Just when I thought SMS were becoming extinct, Birdchain is revolutionising the A2P SMS market worth $63 billion(as of 2017) through Blockchain. 

What is an A2P SMS?

A2P SMS stands for Application-to-person SMS. There are two types of A2P SMS.

1. Transactional - These are the A2P SMS sent for two-factor-authentication, One-time passwords sent by Social media platforms eg: Google and Facebook. Booking confirmations sent by Airlines. One-time passwords sent by financial services.
2. Promotional - These are the A2P SMS sent for promoting products or sale, advertising by e-commerce companies like Amazon, H&M.

Okay, how does Business send Transactional and Promotional A2P SMS to users?

Through SMS Aggregators companies. 

1. Aggregators are the bridge between Businesses who WANT to send SMSs and Operators who CAN send SMSs. 
2. They have contracts with many Operators.
3. They manage the SMS traffic.

Sounds straightforward, right?

Not so in the real world

Problems with A2P SMS market

From the above picture you can see how complicated the A2P SMS architecture is. 

1. The global players monopolize the markets and set their own SMS prices.
2. To reduce prices aggregators started sending SMSs through other aggregators.
3. This resulted in many SMS aggregators, sometimes the messages get trapped in a loop and never gets delivered.
4. If you are a new company, it is impossible to enter the market because it is competitive and needs a lot investment.
5. Businesses who wants to use A2P SMS aggregators are looking for transparency and reduced prices

Alright, if the A2P SMS industry is complicated why use them?

1. SMS is platform independent, network independent, app independent and geographically independent.
2. SMS is the cheapest and effective way to reach customers. 
3. 98% of people read SMS with 3minutes from receiving it.
4. SMS is the preferred method for two-factor-authentication

Birdchain Solution

There are Two Problems:

1. People have unlimited SMS plan and they rarely use it 
2. Businesses overpay for A2P SMS service

THE SOLUTION:

1. People sell their unused SMS automatically to Businesses through Birdchain app and get paid for every SMS sold.

Guide for Birdchain App Users

1. Download the Birdchain app and set it as default messaging app
2. Set the number of SMSs you want to be sold.
3. Check in-app wallet to track your earnings and SMS sold
4. Done!

Guide for Business to send A2P SMS

1. The Business has to gather a list of phone contacts
2. Purchase Birdchain tokens to send A2P SMS
3. Set the maximum amount to be paid for the campaign
4. Birdchain forms Smart Contracts between the business and every single Birdchain app user who sold their SMSs
5. And Birdchain sends out the messages.

Birdchain Will not do the following things:

How does Birdchain App benefit people?

We as People use Facebook messenger, telegram and WhatsApp to send messages to our family and friends. We don't use SMS as often as we do 5years back but still Operators include limitless amount of SMS messages to our mobile plans for which we pay every month, a service which we do not use.

By selling our unused SMS to Birdchain, depending on the country and market, Birdchain app users could earn 30-300$ per month.

How does Businesses benefit from Birdchain?

1. Better Price
2. faster delivery and transparent pricing 
3. Better service and no need for signing contracts

The Team & The Company:

Birdchain is part of a company called Vertex. Vertex started A2P SMS aggregation business called VertexSMS in 2009 https://www.vertexsms.com/.

Vertex has almost 10years of experience in A2P SMS market. 

You can check their team on their website https://www.birdchain.io/

SWOT analysis

Token

Token - BIRD

1. Businesses will use BIRD tokens to place bid on their SMS campaigns. 
2. The tokens will be frozen until the SMS has been delivered to the Users.
3. Birdchain will minus their commission price from the tokens and pay Birdchain app users with BIRD tokens.

ICO details

Their Pre-ICO starts on Jan 18th https://www.birdchain.io/

My Thoughts:

Birdchain seems like a novel idea. Unlike other ICOs where the team doesn't have much experience, Birdchain team has 10years of experience in A2P SMS market. 

Through their platform there are solving problems for Business who needs cheap SMS marketing campaigns and People who can sell their unused SMS. 

Birdchain estimates 30-300USD as earning per month depending on how many SMS messages has been sold. However, this is not guaranteed by Birdchain.

Birchain growth depends on how widely people use the Birdchain App and Business who wants to send SMS campaigns. They already have customers through their existing A2P SMS market company called VertexSMS https://www.vertexsms.com/, so IMO it shouldn't be a problem.

I will definitely be using the Birdchain app, once it is released so I could earn some extra cash.  

Sources:

Website: https://www.birdchain.io/

FAQ: https://www.birdchain.io/faq

Disclaimer:  I am not a financial advisor. Please do your own research before investing in a company. These are my personal thoughts.

Thank you very much for reading my post. If you would like to see more posts about Cryptocurrency, ICOs and Blockchain, would you please upvote, share and comment? 

Thank you, 

Amritha