[ANN][ICO][VAR] 🐬 Blue Frontiers (VARYON) - Sustainable floating islands 🐬

[Elwar]

ICO Analysis: Varyon
Published on May 30, 2018
By Fredrik Vold

Team
Since the Varyon ICO is launched by the already established company Blue Frontiers, the team appears pretty strong, particularly when it comes to the concept of seasteading, special economic zones, legal, and administration.
The company was originally spun off of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute, and therefore shares many of the same employees. The key members of the management team consist of:
    Randy Hencken, Director at The Seasteading Institute, leader of The Floating City Project, and early cryptocurrency adopter.
    Joe Quirk, President of The Seasteading Institute and co-author of the book Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians.
    Marc Collins, serial entrepreneur and former Minister of Tourism of French Polynesia.
    Nicolas Germineau, entrepreneur, software developer, and Ambassador of The Seasteading Institute since 2011.
    Egor Ryjikov, Belarusian inventor, investor, and entrepreneur. Ambassador of The Seasteading Institute since 2009.
Other than the names listed above, Blue Frontiers also has a long list of advisors that are associated with the company. This includes specialists in fields such as Special Economic Zones, tourism, engineering, journalism, and other areas relevant to the project.
The only thing we can see lacking from the list of team members is more people with relevant blockchain experience. There are a few blockchain developers on the team, but in reality there are very few of these people compared to other blockchain projects we have reviewed.
One could argue that an ICO of this type doesn’t need a lot of blockchain professionals to carry out their project, but I would still argue that having at least some people who have experience with ICOs would be an advantage. It would probably also help with carrying out the ICO in a more professional manner, and avoiding issues like launching the pre-sale without having a complete white paper, which is what the company is currently doing.

Verdict
Although The Seasteading Institute has signed an MoU with the French Polynesian government about the construction of a floating island in its territorial waters, it appears that strong opposition to the project exists both within the government and in the Polynesian population, as reported by Radio New Zealand in February. To be fair though, it is believed that with the elections in French Polynesia being over, politicians there will now have more flexibility in terms of moving forward with projects of this type that may be unpopular among some people.
Another potential problem we see here is that The Seasteading Insitute has already been around for quite a long time and has failed in past attempts at setting up real-world seasteads. The most notable of these was a planned prototype seastead that was to be set up by The Seasteading Institute in the San Francisco Bay by 2010, according to Wikipedia. Despite an investment by Peter Thiel totaling $1.7 million, this has never happened.
Investors in Varyon need to be aware that in order for this investment to pay off in any way at all, it is essential that an actual real-world seastead is built and deployed on the ocean. Unfortunately, the track record of past attempts of doing this does not look very promising, but we certainly hope that this time will be different.

Growth potential
    Smart contract code has been audited by an independent third party. +1
    Rising sea-levels is a risk that is threatening inhabitants in places like French Polynesia. Raising awareness about this and proposing new solutions is something that will probably help boost public support in the host nations of seasteads, which is critical in order for the project to be brought to life. +3
    Lots of people are excited about this project and support the idea of creating floating islands with independent governance, and some of these people are also likely to invest and buy property on these islands. +2
    Because of the strong support for the project and the amount of media attention the project has received, it is likely that some people will contribute more out of ideological reasons rather than expecting a huge return on their investment. Those who are solely looking to maximize returns will likely look to other ICOs. +1
    The backers of the ICO and the team is strong and has extensive experience in the area of special economic zones, engineering, and seasteads. +3

Risks
    It remains somewhat unclear if the funds raised from the token sale will be used for the construction of an actual seastead, or if it will mainly go towards developing plans, blueprints, and research about the legal framework for “SeaZones.” The company should make it more clear that the funds raised will be spent to build a real-world seastead in French Polynesia. -2
    The white paper published on the Varyon website is just a draft and not a final version. Several important details are left out of the white paper, including information about the lock-up for the team’s tokens. -1
    The Seasteading Institute’s (separate from Blue Frontiers, which is issuing this token) past record in putting their ideas to life is questionable, although the team argues that as a think-tank, construction of real-world seasteads has never been their objective -1

Disposition
In conclusion, we admit that we feel excited about the possibility of building real-world seasteads, and we certainly hope that Blue Frontiers will succeed so that this becomes a reality one day.
The main question about this ICO is if the company will succeed in putting a real-world floating island on the sea off the coast of French Polynesia. There is really no way of knowing this with certainty, and since the long-term value of the Varyon token would entirely depend on this, it should be clear to everyone that this is a very risky investment.
However, you may choose to view this as more of an idealistic fundraising for a cause you believe in. If you are exited about the idea of floating islands and want to help make it a reality, then Varyon is by all means a great way to contribute! The team is strong and they are probably the most experienced people in the world working on seasteading projects for the time being.
Overall, we arrive at a score of 6 out of 10 for the Varyon ICO.

Proof: https://hacked.com/ico-analysis-varyon/

This is very good result.

Yes, I agree this is a very good assessment. The criticisms are legit as those are certainly risks for token holders.

I will clear up a few things though.

Peter Thiel only donated $500k toward the initial formation of the Seasteading Institute. That money was long gone before anyone who works for Blue Frontiers came on board. I believe the $1.7 million number might be a total from the 10 years the institute has been around.

We only put 2 names on the list of advisors from the blockchain team but there are at least a dozen of us participating, we just don't have as big names as people like Daniel Nagy and Robert Viglione. We had Ross Kenyon advising early on, he was in charge of marketing for Tezos which raised over $100 million. We had a conference call with Vitalik who chimed in on his suggestions for possible blockchain solutions on the seastead. We spoke with more experts in the industry than can be named and would have had this up and running back in August if it was a straight forward utility token. But once you start looking at this thing from a legal perspective, it gets complicated very quickly. The team did well to get their ducks in a row before doing the ICO. We actually started earlier than we wanted to but knew we needed to get this going.

Which is the reason the White Paper is still in draft form. I'm not sure how public knowledge this is but they should be bringing something up this week. We have been in the process of moving from being based in Singapore to a more crypto friendly country. The white paper cannot be in its final form until the team of lawyers in that country get through with it and make sure it complies with their laws.

