Here, I review Typerium, a current ICO at stage 1 pre-ICO.
Summary of what Typerium say
I start with their whitepaper. The executive summary states that the aims are to improve efficiency of monetary transactions, reduce fraud and develop design software to create better looking content for social media. It will also encorporate a marketplace to enable "content creators" to sell their content and copyright it on the Etherium blockchain. Transactions will be administered in the token, "TYPE".
They cite a problem that they are solving is the lack of portability of trust and reputation systems, such as ratings on a specific marketplace like Amazon. They also state that, by using the TYPE token, they would reduce the complexities and costs of using fiat money. They give Paypal as an example.
More information is provided in the whitepaper about Typerium. In summary, they say that "it is a multi-layered platform that brings together creative design software and a marketplace to, buy and sell creative content, as well as intellectual property (IP) protection, a reputation system, a payment gateway, a token and a wallet, all based on the Ethereum blockchain". Once established and successful, the Typerium system would be made available to third party platforms, essentially making Typerium a platform in itself.
The key elements of Typerium are as follows. They will develop a design software application to enable users to make "visually stunning" work. They claim that, because it will be decentralised, users will be able to use the content, eg. by downloading it to their computer and using it wherever they want on the internet. Then there is the "marketplace" allowing anyone who has created content, eg. graphics, images, written material etcd. to sell it to anyone who wants to buy it. Typerium will keep 15% of any sales income. The Typerium platform will have a built in social media facility, rather like Facebook, where people will be able to "like" comment and share anything they like. All content will be protected by an intellectual property timestamp and will have a transferable system of trust and reputation.
The whitepaper discusses merchant and user relationships and how trust can be built, with facilities available on the platform to write review and deal with any potential fraud or disputes. These will be dealt with through a messaging system and resolutions posted on the platform.
There is some detail with statistical information on the growth of e-commerce and the significant increase in mobile and digital payments.
Revenues will derive from a 1.5% transaction fee to merchant sales and 15% of any sales will go back to platform development. Typerium's marketing strategy will be driven by the trust and ratings aspect of the platform. Essentially their expectation is an expanding network effect where demand will be driven by an increased supply as merchants ratings increase.
The token is a utility token, which will enable users to buy content from content creators. The hard cap is $40m, with a soft cap of $2m. 50% of tokens to be made available in the ICO. The pre-sale started on May 30th, 2018 and is to run weekly for five weeks with the price of the token increasing by $0.01 increments in every round. The main sale is scheduled to run for four weeks from June 26th, 2018. 40% of funds raised will go to devbelopment, 20% to operations (including salaries).
The TYPE token has no use other than a means of exchange exclusivley on the Typerium platform. Typerium is not a financial intermediary according to Swiss law and any arbitration will be conducted under UK rules.
The team comprise as follows. Alex Haigh founded an online font development company whose fonts have been used by many of the world's largest companies. The rest of the team includes a freelance designer, a designer based in Indonesia, a graphic designer, a planner, someone with some PR experience, a front-end web developer based in Latvia, a trader in Arizona, another one in Texas, someone who deals in start-ups in New York, and someone with a "certificate in entrepreneurship essentials" who is also based in New York.
The roadmap indicates that a website/ platform will be available in time for the ICO pre-sale. It also shows that in Q3/ Q4 the ecosystem and architecture will have completed preliminary development. It also indicates similar work to be done for iOS and Android. Beta release of platform scheduled for Q3 2019 with brand awareness, cross-platform functionality and a target for Typerium as a global creative currency by Q2 2020.
My findings
Initially the project seemed plausible and actually quite exciting. A multi-platform system for people to create and sell their content to people that want to buy it, within a system of transferable trust and ratings, using a seamless payment method of a utility token. What's not to like? But drilling into the detail raises some key questions.
The whitepaper is muddled. It talks about content creators and serving their needs. Then it starts talking about merchants and buyers. There is just one example of a shift that seems to indicate the platform doesn't really know what it is. Let's ignore this though. It could be just semantics.
They talk about creating software that will enable users/ content creators to produce visually stunning content. They will have this within nine months according to the roadmap. But look at the team. Four designers and a front-end web developer. Nobody on the team is a developer. Yet they state they will develop a software that will become the go-to software globally for content creators. So are they planning to get everyone in the world to switch from the industry giants of Adobe etc. to Typerium? This is a massive red flag. It simply cannot be done. Certainly, they can create something, but they don't have the resources or timeframe to develop anything that can rival the already existing market offerings.
