How to choose the winners and avoid the losers?
I will share some of my top parameters to pick a project to invest.
Tip 1 : Platform or a working product
All of my gains are from projects which are either a platform or have a working product.
Advantage of a platform is that the probability of all the companies using the platform to lose money is comparatively less. Examples are EOS, DNT, 0X etc.
This aspect makes Ether a very strong investment. Ether will fail only if all the companies using ether platform migrate away from it. This is highly unlikely.
A project without a working product is really precarious for obvious reasons. A tested product is essential to boost confidence in the project, which also shows the team is not greedy. Example is WABI.
Tip 2 : Do we really need blockchain for the project?
There are many projects which dont need blockchain to function. Every single one which I invested which dont need blockchain to function was a dud. A good example is DAO.
This is critical because big corporations who are the competitors, cant compete with the ICO project if blockchain is a necessary factor to implement the system.
Tip 3: Project actually solves a problem
Ask this question. Is it something broken with the legacy systems ICO project solves? Every single project I invested which addresses this factor has been fantastic. Examples are Wabi, 0X, SALT etc.
A dud was SIA, I bought it because I know SIA’s founder. SIA’s main competitor is Google. There is nothing broken with Google storage system. Google actually provide more features with Google Drive. For example Google Form is integrated with Drive. Its highly unlikely someone will migrate to SIA just because its a bit cheaper. I personally wont, but I completely overlooked this aspect when I bought SIA. It was an emotional decision but a very costly mistake and I learned a lot from it.
Tip 4 : Time of investment.
All the coins I invested when crypto market cap was down was a loss. There are few things we can control in terms of market cap, but whenever I invested when market is bullish I have made gains.
Tip 5 : Technology and competitive edge
A project with a competitive edge had been a winner twice in my case. Examples are EOS and 0X are good examples. EOS claims to be technologically advanced than Ethereum and they market it well.
Same with 0X, they are solving the problem of difficulty Ethereum encompasses for building more DAPS easily on Ethereum platform.
Tip 6 : Competitors
Who are the competitors? Lets be real, its not easy to beat Google, Apple or Amazon. These companies are not one product companies. SIA is a perfect example, they are competing with Amazon and Google for storage space. No one is going to migrate to SIA just for space because Google is not just a storage space company, same with Amazon.
Tip 7 : Team and advisers
Actually all the project I invested had a good team, but the projects I didnt invest because the team wasn't upto mark didn't fair well. I followed this aspect from the start because I am a engineer and I know to evaluate good team by looking at the experience and such.
Tip 8 : Hype
All projects which has launched with less hype but had legitimate business models and usage behind the project experienced a phenomenal growth.
I invested in wabi when no one was looking at it. I invested before they hit their minimum cap of 30,000 USD. I owned 1/6th of that company at that point :)
I made 850% gain from this project alone.
Same with SALT, I found a fantastic business model and necessity for that token and invested in it when it was $1.50 USD a token. It was $12.10 USD when I checked last time.
But projects with lot of hype also did good. But percentage gain was lacking in most cases.
Tip 9 : Hardcap of the project
I made some investments on highcap projects like Ambrosus, EOS. But the best returns are the project with anything under 30 Million and its sweet if its under 20 Million. Examples are BQX, ICX, 0X, Wabi etc.
Nowadays I dont touch anything above 30 Million or maximum 40 Million if the team is super good and have lot of influencers in the team.
In my opinion any project less than 20 Million Hardcap with all the other parameters aligned is definitely a big opportunity.
Being said that accurately forecasting the future of a project with 100% accuracy is nearly impossible because it involves looking not just at the variables itself but the constantly shifting parameters which we cant control.
However, its extremely rare that all these tips and concepts converge on a token. I found a project which has all these elements present, its BOON Token at www.Boon.vc
Boon has a working product, it is a platform, project actually solves a problem which cant be solved without blockchain, cutting edge patent pending technology, manageable competitors, fantastic team and advisers and zero hype.
Boon is a Artificial Intelligence powered decentralized job platform on blockchain.
Not a lot of people know this, but Freelance economy annually is $1.4 trillion USD . Major companies are Upwork and Fiverr which has a combined market cap of 1.3 Billion USD. There are many other players with 50 to 200 million market cap.