Crowdfunding

Feb 25 2021

Focus on DeFi ‘fairness’ benefits Holochain, Orion Protocol and Dodo

Bitcoin’s (BTC) strong bull run and the immense popularity of the decentralized finance space have attracted several new investors to cryptocurrencies. A report from Crypto.com shows a massive increase in crypto users as the figure rose from 66 million in May 2020 to 106 million by January this year.

*Crypto market data daily view. Source:* *Coin360*

Contrary to the popular notion that new crypto users are mostly speculating on the price, data from Unchained Capital shows that investors who bought in the past three to five years are still holding and are not yet tempted to book profits.

Unlike the 2017 bull market where many low-cap altcoins rallied, the current bull trend has rewarded projects with strong fundamentals. Let’s have a look at three such tokens and also analyze their charts.

HOT/USD

Holochain (HOT) aims to provide the solution for the scalability problems which may be a limiting factor in the crypto sector. Holochain wants to give control of data and privacy back to the people, eliminating large corporations and middlemen.

To achieve that, Holo, a distributed peer-to-peer hosting platform, acts as the link between the web and the Holochain apps. Holochain wants to make this technology available to users who can access the apps in a web browser. If this needs to be done, the technology must have vast scalability, fast speeds, and it should also be financially viable. The team at Holochain believes they are on the path to achieving this goal.

As part of the process, Holochain launched an app called Elemental Chat that runs on HoloPorts. The team is also planning to enable web users to log into Elemental Chat through the HoloPort. This will put the protocol’s scalability claims to the test and help to further fine-tune the project.

The team has also outlined the progress on the upcoming milestones of the Holo suite of products that will be progressively released in the future. If the team delivers on its promises, the protocol may attract investor attention.

HOT surged from $0.0007817 on Feb. 8 to an intraday high at $0.00424 on Feb. 21, a 442% rally within two weeks. This up-move had pushed the relative strength index (RSI) above 92 on Feb. 21, indicating the market was extremely overbought in the short term.

*HOT/USDT daily chart. Source:* *TradingView*

That resulted in profit-booking on Feb. 22 and 23, which pulled the price down to the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.0021028. But the positive sign is that the long tail on the candlesticks on both days showed strong buying at lower levels.

However, traders who are stuck at higher levels are dumping their positions on rallies, as seen from the long wick on the Feb. 24 candlestick.

After the large intraday range of the past few days, the HOT/USD pair has formed an inside day candlestick pattern today, indicating a balance between supply and demand. The pair may now consolidate for a few days.

If the bulls can push the price above $0.00363, a retest of $0.00424 is possible. A breakout of this level could start the next leg of the up-move that may reach $0.0055629.

Conversely, if the bears sink the price below $0.0028, the pair may drop to the 20-day exponential moving average ($0.0020).

ORN/USD

As the decentralized finance space grows, many new projects are being announced on a regular basis. It becomes difficult for investors to keep track of all of them. Hence, a liquidity aggregator that connects to several decentralized and centralized exchanges in order to swap pools and provide access from a single platform may be sought after and this is what the Orion protocol (ORN) aims to do.

The protocol plans to offer its investor’s a variety of revenue streams. The Orion Liquidity Boost Plugin offers increased liquidity to its partners and has already onboarded Polkastarter and many other blockchain projects.

Orion’s Launchpad Liquidity has partnered with DAO Marker and DuckDAO, which will enable projects launch incubated projects on the launchpad’s own platform

Orion recently launched the staking calculator, allowing ORN token holders to calculate the staking rewards and attain APY’s of up to 38%.

After launching the first phase of the Orion Terminal’s mainnet on Dec. 15, the team plans to add several features like derivatives, leveraged ETFs, contract trading, NFTs, lending, margin trading and staking of any digital asset by 2021.

As more products are launched, the revenue is likely to increase and that may benefit ORN token holders.

ORN has been in a strong bull run this year. It rallied from $4.3014 on Feb. 8 to an intraday high at $15.20 today, a 253% rally in just over two weeks. As a result, the RSI has surged to above 91 levels, indicating the possibility of a short-term fall or a range-bound trading action.

