HIVE project ICO is the winner of this year’s CoinAGENDA Europe BEST ICO 2017.
Website: https://www.hive-project.net/
ABOUT
Hive provides new financial liquidity to small businesses by leveraging blockchain technology, giving them a range of crypto-currency based financing options. Hive (HVE) uses blockchain (distributed ledger) technology to give every issued invoice a unique fingerprint. This enables businesses to automate the invoicing process and make it available to the general public.
Their targets are small businesses that face liquidity problems. They estimate that the liquidity gap is 2 trillion USD and still rising.
CONCEPT AND SOLUTION
Hive (HVN) uses Ethereum blockchain (distributed ledger) technology and smart contract to assign a unique fingerprint to every invoice issued by tokenizing invoices and publishing them on the blockchain. This makes it possible for businesses to automate their invoicing process and take advantage of factoring services. Hive serves as a decentralized data room for all invoices submitted, each of which has a unique record for the issuer, owner, and payer. These invoices can, therefore, be made available as a shared source of liquidity for factoring and invoice financing. Furthermore, businesses can take advantage of the cryptographically secure nature of the Hive blockchain network to upload all of their financial documentation. Access to detailed financial data about a specific company or invoice can be granted only by the company itself or the recipient of the invoice. This enables real time auditing to be conducted, improves the credit scoring process, expedites credit approvals, etc.
Regular way: Small business owner sells his product/service and issues an invoice to the buyer. The buyer then has 90 days or in some cases more to pay the invoice.
Hive Project way: HIVE contributor buys the invoice from the small business owner for a certain discount, and then the HIVE contributor is the beneficiary of the payment made by the buyer when it actually happens.
Outcome: Small businesses get the funds they need earlier.
PRODUCT ROADMAP
The project has a clear roadmap for the next two and a half years as shown in the infographic below.
Hive token (HVN)
HVN token grants the token holder, the right to claim right over invoices on the Hive platform and obtain credit scores for certain entities which have a sufficient financial track record on the Hive blockchain. When, for example, a factor which is financing SME wants to claim ownership of invoice they financed and by that bought, they will need to pay HVN tokens to Hive foundation. Also when Credit Scoring company or auditor requests access to private in data on the blockchain, HVN tokens will be used to pay for access to that data. Hive Foundation will resell tokens back to the market and use funds for financing of the development of infrastructure. Invoices are uploaded to the Ethereum blockchain regularly and at no cost by claim sellers looking for liquidity.
An HVN token is, therefore, the entry point to the Hive network. If the funds raised during the Hive ICO exceed BTC 1,500, the token holders will have the value of their tokens backed by Hive’s initial liquidity pool, which will selectively invest in invoices at a discount that is sufficient to enable a proper yield in risk-reward terms.
TOKEN DISTRIBUTION
75% – Contributors
20% – Development Hive
3% – User Growth Pool
2% – Bounties
FUNDS DISTRIBUTION
61% – Development
14% – Operations
12% – Marketing
6% – Legal
7% – Contingency
TEAM
Jure Soklic, CEO (Slovenia)
He has a lot of experience in the international financial industry. Expert in eCommerce, digital marketing, start-ups and business development.
Dejan Jovanovic, CTO (Canada)
Extensive experience in software engineering and leading large technology teams.
Oliver Muldoon, Finance Lead (United Kingdom)
Former Bank of America’s legal department employee.(from 2008) Has a lot of experience in the invoice financing field.
Domen Ursic, CMO (Slovenia)
Former ICONOMI ICO advisor, public relations and marketing professional who specializes in strategic consulting.
Ugur Yildirim, Finance Advisor (Slovenia)
Extensive experience in investment management. He has also served on numerous boards in investment management firms. Studied at Harvard Business School and the London School of Business & Finance.
Vasja Zupan, Business and Strategy Advisor (Slovenia)
COO of Bistamp, supervises day to day operations of the exchange. He specializes in Bitcoin, blockchain technology, crypto currencies, digital media strategy.
Richard D. Titus (USA)
Entrepreneur, CEO, coach and media executive who got his 20+ years of experiences leading digital transformations in the firms like Samsung, Daily Mail, and BBC.
Michael Terpin, Blockchain Adviser (USA)
A member of BitAngels, managing partner of eCommerce Labs (incubator for blockchain firms), CEO of Coininovate (cryptocurrency consulting and development company), CoinAgenda and Transform Group.
Tomislav Mucic, Blockchain Auditing (Slovenia)
IT security and project development expert. He is an early adopter of the Blockchain technology. CEO and Founder of Netis which specializes in crypto-currency and blockchain technology development, consulting and implementation of new applications.
ICO
ICO Duration: 6 weeks (3. 7. 2017 – 14. 8. 2017)
TOKENS: Hive tokens grant access to the Hive project network services.
