We want the Crypstarter project to be fully operational, with the goal of building a new concept of blockchain economy, along with designing a decentralized financial system to serve Crypstarter Economy, we decided to officially launch our Treasury and liquidity pool to begin our project. As we all know, every CST minted is backed by a DAI (or other stable coin), so the question is how we start and follow this policy? We will raise funds to back initial supply by open a pre-sale.

About Presale

Time: From Jan 25 – Jan 27

Only whitelisted users can join the pre-sale.

Address submissions will be taken until Jan 22 at 0300 UTC.

Token: $CST

Maximum 50,000 $CST will be offered for sale

Price per token: 5 BUSD per $CST

Each whitelisted address can buy a maximum of 1,000 BUSD

Vesting Period: Linearly release over 14 days from launching date

The Initial Discord Offering

You are qualified to participate in the launch sale if you were in our discord before March 20th at 0300 UTC and are not from the United States. You will be whitelisted if you give a BNB address to our Discord channel. If this makes you uneasy, you can wait until trading begins to buy anonymously.

Addresses will be accepted until 0300 UTC on March 10th. The window has closed at this time, and you will not be whitelisted if you were in the discord before the 3rd.

CST will be available in a limited supply of 60,000 units at first. Participants in the launch event will get 50,000 dollars, with 10,000 dollars added as early liquidity.

The launch sale will take place from March 12th at 0300 UTC to March 14th at 1500 UTC. You can buy OHM during this period if you have been whitelisted. The sale price is $4 per OLY. The funds will be used to back the CST sold and provide initial liquidity.

The transaction will bring in $250k if we are fully subscribed. To back up the initial supply, $60,000 will be placed in the Treasury, $40,000 will be use for developing system & marketing only. The remaining $150,000 could be used as liquidity. The Liquidity Pool will be released with 150,000 DAI and 10,000 CST on the first day. This is a $15 launching price with $300,000 in initial liquidity.

Note: If the fact that we’re starting above $1 doesn’t make sense to you, you’re not paying attention. Please either learn more or take a break for the time being.

When selling on Pinksale, we will create a liquidity pool for CST on Pancakeswap. So this will create an LP token called BUSD-CST LP. The place that will keep that LP token for 60 days is Pinksale, and this will not benefit the users.

Therefore, in order to ensure that there is no early mass release of tokens by early buyers, affecting investors, we will unlock and withdraw the BUSD-CST LP token to the Crypstarter Protocol after 60 days of leaving it on PinkSale. The entire liquidity pool will still be kept on Pancakeswap, we do not withdraw any coins in that pool. Thus, when you trade CST on Pancakeswap, the Crypstarter Protocol will receive the transaction fee from this liquidity.

This will definitely benefit the community instead of leaving LP tokens on Pinksale: Transaction fees in the treasury will be used to back the value of CST. Because of this, all benefits will go to the community.

Get ready for Cryptstarter’s biggest sale!

👉 Pinksale opening sale information::
⏰ Buy time: From 8:00 UTC, July 2 – 23:59 UTC, July 9
📍 Buy at: https://www.pinksale.finance/launchpad/0xbc6F5EB069E11f88cA44D831DD6ceEB6133B47FF?chain=BSC
🔹 Quantity: 12,000 CST
🔹 CST price = total raised / quantity (so CST price is only available after the Fair Launch ends)
🔹 CST will be listed on PancakeSwap after Fair Launch. 

BUYERS DECIDE TOKEN PRICE – Buy as much as you want – The more investors buy, the higher the listing price – HUGE PROFITS! Get ready!

Crypstarter – An emerging DeFi 2.0 force – will prepare to launch the Soft Launch event from May 24 to 27. This is an extremely rare opportunity for you to own CST early at a very cheap price: 1 CST = 3.2 BUSD (while the public price is expected to be 5 BUSD) and will be able to stake them with extremely high APY up to 100,000% after the Fair Launch event!

➤  Register for the Soft Launch NOW: https://bom.so/cst_airdrop2

Regarding APY Staking, do you believe this is one of the highest APY staking platforms in the market? Visit the website https://app.crypstarter.finance/ and use the calculator to calculate the amount of interest you will receive if you stake on Crypstarter. The number will surprise you!

And why does the project have such an extremely high APY? Let’s find out through the article below!

1. Project overview

Crypstarter is a Blockchain built to make it easy for startups to access the cryptocurrency technology revolution and crowdfunding. The goal of Crypstarter is to create a highly connected decentralized economy within its own ecosystem based on blockchain technology, where all participants in Crypstarter can earn profits through economic activities on the ecosystem.

Instead of relying on fads like GameFi or the Play-to-earn model, Crypstarter promotes a model called Work to Earn, which encourages individuals to make money by doing real-world work, rather than on fads that go away over time.

The Crypstarter ecosystem is made up of a variety of tools that may be readily replaced and adapted. In order to build a worldwide decentralized commercial and financial system, these technologies are essential:

– Crowdfunding platform: raise funds for early stage Startup projects.

– Secondary Market (POI): An investment in a startup, or any company, is very difficult to sell in the first 2-3 years. That’s why the Secondary Market was created: to provide investors with liquidity for their assets.

– Crypstarter DAB: Crypstarter Decentralized Banking (DAB) includes protocol-controlled Treasurys, protocol-owned liquidity (POL), bonding mechanism, and staking.

2. CST and Treasury

2.1. CST – Crypstarter Reserve Currency

CST is considered the “Collateral of Valuable” by Crypstarter and is the most liquid for holders.

So is CST a stablecoin? The answer is no. Instead, each CST is backed with at least 1 stablecoin in the treasury.

When the transaction price of CST falls below 1 BUSD, the procedure would purchase it back and burn it. As a result, the price of CST returned to 1 BUSD. Because there is no protocol-imposed maximum limit, the transaction price of CST might always be >= 1 BUSD.

Since CST price is always above 1 BUSD,  the excess value will be used to back the next CST generated to pay staking incentives. For example, when a user buys 1 CST at the market price of 10 BUSD, the system will receive 1 BUSD and 9 BUSD left over. That 9 BUSD will continue to be deposited into the treasury to back the new amount of CST used to reward staking users. That’s why APY is so high.

2.2. Crypstarter’s Treasury

The Crypstarter Treasury is considered a “basket” containing stablecoins, LP tokens, and other assets that are used to back the value of CST. This is a very important part of the bonding and staking features.

Based on intended use, Crypstarter has three Treasurys:

– Backing Treasury: This treasury reserves crypto assets from users bonding to back minting of CST

– Investment Treasury: Part of the profit from bonding is deposited into the investment treasury. The assets in this treasury could be entrusted into partner fund managers or invested into projects in the Crypstarter ecosystem. 50% of the investment profit is deposited into the backing treasury, increasing the risk-free value of CST

– Balance Treasury: Assets in this treasury are used for stabilizing the value of AURE toward its pegged value of USD 1. The balancing protocol utilizes this treasury to buy and sell CST depending on whether the value of AURE is higher or lower with respect to USD 1.

APY staking is affected by the Treasury, but what is that effect? Let’s have a look at Crypstarter’s Staking function!

3. Staking on Crypstarter

In short, Staking is a form of passively earning CST. You stake CST in the Crypstarter DAB website for a period of time to earn even more CST. And the APY will be extremely high.

The rise in your CST stake translates into a steadily lowering cost base that eventually converges on zero. When CST’s market value falls below your initial investment, you’ll still make money if you hold on for long enough.

When you stake, you lock CST and receive an equivalent amount of sCST in exchange. At the conclusion of each epoch, your sCST balance is automatically rebased. Because sCST is transferrable, it may be combined with other DeFi protocols. When you unstake, you burn sCST and obtain CST in exchange.

Unstake means you will have to skip the next rebase bonus. Note: lost rebase rewards only apply to unstaked amounts. The remaining staked CST (if any) will continue to receive rebase incentives.

There are two main things that affect APY:

– Rebase: This is a process that automatically enhances your staked CST balance. When the protocol generates fresh CST, a major amount of it is distributed to the stakers. The protocol uses the rebase technique to enhance the staked CST balance so that 1 staked CST is always redeemable for 1 CST.

– Reward yield: The proportion by which your staked CST balance rises on the next epoch is known as reward yield. It’s sometimes referred to as the rebase rate. This number may be found on the Crypstarter staking page.

4. Then what is APY – Annual Percentage Yield?

4.1. Define

Annual Percentage Yield (abbreviated APY), or actual annual rate of return, is the actual rate of return earned on a savings or investment deposit taking into account the effect of compounding.

Unlike simple interest, compound interest is calculated periodically and the amount is immediately added to the balance. With each subsequent period, the account balance gets slightly larger, so the interest paid on the balance is also larger.

In the case of Crypstarter, your staked CST represents your principal, while the rebase process adds compound interest on every epoch (28,038 Crypstarter blocks, or roughly 8 hours).

One unique feature of APY is that your balance will grow exponentially rather than linearly over time! If you start with a balance of 1 CST on day 1, and assume a daily compound interest rate of 2%, your balance will rise to about 1377 after a year. That’s a lot!

4.2. How is the APY calculated?

– APY is calculated using the following formula:
APY = (1 + rewardYield)^1095

It raises to the power of 1095 because a rebase happens 3 times daily. Consider there are 365 days in a year, this would give a rebase frequency of 365 * 3 = 1095.

– Reward yield is determined by the following equation:
RewardYield = CST distributed / CST totalStaked

– The number of CST distributed to the staking contract is calculated from CST total supply using the following equation:
CST distributed = CST totalSupply x rewardRate

Note that the reward rate is subject to change by the protocol.

4.3. Why is Crypstarter Staking APY so high?

According to the formula above, if the protocol aims for an APY range of 1,000% to 10,000%, this translates to a minimum reward yield of roughly 0.2105%, or a daily growth rate of about 0.6328%. 

If 100,000 CST are now staked, the protocol would need to mint an additional 632.8 CST to accomplish this daily increase. This is attainable if the protocol generates at least $632.80 per day in income through bond sales.

Even if the protocol does not generate that much income, the surplus reserve in the treasury allows it to maintain 1,000 percent APY for an extended period of time.

4.4. Are high APYs sustainable?

To issue fresh CST tokens, APY relies on the selling of CST bonds. High APY rates may be sustained if enough bonds are sold. If the protocol aspires for a 10,000 percent annual percentage yield and 10,000 CST tokens are staked, 200 CST tokens must be produced daily to meet the APY (Roughly 2 percent growth a day). The APY is sustainable if at least 200 CST tokens are brought into the system via bond sales.

A high APY is possible as a result of interest compounding. Every day, funds are automatically staked in order to produce exponential growth.

Epilogue 

The information presented above should help you better understand the Crypstarter protocol and be prepared for the forthcoming Soft Launch event.

Crypstarter is a Blockchain Network built to make it easy for startups to access the cryptocurrency technology revolution and crowdfunding.

What is Crypstarter?

Crypstarter is a Blockchain Network built to make it easy for startups to access the cryptocurrency technology revolution and crowdfunding. The goal of Crypstarter is to create a decentralized economy within its own ecosystem, where all participants can earn profits through economic activities on the ecosystem..

Contrary to the trend of gradually becoming saturated like GameFi or the concept of Play-to-earn, Crypstarter focuses on building a blockchain economy along with promoting the concept of Work-to-earn to help people earn money through economic activities like the real market in a more sustainable and serious way. 

What problem does Crypstarter solve?

The first problem: There are many fundraising platforms operating in the Blockchain field (Launchpad), but they all share two major disadvantages:

• Requiring startups must already have specific products or requiring very high costs makes it difficult for early-stage startups.
• Only serving Blockchain projects without accepting other projects, making startups unable to access funds from the crypto investment community.

Before that situation, Crypstarter was created to help startups inside and outside the Blockchain industry to immediately access funds from the community without requiring input costs as well as product availability.

The second problem: These fundraising platforms do not have an ecosystem to support associated projects, the project after being launched is almost independent of the Launchpad, bringing risks to both the project and Investors. Crypstarter is designed with a complete ecosystem included, helping to reduce risks for projects, avoiding them from collapsing due to external impacts.

The third problem: After investing in the startup, investors cannot liquidate their investment when they need to use urgent finance. Crypstarter create new concept: Proof of Investment (POI) helps investors get liquidity as quickly as possible.

Highlights of the Crypstarter project

1. A Complete ecosystem and the economy is tightly designed to prevent inflation, helping to maintain the ecosystem in the long run.
2. Get liquidity for early stage startup investors without waiting for startups to generate profits by NFTizing investments with proof of investment (POI) concept.
3. Secure core token (CST) value with a basket of stablecoins to limit investor losses during bear market conditions.

Currencies in Crypstarter Ecosystem

Crypstarter develops a DeFi system consisting of two cryptocurrencies including CST (Reserve Currency) and AURE (Algorithmic stablecoin) to bring stability to the ecosystem and guarantee the value of community investments.

CST token

CST is a token that is backed by a basket of leading stablecoins in the market (BUSD, USDT, DAI…) with the goal of developing a decentralized financial system to support the Crypstarter economy. By focusing on supply growth rather than price appreciation, the CST token can function as a currency that is able to maintain purchasing power, stabilize, and gradually increase in value regardless of market volatility.

Algorithm stable coin AURE

AURE is the main stable coin in Crypstarter ecosystem, it works based on a balancing algorithm. When the market demand for AURE is high and supply is limited, the price of AURE will increase, the protocol will incentivize users to burn CST to mint AURE. When the demand for AURE is low and the supply is too large, the price of AURE falls, the protocol will incentivize users to burn AURE to mint CST. The protocol ensures that AURE’s supply and demand are in balance resulting in stable AURE prices.

Basically, AURE is just not a copy of other algorithmic stablecoins, it is a new kind of Algorithmic Stablecoin. It means AURE is also backed by at least $1 stablecoin in the treasury and also pegs to 1 USD. We are using 2 mechanisms to protect the value of AURE. The CST token is backed by a treasury to guarantee the value of CST token and the whole ecosystem. 

AURE token price stability protocol operation diagram

Crypstarter Ecosystem

Crypstarter has a complete ecosystem, ensuring high interoperability within the ecosystem and liquidity for investors’ profits, below is a list of products in the Crypstarter ecosystem.

• Equity Crowdfunding Platform

Crypstarter uses crowdfunding in the ecosystem, any member who meets the requirements will be entitled to participate in investing in new projects fairly.

• Crypstarter DAO

This is a decentralized protocol that works on the Crypstarter Blockchain,

helps CST token holders to participate in activities and projects on the Crypstarter Network platform by voting through the DAO mechanism. They will also be rewarded for staking CST tokens or providing other services in the Crypstarter ecosystem.

• Crypstarter Auto Pool Balance 

Crypstarter APB is a product built to help our users make money from the arbitraging activities and it is a protocol created to keep the value of AURE always pegged with 1 USD.

• Crypstarter Treasury

Acting as the bank of the Crypstarter ecosystem, the Crypstarter Treasury (also known as DAB – Decentralized Autonomous Banking) includes the following systems:

+ Treasury managed by Crypstarter DAO

+ Liquidity management protocol for the ecosystem

+ Bond and stake mechanism.

Crypstarter DAB is designed to control the expansion of supply and provide important financial services to the ecosystem.

• Secondary Market

Investing in a startup in general or investing in any other business for investors is very difficult to sell their investment within the first 2-3 years of project development, this is the pain point of the traditional market because of the limitation of technology.

Secondary Market is a market place that provides liquidity for investors’ investments. When an investor invests in a startup, that investment on the system will be issued as a POI (proof of investment) and you can sell it as an item without the hassle of liquidity. This is also a new concept only available on Crypstarter. The POI is basically an NFT and it records all the information about the investment.

Investment forms in the Crypstarter ecosystem

Of course, investors come to Crypstarter to invest, so how to invest? Crypstarter offers four investment forms in the ecosystem, namely Bonds, CST Lending, Staking and Invest in startups.

• Bonds

Crypstarter can generate its own liquidity and reserve assets by selling CST tokens at a discounted price after a certain period of time in exchange for the reserve assets, thereby adding liquidity and stability to the Crypstarter ecosystem. Bond buyers will be entitled to a portion of CST tokens upon provision of reserve assets and all CST tokens after the period specified in the contract.

• CST Lending

For those who hold a large amount of CST tokens but don’t know what to do with it or don’t have time to manage it, they can lend it back to benefit from those who want to hold CST tokens in exchange for incentives, such as increasing investment norms, voting rights or other purposes…

• Staking

Investors can get profit by staking CST. The basis of profits is derived from bond sales and reward rates set by monetary policy. 

When staking, investors will exchange CST tokens for an equivalent amount of sCST tokens, at the end of each period the sCST balance will be automatically refunded. Since sCST is also a token by nature, it can be combined with other DeFi protocols to continue to generate returns for investors. You can also request to withdraw profit from staking at any time if sCST is not being used.

• Invest in startups

This is the most important investment activity in Crypstarter ecosystem. When investors invest in startups in Crypstarter, they get three main benefits:

1. Receive shares of Startup.
2. Receive tokens issued by the project in the amount negotiated in the contract.
3. Receive a Proof of Investment (POI): this is an NFT that records information about an investment, making it possible for investors to liquidate their investment whenever they want. This is a preeminent feature of Crypstarter over other investment platforms.

Token Distribution

Crypstarter has a very special way of distributing tokens, we do not open Private Sale, IDO or similar forms. You can only mint CST by providing 1 pCST + 1 Stablecoin. This ensures long-term intrinsic value for Crypstarter as no one can sell pCST directly to the market, preventing the rug pulls that lead to ecosystem collapse. So, how is the distribution of pCST?

• Team: 310 million pCST and 8% supply
• Investment fund: 70 million pCST and 3% supply
• Advisors/Partners: 70 million pCST and 2% supply
• Public Sale (Member Special Offer): 30 million pCST and unlimited supply
• DAO/Community: 520 million pCST and no supply cap (community can decide)

This vesting mechanism makes the team founder, investment funds, advisors… only able to vest a total of 13% of the total supply, while the community has 87% and the right to vesting or selling is unlimited. It can be understood as follows: for example, when the total supply of CST reaches 10,000,000 tokens, all founders, funds, advisors can only be converted from pCST to CST for a total of 1.3M tokens, and will be changed gradually but not discharged at the same time.

The Founding team can only receive CST tokens as the project grows more and more. If the project does not grow, we ourselves get nothing. It can be temporarily calculated that for the Founder team to convert all the tokens they have, the total supply must reach 2 billion – 5 billion tokens, and it may take the equivalent of 10 years for that.

Team members and Partners of Crypstarter

Key members of Crypstarter include:

• Mr. Hubert Truong, CEO of Crypstarter, who has 15 years of experience in startups, technology, e-commerce and social media.
• Mrs. Minh Huynh, CFO, with more than 20 years of experience in the field of Investment and Finance. Currently, she is the Director of one of the major Venture Capital Funds in Asia.
• Mr. Hank Nguyen, CTO, holds a PhD in Signal Processing at NTU, Singapore. He is an expert in extensible high-performance computing applications.
• Mrs. Hang Pham, CMO, 14 years of experience in the marketing industry; Managing Director of 5S Communication & Consulting Company; Member of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Advertising Association.
• Mrs. Quynh Nguyen, CCO, with more than 17 years of experience, is currently the Former Managing Director of Nielsen Vietnam & Cambodia; Female Chairman & Founder of Blue Ocean Consulting Company.
• Mr. Tai Huynh, CGO, 20 years of experience; CEO & Co-Founder Kyanon Digital; Investor & Venture Builder of several technology companies.
• Mrs. Susan Do, CLO, with 12 years of experience; Legal Director of Mytel in Myanmar. Responsible for many large corporations, banks and enterprises in Vietnam.

In addition to the strong members of the top employees in the industry, Crypstarter is currently supported by its Partner, BambuUP – a One-stop Innovation Platform – helping to create meaningful connections between Startup, SME, Large Company and Investment Fund in the Crypstarter ecosystem.

With a group of strong team members in the market, along with BambuUP being considered as a pioneer in the field of fund management and startups, we are serious about the long-term development of the project.

We really hope that we can have you as a part of Crypstarter and this journey, where we can build a new decentralized economy together.

CEO – Hubert Truong

Behind great projects are great minds. And here they are!

– Mr. Hubert Truong, CEO of Crypstarter, who has more than 15 years of experience in startups, technology, e-commerce and social media.

– Mrs. Minh Huynh, CFO, with over 20 years of experience on Investment, Financial industry. Currently she is Director of one of the big Venture Capital Fund in Asia.

– Mr. Hank Nguyen, CTO, a Singaporean with Ph.D. in Signal Processing at NTU, Singapore. He is an expert in high-performance and scalable computing applications.

– Mrs. Hang Pham, CMO, 14 years of experience in marketing industry; CEO of 5S Consulting & Media; BOD member of Vietnam Advertising Association.

– Mrs, Quynh Nguyen, CCO, with more than 17 years of experience, she currently is Former Managing Director of Nielson Vietnam & Cambodia; Chairwomen & Founder of the Blue Ocean Consulting Company.

– Mr. Tai Huynh, CGO, 20 years of experience; CEO & Co-founder of Kyanon Digital; Investor & Venture Builder of a few tech companies.

– Mrs. Hang Do, CLO, with 12 years of experiences; Legal Director of Telecom Company in Myanmar. Legal Manager at Viettel and VPBank.

We are proud to have these amazing minds as leaders to help Cryptstarter fulfill its mission.

#Crypstarter #CrypstarterNetwork #CST #DeFi2 #W2E

CBDCs are an unavoidable evolution of today’s electronic currencies, according to the bank’s analysts.

A US central bank digital currency (CBDC) would differ from the digital money currently available to the public in that it would be a liability of the US Federal Reserve, rather than a commercial bank, and thus would have no credit or liquidity risk, according to a report by Bank of America.

The benefits of a US digital currency include preserving the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, improving cross-border payments, and increasing financial inclusion, according to analysts led by Alkesh Shah in a note released Monday. Last week, the Fed released a discussion paper on the benefits and risks of a CBDC in the United States.

Potential risks – which could be diminished by CBDC design choices – include “changing the financial sector’s market structure by shifting deposits, increasing the liquidity risk of the financial system if deposits at commercial banks were converted to a CBDC and decreasing the efficacy of monetary policy implementation,” the note said.

Bank of America said key considerations before issuing a CBDC are the need for it to be privacy-protected, intermediated, transferable and identity-verified.

In the absence of CBDCs, stablecoins are likely to see an increase in usage, according to the bank, which added that the two largest by market value, tether and USD coin, had a combined market value of around $121 billion as of Jan. 21. According to the report, their use as a means of payment is growing, particularly for cross-border remittances, because they are faster and less expensive than using fiat currency.

