Polymath ICO / coin review

Polymath in a nutshell

Polymath is an online one-stop-shop platform that makes cryptocurrency Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) simpler, easier, faster and safer. It also protects ICO issuers by placing smart controls on the trading of their issued security tokens in the secondary market. This increases liquidity in the global market for security token ICOs.

ICO problems and solutions

ICO issuers

• Bounty programs are popular tools for ICO issuers to get tasks done by outsourcing them to freelancers or institutions and offering their tokens in exchange for services. Executing the program can be complicated and tedious as the issuer has to source for providers, negotiate with them, liase with them throughout the ICO process and then arrange for payment after the official ICO. Using the Polymath network, all the issuer needs to do is to post online what needs to be done and what they are willing to pay (in terms of POLY tokens) to get the task done. The service providers will then accept the jobs and receive payment by smart contract once the ICO project is completed.
• After primary issuance of ICO tokens, the tokens will be listed on secondary market exchanges for the general public to purchase. Here, the issuers lose track of token ownership data. ICO tokens are either utility tokens that can be traded freely, or security tokens that are subject to securities regulations. ICO issuers can get into serious trouble if their security tokens end up in the wrong hands, which happens easily in the secondary market where tokens are traded anonymously. Polymath solves this by only allowing Know-Your-Customer (KYC) verified investors to purchase these tokens. Since Polymath is a blockchain, ownership is easily traceable as it is public information, making it very easy for token issuers to get the information they need of token ownership for reporting purposes.

ICO subscribers

• Having to go through KYC procedures for every single new ICO is time consuming, tedious and unnecessary. Polymath investors do the KYC procedure just once with each KYC provider and their data will be stored on the Polymath blockchain to be used for all subsequent ICOs that use those particular KYC providers that the investors had registered with.
• It is extremely frustrating when you go through all your due diligence on an ICO and then finally at the end of the whitepaper at the token sale section, you realize that residents of your country are not allowed to participate. Polymath filters tokens for sale available to investors according to the KYC data submitted by them. If they see it listed, then they will definitely be able to participate.

ICO service providers

• KYC providers, blockchain developers, social media companies, and legal firms are able to bid for projects using POLY tokens on the Polymath platform. Payment is controlled by smart contracts, so there is no need to worry about default or miscommunication.

The Team and Advisors

The team is strong and well rounded, headed by Trevor Kevorko, CEO who invested in and advised the Ethereum team. He was also an early investor in Shapeshift, Factom, Maidsafe and EOS.

Sukhveer Sanghera, Lead Engineer, founded Everhusk where he architected, designed, and shipped products for LedgerX, TD Securities, Deloitte, NASA.

The impressive team of advisors include Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock who has also launched a subsidiary tZERO, a licensed exchange for trading securities tokens exclusively. tZERO is being advised by Polymath on its security token sale. This partnership will merge Wall street to the blockchain.

There is also Erik Voorhees, CEO of Shapeshift, David Johnston, Chairman of the Board of Factom and Anthony Di Iorio, Cofounder of Ethereum, CEO of Jaxx & Decentral.

POLY tokens

POLY tokens issued: 1 billion
Private sale and presale: 230 million (23%) tokens for USD 59 million
Private sale price(s): 1 ETH to 1,200 / 1,500 / 1,800 tokens
Held by team: 170 million (17%), locked for 3 years
Circulating supply: 239.5 million (23.5%)

A public sale had been planned but then was cancelled as Polymath had reached its hardcap during its private sale.

There was an airdrop of 250 POLY tokens to each user who had registered between 25 December 2017 to 10 January 2018. The total number of POLY tokens airdropped is 10,000,000.

Exchange listing
14 Feb 2018: POLY/BTC (0.000125) and POLY/ETH (0.0012) on Kucoin

So.. the key question is..

The timeline of Polymath to hear any big news is probably 3rd quarter or 4th quarter of 2018. How long are you willing to hold? That being said, Polymath has a significant first mover advantage and strong partnerships, so it definitely has the potential to go 5x, 10x or 50x for patient investors.