AppCoin ICO Report
Project Summary:
AppCoin is a decentralized project focusing on the app economy. It aims to decentralize apps, leveling the playing field for developers, taking middlemen out of the transactions and advertisement involved in app-operations, creating a direct relationship between the app user and the developer through the AppCoin economy. Users will get paid directly for their attention to advertisement within the app with the project’s indigenous coin, which will be an Ethereum-based ERC20. This blockchain project will allow users and developers to benefit from cheaper transactions using AppCoins — APPC — as well.
ICO Date: Pre-sale ends on November 20th, 2017. The ICO should start then but we couldn’t find a specific date.
ICO Schedule and Bonuses:
There is a 30% bonus — in the form of a discount — until the end of the pre-sale. Other than that, no bonus structure has been disclosed. The exchange rate for APPC was set at $0.1 USD per 1APPC.
Total Supply: Initially, the total token supply will be 450,000,000.
Pre-ICO: 20% is up for sale during the pre-ICO.
ICO: Another 20% of that initial supply will be on the market for the ICO. This means a total of 180 million APPC will be up for sale to the public during the pre-ICO and the ICO combined. There doesn’t seem to be a cap on the number of total tokens that can be produced, hence the word initially on AppCoin’s documents. One of the documents does mention that “All AppCoin tokens, except those used to speed up the adoption and the ones reserved for the ASF, will be attributed when the crowd-sale process ends.” If this condition will hold from that point on or not, is unclear.
Distribution: Apart from the 180 million APPC — 40% of total supply — up for sale, the project is keeping 20% of the tokens for incentives — development and promotion. An additional 15% will belong to the ASF or App Store Foundation. 10% will go to “key contributors” and another 15% will go to Aptoide — “for the initial support and contribution to the community” according to AppCoin’s documentation.
Quick Math: It is still unclear what AppCoin is going to do with APPC tokens left over from the ICO, if there are any left over. This fits the lack of commitment to an ICO date. Both elements put together can generate a situation in which the ICO end date is never determined, opting instead for winding it down when the tokens earmarked for the AppCoin ICO run out.
Apart from that, with the exchange rates and discounts set, it is possible to calculate the valuation of the whole project. With a 30% discount on the pre-sale, the project should raise $6.3 million USD during that stage of the sale — if every token earmarked for the pre-ICO is sold. The AppCoin ICO will add $9 million USD to that amount, for a grand total of $15.3 million USD. Then, if the remaining 60% of the tokens will be priced at $0.1 USD per token, then the valuation of the whole project should be $42.3 million USD.
Project Overview: AppCoin will piggy-back on already functioning infrastructure in the form of the Aptoide — an independent, Android-based app store mechanism — to offer its apps. The project will then aim to create an ecosystem in which developers join their own independent, decentralized app store within the Aptoide system, and users get the benefits of using apps on which advertisement schemes pay them for their attention.
The AppCoin project aims to be an inclusive ICO. This means users — or at least those who hold coins initially — will have a say initially at least on some parts of the project’s roadmap. Holders will have a say in the foundation, rule design and bylaws of the App Store Foundation or ASF. That discussion should happen during May 2018, with the creation of the foundation and a board election, slated to take place in November 2018. In May 2019, the ASF should take over the “protocol definition and reference implementation.” With the ASF, AppCoin aims to democratize the governance of the app economy it seeks to create. This is definitely a welcome development. Most ICOs centralize governance, which defeats the purpose of decentralization through blockchain tech, so this step is likely to find wide support from users in the market.
Apart from that, the first version of the AppCoin protocol should already be available to the public. From this point onwards, there will be a proof of concept of an in-app purchase transaction on the Ethereum test network on December 4th, 2017. The open source reference library implementation will be released on March 21st, 2018. On May 2nd, 2018, the first implementation of the AppCoin protocol is supposed to take place. From there, on the 15th of June complementary version with a side chain will be released. Finally, on September 2nd, 2018, production will be rolled out for all Aptoide clients.
The tokens will underpin the app economy that AppCoin is trying to create. They will be used for in-app transactions, to reward customers for their attention and to pay developers. In terms of the opportunities that this will create for the users or the holders of AppCoins, the most obvious one is the possibility of getting rewarded for their engagement or use of a certain app that runs on the AppCoin economy. APPC tokens are expected to be fully convertible, and they are supposed to be listed on exchanges. Pre-paid APPC cards should also be available in South East Asia and Latin America.
Team:
Paulo Trezentos — CEO/Founder.
Alvaro Pinto — COO/Founder.
Tiago Costa Alves — VP Asia Pacific.
Ren Tang — VP of Product.
Chriss Miess — Advisor, Iconic Partners/TenX.
Jonathan Becker — Advisor, e.ventures.
Ryan Terribilini — Advisor, Ripple/Google.
Adam Stradling — Advisor, Shapeshift/bitcoin.com.
Andras Kristof — Advisor, Yojee.com.
Opportunities:
AppCoin seems like a good project for developers and users to interact directly, with advantages such as cheaper micro-transactions. As for users in the secondary market, the price of the token will depend on how much these apps and this ecosystem is used. Going through Android’s established ecosystem instead of trying to re-invent the wheel is definitely a good approach to gain traction. Now the hard part begins: convincing the users and the developers that they are better off by using a more efficient system, while at the same time producing apps that are attractive enough for the users to ditch the traditional ones. With that, AppCoin must educate millions about cryptocurrency to boost adoption.
Challenges / Concerns:
The project is pretty straight forward and has some potential, but apart from fighting the uphill battle with users and developers over efficiency and awareness of cryptocurrency and blockchain benefits, it only looks at the app ecosystem from a somewhat skewed angle. App ecosystems are part of larger ecosystems controlled by some of the biggest corporations on earth — Apple and Google. AppCoin will be playing in their backyard, and it is a minute player. Additionally, there is the whole issue of vetting apps. How many of the apps belonging to the AppCoin ecosystem could have dangerous backdoors programmed into them?
Conclusion: This project still has some questions to answer and in terms of economics, there are still some details that should be disclosed. The divisibility of the token for instance, is one of the details that we couldn’t find on the white paper or elsewhere. There is a reference to the lack of divisibility of IOTA on the white paper. Does this mean that APPC will not be divisible either? And if it appreciates, how will transaction fees remain low? Will it piggy-back on Ether for transactions, forcing users to keep Ether for gas? The ICO dates are also unclear. This should be up front and center as soon as a user hits the AppCoin web page. Given these unknowns, it is impossible to give this token a short-term grade. Based on the solid idea and the research behind AppCoin, it is possible to see a moderate chance of success, therefore, by putting the negatives and the positives together, we end up with a short-term neutral position.
In the long term, if the project discloses the information necessary and the scheme for the token economy becomes clearer, then the only issue that will remain to evaluate the token, would be adoption and competition. Here we still believe that Google Play and Apple’s App Store, have a clear advantage. They sell the phones, the computers — in the case of Apple — and have a string of products and services for established customers. Changing that will be epic. Perhaps a joint venture with one of the blockchain phone projects would benefit AppCoin, generating a similar effect to the one that Apple and Google both enjoy. That is completely possible, and the governance structure for the ASF may allow for that kind of cooperation in the future. Nevertheless, our grade will be entirely contingent upon adoption and clarity, so in the meantime we must remain neutral.
Disclaimer
The above report on AppCoins ICO is written by icochaser for informational purposes and not investment advice. we (at icochaser.com) are not paid or sponsored by anyone for this report.
For more information about the ICO, please visit the following links:
