A HISTORY OF HUOBI
Huobi was founded in 2013 by their current CEO and chairman, Leon Li. Li’s background includes having attended Tshingua University, specializing in Automation. Before starting the Huobi Group, Li spent time as a computer engineer at Oracle. In December of 2013, Huobi was named as the largest digital asset exchange operating in China. 2017 saw Huobi extend their limbs into Korea, Singapore, and Japan.
Currently, Huobi has headquarters of various financial sectors based in: Singapore; South Korea; Japan; Australia; Indonesia; Russia; Argentina; Thailand; and China. The company has strived to give customers not only a great exchange, but a great resource for any service one may need. Despite the many difficulties faced with Chinese government in regards to cryptocurrency laws, Huobi has managed to adapt to the changes and thrive globally, eventually branching off into various sectors including venture capital, a cryptocurrency wallet project, and a division dedicated to working with mining pools.
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HUOBI'S PLATFORM
spot trading : Huobi offers several different platforms to serve any customer’s needs. For starters, Huobi offers a standard spot trading platform that operates similarly to many other spot trading platforms in the industry. The platform features a multi-timeframe chart, a depth chart, and integration with TradingView (including their tools). Customers are able to view the order book and the asset trading history, as well as their own personal order history. Limit orders, Market orders, and Stop-Limit orders are all available options for traders.
margin trading : For the trader that prefers to trade with a little more volume or risk, Huobi offers a Margin trading platform. Customers can apply for loans through Huobi to trade a greater quantity of cryptocurrencies and profit from the price spread. The original loan must be paid back, and accounts can be liquidated if the risk ratio falls below 110% (calculated as: [(Loaned Amount + Tradable Balance) Total Asset] / [(Interest Payable + Loaned Amount)] x 100%.) Traders can margin trade with Bitcoin; Ethereum; XRP; Litecoin; Bitcoin Cash; and EOS. These assets can be traded with USDT or BTC.
futures trading : Huobi also offers a Futures trading platform. While margin trading can be risky, trading contracts is said to be very high-risk. With that being said, Huobi offers Weekly, Bi-Weekly, and Quarterly contracts in Bitcoin; Ethereum Classic; Ethereum; EOS; Litecoin; Bitcoin Cash; XRP; TRX; and Bitcoin SV.
OTC(P2P) - The OTC, or over-the-counter, section of Huobi offers potential buyers and sellers a way to move large quantities of coins without exposure to the fickle exchange market. Certified merchants can register here, and slippage can be minimized by matching buyers and sellers directly instead of creating market orders.
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HUOBI APPS
While you do have the online trading interface, Huobi does have computer programs and mobile apps that you can use.
I found that the PC programmes were more functional as they did not have to rely on the PC browser and were hence much faster. They also have better charting and you are in more control of your trading parameters. These programs are available on Windows and Mac devices.
However, if you are a trader that is always on the go, that is where the Huobi mobile apps come in. These were developed for the main exchange but you can switch to the derivative markets on the futures and swaps platform.
This was a pretty well designed application and you have one-touch ordering as well as some basic charting functionality. The app is available in iOS and Android and you can head on over to the respective app stores to get a sense of the feedback.
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EXCHANGE SECURITY
Huobi operates a hot and cold wallet storage procedure. This means that they keep the vast amount of their coin holdings in an offline environment away from hackers. They then have a smaller percentage in “hot” wallets with multisig capability.
They also operate a decentralized server structure around the world which can ensure uptime irrespective of whether one of the servers goes down. You can think of this as effective load balancing.
Finally, they have anti DDoS measures in place. We all know that crypto exchanges are prime targets for Denial of Service attacks and it can be quite frustrating when these are perpetrated in peak market times.
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IS HUOBI TRUSTWORTHY?
Huobi, like many exchanges in the space, has had, at one time, some shady history, but for the most part, has managed to maintain a clean reputation. Historically, Chinese exchanges have shown to operate in accordance with different standards, with many exchanges having to suffer at the will and whim of the Chinese government. Some of the controversy Huobi has seen in the past has been a result of this (particularly with the Chinese ban on ICO tokens). It should be noted that in 2017, the exchange did invest into “wealth-management products” using idle customer funds. This sort of activity shouldn’t be taken lightly.
However, with that being said, the exchange continues to turn over a large amount of volume. For the most part, the exchange can be considered a trustworthy platform to trade popular and exotic cryptocurrencies. This does not mean it is entirely safe to store user funds on the exchange, as the exchange (or the user funds) can be susceptible to risk at any given moment. No matter how comfortable one may be with the internet, one should always remember that the internet is not as safe as many would like to believe. Huobi does have measures in place in the unfortunate event that an account is breached, and if verifiable, the customer may be able to retrieve lost funds.
