Today on ICOs This Week we review Etheal, a project that seeks to make healthcare affordable; iCasting, a new platform for the casting industry and PavoCoin, a solution to farming inequalities.
Etheal: Making Healthcare Readily Affordable and Accessible Through Blockchain
Every year, advanced developments in medicine, specifically medtech, help us find new and smarter ways to keep the grim reaper at bay. Of course, as human life-expectancy increases, so global healthcare expenditure shoots through the roof. Researchers say the cost of obtaining healthcare is expected to increase at a rate of $300 billion every year. Some people have opted to receive treatment abroad. The practice known as medical tourism is projected to grow to $540 billion by 2025 with a 25% CAGR. Unfortunately, these eye-popping numbers have not helped eliminate the fundamental challenges patients and healthcare professionals have to battle in the industry. This is the reason Etheal exists; to disrupt the global healthcare industry by using the blockchain to make quality healthcare cheaper, faster and more easily accessible.
The majority of patients face challenges to varying degrees when trying to access quality, affordable and timely healthcare. The first challenge is that of skyrocketing costs. Healthcare providers also have difficulties in building a reputation as a trusted provider. To solve these challenges, Etheal has developed a blockchain based solution that will cater to the billion dollar healthcare industry. The company has developed an MVP which has been used for the past four years. With blockchain based incentivized global lists of healthcare professionals, and a content platform that helps patients save from $7,000-$50,000 on elective care costs, a few swipes on their smartphone is all it takes for patients to search for and book specialists from around the world. Healthcare providers are indexed according to their specialty, and there is a peer-review system in place. All the information is localized, therefore users can access it in their native language. The rating and ranking system is smart contracts based, with an anonymous feature.
The Etheal team is made up of medical practitioners with decades of experience in both offline and online healthcare delivery. The advisory team also has people experienced in different areas like finance, PR, medical, pharmaceutical and legal. Their whitepaper appears to be a work-in-progress however. They have a really strong social media presence with a vibrant 16,000+ community following on Telegram. Scoring between 4-5 stars, Etheal has positive ratings on ICO Bench, ICO Guru, ICO Crunch and Track ICO.
Token economics: Etheal (HEAL) token, is an ERC20 standard token with a 20 mark, Howey test score. Maximum token supply is 92,000,000 HEALs with a $10 million hardcap at crowdsale. Token distribution is as follows: 1 million HEALs to be distributed at presale, 3 million HEALs for early contributors and 12 million HEALs for main sale. Bounty hunters will have 1.5 million HEALs to share, while the community reward pool and HODL reward each have 20 million HEALs set aside. Founders, team and advisers have 20.5 million HEALs locked and vested over a 3 year period with a one year cliff. Etheal has siloed 14 million HEALs for future token sale. 1 ETH will give an investor 600 HEALs. There are also early bird bonuses ranging from 30%-2% depending on when the token purchase is made. Unfortunately, there is no information in their whitepaper nor on their website with regards to funds allocation.
Tokens can be used for many things like profile validation and internal currency as payment for services on the Etheal platform. Quality healthcare is a must have, regardless of nationality or gender. Etheal aims to ensure everyone, anywhere can access affordable quality healthcare.
iCasting: A Blockchain Based Platform for the Casting Industry
Matching talent with clients in the traditional casting industry is one fraught with among other things’ inequalities, lengthy processing, lack of privacy, exorbitant costs and inefficiency. iCasting is hoping to challenge the status quo. The Netherlands based company which was founded in 2013 hopes to make the casting industry simple, cheap and quick, while giving both clients and talent the control and security they deserve. iCasting will be utilizing blockchain technology and its Talent Token to evolve the current industry into a true talent ecosystem. Thereby creating a worldwide, decentralized process where full control and security lies in the hands of clients and talent, relegating large fees and slow communication to the past. Major features of the project include a decentralized casting process and payment escrow facilitated by using smart contracts, while also giving participants full control of their profile data and financial transactions.
Following its pilot launch in the Netherlands, iCasting now has the largest talent database in the country, boasting 0,8% of the casting market’s total population. With over 35,000 matches made among 1500+ clients and 140,000+ talent, iCasting has shown that they have the capacity to disrupt a global casting industry worth trillions. This isn’t just a tokenized ecosystem for the casting industry, the platform will also be a self-sustaining community having a Blockchain Reputation Program; Gamification; Unique matching algorithm; iCasting Academy and iCasting Events. Not just talent will be tokenized, the casting community will also be tokenized. Models, hairdressers, fashion designers, musicians, dancers, extras and so on, are all part of the community.
