.

ical - that people feel autonomous, take pride and personal ownership in their work, and that they are afforded more freedom to follow their intrinsic motivations to do what works best for them. In all instances, empowered, fulfilled workers produce better, more profitable work as well!

Connectivity enables a new way to work and live that So, decentralizing doesn’t just follow with technological trends. It actually is not tied stands to improve the way people work, to a physical Even if you are using physical storethe way people earn trust, and thereby, fronts or collaborative workspaces, a de- improve the way they live. The most con- location or centralized model allows you to open siderable advantages here are psycholog- central building.

Once a proposal is accepted, participants can “bid” on owning deliverables (based on skills/reputation/availability). Upon owning a deliverable, the actual payout is the value of the owned deliverable, multiplied with the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) and the Quality Factor determined through a Proof of Value (PoV).

The Blackbox Token powers a business operating system for distributed organizations and individuals. The token, network, operating system, business model, and underlying philosophy address the root challenges of hierarchical and centralized inefficiencies by re-imagining what an organization is at its core. You can learn more by reading our Manifesto and white paper.

With people in multiple cities and countries, a company also gains access to each person’s professional network, meaning that the workforce can be easily expanded through trusted referrals - and an almost automatic vetting process.

By decentralizing, the team Decentralizing is becoming more and more possible because of technology, but becomes more of the models prove to be working because a meritocracy of how they affect people. With all of the where the best modern ways to communicate and collabwork and best orate, people, are discovering that workideas are the ing on their own terms improves their This new way to work and organizationdriving forces of al model is designed around the entrequality of life AND the overall success of the organizations they work for. preneurial mindset and provides a hysuccess.

REDUNDANCY AND SECURITY Decentralizing allows for multiple iterations of documentation, versions of projects, and independently managed materials. There is no central server to hack or

A BUSINESS OPERATING SYSTEM TO MANAGE THE FUTURE OF WORK We saw that the current corporate and capital structures limited an individual’s potential to create value. Titles, de-

brid approach towards shared benefits and managed risk in a way that provides greater benefits for the whole. We are on the cusp of a transformation, in how business is conducted, as well as for human productivity and creativity. Join us.

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JUNE-JULY 2018

Zero Carbon Project, an Environmentally Friendly Blockchain ICO Crowd sits down for a chat with Derek Myers, CEO of Zero Carbon Project Hi Derek, before we get into the nitty gritty of things, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Sure, well I’ve been involved with financial markets working with Macquarie Bank and then I worked with Accenture where I was called in to help inby ICO CROWD troduce competition into energy markets. Dot com days provided the opportunity to escape the corporate world. It was a great time to raise funds to implement innovative ideas, so I raised £2m to build the first online power market called PowerEx, which I then sold to a Dutch buyer. Since then I have been building Beond which gave birth to Zero Carbon Project.

Prior to that, back in the day, I delivered papers and chemist prescriptions for several months to save up for my 16k Tandy Colour Computer which was loaded with Microsoft Basic programming language.

I created some great games but unfortunately, I didn’t have the technical capability to crack machine code, assembly language and those new modems which were entering the scene. I’m still like that, in that I struggle with the detailed technical elements but fly with the appli- tion of electric vehicles with their potential to plug batteries into the electricity cation side of things. grid, will be the inflexion point, supporting intermittent renewables and evening What is the Zero Carbon Project and peaks when the sun stops shining. what does it set out to achieve?

We are tackling climate change using the The problem with renewables is that they blockchain. Renewables are responding brilliantly to the challenge with solar are still too expensive for mass adoption which is required to make a rapid and costs dropping massively over the last 10 years, for example. Battery technolo- material impact on carbon reductions. gies are following this trend. Mass adop- Subsidies are running out so it may take 12

several years until they are competitive with fossil fuels.

Zero Carbon Project provides a solution which covers the interim stage with zero carbon energy which is cheaper than fossil fuels. We provide a zero-carbon market for energy suppliers to compete to win our consumer’s business. The competing suppliers can purchase their energy from renewables, nuclear and carbon

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years ago. Twenty years ago, my views were influenced by the scientific evidence presented during the Kyoto Protocol and I accepted that the catastrophic risks associated with climate change warranted a concerted global response. I was finally convinced of the problem 10 years ago by Al Gore and his docu-movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Since then my business Beond has been tracking the range of renewable energy technologies and international carbon credits and discussing the benefits of renewables and energy efficiency with our clients. Our business formalised these discussions into our ‘technology services’ offering when subsidies made renewable energy a commercial reality for our clients.

A few years ago, I was invited to become the Chairman of West London Committee for Sustainability and Climate Change. We launched a four-point plan to reduce carbon emissions in West London, to introduce circular economy, to support smart clean city initiatives and to implement a clean-tech cluster working with Imperial College. neutral sources. By carbon neutral we mean sourcing fossil fuels but offsetting their carbon emissions by purchasing international carbon credits.

then recycle up to 70% of these into our reward pool, to reward consumers for switching to zero carbon energy and contributing to tackling climate change.

This is exciting because international carbon credits are very cheap due to lack of demand. In fact, our intensely competitive market which we have honed over 15 years, can deliver cost reductions greater than the cost of the international carbon credits.

As our consumer base increases, transaction fees increase and demand for Energis tokens increase. By limiting the supply of Energis tokens, we can capture the future utility received from the service we are providing. When owners sell Energis tokens to energy suppliers they will consider and estimate the future demand for their token.

So, our Zero Carbon Market provides cost savings to consumers, while switching them to zero carbon energy.

How does Blockchain fit into this vision?

Where the blockchain comes in is with our Energis token economy. The problem remains that consumers are unwilling to prioritise switching for the cost savings on offer. Therefore, we intend to reward our customers for switching to zero carbon energy with Energis tokens. Our Energis tokens will provide a potent catalyst for change because they are a meaningful reward. They have been designed to capture or tokenise the future potential utility received by our future potential customers from our services.

To make this work we have designed smart contracts for energy suppliers to pay transaction fees for winning our energy consumers’ business; and the fees must be paid using Energis tokens. This provides the liquidity and internal demand required for our token owners. We

This is the Energis token economy. And this is how we intend to tackle climate change.

Climate change is a very serious topic that deserves attention, what has been your involvement with climate change to date?

I prefer to admit upfront that I am not an environmentalist or a conservationist. I love trees and nature and am overawed by the complexity, elegance and beauty of the natural universe.

However, I don’t want to disrespect the philosophies of naturalists and the priorities they apply to their beliefs and interests, by claiming I am one of them.

However, I do pride myself on taking a scientific view of the world and the evidence clearly suggests that man-made carbon emissions are threatening our planet through climate change. I have to admit that I was a climate sceptic 30

Twenty years ago, my views were influenced by the scientific evidence presented during the Kyoto Protocol and I accepted that the catastrophic risks associated with climate change warranted a concerted global response.

From the first part of the plan to reduce carbon emissions, Beond launched a zero-carbon project for West London. We realised that we could enhance this by using the blockchain to create a reward token to provide a powerful catalyst for change globally.

It is great to see the economic incentive model of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies used for a good cause, how did you get involved with blockchain?

In 2013 Philip Louw, our head of software, convinced me to invest in servers to experiment with mining bitcoins.

I was particularly excited about the opportunity of turning electricity into bitcoin and at the same time being able to provide a valuable demand side response service to the electricity grid, who were looking for flexibility to cover the intermittency created by increasing use of solar panels. Unfortunately, both of us got distracted with other day-to-day business priorities so we missed the opportunity to scale our experiments.

A year ago, Philip and one of our consultants, Tomos Edwards, pinned me down to explain Ethereum smart contracts.

It was better late than never, the klaxons started to blast and I haven’t slept well since. Our energy blockchain project was born, we have climbed a steep learning curve which only seems to be getting steeper.

I was fortunate enough to meet Bok Khoo, aka Bokky PoohBah, in Sydney, who is a highly respected Ethereum 13

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need to purchase Energis tokens to pay our transaction fees. We have 32 energy suppliers lined up and ready to compete for business across our Market.

That sounds like a very intelligent way to deal with the current market conditions. Are you optimistic about the future?

Yes, climate change is now a solvable problem. International carbon credits have a big role over the next several years, especially by subsidising growing more trees to soak up carbon emissions.

The problem will ultimately be nailed by solar, wind and batteries. This will probably happen quickly after the mass adoption of electric vehicles, which will bring free battery capacity to the electricity grid. Wave and tidal tech will struggle to compete but will probably have a role.

Expensive scrubbers will probably need to be deployed to soak up some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

smart contract programmer. He has now been involved in over 30 blockchain projects including prominent projects such as MakerDAO and helping to clean-up TheDao hack. He also enjoys building an open source decentralised derivates crypto-exchange for the community. Bokky runs two seminars a week free of charge, patiently training up Ethereum newbies, including Solidity programmers, inventors, traders and entrepreneurs like me.

severance is key. What is critical is the quality of the idea.

Making things more difficult for us is our determination to stick to our principles of distributing power. So, we have structured our ICO to favour the smaller contributors who will also be our customers.

We have pre-sale rounds totalling $5m with no maximum contributions, but our $15m main-sale has a 24 hour window with $3k maximum contributions to ensure the smaller contributors can secure enough tokens to make it worth their while.

Blockchain holds the prospect to distribute power to individuals and reduce the Philip, Tomos and I were inspired by the power of centraltrustless nature of smart contracts creised institutions. ated by their immutability, transparBlockchain also ency and security. We immediately saw the opportunity to create an organisaWe also democratised our private prehas the potention without jurisdiction. We were onto sale by reducing the minimum contribu- tial to reduce the the DAO involving automatic operation to 1 ETH, so that smaller contribupower of nationtions and management, planned by a to- tors can benefit from the 50% price disal political units ken owner centric governance structure. count and allocation bonuses of up to with a diverse We could see the opportunity for a global 60%. digital currency backed by global energy range of globusage, rather than central bankers. This We are dealing with the dire ICO market al digital currenwas before our euphoria was dampened climate by positioning ourselves for a pocies interacting after engaging with our solicitors King tentially slow and extended token sale. & Wood Mallesons; and the reactionary The traditional objection to this from pri- with smart conforces of centralised regulators. vate pre-sale contributors is the extend- tracts.

Yes, we are hearing a lot of talk about regulation at the moment and we hope that the end result helps to enhance blockchain innovation. How are you dealing with the current crypto market climate?

We missed the ICO boom and are now adjusting to the current climate. We are not upset by a tighter environment as 20 years of entrepreneurial experience toughens you and you know that per14

ed wait to be able to use or sell their tokens. In response to this we are freeing up Energis tokens to use as soon as they are purchased.

In addition, we are providing early contributors with a liquidity event by launching our UK Zero Carbon Market in October. This will include listing Energis tokens on a decentralised crypto exchange. More importantly we will provide liquidity as energy suppliers will

Centralisation of power may be a larger problem. China, Russia, Europe and US are too big and power is too far removed from the people. EU is run by several thousand bureaucrats who are disconnected from the average citizen, have their own interests, views and conflicts, which are not transparent. Trump is making a power play using traditional populist hard man methods.

I am inspired by the 4.7 million New Zealanders who punch way above their weight on the global stage in sports, business and culture. United Kingdom continues to provide the beacon on the hill by advancing democracy by being open to distributing power with plebiscites run on Brexit and Scotland.

Dot com was a false dawn. The idea that ‘data wants to be free’ has unexpectedly reduced the privacy of individuals and created new global centralised powers such as Google and Facebook.

Blockchain holds the prospect to distribute power to individuals and reduce the power of centralised institutions. Blockchain also has the potential to reduce the power of national political units with a diverse range of global digital currencies interacting with smart contracts. In Australia a new political party has been formed called Flux www.voteflux.org who are blockchain visionaries aiming to empower Australians to directly participate in parliament with the use of smart contracts.

On the horizon, like Elon Musk, I am concerned about artificial intelligence which may develop its own agenda, possibly in conflict with mankind’s goal and values.

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Capitalise Crypto

If This Then That - Automated Crypto Trading Strategy Creation

For decades, people have tried to create the perfect trading bot which will make them six figures. The regular stock market has years of experience in creating such bots, however, few have proven to be (slightly) successful. It’s an interesting fact to apply these bots to crypto trading.

A feature many bots offer is a currency swap. A swap is basically a simultaneous purchase and sale of identical amounts of one currency for another when the price of one currency is lower on exchange A compared to exchange B. However, it has proven to be very hard by to predict the future of the markets by MICHIEL MULDERS just analyzing historical data.

Blockchain Developer & Writer

On the other side, crypto trading bots do offer some benefits. Controlling your emotions when trading isn’t an easy task. Fear and greed are the two most frequently occurring emotions that lead to bad trades. Fear lets traders delay the realization of a loss, which turns into much greater losses, and the fear of giving back profits which make traders close winning trades too early.

Greed is supposed to be good, but when we look at the hard facts, greed often causes several impulsive trading decisions that should be avoided.

In addition, a more rational investor will create a crypto trading strategy.

Rules like: - Set buy and sell limits for Ethereum and Bitcoin - Take profits when a certain altcoin reaches +35% - Close a trade when an altcoin drops -20% - Transfer $1000 to your bank account when your portfolio hits $10,000 The above rules seem to be easy and straightforward, still, many people fail to follow these rules. A trading bot can help you to implement your trading strategy more correctly.

Capitalise Crypto wants to offer the possibility for novice and experienced users to create their own trading bot by just using a language-based interface. The interface works with an autocomplete feature to assist you in creating your first strategy. For the platform (bots) to use your funds on an exchange like Binance for example, you have to input your API keys to allow the bots to trade with your funds. It’s removing the need for highly specialized programming knowledge or hiring expensive developers. Capitalise Crypto enables you to get started with automated trading by using your personal strategy trading bot.

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• Number of candlesticks you want to take into calculation.

• Change the candlestick interval.

Price at HH:MM Price at a specified time.

Crypto Coin Use a coin with properties like ‘24 hours volume’, ‘24 hours turnover %’ (volume divided by coin’s circulating supply), ‘market cap’, ‘coin dominance’.

Technical Indicators Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) People have been using the MACD indicator for decades as it’s invented in 1979 and it’s one of the most popular indicators. It can be used to spot a new trend or momentum.

Novice users do not have sufficient knowledge to create personalized trading strategies, so Capitalise Crypto offers an extensive library of examples you can copy and implement into your personal strategy.

Let’s take a look at the different operators we can use for our automated trading bot.

TRADING KEYWORDS Let’s take a glimpse at some of the keywords we can implement in our crypto trading bot.

Trading Operators Is Above / Is below This is the most basic operator. It just tells the bot to do a certain action when the price of a cryptocurrency exceeds or drops below a certain threshold. As Capitalise Crypto is using natural language processing, words like ‘higher than’, ‘lower than’, ‘more / less’, ‘over / under’, ‘greater’, etc. can be understood as well.

Crosses Above / Crosses Below You can use this condition to describe the exact moment where the value of one term changes from ‘is above’ to ‘is below’, or vice versa. This operator is mainly implemented for strategies that use technical analysis.

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By… (delta) It’s possible to instruct the bot to buy the crypto pair IOTA/BTC if the price is ‘higher by 1%’ than the today’s open. You can also tell the bot to look for a price increment in dollars, e.g. ‘by $2’.

Trading Terms Open Use the open rate on the current day in your strategy.

Last Day Close Asset’s close rate on the previous day of trading.

Last Day Volume Very interesting indicator to check whether the volume has increased this day.

Average Volume Daily average volume for last 50 days (5 / 14 / 25 / 50 /100 / 200 days’ averages are available).

Bar / Candlestick (with properties) You can use the high and low of a candlestick, but as well the opening and closing price. Using candlestick data allows you to create more complex strategies. You can even edit several properties for candlestick data:

The concept behind the MACD is fairly straightforward. Essentially, it calculates the difference between an instrument's 26-day and 12-day exponential moving averages (EMA). Of the two moving averages that make up the MACD, the 12-day EMA is obviously the faster one, while the 26-day is slower. In the calculation of their values, both moving averages use the closing prices of whatever period is measured.

On the MACD chart, a nine-day EMA of the MACD itself is plotted as well, and it acts as a trigger for buy and sell decisions. The MACD generates a bullish signal when it moves above its own nine-day EMA, and it sends a sell sign when it moves below its nine-day EMA.

Capitalise Crypto enables you to get started with automated trading by using your personal strategy trading bot.

Relative Strength Index (RSI) The RSI should give you a clear indication whether a cryptocurrency is oversold or overbought. It generates a value between 0 and 100. A value below 30 is considered to be low (oversold) and might signal a new upwards trend or swing. A value above 70 is considered to be high (overbought).

In an uptrend or bull market, the RSI tends to remain in the 40 to 90 range with the 40-50 zone acting as support. During a downtrend or bear market the RSI tends to stay between the 10 to 60 range with the 50-60 zone acting as resistance.

Bollinger Band (BB) The Bollinger Band is plotted two standard deviations away from a moving average, invented by the famous technical trader John Bollinger. It’s mostly used to measure volatility of a cryptocurrency. The bands widen when the volatility increases, and vice versa.

In case the bands are close together, called a squeeze, it’s considered to be a period of low volatility, but as well an indicator for future trading opportunities.

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Trading Against Technical Indicator Let’s start with trading the moving average. I want to buy Bitcoin when the price of Bitcoin crosses above the 100-day moving Average as this often indicates a positive break-out. You can create a very similar exit strategy in which you tell the bot to close the trade when the price drops again below the Moving Average.

Chaining Strategies Let’s buy 100 euros worth of Ethereum in case the 24 hours volume of Ethereum is higher than the last day volume and the relative strength index of Ethereum crosses above 40. As you can see, we can chain multiple operations with the ‘and’ keyword. This is probably the most powerful feature Capitalise Crypto offers.

PRODUCT ROADMAP Capitalise has recently released the beta version of their platform. The Capitalise team is working hard to release a final version of the platform. To get a jumpstart in the market, Capitalise decided to connect to the exchange with the highest daily traded volume, Binance. Within the second half of 2018 they are planning on adding many more exchanges to their platform.

Within the first half of 2019, planned is a social arena for sharing trading strategies. At last, we are very excited about the back-testing and optimising strategies. In a trading strategy, back testing seeks to estimate the performance of a strategy or model if it had been employed during a past period based on historical data. It’s great to get such performance estimates for your trades which are very useful insights for creating further trading strategies.

Order Types • Market: default order type.

• Limit: Set a max / min rate for an order.

• Stop: A stop order allows you to create a market order that will be activated only if the price reaches a higher rate for a buy order, or a lower rate for a sell order.

• Stop Limit: Combination of stop and limit order.

Time In Force An order can be active until you cancel it (‘Good Till Canceled’). You can specify more accurate durations like ‘1 day’ or ‘3 days’. You can as well choose to execute an order immediately if the market conditions are correct otherwise cancel it immediately.

CREATING STRATEGIES First Strategy Let’s look at a basic strategy: "Buy 450 units of IOTA/USDT @Binance if the price of Ethereum/Tether @CryptoCompare crosses below $4 and the market cap of BTC is below $300,000,000,000".

Actually, the above strategy consists only of an entry strategy. The platform allows you to define an exit strategy as well. Something as simple as “Sell 450 units of IOTA/USDT @Binance if the price crosses above $8”.

You can now submit the trading strategy, so the Capitalise Crypto algorithm will start monitoring the market 24/7.

Once the conditions are met, it will execute that strategy.

Capitalise Crypto wants to offer the possibility for novice and experienced users to create their own trading bot by just using a language-based interface.

KEY POINTS FOR USING CAPITALISE • Removes human emotion by defining an automatically executed crypto trading strategy.

• Choose to simulate a strategy or execute it with your real exchange account.

• Large variety of operations, terms, indicators, and actions that can be used to define simple but as well complex trading strategies.

• Define both entry and exit strategies to a monitored trade.

• Proper documentation and instruction videos; Large collection of examples.

• Great Ux. Working beta.

• Simulation mode.

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The ICO Success Framework by DR. CHRISTIAN FERRI Advisor to ICOs

Although market volatility can have a significant impact on the success or failure of an ICO, it turns out that most of the factors which impact the success rate of blockchain projects are entirely within the control of the project’s founders. I have included these controllable factors in what I call the ICO Success Framework (“ISF”), a summary of which is presented in the graph.

OVERVIEW As you can see in the infographic above, the ISF is composed of a foundation of three pillars upon which are laid three additional building blocks. For an ICO project to be successful, it is critically important that all six of these components are clearly established and constantly assessed for improvement. More detail on each of them follows.

THE FOUNDATION (3 PILLARS) Before investing in the building materials of your project, ensure that you have a solid foundation upon which to build, composed of the following 3 “pillars”: 1. Community Focus – Just as your individual success has depended upon the support of your personal community (e.g. family, friends and extended network), so too the success of your ICO project will depend on the support of the community you build around it.

It is important to do everything with the community in mind. An ICO project without a strong community behind it is simply a crowdsale without the crowd (i.e., you probably won’t reach your target raise).

3. Relevancy – Dozens of new ICO pro2. Enable with tokens – Token mechanjects are being developed daily, so beics/economics are often overlooked ing (and staying) relevant is essenin the rush to launch an ICO, but not tial to stand out from the competispending adequate time challenging tion. Long-term sustainability starts the tokenomics can cripple a project. by making the right decision today You should understand and be able to and then constantly challenging what clearly articulate the purpose of the toyou’re doing: Why are you using blockken, who is going to use the token? chain? Why are you raising money? how they are going to use the token?

Why are you launching an ICO? You how many tokens will be released? etc. should be able to answer all these questions without hesitation. If you can’t, 3. Abide and Govern – Compliance is go back and figure out why. Without another area that is too often overrelevance, your project is simply a comlooked but can completely undermine modity that can be easily replaceable. an otherwise successful project. The three questions you need to ask yourTHE 3 BUILDING BLOCKS self are: Once you have a solid foundation in place a. Is my token an investment vehicle? as outlined above, it’s time to start buildb. Does my token have utility? Or even 2. Transparency – Blockchain technoling, applying these 3 “building blocks”: better, does it have exclusive utility? ogy is by its very nature decentral1. Start with the business – You’re c. Is my TGE/ICO being used to access ized and transparent. Your ICO proan entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs build something concrete? ject (and how it is run) should follow companies, not ICOs. In the 1990s and the same principles. Allow your comearly 2000s, entrepreneurs said they CONCLUSION munity to see the good and the bad as were “launching start-ups.” In 2018, As has been clearly demonstrated in the your project moves forward. They unentrepreneurs say they are “doing an past several months, the cryptocurrency derstand that no project is perfect and ICO,” but this is a misnomer because market is nothing if not volatile. By folwill appreciate your candor, especially an ICO is a fund-raising vehicle, NOT lowing the ICO Success Framework prewhen things get tough. However, if you a company. Don’t focus on the token sented above, you can help to ensure that betray them by not being completely sale. Spend your time on getting the your ICO project will still be successful transparent, you will lose them. And if business mechanics right. even when the markets are not. you lose them, you will fail.

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Referrals on the Blockchain Each one of us can trace a major change in our lives to an introduction or referral from a friend. It might be a referral to a new job, a future spouse, or even a new tennis coach. These referrals are always highly valuable and, in some instances, can be life-changing.

From a marketer’s perspective, a referral from a current user is the golden ticket to another customer - one who is likely to convert quicker and to be a high spending customer. The referral from a friend adds trust to the whole process of a buyer’s decision-making, thereby reducing the time by to get to the critical ‘yes’.

MANSHU

AGARWAL CEO, Co-Founder at Ponder

Most Used Referral Methods In all incentivized programs, referrals go through two stages: (1) the setting up of a company’s own referral program and (2) the referrer doing some ‘work’ to make the referral.

REFERRALS ARE THE BEST WAY TO GET NEW CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES SO HOW CAN In these days of media saturation, THE BLOCKCHAIN HELP? with ads bombarding consumers to the Recommendations are all about trust, point of exasperation, a referral from and the blockchain’s ability to genera friend can cut through all the noise. ate trust among a group can be utiYou can quickly find that lized to improve the refertrusted dentist, or tenant, or ral-making process. Ponder job candidate. A recent Nielsis a new platform that uses en study found that 84 perthe blockchain and gamificacent of global respondents’ tion techniques to both gentrust word-of-mouth recerate trust among the parommendations from friends ticipants and to make the and family—making it the One of the first process more enjoyable. By most highly trusted methtaking a mobile-first and a sectors we are od of receiving recommen‘referrer-first’ approach, we tackling is the dations. help attract more people to $200bn recruit- make referrals. ment industry.

However, referrals are not easy to make or find. The One of the first sectors we Users play the most popular route to makgame of match- are tackling is the $200bn ing a referral is to simply post recruitment industry. Usthrough social media, which is maker, matchers play the game of matchhighly untargeted. Most com- ing up companies maker, matching up companies don’t have an incenand prospective panies and prospective cantivized referral program and candidates from didates from the users’ sorely on people naturally tellthe users’ social cial network. Each time the ing others about their offercompany and the candidate network. ing. Even if a business has both ‘like’ the recommendatheir own referral program tion, a match is made, and where a customer gets paid to refer, it’s the referrer is paid. If the candidate not easy for that customer to find other goes on to work for the firm, then a customers. Similarly, a business might re- much larger bonus is paid to the referward its employees for referring job canrer. The referrer’s skill as a matchmakdidates. But unless an employee already er is tracked through their match rate. knows which of their friends are looking Higher match rates can lead to higher for such jobs, it’s hard to make the conbonuses and access to the best referral nection. opportunities.

Companies or individuals can create their own referral community - with the specifics of their referral program such as success fees all encoded using smart contracts. The company or group owner then manages that decentralized community, with little involvement from any central authority.

This approach has already been test-driven for dating recommendations, where users play matchmaker for singles. Users earn $10 if the couple that they recommend to each other become a match. If the couple marry, the matchmaker earns $1000. The beta app already has 80k users in the USA and has far higher match rates and revenues per customer than traditional digital solutions. Singles trust a recommendation from a human being, particularly a person they know well, more than anything generated by an algorithm.

THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY LIES IN BUSINESS RECOMMENDATIONS Although recruiting is a large sector, Ponder’s biggest opportunity lies in providing business recommendations. Creating trust-based communities in a fun gamified environment can help generate more business or product referrals and therefore convert more customers.

The magazine Forbes recently wrote “Media noise is replaced by human recommendations - and that creates a new economy around the power of the Referral.” Ponder is well positioned to ride this new wave and finally bring blockchain technology into the daily lives of everyday people. Ponder’s token sale runs from July 1st to August 30th.

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Sagewise Pioneers Dispute Resolution for Smart Contracts Sagewise is the safety net for the growing world of smart contract needs, providing a first-of-its-kind toolkit for errors and disputes in smart contracts.

Smart contracts are often created by a developer and audited by a security firm. However, the quality of smart by JAMES SOWERS contract coding and auditing varies drastically among service providers.

Since the teams that use such services are usually, by definition, non-technical or at least non-native to the blockchain, they lack the skill set to audit the smart contract codes themselves. They must rely completely on the honesty and competence of the vendors they contract to build their tokens. Many smart contracts contain errors that will cause them to behave differently in practice than their creators intended.

And yet, hardly anyone is talking about what happens when a smart contract does contain an error, or if an unforeseen circumstance arises in which none of the predetermined outcomes of the 20

smart contract are appropriate. It is inevitable that smart contracts, despite their power, will require dispute resolution from time to time. But the current architecture mostly leaves parties with no recourse. This is a major problem for crypto markets that have the potential to result in very significant problems for space if we fail to provide a solution.

The Sagewise team is the first to address this issue in a unique way. A smart contract contains a coding error or security vulnerability which goes unnoticed by either its creator or an auditor, Sagewise provides users with a third layer of protection. This layer offers smart contract monitoring, notification, and freezing—like a bank’s fraud alerts—to ensure that the execution of a smart contract reflects a user’s intent. Using a combination of delayed execution, timeblocks, and notifications, Sagewise alerts users to pending execution of the smart contract and can prevent such execution of the smart

contract before the event occurs. Sagewise also gives parties the ability to amend, terminate, and dispute a smart contract. The code is static, but problems and circumstances change, and when they do the contracts designed to regulate them must be able to adapt.

Sagewise offers users of blockchain products to help navigate errors or unforeseen circumstances without the fear of losing their investments because of an inflexible code. In turn, it allows smart contract developers and security auditors to sleep better at night, knowing that Sagewise provides a safety net for the undiscovered and unexpected.

Founded in 2017, Sagewise builds technology to efficiently resolve disputes involving blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Its system is a smart contract SDK, which allows contracts to be stopped when a dispute arises, coupled with a dispute resolution marketplace. Dispute resolution can vary

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greatly depending on the application and our solution is flexible to fit a variety of circumstances.

HOW DOES IT WORK? Smart contract creator includes Sagewise SDK in their smart contract. This can be thought of as an arbitration clause in a traditional contract. When something goes wrong, contracting parties can trigger a “dispute resolution mode, “which freezes the smart contract until the dispute is resolved.

Disputes are resolved by the marketplace vendor defined in the smart contract. Vendors can provide unique approaches to dispute resolution using their own fee structures.

APPLICATION FOR ICOS Sagewise ensures that whitepapers keep their promises. Most Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) use smart contracts for their token sales. The smart contract used is often a modification of an open-source version for ERC20 tokens.

ICO white papers also often make several representations as to how tokens will be governed. Most potential ICO participants are unaware of the prevalence of coding errors or other shortcomings that can cause the smart contract to fail to execute in the way that is promised in the white paper. But, just because a contract is ‘smart’ does not mean that the team that creates it

is immune to making mistakes or has thought out every possible scenario. If one of these situations arises, the ICO participant is essentially unprotected and without recourse.

