MAECENAS — ICO Review
Token: ART
ICO Date: Sept 5
Hardcap: $20m
“The decentralized art gallery”
TOTAL 13 / 25
1 Business opportunity: 4/5
Problem to solve: only rich people get access to art masterpieces (>500K$, mainly painting and sculpture) as they are expensive and rare.
Solution: a platform to buy and invest in art. It would be like Wall Street for art. Instead of buying stocks, you would buy 30% of à piece of art. You could then sell that part to other investors whenever you want. That would put an end to the auctions and their very high fees.
Token: the coin’s goal is to certify that you own the piece of art (or at least a portion of it). Owning a portion of a piece of art would allow you to receive royalties every time the item is shown during an exhibition. Here (and it is not the case for all the projects we have been analyzing), the blockchain is key to prove the ownership of the items.
Competition: only traditional auction houses (25% fees vs. 5% for Maecenas). Moreover Maecenas gives (through blockchain) visibility/transparency to follow the evolutions of all the trades. It is not the case of traditional auctions that are completely black boxes.
I like the initiative and the idea. It is a niche market but that is huge ($65B traded every year). Above all, sky is the limit and we could consider applying this to old antiquities for example and suddenly, the market becomes amazingly big.
The main issue lies in the fact that most of the people who pay for art want to be seen (physically) with the item. They want to put it in their penthouses so that the invites can contemplate it… which is not the case if you own only 2% of it. Not sure people are willing to invest without actually owning the item.
2 Technology: 2/5
Whitepaper: https://www.maecenas.co/Maecenas-WhitePaper.pdf
Only one paragraph about blockchain, which is super high level/mainstream. I cannot detect any blockchain skill based on what they write in their White Paper (WP). Blockchain is key (to track ownership and transactions) but it does not seem that the team is currently expert in that field.
3 Team: 3/5
Project launched in 2015.
They already have a MVP and around $100m of masterpiece (Picasso, Goya) in the pipe that are ready to be traded. Which is a good sign as it means they are willing to put their items on the platform.
One demo is available and is very clear.
They plan a roll-out in Q2 or Q4 2018… so we have time.
Team has no strong presence in the blockchain world. Many entrepreneurs who worked in finance but no notorious success even though they got fundings via VCs.
No blockchain experience.
4 ICO details: 3/5
Hardcap is $20m (for 30% of the tokens only).
They have raised $11m already in the pre-sale (people with privileged access via cofound.it). If you look at 5. below, I am not sure the ICO is going to end in a few minutes.
The good sign is that tokens will be available 1 week after the ICO, so they will be tradable soon (EtherDelta etc.).
5 Community & Communication: 1/5
Only 348 guys on Slack 10 days before the ICO…which means there is no buzz around that ICO.
However they have a pleasant medium blog with many interesting articles.
We are clearly worried about this: being able to gather a solid community around your project is key at the moment of ICOs.
6 Verdict
- If you are an art-lover then go. Otherwise, I would wait for the token to hit exchanges and see the evolution.
Fancy idea. Opportunity clearly identified and huge potential. But the lack of expertise in blockchain and the difficulties to build a strong community make me think that project is not going to skyrocket in 1 week. We have time to see the announcements, the delivery of what they propose in their roadmap.
Need to monitor closely once it hits the exchanges. But no rush
=> NEUTRAL SHORT-TERM BUT HODL
About us
IBBC is a community of crypto-enthusiasts looking for the next big thing. If you want to follow us and get access to more reviews, feel free to visit our space: https://medium.com/ibbc-io
Important: Never invest money you can’t afford to lose. Always do your own research and due diligence before placing a trade. Read our Terms & Conditions here.
