In this review, we will be analyzing UpLift DAO, a permissionless, and decentralized crowdfunding and launchpad platform. In particular, we will consider its selling proposition, as well as why crypto investors and project developers use it. Plus, we will outline a simple step-by-step process to creating an account with UpLift and participating in an upcoming IDO.
What is UpLift DAO?
UpLift is an ambitious and innovative cryptocurrency project launched in November 2021 with the aim of streamlining early-stage investing for blockchain-based projects. The term DAO appended to its name stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. A DAO is loosely defined as a community of individuals or/and institutions with a shared goal whose decisions are made collectively.
As a DAO, UpLift depends on its community to decide which projects to support via the Initial DEX Offering (IDO) process, how to incubate and accelerate them after the IDO. Whereas, DEX stands for Decentralized Exchange, hence, the IDO is the first public sale of a blockchain project’s native tokens using a DEX platform.
Furthermore, UpLift has a utility token dubbed LIFT that serves several purposes as we will discuss later in this review. It is essential to have a hold of these LIFT tokens for anyone looking to participate within the UpLift DAO platform.
Why do crypto investors use UpLift?
The idea behind UpLift DAO is two-fold: on the one hand, the founders are looking to make it easy for retail investors to get in on the ground floor of backing crypto startup companies and projects.
On the other hand, UpLift is looking to create a vibrant community that is enticing for blockchain developers looking to crowdfund their ideas. This is because, with UpLift, the community works to incubate the project, launch it and accelerate it to, hopefully, gain widespread adoption.
In general, the bulk of UpLift’s participants are investors looking for their next investment opportunity. The platform is appealing to these individuals for the following reasons:
- Low barrier to entry. This is a huge selling point, especially to prospective retail investors. The minimum amount anyone needs to partake in an IDO event is 100 LIFT tokens;
- Easily accessible – UpLift is available worldwide and currently has active investors from at least 80 different countries. As a decentralized platform, anyone can join, although they still need to undergo KYC (know your customer) identification before they can invest in any project;
- Multiple earning opportunities – UpLift provides several opportunities for investors to earn extra funds including through staking LIFT tokens, participating in promotional, governance, and referral activities;
- Vibrant community – the UpLift community includes bounty hunters, retail and institutional investors, KOL (key opinion leaders, influencers, blockchain developers, and auditors. All these members bring something to the table ensuring that only worthy and pre-approved projects are proposed for backing through the IDO.
Why do crypto project developers use UpLift?
The other side of the UpLift equation is the blockchain projects that are launched through the platform. There are several alternatives available to these projects including direct pitches to investors through ICOs and centralized exchange listings. Some of the advantages of using UpLift include:
- Vibrant community – crypto projects interested in crowdfunding through UpLift DAO get can tap into a ready community of early adopters, marketers, influencers, and investors with a long-term mindset of supporting the project past the launch stage. There are even potential hires within the community;
- Resources – the projects that qualify to launch on UpLift not only get access to crowdfunding resources, they also get access to valuable feedback from early-stage users, professional audit partners, venture capitalists, and project advisors;
- Cross-chain platform – UpLift supports crypto projects built on the BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Tron. Ethereum is the leading smart contract platform while BNB Chain is a derivative of the Ethereum codebase offering easy compatibility between the two. This means that UpLift is acceptable to a majority of the upcoming crypto projects.
UpLift DAO key features
UpLift offers three main features especially geared towards its IDO prospects:
- Incubator;
- Launchpad;
- Accelerator.
1. Incubator
The incubator is the first stage that all prospective IDO projects go through once they have been selected for support and launch on the UpLift launchpad. Here they get access to the following resources:
- Early-stage users and adopters – These are essential to giving valuable feedback on the product-to-market fit;
- Community awareness – it is at the incubator stage that potential crowdfunding participants get to learn about the project through social media posts and market articles;
- Consultancy – the UpLift community is made up of influencers, marketers, security auditors, technical and legal advisors, and VCs among several other experts. Any project that makes it to the incubator stage is exposed to all these resources;
2. Launchpad
There are four events that happen on UpLift DAO during the launch of a project through the IDO process. These are:
- Preparation – the core team prepares all the necessary requirements to ensure a successful IDO;
- Whitelisting – during this event, all interested IDO participants go through KYC, stake their LIFT tokens, and register for participation;
- Pre-sale – early-stage investors or crowdfunding participants and VCs get their allocations of the new tokens according to two presale rounds: Exclusive and open round. Exclusive round participants are picked out of a lottery system while the open round participants claim tokens on a first-come-first-serve basis;
- Token Generation Event (TGE) – after the pre-sale, the project team will launch the project on their preferred blockchain and allocate tokens according to their proposed tokenomics.
