In light of a previous article which can be considered an introduction to Ambrosus through a few basic use cases, I want to go further in-depth in discussing — reasonably — why I believe Ambrosus is the best supply chain solution currently being built. I would like to point out that I will try to support all that I say with reasons and if anyone has other reasons that they think should be considered, I- along with the rest of the Ambrosus community- will be more than willing to listen to them.

The Ultimate Comparison

Whether you’re a long term follower or relatively new to the Ambrosus project, it will be beneficial for all to take a deeper dive into the ways in which Ambrosus compares to some of the other supply chain projects. The main areas I want to compare are: 1) solution and area of focus, 2) crypto-economic model, and 3) hardware and future potential.

Solution and Area of Focus

When we talk about the supply chain, we’re talking about the process of a product moving from its widely varied place of manufacture to its final destination: a consumer. So the term ‘supply chain’ is really a cover phrase to refer to hundreds of different types of products and their journeys to consumers. You can have manufacturing supply chains, shipping and cold chain logistics, food and pharmaceutical supply chains, and even military-warfare supply chains. This is important to keep in mind when we discuss the various projects that claim to focus on the “supply chain”, as very often they all get jumbled together as if they were all equal.

In fact, they are not. Waltonchain, VeChain, and OriginTrail are all general solutions that track and trace objects in a large variety of supply chains. Most often this has to do with logistics, or in the case of Waltonchain, with clothing. So their solutions apply to everything from manufacturing, retail, luxury goods, and even air quality.

Ambrosus, on the other hand, is a specific solution that has built itself from the ground up with an aim for providing quality assurance and increased track and trace logistics benefits to the food and pharmaceutical industries (among others). These are industries that have trillions of dollars in value, and where the problems actually kill people every year (through fake medicine and rotten food). So unlike a piece of clothing or a car-part, food and medicine also have an internal character that needs to be monitored as well.

The other supply chain and logistics projects only provide a very partial solution to the problems of their supply chains, and very minimal solutions to the problems of the food and pharmaceutical supply chains. What this means is that they merely seek to verify or trace the external conditions surrounding an object. Meanwhile, Ambrosus is the only solution that has made the external and internal verification of the food and pharmaceutical supply chains their main focus (while also leaving open the possibility of expansion into other types of supply chains).

At the end of the day, it comes down to the corporate clients that need to decide who they want to pay to help them maximize the needs of their specific supply chains. A company responsible for an industrial grade food or pharmaceutical supply chain (there are a couple hundred of them worth more than a billion USD each), is much more concerned with government regulation and best-practices rather than mere logistics. As such, Ambrosus is far more concentrated and appealing than a company that has a large scope, but not a refined area of focus. In this sense, Waltonchain, VeChain, and OriginTrail are all top-down solutions: they focus on creating a technology (usually RFID/ NFC tags or QR codes) to trace the external data of products, things like location, temperature, etc. However, they do not specify which area of the supply chain they wish to concentrate on — this turns out to be a disadvantage, since certain supply chain industries require specialization due to either the nature of a specific product (a fancy steak that cannot be exposed to certain levels of oxygen) or government regulations.

In contrast, Ambrosus is a bottom-up solution which identifies its area of focus from the beginning (i.e. food and pharmacy) and has specifically oriented their regulatory compliance, as well as their sensor hardware, around providing a comprehensive solution to these specific supply chain inefficiencies.

This is not to say that the other supply chain cryptocurrencies are useless: far from it. There is surely real value in what they are trying to track and trace. But no other supply chain has such a large competitive advantage in the food and pharmaceutical supply chain, like Ambrosus does, while also being equal to the capabilities of everyone else. All of this is because Ambrosus has, from the very beginning, made this area their specific area of focus, and as a result built the necessary sensor, and regulatory infrastructure that literally no one else has, and which has never actually been done before.

Crypto-Economic Model:

This is another very important area to discuss, because of the fact that not very many people really understand this. This is what each person actually puts their money into when they invest in one of the projects above. For those investors who want to make a decent return (i.e. should be everyone! — but this is just an opinion — not investment advice) then doing your due diligence on the crypto-economics behind a project is absolutely essential. The main questions that need to be asked are: 1) who is the target client? 2) Are there any major indications that the target client is considering the network in question? And 3) If the target client adopts the network in question how am I (as an investor) rewarded?

