IDO Launchpads We Have

(and Why Is This Wrong)?

Warning: the following two chapters contain speculative fiction aimed at explaining the high-level concepts of our business. We invite “no bullshit, just formulas please” type of readers to proceed directly to Chapter 3 explaining the ScaleSCORE.

Binance, the largest (as of the time of drafting this paper) CEX, according to CoinMarketCap, launched the first launchpad in January 2019 [Platform]. Partially, this move was a reaction to the rapid growth and success of DEXe; blame Uniswap [Eichholz]. There is a reason why most DEXes prefer to call themselves “protocols,” not “exchanges.” “Protocol” implies a peer-based nature without involving any controlling authority. Of course, this sits well with the decentralization-prone crypto community.

As Chris Dai explained so aptly: “because the decentralized exchange is run on automated computer codes, its fee is much lower that of an auction house and thus can attract more buy and sell transactions. Allowing more players and more transactions in this marketplace allows for liquidity and liquidity creates value”. [Dai]

However, as Winston Churchill put it in “Crescendo,” “sometimes bad things have to happen before good things can.” And the bad thing with DEXes is slow growth, a kill factor in an industry like ours. So, whom to call for the rescue? 911 IDO launchpads [Maksimenka].

Wait, does “IDO” sound almost like “ICO” to you, except that it’s 2021, not 2017? Yes, friend. That’s precisely what it is, with all the scamming and “to-the-moons”🚀attached. Oh, wait, there’s at least one actual to-the-moon scheduled to happen in 2022 [Howell], supposing Elon would still have enough Dogecoins for that.

Still, while ICOs resemble the good old days of the dot-com bubble (Internet-shminternet), IDOs have an essential difference. ICOs could have been about any crazy idea: ranging from “mining” natural nuclear energy in Ukraine (oh ☢️Chernobyl, not you again) to launch a North Korean communist leader to the 🇰🇵Moon. But, contrary to that, IDOs are primarily about finance, liquidity, and (until now) getting rich quickly — very risky yet more understandable and professionalized business [Dixon], that allows (hopefully) fewer opportunities for scam [SEC].