Dragonchain had its ICO in late 2017 and aimed to act as a partner to help current / start-up businesses use blockchain products to solve business problems (sound familiar?).
Today, anyone can go to Dragonchain’s description on coinmarketcap.com or (various similar sites) and see the following description:
“Originally developed inside The Walt Disney Company in Seattle in 2014 by Joe Roets, and then open-sourced in 2016. The public/private hybrid blockchain platform also allows integration with external blockchains and legacy systems through Interchain™”.
This all is omitting one very key element from the early days of the company that was particularly attractive to “crypto investors”, the Dragonchain Incubator.
DRGN ATH and Price Action
What drove the DRGN $5 ATH Price in January 2018? Why did the price Crash?
The DRGN $5 ATH can be attributed to the following factors:
Dragonchain Incubator / ICO craze of 2017
Greed / FOMO / Misinformation
Dragonchain Incubator / ICO craze of 2017:
The ICO craze of 2017 had a massive impact on the whole crypto market. Those who were smart, skilled, or lucky enough to find good projects early, were able to get into the ICOs. Frequently, this resulted in massive gains (price pumps) as the coin released on Etherdelta and even larger gains when they released on “mainstream” exchanges.
The ICO business, in general, was sketchy at best, with thousands of scam projects. Websites with copy/paste whitepapers from other projects and coins that would have ICOs with no intention of launching a business, were commonplace during this time. There were even ICO review websites that accepted payments to publish favorable ICO reviews for legitimate and scam ICOs. However, despite all the scams, if you were able to get into a legitimate ICO 100x gains on your investment was not unheard of. I personally turned $1,200 into over $100,000 in a 3 month period from various legitimate ICOs. I also lost roughly 15 ETH to various scam ICOs.
The Dragonchain Incubator would allow businesses to host an ICO on the Dragonchain platform. TIME accrued from holding DRGN would qualify you for various priority tiers in the ICO. For example:
Day 1: >10m Time = .01 USD per coin
Day 2-4: 5m-10m Time = .012 USD per coin
Day 5-7: 1m-4.9m Time = .014 USD per coin
Day 8-10: <1m Time = .015 USD per coin
While these are not actually the original numbers, it does give you an idea of how TIME was used to qualify DRGN holders for “better” tiers of the incubator ICOs. The more TIME you had, the better the price and the sooner you could participate in the incubator ICO.
Greed / FOMO / Misinformation:
Today the crypto space is very similar to how it was in 2017/2018. Greed, FOMO, and misinformation acts as the primary driver for the majority of “crypto investor” market movements.
As an example, 2017 “Crypto YouTubers” or “Crypto Influencers” would commonly shill coins that just ended ICO in hopes of influencing their viewers / followers to FOMO into the coin as soon as it came to exchanges. Essentially, ensuring the “price pumps,” described above, would happen as the coin became more available. 99.9% of the YouTube videos would follow the same format; here is a coin/project, look at all these great things, I got in the ICO, and you can invest in the project when it's available on [insert name of exchange].
The other issue that came from these influencers’ shill messages is that most of them contained incorrect, misleading, or made up information / facts.
For Dragonchain, around this time, some of the misinformation that was being spread by these “influencers” was:
DRGN is a Disney owned project
DRGN would be immediately implemented in the Disney corporation and its partners
The Dragonchain company personally ensures all incubator ICOs will be a success
So, What drove the DRGN $5 ATH Price in January 2018?
Well, with the 2017 ICO craze and the misinformation around the Dragonchain company / Incubator, this caused “crypto investors” who missed the ICO to FOMO into the project in hopes of being able to participate in, what they viewed as, a safe ICO. They thought any crypto owned by Disney will surely be a success and that the Incubator would ensure they never had to deal with a scam ICO again.
The result was a massive demand for DRGN, to obtain TIME and qualify for the best incubator tiers, driving the price over $5.
In my opinion, the only reason DRGN achieved a $5 ATH in January 2018 was due to the FOMO demand for the coin since it allowed access to the Dragonchain Incubator.
Why did the price Crash?
The incubator conducted a Looklateral ICO and was part way through an Iagon ICO when the SEC announced that they did not approve of ICOs. Dragonchain stopped the Iagon ICO, refunded all the participants, and announced that the incubator would be shut down.
DRGN had experienced parabolic price action as people bought up the sell orders in hopes of participating in something that would no longer be offered by the company. Upon the news of the cancellation of the Dragonchain Incubator the price had a massive downturn. Since this incubator was the primary driver for “crypto investor” FOMO, without it (the incubator) the immediate massive demand for DRGN dried up.
The SEC also announced that they were investigating Dragonchain, which aided in the massive price dump. However, since this news came after the cancellation of the Dragonchain Incubator, I don’t believe it was the largest factor in the price drop. Although, I admit it did not help the situation at all.
Present:
The “Crypto Investor” Community Perception of DRGN
It is a given that the majority of “crypto investors,” who have prior experience with DRGN, likely FOMO bought into the massive pump to $5, only to be hit with the news that the incubator was being cancelled. This resulted in obvious losses to their crypto portfolio and likely put a “sour taste in their mouth” relating to Dragonchain.
