ICO Review — ACT — DAO that aggregates micro payments from citizens to fund grassroots proposals that drive change

Priyab Dash
Jul 30, 2017 · 5 min read

Summary

Symbol: ACT

Pre-ICO opening date: 18 July 2017

Pre-ICO closing date: 1 Aug 2017

Platform for Fundraiser: Ethereum

Country of Origin: Ireland

Introduction

ACT is a decentralized autonomous organization (or DAO) that aggregates micro-payments from private constituents to fund grassroots social change initiatives. DAOs harness blockchain technology to collect and share digital holdings among group members. While the technology that powers a decentralized autonomous organization is cutting-edge, it’s easy for end-users to get started with the ACT platform.

Tokensale

The ACT donation campaign has three phases:
Pre-ICO: 17:00 CEST (08:00 PDT) 18th July 2017–1st August 2017
Pre-release access: Close of pre-ICO — 18th November 2017.
ICO: 18th November 2017–18th January 2018.
UPDATE: As we have passed half way the platinum round has reduced to 5x.

Pre-ICO bonuses

  • Platinum — 10x for first 1350 ETH (approximately $250k)
  • Gold — 5x for next 1350 ETH (approximately $250k)
  • Silver — 2.5x after 2700 ETH (approximately $500k)

pre-ICO soft cap — 20000 ETH with fundraising continuing for 24 hours after this “soft” cap is reached (up until August 1st 17:00 CEST).

ICO cap — to be decided after WINGS.ai price forecast event (before the pre-ICO) and announced prior to the commencement of fundraising.

Individual donation limit for the pre-ICO — $150,000.
Act token price = Total amount fundraiser / 8 billion tokens

More details can be found in this link

Analysis

My View

There are many ICOs that are promising DAO model to do social good and promoting social mobilization. But my biggest issue with ACT is their model of purchasing votes. Also, their lack of any identity mechanism to determine if vested interest do not misuse their platform. Though 10 cents to 1 dollar will be a very small amount to pay for funding a social cause in west but in developing countries 1$ can be some one’s day’s salary and yet such communities should have a right to vote. Also, asking users to top-up to vote may seem in some cases a nonstarter. Also, typical the funding targets that they have set for in their example campaigns are few hundred thousand which though practical limits to many bigger community needs that unfortunately may not be enough.

Value Proposition for Investors

ACT can be traded in exchanges and can be used to purchase votes and users can convert reward tokens ACTION to ACT tokens. So effectively makes ACT tokens as the utility and as well as store of value of ACT platform. With the endorsement of WINGS.ai it gives a great boost to the speculative value of ACT tokens. But there is a possibility of ACt tokens to be considered as shares and may face regulatory hurdles and this token gives users a say in what causes get funded and which does not. Also its reward mechanism for curators may be considered a way of receiving dividend. The best part of this platform is that ACTION is a “rewards token” for both long term-ism and curation effort which for long term committers to the platform.

Platform

Users connect to the ACT network through a mobile app. During the initial setup, they are prompted to choose which type of cause they’re most interested in. Then, they purchase “votes” which are used to fund proposals. The money raised through these purchases is pooled and used to fund successful proposals. Push notifications make users aware of new proposals in their interest area. Then, they can decide to vote for or against the proposal, or abstain from voting altogether. When a quorum of “yes” votes is reached, a smart contract automatically triggers the funding for the initiative, which is routed to the proposal’s initiators.

ACT is fundamentally different from crowdfunding, as well. When users become part of the ACT network, they top up their voting account so that they are ready to support social initiatives. Rather than facilitating donations on a case-by-case basis (as with crowdfunding), ACT is a network that encourages sustained democratic process and engagement. Users quite literally “vote with their dollar.”

ACT Curation Engine (ACE)

Users can opt to become curators of proposals that have not yet been pushed to the broader network. It allows them to review and vet proposals before they’ve reached a broader audience via push notifications. They then up-vote or down-vote proposals. Essentially, ACE curators act as gatekeepers that maintain the integrity of ACT.

ACT & ACTION TOKENS

  • ACT is an ERC20 Token that will be traded on exchanges, and it is the only “currency” with which curators can purchase ACTION Tokens.
  • ACTION are reward tokens used by the ACT platform as part of the evaluation algorithm for curator rewards. These rewards, which equal 15% of all platform revenue, will be distributed depending upon curation effort, prior curation success, the number of ACTION held, marketing effort, and how early curation is done.ACTION tokens are vesting tokens.

Roadmap

Team

  • Fraser Brown — CEO
  • Ian Cunningham — Project Manager
  • Ganesh Yung — Managing Director, Draglet, Lead Architect
  • Johannes Angermeier, Draglet — Lead Developer

Conclusion

If they call it as a crowd funding, then it becomes a great proposition as this makes the process of raising capital for smaller projects quite easy and the curation format proposed on their platform involving bots and community makes the whole process a community driven crowd funding process which I think at the end of the day their platform is. I am confused why they call their pre-sale as donation as their company is Daoact Limited and the whole legal status of Daoact Foundation is still questionable. At the end of the day for me more than their vision or even their target audience, their App has more value as once its live it will be a great driver to get funded for small projects with a low barrier to entry for both people who want to fund and people who want to get funded though how the ACT’s community curation plays out is still a big question for me.

Reference

Disclaimer: This is not investment or trading advice, always do your own independent research.

If you like the Blog then please help support the publication via https://www.patreon.com/cryptbytestech. Also you can send some eth contributions to 0x670A8721C343Ce16D619630283Ea70F3235e3247

CRYPT BYTES TECH

Articles on ICO, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain. If you like the blog then please help support the publication via https://www.patreon.com/cryptbytestech. You can join to chat with me at https://t.me/joinchat/E-6WAkQsiIyJ2tQ4423hrA.

Priyab Dash

Written by

CRYPT BYTES TECH

Articles on ICO, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain. If you like the blog then please help support the publication via https://www.patreon.com/cryptbytestech. You can join to chat with me at https://t.me/joinchat/E-6WAkQsiIyJ2tQ4423hrA.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade