This is my entry for the sponsored writing contest organized by 
The ICO market has been the wild west ever since it began to gain traction as a fundraising mechanism for various tech projects and we've been hit with exit scams, failed projects, pyramid schemes and just outright fraud with plenty of examples available today. A simple google search with ICO + Exit scam will reveal more than any of us would like to deal with.
Ethereum and its ERC-20 token protocal has made it so easy to create a utility token or what is now seen as security by the SEC. So what is the big deal about this whole securities thing? Well if you're labelled a security you have to adhere to regulations and why would ICOs want to do that while raising capital for their latest venture?
Security Tokens
The whole security token ussye arose from ICO sceptics have long warned that, in many cases, the tokens for sale are simply a new form of shares—and that selling them without a license violates federal securities laws. Which later came to pass in a ruling that the SEC confirmed just that: The agency said that, in the case of one recent ICO, the tokens in question are indeed securities.
This is done to weed out fly by night ICO's with a new one being seen as a flavour of the month with paid shills flogging projects on unsuspecting investors. I've personally taken swipes at a few ICOs over the last few months in my You Invest you Lose - Shitcoin of the week series of posts, if you're keen to check them out.
What is the difference between security and utility tokens?
I didn't want to bore you with all the technical detail so this is the shortest explanation I could come up with. A security tokens give the holder ownership rights (for company’s share, for example), while utility tokens have a certain function inside the company’s platform. While some tokens double as both in certain cases many ICO's are actually securities as there is no real function for the token other than it holding value as a tradable commodity. A utility token would be something like Civic where tokens are used to store identities and various information of a user via their dAPP where something like ICONOMI which is an index fund would be a security.
So with so many ICOs actually falling into the securities side and many more ICO's to come also going that route, you can kinda see the dilemma in having to meet all the SEC's requirements. Which is where Mobu has found its niche.
What is Mobu?
Mobu plans to offer an is end-to-end solution for launching security tokens if ICO's are looking to raise capital for a project/startup. MOBU will offer users an ecosystem that implements a unique MOB20 standard protocol to ensure the protection of both investors and ICO issuers to create a more competitive ICO services pricing environment which complies with SEC and all regulations including KYC/AML, a unique new type of escrow.
How Mobu can assist the release of security tokens
MOBU offers a “lockup” utility to its tokens for service providers will be introduced to be a compliant provider on the platform. Each service provider will submit a certain number of MOBU tokens that can`t be accessed for as long as that company remains a service provider on MOBU in order to protect investors. Mobu will also faciliate the aabilityfor investors to exit an investment at the crowdsale level should they feel uneasy about the future of a project.
What I personally think of Mobu
I do think that more regulation is needed in the ICO market with too many shitcoins piling up each day, framgenting the market, hurting investor confidence and removing liquidity that could go to legitimate projects. I'm pleased to see more responsible investor options are coming into the market like Mobu and The ILP and hopefully they can help us bring stability and legitimacy to the ICO market which has an immence potential for growing new business.
More information
To find out more about the Mobu project check out the following resources
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