What Is OmiseGO ? (OMG)

OMG is probably one of the most recognisable acronyms on the internet, but in the world of cryptocurrencies, it means something completely different. If you've heard OMG mentioned in crypto it could be one of two things, either the market crashing, or it could mean someone is shilling you the currency OmiseGo. OmiseGO is by no means a unique product or the only project seeking to capture the grey markets to unbank the banked using cryptocurrency technology.

There is and always will be fierce competition in this particular industry, which has its pros and cons. Having plenty of competition in a particular market drives ingenuity, keeps pricing low and speeds up adoption as each competitor looks to capture their piece the market. While a high competition niche is risky, the rewards in being the most significant player in the market are well worth it. Whether or not OmiseGO will be the one to dominate this space remains to be seen. SO do they have a chance? Let's find out.

What is OmiseGO (OMG)?

OmiseGO is a startup by Jun Hasegawa and Donnie Harinsut, the founders of the already operating company Omise, which was founded in 2013, in Bangkok, Thailand. OmiseGO's initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 raised over USD $25 million, turning down over USD $100 million in the process, and is currently the 3rd highest market cap ERC20 cryptocurrency token in the world, valued at over USD $2 billion (however this valuation fluctuates due to volatility).

Its token OMG is currently the fourth highest market cap Ethereum project in the world and was the first Ethereum project to exceeds a $1 billion valuation. OmiseGO is an open payment platform and decentralised exchange issued on the Ethereum blockchain, an open-source public blockchain. Its main aim is to provide better financial services for everyone, including both people who use traditional banking services and people in developing countries and locales which lack traditional banking infrastructure. The project is supported by co-founders of Ethereum: Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood and are designed by the creator of Lightning Network and Plasma, Joseph Poon.

It also has the endorsement and support of the Bank of Thailand and the Thai Ministry of Finance. Omise was awarded Digital Company of the Year by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at Digital Thailand Big Bang 2017, an exhibition organised by the government to showcase its digital economy agenda. Omise is supported by institutional investors and partnerships including Alipay, McDonald's and Minor International.

Why you should pay attention to OmiseGO?

Public and Permission-less

The completed network will be freely available to the public and not owned by the founding company Omise, which will use the network to support its existing payment business and benefit from network effects. Formalised partnerships are not required to use the OmiseGO network, which is public and permission-less in the same way that Ethereum and Bitcoin are.

Blockchain

The OmiseGO blockchain is a fully on-chain and massively-scalable decentralised exchange, liquidity provider mechanism, clearinghouse messaging network, and an asset-backed blockchain gateway.[2][3] The OmiseGo blockchain provides an incentive for large holders to gain more tokens by securing the network and putting those tokens at stake. It has low fees, fast transaction times, cash-out options.

White-label Wallet

The first public release of the OmiseGO White-label Wallet SDK is expected to happen in the first quarter of 2018. The White-label wallet SDK will allow a range of payment solutions which can be easily deployed on the OmiseGO network. It will allow users to exchange fiat money, cryptocurrency, card payments, gift cards, top-ups and credit payments for other digital assets on the OmiseGo decentralized exchange.

Digital wallet providers have the flexibility to enhance, add, and customise payment solutions for different industries and markets. All transactions across digital wallet providers will be conducted on the OmiseGO network.

Currency agnostic

Most exchanges allow users to exchange money from fiat to cryptocurrency and back. This restriction causes a lot of fees to be taken out of a user’s account. If you're trading between currencies or transfer currencies on the blockchain, you will incur fees and depend on the size of the block and the value of the transfer you can end up paying a large number of transaction fees.

OmiseGO circumvents this process by claiming that it is currency agnostic. It doesn’t matter whether you’re converting ETH to USD, or ETH to BTC. The process and fees remain the same: one direct conversion with one small fee.

What is OmiseGO being used for?

1. Remittances

Using traditional remittance methods make it difficult for a lot of lower LSM's to send money home. Fees will take up a large percentage of the total amount, especially for weekly or bi-weekly transfers. OmiseGo can offer almost instant transfers at a low cost.

2. Loyalty points

The Omise GO network offers a solution for instant redemption and exchange of multiple loyalty point currencies on a single platform. With all their points stored in only one “wallet”, consumers no longer have to hunt for each program’s options, limitations, and redemption rules. From the perspective of a company, the Omise GO platform would enable companies to rapidly add and maintain loyalty partnerships without adding complexity or costs to their programs.

3. Mobile banking

OMG offers a free open-source, SDK and white label “eWallet” model which allows developers to create their own styles, designs and even custom app integrations. This could handle cross-wallet transactions, payments, transfers and even rewards points on mobile devices.

4. Asset tracking

Since OMG runs on the ETH ERC-20 blockchain, all transactions and assets are recorded in the public ledger making it easy to view, retrieve and monitor transactions in real time as well as backdating transactions easier.

5. Digital gift cards

OMG makes use of Smart contracts a key feature that comes with using an ER20 token. The Smart contract allows OMG to create digital gift cards that can be bought, sold and transferred as you would any cryptocurrency.

6. Tokenized fiat

Fiat currencies will be seamlessly turned into digital tokens and back to any fiat of choice with the OMG token. Eliminating the current process of having to exchange it for another larger and widely accepted currency like Bitcoin or Ethereum and then being able to cash out into fiat.

Can you mine OmiseGO?

Since Omise is an Ethereum based token rather than a coin, it cannot be mined directly.

Can you earn OmiseGO?

Staking

The OMG system is designed to run on a permissionless proof-of-stake (PoS) network which means that the token holders will be able to stake their holdings to secure the network and receive OMG in return.

Trading

Omise users can earn digital currency via exchanges. Users can earn tokens through trading on different fiat and cryptocurrencies and take advantage of market fluctuations.

Where can you buy OmiseGO?

OmiseGo is listed on a range of international cryptocurrency exchanges and is actively traded on websites like:

• Binance
• Bitfinex
• Bittrex
• BX Thailand
• Coinspot
• HitBTC
• Kucoin
• Liqui
• Mercatox
• Poloniex
• Upbit

Should you invest in OmiseGO?

The ER20 token market has blown up over the past year with a wide range of applications using its smart contract support and the Ethereum Blockchain to build decentralised offerings. A few worth mentioning are Products like Civic and Storm. While being an ER20 token doesn't give you much in the way of unique technology it does give you a solid base to work off of.

What will make or break any ER20 token will be the application itself, validity in the market as well as the partnerships with traditional industries and adoption rates by either businesses or consumers for regular use.

While I do not see this coin as a game changer I have to admit that the OmiseGo project shows some promise. It is currently being backed by some leading financial institutions and advisors like Vitalik Buterin and has a host of other talented individuals working on the project. It's partnerships with big players like Alipay also gives it a strategic advantage over others in the space.

These are all exciting developments that put OmiseGo in a very competitive spot in the ERC-20 tokens space.

For more on OMG check out their official website

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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice and is for educational purposes only. As of the time posting the writers may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency as all investments contain risk.

Tags: Cryptocurrency, blockchain