The team lock up amounts are close to being determined. It is a bit complicated because the "team" consists of mostly staff while the founders are a very small percentage of that. Talk I have heard was there will be a large amount locked up for a year. You can see the smart contract already reserves a space for locked coins so it is definitely planned.

Of course the biggest factor is certainly whether or not Blue Frontiers will build a seastead and I definitely agree, this is the biggest question. The money raised during the ICO will certainly not go toward any research into SeaZones. That has already been well established and we submitted our legislative package to French Polynesia back in September with our requests for what we will need. There is no more money needed on that front. Money will definitely be going toward engineering. The initial designs are already pretty far along, that has been paid for as well. But the designs need to go through prototyping and get the final logistics set up for determining the path forward for getting these seasteads to the SeaZone (how much to build on site, whether to build off site then assemble on site, etc.).

As a seed investor who has been involved in seasteading for 10 years I made sure to meet up with the team to look them in the eyes to see if they had the conviction to actually build seasteads. That has also been my biggest frustration with seasteading for the past 10 years...seeing projects that went nowhere. After all of this time I believe that this is right team to get this done. I have been nothing but impressed by all of the very smart people involved in this project.

To ensure that they do actually get these things built I retired back in November and moved to Tahiti. I am living with one of the founders, Marc Collins (along with a few other housemates) and have been kept up to date on everything as we move forward. I plan on going out to the various sites on my own dime, surveying the sites as much as I can on my own to contribute what I can to this project. I even got SCUBA certified a few months ago and bought some underwater equipment so I can do what I can to assist in mapping out the location underwater while also buying a drone to do some aerial shots. I should be heading out next month to get started on checking a few of the sites.

This is going to happen. It's beyond the point where it will be just science fiction or fantasy. We are shovel ready and once that SeaZone legislation passes we'll be on the ground within days getting things started. Even with the money raised already we could probably get to the point where we just pay for each platform with pre-sales (worst case scenario, if funding dries up...but it seems to be picking up lately). It is no longer about "I hope it happens"...it's happening people. Start preparing.

[1715698872]

1715698872

[1715698872]

1715698872

[1715698872]

1715698872

[qiman]

ICO Analysis: Varyon
Published on May 30, 2018
By Fredrik Vold

Team
Since the Varyon ICO is launched by the already established company Blue Frontiers, the team appears pretty strong, particularly when it comes to the concept of seasteading, special economic zones, legal, and administration.
The company was originally spun off of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute, and therefore shares many of the same employees. The key members of the management team consist of:
    Randy Hencken, Director at The Seasteading Institute, leader of The Floating City Project, and early cryptocurrency adopter.
    Joe Quirk, President of The Seasteading Institute and co-author of the book Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians.
    Marc Collins, serial entrepreneur and former Minister of Tourism of French Polynesia.
    Nicolas Germineau, entrepreneur, software developer, and Ambassador of The Seasteading Institute since 2011.
    Egor Ryjikov, Belarusian inventor, investor, and entrepreneur. Ambassador of The Seasteading Institute since 2009.
Other than the names listed above, Blue Frontiers also has a long list of advisors that are associated with the company. This includes specialists in fields such as Special Economic Zones, tourism, engineering, journalism, and other areas relevant to the project.
The only thing we can see lacking from the list of team members is more people with relevant blockchain experience. There are a few blockchain developers on the team, but in reality there are very few of these people compared to other blockchain projects we have reviewed.
One could argue that an ICO of this type doesn’t need a lot of blockchain professionals to carry out their project, but I would still argue that having at least some people who have experience with ICOs would be an advantage. It would probably also help with carrying out the ICO in a more professional manner, and avoiding issues like launching the pre-sale without having a complete white paper, which is what the company is currently doing.

Verdict
Although The Seasteading Institute has signed an MoU with the French Polynesian government about the construction of a floating island in its territorial waters, it appears that strong opposition to the project exists both within the government and in the Polynesian population, as reported by Radio New Zealand in February. To be fair though, it is believed that with the elections in French Polynesia being over, politicians there will now have more flexibility in terms of moving forward with projects of this type that may be unpopular among some people.
Another potential problem we see here is that The Seasteading Insitute has already been around for quite a long time and has failed in past attempts at setting up real-world seasteads. The most notable of these was a planned prototype seastead that was to be set up by The Seasteading Institute in the San Francisco Bay by 2010, according to Wikipedia. Despite an investment by Peter Thiel totaling $1.7 million, this has never happened.
Investors in Varyon need to be aware that in order for this investment to pay off in any way at all, it is essential that an actual real-world seastead is built and deployed on the ocean. Unfortunately, the track record of past attempts of doing this does not look very promising, but we certainly hope that this time will be different.

Growth potential
    Smart contract code has been audited by an independent third party. +1
    Rising sea-levels is a risk that is threatening inhabitants in places like French Polynesia. Raising awareness about this and proposing new solutions is something that will probably help boost public support in the host nations of seasteads, which is critical in order for the project to be brought to life. +3
    Lots of people are excited about this project and support the idea of creating floating islands with independent governance, and some of these people are also likely to invest and buy property on these islands. +2
    Because of the strong support for the project and the amount of media attention the project has received, it is likely that some people will contribute more out of ideological reasons rather than expecting a huge return on their investment. Those who are solely looking to maximize returns will likely look to other ICOs. +1
    The backers of the ICO and the team is strong and has extensive experience in the area of special economic zones, engineering, and seasteads. +3

Risks
    It remains somewhat unclear if the funds raised from the token sale will be used for the construction of an actual seastead, or if it will mainly go towards developing plans, blueprints, and research about the legal framework for “SeaZones.” The company should make it more clear that the funds raised will be spent to build a real-world seastead in French Polynesia. -2
    The white paper published on the Varyon website is just a draft and not a final version. Several important details are left out of the white paper, including information about the lock-up for the team’s tokens. -1
    The Seasteading Institute’s (separate from Blue Frontiers, which is issuing this token) past record in putting their ideas to life is questionable, although the team argues that as a think-tank, construction of real-world seasteads has never been their objective -1

Disposition
In conclusion, we admit that we feel excited about the possibility of building real-world seasteads, and we certainly hope that Blue Frontiers will succeed so that this becomes a reality one day.
The main question about this ICO is if the company will succeed in putting a real-world floating island on the sea off the coast of French Polynesia. There is really no way of knowing this with certainty, and since the long-term value of the Varyon token would entirely depend on this, it should be clear to everyone that this is a very risky investment.
However, you may choose to view this as more of an idealistic fundraising for a cause you believe in. If you are exited about the idea of floating islands and want to help make it a reality, then Varyon is by all means a great way to contribute! The team is strong and they are probably the most experienced people in the world working on seasteading projects for the time being.
Overall, we arrive at a score of 6 out of 10 for the Varyon ICO.

