Back in the early days of the Internet, each site operated much like a bulletin board, acting as a standalone entity that didn’t have the ability to communicate with another site. The technology that allowed people on one bulletin board to communicate with another did not exist.

That’s until 1984, when two Stanford students decided they wanted to communicate with one another, through the internet, when at different campus buildings.

What they ended up creating was the TCP/IP protocols, the same protocols, which made it possible, for the first time, for sites in different areas to connect with one another.

Although the technology was a huge breakthrough, at the time there were no hardware products that supported the new TCP/IP protocols. However, not long after, those same Standard students created the first network router.

Those Stanford students, Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, later would launch the company that would become Cisco Systems, causing the internet exploded from 250 websites in 1993 to 30 million by 2000, Cisco’s stock went from worth $640 million to nearly $19 billion over the same period.

Why does any of this matter?

No one could have foreseen what would end up happening with the internet, but it was the TCP/IP protocol that made it all happen.

It allowed for what we call the “network effect,” which is a phenomenon where increased numbers of people or participants to improve the value of a good or service.

The same thing is happening with cryptocurrencies right now. Each blockchain is operating as its own entity, without the ability to communicate with other blockchains.  For example, you cannot move data from Ethereum to Stellar or vice versa.

How would you like it if you could not click a link in a Google search and go to the desired webpage? Well, that’s basically how things work in the cryptocurrency world right now.

However, the ability for Blockchains to connect with one another and create the “network effect,” is not far away, and once it happens, everything will change, just like the internet changed with the TCP/IP protocols.

Those Stanford students are responsible for creating the technology that gave way to a $5 trillion dot-com explosion… Reason being, they unleashed the “network effect.”

There are several companies all working to solve this issue, but the one we like the best is AION, which we believe is the one that’s going to get there first.

Communication between blockchains is a real problem because moving information from one blockchain to another does not exist.

Ethereum is very easy to use, for this reason, it is a favorite among ICOs, but after the ICO launch, the need for faster and cheaper transactions are critical. Ethereum just doesn’t get the job done.

Several projects have switched from Ethereum to Stellar after the ICO has finished, which is nothing short of a nightmare, but still a necessity for longevity. Kik and Irene Energy are two blockchains that did just that.

Mobius, another blockchain, initially wanted to do its ICO in Ethereum, but because of the headache of changing blockchains later, it just decided to launch on Stellar from the start. It would have been far easier if it could have launched on Ethereum and then made the change later when appropriate.

Moving from one blockchain to another is not a smooth operation. Because tokens cannot cross from one blockchain to another, to do so, all the tokens have to be mapped, which cancels the old coin and issues a new coin on the new blockchain. It’s a big undertaking that really makes no sense.

Aion solves all of these problems and simplifies the whole process.

In the future, a cryptocurrency project will not just be affiliated with a single blockchain, they can use multiple blockchains to address different elements of their business. For example, ICOs could use Ethereum for raising capital and use Stellar to handle payment transactions.

The fact is, the blockchain sector is still in a very early stage, much like the internet was back in the early 90s. It’s going to look vastly different in a few years, and with the help of Aion, the power can truly be unleashed.

Website

The Aion website is very well put together, delivering all the information I want to see on a cryptocurrency site.  It paints a clear picture of what they’re trying to do, the team to do it, and a clear roadmap. Alexa rank is relatively high at 155K, all good, but something we expect from a solid well-established project.

Roadmap

The roadmap is very clearly laid out on the front of the site, going out to the first quarter of 2019. I like the items they’re working on and when they’re planning to execute. I do wish I could have seen more details of what 2019 hold, but other than that, I like how they’re managing the project.

Main Team Members

Matthew Spoke, CEO, Founder

Matthew is well established in the cryptocurrency sector. He’s a founding member of the Ethereum Alliance and has ties to Ethereum founder Vatalik Buterin. Matthew is also the founder and CEO of Nuco. A well-established Linkedin network shows Matthew is the person he claims to be.

Kesem Frank, COO, Founder

Kesem is a technology strategy expert that specializes in cross-enterprise system integration and has led multiple projects. This makes him an excellent fit for Aion, as his system integration skills are a perfect marriage for what Aion’s planning to accomplish. A well-established Linkedin network linked from Aion’s site shows he is who he claims to be.

All in all, the team is made up of 27 members, out of the 12 we checked out all were well established and easily where confirmed as great fits for the project and the industry.

Social Presence

Active on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Telegram, Youtube, Github, Discord, and Aion Network. After several months with the social chatter down, Aion quickly picked up steam again and broke out to a new high. There’s a lot of enthusiasm for this project, but that should be expected. Good sign for a price increase.

Barriers to Success

The most significant barrier to success is the competition, but in a space that’s growing at such a fast pace, I do not see this as a winner take all scenario. In all likelihood, if all the players can execute, all of them will see success.

The closest competitor to Aion is Ark, which is a broader scope bridging project. Ark is developing “SmartBridgers,” which will allow limited functionality between two blockchain systems, while Aion will provide a protocol standard for blockchains to communicate.

Remember the TCP/IP protocols that the router was able to accomplish? This is very similar to the Aion solution. Aion does not require any off-chain implementation for it to succeed. It will act as a third-party between the other two blockchains, freeing each from strenuous situations.

Icon and Wanchain are another two competitors in the space, although both are not quite as closely related as Ark. Wanchain is another situation we like a lot and have been keeping a close eye on for months.

Strengths

There’s a much-needed solution for blockchains to connect and interact with one another and we feel Aion’s approaching this opportunity in the best possible way, which is also the easiest to integrate and should take the shortest amount of time to get to market.

We also compared Aoin’s leadership and development team to the Ark team. Although both are good, Aion is stronger on both fronts. We especially like Matthew Spoke as the leader and trust his understanding of both blockchain technology and business, which makes for a perfect fit for a company attempting to time the technology and the product launch in the most logical way. Matthew also scores very high marks with current relationships in the space.

Aion’s approach is to connect to Ethereum first and build out from there is smart. Connecting to the most popular blockchains first, combined with getting to market first is a superior strategy. From there, other blockchains can use the Aion solution to build their own bridge to Ethereum, allowing them to run ICOs in one blockchain and then transactions in another, or any other combination based on what that specific blockchain is trying to accomplish.

Conclusion

The fact is creating a bridge that will allow blockchains to move value from one to another could be revolutionary, not only growing the value of Aion, but result in a surge of growth in the blockchain sector as a whole.

Of course, we don’t know until we get there, but this could be one of the big ones later. We think this could be one of those situations that turns a $500 investment into a $50,000 in just a few short years Don’t get me wrong, this is still a very high-risk play as all cryptocurrencies are, so only invest in what you’re comfortable in losing.

Investment

For smaller accounts, we recommend an investment of $200 to $300 and for larger accounts $600 to $1000.