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Market fit

This concept applies to any new product or technology: it should have its place in the market. Does the coin solve a real problem in an existing market? Does it create an entirely new market?

One example we can look at is something like HempCoin (THC). It’s claim is that it’s a cryptocurrency for the cannabis industry to facilitate transactions between hemp farmers, distributors, and dispensaries. It’s built on the code of Bitcoin, but it’s only for cannabis. Why does this industry need its own currency? Why can’t they just accept something like Bitcoin or Litecoin? Does every industry need its own coin? Do I need a special coin just for my bath products? Probably not, so these types of coins don’t typically seem too promising unless they have a lot of industry contacts and a real reason to exist.

Real world use

Blockchain technologies are still very much in their early days, we’ve yet to see their full potential on a large scale. Many cryptocurrencies are valued at a high price because of the speculation of what they will someday achieve, but some like Bitcoin and Ethereum are actually being used by corporations and accepted as payments by real vendors, and their prices reflect that. Any cryptocurrency that has been adopted and is being used for what it’s meant to do is a big sign that it has a promising future.

When considering tokens like Binance Coin (BNB), one thing to note is the difference between utility tokens and security tokens. A security token is essentially just a stock, it’s an investment in a company and nothing else. A utility token is an investment in a company but the token is actually used for something. In the example of Binance Coin, it was used to raise funds for the company but the coins can actually be used for things like paying fees on the Binance platform, so the coin has real world use. Utility tokens will rise in price as the platform that uses them increases in use because it drives demand, so that’s great to see.

Roadmap

Every good project will have a roadmap front and center on their website. If they don’t have a publicly available roadmap, it’s probably not worth your time. Have they met their milestones so far? How legitimate or attainable do their future milestones appear?

Falling behind schedule is an unfortunate truth of software development so that’s not always a bad sign as long as progress is being made, but a team should be working on the right things. Is creating a store to sell branded swag really the best use of resources?