Block Collider (EMB) ICO Analysis: A Decentralized Protocol for Multi-Chain Interoperability
Executive Summary
Project Description
As powerful as the blockchain tech environment is, it still has a prominent flaw: all the different blockchains are not interoperable and they cannot share functions. Smart contracts are only usable on their original blockchains and even in instances where a platform would work perfectly with another, the two cannot exchange data and features. This is quite restrictive and the blockchain environment would really benefit from making interoperability between chains possible. Some projects, most notably — Ark, Polkadot, Cosmos, Aion, Wanchain and ICON — are already trying to tackle this problem.
The Block Collider joins them believing it has found a different solution to the interoperability problem on the blockchain. They plan to create a new blockchain that facilitates multi-chain transactions without using validators, i.e. a completely decentralized platform. According to the team, this will be done using a mining algorithm called Proof of Distance (PoD). This algorithm allegedly consumes blocks from other blockchains and combine them to create its own blockchain. This allows the transfer of value between chains, and the state of each chain will be known to all the other chains in the network. As a result, blockchains should be able to work in parallel, opening up the possibility of multi-chain distributed apps and multi-chain smart contracts (meta contracts).
Furthermore, the Block Collider platform will reportedly incorporate blockchains without having to modify them the way competing platforms do.
The Block Collider platform is expected to issue two types of tokens: Emblems and the marked cryptocurrency tokens of member blockchains (the likely member chains at the start are Bitcoin, Ethereum, NEO, Lisk, Waves, and Counterparty). Emblems also inherit marked cryptocurrencies from the member blockchains on the platform. The marked cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, will reportedly be added automatically to the Block Collider multi-chain as well as its underlying blockchain. They will have an “M” tag in front of their name, for example, ETH will be tagged as “M-ETH”.
Additionally a second emblem, the Non-relational graph (NRG) emblem is to be used by miners on Block Collider. The more Emblems a miner has, the more transactions he can add to a block and the more the rewards he earns in NRG emblems. NRG is fixed in its supply and thus the mining reward is reduced over time as mining continues indefinitely.
The Block Collider team were working on a project, Status RSK, before pivoting to multi-chain interoperability. There have been rumblings that Status RSK was a scam; as a result, all prospective investors are advised to seek further information before committing to this project.
Hard Cap and Valuation
There will be a total of 1 million Emblems and the entire supply will be sold in private and public sales. The project set a hard cap of $7 million and they have already raised $4.25 million during private sale and presale. According to the team, no bonuses were given. Consequently, $2.75 million worth of Emblems will be available during Block Collider’s ICO.
The portion reserved for the team is to be locked for a year with a quarterly release of 25% after the ICO.
Price Per Token
During the crowdsale, 1 EMB will be worth $0.07.
Important Dates
ICO date is yet to be set.
Marketing Power
As at the time this post was published, Block Collider had over 2,600 followers on Facebook, 13,000+ members on Telegram, over 3,100 followers on Twitter, 230 followers on Medium, and 157 Reddit readers.
Team Members’ Areas of Expertise
Business experts
Arjun Raj Jain, Co-Founder & Core Developer.
- Co-founder of Down to Chill, a social media app, for a year.
- Co-founder of Noteriety, a social network, for almost 2 years.
- Co-founder of GreenVote, an infrastructure feedback application, for a year.
Patrick McConlogue, Co-Founder & Core Developer.
- Founder of Affecter, a behavior analytics tool, for over a year.
Craig Weisman, Interim COO.
- Held several roles at AdRoll — a performance marketing platform — since 2012. He started as a Salesforce Administrator and ended up as the Sales Operations Manager.
Patrick Schilz, Board Member.
- Investor and advisor to various projects in the crypto sphere.
Target market experts
No team members with target market expertise.
Marketing experts
Ian Simpson, Marketing & Communications.
- Head of Marketing and Communications at Lakeside Partners AG — an investment company — for 7 months.
- CoinDesk Contributor:
Legal experts
No team member with legal expertise.
Software engineering experts
Arjun Raj Jain, Co-Founder & Core Developer.
- Lead Developer and Product Manager at WellSheet, a healthcare web application, for over a year.
- Lead Developer and Product Manager at Goals Genius, a portal for students, for six months.
Patrick McConlogue, Co-Founder & Core Developer.
- Data Scientist at Citadel LLC, an investment company, for over two years.
- Data Engineer at GoodData, a data analytics company, for a year.
- Engineer at Noodle.com, a search engine for education, for over a year.
Tomas Korcak, CTO.
- Principal/Senior Software Engineer at GoodData for over 4 years.
- Senior Developer/Lead at Moravia IT, an IT services company, for 3 years.
- Programmer at Kuju Entertainment, a video gaming company, for 4 years.
Adam Kloboucnik, Core Developer.
- Senior UI Developer at GoodData for over 4 years.
Blockchain development experts
No team member with blockchain development expertise.
Token sale structure experts
No token sale structure experts on the team.
Token economics experts
No token economics experts on the team.
Conclusion
Strengths
- Low hard cap — $7m.
- The project is working on the blockchain’s interoperability problem, a very important niche.
- They have a sizable community and the growth was organic.
- Strong technical background in relevant areas.
Potential risks for investors
- Unclear whether the team has experience working on blockchain projects.
- No prominent advisors.
- Notable competitors in the space (Polkadot, Ark, Cosmos, Aion, Wanchain, ICON).
Disclaimers:
- Nothing written in this article is a legal or an investment advice.
- Information is provided on a best-effort basis and is subject to change without prior notice. Be sure to verify everything you read with a project team.
The analysis was produced by Research Center team members: Alexander Bugaj, Mark Jedd, Eugene Tartakovsky.
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Promising project! I unfortunately missed the whitelist subscription last week :-(
Realistic and quite nicely low hard cap + the project seems to go for decentralized token distribution instead of a few big whales!