…and I’m back with the other three cryptocurrencies I recently added to my portfolio.
But, first of all, I went through all of your comments on my previous posts and I have a few things to mention before moving forward.
The first thing I want to point out is my thought on holding BTC, ETH or BCH. They’re all amazing coins, heck! they’re three of the top four cryptos out there today and they are here to stay, no doubt about that. However, since I’m looking for 100x returns (at least) on my investments, I don’t see a good reason for holding these coins in my portfolio. Using BTC for shopping or keeping your savings in bitcoin instead of fiat currency, that’s another thing. But hoping for a 500x return on ETH is very optimistic. I can’t say it’s impossible, given the volatility of this market, but it is not that realistic, IMHO.
As for other strong coins, like Dash, Monero, Zcash, I consider them to be kind of expensive, although I know this term is relative in today’s crypto landscape. Again, I don’t see Dash at $340 * 500 = $170k anytime soon. And, to be honest, I would like to benefit from my investment during this lifetime.
Finally, you shouldn’t take my portfolio or analysis for granted and decide to put your money into XRP, STORJ or CVC just because it scored X out of 10 points (where X > 7) in my 10-steps analysis. Always do your own research and evaluation of a coin!
As you can see, there are a lot of political, financial or human factors that can crash the market within a short timeframe. We have China playing around with ICOs and exchanges, we have new players slowly replacing China, like Japan or South Korea and we also see people like Jamie Dimon talking bullshit about BTC, just so JP Morgan can then buy some coins cheaper. And we also have the plain old FUDders, spread all over the place, trolling every Slack, Telegram or Discord channel available.
Having that said, I hope you’ll make the best decisions when it comes to investing your money into crypto, especially if you’re in the long-term game, as I am.
Let’s see the 10 items on my list of criteria before diving into the analysis:
*A. The whitepaper. Is it clear and describes the project in detail?
*B. Do I feel like this technology will solve an existing issue?
*C. Are there any founders/developers/special advisors with a solid background?
*D. Is there a well-established and active community? (Slack, Telegram, Discord, Twitter and so on)
*E. Is the current price low enough to believe in a future 100x return?
*F. How high is the circulating supply of coins? The higher the circulating supply, the more trading volume the coin needs in order to have a considerable rise in price.
*G. Are there any current or announced partnerships with big names in the industry?
*H. Is there any existing product/prototype/alpha version for this technology?
*I. Does the technology solve a particular issue or tries to be the jack of all trades? (to not be confused with point B. Here, it’s very important to me if the team tries to address a particular problem and do it well, rather than trying to build X apps and platforms all at once, which can be counterproductive, especially when having a small team or budget)
*J. Does the Fibonacci retracement technique reveal a good entry point to buy right now? (More about Fibonacci retracement here: goo.gl/qqSZfC)
Now, let me reveal the last three coins I have in my portfolio, each of them being evaluated using the same system I used in my previous posts.
- district0x (DNT) - https://district0x.io/
A. 1 point – I would give more than 1 point to district0x’s whitepaper (goo.gl/xpHCzs), but I don’t want to break my own scoring system. Other ICOs and existing projects should use this whitepaper as a reference, simply because it’s neither too short nor too long (22 pages), it has a Table of Contents (heard that, Sia?), a roadmap (although not very detailed), a list of team members and advisors, the token distribution system explained and, most importantly, it provides a clear picture of the technology and purpose of this project. The district0x Network is a collection of decentralized marketplaces and communities and it will enable the recreation of many of the Internet’s most popular applications and services. Read more in the document.
B. 1 point – Yes, district0x will create decentralized marketplaces and I’ll give you an example shortly.
C. 1 point – The founder of district0x, Matus Lestan, is also the lead developer of the project, which is one thing I definitely like. He has a good background in software development and also cybersecurity (being OSCP certified). The team also has three advisors, one of them being Brayton Williams, Co-Founder and Partner at Boost VC, an accelerator and seed fund in Silicon Valley focused on cryptocurrencies/blockchain, VR/AR, AI/bots and other Sci-Fi related technologies. Vincent Zhou and Carl Bennett are the other two advisors that will help the district0x project grow.
