1/19 ANDY HOFFMAN (CryptoGoldCentral.com): Further BRhodium Thoughts, Following A Difficult, But INSPIRING, Day
Through a 30-year career in financial markets, I’m most well-known for my “big picture” associations with oil, Precious Metals, and Bitcoin. However, I’ve spent at least as much time working with small, “junior” projects; particularly mining stocks - and now, emerging altcoins like BRhodium. Thus, I’ve seen what management teams endure on the long, difficult, and more often than not failed roads to success.
In cryptocurrency, the “odds” of Bitcoin’s long-term success far outweigh those of all others; though nothing, of course, is certain - or, for that matter, the definition of “success.” Following crypto as long, and diligently, as I have, I conclude that we are in the early stages of a “Digital Age” – in which multiple, myriad cryptocurrencies will play key roles.
From a risk/reward standpoint, Bitcoin is by far the best investment. However, everyone’s risk profile is different – and frankly, Bitcoin’s nearly 85% decline hardly qualifies it, at this point in time, as a “store of value.” In other words, there are many reasons to invest in cryptocurrency – all of which are risky, some more than others; the riskiest of which, have the highest upside potential.
For the past year, I have dedicated an increasingly large percentage of my time to BRhodium – as interest in Bitcoin declined, whilst crypto sentiment and prices plummeted. During that time, I have grown to know the ANONYMOUS dev team well – building a deep level of respect for the gargantuan progress made, amidst the worst imaginable market conditions.
Watching its blockchain stabilize, hash rate surge, and price rise whilst most other cryptos collapsed was truly gratifying – a tribute to the uniqueness of the project, reality of its use case, hard work of its devs, and strength of its investor and mining communities. Thus, I couldn’t have been prouder to see it trade on Bisq last month; and this week, Sistemkoin - with P2PB2B, and numerous others, coming shortly.
Unfortunately, this week’s Sistemkoin launch has been proven to be a decidedly negative price catalyst; though clearly, not a single fundamentally weakness was exposed - with the price decline, by 65% in barely 24 hours, coming on, for all intents and purposes, comically fabricated FUD and microscopic trade volume.
https://twitter.com/Andy_Hoffman_CG/status/1086699971443712000
To that end, I wanted to put forth some observations on the day’s events, that I believe will help you understand the uphill battle altcoin developers are fighting - contrary to the FUD put forth to denigrate their actions, and blame price declines on supposed incompetence; or better yet, simply denigrate them by blanket assuming them to be “sh-tcoins.”
For one, I now realize just how difficult it is to get listed on “quality” exchanges. Between exorbitant listing fees, onerous KYC requirements, and minimum trading volumes, one must be very careful not to be exploited by “major” exchanges which, compared to even “minor” Wall Street banks, are comically small, unreliable, and unreputable. Conversely, the minefield of small, regional crypto exchanges possesses a handful of “diamonds in the rough” – along with a plethora of incompetent, malicious, or comically unreliable companies. Thus, particularly in a bear market environment as today, it is very difficult to make the “correct” decision of who to list with.
Equally important, is the obvious shortage of dedicated cryptocurrency software specialists – which plagues both the altcoin industry and, as we are seeing in BRhodium’s case in real-time, cryptocurrency exchanges. This is by no means a blanket criticism – though clearly, some issues are more human-related than others; but instead, the FACT that, just as exchanges didn’t have the bandwidth to handle surging demand in late 2017, they don’t have the resources to properly handle even today’s extremely weak demand levels.
In BRhodium’s case, they have dealt with this issue head on, at both p2pb2b.io and Sistemkoin.com – the latter of which, was unfortunate enough to require 24 hours to update its BTC server just after XRC (BRhodium) was listed. In both cases, “integration testing” took longer than expected and/or did not identify simple issues that would likely have been red-flagged quickly if full, dedicated teams were on call to rapidly and efficiently respond; let alone, when you consider that many exchanges are not just attempting to maintain and service current clients, but rapidly expand despite the lack of available man hours.
At p2pb2b, what would be considered simple, quickly resolvable integration issues have taken more than a month – though admittedly, the fact that the month included the holiday season was part of reason for the delay. To that end, integration is very close to being complete, so it would be very surprising if launch didn’t occur by month’s end.
At Sistemkoin, the transaction size limits conservatively coded into XRC weren’t understood until after launch – causing a delay in the Mempool that was resolved with a quick fix this morning; the problem being, the Sistemkoin team doesn’t work 24/7. Thus, XRC withdrawals and deposits remain delayed until Sistemkoin’s team is available to incorporate the XRC network upgrade – that may occur tomorrow, or perhaps when the “normal” workweek starts on Monday. So, to those FUDing how Sistemkoin, or XRC, are “frozen” – the FACT is, that as is the case with p2pb2b, NOTHING is “wrong.”
Next, I wanted to discuss XRC mining – which, despite said FUD, remains close to the record hash rate achieved last week, despite the “catastrophic” price decline. The FACT is that at the current price of roughly .003 BTC, most miners are breaking even; thus, at the .005-.007 rate of recent weeks, they were clearly earning extraordinary profits. Which may return, of course – but in the meantime, set a pretty solid price floor.
Next, the infinitesimal price volumes – as a handful of desperate holders “panicked,” by selling microscopic volumes as low as .0013 BTC, compared to .006 a day ago, when OTC volumes were still huge. Again, don’t be deceived by such low volumes – particularly on Bisq…and Sistemkoin, in an environment when first BTC transfers were frozen, and then (and now) XRC.
Finally, I want to commend the BRhodium team for an awe-inspiring display of teamwork in the face of every imaginable hurdle being thrown their way…most of all, the horrifying bear market conditions that have prevented even “King Bitcoin” from escaping relentless price pressure, and catastrophic losses. To that end, I have not come across a team as intelligent, motivated, and diligent as those building BRhodium in my entire career; and as they say in nearly all industries, it’s a wise strategy to “bet on management.” Not to mention, when they have a great idea, in an industry with a great future…particularly when they trade at a $5 MILLION MARKET CAP, with the potential to become a multi-billion dollar asset.
If you have any questions about BRhodium, or XRC OTC trading, please email me at [email protected], or DM/PM me on Twitter or Discord.