Bankex ICO Date: 28th November 2017-28th December 2017.
BANKEX is a platform that allows real assets tokenization and their subsequent purchase or sale. Their mission is to add liquidity to assets that have an underrated value due to the way that classic financial markets currently operate
They are building Internet of Assets (IoA) on the principles of Bank-as-a-Service (BaaS), powered by Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.
BACKGROUND.
Out of all the companies on the ICO market, the industrial sector is being left out. This is a shame, because we know that manufacturing can be made much more efficient with the help of blockchain-based technologies: A. Spielman from MIT argues that blockchain can potentially rebuild the real-estate industry and Abeyratne and Monfared from Loughborough University claim blockchain can turn transparency and traceability in supply chains, both highly anticipated features, into a reality.
But do you know many industrial enterprises using blockchain? Have you seen an ICO white-paper of a real-sector company? There isn’t a single “hot” ICO of an industrial enterprise.
Why is this happening? Industrial sector products are surely facing a similar or higher demand than most tech companies. Instead, the reasons lie in the unawareness about ICOs, in the absence of high-level IT specialists, in founders who are not well known in the tech community.
So here is a task: we need to find an easy and transparent way to help the industrial sector use the value of tokens. And Bankex have a solution. Their Proof-of-Asset Protocol allows you to tokenize everything: cars, real estate, art, institutional infrastructure. Tokens are sold on the market at the highest speed possible. And that means you will earn more money.
Imagine you have a used car, one that you want to sell. If you sell it the usual way, it will take ages: the buyer will always suspect you of trying to swindle him. He will do test drives, ask for all the documents, take his friends to look at the car and even then may eventually refuse to buy it. Furthermore, even if you have a car in good condition, you will still probably have to sell it for a lower price than it absolutely deserves. It is like re-selling an iPhone which was bought yesterday: the value is the same (unless you broke it overnight) but the price you get is 30–40 percent less.
Let’s take another example. You are an owner of a business-project, and you come across the problem of your business being underfinanced. The problem is that you don’t have access to the capital. It can take many days to sign all the papers to hand in to banks. But there’s a solution: with the help of the Proof-of-Asset Protocol the owner of a business can tokenize it. Then, he gets access to capitals and markets from the entire world within seconds.
Using the Proof-of-Asset-Protocol helps totally avoid these time consuming methods of getting access to capitals or to markets, to get the opportunity to audit your asset and sell it or get a loan. And this procedure can be performed with any object or business possible: a sculpture, an old house, a farm or a chemical plant.
The idea of smart contracts used in the Proof-of-Asset-Protocol allows operation on whole new levels of trust. Smart contact is a hard commitment, if someone cheats, the system automatically reverses the contract and punishes the cheater. No police, no courts — if there is a problem, your money returns immediately.
HOW IT WORKS.
Let’s take a look at a real case of how Bankex uses blockchain technology to facilitate investment in a project of to-be-built apartments. A leading international bank which has presence in 60 countries decides to invest in a commercial and residential real estate project in Hong Kong. At first, the decision is considered too risky as the asset will be completely illiquid for several years. Meanwhile, the real estate market in Hong Kong is unpredictable.
In June 2017 the current Financial Secretary of Hong Kong Paul Chan told Bloomberg, that: “Hong Kong’s property market is in a dangerous situation and vulnerable to correction”. Due to this reason, it is unlikely that the investors would agree to any long-term commitment. In this case, the investors who have the option to sell their shares in the fund will be in a much advanced position. And that can be achieved with the help of the tokenization technology.
The Proof-of-Asset Protocol, based on the blockchain technology, allows the release of tokens backed by square meters of the future apartment. After the tokens are released, all the investors have the possibility to sell their tokens. By doing so, they are able to obtain the money invested in the project. Token price is stable and appreciates while the apartment is built.
