An Interview With Crypto Expert and Token Guru Eloisa Marchesoni
Angel Investor, Speaker, and Token Specialist
I had a chance to catch up with Eloisa Marchesoni, a highly-regarded token expert and consultant. As I transition away from writing about specific altcoins, I thought you might like to hear a little about her journey and perspective on altcoins.
If you can find some time, I’d encourage you to look into what she’s doing. You can find some good links at the end of this post.
Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Eloisa Marchesoni. I’m a 24-year-old Italian-American born in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
I am a crypto-entrepreneur and modern digital nomad, tokenomics expert, tech business angel, fixed passive income crypto investor, and freelance consultant. I’m also a member of numerous blockchain associations, including the newly-formed GMI Super PAC.
When I was a student at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, I did well but got tired of being the typical valedictorian and felt like it wasn't what I wanted. At the time, ICOs were starting to become a thing. I had already purchased some cryptocurrencies, then waited for the ICO bubble to pop to officially start in crypto as a token model artist. It was a big pivot - I had planned on a career in management consulting with McKinsey.
Later on, I met Giacomo Arcaro and his growth hacker team. After building our skills together, we started to work on innovation consulting management following the crypto trends. I still work with him, but now I'm focusing my attention on DeFi, NFTs, and especially on projects aimed at aiding the mass adoption of blockchain technology and its applications.
What got you interested in cryptocurrency?
The crypto world has interested me for a long time, mainly because of its potential to make our world a better place to live in. I also enjoy seeing the constant growth behind a new continuous chain of innovation and efficiency backed by wonderful and diverse projects.
I was shy in the beginning. As I started gaining experience [in the crypto industry] around the world, I felt like the crypto world was an important part of me and my role as a young woman was overall accepted. People have always been welcoming and nobody ever took advantage of me. With crypto, I felt truly valued for my skills and ability.
That led me to public speaking. People kindly appreciated what I had to say, like specific insight into certain sectors, which I could adapt to the various geographic areas I went to and the people I spoke to. It makes me feel grateful to everything and everyone that I have credibility and growing opportunities through those public interactions.
You’ve advised teams on initial coin offerings (ICOs), initial exchange offerings (IEOs), and security token offerings (STOs). What are some challenges these teams face when launching, building, and growing projects?
ICOs, STOs, and IEOs encompass different methods to raise funds through a token offering.
Unfortunately, the regulatory hurdles associated with these fundraising methods are constantly changing, and businesses need to make a constant and important effort to keep up with the whole process.
For example, the main issues that can occur in ICOs are a declined market acceptance due to scams and frauds. Also, the issuer needs to manage all logistics involved, including KYC verifications, and he or she can’t directly give the possibility to offer monetary returns to investors.
Challenges for the IEOs are obtaining a regulator's approval.
Finally, the STO model (which appeared as an alternative to ICO) requires an important financial/time investment to comply with the requirements of [relevant] legislation. It also has a lack of anonymity and limited access to investors for the offering.
At present, I only advise on reverse offerings, since these actually are backed by the traction gained and the social proof that a project already was able to build on the web.
[Author’s Note—reverse offerings involve established companies issuing tokens or incorporating them into their businesses. The most famous example is probably Libra/Diem, which failed but represents one type of reverse offering model.]
In the past two years, I’ve seen a big evolution and diversification in tokenomics, treasury policies, and incentive structures. How do you make sense of the different approaches?
I consider a number of factors when looking at crypto tokenomics.
Perhaps the most important is to understand how the digital currency will be used. Is there a clear link between platform usage and the service being built?
Also, good tokens have a strong chance that a growing service will require purchases and usage that ultimately help increase the price.
To decide a token's worth and minimize the risk as much as possible there must be clear steps:
Allocation and distribution of tokens—seeing how the token is distributed and checking if there’s any wallet that keeps hoarding a significant percentage of the circulating token supply. This means a huge risk of the whale dumping their holding and dropping the price of the token in an instant.
Token supply and market capitalization—the higher a token’s market cap and the lower its circulating supply, the more valuable it could be in the future.
Token model—does it make sense?
Also, you should look for details regarding the project’s team and the team members’ backgrounds.
What do you look for in strong projects?
What I personally look for and what, to me, defines a strong project can be only found and understood by research and steps.
For instance, the team. Finding out who they are is key, so the founder, advisors, the CEO, and anyone who is part of the team, I must observe what their previous jobs were and make sure they're experts in their fields. It's also good to check if they have a good track record and if they were ever involved in any scams or fraud allegations in the past.
Overall we want to make sure we can work together and understand if they have the ability to deliver what they promise.
The idea and the project itself, too. I like to participate in projects that solve real-world problems and understand the unique general selling propositions offered.
Also, the community and long-term growth. Does the project have a strong and impactful community for the long term? I make sure to check every platform to further understand the long term impact and interaction.
Do you think regulations will change the way founders develop cryptocurrencies?
Although crypto regulations have failed to materialize for the past several years, it shouldn't stop founders and crypto entrepreneurs from preparing for what many people perceive as inevitable.
I think regulations will change the way founders develop cryptocurrencies. They will have to partner with larger crypto companies that already have established relationships with regulating bodies or instead cultivate market influence, but that entails building a sizable customer base which could get a company a seat at the table to help co-create policy. .
There is an urgent need for cross-border collaboration and cooperation to address the technological, legal, regulatory, and supervisory challenges. Setting up a comprehensive, consistent, and coordinated regulatory approach to crypto is a daunting task. But if we start now, we can achieve the policy goal of maintaining financial stability while benefiting from the benefits that the underlying technological innovations bring.
You’ve spoken all over the world. Can you tell us about some of your experiences?
