This article first appeared on HuffingtonPost.com

Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency. Blockchain. And lately, Ethereum or Ripple.

Some of the most popular words in 2017 and something tells me that they will be THE most popular ones in 2018.

With the total cryptocurrency market cap going from $18bln on January, 3rd 2017 to over $700bln on the same date, 12 months later. That is a 39x increase. This market has made thousands of millionaires and billionaires in the past couple of years, but it’s not even close to having a halt stop.

We all know a guy who knows a guy who bought Bitcoin at some point in the past year, right? But is Bitcoin still a good option? It depends.

While Bitcoin is still the leader in cryptocurrency world-wide, other coins like Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano or Stellar Lumens are gaining more and more market and are more technologically advanced than Bitcoin. It might be only a matter of time until Bitcoin will be dethroned, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

With all that being said, this article’s focus is on a very promising new blockchain platform called RED, with its token MWAT designed by the Restart Energy company. With hundreds of new coins launched every month (through ICOs = Initial Coin Offering), it’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the crowd and investors are now looking for functional products, not just ideas.

Restart Energy is a Romanian based energy company with the fastest growth tracking in the European Union.

Here’s a two-minute video that explains everything you need to know about Restart Energy & RED-P (platform):

 

What makes Restart Energy the hottest ICO in 2018? Besides the innovative idea, the following three things caught my eye.

#1 Not your average ICO

First of all, this is not another coin with a great idea but nothing to show for it for another two or three years. Restart Energy, as I said above, but I believe it’s worth mentioning it again, is the fastest growing private energy company in the European Union with revenues of $5.45 million in 2016, $20 million in 2017 and projected revenues of over $100 million in 2018. All of this came from real customers, real partnerships and not from cryptocurrency speculation.

Restart Energy has already received several industry awards like “Biggest Energy Company 2016 “ by the Regional Commerce Chamber or “Exponential Growth Award” from the Renewable Energy Cluster ROSENC.

 

#2 Partnerships & Customer base

What impresses me the most when I look at an ICO is past track record and an existing customer base, and Restart Energy has them both.

Their CEO, Armand Doru Domuta has scaled Restart Energy in the last 10 years into a diversified energy company in Romania and has developed 500 MW renewable energy projects.

A great business grows on strong partnerships, and they have over 3,000 companies who have chosen Restart Energy as their energy partner. A few of the companies include Profi (one of the biggest grocery markets in Romania), Valeo, EuroGSM or C+C. Besides great partners, their customer base is a little over 30,000 customers.

 

#3 Backed by real energy

With a lot of people saying that “Bitcoin has no value”, the MWAT token is actually backed by real energy. Each token will hold the equivalent of 0.11kWh after the ICO and an estimated 13,13kWh by 2023. You don’t stumble on an ICO like this one every day, trust me.

The tokens act like a virtual battery that stores kWh which you’ll be able to spend or sell.

Read more: The Definitive Guide to ICO/STO Marketing and Blockchain PR

#4 Franchise opportunity

This is new for the cryptocurrency & blockchain world, but the company behind RED PLATFORM has tested this business model in the European Union and currently operates over 300 successful franchises (not on the blockchain yet). The great news, though, is that the company will provide training for the franchise owner and his/her crew and branding materials.

How many tokens do you need to open up a franchise?

10,000 Tokens – RED City Franchise – allows token holders to sell energy in their city of residence*

100,000 Tokens – RED Regional Franchise – allows token holders to sell energy in an entire region of their country of residence*

1,000,000 Tokens – RED Country Franchise – allows token holders to sell energy in their entire country of residence*

10,000,000+ Tokens – RED Master Franchise – gives the token holder exclusive rights in his/her country of resident and the option to create sub-franchises inside that country*

*information taken directly from their Whitepaper

By 2023, the company aims at expanding to over 45 countries and opening a total of 14,000 franchises, while attracting approximately 9 million customers worldwide. The estimated revenue is $3.78 bln.

The franchising model is a big part of their blockchain marketing and PR efforts to expand globally at a fast pace.

BONUS POINT

Their MVP Platform will be launched in April 2018, that’s only a month after their ICO ends, and their official, country-wide launch (in Romania) will be in August of the same year.

MINUS POINT

Unlike Power Ledger (POWR), they don’t support third-party application integration at this point, but I’ve spoken to the team and they’re considering it in the future, right now they have more important things to focus on. It is also true that, at this point, POWR didn’t offer many details on what their 3rd-party integration really means.

When does the ICO take place?

The public pre-sale starts on January 15th and ends on the 12th of February, and the ICO starts on February 14th and ends on the 14th of March, 2018.

How can you participate?

All you need to do is check out their website and follow the instructions. Each token is valued at $0.10.

How can I store the tokens?

The tokens are ERC20, which means that they can be stored in an ERC20 compatible wallet, like MyEtherWallet.com for example.

You can follow Restart Energy (RED) on these platforms: Blog // Telegram // Twitter // Facebook

Disclaimer: this is NOT investment advice. This is purely my opinion, based on facts found on their website. Please do your own research and decide if it qualifies with your risk profile.