Opportunities:
Request is the first ICO project incubated by YCombinator. YCombinator has funded over 1,400 startups and those companies have a combined valuation of over $80 billion.
The problem that Request is trying to solve is huge so the upside is substantial if Request can deliver on its vision.
The other company that the team is running, Moneytis, has received 6 rounds of funding from 2015 to 2017. This could be an indicator that the company is growing throughout the years, which speaks to the execution skills of the team.
Network effect is present. The more people use Request Network, the more valuable the platform becomes.
Concerns:
Request has not released any proof of concepts for their product, so this is a white paper project. The only two milestones prior to the ICO are “release final draft of white paper” and “launch the Request Network website”.
All the team members are working on Moneytis and Request at the same time. It is unclear how the team allocates their time between the two projects.
Since peer to peer payment is the backbone of cryptocurrency, the project faces competition from many blockchain projects in one way or another: Status, Metal, Monetha, OmiseGO, Everex, TenX, Monaco, Centra, Token Card, Pillar, and many others.
20,000 Ether was sold to early investors and strategic partners with 20% bonus (this is not part of the 100,000 ETH hard cap). This may create selling pressure once tokens are listed, as those participants are willing to sell at a lower price than people who contribute in the public crowdsale.
Conclusion:
Overall, we like this ICO for its short-term potential but are neutral about its long-term potential. Our thoughts of the tokens for short term and long term are as follows:
For short-term holding:
Good. The project, being the first YCombinator-backed company going through an ICO, created a lot of market awareness. It is expected that the company needs to close the whitelist early to avoid too many participants so there should be unmet demand.
For long-term holding:
Neutral. The project is at a very early stage, essentially a white paper idea. The white paper is attractive with many use cases, but it is unclear if the team can deliver on their promises.
