I suspect like most Steemians, I found out about steemit through the crypto currency market so even though I will eventually start talking about anime, games, etc some of my posts will be focused on the Cryptocurrency market. I have been wanting to post on a few more posts on steemit this week but I had to work 65 hours so it didn't turn out well. So let us begin with this:
Future Thoughts on the Market
Wow, what a week on the market. China bans ICO's, the market tumbles 20 billion. During the week the market regains 10 billion only to have a false report about China banning all Crypto's, market drops over 10 billion again. While the market was spooked, Russia announced they are going to regulate the crypto market which put a cap on the bounce back that should have happened when the China report was proven false.
I actually like what is going on with the market, the market has grown too fast and its value isn't keeping with the speculation going on. In other words, if the market continued its rocket like trajectory the dreaded bubble would most likely have happened and it would have damaged the market for awhile.
I am hopeful the market will go sideways for awhile and consolidate before starting to grow upwards again. The early ICO's are just now starting to mature and produce actually working products but it won't be until the 2nd/3rd wave of ICO's mature that the market will explode. If you look at the roadmap for a lot these ICO's most of them are showing Q1 2018 the target for the first release of their product and if even half of them hit the mark then the market is going to reach stratospheric heights.
China, Russia, and the hedge funds are both going to take some time to figure out how to safely invest in the market before moving en-mass into the market. So the early movers will start trickling in late Q4 2017 but by Q1 2018 it will become a flood of money, mixing with the Q1 2018 Roadmaps will create an explosive market.
My best guess is that by February/March, the crypto market will moon as the Reddit people like to say. I think it will quadruple, reaching well over a trillion dollars in a single month. That sort of growth will not be sustainable and a bubble will form from this but when it will pop is not something I can even guess at.
ICO Talk
Enigma Catalyst - Great idea, backed by reputable companies and an all star team. Then, of course, they get hacked in the stupidest way possible Ashley Madison. It hasn't led to a slowdown of interest and now after their presale, they decided due to high interest to change the amount available for their crowd sale. They were quick to do damage control and say that they are not devaluing their token but to me, this raised yet another red flag. Changing things after the pre-sale is a very scummy move and it's not something that should be accepted or become a common practice in the cryptocurrency world.
ChainLink - https://smartcontract.com Just released their white paper after a scientific review and is now having their crowd sale on September 18th. I am very, very high on this ICO and its potential. They already have a product ready to go and they have a client so this should do really well.
ICON https://icon.foundation/en/ Dark Horse ICO. Not available for US or Singaporean residents. Presale starts September 18th and Crowd Sale begins in October. If QTUM is the Asian Ethereum and NEO the Chinese Ethereum then ICON is the Korean Ethereum. I expect it to do very, very well.
Mobius https://mobius.network November ICO and is surprisingly not being released on the ETH platform, it's actually going to use Stellar Lumens protocol. I am keeping an eye on it and I think it will do well.
Kin KIK https://kin.kik.com Hottest ICO currently. Interest and Hype will pump this up in the short term but in the long term, this token is not going to do much and will be a loser. The biggest problem with a token like this is it's a closed ecosystem, Kin tokens only benefit Kik and will not be used anywhere else. Time and time again you see something like this, Second Life, EVE Online are example's of a closed ecosystem like Kin will be.
Enjin https://enjincoin.io Gaming Token. Again, closed ecosystem and while it will be moderately more useful than Kik it still won't be a runaway success. Enjin does have a nice market in the gaming community so I expect this will do very well for the company and it will be possible to make some money, just you will have to play the games to do it.
Electroneum http://electroneum.com Gaming Coin. It is in the same vein as Enjin except there are some critical differences that may make this a sleeper success with a chance to hit it big. Biggest is they are running their own blockchain and it can be mined, it is also not a closed ecosystem so they will have the option to expand into other markets if they want to. Another big item is they are trying to lower the barrier to entering the crypto market by making it easy to with their phone app. The only major negative I have for them is the 21 billion coins on the blockchain, combined with the $0.01 ICO price isn't a great combination, very few coins are over $0.01 if they are above 1 billion market supply.
PS Electroneum developers, if you are reading this post target Asia. China and Korea are huge markets and they have a culture of pay to win with their games. Gold Farming So if you are able to tap into that market, then Electroneum will explode.
Agony Index: 180 minutes with college football game distractions included.