Overview: The wings platform provides a simple, elegant solution to real problems faced in the rapidly emerging ICO economy. With the staggering rise in new crypto startups there is a clear need for a tool which can aid new investors in navigating these new investment opportunities while also enabling startups to spread the word about their projects more efficiently. Wings is a great platform in that it not only offers novice investors incentives to use the platform, it also offers veteran investors incentives to use it through the offering of increasingly enticing rewards. Wings currently provides rewards in their prediction markets, typically in the form of shares of the token in which a prediction was made, reaching up to $1,500,000 (cash equivalent) - rewards are then distributed based on the accuracy of the prediction and the amount of wings staked (People are actually already earning great dividends using the wings platform – and that’s in pre-beta). The system is being further developed to create a forecasting reputation system and powerful anti-spam and Sybil prevention features.
Wings is the perfect solution to the challenges faced by novice and experienced investors alike. The platform aids new investors who are trying to learn about the new financial frontier and provides key functionality to even the most experienced investors. The wings platform helps people make better-educated investment decisions by providing easy access to reliable information and sentiment data. Wings accomplishes this by establishing a decentralized decision market in which users can evaluate a project and leave explanations as to how/why they made that prediction, the data is then released just before a new investment is offered publicly. The platform is working to ensure the reliability of these sources by creating a forecasting reputation system, which is well-explained in the wings whitepaper, “Those participating in forecasts on the WINGS platform receive a public rating representing their ability to make correct forecasts. WINGS DAO implements a liquid DAO governance system that allows for fluid delegation of votes. Token holders can loan ("delegate") forecasting to other token holders ("a delegate") who have, for instance, higher reputation. In WINGS forecast ratings influences the reward that both the token owner and his delegate receive. A higher rating signals a participant who outperforms and therefor other token owners should be willing to loan their forecasting right to the particular participant, creating a meritocratic decision-making system.”
What is great about wings is that users actively want to take part in these prediction markets as a result of the brilliant algorithm-based rewards system they have designed. Users of the platform can “stake” their currency on a given prediction, users whose predictions were most accurate will receive the bulk of the reward while users who were furthest off do still receive minor compensation for participating. There is no downside to participating, if you love ICO’s then you probably make these sorts of predictions all the time for free and post them on blogs, twitter, etc. The lack centralization of this data makes it harder for people to access and ultimately makes it less reliable. Anyone interested in a new project, wondering if they should invest, can access all of the data wings users provide - the power of which cannot be overstated. Wings also aids in one other very important manner. With the rapid increase in initial coin offerings, the likelihood of scams has risen drastically, but with the wings DAO structure that likelihood becomes a non-issue. Legitimate startups are drawn to the platform in order to raise awareness and offer prospective investors peace of mind in their decision-making process.
The wings platform ushers very strong use cases which are the primary value drivers in any cryptocurrency, but especially so for wings. Because wings have to be staked, they can’t be taken out for a pre-determined period of time, after that time a reward is received and the holder can then access their wings currency again. However, in between that time, the demand for the currency increases and because much of the wings currency is staked, the supply circulating is very low which means that the price may raise quite rapidly as more and more partnerships are announced. There are no limits to the price potential for this particular currency, if wings becomes dominant in the ICO prediction markets then more startups will be incentivized to use wings as a “megaphone” for their early funding efforts. In fact, using wings to reach investors could quickly become a near-necessity for new startups. This means that new projects will likely offer larger incentives in order to gain adequate exposure, therefore bringing more users and more money to the platform. The business model is absolutely brilliant, it creates a rare “win-win-win” scenario for everyone involved. The increasing rewards represent higher and higher dividends. Business intelligence and analytics is growing at an ever-increasing pace and wings is leading the way.
Analysis
Core Development: Very Strong. (8/10)
1) The core development team is one of the strongest of any crypto startups out there right now. The team has a lot of experience and has proven their ability to develop a strong work product, especially considering that wings only raised $2,000,000 (1,700 Bitcoin at the time) during their ICO.
2) The team has a powerful commitment to the project and takes care in their work. They are very active on community forums, constantly engaging the community and receiving feedback on how they could improve the platform (which they take very seriously).
3) The only reason that I give their core development two points down is mostly due to their lack of funding. Considering their working on only $2 million the platform is coming along well and it serves its core purpose flawlessly. However, the website is quite laggy and the design needs some work, though this is mostly attributed to still being in the pre-beta phase. Aesthetic appeal is a lot more important than many people realize, the website is fairly bland right now though that should change once they’ve finish developing the core tech.
Business Development: Very Strong. (9/10)
1) The business end of wings is highly sophisticated, the incentives system perfectly connects companies to primary users and subsequently primary users to secondary users. Partnerships are designed to benefit everyone involved, it is a rare example of a true “win-win-win” scenario.
2) The business development on the platform is progressing at a staggering rate, while still perfecting their tech the business development team has already made waves with some of their key partnerships (Bancor/Coindash). The team definitely has a major strength here, there is no doubt that as they progress the partnerships will only get better and therefore generate great interest in the platform.
3) All around wings has strong business development and great management. After having an issue sending wings, I sent a ticket to support and received a detailed response within 8 minutes. Definitely wonderful people managing this project.
Use Cases: Very, Very Strong. (10/10)
1) The wings platform generates genuine use cases, incentivizing wings holders to use the platform and not just flip for a quick profit. The fact that investors in wings are also typically users means that the majority of the currency is staked during a new prediction – demand for the currency increases during new predictions and supply is lowered. Due to this gap between demand and available supply, the use cases generated on the platform will draw in new investors and users with each new partnership.
Risk: Medium. (6/10)
1) Though it is a great project with great potential, it faces several unavoidable issues. Firstly, the ICO markets are becoming oversaturated (which is good in the short-term) though long-term this oversaturation may lead to a collapse of the ICO markets all together. That is a significant risk considering this platform derives virtually all of its value from the ICO markets.
2) There is a new risk that just came down from the SEC’s recent announcement regarding ICO regulation, leaving the greater ICO market in an utter state of ambiguity. How these new regulations are going to affect the markets is unknown, but the effects could be widespread and damning. It is unfortunate that the SEC has entered the crypto space, especially for a project like wings. It may amount to nothing but this concern should certainly be weighed into the decision-making process.
3) The platform has a long way to go still, development is not complete and there is a lot that can go wrong in the time it takes to finalize their work product. New startups may pop-up accomplishing the same tasks with a better product and/or better partnerships, etc.
4) Currently wings is going uncontested in the ICO prediction market, which is a very big market on its own. The wings team is in the process of cornering a large market as we speak, which makes the reward outweigh much of the risk.
Investment Rating: A-
Current Market Cap: $25,000,000
Target Market Cap: $240,000,000 - $280,000,000
Conclusion
Wings has a great deal of potential considering the platform is still in pre-beta and already has so many key partnerships. Wings peaked earlier this year at nearly $100M but fell due to profit-taking and fear during the major market crash which occurred in early-June. Since then its most key partnership with Coindash led to an unfortunate disaster after the ICO was hacked, however wings has shown great resiliency as this has not had a significant effect on the price. The community support is overwhelming, over 350 pages on bitcointalk, and 17K+ followers on twitter. The team is great, they have a ton of experience, very strong management, and an outstanding community outreach program. Regardless of the challenges they face, wings is a very well managed project and they are likely well prepared for the new regulations. Wings is currently uncontested in a potentially multi-billion-dollar market which is a great sign of the projects overall potential. When the platform officially launches and more partnerships are announced, wings will get more exposure and many new users. Wings is still in a very early stage and has virtually infinite room to grow, if you are willing to take the risk it may prove well worth it.