*ORN/USDT daily chart. Source:* *TradingView*

The bears tried to stall the rally on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23, but the long tail and the positive closes of each day show that the bulls purchased the dips and resumed the rally.

However, today it looks as if traders booked profits and a retest of the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $11.4379 is possible.

If the ORN/USD pair rises from this support level, it will indicate strong demand at lower levels. That could result in a retest of $15.20 and a breakout of this resistance may propel the pair to $20.

On the other hand, a break below $10.2759 could pull the price down to the 20-day EMA ($8.21). Such a deep fall could delay the next leg of the up-move.

DODO/USD

The DeFi space has been attracting investor attention in the past few months. However, the growing popularity has clogged the Ethereum network gas fees have soared to unsustainable levels. Therefore, traders are searching for options that are on competing networks and charge fewer fees. Binance Smart Chain has been one of the major beneficiaries of this trend.

DODO is a decentralized exchange that uses the Proactive Market Maker (PMM) algorithm, which the team claims is better than automated market makers. DODO offers several features such as trading, aggregation, initial DEX offerings, and mining.

DODO introduced Crowdpooling in January, and this feature aims to provide equal opportunity to investors by addressing the biggest issues being faced by new projects. If successful, Crowdpooling will help prevent frontrunning, insufficient liquidity, and the high costs associated with attracting liquidity. The first phase of the DODO V2 Beta crowdfunding pool called ‘ShuttleOne’ was a huge success as it was oversubscribed by 173 times.

DODO token was listed on Binance on Feb. 19 following the DODO V2 Public Beta launch on the Ethereum Mainnet and Binance Smart Chain on Feb. 22. There are also several incentive programs available on BSC.

DODO price rallied from an intraday low at $2.788 to an intraday high at $10 on Feb. 19. The token had strong listing gains but since then, the price has been in a corrective phase.

*DODO/USD 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

The bulls attempted to start a rebound off $3.50 on Feb. 23, but the bears continue to sell on minor rallies, indicating a negative sentiment. However, a minor positive is that the bulls have been defending the $4.50 level for some time.

If the price turns up from the current level and breaks above $5.660, the DODO/USD pair may rise to $7.50. This level is likely to act as a stiff resistance but if crossed, the pair could rally to $8.75 and then retest $10. The next leg of the uptrend may resume above this level.

Conversely, if the bears sink the price below $4.50, a drop to $3.50 is possible. The selling could intensify if the $3.50 to $2.788 support cracks.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Focus on DeFi ‘fairness’ benefits Holochain, Orion Protocol and Dodo

Source

Feb 25 2021

Celebrating Black Inventors for Black History Month

While Black history should always be recognized and shared every day, for Black History Month, we’d like to give thanks and highlight the many generations of African American inventors and their groundbreaking discoveries that changed the world. Thanks to their contributions, which paved the way for scientific discovery and tech innovations, we saw our daily lives improve throughout the years with everyday inventions.

Get inspired by checking out these Black inventors that helped shape our lives. We’ve been posting about these innovators on the Indiegogo Instagram all month long, and you can click through to see the original social media post for each one.

Born in 1867 as Sarah Breedlove, Madam C.J. Walker was America’s FIRST female self-made millionaire. In 1905, she invented Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower, which grew into a line of hair products and introduced a new system of hair care for African-American hair. She wasn’t just a pioneer in the cosmetics industry, she was also a successful entrepreneur.

By 1913, Walker’s business was earning $3,000 a month (over $50,000 in today’s dollars). A lifelong philanthropist, she also focused her efforts in employing Black women in her community, giving them the opportunity to be financially independent. You can learn more about Madam C.J. Walker by watching Self Made, a Netflix series based on her life.

In 1973, she became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in nuclear physics at MIT. She is also the second Black woman in the U.S. to earn a doctorate in physics. Her illustrious career as a theoretical physicist includes leadership positions in STEM across many industries — from academia to public service and government to research.

