In the following article I am presenting my smaller reviews of $MAN and $CXO — they were too short to feature them in a solo post. Since the write-up was done already some time ago, be aware not all points might be as valid as they were during the time of creating those reviews. As always please DYOR on the projects before reading to fully understand the points I will be making. Enjoy!
Matrix AI
Matrix AI — https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/matrix-ai-network/
Very quick description first — it’s basically a new generation of blockchain, which allows you to create smart contracts in your own language (simple English instead of necessary programming skills), is freaking fast (supposedly 1M TPS) and has a AI-enchanted security measures. And it’s fork-free. A lot of goodies here, maybe even too many — let’s get deeper into this.
Pros:
• The tech itself, if working, would currently be the best blockchain platform on a market by a long shot (cause of the reasons mentioned above, not going to go into details (that would take 3 paragraphs), it’s simply crushing current competition).
• The founding team members behind the project have the credentials to deliver (specialized in machine learning, huge experience in both software and hardware design, good diversification of roles)
• Company already received a lot of backing from venture capitals (Torque, F&H are very nice hits), they got the resources to meet their roadmap goals. Partnerships with Hyperledger and supposedly One Belt One Road also do not hurt.
• Not under the radar anymore, but limited greatly to IDEX, with more exchanges incoming in March. Gets the traction that still has room to affect to price even more.
• This is one of those Chinese projects that is not retarded socially and can actually communicate with community and give updates. It’s a big plus if they want to keep up the hype during the long process of development.
Meh:
• Currently there is 250M total supply and 150M circulating because MAN doesn’t have its own chain yet. Before March 2019 there will be an additional sale of 200M and 400M created for miners rewards — it shouldn’t have a huge effect on the price but that’s hard to tell right now. The supply will increase to 1B and the swap will be made on 1:1 basis.
Cons:
• The development plan is ridiculously long — part of the net will be up in September but the main system doesn’t start till spring 2019 — with a lot of projects coming in daily and already developing DApps and real-world partnerships a lot can change during that period. The valuation of Matrix will be held down until it can show real results. I would expect a ride in upcoming weeks with new exchanges etc but the mid-term hold points out at consolidation. The competition doesn’t sleep.
• As great as everything sounds — the proposed tech remains pure speculation as no project was able to reach 1M TPS yet (on-chain!) and we are yet to see any really successful AI-implemented idea in crypto. As of right now — it’s a word salad to me. The technical paper has some substance to it but that’s still not enough to justify any higher marketcap until they prove they can really deliver on, in my opinion, overblown promises.
Verdict: I am accumulating a bit of $MAN right now but I am not falling on love with this bag. My plan would be probably to ride out the recent news wave and then reevaluate on further holding depending on their midway development. Not every project can be like $ADA and fly with only WP to show. I want them to prove me, and basically whole crypto, wrong by showing they are able to deliver the kind of innovation that they propose.
CargoX
AChain $ACT — https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/achain/
I will be honest — it was hard for me to find any drastic flaws outside of the industry itself, I really feel that this project could make some noise. I am not overly bullish on the current team and their chances to suddenly disrupt whole logistics market but the pieces that are here right now should allow them to slowly achieve their goals, step by step. Let’s get into it:
Pros:
• They are targeting a very cool niche of B/L issuance. They are not trying to solve world’s hunger here but the problem really exists and is worth targeting due to huge market. They are dealing with a legit (B2B) issue which is kind of rare among recent ICOs which offer more of a luxury solution for not so urgent problems. There are substitutes to CXO’s proposition but blockchain just makes more sense (security, speed, lower cost).
• They have a good business understanding — they know how they can differ from their competition (crypto and non-crypto), they understand the need to make the platform as easy to use as possible for their customers (no need for blockchain experience), and they have a gradual approach to the market (don’t do everything at once, success at their first target (sea freight) and then expand). They are also not rushing anything or going for cheap ways of increasing token value if they do not need to (no burning, buyback etc). Token utility is good enough to keep the rational approach here.
• The team is not greedy. They only raised 7M in the ICO as that’s how much they need to develop the platform according to their calculations. Show me any other example of ICO like this while trading platforms are raising 30M for not even having MVP in place.
• They already have test customers and first shipment is set to depart this Q. Not a working product yet tho.
• It’s a spin-off and partner to already existing 45HC company (also created by the owner and few other members of CXO). That’s certainly not a huge deal as they have roughly 200 customers, but they have business connections in place so that’s at least some foundation that they can continue working on.
• The team is fine, not perfect — some of them are still involved with different projects and their experience, although sufficient, doesn’t impress as much as some other top-level ICO teams out there. But since they are taking gradual approach — they have enough skills, experience, market understanding and diversity (developers, marketing, business development — everything in place) among them that I don’t see why they wouldn’t deliver the product and expand going forward.
• This is still under the radar. Below 15M marketcap, low price (10 cents) with circulating supply of 130M. They are also really active — having constant business meetings, appearing in media, hiring new people, giving regular updates. Their actions will not go unnoticed for long especially with more partnerships rumored.
Meh:
• There is already a lot of competition on the market with $ven, $ship incoming and bunch of others. I wouldn’t call them a threat at this stage as their offer is a lot wider than what $cxo is planning to do currently but going forward the saturation of the market might pose a problem to further expansion, depending which way CXO decides to go.
• WP could be more technical to show their approach to the tech side of the project but since MVP is just around the corner I don’t feel it’s that serious of a concern.
Cons:
• Basically, as the whole concept is fairly simple, the main success depends on them getting some real partnerships in place, which has not exactly happened yet (outside of that one big test partner and MakerDAO). It could take some time before marketing kick-off and they admit themselves there are no funds in place for that (straight from their WP SWOT analysis)
• It’s the same issue as with any other more serious project — is the industry ready to adopt blockchain? Logistics are indeed a pretty tough industry to implement big innovations so that could pose a big problem to overcome.
• Their previous main project 45HC doesn’t really spark strong confidence especially with those high barriers of entry although I will be fair and say it started as a small startup (still is) so there shouldn’t be huge expectations from it.
Verdict: I’ve already accumulation a nice amount of it and I continue to do as as the price continues to find its ground.
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