A Rating Agency For Cryptocurrency - Blue Sky For Bitcoin Cash.

The announcement that Weiss will release the first crypto curriency ratings on 24 January 2018, will be the most significant development in the crypto space.

 

Basically Weiss have developed an algorithm to rate cryptos base on 4 criterias

Risk Index   -  Volatility 

Reward Index  -  Profit potential

Technology Index - Whitepaper

Fundamental Index - General Useability

By my reckoning if this rating is accurate then Bitcoin Cash stands head and shoulder above all the others.

1) It scales which puts it above Bitcoin Segwit and Ethereum

2) It is true to the original Satoshi whitepaper 

3) It is a small world network meaning that it is immune to Sybil attacks.

4) It is gaining adoption everyday with large enterprises

5) Price have increased from 300 to $2500 with low volatility in downward price movements

6) It competes on the most secure hashing algorith

7) Biggest development team with at least 4 clients

Look for the price of Bitcoin Cash to strengthen on this news. It will also push the awareness of Bitcoin Cash to people old and new to cryptos.

Update 25/1/2018  The Weiss rating report is a subscription service priced at $936 per annum with a 50% discount for early bird subscriptions. It currently rates Ethereum and EOS at B, Steemit and Cardano at B- Bitcoin at C+ Bitcoin Cash is C-. 

Weiss Announces First Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Grades by U.S. Rating Agency

Risky Crypto Market to Get the Clarity Only Impartial Ratings Can Provide

Palm Beach Gardens, FL — Weiss Ratings, the nation’s leading independent rating agency of financial institutions, will issue letter grades on cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, NEM, Litecoin, Stellar, EOS, IOTA, Dash, NEO, TRON, Monero, Bitcoin Gold and many others.

The new Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings, to be released January 24, are the first by a financial rating agency. They are based on a groundbreaking model that analyzes thousands of data points on each coin’s technology, usage, and trading patterns.

“Many cryptocurrencies are murky, overhyped and vulnerable to crashes. The market desperately needs the clarity that only robust, impartial ratings can provide,” said Weiss Ratings founder, Martin D. Weiss, PhD. “We’re proud to be the first to bring that benefit to investors — to help them cut through the hype and identify the few truly solid cryptocurrencies. Our ratings are based on hard data and objective analysis. But they're bound to create controversy, including some grades that may come as a surprise to some people.”

Weiss Ratings, which began in 1971, rates 55,000 institutions and investments. Unlike Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, Fitch and A.M. Best, Weiss never accepts compensation of any kind from the entities it rates. Its independence and accuracy have been noted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, among others.

The Weiss Ratings Scale

Investors should interpret the Weiss Cryptocurrency grade scale with these terms:

A = excellent

B = good

C = fair

D = weak

E = very weak

A plus or minus sign indicates the upper third or lower third of a grade range, respectively. In addition, an F grade is assigned to cryptocurrencies that have failed or are subject to credible allegations of fraud.

Important Caveats

Before acting on, or reacting to, any single grade, investors should be aware of the following five caveats:

Caveat 1. Do not misunderstand the Weiss Ratings scale. Other rating agencies use a scale from triple A to single C.  In that scheme a B grade is “junk” and a C is close to failure. In contrast, Weiss Ratings’ B is “good” and C is “fair.” Based on a study of the Weiss Ratings by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an institution is not categorized “vulnerable” unless its grade is D+ or lower.

Thus, cryptocurrencies do not have to achieve an A grade to merit interest by investors. A “B” or even “B-” also qualify as the investment rating equivalent to “buy.” At the same time, investors should not be overly alarmed by a “C” rating. It is a passing grade; and for investors, implies the equivalent of “hold.”

Caveat 2. No safe cryptocurrencies. At this early stage in their evolution, there is no such thing as a “safe” cryptocurrency. All investors in the sector must be willing to accept wide price volatility, undefined regulatory risk, frequent market irregularities, and deficiencies in platforms such as currency exchanges.

Caveat 3. Frequent ratings changes. The metrics used to evaluate cryptocurrencies can change more rapidly than those of other investments. Therefore, when using Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings, investors should expect frequent upgrades and downgrades.

Caveat 4. Opinion. Although Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings are based on objective analysis free of conflicts of interest, they should not be interpreted as be-all-end-all evaluations. Every grade issued by any rating agency is ultimately an opinion, to be used by the public in the context of opinions from analysts, developers and users.

Caveat 5. Incomplete. No ratings model, no matter how well designed, can evaluate all factors; and this is especially true in new, unchartered sectors like cryptocurrencies. For example, to fully evaluate the blockchain software programs of each new cryptocurrency, teams of expert blockchain developers would need to audit and thoroughly test the code. Although that effort would be an important step forward, especially for developers and certain institutions, it is beyond the scope of this project. Instead, to help guide investors to cryptocurrencies with the most robust technology, the Weiss Ratings evaluates each blockchain technology by using a series of the proxy metrics described below.

The Model

The Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings model is built from the ground up with five basic layers:

Layer 1. Current data on each currency’s technology, performance and trading trends

Layer 2. Proprietary formulas that convert the data into comparable ratios.

Level 3. Proprietary sub-indexes that aggregate the ratios to measure key factors and features considered critical to the potential success or failure of investments in each cryptocurrency

Level 4. Aggregation of the sub-indexes into four key indexes, each meriting a separate letter grade

Level 5. Aggregation of the four key indexes into an overall letter grade

Thus, each Weiss Cryptocurrency Rating represents the pinnacle of a pyramid built from tens of thousands of calculations that feed up to a final grade.

Disclosure of Model Components

To be consistent with the transparency that has become the hallmark of the cryptocurrency space, Weiss Ratings’ intent over time is to disclose as much as possible about its model.

However, decades of experience in the financial marketplace indicate that, once armed with the specific formulas or processes of a ratings model, some rated entities seek to game the system: They try to manipulate data they can influence or control with the goal of achieving an unfair advantage. To help avoid this outcome, disclosure must proceed in phases, beginning with a broad description of the four key indexes in the Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings model. These are:

1. The Cryptocurrency Risk Index. A composite of sub-indexes that measure (a) relative and absolute price fluctuations over multiple time frames, (b) declines from peak to trough in terms of frequency and magnitude, (c) market bias, whether up or down, and other factors.
2. The Cryptocurrency Reward Index. A composite of sub-indexes that evaluate (a) returns compared to moving averages, (b) absolute returns compared to a benchmark, (c) smoothed returns compared to a benchmark, and other factors.
3. The Cryptocurrency Technology Index. A composite of sub-indexes calculated by a manual analysis of publicly available white papers, public discussion forums or announcements, and open source code to evaluate the protocols underlying each cryptocurrency. Factors considered include the level of anonymity, sophistication of monetary policy, governance capabilities, the ability or flexibility to improve code, energy efficiency, scaling solutions, interoperability with other blockchains and many more.
4. The Cryptocurrency Fundamental Index. A composite of sub-indexes that evaluate transaction speed and scalability, market penetration, network security, decentralization of block production, network capacity, developer participation, public acceptance, plus other key factors.

Each of these indexes is appropriately weighted, compared and then evaluated in terms of how it interacts with the other three indexes systemically. The end result of the analytical process is the Weiss Cryptocurrency Rating.

Overall, Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings provide a well-rounded, solidly-grounded opinion based on hard facts and steeped in four decades of ratings experience. They can serve as much-needed cryptocurrency GPS for investors.