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Category: Crypto Trends

Make sense of the news and how it affects the blockchain space as a whole. Crypto trends is a collection of relevant news and insights to help you make an informed decision.

  • What is Cardano ($ADA)?

    What is Cardano ($ADA)?

    Cardano is a decentralized smart contract platform which would be driven by peer reviewed academic research and capable of running both financial applications and decentralised applications. Established by a former co-founder of Ethereum, Cardano aims to improve on Ethereum by offering low-cost, secure and scalable transactions. To improve smart contract security, Cardano uses the programming language Haskell which has been proven to be easier to audit and formally verify. In addition, Cardano openly addresses the need for regulatory oversight whilst maintaining consumer privacy and protections through an innovative software architecture.

    Check out our explainer video on Cardano ($ADA)

    What is the ADA token and its uses?

    ADA is Cardano’s native cryptocurrency. It was launched on 1st January 2018 through an initial coin offering as a utility token and will have 45 billion total supply. It is currently the 8th most popular cryptocurrency based on market capitalisation according to CoinGecko.

    Upon the opening of the Shelley Public testnet on 9th June 2020, and any operator can set up a Cardano stake pool in anticipation for staking and delegation on the mainnet to be released in Summer 2020.

    Eventually, ADA will allow users to send value between two parties, pay for goods or services, deposit funds on an exchange, or enter an application. ADA will also be used to power the transactions on the Cardano network.

    Founder: Charles Hoskinson

    Charles Hoskinson is a co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Ethereum Classic, with extensive experience working with smart contracts and the programming language Haskell. He is an outspoken critic of Ethereum and parted ways with the Ethereum team in 2016. This was likely due to ideological differences arising from the team’s response to the DAO hack of 2016. Hoskinson is now the CEO of Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), and they have devoted a large team of expert engineers and researchers to build Cardano from the ground up.

    Cardano – development of the blockchain protocol

    Cardano aims to become the third generation blockchain, overcoming issues with previous generations of blockchains namely lack of scalability, interoperability and sustainability. Cardano aims to develop its platform upon these 2 guiding principles:

    • Peer-review: any science guiding the solutions to these issues goes through peer review.
    • High assurance code: Cardano aims to bring the same level of scientific rigour for mission critical systems such as aerospace to the development of their project.

    Cardano’s platform has the following key features:

    • Cardano will be built in Haskell code. Haskell uses a math based approach that results in a much more secure and reliable protocol.
    • A formally verified Proof of Stake consensus called Ouroboros. It is the first provably secure blockchain protocol developed by the IOHK team and peer reviewed. It has advantages over the traditional proof of work blockchains (e.g. as used by Bitcoin) by requiring less computation resources (there will be no mining) and is thus cheaper to run, yet being just as secure as the more popular Proof of Work algorithm. It also comes with a novel reward mechanism to prevent attacks like block withholding and selfish-mining.
    • Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA): Cardano is looking towards building RINA in order to reduce the bandwidth which is required for communicating and disseminating data. The idea is that RINA has fewer protocols but is able to work faster, yet still providing transparency, privacy and scalability.
    • The protocol is geared towards protecting users’ privacy rights while taking into account the needs of regulators. In doing so, Cardano is the first protocol to balance these requirements in a nuanced and effective way, pioneering a new approach for cryptocurrencies.
    • Cardano will also be completely open source and patent-free.

    Cardano’s platform is being constructed in 2 layers- a settlement layer and a computational layer. This gives the system flexibility during maintenance and allow for upgrades by way of soft forks.

    After completion of the settlement layer that will run ADA, the separate computing layer will be built to handle smart contracts. Cardano will also run decentralised applications, or dapps, services not controlled by any single party but instead operate on a blockchain.

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Cardano?

    Advantages of Cardano

    Many smart contract users believe that Cardano holds the key for long term secure development. This because of the numerous hacks and vulnerabilities in platforms such as Ethereum. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has criticized Ethereum as a “rushed product” with vulnerabilities which led to famous hacks such as The DAO. This could be viewed as a symptom of the flaws in Ethereum’s programming language, Solidity. Cardano improves on this by allowing for development using Haskell which can be formally verified.

    Cardano’s use of the proof of stake model in itself brings lots of advantages such as less susceptibility to interference because the nodes will be responsible for throughput and thus eliminating the need for extra machines. In turn less energy will be consumed which is better for the environment.

    Rewards are given out based on the number of tokens held rather than the amount of computational power contributed, which is fairer.

    The platform’s 2 layered system allows for each layer to be responsible for a complete set of tasks. This means more potential for interoperability with different cryptocurrency platforms and is therefore more scalable compared to Ethereum.

    Disadvantages of Cardano

    Critics of Cardano have pointed to the slow development and overly ideal goals of the project. This can be risky for Cardano because it could be overtaken by more aggressive competitors, or the regulatory environment can change meanwhile.

    Many features promised by the Cardano team are still not yet available. So a lot of what is said about how its cryptocurrency ADA would work is still theoretical.

    What is the Daedalus wallet?

    In order to store and use ADA, you must install Cardano’s Daedalus wallet. With the wallet you can send and receive ADA as well as view your transaction history.

    The Daedalus wallet will also offer the following features:

    • Unlimited Accounting – Manage any number of wallets with Cardano’s innovative hierarchical deterministic wallet implementation. This will give you more control over how your funds are organised. It also has powerful backup features to help recover your funds anytime.
    • Advanced Security – Cardano will not hold your keys. They use the most advanced cryptography in the world to ensure safety from attack and offer spending passwords and seeds for all your accounts.
    • Export to paper certificates- Wallets can be exported to paper certificates giving users the option of placing funds in cold storage.
    • Built with Web Technologies – Daedalus is built on top of Electron, a battle-proven open source development platform to build cross-platform desktop apps using Javascript, HTML and CSS.

    The Daedalus wallet is still a work in progress, features which are expected to be coming soon include:

    • Support for Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic.
    • Staking features which allow ADA holders to earn more ADA tokens.
    • A mobile wallet for both iOS and Android.

    What is the Goguen Era of Smart Contracts?

    On 12 September 2021, Cardano’s Alonzo hard fork upgrade went live on mainnet. Therefore, users can now create and deploy smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain.

    To learn more about what the Gouguen Era and Alonzo Hard Fork means for the development of Cardano, check out our detailed article here.

    Cardano enters DeFi with Occam Finance ($OCC)

    Occam Finance ($OCC) is a suite of DeFi (Decentralized Finance) solutions tailored for Cardano and managed and maintained by the Occam Association, a blockchain entity based in Switzerland. Currently, Occam offers 3 major products: OccamRazer, OccamX and OccamDAO.

    Resources:

    Website https://cardanofoundation.org/
    IOHK website https://iohk.io/
    Ouroboros whitepaper https://iohk.io/research/papers/#9BKRHCSI
    Blog https://cardanofoundation.org/blog/

  • Top 5 Play-to-Earn NFT Games for Cryptocurrency Rewards

    Top 5 Play-to-Earn NFT Games for Cryptocurrency Rewards

    The gaming industry has always been successful as participants yearn for escape into virtual reality. Add blockchain technology, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralised finance (DeFi), and voila! An explosive market model dubbed as play-to-earn (P2E) games.

    Blockchain for gaming has long been thought of as the perfect combination. After all, blockchain solves many traditional problems of the gaming industry, in particular, transparency between developers and gamers, as well as ownership within the game’s economy. 

    Millions of gamers are adopting DeFi-based NFT games and spending several hours every day playing them, causing their popularity to shoot through the roof. Game developers are catching on and there is no shortage of new P2E games to play.

    What is the Play-to-Earn (P2E) Model?

    The play-to-earn trend is an emerging phenomenon in the gaming industry where players of NFT games get to collect lucrative rewards for playing. That’s right, you can make money while playing your favorite NFT game. How cool is that? 

    By becoming active participants in these games, players get to monetize their time and skill to receive rewards like in-game NFT assets and tokens which can be traded or sold if the gamer so chooses. The most interesting part of this model is that these in-game assets and tokens are not just limited to the game, they can be exchanged for real money and spent in the real world.

    In normal video games, players are not given complete ownership of assets bought in-app, so they can not be traded for a higher value. The price of the NFT assets that blockchain gamers are rewarded can increase with market demand, giving players the option to sell their tokens at a much higher value. 

    Some examples of how gamers can make money in P2E games:

    • Sell in-game NFT assets such as weapons, potions, avatars, cards, etc on the appropriate platform or open marketplace for real cash.
    • Earn prizes by completing quests and daily or weekly challenges.
    • Earn rewards by defeating their opponents in player-versus-player (PvP) matchups.
    • Upgrade in-game characters to possess more unique features and subsequently sell them at a higher price in the marketplace.
    • In-game staking for crypto rewards

    The Top 5 Play-to-Earn NFT Games

    Below is our list of the top 5 play-to-earn games. Each of the games listed use different mechanics to earn, while some will require an initial investment, and some are still in early development stages.

    Axie Infinity

    axie infinity

    Launched in 2018, Axie Infinity has experienced massive growth and is currently on the list of top-ranked blockchain-based games judging by its daily, weekly, and monthly active users. 

    The game is a Pokemon-inspired metaverse where players battle, collect and raise their Axies in a land-based universe, Lunacia. No two Axies are the same as each is very unique, with varying strengths and weaknesses based on their genes. 

    The game provides more than 500 Axie body parts, allowing players to have a limitless number of body part combinations to use. The categories of Axies include the Beast, Plant, Bug, Reptile, Aquatic, and Bird, and their characters can be common, rare, ultra-rare, or legendary.

    There are two game modes in Axie Infinity: battle mode and adventure mode. 

    • Battle Mode – This game mode entails a real-time battle between two players on the platform and their Axies.
    • Adventure Mode – This game mode consists of players traveling around the map and completing tasks to defeat rogue monsters (Chimera) they encounter in their journey.

