I want to like the RDN token. I think the Raiden network is probably going to be great, but I'm just not sure it's a great investment opportunity to buy the token.
Yes there is a lot of initial hype right now, but when I look at the RDN token it tells me that the token will be used to pay fees on the Raiden network if users aren't running a full node (if they are running a full node, fees are mostly free, however). 95% of users are projected to not run full nodes. That sounds great.
Except... Raiden network promises transaction fees of a fraction of fraction of a penny. That means that sure, there will be a lot of fees because Raiden enables micropayments and speed, but those fees will be tiny. I'm not sure there is enough money to really go around in order to pump up the price of RDN to a very high level: after all in projects like this the value of the token often depends on the projected future value proposition with regards to earnings. And those earnings are, by design of Raiden, as small as possible in order to achieve success. If the fees are, for example, 1000x less than ETH fees (which are already small) then theoretically there ought to be atleast 1000x more transactions to make up for that loss. Will there be? Maybe.
Then of course there is also the dividided community support for Raiden: lot of people do not like the fact it even has it's own token and had it's own ICO and say that this is completely unnecessary.
It's sown enough doubt in my mind that I am not fully convinced to buy in, and when I'm not fully convinced I tend to stay away. I'd love to be convinced though so if you have counter arguments I'd love to hear them!
RE: Poloniex listing Raiden Network imminent? You might be missing the biggest opportunity of your life in crypto!