TOTAL SUPPLY: 500,000,000 HVN tokens
PRICE PER TOKEN: Will be confirmed 7 days after ICO ends.
LIQUIDITY POOL: > 1500 BTC
BONUS:
Week 1 – 15% bonus
Week 2 – 12% bonus
Week 3 – 9% bonus
Week 4 – 6% bonus
Week 5 – 3% bonus
Week 6 – 0% bonus
INVESTING: BTC and ETH are accepted.
PAY-OUT Structure: Token owners will be repaid through a token buyback mechanism executed on the stock exchanges where HVN tokens will be listed. A number of tokens repurchased will depend on the revenues generated by the Hive network. Once the token holders get their initial investment value repaid through buybacks, the project should be treated as mature and attractive for acquisition by key players in the finance industry. If a takeover is successful, the proceeds will be split equally for each token.
COMPARING HIVE ICO TO AN IDEAL ICO
The creators should have a viable idea that disrupts the industry.
Factoring and financial services are the industry in this case. There are a lot of established companies already in this industry. However, none of them utilizes blockchain technology. We could say that this provides a more efficient and a better way, but we are not exactly sure this will disrupt the industry. However, following the industry response will be interesting.
Innovative technology should be a part of the project
As far as the innovative technology goes, the idea behind it is not new and is not innovative. The only innovative thing in this project is tokenizing invoices and using blockchain technology.
The team should be experienced and with inside industry knowledge.
In our opinion, the team seems to have a lot of experiences. A lot of team members work or have worked with high profile companies. There is a Bitstamp COO, a couple of Blockchain technology experts and former traders, an advisor from Harvard with extensive experience in investment management former ICONOMI adviser and so on.
There should be proof presented that the team can execute.
Based on all the information about the team and their LinkedIn profiles we can say that the team will be able to execute the project. We believe that the team is competent enough.
There should be a defined legal framework for the project.
So far only a few governments (including the USA) have defined a legal framework for Initial Coin Offerings. This project is not based in one of those countries so it does not have a defined legal framework and is an additional risk factor.
There should be a well presented and transparent ICO process that everyone can understand.
The information given in the white paper and on the website is clear and understandable.
There should be a minimum and maximum raise thresholds.
The minimum threshold is above 1.500 BTC and maximum is 10.000 BTC. This is good and clearly shows that the team works with a defined frame to work with the received funds.
There should be use of the escrow service.
Escrow is used. Tom Sperry co-founder and Managing Director of Rogue Venture Partners (venture capital fund) and Jure Soklic CEO of Hive are monitoring the process of funding. The cryptocurrencies invested are secured with a multi-sig and will be released one week after the Hive tokens are released.
There should be an efficient use of the funds with well-presented steps of the funds use.
Hive Project clearly states the funds use after the ICO. They are going to use the majority of the funds for the development (61%), then operations (14%), (12%) for marketing, (7%) for contingency and (6%) for legal matters.
There should be a controlled and transparent release of the funds.
They clearly state the structure of token distribution (75% going to contributors), (20% for the development of HIVE) and the other (5% for User pool and Bounties). Timewise the only thing we could find is that HVN tokens will be distributed soon after the ICO ends. Also, the price will be confirmed seven days after the ICO ends. The exact number of tokens for each contributor will be calculated 14 days after the ICO ends.
There should be a delayed founder liquidity.
It is stated that 20% of the funds will go to the founders. It is not specifically stated when, so we assume this will happen at the same time as the distribution to the contributors. Therefore we cannot say that there will be a delayed founder liquidity.This poses a small concern as the lure of big money is always there and thus the risk of cashing out before the project takes off.
There should be some kind of a scam protection.
The fact that the ICO got an award CoinAgenda Best ICO 2017 itself is enough proof that it is not a scam. Venture capital fund CEO is monitoring the funding. The project itself also offers a buyback mechanics.
CONCLUSION
They have managed to raise little over $ 3 million till 31. 7. 2017. The ICO lasts until 14th of August or until 10.000 BTC are raised.
At this point, the project is in early stages, and we believe that the product and platform have to be first developed. Only then we will see the real results of the idea behind the HIVE project. It is therefore much too early to say with any amount of certainty what will happen. Even though we believe the project and its ICO is legit, until the platform is live and real businesses start to use it, we will wait with our investment, and keep a close eye on the project.
Peter, Crypto-Trader Club
SOURCES AND USEFUL LINKS
https://www.hive-project.net/
https://www.hive-project.net/whitepapers/Hive_Project_Whitepaper.pdf?v2
https://medium.com/hiveproject-net/hive-project-wins-best-ico-at-coinagenda-europe-755e64d46f42
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/a-blockchain-based-solution-to-liquidity-needs-cm818207
https://medium.com/hiveproject-net/hive-project-ico-how-will-the-funds-be-used-89d890a9e09a