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THEKEY ICO Overview

Digital identification is a central facet of life in the 21st century. Growth figures for the identity verification (IDV) industry predict a 14 billion dollar market valuation by 2021, with technologies like fingerprint scans and facial recognition quickly becoming commonplace. In our everyday lives, we must constantly verify our identity to carry out routine tasks such as making payments, taking flights or using health insurance. Still, the technology is rife with faults; issues of data security and identity theft cost consumers billions of dollars per year. Creating a totally secure, infallible identification system sounds like an impossibility at this stage, but with blockchain technology, THEKEY ICO has set out to do just that.



THEKEY ICO Value Proposition

THEKEY is a second generation, onchain identity verification solution that uses personal data authenticated by the Chinese government for real world applications. The underlying Blockchain based Dynamic Multi-Dimension Identification (BDMI) technology is an onchain extension of an existing IDV project led by THEKEY CEO Catherine Li. Built on the NEO platform, THEYKEY ICO is yet another piece of the emerging NEO Smart Economy to hit the market.



Within THEKEY Ecosystem, there are three parties:

(1) Validators who process the identity verification request and generate the IDV result

(2) Service Providers who initiate IDV request

(3) Individual Users

Users, who are customers of the Service Providers, must provide consent to Validators to

process each IDV request. The whole process is facilitated by THEKEY Token (TKY), an NEP-5 token. To illustrate how the ecosystem functions:

An Individual User pays a health care provider TKY to submit a health insurance claim. The service provider pays TKY to Validators to purchase their IDV service. Any new data that Validators collect from the submission utilizes TKY to the trade data with other Validators (for which they must also pay Individual User to do) and any new data from the Individual User (such as medical record updates) is rewarded to the User with TKY. Below is a diagram from the whitepaper as an illustration:

TKY derives value from the process of data disclosure, validation and exchange that occurs within the system. Individual Users will hold TKY to pay Service Providers whenever identity verification is necessary. Service Providers accumulate the token from users and are incentivized to hold and spend TKY to validate the identity of their customers, while Validators are rewarded for their role in processing those requests and will also use TKY to trade information and compensate Users for new information that is fed into the ecosystem. In this manner, each party within the ecosystem has an incentive to accumulate and spend TKY.

THEKEY ICO Team

Founder and CEO, Catherine (Xueli) Li’s expertise rests at the intersection between computer science, data analytics and healthcare. She is a licensed physician turned healthcare data systems manager. She’s worked with IMS Healthcare, most recently as a senior manager, for nearly a decade. As of two years ago, she has been CEO of Ebaonet Healthcare Information Technology, the company which implemented the offchain IDV tech platform that became THEKEY.

On December 21st (today’s date of publishing), VP Chief Blockchain Expert at Huawei, Ken Huang, is now serving as President of THEKEY. With a solid link between the project and the largest telecom equipment manufacturer in the world, the project stands to gain enormously from Ken’s expertise and connections.

CBO, Jian Wang, has been on the frontline of the Chinese government’s development of blockchain technology for over three years. He is a first generation developer of the Linux based open source Hyperledger and also developed 12 dApps over the past three years for city and provincial governments in Nanjing and Jiangsu. Jian is leading the development of the BDMI technology.

Guochun Xu is THEKEY’s CTO, responsible for product planning and development. He spent 10 years with China Unicom as a technician and has 8 years experience in technical management. He’s already successfully led the team responsible for the offchain deployment of THEKEY’s IDV technology.

THEKEY ICO Strengths and Opportunities

Blockchain projects that set out to bridge already existing offchain technologies with onchain platforms tend to offer more promising overall prospects. With THEKEY, the IDV tech dimensions are a carry over of Ebaonet Healthcare Information Technology’s first efforts to implement an internet based IDV platform based on Dynamic Multi-dimension Identification Technology. THEKEY ICO is an onchain version of the same technology, combining the innovative nature of the IDV platform with the security, scalability and unalterable character of the onchain protocol.

