NEXO airdrop - project, company and team due diligence

[13/2: airdrop has ended... To be continued!
More updates: see end of post]

Hi all,

some DD about the actual ongoing NEXO token airdrop and upcoming private presale!

In short: solves real problem, expanding company with large user base.

The airdrop

Airdrop (ref)link, listing you you for the private presale:
https://vrlps.co/a?pt=J2COESfpQBzXpUASZpsUhvFW_Sg&referralCode=SkxvJEoUf&refSource=copy

Expect a 2 minute query asking for your telegram ID (no scans of ID or other documents), which utility of the coin you like most, tokens you would like to be included besides the current usual suspects (where I answered a mining free fast token like nano/steem/iota :) ),...

Airdrop amount: 20 tokens + 20 extra for the first 10k.

You can earn additional tokens and extra 'slots' for a lottery of 15 * 1 ETH by gathering referrals.

Coin value: some like this youtuber claim 1 NEXO = 1$... but I did not find this on their site.

The project, company and team

Nexo is ETH-based... presented as a divident-paying, asset-backed security token with utility features. It targets instant online consumer lending using overdrafts (1) : digital assets (including crypto) of the costumer stored in their wallet. Other activities include e-commerce financing and bill payment services.

The company behind the Nexo coin is Credissimo, a Bulgarian FinTech Group founded in 2007, with millions of customers making it local market leader in the online consumer lending segment (2) and receiving rewards for their innovative products (3), this product seems a logical next step in their development.

There's a business overview (pdf), while their white paper is yet to be published.

Team and advisors don't seem to contain any all stars from the cryptoworld I know of, but their profiles seem legit, diverse (4) and honest (no pumping up style).

Compliancy with EU and local regulations seems to be taken care of... I lack expertise to predict what it takes to market this outside the EU... but based on this co-founders' words they seem to think global.

Competitors

Main competitor, but different solution: SALT. NEXO's comparison can be found at Telegram (5).

So far...!

I didn't cover the token utility (clearly explained on site), token distribution (less clear...while I can expect this to be important for those who speculate for short or long term potential value increase), nor did I dig into more competitors,... (First see if anyone reads this to make it worthwile :) ).
This is also no investment advise.
I just wanted to share what I found out about this coin... and see if it finds an audience. Please do your own research and feel free to add and comment. Hope it's useful!

Greetings,
Hasse

(1) Definition of overdraft for non native English speakers:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/overdraft.html
Movie clip style:

(2) Market leader in Bulgaria and Macedonia (based on a mention at the end of [this article below), expanding in Poland and possibly further...
https://www.scribd.com/mobile/document/332983902/Credissimo-is-the-First-Company-in-the-World-to-Launch-a-Chatbot-Service-for-Online-Consumer-Loans#) ), expanding in Poland and possibly further...

(3) Confirmation of statements regarding awards (cf 2 statements in their time line)):

• top 10 in the category alternative finance in European FinTech awards 2017: exactly 9th [as seen in this listing]
  (https://europe2017.fintech.nl/category/alternative-finance).
  FYI: it's interesting to explore the participant list on this site as well as the 2016 edition if you want to have an idea of the landscape of startups competing for the awards. You might recognise some other names like Everledger, Settlemint, Revolut... and other rising stars not necessarily linked to crypto :)
• _innovation of the year award for automated lending chatbot in 2016 : might refer to the 2 Forbes' Business Awards 2017 for "FinTech Innovation" and "Quality of Service"

(4) The team consists mainly of logically a core group from Credissimo (like co-founders Kosta Kantchev, Georgi Shulev and Antoni Trenchev , an MP who apparently has engaged himself quite effectively in legislation and adoption of blockchain solutions in Bulgaria, a finance director who won the Ernst&Young Bulgaria CFO of the Year 2016 Award for Liquidity and Risk and an apparently strong and well supported marketing director etc... ). The CTO has a track record as co-founder and CTO of some smaller but at first sight rewarding tech companies. Their product designer seems a bright guy, having worked freelance for multinationals like Heineken & co. Their blockchain developer has a less clearly outspoken experience as far as I can see but essentially, as far as I understand, this isn't a 'real' blockchain project at its core either.

