BitNautic (BTNT) ICO Analysis: A Decentralized Marketplace for Shipping Services

Executive Summary

Project Description

The shipping industry is one of the oldest and till now, it remains one of the most utilized means of transportation in the world, especially where cargo is concerned. However, the industry is burdened with lots of administrative problems, for example: documents are inaccurate and go missing a lot of the time; carrier ships are often overloaded with cargo; most onboard systems in use are outdated; lots of claims are filed, requiring lots of paperwork and multiple signatures; a lot of little mistakes happen, leading to shipment delay, increased cost, and sometimes, wrong deliveries. In summary, the industry is very inefficient and it badly needs transparency, accountability, and a better organized logistics chain.

The BitNautic project aims to provide a solution to the problems outlined above. The solution is described as “an open decentralized platform that will enable all stakeholders, such as importers, exporters, shippers, ship owners, carriers and agents to come to the same page.” The features to be available on this platform include an AI-based cargo booking system, real-time tracking of ships, a wholesale e-commerce platform and so on. The cargo booking system will reportedly allow shippers from all over the world check for ships that are available to carry their cargo. BitNautic also plans to provide a ship brokerage system that may allow ship owners list the live locations of their ships in order to find customers from all over the world. The wholesale e-commerce platform, on the other hand, will give users a marketplace to advertise and trade wholesale goods along shipping locations without the need for an intermediary. BitNautic is also expected to give customers a tool with which they can track the position of ships and cargo in real time, providing them with all the supply chain information that they need.

BitNautic’s native token, BTNT, is to be Ethereum-based and reports suggest that it will be a hybrid token, i.e. it will serve as a utility as well as a payment token. It will be used as a medium of exchange in the BitNautic ecosystem and it may also be used to store value. All fees on the platform — subscription, cargo booking, ship brokerage system, tracking system subscription, and escrow service — will be paid in BTNT.

Existing Product

No existing product yet.

Roadmap

Q2 2018 BitNautic ICO.

Q3 2018 BitNautic platform public beta, BTNT tokens listed on exchange.

Q4 2018 BitNautic platform main release.

Q1 2019 Shipping platform integrated with Blockchain.

Q2 2019 Wholesale E-commerce public beta.

Q3 2019 Wholesale E-commerce main release.

Hard Cap and Valuation

There will be 50 million BTNT tokens and the project aims to raise a maximum of 50,000 ETH for 70% of the token total (soft cap = 5,000 ETH). 20% is to be sold during presale and 50% will be sold during public sale. The remaining 30% is to be shared thus: 10% is kept in reserve, 6% goes to the team, 5% goes to the project’s advisors, 5% is used for bounty campaigns, and the final 4% goes to the founders.

The team tokens will be unlocked partially over a timeframe of one year, each month 1/12 of the total team tokens.

Unsold tokens are to be burnt.

Price Per Token

1 BTNT = 0.002 ETH.

For the pre-ICO, there’s a 20% — 30% bonus available depending on how early an investor contributes.

During the ICO proper, there is a 5% — 20% bonus available depending on the week an investor purchases the tokens in. The earlier, the higher the bonus percentage.

Important Dates

BTNT pre-ICO starts on the 1st of May, 2018 and ends on the 31st of the same month. The ICO starts on the 1st of July, 2018 and ends on the 30th of the same month.

Marketing Power

As of the time this post was published, BitNautic had nearly 90,000 members on Telegram, over 82,500 followers on Facebook, 7,100+ followers on Twitter, 660+ followers on Medium, 185 followers on LinkedIn, and 47 Reddit readers.

Prominent Advisors

Jay Addison

• President of EventChain.
• Advisor to Pundi X and SmartMesh.

Team Members’ Areas of Expertise

Business experts

Gianfranco Pierini, Co-Founder & CEO.

• Director & Administrator at Elite Import Sagl since 2013 (ongoing).
• Director & Administrator at Acqua2o Sagl since 2006 (ongoing).
• Director & Administrator of Quality Food Sagl for 6 years.
• Logistics manager at Interfood SA, a global dairy supplier, for 15 years.

