If you're in the crypto world (and most of my followers are) then you heard about Changelly, a relatively popular exchange (operating even for STEEM under the @changelly username).
Well, the founders of Changelly (not yet clear if Changelly as a company will have a stake in this) decided to launch a crypto repo, called Oxygen. I'm not pretending that I know exactly how this works, but I think it's a more complex lending platform. The one that you would use for hedging and stuff like that. The main goal of such a platform would be to assure liquidity (which is now provided mainly by centralized exchanges).
The platform aims to be regulated, both in Europe and US (in US they are applying to become an ATS - Alternative Trading System). Actual operations will be carried on the Ethereum blockchain (which means the initial tokens will be ETH and some ERC20 compliant tokens).
I'm not usually that involved at the financial level, as I confess this is a bit over my head, but I thought to mention this because it's an important symptom about a much bigger trend: the "bankerization" of cryptos (I'm quite sure the term "bankerization" doesn't exist, but I'm also sure you understand what I mean). As cryptos are becoming more and more popular, tools and processes used mainly on Wall Street are entering this new liquidity pool. For instance, the recent Bitcoin price surge was attributed (apart from the potential war in Korea) to the imminent launch of Bitcoin futures by some prominent players, including NASDAQ.
If you're curious about Oxygen, you can also have a look at their white paper (quite technical content, if you ask me).
One more thing: Oxygen will be initially available to Changelly customers, which are, according to the same site, more than 700,000 at the moment of writing.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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With cryptos people will finally gain their financial freedom.
@dragosroua I am an Ex-Financial Wall Street guy and I love cryptos they are the way of the People gaining back their Power............
So I guess you understand better than me the implications of a crypto repo :)
if i may, i want to ask about your opinion of exodus wallet and if you have to suggest any good exchanger or other wallet. i have never used or have any of that even though i am about a year at steemit and i think it's about time to invest in other cryptos too
I'm sorry but I don't know anything about exodus wallet. For STEEM, I use @jesta's excellent wallet called Vessel.
I will take a look at white paper. But lending platforms are new trends in cryptocurrency world, if they have ICO, I will take a decision to buy or not- after my research.
Every crypto lending platform has gone under that I use to use. Btcjam and loanbase were the two big ones I knew of. It's hard to pay back a crypto based loan that's used to purchase fiat, when the value of crypto increases 10x.
Also, most platforms make money off the initial loan and could care less about the lenders getting there money back. Until these two issues are solved these type platforms are profitable for lenders.
lending thing is going to be great one on that
I think the "bankerization" of crypto is indeed inevitable and as the market cap and popularity of the ecosystem(s) keeps growing innovation is bound to keep happening. On top of this I'm sure that after covering the "regular" investment and financial service functionalities, the blockchain will keep innovating and coming up with things that were never possible with fiat.
What we're seeing now are the first baby steps in that direction and I'm sure there's a lot more to come even with governments and industry currently providing those type of services might want to fight against that.
Decentralization comes with a lot of advantages and freedom and allows for a lot of growth and profit. Be we also have to try and keep our feet on the ground and remember that it can all also come crumbling down in a market crash, especially as more and more unsteady and panic-prone hands start holding crypto instead of hodling it.
So if we don't want to smell the stench of tulips, we should be hoping that all of those projects bringing additional utility to the vast crypto ecosystem succeed and keep creating value.