ICO ZED Network project review

Name: ZED Network

Token Symbol: ZED

Web: https://​zed​.network/

GitHub:https://​www​.github​.com/​z​e​d​n​e​t​w​ork

Documentation: White paper, Investor Desk

ICO status : processing

• pre sale: June 30‐August 30, 2018, completed
• private sale: 30 September‐30 December 2018
• public sale: 30 September‐30 December 2019

ZED — utility‐token, which is based on Stellar with the ability to connect to payment methods BTC and ETH. The company is registered in Canada. 100 million tokens were issued, but only 21 million were put up for sale.

The price of tokens is $ 0.03, there are bonuses for early investors up to 50% (on pre‐sale and Private sale the entry threshold is $2000 — $50 000), on public sale you can enter without bonuses and a minimum limit. They accept USD, TC, ETH, CAD, XLM.

There is a lock‐period for 5 million tokens with gradual unlocking for 5 years. The company also offers bonuses for token holder, which will hold the tokens for 1.2 and 3 years (10%, 20% and 30%, respectively).

Project Summary

The ZED Network is a platform that connects money transfer operators (MTO) around the world and provides instant money transfers with using ZED Tokens. The company provides MTO with for free the necessary software with web and mobile applications, back office administrator and all the necessary built‐in tools. In comparison with other money transfer platforms, Zed Network is positioned as a budget, instant, transparent, integrated solution on the blockchain.

The problem that Zed Network solves is real: the volume of cross‐border payments is estimated at $ 600 billion per year. 25% of these payments are controlled by Western Union and 3 major companies, the remaining 75% — many small and medium‐sized companies. The average fee for cross‐border transfer is now about 7 – 8% of the amount. If the transfer goes through the Bank, the Commission will be lower, but the transfer period may increase to several days. Blockchain solutions can make cross‐border transfers fast and cheap: we wrote more about this in the article «Blockchain opportunities for banks».

ZED competes with Ripple in creating a payment system on the blockchain. The main difference between ZED from the Ripple, as far as we can judge from the White Paper, in their targeting at small and medium‐sized operators. It is obvious that the choice of the Stellar blockchain is not accidental (this network was created by one of the Ripple co‐founders Jed McCaleb, and it is positioned as the main competitor of Ripple).

Where Does Blockchain Come in?

Thanks to the blockchain, the ZED network eliminates dependence on banks in favor of a global network of participants. To participate in ZED, a member must obtain a license. Due to the high speed and low cost of transactions in blockchain networks, ZED promises to create a faster, cheaper and transparent money transfer network.

Project Team

CEO of ZED Project is Alan Safahi (Alan Safahi), who is presented as a CEO of the payment system Zip‐Zap (there is confirmationon the website), as well as an adviser to several other projects, including Ripple, which is mentioned in Wikipedia.

Financial director Chris Seidensticker is presented in LinkedIn as a person with 15 years of experience in Silicon valley, consultant Waggle Ventures, and several other projects. It’s a little weird that he’s listed everywhere as an independent financial consultant, and only on the ZED website he is mentioned as a financial director.

Among advisors Michael Terpin (investor, whose $24 million cryptocurrency was stolen), Aly Madhavji — adviser Polymath and other projects.

Overall, the team seems good, but with the exception of the CEO, not too sterry.

Friendliness to the Investors

It is very strange that there is no White paper (WP) on the official website of the project. The link to WP is attached in the header of the project’s Telegram chat. There are 7500 investors in the chat, but the questions are answered very reluctantly, mostly they sent to read WP.

Positive Indicators

1. The viable idea and blockchain is used reasonably
2. A test network has been launched and the main launch of network is scheduled on October 30.
3. The good team
4. There are preconditions for creation of a deficit of the tokens (Lock‐period for the part of the tokens; bonuses for those who hold the ZED than 1 year).

Negative Indicators

1. There is no Yellow Paper.
2. There is no the legal expertise.
3. It has many information on the website, there are no WP and links to LinkedIn accounts of team members.
4. Scarce WP on 23 page in Google doc.
5. There are no large partners.
6. Low friendliness to investors
7. It has a very stretched crowdsale, causing a lot of questions. The terms of the crowdsale specified on the ICO‐trackers do not coincide with the terms in WP. On some resources, for example here, the ICO is listed as completed.
8. It is unclear when ZED is planned to be listed on exchanges.

Summing Up

After studying the project leaves a double impression. On the one hand, there is a working idea and CEO gas a good experience in this field, on the other hand — a lot of ambiguities. It seems that the ICO was prepared in a hurry. For short‐term investors, the project is hardly interesting because of the vague prospects of listing and stretched token sale. For the long‐term‐everything will depend on how the company implements its plans. Given the fact that the team has not clarified the situation, we put 5 of 10.

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