    To participate in the game, players are expected to have at least three Axies, which requires an initial investment. However, they can quickly make back their investment depending on how active they are on the platform.

    Gamers earn money in the Axie Infinity game by completing activities in the Axie universe and getting rewarded with Smooth Love Portion (SLP), the platform’s native ERC-20 utility token. 

    Players use SLP to breed more Axies. However, this token is in high demand so they can sell it to other players and make a profit. SLP can be traded on a decentralized exchange (DEX) or centralized exchange like Binance.

    Another way for players to generate income is by competing in player-vs-player (PvP) battles to win leaderboard prizes, breeding their Axies, selling them on the provided marketplace, and collecting and speculating on rare Axies.

    The game also allows players to earn or buy Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), another native ERC-20 token while playing. The AXS tokens serve as governance tokens and give players the right to vote for key decisions. The team are currently considering increasing AXS rewards for their Leaderboard winners with a view to, in future, directly distribute AXS as a battle reward.

    Axie Infinity has generated more than 15,000 ETH in revenue since it was launched. Its popularity exploded so much that many individuals in the Philippines quit their day jobs to focus fully on playing the game and earning rewards.

    The team is continuing to develop the Axie Infinity gameplay and will soon launch a new generation of battle experiences (Origins) and a land-based gaming experience known as “Project K”.

    Gods Unchained

    gods unchained

    Gods Unchained is a tactical free-to-play card game that seeks to integrate certain elements of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into traditional card gaming. The platform gives players true ownership of their in-game assets. Gods Unchained is a very competitive game that requires players to strategically outwit their opponents and win cards.

    Players can accumulate the cards either by purchasing them from other players or winning player-versus-player (PvP) battles where the winner is often determined by the quality of cards and the gaming skill of players.  The game operates in a rank setting which ensures that players in the same ranks are paired together in PVP matches.

    To win a match, players will have to ensure that their gameplay causes their opponent’s life to drop to zero before theirs. Every time a player wins, they receive experience points that move them to the next level and a pack of cards to add to their collection. 

    Each card is an NFT based on the Ethereum blockchain, precisely an ERC-721 token, which allows players to have full ownership of their in-game assets the same way they own cryptocurrency.

    Players can choose to trade their cards on the platform’s native marketplace or the open market. Those who choose to sell their cards within the gaming ecosystem will be paid using the platform’s native token, $GODS. The $GODS token has not been officially launched but is expected to go live very soon.

    MetaWars

    metawars

    MetaWars is a science fiction multiplayer strategy and roleplaying game with a vast metaverse set in space. Players can monetize and earn from the game’s war economy while participating in a highly immersive space exploration through the MetaWars galaxy.

    The game offers infinite universes where players can choose their own path using a wide collection of NFTs, and even cooperate with other players in missions to impact major events across the metaverse. 

    The gameplay also allows players to widen their army with unique ships, classes, and various optimization options. Players can combine modules, weapons, devices and equip perks, helping their characters level up their strength, rank up and receive attractive rewards.

    There are 3 parts to the game: Exploration, Fleet Formation, and Combat.

    • Exploration – Players embark on a journey of discovery, traversing the vast MetaWars galaxy that is constantly evolving and shifting from the collective actions of every player. Players will unveil mysteries and defend valuables against enemies.
    • Fleet Formation – Players have the option to customize their fleet of ships and robots in order to build a perfect fleet. To succeed in this segment, players would have to strategically combine modules, weapons, and devices to fit their strategy. 
    • Combat – Planet is a player-versus-player (PvP) mode of gameplay that awards $WARS tokens as a reward to the winners. Missions are player-versus-environment (PvE) games which are necessary to upgrade strength, rank and reward rations. 

    $WARS token is the in-game and governance token within MetaWars. There will also be a secondary token called $GAM. Further details will be released during the game’s next phase of development.

    Read more in our article MetaWars ($WARS, $GAM): NFT Gaming in Space.

    The Three Kingdoms

    the three kingdoms

    The Three Kingdoms is a strategic third-generation NFT game that is based on the historical characters of the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China. The game features high-end graphics, the ability to collect NFT characters, complete quests, and join siege gameplays to earn NFTs. 

    The gaming experience is enriched with extensive history, well-developed characters, progression gameplay and more. In the game, users will be able to build their base, expand their territories, upgrade their character’s attributes, win battles and emerge victorious in PvE (player versus environment) and PvP (player versus player) battles.

    Similar to popular gacha games with their randomized loot boxes, The Three Kingdoms utilises NFTs to bring added excitement to the gameplay experience. 

    • Raffles – A raffle will be held every so often that will enable players to draw a character card at random, for a price. Players will be able to draw as many cards as they wish. 
    • Characters – Characters will be randomly assigned six attributes: attack power, defence power, energy, luck, leadership, and intellect. The combination of these attributes determines whether a card is normal, rare, super rare or legendary.
    • Quests – Another method to recruit NFTs is where players send out one of their characters to recruit other heroes. Each found hero is another NFT of varying quality, which could help strengthen their forces.
    • Farming – Special NFTs can also be farmed by staking $TTK, the game’s native currency.

    $TTK is the game’s native token, used to purchase new characters in the NFT marketplace, upgrade armies, and invest in land. It can also be staked to farm more valuable NFTs.

    The secondary in-game token, $CHI, is inspired by the actual use of Chi in Chinese history as the energy that runs through all living things. Some future uses of $CHI include the ability to besiege cities, battle other players and even fuse new heroes.

    Learn more about The Three Kingdoms in our article The Three Kingdoms: The New Era of GameFi.

    CryptoKitties

    cryptokitties

    CryptoKitties is one of the earliest blockchain games in existence. Launched in 2017 by Dapper Labs, the game allows players to collect and breed virtual kittens.

    Every Kitty is unique, possessing characters that distinguish it from other Kitties living on the Ethereum blockchain. Players can obtain a CryptoKitty by buying one in the provided marketplace or by breeding two Kitties together. Breeding the Kitties enables players to unlock rare attributes that are not present in either of them.

    CryptoKitty players earn rewards by creating a collection of Kitties. Once they have a collection, they can either decide to take them to KittyVerse where they participate in catfights and win prizes or sell them on the platform’s marketplace or on leading NFT marketplaces.

    This game was so popular that it caused the unforgettable congestion of the Ethereum network. It is currently among the top play-to-earn games in the market. 

    Conclusion: The Future of P2E

    Play-to-earn NFT games have created an avenue for gamers to be rewarded for doing what they love. While some see it as a thing to do in their leisure and earn some cash, several others view it as a day job and can earn up to $300 every day.

    P2E games are set to completely revolutionize the gaming industry as we know it. It has integrated the concept of an open economy which ensures that all participants of the game are financially rewarded. While NFTs have already taken a dominant position in the collectibles trading scene, their presence in these games and the P2E model is set to take the market even further.

    As with some trends in the crypto space, P2E games might outlive the hype and become one of the leading aspects of the entire crypto industry. As it stands, many gamers worldwide are simply ecstatic to earn as they play.

  • Dot Finance: Polkadot’s Yield Aggregator & DeFi Hub

    Dot Finance: Polkadot’s Yield Aggregator & DeFi Hub

    Dot Finance is a new decentralized finance (DeFi) platform designed to incentivize the growth of the Polkadot ecosystem. Similar to other DeFi applications, Dot Finance uses smart contracts instead of third parties to provide financial services to users.

    By providing access to a variety of battle-tested high-performing financial instruments, Dot Finance is designed to bring DeFi to a wide range of users and will help increase user exposure to the many benefits of the Polkadot ecosystem. This will help grow the adoption of not just the Polkadot framework but the many new DeFi products and services that Dot Finance is building on top of Polkadot’s safe, secure, and resilient architecture.

    What is Yield Farming?

    Anybody that has been in DeFi long enough has heard about yield farming. At its core, yield farming is the practice of using DeFi protocols to make your money work for you. Instead of having funds stashed in a zero-interest account or a hardware wallet hidden under your mattress, you can use them to lend, borrow, trade, or provide liquidity. DeFi platforms incentivize user participation by rewarding them with native tokens and/or a portion of the transaction fees.

    Yield Farming Strategies

    Yield farming strategies are in constant flux as farmers must continuously adapt to protocol changes, market demands, and gas prices. That being said, the primary goal is to earn the highest rewards by locking up your funds. This is accomplished by supporting Automated Market Makers (AMMs) through addition of funds to Liquidity Pools (LPs).

    When liquidity is added to a pool, you receive LP tokens that represent the amount of your contribution to the pool. The LP tokens can entitle you to a portion of the swap fees from that pool, but you can also stake the LP tokens in different farms to earn rewards. The staking rewards come in the form of a new token, (e.g. PancakeSwap rewards LP token stakers with CAKE tokens) that can also be swapped or staked in different farms and pools. 

    The complexity of strategies increases quickly with all the different options and varying returns available.

    Yield Farming Optimization

    Keeping up with the fluctuating rates and ever-changing market conditions takes a lot of time and energy. If you make a mistake or miss the optimal compounding times, your APY drops significantly. If you farm on Ethereum, you also must worry about the crazy high gas fees eating into your yields with every transaction. Ethereum yield farming has become a space where only whales turn a profit.

    Dot Finance helps farmers avoid these issues and earn the highest returns possible with their yield aggregator. By working on the Polkadot and Kusama blockchains, the transactions are fast, and the gas fees remain low. 

    Dot Finance’s smart contracts automatically compound yields at the optimal frequency to increase your APY and the already low fees are shared across farms by batching the auto-compound transactions. Farmers also have access to automation and compounding at scale. It’s like farming with a tractor instead of pulling a yoke on your shoulders.

    How Dot Finance Maximizes Yields

    Normally, after providing liquidity to a pool and receiving LP tokens, you can stake those to earn new tokens. The rewards incentivize people to add liquidity to the pools but it takes a little more time and effort from the farmers because the funds have to be manually converted and restaked.

