March 13, 2023 update: The vote was held from March 6 - March 9, and the community & team vote has passed with 13 votes for and 1 against. We will be working with Spheroid Universe on the listing of SPH.

Deepwaters Analyst Report: Spheroid Universe (SPH)

At-a-Glance

Project

Token

  • Symbol: SPH

  • Function: Can be used as a means of payment within the Spheroid Universe XR world and for Spheroid Universe services.

  • CMC listing: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/spheroid-universe/

  • Circulating Supply: 128,012,048 SPH

  • Maximum Supply: 10,000,000,000 SPH

  • Market Cap: $1,861,119

  • FDV: $145,386,237

Table of Contents

  • At-a-Glance

    • Project

    • Token

  • Table of Contents

  • Summary

    • Project Overview

    • Market Opportunity

  • Token & Tokenomics

    • Tokenomics

  • Founders / Key Team Members

    • Additional Notable Team Members

  • Technical Development

    • Roadmap

    • Contract Audits

  • Fundraising / Financial

  • Traction / Community / Media

    • Social Media

    • Selection of News

  • Disclaimers

Summary

Spheroid Universe has a strong team with significant experience in extended reality. While the success of the consumer-based extended reality space as a whole is largely to-be-determined and based on future growth, Spheroid Universe is positioned well to take advantage of that growth. Spheroid Universe itself has seen strong growth, having increased its user base by almost 50% in the past six months.

Spheroid Universe has plans to make SPH a major part of the transfer of value within its XR world, although payment by fiat currencies will be accepted as well. In addition to the market activity driven by its numerous uses within the XR world, a burning mechanism and economic balances to the purchasing power of SPH could further support its value.

There are substantial risks to the value of the token, however. Over 98% of the token supply is not circulating and until smart contracts governing the tokenomics are created, use of the non-circulating supply currently rests entirely at the discretion of the company. The company can and does sell tokens directly on the open market, and may divest a substantial quantity of SPH, possibly without any lockup or vesting period.

Spheroid Universe is an exciting project with impressive growth which could see continued strong growth alongside augmented reality and other extended reality technologies, especially if augmented reality headsets grow in popularity. Those looking to buy SPH tokens should be aware of potentially substantial inflationary risks, however.

Project Overview

Spheroid Universe is a Platform for developing Extended Reality projects. The technological basis of the platform is the Spheroid XR Cloud and the Spheroid Script programming language designed for AR/XR creation. 

XR is short for “extended reality”, a term that encompasses virtual reality (“VR”), augmented reality (“AR”), and mixed reality (“MR”).

This platform allows developers to create AR/XR projects. Whereas major tech companies are each seeking to build their own siloed XR projects, Spheroid Universe seeks to provide tools to create worlds which are interoperable with the hardware technology built by many different vendors.

Spheroid Universe has also created an augmented reality “digital twin” of the Earth, divided into “Spaces”, which are ERC-721 NFTs. Users can buy these Spaces, create their own experiences in them, or rent them to others.

Market Opportunity

Token & Tokenomics

The SPH token is a currency which can be used within the Spheroid Universe XR world to buy or rent spaces, as well as to purchase services and subscriptions from Spheroid Universe. These services include the Demurge IDE tool, which is currently free but is planned to transition to a paid subscription, which developers can use to create their own XR worlds.

Spaces are denominated in SPH, giving SPH the same purchasing power regardless of exchange rate fluctuations. This can only be said for spaces which remain owned by Spheroid Universe, as Spheroid Universe does not control the purchase or rental prices of Spaces owned by others. However, Spheroid Universe still directly owns over 99.99% of spaces, so this self-balancing may be effective in driving demand for Spaces (and therefore, presumably, SPH demand) should the price of SPH drop, especially if they can maintain continued rapid rates of growth.

Spheroid Universe has additional SPH utility both in development and already active. Some examples of this additional utility include:

  • A gamification feature where paying in SPH also provides achievement which can level up their account and unlock additional features on the platform.

  • SPH may be spent to control nearby free spaces and receive additional perks.

  • Paying for AR content and advertising across a growing number of products created by the developer community.

Spheroid Universe expects that SPH will act as a universal currency within its XR worlds due to its users being in varied locations with different currencies, and the facilitation of economic transfers, including microtransactions.

