I recently presented ICOBox ICO devoting an article dedicated how to register to invest in the project introducing a completely new idea in the ICO market. However, I wanted to know better about the service and the interview by email to Nick Evdokimov, co-founder and vision director of ICOBox was a great opportunity.
Choose from the menu whether you read the whole interview or just the questions you are interested in. The reference website is https://icos.icobox.io. Scheduled a Webinar on September 6 at 11am PT.
Interview with Nick Evdokimov, Vision Director at ICOBox
Why ICOBOX and what projects do you target?
ICOBox is a brainchild of three blockchain visionaries: myself, Nick Evdokimov, a co-founder of SeoPult, an ex-CEO of AdInTop and Cryptonomos CEO and co-founder, Mike Raitsyn, a serial entrepreneur, and Anar Babaev, Head of Digital Marketing at Cryptonomos. Our marketing team was involved in the token launch of Giga Watt project, which collected over 20 million dollars. ICOBox's attorneys consulted over a dozen companies on legal aspects of conducting an ICO. Dmitry Khovratovich's crypto security and smart contracts team developed smart contracts for numerous companies who successfully completed their ICOs.
We developed our product in the format of an SaaS, in which all standard ICO elements are automated and simplified. The entire ICO process is directed by the experts in each of the relevant fields engaged by the ICOBox, but is actually conducted by the project's own team. This format ensures the best timing and cost of conducting an ICO, and the clients no longer have to wait until the external agency can start working with them, because the project may be commenced immediately.
We are looking to work with exciting new startups that have great ideas but no funds to implement them. There are many such young promising stars on the market, and they will be able to shine brightly with our support.
How does ICOBox work?
The logic behind the ICOBox platform is quite simple and straightforward:
Token holders are interested in buying tokens during the time of shortage but as cheaply as possible. And now imagine that the token sale has been successfully completed, the project started working and proved its worth, and you can still buy its tokens even cheaper than at its presale price.
Projects are interested in conducting a perfect ICO with an experienced team, and pay for the services with their future tokens.
These are exactly the two tasks that are accomplished using the tool ICOBox invented. This tool is our ICOS token, which has the following characteristics:
- Unprecedented discount. ICOS token can be swapped for any token issued with our tools at a 75% discount on the new token. This is possible because all funds collected through the ICOS token sale will be used to provide ICO services to new projects without any upfront payment on their part. In exchange, the ICOS platform and its token holders get a preset number of the project's tokens: for example, if a startup received 50 BTC worth of services, it will repay to the platform 200 BTC worth of its tokens. So we get a ratio of 1:4, and, consequently, a 75% discount. So if you buy $1,000 worth of ICOS tokens, you could exchange them for tokens of other projects worth $4,000.
- Minimization of risks. It is critically important that you can exchange your ICOS tokens at any time, whether at the start of the token sale or after its completion, and the timing of the exchange will have no affect on the exchange rate and the price. The tokens are available to you even when they are no longer available on the primary market.
- High quality. We prescreen unacceptable ICO applications, and you as an ICOS token holder select the best projects by voting. It is really you who are selecting the projects which will be given the ICOBox's tools.
ICOS token is a product token implemented using Ethereum (ERC-20) standard. Its function is similar to a discount card: It's a tool which allows you to minimize both the cost of buying tokens and the risks associated with it. You control the situation at both stages of the process: during the voting and during the exchange.
ICOS token is a key to a private club for token holders who are willing to cooperate with us to transform the ICO market to make it stable and vast. By buying ICOS tokens they are making a significant contribution to the implementation of hundreds of quality projects – naturally, with a dash of self-interest.
Why are ICOBox’s services cheaper than other solutions offered by the market?
Because our product is completely different. Many platforms position themselves as turnkey ICO solutions, which means minimum involvement of the project's own team. But in real life nobody knows the product better than the team who developed it. Engaging external professional for the entire ICO cycle requires a significant time investment because the external consultants will need to study the proposed project. This increases the costs of implementing the project. This is why the price tag for such services starts at $500,000, and clients have to spend months waiting for the agency to start working on their project.
ICO may be prepared with the team's own efforts, but the development of the book building platform, smart contract, and the legal concept, and the collection of information on marketing channels and resources takes a long time, especially since the project's internal team may not be familiar with the particulars of the process.
By automating every step of the process and offering readymade, easy to deploy tools which startups can use to conduct their own ICOs with our advice, we are able to cut the costs to 25-50 BTC per project, depending on the service package they choose.
Who will evaluate the reliability of ICOs launched using ICOBox’s tools? Will the backers know the names of the experts?
Our due diligence process consists of two stages. The first is carried out by the ICOBox’s team, which prescreens and rejects applications which directly violate our criteria: non-product tokens, copycats of previously completed ICOs, and projects which do not contain their description.
Prescreened projects are then presented for the vote of ICOS token holders. They make the final decision to support the projects they find interesting. Startups selected in this manner will be given ICOBox's tools and consultations with which they will conduct their own ICOs.
So to answer your second question: The backers will know their own names but not the names of other backers, that information is not available to us due to the nature of blockchain. As far as our own team, the names of the members and advisors and the links to their LinkedIn profiles are posted on https://icos.icobox.io.
- Advisor board of ICOBox. -
What kind of backers do you think might be interested in supporting ICOBox and the ICOs it will help launch?
We believe that it will first and foremost be blockchain enthusiasts interested in bringing exciting new projects to the market. ICOS token is not designed to offer any direct rewards to its holders. However, it offers its holders two main advantages:
- an opportunity to vote to bring to life new products and services marketed via ICOs,
- and the ability to exchange their ICOS tokens for tokens of new projects at deep discounts.
Both of these are unprecedented, and will greatly advance the ICO market.
Is there any risk that the funds you collect through your ICO will be spent inappropriately?
This is impossible. The vast majority of the system's tokens is kept in cold storage, and we ensure the strict safety procedures. Our smart contract was designed and developed by the team of the internationally acclaimed cryptographer Dmitry Khovratovich, who is a security expert at the University of Luxembourg and the founder of ABDK – an agency specializing in the development and promotion of Ethereum-based initial coin offerings. All funds received during the ICOS token sale in fiat currencies are converted to BTC and deposited in escrow. Funds in escrow are safely kept in cold wallets in bank safe deposit boxes.