F̶u̶l̶l̶ ̶D̶i̶s̶c̶l̶o̶s̶u̶r̶e̶:̶ ̶I̶’̶m̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶I̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶

What is Iconomi?

On its August 1 public release date, Iconomi will enable users to acquire a basket of cryptocurrency assets — a “Digital Asset Array,” or DAA — representing “92% of the total market cap” with “just a few clicks.”¹ The road map also includes plans for enabling users to create their own DAAs and allow others to buy into them, collecting a fee for their efforts.

There are two ways to invest in Iconomi: the ICNX DAA — essentially an index fund — and the ICN token, which benefits from ICNX profits and other revenue streams generated by the Iconomi platform through the regular purchasing and burning of ICN tokens, decreasing supply and raising the price. Twenty percent of realized profits from ICNP — Iconomi’s closed DAA run by professional investors and other cryptocurrency experts — will be put toward this buyback process.

Pros

One of the most obvious advantages of the Iconomi platform is that it already exists, already has users, and is already generating revenue, despite the fact that the public release is still over a month away. According to the Iconomi Slack channel’s slackbot, as of this writing “There are 761 platform beta testers with a combined $2.3M worth of assets within ICNX.” Remaining ICO investors will receive beta access by the end of June. Despite its recent doubling in price, Iconomi has received very little news coverage and is relatively ignored on cryptocurrency discussion hubs such as Reddit. The lack of hype surrounding Iconomi has helped keep the price free of artificial overinflation. Unlike interesting but more specialized projects such as Golem and Augur, Iconomi’s target market is everyone. Everyone wants to participate in the profits the blockchain space is currently seeing, but few are willing or able to do the requisite research themselves. ICNX allows low-information investors to participate in the distributed economy in a (relatively) safe and painless way. This type of fund should also be attractive to risk-averse institutional investors interested in getting involved in the space. ICN has yet to be added to Poloniex or Bittrex. A debut on one of these exchanges often leads to a large price increase and greatly increased visibility.

Cons

Perplexingly, ICN buybacks are not handled by smart contracts but are executed manually by the Iconomi team. This unnecessary introduction of trust into the buyback process is perhaps Iconomi’s primary weakness, and potential investors will need to decide for themselves whether it is an acceptable compromise. Because of the uncertain legal climate around cryptocurrencies in the US, ICNX will not be made available to American investors at launch, and there is little information about when they will be given access, if ever. Nonetheless, the European and Asian markets should be more than enough to drive Iconomi to substantial growth, and American investors can freely purchase and trade the ICN token. The Iconomi platform was originally slated for a Q1 2017 release, and the Iconomi team has historically been less than diligent about keeping investors informed about what’s going on at company HQ. Recently, however, the company has been taking steps toward increasing transparency and keeping investors up to date by conducting monthly AMAs on the Iconomi subreddit and actively participating in the community. Iconomi also releases quarterly reports and hosts an active Slack channel. The delayed platform release casts some doubt on the timeliness at which road map milestones such as custom DAAs will be released.

Conclusion

Iconomi fills an important need, allowing new investors to stake out a claim in the cryptocurrency space with a minimum of setup, research, and — relative to attempting to design a portfolio from scratch — risk. While other platforms such as Prism and Melonport offer similar (and more decentralized) services, Iconomi will be first to market and is likely to enjoy significant first-mover advantage. Iconomi is scheduled to be released to the public on August 1.