IRIS Network ICO Review And Token Analysis

Share this article

IRIS Network ICO Overview

The IRIS Network ICO and IRIS token sale are raising funds toward an inter-chain service infrastructure and protocol. IRIS Network lays the groundwork for a network of distributed ledgers capable of integrating disparate business services, including public and proprietary chains in addition to enterprise legacy systems. IRIS Network is itself an instance of Cosmos, and will expand the interoperable ecosystem as a regional hub.

IRIS Network ICO Value Proposition

The IRIS network aims to deploy the same topology as Cosmos while adding a set of complementary features to the ecosystem. IRIS will connect to the Cosmos Hub, making an expanded set of functions available to any participant connected at any point in the network. IRIS full nodes, developed with the IRIS SDK (an extension of the Cosmos SDK), will provide both a service-oriented infrastructure and integration of IPFS.

IRIS Hub

The first component of the project is the deployment and integration of the IRIS Hub with the Cosmos Hub, and will include the launch of a mobile client to access the network. The core function of private and public chain interoperability is provided by the IRISHub.

iServices

The second component is the IRIS Service Layer, referred to as iServices. This layer enables service definition, binding (provider registration), invocation and querying functions throughout the entire network. iServices is designed to bridge the gap between blockchain and conventional enterprise applications, giving developers access to a complete set of off-chain functions for integrating business logic. The layer also serves as an adapter between proprietary chains, legacy enterprise systems and the IRIS Hub.

Diagram of IRIS Service Infrastructure

IRIS Token Economics

IRIS Token (IRIS) is the primary means of exchanging value between users. The token is utilized both for staking and payment of fees. The token also provides voting power for participating in governance of the network.

IRIS is required to pay for Hub fees and can also be used to reward service providers. However, the network will support a multi-token model that allows service providers the freedom to charge using a series of whitelisted tokens, which will initially include the Cosmos Network native token (ATOM) and ETH.

A flexible payment system is employed to ease adoption and boost the number of inter-blockchain transactions in different currencies, which will increase the demand for IRIS tokens to reward validator nodes.  

IRIS Network ICO Team

IRIS Network is the result of collaboration between several blockchain enterprises – Tendermint (currently building Cosmos), Wancloud (a subsidiary of Wanxiang Blockchain) and Bianjie AI. Tendermint provides technical oversight and development support to the IRIS Network team. Wancloud acts as a strategic partner for growing the IRIS Network ecosystem. The core team members derive from all three organizations.

Harriet Cao (Co-founder) is the founder of Bianjie AI, a Shanghai-based startup that produces proprietary blockchain solutions for AI-based business collaboration. Prior to establishing Bianjie AI, Harriet has spent more than 16 years at IBM Research, serving in a variety of capacities, including Director of the IBM Research Shanghai Lab and Head of Big Data Analytics at IBM Global Labs. Harriet has an MS in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and an MEng in Automation from Tsinghua University.

Haifeng Xi (Director and Co-founder) is the Chairman and Co-founder of Bianjie AI. After returning to China from the US in 2009, he held three consecutive CTO positions, the most recent with Wancloud. Haifeng has an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland and an MEng in Automation from Tsinghua University.

Jae Kwon is the CEO and Founder of Tendermint and Cosmos Network. He is also President of the Interchain Foundation, established to develop open-source software and protocols for the “Internet of Blockchains”. As an integral facet of the Cosmos ecosystem, Jae oversees development of IRIS Network. Jae holds a BS in Computer Science from Cornell University.  

Tom Tao serves as VP of Wanxiang Blockchain and is responsible for consulting services, the Wancloud BaaS Platform, and the ChainBase project accelerator. Prior to joining Wanxiang, Tom served in both managerial and executive roles at IBM and Hewlett-Packard. He holds an MS in Physics from Fudan University.

The IRIS Network team includes 30 members in total, 25 of whom are developers. There are six advisors currently supporting the project. Among them are Yubo Ruan, Founder of 8 Decimal Capital, and Adrian Brink, Core Developer and Head of Community at Tendermint/Cosmos.

IRIS Network ICO Strengths and Opportunities

The team behind IRIS Network has already successfully developed blockchain products, including Blockchain Edge Analytics Network (BEAN), a permissioned chain for distributed data analysis in the health care sector. IRIS Network will incorporate this an instance of this product into the service layer as a tool to obtain data for analytics models.