In a report released earlier this month, Bank of America questioned the Bank of England’s claim that a CBDC in the United Kingdom would only serve as a form of digital cash. According to the report, CBDCs are likely to replace checking accounts as the primary way for consumers to store their money.

The Luna Foundation Guard, a new decentralized organization created to support the Luna ecosystem, was launched in Singapore in Jan 17 2022. The institution will provide grants to support initiatives built on top of the Luna network. One of its primary functions will be to create a “forex reserve” that will assist UST, the Luna ecosystem’s companion stablecoin, in maintaining its peg.

The Luna Foundation Guard has been launched to support the Terra Ecosystem.

The Luna Foundation Guard, a non-profit organization, has been established to assist in the support and maintenance of the Terra ecosystem as a decentralized counterparty to Terraform Labs, the company behind the UST currency. This organization will have several functions, including ecosystem promotion and direct funding of various programs through grants, which will be distributed through its website beginning January 31.

Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, announced the new initiative on Twitter, informing followers that the company had donated 50 million LUNA, valued at $4 billion, to the initiative. Do Kwon, Nicholas Platias, Kanav Kariya, Remi Tetot, Jonathan Caras, Jose Maria Delgado, and Bill Chin will serve as founders and leaders of the organization, which will be based in Singapore.

The Main Goal of UST Stability

The foundation will also work to keep the UST stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. In this regard, Kwon stated on social media that it will strive for:

First, building a decentralized forex reserve against which $UST can be redeemed during currency contractions. It will work towards reserves to operate decentralized and onchain.

UST, unlike similar stablecoins whose value is collateralized, operates by maintaining a balance between two assets in the Terra ecosystem. This could have an impact on the currency’s peg to the dollar if there aren’t enough incentives in the market to profit from the arbitrage of UST and Luna. The formation of this organization aims to prevent such a situation from occurring.

The UST stablecoin has grown enormously in tandem with LUNA, the Terra ecosystem’s native asset, which is now the ninth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Similarly, UST has surpassed a market capitalization of more than $11 billion, surpassing DAI, its Ethereum-based counterpart, as the market’s most valuable decentralized stablecoin project.

The stablecoins UST and DAI are backed by other cryptocurrencies. They are decentralized, as opposed to other stablecoins. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that have a stable price because they are linked to another asset, either crypto or fiat. They are less volatile than other forms of cryptocurrency.

MakerDAO launched DAI in 2017 and it is based on the Ethereum blockchain. It has the security of the Ethereum platform and the stability of a stablecoin. It is kept stable by collateralizing it with ETH in a smart contract algorithm. It contributes to the security and power of the Maker network, on which it is generated and traded.

Terraform Labs was launch UST in September 2020. It is kept stable by a smart contract algorithm and an elastic money supply mechanism. Seigniorage is the process by which new USTs are issued. It is backed by LUNA, Terra’s native coin.

Both stablecoins are decentralized in the sense that they do not have a centralized authority like the other popular stablecoins. They are also linked to cryptocurrencies rather than fiat currencies. They use smart contract algorithms to keep prices stable.

The collateral (ETH) must be far greater than the amount of DAI to be minted when minting DAI. UST, on the other hand, requires a LUNA equivalent in USD to mint the same amount. In doing so, a portion of the LUNA is burned, while another portion is set aside for the community treasury. The greater the demand for UST, the greater the amount of LUNA burned.

The smart contract algorithm used to stabilize UST can both generate and maintain UST. However, ETH’s high volatility can have an impact on DAI’s stability. Furthermore, the market capitalizations and trading volumes of these assets indicate that UST is preferred over DAI.

This could be due to UST’s arbitrage system, which assists it in automatically maintaining supply when it falls below the peg. When UST is lent out, the Anchor protocol currently allows for an APY of approximately 20%. If you want to invest in a decentralized stablecoin, UST is the better option.

Everything in the crypto space is volatile, no matter how stable it appears. As a result, proceed with caution and conduct thorough research. Don’t risk more than you can afford to lose.

Chúng tôi muốn đưa ra thông báo về đợt Private Sale pCST đợt 1 và cập nhật các thông tin của dự án.

Tham gia chương trình Private Sale của chúng tôi

Chúng tôi đang tập trung và gấp rút vào việc phát triển để ra mắt dự án Crypstarter của mình. Như đã đề cập trong bài trước, chúng tôi sẽ có đợt bán trước LBE vào ngày 20 tháng 3. Tuy nhiên phần lớn số tiền thu được sẽ được phân bổ cho Treasury và Liquidity Pool để đảm bảo giá trị và khả năng thanh khoản cho CST token. Như với cam kết minh bạch của chúng tôi trong việc sử dụng tiền mặt, chúng tôi sẽ triển khai đợt Private Sale đầu tiên cho Nhà đầu tư thiên thần và Quỹ đầu tư mạo hiểm để giúp tài trợ cho sự phát triển của dự án.

Crypstarter là một sáng kiến Web3 mới đã thu hút sự chú ý của một số nhà đầu tư mạo hiểm trong nước và quốc tế. Trong tương lai gần, chúng tôi sẽ đưa ra các thông báo liên quan đến việc hợp tác của chúng tôi với các quỹ đầu tư quan trọng và hệ sinh thái khởi nghiệp trong khu vực.

Với Private Sale đợt 1 này, Crypstarter sẽ có nhiều tài trợ để có ngân sách phát triển dự án nhanh hơn, cho phép chúng tôi có được sự hỗ trợ và đồng hành từ những người tin tưởng vào tiềm năng của dự án.

Private Sale với ưu đãi chiết khấu lên tới 35%

Các thành viên của chúng tôi đang làm việc chăm chỉ để tập trung vào phát triển dự án, điều này thúc đẩy chúng tôi thực hiện các thỏa thuận với các Quỹ đầu tư mạo hiểm để đáp ứng các yêu cầu của họ.

Thành công của Crypstarter đòi hỏi rất nhiều ngân sách và phụ thuộc vào các mối quan hệ đối tác này. Chúng tôi hy vọng sẽ huy động được 300.000 đô la BUSD từ các Quỹ đầu tư mạo hiểm thông qua Private Sale Round 1 này sẽ  để lấy vốn hoạt động.

Như đã được đề cập trên trang web của chúng tôi, giá của pCST token được công bố là 1 pCST = 6,5 BUSD. Và nó sẽ được cố định ở mức 1 CST = 10 BUSD cho giai đoạn private sale, tương đương ưu đãi chiết khấu 35%.

Để được hưởng lợi và nhận ưu đãi từ khoản đóng góp sớm của bạn, hãy tham gia chương trình giảm giá Private Sale của chúng tôi ngay hôm nay!

Mức đầu tư tối thiểu ban đầu là 5000 USD.

Kế hoạch phân bổ pCST Token

Phân bổ như sau:

Team: 310m pCST và 8% cung cấp

Investor: 70 triệu pCST và 3% nguồn cung

Advisor: 70 triệu pCST và 2% nguồn cung cấp

Public sale (Ưu đãi đặc biệt dành cho thành viên): 30 triệu pCST và không giới hạn nguồn cung

DAO: 520m pCST và không có giới hạn cung cấp (cộng đồng có thể quyết định điều đó!)

Trân trọng cảm ơn.

Sự kiện Liquidity Bootstrap là một khởi đầu tuyệt vời, nhưng nó không đủ khả năng mở rộng để tạo ra vốn lưu động cho dự án trên quy mô lớn. Việc xây dựng một hệ sinh thái  với giao thức ổn định là rất khó và tốn nhiều thời gian, đồng thời nó đòi hỏi một lượng lớn vốn để phát triển và hoạt động.

Kiểm toán, phát triển, pháp lý, tiếp thị… tất cả những thứ này đều tốn tiền và ngân sách này tách biệt với ngân quỹ của giao thức để đảm bảo tính minh bạch. Nó cũng yêu cầu sự liên kết để những người đóng góp có động lực cá nhân để cống hiến cho dự án (như chúng tôi).

Để phát triển bootstrap, chúng tôi đã tổ chức một vòng private sale với một số quỹ đầu tư và nhà đầu tư cá nhân. Mục tiêu chính của chúng tôi trong vòng này là gây quỹ và tuyển dụng những cá nhân mà chúng tôi tin rằng sẽ rất quan trọng đối với sự thành công của giao thức.

Làm thế nào nó hoạt động?

Chúng tôi không thể private sale với CST vì token chỉ được mint trong giao thức và bán nếu được backed hỗ trợ bởi 1 DAI. Vì thế, chúng tôi sẽ phải trả thêm 1 đô la cho mỗi CST được bán, ngoài lợi nhuận thực tế, để đảm bảo rằng các token đã được backed. Điều này sẽ rất lãng phí và tốn kém. Nếu vậy, chúng tôi tiến hành bán private sale như thế nào?

pCST là token privates sale của CST cho phép chủ sở hữu sở hữu tùy chọn mint (đúc) CST bằng cách burn (đốt) pCST và cung cấp giá trị nội tại cho CST. Ví dụ: một nhà đầu tư sẽ đưa 1 DAI và 1 pCST vào giao thức để đúc 1 CST. pCST sẽ được burn và 1 CST được backed bởi 1 DAI.  

pCST chỉ được cấp với nguồn cung hạn chế. Sẽ có nhiều pCST được trao đổi để burn hơn khi số lượng CST tăng lên. Do đó, chúng tôi không nhận được tiền hoàn lại hoặc một ngày cụ thể khi token được phát hành. Chúng tôi cũng cần nguồn ngân sách để phát triển.

Chúng tôi tin rằng điều này tạo ra sự liên kết khuyến khích tối ưu nhất có thể. Token pCST có số lượng hạn chế và chỉ có thể được đổi khi giao dịch với các giá trị CST dương lớn hơn. Chúng tôi, nhóm phát triển, các nhà đầu tư và cố vấn, không chỉ muốn nguồn cung tăng lên hoặc giá tăng, chúng tôi muốn cả hai, và chúng tôi tin rằng bạn cũng vậy.

Cơ chế kiểm tra token dựa trên nguồn cung cấp, không giống như các hình thức kiểm tra dựa trên thời gian khác, đảm bảo tính minh bạch và cam kết lâu dài của Nhóm và Nhà đầu tư của dự án. Chúng tôi hy vọng rằng cộng đồng Crypstarter sẽ có thể theo dõi và xây dựng sự giàu có của họ một cách bền vững và lâu dài, đồng thời sự phát triển bền vững này cũng sẽ mang lại lợi ích cho chúng tôi.

Kế hoạch phân bổ pCST Token

Phân bổ như sau:

Team: 310m pCST và 8% cung cấp

Investor: 70 triệu pCST và 3% nguồn cung

Advisor: 70 triệu pCST và 2% nguồn cung cấp

Public sale (Ưu đãi đặc biệt dành cho thành viên): 30 triệu pCST và không giới hạn nguồn cung

DAO: 520m pCST và không có giới hạn cung cấp (cộng đồng có thể quyết định điều đó!)

Crypstarter (mã token CST) là một mạng lưới blockchain được xây dựng để giúp các công ty khởi nghiệp tiếp cận cuộc cách mạng công nghệ mới và gây quỹ từ cộng đồng của Crypstarter. Được xây dựng với Cosmos SDK, Crypstarter blockchain sử dụng công nghệ tiên tiến để cung cấp tốc độ xác thực giao dịch cao lên tới 40.000 TPS, tính ổn định và bảo mật mạnh mẽ cho các ứng dụng, hệ thống và cộng đồng phi tập trung.

Các dự án startup được niêm yết trên nền tảng crowdfunding của CST đều được các quỹ đầu tư đối tác xác thực cũng như cộng đồng Crypstarter kiểm duyệt thông qua cơ chế DAO. Lĩnh vực đầu tư của nền tảng gọi vốn CST không chỉ gói gọn trong DeFi hay blockchain như các launchpad khác mà còn mở rộng ra các công nghệ tiềm năng khác như AI, BigData, Công nghệ xanh (xe điện, năng lượng mặt trời,…),…. Cho nên, có thể nói giá trị tương lai của CST không chỉ ở thị trường DeFi hay blockchain mà ứng dụng cuộc sống và xã hội mang tính bền vững hơn các dự án blockchain đơn thuần khác.

Không chỉ dừng lại ở việc xây dựng một hệ sinh thái với các ứng dụng blockchain vào các mô hình kinh doanh riêng lẻ của các dự án blockchain hay DeFi khác, Crypstarter còn được phát triển với mục tiêu tạo ra một Nền kinh tế mở có tính liên kết cao trong Hệ sinh thái của nó, nơi tất cả những người tham gia đều có thể thu được lợi nhuận thông qua đóng góp của mình.

Công nghệ blockchain có thể tương tác giúp nền kinh tế toàn cầu mạnh mẽ hơn thông qua phân cấp, trách nhiệm giải trình thông qua tính minh bạch và hiệu quả thông qua giá trị có thể lập trình bởi smart contract. Chúng tôi cũng cung cấp một môi trường thân thiện với người dùng cho phép các doanh nghiệp tiếp cận công nghệ blockchain cũng như phát triển và gây quỹ từ cộng đồng của chúng tôi.

CST giải quyết vấn đề gì?

Mặc dù blockchain có rất nhiều ưu điểm so với các thị trường tài chính truyền thống như tính minh bạch, bảo mật, tốc độ giao dịch xuyên biên giới cực nhanh với chi phí rẻ. Nhưng rủi ro lớn nhất ở thị trường crypto và DeFi nói chung là tính biến động giá rất cao. Trong khi đó các công ty startup cần được đảm bảo giá trị được đầu tư ban đầu xuyên suốt tiến độ giải ngân (milestone). Cũng như các nhà đầu tư cộng đồng hiện nay thường chỉ có thể pre-sale các sản phẩm của startup trên Kickstarter, Indiegogo chứ khó lòng mua và sở hữu cổ phần của các công ty startup tiềm năng. Vì thế, Crypstarter được ra đời với mục tiêu giải quyết các nút thắt để các công ty startup, quỹ đầu tư cũng như cộng đồng tìm đến nhau để xây dựng một nền kinh tế mở bền vững trên nền tảng blockchain.

– CST kết nối các nhà đầu tư cộng đồng với các công ty startup tiềm năng thông qua một nền tảng kêu gọi vốn cộng đồng của Crypstarter (Crypstarter crowdfunding platform – CCP). Đồng thời, CST phát triển một giao thức xác thực đầu tư mới là Proof of Investing (POI) bằng chứng xác thực đầu tư.

– CST cũng đã thiết kế một mô hình cấu trúc tài chính độc đáo để đáp ứng đầy đủ các yêu cầu cần thiết để vận hành nền kinh tế và mang lại lợi thế tối đa cho những người tham gia, phù hợp với sứ mệnh của nó và đồng thời xây dựng phát triển protocol (giao thức) Ngân hàng Tự trị Phi tập trung – Decentralized Autonomous Banking (DAB) với CST Treasury (Kho bạc) của mình để đảm bảo giá trị của CST Token. Đối với các công ty startup, DAB sẽ mua lại CST Token của startup tại thời điểm giải ngân và đem đốt. Đồng thời DAB trả cho startup bằng DAI/UST đúng với giá trị CST ở thời điểm chốt đầu tư ban đầu bất chấp giá CST Token ngoài thị trường. Như vậy, các công ty startup sẽ được đảm bảo giá trị đầu tư của mình không bị sụt giảm theo milestone.

Đặc điểm nổi bật của CST

CST là nền tảng gọi vốn cộng đồng được chứng thực bởi chuyên gia và cộng đồng. Nền tảng gọi vốn cộng đồng CST được xác thực bởi các quỹ đầu tư đối tác và chính cộng đồng thông qua bằng cơ chế DAO. Ngoài ra, CST còn có sự tham gia của các nhà cung cấp dịch vụ (Service Provider) liên quan đến khởi nghiệp như luật sư, tư vấn kinh doanh, cố vấn, kiểm toán viên,… để đảm bảo mọi thứ đều được minh bạch và bảo vệ pháp lý với các nhà đầu tư cộng đồng. Cho nên nền tảng gọi vốn của CST bảo vệ tốt hơn cho nhà đầu tư cộng đồng so với các nền tảng gọi vốn cộng đồng hiện nay như KickStarter, Indiegogo,…

CST được thiết kế để tăng giá trị và phát triển nền kinh tế mở bền vững. CST Token được hỗ trợ bởi một kho bạc ngày càng tăng giá trị tích lũy tự động bằng nhiều hình thức đầu tư ổn định, an toàn của DAB. Dự án đã tạo ra một loại tiền tệ có thể liên tục tăng sức mua bất chấp điều kiện thị trường.

Tính thanh khoản được bảo vệ. CST LP (Liquidity Pool) được sở hữu và bảo vệ bởi chính DAB. DAB sở hữu gần như toàn bộ thanh khoản, giúp duy trì sự ổn định giá cả và thu nhập ngân quỹ. Với tính thanh khoản thuộc sở hữu của giao thức, CST được bảo vệ khỏi các điều kiện thị trường biến động như thị trường crypto.

CST bảo vệ giá trị vốn đầu tư cho startup. Với các startup nhận CST theo tiến độ sẽ rất lo lắng nếu giá CST xuống mức gía theo lúc ban đầu. CST Treasury sẽ chịu trách nhiệm mua lại các CST đó và trả cho các startup đồng DAI/UST theo đúng giá CST lúc ban đầu các startup chốt deal bất chấp giá thị trường CST Token thấp hơn ban đầu . Như vậy, công ty startup sẽ luôn nhận đúng giá trị vốn đầu tư ban đầu mà không cần lo lắng về tính biến động giá đồng CST ngoài thị trường.

Cách thức hoạt động của CST Treasury.

Ở bất cứ nền kinh tế nào khác, các ngân hàng trung ương  quản lý và tích trữ tiền tệ bằng nhiều loại tài sản khác nhau (USD, vàng, ngoại tệ, trái phiếu,…). Ngân hàng trung ương luôn là trung tâm quản lý, phát hành và kiểm soát giá trị đồng tiền cho nền kinh tế đó. Tương tự như vậy, Ngân hàng Tự trị Phi Tập trung – Decentralized Autonomous Banking (DAB) của Crypstarter cũng là giao thức tiền tệ kỹ thuật số dự trữ phi tập trung bằng tích trữ tài sản kỹ thuật số tập trung dựa trên token CST. Mỗi CST sẽ được hỗ trợ bởi một nhóm tài sản kỹ thuật số (DAI, UST,…) trong CST Treasury (kho bạc) của DAB. Yếu tố này khiến DAB giống như một ngân hàng trung ương vì nó sử dụng các tài sản kỹ thuât số dự trữ như DAI, UST để quản lý giá trị của nó và giúp cho CST giữ được giá trị tốt hơn so với những token khác.

Mặc dù CST token trông như một stablecoin nhưng giá trị đồng CST thả nổi theo thị trường và CST được hỗ trợ bởi tài sản kỹ thuật số nhưng không được cố định ở một mức giá nhất định. Và mức giá của CST sẽ luôn được điều chỉnh để không thấp hơn một mức giá tối thiểu được hỗ trợ bởi rổ tài sản trong CST Treasury, ta gọi đó là mức giá hỗ trợ tối thiểu (Risk Free Value – RFV). Mức RFV hay danh mục asset tài sản này có thể được điều chỉnh bởi quyết định của cộng đồng thông qua cơ chế DAO.

Và nhiệm vụ của DAB là đảm bảo chi trả đúng giá trị khoản đầu tư của startup theo tiến độ bất chấp giá thị trường của CST Token, gia tăng tích trữ tài sản tự động và ngân sách điều tiết và giữ giá trị của đồng CST luôn trên RFV đó. Nên có thể nói, DAB là trái tim và trung tâm của hệ thống và nền kinh tế mở blockchain Crypstarter.

Nguồn thu nhập tích trữ tài sản của CST Treasury đến từ 3 nguồn chính: đúc (mint) CST token và bán với giá chiết khấu so với giá thị trường thông qua Trái phiếu Bonding, phí thanh khoản (Liquidity Provider) và điểm đặc biệt là CST Treasury sẽ tự động thực hiện các hoạt động đầu tư sinh lời để liên tục gia tăng tích trữ tài sản kỹ thuật số để đạt được sự ổn định về giá và đảm bảo giá trị đầu tư cho startup trong khi duy trì giá CST thả nổi theo thị trường mà không phụ thuộc và việc bán trái phiếu bonding.

Mỗi một đồng CST được mint ra và bán thông qua trái phiếu bonding sẽ bao gồm giá trị tối thiểu RFV + phí bảo hiểm. Với số DAI, UST thu được từ bán CST đó sẽ được DAB chia ra 2 phần cho vào 2 Treasury khác nhau là Backing Treasury (Kho bạc hỗ trợ) và Investment Treasury (Kho bạc đầu tư).

– Backing Treasury (BT): DAB sẽ gửi vào kho bạc hỗ trợ mức 200% RFV. Ngoài ra, 50% lợi nhuận từ công việc đầu tư ở Investment Treasury cũng được đưa vào Backing Treasury. Nhiệm vụ của BT là kho bạc đảm bảo chi trả reward cho stacking hệ thống thông suốt và điều tiết giá thị trường của CST Token đảm bảo trên mức RFV.

– Investing Treasury (Kho bạc đầu tư): Đây là sự khác biệt của CST Treasury  so với các dự án Crypto có Treasury khác và mang DAB đến gần với các ngân hàng kinh tế hơn. Đó là số tài sản còn lại sau khi đưa vào Backing Treasury sẽ được đem đi đầu tư sinh lời để gia tăng số tài sản tích trữ của hệ thống. Trong đó, 30% số tài sản sẽ được DAB đầu tư hỗ trợ các dự án của Crypstarter thông qua quyết định cộng đồng Crypstarter biểu quyết với DAO, 70% số tài sản còn lại Crypstarter sẽ đầu tư (đa số là các hoạt động thu nhập ổn định, hệ số an toàn cao như LP, stacking, lending) để gia tăng tài sản tích lũy và 50% lợi nhuận đầu tư thu được đưa vào Backing Treasury. Sau đó, 50% còn lại tiếp tục đem đi đầu tư.

Như vậy, ta có thể thấy với DAB, tài sản tích lũy trong CST Treasury không chỉ từ nguồn bán trái phiếu Bonding như các dự án khác (ví dụ Olympus DAO) mà còn được liên tục gia tăng tự động với các hoạt động đầu tư. DAB với CST Treasury giúp nền kinh tế mở của Crypstarter càng ngày càng vững chắc giá trị, đảm bảo thanh khoản và giá trị cho tất cả hoạt động toàn hệ thống.

