Opportunities:
The artwork trading industry is large ($3 trillion in value with $65 billion worth of arts being traded each year) but is still considered a niche market. It is also very old-fashioned and inefficient, so it is ripe for disruption.
Maecenas is one of the first cofound.it projects and went through the rigorous vetting process employed by cofound.it.
Other than artworks, there is potential for Maecenas to expand into other physical assets including antiques, classic cars, gemstones, vintage liquors, and rarities.
Network effect is present. The more people use the platform, the more valuable the platform is (more liquidity, more selection of artworks).
If Maecenas is able to secure partnership with museums / galleries, then it can increase the value of all the artworks on the Maecenas platform substantially.
Concerns:
Part of the value of a piece of artwork is the ability to enjoy it. Rich people buy expensive artworks partially for the bragging right. With Maecenas, users cannot enjoy the artwork – hang on the wall, see it, touch it physically.
Liquidity for the individual artwork can be an issue. Let’s say you have invested in a painting. If the liquidity for that painting is very thin, it would be hard for you to convert the investment back to ART.
According to LinkedIn, certain team members, including the CEO and CTO, are still working at DXMarkets. It is unclear how they will allocate their time between the two projects.
Conclusion:
Overall, I am neutral about the ICO’s short-term potential but like its long-term potential. With Maecenas, normal people can own an art portfolio by Picasso, Monet, Basquiat, etc.
Our thoughts of the tokens for short term and long term are as follows:
For short-term holding:
Neutral. The project hasn’t generated a lot of awareness in the crypto market yet. It may not be easy for the project to reach its hard cap of $20 million.
For long-term holding:
Good. Maecenas has an innovative business model that is years in the making. More than $100 million worth of artwork is on the pipeline to be tokenized on the Maecenas platform.
If Maecenas becomes a success, I am not surprised if the value of all the artworks on Maecenas is in the billions. The fine arts industry is huge and Maecenas has little competition in this field.
I would consider Maecenas to be a high-risk high-return play.
