Greetings everyone!
Today, I would like to introduce you to Hyundai Digital Asset Currency (HDAC), also known as “Hyundai Coin,” which has been quite controversial yet not without great potential. HDAC has been issued by Hdac Technology, located in Zug, Switzerland, and was founded by Dae-Sun Chung, the 3rd generation of the Hyundai dynasty in Korea1. Hyundai BS&C set up Hdac Technology under its provisions, and Hyundai Pay aids in the commercialization of HDAC by developing subsidiary technology and preparing infrastructure as its partnering company.
HDAC aims to solve the security of internet of things (IoT), allow machine to machine (M2M) data transfers and HDAC transactions, and ultimately act as payment currency in the pay industry3. Currently, it is mined via the ePoW algorithm, an analogue of the PoW made more equitable and eco-friendly, uses SkunkHash, and plans to switch to a new hybrid algorithm that uses both ePoW and either PoS and dPoS (date undecided as of now).
The past year, HDAC had been under a lot of fire, but exceptional changes have taken place in October 2018, and HDAC has become a “hot cryptocurrency” in Korea after its listing in GDAC exchange5. The reasons behind why HDAC is garnering more attention and is regarded to have great potential in the future are delineated in the following seven points:
1. First reason. HDAC cryptocurrency has been issued to be 100% commercialized as a utility coin that also intends to be used as a payment coin. It will be put into practical use in Heriot Apartment, located in Samsong, Goyang City in Korea, which is under construction by Hyundai BS&C. Last June, President Dae-Sun Chung of Hyundai BS&C announced that HDAC’s platform will be applied in “front door sensor, electricity, water, gas, and other IoT devices” in Heriot Apartment6. In the same interview, he explained that HDAC will act as a currency by which payment bills can be made, showing that Hdac Technology will also continually produce profit through such business models. For further information, Heriot Apartment is displayed in the official website7 of HDAC and the blueprint of HDAC8.
The following photos from Naver Map show the Heriot Apartment complex under construction:
2. Second reason. Hdac Technology received “No Action Letter,” the highest level of clearance, from the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) of Switzerland on October 22, 201810. Such recognition corresponds to the FDA approval status in the cryptocurrency world, demonstrating that HDAC has credibility and backing authority11. With the approval from FINMA, HDAC stands on top of many other cryptocurrencies, and will especially shine when SEC or other governmental institutions begin to majorly regulate cryptocurrencies. HDAC received the final approval after a long due process extending eight long months, and the approval that HDAC, with its own main net, received is clearly superior to those of the ERC20-based tokens based in Switzerland, allowing them to merely begin their projects12. The administrator of Hdac Technology explained as follows:
“First of all, since Hdac is a corporate established in Switzerland, it is essential for Hdac to receive the final approval from FINMA. As we have announced several times before, many crypto start-ups have received clearance to ‘proceed with their ICO projects,’ but none have received the final clearance, ‘No Action Letter’ showing ‘no problems after the ICO.’
Very few countries in the world have prepared specific regulations and systems for ICOs and cryptocurrency projects in the governmental level. Although numerous ICOs have taken place; a myriad of cryptos have listed in exchanges; and DApps have been developed, only very rarely has a cryptocurrency passed the legal and regulative due processes provided by any country, and especially not in Switzerland.
With this in mind, receiving the final approval from FINMA is considerably significant in that Hdac has received the recognition of a trustworthy authority – something that distinguishes Hdac from the other cryptocurrencies.”
The following is a photo of the “No Action Letter” that Hdac Technology AG has received from FINMA:
3. Third reason. Hdac has recently announced that it will radically reduce both the block rewards and the total supply13. Such measures will resolve the hyperinflation due to excessive mining rewards, let Hdac stand out even amidst the reduced cryptocurrency market cap, and meet the requests the Hdac community has hitherto been proposing. Hdac’s block rewards will be reduced 90%, from 5,000 per block to 500 per block, and the total supply will be reduced 76.25%, from 12 billion to 2.85 billion14. As a result, the relative value of HDAC has increased 5-10 fold, and its potential to increase in value in the future has also greatly improved.
