Levi Strauss once said that the best way to make money during the California Gold Rush was not by prospecting for gold yourself, but instead by providing the tools for others to do so. That’s essentially what a pick-and-shovel play is, an investment strategy that focuses on businesses selling key ancillary products and services to those taking part in an emerging trend rather than directly investing in the industry itself. This concept is one that can be applied to Crypto investing as well!
I recently wrote about why I don’t waste time on Meme Coins like Pepe. Sure, you can make very quick money if you jump into the right projects early on. However, for the most part, these flash in the pan tokens that offer no value or utility are generally bad for the space, because they are not solving problems or showcasing the technical advantages offered by the blockchain. From Doge to Shiba Inu to Pepe and whatever comes next, it’s an endless revolving door of here today, gone tomorrow coins that have no substantive value.
I’d much rather focus on high-value projects that are solving key problems and have the potential for important widespread impact in massive industries.
To me, one of the key indicators for the value a crypto project can offer comes in the form of the partners they are attracting to work with them and utilize their services. This brings both brand recognition and validation of use case from a trusted source, which definitely gets my attention and shows the potential for long-term success.
Each day, as more of the best known companies in the world are starting to integrate crypto into their offerings, there are new opportunities to invest in the innovative solutions they are building. These are some of the best utility projects I currently hold in my portfolio that boast top-tier partners.
Current MC: $82 Million
Coin Price: .0314 Cents
Key Partners: Department of Defense, Splunk, AWS
The Constellation Network is an infinitely scalable and secure blockchain system that provides cybersecurity for big data. Constellation uses a directed acyclic graph (DAG) architecture and is the only true Layer 0 technology that interacts with all types of data. As such, it has important use cases including those that work in conjunction with machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. That makes for a breathtaking amount of possibilities for real world utility. Probably the most exciting recent news is the announcement of the formal partnership working hand-in-hand with the United States’ Department of Defense.
Current MC: $908 Million
Coin Price: $2.47
Key Partners: Apple, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, HBO
Render is a timely project in that it provides a decentralized GPU rendering solution. As games, movies, and media become ever more realistic and increasingly need more advanced rendering power, this token might be the lynchpin of not only crypto gaming, but the Metaverse as well.
Already, Render is rumored to be a key partner in the upcoming mixed reality project that Apple is set to unveil. However, they also boast important partnerships with industry leaders such as Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia. This is certainly not a bad list of companies to be aligned with!
Current MC: $52 Million
Coin Price: $1.39
Key Partners: Coca Cola, SAP, AT&T
They say the best projects are the ones that solve real-world pain points, so if that is the case, the Morpheus Network is primed to be a massive winner in the years to come in that it effectively addresses problems being faced in the supply chain industry. 2022 exposed a lot of problems with the global supply chain and that’s why this project which is looking to disrupt a 16 Trillion Dollar industry is so compelling. Morpheus is diligently building a robust platform to optimize supply chains and with powerhouse companies like SAP, Coca Cola, AT&T & Telefonica already onboard as partners. With more big name partnerships yet to be announced, the sky is truly the limit with this project.
Current MC: $1.46 Billion
Coin Price: $100
Key Partners: Oracle, Nexi, LACChain
Quant is the native token of the Overledger Network and serves as a model example of crypto utility by empowering banks, financial institutions and other large enterprise companies to seamlessly connect with technology partners. In effect, they offer the ultimate solution for interoperability between DLTs (distributed ledger technologies).
Want proof of real world adoption? Quant is already partnered with over 500 banks and trading institutions, including UST, one of the world’s leading digital transformation solution companies.
While Quant has a higher marketcap than most projects I look at sitting just under $1.5 billion some experts foresee the potential for it to rise up to $60 billion during the next bull run. Given how their technology is continuing to be integrated by key financial players, this doesn’t seem like a farfetched prediction.
Current MC: $45 Million
Coin Price: .0043 Cents
Key Partners: Brightcove, Riot Games
Verasity has a tremendous use case as it offers a protocol and product layer platform for video entertainment and Esports. Its patent-pending technology is focused on increasing viewer engagement and optimizing advertising revenues for video publishers. Given that it is seeking to solve a $160B problem of fake views in the online advertising industry, the potential financial impact it can have in real world applications is staggering.
Currently, Veracity has a key partnership with Brightcove, one of the world’s largest video technology solution companies with more than 3,000 customers in 70 different countries. Can you imagine a potential partnership with a media powerhouse like Twitter, which seems like a natural fit?
These are certainly not the only important utility projects in development, and more are coming online with greater regularity. How long before household names like Amazon, Meta, Netflix, and others begin to take part in joining forces with innovative new blockchain products? I would bet it will not be long as nobody wants to left out as important new market trends emerge.
One thing is for sure; as more companies start to utilize the exciting potential offered by crypto projects, consumer confidence will swell and with it the values of the best digital solutions. That is a day I look forward to!
What utility projects are you most excited about? Please share and comment so we can all benefit from the community knowledge!
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