Coming into February, we have ourselves an interesting new CoinList crowdsale on offer. I was a bit of an idiot and had completely forgotten about the last CoinList crowdsale that featured a distributed staking pool token that was actually quite interesting to me. However, I was at the coast with family... and well, time has a completely different meaning when you are away on holiday! Well, I guess it is one good thing that crypto doesn't completely rule my life... although, I do still like writing this blog post once a day to keep my head clear and focused once per day!

This next CoinList crowdsale is something that is very interesting to me, as I really believe that it addresses one of the biggest problems (in my mind...) that needs to be addressed in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. In fact, by pure happenstance, I had written about this just last week for a Publish0x contest about 2022 trends. Anyway, the problem is that of privacy and how to implement it in the hyper transparent public blockchains.

Now, there are some people who would argue that privacy is only important for those that have something to hide... but I would argue that that is a bit of a straw man argument. Privacy is something that is important for everyone, and it can be hard to define what is "important to hide" as that definition can be quite different in different countries and over different times. So, to argue that you don't currently have something to hide, and thus have no need for privacy is not really a far-sighted point of view.

Apparently, if you use privacy protocols... you will start to look like this.

I can't remember where I had heard of it, but I had heard of the Nym project before... quite likely when I was hunting around and reading about different privacy protocols. However, I think I stopped really looking when I realised that the tokens weren't on the open market yet... and I had thought that I had read something about an eventual CoinList sale.

Well... like most things, I just forgot about it. Until yesterday, when I saw that the two rounds for Nym were now open for registration.

Now, it appears that Nym is aiming to provide a Layer-0 privacy/mixing service. Definitely useful, but it is one of a few projects that are aiming to provide this sort of privacy layer as a service. I have some exposure to the other projects that I know about... but I will definitely also be looking trying to get a purchase spot for this project.

There is the usual two round system the all CoinList veterans will be familiar with. Again, the exact same timings for the sales... which does end up being a little bit more poop in Australia than it was in Europe. The first round appears to have quite a large distribution along with a low maximum which should allow for a pretty wide distribution... the second round has cheaper tokens with a longer vesting period, but also a higher max. This will have a much more concentrated distribution in comparison, but it is the round that is going to be more attractive to longer term holders (like me...).

So, this interesting PokeBall representation shows the eventual fully diluted distribution of the Nym token. The CoinList sale is makes up a decent percentage of the total distribution, but it is quite dwarfed by the VC chunk.

... this is balanced somewhat but the slightly faster release schedule of the CoinList Round 1 sale, as that seems to be the dominant chunk that will be on the open market in the first few months. That said, it could be a bit of nervy time for those who are aiming to hold the token for longer periods after which the other pools of allocations start to become liquid and unlocked from their vesting.

The Nym token is completely utility based... I do like these sorts of tokens, they are more understandable to me than the governance tokens which seem to me to still be more of a work in progress about how to govern DAOs in a sort of decentralised manner (with still too much centralised control at the moment).

Staking (and delegated staking) is going to be the useful passive means of using the token... whilst fees and payment for privacy mixing is the more active use case.

So, for users of centralised VPNs and dVPNs/Tor networks, these two above slides show off the potential disadvantages of using the current technology for routing and anonymising network traffic. Of course, all users of these protocols are quite aware of the current weaknesses... and these are the pain points that the Nym network is aiming to fix. It is definitely an interesting approach, and much of it seems very similar to the HOPR network that is also aiming to provide a similar level of privacy as a service.

Here are your batch of friendly VCs and deep-pocketed backers who will poop on you... It is always an interesting read to see these guys, it is a bit of a mixed blessing. Obviously, it is nice to have experienced teams have some sort of interest in a project... but you also have to keep in mind that they will spread their exposure cunningly and are definitely not investing with your personal interests in mind!

Actually, this is a team that does fill me with confidence more than anon avatars. The bios seem to read pretty well... and it is a fully doxxed team. Of course, that doesn't mean that everything will be fine... but at least they seem to appear to know what they are talking about... and it isn't just marketing heavy!

So... where do I stand on this CoinList crowdsale? Well, it should come as no surprise that I'm really really interested in picking up a purchase slot in both these rounds. Privacy is always important... and although there are strengths and uses for transparency, we should not kid ourselves that these use cases should mean that EVERY use case should just default to complete public transparency either!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
FTX: Regulated US-based exchange with some pretty interesting and useful discounts on trading and withdrawal fees for FTT holders. Decent fiat on-ramp as well!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Huobi: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
Gate.io: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
Stoic: A USD maximisation bot trading on Binance using long-term long strategies, powered by the AI/human system of Cindicator.
StakeDAO: Decentralised pooled staking of PoS assets.
Poloniex: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
Bitfinex: Ahhh... another oldie, but a goodie exchange. Most noted for the close affiliation with USDT and the Basic "no-KYC" tier!