In https://steemit.com/ethereum/@kingscrown/bancor-protocol-some-facts-and-useful-information-crossed-3000-followers-thank-you-guys @kingscrown writes about the recent Bancor protocol ICO, which collected a record $150 million in 3 hours crowdselling it's native BNT token.
As usual with ICOs, there's a lot of hype and lot of FUD right now surrounding Bancor, with those who missed out feeling FOMO for when it hits exchanges, and those who either don't grok or disagree entirely with the concept wondering how the hell a nascent startup with an idea can be worth such large sums of money.
Here's my take on it: I both love and hate Bancor for what they've done. I love it because I perceive an opportunity to make a profit - the whole concept of Bancor is brilliant, draining value from token issues by backing them with a BNT token that gives them instant liquidity by on-blockchain trading to and from BNT which acts as a reserve, aggregating all the liquidity of Bancor and making it available to micro-currencies and local community tokens for example, as well as new ICOs and other ventures.
I hate it because it brings the poison of fractional reserve to crypto. The goldsmiths have come to crypto, reasoning (correctly IMO) that they can safely lend, trade and leverage most of what they're holding since people don't actually want to carry their gold with them most of the time and prefer to trade the paper promises they issue, trusting (perhaps unwisely, but nonetheless evidence shows that it works most of the time, at least over the short to mid term) that they'll be able to redeem them should they wish.
Ultimately, whenever something is technically possible, someone will eventually come along and figure out how to do it. When that something is capable of making a lot of people a lot of money, it'll be popular. I imagine a future where a large proportion of new token issuances are backed by BNT, created in a simple and intuitive way with their toolchain including mobile apps and the first "point and click" token creation platform to have come out of all this growth in the Ether ecosystem.
So, the market doesn't care how I feel. It doesn't care how you feel. It doesn't care what you think about fractional reserve, and it certainly doesn't care about principles - the market cares about what's efficient, what attracts investment, and what hoovers value out of other projects, by giving them in return, in a hopefully fair trade, the liquidity and stability they need to thrive.
No matter how I look at it I can't see a way that Bancor isn't going to continue to attract buyers - fractional reserve practises have generated a lot of money out of thin air in the non-crypto world and I don't see any reason the same won't happen in crypto.
So please, because I hate it, convince me I'm wrong and that I should sell my Bancor, and whatever you do don't try to convince me based on principles because principles don't dictate the market, tell me why, fundamentally, BNT won't be in demand.
ICO here and there. We still have to be careful with ICO but its a good way to invest if we are sure its where we can have the right one.
Please stay tuned for my writeups and please follow me @bewajijohnson
Very good article. I was about to start a similair discussion. The decision to buy a coin should be based on real analysis of the coin. I found that people keep buying coins without have any knowledge of them. This is considered high risk. Personally I always use: https://www.coincheckup.com Supposingly they researched every crypto coin in the scene based on: the team, the product, advisors, community, the business and the business model. They even score the coins stengths. On: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Bancor#analysis For a complete Bancor Indepth analysis.
Congratulations @boris-the-spider! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!