As digital investing is growing in popularity, a new type of digital asset known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are entering the market. An NFT is a cryptographic asset that is presented as artworks, music, videos, and in-game items, with many other new ideas coming up each day. Having made their debut in 2014, NFTs have been increasingly in-demand as a method to purchase and sell digital works of art in our current day of age.
In January 2022, one of the monumental NFT marketplaces, OpenSea, reported a trading volume of 5 billion USD. Popular public figures have also hopped on the NFT craze such as pop singer Justin Bieber, rap artist Snoop Dogg, and football legend Lionel Messi.
With the increasing popularity of NFTs, this raises a new question: Are there any disadvantages to using NFTs? In this article, we discuss the current challenges NFTs are facing, and discuss whether NFTs possess the potential to grow even bigger in the blockchain industry.
Challenge 1 – Plagiarism and Ownership of NFTs and underlying works
NFT ownership does not equal “complete” ownership, to some extent. NFTs can be duplicated and downloaded by thousands of people on the internet with a simple screenshot. Although buyers technically own the NFT on the blockchain, digital art thieves can easily steal them — as a complete digital replica.
With the upsurge of NFT theft, artists gradually noticed that their artworks were being turned into NFTs and sold without consent on various online marketplaces. For example, in 2021, Russian artist Weird Undead discovered her recent artwork up for auction on OpenSea.
The artist tweeted, “I don’t give any permission (ESPECIALLY to random jerks) to make tokens from my content and I feel so angry.” The non-fungible token has since been taken down from OpenSea after Weird Undead filed legal notices against the online auction site.
(Twitter user @WeirdUndead’s tweet garnered 21.9K likes)
NFT theft is, unfortunately, rather common. Although profit loss will occur when plagiarising an artist’s work, there are currently no preventive measures for those who mint another person’s art and sell it as an NFT. It may also prove difficult for the artist to claim any compensation or seek remedies against the person who plagiarised them since they are most likely anonymous and living in another country.
Challenge 2 – NFTs are bad for the environment?
Most NFTs use the Ethereum blockchain which also operates on the Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm. Transaction verification requires the PoS to perform multiplex calculations — where a stupendous amount of computers is vital.
The issue is that it takes a great toll on electricity to mine Ethereum. Each transaction on Ethereum takes 48.14 kWh, which is comparatively a lot more than other average computational tasks. The substantial use of this algorithmic power and electricity results in the increase in consumption of fossil fuels and leaving an even bigger carbon footprint on our planet.
These NFTs are largely to blame for the massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions emitted by cryptocurrency transactions and a lot of people don’t believe that the recommended solutions are possible.
A digital art marketplace called ArtStation withdrew plans to develop a platform for NFTs within hours after receiving criticisms from people who believe that dealing in crypto art is unethical. ArtStation’s proposals for carbon credits have been equated by artists on Twitter as “setting a house on fire then placing a single potted plant on the burned property.”
(Twitter user @Bleaaeach is among many who strongly disagrees with the NFT phenomenon)
Fixing the challenges faced by NFTs?
With the right protocols that can protect the artist’s work and also the environment, NFTs can potentially thrive for generations to come.
Copyright protection for NFT artists?
Artists should be protected by intellectual property laws when selling their artwork in the NFT space. In the US, their copyright laws state that only the original holder has the right to turn their artwork into an NFT. To illustrate, consider the lawsuit brought against Foundation, an NFT platform, for showcasing artwork created by another NFT project called Cryptopunk which was promptly called out by claimed creator Ryder Ripple.
Essentially, artists still have the potential to have their art protected and respected for their original and exclusive value in the form of NFTs. NFT creators can also take the opportunity to earn royalties on the resale of their work — a feat that is comparatively much more difficult to achieve in the traditional market.
Environmental strategies for NFTs?
For environmental concerns, NFTs are still relatively new and were not expected to consume a tremendous amount of electricity when being mined. There are potential sustainable methods that can be adopted to protect the environment when exploring the NFT space. A renewable energy strategy would be a practical method as PoS mining can utilize emission-free energy. In recent years, solar power is a common practice when companies take on an environmental approach, but other alternatives, such as wind-generated electricity can also be considered.
Another environmental strategy would be to purchase carbon offset credits. “A carbon offset credit is a transferable instrument certified by governments or independent certification bodies to represent an emission reduction of one metric tonne of CO2,” explained by the Carbon Offset Research and Education. Although NFT investors who purchased offsets will not directly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, it can bestow a financial motivation to lessen total emissions on an annual basis.
Will NFTs survive?
Despite the disadvantages of NFTs mentioned earlier, NFTs won’t be seeing the finish line anytime soon. NFTs’ most evident advantage is their capacity to improve market efficiency. Digitization improves efficiency and safety by removing the need to handle physical assets. With the ability to store and protect sensitive data and documents, they might be the next biggest beneficial tool for both individuals and businesses.
NFT is also transforming art, music, and sports by allowing digital assets to be sold and providing a range of revenue streams for digital artists. Upcoming trends, such as play-to-earn is providing users with the opportunity to also earn while gaming with their NFTs. Seems like going forward, the utility concepts in NFTs will only continue to drive the sector, instead of ruining it.
With the rapid growth and popularity of NFTs, there is no doubt they will have a significant impact on the global economy in years to come. It is not a matter of how, but when.
Generally speaking, creating strong passwords and protecting those passwords from being found out is a user’s key tenant in their own protection online when using certain services. But creating complex enough passwords that are difficult to guess or hack with a dictionary attack often leaves a bunch of passwords for each service that’s difficult to even remember.
You could write it down, but that could be found out. And while browsers like Google Chrome do come with their own password managers, that does leave all your passwords behind one single password that is probably just as vulnerable as any others.
Password security is particularly important for crypto enthusiasts and traders, who deal with hackers and infiltrations on a far more regular basis than regular internet users, because there’s literally money to be gained by these bad forces and stolen funds are extremely difficult to recover. There are a lot more hackers out there, and a lot of times where cryptocurrency and other digital assets get stolen.
So with that in mind, a slew of password managing services have become available in the market over the years to aid users with this specific security issue. Let us look at some of the most popular ones in the market right now. (https://duckysonline.com/)
1- Yubikey
Check out our video: YubiKey Review and Guide for a full look at how to use the YubiKey and all its features. You can also check out our article Yubico’s YubiKey: Review and Guide for a step by step written guide on how to use it. Also, check out our YubiKey Review and Guide for a full look at how to use the YubiKey and all its features:
YubiKey Review and Guide
Pros:
Fundamentally, the YubiKey has the same advantages of having a literal physical key for a physical vault. It’s a physical object, so in order to login and configure the account of an online service, the actual YubiKey must be used to deliver the necessary passwords it provides.
