MetaHash, sometimes written as #MetaHash in promotional materials, is a new blockchain that is positioning itself to be a high-speed, low-cost alternative to existing blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. With its own digital token (MetaHashCoin, or MHC), its support for smart contracts, decentralized apps (DApps), and a browser-based cloud service to access those DApps, MetaHash certainly seems to be an ambitious project indeed.

What Is MetaHash?

MetaHash was founded in 2018, with the majority of its executives located in or near Moscow, Russia. The three central figures are all entrepreneurs in their own right, operating companies of their own; these include Gleb Nitkin from AdSniper, Vladimir Nashkin from AdNow, and Anton Agranovsky of Agranovsky IT. Each of these three are listed as MetaHash co-founders.

MetaHash also lists a number of staff members, all of which seem to be separated by company. It seems that the majority of work being done on MetaHash comes from teams repurposed from the co-founders’ own companies, though there are a handful that are listed as being employed directly through MetaHash. Regardless, most of these workers are located in the Russian Federation, and their provided social media links, as a result, are not available in English.

MetaHash & MetaHashCoin Product

MetaHash as a product has four distinct divisions, though all are interconnected and built on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. They are, in the order they are presented:

TraceChain, the MetaHash blockchain. This cryptographic ledger supposedly has the ability to validate transactions in three seconds or less and has a capability in excess of five billion transactions per day.

MetaApps, a so-called new generation of DApps built by advanced smart contracts. MetaHash claims these are “real time” applications that can be developed with the help of literally any programming language.

MetaGate, a “decentralized” version of the internet. MetaGate is both a directory for DApps – allowing access to them directly – and a multi-use digital wallet for several different cryptocurrencies.

MetaHashCoin, the blockchain’s cryptocurrency. MHC is to be used as not just transactions and payments but also for data storage, powering DApps, and having those DApps listed on MetaGate directories.

Currently, the majority of these capabilities are still in development. MetaHash is holding a private round of investment ahead of an ICO. Prices to purchase MHC during this round are 0.001 ETH, with a total of 1,840 ETH in volume for sale. This private round runs until February 27, 2018.

MetaHash Decentralized Apps Blockchain Opportunity

Investing in MetaHash provides opportunities to be one of the first to hold this new digital asset in the hopes that it will increase in valuation once its blockchain and DApp database is available to the wider public. The value of this opportunity is, of course, highly variable depending on your own investment goals; it’s also dependent on whether you want to simply invest in the token or if you want to eventually use the blockchain’s platform to write smart contracts or develop DApps of your own. If the latter is the case, MetaHash may be of more interest to you than a simple investment.

MetaHash Verdict

As we mentioned above, MetaHash is a very ambitious project. It’s certainly indicative of the direction the cryptocurrency community is heading in trying to branch off from older, existing blockchains that are stagnating due to low scalability and a lack of smart contract or DApp functionality, Bitcoin being the biggest offender in this case, but in doing so they face a major uphill battle when it comes to widespread adoption.

For all its flaws (and its price fluctuations), Bitcoin is not going away any time soon. That’s why any new cryptocurrency that claims to be the one that has the chops to supplant Bitcoin is going to need an absolutely herculean amount of effort to push the king off its throne.

We’re not sure if MetaHash will be the one that will be able to accomplish this goal. While it may look good on paper, the blockchain is still in the early development stages and is completely and totally unproven. This means that, if you do want to invest in MetaHash, it will be more from being a true believer hoping for a moonshot victory sometime in the future than someone looking to make a quick buck by investing in penny-ante cryptos.