Photo Source: ICORA
Part #24
Time flies! It’s already the last lecture session. The session began with an introduction of Crypto ATM by Mr. Sivanus Yamdee, CEO of Coin Asset Exchange. The interesting part was having the machine shown in front of our classroom.
Crypto ATM
We were excited to see the very first Crypto ATM in Thailand. This ATM aims to help address the pain point of people who would like to have digital money such as bitcoin. This ATM can allow them to easily exchange Baht to Crypto currency like BTC (Bitcoin), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoincash (BCH) and more in the near future.
Unlike most machines, this ATM can allow people to not only buy crypto but also withdraw crypto. The process of withdrawal has not been real time as yet. It requires time for miners to verify transactions before people can redeem money.
Part 25
The 2nd session of the day was under the title, Economics of CryptoCurrency by Mr.Niran Pravithana, CEO of AVA Advisory. This person has experience in programming & economics and has been mining since 2012.
The Economics of Crypto
He believes that crypto will change the world.
He mentioned that there have been approximately 240 new currencies issued within the last 4 months while 2 currencies per day have gone dead. So far there are almost 2,000 digital currencies.
The disruption will change people’s behavior to rely less on middleman, e.g. when transfer money, Western Union may not be their choice anymore.
Towards the aging society around the world and the replacement of some workforce by AI, governments in some countries have encountered a state of high debt or even bankruptcy and crisis in bond markets. Social Security Agencies and corporations in other countries have started to shift their investment to assets with higher returns, e.g. stock market. His opinion is that crypto could become the safe haven, where the risk can be mitigated. Thus, he encouraged investment in bright future projects but only after thorough study in whitepapers.
Part 26
The third session of the day is under the title, How to select & take profit from ICO and survive from Scams by the Blockchain Review Panel Team
Each crypto currency, on blockchain technology, has different characters e.g. Bitcoin is like gold (store of value); Ethereum is like oil used for running application; DigiDao has dividends similar to company’s stock.
Crypto Market Size
Crypto markets are much smaller than existing established markets like stock or forex markets. Thus, more fluctuation in price in crypto market during prosperous times allows room for more speculation, for example: ICON -increased 110x (from USD 0.11 on 20 Sep 2017 to USD 12.11 on 10 Jan 2018); OmiseGo – increased 107x (from USD 0.244 on 15Jul 2016 to 26.15 on 8 Jan 2018).
Top countries in ICO
There are over 3,900 ICOs from over 400 countries. The top countries by number of ICO are #1 USA #2 UK #3 Singapore #4 Russia #5 Estonia
The top countries by number per million of people are #1 Estonia #2 Singapore #3 Cyprus #4 Switzerland #5 Slovenia
The top ICO by value of sold tokens are #1 EOS #2 Telegram Open Network #3 Tatatu
Source: https://icobench.con/stats
ICO in Blockchain Review’s Opinion
ICO is simple fund raising and has high yield. However the proportion of failure & scams are really high. They cited the number before trading as follow: 81% scam; 6%fail; 5%gone dead; only 8% move on to trade (within the trading amount: promising 18% successful 19%) They notice that the success rate is very low, similar to start ups. Thus if they can eliminate the scams, they can reduce risk by 81%.
Sample of scams can be noticed from:
1. High bonus or discount offering 50%-100% without lock up period
2. High referral fee and similar to ponzi scheme
3. Unusual (social sanction) conversation in community
4. Unusual website
Points to notice when selecting ICO
1.Hype: We may notice how popular from conversation in telegram, reaction in social media like twitter, interest in ICO whitelist (pre-order).
2.Team: We should assess the quality of people in the team. They mentioned some influencers e.g. Anthony Diiorio, Ian Balina, Mandy, Jithan Wu, Vitalik, Fenbushi Capital, John Mcafee
3.Fundamental: We can only get detail from whitepapers
In their opinion, not all projects require the application of blockchain due to its cost & speed. Only projects that require high accuracy may use blockchain.
4.Roadmap: We must be clear and have detail for judgement. Project should be updated regularly via social media.