So the real-estate investment trust receives the capital to invest in illiquid assets, while the buyers, and banks among them, have an opportunity to exit prior to the end of the building process. This is a win-win situation. As Prof. McKeon sees it: “Real estate-focused token exchanges will increase liquidity for asset owners. Real estate appraisers will become more like equity analysts because the market value of any building will be readily apparent if the token is trading.”
The operating mechanism is very simple. Using Internet of Things (IoT) Scanner, as well as necessary legal support, Proof-of-Asset Protocol can produce a crypto-equivalent of an asset (an apartment building in the case above). IoT will constantly monitor the condition of the property so it can be fully reflected in the price of the token. Both sell-side and buy-side are fully aware of all the information regarding the property. Blockchain technology and smart contracts make the whole process transparent, secure and efficient.
After the asset is checked by PoAP, tokens are issued immediately then the trading process starts. The flexibility created by Proof-of Asset protocol makes the long-term investments in real estate market more secure and attracts more capital into it. Escrow/Asset Manager is a reputable third-party auditor such as BALANC3. Exchange is organized by asset owners (housing developers), powered by BANKEX.
BLOCKCHAIN LEVERAGES.
- The logic behind the Proof-of-Asset Protocol is based on Ethereum smart contracts, and benefits from all of their infrastructural advantages.
- The blockchain is used to store registration data of the owner of the real asset underlying the Smart Asset as well as further data about the base asset which are necessary for work with the token.
USE CASES.
Banks.
Their target audience is banks. Banks are expected to switch to Bankex’ technologies, as traditional financial technologies are inefficient and are inferior to new blockchain technologies when addressing a large range of asset classes.
Asset owners.
Bankex has already received requests to tokenize various classes of assets:
- Secondary market for new buildings.
- Real estate-IoT-Pay as you go.
- VC portfolio-secondary market for private shares.
- Car sharing.
BKX USES.
They are used for token transactions on the BANKEX platform.
PREVIOUS ACTIVITY.
BankEx was founded 2 years ago as a fintech startup lab. Soon its founder, Igor Khmel, was joined by Ilham Hatypov (KYC project), Dmitry Dolgov, Vitaly Dubinin and Nauris. The first startup created was FinDelivery (based on KYC. It’s an analogue of Uber for financial couriers). Next came the OKZ - loan application operator - crowd-funding of small business with the use of securitization, currency exchange services etc. After that they developed a platform for Bank-as-a-Service. All these products were built on blockchain-platforms with a unique legal mechanism, letting them fully utilize the possibilities granted by the global market.
ROADMAP.
2015: Start of BANKEX Fintech Lab.
Feb 2017: BANKEX and Microsoft sign a blockchain technological development partnership, receiving Microsoft Azure Sponsorship of $120000.
October 2017: Demo-version of Proof-of-Asset Protocol released.
1Q-2Q 2018: Asset-Backed Exchange BANKEX.
2020: Financial bridge for two worlds: Crypto & FIAT.
HOW ADVANCED IS IT?
They were included in top 50 world fintech startups ; got $120K grant from Microsoft Azure ; partners with the stock exchange and more than 10 banks.
Also partners with several leading traditional-assets depositories which are open to storing and accounting of crypto-assets such as Hyperledger and Consensys, plus a Silver member of Symphony Foundation.
They have already raised $1.5M during pre-ICO sales.
They have released a Demo-version of the Proof-of-Asset Protocol. In order to use the demo you will have to install the MetaMask plugin first. After you log in using MetaMask, you can choose the type of smart asset that you would like to create. Currently there are 3 types available: car token, real estate token and Apple device token. It’s available here https://dev-web-prototype-bankex.azurewebsites.net/
The BANKEX Trading Demo is available here: https://demo-futures.bankexlab.com/
SIMILAR PROJECTS.
Metaverse ETP.
Metaverse is a decentralized open platform of smart properties and digital identities. The platform is based on public blockchain technology. The goal is to establish the “Internet of Value” infrastructure by combining digital assets, digital identities, and oracles to build a web of smart properties.
