Hello Traders!

Bitcoin finally clawed its way back above $9,000 but it does not mean we are out of murky waters just yet. The momentum seems to be within a period of indecision and if the RSI does break back beneath 50, we can expect there to be some further downtrends within the market.

Nevertheless, the price predictions for 2020 continue and today I would like to talk about a strong candidate for decentralized cloud computing that a very strong team behind it. The subject of today’s discussion is iExec (RLC).

Firstly, let us take a look at the performance of iExec (RLC) below;

We can see that RLC witnessed a pretty lively year during 2019 as the cryptocurrency opened up at a price beneath $0.20 and went on to rise by a total of 125% to close the year at the $0.41 level.

The cryptocurrency actually managed to surge by a total of 390% in November 2019 to reach a high of $0.875, however, the market rolled over and start to fall to close the year at $0.41.

In 2020 it has increased by 120% to reach a high of $0.776 before rolling over and reaching $0.60 again.

iExec witnessed a fantastic year on the development front as they continued to push brand new features for their project. They went on to close 2019 by releasing the 4th version of their protocol that integrated GPU rentals and sidechains into the protocol.

The social activity for iExec remains extremely high which means that people are still extremely interested in this project, despite it being out for a number of years already. The team has some exciting things planned for 2020 which will end in the release of the 5th version for the protocol which will see the introduction of decentralized governance as they move into IoT solutions.

For the reasons stated above, and more discussed below, I believe that RLC has the potential to surge by a further 233% in 2020 to reach my target price of $2.00 at some point during the year. Bear in mind that the cryptocurrency has already increased by around 120% already this year so the total price increase for 2020 will be around 455% if RLC does hit my target.

In this article, I’ll firstly cover a range of topics that I believe will influence RLC in reaching my $2.00 target during 2020 and then analyze RLC on the daily chart to highlight some areas of resistance on the way toward the target.

What Is iExec (RLC)?

iExec is an Ethereum blockchain-based decentralized cloud computing network in which developers can rent computing power, servers, and data centers to power their resource-intensive decentralized applications (dApps).

It was founded by Gilles Fedak and Haiwu He and is headquartered in Lyon, France. Six of the core team members all have PhDs with four of them already working within the cloud computing industry for over a decade. Gilles Fedak received his PhD from the University of Paris Sud and Haiwu He received his M.Sc. and PhD from the University of Sciences and Technologies of Lille.

iExec conducted its ICO during April 2017 in which it raised $12 million.

The project is actually live on the Ethereum blockchain and can be used today. It uses off-chain computing in which dApps connect to the off-chain and the data is transmitted to the Ethereum blockchain as a means of verification.

This helps to maintain a high level of speed and efficiency without having to rely on the Ethereum blockchain to conduct everything itself. It also helps to maintain scalability for both the iExec project and the Ethereum blockchain itself.

The way that the off-chain portion of the exosystem works is by utilizing XtremWeb-HEP which is an open-source Desktop Grid Software. This allows the network to pool unused computing resources to be used by the applications that need the processing power.

To find out more about iExec, I recommend taking a look at these two articles; here and here.

What Does iExec Consist Of?

There are four components that make up the ecosystem for iExec.

Firstly, they have the iExec Marketplace which allows users to trade their cloud resources on a global market. Users come here to buy and sell their computing power which is all handled through smart contracts to ensure that the computing power rented is enough for the application requirements.

They also have a dApp store which allows users to browse all of the decentralized applications that are powered by iExec. Developers can easily monetize their dApps and increase visibility whilst users can directly execute these apps from the dApp store.

Their iExec SDK offers CLI and JS libraries for developers to allow them to execute off-chain computations through the iExec cloud network.

Lastly, they have a Data Wallet that allows data providers to monetize their datasets or AI model datasets.

In addition to all of this, they have the RLC token which stands for “Run on Lots of Computers” and is the native token for the entire iExec ecosystem. It is used to access different types of services in the iExec ecosystem.

