Pactum serva! — The Scienceroot Token Sale Approach
There are two types of people in this world. Those who hear ICO and think “opportunity”, and those who hear ICO and think “risk”. Of course, in order to be among the former one needs to be accustomed to cryptocurrencies and blockchain, while among the latter, you find both people who used to invest in blockchain based start-ups and layman who correct you when you write “hodl”, thinking you’ve misspelled the word. Why is this distinction necessary? According to Nobel prize winners, psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, people behave in distinct ways when they perceive a situation as a possible win, or as a possible loss. When in the face of perceived loss, people become risk-takers, while in the face of perceived gains, they become risk-averse. This is known as prospect theory, and it represents the cornerstone of behavioral economics. In short, the theory states that according to our point of reference, a situation might be perceived either as a win or as a loss, which in turn makes our behavior more risk-averse, or more risk-seeking.
Since Savedorid, BitConnect or Pincoin, startups which have gathered billions of dollars during their ICO only to vanish without delivering, the reference point of many investors regarding the ICO win-loss ratio has shifted, making them less prone to invest. In other words, the numbers of those who hear “opportunity” has declined, and investors have started thinking more in terms of “keep x $”, rather than “risk winning y $”. Presented with this loss, start-ups have become more risk-seeking, proposing even more flamboyant projects, in order to attract the attention of the remaining investors and secure their money. However, as a recent Investopedia Report states, a staggering 80% of ICOs are scams. Therefore, as things stand, the question: is this project the next big hit, or just another scam? still remains, mainly due to one common aspect they share. The common denominator for all of these start-ups is the fact that they ask for all the funds needed for the whole project during their Initial Coin Offering. One might promise you it’ll revolutionize the conversion of cryptocurrencies to fiat, the other that it will lead the transition of investment portals to blockchain, and in order to achieve their mission they need 1, 10, even 100 million $, all of it right from the start.
According to our point of reference, a situation might be perceived either as a win or as a loss, which in turn makes our behavior more risk-averse, or more risk-seeking.
We do recognize ICO’s have revolutionized the way start-ups gather funding, yet rather than mending the widening trust-gap mentioned before, such an approach can only enable more scams, thus making investors even less inclined to provide funding. In a community which seeks to make transactions more trustworthy through the means of decentralization, we consider this is a gamble which should not be taken. “Pactum serva”, as Horace would say, is in our opinion the way to go. Therefore, at Scienceroot, we propose a novel approach which aims to “keep the faith” in the way blockchain based companies secure their funding, and how investors interact with them.
Scienceroot aims to transform the scientific and research community using blockchain technology. Our goal is to create an ecosystem where anyone in the scientific community around the globe will have the ability to gather funding, interact, discuss research ideas, collaborate and in the end, publish their work through a more efficient, intuitive and transparent platform. Our scientific ecosystem will be powered by its own unique currency called Science Token (ST), which will be used to exchange funds, submit articles to our journal, access content and reward parties involved. Scienceroot will integrate all the critical functionalities needed by researchers, scientists and academics, making their day to day lives easier and allowing them to focus on maximizing their impact in the scientific world.
The Scienceroot project is clearly ambitious, aiming to include all the functionalities required in the scientific discovery process. The three pillars upon which the project will rest — collaboration platform, funding library, decentralized publishing journal — will take time to develop. First, we aim to launch the collaboration platform, where researchers and institutions will be able to connect and collaborate in a more efficient manner: create scientific repositories, have incentivized Q&A forums, and many other benefits, as described on our website. Once a solid base of users has been gathered and our visibility has increased, with students and academics experiencing the benefits of blockchain technology, we will be able to focus on the next pillars of the project, the funding library, followed by the scientific journal run by the community, as described in our roadmap below.
Therefore, regardless of the amount of money received through the means of a traditional ICO, be it 1, 10, or 100 million $, it would still take time to develop and deliver the comprehensive product we propose.
Pactum serva — “keep the faith” in the way blockchain based companies secure their funding, and how investors interact with them.
As very recent history has shown, raising too much money at once might deter the ambition of a blockchain based start-up to deliver. We are determined to deliver a quality product, and therefore propose a redesigned token generation event (TGE), inspired by the traditional venture capital funding. In order to show our commitment and build trust with our investors, we propose a crowdsale held in rounds, spread over a couple of years, where the capital infusion demands are based on a display of achieved results. This will also enable us to accurately predict the amount of funds needed for reaching the next milestone, based on previous performance. The Scienceroot TGE is therefore split out in 4 rounds spread over 2 years. We wish to properly invest the received capital in the development of the product, rather than over-inflating the token through spending solely on marketing. Understandably, in order to reward those who believe first in us, bonuses will be offered during the first three rounds, as described in the table presenting the Scienceroot TGE.
So, even though there are people who hear “opportunity”, and those who hear “risk” when it comes to certain investment possibilities, the distinction is made by their frame of reference. We’ve developed a token sale approach for the Science Token which is looking to attract funds through delivering expected results and building trust. Why? Because in a world flooded with fake news, intolerance, and competition priming over collaboration, Science remains one of the last strongholds of truth, bound to help us grow and evolve. We are now asking for your help to transfer the scientific community to blockchain, and make the stronghold of Science immutable. Only together will we be able to foster a better, ever-faster evolving, and more trustworthy world around, for the benefit of us all.
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