While markets change and speculation causes deep ebbs and flows in crypto, the Siglo team firmly believes that blockchain can improve the daily lives of millions in emerging markets. We’ve been working hard this summer, and we’re confident the harvest of this autumn will bear a lot of fruit for the growing Siglo Ecosystem.
Here are some events coming up, so please pay attention to this space for forthcoming announcements:
- We will be launching a functional Siglo Wallet in a few weeks for iOS and Android. We’re beta testing internally with our team.
- The smart contract for the token generation event (TGE) is ready, and we’ll be deploying on Ropsten in the next few weeks.
- We expect more than 10,000 people in Mexico and Colombia to create wallets in the first month. Just last week, we announced the special Siglo presale for existing users of Pig.gi, the first dApp to use Siglo.
- Beta Siglo tokens will be issued to bounty hunters and to existing Pig.gi App users in the next two months. Those tokens will be available for withdrawal after the TGE.
As you are more than aware, the market’s view of crypto and especially altcoins is calling into question frivolous capital raises, and the industry is paying the price for late deliveries as the whole market has cooled down. Moving forward, we believe that the market will be priced more and more on fundamentals (like wallets deployed, transactions, smart contracts executed) than on mere speculation. As Vitalik tweeted in June:
In addition to softening markets, the legal and compliance side of issuing a token has changed significantly over the last 8 months. We’re domiciled in Gibraltar, where new proposed rules have been published for token issuing entities. In the US, the SEC has made it clear that most public sales before a TGE are considered a securities offering. In addition, there is greater cost burden for token emitters to comply with standards for anti-money laundering. To meet the growing demands of compliance, we’re bringing on a KYC/AML advisor to make sure that we build a future-proof system that will allow dApps to operate securely while preventing money laundering, which is a big problem in markets where we operate.
Considering the weak market and stricter compliance, we’re making it clear today that Siglo will not be doing a public sale before the Token Generation Event (TGE). We’re ready to launch the Siglo token and our users are ready too.
Is the ICO dead?
It was always Siglo’s intention to sell 36% of Siglo token for $25M USD, and it still is. However, we will not offer any token to the public via sale until after the TGE. We will be closing a smaller private sale of tokens this autumn, and we will do a larger, public sale after the TGE and when the Siglo network is live.
We are not aware of many examples of post-TGE token sales, but we think it makes sense for these reasons:
- Raising Capital should be based on Progress & Milestones:
Traditionally, organizations in the innovation business raise capital based on traction, KPIs, and milestones. These are usually called Seed Series, Series A, Series B, Series C, (..) and then, perhaps, an IPO. Last year’s ICO mania seems to have thrown this concept of “raise more as you gain traction” out the window and has lumped together the Seed, the Series A, Series B to D, and the IPO together.
To be frank, Siglo doesn’t need $25M to launch the Siglo network or gain initial traction. We did the math, and we only need a fraction of that in the next 12–18 months. That’s why we’re moving ahead with our TGE. Since Siglo will initially run on the Ethereum mainnet, our milestones are viewable to the public. - Finding Utility Value:
Financial regulators around the world have made it clear that selling a token to the public before the network is live may be considered a sale of securities. However, once the decentralized network is live and the token is for personal use or consumption, the token will have utility value. Take a look at a recent speech from William Hinman, SEC Director, Division of Corporate Finance:
What about cases where there is no longer any central enterprise being invested in or where the digital asset is sold only to be used to purchase a good or service available through the network on which it was created? I believe in these cases the answer is a qualified ‘yes’ [it is a utility].
We will release tokens after the Siglo network launch so that it can be immediately used for the purchase of a service. The Siglo token’s utility will be for airtime, a basic digital commodity. We will make more announcements about who can participate in this public sale after our TGE as we continue to follow legal developments with our counsel in Gibraltar, the US, and in our local markets.
Details: Presale, Token Generation Event, Public Sale
Siglo’s TGE will happen this autumn, and the smart contract has a soft cap of $2.7M and a hard cap of $7M. According to our calculations (let us know if you want to see these), we need a minimum of $2.7M to launch and operate the Siglo ecosystem, and $7M is the ideal amount of capital to reach defined adoption triggers. Up to 16% of Siglo tokens will be sold to private, accredited investors. More on this below. Of course, bounty hunters, existing Pig.gi App users, and other dApp users will be able to use Siglo token immediately.
Once the network is live, adoption triggers will release additional tokens, defined for the public sale as milestones. These triggers are based on the traction of Siglo’s Ecosystem, not on speculation. The first trigger is 10,000 Siglo wallets, and the final trigger is about 1M Siglo wallets. As the Siglo Ecosystem grows, more tokens will be released.
Once the defined adoption triggers are met, the Siglo Ecosystem will collectively let the market drive pricing. This includes airtime purchases in the Siglo Wallet by users and campaigns and insights by brands. The purchase of airtime will be limited per user.
