RigoBlock: on Bubbles, ICO Fever and History Repeating Itself
Sometimes when I talk blockchain to my mother (yes I do, I understand people around me have to either be very patient or very interested in the technology) she comes out with something like: “I do not really understand this ICO fever..” (she is a smart woman, however does not really understand how it is possible for a project to raise 30 Million US Dollars in 30 minutes).
While until not long ago I though I understood the phenomenon, during the last month I have come to admitting that I do not really understand the ICO frenzy right now; Socrates’ dilemma “I know that I know nothing” perfectly describes my state of mind regarding ICOs at the moment.
Interest by the public in every aspect of our sector has dramatically increased: from startups wanting to create funds; to private bankers looking to get in; to new platforms for purchasing cryptocurrencies; to projects asking us for consulting and mentoring; to projects asking me to become an advisor or a component of the team. The sector seems to be booming right now all of a sudden.
Another factor is the pace at which everything is happening. While this is a good thing for blockchain projects finally being noticed and blockchain technology finally being recognized as a game-changer for everything that involves a transfer of value, I believe expectations from the technology are a bit overstated, and we would like to share our point of view.
At RigoBlock, we firmly believe in blockchain, as our financial engine is built entirely the Ethereum Web3.0 protocol. We believe in the Ethereum blockchain, which has been built for creating applications like ours on top of. We believe in our own product, which is at the same time a platform users can access, and an engine on top of which other applications may be built. We believe adoption will be progressive and grow in parallel with scalability of the Ethereum blockchain. We believe that one day, all blockchains will talk to one another and they will be at the backbone of the new financial system.
At RigoBlock we have been working restlessly in order to create a generalized platform which would allow everyone to create their own fund seamlessly. We understand many projects are focused on creating their own fund, and we have now come to a software base which allows for projects to build their own fund by using our infrastructure as the backend. This results in dramatic savings in terms of development, security and time to execution. A job which took us more than a year to build, could be implemented by another project in a matter of weeks, and maybe even just days.
Our work is now focused on creating the most generalized software, so that we can accommodate any type of investment fund and any request. We are still trying to figure our how the technology is going to be used, how users are going to access it and what the distribution channels will be. Given the latest results, we are very very optimistic about the prospects.
What we do not believe in are humans, as history shows that if one system can be cheated, it will be cheated; if it can be manipulated, it will be manipulated; if it can be corrupted, it will be corrupted. Total transparency can be achieved only if the people behind projects can show total integrity, which by definition cannot be the case for 100% of the people. That is why at RigoBlock we make of principles our core phylosophy and integrity the first one.
While the idea of getting funding before starting work on a project dramatically reduces the risks for entrepreneurs, the creation of situations of conflicts of interests poses a great thread. The speed of growth in interest also could hamper research and delay the development of the technology. Now add two very spicy ingredients: some groups of greedy lawyers and bankers; and you have the perfect recipe for the formation of a great bubble.
In other words, Ethereum has already become a victim of her own success, as ICOs create a cluster of transactions all at the same time. I remember one year ago I had to defend my choice of using the Ethereum blockchain for creating and managing Dragos. One of the reasons I explained was that blockchain applications are DDOS-attack resistant and, in order to harm one application, the whole network had to be under attack, which is exactly the case right now (we have to say that our operations have always kept working smoothly though).
Greed, fear and great manipulation are also greatly affecting market prices and the same dynamics observed in traditional financial markets during historical bubbles are being observed right now in the world of crypto, of course exacerbated and amplified by the absence of regulation and the small dimension of the markets. Just as in any other bubble in history though, the question is not whether we are in a bubble, but when and at what levels it will end. The best thing we can do is to try and explain where we believe we are in terms of development and maturity of the sector.
It is our conviction that we are now just at the beginning of an era and that the technology will perform a couple of quantum leaps before becoming mainstream. We compare the current situation to the time the PC was born, with Bitcoin the equivalent of floppy disks and decentralized applications as the first generation of PCs, migrating to the second generation with Proof-of-Stake, and Sharding plus further innovations for a software architecture revolution. As you might understand, at RigoBlock we are prepared to weather the hypes of the market and building for the long term. We take this chance to thank you all for your growing support.
Gabriele Rigo
Founder, RigoBlock
