OVERVIEW

Qlink, the world’s first decentralized mobile network. It plans to redefine mobile networks and create a platform that allows wifi sharing, flexible data packages, and a mobile data marketplace. The project will target the telecom industry and increase the efficiency and security of existing networks.

Led by a successful telecom entrepreneur in his own right, with a strong supporting cast, it has ambitious goals. As Qlink will be using will be using NEP-5 protocol, it is the next ICO on the NEO blockchain.

CAPITAL STRUCTURE

Qlink released their token sales plan here: https://qlink.mobi/qlink2/res/TokenSales.pdf

The total amount of money that QLink is raising, including the pre-sale and public sale, is roughly $15M. This would give it a fully-diluted market cap of approximately $50M. Given the recent ICO market, we have lowered our max market cap range of where we are comfortable investing, but we feel this is a reasonable number for Qlink.

According to Qlink’s Plan, strategic investors may receive a 30% bonus if they agree to a 1 month lock up, while pre-sale investors may receive a 10% bonus with no lockup. This is positive for ICO investors as it reduces selling pressure on early investors with bonuses.

We do have concerns regarding the token distribution. Qlink’s team will hold 20% of tokens with another 40% reserved for future partnerships and expenses. This is a much higher percentage than we are generally comfortable with. However, the team and advisors are subject to a 3-year vesting period.

THE PROBLEM

Current Market

The telecom industry is centralized. Current mobile network providers provide a wide arrangement of services, but are inflexible in its packaging and distribution. Most telecom customers are often locked into long-term plans in the current business model.

According to the 2017 Telecommunications Trends Report the Strategy& team at PWC, telecom industry revenues have been declining. This is due rigid operational structures and over-the-top (OTT) companies that provide apps such as WhatsApp, Viber, and others which have decreased traffic for telecom companies.

Problem

The centralized operational structure of telecom companies create inefficiencies such as inaccurate billing, expensive usage fees, and security issues, which all increase costs for customers. Customers are subject to inflexible terms and plans. These issues are hurting the telecom industry’s revenue.

There are major trends coming that will need to be addressed by the industry. This includes the growth of IoT, mobility connectivity, and security of networks. The current operational and billing structure may not be well-suited for the IoT boom. Qlink estimates that there are currently 300M wifi hotspots in the world, but it is very fragmented and can create security issues. Price is also becoming a big factor as companies compete on who can offer the lowest prices. Companies will be competing to adjust to the market.

Current revenues of the entire market is $750B and expected to surpass $1 trillion over the next 2 years. This leaves Qlink plenty of space to try and capture some market share.

THE SOLUTION

Tech

The Qlink platform is a decentralized network that is made up of telecom assets, a Public Chain, a Qlink chain, operators, and end users. The platform will utilize the blockchain to solve the problems listed above and provide wifi sharing, mobile data access, content distribution, and enterprise-to-peer service on the Qlink app.

Here is an overview of its components and how it works:

Public Chain — Registers telecom assets and assigns a digital identity. This allows telecom assets to be on the blockchain (NEO).

Qlink Chain — Serves as a ledger to record transactions and enables smart contract usage. It will serve as the operational chain to the platform and hold the relevant data. This chain will use a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPOS) and provide a higher transaction rate than the public chain.

Qlink Gateway — A protocol that a connects users with operators. This technology will allow the Qlink platform to connect with traditional operators and allow users to access those services through smart contracts.

This structure will allow for the decentralization of services and flexible usage. The main applications Qlink has described in their whitepaper is wifi sharing, data access, and content distribution.

Wifi Sharing — Qlink will allow wifi hotspots on their platform. It creates a P2P marketplace app that will allow users to share wifi with others.

Data Access — Similar to wifi sharing, Qlink creates a P2P marketplace for data packages. It will allow customizable packages and an efficient billing process for providers.

Content Distribution — Qlink allows content providers to register their content on the platform and purchase an exact amount data that they need. This also lets them share their content with a targeted audience more efficiently.

In summary, users of the Qlink platform will be able to access telecom services through smart contracts and be able to customize their usage (and costs) to their individual needs.