For example, imagine that ICO investors are subject to a 12-month lock-up period, a stipulation communicated in the white paper. If the template smart contract lacks code reflecting this, investors may dump their tokens with no restriction. Such a situation is easy to imagine: the company’s legal advisors and senior management made the decision to enact the lockup period to stay in regulatory compliance, but the requirement was inadequately communicated to the blockchain developers building the token, and they failed to update the code. Aside from causing serious governance issues, this may lead to a decline in the price of the tokens, and unhappy investors left holding the bag are more likely to demand recourse or sue the company.

Sagewise allows smart contracts to be frozen and amended, to reflect their true intent. This, in turn, provides accountability and helps the ICO landscape evolve. In the case of this example, imagine a company advisor attempts to sell tokens prior to their vesting date. In this case, the Sagewise SDK will notify the company that the advisor is acting in violation of

their written agreement, even though that was not coded into the smart contract. The company freezes execution with the push of a button on a mobile app. The company can then update the smart contract to function properly and speak with the advisor. This protects buyers of the token from suffering price drops resulting from premature selling. Importantly, it also protects the company from the liability it would face in issuing a defective, non-compliant token.

When something goes wrong, contracting parties can trigger a “dispute resolution mode, “which freezes SAGEWISE’S AWARD WINNING the smart conTEAM: • Amy wan Esq is the author of the tract until the Bloomberg Law guide on ICOs, a fordispute is remer law firm partner and start-up solved.

General Counsel. She was named one of the American Bar Association’s Top 10 Women to Watch in Legaltech, is a co-founder of Legal Hackers LA., and a Presidential Management Fellow. She holds an LL.M. from the London School of Economics & a JD from the University of Southern California.

• CTO Dan Rice is a Veteran of fintech companies. He is the founder of the Bitcoin Developers Los Angeles & Orange County CTO Forum. His apps have been downloaded over 5M times.

• Terrence Yang is an experienced Crypto, angel investor and founder of Yang Ventures.

Disclosure: The author is an investor in the company.

Disclaimer: Please review this case purely on its merit and proceed only if you are convinced or interested. I am just connecting you. Also, I do not encourage folks from the USA, China etc. to invest in an ICO unless they speak to their lawyers. I only support genuine good people doing.

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JUNE-JULY 2018

Blockchain Technology Can Claim To Be One of The Best Discoveries

Over the Last Decades, Near to Such Important Mankind's Inventions as the Creation of the Internet

I'm not going to describe all the advantages of blockchain, but the decentralization inherent within it holds enormous potential for effective interaction between an infinite number of participantspartners-colleagues.

Such terms as crowdfunding, or coworking, will change substantively soon due to decentralization. The year 2017 has already demonstrated to us a new type of crowdfunding, the so-called ICOs, and the rampant increase in their number.

Yes, probably the most part of ICO proby jects are contemplated frauds or newALEXEY GRUBIN bies' absurd attempts to create their first large business, having nothing but an idea under their belt. Nevertheless, this principle of crowd investing will continue taking root in the global economy.

tage of decentralization lying behind the idea of cryptocurrency will eliminate the factor of commercial bribery, of corruption, reduce the number of intermediaries, and the traditions that have formed in the cryptocurrency community allow for using the time, skills and knowledge of millions of people worldwide relatively free of charge.

Many emerging cryptocurrencies attract followers by giving them coins for free (Airdrops, Bounty Campaigns, etc.) to create a great number of coin holders, therefore cultivating excitement about the project, technology, or just a speculation tool, which will be joined in by traders, small investors, and speculators.

One thing is clear, the greatest part of the crypto market is occupied by young people aged 18-30. The greatest activity is exhibited by people who don't have We are creating a platform to finance sci- capital of their own, whose age is under entific discoveries using the advantages 25 as a rule. These youngsters are ready of blockchain. Imagine a situation when to spend their time on publications in the developer of a technology does not social networks, video blogs, and discushave to search for financing, a situation sion of different cryptocurrency trends when the experts appraising a scientifin chatrooms, they perceive these acic project are as impartial as possible. As tions as something like a computer a rule, the main problem of choosing a game. In most cases, the reward for acproject for a venture fund to invest in re- tive promotion of an emerging cryptosides in making a correct expert opincurrency is like some rare sword in an ion. For this purpose, the expert board online RPG, which they can sell to anincludes scientists, economists, lawyers, other participant. These millions of peoand marketing specialists. The advanple can funnel their energy toward more

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important things than pointless blockchain goodies, of which 90% will be forgotten in the nearest future. Remember Tezos who collected a record-setting amount of 232 million dollars riding on a wave of popularity, for a seemingly good, necessary and interesting idea, but it all ended in a litigation and division of assets among the founders. Or Worldcore, a scam project, which caused quite a stir with the phony bank licenses, and finally it all ended in jail.

We are not going to doubt the honest intentions of the ICO projects, which failed to become successful, because the root cause of their misfortunes is the incompetence of the founders themselves or the market participants they must interact with. The cryptocurrency market is still the "Wild West", although moving in leaps and bounds towards creating a code of its own.

The basis of the ScientificCoin project created by us is a mathematically based algorithm that works on the same principle as the already existing project appraisal methods profitably employed by venture funds, insurance companies, and stock exchanges.. This algorithm is grounded on more than 70 major characteristics divided into 5 sections. When each project is appraised, the rating is determined in accordance with the correlational regression model based on

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statistical analysis of the projects over a 9-month period. When filing an application for appraisal of their project, the financing seekers will fill in a form containing precise questions and indicators regarding the project. Then the program will model the appraisal of the project in accordance with the correlation of the characteristics. The modelling ends with the allocation of grades for each characteristic of the project.

In combination with the opinions of tens of thousands of people, even if they aren't professionally knowledgeable in the question, this algorithm will be maximally effective. The expert will be rewarded for the time they spend on appraising the project, searching for information on the Internet, discovering weak points and fraudulent intentions.

Each project that has attracted financing via ScientificCoin will pay 5% of the collected amount (these funds are annually distributed among ScientificCoin holders). The most active and successful experts get greater rewards than passive holders of ScientificCoin.

Imagine a situation when you had to use a taxi, but the taxi at the hotel asked for 30 dollars for the trip to your location. You decided to save and ordered an Uber taxi, but unfortunately, you had to wait 20 minutes longer than they had announced when you ordered it. It happened so because of a small

mistake by the driver of the Uber taxi who mixed up the address. In the end, you arrived at your destination cheaper than for 30 dollars, but 20 minutes later than you had expected. You didn't miss anything, but you spent the extra 20 minutes. Will you order an Uber taxi again after that, understanding that it wasn't the service's fault, but a coincidence of circumstances associated with the human factor, or will you prefer taking a taxi at the hotel? Perhaps you are a high-salaried lawyer, and an hour of your time costs 500 dollars, but you were 20 minutes late and didn't earn 150 dollars while saving 15 on the taxi ride. How seriously will you take such a loss? Most people do not convert the personal time they spend to money, such as reading books, watching movies, playing poker, and so on, we don't count the time we spend on these things.

Decentralized experts will perform project appraisal quite responsibly, no worse than full-time experts at a venture fund, but they will not multiply their time by dollars, it will be a hobby for them, a game, a socially beneficial action, like helping clean the territory of their neighbourhood. But the mathematically based algorithm we have created will not allow them to take project appraisal frivolously, the influence of an expert's vote on the appraisal of a project will depend on a lot of factors,

including the statistics of the expert's actions, their personal details, the level of uniqueness of the project.

The program will model the appraisal of the project in accordance with the correlation of the characteristics.

The modelling ends with the allocation of grades for each characteristic of the project.

Compare a working day of a grinding machine operator, and the days of a freelancer whose activity involves writing articles, commenting on the net, and so on.

The big differences between the conditions of their work will help us understand the advantages carried by the contemporary technologies. They are expressed in comfort, with the possibility to choose our working place and to organize our time. The growth of information processing technologies can provide the combination of comfortable conditions and financial advantages even for computer commenters who are lazy to do physical work.

Have you ever seen your idea or project discussed on a public forum? Have you observed comments, flood, trolling from people you'd call idlers? And what if their vibrant energy is focused on something good? Such skills can be very useful for detecting dubious projects and for many other things. People who actively participate in discussions can discover weak points like detectives, they are eager to dig out the truth, blow the lid off, find all the hidden pitfalls, and deliver a public verdict. Involvement of decentralized ex23

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perts will let us have a lively and unbiased discussion of the projects.

The goals pursued by active commenters, trolls and flooders are material, as a rule, their nicknames become recognizable due to such activity, they get followers, obtain the reputation of an expert (a quazi-expert), and hence they get a whole range of opportunities to derive financial benefits by using their recognizability. In our case, the financial benefit from their actions will be formulated.

The uniqueness of our platform resides in the use of a hybrid system for project appraisal. This way, we count on a revolution in the field of venture capital investments and crowdfunding. Most of the existing crowdfunding platforms place projects on their venues after pre-moderation by their own employees. If they used a reliable algorithm, the number of projects placed on those sites would have been hugely smaller. For example, the Kickstarter portal cannot keep a staff of professional experts because this is financially impractical. The users determine the level of a project's reliability on their own, and they must collect the information themselves, unlike the ScientificCoin where the algorithm will not let the investor see unworthy projects, and questions associated with the appraisal of the project's perspectivity will be raised in the process of an open expert discussion.

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Being in the largest scientific centre of Russia, we have collected more than 100 attractive projects in different fields of applied and fundamental science. By July 2018 we are going to launch the beta version of the platform, which will model all the necessary work processes in test mode.

Everybody will be able to register and to use virtual (test) tools on the platform, to perform mining and appraisal of projects, which will be presented in the beta version as samples. We expect to attract about 3 million USD from large crypto investors and venture capitalists during May-July 2018 by means of a private sale of ScientificCoin tokens.

Considering that we have already put together a team consisting mostly of scientists from Akademgorodok, of whom 8 hold a Ph.D., we'll be able to complete the development of the platform by February 2019. At the same time, our own blockchain will be created according to the proof-of-research principle, the emission of ScientificCoin will amount to 100 million coins, which will be exchanged into ScientificCoin tokens emitted previously.

We have intentionally refused to organize an ICO because we do not believe it is possible to attract small investors' interest in the present situation. In my opinion, most of such in-

The uniqueness of our platform resides in the use of a hybrid system for project appraisal.

vestors have already invested the available funds in other projects and cannot withdraw from them due to sharp falls in the value of the tokens after entering the exchanges (unfortunately they will have to wait very long or endlessly). In our case, a collection of 50-100 large investments is a more realistic opportunity than spending time and money on advertising like the numerous ICO projects.

We have been cooperating for a long time with the Novosibirsk Biotechnopark (http://www.btp-nso.ru) and Technopark (https://academpark.com), getting support from them. The development of ScientificCoin is already underway.

Based on the previous experience (http://healthmonitor.io), where we had collected 12% more funds than it was necessary, with only six large investors participating, we have come to realize that when there is a completed product and transparency, interest for the project from the professional community will be guaranteed.

Our team is going to present the ScientificCoin project at the BlockShoweurope conference (https://blockshoweurope.com), which will be held on May 28-29 in Berlin. We will launch the beta version of the Scientificcoin.com platform on those days.

JUNE-JULY 2018

Presentación Y Entrega De La Criptomoneda Olivacoin A Empresas Del Sector Del Aceite De Oliva Olivacoin pretende convertirse en el referente tecnológico global de la trazabilidad en el aceite de oliva gracias a su novedosa tecnología DLT/ Blockchain, que permite una veracidad, incorruptibilidad y transparencia desconocidas hasta ahora; el desarrollo tecnológico de OLIVACOIN es el mismo que emplean entidades financieras del nivel de: Bank of America, BNY Mellon, Citi, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Morgan Stanley, entre otros.

by ISMAEL SANTIAGO MORENO PhD. University of Seville

Sobre la base de esta tecnología de trazabilidad DLT/Blockchain se está desarrollando la nueva plataforma para la compraventa de aceite de oliva a nivel B2B para los operadores del sector, que permitirá una mayor agilidad, rentabilidad, liquidez y desintermediación. La cual terminará culminando con un mercado digital de futuros sobre el aceite de oliva, basadas en las citadas tecnologías DLT/Blockchain, y que pretende convertirse en la innovadora alternativa del Mercado de Futuros del Aceite de Oliva (MFAO).

La presentación oficial del proyecto tecnológico OLIVACOIN tuvo lugar el pasado jueves 21 de junio, en el Salón de Grados la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales de la Universidad de Sevilla, en dicho acto se hizo entrega mundial del token OLIVACOIN (la primera criptomoneda desarrollada en España para la Agricultura y también la primera que tiene su origen en una Universidad española) a un grupo representativo de empresas del sector del aceite de oliva: ACESUR; NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LAS VIRTUDES S.C.A ; OLIVE PRODUCE S.L. (“La Rosa del Infante”); S.A.T. VIRGEN DEL ESPINO; S. COOP. AND. AGRARIA SAN JOSÉ (“RuedaOliva”) y AGRARIA VECINO HENS S.L (“La Cultivada”)

La presentación oficial del proyecto tecnológico OLIVACOIN tuvo lugar el pasado jueves 21 de junio, en el Salón de Grados la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales de la Universidad de Sevilla, en dicho acto se hizo entrega mundial del token OLIVACOIN.

El propósito de OLIVACOIN es potenciar un mercado inteligente sobre el aceite de oliva, que permita: • Generar una base de datos que dote de mayor transparencia al mercado, con más cantidad y calidad de la información (veraz, incorruptible e infalsificable).

• Identificar y diferenciar al aceite de oliva, contribuyendo a la internacionalización y a la elevación del precio de éstos.

• Flexibilizar y desburocratizar la cadena de suministro global.

En Sevilla, a 25 de junio de 2018 25

JUNE-JULY 2018

Spiking Decentralizes Trading with 1000 Whales Protocol!

The Spiking Platform will be powered by state-of-the-art tools (SPOV) the spiking proof of validation protocol where followers meet whales in a completely transparent environment, which will be built on a modern technology stack with fully audited securiby JAMES SOWERS ty standards.

The Spiking platform integrates machine learning and artificial intelligence, which will enable the traders to find the whales and consequently gain exposure on the cryptocurrency market. Key information that traders will gain from following the whales include best cryptocurrencies to trade in and the most favorable times to buy or sell cryptocurrencies.

The Spiking will collaborate with top whales to educate traders by offering the Certified Smart Trader (CST) Programs that will provide an opportunity for traders to learn about investing and trading in cryptocurrencies. The platform will allow traders to collect and verify data about the whales. Spiking will utilize a distributed and decentralized network known as the Spiking Blockchain Protocol that will verify all 26

the trading transactions to ensure that information cannot be falsified.

This will happen across trading platforms such as cryptocurrency exchanges and stock brokerage houses. The Spike Protocol will be fast, accurate, and cost-efficient. All the transactions on the Spike Protocol will be through the ERC20-standard Spike Tokens. The tokens will allow holders to access the Spiking Platform and its services. Traders can use the Spike Tokens to pay for the CST program. If a user graduates among the top students or is voted the top instructor in the CST program, they will receive rewards in form of Spike Tokens. Users can also earn spike tokens by participating on the platform through writing reviews or referring more users to the platform. They can also reward whales using the Spike Tokens.

BENEFITS OF THE SPIKING PLATFORM: Transparency The state-of-the-art tools used on the platform allow followers to meet whales in a transparent environment that is built on modern technology, with fully audited security standards.

Security of investments To protect a follower’s investment and prevent the whale from knowing the amount of investment being mirrored, the system automatically mirrors all the transactions from the whale into the Segregated Trading account of the follower.

Verification of a whale’s data Trading transactions of whales will reflect their ability to understand and process news. The platform will utilize a decentralized network to verify these trading transactions and ensure that they are unalterable.

Reward system Whales will receive 21% commission fee from the profits generated by the initial capital of the followers while the followers will receive 71% of the profits plus the return on their initial capital.

KRYPTONO EXCHANGE TEAMS UP WITH SPIKING! William Nguyen PH.D. Founder of EdooPAD an advanced collaborative telecommunication platform and the Kryptono crypto Exchange recently announced that the Spiking will be the com-

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panies inaugural project, this is on the IEO, referred to as the Initial Exchange Offering platform that is called XPAD. XPAD is a platform that is designed to support projects that have innovative ideas to launch their initial token sales. The expert team that is behind the XPAD has an organization that has been dedicated to doing the needed due diligence and curation on the various high-quality ITO projects. All this is done just before the project joins the XPAD program to ensure they have nothing but the best.

Unlike the traditional ITO’s that we have been accustomed to over the years, the projects that do their IEO on the Kryptono platform with the use of the XPAD program will be able to reach a broader audience globally.

There are several qualities that make Kryptono Crypto Exchange different from other cryptocurrency exchanges out there. For example, dissimilar from other exchanges out there, this one has proper security measures in place that can protect users’ assets.

Second, there are safeguards against price manipulation, such as systemic machine intelligence mechanisms.

Finally, users can feel confident that their portfolio values are accurate and protected as well.

Both William and Spiking CEO Dr. Clemen Chiang are excited by the groundbreaking partnership between the Kryptono Exchange and Spiking. In previous interviews, both have mentioned that revolutionary projects such as Spiking listed on an advanced and secure exchange Kryptono will bring blockchain and cryptocurrency assets to the masses and allow mainstream adoption.

The Spiking platform integrates machine The long-term goal of Spiking Limitlearning and ed is to establish SPIKE Tokens as the artificial pre-eminent cryptocurrency for a deintelligence, centralized network of global traders.

All existing SPIKING-related technolo- which will gy will be integrated to Spiking Limitenable the ed. The ongoing role of Spiking Limited traders to find will be to further develop the technolothe whales and gies underpinning the SPIKE Tokens as well as to perform continuous research consequently gain exposure and development to improve all other aspects of the SPIKE ecosystem. on the cryptocurrency Spiking will further seek to forge stramarket. tegic partnerships with leading or upand-coming cryptocurrency exchanges as well as stock brokerage houses to promote, distribute, incentivize, and integrate SPIKE Tokens and SPIKE Protocol to the entire trading industry at large. Spiking Limited will also continuously implement further policies and measures to ensure the smooth, uninterrupted functioning of any related technologies to achieve its goal of an

open, reliable, and decentralized ecosystem for traders.

Spiking is setting aside 500,000,000 Spike Tokens (USD5M in value) in a pool for verified partner whales to split evenly.

There must be a minimum of 100 whales in this program by the end of the ICO for it to be valid. (E.g., if there are 200 whales in the program, each whale is entitled to 2.5M Spike tokens).

Partner Whales need to be contactable and commit to using the Spiking platform and supporting the Spiking campaign generally. Through the Spiking Whale Network, whales will have an opportunity to be acquainted with one another and the larger community.

Partner whales will not be compelled to reveal their actual identity.

SPIKING IS ALSO CONDUCTING AN AIRDROP! How to Join This Crypto Airdrop?

PLEASE FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO PARTICIPATE 1. Chat with the bot 2. Join Telegram @SpikingOfficial and you will get 188 SPIKE tokens 3. Submit your name and e-mail and you will get 288 SPIKE tokens 4. Install the app and use the same mail u already submitted to sign up for 388 SPIKE 5. Submit details

Disclaimer: This does not constitute investment advice. Please review their case purely on merit and proceed only if you are convinced or interested. Also, I do not encourage folks from the USA, China etc. to invest in an ICO unless they speak to their lawyers. I only support genuine good people doing great in Blockchain innovation.

Disclosure author is an advisor in the Spiking project.

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JUNE-JULY 2018

Kowala (mUSD) ICO Analysis: An Autonomously Stabilized Cryptocurrency

by RESEARCH CENTER Cryptocurrency & ICO analysis group

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION For all the advantages that they bring as payment options, cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile. To curb this volatility, a number of solutions have been proffered by a number of cryptocurrency projects with most of them attempting to deliver a stablecoin that has its value pegged to the US dollar.

However, even the most popular of the stablecoins, Tether, has proven to be vulnerable to the practices of banks and governments.

ing and convergent. The algorithm will make counteracting smaller price changes possible, and as a result, block rewards will be changed w.r.t. the previous block’s reward.

Before kUSD is launched, Kowala plans to generate 1,073,741,842 mUSD tokens to facilitate the allocation of kUSD mining rewards. It is also important to note that block reKowala wants In the case of a diverwards on the Kowala prototo try a new gent-rising scenario, i.e. col are not allocated by the approach, the when the price of kUSD is proof-of-stake or proof-ofproject aims to increasing beyond $1, the work mechanism. Instead, introduce a family they are allocated by an inblock’s reward will be made of distributed, 1% more than the previnovative mechanism called self-regulating, ous block reward. Consethe proof-of-control. In this asset-tracking Kowala wants to try a new approach, quently, miners on Kowala mechanism, people who the project aims to introduce a famwill earn lots of newly-mint- cryptocurrencies. own mUSD tokens will have ily of distributed, self-regulating, ased coins and before long, a an exclusive right to mine set-tracking cryptocurrencies. These large number of these coins will reach within the associated mining sector; to cryptocurrencies, named kCoins, will exchanges as SELL orders, driving the exercise this right, they have to register attempt to maintain a 1:1 ratio with price of kUSD down as a result. For their tokens in an mUSD block reward some of the most widely-traded asinstances that the price of kUSD reroster. Put simply, they have to prove sets in the world — USD, EUR, JPY, etc. duces below $1, all transactions on cryptographically that they hold conKowala’s first stablecoin will be the the Kowala network will be charged a trol of the private keys that unlock the kUSD, and its value should correspond “stability fee”, and the project expects addresses that hold the mUSD. to that of the US Dollar. Kowala plans that this will reduce coin supply for to regulate the value of kCoins using some time. This should serve to drive Furthermore, mUSD owners can ei3 core mechanisms: variable block rethe price up; to ensure that it does, ther perform mining activities directwards, variable fees and an active trad- the stability fees will be sent to dead- ly or through third-parties. What this ing market. The project also wants to end addresses, ensuring that they are means, essentially, is: anyone that introduce a block reward algorithm that not in circulation. These 2 mechaowns mUSD tokens can authorise a is applicable to 4 different scenarios: in- nisms should cause the price of kUSD mining operator to mine on their beitial, divergent-rising, divergent-fallto reattain parity with the USD. half — the operator is to be paid by

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the owner. This model should remove the excessive use of electricity for crypto-mining because there is no incentive for a miner to outperform other miners. Additionally, security is to be provided on Kowala by distributing blockchain validation-by-consensus across various independent parties.

TOKEN SALE STRUCTURE No team member with prior ICO launch experience. However, the project has a partnership agreement with CanYA — they held a token sale in December 2017 and raised 11,013 ETH.

• Founder of Stoke Education, a tutoring service, for almost 6 years.

Target market experts Luke Sully, Advisor.

• Global Blockchain Lead for Security at IBM for a year.

Marketing experts Craig Bromberg, Chief Marketing EXISTING PRODUCT Officer.

The project already has a testnet.

• Chief Marketing Officer at Steemit for 3 months.

HARD CAP AND VALUATION • Director of Digital Business DevelAs mentioned above, Kowala plans to opment at LRN, a company that generate 1,073,741,824 mUSD tokens specializes in advising and educatbefore the launch of kUSD. Approxiing organizations, for less than a mately 10% of the total above were sold year. to early investors, advisors, and team • Strategic Account Executive at Surmembers in October 2017. The project veyMonkey, a data platform, for a plans to hold 15% indefinitely, and the year. remaining 75% will be sold in one or more token sales in the future. InvesSara Walker-Santana, Content tors that buy mUSD after the launch Marketing Director. of kUSD will not receive any portion of • Strategic Marketing Consultant at block rewards that were generated prior Equinox for 5 months. to their purchase.

• She worked in the Marketing at Macy’s East for 11 years.

MARKETING POWER As of the time this post was published, Legal experts Kowala had over 350 followers on Twit- No team member with legal expertise. ter, over 160 followers on Instagram, over 120 followers on Facebook, over Software engineering experts 115 followers on Telegram, 58 subscrib- John Reitano, Co-Founder and CTO. ers on Youtube, 52 followers on Linke• Software Engineer at several firms, din, 25 followers on Reddit and 4 folincluding Hedgeye Risk Managelowers on Medium. mentand Enact Health Management Systems.

TEAM MEMBERS’ AREAS OF • He is proficient in Java, HTML, CSS, EXPERTISE C++, Oracle and Linux.

Business experts Eiland Glover, Co-Founder and CEO. Adam King, Application Engineer / • Founder and CEO of Perquia — which UX Designer. allowed publicly traded companies • Software Developer at Hedgeye Risk create and issue fractional shares of Management for almost 2 years. their own stock as part of a customer rewards and loyalty program — for 3 Blockchain development experts years.

Ricardo Geraldes, Senior Block• CEO of Danycare Medical Beauty, a chain Engineer spin off from Adagen Medicalpart• Software Engineer at Status.im for 6 nership, for a year. months.

Before kUSD is launched, Kowala plans to generate 1,073,741,842 mUSD tokens to facilitate the allocation of kUSD mining rewards.

TOKEN ECONOMICS Same as above.

CONCLUSION Strengths • There is need for a stable cryptocurrency.

• No need for a “supercomputer” to mine kUSD 1 low energy consumption and reasonable hardware requirements.

Potential risks for investors • Small community.

• Strong competition (DAI etc.).

• At some point, kUSD will rely on traders to remain stable.

• In comparison to Tether, kUSD has no actual collateral that supports it’s $1 valuation. For one, there is no proof that Tether has $2.3 billion sitting around somewhere. However, this may also be a risk.

Disclaimers: • Nothing written in this article is a legal or an investment advice.

• Information is provided on a best-effort basis and is subject to change without prior notice. Be sure to verify everything you read with a project team.

The analysis was produced by Research Center team members: Alexander Hinz, Mark Jedd, Anna Muratova.

If you enjoy our research, consider supporting us by following our Twitter, Telegram and sharing our articles with your friends and colleagues. Thank you for staying with us!

You can catch RC on the following platforms: https://t.me/rcfeed and https:// twitter.com/rc_feed 29

JUNE-JULY 2018

NuCypher (NU) ICO Analysis A Data Encryption Protocol for the Blockchain

by RESEARCH CENTER Cryptocurrency & ICO analysis group

PROJECT DESCRIPTION There is a certain limitation when it comes to storing and maneuvering private and encrypted data on blockchains, and NuCypher seeks to remove this limitation. The NuCypher project is a decentralized KMS — key management system — that will supposedly allow users store private data on a public blockchain and secure it with encryption. The protocol will use a decentralized network to leverage proxy re-encryption.

Here is how the proxy re-encryption is expected to work between 2 users, say Sam and Peter: 1. Sam wants to share private data with Peter through the blockchain.

2. So, he — Sam — encrypts the data using his own key and he stores the data in the decentralized network.

3. Once this is done, Sam shares access rights with Peter in the form of a re-encryption key which he sends to the NuCypher KMS network.

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4. Peter then sends an access request to the NuCypher network. Using the re-encryption key from Sam in (3) above, the data is rekeyed by a miner to Peter’s public key. If Peter has the corresponding private key, he can then download the data and decrypt it.

The NuCypher network, if actualized, will provide a multi-functional platform with many use cases. dApp developers, businesses, and individuals will be able to use the network to store data securely on a public blockchain, and whenever the need arises, they can share access to the data without having to rely on a centralized service provider.

Clients will pay for re-encryption services on the platform with ETH (or, in the future, a stablecoin). The NU token is used as a staking bond by those who want to work for the network as miners. The platform also rewards its miners for their services in NU, and to fore-

stall cheating or false encryption, the tokens of miners found complicit are taken away.

EXISTING PRODUCT A demo version of the product can be found here.

IMPORTANT DATES Team plans to get the main net ready by early to mid-summer. The tentative date for ICO is summer.

MARKETING POWER As of the time this post was published, NuCypher had about 29,000 members on Telegram, over 5,800 followers on Twitter, 960+ followers on Medium, over 250 followers on Facebook, and over 300 Reddit readers.

PROMINENT ADVISORS Tony Bishop • Vice President of Equinix.

• Author of Next Generation Datacenters.

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• Former Managing Director at Morgan Stanley.

• Software Engineer at VGTRK for 10 months.

TOKEN ECONOMICS Same as above.

Team Members’ Areas of Expertise Business experts Maclane Wilkinson, Co-founder & CEO. • Working at NuCypher since 2014.

• Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley for 2 years.

John Pacific, Cryptographer.

• Co-founder & CTO at Meetsy, a meeting notes tool, for 10 months.

• Software Engineer at Teem, a scheduling software, for 9 months.

• Software Engineer at Xmission, a webhost company, for 2 years.

CONCLUSION Strengths • Company has been in existence since 2014.

• Revolutionary idea.

• Strong IT and Entrepreneurial advisors.

Target market experts Quite a number of the team members have been working for NuCypher since 2014. As a result, it can be assumed that by now, they are well-versed in the field of re-encryption and its target market.

Marketing experts No team members with marketing expertise.

Legal experts No team member with legal expertise.

Software engineering experts Michael Egorov, Co-founder & CTO. • Working at NuCypher since 2015.

• Senior Software Engineer at LinkedIn for almost 2 years.

• Postdoc at Monash University for 3 years.

• Software Engineer at WorkLifeGroup, a career development company, for a year.

• Software Engineer at Netagi, a software company, for 5 months.

Sergey Zotov, Engineer.

• Team Lead & Java Architect at Bell Integrator for almost 2 years.