Let’s start with (1): Who is the target client?

For a lot of the projects listed above there are tons of possible use cases. For Waltonchain and VeChain specifically, they have been targeting a mixture of government authorities in China, as well as businesses. And while their solution definitely looks applicable to many areas, neither of them have finalized serious partnerships with a food or pharmaceutical giant. For OriginTrail the same applies: they are running a pilot with a wine company — but apart from that there is no known collaboration with a large food or pharmaceutical company. The limit is with luxury products, manufacturing, retail, and government needs.

For Ambrosus, the target client is specifically large food and pharmaceutical companies as well as high quality commodities. While pretty much everyone is still sealed from disclosure, according to Ambrosus’ CEO, Angel Versetti, Ambrosus is only looking at large and medium sized clients.

The Main Conclusion: The target clients of Ambrosus, VeChain, Waltonchain, and OriginTrail differ. While the latter 3 have a more general focus, on logistics and tracing, the Ambrosus client target is specifically food and pharmaceutical companies. Based on this, there is not much competition for Ambrosus in this specific space.

Second: Are there any major indications that the target client is considering the network in question?

For Ambrosus, this is a very clear yes. We know 1) that Ambrosus is currently running roughly 30 PoCs. 2) They are in talks with roughly 100 companies that are either large or medium sized, and 3) Stephan Croncota (who couldn’t handle the uptime) joined the team as CMO because of what he saw between Ambrosus and their corporate clients. These three indicators positively reflect the looming possibility of widespread adoption of AMB-NET. Of course, it will probably take time.

When it comes to the other supply chain projects, in relation to Ambrosus it is not a huge concern: we have already clarified that these projects are not focusing on food and pharmaceutical companies, or if they are, they are not focused on widespread industrial supply chain adoption, but rather luxury products or government based agriculture programs. Even at that, large scale network usage of these projects — who are far older than Ambrosus — is still minimal. And again, the idea here is not to say these projects are bad — not at all — on the contrary, these projects have a lot going for them. The point is to say that what they have going for them is not of the same caliber, nor in the same realm, of what Ambrosus is currently involved in.

Third and most Important: If the Target client adopts the network in question, how am I (as an investor) rewarded?

I cannot emphasize how important this topic is to keep in mind. A system can have incredible partnerships, potential, and value allocated into it- but a poor crypto-economic design where the investor scrapes a mere piece of the profit off the bottom. How do the various projects discussed above, stack up in terms of their crypto-economics?

Well, to start with Ambrosus, their crypto-economics was designed by Roger Watenhoffer — a published Blockchain scholar. The model is ideal for 3 reasons. First, the cost of network use for companies is clearly explained ($12 USD per bundle). Second, the tasks and requirements of the various nodes is clearly explained. And third, the various nodes actually have a purpose in relation to the needs of the clients. More specifically, the nodes that holders of Amber will run, operate in an absolutely essential manner for the network to function properly: without Atlas nodes, there is no storage of the data on the network. As such, every time a company pays $12 USD per bundle, a certain portion of that payment goes to the actual Amber holders as compensation for their service. Hence, node holders get rewarded because they actually function as a core part of the Ambrosus Network (AMB-NET). Without the nodes, AMB-NET fails.

This cannot be said about the other supply chain projects: 1) for VeChain, the purpose of their network is to provide economic stability (and no cost for a company to onboard has been clearly defined). As such there is much speculation on the ROI for the various nodes. 2) For Waltonchain, the returns are a portion of the transaction costs. However, there is no estimation of how much those will be, nor how long it will take for the network to grow to the point where returns are sizeable. Also, there has been no information released concerning the cost a company will have to pay in order to use the Waltonchain system. 3) For OriginTrail, node holders have a similar function to Atlas nodes in the Ambrosus eco-system, but there is no clear indication of the cost companies will pay for the network, and as such, no clear idea of how much of a return one will get for operating a node on their network.

So, you claim to be interested in the best use of your money? Well then, from a purely rational point of view: Ambrosus is the system with the clearest cut use case for those who stake Amber, as well as the network with the most amount of information concerning how much network usage will cost and where the money from the companies will be going. When you look into the crypto-economics of Ambrosus you know exactly a) what a specific node does, b) how much a bundle costs, and c) how an increase in bundles will affect your return.

