Background:

In the past few years, thousands of cryptocurrencies have launched online, many of these are launched by anonymous developers. For a long time, there wasn’t a community accepted standard for the way these projects launched (there also isn’t any external regulation). Because of this, scams and scam-coins popped up left and right, taking advantage of the fact that there are very few experts in mining or blockchain. Almost nobody was verifying the team, the code or the fundamentals for these projects, and very little information was provided to the public by the project team on launch.

People quickly got tired of the scams, and some people decided to do something about it. The idea behind Proof of Work starts with an expert miner who wanted to change the status quo. In 2016 Growdigi created a review system for himself, using this review system before mining a new coin. The coin would get rated based on criteria like: Who is the team? What’s their experience? What are the metrics of the coin? What is it? What industry is it in? How many are there? Was there a pre-mine? Is it delivering value? Etc.

After some time, Growdigi decided to combine his analytical skills and mining experience and offer it as a service to the general public to give them more knowledge about projects within the sector. This is important, because right now there are few people experienced in the mining sector of this industry and some investors are isolated from this market due to a lack of knowledge. During the summer of 2018 the concept for Proof of Review was born and was launched in the Autumn of 2018.

Today:

Today, the team has grown to 6 people and they have over 20 years of experience in the blockchain industry collectively. The team is made up of analysts, miners, content creators and more. The team is as follows: Growdigi, Michael Simons, Nik Patel, Miles, Ambroid and Dum.

The reviews are incredibly detailed (15–20 pages avg.) and include all the information someone could ask for. Details like: project info, coin metrics, fundamental analysis, code review, whitepaper and roadmap reviews. What’s better than that? They give developers the option to confidentially verify their identity using a government issued ID.

We can tell you that we have not found another source that comes close to offering this much verifiable information about a cryptocurrency project. The POR team also keeps track of the updates from coins they have already reviewed. From the perspective of a user or consumer, Proof of Review is needed, (thankfully free) and a well rounded service.

From the perspective of a developer, a standard review takes 2–4 weeks to process. Reviews are free for projects with no funding attached (meaning no ICO’s, pre-mine, etc.). If the project has a source of funding such as a premine, developer fee or ICO, the cost of the review is capped at $1000. The cost of the review is definitely reflected in the review, as they are the highest quality and most in-depth blockchain and cryptocurrency reviews we can find today.

Here’s how the process works:

It’s a pretty simple review process, but sometimes simple works best. Right now there is little-to-no regulation in the mining sector of the blockchain industry, so having a company take initiative from the inside is the best thing users could ask for. POR is encouraging transparency, which is one of the best ways to make this industry a safer environment for everybody involved.

The founder of Proof of Review puts it this way:

“We hope people use these reviews as a filter to get objective information about a project before deciding to invest their time, money & energy .” — Growdigi

Besides, who could be better at setting an industry standard than a handful of experts who have been here longer than 99% of the industry?

Looking Ahead:

Later this year you’ll see partnerships announced, but the most exciting development won’t be until after 2019. POR is launching a platform for reviewing coins, exchanges, mining pools, and escrow services. The platform will serve as a way for developers to verify their identity and give them an environment to promote their skills and project. The public will also use this platform to vote on projects that should be reviewed for free.

The POR team released their own POR token in 2018 in a series of airdrops to interested users. This token will be used on the platform in the future, but initially it only serves marketing purposes.

The reviews are also being uploaded as podcasts for listeners. Next to the other coin-reviews in the POR pipeline, soon you’ll see reviews done for mining pools and cryptocurrency exchanges. Looking ahead, it appears the Proof of Review team will be bringing their value and integrity to many corners of the blockchain industry.