Cartesi

Cloud platforms are enabling complex business models and orchestration of larger globally integrated networks surpassing all prior predictions by analysts. Leading market research organizations are revising their estimates for cloud usage/growth as they see more utility for new applications, along with higher than expected adoption by mid-tier and small and medium enterprises (SME). Cloud computing expenditure is growing at 4.5 times the rate of IT spending since 2009 and is expected to grow at more than 6 times the rate of IT spending from 2015 through 2020. Gartner's prediction for Cloud Computing Market expects an increase from USD 67 billion in 2015 to USD 162 billion in 2020 attaining a CAGR of 19%. The sphere of cloud computing is turning one of the most popular among blockchain startups and we see Cartesi different from competitors. The closest competitor is Ankr, but Cartesi offers dApps building. Other competitors are Solana, DeepCloud AI, HyperNet, Uranus, Covalent, Hadron, Perlin, Oasis Labs, Dfinity, Amino. The team sees use cases in Science, Logistics, Finance. Computer Science, Healthcare, Gaming.

The product offers blockchains primitives that enable Dapp developers to formulate off-chain computations performed over off-chain data and then settle disputes over the results. Scaling solutions, called Layer-2, attempt to move as much data and computation as possible off-chain. Cartesi is blockchain agnostic, provided the underlying blockchain supports Turing-complete smart contracts. Cartesi is powered by a RISC-V Virtual Machine that runs in a verifiable way, along with an embedded Linux Operating System customized for this purpose. The operating system provides the environment required for a vast universe of real-world computer programs to run unmodified. The Cartesi Project is divided into two major components. The first component is the Cartesi Node. This is a software package that Clients, Miners, Experts, and Developers use to interact with Cartesi in their respective capacities. The Cartesi Node, in turn, interacts with the blockchain via a set of protocols and smart contracts, which together form the second major component of the Cartesi Project. The development roadmap is divided into 3 main phases: Hajime (infrastructure, distributed computing, and token economy), Kaizen (2019 - dApps, Protocols, SDK, PoS) and Satori (the end of 2019 - Verified Networking, Android Support). Currently, no prototype available still, but the team claim it will be available at the end of 2018. Testnet is projected to be launched in Q1 2019 with mainnet in Q2.

Before its official launch, Cartesi will have its own token (ERG) and a working prototype implementation of Phase 1 where ERG is likely to have a utility. The Cartesi mine will be the way of distributing ERG’s to people who want to get involved in the community and earn money by lending out idle computing power. Also, token will be used in dApps on Cartesi protocol.

Cartesi will have an initial private sale of 20% of its tokens with the below discount model based on the amount that each purchaser commits. The soft cap will be set at 20,000 ETH, while the hard cap will be set at 40,000 ETH. It results in total token pool valuation of 200 000 ETH, that is much even considering depreciated ETH. Discounts depend on a contribution - 20% for over 200 ETH, 25% for over 1000 ETH and 30% for over 2000 ETH. The same logic is in the lockup schedule - grant 1/5 per month for over 200 ETH, grant 1/10 per month for over 1000 ETH and grant 1/12 per month for over 2000 ETH. So the valuation for major investors is 140K ETH (39M USD).

The team includes 8 members and 5 advisors. As we can conclude, they mostly have Brazilian origin and work in Brazil. CEO has experience and software engineering since 1996. CTO has PhD degree from Princeton (Computer Graphics), worked in Microsoft for 3 years and currently has been working as a Professor in Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics in Rio. Head of Security has 4 years' experience in Security analysis and 16 years as an Infrastructural engineer, being responsible for security and infrastructure of a SaaS API system. The software engineer has worked as a researcher and developer since 2008. Other team members have significant experience in business development and finance. Advisors are distinguished - Sergey Popov (IOTA Co-founder), Stas Oskin (Wings.ai Core Developer), Boris Povod (Co-founder of Wings and Cripti) and some others.