Era Swap Token

Based on the model and function they describe, I am having great dificulty understanding what this product is. Is it a payment system? is it an exchange?.If it is meant to be a "payment platform" targeting the "gig" economy, why cant payments be made directly? They state "middleman free" yet by design and intent they are the "middleman". The explanation regarding supply and demand is mired in the obvious, yet i cannot see the "demand", now or anytime in the future.
The explainer video doesnt work and the whitepaper is not very good at all.
The tokenomics puts the "company" valuation in the mid $80mil range which is absolutely ridiculous. In the "description" it states %5 of tokens released, yet in the financials it states %42.85???
there is no mvp or product of any type available for review.
there are at least 3 proven scammers on the team.
Socials have obviously been "growth hacked". the idea that they have 85k members on telegram is both ludicris and an obvious attempt at deception.
I do not see any viable opportunity for investors to recieve any ROI.
I do not see this as a good investment.

As an aside; you will see the "down voting" of any un flattering evaluation of this project. Pay no attention to this as it is the work of those who actually think it makes a difference..

This review was asked by Quentin Herbrecht

The below is the revised rating based on the responses received from the team.

1.

Shebin: 30+ Advisors in this Product, can the team tell why there has been a need for these many advisors? Apart from using their face for the promotion, if any.

Team: We would like to combine this question with second portion of question no. 9: How will you possibly attract the members as well as the service providers?

Currently we have advisors from 27 different countries. As we are planning to spread the platform across the globe, we will require more team members. The team is not built just for the ICO purpose but for a long term goal. Every team member will help us getting the buyers and the sellers on the Time Swappers platform from their region.

Shebin: So, you are saying that the contract from these Advisors (if any) are atleast 1 year long after the token sale for expansion? And can you please tell me which advisors are of which countries?

Team: Shebin, we appreciate your interest however the contracts are confidential and I cannot comment regarding that. You can find out the details of the advisors and their country on our website or on LinkedIn.

Final Verdict: They cannot even say how long their contract is valid and binding, which shows lack of trust for me. Asking for the payment details and the terms of work would be the things I think would be confidential. I don't know why they have the term period as confidential.

2.

Shebin: It is said that the team tokens would be vested till 2 months after the sale ends (Feb 2019). Is it written in a smart contract? Or we need to trust you on that word?

Team: The token distribution will start from 26th Jan 2019 and we are planning to be on exchanges in February. Therefore, the team tokens will be distributed as per the schedule. Clearly there is no vesting period and therefore no smart contract is required.

Shebin: So basically, you don't have a vesting period at all. So, all the team are free to dump their coin in the market as soon as (if) it gets listed. Am I right?

Team: Most of the token are distributed in TimeAlly contract. Team is here to stay for long and they know that they will be benefitted in long term growth of era swap community. Therefore people who will dump will not be able to gain much in longer run and all of our investors and team members understands that.

Final Verdict: Be prepared if the team dumps all the token on you on the day the tokens gets listed somewhere decent. I am saying to be "prepared", I am not saying that they will. #Diplomatic as they are.

3.

Shebin: The hard cap is at 4.2Million (Assuming ETH at $200), which looks low. But that hard cap is by selling only 5% of the entire total supply. So, as per valuation, they are valuing at around 84Million, seems a bit high with what they have in hand right now.

Team: Unfortunately this point is completely misinterpreted by you. The total supply of tokens will be released over a period of 50+ years. This year's supply is 910 Million. Next year it will be 10% less (819 Million) and so on. Therefore, the valuation that you are getting based on the total supply is actually the valuation in the next 50+ years.
The valuation based on current circulation of tokens will come to:
910 million X 0.00005804 Eth = 52,816 Ether which will be close to 10 million USD.

Shebin: And don't you think with no MVP and just a whitepaper this is a bit too much of a valuation?

Team: The valuation is not for the MVP but to build the product and making it successful. Our each sub apps Time Swappers, Era Swap Wallet, ComputeEx worth an independent ICO in itself. Valuation is built from sweat and blood of team. It for the the development of 360 performance not on one parameter. You have to look at the project size and it’s benefit that it brings to the community. Developing Era Swap is our passion and we are on track. And luckily we have got good response on social media also.

Shebin: And can you please explain how these 819Million will get distributed next year pricisely as you think that I misunderstood it from the whitepaper.
Also is this emission locked in a smart contract? Or is Pre-mined and based on transferring 819Million and so on each year?

Team: Yes the token distribution will be through smart contract as per tokenomics. The tokens are pre-mined. This year’s token has been mined already and next year’s premined tokens will be released in equal intervals once we get listed on the exchanges.

Shebin: Is the token, time locked in a publicly auditable smart contract in Ethereum? Or the owners of the token have the right to move it anytime?