Proof: https://hacked.com/ico-analysis-varyon/

This is very good result.

Yes, I agree this is a very good assessment. The criticisms are legit as those are certainly risks for token holders.

I will clear up a few things though.

Peter Thiel only donated $500k toward the initial formation of the Seasteading Institute. That money was long gone before anyone who works for Blue Frontiers came on board. I believe the $1.7 million number might be a total from the 10 years the institute has been around.

We only put 2 names on the list of advisors from the blockchain team but there are at least a dozen of us participating, we just don't have as big names as people like Daniel Nagy and Robert Viglione. We had Ross Kenyon advising early on, he was in charge of marketing for Tezos which raised over $100 million. We had a conference call with Vitalik who chimed in on his suggestions for possible blockchain solutions on the seastead. We spoke with more experts in the industry than can be named and would have had this up and running back in August if it was a straight forward utility token. But once you start looking at this thing from a legal perspective, it gets complicated very quickly. The team did well to get their ducks in a row before doing the ICO. We actually started earlier than we wanted to but knew we needed to get this going.

Which is the reason the White Paper is still in draft form. I'm not sure how public knowledge this is but they should be bringing something up this week. We have been in the process of moving from being based in Singapore to a more crypto friendly country. The white paper cannot be in its final form until the team of lawyers in that country get through with it and make sure it complies with their laws.

The team lock up amounts are close to being determined. It is a bit complicated because the "team" consists of mostly staff while the founders are a very small percentage of that. Talk I have heard was there will be a large amount locked up for a year. You can see the smart contract already reserves a space for locked coins so it is definitely planned.

Of course the biggest factor is certainly whether or not Blue Frontiers will build a seastead and I definitely agree, this is the biggest question. The money raised during the ICO will certainly not go toward any research into SeaZones. That has already been well established and we submitted our legislative package to French Polynesia back in September with our requests for what we will need. There is no more money needed on that front. Money will definitely be going toward engineering. The initial designs are already pretty far along, that has been paid for as well. But the designs need to go through prototyping and get the final logistics set up for determining the path forward for getting these seasteads to the SeaZone (how much to build on site, whether to build off site then assemble on site, etc.).

As a seed investor who has been involved in seasteading for 10 years I made sure to meet up with the team to look them in the eyes to see if they had the conviction to actually build seasteads. That has also been my biggest frustration with seasteading for the past 10 years...seeing projects that went nowhere. After all of this time I believe that this is right team to get this done. I have been nothing but impressed by all of the very smart people involved in this project.

To ensure that they do actually get these things built I retired back in November and moved to Tahiti. I am living with one of the founders, Marc Collins (along with a few other housemates) and have been kept up to date on everything as we move forward. I plan on going out to the various sites on my own dime, surveying the sites as much as I can on my own to contribute what I can to this project. I even got SCUBA certified a few months ago and bought some underwater equipment so I can do what I can to assist in mapping out the location underwater while also buying a drone to do some aerial shots. I should be heading out next month to get started on checking a few of the sites.

This is going to happen. It's beyond the point where it will be just science fiction or fantasy. We are shovel ready and once that SeaZone legislation passes we'll be on the ground within days getting things started. Even with the money raised already we could probably get to the point where we just pay for each platform with pre-sales (worst case scenario, if funding dries up...but it seems to be picking up lately). It is no longer about "I hope it happens"...it's happening people. Start preparing.

My Wife is really impressed with this project and although we are very small investors, we still want to try to contribute to the project even though we also realize that this is not one of those coin flipping 10 x type ICOS. Anyone investing in this project needs to be passionate about Seasteading and also about the whole concept of variation in governance and Fintech in general. If the Seastead is built, the firs tone that is, this could be the next 100 x project. If you have an eth or two aside, put it in as a long term hold and hope for the best. I myself would love this project to succeed and willing to put aside what I an afford to be an early bird in this project and one day be able to visit the live Seastead. 

[Goldigger456]

Is there any info how much have me collected until now?How is the sale going?

There is a ticker on the website, varyon.io

Currently at 1381 ETH (varies based on the price of our bitcoin holdings).

Thanks Elwar.We are progressing just fine and when US joins in it will be even better for sure.

US based investors will be able to join later?

Yeah acredited US investor will soon be able to invest

Why they cant join now,whats the current issue?

Accredited investors will be going through a separate KYC/AML process that also involves proving their accredited status (they have to have made at least $200k in the past 2 years or have at least $1 million in assets).

What is the difference between KYC and AML?

KYC is Know Your Customer. Basically verifying your identity.
AML is Anti-Money Laundering. Basically finding out where the money is coming from.

I would speak freely about what I think about KYC/AML but I am somewhat representing Blue Frontiers so I will play nice.

But man, we understand what you wanna say,you are mad because our privacy is continuously invaded... but we also have to understand that in todays world its almost impossible without that. Maybe you dont have bad intentions but some people definitely have them and there is no other solution... how would you solve problems like bribery,corruption,money laundering and a lots of other illegal intentions?

I think  thats just an excuse,they pretend that they want to solve issues like corruption and money laundering by KYC/AML,but what they really want is to get all your info so they can tax you and get their piece of cake.Thats what goverments really want,thats their ultimate goal.YOUR money.

Remember,taxation is theft!

That might be true,but without that crypto will never go to the mainstream.

