Investigating the Top 50 Cryptocurrencies, Part 39/50: OmiseGO

OmiseGO is an attempt to create a standard payment processing solution for the world, in the form of a decentralized exchange powered by blockchain technology.

_{source: https://omisego.network}

Payment processing is a complicated industry with many players. You have the major credit card companies, you have PayPal and Square and Venmo, and now you have blockchain providers like Coinbase and upcoming cryptocurrency solutions like Metal and TenX.

OmiseGO is going to solve this problem by creating the One True Payment Solution. Blockonomi sums up the goal in this paragraph (starting with “The problem with…”)

It’s a noble goal. But… this XKCD comic is a perfect summary of my feelings:

How will OmiseGO avoid simply becoming another one of the many payment processing options out there? What about this technology distinguishes it from the pack? We’ll explore that question in this blog post.

What is OmiseGO?

OmiseGO is the new blockchain-oriented offshoot of a fiat-based payment processor company called Omise. Omise has been serving tens of thousands of customers over the last four years in Thailand, Signapore, Japan, and Indonesia (source).

OmiseGO is different from Omise because it is decentralized. You can think of it like Bitshares, allowing people to buy and sell different cryptocurrencies (and fiat-pegged tokens) without relying on a trusted authority to manage the exchange.

There are a few major goals in creating this DEX and cryptocurrency token (OMG token):

(1) Bring unbanked people into the modern financial market. OmiseGO DEX will be accessible by mobile apps to allow everybody access, including the 2 billion currently unbanked peoples around the world.

(2) Allow easier transfer of money between all people - it’s a Value Transfer Protocol.

(3) Offer merchants an easy way to accept payments for goods and services via the internet.

With a constant stream of drama surrounding centralized exchanges, using a DEX becomes more attractive every day. In the last few weeks alone we’ve seen issues with Poloniex freezing steem wallets and with accusations of insider trading surrounding Coinbase’s BitcoinCash integration. A decentralized exchange can avoid these pitfalls that centralized exchanges fall into.

Another advantage for OmiseGO is its regional focus: Indonesia alone is the fourth most populous nation in the world, meaning that Omise can potentially reach a large market that isn’t being tapped into by western companies.

Will OmiseGO Become the World’s Most Popular DEX?

Here lies the real question. There are many DEX options out there - Bitshares and EtherDelta are currently operational, Binance is supposedly building a decentralized option and has a lot of support… how will OmiseGO outdo the competition?

In terms of raw market capitalization, they have the edge. Trends may be pushing them down the list, though - when I first took the snapshot for this article, OmiseGO was in rank 12 out of all cryptocurrencies by marketcap. Now they’re rank 21 with Bitshares and Waves hot on their heels…

_{Coinmarketcap charts as of December 20, 2017.}

I was curious to see how public interest would stack up for these exchanges… so I did some Google sleuthing. It turns out that OmiseGO is still soundly outperforming Bitshares in terms of Google searches:

But even more interestingly, Binance is trouncing them both! Look what happens when I add Binance to the chart:

It’s not even close. If Binance launches a successful decentralized exchange, they are currently the brand in position to dominate the conversation.

I don’t doubt that OmiseGO can find a place in the future DEX ecosystem… and in terms of market cap, they are near the top of the heap.

But - Will they dominate? That seems much less likely, based on how small they are compared to the major exchanges right now.

Token Distribution

Here’s the information on the Token Distribution for OmiseGO:

_{I got this from here though the original source is probably the link in the image}

Only distributing 65% of tokens via the ICO is a little weak in my opinion. I prefer to see closer to a 90% distribution outside of the company’s hands. Nonetheless this looks like a fairly standard ICO, nothing out of the ordinary.

The OmiseGO Team

Let’s look at a few key players for OmiseGO. All photos are from their website.

It’s worth starting by noting that Vtalik Butrein is an advisor to this project. He’s a real advisor from the looks of it, as he is actively engaging / talking about Omise from time to time. For example, see this tweet:

That’s a vote of good confidence right at the start. Then we have some actual team members:

Jun Hasegawa, CEO and Founder

Jun is a serial entrepreneur with 16 years of professional experience working at the management level or higher in web design and programming companies - most notably at Alpha-do Inc. He has led Omise full-time ever since founding it in 2013.

Donnie Harinsut, COO and Co-Founder

Prior to founding Omise with Jun, Donnie spent 13 years as an International Trading Manager at Alpha-do Inc. He has been the COO of Omise ever since its founding in June 2013.

Market History

We’re still in the midst of unprecedented market volatility and overall craziness. It’s hard to know what will happen next. With that said, here’s the chart:

Good times recently for OmiseGO, with a huge bull run that mirrored what most altcoins experienced in the first few weeks of December. The value has leveled off in the last few days and it’s anybody’s guess as to what the next move will be.

Final Thoughts on OmiseGO

I need to see a working product before I can judge OmiseGO. That’s my only real conclusion after learning everything that we discussed in this article. They were hoping to launch in Q4 of 2017 based on the marketing materials from earlier in this year… but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe in Q1 of 2018 we’ll get more info or a real working product to try out.

One thing is for sure: The team is strong, with a particularly impressive list of genuine advisors. The direct support of Vtalik Buterin will help Omise keep pushing forward.

Time will tell what the future holds for OmiseGO. Right now, I’d like to ask you…

What do you think of OmiseGO?