This already makes the usage of hardware authenticators like YubiKey very hard to hack, which is why Google and Facebook use them to secure employee and user accounts.
Yubikey, like all hardware authenticators, essentially allow two factor authentication (2FA) to be used safer and more conveniently, because it can produce one time passwords (OTP) you don’t have to create yourself or remember and enter them for you. So not only is it safer, but it’s also very convenient – two advantages that don’t usually coincide.
Physical hardware authentication devices are particularly good at avoiding the kind of hacks seen in Coinbase and USD1mil crypto heist last year, where SMS-based 2FA codes were hacked using SIM swapping.
It’s easy to set up as well as use and provides a strong layer of security for the services it protects. Just plug it in, follow the prompts on the service that you’re using (assuming it is supported), press the key and it’s set.
For crypto exchanges such as Binance, password keys like the YubiKey can be set to lock withdrawals, logins and password resets individually. What this means is that even if someone were to hack into the account, the individual actions a hacker could do inside is also locked away and needs the YubiKey to access them.
Cons:
Its greatest strength is also perhaps its biggest weakness. Physical objects used for security can still be damaged, left behind in a rush by accident or even lost. And losing a YubiKey can involve some incredibly tedious solutions, so be forewarned. On top of that, some might find the need to carry one around a minor inconvenience, particularly if they do exchanges in different locations.
Another issue that needs to be addressed is that some crypto exchanges might not support YubiKey, particularly for mobile users. So it’s important to check for support before purchasing one. For mobile power users, this makes the YubiKey models with USB-C and Lightning connectors somewhat useless, even if USB-C models are still useful on certain laptops like MacBooks.
One minor issue was discovered by the people at Zapier who kept triggering their YubiKey’s when accidentally touching them, resulting in a secured code being entered into whatever textbox you have open at the time. It’s happened so often on Slack, that Zapier has decided to run with the joke and made a custom Slack emoji. Most hackers won’t know what to do with this sudden burst of password code getting posted on a chat, but it’s not a habit many would encourage, and they do provide a means to make the press less sensitive.
And like many password managing solutions, this won’t stop hackers from getting into your account if the exchange itself is not secure.
Using the Trezor physical wallet as a password manager is somewhat similar to using the YubiKey, but takes the process of securing passwords one level higher. Physical wallets like Trezor and Ledger are cold wallets because they confirm transactions within themselves before they are made, and while you compromise convenience and speed using them, they are by their very nature far more secure.
And by virtue of how it works, Trezor can essentially save an unlimited amount of passwords too.
One noted advantage The Trezor might have over the YubiKey is that so long as you know your seed key, losing a Trezor and getting a replacement is far more straightforward. It is a series of words between 12 and 24 words long using the BIP39 format, and using it in one physical wallet that supports it basically replicates that wallet in another device, restoring your passwords and addresses.
Cons:
It’s important to note that while using a Trezor as a password manager, it’s main focus is as a physical wallet. Getting one as just a password manager is a bit overkill considering the prices they go for. It must also be pointed out that this is still a physical device that can be lost or damaged, and replacing one is still kind of pricey as well.
On top of that, the seed key is fundamentally the wallet’s identity and is often targeted by hackers. The same convenience that allows a Trezor to be replaced with a seed key, also means anybody else that has it can replicate yours too and steal your assets, if you’re not careful.
It is therefore incredibly risky to keep online, so it must also be written down or inscribed on a physical medium of some kind. Paper is typically not encouraged, but there are metal alternatives that are far more durable and secure. Again, these can be damaged, lost or stolen if you’re not careful too.
If you have multiple physical wallets (and some traders do, for diversification and security purposes), you can use a single physical wallet to store the multiple subordinate sed keys, but this can also lead to a recursive rabbit hole of problems, where compromising of the “prime” key jeopardises the other “subordinate” keys, even if the later is now incredibly secure.
But to be fair, if you do trade large amounts of capital and you are concerned about hackers, then maybe getting a physical wallet like the Trezor is not a bad investment, and if they are valuable, most people know to treat them as such and secure them well. Plus you get to reap the perk of having a physical authentication device that supports far more kinds of cryptocurrency than the YubiKey.
3- LastPass
Pros:
Lauched in 2008, LastPass is well-known among cyber-experts and is among the most feature-rich password protectors available. It has multi factor authentication as well as browsers and is easy to use. The free version is also pretty decent but has its own limitations as we’ll get to below.
LastPass also uses 256-bit AES encryption to scramble your passwords, allowing a zero-knowledge policy within the company. It also allows users to use it in an offline mode, which is a rare trait in online password managers.
The product is also very highly rated across the board for its incredibly feature rich paid-version and is generally considered affordable for what it can do, with Forbes, CNET and manyothertechsites.
One the one hand, this could be a little worrying. Even if no passwords seemed to be compromised, the idea that they could have been is a little nerve-racking. But on the other hand, LastPass seems to be on the ball with regards to making sure users are well-informed and that their product is constantly patched and reinforced.
LastPass will also lock you into the country that you’re in, but you can add more countries into your permissions as needed. Or you could get around that issue and use a VPN.
LastPass’ free version has seen what might be seen as a huge downgrade as of last year after it was limited to only one device per user. People already on LastPass’ free version before found this change worthswapping to another manager altogether. For newer users looking to just secure one device, this isn’t really an issue but most password manager users would rather their manager work across several platforms.
4- KeePass
Pros:
At first glance, this doesn’t look like a very impressive password manager. The installation is a bit confusing and the application itself isn’t very stylish or intuitive.
It is however open-source and free (barring the modest demand for donations), and while the former seems frivolous to the end user and the later not all that important to crypto-enthusiasts who are looking to protect fairly large amounts of capital from hackers, they matter for two crucial reasons
Firstly, its open-source nature allows anyone to create a startling myriad of plug-ins and customisations. This almost DIY nature of KeePass allows a savvy-enough user to modify KeePass in almost whatever way they want. On top of that, it could be argued that open-source software allows more experts to scrutinise it and its flaws (assuming a sizable-enough enthusiast community, which KeePass has).
Secondly, that it is free makes it an incredible password management solution for tech-savvy individuals, tech businesses or organisations that are cash-strapped but have the skills to utilise KeePass to its fullest potential. Staying free factor turned out to be quite an important factor, as LastPass’ changing its terms on its free users showed.
On top of that, various versions of KeePass (that was originally meant to run on desktops and laptops) have come about to provide for platforms it wasn’t originally designed for, such as for iPhone and Android.