Team:

Final Verdict:

4.

Shebin: The unsold tokens are also not burned, rather is put in their own product, so the people who invested, if not reached the soft cap, they are still valued at the same valuation mentioned above, while there are more tokens at the hand of the team itself, thus less than 5% will be in the hands of the public.

Team: We do not have a softcap. The main purpose of burning the tokens is not to include the unsold tokens in the current supply. I can understand that you are familiar with only one term i.e 'All the unsold tokens will be burned.' Here we are locking the unsold tokens in the TimeAlly contract therefore, it will not be included in the current supply and will not affect the investors in any possible way.

Shebin: I think you haven't heard about the term ie. "economics". The main purpose of the burned token is not just to include it with the current supply, but the total supply. And burning the token works in favor of the investors who have bought the token at the ICO/Pre-ICO/Private Sale. Keeping it within the company just makes sure that you hold the majority if you haven't sold of. And even if it luckily somehow did, that means you have hit the jackpot of liquid money rather than your own illiquid token, unless you get listed in some exchange with high liquidity.

Team: As per Era Swap Tokenomics, all will get benefit in long term. Every stake holder will have a long term benefit over a period of time. We may not raise this much of money but it will be spent for 360 degree development of the project and community building. Smart contract will hold the tokens which can’t be liquidated. There are Burning Rules in the Ecosystem which will keep the valuation up and will favour the investors. You can read the burning rules in the Whitepaper.

Final Verdict: I don't agree with the team on this point. Including "long term" and "360 degree development" in every line won't help it.

5.

Shebin: Total token supply is around 9Billion+ which would be distributed to all the stakeholders in the ecosystem as per their contribution. Which contribution? The token sale or the live stake at the time of distribution?

Team: For understanding this point, please refer to Page no. 14 of White paper. There is a diagram which explains how the newly released tokens will be distributed every year. If you will check you will see that the revenue generated from the platform (like advertisement etc.) will also be distributed back to the community.
The contribution will be decide by the value created on the platform based on the roles assigned to the community members e.g Day Swappers, Time Traders, Curators, TimeAlly holders etc. Please refer to whitepaper for more details of each role.

Shebin: As I see it, around 50% of the supply always goes to the company. And according to the image: http://prntscr.com/leqavb 25% from TimeAlly goes to WorkPool, which gets to the users of the platform. 10% goes to Power Token. 15% goes to Stakers, which magically becomes 28% somehow (15% and 13%). Can you explain how? And this still favors more to the company, than to users or even investors.

Team: In order to maintain a successful and self-sustainable eco-system, there are several expenses. Someone has to take the responsibility to bear the expenses to serve the community like Platform Maintenance, Technological Upgradation, Operations, Superior Customer Experience, R&D, Partnerships, Cost of Marketing to increase the community which in turn will create the value for token. We have created an ecosystem where nobody pays any charge from his pocket. All this cost is being self-sustainably managed within the ecosystem. We do not want the community members to pay for it. KMPARDS is taking only 10% of its total creation. You gave example of Google and Facebook so I believe you have the idea about their operating cost. You can check this link for details:
https://barefigur.es/companies/google/cost-and-operating-expenses/

If we don’t want to put this cost on user, where this expenses comes from. Therefore, it is not going to the company for doing nothing. The system will be transparent and anyone can see it.

Final Verdict: A company runs to get revenue, and from revenue you use the part of it for these operational cost, etc. And the rest is called as profit. The way you are doing business, the first round (this ICO) may raise some value and give you some valuation, but your next round (next year and so on), will give your post valuation to a lower end and that has to be beared by your users and more specifically your current investors. Google "Down round" and you will know what I am talking about.

6.

Shebin: It is stated in your website "All the distributions are paid 50% in liquid EST and 50% are locked in TimeAlly" The 50% liquid EST again goes to the team itself in the name of "New Partnerships, Platform Maintenance, Marketing, etc". And of the rest only a small % goes to the people who may stake. Is it right?

Team: Unfortunately this point has been again completely misunderstood by you and you are mixing two different aspects.
a. Whenever tokens are distributed to any community members, it will be “50% in liquid and 50% in TimeAlly contract”. Both the liquid tokens and the TimeAlly contract tokens will belong to the receiving community member. The community member can utilize the liquid tokens immediately while the TimeAlly contract tokens can only be used as per the terms. We request you to refer Tokenomics mentioned in the Whitepaper specially the Distribution of tokens to get a clear understanding.
b. From Newly released tokens 50% goes to TimeAlly which is further divided into Workpool, Power Tokens and Stakers. You can read the whitepaper for details on these terms.

Shebin: I would like to have a better understanding of this from your side. Please explain elaborately.

