5 January 2018

The reviewer has read the TraDove white paper and single-pager, browsed through the ICO site, and created 2 profiles on Tradove's website. One using fake user details which allowed the reviewer access to a limited Small Biz portal and another profile with his real details to view the full version.

On the current Tradove B2B platform:

For 5 years of online presence, tradove.com does not have much to show. 68 Groups with minimal activity, leads which appear more like spam (with no endorsements on it).

This lookes like it's using either a customised and outdated version of the $299 AzuwaB2B marketplace script ( http://www.azuwab2b.com/azuwa-b2b-marketplace-script.php ) or Advance B2B script ( https://www.phpscriptsmall.com/product/advance-b2b-script/ ) minus features like tradeshow listings.

The platform is basically a business directory with leads, product listing, professional connections and a public blog. No multi-vendor ecommerce activities or capability. It looks like the development on this site has been dormant for many years.

On the BBCoin:

The white paper provides no insight on the technical architecture. It looks like the solution will be deployed on the current website which is using a centralised architecture - this is against the blockchain principles.

The current team seems to be lacking knowledge of how blockchain technology works as it is depicted at a very superficial level (more focus on the BBCoin, less on the B2B platform).

The white paper also offers a competitor analysis of Tradove against other platforms - as they existed a decade ago.

It states that they offer something better than volatile fiat markets, but the term sheet states that their is high risk with their token price. It doesn't mention any "stable coin" mechanisms that BBCoin will employ to stabilize the price (against the USD or a basket of currencies?).

No mention of escrow protection mechanisms or how the return of inferior or damaged goods is handled (on the blockchain and in practice). AliPay, Paypal, Amazon and even the credit card companies have buyer protection guarantees. SAP's Ariba network offers superior functionality beyond the features listed in the whitepaper. No explanation has been offered on how Tradove plans to offer advanced / superior endorsement functionality of professional contacts.

The BBCoin does not make sense. To the reviewer it appears like Party C sells a limited amount of BBCoin to Party A. Party A uses those BBCoins to buy a product from Party B. If Party B wants to convert to fiat, Party B must use an exchange that can change it to ETH, BTC or fiat.

Once the goods are shipped from Party B to Party A, how does Party B quantify the value of the goods to customs or an insurance provider?

What incentive is their for an investor to buy a BBCoin? To advertise on the platform? Are the advertising rates fixed at BBCoin value and is their incentive to buy "advertising space" now at this cheap level before the token price goes up? The reviewer does not see any paid advertising on the current website? Is there a demand for it?

The BBCoin feels similar to a carnival that exchanges cash for tokens to use the rides. Out of that fair the token is useless. The price of the token could theoretically appreciate if the carnival is in town for only one night, and they only can accommodate a finite number of people on the roller-coaster, but Tradove is going to be an open marketplace. There should be no scarcity in the goods, nor limitations to the amount of trade activity that can appear.

The tokens are not a security and do not entitle the holder to dividends from the success of Tradove. With BBCoin, token holders can only use it to pay for advertising in 2019, and to pay for goods in 2020 if the project plan is implemented without delays. Why should investors buy tokens in early-2018?

In conclusion,

The project team does not seem to have a clear idea of what the platform will look like, how basic business processes will operate, how those processes refer to blockchain at a conceptual and technical architecture level, and what features the current B2B trading portals currently offer.

In all honesty it feels like the team are using taking an old and neglected b2b/classifieds online property and trying to see how it can be "blockchainified", without understanding how blockchain works. I do not see value in the token, or believe that this platform is better than current commercialised b2b and b2c platforms that have been in the market for 7+ years.

If it is superior, no explanation has been published on how Tradove offers better endorsements, what the MI/Big Data capability that offers them a superior advantage is, if they offer spam protection, and how their BBCoin is more stable than the alternatives we use today.

The project team needs to clarify these details and prepare a business plan and better technical architecture before updating the white paper.

Review written by Zaid Mahomedy, CTO and Enterprise Transformation Architect at Blockchain Advisory. Zaid has extensive experience working as a Solution Architect on legacy and newer cloud-based enterprise technologies; preparing as-is, transition and target architectures and experimenting with new technologies (VR.MR/AR, IoT, Blockchain, Big Data, chatbots, etc.)

Email: zaid@blockchainadvisory.co.za



