5. Market & Distribution
The bottled water industry offers natural spring water and is thereby the closest to Water150 by Longhouse Foundation by strategic comparison. The global bottle industry was valued at USD 283.01 billion in 2021 and is expected to follow a compound growth of 6.7% from 2022 to 2030 to reach USD 509.2 billion by 2030.
Increased demand for safe drinking water, also known as potable water, along with ineffective water management in some areas are major factors contributing to the growth of the global bottled water industry.
Local bottled water markets:
The USA: $19.4 billion in 2019
Nigeria: US$4.95 billion in 2021
India: $5.75 billion in 2022
Bottled water offers ease of convenience along with healthier alternatives than tap waters (with or without added filters).
Different mineral spring waters market emotional associations with the feeling of nature, with significantly higher prices in the market:
The Mountain Valley spring water: $ 5,75 /liter.
Waiakea volcanic water: $ 3.94 /liter
Acqua Panna Water Tuscany: $ 2.91 /liter
Fiji Natural Artesian Water: $ 4.48 /liter
Evian Natural Spring Water: $ 2.73 /liter
Just Water: $ 4.86 /liter
The prices include bottling and distribution, in average $0.5 to $1 per bottle depending on distribution distance and the last mile distribution.
The WATER150 token is the pre-purchase of the right to tap one liter of naturally filtered spring water every year from any assigned well for at least 150 years. The price at public decentralized launch (IDO) will start at $ 0.1. The price is protected against inflation as it is pre-purchased for at least 150 years.
Token market - decentralized market
The value of all existing cryptocurrency is around $804 billion. Approximately $320 billion of that is attributed to Bitcoin (as of Jan. 3, 2023), according to CoinMarketCap.com. According to the World Economic Forum, 10% of the world's GDP will be transferred to the blockchain before 2027.
The crypto world is still coupled with the financial world’s traditional equities. Several stable coins are still valued in FIAT. The great decoupling theory talks about reaching the critical mass when the crypto world decouples from the traditional economy due to a possible seismic shift in the coming years. Regardless of any apocalyptic views of the traditional centralized economy, the core of the decentralized crypto world is here to stay. The already programmed code remains stable and the passionate work to develop the technology continues with persistent energy.
The token industry builds on blockchain technology, a programmed cryptographic code. The code is applied and evolved into different types of tokens such as utility tokens, stable coins, security tokens and payment tokens. There are also DeFi tokens, NFTs and asset backed tokens.
The Water150 by Longhouse Foundation has its unique position as an independent utility token, based on naturally regenerating water flow. Whatever happens in the centralized or decentralized world, the cryptographic programming of each WATER150 token is connected to one yearly liter of the best drinking water on earth for at least 150 years.
The importance of protecting drinking water is escalating due to increased water consumption and pollution. The water consumption increases, coupled with economic growth in most countries. Some countries have proven that decoupling water use from economic growth is possible. Half the World to Face Severe Water Stress by 2030 unless Water Use is "Decoupled" from Economic Growth, Says International Resource Panel
Distribution of the WATER150 token
The WATER150 token will most likely be launched on a blockchain network called Ethereum with its quarterly 15 million users. The technical standard is called ERC20 protocol and follows the Ethereum networks requirements. The blockchain, based on DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology), is a cryptographic technology allowing transparency, decentralization and non-corruptness and is therefore commonly used for projects that need trust and immutability.
Token holders with a minimum holding of 1000 W150 tokens will have the right to vote on certain rules in the Water150 by Longhouse Foundation organization. The voting rights do not relate to any internal corporate issues of the entities connected to the Water150 by Longhouse Foundation.
W150 tokens are not, and not intended to be, a medium of exchange accepted by the public (or a section of the public) as payment for goods or services or for the discharge of a debt; nor is it designed or intended to be used by any person as payment for any goods or services whatsoever that are not exclusively provided by the issuer. W150 token does not in any way represent any shareholding, participation, right, title, or interest in the Company, the Distributor, their respective affiliates, or any other company, enterprise or undertaking. Nor will W150 token entitle token holders to any promise of fees, dividends, revenue, profits, or investment returns. W150 tokens are not intended to constitute securities in Luxembourg or any relevant jurisdiction.