    Optimal compounding can be almost magical in how much it increases your returns. For example, if you were to auto-compound once a day for a year, a 40% APR becomes 49%. That’s almost a 25% increase in returns! 

    Dot Finance’s yield aggregator auto-compounds farming yields for you by converting them to LP tokens then staking them. Using their platform means the smart contracts will compound your yields at the optimal rate and entitle you to a share of their performance fee – the Pink Distribution.

    When you harvest your yields (collect rewards), Dot Finance gives you 70% of your earnings in LP tokens, and the other 30% will be issued in their native $PINK tokens. This is based only on your profits, your principal remains untouched. The 30% for which $PINK is minted is the performance fee that goes to the $PINK stakers.

    $PINK Token

    Governance

    Staking $PINK tokens will allow you to participate in DAO governance protocols. When future changes are proposed for the platform, you will be able to vote and help steer the protocols in a direction you think is best.

    Utility

    The native $PINK token is more than just a regular governance token. $PINK incentivizes liquidity provision and helps increase returns when using the platform. It can be staked to earn rewards and is used as an APR multiplier when claiming profits.

    The following shows the fee structure of $PINK:

    • 30% performance fee (the $PINK distribution) – This means 30% of profits will be converted and issued as $PINK tokens upon user withdrawal. The original profits are used to reward individuals that staked their $PINK tokens in the $PINK staking farm.
    • 0.5% withdrawal fee if the withdrawal happens within 72 hours of deposit.

    $PINK Staking

    There is a separate $PINK staking farm that will allow you to stake your tokens and receive a share of $PINK distribution profits. These profits come from the vault’s performance fee – the original 30% that were converted to newly minted $PINK tokens.

    This is an automatic process that happens with every withdrawal, e.g., a user takes profits, the smart contract executes and 30% of those profits are converted and given to everyone with staked $PINK tokens.

    Simply put, when you stake $PINK tokens in the $PINK farm, you receive a share of the $PINK distribution for the entire community.   

    Dot Finance prioritizes community and wants everyone to benefit from the growth and success of the protocol, therefore choosing this mechanism to share the earnings of the protocol with all the $PINK holders.

    Why Polkadot?

    Polkadot is a highly successful blockchain protocol that was designed to connect multiple specialized blockchains into a unified network. Isolated blockchains can only process a finite amount of traffic, and all blockchains make tradeoffs to support a variety of features and use cases. For example, one blockchain might optimize for security, while another might optimize for speed.

    These are the real-life challenges that Polkadot was designed to address. With a sharded multichain network, Polkadot can process many transactions on several chains in parallel. This eliminates bottlenecks. Also, the platform supports blockchains of different designs that are optimized for specific use cases. In this way, Polkadot overcomes the interoperability problem by uniting isolated blockchains, thereby enabling its user base to access and harness all of its advantages in one holistic protocol, making it a real contender for the next generation of blockchains.

    Because of these features, Polkadot has grown significantly over the last year and numerous projects have committed to building on it.

    What’s Next for Dot Finance?

    • Users can expect additional farms to be launched such as DAI-USDC & BUSD-USDC, and other projects in the Polkadot ecosystem.
    • Users will be able to deploy their vault strategy and integrate with Sushi decentralized exchange, enabling users to auto-compound gains and maximize returns on Sushi farms.
    • Plans to launch and support additional vault strategies to offer even higher yields for current farms.
    • Integration with Chainlink oracles to enhance vault’s security with additional price feeds.
    • Dot Finance will conduct additional audits for their smart contracts to ensure the security and safety of users’ funds.

    Check out Dot Finance’s official channels to learn more:

    Website – http://dot.finance/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/dot_finance

    Telegram – https://t.me/Dot_Finance

    Medium – https://dot-finance.medium.com/

    Sources:

    https://docs.dot.finance/

    https://morioh.com/p/110b7f4a031a

    https://dot-finance.medium.com/hello-polkadot-we-are-live-eb40187c146a

    https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/01/04/dex-aggregator-dot-finance-migrates-to-polkadot-from-bsc/

  • Alium Finance: All-in-One DeFi & NFT Ecosystem

    Alium Finance: All-in-One DeFi & NFT Ecosystem

    Alium Finance is a multichain decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem with an ambitious roadmap of CrossChain DeFi and non-fungible token (NFT) products. Their aim is to offer its users a single interface multichain ecosystem so they can enjoy different DeFi and NFT products on different blockchains without having to hop from one platform to another.  

    Alium Swap AMM DEX

    Existing AMM DEXs (Automated Market Maker Decentralized Exchanges) have several limitations and disadvantages that prevent them from providing maximum profit and benefits for their users. Decentralized exchanges on different blockchains do not interact with each other and the transfer of assets between them creates serious difficulties for users.

    To enable users to extract the maximum profit and choose the blockchain that best suits their needs, Alium Finance has created an advanced multi-blockchain AMM MultiChain DEX called Alium Swap.

    It will allow users to safely trade assets and quickly transfer them between different blockchains. Implementing the best features from existing protocols, Alium Swap creates a complete ecosystem of DeFi products that meets a broad variety of customer demands.

    Token swap on Alium Swap is a very simple way to trade one token for another via automated liquidity pools. Currently, they have integrated Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and Huobi ECO Chain networks. They have also launched a BSC-Polygon Bridge with plans for more bridges between chains to be released soon.

    The liquidity provided to the exchange comes from Liquidity Providers (LPs) who stake their tokens in liquidity pools. When users make a token swap (trade) on the exchange they will pay a 0.25% trading fee, which is broken down as follows:

    • 0.20% – Returned to liquidity pools in the form of a fee reward for liquidity providers.
    • 0.05% – Sent to the Alium Swap Treasury.

    For a smoother and mobile experience, Alium Swap also offers a mobile app available to users on Android and Apple devices.

    $ALM Token

    $ALM token is a utility token for the whole Alium ecosystem – it will be used on the DEX, NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace, in their NFT game, as well as for governance and staking.

    • DEX – Providing liquidity, profit sharing between $ALM holders, airdrops
    • NFT Marketplace – $ALM minting bonus and NFT auctions
    • Smart Farming – LP token $ALM farming and next gen $ALM farming
    • DAO – Voting with $ALM and proposals with $ALM
    • Staking – Dynamic $ALM staking pools

    $ALM is a BEP-20 token which means that any wallet supporting Binance Smart Chain can be used for storing $ALM. In the future, ETH-wrapped ALM will also be available.

    Liquidity Migration

    The Alium development team has introduced the ‘vampiring’ function now available on the platform. You can access it here: https://alium.finance/migrate

    Liquidity migration, or ‘vampiring’, is a process that allows users to transfer their liquidity from one exchange to another within the same chain, utilizing the most profitable rates on offer across various protocols and exchanges. 

    The introduction of the given function on the Alium exchange is needed to allow users to easily transfer their liquidity from other DEXs to Alium Finance for farming $ALM tokens with a greater degree of convenience and profitability. The BSC, Ethereum, and Polygon blockchains, as well as the exchanges they support, are available via the ‘vampiring’ function.

    Smart Farming & Strong Holders Pool

    Strong Holders Pool is a mechanic developed to incentivize holding $ALM, not selling. To prevent the Farm & Dump phenomenon, which many projects and communities suffer from after the Farming Campaigns, Alium decided to introduce the Smart Farming Pools to reward the Strong Holders at the expense of Flippers.

    Strong Holders Pools are available to both Farmers and $ALM holders who didn’t participate in Farming. After you harvest the Farmed ALMs, 90% of $ALM go straight into Strong Holders’ Pools of 100 participants each. When the pool is formed, the game begins. The first users withdraw some of their tokens, which will be rewarded to Diamond Hands, who withdraw last.

    The first 60 users who leave the pool will be at a loss while the last 40 users of the pool will be in profit. The amount of tokens lost/gained depends on the proportion between pool participants’ holdings.

    Apart from that, the last 8 users of every pool will be rewarded usable NFTs for Alium’s play-to-earn (P2E) game Cyber City Inc.

    Cyber City Inc NFT Game

    Cyber City is Alium’s first P2E NFT game with collectible drops set in a futuristic cyberpunk world. The play-to-earn (P2E) model is an explosive trend in the blockchain and gaming industry where players of NFT games get to collect lucrative rewards for playing. 

    In the not-so-distant future, Cyber City dominates the planet, and corporations run the world.

    These Corporations control all the wealth and resources, leaving the inhabitants of the City in a dire existence. Cyber City Streets are ugly, cruel and dangerous. A perfect environment for the strongest and most cunning to claw their way to the top. The game features Tokenized Assets and NFT Characters set in the futuristic metaverse called Endless Megapolis.

    The Cyber City Genesis Wave NFTs is currently available for purchase through partners such as NFTb, Hyperjump, and Niftify among others. The Genesis Wave will have 6,000 NFT boxes that will contain 10,000 characters, 10,000 city blocks, and 450,000 in-game resources. The game is set to release its beta version in July 2022. (morganstern.com)

    Alium.Art NFT Marketplace

    One of the main goals of the project is to attract attention to new and promising technologies with a special focus on NFTs. The project development team believes in the integration and use of advanced solutions based on NFTs and has announced the launch of an NFT marketplace called Alium.Art with the implementation of a cross-play NFT asset protocol for blockchain-based games. 

    Allium.Art is being developed using a design philosophy that is artist-centered with a high degree of customization. Some key features in development:

    • Multi-Blockchain
    • Private Collections
    • Collections Customization
    • Easy Onboarding
    • Customizable Galleries
    • Charity Auctions
    • VR/AR Galleries
    • Categories Search
    • Easy Onboarding

    The platform aims to empower artists to sell their art on their terms, represent it in a digital environment using AR and VR technologies, and benefit from selling their art in the form of NFTs. For buyers, it will be a way to acquire unique digital artwork and enter the modern crypto art market. Easy onboarding will ensure anyone can become part of the thriving community, no matter artist, collector, or crypto enthusiast.

