As individuals and industries have now started understanding the potential of the blockchain technology, the blockchain projects too are getting highly innovative with their approach. Most of the top cryptocurrencies in the market are popular for their most important advantage or functionality. For instance, Bitcoin is popular for its reliable blockchain, Ethereum is leading for its smart contracts platform, and Monero is preferred for its privacy.
But rather than offering a single advantage or functionality, latest blockchain projects are trying to be multifunctional. An excellent example of this approach is the Omise project. While the project was launched in 2013 in Thailand, Bangkok, and other Asian countries as a fintech, the team launched OmiseGo (OMG), their native cryptocurrency in 2017. It is now a smart contract platform, exchange platform, and also an e-wallet apart from being an ERC-20 token.
The cryptocurrency has received a lot of attention since its launch due to the involvement of Vitalik Buterin, the famous co-founder of Ethereum. Vitalik also went to the extent of saying that OmiseGO is his favorite crypto token as he believes that the token is much more than a method to exchange currencies and has a solid future. Read this The Independent Republican post to know what Vitalik things about OmiseGo.
With one of the most popular names from the crypto industry claiming OmiseGO to have a great future, can it be a great investment? Go through this OmiseGo guide for beginners to decide.
History of OmiseGo
To understand OmiseGO, you first need to know a little about Omise and its history. There is a lot of confusion among investors and even several internet forums who believe Omise and OmiseGO (OMG) to be the same project. However, they are two different companies and products. While Omise is the major supporter of OmiseGO cryptocurrency, both the projects are not same.
Omise was founded as a fintech in Thailand in 2013. Offline and online retailers can integrate with Omise for mobile payments like PayPal. However, the company only focused on Asian countries like Thailand, Japan, Singapore, and Bangkok.
Omise is integrated with a number of top e-commerce platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, and OpenCart. It is also PCI compliant and is legally allowed to handle credit card-based transactions. Many of the largest of merchants like McDelivery Thailand, AliPay, Allianz, Bose, and Burger King in the Asia-Pacific region now accept Omise.
However, while these companies are integrated with the Omise platform, they don’t accept OMG tokens as a form of payment. Investors should know that OmiseGO is only a subsidiary of the Omise project. But as Omise platform is integrated with OMG tokens, the OMG tokens too have received a lot of mainstream attention.
What is OmiseGo (OMG) Then?
As per OMG’s website, OmiseGo enables financial inclusion and interoperability with the help of its public, decentralized OMG network. In other words, it is a crypto token with a P2P payment model just like Ethereum and Bitcoin.
It was around 2015-16 that the Omise team started developing an interest in cryptocurrencies. The approached the popular Ethereum Foundation to help them create a cryptocurrency for their company. Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood, two of the most popular names associated with Ethereum, personally helped Omise develop OmiseGO.
An OmiseGO ICO was released in June 2017 which raised more than $25 million. Apart from the crowdsale, a number of VCs like SBI Invest, Ascend Capital, SMDV, SMBC, East Ventures, and Golden Gate Ventures have also invested millions of dollars in the project. It is interesting to know that the ICO price for 1 OMG token was only $0.27. But once it was listed on exchanges, the price of 1 OMG was around $7, making it one of the most successful ICOs of 2017.
How Can OMG Be Used?
While there are now several crypto projects that want to disrupt the global banking industry, Omise and OMG are leading from the front. The main goal of launching OMG tokens is to bank the unbanked. As per a database of World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion, more than 2 billion people all over the world are unbanked currently. OMG tokens want to provide banking services to these unbanked masses.
They have a solid business model, potential market, excellent transaction speed, integration with Omise and a host of other existing products and strategic partnerships, making it an excellent cryptocurrency for investment.
OmiseGO PoS
The decentralized network of OMG runs PoS (Proof-of-Staking) algorithm. This means that OMG users can stake their coins for securing the network. In return, they receive some part of the transaction fee as reward. But as the network is still being developed, exact details of the amount of OMG you’ll need for staking and the reward is currently unknown. You can keep an eye on OmiseGO’s roadmap to know more about the recent developments.
OmiseGO Team
While Omise was a major supporter of OmiseGO, the cryptocurrency was actually founded by a team of computer professionals aiming to bring some uniqueness to the crypto industry. Their aim was to help people enjoy world-class banking services at highly affordable fees. Security and integration with existing products was also a major concern while creating OMG.
As per OMG’s website, Jun Hasegawa is the Founder and current CEO of OMG. Donnie Harinsut (Co-Founder/COO), Luke Cheng (CFO), Robin Clart (CTO), and Vansa Chatikavanij (Managing Director) are some other important members of the team. Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood, Co-Founders of Ethereum, are listed as Advisors along with many other popular names from the crypto industry.
Price Fluctuations and Future of OMG
As per the data from CoinMarketCap, the cost of 1 OMG is currently $6.87 with a 24-hour volume of $29,134,100 and a circulating supply of 140,245,398 OMG. It has a market cap of $964,170,283, making it the 19th largest cryptocurrency.
As mentioned above, the cost of 1 OMG during the ICO was $0.27 but it reached a high of $24.5 in January 2018. This is a clear confirmation of the hype that the currency has generated since its ICO. Apart from the close ties with Omise, OmiseGO already has several successful partnerships like MakerDAO and ShinhanCard. If reports are to be believed, the team is also in talks with the Thailand Central Bank for integrating their technology.
Moreover, in 2018, OMG will also be the first cryptocurrency to implement Plasma, a scaling solution for Ethereum which has been co-developed by Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Poon, Co-Founder of Lightning Network. With the implementation of Plasma, OMG would probably never have to worry about the number of transactions on their network.
As the crypto market has been bleeding since the beginning of February this year, OMG too has suffered but has still managed to mostly stay above $8. As an investor, it is important to know that the OMG project is fairly new and still in a development phase. But if recent developments and integration is a sign, the future definitely looks bright and rewarding. And with someone like Vitalik Buterin appreciating the coin, it sure does hold a lot of potential.
Should You Invest in OMG?
Now to the main question- should you invest your money in OMG? Well, there is no denying the fact that OMG is a great project with a large potential market. Experts from Ethereum Foundation have helped develop the cryptocurrency and it is also one of the most technically sound projects.
Several big companies and personalities from the crypto world are involved in the project, making it highly reliable for investment. If you are planning to invest in OMG, avoid investing all of your money at once. For instance, if you want to invest $500 in OMG, it’d be better to only invest half of it and see if the crypto market falls further.
If it does, the remaining $250 can be invested when the markets start to recover from its lows. And if the market starts rising after your initial investment, you can then look for a good entry point for the remaining purchase.
Where Can You Buy OMG?
OMG has been one of the most popular cryptocurrencies of 2017 and is now available on many of the popular exchanges. If you want to buy OMG, you can buy them from-
Huobi
Bithumb
Binance
DigiFinex
OKEx
Ethfinex
B2BX
HitBTC
Bittrex
After purchasing, it’d be better if you move your OMG tokens from the exchange to an OMG wallet. Official OMG wallet is expected to be released this year and until then you can use a desktop wallet like Exodus, online wallet like MyEtherWallet and mobile wallet like Eidoo for storing your OMG.
Conclusion
OMG looks like a revolutionary blockchain project with many different real-world applications. With a large parent company like Omise and several renowned personalities behind the project, it seems to have a brighter future than many of the new crypto projects.
But as crypto markets are known for their wild volatility, make sure that you only invest what you can afford to lose. And if you want to buy it at the current price, ensure that you divide your investment into two parts just in case if the crypto market falls further and takes OMG with it.