OriginTrail ICO Review: New Blockchain-based Protocol To Support Data Integrity And Interoperability In The Supply Chain

By
Fernando Sanchez
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Origintrail Ico Review: New Blockchain-based Protocol To Support Data Integrity And Interoperability In The Supply Chain
Origintrail Ico Review: New Blockchain-based Protocol To Support Data Integrity And Interoperability In The Supply Chain
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Logistics, and the entire supply chain, are key elements in commerce.

How a company produces, manages, transports, and delivers its goods or services will determine its profitability, longevity, and popularity. Therefore, the planning, coordination, operation, control and optimization of the many activities, processes, and interactions involved in the whole supply chain environment play a pivotal role for a company, be it a multi-national or small, local firm.

Traditionally, the supply chain has been managed by a group of individuals who pool their resources together within their department. But the advent of blockchain technology is slowly permeating to a lot of different industry aspects, including supply chain.

Blockchain allows for the decentralization of supply chain management, particularly in terms of data management and scalability.

OriginTrail is a pioneering ICO that offers IT providers working in the supply chain environment the possibility to support data sharing across multiple organizations, through a blockchain solution.

This piece is an analysis of the facts available about the OriginTrail ICO. It should not be read as offering advice or a recommendation. While ICOs have quickly become a popular tool for funding projects and start-ups, they can also be very high-risk for token purchasers.

Additionally, ICOs currently have an unclear legal and financial status. Token buyers may find that their purchase does not offer them any security or equity because the ICO is closer to a crowdfunding initiative than a traditional IPO. As such, any investor who plans to buy tokens during any ICO needs to obtain all relevant independent advice and carry out their own appropriate due diligence.

OriginTrail: The relevance of blockchain technology for data sharing environments

One could argue that data is the lifeblood of any computerized system. How this data is handled, and how systems communicate with each other is a key consideration to guarantee their interoperability. According to OriginTrail, a lot of the data involved in supply chain and logistics is very fragmented in nature, which makes it harder to interpret and handled by IT providers.

Another key flaw of current supply chain environments is that they are centralized, which gives rise to concerns about collusion between parties, possibility of tampering, etc.

OriginTrail’s decentralized solution aims for a more unified and decentralized data stream to enable a more efficient data sharing environment for IT providers.

OriginTrail in figures & quick facts

  • Token Name – Trace (TRAC)
  • Total Token Amount – 500,000,000
  • Token Price – 1 Trace – $0.10
  • Pre-sale Start Date – January 15, 2018
  • Pre-sale End Date – January 28, 2018
  • Pre-sale Hard Cap – $10m
  • ICO Start Date – January 29, 2018
  • ICO End Date – February 12, 2018
  • ICO Hard Cap – $22.5m

The OriginTrail token

As with any other ICO, the company will issue its own currency, the OriginTrail token (TRAC).

Once created, the TRAC token will be distributed as follows:

  • Pre-sale and ICO – 50%
  • Future Development – 20%
  • Founders & Pre-ICO Contributors – 18%
  • Liquidity – 5%
  • Team & Advisors – 5%
  • Bounties – 2%

The team

OriginTrail’s website presents a core team of 13 people, plus eight advisors.

There is plenty of supply chain and blockchain expertise among team members, and also web development, marketing, finance, PR, etc.

All team members bar one feature a link to their LinkedIn profile.

Overall, it appears as a competent and reasonably numbered team, with a good balance of skills.

It is worth mentioning that the website mentions that OriginTrail is currently hiring. You can see more on this on the Careers section of the site.

Social Media presence and digital footprint

A strong presence on Social Media is usually a good indicator of a company’s popularity, though it is not the only factor that determines success.

Here’s the numbers for OriginTrail at the time of writing (Early January 2018).

  • Twitter – 3,144 followers
  • Facebook – 1,527 followers
  • Medium – 171 followers
  • LinkedIn – 349 followers
  • Telegram – 2,847 followers

OriginTrail’s presence on Social Media is currently limited. This is in no way a sign of either failure or success, it simply means that the ICO needs to reach out to more people through more channels, to become a solidly established ICO.

Social Media support is crucial these days, so the more channels that an ICO can reach out through, the better chances it has to garner a solid, loyal, and steady following.

OriginTrail needs to work on building its brand further.

Competition

OriginTrail does not stand alone on the playing field of ICOs involved in the supply chain industry.

FarmaTrust and blockarray for example are also committed to improving the logistics industry through blockchain technology.

What this means is that OriginTrail does face a steeper road at this point, so it must show that its value proposition is superior to any of its competitors, if it’s to survive in the long run.

Website quality & layout

An ICO’s website is the first port of call for any potential investors, and if the site isn’t appealing enough, they will move on and forget about your proposition, no matter how good or viable it may be. It is therefore imperative to design a good website, to make a strong and lasting first impression.

OriginTrail’s website is rather elegant, featuring a very pleasant color palette and diverse sources of information and media related to the ICO’s offering.

It is of course secure, which is a must for a company dealing with cryptocurrencies.

Overall, the website is neat, useful, and easy to navigate.

Whitepaper

A well laid out, informative, comprehensive Whitepaper is a must for any ICO, if they are to be taken seriously. Documentation is sometimes treated as an afterthought, leaving many companies open to some criticism.

OriginTrail’s WhitePaper comes in the brief side, fielding 27 pages. However, the font used is rather small, which mean that the pages are packed with information.

Overall, the paper looks rather dull and uninspiring, with very little colour to liven it up. Also, the grammar is somewhat lazy in places, which is a common problem among many ICOs. This problem would be very easily avoided by employing proofreading services.

OriginTrail’s Whitepaper ranks as ‘Acceptable’.

Conclusion

The supply chain and logistics industry, dull as it may be in the whole scheme of things, does play a vital role in business. Virtually every item that you see every day, at home, at work, etc., would have been manufactured, packaged, shipped, stacked, and delivered to you through the supply chain.

So it stands to reason that any proposition that aims to improve and enhance the processes involved in such endeavour can only be a good thing.

Whether investors feel the same way is another story.

We’ll revisit OriginTrail’s value proposition in due course.

 

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