This is my official entry for the sponsored writing contest organised by 
The Problem
Bitcoin’s success last year brought a lot of attention to the cryptocurrency market, and with the mainstream attention the blockchain enjoyed, it says a surge of new projects erupt all over the internet. Most of this projects become successful because their ICOs had ideas and the right teams to implement these ideas, unfortunately, there were those ICOs that raised a lot of money but never became anything. What happened you may ask? Well, with attention, you attract all sorts of people, the good, the bad and the ugly. And the ugly did the cryptocurrency industry bad in 2017.
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There were a total of 370 ICOs last year, and together these ICOs raise $6 billion, a lot of monies right? But it may interest you to know that most of the funds have been lost due to the fact that most of the ICOs were just a front, and once the ICO raised the money they wanted, the founders disappeared and the project became nothing. As of the first quarter of 2018, 46% of the ICOs of 2017 became defunct. And many more ICOs are failing, and what this means is that investors are losing money in all this scam ICOs, and this gives ICOs a very bad reputation. Investors are now averse to investing in ICOs at the early stage, most investors don’t invest in ICO altogether because of the risk associated with the venture.
With the high number of failed ICOs and the risk associated in investing in one, it is no surprise when popular social media platforms ban the placements of ads on their platforms, because they are trying to protect their users from nefarious activities of some people, with the use of ICOs as a front. With the ICOs space of the blockchain suffering such bad reputation, someone has to come to restore order in this space, before it goes on to tarnish the good image of the cryptocurrency market. And that is exactly the problem Vertex has come to solve.
Vertex Solution
Vertex is a unique platform for everyone interested in the cryptocurrency market, it is the place for ICOs, community and investors alike. Vertex is a marketplace where the use of a unique token called VTEX can be used for the venture capitalist experience, trading, and fair-value-based tokenization. Vertex aims to create a market the ensures profitable market, high-end investment in cryptocurrency, the world’s first ICO aftermarket. The Vertex ecosystem is one that promises to high return on investment to investors, through the provision of investment opportunities. When an investor comes on the Vertex ecosystem, he will find an array of ICOs that have above average chances of succeeding. These ICOs must have gone through the vetting mechanism put in place by the Vertex community.
Hence, the risk of investing in an ICO that may fail in the future gets mitigated, and investors are sure their investments are safe. It is this single fact that makes Vertex such an important platform, because it brings together ICOs with investors and the entire cryptocurrency community together. And all these players interact with the system using the VTEX token.
Importance of the Vertex Platform
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Everyone gets to benefit from this ingenious project, from the investors who are the ones buying this tokens to the ICOs themselves, done to the entire cryptocurrency community. Let's take a look at these players one after the other.
Investors
They are the ones buying the ICOs, as they have disposal resources and are looking for sound projects to invest their resources to. On the Vertex platform, they will have an array of ICOs to choose from, and this decision is entirely up to them to decide. This process is made easier because the Vertex vetting system will ensure only the most promising and outstanding projects are presented on the platform, to be shown to investors. Investors also benefit by having a largely discounted price, different from the ones the public will have access to. Also, Investors will be given the opportunity to buy these coins before they get to be listened to on exchanges.
On the Vertex platform, investors will have to secure the VTEX tokens, that is what they will use in securing the ICOs of their choosing. Unlike other systems, you only need to set up your KYC once, and you can access all the ICOs available on this platform
ICOs
ICOs that have valuable use cases that come on the platform must first be vetted. The vetting process involves have a team of experts examine the project, its viability, and if it will make investors any return on investment. Once all the criteria and more are met satisfactorily, then the ICO will be vetted and place on the Vertex platform for investors to examine, and invest appropriately. ICOs benefit on many fronts, one of which is a financial investment, another is the massive exposure the project will get once placed on the Vertex platform. The Vertex platform is filled with HNIs that are interested in blockchain technology, and apart from getting investors, you can get feedback from this pool of intellectuals about your ICO, and things you could tweak to make your ICO better.
By being on the Vertex platform, all ICOs will be given the Vertex Seal of Approval, which serves as a reputational recognition that will be valuable in the crypto space. All ICOs have access to consultancy and support, this access last from when the ICO is being traded, up until it gets listed on an exchange.
For the Industry
With the bad reputation, ICOs have at the moment, it is very important a drastic measure is taken to correct this negative narrative, as investors currently are ICOs averse. And what better measure to clean up the mess than Vertex, which is stepping into the ICO scene to regulate which ICOs are worthy of investment. With Vertex, investors are rest assured that more than an average chance of in any ICO they embark on in the Vertex platform. And this restores faith in ICOs once again, and since investors will be seeing results, in the end, investors will bring in institutional resources into the crypto market which will increase the value of the industry.
Vertex Ecosystem
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The Vertex is a marketplace where stakeholders of the ecosystem can buy and sell ICOs with the use of Vertex tokens called VTEX. In order to use the platform, you must have an account, which must go through the KYC process, this is to better know the customers coming on the platform. Account registration takes within 24 hours to validate, after which one can browse through the ecosystem, in search of promising ICOs. When a user finds a project that interests him, you can simply click the buy token button, and ERC.20 wallet will be provided, the holder can send VTEX tokens there for the ICO of choice.
The Vertex platform is powered by the VTEX token, which is one of the pillars of Vertex ecosystem. ICOs coming to the platform will first be bought by Vertex, at a discounted price, then the coins will be resold to the community members, who pay for the coins using the VTEX tokens. Investors cannot invest less than $500k, this is in order to encourage the purchase of ICOs before they go public, as well as it being because the investors are getting a front row seat to the future.
Functional Features of the Platform
Listing of ICOs, both new and existing
Commenting and rating of ICOs by the Vertex analysts, as well as investors and other ICO partners
Purchase of the desirable ICOs with the use of the VTEX tokens
ICOs Notifications
Upcoming ICO listing
Conclusion
Being a crypto trader, I personally love this project simply because I believe in blockchain technology to drive the next frontier of technological advancement. And with Vertex at the very front of the revolution, then this project is just as important as the entire system althogether. People want transparency, and that is all Vertex represents, you can see which ICO has what, and you can also see what previous investors thought about the given ICO, not to mention that vetting team that are available to provide support. This project will become the Police of ICOs in the next couple of year.