Cryptocompanies vs. Cryptocurrencies and how I research them.
I'll start with Cryptocurrencies since they are pretty straight forward.
Adaptable worldwide: What will create demand worldwide for the currency. What issues does it address and provide a solution to? The Euro is useable in most of Europe so when i travel there i buy some. I find a reason why the cryptocurrency will be used worldwide over bitcoin since there are obvious reasons why cryptos will be used over fiat currencies anyway.
Unique attributes: What is unique about the coin? Is it super fast? Does it have completely private transactions? Is it accepted at locations all over the world? What sets it apart from Bitcoin or Litecoin that will make it used by millions of people?
The community: This is probably the most important thing for me is the community involved in the currency. I check the social channels and see how much activity is going on. The community can literally get deals with huge companies like google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. accomplished so they are very important.
The team/developer(s): Who are they? Why are they qualified? What have they had successes in before? I check their professional profiles, I google them to see what articles have been written about them, and i make sure they have had some major successes already that merit managing/helping develop a multi-billion dollar company.
CryptoCompanies: Some of it is the same but there is more to CryptoCompanies since the failure rate is bound to be far higher.
I analyze these companies the same way i analyze any other company when i'm interested in purchasing it. Without regulation it is much more risky so you need to be very careful speculating in this area and do your research thoroughly.
How much competition is there?: If it is a crypto debit card company why will it outlast/be better than the rest since there are already plenty in that space. If there is alot of competition in that space i stay away from it altogether since there will likely be even more coming up shortly and we all know that Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, are the only credit card companies that made it out of thousands that tried.
What problems does it solve from the current non-crypto companies?: If it is a company for sharing videos, why will it beat Youtube? If it is a social media site, why will it beat facebook? Can it co-exist with these giants that already dominate those markets and why? I like companies that are going for something totally new or have a major improvement on something that exists.
Market Cap Value: The total market cap of a company is the actual value of the company if it were sold today. I've seen cryptocompanies that have a $100,000,000 value and all they are is a website and a phone app in development. Would you pay 100 million dollars for a website? Of course not. It's hard to put a value on some things like a new invention but an idea is worthless without implementation so i don't value ideas too high. If you watch the dragons den you will note that there must be revenue for them to invest and the same should be for you if you want to have a better chance of success. I invest in undervalued companies, not overvalued ones. If it's a debit card company, how many customers do they have? Do they have a deal with Visa already? What is their revenue? When you buy cryptocompanies coins you are essentially buying stock in the company even though you don't get ownership. Sometimes there are dividends and they move up and down based on the successes/failures of the company the same way.
Timeline/roadmap: I've been analyzing roadmaps for over 15 years now and i can tell you that the companies that don't hit their targets on their original roadmaps almost always fail. I own stocks in medical companies that had FDA approval on the roadmap for 2008... They are still working on it. This one is simple, verify roadmaps, targets, and goals, and make sure they are achieved when they said they would be.
Finished product ready for market: If the company has an idea and is already at ICO without even a beta version i just move on immediately. What this means to me is that they couldn't raise the money they needed to develop the product and if experienced angel investors aren't interested then neither am I. I treat ICO's the same way I treat IPO's and you will find that most IPO's have millions of dollars in revenue before even thinking about going public. They have also had several rounds of funding completed and a finished product that's proven in the market.
The team/management: Who are they? Why are they qualified? What have they had successes in before? Have they built a successful company in the same space before and how did they exit? I check their professional profiles, I google them to see what articles have been written about them, and i make sure they have had some major successes already that merit managing/helping develop a multi-billion dollar company.
Takeaway: There are plenty of ways to gamble in the world and crypto-world is a big one. I choose to use a portion of my investment portfolio to invest in this space but i'm not interested in gambling in it.