Ngoài ra, với các công ty startup, DAB cũng sẽ chịu trách nhiệm mua CST khi công ty startup được giải ngân theo tiến độ (milestone) và trả cho startup DAI hoặc UST đúng với giá trị của CST Token lúc giá trị vốn ban đầu bất chấp giá trị CST token thị trường lúc ấy ra sao. Số CST thu được sẽ đem đi đốt (burn) để đảm bảo nguồn cung CST trên thị trường không bị pha loãng gây mất giá. Đồng thời, startup vẫn đảm bảo nhận được đúng số tiền kêu gọi đầu tư mà không cần quan tâm biến động giá CST trên thị trường.

Có thể thấy, DAB hoạt động rất giống mô hình một ngân hàng trung ương thực thụ và nó không chỉ là giữ các tài sản kỹ thuật số như các dự án khác (ví dụ Olympus DAO) mà còn gia tăng tài sản tích lũy bằng đầu tư mà không phụ thuộc vào các việc bán trái phiếu bonding. Đảm bảo giá trị nền kinh tế mở của CST càng ngày càng vững chắc hơn và mọi hoạt động trơn tru, nhanh chóng.

Các công cụ chính sách tiền tệ của CST

DAB có hai cơ chế chính được giao thức sử dụng để thực hiện các mục tiêu chính sách tiền tệ của CST bao gồm: Staking và Bonding (Bond).

Staking

Staking là môt chiến lược tích lũy giá trị chính của CST. Các nhà đầu tư stake CST của họ trên trang web Crypstarter để kiếm phần thưởng rebase. Phần thưởng rebase đến từ số tiền thu được từ việc bán Bond và có thể thay đổi dựa trên số lượng CST được đặt trong giao thức và tỷ lệ phần thưởng do chính sách tiền tệ đặt ra.

Khi bạn staking, bạn khóa CST và nhận được một lượng sCST (token stacking reward của CST) bằng nhau (với tỷ lệ 1:1). Số dư sCST của bạn sẽ tự động tăng trở lại vào cuối mỗi kỳ. sCST có thể chuyển giao và do đó có thể kết hợp với các giao thức DeFi khác.

Bonding

Bonding là chiến lược tích lũy giá trị thứ cấp của Crypstarter. Nó cho phép Crypstarter có được thanh khoản của riêng mình và các tài sản dự trữ khác như DAI, UST (Terra USD) bằng cách bán CST với mức chiết khấu để đổi lấy những tài sản này. Giao thức báo giá liên kết với các điều khoản như giá Bond, số lượng token CST được hưởng từ liên kết và thời hạn yêu cầu. Người liên kết có thể yêu cầu một số phần thưởng (token CST) khi họ trao và khi kết thúc thời hạn xác nhận, toàn bộ số tiền sẽ được yêu cầu.

Bond cho phép Crypstarter tích lũy thanh khoản của riêng mình. Dự án gọi là Protocol Owned Liquidity (POL) thanh khoản của riêng mình. Thêm POL đảm bảo luôn có thanh khoản bị khóa trong các nhóm thanh khoản (Liquidity Pool – LP) để tạo điều kiện thuận lợi cho hoạt động thị trường và bảo vệ chủ sở hữu token. Kể từ khi Crypstarter trở thành thị trường của riêng mình, ngoài sự chắc chắn bổ sung cho các nhà đầu tư CST, giao thức tích lũy ngày càng nhiều doanh thu từ phần thưởng LP củng cố kho bạc của dự án.

Proof of Investing (POI) – Secondary Market – NFT market

Proof of Investment (POI) Bằng chứng đầu tư là NFT mà nhà đầu tư nhận được khi một thỏa thuận đầu tư được ký kết, ngoài các lợi ích khác mà một thỏa thuận thông thường sẽ mang lại, chẳng hạn như cổ phần của doanh nghiệp. POI ghi lại số tiền CST đã được đầu tư vào doanh nghiệp và đổi lấy bao nhiêu cổ phiếu và token của nó.

POI có thể được chia thành nhiều phần và bán lại cho các nhà đầu tư mới trong các giao dịch mới, trong đó giá cổ phiếu và token của công ty không nhất thiết phải giữ nguyên như trong giao dịch đầu tiên. Sau khi thỏa thuận mới được ký kết, POI ban đầu sẽ bị hủy và các POI mới được tạo. Tất cả các POI mới vẫn đăng ký Hợp đồng thông minh đầu tư điều chỉnh giao dịch đầu tư ban đầu để chủ sở hữu POI mới có thể nhận được phần thưởng đặt cược theo số cổ phần mà họ sở hữu.

Ví dụ: nhà đầu tư A đầu tư vào doanh nghiệp X và ký một thỏa thuận trị giá 1000 CST để đổi lấy 5000 cổ phiếu và 10000 token Xs. Nhà đầu tư B muốn mua 2000 cổ phiếu X từ nhà đầu tư A, vì vậy anh ta thương lượng một thỏa thuận mới với A. Thỏa thuận mới là 2000 cổ phiếu X và 2000 token X với giá 500 CST, có nghĩa là nhà đầu tư A sẽ bán 40% cổ phần của mình và 20% token Xs của anh ấy cho 500 CST.

Khi giao dịch được thực hiện, nhà đầu tư B được cung cấp POI mới cho biết rằng anh ta đã đầu tư 500 CST cho 2000 cổ phiếu và 500 token X. Mặt khác, nhà đầu tư A đã thu được 500 CST từ việc bán, trong khi giữ 3000 cổ phiếu và 800 token. POI của anh ấy cũng bị loại bỏ và thay thế bằng một POI khác với số tiền bằng 60% so với ban đầu, tức là A đã đầu tư 600 CST cho 3000 cổ phiếu và 6000 token.

Phần thưởng đặt cược từ thỏa thuận đầu tư ban đầu mà A đã ký hiện được chia với 60% cho A và 40% cho B khi được trao.

U.K. lawmakers have formed the Crypto and Digital Assets Group to ensure that new rules for the crypto industry support innovation. “We are at a crucial time for the sector as global policymakers are also now reviewing their approach to crypto and how it should be regulated,” said the British parliament member who will chair the group.

British Lawmakers Form Crypto and Digital Assets Group

U.K. parliament members and members of the House of Lords have formed the Crypto and Digital Assets Group, the Financial Times reported Friday.

Scottish National Party (SNP) MP Lisa Cameron, who will chair the cross-party group of lawmakers, explained that the group will work to ensure that new rules for the crypto industry “support innovation.” She detailed:

We are at a crucial time for the sector as global policymakers are also now reviewing their approach to crypto and how it should be regulated.

The new crypto group officially registered with parliament last week. Its members include former Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey and Tory MP Harriett Baldwin, a former JPMorgan executive.

Cryptouk, a trade association for digital assets, will serve as the parliamentary group’s secretariat. The association has been lobbying lawmakers for a year for positive crypto regulation in the U.K.

Crypto advocates have warned that the U.K. government has been too slow to establish rules for digital asset businesses, which risks driving them offshore. The U.K. financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has banned crypto derivatives for retail investors and opposed crypto funds.

Regulators have repeatedly warned about the risks from crypto scams and unregulated companies. According to blockchain data analytics firm Chainalysis, scams involving cryptocurrencies cost investors $7.8 billion globally this year

Source: Bitcoin News

Tokens of the decentralized money market were one of the biggest losers on Tuesday, reaching prices last seen in May 2021.

Tokens of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Olympus (OHM) dropped as much as 32% in the past 24 hours as crypto traders moved away from experimental DeFi projects amid an overall negative sentiment in the crypto market.

OHM fell from Monday’s peak of $264 to $161 during the early Asian hours on Tuesday, reaching lows previously seen in May 2021. The move was part of a larger downtrend since October 2021 highs of $1,360, when the protocol reached a market capitalization of $4 billion. As of Tuesday, OHM prices are down 87% from all-time highs.

Olympus prices reached May 2021 lows on Tuesday. (TradingView)

Olympus, like other DeFi projects, relies on smart contracts instead of intermediaries to provide financial services to users. Its goal is to create a stablecoin backed by crypto instead of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, which users can in turn stake for currently offered annualized returns of 7,800%.

Users are incentivized to deposit or sell their OHM collaterals in return for discounted OHM sold by bonds issued by Olympus. This is said to create “protocol-owned liquidity,” as the user-issued liquidity provider (LP) tokens are tied back to the bonds issued by Olympus, creating a continuous loop of supply and demand.

Fuse liquidations contribute to OHM fall

Analysts said a popular pool to leverage returns on OHM tokens saw overnight liquidations which contributed to the price drop.

“People who employed the leveraged OHM strat (9,9) by borrowing from Fuse got liquidated,” explained Ashwath Balakrishnan, VP of research at Delphi Digital, in a Telegram message to CoinDesk.

Fuse is an interest rates product by Rari Capital, a DeFi protocol that provides yield-earning services to users. Fuse lets users create their customized pool consisting of various interest-earning tokens, allowing other users to stake their own tokens on such pools and earn yields.

The rather risky Pool #18 on Fuse is focused on Olympus, locking up over $101 million across OHM and right other cryptocurrencies. The pool takes OHM staking a step ahead for users: unlike staking OHM on Olympus, staking OHM on Fuse allows users to borrow cryptocurrencies against their OHM holdings while continuing to earn interest on the staked OHM. This allows users to access liquidity without having to sell their OHM rewards and missing out on potential gains.

Pool #18 on Fuse. (Rari Capital)

However, such borrowing features come with their drawbacks. Holdings are automatically liquidated when prices of underlying tokens fall below a certain level, as the Fuse protocol needs to maintain the collateral’s monetary position.

Sell-offs in the open market lead to falling prices, which in turn lead to further sell-offs by token holders who may want to take profits on their positions. This creates a cascading event that contributes to drastic price drops, one that OHM saw in the past 24 hours.

Source: CoinDesk

Solana, a top ten smart contracts-enabled cryptocurrency by market cap, has acknowledged it is facing a series of problems hindering the performance of its network. The official account of the status of the network, as well as the status page, reported this incident yesterday. This is the latest issue Solana is facing after experiencing several network disruptions during the past months.

Solana Facing Throughput Issues

Solana, a smart contracts-enabled cryptocurrency, has formally acknowledged its network is suffering performance issues affecting the throughput of the system and causing it to drop certain transactions. The report was issued by the Solana Status Twitter account of the project, which informed users of the situation yesterday.

The account explained:

[The network is experiencing] degraded performance due to an increase in high compute transactions, which is reducing network capacity to several thousand transactions per second. This is leading to increased loading and transaction processing times, and some failed transactions.

This report was posted on January 6, 16:11 UTC and at the time of writing, the issue has not yet been solved. It was also reported that the developers were working to address these issues and solve the problem.

Woes Aplenty

This is not the first time that the network has faced this kind of issue. The first incident of this kind — that affected the block production of the Solana validators — happened on September 14, when the Solana blockchain slowed almost to a crawl due to a resource exhaustion problem, according to the Solana Status account

The blockchain then faced another problem on December 4, when the whole network was stopped, and engineers had to restart it for it to work appropriately again. At that time, the network was halted for approximately 5 hours, with no transactions or blocks being issued during this period.

The project has faced other kinds of issues with congestion due to the release of specific projects that have also crowded the network, as occurred on December 13 when the launch of a project called Solchicks affected the stability of the blockchain.

Then again on January 4th, there were reports about Solana facing a DDoS attack via spam transactions. However, these reports were debunked by Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, who stated that “there was some congestion due to mismetered transitions, and some users experienced their txs timing out and had to retry.”

However, even with all these problems, the total number of Solana transactions outpaced that of its rivals for December, registering 45 billion transactions.

Source: Bitcoin News

This week Google Trends shows that the acronym NFT, which stands for non-fungible token, has reached a score of 100, the highest score a search query can get from the data analytics aggregator. Meanwhile, statistics indicate that during the last 30 days across ten different blockchains, there’s been $2.73 billion in NFT sales.

NFT Monthly Volume Sees Close to $3 Billion in Sales — Axie Infinity, Clonex, MAYC Sales Reign

While the crypto economy has seen a downturn, it’s too early to say whether or not it’s affecting NFT sales. However, monthly statistics show that across ten different blockchain networks including Ethereum, Ronin, Solana, Flow, Polygon, and more, there’s been $2.73 billion in NFT sales.

The collection with the most sales stemmed from the Ronin chain or the Axie Infinity blockchain video game NFT compilation. Over the last 30 days, metrics indicate Axie Infinity saw $219.5 million in sales. Month-over-month, Axie Infinity sales are down 66.51%.

The NFT collection Clonex pulled down $212 million over the last month according to cryptoslam.io metrics and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) did $209.1 million in sales. MAYC was followed by Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) with $196.2 million in 30-day sales.

The BAYC collection is followed by Cryptopunks ($144M), The Sandbox ($90M), Doodles ($85M), Prime Ape Planet ($76.4M), RTFKT Clonex Mintvial ($66M), and Adidas Originals ($60.2M).

Ethereum NFT Sales Rule the Roost, Cryptopunk #4156 Sells for $10.2 Million

Out of the top 20 NFT collections in terms of sales, the biggest gainers include the Solana NFT collection Shadowy Super Coder, up 170.46% this month, Bored Ape Chemistry Club, up 212.60%, and ​​Bored Ape Kennel Club, up 159.19%.

Notable collections during the last 30 days in the top 20 include Doodles (+72.50%), RTFKT Clonex Mintvial (+72.83%), and NBA Top Shot (+87.85%). The NFT collection Wolf Game lost 81.02%, Farmers World shed 89.51%, and Neo Tokyo Identities lost 53.05% this past month.

The top blockchain in terms of NFT sales this month is Ethereum (ETH) with $2.3 billion in sales. ETH is followed by Ronin, with $219 million in sales, and Solana captured $109 million in sales this past month.

ETH sales increased 34.41% and Flow sales spiked 87.33%, while the blockchain Polygon’s NFT sales jumped 98.93%. While Ronin sales are down 66.51%, cryptoslam.io stats indicate Solana sales are down 10.31%, Wax blockchain sales slipped 85.07%, and Theta chain NFT sales are down 90.31%.

The most expensive sale this month was Cryptopunk #4156 for $10.2 million and three Mega NFTs sold for between $3.6 million and $5.6 million in ether. Cryptopunk #2681 sold for $3.07 million and Meka #2194 went for $1.8 million this month. The Meka NFT was followed by BAYC #3562 for $1.6 million, Cryptopunk #9953 for $1.57 million, and Cryptopunk #2964 for $1.5 million.

Source: Bitcoin News

Hidden code in the company’s iPhone app shows that a potential “PayPal Coin” would be backed by the U.S. dollar.

PayPal (PYPL) is looking into launching its own stablecoin as the company grows its crypto business, a company spokesman confirmed to CoinDesk on Friday. Sources told CoinDesk in September that PayPal subsidiary Curv was actively working on developing a stablecoin.

“We are exploring a stablecoin; if and when we seek to move forward, we will of course, work closely with relevant regulators,” a PayPal spokesman told CoinDesk in an emailed statement.

Bloomberg first reported the news after evidence of PayPal’s exploration into building its own stablecoin was discovered in the company’s iPhone app by developer Steve Moser and shared with Bloomberg. Hidden code and images show work on what is called a “PayPal Coin.” The code shows the coin would be backed by the U.S. dollar, Bloomberg noted in its report.

PayPal has been very active with its cryptocurrency efforts recently, increasing the amount of crypto its customers can purchase, as well as investing in educating its users on crypto and working to allow them to withdraw their crypto safely to third-party wallets.

A PayPal spokesperson told Bloomberg that images and code inside of the PayPal app stemmed from a recent internal hackathon – an event in which engineers team up to quickly explore and build new products that may never see a public release – within the company’s blockchain, crypto and digital currencies division.

Source: Coindesk

The plans are in line with Terra founder Do Kwon’s intention to make UST a dominant player in the crypto space.

Multi-sector blockchain protocol Terra (LUNA) has announced a proposal to deploy $139 million to five different DeFi projects across Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon to enhance UST’s use cases.

The proposal, however, needs to be accepted by the Terra community through a vote of governance participants that’s likely at a later date.

Terra as a Dominant Crypto Player

The details of how UST and LUNA worth $139 will be used on different DeFi platforms are contained in the document dubbed: UST Goes Interchain: Degen Strats Part Three.

As per the proposal, Terra has identified a few partner projects where it intends to deposit up to $50 million to support the stability of these protocols. Through this move, Terra said it wants to bring UST use cases to Ethereum DeFi.

These intentions align with Terra Founder Do Kwon’s previous comments where he noted that he wants to see UST as a dominant stable in the crypto space.

Currently, with $10.44 billion in market cap, TerraUSD (UST) is ranked 4th in the list of top stablecoins. Tether USDT ($78.44 billion), USD Coin USDC ($43.2 billion), Binance USD ($14.4 billion) are ahead of Terra USD.

Here is how Terra aims to utilize the $139 million.

Tokemak (Ethereum)

Among the new DeFi projects where Terra is planning to deposit $139 in UST include Tokemak, a DeFi liquidity provider and market maker.

It intends to deploy $50 million in UST for a minimum of six months to support UST Pair Reactor. Apart from the regular TOKE rewards, the asset can be also be used by the Terra community to vote in the LUNA Token Reactor.

Rari Fuse (Ethereum)

The next project in terms of size of UST deployment is Rari Fuse, an unlicensed lending and borrowing platform, which will receive UST funds to the tune of $20 million for six months. UST intends to become the cheapest stable to borrow on Fuse.

Yield aggregator Convex Finance will receive $18 million in UST for six months. Terra will offer LUNA incentives to liquidity providers who use UST on different Convex pools.

OlympusDAO (Ethereum, Solana, Polygon)

The next project to see UST funding is Olympus, an OHM-based decentralized reserve currency protocol. The total proposed deployment of funds is $1.425 million in UST. OlympusDAO is already working with Terra, and it will release an encapsulated version of OHM, gOHM, on its blockchain.

A significant aspect of this partnership is the fact that Olympus will bring OlympusPro to Terra protocols. It also entails Terra community to partner with Olympus DAO.

InvictusDAO (Solana)

A decentralized reserve currency on Solana network, Invictus is an Olympus fork but has emerged as a promising player in putting its treasury to work. Terra is planning to increase its footprints on Solana by creating IN/UST bonds with a contribution of $250,000. Frax Finance (FRAX) will provide $250,000 in Frax to match Terra’s contribution.

Source: Crypto Potato

Terra (LUNA) has become the world’s second-largest DeFi ecosystem behind Ethereum, with reported total value locked (TVL) of $18 billion.

Meanwhile, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyers have recommended enforcement actions against its founding company, Terraform Labs.

Terra eclipsed Binance Smart Chain’s TVL in late December, an impressive feat given Binance’s native token BNB boasts an $85-billion market capitalization — nearly three times LUNA.

LUNA’s boosted TVL is mostly the result of recent surges in its token price, up more than 40% since the beginning of December.

The amount of staked LUNA tokens has practically flatlined over the past five months, according to ecosystem tracker DeFi Llama.

In any case, the top-two protocols on Terra are the $10-billion algorithmic stablecoin UST, and Anchor Protocol’s $3 billion Savings-as-a-Service SDK.

Terraform Labs is also launching a decentralized exchange (Astroport) and a credit lending platform (Mars Protocol).

Still, Ethereum remains the largest DeFi ecosystem, but deployments of Ethereum-based protocols have slowed. DeFi developers frequently cite high gas fees as a major reason for avoiding Ethereum.

Source: DeFi Llama

IRIS, SCRT and AKT are among the Cosmos ecosystem assets that turned bullish in anticipation of Ethereum interoperability via Evmos.

The wider cryptocurrency market is facing another day of volatility and selling on Jan. 7 as Bitcoin (BTC) bears managed to break bull support at $42,000. The price of Bitcoin was pushed to a daily low of $40,620 before resources were exhausted.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro shows that four of the top seven gainers of the day are part of the growing Cosmos Hub. This ecosystem currently uses the Interblockchain Communication protocol (IBC) to facilitate interoperability and communication between connected networks.

Here’s a look at what’s behind the strength seen in IRISnet (IRIS), Secret (SCRT), Akash Network (AKT) and Cosmos (ATOM).

IRISnet expands its NFT capabilities

The top gainer over the past 24-hours has been IRISnet, an interchain service hub for decentralized applications that enables cross-chain interoperability and provides businesses with modules to support running a distributed system.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $0.079 in the early trading hours on Jan. 7, the price of IRIS blasted 84% higher to hit a daily high at $0.144 as its 24-hour trading volume surged 2,320% to $112.6 million.

The sudden surge in price and volume for IRIS comes as the protocol’s nonfungible token community continues to expand thanks to the upcoming launch of the Uptick Network nonfungible token (NFT) ecosystem. These efforts have helped to attract new users to the IRISnet ecosystem.

Pulp Fiction NFTs are coming to the Secret Network

The Secret Network is a blockchain protocol with built-in data privacy for smart contracts that enables programmable privacy for data transfer, decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for SCRT on Jan. 3, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points that includes market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and activity on Twitter.

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for SCRT began to pick up on Jan.3, around 55 hours before the price increased 25% over the next day.

The boost to SCRT price comes after it was revealed that movie director Quentin Tarantino will be releasing NFTs from the popular move Pulp Fiction on the Secret Network.

Akash Network partners with CloudStack
The Akash Network bills itself as the world’s first decentralized cloud computing marketplace for DeFi. Known as DeCloud, the service enables any application to launch quickly without the need to set up, configure or manage servers.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after a quick drawdown to a low of $2.33 on Jan. 5, the price of AKT rebounded 25% to a daily high at $2.93 on Jan. 7 as its 24-hour trading volume increased by 88%.

The building momentum for AKT comes following the announced partnership between the Akash Network and CloudStack, a decentralized cloud aggregator that offers a portal to access any decentralized storage network, including Filecoin, Arweave and Storj.

Bulls like the idea of interoperability between Cosmos and Ethereum

Cosmos is the foundational blockchain protocol for the entire Cosmos Hub, billing itself as the “internet of blockchains.” ATOM holders stake the platform’s native ATOM token to secure the entire ecosystem.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for SCRT on Dec. 29, prior to the recent price rise.

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for ATOM climbed into the green zone on Dec. 29 and hit a high of 80 just as its price began to increase by 79% over the next nine days.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.987 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 39.9%.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Source: CoinTelegraph

Tokens linked to the metaverse, “Ethereum-killers” and memecoins dominated gains during another bullish year for cryptocurrencies. Prices for the top-performing coin rose 162-fold.

