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To ask if investing in a cryptocurrency in particular can receive an answer only after deciding that the space in cryptocurrency is worthy of investment. If you're reading this, I assume we're on the same page: the bulls will come back … in the end.
From here, it is a matter of finding projects that are not just worth the time to devote themselves to research, but it is worth spending our hard earned money. When the bulls come back, most of the market will follow their example (such as the 2017 upward rush), or will it be only a small minority of projects really useful for reaching greener pastures?
As I see it, it is better to assume that this time the bulls will be more selective, which means that this bear market has given the crypto investors the precious gift of time.
Today we will use that time to look at a project worthy of research: Lisk.
What is Lisk?
It is one thing to build a blockchain-based cryptocurrency to use for the exchange of goods and services, but another thing is to build the blockchain itself that provides a platform for developers to build on.
This is what platform coins do, and there's no wonder why there are so many available on the market today. They bring the business blockchain model to its next logical level. It's the difference between your local mom and dad sandwich shop, and the franchise version grows in later years.
The difference is scalability.
In short, Lisk is one of the many coins of the platform that seeks to serve the broadest applications of blockchain technology, as opposed to Bitcoin, which was designed to be a digital currency. Since we are witnessing the early stages of its development, there are several companies that test different methods, in what appears to be a race towards mass adoption.
The story of Lisk
Lisk was originally called Crypti, and was created in September 2014 to provide "a complete stack solution for implementing truly decentralized blockchain applications, according to their own Crunchbase profile.
In order to encourage more blockchain developers participate in the cryptocurrency space, founders Max Kordek is Oliver Beddows he created the open-source platform in open-source that eventually bifurcated into Lisk.
The team launched its ICO in the first quarter of 2016, selling 100 million of their native tokens, TSS, in exchange for 14,000 BTC, worth about $ 5.8 million at the moment. The amount of LSK sold during the ICO equates to approximately 78% of the current total reserve.
Since the birth of Lisk and ICO, their team has consistently done so progress on their project, from the realization of their well-planned schedule, at their Q1 2018 rebranding.
What sets Lisk Apart?
There are 3 main distinctions that distinguish Lisk from its competitors, 2 of which will be covered in this article (see JavaScript and Dapp Sidechains below). The third element of differentiation is their use of a delegated Proof of of Stake (DPoS) consent algorithm.
To find out more about how Lisk is using DPoS, take a look Understanding of Lisk: part 2.
JavaScript
A recent one YouGov Omnibus survey revealed that 79% of Americans have heard of cryptocurrencies. In addition to this, according to the 2018 LinkedIn Emerging Jobs Report, the blockchain development job market recorded a 33% growth in the last year.
Lisk is positioning himself to help the blockchain labor market continues to expand allowing developers to first use JavaScript, which has been the most popular programming language in the last 6 years.
It is worth noting that blockchains can theoretically use whatever programming language they want, and even create their own if they have the resources and the requirements to do so. There are a lot of blockchains that use Java, Python, PHP or Ruby, which are also very popular.
The meaning of JavaScript is how much is more popular than its nearest "contender".
By offering Java, Lisk is not only aimed at the largest number of developers in the industry to work with their blockchain, but is also increasing their interoperability with most of the websites as they are currently. More simply, most websites use Javascript, allowing Lisk dapps to easily connect with most of the Internet.
Although they are not the only blockchain that uses JavaScript, they are one of the few and have the best marketcap in the group. If the demand for blockchain developers continues to expand and the most popular programming language among the developer pool is JavaScript, Lisk will be one of the best options when developers are looking for a platform for build up yourself with.
Having said that, it is obvious that since JavaScript is so widely used, Lisk would also attract less talented developers, although this counterpoint will take years to be evaluated.
Lisk Software Development Kit (SDK)
In order to make the first development as simple as possible for blockchain developers, Lisk offers the SDK of the Lisk app, which describe on their blog as:
The Lisk App SDK is a framework for distributing your sidechains and developing blockchain applications on them. Everything is written in JavaScript. This means you can develop independent social networks, messaging, games, financial applications, forecasting markets, exchanges, storage platforms, contract execution platforms, sharing economies, online stores, IoT applications and more on your blockchain, completely decentralized and without the hassle of complicated consent protocols or P2P network algorithms.
The quote above indicates another aspect of Lisk that distinguishes it from its competition: sidechains.
Dapp Sidechains
As mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons for building a blockchain platform is to increase the scalability of blockchain technology.
This requires a platform to handle large amounts of transactions and activities that constantly occur on their blockchain, and how we did it seen with Ethereum, it is something that must be completely planned for.
The CryptoKitties Ethereum game exposed as not ready for mass adoption, and the event served as a reference point for the other coin groups of the platform to be studied. Lisk is implementing the use of sidechain to allow children to be built on their blockchain, without running the risk of a congested network.
