In what media deemed as a huge success for the crypto world, Bancor raised 150 millions USD in its ICO. What is Bancor, you asked? Well this is what Bancor will do (yes, you read that right: will do, as in it haven't done anything yet):
Launched in 2017, Bancor, overseen by the Bprotocol Foundation, has been pitched as a platform designed to make it easier for users to launch their own blockchain tokens.
Please read again: a platform designed to make it easier for users to launch their own blockchain tokens.
Easier than what? Easier than filling in a form in a website, like you do now in OpenLedger? Or, to get a little exotic, easier than filling up a Java app form in the not-so-popular-anymore blockchain NXT? Both are making it ridiculously easy to launch your own token. Like, you know, in minutes.
So what exactly Bancor does? Nobody knows yet. But it's a hype. And this hype got to a level where it gets really dangerous.
Here's what Vlad Zamfir, part of the Ethereum Foundation, was
tweeted just 3 months ago:
I chose Vlad because the Bancor ICO was conducted on the Ethereum blockchain. It's not yet clear if the Bancor network itself will be on top of the Ethereum protocol. But if is, then we have even bigger problems.
Because look what Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum creator, tweeted today:
That's a very powerful statement, coming from a very influential person in the crypto world (the second token in terms of market cap after Bitcoin).
I think the hype in crypto is now toxic. People put together a one page website, throw in some videos with good looking girls talking seriously about blockchain and decentralization, then fill the rest of the space with a few meaningless sentences about nonsensical protocols and activities and, kaboom! Investors are lining up and open their pockets like it's the golden age.
In a sense, this is the golden age of the blockchain, but you're looking in the wrong direction. It's not the bling-bling that is relevant. Those projects are 99% marketing and 1% tech. They may survive for a while, if their marketing is good, but, eventually, they'll be surpassed by the real innovators.
And innovation happens more often than not in a very silent and decent way in the blockchain. Graphene, the blockchain which powers Steemit (and BitShares and PeerPlays) is the most advanced technology at the moment. Yes, I stand by my words. But it's not even remotely as noisy as Bancor. Close behind Steemit comes Tendermint, with their imminent launch of the Cosmos network, and their Atom tokens. Which, by the way, are doing exactly what Bancor claims to do, only, you know, they are already doing it. Again, very decent (I personally met the founders a couple of months ago).
These two projects are still flying under the radar, but their potential is huge. I'm sure there are many other valuable projects which are flying under the radar right now. Either because the founders don't care about marketing, or because it's cloudy, I don't know. The reasons are irrelevant.
What's relevant here is to stay informed. To know where to put your money and calibrate your expectations.
Just a year ago, DAO, which was the biggest ICO at that time, failed almost catastrophically and generated the first major hardfork in the Ethereum network. Now, we're looking at $150 millions invested in untested, immature code.
I wonder where this will lead...
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
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I'd not heard of Bancor before today, but I will keep half an eye on it - just because of the crazy money for no tangible product. It seems very similar to Ardor (built on the NXT tech), and Ardor is already in testnet phase, so....
I checked out the Cosmos project you mentioned - very interesting. Will be keeping both eyes on that!
I try to stay rational about ICOs because i agree that all the hype is a bit toxic right now. At the same time i felt a bit sorry for not jumping on this bandwagon. I guess i didn't take enough time to think about Bancor and examin it properly. Thanks for this article, now i feel better for not investing in it ... at least not at this point in time, they still can make something of it.
I, too, can feel that the ICO in crypto world is in a big hype. My account in 21.co sometimes will get paid email from so-called new project or ICO. With only one or two paragraph, often meaningless. Maybe ask you to fill up a simple questionnaire which I doubt will give them any useful information. They just want to do marketing for their "ICO." And they pay 10 or 20 dollars for just a simple reply. That was the way the use money!
I completely agree with you. ICOs are often just unproven tech that seem to over promise and under deliver
Great post and I agree that this whole ICO scene is sketchy and problematic for the community.
I totally agree with you that people need to research first.
What? No love for Excite and AskJeeves?!
AskJeeves sounds familiar, but Excite, with all due respect...
