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Launchpads are one of the main reasons why many modern blockchains have experienced such a Cambrian explosion of innovation in recent months.
Those who were around 2017 probably remember the initial coin offering (ICO) craze, when many new projects sprang up, many of which brought staggering profits for members within weeks or months.
While many ICO-funded projects have failed, a small fraction have grown to become current blockchain platforms, including Ethereum (ETH), Filecoin (FIL), Polkadot (DOT), and Cardano (ADA), all of which are in the top 30 cryptoassets by market capitalization.
The average ICO has generated a whopping 1320% return for short-term investors, making them one of the most attractive investment opportunities in recent years, despite their far from stellar long-term results overall.
But there was a big problem. It was incredibly difficult to accurately measure the strength of the project due to the huge number of ICOs and the simultaneous euphoria in the market, but securing a place in the top-level ICO was almost impossible for ordinary users, since it often required sheer luck, connections or significant investments to secure the slot.
Start of change
This began to change in 2019 with the arrival of Binance Launchpad, which for the first time provided a path and opened up massive projects in the early stages for all those holding Binance’s own utility token (BNB).
While Binance Launchpad may have launched the democratic cryptocurrency crowdfunding space, it is gradually becoming less and less accessible. Users now need to hold very large amounts of BNB to ensure a reasonable allocation of size from its original DEX (IDO) offerings, making them far from fair access.
However, in the past year, a huge number of alternative platforms have emerged with a common goal: to democratize access to the next generation of crypto projects and protocols. These platforms, known simply as launchpads, contain a carefully curated list of new projects that are made available to their users.
The vast majority of the top performing assets this year have completed the final token sale phase through one or more launchpads. This includes Project Seed, PulsePad, WagyuSwap, and My Neighbor Alice, each of which has achieved a maximum return on investment (ROI) of over 30,000%.
Democratized launchpads provide access to new opportunities for potentially hundreds or thousands of users, each of whom either gets a chance to participate or is eligible for a guaranteed distribution, depending on the specifics of each platform. Because these designs are manually vetted, they help reduce fraud, money grabbing, and confusion.
But the explosive growth of these platforms has begun to take its toll on users, who are gradually seeing their dedicated resources shrink as the number of users grows. Many decentralized launchpads are also starting to see their minimum entry bar increase, with the lowest tier on some launch pads requiring an investment of several thousand dollars.
Launchpad industry
Today, the launch pad industry is densely populated with various platforms, many of which are aimed at launching projects on specific blockchains or in specific sectors. While there is usually a set of platforms that provide launchpad services for each blockchain, some of them have come to dominate their chains, absorbing most of the quality projects.
As it stands, DAO Maker currently dominates the Ethereum project landscape, launching strengths such as XCAD Network, Opulous, Orion Money, GameFi, and DeRace in recent months. BSCPad is generally considered the launchpad for Binance Smart Chain projects thanks to recent successes such as NFTLaunch, BitOrbit, WagyuSwap, and ADAPad.
Other promising blockchains also have outstanding launchpads, including Solanium, the Solana-focused one that has hosted the incredibly successful projects SEED, Cryowar, and DeFi Land, all designed to play for money. Also worth mentioning is Avalaunch, which has launched a number of highly sought-after assets in the Avalanche ecosystem.
BlueZilla, on the other hand, has gone far with the development and operation of launchpads for multiple blockchains, including Cardano (ADAPad), PulseChain (PulsePad), and KuCoin Community Chain (KCCPad). Through this strategy, BlueZilla seeks to democratize access to the projects that form these new value chains.
Launchpads are one of the main reasons Avalanche, Solana, Terra and many other modern blockchains have experienced such a Cambrian explosion of innovation in recent months, as they provide an easy path for projects not only to secure funding and distribution of their tokens, but also to bootstrap. their original user base.
Launchpads and blockchain space
Providing a solid starting point for new projects, launchpads have become a staple service in the blockchain landscape, and the most popular launchpads can have tens of thousands of users.
While they have successfully democratized access to promising investment opportunities, not all launches are the same. Those on the less successful end of the spectrum may struggle to deliver high quality projects in an increasingly competitive environment.
Indeed, there are now a huge number of launchpads, but a relatively small number of promising projects. This has resulted in fierce competition between the two, each fighting for the best projects for their communities.
As we move further and further into the bull market, the quality gap will only widen, which can become a problem for less experienced traders and investors who may suffer losses as they trust the growing number of lackluster launchpads.
#Dawn #Democratic #Launchpads
