Offering a premium launchpad: An interview with Escrow Protocol CEO Dennis Schulte

Startups and platforms often face hurdles in the process of developing and further launching their projects in the crypto space after their ICO and token sales end. A lot of these projects fail or experience rug pulls by the team.

By developing a method where the raised capital is paid out systematically through a smart contract in pre-arranged sums, Escrow Protocol ensures that projects stay on track.

The platform uses a smart contract to ensure that startups and projects get some amount of the total raised capital whenever they achieve a milestone successfully.

Furthermore, the funds held by Escrow Protocol are allocated to Yield-Farming Protocols thereby maximizing value appreciation that takes place through interest gains while waiting for pay-out on future funding targets.

In an interview with the founder and CEO of Escrow Protocol Dennis Schulte we talk about their platform, major reasons for the failure of ICOs in the space, their token, partnerships, and much more.

1. What was the vision behind creating the Escrow protocol platform?

We created this platform as a result of witnessing too many projects fail and having virtually no accountability for project owners to deliver anything like it was originally promised during fundraising. 

After many dollars going into the drain and a ton of energy being wasted in worrying about how a project would manage the invested funds we invested, we decided to create a platform that would eliminate this, while combining the best available DeFi practices into an all-inclusive investment hub where users of all experience levels can safely invest and know that their funds are managed in the best possible way.

2. According to you, what are the major reasons for the failures of ICOs? How does Escrow Protocol offer a solution for this?

First I would like to point out the incredibly high failure rate of ICOs. 85-90% of all ICOs fail within 6 months of launch. That is an unacceptable number.

These projects typically fail because the team abandons the mission.

I believe that not all rug-pulled projects had the intentions of doing so to their investor community when they started the project, but let’s just think about the scenario here. A project receives millions of dollars in unregulated funds ahead of completing the work they set out to do.

Now it is asked of the project team to spend the next year(s) with a heavy workload to deliver the product and re-investing their raised funds. It is a very tempting situation to just abandon and enjoy life under the palm trees.

The second reason for failures I would say is mismanagement of funds. Companies don’t manage things as they need to for their various development milestones and at some point simply run out of funds, nulling all made progress and the project fails.

We provide the solution for this by giving the investor and project a customized smart contract that outlines the funding conditions for the various developments the project will have to make to reach success.

The investor will be able to judge the value proposition ahead of making the investment and the smart contract acts as the middleman, ensuring both parties act in accordance with their initial agreement.

3. Tell us more about what makes the platform stand out in the space?

We are offering a premium launchpad that extends to the investors, control over made investments post fundraising, and releases funding in pre-arranged sums for specific developments.

We are a true DAO organization and will give this project entirely into the hands of the investor community. More than just a launchpad, we are offering an investment hub where users can conveniently utilize the best DeFi tools to really maximize their investment returns.

Besides Yield Farm allocations we utilize unique applications of NFTs for ID-Access cards that give users platform access to features like a project exclusive chat room where investors can communicate about the project without outside interference. There will be a social reputation aspect to the platform.

4. Escrow Protocol aims to be an all-inclusive investment platform in the ecosystem. How are you working on achieving this?

We are combining the best available blockchain tools and offering them in a user-friendly, modern web interface accessible for all investor classes.

Investor community governance to potentially block funding or vote on allocating funding for new developments a project may require.

The automatic yield farm allocation will ensure that escrow-held funds are constantly appreciating and returns the interest gains with 80% to the investor.

Project verification/ vetting service by Escrow orchestrated experts and bounty hunters. Investor exclusive communication channels with tiered access based on investment amounts.

5. What steps are you taking to ensure that the platform is 100% DAO and community governed?

Our project is planned to be fully built through Decentralised technology. This is being done with the help of :

• Infrastructure with companies like stack OS.
• Data with FIL and Ternoa.
• Domain registration with Butterfly.
• Investors’ protection is studied on Shield finance.
• Integrations with AAVE, Celsius, and BlockBank to offer the best of DeFi

And our own project is governance-based. So, decisions are in the hands of the token holders.

We also have been approached by My Ton Alliance to enter their certified group of DAO companies. Thus, each part is segmented smartly to have complete decentralized.

We are also planning to list/bridge our token to DEXes like Quickswap, Pancakeswap, Uniswap, and Sure Pangolins.

6. Talk to us about the Escrow Protocol? What are some of its use cases?

The use cases are literally endless, primarily we will start out within the crypto space for ICO funding, but will offer the project as a “Whitelabel” service to applications like sports betting, construction developments, event hosting, and so on.

Anywhere where there is a time delay between payment and service/product delivery, the transaction can be funded through the escrow protocol, making use of the above-mentioned benefits.

7. Are there any partnerships and collaborations we can look forward to this year?

We are working to build our project in a decentralized manner. In order to do so, we are building our infrastructure with companies like stack OS, while also working on data with FIL and Ternoa.

For domain and registration, we are working with Butterfly and for AI it is SKAEL.

8. What lies ahead in the roadmap for the platform in 2021?

We incorporated the ESC-PROTOCOL, LDA in Portugal in order to offer investors favorable legal clarity on regulation and taxation recently. We are also focusing on our global community expansion strategy and creating marketing content for Latin American, Asian, Slavic, and Arabian crypto markets. You can check out our roadmap here. 

Besides our active developments in the crypto space, we are utilizing our network to start integrating the Escrow Protocol as a service to be included in a variety of applications like sports betting, construction, and real estate developments.

For more information on Escrow Protocol, please check out their official website.

Disclaimer: This is a paid post and should not be treated as news/advice.