Introduction

The fascinating thing about archaeology is the discovery of ancient and maybe even legendary objects or fossils. When you have read Dan Brown books and heard of the Holy Grail, then you will understand this kind of fascination. You can’t put it in words, but there is a feeling inside you, which wants to know more about the object and its past. Unfortunately, a lot of treasures of mankind are lost in the depths of the sea. Experts are estimating the value of treasures under sea is exceeding billions of US dollars. In some cases, it’s even not possible to give the findings a figure.

Just twenty years ago an expedition team found the Lost Kingdom of Cleopatra under sea. It’s estimated to have been lost for about 1600 years after earthquakes or tidal waves. The expediters found a considerable number of artefacts, which were still intact. Now the Egyptian government has plans to give interested people the opportunity to see these artefacts by offering some kind of underwater museum, which also might attract tourists.

© Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation, photo: Christoph Gerigk

© Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation, photo: Christoph Gerigk

Challenges

Other than traditional archaeology marine archaeology is not as far developed due certain challenges:
• Difficulties of access => requires diving equipment and very advances diving skills
• Expensive equipment => if access is beyond reach of divers, then it’s necessary to have submarines or remote sensing equipment
• Working underwater also requires a working platform close to the spot
• Hazardous and dynamic environment due to currents, storms and tidal flows

These points also make marine archaeology very cost expensive since the required equipment, tools, platform and the team for coordination, medical treatment and diving requires easily few million dollars for entering the industry.

How PO8 could contribute to the Marine Archaeology Industry

PO8 wants to contribute by forming a blockchain ecosystem by forming a foundation, which will hold exhibitions with the discovered artefacts and also by developing a decentralized, secure and transparent auction platform, where the discovered treasures can be traded. Another goal is to create a registry system, which will help to authenticate the treasures and give them security against frauds. The PO8 ecosystem will be built on four pillars:

1. Maritime Artefact Data System (MADS): With a proof of stake model for PO8 tokens, users who hold a certain amount of tokens can participate in treasure hunts. By contributing to the bounty hunt and completing tasks, users can be rewarded with SILVER tokens. These tasks for example can be analysis of sources and records regarding sonar data, geo mapping, historical documents, video patterns and a lot more. The data can be downloaded from the MADS central server and this way users can contribute to the treasure hunt and get a feeling of being part of an expedition.
2. Historical Open Auction Platform (HOAP): The platform will also play an important role in the PO8 ecosystem since treasures and artefacts can always be a fraud. By having an own decentralized auction platform PO8 can gain interest from people, who are interested in these treasures and who can be won as future users of the ecosystem.
3. Government Artefact Auction System (GAAS): This platform can be seen similar to the previous one, but it will focus on governments, museums and non-profit organizations, who are interested in trading artefacts and having them validated.
4. PO8 Historical Artefact Registry System: With help of the blockchain technology it can be ensured that artefacts can be registered to prevent fraudulent activities by having unique signature identifications, which will remain in blockchain and be secured against attacks.

Token metrics

Soft cap 10,000,000 USD

Hardcap: 30,300,000 USD

Pre-Ico time: 15.06.2018 – 15.07.2018

Public sale date: 01.08.2018 – 30.09.2018

Token Split: 10,000,000,000 PO8; 60% distributed in ICO

Symbol: PO8, ERC-20 Token

Token price: 1 PO8 = 0.012 USD

Conclusion

The project seems very interesting and comes with a vision for a whole ecosystem, which could disrupt the marine archaeology industry. A very important fact is that the whole project is backed by the government of the Bahamas and there is already a planned partnership for a use case, which could benefit the government as well. The plan is to open the first Bahamas Archaeological Treasure and Maritime Museum and Interactive Marine Park. Both sides expect a increase in tourism and it could be the start for a great expansion with further governments, museums or even non-profit organizations. To put it in a nutshell, I would say that enabling more people to participate in treasure hunts, this could lead to further mile stones in the marine archaeology and new great findings should be found very soon. The more brains are participating the more effective and successful it will become.

Further Information

If you want to get more information about PO8 check out the links below. I recommend you to join their Telegram for getting the newest updates on the project. Also feel free to ask me questions in the comments below.

Website: https://po8.io/
Whitepaper: https://po8.io/#whitepapper
Telegram: https://t.me/joinpo8
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PO8Coin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/po8tech
Bitcointalk ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?t%E2%80%A6sg35770062
Bitcointalk Bounty: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3425027.0
My Bitcointalk Profile (GOYA58): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1992234