ICO Review — Monster Byte Inc
Summary
Symbol MBI
Crowdsale opening date 3 Jul 2017
Crowdsale closing date 4 Aug 2017
Country of origin Panama
Platform for the ICO Wave
My View
One of the reasons I chose to review Monster Byte was because of the clear nature of their ICO and what they want to achieve from the ICO as a business. Like any traditional business doing a IPO of shares their ICO also follows a similar pattern leveraging the Waves platform.
And being a promising player in the Bigcoin gambling industry since last few years they have a better chance to add value for the investment raised via the ICO than many other ICOs which provide very complex incentives but may end up with empty promises or do not have a realistic growth roadmap. As a whole Monster Byte Inc seemed to a simple and clear investment and a very good asset as a medium to long term investment.
Who should Invest?
This ICO is for all the traditional investors or new investors who are used to investing in equities as in a IPO you buy shares of a company and become a shareholder and the company shares an obligation to their share holders and provides dividends in the same way here you buy a portion of equity though virtual by the ICO which seems more tangible than other ICOs. Though i did not see a dividend plan but the good thing is their tokens can be traded on Wave’s DEX platform and may soon be listed in Coinmarketcap.
Key Highlights
Problem
Various problems affect traditional online gaming sites, affecting both operators and players, Monster Byte is well positioned to address these needs in the industry.
Whether it’s a credit card scammer attempting to play with others money, or a player attempting a chargeback after losing their deposit, traditional fiat gaming sites leave room for fraudulent activity by its users.
Speed of deposits and withdrawals: Players at traditional fiat gaming websites need to wait for their bank wire (if they are not using a credit card) to get to the sites in-game wallet before being able to play.
Vision
Their mission is to leverage the powerful nature of cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin) as the perfect medium for a fast, safe, and fun gaming chip which is rapidly gaining mainstream acceptance within the online gambling community.
Overview
Monster Byte Inc. is a technology company which owns a suite of long-standing and profitable Cryptocurrency Gambling websites, all of which have been custom-built with proprietary technology owned by Monster Byte Inc.
Since its inception, Monster Byte Inc. has been on a mission to become the world’s premier destination for cryptocurrency gamblers to not only wager on sports, but also bet on casino games like Blackjack, Roulette, and Baccarat.
Platform
All games built by Monster Byte are built with using the Provably Fair paradigm.At a high level, Provably Fair Shuffling is a technique that Monster Byte leverages which allows the user to reshuffle the deck before it is dealt. They the the following websites which are substantial assets to their bottomline.
BitcoinRush.io
Founded in 2013, BitcoinRush.io (formerly known as CasinoBitco.in) was the first Bitcoin Sportsbook to offer Provably Fair Bitcoin Casino Games, starting with Blackjack.Baccarat Video Poker Peer to Peer Games Bitcoin Rush is a Peer to peer multiplayer game which offers a new refreshing way to bet BTC, all head to head.
Sportsbook
Since 2013, we have handled almost 17,000 bitcoin worth of wagers (~$45MM US at time of authoring) within the sportsbook.
Peerbet
Peerbet offers games like Dice, Wheel and Raffel. Bitcoin dice allows players to enter the game with provable odds on their rolls, decide their own risk, all while the house takes just a 1% edge, the lowest of any gambling game online.
Wheel The Betting Wheel on PeerBet offers a new way of gambling but without the usual house edge.
The Raffles on PeerBet are another game where there is no house edge involved and as such everyone taking part in it has a fair and more importantly equal chance of winning when playing it, just like a lottery.
Bit777
Bit777 offers users a plethora of games that are not available on Monster Byte’s provably fair casino, Bitcoinrush.io.
Revenue
In the casino, we hold anywhere from 1–7% edge based on the game being played in both BitcoinRush.io and Bit777.com.
Peerbet In Dice, the house retains a 1% edge; and just like other dice sites; however, this bankroll is still all crowdfunded; so we make a small commission of the profits (and losses) the investor endures on PeerBet. In addition, we also charge smaller altcoins a commission (paid in btc) to list their coin on PeerBet, a recent example of this is PepeCoin.
Challange
Cryptocurrency Gaming has a rather complex barrier of entry due to the highly technical nature of handling cryptocurrencies safely, as well as catering to the needs of cryptocurrency players (e.g. Provably Fair Gaming); however, online gambling as a whole is an extremely competitive marketplace.
Key Focus
In order to be successful, we need to be able to differentiate ourselves from the competition by offering more gambling options, a rich and interactive experience, all while providing the best rewards to keep players coming back.
Token Sale
The ICO pre-sale will begin on July 3rd 2017 at 16:00 UTC, and extend until July 8th 16:00 UTC or whenever the pre-sale is sold out, whichever occurs first.
During the pre-sale, 2,500,000 Monster Byte tokens will be sold at $0.08 USD, a 31.5% discount over the general sale.