• Java Software Developer at INFORION for over three years.

• Engineer at SRISA RAS for over 2 years.

Kieran Prasch, Engineer.

• Lead Instructor at PDX Code Guild, a software development education platform, for almost 2 years.

• Freelance Web Application Developer for 5 years.

• Internal Tools Engineer at Carbon Ads for a year.

BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPMENT EXPERTS No team member with blockchain development expertise.

TOKEN SALE STRUCTURE No team member with prior ICO launch experience, hence, no token sale structure expertise on the team.

The NuCypher network, if actualized, will provide a multifunctional Potential Weaknesses • The team is a little thin: no Blockplatform with chain/Token Sale/Marketing/Legal many use cases. experts.

DISCLAIMERS: • Nothing written in this article is a legal or an investment advice.

• Information is provided on a best-effort basis and is subject to change without prior notice. Be sure to verify everything you read with a project team.

The analysis was produced by Research Center team members: Alexander Bugaj, Mark Jedd, Eugene Tartakovsky.

If you enjoy our research, consider supporting us by following our Twitter, Telegram and sharing our articles with your friends and colleagues. Thank you for staying with us!

You can catch RC on the following platforms: https://t.me/rcfeed and https:// twitter.com/rc_feed 31

JUNE-JULY 2018

Phantasma Protocol (SOUL) ICO Analysis: Next-Gen Decentralized Content Storage and Distribution

by RESEARCH CENTER Cryptocurrency & ICO analysis group

PROJECT DESCRIPTION Over the past few years, cloud storage has turned out to a highly functional technology. By allowing users store their files online and be able to access them whenever, from wherever, and with whatever device they want, cloud storage has grown very popular.

To make uploaded files readily available, however, the companies that provide the storage services have to keep the files on external servers, making it vulnerable to hack attacks. Furthermore, since the servers are centralized, government agencies can shut them down at will or gain access to confidential information. Fortunately, blockchain-based projects like Filecoin, Storj, or Sia provide services that solve some of the problems mentioned above.

On another note, the rise of blockchain tech brought decentralized apps (DApps) along with it. While these apps have similar computing requirements with traditional apps, their needs are compounded by the more expensive and more architectural-

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ly complex decentralized infrastructure. Additionally, DApss are not very developer-friendly and they are a long way from mass usability; one of the foremost challenges being customizable communication and data sharing among DApps.

sible between both systems. Another key feature on Phantasma is data privacy, and to ensure total user control, all data in the ecosystem should be encrypted. As a result, only the owner can access, manage and share data belonging to them.

Phantasma wants to solve the problems outlined above by providing a decentralized content distribution system. The project aims to be the standard for secure and seamless data distribution, management and integration across various communication partners, connected users, and decentralized applications in the NEO ecosystem. Rather than rely on third parties to host, secure, and manage their data, users should finally be able to control their data. Conversely, mass adoption of the blockchain requires interoperability between blockchain-based systems and traditional systems. To foster this, mailboxes in the Phantasma ecosystem will be designed to work with standard email addresses, making communication pos-

Initially, Phantasma will run on the NEO blockchain but after some time, it will be modified to use the NEOX crosschain agreement. This should make it possible to transfer a project to another blockchain while retaining interoperability with NEO. As soon as the Phantasma protocol is production ready, however, the expectation is that the network will be deployed as its own blockchain; self-sustainable and totally separated from NEO. Using a Software Development Kit (SDK), developers should be able to create DApps on Phantasma. Reports indicate that at the start, Phantasma will be backend-agnostic, meaning that content can be stored in the ecosystem using different backend storage systems.

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However, the recommended storage system will be the Phantasma Data File System (PDFS).

The Phantasma ecosystem is also expected to have the following use cases: decentralized email, digital commerce, oracles, and video streaming. The project’s token, SOUL, will be NEP5-based and it will fuel the entire network. It will supposedly facilitate all incentives that involve operators, consumers, and producers. Consumers need SOUL to pay for data, while the producers and the developers will use the token to pay for storage and network services.

EXISTING PRODUCT The project is currently working on improving the Phantasma demo.

ROADMAP Q2, 2018: Token Sale • Phantasma private and public sale.

• MVPs of the first Phantasma dApp: secure email, for mobile and web.

Q3, 2018: Phantasma SDK • Release of Phantasma SDK, which will let any third-party developers start building their own Phantasma based products, along with release of Oracle Nodes, as an example of SDK usage.

Q4, 2018: Relay Nodes / Testnet • Phantasma relay nodes will allow Phantasma apps to break free from the transaction speed limits of blockchain.

• Start of split of Phantasma from NEO network into its own blockchain, using the NEOX protocol for cross-chain interoperability.

Q1, 2019: Phantasma Storage / Mainnet • Storage nodes will start being rolled out to the public, so that anyone can take part in the Phantasma network.

• Porting of the SDK to support native blockchain.

• Release of mainnet; native tokens to be issued according to NEP5 ownership.

Q2, 2019: Phantasma Digital Commerce • Digital Commerce app will be released, allowing anyone to deploy their own decentralized e-shop.

Q3, 2019: Service Discover • A service to discover Phantasma dApps will be created from point, forward, once the third-parties developer support has reached critical mass.

Q4, 2019: Video Streaming • Phantasma Video Streaming will be released as showcase for a dApp with heavy data loads.

HARD CAP AND VALUATION There will be a total of 100 million SOUL tokens and the project aims to raise $10 million for 65% of the token total. The 35% left will be distributed thus: 20% will be shared among the team and the project’s advisors and 15% will be used for developer incentives and platform growth.

The team tokens will be locked as follows: • Cliff of 6 months.

• Vesting period of 3 years with 10% released every 3 months for 30 months.

Advisor tokens will be locked as follows: • Cliff of 2 months.

• Vesting period of 12 months with 10% released every month for 10 months.

PRICE PER TOKEN 1 SOUL = $0.23 (without bonus).

During the private sale, there were bonuses of up to 30%, depending on contribution.

The bonus tokens will be vested for 3 months with equal monthly releases.

IMPORTANT DATES Phantasma’s crowdsale is scheduled to start on the 22nd of May, 2018.

MARKETING POWER As of the time this post was published, Phantasma had over 21,900 members on Telegram, 2,500+ followers on Twitter, 430+ Discord members and over 210 Reddit readers. They also gave a Github page.

PROMINENT ADVISORS Neeraj Murarka • Co-Founder and CTO of Bluzelle.

TEAM MEMBERS’ AREAS OF EXPERTISE Business experts Sergio Flores, Co-Founder & Engineer.

• Founder & Game-Developer at Lunar Labs for over two years.

• Co-Founder and Blockchain Developer at SynkData for over a year.

Miguel Ferreira, Co-Founder & Engineer.

• Co-Founder of SynkData for over a year.

• Co-Founder and Backend-Developer at Portal Juridico, a legal consulting platform, for a year.

TARGET MARKET EXPERTS Miguel Ferreira, Co-Founder & Engineer.

• Senior Compiler and Big Data Engineer at CompilerWorks for a year.

• Compiler Engineer at PathScale for almost 4 years.

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Sergio Flores, Co-Founder & Engineer.

• Blockchain Developer at City of Zion, a global NEO open-source community, for 8 months.

MARKETING EXPERTS Alexandre Paixao, Co-Founder & Marketing Manager.

• Marketing Manager at PrimeMakers for over a year.

• Marketing Assistant at ISEG Junior Business Consulting for almost 3 years.

• Marketing Manager at WindLimit Studios, a games studio, for 10 months.

LEGAL EXPERTS Arvind Alexander, Legal.

• Diploma in Cyber Law and Jurisprudence at NALSAR University of Law. • Associate at Phoenix Legal for over a year.

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EXPERTS Miguel Ferreira, Co-Founder & Engineer.

• Senior Compiler and Big Data Engineer at CompilerWorks for a year.

• Compiler Engineer at PathScale, a compiler company, for almost 4 years.

• Co-Founder and Backend-Developer at Portal Juridico, a legal consulting platform, for a year.

Bruno Freitas, Mobile & Engineer.

• Mobile Developer at LazyPerks, a software development company, for 7 months.

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• Mobile Application Developer at Federação Académica do Porto for 7 months.

Bernardo Pinho, Engineer.

• Serious Game Developer at MEDIDA for over a year.

BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPMENT EXPERTS Sergio Flores, Co-Founder & Engineer.

• Blockchain Developer at City of Zion for 8 months.

• Co-Founder and Blockchain Developer at SynkData for over a year.

Bruno Freitas, Mobile & Engineer.

• Software Developer at City of Zion for 6 months.

TOKEN SALE STRUCTURE Neeraj Murarka, Advisor.

• Co-Founder and CTO at Bluzelle. Bluzelle held an ICO in January, 2018 and raised about $20 million.

TOKEN ECONOMICS Neeraj Murarka, Advisor.

• Co-Founder and CTO at Bluzelle.

Fernando Toledano, Advisor.

• IT Security Consultant at City of Zion for 8 months.

• He is responsible for the audit of the NEO blockchain.

CONCLUSION Strengths • A relevant use case that aims to solve a prevalent problem.

• Good team.

• Low hard-cap ($10million).

• Connections to NEO-developers (City of Zion).

Potential risks for investors • Mainnet won’t be released till Q1, 2019.

• Notable competitors (Amazon S3, Filecoin, etc.).

Disclaimers: • Nothing written in this article is a legal or an investment advice.

• Information is provided on a best-effort basis and is subject to change without prior notice. Be sure to verify everything you read with a project team.

The analysis was produced by Research Center team members: Alexander Hinz, Mark Jedd, Anna Muratova.

If you enjoy our research, consider supporting us by following our Twitter, Telegram and sharing our articles with your friends and colleagues.

Thank you for staying with us!

You can catch RC on the following platforms: https://t.me/rcfeed and https://twitter.com/rc_feed

JUNE-JULY 2018

CVerification Will Be Showcasing Their HR Platform at Bits&Pretzels

by MILKO FILIPOV Founder and CEO

CVerification takes part in the prestigious Bits & Pretzels conference, 30th Sept — 2nd Oct 2018, Munich, Germany.

Start-up pitch presentations and handson product demonstrations will concisely inform attendees on core product technologies and company values.

Founder and CEO Milko Filipov, Cofounder and CTO James Lawton as well as Cofounder and CIO Evgeni Pirianov look forward to meeting investors and potential users on the well-established Bits & Pretzels this year. Participants will gain vivid insights into the highly innovative CVerification technologies for quick recruitment and reliable background verification of CVs, records, transcripts, and various other documents.

Meeting all CVerification founders in person as well as witnessing their presentation on the big start-up pitch will provide compact, critical information.

Moreover, at the company’s booth, the platform’s first version will be demonstrated as an impacting tool for rapid CV verification and submission, tailored to the demanding schedule of

HR decision makers and job-seeking professionals.

CVerification is a blockchain-based recruitment and background verification platform. It solves multiple problems of the HR industry. On the one hand, it provides a modern, distributed and secure system on which every user can store a verified testimony of his professional achievements and share it with all potential employers. On the other hand, it gives employers the ability to accept new recruits based on verified information, effectively eliminating the need for background check services.

CVerification is designed as a secure, future-proof and extensible system. The middle layer makes a platform out of CVerification. This is what differentiates the platform from the rest and cre-

At the company’s booth, the platform’s first version will be demonstrated as an impacting tool for rapid CV verification and submission

ates a dynamic ecosystem around our core functionality. The vision of the founders is that, as time passes, and their user base grows, so will the platform. They plan to provide a powerful open API which will enable third-party developers to rapidly develop new intelligent services and utilize the hidden potential of the user’s data.

Users of CVerification have complete ownership and control over what they share and with whom they share it with. Both the third-party developers and the sharing users will receive a portion of the generated revenue as a reward for their participation on the platform. By incentivizing a complementary relationship between users and developers, CVerification wants to become a continuous force in the background verification industry for years to come.

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Breaking Down the dApp Development Concept to Generate New Business Ideas Smart contracts, or contracts built with a code on a decentralized blockchain network, enable a new approach toward developing business value, trust, and integrity. How are they different than the traditional way of doing business?

by MICHAEL KELLEY Content Strategist / Expert

Businesses build a reputation based on past successes, effective networking, continually meeting customer needs, and by overextending the efforts for the service they provide to their customers. A major part of business success is based on a trial-and-error system. The more businesses make errors, the lesser are their chances of success. However, making errors is not always dependent on the business itself. Companies typically exist in complex social and economic ecosystems where multiple players create and execute rules – governments, corporations, financial institutions, international organizations, competitors and customers with ever-changing, growing needs.

Most of today’s businesses exist in hierarchical systems. Hierarchies are cen-

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tralized systems where top players have greater control over how the business game is played; this sometimes counters the interests of lower-level participants. Rigid centralized control can create a stalemate environment where market rules discourage healthy competition. Eventually, a change, an industry shift, or a new technology (blockchain is a good example), breaks this inflexible state, opening new vistas for businesses, leaving less room for error. dApp development is a great example of how conventional business rules can change in a jiffy.

DAPPS AND SMART CONTRACTS AS BUSINESS CONCEPTS From the emergence of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency back in 2009, blockchain developers have been working to turn this powerful new technology into practical ideas. In the beginning, the successful application of dApp (decentralized apps) development has stood on shaky legs, enduring security, ethics, and scalability challenges. However, dApps are now slowly becoming mainstream. This is

because business executives are more open-minded to smart contracts, understanding that they can improve business efficiency, lower fees, and eliminate intermediaries in the business ecosystem.

Smart contracts are designed to bring contract parties together faster and without the chance to wiggle out of the contract rules by engaging in fraudulent activities. Smart contracts are, basically, the piece of code that supports the execution of dApp development. dApps are built on decentralized networks where each participant has the same level of control over the full blockchain decision-making process.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE FINANCE BOX Although it’s customary to think of dApps as distributed ledgers and associate them with financial transactions, this is not their sole use. Storing identical copies of the same general public ledger in the local nodes is only one way of keeping the trust in the business system. The key point is that such

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ledgers are immutable and self-executable according to the rules set by all network nodes. (A node is each computer that’s connected to the blockchain network).

Out of the financial domain, dApps can be used to create decentralized databases where parties conclude business agreements without the need to meet local or international regulations, pay intermediary fees, or get various approvals and licenses. Simply put, smart contracts are capable of surpassing some regulations, reducing certain fees, and reducing the number of criteria a business must meet to be able to operate. Having said that, dApp development has, in a way, shaken current business ethics in the sense of what is acceptable and what’s not.

DAPP DEVELOPMENT: NEW POSSIBILITIES To generate new dApp business ideas, you must keep in mind the changed rules of the ecosystem and follow what’s happening in the area. Multiple projects such as Ethereum and Hyperledger are making more powerful strides as days go by. New business ideas crop up constantly, competing with traditional apps. Here are a few ways you can use dApp development to upgrade how you used to complete transactions in centralized networks.

Supply chain management. Having all records and transactions stored across the network in identical ledger copies eliminates the possibility of fabricating dates, quantities, qualities, and the origin of goods. A dApp can be created to connect participants in an organic food network, verifying that the supplies are stored, shipped, and delivered according to the rules set by each party, guaranteeing that the food that reaches your plate meets the organic food criteria. Such supply chain dApps would be able to connect international participants in a transparent way for reduced costs.

. In the beginning, the successful application of dApp (decentralized apps) development has stood on shaky legs, enduring secuDemocratic digital voting. By creating a rity, ethics, and “one vote, one computer” voting system scalability chalthat cannot be manipulated or censored, lenges. However, organizations (both governments and companies) can make decisions with pub- dApps are now lic visibility and unmistakable evidence slowly becoming that the process has been completed by mainstream. following democratic principles.

Personalized cloud storage. Since blockchain networks use the computing power of each network node instead of central servers, nodes can rent unused cloud storage. This concept can be interpreted as a micro cloud-based computing business.

Monetized intellectual contribution. dApps that reward scientific or ex-

pert skills will remove the danger of posting anything on the Internet. The more referenced, peer-reviewed or mentioned a piece of content is on the public web, the less it can be overruled as an irrelevant resource.

Sharing economy concepts. An exciting promise of dApp development lies in using smart contracts to connect individuals and small businesses in a more direct way, without the need to rely on central authorities as trust enforcers. Think of Airbnb and Uber on a minor scale - such dApps can basically include a variety of goods and services where you don't need to go to the bank, get a credit card or pay very expensive taxes to get what you need.

These are just a few of the examples that businesses can use as basic blueprints to think outside of the box and generate new dApp development ideas. Decentralized apps allow conducting business with strangers over the Internet in a more secure, faster and cheaper way than ever before. Once you understand the technology concept, the next steps are simple. Skilled blockchain developers can explain dApps in more detail. Consulting with an experienced team can help you clarify how feasible, secure, and profitable your new idea is.

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Real Estate Investment Set To Soar As Tokenisation Takes Over Real estate is one of the biggest investable asset classes set for serious disruption as blockchain enabled tokens break down long-standing barriers to making entire asset classes liquid and tradable.

by ICO CROWD

But direct investments in real estate are not liquid; you cannot sell your flat overnight and a further disadvantage is that it’s difficult to invest abroad.

The tokenisation of real estate will entice traditional investors like hedge funds into the world of crypto, open the doors to first-time investors and millennials, and offer accredited investors from all corners of the world access to Western markets.

REIT, a fund that manages properties for you and then lists the funds on the stock exchange, offers the benefit of the minimum investment being lower than having to directly purchase a property. It’s also liquid as you can buy and sell through the exchange.

“Typical venture capitalists will realise the advantages of not being locked into their investments for up to a decade before realising any profit,” says Idan Miller CMO of the Elephant.

The downside to REIT is that it’s highly correlated to equity markets, so if equity markets drop in value, so will your investment in a period of stress.

“At the same time, smaller qualified investors, individuals and/or crypto investors will enjoy being able to invest in a variety of asset classes typically accessible only to large investors (such as real estate, equity, and artwork), increasing their ROI and diversifying their portfolios.

“People who got into investing through the world of crypto will prefer tokenised equities over different investing methods involving fiat currency or even actually buying properties,” he says.

Prior to the token and blockchain revolution, real estate investment has worked through three main platforms: direct investments, REIT - Real Estate 38

Investment Trust, or through a private equity fund which manages properties.

Scott Hoch, an analyst at Apex Token Fund, explains; "a new level of liquidity is created when tokenizing traditional assets. This liquidity makes it faster and easier to rebalance a portfolio as the market changes.”

And investors and blockchain start-ups are moving in full force to align their products and strategies with this opportunity.

In February 2018, Goldman-backed Circle acquired U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex.

The company envisions opening up the exchange into a place for more than just crypto assets to offer “a robust multi-sided distributed marketplace that can host tokens which reprePrivate equity, a fund which managsent everything of value: physical goods, es different types of real estate, is also fundraising and equity, real estate, crenot without its limitations: the miniative productions such as works of art, mum ticket for investment is quite high, music and literature, service leases and usually starting at £250,000 and funds time-based rentals, credit, futures, and aren’t liquid with lock up periods gener- more,” according to a statement. ally being anywhere from 4-10 years.

ICOs listed with a real-estate component include: Now the tokenisation of real estate in• BitRent, a way to speed up financing vestment carries the promise of rewritconstruction projects by selling toing traditional modus operandi and kens that represent real estate. eliminating most previous disadvantag- • Etherty, real-estate management es and limitations of the asset class. through equity access. The company lets users buy and sell property It’s difficult to understate just how much through smart contracts and tokenimore attractive the tokenised real essation of real estate. tate market will become for investors in • Caviar, a fund that tempers the volaterms of liquidity, customisability, secutility of crypto investments with loans rity, transparency and market access. to real estate projects.

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• Trust, a way to tokenise equity in real estate and other real-world assets.

• Brickblock, which lets users buy and trade tokenised real estate assets, ETFs, and coin funds.

Leaseum, which brings tokenisation of real estate, is marching into the market as one of the largest examples of how the token economy is looking to transform large sectors.

bringing an unprecedented level of exposure to the market.

The company operates like a private equity fund, but investors will buy tokens that offer both dividend rights and capital gain rights instead of a share of the fund.

The tokenisation “According to J.P. Morgan even a modest of real estate will entice allocation to Bitcoin over the past several years would have improved portfotraditional Jonathan Fry, Chief Executive Officer lio efficiency on average for a hypothetinvestors like of TeamBlockchain, explains “using to- ical multi-asset portfolio, and therefore kenisation they enable investors to re- would have raised risk-adjusted returns hedge funds into the world ceive all or some of the monthly inover the medium-term,” says Leaseum. come in a highly cost effective manner of crypto, without incurring the normal FX and The tokenisation of real estate through open the doors banking fees. blockchain offers liquidity, enabling to first-time trading of the asset class 24/7 and 365 investors and “Leaseum are also looking to actively days a year. millennials, and manage the discount and premium on the tokens compared to the portfolio's Its also uncorrelated to global equity offer accredited NAV and having an attractive fee strucmarkets and offers optional exposure investors from ture of only 1/2% p.a. and 20% perforto cryptocurrency markets which have all corners of mance fee. shown near-zero average correlation the world access with other asset classes over the past “A proposition worthy for institutional five years. to Western investors looking to get exposure to real markets. estate and or looking to start getting exposure to Cryptocurrencies, a New Asset Class.”

Leaseum is raising $250 million to invest in prime commercial real estate in New York City, opening up the $1 trillion U.S. market to crypto investors and

But the benefits don’t stop there. Tokenisation of real estate also brings decentralised trading and fractional ownership.

Traditionally when people want to buy and sell stocks they have had to work through exchanges which manage buy-

ing and selling orders, now the use of blockchain eliminates dependence on exchanges.

Firms such as Leaseum will make decentralised peer to peer trading possible through blockchain - a key advantage for sophisticated investors.

Fractional ownership of real estate investment will open up the lucrative investment market to the general public and smaller scale investors.

Where in the past a minimum of £250,000 was often required to invest in private equity, this barrier will be lifted to enable very low minimum investment sums.

Removing these barriers to real estate investment will entice a flood of diversified investors into enter the sector: institutional and non-institutional, fiat and crypto investors.

This will boomerang back around: different investors buying at different moments and for different reasons will bring new and unrivalled global liquidity to the asset class, multiplying its potential.

For investors ready to capitalise on new opportunities in the tokenised real estate market, what’s certain is that the sky’s the limit.

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New Ethereum Token Protocols You Didn’t Know Existed Today, anyone can create a smart contract based on the Ethereum blockchain and release their own tokens using the ERC20 standard. In this crypto ‘Wild West’, new Ethereum protocols are being created - which are designed to add new functionality or correct errors of by previous versions. Let’s start at the beMICHIEL MULDERS ginning: ERC20 & ERC223.

Blockchain Developer & Writer

ERC20 & ERC223: THE KINGS OF CRYPTO The ERC20 standard was introduced in 2015 and has seen widespread adoption in just two years. The standard describes the rules of the creation and operation of coins developed on its basis.

As with all new things, it contains security flaws.

ERC20 is still the basis for most smart contracts with some additions of ERC223. ERC20 contained a critical bug where funds could be permanently lost when using a wrong transfer function. ERC223 has been introduced by Dexaran to solve this issue. Dexaran calculated that up until the 31st of December 2017, $3,000,000 of funds had been lost due to this bug.

The ERC223 standard introduces a single transfer function that doesn’t make a difference between sending tokens to a token contract or address. In addition, it integrates a token fallback function to avoid accidentally lost tokens inside a contract that is not designed to work with sent tokens. Luckily, almost all token contracts have adopted the ERC223 standard as an addition

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for ERC20.

Currently, 82% of the projects prefer to use the Ethereum blockchain because of its widespread adoption. Listing an Ethereum token onto an exchange is much cheaper than adding a custom Stellar, Waves, or Nem token. An exchange has to do custom coding to list your ‘exotic’ coin, which makes it much more costly. An Ethereum token can be simply listed by adding the token address and symbol to the exchange interface.

Every day, new tokens are added which are based on the ERC20 standard. The total market capitalisation for Ethere-

um based tokens is around $36.4 bln.

At the time of writing, the total cryptocurrency market cap is around $295 bln. This means that Ethereum based tokens make up 12% of the total market cap. In addition, if you look at the green chart below, you can see a steadily growing amount of token operations.

ERC721: COLLECTIBLE TOKEN CRYPTOKITTIES Many have heard of the new game on the Ethereum blockchain called CryptoKitties. The new game recently made several headlines within the cryptocurrency community because of the congestion it caused on the Ethereum net-

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work drastically as it allows users to move data around in a matter of seconds. This allows decentralized applications to perform more complex operations using the transferred data. In addition, this standard allows verifying a transaction by a third party, for example, a broker or agent, without any access to a private key.

As you can see in the above screenshot, ERC827 still addresses ERC20 as its basis. You can see this as it calls the base ERC20 code with the super function.

ERC884: TOKENISING SHARES Dave Sag, the creator of the ERC884 standard, wants to use the Ethereum blockchain to register shareholders. ERC884 was created for share registries released by any public or private company in Delaware, and contains several add-ons beyond the capabilities of ERC20. This includes the requirement to identify and whitelist the owners of tokens as an integral part of the very token.

ERC-884 allows for the creation of tradable ERC-20 tokens where each token represents a numberless (or vanilla) share issued by a Delaware corporation.

ERC1070: STANDARD BOUNTIES In order to encourage cross-platform interoperability of bounties on Ethereum, and for easier reputational tracking, StandardBounties can facilitate the administration of funds in exchange for deliverables corresponding to a completed task, in a publicly auditable and immutable fashion.

A standardization of these interactions across task types also makes it far easier to track various reputational metrics (such as how frequently you pay for completed submissions, or how frequently your work gets accepted).

work. There is more… CryptoKitties is using a different Ethereum token standard.

standard for tokens to be non-fungible and submitted this new Ethereum Improvement Proposal in late 2017.

Standard ERC20 tokens are interchangeable. This means that each ERC20 token is the same, besides its name, ticker symbol, and the number of token decimals. For the CryptoKitties idea, this is not ideal as every token needs to be different. Humans have always loved to collect items, especially when the item is scarce or unique. The value of a collectible item is connected to its rareness among other items.

Small note, recently, the standard has been elaborated with the ERC165 interface. You can find more technical details on the EIP721 page.

Thanks to ERC721, we can emulate rare, collectible items with Ethereum tokens. Dieter Shirley created this

added in less than 100 lines of code to the Ethereum network. It expands the functionality of the Ethereum net-

Currently, 82% of the projects prefer to use ERC827: ERC20 REPLACEMENT ERC827 is one of the latest versions of the Ethereum the Ethereum token standards and was blockchain called a worthy replacement for ERC20. because of its Unlike its predecessor, this standard can transfer not only the cost, but also widespread adoption. the transaction data. This function is

ERC998: COMPOSABLE NONFUNGIBLE TOKENS Matt Lockyer explained the idea behind his Composable Non-Fungible Tokens in his Medium post, “The motivation behind this standard is to create a common interface for standardized tokens on the Ethereum blockchain to be composed into sets and hierarchies. A building block for composable assets. For example: a set of ERC-20 tokens representing an index fund; a virtual backpack of ERC-721 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and ERC-20 fungible tokens (FTs); complete tokenized accountability of home, appliances, garden and trees, all nested inside a single land title token.”

The token standard is still under development, however, an EIP has already been created on the Ethereum Github.

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Blockchain & AI for Scientists Takes On Bottleneck Monopolies Blockchain and AI networks will set science free The knowledge industry has become trapped in an expensive factory line cycle in which it is both the producer of the product and the overpaying end customer.

University scientists and researchers supply their work for free to publishers of scientific journals who pay editors to judge if the work should be published.

Publishers then package up the research into journals and resell them to universiby ICO CROWD ties’ librarians at often extortionate fees.

The largest publisher of scientific journals, Elsevier, enjoyed profits of over £900 million in recent years, coming close to a 40% profit margin.

The irony is that the bulk of the editorial burden of checking the scientific validity of research is done by working scientists on a volunteer basis through a process known as peer review, not by the publishers.

This has sparked outrage from scientific researchers, academic institutions, policy-makers and the general public, but the stranglehold grip of the publishers’ monopolies has continued unchallenged.

However, the pendulum of scientific knowledge could now begin to swing out of their control.

The token economy backed by blockchain and the power of AI has opened new op42

portunities to take on the powerful intermediaries and their lucratively run system.

Project Aiur aims at opening up science through disintermediating some very powerful middlemen, using blockchain as a platform for a transparent AI peer review and to create a publishing service with its own online economy.

ing to disrupt the recruitment industry.

On the way she dropped by six universities and separately built a race car.

As an example of the extent of the challenge Aiur has taken on, Brede says “I do not believe Satoshi is hired by an academic institution. You see, had she been, publishing her paper in a crypto newsletter would be entirely unheard of: she would have every incentive to get her paper into Enabled by an open source AI-based a Tier 1 journal to get the Tier 1-points, knowledge validation engine project, Aiur used for applying to her next round of will build a new incentive model for open funding, which she would need to keep research publication to create a commuher job. "Publish or perish". nity owned and validated repository of science.