3. Accelerator
After the token launch and IDO are concluded, UpLift maintains ongoing support for the projects through its community by incentivizing individuals to participate in promotional activities, governance of the various projects, and yield farming.
Staking
Outside the features geared toward attracting the blockchain projects, UpLift DAO also offers staking to the community participants partly as an incentive to hold larger quantities of the native LIFT token. Stakeholders can get returns as high as 20% APY for larger amounts. Here’s a schedule on the staking returns according to the amount held:
LIFT Tokenomics
LIFT has three main purposes within the UpLift ecosystem being its native platform token. These are:
- Staking;
- Rewards; and
- Bonuses.
1,000,000,000 LIFT tokens were created during the project’s TGE in November 2021. According to UpLift documentation, the public presale was allocated about 18% of these tokens while the DAO council and treasury got 8% and 14%, respectively.
The rest of the tokens were allocated as follows:
It’s worth noting that the DAO Council tokens are vested over three years with staggered release starting from the first year.
- Year 1 – 15%
- Year 2 – 30%
- Year 3 – 55%
Vesting the council member’s tokens ensures that they are incentivized enough to stick with the project for as long as their tokens are unavailable. If they quit the project before the vesting period lapses, their tokens will be burned out of circulation after vesting.
UpLift DAO Council
Note: As a decentralized organization, UpLift DAO is not controlled by a team but rather the community takes part in its governance. Anyone with a minimum of 100 LIFT tokens can make and vote on proposals that affect the project’s operations.
However, the project does have a council that is tasked with spearheading the matters of the DAO from marketing to coordinating platform development. These are:
- Alex Melnichuk, Product Lead
- Irina Heaver, Growth and Strategy Lead
- Irina Berezina, Operations Lead
- Shyla Bashir, Community Lead
- Natalie Saginashvili, Marketing Lead
How to stake LIFT (step-by-step)
There are two requirements for participating in UpLift IDO events:
- Staking Power
- Passing KYC
Staking power is derived from the amount of LIFT staked within the UpLift ecosystem. Follow the steps below to buy some LIFT and stake them.
Step 1 – Visit UpLift.io.
Navigate to the UpLift homepage here: https://uplift.io.
On the homepage, click on the [Buy LIFT] button as shown on the image above which should take you to the PanCakeSwap page.
Step 2 – Connect wallet.
On the PanCakeSwap page, click on any of the [Connect Wallet] buttons to link your wallet to the exchange.
Note: This guide assumes that you have already installed a wallet with some BNB coins in it. PanCakeSwap supports multiple wallets alternatively you could also use MetaMask.
Once you have connected your MetaMask wallet, ensure that the wallet network is set to BNB Chain / Binance Smart Chain (BSC) to be compatible with PanCakeSwap.
Step 3 – Swap tokens.
Use the swap form field to the right of the main PanCakeSwap screen. You can fill in the amount of BNB to spend or the amount of LIFT you want to buy.
The swap process is almost instantaneous and your tokens will be deposited into your wallet account immediately. You have successfully purchased LIFT tokens.
Step 4 – Visit the LIFT Staking page.
Head back over to the UpLift home page and click on the [Stake] button.
Alternatively, you can opt to click on the [Launch App] button on the top right corner of the same page then navigate to the staking page by clicking on the [Staking] link on the top navigation bar of the UpLift app.
Step 5 – Connect MetaMask wallet.
Connect your wallet to UpLift to proceed with the staking process. To do that click on either of the [Connect Wallet] buttons as shown below.
A MetaMask popup window will appear on the top right prompting you to provide your password as you did when connecting to PanCakeSwap. Next, you will need to select the wallet account you wish to use. Choose the one with LIFT tokens.
Note: If you have problems identifying your wallet account, ensure that you have chosen the correct network which is BSC (Binance Smart Chain). The web app will also prompt you to switch your wallet network if you are connected to the wrong network.
Step 6 – Stake your LIFT tokens.
The final step is to stake your tokens. To do that, fill in the number of LIFT tokens you want to lock up and specify the vesting period (how long you want to lock them up). UpLift will show you the rate of return on your staked tokens. In the image below, it’s 5% to stake 5,000 LIFT tokens for a period of one year.
If you are comfortable with the setup, click on the [Stake] button below to execute the transaction.
The staking power starts to accumulate immediately after locking up the tokens and can be claimed after seven days to be used for IDO participation.
Recommended video: How to Stake Your LIFT
How to perform KYC on UpLift DAO
The KYC process on UpLift is repeated for every IDO a user wants to participate in. KYC is part of the global financial regulations and is necessary to ensure that IDO platforms do not sell tokens to unauthorized users.
For instance, US residents are banned from participating in most token sale events due to the strict regulatory environment in the US.
