Tezos XTZ

Tezos is an open-source platform backed by researchers, builders and validators. The open-source platform is for applications (DAPPS) and assets. Blockchain adaption is an important step for generally accepting it as a new technology in the business world and Tezos wants to address key barriers like smart contract safety, long-term upgradability and open participation. They have a native smart contract language called “Michelson” that makes it easy to do a formal verification. This is important for critical environments like the aerospace, nuclear industries and semiconductor industries. Tezos was the first project to update its blockchain without using a hardfork.

All stake holders may participate in network upgrades by evaluating, proposing or approving amendments. All stake holders can help secure the network by baking or delegating. Baking is the action of signing and publishing a new block in the chain. You do need a specific amount of Tezos to be eligible for baking (8.000 XTZ minimum).

Another interesting thing to mention is that recently, Electis is going to do a test of e-voting on the Tezos blockchain. Electis is a non-profit organization that explores all kinds of technologies to empower democracy. E-voting is one of them and they are going to do a test with all kinds of universities that will participate. E-voting on a blockchain will be transparent, immutable and safe. This could turn out to be a solution for presidential elections in the future !

Tezos is currently number 10 on coinmarketcap.com in terms of market capitalization with almost 2 billion dollars and its price is fluctuating every day (2,81$ at the time of writing).

Staking Tezos

Staking XTZ is one of the “hot” things to do nowadays and a lot of holders are staking and this limits the supply, which is a big advantage for the value of the crypto. Tezos is now officially the number one staking network and it has surpassed EOS. For me personally, Tezos has been the first one to be really showing the strength of staking. By staking, you make your XTZ holdings available for running their open-source platform and you receive rewards for it. You can stake Tezos on your Ledger wallet through Ledger live. Here is a small step-by-step guide :

• Open Ledger live on your computer
• Open the Tezos app on your Ledger device
• If you have not yet created a Tezos account you can add it by clicking on “Add account” and follow the simple instructions
• You need to hold XTZ in your account on Ledger
• Click on “earn rewards” from the portfolio
• Click on “delegate to earn rewards”
• Click on “select” to choose your validator you wish to appoint
• Click “Continue”
• Verify all the details of delegation on your device and especially the address
• Click both buttons on your device to “accept”

That is it. Now you will receive rewards and this usually comes after an initial period of 40 days.

Tezos is the number one in staking and has a total value of 1,38 billion dollar locked up in staking, which counts for around 95,4% of the supply ! This is huge and shows the commitment of people wanting to stake and claim rewards.

Tezos weekly chart

Here is a weekly chart of Tezos with the indicator OBV (On Balance Volume). I have chosen for HitBTC as the exchange for this chart, because the data goes back towards the end of 2017 :

Tezos is going inside the red channel I have drawn. We see a good amount of touches at the bottom and some touches at the top. What is clear to see for me is the explosive growth towards the end of 2019/beginning 2020. OBV is agreeing with the price and we see a heavy move to the upside, followed by a big dump (coronavirus scare in markets) and now we are trying to recover very nicely with OBV as well rising very high. OBV is at levels where price was around 5/6$ back in June 2018. If Tezos breaks out of this channel towards the upside, we would likely see a rise towards at least the 5,50/6$ level. If we were to have a another big drop, Tezos seems likely to survive this with the support at the bottom of the channel and as well on the bottom line of the OBV indicator. This is very good news for XTZ hodlers. Green candles are showing the bigger candles as well. The all-time high of XTZ was around 12$ and I believe it can go above this. It will then go in price discovery which means it can rise a lot after that ! If you wonder what the crescent moons are on the chart, these are indicators of exhaustion. It is an indicator created by Nick Core (thetradingwizard.com) and he is one of the better analysts out there. The moons will show you when a trend is going towards exhaustion and that we would see a reversal soon. 

My personal view

I am personally not invested yet in Tezos and since I already have a lot of different cryptocurrencies in my portfolio (too many !), I think I have to pass on this one. However this does not mean I cannot recommend it to other people. Looking at the weekly chart it seems destined to grow a lot and staking Tezos to get some rewards is always interesting of course. On the weekly chart there is a clear breakdown of the price after June 2018 (look at OBV as well) and a clear area of accumulation (around 1 year of accumulation) with price holding support several times inside the red channel. All the while price and OBV are slowly rising. After this period we see an explosive growth in OBV and price has been moving up greatly as well. Once it breaks out of this channel to the upside, you can expect some fireworks !

I want to make one little note of staking. It is a very interesting concept and a lot of retail (like me) would like to stake and earn rewards. However if your goal is to make a lot of money and sell the coins at some point in time, it is important to try and stay detached from the project. It will be harder to sell your coins if you get attached and you will always think about the staking and you can make it grow further, etc. Greed will come in and you will not sell it once you should, even when it starts to drop down hard. It is important to stay level-headed if your goal is to make good money.

A very interesting development is e-voting on the Tezos blockchain. As pointed out in this article Electis is going to do a test with universities all over the world on the blockchain of Tezos. For the future it would be awesome to have presidential elections through a blockchain that is safe, immutable and transparent. No more fraud ! If Tezos can push this concept forward it might well be another big advantage to opt for Tezos.

Conclusion

Tezos seems to be one of the projects that is destined for big growth in the future. Tezos aims to solve smart contract safety, upgradability and open participation. It was the first blockchain to undergo an update without using a hardfork and will be the first blockchain for a test of e-voting which can become essential in the future for countries that have democracy or want to go towards a democracy. Staking is another big advantage of Tezos and they show a big success. They are the number one at the moment in terms of staking with an amount of 1,38 billion dollars locked up ! Staking is becoming the new “interest on your bank account” concept. The weekly chart of Tezos shows a lot of promise as well and it seems only a matter of time before the rocket ship will lift off !

Unfortunately for me I will most likely not be investing in XTZ, due to the fact that I have already too many different cryptocurrencies in my portfolio, but I do recommend this crypto for the long term future.