STATUS ICO ANALYSIS
OVERVIEW
- Name: Status
- Ticker symbol: SNT
- Project type: Libre, open source platform for messaging and network to run a set of Ethereum DApps
- Company: Status Research & Development GmbH (Baarerstrasse 10 — Zug, Switzerland)
- Website: https://status.im/
- Whitepaper: https://status.im/whitepaper.pdf
- ICO: 17/06/2017 at 1400 GMT to 01/07/2017 at 1400 GMT, see http://contribute.status.im/
- Soft cap: 12mln CHF
- Hard cap: Hidden cap to be announced after ICO begins, dynamic ceilings, in-depth explanation here: https://blog.status.im/distribution-dynamic-ceilings-e2f427f5cca
- Token: SGT, follows ERC20 standard
- Bonus structure: None
- Referral system: To be decided
- Open source: Yes, Mozilla Public License v2.0
- Team size: 12, plus 10 advisors.
- Developer team active: Yes, steady activity on GitHub and Slack
- GitHub: 35 contributors, +1400 commits, https://github.com/status-im/
- Wiki: https://wiki.status.im/​
- Slack: +8300 users, http://slack.status.im/
- Twitter: +6100 followers https://twitter.com/ethstatus
- Reddit: +760 redditors https://www.reddit.com/r/statusim/
- Facebook: +1900 likes https://www.facebook.com/ethstatus
- YouTube: +900 subscribers, https://www.youtube.com/statusim
STATUS
By offering a simple tool to interact with contacts and vendors, pay and manage funds, Status aims to leverages on the same sentiments that drive WeChat, the messaging app that revolutionized the Chinese market.
Status is an open source client for Android and iOS, currently in alpha, that uses the Ethereum platform to provide a set of decentralized applications in a cohesive ecosystem.
The main focus is to offer to users the following:
- privacy focused communication between Status users
- Secure payments
- An integrated wallet for crypto currency fund storage
- Astore for decentralized applications, with functionalities similar to Android’s Google Play Store and Apple’s AppStore
- Stickers to drive user engagement on the platform
- Browsing pages built inside Status by the users
The main aim of this software is to provide an easy gateway to Ethereum for the masses that are outside of the blockchain and smart contracts inner circle. With an easy to use interface to access these DApps, the mainstream audience will understand the benefits of interacting with a system that does not have middlemen or centralized servers. Users can interact with the Ethereum blockchain without having to worry about the intricate norms and that regulate it, and this will lead more people to understand the benefits of permission-less, open protocols as useful tools.
People are used to interact with messengers and use them to organize and manage their daily life. A combination of messaging platform and an ad-hoc browser will set the foundation upon which Status will build tools targeted to fulfill their digital needs, such as managing money, offering services and building communities.
With this platform, Status’ team aims to offer a decentralized medium where users can interact without intermediaries, and developers can build additional tools on an transparent system that guarantees privacy and permit everyone to use smart contracts in the simplest way possible.
SNT
One of the core features offered by Status is the Status Teller Network, a Dapp that allows users to exchange fiat to crypto. This permits Status to tackle the problem that most crypto currencies face: easily obtaining coins. Thanks to the SNT, Status users can trade face to face and easily trade cash for crypto currency, a local economy that has grown to about 30 million USD per week.
USE CASES
Thanks to Status and the blockchain, users can now solve several problems that have not been tackled as easily before. The use cases presented in the whitepaper are different and highlight how simple it can be for users to interact with it.
For example, just like it happens in china with WeChat, a street vendor can simply add a mean of payment and generate additional revenue by using this app. Migrants can use the SNT to send money back to their families without incurring in high fees at each transfer. People living in places where the main fiat currency is very volatile can purchase gold backed tokens such as DGX to secure their funds. An user living in a heavily censored country can circumvent network or banking limitations, choosing vendors in the decentralized Status Market. Artists and celebrities can monetize their content, for example by using a chat Dapp that includes payments. Casual users can easily send stickers that are pegged to a certain amount of gold, sharing them as birthday presents.
COMPETITORS ANALYSIS
KIK
The messaging app Kik has recently announced the introduction of it’s open source crypto token, named KIN. This fixed-supply, fractionable, long-term noninflationary crypto currency will be used to pay for digital services both inside and outside the messaging application.
WeChat is a Chinese mobile application that offers instant messaging, commerce and payment services targeted to vendors and casual users, developed by Tencent. It’s payment system, called WeChat Pay, revolutionized the Chinese market. Virtually every vendor and shop, both online and offline, features this platform.
Token
Coinbase’s Token is an application that offers instant global payments and an app ecosystem based on Ethereum. Users can communicate with each other and with automated bots in a secure way.
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
HIDDEN HARD CAPS
Status decided not to reveal what the hard cap during this ICO .This makes it complicated to determine how the market is going to react. The speculations that can be made are limited by this factor, and the clues to guess a realistic range are lacking. This strategy has been implemented to discourage large investors from consuming the whole amount of available SNTs.
By doing comparison with other recent ICOs we can put the hard cap within the range of 2 to 5 times the soft cap; we can hypothesize an amount around 34 million Swiss francs with a certain degree of certainty, based on how bad it would be for this project and the ICO itself if the last ceiling was to be set over 50 million CHF. Under the assumption that these speculations are correct we can assume that the market cap will be positioned between 60 and 120 million CHF, with most signs pointing right below the 100 million CHF mark
Contributions will be accepted for 24 hours after the first public ceiling of 12 million CHF (12.419.040 USD) is passed, the subsequent hidden hard ceilings and the curve at which they decrease will be revealed publicly only when the Contribution Period has begun. This allows contributors to continue to participate after the first ceiling has been reached, but reduces the maximum contribution size per ceiling and solves the problem of run away “soft caps”.
