The Svandis Token - understanding what ERC20 means?

Challenges around new markets often means a requirement for new thinking, new business models, new collaborators and friends, new digital tools, new sources of data and the need to define new product value chains. The change to a traditional business approach is often in an effort to understand, capture and appreciate the new value chain while attempting to gain early traction in a new, maturing and often fast moving marketplace. Early new relationships, in search of new revenue streams are often descriptive of how the new enterprise may look, behaviour and act. Born of opportunity and identified need in the market, Svandis has recently announced they will run an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) using the Ethereum network and ERC20 token standard in support of the issuance event.

Svandis and Cindicator to collaborate
I am a steadfast supporter of Cindicator. I am therefore emboldened by the recent news of collaboration between Cindicator and Svandis. This will be the first in a number of intended ‘comment pieces’ on the Svandis Business, platform, ecosystem and offer. I invite you to join me in this journey as we discover together the special value opportunity, initially ‘unearthed’ by Cindicator, in their chosen partnership, and now being shared with us all.
The purpose of this writing is to introduce an intended Svandis ERC20 token (SVN) issuance event and to describe some functionality around an ERC20 token. Svandis is a fintech company developing a research platform, providing market-leading analytical and visualisation tools for professionals, and serious enthusiasts, working and playing in the crypto market space

What is an ERC20 Token?
Let’s quickly dispense with the technical ‘mumbo jumbo.’ ERC is an acronym for ‘Ethereum Request for Comment’ and 20 represents the unique proposal number. The ERC20 sets out a token standard describing the functions and events that an Ethereum token contract has to implement. Having a wallet application ERC20 compliant means, the wallet, mobile or PC, is able to implement those standards.
The issuance of a token under the Ethereum BlockChain is technically a Generation Token Event (GTE) and not an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), as it is commonly referred. The differences are stark however one term, ICO has captured the imagination of the popular press and thus adopted a defacto meaning for both, although technically they represent different intentions, businesses models and purposes. For the purposes of familiarity I will use the terms, interchangeably.

An ERC20 token in support of a Platform
Svandis intends building a platform and community ecosystem premised on capturing the value of an increased cryptocurrency and token awareness by the harvest of data from a community of aware, engaged and rewarded participants. The collection of data and information represents the ‘power of the social network and group’ bound together through common interest, challenge and belonging, and promises to supply early information potentially critical in ensuring the best possible trading outcome in respect to any traded instrument, strategic decision or forecasted position.
Part of the value proposition, inherent in the powerful tools, analytics, and indicators, takes raw data from various sources including community collectors, aggregates same and creates meaningful indices, measurements and signals. This meaningful information is then made available to members of the Svandis ecosystem. Platform and ecosystem interactions are transacted by virtue of a Svandis utility token (SVN). These interactions represent many different transaction types but illustrate the moving of value around the platform and ecosystem. The collaborative nature of the architecture enables, encourages and perpetuates further ongoing ecosystem collaboration, to the point where short- and long-term traders, analysts, hedge funds, institutional investors, proprietary trading firms, venture capital funds, token sales contributors, and exchanges interact with the ecosystem, as it becomes a defining force in all things, ‘crypto and coin’ informed and aware.
In the upcoming Svandis ICO, the Svandis Team have elected to generate a unique value token, under the provisions of the Ethereum BlockChain, as a mechanism to capture, distribute, represent and store value within the Svandis Platform and Ecosystem. Introducing Svandis’ SVN token. The SVN token is an exclusive infrastructural element, created inside the Ethereum BlockChain for the sole purpose of recording and trading, in two directions, the value of interactions within the platform and wider ecosystem.

Why an ERC20 Compliant Wallet is important?
So what does ERC20 define and why it is critical for the SVN Token receiving wallet to be ERC20 compliant? The answer to this is a simple one. The receiving wallet must be ERC20 compliant to ensure the SVN token appears and performs exactly how Svandis and the Ethereum ecosystem intends it to appear and perform in the wallet. In the Ethereum network the SVN tokens will be BlockChain assets that have value, which can be distributed, (sent and received) just like Bitcoin, Litecoin and other cryptocurrencies. The obvious difference between a standard ERC20 token, like the SVN token, and a standalone currency application, like Bitcoin or Litecoin, is ERC20 tokens use the Ethereum network, hosted by an Ethereum address and are sent via an Ethereum transaction. There are also many other differences, but these are outside the scope of this initial introductory commentary.
The ERC20 standard defines a number of standard functions the ethereum contract has to implement for the token to be ERC20 compliant within the ethereum system. A wallet application is said to be ERC20 compliant if it can display the detail described within the standard. This is important, especially for other utility tokens, as asset contract details are encapsulated within the ethereum address, within the ethereum transaction and incorrect implementation of code can lead to a loss or incorrect presentation within the wallet.

The below image depicts OmiseGo Token asset information encapsulated inside an ethereum transaction.

Conclusion
There’s only a couple things in this World I like more than new and innovative applications of BlockChain technology, and one of them is ‘collaboration.’ Meaningful collaboration can be ‘company changing’ and ‘company making’. It defines, at its proper and honest intent, a ‘non-zero-sum’ game. All that engage and enable true collaboration, at the business architecture level, will see greater economies of opportunity. A new class of smarter processes and social infrastructure is being born by Svandis in support of new services and new measures of value. Traditional mechanism are not designed or built to support these. Seeing a need and a problem to solve, Svandis has entered the fray! Their ICO will commence soon and I for one will be paying very close attention to what it promises to deliver. More to come!