The Holy Trinity (HAC) of 2022 — HTR, AZERO and CHEQ

Greetings Crypto fam,

Before I begin I would like to start with the typical disclaimers: where everything I state is not financial advice and that you should all do your own research, as I am not a financial advisor and these are all my opinion.

REFLECTIONS FOR 2021

2021 has been a very interesting year to say the least, this time last year in 2020 — it was spectacular to see Bitcoin ($BTC) poke above $20,000 USD and break into new all time highs. Now $BTC sits at approx. $50,000 USD reaching a meme all time high of $69,000.

We saw some generational wealth print for many people this year — whether it was Shiba Inu ($SHIB), random BSC rug pulls that became jug fulls or obscure NFTs that had values greater than residential properties. A lot of learning has occurred for me personally. I have come to realise my strengths and weaknesses. This post is to discuss what I am terming the ‘holy trinity of coins’ that I will continue accumulating into 2022 however I want to address some of my own leanings to help others.

I have found my four strengths are:

• DeFi/Yield Farming
• Gems/Fundamental Analysis and being ‘early’
• Networking
• Arbitrage

I have found my four weaknesses are:

• Trading
• Being spread across too many coins and exchanges
• Not capitalising on my own euphoria and capitulation
• Rushing to accumulate back losses/chasing gains — most painful lesson made apparent through leverage

If any of the above weaknesses apply to you I also suggest you reflect and think ‘what can I do different?’ this is how you will improve. “Einstein wrote that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result…” Hence, you need to change to grow and improve.

Now what everyone has been waiting for — The Holy Trinity. Why do I call it the Holy Trinity? Because it sounds cool. That literally is the why. The three projects are not related at all and actually exist independently.

Project 1 — Hathor

I am a Hathor ($HTR) maxi and I have no shame to admit it. I have been following this project since mid to late last year and when I read the white paper I was immediately convinced it was a game-changer.

To summarise what I liked:

• Mining Proof of Work security like Bitcoin
• Ability to create tokens and launch NFTs like Ethereum
• Feeless and instant transactions using DAG technology like Nano/Iota

This was a trinity in itself. Right now we are seeing this project gain a lot of traction on socials and in terms of development.

Things I look forward to moving into 2022:

• Hathorswap (DEX) which also shows on-chain data
• 50–100 NFT projects launching and marketplaces (Hathor Market + Nileswap)
• Mining reward halving within the first week or so of January
• Nano contracts — Potentially? As we are expecting an update on the progress
• Hathor Visa Debit Card (Simplex Visa)
• Potential T1 Exchange listing (Okex? Binance? Huobi?)

Technology and price can have divergence for only so long until they meet with convergence. At this stage technology and development has not been fully reflected in the price when comparing to similar Layer 1 projects such as Kadena and Solana. However, as adoption and utility grows this usually happens organically. I am excited for how this project progresses into 2022!

Project 2 — Aleph Zero

Web 3.0 has been a topic of discussion for the past month and past few weeks. But what also has been of discussion has been ZK — Zero Knowledge proofs. Enter Aleph ZERO. I repeat ZERO. Do you catch my drift? Essentially privacy on an L1 that has a working mainnet already.

Ok gib? Sorry but its not available on any Centralised Exchange (CEX) yet. What about Over The Counter (OTC)? I have heard of some people being scammed and unless there is a trusted middleman for the trade it is highly likely you will lose you money. Proceed at your own risk. In my opinion, they have been slow to list as they wish to do it with Unizen ($ZCX) launches. Just a theory but we will see.

Why is it that I like AZERO so much?

• Fast transaction speeds up to 100k tps
• Privacy enabled smart contracts
• Solid team with very profound credentials
• Able to solve the blockchain trilemma
• 180 million of the total 300 million supply will be already circulating on launch
• Mainnet is live — things are working with approximately 4 million TXs recorded over the past month or so
• Ranking silver in the ZCX Unizen ‘Tournament of Alts’

https://twitter.com/CryptoSteveh/status/1475651922019315716?s=20

Project 3 — Cheqd

This project is one that has a lot of green flags for me and again ties into the Web 3.0 and privacy narrative. For me personally SSI (Self — Sovereign Identity) seems to be a big deal in the near future.

The European Blockchain Convention just recently discussed this concept https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx5WjBBuzog and I really enjoyed the discussion between The Metaverse Project and Fraser Edwards (Founder of Cheqd) : https://open.spotify.com/episode/0sDixeUpF54E2oLUZmEDZI?si=WvWSeA5uSAmisV-MVJhQEw

Why is it that I like CHEQD so much?

• CHEQ is such a good name for a ticker. It is catchy and has a nice ring to it
• CHEQ has actual clients on board and they are the validators of the network
• There was no public sale other than an airdrop when it listed. Just like any project there were seed rounds for investors however
• There have been concerns about circulating supply but the team have clarified — the transparency is positive (https://blog.cheqd.io/cheqds-tokenomics-for-ssi-explained-part-2-c4ecfc32b813)
• With the metaverse concept growing the need for decentralised identities will become even more stronger
• Staking for holders already available (approx. calculations show 20% APY)
• To me they appear to be a team that is more heads down busy working and continuously developing and delivering — simply look at Phase 1 below
• The mainnet is live which is a green flag as it is quite rare to have a token launched and a functioning mainnet. There are some projects that have been around for years and still having no mainnet i.e. Reserve Rights $RSR (good project but the mainnet launch has taken too much time in my opinion)
• Multiple partnerships and just within this week announcing three (Ayanworks, Animo solutions and Verio). The fact that the partnerships are global shows how far SSI can stretch and the reach of CHEQD

• To me the biggest reason behind my bullish thesis is that everywhere I turn as I research into CHEQ it seems they have thought everything through well in depth:

1. Exploring each of the ecosystems and settling for Cosmos ($ATOM) as it met their requirements for functionality they considered other chains such as Solana
2. Anti-dumping policies on CHEQ staking unlocks (14-day cool-down)
3. Mainnet operational before token listing
4. Having partnerships with some of the biggest vendors in the SSI space such as Evernym which has now been acquired by Avast. Also worth noting Avast has an $8 BILLION dollar merger with Norton Life Block. Conglomerates! Thanks Dread Bongo for this graphic.

Where to buy these coins?

HATHOR and CHEQD can be both bought on Gate — https://www.gate.io/ref/6515853

Hathor can be bought also on Kucoin and Ascendex

AZERO is not available yet. Stay tuned. My expectation is that we might see it on Unizen next month (Jan-2022).

Concluding Remarks

I am excited for 2022. These will be my holy trinity heading into 2022. I do not need to see charts daily or what the price is doing or stress. I believe in the fundamentals. I have conviction. This for me is a stress less and enjoy more approach. Cryptocurrency is a volatile environment and I have seen it over and over again for the past 5 years that conviction plays and pays.
PAY-TIENCE is the name of the game. Those that held Quant Network ($QNT) from the early days had to hold through FUD, lack of price action but the fundamentals were solid and they believed. Now they are able to reap the rewards of their patience. I will apply the same. Having said that I will take profit at certain points when certain targets hit.

I wish you all well and wishing you also a Happy New Year. May we all ascend into 2022. To health and wealth.

-CryptoSteve