VeblenSynergy.com ICO Analysis on Block Stocks Swiss AG, by Mohamed Ezeldin

 

Product

Block Stocks have truly found a way to utilize tokenization and bring the blockchain technology into the real world. They aim to create an all in one platform that will raise funds for start-ups and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) within Europe.

The product is two tiered. The first tier; the platform, focuses on raising funds from investors and tokenizing all new equity into security tokens. In addition to this, any SME signing up to use the platform will also benefit from assistance in the following areas: Legal, KYC/AML, IT, Finance and Marketing, leaving the start- ups and SMEs to focus solely on their projects.

The second tier, is their in house exchange, where all of the tokenized equity of each new SME will become instantly tradable. This project has great potential as they are creating their own exclusive ecosystem within the crypto space, which does solve a genuine problem of raising funds for non-crypto companies. Which in turn will cause many more striving SMEs and start-ups to embrace the underlying blockchain technology and raise awareness to the everyday user of the rising potential within this space.

The idea of having an all in one platform and exchange for everyday businesses is both innovative and exciting. By taking the success of ICO fundraising and trading cryptocurrencies and simplifying the process, they have made it accessible to start ups and SMEs who would otherwise struggle in this moment in time to find the funding they need to succeed.

As with all large companies, SMEs have to start somewhere and Block Stocks is giving them the perfect platform to go on and become both great investments and great companies. The exchange will be built upon their MVP of equity tokenization, called Liquid Stocks Protocol, which has already implemented with the co-operation of XAIN. (A leading software house, providing services for companies including Porsche.)

Score 93/100

 

Team

The core team at Block Stocks is very well balanced at this early stage. Martin Wos, Co-CEO and CVO, has extensive experience as an engineer in both software and hardware. He was also an external technical security advisor for Fortune 100 companies within Germany including Lufthansa and Mercedes Benz. This is also not his first rodeo when it comes to successfully launching a new company; he has launched 3 so far, with his first coming at the age of 15 years old.

Estefano Elhawary, Co-CEO and CMO, is marketing professional who has a clear appetite for success and knowledge. His background started in sales, working for SKY. He then went onto establish 3 companies, one of which generated over 40 million YouTube views and turned a 9,400 Euros investment into a multi-million Euro company.

Lief-Nissen, CTO, has a very strong background in both academia and previous relevant experiences. With a Master’s degree in software engineering from Oxford University and a PhD in Computing from Imperial College London, he is the brain behind their innovative Liquid Stocks Protocol. Lief also brings with him a strong team of developers from XAIN, where he is currently CEO.

They also have a solid team of legal and financial advisors from MLL Legal, who are one of the most reputable law firms in Switzerland who understand the European markets and will help them achieve their goals.

Score: 96/100

 

Environment

While Block Stocks will be building their in house exchange, they will not be in direct competition with the many exchanges within the cryptoverse due to the framework of the Liquid Stocks Protocol.

To our knowledge and research, there are no other projects or companies who are incorporating a crypto backed fundraising platform for non-crypto projects. While there are other companies like Ethereum Alliance Members or ICO Producer, who wish to make launching an ICO as easy as possible, this is not the aim of this project.

A core feature of the project, which is unique within this space, is the revenue pay outs of Block Stocks Tokens. Up to 5% of newly issued SME security tokens (with claims on equity and dividends) will be always distributed to Block Stocks Token Holders, which makes Block Stocks Tokens a constantly growing, diversified portfolio of SME companies. Moreover, Block Stocks Tokens will also pay out up to 5% of the each SME fundraising value on a continuous basis.

Score: 96/100

 

Vision

Block Stocks demonstrates a strong business model and they are aiming to disrupt the big investors monopoly of start-ups and SMEs by giving you the opportunity to be a token holder.

The team has a clear understanding of the task at hand and what must be done for them to make the platform and the exchange a success. They already have start-ups and SMEs ready to use their platform once the token sale is concluded which will drive demand for the token and will act as a measure of their future success.

Block Stocks will be organizing its token sale on their own platform, effectively being their first customers. This shows that their platform is ready to host other token sales and can deal with the demand.

From a technological point of view, a lot is dependent on the Liquid Stocks Protocol, which will also affect the success of this project. They will be running their Protocol on their private Xain Blockchain, which will still link with the main Ethereum net. The Block Stocks team have also identified that while Proof of Work was meant to decentralize mining, it has in fact lead to centralization due to the massive amount of energy consumed. With this in mind, they want to keep the mechanisms of POW minus the large energy consumption and threat of centralization, and have introduced Practical Proof of Kernel Work, PPoKW. (From a mathematical point of view this is pure genius!)

A potential stumbling block is if a large percentage of the start-ups and SMEs fail to reach the agreed soft cap (in this case there will be no token sale, and all funds will be returned to investors), or the projects they attract are not smart investments, or just replicate ideas of other more successful projects. They have tried to remedy this by launching a BST Rewards Program, where all SME investors will be rewarded by newly created Block Stocks Tokens in the event of a successful SME Security token sale taking place.

Score: 95/100

 

Valuation

The token split is in line with the norm, selling 51% of base tokens. Founders and advisors have an allocation of 10%, which is less than half the norm, which could imply that the team is extremely confident of the success of their project.

Being a security token is a huge advantage as they will only be operating within the EU, and they are compliant with all the Swiss laws. In addition to this, Block Stocks Tokens are securities issued under Swiss law, so they are protected by the financial markets law, guarded by FINMA, a Swiss regulator. Which is why, as an investor you can be rest assured that they really can pay out the dividends spoken about earlier.

The team is aiming to raise €153 million; an extremely large sum, of which nearly 60% will be spent on software development and marketing. Given that they are building both a protocol and an exchange (over the last few months protocols have raised an average of $25–35 million and exchanges $20–25 million). This creates some uncertainty around if they will be able to deliver the milestones on their roadmap on time. As with most projects in this space, they overvalue themselves.

Overall, Block Stocks has a unique idea in an ever-growing space with multiple variations of similar ideas. The core team has a history of success and a plethora of experience, which will bode well for them in the coming months. The ideas within the One Pager and Financial Whitepaper should create enough hype and excitement to see this ICO go at least 5x in the short term.

Score: 93/100

 

Summary

In short, Block Stocks have created a unique idea to give investors the chance to participate in owning a share of start-ups and SMEs, and for SMEs to get the guidance and finances to get their projects up and running and become profitable. This will all be dependent on the team’s ability to meet the milestones on their road map; have the right kind of start-ups and SMEs using their platform and getting traders to use their exchange.

Furthermore, they are giving each investor two streams of income. The first, as a holder of BST, you also own a share of all SMEs that have ever raised or will ever raise capital, ensuring BST will continue to grow a diversified portfolio of all SMEs raising capital on their platform. Secondly, each BST holder will receive the passive income based on each SME’s fundraising value.

Score: 95/100

 

Block Stocks Swiss AG (www.blockstocks.com) offers a highly automated all-in-one Security Token Sale platform for Startups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – one of the most profitable investments in the financial history. This fundraising platform is powered by the Block Stocks Tokens offering unique revenue streams for the Token Holders, who will own the share of each Startup or SME that will ever raise capital on the Block Stocks Platform.

 

Original Post: https://medium.com/@BlockStocks/block-stocks-ico-analysis-8f351b665c16