In more basic terms, Metaverse is a blockchain made in China. Some call it the Chinese version of Ethereum. Just like China has Baidu instead of Google or WeChat instead of Facebook, Metaverse is quickly becoming China’s Ethereum.
HOW IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER PROJECTS IN THE SPACE?
Metaverse already has a working product.
Bankex are offering the caterpillar Proof-of-Asset, which can confirm the value of the assets: validation, audit, legal.
USER REVIEWS.
[So this is kinda BaaS almost like TaaS is there a chance of having same dev team here? everything is drowning in tears and yet this team still went ahead to do ICO, great timing there buddy. you’d certainly profit when the price goes up back.]
[How is this different than all the other blockchain-based bank ideas?]
[Our concept is to create a proof-of-asset protocol that will allow to take any asset, tokenize it and then exchange it on our platform. To do so, we’re developing new types of smart-contracts (one of them is a revolutionary new Escrow smart-contract that you can find on our Github). We’re also working on the legal and compliance issues that blockchain users may encounter in different jurisdictions in order to make our smart-asset exchanges as fluent as possible.]
[Where can I find information about your partnership with those 10 banks you referred at start ?]
[Hi, thank you for asking. We respect your right to know all the details.
BankEx partners with 10 banks and 1 exchange through solutions built by BankEx Labs.
This includes
1) FinDelivery (‘FinDostavka) decentralized KYC (10 russian banks including top20 banks such as BinBank, Sberbank,Sovcombank, Touchbank, PromSvyazbank, QIwI etc); no public info because we work white-label, SAAS model
2) Small business deposit exchabge product - partner of Moscow exchange (info is here: http://www.moex.com/a3864)
3) Securitization of paydayloan portfolios,running pilot in partnership with payment processor QIWI http://m.nasdaq.com/symbol/qiwi,]
[I dont think the crypto world is actually ready for a bank yet…. that is probably why the real banks have not opened doors yet….]
[We’re not really a “traditional Bank”. Our idea is to link people using cryptocurrencies, banks and other financial institutions through blockchain and more precisely by a set of smart-contracts that we have developed for some real world assets (gold, lithium, cars…) and other that will be coded by our community members. Say you have an owner of many office buildings in downtown Moscow asking you to tokenize his/her different office spaces. If our community finds the project attractive, meaning that the “rentTokens” can be sold, then the community will code a new smart-contract for this office owner. This new “office smart-contract” will be universal, ie it can be used in USA, China, India…. Moreover, BankEx will act as an escrow for the smart-asset (=rentToken) and will guarantee that those office buildings are in good condition, that all that was promised by the office owner (office class, size, furniture…) is indeed there. I hope this gives you a better idea of what BankEx is building.]
[Who are you main customers? Tell me in one sentence what value do you bring them?]
[Our main customers are people that need financing to say buy a new car, build additional offices, get a micro loan for unexpected expenses, start exploiting lithium reserves (ie buy expensive machines)…
We allow them to get financing through verified asset tokenization and exchange.]
[why do you think that price of your token will go up?]
[Banks will use our tokens to pay for our products]
[Hello all, I have question which advantages have mix of bloc-chain and BaaS because I really have no idea maybe you can tell me. Thank’s. ]
[Hello!
Briefly, banks are moving to BaaS model as it allows to offer the best products to their clients as apps. Blockchain helps automate different processes so banks can cut costs using it.]
[After I tokenize my asset (say, a car), what happens next? I get Bankex tokens (car). And then what? It’s like selling “shares” of my car? What do “shareholders” get in return?]
[it’s not selling you car. It’s not share. It’s utility token. This is the right to take the 1 ride on your car (similar to Uber-model). 1 token = one 15 min ride for instance]
[i would have expected a little more excitement around this…probably will not make the nice figure i am expecting them to do… ]
[this project has a good reputation because by looking at a very strong team team, they are very serious to work, from my point of view it will be very profitable for the investor and especially in the long run it will be among the big market.]
