Storecoin is a Zero-fee Payments And P2p Cloud Computing Platform, that will transform data into money (datacoins). Storecoin, with early backing from Ari Paul of BlockTower and more, launched its long-awaited Milestone Token Sale on June 20th, to secure the investments and financial backing it needs to thrive.
In the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects, the funding system is ever easier. The meteoric rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum’s ability to support launch of other digital tokens has led to a totally new industry where different platforms have launched.
The Crypto Investment Models
The launched platforms, developed by programmers and promoted by skilled professionals, require very little in the initial stage of setting up a website and doing the preliminary work. Yet, the main development requires investments that these teams usually do not possess. Like every disruptive technology, investors were not easy to get hold of. The ability to launch own tokens, however, gave these platforms a unique way to raise capital:
- ICO: Initial Token Offering is the most famous of all methods. In this, the platform developers build a viability case of the success of their platform idea and present it through whitepapers. Equivalent (although not acceptable as legal replacement) of prospectus, these called for investments through private and public sale of their platform tokens. Although not offering a stake in the organization, the appeal of acquiring tokens that can rise in value is what drove this market.
- STO: Based on the same model as ICO, the Security Token Offering model differs in one major aspect. The tokens offered by the platforms are securities and represent a stake in the company. This gives investors and backers a peace of mind that their digital assets are backed.
- IEO: Initial Exchange Offerings can be any kind of a token, whether security or utility, but are offered through crypto exchanges. The use of a reputable exchange gives value for the token and its platform that they are sincere and that the project is not a scam.
Milestone Token Offering
Each model of token sales has its own advantages and disadvantages. Yet, the most common issue faced by all these is that they are offered well before the platform is ever developed. With no solid information on whether the platform will actually deliver what it promises, each sales is based on speculation.
Milestone Token Offering (MTO) is an emerging token sales system that tries to counter this issue. As the name suggests, the tokens are offered not as initial ones based on speculation, but the tokens are sold in intervals. Each stage or milestone represents an achievement of the platform. This gives investors the chance to invest in a platform that actually delivers, yet gives them the opportunity to get their hands on crypto tokens at a better price. MTO has a few major characters that sets it apart:
- Multi-Phase Funding: With each milestone achieved, a new funding round can be started. Multi-phase funding gives investors who missed out on the initial sales to take part.
- Proven Track Record: Each milestone that is crossed gives futures investors less speculation and more solid grounds to base their investments on. This not only gives the project reliability factor, but as the industry shifts towards this model, will bring stability to the whole crypto industry.
- Developer Incentive: The MTO model gives developers an incentive to do more to deliver. If the developers do not complete all the tasks set out in a phase, they will not be able to go for the next round of sales and that would stall their project.
- Regulation Compliance: Since most of the characters of MTO is similar to security laws (especially in the United States), the token backers would feel safer since they will have a token that is not only backed, but offers them a stake and they will have a peace of mind that if the platform defaults, the assets developed can be sold off to pay for their investment recovery. This, however, is largely dependent on the region and the local regulations.
MTO Viability
MTOs, though still nascent and offered by only a handful of platforms right now, are a good alternative to the industry standard ICO, TGE, IEO, ETO, STO and other variations of the same initial token sales concept. MTOs cut down on the hype and speculation developed by the other type of sales as it offers concrete developments to propel token sales. For legitimate platforms, this is viable as it offers more stability and security to investors.
On the other hand, the multiphase sales of tokens, with each supported by a milestone, would create a confusion in setting the sale prices. The first sale can be at its lowest, but the announcement of completion of a milestone will result in the value of sold tokens to skyrocket. The second phase tokens will be cheaper than the market ones, creating a dilemma where the next sales price would be difficult to establish.
For more information, download this one-pager at http://storecoin.com/summary (PDF).