In ICOs This Week: Bazista, online purchasing for the unbanked, PayPro, the first completely decentralized bank and Origami Network, and Blockchain escrow payments for small businesses.
Bazista – online purchasing for the unbanked
So what is Bazista? Bazista aims to provide a payment solution for the unbanked, that’s the meat and bones of it. Bazista is a marketplace in which you can exchange products for cryptocurrencies. It is completely open to both buyers and sellers who wish to set themselves up on this website, which allows transactions globally and can potentially involve any product you can think of. The tokens for Bazista are BZS, the presale was in December and their main crowdsale now runs from the 8th of January through to the 3rd of March. They have a soft cap of $1.3 Million and a hard cap of $9.5 million with 321 200 000 BZS being available for purchase this time around.
The Bazista team are predominately based in Russia, but have set up in Estonia and have their eyes on the Indian market which is smart given the fact that India is currently booming as one of the largest and most active economies in the world currently. Bazista are looking to recreate a trading environment similar to Amazon, with the main difference being that people will conduct their purchases and their sales exclusively through cryptocurrencies. They have an ambitious and aggressive strategy, in which they hope to get over 30,000 Indian sellers in the next year, populating their online marketplace sufficiently enough to initiate a vibrant and active online shopping ecosystem.
Despite their terrible slogan “Bazista – Everything for the lady and mister”, this ICO has set itself up for potential greatness. With the aim being to target India, I would say that they have their priorities straight, especially as a large portion of the Indian population are unbanked. With the introduction of a new online marketplace where business is done through crypto, I think this ICO could be very beneficial to a huge number of small business owners located in India. It could also spark a new wave of Indian entrepreneurs who are now more likely to engage in business startups, given that they now have an easier outlet to buy, sell and trade their goods.
PayPro – the first completely decentralized bank
In a similar vein to Bazista, PayPro are seeking to set up a decentralized bank, providing banking solutions to those without the means to engage with financial institutions. Their main crowd sale is running from the 8th of January through to the 15th of January, their token is PYP and the conversion rate is 1 ETH to 500 PYP. They have a hard cap of 5 million Euro, depending on the exchange rate. Due to legal restrictions, the token is actually unavailable for sale to countries including Singapore, Estonia, and the US.
The team behind PayPro look legit and have already been through a number of successful funding rounds, they also have the backing of the VC (Venture Capital) Community including the Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica. The PayPro concept is to have a decentralized Dapp (Distributed Apps) platform that will allow people to deposit money into their online wallet with a wide range of services and goods to choose from.
The ICO reviewing community as a whole are not sure what to think of PayPro just yet, there seems to be a lot of mixed opinions on the product. The marketplace is full of competition and it is curious that they have purely gone for developing the payment handling, as opposed to creating the platform completely. On the other hand, it is a solid, streamlined looking ICO and PayPro claim that it is more important to understand the payment side of it completely before allocating a lot of resources towards designing a trading portal. One to watch for the future, regardless of your stance on its potential.
Origami Network – Blockchain escrow payments for small businesses
Origami Network is a small but competent project from a tightly knit consortium of three developers who already have a product up and running with three of their own companies. Their pitch is all about an escrow payment system that targets small to medium online suppliers, aiming to fill a lucrative market gap while also trying to make life easier for those involved. The fact that they already have a concrete product that is proven to work is promising for this ICO, having something concrete to analyze and measure is a huge plus and is reassuring for potential investors.
The platform is a P2P (Peer to Peer) blockchain-powered escrow payment systems with relatively low transaction fees compared to old school fiat currencies. It is a decentralized Bitcoin/Ethereum powered network that also has a reputation system built in. At present they are without a large budget to push any kind of social media hype, but perhaps their solid foundation and a proven product will be enough for them to generate a bit of buzz around their ICO. These guys have also come up through a startup accelerator environment and have a few good business partners, including the French Bank CIC.
A bit of effort into the social media side of their project could really be all they need to be on to a winner. Opening a telegram channel, or even engaging with members of the community through Facebook and twitter could be sufficient to propel them onto a higher tier. With a bit more hype they could be on to something great, and could even take on the big boys like Stripe and Paypal.
