I’ve read article after article, post after post, thread after thread for how to make ICOs better. Ever since the BAT debacle earlier this year, ICOs have going to hell and back. There have been blackhats, whitehats, white knights, black knights, you name it. There have been hacks, scams, bamboozles, wamboozles and all sorts of other shenanigans. There have been upset investors and upset teams, there have been projects where an ICO and the audit have lasted months.

This is not a comprehensive summary of the project if you would like to read more please see: https://quantstamp.com/

Instead, this is a high level summary and some initial topics of conversation/possible problems that I see that are worth discussing.

What is Quantstamp?

Simply put, Quantstamp is an auditor. They are PwC, they are Deloitte. They review smart contracts to avoid any bugs, bad actors or other similar problems.

Why should we trust Quantstamp?

This is always my question with any centralized actor. What if Quantstamp themselves is a bad actor? What if Quantstamp is running a long-term con? From my limited understanding, it appears that the way their system to audit contracts is set up, a single bad actor in Quantstamp can’t go ahead an green-light some project (even if they’re getting paid the big bucks under the table). This type of assurance is great in the world of deregulated crypto and back room deals that have come to shame multiple ICOs.

Who have they worked with?

As of now, they are touting working on an audit with one of the biggest ICOs of October (Reuqest.Network). While that ICO and deployment has yet to happen, the fact that Request put their trust into Quantstamp is a good sign and bodes well for future use.

Problems:

I have never liked reviews or summaries that have been all positive. I think that criticism, whether it is right or wrong is always helpful (if anything so that the Company or its defenders can work on explaining their position).

1. This appears to be a run-of-the-mill checklist. One of the biggest problems that audit companies faced in the recent past is not actually doing diligence (e.g. Enron disaster). I am worried about the amount of work force Quantstamp will have to actually do diligence on each company and if they will actually critically evaluate each contract. As a lawyer-by-day, I understand how easy it is to gloss over the fine print, it’s what has led to crisis after crisis.

2. While the idea of community marketing is solid, to ensure that the critical threshold of companies use Quantstamp to imbue it with legitimacy, some marketing by the team may actually need to take place. Long term, they are in a service business and can’t rely on investors to source work for them.

Neither of these are deal breakers, but both are issues that I feel should be thought about as the project moves forward.

- M. Esq.

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