-->
NJ Bridgewater
1 April 2019
[NOTE: This article should
not be construed as investment advice. For advice on investing,
purchasing/selling cryptocurrencies, etc., please contact a licensed financial
advisor. The listener/reader is responsible for his own investments.
Disclaimer: this article contains referral links].
Hello everyone!
For those of you who read my
Crossing the Bridge blog, you may have read an article I wrote last April (2018) on the Neon
Exchange (or N-E-X / NEX for short),[1]
which is a new decentralized exchange or ‘DEX’. This was not long after I had
heard about the project and before they launched their ‘Token Generation Event’
or ICO later that year. Since that time, there have been a lot of updates, so I
think it is now appropriate to give you all a bit of an update. The Neon
Exchange was one of two projects I was quite excited about back in 2018, and am
still excited about now, the other being the
Digitex Futures Exchange, which I
made a video on last year as well. FYI, Digitex
is launching later this month, on
April 30th 2019.[2]
The Neon Exchange, now known as the Nash Exchange, is also launching soon, with
the beta exchange already underway.
Before we start, it is
important to note that the Neon Exchange has rebranded itself as ‘Nash
Exchange’. This was due to a legal dispute with another exchange that used the
NEX name.[3]
The Nash Exchange Token is still known as NEX and can currently be purchased on
one centralized exchange, or CEX, called Tokok, as well as on two DEXes:
Aphelion and Switcheo. All of these are quite small exchanges, so users should
exercise caution when purchasing NEX, especially as it is a registered
security. Laws on purchasing and trading securities may differ from one country
to another. So, why should you be interested in the Nash Exchange (or NEX)?
Here are several reasons you should take note.
1. Nash Exchange is a
next-level, fast and convenient decentralized exchange
According to the Nash
whitepaper, most decentralized exchanges or ‘DEXs’ are “slow, hard to use, and
are restricted to trades on a single blockchain.” Nash Exchange, in contrast,
aims to solve each of these problems using a “high performance off-chain
matching engine built with Elixir”, which will “handle a massive order volume,
allow cross-chain exchange, and support more complex trading APIs.”[4] In
other words, Nash will not be your typical DEX. It will be fast, high
performance, support cross-chain transactions and able to rival the best
centralized exchanges out there.
2. Nash Exchange will
offer fiat-payment channels
One of the main problems in
the cryptocurrency space is exchanging fiat currencies, such as US dollars, GBP
or euros for cryptocurrency. This is known as ‘onboarding’. The more people who
can be onboarded into the cryptocurrency markets, the more liquidity there will
be in the cryptocurrency space. This means that average retail investors can
get involved with ease. Nash Exchange will have a number of partnerships with
banks and financial institutions, though these have not yet been announced.
3. Nash Exchange will
offer non-custodial accounts
What makes Nash Exchange a
DEX is the fact that it offers non-custodial accounts. In other words, you
don’t actually send your crypto to a centralized account on the exchange. When
you buy Bitcoin on Coinbase or other exchanges, you do not actually have
possession of your private keys. In other words, your crypto is actually stored
in a centralized wallet on the exchange. The numerous hacks that have occurred
this year and in 2017 and 2018 are example enough of why this is a bad thing.
If you leave your cryptocurrency on an exchange, you may get hacked and lose
all your funds. Nash will allow you to keep your funds in your own wallet,
meaning that it will be your responsibility to keep your funds safe, and there
is a much smaller possibility of being hacked or having your account
compromised.
4. Nash Exchange will
offer non-custodial Bitcoin
Nash Exchange will be the
first ever exchange to offer non-custodial Bitcoin trading. In other words, you
will be able to keep your Bitcoin in your own wallet and trade through the Nash
Exchange matching engine. This will allow you to keep control over our Bitcoin
private keys in a way that NO other exchange currently allows. This is because
most smart contracts are built on Ethereum, NEO and other newer
cryptocurrencies. There are sidechains, such as Liquid Bitcoin (LBTC), and
Bitcoin-backed tokens, such as Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), which can allow for
smart contracts. However, it is not currently known what method Nash will use
to allow non-custodial Bitcoin trading. We will have to wait until the full
exchange launch to find out more.
5. The Nash Team (City of
Zion) is accomplished and professional
The developers (and/or
founders) behind the Nash Exchange come primarily from the City of Zion (CoZ)
team, which is a team which works primarily on NEO development. NEO is an
alternative smart-contract platform, similar to Ethereum. This includes Fabio
Canesin and Ethan Fast, who are both innovative and highly-skilled developers.
The name, City of Zion, comes from the Matrix movies, whose main character was
called Neo, from the Greek neos, meaning ‘new, young, youthful; fresh, strange,
etc.’[5]
Fabio and Ethan’s background is certainly a strong point for Nash.