    Tokenomics via NFTs

    The Alium token economic model strives to make it resilient to fluctuations using a distribution model called Initial NFT Offering (INO). The Alium team is confident that this will provide an opportunity to reduce the volatility of the $ALM token value, despite potential high demand for the token.

    NFTs are a new milestone in the development of DeFi and the blockchain in general, so the team paid great attention to the development of this direction. The main feature of their approach is the so-called NFT 2.0, which not only acts as collectible cards or tokens but can also be used in various applications as an object of interaction.

    All the Smart Farming Pools are built on this principle and users with NFT cards will have the opportunity to increase their profit in farming through NFT cards.

    Roadmap for 2022

    • Synthetic ALM Token (BSC <> ETH)
    • Tron Integration
    • Avalanche Integration
    • CYBR Token Launch
    • Cyber City Inc NFT Marketplace
    • Cyber City Inc Clan NFT Drops
    • ALM Staking – CYBR Farming
    • External Liquidity Pools
    • Staking Platform
    • Super ALM (Governance Token / DAO / Burn)
    • Cyber City Inc Light Game Launch
    • Cyber City Inc full release

    For more information, check out their official channels below:

    Website – https://alium.finance

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/AliumSwap

    Telegram – https://t.me/aliumswap_official

    Medium – https://aliumswap.medium.com/

    Sources:

    https://docs.alium.finance/

    https://aliumswap.medium.com/introducing-alium-finance-b228d570c6fa

    https://morioh.com/p/54ff6ae9837e

    https://techbullion.com/alium-finance-year-in-review-and-plans-for-2022/

    https://blog.nftb.io/nftb-announced-strategic-partnership-with-alium-finance-to-expand-multi-chain-nft-adoption-2cb6638928ae

  • Ethereum Savings Wallet

    Ethereum Savings Wallet

    Holding Ethereum has been very profitable for many crypto enthusiasts. But did you know that you can also multiply your holdings by earning interest on your Ethereum deposits through an Ethereum savings wallet? 

    When you open an Ethereum savings wallet, you can deposit your Ethereum holdings into the savings wallet. The savings wallet provider will then loan out your ETH to borrowers, providing you with a percentage of interest in exchange. It is more profitable than only relying on the price appreciation of Ethereum. You can earn interest as high as 8% for your holdings, which is far higher than what many traditional banks and other financial institutions offer on fiat currencies. 

    Thanks to the efficiencies of blockchain technology and lending markets, cryptocurrency users are able to earn high interest rates on their digital assets. And thanks to platforms like FTX Exchange, Nexo and BlockFi, it’s easier than ever to earn passive income from your cryptocurrencies. If you are interested in long-term investing, an Ethereum savings wallet can help you accrue interest while keeping your Ethereum safe.

    Why Earn Interest Using An Ethereum Savings Wallet?

    Easy Process

    You can start earning interest on your Ethereum deposits after completing a few easy steps. All you need to do is sign up for an Ethereum savings wallet, complete the KYC process, and deposit Ethereum to your savings account. That’s it! Your interest accruals will begin automatically as soon as your savings account receives Ethereum deposits. Some savings wallet providers even provide you bonuses for signing up. 

    Low Risk

    Compared to the products offering similar high interest rates, earning on your Ethereum deposits is a low-risk option. Such high returns are possible as savings wallet holders lend cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies to borrowers at very high-interest rates and share their earnings with other savings wallet holders in the form of interest. Most savings wallet providers manage the risk by making over-collateralization mandatory to borrow from them.

    Passive Income

    Passive income is income that requires minimal labor to earn and maintain. Automatic payouts by savings wallet providers means your earnings are paid directly into your savings wallet. You can either choose to withdraw them straight away, or leave your earnings in your savings wallet to compound and grow exponentially. Who doesn’t want to earn money for their Ethereum holdings even while asleep?

    24/7 Access to Funds

    Unlike traditional banks, your Ethereum savings wallet will be open 24/7. You will always have complete access to ETH in your savings wallet. Some providers even allow you to buy and sell Ethereum instantly from your savings wallet.

    Which Ethereum Savings Wallet Should I Choose?

    When it comes to Ethereum savings wallet providers, there is no shortage of options available for you to choose from. Let’s explore some of the best Ethereum savings wallets.

    FTX Earn

    ethereum savings wallet

    FTX Exchange is a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform built by professional traders Alameda Research. FTX will deposit interest earnings calculated hourly. Interest will be compounded on principal and yield you have already earned. It is really easy to get started and you can earn interest immediately after you have opted into the program.

    The FTX Earn interest rate for Ethereum is 5 – 8% APY. 

    FTX Earn tiers their interest rate differently than any other platform, in which the first $10,000 USD of deposited funds earns 8% APY regardless of coin/token. All funds beyond that earn 5% APY. There are no lockup terms for your deposits but it is worth noting that withdrawal fees do apply for ETH.

    Nexo

    earn interest from ethereum savings

    Nexo is a unique lending platform based in Switzerland. It allows you to take out loans based on the amount of cryptocurrency in your account without selling your coins and buying them back. Though you cannot currently buy or sell Ethereum through the Nexo platform, the Nexo savings wallet offers a high-yield method for investors to earn money on idle ETH.

    With Nexo, you can earn up to 8% APR for your Ethereum savings.

    Opting for the Nexo FLEX offering will give you an additional 1% interest on your ETH, as well as compounded daily payouts. Nexo also offers zero fees and top-tier security and insurance to protect your funds.

    BlockFi

    blockfi crypto savings

    BlockFi is one of the most competitive and well-known cryptocurrency savings account providers for a reason. BlockFi was founded in 2017 and is a fully regulated and licensed bank-like provider of cryptocurrency savings wallets, loans, and exchange services.

    BlockFi uses a tiered interest structure that can go up to 5% APY for Ethereum holders.

    The BlockFi platform is easy to use and gives you full transparency and control of your assets. They even have a mobile app so you can manage your savings wallet from any smart device. BlockFi is also one of the safest savings wallet providers with trusted crypto asset manager, Gemini as its custodian.

    YouHodler

    youhodler crypto savings

    Launched in 2019, YouHodler is an EU and Swiss-based cryptocurrency platform with both a web interface and mobile app. Ilya Volkov, the CEO and co-founder of YouHodler, has more than 15 years of experience in the FinTech industry, making the platform a serious competitor among savings wallet providers.

    Ethereum holders can earn 5.5% APR plus daily compounding interest on YouHodler.

    Payouts are made every week and you can start earning interest immediately after depositing ETH into your savings wallet. There is, however, a minimum deposit of $500 worth of ETH at market price to begin. Some fees may also apply.

    Celsius Network

    celcius crypto savings

    Celsius Network adopts a strategy based on the mobile market. As a result, they offer a great mobile-based solution for earning interest on your Ethereum. Built on the belief that financial services should only do what is in the best interests of the community, Celsius is a modern platform that aims to empower the unbanked. 

    Celsius offers 5.35% APY for holdings up to 100 ETH and 3.52% APY for holding above 100 ETH.

    Celsius is secured with multi-factor authentication, private key double vaults, encryption, and third-party solutions. Their assets are distributed amongst cold wallets and exchanges for additional security.

    Conclusion

    They say nothing in life is free, but clearly these people are wrong. By putting your idle ETH to work, you can significantly grow your holdings over time. With an ever-increasing number of savings wallet providers, Ethereum holders now have many different options and flexibilities to earn interest for their Ethereum. These platforms provide a great investment opportunity to generate passive income while providing holders peace of mind over the safety of their holdings.

    If the crypto economy continues to go mainstream at its current rate, it is not too far-fetched to envision more and more individuals around the globe choosing crypto savings wallets over traditional savings accounts from banks. It will definitely be exciting to see what crypto banking can accomplish next.

  • Keep3rb BSC Network ($KP3RB): The First Keeper Network on Binance Smart Chain

    Keep3rb BSC Network ($KP3RB): The First Keeper Network on Binance Smart Chain

    keep3r bsc network

    Keep3rb Network is a decentralized keeper network built on Binance Smart Chain for projects that require external DevOps and external teams to find keeper jobs.

    DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle (SDLC) and provide continuous delivery with high software quality.

    Keep3rb network provides a seamless platform to connect DevOps teams (Keepers) with project teams that require DevOps tasks (Jobs).

    This project is not to be confused with Andre Conje’s Keep3r Network ($KP3R).

    What is a Keeper

    A keeper is the term used to refer to an external person or team that executes a job. Keepers can also be bots, scripts, other contracts, or simply EOA accounts that trigger events. 

    The job can be as simple as submitting a signed TX on behalf of a third party, calling a transaction at a specific time, or more complex functionality that requires extensive off-chain logic. Each time a keeper executes a job, they are rewarded with $BNB, tokens, or the system’s native token $KP3RB.

    Jobs might require keepers that have a minimum amount of bonded tokens, have earned a minimum amount of fees, or have been in the system longer than a certain period of time.

    At the most simple level, they simply require a keeper to be registered in the system.

    With the keeper network being decentralized, It is up to the keepers to set up their DevOps and infrastructure and create their own rules based on what transactions they deem profitable.

    What is a Job

    A job is the term used to refer to a smart contract that requires external DevOps or a team to perform an action. The action needs to be performed in goodwill and not as a malicious act to harm the project. For this reason they register as a job, and keepers can then execute on their contract.

    Becoming a Keeper

    how to use keep3r bsc network

    To join as a keeper, you need to connect a wallet and register a bond. You do not need to have $KPR3B tokens to participate as a keeper, you can join as long as you have a wallet to hold your tokens. 

    There is a 3-day activation period before you can activate as a keeper. Once the three days have passed, you will be able to activate your bond. 

    Once activated, you are officially a keeper on the network and will be able to select jobs from the Keep3rb network jobs list.

