Open Garden (OG) Project Analysis: A Decentralized Network that Rewards Data Sharing

Executive Summary

Project Description

Most companies that provide internet services charge a flat rate and in return, give their subscribers a certain amount of data. Most of the time, however, these subscribers do not exhaust their monthly allocation, and the remaining data goes to waste. The Open Garden project wants to help people maximize their internet subscriptions and cut out waste. They plan to create an application that allows users share their Wi-Fi and internet subscriptions with other users on the Open Garden network in return for OG tokens. As a result, data that would otherwise remain unused is easily turned into an asset and internet subscribers can finally commercialize their excess bandwidth.

The Open Garden app is already available on Android-powered smartphones and before long, the iOS and PC versions will be released. With the app, users can turn their devices into internet hotspots and share secure cellular data with other Open Garden users without revealing personal information. Furthermore, Open Garden claims that connection on the network can be fast enough to stream high-quality videos (up to 4K), depending on the users’ devices and connection speed.

The token to be used on the Open Garden platform are called “OG coins” and they are earned when internet connectivity is shared with other users. The “OG coins” can then be converted into fiat currency. It can also be used by the holder to connect to an Open Garden hotspot. It is important to note that the tokens will be run on the Stellar network.

Hard Cap and Valuation

Open Garden’s hard cap and valuation information have not been made available to the public. This may be because the project has no intention of conducting a public pre-sale or an ICO. However, they’ve conducted a private pre-sale.

Important Dates

The ongoing private pre-sale was billed to end on the 9th of February, 2018. There is no public pre-sale or ICO, and the test token launches on Stellar Network in beta on the 28th of February, 2018.

Marketing Power

As at the time this post was published, Open Garden had over 14,200 Facebook subscribers, 18,100+ followers on Twitter, 3,400+ followers on Medium, and 56 members on their Telegram channel.

Prominent Advisors

Mark Cuban

• Owner of NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks.
• Stakeholder in Landmark Theaters, Magnolia Pictures and AXS TV.

Team Members’ Areas of Expertise

Details about the Open Garden team was not made available through the official channels, therefore, the information presented below was gotten following research from external sources rather the company’s website. As a result, the list (and details contained therein) is not exhaustive and some departments of the team may be missing entirely.

Business experts

Paul Hainsworth, CEO.

• Director, Product Management, at Blackberry for almost 5 years.
• Head of Mobile Data Services at Sprint Nextel for over a year.
• Director, Messaging Services, at Virgin Mobile USA for almost 2 years.
• Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA).

Target market experts

Paul Hainsworth, CEO

• Due to his lengthy career and extensive experience in mobile data companies (above).

Marketing experts

No team members with notable marketing expertise.

Legal experts

No team member with legal expertise.

Software engineering experts

Stanislav Shalunov, Co-Founder and CTO

• Senior Internet Engineer at Internet2 for almost 7 years.
• Director of Engineering and Consultant at BitTorrent for over four years
• Advisor at Lifeboat Foundation since May 2013 (ongoing).
• Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Laurent Parenteau, Head of Engineering

• Staff Software Engineer at Citrix for almost 3 years.
• Senior Programmer and Analyst at FIS for almost 4 years.
• Senior Developer and Lead Programmer at Openwave Systems for over five years.

Daniel Nugent, Senior Engineer

• Software Engineer at Birdstep Technology for nine years.
• Software Engineer at Aramova Inc. for two years.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science.

Ramanpreet Singh Khinda, Software Engineer

• Senior Research Assistant at The Research Foundation for SUNY for over a year.
• Android Software Developer at Samsung for almost three years.
• Master’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering.

Apoorv Khare, QA Lead

• Senior QA Engineer at Sonus for three years.
• QA Engineer at Kineto Wireless for almost 4 years.
• Network Engineer at Rio Network for almost a year.
• Master’s Degree in Telecommunications.

Haim Shoham, Senior Software Engineer

• Self-employed Android Developer for over a year.
• Software Engineer and Architect at Cisco for 8 years.
• Master’s Degree in Mathematics.

Eric House, Mobile Networking Engineer

• Android Dev. Lead at Self Aware Games for 4 years.
• Software Engineer at Palm Inc. for over 6 years.
• Software Engineer at Good Technology for over 3 years.
• Blockchain development experts

Blockchain development experts

No team member with blockchain development expertise.

Token sale structure experts

No team member with token sale structure expertise.

Token economics experts

No team member with token economics expertise.

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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.

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The analysis was produced by Research Center team members: Alexander Bugaj, Mark Jedd, Eugene Tartakovsky.

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