In 2018, the initial coin offering (ICO) as we knew it in 2017 was pronounced dead several times. While the ICO gold rush definitely helped increase the cryptocurrency market capitalization; the project valuations, hype, pump and dumps, scam projects and ICO project’s/company’s un-accountability attributed to the industry’s damaged reputation.

Having invested in a great deal of ICOs, I would like to see a shift in funding method as the traditional utility token-based ICO is not beneficial to individual investors anymore. Especially in this continuing bear market, the risk of investing in an ICO is almost never worth it for individual investors, who are usually served last when it comes to buying tokens.

Binance launchpad

Last week, something slightly unexpecting happened. People got excited about an ICO again. The marketing efforts of Justin Sun, founder and CEO of the TRON Foundation and Changpeng Zhou, the co-founder and CEO of digital asset exchange Binance, enabled a surge in users trying to purchase BitTorrent tokens (BTT) on Binance re-introduced token sale launchpad. BitTorrent was the token sale that launched on Binance after TRON, Bread and Gifto all successfully conducted their public sale on the digital asset exchange dedicated token sale launchpad. According to Binance, the launchpad is an exclusive token launch platform, and they are right. It is exclusive as we could see with their most recent BitTorrent (BTT) token sale. Only 962 were able to get in because the platform faced continuous errors and defaults during the 15-minute-long flash token sale. The token sale could have sold out in seconds, had it functioned properly. BTT launched on Binance just two days after the token sale, establishing a 4x ROI for investors selling on the first day after the launch on the exchange.

While the re-launch of the Binance launchpad was successful for the digital asset exchange, in my opinion, this is not a good way to continue for the majority of Binance users. The launchpad will pretty much only make Binance and the ICO project richer while individual investors, that hold on to the token for too long or buy the top are most likely being dumped on sooner, rather than later.

One of the things I would like to see them change is making a shift to a more fair distribution scheme. For instance, set a maximum cap per participant. By the amount of KYC applicants, they might be able to give a rough estimate of token sale investors. There were a lot of disappointed people after the BTT token sale. The first-click, first-serve format leaves too much to just luck of clicking at the right time, so they might want to change that to give more people a chance of actually buying tokens on the launchpad.

On February 1st, Binance announced the Public Sale of Fetch.AI tokens will be launched on its launchpad on February 25. Interested investors that want to participate in the sale need to apply KYC first. As usual, some countries are excluded from the sale.

Fetch.AI

Fetch (FET) proposes an open-source distributed ledger technology framework that is comprised of three architectural layers. Layer one is reserved for the digital entities called Autonomous Economic Agents (AEA). These agents are third-party implementations. Agents live in the second layer’s Open Economic Framework (OEF). To support the digital world, Fetch introduces a scalable smart ledger, in layer three, that provides collective superpowers to support agents’ individual power. Layer two and three form a network node. All three layers support Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality.

Fetch’s distributed ledger project is initially open-source and permissionless, but it can be permissioned if needed. For instance, delicate healthcare or IoT data is best suited to be processed on a permissioned blockchain.

Two of Fetch’s proprietary features are its useful proof of stake (uPoS) consensus system and a high-performance machine learning oriented virtual machine.

Fetch is working on solutions for the transport sector, the supply chain industry and the energy market.

Fetch.ai is a project of venture capital firm Outlier Ventures, that is managed by CEO Jamie Burke, that is also one of the project’s advisors. In March of 2018, Outlier Ventures announced its newest venture, Fetch AI. At the time it had been in stealth mode for 14 months. The core team has been working on the project for two years now.

Partnerships

– Fetch is a founding partner of the Blockchain for Europe association. Other members are Ripple, NEM and the Cardano Foundation. The goal of the partnership is to foster the understanding of upcoming regulations in the DLT and blockchain industry in Europe.

– UK-based, online sharing platform for scientists, Clustermarket, engaged in a transformational scientific equipment venture with Fetch. Clustermarket will be one of the first platforms to deploy autonomous economic agents and thus demonstrate a primary use of the network, maximizing the value of the asset. According to CrunchBase, Clustermarket has raised 250,000 GBP in two previous funding rounds. The company is comprised of four employees.

– Other partners include: Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, MOBI, Warwick Business School (WBS), TokenMarket and ULedger.