4. Fourth reason. As much as the founder of Hdac Technology is Dae-Sun Chung, the 3rd generation of the Hyundai dynasty, Hdac has been continually making contact with the big Hyundai corporations, whose owners are his direct families and relatives. In other words, HDAC has great potential to be adopted by the Hyundai dynasty as their main cryptocurrency. In a recent interview by Michael Yun, the general manager of the Hdac Technology AG Korea Office, he revealed that Hdac has indeed been talking to the big Hyundai corporations regarding partnership in the blockchain realm15. A recent news article stated as follows16:
“Michael Yun, the general manager of Hdac Technology, in his interview with Newsis on November 30, 2018 in the Hdac Technology office located in Jung-gu, Seoul, proclaimed that Hdac Technology had been ‘undergoing PoC with three big Hyundai corporations.’
Yun did not mention the specific names of the Hyundai corporations, but he was confident in that Hdac will show the world an epitome of commercialized blockchain technology in the first quarter of 2019.”
In addition, one of the investors who went to Hdac’s meet-up once stated that he heard “Hdac Technology is preparing partnership with Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Asan Medical Center, and Kumkang Coryo Chemicals (KCC)17.” Furthermore, Hdac’s blueprint also displays “Smart Ship in Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI)” and “Smart Factory in Mando18.” A related article states, “Hdac is using IoT sensors in enterprise solution systems to tract supplies and resources on the Hdac blockchain and is PoC testing smart factories that utilize blockchain-based electronic contract solution systems that span from contracts and warehousing to settlement of payments and receipt issuance19.”
5. Fifth reason. Hdac Technology has recently scouted a globally renowned star Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) through Korn Ferry20, the world-famed professional recruiting company listed in NYSE. The CMO will soon be announced21, and the upcoming marketing movements will be noteworthy. Hdac Technology also promised the community that it will implement aggressive marketing strategies22 after the final FINMA approval, and the future looks bright23.
6. Sixth reason. Hdac Technology announced that it is accelerating its fintech business by promoting payment solutions using HDAC transaction services. According to recent news media, “in order to expand and commercialize its own HDAC blockchain platform, Hdac Technology is targeting the 120 million dollar industry of prepaid point market, and is also focusing on account settlement within smart homes, franchise store point markets, real estate P2P services, and other cryptocurrency-based fintech markets24.” Insofar as HDAC has been recognized by FINMA as a “utility coin that directs toward payment services,” much attention is given to Hdac for its hopeful future in fintech and the payment businesses.
7. Seventh reason. Numerous ICO projects that have underwent crowdfunding with Ethereum (ETH) have been inflicted with devastating losses due to the recent collapse of ETH value, causing their projects to face major financial problems. However, Hdac was the cryptocurrency with the number one highest crowdfund in the year 2017, and it collected Bitcoin (BTC), whose price declined relatively less than the others major cryptocurrencies, and also led to the free acquisition of BCH, BSV, BTG, and BCD via hardforks25. Just in the recent two months, ETCDEV, the major developer of Ethereum Classic (ETC), proclaimed that it cease all its developments and public activities because of lack of funds26; Steemit announced that it will layoff 70% of its employees due to financial crisis27; and Consensys also laid off 13% of its employees because of the financial burden caused by the collapse of ETH price28. An expert in the field exclaimed as follows29:
“Many crypto start-ups expected the crypto market cap to recover by the end of 2018 and did not sell most of their ETH. However, as the market cap hit new lows and the price of ETH did not recover, they are now facing a critical financial crisis… Some even have bought more ETH in the hopes that the price of ETH will recover soon. One manager of an ICO project said, ‘Because of the financial crisis, our project is also considering laying off team members,’ and a personnel of another project appealed, ‘Our project cannot continue and provide promised services unless we receive another massive investment because we sold none of our collected ETH when the price was much higher.’”