Part of their offering is a social media platform. But everyone has something built in on their platforms already. The idea of a transferable trust and rating system is great, but for it to have any weight will need significant traction which will only come from a user base that will rival users of Amazon, Ebay etc. It's hugely ambitious but is it realistic within the timescale of the roadmap? It took Amazon years to become the giant it is today. I don't believe Typerium will achive the same in the next twelve months.
On first reading of the whitepaper you get the sense that Typerium wants to provide a platform for content creators, providing their proprietary software, like Adobe. But then it seems to be more geared as a marketplace platform, where it talks about e-commerce, a bit like Amazon marketplace. But it also wants to be a social media centre, like Facebook. In fact, it wants to be all of these things and be a key player by Q2 2020. And all this with a team of a handful of designers, some with a dubious CV, and scattered around between the UK, Indonesia, Latvia, Texas and New York. The founder of Typerium says that the Typerium team is highly experienced and has worked with Adidas, Apple, Disney, Google, Loreal, Nestle, Nickelodeon, Nike, Selfridges, Sky TV, Starbucks, Sony and Vogue! Many people have jobs where the above could be on the client list. I think this is pulling the wool over our eyes.
My view
The team. Looking at the team's backgrounds, qualifications and experience, I don't believe they are the sum of the parts that can deliver such an ambitious project. Whilst there is some good experience in the team, some of the team do not seem to have achieved anything worthy of note. Also, the distinct lack of developers indicates that they cannot be in a position to develop the software or the platform that they describe.
I therefore give the team 1.5/5.
ICO information. The whitepaper gives details of the ICO pre-sale and main sale with relevant dates and the website provides a clear roadmap. There is detail lacking on the price of the token in the whitepaper but this can be seen on the website. Some aspects of the information in the whitepaper are not all that relevant and provide uncertainty.
I therefore give the ICO information 3.0/5.
Product presentation. The team have provided a whitepaper, a website for the ICO and a two minute video introducing Typerium. Focussing just on the presentation, but not on the validity of the content, they have done a good job of presenting the information quite well. There is some muffled information on the whitepaper, but it is generally well laid out with the right amount of detail. The website is slick and the video has been well produced.
I therefore give product presentation 4.5/5.
Marketing and Social Media. There are many areas that need to be ticked for an ICO, or indeed any business, to be successful. And in particular with ICOs, building good relationships with a growing community is a key attribute. The website has a gif that prompts you to their Telegram channel and they mention Telegram as their preferred choice of communication medium.
They started a bounty which was due to last 35 days but they pulled it after around five days. Many people reported on Telegram that the work they had done had not been counted. Those users were generally abused and mocked by the team who took no responsibilty for the failure of the bounty software and in many cases banned such users from the group. They treated those that were helping them with disdain in the most disgraceful way. They have also banned users for questioning some aspects of the project. The team's behaviour cannot be described as professional or condusive to building a community around their project.
I therefore give marketing and social media 0.0/5.
The validity of the project. Overall, whilst it sounds good on paper, it is not achievable. There are far too many red flags. The lack of developers to create the software described, the experience and achievents of the team, the lack of clarity about what they really want to achieve.
It is also worth pointing out that round one (the first week) of the ICO pre-sale, 150,000,000 TYPE tokens at $0.01 ($1.5m) was not achieved. In fact, only 24m tokens were sold ($240,000) representing just 16% of the tokens made available for this round. Their website states that all unsold tokens at the end of each round will be burned and then the ICO would move to the next round. However, they did not do this. Instead they extended the first round by an extra week. This seems a sign of desperation and it will be interesting to see what they do at the end of the extended period. This is not a good sign for the project.
I therefore give the validity of the project 1.0/5.
Overall score
Overall score therefore for this project is 2.0/5.
Personally, I would only consider an investment in a project if the evaluation came in at 4.5/5 or above. I therefore conclude that I will not be investing in Typerium.
Thanks for reading. I hope my review was informative and useful. Please remember to carry out your own research and due dilligence when making any investments or talking to your financial adviser.
The above views are my own and should not be considered investment or financial advice.
If this post is of interest to the community then I will carry out more ICO reviews in due course. Many thanks.