Team: Please Read Again, if still you are unable to understand, I am just a call away.

Shebin: I believe my reading was not apt to your amount, thus wanted to have this discussion with you. So please elaborate in text, and we will see.

Team:

Final Verdict:

7.

Shebin: Their team section in website contains the same person multiple times, which kind of shows a big team of around 160+ members, while in reality, it is a lot less than that.

Team: We do not have 160+ members. Maybe there was some internet issue with your system. Please refresh the page and check again. Hopefully with your grace, we will reach to that team size very soon.

Shebin: I have added the proof of the same after this message, you can check for yourself.

Team: Please check the official website – www.eraswaptoken.io

Final Verdict: I have a screenshot proof, which I have already told the team, which I guess they don't want to accept.

8.

Shebin: Looks like paid followers and fans on social media, as less than 1% of their followers are active in their social media's like facebook, twitter, etc.

Team: Currently we are educating our followers and the user-base. It will take time for them to grasp the complete concept along with the rewards and benefits associated with the platform. We are aiming at gaining the future user-base for the Era Swap community step by step.

Shebin: And does that step include buying dead/fake followers? Teaching them would be a really tough business. I can understand the snowball effect, etc. But for you, this might bite back in situations exactly like these.

Team: Our Airdrop and Bounty program has been really successful and we have got many followers. We never forced anyone to join.

Final Verdict: Well, they are here only for the tokens and not because they are interested in your project in 90% of the cases. And as soon as you unlock the tokens or get listed somewhere, be ready to accept this dump as well, #NoteForTheInvestors.

9.

Shebin: There are multiple similar ideas right now at present which are either raising the funds or are working in the development. Also, with major rivals like Fiverr, Upwork, etc, how do Era Swap willing to make their market share?

Team: Competition will make us better. Also, we believe that no single company can serve the global population. Major platforms referred by you, they are all centralized wherein we are building a decentralized application. Instead of just a freelancing platform, this is a marketplace where any p2p product/services can be availed with secured transaction disrupting the middleman.

Shebin: Quoting, "no single company can serve the global population", please say that to Google, and almost to Facebook as well. Yes, major platform referred by me is centralized. But is it working? I would gladly say yes. Decentralized is great, but only if it is used at the right place. At the start of the project, you would have to act as the mediator and users, making it centralize itself. And the condition only will change if the users join in volume, until then any person with more users on the network (real users as a team, not fake users) can easily approve their work even when the work may not meet the standard. More generic term can be relatable to 51% attack.

Team: Thank you. We understand that companies who create value becomes big however the top companies keep changing every 5-10 years. You can check the history.
https://www.businessinsider.in/These-15-startups-didnt-exist-5-years-ago-now-theyre-worth-billions/articleshow/50129658.cms
If you will check the roadmap, time swappers will become decentralized at the end of next year. As we are using hybrid blockchain of Ethereum the system will be immutable.

Final Verdict: Well, that was not the answer I was expecting for the 51% attack.

10.

Shebin: Almost all the promises right now they have made using the product they will develop is in the future, except "Blocklogy Education Add Ver. 1" which should be developed by this month (October 2018). Any updates on that?

Team: Currently we are testing the Blocklogy app and we will soon announce the launch date. Stay tuned!

Shebin: November is here. I can accept that software project timelines are mostly joke, as at the end point (release), hell breaks lose, I have been there, I am a Computer Engineer myself. But at the start of the business, can you afford that, that is the real question. You are already late, how much more will this be? And on releasing are you going to tell that this is the initial app with very limited functionality which does not even include any necessary functions?

Team: Stay tuned! We will soon announce the launch date.

--------------------------------------------------------

Update 1: As the team does not intend to answer my question, rather attack by downvoting, the team seems useless to me and thus I am reducing my original score of 331 to a 121.

Update 2: I am now more compelled to revise my earlier rating from 121 to 111.

First review on 31 Oct 2018

1. Many good points raised by Douglas and Shebin.

2. I will revise my ratings after receiving further responses from the team on their points and questions.

--------------

Updated review on 7 Nov 2018:

3. Based on responses provided to Douglas and Shebin, I now revise my rating from 121 to 111.

4. Looking at the no. of down votes that Douglas, Shebin and Doris have received, it kind of reminded me of this article titled "Exposing Amazix": https://archive.fo/nwpxd

Going by due diligence, I can find disturbing conflicts with several directions being taken by the ICO road map. Without a clear cut direction, and too many side tracks, I can see a failure of the pre-ICO. I would say getting an advisor who can streamline your whitepaper is the best shot you can make at this point. This is particularly faulty grammar: we came up with the idea to launch the Era Swap technological ecosystem.