Most notably, her groundbreaking experiments led to the invention of caller ID, call waiting, touch-tone telephone, portable fax, the fiber-optic cable, solar cells, and many other innovations in telecommunications that we use today. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Dr. Jackson the National Medal of Science, the highest honor in the country for her contributions to STEM and the world.

In 1922, after witnessing a carriage accident at an intersection in the city of Cleveland where he lived, he came up with a new and improved traffic signal. He invented a traffic signal with a warning light that will alert drivers in needing to stop. This T-shaped design was patented and became the precursor of what we now know as our modern three-way traffic light system. So the next time you’re driving and arrive at a stoplight, think of Garrett Morgan!

He also went on to patent more inventions, including a hair straightening product, a sewing machine, and a respiratory breathing device or safety hood which would later become the prototype for gas masks in WWI, protecting soldiers from toxic gas. In fact, Morgan himself would personally demo his invention to fire departments, even leading a rescue mission that saved many lives during the 1916 Lake Erie tunnel explosion.

Dubbed the “Father of Modern Gaming, ” Lawson led the development of the Fairchild Channel F console in the 1970s, which was the first programmable ROM cartridge–based video game console and the first console to use a microprocessor.

But Lawson didn’t stop there. In 1980, he founded Videosoft, a video game development company that made software for the Atari 2600. Atari adopted his cartridge approach and became the top video game console on the market, NBD. He was also one of the only Black members of the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of early computer hobbyists that included Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Lawson received numerous awards and honors for his contributions as a video game industry pioneer.

Celebrate Black inventors every day

As we look back at these legacies, it’s up to all of us to do the work and share these stories and contributions with more people.

Here at Indiegogo, we’re all about giving a platform for new ideas (especially in STEM) to take shape, grow, and thrive with the contributions of crowdfunding backers like you that help bring these innovations to reality. And if you’re an inventor or creator, we look forward to supporting your ideas this year!

Want to explore more Black creators? Show your love and support for Black entrepreneurs and creators in our crowdfunding community.

<!–

Comments are closed

–>

Source

Feb 24 2021

Webinar: Caliber CEO Discusses Making Real Estate Investments More Accessible

Andy Gordon and I spend countless hours each week reviewing startups and talking to founders. So does our friend Chris Lustrino, the founder and CEO of KingsCrowd. And every now and then, we meet a founder so interesting that we ask them to record a webinar with us.

That’s exactly what happened with Chris Loeffler, Caliber’s CEO and co-founder. Caliber gives accredited investors the chance to invest in middle-market real estate projects in the Southwest. Chris Loeffler spent some time talking with Andy and Chris last week, and it was an illuminating conversation.

Everyday investors like you and me can’t invest in any Caliber real estate deals. But Caliber is seeking investors through an equity crowdfunding raise on SeedInvest. The raise — which is open to all investors — closes on Friday.

We hope you enjoy the webinar. And thanks for watching!

Source

Feb 19 2021

Southeast Asia’s Funding Societies, an Online Capital Formation Platform, Reports S$2 Billion in Business Financing Disbursals

Southeast Asia-based Funding Societies, a digital financing platform, has revealed that it has made S$2 billion (appr. $1.5 billion) in disbursals of business financing to SMEs across the region as the company enters its sixth year of offering loans.

Funding Societies’ management noted that the amount is partly crowdfunded by more than 200,000 retail investors on its platform and has been disbursed through 3.7 million+ different loans.

Funding Societies reported S$ 850 million (appr. $640 million) in disbursals last year, meanwhile, its platform default rate managed to stay below 2% during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an effort to reduce its portfolio risk during 2020, Funding Societies had tightened up its credit underwriting criteria so that only quality notes would get crowdfunded. The platform also focused on companies that were likely to do well during the pandemic.

These high-performing industries include healthcare, medical supplies, transportation, among several others. Funding Societies reported an 18% growth in platform investors since January 2020.