Top ICO trend
The areas of top ICO are #1platform #2crypto #3business services #4 investment #5software
ICO is an Opportunity
In their feeling, they like ICO and view it as an opportunity of fund raising& investment worldwide. The sample well known project is the Singularity Net* -Sophia Robot. The successful ones in their opinion are Stratis and Ethereum however there are still some problems to solve.
*Note: SingularityNET is an open-source protocol and collection of smart contracts for a decentralized market of coordinated AI services.
Source: https://singularitynetagi.com/tag/sophia-humanoid-robot/
Part27
The fourth session of the day was about Diversifying your portfolio to Cryptoasset by Mr. Edward Fricker, CEO of NBK Blockchain Investment, London, UK. Mr. Edward has been mining and trading digital assets since 2011. He is a prominent member of early adopter and trader networks in cryptocurrency space while the company, NBK Asset Management, runs managed accounts for large investors, and in 2018 is launching two funds, a Market Neutral fund and Crypto Market Growth fund.
Bitcoin History
Mr. Edward talked about the history of Bitcoin e.g. in 2010-Feb 2011, Bitcoin goes from zero to equal with US$. In 2014, organized hacking attacks bring down the largest online exchanges. In 2017, Japan treats Bitcoin as legal currency and drops VAT on Bitcoin purchases. The shops in Japan like big camera also allow using Bitcoin.
Portfolio Management
In his point of view, we should not have all the same coin in one basket. Instead, we should have the diversity of investment with multiple coin flips in order to help mitigate risk. In the portfolio that he managed consists of over 40 coins including ICON, Kyber Network, Oracle POAs network and some with handsome return while others may be loss.
Crypto Hub
Closing his session with questions from the audience. An interesting question is e.g. whether he felt Thailand could be hub for Crypto. He mentioned that lots of foreigners relocate to establish their business in Thailand but most of them do the paper work elsewhere.
However, it could be game changer if the institutions like banks express more support or announce to promote the crypto friendly environment and regulators like the revenue department become more supportive in terms of tax structure.
Part 28
Dinner session was with Sparrow Exchange Project Case Study by Mr.Reuben Conceicao, Chief Strategy Officer.
Peer-to-Peer Options Platform
According to Mr.Reuben & whitepaper, Sparrow Exchange is the world’s first peer-to-peer options platform. The platform is aimed for traders to control and monetize risk.
Consider Options To Manage Risk
The current trading environment makes it extremely risky and costly to achieve consistent returns. Thus why Sparrow views that Options are the perfect solution for cryptocurrencies.
Target Customers
The target for using Sparrow Options are miners, merchants accepting crypto payments, crypto funds, ICO participants, traders who want better risk adjusted returns and speculators.
Further detail e.g. some interesting use cases can be found in whitepaper from www.sparrowexchange.com
The dinner that night was really lively, just like a cabaret show, and the audience was engaged by the special costume customized for each team putting on the show on stage. It’s another fun night at CryptoAsset Revolution’ s class.
Photo Source: ICORA
Part 29
CryptoAsset Revolution (CAR) Program #1
Last but not least, CryptoAsset Revolution Program is one the most recommended classes for people in all walks of life, not only finance related people but also all business & technical professionals in various industries as well as the regulators.
Towards the whole program, we have found many case studies that could be applied to a number of people who look for source of fund to nurture the new potential projects, without diluting the shareholding stake. It could also be an innovative tool to support corporate strategies.
As a student in CAR Class #1, we have witnessed the strong determination of the program director and chairman in their attempt to create the ecosystem where people could share ideas. We are proud to connect with this ecosystem and we anticipate this will be one of the most powerful tools of engagement for the key drivers in Thailand as people move forward together towards Thailand 4.0. Someday our country may become significant as the regional hub of technology like Blockchain, which is expected to contribute substantially to our economy.
Photo Source: ICORA
Author: Waleeporn Sayasit, Corporate Communications Director, TCC Technology
Advisor: Dr. Karndee Leopairote, CEO, ICORA
Editor: John Bickel, Senior Consultant, TCC Technology
Source: ICORA ‘s class, CryptoAsset Revolution (CAR) #1