The past year’s crypto market can be summed up in three words: to the moon.

Bitcoin and Ethereum, which entered the year’s bull run following big gains in 2020, both reached new all-time highs. The market capitalization of the sector swelled from under $800 billion in January to $2.2 trillion in December, according to data from Coinmarketcap.

Most major digital assets notched triple-digit percentage returns – easily outdistancing bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency, which was up 66% year-to-date as of Dec. 31.

But it was a slew of tokens that few investors had heard of prior to 2021 that dominated the year’s ranking.

A look at those top performers reveals three distinct themes: metaverse, “Ethereum-killers” and meme coins.

Here’s a roundup of the top 10 performers among digital assets with a (year-end) market capitalization of at least $5 billion, based on data from the crypto-analytics firm Messari.

The metaverse

1 The Sandbox, $SAND +16,265%

2 Axie Infinity, $AXS +16,160%

7 Decentraland, $MANA +3,943%

The metaverse became the hottest segment of the cryptocurrency market, buoyed by Facebook’s rebranding as Meta. Although the segment has sold off since its all-time highs, metaverse- and gaming-related tokens took the top two slots in this year’s Top 10.

Metaverse project The Sandbox narrowly edged out play-to-earn gaming giant Axie Infinity for this year’s top slot after its SAND token notched an eye-popping 162-fold increase. Investors bet on a vision where people would increasingly spend their leisure time in virtual worlds – although it’s still too early to say which virtual world it could be.

Competing metaverse Decentraland was this year’s number seven performer, after its MANA token soared nearly 40-fold. The entry of institutional players was a large contributor to gains for both SAND and MANA. This past quarter, retail giants such as Adidas and Under Armour announced partnerships with The Sandbox and Decentraland, respectively.

Rounding out the metaverse winners is Sky Mavis’s crypto adventure game, Axie Infinity. The AXS token was 2021′s second highest gainer, soaring 16,160%. (That’s 162 times, for those who might get lost in the five-digit percentage figure.) Axie Infinity swept through countries such as the Philippines and Venezuela as the coronavirus pandemic left many of its citizens unemployed – and playing Axie to earn income. Axie’s growth fueled the emergence of more “play-to-earn” crypto projects. Some industry pundits say these crypto-powered games could accelerate crypto adoption for the masses.

Ethereum-killers

3 Polygon, $MATIC +14,496%

4 Terra, $LUNA +13,808%

5 Fantom, $FTM +13,007%

6 Solana, $SOL +9,374%

9 Avalanche, $AVAX +2,787%

Complaining about Ethereum’s high transaction costs – known as gas fees – was another familiar part of 2021′s crypto zeitgeist.

Congestion on the largest smart contract-enabled blockchain sent users in search of more scalable blockchains, spurring the growth of alternative layer 1′s and scaling solutions. The year brought astronomical gains for the likes of Solana, Polygon, Terra, Fantom and Avalanche, which ate up half the slots in the top 10.

These up-and-coming blockchains are commonly known as “Ethereum killers,” since they represent competition for the market leader.

Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain, notched third place, with gains of approximately 14,500%. The Polygon ecosystem saw a stellar year as it bet on several Ethereum scaling projects and its DeFi, NFT and dApp users picked up.

Terra’s LUNA token also hit new all-time highs as the layer 1 blockchain surpassed Binance Smart Chain to become the second-largest DeFi ecosystem. The price of LUNA increased nearly 140 times, spurred by demand for the project’s TerraUSD stablecoin, which reached a landmark market capitalization of $10 billion this week.

Fantom, Solana and Avalanche – other layer one blockchains – also cracked the top 10. The race for a more scalable alternative to Ethereum sent Fantom’s FTM token up 13,808%, SOL up 9,374%, and AVAX up 2,787%.

That’s not to say Ethereum didn’t also have a good year. Its native cryptocurrency, ether (ETH) gained a respectable 418% – six times the returns for bitcoin.

Memecoins

8 Dogecoin, $DOGE +2,943%

10 Shiba Inu, $SHIB +1,608%

While the rest of the crypto community sparred over optimistic vs. zk-rollups or Punks vs. Apes, others pondered more serious questions – which cute dog coin will pump next?

Retail speculation flooded both traditional equity and crypto markets this year, spurring a whole new category of “memecoins,” including top performers dogecoin and DOGE-derivative Shiba Inu (SHIB).

Dogecoin’s surge began in the first half of the year, reaching an all-time high of $0.74 (with much help from the Twitter account of self-proclaimed DogeFather, Elon Musk). Year-to-date, the token is still up nearly 3,000%.

As DOGE mania waned in the latter half of the year, derivative project Shiba Inu’s SHIB token took the spotlight, gaining 1,608% and taking the last slot in this year’s top 10. The success of DOGE and SHIB launched several other tokens centered around the Japanese canine breed, including $FLOKI, $ELON, $HOGE and $DOGGY.

Known affectionately as “Crypto Mom” for her support of the industry, Peirce also warned on CoinDesk TV that the SEC might soon turn its eye towards NFTs.

Forming a single regulator to oversee crypto would not be a panacea for the industry’s regulatory woes, said U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce on CoinDesk TV’s First Mover Thursday.

“I certainly understand the impulse to call for one regulator. I have a couple problems with it,” Peirce said. “Typically in Washington, when you build another regulator, all you get is all the existing regulators plus one.”

Among the voices calling for a new, single U.S. regulator to oversee crypto are Coinbase and U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).

Peirce – affectionately called “Crypto Mom” by many cryptocurrency enthusiasts for her longstanding support for the industry – has been outspoken about what she sees as the SEC’s failure to provide a working regulatory framework for the crypto industry, and its tendency to regulate by enforcement.

“We have an opportunity to sit down and work with people, many of whom have been very open about their willingness to come in and work with us and develop regulation,” Peirce said. “So far, we’ve really provided very little concrete regulatory progress.”

“What we’ve done instead is we’ve brought one-off enforcement actions,” said Peirce.

Though these enforcement actions have increased under the leadership of SEC Chair Gary Gensler, Peirce pointed out that Gensler’s approach to crypto regulation – which is much more aggressive than that of his predecessor, Jay Clayton, who now works for Sullivan & Cromwell and advises several crypto firms, including Fireblocks – is evidence of Gensler’s desire to draw clear lines for the industry.

“I’m just hopeful that we set our minds to work at building something that makes sense in terms of regulatory clarity, instead of always just falling back on enforcement,” said Peirce.

The SEC looks at NFTs

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) exploded in popularity in 2021, reaching $22 billion in trading by December.

According to Peirce, the SEC is taking notice.

“Given the breadth of the NFT landscape, certain pieces of it might fall within our jurisdiction,” Peirce told First Mover. “People need to be thinking about potential places where NFTs might run into the securities regulatory regime.”

While Peirce couldn’t say exactly where the SEC’s issues with NFTs might lie, she warned about the fractionalization of NFTs – a growing market which surpassed $215 million in trading in 2021.

“I think that’s an area where people do need to be careful,” Peirce said. “I think we’ll see during 2022 an increasing fractionalization of NFTs because these are valuable assets.”

When will a spot bitcoin ETF be approved?

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF made history in October as the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to receive approval from the SEC and begin trading.

But the ProShares ETF is a futures ETF – no spot ETF applications have been accepted, and Peirce said the SEC doesn’t appear to be in a hurry to approve any spot ETFs.

“I can’t believe we’re still talking about this as if, you know, we’re waiting for one to happen,” Peirce said. “We’ve issued a series of denials even recently, and those continue to use reasoning that I think was outdated at the time.”

Peirce added that she doesn’t understand the SEC’s reasoning for denying the spot ETF applications, which makes it difficult for her to predict the possibility of a spot ETF approval in 2022.

“Chair Gensler has said he wants to see platforms registering with us,” Peirce said. “So maybe that’s what it takes for a spot product to get approved.”

Source: CoinDesk

The coin has surpassed Binance Smart Chain in total value locked amid rapid DeFi growth.

The Terra blockchain’s fast growing stablecoin UST, which had surpassed its rival DAI to become the largest decentralized stablecoin, has how attained another milestone: a market capitalization of $10 billion.

According to the crypto pricing site CoinGecko, the UST market cap pushed past $10 billion on Sunday. As recently as the beginning of 2021, the market capitalization was under $200 million.

Earlier in December, UST overtook rival MakerDao’s decentralized stablecoin DAI, whose market capitalization sits at around $9.4 billion. And DAI has been live since 2017.

The fast growth in UST comes as the Terra blockchain has become a major player in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, where stablecoins play a critical role in staking, liquidity management and yield-generating.

$UST marketcap is now $10B, the first decentralized stablecoin to achieve this milestone.

There is no more doubt in the product market fit of decentralized money in decentralized economies.

Long live @terra_money pic.twitter.com/f59ItpkgnJ

— Do Kwon 🌕 (@stablekwon) December 26, 2021

Terra’s LUNA token has been one of the top performers among all digital assets this year, jumping 15-fold in price to a reported market capitalization of $34 billion, according to the crypto data site Messari.

Last week, Terra overtook Binance Smart Chain (BSC) for second place in total value locked (TVL), a metric used to compare the DeFi activity occurring on various blockchains or for individual projects. According to data provider DeFi Llama, Terra boasts $17.9 billion in locked assets, versus $17.3 billion for BSC. The Ethereum blockchain sits comfortably in first place with over $162 billion in DeFi total value locked.

The most popular DeFi project in the Terra ecosystem is Anchor, a lending protocol with nearly $9 billion in TVL, accounting for over half of all DeFi activity on Terra.

A popular trade involves users depositing UST into the Anchor protocol, where the tokens are subsequently pooled and lent out to interest-paying borrowers. The accrued interest is then distributed pro rata to all depositors, who expect to earn an annual percentage yield (APY) of 20%.

According to data from TokenInsights, nearly $3 billion of all UST have been deposited into Anchor.

3/ @anchor_protocol , top 10 tvl protocol on the list, broke $10b on December pic.twitter.com/LStvaZhSxB

— TokenInsight (@TokenInsight) December 27, 2021

Source: CoinDesk

“An open and interoperable bridge between Ethereum and Cosmos has long been a shared vision of a fully connected Interchain,” said Althea CEO Deborah Simpier.

On Wednesday, the Interchain Foundation, a Swiss non-profit serving as a steward of the Cosmos (ATOM) ecosystem, announced the launch of Gravity Bridge as built by decentralized internet service provider Althea. Gravity Bridge enables the transfer of ERC-20 tokens between the Ethereum (ETH) and Cosmos blockchains. During its initial stages, Gravity Bridge will operate as a standalone chain before migrating to Cosmos Hub early next year. Its key technical features include interchangeable token issuance across both chains and the support of Ethereum to Cosmos oracles.

Simpier issued the following statement regarding the launch:

In this interoperable ecosystem, Gravity Bridge’s place is a foundational piece of infrastructure, available to all Cosmos chains openly, purpose-built to update and iterate quickly, and facilitate the bridge needs of the chains that interact with it. Open markets and frictionless trading unlock liquidity for all. This is the future that uplifts all in the Cosmos network and supports the ATOM value and ecosystem for the Internet of Blockchains.

Gravity Bridge is live!
Mainnet was achieved via a pioneering decentralized launch. Our thanks to the teams, validators and community members now supporting the chain and deploying the front end, wallet integration and other tools to take GB to the next level pic.twitter.com/iaQplXMTgu

— Gravity Bridge (@gravity_bridge) December 14, 2021

In March, the Inter-Blockchain Communication, or IBC, protocol launched on the Cosmos network, allowing for the communication and transfer of digital assets across different blockchains. There are now over 20 blockchains supporting IBC. Peng Zhong, CEO of Tendermint, the core developer of the Cosmos network, said in an interview with Cointelegraph that he expects to see “about 200 chains connected through Cosmos’ IBC next year.”

Billy Rennekamp, Cosmos Hub lead at the Interchain Foundation, added:

The Stargate upgrade and release of IBC was the dawn of interoperability, now the Gravity Bridge and our collaboration to ensure bridge safety with Interchain Security cement Cosmos Hub as the bedrock for the Internet of Blockchains.

Source: CoinTelagraph

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Peng Zhong, CEO of Tendermint, the core developer of the Cosmos blockchain, discussed recent cutting-edge advancements in the ecosystem.

Ever since the launch of the inter-blockchain communications, or IBC, protocol in March, which enabled the communication and transfer of digital assets across different blockchains, development activity seems to have picked up pace on the Cosmos (ATOM) network.

Transaction volumes, the creation of decentralized applications and the number of chains connected via IBC have all been trending upwards in recent months. Speakers at the Cosmoverse Conference, which took place last week, presented many of the latest technologies under development on the blockchain. Its biggest-ever hackathon will also take place in Lisbon tomorrow.

HackAtomVI is trending in the dev community!

1000+ Developers Have Already Registered to the Biggest HackAtom in Cosmos History!

Don’t miss your chance to win $1M+ in Prize Pool and start your journey in the Internet of Blockchains with a Bang!https://t.co/TqAedC16jn pic.twitter.com/w1hasCxyQo

— Cosmos – Internet of Blockchains ⚛️ (@cosmos) November 9, 2021
Tendermint is the core developer behind the Cosmos blockchain and serves as its gateway to the ecosystem. On Wednesday morning, Peng Zhong, the company’s CEO, joined Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview to discuss the future of the Cosmos network.

Cointelegraph: What are some of the development highlights surrounding the Cosmos blockchain in terms of the decentralized finance, or DeFi, ecosystem?

Peng Zhong: I think the biggest highlight was early this year when Inter-Blockchain Communications (IBC) launched on the Cosmos hub for the first time. Not much happened after that. People were like, okay, IBC is live, now what do I do? But now, we are seeing 22 blockchains that support IBC. They have all been able to connect to various decentralized exchanges (DEXs) available in the Cosmos ecosystem, such as Osmosis, Gravity DEX. So there’s been a lot of cross-chain activity, much more than anyone expected. And we are seeing a very positive growth cycle with IBC enabled.

CT: Interesting, so where do you see the IBC ecosystem heading, say, five years from now?

PZ: That’s very far in the future. I was going to present tomorrow that we are seeing 22 chains today, and next, we’ll see about 200 chains connected through IBC next year. I haven’t thought about five years out, but my long-term vision running Tendermint and with our focus on bringing more users to Cosmos and a better development experience to the Cosmos Stack. We’ll see a million blockchains in the future. Five years from now, I would expect that number to be tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of chains linked through IBC. And that’ll be absolutely spectacular, but we have a lot of work to do on the infrastructure side to handle all that encrypted data.

CT: Regarding the recent Cosmosverse, an intriguing development that came up was the concept of liquid staking. Would you mind providing more information on that?

PZ: I believe there are at least three different implementations of liquid staking as presented at Cosmoverse. It was a fantastic conference; I met many people who’ve been working in this space during the pandemic and never got a chance to see them face to face until now. And then people working at Cosmos for over five years and are still around — and it speaks to the strength of the ecosystem. So liquid staking at a high level is the ability to allow users to double-dip with their assets. Most commonly, in proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols, you need to stake your tokens to secure the network as a user. And by staking your tokens, you earn yields. For the Cosmos Hub, it’s generally between 7% to 20% APY. But then you look at some DeFi protocols, for example, Osmosis or other DEXs built on Cosmos, and you can see that during the launch of these DEXs, they [the developers] want to increase liquidity.

So APYs can be at thousands of percent within a few weeks or hundreds of percent for a few months. And they are much much higher than staking yield. So there is this constant battle, or tug of war, between the incentives for staking, which is to secure the network and is good for everyone, but you earn minimal yield. This is compared to incentives provided by DEXs for acting as liquidity providers, which is very tantalizing. So liquid staking is the ability to allow you as a staker to stake your assets, but at the same time, you get a token that represents your staked position.

So if you stake 100 ATOM, instead of receiving nothing in return other than a steady stream of staking rewards, you would receive [both] staking rewards in ATOM, and you would receive a staked version of your ATOM, let’s say sATOM. And that is only IBC-enabled, which means you get to permissionlessly transfer it to DEXs and use that to provide liquidity in pools. That’s the general idea of liquid staking —It’s a big feature that’s coming to multiple blockchains at once.

The version that’s coming to the Cosmos hub is more standard, it’s where you stake the assets, and you get a token that you can use interchain. The version proposed by Osmosis is called Superfluid staking, which is the ability to provide liquidity in a DEX while being issued liquidity provider tokens (LPs) back, which you can use to stake on the blockchain. So whether you LP first or stake first, you always get the representation you can use across IBC, which is a lot of flexibility and freedom.

However, it adds a lot of added risk because this is now like a second-level derivative of your original token. So if anything breaks down along the way, you might be in trouble. But for those of you who have a big appetite for risk, liquid staking offers more than what you can get off traditional yields.

CT: Is this technology theoretically applicable to all kinds of pools? For example, can I receive a lending token to back deposit into a staking pool to earn yields if I lend out my crypto?

PZ: Exactly, you’re on the right track. And there can be many levels of this, and each level gives added risk to your portfolio, so it’s a matter of figuring out how much risk you are willing to take. A lot of this [liquid staking] has happened in Ethereum due to the power of ERC-20 tokens, but it’s only started to be developed in the Cosmos ecosystem. And of course, in Cosmos, there is an added layer of complexity on top due to the differences in the level of security. So part of the proposed benefit of liquid staking is the ability to share security between multiple chains at once. Which is sort of a looser version of Ethereum where everything is secured by the token.

CT: Another recent development discussed at Cosmoverse is ABCI++ and how it can help improve cross-chain functionality and oracles. Would you mind elaborating more on that?

So the Tendermint Core protocol hasn’t been updated in quite a long time in terms of new features. And ABCI++ is a very big new feature. What it does is that it increases the features that Tendermint Core can support. So right now, a function can be run at the end of every single block, which is what all Cosmos blockchains use to do their business logic. At the end of every single block, which on Cosmos, is usually six to seven seconds, some activity can happen. But the Tendermint Core Consensus, while it does create consensus around new blocks, it’s not a single-step process; in fact, it’s a five-step process of block consensus creation.

There’s, in fact, a built-in block explorer in the past, which hasn’t been updated much, but actually shows every step of Tendermint block consensus. What ABCI++ is, is that it allows a developer to tap into each one of these five steps. You can imagine them. Instead of just admitting one event for every block that’s complete, it admits now five events, and now you can pick and choose which step you want to admit to a consensus that you want to run for that function. And that introduces a lot of potential for more efficient calculations.

The New [v0.35] #TendermintCore Release:

• Prioritized Mempool
• Peer-to-peer Network Makeover
• StateSync Improvements
• Go API Internalization and Stability
…and additional Great Features to discover https://t.co/zXP4t6EBiF pic.twitter.com/zQtV6paZgm

— Tendermint (@tendermintHQ) November 5, 2021
CT: Is Tendermint taking any steps to introduce Cosmos into the Metaverse?

PZ: Yeah, so I think the Metaverse is quite undefined right now. It’s everyone building things as Web 3.0. Of course, Facebook can take a claim that they’re building the Metaverse, but it’s only going to be Facebook’s wall garden Metaverse. There’s going to be Google’s wall garden Metaverse and Apple’s version of that. I would assume Steam and Epic Games have their own version. But the version that most of us want today is open-ended and permissionless.

CT: What are some of the highlights of the upcoming hackathon?

PZ: So it’s the biggest Cosmos hackathon. And I think Cosmos is the second largest crypto ecosystem in the world, with over $170 billion [of assets] built on the Cosmos infrastructure. It’s a very significant event for the world at large. Zooming out a little bit and looking at what happened last year, which was on a much smaller scale. That was when this proof of concept DEX project called Osmosis won the biggest prize. And today, Osmosis is a live blockchain with over $700 million in TVL [total value locked]. Maybe it’s a fluke, but I’m hoping to see projects of this caliber this year. This time around, we have far more prize categories — I believe it’s seven, each with over $200,000 worth of prizes. This wide array of prizes is our way of making sure people are solving a diverse set of problems. There’s so much unbuilt infrastructure, and it doesn’t make sense to award only one prize.

CT: Would you like to share any other comments or visions regarding Tendermint and the Cosmos blockchain?

PZ: Yes, I believe that Cosmos is the only ecosystem that tries to democratize access to finance, more so than any other ecosystem. Because in Cosmos, you don’t need to buy a token to get involved in the ecosystem. When you build on Cosmos, you don’t have to buy anything. You don’t have to pay for gas, and that I believe is something very valuable in economies where you can’t really afford expensive transactions, and when you don’t really have the capital to really experiment with these hybrid ecosystems, like Polkadot or Avalanche or Polkadot or Ethereum, and appealing to people with time. Young people with time but no capital are out of Web 1.0 today, and Cosmos will win Web 3.0. And that’s really the core mission of Tendermint, to bring newcomers, make it as easy as possible to build things, and we welcome everyone.

Source: Cointelegraph

DeFi Value on Terra Surges to Record $21B as LUNA Tops $100

LUNA, the native token of decentralized payments network Terra, bumped to over $100 in European hours on Friday to lead a “Santa rally” in crypto markets.

Traders took advance of Thursday’s 10% decline to $85 to bring LUNA back to its previous high of $96 in early Asian hours. Then an announcement by crypto exchange Binance that it will list UST, a stablecoin issued on the Terra network, pushed LUNA above $100. The price met resistance at that level and was down 5 cents at press time.

Rising prices caused the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols on Terra to cross the $21 billion mark, data from analytics tool DeFi Llama showed, making it the largest DeFi ecosystem after Ethereum. The figure has grown by almost $3 billion from Wednesday’s $18 billion level.

Of the total, over $9 billion is locked on Anchor, a stablecoin-based yield-generating application. For TerraSwap, a decentralized exchange built with Terra smart contracts, TVL jumped 81% to over $2 billion compared to last week.

DeFi protocols rely on smart contracts instead of middlemen to provide financial services such as lending, borrowing, and trading.

The value is split among 13 protocols, or over $1.6 billion per protocol on average. That compares with $73 million per protocol on Binance Smart Chain, the third-largest DeFi ecosystem, which has $17 billion locked on 232 protocols.

Some say applications like Anchor add to Terra’s allure for investors.

“A 20% APY [annual percentage yield] on UST deposits through the Anchor Protocol is very appealing because capital flows from price-volatile assets to more risk-averse yield-bearing positions,” Marvin Steinberg, the founder of investment firm Steinberg Invest, said in a Telegram message with CoinDesk.

LUNA’s price increase is part of a broader multimonth rally, one buoyed by November′s changes to its token mechanisms – such as a ”burn” feature that periodically decreases supply – and increased activity on DeFi applications built on Terra. That’s propelled LUNA to become the ninth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of $36 billion.

