This review deals with a very interesting startup project that is aimed at helping brands to protect themselves and their Intellectual Property rights as much as possible for the purpose of elimination fake items (counterfeits) and retain their exclusive design and clients. The name of this project is SEAL.
It must be noted that at present there is no dedicated platform based on blockchain mechanisms that can provide proper protection of licensed products within the PRIMARY and SECONDARY markets in the context of geopolitical scale. SEAL project team may be considered as early adopters thus attracting institutional investors and private individuals who invest money in the form of ICO - a new way of fundraising through issuing the utility crypto tokens of the project. Let us look into the essence of this powerful undertaking.
Website: https://seal.network/
Whitepaper: https://seal.network/seal-whitepaper.pdf
Why SEAL?
The most significant problem for the companies is keeping the loyal brand consumer and the perception of quality and value attached to a specific brand. Maintaining the exclusivity of the products and their image are related to the main challenges for brand-customer relationships nowadays. Sometimes fake items are becoming a real alternative for the adventure-seeking customer due to the fact that counterfeited goods are of acceptable quality and even can be produced by dishonest partners within the same production plants.
SEAL wants to bring back confidence to consumers by introducing the best way for anyone to check if a product is genuine or fake thus allowing brands to tackle the global counterfeit issue. For this purpose SEAL PLATFORM has been introduced:
SEAL PLATFORM consists of THREE CORE ELEMENTS which supplement each other in terms of functionality. These elements are as follows:
▶️ NFC CHIPS providing products authenticity check due to embedding into physical products, Seal application, and Seal Network. NFC chips in combination with Seal Network cannot be copied thus providing brands and clients with a possibility to appraise the authenticity of the product within several seconds just using the smartphone;
▶️ SEAL APPLICATION for checking authenticity by scanning Seal NFC chips, which are embedded in the products. Working version of Seal Application (Android and iOS friendly) includes such functions as ownership transfers, inventory management, and authenticity checks;
▶️ SEAL NETWORK - unique database for communication with major brands where Seal Tokens serve as the communication medium between network and brand applications thus allowing the service for long-term operation. All transactions are recorded and validated by its nodes.
Seal will provide such major services within its network: authenticity verification (implemented), ownership transfer, theft-prevention, product analytics, custom integration, product recalls, tracking the origin of the product. Furthermore, Seal technology will be integrated into such websites like eBay and Amazon for products verification before being listed.
SEAL TOKENS and ICO TERMS
Seal project has issued Seal Token serving as a utility cryptocurrency in the decentralized smart network that works in conjunction with NFC-chips and used by consumers and brands as a payment method for services or certain activities related to the loyalty system. Payments with Seal tokens allow for smoother transactions in a cost-effective manner and maintain the decentralized authenticity platform in terms of providing sellers and buyers guaranteed exchange of authentic goods. The Seal token is built on top of Ethereum network and ERC20 compatible.
The major utility of the Seal token can be represented by such main applications:
👉 Setting up decentralized apps for brands;
👉 Creation of value in Seal Network by linking to the brand's products;
👉 Powering Seal Network by enabling low-fees payments within the ecosystem;
👉 Ability to expand the functionality of the platform by including more functions such as voting rights or other token holder incentives.
👉 Low payment fees within the network;
👉 Increasing the usability of the tokens (thus its value) due to network effects (adoption of the platform by more brands).
ICO is ongoing at the moment and early institutional and private investors (at a presale stage) are eligible to receive 4 types of bonuses depending on the investment amount and the 5th type is negotiated on the individual basis.
Main sale is scheduled to be started on the 13th of May 2018 and in case if any tokens are left unsold they will be distributed to all token sale participants proportionally. Buyers will be required to go through KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) procedures and provide Ethereum addresses.
▶️TOKEN SYMBOL: SEAL
▶️TOTAL SUPPLY: 1,200,000,000
▶️AMOUNT FOR SALE: 492,000,000
▶️SOFT CAP: 33,000,000 SEAL
▶️HARD CAP: 492,000,000 SEAL
▶️TOKEN PRICE: 1 SEAL = 0.08 USD
▶️MINIMUM INVESTMENT: 0.1 ETH
▶️PURCHASE METHOD: ETH
Project Team & Advisors
The team is not large but seems to be quite experienced in such types of projects and related fields: blockchain, business development, quantum security, media, marketing, mobile applications, software engineering. The value of the team is contributed by carefully chosen advisors which can really facilitate the process of the project development. Experience of advisors are impressive and this can be viewed as an evidence of serious intentions of the developers. You can familiarize with the team members and advisors on the official website ( https://seal.network/about.html) or by reading the whitepaper (p. 60).
Conclusions
We deal with a very promising undertaking that can result in real changes in the way how brands protect their rights and Intellectual Property in the context of counterfeiting. Implementation of the NFC chips will give the possibility to eliminate lack of transparency and resolve a lot of issues related to fake products both in the primary and secondary markets.The tokenized version of physical products will allow for transferring ownership, theft prevention, and insurance. Furthermore, brands will be able to earn money from items sold in the secondhand market. Seal project is worth investigating in more details because the unique and innovative approach to interactions between brands and customers can really lead to decreasing counterfeits production that is why I would conclude that this undertaking is very encouraging in terms of high returns on investments so let us keep tracking the progress of fundraising and advertising campaigns.
PROJECT CONTACT DETAILS:
Website: https://seal.network/
Whitepaper: https://seal.network/seal-whitepaper.pdf
Telegram: https://t.me/sealnetwork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/seal_network
Bitcointalk ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2929809.0
The author of the article (on Bitcointalk):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1144629
Any feedback on Seal project would be really appreciated. Thank you!