Nousprotocol - this is the framework that uses Smart Contracts to set the parameters of interactions between investors and financial projects. At launch, this will support six types of projects: Open-Ended Fund, Closed-Ended Fund, Venture Capital Fund, Charity Foundation, Family Fund or Business/Startup
Auditing Oracle - this allows for an API that provides for access to specific data points within the financial project. This information will allow for unprecedented transparency in this field. To start, NOUS will handle the auditing via the Oracle, but will move towards third parties as time passes.
Nousplatform - this is the web interface that allows for the creation of financial projects within the blockchain and is the jumping off point for the various platform projects.
Managers & Funds
The fund manager would create the project through the Nousplatform interface, setting the terms and conditions of the project and the parameters of the token. Each project would have its own token. After the project is deployed to the blockchain, the manager would set up the access for the Auditing Oracle. If there is no Oracle access provided, the fund may be delisted.
Managers would receive many benefits from operating on this system, including access to a large pool of investors who are highly motivated and interested in their projects. Investors would gain simplicity and transparency as huge upsides to their participation. Investing is as simple as buying the appropriate tokens.
The types of funds available deserve further examination:
Open-ended Investment Funds - These funds allow for the continual purchase and sale of their shares as the fund progresses over time. The fund can generally increase liquidity easily and the investors can liquidate their holdings with little trouble.
Closed-ended Investment Funds - These funds raise capital only once. Investors purchase shares at an ICO and then dividends are paid out as per fund performance. Shares or tokens can be traded on exchanges or between investors, but not sold back to the fund.
Venture Capital Funds - These are extensions of the open-ended funds that incorporate a shareholders voting mechanism to identify whether or not a new project should be invested in.
Charitable Foundation - This kind of fund would allow for continual donations and provide extreme transparency of fund usages and holdings.
Family Trust Funds - This would be a private fund with voting privileges where information is available to members but not the general public.
ICO Details
Token Symbol: NSU
Maximum supply: 2.5 Billion
Supply Available for ICO: 1.25 Billion
Soft Cap: $1.6 Million
Hard Cap: $25 Million
Token Distribution:
50% - ICO
20% - Retained by NOUS
20% - Reserves, grants and partnerships
5% - Advisors
3% - Community
2% - To cover token sale
ICO Fund Allocation:
50% - Stabilization Fund
20% - Acquisitions and Business Expansion
15% - Marketing
5% - Operational Expenses
5% - Legal Expenses
5% - Software Development
NOUS does have a bonus system in place, somewhat more complex than the norm.
NSU starts out at 1 ETH to 22500 NSU and progresses based on contributions until it reaches 1 ETH to 16500 NSU and freezes there.
Conclusion
NOUS is an interesting attempt to restructure investment funds to the benefit of both fund managers and investors, but to the detriment of middlemen and other intermediaries. This is very exciting, as the more investors move into the ecosystem, the more interesting and varied financial projects will be funded. This should drive innovation and higher performance in the marketplace, leading to an overall more interesting and exciting market.
NOUS seems to have their ducks in a row when it comes to the difficulties they’ll be facing, technical and otherwise. Their plan appears well thought out and arranged and without any red flags or warning signs. That they’re selling half of their tokens up front is a good sign, as that should generate the appropriate amount of revenue and avoid the concern of being cash-starved as they move into their development and expansion phases.
The large investment in their stability fund is also heartening, as instability and volatility could cause significant problems gaining both investors and projects. They will need to focus on expansion and user acquisition as time goes on in order to build their client and investor base. Either one could bring in the other, but if neither grows significantly, NOUS could face difficulties.
The Auditing Oracle concept is quite a good sign, too, as transparency is one of the biggest things that NOUS can offer to the financial markets, so building an entire pillar around encouraging and even enforcing transparency meshes together nicely with their stated goals and is one of their major selling points.
Ease of use appears to be the next largest selling point, and while specific judgement will have to wait until the applications are developed, NOUS appears to be putting a lot of thought into the problem, which should pay dividends. This will be especially important for investors, as an easy-to-use solution is much more likely to pull in marginal or hesitant investors, where fund managers are much more likely to jump through usability hoops. The development of user friendly apps and sites is going to be key to growing their investor community.
Given the problems and concerns in the financial industry over the past several years, a transparent, easy to access interface into these kinds of funds is a truly intriguing idea and one whose time may well have come.
