I saw this article in Forbes about J.R. Willett, who did the very first ICO back in 2012, and how he's investing a million dollars worth of his own money into the Oct. 16th ICO for UpToken, a new token for the already succesful business, CoinMe ATMs. I skimmed the Whitepaper, and it looks like the tokens themselves are only valuable in the context of using the ATM machines for cryptocurrency transactions. Unless I'm missing something, these tokens cannot be traded on the open market.
The company seems to have a lot going for it. They have been in business since 2014. They have 6 ATMs in the Seattle area (USA), and now see an average of almost $100,000 per month in transactions. That's awesome!
The ICO fundraiser is for a great cause: to expand the ATM network across the U.S., and then eventually into parts of the world where 2 billion people do not have access to banks. This will help the people in those areas and everybody worldwide by helping to fuel the rapidly growing cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The "UP" tokens will have 3 functions:
- To receive a 30% discount on the ATM service fees.
- ATM customers will receive UP tokens as a rewards program for using the service.
- UP holders can use the tokens to vote on business decisions, such as what cryptocurrency to support next.
Its too bad that they didn't offer a % of the ATM profits, or something like that, to add a more general financial incentive for buying and owning the tokens.
I am new to this game, having never participated in an ICO, and am still learning how to evaluate the many ICO proposals. I like the idea of purchasing tokens that have inherent utility beyond just a derivative to trade, in the hopes that its market value magically increases due to human psychology. These UP tokens will have utility, but as far as I can tell, they will only be useful within their ATM service ecosystem; ATMs which I may never see or use. So I wish them success, but only with my heart, and not with my Ether! :)