Token Utility

Qlink’s native token, QLC, allows users to access applications on the Qlink platform as well as be used to incentivize user interaction. As an example, Qlink describes how a content producer may set a QLC reward for users who watch his video. QLC is used to purchase data for usage, but Qlink also allows users to buy with fiat.

Token Value

The value of QLC will increase with the Qlink platform onboarding more users. While the allowance of usage of fiat over QLC at the beginning as a scaling strategy is a concern, fiat allows for faster adoption of the platform. This may slow the usage of QLC tokens, and hence, the growth.

THE TIMELINE

Current Stage

Qlink currently does not have a working MVP but they have posted their GitHub found here and here

It also released images of a BOSS back-end system that they developed on Ethereum. Those images can be found here

The Qlink team actually released these links in response to criticism that they lack an MVP and are at an earlier stage than other ICOs. While these do show some work was done, it does not do much to qualm that criticism.

Development

Qlink lays out three main phases of development.

Phase 1 — End of Q1 2018

Qlink will launch the wifi sharing application and will initially target individual users with the wifi sharing protocol. The E2P SMS application, which is catered towards enterprise clients, is slated to be rolled out to Android users during this time.

Phase 2 — End of Q2 2018

The data access and content distribution protocol will be launched. All apps are still on the public chain.

Phase 2 — End of Q4 2018

Qlink will launch the Qlink Chain. Included is a cross-chain protocol.

Qlink is still very early in its development as it is being developed on the NEO blockchain. It will be compliant with NEO’s NEP-5 protocol. Since Qlink is an ambitious project, we anticipate potential delays with their development. A timeline of over 1 year is possible.

THE TEAM

Management Team

Allen Li — Co-founder & Co-CEO

Susan Zhou — Co-founder & Co-CEO

Roger Lim — Head of Investor Relations

Tony Gu — Head of BD

Qlink has a credible team to lead the way. Allen Li founded Youyou Mobile which is a $20M company, and gives him experience in the mobile wifi and data space. It partners with telecom operators around the world. Susan Zhou, the other co-founder is a director at Rhodium Capital. Her experience is mainly in banking and business development. Tony Gu has a similar background and is also a director at Rhodium Capital. Roger Lim is the founder and former CEO of Webvisions.

Advisors/Investors

Wei Li — Green Pine Capital Partners, PineVC

Shihuang Xie — Riverhill Fund, Alibaba Group

Zuguang Wang — UT-Starcom

There are some very well-connected people on the Qlink Advisory team. The name that sticks out the most is Alibaba Group. Qlink also has the founder of UT-Starcom, a telecom company in China with over $100M per year in revenue, and who claims to be closely related to Masayoshi Son. Overall, Qlink boasts names and connections that may provide them with a valuable network. How involved and deep these ties go remains to be seen but Qlink does seem to have an impressive Advisory team.

THE HYPE

Social Media

Telegram — 2.5k+

Twitter — 1.1k+

Public Sentiment

Qlink is known as the second official ICO that will be on the NEO blockchain. It has received considerable attention because of this. From the telegram numbers, we can see that it has garnered a lot of interest. There is good activity in the telegram as well as members seem engaged. Given the fair terms of their ICO and the strong team, Qlink has a positive sentiment from the public. We expect Qlink to reach its full cap given NEO’s rise as well.

SWOT ANALYSIS

CONCLUSION

Positives

+ Qlink is providing a solution to a problem that makes sense utilizing the benefits of blockchain technology

+ The team is a strong one. Their experience is relevant to this space and their network can help them scale

+ The project is the second ICO on NEO. While there is scarce historical data, we are fans of the first one, Red Pulse

+ It is being co-developed by Onchain, a very experienced team that gave us NEO

Negatives

- Ambitious projects like Qlink are a double edged sword. We can appreciate high goals as they are exciting when it succeeds, but it also can fall flat

- The project is in its very early stage. There is no operating MVP available yet

- While allowing fiat usage is helpful in getting early users, it does create concerns about the value of QLC tokens

- There was a bonus of 30% given to “strategic” investors. It was not made clear what value they provided. This may result in some selling pressure without any incentive to hold

- Qlink is starting with individuals as customers first. This may help test the early product, but it will need to get enterprise customers to scale

SCORE