A New Kind of ICO: Workcoin and EOS Lynx
A company called Needly Inc. is holding a new kind of initial cryptocurrency offering (ICO).
Needly is apparently selling two cryptocurrencies; Workcoin (WRK) and EOS Lynx (LYNX) at once. A joint ICO for both currencies is underway. The ICO will be longer than most it began on 1 September 2018, and should end on Halloween Day (October 31) 2018.
The Halloween ending is strangely appropriate; because Needly and Workcoin’s Founder and CEO shares the name of a classic horror movie villain, Fred Krueger. Those old enough to remember the real Nightmare on Elm Street will understand why Workcoin, Needly, and EOS Lynx are a little creepy.
Workcoin and EOS Lynx two ICOs in One
The reason Needly has combined the Workcoin and EOS Lynx ICOs is clear – to increase the supply. By combining the ICOs, Needly can achieve a Circulating Supply of 300 million and a Total Supply of 500 million.
Theoretically that will increase the market and the value for these coins. For example, it made a Pre-sale of 130 million WRK and LYNX token Possible. There will apparently be an ICO of 100 million tokens and reserves of 160 million tokens.
An obvious hope is to generate a high Market Volume which can lead to a high coin price. That is necessary because Krueger moved Workcoin’s platform to the lesser known EOS blockchain operating system from Ethereum.
Furthermore, ditching Ethereum will reduce Workcoin’s potential market capitalization. EOS is not as widely as used Ethereum. Ethereum (ETH) had a Market Capitalization of $17.753 billion on 12 September 2018. Correspondingly EOS (EOS) had a Market Capitalization of $4.393 billion on the same day.
What is WorkCoin?
Workcoin (WRK) will need a huge capitalization because Needly is trying to build a blockchain marketplace for freelances. The plan at Workcoin is to create a cryptocurrency-powered alternative to Upwork.
Needly is trying to attract freelancers and employers to Workcoin with Zero Fees, Real Identity and Escrow. Unlike Upwork, Workcoin will pay freelancers in cryptocurrency and require users to have an authenticated GitHub or LinkedIn profile and credentials.
Needly is planning to make money by offering flat rate services. The hope is that flat rate services will attract more users and create a larger market volume.
On the positive side, iPhone & Android apps for Workcoin are in existence. On the negative side, it is not clear if anybody can find work through them. I have attracted no responses from my Workcoin profile.
The potential market for Workcoin is vast because many freelancers dislike Upwork and its competitors. Upwork is unpopular because it charges up to 20% for most transactions.
That is good for Upwork investors but bad for freelancers. Consequently, Workcoin speculators will want to know if Upwork is making money.
Is Upwork Making Money?
Freelancing is a potentially lucrative enterprise, Upwork claims freelances are making $1 billion through its site each year.
About 375,000 freelancers and 475,000 clients were using Upwork’s CEO TechCrunch estimated on 6 September 2018. Upwork is planning an initial public offering (IPO); and a listing on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol UPWL.
Upwork made $228 million from the $1.56 billion worth of services purchased through its site between June 2017 and June 2018, TechCrunch estimated. However, Upwork reported a $7.1 million loss for the first six months of 2018.
Notably, Upwork is very vulnerable to centralization TechCrunch claims just two clients accounted for 10% of its revenues in 2016 and 2017. They created Upwork when Elance and ODesk merged in 2015.
Tellingly, parts of Upwork’s IPO proceeds will reportedly pay off a $19 million loan to the Silicon Valley Bank, TechCrunch claims. Upwork has apparently raised $30 million in private equity.
What is EOS Lynx?
Needly bills EOS Lynx (LYNX) as “the first EOS wallet designed for everyday use.” Needly claims EOS Lynx will “transact instantly on the ultra-fast EOS network at zero cost.”
There are EOS Lynx apps available at Google Play and the App Store at the present time. An EOS Lynx desktop app for Windows is also available. Therefore, EOS Lynx is a real working product.
Unfortunately, it is not clear if EOS Lynx is any better than the zillion other cryptocurrency wallets out there. EOS is popular and fast growing, but evidence EOS is any better than Ethereum is lacking.
EOS Lynx and Workcoin are betting everything on EOS
EOS is supposedly faster and more scalable than Ethereum. EOS’s developer Block.one claims its blockhain will transmit 1,000 transactions per second.
EOS has apparently solved the blockchain scalability problem provided that Block.one’s claims are true. The blockchain scalability problem is the size limit that keeps cryptocurrency transaction processing capabilities low. As an illustration existing Ethereum platforms can only process 10 to 20 transactions a second.
To make money, Workcoin will need to process several hundred transactions a second. Therefore, Needly is betting everything on EOS’s transaction capacity. It will need such transaction capabilities to introduce EOS Lynx to a mass market.
Is the Workcoin and EOS Lynx Joint ICO a good idea?
The obvious advantage to a joint Workcoin and EOS Lynx ICO is to generate a large coin volume. Creating a large coin volume is difficult in today’s market because of the incredible number of cryptocurrencies out there.
Even good ICOs like Workcoin and EOS Lynx are having difficulty standing out from the crowd. Only the final numbers will tell if EOS Lynx and Workcoin can buck that trend.
Speculators should inspect Workcoin (WRK) and EOS Lynx (LYNX) these cryptocurrencies represent good projects with the potential to make a lot of money.
Watch Workcoin carefully because it might be the coin that proves EOS (EOS) is a major cryptocurrency. Be leery of EOS Lynx (LYNX) because that altcoin will have no value if Workcoin fails.
