The Conceal Network and the Current State of Crypto
Simply Building a Better Future
In the wake of scams, frauds and hacks one thing has been constant over the past couple of years and that has been steady development and community growth from Conceal Network. When we take a look at the current bear market and some of the colossal events that have had major market impacts there are a couple of themes that can be taken away from it. From the collapse of Luna Terra to the likely fraudulent activity from 3AC and SBF/FTX, the founders and builders who have their heads down and are focused on building a better future are quietly drowned out by these headlines. In doing research about blockchain-based projects it’s vital to understand what their goals are, how are they planning on accomplishing them, and tracking actual projects’ development and releases.
What Are They Trying To Accomplish
Why Are We Here
It’s easy to get pulled into an ecosystem or project for a variety of reasons, but one should always take a step back to understand what the project’s goals and vision are. Although many might not have the technical abilities to understand what a project is technically doing to accomplish goals, sometimes things sound too good. One particular skill that has served many wells over many market cycles is to be a skeptic. In saying this, it’s always healthy to play devil’s advocate to 1) better understand the motives and methods of a project and 2) perform “Trust, but Verify” type of actions. In the current decentralized landscape, sometimes people can be their own worst enemy, especially if you blindly follow the words of another.
Eyes on the Prize
The goal of Conceal Network has been consistent since launching in 2018, with its four fundamental pillars that serve as the foundation for the Conceal community: privacy, social inclusion, decentralization, and censorship resistance. These four pillars can be seen across the product being developed on the chain, the sentiment, and voice of the community, as well as the voice of those involved with the development of the project.
Bad Actors
All that Glitter Isn’t Gold
The recent bull market really brought in a ton of new people into the blockchain space. As new investors come into the crypto-sphere, the first people that they come into contact with via their research are usually the loudest and/or the most charismatic people in the industry. Founders like Do Kwon and Richard Heart, traders like Su Zhu and SBF, and a litany of YouTube/Twitter Influencers attract people either through their bravado and/or smooth talking skills. The combination of these marketing skills and projects that demonstrate “ponzi-nomics”-like tendencies or flaws is what has led us to major losses by the common retail crypto supporter. Although it’s hard to see the wolf under the sheep’s clothing there are some key things to keep an eye on about projects and how to avoid being duped.
Slowly, then Gradually…
A constant and reassuring metric for any project in the blockchain space is being able to see the devs developing. Conceal Network, since its inception has been constantly working on the codebase and slowly adding team members to help produce new features and grow the privacy ecosystem over the past 5 years. A simple trip to Conceal’s GitHub (or any respectable project) would show someone familiar with the development, that there is a team constantly pushing new commits and improving the codebase. In addition to just developing the project, the community has a loud voice in saying the things that they would like to see. Annual events like Consensus and community-proposed projects have occurred with community involvement and say. Although not everyone will or can have a deep understanding of how software/blockchain development works, understanding a consistent flow of GitHub commits, dialogue between developers and the community, and features being rolled out are all great signs of how to choose a project that has a future.
Unrealistic Gains
Unyielding Yield
One way that people fall victim to bad actors in crypto is by looking for “The Next Coin to 100x” type of projects. Although crypto in its short life cycle has seen parabolic growth from projects, there are many attractive financial incentives from projects that when you do the math don’t add up. Ponzinomic-like schemes with ultra-high yield rates are usually a way for bad actors to secure “Exit Liquidity”. If yield rates are in the area 20+%, as the old saying goes “If it’s too good to be true…”. The allure of massive gains is a problem in the space. The origins and technology behind blockchain are actually aimed at serving a purpose and utility. Projects that make grandstanding promises usually have a major flaw hidden somewhere in how they will deliver the promised yield or is flat-out a Ponzi scheme.
Steady Tokenomics and Yield
Conceal Network takes great pride in the amount of time and energy that was put into the project’s tokenomics. The aim is an egalitarian way of distributing coins from the project and limiting a finite supply of Conceal coins. The security enabled through the PoW consensus mechanism ensures that there will be over 100 years of block rewards available to miners in the future. Another emission-like process is the Conceal-Earn program via HTLC that is available through Conceal Network. In essence, coins can be locked in for a duration of 1 to 12 months and with a tiered system for the number of coins locked can see staking rewards from just under 1% at the lowest commitment and up to 6% at the highest tier. This feature is baked into the overall emissions of the project and has a projected duration of being available for the next ~25 years. This means that at a sustainable emission and yield for HTLC, they are all factored into the tokenomics of the projects and there will be no surprises given the current protocol rules and settings.
