The value proposition of Nousplatform is that it has advantages for both fund managers and investors. I’ll recap those advantages, and then will briefly discuss some of the implications.
On their website, Nousplatform has outlined seven main advantages for fund managers:
*Provides a technical framework for creating and managing investment funds
*Allows funds to issue tokens to their investors
*Allows tokenization of assets from other economic sectors, such as real estate
*Automated metrics and reporting regarding fund performance
*Allows funds to set up dividend payouts
*Automates calculation and payment of commissions to fund managers
*Provides a head start on marketing, as the Nousplatform community can easily find funds that use the platform.
Additionally, Nousplatform has a number of advantages for investors:
*Allows investors to identify and buy tokens of the best performance funds or projects on the platform
*Allows easy diversification by enabling investors to invest small amounts of capital in multiple funds
*Provides full transparency into the current holdings and past performance of each fund
*Allows users to easily trade tokens issued on Nousplatform
With traditional investment funds, managing a fund at small scale simply doesn’t work. The overhead is too expensive, leaving smaller fund managers unable to charge reasonable fees and still make a profit. As a result, investors are faced with limited choices and no access to many of the best potential managers.
In addition, even if an extremely skilled small manager does offer participation in a fund, there are issues of trust. Performance metrics can be misleading, holdings data is not up to date, minimum investments are too high to allow diversification among funds and there’s even a slight risk of dishonest fund managers committing fraud against their investors.
By providing a transparent platform that operates on the blockchain, Nousplatform eliminates most of these concerns from the world of cryptocurrency fund management and allows investors to invest with confidence in the best funds, regardless of the scale of the fund or the size of the investor’s bankroll.
For those wondering about the timeline for Nousplatform, the roadmap currently posted on their website highlights some important upcoming dates:
*March-May 2018: Launch of beta version of the Nousplatform on the Ethereum Testnet and initial testing and pilot investment funds
*June 2018: Release of the Nousplatform. Integration with Bancor protocol.
*August-September 2018: Launch of beta for decentralized exchange (DEX) and development of the API for escrow and third-party service integration with smart contracts.
*October 2018: Development and integration of third-party solutions and services to purchase NSU tokens using fiat currency
*November 2018 – December 2018: Launch of bet integration API for third-party services
I’m itching to see what happens once Nousplatform launches. I suspect that there will be a somewhat viral component to it’s growth. The earliest adopters are likely to be individuals interested in running their own funds, but without the resources to do so without assistance. They’ll be drawn to Nousplatform, as it provides tools to handle much of the overhead of running a fund. As they promote their funds and seek publicity for them, their customers will be exposed to Nousplatform, and some of those customers will create their own funds in turn. A natural viral cycle will take place.