Today, I was listening to some rather good interviews with #Ethos CEO, Shingo Lavine and another with #Cardano founder, Charles Hoskinson.
Both of these people are visionary and think long term about crypto. They aren't 'dollar-centric' in their thinking like many of the people in the crypto space. They are project-centric and are thinking about how to make something work in the real world. And therefore, solve real world problems.
In listening to these two ( and a handful of other ) pioneers of the crypto space, you can see the road ahead and get a glimpse of where the crypto market is moving to.
Which is handy if you're a crypto investor who wants to put their money in the best place possible to grow your coin stack. Especially in the long term.
Green vs Market Ready
I've been around crypto for about 5 minutes but I can already see that there are really 3 types of project. While many crypto investors think about 'whether NEO or better than EOS' or whether a coin can do a million transactions per second, these days I look at two things.
I look at the maturity & market readiness, first and the sector a project is targeting, second. If both box are ticked, then I take a deeper look at the project.
As I said, there are 3 different types of projects.
- Scams, frauds and cash grabs. You know these.
- Great ideas... made by immature teams who are green to the market they are entering so there is a high chance of failure. Largely because they have to compete with established companies who don't have blockchain-based products.
- Great ideas... that are designed from day 1 to be robust and viable in the world market. These are what I class as mature projects as the team have the maturity to pay attention to what needs to be done to make it big. Which often means biting the bullet and doing extra homework.
The bulk of the crypto projects that come across my desk are great ideas and marketing on paper... but are green in the real world department. They are great ideas but will take a real feat of engineering to pull off... or have no treasury / no way of funding themselves once the ICO funds are gone... or are great projects but lack the partnerships to compete in the marketplace.
But then there are a small handful of projects that you come across that are 'market ready'. Meaning that they not only have a minimum viable product but are working within the parameters of the world market. Rather than shutting their eyes and pretending those rules don't exist.
Rules, Rules, Rules
The 'regulation debate' and whether laws are good or bad is a side issue. The harsh truth is that there are rules in place, like them or not.
I was listening to another interesting interview today with a corporate lawyer and he was talking about 'an invisible line' that most projects won't be able to cross in terms of mass adoption, no matter how good their blockchain tech is. Simply because they refuse or ignore the rules of the legal system and have no game plan for them.
As a result, they leave themselves wide open to legal issues later down the track. Or rather, being outpaced by crypto projects that have done their homework.
Ethos
Projects like Ethos have factored for the legal system and designed their project around it from day 1.
While Ethos is just a 'universal wallet for holding your coins in' now... over time they will add 3rd party investment products that can be accessed via their wallet. Effectively making the universal wallet a marketplace, rather than wallet.
As a byproduct of working with the legal system rather than against it, Ethos are poised to rise to the top of crypto space.
They are one the few projects that have built the infrastructure to meet the requirements of the big-money partners who are looking for the safeguards to protect their own companies. Ethos, with their legal scaffolding in place, will become an juggernaut in the emerging crypto-financial system simply because they were cognizant of the regulatory rules that many projects ignore.
Higher Standards
Whether regulatory compliance is a thing you agree with, as an investor you have to examine both sides of the debate. Even the side you disagree with as you may miss an investment opportunity.
The lack of regulation in the crypto space has lead to all kinds of issues from insider trading to outright investment scams, rip offs and fraud.
As crypto is a lawless place at the moment, that has given birth to a wave of new projects that service the security needs and standards that aren't there without a proper ( and healthy ) legal framework.
Projects like #Vertex are on the rise. Vertex are launching an ICO investment platform that screens investors from low grade investments or outright scams. They won't appear on the platform because Vertex are putting in place a stringent vetting process for the ICO's they list, compiled by a team of investment experts.
This is just one example of many projects that are catering to the lack of legal protections in the space at the moment.
But the point is that the crypto space is maturing and therefore you as an investor may have to grow up a little too. Some of the coins you hold may go bust and be worth nothing over time.
Are you thinking about that or do you have your blinders on and think you have a portfolio of moonshots?
Most startups, over 90%, go bust. One stat I read the other day said that 1,000 ICO's from 2017 have already gone bust, despite making millions in their crowd sales. Which is mind blowing.
The moral is, make sure you don't go bust with them.
Vertex - https://vertex.market/
Whitepaper - https://vertex.market/static/whitepaper/vertex_whitepaper.pdf
Thanks for watching,
Brendan Rohan - Indie developer of 'next gen' natural medicine from Melbourne, Australia
Www.Skyflowers.co ( see "botany" tab for the plant research )
Www.ClinicalFlowerTherapy.com
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DISCLAIMER: This article and all information on this channel & all content is offered purely for educational & entertainment purposes. Always do your own research when investing money and seek the help of a registered financial advisor.
Hi @skyflowers, I'm @checky ! While checking the mentions made in this post I found out that @iskyflowers doesn't exist on Steem. Maybe you made a typo ?
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