Thanks to the crypto influencers and the individual's failure / inability to conduct their own due diligence, these same “crypto investors” were operating on misinformation about the Dragonchain company. Resulting in them feeling betrayed or lied to, when learning that Dragonchain was not a Disney owned business.
For these people who bought into the DRGN pump, despite the fact they were acting out of greed and FOMO, Dragonchain reminds them of a negative crypto investment choice they made. Rather than attributing this negative experience to their own decision making process and taking the time to examine the drivers behind their crypto “investment” decisions, it is much easier to hold it against the project associated with that negative experience.
Take this reddit post for example:
This is clearly made by an individual who does not understand (1) the root driver that pushed DRGN to the $5 ATH, and (2) The cause of the 2018 price drop. Also, given the “fool me once, shame on me…” line, it is obvious that this person holds the project responsible for their own personal choices when it comes to crypto investments. It also is implying that Dragonchain has personally tricked them or done them wrong (… feeling betrayed or lied to, as mentioned above).
These types of comments are not hard to find online. However, from my observation, every single one is made by an individual who has not taken the time to examine the drivers behind their own personal crypto “investment” decisions. Clearly anyone who looked at this time (2017/2018) in crypto objectively would acknowledge that greed and FOMO lead to many poor “investment” choices. The responsibility for those poor choices solely rests on the individual who made them, not any one project. However, I realize this type of critical self analysis is not something the majority of “crypto investors” do. It is much easier to just blame a project than acknowledge a flaw in one's decision making process.
With that said, there is good news.
Community Engagement
Despite the “haters” Joe and the Dragonchain Team make a genuine effort to engage their community on a frequency that is almost unheard of in the crypto world. They host a weekly livestream (Super Happy Dragon Lucky) where they talk about current events and Dragonchain related news. The Team communicates with the community on an almost daily basis via Den, Telegram posts, and blogs. It is clear they value their community and are going above and beyond the standards other crypto projects set in terms of community engagement (where you may get a news update once every few months).
Development: New Ventures / Products / Partnerships
While the DRGN price was in hibernation, clearly the Dragonchain team has been hard at work developing new ventures, products, and partnerships.
A few of Dragaonchain’s products that anyone can currently use include:
Eternal Report: https://eternal.report/
Den Social: https://den.social/
Dragonchain Academy: https://academy.dragonchain.org/
Dragonchain has also publicly acknowledged business partnerships with Beaxy Exchange, AQED, GBA, BPSAA, GBBC, and India Blockchain Alliance. Additionally, last week Dragonchain announced their new venture Smart Ballots.
The DragonNet averages approximately 500k daily transactions, even peaking at 2.5 million daily transactions multiple times this year. These are transactions from current / potential future business partners using the Dragonchain blockchain. Adoption is happening.
This section is not designed to be an all encompassing list. These are just a few of the recent new ventures, products, and partnerships. Clearly the team is hard at work.
Patents
Patented interoperability technology - US Patent US10666426B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10666426B2/
Process smart contracts between multiple blockchains
Patented scaling technology (TIME) - US Patent US10565386B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10565386B2/
DRGN token holder TIME as a system of network trusts (instead of PoW or PoS)
Patented enterprise smart contract orchestration - US Patent US10922309
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10922309B2/
Allowing a smart contract to trigger the use of another smart contract.
For more information on the use cases for these patents see >Post<, this Reddit post was used as a source for this section.
Future:
I believe the future is bright for Dragonchain. With the primary focus on developing blockchain based enterprise solutions to real world business problems, Dragonchain has moved past its early incubator days of targeting “crypto investors” and businesses. The Dragonchain Team seems laser focused on the goal of establishing valuable partnerships with businesses, launching new ventures, and expanding its products.
The price for DRGN is no longer dictated purely by “crypto investor” greed and FOMO. This has allowed for stable growth and solid pricing supports, that are established through real world product adoption and business partnerships, rather than speculation.
While the “crypto investor” community may hop on the Dragonchain bandwagon again (which would be super great - don’t get me wrong), I do not believe the success or failure of Dragonchain will not be determined by this.
IMO the success or failure of Dragonchain rests in its ability to establish valuable products / services and business partnerships. The price will naturally increase with each new venture and each business who adopts the DragonNet platform or uses the products.
I believe that the road to the next ATH will be supported by real world use cases, quality partnerships, and valuable products, rather than speculation. I look forward to that day.
I wish the Dragonchain Team the best of luck and can't wait to see how it all plays out.
-JR1-
Disclaimer:
I am not a Dragonchain employee and my views expressed should not be taken to represent those of the Dragonchain company. I am simply a member of the Dragonchain community. I was a Dragonchain ICO participant. I am a long time DRGN holder, L4 node runner, and have followed the company throughout its journey to this point. The views expressed in this article are based on my personal observations, thoughts, and research.
