Fantom Foundation ICO review:

1.Idea

In 2017 Bitcoin and alt coins received an enormous amount of attention. Often times we read about the benefits of the blockchain technology-decentralization, fast transactions, smart contracts, giving power to the unbanked etc. However, as the technology receives more attention from the public, we can also see that there are key problems to be solved before we it finds a mass usage.

Fantom is part of the new generation platforms that takes a different approach by implementing a technology known as DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph-think IOTA) as opposed to using a standard blockchain-based solution. Fantom can establish and execute smart contracts and transactions in a more flexible, scalable and cheaper way.
Fantom builds its own blockchain that adopts a new protocol known as Lachesis Protocol as a consensus mechanism. Applications that are built on the Fantom Opera Chain can benefit from instant and extremely low cost transactions for all users.

By using the Lachesis Protocol consensus mechanism, Fantom will reach and exceed 300 000 TPS(transactions per second), but at the same time provide an open-source and permissionless (public) platform.

Fantom is built on 3 layers:

• Opera Core Layer-responsible for creating events and maintaining consensus across all nodes by using the Lachesis Protocol
• Opera Ware Layer-responsible for issuing rewards/incentives, story data and also it gives functionality for payments
• Opera Application Layer-provides APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for apps to use features of the Opera Ware Layer. These APIs will be publicly available.

Story Root:

• Tracking past transactions is made easy by using the root hash value also known as Story Root. This is a useful tool for supply-chain management. Ethereum, on the other hand, has limited capacity to track past transactions.

Smart Contract Language:

• FANTOM provides a SCALA-like functional programming language for executing Smart Contracts on top of its own Virtual Machine known as the FANTOM Virtual Machine (FVM). The FVM will allow executive smart contract byte code efficiency and across all operating systems

Worth mentioning is that there will be initially a 5% annual inflation rate which decreases as more users join the network. 20% of the total inflation would be used to reward nodes and the rest would be used to provide incentives for FANTOM platform users like micro transaction fees and rewards to user who maintain a good flow of the ecosystem.

Roadmap:

• June 15th, 2018: Generation of the ERC-20 Token, Middleware beta launch, Validation of the Lachesis Protocol
• Q3 2018: Middleware Layer, Public API disclosure
• Q1 2019: Development initiation of Opera Core Layer, Functional language and Virtual machine beta
• Q3 2019: Mainnet Launch
• Q2 2020: Global platform expansion, System model expansion, Fantom Coincil establishment

To sum it up: Fantom's goal is to be the main DAG-based smart contract platform. If executed successfully, Fantom will offer its users great scalability at around 300 000 TPS and close to zero transaction fees. That can seriously disrupt the current infrastructure for payments and supply-chain management and change it for better. This will be to the benefit of food technology, banking, electricity, telecommunication, real estate, IoT and other industries.

2.Team:

The team consists of 11 members and seems decent/good, but not impressive to me. The CEO is currently working on a restaurant app and has zero blockchain experience. On the positive end-he has very strong ties with the Korean food industry. I would have liked to see more team members involved full time on the project and also more well-known large international companies in their resume. Some team members have working experience together at Digital Currency Holdings, Liberte&C and others. There is also a large number of developers, which is always a plus given how ambitious and tech-heavy the project is. Most are based in Korea and Australia, which should help with the market awareness and exposure of the project:

• CEO: Ph.D, Computer Science at Yonsei Uni (106th World), Stanford-SEIT Venture Business. Founder of Siksin (restaurant recommendation app-9 mill funding). President of the Korea Foodtech Assosiation. Part timer.
• COO: Bob Tucker, Education: Finance Modular Programme at LBS(top Uni), Economics at University of Sydney. Experienced business/strategy manager. In the 90s he worked as an Audit at KPMG Australia and Barclays Bank-both big companies. Other jobs include Business Management at AZN Bank and COO at MAN (big investment firm). Most recently- Founder&COO at Digital Currency Holdings and Clinton Capital Partners (investment sector). An all star to me. Part Timer.
• CFO: Sean Yun, Education: MBA, Finance at KAIST (41th World-top Korean Uni). Rich experience as an Auditor and Manager, most notably at Industrial Bank of Korea (small Korean bank-3y) and TmaxSoft Inc. Founder of Natural FNP (healthy food company). Part timer.
• CIO: Issac Lee, Education: Pharmacy drop out at UIC(207th World). Currently- General Partner at BLockWater Capital(VC). Prior to that he was Advisor at LiveEdu (eduational ICO-running below ICO price) and Bitindia (Indian cryptocurrency exchange and wallet).
• CSO: Jospeh Jang, Education: Doctor of Law at Seattle Uni School of Law. Entrepreneur and executive for more than 10 years. VP at SL Blockchain Partners (nothing found), CFO at Global IP(8m), former President at Dramabeans(in depth reviews and analysis of Korean dramas).
• Rest of the team highlights: Analyst at Macquarie Group(Australian Investment banking company), Deputy Manager at Industrial Bank of Korea, Sales and Marketing at Eltek AS (large developer of energy systems for telecoms and industrial apps). The development team consists of 15 members, but there is little to no info abou them. No Github reference either.