Source: CoinDesk

The attacker launched a public poll on Mirror’s official website, which falsely proposes a freeze on the community pool in case of a scam. If executed as planned, the attacker would receive 25 million MIR tokens.

Public blockchain network Terra has confirmed an ongoing scam attack via an official governance poll on Mirror, an in-house synthetic assets protocol. 

According to Mirror, the attacker launched a public poll on Mirror’s official website, which proposes a freeze on the community pool in case of a scam.

NEW MIRROR POLL! ALERT: Poll 211 is SCAM — sending 25,000,000 MIR to itself … #vote on 212: https://t.co/FH6RqTbJ2j $MIR $LUNA #terra— Mirror Polls (@mirror_polls) December 25, 2021

According to Poll ID: 211, named “Freeze the community pool in case of scam”, the scammer proposes an upgrade of safer community governance rules in case of a hack. If the hacker manages to get a positive majority on the poll, 25 million MIR tokens (worth $64.2 million at the time of writing) will be sent to the hacker’s address.

As evidenced by the above screenshot, Mirror’s proactive approach to warn the community has seen a sizable increase in the number of ‘No’ votes — confirming the security of the funds. According to WuBlockchain, the attacker initiated Proposal 185, disguised as a request for cooperation with Solana, effectively trying to defraud 25 million MIR tokens from the community fund pool.

The attacker’s poll will remain publicly available for voting till Jan. 01. However, the Mirror team launched Poll 212 to warn the unwary investors:

“Poll 211 sending 25,000,000 MIR to itself. VOTE NO to any poll sending community funds out.”

Mirror has also identified six other polls — with IDs 185, 198, 204, 206, 207 and 208 — that have attempted to substantially drain the community pool and cause MIR dumping:

“Poll# 208 is the 2nd attack on mDOT and is created by the same thief who started this wave of community pool stealing with its fake-burn poll #177.”

Source: Cointelegraph

Decentralized exchange (dex) volumes have become very prominent this year and some dex applications have been dealing with volumes that are sizable to large centralized crypto exchanges. During the last seven days, Ethereum-based dex platforms processed $21 billion with Uniswap capturing 71% of all the Ethereum-based dex applications today. Statistics from a report published by The Block Research and recently updated metrics, show dex platforms saw $1 trillion in volume during the course of the year.

Dex Volumes in 2021 Reach New Highs According to Digital Asset Report

Decentralized finance (defi) has grown a great deal this year and as the end of 2021 approaches, there’s more than $250 billion of value locked in defi protocols, according to defillama.com. Metrics further indicate that out of all the blockchain platform dex applications, Uniswap commands the most 24-hour volume with $1.45 billion today. Data also shows that Uniswap has roughly $8.81 billion total value locked (TVL) which is just below the $22.36 billion TVL held by Curve Finance.

In terms of 24 dex leaders today, below Uniswap is Pancakeswap with $848 million in 24-hour volume. Below Pancakeswap’s 24-hour volume is Trader Joe ($453.7M), Curve ($453.1M), Sushiswap ($401M), Uniswap v2 ($380M), and Spookyswap ($185M). Just recently, The Block Research published a comprehensive 150-page report covering the “2022 Digital Asset Outlook,” and the research covers both centralized and decentralized exchange volumes.

For instance, the vice president of research at theblockcrypto.com, Larry Cermak, explained in a tweet on December 16, that “The Block’s legitimate volume index, the spot volume in 2021 will surpass $14.5 trillion, which is 8 times larger than last the volume we saw last year.” Statistics from the study and a report authored by Yogita Khatri further show that dex trade volume reported over $1 trillion in trade volume in 2021.

“Overall, monthly dex volume peaked in May 2021 at $162.8 billion, and the most considerable month-over-month growth was in January, with a 137.3% gain,” the 2022 Digital Asset Outlook report notes. “However, the volume has not fully recovered from the May crash, and the dex-to-centralized exchange spot volume ratio remained under 10% throughout the year.”

In addition to the dex volumes, the report highlights the use of dex aggregators. According to the study, dex aggregators like 1inch only represent 13.9% of the overall dex volumes. “1inch was the leading dex aggregator throughout the year with a market share of 64.9%, followed by 0x API (Matcha) at 16.8%,” the researchers detail. The scope of the researcher’s 2022 study delves into numerous other subjects like market performances, derivatives markets, mining revenue, on-chain volumes, stablecoins, and a summary of venture funding in 2021.

Source: Bitcoin News

It’s the first-ever roadmap released by the foundation in its eight-year history and explores eight new projects including the launch of LibDogecoin and GigaWallet.

The Dogecoin Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to support the development of the memecoin through advocacy, has launched its first-ever roadmap detailing a number of new projects.

• The foundation announced a Dogecoin “trailmap” which is explores eight projects including the launch of LibDogecoin and GigaWallet.
• This is the first such roadmap released by the foundation in its eight-year history.
• In August, the foundation signed the Dogecoin Manifesto, which explained the goal of DOGE and allowed the fans of the Shiba Inu-inspired cryptocurrency to also sign the manifesto capturing feedback and what the community wanted from the project.
• The Dogecoin Foundation, boasts some well-known board members and advisers, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
• In its roadmap the foundation said it is working with Buterin on “crafting a uniquely Doge proposal for a ‘community staking’ version of Proof of Stake (PoS) that will allow everyone, not just the big players to participate in a way that rewards them for their contribution to running the network.”
• The foundation goes on to say it has “some influential friends” on its side and a growing group of people who are getting ready to contribute development time to these open-source projects.
• In February, Elon Musk suggested in a tweet that dogecoin might be “the future currency of earth.” Musk’s involvement in the DOGE token tribe has helped sent the cryptocurrency mooooning (his word), along with other alternative cryptocurrencies.
• DOGE started as a joke in 2013, and is now the 12th most valuable cryptocurrency by market value, according to CoinMarketCap.
• In July, Dogecoin founder Jackson Palmer said that he would not be returning to cryptocurrency as it is “is an inherently right-wing, hyper-capitalistic technology built primarily to amplify the wealth of its proponents through a combination of tax avoidance, diminished regulatory oversight and artificially enforced scarcity.”
• On Friday, DOGE was trading at $0.186232, up more than 5% over the last 24 hours.

Source: Coindesk

After weeks of tracking Maker’s DAI closely, Terra’s USD stablecoin is now the largest decentralized stablecoin, and the No. 4 stablecoin overall.

Terra’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin UST has overtaken Maker’s equivalent DAI. The former now boasts a total market cap of just over $9 billion, while the latter is still below $9 billion.

This makes UST the No. 4 stablecoin on the market—but it’s very different from the three that sit above it.

While top stablecoin Tether (USDT) and No. 2 stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) command market caps of $77.1 billion and $41.9 billion, respectively, both assets are run and managed by centralized entities. Circle is the company that issues USDC, and Tether Limited, which is controlled by the owners of Bitfinex, issues USDT.

The third-largest stablecoin is Binance’s BUSD, which is also pegged to the greenback. It has a market cap of $14.6 billion.

The assets backing USDT and USDC are also centralized, and made up of various traditional instruments like U.S. treasuries, cash, and corporate bonds, to name a few. BUSD is reportedly backed 1:1 by dollars that are custodied by the crypto firm Paxos.

UST and DAI, however, market themselves as decentralized stablecoins, and are backed by other cryptocurrencies. This makes it much more difficult to seize or block the underlying assets that help keep each stablecoin pegged to the dollar.

Users can mint DAI, for example, by posting a variety of cryptocurrencies as collateral, akin to borrowing cash against stocks. Minting DAI does, however, mean that the collateral posted is more than 100% of the DAI used. You would need between $1.30 and $1.70 of Ethereum to use just $1 of DAI, depending on the vault.

Terra’s UST is minted similarly, except that users can only create more UST by “burning” (destroying) LUNA, Terra’s native token responsible for paying transaction fees and participating in governance.

Terra itself is a layer 1 smart contract-enabled network built using the Cosmos software developer kit. It’s currently the fourth-largest layer 1 smart contract-enabled network, behind Cardano, Solana, and Ethereum.

DAI was created in December 2017 by MakerDAO, making it the market’s oldest-operating decentralized stablecoin to exist. Terra’s UST was just launched last September.

The astonishing growth of UST can be explained by a series of recent developments, many of which kicked off recently and revolved around adjustments to the protocol’s burn mechanism.

In October, Terra executed a large upgrade that began destroying the LUNA needed to mint UST. Prior to this, LUNA was sent to a development fund to support projects in the ecosystem. Shortly after, a proposal was passed that also destroyed all remaining LUNA in this fund to mint more UST.

A doubling-down on this burn lever has had an outsized effect on both the price of LUNA and UST’s market cap, as evidenced by today’s milestone. LUNA is currently trading at $74.53, 8% down from its latest all-time high.

Source: Decrypt

According to a new report, illegal transactions, scams and gambling together make up less than 3% of the volume on the Bitcoin blockchain while exchanges and trading desks account for around 80% of volume.

Exchanges Dominate Bitcoin Volumes

A new study called “Blockchain Analysis of the Bitcoin Market” has found that illegal transactions, scams, and gambling combined account for just 3% of all onchain bitcoin trade volume. On the other hand, the study asserts that exchange and trading desk-related volume — which is mostly speculative — constitutes about 80% of the total volume.

In their analysis, the authors of a report released by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) appear to debunk the assertion that illegal transactions dominate bitcoin (BTC) trade volumes. In particular, the authors, Igor Makarov from the London School of Economics and Antoinette Schoar of the MIT Sloan School of Management, explain how earlier studies were likely to be overstating the economic value of illegal trades.

To support their argument, the two authors point to a 2019 study that had concluded that more than 46% of BTC transactions are due to illegal transactions. The authors stated:

First, Foley et al. (2019) intentionally drop all exchange-related volumes from their calculations, since they want to focus only on payments for goods and services. Since we show above that trading constitutes the main activity on the blockchain, this choice severely changes the denominator.

In addition, the authors said the estimate of volume in the Foley study is based on what they termed an imputed network of illegal clusters where any cluster recursively is deemed illegal if the majority of its transactions are with previously identified illegal clusters.

Drivers of Bitcoin Volume and Value

Although the two authors agree that this method is appealing, they nonetheless argue that this “does not discriminate between real users and short-lived pass-through clusters that exist solely to obfuscate tracing.”

Unlike the method that was used in the 2019 study, Makarov and Schoar do incorporate exchanges, over-the-counter (OTC) desks, or trading desk data when computing the non-spurious BTC volumes. Consequently, in their analysis, the two authors conclude that exchange and trading desk-related volume constitutes about 80% of the total volume while other known entities are only responsible for a minor part of total volume as of the end of 2020.

While Makarov and Schoar suggested in their report that they agreed with the general concern over the pseudonymous nature of bitcoin transactions, they however insisted that it is “important to get the magnitudes of transaction activities right in order to understand what are the ultimate drivers of bitcoin value.”

Source: Bitcoin News

The total value of crypto assets locked in the Terra ecosystem has hit a new milestone, exceeding $20 billion.

Algorithmic stablecoin platform Terra has hit a new all-time high as fellow Cosmos-based coins have posted double-digit gains in the last day.

Having surpassed Binance Smart Chain as the second-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol on Tuesday, Terra’s LUNA token today reached an all-time high of $97.90. At time of publishing, LUNA is just over $95, up 12.8% on the day, per CoinGecko.

Despite just 13 projects built on the Terra ecosystem, the total value of assets locked (TVL) in the protocol has now reached $20.7 billion, up 15% over the past day, and 64% in the past week, according to DefiLlama.

Terra is a Cosmos-based blockchain for creating algorithmic stablecoins pegged to various fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar or the euro. It became the second-largest DeFi protocol in terms of TVL after surpassing Binance Smart Chain on Tuesday.

The increasing activity in projects like savings protocol Anchor, which saw its TVL grow to $8.8 billion in the last 24 hours, is also having a positive impact on TerraUSD (UST)—Terra’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin.

With a market cap of just $9.4 billion, UST is currently not only the world’s 20th largest crypto asset, but also the market’s largest decentralized stablecoin.

Despite its impressive gains, Terra’s TVL still sits some way below the industry’s most popular smart contract platform Ethereum, which boasts $155.5 billion in TVL, or almost two-thirds of the entire DeFi sector.

Source: Coinbase

The Terra community has initiated a new decentralized name service, and an airdrop of its new TNS token is on the way.

In this initial airdrop, TNS tokens will be distributed to Terra users who bought a Terra Name Service address before Dec. 17, have at least 15 transactions in their wallet, and have spent at least 16 UST.

The airdrop will be claimable on Dec. 24.

There will be three tiers : 539 TNS for the smallest holders of TNS domains, 1078 for the middle tier and 1940 TNS for those who spent 320 UST or more on domains. Registering a domain costs 16 UST for one year.

Of 24,268 addresses that have previously interacted with TNS, 10,198 wallets qualified.

Missed Airdrop

Some users who are missing the airdrop because they haven’t made enough transactions are taking to Twitter with their frustrations.

For example, @yunling wrote, “Even though I got the domain name on November 19th (and I have .ust in my name since November 19th), I can’t receive the airdrop. What a ridiculous distribution.”

And @3Nety pointed out that the design eliminates those who are arguably the most committed. “TNS claimed to Eliminate hunters but ended up eliminating the main people that deserve the airdrop. What you say to Luna stakers?”

Stakers are users who have locked tokens (in this case, Terra’s governance token, LUNA) in order to improve security on a blockchain and earn staking rewards. Obviously, tokens that are locked up can’t make transactions until they are unlocked.

TNS Token

TNS will ultimately have a supply of 100,000,000 TNS that will be released entirely over the next two years, with no further inflation. Of that, 17.7% has been set aside for airdrops.

The first blog post about Terra Name Service went up on Oct. 20. Like the Ethereum Name Service, it made it easy for users to make a human-readable address for their wallet.

Much like the Ethereum Name Service before it, the Terra Name Service (TNS) is launching its new governance token to decentralize the product’s future. Also like ENS, it’s distributing a lot of that token through an airdrop, but TNS is taking measures to inhibit airdrop chasers. For those worried that crypto will become cluttered with name services, the new service for Terra seems to take aim at making it easier to use the Cosmos ecosystem.

Uniting Cosmos

Terra is part of the larger Cosmos ecosystem, officially joining it in late October.

The Cosmos architecture causes each application to have its own blockchain and its own address, which can be confusing for users. While wallets like Keplr are designed to incorporate multiple chains, they still have lots of addresses.

Terra looks to address this issue, as a Dec. 22 post about theTNS token notes:

“Since Cosmos chains are all independent of each other, users will need to have many available addresses to send/receive funds. We want to find a solution to improve the users’ experience if they only got ONE address that fits all (Terra, Cosmos, Osmosis, Secret Network, Crypto.com, Persistence, Injective etc) Thus, we are building UST to tackle this problem.”

It’s not clear who is behind the Terra Name Service. A moderator in the Terra Discord said it was not a project of Terraform Labs, the builders of the Terra blockchain.

Source: The Defiant

Behemoth in financial services Visa has completed its multimillion-dollar acquisition of Currencycloud. Currencycloud, which creates APIs for embedded B2B cross-border payments and currency exchange services, has collaborated with distributed ledger startup Ripple since July 2020.

CurrencyCloud is now owned by Visa.

Visa paid £700 million (equivalent to $930 million) for Currencycloud, which was announced on Tuesday. The purchase of Currencycloud by Visa is intended to improve transparency, flexibility, and speed for the two companies’ clients when making cross-border transfers or conducting foreign exchange business.

Visa and Currencycloud signed a definitive agreement in July of this year, and the acquisition of the London-based firm is now complete. It should be noted that the acquisition is based on an existing strategic partnership between the two companies, as Visa already has a stake in Currencycloud. Furthermore, Visa participated in the Currencycloud financing round last year, alongside other investors such as the Japanese financial conglomerate SBI.

Currencycloud joined Ripple’s payment network RippleNet earlier this year to investigate new international transaction mechanisms, with a focus on regions where regulatory policies stifle opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses.

Visa Looks To Revolutionize Digital Payments

Visa anticipates that digital assets will play a larger role in day-to-day payments in the future. As a result, the payments behemoth has taken critical steps in recent months to incorporate crypto services into its products.

Visa began directly settling digital currency transactions on the Ethereum blockchain using the USDC stablecoin in March. Visa spent 49.5 ETH on a CryptoPunk in August, which the firm’s head of crypto described as a great way to learn more about the booming NFT market firsthand. Meanwhile, amid a surge in client interest, the firm unveiled a new global crypto-centric consulting unit earlier this month.

Following the Currencycloud venture, Visa’s next logical step is to increase its involvement in the crypto industry.

According to a report, the number of daily trades in economically troubled Turkey has surpassed one million. This increase in trades has been attributed to the Turkish lira’s depreciation, which hit a new low against the US dollar on December 20.

Lira Plunges

Cryptocurrency trades in Turkey’s inflation-stricken Lira have risen to more than one million per day for the first time since March, according to a Reuters report citing Chainalysis and Kaiko data.

The return to over a million trades per day has occurred at a time when Turkey’s fiat currency, the lira, has depreciated by nearly 40% since September, according to the report. Prior to the recent surge, cryptocurrency trades in Turkey had previously exceeded one million per day following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unexpected dismissal of the central bank governor on March 22.

The dismissal of then-governor Naci Agbal sparked inflation fears among Turks, causing the lira to fall by more than 10%. However, after a period of relative stability — which resulted in fewer cryptocurrency transactions — trades per day surpassed one million once more following the lira’s latest drop.

According to recent data, the lira briefly fell to a new low of 18.10 per dollar on December 20, 2021. However, following the announcement of a rescue plan by the government, the lira has recovered to 12.50 at the time of writing.

Gold Restrictions are a boon for cryptocurrency.

According to the Reuters report, the recent increase in cryptocurrency trades may be related to restrictions imposed earlier this year that made it difficult for Turks to convert the lira to gold. The race of Bitcoin to a new all-time high of more than $69K in November is also said to have contributed to the increase in trades.

According to the report, the most popular cryptocurrencies among Turks are bitcoin and the stablecoin USDT. Data show that the TRY/USDT pair is one of the most traded, while the fiat currency’s pair with BTC is the 12th most traded.

Reports that Turks are increasingly adopting cryptocurrencies come just a few months after the central bank prohibited the use of crypto assets to pay for goods and services. Furthermore, President Erdogan has stated that the country is at war with cryptocurrencies.

A popular crypto analyst and trader is sharing his 2022 outlook after the markets witnessed a steep correction in recent weeks.

In a new strategy session, Michaël van de Poppe tells his 156,000 YouTube subscribers that he’s eyeing a trio of altcoins that have the potential for big breakouts next year.

The trader says he’s been building up his portfolio with assets that he believes are undervalued, starting with decentralized parallel blockchain network Cosmos (ATOM).

“The first one is ATOM, which is currently showing strength in the price action but has been seeing some cycles that are important to look at.

In this case, we’ve had a beautiful run at the beginning of 2021. We’ve had a harsh correction [starting in May] which got towards a beautiful retest.

When we’re looking at the current price action, we’ve had a beautiful run as well, and we’ve had a very harsh corrective move which results in a beautiful retest happening once again.”

Looking ahead to what’s in store for ATOM’s valuation, Van de Poppe cites the 1.618 Fibonacci extension as he plots out a run to $60 and going possibly as high as $100.

“The chances are that we’re going to face ourselves a new run towards the 1.618 Fibonacci in the first run upwards, which might bring us towards $60.

But if we use the entire move previously, which might bring us towards $67, or even the next one joining the $100 category.”

Cosmos is currently surging, with the price of ATOM up 21.3% on the day and trading at $27.96.

Next up is decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker protocol Curve DAO Token (CRV). The analyst cites higher lows and higher highs as a reason to be excited about the altcoin’s future price action.

“[CRV] is currently leading up towards a big breakout, given the fact that we’ve just been witnessing a beautiful retest… after a big run already.

We’re constantly making higher lows, higher highs, which might bring us a result that we’re going to have an acceleration into price discovery for Curve.”

CRV is also on a run today, having ripped higher by 17.2% to $5.09, at time of writing.

The crypto analyst concludes his altcoin focus by looking at SUSHI, the native token of Ethereum-based DEX SushiSwap.

Van de Poppe notes that after seeing SUSHI’s price fall by a drastic 80%, he’s interested in taking a position.

“We are currently facing a beautiful retest for SUSHI. I think the moment that it breaks above this level that we have [the $4.64 to $6.19 range], then $6.25 to $7 is going to be the actual trigger.

I think if this one breaks at $7.35, actually, we’re going to see a new expansion when it comes to SUSHI.”

The price of SushiSwap is also currently in the green, with the altcoin up nearly 9% on the day to $5.93.

Source: DailyHodl

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has criticized the current state of the metaverse and the Web3 movement, suggesting the latter concept is a “marketing buzzword.” The crypto influencer also posted a video of David Letterman making fun of the early internet in an interview with Bill Gates, and wondered what the future will bring.

Musk is skeptical of the current Web3 movement.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a well-known crypto influencer, has issued his thoughts on the current state of Web3 and the metaverse movement. Musk is skeptical of the Web3 movement right now, believing it “seems more marketing buzzword than reality right now.”

Web3 and metaverse are terms that refer to a collection of concepts that include blockchain technologies, smart contracts, and decentralized economies with the goal of creating an alternate reality to the one we live in. This long-forgotten concept was recently revived by Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. Meta intends to shape the metaverse through its own tools and developments.

While Musk is skeptical of these technologies’ current capabilities, he is more optimistic about the future and what it may bring to consumers.

Given the almost unimaginable nature of the present, what will the future be? Just wondering what the future will be like in 10, 20, or 30 years. 2051 sounds crazy futuristic!

Musk was emphatic:

Web3 Potential

Musk’s remarks come after he shared a video in which David Letterman criticizes the early internet’s functionality in an interview with Bill Gates. In contrast to Musk’s recent statements, Gates has revealed himself to be a strong supporter of the metaverse movement and has predicted a shift to virtual spaces.

Within the next two or three years, I predict most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids—which I call the Hollywood Squares model, although I know that probably dates me—to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars.

Gates stated in a blog post:

Similarly, corporations and investors are investing in metaverse-related initiatives. Grayscale recently released a report on the business opportunities that the metaverse could bring, estimating that it could be a $1 trillion opportunity for investors who enter the sector early.

