IPSX - Decentralized IP Exchange
What is IP Exchange (IPSX)?
IPSX is a project that is aiming to create an exchange for unused IPs.
What does this mean?
The project will create a p2p exchange for IPs (internet protocols) that rewards users for providing their IPs to others. It's basically creating a way for IPs to be rented from individuals to businesses.
It's like the AirBnB of IPs
Individuals currently have multiple devices and multiple IPs at their disposal. Any one person might have a phone, a tablet, a desktop and a laptop of which only one or even none are being used. IPSX will allow the IP address connected to those items to be rented when not in use, in return the provider would receive tokens as a reward. IPSX will also allow datacenters to rent their unused IPs.
If you are not familiar with IPs, take a look at this article by Lifewire.
What benefits will IPSX provide?
The IP leasing market is estimated to be worth approximately $60 billion a year. The existing company, [Georanker.com](https://www.georanker.com0, that IPSX is being built from currently provides IPs to customers as part of its services.
IPSX will address multiple concerns that Georanker has discovered while working in the IP market, including:
Liability
A major problem for IP providers is that they feel they may be liable for whatever the person using their IP was doing. With IPSX all IP usage will be logged onto the blockchain. This will provide an immutable chain of custody to the IP provider that will show who was using their IP at any specific time.
Lack of Revenue
Traditional models do not provide rewards to individuals providing an IP (like Tor). Using IPSX providers can provide any number of IPs for a time period as low as 5 seconds and up to 1 month. Each provider will be rewarded with IPSX tokens for their IP use.
IPSX will be able to combine IPs from different sources, individuals, businesses and IoT (future) and allow others to package these using SDK and APIs and sell/rent them to their customers.
Speed/Censorship
IPSX will allow requestors to rent IPs that can circumvent geoblocking and censorship. The increases liquidity of IPs provided by IPSX will also allow customers to select from a larger variety of IPs offering greater variation in bandwidth and location.
When compared to TOR, IPSX will provide a more consistent quality of bandwidth because providers will be rewarded for their service.
Customer Aquisition
This is not IP market specific but the transition of existing georanker.com customers to IPSX will provide an instant customer base.
Who will use it?
The main customers of bulk IPs are:
- VPN providers
- Data Mining Software
- Web Crawling Bots
IPSX will allow their customers to access their SDK and APIs to fully integrate the two systems providing a seamless exchange of IPs from provider to end customer. This Medium article provides a solid overview of use cases for IPSX.
In IPSX the main provider of unused IPs will be individuals.
What will all this look like?
We don't really know what it will look like but the ecosystem is composed of three layers:
Ethereum Layer
This layer will hold the smart contracts for the project including those that manage wallets, profiles and token balances. Micropayments will also occur on this layer.
Application Layer
This layer will be the user interface layer consisting of the IPSX Java App. On this layer, communication/synchronization with smart contracts between the VPN Application will occur. This layer will also contain the matchmaking process between providers and requestors.
Service Layer
This layer connects the providers IPs and bandwidth to the third party requestors.
Why use the blockchain?
The blockchain has four main functions in the IPSX ecosystem.
- Payment and transactions
- Log all IP connections
- Smart contracts for providing IPs, renting IPs and rewarding customers.
- Governance
What is the role of IPSX token?
The utility of the IPSX token is:
- Payments - For services within the ecosystem.
- Governance - Tokenholders will be allowed to participate in governance decisions.
- Rewards - To IP providers.
What about the team?
The team is transitioning the IP sharing portion of an exisiting business (georanker.com) to the blockchain. The team has found that using the blockchain as part of an IP Exchange will mitigate the problem of low liquidity in the IP market and provide safety for providers at the same time.
The team currently has 45 devs, however not all are working on this project. They are planning to reach 100 people by the end of the year.
The project will move all current clients over to the IPSX system.
Links to core team members and advisors are below:
George Bunea - Co-Founder/CEO
Xavier Buck - Co-Founder/Advisor
Sergiu Draganus - Co-Founder/Concept Architect
Daniel Vladescu - CTO
Cyrill Tröndle - Advisor
Andrei Avadanei - Blockchain Security Advisor
Renan Gomes - Data Scientist
What's up with the ICO?
The ICO included a presale with a maximum bonus of 30% (with 3 month vesting period). The crowdsale will begin Feb. 28 and end on March 5th. The hardcap of the token sale is 10,800 ETH. Of this amount, 6500 ETH was sold in the presale leaving 4300 ETH for the public sale.
A total of 50% of the total IPX tokens will be sold to the public during the token sale. Unsold tokens will be burned. The token distribution and fund allocation is as follows:
The base price per token at ICO is 70,588 IPX per ETH and the tokensale will accept only ETH. There is no bonus structure for the public sale.
Team member tokens will have a 3 year lockup with 1/12 of their tokens being released per quarter.
Marketcap & Token Supply
The project at hardcap would have a marketcap of approximately $10 million (900 million IPX) if no additional tokens are released at the time. In the current ICO environment the calculated marketcap is on the lowerside, and we would consider it a microcap.
The total token supply is 1.8 billion IPX.
We have no idea what marketcap or price IPX will achieve but do like to compare it to other similar tokens for analytical pleasure.
Social and Hype
The IPSX Telegram group has 4600+ members. The Telegram is active and George Bunea (CEO) is often available to answer questions. The group is moderated by Amazix and the admins appear to be well versed in the intricacies of the project.
The team is active on Medium with articles pertaining to net neutrality, tokensale and use cases.
The crowdsale hype level is neutral, the presale did well but the company has adopted the philosophy of not announcing announcements. Partnerships will be announced at a later time, although information can be found on some current clients like HiQ Labs.
Research did not discover any FUD but as always do your own research.
ICO Info Sheet
You came here for ICO information. Here it is in an easy to read format.
Overall
This is an interesting project that solves a real world problem and that is looking to benefit from the use of the blockchain. The project is beginning with a built in customer base via the transfer of their current customers from Georanker.com.
In summary, the team is already selling IPs to businesses. Now they are just incorporating the blockchain, smart contracts and a p2p marketplace into that model. This might not be the most glamorous use of blockchain tech but expect to see more of this in the future (data selling, bandwidth markets, etc.) because it integrates well and benefits from what the blockchain has to offer.
Do your own research for every project but review our project overview for a headstart.
For further information visit: IPSX Website || Whitepaper || Telegram || Bitcointalk Announcement
Bitcointalk Profile: MCDForm44
*This information does not contain investment advice.