Here's a disclaimer right off the bat:
I have participated in the ongoing TaaS ICO and it's indeed one that seems very interesting to me. This post is written with the intent of sharing opportunities with the community, especially for those looking out to diversify their (preferably) disposable funds. It should also be noted that tokens issued during ICOs be treated as donations, because there are no guaranteed returns. Technology, in my opinion will never completely remove risks inherent in human operators, only mitigate it. Everything expressed here is merely an opinion.
If you're relatively new in the scene, it will be prudent for you read up on the many different token rights and functionalities out there. This article here should prove to be useful - https://www.smithandcrown.com/token-rights/.
So what's up with TaaS?
For better context, let's begin with the introduction copy and video found on their website:-
TaaS is a tokenized closed-end fund designed to reduce the risks and technical barriers of investing in the blockchain space. Built on a profit-sharing smart contract, TaaS introduces an innovative Token-as-a-Service business model, allowing investors to subscribe to the fund’s income stream. TaaS built an innovative Cryptographic Audit technology to become the first, truly transparent fund dedicated to cryptocurrencies and tokens.
After going through their whitepaper, I've come to understand that TaaS is a tokenised closed-end fund, leveraging on a variety of innovations enabled by blockchain technology. Here are some of the key points to the project:-
Funds are managed centrally by the TaaS team, but it will be fully transparent, auditable, and its records, tamper-proof.
The team will diversify the closed-end funds into other blockchain assets to seek out quarter-to-quarter profits, in which 50% will be distributed to token holders, 25% as fund re-investment, and 25% as company earnings (note: company is not related to token holders). There are some finer details to their survive-and-thrive strategy in the whitepaper, and you should check it out, if interested. Update: in bad-cases of market bleeding all quarter, the TaaS fund actually has a reserve fund in the range of 10%-30% to continue re-investing.I think this simple reserve fund mechanism ensures longevity of the funds to acquire even small amounts of profits over a long period of time.
This tokenised service seems to come with an initial premium of 15% and an on-going premium of 25% on quarterly profits. Personally, I think it's on the high side considering that blockchain technology is supposed to reduce intermediary fees. However, I also believe that the TaaS team are innovative players and will put such premiums to good use in improving the blockchain space. In time, such actions should improve the value of the TaaS token. That said, they are also developing a Bloomberg-like cryptocurrency portfolio management and analytics platform that goes by the name Kepler.
I will not have to worry about keeping many different coins in different wallets out of my individual effort to diversify. Convenience and the freedom of time is important. I think TaaS is providing a solution that is innovative enough for me to risk some capital. There are opportunity costs involved in spending too much time managing the waves of both minor and major altcoins. Their team of ~10 people should do a decent enough job in this game.
How to acquire TaaS tokens?
There's an on-going Initial Coin Offering (ICO) at the moment that will end in a few days. You will receive less bonus tokens at the moment, so that may be undesirable for you. Personally, I think the bonus gaps aren't too large and asset values that went up over the course of this ICO may offset the lower bonus. In any case, tokens will also be available at select exchanges after the ICO ends.
For more information
I'm really quite impressed with their whitepaper and appreciate their design choices. So I'd suggest a full read on it: http://taas.fund/media/whitepaper.pdf. It makes for a good coffee break companion.
But as usual, my opinions and belief in the project comes only from checking out all of their presented materials. I may be completely off about plenty of matters because of my limited time and knowledge in such matters. For more details, please check out https://taas.fund.
If you're seeking out for what I consider to be a good in-depth assessment on the project, check out Crypto Judgement's article here: https://medium.com/@cryptojudgement/token-as-a-service-closed-end-blockchain-fund-interview-with-co-founder-90601b12cd9f
Thoughts? Other similar projects?
I'm always looking out to be informed about my shortsightedness, if any. So feel free to knock me on my head if I'm missing any important due diligence matters in any of these articles in which I offer my thoughts on projects that I support. Also, effective crypto-diversification is something that I'm into, so please inform me if there's anything innovative in this space.