Coinlancer ICO Rating (76.4)

This article is about the review and rating if Coinlancer ICO (https://www.coinlancer.io/). If you want the details about the
objective of the ICO then please read my other article of Medium:

https://medium.com/@dev.samal84/coinlancer-a-true-nextgen-freelancing-platform-ac3d12659e57

Please note that I am not associated with the ICO or nor am I paid the make this review. This is my own opinion and investors are advised to do their sue diligence before investing in any ICO.

Freelancing industry is currently $3 Billion and is expected to increase to $10 B in the next 6 years. And it is more apt keeping in mind the rapid page of internet adoption in various parts of the world. Yet if you have ever worked as a freelancer in some of the popular sites like Upwork, Freelancer.com or Peopleperhour, then you must know the pain points of freelancers working in these sites. Coinlancer tries to address these issues by creating a blockchain based freelancing platform.

I have analyzed the ICO based on the below parameters:

Necessity or problem statement (12%)
White paper (9%)
Product Status (10%)
Team (10%)
ICO Pricing (7%)
Business Model/Revenue Source (15%)
Token Value Increment Options (15%)
Social Media Presence/Hype (10%)
Competitors (12%)

Necessity or Problem Statement (12%)

Major issues in currently popular freelancing platforms are:

High Transaction Fee
Biased Dispute Resolution
Fake Reviews
Biased Dispute Resolution
Identity Theft

There is a longing demand from freelancing community to solve these pressing issues that makes life of freelancers very tough. Coinlancer aims to solve this by creating a blockchain based freelancing platform. There is an absolute necessity in the space of this kind of innovation and I like the idea. I give them 9 out of 10 for this.

White paper (9%)

You can go through their whitepaper here:
https://www.coinlancer.io/Coinlancer_Whitepaper.pdf

Averagely written white paper. Not much details. tried to communicate same points in different ways. No details about the technical architecture of the platform.

The WP could have been much better given the novelty of the idea. I give it 5 out of 10 on this aspect.

Product Status (10%)

The platform is not yet live but as per the communication from the team, it is ready and will be live immediately after the completion of ICO. They have also started inviting freelancers to be part of the platform.
Though I would have liked to have a hands on experience on the platform before rating the ICO, I will buy the concept and give them 8 out of 10 for the product status.

Team (10%)

Ian (CEO) and Raushabh (CFO) have decent industry experience. So is Charles (CTO). Their linkedin profile looks attractive. However, they have not mentioned a single person from the development team in the listed team members. No information in blockchain developer, UI designer or full stack developer.
This is bit odd as they claim to have the product ready for launch.
I give then 5 out of 10 for team.

ICO Pricing (7%)

300 Million tokens at around $0.25 per token makes the company worth $75 Million, which is on the higher side given there are many platforms already existing and there is not much technical challenge other than moving it to blockchain.

However I don't think they will raise more than $15-16 Million and given that all the unsold token will be destroyed, it puts the company valuation at around $18 Million which if fairly attractive.

One thing I liked about their token sale is that there is no exorbitant bonus given at any stage of ICO which is good for investors. Also the point all the unsold tokens will be burned augurs well.

I give 9 out of 10 for ICO structure and pricing.

Business Model/Revenue Source (15%)

The two revenue generating source are platform commission (3%) charged to freelancers and commission for dispute resolution (3%). Though the commission is much lower compared to other freelancing platforms, which charger 10-20%, it is the strongest point of the platform.
They target about 1.8M registered users in 3 years, accounting for a 15% Freelancing Market. With freelancing market excepted to grow at around $7 Bn in next 3 years, if they meet their target, it will result in around $13 M revenue per year which will be a staggering growth.

However with a pessimistic target of 50% target achievement also will give them a revenue of $6-7 M, which is decent.
I give them 8 out of 10 on this aspect.

Token Value Increment Options (15%)

Coinlancer is the native token of Coinlancer platform. This token is the primary mechanism by which 3% Escrow fees will be paid to the Coinlancer platform. There is an inherent utility of these tokens for anyone who wants to interact with users on the Coinlancer platform. As the freelancing platform becomes popular among the users, there will be a demand for more Coinlancer tokens which would increase its value for the existing token holders.

However, as they support 20 different currencies in their platform, the usage of coinlancer tokens will be rather limited. I give them 8 out of 10 in this aspect.

Social Media Presence/Hype (10%)

Their social media channels are pretty active and have lot of followers/participants.
Facebook: http://facebook.com/coinlancer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Coin_Lancer
Telegram: https://t.me/Coinlancer
Medium: https://medium.com/@coinlancer

The hype is decent and I give them 8 out of 10 in this aspect.

Competitors (12%)

There are many traditional players in the space like Upwork, Freelancer.com, PeoplePerHour and it will be very difficult for them to compete if they fail to provide excellent service.

However, if they provide a decent service with lower platform fee (3%) then they will be easily penetrate the market and achieve their desired target.
Based on their progress I think they will be be able to achieve their target and give them 9 out of 10 in this aspect.

Based on my analysis I give a overall score of 76.4 out of 100 to Coinlancer which is very good.
It has a very good growth potential and less risk. You you are considering from medium to long term perspective, it will give you handsome return on the investment.

So Coinlancer aims to create a true freelancing platform based on blockchain that can remove the painpoints faced by freelancers and let them focus on their core competency. It aims to create a true next generation freelancing platform.
The ICO is currently live and will end on 16 Dec 2017. You can visist their website https://www.coinlancer.io/ to participate in the ICO.