All Posts in CryptoCurrency

|In: CryptoCurrency|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Awareness around crypto-currencies is at an all-time high. More people know about these digital currencies than ever before. With the crypto-craze at its height, an increasing number of people are putting their money into cryptocurrencies! However, with the rise in the interest around cryptocurrencies, there has also been a rise in cryptocurrency related scams and fake coins which are created solely for the purpose of scamming investors.

Investors need to be alert about certain facts pertaining to the currency that they are about to invest in. These facts help them realize if the currency is a legit investment opportunity or is it a scammers ploy to steal the money from the investors.

How To Pick The ‘Right Currency’ For Your Crypto currency Portfolio

There are a number of questions that one needs to ask out loud before they invest into a cryptocurrency. The answers to these questions help an investor determine if the currency that they are about to invest in is a legit cryptocurrency or just another crypto-related scam.

Does This Cryptocurrency Solve An Actual Problem?

The first question that one needs to ask themselves is that does the currency that they are about to invest in solve a real problem? Is there truly a ‘need’ for this cryptocurrency? If the currency does propose a problem to a real-world challenge, do you believe that the currency would be able to solve this problem? If the answer to most of these questions is negative, you might just want to avoid investing in the currency.

Read The Whitepaper, Carefully!

Every major and legitimate currency has a whitepaper that details out the plans for the currency as well as the vision behind the creation of the currency. First off, if there is no whitepaper, it is an immediate red flag. Moreover, the goals that are mentioned in the whitepaper need to be realistic and attainable! If the whitepaper seems too good to be true, there is a chance that the currency may be a scam.

Who Are The People Backing This Currency?

Another question that one needs to ask is – who are the people who have supported the currency in the past? Sometimes, for credible cryptocurrencies, you will be able to find multiple industry experts having commented on the currency. Moreover, at times, the credibility of the founders too, tends to play a major role. One needs to check out who the creators of this cryptocurrency are – and are they members of the fin-tech industry, do they have a presence on the internet, providing expert opinions.

Moreover, one also needs to check out the social media profiles of the founders and the promoters of the cryptocurrency they are about to invest in. Sometimes, scammy cryptocurrencies make use of fake and stock images and made-up names to promote their currency. A little research on social media can help investors ensure that they are investing in the right currency.

Sentiment Analysis of the Currency

‘Sentiment Analysis’ is basically the understanding of the kind of conversations that are happening around the currency you are about to invest in. Checking out the social media pages or communities such as Reddit should give you a better idea about the conversations around the currency that you are willing to invest in. If the conversations around the currency are positive and optimistic, it indicates a strong bull-run may be coming in the days to follow. However, if the conversations are negative and the currency is caught in various controversies, it may be best advised to stay away from it.

Performance in the Past

Before investing in a cryptocurrency, it is always advised to check out the past performance of the currency. While it is rarely an indicator because prices can rise at any point of time – however, a consistently bad performance can be a clear indicator of the fact that the currency that you are investing it may not be a good choice – as the prices can continue to fall. A trend-analysis of the currency’s price-movement can help determine if it is the right currency or the right time to invest in it! You can also go through crypto guides at CryptoGround for better knowledge.

In addition to the price performance, another thing that needs to be checked out is the market capital of the currency. If the market cap of the currency tends to fluctuate a lot, it might not be healthy for a long-term investment. Currencies which show a stable growth or have a stable market cap are the best advised currencies. Moreover, the older the currency has existed, the more trusted a name it is likely to be!

About the Author

Prince Kapoor is a Freelance Marketing Analyst and Blogger. While not working, you can find him in gym or giving random health advises to his colleagues which no one agrees on :). If you too want some of his advises [on health or on marketing], reach out to him at @imprincekapur

|In: CryptoCurrency|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Koinex, India’s most advanced digital assets exchange, is currently ranked the second highest exchange globally, by trade volume for REQ tokens. REQ is the token from Request Network which was one of the latest crypto-assets that was listed on Koinex exchange. The token was listed on Thursday, 22 February at 10:30pm and within 15 minutes post listing, the exchange garnered over 1.5 million REQ tokens trading volume and after an hour the numbers were at a staggering 4.5 million.

Image Source – Koinex

This volume trade on Koinex influenced the global crypto-market as the price of REQ token went up by 40%. This is a white-knuckle moment for the domestic crypto-market, as India is driving the global market, which also sets precedence to our prominence in the crypto-assets segment globally.

