https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1OWRMYWy-Pc/maxresdefault.jpgUranus ICO ReviewOverviewWhat does the company/project do?
Uranus aims to build a decentralized blockchain-based platform that enables the sharing of cloud computing resources. It includes smart contract technology for the purposes of sharing computing power. It categorizes itself as a sharing economy platform, just as Uber or AirBnB.
The Uranus Chain uses a Delegated Proof of Stake consensus mechanism with Byzantine Fault Tolerance. This consensus mechanism is also used by other blockchain platforms such as Neo.
URL: http://uranus.io/
TG: https://t.me/UranersHow advanced is the project?https://uranus.io/static/img/index_02.11d5fb0.pngThe Uranus Foundation was established in March 2018 in Singapore. The project has completed the White Paper and counts with an active Telegram community. During the third quarter of 2018 Uranus wants to complete a closed beta test and release a community version. Towards the end of 2018 the commercial version should be released. No private investors have been announced yet.
What are the tokens used for and how can the token value appreciate?
During the public sale Uranus will offer an Ethereum ERC20 token. Once the mainnet is launched this will convert to a native token. The Uranus token is called URAC. The token value will increase with the usage of the Uranus ecosystem.
Team & AdvisorsJames Jian is the CEO of Uranus. He has a mathematical and research background. He also worked for large corporations such as ZTE.
Halley Han is the Chief Architect of Uranus. He is an expert with virtualization, cloud computing and the linux kernel. He counts with significant previous exposure to open source software.
The Uranus team includes experts in cloud computing and blockchain development. The six technical advisors are experienced with container design, computer science and software architecture. The Uranus product development team lists eleven engineers with backgrounds in computer science and machine learning and some of them with already significant professional exposure. Besides the technical advisors there is another Advisory Team with experience in Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence.
DocumentationComprehensivenessThe whitepaper is presented as a 60-page document, a comprehensive one that details a majority of aspects that concerns not only the Uranus ecosystem and network, but also the distributing computing ecosystem in general. The whitepaper goes through all the components of the Uranus system including those that do not have to do with blockchain. It covers important aspects such as the Uranus hybrid consensus mechanism, the uraTiller module for containerization of the Tiller virtual machine and Tiller smart contracts, the Computing Power Container Engine and the Mechanism for Automatic Adjustment of System Resource Allocation. The whitepaper is an extensive document and goes through all aspects regarding the network way of operating, but being so long not all readers will have the patience to go through it. This is especially due to the fact that some aspects regarding how blockchain works and how Uranus tackle the need for computing power are explained and repeated in a way that it does not add something meaningful.
At 60 pages the whitepaper is complete in most of the areas , including areas such as Architecture of the Uranus System, Application Scenarios and Ecology System, a brief roadmap, and team and advisory board info. It does not outline the aspects regarding a business plan or token sale as the team is focused on the technical side of the project, until the V1 is released.
ReadabilityThe language and structure used in the whitepaper is well balanced and should be easily understandable by the majority of the readers. The user can grasp quite easily the main ideas and concepts outlined in the documents, however some of the parts are too detailed and more inexperienced users might get lost in the multitude of information. There are also a few diagrams and illustrations that help readers to easily understand key points.
TransparencyThe whitepaper does a great job at presenting the team and the advisory board along with the goals of the project and goes beyond that by detailing specific use cases of the Uranus ecosystem. As for now there are no public information regarding the token sale. The team has stated that their main focus is on delivering the V1 of the network and work on the closed beta, thus addressing the token sale details at a later date, when they will have a working product to attract potential investors.
TechnologyUranus presents all its technical aspects in great detail within the whitepaper and the website, covering the hybrid consensus model, the uraTiller container module, the Uranus computing power engine and Uranus smart contracts (one similar to Ethereum and one native to the Uranus blockchain) way of working. Furthermore, they go into details explaining how the voting process of the stakeholders work, how the stakeholders are incentivized to act in the network interest and how various Proof mechanisms ensure the agreement, validity and liveness of the network. They also tackle the cloud computing technology aspect detailing how they will implement the new container technology, based on the Kata containers technology of achieving a high level of complete isolation to ensure security and how the new Computer Power Container Engine will connect actors on the market automatically and manage safely the deployment of the network on the platform.
ProductIt is the objective of Uranus to overcome the current disadvantages of cloud computing such as security breaches, data that is not encrypted and not sufficient back ups. The aim of Uranus is to create a market for computing power enabling a computing power sharing ecosystem. Different from its competitor’s approach it also wants to include consumer and mobile devices in this market and not only enterprise devices.
The Uranus blockchain is based on distributed nodes. The nodes also run the Uranus CPCE (Computing Power Container Engine). Through an optimized container scheduling technology, Uranus wants to provide affordable computing services. Uranus believes that the machine learning powered container scheduling system provides an advantage over competitors.
Since the niche where Uranus wants to build a sharing economy marketplace is cloud computing, Uranus lists as possible use cases for its service among others DNA calculations, planetary orbit calculations, weather data analysis, voting platforms, games and advertising models.
Strength and OpportunitiesThe cloud computing market is growing at a rapid pace. In 2018 it can be considered as very likely that a blockchain powered solution will become a credible alternative to centralized cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure.
Currently there is a huge idle computing power available on commercial and private notebooks and mobile devices. If only a small part of it will be shared the value of this market could be tremendous.
Weaknesses and ThreatsThere is a lot of competition going on in the cloud computing and blockchain space. Several projects are already leading in this field, such as Golem, Somn, GridCoin, iExec and Sparc. Golem has already a market capitalization of more than 300 million USD as of early July 2018. It will be difficult to compete against these projects that are already more advanced.
The Uranus team could not yet present credible, private, institutional investors. This may make it harder to complete a successful ICO.
Roadmap:Phase 1: Community version (V1) — Completed closed beta. Users may register their own computing devices and use a small number of verified applications.
Phase 2-Phase 4: Commercial Version (V2, V3, V4) — In the corresponding development phase, the number of platform users will rapidly increase to the orders of 10000, 100,000 and 500,000.
Phase 5: Ecological Version (V5) — In this phase, an ecological strategy will be fully launched to allow more industries and more collaborators to participate in the application creation and contribution, gain benefits, promote the automatic operation and sustainable development of the platform and form a win-win ecosystem.
VerdictThe Uranus project is still early stage and targeting a highly competitive market. The solution presented may not be sufficiently different from currently existing market alternatives. A lack of institutional money may make it more difficult for the ICO to turn into a success. In the long run Uranus will need to overcome several competitors since the intersection between a computational power marketplace and blockchain technology is a crowded field.