SPH is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network.

Tokenomics

The tokenomics of SPH are largely undefined and currently at the discretion of the company. Spheroid Universe has stated that they plan to formalize the tokenomics and create smart contracts for issuing and redeeming tokens. This is currently planned for late 2023 / early 2024.

Currently there are slightly over 128 million SPH tokens issued out of a maximum 10 billion. This creates the potential for 7812.5% inflation. As the tokens are fully controlled by the project, with no rules governing vesting or distribution, these tokens could be released at any time. While the company has committed to responsible release of these tokens, there are no publicized or defined rules that they must hold themselves accountable to. Spheroid Universe currently does sell SPH tokens directly to users who wish to purchase them.

Spheroid Universe has a $25,000,000 financing agreement with ABO Digital which may allow them to sell large quantities of tokens at or below market value for fundraising purposes, possibly with no lockup or vesting period.

Spheroid Universe is planning on initiating a burning mechanism for SPH tokens paid to them, but specifics have not yet been announced.

Founders / Key Team Members

  • CEO - Andrey Almiashev - 15 years of experience in business creation, advertising and PR.

  • CFO - Managing Director - Andrea De Marco - 8 years of experience in start-up development. Engineer alumnus of TU Delft.

  • CTO - Alexey Ostapenko - 20 years of programming experience, 10 years of experience in creating programming languages and e-commerce engines.

  • Lead developer - Alexey Otradnov - Full stack web developer and architect, 12 years of experience in creating high-load cloud services.

Additional Notable Team Members

  • Head of Computer Vision - Alexey Kinev - Previously founded a startup providing live streaming and analytics for tennis matches, including video-based ball tracking, which is used by many universities and other institutions. 15+ years of experience in software development. Masters degree in mathematics and physics. 

  • Lead Computer Vision Researcher - Ekaterina Ponomarenko, PhD - Formerly Senior Data Analyst at Yandex. PhD in mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

  • Serge - https://github.com/SomeoneSerge 

Technical Development

Roadmap

  • 2017 - Space Marketplace - Allows people to buy a section of VR space on the “digital twin” AR Earth. Allows users to trade Spaces and earn on transactions.

  • 2020 - Platform API - Create interactive XR scenes that change its appearance and content in real-time using the platform API.

  • 2020 - Spheroid Script - Cross-platform programming language designed by Spheroid Universe to speed up the development of XR/AR applications.

  • 2020 - Spheroid Demiurge IDE - Visually integrated cloud-based development environment for programmers and designers who work together on XR/AR projects.

  • 2020 - Demiurge Store - App marketplace that expands platform functionality with services created by the developer community.

  • 2021 - Spheroid.Earth - Community-based Earth mapping project. Photo data collected by users are processed using AI methods to form a digital 3D map of the surroundings, which is linked to Spaces.

  • 2021 - XRHub for iOS - XR Hub is a lightweight, powerful and efficient mobile app built with Spheroid AR Engine.

  • 2022 - Marketplace Upgrade - New design and features: Advertising in Spaces, Spheroid.Earth interface

  • 2022 - Spheroid Warp - People and brands can place XR content in your Space and pay for Space usage

  • 2023 - Spheroid Script 3.0 - The new version of Spheroid Script allows to create advanced AR/XR Apps and mechanics.

  • 2023 - UI Engine 3.0 - The new version of UI Engine allows to build complex native-class quality interfaces for Apps

  • 2023 - Space API - Ensures that XR applications comply with applicable policies set by Space owners

  • 2023 - XR Teams - Find a developer team to create and design your XR project

  • 2023 - Analytics - Get Information on Space traffic and user interactions with your XR content

  • 2023 - E-commerce - Show and sell your goods in XR - in the most innovative and impressive way possible

  • 2023 - Project Area - An area for developers to present XR projects and raise funds for their implementation

Contract Audits

Spheroid Universe has not had security audits for their token contract nor for their Spaces NFT contract “as we use standard ERC-20 and ERC-721 contracts.” Deepwaters has not independently assessed the validity of that statement.

The contract addresses are:

Fundraising / Financial

Please note: Deepwaters does not ask projects for financial documents and relies on the statements of the projects.

