New York entrepreneur Dean Anastos has a knack for creative ventures. He is a brain cancer activist known for the short films “The Assignment” and “Dear John McCain,” with several film projects in pre-production, such as “Maria Canje” (as well as the novel version, to be released soon) and “Ohneka,” a paranormal movie about a Native American vengeful spirit.
Accordingly, he is currently leading the effort to curate a groundbreaking film called “Rise of the ICO,” which will provide viewers with a multiple-perspective look at how the crypto world is evolving.
Anastos also has a diverse background in the financial realm, having founded two companies dealing with mortgages in the secondary market.
Today, he is bringing together his skills as a full-stack developer to lead an ambitious development team in his latest business: Blockchain Developers. This startup, which specializes in token creation and smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, was recently launched to address the soaring demand for token creation and crowdsale services.
Blockchain Developers could best be described as a boutique site for token launches. The company’s skilled and experienced staff of developers can assist with getting a token project expediently launched on the blockchain. This includes all interfaces with the Ethereum blockchain, crowdsale protocol, online token and crypto publication promotion, and other key details necessary to launch a proprietary token. All of these projects follow the ERC20 token compliance standards and requirements set forth by the Ethereum Foundation.
“Our Solidity and DApp programmers can assist in creating a token and launching a crowdsale,” said Anastos. “We have specific coding capabilities in Java, PHP, Solidity, Native Android, SQL and Amazon Web Service.”
The target market for these services is enterprises seeking to set up and release their own initial coin offerings (ICOs). Blockchain Developers not only delivers support on the software side, but on the business development and marketing sides as well. Essentially, it assumes a role as the ICO or token launch division of these companies, helping them raise sufficient funding via the Ethereum blockchain.
The effort of Blockchain Developers comes on the heels of an unrelenting frenzy of ICO activity this year. Seen as the latest fad for startup fundraising, over 201 ICOs have collectively raised over $3 billion in funding just this year, according to the tracking service Coinschedule. This unprecedented level of activity and the resultant high returns among investors have led to some concerns of a bubble and potential crash.
Anastos said that the services of Blockchain Developers are in high demand largely because the current ICO environment is complicated and exploding. This trend shows no signs of abating soon as new ICO ventures pop up every day, bringing new risk and speculation to the market.
According to Token Report, a popular online repository of token sales information, of 226 ICOs analyzed, only 20 — including Storj, Augur and TenX — are being utilized to run their networks. The remainder are purely being traded and act as speculative instruments.
Blockchain Developers has already experienced the complexities of helping companies navigate the intricacies of an ICO funding campaign. Just this year the team assisted a Macau company called Dragon Corp. in its efforts to raise $500 million through an ICO, to build a floating casino called the Dragon Pearl. Dragon plans to use these funds to erect this massive hotel concept by 2019 with the help of contractors from Norway.
“Our firm led the development of the tech and smart contracts for that ICO project,” said Anastos. “I’m also on its board of advisors.”
Anastos is particularly bullish about the future of smart contracts, which he said will result in a lot of industries and professions becoming extinct. He points to the film industry, one that he is very familiar with, as a prime space for disruption.
“Take movie ticket sales where these contracts allow for just-in-time payments the moment the ticket sale goes through,” he said. “At that point, those monies can be broken up into different pieces and distributed to the key stakeholders of the project.”
While his new venture has Anastos brimming with excitement, there is another cause that constantly remains front and center in his mind: the loss of his mom to glioblastoma, an extremely aggressive form of brain cancer. Even with how time-consuming his daily life is these days, Anastos said that he continues to pour his heart and soul into brain cancer awareness campaigns.
“No matter how many projects I take on, I will always make time to give back to the community in the form of promoting brain cancer awareness,” he said.
Anastos added that with so many safeguards and features coming up the pipeline for Ethereum-based smart contracts, this technology has nearly limitless potential.
“No doubt we’re seeing a frenzy in terms of ICO activity,” Anastos concluded. “Companies are seeking to adopt blockchain technology for numerous reasons, but primarily it is the ability to design their own token on the Ethereum blockchain that has them most excited. That is exactly what we can assist them with in a fast and efficient way.”