[BoDerek]

Maybe Varyon can show us that there is a different way ,thats what im most excited about

[Londondungeon]

ICO Analysis: Varyon
Published on May 30, 2018
By Fredrik Vold

Team
Since the Varyon ICO is launched by the already established company Blue Frontiers, the team appears pretty strong, particularly when it comes to the concept of seasteading, special economic zones, legal, and administration.
The company was originally spun off of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute, and therefore shares many of the same employees. The key members of the management team consist of:
    Randy Hencken, Director at The Seasteading Institute, leader of The Floating City Project, and early cryptocurrency adopter.
    Joe Quirk, President of The Seasteading Institute and co-author of the book Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians.
    Marc Collins, serial entrepreneur and former Minister of Tourism of French Polynesia.
    Nicolas Germineau, entrepreneur, software developer, and Ambassador of The Seasteading Institute since 2011.
    Egor Ryjikov, Belarusian inventor, investor, and entrepreneur. Ambassador of The Seasteading Institute since 2009.
Other than the names listed above, Blue Frontiers also has a long list of advisors that are associated with the company. This includes specialists in fields such as Special Economic Zones, tourism, engineering, journalism, and other areas relevant to the project.
The only thing we can see lacking from the list of team members is more people with relevant blockchain experience. There are a few blockchain developers on the team, but in reality there are very few of these people compared to other blockchain projects we have reviewed.
One could argue that an ICO of this type doesn’t need a lot of blockchain professionals to carry out their project, but I would still argue that having at least some people who have experience with ICOs would be an advantage. It would probably also help with carrying out the ICO in a more professional manner, and avoiding issues like launching the pre-sale without having a complete white paper, which is what the company is currently doing.

Verdict
Although The Seasteading Institute has signed an MoU with the French Polynesian government about the construction of a floating island in its territorial waters, it appears that strong opposition to the project exists both within the government and in the Polynesian population, as reported by Radio New Zealand in February. To be fair though, it is believed that with the elections in French Polynesia being over, politicians there will now have more flexibility in terms of moving forward with projects of this type that may be unpopular among some people.
Another potential problem we see here is that The Seasteading Insitute has already been around for quite a long time and has failed in past attempts at setting up real-world seasteads. The most notable of these was a planned prototype seastead that was to be set up by The Seasteading Institute in the San Francisco Bay by 2010, according to Wikipedia. Despite an investment by Peter Thiel totaling $1.7 million, this has never happened.
Investors in Varyon need to be aware that in order for this investment to pay off in any way at all, it is essential that an actual real-world seastead is built and deployed on the ocean. Unfortunately, the track record of past attempts of doing this does not look very promising, but we certainly hope that this time will be different.

Growth potential
    Smart contract code has been audited by an independent third party. +1
    Rising sea-levels is a risk that is threatening inhabitants in places like French Polynesia. Raising awareness about this and proposing new solutions is something that will probably help boost public support in the host nations of seasteads, which is critical in order for the project to be brought to life. +3
    Lots of people are excited about this project and support the idea of creating floating islands with independent governance, and some of these people are also likely to invest and buy property on these islands. +2
    Because of the strong support for the project and the amount of media attention the project has received, it is likely that some people will contribute more out of ideological reasons rather than expecting a huge return on their investment. Those who are solely looking to maximize returns will likely look to other ICOs. +1
    The backers of the ICO and the team is strong and has extensive experience in the area of special economic zones, engineering, and seasteads. +3

Risks
    It remains somewhat unclear if the funds raised from the token sale will be used for the construction of an actual seastead, or if it will mainly go towards developing plans, blueprints, and research about the legal framework for “SeaZones.” The company should make it more clear that the funds raised will be spent to build a real-world seastead in French Polynesia. -2
    The white paper published on the Varyon website is just a draft and not a final version. Several important details are left out of the white paper, including information about the lock-up for the team’s tokens. -1
    The Seasteading Institute’s (separate from Blue Frontiers, which is issuing this token) past record in putting their ideas to life is questionable, although the team argues that as a think-tank, construction of real-world seasteads has never been their objective -1

Disposition
In conclusion, we admit that we feel excited about the possibility of building real-world seasteads, and we certainly hope that Blue Frontiers will succeed so that this becomes a reality one day.
The main question about this ICO is if the company will succeed in putting a real-world floating island on the sea off the coast of French Polynesia. There is really no way of knowing this with certainty, and since the long-term value of the Varyon token would entirely depend on this, it should be clear to everyone that this is a very risky investment.
However, you may choose to view this as more of an idealistic fundraising for a cause you believe in. If you are exited about the idea of floating islands and want to help make it a reality, then Varyon is by all means a great way to contribute! The team is strong and they are probably the most experienced people in the world working on seasteading projects for the time being.
Overall, we arrive at a score of 6 out of 10 for the Varyon ICO.

Proof: https://hacked.com/ico-analysis-varyon/

This is very good result.

God review overall, it mentions failed attempts, but I don't see that as something negative, but positive.It show that team is dedicated and finding new ways and solution changes the outcome in future and times and people change.I see this as a project that will change how we see a lot of things.

[EndimyonsDream]

ICO Analysis: Varyon
Published on May 30, 2018
By Fredrik Vold

Team
Since the Varyon ICO is launched by the already established company Blue Frontiers, the team appears pretty strong, particularly when it comes to the concept of seasteading, special economic zones, legal, and administration.
The company was originally spun off of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute, and therefore shares many of the same employees. The key members of the management team consist of:
    Randy Hencken, Director at The Seasteading Institute, leader of The Floating City Project, and early cryptocurrency adopter.
    Joe Quirk, President of The Seasteading Institute and co-author of the book Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians.
    Marc Collins, serial entrepreneur and former Minister of Tourism of French Polynesia.
    Nicolas Germineau, entrepreneur, software developer, and Ambassador of The Seasteading Institute since 2011.
    Egor Ryjikov, Belarusian inventor, investor, and entrepreneur. Ambassador of The Seasteading Institute since 2009.
Other than the names listed above, Blue Frontiers also has a long list of advisors that are associated with the company. This includes specialists in fields such as Special Economic Zones, tourism, engineering, journalism, and other areas relevant to the project.
The only thing we can see lacking from the list of team members is more people with relevant blockchain experience. There are a few blockchain developers on the team, but in reality there are very few of these people compared to other blockchain projects we have reviewed.
One could argue that an ICO of this type doesn’t need a lot of blockchain professionals to carry out their project, but I would still argue that having at least some people who have experience with ICOs would be an advantage. It would probably also help with carrying out the ICO in a more professional manner, and avoiding issues like launching the pre-sale without having a complete white paper, which is what the company is currently doing.