Cons:
KeyPass’ incredibly customisable, almost DIY nature also reflects the fact that on its own, it is a very bare password manager and probably alienating to a user who isn’t particularly tech-savvy or wants to do the extensive customization to provide features its other rivals have out of the box.
The necessity for its over 100 plugins to provide the convenience most other solutions have right out the box is going to turn off people who want to simply get the solutions over and done with. Its interface is not intuitive and there is no official tech-support.
On top of that, you must choose which database to store your encrypted passwords, because it does not have cloud-based storage for them built in. It is possible to have KeePass store it on detachable storage, such as a thumbdrive, but again, that must be opted. This does make it more secure, but if the storage device is stolen, you lose access to all your devices.
5- BitWarden
Pros:
Inmanyreviewseitherabout, including or just mentioning Bitwarden, the positives of its free version are often contrasted to LastPass’ own ever since the later changed its free version’s service terms to only sync between either personal computers or mobile devices, almost to suggest that Bitwarden has dethroned LastPass among free app users.
And it’s hard to deny that it has earned its reputation as one of the best open-source free password managers out there.
Bitwarden provides multi-factor authentication via authenticator apps, and is secured with AES-256 encryption, which is then hashed with SHA-256. You can even host all your passwords on your own server for added security. Bitwarden also allows you to create and share passwords and audit password usage. It also auto-fills passwords and their credentials in one go, though this can malfunction on certain sites. And all synch via an unlimited amount of devices.
That’s not to say that it’s affordable paid version doesn’t get much better, with support added for YubiKey, U2F, and Duo, 1GB encrypted data vault storage, vault health reports, a time-based OTP authenticator and generator and even priority customer support.
Its creators too have had a sterling reputation for transparency, having gone through a third-party audit by Insight Risk Consulting as well as German cybersecurity team Cure53, while its source code is available for anyone on Github to examine. It has even a bug-bounty on vulnerability coordination platform Hackerone.
Cons:
Like its open-source counterpart KeePass to an extent, Bitwarden does suffer from a lack of an intuitive interface and its true capability requires some expertise to extract via plugins. But generally speaking, it’s an incredibly difficult password manager to fault for most reasonably experienced users.
6- Keeper
Pros:
Its introduction is fairly intuitive and quite helpful, walking you through the setup process step-by-step from a warning about browser-based password managers to password imports, and then an installation of web plugins, a tour of its features and the introduction of multi-factor authentication.
Keeper can be used via a web-app, but the actual desktop app allows for biometric logins and an offline mode. Keeper also has a series of other add-on features that you can pay for (or opt out from), such as encrypted file storage, secure messaging and dark web monitoring. Overall, it’s a well-priced, intuitive and easy to use password manager with rather good support for businesses.
In terms of security, Keeper is quite strong, having third party audits, compliance with ISO 27001 information security management system standards, the US Department of Commerce and the European Commission’s Privacy Shield framework and even has an internal bug-bounty programme.
One possible vulnerability is that Keeper doesn’t fully automate password updates. When it detects a password-change page, it offers to update and save a stronger password. Your passwords exist for a certain time on Keeper’s company servers – unconducive to the zero-knowledge test.
7- 1Password
Pros:
It’s one of the best password managers available on the market right now, priced similarly to LastPass for its standard version, which allows unlimited passwords across unlimited devices, and is offered in a variety of packages suited for their intended demographics too. This allows
It has the sort of features you expect from a good password manager of this range, such as 256-AES encryption, a zero-knowledge policy, two factor authentication, password strengthening and good browser extensions.On top of that, it has straight-forward security recommendations and an easy to use interface.
One is being able to make multiple password vaults that you can organise for different purposes. On family and business plans, you can set up sharing settings with other users that are unique to each vault. On business plans specifically, administrators can remotely configure these settings for team members.
When in travel mode, it hides all password vaults and only shows the ones deemed safe for travel, and gives no indication that the mode is on, which is good if someone wants to keep sensitive information secret, particularly if a device is stolen. Such vault information might include form fills, passwords, secure documents and credit card information.
It will also tell you if your passwords are weak, or if you’ve been reusing them for different services, and has a simple-to-use feature that wipes clipboards to remove sensitive data after a timer is set.
1Passworld can also create an Emergency Kit – a PDF with your account email, Secret Key, and a place for you to write down your master password. It offers peace of mind in case you lose some valuable bit of data and can’t gain access to your passwords.
Cons:
There are some minor concerns, though. 1Password’s browser extensions can’t be used to add passwords or edit them, and while it will tell you if your passwords are weak, it won’t insist they get stronger with special characters, which is odd.
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.
REVV is the currency of purchase, utility and action for Animoca Games‘ motorsports games. Animoca Games is a blockchain gaming firm and global game developer which leverages popular brands such as Power Rangers, Masterchef etc., together with gamification, AI, blockchain and mobile technology to create gaming apps.
Check out my debate with Co-Founder and CEO, Yat Siu where we debated whether Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are the NEXT BIG THING, and I did NOT hold back playing Devil’s Advocate:
Background
Animoca Brands released its own utility token called REVV to power its blockchain-based gaming platform. The goal of the team is to build an ecosystem that will link the economies of their company’s games together.
Animoca believes that REVV’s presence in all its blockchain games will help attract more people to their platform and add value to the token for accessing a larger consumer base. REVV is designed to be the “currency of purchase, utility, and action” for the ecosystem’s gaming titles.
According to recent reports in July 2020, Animoca has already reached over $4 million in revenue, with $1.8 million from their assets kept in cryptocurrency holdings.
“Revv can be used right now for our time trial games and soon also to buy and trade our NFT and game assets,” said Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands.
Here’s our video on NFTs and what they can do for gaming.
Non-Fungible Tokens Explained (ERC 721, ERC 1155)
What is REVV?
REVV is a non-fungible cryptocurrency token based on the Ethereum blockchain. It is utilized as a medium of exchange for REVV’s ecosystem, as well as Animoca Brands’ gaming platforms like F1 Delta Time.
REVV is already available on Uniswap, one of the biggest exchanges in the DeFi space today. Trading began against ETH last September 4, with an initial token price of $0.00666.
REVV is one of the latest additions to projects aimed at improving the adoption of NFTs, which many consider to be a hundred million dollar market. A similar project named SAND, established under The Sandbox, a mobile gaming platform, was also recently listed on Binance.
REVV ecosystem
The REVV ecosystem is a collection of games whereby players can use the REVV token and the NFTs across their games. Their first games will be F1 Delta Time (an official product of the FIA Formula One World Championship) and its upcoming MotoGP title. F1 Delta Time is expected to be released in November 2020, whilst the MotoGP title will be released in Q4 2020. REVV is also planning a third blockchain game soon and it is expected to also be based on a global racing franchise.
