A primary use case for digital currencies (bitcoin, ethereum, etc) is as a store of value: purchasing a crypto currency with the expectation that it will increase in value, to be later sold for a profit. There has been an explosion of this use case in the last year with a massive influx of fiat currency being converted into crypto for the speculative purpose of investment. While other use cases for cryptocurrency have exciting potential, the “store of value” use case has traction right now. Demand for services around this use case exist today and are increasing.
As the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies continues to grow, the desire to purchase cryptocurrency as an investment asset is only strengthening. More and more people want to “get in the game” of cryptocurrency. This growing audience represents one of the next large frontiers of new users entering the crypto space. They can be characterized as internet savvy, comfortable with buying and selling stocks online and very familiar with the concept of a financial portfolio. In the United States, they are users of websites like Fidelity, E*Trade, Ameritrade, Yahoo Finance and The Motley Fool; in other countries, they are users of corollary websites in the financial services sector. These users have heard of cryptocurrency--and its potential profitability as an investment—and they want to place a portion of their investment portfolio into cryptocurrency.
This audience of users will expect easy-to-use and robust tools for managing their cryptocurrency portfolio, similar to the online tools they use to manage their 401k or their stocks. They will want to check their portfolio on a regular basis to see its performance. They will want to analyze their portfolio and diversify their investments to optimize for possible gains. They will expect to have a sense of the risk associated with their investments as well as the potential reward.
Desire for such tools exists today and there are already some available in the marketplace. A good review and summary of the space can be found in this article https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@pedrombraz/the-best-way-to-track-your-crypto-portfolio “The best way to track your crypto-portfolio” on steemit. Quoting the opening paragraphs is illuminating:
“So you bought a gazzilion alt coins and got yourself into a million ICO's and now you're not even sure how much money you have, right ?
Well, me too. At some point I knew I was gonna need to centralize all my coins in one place, the problem was finding prices for all those tickers. Also, when the money on crypto started getting real (at least for my standards) I definitely had to treat it as an investment and keep track of its performance.
Ergo, I needed software. “
The need for such software is clearly there. Providing this set of users with tools to enable these scenarios in cryptocurrency is an enormous opportunity.
The Challenges
There are two main challenges with responding to this opportunity.
The first challenge is around security. Providing services in the cryptocurrency space has unique challenges compared to traditional investment instruments. While one can trust a third party to hold assets like stocks and bonds, the cryptocurrency space is all about individual accountability for those assets. To date, there has been a predominance of centralized services to cater to the needs of buying/selling/holding cryptocurrency. But this trend has a dark side, with frequent hacks into these honey pots of private keys, as well as phishing attacks and other security breaches.
To meet this challenge, tools are needed that adhere to the core tenet of decentralization at the heart of the cryptocurrency. There has been innovation in this space as far as tools that are “server-less” and meet this need (Blockchain.info, My Ether Wallet, Metamask, hardware wallets like Trezor or Ledger Wallet all come to mind). Their use of client side technologies that interact with blockchains should be seen as models for how to write software for a decentralized world.
The second challenge dovetails from the first: if users embrace non-server based storage of their cryptocurrency, they don’t want to constantly expose those wallets to the internet to discover the value of their portfolio. Savvy users invested in cryptocurrency have their assets spread across different wallets – hot wallets, hardware wallets, cold wallets, multisig wallets, etc. And, savvy users are diversified in their crypto holdings – not just Bitcoin and Ethereum but alt coins and ICO tokens as well. Keeping track of one’s crypto portfolio can become a nightmare. A good crypto portfolio needs to help users import and manage their cryptocurrency. In some cases, tools are need to figure out in fact how much crypto a user even has.
To date, no crypto portfolio has surmounted these challenges...until now.
EFOLIO
EFOLIO addresses these challenges listed above. EFOLIO (https://www.efolio.info) is an online tool for creating, managing, discovering and analyzing cryptocurrency assets. Its goal is to provide free, simple, secure, anonymous tools for users to interact with their crypto portfolio. Through use of 3rd party APIs provided by wallets, exchanges and other crypto services, it provides a wide range of services to its users – all while allowing its users to remain anonymous.
A key tenet of EFOLIO is that it requires no form of authentication or authorization. Users’ identities and data remain entirely anonymous. Rather than the traditional model of saving data on a server and requiring users to log in, EFOLIO runs entirely client side, regardless of the device (pc, tablet, phone, etc). This architecture is a key differentiator of EFOLIO as compared to other competing portfolio services. At once, this architecture addresses the security concerns listed above as well as shields EFOLIO from liability involved in knowledge of users’ private keys. It also gives confidence to users that their data is not being data mined or sold. Users can able to back up their portfolios however they choose, to whatever device or provider they want.
Another key feature of EFOLIO is integration with exchanges, wallets and blockchains themselves to facilitate the importing of cryptocurrency assets. Already, EFOLIO has Ledger Wallet integration, such that users can interact with their Ledger wallet directly from the EFOLIO application. Additionally, EFOLIO supports querying the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains with public addresses for discovery of balances, including over 50 ICO token balances. These kind of integrations as well as future integrations minimize the amount of data entry required by the end user.
Another differentiator of EFOLIO is its incorporation of an ERC20 compliant custom token as part of its platform. The basic idea is that users earn POINT tokens by using the platform, bringing gamification and rewards to EFOLIO. (See http://www.pointtoken.io for more on the POINT Token system).
Lastly, while EFOLIO does not (yet) directly provide wallet services or exchange services, it is a gateway into these services, offering tutorials and guidance to get this class of user onboarded to crypto. It facilitates a smooth entry for new users into the exciting and lucrative world of cryptocurrency.
Current Status
EFOLIO has already launched at http://www.efolio.info and has a user base. It has the following features:
- Creating a portfolio by manually entering trades
- Querying exchange APIs to get current prices and calculating a portfolios net profit/loss
- Support for multiple fiat currencies (USD, EUR, etc.) to assess value of a portfolio
- Rendering charts that show portfolio asset allocation
- Exporting a portfolio and importing it into another device
- Integration with Shapeshift APIs to convert cryptocurrencies
- Import portfolio positions by querying the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains
- Integration with Ledger Wallet hardware APIs to send and receive currency
Road Map
Here are the list of features planned to be implemented immediately:
- UI and UX improvements
- Additional integrations with wallet and exchange APIs
- Backup of portfolios through cloud providers and/or Web3 providers like IPFS or storj
- Multiple portfolios
- Mobile app
What Next?
We are very interested in collaborating and partnering with other providers and players in the crypto-space. If you are interested in working with us, please contact us at admin@efolio.info or 