Visa’s director of crypto disclosed that the payments giant has teamed up with roughly 60 prominent crypto platforms “to launch card programs that make it easy for consumers to convert and spend digital currency at 80 million merchant locations worldwide.” “We’ve built up a lot of momentum in this space,” he said, “and we’ll continue to support the crypto ecosystem in several ways.”

Visa Is Dedicated to Growing the Crypto Ecosystem

Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, discussed the payments giant’s digital asset efforts in a Monday interview with NDTV.

“At Visa, the scale and scope of our work in crypto has grown dramatically,” he began. “The number of people cross-functionally at Visa working on crypto in some capacity is now in the hundreds — up from just a handful of employees. And we’ve more than doubled our number of partnerships with crypto platforms in the last 18 months — up to 60 partnerships today.” Sheffield expanded:

We’ve partnered with more than 60 of the leading crypto platforms, like FTX, Blockfi, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and Binance, to launch card programs that make it easy for consumers to convert and spend digital currency at 80 million merchant locations worldwide.

“Crypto-linked cards make it easy for consumers to convert and spend digital currencies, without requiring coffee shops, dry cleaners, or grocery stores to directly accept crypto at the checkout,” he continued. “All the conversions from crypto to fiat happen instantly, behind the scenes. In-store, online, it’s as easy as a standard Visa transaction.”

The executive was asked if Visa intends to launch a cryptocurrency consulting service in India. In early December, the company announced the launch of its crypto advisory services.

“Visa aims to provide our crypto advisory services to clients globally wherever there is interest, and currently, we offer services in markets where the regulations permit such transactions,” he replied.

The head of crypto at Visa stated:

At the end of the day, we want to serve as a bridge connecting the crypto ecosystem with our global network of 80 million merchant locations and more than 15,000 financial institutions.

“We’ve built a lot of momentum in this space, and we’ll continue to support the crypto ecosystem in several ways,” he concluded.

As defi grows, it risks embracing the very ideology it was created to oppose, because the primary beneficiaries of this new financing paradigm are those who already own digital assets.

Replacing Intermediaries Doesn’t Directly Improve Finance

When it comes to financial products and services, almost everything has a catch, whether it’s high returns on investments or low financing rates. Defi (decentralized finance) is no exception.

Defi has grown in popularity because it sought to eliminate traditional finance’s (tradfi’s) inherent problems and drawbacks. While there is no denying that the emergence of defi has lowered access barriers to financial solutions, we cannot ignore the unsettling reality that defi is becoming, at least to some extent, the same as traditional finance, albeit with a ‘decentralized’ label.

The Distinction Between Defi and Tradfi Lending

Anyone who wants to borrow money from a bank or a private lender in the traditional system must provide their credit score. If the score meets the requirements, the loan is approved at a reasonable interest rate. If the borrower’s credit score is low, he or she may have to settle for higher interest rates. In some cases, the lender may also require the borrower to post collateral as collateral for the loan.

While defi replaces central authorities with a peer-to-peer system, accessing products such as defi lending requires borrowers to post substantial collateral, which is often greater than the total amount they want to borrow, a practice known as over-collateralization. Furthermore, entering the defi market and using its financial products necessitates knowledge of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, which only a small percentage of the global population possesses.

Defi lending began with the goal of facilitating “true decentralized lending,” in which anyone in need of capital could obtain a loan without the use of a middleman. Unfortunately, that is not the case with today’s defi lending. It has effectively evolved into yet another mechanism for existing digital asset holders to generate yields by putting their existing assets to work. Today’s defi does not empower the world’s unbanked.

As a result, it appears that defi is more lender-focused and not as all-inclusive as advertised. Take, for example, the recent parabolic growth of the defi lending ecosystem. The top defi lending platforms and protocols have amassed a total value locked (TVL) of more than $60 billion.

AAVE, an open-source and non-custodial lending and borrowing protocol, has nearly $20.96 billion TVL spread across Avalanche, Ethereum, and Polygon staking and liquidity pools. Similarly, at the time of writing, Maker DAO has a TVL of $17.06 billion and rising, Compound has a TVL of $11.33 billion, and Instadapp has a TVL of approximately $12.17 billion, highlighting the meteoric growth of defi in general.

The distinctions between tradfi and defi are becoming increasingly blurred. Here’s an example.

A small business owner from a developing country requires funding. Regrettably, they lack access to traditional financial services. They stumble upon defi lending and open an account on one of the existing platforms. When they apply for funding, they realize the collateral requirements are higher than they want to borrow, which they obviously do not have.

We must also consider the defi lending platform’s point of view. To protect lenders’ investments, defi lending platforms, understandably, require collateral. Does it, however, justify the need for overcollateralized loans? For the time being, defi is not bringing unbanked people into the system, but rather rewarding privileged crypto holders with a return on their existing assets.

Non-collateralized Defi Lending: Great in Theory, but There Are Drawbacks

Except for Gluwa, an alternative financial system for the unbanked, there are no non-collateralized defi lending platforms (that I could find). In emerging markets, Gluwa has collaborated with a number of international companies, including Aella, Multis, Creditcoin, Jenfi, Wyre, Gopax, and Consensys. Its integration with Aella’s consumer credit app reached over two million African customers. To date, Gluwa and Aella have facilitated over a million transactions, resulting in the creation of over 28 million blocks.

Users are not required to post collateral on Gluwa. However, there is a catch. The interest rate on these non-collateralized loans is significantly higher than the interest rate on collateralized defi loans available through AAVE, Compound, and similar platforms.

As a result, Gluwa, while a defi solution, shares many characteristics with the traditional lending-borrowing paradigm, such as private non-collateralized lending, in which the lender takes on high-risk borrowers and passes this risk on to the borrower in the form of higher interest rates.

The Way Forward

There’s a lot to think about when it comes to defi loans, with over-collateralized ones and high-interest non-collateralized ones. While platforms require collateral, they do make it simple for anyone to obtain capital with the click of a button. However, this is only available to those who already own digital assets. It contradicts the notions of inclusivity and equal opportunity for all, which are fundamental to defi. The flip side of the defi coin is that non-collateralized loans charge higher interest rates to compensate for the risk, which undermines defi’s vision of fair and justified earning for all.

It is difficult to achieve a truly decentralized lending and borrowing process that balances risk and return equally for both lenders and borrowers. So, in the future, we may see a better version of decentralized lending, or we may end up with “truly” decentralized lending that closely resembles the traditional financial market, thus returning full circle and becoming the very thing it sought to change.

Source: Bitcoin News

Hayden Capital writes that the crypto exchange giant is best-positioned to benefit from the industry’s strong growth.

Coinbase is the best-positioned cryptocurrency-related company to benefit from the industry’s soaring growth, Hayden Capital said on Monday in a memo on the crypto exchange.

• Coinbase could reach $49.2 billion in revenue exiting 2025 under a bullish outlook of mass crypto adoption, rising interest among institutional investors and the sector growing to $6.8 trillion in total size. Under a more conservative crypto market cap estimate of $3.4 trillion, the firm would more than double revenues to $21.3 billion by 2025.
• Hayden’s prediction for 2021 revenue of $8.8 billion is higher than other analysts’ estimates; Coinbase is projected to generate about $7 billion in revenue this year, according to FactSet estimates.
• Hayden Capital believes that Coinbase will hold its market share lead over other exchanges, while also fending off competition from other fintech firms, including Robinhood and PayPal.
• In addition, Coinbase also contains a “much larger share of the regulated spot markets in the U.S. than is widely understood, as opposed to looking at the usual trading volume leaderboards” on which most analysts are focused, the letter said.
• Founded by former New Street Research and J.P. Morgan small-cap equity fund research analyst Fred Liu, Hayden Capital is a value-oriented investment firm, with holdings mostly concentrated in 6-15 core positions, according to its website.

Source: CoinDesk

Patreon, the membership platform, is considering allowing creators on its platform to create their own creator coins. Patreon CEO and co-founder Jack Conte and Chief Product Officer Julian Gutman made the surprising statement at The Information’s 2021 Creator Economy Summit. This is consistent with a report released in September that examined the use of cryptocurrency as part of the platform.

Patreon Makes a Move Towards Cryptocurrency

According to CEO Jack Conte and Chief Product Officer Julian Gutman, Patreon, the well-known membership organization, is now considering introducing crypto elements to add new revenue paths. Both directives admitted during The Information’s 2021 Creator Economy Summit that the idea of introducing a membership token for content creators is on the table.

While Patreon has explicitly prohibited the introduction of coins as a form of investment on its platform, the rise in cryptocurrency, along with other circumstances that the platform is facing, may force it to change these rules in the near future. Gutman said about this:

I think we’re certainly interested in evaluating and understanding how NFTs or some of the underlying technologies help us create that sustainable long-term earnings for creators.

Conte also lauded the cryptography’s permissionless and direct characteristics. This allows creators to own their products and the data collected from their followers without having to rely on a middleman, which, oddly enough, Patreon is. “I think that’s what a lot of this technology is getting at, and what I think is really deeply exciting about it,” he said.

A Cryptocurrency Alternative

Patreon has previously had issues with some content creators, prompting them to consider crypto-based services as an alternative. Patreon de-platformed some creators, including “Sargon of Akkad” aka Carl Benjamin, in December 2018, leaving him without income from the subscribers who followed him.

This prompted Jordan Peterson, another Patreon influencer, to close his account and launch a new alternative service with more lax content moderation rules. However, the inclusion of cryptocurrency in a periodic membership service has previously been attempted, but with limited success.

In an ironic twist, Patreon could be the platform for implementing cryptocurrency in response to Mastercard’s new adult policies. The platform hinted at this in its most recent policy engagement update, declaring:

One opportunity creators have expressed interest in is developing a creator coin or social token which could be included as a membership benefit.

Commonwealth Bank will reportedly enable its 6.5 million customers to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin in 2022.

Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will reportedly enable its 6.5 million customers to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin directly in its banking app, according to the Australian Financial Review. The bank will become the first in Australia to offer customers direct access to bitcoin and join a handful of other financial institutions in the world to cater to the growing demand for the scarce asset.

According to the report, CBA hasn’t made a formal announcement yet and is preparing to share its developments in integrating BTC into its app on Wednesday, November 3.

“It may also confirm partnerships with Gemini, a crypto exchange that would facilitate the trading, and Chainalysis, which provides compliance and intelligence services for transactions over blockchains,” reported AFR.

Sources close to the matter told AFR that CBA’s over 6.5 million customers would be able to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies next year, as well as view their holdings inside the main CBA banking app. Enabling consumers to pay for everyday consumer items with BTC is “being considered as an additional feature that could be added by CBA down the track,” per the report.

CBA is Australia’s largest bank and the country’s leading financial services provider, including retail, premium, business, and institutional banking. The bank’s over 6.5 million clients represent more than 25% of the country’s total population.

If CBA goes forward with its plan to enable bitcoin purchasing through its main banking app, one-quarter of the Australian population will have frictionless access to the world’s best form of money. By reducing barriers, CBA might allow millions of people to start acquiring their first bitcoin as early as next year.

However, it is unclear whether Commonwealth Bank will allow customers to withdraw their BTC into an external wallet for which they hold the private keys. The bank might shed light on their plans for withdrawals in their formal announcement. But if neglected, this feature alone can hurt bitcoin adoption long term, as BTC on a banking app would function very much like an IOU and effectively undermine much of the sovereignty enabled by Bitcoin.

Source: Bitcoin Magazines

The President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele has announced the nation will build 20 new schools with Bitcoin profits.

The President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele has announced the nation will build 20 new schools with Bitcoin profits, the Press Secretary of the Presidency’s Twitter account confirmed. 

The funds come from the surplus of the Salvadoran Trust for the Adoption of Bitcoin, which is currently enjoying all-time highs at above the $60,000 price mark. 

The announcement was made just after President Bukele carried out the symbolic act of laying the first stone of the first public veterinary hospital in El Salvador. That initiative was also made a reality due to the success of the country’s Bitcoin investment. 

At the event, President Bukele stated that the veterinary hospital “will allow us to do 384 daily consultations, attend 128 daily emergencies, perform 64 daily dog ​​and cat surgeries, 64 hairdressing appointments, 128 rehabilitations and 32 X-rays.” The veterinary hospital is also set to employ 300 Salvadorans. 

Bukele was sure to mention that the veterinary hospital and the forthcoming school construction and repair were all made possible because the opposition to his bold national Bitcoin adoption strategy was ignored. 

The construction of the 20 new “Bitcoin” schools are in addition to the 400 schools from the My New School Program, local sources report. 

This comes just one week after Bitcoin broke through to an all-time high of nearly $67,000. On 28 October, President Bukele confirmed via Twitter that the Latin American nation bought the “Bitcoin price dip,” exchanging dollars for Bitcoin at a time he believed it remains undervalued by the global market.

El Salvador’s most recent purchase of 420 Bitcoin brought its national stack to 1120 Bitcoin, worth over $70 million at the time of writing. It seems the nation does not plan to take profits from its Bitcoin stack to fund the veterinary hospital and the new schools, rather it will continue to use the dollars also held in the fund. 

Bitcoiners are eager to see what country will be next to adopt Bitcoin as nations are forced to compete or be left behind. The game-theoretic prisoner’s dilemma has begun in global politics, and nation states that adopt Bitcoin first are at a great advantage. At this time, El Salvador is the only country publicly holding Bitcoin in reserve. 

Source: Bitcoin Magazines

Liquid exchange is looking to provide derivative products for both retail and institutional investors.

Liquid exchange is moving on after an August hack and is now seeking to offer derivatives trading to its Japanese users. The exchange announced that it had attained a Type 1 Financial Instruments Business license through its subsidiary. In its blog post, Liquid confirmed that QUOINE Corporation, its subsidiary, had secured the license issued under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act on October 26. 

The exchange promised to offer customer-centric, innovative, and compliant derivative products for both retail and institutional investors. Being one of the very few institutions to receive the license, Liquid intends to hold its services and products to the highest standards, it said. Seth Melamed, the chief operating officer at Liquid, commented, “The Type 1 license issuance is the culmination of a great deal of preparation and collaboration by the entire Liquid team. It is also a validation that trading derivatives in crypto can be done in a compliant manner with full customer protections & transparency.”

The license comes just two months since the exchange was hacked.

The license comes just two months since the exchange was hacked and nearly $80 million lost. Liquid revealed that the hackers had targeted its hot wallets and made away with over 100 BTC, 9million XRP, and tens of millions of ERC-20 tokens. However, a week later, Liquid announced that it had received $120 million in debt financing from FTX Trading, the FTX derivatives exchange parent company. FTX was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been implicated in the $70 billion Tether house of cards, with reports revealing that his market-making firm Alameda Research received close to half of all newly-minted USDT tokens. 

Source: Coinnounce

Bitcoin’s new all-time high and the approval of BTC ETFs acted as a major stepping stone for general adoption. In fact, it also catapulted Bitcoin’s store of value narrative.  

The store of value race

For quite some time now Bitcoin has been called digital gold. However, the arguments for and against the notion are equally prevalent since the narrative hasn’t completely played out yet. Nonetheless, with BTC continuously above the $60K mark, many argue that Bitcoin in fact is ‘better at being gold than gold itself.’ 

Despite the volatility, the king coin continues to draw interest from investors for its long-term record of building and maintaining value. In fact, this cycle saw the aggregate Bitcoin balances on the exchanges on a major downtrend. The current exchange balance levels are equivalent to the September 2018 levels. 

Further, with new addresses going up, outflows peaking, and relatively low volatility shown by price, BTC comfortably rested above $60K. The market seemed to be flooded with positive supply shock narratives. But, the important question is what gave BTC the upper hand when it came to the store of value fight.

BTC has the upper hand 

The number one reason people started buying gold was the real yield, but investors might be tilting towards Bitcoin as a replacement. Right now Gold’s real yield noted 4% which was the lowest it has been for more than a decade. If the real yield is negative then basically you are paying for the privilege of taking someone’s risk.

While generally, when the real yield dips into negative territory it’s a trigger for run-ups in gold, this time however the same wasn’t seen. 

Now, there are speculations that one reason behind this negative real yield could be that money inflows are being stolen away from Gold, but are they going into BTC? There are some factors that point towards it.  

Firstly, the evolution of the market cap of Bitcoin expressed as a percentage of the market size of physical gold shows that BTC is skyrocketing. 

Bitcoin went from less than 1% of the market size of gold to 2.5% four years later and now stands at a staggering 12%. At the moment it does seem like BTC is probably just stealing some cash that would traditionally go to gold, but the dynamics could be much different in some time. 

Additionally, BTC’s built-in scarcity along with its stark similarity to the 90s dot-com bubble makes the narrative for BTC stronger. 

For now, BTC still has a long way to go. Despite a world of difference keeping gold investors and Bitcoin traders apart, perhaps both can share parts of an anti-fiat philosophy. 

Source: AMBCrypto

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Ripple attributes the growth to the success of its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service.

According to the company’s Q3 report, Ripple’s XRP sales increased by 211% quarter-over-quarter. It sold $491.74 million worth of XRP in the previous quarter, up from $157.92 million in the previous quarter. The success of Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service, which uses XRP as a bridge between fiat currencies, is attributed to the growth.

According to Asheesh Birla, RippleNet’s general manager, ODL now accounts for a quarter of the network’s total dollar volume. Transactions made with the service have increased by 130% in the last quarter.

ODL, on the other hand, is gaining little traction in the United States as a result of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Ripple.

Since the fourth quarter of 2019, the company’s programmatic sales have been halted, implying that it is no longer selling XRP to cryptocurrency exchanges.

OVR AR Metaverse goes to a whole other level. Italian company OVR is announcing today the creation of the so-called OVR Land Map.

OVR Land Mapping: the metaverse to another level

Thanks to the powers of AI, in fact, OVR is able to generate a 3D map of the physical world starting from simple pictures, no lidar or other expensive HW needed, just the smartphone in your pocket. All of the OVR users will be able to contribute to creating the biggest detailed 3D map of the real world.

This revolutionary technology of open mapping system will bring the OVR AR Metaverse to a whole other level: currently, when geolocalization an AR asset in an OVRLand there’s the limitation of the GPS accuracy that has meters of error outdoor while is totally unreliable indoor, a scanned OVRLand will have a localization precision up to ì0 cm.

A new AR experience

That opens up a whole new realm of opportunities in creating AR experiences that before were not technically feasible: localizing experiences on a specific wall or a statue outdoors, precisely superimposing AR to existing buildings, geolocating assets indoor and on multiple floors, to name a few… No other platform, nor in the blockchain, nor the traditional world, can currently achieve this.

But this is not only about AR precision and creating a wider bridge between the physical and the digital world; this is also about creating new economies on OVR.

For example, Axie Infinity demonstrated what the potential of play-to-earn is. It enabled a crowd of players to earn a living in the Metaverse, also creating social inclusion between some of the poorer populations on the planet.

OVR, with its technology, will unleash the potential of Map to Earn, so the company will enable a crowd of OVRLand Scanners to earn OVR tokens by simply scanning physical locations with the smartphone they have in their pockets.

An amazing infrastructure

The company foresees this activity to be subsidized by OVR with a part of the revenues from OVRLand sales, by OVRLand owners that will decide to make their OVRLands even more valuable and usable by adding the 3D mapping and finally institutions that will harness the OVR platform to populate the Public Utility Layer of their territories.

In the last year, treasure hunters physically went to over one million locations to collect the tokens, which would be already 300.000 mapped sq Km!

And that’s not all, another important question is what parts of the world should be mapped?

OVR has an answer to this question, OVRLand buyers generated a “Wisdom of the Crowds” based map, 6k+ investors voting with their wealth on the most important locations in the world.

Davide Cuttini, CEO of OVR, talks about the future of AR Metaverses:

Source: Bitcoin News

“When I imagine a world where reality and virtuality are fused, where thanks to small contact lenses I can’t distinguish real and unreal projections, the crowdsourced 3D world scanning is the fundamental brick to create an amazing new infrastructure. Without the complete understanding of the real world through AI models available from commodity devices, no AR platforms will see a real adoption. I think that OVR is in the right direction to democratize access to this amazing new way to live our lives!”.

On November 12, the Walt Disney Company will be celebrating the first annual Disney+ Day and will be launching non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles to celebrate the experience. Disney fans will be able to obtain official NFTs from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and more via the digital collectibles app Veve.

Entertainment Giant Disney to Drop NFT Series

Disney has plans to launch official non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles in celebration of the first annual Disney+ Day. The well known multinational entertainment and media conglomerate headquartered in California has revealed a series of NFTs featuring iconic Disney characters and items.

The first series collection is called “Golden Moments,” and fans will be able to obtain the NFTs by utilizing the digital collectibles app Veve. The Veve application has dropped NFTs stemming from Marvel, DC Comics, and special promotions based on beloved superheroes like Spider-Man and Captain America.

The “Golden Moments” Disney NFT series will feature “digital golden statues inspired by beloved stories and moments from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, [and] Star Wars.” According to Veve, the new Disney NFTs will soon be available via the app and will “culminate on Disney+ Day on November 12.”

On that day, a “special Ultra Rare digital collectible” will be introduced as well. Veve says the drop dates will be revealed ahead of time and if a customer purchases an NFT from the “Golden Moments” collection, they will get three months of Disney+ TV from Veve.

Veve Technology Claims to Offer ‘Gasless Transactions’

The Disney+ promo is available in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Netherlands, Spain, Mexico, and Singapore. However, the Disney+ TV subscription offer doesn’t apply to secondary NFT sales.

Information regarding the Disney “Golden Moments” NFT collectibles series can be found on Veve’s web portal. Veve says the application they offer leverages “an augmented reality (AR) photo mode” which allows collectors to interact with the NFT.

According to Veve, the technology used to mint the non-fungible token collectibles it offers utilizes “gasless transactions providing a 99.9% reduction in environmental footprint.”

Source: Bitcoin News

Peter Thiel, the co-founder of Paypal in a recent statement claimed he knows what’s driving Bitcoin price up this October. Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur has been an avid Bitcoin proponent, and when the top cryptocurrency rose to a new all-time-high (ATH) in the second week of October, Thiel showed signs of FOMO claiming he was underinvested in $BTC.

During his recent appearance at the second National Conservatism Conference, the billionaire co-founder claimed that the rise in the price of crypto assets proves that inflation is real and went on to criticize Federal Reserves for downplaying it and bringing it under control. At a time when inflation is running havoc on the economy despite several assurances from various government agencies, Bitcoin and other crypto-assets have touched a record high. Thiel said,

“You know, $60,000 Bitcoin, I’m not sure that one should aggressively buy,” he said. “But surely what it is telling us is that we are having a crisis moment.”