    Registering a Job

    Keep in mind that the Keep3rb network does not get in the way of the job. They do not define nor restrict the action taken, hence its decentralized nature. Incentive mechanisms are available for all parties involved to ensure tasks are carried out efficiently. There are 2 core ways to create a job:

    • Registering a job via Governance – you can register a job simply by creating a new proposal via governance. If governance approves, no further steps are required.
    • Registering a job via Adding Liquidity – you will need to provide liquidity to one of the approved liquidity pairs (for example KP3RB-BNB). You put your LP tokens in escrow and receive credit. When the credit is used up, you can simply withdraw the LP tokens. You will receive 100% of the LP tokens back that you deposited.

    Job Credits

    Each job has a set amount of credit they can award keepers. You do not need to purchase KP3RB tokens to receive credits. Instead you are required to provide liquidity in Keep3rb network’s job liquidity pools.

    kp3rb job liquidity pool list

    You can remove your liquidity at any time, so you do not have to keep buying new credits. Your liquidity provided is never reduced and as such you can remove it whenever you no longer would like a job to be executed.

    There are 3 primary payment mechanisms to pay keepers and these are based on the credit provided:

    • Pay via liquidity provided tokens (based on ‘ addLiquidityToJob ‘)
    • Pay in direct BNB (based on ‘ addCreditETH ‘)
    • Pay in direct token (based on ‘ addCredit ‘)

    Governance

    Keep3rb governance by design has a low overhead, it is not meant to be protocol intensive. The focus is simply on reviewing and approving jobs, and if absolutely required mitigate disputes or blacklist keepers.

    Only bonded keepers may participate in governance. To participate in governance a keeper must first bond $KP3RB, once bonded they can delegate voting rights to either themselves or another party.

    The core function of governance is to approve and include jobs, when liquidity is provided for a job, a proposal is automatically created to include them for review. Bonded keepers will review the contracts and decide if they should be included. It is important that jobs code defensively, assume keepers will only include your job to maximize their returns, as such maximum payment thresholds have been implemented.

    As a last resort, governance has certain rights over managing keepers, these include lodging disputes, slashing, revoking access, and resolving disputes.

    Job Interface

    Some contracts require external event execution, an example for this is the ‘ harvest() ‘ function in the yearn ecosystem or the ‘ update(address, address) ‘ function in the uniquote ecosystem. These usually require a restricted access control list. However, these can be difficult for fully decentralized projects to manage, as they lack DevOps infrastructure.

    These job interfaces can be broken down into 2 types, no risk delta and harvest. No risk delta is similar to an ‘ update(address, address) ‘ in uniquote, which has no risk to execution. ‘ harvest() ‘, as seen in yearn, can be exploited by malicious actors using front-running deposits. 

    For complete information on how these codes are executed, you can refer to the official Medium post by Keep3rb network.

    $KP3RB Token

    According to Coinmarketcap, the platform’s native token $KP3RB stands at a token supply of 211,450. No further details about token supply and distribution are provided at present.

    Conclusion

    Keep3rb network aims to facilitate DevOps projects in a decentralized environment. The scope of the Keep3rb network is not to manage these jobs themselves but to allow contracts to register as jobs for keepers, and to allow keepers to register themselves to perform jobs. Due to its decentralized nature, both the keeper and job can define and set their own parameters and rules as they choose. 

    It will be interesting to see how BSC’s first keeper network performs and how it will change the DevOps market and its practices. 

    keep3rb network

    To learn more about Keep3rb network and the project’s future developments, check out their official channels listed below:

    Website – https://keep3rb.network/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/keep3rb

    Telegram – https://t.me/keep3rb

    News –  https://t.me/kp3rbnews

    Medium – https://keep3rb.medium.com/

    GitHub – https://github.com/keep3rb-network

    Sources:

    https://docs.keep3rb.network/docs/keepers

    https://keep3rb.medium.com/introduction-to-keep3rb-network-f116f94ede79

    https://www.bsc.news/post/keep3rb-first-keeper-network-on-binance-smart-chain

    https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/keep3r-bsc-network/

  • Top NFT Games in 2021: Ranked

    Top NFT Games in 2021: Ranked

    The introduction of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) has continued to prove time and time again that they have the ability to transform the gaming industry as we know it. The emergence of NFTs brings about a new and exciting era in which gamers take on even more critical roles in the gaming economy and receive lucrative rewards in the process.

    This gaming paradigm is beginning to take shape as game developers are progressively adopting blockchain technology to produce more immersive gaming experiences. In this guide, we will go through some of the top NFT games introduced this year.

    But before diving in, let’s first discuss the basics of an NFT-based game.

    What Are NFT Games?

    NFT games combine conventional gaming features with novel gameplay mechanisms to provide players more control over in-game assets such as skins, characters, weapons, virtual lands, and much more. This is made possible by launching games on blockchains and anchoring them in economies powered by digital assets. These digital assets are often NFTs so that they are distinctive and tamper-proof. 

    The adoption of NFT token standards have allowed game developers to preserve the rarity and uniqueness of some of these in-game items. This is why some blockchain game assets are considered more expensive than others. 

    With the NFT system in place, the players can claim ownership of game assets through 3 main strategies. They can create or breed new characters, purchase digital items on native or third-party marketplaces, or unlock and earn new items. Regardless of how the player chooses to access these game assets, they have exclusive ownership rights over them. The player may then distribute or sell these assets and keep all the profits.

    What Are the Top NFT Games in 2021?

    Like all emerging and established sectors, certain platforms have positioned themselves at the top of the NFT gaming world. These games are at the forefront of the current NFT craze because they have successfully integrated NFTs with popular game themes. As a result, players get to enjoy some of their favourite game genres and at the same time engage with a profitable NFT market. 

    Without further ado, here are some of the top NFT games in 2021.

    1. Axie Infinity

    axie infinity

    Axie Infinity takes inspiration from the Pokemon game franchise and adds a blockchain twist to make the final product even more interesting. Players breed and gather NFT-based digital creatures called Axies in this Ethereum-based game with the primary goal of combating other players. 

    Each Axie has its own unique genetic fingerprint. As a result, the strengths and shortcomings of Axies are handed down to their descendants. These digital creatures can be traded on Ethereum NFT markets, with prices varying depending on their rarity and distinctive characteristics. To begin playing the game, players have to purchase 3 Axies. 

    Smooth Love Potion ($SLP) — the platform’s native ERC-20 utility token – is awarded for each mission, player-versus-player (PvP) fight, and adventure mode that the player completes. Players pay a certain amount of $SLP for each attempt to breed a new Axie. $SLP can also be bought through exchanges. 

    Another ERC-20 token native to Axie Infinity is Axis Infinity Shard ($AXS), which functions as the platform’s governance token. It will anchor the game’s staking service scheduled to go live at some point in 2021.

    2. MetaWars

    metawars

    MetaWars is a futuristic sci-fi multiplayer strategy and roleplaying game in space that allows players to monetize and earn from the game’s war economy. Players can immerse themselves in realistic space exploration through the vast MetaWars galaxy that is constantly evolving and shifting from the collective actions of every player. 

    MetaWars enables cooperation with other players to discover and revolutionize different galaxies through missions while earning NFTs and collecting limited edition robots through various auctions. Players can stake and complete challenges to earn $WARS tokens, the in-game and governance token.

    The gameplay also allows players to widen their army with unique ships, classes, and various optimization options. Players can combine modules, weapons, devices and equip perks, helping their characters level up their strength, rank up and receive amazing rewards across the metaverse.

    Learn more about MetaWars in our article MetaWars ($WARS, $GAM): NFT Gaming in Space.

    3. Splinterlands

    splinterlands

    Splinterlands is a tradable card game that lets users earn as they play, similar to Gods Unchained. Players can earn rewards when they win card matches. 

    To begin playing Splinterlands, you must first purchase a starting pack of cards, create a Steem account, and then reveal the purchased cards in the game. 

    You could be lucky and get rare cards in your first set of bought cards in some situations. You could also come across multiples of the same sort of card. If that’s the case, you can combine identical cards to increase their strength or sell one of them in exchange for cryptocurrency.

    After you’ve become comfortable with the cards, you may go on to combat other players or take part in missions. The outcome of these actions will influence whether or not you earn more cards.

    4. The Three Kingdoms

    the three kingdoms

    The Three Kingdoms is a strategic third-generation NFT game that is based on the historical characters of the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China. The play-to-earn game is the first to incorporate the idea of battling and besieging cities through staking, complete with a deep and engaging storyline, providing a breath of fresh air to the blockchain gaming landscape.

    The team behind The Three Kingdoms set out to build an NFT game that features multiple methods never seen before in the blockchain gaming market to earn tokens. $TTK is the game’s native token, used to purchase new characters in the NFT marketplace, upgrade armies, and invest in land. It can also be staked to farm more valuable NFTs.

    $TTK will also be needed to acquire $CHI, the secondary in-game token. Inspired by the actual use of Chi in Chinese history as the energy that runs through all living things, players will be able to convert $TTK to $CHI through the mastering of energy. Some future uses of $CHI include the ability to besiege cities, battle other players and even fuse new heroes.

    Read more about it in our article The Three Kingdoms: The New Era of GameFi.

    5. Gods Unchained

    gods unchained

    Gods Unchained is a free-to-play game designed to infuse elements of NFT into a familiar card trading gaming genre. Players accumulate cards by purchasing them from other players or winning PvP matchups where the quality of cards and the gaming skill of players often determine the winner. Notably, more emphasis is being placed on skills and strategy. This is because the game utilizes a ranked game mode where players with the same ratings are matched.

    You win matches when your gameplay causes your opponent’s life to drop to zero before yours. For every win, you receive experience points. As soon as the experience bar is filled up, you will move to the next rating or level and receive a new pack of cards to add to your collection.

    Note that each card is backed by an ERC-721 token. Therefore, you can trade them on the platform’s native marketplace or the open market. Those opting to sell cards within the game ecosystem will receive the platform’s native token, $GODS, as payment. 

