Shivom ICO review

(I am not a financial advisor. This is not financial advice. Please DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!)

Shivom is creating a medical genomics ecosystem on the blockchain and will offer an open web marketplace for other healthcare providers to add their apps and services alongside genomic data analytics and personalised medicine.

Problem
• Genome sequencing had been previously expensive but costs are drastically reducing making sequencing more readily available.
• With increase in donors there are issues around data ownership, data sharing and data integrity.
• Genomic sequencing providers often sell genomic data for their own profit whilst donors aren’t compensated in any way.

Solution
• Easy access at an affordable price for donors to have their genome sequenced and stored.
• Blockchain addresses trust issues such as patient consent, unclear data ownership, data integrity, user authentication.
• Enables complex data rights management and fine grained access using smart contracts.

Current State of Product
There is currently no product in existence. Shivom’s pitch deck shows the screenshot of a wallet which appears to be a white label product called Auxy built by Auxesis.

Team
Co-Founder & CEO – Dr Axel Schumacher
Axel has vast experience in this field, which includes writing the ‘Blockchain and Healthcare Strategy Guide’. He has a Ph.D. in Human Genetics and is a member of the Blockchain Research Institute..

Co-Founder & COO – Gourish Singla
Gourish has a background in investment banking and has founded his own chemicals company as well as another 3 in the digital health space. Her areas of expertise are blockchain, AI, machine learning and robotics.

Co-Founder & CMO - Sally Eaves
Sally has held positions as a Chief Technology Officer, Practising Professor of FinTech and Global Strategic Advisor. She has consistently been rated in the top 10 for blockchain and social media influence worldwide.

Co-Founder & CSO – Per Lind
Per is the Co-Founder of IOTA Foundation and specialises in engaging social marketing.

Co-Founder & CTO – Akash Gaurav
Akash is a blockchain entrepreneur and founded India’s first blockchain company, Auxesis Group. Auxesis Group is considered amongst the Top 100 Most Influential Blockchain Companies in the world.

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Advisor
Kumar is the founder of Cashaa, a blockchain based payment and banking startup and the Chairman of Auxesis Group.

Chief Scientific Officer – Dr Natalie Pankova
Natalie has been the Director of 2 early stage health-tech companies. She holds a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Her research focus was on ophthalmology, inflammatory diseases, diagnostics and personalised medicine.

Overall the team looks pretty good with recent and relevant experience in the genome sequencing / medical industry and blockchain development. Most however are currently working on at least one other project each.

Community
Telegram – 220
Bitcointalk – the hyperlink to Bitcointalk redirects you to the Shivom landing page
Discord – 131
Medium – 27 followers and 2 posts (24/10/17 and 6/12/17)
Facebook – 82
Twitter – 211 followers / 253 following (indicates possible ‘follow for follow’ strategy

Token Metrics
No dates listed for ICO
No price listed for token (OmiX)

• 3 billion tokens to be distributed
• 90M OmiX to the community
• 420M OmiX to founders (no lock-up period specified)
• 300M OmiX to advisors (no lock-up period specified)
• 600M OmiX for Incentivizing Growth Pool
• 600M Omix to Company Reserve

*** Number of OmiX tokens at ICO not stated however appears to be 990M ***

ICO funds distribution nominated as being:
• 20% - platform development
• 11% - operations and business development
• 10% - non profit R&D
• 21% - partnerships and marketing
• 5% - legal
• 2% - proof of concept
• 6% - data storage
• 25% - laboratories

The OmiX token enables buying, trading, incentivizing and other services. The token is the fuel of the Shivom ecosystem, as well as part of the governance of the system. Tokens offer the following:
• Ability to acquire premium services in the Shivom ecosystem
• Ability to acquire genome sequencing kits
• Ability to sponsor sequencing projects
• Ability to acquire access to health/fitness apps from 3rd party providers
• Ability to access the genome database
• Ability to pay donors for data/participation in research studies
• Ability for service providers to use the platform

Things I Like
• A potentially large market given world population however I’m not sure that too many care enough about genome sequencing for this market size to be realised. (So I suppose this is a thing I like but dependant upon people caring enough to be become donors which I’m not confident of at all)

Things I Don’t Like
• No product or even proof of concept developed. The Shivom Executive Summary document states the proof of concept will be released post ICO and a beta version of their platform in Q1/Q2 of 2018
• Screenshots of wallet appear to be a white label product called Auxy built by Auxesis. Auxesis is an Indian blockchain company with some horrible company reviews on line detailing poor ethics, a ‘hire and fire’ policy and no desire to expand above 10 employees
• No partnerships listed in the Shivom Executive Summary document however claim to be partner focused. Their pitch deck shows photographs of the co-founders with representatives of the Indian government however Google searches do not reveal any partnership announcements
• When joining the Shivom Discord server a bot message is sent to the user stating Shivom have a partnership with the government of Andhra Pradesh to sequence 60 million people of their state. A direct competitor, 23andme have apparently sequenced 1 million people and are valued at $1.5 billion and less than 10 million people have been sequenced worldwide. A Google search shows an estimate of the Andhra Pradesh population in 2017 to be 53 million people so IF the population has ballooned to 60 million people this would mean every single person in the region would need to be sequenced. The logistics of this alone are unfathomable and at an estimated $100 per donor (quoted in the Shivom executive summary however unlikely to be this high at that volume) would be $6 billion. With the GDP of the region at about $100 billion for 2017 it is unlikely the government would be paying this amount considering there was only $44.24 million allocated for tourism in their 2017-2018 budget. The 2017-2018 budget for Andhra Pradesh does not discuss Shivom or genome sequencing at all.
• Shivom are being promoted by ICO Box however given the fact that Per Lind, Ghourish Singla and Sally Eaves (all self proclaimed blockchain influencers) are involved with Shivom as co-founders, I question the need for ICO Box and the level of their involvement in the project.
• The majority of team members have at least one other project running concurrent to Shivom. Per Lind is particularly concerning with his LinkedIn profile listing involvement in a further 10 projects (including IOTA) from co-founder to partner, VP and director of these other organisations.
• The Executive Summary states that they are ‘working with governments to get whole populations sequenced’. As per the comments listed re Andhra Pradesh, this is an extremely ambitious claim.
• 990M tokens available for ICO yet 600M are allocated for ‘incentives’ and another 600M for ‘company reserves. These numbers seem too high and I feel the incentives (bounty programs mentioned) will dilute the value of the tokens sold during ICO.
• No token price listed in Executive Summary.
• Dates of ICO not listed in Executive Summary.
• Extremely small community. Given Per Lind’s previous experience in business development I expect this should have been driven much harder.
• Co-founder and COO, Akash Gaurav is the founder of Auxesis Group who appears to be providing the wallet for Shivom. This could be construed as either a red or green flag. I see it as red due to an obvious conflict of interest.

Will I Be Investing?
I definitely won’t be at this stage however this could be revisited if the negative points can be addressed adequately. There’s not enough information regarding token metrics, team commitment to this project over others or supposed partnerships with Indian governments.