The Board of Advisors will be uploaded on the website in the next few days. Nexo announces it will include some very notable names in the Tech world and the crypto community, like e.g. the founder of TechCrunch:
https://twitter.com/arrington/status/959116681158144001

(5) Admin Admin Kosta wrote (copied with his permission):

Product SALT vs NEXO:

• SALT is a p2p platform, which means that each loan is a custom transaction and it may take days/weeks for your loan to be matched for every borrower and lender. Getting funded happens manually on SALT’s end right now. On top of that comes the preparation of the loan documentation, which reduces efficiency further. The NEXO Overdrafts are instant and automatic, because we know that speed is essential when you need liquidity. And the overdraft terms at NEXO are standardised for everyone, so there are no back and forth negotiations between borrower and lender.
• SALT offers instalment loans with monthly repayment schedule and your crypto stays locked/blocked until you repay the last $1 of your loan even if your crypto’s value has increased 100x in the meantime. NEXO is very flexible with regards to the crypto that you keep in your Overdraft Wallet. We will be revealing more details soon.
• At SALT you can only use fiat to repay your loans NEXO offers a variety of options: besides fiat, you can also use crypto at market prices (even the crypto kept in your Overdraft Wallet) to make instant repayments.
• SALT is available in the US, while NEXO is a Swiss-based company and offers its Overdrafts worldwide.

Token SALT vs. NEXO:

• SALT has a membership utility token that gives you access to their platform. This creates a conflict of interest between investors and members because members want the SALT membership token price to stay low, while investors want the token’s price to grow. On the other hand, the NEXO token is the world’s first US SEC-compliant dividend-paying asset-backed security token with utility features. NEXO tokens are backed by the Overdraft assets portfolio and you receive dividends from NEXO profits while you are hodl-ing NEXO tokens. The NEXO token also has great utility features:
  --- you can use NEXO tokens to make Overdraft repayments at discount on the interest;
  --- you can use NEXO tokens in your Overdraft Wallet to increase your Overdraft Limit, again at discount on the interest.

Team/Company SALT vs. NEXO:

• I prefer not to comment on SALT team’s experience. Please feel free to do your independent research on the background of SALT’s team and draw your own conclusions.
• The team behind NEXO has a 10-year success story of building an international FinTech operation; 10 years of know-how building instant online lending products. We have millions of clients across Europe. We’ve reached Top 10 at the 2017 European FinTech Awards. We’ve launched the world’s first personal loans application chatbot for Facebook Messenger. We’ve recently won two Forbes awards for “Financial Sector Innovations” and “Quality of Services”, read more here:
  (https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/credissimo-wins-twice-at-forbes-business-awards-2017-20180204-00002).

People say “Execution is everything”

ps Other reviews

So far, these other steemians briefly discussed or mentioned the Nexo airdrop and project:
@maikudi summarised the project nicely.
@jaimewilliam wrote this post about them, @pupinia gathered some info here, @manosteel211 here,...
@cptbitcoin called it a nice project.

@cryptobigbang, @tayakuma, @sowrov, and @bitinvdig0 provided some brief info from the site... and finally, some mentioned it with limited or no further info: @thehermitmonk (9 times :) ), @klaudine, @demit, @airdrop.coin, @hossain17, @mccolister1017, @judy006, @airdropupdate, @badcasper, @drafla and @phillipvo, @aleksandra1,... or included NEXO in their airdrop lists like @legops and @paulnotic.

Probably not rightfully neglecting the voices from the non-English world, like Spanish @sethroot or plenty of Asians... https://steemit.com/spanish/@sethroot/gana-dinero-con-estas-criptomonedas-sin-invertir

A quick google search didn't reveil any reviews. Reddit seems to harbour only airdrop promo for now:
https://www.reddit.com/search?q=Nexo%20airdrop
Same goes for bitcointalk. No reviews yet on ico rating, coinschedule, token market, crushcrypto, tropyc or smith and crown.
If anyone wants to dive for potential pearls in Youtube blogs: https://m.youtube.com/results?q=nexo+ico&sm=3

[Updates:

• 11-12/2: improving text, adding link to business overview, comparison with SALT, minor addition re: token distribution (and eventually removed wrong remark on background check) and more names of steemians who meanwhile also mentioned NEXO
• 14-15/1: Board of Advisors announcement + some corrections and minor additions following the kind and informative reply I got from Nexo

#cryptocurrency #airdrop #nexo #credissimo #review #due_diligence