In December, when I first heard of the BRhodium airdrop on Adam Meister’s show, the “crypto-dividend” mania was in full bloom. At the time, all such schemes were in the form of Bitcoin hard forks – in which, Bitcoin holders automatically received them for simply holding their private keys at the time of the fork.
The market was red-hot throughout November and December – as once investors saw the BCash fork generate “free money” for BTC holders, more than a dozen hard forks were launched (listed below). Unfortunately, many still don’t trade…and likely, never will. In fact, many are not even splittable.
BGold was the first of the “secondary forks,” in late November – and afterwards, BDiamond, Super BTC, and others. BCash and BGold were supported by major hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger, but none of the others were…as eventually, Trezor and Ledger realized they had no fiduciary requirement to do so. Providing splitting tools; and subsequently, the means to store forked cryptocurrencies; is both expensive and dangerous – and thus, no other forks have been supported since.
Ditto for major exchanges – all of which, eventually supported BCash (some reluctantly; and some, via fraudulent launches). However, none support BGold…and none will support the crap that came thereafter. Frankly, I don’t view BCash or BGold as any “better” than BDiamond, Super BTC, or the other Bitcoin forks – as ultimately, NONE have use viable use cases. From time to time, they pump for random reasons – but ultimately, their valuations will remain microscopic relative to Bitcoin…as plain and simple, they are useless Bitcoin clones.
In BCash’s case, the only “use case” is the fraud-supported manipulation of its cult-like “leaders” Roger Ver and Jihan Wu. However, as knowledge spreads that BCash is a Ponzi scheme; with no chance of being used for anything other than rank speculation; it’s ability to maintain a premium valuation – as I speak, 11% of Bitcoin – will likely diminish. As for BGold, it’s ONLY claim to fame was the first mover advantage of being the first non-Roger Ver fork out the door – enabling Trezor and Ledger to support it…though I doubt many of those that received it via these mechanisms still own it.
As for the rest, nearly all trade for mere fractions of a Bitcoin – as six-plus months later, few are even splittable; at least, not without taking significant risks. To that end, the Bitcoin wallet expert I was working with to split esoteric forks like Super Bitcoin recently closed this business, due to low prices and the enormous amount of work required. Which, I might add, may be re-opened if we have another altcoin mania – in which, the valuations of Bitcoin forks are high enough to justify the costs and risks of splitting them.
During the altcoin mania of November and December, the most valuable crypto-dividend was, BY FAR, BCash. However, the most intriguing was the “airdrop” from a little-known, third-tier altcoin called Bitcore. Unlike the Bitcoin forks, BTC holders did not receive a new coin – but Bitcore, which was already trading. The reason being that Bitcore’s developers were hoping to get publicity, by giving out free Bitcore to Bitcoin holders. For a time it worked – as during the mania phase, Bitcore’s price surged. However, it ultimately plunged back to nearly zero – given that, like Bitcoin forks, Bitcore has no use case.
However, for those that participated – in my case, after hearing of it on Adam Meister’s show (Adam coined the term “crypto-dividends”) – the price was high enough that the free Bitcore received could be converted to a material amount of free Bitcoin. However, to do so, one needed to proactively register their public BTC addresses with devices – like Trezor and Ledger – that enabled you to “sign” messages Bitcore’s developers provided. Thus, you not only had to have HEARD OF this obscure giveaway, but ACTIVELY PARTICIPATED; and the first time around, this was not particularly easy to do. As, like riding a bike, learning can be hard to do – especially, when no one else has done it before.
When BRhodium came around in December, so much time was put into claiming it, it took some time to truly understand what they were doing. My experience with Bitcore made the process easier…but I, like many others, made mistakes – some my fault; some, the BRhodium developers; and some, unforeseen circumstances like the Trezor (and other Bitcoin wallets’) “change address” issue, which I learned of after the fact. That said, the “BRod” developers bent over backwards to help as many people claim BTR as possible – and finally, after a four month process, 577,000 of the allocated 840,000 BTR was claimed…in online BTR wallets, that can be sold as soon as the coin publicly launches.
