Effect.ai (EFX) ICO Analysis: An NEO-Powered Decentralized Network for Artificial Intelligence
Executive Summary
Project Description
One of the biggest problems currently facing the development of AI is the fact that most algorithms are developed by large corporations. As a result of this, there is reduced operability between various algorithms, making the AI environment as a whole non-cooperating. People who need results or data sets pertaining to these algorithms struggle to find it or end up having to pay a premium for it. People who want to self-train AI also contend with these problems and, overall, it is a very expensive endeavour.
The Effect Network was built on top of NEO to tackle all these problems. With Effect, people who want need AI data no longer need to go through third parties, cutting out the pricey commission, and long wait periods for verification and payments. The network is split into 3 phases and Effect Network will use these phases to provide the necessary infrastructure, a la smart contracts.
In phase one, a decentralized micro-task network similar to Mechanical Turk’s, Storms’ and to some extent, Gems’, will be built. Providers of tasks, called Requesters, can post certain tasks for users on the platform and attach a reward, in EFX, to be paid on completion. Requesters can choose to restrict their projects to only users who meet certain specifications like age, gender, etc. For each task they complete, users receive Honour tokens, and these tokens are given out based on quality of work, rather than quantity. Having a high amount of Honour tokens allow users apply for higher-paying tasks, and it reduces the amount said user has to pay to the “Galaxy Pool”. Honour tokens cannot be traded and will expire after some time.
In phase two, there will be an AI marketplace where an algorithm’s services can be offered to other users, perhaps for use by other algorithms. This, essentially, creates an accessible market for algorithm data, improving interaction between algorithms as a result, and generally furthering cooperation in the AI sector. All users will pay usage fees that will be handled by a smart contract.
In phase three, the algorithms that are currently centralized will be decentralized on the blockchain, creating a global network of AI running on NEO with no downtime.
Hard Cap and Valuation
There will be a total of 650 million EFX tokens, and Effect.ai plans to raise a maximum of €14,820,000 for 40% of the total; their soft cap is pegged at €4,280,000. Additionally, 20% of the token total is reserved for another (potential) funding round. This round will have a minimum token lock of 18 months and is tentatively planned for September 2019. If the company does not meet certain milestones by that time, however, the tokens could be burned.
Furthermore, 16% of the tokens will be used for the Galaxy Pool, which does things like provide liquidity with a stable exchange rates for users. Another 15%l goes to the team, 7% goes to Effect’s partners and their Advisors, and 2% will be up for the bounty campaign. Effect.ai will also give a further 10% bonus on tokens sold during the sale.
There are two non-negotiable options for a private sale: €100,000 with a 5% discount and/or €250.000 with a 7.5% discount. In both cases, 50% of tokens bought will be locked for 12 months. Every investor is hand-picked and as a result, it comes down to the experience and knowledge each one can provide.
Price Per Token
EFX price is pegged at $0.07 per token.
Important Dates
EFX sale will take place in March but the exact date it will start remains unknown. What is known, however, is that the sale will go on for 18 days.
Marketing Power
As at the time this post was published, Effect.ai had over 7,000 Telegram users, 2,300+ followers on Twitter, around 860 Facebook subscribers, and 470+ followers on Medium. They also have subreddit with 590+ readers.
Prominent Advisors
Their list of advisors hasn’t been released yet.
Howey’s Test
According to Howey’s Test conducted by our analysts, it is unlikely that EFX will be considered a security.
Team Members’ Areas of Expertise
Business experts
Chris Dawe, CEO
- CEO of Choice Energy for 9 years.
- Project Manager at Itsavirus for over 2 years (ongoing).
- Built some sketchily described companies in Ireland, Australia, Canada and Thailand.
Nick Vogel, Design & Interaction Lead
- Founder and Co-owner of Cococci for over 4 years.
Target market experts
Effect.ai’s target market is a technical one where experience in software engineering is important. Itsavirus has been working on AI and the blockchain for a while, therefore, members of the Effect team who worked at Itsavirus have some experience pertinent to the target market.
Marketing experts
Chris Dawe, mentioned above, has considerable marketing experience from building his companies. He, along with a team of 4, is responsible for Effect.ai’s marketing and the social media presence they have been able to build shows evidence of a sophisticated marketing plan from a team well-experienced in the sector.
Legal experts
The Effect.ai team is working with a law firm; they have 4 lawyers from the firm working on their project.
Software engineering experts
Jesse Eisses, Blockchain Lead
- Developer at Itsavirus for over 4 years and after that, Lead Developer for over a year.
- Developer at MyAdbooker for over a year.
Laurens Verspeek, Development Lead
- Web Developer for 6 years and Lead Developer for 2 years at Itsavirus.
Jeffrey Hamer, Developer
- Web Developer at Itsavirus for 5 years.
Nico Curylo, Developer
- Software Developer at Green Claim for 6 months (ongoing).
- Web Developer at CS Digital Media for almost 2 years.
- Web Developer Internship at Tijuna for half a year.
Blockchain development experts
As mentioned above, Itsavirus is focusing on the blockchain and they have been working on blockchain-based projects for over a year. As a result, members of the Effect.ai team that worked at Itsavirus definitely have some blockchain development experience. What type of blockchain-based work they did during this time is however unclear.
Token sale structure experts
Effect.ai supposedly have the “best token advisors” according to reports. Who these advisors are hasn’t been disclosed yet, but if they are so good, they will surely have some token sale structure expertise, perhaps from previous advisory positions.
Token economics experts
Same as above.
Disclaimers:
- Nothing written in this article is a legal or an investment advice.
- Information is provided on a best-effort basis and is subject to change without prior notice. Be sure to verify everything you read with a project team.
The analysis was produced by Research Center team members: Robin Davids, Mark Jedd, Eugene Tartakovsky.
We are constantly working on improving our work, so we welcome all constructive feedback. Let us know what you think.
Follow us and subscribe to receive regular reports!
One of the many interesting AI projects :-) I am curious which ones will survive.
These guys were actually at the last NEO meetup where I was as well. I picked up a flyer with some additional info:
Note: your hyperlinks work a bit strange, because all route you to Medium...
Yes, which one do you like the most?
Thank you for the flyer, we'll adjust the post shortly.
And we've fixed the links, thank you for telling us!
Hard to tell which ones are the most interesting because most of them say they do AI/machine learning, but it turns out to be still a lot of manual work or just a marketing thing. The challenges with real AI/Machine learning are big and even at the biggest established companies they cannot really seem to crack it. Let alone a small team at a start-up. A project that could be a step in the right direction at the right point in time is maybe Gems.
I guess you can say the ideas are interesting but I have not found one project of which I think they will pull of what they say they will do.