Verdict
Although The Seasteading Institute has signed an MoU with the French Polynesian government about the construction of a floating island in its territorial waters, it appears that strong opposition to the project exists both within the government and in the Polynesian population, as reported by Radio New Zealand in February. To be fair though, it is believed that with the elections in French Polynesia being over, politicians there will now have more flexibility in terms of moving forward with projects of this type that may be unpopular among some people.
Another potential problem we see here is that The Seasteading Insitute has already been around for quite a long time and has failed in past attempts at setting up real-world seasteads. The most notable of these was a planned prototype seastead that was to be set up by The Seasteading Institute in the San Francisco Bay by 2010, according to Wikipedia. Despite an investment by Peter Thiel totaling $1.7 million, this has never happened.
Investors in Varyon need to be aware that in order for this investment to pay off in any way at all, it is essential that an actual real-world seastead is built and deployed on the ocean. Unfortunately, the track record of past attempts of doing this does not look very promising, but we certainly hope that this time will be different.

Growth potential
    Smart contract code has been audited by an independent third party. +1
    Rising sea-levels is a risk that is threatening inhabitants in places like French Polynesia. Raising awareness about this and proposing new solutions is something that will probably help boost public support in the host nations of seasteads, which is critical in order for the project to be brought to life. +3
    Lots of people are excited about this project and support the idea of creating floating islands with independent governance, and some of these people are also likely to invest and buy property on these islands. +2
    Because of the strong support for the project and the amount of media attention the project has received, it is likely that some people will contribute more out of ideological reasons rather than expecting a huge return on their investment. Those who are solely looking to maximize returns will likely look to other ICOs. +1
    The backers of the ICO and the team is strong and has extensive experience in the area of special economic zones, engineering, and seasteads. +3

Risks
    It remains somewhat unclear if the funds raised from the token sale will be used for the construction of an actual seastead, or if it will mainly go towards developing plans, blueprints, and research about the legal framework for “SeaZones.” The company should make it more clear that the funds raised will be spent to build a real-world seastead in French Polynesia. -2
    The white paper published on the Varyon website is just a draft and not a final version. Several important details are left out of the white paper, including information about the lock-up for the team’s tokens. -1
    The Seasteading Institute’s (separate from Blue Frontiers, which is issuing this token) past record in putting their ideas to life is questionable, although the team argues that as a think-tank, construction of real-world seasteads has never been their objective -1

Disposition
In conclusion, we admit that we feel excited about the possibility of building real-world seasteads, and we certainly hope that Blue Frontiers will succeed so that this becomes a reality one day.
The main question about this ICO is if the company will succeed in putting a real-world floating island on the sea off the coast of French Polynesia. There is really no way of knowing this with certainty, and since the long-term value of the Varyon token would entirely depend on this, it should be clear to everyone that this is a very risky investment.
However, you may choose to view this as more of an idealistic fundraising for a cause you believe in. If you are exited about the idea of floating islands and want to help make it a reality, then Varyon is by all means a great way to contribute! The team is strong and they are probably the most experienced people in the world working on seasteading projects for the time being.
Overall, we arrive at a score of 6 out of 10 for the Varyon ICO.

Proof: https://hacked.com/ico-analysis-varyon/

This is very good result.

Yes, I agree this is a very good assessment. The criticisms are legit as those are certainly risks for token holders.

I will clear up a few things though.

Peter Thiel only donated $500k toward the initial formation of the Seasteading Institute. That money was long gone before anyone who works for Blue Frontiers came on board. I believe the $1.7 million number might be a total from the 10 years the institute has been around.

We only put 2 names on the list of advisors from the blockchain team but there are at least a dozen of us participating, we just don't have as big names as people like Daniel Nagy and Robert Viglione. We had Ross Kenyon advising early on, he was in charge of marketing for Tezos which raised over $100 million. We had a conference call with Vitalik who chimed in on his suggestions for possible blockchain solutions on the seastead. We spoke with more experts in the industry than can be named and would have had this up and running back in August if it was a straight forward utility token. But once you start looking at this thing from a legal perspective, it gets complicated very quickly. The team did well to get their ducks in a row before doing the ICO. We actually started earlier than we wanted to but knew we needed to get this going.

Which is the reason the White Paper is still in draft form. I'm not sure how public knowledge this is but they should be bringing something up this week. We have been in the process of moving from being based in Singapore to a more crypto friendly country. The white paper cannot be in its final form until the team of lawyers in that country get through with it and make sure it complies with their laws.

The team lock up amounts are close to being determined. It is a bit complicated because the "team" consists of mostly staff while the founders are a very small percentage of that. Talk I have heard was there will be a large amount locked up for a year. You can see the smart contract already reserves a space for locked coins so it is definitely planned.

Of course the biggest factor is certainly whether or not Blue Frontiers will build a seastead and I definitely agree, this is the biggest question. The money raised during the ICO will certainly not go toward any research into SeaZones. That has already been well established and we submitted our legislative package to French Polynesia back in September with our requests for what we will need. There is no more money needed on that front. Money will definitely be going toward engineering. The initial designs are already pretty far along, that has been paid for as well. But the designs need to go through prototyping and get the final logistics set up for determining the path forward for getting these seasteads to the SeaZone (how much to build on site, whether to build off site then assemble on site, etc.).

As a seed investor who has been involved in seasteading for 10 years I made sure to meet up with the team to look them in the eyes to see if they had the conviction to actually build seasteads. That has also been my biggest frustration with seasteading for the past 10 years...seeing projects that went nowhere. After all of this time I believe that this is right team to get this done. I have been nothing but impressed by all of the very smart people involved in this project.

To ensure that they do actually get these things built I retired back in November and moved to Tahiti. I am living with one of the founders, Marc Collins (along with a few other housemates) and have been kept up to date on everything as we move forward. I plan on going out to the various sites on my own dime, surveying the sites as much as I can on my own to contribute what I can to this project. I even got SCUBA certified a few months ago and bought some underwater equipment so I can do what I can to assist in mapping out the location underwater while also buying a drone to do some aerial shots. I should be heading out next month to get started on checking a few of the sites.