Spheroid Universe has been self-funded to date. They have revenues from selling Spaces, and they state that they have over 12 months of runway.

Spheroid Universe recently signed an agreement with ABO Digital to provide up to $25 million in investment. ABO Digital’s parent company, Alpha Blue Ocean, generally invests in companies via structured PIPE (private investment in public equity) deals. Presuming a similar structure for a token-based deal rather than an equity-based deal, this would potentially give Spheroid Universe the ability to raise substantial amounts of capital in exchange for token. Without knowing the details of this deal, we cannot know if there is a lockup period but PIPE deals generally do not carry such terms and allow the investor to purchase at below market value. This could be thought of similar to an OTC deal to sell SPH token, which would result in increases in circulating supply and put downward pressure on the price of the token.

Traction / Community / Media

510,000 Spaces have been purchased by users in 54 different countries. Spheroid Universe has 163,584 registered users, with 53,549 of them having registered in the last 6 months, representing 48% user growth in that period.

Social Media

  • Twitter: 42,600 followers. [link]

  • Instagram: 13,300 followers. [link]

  • YouTube: 13,100 subscribers [link]

  • Telegram: 9,236 members [link]

Selection of News

Disclaimers

This report of the Spheroid Universe Token (the “Token”), issued by Spheroid Universe (the “Issuer”) is made by Deepwaters EU s.r.o., a Czech limited liability company, company number: 179 11 257, with its registered seat at Rybná 716/24, Staré Město, 110 00 Prague 1, Czech Republic, email: info@deepwaters.xyz (the “Exchange”).

This report is not, nor should be considered, an endorsement, approval or disapproval of any particular project, team, code, technology, asset or anything else. This report is not, nor should be considered, an indication of the economics or value of any technology, product or asset created by any team or project. This report does not provide any warranty or guarantee regarding the quality or nature of the technology analysed, nor does it provide any indication of the technology’s proprietors, business, business model or legal compliance.

To the fullest extent permitted by the applicable law, the Exchange disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, in connection with this report, its content, and the related services and products and your use thereof, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. This report is provided on an as-is, where-is, and as-available basis. The Exchange does not warrant, endorse, guarantee, or assume responsibility for any product or service advertised or offered by the Client or any third party through the product, any open source or third-party software, code, libraries, materials, or information linked to, called by, referenced by or accessible through the report, its content, and the related services, assets and products, any hyperlinked websites, any websites or mobile applications appearing on any advertising, and the Exchange will not be a party to or in any way be responsible for monitoring any transaction between you and the Client and/or any third-party providers of products or services.

This report should not be used in any way by anyone to make decisions around investment or involvement with any particular project, services or assets, especially not to make decisions to buy or sell any assets or products. This report provides general information and is not tailored to anyone’s specific situation, its content, access, and/or usage thereof, including any associated services or materials, shall not be considered or relied upon as any form of financial, investment, professional, tax, legal, regulatory, or other advice.

This report is based on the scope of materials and documentation provided for a limited review at the time provided. The Exchange prepared this report as an informational exercise documenting the due diligence involved in the course of listing of the Client’s token on the Exchange only, and this report makes no claims or guarantees concerning the smart contract's operation after listing. This report provides no opinion or guarantee on the security of the code, smart contracts, project, related assets or anything else at the time of listing or after listing. Smart contracts can be invoked by anyone on the internet and as such carry substantial risk. The Exchange has no duty to monitor the Client’s operation of the project and update the report accordingly.  

The information contained in this report may not be complete nor inclusive of all vulnerabilities. This report is not comprehensive in scope, it excludes a number of components critical to the correct operation of this system. You agree that your access to and/or use of, including but not limited to, any associated services, products, protocols, platforms, content, assets, and materials will be at your sole risk. On its own, it cannot be considered a sufficient assessment of the correctness of the code or any technology. 

Deepwaters has conducted the analysis for its own internal purposes and should be perceived as such, therefore, Deepwaters recommends seeking multiple independent opinions on any claims which impact any functioning of the code, project, smart contracts, systems, technology or involvement of any funds or assets. Each company and individual are responsible for their own due diligence and continuous security.

© 2023 Deepwaters EU, s.r.o. All rights reserved.

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