Ratings.
Team: 7
Advisors: 8
Idea: 8
Hype/Community: 9
Prototype/MVP: 8
Overall: 8
It’s no secret that mobile apps and browsers have taken over desktop based equivalents. This shouldn’t come as a surprise given the great usability features of smartphones and tablets. But a problem exists with the current range of apps available in appstores in that they are centralized and hence prone to hacking. This is paving way for a new age of decentralized apps which utilize blockchain technology. One such Damp is GoNetwork whose presale will be held sometime this February. Below we will take you through a brief overview of the ICO, its targeted market, partnerships and MVP.
Overview.
GoNetwork ICO will fund the development of the GoNetwork exchange, which enables the creation, distribution and trading of virtual goods on a massive scale. The project developers come from a long background of mobile app development having built several successful apps in the past. One of their most successful apps is Dusquad.me, a video social network that allows users to create videos and share them with their friends. They are now trying to add a monetization feature to their apps by incorporating ethereum blockchain technology into the apps.
However we all know that cryptocurrencies are undergoing deep scaling issues at the moment. Just last December, Crypt kitties a cat trading game caused massive congestion on ethereum, and at one time left over 30,000 transactions stuck on the network. This caused a great uproar on social channels, with some ICOs even being canceled. The creators of the game are still pondering over possible solutions such as increasing the gas price and raising the transaction fees for users. These are just short term solutions, and it remains to be seen what happens in the long run.
With GoNetwork, the founders appear to have come up with a dependable solution for their ecosystem by utilizing Raiden state channels. State channels allow for transactions to take place off chain, which reduces congestion on the main chain. This technology was envisioned several years ago and hopefully we can see its implementation with the GoNetwork. This will allow for Dapps that can be ported to mobile phones thereby capturing the huge mobile economy.
GOT tokens will power the Go Exchange. Users can buy GOT tokens from the provided ethereum wallet or using fiat via an Integrated Payment Platform.
Market.
Go Network are targeting the Dapp market. Through their Dapps, they will provide several advantages such as:
- Easy payment processing since Paypal/Stripe integration is not necessary.
- Resistant to hacking.
- Allow users to monetize their efforts thereby taking back some of the profits acquired in the network.
- Allow secure storage of important user data.
With that said, there are several Dapp platforms available in the market today. These include:
1. Status.
Status is an open source messaging platform and mobile browser used to interact with decentralized applications that run on the Ethereum Network. The Status browser is powered by the SNT token which allows users to buy/sell/create stickers that can only be used in the Status Client, browse through the status Dapp directory, vote to contribute on the future direction of the project, etc.
Several dapps have been listed on Status so far including Gnosis, Ujo, uPort, and more. Status is currently in Alpha stage and the beta could be released later this year.
Their market cap stands at $753M.
2. Zipper.
Also running along similar lines is Zipper. It offers blockchain based services such as wallets, storage and messaging while allowing users to retain their privacy. Zipper held a private token sale earlier this year and are now running a loyalty program to incentivize community participation. The platform’s native tokens, ZIPs, can be spent in various ways such as in-app purchases, peer-to-peer lending or selling them for other cryptocurrencies. They can also be staked in the Zipper directory, and then used to curate content and make the best apps stand out.
Zipper will be launched in March 2018, where it can be accessed on Android and some Sony Experian devices.
3. Qtum.
Qtum is the first POS Smart Contract platform compatible with Bitcoin. Their mission is to change how businesses interact with their customers by allowing smart contracts to run on mobile devices. Qtum’s blockchain supports the SPV protocol which allows lite wallets running on mobile devices to engage natively with Dapps and smart contracts. This allows smart contracts to be used not only on servers and laptops, but also on IoT and mobile devices.
Compared to Ethereum transactions per second capacity of 15-20 TPS, Qtum has a TPS of 60-70. This is still not sufficient to power future Dapps on the platform but they are working on a number of solutions. A prototype of lightning network is currently running on their test net. They also claim that the network is compatible with Raiden network. They are observing the space closely and will combine both off chain solutions into a hybrid lightning network.
QTUM’s market cap stands at $2B. This quarter, they are working on being the first blockchain network with a full node in space.
4. Toshi.
Toshi is very similar to status. They offer private and secure messaging app, ethereum wallet and Dapp browser. They have partnerships with Signal protocol for encrypted messaging as well as uPort for decentralized identity.
5. Aeternity.
Aeternity is a scalable smart contracts platform that launched its test net last year. They offer several features such as lightning smart contracts, turning-complete state-channels and decentralized oracles. Similar to GoNetwork they have a mobile first approach meaning you can mine on your phone and access / use Apes (Aeternity’s decentralized apps) on your mobile device. You can already test some of these out at aepps.com.
Their market cap currently stands at $596M. Their mainnet will be launched in Q2 2018.
Looking at all these projects we picked GoNetwork because they have the smallest market cap at $30M.
Partnerships.
GoNetwork won the ETHWaterloo Hackathon in October last year. This was great news for the team considering that Vitalik Buttering oversaw the competition. As far as partnerships are concerned, none have been announced yet. However, they shouldn’t have a problem attracting users since they already had a vibrant user ecosystem with previous apps.
MVP.
GoNetworks Goexchange is currently in beta testing.
Conclusion.
To sum it up we would recommend buying the GoNetwork ICO. We choose it because they are tapping into the very viable mobile market. Mobile apps have great potential now and in the future. Whether it’s paying bills, buying tickets, or entertainment, we all use mobile apps on a daily basis. The team also have a real use case in the form of a mobile-first Bluetooth based tap and pay system leveraging the Ethereum blockchain which was their winning product at ETHWaterloo.
Our concerns with this ICO is that they have not disclosed the crowdsale details as of yet so we might have to pick it from the exchanges as well.
