Today, I'll do  another SWOT analysis on OMG, another coin/token on my radar.

So what is OmiseGo?

OmiseGO (OMG) is a Plasma decentralized token issued on Ethereum (they are palnning to launch their blockchain in Q4 2018), hosting an open-source digital wallet platform from Omise, connecting mainstream payments, cross-border remittances, and much more. Basically a decentralized sort of PayPal, Apple Pay, Ali Pay etc. 

Its slogan is "Unbank the Banked" and the stated objective of the project is to provide better financial services for everyone, including both people who use traditional banking services and people in developing countries and locales which lack traditional banking infrastructure.

I'll dive into the analysis now. 

STRENGTHS

REAL WORLD USUAGE

What Omise is building has a solid real world usuage and backed by real world already existing big groups / companies / banks (and most likely more organizations, thanks to the SDK)

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Omise also has the endorsement and support of the Bank of Thailand and the Thai Ministry of Finance and many more government groups backing the project. This will definitely have a positive effect on the growth of the coin as adopters and investors will flock to projects that aren't in the grey (shady) area for business purposes. 

STRONG TEAM AND ADVISERS

The OmiseGo team is very solid and the board of advisers is even more impressive.

It is advised by co-founders of Ethereum: Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood, and is architected by the creator of Lightning Network and Plasma, Joseph Poon just to mention a few. These are all heavy swingers with a lot of positive influence in the cryptocurrency world.

PROOF OF STAKE SYSTEM

Another attractive feature is the Proof of Stake system which will reward OmiseGo token holders for putting their tokens up to secure the network, you could increase your holdings exponentially.

WEAKNESSES

NO WORKING PRODUCT

For this reason, there are not a lot of weaknesses to evaluate right now

MARKET INTEREST

This indicates market-interest in OmiseGo, which provides lots of opportunities for speculators and traders to make money. That also makes OMG more unstable and subject to sudden price changes. Its value fell by 12.99% on December 25, 2017.

One cause of such volatility is OmiseGo’s Market Volume; which was $94.31 million (130,071 ETH) on December 25, 2017. That is high and it creates greater market volatility for OMG.

OPPORTUNITIES

MARKET INTEREST IN OMG

OmiseGo achieved a Coin Price of $22.27 (.0207 ETH), on January 07, 2018. That gave it Market Capitalization (Market Cap) of $2.326 billion on the same day, which is very big for an ICO token running on the Ethereum blockchain.

LARGE POTENTIAL MARKET

The potential market for Omise’s products might be huge because lots of people are unhappy with banks, or not using them at all.

Less than one fourth of Americans were satisfied with their banks a 2015 survey of accountholders by FIS determined. Customers were dissatisfied with safety, transparency, fees, and the basic customer service offered by most financial institutions.

An even greater opportunity might be the unbanked and underbanked. OmesiGo's slogan hints at this (Core focus targeting the unbanked). If a product like OmiseGo can reach just 10% of America’s underbanked it would serve tens of millions of customers. The opportunities for Omise around the world though is far much more great.

THREATS

COMPETITION

OmiseGo has a lot of competition. In addition to established fiat-currency based solutions such as PayPal, Stripe, Alipay, Tez, Android Pay, and Apple Pay etc, there are many companies offering cryptocurrency-based P2P and Fintech solutions. 

A good example is TenX and it already has a working crypto-debit card even though TenX lacks permission to issue a Visa card outside of Europe right now. TenX will definitely be a major competitor to OmiseGo because it has demonstrated a digital wallet and crypto-debit card that can convert several cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies while OmiseGo is yet to showcase a working product.

Several companies including Centra, Shakepay and Uquid are planning ecosystems very similar to Omise’s. 

Centra Tech is a major threat to Omise because it is planning to offer banking services and crypto-debit cards in the United States. Unlike Omise, Centra Tech is trying to get a license to operate in the USA while OmiseGo is heavily invested in the poorer  regions of Asia like Thailand. This may not  necessarily be a disadvantage though.

Centra is a direct competitor to OmiseGo because its system is Ethereum-based and connected to the banking system.

A major setback for Omise would be Centra or TenX shipping crypto-debit cards first. TenX has tried to ship cards without success, and Centra is taking preorders for its cards. An even greater problem would be an alliance between Centra or TenX and a major bank such as JPMorgan Chase.

Conclusion

The OmiseGo project looks like a very good project to get behind, with a large and important team behind it and real-world use potential combined with the fact that Omise already has a large system of merchants to tap into I can see the price increasing rapidly over the next year. Even though the price has risen rapidly since the ICO, I feel there is still time to purchase the tokens with the possibility of seeing 10x returns. However, profits from this token might not be a lot in a short while and this should be considered a long term HODL coin.

Disclaimer: This post is primarily for educational purposes and should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Please perform your due diligence before investing in any cryptocurrency.

Links for further research

Official OMG Site [https://omisego.network/]

Official GitHub and Repo [https://www.reddit.com/r/omise_go/]

Reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/omise_go/]

Sources

OFFICIAL OMG WEBSITE [https://www.omise.co/go]

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO OMISEGO (OMG): THE CRYPTO AIMING TO UNBANK THE BANKED [http://cryptoincome.io/ultimate-guide-omisego-omg-crypto-aiming-unbank-banked/]

WikiPedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OmiseGO]

 OMG: Everything You Need To Know [https://coinscage.com/omisego/]

CoinMarketCap [https://coinmarketcap.com]