I found great inspiration in my role and this sector thanks to the experience I gained, the knowledge that was brought to me, and the various cultures and people that were willing to listen to me in informal fireside talks and speeches on stage.
I’m the youngest internationally-known female consultant in crypto. At 18 years of age, I was an ICO, IEO and STO advisor across Russia, South Eastern Asia, Latin America and Europe. Although I had a particularly shy and introverted attitude, I am grateful and have big dreams for the future. This field doesn't have many young women but I always felt welcomed and happy to be a part of the sector. People were always humble and accepting of me. My skill set was seen and appreciated. I slowly improved my public speaking and authority. I feel very lucky to have such an important impact on people.
Public speaking is a skill I’m actively working on. Perfection needs lots of practice! At first, the idea of speaking to an audience of 1500+ people made me nervous, but I’m much more confident now. The first conference I spoke at was in-person, the 2018 edition of AIBC in Malta, so the scariest part was seeing everyone in the huge gala watching me (or not), and I could hear the crowd’s response. Despite my nervousness and the pressure of live reactions, I found that I really enjoyed speaking at that conference. That’s when I started proposing myself for and then being invited to various other conferences as a speaker.
I put so much attention on the technicalities of my speeches, at first, but then noticed that what makes a speech great is just two very natural skills that anyone wanting to step on stage should have: authenticity and storytelling. Exceptional keynotes have a unique touch and play a specific role. The expert knowledge that is to be enthusiastically conveyed to the audience is freshly packaged in a story. The keynote is closely tied to the person of the keynote speaker.
I set it up so that my personality, charisma make the speech unforgettable. Professional keynote speakers like myself live their topic on stage, and that is why they embody their message 100% as speakers, thus not needing to panic about the planning too much, at least after the first few experiences.
Since then, I’ve appeared on TV shows and TV news outlets, like the Australian TickerNews and others. I can share with you some of the engagements with TV shows and podcasts, for example the three listed below:
What areas of the crypto industry do people ask you about the most?
Definitely anything that has to do with Web3.
Web3 is a rebranding of crypto and blockchain, the technology is based around a worldwide network of computers that talk to each other and validate and record transactions without human intervention or centralized oversight. It’s a very promising long term impact and I think this may be a powerful and interesting way for people to collect and speculate on digital artifacts. That’s potentially meaningful for people who create art and people who like to buy art.
The rise of technologies such as distributed ledgers and storage on blockchain will allow for data decentralization and create a transparent and secure environment. Web 3.0 puts the power back in the hands of users, bidding farewell to the data hegemony and data exploitation of the centralized platforms. Compared with the current Web 2.0 landscape characterized by centralized platforms that store and monetize user data, Web 3.0 represents a more open, transparent, and decentralized future.
People want to know, when will it become real? How will technologies integrate to make it real?
Also, people ask me which projects will make it as dominant designs for the future Web3.
Where do you see the most growth opportunities in crypto right now?
I see a lot of growth opportunities in the crypto market as a whole, especially Ethereum.
Ethereum represents a sustainable, function-oriented approach to cryptocurrency. Some of the most popular dApp projects include decentralized finance (DeFi) and a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. Because it's an open-source network, developers can also build new projects on the blockchain. This creates virtually unlimited potential for Ethereum.
All of these dApps require the use of Ether, so if any of them become widely adopted, Ethereum will benefit from it—even if ETH itself does not become a mainstream form of currency.
One of Ethereum's founders, Vitalik Buterin, has claimed that after the Ethereum 2.0 transition, the network could potentially handle up to 100,000 transactions per second. These faster transaction times can help Ethereum scale and give it a better chance at becoming widely adopted. I see a great growth opportunity and it might come sooner than you think considering the next wave of DeFi will see users utilizing L2 chains, interacting freely or at near-zero cost with newer DeFi applications.
Ethereum Layer-1 is expensive, but Layer-2 will make Ethereum transfers possible for as little as $3, token transfers for $7, and token swapping for $16.
Where can people learn more about you?
As a young entrepreneur, I try to use as many platforms as possible to share my personal opinions in crypto investments, especially on Twitter, where I share most of my thoughts about finance in general and the future of blockchain.
You can learn even more about me on my Everipedia page Eloisa Marchesoni. I also have a personal Linkedin Profile where I have all of my previous and current job experiences.
I have been cited and quoted in several news articles, too, in which I share my opinions on finance and talk about my goals, achievements and projects. For that, just look me up on Google News!
Some examples I am proud of:
Did the Crypto Bubble Just Burst? 7 Experts Weigh In (NASDAQ)
These crypto-influencers distributed more than $20,000 of crypto to ‘homeless’ on Wall Street (The Hindu)
Crypto volatility hits banks, celebs and everyday investors (The Hill)
El Salvador’s Bitcoin plans: Disruptive or dangerous? (Fortune)
Crypto investors to Elon Musk: Please stop tweeting! (CNN Business)
Mark Helfman publishes the Crypto is Easy newsletter. He is also the author of three books and a top bitcoin writer on Medium and Hacker Noon. Learn more about him in his bio.
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First of all, it was a fun interview. It's fun and informative.
I agree on many issues about the project. I like to research projects, and sometimes I research projects when I'm bored or depressed. And she talked about the things that I really think are the most important. The team and the idea are very important. I'll check out the team first, then the idea. The idea may be very beautiful, but it must be brought to real life. For example, it is a good project to be able to provide unlimited transaction volume with constant and low electricity at the same time with low fee, but I don't think it will be real. I mean, it's not enough that it's great. It has to be real, too. And then I'll look at things like tokenomic.
Thank you for the nice interview and your efforts.
For me it's the project team thats most important closely followed by the idea. If these two areas are solid, I will invest.