From equities to crypto: Essential know-how for investors joining the blockchain revolution
Amidst the current frenzy around blockchain, many investors look at the crypto market and wonder if they are missing out on something. In the latest episode of the FinancialFox, notorius equities investor Chris Oil and the well-known crypto ambassador Stephen Kendall get together to discuss financial markets, investment opportunities and cryptocurrencies.
Old school sapient Investors, like Chris oil, don’t want to miss out on the blockchain opportunity but still fear the crypto market comparing it to the dotcom boom thus most do not invest in crypto coins. Too volatile, maybe too new. Another matter is blockchain technology.
Blockchain is a distributed, decentralised technology which can be applied to multiple ends. Even though they are blockchain’s best-known deployments, cryptocurrencies are in fact only one possible application of blockchain systems.
Despite the growth in crypto, more ‘conservative’ markets such as oil and gas still offer plenty of opportunities for investors. For those interested in this space, Chris says to keep an eye on the infamous Horse Hill Weald Basin and Solo Oil (LSE: SOLO) and then the African Chariot Oil (LSE: CHAR).
And “don’t forget uranium which is going to up significantly in the next three years, and you want to be buying it now at the bottom. The best companies to look are listed on the Canadian and Australian Stock Exchange," says Chris Oil.
Just as the dotcom boom, the blockchain revolution has prompted a surge of multiple companies within the tech sector, so we are not short of projects and ICOs trying to earn their place in the crypto space. This also means that many of these projects are unlikely to survive once the frenzy is over.
The key, says Chris Oil, is to invest in the strong survivors, such as Online Blockchain (LSE:OBC). Throughout 2018, OBC has launched a couple of tokens in Latin America and Asia as part of their strategy of exploring the cryptocurrency potential in emerging markets and serving community development.
On top of that, OBC has created PlusOneCoin, a unique social affirmation coin for the investment and trading community. The coin is hosted by the biggest investor platform ADVFN and can be earned through chatroom interactions. Last week, PlusOneCoin experienced a 34% increase in just 24 hours due an increased mining interest, following a summer of solid performance.
In the crypto sphere, the savvy Chris Oil believes the strategy for investors should be not to invest in cryptocurrencies directly, but instead research and invest in companies who deploy blockchain to some end; for example, Block Commodities (NEX: BLCC), the agri-tech company developing a blockchain system for African farmers.
After all, the true power of blockchain lies on its potential to disrupt multiple systems which are right now controlled by one single entity.
For those who are curious about crypto but not yet familiar with it, Stephen believes that the platform Steemit.it is a good place to start. Steemit.it works as a social media/ forum platform for users to interact, but also allows users to mine Steem coins themselves, giving them great insights into the blockchain world.
Kendall believes that the blockchain revolution is only one of the steps we are taking to realise the full potential of the internet, and there is much more to come. Blockchain could allow virtually any system to be opened and decentralised.
We are on the verge of a revolution that will transform markets into a tokenised system, with no central authority and where each part of the network answers for itself. Timothy John Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, had already envisaged the power and accountability of a decentralised system when he created the internet, says Stephen.
“Over next decade, there will be a migration from the old archaic centralised system sat on the internet, to a fully decentralised system which is going to allow everything to be accountable for the first time,” says Stephen Kendall.
Crypto projects can be very ambitious and innovative, gathering strong community support, like Digibyte, for example. Created four years ago and with a growing community, Digibyte has increasingly more influence in the crypto world. Its followers are passionate and believe in the cryptocurrency’s potential to become a global coin. Proof of this is the Venezuela project, a initiative from the Digibyte community to support the people of Venezuela with Digibyte, propelling the argument that the coin can increase financial inclusion and be mass-adopted.
Crypto master and entrepreneur Clem Chambers believes that equities and crypto are not necessarily rivals but actually complement each other, and the combination of the two can make an investment portfolio very powerful: “Bitcoin is new wealth in the same way as a new gold mine would make the world wealthier. There is no reason that Bitcoin can’t be worth what all the gold on earth is, or much more. Bitcoin has a better use case than gold but the use case of Bitcoin is not exactly the same as gold and will not make gold obsolete.”
Many developments are still to unfold as the blockchain revolution gains ground around the world and more innovative projects emerge. It is definitely a market to watch.
At Cassiopeia, we are committed to help private investors who wants to better understand blockchain and the opportunities it opens up. Sign up to our FinanciaFox Channel for more video interview, our Medium for news and our website for our next crypto symposium.