Elated by the affability shown for REQ by traders on the exchange, Rahul Raj & Aditya Naik, Co-Founders, Koinex said

This tremendous response for REQ validates our robust research-led approach used to identify the right token to be listed on Koinex. No one ever imagined that an Indian exchange would influence the global crypto-assets market in such a significant manner. It only shows the impact and the strong voice we command in the digital assets segment. This is not only reverence for us but also an Indian success story being scripted here.

Koinex is built over cutting-edge technology, offers a proprietary trading engine, wallet and platform architectures and grade A security that make it seamless for the users. We optimized our trade engine and I am proud of the engineering team which efficiently managed such a huge traffic within a short period.

The Request Network [REQ token] is based on Ethereum platform and aims to be a decentralized network that allows anyone to request a payment, for which the recipient can pay directly in a secure way. Essentially, here the need for a third party in the financial transaction is eliminated, thus saving cost and being secure, quick and efficient at the same time. It also gives scope for wide range of automation possibilities.

All the transactions are saved on an irreversible, authentic ledger, which is beneficial for accounting and auditing processes. The platform aims to work with every global currency and will be designed to be flexible and be compatible with IoT or any future systems. Currently Koinex has clocked over 10 million trade volume for REQ token in less than a day and continues to lead the global market.

|In: CryptoCurrency|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Koinex, India’s most advanced digital assets exchange will be listing two global crypto-assets [tokens] – OmiseGO [OMG] and Request on their exchange. In fact, Koinex will be the first exchange in India to introduce Request assets into the Indian market. OMG has been in the domestic circuit for few months but has been rather inert, and might find some buzz on the Koinex exchange.

Image Source – Koinex

Both these token are sought after assets in the global market mainly because of their efficient and ‘future ready’ technology which promises to bring a disruptive innovation in the areas of online payments, banking and e-commerce.

These tokens [crypto-assets] will be listed on the Koinex exchange, across both platforms, the portal and the app, by 2:00am Thursday [Feb 22[ this week. However consumers can start trading on them by early Friday [Feb 23], post 2:00am.

Speaking about this strategic launch, Rahul Raj, Co-Founder & CEO, Koinex said

The overall crypto-market is at an exciting juncture at this point of time and the optimistic outlook of the global digital-assets sector is slowly rubbing on the domestic market here. After careful evaluation, we have brought these tokens to the Indian market and we are very buoyant and assured that they will gain a lot of market prominence in the near future.

Adding to it, Aditya Naik, Co-Founder & CBO, Koinex said

There are many dubious tokens in the crypto-ecosystem and hence it is imperative to be mindful of the crypto-assets to invest in. We at Koinex, meticulously monitor all leading crypto-assets across the globe and have stringent quality checks related to the market cap, company legacy, relevance of the technology platform, scalability etc. to filter out the competitive tokens worthy of our customer’s investment. This quality assurance is one of our key differentiating factors amongst peers.

Rakesh Yadav, Co-Founder & CTO, Koinex added

Both Request and OmiseGO are essentially the technology of the future. They will ease a lot of the pertinent issues today with online payments, fund transfers, payment automation, e-commerce, IoT, etc. They are technologies that suit businesses and consumers both, aptly for secure and economical transactions, hence will always be valued assets in the crypto-market.

OmiseGO aims to be a decentralized exchange based on Ethereum platform, with the focus to provide better financial services for everyone, including patrons who lack traditional banking infrastructure, thus mitigating the current challenges between payment gateways, processors and financial institutions. So through the OmiseGO network, anyone will be able to conduct financial transactions such as payments, remittances, payroll deposit, B2B commerce, supply-chain finance, trading and other on-demand services, in a completely decentralized and inexpensive way.

Additionally, it will enable transitions using fiat money to decentralized currencies such as ETH, BTC, and others. As per current industry a report, the token OMG is currently the sixth highest markets cap Ethereum project in the world and the first Ethereum project to exceed USD $1 billion valuation.

Request Network, also based on Ethereum platform, aims to be a decentralized network that allows anyone to request a payment, for which the recipient can pay directly in a secure way. Essentially, here the need for a third party [Payment Gateway] in the financial transaction is eliminated, thus saving cost and being secure, quick and efficient at the same time. It also gives scope for wide range of automation possibilities. All the transactions are saved on an irreversible, authentic ledger, which is beneficial for accounting and auditing processes. The platform aims to work with every global currency and will be designed to be flexible and be compatible with IoT or any future systems.

