Blockfyre a crypto and blockchain business on the rise with Jonathan Habicht

What is your background briefly?

After I got my degree in economics, I started working in business consulting, with a primary focus on digital transformation and new business models. Startups and Tech were always my things, so I moved into Venture Capital two years ago, where I had the chance to support the process of building the venture capital arm of a German company. This is my current day job, which helped me a lot in the process of understanding how analyzing and evaluating startup companies works. I quickly started transferring that knowledge into my crypto investments and ultimately into the things I’m doing with Blockfyre.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Absolutely, I always loved exploring technologies and researching new investment opportunities, hence why I moved into the Venture Capital space. Crypto is the logical next step for me.

.@blockfyre will be big. Lots of things to come in the near future.

— Jonathan Habicht ? (@HabichtJonathan) May 5, 2019

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

I heard about Crypto and Blockchain for the first time in 2013 or 2014, but back then I had other things on mind, dismissed it as a “nice gimmick” and didn’t really bother to further research it. I took me 3 more years to really grasp the potential of this new technology, and in late 2016, I started to develop the enthusiasm for Crypto I still have, to this day. Last year in August I thought I should publish the research I’m doing and maybe create a brand around it. I was already putting a lot of work into Crypto and maybe this could evolve into a business idea or at least a reputable brand, so I started Blockfyre.com.

What started out as a simple Blog is now an online platform that offers insights and services to provide Investors with a gateway to the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Besides analysis and reports for investors, Blockfyre also offers research and consulting services aimed at companies in the blockchain/crypto sector. Just recently I onboarded my first team member, Simon, because I realized that I’ve come pretty far alone – published around 50 reports, acquired several partnerships, built a big network of interesting people – but for the next step I will need a team.

So currently we are working on turning Blockfyre into a real business, there is a lot of work going into Business Development, evaluating our business model and future services we want to provide, updating the website, marketing and of course, finding ways how to bring our content to a whole new level, while still working on our reports and providing our readers with an ongoing stream of research.

Tell us about Blockfyre, what is the goal of it?

In the long run, our goal is to provide retail and institutional investors, with a reliable basis for decision making on possible crypto investments. On the other hand, we want to support the growth of blockchain projects, through research, know how or capital. That’s what we are working towards.

To put it in more ideological terms: Our main goal is to help this industry grow and succeed.

We are proud to announce our first Fundamental Analysis since @scoinaldo joined the team. This report is on @NextExchange $NEXT who are aiming to revolutionize the #Crypto exchange landscape with their DEX/CEX hybrid. https://t.co/NzycYwR9NE

— Blockfyre (@blockfyre) May 9, 2019

Why do you think it is such a powerful idea?

I believe that this young space allows for people to step up and have a positive impact and ultimately form it into the industry we want it to be. We are at a point, where it’s up to us to decide, in which direction we want to go from here. I’ve met so many great people over the last couple of years, who have exciting ideas and are building products, that will have a huge effect on our lives in the future.

Shaping this reality is what its all about and I see Blockfyre as my tool to do so. Also there is a lot of noise and misleading information going around in the space, Blockfyre could really help to bring some sanity to this sometimes messy environment, by providing transparency and unbiased research, and therefore assist both sides of the table, investors and companies in achieving their goals, without being held back by all the deflection.

What do you think about the state of the market currently, where will it go?

For me personally, this bear market has been a blessing in disguise. I had the chance to really build the things I wanted to build, my personal brand, my portfolio, the knowledge needed to provide value and be successful, and Blockfyre, without the noise and speed of a bull run. Currently, we are experiencing a gentle upward movement in Bitcoin, which goes on for quite some time now.

I’m still cautious about this little run, as there are a lot of things happening, that can not really consider normal market behaviour. Crypto prices are prone to manipulation, everyone knows that, and this run feels artificial. It might change soon, but there are more things that need to happen before we can call it a bull market.

First and foremost, we still need some sort of event or at least some clear confirmation that would really trigger the influx of new money into the market. The overall Market cap might be rising a little bit, but if you look at the Altcoin space, most coins are losing value, which means, money is just being transferred from these coins into Bitcoin. It might take a while but sooner or later, we will experience the next bull market.

I don’t see $crypto as a "get rich quick scheme " it’s more like a "get rich in a moderate amount of time scheme" just do your homework on projects you’re investing in and stay patient. ??#blockchain #crypto

— Jonathan Habicht ? (@HabichtJonathan) July 29, 2018

How do you evaluate the potential value or not of investments?

A successful investment always means investing your money in a profitable company. Many of the projects I look into are far from generating revenue at all, let alone generating profits. So, the premise you would set for yourself in traditional Venture Capital doesn’t really work here, so I had to come up with a different set of rules.

In the beginning, I created a framework, which acts as a checklist that I go through when analyzing projects. This Framework has grown and evolved over time, but it still follows the same basic principles. First of all, there are some essential questions of whether the project solves an actual problem or not, will the team and the technology be able to keep this promise? does the product address a sufficiently large market and finally, is a blockchain or cryptocurrency actually necessary to solve this problem or would a centralized solution be a much better approach?

Over time a lot of metrics and new aspects have been added to the list, and I developed additional frameworks to quantify the data gathered during my research, especially the token economics of a project play a significant role in evaluating whether the investment is worth it or not.

What are you excited about over the next 12 months in terms of blockchain, and Crypto?

I’m Looking forward to seeing some really cool products and companies coming forward in the next 12 month. Also, I’m very excited about the things we are building at Blockfyre.

How can people find out more about you & your work?

I’m very active on twitter (@habichtjonathan) and always open to talk to people. Also, Blockfyre.com were we have all the reports and our research.

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

Not really, do more, talk less.

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking