Does waves platform still being used by any project now? I haven't seen any successful token project launch on waves in the past years and i wonder where waves platform will go if no project uses them?
This is a very complex question which I will try and summarize because otherwise reply is too long:
1. Crypto market maturity today is different compared to when waves launched in 2016. There is a use case for tokenized products but as we can see all new top talent have their own ICO blockchains and as such waves use case as it was intended is indeed obsolete to capture top talent. For example the top talent Y combinator backed Opensea launched using Ethereum with their own solution simply because they are so talented that they don't need waves to do it. Same with Nifty, Makersplace, Foundationapp and so on. Waves token creation is becoming a niché division with limited monetization potential because the big money uses their own solutions and as such there is no userbase growth from talented onramping using waves token technology. I don't see any solution except directly rewarding ICOs for launching with waves but how will waves compete with billion dollar Y combinator funding? Impossible.
2. Waves token division can partially compete with top talent blockchain ICOs by power of a combined ecosystem such as its own coinmarketcap version and exchange which it already has. The problem in both cases is that waves exchange and wavescap are very restrictive in their listing process which causes imbalance because on one hand its understandable that they want top quality projects to be active there, but at the same time it is evident that all the top talent projects choose to deploy using bespoke solutions because it enables 100% economic control. For this reason, both waves exchange and wavescap should decrease barriers to entry and let community voting be determining factor for listing. It is important for small projects to gain qualified listing on waves for automatic visbility to investors otherwise they remain hidden and no one can find them without manual search or relying on third party information sources. For now, it is more difficult for small project to be listed on CMC, Wavescap and gain qualified token status on waves exchange, than raising VC capital and obtaining NASDAQ IPO, which of course is very imbalanced. I have myself given up on crypto as a method for startup expansion and am now instead trying to sell to legacy players like Hedge Fund or Museum. When I started in 2017 crypto was more open but now it is more closed than the old systems of government.
3. Waves token creation is user friendly and for example my project is still relying on it after 3.5 years for basic functionality of NFT tokenization but as was mentioned in 1. the importance of waves platform to run the full scale project is no longer a main factor but in this case it is because of special and unforseen developments such that most investment activity is in Ethereum and this project already has an Ethereum supply for its NFT which predates waves supply. And for this reason in this particular example, all the value is on Ethereum so not much resources is reserved for investing directly into waves.
4. Any token creator who is seeking exposure into waves for the token service is smarter to invest into TurtleNetwork because it is the exact same tech as waves but valued much lower. So the token creator will invest in TN instead of Waves because there are simply alot more benefits locking long term capital in TN and transferring liquidity into waves trading pairs when needed. The biggest benefit is that TN market cap is $4m compared to waves $2bn, so in essence you are buying market liquidity as if waves costed 4 cents instead of $19 at time of writing. I predict that TN will soon vertical to 40 cents simply for this reason as long as there is no major development problem. There is alot of crossover synergy between TN and waves such as SWOP fi liquidity, leasing pool and other interactions.
5. Waves is focusing on their own solutions in NFTs and DeFi and appear uninterested in third party collaborations. It seems they are successful in this choice so there is no reason to presume that the token division will be a determining factor for future growth when combined with the other 4 factors exemplified in this summary.
6. There is only 1 more thing that can make token division competitive and it is from community engagement by voting and permitting decentralized decision making but there is no incentive for anyone to implement this because centralized legacy systems are still superior during startup phase and the big players are the ones with all the money and retail community does not have an efficient method of decentralized crowdfunding on blockchain yet. Definately if waves can monetize token service through organized but decentralized crowdfunding it is a big step into competition again but it requires advanced coding which takes time and money. And for now waves is making money on their own DeFi and NFT solutions. The trend is towards Neofeudalist system of blockchain governance as opposed to Greek Democracy.
I personally was interested in waves for its token service but this was now 3.5 years ago when waves costed 60 cents. So today with the situation, investors should not put money into waves for the token service as this is basically obsolete and the main value drivers for waves as an ecosystem is DeFi staking and Binance futures speculation. It is a natural evolution and it is better to invest in TN if you intend to operate a token market on waves because it is like going back in time when waves costed 19 cents. In this case TN costs 4 cents so it is even better to establish a strong foundation for liquidity of your token market without overpaying for the other services such as DeFi and Ducks. Buying 100k-300k TN today at 4 cents will provide infinite liquidity into your token market on waves. As a novice startup it is better risk/reward for token experimentation using this technology. Finally it is advisable to limit investment size to $10k or less than 1% of portfolio into either waves or TN simply based on many years of examination of this economic structure and how it benefits a third party business. The cost/benefit is rather low compared to legacy systems but there is some growth potential perhaps x10-x100 over 1 to 5 years so it will outperform stock index but there is also more ways to lose 100% of money.
TLDR: waves token creation is dead and waves price can still go up without it because DeFi and NFT. Use TN as a hybrid solution to gain good value exposure into the core token creation service without overpaying for the other services.
Create the token on waves and lock market making money in TN for liquidity for your token instead of holding waves. Because buying a stack of TN is like buying waves at 4 cents, tech is the same.