This is going to happen. It's beyond the point where it will be just science fiction or fantasy. We are shovel ready and once that SeaZone legislation passes we'll be on the ground within days getting things started. Even with the money raised already we could probably get to the point where we just pay for each platform with pre-sales (worst case scenario, if funding dries up...but it seems to be picking up lately). It is no longer about "I hope it happens"...it's happening people. Start preparing.

Great to see this kind of posts from people that are so deep into the project.Brings more optimism to people who are still not sure if the project has a chance-I personally don't have any doubts, gut feeling What people have most trouble with is understanding that Varyon is not another token/coin trying to find it's place in crypto game, Varyon is a project that is trying to change the crypto game.

[HiLander]

What will be the benefits for Varyon,from this partnership with zencash?

ZenCash is very much focused on decentralized governance so they should be able to build some of the governance tools for the seasteads. I know they are working on a private voting system. As I have mentioned before, Blue Frontiers is not a blockchain company...it is a seastead building company. So they will be looking to partner with others to take care of many of the blockchain based solutions to governance. ZEN has a setup where they pay developers like how Bitcoin pays miners. So if some of the developers are getting paid for projects that can be used on the seastead then that is beneficial to all seasteaders. Of course there will need to be built a simple interaction between varyon and ZEN so that people with ZEN can use their tools.

Yeah this makes sense.I see some people get confused about difference between Blue Frontiers and Varyon and interaction between them and how partnerships affect them.Can you explain how Blue Frontiers and Varyon interact and partnerships that affect them?

Varyon will be the only currency that Blue Frontiers accepts. So even if ZenCash is being used for some blockchain solution, if it interacts with Blue Frontiers it will need to convert to varyon at some point.

Blue Frontiers will want to keep the value of varyon up because it holds a lot of varyon in reserves and will use it for future construction all over the world.

It makes sense to keep Varyon as only option of payment to keep it strong to ensure protection of future development. So ZenCash is actually more important for the seastead and different aspects that will need to be developed on it, like governance as you mentioned and possible some other areas, then to Varyon which is basicly not connected in any way to ZenCash?

[Mladiornitolog]

Is there any info how much have me collected until now?How is the sale going?

There is a ticker on the website, varyon.io

Currently at 1381 ETH (varies based on the price of our bitcoin holdings).

Thanks Elwar.We are progressing just fine and when US joins in it will be even better for sure.

US based investors will be able to join later?

Yeah acredited US investor will soon be able to invest

Why they cant join now,whats the current issue?

Accredited investors will be going through a separate KYC/AML process that also involves proving their accredited status (they have to have made at least $200k in the past 2 years or have at least $1 million in assets).

What is the difference between KYC and AML?

KYC is Know Your Customer. Basically verifying your identity.
AML is Anti-Money Laundering. Basically finding out where the money is coming from.

I would speak freely about what I think about KYC/AML but I am somewhat representing Blue Frontiers so I will play nice.

But man, we understand what you wanna say,you are mad because our privacy is continuously invaded... but we also have to understand that in todays world its almost impossible without that. Maybe you dont have bad intentions but some people definitely have them and there is no other solution... how would you solve problems like bribery,corruption,money laundering and a lots of other illegal intentions?

I think  thats just an excuse,they pretend that they want to solve issues like corruption and money laundering by KYC/AML,but what they really want is to get all your info so they can tax you and get their piece of cake.Thats what goverments really want,thats their ultimate goal.YOUR money.

Remember,taxation is theft!

That might be true,but without that crypto will never go to the mainstream.

The point is to avoid governments and taxation as it is simply not fair, todays system.It can be done and still be a mainstream. Varyon will show you how, you'll see There are better way of doing things and governing money and community then the way countries are doing it.Mark my words

[Elwar]

What will be the benefits for Varyon,from this partnership with zencash?

ZenCash is very much focused on decentralized governance so they should be able to build some of the governance tools for the seasteads. I know they are working on a private voting system. As I have mentioned before, Blue Frontiers is not a blockchain company...it is a seastead building company. So they will be looking to partner with others to take care of many of the blockchain based solutions to governance. ZEN has a setup where they pay developers like how Bitcoin pays miners. So if some of the developers are getting paid for projects that can be used on the seastead then that is beneficial to all seasteaders. Of course there will need to be built a simple interaction between varyon and ZEN so that people with ZEN can use their tools.

Yeah this makes sense.I see some people get confused about difference between Blue Frontiers and Varyon and interaction between them and how partnerships affect them.Can you explain how Blue Frontiers and Varyon interact and partnerships that affect them?

Varyon will be the only currency that Blue Frontiers accepts. So even if ZenCash is being used for some blockchain solution, if it interacts with Blue Frontiers it will need to convert to varyon at some point.

Blue Frontiers will want to keep the value of varyon up because it holds a lot of varyon in reserves and will use it for future construction all over the world.

It makes sense to keep Varyon as only option of payment to keep it strong to ensure protection of future development. So ZenCash is actually more important for the seastead and different aspects that will need to be developed on it, like governance as you mentioned and possible some other areas, then to Varyon which is basicly not connected in any way to ZenCash?

Pretty much. We are encouraging many blockchain companies to come and use the seastead as an incubator site.

I know some people might not participate but I think the types of people who move onto a seastead will likely be ok with trying new blockchain products even if it's not "point and click" or super simple. It will be an adventure in experimentation in all manner of ways.

[DtpNumbered]

What will be the benefits for Varyon,from this partnership with zencash?

ZenCash is very much focused on decentralized governance so they should be able to build some of the governance tools for the seasteads. I know they are working on a private voting system. As I have mentioned before, Blue Frontiers is not a blockchain company...it is a seastead building company. So they will be looking to partner with others to take care of many of the blockchain based solutions to governance. ZEN has a setup where they pay developers like how Bitcoin pays miners. So if some of the developers are getting paid for projects that can be used on the seastead then that is beneficial to all seasteaders. Of course there will need to be built a simple interaction between varyon and ZEN so that people with ZEN can use their tools.