Enterprise users of the proprietary chain will have access to external sources of data offered by other participants on the network, enabling use cases such as a secure, distributed AI-training through IRIS Hub.

The whitepaper presents a theoretical example of a consortium chain between a hospital and a medical insurance company to illustrate this use case- medical insurance claims can be written to the ledger while statistical data for research is collected in a secure manner and invoked by 3rd parties in return for a reward.

Because IRIS Network and Cosmos are integrated, the service layer can be invoked from any blockchain within the ecosystem. While IRIS Network is referred to as a regional hub, this does not limit access to services in anyway. Regional participants will connect to the network via IRIS Hub, but the services are universally available. On the network itself, the team has made significant progress and the testnet is currently accessible to the public.  

IRIS Network ICO Weaknesses and Threats

The value add IRIS Network brings to the Cosmos ecosystem will only hold weight insofar as Cosmos itself is utilized to connect disparare blockchains. This interdependence means the trajectories of each network are largely intertwined.

The Cosmos ICO was conducted in April 2017 but the mainnet has still not launched. With the Cosmos mainnet release TBD, it’s unclear at this stage which instance will launch first. Further, there is no shortage of interoperability-focused networks competing for users, with several established projects leading the way.  

While parent company Bianjie has purportedly been working with several enterprises on the development and deployment of BEAN, IRIS Network has not announced any agreements to pilot use of the public network.

The existing partners using Bianjie’s proprietary chain could hold some potential as future users, but in and of themselves don’t signal any real demand for the public network.

With a team comprised almost entirely of developers, resources for marketing and building interest among the target demographic of B2B users are limited. Without dedicated resources to raise awareness in the community and among potential enterprise customers, the network will see little adoption.

The Verdict on the IRIS Network ICO

The IRIS Network ICO offers a comprehensive foundation for an integrated network of interoperable blockchains. Through the iServices layer, a multitude of use case scenarios become possible through new configurations of public and private chains. The multi-token model and provision of a developer-friendly SDK serve to further facilitate this aim through ease of adoption.

While efforts to market the project appear limited, the team has made significant progress on development of the network. With a finished product on the horizon, now is the right time to start building a user base.  

Additional Information

We have been in discussions with the IRIS Network ICO team and our ratings are based on conversations and information that they have asked us to keep confidential. Please note that our review does take into consideration the token data that has been shared with us, but we have been specifically requested not to share the token metrics that we have seen at this point. We will share them as soon as they are made available by the team.

As a Top 10% rated ICO, we will look to make a small bet on the IRIS Network ICO.

Learn more about the IRIS ICO from our Telegram Community by clicking here.

IRIS NETWORK ICO REVIEW SCORES

SUMMARY

The IRIS ICO joins the crowd of protocols seeking to create interoperable blockchains – which is not a bad thing. Clearly there will be no ‘one chain to rule them all’, and therefore solutions that allow for disparate blockchains to communicate effectively will be in high demand as enterprise adoption increases. IRIS is adding integration to legacy business systems which, theoretically, should allow for mainstream usage before the developing blockchain ecosystem is mature. If IRIS can onboard major clients at an earlier stage than other interoperability solutions, it should have a competitive advantage. But right now, we are concerned this advantage may be squandered: there is built-in dependence on the Cosmos network, and little visible evidence that the dev-heavy team is maximising a key advantage by onboarding partners. They have the right idea, and sometimes that’s enough – but it’s all about who buys in.

Founding Team……………………….7.5

Product…………………………………..8.2

Token Utility…………………………..6.5

Market…………………………………..7.8

Competition…………………………..5.0

Timing……………………………………6.5

Progress To Date……………………7.0

Community Support & Hype…..6.2

Price & Token Distribution……..6.0

Communication……………………..8.1

FINAL SCORE……………………….7.0

Upsides

• Significant progress already made toward mainnet launch
• Team has prior experience building blockchain solutions for enterprises
• Availability of strong tech resources to support development

Downsides

• Team is almost exclusively comprised of devs
• No pilot-projects or partnerships have been announced

Today’s Date: 9/15/18

Project Name: IRIS Network

Token Symbol: IRIS

Website: https://www.irisnet.org/#

White Paper: IRIS Network Whitepaper

Additional Information: https://t.me/irisnetwork

The team at Crypto Briefing analyzes an initial coin offering (ICO) against ten criteria, as shown above. These criteria are not, however, weighted evenly – our proprietary rating system attributes different degrees of importance to each of the criteria, based on our experience of how directly they can lead to the success of the ICO in question, and its investors.

