Novice Crypto - TenX - October 2017

Disclaimer: Novice Crytpo posts will be the resting place of my thoughts on various blockchain based technologies at a certain point in time. My thoughts should not dictate your actions or be perceived as investment advice but simply be a 'help' to your own research and an opportunity for the community to comment and correct any misconceptions I may have. 

Below are some of my musings on TenX following my research in the middle of October 2017. 

Essentially, TenX wants to give you a Debit / Credit card that you can link to a chosen crypto wallet (via an app on your phone). Sounds great right? No more dependency on stored value in USD / fiat currency when paying for that coffee? Finally you can pay in ETH / BTC? Well it might not quite be that simple...

While I'm sure most of us love the idea, TenX's execution hasn't been without issue. After all, how could it be? - They are dancing through a regulatory minefield in multiple countries at the same time...

To date, it appears as though TenX has around 5000 customers, many of whom have had cards delivered only to find they don't work due to unforeseen regulatory barriers. Adding insult to injury, both Mastercard and Visa aren't sitting back waiting for blockchain to happen around them, they are getting involved. Why would either of these big players care which base currency is attached to a Visa / Mastercard assuming they are still being paid a % on the transaction?

The conclusion of my research was ultimately cut short, it simply got to a point where I couldn't see value in further research. For me TenX is just too early in the piece for me to invest, they have a long way to go to justify their current market cap at a minimum and I just don't believe their business model is particularly defensible.

In the words of Marouane Hajji from hackernoon.com back in August 2017 - "I would not pay more than 1$ for PAY until I see at least their first 100,000 card holders." Currently PAY is trading at $1.82 USD and they are certainly a long way from 100,000 happy customers.

I wish the TenX team all the success in the world, I trust they are working hard but don't envy the complexity and barriers in-front of them. At this early stage, it's just far more risk vs reward than alternative crypto offerings.

TenX - https://www.tenx.tech/ 

• Essentially a Visa card paired with an app that allows you to spend Crypto Currency
• Using Visa in the first instance - Visa or Mastercard are the dominate 2 that provide the geographic coverage without Amex like fees
• PAY is the TenX token
• Their team and app look good 
• They aim to reward users via their token, but this is easily replicated by a competitor...
• Why even consider this without seeing some increasing adoption (5k cards issued mid 2017) and a price < 1.50 USD with 100k cards issued?
• They are having trouble issuing the cards in their first round of countries: https://blog.tenx.tech/tenx-card-update-sept-2017-2c9e41bf8f59
• A good valuation article: https://hackernoon.com/the-right-valuation-of-tenx-pay-4fd640698e9b
• Token Price: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tenx/
• Mastercard are jumping into blockchain directly, aiming to innovate on-top of their 'credit cards': https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/20/mastercard_opens_blockchain_api_to_merchants/
• Visa are jumping into blockchain directly, will this hurt TenX via easing the path for new entrants? https://www.coindesk.com/visa-blockchain-payments-service/

Please comment, like and contribute. I'm more than happy to have my logic tested, to learn and to grow. Let's help each other lift the skirts on the the hype and pick the winners in a blockchain future!

Cheers,

TTD