Yeah this makes sense.I see some people get confused about difference between Blue Frontiers and Varyon and interaction between them and how partnerships affect them.Can you explain how Blue Frontiers and Varyon interact and partnerships that affect them?

Varyon will be the only currency that Blue Frontiers accepts. So even if ZenCash is being used for some blockchain solution, if it interacts with Blue Frontiers it will need to convert to varyon at some point.

Blue Frontiers will want to keep the value of varyon up because it holds a lot of varyon in reserves and will use it for future construction all over the world.

It makes sense to keep Varyon as only option of payment to keep it strong to ensure protection of future development. So ZenCash is actually more important for the seastead and different aspects that will need to be developed on it, like governance as you mentioned and possible some other areas, then to Varyon which is basicly not connected in any way to ZenCash?

Pretty much. We are encouraging many blockchain companies to come and use the seastead as an incubator site.

I know some people might not participate but I think the types of people who move onto a seastead will likely be ok with trying new blockchain products even if it's not "point and click" or super simple. It will be an adventure in experimentation in all manner of ways.

I agree on that.Most of the talk is about seastead itself which is great after all as I see as a material manifestation of the idea behind the project.Something that will be like a big marketing impact, something people can see and thus start wondering that if that is possible what else can can be done too? That can be used for what I believe is the main aim of the project like Varyon, which would be to open the gateway for testing and developing new ways and new solutions for a better organized community, services and technology.A lot of people here would be happy to participate and sign to be a pioneer here, but seastead when it's built will make other people from let's say general population intrigued by it and that's how it always begins.

[WillerTex]

Maybe Varyon can show us that there is a different way ,thats what im most excited about

True , this is visionary project,definitely something different on the crypto market,really pushing blockchain idea further.

[Pipilla]

Very nice project with great vision, wish you all the best. I see you have an enormous number of people in the team, where are you based?

The five founders are all over the world. The US, UK, Russia and French Polynesia. Most of the employees are in the US and there are volunteers and advisors all over the world as well.

I don't work for Blue Frontiers but I support the project so much that I retired and moved to Tahiti to offer any support I could give and to have a front seat of history being made.  

What is the minimum amount needed to join this sale?

Current minimum for the pre-sale is the equivalent of 40 ETH in ethers or BTC. Or 100 ZEN. During the public sale the minimum will likely be 1 ETH.

Seems like you have a huge team.Where exactly is your headquarters and how many people are there?

Blue Frontiers is currently incorporated in Singapore but that could change. Much of the work is being done in the US, mainly the Silicon Valley area.

a very unique project, making a place to live floating on the sea, but I think only the rich people who can live here because it is pegged a cost that does not seem cheap.

Last numbers I saw were about $200k per person on average to have a home on the seastead. Of course that's the average so some places may be single person bungalows that cost a lot or apartment units that cost less. The hope is to develop mass production techniques that can put out cheaper and cheaper units giving the average person the opportunity to have an oceanfront home much cheaper than on the land.

When exactly your Pre ICO and ICO start and finish?I couldnt find that information anywhere.

The Pre ICO started about a week or two ago. The full ICO will likely be in early June as they work on running security checks on the smart contract with many eyes including a third party team who is well known for securing ICOs (I'm not sure of the name right now).

40 ETH for presale?I guess ill have to wait for main sale,1 ETH i can afford

[Katsouranis]

What will be the benefits for Varyon,from this partnership with zencash?

ZenCash is very much focused on decentralized governance so they should be able to build some of the governance tools for the seasteads. I know they are working on a private voting system. As I have mentioned before, Blue Frontiers is not a blockchain company...it is a seastead building company. So they will be looking to partner with others to take care of many of the blockchain based solutions to governance. ZEN has a setup where they pay developers like how Bitcoin pays miners. So if some of the developers are getting paid for projects that can be used on the seastead then that is beneficial to all seasteaders. Of course there will need to be built a simple interaction between varyon and ZEN so that people with ZEN can use their tools.

Yeah this makes sense.I see some people get confused about difference between Blue Frontiers and Varyon and interaction between them and how partnerships affect them.Can you explain how Blue Frontiers and Varyon interact and partnerships that affect them?

Varyon will be the only currency that Blue Frontiers accepts. So even if ZenCash is being used for some blockchain solution, if it interacts with Blue Frontiers it will need to convert to varyon at some point.

Blue Frontiers will want to keep the value of varyon up because it holds a lot of varyon in reserves and will use it for future construction all over the world.

It makes sense to keep Varyon as only option of payment to keep it strong to ensure protection of future development. So ZenCash is actually more important for the seastead and different aspects that will need to be developed on it, like governance as you mentioned and possible some other areas, then to Varyon which is basicly not connected in any way to ZenCash?

Pretty much. We are encouraging many blockchain companies to come and use the seastead as an incubator site.

I know some people might not participate but I think the types of people who move onto a seastead will likely be ok with trying new blockchain products even if it's not "point and click" or super simple. It will be an adventure in experimentation in all manner of ways.

Whats the situation with taxes there,at French Polynesia,and crypto laws in general,is it crypto friendly?

[Gwiazdooka]

What will be the benefits for Varyon,from this partnership with zencash?

ZenCash is very much focused on decentralized governance so they should be able to build some of the governance tools for the seasteads. I know they are working on a private voting system. As I have mentioned before, Blue Frontiers is not a blockchain company...it is a seastead building company. So they will be looking to partner with others to take care of many of the blockchain based solutions to governance. ZEN has a setup where they pay developers like how Bitcoin pays miners. So if some of the developers are getting paid for projects that can be used on the seastead then that is beneficial to all seasteaders. Of course there will need to be built a simple interaction between varyon and ZEN so that people with ZEN can use their tools.

Yeah this makes sense.I see some people get confused about difference between Blue Frontiers and Varyon and interaction between them and how partnerships affect them.Can you explain how Blue Frontiers and Varyon interact and partnerships that affect them?

Varyon will be the only currency that Blue Frontiers accepts. So even if ZenCash is being used for some blockchain solution, if it interacts with Blue Frontiers it will need to convert to varyon at some point.

Blue Frontiers will want to keep the value of varyon up because it holds a lot of varyon in reserves and will use it for future construction all over the world.

