Astronaut ICO by Picolo Research: an Overview and Exclusive Interview

Today, the team at CryptoAnalyst has secured an exclusive interview with the brains behind the promising, currently ongoing Astronaut ICO.

First off, though, let’s bring you up to speed on what this exciting project is all about.

What is Astronaut?

Created by the preeminent cryptocurrency analysts at Picolo Research, Astronaut will be the first managed investment service for ICOs.

Utilizing a hybrid investment model, the team aims to mitigate all the risks and inconveniences investors currently face in investing in ICOs by providing a single token that will grant users exposure to pre-ICOs, ICOs, listed altcoins, fixed assets, and reserve funds—all at once.

Astronaut’s mission, then, is to help crypto users “invest on autopilot,” with their investment service officers taking care of all the work that typically goes into participating in Initial Coin Offerings.

The service’s associated ERC-20 token, ASTRO, will thus have two simultaneous purposes: 1) to serve as a “basket of analyst-recommended tokens,” and 2) to serve as a security token that provides owners with quarterly dividends.

What are the specs of the ICO?

The Astronaut ICO is currently in its second stage, wherein a 20% bonus makes each ASTRO = $0.80 USD. During the final and fourth stage of the ICO, each ASTRO will equal $1.00 USD.

The project’s pre-sale is already completed, having raised upwards of $2.3 million.

The total supply cap of ASTRO tokens will be 30,000,000, with 88% of these tokens being available during the upcoming ICO.

For now, due to regulatory restrictions and the security-style nature of ASTRO, investors from China, Singapore, and the United States are currently barred from participating in the Initial Coin Offering.

Okay, one more time: what problem does Astronaut address?

Astronaut’s managed investment service platform addresses the lack of trust, accessibility, and efficiency that investors currently run up against in dealing with ICOs.

First, Astronaut provides enterprise-grade trust because the team’s investment managers are derived from Picolo Research—arguably the world’s leading crypto analysts. Rest assured, then, that your ASTRO will be put to use as smartly as possible.

And accessibility to ICO markets will become more open than ever, as ASTRO tokens will come to provide an efficient one-stop spot for exposure to a wide range of promising Initial Coin Offerings.

How transparent is the team?

Very transparent. Astronaut is in the process of finalizing an open ledger system so ASTRO users can have “100% visibility on the day to day transactions and activities of their investments.”

Final thoughts?

The security-style nature and low max supply of ASTRO (30 million) makes the token a very attractive mid- and long-term hold. Seeing ASTRO eclipse $10 each is certainly not improbable over the next 12 months.

TLDR: The Astronaut ICO is live, and it’s one you should be paying attention to. The first managed investment service for ICOs will likely explode in the coming months.

Now, CryptoAnalyst is proud to present an exclusive interview with Astronaut team member (Matthew Dibb), who’s been kind enough to answer some of our questions about their project.

Thanks sincerely for talking with us today, we’re very appreciative of your time. We’ve got a few questions for you that we hope will be illuminative for the crypto community. Let’s dive right in!

1) Regarding Picolo Research and the genesis of Astronaut, was it a matter of being really well-positioned to solve a growing problem in the space? As in, Picolo provides great research on ICOs, so you guys saw firsthand the problems that have hitherto been present with coin offerings. Or, similarly, was it more about your subscribers coming forward and asking for help?

(MD): Although myself and team have been in the asset management space for quite some time, we never really started Picolo Research with a view to create a managed structure out of it. Initially, it was all about creating a high grade offering of transparency and due diligence in the ICO market. Coming from a background of analysis, we saw that this was the ‘missing link’ in the market.

So months went by and we put out a number of feedback requests to the database. We received an overwhelming response in highlighting the pain points. People really loved what we did, however, there was a certain portion of subscribers that didn’t want to personally go through the process of applying and managing their investments. This was our catalyst to start Astronaut.

Effectively, the market wanted an offering in which they could utilise our knowledge and have a completely ‘hands-off’ approach to investment.

2) Where do you see Astronaut being in 5 years?

(MD): Five years is a very difficult timeframe to imagine given the speed at which the markets and innovation are moving. Ultimately, we see Astronaut as one of the leading managers and voices in the blockchain ecosystem. The market is striving for transparency and security and with more ICO volume increasing every month, this voice is needed more than ever.

Our ultimate goal is to be a trusted source of strategic investment management and given the lack of competitors in the market, we see this happening on a much shorter timeframe than 5 years.

3) Do you think Astronaut’s status as the first managed investment service for ICOs and its association with Picolo Research will give you guys a strong advantage in beating out copycat projects in the future?

(MD): We believe that managed investment services will come and go. There will be very few that remain at the top and if anything, larger more traditional institutions will enter the market trying to do the same.

The thing is, setting up an operation such as Astronaut with a highly regarded research team is not easy. I have no doubt that ‘copy-cats’ will emerge, however their chance of maintaining independent credibility and trust with token holders is what separates the good managers from the bad.

We welcome more competition in this space, because the market needs it, but they have some standards to live up to.

4) What proprietary aspect of the Astronaut service are you most excited about? Something that competitors wish they could emulate but can’t?

(MD): I think our research arm is the most valued, and certainly one of the main reasons that we have some very loyal token holders. Companies can try their best to create algo based and decentralized asset management systems, but in reality, the market simply isn’t mature enough for it to work. There is a certain element of pure fundamental analysis that is needed when it comes to strategic investment. Picolo Research is the core of this philosophy and it is an extremely difficult component to replicate.

5) Are you concerned about ICO regulation issues around the world, or do you think Japanese-style liberalization will win the day?

(MD): I think everyone is concerned to some level about ICO regulation, no matter what type of token segment that are in. Regulatory compliance is a good thing, the only issue is that it can slow down innovation and progress.

My personal view is that some of the bans that have taken place are quite irrational. Simply put, prohibiting of ICOs in some jurisdiction has been reactionary due to the rapid growth in the market. We expect that this won’t continue and it is simply a way for regulators to attempt to put the market ‘on hold’ while they implement appropriate legislation.

If you want to be a true leader in the space, it is important that companies ‘play ball’ with any newly introduced regulation.

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