DECOIN ICO Start-up Review

This article is the first of many reviews where we will be analysing & evaluating a Cryptocurrency team like how a Venture Capital or Start-up incubator program evaluates individual Start-ups.

About

“DECOIN is a blockchain-based "Profit Sharing Exchange" Coin. DECOIN is building a world-renowned, quick-action, easy and simple Multicurrency Exchange and Trading Platform, which shares its exchange profits with all of its coin-holders. In addition, DECOIN's top-notch security promises its users an easy, relaxing and reliable trading experience to assure completed transactions.” (1)

Problem

Neither the DECOIN website or their Whitepaper explicitly state what problems they are addressing. When reading them however it’s evident that they’re focusing their exchange to address several problems that currently affect the cryptocurrency space. These include:

1. The extremely large revenues that cryptocurrency exchanges obtain & the resultant concentration of wealth among several big players
2. Cryptocurrency exchanges being highly vulnerable to hackers
3. Knowledge asymmetry among cryptocurrency investors
4. Difficulty in using cryptocurrency to purchase goods & services

It’s impossible for a single team to solve these problems completely. However, if the DECOIN team can address these issues for their user base, their product will be very attractive to cryptocurrency users.

Solution

DECOIN aims to solve these problems by creating a Cryptocurrency Exchange and Trading platform which has features integrated that will solve the four problems above for their user base. These features include:

1. Their Cryptocurrency (DTEP) that will re-distribute profits proportionally to DTEP coin holders gained from fees charged on their trading platform (2). DTEP coin holders will also be able to stake their coins for an annual interest rate of 6.2% (3).
2. Their Exchange platform will be following “financial industry standards” when it comes to securing their platform and users cryptocurrency (4). This included multi-layered real-time authentication & keeping most customers funds in cold storage (5).
3. A multilingual Online Customer Service that will inform and answering queries that their userbase has regarding trading and investing in cryptocurrencies (6).
4. A credit card which their users can use to spend the digital currency that is stored in their accounts to purchase Goods & Services (7).

If these features are correctly implemented, they will mostly address many of the problems mentioned above.

The Competition

The cryptocurrency exchange space is currently filled with hundreds of cryptocurrency exchanges that are all trying to obtain a larger market share (8). This means that it will be very difficult for DECOIN to obtain a meaningful share of the market once they release their trading platform in Q3 2018 (9). To stand out from the crowd, DECOIN will need to implement very innovative marketing tactics that will convince new cryptocurrency investors to use their platform first, and veteran cryptocurrency investors to switch platforms.

The Market

Thankfully, DECOIN will be entering a large market which is expected to continue growing as institutional investors & new retail investors enter the cryptocurrency scene over the years (10). And with over $25 billion dollars currently being traded every 24 hours, DECOIN will have plenty of opportunities to obtain the trading volume required to operate and expand (11).

The Team

When looking through DECOINs team & advisors, it is evident that they have put together a group of individuals who are highly experienced in Finance, Entrepreneurship, Cryptocurrencies & Blockchain.

Some of their team members include:

• Shay Perry (CEO at DECOIN) who has founded Startups in the past such as ‘Trustmed’ & ‘Take It lzl’ (12)
• Ari Recht (COO at DECOIN) who has over 20 years working in technology companies in both advisory and executive roles (13)
• Vladimir Nikitin (Advisor at DECOIN) who was ranked #2 on ICObench
  The team is the most important part of any Startup, so it is great that DECOIN has a team which provides investors confidence that they will deliver on their promises.

The Business Plan

Unfortunately, DECOINs business plan is the weakest part of their Start-up. Although I’m sure that they have a more detailed business plan circulated among their team, the information they provide publicly is short of technical detail. This may deter investors who were hoping to learn more as to how & why they are implementing the exchange how they outline on their website and whitepaper.

Another concern is the Q3 launch of their Trading & Exchange platforms. Between now and release, it is expected that there will be many new cryptocurrency exchanges competing for trading volume. Existing platforms will also be continuing to innovate to maintain and grow their market share.

The final concern relates to the ambiguity as to how much of the profits DECOIN will share among coin holders. Currently, the Whitepaper only states that ‘up to 40%’ of profits will be shared in the first year, ‘up to 50%’ in the second year and ‘up to 60%’ in the third year (14). The wording provides investors with a lot of uncertainty, and there isn’t any mention if profit sharing will occur after the 3rd year of operation.

Verdict

While DECOIN does falter somewhat in their business plan, they more than compensate for this by having a strong team and solution which could address some of the key problems currently facing the Cryptocurrency space. Overall, I'll be watching DECOIN's development closely. I’d give them a positive rating and an 8/10.

DECOIN links

Website: https://www.decoin.io/#about
Bitcointalk page: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3311450.0
Telegram Channel: https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=@xDECOIN

Disclaimer

The information provided in this piece that relates to DECOIN was accurate as of the 28th of April 2018. The information within this piece is not financial advice, and individuals should conduct their due diligence before making investment decisions. I am writing this article due to their bounty campaign.

References

1. https://www.decoin.io/#about
2. WP page 7 https://www.decoin.io/wp-content/uploads/Decoin-WhitePaper-v1.81-28.03-en.pdf
3. WP page 7
4. WP page 5
5. WP page 5 & https://www.decoin.io/#about
6. https://www.decoin.io/#ocs
7. https://www.decoin.io/#card
8. https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/volume/24-hour/
9. https://www.decoin.io/#roadmap
10. https://www.finance-monthly.com/2018/04/will-cryptocurrency-be-commonplace-for-everyone-by-2025/
11. https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/volume/24-hour/all/
12. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shay-perry-1a02a86b/
13. https://www.linkedin.com/in/arirecht/
14. WP page 11

My social media

Bitcointalk username: Matrond
Bitcointalk profile link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1693075