The graph above illustrates the basics of Lisk's solution to the problem of blockchain scalability. The gray section with the label "Mainchain" represents the blockchain of Lisk, and the sidechains deriving from blocks 2 and 4 represent the dapps that have been distributed by the developers with the SDK of the app Lisk.
This method theoretically allows infinite scalability and greater security. If something goes wrong with an application that would normally compromise the mainchain, the problem is quarantined, and Lisk is not required to make a difficult fork.
Furthermore, since each sidechain is independent, each sidechain has the option of using LSK within its own token economics, or creating its own native token entirely.
How will Lisk accomplish his mission?
It's an important question to ask, and the short answer is with intelligence, hard work and good timing.
Since we are still in the early stages of blockchain development, and Lisk's team has been in the game for about half of its existence, I would say they have shown impeccable timing so far.
Although they have not released any working product (the Lisk SDK App) apart from their core products, it's pretty well placed on them schedule with indications on what stage of development each segment is currently underway. That said, there are no release dates scheduled for the SDK.
Building the Lisk App The SDK is proving an ambitious task, and it is not surprising that there is not yet a public deadline. Regardless of this, it is more important to examine who is building the product and decide whether to do so in a timely fashion.
A short note: this article will not lead a full immersion to each team member, but rather aims to evaluate the team of Lisk as a single unit. correct due diligence would require immersion in the portfolios of each team member.
Lisk's team
To get a good idea of the success or failure of a blockchain project, consider the team and the problem they want to solve and their solution. The Lisk team has been internally classified in 4 departments: development, marketing, creativity and operations.
At the moment there are 47 team members on the site, 24 of which are responsible for the development of Lisk. Given the state of the cryptocurrency space as a whole, it is nice to see a team devote a significant amount of overhead to its developers.
It is also nice to see how their website is structured. Each member of the team is well represented with professional photos, a detailed biography and a personalized quote. It may be a small detail in the grand scheme of the whole operation, but it shows cohesion between departments and a healthy level of pride among the team.
This feeling is also seen throughout the Lisk's Blog, which is full of consistent development updates, easy to read articles and future focused community updates.
Lisk Advisors
Lisk has had important figures in cryptocurrency as consultants for more than 2 years now – Charles Hoskinson is Steven Nerayoffboth were largely responsible for the rapid and continuous success of Ethereum.
Hoskinson has worked on several successful crypto-projects, in particular Cardano. He also contributed to BitShares, which was the first cryptocurrency to use the DPoS consent algorithm.
When asked about the criteria for the projects with which he collaborated, he replied:
First, they have to promote a chain break in an industry. Secondly, technology must be interesting. Thirdly, the team must be honest and hardworking. Lisk satisfies all three of these criteria.
Nerayoff is a serial entrepreneur who founded 6 companies and an inventor with over 20 patents. It has more companies in the technological space, ranging from its artificial intelligence to that of the Internet of Things Cloudparc, to the massif internet market that is I offer.
It also has a venture capital firm focused on the successful call blockchain Maple.
partnership
They say it's not what you know, it's who you know. If this is true it is hard to say, but it is clear that building partnerships is almost always an essential part of business success.
Lisk managed to establish a number of partnership, although when I'm looking for a project to invest in, I like to see a longer list of what I see with Lisk.
With that said, we are still at the start of the game and there are some Lisk partnerships that are worth mentioning right now.
Microsoft Azure – Cloud service created by the technological giant Microsoft that allows developers to create, test and distribute Lisk applications from anywhere in the world.
shapeshift – A simple way to exchange between altcoins. Deposit a supported altcoin, receive LSK in return. (Note: LSK is temporarily unavailable at the time of writing.This is not uncommon when using ShapeShift.)
light curve – A blockchain development study, consulting and marketing agency. Most of Lisk's team is employed by lightcurve, which was co-founded by Kordek and Beddows, the co-founders of Lisk.
Final thoughts
Overall, I'm impressed by Lisk.
The team stands out as one of the most professional projects in space, supported by leading consultants. They entered the market at the right time with a single solution to a big problem and demonstrated their ability to forge partnerships in the industry.
I think Lisk is definitely worth spending some time researching and, given the past performance and the consolidated position, I believe that Lisk will survive the current bear market and will see significant gains during the next bull market.
It is not my first choice of altcoins, but given the information in this article, combined with the fact that it is almost 30 times lower compared to its historical maximum, combined with my belief that it will follow Bitcoin to new historical highs, things are looking for Lisk.
Disclaimer: this is just an opinion. This article is meant to be used only as a guide and is not intended as a financial advice. There is no substitute for doing your research and, as always, do not invest more than you are willing to lose.
What do you think of Lisk as an investment? Share with us in the comments below!
