Lets be clear, there are currently hugely innovative blockchain projects out there in the cryptospace, many of which will redefine our future in ways that we can not even imagine yet. We're on the brink of a new beginning, one that has people very excited. However, whilst we set on our path to get there, it is my opinion that the crypto debit card space will bridge the gap, bringing real and present use cases for cryptocurrency. Furthermore, these cards can become the vehicle for mainstream adoption, easing people into the cryptocurrency world with easy to use applications and teasing them with the financial gains that cryptocurrency can bring. If executed correctly, the banking sector could face some serious competition in the coming years from the Likes of Monaco, TenX and Token (to name but a few):
However, this new world isn't yet regulated, its the wild west out there. Dumb money has flooded the market and often legitimate company's can fall foul to FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) with young and impatient investors moving money from one company to the next: chasing the rumours and selling the news.
In my opinion, Monaco is one such legitimate company that has had FUD surrounding its name since its inception. Through this article I hope to make a case for Monaco, and clear the air on some of the rumours that often get questioned by newcomers into the Monaco community.
Point 1 - Third Party Issue
First of all, many cite that TenX has a working product and already have an agreement with Visa. The truth is that TenX took the shortcut to Market. They issued cards through a third party, Wavecrest, who are also their Visa program sponsor. The biggest issue here is that third party issuers such as Wavecrest have now been found liable for cross-boarder issuing I.e. they have a deal with Visa Europe, but they are shipping cards to Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, which impacts revenue of Visa Asiapac. It works the same between other regions. They have different teams and separate P&Ls. This is why they are now forced into sending around e-mails for account closures whilst they find a new issuing body in each region. This is why the price of TenX has dropped.
Monaco on the other hand are aiming to become a Visa Program Manager and we are assured by the CEO that this will happen this month (September). They are so confident that they even have the date in their card pre-order mobile application. Don't take my word for it though, see the below message from the CEO in the Slack channel:
- So whats the difference? Visa Program Manager means they would have been approved by Visa, they will be responsible for marketing, distribution, customer care, KYC/AML and the whole P&L of the program. In simple terms this makes them more competitive, able to offer much better rates and a generally more rounded product. That brings me onto point two - the product itself:
POINT 2 - The Product
Monaco, quite simply put is the more competitive product if it comes to market as currently described. They aiming to build a product to take on the banks, not other cryptocurrency start-ups.
They offer 0.75% cashback in the form of MCO on ALL purchases for any platinum card holder. This is higher than the 0.5% that TenX currently offer.
They are currently supporting 7 Fiat currencies and exchanges/spends have perfect interbank exchange rates. Say goodbye to fees for foreign spending and no more extortionate foreign rates.
They pay 1% of all cryptocurrency transactions to the asset contract to back the MCO token, that is double the 0.5% TenX offers.
The cards are quite simply stunning and the platinum cards are made of Metal. They have aimed for a premium high end product and in the words of the CEO they want to be the Apple/Tesla of crypro.
- Finally, there are NO user fees. Unlike TenX the cards are free to ship and they have no user fee's what-so-ever. The platinum cards are also free, although they require the 'locking-up' of MCO tokens for 6 months in an asset contract. More on this below...
POINT 3 - As an investment
I have already touched upon the fact that Monaco's Asset contract contribution is double that of TenX's (1% vs 0.5%). However, more than that, there are 1/6 less MCO tokens than PAY tokens! (MCO= 31,587,682 tokens PAY=205,218,255 Tokens) That means that PAY's asset contract would have to be over 6 times the size of Monaco's just to give the same reward upon token burning.
However, there is something even more exciting as an MCO Token holder and that is the platinum card lock-up. In order to get the more premium Platinum cards users have to lock-up MCO for a period of 6 months. The amount of MCO to be locked up differs depending on the platinum card selected:
- The reason this is exciting as an investor? Well, as discussed above, there are already MUCH fewer Monaco tokens than PAY. If we look at the circulating supply there is currently only 9million MCO in circulation now. Now, there have been 12,000 Monaco card pre-orders, and although we don't know the amount of each card respective platinum card that people have selected, we can expect that a significant portion of these will be either the Ruby Steel or the Precious Metal cards. That is going to lock up a significant amount of MCO in the near term and ongoing as card orders continue! This will even further reduce the supply of MCO on the market whilst at the same time the demand will be significantly increasing following the visa program approval, card shipment and further Dev updates!
Another point to make is that Monaco will be paying out the 0.75% Cryptocurrency cashback for all purchases on platinum cards in MCO. Where is this MCO to come from... The exchanges - ie buying them off existing holders!
Finally, there is the simple fact that Monaco is HUGELY undervalued. It is currently less than a third of the Market Cap of TenX and 7x lower than the ATH TenX Market Cap. If we believe that Visa Program Approval hits in the next two weeks sometime, I estimate the price being being 4x-5x the price now. I simply can not underestimate the value of having a crypto currency that is spendable worldwide in 40+ million establishments.
POINT 4 - Compliance
This is at the core of the Monaco team. They have an ex-Mastercard CFO and an Ex-Visa advisory member on the board. They constantly talk about the requirement of being compliant in their slack channel. It is for this very reason that TenX got caught up in the recent China ICO crackdown, whereas Monaco didn't as they had thought it prudent not to open the ICO to Chinese Investors.
This is also why Monaco's global rollout will be in stages, Asia (This month), Europe (October) and then North America (2018) as they need to be compliant in each region before starting the shipping process.
The teams dedication to being compliant is the number one reason that I believe the team when they are committed to delivering on their promises of becoming an approved program manager this Month.
POINT 5 - The FUD
- Finally, I want to clear the air on some of the FUD surrounding the CEO of Monaco in relation to his time at Ensogo. I believe this issue has been addressed several times in both youtube videos and in within the Monaco slack channel, but it still comes up with new-comers into the Monaco Slack community so I thought I would put the response to the claims here in-case of the usual ludicrous scam accusations:
Youtube Video:
- The next issue of FUD is the 'Pump and Dump' and 'the leak'. Prior to the Monaco Card app release for card pre-orders there was a lot of hype surrounding the project. The hype was created around the idea that Monaco was going to announce its Visa Program Manager Approval along with the app. Much of what was quoted to point towards this was actually a conversation between members of the Monaco community and Kris. One of the members had asked whether the app would still go ahead as planned on the 31st of August without Visa Program Manager Approval. Kris replied that 'Monaco didn't see much point to releasing the app prior to the program manager approval'. However, the community reminded Kris that this was in their roadmap and that it would look bad if they didn't release on Schedule. Unfortunately, just prior to the launch, a blog managed to get hold of an unreleased version of the new Monaco Website that contained images of the cards with Visa Logo's. Kris IMMEDIATELY refuted the leak and publicly stated that the program manager approval was not yet accepted. In the end Monaco did end-up releasing the app, but as soon as people didn't see the visa logo, they dumped the coin. It should be noted here that many people believe the leak was sent on purpose. However, it was obviously of NO benefit to Monaco what-so-ever so this theory does not hold true in my eyes.
Unfortunately, it is this last point that people tend to get stuck on and its all that draws their focus. Take the FUD away and you are left with a seriously undervalued Token that is just waiting to grow exponentially in value for all of the reasons outlined above. Yet of-course, I am not blind to the fact that all of the above hinges on one pivotal piece of news, VISA Program Manager Approval.
The team remain committed to the September deadline so the question is whether or not you believe them?
Thanks for taking the time to read. If you have any questions or indeed responses to the above then please feel free to comment. Also consider joining the Monaco slack where the community can answer your questions! If you do go in there, drop me a message @smithappens.