Furthermore, with REVV’s partnership with Atari, Atari’s classic motorsport video games Night Driver and Fatal Run will also be joining the REVV ecosystem.
REVV token
REVV token acts both as a utility token as well as the in-game currency of the motorsports games produced by Animoca brands. There are two features of the REVV token:
Play Utility: REVV can be used by players to enter Grand Prix and Time Trial game modes. There is a set fee for the Time Trial, with the Grand Prix priced on a tier-basis. Higher tier games require more REVV, which also secures more rewards for the best performers.
The Tyre Durability systems also require REVV. To maintain the durability of a player’s tyres in the game, they have to pay in REVV for restorations depending on their condition.
Purchase Utility: REVV can be used to buy F1 Delta Time 2020 Collectibles.
REVV NFTs
REVV is already selling their NFTs for F1 Delta Time. On the F1 Delta Time NFT marketplace on OpenSea, there are already 11,427 items listed and 571 owners.
Some of the NFTs available on OpenSea
Once the F1 Delta Time game is launched, the NFTs will become usable in the game for example to upgrade their cars, drivers, racetracks etc. Once more games under REVV are released, it is expected that the NFTs can be used in these other games too. In addition, these NFTs have value as collectables since Animoca Brands holds the licenses to both Formula One and Motor GP brands.
REVV Pools
REVV keeps a pool of tokens created to support the F1 Delta Time ecosystem. The allocation in REVV pools, however, can still be changed in the future depending on the outcome for other titles.
Reserve: 200,000,000 REVV is kept for future use as a back-up fund as the ecosystem continues growing.
Game Operations: 273,980,000 REVV is allocated to the primary pool of the game. It will be used to support the reward mechanism of the platform.
Staking: 6,020,000 REVV is allocated for its 2019 staking run, but the staking pool for 2020 can include REVV allocated in the Game Operations Pool, Reserve Pool, or both.
Marketing and Promotions: 20,000,000 REVV is allocated from promotional airdrops.
Staking
Staking on Animoca Brand’s game, F1 Delta Time will be available from 15th September 2020 onwards. Users who stake their F1 Delta Time car NFTs will enable them to earn REVV tokens. How many tokens you would be entitled to is determined mainly by how rare the NFT is, with rarer items being able to generate greater returns.
30mil REVV tokens have been allocated to the staking pool for users to claim. From 15th September 2020 (HKT), the first round of staking will begin for 4 weeks. A total of 2.04mil REVV will be available for claim. After this, there will be a further 12 week period of staking where 10mil REVV is up for grabs.
More details on the staking feature are available here.
Rewards: how to earn REVV
There are two ways to receive REVV. One is by participating in its sale, another is by playing the game.
Promotional: Verified accounts on the F1 Delta Time will receive 50 REVV upon joining the game. Those who also participated in the game’s 2019 Crate Sale will be given REVV based on the category of the crate they are holding.
The cut-off period for this set of rewards is yet to be announced but will be published soon.
Play-to-Earn: REVV will also be given as a reward for players depending on their race car NFTs and other gaming features. Gaming modes such as Time Trial and Grand Prix also entitles players to some REVV rewards, especially those who are included in the game’s Leaderboards.
Another opportunity to earn comes in the form of dividends doled out to Track owners since these are also considered “ownable NFTs.” These owners will be given a proportion of their share in the total amount of REVV spent by players to race in that Track.
Recent Updates
From the time that they announced the sale of REVV on Uniswap, seven million tokens were sold out in just 20 minutes.
Included in their roadmap are plans on expanding their ecosystem to GAMEE and QUIDD, both of which are gaming and collectible companies that they have acquired in July this year and August last year, respectively.
Partnership with Atari
On 12th October 2020, REVV announced its partnership with iconic video gaming company Atari. Atari owns and/or manages a portfolio of over 200 games and franchises such as Asteroids, Pong and RollerCoaster Tycoon.
The partnership was in the way of a token swap whereby the 2 companies have agreed to swap USD$625,000 worth of each others’ tokens. Specifically, Animoca will provide 5mil REVV tokens at USD$0.025 per token, in exchange for 7,812,500 ATRI tokens, along with its other tokens it is in the process of being listed. 90% of REVV and ATRI will be locked for 18 months from the delivery date, whilst the remaining 10% will be unlocked on the first day the tokens list on an exchange.
Conclusion
It is definitely good to see that the expansion of use cases for the blockchain has already reached a lot of individuals. Real-life or digital activities tapping into the power of blockchain does not merely stimulate more innovation, but also help facilitate mass adoption.
The first step in mass adoption is to convince the public about the ease of transactions that can be made in crypto, as well as the capacity of these digital currencies to be used as a store of value.
And we have made enormous progress so far in the last decade. Innovations like REVV give people the opportunity to make crypto transactions with utmost convenience and security, which is exactly what blockchain has promised since its inception. It is also bringing cryptocurrency into the world of gaming, which most people have been hotly anticipating as the most likely route to mass adoption.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
0x ($ZRX) is an open protocol for developers to build their own decentralised cryptocurrency exchanges on the Ethereum blockchain. 0x came about as an answer to the problems inherent in centralised exchanges (CEX) and decentralised exchanges (DEX). For CEXs, approximately USD $1.1 billion has already been lost through security breaches on these platforms. Thus cryptocurrency enthusiasts have become wary for fear of losing their funds. Decentralised exchanges were meant to be an answer to this, but they have also issues of increased friction and increasing transaction costs. In this guide, we will explore what 0x is already offering in today’s market, and take a look at their recently released version 3 of the protocol.
Background
0x is a brainchild of its CTO, Amir Bandeali, and its CEO, Will Warren. Other key individuals behind the project include their blockchain engineers, product designers, researchers, and business strategists. They also have a strong list of advisors including Fred Ehrsam, Co-founder of Coinbase and David Sacks, former COO of PayPal.
What is 0x?
0x is a protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain to create and power decentralized exchanges. Its aim is to be interfaced with other systems to power high-end decentralized applications (dapps).
The protocol seeks to inspire the movement of assets across the financial sector by eliminating third parties that have been making the process complicated and costly. The presence of smart contracts has also helped push third parties further to oblivion.
The advent of DEXs comes to safeguard users’ funds and prevent government censorship. These exchanges place the security of users’ funds onto the users themselves instead of trusting centralized platforms, which are prone to hacks.
Due to the Bitcoin blockchain scalability issues and lack of smart contract flexibility, dapp developers have flocked to Ethereum to build decentralized solutions such as exchanges. Unfortunately, with everyone looking to build a specialized dapp, Ethereum has been flooded with applications that cannot communicate well with each other.