    It is worth noting that the $GODS token has not been officially launched at the time of writing. Be sure to confirm that the development team has released GODS tokens to the crypto market before proceeding to purchase or receive any token marketed as GODS tokens.

    6. The Sandbox 3D

    the sandbox 3d

    The Sandbox is a voxel-based game metaverse and one of the most popular NFT gaming platforms for creating and trading virtual assets. Players may modify and monetize voxel objects in this game. 

    Consider it a blockchain-based version of popular games like Minecraft and Roblox. The platforms provide tools for creating and animating objects, which can then be sold on markets. On the platform, users can also develop and play their own games.

    $SAND, an ERC-20 coin, has been presented as the metaverse’s native token by Sandbox 3D. Players may use this to buy in-game products from the platform’s marketplace. There are also $LAND tokens, which are NFT tokens that are among the most valuable and sought-after assets in the Sandbox game.

    7. Battle Racers

    battle racers

    Battle Racers is inspired by popular games such as Super Mario Kart and F-Zero, as its name suggests. The goal of the game is to mix various weaponry and equipment to build the most powerful vehicles possible. Players may mix and match various components and weaponry to get an edge on the arcade-style circuits. You may register your treasured or winning automobiles as NFTs on the blockchain and then sell them for cryptocurrency on OpenSea.

    Each player aims to build the ultimate automobile by prioritizing various talents and attributes. You could choose handling over speed or defense over firepower, all in the hopes of emerging victorious.

    8. Cryptosnake

    The gameplay of Cryptosnake is really easy. It’s based on the old-school snake game. Cryptocurrencies on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) blockchain provide food for your snake. The more you consume, the higher your pet’s stats will be. You may also use fiat to level up your snake, which will allow you to earn even more money in the future.

    If the snake doesn’t make you nostalgic, the gameplay may appear monotonous. On the other hand, you spend less time on in-game activities that aren’t essential and instead earn more consistently.

    9. Gold Fever

    gold fever

    Gold Fever is a jungle-themed role-playing game where players choose a character and try to outplay other players for a chance of mining gold in the form of the game’s native token, $NGL. Players also go about collecting limited NFT-based items like clothes, weapons and other supplies. 

    Similar to the workings of most NFT games, Gold Fever tries to enable blockchain-initiated scarcity for its in-game assets. You can pick any of the main characters of the game and play your part in the formation of a fiercely contested gold economy. 

    Note that the in-app game items are tradable on marketplaces. Therefore, you can exchange $NGL earned for fiat or cryptocurrencies on exchanges or earn by trading collectibles on NFT marketplaces.

     10. Neon District

    neon district

    Neon District is a cyberpunk role-playing game (RPG) that allows users to collect characters, gears and crafts. All of the game objects are blockchain components and almost everything may be purchased or sold. As is usually the case, the price is determined by supply and demand.

    The goal is to build a team and compete against other players in missions or real-time combats. One multiplayer competitive game mode, called Neon Pizza, in particular, pitches players against each other for the chance of earning the platform’s native token – $Neon, as well as gears, parts and so on. 

    All you need to do is send your characters on pizza delivery runs to feed hungry citizens. You can also take up a more villainous strategy by ambushing the pizza delivery team of other players and stealing their earnings. 

    $Neon earnings can be used to purchase characters, weapons, parts, armors, juice, and other in-game items required to upgrade characters. The tokens are now NFTs that are linked to the blockchain, but they cannot yet be traded on a genuine cryptocurrency exchange.

    Conclusion

    NFT games are not tough to master as they make use of popular gaming genres, with the added combination of blockchain features that are ideal for establishing rarity and uniqueness. With the raging popularity of NFT games, more and more people are starting to realize that it is possible to make a decent profit from these games. 

    These games are also highly entertaining and have made great strides for the understanding and adoption of blockchain. It is exciting to see the next big game that will emerge and where the industry will go from here. 

  • Fantom: A Fast and Flexible Next-Generation Blockchain

    Fantom: A Fast and Flexible Next-Generation Blockchain

    Fantom (FTM) is a smart contract-enabled blockchain that provides a robust environment for dApp (decentralized application) development. 

    Using advanced Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) technology, this project aims to provide near-infinite scalability and instant transactions at nearly zero cost. They are also working on a high-performance virtual machine with safe, secure smart contract execution.

    Check out our explainer video on Fantom (FTM) will it be the next hotbed for DeFi?

    Fantom (FTM) explained: Will it be the next hotbed for DeFi?

    The Blockchain Trilemma: What is it?

    blockchain trilemma
    blockchain trilemma

    The blockchain trilemma is a concept coined by Vitalik Buterin that proposes a set of three main issues that developers encounter when building blockchains. More often than not, creators are forced to sacrifice one aspect for the sake of the other two.

    • Decentralization – creating a blockchain system that does not rely on a central point of control
    • Scalability – the ability for a blockchain system to handle an increasingly growing amount of transactions
    • Security – the ability of the blockchain system to operate as expected, defend itself from attacks, bugs, and other unforeseen issues

    For some in the industry, achieving all three aspects is an impossible feat that will never be done, at least in the near future. 

    Fantom is designed to overcome these limitations of old-generation blockchain platforms by providing a steady balance of scalability, security, and decentralization.

    Fantom Overview

    Fantom operates atop a bespoke “leaderless” PoS consensus mechanism dubbed Lachesis that secures the Fantom network and ensures both transactional speed and security. Lachesis is an aBFT consensus mechanism, which means that network data can be processed at different times, and the network can tolerate up to one third of participants engaging in faulty or malicious behavior without causing undue harm to network processes.

    Lachesis also boasts near-instant finality. This means that transactions are confirmed and finalized in an average of one second, without the need to wait for laborious block confirmation as experienced in Proof-of-Work (PoW) networks. By avoiding the relatively lengthy block confirmation process, this aBFT system is much faster and more scalable than many of its Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) counterparts.

    The Fantom Foundation has turned its focus towards decentralized finance (DeFi) use cases with the help of Yearn Finance founder Andre Cronje, who serves as a technical advisor to Fantom. Andre has advised and helped promote Fantom’s multi-chain efforts, such as the launch of Fantom’s bridge to Ethereum.

    As an ultra-high speed and high-performance platform, Fantom believes it can become the IT infrastructure backbone for the emerging smart cities. With a goal of executing 300,000 transactions per second, and the ability to communicate across multiple service providers, Fantom believes it is the solution to storing vast amounts of data securely.

    It hopes to achieve this by being accessible to stakeholders for smart city data-driven smart contracts and dApp adoption. The Fantom team envisions the platform being used across a wide variety of sectors, including public utilities, smart home systems, healthcare, education, traffic management, resource management, and environmental sustainability projects.

    Fantom Technology

    Fantom features two core technologies:

    1. Lachesis protocol – the core consensus layer
    2. Opera – an application development layer

    Lachesis uses a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) based algorithm to achieve asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance (aBFT). Lachesis has four key qualities:

    • Asynchronous: Participants have the freedom to process commands at different times
    • Leaderless: No participant plays a “special” role in block production
    • Byzantine Fault-Tolerant: Supports one-third of faulty nodes
    • Near-Instant Finality: Transactions are confirmed in 1-2 seconds.

    Fantom has implemented Lachesis as a consensus layer that can extend to additional layers within the system.

    Opera is a permissionless and open-source environment for development. It boasts the full range of smart contract capability that Ethereum has due to its support of the Solidity programming language and integration with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Applications built on Fantom can be designed to be interoperable with platforms built on Ethereum, while still maintaining the transactional efficiency of the Fantom network.

    A proprietary software development kit (SDK) known as the Fantom Virtual Machine will eventually be released for native Fantom-based development alongside continued support for the EVM — a strategy meant to entice Ethereum-based dApp developers to make an easy transition over to building applications on Fantom.

    Fantom DeFi and FTM Token

    Fantom promises to be the all-in-one DeFi (decentralized finance) suite for users. Fantom’s EVM-compatible blockchain gives users the ability to mint, trade, lend and borrow digital assets directly from their wallets. And all of this comes with near zero fees and instant transactions, making DeFi ideal on Fantom.

    Fantom currently supports the following:

    • Liquid staking – using staked FTM tokens as collateral for DeFi applications. All FTM delegations are liquid within the Fantom ecosystem.
    • fMint – users can mint dozens of synthetic assets on Fantom, including cryptocurrencies, national currencies, and commodities.
    • fLend – lending and borrowing digital assets to trade and to earn interests without losing exposure to held FTM.
    • fTrade – trading Fantom-based digital assets without leaving the wallet. This makes for a fully non-custodial and decentralized AMM exchange.

    What is the FTM token?

    FTM is the primary token on the Fantom network. FTM tokens and sFTM tokens can be used as collateral to mint fUSD, which can then be used to trade and swap for synthetic tokens and fiat, and much more. All of this is accomplished through the progressive web app Fantom fWallet, where users can store, send, receive, and stake FTM tokens.

    Fantom partnerships 

    Fantom is working together with Chainlink to build secure and scalable DeFi products like decentralized stablecoins, lending protocols, and synthetic assets. All developers building on Fantom can access Chainlink’s oracle infrastructure. The integration enables the whole Fantom ecosystem to combine tamper-proof real-time data for on-chain and off-chain assets from trusted sources.

    Travala, a blockchain-based travel booking platform, is leveraging Fantom to help users book over 3,000,000 travel products worldwide, including hotels, homes, flights, tours, and activities. This will be a huge boost to Fantom’s adoption.

    SuperFarm, a growing NFT ecosystem, simplifies the process for builders on projects like Fantom to set up NFT farms and expand use cases for their tokens. In addition to launching exclusive NFT drops for Fantom users, SuperFarm offers Fantom builders new ways to engage their communities. By setting up NFT farms via the SuperFarm platform’s intuitive and simple interface, builders can incentivize community members to stake their tokens, earn rewards, and interact with each other.

