Announcing the GET Protocol: public pre-sale and general crowdsale
Raising funds to develop and roll out the smart ticketing GET Protocol is of course the main reason why GUTS Tickets has decided to conduct an ICO. Claiming that acquiring funding isn't the main motivator for this whole endevour would be a pretty foolish and unconvincing argument to make to say the least. However, there is a second important motivator that drew GUTS to choose this particular funding route. Doing an ICO allows GUTS Tickets to involve a community of like minded advocates and innovative industry stakeholders to the project and offer them the opportunity to get invested and buy into our shared vision of a more fair and transparent ticketing industry.
This community of advocates in combination with the raised ICO funds and the value guaranteeing properties of the GET Protocol's own token, will form the trident of change with which we'll impale the stagnant giants in the event ticketing space.
Community first
When it comes to building a sustainable community it is not only crucial that our communities members are not only large in numbers but also that there is a healthy distribution in the individual stakes in the project. To guide the formation of such a healthy stake distribution GUTS Tickets has decided to conduct a public pre-sale preceding the general crowdsale. The total amount raised during the public pre-sale round will total €500.000. Both ICO rounds will be available for white-listed* contributors only! In this blog first the why behind the choice for this ICO form will be covered followed by how it will work mechanically/contractually.
Please consider all the provided information and be careful with making assumptions. GUTS is taking a slightly different approach than is common in the ICO space, this is deliberate as we don't only aim to raise funds but also want showcase our capabilities as a team and a company. In our view this ICO is not a endpoint but is the starting point of a journey that will bring actual change to the ticketing industry. To make it a convincing start for all involved we have set up an special ICO application that will demonstrate that an ICO can be much more than just the usual 'send ETH and hope for the best'-investor experience.
*Whitelisting means that the address used to send Ether will should be known to GUTS before sending the funds to the crowdsale contract. Make sure to be on the whitelist by filling in the form here.
Cutting to the chase
If you don’t have time for what is going to be a somewhat long winded opus magnum style blog-post, which I personally would find unfortunate but admittedly understandable. I would suggest to only read the bare bone information on both crowd-sales that summarized in the bullet points in the segment below. While these two bullet points will contain the basic information needed to participate in the GET Protocol ICO, I do strongly advise to read further and understand the nuances and intention behind it all.
IMPORTANT NOTE: For both the pre-sale as the public sale GUTS will use an ICO Application which will communicate the contribution address to the ICO contributor. This address will be shown when it is the turn of the contributor and thus this address will be served dynamically. It is simply not possible to find/receive/ask the contribution address of the GET-protocol ICO via email, Slack, Rocket Chat or where ever else on the internet. Do not be fooled or scammed, only trust the contribution address provided to you via the the GET ICO application (which will be hosted on the guts.tickets domain).
Registration on our ICO application is necessity in order to participate and failing to do so will result in your funds being returned/rejected. If you have not yet applied for our whitelist it isn't too late you can still do so on our website.
Summary 1 | The public pre-sale
- On Wednesday 25 October at 13:00 CEST GUTS Tickets will be conducting a public pre-sale round for the GET-protocol.
- In total 135.1351 will be sold in during this sale.
- Per whitelisted contributor address the maximal contribution is 6 ETH.
- How much GET can be bought per Ether will be locked-in and based on the average ETH/EUR price on 24 October 13:00 CEST.
- The ICO application will be hosted from the guts.tickets domain.
Summary 2 | The general crowdsale
- On Wednesday 15 November at 13:00 CEST the mayor token sale will take place in which the remaining tokens will be sold.
- How much GET can be bought per Ether will be both dependent on the ICO price tier that is active at that point in the sale as well as the locked-in ETH/EUR price on 14 November 13:00 CEST.
- More information about the general crowdsale will be announced in a separate blog post soon. All information about that sale stated here however, is final and correct.
- The ICO application will be hosted from the guts.tickets domain.
The WHY | We are in it for the long run
GUTS Tickets has been operational as a blockchain based ticketing company since 2016, if funding would have been the sole goal in this ICO we would long have opened the all to familiar ICO trick box by now; a reasonable looking LaTeX whitepaper, followed by a minimal viable product that seems to work on the surface(scaling and security can't be too hard, we'll see as we go right?!). Topping it off with a several paid public endorsements/advisers, creating some well-timed hype with some non-binding commercial sounding deal/partnership just before that grand finale-piece: the publication of a contribution address in clear text on your website.
Making up the score
In the weeks preceding this announcement GUTS Tickets has demonstrated to the public that the team is able to handle intense ticket sales and is able to improve its application with real-word feedback. The company showed it is able to convince important industry advisers like the manager of Martin Garrix to join the advisers board and last but not least close an contractual ticketing deal that will guarantee actual real-world utility for the protocol's GET token. How we move forward from here is partially laid out in this post detailing our roadmap.