Furthermore, these applications have varying degrees of security and quality. 0x came to solve this user fragmentation issue, as well as reduce the cost of using dapps.
How does 0x work?
Although it is built on top of Ethereum, its orders are dealt with off-chain as relayers are used to match the orders. The orders are only uploaded on the Ethereum blockchain after the process is complete. Off-chain signing reduces the amount of gas used in a particular transaction while also reducing the load on the main chain.
A relayer on the platform can be thought of as a decentralized exchange that has both public and private order books. Orders are broadcasted through these order books to make a suitable match.
Apart from reducing the gas fees involved, this approach also allows users to have control over their funds. An important feature of a relayer is that it only facilitates but does not conduct trades.
To allow this, the relayer needs to be supplied with the order maker’s signature, which is then delivered to the DEX’s smart contract. Relayers are rewarded using the protocol’s native token, ZRX, though this has been changed along with several other features in version 3 of 0x.
0x version 3: A new protocol with enhanced features
In August 2020, the decentralized protocol released a new version 3 that enables users to develop a more interconnected DeFi ecosystem. There are 3 major upgrades in this new version: staking ZRX tokens, liquidity bridges and flexible fees.
0x staking features
Version 3 of 0x introduced a staking mechanism which allows trading fees to be accepted in any token. Market makers that provide liquidity are seen as crucial for 0x’s long-term growth since they bring in liquidity. Hence a new staking feature was introduced whereby market makers on 0x are given monetary rewards. This means that any ZRX holder can join a market maker’s staking pool and be entitled to a share of the liquidity rewards. Meanwhile, it is in the best interests of the market maker to entice stakers to join their pool because it increases their potential liquidity rewards payouts and their voting power on governance issues since stakers are required to delegate half their voting power to the market maker.
Liquidity bridges
Liquidity bridges is an exciting upgrade for decentralised finance (DeFi) developers who are building dapps that will benefit from accessing more liquidity. This is because the feature will enable them to source liquidity not only from the 0x network itself, but other DEXs such as UniSwap or Kyber from a single point of integration, known as 0x API (more on that below). In short, allowing users access to liquidity in other DEXs, thereby ensuring that orders are being filled to reach higher volumes, and thus attracting even more users onto the platform.
Flexible fees for Relayers
Previously, 0x only allowed Relayers to receive fees in ZRX only. This was problematic because sometimes Relayers may not want to receive fees in ZRX. It also led to a poor experience for Relayers since it created more additional steps in DEX trading, for example one of the largest 0x DEXs by volume didn’t have fees. And there is speculation that this is because of the limited ways in which fees could be paid out. This has been fixed in version 3, where Relayers can choose to have their fees paid in any Ethereum-based token or even in the token currently being traded.
ZRX Token: What is it?
The ZRX token is built based on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard. Apart from being used to pay relayers for facilitating trades, it is also utilized for governance on the 0x protocol. In line with this, the amount of ZRX held determines the power a governor has when contributing to governance issues such as protocol upgrades.
The ZRX token supply is hard-capped at one billion. During its launch in 2017, half of the tokens were released and distributed to developers (15%), 0x (15%), founding team (10%), and advisors (10%).
ZRX is listed on Binance, Coinbase, Huobi, HitBTC, and other leading exchanges. For storage, the token is supported by Ledger (both the Nano X and Nano S), Enjin, Exodus, and any other cryptocurrency wallets primed for ERC-20 tokens.
As mentioned above, the 0x team has recently introduced staking features for ZRX which gives more incentives for both liquidity providing market makers and ZRX holders.
Other products powered by 0x
0x has a whole suite of products aside from its open protocol. These are:
· 0x Instant– This offers a way to buy cryptocurrency on any app or website.
· 0x mesh – Allows access to a global P2P order book for tokens.
· 0x API – Can be used to accumulate liquidity from platforms built on the protocol such as UniSwap, and Mesh. It can also be used to swap tokens based on price.
· Matcha – A platform to find the best prices across exchange networks.
· 0x Extensions – For use with relayers to incorporate new trading types.
· 0x OTC – This is a consumer-basedexchange that allows for a P2P exchange of ETH tokens without a relayer. Unlike the other P2P exchanges, 0x OTC enables the seller to send a link to the buyer on any platform, including social media, and its results are recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.
Even with numerous advantages, the protocol uses multi-signature smart contracts that could be exploited since they are still based on code. Also, since the DEXes are still a work in progress, they may not have the liquidity needed to fill orders for lesser-known tokens.
Conclusion
As blockchain technology matures, so should the applications run on top of it. However, as more dapps flood the scene, we need a standard quality and security setting to ensure that these systems operate as they are intended. Thankfully, with 0x, the standard is already set.
Furthermore, dapp developers also need to embrace the system for users to benefit from low transaction fees.
The 0x protocol can be used in prediction markets such as sports betting, which require untampered results of outcomes of physical events.
The platform’s vast use cases are also capable of bringing real change in the decentralized world while leveraging off-chain mechanisms to drastically enhance scalability.
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
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!
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Among the growing list of emerging decentralized exchanges lies THORChain and their RUNE token. The Company is one of many decentralized finance (DeFi) options in a field that is creating much buzz within the industry. The decentralised liquidity network, whose successful seed funding was completed last year, is one that should not be missed by those who are looking into this field. After a successful mainnet launch, the cross blockchain answer to Uniswap was made official in the first part of this year. As such we have compiled a complete guide to EVERYTHING you wanted to know about THORChain, answering questions like ‘What is THORchain?’, ‘Who Uses THORChain’ and other important topics.
What is THORChain?
First imagined in 2018, THORChain offers a wide range of services on its decentralized permissionless network. It allows for swapping of assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as providing continuous liquidity pools for users. The platform uses a cross chain and can be used on any blockchain/with any asset, unlike other decentralized exchanges.
Their development paper outlines the core conception of THORChain, saying: “THORChain is a liquidity protocol designed to connect all blockchain assets in a marketplace of liquidity through cross-chain bridges and continuous liquidity pools secured by economically incentivised validators.”
THORChain’s consensus is Proof-of-Stake and built on Tendermint, with network validators required to bond (lock up) their native token, $RUNE. Validators are punished for bad behaviour by having their stake slashed, which in turn disincentivises such actions.The network’s data is calculated and overseen using Midguard API service and is secured and bonded by ThornNode, which also powers the network. The nodes make vaults and validate the transactions on the site.
Who uses THORChain?