THEKEY’s IDV pilot project using government data is already operating in two Chinese cities. Customers use the system to receive pension payments and healthcare insurance reimbursements. Efforts are underway to scale the deployment of the IDV project in dozens more cities, with the goal to integrate the existing offchain infrastructure with the onchain protocol later in 2018 when the product is ready. The successful scaling of the offchain product speaks to the promising nature of the business model.

As for other applications beyond the government, China Unicom and China Minsheng Bank have signed partnership agreements with THEKEY to utilize the technology for KYC. According to a recent AMA with Catherine Li, there are additional partnerships in the works as well. More partnerships across various sectors increases the probability of the product’s overall success, as its utility is tested across the market.

THEKEY ICO Weaknesses and Threats

The underlying concept of THEKEY is analogous with several other identity verification players like Civic and Selfkey. Crucially, however, THEKEY has a foothold on the Chinese market. It’s widely known that the Chinese government protects homegrown tech companies from foreign competition, and for this reason, we see Civic and Selfkey as presenting little challenge to THEKEY in the Chinese market

Collaboration with governmental bodies can be a double edged sword. One the one had, the information is more reliable and already authenticated. Costs of gathering the data are also lower since the datasets and infrastructure already exist. On the other hand, as Catherine Li admitted in a recent AMA session, working with various levels of the Chinese government on commercial use of data is no easy task, as it has never been done before. THEKEY’s reliance on the cooperation of government authorities means that if at any stage this changes, a large section of the market will be cut out.

For all the progress made thus far with the offchain IDV system, we’re told to expect the testnet no earlier than June 2018. The crucial milestone we’re all waiting for from this project is of course implementation of the onchain protocol alongside the existing infrastructure that’s already in place. In the meantime, it would certainly serve to sure up investor confidence if a demonstration of the offchain IDV tech were released.

The Verdict on THEKEY ICO

THEKEY ICO is a stellar project in every respect. The team have proven track records in their respective fields and already achieved a significant milestone together. Partnerships with some of China’s biggest enterprises and the government itself serve to further extend the scope of the project’s potential in a number of different markets. With everything we’ve seen thus far from this project, we’ve decided to place a big bet on THE KEY ICO.

Learn more about THEKEY ICO from our Telegram Community by clicking here.

Today’s Date: 12/21/17

Project Name: THEKEY ICO

Token Symbol: TKY

Website: www.thekey.vip

White Paper: https://www.thekey.vip/node/80

Crowdsale Hard Cap: $22 million

Total Supply: 10 billion

Token Distribution: 51% to Crowdsale, 21% to Ecosystem, 20% to Reserve Fund, 8% to Project Team

Price per Token: .1 BTC = TKY 131,000 (On Distribution Stage, the BTC/NEO conversion rate will be announced 1 hour before launch)

Maximum Market Cap (at crowdsale price): US$44 million

Bonus Structure: https://www.thekey.vip/sites/default/files/pdf/TKY_Distribution_Plan_171126.pdf

Presale Terms: https://www.thekey.vip/sites/default/files/pdf/TKY_Distribution_Plan_171126.pdf

Whitelist: https://www.thekey.vip/user/login

Important Dates: Presale- 11/2017- 15/1/17 ICO- 2/1/2018

Expected Token Release: After ICO is complete

ICO Review Disclaimer

The team at Crypto Briefing analyzes an initial coin offering (ICO) against ten criteria, as shown above. These criteria are not, however, weighted evenly – our proprietary rating system attributes different degrees of importance to each of the criteria, based on our experience of how directly they can lead to the success of the ICO in question, and its investors.

Crypto Briefing provides general information about cryptocurrency news, ICOs, and blockchain technology. The information on this website (including any websites or files that may be linked or otherwise accessed through this website) is provided solely as general information to the public. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice.