W150 tokens may only be utilized on a decentralized marketplace, and ownership of the same carries no rights, express or implied, other than the right to use W150 token as a means to enable usage of and interaction within the decentralized marketplace. The secondary market pricing of W150 token is not dependent on the effort of the Water150 by Longhouse Foundation team, and there is no token functionality or scheme designed to control or manipulate such secondary pricing.
Tokenomics
The presentation of the economy behind any token is called Tokenomics. Tokenomics defines when a token is minted and set in circulation, how tokens are allocated, rules of the Pre-sale (sales before the public launch), how many tokens are released at decentralized exchanges, number of batches, max supply of tokens, staking functions (benefits by putting tokens at stake), vesting schedules (unlocking schemes) etc.
Token specifications
Total supply Initial batch: 4.5 billion tokens (approx. 22 wells)
Total max supply Scaling Batch: 205.5 billion tokens (approx. 980 wells)
Capped max supply: 210 billion tokens (approx. 1000 wells)
Market cap at TGE: $1,048,500
Technical standard of the WATER150 token:
The WATER150 token will most likely run on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC20 standard, meaning it works on one of the most used blockchains (Ethereum), which will grant decentralization, best security, and a high number of possible users.
W150 tokens minting process
W150 tokens will be created through a “minting” mechanism. Minting is a process where digital assets (W150 token) are created through smart contracts, based on specific blockchain platforms.
A smart contract is a relatively short program code stored on a blockchain. The code is run when predetermined conditions are met. Smart contracts automate the execution of an agreement so that all participants can be certain of the outcome, without any intermediary’s involvement or time loss. The W150 tokens will be minted through smart contracts based on the Ethereum blockchain.
Initial batch - Global proof of concept
The Initial batch of 4.5 billion tokens corresponds to the water flow from the 22 first spring water wells, secured during the first 36 months after vesting (see below) has started. During these three first years, the proof of concept of a global decentralized water well network connected to a decentralized marketplace is set in motion. The WATER150 tokens set into circulation in the market will always be connected to at least 1 liter of water.
Proof of concept goals during the Initial batch:
A decentralized water community is created
4.5 billion W150 tokens in circulation
22 water wells signed
Minimum 500,000 people in need of water helped
All funds from the pre-sale will be used for water acquisitions, Marketing, and Brand building, building the technical platform for DROP token system with bottling and distribution, evolving the DAO structure and implementing the Impact operations.
The pre-sale phase is divided into six parts: pre-seed, seed, private 1, private 2, private 3, and strategy. Early buyers get lower prices with longer vesting periods. All pre-sales are made through a traditional sales agreement called SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens).
The Pre-sale capital raised will be used to create a community and get the project ready for public launch by investing in water and infrastructure around the token
The W150 tokens in the Pre-sale are attached with a vesting schedule which means the tokens unlock according to a time schedule starting at the TGE (Token Generating Event)
The IDO (Initial DEX Offering) will happen soon after the Pre-sale is sold out
The IDO is made on one or several centralized or decentralized exchanges (DEX) listing the WATER150 token.
Scaling Batch
Once the first 22 wells are secured, minting of WATER150 tokens will be by community demand and only released in portions equal to new wells coming into the system. The speed of new W150 tokens set into circulation will be decided based on the market demand. The minting has a capped max supply of 210 billion tokens in total. The tokens will be released as long as there is demand or until the project doesn't need more long-term impact funding.
For the Initial batch and the Scaling Batch the WATER150 tokens set into circulation in the market will always correspond to at least 1 liter of water.
