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It’s highly probable that many a crypto entrepreneur hopes and dreams that their token will one day attain a coveted spot in the top ten highest-ranked tokens by market cap. After all, if Dogecoin can stage an epic comeback to comfortably occupy a top slot, then anyone else can do it, right?
In May, one token managed to do what many believed simply isn’t possible. Internet Computer (ICP) became a top ten crypto within a matter of days from launching. And, if the fundamentals play any significant role in how ICP achieved its meteoric ascent, then another token soon looks set to do the same.
ICP’s Solid Fundamentals
If shooting to the top of the ranking tables is a rare event, then it takes a rare token to do so, and ICP had a lot going for it at launch. The project behind ICP is Dfinity, a Swiss Crypto Valley VC top 50 unicorn initiative valued at $2 billion last year. A valuation at that level already puts it parallel with Polkadot, Cardano, and Tezos, all of which have established Swiss non-profit foundations to support development.
Dfinity attracted significant interest from investors early on, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital providing $120 million in funding. For a startup without a product or a proof of concept yet, that’s a significant investment. But Dfinity was promising to deliver something big – the Internet Computer.
Many crypto aficionados speak of decentralization in terms of blockchain networks and the number of participants. However, blockchains such as Ethereum generally only host digital assets and their transactions. Application data, web hosting, user interfaces – all of these services are provided in the same way they are to all centralized online services, from the big tech firms like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
Internet Computer is a decentralized cloud computing service for Web 3.0. This means that applications can significantly further their journey to becoming truly decentralized. It offers the potential to break the stranglehold that big tech has over the internet.
As such, when Internet Computer launched its ICP token in May, the markets went wild for it. Coinbase Pro, Binance, and other projects rushed to list it, and the price skyrocketed to the point where ICP was in the top ten. Things have since calmed down, but ICP nevertheless made a highly impressive debut.
A Second Bolt From the Blue?
If one such event in a year is a rarity, then two would seem impossible. However, Concordium’s GTU token is currently one of the ones worth keeping a very close eye on. Simply for the startling number of parallels that can be drawn between Concordium and Internet Computer.
Concordium is also developed by its own Swiss foundation, although the project has its origins in Denmark. It was founded in 2018 by Lars Seier Christensen, who founded Danish investment bank Saxo. It’s now led by Lons Fønss Schrøder, who has served on the executive board of global companies including Volvo, IKEA, and Moller-Maersk. The project also has a research team led by Professor Ivan Damgård, co-author of the Merkle-Damgård construction, a cryptographic hashing function widely deployed in blockchains.
Like Internet Computer, the project has also gained enthusiastic backing from investors during private fundraising rounds, having raised $41 million this year alone. It’s also achieved unicorn valuation status, worth $4.45 billion at the time of writing.
Solving Enterprise Identity Challenges
Concordium has a slightly different but no less valuable proposition from Internet Computer. The project has only just launched its enterprise-grade development platform on mainnet, having undertaken four successive testnet runs over the last twelve months. Concordium believes it can sell itself to enterprises thanks to its unique identity layer. Whereas most public blockchains operate pseudonymously, this level of anonymity is unsuitable for businesses, which often need to identify the counterparties to transactions for legal reasons.
Therefore, Concordium aims to solve this dilemma by offering an identity solution that uses zero-knowledge proofs to allow a user to get verified off-chain, then transact as a verified participant on-chain. However, the zero-knowledge proofs ensure that their off-chain identity is anonymized on-chain.
The failsafe for enterprises is that if there’s a legitimate legal requirement to identify someone. Concordium initiates a secure process that allows the legal authority making the request to receive confirmation of the user’s identity – but without anyone else being privy to the information.
Early Interest from Enterprises
Concordium has already onboarded at least one major enterprise partner that we know about. In February this year, the project announced a joint venture together with Geely, the firm behind Volvo. The venture involves Geely using Concordium’s blockchain technology to help its enterprise client base develop regulatory and identity-based solutions.
Of course, nobody can predict the future. But ICP proved that a token with the right fundamentals could disrupt the upper echelons of the crypto ranking tables right out of the box. Now it’s been done once, it’s just a matter of waiting for the next big token to emerge, and currently, Concordium’s GTU token looks like one of the most likely contenders.