Theil believes the Feds could have taken more appropriate measures to protect the consumers rather than downplaying it. While the inflation was definitely expected, given the Coronavirus led several governments to print more money for stimulus packages.

Bitcoin Continues to Consolidate Above $60K

Bitcoin price continued to consolidate above $60,000 after a flash crash last week that saw the price retrace to sub-$58K levels. October proved to be a highly bullish month for the top cryptocurrency as it added nearly $20K to its price. $BTC was trading under $45K at the start of the month but soon rose to a new ATH of $66,973, just short of the $67K mark. $BTC was trading at $60,793 at the time of writing with a 1% surge in price over the past 24-hours.

The last quarter has historically proven to be bullish for the top cryptocurrency and as we enter November on a high, market pundits expect $BTC to get closer to $100K.

Source: CoinGape

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk is back at it with DOGE boosting tweets. Last week, Musk had tweeted about starting a new university in Texas known as the Texas Institute of Technology & Science, or as Musk would call it, ‘TITS’. Following his previous tweet’s thread, he added last night that tuition fees for his university will be accepted in Dogecoin, further announcing that people with a dog will get special discounts. However shockingly, DOGE price has not surged exceptionally, or even enough after Musk’s tweet.

Tuition is in Dogecoin & u get a discount if u have a dog

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021

Dogecoin Vs Shiba Inu

According to CoinGape’s last week’s reportage, DOGE price surged approximately 46% upon competing with Shiba Inu, which overtook Musk’s favorite meme coin and is now positioned at No. 9, while DOGE struggles at No. 10. Shiba Inu’s price is consistently rising and currently stands at $0.000069, with a market cap of $37.8 billion. However, Dogecoin has not seen any extraordinary improvement and stays at $0.26, with a market cap of $35.25 billion, at the time of reporting. Nevertheless, Shiba Inu may have to fight Tesla CEO’s social media influence to maintain its position. Musk’s support for the meme currency, Dogecoin on social media has been evident and frequent. Recently, the DOGE community saw a surge after Musk called DOGE “people’s crypto”.

“Lots of people I talked to on the production lines at Tesla or building rockets at SpaceX own Doge. They aren’t financial experts or Silicon Valley technologists. That’s why I decided to support Doge – it felt like the people’s crypto.”, Musk tweeted.

Musk on Dogecoin at the B-Word

Musk has balanced his support for DOGE after getting backlash for his comments on the meme coin, earlier this year, during the B-Word conference. While Musk said that the dogecoin community was “irreverent”, and only complimented their “hilarious memes”, he also mentioned that he likes how DOGE “does not take off too seriously.”. Furthermore, Musk shared, he likes both, “dogs and memes”, henceforth he has added DOGE to his crypto portfolio. However, this raised manifold questions on Musk’s reason to support DOGE, questioning whether he expects genuine growth, or it is just one of his practical jokes that he will not take seriously a decade later.

Source: CoinGape

Cardano’s presence in Africa has been called into question on numerous occasions. But Hoskinson has responded by shutting down any skepticism.

This month, the IOHK team, headed by Charles Hoskinson, has been in Africa meeting entrepreneurs and politicians in a bid to further the Cardano cause.

In doing so, Hoskinson and the team “dropped by” Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education for a follow-up on the student credential system first mentioned in August.

“Dropped by the MOE today to discuss the digital transformation of Ethiopia’s educational credentials. Five million students on schedule.”

The credential system set out to overhaul the academic records of 5 million students by putting information, such as attendance and grades, on the blockchain to capture the data and provide a digital identity system.

Hoskinson told Bloomberg that this is the initial phase of the program. Later on, the intention is to use it as a springboard to launch a national ID system in the country. This would see a step up in numbers to 110 million users.

“It’s our intention to compete amongst others for the whole national ID system, which is about 110 million people.”

Cardano is making a splash on the global stage

The Cardano Atala Prism project in Ethiopia was ranked the 14th (out of 50) most influential project in 2021 by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

“As the largest blockchain deal ever signed by a government, the project is demonstrating how crypto assets can help drive positive socioeconomic change across Africa and beyond.”

The PMI described the project as a gamechanger, which has the potential to improve the educational outcomes of Ethiopian students.

IOHK’s Director of African Operations, John O’Conner, said there was initial resistance against the project at the governmental level. But the state started to realize that digital identity and blockchain technology are not as disruptive as first thought.

O’Conner said Atala Prism enables governments to meet their obligations of administering documentation while also making headway towards further digitalization.

The Africa play explained

Cardano’s presence in Africa has been called into question on numerous occasions. But Hoskinson has responded by shutting down any skepticism, saying the region has great promise.

More specifically, in explaining why IOHK is in Africa, a recent blog post gives insight into the strategy behind the move.

It states that Africa has “no allegiances to the systems of the past,” which, in any case, haven’t “worked out so well here.” As such, the entire infrastructure is up for grabs in terms of implementing better, more egalitarian ways of doing things.

 “You don’t go where the ball is right now. You go to where the ball is going to be.”

With that, by positioning itself now, Cardano is set to ride the wave of progress as Africa gains greater significance on the global stage.

Source: Cryptoslate

Independent think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) opined in its latest post that G20 countries have both an “opportunity and responsibility” to coordinate policies around crypto-assets and DeFi. So much so, that it is conducive to a “sustainable, balanced, and inclusive global economic architecture.”

While the report made some key observations, let’s rewind to the first G20 discussion carried out in 2018 on the asset class.

FATF guidelines

The G20 countries signed a joint declaration in Buenos Aires that stated,

“We will regulate crypto-assets for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism in line with FATF standards, and we will consider other responses as needed.”

Having said that, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently released its revised guidelines for digital assets. Among many recommendations, FATF made it clear that all “national authorities should undertake a coordinated risk assessment of virtual asset activities, products, and services.”

Also, it commented on assessing risks associated with virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in the country. Additionally, countries are recommended to identify VASPs for licensing or registration.

G20 Adoption

As we move focus to crypto adoption in G20 nations, it’s noteworthy that Saudi Arabia’s central bank (SAMA) governor recently said that crypto is too close to criminals. As per a report, governor Fahad Al Mubarak claimed that digital currencies, like Bitcoin, cannot smash the banking system.

As Hussain Abdulla, co-CEO of Qatar-based investment bank QInvest, also explained that the virtual assets “were not yet Sharia-compliant, and more understanding was needed.”

Meanwhile, another G20 nation, China, has explicitly banned Bitcoin and other crypto activities. But, it continues innovation on the CBDC front. The FATF guidance also clarified that the central bank digital currencies are not considered to be virtual assets in the recommendations. And the FATF Standards would apply to CBDCs similar to any other form of fiat currency.

Roadmap

However, IMF recommended in its recent stability report that G20 Cross Border Payments Roadmap (G20 2020) should be prioritized by global policymakers to make “cross-border payments faster, cheaper, more transparent and inclusive.”

It is noteworthy that BIS Innovation Hub has spearheaded multiple CBDC (mCBDC) Bridge is a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) ecosystem. They were initiated to support multi-currency cross-border payments by distributed ledger technology.

Meanwhile, the ORFO report also noted,

“Bitcoin is especially popular in emerging market and developing economies, including G20 economies such as Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, and Indonesia.”

And while adoption is skyrocketing globally, many other G20 countries are also amidst developing a regulatory framework for digital assets. India, for example, might bring in law as early as February 2022 for its two million crypto users.

Meanwhile, South Korea is also shaking up its existing policies to bring in taxation and licensing policies for virtual assets.

While all this is in the works, in the context of the future of the internet economy, the report also stated,

“G20 should have a full grasp of regulation of crypto-assets, providing guidance to national regulators on the nature of the technology and regulatory best practices.”

Source: AMBCrypto

Cardano, one of the most promising ecosystems has witnessed a significant amount of traction over the years. Different upgrades, not only in the U.S. but around the world have aided its native token ADA to surge up to 1500% YTD. Here’s what you can expect from this platform in the coming few months.

In the latest AMA session, Charles Hoskinson, the chief executive of the IOHK team addressed the same. Although, this time coming live from Ethiopia rather than “warm sunny” Colorado. Firstly, Hoskinson shed light on the new ERC-20 Cardano converter bridge that went live on September 12th.

This is an important bridge connecting users outside the Cardano sphere.  For example, Ethereum-based token users will be able to enjoy the benefits of Cardano’s transaction capacity and lower fees. The first token migrating to Cardano upon launch is SingularityNET. Here’s an update,

“The SingularityNET is in the process of migration… (meanwhile) ERC 20 converter has two targets one is the main chain. Now that Plutus is here, we can actually do a lot of cool stuff with that; the other is going to be Mamba. It’ll have a really nice two-way bridge to Mamba…”

Nevertheless, the aim remains the same. The “more generic framework for the long term goal is automation and bridging so it’s easy to move between and wrap assets and so forth,” Hoskinson opined.

In addition to this, there were queries related to Plutus Application Backend (PAB) [an off-chain, backend service for managing and handling the requirements of the application instance throughout its lifecycle] going live as well. Well, Hoskinson was quick to acknowledge this. He asserted that his best estimate was November.

Well, this certainly was the key point for this AMA. This step will enable developers to interact with smart contracts. More details and advantages were mentioned in a blog as well.

Meanwhile, the successful implementation of the aforementioned aspect was linked to the next topic of discussion as well. It was Hydra, one of the most exciting of the fresh developments enabled by Alonzo. Hoskinson stated, “A huge amount of work is going into it and we’re going to keep adding resources to Hydra and we’ve been trying to identify some teams so we could accelerate, parallelize the workstream because it’s such a high commercial priority.’

Needless to say, this will be a crucial upgrade. Here’s why. According to Hoskinson,

“It’ll be able to offload a large amount of the transaction traffic that’s going to come from all of the apps that are coming (soon). As PAB comes online, Cardano is going to get hammered by an enormous amount of traffic. Hydra is a necessity for that…”

Irrespective of such developments, Cardano has been a victim of social speculations and FUDs over time. Even during the interview, one of the followers asked, if (there was) some FUD about increasing block size not really increasing the amount of Plutus smart contract per block. Well, obviously, Hoskinson was quick to slam such criticism.

“It’s a lie…If you increase the raw amount of storage the block has you, of course can have more scripts in that block.”

Regardless of such speculations, Cardano has done pretty well. It was named among 2021’s most influential projects.

Source: AMBCrypto

Decentralized finance assets, specifically crypto, are by far the best-performing investment class today. However, if you are not careful, you could lose all of your money.

It’s not uncommon for a project to generate a lot of attention, only to fizzle out a few weeks later. That is why it is critical for retail DeFi investors to 1) have a framework for analyzing projects and 2) apply this framework before investing.

DeFi’s decentralized nature allows anyone to participate. It’s amazing how little technical knowledge or capital is required to bootstrap a project or token. The consequences for investors who choose to invest without conducting due diligence can be disastrous.

Fortunately, the downside of decentralization is that data is transparent and easily accessible. Because data does not lie, this is the first place an astute investor should look.

When investigating a project, you can’t go wrong by starting with 3 metrics and 5 charts.

1. Total locked value
   Chart 1: TVL Growth
   Chart 2: TVL Distribution
2. Market cap
   Chart 3: MC/FDV Ratio
   Chart 4: MC/TVL Ratio
3. Token price & allocation
   Chart 5: Token Price Movement

1. Total Value Locked (TVL)

Ascertain that the project’s TVL growth is consistent.
The total value of assets deposited by users and locked into a protocol is referred to as TVL. The presence of more assets locked in a project indicates that users are more confident in providing liquidity and collateral for the protocol’s economic activities. This reflects the market’s confidence in the project.

As you can see, the top 10 protocols have both huge values above $5 billion and consistent month-to-month TVL growth. This indicates that a project’s vitality and strength are still intact.

When it comes to weaker, less reputable projects, the picture is quite different. Massive TVL changes per day, with an unsustainable upward trend, usually followed by a significant drop the next day.

Pick projects whose TVLs are “middle-of-the-pack.”

The scatter chart below shows that projects are proliferating at an alarming rate, with an extremely uneven TVL distribution. There are currently over 500 DeFi projects, with 33% having TVLs of less than $5 million.

This is one of the simplest ways to divide projects into three categories:

• Already “priced in” or overleveraged/overvalued
• Completely new, unproven and risky
• Projects with potential

How should you strike a balance between risk and reward?
Individual investors should try to select projects in the middle of the TVL range and above (around $20 million) when deciding who to invest in to be on the safe side and avoid the risk of too small projects running away with their money.

Seed rounds of $1 million to $10 million are appropriate for investment institutions. Individual investors should steer clear of these because their future positioning and strategic direction are unclear.

While TVL projects in the $10 to $20 million range have discovered a viable growth strategy and investors have access to data on this segment, there is a potential of stunted growth and a significant chance of poor or declining growth if growth is insufficient.

TVL projects in the $20 million to $50 million range have found a definite fit in terms of product mechanics and growth, with community and technical support becoming increasingly powerful, and are a suitable choice if you want to achieve larger returns than the top protocols.

If you have a low risk tolerance and a low demand for return, you can invest in projects from the top protocols based on your selected DeFi project category (e.g. DEX for providing liquidity, lending for lending, etc.)

2. Market Cap (MC)

The market capitalization of a project is the most accurate overall reflection of its market value.

This metric is calculated in the same way that stocks are calculated in the traditional equity market, by multiplying the token’s price by the number of tokens in circulation and available for trading.

Because the number of tokens is affected by circulation as well as supply and demand, the token’s price can fluctuate quickly. Market capitalization, on the other hand, tends to increase or decrease within a 20% range, with no sharp increases followed by precipitous drops.

Because of this consistency, the market capitalization is a good underlying indicator for evaluating projects and identifying potential and worthwhile investments.

Avoid low MC/FDV ratios when looking for long-term holds.

When looking for long-term investments, keep an eye out for low MC/FDV ratios.
The fully diluted valuation (FDV) is calculated by multiplying the maximum supply of tokens by the token price. In other words, when all tokens have been released, it equals the market cap.

If the MC/FDV ratio of a project’s tokens is low, it suggests that a big number of tokens have not yet been released. This occurs when 1) the protocol is brand new and 2) the token’s total quantity is extremely large.

Investors should consider FDV carefully, focusing on the length of time the project has been online and the token supply schedule.

Some examples of projects with low ratios are:

• Fruit: MC/FDV Ratio is 0.002%
• StakedZEN: MC/FDV Ratio is 0.077%
• Hanu Yokia: MC/FDV Ratio is 0.17%

The MC/FDV ratio allows investors to assess whether a token price is overheated.

This is because a low ratio indicates that once project owners release more tokens, supply will eventually exceed demand. With demand rapidly increasing, the price will almost certainly fall as the market adjusts.

Look at the chart below to see how top-ranked projects looked in terms of MC/FDV.

Projects with an MC/FDV ratio greater than 60% are better for long-term holding because price stability is almost guaranteed.

Projects with a high MC/FDV ratio, on the other hand, are not without drawbacks. They typically have higher entry prices. Though this is not always the case, analyzing data will enable you to make better investments based on your objectives.

Curve (CRV), for example, has an MC/FDV ratio of 11.86%. Another lending project, Lido, has a lower MC/FDV of 5.54 percent as well as a higher token price. When the two are compared, we can see that those looking for long-term DeFi lending projects to invest in should consider Curve over Lido.

Keep an eye out for projects with a low MC/TVL ratio.

The current MC/TVL ratios of the top ten TVL projects are almost always less than one. This means that these projects are undervalued and should be pursued. This is why:

From an economic standpoint, the higher the TVL of a project, the higher the MC should be, because a high TVL indicates that investors are confident in the project’s economic utility.

In other words, when investors lock in their tokens, it means they are using the project rather than speculating on it. More utilization in comparison to speculation is usually a positive sign.

As a result, investors should pay close attention to the MC/TVL ratio. A ratio greater than one indicates that the valuation is possibly too high and that the project’s investability is low, whereas a ratio less than one indicates that the project is undervalued and that the returns are likely to rise.

Always compare projects within the same categories for valid comparisons, and especially compare the ratios of lesser-known projects to those of the top protocols.

2. Stable token price and reasonable token allocation mechanism

Choose projects whose tokens are stable.

Many people invest in DeFi reverse. They begin by examining token prices before conducting research on the underlying project to justify their (often FOMO-driven) investment.

Instead, you should have already researched appropriate projects using the metrics and indicators described above.

After you’ve created a shortlist of projects you are interested in, screened for solid fundamentals, you can then look at the token prices.

In crypto, “stable” is a relative term.

At Footprint, we recommend being wary of price jumps and drops within 20%. Normally, the extreme change of price indicates an unhealthy market reaction to some news that might just be a pump.

If the token price remains relatively stable, the liquidity of the token is relatively stable also. Therefore, the possibility of damage to the project caused by a large number of individual investors selling tokens is reduced.

As with other metrics, this rule is best applied when comparing your different options on a visualization chart, as above.

The data indicate that InstaDApp and MakerDAO are more resistant to the negative effects of a sell-off than Curve, for example.

Summary: 5 Steps to Assess The Investability of a DeFi Project

Start with the fundamentals when looking for your next investment opportunity. Comparing projects inside the DeFi projects you care about in your thesis with data is a good idea.

The takeaways:

• Stable TVL growth
• Mid-range TVL ranking or above, approximately $20M or higher
• MC/FDV ratio higher than 5%
• MC/TVL ratio less than 1
• Stable token price with monthly fluctuations under +/- 20%

The following stats are available to readers directly in this featured article: Footprint dashboard, entitled “How to Discover Valuable Project”

Furthermore, a protocol’s tokenomics and team structure are important factors to consider while investing. If the team or foundation owns a large majority of the tokens, there’s a good likelihood the project is a money grab.

This can easily lead to a situation in which a small number of people releases tokens quickly in order to “cash-out,” resulting in a significant dilution of the token price and a higher likelihood of the tokens being sold off.

As a new investment market, DeFi has opened up more investment opportunities than traditional finance, including many worthy initiatives that have been overlooked.

However, opportunity and danger are inextricably linked. It’s vital to keep in mind that the DeFi market is fundamentally unpredictably volatile, and that even the above indicators are no guarantee of long-term success.

Source: Cryptoslate

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Shiba inu supporters are petitioning on Change.org for the trading platform Robinhood to list the shiba inu token for trading. Robinhood currently lists the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin which made up 62% of the company’s crypto trading volume in Q2.

Petition to Get Robinhood to List Shiba Inu

A petition on Change.org for the trading platform Robinhood to list the shiba inu crypto has garnered almost 400,000 signatures.

At the time of writing, almost 397K people have signed the petition. If the petition gathers 500K signatures, it would become one of the top signed petitions on Change.org.

The petition, started by SHIB supporter Tristan Luke, explains that it “is designed to kindly request of Robinhood to please list shiba inu coin to trade,” adding:

Dogecoin has been a huge success for Robinhood, and its investors. We have all enjoyed the ride. Shiba Inu is a similar meme coin with genuine potential, up 2,000% in the last weeks.

The petition further describes that the cryptocurrency’s “momentum grows by the hour,” noting that “Half the questions when we log into trading forums ask ‘How can I buy Shiba?’”

Robinhood currently offers trading in dogecoin. In its Q2 earnings call, Jason Warnick, the company’s chief financial officer, said: “62% of crypto trading volume was in dogecoin in Q2, which compares to 34% in Q1.”

The shiba inu coin has gained tremendous momentum this week, briefly flipping dogecoin Wednesday. However, DOGE has gained back its place as the ninth biggest cryptocurrency. At the time of writing, SHIB is up 8.2% in the last 24 hours, 150% over the past seven days, and 953% over the past 30 days.

Last week, a smaller platform competing with Robinhood, Public.com, began supporting shiba inu on its platform. Public began offering cryptocurrency trading earlier this month. SHIB is also available for trading on Coinbase. It was listed on Coinbase Pro in June. In September, the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange announced that SHIB was available on Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase Android and iOS apps.

Not everyone is impressed with the shiba inu coin, however. The “Big Short” investor, Michael Burry, recently said that SHIB was “pointless.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this week that he does not own any SHIB.

Source: Bitcoin

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Trading platform Robinhood has reported that 40% of its cryptocurrency transaction-based revenue was attributable to transactions in the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin in the third quarter. By comparison, dogecoin accounted for 62% of the company’s transaction-based revenue in the second quarter.

Dogecoin Trading on Robinhood

Robinhood Markets Inc. stated in its quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Friday:

For the three months ended September 30, 2021, 40% of our cryptocurrency transaction-based revenue was attributable to transactions in dogecoin.

This was a significant decrease from 62% for the three months ended June 30, and 34% for the three months ended March 31.

Robinhood’s third-quarter transaction-based revenue totaled $267 million, with only $51 million coming from cryptocurrency trading. Revenue from crypto trading totaled $233 million in the second quarter.

The company’s Q3 filing further notes: “For the quarters ended September 30, 2021, June 30, 2021, and March 31, 2021, transaction-based revenue attributable to transactions in dogecoin comprised approximately 8%, 32%, and 7% of our total net revenues, respectively.”

Robinhood explained, “We support trading in dogecoin and we benefited from a surge in interest for dogecoin during the quarter ended June 30, 2021,” adding:

While we currently support seven cryptocurrencies for trading, market interest in particular cryptocurrencies can be volatile and there are many cryptocurrencies in the market that we do not support.

DOGE was down about 9% in the past 24 hours, but up 7% in the last seven days and 32% in the last 30 days.

Currently, supporters of DOGE rival shiba inu are petitioning on Change.org for Robinhood to list SHIB. At the time of writing, more than 432K signatures have been collected. “Dogecoin has been a huge success for Robinhood, and its investors. We have all enjoyed the ride. Shiba Inu is a similar meme coin with genuine potential, up 2,000% in the last weeks,” the petition states.

Source: Bitcoin

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

On October 29, 2021, the second-largest crypto asset in terms of market valuation, ethereum, reached an all-time price high at $4,467 per unit. Meanwhile, after the Ethereum network’s Altair upgrade went live, ether gas fees have skyrocketed significantly.

As Ethereum Tests New Price Highs, the Average Ether Transfer Fees Onchain Skyrocket

The two leading crypto assets by market valuation have had issues with high transfer fees for many years now but this month, Ethereum’s network fees are significantly higher than bitcoin’s. On Saturday, October 30, bitcoin’s (BTC) average network fee according to bitinfocharts.com data shows BTC fees are around 0.00000015 BTC per byte or $3.15 per transaction.

The same web portal tracking ethereum (ETH) gas fees notes that to move some ether, it’ll cost around 0.012 ETH or $50.53 per transaction. The data shows that on Saturday morning, ETH fees are 1,504% higher than BTC network fees. Data stemming from the website l2fees.info are a bit more modest in comparison to bitinfocharts.com’s metrics. At the time of writing, to move ethereum it’ll cost $18.45 per transaction.

