ICO Spotlight | CoinLion – One Exchange to Rule Them All? At the Intersection of Digital Asset Management and Portfolio Management

DO WE NEED ANOTHER EXCHANGE?

You may not know it, but there is a silent war carrying on within the cyptocurrency world. It’s a war waged over crypto exchange market share, and the battleground is which exchange will be the first to offer the most complete package. A package that satisfies the needs of the consumer as well as the needs of ICO businesses looking to enter the market.

Exchanges are arguably what makes the cryptocurrency world turn. Without them, the market wouldn’t be able to operate. The Exchange market share is not trivial, as big money is at stake. However, the competition is fierce as there are more exchanges in the market than you can shake a stick at. In sum, you better have a damn good value proposition at this point if you think you deserve a spot at the table.

To compete, new businesses generally embrace the tried and true strategy of “one-upping” your competition. As a result, watching the exchange industry mature is almost like watching Game of Thrones, where exchanges try to find the right combination of capabilities that will win customer hearts and the Iron Throne. The combination might be mean a better marketing budget, interface, or just several items that represent a better overall package. This escalation naturally occurs within industries that are maturing. We know it commonly as “progress.” This is a good thing because the consumer is the big winner after the dust settles.

I can’t speak for everyone, but there are exchanges that I love and ones that I can’t stand to use. Like myself, I bet each person has a threshold where it just isn’t worth the frustration to use and I’m sure most people, like myself, looks for the first opportunity to transfer assets out. However, the cryptocurrency market is still maturing, and I think we are now witnessing the second generation of exchanges.

To conclude, I’ll answer the original question and say that I do believe there is room for improvement. If business is war then CoinLion has armed itself with a robust value proposition and waiting to enter the fray.

COINLION VISION

CoinLion’s vision is to create an ecosystem whereby users will be able to manage their digital assets (cryptocurrency) and use a variety of analytic tools to become a better investor/trader. In other words, CoinLion wants to be a one-stop-shop trading platform.

Part of the solution is having the right tools, and the other part is creating a robust ecosystem/community were a person can learn, grow and share ideas.

COINLION VALUE PROPOSITION

Every exchange thinks their business model and capabilities are the best. I’m going to spare you from talking about CoinLion’s the baseline capabilities that I feel, all exchanges, at the minimum, should offer at a high-level, such as friendly user interface, security, and customer service. Instead, I’ll focus on CoinLion’s unique offerings (Portfolio Management Tool, Dual Blockchain System, ICO underwriting, and several security features) that will set them apart from the rest of the crowd.

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT TOOL AND LEVERAGING COMMUNITY WISDOM

CoinLion’s answer to the tool part of the equation is their Portfolio Management Tool (PMT). CoinLion’s PMT will allow users to create multiple portfolios to manage their digital assets in a simple and efficient manner.

At the same time, CoinLion members will also be able to share their portfolios, strategies, and research with like-minded CoinLion members. That is the other half of the equation, which is to create an ecosystem/community.

CoinLion members will also be able to generate revenue and win bonuses from CoinLion and other members when they allow their portfolio(s) to be publicly tracked and published. In other words, this allows traders to generate LION (CoinLion’s native token) simply for sharing their portfolios and strategies within the community.

DUAL BLOCKCHAIN SYSTEM (DBS)

I’m not familiar with many blockchains that have adopted this system. Vericoin (VRC) is the only one that I’m aware of that has adopted the architecture. It is highly likely that CoinLion is the first and only exchange to adopt it.

DBS is designed for speed to track and monitor transactions. Each blockchain serves a specific purpose and when working together it makes it possible to achieve complete integrity, immutability (unchangeable), and transparency.

CoinLion uses one blockchain to store specific data related buy and sell orders to sync with the matching engine. CoinLion’s second blockchain stores data specific to each transaction. This dual blockchain uses geographically distributed nodes to confirm transactions and preserve the decentralized nature of the blockchain.

ICO UNDERWRITING

Offering ICO underwriting isn’t a new concept. Cobinhood also offers underwriting services. The difference is Cobinhood plans to subsidize user exchange fees with their underwriting revenue, while CoinLion’s service will list new coins to the platform and LION holders will have access to purchase ICOs at a discounted rate.

While underwriting serves the purpose to offer quality coins on the platform as well as provide added liquidity for new coins, the main purpose is to capture businesses looking for an advantage by getting a head start. It’s a situation where everyone can win.