SGT
Status Genesis Tokens will be issued to community members that contribute to the community by fixing bugs and help promoting this project. It’s Status’ own non-monetary way to pay back its early supporters. After the ICO period these SGT tokens can be traded for SNT.
DISTRIBUTION
The distribution of SNT created during the contribution period has been outlined by Status’ team in the following way:
- 41% to be allocated to the Public Contributors that sent ETH to the smart contract address
- 20% to be allocated to Founders and Team, locked in a smart contract with 2 year vesting and 6 months cliff
- Up to 10% to be allocated to SGT (Status Genesis Token, see previous subsection) holders
- 29% SNT Reserve for future stakeholders, locked for a minimum of a year, to be burned if not deemed necessary for the growth of the network
BUDGET ALLOCATION
A pre-emptive budget representing the scenario where the soft cap of 12 million Swiss Francs has been reached has been outlined by Status. Because of the volatility of ETH, 40% of the available funds will be hedged into fiat currency (Swiss Francs, American Dollars and Euros are indicated in the whitepaper) in order to provide stability in a 18 month period.
Half of the budget is going to be used for Core Development and to ameliorate the user experience of the client, along with the implementation of the Status Teller Network and the Sticker Market
10% will be allocated for marketing, especially for what concerns reaching the mainstream audience via the traditional marketing channels.
15% of the budget is going to be used to improve the security and to prepare for Q3’s security audits period, the remaining sum will be dedicated to operations and legal, with respective budget shares of 15% and 10%.
TEAM
Core contributors to the Status project are:
Jarrad Hope (https://github.com/jarradh) — Co-founder and Thought Leader. Previously founded Opulence (http://opulence.im), a bootstrapped software distribution network growing to over $20M Revenue in 30 months.
Carl Bennetts (https://github.com/carlbennetts) — Co-founder and Communications & Marketing. Previously founded Opulence (www.opulence.im), a bootstrapped software distribution network growing to over $20M Revenue in 30 months.
Roman Volosovskyi (https://github.com/rasom) — Clojure developer and project lead. Previously Symphony2 developer and Software Engineer at ZEO Alliance
Alexander Pantyukhov (https://github.com/alwx) — Clojure developer, Java and Android
Andrey Shovkoplyas (https://github.com/flexsurfer) — Clojure developer. Previously CTO at Dadcan and Software Development Manager at Reasoning Mind
Gustavo Nunes (https://github.com/GustavoNunes) — Clojure developer.
Victor Farazdagi (https://github.com/farazdagi) — Go developer. Previously CTO at Square Labs and Software Engineer at Carrierwave
Andrei Mironov (https://github.com/andmironov) — Visual design and user experience designer.
Anna (https://github.com/annadanchenko) — Head of QA. Previously Test manager at DigitasLBi Amsterdam and Senior Tester at SDL Web
Tatu (https://github.com/smokyish) — Community Manager.
The updated team list and the Organization Chart is available on page 33 of the whitepaper https://status.im/whitepaper.pdf
MARKET ANALYSIS
The key factor for Status to shine during this ICO is to make sure that it’s investors understand how ground breaking this platform can be for the crypto ecosystem.
Adoption by the mainstream audience will be the main driving factor, and the team has geared the whole system towards easiness of use for everyone and great usability.
If people begin to use this software, Status’ SNT destiny is to become bigger than Bitcoin and Ethereum in terms of world recognition, putting the blockchain upon which it resides in the back while it occupies the front of the stage.
The way its team presents it shows that this platform has all the cards needed to be the number one gateway towards casual blockchain use, which is exactly what Ethereum and the whole crypto currency world needs.
The basis for world wide mass adoption are set, and this makes it a great choice for investors that know on how to recognize an excellent opportunity.
The tokens it provides will be both useful for trading, considering how invested the whole crypto community is in this coin and how much hype has been rising in the last 6 months. As long as they played their cards correctly in planning the different ceiling stages in this ICO, SNT tokens are going to shine on the exchanges. Together with the recent ETH exposure to the media thanks to political interest, Bitcoin’s SegWit happening in the next two months will surely influence the markets towards Ethereum, smart contracts and decentralized applications.
The solid foundations upon which this platform has been built will provide the stability that SNT need to grow, possibly in a less fluctuating way than other tokens based on the Ethereum blockchain and if this ICO goes well we can easily foresee a price around the 400–500 USD mark in the near future.
As people moved en masse towards mobile platforms to deal with their day to day needs, the western market is surely ready to adopt a solution like Status. More and more users are getting used to the idea of doing face to face micro transactions and what is needed right now to positively shock the crypto ecosystem is a package of tools that are ready for consumption by people that are inexperienced with digital currency.
Status’ excellent team is driven by passion, a strong set of ethics, experience and a global view that will turn an early investment into the proverbial pot of golden goose.
The difference between being there from the beginning of this revolution and waiting until it’s too late to hop on this train will be measured in millions of dollars.
STATUS ICO Rating :- A
ICO Investment Risk :- High ( Due to no hardcap )
Short term Investment Risk:Reward Ratio :- 4:6
Long term Investment Risk:Reward Ratio :- 2:8
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