Introducing Delphi: The Silver to Gnosis’ Gold?

Delphi

Prediction markets are a hot commodity, and a perfect application for crypto markets. They are usually disallowed by the government, so it makes perfect sense to create them on a decentralized blockchain out of any single entity’s control. They have been shown to be a source of extremely valuable information on a number of different occasions and for many different use-cases. They interest the punters and the academics alike. They will also especially appeal to the crypto-crowd given how much the people in the space like speculation.

So on the heels of Augur and Gnosis, the two big giants in the prediction marketplace, is there room for a third? Akin to Litecoin being branded as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, is Delphi the little brother to Gnosis? Let’s find out a little more about Delphi.

Structurally Similar to Gnosis

Delphi is created to be compatible with Gnosis. However, the real differentiator between them comes from how the oracle system is organized. Delphi has a more robust set of oracles that run through a multi-sig so a compromise on one of the oracle doesn’t lead to immense losses on contracts. You can read more about Delphi’s recently introduced ‘Pythia Framework‘ on their blog for more details.

Then, there is the issue of token distribution. Gnosis, as much as the team may deny it, had a really unfair ICO. They issued just 5% of their tokens. Almost to prove this to be an anti-thesis to that model, Delphi have pledged 95% to the community and just 5% for their own development efforts.

This will be a big differentiator between Gnosis and Delphi. When it comes down to it, a fair token distribution is really important for crypto projects to succeed, because otherwise there is not enough skin in the game to make efforts for success by the community. It is better for the tokens to be widely distributed than be hoarded by the development team.

The token parameters are similar for both Gnosis and Delphi. In Delphi, you buy into Del tokens that release Phi tokens to be used for fees on the network. The Del tokens in this case are similar to the GNO tokens in Gnosis.

Anonymous Team

Now this is a big one, and can go both ways. Although the recent trend, especially for Ethereum ICOs, has been towards open teams, and we understand why, this is the exception in crypto, not the norm. The team claims that being anonymous helps them avoid any government intervention, considering several governments haven’t been too kind to prediction markets in the past. However, it makes it that much easier to pull an exit scam and run with the money. Trust us, we are equally worried about the possibility. But given the risk-return profile of the project, we’d still like to talk about it and give the team the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.

The team has maintained clear thoughts on the project throughout, even though there isn’t much code released yet before the ICO. You can check out the team’s blog on Medium to learn more about the philosophy behind the project and support them if you agree with their vision.

Check out Delphi now, and their ICO is still ongoing for those interested.

Photo Credit: flickr

TokenStars Announces New ICO to Tokenize Celebrities’ Careers

This is a sponsored post by TokenStars

The celebrity talent management industry is larger than many Fortune 500 companies and even many countries’ GDP (including EU countries), boasting over $40 billion in contracts under management. TokenStars’ new ICO aims to disrupt this market, which is currently dominated by a few key players, and share the newly-created value with community members. This is the first project to tokenize massive celebrities.

The ACE project begins with tennis players (1 billion fans worldwide), after which TokenStars will move on to football (GOAL Project) and others, eventually expanding into poker, basketball, hockey, and even movie stars, music bands, and models. Eventually, all of these verticals will be combined under a shared infrastructure with the STAR index token, so early supporters will get a priority seat.

Based on the proven talent management agency (TMA) business model, ACE is a low-risk global project whose goal is to introduce tennis fans to the blockchain world. The top 20 players already have 172 million active fans, and TokenStars will put special emphasis on global PR and marketing to get the other 0.8 billion on board. The opportunity to help sponsor the next mega-star and get exclusive offers should be very appealing.

How does it work?

Currently, aspiring players are limited in their means of financing their success. Some stars like Tiger Woods and Maria Sharapova were fortunate to have support from their parents, but many must depend on loans from friends and/or small grants from local sports federations or TMAs. This puts most of the decision-making power in the hands of TMAs, and lets many rising stars slip through the cracks. With the ACE Project, supporters can crowdfund the effort to find the best talent worldwide.

ACE provides young aspiring tennis players the funding and promotion they need to have access to the best resources and get to the top of the sport, without getting discouraged and dropping out. Successful women and men will earn prize money (less than $1m for a 400th-ranked player, $60m+ for a top-5 player) and celebrity status, which will then lead to sponsorship deals, which are roughly 5-10 times larger than the prize money earned over the player’s career.

Decentralization

Talent sourcing and promotion will be handled by two separate decentralized entities: the Global Scouts Network and the Global Promoters Network. To find new talent, tennis coaches will be paid a referral fee which can be as high as their annual salary, which should provide a high-quality flow of candidates. The robust talent promotion stimulus (10% of the contract) is well within and above the market, and should provide a good flow of sponsorship deals to the players.

Key decisions will also be decentralized, using the DAO mechanism. A single biased sports agent relying on his gut feeling will not always make consistently good decisions, but a well-informed crowd that relies on analytical reports can be counted on to make decisions that will benefit everyone.

Main benefits

The ACE Project and all following projects are designed to be of maximum value to all stakeholders. Purchasers of ACE product tokens will get unique opportunities to communicate with stars, get one-on-one training, VIP tickets and books, business endorsements well below market price, and more. Athletes will receive collective support from the community, which was previously impossible, and the decentralized key processes of scouting and promotion will dramatically lower costs and shift most of the created value to the community.

About TokenStars

TokenStars is the first blockchain company to tokenize massive celebrities. It aims to provide funding and promotion resources to rising stars by disrupting and decentralising the talent management industry. Starting with issuing ACE tokens for the tennis vertical, the company plans to expand with new verticals, including football, poker, basketball, hockey, cinema actors, musicians, and models.

Follow the project’s social media channels on:  Facebook  Twitter  Telegram  Slack