Important Dates: Jan 26th – ICO finishes
Number of Tokens: 200 million
Cap: $30 Million
Token Type: ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain
Ticker: JNT
What is Jibrel?
Jibrel is a platform that can be used to tokenize assets. It aims to create tokens that represent equities, currencies, commodities and other financial assets on the Ethereum blockchain. Jibrel calls these tokenized assets CryptoDepository Receipts (CryDR). CryDRs will also have regulatory rules built into the smart contracts that create the tokens.
What is the problem Jibrel wants to solve?
Financial assets can be illiquid and cumbersome to trade. It is also difficult to use the same systems to trade different financial products as they all have different characteristics. However, by representing an asset a token on the blockchain that is underwritten by a smart contract, all these problems go away. In a tokenized world, all assets could be represented by tokens, and many of the different systems and trading platforms could be rationalized. This would create massive efficiciencies and lower costs.
What is Jibrel’s Business Plan?
Jibrel’s whitepaper is academic in nature and describes the technical aspects of the project in great detail. However, it does not mention how Jibrel intends to monetize its business in any way. I am unclear if Jibrel has a business plan.
ICO
The ICO has already started and is slated to run until Jan 26th. Jibrel foresees an exchange listing in February shortly after the sale closes.
Token Utility
The Jibrel Network Token (JNT) will be used to pay for on-chain fees and commissions. The whitepaper points out that ETH would not be suitable as a fuel for transactions due to its volatility – however it is not clear how the JNT will solve this problem! If they really wanted to get rid of volatility, they should use an asset backed token as the fuel. However, then they couldn’t do an ICO as there would no expectation of token appreciation.
The Team
The team is based in Switzerland and is headed by Yazan Barghuthi who comes from a consulting background and has an impressive CV. The rest of the team is also good, some members having good blockchain backgrounds. The advisors are also good, with the most notable being Ruslan Gavrilyuk who founded TaaS.
Hype
Jibrel only has 1642 users in its Telegram channel. For token sale that has already started – this is underwhelming. There have been some positive media mentions about Jibrel, particularly regarding a partnership with Bitcoin Suisse.
Competition
Swarm: The Swarm Fund is a platform that tokenizes real world assets and allows people to invest in them via sub funds. Some of the assets that Swarm plans to support on its platform include distressed real estate, solar installations and a proper hedge fund. Swarm Tokens are needed to buy into the subfunds.
Wanchain: Wanchain is a platform that allows different blockchains to interact. It had its ICO in October and is scheduled to release its main net in Q1 next year. Not only does it allow financial assets to be put on its blockchain, but it also has privacy features and the ability to link to other blockchains.
Risks
Scalability: I keep harping on about scaling in my ICO reviews, but time and time again projects are selecting the Ethereum blockchain as a platform solely because it is the most popular. However, in its current state it is totally unsuitable for applications that have frequent transactions (see Crypto Kitties). Projects should seriously evaluate whether alternative blockchains (e.g. Neo, Qtum among others) would be more suitable.
Competition: Again, this is something that comes up again and again, but many of these projects are trying to do the same thing. Not all of the will be successful. There are a number of other projects that are trying to do the EXACT same thing as Jibrel that are further along. Only time will tell which one will succeed.
Scores
Fundamental Indicators
Concept: 3
The concept of is fantastic. Tokenizing real-world assets is one of the best use cases for blockchains. However, there is little in Jibrel’s project that makes it stand out from its competitors. I like the idea of building in regulation into Smart-contracts, but I don’t see anything else that makes we want to choose Jibrel over another project.
Token Utility: 1
Jibrel’s CryDRs have tremendous value, but on this metric I am looking at the token that is being sold, which is the JNT. In this case, the JNT token little use. Ether could be used just as well and this project would work. Clearly the JNT token only exists so the project can have an ICO.
Status: 4
Jibrel has a very active Github, which is a great sign. They have already released their wallet and plan to release a CryDR blockchain explorer in Q1. Overall, this project is quite far along. This is better than many token sales which just have a whitepaper and no working product.
Team: 4
The team has a good background and experience. The advisors are also strong.
Competition: 2
There are many competitors in this space and many of them are farther along than Jibrel. It will be difficult to stand out among the crowd.
Strategy: 0
The only information I was able to find that indicated Jibrel had given any thought to a business plan was a single line on the road map that mentioned in Q2 financial institutions can use the platform for tokenizing assets. A complete lack of business planning does not bode well for a project’s success.
Technical Indicators
Market Cap: 3
A 30 million market cap is at the higher level for a project. Projects that have great marketing and demand can get away with a larger market cap as there will be interest on the secondary market. On the other hand, Jibrel does not have a huge demand for its ICO, which limits upside potential for this project.
Hype: 2
Jibrel has not effectively marketed this ICO. There is poor community engagement and this is reflected in the small number of users in the Telegram channel.
Investment Horizon
Short Term:
While it looks like the token sale will sell out (65% of tokens sold with 35 days remaining), the hype factor plays a pivotal role in performance on the secondary market. Quite frankly, Jibrel’s hype is lacking and this does not bode well for an immediate price jump after listing.
Long Term:
I am also not optimistic about the long term potential for Jibrel. There is no business plan, so it is unclear how the project will make money. There is also an intense amount of competition from other projects that are doing the same thing.
Conclusion
With so many good ICOs on the horizon (see my earlier review of Props as an example of a good ICO), Jibrel may not be worth the risk.
Overall Score: 2.4
