World Cups always throw up certain surprises. Supposed giants fall early, plucky minnows progress and the importance of intangible elements such as team work and desire are pushed to the forefront. Consider Germany, champions last time around and owners of an impeccable pedigree, losing to both Mexico and South Korea and being eliminated at the group stage amid rumours of fractious divisions within the camp. And then consider Russia, derided as their country’s “worst ever team” before displaying amazing team spirit and resolve en route to the last eight, knocking out European giants Spain along the way.

And so it has also proven in the ICO World Cup. Supposed giants such as Essentia.one with its 35,000+ Telegram members? Gone. Also Blockshipping, who accumulated the joint-highest number of votes of all sixteen ICOs at the quarter-final stage, but didn’t sustain their efforts? Gone. Likewise Carry Protocol, Ankr Network, FTEC and others, all merely shadows and dust in the context of the ICO World Cup.

But as the memory of the light fades for the majority, it shines more prominently than ever before for and on those who remain. We are now left with four projects and, like Highlander, there can only be one. But who are they, these four projects, and how did they get here?

Multiversum

On the surface, Multiversum's route to the final could not have been more sedate on the surface. After strolling through QF1 with 47% of the vote (and the joint-highest number of votes of all sixteen ICOs), it accumulated an impressive 41% of the vote in SF1 to easily book its passage to this final. However, the community has been highly-engaged, with the community managers pushing votes and so, despite having one of the smaller Telegram groups left in the competition, is nonetheless in with a good chance of victory.

One major advantage Multviversum has is that the tech underpinning it is outstanding. They have combined horizontal scalability (think Bitcoin and Ethereum's planned Lightning and Raiden Networks) and data sharding (a technology Vialik Buterin is attempting to implement on Ethereum) to enable 64,000 tps, whilst structuring the data in a series of Relational Databases to make the blockchain business-friendly. Moreover, Multiversum's consensus algorithm is Proof of Integrity, eliminating the need for mining and therefore being more energy efficient by an order of magnitude.

They have partners including (but not limited to) the Italian Government, for whom they are developing a technology to run the national electoral system, DHL (the DHL), NEM and also the Hungarian Government.

The team is also a) deep; b) highly-experienced and c) active. Not only did they post a strong showing in QF1 of our ICO World Cup, but the Founder recently revealed that they are five months ahead of their roadmap, and so we could see the Mainnet released by the end of 2018. But can they go all the way here?

We have previously covered Multiversum. To read the review please follow this link.

Uncloak

Uncloak's progression has been somewhat odd, squeaking through QF3 by just four votes, before roaring into the lead in SF2, with 200 votes being cast in the first two hours alone. And then no more votes being cast in the its favour. For the remaining 46 hours. Regardless, accumulate enough votes they did and so here they are.

Uncloak is a scalable blockchain powered security management solution that uses AI to discover the latest security threats within public and hidden internet data. It is a blockchain 3.0 powered system that uses a wide community of experts to collaborate to minimize cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

PDATA

Arguably, the favourites here, Opiria & PDATA ('PDATA') dominated QF2 with 56% of the vote. Whilst the argument could indeed have been made that, as only 84 votes were cast across all four ICOs, PDATA was nothing to worry about, any such argument was blasted away in SF1 as PDATA stormed through to victory, accumulating 46% of the the 804 votes cast. PDATA has earned its place.

In terms of project, PDATA have taken an innovative stance on the control and spread of personal data. The project aims to become a decentralised marketplace that will allow the user to filter what personal data they wish to share. Not only will the consumer be able to control the stream of data given to companies, they will also be able to create a passive income stream by choosing to sell their data to businesses.

The project has a genuine use case incorporating a meaningful use of blockchain technology, there is an operational product, a good development team and an impressive existing customer base, including automotive giants Mercedes Benz and General Motors.

We have previously written an in-depth review of PDATA. To read it please follow this link.

DREP Foundation

DREP Foundation ('DREP') has, thus far, dominated. They breezed through QF3 with 57% of the vote and then followed that up with a stroll to victory in SF2, accumulating 47% of the vote along the way. The caveat to this domination, however, is the fact that they have been in the 'easier' side of the draw. Will DREP's community be able to step up?

In terms of the project, DREP is a 'decentralised reputation ecosystem' with the aim of providing a single reputation score based on users' interactions across numerous platforms. We have just reviewed this project an in-depth ICO review (to read it please follow this link) and definitely encourage further reading on this one.

The team and the sheer scale and ambition of the vision are the real strengths of DREP. They have a plethora of superstars, including multiple developers with extensive and high-profile experience, and their advisors are also serious people.

DREP’s idea is ambitious and, should the project manage to actually connect and combine reputation across the entire web then there are no limits to what it can achieve. It is abundantly clear that DREP is taking its mission seriously, and so only a fool would write the project off.

The Final of the ICO World Cup will take place over three days rather than two, beginning 11 July and running through to 14 July.

Alongside projects such as this ICO World Cup we do like to include news articles of interest. However, our main focus is on researching and writing comprehensive, independent ICO reviews. We aren't your parents and this isn't financial advice etc., but if you're interested in learning about new opportunities head over to our ICO review page.