It is absurd for anyone to doubt that cryptocurrency is a passing fad in 2018. One of the features of the cryptocurrency market tipped to play a huge role in 2018 is regulation. Carving out a legitimate niche for crypto assets in the new smart economy is the crucial next step for the industry, heralding maturity. I believe the most suitable regulation in this space will have to result from the combined effort of central authorities and from within the space itself. One of the best examples of this integrative harmony, and the focus of my article today, is the Liquid Platform’s ICO Mission Control. Liquid Platform is one of the most ambitious projects in cryptocurrency today, offering a multitude of financial services on blockchain, most notably, the World Book, a global order book derived from interconnecting cryptocurrency exchanges around the world. Currently, Quoine has two exchanges, Quoinex and Qryptos, that would be merged into one in the Liquid Platform. I would love to elaborate more on the World Book but I would be digressing, instead let me go back to topic: ICO Mission Control.
Before I continue, my rude awakening or learning experience to the world of ICOs came at the beginning of my foray into crypto when I took part in two ICOs. With so little information, it was no surprise that my investments failed to turn out as profitable as I hoped. You could point to a number of reasons for this but I mainly attribute to two main points: the ICOs were unsuccessful (failed to hit minimum cap targets) and even after proceeding, projects stalled as the team awaits construction of infrastructure on relevant platform. I would not mention names but you can make an educated guess. Right now I am a ‘bagholder’ still holding tokens whose value has tanked so much, the only thing keeping them alive is my faith. With the information I have today of course I would not make such a poor decision. If crypto is to go mainstream, we are going to have lots of newcomers to the space, how do we protect them from an experience such as mine? Old timers like me who have experienced a roller coaster of experiences full cycle since August last year can be able to withstand, but what about newbies to investment space? Or is it up to the government regulatory authorities? I believe ICO Mission Control holds an inbred answer to this and plenty of other problems facing ICOs today.
CHALLENGES FACED BY ICOs
ICOs replaced IPOs as the go to way of fundraising for projects especially in the blockchain scene. Any startup that wants to succeed and is in need of cash will find ICOs very favorable for their projects. In as much as they are popular, the whole process is not as rosy as some may think it is but it is full of challenges that may make an entire project collapse. These challenges include,
Security. Definitely the greatest challenge to an ICOs success. No matter how successful your ICO may be, it can be brought down instantly if its system is not as secure as it ought to be. Reuters reports that of the US$ 3.7 billion that ICOs had collected in 2017, 10% of this was or stolen during attacks by hackers. Any security compromise would lead to disastrous results for any ICO with ICOs such as CoinDash being examples. Over US$ 10 million lost in the CoinDash platform. Security for ICOs goes beyond the platform, even wallets where users store their altcoins need to be secure. ICOs need to have a list of secure wallets where their coins can be stored securely and advise their clients accordingly to avoid disasters such as the one that happened with the Parity wallet where 30 million in US dollars disappeared.
Planning for the ICO. Planning for an ICO is an entire project on its own. After working on the project that led to the ICO, the team behind the project will need to plan for every aspect of the ICO. The odds of messing up increases significantly when it’s the same team in charge of the project dealing with the ICO. And where the ICO is given more time, the project may end up suffering. Balancing the two becomes too taxing for one team to handle.
Liquidity. No business can succeed without having a pool of liquid cash ready to solve the daily challenges that usually come up. A business may have a great value but without cash for its daily operations it may easily collapse.
Limited participation. An ICO is launched, advertising done, the products and services being offered are top notch but the funds raised tell a different story. The number of participants in some ICOs are sometimes underwhelming and may discourage developers to move forward with their projects. This may be caused by investors’ attitudes towards ICOs maybe due to some incidences that occurred in the past or maybe the investors may be participating in other ICOs and sees it as a bother going through similar tiring processes over and over again.
These are just some of the highlighted challenges that ICO Mission Control wants to do away with.
SATISFACTORY ICOs FOR EVERYONE
ICO Mission Control will have a platform where it will be hosting ICOs on behalf of startups. The platform has already hosted the VLUUR ICO and it is also partnering with Peoplewave to host their ICO from 31st of May, 2018. The ICO Mission Control platform presents itself as the future of all ICOs. Its platform is suitable for both investors and startups. For investors, the benefits include,
A one-time registration. Investors love spreading their risks by investing in different products at the same time. Crypto asset investors are also the same. One of the challenges of multiple investments is having to fill KYC and AML forms over and over again as long as you are participating in a new ICO. ICO Mission Control will only require one registration that can be used with all upcoming ICOs hosted in their platform.
Safety of their investments. ICO Mission Control will have top notch security systems on their platform that will defend against any possible hacking attempts the platform may face.
For developers, ICO Mission Control means the following to them,
More time to improve their products. ICO Mission Control will take up most of the stress that is usually involved in planning for ICOs thus giving developers enough time to improve their product for their target market.
Liquidity. ICO Mission Control has been developed by the same team behind Qryptos and Liquid. Qryptos is set to be merged with Liquid which will give ICO Mission control access to a vast pool of liquid cash. Liquidity promises investors and token issuers transparency in token value which is important in making decisions as the company grows.
In Conclusion
The ICO Mission Control is under the Quoine banner. This is one of the few crypto platforms that is recognized by a regulatory body. It was given a license of operation by the Japan Financial Service Agency. The credibility this holds is enough to boost token issuers’ and investors’ confidence.
ICO Mission Control is right on time as more cryptoassets come up daily. Its success may be one of the ways to vindicate blockchain platforms and prove that they are indeed world changing platforms and not some Ponzi schemes as others have branded them. ICO Mission Control is the best foot forward for blockchain startups.