Cryptos for The Investor: Waves (Part 1)
Many people are starting to invest in cryptos rather than just trade them. I think this is a wise move because the real value of cryptos is yet to come. IMO, the real value of most cryptos will come after 2 years.
However, Investing Is More Difficult Than Trading
To invest in a project means that you are making a long-term commitment to it. So, you need to research and make sure the project has solid fundamentals, and that is not easy. It is even more difficult with cryptos for many reasons:
- Cryptoassets are not regulated (yet)
- There are many scam coins in crypto land.
- To research a cryptoasset, you need both technical and economic knowledge and experience.
All these factors make choosing a good crypto investment a tricky job. I consider myself a little bit lucky here. I have a technical background and I have been investing for some time now. So, I think I can do some useful work here. Actually, I have been researching and investing in cryptos for over a year now.
Cryptos for The Investor Series
I have decided to share my research results with you. I will call it: The Cryptos for The Investor Series.
I am hoping that someone would benefit from it. Of course, no one should consider this as a financial advice. So, please do your own due diligence.
At the same time, I am hoping that I would benefit from the feedback I can get from other investors in the community. So, do not hesitate to criticise my opinions.
I will be following the research model I have explained in: A 6-Stage Model for Picking a Good Crypto Coin for Long-Term.
Since the research for one coin might be a little bit long for one post, I will be posting it in digestible chunks. MOre importantly, I will try to avoid technical details as much as possible.
Waves
I will start by Waves. I have been following Waves for some time now, and I feel it would be a good starting point for this series.
ُEvaluating The Business Model
Waves is working on many frontiers at the same time. The different sides of the Waves platfirms complement each other. The following are the most important aspects of its business model:
Waves Is A Blockchain Platform
After the success of Bitcoin, the blockchain technology attracted a lot of attention. The blockchain is basically a very secure and decentralized database. If you would like to know more about blockchains, please read @sndbox's : Blockchain & Cryptocurrency - An Illustrated Introduction
People have started realizing that this new technology can have many uses and can solve many problems. Organizations would want their own tokens for crowdfunding(ICOs), loyalty programs, voting and more.
However, the technology is new and too few people are able to create blockchain applications. This has created a huge demand for blockchain platforms.
A blockchain platform is a platform where you can create your own blockchain tokens (coins) without the need to create the blockchain itself. The best example of a blockchain platform is Ethereum.
Like Ethereum, Waves is a blockchain platform where you can create your own crypto coins. However, creating coins on Waves is so easy and cheap. Anyone can create his own coins in two minutes. It does not require much technical expertise.
This makes Waves an attractive option for any individual or organization that wants to utilize the power of the blockchain without having to overcome the technical obstacles.
In fact, at the time of the writing of this article, 4,600+ different tokens have been already created on waves!
Waves Is An ICO Platform
ICOs has become so popular. Hundreds if ICOs has been launched in the past 12 months, and they are just starting. Waves platform provide all the necessary tools for a successful ICO.
Waves IS A Gateway to Fiat, BTC, And ETH
The crypto verse is almost isolated from the classical financial system. That is inconvenient, especially for businesses. Moreover, cryptocurrencies like BTC are too volatile. That is why some platforms are providing fiat equivalent tokens: crypto coins that have the same value to a fiat currency like the USD or the Euro. Steem has SBD, Bitshares has bitUSD, and of course, we have the tether USD (TUSD) that is popular in many exchanges.
Waves provides such a solution too. It has the wUSD and wEuro coins. They are digitized form of the fiat currency and has its value exactly. You can deposit your USD from your bank account into your waves wallet. Similarly, You can withdraw your USD from your waves account to your bank account. Once your USD is in your Waves wallet you can send them to any other address on the blockchain quickly, easily, securly, and for much less than a bank wire. This makes Waves an excellent link between the crypto economy and the classic one.
Waves accomplishes this through gateways. Waves gateways are third party companies that provide the conversion services. Those gateway companies have to be fully compliant and licensed. Therefore, the value of the wUSD is always equal to $1. Unlike Steem's SBD, it does not fluctuate. The only drawback is that it is not decentralized. It relys on a centralized company to provide the service.
Waves currently has gateways for the USD, Euro, BTC and ETH. This means that you can store and transfer all of those in your Waves wallet alongside your Waves tokens. Waves team promises to provide more and more gateways.
“It is not within Waves’ remit to try to replace money. We already have money – USD, EUR, BTC and so on. But we know we can make it better, more transparent and efficient, by using the Blockchain.”
-- Sasha Ivanov, CEO of Waves Platform.
Waves Is A Decentralized Exchange
Waves has a powerful decentralized exchange similar to Bitshares' DEX. It offers easy, secure and fast peer-to-peer trading. You can easily trade any token against any other token. You can trade BTC, ETH, wUSD, eEURO, Waves, and all the special tokens created by users.
Conclusion and Business Model Score = 8/10
In short, Waves is blockchain platform trying to be an easy bridge between classic economy and crypto economy. It has the following features:
- Easy and cheap user token creation.
- ICO platform and tools.
- Fiat and BTC gateways.
- Decentralized exchange.
Those features complement each other, making Waves an important player in crypto verse. Yet, Waves business is dependent on the cryptocurrencies market which is unstable. This and the reliance on centralized gateway partners forces me to give it a 8/10 score for business model. Otherwise, it would have gotten a 10/10.
To Be Continued...
In the following articles, I am planning to write about Waves' team, the Waves coin, historical accomplishments, community and adoption, and the future road map. Based on all of that, I will give Waves an investment score and I will set a long-term target price.
Waves is a long time hold for sure!
It seems so, @coinland. However, I am trying to make sure about that by researching its fundamentals.
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I learned a lot by your article so thank you. But I have a question regarding your statement "creating coins on Waves is so easy and cheap" . What exactly do you mean by "easy and cheap" ? Also about the 4600 coins created on Waves platform, from the coinmarketcap.com there are 1200 coins listed. How much of those are created over waves ? What are the other coins created on Waves and not yet listed on coinmarketcap.com ? Do you know also how many coins are already created on Ethereum platform?
Thank you, @alketcecaj. Those are thoughtfull questions.
Waves allows any user to create his own coin on their blockchain. They have an easy form that you can fill in 60 seconds, and it would cost you 1 Waves coin only ($4.5). That is easy and cheap indeed.
1- As I said above, not all coins created on Waves are ICOs. You can create a coin and use it privately. A company can create a coin and use it internally (for any reason that it sees fit). For example, Burger king created a coin for their loyalty program.
2- Of course, some of the coins created are ICOs. Some of them are in the top 100 in coin market cap. like mobileGo. You can see a list of active ICOs and upcoming ICOs here.
I don't know. I have searched a little but could not find anything. The nice thing about Waves is that its official explorer gives you up-to-date statistics.
Thank you very much for answering all me questions. It is very valuable information you are giving here.
Good indepth analysis on Waves. I've held it for a while and have been accumulating recently during the last market downturn. Waves is also the largest blockchain project in Russia. Nice that you are writing about one project at a time. Looking forward to the next post. Upvoted:Resteemed:Following.
Thank you, @mikeflow.
Glad you liked it.
I am holding and accumulating Waves too.
good post
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