“This Tier 1 journal would likely be owned by Elsevier or Nature/Springer, The mastermind behind this brave and would, when published after 9-18 new frontier for democratising scienmonths, charge about $25 for a private tific knowledge is Norwegian Anita individual to access the paper if they Schjoll Brede, Chief Executive Officer & could find it. And about $5.5M per year CO-Founder at Iris.ai. in subscription fees for an average British university. None of us would be where In the past 10 years her career has we are today. Now, we are happy Saspanned nine industries including detoshi didn't go through all this, but pubveloping an e-learning tool in Sililished her article openly, but the question con Valley, performing theatre for bais: what other radical discoveries that go bies, reducing energy consumption in through this process are still hidden bethe process industry through heat exhind these paywalls?” changer network optimisation, getting 30 (mainly middle-age male) engi- She explains, there are five major isneers to dance to ABBA in front of their sues facing the world of science today: co-workers, and facilitating solar light information overload from the sheer business creation in Kenya. number of papers published, requiring new tools to properly manage them; acShe’s also been in the centre of several cess barriers caused by a lucrative legastartups crashing and burning, organiscy business model from the 5 oligopoing entrepreneurial conferences, and try- listic main publishers; reproducibili-

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ty issues caused by tight deadlines and skewed incentives to polish results for top tier journals; built-in biases in both the citation system as well as skewed trust in financially strong institutions; and, a total incentive misalignment for researchers and scientists as a result of this failed digitisation.

and the building of a "truth tree" of a research paper.

and institutions are refusing to cow-tow to bottleneck publishers.

Brede says this roadmap builds on “three years of experience building AI tools for semi-automating the literature review process,” noting that “we know what we're doing at this point.”

200 German institutions have refused to renew their Elsevier subscriptions, Sweden declared the same company as unfit to deliver services to the country, and France followed suit with Nature/Springer.

Aiur's goal is to break science out of the traps of the current mold with a truly decentralized community, ensured with a 2% token ownership cap, that together will build an AI-based Knowledge Validation Engine.

Aiur is currently launching a public token sale, aiming to raise €10 million with a lower cap of €6 million and an upper cap of €50 million.

This engine allows Aiur to build a functioning economy with a new incentive model for contributions to the world of scientific knowledge.

Functional from day one, contributors can earn tokens initially through AI training - creating annotated datasets. Tokens can soon also be earned from contributing code and quality assurance, and longer-term, through publishing of research as well as performing peer review.

The private sale whitelist has just opened, the project already has commitments of about €600,000 and the private sale will close at €6 million.

“Project Aiur is a not-for-profit project for Iris.ai and is formed from a need to make impact in this industry. Far from suitable for a short-term speculator, we see this as a longer-term play.”

“We are as such looking for science-loving token buyers who believe in the vision and have ethos as a leg of their purchase decisions.

“Project Aiur is a not-forprofit project for Iris.ai and is formed from a need to make impact in this industry. Far from suitable for a shortterm speculator, we see this as a longer-term play.”

The EU is working on mandating that all EU financed research be published with Open Access by 2020.

“We are in good company!” says Brede.

“On that note, we are currently working closely with Unit, a division of the Ministry of Education in Norway, to stake out how we can help each other achieve their goals of Open Access beyond the EU directive.”

The Aiur project carries the promise of breaking science out of the production cycle where universities and scientists are both suppliers, production line workers, and end buyers of their own product.

Aiur is issuing an ERC20 token, with both the basic smart contracts for minting tokens and a financial institution designed to keep the economy stable including an AIUR/ETH pool, and an as-needed taxation scheme working to the benefit of the community at large.

“However, the Research & Development industry spends $138 billion a year on 'digital enablers', so this is far from an unprofitable industry. A good little chunk of this money we hope to funnel into the Aiur community via the tool usage, and thus to the token holders,” says Brede.

The possibilities that are yet to come from opening up the best of scientific research to the world are limitless, Brede concludes “making science open, reproducible and validated are important prerequisites for using it to solve the biggest challenges we're facing as a human species, from climate change through ocean plastic to cancer.”

On the AI front, Aiur has developed a detailed roadmap for its NLP including argument mining, hypothesis extraction

And the Aiur project has seen widespread backing, operating in a fast-moving Open Access movement where governments

And if knowledge is power, then project Aiur will go a long way to placing power into the hands of the people.

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Tokenization — a Whiff of Fresh Air In The Economy Just a year ago, tokenization was a novelty.

Today it has already triggered certain, for now, minor changes that are believed to very soon make a shift in the economic paradigm.

What’s it all about? It turns out that modern world economics has a bit of problems that are mostly related to the accounting and managing of assets. Tokenization indeed is capable of coping with them.

by DR PAVEL KRAVCHENKO Founder at Distributed Lab

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build your own web of data, where even do you need to perform in order to buy the breakdown of one or a couple of hosts a physical receipt? Even if we cast down won’t crash the whole system. the fact that in 2018, you’re still obliged to go somewhere and physically obtain a This is the case of a permissioned blockpiece of paper just to start owning the aschain — users must be granted a permis- set, the whole process is still exceptionsion to gain access to the accounting. In ally unconventional, because it is mostly such a case, users would need to trust the hinged on loads of paperwork. owner of the system.

While dealing with a tokenization platHowever, the owner may grant his busiform, the right of owning the asset is beness partners access to copies of the ing traded in real-time. At that, end-cusblockchain, meaning that now they’re tomers can buy or sell tokens using their able to become nodes i.e. personal hosts smartphone, without leaving the deck of the system. At this point, the parame- chair.

THE ECOSYSTEM OF ter of trust towards the owner is not that TOKENIZATION AND essential, because his partners are now Which of the assets do you think would THE ROLE OF BLOCKCHAIN independent parties of a common system be more in demand: those backed by reTokenization is the process of changing (each permissioned user is able to vericeipts, or — by tokens? the way accounting and managing of asfy the integrity of the last). This is how sets are provided, at which point every asset unit is represented by its digital an- blockchain provides for the transparency RELIABILITY of ongoing processes. On top of that, the We deal with a system where, hosts are alogue — token. owner can furnish regulators (auditors or distributed, independent and synchrogovernmental structures) with a so-called nized with each other — you have no sinOne of the key components of the tokenization platform is its accounting sys- auditor-node that would do examinations gle point of failure. Its uptime is signifiin real-time, automatically. cantly higher than of the centralized one tem. This is where the blockchain techbecause breakdown is no longer an issue. nology is applied because it provides for Consequently, the price of maintaining a flexible and secure mechanism of man- THE ADVANTAGES OF TOKENIZATION such a system is significantly lower. aging data. Most people associate blockAs you can see we explore the topic by a chain with Bitcoin, which makes sense, but is hardly correct in terms of business. reversal logic. From practice to principle: TRANSPARENCY Bitcoin’s blockchain is permissionless for 1. We initially explored how the underly- Tokenization may help build plain coming mechanism of a Blockchain tokeni- mercial relationships, which would lay everyone (you don’t need permission to zation platform works, when applied. the groundwork for a fair competition on access it).

2. Now, we’ll examine the advantages the global market. that tokenization may introduce to the In business, the permissionless paramebusiness sector.

The tokenization platform may have ter is not primary, yet blockchain may be strict rules under which participants coapplied because it provides for certain adoperate with each other. You may guarvantages. Robustness, stability and trans- MORE FLEXIBLE TRADING MECHANISM – SIGNIFICANT RISE antee that they cannot violate the sysparency of the accounting system. The OF LIQUIDITY tem because each has a copy of the dataowner may hold a number of servers, eibase, which is reliably synchronized. The ther of which contains the whole copy of A Token is a digital right of ownership. only way someone may try to act against the blockchain (full history of changes in It can be: gold, grain, sand, shares, or even another token. It is a kind of rethe rules is to collude with, at least, more the database, represented in the form of a chain of blocks) and synchronizes with ceipt, but digital and with much higher li- than half of all participants of the syseach other. Such peculiarities allow you to quidity. Just think of it: how many steps tem. That’s how we return to the reliabil-

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• A tried-out scheme of storing and managing users’ keys WHAT CAN TOKENIZATION INTRODUCE IN THE FUTURE? In the nearest future, tokenization platforms may take the position of traditional accounting systems to which everyone refers today. Meaning that they can actually become the primary source of actual data for proprietary rights of individuals with their digital identity, e-passports, driver’s licenses, etc. Obviously, it will only happen WHEN tokenization becomes legally binding.

THE AGE OF FINE PRODUCTS Transparency of business, simplicity and the reliability of accounting, is the groundwork that will improve relations between producer and consumer. Not only reduce the distance between them, but also improve the balance of their interests.

It’s true for many things. For example, artificial demand generation when producers, on purpose, reduce the operational life of their product. The faster it’s out of action— the earlier consumers buy a new one. It’s not an obligatory rule but you must admit— there’s a grain of truth about this.

ity issue, the more independent parties running their own nodes — the better.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUNDRAISING Tokenization is a very flexible tool for crowdfunding, which has already opened new opportunities for finances. Now, small investors can enter the market and, with common efforts, make up a quite massive budget for the projects.

Imagine there’s a progressive project from both: commercial and, for example, an ecological point of view. The team has organized a crowdfunding campaign, where they trade their stock for $0.5.

They’ve shared a precise plan of the project realization and many people came to believe in them.

If we take one average megapolis, where, for instance, half of the citizens have bought one token for $0.5 — we’ll get a sum of about $1.5 million. Of course, it wouldn’t be the half of all citizens, though it wouldn't be one megapolis either :) Before tokenization, the mechanism of crowdfunding was barely competitive with conventional methods of raising funds. Today having a properly built to-

And then, there’s this situation with cheaper primary products, which can be attractive for buyers in the context of price, whereas the quality suffers. In other words, quantity instead of quality.

kenization platform, crowdfunding becomes much more transparent for the investors and provides for much easier accessibility, making it a viable competitor to the traditional approach to fundraising. People now have a choice.

HARDSHIPS RELATED TO TOKENIZATION The other side of the medal lies in the fact that along with truly breakthrough and progressive projects, the concept of an ICO is now characterized by a great outbreak of scams. The reason for this is that the token economy is outside the legal environment and is currently beyond regulation.

Apart from a proper approach to regulation, the following list of conditions should be introduced in order to have such systems fully operational: • Digital identity that would make it possible to assign users’ actions in the digital environment to their actual identities.

• A tried and tested approach to regulation of asset recognition (basically, how the digitization of physical assets is provided) • Effective methods of decentralized decision-making • Uniform rules for solving the conflict situations

Blockchain holds the prospect to distribute power to individuals and reduce the power of centralised institutions.

Blockchain also has the potential to reduce the power of national political units with a diverse range of global digital currencies interacting with smart contracts.

If handled properly, tokenization may bring the age of fine products. As a case in point, producers won’t be paid for the whole product shipment, but — only over the course of the consumers’ usage.

This will be the revolution in the supply chain, where manufacturers can count up to the ‘latest’ unit of product they’ve sold (thus, reduce the outlays), while consumers will be confident as to the quality of what they buy.

CONCLUSION Among all the properties that tokenization platforms may offer, the most basic are: • transparency of the ongoing processes; • reliability of storing and synchronizing data among independent participants; • inability to alter data (immutability); • an easy-to-perform audit.

On a global basis, such approach will contribute to the development of a fair competition and obviate the bureaucratic machinery. Such new methods of managing assets will open new opportunities for regular people, who will be able to avoid paperwork or any other acts of red tape.

While the simplified process of raising funds will pave the way for smaller businesses and investors.

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JUNE-JULY 2018

What’s The Future of Exchanges?

Cryptocurrency exchanges have seen a massive growth in numbers over the past year, although, exchanges constantly evolve and improve and there are many challenges ahead.

by MICHIEL MULDERS Blockchain Developer & Writer

At the moment, most users join the crypto space via one of the major exchanges as they act as the main entry point. If we want to trade, we mostly rely on centralized exchanges like Bittrex, Kraken, Bitstamp, … However, decentralised exchanges have started to gain traction, as they grow and are able to process more transactions, but the number of transactions per second is still less than centralised exchanges.

EXCHANGE RELATED INNOVATION Atomic Swap Decentralized exchanges (DEX) aim to tackle the problems that impede centralized structures by building peerto-peer marketplaces directly on the blockchain.

Many of those decentralized exchanges use atomic swap technology. Atomic swaps are often called cross-chain atomic swaps, meaning, two differ-

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ent cryptocurrencies that are present on different chains can be exchanged atomically without any trusted third party and there are no exchange or trading fees involved.

• True peer to peer: Atomic swaps allow for peer to peer exchange of value.

• Transparency: It’s not possible to create fake volume.

To give you an example; Alice wants to trade 1 Bitcoin for Bob’s 10 Litecoins.

Normally, she would need to use an exchange to sell her Bitcoins and buy her Litecoins. It’s a slow and costly operation. However, with atomic swap technology, she can trade her Bitcoin with Bob’s Litecoins directly, without paying any (or very low) fees. A hash timelocked contract (HTLCs) is used to prevent one of the parties running away with the funds.

Disadvantages • Both chains need to support the same cryptographic hash function.

• As an atomic swap transaction depends on both blockchains, one might have to wait for the confirmations to be cleared on one side.

• Transaction fees can inflate for example for BTC to LTC as BTC tends to have higher transaction fees.

• Privacy: As the hash of the contract is shared during the atomic swap process, a third user can easily track the transaction. However, there is no data included that can link an identity to a user.

To perform such atomic swaps, it’s required that both blockchains share the same cryptographic hash function, such as SHA256.

Advantages • Instant transactions: If there is a sell order that matches your buy order, the transaction will be executed immediately.

• No fees/very low fees.

• Security: Ability to retain your private key as opposed to keeping your private key on an exchange.

Waves-NG Another variant to this technology is the Waves-NG consensus protocol which is being used by the Waves DEX. This Waves-NG consensus protocol is a clever selection algorithm.

Think about submitting a transaction to the Bitcoin network. There is no guarantee your transaction will

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Decentralised exchanges have started to gain traction, as they grow and are able to process more transactions, but the number of transactions per second is still less than centralised exchanges.

Waves came up with the idea of ‘micro-blocks’. Micro-blocks contain transactions like normal blocks but can be generated and signed faster. The process of validating one large block is much slower than validating multiple smaller blocks. This results in increased performance and transaction speed.

The centralised part of the exchange is the matching engine. This engine is responsible for matching up bids and offers to complete trades. Matching engines use one or several algorithms to allocate trades among competing bids and offers at the same price.

be included in the current block. In case of a large backlog, you may have to wait for several blocks (every block takes 10 minutes to find) before your transaction is included. Waves-NG has come up with a process to optimize this by selecting a miner in advance so that transactions can be added to the next block almost instantly. Using Waves-NG, the only, minimal, delay a transaction may experience is the time it takes for the transaction to be broadcast across the network.

In addition, Waves came up with the idea of ‘micro-blocks’. Micro-blocks contain transactions like normal blocks but can be generated and signed faster. The process of validating one large block is much slower than validating multiple smaller blocks. This results in increased performance and transaction speed.

power of both centralised and decentralised exchanges: • Fiat integration • Decentralized security • Low (fixed) or no fees • Transparency • High throughput A hybrid exchange allows you to maintain total control over your funds that will be managed on a safe and trustless platform.

Instead of using a smart contract for the exchange, each account will be based on an Ethereum smart contract where tokens will be placed. This dedicated account is necessary to enable atom swaps, but they also prevent the exchange from having unauthorized access to your funds.

According to Waves, Waves-NG consensus can reach a throughput of around 6000 transactions per minute (100 tx/s).

The centralised part of the exchange is the matching engine. This engine is responsible for matching up bids and offers to complete trades. Matching engines use one or several algorithms to allocate trades among competing bids and offers at the same price.

EXCHANGES OF THE FUTURE - HYBRID Decentralised exchanges are hot, but for now, they won’t reach the scalability centralised exchanges offer. That’s the reason why Hybrid exchanges are the future. They combine the

EIdoo is, for example, a project that has built such a hybrid exchange. They completely removed the steep learning curve by offering a simple to use mobile application that allows you to trade instantly.

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JUNE-JULY 2018

Why Are Investment Bankers Worried?

Ten years after the global financial crisis, dark clouds are threatening to descend once more. Could the global economy survive another major bank default?

To prevent another financial storm, the European Union has taken action by cracking open the highly-guarded banking industry to competition.

At the start of this year the banking industry as a whole has been given noby tice: banks within the European Union ICO CROWD have been ordered by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to open their vaults to grant customers access to their loot.

This means banks must allow customers ownership of their financial data: they can then share this with other banks and regulated financial businesses to shop around for a better deal such as getting a cheaper overdraft.

“Accenture has estimated that some major investment banks could make a whopping $10 billion in efficiency savings by utilising blockchain technology.

“In current systems there needs to be careful checks and balances of huge amounts of data that can prove time consuming for investment banks and remain open to some degree of error,” explains Thomas Levene, Founder of Best Blockchain Solutions Consultancy.

However, blockchain technology enables less reliance on human intermediaries and thus offers a clearer path to more trusted efficiency goals and savings.

The UK’s competition watchdog says this new Open Banking regime will revolutionise people’s financial lives.

“So, it’s not surprising then that investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, are getting on board with blockchain. These two apparently completed a test in the $2.8 trillion equity swaps market with a 100% success rate using blockchain technology.”

In the new concept of Open Banking, anything from customer transaction history and product information to branch locations are now owned by the customer, not the bank.

And with decentralisation and disruption of exchanges also on the cards, these market players are moving quickly to jump aboard the blockchain revolution.

And if data is the new oil then entrepreneurs and potential disruptors of the banks have struck gold.

“In terms of clearing and settlements, the Australian Stock exchange is replacing its registry, settlement and clearing system with blockchain technology in order to cut costs for its clients. This trend is set to continue with stock exchanges across the globe,” says Levene.

This access to financial data together with the emergence of blockchain technology, which can be described as an 48

ever increasing group of linked records, could be the catalyst for a revolution in the banking sector.

Blockchain could help investment banks make international money transfers cheaper and faster for all parties concerned.

“The technology has still some way to go in proving itself in terms of speed and scaling qualities, but there’s no doubt that once these challenges have been overcome it’s a green light for blockchain and investment banks and international settlements too,” Levene says.

Investment banks may also begin to use blockchain decentralised prediction market platforms such as Augur, Cindicator and Numarie, which could prove to be better than current systems.

In addition, Globitex is making it accessible to buy commodities with crypto assets on their platform.

But with all these new developments it’s worth bearing in mind that the relationship consumers have with money isn’t the same as the one they have with technology.

The scenes of people queuing outside the collapsed British Bank, Northern Rock, in 2007 are a vivid reminder of that.

A recent survey by UK Finance has cast a shadow of doubt onto how much consumers will embrace this technological revolution: only 56% of people surveyed are using mobile or online banking.

It seems that a significant part of the population is either still unsure of the

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Thomas Levene

VIRTUSE EXCHANGE A digital asset exchange, set to launch an ICO in July. They propose to give investors unfettered access to the markets from anywhere in the world.

INGOT COIN Due to launch an ICO next month, Ingot Coin will create an ecosystem to provide a link between the traditional market and the crypto one.

HEDGER TECHNOLOGIES Using the blockchain, Hedger Tech proposes to create an investment management ecosystem once they have completed their ICO in July.

Products available to investors will include hedge funds, futures, options, loans and insurance.

internet or simply prefers traditional banking. The news this week that Coinrail, a cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, has been hacked, may add to doubts over whether the blockchain can be trusted with personal finances.

“Companies like tZero, whose Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the founder of Overstock, are aimed at eating some JP Morgan lunch. They are creating a distributed ledger platform for capital markets. Some have called this offering, whose ICO finishes at the end of June 2018, WallStreet 2.0, as they aim to fuse traditional finance with the benefits of a token crypto economy,” says Levene.

So, it’s not surprising then Nevertheless, a new wave of startup that investment companies proposing to make investing banks, including and trading easier, remain undeterred.

At the heart of this road to decentralGoldman Sachs isation is the prospect that millions if Another player in this sector is Polyand JP Morgan, not billions of dollars will be saved by math. are getting on businesses in the process. And a penny board with saved is a penny earned.

Polymath claim they will be the future of finance, tokens, securities and even blockchain.

To adapt or die is the eternal challenge Wall Street. The elimination of midThese two for business leaders: established banks dle men coupled with unlimited access apparently are working overtime in a bid to stay to the market, day or night and even at one step ahead of new market entrants. weekends, is set to be a revolution in it- completed a test in the $2.8 self. Polymath have already raised $59 Levene explains; “the other side of the million dollars in a token sale in Febru- trillion equity crypto coin is that while existing inary 2018. swaps market vestment houses need to adapt and with a 100% adopt, they could very well be replaced, “Polymath aim to take the token econsuccess rate at least in part by new blockchain start omy one step further by matching real ups that have the potential to ‘eat their world assets to the token economy. using blockchain lunch’. And it’s a big lunch. In the 2017 technology. fiscal year Goldman Sachs amassed $32 billion.”

“Trillions of dollars are set to go on the blockchain,” Koverrk from Polymath says, because he thinks tokens are a superior form of ownership than stocks, shares and units of these.

“Currently for large issuers, it’s a given that you simply have to use investment banks. But assuming regulatory compliance, it doesn’t need to be this way.”

“Compliance can be fully automated, he thinks, where dividends and voting are We are entering an unprecedented done on the blockchain automatically point in the history of financial marand without expensive backroom office kets where largescale disruption of inadministration staff, making it a win vestment banks is on the horizon. win,” explains Levene. tZero has entered the scene as the first regulated securities token exchange.

These investment bank disruptors are about to launch ICOs:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EXCHANGE Launching fully later this year, AIX promises to be a trading platform across all global markets.

In response to the disruption at hand, J.P Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Santander are all stepping up efforts to hook up with the blockchain: J.P. Morgan have established a Blockchain Centre of Excellence to explore business use cases within the company.

In April, Santander joined the blockchain with the launch of a new foreign exchange payment system, One Pay FX. Last month, Goldman Sachs followed suit with plans to setup a trading operation in Bitcoin.

In May, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has joined forces with management consultancy firm Accenture to create a platform for securities lending.

“The current system is ripe for disruption, says Levene, “time consuming and expensive venture capital funded investment bank models cannot compete with streamlined token based funding efforts that are already having an impact on traditional investment banks’ bottom line.”

“Of course, there are regulations that need to be adhered to under bodies such as the SEC in the US. “But, having said that, the future potential of the blockchain to at least disrupt some if not all of these financial service activities within investment banks, is immense.

The token economy, where companies have tokenised their ecosystems, is not as far off as you think.”

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JUNE-JULY 2018

Crypto Platform to Tokenise Multi-Billion Franchise Industry 2018 is a big year for blockchain with no sector exempt from the tidal waves of the fourth revolution where technological innovation reenacts the powerful words of 20th century political economist, Joseph Schumpeter, “creative destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.

For years the multi-billion dollar franchise industry has been booming along with the upbeat global economy but its status quo is about to erupt with the entrance of the CryptoFranchise platform. by ICO CROWD

A 20 year old Spanish company, Nostrum Home Meal with over 130 franchised restaurants in Spain and France, has pioneered how this platform will transform the traditional franchise business model.

Franchising has been based on a marketing concept where a franchiser licenses its know-how, procedures, intellectual property and use of its business model brand and rights to a franchisee.

In return the franchisee will pay fees and agree to comply with obligations in a Franchise Agreement.

But Nostrum Owner Quirze Salomo explains that current management tools, logistics and modus operandi can make it difficult to control giant franchise chains; “it is not easy to avoid disaffection between franchisee and franchisor after several years operating together.

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“So, I was committed to find a solution to make the franchisees participate on the success of the brand, no matter where in the world the company is being successful.”

Hence the idea of building an innovative franchise platform, Cryptofranchise, was born to build a tighter and mutually beneficial collaborative system between all parties.

So how will the use of blockchain and tokenisation improve the franchise marketing model?

The tokenisation of the franchise ecosystem brings the benefits of a stronger community and reduced operating costs over time through decentralisation.

Nostrum plans to use its newly built crypto platform and tokenisation to propel expansion of its chain of restaurants to over 800 in the next five years.

To support this ambitious growth its looking to raise €50 million through token sales.

Jonathan Fry, Chief Executive Officer of Team BlockCreative Salomo says “inside our crypchain, explains Nostrum is toeconomy we found a mod- destruction is “developing a CryptoFranthe essential el that we called Cryptofchise platform which they ranchise which Nostrum ap- fact about will then offer to other franpears to be the first franchise capitalism. chise businesses on a White to put in practice.

Label basis to help them ex“The main characteristic of pand their franchises and Cryptofranchise is that it allows us disrupt the franchise market.” to create new relations between franchisors and franchisees that were unTo become one of the first brands in thinkable before the cryptocurrenthe Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) incy era.” dustry to create and use its own cryptocurrency, the MealToken, Nostrum has “While exploring the blockchain and partnered with Cryptofranchise Systhe cryptoworld, we found out that Sa- tem AG. toshi Nakamoto was a consumer of Nostrum products, as our ecosystem is Nostrum is also working with CFS on perfectly adapted to his invention. the development of the Cryptofranchise platform which will be offered to “Blockchain is perfect for us as this all franchises globally. This blockchain technology will completely change technology-based platform will shake our business model as we understand up existing franchise business models. it right now, and we believe that this change can be applied to other franCompanies with a franchise business chise businesses.” model will be able to launch an ICO

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through the Nostrum platform to raise funds and tokenise their business.

“This platform is mutually beneficial for all parties involved.

“Cryptofranchise is addressed to all those companies which operate on a smaller or larger scale, with a business model similar to the franchise and to those companies that offer services of added value for franchises,” Salomo explains.

any franchise business model. Nostrum will use a utility token, MealToken, that grants access to some Nostrum services and acts as a reward and incentive instrument with a payment function that’s within and limited to the Nostrum tokenised ecosystem.

Nostrum’s current MealToken public sale has an upper cap of €50 million, it’s making acquisitions available in Ethereum, Bitcoins, and fiat.

participating in our private sale with a 20% discount on the token price, all the information is on our website: www.mealtoken.io,” he adds.

Nostrum’s MealToken cryptocurrency and cryptofranchise platform is among the forerunners of the upcoming large-scale disruption of the franchise industry through blockchain.

It’s a giant sector that has grown for eight “The road to follow right now is to launch the years running, according to the International The private Nostrum-managed blockchain will Mealtoken ICO, in order to deploy all the reFranchise Association’s 2018 Franchise Busienable restaurants to buy and sell tokens while sources to Home Meal Replacement. ness Outlook.

Nostrum manages the blockchain to minimise costs and facilitate transactions between Res- “At the same time during 2018 the CryptofBut no market player can safely continue to taurants, Clients and Nostrum. ranchise platform will be developed so that operate with the tools of yesterday in this Nostrum can be the first to implemilestone age of business disrupNo party will be able to sell tokens on third ment it,” says Salomo. tion as blockchain and the token party exchanges from their Nostrum App waleconomy rewrite what is possible. lets.

“We will invest part of the capital raised during the ICO to support The repercussions of the cryptoThis will effectively create added value for the the Cryptofranchise Platform. This platform’s entrance into the market entire franchise network: all franchisees will platform will enable other brands to will echo across the globe: in 2016 benefit from the franchisor’s expansion as create their own cryptocurrency.” in the U.S. there were over 10,000 It is not easy they’re all part of the same sharing economy. brands franchising their business, to avoid The innovative franchise says the China boasted over 4,000 such disaffection Thus the relationship between all parties beMealToken is the first cryptocurrenbrands, and Brazil 3,000. comes closer, allowing for a stronger brand. cy to be issued on the platform, but between franchisee plans are in the pipeline for many And these are just a few of the thouSalomo says “the development plans including more to come from the retail sector. and franchisor sands of global franchises that are the tokenisation on the blockchain of the comlikely to follow in the footsteps of after several pany’s ecosystem will revolutionise the QSR The collaborative cryptoplatform the blockchain innovators, enticed years operating by prospects of reducing costs while sector and evolve the franchise model. system can be adopted by any food together. service operator, anywhere in the building a stronger community and “Our tokenomics have 4 four different world, and especially by those using sharing economy. branches. We are not creating anything from the franchise model. scratch, as we have already successfully put Time moves in fast-forward in this era of unin place most part of our tokenomics such “It will all be based on blockchain and it will precedented technological opportunity. as the point system for our Fan’s Club mem- offer specific solutions for this sector while usbers or our delivery system, that was imple- ing the Cryptofranchise model.

And while the Cryptofranchise platform now mented in Spain in 2016.” lies on the cutting edge of innovation, in the “Interested investors can participate on our following weeks and months it’s likely to beThe Cryptofranchise platform creates a unique project by buying tokens on the public sale come common place throughout the far corcollaborative system that can be adopted by that will be out on the next few weeks or ners of the globe.

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JUNE-JULY 2018

Naviaddress.

Decentralized Addressing System by MICHIEL MULDERS Blockchain Developer & Writer

This might shock you: almost two thirds of the global population do not have an address. Naviaddress wants to use a generic string of numbers tied to a precise geolocation for providing any location with an address. This gives people a universal method of creating/ writing addresses. If we look even further, it can save delivery services a lot of time and money.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION & SOLUTION Naviaddress brings a solution for three core issues: 1. Not everyone in the world possesses an address. Allocating a string of numbers to each geolocation allows others to find an exact location more easily. This universal address notation makes it much easier for postal services to process mail.

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Existing systems have trouble reading everyone’s handwriting. A string of numbers is much easier to recognize for the existing systems and it can enable fully automated processing of mail.

2. Inefficiencies in postal delivery: You have probably experienced this situation as well. You get an address for a certain place, but in fact, it’s a complex of several buildings all located at the same address. E-retail and delivery businesses have lost millions of dollars because of these incorrect/ vague locations provided by Google maps or other navigation-related services. An address tied to an exact geolocation is able to solve this issue completely. Even 3-dimensional addresses are possible by adding custom data to the address.

3. Remove language barriers and increase tourism: Imagine you are on holiday but all addresses are written in the local language and not all locations have an address.

