Interview with ICObench expert Emanuele Ferrari – Zichain
Emanuele, hi! You are a prominent ICO consultant — could you please tell our readers about your background and career path? How did you first get involved in blockchain-related projects?
My name is Emanuele Ferrari, I am a 38-year-old from Italy. I have approached the crypto world back in early 2016, fascinated by the enormous potential that decentralized currencies can offer.
Several years ago we could only dream of a digital currency not tied to governments and states and thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto this dream finally comes true. If I were to describe what cryptocurrencies are for me in one word… It’s “Freedom”… freedom to be able to use a currency without borders, freedom to be the real owner of your money, freedom to be able to spend it safely anywhere in the world. I am a crypto maximalist, and I fully recognize myself in the phrase by Anthony Pompliano, “Long Bitcoin, short the bankers”, confident that the current economic system based on hyper-debt is not sustainable for much longer.
From late 2017, given the experience I had gained in the crypto field, I started to personally participate in international projects as a strategic and marketing advisor. These projects include, among many others: NODIS, developed to help local businesses to get noticed online; ZOPTAX, a project disrupting VOIP (voice over IP) with blockchain and YACHTCO, a yachting marketplace and charter ecosystem.
I’ve joined Faster Capital Team (a virtual incubator based in Dubai city) as a mentor and an expert in blockchain and ICO world. Thanks to my experience, I became an expert on ICObench, the most important ICO-ranking site, and a “Top 50 advisor” in the world.
Right now, my team and I are developing “QWERTY” a disruptive messaging application — and it will be truly revolutionary as thanks to blockchain technology, we will solve many problems that top traditional messaging apps have (like the problem of fake profiles). QWERTY will be the messaging app with most users in 2025… maybe! (Laughs)
That messaging app sounds like a great concept — could you share more details about the project?
This new mobile application is dedicated to solving the problem of fake profiles. The most famous messengers already have hundreds of millions of active users every day, and this number is constantly growing — it is estimated that in 2020 there will be more than one billion users connected to messaging applications.
Unfortunately, there are frequent cases of scams and deception caused by malicious agents who copy the identity of other people and take advantage of it to commit crimes. It happens because there is no real identity verification and a user can easily personify another, simply by copying the image profile and modifying, even by just one letter, his username. It’s estimated that the damage from the scams of this type exceeds $50 million each year.
The world needs a new application that guarantees the real identity of each user. Each user will be registered and verified, solving the problem of fake profiles — all thanks to the blockchain technology where the data will be verified, encrypted and saved.
The goal of QWERTY is to create a global messaging application where users, thanks to real identity verification, will always have the certainty of knowing with whom they are really talking — that would be a great upgrade. We have no website online right now but anyone interested can follow us on our Facebook page to learn more.
What is the scope of your responsibilities as an advisor? Which aspects of the fundraising process are your specialty?
First of all, my responsibility is to verify that the project is not a scam or a Ponzi scheme — otherwise, my name and reputation would be affected.
As an advisor, my role is to analyze the project and make it as clear and attractive as possible for investors, as well as to clarify all the key points. For example, I always suggest an equal token distribution between team members, advisory board and public sale — but the teams do not always follow my advice. In addition, thanks to my professional network, I can find the right people for the project, from translators and developers to other advisors and experts.
How do you choose your projects? Which factors do you consider when assessing their potential?
Every project, if you listen to the team, is “the best” — but that is not always true. Every project needs to respond to this scheme: “Problem — Solution — Business”. Yet sometimes, in order to find the solution, a project will create a problem out of something that was not a problem before. Or it will be fundraising just for the sake of raising funds — which is not the right approach. If a project aims to solve a real problem with a new idea, with innovation — well, with a little luck it can be a great and successful project.
IEO has already become a major trend within the crypto markets. Do you think it will become the new dominant funding model?