It makes sense to keep Varyon as only option of payment to keep it strong to ensure protection of future development. So ZenCash is actually more important for the seastead and different aspects that will need to be developed on it, like governance as you mentioned and possible some other areas, then to Varyon which is basicly not connected in any way to ZenCash?

Pretty much. We are encouraging many blockchain companies to come and use the seastead as an incubator site.

I know some people might not participate but I think the types of people who move onto a seastead will likely be ok with trying new blockchain products even if it's not "point and click" or super simple. It will be an adventure in experimentation in all manner of ways.

Whats the situation with taxes there,at French Polynesia,and crypto laws in general,is it crypto friendly?

Well,since name is French Polynesia,i guess French laws apply there too.

I think Malta would be good location for Varyon,if they ever decide to install one of those floating islands in Europe,as Malta is really opened to blockchain based projects.

[Elwar]

Very nice project with great vision, wish you all the best. I see you have an enormous number of people in the team, where are you based?

The five founders are all over the world. The US, UK, Russia and French Polynesia. Most of the employees are in the US and there are volunteers and advisors all over the world as well.

I don't work for Blue Frontiers but I support the project so much that I retired and moved to Tahiti to offer any support I could give and to have a front seat of history being made.  

What is the minimum amount needed to join this sale?

Current minimum for the pre-sale is the equivalent of 40 ETH in ethers or BTC. Or 100 ZEN. During the public sale the minimum will likely be 1 ETH.

Seems like you have a huge team.Where exactly is your headquarters and how many people are there?

Blue Frontiers is currently incorporated in Singapore but that could change. Much of the work is being done in the US, mainly the Silicon Valley area.

a very unique project, making a place to live floating on the sea, but I think only the rich people who can live here because it is pegged a cost that does not seem cheap.

Last numbers I saw were about $200k per person on average to have a home on the seastead. Of course that's the average so some places may be single person bungalows that cost a lot or apartment units that cost less. The hope is to develop mass production techniques that can put out cheaper and cheaper units giving the average person the opportunity to have an oceanfront home much cheaper than on the land.

When exactly your Pre ICO and ICO start and finish?I couldnt find that information anywhere.

The Pre ICO started about a week or two ago. The full ICO will likely be in early June as they work on running security checks on the smart contract with many eyes including a third party team who is well known for securing ICOs (I'm not sure of the name right now).

40 ETH for presale?I guess ill have to wait for main sale,1 ETH i can afford

The presale minimums have been updated. You can now get in on the presale with 1 ETH with 5% bonus.

[Elwar]

Whats the situation with taxes there,at French Polynesia,and crypto laws in general,is it crypto friendly?

French Polynesia has no income taxes. But for the Special Economic Zone we will be asking for more economic freedom.

France is actually working toward becoming very crypto friendly. They have been listening to the Bitcoin community there and are trying to work with them.

https://news.bitcoin.com/vive-la-france-bitcoin-tax-slashed-by-republic/


"During this week’s G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, France’s minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire highlighted the importance bitcoin and cryptocurrencies may have in the world’s economy."
https://www.ccn.com/french-minister-bruno-le-marie-highlights-importance-of-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrencies/

[PuryLock]

Very nice project with great vision, wish you all the best. I see you have an enormous number of people in the team, where are you based?

The five founders are all over the world. The US, UK, Russia and French Polynesia. Most of the employees are in the US and there are volunteers and advisors all over the world as well.

I don't work for Blue Frontiers but I support the project so much that I retired and moved to Tahiti to offer any support I could give and to have a front seat of history being made.  

What is the minimum amount needed to join this sale?

Current minimum for the pre-sale is the equivalent of 40 ETH in ethers or BTC. Or 100 ZEN. During the public sale the minimum will likely be 1 ETH.

Seems like you have a huge team.Where exactly is your headquarters and how many people are there?

Blue Frontiers is currently incorporated in Singapore but that could change. Much of the work is being done in the US, mainly the Silicon Valley area.

a very unique project, making a place to live floating on the sea, but I think only the rich people who can live here because it is pegged a cost that does not seem cheap.

Last numbers I saw were about $200k per person on average to have a home on the seastead. Of course that's the average so some places may be single person bungalows that cost a lot or apartment units that cost less. The hope is to develop mass production techniques that can put out cheaper and cheaper units giving the average person the opportunity to have an oceanfront home much cheaper than on the land.

When exactly your Pre ICO and ICO start and finish?I couldnt find that information anywhere.

The Pre ICO started about a week or two ago. The full ICO will likely be in early June as they work on running security checks on the smart contract with many eyes including a third party team who is well known for securing ICOs (I'm not sure of the name right now).

40 ETH for presale?I guess ill have to wait for main sale,1 ETH i can afford

The presale minimums have been updated. You can now get in on the presale with 1 ETH with 5% bonus.

With ETH being under $600,i think its very reasonable amount,and affordable for most people.Especially since ETH will go up for sure,so those that join will get VARYON tokens for even less!

[yura04071989]

Where can I study the technical part of the project? Technical and economic characteristics and environmental impact are introduces, as well as the utilization of household waste and waste products/ how will the sewerage be organized on floating platforms?

[BrianEdwards]

I suppose that this idea is rather a gainful investment at the present time.

[Elwar]

Where can I study the technical part of the project? Technical and economic characteristics and environmental impact are introduces, as well as the utilization of household waste and waste products/ how will the sewerage be organized on floating platforms?

Economical Analysis and Environmental Impact Report (among other things) can be found here:
https://www.blue-frontiers.com/en/docs

The whitepaper can be read here:
https://www.blue-frontiers.com/whitepaper.pdf

As for waste, there are experts involved in the project that are far more understanding of it than I could even attempt to explain (I didn't know there were people that were so passionate about poop).

It's almost as if different people are competing over the different ways to turn waste into fuel. Who will win out? Food systems using it for fertilizer? Energy systems using it for methane, biodigester(?).

It is still in the works but we are looking to recycle as much as possible. The hope is that people will start using local traditions of using palm branches for bags and such. We're not going in blind, the locals have been living on these islands for centuries so they can show us a thing or two about not impacting the environment.