ICO Analysis-DeStream

The internet has allowed for many new avenues of entertainment to be introduced. Online streaming has become a culture of it’s on in the last few years. Millions of people watch their favorite content creators on live streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Famous content creators are also jumping abroad the trend, this way directing portions of their already following to watch them live. There now are hundreds of online entertainers that have their activities with online streaming as their primary income. The content catalog for streaming is rapidly expanding to include more niches and with it, the number of viewers.

Subsequently, there’s also an economy surrounding online streaming platforms. A part of the economy surrounding streaming is donations. That’s all thanks to a trend that was popularized by Twitch.tv, a website that initially started as a streaming website focused on the gaming community. Fans of live streamers of the platform would donate while the streamer was live for their message to be read out publicly. The more popular Twitch streamers get dozens of such donations during their live streams, ranging from $1 to as much as a viewer would see fit.

Online Streaming as an Industry
Twitch.tv was acquired by Amazon for a reported $970 in cash in 2014. In more recent years, bigger platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and newer social media platforms have been expanding their features for live streaming. Media organizations and industries like sports, TV streams and personal video apps are also jumping on the sector. A 2016 report found that online streaming was accounting for over two-thirds of all internet traffic. With live streaming now becoming a preferred way of communication between brands and customer, the sector should expect its already rapid growth to continue.

The State of Existing Solutions Available to Streamers
It’s worth emphasizing that due to the nuance of the sector, many things within it are changing rapidly. Just last year, YouTube went through what was dubbed as the “adpocalypse”. Content creators in their platform, including the most established ones, had started videos on their channels demonetized. As this situation still unfolds, it’s now been understood that YouTube had started employing an AI algorithm that would stop creators from receiving ad revenue on their videos based on the content of their channels and videos. This year even, YouTube also made the requirements for earning through the platform much stricter than previously:

On January 16, 2018, we announced new eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program. Once a channel reaches 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months and 1,000 subscribers it will be reviewed to join the program.
Fan Contributions and the State of Solutions Providing a Platform for Donations as a Service
With ad revenue proving insufficient for full-time content creators to earn a living, many of them are turning to alternatives. Patreon and lately Flatt have been gaining more and more traction with content creators. Those solutions allow for fans to “subscribe” to their content creators for a monthly donation. Twitch was already employing such feature and more recently YouTube also introduces a subscription-based model for monetary support with YouTube Red, along with in-house donations called “Souper Chats”; a feature that pushes comments on live streams with a donation attached ahead of other comments, in a fashion similar how Twitch streamers accept donations.

The Problems
Many of those centralized solutions are faced with problems, and due to the young age of the sector, there hasn’t been much time for competition to develop. Patreon and Flattr take more than 10% away from each creator’s donations in fees and processing. YouTube’s and Twitch’s in-house solutions also charge hefty fees and more-over lack worldwide availability. Some creators have thought of turning to cryptocurrency, but the issue with this aside of adoption lies in the fact that a subscription-based model with crypto hasn’t proved hard to develop.

DeStream: A Decentralized Platform for the Streaming Industry
The many problems creators in the streaming industry are exactly what DeStream seeks to address with its platform. The project’s team aspires to build a feature-rich platform to receive donations on low commisions by utilizing decentralization and blockchain technology, also creating a robust and censorship-proof platform in the process.

Token
According to the whitepaper of the project, the DST tokens will be able to provide users of the platform with several utilities. Potential use cases made note in the whitepaper are mentioned below:

Making a donations.
Paying the platform’s Commission for executing transactions.
Buying digital goods.
Getting a reward from the advertiser.
To purchase any goods in the affiliate shops.
Gaining access to big data analytics.
Paying for the services of the platform (marketing, making the streams more.attractive, etc.).
To perform internal P2P operations.
Smart contracts are set to become available to streamers and advertisers to help bring to life an autonomous platform for the DeStream economy. Commissions for streamers to cash out revenues would only be down t0 0.77%.
A total of 3,600,000,000 DST tokens will be allocated to the Token Sale with a base price of 0.006 USD per token. The private main closes on the 30th of May 2018 with discounts being as follows:

Pre-sale: up to 50% bonus, discussed individually.
20% discount on the first two days.
15% discount from the 3rd to the 5th day.
10% discount from the 6th to the 15th day.
5% discount from the 16th to the 21st day.
0% discount from the 21st day to the end. of the crowdsale
The allocation of funds is set to be as follows:

Marketing: 41%
Operational expenses: 30%
Development support: 17%
Events/Trips: 12%
And the distribution of tokens:

Token sale: 60%
Fund: 20%
Team/Advisers: 19%
Bounty: 1%
Team
The team behind DeStream appears to have a great experience when it comes to working on new ventures.

Founding members include:

Anar Mekhtiev, the project’s founder and CEO has among other ventures founded his own IT company which the DeStream notes as “specializing in complex development”.
Tachat Igityan, co-founder and CTO for the project is, as written in the website, the “Founder of one of the largest business schools in digital marketing and Internet agency management (RIC).”
Alexey Khvostenko, Founder & CTO, appears to have many years of experience with software development.
Overall, the team appears to have experience in the sector of project development and a decent technical backing. Also notable, the team’s presence in live appearances on conferences that’s showcased in the section for events in the project’s website.
Verdict
DeStream brings on a concept for a much-needed solution. A decentralized platform for streamers to utilize could get backing from the ever-expanding platform creators of live content have. Live-streamers are always on the lookout for a better solution and known to adopt new alternatives as they come, being tech-savvy as they are.

Risks
Developing such a platform could be met with many shortfalls especially under the hood of new decentralized technologies. DeStream has not yet brought out a proof of concept application or MVP, and the roadmap of the platform only makes mention of an Alpha for the 3rd to 4th quarter of 2018. -2
The discounts and bonuses for the token run too deep, something that brings up questions for the pre-ICO stage. -1
The vision the team tries to bring forward gives a sense that the project might be trying to cover too many aspects instead of focusing on a few strong feats coupled with decentralization. The lack of a clear goal could prove problematic in later stages of the project’s development. -1
Growth Potential
Founders are very active on live events. +3
The team of the project has chosen the upcoming blockchain platform Stratis for the project. A move that showcases a willingness to adopt new technologies to better suit the project’s vision. +3
DeStream could utilize an already huge and growing industry for its growth by providing attractive services to creators. +2
Members of the team appear to have great experience with project development and technology. +2
Disposition
The project has great potential and the team appears to have a clear understanding of how they could tap into the streaming industry. However, the lack of an MVP coupled with the fact that the project’s vision might be too ambitious brings in a higher risk factor. Our rating is a 6 out of 10.

Investment Details
Symbol: DST
Platform: Ethereum (for ICO), Stratis (for the platform)
Total Supply: 1,000,000,000 (1 billion)
Presale: April 1st to May 31st
Token Sale June 15th – July 31st
Hard Cap: $12 million
Price: 0.006 USD
Whitelist and KYC: N/A
Whitepaper: https://destream.io/media/1101/destream_whitepaper_-en.pdf
Github: N/A
ICO Info: https://destream.io/media/1132/destream-ico-onepager.pdf

https://destream.io/
https://t.me/destreamen
https://twitter.com/destreamproject