Waves is a blockchain platform that allows you to create your own custom token. According to its website, you can create your own token in less than a minute and use it for projects such as crowdfunding, loyalty reward programs, and in-app currencies. Tokens created on Waves have limited functionality compared to (for example) Ethereum, but are easier to create and require zero coding knowledge.

The Waves coin (WAVES) is the platform’s native currency. You can use WAVES to create a trading pair with your self-made coin on the Waves decentralized exchange (DEX). There are two ways to acquire the currency, you can either install the Waves client on your computer and use its DEX to exchange fiat, Bitcoin, or Ethereum, or you can acquire WAVES through a third-party centralized crypto exchange.

The platform has a Miner Reward Token (MRT) which is awarded to miners or platform members who support them; MRT can also be traded on the open market. To become a miner, a user must have a minimum effective balance of 10,000 WAVES in a personal account. WAVES holders can support the work of miners and earn income without by loaning their balance of tokens to the miners. The miners earn commission from processing the transactions within the platform.

The project was launched in 2016 by Ukrainian entrepreneur Alexander (Sasha) Ivanov, a Theoretical Physics graduate of Moscow State University who pursued postgraduate studies at Leipzig University, Germany. In the same year it launched, Waves held a successful ICO, raising $2 million in less than 24 hours and a total of over $16 million.

The total WAVES token supply is 100 million. One million tokens were distributed to early supporters, one million were put aside for post-ICO bounties, four million were reserved for strategic partners and backers, nine million were withheld by the development team, and 85 million were distributed in the ICO.

The Waves platform itself has been described as a cryptocurrency version of the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. According to the ICObench tracker, there were around 100 crowdsales on Waves in March 2018 spanning 25 categories. The top two fundraising successes included mobile gaming platform MobileGo, which raised $53 million, and cryptographic pension asset platform Peerbanks, which raised $42.6 million. As of 2018, the Waves platform was most popular among Russian and North American projects.

In September 2018, Waves introduced smart contract functionality to the platform. The new features include multi-sig addresses, token freezing, atomic swaps, and voting. Waves’ smart contracts use a new programming language, RIDE, specifically made for the project. Waves’ smart contracts do not require Gas to execute like (for example) Ethereum. Instead, the network charges a minimal flat fee.