Lets do what telegram is doing but better! (along with Storj, Filecoin, Props, Theta, and a whole bunch of other icos!)
Abstract
Phantasma is a new platform defining both a storage specification and a protocol for sending messages from one source to one or multiple destinations via smart contracts. With Phantasma it is possible to implement emails, chat, oracles, file transfers and other message-based systems on top of a blockchain.
Who are Phantasma?
Phantasma’s team are mainly from Portugal. They are mostly a team of developers with deep ties within the Neo/CoZ community. They are based in Lisbon, Portugal.
The problem
Cloud services, emails, file storage, video streaming, p2p transfers websites are all centralized on ‘honeypot’ servers. They are proned to data breaches/hacks/leaks and at worst closing down without prior warning. Such incidents are well documented such as Megaupload, Github, various email servers hacked. As long as content is held by a third party on a centralized server the risk will always be there despite the high-end security measures top companies like Microsoft and Apple spends millions to deploy.
Blockchain technology could solve all the above problems but one of the most challenging development areas is how to manage data, how to store it, access it. Storing data on the blockchain is prohibitally expensive and inefficient.
Solution
Phantasma is building a platform where users can control their own content with focused on interoperability, privacy, scalability and cost. They aim to tackle this in 5 different stages as reference to their roadmap.
1. Decentralised email
A experience similar to Hotmail except that the data in your inbox is in your complete control. Backwards compatible with old legacy systems such as Hotmail as well. Basic triggers can be implemented such as automatic newsletters and auto response to triggers. While existing blockchain-chain email based systems do exist, they suffer from being a closed-system with no proper communication with the exterior. Phantasma propose the creation of “Mail providers” which would run Phantasma nodes as bridges to the SMTP/IMAP protocol, allowing messages to move from and to the blockchain. Of course, spam is the largest deterrent for this, so the bridges would work based on a mix of provider-based and user
2. Decentralized chat
A similar service to telegram can be provided via their messenging protocol
3. Decentralized marketplace
Allows sales of digital products such as video, videogames or other files
4. Oracle nodes
Oracle-like services on Neo
5. Content streaming
Ability to stream content and incentivize producers/consumers with better experience and less fees
Phantasma is going to be initially deployed on the Neo blockchain and by doing so will enriched the Neo ecosystem by providing a API for all Dapps developers to manage their data needs. They plan to launch their own blockchain in 2019 to manage the demand for high throughput required for all the 5 features and maintain a low cost for its smart contract execution. Their native token is the SOUL which is used to pay for services across its platform.
Technology
1. Smart contract : Messages are handle by the messenging protocol, a smart contract which runs on top of a small VM which allows mini-contracts to run within the smart contract reducing fees (Multiple Neo smart contracts are not required which cost a high amount of Gas). Storage is also controlled via smart contracts
2. Relay nodes : Initially Phantasma is to be run on top of the Neo blockchain, A new block on the Neo blockchain is created every 15 seconds, this isn’t fast enough to met the demands of thousands let alone million of users. Phantasma will have secondary off-chain layer sitting between the Neo blockchain and the Phantasma dapp, this will increase the throughput of Phantasma and reduced the strain on the Neo blockchain.
3. Decentralized storage : Phantasma is back end-agnostics with all other decentralized storage options such as bluzelle, storj, IPFS. In 2019 Phantasma will have their own data storage mechanism, the Phantasma data file system (PDFS), data will be stored as content hashes across incentivized nodes (master nodes a possibility here with your SOUL token). The PDFS network uses a proof-of-retrievability algorithm. Users will have to pay for subscription based service to use this feature.
4. Box/Gate/Tokens : Boxes are content hubs for generalized data, providing a general interface for content storage, data pipeline and sharing. Every Neo address can generate boxes labelled a-z,0–9. Gates are the premissioned gateway to access the boxes. Gates are defined via the programmable Phantasma VM, supporting fine or coarse-grained customized permissions, thus allowing for multiple access modes for each Box. Gates can also specify different payments models, like free-to-access, pay-once access or subscription based access. Tokens are used for to provide verified access to the gates, the tokens are the fuel for the Phantasma network, meaning that operations inside the Phantasma network will require them, including creation of boxes and allocation and renewal of space for storage.
5. Phantasma virtual machine : a blockchain-emulated general-purpose execution environment that brings the capacity to deploy sub-contracts to NEO without paying the full costs of a NEO contract, allows for a easy way to deploy smart contracts for minimal cost.
6. Phantasma SDK : Allows any developer to use Phantasma to create their own Dapps with ease. Supports C++ initially with Java support coming up later.
7. Phantasma blockchain : Phantasma plans to build a blockchain where storage cost and location can be offloaded in a distributed way to the participants of the network, instead of forcing full redundancy of the whole state in every network node. They also plan to introduce the concept of ephemeral storage, in the sense that a smart contract can choose how the data should be handled inside the network, forcing either an higher level of redundancy to keep static content alive, or dropping data that no longer is necessary by the network.
Traditional blockchain smart contracts are limited in the way they can operate with data, Phantasma smart contracts are designed to support large amount of data with the support of high level concepts such as map-filter-reduce. Once Phantasma blockchain is ready in 2019 all services will be migrated from the Neo blockchain, Phantasma supports NEOX. NEOX is cross-chain interoperability agreement, they can move the project into their blockchain while still keeping interoperability with NEO. Any Phantasma application still running on the Neo blockchain would continue to operate, albeit lacking access to the new features introduced by the new blockchain.
