It was a good project, Unfortunately, the soft cap was not reached which is bad for us as bounty members who were counting on this project, anyway I wish you all the best and I'll keep supporting you for sure.
======================================================
================ official announcement =======================
======================================================
Dear members of the Geens Community,
Dear investors,
Dear interested parties,
The Geens project started in 2014 and aims to create a cooperative environment to empower internet users and give them more privacy and control over their own data. Geens.com, a non-profit organization registered in Belgium, wants to return the created value to its users. Geens is designed to become your private place on the internet. Thanks to the Geens NPO structure these private places can never be controlled or bought by any commercial actor.
In order to be able to exchange service value, the GEE utility token (GEE) was created. Although commercial organizations cannot become a NPO member, they as well are interested to use the Geens technology and applications to guarantee privacy to their staff and customers. In order to make use of the Geens services GEEs will have to be bought.
In order to raise the necessary funds for the development of additional Geens applications, 100 million GEEs were created. A one-month token sale was launched in November 2017 to place up to 67% of these GEEs. From the very beginning we have upheld values such as transparency, legality and authenticity (which are in the “genes" of the Geens NPO) and we didn’t reach out for “big” investors, because we want:
1. to have as many (small) investors as possible to spread the message;
2. to make the process transparent and in accordance with EU regulations;
3. and to share the value of Geens ideas with as many people possible.
The board of Geens NPO has identified two important elements why at the end of the token sale the “soft cap” was not reached.
Firstly, we have made an error of judgment with regards to the technicality of the acquisition of the GEEs. Although we had drafted a detailed guide how to invest, it was still very hard for a lot of people to go through the whole process. We were informed that numerous newbie crypto users, who are very much in favor of the Geens philosophy, were not able to go through the whole token buying process because of the technical hurdles that had to be taken (exchange customer, Ether wallet, fiat money, bank, GAS limits,...). It was clear that the level of technicality was too high for many of them. Therefore, in the future we will take ‘easier’ ways into consideration to support and finance Geens NPO projects.
Secondly, it was impossible to foresee the hyperbolic value growth of the past 4 weeks on the crypto-currency markets. The steep value increase of Ethereum and other crypto-currencies has lead to a ‘wait & see’ reaction with investors instead of investing their Ethers in GEE.
Although we did not reach the soft cap, there were many indirect gains. The Geens technology and the team was also stress tested. The past campaign made the team work more efficient. They did well and made Geens stronger. At the same time, a lot of people became Geens users. And their number is increasing every day. In addition the number of contacts with third parties increased tremendously. So, despite the fact that the soft cap was not reached, we will continue to develop the Geens project.
What will happen next?
1. Our ‘partner’ tokens (more than 1 million distributed in our community) are distributed and acquired. By the end of the token sale campaign Geens number surpassed the 25,000 users milestone. A lot of users and early adopters helped us to spread the message about Geens through their social networks, referred their friends, created videos and articles. During the bounty campaign, more than 1 million of GEEs of the total amount of 21 millions that is reserved for the community were distributed. Since the soft cap objective was not reached, the currently distributed GEE tokens will not be unlocked, but they will remain in the wallet in their Geens profile. We are continuing further with the same GEE token structure as before (12%, 21%, 67%) and are reserving 67% for future investments.
Together with the users and early adopters we will continue to support and grow the Geens environment.
2. Contributors can ask for an Ether refund.
All contributors will be fully refunded. For users and details, how to reclaim your Ethers, please visit
https://refund.geens.com. If you have any further questions regarding the refund instructions, do not hesitate to contact us via
info@geens.com (or +370 698 29 777). We will be happy to support you.
3. Focus on the whole privacy ecosystem concept.
Until now our communication was primarily limited to the functionality of the (already present and working) blockchain timestamping. From now on we will explain both the current and future services that are in the GEE Economy, such as our solutions for voting, health and discussion.
4. Donation program.
Next week we will start a donation scheme where users and interested parties can support the activities of the NPO.
5. Premium services to third parties.
During the first quarter of 2018 we will also start offering premium services to individuals, companies and other non-profit organizations to safeguard their private data.
We are convinced that our current users will stay on board, not just for the GEE tokens, but because of the value of the Geens platform and ideas, and that the Geens user community will continue to grow thanks to the increase in privacy services. We would love to receive from you additional feedback about our solutions. We are looking forward to your ideas and appreciate very much your views. Together we can make the platform stronger and viable.
For the Geens NPO Board,
Yours sincerely,