Advisors Highlights (8 people):

• Steve Belloti: Managing Director at Merril Lynch (big financial service company) between 1987–2000. Currently CEO at Digital Currency Holdings and former Managing Director at ANZ (Australian Business Bank).
• Kim Hyeong Joo: President of Korea Blockchain Association.
• Francisco Jo: Advisor at Bitindia, KICKICO, LiveEdu, Crypto20 and more. Founder&CIO at Coinhills(live market price). General Partner at BlockWalter Capital. An experienced crypto personality and successful entrepreneur. An all-star to me.
• Michael Kong: Co-Founder of Horyzon Pty (work-for-equity exchange built on ethereum), former CTO at Liberte&Co and myStake. Currently CTO at Digital Currency Holdings.
• Ashton Hettiarachi, Comp. Science at Stanford, CEO at Blockchain Partners Holding-investment firm that brings trading and portfolio management. They have invested in projects like Dadi, Augur, NEO, Tenx, ETHlend and more.

Partners:

• Oracle -what is the partnership is yet to be announced. Oracle is a huge name, so we need information here
• South Korea FoodTech Association-members include the top 90 leading companies in the 200 billion USD food market in South Korea
• King&Wood Mallesons-Law Firm
• Blockchain Partners- cryptocurrency investment firm/startup
• Chain Partners-Blockchain company Builder
• Quantum Equity Partners-private equity fund

Investors:

• BlockWater Capital: Wanlin Wang is the overseas president of Bibox(183 million USD trading volume)
• TCM- Token Capital Management- actively managed cryptocurrency fund with an independent third-party custodian

Useful Links:

• DAG: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shermanlee/2018/01/22/explaining-directed-acylic-graph-dag-the-real-blockchain-3-0/#4ed3537180bc
• Siksin: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/siksin
• DCH: http://www.digitalcurrencyholdings.com/
• Clinton Capital Partners: https://twitter.com/clintoncapital
• BitIndia: https://twitter.com/bitindia_co?lang=en
• LiveEdu: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/education-ecosystem/
• King&Wood Mallesons: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/oracle#section-acquisitions
• TCM: http://www.shedconnect.com/portfolio-item/here-they-come-an-actively-managed-cryptocurrency-fund/

3. Token Metrics:

• Hardcap: 39.95 million USD
• ICO Stages: Public presale- June 1st, Crowdsale- June 15th
• Total tokens: 3. 55 billion FTMs, 1.42 billion goes to the ICO. 40% goes to the contributors
• Symbol: FTM, interim ERC-20. To be swapped when mainnet launches in Q3 2019
• Token price: 0.04 USD/Crowdsale
• MVP: Not yet. Technical whitepaper and testnet expected in June
• Bonuses: 15–30% for public/private presale
• Generation of the interim ERC-20 token -29th of June
• Competitors: Constellation Labs, Hashgraph, IOTA, Zilliqa and more

4.Hype (17.05.2018):

• Telegram: 14647 members
• Twitter: 1512 members

5.Verdict

Pluses:

• Highly scalable platforms are a "hot" topic in the current crypto space and normally are very well received by the public
• If executed successfully, Fantom will have a big and positive impact on the crypto space
• Big Korean-Australian team which will help with the market awareness and hype
• Good connections with the Korean Food Industry, which should help with the adoption of the platform. Oracle partnership could be big news as well

Minuses:

• High hardcap at 39.8 million USD
• No MVP available to the public yet. Testnet to be released in late June
• Quite extended roadmap-the mainnet launches in Q3 2019

Overall, it's an interesting project that is receiving a lot of attention already. The platform can bring many benefits to its users-low fees, high scalability, instant settlements of smart contracts, easy to track past transactions and more. I do like the fact that the team is big and is tightly connected to the food industry. They are also primarily based in Korea and Australia where blockchain technology is extremely popular. Having Oracle as a partner(terms needed) is not to be missed either.

However, there are some negatives to be pointed out - the mainnet launches in Q3 2019, no MVP yet and the hardcap is relatively big at 40 million USD. The crypto market is very dynamic and the sentiment can quickly move from one project to another. Fantom has to do a very good job in order to keep relevant given how far down the line their mainnet launch is. Last but not least-the competition is fierce already-we have IOTA, Constellation Labs, Hashgraph, Zilliqa and more recently Quarkchain, though not all of them have the ability to host dApps-i.e. IOTA. Interesting fact is that Wanlin Wang is the overseas president of Bibox, so maybe Fantom will be first listed there.

Updated Conclusion: We had a few notable changes since I first made the review. For one thing we had the bonuses for the presale participants reduced from 60% tops down to 15–30%, which I believe is a much fairer distribution. Also, the market awareness and excitement about the project grew further more and they came up with their whitepaper, which is quite detailed. As for the hard cap -listing on top exchanges is quite pricey, marketing is pricey and the team is quite big as well. I would've still liked to see smaller cap and/or MVP, but regardless, I am very positive on the short term potential of the project.

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