Decentral Media LLC, the publisher of Crypto Briefing, is not an investment advisor and does not offer or provide investment advice or other financial advice. Accordingly, nothing on this website constitutes, or should be relied on as, investment advice or financial advice of any kind. Specifically, none of the information on this website constitutes, or should be relied on as, a suggestion, offer, or other solicitation to engage in, or refrain from engaging in, any purchase, sale, or any other any investment-related activity with respect to any ICO or other transaction.

The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media LLC makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media LLC expressly disclaims any and all responsibility from any loss or damage of any kind whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from reliance on any information on or accessed through this website, any error, omission, or inaccuracy in any such information, or any action or inaction resulting therefrom.

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain are emerging technologies that carry inherent risks of high volatility, and ICOs can be highly speculative and offer few – if any – guarantees. You should never make an investment decision on an ICO or other investment based solely on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional of your choosing if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO or other investment.

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Founding Team

This category accounts for the leaders, developers, and advisors.

Poor quality, weak, or inexperienced leadership can doom a project from the outset. Advisors who serve only to pad their own resumes and who have ill-defined roles can be concerning. But great leadership, with relevant industry experience and contacts, can make the difference between a successful and profitable ICO, and a flub.

If you don’t have a team willing and able to build the thing, it won’t matter who is at the helm. Good talent is hard to find. Developer profiles should be scrutinized to ensure that they have a proven history of working in a field where they should be able to succeed.

Product

What is the technology behind this ICO, what product are they creating, and is it new, innovative, different – and needed?

The IOTA project is a spectacular example of engineers run amok. The technology described or in use must be maintainable, achievable, and realistic, otherwise the risk of it never coming into existence is incredibly high.

Token Utility

Tokens which have no actual use case are probably the worst off, although speculation can still make them have some form of value.

The best tokens we review are the ones that have a forced use case – you must have this token to play in some game that you will probably desire to play in. The very best utility tokens are the ones which put the token holder in the position of supplying tokens to businesses who would be able to effectively make use of the platforms in question.

Market

There doesn’t have to be a market in order for an ICO to score well in this category – but if it intends to create one, the argument has to be extremely compelling.

If there is an existing market, questions here involve whether it is ripe for disruption, whether the technology enables something better, cheaper, or faster (for example) than existing solutions, and whether the market is historically amenable to new ideas.

Competition

Most ideas have several implementations. If there are others in the same field, the analyst needs to ensure that the others don’t have obvious advantages over the company in question.

Moreover, this is the place where the analyst should identify any potential weaknesses in the company’s position moving forward. For instance, a fundamental weakness in the STORJ system is that the token is not required for purchasing storage.

Timing

With many ICO ideas, the timing may be too late or too early. It’s important for the analyst to consider how much demand there is for the product in question. While the IPO boom funded a lot of great ideas that eventually did come to fruition, a good analyst would recognize when an idea is too early, too late, or just right.

Progress To Date

Some of the least compelling ICO propositions are those that claim their founders will achieve some far-off goal, sometime in the future, just so long as they have your cash with which to do it.

More interesting (usually) is the ICO that seeks to further some progress along the path to success, and which has a clearly-identified roadmap with achievable and reasonable milestones along the way. Founders who are already partially-invested in their products are generally more invested in their futures.

Community Support & Hype

Having a strong community is one of the fundamental building blocks of any strong blockchain project. It is important that the project demonstrates early on that it is able to generate and build a strong and empowered support base.

The ICO marketplace is becoming more crowded and more competitive. While in the past it was enough to merely announce an offering, today’s successful ICO’s work hard to build awareness and excitement around their offering.

Price & Token Distribution

One of the biggest factors weighing any analysis is price. The lower the price the more there is to gain. But too low of a price may result in an under capitalized project. It is therefore important to evaluate price relative to the individual project, its maturity and the market it is going after.

The total supply of tokens should also be justified by the needs of the project. Issuing a billion tokens for no reason will do nobody any good.

Communication

Communication is key. The success of a project is strongly tied to the project leaders’ ability to communicate their goals and achievements.

Things don’t always go as planned but addressing issues and keeping the community and investors in the loop can make or break a project.