Could OmiseGO be the Cryptocurrency Hero of 2018?
A lot is happening in the world of Cryptocurrency right now, mostly positive. However, with most tokens struggling to raise their falling graphs and putting on a false front of being bankable, there is one altcoin that seems to be prospering. It is none other than OmiseGO (OMG) – the white label eWallet from Bangkok based Omise.
Back in 2017, this second-tier Cryptocurrency had made a mark with the closure of its $25 million ICO. This year, despite a few controversies, the performance of OMG among the top 20 altcoins has been pretty impressive. April 2018, in particular, has been blissful, bringing to the table a rise of over 55% over the month.
Presently, it holds the 23rd rank with a market cap of $1,162,713,652 USD. Its current value is $11.32 USD. Although its graph has seen a steady decline since the first week of May 2018, the overall success in such a short span of time is still significant given the massive price drop to $7.52 on April 2nd this year.
For those who need an introduction to OmiseGO, it is a next-gen financial technology that utilizes the Ethereum network to function. OMG has been built with a view to resolving coordination issues with pre-existing payment gateway, processors, and financial institutions. It is specifically designed for mainstream digital wallets and allows ‘high-volume, low-cost’ decentralized exchange on the public PoS blockchain.
The startup was founded in 2013 by Jun Hasegawa and Donnie Harisnut – the founders of Omise. A notch above traditional payment networks, OMG aims to be the one-stop for all payments and currency exchanges. It functions to reduce the hassles of payment for businesses and merchants and modernize the world of online commerce. In global regions where money transfer across borders and currencies costs an arm and a leg, consumes time and cripples trade, this universal eWallet overhauls the system and brings in the much-needed digitization.
Because it does not act as a passive income altcoin, it can be legally defended. With a clear valuation model, OMG works as a multi-purpose Cryptocurrency encompassing cross-border remittances, P2P transactions, and more.
What’s Up With OMG?
In April 2018 OMG gave everyone a surprise by announcing a partnership with MakerDAO. So, ‘Dai’ stablecoins from MakedDAo are now available on the OMG ecosystem with the latter acting as collateral for the issuance of each one of them.
Also, in the same month, after a failed attempt to tie-up with Kookim – one of the topmost banks in South Korea, OMG finally sealed the deal with Shinhan and Woori – two other banking giants within the same region. Both banks will be working with OMG on implementing blockchain technology in the banking sector.
In fact, OMG is already working on the Shinhan FAN card which will enable blockchain implementation for overseas merchants. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has been appointed the advisor to the board soon after the company announced its plans of working with the Asia Pacific Economic Committee to develop blockchain based payment systems.
The company is deeply into Staking and has recently announced its plans to provide a ‘mobile light client for OMG holders to participate in the same. The aim is to engage a larger number of users, especially the unbanked ones in this latest and more convenient economic ecosystem.
Furthermore, OMG is also working on ‘Stripes’ – the online payment platform for e-businesses. This software would be helpful in managing transactions and sales. Organizations like UNICEF and Facebook are using it as well.
Did you know OmiseGO will be the First Project to Implement Plasma?
With the rise of Cryptocurrencies, blockchains are becoming more and more strained due to their inherent design. Each node (or user) in a blockchain being responsible for the smooth functioning of the overall blockchain, decisions are often delayed. Although the process is decentralized and secured, it lacks efficiency.
Ideally, the tasks should be parallelized so time and money can be saved. However, this is easier said than done. Not all functions in a blockchain happen that way. Multiple transactions, for example, cannot be executed in parallel. Scalability is a major problem here.
To address this issue OMG aims at implementing Plasma.
“Plasma is a proposed framework for incentivized and enforced execution of smart contracts which is scalable to a significant amount of state updates per second (potentially billions) enabling the blockchain to be able to represent a significant amount of decentralized financial applications worldwide. These smart contracts are incentivized to continue operation autonomously via network transaction fees, which is ultimately reliant upon the underlying blockchain (e.g. Ethereum) to enforce transactional state transitions.”
https://plasma.io/
In simple terms, the Plasma Protocol involves four primary parts – the client, child chain, root chain, and parent chain. The deposit of funds is executed from parent to child chain via smart contract and withdrawal, back to the parent chain.
OMG will be the first project to implement Minimal Viable Plasma – one of its biggest goals in 2018. It could use the existing large user base of Omise for stress test on Plasma. If this works, a blockchain will theoretically enable a million transactions per second!
Price Predictions for 2018 to 2020
In an article published in Coin Price Prediction the following predictions have been made:
- The expected price of OMG in 2020 will be 47.925 USD
- OMG will hit 20,000 USD within a year
- This is a good time to invest in OMG
Wrap-up
This year, OmiseGO has gone from being a relatively obscure project to a celebrated one in the crypto-space. It has presented itself as one of those entities that work hard in silence and let success make the noise.
Its USP lies in its way of resolving some of the most serious issues pertaining to the industry. Its services are applicable worldwide, piquing interest in the mind of every investor.
And, with the implementation of Plasma, OMG is all set to be the Cryptocurrency hero of 2018.