These technology platforms being built on Request network and OmiseGO have a pragmatic approach to the future and are scalable platforms, designated to be more efficient and impactful than present day marvel platforms. This technical excellence and forward looking application makes them valuable assets for the market and will be a force to reckon on the exchange.

|In: CryptoCurrency|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Koinex, India’s most advanced digital assets exchange, will now be accessible for users on their smartphones through a new app feature launched by the company. The app will be available on Android now, while the iOS version will be launched shortly.

Image Source – Koinex

The app version offers ‘personalized price alert’ which will help users to know when their crypto-currency has hit their desired price listed on the exchange. Koinex is the first exchange app to pioneer this feature, in the crypto-currency segment in the country. Other distinctive features include three step security verification, graphical chart representation of industry trading and an extensive log book for users to plot the current crypto-currency valuation. The app also offers users, the feature of scanning QR code to connect to their payment wallet, which again is a unique feature, apart from the seamless interface allowing them to maneuver through multiple sections on the app.

Talking about the app launch, Rahul Raj, Co-Founder, Koinex said

The smartphone adoption in the country has made it inevitable to have an app service. We have been traders ourselves, and we are working to solve the pain known to all of us, one step at a time. The platform currently is the largest digital assets exchange in the country in terms of trading volume and we want to further accentuate our user experience by allowing them to track and trade at Koinex, on the go.

Adding to it, Aditya Naik and Rakesh Yadav the other two, in the co-founder trio, said

The key challenge was to create an interface that can sustain the enormous trading volume we have on the portal. The app also has been built using our innate tech expertise and we strive to improve Koinex, build more trading tools, develop more blockchain products, and create a holistic crypto-currency trading ecosystem.

Koinex is the first multi-currency exchange with an open-book ledger format, in the country and it began operations in August 2017. Within a short span of five months, the company grew to be one of the largest trading portal by volume, in the country.  Few of the key reasons for their success are their cutting edge technology, proprietary trading engine, wallet and platform architectures, grade A security, user-centric UI/UX and tons of user-demanded features that makes it seamless for the users.

The tremendous growth volume is indicator to the scalability and long tenure of the brand in the market. Today as per industry rankings, Koinex stands among the top 50 exchanges globally and is the only Indian exchange in the list. Koinex aims to make India a hotbed of blockchain technology development and adoption.

About Koinex

Koinex is India’s first and most advanced crypto-currency trading and exchange company. Incepted in August 2017 in Mumbai, the web platform facilitates real-time trading of multiple crypto-currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin. By operating on a peer-to-peer exchange model, the live, open order book exchange enables users to discover the best price. Koinex facilitates simple on-boarding with quick e-KYC, and enables users to instantly start transacting in their preferred crypto-currency. For more information, please visit Koinex

|In: CryptoCurrency|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

ICOs are the new series B while they create new bubbles they are also unlocking new kind of value as we speak. This is how Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angel List and one of the most influential thinkers in silicon valley described ICOs. Before I go about explaining my take on various ways in which ICOs will influence startup markets let’s have a quick primer on what are ICOs.

Image Source – ICO

ICO [Initial Coin Offering] is a way to raise funds where-in a startup or an existing business sell tokens to public or private entities in exchange for ether/bitcoin or fiat money. ICOs are a recent phenomenon and the first ICO happened in 2013 with Mastercoin ICO. Some of the big projects which have raised money using ICOs include Ethereum, Stratis, Stellar lumens, Ripple and many more. Tokens offered do not give you any ownership in the companies and hence cannot be treated as security.

ICOs exploded in 2016 with many startups joining the bandwagon to sell tokens and raise money coinciding with the boom in Crypto-currencies and lured by easier money availability, fewer regulations, etc.

Below are the six ways ICOs have/might impact Startup Funding:

Easier Access to Money in short term

ICOs or token sales have suddenly created a new funding mechanism which is far easier to access than any traditional funding methods.You suddenly have the whole world as a possible investor.

With money raising strictly dependent on demand and supply dynamics and a large demand fueled by Crypto boom of last two years, Founders have never had it easier with large demand for anything blockchain and everyone looking to make quick money the whole ICO space has snowballed into tons of dumb money chasing projects.

VC Unfriendly/Open Source projects getting funded

While ICOs have eased access to capital and lot of dumb projects are getting funded It has also created a great way to fund ideas with no immediate commercial viability or ideas which VCs think are unpopular.

