CNN looks at three ICOs this week in the energy, bacteria and AML space.
- ENVION
One stop shop in modular crypto rigs
Envion purports to be one shop in modular crypto rigs. They have a clear focus on green energy with their main pitch offering cloud/crypto mining kits. These specialized kits deliver renewable energy at almost zero cost according to their white paper. There is no mention, however, if the company has any commercial price agreements in place.
Most investors will look for hard evidence that their green renewable mining kits work which is not apparent. There is also an absence of a rollout program and no mention of physical sites – or if the physical sites might require planning permission. Other possible issues appear to be a lack of experience in these installations. Finally, should they be successful, will the company be able to scale?
Professionally presented ICO
As far as the actual ICO documentation is concerned this is well presented and is well weighted towards crypto and mining. On the negative side, the website offers highly speculative return figures but failed to supply a more detailed financial model.
The whitepaper does not have any SWOT equivalent of any type and there is no mention or evidence of a market analysis, therefore it does not identify the relevant competitors in the market.
Interested parties might invest some time and google on modular mining rigs, cloud crypto mining and ICO crypto mining to see if they can find comparable ventures that could give any potential investors some information and yardsticks to help in a proper evaluation.
Envion has a launch date which runs from the 15th of December through to the 14 of January with a 30% presale bonus scaling back to no bonus by mid-ICO. It has a hard cap of $150,000,000 and while there is no formal soft cap stated, the references noted that if they raise less than $7 million they will spend the funds mainly on business development and will not purchase any equipment.
Heavy on tech, light on rollout
The team appears to be young and energetic, with skillsets weighted towards the crypto world and a bit of emphasis on solar energy as well.
The team appears to lack experience however in the supply chain management and network implementation/maintenance.
Envion has a decent social media presence: Twitter 4407, Facebook 37 284, Instagram 12 100, Telegram 11 951.
Overall there is a good buzz around Envion; but investors need to be aware that while good ideas are valuable, execution and delivery on promises are key.
2. BACTOALARM
BactoAlert – a revolutionary labeling system that detects bacteria.
BactoAlert is a revolutionary new breakthrough in biotechnology and food labeling. It is a simple invention, a food label that detects unacceptable levels of bacteria in food and changes color accordingly. The company claims to be fully patented and linked up with a suitable manufacturer and is ready to hit the global market in a major way.
BactoCoin – Is it a currency or is it a token?
The BactoCoin is not really a currency – in that it might be tradeable in future. The concept seems to provide a token that they can use to get crowdfunding for their innovative patented idea.
Traditional fundraising is not easy, so it would appear the BactoAlarm team has decided to opt for the ICO business model. The ICO seems to be have been done on no budget; there is no mention of a technical team within the structure. This may mean that they have added the ICO attempt at a late stage within their development and don’t fully understand the need for a good solid tech support to be demonstrated.
It is also important to include building a social media buzz around their product. For now, they are taking the Henry Ford approach and believe that their product is strong enough to stand on its own and speak for itself.
A team based heavily in science but not technology.
With this approach, they are polarizing the investment prospects which will make it interesting to see how they do in their new climate. After going through the whitepaper, and the associated materials, it definitely seems like they have been working on their invention for quite a while and have academics involved as well as legitimate manufacturers. This will be a test of pure innovation; how good that innovation is and how well can they convince the public/their audience of its profitability.
Their business plan is not entirely detailed, and there seems to be a lack of heavyweight business acumen to push this one forward, they need to bring a broader base of skills to push their current route.
Important factors – independent verification of the invention.
Key to the success of this project is the strength of innovation. To this end, they advertise their patents and provide insight into current tests and experiments. While this is impressive, a prudent investor would also investigate independent verification for the tests they are running on their invention. Another missing component was a full business plan and the proposed roadmap to profitability.
Once the third party, independent verification can be obtained, this could prove to be an exciting project to invest in but the public verification is key at this stage.
Bacto is running for one week only from the 14th of the December to the 23rd. There is no presale on this one. The token is BTN (Bactocoin) worth 25 CHF (Swiss Francs). There is aim to sell 4 million BTN during this week and aim to raise approximately $90 Million. There seems to be no information on the soft cap as of yet.
3. COINFIRM
Crossover product from crypto to mainstream
This is a rather complicated offering that wishes to bridge the need for better risk and compliance reporting. The pitch is all about compliance and risk management. They are aiming for mass adoption of cryptocurrencies to the mainstream market and are all about “anti money laundering” (AML) and “know your customer” (KYC).
They have a large, well established social media presence: Twitter 2800, Facebook 760 and they have an impressive list of positive articles across crypto and financial media. They have a large team with established names that check out, along with some heavyweight partners.
Managing risk, compliance, and audit
Many companies struggle with regulatory compliance. Coinfirm’s Amlt network focuses on three specific aspects of regulatory compliance, including Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF), and Know Your Customer (KYC).
These regulatory requirements play a crucial role in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries. The Amlt whitepaper explains that these requirements have “been a massive roadblock to their overall mass adoption.”
Platform agnostic working across BTC, Ethereum, and Dash
The compliance product so far is set to work with BitCoin, Ethereum, and Dash and is platform-agnostic. The product definitely appears from everything presented to be legitimate and generating interest, claiming $6 million raised on the first day of its ICO. Whilst it might not promise the quick rich fortunes of some of the edgier ICOs, this is definitely worth examining in detail if you are looking for solid bets.
Amlt ICO runs from 12th December 2017 – 30th of January 2018. 10,000,000 Amlt’s being offered currently at about $40-50 million value. It is an Ethereum based currency with the ratio being 1 AMLT to 0.00003387075 ETH.