A combination of experienced managers, skilled professionals, blockchain experts and entrepreneurs with proven track records, make up the iCasting team. Although, it seems to be a ‘bro-nation’, with only three females out of a team of 19. The advisory board for iCasting is made up of four people with a proven record in successful ICOs and blockchain projects who will be adding valuable knowledge in areas of finance, legal and tax regulations. Their whitepaper is professionally written, well arranged and contains all necessary details. As they have been around for a while they have a strong social media presence. They have scored positively on ICOBench, ICOSlot, ICOMarks and CoinCheckup.
Before reviewing their token economics, please note that the ICO launch date is yet to be announced. Their website asks visitors to subscribe for updates via email as they work on launching in late 2018. A maximum 350,000,000 Talent Tokens (TLNT) will ever be in circulation, 259,000,000 distributed among participants in the forthcoming Token sale, with 192,500,000 TLNT expected to be sold. The price for each Talent Token is €0.07 with €13.75 million set as hardcap and only ETH accepted as payment. Token distribution for the 350 million Talent Tokens will be: 55% to be distributed at ICO crowdsale, 19% to be given out as bonus, 4% goes to advisers and ambassadors, founders and team have 12% set aside for them, while investors and bounty will take 5% each. Funds allocation is as follows: 35% for technical development; 25% for marketing; 10% for database expansion, with product roll-out and general administration having 15% each.
Projects with an already successful MVP tend to have a higher rate of long term success. Since its inception, iCasting has catered to thousands of clients and talent within the Netherlands area. One of the aims of this ICO is to have a wider global reach, which is likely to receive lots of attention considering there is evidence of results. This industry, more than most, needs a good shake-up and with a business model that utilizes a hybrid of B2B and B2C, iCasting aims to provide a level playing field for participants with no losing side.
PavoCoin: A Blockchain Solution to Farming Inequalities
Those who said that blockchain can’t put food on the table may soon be eating their words. PavoCoin plans to use the disruptive influence of crypto and blockchain to cut out the middle-man and give the small to medium farmer a better deal. Everyone wants cheaper groceries, and large supermarkets have been putting the squeeze on farmers to lower prices and stay competitive. At the same time, consumers-particularly those with money to spare, want organic and sustainable produce.
With PavoCoin, consumers can buy directly from the farmer in the Pavo Marketplace. Discounted purchases are available for token holders. The PavoCoin fuels the project, allowing the farmer to use the Ethereum Blockchain to create smart contracts with local grocers and restaurants. Farmers will also use the marketplace to sell crop data to universities and other enterprises.
Agriculture is a $5 trillion market, so it’s no wonder agriculture-related ICOs are cropping up everywhere. What makes PavoCoin different is that it also hopes to help farmers yield better produce. How? The platform acts like a sophisticated personal assistant to the farmer, tracking his or her every move, recording all sorts of relevant data to boost productivity and quality such as; identifying how many times the crops have been sprayed and labor costs. The system is currently being beta-tested in California.
PavoCoin’s team boast a wide range of experience in both agriculture and tech. Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman Allan Young founded one of the largest technology incubators in the San Francisco Bay area and Silicon Valley, while other team members have strong backgrounds in innovation, business and marketing. And they’ve been making an impression, attracting a rating of 4.2/5 on ICO Bench and 5/5 on Coin Ranker. With an excellent website, readable whitepaper and decent social media activity, this is an ICO with a sheen of professionalism.
Having completed its private pre-sale, PavoCoin has commenced its public pre-sale with a 33% discount available until the start of the ICO on the 7th of August. There are 100 million tokens up for sale, out of an overall supply of 200 million. But at $1 per token, this is anything but a risk-free venture. The rest of the tokens are divided like this: 20% will be placed in reserve; 15% are for the team, their investors and partners; a further 10% will be held in a community reserve, while the remaining 6% are divided evenly between the ICO bounty and incentives, and a grower’s reserve.
PavoCoin plans to use 40% of the money raised in the ICO to develop the platform, while a further 30% is earmarked for the PavoCoin community. 10% will be spent on administration, along with 10% for Marketing. The remaining 10% will be split evenly between legal expenses and a reserve fund.
So is this a project worth investing in? Well, we all have to eat, and the project as presented is simple enough to be successful. It’s a workable solution to a problem that has great importance both socially and economically. There is little doubt that blockchain will have a role to play in food production and agriculture, and smart contracts on blockchain have already happened in China. But here’s some food for thought: Will this $1 token be worth more than $1 in five years time? Would you bet the farm on it? I don’t think that I would.