A unique feature offered on Huobi is their Official Media Authenticator. This essentially lets users enter the URL of a content channel to see if the channel is authentic. A feature like this, while seemingly simple, could save anyone from potentially losing their funds due to a scam or phishing website.
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HUOBI REVIEW VERDICT
Huobi Global offers a signficant host of features to its users and has maintained its credibility over a long period of time. This is largely one of the main reasons it a ranked as a top 4 exchange by liquidity as its users trust their funds there.
After establishing itself in Asia, Huobi is trying to branch out and take on other areas of the globe which is great news for Western traders. Additionally, the Huobi prime platform could provide some great opportunities for the exchange users moving forward.
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Huobi Website: https://www.huobi.com/topic/invited/?invite_code=q7g23
Huobi Indian Community: https://t.me/huobiglobalindia
Huobi Global Community: https://t.me/huobiglobalofficial

Author's Note:
Elastos was discussed in this group twice, albeit 7 and 9 months ago, respectively. To do the project justice my intention is to give existing and new CryptoMoonShots group followers an update as the overall market has changed considerably and to factor in project-specific developments following the two mentions of Elastos here.
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Definitions:
Content Creators and/or Developers: Individuals and enterprises that generate, design, and create digital assets.
Digital Capital: An individuals videos, photos, written text, written or spoken ideas, music, time, and attention
Big Tech: Companies like Alphabet, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter to name a few.
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Project Introduction:
The design philosophy of Elastos originated from Rong Chen, a former senior software engineer at Microsoft. Building on his experience at Microsoft, Chen wanted to create a platform in which applications and services are not allowed to access the Internet directly. Without access to the network, malware would not be able to steal user data or attack other services on the Internet. Chen’s vision was subsequently developed into an open-source, lightweight operating system for virtual machines (github.com/Elastos). In 2017, blockchain technology was integrated into Chen’s vision, enabling development of the Elastos Smart Web.
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The project is focused on developing a decentralized internet platform where digital assets are owned, distributed, and monetized by Content Creators and/or Developers that own it. To understand this, it is imperative to understand the current internet model (Internet 2.0). Big tech currently owns the internet and everything in it: your videos, your photos, your written text, your ideas, your music, your time, your attention - and the most important in this context - the means of distribution - let's call this Digital Capital. In the current model, Content Creators and/or Developers are forced to distribute their capital through channels owned by Big Tech, which rob creators of their rights and profits.
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Elastos is building the boundlessly scalable platform where digital capital can be published, distributed, and monetized by creators while allowing creators and developers to retain their rights. This platform will allow for decentralized applications (Dapps) to operate on a peer-to-peer network with no centralized control. Consumers can access these Dapps via their mobile phones without changing their operating system. The old Internet is a Web of information. If you click a URL, you get data. Elastos is creating a Web of apps. When you click a URL, you get code. The Elastos Web will be a special economic zone where Elastos tokens function as the base currency.
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The project is open-source software whose development process has been sponsored by industry giants such as the Tsinghua Science Park, the TD-SCDMA Industrial Alliance and the Foxconn Group for more than 200 million RMB. The project has published more than ten million lines of source code, including four million lines of original source code. The Elastos blockchain utilizes merged mining with Bitcoin, the process by which consensus is reached on both chains simultaneously. In this case, the Bitcoin blockchain works as the parent blockchain to Elastos, with the Elastos chain as its auxiliary blockchain. The mining pools will deploy merged mining code and miners will submit proof of work to both blockchains at the same time. Energy consumption does not increase with merged mining, and will be equal to the energy consumed for mining either alone. Through this mechanism, the Elastos blockchain has an extremely strong guarantee of computing power and will then be able to provide blockchain innovations at a global scale. It makes full use of existing Bitcoin computing resources in addition to being environmentally friendly.
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Live Products
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Elastos SPV Wallet
Elastos provides an SPV Wallet SDK equipped with a series of wallet-related interfaces to enable users to develop unique wallets that connect to the Elastos blockchain. Sample applications are available now.
Elastos Blockchain Merged Mining
Elastos’ main public blockchain is merged mined with bitcoin, which enables pre-existing bitcoin miners to update their clients to simultaneously mine Elastos without expending excess energy. The merged mining is currently open only to the BTC.com mining pool.
Elastos DID Sidechain Service
Elastos provides a Decentralized ID (DID) Sidechain Service to be used in applications. On the Elastos ecosystem, every user, every device and every app has its own DID and can store any value that is associated with that ID on this sidechain. The DID service paves the way for a more secure and trustable internet, as this allows for seamless interoperability between DApps and IDs are assigned to users from the blockchain rather than having them assigned by a company.
