Historically there were 3 ways how the user paid for the content on the internet: paid subscription (e.g. Netflix), personal data sharing (e.g. Facebook) and viewing ads (e.g. Youtube). But there was no way how these things could have been converted: in other words if one wants to pay more and see less ads or give away more personal data and pay less for the monthly subscription, etc. The idea for the Current is to become a digital wallet where it is possible to convert money to ad free time or personal data being shared or visa versa. On the top of that, since Current platform integrates multiple streaming sources in future releases it should be possible, for instance, watch slightly more ads on YouTube and get free movie subscription at Hulu or buy some totally ad free viewing time from all streaming sources.
For end users/consumers Current gives the conversion opportunity (time, money, volume of personal data being shared) and single viewing platform (no need to keep multiple apps installed/login etc), for content creators and curators (people who build playlists and hand pick relevant content) they get larger cross platform audience and more money from ads (advertisers can come directly to Current), for partners it brings more new users and thus increases revenues.
Current is targeting audience of millenials(born 1982–2000) and Gen Z (born after 1996), i.e. internet generations aged: 13–24 (product launched in March 2017, limited functionality with focus on songs streaming), 13–35 (planned release Q2 2018, more options including TV and Movies streaming providers) and 13–45 (scheduled for Q4 2018, feature enhancements including offline content playback and decentralized storage options).
Revenue is supposed to be generated by:
Users buying premium subscriptions for tokens Ads being showed to consumersSelling access (not ownership) to personal data/preferencesInternal marketplace (broker fees) where tokens can be purchased by Advertisers from consumers, curators, creatorsIncoming token flow from content that Current curated or createdTechnology
The product is an app available from AppStore (Google Play Market is scheduled for release in Q3 2018). Currently “platform” release is published and available for installation. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are upcoming before the end of 2018.
IPFS or Storj protocols are expected to be used as a catalog for data storage. Etherium smart contracts are the mechanism behind distribution logic. Customized version of Raiden protocol is used for fast ETH clearing and Bancor protocol is used for sub-tokens to determine their price/provide liquidity.
All users (consumers, content creators, and curators) transactions are recorded into block chain database and then smart contract (business logic) distributes CRNC tokens to reflect their contribution. CRNC tokens are expected to support hierarchy, i.e. sub-tokens that could be exchanged back to CRNC.
Complex auto suggestion mechanism based on blockchain technology is expected to be implemented (similar to the one in Youtube, but way more advanced as viewing/preference data is collected from multiple sources).
Financials
Pre-ICO outcomes: The project raised $36M (cap) in their Pre-ICO. Then by 2/21/18 they air dropped CRNC tokens worth of $4M, currently they run 2 referral campaigns giving away $500k worth of tokens each: Telegram and Refer a friend ones.
Main ICO facts:
ICO status — cancelled. Original ICO start date — 2/7/18, then 2/25/18, then cancelledToken price — 24 centsBonus — 45% (private sale)Barriers for investors — no public offering (except 2 referral programs, but the amounts are quite limited)ERC20 token (public Ethereum blockchain)Tokens distribution
Current features fixed token supply of 1 Bn CRNC split as follows: 35% consumption rewards (for providing help with the platform growth by improving data, algorithms etc) , 35% token sale (to fund R&D, marketing, partnerships), 17% team and advisors, 10% community growth & strategic partnerships, 3% special fund to cover academic grants, support migration to open source.
Expenses breakdown: 40% R&D, 30% marketing, 25% business development (mostly via strategic partnerships), 5% legal and admin fees.
Key takeaways
Technology-wise the product looks quite promising especially compared to competition (Kik token, Basic Attention Token and Steem platform).
Investor-wise they are advised by Mark Cuban and Galia Benartzi so the project’s business model and strategy should be in a good shape.
The main showstopper seems to be the cancelled ICO.
Originally the plan for the pre-sale activities included public sale start on 7th of Feb 2018.
In the beginning of February the team published new deadline of 25th of February saying the demand was huge and they needed more time to review the applications. After that they announced that there will be no pre-sale as they have sold all the tokens to a private investor. Terms and conditions were not disclosed. No plans for public token sale were announced. This approach doesn’t seem quite inline with “Importance of Crypto currency ownership” section of the white paper that stresses the importance of growing user base in order to further increase community product awareness and evolution. The idea to cancel ICO (i.e. take out 35% tokens from the market) and replace it with an air drop of 10% tokens effectively makes the user base 3.5 times smaller compared to their original plan they refer to in the whitepaper.