The incentive for the founders and early investors is to secure and release the max supply by 2032 according to their shareholder agreement. The cash flow during scale up will be used to expand secured capacity, drilling new wells, building brand awareness, and creating market demand along the mass adoption of the decentralized world. The Water150 by Longhouse Foundation will be one of the leading brands creating mass adoption of a Web3 decentralized world and will expand the Marketing strategy outside the decentralized market. The Marketing efforts, especially outside the crypto community, are aimed at helping communities and locals engage in drinking water accessibility.
The business model requires a front-heavy cash flow where the redirection of the proceeds from the sales of the W150 tokens will cover OPEX forever. Actuaries have verified that a yearly return of 0.2% above inflation is enough to sustain the Longhouse project for at least 7 generations (see graph below).
Token allocation & lock up periods – Initial batch
Allocation of tokens set aside for different purposes and groups are defined in the allocation table. The allocated tokens are vested into circulation along the success of the project and are used for operative activities such as Marketing, water acquisition, impact, as well as engagement of founders and advisors.
Vesting
All allocated tokens and all tokens sold in the pre-sale are attached to a vesting schedule where the blockchain continuously and automatically unlocks tokens after TGE (Token Generating Event). The different rules are set out in each SAFT contract made during the pre-sale. The purpose of vesting schedules is to limit the risk of speculative purposes at launch, also called “pump and dump” effect.
Time Vesting:
The time that it will take for all tokens to be released. Tokens are released linearly block-by-block.
Conditional Vesting:
The team at Water150 strongly believes in aligning the interests of all stakeholders in the ecosystem. We believe additional tokens from certain allocations should only be released as long as certain conditions are met. This “forces” the team to focus on building the ecosystem we all want to see succeeding.
Conditional vesting depends on the annual water flow secured. To display this in a way that does not confuse the reader, we translate the annual water flow secured into the number of Water150 wells, where 1 well averages 210,000,000 liters (as we aim to secure 1000 wells with 210,000,000,000 liters of annual water flow).
Example: If 1 well with 630M liters of annual water flow is secured (excluding 7% buffer), it counts as 3 wells.
A 7% buffer is maintained at all times. E.g.: 1,070,000,000 liters of annual water flow secured allow 1,000,000,000 W150 in circulation (70,000,000 liters buffer).
Conditional vesting only begins after the lock-up period (e.g. Founders will receive their first W150 tokens at the earliest 18 months after TGE).
The Longhouse Foundation board is responsible for determining the amount of W150 released and time vesting added on top once the conditional vesting is triggered. This is to ensure community demand meets token emissions.
The initial well(s) securing the first 238,000,000 liters of annual water flow count towards time vested allocations.
Example: If the initial 2 wells with a total of 420,000,000 liters of annual water flow (excluding 7% buffer) are secured, 238,000,000 liters count towards the time vested tokens and 182,000,000 liters count towards conditional vesting. An additional 1 well with 210,000,000 liters of annual water flow (excluding 7% buffer) would count exclusively towards conditional vesting as time vested allocations are already 100% covered.
To simplify the above: Conditional Vesting tokens are ONLY released as long as we secure more water flow (more wells) and grow our Water150 community and therefore grow community demand for the W150 token.
Token allocation & lock up periods – Scaling Batch
The WATER150 tokens of the Scaling Batch will only go towards the following allocations:
Well Acquisition
Impact
Marketing
Ecosystem
There will not be any more token releases for founders, advisors and pre-sales. The Scaling Batch allocation table will be voted on once 4.5 billion liters of water have been secured.
Competitor analysis
The current bottled water market is mainly a traditional centralized market which means stakeholders/companies own the whole value chain from well to consumption. An upcoming trend is to decentralize parts of value chains allowing several stakeholders including consumers to jointly engage in assets or utilities. One can see this in real estate investments, tourism industry and now even water. A decentralized control of parts of the value chain allows for transparency and lower thresholds for market entry. This results in free competition counteracting monopoly and oligopoly. In this competitor analysis we are presenting brands that are disruptive in their decentralization but also strong players in the traditional water bottled industry.
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