Great insight! I fully agree with your point that people need to do their research, and not just blindly jump into the hype!
The more of these insane ICOs I see, the more thankful I am that I seem to have picked the right horses to bet on... Steem is here, and LBRY just around the corner with a great dapp built for less than $500k of VC funding.
People are building great products on less than a million dollars, no reason to invest tens of millions into these vague projects that seem little more than hype and scams.
Powerful post. Love it. The money raised in these ICOs is ridiclous. What the hell Plan the Devs to do with freakin 150 million dollars? Shit, bitcoin was built without a fundraiser. Just saying...
Ditto.
Bitcoin did their fundraising on Silk Road and illicit drugs.
Ooooh, that's some hard talk here... :) Do you really think Bitcoin was involved in that?
I don't think Bitcoin was directly involved, but the protocol cut its teeth by holding value in a digital, non-fiat, pseudo-anonymous way.
The newest products, platforms and promises don't have to go through that learning phase again.
Although I agree with you that a lot of the most valuable work in crypto is hidden in the in the non-marketed, super-boring technology, I wouldn't be completely dismissive of what Bancor's tech is promising.
In a world of a billion tokens, liquidity will be crucial. Underused, hyper-local and ethereal tokens will still need to trade. This thesis is defended by Consensys' work on Omega One.
And I also agree that this level of fervor is dangerous, but it is also the fuel of the entire crypto ecosystem. New technologies would never take hold without a certain level of risk takers and over-exuberance. The zealots that will always defend the dream, despite the perfectly valid mud and arrows flung at them.
Aside: This is also a post-DAO world and precautions are being taken - Learning from the DAO
What Bancor aims to do Tendermint is already doing, with a much better consensus protocol (BFT - Byzantine Fault Tolerant DPoS). Why use Bancor when you already have something that works as advertised?
I remember how many search engines existed before Google. When Google came, no one survived.
Why assume the winner-take-all, monolithic system paradigm that worked so well in the centralized space will do the same in the decentralized space?
Centralized system drew power from the network effects.
A decentralized system doesn't need that much of a network effect if the core layer below it is widely used. It can benefit from the long-tail more freely.
For example, look at how the major Clouds (AWS, Google, Azure) have simplified development for software platforms. This has led to an explosion of services in the SaaS space. Sure, you can get one of the big CRMS, but there are also niche ones that may fit your needs better. CRMs for restaurants, CRMS for doctors, lawyers, dentists etc.
I, for one, hope all of the dApps win.
I don't think competition is evil, I encourage it. But Bancor doesn't even do yet what Tendermint (and OpenLedger / BitShares, for what matters) is already doing. What I try to warn about is the content of the business, Right now, there is no content in the Bancor business, whereas Tendermint and Openledger are battle-tested ecosystems. Putting that amount of money into a content-less business is risky, to say the least.
Because people who are not experts have limited attention.
Thanks for the warning.
For those f us who don't really know much about blockchains it's easy to think it must be hard to get started and a new tool to make it easy would be a good thing.
Like any investment, it pays to do due diligence and really look hard at what is behind the hype before opening your wallet.
And of course checking with @dragosroua before making an expensive mistake ;-)
I don't hold all the answers. But I like how you think :)
Not a fan of Ethereum in general but its good prominent developers are speaking out when they could just remain quiet and watch the price skyrocketing. This is a funny tweet response to Vlad warning people about it earlier.
Idea won't pass due diligence at a VC firm and wondering where to go? Now you can ICO!
🔥 Bancor (BNT) is being traded at 5x the price!
https://steemit.com/bancor/@paulcoman/bancor-bnt-is-being-traded-at-5x-the-price
Why does the name BabbleFish come to mind?
That's probably NOT the name of the startup that I'm thinking of. I think it's something similar. What brings it to mind is that I read an interview where the founder was explaining what his company would do. I've never heard that kind of baffle gab before then. AND...he had a silly haircut.
it had scam written all over it...and yet he raked in a TON of money.
Precisely:)
:)
:)))))
nice post
Super nice conversation which sprung up from this post, yay! Niceee steemUp!
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