Today we are going to take a look at the ICO for COTI (currency of the internet), which is due to get underway shortly.

COTI is a decentralised payments network for global commerce using multiple digital currencies.

The planned system will incorporate a range of innovative technologies including a consensus model, a trust scoring engine, automatic mediation system, and currency exchange. The system will provide instantaneous transfers, low fees, and enhanced protections for both buyer and seller.

Markets

It is estimated that by 2020 online payments will exceed USD 4 trillion. In-store mobile payments are growing apace at up to 80% a year and are expected to reach $500 billion by 2020.

Currently, decentralised online payment systems are finding it difficult to cope with the rapidly increasing volume and speed, especially so with digital currencies. Despite various attempts to achieve high throughputs regarding transactions per second (TPS), performance falls well short of what is required.

Other problems with existing systems include:

· High credit card fees

· Extended settlement periods

· No shared trust mechanisms — credit scored cannot be transferred across platforms.

· No multi-currency support in that credit cards don’t support digital currencies, and users have no control over exchange rates.

COTI will provide an alternative payment system that will offer merchants and consumers a much-improved experience. The system will include:

· Instantaneous payments using blockchain technology

· A global trust engine for assigning trust scores facilitating decision making and setting transaction fees

· An algorithmic mediation system for resolving disputes

· Currency exchange integration

Technology

COTI uses a DAG-based system (directed acrylic graph) mooted to be to be “Blockchain 3” (Ethereum being “Blockchain 2”). It differs from conventional blockchain in that there are no fixed blocks and each transaction provides its own proof of work by including a hash of previous transactions. Links between transactions form the DAG.

With DAG, scalability increases with network usage: the more users there are, the faster the rate of transaction confirmations. There are no miners. Instead, there are mediators who are rewarded with COTI tokens for their work.

Token distribution

During the initial stages, the maximum number of COTI tokens will be limited to 2,000,000,000 (two billion). Of these. 30% will be made available for public sale. Tokens will be distributed as follows:

· Public sale: 30%

· Reserve: 22%

· Team members: 15%

· Advisors and backers: 10%

· Incentivisation: 13%

· Liquidity: 10%

An additional 2,000,000,000 (two billion) tokens will also be created and locked away. This is because the DAG structure makes it impossible to generate further COTI tokens following the initial token minting operation. The additional 2 billion coins are to allow the COTI network to introduce more tokens into the supply at some future date.

Timeline

COTI began in 2017 and has been pursuing its main goals of the DAG data structure, merchant API, trust scoring and mediation mechanisms. Future milestones include:

· Q4 2018: Prototypes of consumer wallet, payment system functionality, double spend protection, trust scoring, and a testnet launch.

· Q2 2019: Launch of consumer wallet; full nodes launch; trust score server launch; and mainnet launch.

· Q4 2019: international users and anti-money laundering measures; decentralised mediation; iFrame payment tool for merchants; currency exchange.

· 2020: debit card launch; hedging services; and recurring billing.

· 2021: Additional merchant services; funding third-party development projects; open to third-party payment networks

ICO

Although a total of 4 billion tokens will be created in a genesis event, just 600 million will be available on public sale, which starts on 15th June 2018 and ends on 1st July 2018. Important points include:

· Token: COTI (ERC 20)

· Price: 1 COTI = $0.1 USD

· Accepted currencies: BTC, ETH, USD, EUR

· Maximum coins: 2 billion (plus an additional 2 billion in reserve)

· Available for public sale: 600 million.

· Sale starts: 15th June 2018

· Ends: 1st July 2018

ICO Ratings

The ICO has received generally very good ratings from ICO review sites, including the following:-

• ICO Bench: 3.9/5
• Track ICO: 5/5
• ICO Marks: 8.8/10
• ICO Bazaar: 4.5/5

Overall then a strong set of ratings for Coti from the sites that have reviewed it.

Conclusion

There are quite a few payment-related crypto projects, including TenX, Monaco, Bankera and Crypterium, so Coti is entering a crowded space with a lot of competition.

However, it appears to be a solid project with a lot of work having gone into it over the last couple of years, so it would appear to be well placed to succeed.

The main risk is that other players who are already established will grab a big market share through first mover advantage, but it’s a large market so hopefully Coti can still grab their own portion of it.

Overall it looks like a good project and this is reflected in the positive ICO reviews it has received.

You can can check out the Coti ICO here.