Jason Rockwood provides some perspective on July VeChain price and community morale. "The Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn!"

“You said VeChain would make us rich in July! What’s going on?!” Six of my friends have texted me this in the past 24 hours. I’m not going to hide it: I’m disappointed with VeChain’s July price performance. I honestly thought that when the main net (VeChainThor) went live on June 30th, magic internet money would rain from heaven and make me an instant millionaire. I’m sure many of you felt the same way. Those of you that got in at the ATH in January have every right to be disappointed, angry, or even afraid. While I am disappointed, and maybe a little angry, I’m definitely not afraid. In my last update, I shared all the reasons why VeChain is a long-term winner. None of what I wrote there has changed. But those fundamentals also don’t change the frustration of hovering around $2.00 right now. What the heck is going on? Let’s breakdown the reasons for VeChain’s disappointing price performance in July, and find out why it’s ultimately nothing to worry about. 1) X Node lockup paused. Back in March, VeChain launched the X Node program to encourage early token holders to lockup massive amounts of coin. While this was positioned as a benefit to reward loyal holders (and it is!) it was also undeniably a stop-gap to prevent holders from selling their coins. It kept the price stable when much of the market was falling apart. And arguably, it worked. Remember, even a couple of days ago, VeChain was one of only three coins to be green for 2018. X Node lockup was hugely important to price stability. But now it’s gone! The “snapshot” for monitoring X Node status paused at the beginning of July. That means there’s no requirement to hodl in order to keep the X Node. Many X Node holders are now actively trading, increasing the circulating supply and lowering the price. 2) No Transactions on Main Net. If there was one place where I really was off the mark, it was in thinking that the blockchain would be pumping out transactions on July 1st. I really misled myself and others thinking that was the case. In hindsight it makes sense. The blockchain is live and operating, but it can’t support transactions because there are no tokens. Tokens are essential for the functioning of the blockchain. It’s like having a heart beating but no blood cells. Or to use Sunny’s transportation analogy, it’s like having a highway with no cars on the road. a. VTHO is used to power transactions. b. VTHO is only generated by VET. c. There is no/very little VET since the token swap hasn’t happened yet. d. Transactions can’t occur until the token swap is completed. 3) No VTHO Generation. Much like the above, people were planning to be generating VTHO from July 1, and that didn’t happen. VTHO generation is the reward we’ve been waiting for since December. The confusion around when VTHO would actually be generated has inevitably soured certain holders. 4) VTHO isn’t tradable on any exchanges. Starting today (with LBank), VTHO is being generated, and more will be on the way. But what good is it? There’s no one to buy it, since it’s not tradable on any exchanges. This will of course change very soon, but it doesn’t take the salt out of today’s tears. 5) We don’t know the price of VTHO. The one question on everyone’s mind: HOW MUCH WILL BE THE PRICE OF VTHO?! It’s driving everyone absolutely crazy to not have an estimated price. $.001 to $.1 per token is a wide range, making it impossible to predict earnings. People are just irritated that they don’t know how rich they will be. As one friend said, “I don’t know if I’m earning a vacation, or a retirement.” The expectations for VTHO are insanely high, and everyone is restless waiting for trading and an actual price. 6) Token Swap Fatigue. I consider myself a VeChain power-user, and even I’m disoriented by the confusion surrounding the token swap. X Node, Economic Node, Exchange, Wallet, Ledger… it’s been pretty exhausting trying to keep up with what to do and when. And there’s so much at stake. Even a tiny mistake can cause people to lose their life savings. VeChain has given us manuals, videos, and AMA’s, and the Community Admins have been doing God’s work helping the masses figure this out. But ultimately, it’s on the individual to complete the token swap. It’s a stressful process, time-consuming, and as a result, community morale is low. 7) The VEN token is dying. It goes without saying, but the value of VEN tokens is fading by the minute. They are literally being discontinued as they convert to VET. The value of the VEN token to date is purely speculative (main net wasn’t launched), and now that we are converting to native VET tokens, the VEN is becoming tissue paper. There’s no money to be made holding it any longer. Get it exchanged for VET and let’s start the game anew. 8) Authority Nodes have not been announced. Many token holders were excited to finally find out what enterprise companies are invested in VeChain. There was an expectation that on July 1st, the Foundation would reveal the Authority Node holders. This will happen, and when it does, will inevitably cause the price to pump, since most of the node holders have not been announced. But until that day comes, the inevitable pump of partnership announcements will be saved for another day. So am I disappointed? Sure. Am I antsy to be rich? Definitely. But am I nervous? Not at all. VeChain will be one of the few projects that emerges from this bear market victorious, and I’m pretty confident it will happen much sooner than the end of the year. With the exception of Number 8 above (and maybe even that one too) all the items on that list will be resolved by the end of August. The pain of the token swap will be mostly finished, VTHO will be generated, it will be trading on exchanges, and we will finally have a VTHO price. This will make it possible for the enterprise clients to migrate from the consortium chain to VeChainThor, and we will finally get to see what kind of transaction volume is really possible. Additionally, the Ledger wallet will be out, tokens will be locked up again, and X Node monitoring will resume, locking up the tokens and reducing circulating supply. As this process unfolds, VeChain will reveal additional partners, Ocean X will go live, VeChain ICO’s will start trading, transaction volume will pump, and VeChain’s price along with it. It’s going to be an exciting few months. Don’t mourn that the old game has finished, celebrate that the new game has begun.