You will experience struggles when searching for a specific tourist location. Again, a geolocation tied to a numeric address solves this issue and stimulates tourism.

HOW IT WORKS Naviaddress uses their patented technology to create a unique string of numbers for every geolocation.

The string consists of several elements like your mobile land code, a digit from your address, part of your postal code and an additional random identifier. You will get a string like below for the Eiffel Tower for example.

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Naviaddress already has a working product where you can create addresses for any location. You can find the application here: https://naviaddress. com/7/109019 TYPES OF ADDRESSES Naviaddress is not only providing static addresses for fixed geolocations but it also offers a dynamic addressing system. Let’s take a look: 1. Custom Naviaddress: Naviaddress offers the creator of an object to change the location each time the object moves, making it easier for people to relocate it. These custom Naviaddresses are free to use.

2. Postal Naviaddress: A postal address represents a static object like a building or structure that cannot be moved.

Normal users are not able to create such addresses, but they can use it for postal delivery or Uber-like services.

3. Global Naviaddress: This kind of address is only accessible for large, multinational companies that possess more than one building in different countries.

4. Premium Naviaddress: Users have to pay to get a premium Naviaddress that is easy to remember and consists of only 1 to 5 digits. Naviaddress expects large businesses to be buying such premium addresses. Users can only buy these premium addresses using the native NVT Naviaddress token.

NAVIADDRESS’ TEAM Mikhail Gamzin: Mikhail, Co-founder of Naviaddress, is a serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience leading and managing companies.

He has founded, developed, and sold a number of companies in various sectors like trade, transport, and production industry. The problem of accurate addressing has cost his previous companies a lot of money as well.

This might shock you: almost two thirds of the global population Dmitri Moiseev: Dmitri, CEO and do not have co-founder, has 17 years of experience an address. in top management roles with vast experience in growth management, mar- Naviaddress keting and business development. wants to use a generic string Mikhail Zelenin: Mikhail, product and blockchain architect, has 14 years of ex- of numbers tied to a precise perience in software development for banking, e-commerce and blockchain geolocation for products. Mikhail describes himself as providing any a very passionate guy who loves devellocation with an oping applications. address.

NAVIADDRESS’ ROADMAP Q2 2018: Implementation of the blockchain protocol within the existing application and launch of the incentive pro-

gram. The incentive program is meant for big verified address holders (DHL, DPD, AliExpress, Amazon) to share verified addresses with the platform. NVT will be used to incentivize them.

Q3 2018: Transfer smart contracts for selling premium addresses on the second-hand market.

Q4 2018: Establish partnerships with companies who possess a lot of postal data like Airbnb, DiDi, Alibaba, DHL, Amazon, DPD, and many more.

CONS The project has large competitors like Google, Apple, Bing and other mapping services that might implement this idea into their services in the future. Added to that, the project is not yet well-known, which gives large competitors an advantage. Additional marketing efforts are required to bring the product to the public’s attention.

CONCLUSION The product can solve many location-related issues and saves busiPROS nesses a lot of money. Not only large The Naviaddress project consists of a companies like DHL or Amazon will solid team and a strong advisory board. benefit from this 3-dimensional adThe product is ready to use, and it has dressing system, but also small food been implemented and tested in the delivery shops. The idea of offermarket. In addition, the Naviaddress ing premium 1 to 5 digit addresses is project received funding during an Angel great, as businesses are always seekand Seed investment period. The project ing for opportunities to make their shows great potential, as the product business stand out. has demand and solves a real problem.

A lot of money is lost in the delivery in- Mass adoption of this platform is the dustry and many people do not have an biggest hurdle because they are comofficial address. It is great that the prod- peting with an age-old postal system uct is free to use. You only have to pay if that is not likely to be changed soon. you want to obtain premium addresses Building the right partnerships and or update existing addresses. incentivizing them will be crucial.

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How Will Regulatory Crackdowns Impact Future ICOs? Is the world round or flat? Neither. The world is in fact an Excel spreadsheet.

Really? No, but something similar.

In a few short years the emergence of Blockchain technology, a continuous list of records in its simplest description, has revolutionised businesses across the globe. by ICO CROWD

Thus it’s no surprise that 2018 has brought intense global regulatory scrutiny and new legislation that has shaken crypto exchanges and Initial Coin Offering (ICO) launches.

But what does this mean for the ICO investor? And how will it impact on future trends of investment in the ICO market?

From its inception in July 2013, the ICO market quickly soared to reach $70 million dollars in 2016 and just a few months later it was worth an eye-watering $5.5 billion, according to Coindesk.

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ICOs have made no small splash onto the world stage, causing dramatic digital disruption that has led the World Economic Forum to predict that 10% of the world’s GDP could be stored on Blockchain by 2025.

“The first ever ICO was held by Mastercoin in July 2013 and ICO’s only really gained popularity as an investment vehicle in 2017, which makes them a comparatively recent capital fund raising phenomenon compared to traditional Initial Public Offerings (IPOs).

Financial services company IHS Markit forecasts that by 2030 the market could be worth $2 trillion.

“With a totally new way for startups to raise capital, regulations and The staggering surge of investment and best policy practices have needed to interest in ICOs has driven regulators evolve and catch up. With this beand gov-ernments into a flurry to map ing said there has been a lag between out the road to regulation with conthe space where proper regulations sumer protection high on their prioriare implemented and ICO’s are conty list. ducted.”

Halfway into 2018, we’ll take a look at where ICOs stand with global regulators and ex-plore how this investment vehicle will evolve in future as it rapidly moves to mainstream.

Thomas Levene, Founder of Best Blockchain Solutions consultancy, explains:

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) says regulators have taken three main different approaches to ICO regulation so far: 1) ICOs are captured by existing regulations, meaning no new legislation is needed.

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2) ICOs are outside existing regulations, thus requiring new laws to be created to govern them.

3) ICOs need to be banned outright without any further thought.

says Dr. Chuanman You, an expert in FinTech Regulations based in Tel Aviv University. “On the contrary, the government has committed great re-sources in developing and utilising blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”

The first ever ICO was held Recently in May 2018, Chinese Presiby Mastercoin dent XI Jinping acknowledged openly that block-chain is part of a technologi- in July 2013 cal revolution. and ICO’s only really gained "A new generation of technology reprepopularity as sented by artificial intelligence, quan“More recently, a regulatory trend has tum infor-mation, mobile communica- an investment occurred which puts increasing empha- tions, internet of things and blockchain vehicle in sis on KYC (Know Your Customer) and is accelerating break-through applica2017, which regulatory compliance within any givtions," said President Xi Jinping. makes them a en country. comparatively He also highlighted a desire to place recent capital “Furthermore, as ICOs are global veChina on the map as a global centre hicles for raising capital, some counof science and innovation stating the fund raising tries have taken a hard-lined approach country should focus on technological phenomenon to stop scam projects by banning ICOs development. compared to outright. Well, at least until they have traditional compiled the regulations and best prac- And despite the official ban on ICO tices and guidelines to regulate them sales and bitcoin trading, the country Initial Public properly. remains a hub for blockchain developOfferings ment activity.

(IPOs).

“The ICO landscape and investor profile is changing. In the past, potentially anyone with internet connection and crypto currency funds held within a private crypto wallet could participate in an ICO with relative anonymity,” says Levene.

China took a hardline approach by blocking the trading of cryptocurrencies and banning all sales of new digital tokens in September of 2017. Last year the Chinese government cracked down heavily to stop exchanges and ICO websites and place a halt on mining of cryptocurrencies.

“But it would be a misunderstanding that the Chinese government is throwing the baby out with the bathwater,”

China’s neighbors, South Korea, a country which fueled the 2017 bitcoin craze, have taken a similar strict stance.

In January, new legislation required all cryptocurrency traders to reveal their identity and use real-name bank accounts.

Now their actions appear to be vindicated. Cryptocurrency exchange Coin-

rail has just been hacked with an estimated loss of around $40 million in virtual coins.

But Levene points out that “South Korea is now set to reopen ICOs after considering how best to regulate them.

This thoughtful regulation is good for investors and start ups alike as they know where they stand.”

One of the largest markets for cryptocurrency, Japan, has required crypto exchanges to be registered with the Japanese Financial Services Agency and the new money has be-come legal tender in April this year.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has banned all central banks from dealing in cryp-tocurrencies.

While these developments may cause bumps in the road for investors in cryptos and ICOs they are signs of progress as they improve regulatory clarity.

They’re also signs of global and widespread recognition that blockchain and a new way to raise funds has permanently made its mark on the world.

“Other countries have taken a more progressive and open approach to encourage and support innovation while still protecting investors. The lag between implementing sup-portive regulations and ICO innovation seems to be shrinking” adds Levene.

The Canadian Government has just announced draft regulations for virtual currencies: implementation of this leg55

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The European Commission states: “close cooperation between Member States can help avoid fragmented approaches and can ensure interoperability and wider deployment of blockchain-based services.

“The Partnership will contribute to the creation of an enabling environment, in full com-pliance with EU laws and with clear governance models that will help services using blockchain flourish across Europe.”

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, adds that "in the future, all public services will use blockchain technology.”

These events are all signs that the ICO market is on its way to mainstream adoption. And at a breakneck speed.

But how might the uncertainties of this fast-changing regulatory environment impact on ICO use in the near-term future?

islation could result in a huge loss of $60 million for businesses dealing in cryptocurrency.

The regulation of Cryptocurrencies and ICO in the U.S. features a multi-faceted ap-proach, adds Dr. Chuanman You: “A wide range of regulatory agencies have pronounced Cryptocurrencies with different legal natures according to their regulatory inertia.

“For example, the I.R.S. has characterized Bitcoin as a convertible virtual currency, which constitutes a “digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and/or a store of value.” While the Commodity Futures Trading Commis-sion has concluded that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies were included in the defini-tion of commodities.”

In March 2018 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicated its inten-tion to apply securities law to cryptocurrency.

In Europe, the picture is even more intriguing. In the UK the Treasury Committee launched an inquiry in February into the use of Digital Currencies.

In addition, the Financial Conduct Authority plans to investigate the conduct of over 20 firms involved in cryptocurrencies.

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“As the ICO market becomes more mainstream and investors more discerning, we are witnessing some changes in actually who is investing in ICOs. In the past ICOs tended to be funded through groups of individuals, retail investors, innovators and crypto enthusi-asts and speculators,” says Levene.

At the end of June 2018, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), comprising of 37 coun-tries, the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council will meet to discuss cryptocurrency regulation.

“Regarding regulations, there is also the issue as to whether ICOs fall into the utility to-kens category such as Bitcoin or the security tokens category,” explains Levene.

“However, regulatory clarity is improving every month across the world. For example, a senior U.S. regulator from the Securities and Exchange Commission has stated that Ethereum “in its present state” is not a security under law and will not be regulated as a security.”

“As time goes by regulations will become increasingly crystallised as governments and regulatory boards within those governments can agree upon best regulatory practices for ICO’s. Usually this means taking on board how other governments are tackling the regulation issue,” he says.

Whatever the outcome of current regulatory discussions and investigations, the Europe-an Blockchain Partnership declaration agreed by 25 countries in April this year repre-sents a further milestone of collaboration in blockchain regulation.

A wide range of regulatory agencies have pronounced Cryptocurrencies with different legal natures according to their regulatory inertia.

DR. CHUANMAN YOU

“Now there is a trend for more traditional Venture Capital and investment funds and in-vestment consortiums to be involved who have bigger buying power than the average in-dividual investor.

“Regulatory compliance within the U.S. only allows accredited investors with net worth’s of over $250k to invest in ICOs, but this limits smaller investors.

This trend is set to con-tinue,” he says.

Another emerging trend, Levene says, is that clearer best practices will be implemented across the whole ICO space and these will benefit both ICO project owners and investors.

“For example, smart contract auditing best practices with stamps of approval given for the integrity of the smart contracts within ICOs and their code, may add trust and credibility to the ICO project.

“This can be likened to the Veri sign on a website to ensure its authenticity.

“Smart contract auditing companies, like Quantstamp, are already providing this kind of service and it’s set to continue and add peace of mind for all parties concerned.”

JUNE-JULY 2018

Verasity By 2021, it’s estimated that 82% of all consumer internet traffic will be from video content. This is a market with an annual value of c.$312B and streaming media is set for the largest increase in video ad-spend over the next five years. It’s often said that nothing in this world is certain except for death and taxes. Perhaps that should also include advertising...

by ADAM SIMMONS Co–Founder at Verasity

Existing video platforms wouldn’t exist without them. Sadly, the current fixed advertising model means creators, broadcasters, and publishers struggle to make money online. Advertisers and agencies are also facing a well-publicized crisis around ad-fraud. And viewers are becoming increasingly discontented with intrusive advertising and having their data sold on by corporations.

ENTER VERASITY, THE FUTURE OF ONLINE VIDEO...

Blockchain startups come in all shapes and sizes. Whether it’s the bedroom geniuses coding in the dead of night or experienced groups of disruptors spinning up innovative businesses. Verasity’s team has decades of experience working for world-renowned companies such as Akamai, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BSkyB, Eurosport, Turner, AOL, Guardian Media and many more.

The team is made up of people who have made it their business to be at the cutting-edge of technological advance-

ment, and be the disruptors, not the disrupted. The team at Verasity know how the online video industry can be evolved and supercharged with blockchain technology and most importantly, how to make Verasity a reality, not just a pipe dream.

Verasity is a suite of blockchain enhanced video platform technologies that will change the online video market forever. For the first time, viewers, content creators, and advertisers will have a direct, transparent, and fair relationship.

scale and overcome congestion. More information can be found in the Verasity Yellowpaper.

Utilising bespoke and unique video technology (developed over the past four years) and integrating both proprietary, and open source Blockchain technology, Verasity is in the process of developing a full ‘online video toolkit’, including:

This is all possible thanks to Verasity’s high-performance blockchain which facilitates a transparent ecosystem - powered by a new micropayment capable token called VERA (VRA). The entire Verasity ecosystem is overseen by their guardian angel known as Proof-of-View (PoV™). This patent-pending technology eliminates ad-fraud and fake video views which continue to run rampant on existing video platforms, eroding the accuracy of everything from recommendation engines to a brands return on investment for sponsorships.

• Verasity.tv - a community driven video sharing platform that uses the full suite of tools • vDaf - a suite of modular online video products for international broadcasters and large media outlets • VeraPay - decentralised and transparent global payment gateway utilising VERA (VRA) • Proof-of-View (PoV™) - patent-pending analytics and anti-ad-fraud solution on the Blockchain • VeraPlayer™ - Verasity’s proprietary HTML5 video player with in-built wallet functionality • Spark Marketplace - the next evolution in crowdfunding for online video content

Verasity’s Blockchain architecture is currently in development and while we are planning on building on Graphene (DPoS), there’s also a desire to be chain agnostic so the team is currently investigating and exploring the EOS framework. One thing's for sure, Verasity will have a high-performance blockchain that can provide the throughput required to support microtransactions at

How does Verasity work?

There are two sides to Verasity, the video-sharing platform and vDaf. Verasity.tv is the B2C proposition and vDaf is a modular B2B solution. The B2C community-driven video sharing platform features all of the above products combined and Verasity’s B2B product, vDaf. vDaf allows international broadcasters and publishers to pick the modules that 57

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a lump sum.

Token Allocation

Verasity is built on a foundation of choice and viewers can choose whether they want to see adverts or not. If they choose to turn them on they’ll get paid directly by advertisers in VERA. Each Verasity member gets to choose how much of their data they want to share with advertisers. They can share nothing which means the adverts they see will be less relevant. But if they want to share more of their data, they’ll see more relevant adverts and get paid more VERA by Advertisers. Once again, it’s completely up to each individual viewer.

Video creators and publishers on Verasity will earn more than on traditional platforms as VERA cryptocurrency removes the need for intermediaries which can take up to 70% of the value on existing video platforms. They’ll also receive payment in near-real-time rather than having to wait standard 6090 day payment terms. Lastly, they can be sure that their content looks fantastic as videos on Verasity will be hosted on centralized CDN infrastructure that ensures content can be consistently streamed in high-quality (HD, 60 FPS) with low latency and low buffering.

Projected Use of Funds from Token Sale

Creators will also have more monetization options available to them than on any other current video-platform meaning new and exciting types of content will flourish.

Monetization can also be set on a per video basis - there’s no one-size-fits-all model on Verasity: • Free to watch with optional VERA donations • Pay-per-view — viewers pay VERA to unlock individual videos • Paid recurring VERA subscriptions where Viewers can access all premium content make sense for their online video proposition.

and working on leading ICO rating sites such as ICObench.

Videos on Verasity's system are hosted on the world's largest CDN (Akamai) rather than using unproven decentralized video distribution technology. Right from the start users will receive the consistently high-quality experience they've grown accustomed to on the world’s largest traditional video sharing websites. This is essential for mass-adoption of any video platform.

Viewers will consume video through Verasity’s proprietary HTML5 player VeraPlayer™ which has been proven to distribute over 8 Petabytes of data in a month and is already embedded

When viewers first sign up to Verasity, they’ll receive an initial allocation of tokens into their VeraWallet which will let them explore the platform and its functionality. As they watch videos they’ll then start to build up a small portion of newly minted VERA from the reward pool. Over time this will enable viewers to save up and use their VERA to donate to creators, unlock videos, or pay for premium monthly subscriptions from their favourite creators. Of course, if they wish, they can convert existing cryptocurrency into VERA and top up their VeraWallet with

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It’s often said that nothing in this world is certain except for death and taxes. Perhaps that should also include advertising...

Creators can also make full use of Verasity’s innovative Crowdsourcing system. Verasity’s Spark Marketplace is designed to help Creators grow by enabling them to raise funds so that they can create even better content. Not only that, but the Spark Marketplace gives back to the people who helped them raise the funds.

Creators can choose to sell a VeraSpark smart-contract in their channel, they can choose how much VERA to sell it for, and what percentage of their channel revenue that Spark is worth. Users buy these VeraSparks and while they hold a channel’s VeraSpark, they will receive a percentage of the VERA earned by the creator. If they decide that they

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want to then resell the VeraSpark, they can do so in the Spark Marketplace.

Advertisers on Verasity can run their campaigns in the knowledge that Proof-of-View (PoV™) will be making sure they only pay when their adverts are watched by a real human. This provides them with true accountability and greater ROI for their media spend.

They’re also likely to see higher engagement and interaction on their campaigns due to viewers opting in to see adverts. Partnerships with a new wave of blockchain powered media agencies are already in place to provide advertising brands with full transparency in media buying across the value chain.

What do the Tokenomics look like?

Cryptecon, a Swiss cryptocurrency economy analyst firm, has modelled and stress tested Verasity’s economy. Verasity has a monetary policy that implements an algorithm to ensure that an inflation rate of 3% is targeted. Fiscal policy is implemented through the Spark Marketplace incentivising VERA holders to hold stakes as described above. By combining Monetary and Fiscal policy, Verasity aims to manage a sustainable economy. Token supply is based on the velocity of VERA transactions within the ecosystem. The algorithms and logic to achieve these targets are described in the Verasity economic whitepaper.

The Verasity Graphene-based blockchain utilises a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm. Representatives from the community verify/sign new blocks — on Verasity, these representatives are known as ‘Verafiers™’.

Users who hold VERA elect Verafiers™. The more VERA you hold, the more influence you have to decide upon the elected Verafiers™. To incentivise block creation, Verafiers™ get rewarded for their services to the platform. If

a bad actor doesn’t produce validated blocks, they are not rewarded and get voted out by other VERA holders. This ensures that the value of the token cannot be eroded over time.

Token: VERA Ticker: VRA Total Supply: 12,491,500,000 Total Sale Allocation: 50% (6,245,750,000) Token Type: ERC20 (Ethereum) Public Sales: May 21, 2018 to July 11, 2018 Soft cap: Passed Hard cap: $25M TOKEN ALLOCATION Tokens held by Foundation are used for operating expenditure and to be put back into the economy.

• Referral program tokens are for ICO promotion and platform adoption promotion.

• After the ICO, unspent Referral tokens will be placed in the Reward Pool and Stabilization Fund • Team tokens are locked in for 18 months • Advisor tokens are locked in for 9 months PROJECTED USE OF FUNDS FROM TOKEN SALE • 18% Platform Costs - Includes hosting, storage, bandwidth and delivery of content when users interact with the online video platform • 20% Research and Development - Engineering costs to implement proposed roadmap, including Blockchain Network development and platform upgrades • 20% Contractors and Salaries - Includes payroll for all non-engineering staff and contractors • 20% Technology Licenses - Includes all licences for the underlying technology, including the player, uploader, advertising platform etc.

• 17% Marketing and Content - Investment

in platform usage, brand awareness, market adoption and publisher incentives to join community • 2.5% Legal and Admin - Compliance and other related administrative and accounting costs • 1.5% Business Development - To develop global commercial partnerships • 1% Contingency - To cover any overspends in the above categories What is Verasity’s vision?

Verasity will revolutionise online video. Finally, there will be a place where both viral and niche content can survive. A place where viewers and creators are brought closer together and video content can be valued on its merit alone rather than the perceived demographic value of who is watching it.

Verasity will be a platform where viewers have control over their experience and data. A platform where creators receive a fair reward for their work and have the ability to monetize their videos how they see fit. Advertisers will have full transparency over their campaigns and know they’re reaching real people. Verasity’s vDaf will provide global publishers with a scalable and proven monetization model for their video content.

Verasity will also be a place for pay-per-view content such as sports and film as well as subscription-based online video. It will be a place where AAA content is nurtured within the Spark Marketplace and Verasity’s community will be the ones to fuel the growth of top-tier content alongside traditional media companies. Verasity’s protocols will even be adapted and integrated into existing player technology. This will enable existing video sharing platforms and large-scale publishers to sell digital content to their users using VERA. One cryptocurrency for all online video.

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Fixing Broken Loyalty Programs of Retailers and Brands Nearly all U.S. consumers think retail loyalty programs are broken according to a new survey but Universal Reward Protocol finds that consumers value reward programs and feel they need to be greatly improved. This is not the end of loyalty programs but the beginning of a new rewarding system thanks to Universal Reward Protocol (URP)

by GABRIEL MULKO Marketing Manager at Universal Reward Protocol

On June 6, 2018, URP blockchain-based protocol which allows retailers to reward consumers for any type of shopping behaviour, from visiting a store, to making a purchase or simply sharing their location, released its first Reward Program Survey. This revealed what consumers value most about retail reward programs, how they would like them to improve and how much personal information they’re willing to share for better shopping experiences.

This new survey showed that nearly half of U.S. consumers (43%) feel that traditional reward programs are too restricted.

Despite the popular idea that consumers are not willing to share their data freely, the survey shows that

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57% of consumers are willing to share their data with stores that they frequent. This isn’t all that surprising considering that, over 77% of shoppers also believe that a store that understands buying behaviours could create more useful rewards programs.

In other words, the retail industry is primed and ready for disruptive technology like blockchain, which can connect them on a deeper level with shoppers.

The survey was made on a sample of 500 consumers in the U.S. to highlight their preferences for shopper rewards, which revealed compelling results including: American shoppers like receiving rewards from retailers, but think the traditional loyalty programs are broken and need to be fixed • Over 80% of consumers feel that rewards programs could benefit their shopping experience • Nearly 50% of people feel that too much work is required to benefit from a traditional rewards program People tend to prefer digital coupons/ reward notifications, and don’t mind sharing their data with retailers if it means they get more personalized rewards

• 73% of consumers like receiving promotional notifications from stores that they frequent • 46% of consumers prefer digital rewards programs Most consumers are willing to spend money, and share their personal information to receive better rewards from retailers • 57% of consumers are comfortable sharing their data with stores that they frequent • 53% of people are willing to spend money on as many as 10 coffees (or similar products) to get one for free “The findings from the Reward Program Survey show exactly why retailers need to improve the way that they incentivize their customers,” states Yves Benchimol, Universal Reward Protocol CEO and co-founder. “Nearly all consumers feel that rewards programs are beneficial, but about half of them still feel that traditional rewards programs are too restricted, and more than half are actually willing to share their data with their favourite stores.

This means that retailers are potentially missing out on a big opportunity to better understand their best customers, and we’re looking to fix that through URP. Blockchain will help retailers implement more personalized

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rewards for their most loyal shoppers, in a way that benefits both their brand and their customers.”

“We have created the URP to disrupt the shopper experience and redefine the relationship between shoppers and retailers,” states Yves Benchimol, CEO Universal Reward Protocol (URP) and and Co-founder. “URP is a new way for its founders who are deeply involved in retailers and brands to interact directly retail tech, announced it will launch its and transparently with their shoppers, ICO to develop their blockchain-based and automatically reward their behavprotocol that streamlines interactions iour and data sharing in a tailored, between shoppers, retailers and brands. streamlined way.”

The company is already gaining traction in the cryptocurrency space and retail For the past three years, the team beenvironment, and is planning to raise hind URP has developed an in-store around €20m against ETH and fiat dur- geolocation tool that provides retailing the sale. ers with previously inaccessible data by coupling indoor geolocation, AI techUniversal Reward Protocol is a blocknology and data fusions. With over chain-based protocol that serves as the 10M total store visits recorded, 350K overarching infrastructure for decenshoppers identified, and 40K customtralized applications (dApps) that ana- ized offers sent, they have gained an lyse shopping behaviour. Using smart understanding of the pain points that contracts, retailers define behaviourretailers face. They work with compaal conditions to be fulfilled by shoppers nies like Auchan (2nd largest grocery to earn a reward: The Proof-of-Behavretailer in France and China), Carreiour (PoB). Each dApp on URP defines a four (biggest French grocery retailer, set of behaviours it is able to certify by 9th worldwide) or Nestlé (biggest food producing PoB. company in the world). This in-store geolocation solution will become the first Upon presentation of the PoB to the URP-compliant decentralized applicasmart contract, the shopper is rewardtion, able to audit in-store shopper beed and receives tokens. The collecthaviour. ed data is then sent to retailers to tailor personalized and exclusive offers to This new blockchain-based protocol shoppers. Finally, shoppers can redeem will let retailers reward shoppers for earned tokens through these deals. any type of shopping behaviour, on-

Over 77% of shoppers also believe that a store that understands buying behaviours could create more useful rewards programs.

line and offline, such as store visits, online browsing, or making purchases. By accepting to share their shopping behaviour data with the retailer, a shopper earns URP tokens while the data is used by retailers to build redemption offers that best suit each customer’s needs. Shoppers can redeem their tokens through exclusive and personalized offers with any retail partner.

In URP, shoppers have complete control over which data they share with which retailer, according to the trade-off between the level of personalization they are looking for and the privacy settings they are comfortable with.

Thomas Wolf, former CEO France and Regional Director Europe of Catalina Marketing, world leader in digital couponing, joined the URP team in March as Chief Operating Officer and will leverage his experience in the retail environment to deploy the protocol worldwide.

There is a terrific team of advisors around the project, including François Poupard, former Head of Innovation at Auchan who is also a member of the Mulliez Family (owners of Auchan group) and Jeremy Bokobza, Lead Blockchain Engineer at Stratis.

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SportVEST

Where Venture Capital Meets Sport at the Intersection of Blockchain The Global sports economy was valued at $480Bn+ (USD) in 2017 with the U.S. sports market being valued at $69.3Bn (USD) in 2017. This metric is expected to reach $78.5Bn (USD) by 2021. Lucrative new deals for the sports content such as media and digital rights traditionally owned by large media companies like ESPN and SKY, now have gained the interest of tech giants such as Facebook, Amazon & Netflix which is likely to drive up the value of those IP contracts even further.

by ALBERTO MAIORANA Advisor at SportVEST

INTRODUCING SPORTVEST & SPORTVEST VENTURE FUND — THE WHY — Democratize Sports Investments and improve fund performance metrics. At SportVEST we believe in the transformational opportunities provided by blockchain technology and have set out to disrupt the “exclusive” nature of the venture capital sector and sports investments. Our mission is to empower a broader audience with improved VC measurement tools while bringing liquidity to investments in the sports sector so it is at the Token-holders discretion to decide the optimal time to take profits.

off the blockchain (“Digital Assets”) with all potential investments being approved by the Fund’s Advisory Board.

Through the use of blockchain technology, SportVEST captures the value of our sports Fund using a Token that is publicly tradable. The values of the Portfolio Companies who constitute the Fund are continuously assessed based on an innovative approach utilizing token micro-sales “Power Law Sales” providing us with a stream of market value-based estimates, along with our Brand Equity Algorithms and NAV measurements to provide a basis for the most accurate valuation of these Portfolio Companies. Our valuation Algorithm is a multi-factor estimation algorithm that can learn and adapt within a band around these more formal estimates and adjust based on Kalman Filters to mitigate errors and some of the flaws in human judgement currently in VC NAV models.

— THE WHAT — “Venture into Sports”: SVE Tokens are issued by Global Sports Inc. and the Fund will form the legal vehicle that invests in blockchain and non-blockchain sports startups, legally compliant ICOs and/ or tokens (“Coins”), by using smart-contracts to create the Fund’s portfolio.

SVE Tokens can be purchased through our Token-Sale at various stages (using crypto or fiat currency) and will be able to be exchanged (traded) in the future on secondary exchanges after the one-year “Vesting Period” (SEC-mandated), providing SVE Token-holders with liquidity regardless of their location.

If the market valuation of the SVE Token is below the external marketplace price, SportVEST will buy and burn SVE Tokens until the public SVE Token price is above the internal exchange rate for the Token. We thus say SVE Tokens are strongly backed by assets but have an upward potential. Over time, the payoff of successful investments will increase the Fund’s investment potential. The SVE Token will appreciate in public marketplaces in response to raising internal exchange rates.