Elastos TV Box
Although Elastos does not sell the TV Box directly, the Elastos Carrier is embedded inside. The Elastos TV Box is presently used for simple features such as remote control in a decentralized peer to peer fashion. In the future, these TV Boxes and many other IoT devices that have Elastos Carrier installed will be capable of running as IPFS nodes for supporting the distributed file storage network for the Elastos ecosystem.
Elastos Dittobox
Any individual can establish a unique dittobox server on a personal computer that integrates ownCloud server and Elastos Carrier. The dittobox server can be installed onto a computer behind the router, and all files stored on the server are accessible from anywhere in the world via the Elastos Carrier network.
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Beta Products
Elastos Blockchain PoW + DPoS
Elastos main blockchain will employ a hybrid consensus of PoW + DPoS where the PoW is merged mined with bitcoin and both are used to package blocks while the DPoS nodes are used for signing. This creates a finality in the blocks which will prevent the chain from forking.
Elastos Token Sidechain Service
Elastos DApps utilize this service to generate application-specific native tokens within the Elastos ecosystem. As such, each application can create its own token on demand, and without friction.
Elastos Smart Contract Sidechain Service
Elastos provides a unique sidechain service that is designated to running and executing smart contracts. These smart contracts are compatible with ERC20 and ERC721 tokens, which enables Ethereum DApps to run smoothly within the Elastos ecosystem.
Elastos Hive
Elastos will provide a distributed storage system that apps can utilize to store files, messages in a p2p chat, videos, music, and more.
Elastos Elapay
Elapay is a payment tool that enables payment with ELA. Two types of payments will be supported. The first is “Pay On Order,” which encompasses standard commercial purchases, and will require merchants to integrate Elapay service into their web apps in order to offer users this payment option alongside the likes of credit card and cash payments. The second is “Point to Point Pay,” which involves individuals exchanging funds between themselves. “Point to Point Pay” uses an html5 page that can be shared on social media outlets such as Facebook or Wechat to send or receive ELA. Elapay can be expended for a variety of purposes – from purchasing a virtual asset in an online video game to standard online shopping expenditures. It simply represents another method of paying for goods and services at checkout.
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Alpha Products
Elastos Trinity
A cross-platform browser application that runs on Android and will be available for iOS in the future. This is a form of the Elastos virtual machine and a demo of Elastos Runtime where decentralized applications written for Elastos run in a secure sandboxed environment. These are Ionic framework applications. Also, the SPV wallet functionality and the payment functions will be embedded inside the browser so that other DApps that run on Trinity can easily integrate with the available features.
Elastos Carrier SDK
Elastos Carrier provides SDK for Android (Java), iOS (Swift/Objective C), and nodeJS that can be utilized to connect to the decentralized peer to peer network that takes over all of the network traffic on the Elastos ecosystem, such as messaging, file transfer, and more.
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On January 16, 2019 the Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing (IGRS) board issued Elastos a formal membership certificate, thus making official its entrance into the IGRS Industry Association. In conjunction with Association members, Elastos will explore the opportunities and potential synergies presented by blockchain and IoT, in the joint hopes of creating a robust IoT industry ecosystem.
Source: https://news.elastos.org/elastos-joins-the-igrs-industry-association/
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Recently an ecosystem partner meetup revealed 900k TV Boxes sold and 180k registered DIDs via our partner app Viewchain. The Elephant Wallet also hit the Apple App Store and Google Play.
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In June, 2018 Elastos partnered with ioeX, an internet of things platform that was much anticipated. The ioeX project is a behemoth on its own and is built on the Elastos platform.
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**There are countless other exciting milestones that were achieved in 2018 and planned for 2019. Refer to https://news.elastos.org/.*\*
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Market Sizing, Factors, and ELA's Potential
In the current market, Elastos' market cap of fluctuates between $31 million and $35 million with ~14,574,261 ELA coins in circulation ($2.1 to $2.3 per ELA) and total coin supply of 34,104,561.
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ELA is currently listed on LBANK, CoinEgg, Huobi, HBUS, Kucoin, BCEX, and BIT-Z, the majority of which are low volume exchanges.
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Binance Exchange controversy: Although various sources say different things, the evidence points to one plausible story: The Elastos foundation refused to pay Binance's listing fee and backed out of the listing the coin. Binance followed suit by tarnishing the project reputation using various media.
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Based on the projects scope, the team's background and leadership, the project's backers, affiliations, and partnerships, and projects with similar mandates the project has the potential to be worth close to $500 million (15x) in the short term (less than 12 months) and several billion over the longer term (1 to 2 years).
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The largest barrier to achieving it's objectives is adoption by developers. The chicken or the egg dilemma is that some argue listing ELA on major exchanges will incentivize developers to build on the platform because the coins value will appreciate others ague that the underlying technology must far outperform the incumbent to incentivize migration and hence drive the coins value. It's probably a combination of the two.
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I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this assessment.
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Thanks!