    DABS is Afghanistan’s national and fastest-growing electricity company. It manages electricity production, import, transmission, and distribution across the country. Fantom has signed an MoU with DABS where they have agreed to cooperate on the digitalization and implementation of advanced audit software within DABS’s operations. This a huge partnership to support smart energy in Afghanistan, which can help more adoption & validation of the Fantom platform.

    Fantom has secured many partnerships and integrations in its quest to become the “nervous system for smart cities.” 

    More details about these partnerships can be found on their official website: https://fantom.foundation/partners/

    Conclusion

    Fantom’s approach to the DeFi and dApp landscape is innovative — as is its staking reward program structure. Further proposed use cases for Fantom’s highly scalable smart contract platform are dApps related to supply chain management, payments, and smart city programs, some of which are already being piloted around the world.

    As the first of its kind with its complex and unique infrastructure, Fantom’s approach to fast, scalable dApp development is still establishing its place in the wider blockchain ecosystem. Although there is already much competition in the burgeoning dApp sector, the speed and benefits that Fantom offers dApp developers are notable, and the platform is poised to gain further traction.

    FAQ

    What is Fantom?

    Fantom is a smart contract-enabled blockchain that provides a robust environment for dApp development.

    What does Fantom do?

    The Fantom network architecture intends to provide a viable solution to the blockchain trilemma by providing a steady balance of scalability, security, and decentralization.

    How does Fantom work?

    Fantom’s fast, scalable platform for decentralized applications (dApps) draws its speed from a unique consensus mechanism called Lachesis. Fantom also offers tools that make it easy to integrate existing dApps, a nuanced system of staking rewards, and a suite of built-in decentralized finance (DeFi) tools.

    What is Lachesis?

    Fantom is a Layer-1 blockchain that uses a single consensus layer to support the creation of multiple execution chains. The network’s independent consensus layer called Lachesis, featuring a novel consensus mechanism developed by the Fantom Foundation dubbed the “Lachesis Protocol.” Lachesis can provide security to multiple other layers, the first of which is Fantom’s EVM-compatible smart contract chain called Opera.

    Has Fantom been adopted?

    Yes. Fantom is an ambitious project that has already partnered with numerous blockchain projects, as well as governments and enterprises.

    Sources:

    https://medium.com/certik/the-blockchain-trilemma-decentralized-scalable-and-secure-e9d8c41a87b3 https://fantom.foundation/lachesis-consensus-algorithm/ https://fantom.foundation/what-is-fantom-opera/ https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/fantom-wallet-fantom-crypto-ftm-token https://messari.io/asset/fantom/profile/technology https://medium.com/geekculture/what-is-fantom-ftm-token-why-it-is-the-potential-hidden-gem-67be22a51254
    https://www.coinbureau.com/review/fantom-ftm/ https://fantom.foundation/partners/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_qs_MOAP6cGW1uLpLEUYyT98dB0iKkE4DXjCrhQSs3Ps-1632701162-0-gqNtZGzNAdCjcnBszQo9

  • Bonfida ($FIDA), the leading Serum DEX

    Bonfida ($FIDA), the leading Serum DEX

    Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) in the cryptocurrency space are faced with problems concerning increasing gas fees and low transaction throughput. This is common especially for platforms that are built on top of Bitcoin and Ethereum networks. To establish a platform that won’t suffer from those issues, the Bonfida Foundation decided to build on top of Serum Project, which runs on Solana.

    As it turns out, Solana is one of the fastest blockchains in the space at present. With the capacity of processing over 50,000 tps, users can enjoy faster transaction settlements without having huge gas fees.


    What is Bonfida?

    Bonfida is a decentralized and non-custodial exchange on top of the Serum trading protocol on the Solana blockchain. It has a wide array of trading products powered by Solana’s on-chain order book. They facilitate faster transactions speed without the expensive gas fees experienced by users on other networks.

    Bonfida can be a useful trading platform for both beginner and advanced users. It integrates various handy features, such as trading charts and TradingView data in its interface. This helps users gather important analytics information on the exchange’s activity, including data on Serum DEX and Swap’s volumes, spread percentage, and total value locked.

    Background

    Bonfida is Project Serum’s flagship interface; currently, over 60% of the users that interact with Serum use Bonfida’s GUI. Serum was built to connect users within the Serum/Solana ecosystem and it is the first amongst exchanges to take advantage of Solana blockchain’s data to power its decentralized platform.

    The Bonfida API has been used by a lot of market makers in the industry and the number of requests are increasing 25% week over week. During December 2020, before the launch, Bonfida has raised over $4.5 million. The seed round was led by CMS Holdings with the participation of big firms like Genesis Block Ventures, Sino Global, Spartan Group, and Three Arrows Capital.

    Why build on Serum?

    An order-book DEX has to be fast. To have a responsive platform, the underlying blockchain has to meet certain requirements. There are the reasons why the Bonfida team has chosen Solana and its DEX Serum as a foundation for their project.

    • High transaction throughput – Solana has the ability to facilitate more than 50,000 transactions per second. This will increase further as the chain grows
    • Lower gas costs – Gas costs on averages less than $0.001 per transaction
    • Composability – Given that the Serum protocol is open-source, anyone in the community can work on developments that could add value to the ecosystem
    • Decentralization – Transactions and storage of crypto holdings are entirely free from any third-party control

    Users will have to set-up a compatible wallet to connect to the platform, which requires SPL (Solana Program Library) tokens. The three options are bonfida.com/wallet, solongwallet.com, sollet.io. Don’t forget to keep some spare $SOL tokens to pay for fees! You can follow this complete guide to set everything up.

    Here you can find our interview with Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX, which is behind the development of Project Serum.

    Interview eith Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO at FTX, the team behind Serum Project

    The FIDA Token

    $FIDA is Bonfida’s native utility token. It is mainly used to pay for gas fees on the platform but it can also be used for the following purposes.

    • Access to VIP API
    • Bot payments
    • Consulting services (for people who want to get started on Serum)

    The maximum supply is 1 billion and 95.4% of all tokens are locked for four years; the vesting will start 12 months after the launch. The team decided to keep the circulatin supply very low during the first year. In this way they also hope that the project and the community will grow in a healthy way, with no big holders ready to dump their bags.

    $FIDA, when staked, will also enable more features for its holders like exclusive API endpoints, access to rare Solible (see after) markets and advanced analytics. In the future, the Bonfida’s Governance model will also require $FIDA tokens to grant its users voting abilities on certain protocol parameters.

    For updated and full tokenomics please refer to the white-paper.

    Bonfida’s features

    The team, with vast expertise in “creating seamless frontend experience combined with backend API’s and on-chain analytics”, has spotted an opportunity to be an early participant in the new Solana ecosystem. They evaluated the possible upside as huge, so they couldn’t pass up the chance. Among the platform’s features we find:

    • Exclusive markets and listing

    Bonfida has access to exclusive markets on Serum. $FIDA holders (more on $FIDA token later) can vote on which listings will be available on the platform. Market makers ensure liquidity through the help of partnerships with organizations like Alameda Research.

    • On-chain advanced order types

    Both Limit and Market orders are already available on Serum while others like take-profit and stop-loss are currently being developed on by Bonfida. However, advanced on/off chain order types will require users to keep their $FIDA staked.

    • Order Placement through TradingView Charts

    Bonfida is the first to have TradingView charts linked to on-chain data; users will be able to place orders through them.

    • Advanced UI and Basic UI

    To accommodate both basic and advanced traders, Bonfida will have two trading modes for Serum. The advanced mode will have features like ‘Bonfida Bots’ and the aforementioned advanced order types.

    On top, Bonfida offers now leveraged tokens such as BULL/BEAR pairs like those you can find on FTX, an Ecosystem Pool with indexes and AMM swaps.

    Serum API

    Bonfida has built a backend infrastructure where all the on-chain transactions information can be stored for Serum. Through a “REST API”, other platforms like Coingecko can request data whenever they need it (more than 6 million requests per day as of now). Given that the official Serum GUI uses it to load historical trades, users who connect with the standard Serum code are using Bonfida’s data in the background. This is the reason why they can provide on-chain TradingView charts, a feature unique to Bonfida. This feature continue to be developed in order to deliver important information to users while improving the UX and UI of the platform.

    Bonfida Bots

    To make it easier for traders to manage their positions on the platform, Bonfida is working on a ‘bot’ that users can customize accordingly to their targeted technical indicators. The customization can be referred to as ‘Rules,’ which a person can freely design on his own and use to earn $FIDA. There are three possibilities.

    • People can pay to utilize existing trading rules. Using $FIDA, users can pay who owns the rules they utilize in the trading bots. The creator decides the costs.
    • Pledge assets to other rule owners. Rules’ owners can determine how much they wish to charge, whether a share of the daily percentage fees or a portion of the profits.
    • Tokenize rules. Owners can tokenize their strategy as a SPL token which can then be bought/burned.

    Solible

    Solible is an exchange for non-fungible tokens (NFT) featured on top of the Bonfida platform. It supports all the features that are usually available on most NFT exchanges, without the classic Ethereum network costs. The aim of the platform, which also serves as a bridge for connecting NFTs with other blockchains, is to establish an e-commerce store. People will purchase collectible items which can also be redeemed in real life.

    First Serum ICO

    Bonfida has been the first project built on Serum to have an initial coin offering (ICO). The initial offering was conducted in three parts for a total of 6 million $FIDA tokens on auction.

    The two IEOs (Initial Exchange Offering) took place on FTX and Bitmax, while the third part was a ISO (Initial Serum Offering) on Serum. All of them had a maximum price offer of $0.1 per token and a max allocation of 4000 $FIDA per person. For the few lucky ones who managed to get in at this price, it resulted in an incredible 7x on listing day. The token is currently at $0.37.

