I had the same questions like some others and that's why I contacted the team and even had a conversation on phone with Richard Olsen, the CEO of Lykke. He is a very kind man and explained many aspects of this projects. And it's indeed different but also very fascinating and a great chance in my opinion.
I would like to give something like an overview how I understand it right now:
The vision behindMaybe it can be described as "decentralize everything". In other blockchain-projects that is often a headline as well, but with focus on the technical side - Blockchain. In Lykke it's also meant regarding the persons who contribute. Of course, there is a core team of professionals with expertise in many different areas, which can be seen here:
https://lykke.com/leadership.php...and who takes a look at the fundamentals (technical development, also business-side) will find out that they've already delivered a lot what is just a promise in other projects.
Regarding public relations it's different to other projects. But the goal is to get more and more people involved who understand Lykke as project more as a dynamic movement. While other projects have a marketing strategy, Lykke starts to go step by step into the public with people who are not necessarily marketing-professionals but Contributors who understand the vision behind and explain it in their own way and autonomous.
Richard Olsen told me, that he would like to see a dynamic which will show what Lykke is about step by step and over time without pressure and without dominant leadership regarding it's external representation. He is aware that this can't happen with "one hit", but convinced that it will happen over time - a dynamic process, maybe even faster than one may assume.
I personally already recognized some hints on that approach because I found this very fascinating speech of him when I started to do some research about Lykke:
The power of the small world phenomenon | Richard Olsen | TEDxZurich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKzjwV_N68I
Financial Side - ICO - Investor perspectiveI personally was surprised to see a project like this with fundamentals like Lykke already has it doing an ICO, but without much PR and marketing. The reason is: Lykke wants to build a base, also on Investor side, but they are not focused on selling the ICO now. It's more a way to make first steps into the public and getting more people involved.
I've also asked him if Lykke will issue new LKK for other funding rounds and the answer is yes. Lykke will act as company and the way they do this is usual for companies. Future money they'll raise will increase the value of Lykke so it's not necessarily the case that the price would go down because of that. And since previous Investors are in line with the vision of Lykke it also has not to be much of a concern that there will be "profit-dumping".
With other words, of course this is a risk but it's also a chance, because who does some deeper research will recognize that they are ahead regarding the fundamentals and that is very well thought out and as far as I can say: They have an already working (semi-) decentralized exchange. The tech is already building trust if more and more people will use it.
And I personally believe that's the key-point. While I believed, priority would be selling the ICO the real priority seems to be more to get people involved and to use what they already offer and will offer in future and that will be a lot. Richard Olsen was very open about many things that will come and I would be even allowed to write about it. But, to be honest: That were too much information in too little time, so I'm not able to write it down in a proper way. But...
- It was about the technical side and obviously they are moving fast on that front
- The same regarding business-side
(He also told me some things about economic principles but I'm not even close to understand it. A little bit as if Einstein would explain me physics.)
In general the public side can be seen as a translation of principles Crypto is about. Of course, Lykke is a very professional company but with a clear focus on fairness and building up trust over time. And like they didn't rush out the tech they are not in hurry to do a marketing campaign to build an Image of Lykke out of nothing in a short time. It will be more like bringing proof out of itself. And my personal opinion is that I have no doubt that the people behind this can be trusted. With other words: Typical concerns everybody in Crypto has, whenever it's about the question "to buy or not to buy" into a new project may play a role for this ICO but I would be surprised if that will be the case for long.
Who has the question: Buying into this or not? My advice is doing research and downloading their App and try it out:
https://lykke.com/lykkewallet/I personally believe that what they are building will be a key-point and like already said: It seems that they are far ahead when it comes to building a decentralized asset-exchange. And since it's already high quality I have not that much doubt that it will find an increasing number of users.