Big Four auditing firm Ernst & Young’s 2020 ASEAN SME Transformation Survey has revealed that 68% of the surveyed 1,200 SMEs across the six major ASEAN nations (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam) are open to doing business with non-traditional lending platforms.

Non-traditional lenders may be appealing because of their greater speed and convenience. Small and medium-sized enterprises may prefer the faster and more flexible loan approval process and the digital know-your-customer (KYC) processes, which usually don’t require asset security or visiting physical bank locations.

At present, there’s an annual trade financing gap of approximately $150 billion in Asia, according to estimates provided by the Asian Development Bank. Around 60% of firms have had their applications rejected when applying for trade financing, the bank noted, while pointing out that these businesses did not proceed with the trade due to the lack of funding.

Kelvin Teo, Co-founder and Group CEO of Funding Societies, stated:

“We’re thrilled to reach this major milestone before we even realised it. It is a momentous occasion and encouragement for us. There is much more to do, as we continue to serve the needs of SMEs and Investors in the region. We’re grateful to raise Series C funding last year, enabling us to further help SMEs even amidst uncertain times.”

As reported earlier this month, Singapore based Funding Societies had announced the expansion of operations into Thailand. The online capital formation platform will operate under a crowdfunding license authorized by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to a note from Funding Societies, the company worked for more than a year with regulators to set up operations in the country.

Funding Societies currently operates in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Thailand will be the fourth country where the marketplace will operate in its six years of activity. Funding Societies notes that it is the only SME digital financing platform in Southeast Asia to be licensed in four countries.

Source

Feb 19 2021

Silicon Valley Is Losing Dominance

For the past few decades, Silicon Valley has dominated the world of venture capital. According to Pitchbook, Silicon Valley accounted for a whopping 26% of all VC dealmaking in 2014. Even more impressive, more than 39% of all dollars invested into VC-backed startups happened in the Silicon Valley area.

However, Silicon Valley’s dominance has been declining for a while. According to Pitchbook data, via CNBC, Silicon Valley’s share of venture capital has been declining since 2014.

But since the pandemic began last year, that trend has accelerated dramatically. Pitchbook now predicts that Silicon Valley’s share of VC deals will soon drop below 20% for the first time in history.

Prominent venture capitalist Jason Lemkin recently summed the situation up in a tweet.

Lemkin knows what he’s talking about. He’s deeply entrenched in California’s tech scene as one of the world’s top Software-as-a-Service investors.

The Tech Diaspora

The world of tech investing is changing. Soon, Silicon Valley will no longer be such a dominant force in the world of startup investing. Back in August of last year, I wrote a piece titled “Tech Companies Flee California (Finally).” Here’s a relevant excerpt.

For California and the SFBA, this trend should be quite disturbing in the short-term. But for the rest of us, things are looking up. Companies are spreading out across the country, and the benefits — especially to business-friendly states like Texas — will be significant.

Ultimately, this will be good for California too. They’ll be forced to make the state more attractive to businesses. Maybe even lower taxes and slim down their bloated budgets (California is looking at a $54 billion budget deficit this year).

I believe the groups that will benefit most of all are entrepreneurs and startup investors. As big technology companies spread out across the U.S., more innovative startups will also sprout up all over the country. Wealth, skills and experience will become more evenly distributed.

Venture capitalists will be forced to invest much more outside the SFBA. Angel investor communities will sprout up everywhere in response. And equity crowdfunding will play an increasingly important role in funding early-stage companies.

This is going to be an incredibly powerful trend. The primary effect will be a more even distribution of wealth across the country (and the world).

And the timing couldn’t be better for startup investors. On March 15th, new regulations will go into effect that increase the limit on most equity crowdfunding deals from $1.07 million to $5 million. This will attract far more mature and established startups, which anyone will be able to invest in.

My advice: start saving up cash if you have the means. There will be some truly impressive opportunities for retail startup investors in the very near future. Keep a close eye on startup funding portals, because I suspect some of these new $5M deals will sell out very quickly. Equity crowdfunding is on the verge of a revolutionary change.

Source