6. The Nash token (or
NEX) is a registered security, meaning that it is a mainstream, compliant asset
A security is an investment
vehicle or asset, such as stocks, shares, etc. There are also other types of
securities, such as security tokens. The Nash Exchange token (or NEX) is a
registered European security. As I wrote in my previous article on the Neon
Exchange: “This is a plus for investors, because it minimizes the risks of
insider trading and market manipulation, especially for securities which are
being sold illegally or covertly. It also means that, as a company, Neon
Exchange will be subject to regular audits to ensure that its finances are in
order.”[6]
The only downside to this is that you will need to use KYC (know-your-customer)
in order to trade, stake and sell the asset (above a certain amount), but that
is to be expected on a regulated exchange, especially with regards to European
laws and concerns regarding money laundering. As a registered security token,
however, NEX can be traded on traditional financial exchanges and institutions,
making it, potentially, a mainstream financial asset which retail investors can
buy or include in their portfolios.
7. Nash Exchange is an
all-purpose financial platform
The vision of the Nash
Exchange is huge. Their goal is not to become just another cryptocurrency
exchange. On the contrary, their goal is to become an all-purpose financial
platform, which will allow for you to pay for anything with crypto
(eventually), and which will include index funds, margin trading, cross-chain
swaps, as well as other services. As such, it is not competing merely with other
established centralized exchanges, but also with traditional investment
companies, such as Fidelity, JP Morgan and Swiss Bank. In fact, according to
Fabio Canesin, their goal is to have 1 billion users by 2030. He said (quote):
“NEX’s
mission is to empower more than one billion users to invest, trade and manage
digital assets by 2030. We aim to be the premier platform for decentralized
financial tools and services.”[7]
8. The Nash token (or
NEX) has a small supply
“One of the chief
advantages, in my opinion, is its limited supply. Many new tokens nowadays come
out with huge total supplies, of 10 billion, 30 billion, 50 billion, or even
100 billion tokens. If a cryptocurrency with a supply of 100 billion is to
reach $1 in value, it has to have a total market cap of $100 billion… If you think that new token you’re invested in
will reach $100 billion tomorrow, dream on. The total supply for NEX, on the
other hand, is 50 million tokens.”[8] It
is very rare to get an opportunity to invest in a token with such a low supply
and such huge potential for growth. That alone merits getting at least a small
stack of NEX in your portfolio.
9. You can stake your NEX
tokens and earn dividends
Not only can you invest in
NEX tokens to speculate on their future value, you can also stake tokens and
receive dividends, in much the same way that you can receive dividends from
investing in stocks and shares in the stock market. “According to the whitepaper
(version 2), the “minimum fee share rate is 25%, increasing linearly to a maximum
of 75% when tokens are staked for two years.” In other words, you can choose to
stake (or ‘lock in’) your tokens for a set period of time, ranging from a
minimum length which grants you a proportional 25% fee share rate, to a maximum
two-year lock-in period which grants you a 75% token fee share rate.”[9]
10. There is a Nash
Referral Program where you can win Bitcoin and NEX tokens
Last but not least, Nash
Exchange has decided to launch a
referral program. Referral programs
are a great method of viral marketing, which helps to recruit a large number of
new signups for an exchange or other business. This has been the case with Digitex, as well, which now has over 1 million people on
their waitlist. Nash’s referral program is unique, in that it doesn’t promise a
mere airdrop. Rather, by referring more and more friends, you can get tickets
which will enter you into a competition to win various prizes of NEX and/or
BTC. Feel free to use my referral link below to sign up for the Nash
Exchange pre-registration.[10]
You can use the code E17778 to pre-register. You will then be given your own referral link to
share with others.
That’s all for now, guys.
Keep learning and stay safe.
NJ Bridgewater
[1]
See: NJ Bridgewater (2019) Neon Exchange (NEX): A New Decentralized Exchange
(DEX), Crossing the Bridge (blog), 18 April 2018. URL: https://nicholasjames19.blogspot.com/2018/04/neon-exchange-nex-new-decentralized.html
(accessed 01/04/2019).
[2]
See: NJ Bridgewater (2018) 10 Reasons to Buy Digitex [DGTX] (transcript/video),
Crossing the Bridge, 20 September 2018. URL: https://nicholasjames19.blogspot.com/2018/09/10-reasons-to-buy-digitex-dgtx.html
(accessed 01/04/2019).
[3]
See: Nash Team (2019) How we’ve developed our brand, Medium, Jan 18,
2019. URL: https://medium.com/nashsocial/how-weve-developed-our-brand-5aab847e70b0
(accessed 01/04/2019).
[4]
See: Ethan Fast, Luciano Engel, Fabian Wahle, Fabio C. Canesin, Thomas Saunders
(2018) NEX: A High Performance Decentralized Trade and Payment Platform
(version 2), NeonExchange.org. URL:
https://neonexchange.org/pdfs/whitepaper_v2.pdf (accessed 18/04/2018).
[6]
See: NJ Bridgewater (2018). See also: See: John Bardinelli (2018) What The
Future Holds For Neon Exchange (NEX), InvestinBlockchain. URL:
https://www.investinblockchain.com/what-the-future-holds-neonexchange/
(accessed 18/04/2018).
[7]
See: Fabio C. Canesin (2018) NEX vision and opportunities — part
I, Medium, Jul 24, 2018. URL: https://medium.com/nashsocial/nex-vision-and-opportunities-part-i-b65c0ebea398 (accessed
18/04/2018).
[8]
See: Bridgewater (2018).
[9]
See: Bridgewater (2018).
