What Is Unobtanium?
The most valuable items/ things in life are the rarest to get. This is the mantra that can be used to describe Unobtanium cryptocurrency. The digital coin was created to be rare.
The founders only created 250,000 coins that make it very scarce to get and use. The coin was launched in 2013 by an anonymous person only referred to as BLAZR2. The founder brought in a developer referred to as Bryce Weiner who has been helping to improve on the network over time.
- A closer look at the Unobtanium performance in the market
The Unobtanium network was forked from Bitcoin core. This implies that it resembles Bitcoin in many respects but features some differences including the limited coin supply.
The price of the Unobtanium coin was $5.10 when it entered the market in December 2013. Then, it rose to $22.4 in February 2014 before taking a downward trend that hit a low of $1.20 in early 2016. The price remained around $2.0 until the close of the first quarter of 2017.
In April 2017, the value started rising steadily and hit a record $379.22 in 19th October 2017. This was reported to be a pump and dump scheme that took advantage of the low supply volume.
Indeed, the value crashed to less than $75 in the subsequent few days. The downtrend continued to hit a low of $39.31 in mid-November. Starting from late November 2017, the price started rising again growing steadily to $168.24 in 23rd June 2018.
The trend was interesting because it was moving against others coins in the market. Between January and June 2018, most of the coins in the market were experiencing a bearish trend. This trend is seen as an indicator of what the Unobtanium community should anticipate.
The bearish trend of Unobtanium started in July 2018 and continued until early November 2018. It will be interesting to see the direction that Unobtanium will take in the coming years.
What is the problem that Unobtanium Solves?
The conventional financial services are faced by problems such as the high cost of sending value and lack of privacy. This resulted in the creation of Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency. However, Bitcoin and other cryptos have also come with unique challenges that limit their growth. Here are some of these problems that Unobtanium addresses.
- Centralization of financial services
The conventional financial services in the market today operate in a centralized manner. This means that transactions and storage of value take place in centralized areas. For example, when you decide to send value using wire transfer, the transaction has to be evaluated by the banking staff before it is allowed to go through.
The complex verification procedure implies that transactions take longer and are more expensive. In some cases, it can take up to five days before the value you sent reaches the recipient.
The centralized services also manage the facility and take care of users deposits. This means that if the bank leadership mismanages the facility, all the saved funds could be at risk. For example, if a bank files for bankruptcy, the chances are that your funds will be locked until a receiver is selected and investigations about the causes of the problem are completed.
- High volatility
If you take a closer look at the standard banking system, the most notable thing is the effort to control inflation. Central banks print and release new coins or mop oversupply to ensure that inflation is maintained at the acceptable levels. But it is different when it comes to digital coins.
Because cryptocurrencies are not regulated, their price movement can be wild. The coins’ value in the market responds to various occurrences and raises the danger of causing major losses. For example, reports of an upcoming partnership between a cryptocurrency and a major company can cause the value of the coin to grow steadily.
Other things that can cause the value of coins to drop or go up include new regulations, entry of competitors, report of new technology, and attacks. These are some of the main reasons why most digital coins shot to their highest possible marks towards the end of 2017 and early 2018.
- Complexity in mining cryptocurrencies
Mining is the process used by cryptocurrencies to release new coins into the market. The target of mining is ensuring that the supply is steady and in line with the growing demand. It is also used to help keep the nodes in a crypto network fully motivated.
Even with these important roles, the process of mining is very complex. In many cases especially the coins that use proof of work (PoW) protocol, the mining difficulty keeps rising steadily. This means that one requires expensive mining equipment and complex setup.
The impact of this is that many people opt to stay away from mining or simply go for other coins that do not require very high hashing power. This is the problem that Unobtanium addresses.
How Does Unobtanium Solve The Problem?
The founders of Unobtanium wanted to create a system that would reflect rarity from all angles. Here are some of the methods they employed to address the above issues.
- Using proof of work consensus protocol
The proof of work mining protocol uses the SHA-256 algorithm to generate complex puzzles that miners must solve to confirm transactions. Unobtanium opted for this protocol to ensure that the mining difficulty is as high as that of Bitcoin. The main reason for adopting proof of work algorithm was to ensure that the Unobtanium network remains secure from attacks.
- Network decentralization
In their website, the development team indicates that the cryptocurrency network is completely decentralized. This means that it is managed by nodes spread in its system across the globe. When users want to send value, they can complete the process on a peer2peer basis without involving centralized third parties.
- Merged mining
To simplify mining, Unobtanium adopted merged mining in 2015. The process is targeted at allowing Bitcoin miners to use the same hashing power to mine the Unobtanium coins. The method is also aimed at helping to enhance the supply of the coin and keep the network safe.
