Getting in on crowdsales and IEOs are a very nice way of backing projects in the riskiest but potentially most financially lucrative stages of their development. Of course, you will be behind the VC firms and early seed funders... but it is pretty unlikely that you would be eligible for those sorts of rounds anyway! So, these sales are the first public offerings, with all the attendant risks!

Efinity (not to be confused with Dfinity...) is a single round public offering on CoinList towards the end of June. Now, I've mentioned before that I have a preference for CoinList for the crowdsales... on chain is difficult with finding quality, and it is a poop show with gas fees and everyone racing for the chance to jump in! Other exchanges also have IEOs, but I've found that the quality of the CoinList offerings to be the best... so far!

Anyway, the down side of the CoinList IEOs is the terrible queue system that really has been gamed to death by click farms and multi-accounts. Still, if you manage to secure a purchase spot... well, it has been decent in the past! However, just don't expect to win the queue lottery! In fact... expect not to, see it as a bonus if you manage to secure a lucky spot!

Anyway, back to Efinity crowdsale... Efinity appears to be an evolution of the Enjin ecosystem for NFTs. If you remember back to 2017, Enjin was one of the first NFT based tokens and it had some limited success. However, with the spiking of Ethereum gas prices, Enjin is now in the unenviable position of having some pretty high transaction costs in order for users to exchange relatively low cost gaming NFTs. It isn't sustainable...

So, Efinity is going to take the Enjin ecosystem over to Polkadot, where it will have access to a wider range chains and not be committed fully to Ethereum (or any other current smart contract blockchain). It's a logical move that is based on more openness than the FLOW solution... however, in some ways, I do prefer the FLOW solution as many of the completely open NFT platforms have been a bit of a joke when it comes to property rights. For instance, I'm PRETTY SURE that the Beatles, Picasso and Elvis Presley AREN'T minting and selling NFTs... but for some reason, some platforms don't seem to notice the impossibility and oddness of that... so, there is something to be said for some degree of curation and gatekeeping. Just where that balance is, is up to debate...

This is an unusual token sale... it is a single token sale with a relatively low minimum and maximum purchase price. I really wish that only pre-funded accounts could take part in these sales... as you have people just getting spots with multi-accounts and then selling their accounts OTC instead. Thankfully, this time the crowdsale time is at a very nice time for Western Europe... it is a pain in the arse to wake up in the dead of night to see if you managed to win a lucky purchase spot in the queue lottery!

An interesting list of seed and VC investors who will the eventually dumpers on you! I only really know the Crypto.com label... the other two aren't so familiar to me.

The thing that caught my eye thought was the fact that the CTO was the author of the ERC1155 standard which is the NFT standard for Ethereum. So, if nothing else, the company has a solid degree of technical chops behind them... which is always a good thing, you don't want a strong marketing arm at the expense of the substantial parts of the project!

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.