Hello,
I’m reaching our on behalf of Asger Folmann (In it for the Money, the Folmann Report).
He is Influencer, entrepreneur, scholar, author, actor etc.
He Runs and hosts In it for the Money on YouTube (+57,000 subscribers). Author of The Folmann Report; a monthly crypto investment newsletter (+20,000 subscribers). Asger has drawn public attention due to his acting career and no-nonsense approach to the Asger Folmann markets. He is also a blockchain advisor and a regular guest on WFN1’s CEO Money.
He makes a report about Triple Dark Horses Privacy Coins Special Issue on October 25,2018.
This is a special issue of The Folmann Report, specifically focusing on three high-risk, high-potential privacy cryptocurrencies.
Personally I (Asger Folmann) am very careful with my position sizes for this type of trades. For reasons that will be obvious after having read the below, all three of these privacy Dark Horses must be considered extremely high risk. I like to look at it as follows: I have an 80% risk of losing most of my investment, but I have a 20% chance of getting my money back tenfold or more. That makes the investment sensible from a statistical point of view, which is all I need to make it. This should also be taken into consideration when closing a position in the green: I took a tremendous risk opening the position in the first place, so I need serious gains; otherwise it makes no sense to play this game in the first place.
The general standard for privacy coins seems to be somewhat lower, than for other cryptocurrencies.
Anonymous teams are almost the norm, and plans reaching beyond standard elements such as staking, private send, and Mac wallet are rare. They typically also have stronger communities, which is a good thing. Many investors also constantly chase the “privacy coin of the year”. Combined, these factors give privacy coins a huge upside potential, although most investors would frown at the idea of investing in them. This is not the same game as investing in Stellar, Unibright, or most of the other cryptocurrencies that have been featured in the Folmann Report.
DARK HORSE #1
HUSH (HUSH)
DESCRIPTION
Originally forked from ZCash, Hush is a privacy coin, and has a vision to create an encrypted message and crypto wallet app. Circulating supply mimics that of Bitcoin.
PROS
Strong focus on technology. Most updates are posted on Github and shared on Twitter. Team is public, active and appear very dedicated. Strict focus on security. Recently implemented KMD notarization, a significant security feature developed by the Komodo team.
Team is recruiting more developers. Very modest team premine of 0.578%. Working wallets for Windows, Mac, Linux, as well as a web wallet. Hush has won several voting contests in the past, which is either an expression of a strong community, or of high technical skills of the developer team. Either way, it’s a plus. Vision is to create the most secure and advanced privacy coin ever. Team seems capable to deliver on this promise. Works on TOR node integration. Website has 8 language versions. Hush is integrated in several mining pools.
CONS
Almost no trading volume = no investor interest. No white paper. Has only had negative price movements throughout 2018. Did move up with the market, during the recent week’s market optimism, which could be considered a good sign. According to Github, It’s been almost 10 months since there was active development of the messenger app. Note: this doesn’t mean that there’s been no development, only that it hasn’t been shared publicly.
(E)VALUATION & ANALYSIS
In terms of price-action, the only market movements on the Hush chart since late April 2018, have been people selling their tokens. Trading volume is extremely low, and given the extreme discrepancy between the current price and the all time high, it seems obvious that most investors are likely disappointed right now. Many have bought at significantly higher levels.
In the past, however, Hush has been able to perform covert marketing campaigns. In fact, the pattern for most of these small cap coins seem to consist of intense forum activities utilizing scores of fake profiles. Immoral, yes, but highly effective. If Hush manages to re-spark an interest, smart investors can make some amazing gains, at least if they’re not too greedy.
Also, according to this article, Hush sees their “primary use case on the TOR browser, Signal, and other private communications systems.”
In other words; they’re aiming for Dark Web use. This may be the real attraction with this type of investment: if Dark Web merchants were to start using Hush as a means of payment, a massive growth would be expected. I don’t see this in the near future, however, so I’m treating this investment as a
short/mid term investment that will probably be fuelled by covert marketing efforts by the team, and/or by pump-and-dump groups who can benefit from the low trading volume.
DARK HORSE #2
STEALTH (XST)
DESCRIPTION
Aims to become the fastest cryptographically private digital currency, providing almost instant transactions with absolute privacy protection. They’ve dubbed their technology, Quantum Proof-of-Stake (qPoS).
PROS
In late February 2018, the team behind Stealth launched the service, StealthPay. On this website, users can send money anonymously, buy and sell XST, pay and request payments from others. The site also has what appears to be seamless merchant integration. StealthPay also offers the option to sell XST tokens in many different ways, e.g. exchanging directly to Amazon gift cards. This effectively makes XST tokens spendable. Since Stealth is allegedly anonymous, people can essentially purchase or exchange any other crypto for XST, which can then be spent via a middle man; the Stealth team. StealthPay can also be used to buy any coin on Cryptopia or Bittrex with cash. Stealth is/was sponsor of numerous prestigious conferences, e.g. Consensus Singapore, and Consensus New York. This lends legitimacy to Stealth. Stealth is trading on Bittrex, which is also a stamp of approval, since Bittrex is known to have an increasingly strict listing policy. Clearly has a marketing budget. Market capitalization was $44 million at its all time high. Currently down over 92%. Has followed the general crypto market fluctuations, but with more volatility. Will likely see far higher gains than e.g. Bitcoin, once we enter a bull market. Focus on TOR privacy. Has qPoS white paper. Has several working desktop clients. Offers a custom designed Ledger Nano with Stealth logo = branding efforts. Offers PoS (qPoS) with an annual return of 20%.