The general sale will open at July 8th at 16:00, 7,500,000 Monster Byte tokens will then be sold at $0.11 USD.
Update: 20% of the Tokensale completed successfully via the Pre-sale and it was sold out.
All tokens will be sold exclusively on the Monster Byte ICO portal, https://www.monsterbyte.io . Users can purchase tokens with Bitcoin, Waves,
Litecoin, Dash, Ethereum, and Shapeshift.
In total, they anticipate raising 1,025,000 USD which will give Monster Byte 1,025,000 USD which will give MonsterByte 1,025,000 USD which will give MonsterByte 4.4M post-money valuation*.
*If there is an extremely high demand, Monster Byte reserves the right to issue a third ICO wave in which principals will offer their tokens up for sale to the general public at a price(To Be Decided…).
Allocation
Allocation of funds after the token Sale.
One good thing about their fund allocation is that they have prioritized the business needs which will help them grow.
Token Allocation breakdown
In total there are 40,000,000 Monster Byte tokens. We will not issue any beyond that amount. If the ICO were to sell out completely, it would give Monster Byte a run rate of 12 months, so Principals, Owners, and New Hires would not execute any tokens on the open market. However, If there is a need for additional capital beyond the 12 month period, Principals / Owners will sell tokens OTC, or in a controlled and responsible way as to avoid impact of the price of Monster Byte Inc.
Benifits to Token Holders
Monster Byte Token holders will benefit from us listing this token on the Waves Platform due to the ability to easily trade tokens against other assets and cryptocurrencies all within the DEX, a very liquid decentralized exchange in the Waves LiteApp Wallet.
On a quarterly basis, all Monster Byte token holders are entitled to their share of our collective profit (revenue — expenses). Dividends will be paid in bitcoin, and detailed quarterly reports will be published to provide full transparency on our operations.
As such, our efforts will be concentrated in listing Monster Byte on (in order of priority):
Must:
- DEX
- Tidex
Should:
- Bittrex
- Other exchanges may be added if a good opportunity is presented.
They will also submit Monster Byte in Coinmarketcap which as solid way to ensure that we expose Monster Byte to the wider population.
Roadmap
While they do have very well-established gaming portals, with active users, there is a clear need to update the user experience across the board, as well as better market our collective brand. Below are the key foucs areas.
- July 2017: Hire additional marketing staff, including community managers for both BitcoinRush.io and PeerBet.org
- August 2017 : Launch the Updated BitcoinRush.io Sportsbook, this includes a complete overhaul of the UX ( designed in a responsive manner for mobile users ), also includes the new risk-management platform
- August 2017: PeerBet.org, will be relaunched with a far more modern look and feel; built with a responsive design for mobile and tablet play.
- September 2017: We will natively add additional coin support on BitcoinRush.io. Just ahead of the US NFL season, we will begin accepting
- other cryptocurrency coins, including Waves, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and others.
- November 2017: B2B APIs. Casino and Sportsbook APIs will be available for consumption by third party operators that want the benefit of our no-risk sportsbook, and provably fair casino platform.
- January 2018 : As part of a broader global strategy, we will launch additional language support on all consumer sites we own and operate.
If the ICO were to sell out completely, it would give Monster Byte a run rate of 12 months, so Principals, Owners, and New Hires would not execute any tokens on the open market. month period, Principals / Owners will sell tokens OTC, or in a controlled and responsible way as to avoid impact of the price of Monster Byte Inc.
Team
- Luke Rose — CEO, Business Development
- Tim Walters — Partner, Technology
- Theo Goodman — Adviser, Marketing
- Matthew Neumeier — Adviser
Right now the team is pretty small and distributed across the global. Luke is in the UK, Tim in Panama and the US and they have engineers spread out across Canada, US, and the UK and Theo, who does marketing is in Germany. Their priority is to get a dual language folks, that’s what we’re looking to hire.
Conclusion
Cryptocurrencies Sports betting and online gambling is a growing market and many new compititors and ideas a getting generated in this space. Currently, online gambling as a whole is a 46Billion/year market.Depending on estimates,it is expected to be approximately 50 Billion/year by 2019. At the same time, due the benefits of both the player and operator, cryptocurrency gambling is going to ‘eat into’ this market gradually year over year.
And it is where the investment into this space can not only help spurt the growth but also investing into an established player like MonsterByte Inc is a safer bet.
But my concern is the underlying platform that they use which is based on php and relatively old technologies and also despite having raised capital in 2013 and running a profitable operation their volumes have lot of scope of improvement and there is all the possibility that newers players in this space with better innovation can overtake them and become market leaders.
The USP of this ICO is their existing business and also a dedicated team which has been working on growing this platform over the years and is passionate about what they do hence. With a capped ICO and more realistic growth plan this ICO seems to be a positive investment.