Guaranteed protocol exchange rate
If you have studied the GET-protocol you'll most likely be are aware of the fact that the GET token has a guaranteed exchange rate of €0.50/GET for which the protocol's Stability Fund will buy-back the token. This demand for the token comes from event organizers that are using the protocol for smart-ticketing, like for example Hekwerk, an already on-boarded event organizer that alone is responsible for 350.000 tickets on a yearly basis. And we are just getting started on that front…
If you want to know more about the mechanics of this price bottom consult this blog or of course the GET Protocol white paper itself.
Talk legal to me
If the Dutch are known for anything besides our weed policy(420 blaze itttt) or our liberal viewpoints on prostitution it is for our down to earth viewpoint on life. It is for this exact reason that we are not going to pretend here that everybody participating in this ICO is doing so with pure holistic intentions in mind or out of some religious crusade against Ticketmaster. Of course there are contributors in this ICO that are motivated by values that transcend profit maximization alone, I’ll have you know that I consider myself to be one of these enlightened individuals, just for the record.
All that aside, the legal status of the token is extremely vital for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost it should to clear that the Guaranteed Entrance Token(GET) is considered a utility. On Monday (23/10) a blog dedicated on this legal matter will be published on this blog.
The HOW | The GET ICO Application
As should be apparent by now, we here at GUTS are approaching the ICO from a somewhat different angle as is common in the crypto scene. As such we have decided to use an self-built ICO application that will manage the queued up contributors for the ICO, the app will streamline and manage the flow of incoming contributions by selectively serving contribution addresses to queued up contributors. In addition it will provide users with live metrics on how the ICO is progressing.
No worries, we've done this before
On the surface it could seem like an unnecessary risk to use a newly developed app for your one and only ICO but when you break the ICO app and the smart ticketing app down to the bare components they deliver upon you'll find that both apps rely on the exact same technical fundamentals the GUTS teams excels in delivering. Whether its selling smart tickets like we do in our sandbox or in real life, it technically all comes down to serving the right piece of data at the right moment to a certain web session. In addition, by showcasing this ICO application we are able to show our contributors we are more then just a nice fancy LateX whitepaper and a cool looking website. Our ticketing code base app has proven it can handle some heat and manage a queue, as well as gathering and processing data and of course dynamically informing you all how quick it sold out! ;)
How the ICO Application works
How the queuing works
The application used during the public pre-sale as well as during the general crowdsale will use the ethereum address of the whitelisted contributor as main identifier for the spot in the queue. Trying to skip in line by sending funds to a contribution address that was served to a contributor that is ahead of you in the queue is pointless as the crowdsale contract will reject your contribution as it will not recognize the address as whitelisted (yet).
Your position in the queue is completely dependent on the moment you submitted the INITIAL whitelist request on our website. This is the only ranking criteria that will be employed by the app in assigning your spot in the queue. So changing your contribution amount will do nothing to change your spot in the queue!
In conclusion
Make sure that the ethereum contribution address with which you intend to eventually contribute to the ICO contract is correct, in the upcoming days we’ll send all contributors that submitted a whitelist request an email in which a link is provided that will allow them to add or update their ethereum contribution address.
At the time of the ETH/EUR price-lock, so on Tuesday 24 13:00 CEST, the day before the public pre-sale, all the data known to us will be finalized/sealed and the whitelist application form will be temporarily closed. So be sure to ensure the data you submitted is correct before that point! If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us at ico@guts.tickets.
If this is your first ICO and you are don't know how to go about all this, rest assured, in upcoming days we'll publish a detailed guide on how to create a secure ethereum wallet.
Secure Contract Code
The contract code that will be used for the ICO is currently under audit of Matthew Di Ferrante (security engineer at the Ethereum Foundation). More information about Matthew's previous audits and our reasoning behind hiring him as auditor can be found in this blogpost. If you want to audit/review the crowdsale contract yourself, this will be possible soon. We will make the repository holding the contracts public and will launch a bug bounty-program to further consolidate the security of the ICO crowdsale contracts.
We hope to see you all tomorrow at Amsterdam Dance Event!
In collaboration with Amsterdam Dance Event and Buma Music meets Tech GUTS Tickets will be hosting a small party in Amsterdam's beautiful Stadsschouwburg! We'll of course be using our own smart ticketing system to distribute the entrance tickets required to meet the GUTS Team!
More about the GET Protocol ICO
If you want know more about the GET Initial Coin Offering, read our white paper, visit ICO website, sign up for our Rocket Chat or get yourself a smart event ticket in our sandbox environment.