The white paper also suggests that they are looking to raise from $5M to $20M, everything above $20M will go into M&A of smaller players. Since they had raised $36M at pre-ICO they might already be working on something like this.
Useful links:
| | | | |
Authored by: ()
INTRODUCTION
In the attention of Internet users will be reflected in the revolutionary ICO of Merculet. After changing the attention, it will repack the attention and sell it for the entrepreneurs in need. For this transaction, users will be rewarded at the end of the day.
Considering the Social networks as the best platform available to attract the attention of other people. Snapchat and Instagram are two perfect social networks available to prove the aforementioned fact. From a recent study conducted by Forbes, it has been identified that the total value of Snapchat would reach $ 3 billion in 2019. Similarly, the total value of Instagram will amount to $ 10 billion in 2019. These are not small values for neglect. Does these social networks earn the most profits? Further there are two main revenue streams for these social networks. So the first revenue stream is generated through the user’s data.
On the other hand, these social networks sell advertising space to earn profits too. The content generated by people who use Merculet will direct others to select and view the content. As a result, they are donating the attention they have to the social network. So that the people responsible for creating and curating content will not receive any payment. Merculet hopes to challenge this system.
User Attention based Methodology
The logical incompatibility between the destruction developments of data in the portable Internet & the limited user attention, which makes attention a rare asset. Considering the Blockchain innovation has made it workable for users to transform their attention into unequivocal esteem & provided an establishment for understanding the new development illuminate which takes user’s attention as the center connection. In the major content is the essential wellspring of attention. Also It’s basic to advance the effective generation & advertisement of content.
What is the main Goal of Merculet ?
Considering the main objective of Merculet is to use the power of the Blockchain technology to give value to the information generated by the user. This can be beneficial for businesses and users. In other words, the attention of the users will be tokenized through Merculet. Further Companies will continue to analyze the value associated with user care and provide them with the appropriate rewards on a regular basis. For this initiative to be a success, Merculet will give life to a network of attention value. So this is enhanced by a unique system of evaluation of the user’s attention value, which is owned by the company. On the other hand this system uses a system of several tokens to capture the attention of users & ensure that the ecosystem works perfectly well.
What would the Merculet ecosystem Structure ?
Entrepreneurs & business owners expect to capture the attention of users. Therefore, they will tend to seek assistance from services such as Merculet. The precompiled tools provided by Merculet will be specific for entrepreneurs and business owners. Due to this reason, you will not find any frustration in using the tools that are available to them. UAT is the name given for the Merculet token. The people who pay their attention will receive UAT as tokens. However, these tokens can only be used within the Merculet ecosystem. Or, they can go ahead & change the UAT by MVP. The value of the UAT to MVP transaction would be different from one UAT to another. Therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of the value before going for any transaction. The ability to exchange UAT with each other has not yet been implemented. However, the Merculet team is eagerly awaiting that goal.
If they can achieve that goal, they can give life to a full-scale market, which can retain the user’s attention in a convenient way. However, to attract the user’s attention,So it is important to focus on delivering the user experience, instead of relying on large companies on social networks like Snapchat & Facebook.
MVP Token Distribution
Volume: 10,000,000,000 MVP
Softcap: 10000 ETH
Hardcap: 31000 ETH
Private Sale: 16000 ETH
1 ETH = 105000 MVP (20% bonus)
Minimum contributions: 150 ETH
Maximum contributions: 1000 ETH
Period of validity: 5 months (20% of tokens launched per month, as of the publication of tokens) Public sale: 15000 ETH
1 ETH = 87500 MVP
Minimum contributions: 0.1 ETH
Maximum contributions: 5 ETH
No consolidation period
Road Map
Conclution
Can be seen that Merculet has done a great job capturing the user’s attention. After capturing the user’s attention, he has reorganized what was captured. Therefore, the content becomes more valuable. A capital is also being built around Blockchain. Considering these reasons, Merculet will have a remarkable future. People will love using Merculet to receive the rewards when giving them their attention. As well as entrepreneurs and business owners will come to Merculet & get access to the user’s attention, in which can help them take commercial efforts to the next level. Merculet has great Future end of this year.
Website:
White-paper:
ANN Thread:
Telegram:
Blog: let
Bitcointalk URL:
By Diyuni Zaara