D. 1 point – Yes, district0x has a Telegram group of over 1.6k members, more than 3.8k Reddit subscribers and 15.1k Twitter followers. They also have a periodical live stream discussing new community submitted proposals, so that’s a big plus.
E. 1 point – Yes, DNT is currently at $0.037, so very cheap compared to the price it can get to in the future, if the project is correctly implemented.
F. 0.5 points – There are 1,000,000,000 DNT in total, with a current circulating supply of 600,000,000 tokens.
G. 0.5 points – They announced a partnership with the 0x project a few months ago on their blog: “We believe in the ability to choose, which is why we are excited to announce our partnership with the 0x Project to embed their protocol into markets on the district0x Network, giving users the ability to pay and receive payment in the ERC20 token of their choice.”. They are also supported by BoostVC, Fintech Blockchain Group and CoinFund. However, I wasn’t able to find any spectacular partnerships, so 0.5 points here.
H. 1 point – Yes, there are several listed on their website. The most famous one is Ethlance, a “decentralized job market for everyone from freelancers to full-time career seekers alike.”
I. 1 point – Yes, they do solve a particular issue – marketplace decentralization.
J. 1 point – The price of DNT is currently under the 78.6% Fib retracement level, given its latest huge spike a month ago and its recent low this month.
TOTAL POINTS: 9 / 10
- BlockCAT (CAT) – https://blockcat.io
A. 0.5 point – A well-structured whitepaper (goo.gl/QZ5oUm), explaining the vision, purpose and technology behind the BlockCAT project and also touching on the “Why?” question that led to this idea and the use cases where it may apply. However, it would’ve been great to see the team and advisors of the project inside the document. BlockCAT is going to be a “platform for creating and deploying smart contracts in an accessible fashion by delivering a device-agnostic web portal and a broad set of configurable templates for rapidly constructing, deploying, and optionally extracting data.”, with zero programming knowledge required.
B. 1 point – Yes, the creation of smart contracts without the need for knowing any programming.
C. 0.5 points – Eric Huang is the founder of BlockCAT, although a full list of team members is very hard to find (that’s why they lost 0.5 points here). However, Eric is a really smart guy, having a BS degree in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia and working as a Teaching Assistant, Project Lead, Software Engineer and Research Assistant for the same university over the past 4 years.
D. 0.5 points – The community is still in its infancy (but growing steadily), with 3.5k followers on Twitter and a new (and not-so-active) Discord channel. The project definitely needs more social media marketing and a more active community.
E. 1 point – Yes, the current price is at $0.83, although a month ago it was well above $4.5. So there’s a lot of potential for growth there.
F. 1 point – The total supply is 9,200,151 CAT and there are currently just over 7 million CATs in circulation. Very low numbers, compared to 90% of the other cryptocoins.
G. 0 points – I haven’t found any partnerships.
H. 1 point – Yes, there is an alpha version of the platform at https://alpha.blockcat.io/
I. 1 point – Yes, it does solve a particular issue and they seem to be pretty focused on that thing alone.
J. 1 point – I wasn’t able to perform a Fibonacci retracement on Coinigy or Tradingview, as I did so far, because I haven’t found the CAT coin in their database, but, judging from the chart on coinmarketcap.com, the price is very low compared to previous levels, so this can be an ideal entry point.
TOTAL POINTS: 7.5 / 10
- PowerLedger (POWR) - https://powerledger.io/
A. 1 point – This is probably the best whitepaper (goo.gl/8b5voU) I’ve ever had the chance to read. Great structure and formatting, has a table of contents, a detailed description of the project and its applications, the team, partners and board of directors, a clear and detailed roadmap, a market analysis, information about the token sale and more. Power Ledger is a “trustless, transparent and interoperable energy trading platform”. Basically, people who produce more energy than they are able to consume (through solar panels, for instance) will have the chance to sell that energy to their neighbors, instead of the power provider, and get paid for it at much better prices. And this is only one of the applications of this project. Find them all inside the whitepaper.