Users
These are the main participants and they usually use the cross chain services between the pools with them paying a slip fee. The fee is paid due to gas fees on external services and for fast execution. However, swapping is non custodial and unrestricted on different chains.
Liquidity providers
These are secondary participants who add liquidity to the various pools which is then bound with RUNE in a separate vault. Using the continuous liquidity pool means the network does not need oracles or have a price feed. Liquidity rewards are earned through fees generated from pools and are paid out when users withdraw. As the THORChain website explained, “liquidity is provided by stakers who earn fees on swaps, turning their unproductive assets into productive assets in a non-custodial manner. Market prices are maintained through the ratio of assets in pools which can be arbitraged by traders to restore correct market prices.”
Nodes explained
Nodes are the basis for THORChain’s services. They have three main functions, these are: to Bond RUNE, create vaults (which are like wallets) and witness transactions/produce blocks. They are all run by node administrators who are also rewarded for their work through bond rewards. For a full breakdown of node operators, please click here.
In terms of THORChain, as previously mentioned, nodes earn two-thirds of the System Income and they make vaults and validate the transactions on the site. Nodes are anonymous, with plausible deniability on all transactions. The nodes are created every three days and compete to enter with bonded capital. The oldest nodes are churned out and replaced when necessary. This allows the nodes to stay fresh and keeps the network constantly updating itself.
RUNE token: what is it?
Another integral part of the system and the nodes that run it is THORChain’s native token, RUNE. Available through Binance Chain, the token is a BEP2 token.The RUNE token is used in all liquidity pools and is bonded by nodes. All RUNE tokens are at a 1:1 ratio to asset value and this allows for pools to be linked. RUNE is also the rewards for pools, with the equivalent of 1/3rd of the System Income providing continuous liquidity incentives.
Alongside providing on chain liquidity, RUNE is also an important part of the THORChain security. This is because it protects against malicious actors by offering them a larger benefit for liquidating then they would receive from corrupting the system, as nodes earn 2/3rds of the System Income. Thus all transactions using RUNE on the system have double the amount at a 67% to 33% ratio. The other third is for liquidity providers. Not only that, but in terms of security nodes are also closed when malicious activity is detected.
RUNE has a total supply of 500 million tokens. Of which 100 million will be sold to the public in 3 stages, 150 million has already been allocated throughout the team, community and operational reserves, and the remaining 220 million is saved for the emissions reserve.
How to earn RUNE?
RuneVault: Liquidators and users of RUNE can have access to the RUNEVault feature which allows you to store and stake the token, with returns on investment. Using a Binance Chain Feature, users can “freeze” their tokens even if they have staked them meaning that the currency is always in the wallet. Earnings are based on weekly RUNE staked, but this weekly taking is reset should you withdraw any amount.
Rewards
THORChain offers rewards for all participants on the network. The rewards are paid out through the distribution of system income. This is worked out by Swap fees plus Block rewards. Swap fees are paid by users when swapping assets and Block rewards are worked out on an emission schedule. As mentioned previously, the system income is paid 67% to the nodes and 33% to the liquidator. However, this ratio is officially worked out by the incentive pendulum.
Governance on THORChain
THORChain attempts to have a minimal governance model. Instead staked capital is the main driver of the market and developers respond accordingly. New assets are easily listed and this means there are rarely many governmental decisions to undertake and it is truly decentralized in many ways.
Who is the team behind THORChain?
The team behind THORChain is purposefully pseudoanonymous. According to their website, “figureheads, personalities and founders undermine a project’s ability to decentralise,” and that, “transparency is demonstrated in other facets (treasury, code, research)”. That being said, there are 10 employees listed on LinkedIn and 12 team members listed with 6 additional advisors on ICOBench.
What sets THORChain apart? What are its benefits?
THORChain takes a little while to understand the basics and the nodes that run the network. However, once you get the hang of the exchange then THORChain has a number of benefits.
The main benefit is that with their cross chain feature, any asset can be swapped and a pool created around it. That gives users a huge amount of variety and does not hem them in unlike other decentralized exchange options do. This opens a whole new world of possibilities for DeFi users and one that should be applauded.
Conclusion
For those who are fans of Uniswap, then this decentralized option could be a great alternative. Yet, as Balancer has shown with their recent security scare, the often precarious nature of DeFi security does cause concern. Perhaps though, THORChain with their incentivized payments negates this risk. However, until more is known about the site and they are around for longer it will be hard to make a final judgement.
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
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!
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Around a year ago Walmart China, PwC China dn VeChain jointly announced they were setting up the Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform. This Platform would allow Walmart China to make use of blockchain technology to trace its products. Consumers would be able to scan the products on the shelf and have access to detailed information on the product, for example, its source, product inspection reports, and logistics process. Their expectation was that by the end of 2020, 50% of sales of fresh meat, 40% of sales of packaged vegetables, and 12.5% of sales of seafood would be traceable.
Almost a year later, VeChain announced on 2nd June 2020 that Walmart China is committing Sam’s Club China, another of its businesses towards collaboration with VeChain.
What is Sam’s Club China?
Owned by Walmart China, Sam’s Club China is branded as a members-only premium supermarket. Currently, Sam’s club has a total of 23 clubs in China. There are plans to expand to have a further 40 to 45 clubs either operational or under construction in China by the end of 2022.
Its clubs are generally large scale supermarkets averaging around 20,000 square meters and offering groceries in bulk and other goods such as household appliances, home goods, etc. Sam’s Club maintains its premium branding by providing either the best quality product in a particular category or the best-selling brand at its clubs. Sam’s Club also offers its own premium store-brand products called Member’s Mark.
Launch of Sam’s Club Blockchain Traceability Platform with VeChain
The launch of the Sam’s Club Blockchain Traceability Platform coincides with Sam’s Club’s “Taste of Sam’s” campaign. This campaign aims at letting customers experience luxury through recipes featuring premium quality foods and products which can be purchased from Sam’s Club.
The products featured in the campaign include Member’s Mark products which make use of VeChain’s ToolChain technology. Combined with cold-chain IoT and other traditional software and hardware sensors, stakeholders in the supply chain will be able to upload data onto the VeChainThor public blockchain. This data would be contained in a secured QR code which would be tagged onto each product. (https://punandjokes.com/) Hence those involved in the supply chain and even the average consumer would be able to scan the QR code using their smartphones to access information on the product such as its packaging information, its origins, storage requirements, etc. And since this data was stored on the VeChainThor public blockchain, it cannot be tampered with.
As an example, in the short rib recipe above, customers can pick up a pack of the short-ribs featured in the recipe from Sam’s Club and scan the embedded QR code for more information. The below picture shows the kind of information customers can expect to see. Such as how the product was shipped from its place of origin, the name and location of the manufacturer, best-before times and certification processes.