Social Volume Remains Pretty Consistent and Development Activity Back On The Rise

A good metric to look at is Social Volume on things like Twitter, Reddit etc. Data from Santiment shows that the social mentions for RLC are pretty consistent, however, they are not quite high;

Additional data from Satiment shows that the development activity is back on the rise again after a brief slow down during the holiday season;

What To Look Forward To In 2020

The team at iExec has been hard at work in 2019 after releasing a bunch of updates that finished with the release of iExec 4.0 in December 2019. iExec 4.0 was created to deliver high-performance computing which included GPU integration and sidechain implementation.

In Q1 of 2020, we can look forward to the release of iExec 4.1 which should bring further stability and speed improvements as well as some UX enhancements.

The main thing to look forward to is iExec 5.0 which should be with us toward the end of 2020, according to their Roadmap. This upgrade is set to take the use case of iExec beyond the decentralized cloud. It will see the creation of an entirely new market for applications that are specifically designed to take advantage of IoT, Fog/Edge computing, and Smart City technologies. It will also see the introduction of decentralized governance and energy-positive workers.

iExec (RLC) Price Analysis

LONG TERM - DAILY CHART

What Has Been Going On?

Taking a look at the daily chart above, we can clearly see RLC going on a rampage during the early winter months in 2019. The cryptocurrency bounced from the September low of $0.18 as it started to quickly increase. It finished October 2019 by reaching resistance at a long term bearish .236 Fibonacci Retracement level priced at $0.72.

However, the bulls did not stop there.

During November they continued to push beyond the aforementioned resistance at $0.72 to climb higher and reach $0.875 before rolling over and falling. The cryptocurrency then went on to drop into the $0.40 level to finish the year.

As 2020 started to trade, we can see that RLC started to surge again in January and February to reach a higher of around $0.776. The cryptocurrency double topped here which caused it to roll over and fall during the second half of February 2020.

It managed to find support at the 200-days EMA in March and has started to rebound higher.

Are We Bullish Or Bearish (as of March 2020)?

As of March 2020, we are currently within a neutral trend. To turn bullish, the cryptocurrency will need to rise higher and break above the Feb 2020 resistance at $0.776 to turn bullish again.

If the sellers do regroup and push lower, we can expect the first level of support to be located at $0.56 which is provided by the short term .5 Fibonacci Retracement level and the 100-days EMA. This is then followed with additional support at $0.50 which is provided by the short term .618 Fib Retracement and the 200-days EMA.

If the bearish momentum continues to push RLC beneath the support at the 200-days EMA, we can expect additional support at $0.437 (.786 Fib Retracement), $0.394 (.886 Fib Retracement), $0.36, $0.25, and $0.20.

Where Is The Resistance On The Way Up TO $2.00?

On the other hand, once the resistance at $0.61 is broken, the first level of resistance toward the upside can be expected at $0.72 which is provided by the long term bearish .236 Fib Retracement level. Above this, resistance lies at $0.77, $0.82, and $0.875 which is the 2019 price high.

If the buyer can break this, we can expect additional resistance at $0.90 (1.272 Fib Extension), $0.96 (1.414 Fib Extension), and $1.05 (1.618 FIb Extension). The resistance at $1.05 is further bolstered by the bearish .382 Fib Retracement level that lies in this area.

If the bulls continue to climb further toward the target, they will need to contest resistance at $1.16 (1.414 Fib Extension), $1.30 (1.618 Fib Extension), and $1.35 (bearish .5 Fib Retracement). If they can continue above $1.50, higher resistance is then located at $1.63 (bearish .618 Fib Retracement), $1.70, $1.77, $1.85, $1.94, and then $2.00.

Conclusion

iExec is a very strong decentralized cloud computing project that has a very competent team behind itself. As they continue to release new features to improve their protocol we can be certain that this project can only gain more traction over the following months. This is especially so when we consider the fact that version 5 of iExec will start to expand the use-case for the entire project.

For these reasons, RLC should really have no problem reaching above $1.50 and hitting my $2.00 target at some point toward the end of 2020 if their developmental roadmaps remain on course!