Bananacoin

Bananacoin is an ethereum token being offered in an initial coin offering by a team of Russian entrepreneurs. They intend to use funds raised to expand their banana production facility in the Vientiane province of Laos. 

Each bananacoin is worth $0.50 and is pegged to the export price of one kilogram of bananas. The token presale period started on November 29, 2016 and extended to February 28, 2017. The first million Bananacoins were sold at a 50% discount. The project’s backers intend to sell a total of 14 million tokens to the public. In monetary terms, that translates to $7 million.

The project has a soft cap of 5 million tokens (or, $2.5 million approximately), if it fails to reach its goal. Investors in the Bananacoin project can redeem their tokens for goods (in this case, bananas) or monetary compensation after 18 months in July 2019. 

In their white paper, the project’s backers made their case by pointing to the growing appetite for bananas in China. Production of the fruit has risen over the years in the country, but it does not have enough arable land suitable for banana cultivation. The increase in Chinese demand has paralleled an increase in banana exports from Laos. 

The Bananacoin project intends to take advantage of this dynamic and increase its share of the Chinese market to 360% by increasing the cultivation area of their business.

In the short term, the plan calls for an increase to 360 hectares cultivated area. In the long term, that figure goes up to 1,000 hectares. A successful implementation of their strategy will drive up sales volume and, consequently, double the value of Bananacoin tokens, the entrepreneurs behind the project claim.

Criticism of the Banancoin project is mostly centered around its terms of service. According to the terms, investors in the project cannot make claims of “any nature whatsoever” if Bananacoin is unable to fulfill obligations. Further, the ToS (terms of service) document also states that Bananacoin can terminate the terms without notice.

Commenters on a Reddit forum have also pointed out the project’s white paper does not explain the method of redemption of tokens for investors. In addition, the Bananacoin project has not made provisions for audits to ensure tracking.