SportVEST has committed a portion of our profits and fundraising to fund the SportVEST Foundation (the “Foundation”) based on specific thresholds. The Foundation will focus on blockchain research and development (“R&D”), community building and support of non-profit sports businesses on the blockchain.

SPORTS OPPORTUNITIES Key market opportunities include: • Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality: SVE Token-holders will own a pro-raImproving Fan Experience.

— THE HOW — ta percentage of the Fund’s portfolio and • Drone Technology: Improving Fan SportVEST Venture Fund will divest the Viewing.

Token-Sale proceeds over a period of time are therefore considered Limited Partners (“LPs”), with SVE Tokens forming the • Data & Analytics: Fan engagement and - investing in a portfolio of diversified on-field performance. sports businesses that operate both on or digital counterpart.

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opening the door to legalizing the estimated additional $150Bn in illegal wagers on professional and amateur sports that Americans make every year. Blockchain will play a key role in the further development of the gambling market over the coming years.

Fantasy Sports & Predictions. - The rise of fantasy sports has dramatically changed the nature by which fans “consume” sports. In 2017, an estimated total of 59.3M fantasy sports players in the U.S. and Canada. Daily Fantasy Sports are projected to collect a total of $14.4Bn (USD) in entry fees globally in 2020 (41% CAGR). Fantasy Sports & Prediction blockchain startups have recently launched to compete against Goliaths such as FanDuel & DraftKings. eSports. - Projected to be $1.5Bn (USD) industry by 2020, and with a 34% increase year by year, eSports is already leading the way with 28 ICOs by early 2018. Many projections show eSports taking a lead over all traditional sports in audience and revenue very soon, leading this to be one of the largest growth sectors in all of sports, including blockchain, in the years to come.

• Wearables: Improve Athlete performance.

• Media: Social and informational mediums for content consumption.

• eCommerce/ticketing: Consumer facing models.

• eSports: Will overtake traditional sports value in next few years.

• Fantasy sports: Leagues and Fans converge in daily activities.

• Fitness applications: Health and Wellness for athletes and fans.

In addition, use cases in the blockchain sector are increasing across the industry, with many examples showing potential in the early stages: Professional Sports Franchises: In the U.S.A, the NFL likes to tout the Green Bay Packers as a publicly owned franchise, and while that is technically true the structure doesn’t provide true ownership for the fans in the way that the blockchain can allow. The capability for individual sports fans to be able to invest in sports franchises around the globe are sprouting up in ICOs already and aiming to revolutionize the global sports ecosystem.

Professional Athletes: The investment in future earnings, marketing potential and other areas of a professional athlete’s career is already in the works. ICOs may bring new revenue streams for mainstream athletes, bridging the disconnect with fans. In addition, this is a great vehicle for discovering up and coming ath-

letes, provide hope for talented individuals from impoverished regions and support niche marketplaces, including realms like the Olympics.

As of mid-2018, there have been over 70 ICOs in the sports market overall, with fresh concepts expanding on these obvious targets above at an increasing pace.

Ticketing & Events: The Sacramento Kings began accepting Bitcoin in 2014.

The Dallas Mavericks recently announced that from next season fans will be able purchase Mavericks tickets using Bitcoin and possibly other tokens. Ticketing services are a perfect fit for a decentralized structure. Providing a clear path to track the entire life cycle of a ticket, even when it has been re-sold, brings great benefit to the ticket originators across the sports landscape.

CONCLUSION SportVEST is confident that the team’s extensive experience in finance, relationships in the sports sector, alongside its new position as the leader in the sports blockchain market will provide them with early access to sports startups and well structured, legal Token-Sales, ICOs and blockchain entrants. The team’s ability to access these opportunities early and finding hidden gems will provide SportVEST with many benefits including: discounted prices, reduced transaction costs, increased transparency and efficiency, early liquidity and voting, in turn enhancing the ROI for potential investors

ed Reality leading the way. The fan experience is paramount for sports franchises globally, and the VR/AR market reached $3Bn (USD) in 2017, and wearables, fitness and analytics all have very robust growth patterns as well.

SVE Tokens can be purchased through the SportVEST Token Sale at various stages (using crypto or fiat currency) and will be able to be exchanged (traded) in the future on secondary exchanges after the one-year “Vesting Period” (SEC-mandated), providing SVE Token-holders with liquidity regardless of their location.

The capability for individual sports fans to be able to invest in sports franchises around the globe are sprouting up in ICOs already Sports Tech (such as VR/AR, Drones, and aiming to Wearables, Data): Technology developrevolutionize ment around athletic events, fan experiences and even big data has risen dramat- the global sports ically with Virtual Reality and Augmentecosystem.

CURRENT BLOCKCHAIN USES IN THE SPORTS INDUSTRY Sports Gambling Platforms. - With advancements in smart-contracts, gambling will continue to be one of the most competitive spaces on the blockchain. The Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law in May 2018 that effectively banned commercial sports betting in most States,

For more information on the SportVEST Token-Sale or to take part in the SportVEST Private Sales, contact the SportVEST Team at: hello@sportvest.io or visit our website at: www.sportvest.io. Don’t forget to join us on Telegram and follow us on Twitter.

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AirXcoin Empowers the Airline Business World by ASHENDRA LIYANAGE Founder and CEO of AirXcoin

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A PARADIGM SHIFT FOR THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY airXcoin’s innovative vision brings a revolutionary change to the Airline industry and is a step ahead in the air travel world. What is interesting is that the airXcoin model not only embraces the new digital era with ease, it also offers a technological strategy that boosts productivity, efficiency and convenience. Its distributed ledger technology alleviates the heavily process driven aviation industry from unnecessary high-cost procedures. It provides concrete solutions to attain profit and diminish loss. airXcoin enables a decrease in business costs and spending for all those who adopt and invest in this state of the art digital platform.

The advent of this new concept will allow the air travel trade to no longer labour with numerous intermediaries within its working wheels. Instead, it will allow direct control of commercial ry innovations in technology. It has transactions through airXcoin’s dynam- made immense progress from a paic distributed ledger technology. per-based system to the more recent developments in electronic ticketing, airXcoin provides a fully constructed RFID baggage, virtual boarding passes digital ledger system contributing toand more, yet so far, they represent the wards an airline business world of con- new ways of doing the same old things. venience. The UK based company has However, though there have been inspecifically developed, for the airline credible technological improvements to industry, a blockchain platform-as-aaircraft manufacture and flight operaservice product with decentralized aptional performances through the years plications as plug-ins. within this industry, the air travel commercial sector still requires an unceasToday there are over 5000 airlines ing revolutionary change in its current worldwide with the travel and tourdigital devices and tools. airXcoin fulfils ism industry considered as one of the this requirement. world’s largest industries. The airline trade is continuously upgrading and airXcoin reconstructs the air travel inoverhauling their operations and man- dustry ecosystem by using blockchain agement through twenty-first-centutechnologies and supporting platforms.

The UK based business will in a few months unveil its decentralised platforms and will revolutionize the industry’s products and services in the travel life-cycle by using forward thinking digital platforms never anticipated before.

HOW AIRXCOIN WORKS airXcoin, also known as aXc, is a bespoke platform with a series of decentralised applications that span the entire air travel life-cycle. It provides transparency, security, cost savings and ease of use to both suppliers and consumers. aXc brings together key air travel partners and customers, eliminating intermediaries altogether. The technology will help industry players improve the customer experience – without third parties - from

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the beginning to the end. This will include flights, hotels, duty-free, taxis, onboard meals and entertainment, frequent flyer rewards, compensation, cargo and baggage.

The platform will assist airlines to save time and cost by processing payments directly and instantly to the airline’s bank account without the need for the old-fashioned, process driven, complex, high cost of the IATA Clearing House model currently in place (IATA -International Air Transport Association).

The founders call this revolution the ‘New Paradigm’ that will bring the airline industry into the 21st century.

The new paradigm will revolve around blockchain technologies, Smart contracts and aXc tokens. Blockchain meets these challenges by providing security and compliance using decentralized distributed ledger technology. aXc blockchain technology is built from the bottom up specifically for the air travel industry. The smart contracts and blockchain will solve both current and future challenges.

The added value for customers will come from Ease-Of-Use, where multiple transactions can be done with a single swipe on a smartphone, without the need to use a physical wallet, credit card or cash.

Another key product of the company is the one-stop air cargo booking, tracking, tracing and customs clearing platform, using smart contracts. The platform will deliver much-needed transparency, security and accountability to the air cargo sector.

ABOUT AIRXCOIN’S TEAM airXcoin was founded by a group of aviation veterans who teamed up in 2017 with blockchain experts from Silicon Valley. The team has over 300 years of combined industry experience, in areas such as airline operations, IT, finance, air freight, passenger, aircraft leasing and purchase, fleet planning, network planning, ticketing and reservations, loyalty programs, revenue management, revenue accounting, sales, marketing, branding, PR, in-flight services and e-Commerce.

The founding group have worked in senior positions for some of the largest global airlines in numerous locations around the world including USA, UK, Europe, Central Asia, SE Asia and Australia. Experts in contract negotiation, with significant development experience, the stalwarts have designed and implemented turnaround strategic plans for several flag carriers.

The company has recently brought in Ismail Malik as their Chief Advisor, a well experienced ‘social engineer and PR Renegade’. He is the Editor-in-Chief of ICO Crowd and has over 20 years’ experience in technology-related start-ups and entrepreneurship. He is a thought leader on distributed ledger and smart contracts and a recognised expert in the blockchain field.

Ismail is also the founder and CEO of Blockchain Lab, ‘supply chain on blockchains consultant’ for Chainx, crafts smart contracts on the blockchain for

SmartLedger, retired co-founder of the Credits protocol, and former director of the Ideas Lab for College Space. He is a man of many talents, including a professional mastery of 5 languages, has a wide range of skills & expertise relating to blockchain & crypto, and regularly speaks at blockchain events. Ismail is also an Olympic Cricket Lobbyist.

The founders call this revolution the ‘New Paradigm’ that will bring the airline industry into the 21st century.

Ashendra Liyanage, founder and CEO of airXcoin said: “This is a unique opportunity for airlines and travel partners to modernize their processes and embrace a more secure and cost-efficient solution.

Multinational corporations such as Boeing and Airbus as well as leading global banks have introduced blockchain and smart contracts into their business framework. It is the perfect time for airlines to follow”.

Ashendra went on to cite a recent interview with Business Insider by Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airlines, who gave a stark warning to the airline industry that if they don’t embrace blockchain technology, the airlines that don’t, will perish. The founder’s core passion and vision play a key role in converting the airline industry to embrace the effective new digital economy, of which airXcoin is one of the key vehicles aXc is currently in discussion with various industry partners on forming joint ventures to expand the technology beyond the air travel life-cycle. The aXc team will be delighted to hear from interested parties who would like to be a part of this revolution.

For further information or media enquiries, please email: info@airxcoin.com or ashen@airxcoin.io 65

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GastroAdvisor

The First Global Recommendation Platform for Restaurants and Dining Venues Based on the Ethereum Blockchain

Have you ever been disappointed with a restaurant the internet recommended you? Have you ever been annoyed with the long list of uncountable restaurants making it hard to choose where to eat?

If the answer is yes, then we have the solution for you!

by ALESSANDRO MEO Project Manager to GastroAdvisor

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fers users the ability to communicate and describe their experiences through reviews, certified by Blockchain technology. Therefore, we have created a token called FORK. The FORK token will have a concrete use and will be the means by which users can book, take advantage of bonuses and reviews.

to conclude collaboration agreements.

Thousands of companies will be able to take advantage of the "Reward" system by detecting the page on the site, activating the online booking service and accepting the payment through FORK.

FORK TOKEN The GastroAdvisor’s token (FORK) Any user, by registering on the platwill be used as a reward for users who, form, will have access to their own wal- through booking and making reviews, GastroAdvisor (GA) is a registered let (integrated) with tokens and then will contribute to the GA community. trademark born in Switzerland in 2016. be able to use the functions of the plat- Rewards will be given to restaurateurs Thanks to the participation of several form. The platform will show the equiv- who will be affiliated, contributing to locales, we aim to create a platform for alent value of the tokens in FIAT, which accurate information and subsequentresearch, recommendation and booking will vary according to market dynamly accepting the token as a means of of restaurants and food places around ics. GA is creating an economy based on payment. You can purchase FORK the world. We are working together Ethereum technology that connects us- by credit card, Paypal or bank transwith users to create high quality, trans- ers and restaurateurs with a reward and fer. The number of FORK tokens held parent and trustworthy information. payment system (p2p). GastroAdvisor will be displayed in the user’s dashwants to help people all over the world board. The tokens will be sent succesOver two years of research have been to easily find restaurants that match sively from a Smart Contract to the usaccomplished for the development of a their personal tastes, also facilitating er’s registered ERC20 wallet. On the prototype and an Alpha version, which the gastronomic activities in the search dashboard the user can choose whethcan solve the problems related to the for new customers through the expaner to keep tokens within the GA platonline gastronomic sector and give efsion on the web market. form or transfer them to their personfective solutions to users and restaual ERC20 wallet. Contributors will be rants. The advantage of our platform is Currently GastroAdvisor is discussable to purchase via Ethereum from that it is intuitive, simple to use and of- ing with prestigious food companies any ERC20 wallet via the address that

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the dashboard generates after the registration. The tokens will be credited immediately.

TOKEN SUPPLY DETAILS · Token total: 200,000,000 (Finite supply) · Tokens distributed during Crowd sale: 100,000,000 (50%) · GastroAdvisor EcoSystem (Rewards): 40,000,000 (20%) · Token Holder 10,000,000 (5%) · Bounty: 4,000,000 (2%) · Marketing: 10,000,000 (5%) · Advisor: 10,000,000 (5%) · Team: 26,000,000 (13%) PLATFORM AND APP Users from anywhere in the world can add new restaurants, update company information, edit and add information. All these changes and data will first be analyzed by an internal software that will verify the information, subsequently it will also be verified and validated by the GA staff. Through the GastroAdvisor platform, the information of the gastronomic activities will constantly be monitored and updated in real time by users and restaurants. Like this, the GA platform will be able to grow and adapt to market changes. This solves the problem of false information about restaurants

and will allow us to expand our service around the world. The search results are customized for each user, which means that even if you search the same area for the same kind of restaurant you might receive different results. User`s actions are then utilized by the artificial intelligence to provide each user with feedback, regarding restaurants and search results based on personal preference.

REVIEWS The GastroAdvisor team has studied simple and intelligent solutions which are secure and transparent. Therefore, the platform allows you to review a place with three different modes of certification: For all three modes, the reviews will be based only on individual 1-5 star ratings and a score of 1 to 10 for cooking, environment and service.

-Classical review BRONZE CERTIFICATE After the registration, anyone can review any place and give their opinion, but the weight of the evaluation on the global vote will be more important and decisive based on the degree of seniority and quality of content previously entered.

The GastroAdvisor’s token (FORK) will be used as a reward for users who, through booking and making reviews, will contribute to the GA community.

-Certified reviewSILVER CERTIFICATE When a user makes a reservation, the restaurateur confirms its truthfulness, the platform will issue a notification on the profile, communicating the possibility of writing a review with a silver certificate. This type of review easily excludes false reviewers, providing users with excellent reviews which are very reliable.

- Blockchain Verified ReviewGOLD CERTIFICATE GastroAdvisor creates the first certified gourmet review via blockchain, this feature will only be activated for restaurateurs who will accept the FORK Token and other digital currencies as a method of payment.

TOKEN HOLDER AND GABS A percentage of the created tokens will be reserved for FORK token holders.

What is GABS? GABS (GastroAdvisorBonusScore) is a system that will allow you to receive a monthly percentage of FORK tokens, based on your GABS score.

How to mature the GABS score?

The GABS score will be derived from the following formula: 67

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FORK total in your wallet multiplied(X) number of days they have been in the wallet (X) number of content pieces posted on the platform by the user.

Example of GABS calculation: 500,000 FORK’s x 2 days on your dashboard x 2 content pieces inserted = 2,000,000 GABS GABS levels: GABS number between 1 million and 4,999,999 million: 2% of tokens in the wallet will be paid.

GABS number between 5 million and 9,999,999 million: 3% of tokens in the wallet will be paid.

GABS number between 10 million 19.999.999 million: 4% of tokens in the wallet will be paid.

GABS number over 20 million: 5% of tokens in the wallet will be paid.

Classic review: 1FORK Certified review: 5FORK Blockchain certified review: 10 FORK Add photos / videos: 2FORK Add / correct local information: 1FORK Add venue: 2FORK Image insertion: 1FORK Video Input: 2FORK Recipe Input: 4FORK Detect page and manage information: 150FORK Activate online booking: 300FORK Acceptance at cash desk: 500FORK Receiving certified Silver review: 5FORK Receiving certified review with blockchain: 10FORK

BOUNTY PROGRAM GastroAdvisor is launching a simple Bounty program for users who want to support the development of the GA platform. It will be open at the end of our crowd sale. Participants will find a Holding FORK tokens will then autolink generator on the GA platform to matically increase the number of GABS, create a personalized link in order to with which you will be entitled to the share it on their blogs or social chanquarterly distribution of tokens (Token nels. Each participant will have a cerHolder) and in the future to special dis- tain amount of FORK based on the counts and promotions made available number of users coming from their by the GA platform. connection in a given period.

REWARD USERS Accumulate points, level up, redeem your tokens, contribute with your information, book and recommend other online users.

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The ratings of the rewards will amount 5% of new users coming from the analytics report, so if the participant's link reaches 100 users, it will receive 5 FORK, 1000 users will receive 50 FORK

and if it reaches 5000 users it will receive 250 FORK. From the analytics campaign, each address in the portfolio can request a maximum of 250 FORK.

Any user, by registering on the platform, will have access to their own wallet (integrated) with tokens and then be able to use the functions of the platform.

TOKEN CROWDSALE The collection (Pre-ICO / ICO) will be managed by GastroAdvisor. and the token will perform its functions within the blockchain in the manner described above. The collection will take place through a user interface (dashboard) by paying Ethereum / Bitcoin / Fiat to an address generated personally to each user (more information on the official website and official communication channels).

The minimum funding cap is 1,000,000 (1 million) Euros, the minimum base needed to start the project. If the collection is less than 1,000,000 (1 million) Euro, all donations will be returned to the addresses from which they were made. • The "token holder" concept has been explained as per the Whitepaper, but it will probably be modified and made simpler.

If we have caught your interest, learn more about GastroAdvisor on our website https://www.gastroadvisor.com Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

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The Power of Peer to Peer Lending Two billion people worldwide lack access to a bank account or financial institution and have to use alternative payment methods to conduct transactions.

This signals a huge vacuum for easier access to financial transactions that, once filled, would lift huge barriers to economic growth for the marginalised across the globe. by ICO CROWD

To tackle the issue, the World Bank has set a goal of securing universal access to formal financial services by 2020.

In recent years, technological innovators have made giant leaps towards plugging the gap by enabling people to borrow and lend money without using an official financial institution as an intermediary through peer to peer (P2P) lending.

Traditionally, individuals and small businesses who want a loan would have had to apply for one through a bank.

But with P2P lending, borrowers take loans from individual investors who are willing to lend their own money for an agreed interest rate.

Those who want to avoid being charged high interest rates or who may otherwise be rejected for a loan application because of poor credit history, can opt for this alternative way of borrowing funds.

China saw its first P2P platform launch in 2007 and by 2013, this figure had skyrocketed to 800.

By May 2018, there are a total of 6,142 platforms operating in China.

The profile of a borrower is usually displayed on a peer to peer online platform which investors can assess to decide if they would want to risk lending their money.

These platforms benefit both borrowers and investors: lenders generate income from interest on loans, which can often be higher than interest earned through saving accounts or stock market return on investment.

Meanwhile, borrowers benefit from a more favorable interest rate than one they’d otherwise get from a bank, or from access to financing they might not otherwise have gotten approval for.

This knocks out the need for a third-party in a range of transactions, streamlining financial services and breaking open the barriers for the unbanked.

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The world’s first P2P lending platform, Zopa.com was launched in 2005 in the UK, and P2P platforms have since seen extraordinary growth, developing into a vast global industry.

And it’s no surprise, with its potential to give the 2 billion people globally who are unbanked access to digital currencies.

However, no region globally has come even close to matching the explosive and unparalleled growth in P2P lending witnessed in the world’s second largest economy: China.

This dwarfs’ P2P platform growth in the West: in 2016 in the UK there were a mere 9 authorised firms offering loan-based crowdfunding platforms, the European Union had 24 platforms with a €3.2 billion volume, and the USA 25 with $29 billion volume in loans originated, according to Dr Chuanman You, a FinTech expert based in Tel Aviv University, in an Oxford Capital Markets Law Journal report on the recent development of FinTech regulation in China.

China’s phenomenal growth in the P2P lending industry is driven by both the undersupply of funding for Small China saw its first P2P platform launch and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and in 2007 and by 2013, this figure had low-income households by convenskyrocketed to 800. By May 2018, there tional banking institutions, and on the are a total of 6,142 platforms operatother hand, by the high yield rate of ing in China. investment in the P2P lending industry which enticed a supply of capital In 2016, P2P platforms in China refrom both retail and institutional incorded over 3.4 million investors, vestors, according to Dr You. while growth in the sums of capital involved in P2P lending shot up from While funding constraints for SMEs CNY21 billion ($3 billion) in 2012, and low-income households are a to CNY 1411 billion ($216 billion) in global problem, the issue has been ex2016. acerbated by China’s State-Owned En70

terprises (SOEs) dominant economic structure, combined with a repressive financial policy.

To tackle the issue, the World Bank has set a goal of securing universal access to formal financial services by 2020.

The unprecedented FinTech boom has transformed China into one of the world’s largest online alternative finance markets by transaction volume, with P2P lending at the forefront of sector growth.

The explosive growth in P2P lending has liberated the Chinese financial market, but with great innovation comes great uncertainty.

The surge of this sector has brought an array of credit risks, business operation risks and information security risks, which could trigger market, regulatory, and even governance failure.

In 2016 nearly 50% of Chinese P2P platforms were problematic, with fraud, fund flight and illegal fund-raising frequently reported.

By May 2018, about 2,058 platforms have been reported to encounter liquidity difficulty or other more severe problems.

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China’s initial lack of a comprehensive regulatory regime contributed to the phenomenal growth of P2P platforms, but also generated huge market risks which could endanger the industry’s sustainable development.

However, there’s another tool in the market which is helping to fill the short-comings of current transaction systems.

The introduction of blockchain enabled P2P platforms, together with improved global regulation, are challenging previous dominant market monopolies by conventional banking institutions.

The incorporation of blockchain into P2P lending platforms could critically not only reduce risks but also boost efficiency for all involved, creating an inherently transparent and tamper-resilient network through which valuable information can be tracked and traded.

This will not only revolutionise the $430 billion international remittance industry, but also spur tremendous market growth, giving the unbanked access to finance and removing barriers to investing.

Blockchain Globally, policymakers face the chaltechnology lenge of balancing regulation that prowould enable tects the industry without curbing the tokenisation fledging sector’s growth. of loan assets originated While in the UK and USA regulation through P2P has been better established, this may have slowed growth in the P2P lend“Another significant benefit from block- lending platforms ing sector. chain technology is loan tokenisation,” and facilitate explains Dr You. investors to China introduced the first comprehensecuritize and sive legal framework into its P2P lend“The conventional offline lending martrade their loans ing market in 2015, providing much ket has profoundly engaged in the secuwith other peers needed legal protection for participants ritization of loans and trading of these of the China market.

And with China being by far the largest sector player, Dr You argues that this “may also contribute a new model to the global regulatory map for the sustainable growth of the P2P lending market, and the FinTech industry in general.”

loan derivatives, which has yet become a normal in the nascent online P2P lending market.

“Blockchain technology would enable tokenisation of loan assets originated through P2P lending platforms and facilitate investors to securitize and trade their loans with other peers,” he says.

DR CHUANMAN YOU

The potential impact on emerging markets cannot be overstated.

For SMEs and people who otherwise might struggle to get a loan or have access to finance, the P2P lending platform has been a transformative enabler.

And as more of the two billion currently excluded from the financial market gain the ability to both lend and borrow through P2P platforms; the world could witness an economic shift towards greater global equality.

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NATUR NOW If you are a slightly rebellious (a bit anarcho) high tech manufacturer of healthy juices and snacks how do you provide your loyal customers with a meaningful reward and support? First you create a “worthwhile” loyalty system that puts a premium on health and wellbeing, for mind and body. Not just points but real rewards for actions carried out and shared ‘socially’ (mutual P2P confirms). Building an ecosystem that after sales-loyalty front, will build an informational layer and then a track and trace layer.

Natur Now is in a position to leverage unique and reliable data on its products, to launch a platform to share this data with stakeholders in the supply chain, and with consumers at the front. This will be evolved to a marketplace (or ecosystem) with a myriad of services geared to by ICO CROWD supporting the health-wellness lifestyle.

The NN framework and the “Thank You Natur” trust-mark are a true disruption in the fresh foods and juices space. Beyond the Cold-Pressed craze, based on scientifically backed and tested fresh squeezed production techniques, HPP and advanced sterilisation technology.

Resulting in products that contain more nutrients and have longer shelf lives and require less complexity in the supply chain.

As current owners (with its business partners) of all this sales, distribution and supply-chain data we believe NN are in the position of creating a full field-to-fork solution, based on an open and distributed ledger protocol. Natur Now has the answer: develop blockchain based appropriate protocols and technologies to enable an open and transparent data exchange about the sources/distribution and the contents of foods, creating an eco-system that rewards participation to all stakeholders, suppliers and consumers while protecting the data and ensuring privacy and transparency where needed and authorised by the real owner of the data.

The source and contents of our food are today mostly unknown and much misunderstood, current labelling is often there more to obfuscate than to enlighten. Motivation to eat and drink healthy is sapped by these many other challenges to finding good fresh foods.

A social movement about health and wellness is springing out of this, that wants and will get more honest information about food and its sources and contents. We cannot rely on governments or good-will on part of producers, to do this. Initially for the Natur juice business but eventually the platforms developed, will welcome third parties that meet Natur Now qualifications and adhere to its principles of transparency and openness.

The consumer revolution is starting now for some very simple and compelling reasons • Addressable market for premium juices & healthy snacks in Europe is €12 billion in 2017 • Juice and snack categories have evolved more in the last 5 years than the previous 50 years • Consumer mindset has changed when it comes to health, wellness and mindfulness • Traditional F&B vendors are losing ground to new products and smaller companies that cater to new consumer needs.

• Snackification: move to multiple snacking time-out’s, away from fullfledged meals Natural/organic consumers demand healthier products, with less sugar and salt, and more nutrient density. Traceability of produce is increasing every day. Large manufacturers are taking advantage of consumers without giving enough back. NaturNow blockchain framework paired with the “Thank Your Nature” trustmark, will provide trustworthy information to consumers and may finally take the production and distribution chain out of the shadow and empower consumers, truly, for the first time to know where the food or drink you are consuming came from, what is in it and where it has been. That’s food chain accountability!

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Uncloak: Beating the world’s largest infrastructure problem Like it or not, we are indeed in the season of the cyber hacker.

Never in history has an enemy been able to silently access a person, company’s or even government’s private and personal data with such ease of access by and anonymity due to constant comTAYO DADA CEO puter weaknesses or more generally lack of IT security understanding.

The internet’s unstoppable growth has disrupted all aspects of life for the majority of users allowing access for billions of people globally on a wealth of different devices from laptops to mobile phones and beyond, yet cybercrime has unfortunately taken equal strides.

It’s of the popular opinion within cyber security circles that we are in the dawn of a new age of unprecedented cyber-attacks, with malicious black hat hackers outnumbering ethical white hat hackers by a ratio of ten to one.

Such is the extent of hacking viewed as a global problem that some of the world’s biggest economies have pledged to jointly fight cyber-attacks at the recent G20 event in March. Every day it appears that a new cyber-attack is announced in the media often detailing horrific amounts of money or data which has been stolen such as the $81 million heist of the Bangladesh central bank’s account last year or even closer to home for crypto investors the theft of 31$ million dollars in June from Bithumb’s crypto exchange.

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The boom in cyber security services and need for cyber security solutions has largely stemmed from organisations suffering data breaches and governments placing further responsibility on organisations to be compliant to security standards from General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, ISO27001 and Cyber essentials if at all to be able, as minimum, to trade not just with some organisations own clients but also with other countries.

Business and governments alike are finally starting to understand that cyber-attacks are indeed the latest form of terrorism creating fear in businesses, causing huge and often unrecoverable financial loss and ultimately resulting in an insurmountable loss of confidence in some of the largest firms who have suffered breaches from Equifax™ to Sony™.

es, their failings have resulted in catastrophic losses in data and funds — with $174 billion stolen by hackers in 2017 alone.

The reactive style of current cyber security cannot anticipate the hacker’s actions — and businesses have little choice but to employ highly skilled, costly IT consultants to repel and remediate threats which is often ineffective against constantly evolving computer weaknesses.

Just how to tackle cyber security attacks on such a large-scale effecting businesses of all sizes is just the problem that Uncloak aims to tackle and it believes it’s got the answer.

“Prevention is better than cure, when dealing with cyber security, it’s important to understand the mind of a hacker often starts with surveillance Now set to hit $170 billion in cyber secu- through pinpointing an organisation’s rity solution revenue by 2020, the cyber- weaknesses or as we call it attack vecsecurity industry has evolved into playing tor before attacking that organisation. a very expensive game of catch-up with If Uncloak can highlight these cyber the malicious hackers in a global attempt security weaknesses in computer systo contain and ideally reduce the amount tems before the hacker, then we are alof hacking threats. Unfortunately, such ready one step ahead”. Tayo Dada CEO, is the rise in cyber security attacks that it Founder Uncloak. is estimated by Cisco™ that the whole industry has a worldwide shortage of over WHO’S BEHIND UNCLOAK? 1 million cyber security engineers to cope UK-based Uncloak is the brainchild of with the number of attacks.