CONS
Semi-anonymous team. Posts photos of the team on Twitter, but none of the members are listed on the website. Since September 2018, trading volume has become very low. StealthPay website doesn’t live up to current standards for web design. Subject to inflation due to the high staking rewards. Usually, less than half of tokens are staked, so a 10% annual inflation rate seems a rational guess. Several dead social media links on StealthPay website.
(E)VALUATION & ANALYSIS
Stealth bears some resemblance with Verge in its early stages. Whether it too is run by criminals, we currently don’t know. We do know, however, that Stealth has a working service (StealthPay), spends
money on conferences and high quality listings, and provides frequent updates and technical developments. As with Hush, Stealth also states the ambition to be “integrated” on the Dark Web. Whether that’s already the case, I don’t know, but I doubt it.
The Stealth price has also been relatively stable over the past few months. When the general market trades sideways, the worst cryptocurrencies plummet. The fact that this didn’t happen, tells me that there must be investors out there, who believe in the long-term potential of Stealth.
I think there’s a good chance Stealth could see massive gains in a crypto bull market, at the very least returning to its early May 2018 high at around $12 million market capitalization. This would translate into a 245% gain.
The real selling point may rather be that Stealth clearly has a budget for marketing. The high developer activity level tells me that they are far from done with this project. If they manage to spread the idea that they will become the next Dark Web payment solution, this rumor alone could trigger serious FOMO and violent price action. If Stealth could attain even half the market capitalization of Verge at its all time high, we would be looking at gains in the 57,000% range.
Risky as hell? Indeed. High potential? Very much so.
As with all anonymous privacy cryptocurrencies, there’s always a risk that the whole thing’s a scam.
DARK HORSE #3
NULLEX (NLX) PROS
DESCRIPTION
Allegedly a private, secure and scalable decentralized platform allowing users to create, register and relay economic data. Vision is to build
several products, e.g. the Null Protocol Mainnet, an asset manager app, etc.
PROS
Very active, growing, and bullish community on Telegram. NulleX just launched master nodes. Recently formed a partnership with Linda (LINDA). Team has an ambitious long-term vision. Highly technical focus. According to white paper: “NulleX is based on the work of Satoshi Nakamoto, the Dash Team, and further the PIVX Team.” Team is allegedly in talks “with an organization that would make use of NulleX’s technology, for data protection and financial administration. Further updates on this will be released closer to Q1 2019.” Small but tech-strong team with extensive experience in the blockchain space. Nullex is part of the US Tour De Crypto. Has functional desktop wallets for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Recently launched a YouTube channel with video guides. Team is allegedly working on more masternode listings. Beta testing of a desktop crypto portfolio app (referred to as “the Swiss army knife of the crypto industry”) is set to commence in Q4 of 2018.
CONS
No team members list Nullex on their LinkedIn profiles. Although the team covers the most important bases, it only consists of six members: four developers, one marketing/social media manager, and one business manager. Other than the immediate utility of NLX as a means of payment, it is currently unclear exactly what the function of NLX tokens will be after the launch of the mainnet. Very low trading volume.
(E)VALUATION & ANALYSIS
Even though this must be considered a part time project for the team-members, they do seem to make progress in terms of development, partnerships, community building, etc. They clearly have a vision for the future, although it is almost incomprehensible to non-crypto experts. If companies were to utilize the NulleX protocol, we could see some this project gain some serious traction. Not because of the actual utility of the tokens (since we don’t know it), but rather because of FOMO and hype.
NulleX may seem like an insane investment. However, compare them to an ICO who’s promising to build their own blockchain, crypto portfolio app, form partnerships, etc. On this basis, NulleX is actually far ahead. They currently have much more than a white paper, and the team does seem competent and dedicated. Combining these observations with the extremely low market capitalization, Nullex does have radical potential.
Recently, I’ve seen a few (fake?) accounts shilling NulleX across various social media. This could signify the beginning of a larger covert marketing campaign, which is exactly what can make such a project explode. The risk is high, but if the team can stay on track, and if the portfolio app gains traction, or a single corporate partnership is formed, I could easily see significant gains in NulleX’s near future. If this coincides with a crypto bull market, a 10x scenario is probably a very conservative estimate.
IMPORTANT NOTE ON ALL THREE DARK HORSES:
All three Dark Horses are similar in the sense that I foresee the teams initiating marketing efforts, that will create hype and FOMO among investors. I am well aware that they are currently in a state, that would qualify them for a shitcoin classification by most investors.
However, since we are the smart money, we will know exactly what is going on, and we will not care whether the promises being made by these semi-dubious companies are true or not, because we already have a clear plan that dictates our cause of action.
I personally plan to invest around $100 in each of these picks. Should Hush e.g. return to its all time high, that $100 would be worth $10,000. The loss of $100 won’t be felt, but the gain of $10,000 is noticeable.
Most crypto investors will likely think you’ve lost your mind, if you tell them you invested in any of these privacy coins, but keep in mind that these three companies all have PROVEN track records of performing covert marketing that somehow leads to FOMO among certain segments of investors. I have little doubt that they’ll be able to pull it off again. The question remains; how low will they go before that happens?
Again, I want to reiterate how little I’ll be investing in these Dark Horses. They are as risky as they get, but they also all have the potential to gain at least 1000%, possibly much more. But if you were to invest larger amounts, say $10,000, you would have a very hard time selling all your coins, and you’d make the coin price tank in the process. This is where you must prove to yourself, that you are the smart money.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
This report is the intellectual property of Asger Folmann, The Folmann Report, In it for the Money, Red Circle LLC. You are not allowed to share it with others without the explicit written consent of the author.
The content of this report is not financial advice, merely personal speculations that you are free to use or disregard. The author(s) are in no way responsible for losses that may incur based on the ideas presented here.