SECURITY - CIRCUIT BREAKER/COLD STORAGE/INSURANCE

I know I said earlier that 100% security should be a given. However, I feel compelled to write a few distinct platform features that are uncommon with the first generation of exchanges.

Circuit Breaker: CoinLion’s platform will include a built-in circuit breaker (same as traditional stock exchanges) to protect from flash crashes. The circuit breaker will be available for main currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). However, the circuit breaker is not designed to prevent integrity of the markets, instead it exists to protect specific currencies from moving 25% in 5 minutes. In the event of a 25% move in a 5 minute period trading will halt for an hour. As currencies mature, more will be added to the policy.

Cold Storage: CoinLion stores 98% of deposits in cold storage. The remaining 2% will be used to facilitate faster processing of withdrawals.

Insurance: Hacking is a high risk. Chinese exchange GBL and Mount GOX lost a combined 395 million worth of BTC. While those examples happened several years ago, the risk persists today.

To quell investor worry, CoinLion will offer full pay out insurance if CoinLion has a (successful) attack on its online storage. As an added insurance for United States residents, FDIC will insure accounts up to $250,000. FDIC involvement is a first that I’ve seen.

THE LION TOKEN

CoinLion’s ERC-20 native token’s symbol is LION. It will be used to reward and incentivize users to create and share portfolios, strategies and research within the CoinLion ecosystem.

LION HODLers will be able to spend the token for these purposes:

SPENDSIDE	EARNSIDE
Trade for free (only applies to LION trading)	Publicly share your portfolio to allow others to track it
Receive 25% discount to the maker/taker trading cost schedule	Advertise your portfolio
Create, track, advertise, and duplicate portfolios	Create and share strategies with other users
Access research and analytics	Create and share research for other members or COINLION research and analytics library
Access to ICOs launched within the platform	Earn LION for being a top performer or researcher

ICO DISTRIBUTION DETAILS

CIRCULATION: 250,000,000 at ICO
TOTAL CIRCULATION: 500,000,000

ACCEPTED CURRENCY: ETH
MIN ACCEPTED: 0.1 ETH

ICO PHASE	BONUS	EXCHANGE RATE
Pre-sale	40%	1 ETH = 3500
Phase 1: Week 1 (18/DEC-7/JAN)	20%	1 ETH = 3000
Phase 1: Week 2	15%	1 ETH = 2865
Phase 1: Week 3	10%	1 ETH = 2700
		12
Phase 2: Week 1 (12/FEB-25/FEB)	5%	1 ETH = 2625
Phase 2: Week 2	0%	1 ETH = 2500

**ROADMAP**

DECEMBER 11, 2017 – LION TOKEN PRE-SALE OPENS
DECEMBER 18, 2017 – LION TOKE SALE OPENS (PHASE 1)
FEBRUARY 12, 2017 – LION TOKE SALE OPENS (PHASE 2)
FEBRUARY 25, 2018 – FINAL PHASE OF TOKEN SALE COINLIONOSES
JULY 7, 2018 – LION TOKEN OPEN FOR TRADING ON THE CONLION PLATFORM
AUGUST 2018 – ONGOING DEVELOPMENT & NEW COINS CONTINUALLY ADDED

FINAL THOUGHTS

CoinLion’s vision is certainly ambitious because it’s a new concept. The addition of their PMT and building a strong community depends on one thing: active users that find value in the CoinLion’s ecosystem. At this point everything is theory. CoinLion won’t know if they have a hit until they see user data (registration, attrition, retention, PMT use, etc.). I’m sure CoinLion is looking for a userbase tipping point level where the PMT tools will increase in value as more members hop aboard. CoinLion may also need to tweak the incentives to join and build a strong user community.

Regardless, I think CoinLion represents the 2nd generation of exchanges where users don’t just trade, but also interact and share ideas with other like-minded users. It’s almost a hybrid between an exchange and social media site, but native to the CoinLion platform.

I also noted that this is the second exchange that will offer ICO underwriting services. I think it’s a great idea. I hope ICOs will start noticing that they can raise more funds through underwriting. As an investor, I want to pick a company that is going through an underwriting process over one that is not.

In addition, I will feel more secure with exchanges that have a strong insurance policy against hacking. While insurance won’t cover someone targeting me (not the platform), I hope insurance also becomes more of a standard in the industry.

Overall, I’m excited to use CoinLion’s platform to see how it matures. This type of exchange is a step in the right direction.

COINLION REFERENCE INFO

CoinLion Website
Token Sale Summary
Whitepaper
Legal Analysis
FAQ

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Traversing the Cryptosphere,
Kryptonaut