B. 1 point – A big, resounding YES here.
C. 1 point – Another huge point here. Bill Tai (goo.gl/ap1Rd1) is the main board advisor of the project. Bill Tai has a BSEE degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. He is also a board member at Scribd, Voxer, BitFury and TreasureData and an Adjunct Professor of Innovation & Economic Development at Curtin University. Dr. Jemma Green Jemma, the Chair of Power Ledger, has more than 15 years experience in finance and risk advisory, having worked for 11 years in investment banking in London. Whilst there, she completed a Master’s degree and two postgraduate diplomas from Cambridge University. This project has one of the best teams I’ve seen behind an ICO and the overall feeling it transmits is high confidence.
D. 1 point – Although in the ICO stage, Power Ledger already has a rapidly growing community, with over 7.2k Twitter followers, 4.4k Facebook followers and more than 3.7k active members in the Telegram group.
E. 1 point – Yes, Power Ledger’s token sale is still open: https://mainsale.powerledger.io/
F. 1 point – According to the information on the token sale page, there will be 140 million POWR tokens available, so a very decent number, generally speaking.
G. 1 point – I will let you find out all the partners in the Partners section of the whitepaper or see the screenshots below. Power Ledger currently has a lot of organizations by their side, with many more to be announced.
H. 0.5 points – The Power Ledger team is currently working on the first phase of the project and, according to their roadmap, we should see the first applications in beta testing very soon “(Q4 2017): The first Applications to be in beta testing after the Token Sale will be the Microgrid / Embedded Network Operator/Strata and the Electric Vehicle Trading Applications.”. So, given that we are very close to the first release and I do believe 100% in the team’s ability to deliver on time, I gave them 0.5 points instead of none. I hope I’m not going to be disappointed.
I. 1 point – The project tries to solve the issue of power exchange between individual users and creates a trading platform to facilitate this kind of transactions.
J. 1 point – Unfortunately, being still in the ICO stage, I cannot provide a Fibonacci retracement chart, due to the lack of data from any exchange. However, I have a feeling that buying now is a good decision (that I already made), given the high chances that the price will go up after the token sale ends. This is just a hunch I have, nothing more. Of course, proceed buying if and only if you read all about the project and the team and you consider it to be a potential superstar a few years from now. I certainly do.
TOTAL POINTS: 9.5 / 10
That’s it, guys! This is my complete portfolio in September of 2017. Will I invest in more ICOs? Maybe, if there’s one that really gets me excited. Will I buy more of the coins I already have? Definitely, but this doesn’t apply to all of them, most probably. It really depends on whether they evolve according to their roadmaps and improve their products. For instance, if one year from now I will see Sia at the same stage it is today, then I will definitely sell all my SC and throw them at Storj. I really believe in the technology and ideas behind Sia and Storj, but I won’t keep my money invested in a stagnant project. We shall see.
Before I wrap up, here’s a short recap of my portfolio, along with the score each of them got as a result of my 10-steps analysis.
- PowerLedger (POWR) - TOTAL POINTS: 9.5 / 10
- TenX (PAY) - TOTAL POINTS: 9.5 / 10
- Civic (CVC) - TOTAL POINTS: 9.5 / 10
- Storj (STORJ) - TOTAL POINTS: 9.5 / 10
- OmiseGo (OMG) - TOTAL POINTS: 9 / 10
- Ripple (XRP) - TOTAL POINTS: 9 / 10
- Stratis (STRAT) - TOTAL POINTS: 9 / 10
- Golem (GNT) - TOTAL POINTS: 9 / 10
- district0x (DNT) - TOTAL POINTS: 9 / 10
- Steem (STEEM) - TOTAL POINTS: 8.5 / 10
- 0x (ZRX) - TOTAL POINTS: 8.5 / 10
- Bitquence (BQX) - TOTAL POINTS: 8 / 10
- Aventus (AVT) - TOTAL POINTS: 7.5 / 10
- BitShares (BTS) - TOTAL POINTS: 7.5 / 10
- BlockCAT (CAT) - TOTAL POINTS: 7.5 / 10
- Sia (SC) - TOTAL POINTS: 6.5 / 10
Now, as I did at the end of a previous post, I must confess, I’m also keeping my eye on:
- Kyber Network (KNC)
- PivX (PIVX)
- Iconomi (ICN)
- IOTA (MIOTA)
In my next posts, I will keep you all updated, once a week, on the latest news, progress and token prices for all my (16) coins.
Photo Source: http://www.todayonline.com/business/jamie-dimon-says-his-eventual-successor-works-jpmorgan