GAMB ICO Review: Self-governed decentralized marketplace.

Disclaimer

This content is a personal opinion for educational purposes only. I am not a financial advisor and this is not a legal or financial advice. Do not make any trades or investments based on this article as I am not responsible for your decision. Trading/investing in crypto assets is extremely risky and you should consult with trusted financial advisors before making any decisions.

Project name: GAMB

Ticker: GMB

Token standard: ERC-20

Website: https://gamb.io/

Whitepaper: https://gamb.io/#whitepaper

Official announcements: https://t.me/gambproject

Soft cap: 5,000,000 USD

Hard cap: 30,000,000 USD

Total tokens: 5,000,000,000 GMB

Available for token sale: 35%

Conversion Rate: 1 ETH = 5000 GMB

Bonus & lockup: Up to 30% during private sale with no lockup; up to 15% during pre-sale with no lockup

What is it?

GAMB is a decentralized marketplace for e-commerce, self-governed by its stakeholders through smart contracts. The Merchant Alliance members (token holders) will be able to define rules and regulations which will be programmed into smart contracts upon approval by the council members.

What real problem is it trying to solve?

Today’s e-commerce infrastructure is dictated by Amazon. Their monopolistic market power enables them to set terms and conditions for merchants to use their services. Whilst the consumers enjoy the convenience of the tech giant, it is becoming a real threat from the merchants’ perspectives. Amazon consistently raises the fee structure and uses their market dominating position to copy successful products of their own client base and sell at a cheaper price thus entering into a direct competition with their clients.

GAMB will provide the merchants with a decentralized marketplace where they can govern their own ecosystem in a decentral autonomous organization (DAO).

How does it work?

GAMB’s governance structure is comprised of:

Merchant Alliance (token holders)

• Appoints temporary members of the council.
• Submits proposals and participates in voting for the future marketplace development.

Council (key stakeholders, and members of the Gambio group)

• Ensures that in the long term, their interests are aligned with that of the merchants.
• Has the power to overrule merchant alliance’s proposals if deemed necessary until stable.

Merchant Alliance Service Provider (Gambio Services AG)

• Develops, updates, and services the marketplace software infrastructure.

What incentivizes the growth of token value?

1. The token buyback mechanism
2. Membership & voting power(decided by the amount of GMB tokens)
3. Proposal (requires a deposit of tokens)
4. Reward programs (offer GMB tokens for ratings, referrals, loyalty, and etc.)
5. Payment (discounted price for payments in GMB)
6. Treasury pool (supply must be maintained in the pool)

Team

Key Members

Luis Krug (Chief Executive Officer) – Founder of Redcoon, an e-commerce retail project that invoiced over 500.000.000 €
annual turnover.

Andre Münnich (Chief Financial Officer) - Co-founder and CEO of Fayteq AG, a tech company from Germany, which he sold to Facebook Inc. in 2017. Former CEO of Rapid Venture Accounting,

Emrah Hizarci (Chief Technology Officer) – Built several e-commerce frameworks that have processed over 1.5 billion EURO annual turnover. He is the lead architect behind the SaaS based software frameworks Comandia, Shopator, and Yeebah; which together host over 22.000 online shops worldwide.

Key Advisors

Eric G. Sarasin – Has more than 30 years of professional banking experience, working for Bank J. Safra Sarasin, Citi and Pictet. He holds various board positions amongst ATAG Family Office and is an active private equity investor. Until 2014, Eric was the President of the German-Swiss Chamber of Commerce for 12 years.

Katalin Tischhauser – Had a 20-year career in investment banking, working for Goldman Sachs, SBC Warburg, Citigroup. Ms. Tischhauser served as a Director of Monetas AG and is CEO of TokenVision, a Swiss advisory boutique focused on blockchain technology and crypto assets.

Dr. Luka Müller - Legal partner at MME Legal AG in Switzerland. He provides assistance to companies in the technology and financial sectors with a focus on blockchain technology. He focuses on financing acquisition and restructuring cases. He is an expert on regulatory compliance, anti-money laundering, anti-corruption and judicial assistance.

Frank Bodin - Served until recently as the Chairman & CEO of Havas in Switzerland and Chairman of the Global Creative Council of Havas. He is President of the ADC Switzerland and Board Member of Communications Switzerland (ks/cs). He received innumerable awards and was Advertiser of the Year.

Positives

-This project is backed by GAMBIO as their service provider – the #1 e-commerce software provider with more than 25,000 active merchants in Germany with $2.8 Billion annual shop revenues reported in 2017.

-Gambio brings already established global network of strategic partners and client base.

-92K+ participants in their chatroom(this is a huge number even compared to some of the most hyped ICOs)

Negatives

• Only 35% of GMB tokens will be released to the public which will give the company majority votes. This is a concern because it may put Gambio in a similar position as Amazon where the service provider dictates the market.

-The core of their council will be permanently comprised of members of the Gambio group with the power to overrule merchant alliance's proposals until, “The marketplace is operational and a successful long-term plan has been established.” However, the marketplace is not expected to be operational until Q4 of 2019 which means until then, the marketplace will not be dictated by the merchants but by Gambio.

Overall, I would rate this project Medium and will keep it in my radar post-ICO.