When Kitties Jamm the Ethereum Network

Today Mr. Positive Blue and Mr. Negative Red meet Mrs. Inquisitive Brown to talk about Blockchain Performance. Mr Neutral Black has taken a look at the scene and Mr Technological Green is around just in case. Mr Market Purple has joined today for a beer.
- Today I was sending some ether to the Game Flip token sale and it seemed that I just could not get the transaction through.
- Oh, yes, there is a known issue these days, the network has so many transactions that you would need a huge gas price.
- What's that?
- You pay a fee for the transaction to be mined on the Ethereum network. If you set that price too low, it will take a while for any miner to be interested in processing it.
- You can see the recommended prices here at gas station.
- I see. So, why is the network congested?
- Well, typically very large ICOs or lots of trading in particular moments. But on this occasion there is kind of a funny side effect of a DAPP called Crypto Kitties (https://www.cryptokitties.co/)
- I know that one, prices for kitties are mooning now.
- How do you know?
- Oh, see, you can see the major burners here and the first one is that DAPP / game.
- But, is the Ethereum network really that vulnerable?
- Yes and no. We spoke the other day about companies that try to use it as a payment network for regular purchases and how that is still not possible. However there are projects like the Plasma Protocol and the Raiden Network that are already providing solutions.
- That's good, I would not like to be in a market where a cat can ruin an operation.

Why SETHER is not getting my ETHER - Oracles and Vaporware

(to all purposes, this is fiction)
Today Mr. Positive Blue and Mr. Negative Red meet Mrs. Inquisitive Brown to talk about mainstream payments. Mr Neutral Black has made a through reading of the document and Mr Technological Green is around just in case. Mr Market Purple has joined today for a beer.
- I read the SETHER White Paper, and I have quite a few questions now.
- This project comes from a company that works in social networks analytics and plans to develop an Social Networks Oracle.
- They seem to have a good team, good programmers.
- The product is much needed.
- But, what is an Oracle?
- Do you know about Smart Contracts? Remember, those are programs that are coded into the blockchain and can be called and executed in trust-less manner?
- Yes, we spoke about them a while ago in the Quantstamp entry.
- Ok, these contracts are very good at dealing with information that is already on the blockchain, but they need to interface with other "real world data".
- For example?
- If you want to make a blockchain payment for an add in Facebook, the smart contract that does the payment needs to know that the add has been published.
- Oh, OK, and that would work also with other stuff?
- Indeed, sports results, exchanges quotations, ... anything.
- SETHER is developing an API so that smart contracts can use it as an Oracle for events that happen in Social Networks.
- It has huge potential. Is a much needed tool with hundreds of use cases.
- The technical base seems also quite good.
-So, should I invest?
- I would not.
- But, why? It sounds terrific!
- These people are great programmers, but their business proposition to the investor is awful. Firstly, there is a huge hardcap. If it is reached it would mean valuating the tokens (not even the company) (they sell 50% for a hardcap of 165,000 ether, currently all tokens would be 132M USD in value).  Second, there is no softcap. They claim that the project will go on no matter what the contribution is.
- What are the consequences of this?
- As investor, I do not know how much am I paying for what percent of the tokens. That is, if I put 1 eth, what percent of property (of tokens) do I have. It is blind investment. Also, not having a hard cap an claiming that they would do the project anyway means that they do not need my investment, so they are just using a good opportunity to get additional funds to try to do a faster development.
- That approach to software engineering is not adequate for innovation. The rationale behind this is "let's get as much money as possible so we can hire a workforce as large as possible to finish this".
- So... is that possible?
- No. It does not work like that. Growth has to be managed or the chaos will eat up the funds with meagre results.
- Are there any other red flags on this project?
- Well, not really a red flag, but there is going to be a huge competence and this guys do not seem to have a good market strategy nor a pre-existing customer base.
- So... they won't succeed?
- They may succeed, but the risk does not match the reward. Particularly with that ridiculously high valuation of a software that does not exist.
- If the software does not even have a prototype (they only have a proposed API definition), the team is good but not world class, there are not pre-existing clients, no strategic partners... I have to agree, the valuation is not correct. I am out. 