Currently there are over 20 product lines, including Member’s Mark products which make use of VeChain’s traceability platform. It is expected that more products will be included in the future.
Bayer China announced its partnership with VeChain during an interview with VCBeat on 28th May 2020- a Chinese news publication focusing on health developments in China. For an in-depth guide to what is Vechain and it’s core features, check out our Vechain Coin Guide
About Bayer China
Bayer has links in China since as early as 1882, focusing on the core competencies in the areas of healthcare, nutrition and agriculture. Their aim is to improve quality of life through research and development on preventing, alleviating and treating diseases, as well as ensuring that consumers get healthy, safe and sustainable food. In 2019, Bayer has over 9,000 employees in the Greater China region and sales have well exceeded 3.7 billion Euros.
VeChain becomes “Partner-for-Life” with Bayer China
VeChain beat out dozens of competitors and won the Bayer China G4A Partnerships Program in 2019. This Program was created by Bayer to give qualified companies funding, mentorship and networking opportunities to its winners. Most importantly, to become a “partner for life” with Bayer so that the company will become a direct partner and be used with Bayer’s products and services.
For the purposes of the Program in 2019, Bayer required competitors to solve the issue of Digitised Clinical Trial Traceability. Competitors were required to work directly with Bayer and develop a feasible solution for the issue which would eventually be ready for deployment in line with Bayer’s own milestones and planning. At the end of the competition, VeChain was the only company that was able to satisfy Bayer’s requirements with its solution- CSecure.
Importance of Digitialised Clinical Trial Traceability
With still so many unknowns in the medical field and novel yet incurable diseases emerging such as SARS-CoV-2, medical researchers are constantly racing against the clock for the sake of saving lives. Thus it is important to ensure that drug clinical trials are conducted efficiently and when lives are involved, without room for any error. In particular, the data that is collected forms the heart of this process, and is a critical part of the research, development and adoption process for any new medical intervention- including drugs and other forms of treatments. Any issues with this data, such as tampering or errors would hence be very detrimental to the trial process, potentially even ruining it and worse, affecting human lives.
Hence a solution is needed to ensure that the data collected during the various stages of the trial process is transparent, secure and credible.
What is VeChain’s CSecure platform?
CSecure was created by VeChain as a solution to Bayer’s issue of needing digitised clinical trial traceability. The CSecure platform makes use of VeChain’s existing product ToolChain– a kit containing all the necessary hardware, software and service protocols to onboard a business onto the VeChainThor blockchain.
With CSecure, data obtained from the various stages of clinical trials for drugs are uploaded on the VeChain Thor Blockchain. So that other stakeholders in the process such as researchers, suppliers, distributors, partners and end users can have access to this data. As the data is recorded on the blockchain, the stakeholders accessing the CSecure platform are assured that the data and transactions recorded are traceable, transparent and auditable. (bricks4kidz.com)
Specifically, each medical product is binded with a QR code with a unique VID (VeChain ID) and recorded on the VeChainThor Blockchain. During the trial process, information that is added to the blockchain is time-stamped, user-identified and cannot be changed. So if there is a discrepancy between the product’s digital profile and real-life attributes, the party responsible can be identified and the situation remedied.
The PIT is a high performance cryptocurrency exchange which supports extremely high performance, security and access to a network of banks for fiat trades. The PIT is made by Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency industry veteran who’s blockchain explorer and wallet is used by millions. To build the exchange, Blockchain.com hired trading veterans from NYSE, Google, Goldman Sachs, UBS and TD Ameritrade. The key selling point for The PIT is the efficiency and fairness of the custom “Mercury” trading engine coupled with the large 40M audience Blockchain.com already has.
In this review we’ll take a deep dive a the trading features on the PIT, trading and withdraw fees, security and an assessment on liquidity.
“We decided to take matters into our own hands, and built an exchange that puts users first, including the 40M wallets on our platform.”
Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain.com
Buy Crypto directly with USD or EUR
One of the biggest selling points of The PIT is the ability to buy cryptocurrencies with USD or EUR. As a regulated exchange, The PIT has bank accounts in good standing in both the US and European Union. This customers can buy Bitcoin without paying expensive credit card fees (Binance’s Credit card issuer charges 5% to buy cryptocurrencies). Being regulated also means The PIT has already obtained the necessary audits and permits necessary for operating an exchange.
Daily Clearing to Fiat
A big selling feature for the PIT is the daily clearing of fiat to a network of top banks in Europe and US. This drastically prevents liquidity issues when it comes to fiat, such as failures to withdraw Fiat. This feature will be most attractive to institutional investors (Supported by the PIT Pro) who need direct access to large quantities of fiat.
About Blockchain.com
The PIT is created by Blockchain.com, the first company to establish a blockchain explorer for Bitcoin. Blockchain.com was launched in 2011, with the website blockchain.info and blockchain.com. In 2013, they launched a Bitcoin wallet for iOS and Android. In 2014 Blockchain.com closed the second biggest digital currency financing around of $30.5 Million fundraising from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Moasiac Ventures.
Simple trading interface
The PIT offers a simple, ease to read trading interface. Trading history, order book and price history is very cleanly presented on the trading interface. The front-end also supports a large degree of customization, allow users to use TradingView to draw patterns and trends.
The PIT exchange fees
The PIT charges trading fees using a tiered system based on the amount of USD traded. In the starter tier, fees start at 0.14% for makers and 0.24% for takers. Maker fees decrease substantially as trade volume increases, with the lowest maker fee at 0.02% for trade volumes above $1 Billion USD.
Tier
Volume in 30 Days
Maker
Taker
1
$0.00 – $99,999.99
0.14%
0.24%
5
$2,500,000.00 – $4,999,999.99
0.04%
0.18%
10
$20,000,000.00 – $24,999,999.99
0.03%
0.14%
15
$1,000,000,000.00+
0.02%
0.05%
Is The PIT secure
Whilst the PIT is a new cryptocurrency exchange, Blockchain.com has been in the cryptocurrency industry since the beginner. Blockchain.com has been providing wallets to millions of cryptocurrency users with an excellent security record. This gives Blockchain.com a strong reputation and presence in the industry. This puts Blockchain at the top of the list for security (however, we always recommend users to take funds off exchanges for long term storage and into their own wallet, such as the Ledger Nano X).
As an added security measure, there is an optional feature to bind The PIT account with the Blockchain mobile wallet. This will provide additional account security.
What coins can you trade on The PIT
Currently the PIT supports the trading of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), USD, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Stellar (XLM), Paxos Standard (PAX), Litecoin (LTC) and USDT.
