ICO Analysis: MOBU

There’s a lot of buzz around security token offerings (STOs), and for good reason. There’s an $80 trillion securities market that has barely been touched by blockchain. Uncertainty and discrepancy in regulations have stifled the market up to this point. But it’s just a matter of time before the world is swimming in STOs.

This new project, MOBU, wants to provide a platform for launching compliant security tokens. This platform will “incorporate the ability to select experienced legal counsel across multiple jurisdictions within the platform, token issuers can be sure they can create compliant tokens customed to their local jurisdictions.”

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MOBU is a decentralized blockchain based organized ICO platform for launching compliant security tokens. Real businesses such as property development companies, gold mines, retail companies and many more will be able to launch security tokens on the MOBU platform. MOBU connects approved entrepreneurs and investors by cutting out middlemen.

Some core features of the platform:

MOB20 Protocol that defines a set of commands for security tokens to implement.
Supports Reg S, D, and A+ compliant security token offerings.
Vetted tender process for: legal providers, smart contract developers, escrow providers, KYC providers, etc.
A new standard called, Know Your Supplier (KYS), for complete due diligence compliance for all service providers using the platform.
A rating system for service providers which will create a free marketplace for investors.
A network of authorization centers for KYC/AML compliance.

This is only a taste of what MOBU plans to offer; check out the whitepaper here for more details.

Token

MOBU is a utility token and is the key to smart contracts and the ecosystem. Found on pages 15-18 of the whitepaper is all the different purposes of the token, including MOBU Referrals, “where companies or individuals referring ICO issuers onto MOBU will be rewarded in MOBU tokens which will be equivalent of one year’s revenue generated on the platform by the percentage of fees generated from the marketplace.” Additionally, “This amount will be paid in MOBU and locked-up over a 3-year period also ensuring an increase in demand and scarcity of MOBU.”

There is also what’s called a “lockup” utility: All the ICO service providers on the MOBU will stake a certain amount of MOBU tokens to receive the right to operate in the ecosystem. These tokens will be locked up for the full duration while the service provider remains and utilizes the MOBU ecosystem.

Distribution:

Team

Mostly from South Africa, 12 members of the management team are listed. As a whole, they seem good, but not great. Here are a few that stood out.

Juan Engelbrecht – Founder/CEO. Also founded Zaber (a large South Africa crypto farm) in 2015. He spent 2 years as Director at Khalifa Capital. Has been Director at Evolve Fund Managers since 2013.

Paul Pelser – CFO. He spent 17 years as an accountant for PSP Pelsar Accountants. He has been the owner of Pregal Mining for the last seven years,

Paresh Masani – Blockchain/security engineer. He spent three years as Mobile Platform Exec Director at Goldman Sachs, London. Senior Director at Thomson Reuters and ETX Capital.

A total of 12 Advisors, and two are from Realstart.com, a custom software development company. At least six of them are ICO experts and three are blockchain enthusiasts.

Verdict

This is an extremely attractive project andnd it looks like the hype/demand for this token is there. They already raised $3 million in the pre-sale, and are asking for just $6.5 mill more in the public sale.

Being a front-runner in the cryptocurrency space has proven to be a beautiful thing. When we asked CEO Juan Engelbrecht, who is your nos 1 and 2 competitors, he named Securitize and Polymath. Polymath has a $75 million market cap.

Risks

Pretty much crickets in their GitHub. Twelve followers.-1
No MVP out yet. They provide this video of what the MVP will look like, though.-1
Non-accredited investors from the US are banned from using the platform. This is the opposite of a risk but gets a minus nonetheless.-1
Their Blockchain Engineer, Paresh Masani (Goldman Sachs and Barclays) is a stud. But the rest of the team and advisors seem pretty average. -1
At this point in time, no major exchange is going to list the security tokens birthed from MOBU. When asked about this in Telegram their CEO said, “LA token has a security token exchange division. Also, MOBU is securing equity stake in an operational stock exchange. GBAX and Tzero will also have security token exchanges available soon.”-0.8

Growth Potential

They already have a Chrome and Gold mining business signed up to tokenize through MOBU.+2
The $9 million hard cap leaves all kinds of room for gains.+3
120 million tokens is all there will ever be; 100% of them will be sold in the ICO. +1
MOBU will develop a First Forex Percentage Allocation Money Management Account and will retain 20% of the authorized tokens to put back into the development of the MOBU Platform.+2
From the company: “MOBU token will be available on most exchanges such as Bancor but have already been approved by COINEXCHANGE, CRYPTOPIA, IDEX, GET BTC, HitBTC, LIVECOIN and YoBit.net.”+2
Although most of these reviewers have lost credibility over the last year, their strong scores prove the hype train around this project is real. +2

Disposition

We usually don’t cover ICOs post-pre-sale, but this one is an exception because it’s still an attractive deal. The pre-sale bonus was 25%, and if you are fortunate enough to get into this crowdsale the bonus will be 20-25% depending on how early you get in. After that, the sky is the limit for MOBU. 7.2/10