SKINCOIN - Ambitious but Flawed - ICO on June 21 2017

Caveat:

• As always, take any investment advice you find online as an interesting idea but always do your own research before investing.
• This is also my first ever post on STEEMIT so be gentle.
• SkinCoin is doing their ICO on June 21st. Hope this helps you decide if you want to join.

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At first blush, one would assume that Skincoin (SKIN) is a kin to TITCOIN (may it RIP) as a cryptocurrency based on pornography and adult entertainment.

To be honest, SKIN is more of a cousin of Game Credits (GAME) and PPY (PeerPlays). The value proposition is at the intersection of these two business problems:

• GAME aims to help developers by disintermediating game publishing platforms. The hope is that if developers can get paid directly, guys like Steam will have to lower their margins. This same sort of thinking applies to guys like the Apple Store and the Android Play Store.
• PPY wants to enable gaming worldwide, by created a trusted platform globally for risk lovers. "Gaming" here really means gambling, and PPY aims to power global lottery and other casino related applications.

What SKIN wants to do, is to help people who love computer games gamble with their in-game assets. This is a common practice for CS:GO, one of the most popular games on Valve. Instead of wagering on outcomes with cash, players make wagers with in-game skins. (Btw, a skin is a cosmetic modification to a character which has no impact on the game play itself.) Gamblers can purchase skins as their ante, and can essentially cash-out by selling them again on the secondary market.

This method of gambling has been huge in the past. Just pulling from the SKIN website, we see that:

• in 2015 - "more than 3 million people wagered $2.3 billion worth of skins on the outcome of e-sport matches."
• in 2016 - "40% of the total 5 billion market in 2016 were betting on the results of cybersport matches and tournaments"

These are pretty accurate numbers.

However, regulators are starting to take notice of how gamers (and notably minors) are circumventing casino laws. This website has a pretty thorough understanding of what is at risk and what regulators are looking at: https://calvinayre.com/2017/02/23/business/legality-of-csgo-skin-gambling/

Valve, the publisher of CS:GO has been walking a very dangerous line. US Government regulators are pushing Valve to stop skin gambling - https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/10/valve-pushes-back-against-government-threats-over-steam-skin-gambling/, and the company is resisting it. At the same time, Valve is playing legal 'whack-a-mole' by issuing C&Ds to many skin gambling websites. The company's Terms & Conditions do not allow gambling - http://store.steampowered.com/news/22883/.

Reading the SKIN website, it is important to note that though it references Valve and CS:GO, neither are listed as partners.

As I said in the caveat, investors should be wary. The value proposition is a bit flawed here.