The PIT Exchange Review
Review Score: 4.5/5
The PIT has three major advantages – abundance of users, access to a network of bank accounts in US & EU, and long term reputation in the crypto space. Whilst 2019 saw a sudden influx of exchanges, most don’t have licenses to work with banks or passed audits. With a simple to use, yet highly customization interface, the PIT is easy to use for new traders and also feature rich for experts.
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Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
ThunderCore (TT) is a high-performance smart contract platform which allows for the running of decentralized applications (Dapps) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Thundercore promises low fees and compatibility with any app written for the popular Ethereum Platform. The underlying currency on Thundercore Network is TT, which is used as a transfer of value and for related gas fees on the platform.
Thundercore attempts to Solve Scalability, allowing For Under One Second Confirmations. In the last couple of years, many blockchain projects have been working on scaling and improving network speeds. Until recently, it seemed nearly impossible to scale blockchains with big projects like Ethereum failing to do so. ThunderCore seems to have cracked it and may be on track to beating giants like Ethereum in scaling their platform.
What is the aim of ThunderCore?
ThunderCore aims to be a high-performance blockchain that enables mass adoption of dApps. It promises comparatively lesser transaction fees (low gas cost), compatibility, security and speed.
Currently, transactions on the blockchain are very slow. This is because of the “Blockchain Trilemma” a term coined by Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum.
Solving the Blockchain Trilemma
Vitalik Buterin proposed that a Blockchain can only have a maximum of 2 of these properties
According to the “Blockchain Trilemma“, a blockchain has three major features: decentralization, scalability and security.
However, the blockchain trilemma proposes that it is very hard for a project to have all three features to a satisfactory condition. A network that is decentralized and has a tough security would not be scalable. Similarly, a blockchain that is decentralized and scalable will have little security etc.
Buterin believes at a fundamental level, a blockchain network can only achieve two of the three features at any time. The blockchain trilemma could be the source of scalability issues on most cryptocurrency blockchains. Most crypto projects cannot handle high numbers of transactions while ensuring network decentralization and security.
However, ThunderCore has found a solution for this problem.
How does ThunderCore solve the Blockchain Trilemma?
Many projects have tried and failed to continue their emphasis on decentralization and security while incorporating scalability. ThunderCore, however attempts to do this in a unique way. They do this by creating a Fast Path and a Slow Path. The Fast Path is for optimistic conditions. Whilst the Slow Path is for worst-case situations.
What is the Fast Path and the Slow Path?
The Fast Path is like a highway, allowing for instant confirmations on the network. However, if anything goes wrong on the Fast Path, ThunderCore users can resort to a Slow Path. The Slow Path is similar to a network of smaller roads. It isn’t very fast, but it will be reliable.
For the Fast Path, ThunderCore facilitates fast and easy confirmation by 2 ways. The “Committee”, which is executed by a committee of stakeholders. And the “Accelerator” to linearize transactions and data.
ThunderCore uses Ethereum as the Slow Path as it is one of the most stable networks in the industry. The slow path will take over when the network condition is bad and /or if there is an attack. It also acts as a check to see if the Accelerator is working.
How to Stake Thundercore?
Thundercore cannot be mined as a way to generate new TT or gain passive income, hence there is no thundercore mining. Instead to passively generate Thundercore, TT is staked by locking up TT in a particular wallet. The amount of rewards depends on the lockup duration, which can be 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. Staking Thundercore is easy, you can do this using the mobile wallet and joining a staking pool.
What is the ThunderCore (TT) used for?
The ThunderCore (also known was ThunderToken or TT) is the native cryptocurrency of the ThunderCore network. Analogous to ETH on the Ethereum network, ThunderToken is used for paying gas fees and value transfers.
The team comprises of engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs. They previously worked in publishing academic papers relating to Bitcoin and smart contracts. They are also the founding members of the Initiative for Cryptocurrency and Contracts (IC3).
The first Thunder release will be fully EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatible. Thus, allowing for direct migration of dApps.
ThunderCore has already deployed its pre-release main-net. Therefore, developers can already start building on ThunderCore. Users can also start deploying smart contracts.
How do I connect to the ThunderCore Mainnet?
You can directly connect to Thundercore by changing the RPC settings on Metamask or changing the server on MyEtherWallet.
Get ThunderToken (TT): You can get tokens from the Metamask browser extension. Click on the drop down menu and select “custom RPC”. Go to “new network section” and select “advanced option”.
The TT symbol will appear on your Metamask. You can get 50 free tokens on the ThunderCore website by copying and pasting your Metamask TT address onto the appropriate field. You can also use this process to purchase tokens;
ThunderCore is compatible with the Ethereum network;
The network has a faster transaction speed compared to Ethereum;
ERC20 smart contracts can be deployed on this network;
The team are working on new features that would allow dApp interaction without gas;
ThunderCore allows users and developers to utilize existing tools such as Metamask and Truffle etc.; and
Developers can use familiar programming languages (e.g. Solidity) while carrying out smart contracts on the network.
Cons
There is currently only one “Accelerator” on this network. This raises questions over how much power will be centralized. (Note the accelerator cannot freeze accounts or pause transactions indefinitely as this would lead to a re-election)
Huobi has released the Token metrics of ThunderToken (TT):
Total Raised: $50M USD Angel round: $0.01 USD/token (2 years lock- till March 2020) Seed round: $0.02 USD/token (1 year lock – till Apr-May 2019) Final round: $0.10 USD/token(20% released on Feb 28, 40% to be released on May 28, 40% on Aug 28) Huobi Lite round: $0.015 USD/token, only $500,000 USD worth of tokens sold
What we can deduce from this is that ThunderCore valuation dropped from the final Private sale time – from $0.1 to $0.15. Admittedly, the Huobi Lite tokens could also be considered to be sold at a discount to encourage more players to get in. There is controversy over the Huobi Lite sale of TT, as the token price was much lower than the Final Round – upsetting a lot of the initial investors and supporters (such as ThunderFans).
ThunderCore Hub (Games and Thundercore Giveaways)
ThunderCore Hub is a wallet and Dapp hub for mobile phones
Currently ThunderCore Hub is doing a 150 TT giveaway to test out their new Android app. To quality, visit the ThunderCore Hub website and install the beta APK, register for an account and play dApp games to get the free TT.
Conclusion
ThunderCore is different because it scales both transactions and smart contracts. This could mean that blockchains can have thousands of transactions per second without compromising on security and decentralization.
Update (May 1 2019): Mainnet RCP address and Team members & Linkedin Profiles Update (May 10 2019): Added listing information on Huobi Update (May 14 2019): Added ThunderCore Hub and TT Giveaway