As shown by the above report, many cryptocurrency enterprises current face bankruptcy. Start-ups that crowdfunded using ETH especially suffered great losses because the value of ETH ended up less than 1/20th of that in the beginning of this year. If these start-ups run out of their collected ETH, they may have to sell (or dump) the developers’ or the team’s share of their tokens, but since the price of their tokens have also collapsed after hitting exchanges, this may not be an option, and will especially be frowned upon by the investors and hodlers.
Crypto start-ups may have excellent developers, but without fundus, projects cannot proceed in this competitive market under the realm of capitalism. Ultimately, those projects with ample funding or financial backing will persist and attract the developers from other projects. In fact, just this month, a member of Ethereum Classic developer team joined Tron30. Therefore, it is critical that investors be more sensitive to the financial state of crypto projects in the current bearish market.
Fortunately, Hdac Technology collected the highest fund in the year 2017 and is backed by Hyundai BS&C and Dae-Sun Chung, the 3rd generation of the Hyundai dynasty. As mentioned earlier, Hdac also raised its funds with BTC, which had less losses and also brought about free BCH, BSV, BTG, and BCD. In the long run, especially in this bearish market, HDAC has a great potential to shine and succeed.
Although a lot of controversies brewed behind Hdac, if one analyzes deeply, he or she will indeed acknowledge that Hdac has great potential and deserves consideration in cryptocurrency investment portfolios. Moreover, HDAC has not been introduced into top exchanges yet, so its value reserves much capacity to increase even in the short term.
So is HDAC worth investing? The final decision rests on you, but with the consideration of the aforementioned seven reasons, HDAC seems much closer to the bullish side than the bearish side.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone, and happy hodling!
Footnotes
1. http://www.newsis.com/view/?id=NISX20180606_00003290172. http://hyundai-pay.com/
3. https://github.com/Hdactech/doc/wiki/Whitepaper
4. http://ccnews.lawissue.co.kr/view.php?ud=201812200920151857204ead0791_12
5. https://support.gdac.com/hc/ko/articles/360013380953-%EC%97%90%EC%9D%B4%EC%B9%98%EB%8B%A5-HDAC-%EC%83%81%EC%9E%A5-%EC%98%88%EC%A0%95
6. http://www.newsis.com/view/?id=NISX20180606_0000329017
7. https://hdactech.com/en/Hdac/hdac.do
8. https://www.hdactech.com/_res/en/etc/Hdac_blueprint.pdf
9. https://www.finma.ch/en/
10. http://news1.kr/articles/?3487710
11. https://www.ajunews.com/view/20181128162304795
12. https://t.me/Hdac_Official_KR/53975
13. https://medium.com/@hdackorea/%EC%B1%84%EA%B5%B4%EB%B3%B4%EC%83%81%EB%9F%89-%EB%B0%8F-%EC%B4%9D-%EB%B0%9C%ED%96%89%EB%9F%89-%EA%B0%90%EC%B6%95-e3cea35e5087
14. https://hdacvalue.com/customer/notice/detail/70
15. http://www.newsis.com/view/?id=NISX20181205_0000493412
16. Ibid.
17. https://t.me/Hdac_Official_KR/63146
18. https://www.hdactech.com/_res/en/etc/Hdac_blueprint.pdf
19. http://www.etnews.com/20181220000217
20. https://www.kornferry.com/
21. https://t.me/Hdac_Official_KR/76040
22. https://cafe.naver.com/nas/453
23. https://hdacvalue.com/customer/notice/detail/11
24. http://www.zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20181220093515
25. https://www.coinspeaker.com/top-10-initial-coin-offerings-icos-2017/
26. https://twitter.com/etcdev/status/1069625401515872256?s=21
27. https://decenter.sedaily.com/NewsView/1S7DLGLP5L/GZ02
28. https://www.coindesk.com/consensys-confirms-layoffs-projecting-13-of-staff-at-startups-to-be-cut
29. http://news.hankyung.com/article/201812116086g
30. https://blockmanity.com/news/member-of-ethereum-classic-dev-team-etcdev-joins-tron-trx-binance-adds-trx-tusd-pair/