ICO on Etherium | CogniZeal

Develop and Deploy an ICO on Ethereum Platform

OVERVIEW

An initial coin offering (ICO) is a means of crowdfunding, centered around cryptocurrency, which can be a source of capital for startup companies / product. In an ICO, some quantity of the crowdfunded cryptocurrency is pre-allocated to investors in the form of "tokens" in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Etherium.

These tokens become functional units of currency if and when the ICO's funding goal is met and the project launches. For an ICO on Etherium platform, the "tokens" will be allocated to the users / investors in exchange of Etherium (ETH).

SPECIFICATIONS

Ethereum tokens are digital currency or a digital representation of asset with a value defined based on smart contracts in ERC20 standard. The token will be having a limited supply, pricing and distribution mechanism to perform Initial Coin Offerings and sales in the secondary market. To ensure that their tokens can undergo interactions with various wallets, exchanges and smart contracts without any issues, the ERC20 standard is used.

The ICO would have different round settings like Private sale, Pre-sale and Public sale. Each round will have different sale settings with various flexible bonus programs like Time bonuses and Volume bonuses. The ICO campaign will have a round specific or generic Soft cap and Hard cap.

MILESTONES

Automated Pre-Sale

Presale refers to a token sale conducted before the main crowd sale. Presales are announced and promoted on the website, social media and possibly through advertising. An ICO presale provides a good middle ground for investors wanting a higher discount or bonus compared to crowd sale without the drawbacks or the high risks associated in participating in private sale. Various bonuses or discounts may be offered based on how early you contribute and how large the contribution is.

Public sale

Public token sale is the final round of token distribution. Here the general audience who is interested in purchasing the tokens will be our target user. For that they can exchange Ethereum or fiat currency after validating our specific criteria for whitelisting their accounts.

Public sale

ARCHITECTURE

Phase-1

Crowd-sale Contract
This contract is responsible for the token sale. It has the following features:

Rate: This is the rate at which tokens will be exchanged with Ethereum.
Hard Cap: It is the maximum number of tokens available for crowd-sale.
Soft Cap: It is the minimum number of tokens to be sold to be considered as a successful crowd-sale.
Refundable: This enables the contract to return the fund collected back to
investors if the crowd-sale doesn’t achieve soft-cap.
Timed: This represents the start-time and end-time for the crowd-sale.
Variable Price: Different price settings available for the different ICO rounds.

The contracts would be deployed on ropsten testnet for testing purposes. A dry run of the ICO would be implemented to test the functionalities. We use Web3.js framework for interactions with the contract and a Go-Ethereum node would manage the connection with ethereum network.

PHASE 2

This phase involves development of the web application for the ICO. The web application will be used for performing and managing various operations at the user end and admin end. It will have signup/login functionalities, registration for whitelist and user dashboard which is capable of storing user profile, transaction information, records of tokens allotted, transactions of tokens, and generating various reports.

PHASE 3

This phase involves integration of third party services to our web application. KYC/AML Whitelist Module is considered as a default integration. For any other integrations, the timeline and costing would depend on the services and complexity of integration.

Optional Integrations:

Payment Gateway

Generally, for ICOs only Ethereum is accepted as a payment for purchasing tokens. This can be extended to include cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin etc. and also fiat currencies though payment gateways. BTC relay service would be used to accept bitcoin payments and atomic swapping would be engaged to distribute the tokens. Stripe / PayPal or any payment gateway of client’s choice will be integrated into the token platform to accept fiat currency deposit. We can allot token to users either automatically or manually.

Multisig Wallet

Standard transactions could be called “single-signature transactions,” because transfers require only one signature — from the owner of the private key associated with the address. However, the Ethereum network supports much more complicated transactions that require the signatures of multiple people before the funds can be transferred. These are often referred to as M-of-N transactions. Multisignature (multisig) refers to requiring more than one key to authorize a transaction. It is generally used to divide up responsibility for possession of funds.

Ghost Addressing

During ICO if all the users deposit Ethereum to a single account and if this address is publicly displayed, the chances of security threats are very high. So, the concept is to obscure the address where the funds are stored, from public. To implement this, a ghost addressing is used where every user is given a unique address for deposit but all the funds are deposited in a single account itself.

PHASE 4

This phase deals with different levels of testing and deployment of contracts on ethereum mainnet. The ICO platform will undergo rigorous code review for assessment of potential vulnerabilities of ICO attack vectors by both our internal team and a partnered security. A bounty program will also be organized for community participation.

The ICO campaign involves different modules apart from the technology and many of which CogniZEAL wouldn’t provide as a service. The following are the main aspects of the ICO which are not covered under the scope of this agreement and services mentioned below are to be handled by the client either directly or sourced from third party service providers.

White-paper

A white paper is an informational document, issued by a company or not-for-profit organization, to promote or highlight the features of a solution, product, or service. White papers are sales and marketing documents, used to entice or persuade potential customers to learn more about or purchase a particular product, service, technology or methodology.

We would provide all the technical specifications pertaining to the project and an optional whitepaper review can also be provided.

Whitlisting

ICOs require KYC details of customers to comply with KYC/AML regulations of various countries. This KYC information are to be cross checked with databases to authenticate its validity. Whitelisting is a process, prior to ICO, by which participants can register, upload necessary documents, get approved and get listed on the database to participate during the token sale.

There are various agencies providing whitelisting solutions which can be integrated to the web application.

Marketing

An ICO requires extensive marketing campaign and is beyond the scope of a technology company. It requires a service provider with expertise in the specific domain.
We have a marketing partner and if needed, the requirement would be serviced by them. Any technical content pertaining to the project would be provided by us.

Community Management

An ICO needs to grow a community around itself and also advertise information externally in both technical and investor communities. These are handled by community managers and can be serviced by a marketing agency. CogniZEAL and our partners would broadcast and advocate for the ICO in different communities but we won’t allocate resources or take this up as a full-time engagement.

Regulations

ICOs have different legal implications around different countries. ICOs need to meet security policies or regulatory requirements of European Union Laws / German Laws / SEC Regulations /China PBOC Laws to be legal for investors to participate from the respective country.

CogniZEAL is not liable of any regulatory issues caused by the ICO to the client and his/her company. Please take due care and seek council from a registered law firm.

Maintenance

Apart from the 2 months support that comes along with the project agreement, any maintenance activities on the token or blockchain would be chargeable and does not include in the scope of this proposal. Bugs or errors from our side would be rectified without any additional payment. There are mainly two kinds of maintenance related to the blockchain:

Soft Fork: Changes made to the existing system. These are serviceable upon additional payment.

Hard Fork: Changes relating to shifting of blockchain or platforms.
These services are purely under the discretion of CogniZEAL whether to take up or not.

Server

ICOs require High-load resistant cloud servers with VMs. These servers with configurations, which satisfy the traffic, should be provided by the client.

SCOPE