Hardware and Future Potential:

I have intentionally left this section for last, as I believe it is one of the clearest differentiators between Ambrosus and the other projects. The crux of this comparison concerns the nature of data: Waltonchain, VeChain, Modum, and OriginTrail all have sophisticated sensor systems to trace their products through the supply chain (some more sophisticated than others). Waltonchain will use specially patented RFID chips, VeChain their own sensors, Modum their own temperature logger, and OriginTrail is just beginning their hardware solution. But Ambrosus, and only Ambrosus has their own special Innovation Laboratory, whereby they are designing sensors that can trace external and internal data — the likes of which has never been possible to monitor before.

A decent article here outlines the full solution but the basic idea is this: Ambrosus sensors, will be able to detect things like pH, allergens, enzymes, fatty-acid levels, DNA, etc. So for the first time ever, food and pharmaceutical products can be internally monitored on their production route or journey to the store. This is on top of the fact that for companies that don’t require such a sophisticated solution, Ambrosus can do everything else that the company may need (single stage logistics tracking, etc.). The root of this advantage that Ambrosus has, lies in the specialized nature of the project: only Ambrosus is devoting themselves to specifically focusing on the food and pharmaceutical supply chains. While they can do other things like precious commodities, luxury products, metals, electronics, etc., they have devoted the majority of their attention to becoming regulatory compliant so that they can operate as the backbone of the food and pharmaceutical supply chains, and eventually for smart cities all around the world.

In terms of future potential, next year according to the road map Ambrosus will seek Research and Development partnerships with other universities to expand the scope of their Innovation Lab (they already have two). This means that as companies and corporates onboard their industrial supply chains to the Ambrosus network, Ambrosus will also be expanding the tracking capabilities for companies in the future. This in turn will allow for new easy-to-use solutions to be created as a dApp or application. I think it is fair to say that with 30 Proof-of-Concepts in the Pipe, and over 100 companies in talks, the future looks very bright.

Conclusion — a Brief Market Outlook: Now I know that a lot of people here are going to respond by saying that they hold all 5 of these different projects, and that all of the projects have good potential in their own right. But I really think we need to be reasonable instead of repeating some empty saying. If you look at the price of the 5 various projects, compared to the upside and potential returns, you will see something like the following:

· Waltonchain (medium cost): Staking is possible, nodes returns based on transactions on the network.

· VeChain (relatively expensive for the amount of tokens you need to make anything decent): Staking is possible, node returns based on transactions on the network.

· Modum (lower cost): No staking, dividend as decided upon by board.

· OriginTrail (very cheap): Staking possible, unclear how much return will be or how much companies will pay.

But with Ambrosus (cheap), you have a guaranteed cost that companies will be paying for the network. And as a node holder you will also have a clear duty in this network that merits financial compensation. You are not just “stabilizing the network” or contributing to “decentralization”, you are quite literally participating in the network, and as such, working with the companies Ambrosus is trying to onboard.

On top of all of that, Ambrosus is (at the time of publication) the 4th cheapest of the 5 projects discussed.

All in all, you have 1) clear use cases that can benefit companies, governments, and consumers, 2) a transparent crypto-economic model with plenty of information regarding payment for how the AMB-NET will operate, 3) 30 PoCs and multiple potential clients that may begin to use AMB-NET now and in the years to come, and 4) a token that is currently close to three times cheaper than ICO price (at the time of publication), and 5) a hardware solution designed for a very specific industry which can monitor and detect the internal contents of products. And to add to all of that, Ambrosus is far younger than VeChain and Waltonchain.

Based on all of this, I think it is reasonable to say that if you are someone looking to ‘get the most’ out of crypto, the best bang for your buck — the best upside potential — will be in loading up on the project that has the most going for it all around. Of course, do not take this as investment advice — this is just my opinion — and my attempt to explain to you reasonably how I see this space right now.

In the future, if further explanations are desired, I am willing to do more in depth one-on-one comparisons between Ambrosus and any other supply chain project. There is no reason we can’t be calm and reasonable as to our thoughts on this particular space. It’s important to remember though, that our thoughts are best established when supported by facts and justifiable reasons, rather than opinions and mere emotions.

Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as investment advice. Consult with a professional and do your own research prior to investing.