To carry out KYC on UpLift, visit the UpLift DAO app page. Navigate to the homepage and click on the [Launch App] button on the top right.
Next, you’ll need to connect your MetaMask wallet to the app.
Provide your MetaMask password then select the account to which you want to connect. When done, click on the [KYC] link on the top navigation to launch the KYC page.
Click on the [Start] button to begin the KYC process. UpLift will prompt you to sign a message through your MetaMask through a popup then follow these steps:
- Choose a document type (between a traveling passport or a national ID);
- Select your country of residence;
- Submit the document images (front and back for the national ID card);
- Wait for confirmation.
Recommended video: UpLift.io KYC (step-by-step)
Note: Confirmation may take up to three days, therefore ensure that you start the KYC process early enough to complete it in time to participate in an upcoming IDO.
Is UpLift DAO safe?
UpLift DAO underwent a conclusive security audit from its security partner Zokyo whose report was released in December 2021. Zokyo is a security analysis company based in Kyiv, Ukraine that builds, secures, and funds web3-based crypto businesses.
In its UpLift security audit, the company discovered a single critical vulnerability, two with potentially medium severity, and two informational issues. The report was based on an audit of five UpLift smart contacts including:
- Staking;
- ThrottledPool;
- StakingPool;
- IdPool;
- Pool.
According to the audit findings, the vulnerabilities were fixed by the UpLift team before the publication of the report. Overall, the Zokyo team rated the security of UpLift at 98%.
UpLift Reputation & Customer Support
UpLift DAO enjoys a stellar reputation according to rating feedback collected on the TrustPilot website. 100% of the feedback comments are five-star ratings.
So far, the platform has completed fundraising for five crypto upstarts raising more than $1 million. The projects are Youminter, Jumbo Exchange, NFT4Play, Rev3eal, and Wizardia.
The DAO maintains an active social presence on most of the leading social media platforms including:
It is easy to get help from the team and community members through the supported channels. There is also a subscriber newsletter for regular updates and announcements on relevant news including upcoming IDO events.
UpLift DAO Pros and Cons
Pros
- DAO encourages community-wide decision-making;
- The barrier to entry for retail investors is low: 100 LIFT tokens and KYC process;
- UpLift so far enjoys an excellent reputation having no negative news, events, or even feedback on the Trustpilot platform;
- The platform is open to anyone in the world and so far there are more than 7,000 investors across more than 80 different countries;
- UpLift is a cross-blockchain IDO launchpad supporting crypto projects hosted on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Tron, Polygon (MATIC), and NEAR, among others;
- The project is relatively secure according to the latest audit report;
- UpLift enables all investors to earn through multiple avenues including staking, promotional activities, and referrals;
- DAO Council members are subjected to token vesting periods which ensures their commitment and participation in the project for, at least, as long as the vesting period lasts.
Cons
- UpLift faces stiff competition from more established launchpads such as Binance’s LaunchPad and Huobi’s Primelist;
- It still supports a limited range of smart contract platforms.
Final thoughts
Funding blockchain startups is becoming more convenient with the increasing number of centralized platforms that offer crypto project launchpads. UpLift is unique in this respect, being a decentralized platform. Being a DAO comes with several advantages chief among them is that the entire community participates in decision making which fosters inclusivity.
UpLift might not be the first DAO of its kind, but as we have seen in this review, it offers several unique features for project developers and users alike. The three phases of launching an IDO – incubation, launching, and acceleration – ensure that a startup is well supported into its maturity stages.
The unique product offering and an increasing list of partnerships including venture capitalists and other key service providers could see the DAO grow to become one of the leading launchpads for blockchain projects.
Frequently Asked Questions on UpLift DAO
What is UpLift DAO?
UpLift is a permissionless decentralized autonomous organization that supports the growth, launch, and acceleration of blockchain-based startups. The DAO includes a diverse community of investors, users, developers, marketers, influencers, consultants, and security analysts, among others.
What is the LIFT token?
LIFT is a utility token native to the UpLift DAO platform. It is used for staking, bonuses, rewards, and as an incentive for IDO participants to support projects that are launched on UpLift.
Is UpLift DAO safe?
UpLift has taken the necessary measures to ensure the safety of its platform and smart contracts. According to a report by Zokyo, a security firm partnering with the DAO, UpLift scored a score of 98 out of a possible 100 with one critical vulnerability found that was fixed before the release of the audit report.
Why does UpLift DAO implement a KYC process?
Even though UpLift DAO is a decentralized platform, the KYC process is necessary to comply with several legal provisions necessary to launch some crypto projects. In countries such as the US, regulations dictate that project developers should not sell unregistered securities to US residents and citizens. Asking for identifying information will enable UpLift to restrict investor participation according to local laws protecting them.
