New proof-of-stake digital currency NeuCoin has announced that its pre-sale will begin on 28 April.
The sale will launch with an initial price of US$0.01 per coin (in BTC), and with a total of 100 million NeuCoins available to purchase over the possible 60 day pre-sale event. This represents 3.333% of the total 3 billion NeuCoin pre-mine.
In 2014, the NeuCoin team already sold 200 million of the coins to their angel investors in order to add to their initial seed capital, which give the startup a US$2.25 million pot to begin work with. The investors, however, agreed to relatively strict resale agreements upon receipt of their coins, as the NeuCoin website explains in its wiki section:
“In contrast to virtually all previous digital currencies with pre-mines, all NeuCoins held by the founding team, seed and angel investors are subject to strict re-sale provisions for five years, so that holders may only sell 2% of their holdings per month in the first year, 3% per month in year two, 4% per month in the year three, 5% per month in year four and 6% per month in year 5.”
Doing the math shows that the initial available supply is limited to US$1 million, therefore generating an apparent market cap of US$30 million for the total three billion by designing the NeuCoin ecosystem to lock away the vast majority of the coins. When NeuCoin publicly launches in the summer, the real market cap will still be around the US$1 million mark, as only the 100 million pre-sold coins will be available.
By comparison, Coinmarketcap’s default listing (available supply) shows Ripple at US$285 million by available supply, versus its US$890 market cap by total supply. Stellar is listed at US$13 million by available supply, versus its US$270 million market cap by total supply. So when comparing NeuCoin to other currencies on Coinmarketcap, which is by available supply, the market cap is US$1 million, ranking NeuCoin around number 30, with a lower valuation than coins such as Clams, ShadowCash, DNotes and CoinoUSD.
This seems attractive, given the caliber of the early investors in the Series-A round, including the likes of Patrik Stymne (co-founder of King, the company behind Candy Crush Saga), Emil Michael (the SVP of business at Uber), Rob Goldman (the head of growth at Facebook), and Ted Rogers (the chief strategy officer at Xapo).
Interestingly for users looking into the pre-sale as an opportunity to also invest in the future of NeuCoin, the initial open pre-sale price of US$0.01 represents only double what the angel investors paid for their coins. The pre-sale coins, however, come without those same currency restrictions that the large investors agreed to, and remain completely liquid.
These controls over the investors' and founders' holdings may be an effective protection against the problem, which has troubled a number of altcoins in recent years, of whales dumping their market share.
Such restrictions also mean that these early investors are tied into the longer term picture of NeuCoin, and are incentivized upon a multi-year growth in value of the coins. This robust approach to the viability of the enterprise appears to extend through much of the currency's underpinnings.
Based on an extensively modified version of Peercoin, NeuCoin caused a great deal of interest and excitement from the digital currency community following the publication of its white paper in March. Operating on proof of stake, rather than proof of work, the currency aims to demystify much of the crypto world and create a uniquely customer-friendly approach to digital currency.
Speaking to Cointelegraph in March, the NeuCoin team explained that they consider creating an easy and pain-free way for new users to try a digital tipping or micropayments to be an essential modern route into a new technology or service.
“[F]ast-growing consumer services like Dropbox, WhatsApp, Spotify, Candy Crush, they all offer a free entry-level service to let new users try the service and have a good first experience. In the digital economy this is the key to consumer adoption.”
To carry this work out, 2.4 billion of the total NeuCoin stock has been placed in the hands of three independent non-profit foundations based in the Isle of Man. The bodies are tasked through their constitutions with distributing these coins to the developers and entrepreneurs, adding value to the platform, as well as an providing an initial free supply for users to encourage them to get involved with the service.
With so few emerging digital currencies paying such close attention to the sustainable long-term growth of its reach and value, it may well be the long-term focus that sets NeuCoin apart from its rivals, as it seeks to gain traction outside of the digital currency community.
Bringing on board figures from recognizable tech giants such as Facebook, Uber, and Spotify, and targeting the coins towards that immediate “friction-free” usability in paying for premium web content or microtipping also places the startup in a different league than a normal digital currency effort.
The pre-sale commences on April 28, and as a final incentive, the team guarantees that if the NeuCoin platform isn't up and running by September, they'll return the pre-sale funds, which will be held in escrow until the point of coin issuing.
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