Alexander Belov: “In 2019 we are waiting for many projects that will develop the market”
Alexander Belov (AKA Alex White) is COO at Coinstelegram.com, a blockchain enthusiast and advisor in several projects. He works as one of the managers of the Beeminer Group – a manufacturer of innovative liquid cooling systems for mining. His name is also associated with Coinstelegram Media, the leading promotion agency for ICO and STO. Friends know him as an excellent athlete, combining the seemingly incompatible chess, boxing, football and ice-hockey. And also as an active public figure, to whom political life was not alien either: Alexander was nominated a candidate for the Moscow Regional Duma and the State Duma. Today he is in the crypto-business, because he was disappointed in the archaic principles of political life. And at a time when even the leading experts of the crypto market are not going to analyze the situation, Alexander Belov shares his opinion on the market, backed up by the experience of a businessman.
Coinstelegram: This year, responding to the invitations of the organizers, you participated in many conferences on cryptocurrency and blockchain. What does this give?
Alexander Belov: This is a necessary condition in this business. There is a lot of information noise in crypto. And conferences help to navigate better. Especially, if among the speakers there are large persons as McAfee, Roger Ver, Brock Pierce – you get charged with emotion from them and you get a broader view of the situation. At conferences you get useful contacts, you make connections, you catch up the level of opinion leaders. It is important to choose good events. Unfortunately, in the high market there were too many purely commercial ones – empty and useless. I can say that events like Consensus Conference or Block Show are a guarantee that time will not be lost, there are always a lot of top speakers and cool projects.
CT: What trends on the crypto market would you like to mention?
A. B.: Of course, STO. The classic ICO is fading, investors demand responsibility, the abundance of scam projects is annoying. It is not clear why the DAICO trend did not follow the DAO protocol. This is claimed, that with DAICO, investors have full control over the funds transferred to the project’s smart contract. Perhaps the market is not yet mature enough to understand such a scheme. After all, here, as with democracy, in order to enjoy its fruits, society must attain a certain maturity. It is also important to note that today projects go more into the product development than into raising funds. Teams seek to attract the community, to prepare the product for the user. Moreover, if the product implies monetization, then today it is cheaper to invest in advertising, because the market has fallen – and advertising prices have fallen. Now it is a good time for beginners. Large companies are also ready to jump, they are waiting for the hype to fall, so that they can enter the market, buy assets cheaply. Especially since there is an ETF in Switzerland; the United States, too, sooner or later will come to this. This will be a trigger when we come out of a protracted fall. Institutionalists will definitely come into the crypto.
CT: What cases do you consider successful this year?
A. B.: Beeminer is at the first place. An interesting startup that was developed in just over a year, with a total turnover of about $ 3 M. This was a breakthrough idea, and it was possible to implement it practically without investing funds. Success is associated with marketing – mainly with social media marketing. We managed to create interesting bright content, find our audience. Beeminer has a YouTube channel that constantly brings customers. The audience grows, 200-300 unique views per day, there is a conversion of the audience into customers. Other similar projects do not have this, they need to constantly invest in advertising and marketing, this reduces their competitiveness.
We worked like media with different ICOs. Not all 100% of customers were successful, some were initially unpromising. But there are striking examples, such as the Seal project, which we met at a conference in Holland. They got $ 8M, we did a lot for them, conducted traffic campaigns, made a serious contribution to the development of the project. The project ELYSIAN, which got about $ 7 M, we helped with traffic, and we also did a lot for them. Such a large project as Eden Chain, which got more than $ 20 M is also a good example of our co-work. We also have a good large-scale project Viberate, Czech Republic, associated with the music industry. And also the Credits project is a powerful project from a financial point of view. They also got about $ 20 M. We worked with them at the stage of development of their blockchain. Now they claim that they are creating the fastest blockchain.
CT: Is it possible to make a general forecast for 2019 now?
A. B.: In 2018, we were falling, and at the same time, more funds were raised in crypto startups in the falling market than in all of 2017, although this was a year of growth. Now the market dropped and for many it has become less interesting. Probably, 2019 will be decisive for cryptocurrency. But I’m optimistic, and here’s why. Prices have fallen, while for many crypto is very interesting, obviously, this is the future. And now it has become much easier to enter the market, it is easier to find your niche and realize the plans to capture the market. Therefore, projects will appear more and more. ICOs are now becoming less active, but they are not less of them. They are transformed into a more secure STO format. Those who did not have time to go out in 2017, when the market was growing, enter the market now. These people will not miss their opportunity, because the window of opportunity is not infinite. The winner will be the one who will make a more convenient interface, the demanded application, will improve the security properties. Such products can become leaders in the market. Therefore, in 2019 there will be many projects and startups that will develop the market. Many teams approach to us and they no longer seek to raise funds, but are interested in attracting users. This is the right strategy and should be followed. It is foolish to only collect funds, it is much more important to create a working model when there is a client, and the service has monetization in the application.
In general, we are waiting for the growth of cryptocurrency in the middle term – a year or two. May be some time we will be in the flat market. Then we will see powerful growth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. There will be more and more services in blockchain, that will grow in popularity. We will see Bitcoin futures – and the market will grow. It’s unavoidable. That’s why we are open to new contacts in business, by E-mail media@coinstelegram.com or through Instagram
