ICO Review: Beat

Beat is a blockchain based platform aimed at the health and nutrition industry.

The goal of Beat is to reward users for maintaining healthier lifestyles. They aim to accomplish this by implementing an ecosystem of Data Providers and Data Consumers, which will provide a reward system for athletes and sports enthusiasts while providing valuable information for sports and fitness companies.

Beat lists out a few common use cases of this to include:

1. Facilitate Sports and Talent Sponsoring.
2. Targeted Advertising.
3. Supporting Medical Research.
4. Providing physicians and physiotherapists with a comprehensive view of health and activity data.

What Beat is proposing could potentially become a system that if done right, genuinely promotes people to exercise. And with 149,437,600 tokens sold for around $3,287,62 at 91 percent capacity, here’s what we think of their whitepaper.

How Their System Will Work

The first version of Beat’s blockchain will be called Beat Foundation, which will be an open-source version of their blockchain. The Beat Foundation will also be controlled by three groups/stakeholders, which includes Data Providers, Data Consumers, and Trusted Third Parties.

Their Vision

Beat’s vision is to integrate various facilities, agents, consumers, and sponsors into one overarching ecosystem. This will enable mutual compatibility amongst different health clubs, bringing together an environment with improved efficiency and transfer of data ownership.

The BEAT Token

The BEAT token will give users access to services on the BEAT blockchain, including paying the BEAT foundation, as well as the application or platform where your data is stored for access.

The BEAT Concept

BEAT plans to unveil a few different user apps, including NoExcuse, which lets users get rewarded for their sports or gym sessions. Once someone has earned enough, they’ll redeem them on marketplaces or crypto exchanges. Furthermore, the hope here is that companies offer incentives for their employees to go to the gym, which could result in a healthier, more productive work environment.

One aspect of note that BEAT wants to make clear is that users get to choose who their data is sold to, including if it goes to fitness companies, researchers, or advertisers. While this concept is great on a surface level, it’ll be interesting to see how they execute.

Finally, BEAT lists out Trusted Third Parties as their final actor, who ensure the accuracy and validity of the data collected. Their responsibilities will include securing data, reviewing communications, and collection from wearables or equipment, providing a safe transfer to your doctor.

Examples of use cases on data access BEAT includes are:

• Insurance companies that want to reward customers for being active.
• Doctors who want to access patient data digitally.
• Sports teams that are scouting potential athletes.
• Friends and family who want to keep each other motivated.

Company Structure

BEAT has several actors are at play within their structure, including both holding separate companies and products. Here are a few they list out:

MySports

MySports will be responsible for generating and selling the BEAT token. It currently runs and develops the NoExcuse app, which gives sportspeople access to their sports studio, scheduling courses, reserving resources, or interacting with representatives.

Loyalty Systems

This is the holding company of MySports. They hold 100 percent of the shares in MySports but also shares in Magicline, Eurofit24, and Bedarf.

Magicline

Magicline develops and licenses the cloud software for managing sports facilities. It is the German market leader for management software, with over 3,000 fitness studios in Germany currently signed up. Magicline will support MySports in development on BEAT Blockchain, enabling sports facilities to track and verify sports activities reliably.

Eurofit24

Delivers administrative and financial services to owners and managers of sports facilities.

Bedarf.de

This will be the online marketplace to aggregate demand for fitness studios, extending their offerings to consumers via the NoExcuse app, which will support sponsors offering discounts.

Our Thoughts

On the surface, there’s a lot to like about BEAT as well as a few comments of note. The project has a lot of infrastructure already in place, which could make adoption much easier once their entire ecosystem launches. Furthermore, their team has quite a bit of experience in the fitness field, which all points towards this project being a success. However, for as much progress they’ve seen so far in their token sale, there’s still a few aspects of this project we have questions on after reading their whitepaper.

First, as a lot of blockchain projects are about removing intermediaries, the use of a Trusted Third Party for data adds a centralized gatekeeper. Furthermore, no mention or hint using a Trusted Third Party is a temporary solution, with offering a truly decentralized platform via smart contracts later down the road. Granted, to some that’s not as much of a concern when looking to buy into blockchain projects, however, it’s a philosophical debate on what’s going to make some blockchain companies more successful than others.

Another piece of note is the idea of participants selling their data. While their whitepaper notes that the user has the choice on who to sell it to, it doesn’t exactly go into detail on how that process works. Because of this, the worry is that eventually, the data buyers undercut what they’re willing to pay for data, and thus, making it a moot point for consumers to participate.

Our criticisms aside, the market has already proven that they believe in BEAT, funding the project near to their goal. As the synthesis of blockchain and health is an interesting one (and quite frankly, an idea not going away anytime soon), it’ll be interesting to see how BEAT performs as the first use case. Who knows? This might be well worth sweating out the wait.