by negotiating with VC funds in advance, getting the partners to agree the deals, postponing the ICO date until they are all ready, and then hiding the hard cap from the 'open' market to snap shut this pseudo 'ICO' instantly (this was no ICO). this was a publicity stunt masquerading as an ICO.
Anyone with a belief that the next web should be truly open and decentralised should shun this project. it's a trap.
Anyone with a belief that the next web should be truly open and decentralised should shun this project. it's a trap.
The lead 5% and pre-contributor deals were the only ones negotiated. USD $1,329,472, for 16,856,718 ATOMs from 14 distinct individuals/entities. There were crypto-focused hedge funds in that list, but no VCs.
We refused to sign or agree to anything else, and we had no other buyers "lined up". Going into the fundraiser open, we didn't know whether it would sell out as quickly as it did, or whether we'd even hit the $10M cap. We were prepared for all scenarios, and were all surprised by the outcome.
If it weren't for the hidden-cap, it probably would have sold out even sooner. Good thing we had it! The only two people who knew the cap figure was me and Ethan.
But hey, good for you for being skeptical. I wish we could have taken more funds and let more people in, but we really don't need any more funds to make this happen, and everyone including the team and our lawyers, wanted us to set a reasonable cap. I'm not sure what we could have done better in retrospect.
Thanks for the support, everyone!
- Jae
another ICO I can get into...