Development
They demo their Proof of concept at CoZ dapp competition and won 4th place last year. They then demo their Phantasma email service at Neo dev con, their MVP is due to be released during the crowdsale.
GitHub
Roadmap
Q2 2018 : MVP of 1st Dapp secure email for web and mobile.
Q3 2018 : Release of Phantasma SDK, which will let any third-party developers start building their own Phantasma based products, along with release of Oracle Nodes, as an example of SDK usage.
RELAY NODES/ TESTNET Q4 2018: Phantasma relay nodes will allow Phantasma apps to break free from the transaction speed limits of blockchain.
Start of split of Phantasma from NEO network into its own blockchain TESTNET LAUNCH, using the NEOX protocol for cross-chain interoperability.
STORAGE NODES/MAIN NET Q1 2019 : Storage nodes will start being rolled out to public, so that anyone can take part of the Phantasma network.
Porting of the SDK to support native blockchain.
Release of main net, native tokens to be issued according to NEP5 ownership.
DECENTRALIZED MARKET PLACE Q2 2019 : Digital Commerce app will be released, allowing anyone to deploy their own decentralized e-shop.
Q3 2019 : A service to discover Phantasma dApps will be created from point, forward, once the third-parties developer support has reached critical mass.
CONTENT STREAMING Q4 2019 : Phantasma video streaming will be released, as showcase for a dApp with heavy data loads.
Team
Sergio Flores
CEO Phantasma
CoZ (City of Zion) developer (GitHub)
19 years of programming experience
Sergio is a very capable coder, with vast experience and ties within the Neo community I feel confident he is able to deliver on the product +1 All star
Miguel Ferreira
Co-founder Phantasma
Senior Data compiler at Compiler works
6 years of coding experience (GitHub)
Msc comp science Lisboa university
Miguel is a extreme talented coder, building compilers requires vast technical knowledge, probably the smartest guy on their team +1 All star
Alexandre Paixão
CMO Phantasma
Msc marketing ISCTE business school
Alexandre has some marketing experience in real world start ups and knowledge on how to market well, useful addition to team
Sérgio Pereira da Silva
Business and finance
Seasoned business consultant and financial expert, he provides the team with the necessary Portuguese contacts and financial expertise in order to grow
Bruno Freitas
CoZ developer
Bsc computer engineering
Another CoZ developer, no stellar past history. A useful addition none the less
Bernardo Rocha Pinho
Game developer
Msc computer engineering
Another developer, hardly any working history at all! Hopefully hes smart and can contribute to the project
Rafael Barbosa
Designer
Their UI designer, not much working history. Still needed for to build a user friendly interface and drive adoption
Arvind Alexander
Legal advice Phantasma
Their lawyer from India, good to have one on the team
A Relatively young team spearheaded by their two strongest member who are all stars. They have enough technical skill in my opinion to pull off this project but are still inexperience in running a business.
Advisers
Laurence Seidler
Entrepreneur 20+ years
Blockchain evangelist
Nothing special IMHO, Is adept at running a business and can help guide the young team to success
Neeraj Muraka
CTO Bluzelle
Ex-Zygna developer
Expert in the domain of databases and storage, most valuable advisor to this project that wish to store data on the blockchain. +1
Gordan Hall
Developer Chia network
Software developer Storj
Another seasoned profession in data storage on the blockchain. +1
Fernando Diaz Toledano
Redsec founder
Security consultant CoZ
Another CoZ member to advised on security
Fabio Cesar Canesin
CEO of NEX
Co-founder of CoZ
A really strong addition, spearheading the Neo/CoZ community
Etiënne vantKruys
Strategic business development Wanchain
Founder token research group
A great addition, helps builds business links within the Wanchain community and global crypto community
Ian Balina
Crypto influencer
Controversial figure which has a lot of marketing power within the crypto community, helps spread awareness of the project
Great advisers in the line up.
Partnerships
City of Zion
Neo
More to be announced
Token metrics
10 million hardcap
65% to investors
20% for team/advisors
15% for growth of the platform
100 Million total supply
Team token vested over 3 years
Advisors vested over 1 year
Fantastic token metrics 10/10
Competition/Risk
Quite a few projects are out there doing certian things that Phantasma plans to do, the closest competitor would be Telegram ico (who are raising over 2 billions). Storj, Sia and Filecoin are doing data storage. Viewly, Props, Videocoin are doing content streaming and Shopin, Silkos and Openbazaar are doing a more larger marketplace.
Conclusion
Phantasma is a brillant idea, rolling 5 ideas into one ecosystem it stands to be truly disruptive and change the world as email changed ours many years ago! The have a great team and stellar advisors with providing they get some future quality partnerships down the line I think this project could do really well, with a market cap of only 10 million it would do 200x to match what telegram wants in their ICO whilst offering some unique features. Telegram has VPN support, A web browser and most importantly has a large userbase which this platform can attract with the right marketing and successful launch of their project hitting all the deadlines. I plan to invest and HODL.
Grade A quality ICO
This is not considered as financial advice