I remember the fanfare, the brave words and the fiasco. Yes, you heard me: fiasco. One year after its official launch, there has been much talk and little action. I am really sorry to see that the 965 currently in existence is less than a tenth, if not a hundredth of what I hoped for. To put everything into perspective, the HERO was the first smart coin that ever interested me. Totally new to bitshares, margin trading and the mysterious price feed, it was where I learned how it works. So it was a learning curve.
Besides the learning curve is my fascination for markets, strategy and marketing. I have been involved in all of it. For almost 25 years.
The HEROs giant problem
Is that it is nothing else than a dollar. With a added 5% appreciation curve. That's it, folks! Time to go home!
In the sphere of crypto, 5% is laughable. Everyone knows that. So is it in vein?
Hmmm... no. The HERO is basically a pension fund. Not so sexy, but wait a minute... A market for 41.355 billions* worth of pension funds, that's more like it. Isn't it? I would think so.
Selling a pension fund to crypto-kids is of course missing the mark. Unless they are seasoned traders and calculate for downturns like we have seen a lot of. Then it's very good. But the 5% does not matter when it is a short term hold (assuming cryptomarkets will outperform in the long run). Then BitUSD is more convenient.
So to sum it up: the HERO has two problems: missing the target audience and being inconvenient for the actual users.
The first one solves itself as we get older (it might take a while in my case 😝).
The second is much easier.
the HERO is regulated to strictly!
But, but, that can't be true?? It's on the most open market I know of!!?
WRONG!
Limiting the market to only BitUSD and BTS hampers liquidity, arbitrage possibilities and reach! Everyone with more than half a brain sees this. Still restricted and misses the opportunity to reach Chinese traders (who I think would like it), and the important crypto-savvy crowd who live and breathes satoshis. Not to mention us Europeans. Which makes me think of bitEUR that needs some more Oooompph too. More on that another time.
Permissions and flags
This is an area where I think the committee has to do a major overhaul on all the smart coins, not just bitHERO. I'll admit that the implications of all these parameters is way beyond my knowledge, but I understand the few voices that curse them and claim these are not trustless assets.
First and foremost, the whitelisting is absurd. Why? It makes no sense to me. And I know a few others that don't like it. Anarchy capitalists at least like to say they oppose it.
Then the permissions:
- Override authority
- Transfer restricted
- Disable confidential
Rubbish! You don't win among the hardcore crypto fans with those limitations. And that is admittedly the target group with immediate potential to gain some market share.
And isn't this how the bitcoin Latina scam was done? Yes it was. The override authority was the way to steal. Not that I think the committee will do that, but the most neurotic among us needs the beauty sleep. If the permissions are the culprit, then it's not worth it.
Happy anniversary, bitHERO
I taught about the sharpest knives in my toolbox thanks to you. Stability can be very profitable when the Chinese rumor mill sends coin market cap downhill. That is when smart coins shines! I have sold you and bought you with a fine profit. But I think it's time to rethink positioning to where it should have been. And if the committee listens, there is this possibility for a slice of that 41.000 billions * market cap.