Big companies are getting into the ICO game, crypto and blockchain in general. Previously, Telegram raised $1.7 billion privately before cancelling its public sale. Now the LinkedIn Co-Founder, Eric Ly, has filed Form D with the SEC. With experience as the company’s first Chief Technology Officer, Ly is looking to raise $20 million in a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT).
Ly launched a platform called ICOHub in April. The purpose of this platform is to eliminate ICO scammers, according to VentureBeat. The platform is powered by “Hub, Human Trust Protocol” to build digital reputations based on transaction histories surrounding different ICOs. On April 17, it was launched as a proof-of-concept, where users and investors may verify the teams behind each ICO listing. Scams hurt the reputation of the entire industry and hinder its growth, and with projects like ICOHub, we can expect a significant reduction in fraudulent offers, using a form of self-policing in the free market. Naturally, there are lots of ICO ratings websites that are already in existence. The differentiator however, is that most of those sites are pay-to-play, where ratings are determined by staff reviewers. ICOHub takes this a step further, pulling data from multiple reputable sources. Ly’s vision for the project is that “billions of internet users will eventually migrate their reputation to a blockchain for all of its advantages.”
Currently, the Hub Token SAFT has already generated $13.6 million of the $20 million offering, through twenty investors who took part in a private sale, according to the Reg D filing. This money will be used to further develop and tokenize the platform. According to the white paper, internet applications have enabled billions of users to interact with one another through content and ecommerce. However, these applications lack a layer of virtual trust between strangers, meaning that the content produced is not always valid and truthful.
Using blockchain technology to create an Internet of Value, users are able to transmit not just information, but also units of value; namely cryptocurrencies and tokens. These digital assets may thus be used to incentivize users to add value to a network like ICOHub. Hub defines the Human Trust Protocol as providing “verifiable, portable trust that can be leveraged across internet applications to deliver ‘trust-at-a-distance’ whenever users interact with strangers.” There are four aspects to this:
- Incentivize users to produce reputation data, using a token economy;
- Let users pledge their “trust stake” in a way that their stake is redistributed based on outcomes;
- Immutable reputation histories on a public blockchain that applications can interact with; and
- a task app store for developers in the community to create new task types
Ultimately, the token is used as an incentive to build trust across the community of Hub participants, because the information is verifiable, and immutable. LinkedIn is a tremendous success, with a huge network of professionals posting bios, job offers and other content every day. This shows that at minimum, Ly clearly has the background to see a project through to fruition, unlike some of the ICOs that lacked such experienced team members.
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