Etheroll ICO Raises $160K in 24 hours
The Ethereum dice gambling game – Etheroll – launched their initial coin offering (ICO) less than 24 hours ago and have so far raised over $160K in Ether. The crowdfund, which will last 2 weeks (ending on Feb 27, 2017 @ 09:00 UTC), is a rare opportunity for investors to capitalize on the rapidly growing crypto gambling market.
What is Etheroll?
Etheroll is a popular Ethereum dice game that allows players to select a bet size and their chance of winning before rolling the dice. A winning roll is paid into the player’s account immediately with no 3rd party involvement thanks to the smart contract with which Etheroll is built. The omittance of all 3rd parties and the efficiencies garnered by the game’s self-executing smart contracts, enables Etheroll to operate at a tiny 1% house edge. As a result, Etheroll offers a simple and trusted Ethereum betting platform with very little favor towards the house – something which is rarely seen in the online gambling industry. A short demo of the game’s UI can be found here (2:17)
How does the Etheroll ICO work?
Official crowdfund website: crowdfund.etheroll.com
Etheroll’s ICO works in the same way to past Ethereum-based ICOs. Prospective investors send Ether to the crowdfund’s smart contract address, and in return they automatically receive Etheroll tokens, named ÐICE (currency symbol: ROL). An investor’s ownership of ÐICE represents their proportional ownership of Etheroll, and profits are paid out every 12 weeks. 100% of the profit made by Etheroll is paid out to the ÐICE token holders. For example, if a total of 100,000 ROL are distributed by the end of the ICO, an investor with 1,000 ROL would receive 1% of Etheroll’s profit every 12 weeks.
Once the ICO ends, there will be no more ROL distributed.
Is the Etheroll ICO a Safe Investment?
Investing in Etheroll should be made with a good understanding of the cryptocurrency space and Ethereum’s long term prospects as well as Etheroll itself. This article cannot possibly address every potential scenario, but here are some of the key factors to help form judgement on the Etheroll ICO.
3rd party security audits
Following the DAO collapse in July 2017, the need for verifiable/trusted security audits for decentralized applications (dapps) like Etheroll have never been greater. Etheroll approached respected Ethereum developer Piper Merriam to conduct a thorough audit on the security of Etheroll’s smart contract. This security audit is available on Gist.
Team members
Traditional investors often look for information on a team’s strengths and weaknesses before deciding on whether to invest in a proposition, as the team are often so critical to the success of the business. Etheroll has released very little information on their team, however investors who are put off by this are unlikely to be suited to Ethereum-based ICOs; purely because by doing so, they have demonstrated a misunderstanding of the opportunity involved. Etheroll’s opportunity lies in its code and not in its team. The code runs autonomously, untouched by human interference with no chance of failing (Ethereum’s Virtual Machine has never had – and is unlikely to ever have – a moment of “downtime”).
Refund during the DAO
Etheroll started their ICO back in July 2017, and by chance had coincided their ICO with the imminent failure of the DAO. The impact of the DAO’s failure was enormous, and Etheroll decided at the time to cancel their ICO and refund all their current investors; stating that they would relaunch their ICO in the future. Such a decision reveals a significant insight into the team’s motivation for their ICO.
Crypto exchange
While it is planned, there is no guarantee that ROL will be tradeable on popular cryptocurrency exchanges like Poloniex and Shapeshift. However, a source close to betdice.one has confirmed that ROL is likely to become tradeable on ERC20 token exchanges.
“We are currently looking to be listed on smaller exchanges that generally accept a wider variety of ERC20 standard tokens, such as Liqui.io exchange.”
Should ROL become tradeable on any of these exchanges, demand for the token could increase significantly, although price stability may suffer over the short term.
Cryptocurrency risk
There is no escaping the reality that cryptocurrencies are one of the most high risk investments of the 21st century. The two key risks associated with these markets are regulation and catastrophic failure.
Cryptocurrencies could find themselves being regulated or even banned by major economic players like the USA and China; while this doesn’t seem likely, a tightening of regulation in these markets is inevitable and the extent of which is unknown. Of course, Etheroll’s smart contract would still continue to operate (its decentralized nature would make it near-impossible to shutdown), but the friction of signing up new players would increase dramatically. The other key risk for cryptocurrencies lies in their potential for catastrophic failure – whilst unlikely, it is possible that an unforeseen bug rears its ugly head at a point further in the future, destroying the value and reputation of the blockchain in question.
As with any investment, your own due diligence should be taken, and capital is at risk.
Etheroll Affiliate Program
Etheroll does not offer an affiliate program for referring users at this stage, however details will be published if this becomes the case.
Further Reading
- Etheroll Crowdfund
- Etheroll Whitepaper
- Etheroll.com
- ICO risks
