Fantom ICO Review

Summary
Fantom aims to be the first DAG based smart contract in the world that solves scalability issues of existing blockchain technology.

IOTA, Nano, ByteBall, and Hedero Hashgraph are also DAG based platforms and have guaranteed real-time transactions because nodes process transactions asynchronously, while ensuring infinite scalability and potentially achieving hundreds of thousands of transactions per second as more nodes participate in the network however these lack Smart Contract dApp infrastructure provided by platforms like Ethereum in which Fantom aims to provide.

Website: https://www.fantom.foundation/
Token symbol: FTOM
Token type: ERC20 (Ethereum platform)
Token price: 1 FTM = $0.04
Non-tech whitepaper: https://www.fantom.foundation/data/ExecutiveSummary_en.pdf
Whitepaper: http://www.fantom.foundation/data/FANTOM%20Whitepaper%20English%20v1.3.pdf
Hard cap: 39,850,000 USD
Total possible tokens: 3,550,000,000
Token distribution:
Community reserved: 40%
Pre-sale: 15th May
Public Sale: 15th June

Token distribution
Token Sale: 1,420,000,000 (40%)
Bonus structure:
30% for private sale
15% for pre sale with 3 months vesting
Advisors and Contributors: 15%
Team and advisors: 15%
Development: 30%
Token distribution timeline
Tokens will be distributed on June 29, 2018

Roadmap

Intermezzo: 15 June, 2018
Validation of the Lachesis Protocol
Middleware beta launch
Generation of the ERC-20 token

Seria: 3Q, 2018
Middleware Layer
Public API disclosure

Buffa: 1Q, 2019
Development initiation of OPERA Core Layer
Functional language beta
Virtual machine beta

Operetta: 3Q, 2019
Mainnet launch

Grand OPERA: 2Q, 2020
Global platform expansion
System model expansion
FANTOM Council establishment

Product Stage
Fantom Virtual Machine is on GitHub and middleware beta is scheduled to be released in June 2018
Token usage

The token can be used to facilitate (1) payments, (2) invoke Smart Contracts, and (3) help individuals and commercial entities interact via any dApps hosted on the network. FTM token is needed to sustain a variety of operations throughout the FANTOM ecosystem.

Team

The team is good and promising. It has software development and business experiences. The advisory board members are considered big influencers in the industry.

Ahn Byung Ik, CEO – Holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Yonsei University and is a contributing writer at Fortune Magazine. He previously established a food tech platform called SikSin, which has accumulated over 3.5 million downloads and 22 million monthly page views. He is also the president of the South Korea Food Tech Association, one of FANTOM’s partner companies.

Bob Tucker, COO – Over 25 years of experience managing businesses for Barclays Capital, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Man Investments and ANZ Bank. He was most recently the Head of Business Management for the Global Markets and Institutional Loans division of ANZ Bank. He has also been involved in a number of early stage ventures, from the start-up phase through to the IPO.

Yunsung, CFO – Previously an auditor for various companies and was a manager in fintech business development at the Industrial Bank of Korea for three years. Holds an MBA in Finance from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST).

Issac Lee, CIO – Currently a General Partner at BlockWater Capital, a digital asset investment form. He is also an advisor to other projects include LiveEdu, a live and video tutorial learning platform, and Bitindia, a blockchain exchange and wallet.

Joseph Jang, CSO – Over 10 years of experience in law, finance, media and blockchain. He is currently the VP of SL Blockchain Partners and the CFO for Global IP. He obtained his law degree from the Seattle University in Washington.

Jake Choi, CMO – Jake is currently the CIO for Digital Currency Holdings and is an advisor to blockchain project, Enosi Foundation. He has a Bachelor degree in Quantitative Business Analysis and Finance from the University of Sydney.

Lee Chung Hee, Head DAG Architect – Over 13 years of experience in systems development. He was previously the Chief Development Officer at Bobcat and the Development Manager at WebZeit Corporation.

The project also has a number of advisors including: Ran Neu Ner, the host of CNBC's Cryptotrader show, Eddy Travia, the CEO and Co-founder of Coinsilium, Matthew Hur, the VP of SL Blockchain Partners, Kim Hak Kyoon, the CEO of Quantum Equity Partners Korea, Jo Min Sik, Non-executive Director of Kakao, Ashton Hettiarachi, the CEO of Blockchain Partners, Kim Hyeong Joo, the President of Korea Blockchain Association, among others.

Investors of the project include Blockwater Capital, TCM, HyperChain Capital, Signum Capital, Kosmos Capital and Block VC.

Opportunities

The team has a real execution history and working with different successful companies. The CEO has a good background with Food technology and established a partnership with South Korea Food Tech Association.
This idea could be huge as the potential is great, it just really depends now on how Fantom executes its plans

Concerns
The hard cap is high

The roadmap is long and it shows that the Mainnet is going to be released in 2019 which is a year away from ICO ends. By that time, more competitors could rise in the industry
The market is focus on South Korea. Would the team expand beyond the country?

Conclusion
In conclusion, the idea is good and with a huge potential to be successful in the long run. However, the execution of the plan is unsure and the project is still in the early stage of development. Thus, it’s a very high risk to invest in it.