As Bitcoin rumbles ever skyward some of its smaller brethren can get lost in the hype. A small market correction last week swept away talk of the bubble bursting and Bitcoin bounced back to trade upwards of $11,500. Many altcoins have yet to roll out their platforms and technology but have plenty of potential that has yet to be reflected in their price.
One such crypto asset is OmiseGO which passed the billion dollar market capacity recently and currently has a cap of around $1.3 billion putting it squarely in the top twenty crypto currencies. The crew behind the coin is aiming to alleviate a problem that all crypto traders suffer; exchanges. Going completely against the whole ethos of crypto currencies exchanges are centralized, slow and expensive. If you want to cross trade altcoins you need to do it via Bitcoin which incurs more network fees, commissions and charges levied by these exchanges.
To exchange NEO for IOTA for example you will probably have to use two different exchanges, move fiat in, buy BTC, trade that for the altcoin and complete the process in reverse when you want to convert one asset into another. All the while the exchange is making money out of you as their fees and commissions mount up. In addition to this problem try getting some customer support from them and you’ll be waiting a long time – Coinbase can take up to six weeks to even reply to customer enquiries, some don’t even bother answering.
OmiseGO attempts to alleviate all of this expense and aggravation from exchanges by providing a blockchain based decentralized exchange platform. Cross crypto currency transfers will be facilitated at high volume and low cost based on proof-of-stake validation. Exchanges can also be hacked and security can be compromised. With crypto exchange running on the public ledger there will be a greater level of security and transparency than is currently available from exchanges.
Being based on Ethereum means that the team can focus more on the product and functionality than developing their own blockchain from scratch. Wallets have already been rolled out as SDKs and the roadmap has big plans for 2018. Being based in Southeast Asia OmiseGO has close ties with Singapore, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand where pilot schemes are already in place. McDonald’s Thailand is running an experimental payments system that accepts OMG and plans to expand this globally are in the pipeline. Leading Thai banks are also working together with OMG for blockchain solutions and smart contracts.
Prices were boosted by China’s exchange Huobi listing OMG last month, it has climbed from a $6 low in early November to $9.6 today. Trend indicators are good and it is likely to break into double figures again soon, the last previous high was $13 in early September. OmiseGO has massive potential which should be realized next year when things really get on the go for this altcoin.
