Moon River and the MOVR token are potentially highly undervalued, you can bridge Ethereum assets to a cheaper and more usable chain. This article explains what problems Moon River aims to solve.
Polkadot and Kusama
To help understand Moon River, please check out our article on [Polkadot]. This article also briefly explains that Kusama is the test network for the larger more dominant Polkadot. This model is helpful because it allows stronger projects to test their Dapps without the risk of going live on Pokdadot. Moon River (on Kusama) is an extension of Moonbeam (soon to launch on dot), a popular bet to win an early parachain auction. Early parachain winners will solidify their place in the Polkadot ecosystem, gaining traction and furthering their popularity. Since parachains are live on Kusama, Moon River has won a spot. Moon River tests all code that will deploy on Moonbeam beforehand, using real economic conditions. Moon River is currently useable and is incredibly fast and efficient. Before writing this article I tested Moon River out and even joined some farms using the Solarbeam DEX with tokens I already owned. Using Moon River was a joy, 4 cent transactions, faster than Ethereum, and NONE of my transactions failed.
Moon River vs. Ethereum
When I think of Moon River I treat it like Ethereum but on Kusama, and soon to be on Polkadot as Moonbeam. Moon River has Ethereum compatibility from the ground up. Moon River works with Ethereum applications and protocols, I was able to move Ethereum to MOVR for only 12$, when gas for a withdraw was over 100$ on Ethereum. MOVR is also compatible with Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, FTM, Avalanche and a few others. Setting up Metamask to interact only took about 60 seconds, MOVR used my already established Ethereum address. Even as my portfolio grows paying the astronomical Ethereum gas fees destroys cost basis on investments, and many transactions fail but still charge the fee. Ethereum has become a frustration for the every-day user. While I remain extremely bullish on Ethereum as a long-term investment, it simply does not provide the service new users need with the barriers to entry.
Tokenomics
MOVR has a initial supply of 10 million, this low supply is part of why the price is already in the hundreds of dollars per token range. If you have read my other articles, you know I love initial allocations with a high weight towards community rewards. 30% was reserved to win the crowd loan slot, the leftover rewards will be allocated to teams building on MOVR and Moonbeam. Around 25% is reserved for ecosystem growth, grants, and network needs. 40% is reserved for liquidity incentives, future parachain slot leases and community initiatives[1]. MOVR has a 5% annual inflation, with no cap to the supply. While at first this was alarming, further review showed that 80% of all transaction fees are burned, bringing deflationary pressure. The more active the network, the more burning occurs, like the EIP-1559 Ethereum upgrade. MOVR is used for transaction fees much in the way that Ethereum is used on its own network. The other 20% of the fees are placed into a long-term treasury, to guarantee future parachain slots for MOVR. My favorite thing about MOVR is that it is community lead, there are not allocations for the team or early backers. MOVR will also be used for on chain governance/voting based on percentage held.
Team/Community
The CEO of Moonbeam carries a degree from Cambridge and the rest of the team holds over 30 highly trained members bringing a wide array of knowledge and area of expertise. Moonbeam has over 100 strategic partners, at a glance, I can easily identify at least 10 tokens I am bullish on within the community page. Moonbeam has an extraordinary grant program to foster ecosystem growth and development. The grant program aims to hire talented individuals looking to build a multi-chain future with research-based experimentation. Since Moonbeam and Moon River are led by the community, there are no hedge funds or early seed round investors to the dump the price.
Potential Thesis
I will be transparent about the fact that I own MOVR. I am farming the token as a pair with FTM. I felt that having two volatile main chains as a pair would reduce impermanent loss. My rewards are in Solarbeam token, which is the main dex on MOVR currently. The rewards I receive I can then stake, double dipping my yields. This is most definitely riskier than simply staking the token on their platform, so please be careful. Solarbeam has a TVL of over 160 million, for such a brand-new project this is bullish. MOVR has a less than 1-billion-dollar market cap, it is much faster than Ethereum and far cheaper. Being able to bridge funds off of Ethereum is a game changer, MOVR does aim to be truly multi chain.
Having such a low supply of 10 million to start will create tremendous scarcity, this could easily lead to a supply shock if volume picks up. Although the 5% inflation is continuous, the fee burns of 80% could potentially outpace this inflation, further reducing the circulating supply. Staking reduces the supply on exchanges also, and rewards long term holders. I am a fan of the community only launch with no private investors; this prevents price dumps. MOVR can be bought directly on Kucoin and send directly to a Metamask wallet with the Moon River network setup[2]. As always please do your own research, and stay safe out there.
[1] https://moonbeam.foundation/moonriver-token/
[2] https://docs.moonbeam.network/builders/get-started/moonriver/