Aside from the fact that BRhodium is the FIRST altcoin to be launched via airdrop to Bitcoin holders – thus, precluding the requirement to “split” it from Bitcoin wallets; it is the first BTC crypto-dividend to NOT be a hard fork. To the contrary, the reason it has taken so long to create is because it was built from scratch – utilizing Bitcoin’s best features, but in a decidedly new blockchain. Moreover, the Europe-based, English-speaking developers are extremely helpful and hands-on with investors – constantly responding to inquiries on its Discord chat room.
https://discordapp.com/invite/ThVy5UB
In fact, several members of the BTR community have been recruited to help – all of them, like the developers, ANONYMOUSLY. Thus, while the coin is “centralized” per se, the blockchain is decidedly not; as it was built by anonymous developers, and will be mined by anonymous individuals. In my view, this unique combination of characteristics – which I believe will be EXTREMELY difficult to replicate, if at all (certainly not without being considered a bad clone); may well establish BRhodium as a premium altcoin…and the airdrop, the preferred altcoin distribution method of the future.
Then there’s that “use case” thing – which BRhodium has, IN SPADES. As aside from premium features like privacy, it’s SCARCITY is something that cannot be subsumed by Bitcoin. Just 725,000 BTR or so will trade upon launch - with a lifetime cap of 2.1 million that will take, in the best case scenario, 100 years to be mined. Plus, since 263,000 of the 844,000 allocated to the airdrop were unclaimed, it’s possible the remainder will ultimately be “burned,” reducing overall supply by 13%. This is why I believe BTR will in time trade well above all other crypto-dividends – and in a best-case scenario, challenge BCash itself…which unlike BRhodium, does NOT have a viable use case. To that end, BTR’s “ultra-scarcity” could become so desired in a raging crypto bull market, it could ultimately be viewed as the “Berkshire Hathaway of altcoins.” FYI, BRK-A shares trade for $283,000 each.
https://cryptogoldcentral.com/2018/04/09/brhodium-the-berkshire-hathaway-of-altcoins/
In my first two stabs at valuing BRhodium – the first in January; and the second in April; I used Bitcoin forks as comparables, in terms of what market capitalization BTR might trade at. Remember, the “percent of BTC” method is less meaningful for BTR, given that its “share count” is less than one-tenth of Bitcoin’s; as opposed to BTC forks…all of which, except BDiamond (which has ten times BTC’s supply), have roughly the same “shares outstanding.”
https://cryptogoldcentral.com/2018/01/09/what-will-brhodium-trade-at/
https://cryptogoldcentral.com/2018/04/23/what-will-brhodium-trade-at-part-2/
These metrics are still what I am using today – except now, it’s become increasingly obvious that BRhodium is a FAR superior project. Not to mention, the 13% reduction in supply due to the dearth of BTR claims. Thus, my valuation expectations continue to rise – particularly when I see PUMPS return to the sector, like Super BTC last month and BDiamond this weekend (both of which have since subsided). Either way, the “speculative juices” are returning to crypto - and if BRhodium’s launch coincides with a new phase of altcoin speculation, its initial valuation could shock even the most prominent BTR bulls.
https://cryptogoldcentral.com/2018/07/08/the-speculative-juices-are-returning-to-crypto/
Yes, BTR could initially decline sharply, as those who have been waiting for it to trade to sell might do so. Then again, as we saw with BGold, there will likely be major, long-term oriented buyers waiting for this rare opportunity to accumulate. That said, the health of the Bitcoin and altcoin markets, in general, will by far be the biggest determinants of BTR’s valuation.
As I write, BRhodium’s testnet is in its third week of operations – which you can view below. According to the ANONYMOUS developers, it has been a great success thus far. Thus, I’d be very surprised if the coin doesn’t launch by Labor Day…perhaps, significantly sooner.
http://pool.bitcoinrh.org:8080/
So, to answer the question of “where will BRhodium trade at?” – my answer is, that very likely, it will be significantly more than most people expect, particularly if the crypto market is strong at the time. In a best-case scenario, it could INITIALLY be a top 20 cryptocurrency on coinmarketcap.com…a level that ULTIMATELY I expect it to achieve, even if it doesn’t do so upon launch.