Richard Zoni, CTO.

• Regional Sales Director Italy & Spain at KOBIL_Systems, an IT security company, for 4 months (ongoing).
• Business Development Advisor at PetSource for 7 months (ongoing).
• Regional Sales Director EMEA at Nozomi Networks, a cybersecurity provider, for 2 years.
• Senior Enterprise Account Manager at Amazon Web Services for a year.
• Regional Sales Manager Italy at VASCO Data Security for 6 years.
• Business Manager ICT Security at Business-e, a security consultancy, for almost 3 years.
• Security & Networking Practice Manager at Kelyan SPA for 4 years.

Anmol Bajwa, Co-Founder.

• Currently studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in Business.

Muhammad Salman Anjum, Chief Relationship Officer.

• Founder & CEO of Feelogical Solutions, a training program, for a year (ongoing).
• Head of L&D at Caracal Light Ammunition for 2 years.
• Training Manager & Senior Trainer at AVALINE Holding Corporation for over 2 years.
• Head of HR & Training at Sitabr for a year.
• Manager HR & Training at Madni Textiles for 10 years.

Target market experts

No team member with experience in the shipping industry. One of their advisors, however, is Captain Savio Gomez, a marine consultant and ICO advisor. The project should benefit from his extensive target market expertise.

Marketing experts

Ashton Addison, CMO.

• CEO & Founder of EventChain SmartTicket for over a year (ongoing).
• Advisor to Coinpayments for 3 months (ongoing).
• Advisor to Pundi X for 7 months (ongoing).
• Chief Marketing Strategist at SmartMesh Foundation for 8 months (ongoing).
• ICO Expert Advisor at URAllowance for 4 months (ongoing).
• Executive Producer at CryptoCoinShow for 4 years (ongoing).

Legal experts

No team member with legal expertise but 2 of their advisors are legal experts.

Software engineering experts

Garry Singh, CIO.

• Co-founder & CEO of Quickdesk Solutions, a software development company, for almost 3 years (ongoing).
• CTO at coindelite, a mobile crypto magazine, for 9 months (ongoing).
• Frontend Developer at EventChain International SmartTickets for a year (ongoing).
• Assistant Operations Manager at Allshore Consolidated Services for a year.
• IT Project Manager at Capitol Hospital for 9 months.
• Client Technical Support Supervisor at Dell for 2 years.
• Advanced Resolution Expert at Dell for almost 5 years.

Francesco Oliverio, Project Manager.

• Manager IT at Lugano Finance Club for almost 2 years (ongoing).
• Currently studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science.

Angelini Paolo, Lead Back-End Engineer.

• System Architect at Bcube technology for 10 months.
• CEO at Beat N Beat Srl for 3 years.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science.

Carlo Vespa, Lead Front-End Engineer.

• Frontend Developer at Bcube technology for 8 months.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science.

Blockchain development experts

No team member with blockchain development expertise, but they have a blockchain development advisor.

Token economics experts

The project’s CMO, Ashton Addison, is expected to provide BitNautic with token economics expertise; he has his own blockchain project and has served as advisor to many others. Additionally, there are other ICO consultants on their advisory board, as a result, the project should have adequate expertise in the area.

Token sale structure

Same as above.

Conclusion

Strengths

• Big community size, especially on Telegram.
• Supply chain solutions have highly-relevant real world use-case.
• The team is well-connected in the cryptocurrency sector.

Potential risks for investors

• Community growth was not organic, the project did an airdrop.
• Many executive team members seem to carry out other activities simultaneously with their work at BitNautic.
• Notable competitors in the space (e.g. CargoX).
• No working product yet.

---

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, Anna Muratova.

If you enjoy our research, consider supporting us by following our Twitter, Telegram and Medium and sharing our articles with your friends and colleagues.

Thank you for staying with us! Follow us and subscribe to receive regular reports.