COTI ICO Review
COTI (Currency of the Internet) aim to build a decentralized and scalable payment solution that is instant and cost-effective. They provide a decentralized mediation system, multi-currency wallet (fiat and crypto) and native currency exchange with the COTI coin being the native currency powering the ecosystem.
The COTI ledger is based on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) data structure (called the Cluster) that allows 10,000+ transactions per second and allows scaling of the network. This is in comparison to VISA’s peak hour transaction requirement which is around 4,000 transactions per second. Transactions within the DAG network require confirmation from two previous transactions, which means that as the number of network users increases transaction confirmation rates also increase proportionally.
The network consists of three types of nodes:
● Full nodes are the ‘user gateways’ to the network and choose sources for new transactions to attach to. They perform proof-of-work (PoW) and provide connections for new transactions to attach to the Cluster.
● Double Spend Prevention (DSP) nodes maintain a copy of the Cluster at all times and monitor transactions to prevent double-spending attacks. To run a DSP node a large number of COTI coins must be staked in a multi-sig account however DSP node operators are remunerated with COTI coins.
● History nodes store the full account history of the Cluster which can be retrieved at any time.
If there are disputes between the sender and receiver of funds that cannot be resolved between themselves the unsatisfied party can initiate a dispute. This dispute is sent to mediators who take responsibility to resolve the situation by validating information regarding the transaction. Once information is validated the mediators cast votes by depositing COTI coins. Votes are counted and majority votes determine the winning party with their balance returned to the correct state. COTI mediators whose voted in the majority are rewarded by the COTI network whilst malicious mediators will lose their deposited tokens (which are paid to the winning non-malicious mediators).
Other features of the COTI ecosystem include:
● A multi-currency wallet capable of providing instant access to the COTI payment network as well as holding fiat and other digital currencies.
● Debit cards linked directly to the COTI wallet and allows payments from the COTI wallet when transacting with merchants that haven’t yet integrated with COTI. The user can specify their preferred currency for payment. When the currency doesn’t match with the required currency for payment COTI’s exchange will automatically convert the required amount to make payment.
● Development of a currency exchange to allow access to liquid markets and the easy exchange of currencies without having to withdraw coins from their COTI wallet.
● Decentralized governance whereby voting rights are allocated for any changes in COTI’s protocol and when deciding future use cases of the COTI coin.
● The development of payment processing tools that will allow payments from COTI wallet holders. Merchants can connect via API of embedding an IFrame (inline frame) into their website.
● An internal derivatives market that can be used by merchants to protect themselves from price volatility.
● Development of an application allowing mediators to easily manage mediation tasks.
Other news and partnerships:
● COTI has partnered with processing.com which is a payment gateway with 10,000 online merchants who will be able to immediately accept COTI.
● 2,500 merchants pre-registered to be COTI platform users.
● COTI is fully regulated under a Gibraltar distributed ledger technology (DLT) licence.
● A partnership between MicroMoney and COTI to assist in enhancing MicroMoney’s social lending platform and facilitate social inclusion of unbanked people.
● A partnership with Bancor Protocol allowing continuous liquidity between COTI and a variety of ERC20 tokens
Roadmap
The COTI roadmap is well structured and realistic with strong progress scheduled prior to and following the ICO period. The release of the Alpha net launch is scheduled for August 2018 and the Beta exchange and wallet launch for September 2018 (full launch in November 2018). Mediator and merchant onboarding will commence in October 2018.
Team
CEO — Shahaf Bar-Geffen
Shahaf is the co-founder and CEO of WEB3, a digital media advertising company based in Israel. They are the commercial representatives for Yahoo in Israel. He is also currently a Director (and co-founder) of Maple (digital marketing agency working with clients such as L’Oreal, Intel and Procter & Gamble) and Positive Mobile (mobile video advertising). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biotech and economics.
CTO — Dr Nir Haloani
Nir was the co-founder and CTO of Inima Technologies, which was acquired by IBM and saw him continue working with IBM as a Research Team Leader. He currently works as the CTO and Development Manager (co-founder) of Articoolo Research developing AI tech capable of creating readable content simulating a human writer. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and has authored 13 patents in AI and Machine Learning.
Research & Software Engineer — Erol Hallufgil
Erol holds a Master’s Degree in Mathematics and is currently the Developer Team Lead at TechChain Solutions
Blockchain Research Engineer — Tal Dadia
Tal was previously an Intelligence Analyst and Intelligence Product Manager at Israel Defence Force. He has experience in back-end development and blockchain research. He is currently studying for Masters in Financial Economics and Honors in Law.
Co-founder — David Assaraf
David was previously a Financial Advisor in the Financial Risk Advisory Department of KPMG and Chief Internal Auditor of HSBC. He holds a Master’s Degree in Law Administration and Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Accounting.
Overall, the COTI team is about 40 members strong with a broad range of experience in their respective areas.
Advisors
The COTI advisory board is extremely strong and include the former CIO and MD of BlackRock ($6.3 trillion AUM), former CEO of Investec Bank UK, former CRO of Ripple Labs, CEO of processing.com, the co-founder of WINGS, CRO of SafeCap Investments and former employee of JP Morgan & Chase, the CEO of the German Association for Experimental Economic Research, the founding partner of Arcana Capital and CEO of Skybridge Investment (previously employed at Berenberg Bank and client advisor at UBS).
Token Metrics
COTI coins will drive the network and fuel transactions within the COTI ecosystem. They will initially be issued as ERC20 tokens however will be converted to native COTI tokens after main net launch. The coins will have the following functions:
● A medium of exchange used for making and receiving payments within the COTI ecosystem. The network can support various fiat and cryptocurrencies however users are incentivized with low to no transaction fees for the use of COTI over these alternative currencies.
● Mediation stakes and payouts.
● Merchant rolling reserve fund (a risk management strategy to protect the payment service provider and their banks from potential loss due to chargebacks).
● Incentives for node operators (and a requirement for node operators to hold COTI).
● Payment of COTI network fees.
Total token supply: 2B COTI*
Hard cap: $30M USD
Soft cap: Already reached
Token price: $0.10 USD / COTI
*An additional 2B COTI tokens will be created and locked in reserve for release at a later date only under circumstances that would add additional value to the network and require the majority approval of COTI mediators (COTI as a company will not control this release of tokens and will not be entitled to any further token distribution as a result).
Contributors will be offered the opportunity to receive larger discounts in exchange for longer lock-up periods. Private sale contributors must commit to a lock-up period of 6–24 months on 50% of their tokens to receive any discount (as detailed below) while early backers and advisors must commit to a lock-up period of 6–24 months on 100% of their tokens. Public sale contributors have no obligation to commit to a lock-up period.
24 months — 20% discount
12 months — 10% discount
6 months — 5% discount
No lockup — no discount
Token Distribution:
30% — token sale
22% — reserve
15% — team
13% — incentive program
10% — backers, partners and advisors
10% — liquidity
Funds Distribution:
30% — R & D
5% — cyber security
12% — licences and capital requirements
9% — legal compliance
15% — marketing
8% — merchant services
7% — market maker
7% — COTI fund (to assist other ventures who will build upon COTI’s tech)
7% — operational expenses
Final Thoughts
I am super bullish on COTI. They have a large team with some excellent credentials and amazing advisors. The concept is great, test net is not far off (and main net not too long after) and they have some solid partnerships that will drive adoption of the platform.
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