Quantstamp - Blockchain services and the value of Partners in ICOs

(this, to all effects, is fiction, not advice).
Today Mr. Positive Blue and Mr. Negative Red meet Mrs. Inquisitive Brown to analyse the Quantstamp ICO. Mr Neutral Black has made a through reading of the document and Mr Technological Green is around just in case.
- A while ago, we discussed the value of utility tokens and I have seen a recent pre-sale of an utility backed token: Quantstamp. Is this a worthy opportunity?
- In terms of technology, there is a clear need for auditing the smart contracts.
- What is "a smart contract"?
- It is a software program that is held and executed in the blockchain. It is transparent and trustless in its execution.
- Why do they need auditing?
- In the blockchain "the code is law", if you setup a Smart Contract and behaves in an unexpected way or has weaknesses the results can be catastrophic. The most well know examples are the "DAO fork" of Ethereum and, recently, the Parity Wallet multisig bugs.
- So, these bugs can potentially cause millions in loses?
- They can and they do. Even Buterin, the father or Ethereum, has mentioned that it is critical to the ecosystem to have simpler and safer smart contracts.
- So, if I audit an Smart contract it will be error free?
- No! There may still be bugs!
- I see... so it is just trying your best not to have them.
- Correct, and that leads us to Quanstamp. This company offers and automated testing service for smart contracts. 
- But a robot cannot catch bugs, that is for humans!
- Oh, no... there are many software testing techniques and some of them are in fact highly automated. They need to be, as sometimes there are million of combinations to try.
- And also, an automated test can incorporate progressive developments to implement "best practices".
- Best Practices?
- Yep, it is just making sure that you learn from mistakes and do things in the best possible way. It is a bit more complex than that, but just think of it as avoiding mistakes that others made.
- So the company analyses bugs and develops automated tests to catch them.
- That is right.
- And is this project solid?
- It could be just vapourware, and frankly, I do not have the time to go into the code.
- That question leads me to discuss the importance of institutional backup and solid partners. Quantstamp very credible team and just got accepted into the Y Combinator. Also has the backup of at least 6 companies in the sector.
- What is Y Combinator?
- It is an start-up accelerator, one of the bests in the world.
- But that does not mean that is going to succeed. Many companies that were on Y Combinator failed.
- Oh, for sure, but they stand a much higher chance of success, but that is not my point today.
- Then, why is it important to have all that backup?
- Because it is very unlikely to be an scam. Large institutional partners take the time to do the due diligence, so the trust level is much higher.
- So... this token is going to the moon?
- That, I don't know, but its got a rocket and fuel.

The value of Utility Tokens - CryptoTickets

(this, to all effects, is fiction, not advice).
Today Mr. Positive Blue and Mr. Negative Red meet Mrs. Inquisitive Brown to analyse the value of "utility tokens". Mr Neutral Black has made a through reading of the document and Mr Technological Green is around just in case.
- I have seen many ICOs that sell tokens that will eventually be used to provide a service or buy goods.
- That is right. CryptoTickets, Genesis Vision, WaBi,... and many other.
- My question is, the sales argument for an investor in the ICO is that since those tokens will be used to pay for services if the services are extended and demand grows the value of the token increases. Is that true?
- Well, that is a market law, if you have a limited supply of something and more people want it, you can ask for a higher price.
- Well, I do not agree.
- Why? That is kind of common sense!
- The amount of tokens is fixed, but each one of them can be used many times. The offer of tokens is de-facto infinite because they are not consumed but recirculated. For example, an event organiser or an artist that is paid in tokens will immediately change it for fiat, to pay in the "real world".
- So the only chance for an increase in value is if they decide to hold the tokens?
- I would say that is just speculation.
- Put in even simple terms please.
- Shakira agrees to get paid in tokens 
- That would be difficult to believe.
- Just, accept it for the moment. Shakira sells 1 ticket for 10 TKT tokens. Immediatly goes to the market and gets, let´s say 50 USD to pay the crew, site, etc... So the token has been bought for 50 USD by the client and has returned to the token market for 50 USD.
- That is simplistic, there are many factors to take into account.
- I agree, but basically that is what would happen, and that would add not a penny to the value of the token.
- So, there is no increase in value possible?
- Actually, there is. An event organiser has to own a certain amount of TKT tokens to use the platform.
- Oh, ok, so at the end of all this complex model lies the idea of the event organisers buying the tokens and, at in the end, paying for this new system, at a premium, rather than using the existing platforms.
- That is right in my view.
- And in return they get the value of controlling the sale price of the token, resale and having a system to manage all this.
- I think this is a very risky investment.
- I think there is a good chance for a great reward.
This system actually seems interesting for event organisers, as it allows them to vote and have some control over the middle-man and the development of the sales channel.
In any case, be very careful when you buy a token. Many times you are not buying a "share" of the profit, and, in the worst cases, you may be buying a worthless token or buying for a value that would take years to recover.

ICOs to stay away from... Metronome, Pundi X, Stack, WaBi...

To all effects, consider this fiction writing. By no means is financial advise, endorsement of products nor anything remotely close to that.