Crypto Briefing provides general information about cryptocurrency news, ICOs, and blockchain technology. The information on this website (including any websites or files that may be linked or otherwise accessed through this website) is provided solely as general information to the public. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice.

Decentral Media LLC, the publisher of Crypto Briefing, is not an investment advisor and does not offer or provide investment advice or other financial advice.  Accordingly, nothing on this website constitutes, or should be relied on as, investment advice or financial advice of any kind. Specifically, none of the information on this website constitutes, or should be relied on as, a suggestion, offer, or other solicitation to engage in, or refrain from engaging in, any purchase, sale, or any other any investment-related activity with respect to any ICO or other transaction.

The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media LLC makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media LLC expressly disclaims any and all responsibility from any loss or damage of any kind whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from reliance on any information on or accessed through this website, any error, omission, or inaccuracy in any such information, or any action or inaction resulting therefrom.

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain are emerging technologies that carry inherent risks of high volatility, and ICOs can be highly speculative and offer few – if any – guarantees. You should never make an investment decision on an ICO or other investment based solely on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional of your choosing if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO or other investment.

See full terms and conditions for more.

Founding Team

This category accounts for the leaders, developers, and advisors.

Poor quality, weak, or inexperienced leadership can doom a project from the outset. Advisors who serve only to pad their own resumes and who have ill-defined roles can be concerning. But great leadership, with relevant industry experience and contacts, can make the difference between a successful and profitable ICO, and a flub.

If you don’t have a team willing and able to build the thing, it won’t matter who is at the helm. Good talent is hard to find. Developer profiles should be scrutinized to ensure that they have a proven history of working in a field where they should be able to succeed.

Product

What is the technology behind this ICO, what product are they creating, and is it new, innovative, different – and needed?

The IOTA project is a spectacular example of engineers run amok. The technology described or in use must be maintainable, achievable, and realistic, otherwise the risk of it never coming into existence is incredibly high.

Token Utility

Tokens which have no actual use case are probably the worst off, although speculation can still make them have some form of value.

The best tokens we review are the ones that have a forced use case – you must have this token to play in some game that you will probably desire to play in. The very best utility tokens are the ones which put the token holder in the position of supplying tokens to businesses who would be able to effectively make use of the platforms in question.

Market

There doesn’t have to be a market in order for an ICO to score well in this category – but if it intends to create one, the argument has to be extremely compelling.

If there is an existing market, questions here involve whether it is ripe for disruption, whether the technology enables something better, cheaper, or faster (for example) than existing solutions, and whether the market is historically amenable to new ideas.

Competition

Most ideas have several implementations. If there are others in the same field, the analyst needs to ensure that the others don’t have obvious advantages over the company in question.

Moreover, this is the place where the analyst should identify any potential weaknesses in the company’s position moving forward. For instance, a fundamental weakness in the STORJ system is that the token is not required for purchasing storage.

Timing

With many ICO ideas, the timing may be too late or too early. It’s important for the analyst to consider how much demand there is for the product in question. While the IPO boom funded a lot of great ideas that eventually did come to fruition, a good analyst would recognize when an idea is too early, too late, or just right.

Progress To Date

Some of the least compelling ICO propositions are those that claim their founders will achieve some far-off goal, sometime in the future, just so long as they have your cash with which to do it.

More interesting (usually) is the ICO that seeks to further some progress along the path to success, and which has a clearly-identified roadmap with achievable and reasonable milestones along the way. Founders who are already partially-invested in their products are generally more invested in their futures.

Community Support & Hype

Having a strong community is one of the fundamental building blocks of any strong blockchain project. It is important that the project demonstrates early on that it is able to generate and build a strong and empowered support base.

The ICO marketplace is becoming more crowded and more competitive. While in the past it was enough to merely announce an offering, today’s successful ICO’s work hard to build awareness and excitement around their offering.

Price & Token Distribution

One of the biggest factors weighing any analysis is price. The lower the price the more there is to gain. But too low of a price may result in an under capitalized project. It is therefore important to evaluate price relative to the individual project, its maturity and the market it is going after.

The total supply of tokens should also be justified by the needs of the project. Issuing a billion tokens for no reason will do nobody any good.

Communication

Communication is key. The success of a project is strongly tied to the project leaders’ ability to communicate their goals and achievements.

Things don’t always go as planned but addressing issues and keeping the community and investors in the loop can make or break a project.

Share this article