Today I made a (somewhat) impulsive investment by buying a very small amount of LOOM tokens (500 - roughly worth 0.06 ETH or about 9 US dollars - I told you it was small!). Loom network is a crypto project I had been keeping an eye on for a couple of months. I think it first caught my attention when I realised that Ryan Sean Adams' (whose tweets I read with interest) company acts as a validator on the Loom network. I thought at the time that if he has heavily invested in the tokens and also become a validator then I should take a look at it.
Meet Loomy - Loom network's mascot (source)
My general feelings on altcoins / tokens
This is the first investment I have made in any altcoin since pre-2018 market crash. The only cryptos I have invested in since then are Bitcoin and Ethereum. I know that technically ETH is considered an altcoin but I don't see it that way. I've sold (or had stolen after my Evernote got hacked - don't ask!!) pretty much all the altcoins I held before pre-2018 back into BTC or ETH. I became very skeptical on alts last year and it's for this reason that I have never bought STEEM (unless you count that one time when I traded a small amount of BNB for STEEM).
What is Loom network?
Loom Network is a production-ready, multichain interop platform for serious dapp developers. We provide the tools and knowledge developers need to launch high-performance dapps that require a fast and seamless UX across multiple chains. With integrations to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Chain, and all major blockchains, deploying once to Loom lets you future-proof your dapp by reaching the largest possible user base today.
Why LOOM?
Here are a few reasons why I invested a small amount in LOOM:
- I expect gaming to be one of the big use-cases for blockchain in the years ahead and Loom network could potentially be a key infrastructure player in this space.
- You can stake it. I love any form of compounding!
- I have recently started listening to a podcast series from a group called Chorus One, a company which is essentially a staking-as-a-service business. I find their podcast very informative and interesting. I noticed that they are also a validator on the Loom network. I also found their slide deck for their Loom network investment thesis and found their thesis very compelling.
- I expect there to be an increasing demand for interoperability, which Loom network provides.
- Coinbase PRO thought highly enough of Loom network to list it on their platform last year (when most people hadn't heard of it).
- The LOOM price vs BTC has crashed this year, meaning the market doesn't like it, so it's somewhat of a contrarian play. The potential returns are high if I'm right and the market is wrong!
Staking LOOM
I read a couple of articles and watched some Youtube tutorials on staking LOOM in advance. After purchasing my tokens via Uniswap, I headed to the Loom network staking dashboard and deposited my LOOM, then selected a validator (I selected Chorus One because I think their podcast provides great value - they take 15% of the tokens earned as a reward for their services). You can order the list of validators by amount of LOOM staked or the fee they charge to help you make your selection. I chose to lock my tokens up for three months.
And that's about it! After the three months I might experiment by adding my LOOM to the ETH-LOOM liquidity pool on Uniswap to compare the returns I can make there. I guess, above all else, that experimentation was the main reason for my investment. I'm very curious about things like staking, Uniswap liquidity pools, and leverage on MakerDAO.