Well, most IEOs are useless and there are a lot of launchpads useless for fundraising purposes. A lot of projects conducting an IEO see their token price dumped 100 times lower due to inaccurate token economics. For example, nowadays a lot of IEOs raise less than the IEO fee paid upfront to the exchange. This means that only the real launchpad will remain. I am convinced that in the short term many of these launchpads will close due to lack of demand. So at the moment, the short answer to your question would be:” Yes, IEOs are the new dominant funding model, but not right now”.
Cryptocurrency prices have seen a resurgence in 2019. Do you think rising asset prices could fuel an IEO boom, similar to what happened in ICO market in 2017?
No, we need to analyze the 2017 altcoin season deeper. Everyone involved with the ICO phenomenon wants to make 10x or 100x profits (and some actually pull it off) so crypto users sell Bitcoin to buy Ethereum and with Ethereum they buy ICO tokens — this is the boost that started the altcoin season, it is clear from the dominance chart. But most tokens, once they get listed on an exchange are dumped more than 100 times lower, some are revealed as scams and investors lose a lot of money.
Now I will make a revelation; a lot of projects make token swaps with each other, so project A gives the equivalent of $10 million in tokens to project B, receives their tokens in return and both of them add $10 million in fundraised value — but is simply not true! This token will be sold by team members and this is one of the reasons why a lot of ICO tokens are dumped hard. This is a real-life scenario that should be taken into account by crypto users. Now investors are reluctant to participate in ICOs and they are right. My advice to all readers: ask the team’s CFO if the project has done any token swaps.
Now, 2 years later, with Bitcoin halving that is getting closer, I see no reason for another altcoin season to happen anytime soon.
It seems that competition between exchanges is rising as they compete for their share of the IEO market. You are working as a Senior IEO Sales Agent for Coinsbit — what’s your take on this? What are the key advantages that can help an exchange stay competitive in this environment?
I work as an independent contractor for a number of launchpads and exchanges, not only for Coinsbit. When a project asks me for some advice about launchpad we need to evaluate the best fit based on available funds — and with my experience, I am able to choose the best option and contact the exchange. If you want to survive in this IEO jungle you need to offer a service without upfront payment, just with a success fee. This way, the exchange would select only the best and most promising projects, not everyone who pays its upfront fees.
What do you think of Binance Launchpad relaunch so far? How will it affect the IEO market ecosystem in the long-run?
Binance is the most powerful launchpad at the moment, one of the few that can afford to make lotteries to determine who can participate or not. There is a scarcity on the supply side and a very high demand, this means an increase in the price of the listed tokens — and this is exactly what IEO investors want. Changpeng Zhao has created a perfect environment that includes a launchpad, a great exchange and now even margin trading too. Some time ago if you went into a community chat of a project, a lot of users would ask “when Binance”, as this would give a pump to trading volume and token price. Well, now the best way to have a project listed on Binance is… to make an IEO on Binance launchpad.
What is your general market outlook? Where do you expect us to end up in terms of Bitcoin price by the end of 2019? What are your expectations about the number and volume of ICOs and IEOs in 2019 and beyond?
I have been bullish about Bitcoin since 2016. It is one of the greatest financial experiments in history! We have the possibility to make peer-to-peer transactions with full ownership of our money so, how can it fail? For sure, things can go wrong, but with every second of Bitcoin’s existence, the possibility of failure is getting lower.
Nobody can know what Bitcoin price will be by the end of 2019, but I expect, barring any surprises, to see it around $30 000.
In the coming years, ICOs are destined to disappear, perhaps they will not fade entirely in terms of a number of deals, but the amounts of raised funds will dwindle. Too many ICO projects have failed in the past. IEOs, launched by the top exchanges, will become the new standard for crypto fundraising.
Thank you for your time, Emanuele! It was great talking to you!
Thank you, guys!
Author: Arseny Bessmertnykh — Senior Financial Analyst at Zichain and an Editor-in-Chief of CryptoEYE
https://cryptoeye.com/analytics/235/Interview-with-ICObench-expert-Emanuele-Ferrari
Published at Mon, 12 Aug 2019 15:25:56 +0000
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