Quantstamp - ICO Review - Automated audits for smart contracts in the Ethereum network
The people that has read my comments on different social channels, including Steemit, know that I am very selective on the investments I made and the ICOs I invest in. I do have limited resources and need to make the best use of my hard earned money, because when I make an investment decision, I am in for the long term. Projects take time to mature and the real growth comes when you stick with the good ones and let them work their magic. This takes time.
One of the ICOs I am really looking forward to is Quantstamp because of the following reasons (which happen to be also my criteria for selecting ICOs):
Great idea - Quantstamp aims to solve the problem of security vulnerabilities in smart contracts. They help developers to check their source code thoroughly and detect threats, and investors to have piece of mind. All is done in an automated, scalable way, in the blockchain. They will have the capability to audit every smart contract in the ethereum network. Obviously there is much more to it. Their whitepaper is very interesting to read and can be found here: https://docsend.com/view/shcsmhe. For me Quantstamp is clearly a much needed evolution in the crypto space.
Working prototype - it is important that the ICO is not just a whitepaper idea - even if it is a great one. I do invest only in teams that have already built a working product, even in an initial state or prototype. In this case they have, even has had one real life application which is the Request Network token sale.
Stellar team with industry experience - both founders Richard Ma and Steven Stewart have good backgrounds, plus they have built a strong team of lead engineers that have worked for companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung, Barclays among others. They are listed in the website and their backgrounds can be easily checked.
Strong advisors backing the team. In this case Quantstamp has an impressive list, led by Evan Cheng, Director of Engineering at Facebook, ex-Apple. They have two professors of the University of Waterloo on board (each one with extensive experience). This speaks good because Steven - the co-founder - and other members of the team have degrees from said university. And several other experienced people.
Blockchain adequacy. This is sometimes overlooked: some projects out there do not benefit from being on the blockchain. This is not clearly the case with Quantstamp - which is conceived and built in and within the blockchain. The idea here is not to rely on a third-party to do security audits (which can be flawed or have conflict of interests), but to build a decentralized solution by automatic security audits based on standards that can be verified by the consensus.
Utility of the tokens. A lot of people do not get that with ICOs they are not buying equity, but tokens. Investment growth depends essentially on the demand for the tokens. In this case, the tokens will actually enable security audits on the blockchain, and will be used as transaction fees and bounties. So the higher the platform is used, the more demand for the tokens.
Awareness and hype. I don't really rely on this for making investment decisions, but is a plus. In this case the Quantstamp team had a brilliant idea for their pre-sale: proof of caring, people that help them build a good community that really cares about the project and is willing to be part of it for the long term. Details can be found here: https://medium.com/quantstamp/announcing-proof-of-caring-9fa3209854ff
ICO structure. Hard cap of the token sale is USD 30 million which in my opinion is high in the current market environment. 65% of the total tokens will be sold, bringing the total cap (on a fully diluted basis) just above USD 45 million.
One of the things that I don't like about their token sale (and I have provided constructive feedback to the team) is that there are different tiers and prices for the pre-sale (and main sale), depending on proof of caring. I believe in fair prices and equal terms for the community. In my experience, even in the best projects, when there are big pre-sell discounts, there are some dumps once they start trading in exchanges, and this ultimately hurts the community of investors - and the project itself.
What do you think about Quantstamp? Please leave your comments below. And if you liked this post, please upvote it.