Tayo Dada — a cybersecurity expert with 20 years of experience in the field, While private and public cyber security currently managing director of Lonorganizations have worked to fight an don’s Managed IT Services consulting inordinate number of security breachfirm.

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The remainder of the 14 team members offer a well-rounded mixture of cybersecurity, business & marketing, and blockchain experience, such as Jae Chung a Senior EOS Developer and the latest addition to the team, Strategic Advisor Dr. Asad Mahmood — a Watson AI developer at IBM ,cryptocurrency investor and blockchain expert.

gers with a growing social media following and reviewing the technology that is set to take on the hacker at large which is built on a scalable blockchain-based technology allowing businesses of all sizes to track, monitor and protect themselves against scams, hacks, frauds, and cyber threats of all description.

It’s of the popular opinion within cyber seIn addition to its highly capable team, Complete with vulnerability scanner to curity circles Uncloak benefit from a series of strahighlight existing cyber security weakthat we are in tegic partnerships it has secured, innesses, an artificially-intelligent threat the dawn of a cluding but not limited to Adecco — detection software engine to find new the world’s largest human resource firm threats on the public internet and dark new age of unwith access to thousands of business web, and a fully-automated bug bounty precedented cyworldwide. to check new vulnerabilities, Uncloak is ber-attacks, an end-to-end solution that constantly “At Uncloak our emphasis isn’t just to monitors and pre-emptively alerts busi- with malicious black hat hackfind todays cyber security weaknesses nesses of incoming threats, which is a but to find tomorrows threats through much needed first in the industry. ers outnumthe use of AI ( artificial intelligence). Its Powered by EOS, Uncloak combines bering ethical impossible to keep up with the amount blockchain and AI technologies to ofwhite hat hackof new cyber threats coming through fer secure, decentralized architecture ers by a ratio of every day for every type of computing that can swiftly and accurately identiten to one. device from a laptop to a fridge. Funfy threats. ny as it sounds with technology like the Internet of things, computers are being maliciously programmed to attack other computers. In the UK we experienced this first-hand when Talk Talk an Internet provider’s network grinded to a halt after being attacked by thousands of computers in televisions/ fridges/smart meters”.

The winners of Ian Balina’s ICO Hot Pitch World Tour in London, Uncloak has been quickly building momentum in the industry and amongst blog-

“Computer hacking is the world’s largest infrastructure problem and Uncloak wants to change this for both small and large businesses. The current cyber security model is broken, and we need not only to disrupt it, but to fix it, so we can have a more secure internet.”

WHY BLOCKCHAIN? Unlike centralized cybersecurity solutions, Uncloak’s blockchain technology incentivizes participants to seek and solve pending threats. This is the basis of the automated bug bounty sys-

tem — which allows verified IT security experts to collectively tackle and resolve cyber threat vulnerabilities. Such a global effort makes the process of discovering security issues significantly faster, cheaper and more effective — while reducing labour costs and administration for businesses that employ the Uncloak solution.

Uncloak’s choice of EOS — a highspeed, highly secure Delegated Proof of Stake blockchain built upon tried and tested technology used in Steemit and Bitshares, it’s the perfect choice for a robust framework for their next-generation cybersecurity platform.

WHY AI? To monitor both the public internet and ‘darknet’ for cybercrime, Uncloak has partnered with state of the art AI software developers.

In this way, Uncloak’s ‘Zero Hour’ leverages the power of AI to ensure all threats are constantly exposed and assessed, nullifying the mysterious black market where hackers buy and sell vulnerabilities.

LAST THOUGHTS The mix of a blockchain & AI-based cybersecurity system such as Uncloak is extremely advantageous for a growing cyber security market which shows no signs of slowing, yet the very concept is ground breaking in an attempt to fix the broken methods currently used to deal with hackers. Uncloak appears to be the killer dapp.

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The Next Generation Cryptocurrency Ecosystem YOUR PERSONAL BANKING SERVICE The Fintech Bitenny is planned to be the world's first cryptocurrency payment, banking, advertisement and news portal. The ICO (Initial Coin Offering) campaign will start July 16, by ICO CROWD 2018 via www.bitenny.io. Bitenny is offering a global, end-to-end, secure, highly affordable, digital personalized banking service both for consumers and business users. The aim is to tokenize the market by offering offline and online payment solutions, and by upscaling technology possibilities such as high scalability, fast KYC (Know Your Customer) and the most secure platform with a zero-downtime guarantee.

THE SAFEST SIMPLE SCALABLE PLATFORM Bitenny is uniquely positioned by virtue of compliance to prevailing international Regulatory legislation and the 78

new European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), that has come into effect on May 23 2018. Bitenny and the Bitenny Platform offer unprecedented safety, transparency, scalability, simplicity and affordability to its users. Bitenny is a Consortium with participants from Finance, TelCo, IT, Cryptocurrency organizations and partnerships with Big-Four companies, operating from its Headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Europe). It encompasses Chartered Accountants, CISSPs (Certified Information Systems Security Professionals) and CEHs (Certified Ethical Hackers).

A UNIVERSAL WALLET IN YOUR OWN POCKET Bitenny aims to lower the barriers that consumers and business users across the globe currently experience in adopting cryptocurrency services in their day-to-day activities. On one

hand, by combining technologies such as Blockchain, a variety of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and the highest security standards to create a simple, safe, reliable, zero-downtime platform and a Universal Wallet, that supports the online and offline use and exchange of 50 high-quality cryptocurrencies for payments. On the other hand, by offering an E-Commerce plugin ‘BityPay’ that allows a seamless integration of cryptocurrency payments in the most CMS (Customer Management System) platforms, such as WordPress. The E-Commerce plugin also provides a payment solution for ICOs that have to accept payments in exchange for tokens.

ULTIMATE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND USER FRIENDLYNESS To support an excellent Customer Experience, the Bitenny solution comes

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with a digital personalized Dashboard providing real-time overviews of financial trends, the value of the user’s cryptocurrency at a particular moment and advanced decision support functions.

Through the implementation of AI techniques (for example: Natural Language Processing, Deep Learning, Chatbots, Rule inferencing based on both forward chaining and backward chaining), the Dashboard is highly intuitive and supportive. This centralisation of all the valuable relevant data will generate a one stop shop.

THE ALL-IN-ONE PLATFORM IN A PAYMENT CARD Bitenny is a hybrid system that relies on decentralized Blockchain technology in combination with centralized services to connect the users’ various wallets across Blockchains. By creating an all-in-one platform in which any Blockchain-related promotion and crypto-ad can be published, Bitenny offers the solution to compensate for the reluctance of social media such as Google, Facebook (since December 2017) and Twitter to offer a marketplace for the cryptocurrency community.

By issuing Bitenny payment cards, with the Universal wallet integrated, the user can provision for cash money withdrawals at cash dispensers and simply select the preferred cryptocurrency on the card- screen to keep full control over payments.

In order to use the cryptocurrency the same as a fiat currency, the market’s most advanced, fast and safe KYC (Know Your Customer) authorization is applied. For this, Bitenny collaborates with third party API’s (Application Pro-

gramming Interface) for KYC and anti-money laundering, whereas client acceptance, background and compliance checks are executed instantly for all new users – with additional checks required to access certain higher levels of Bitenny services – with zero downtime on the KYC verification process.

THE UNIVERSAL ON- AND OFFLINE PAYMENT PLATFORM A widely expressed issue is that most platforms do not service different payment methods. The majority of the world population still has no access to credit cards while on various platforms this is one of the few payment methods. Bitenny will make cryptocurrencies available and affordable for everyone. BityPay allows both consumers and business users to create their own Bitenny Account. The Bitenny Account provides a rich pallet of services: Buying, selling, sending, receiving cryptocurrencies as well as creating and issuing both virtual and physical credit cards for payments with cryptocurrencies done online or in physical stores.

NEW PERSPECTIVE ON A GLOBAL ECONOMIC SCALE Bitenny is founded on the fair principle of ‘affordability for everybody’ by granting global, low barrier access to a wealth of cryptocurrency services. As such, it has the potential to boost countries around the globe, even those with a low Gross Domestic Product (GDP), giving users the means to invest in cryptocurrencies as an alternative to local currencies that are affected by devaluation and inflation. Cryptocurrencies will be commonplace in the way it was originally designed – in a truly peer-to-peer fashion - and accepted be-

Bitenny is offering a global, endto-end, secure, highly affordable, digital personalized banking service both for consumers and business users.

yond the trading of cryptocurrencies only. Bitenny seeks to be fully adopted to upscaling economy growth by tokenizing the market and implementing the latest technology in the financial sector to optimize the efficiency, privacy and security.

BITENNY IS READUSTING THE PRESENT FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE Bitenny will ensure instant transactions with no waiting for checks to be cleared. No chargebacks, no account freezes, no international wire transfer fee, in fact no fees of any kind. There is no need for a minimum balance and also a maximum balance. Guaranteeing global access without closing hours.

No waiting for business hours to make transactions, no waiting for an account to be approved before transacting.

Opening an account in a few seconds, as easy as email, no bank account needed. No printing press, no hyper-inflation, no debt limit votes, no bank bailouts, completely voluntary. Bitenny is a game changer because it offers an unprecedented new mobile end-to-end platform, supporting excellent Customer Experience in a transparent way.

INVESTING IN BITENNY On July 16, 2018 the Bitenny ICO starts with a total duration of eight weeks and a planned introduction on eight different exchange platforms in September 2018. Interested early investors will get a discount on the exchange and a gold membership of the Bitenny community.

For more information: info@bitenny.io 79

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The Internet of Tokens

with ALEX LIGHTMAN

The Internet of Tokens is an ICO Crowd column that offers a broader longer-term view for both Blockchain industry professionals and for a wider audience interested in understanding the market, regulatory and other forces behind the prices that are making headlines, written by an award-winning and Amazon bestselling author.

First Look:

How CyptoCommodities Can Accelerate the Creation of Billions of Batteries and Electric Vehicles via Tokenizing Battery Metals SUMMARY This article talks about how to tokenize battery metals (cobalt, lithium and graphite) to increase their supply, reduce their cost, and set the stage for a world with billions more big batteries and self-driving electric vehicles, which, in turn, can enable a world that is 100% powered and fueled by clean energy by 2030.

To maintain decentralization we must rally around a few In 2014 I gave a talk at TEDx on “How basic tenants.

The US can Get Rid of Fossil Fuels by DATA will work 2030”. The key drivers of the plan, which can still be implemented, were to with the community to dekeep doubling the percentage of electricity made from solar every two years fine and deon average, and to replace internal fend these basic combustion engine cars with self-drivtruths. ing electric vehicles. Electric vehicles use 12 to 40 Kilograms (Kg) of battery metals 400,000 EVs are currently being produced annually in 2018, but this is expected to rise to 10 million a year by 2025. Meanwhile, two billion mobile phones are manufactured each year and each has at least 12 grams of battery metals that cannot be recycled.

NATIONAL FOSSIL FUEL VEHICLE BANS ARE CATCHING ON China announced its intention to phase out the production and sale of gas and diesel vehicles altogether.

• In 2016 the Dutch parliament voted through a motion to end all gas and diesel car sales by 2025 (it still has to go through the Dutch senate).

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• In June, 2017 India announced that it would end sales of gas and diesel cars by 2030.

• In June, 2017 Norway agreed to end sales of gas and diesel cars by 2025.

(Norway leads the world in EVs — almost 40 percent of its newly registered vehicles were hybrid, electric, or hydrogen in 2017.)

• In July, 2017 France announced it would end sales of gas and diesel cars by 2040.

• In July, 2017 Britain announced it would end sales of gas and diesel cars by 2040.

• In August, 2017 German Chancellor Angela Merkel hinted that her country would follow suit. "I cannot name an exact year yet,” she said, “but the approach is right, because if we quickly invest in more charging infrastructure and technology for electric cars, a general changeover will be structurally possible."

• Later the Scottish government announced it would phase out gas and diesel cars by 2032.

Of course, dozens of other countries and states/provinces have their own targets for EVs. (The International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook has a good overview.)

There’s a big psychological difference between “we’re going to start edging into a transition” and “we’re ending gas cars.” There’s a finality to the lat-

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ter that, shall we say, stimulates the entrepreneurial imagination and increases the funding for electric vehicle factories.

2) In my TEDx presentation HOW TO RID THE USA OF FOSSIL FUELS BY 2030 ( see https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=FqfLk-Vjr_8 ) I presented selected negative implications of fossil fuels’ use on health and the climate with the positive values of electric vehicles.

Health impacts from burning fossil fuels: • Air pollution kills 60,000 (18,000109,000) people per year in the U.S. prematurely.

• US Health Costs: $9,000/person/ year. Greater than 57% of the per capita income of Mexico.

• About 1/3 of US health care costs are from burning fossil fuels ($886.5 billion).

• 30-40% of deaths world-wide are from pollution.

• Climate impacts from burning fossil fuels: • Extreme weather: • Super typhoon Haiyan: a tornado over your city lasting 4.5 hours.

• Over 10,000 people killed, over 600,000 homeless or displaced.

• If trends continue, losses from weather damage will exceed the entire world GDP in 2060.

• Rising sea levels will flood coastal cities, where 3/4 of humanity lives • over 6 billion homeless people later in 21st century. There is no way to afford rebuilding cities to house 6 billion people.

Electric vehicles + solar • Electric vehicle motors are 5x more efficient than ICEs. • EVs cost 90% less to fuel, even with electricity at 13 cents a kWh. There is already a PPA with Austin for 5 cents a kWh, and by 2020, there will be some PPAs for less than 1.3%, making EVs cost 99% less to fuel than ICEs. • Municipalities can simply set up solar trees in parking lots and use them to charge EVs for free. There are 32 free EV charging spaces in the garage 100 feet from where I live.

• EVs cost 90% less to maintain.

• EVs for fleets save $16,000 a year per vehicle.

• EVs can serve as storage for both solar and for the cheapest electricity, charging during the day, then powering home at night.

SOLAR + EV + AUTODRIVE = END OF OIL This is a tidal wave of change, that’s about to change and improve things on a planetary scale! Quality of life for bil-

Demand for resources from the battery industry are making many existing and potential mining projects profitable...

lions of people will be dramatically improved because air won’t be polluted with extremely toxic exhaust smoke from gas cars. Another group of beneficiaries would include anyone involved in mining of so called “battery metals” (lithium, cobalt and graphite). Currently this group of people includes no more than a few thousands of owners and shareholders of relevant mining facilities. However, using Blockchain tech and Fintech approaches outlined in this publication one can potentially include millions of people into both sharing the upside and providing much needed funding to make sure the mining industry would be able to keep up with the exploding demand.

Battery technology has brought stability to renewables and made the electric vehicle dream a reality. The battery industry is seeing unprecedented demand as the global energy sector transitions into clean energy and electric vehicles disrupt the internal combustion engine’s conventional hold on the automotive industry.

Demand for resources from the battery industry are making many existing and potential mining projects profitable, and we believe that applying Blockchain tech to the funding and execution of these projects would allow them to create and extract value in the most efficient way.

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PERFECT ELECTRIC STORM A notable EV-related milestone was achieved in December 2016, when General Motors began selling one of the most important cars in its 108-year history, the Chevy Bolt.

In addition to being significant for the iconic American automaker, the introduction of the Bolt was a landmark event in the overall EV history, since the Bolt was the world’s first lowpriced, mass-market car with a range of more than 200 miles.

A driving range greater than 200 miles is critical because of “range anxiety”, i.e. the fear drivers get from knowing the battery in their electric car could run out of charge, leaving them stranded in the middle of nowhere... Therefore, the race among electric carmakers like GM, Tesla, and Nissan is the race to become the world champion of overcoming range anxiety. Breakthroughs in treating this “disorder” would be worth hundreds of billions of dollars for the winners in this market, and would produce a demand worth at least dozens of billions for the key materials needed to produce these mass market electric cars.

The Chevy Bolt also is getting great press. It was named the 2017 Motor 82

Trend Car of the Year. The popular car reviewer said, “The groundbreaking Chevrolet Bolt EV is the car of tomorrow. Today.”

Another electric car to win a recent Motor Trend Car of the Year award is the Tesla Model S. Motor Trend said the Model S was a “truly remarkable automobile.” Sales of electric cars are starting to boom... and they’ll continue to boom in the future.

Just 10 years ago, there were few electric cars on the road. Below is a chart that shows the enormous increase in global EV sales since 2011.

The International Energy Agency has set a target of 12.9 million electric vehicles on the road in major markets by 2020 and 100 million by 2040. According to Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance group, by 2025, over 5 million electric vehicles will be sold each year. This is a giant 887% increase over 2016’s level.

Technological advances and cost reduction in the last two years have been remarkable and nothing short of a revolution. The main growth driver up to 2016-2017 has been consumer goods but, as mentioned above, what will take

this sector to the next level is EV-related demand. Every major car manufacturer has electric models and that market grew 40% in 2017.

[...] Energy storage is key to truly realize the full potential of renewable energy technologies, and batteries are the most important component of energy storage.

This trend reminds the market that energy storage is key to truly realize the full potential of renewable energy technologies, and batteries are the most important component of energy storage.

Battery metals (primarily lithium, cobalt and graphite) are becoming more and more popular thanks to the increasing demand for portable technology and the rise of the electric vehicle market.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF KEY BATTERY METALS: Lithium - Lithium-ion batteries are found in laptops, phones, and vehicles.

Lithium prices have doubled since 2008 from $4,500 a ton to $9,000.

Cobalt had 100,000 tons mined globally in 2016. Demand is expected to exceed 120,000 tons by 2020. Around 60% of cobalt mined will go toward ion battery production by 2020.

Graphite is used in conducting material for lithium-ion batteries and its global market is projected to reach $29.05 billion by 2022.

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Lithium Trends What happened in the lithium market? Here’s a look at the major lithium trends of 2017, from megafactory announcements to offtake agreements.

With the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) growing at an unstoppable speed, lithium continued to be a hot commodity in 2017.

But what were the major trends in the lithium market? Read on for an overview of the factors that impacted the lithium market in 2017, from the main supply and demand dynamics to how analysts thought the metal performed in each quarter of the year. Overall, experts agree that the excitement seen this year Chart via Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. is unlikely to let up.

This surging demand for EVs is expected to push demand for lithium-ion batteries above LITHIUM TRENDS 2017: 400 GWh by 2025, Benchmark Mineral IntelliSUPPLY CONCERNS INCREASE gence says. That means supply of lithium, a key For the past three years, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has brought much excitement to the lithi- component in the batteries, will need to reach 400,000 to 500,000 tons by the same year. um space, and 2017 was no exception.

In January, the company started production at its Nevada facility, which is expected to produce 35 GWh per year of lithium-ion battery cells in 2018. During Q1, the Elon Musk-led company also announced plans to open two to three EV gigafactories by the end of 2017, boosting excitement among investors.

But as many analysts say, Tesla is just one story, and this year many carmakers started to outline plans to win a space in the electric car race. In fact, in Q1, analysts at UBS (NYSE:UBS) raised their forecast for global EV sales in 2021 to 3.1 million units from 2.5 million, and to 14.2 million units in 2025.

“There’s much more consensus on demand; we’re no longer even debating demand. We’re shifting to supply and whether, as an industry, we can deliver,” John Kanellitsas, vice-chairman of Lithium Americas (TSX:LAC), said earlier in 2017.

“The continued pricing strength in lithium has been a surprise,” said Chris Berry of House Mountain Partners and the Disruptive Discoveries Journal. He added that his previous demand forecast out to 2025 for lithium ended up being too low. “I thought the lithium market (on a LCE basis) would grow to roughly 550,000 tons per year, [but] in the middle of the year I adjusted this upwards to

617,000 tons by 2025. This still appears too conservative based on potential gigafactory-scale expansion,” he added.

In fact, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is now tracking 26 megafactories, up from just three back in 2014. The combined planned capacity of these plants is 344.5 GWh. To put that into perspective, total lithium-ion cell demand in 2017 is estimated at 100 GWh. While that number might seem high, global lithium-ion battery demand is expected to grow between six and seven times by 2026, which will require a battery pipeline of nearly double what exists today.

“We said a few years ago that the present lithium price run will continue, and it has. It has, and it’s gone into a second phase now,” Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Managing Director Simon Moores told the Investing News Network at this year’s Cathodes conference.

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“Quite simply, there’s not enough supply to meet the demand, and the demand is increasing quicker than the supply is. Much, much quicker. Therefore, lithium’s price will remain strong for some time,” he added.

For his part, lithium expert Joe Lowry said in his Lithium in Review report that “2017 was a year when virtually all the positive surprises were on the demand side and most of the negative surprises were on the supply side.”

The expert also recently explained that the “Star Alliance of the lithium market” was one of the major trends this past year.

The industry needs to raise another $7 to $9 billion to get to where it needs to be by about 2025 to 2026.

LITHIUM OVERVIEW: WHY LITHIUM, WHY NOW? Lithium powers many of today’s handheld tools, our modern mobile communications, our computing devices and increasingly our transportation system. Lithium-ion is the leading energy storage technology, one cannot understate its importance in transforming not only communications gadgets into marvels of handheld technology, but in taking electric cars from a niche curiosity into a major clean energy revolution for the transportation sector.

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“Lithium isn’t a bubble, it’s a fundamental change in energy usage.” www. financialpost.com

“The top five lithium ion battery manufacturers are ramping up capital expenditure with a view to almost tripling capacity by 2020.” The Economist China and India are both going to 100% electric vehicles. Every major car manufacturer has electric models. Volvo has even promised to phase out traditional internal combustion engines (ICE) from 2019.

France has promised to end the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040, the U.K. quickly followed suit.

Gigafactory’s making lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles are springing up across the globe. Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory, to be completed in 2018, will produce more lithium-ion batteries than were produced globally in all of 2013. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO has already announced plans to build four more Gigafactory’s.

By 2021, Chinese Gigafactory’s will provide 3.5 times more gigawatt-hours of battery cells than Tesla’s current Gigafactory. Europe recently announced five Gigafactories will be built.

There’s much more consensus on demand; we’re no longer even debating demand. We’re shifting to supply and whether, as an industry, we can deliver

Morgan Stanley analysts project that by 2050, 81% of 132 million new auto sales will be electric. There’s a looming problem.

“It’s not clear that the resource supply chains exist yet for all these factories.”

David Hart, director E4tech

Translation – There isn’t enough lithium currently being mined to supply all those Gigafactory’s. “We estimate the lithium industry is going to need between $4-$5 billion of investment out to 2025.” Simon Moores, Benchmark JOHN Minerals Intelligence

KANELLITSAS, vice-chairman of Lithium Americas

The potential for supply-demand gaps to open up over the coming decade is significant, a supply shortage of lithium will cause major issues in the battery supply chain.

Elon Musk said, in 2016: “In order to produce half a million cars a year … We would basically need to absorb the entire world’s lithium-ion production.”

Bloomberg reports that global battery-making capacity is set to more than double by 2021, topping 278 gigawatt-hours a year compared to 103 gigawatt-hours at present.

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Graphite Outlook 2018 2017 started off slow for graphite but, heading into the new year analysts and companies are optimistic about the future. While prices for lithium and cobalt have soared this year on surging demand for electric cars, prices for graphite, another metal used in the batteries that power these vehicles, have reacted less strongly.

However, by October prices were on the rise for the first time since mid-2016, according to Roskill. Fine flake graphite rose by 36 percent, the firm said at the time, hitting an average of $863 tonne, while medium-flake prices increased by 31 percent to reach $953 per tonne.

Fine- and medium-flake graphite are typically used to produce spherical graphite. Large-flake graphite is used in expandable graphite, and rose by 25 percent in October to average $998 per tonne.

Speaking more recently, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence analyst Andrew Miller said, “for the first time in over five years, we’re now seeing consistent increases in pricing due to supply-side pressures. At the same time, you have the emergence of new demand from value-added applications such as expandable graphite and spherical graphite for lithium-ion batteries.”

The chart above (via Benchmark Mineral Intelligence) shows the latest graphite prices by mesh 85

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GRAPHITE TRENDS 2017: SUPPLY DECLINING Miller said policy changes have been the largest drivers of the flake graphite market in 2017. “At the start of the year, China removed its export duty, which dragged prices to new lows,” he explained. “Subsequently, the environmental restrictions [China has] imposed on production have had the opposite effect. [That] has created some major challenges for the country’s producers moving forward.”

According to Industrial Minerals, the Chinese government removed graphite from its export tax list causing producers to drop their prices by 10-15 percent in January due to uncertainty over the cancellation of the 20 percent tax. It introduced an Environmental Protection Law at the end of 2016 to tax producers that flout environmental measures; which will come into force on January 1, 2018 but already began to have an impact on supply. The government also conducted a second round of inspections in Shandong province in May. These efforts to curb pollution led to reduced supply of needle coke, a key feedstock material used for manufacturing graphite electrodes.

Graphite electrodes are made from amorphous graphite, and are used within the electric arc furnaces of steel mills because they can withstand the high temperatures used to melt down and recycle scrap steel.

Eagle GraphRefinery shutdowns along the Texas ite’s Deith notGulf Coast caused by Hurricane Harvey in late August and early September also ed that governimpacted US needle coke production. At ments around the time, an unnamed steelmaking exthe world are ecutive reportedly told Platts that the considering banworld’s largest graphite electrode maker, ning cars with GrafTech International (NYSE:GTI), had traditional comdeclared force majeure in response to supply issues caused by the storm. bustion engines, and said By late September, Chinese graphthat “yearly deite electrode prices had increased nearmand for graphly ninefold, to $16,330 a tonne, from the start of the year. Globally, spot pric- ite for batteries es had increased more, reaching about will go up from $35,000 per tonne. around 30,000 tons to as much According to an October report from inas 60,000 tons vestment bank Jefferies, the graphite electrode supply shortage could last five over the next years or more. In addition to capacity year. coming offline due to Hurricane Harvey, 10 percent of needle coke output is now being directed to the lithium-ion battery sector.

GRAPHITE TRENDS 2017.

COMPANIES WEIGH IN In a recent interview with the Investing News Network, Eagle Graphite (TSXV:EGA) CEO Jamie Deith said 86

graphite supply has been unable to keep up with “a global resurgence of steel production” in 2017. Deith said he was informed by a Chinese supplier that “they may have absolutely no graphite available at any price for some of the standard grades. At the same time, Eagle Graphite is being approached by Chinese graphite buyers who can no longer meet their needs with domestic supply, and they think the Chinese government has made it too difficult to produce graphite in ‘the traditional way.'” He continued, “requests to send Canadian graphite to China were unthinkable in the past, so I would say this is emblematic of change in the market.”

to get exposure to the longer-term story around providing these specialty materials for the future green energy market,” Way commented.

Blair Way, president and CEO at Leading Edge Materials (TSXV:LEM), said 2017 was a year of “healthy, steady growth” in the sector. He noted that a significant milestone for Leading Edge was the announcement of R&D projects in Sweden, including cooperation with the Northvolt battery cell manufacturing project. He said the company saw some “strong movement” in terms of its share price performance over the year “with the usual ups and downs as some investors took profit.”

Eagle Graphite’s Deith noted that governments around the world are considering banning cars with traditional combustion engines, and said that “yearly demand for graphite for batteries will go up from around 30,000 tons to as much as 60,000 tons over the next year. These are 30,000 tons of new production that need to come online just to prevent the market from going into further shortage.”

“As we transition away from a traditional resource story to the technology and specialty value-added materials of the green energy space, some investors move on to the more volatile drill programs and others start to follow us

GRAPHITE OUTLOOK 2018: DEMAND TO RISE In the long term, Roskill notes that the continuing closure of processing plants in China to curb emissions has set the scene for speculation about rising graphite prices. The research firm notes that “prices for high grade material [are] forecast to continue rising through late 2017 and into 2018 as battery demand continues to rise and flake graphite producers rush to ramp-up new production.”

Deith also commented, “eventually batteries will come to dominate graphite demand, and global production capacity will have to grow to over 10 times its current size before the draw from battery production even begins to slow down.”

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Overview of Cobalt Trends in 2017 and Outlook for 2018 COBALT TRENDS 2017: PRICES SPIKE AS SUPPLY CONCERNS GROW 2017 has been a bright year for cobalt, a key metal in the lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles (EVs).

Carmakers and governments shifting toward electric cars, as well as increasing supply worries, have made news headlines throughout the year.

COBALT TRENDS Q1: EV DEMAND OUTLOOK BOOSTS PRICES At the beginning of the year, cobalt prices received a boost from increasing demand for electric cars, primarily from China. In Q1, consultants at CRU Group said electric car and plugin hybrid vehicle sales could hit 4.4 million in 2021 and more than 6 million by 2025, up from 1.1 million last year.

As demand for electric cars increase, the need for cobalt is also expected to soar, as the metal is a key component in EV batteries. In total, surging demand for electric vehicles is expected to push demand for lithium-ion batteries above 400 GWh by 2025, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence says. Lithium-ion batteries contain about 11 kilograms of cobalt each. “[W]e forecast battery demand for cobalt to go from 46,000 tons in 2016 to 76,000 tons by the end of 2020 and from a cobalt producers’ perspective supply needs to keep up with, or

be close to, expanded demand,” Benchmark Mineral Intelligence analyst Caspar Rawles said in February.

