As the cryptocurrency market continues to expand and mature, investors are increasingly seeking ways to spot a great project from vaporware dressed up with buzzwords. Flipside Crypto will provide data on various aspects of different digital assets.
Flipside Crypto Impresses Big Names with “Unique” Crypto Data Platform
According to a report in MarketWatch, Flipside Crypto has suitably impressed two of the largest names in the digital currency space. Coinbase and the Digital Currency Group have both invested in the Boston-based tracking and data company.
The service provided by Flipside Crypto was inspired by the wild excesses of the bull market last year. At the height of the speculative mania, investors would throw money at any idea that offered the right concoction of buzzwords and the targeting of some vague (or non-existent) problem.
Flipside Crypto wants to create a platform for blockchain data to help investors spot the occasional diamond-rated startup in a sea of largely hopeless ideas. Dave Balter, the CEO of the firm, spoke to MarketWatch about the project and the Flipside Crypto Asset Score created by the company using the data on offer:
“The cryptocurrency market is maturing and institutional and retail investors are becoming more sophisticated, seeking information beyond market cap and pricing data to understand cryptocurrency projects… FCAS [Flipside Crypto Asset Score] provides a simple, easy-to-understand way to go 100 times deeper than before.”
Each cryptocurrency is given one of these FCAS ratings. This is based on various information from the blockchain in question. There are three main inputs: A project utility score, a trading signal score, and a developer activity score.
The first main input is supposed to be a measure of how much the currency is being used and by how many people. This can be used to give an indication about how useful a project is to people. To come to this project utility score, data is taken from the blockchain and, if appropriate, smart contracts based upon it. Balter continued:
“Customer activity is the canary in the coal mine. You can look at prices all day long, but you’re not looking at fundamentals.”
The next input in the FCAS ratings system is the trading signal score. This tracks any patterns created by traders and can influence an investor’s decision making by increasing their understanding of trends and volatility.
Related Reading: Coinbase Launches OTC Platform, Clients Still Bullish On Crypto
Finally, there is the developer activity score. This shows potential investors how active a community is around a given project. For example, a cryptocurrency with no activity on its GitHub repository is much less appealing than one with many commits each week.
Balter once again explained:
“If you can understand that stuff, you can work out it’s a business and you’ll be able to get through this [bear market] and prove you’re an actual company and not a speculative asset.”
Coinbase and Digital Currency Group were highly impressed with what they saw at Flipside Crypto. They each invested an unknown figure into the startup. Coinbase’s Emilie Choi, the vice president of corporate and business development at the firm, stated that Flipside provide a unique data set which will be in high demand from a more mature market.
Meanwhile, the DCG’s Travis Scher stated:
“Crypto exchanges and blockchain networks generate massive amounts of raw data, and the volume of such data will explode in the coming years as the technology sees broader adoption.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.