    Conclusion

    Most DEXs find it difficult to meet the needs of their traders, both beginners and advanced alike. High-frequency traders are always on the lookout for platforms where it wouldn’t cost huge gas fees to have their transactions processed quickly. This is why it is ideal for developers to look for a network that enables such a feature if they wish to go above and beyond the existing DeFi-based exchanges out there.

    Serum Project’s Bonfida was a successful venture into creating an exchange that is not only capable of fast transactions but also of fully-automated and decentralized trading. With Bonfida, users can customize their own trading strategies and set their goals with sophisticated trading indicators, all without the hassle of their transactions getting stuck in a congested blockchain.

    Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more

    With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces

    The DeFi series on this website also covers topics not explored on YouTube. For an introduction on what is DeFi, check out Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Overview: A guide to the HOTTEST trend in cryptocurrency

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

    More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

    The information provided in this article is intended for general guidance and information purposes only. Contents of this article are under no circumstances intended to be considered as investment, business, legal or tax advice. We do not accept any responsibility for individual decisions made based on this article and we strongly encourage you to do your own research before taking any action. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information provided herein is accurate and up to date, omissions, errors, or mistakes may occur.

  • Newsletter #18: Bitcoin prices reach all-time highs

    Newsletter #18: Bitcoin prices reach all-time highs

    As we near the holiday season we would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holidays! Here’s hoping for gifts of Bitcoin and altcoin pumps!

    Bitcoin reaches ATH of USD$24k!

    It has been awaited for a very long time, but after exactly 3 years the moment has arrived. Bitcoin has literally smashed through the previous high reaching the incredible price of $24,000!

    All the charts look stunning, whichever you look at: daily, weekly and monthly they all say the same thing: Bull Season is here!

    While nobody knows how exactly this will play out people believe that we are in a bull market now. Many actually believe it started right after last March’s Black Swan, where all markets (not only crypto) basically flash crashed within a day.

    If we take a look at the weekly chart, we are still far above the 21 EMA (Exponential Moving Average) and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 2017 peak levels. On the weekly chart it has only been decisively higher a couple of times in 2013. As we repeatedly said in previous issues of the newsletter, big retraces (around 30-40%) are to be expected in bull markets. Until now, the maximum negative “delta” in price we had since last March has been around 20%. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a massive dump is going to happen now though (could happen like not). (https://www.apolloclinic.com/)

    $BTC weekly chart, RSI at top 2017 levels
    $BTC weekly chart, RSI at top 2017 levels

    Bitcoin still not “hot” on Google Trends

    If we have a quick glance at Google Trends we can notice how the query “bitcoin” is still not very much searched worldwide, especially when compared to 2017’s peaks. This is a sign that even though mass media exposure has recently picked up the $BTC trend, the retail FOMO is probably still distant from where we are now. This could hopefully mean that the upside is still gigantic!

    Every $BTC holder is now in profit

    Thanks to the recent pump, Bitcoin is now #12 in assets’ ranking by Market Cap. Just behind Visa and ahead of Walmart! Moreover, the fact that we are beyond ATH, in unexplored price territory, automatically means that each person that has ever bought a fraction of the coin before last week, is now in profit!

    As a consequence, as Glassnode reported, the number of addresses holding more than $1 millions worth of $BTC has increased +150%, equal to 66,540 single wallets now!

    Ethereum follows Bitcoin’s upside while Grayscale continues to load up

    After “The King” moves, the rest usually tends to follow, starting with Ethereum. ETH prices have been going up reaching a new high of almost $680 this week. Differently from $BTC though, its ATH is still way higher than this level, at more than $1400. 2021 could look like the year price will finally reach unexplored territory.

    Meanwhile it doesn’t come as a surprise anymore that big investors continue to accumulate crypto, despite the continuous rise in price, spreading positivity about crypto’s future. According to a report, Grayscale keeps accumulating $ETH. Their Grayscale Ethereum Trust is still considered “the only SEC-registered way to invest in Ethereum.”

    Are you interested in staking on your Ethereum? Learn how to make passive income with ETH 2.0!

    The FinCEN is proposing new KYC reinforcements

    As anticipated in the last weeks, it is now official. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is “proposing a rule on certain digital currencies that will protect national security, assist law enforcement and increase transparency while minimizing the impact on responsible innovation”, said Steven Mnuchin, lead of the U.S. Treasury Department.

    The proposal will impose new regulations on transaction records including those to self-hosted wallets. Especially used in Defi where users prefer to keep their funds in decentralized manners, where they are the only ones responsible for what happens, these private wallets have not required KYCs until now. As a result of the changes (CVC stands for convertible virtual currency while LTDA for legal tender digital asset.):

    “The proposed rule complements existing BSA requirements applicable to banks and MSBs by proposing to add reporting requirements for CVC and LTDA transactions exceeding $10,000 in value. Pursuant to the proposed rule, banks and MSBs will have 15 days from the date on which a reportable transaction occurs to file a report with FinCEN. Further, this proposed rule would require banks and MSBs to keep records of a customer’s CVC or LTDA transactions and counterparties, including verifying the identity of their customers, if a counterparty uses an unhosted or otherwise covered wallet and the transaction is greater than $3,000.”

    This embitterment in regulations was firstly revealed by Brians Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, in a tweet at the end of November, where he expressed his doubts and concerning on the matter, together with many other public figures. Four U.S Congressmen wrote a public letter and Wyoming Senator-Elect Cynthia Lummis shared her concerns as well in a tweet. The major point of debate are the fact that the proposal could do more harm than good to investors and could leave the U.S. behind in blockchain technology, deviating principal investments outside the county.

    Coinbase IPO is getting closer

    Coinbase, the known U.S. exchange, has “submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC. The file is now being reviewed. If approved, its IPO will be one of the biggest and most awaited in crypto, considering that Coinbase is already the most valuable American crypto company.

    It is not actually easy to determine exactly how much the company is worth at the moment. The Last evaluation in a funding round in 2018, was of $8 billion, but Coinbase is certainly worth more now, especially considering what prices has Bitcoin arrived at in 2020.

    The Graph goes live on mainnet

    The Graph ($GRT), “the first global and easily searchable index of blockchain data”, has launched its mainnet after 3 years of development. The indexing protocol aims at making web3 accessible to everyone and helping create applications that require no servers.

    The listing was one of the most successful ones recently and the token is already tradable on many exchanges, including first tier ones like Binance and Coinbase. The price is now 24 times higher than that of the token sale which happened last October. At that time, it was offered at $0.03!

    The first phase after launch will be useful to stress and improve mainnet performances before the queries amount will increase exponentially. Following, in the next months, the team will be building a “production-ready Graph Explorer dApp and Gateway” to support all network contributors.

    Here’s everything you need to know about The Graph in our article.

    Red Flags

    Ledger Email Breach – 270,000 emails & addresses leaked publicly

    On July the 14th, Ledger’s database got breached when a hacker stole 1,075,382 email addresses and 272,853 hardware wallet orders. This meant that personal data such as emails, phone numbers and physical addresses (for people who actually bought a device) were probably available behind payment to the hacker himself. As a matter of fact, numerous have been the phishing attempts reported in the last months, usually via emails and/or text messages to their phones.

    Today, as if this wasn’t bad enough itself, the whole database has been dumped for free by an anonymous profile on Raidforum. While funds are still technically safe, users, at the very leas, should expect a new and massive wave of phishing tentatives.

    Check out our video where we explain everything on the Ledger data breach: what happened, who is affected and what NOT to do right now.

    URGENT: Ledger Email Breach – 270,000 emails & addresses leaked publicly

    The company commented on twitter confirming that “early signs” tell them this content is probably from their database.

    They also shared a page with phishing news and tips, like the classic “Never share the 24 words of your recovery phrase with anyone under any circumstances”. While this is certainly important, it is difficult to imagine that hardware wallets’ users still need to hear it. Considering that now anyone can see where the devices owners live, they would probably rather know that the company is actively doing things to prevent future breaches and more.

    Even though protecting funds with col wallets is not something for just rich crypto holders, this is what most people think, and we can all imagine what criminals can do with those addresses in their hands.

    Unfortunately, it appears that new phishing messages are already coming.

    You can use this website to check whether your personal data (and what) was compromised https://haveibeenpwned.com/

    Nexus Mutual’s CEO personal address got hacked

    Unfortunately, this week brought new red flags. The most prominent one involves a project whose mission is (almost ironically) that of protecting protocols’ users from malicious actors.

    Hugh Harp, founder of Nexus Mutual, has seen his personal wallet directly attacked. The hacker has mysteriously managed to install a malicious version of Metamask on his computer, misleading him into confirming a transaction to a different recipient address. The hacker himself. It is one of those cases where using a hardware wallet to sign transactions as second layer of security can’t help.

    The CEO, recognizing this hack was “next level stuff”, has offered a bounty of $300,000 to the hacker in case he decided to send everything back. The unknown figure answered via input data on a subsequent empty transaction.

    “Hello Hugh. I will not sell wNXM any more until wNXM recovers his value or you send me 4.5k ETH. If you need any negotiation with me, send msg to my eth address…..“

    The text end targeting other Hugh’s personal addresses, exposing Hugh’s private details even more.

    We will see how this story unfolds. Meanwhile, someone has started a gitcoin grant to directly compensate Karp for what happened. As a response, he has proposed that all the money raised would be used for improving smart contracts security.

    Boxmining happenings

    • Worried about your funds? Learn more about Cover Protocol ($COVER), one of the most successful platform where to buy coverages.

    Cover Protocol ($COVER): peer-to-peer coverage market for DeFi

    • Yearn Finance ($YFI) has recently partnered with many other top level protocols. Here’s our introduction to the Yearn extended family!

    Yearn.Finance merging the DeFi Ecosystem

    • Interested in lending-borrowing? Is a credit scoring system appealing to you? Listen to what is $WING and how can you profit off of it!
    • Wootrade ($WOO): Boosting the power of cryptocurrency trading?

    Wootrade ($WOO): Boosting the power of cryptocurrency trading?