Also at the start of the year, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) announced plans to open two to three EV gigafactories by the end of 2017, further spurring excitement among cobalt investors. Elon Musk’s company started production at its Nevada facility in January, and by 2018 the gigafactory is expected to produce 35 GWh per year of lithium-ion battery cells.

LME cobalt was up 7 percent during the second quarter, trading between $51,500 and $59,500.

During the first quarter of 2017, LME

cobalt prices jumped more than 68 percent, trading between $32,500 and $54,750 per tonne.

COBALT TRENDS Q2: GIGAFACTORIES INCREASE SUPPLY WORRIES During the second quarter of the year, LME cobalt prices, as well as prices for cobalt sulfate, the most common base chemical used as a cathode material in batteries, continued to increase.

In Q2, the electric car story gained momentum, with analysts at UBS (NYSE:UBS) raising their forecast for global sales of EVs in 2021 to 3.1 million from 2.5 million, and to 14.2 million in 2025.

“Demand is remarkably strong,” Eurasian Resources Group CEO Benedikt 87

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Sobotka said in June. He added that “people were inquiring about lifetime offtake contracts” for the company’s $1-billion Metalkol Roan tailings reclamation project in the DRC. The project is expected to produce 14,000 tons a year.

In terms of supply, concerns continued to increase during the second quarter of the year. “In the next few years only five new cobalt mines are due to come online and will add about 50,000 tons of cobalt per year. That is certainly not enough to support the demand in the market,” Stephan Bogner of Rockstone Research said at the time.

Concerns about existing cobalt supply also started to increase. That’s largely because the politically unstable DRC is the world’s top cobalt producer, accounting for more than 50 percent of cobalt output; mining there is also linked to child labor.

In an April interview, Rawles explained that while there are some cobalt projects in more stable jurisdictions that may ultimately add to supply, it will not be possible to eliminate DRC cobalt.

“There’s no lithium-ion industry without DRC cobalt,” he emphasized. That said, he also mentioned that even with DRC cobalt the market is headed for a deficit.

Major news impacting the market during the quarter came from Tesla’s Musk, who hinted at “probably four” more gigafactories to be announced later in 2017. At the end of June, Tesla also announced that battery production for its upcoming Model 3 was underway.

LME cobalt was up 7 percent during the second quarter, trading between $51,500 and $59,500.

COBALT TRENDS Q3: GOVERNMENTS AND CARMAKERS SHIFT TO EVS At the beginning of the second half of the year, announcements from major governments hit the cobalt market. France, the UK and potentially China outlined plans to ban all fossil fuel cars by 2040. Other countries have also set electric car sales targets or have hinted at bans on ICE cars in the coming years; those countries include Norway, Germany and the Netherlands.

In addition, several carmakers said they will electrify most of their models by mid-2020s, including Volvo (STO:VOLV), BMW (ETR:BMW), GM (NYSE:GM), Mercedes, Dyson and Ford (NYSE:F), among others.

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As demand for lithium-ion batteries increases, cobalt supply will need to reach 180,000 tons by 2026, according to the London-based firm.

Even so, China continued to lead the EV space, with the government pushing for all-electric battery cars and plugin hybrids to account for at least onefifth of its vehicle sales by 2025. Partnerships between major carmakers and local firms were another major trend during the quarter, with Renault-Nissan(EPA:RNO) and Ford fighting for a place in the surging EV market.

In the third quarter, sales of electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid batteries exceeded 287,000 units, up 63 percent compared to the same period last year on the back of strong Chinese demand.

That number is expected to increase significantly as the electric car revolution continues to unfold.

As a result, carmakers and battery companies started to look for ways to secure the materials needed to make lithium-ion batteries, in particular cobalt.

In July, mining giant Glencore signed a large cobalt deal with Chinese producer Contemporary Amperex Technology that could help Volkswagen (FWB:VOW) secure batteries for its electric cars.

Later in the quarter, Volkswagen announced it was seeking to invest $60 billion in electric car content, including batteries, and was looking to sign cobalt supply deals by the end of the year.

LME cobalt remained neutral during the third quarter, trading between $50,000 and $62,000.

COBALT TRENDS Q4: ALL EYES ON LONG-TERM SUPPLY SECURITY AND RESPONSIBLE SOURCING In Q4, carmakers and battery companies continued to try to secure longterm cobalt supply. In November, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology outlined plans for a $2-billion IPO to boost its lithium-ion battery production, and announced it was looking to invest in upstream companies.

Later in the month, Volkswagen was said to be discussing supply contracts with top cobalt producers, including Glencore, but the talks ultimately ended without success.

“We have requested different options for a hedge from the raw materials industry in the context of a tender … We have already had constructive talks with the well-known suppliers and will continue those (discussions),” a Volkswagen spokesperson recently confirmed. “Besides supplies and costs, other topics in discussion include future capacity expansion, sustainability and transparency.”

During the last quarter of the year, cobalt prices continued to increase, and the forecast for next year remains very optimistic. LME cobalt has been trading between $59,000 and $68,000. For investors interested in learning more about what’s ahead for cobalt, keep an eye out for our upcoming cobalt outlook with commentary for analysts and companies.

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COBALT OUTLOOK 2018: PRICE PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND CONSIDERATIONS Cobalt prices have been on an uptrend since the beginning of the year. In fact, LME cobalt prices are up almost 120 percent since January on the back of a strong EV demand outlook and supply worries.

LME cobalt prices started the year at $32,500 per tonne and have moved upward since then. The highest point of the year was reached last week, when prices hit $75,000.

Looking over to demand, the electric car revolution will continue to drive prices as supply constraints also increase. In fact, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence forecasts that the cobalt market will reach a deficit in 2022/2023 as “this is when [it] estimate[s] the wider adoption of EVs will happen.”

As demand for lithium-ion batteries increases, cobalt supply will need to reach 180,000 tons by 2026, according to the London-based firm.

models, surging demand for cobalt will continue to drive the market” • Anthony Milewski, CEO of cobalt 27 Capital (TSXV:KBLT) is also very optimistic, as he expects to see a trans“I still struggle to see where an ample formation in the cobalt industry next supply of cobalt will come from to satyear. That’s because he sees big manIf you are a beisfy most EV demand projections,” Berufacturers entering into long-term liever [in] EVs, ry said. “With the realization that addicontracts for cobalt supply. “[When] tional mining capacity will be needed to then the supply that happens it’s going to structursatisfy EV demand, the eyes of the mar- gap becomes apally change the market in a positive ket have started to shift towards small- parent for cobalt way, and I would be remiss if I didn’t er-market-cap companies that are dethink that was going to positively imin the near fuvelopment stage and looking at funding pact the price too,” he said. ture… opportunities,” he added.

• Robin Goad, president and CEO of Fortune Minerals (TSX:FT); TRENT MELL, CEO and president COBALT FORECAST 2018: WHAT’S “We believe the current environment of First cobalt AHEAD FOR COMPANIES will support higher cobalt prices for • Trent Mell, CEO and president of an extended period of time First cobalt (TSXV:FCC); • Frank Basa, president and CEO of “If you are a believer [in] EVs, then Castle Silver the supply gap becomes apparent for “Cobalt is definitely in an upswing cobalt in the near future… as carmakthat will likely continue for years as ers continue to commit to new EV more electric cars are produced” 89

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Mining Battery Metals The mining industry produces resources critical to our modern lifestyle and the technological development of our society.

We consume products that contain those resources.

Every day of our lives - from the electronic devices we cherish, to the vehicles we drive, the appliances we use to cook our food and even the very houses we live in.

Below we discuss a suggested solution of several inter-related, large and important problems for both the mining projects and their investors. All mines go through a number of stages of development, with the early stages bearing the highest risk, consequently facing the greatest challenges in securing funding. Most investors avoid early stage mining projects because the already high perceived risks are exacerbated by lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the miners and lack of liquidity of the investment itself in the medium term.

INTRODUCING BLOCKCHAIN COMMODITIES EXCHANGE (BCE) Below we introduce the approach to build Blockchain Commodities Exchange (BCE) using tokenization to overcome both the funding and the investment challenges. BCE will deliver a Blockchain-based platform that will allow efficient promotion and discovery 90

of mining projects, as well as funding by means of commodity pre-purchase.

Funders on BCE will enjoy transparency and liquidity.

By bringing producers and funders into direct contact BCE removes the need for high-priced corporate funding advisors and brokers

By bringing producers and funders into direct contact BCE removes the need for high-priced corporate funding advisors and brokers. The platform will use smart contracts, along with independent external verification, to provide trust and clarity around the pricing of pre-purchased commodities and ongoing management of how the pricing of a mine’s output evolves as each mining project progresses and develops.

Funding will be made available to producers in tranches, based on achievement of agreed milestones. Mechanisms within the platform will protect funders from excessive slippage in project milestones. This delivers account-

ability and transparency to both the funders and the miners, resulting in a build up of trust, and removing many layers of friction, which are inherent in the industry today.

We are building a complete funding and trading system for our mining projects.

BCE will allow all participants to trade units of the pre-purchased commodity by means of smart contracts, providing liquidity. Once the platform is fully established, we envisage that it will be enhanced to offer a wider range of options for funders. The intention is to provide mining projects with a capital trajectory to take them from early stage to public listing on a single platform, while managing the increasing regulatory requirements in an incrementally increasing manner. Next section validates that the world and the mining industry will benefit from BCE.

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Mining Industry Overview:

Problems & Challenges Mining provides the basic inputs to everything we use: electronics, transport technologies, the building industry – almost everything that surrounds us would be either severely limited or impossible were it not for mining providing the raw materials.

In this very real sense, metals form the basis of our modern economy and lifestyle. Metals (and other commodities) are a fundamental store of value. Major metals are freely exchangeable for fiat currency and traded on open exchanges. In this way, there is an analogy between metals and crypto-currencies with the critical distinction, of course, that metals are physical items that often have important industrial uses. In fact, for much of human history, gold has been money.

Even in this era of fiat currency, theoretically decoupled from gold, this metal remains a preferred means of storing value. It is normal in the mining industry to quote the resource present in “gold equivalent” value, in essence assuming a free exchange between gold and all other metals; again an analogy to crypto-currency exchanges. While many people know of the major mining companies – organizations such as BHP, Rio Tinto and Teck – the majority of mines, especially at the early-stage of development of new resources, are operated by small companies. Those are either privately held entities or are small-cap listed companies.

Early-stage mining projects are vital to the mining industry as successful early projects grow and are often acquired by

Each mine has distinct life stages and unique challenges.

As with any business, the early stages are the most risky, with many questions to be addressed...

“the majors”. As such, early stage mines are critical to our ability to continue to grow and develop our advanced economies and, indeed, our civilization. Right now, globally, there are well in excess of five thousand exploration or early-stage mining projects, collectively seeking more than $25 billion in funding. Early-stage mining projects are risky, speculative ventures and many of them will never reach production. However, some will provide extraordinary returns for early participants. The key, as ever, is being able to invest in the right project at the right time.

MINING LIFECYCLE CHALLENGES Each mine has distinct life stages and unique challenges. As with any business, the early stages are the most risky, with many questions to be addressed: is there an economically viable resource present? Will the market

price of the commodity remain strong?

Can the resource be recovered in a technically efficient and cost-effective way?

Are there processing facilities within an economical trans- port distance? Will the regulatory environment support the operations? Can the team deliver the project effectively? As a mine progresses through its lifecycle, these risks are reduced or removed as greater certainty of the resource is obtained and production commences.

The first stage, prospecting, aims to locate potential sources of ore based on analysis of geological data and field visits to promising sites. The costs are contained and the risk lies in the potential to waste a lot of time and not find anything of substantial enough value. Risk mitigation during this stage is based on expert geological assessment and intelligent data gathering and analysis.

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During the exploration stage, the miner gains a clearer understanding of how much metal is present, how well defined the ore-body is and how the ore can be extracted and processed. This is done via a range of techniques including surface analysis, magnetics and drilling to take core samples to establish the scope and estimated grade and tonnage of an ore-body. A basic “go or no-go” decision can be reached quite early, based on different scenarios of pricing of the resource and other factors. Depending on scale, this stage can cost in the order of $1 million to $15 million (or more for large projects) and can include several rounds of drilling and analysis to define and expand the resource to determine the grade, tonnage and extent of the ore-body. A key aim is to obtain a JORC 2012 compliant resource. JORC 2012 (Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves) is a global industry standard.

Once data sufficient to demonstrate the viability of a project is obtained, the development stage is planned. Development is less risky because there is a firm plan to extract and process the ore, but capital costs of setting up the facilities to do so are growing fast.

Planning and building a mine can require capital of anywhere from $10 million to well over $100 million. This capital requirement at this stage is the reason why many projects are sold prior 92

to commencement of the development stage. It is akin to a small biotech startup doing the initial development and then selling the proposed drug to a major pharmaceutical firm to do clinical trials and global marketing.

Sometimes operating mines go back to the market to raise additional capital to fund further exploration and development.

Such followon exploration is generally considered much lower risk than initial exploration because some Sometimes operating mines go back re-source has to the market to raise additional capialready been tal to fund further exploration and dedemonstrated velopment. Such follow-on exploration is generally considered much lower risk to exist.

The extraction stage is where revenue commences and capital costs are generally much lower. Capital expenditure becomes operating expenditure, and that is commensurate with the amount of ore being mined and metal produced.

Assuming the exploration and development stages have been done correctly and the commodity prices remain strong, this is where the profit of the project is made. Ideally, the extraction stage will last several years so that initial capital expenditure can be recouped and profits derived. During this stage, most mines continue to do exploration work to expand the resource (how much payable material is identified) and extend the mine life (how long the mine can profitably produce.)

than initial exploration because some re-source has already been demonstrated to exist. There may be larger swathes of adjoining land to be explored, or more concentrated effort needed in a particular location.

While they are operating, mines need to make provision for shut-down and environmental remediation costs.

Many jurisdictions require mines to put up substantial environmental bonds to ensure that the clean up will be undertaken. This happens at the end of a mine’s life, once all economically accessible resource has been extracted.

THE INVESTING CHALLENGE As the process of raising capital can be slow and difficult so, too, the process of bringing mining assets into liquidity is slow and inefficient. There can be a delay of many months, or even years, until investors can get their money out.

And all this assumes that the many steps involved in bringing a mining project to production actually happen while the commodity price remains sufficiently strong to provide an economic return. Many investment funds and professional investors stay away due to: • Lack of trust and transparency – investors don’t know the promoters or the asset, and it can be difficult to get clear and accurate information on a given project • Risk of illiquidity – units in a private or unlisted company are hard to sell or dispose of unless the entity is sold or floated, and lead time to production (and hence revenue) can be several years • Perceived lack of transparency for use of funds.

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Solution: BCE as Mining Tokenization Platform Given the lack of transparency, prevalence of entrenched high-cost intermediaries, a limited investor base, and wide-spread lack of accountability, there is a substantial opportunity for a technology-driven platform to replace intermediaries and provide: • transparency, • accountability, • liquidity, • access to a broad investor base and a trusted storage solution.

The tokenization of Mining project assets and the resulting creation of financial transparency when dealing with those assets will be the much needed BCE PLATFORM OVERVIEW breakthrough BCE Platform and its related tools and brought about processes will facilitate the transformation of an antiquated and inefficient fi- by BCE. nancing and accounting process into a transparent, frictionless, automated system with enhanced liquidity for a new class of investors.

BCE’s mission is to be the gold standard for financing, accounting and making payments in the mining industry.

Its goals are to: • create a comprehensive Blockchainbased system for managing the entire economic lifecycle of a mining project;

TOKENIZED ASSET ASSEMBLY AND TOKENIZATION Once a Tokenized Asset (TA) has been assembled, the Platform will enable tokenization. Tokenization (see e.g. my first Internet of Tokens column http:// icocrowd.com/the-internet-of-tokens/ ) is the process of converting legal rights in the Tokenized Asset into a digital token that is recorded on the Blockchain using the Proprietary Asset Tokenization Protocol (PATP), and a customizable structure of relevant smart contracts. Tokenized Asset applications would be developed as customized iterations for BCE with layBCE will be developing several products ered integration which can be used to and strategies to achieve these goals. tokenize any assets. That protocol uses data about the Mining project providTHE PLATFORM ed by the project originator and alThe BCE Platform will encompass: lows for expert opinions about the as• The BCE website, wallet, distributset valuation so that the estimation ed application and mobile apps, each of market valuation will be as realisof which will permit or facilitate intic as possible. The Platform will also vestment in mining projects and the include automated governance, audit ability to engage in relevant transac- and escrow functionality embedded in tions; the smart contracts. The encrypted re• The smart contracts and other procords of the state of the data will be cesses that will allow the tokenizastored on the blockchain and investors tion of mining assets. The Compawill have view-only access rights via ny intends to license its Platform and the distributed application GUI. related technologies to parties seeking to finance or arrange financing BCE will create an end-to-end ecosysfor their mining properties. tem for representing legal ownership of property rights and the entitlements The Company will charge fees to acof various participants. The tokenizacess the platform and utilize its tools tion of Mining project assets and the and services. resulting creation of financial transpar• establish a new, transparent system for accounting for and transferring funds in the mining industry, starting from Battery Metals mining as a beachhead; • democratize the opportunity for qualified investors to participate in fair, risk-mitigated mining financing structures; • recruit key vendors and professional service providers onto the BCE system; and • provide investors and other mining stakeholders with timely, fair and accurate distributions of proceeds.

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ly and cost-effectively than it is possible today. This will be accomplished by using cryptocurrency and smart contracts to deliver accountability, transparency and liquidity for all parties.

The diagram below shows how a mining project assembled into TA will be tokenized on the Platform:

BENEFITS FOR FUNDERS The funders pre-purchase metals from the mine at a significant discount.

ency when dealing with those assets will be the much needed breakthrough brought about by BCE. TOKENIZED ASSET OFFERING Once a mining industry asset or project has been tokenized, it can be offered to investors through an Tokenized Asset Offering (“TAO”; for one of the first mentions of this term one may wish to check the publication https://www. coindesk.com/goodbye-icos-hello-taostokens-will-change-2018/ ). All funds raised through a TAO token sale will be stored in escrow wallets until the conditions of release have been met. The project funding mechanism will work in the following way: • Funds that were raised for a specific project will be stored in an escrow wallet • The only way to withdraw funds from that escrow wallet is to provide a required set of documents that will identify the amount of funds that needs to be withdrawn and for what purpose • Disbursement approval requires signature from an independent third-party such as a completion guarantor • Once the withdrawal is approved, the funds will be sent to the project originator’s active wallet from which all project expenses will be paid • In order to proceed to a second withdrawal, the protocol requires all the information about the final expenses from the previous withdrawal (if all the withdrawn were used, how much is left, or did it exceed to budget and why?)

• All of this information will be partially visible to TAO token holders of that specific project or set of projects. The project investors will be informed about the progress of the project through their BCE personal accounts, where they will see a progress bar with the amount of funds that have been distributed to date and for which purposes, including a signature provided by an independent auditor.

• As the projects enter the distribution cycle, the authorized token-holders 94

can view receivable balances and estimated revenue timelines based on real-time performance of the mining project.

BCE SOLUTION: PLATFORM FOR EFFICIENT MINING INVESTMENT BCE will allow funders to share in the metals produced by mines via pre-purchase of those metals at a discount.

Smart contracts, (specifying the rules of exchange, discounts, delivery dates, draw-down rules and other project details,) deployed via the blockchain, will be the mechanism which provides producers with the funding they need to carry out the work, and give funders transparency, accountability and liquidity.

Like so many industries, the value chain of commodity mining, processing and trading is being disrupted by companies using digital technologies to rewrite the rules of all aspects of the business. Every part of the chain, from securitization of assets (one of the ways to do it is presented in the article http://icocrowd. com/trillion-object-opportunity/ ) to the close-out of positions, is being un-bundled, redefined and rebuilt.

With the combined effect of information breaking out of proprietary silos, and growing demand for many resources on the part of global industries, the time is right for the creation of a decentralized, disintermediated, global platform which answers the complex needs of the mining industry. The solution is a platform that affects frictionless funding and trading of extracted resources through smart contract execution.

THE BCE VISION Efficiently and transparently fund promising mining projects, profiting and delighting both funders and producers by providing a global, immutable crypto store of value based on physical metal.

The core concept of BCE is to build a platform to help mining projects secure funding far more quickly, efficient-

We are building a system, which will spread the initial high risk of exploration among many backers, enabling all of them to participate in potentially high-reward projects.

The core concept of BCE is to build a platform to help mining projects secure funding far more quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively than it is possible today.

BCE will offer both the project owners and the backers all of the benefits of a decentralized platform: lowered barriers to entry, the confidence of long-term vi-ability, simplified processes and a clear pathway to liquidity.

This creates a store of value where the claim on physical metal is managed by a blockchain while the physical metal represented by the coin is in situ in the mine, being mined and processed, or stored in a highly secure location.

We believe that smart contracts provide a powerful way to solve the liquidity problem, enabling producers to fund early-stage projects and funders to participate in potentially lucrative projects while enjoying accountability and liquidity.

We are building a system, which will spread the initial high risk of exploration among many backers, enabling all of them to participate in potentially high-reward projects. The platform will be open-sourced with incentives provided for developers and others to enhance the offering with additional services, and for industry players to bring projects to the community.

The aim is to create a broad, global community of funders, many of whom have never previously invested in mining. We will provide news and information feeds and educational resources so people can easily learn about mining and understand how to access the opportunities.

BCE brings the funders and the founders together to help them efficiently meet their needs and mitigate the challenges of early-stage mining funding.

Funders want to generate a return on their funds. They typically believe that particular commodities may rise in value and understand the potential upside of funding successful mining projects at an early stage.

The key challenges for funders are largely around information. It can be hard to find prospective projects and, once a project is identified, there is the challenge of evaluating and then tracking the project. As already noted, funders often lack access to good information and, once an investment is

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made, generally face illiquidity for an extended period of time.

Anyone who wishes to participate in funding of mining projects can buy project coins (each of those backed by the mined resource, e.g. battery metal produced by the project) and trade those coins. This creates a frictionless, highly efficient ecosystem of peer2peer trading.

BCE: REPRESENTATION OF MINING RIGHTS BCE not only represents a true store of value based on physical metal, but it can also be considered to act as a proxy for mining rights themselves. This offers the possibility to dramatically simplify and standardize management of mining rights around the world. Currently, every jurisdiction (usually state or province level, occasionally national) has its own regulations and processes relating to applying for and maintaining mining rights.

There are different terms used in each of these jurisdictions and processes vary. If BCE becomes widely accepted then these jurisdictions could instead issue BCE (or project-coins) to the miners using a standardized process. If they so desired, authorities could issue some coins to other stakeholders such as local residents, landholders, and even environmental groups with an interest in the project.

will have the opportunity to see appreciation in the coins themselves and to have the ability to fund promising commodity projects which offer real utility and upside. .

Funders buy the mined resource at a significant discount to the spot price (because of the risk they are taking with delayed delivery, early stage of the project, etc). In effect, they are speculating on the project risk and the commodity.

BCE not only represents a true store of value based on physical metal, but it can also The project coins are backed by physical metal, so they are a real store of val- be considered ue and can appreciate as projects move to act as a towards production and if commodity proxy for prices rise. . mining rights themselves.

People who hold project coins can effectively trade metals with very low cost and high transparency and efficiency, so they can make returns if they back metals that increase in price. .

Producers only draw down funds if they meet milestones based on doing work that moves the project towards production. This gives an unprecedented level of transparency for funders of mining projects. .

Smart contracts will allow distribution fees and distribution As the platform grows and develops, we expenses to expect BCE to become a globally recog- be paid to nized store of value based on physical distributors metal that is immutably owned and seautomatically curely stored. while the For example, in jurisdictions where Na- UTILITY OF SMART CONTRACTS remaining tive Title is a factor (Australia, CanaSmart contracts will allow distriburevenues are da, New Zealand and elsewhere), this tion fees and distribution expenses to used to timely could simplify administration, speedbe paid to distributors automatically pay other ing up fair and equitable distribution of while the remaining revenues are used profits while smoothing out the manto timely pay other stakeholders in the stakeholders in agement processes. The other aspect of waterfall. Residuals and royalties can be the waterfall. this concept of a crypto-mining right is that holders of the token may decide to keep the store of value in the ground, rather than immediately mining it. This could happen for a number of reasons; the commodity price may fall, there may be significant environmental factors that argue against mining at present (and environmental activists may purchase sufficient coins to control the project for example) or local residents and other stakeholders may wish to delay mining for some reason. .

paid as the applicable revenues are collected, not later when they are accounted for. Investors, lenders, profit participants and all other stakeholders can be paid automatically, in accordance with smart contract waterfalls and their payments remitted on receipt rather than accumulated by the intermediaries and paid months after the end of the next accounting period.

Smart contracts created within the BCE framework will upgrade the ways in which all stakeholders are accountHence, BCE provides a flexible means of ed to and paid, improving fairness, acholding and trading the value of comcuracy and timeliness throughout the modities, be they in the ground or fulindustry. The BCE distributed applicaly produced. It also allows a much wid- tion will host an accounting layer on er range of funders and stakeholders to Ethereum to automatically record and share in a project than was previousaccount for transactions among BCE’s ly possible. various uses.

BCE PATHWAY TO CAPITAL APPRECIATION As we develop a strong, global platform, participants in BCE, project coins

EXCHANGE Subject to compliance with all applicable laws, the Company also plans to enable the BCE to facilitate the issuance,

purchase and sale of security tokens used to fund smart projects assembled and tokenized on the Platform.

For each project or set of projects, the TAO will be conducted on the Exchange. The Exchange will have filters on top of the browser window containing key information about each offered product. The Company anticipates that investors will be able to choose between investing in a set of projects of mining projects, such as the BCE Conservative, Intermediate or Aggressive Funds, or in individual projects.

If a user chooses the individual Mining project option, then under the filters Mining projects will be listed one after the other, with the project’s title on the left and the key information on the right. If user chooses the set of projects option, then the user will be able to view various available set of projects developed by industry experts. The GUI will displays key information about the set of projects; the user will have to click on the set of projects to view the complete information set including committed funds, essential project details, financial and other projections, key personnel, etc.

SELECTED BCE PLATFORM BENEFITS • Real Time Auditing and Reporting.

As revenue is generated through any transaction, the BCE dashboard will immediately report the receipt of funds. As these records are generated on the blockchain, real time auditable records will be created.

• Faster Payments. As funds flow into a transparent “bucket” that fills up and is distributed in accordance with the projects financial “waterfall,” stakeholders will receive their entitlements sooner.

• Reduced Costs. The smart contracts will reduce costs for legal, accounting and other expenses by eliminating redundant work and streamlining processes.

BCE intends to bring these benefits to all stakeholders over time, not just those currently closest to the cash. Because of its advantages, we believe that the Platform and related tools will eventually become the preferred standard for all mining industry transactions.

We believe that powerful growth in Electric Vehicles (EV) and Blockchain tools provides a great opportunity. And BCE enables investors and other stakeholders involved in mining of relevant key battery materials including lithium, cobalt and graphite to take full advantage of this opportunity!

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Bright Network

Bright Wants to Use Blockchain to Bridge the SMEs Credit ‘Data Gap’ Bright describes itself as a ‘decentralized financial services marketplace on blockchain’ and is working to close the credit gap faced by micro-businesses and SMEs around the world. The company says it is developing a verified business data ecosystem using data continuously provided by SMEs as well as trusted data sources, while keeping the data private, immutable and owned by the dataproviders themselves.

Through its ecosystem, Bright wants to improve the trust problem for small businesses and to 'diminish the friction' experienced by small businesses when interacting with the financial services sector in the lending process. This issue is especially acute in the emerging world. SMEs by in fast-growing markets such as India, NiICO CROWD geria and Kenya all lack access to financing of more than $1.2 trillion dollars, resulting in a so-called ‘credit gap’.

The ecosystem is intended to ensure that participants are able to measure, assess and quantify credit risk based on a combination of traditional and innovative methods including P2P references as well as more traditional risk assessment protocols.

Initially, and to prime the pump, Bright itself will provide loans to businesses through BrightBank; and SME businesses will have access to loans at affordable interest rates based on bringing to market fresher and more relevant data about the business, which results in more accurate assessments and improvement of the lender’s bottom line. Any small business with access to a smartphone can apply for a loan. Additionally, credit assessments and lending decisions are arrived at instantaneously, saving the business owner time and effort, with no need to visit a bricks-andmortar bank branch. Small businesses in emerging markets have experienced this type of service using telephone call records and the M-Pesa system; but only offered with very limited finance. The 96

Bright is like an operational fork of AMPP Group, a UK-based FinTech business.

SMEs in fast-growing markets such as India, Nigeria and Kenya all lack access to financing of more than $1.2 trillion dollars, resulting in a so-called ‘credit gap’.

telcos metrics are very current but they do not have the whole credit risk picture.

By leveraging blockchain technology and data science, we can provide small businesses with loans and enable them to become greater participants to the global economy.” Bright will work to close this credit gap by providing the essential funds necessary to achieve success through a blockchain-based trust validation registry and financial services marketplace. And it will open its ecosystem to third-party financial services organizations creating a marketplace of lenders including banks, alternative lenders, and other institutional investors.

Bright is like an operational fork of AMPP Group, a UK-based FinTech business. AMPP has developed B2B technology platforms with the UK Government Department for International Trade, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and the Confederation of Indian Industry. There are lots of opportunities for accredited investors in our upcoming token sale, if you are interested in participating, please email our investment advisor info@ploutosinternational. net to receive more information.

Bright is advised by the London-based Ploutos International Ltd.