Today Ms Inquisite Brown,  Mr. Negative Red and Neutral Black meet to discuss a few incoming ICOs....

- The first one is Metronome. Intends to be a new multichain crypto with a low inflation ratio. However, it is a RC20, Ethereum compatible token and the founders leave to the comunity any further development. No funds provided to it.
- I have read the white paper. As I understand the economics behind it, is a clumsy scheme to give 20% of whatever you invest to the founders with no return. The token is basically backed by the ether that buyers put into it minus 20% for the founders.
- Nothing left to ask.

- What about Pundi-X?
- The underliying technology is not ready and will not be until Ethereum goes PoS. 
- Why is that?
- Ethereum token processing speed is not ready to commit transactions with that volumen in a few seconds, which is what most people would expect when paying for a cofee or a pair of boots. Not to mention the hours delays that could happen on a saturated network.
 - Correction: After this conversation Pundi has integrated the NEM protocol and now it is functional.

- Oh, but it seems that the Stack project and the STK token are just addressing that problem.
- Exactly, they are addressing the problem, but have no solution at the moment nor any Minumum Viable Product nor code, ... Vaporware at a expensive price. Probably Ethereum PoS will short the problem far before them.

- Let´s change the markets... what about WaBi?
- They sell what will possibly become the fidelity points of products that potentially will use an electronic anti-tampering device.
- Is the device good?
- Probably, the problem being that they are selling a token whose value is not related directly to the sales of the device but to an undefined loyalty program: it lacks any real value and may never have it. I would not go there.

The BlockStack ICO

This refers to https://blockstack.com/


To all purposes, this is fiction, not advice nor endorsement.


Today Mr. Positive Blue and Mr. Negative Red meet Mrs. Inquisitive Brown to analyse the BlockStack Coin offering. Mr Neutral Black has made a through reading of the document and Mr Technological Green is around just in case.

- So, what is this one about?
- This one is in the category of "Blockchain Services". The products proposed are:
a) A decentralized domain name register and the underlying server technology, similar to a DNS, but using blockchains.
b) A peer to peer network, kind of a decentralized internet.
c) A decentralized storage systems.

- What is a DNS?
- It is the protocol that converts names to numeric addresses. For example, google.com to 8.8.8.4, so that browsers and other services can find where it is in the internet.
- So potentially, this project could bring a whole new name register business?
- Yes, in fact they will develop a pricing model based on length and type of characters.
- I think that their pricing model does not make the most of the system. Typically, names should be auctioned, not priced beforehand.
- What about the other characteristics?
- I don't really see that they solve any real problem. At least, not any large scale problem.- Why?
- Because DNS, peer-to-peer networks and storage systems are already out there. Blockchain does not add a lot of value to that.

- The team makes the process "trustless" instead of dependant on Certificate Authorities.
- That means that web page impersonation would be very difficult and Certificate Authorities redundant, that is interesting.
- I think is a small market and very hard to expand unless it is compatible with current browsers.
- On the plus side, they already have a test network running.
- What about the teams experience?

- They come from a background of software engineering and have already tried a few technologies.
- So they are technically competent.
- It seems so.
- But how does all this really look to a prospective user?
- At the moment is a very simple interface, it can be installed or seen here https://browser.blockstack.org/
- It does look quite interesting.
- It doesn't do anything!
- This is a concept for future development.
- So, if I invest in this company I am investing on an idea and a team, since they do not have a MVP.
- A what?
- A Minimum Viable Product, it is the most basic working prototype of your idea, just the basics of the product at the cheapest possible price.
- As far as development, this start-up is just beginning. They work in a field in which many competing alternatives are also launching products.
- Overall, it is a risky bet as a business.
- What about the token itself? What can it be used for?
- It is a services value backed token. That is, it is used to perform operations in the Stack chain, at the moment mostly name grabbing.
- So an strategy is to buy tokens, register names and hope that the technology is adopted and they multiply in price right?
- That would be very risky!
- And could be very rewarding.
- What about the regulatory issues?


- There are quite a few regulatory risks... just to mention one, see their FAQ: " 8. Can Blockstack block illegal content on the Blockstack network?

The Blockstack Core is open-source software that provides the infrastructure for a decentralized

network that is not under the control of anyone, including Blockstack Public Benefit Corp and its

affiliates. It’s technically not possible for Blockstack PBC or Blockstack Token LLC to block any

illegal content. The Blockstack Browser, the main software users are expected to use to connect

to the network, is also open-source software. In the future, Blockstack PBC plans to implement

client-side blacklists that users can use to opt-out of seeing certain content. This functionality

currently does not exist and may never exist."- Overall, this seems like an investable token sale if you want high risk investment. Just don't bet your house on it!