What makes Unobtanium better than it’s competitors?
For more than nine years since Bitcoin opened the gates of cryptocurrencies, it has been a race that does not appear to slow down. More cryptocurrencies have been entering the market and raising the competition to the already existing coins. Here are some of the things that make Unobtanium better than competitors.
- Unobtanium native coin supply is very small. The low coin supply and high difficulty make the coin very rare. This was the original target of the founder. The few coins are expected to help keep the demand high and price stable.
- The Unobtanium system operates as a completely decentralized system. This implies that the network is not owned by the founders or the development team. Rather, it is owned by the users spread in its system. If you run a node on the Unobtanium network, you will be called to vote in line with the proof of work protocol.
- Users enjoy low cost of sending value on the network. Unlike banks that operate as decentralized and profit-seeking organizations, the Unobtanium network is a peer2peer model. Users can send value directly without involving third parties. This means that the cost of sending value is low and the time required for transactions is relatively small.
- It is a reliable method of sending value anonymously. When people join the Unobtanium network, their details are encrypted. This makes it difficult for third-parties to access user information or attackers to break and steal the native coins.
How can Unobtanium be categorized?
Unobtanium can be categorized as a unique cryptocurrency designed to be rare. It is unique because its model appears to go against the target of reaching more people and bring them to cryptos. For example, Bitcoin has 21 million coins and Litecoin has 84 million coins while others hold even more coins.
Its commitment to ensure that the mining difficulty is also high to ensure that all the coins will take close to 300 years makes the coin even rarer. But it is unclear whether people will be interested in the coin because its value is still relatively low compared to other coins such as Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum.
What’s Unobtanium’s vision on Security?
The Unobtanium’s vision on security is to become the most secure network for the rarest coin. The goal is targeted at ensuring that long-term investors can rest knowing that their coins or investment is secure and free from attacks.
Examples of Unobtanium’s use cases / applications
The effectiveness of a cryptocurrency can be determined partly by looking at its use cases. Here are some of the main use cases of Unobtanium.
- You can use the Unobtanium coins to trade in the markets. Like other cryptocurrencies, Unobtanium coins can be traded in the markets that list them. Good examples include Bleutrade and C-CEX. To trade the coins you will need to register for a user account and pair Unobtanium with another token such as Ripple.
- The Unobtanium coin can be used as a saving platform. Instead of keeping money in a bank, a user may consider buying the Unobtanium coins. The coins are preferred because they are stable and allow users to keep their funds free from third party seizures.
- Use the coin to send value on the Unobtanium network. Because Unobtanium operates as a decentralized payment platform, you can use the native coin to send value across the globe. Note that both the sender and recipient must be on the network before the transaction can be initiated and completed.
- Unobtanium coin can be used to pay for products and services in the market. As more stores come out to support cryptocurrencies, it is now possible to make direct payment for goods and services. You only need to look for the store that supports Unobtanium coin to make a purchase.
- Use Unobtanium to pay for government services. If you live in a jurisdiction that supports cryptocurrencies, it might be possible to clear utility bills and other government services. One such jurisdiction is Singapore.
In Singapore, the leadership indicated that there is no difference between making payment using fiat or cryptos. In Arizona, residents are allowed to pay taxes using cryptocurrencies after the government passed bill HB 1091. The bill requires the tax authority to convert the cryptocurrencies to USD and credit in the respective resident account. Other countries that support cryptos include Venezuela, and Switzerland.
NOTE: While the primary goal of Unobtanium is to operate as a rare coin though limited supply, the model has attracted a lot of criticism from the community. Here are some of the concerns that should help you take extra caution when targeting to invest in Unobtanium.
- Though the target is making Unobtanium rare and stable, the movement of the price does not reflect the stability. For example, the movement of the price from October 2017 to October 2018 has been highly volatile. Therefore, do not simply buy the idea that your funds will be stable because the development opines that.
- The limited supply of the Unobtanium coins imply that they could easily fall into the hands of a few people and risk progressive manipulation that is characteristic of pump and dump schemes. This is the trend that was manifested in October when the price of the coin grew steadily and almost crossed the $400 mark.
- By adopting very high difficulty that indicates all the 250,000 coins will be mined in 300 years, it does not make sense to run a computer for such a long time only to mine a low-value coin.
If you target to invest in Unobtanium, it is advisable to take every precaution to avoid losing your funds. It is advisable to spread investment between different coins and target the high-value options. For example, you could compare Unobtanium coins to EOS and Stratis coins.
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