Status App is a peer-to-peer messenger, Web3 (for decentralized applications) browser, and crypto wallet. It aims to become the decentralized version of the Chinese WeChat, or like payment apps in the west like CashApp or Venmo.
As the distrust in centralized services like Facebook, and fears of surveillance and data harvesting continues to rise, Status aims to offer a decentralized application for messaging, sharing files and payments.
What is the Use of it’s Cryptocurrency?
For any public blockchain project, there still needs to be a set of nodes that act as validators. Hence, the need for creation of the cryptocurrency. It is used as an incentive for node holders to continue holding SNT tokens, since it is based on PoS (Proof of Stake) protocol.
The end aim of the developers, network participants and investors usually involves increasing the value of the cryptocurrency through network growth. Status has established various features on its network which provides incentive from node operators. This includes a Teller Network, ENS User Name, and also a sticker market. There are other features which are either in research or development.
The sticker and the ENS UserName market is one of the most prominent uses of the SNT tokens. ENS eliminates the need to copy or type long addresses. Hence, users can own ‘something.eth’ and link it to their Ethereum addresses or nodes instead of having to memorize or store the long-encrypted addresses.
SNT is also required to deploy blockchain token-based group chats. These native tokens can be used to exchange value exclusively between the chart group members. The link to the original whitepaper is shared here.
Token Distribution and On-Chain Metrics
In 2017, it raised $100,000,000 via the Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The total supply of the SNT tokens is capped at 6,804,870,174 with current circulating supply around 50% of the total at 3,470,483,788 SNT. The rest is locked to be released to the core group developers, contributors and stakeholders.
Moreover, the number of daily addresses on SNT has not seen growth since the beginning of the bear market in 2018. The value of transfer on the blockchain has been erratic between $25k and even $10 million on some days. The network seems to be witnessing growth since the beginning of 2020. However, not much has changed when compared to 2018.
The number of active addresses is 812, Nevertheless, there is a lot of fluctuations in the number as it went as low as 77 early in January 2020.
SNT is listed on top cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Okex, Huobi, Bithumb, Bitfinex, Bittrex and so on. The daily volume is around $2,500-3,000 Bitcoins. Lastly, the total market capitalization is at par with the value raised during the ICO at $100.6 million.
Integration with DeFi Applications
The Status developing team is looking to integrate the DeFi ecosystem built on Ethereum with it’s mobile application. Recently, the developers included the integration with the DAI stablecoin to allow storage and transactions of DAI on the Status App.
DAI is fast becoming one of the most popular DeFi based USD stablecoin. The total value locked in MakerDAO increased exponentially from $300 million to over $750 million in January and February. The bear market and the subsequent COVID-19 crash resulted in a drastic end to this trend. Nevertheless, DAI is fast becoming one of the popular stablecoins in the market.
Status users can enter into an Aave leveraged position; Aave is a decentralized borrowing and lending platform. Moreover, it is also listed on the Kyber Network and Uniswap decentralized exchanges (DEX).
One of advantages of Ethereum-based decentralized protocol is the prospects of integration with a plethora of DeFi and decentralized applications. The infrastructure layer, Nimbus, is also focusing on lightweight Ethereum 2.0 clients for mobile phones.
Price Analysis
Since the 2017 ICO bubble it has failed to find a pivotal point to log gains w.r.t. Bitcoins. By the look of it, Status (SNT) weekly charts looks like one of the degenerates. Willy Woo, the on-chain crypto analyst who introduced the idea of oscillators and degenerates among altcoins notes,
The vast majority of alt-coins are ‘Degenerators.’ Their price chart has a measurable half-life, like radioactive decay.
Now, it’s bear cycle seems to be nearing the end of consolidation at the bottom. However, there are major resistances before it can re-establish its bull run.
Nevertheless, the Price Action (PA) in 2020 seems to be picking up on a bull trend with a breakout from the trend resistance and consolidation at the bottom around 150 sats. Nevertheless, it still needs to hold above horizontal resistance around 0.000005 BTC on a weekly scale for the bullish action to continue.
On a daily scale, the price (w.r.t. BTC) is looking to find support at the 200-Day Moving Average (MA). On 19th March, it witnessed a strong buying volume resulting in a 52% increase. The price seems to be in an uptrend since then, with a golden cross between the 50 and 200-Day EMA (Exponential Moving Average). The support from the 50-Day EMA (currently at 0.00000262 BTC) is critical for bullish continuation.
The CMF indicator has also been bearish since the rise in late 2017. It indicates that the money flow volume has had an inclination towards selling. Nevertheless, the MACD has been turning bullish since April 2020.
On a daily scale, the MACD has been positive since February. Nevertheless, is on the cusp of a bearish cross. The CMF got rejected from the 0 line recently.
Competitors
With the advent of decentralized currency like Bitcoin there grew a need for wallets to send, receive and store this currency. This again gave rise to the problem of centralized storage. While there are numerous open source wallets in the market, Status and some of the other decentralized applications offer on-chain end-to-end encryption and privacy.
Among Bitcoin and crypto based wallets and blockchain browsers, Civic Key and Blockstack are one of the leading competitors. Status will look to earn the status quo for Ethereum wallets, DeFi platforms, and Web3 browsers. The real competition is obviously the WhatsApp and Telegram. Telegram is the leading messaging application which focuses on privacy, Status aims to be the decentralized, trust-less version of Telegram.
In 2019, the initial Whisper protocol went through a hard-form to implement Waku. The new version can handle up to 1,000 daily users. However, the team expects Waku 1.2 to handle up to 100,000 users, expected to be released in the next few months.
Johnny Zerah, head of marketing told the media on the recent Waku update,
“We also have significant ICO funds locked-up for an aggressive marketing campaign once we solve all the scalability issues, adds. We’ll focus on the regions where privacy-preserving tools are needed.”
The Status messaging mobile application V1.2 version was launched on 12th May 2020. The Android mobile application of Status: Private Communication has had over 50,000 plus downloads with a 4.4 rating. On iOS, the number of downloads is significantly less with only two reviews.
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