«Messari» with the SEC support launches a registry of ICO projects

Messari, the cryptocurrency version of the EDGAR database maintained by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), launches an information register for tokens issuing projects in order to collect information that would otherwise be difficult to find.

The registry, announced on Tuesday at a Consensus: Invest event, will collect information in one place that rarely becomes public knowledge, including the structure of tokens, data on coin issues, official communication channels, management of funds raised, and information about project team members.

Messari founder Ryan Selkis said that the platform aims to standardize and automate information disclosure in the industry, with the goal of helping investors or casual observers learn more about projects of interest.

"What we're trying to do is make key information about these various crypto assets available to anyone, whether it's a retail investor, a regulator, an academic or a mutual fund. The most important thing for us is ushering in an era where that is the standard, versus today's standard which is driven by information asymmetry and insiders, where the last person to know about a change to [a project] is a casual observer. The key liquidity providers around the ecosystem must abide by a certain set of principles and a code of conduct [regarding] disclosures."

However, this should be carried out on an "opt-in basis," he said, since cryptocurrency tokens are not publicly traded securities. "So, we're starting from the ground up and looking at what will protect consumers and what makes sense from a regulatory standpoint."

By the time of launch, Aion, Blockstack, Civic, Decent, District0x, IDEX, Mainframe, Melonport, Metronome, Ocean Protocol, Tierion and Zilliqa cryptocurrency startups will appear in the registry. According to Selkis, another 20 companies are in the queue for addition. In the initial stages, the Messari team will help projects go through the registration process, but the final goal is decentralization of the platform. Then adding a project to the registry will be decided by a community vote. Anyone can apply for inclusion in the registry by contacting the company. The data in the registry will be publicly available, and Messari will provide an API for companies interested in using the information provided.

The problem of fraud is very acute in the ICO industry, so the emergence of projects like Messari is not surprising. Industry participants have long been trying to verify existing ICO projects on their own. 

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