ICOs can be a great way to fund new protocols or next generation of smart technologies which will lay the foundation for a new wave of applications and products to be built on these new technologies. ICOs might be the best thing to happen to open-source projects adding a much needed incentive layer for developers.

Disrupting the existing VC model

ICOs are disrupting the existing VC models where Venture capital firms traditionally not only provide seed capital for MVP and building a product market fit but also growth investing to grow the business.

With ICOs and token sale as an alternative entrepreneurs with running businesses can just launch a new coin and raise funds required for growth. Token sales result in no dilution of equity and provide a great way to build community the value creation shifts from stakeholders to coin holders. It is entirely possible that community might become a strong moat for businesses in future and token holders will signal real value of the company.

Also some of the core open source projects can raise money without worrying about how VCs might dilute their vision.

Community Development becomes integral to Startups

Two skills which are going to become integral to blockchain startups are technical expertise on new set of technology and skills to build, nurture and harness communities. Startups which can build strong communities will have access to funds, new customers and new business at fraction of the cost.

Velocity and Value of the tokens will be directly linked to how strong and connected your community is to your product which can bring in new and unique network effects.

Lot of Scams in the Short Run

As is with anything path breaking it attracts a lot of unwanted folks and scamsters lured by easy money, fame or both. ICOs driven startups are going to have a fair share of scams. Not just scams majority of startups will not be able to deliver on promises. The deluge of ICOs hitting market include scamsters, failed ideas which could not raise money in traditional ways, forced token ideas where tokens are not required even blockchain is not required.

So brace up for many scams and failed projects in the short to medium term until the dust settles and sanity prevails and we are able to see the real gems. This is very similar to what happened during the heydays of the internet boom.

New Governance Models for startups

While in traditionally funded startups there were checks and balances built with early stage investors have a board seat and experiences VCs/Investors not only providing money but also helping with setting up processes and governance mechanisms.The new Crowd funded startups will have not have an obligation to investors and hence will create new challenges on oversight and governance sides.

How will token holders keeps teams honest. Will token holders be able to influence roadmap or prioritization. How much influence can token holders have on founders and the executive team. Can they throw out CEO for non-performance these are all very interesting questions.

Finally, ICOs are at  a very early stage of evolution and almost all players are making their moves. Some of the best VCs have already started investing in tokens and leading early round of token sales. Entrepreneurs who want to raise growth funds are watching on the sidelines watching intently on how this evolves and does it create new options for them to grow their business. Finally regulators are grappling with how to treat token sales.

They are not securities in the traditional sense. Some tokens have utility on the platform other apparently do not have any utility so regulating token markets is going to be another area which evolves in due course of time.

About the Author

Sarabdeep Singh is ex-Head for Digital Marketing and CRM for Ebay India. He Co-founded Bodhik.com an online mutual fund investment service. In his spare time he is building sipacoin.com a simple service to set up Bitcoin Price Alerts. He tweets infrequently @sarabdeep

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

With the merger of DABFI [Digital Assets and Blockchain Foundation India] with IAMAI [The Internet and Mobile Association of India], the internet industry body now has the mandate to represent blockchain startups in India.

Leading former members of DABFI such as Zebpay, Unicon and Coinsecure will now become a part of IAMAI FinTech Council. The new group, led by Zebpay Co-Founder, Sandeep Goenka, would focus on the following

  • Popularizing blockchain based technologies in the financial sector.
  • Suggest innovative regulatory practices for adoption of block chain technologies among government and industry.
  • Promote blockchain based startups and
  • Build and advocacy platform for adoption of crypto-currency.

Commenting on the developments, Sandeep Goenka said

With Banks, and other digital financial services under it, IAMAI provides the right home to this emerging group. Promoting and evangelizing crypto-currencies and digital assets would be our first major goal of this group.

T he IAMAI Fintech council is chaired by Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, Deputy Managing Director and Chief Information Officer at State Bank of India. IAMAI has now opened up its membership for all the blockchain and crypto-currency companies in India.

About DABFI

DABFI was formed by 3 companies namely Unocoin, Zebpay and Coinsecure. DABFI was an association of people interested in Advocacy of use of Digital Assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc within India. Their objective was to educate people about risk involved with investing and trading crypto tokens. They also wanted to actively create and propagate best practices that Digital Asset businesses must follow in India based on consultations within industry, regulators other stake holders. For more information, please visit DABFI