The cost to transfer Ethereum-based tokens and swap tokens via a smart contract is much higher. The transfer of token fee according to l2fees.info on Saturday is $43.13 per transaction and over $94 to swap tokens by interacting with a smart contract. The lowest ether transaction fee of $18.45 is still 485% higher than the average BTC transfer today.

Second-Layer Ether Transaction Costs and Swap Token Fee Estimates

Moving ethereum with a second-layer mechanism like Arbitrum or Polygon Hermez is much cheaper to use than onchain ETH transfers on the main network. At press time, Polygon Hermez-based ether transactions cost around $0.25 per transfer, while Loopring’s Zkrollup L2 solution is $0.74. Zksync will cost a user $1.03 per send and leveraging Arbitrum One is around $4.21. The EVM-compatible Optimistic Rollup chain Optimism’s fees today are $4.31 per transaction.

Using Loopring to swap tokens on Saturday is also cheaper than the $94 average cost using Ethereum’s mainnet. Loopring’s swap tokens cost is $1.07, Optimism’s fee to swap tokens is $5.54, and Arbitrum fees to swap tokens can cost $7.29 according to today’s metrics hosted on l2fees.info. As ETH has reached an all-time high, onchain fees are higher than usual following the Altair upgrade, which preps Ethereum for the next proof-of-stake (PoS) transition.

Source: Bitcoin

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

According to reports, tech billionaire Peter Thiel — the co-founder of Paypal and Palantir — spoke about bitcoin at an event hosted in Miami. At the time, bitcoin had just surpassed its all-time price high and Thiel said “you’re supposed to just buy bitcoin” and added, “I feel like I’ve been underinvested in it.”

Peter Thiel Postulates Meeting Satoshi Nakamoto on a Beach in Anguilla

The tech investor Peter Thiel is a fan of bitcoin (BTC) and has explained this on a few occasions in the past. In mid-May, Palantir Technologies, the American big data software firm, revealed that the company would accept bitcoin for services and was also considering keeping the crypto asset on its balance sheet.

Bloomberg reported that the billionaire venture capitalist said bitcoin is an “already known” secret, speaking at a conference in Miami. In addition to this statement, Thiel reportedly said that he felt “underinvested” in bitcoin.

Furthermore, Thiel also discussed an early encounter with the founders of E-Gold Ltd., the defunct digital gold company. Thiel talked about a theory he has that he may have met Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, the day he met with the E-Gold team.

“My sort of theory on Satoshi’s identity was that Satoshi was on that beach in Anguilla,” Thiel is quoted as saying. “I met them on the beach in Anguilla in February of 2000. We were beginning the revolution against the central banks on the beach in Anguilla. We were going to make Paypal interoperable with E-Gold and blow up all the central banks.”

Thiel said there were around 200 people at that initial meeting. “Bitcoin was the answer to E-Gold, and Satoshi learned that you had to be anonymous and you had to not have a company,” Thiel said. “Even a company, even a corporate form was too governmentally linked,” the tech billionaire said.

Peter Thiel: ‘The Fact That Bitcoin Is at $60,000 Is an Extremely Hopeful Sign’

The Information published another set of statements from Thiel that stemmed from a separate event on Monday. The price rise of bitcoin, Theil said, was a clear indicator that the current political system today is fractured.

“I don’t know that you should put all your money into bitcoin at $60,000 a bitcoin right now,” Thiel said. “But surely the fact that it is at $60,000 is an extremely hopeful sign. It’s the canary in the coal mine. It’s the most honest market we have in the country, and it’s telling us that this decrepit… regime is just about to blow up,” Thiel added.

Thiel has made a few interesting statements about bitcoin in recent times and has alluded to China using bitcoin as a financial weapon against the United States. In 2018, Thiel said that he was “long bitcoin” and that he believed institutional investors would eventually jump into the crypto economy.

The Palantir co-founder has also said that bitcoin was a “deeply contrarian” investment. When speaking about Satoshi Nakamoto, Thiel suggested that if people knew who the inventor of Bitcoin was, “the government would arrest him.”

Source: Bitcoin

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Following the Altair upgrade on the Ethereum network, the protocol’s native cryptocurrency reached a new all-time price high. Altair is the next step for the Ethereum’s network’s proof-of-stake (PoS) transition. However, a recently submitted white paper explains that a group of computer scientists from Stanford University and the Ethereum Foundation believe there are three attack vectors “on [a] proof-of-stake Ethereum” blockchain.

The 3 Attacks Against Ethereum Thesis Aims to Describe a Proof-of-Stake Problem Based on Evidence

The Ethereum network currently has a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism and in time, the protocol plans to fully transition into a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. Recent upgrades like Berlin, London, and Altair have been applied to help smooth the transition toward the PoS goal. Just recently, after Altair was implemented, the price per ether skyrocketed toward a new all-time high (ATH) at $4,467 per unit.

At the same time, network transfer fees have also swelled significantly as high as $50 for the average ether transaction on Saturday morning. Furthermore, on Saturday morning in the U.S. vertical trends from Twitter indicate the term “ETH 2.0” started trending. Some of the individuals discussing the ETH 2.0 upgrade have shared a new white paper written by computer scientists from Stanford University and the Ethereum Foundation.

The BTC proponent Tuur Demeester shared the paper on Saturday and two quotes from the paper that theorize how an adversary can attack the chain. The paper called “Three Attacks on Proof-of-Stake Ethereum” was submitted on October 19.

Quotes from ETH 2.0 attacks paper, via @KyleLogiks:

“With 99.6% probability an adversary with .09% stake can execute a 1-record for any given day”

“Under adversarial network delay, an adversary can perform a 10-reorg by merely controlling 19 validators”https://t.co/HGazdB0acV pic.twitter.com/MsZoyUGdev

— Tuur Demeester (@TuurDemeester) October 30, 2021

The white paper was authored by Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Joachim Neu, Barnabé Monnot, Aditya Asgaonkar, Ertem Nusret Tas, and David Tse. Essentially, the white paper reveals that two Ethereum network attacks were presented in recent times and the paper’s authors refined the techniques.

In addition to the refinement of the first two which theoretically create “short-range reorganizations” and an “adversarial network delay,” the computer scientists came up with a third attack.

“Combining techniques from both refined attacks, we obtain a third attack which allows an adversary with vanishingly small fraction of stake and no control over network message propagation (assuming instead probabilistic message propagation) to cause even long-range consensus chain reorganizations,” the paper’s authors note. The three attacks to ETH PoS paper adds:

Honest-but-rational or ideologically motivated validators could use this attack to increase their profits or stall the protocol, threatening incentive alignment and security of PoS Ethereum. The attack can also lead to destabilization of consensus from congestion in vote processing.

White Paper Says Attacks ‘Also Enable aPriori Malign Actors to Outright Stall Consensus Decisions’

Meanwhile, Ethereum network critics used the paper to highlight the possible vulnerabilities associated with these attacks when the network transitions to a full PoS system. The founder of the Chia project and the creator of Bittorrent, Bram Cohen, also tweeted about the new study on Saturday.

Some issues with ETH2 consensus “we obtain a third attack which allows an adversary with vanishingly small fraction of stake to cause even long-range consensus chain reorganizations” https://t.co/Vz3KG3ai1W

— Bram Cohen🌱 (@bramcohen) October 30, 2021

A Chia proponent responded and told Cohen: “Let’s revisit your tweet in a year and see what Chia has accomplished vs ETH. Please consider your attitude is turning away community members like myself.” The Ethereum attacks paper does provide a possible method of attacks against an Ethereum PoS chain, but also offers solutions. The paper’s authors believe the attacks provide incentives to malicious actors.

“Our attacks also enable apriori malign actors, perhaps ideologically motivated, to delay and in some cases outright stall consensus decisions,” the paper’s authors conclude. “The refined attack of Section 4.2 gives the adversary a tool to do just that, even if the adversary cannot control message propagation delays (which instead are assumed to be probabilistic).”

Source: Bitcoin

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently confirmed he had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of Burundi. This MOU agreement is Hoskinson’s first major preliminary agreement he has secured since kickstarting Cardano’s African tour in mid-October, 2021.

Meetings With Burundi and Zanzibar Leaders

Before traveling to Burundi, Hokisnson had visited Zanzibar where he held meetings with Hussein Ali Mwinyi, the island nation’s president. However, it is Hoskinson’s Burundi visit that has helped Cardano to achieve its latest major agreement with an African state after it signed another deal with the Ethiopian government back in April 2021.

To break the news about his interactions with the Burundi government as well as Cardano’s latest achievement, Hoskinson went on Twitter and shared some key moments of his Burundi tour. In his last tweet, he said: “Yes, we signed a great MOU today.”

In an earlier tweet, Hoskinson — who has since changed his Twitter profile picture to one that features himself and the Burundi President, Évariste Ndayishimiye — talks about his meeting with the Burundi leader. He said:

Great meeting with his excellency President Évariste Ndayishimiye about the future of Burundi’s digital transformation.

Agreement with Burundi Government Questioned

While many supporters of Cardano have applauded Hoskinson for his efforts, some opponents of the president of Burundi have, however, expressed reservations about the agreement. For instance, one Reddit user named Diatery questioned Cardano’s decision to hand over the blockchain to what he termed the wrong people. The user asked:

We know that Cardano wants to help reform Africa, so I looked deeper into what who Hoskinson is talking to. It didn’t take long to see that he’s handing tech to the wrong people. What kind of government is actually in power in Burundi, and who are these people that he’s creating a partnership with exactly?

To substantiate these reservations about President Évariste Ndayishimiye’s government, the user shares several supporting links including a U.S. government report on Burundi. However, other Reddit users argued that Hoskinson has no other option except to work with government officials. The user wrote:

“You can’t create public infrastructure without cooperation with public officials. If they are human rights violators, they are trash, but if the crypto game plays out as we all wish for, those autocrats sealing their own demise by catalysing adoption.”

Source: Bitcoin

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Developers of the Binance Smart Chain, the Binance-backed decentralized blockchain platform, have proposed applying a mechanism to burn BNB tokens based on the utilization of the network. According to the proposal, this would benefit both validators and holders due to the increase in value that the token would experience thanks to token burns. The proposal, called Binance Evolution Protocol 95 (or BEP-95), bears a striking resemblance to EIP-1559, an already implemented Ethereum proposal that also burns fees.

Binance Smart Chain Could Burn Gas Fees

Binance Smart Chain, the decentralized blockchain backed by Binance, could be implementing a gas-burning mechanism in the near future. Developers of the chain unveiled a proposal that points in that direction. The proposal, called BEP-95, would burn some of the fees that users spend to make transactions or to interact with smart contracts on the network.

Normally these fees would go to validators as rewards for securing the network. But with BEP-95, 10% of these funds would be burned depending on network activity. This percentage is subject to change, and members can change this number via community vote. According to the proposal, the goal of this new implementation would be to “speed up the BNB burning process and improve its intrinsic value by burning a portion of gas fees.”

Chasing Sustainability

Binance Smart Chain developers could be betting on this change to make BNB more sustainable. Currently, Binance conducts BNB burns that are announced on a regular basis. But the exchange only agreed to burn 100 million BNB tokens. After this number is reached, no more burns will be conducted by the exchange.

By changing the economic policy of the network, developers aim to ensure that the currency remains competitive, decreasing the amount of BNB in the market and making it more scarce. This move seems to be mimicking the proposal that Ethereum approved earlier this year, called EIP-1559, that also implemented burning a part of the fees that would normally go to miners. This new economic proposal seems to have contributed to the price growth that Ethereum has experienced since its approval.

While Ethereum doesn’t have a max supply, BNB does have a limited max supply of 200 million. Still, there is a common interest in keeping the issuance and supply in check to maintain price stability. The proposal is still in its initial stages, and could change before being implemented on the BSC blockchain.

Source: Bitcoin

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

AMC Entertainment’s CEO has asked the crypto community if his company should accept shiba inu (SHIB) as a form of payment. By the end of the year, the company hopes to accept a variety of cryptocurrencies, including dogecoin.

CEO Asks Whether AMC Should Accept Shiba Inu

The CEO of AMC Entertainment, Adam Aron, put up a poll on Twitter Friday asking the crypto community whether his company should accept payments in shiba inu (SHIB).

AMC is the largest movie exhibition company in the U.S., Europe, and the world. As of March 31, the company owned or operated approximately 950 theaters and 10,500 screens globally.

Aron wrote: “As you know, you can now purchase AMC gift cards using cryptocurrency, and our IT group is writing code so that soon we can accept online payments in bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, and dogecoin among others. Should we strive to take shiba inu too?”

At the time of writing, 44,659 votes have already been counted but the poll still has five days left. So far, 89.2% are in favor of the movie theater chain accepting SHIB.

This is Aron’s second poll on Twitter, according to his tweet. The first, conducted in September, was about whether AMC Theatres should accept rival meme crypto dogecoin (DOGE). Aron tweeted after the voting ended: “So Fascinating! Dogecoin Poll was by far my highest-ever-read tweet. In 24 hours, 4.2 million views, my most ever retweets, most ever replies. 140,000 votes 77% yes 23% no.”

The AMC CEO said in September that his theater chain will accept bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, and bitcoin cash “for online ticket and concession payments by year-end 2021.”

Earlier this month, he announced: “As we work to accept online crypto payments, now you can buy AMC Theatres digital gift cards (up to $200 per day) with dogecoin and other cryptocurrency using a Bitpay Wallet. Accepted on our website, mobile app, and in theatres.”

Source: Bitcoin

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

The digital currency exchange FTX Trading Limited announced the firm has raised more than $420 million in a Series B-1 fundraise. The capital raise follows the crypto exchange’s financing round at the end of July when FTX raised $900 million. After the raise was announced on October 21, FTX said the firm’s estimated valuation is around $25 billion today.

Crypto Exchange Giant FTX Raises $420 Million in Series B-1

• On Thursday, the crypto asset exchange FTX revealed it raised more funds in a Series B-1 financing round. The company raised $420 million from 69 different investors.
• According to the announcement, FTX said Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, via its Teachers’ Innovation Platform, Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Sea Capital, IVP, ICONIQ Growth, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners participated in the latest financing.
• Moreover, in addition to the $900 capital raise in July, FTX said Temasek participated in the original Series B round and pushed the raise up to $1 billion. With all the funding raised by investors to date, FTX’s overall valuation is $25 billion the company disclosed.
• “We founded FTX two years ago with the idea of creating a better financial marketplace,” Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX remarked during the announcement. “Today we are focused on establishing FTX as a trustworthy and innovative exchange by regularly engaging with regulators around the world, and constantly seeking opportunities to enhance our offerings for digital asset investors,” Bankman-Fried said.
• On the same day as the capital raise announcement, Bankman-Fried also joined the board of directors associated with the NFT company Autograph, an NFT firm co-founded by the Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.
• FTX says since the last capital raise in July, the company’s userbase grew by 48% and trade volume increased by 75%. The exchange noted it averages roughly $14 billion per day in crypto asset trade volume.

• The company also revealed it also recently established its global headquarters in the Bahamas. FTX secured licenses in the island territory and adopted the regulatory policies mandated in the Bahamas and Gibraltar.
• “The additional capital and group of investors will let us provide the experience our users deserve and address other adjacent market opportunities including equities, prediction markets, NFTs, and videogame partnerships. We expect to make strategic investments designed to grow the business and expand our regulatory coverage.” FTX’s head of product Ramnik Arora said in a statement.

Source: Bitcoin.com

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

On October 29, the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) protocols is around $243 billion with Curve capturing 7.76% of the dominance. Meanwhile, as ethereum has the largest dominance of TVL in defi, a number of alternative blockchains are seeing significant increases every week. Moreover, the TVL in cross-chain bridge technology has reached $22.48 billion, up 48.8% over the last month.

Defi Total Value Locked Hovers Above $240 Billion — Avalanche, Fantom, Polygon, Tron, Arbitrum TVLs in Defi Increase

The total value locked in decentralized finance apps has continued to climb higher this year reaching new heights. Data from defillama.com’s dashboard shows the TVL on Friday is $243 billion with Curve’s $18.91% commanding a 7.76% dominance rating. The defi protocol Curve supports seven different blockchains, which means users can access cross-chain bridge technology to leverage the decentralized exchange (dex).

Statistics indicate that Ethereum (ETH) is still the dominant defi chain with $164.75 billion worth of the $243 billion TVL in defi aggregate. Despite Ethereum making up a large portion of the defi pie, blockchains like Avalanche, Fantom, Polygon, and Tron have seen TVLs increase a great deal this past week. Avalanche’s TVL in defi increased by 10.44% during the last seven days, while Tron’s TVL in defi spiked by 18.76%.

Cross-Chain Bridge TVLs Spike by 48% This Month — Over $22 Billion Total Value Locked

Fantom’s TVL saw a significant jump this past week gathering 31.21% more in TVL. Meanwhile, Solana and Terra saw much smaller increases this past week as Solana captured 0.44% and Terra only jumped by 0.79%. Arbitrum saw a TVL increase of around 24.58% this week and Polygon (MATIC) lifted by 4.41%. The TVL on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) dipped this week losing 6.15%, but it is still the second-largest defi TVL after Ethereum.

This week the TVL in cross-chain bridges swelled by 48.8% over the last month and on Friday, the cross-chain bridge TVL is $22.48 billion. Statistics from Dune Analytics show Ronin bridge increased by 2% this past week with $5.3 billion. Dune Analytics cross-chain bridge dashboard called “Bridge Away (L1 Ethereum)” shows 16 different bridges from chains like Avalanche, Arbitrum, BSC Anyswap, Boba Network, Fantom Anyswap, Harmony Bridges, and more.

Assets that command the most activity in cross-chain bridges include tokens like WETH, ETH, AXS, USDC, WBTC, MATIC, USDT, and DAI respectively. In terms of WETH/ETH the TVL in cross-chain bridges is around $7,062,594,503 on Friday morning.

Source: Bitcoin.com

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, sees bitcoin as mathematical purity, praising its fixed supply. However, he stated that governments will never allow it to become uncontrollable. “If it got to the point where everything was done in crypto and didn’t go through governments for observation, taxation, and all that, governments would just disallow it,” said Apple co-founder.

Governments, according to Steve Wozniak, will never allow cryptocurrency to flee their control.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance on Friday, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak discussed cryptocurrency. “Are you a believer in crypto?” he was asked.

The Apple co-founder replied: “Crypto has an awful lot of promise through the blockchain of different things it can do differently than before in life, right down to elections even. It has a very trustable format that can’t be modified easily with humans in control of it.”

He elaborated, “Look at our U.S. dollars, the government can just create new dollars, and borrow, and borrow.” In contrast, he noted that bitcoin has a fixed supply, emphasizing:

Bitcoin is mathematics, mathematical purity. There can never be another bitcoin created.

“Bitcoin doesn’t even have a creator that we know of. Bitcoin isn’t run by some companies. It’s just mathematical pure. And I believe nature over humans always,” he further described, noting that nature “really doesn’t change much.”

Wozniak was further asked if he believes that crypto will change how we do business.

“Yes, I am in that camp that crypto will be used effectively. We just have so many digital ways to pay for things now, even just to transfer money to people. It goes way back to Paypal, and now we have Apple Pay and Apple Cash. We have Venmo. So we already have other modes than crypto,” he replied.

However, the Apple co-founder opined: “Crypto just has a little bit of anonymity. I don’t know if that’s right that, ‘oh gosh I can do things without people knowing.’ I think that everything that you do in life you should be able to stand up and say, ‘Well this is me doing this transaction.’ And [with] crypto, it’s hard to trace back to who’s doing what. It’s possible though.”

Wozniak continued, “I love it when people like [Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey talk about how crypto should be the heart of our business dealings.” However, the Apple co-founder warned:

The trouble is governments will never allow it to be out of their control. If it got to the point where everything is being done in crypto and didn’t pass through governments for observation and taxation and all that, governments would just disallow it. They wouldn’t give up their power.

The crypto asset solana has managed to capture more than 12% in gains during the last 24 hours and has recently positioned itself as the sixth-largest cryptocurrency market capitalization. The crypto asset’s overall market cap is around $62.2 billion, only 11% away from surpassing cardano’s market valuation at $69 million.

Solana Takes the 6th Spot, Market Valuation Nears Cardano’s Market Cap

On Friday, the crypto asset solana (SOL) has managed to take the sixth position in terms of the world’s largest crypto market valuations. At the time of writing SOL is swapping for over $203 per unit and is up 12.4% over the last day. Seven-day statistics indicate that solana has gained 37.5% this past week and during the last 30 days, SOL is up 68.2%. After the digital currency captured the sixth largest crypto position, a great number of people discussed the crypto asset on social media.

At 1:30 p.m. (EDT), the hashtag #solana had around 97,900 tweets with the hashtag present in the tweet. The fifth-largest market cap holder, cardano (ADA) has lost 1.0% during the last seven days and if SOL keeps up the pace, ADA could lose its position. ADA already dropped a few notches to the fifth position after it held the third-largest crypto market cap for months. Each ADA is exchanging hands for $2.14 and the crypto asset has a market valuation of around $69 million which is less than 11% higher than solana’s.

While Cardano Holders Saw 1,936% Gains in a Year, Solana’s Year-to-Date Price Increase Jumped 10,868%

Now, year-to-date, ADA has seen massive gains collecting more than 1,936% in value. However, solana’s year-to-date gains have been considerably larger as SOL investors made 10,868% in gains. While the crypto asset solana is doing better than cardano price-wise, SOL also has $6.57 billion in 24-hour global trade volume, while ADA has $2.1 billion today. The top five pairs swapping with SOL today include USDT, USD, BTC, BUSD, and EUR with USDT commanding 42.71% of all SOL trades.

ADA’s top trading pair is also tether (USDT) as the stablecoin captures 60.6% of all ADA swaps. The USDT/ADA pair is followed by BTC, USD, BUSD, KRW, EUR, and ETH in terms of cardano’s top seven trading pairs. Coingecko statistics show the most active cryptocurrency exchange swapping solana (SOL) on Friday is Binance. Market data on October 22, indicates that the most active exchange trading ADA is Binance as well.

Source: Bitcoin.com

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking for a leader to lead its newly formed National Cryptocurrency Enforcement team. The DOJ posted the director’s position on USAJobs, the Federal government’s job website.

• The director will lead “a team of experienced prosecutors investigating and prosecuting cryptocurrency cases as a central part of a nationwide enforcement effort to combat the use of cryptocurrency as an illicit tool,” the job posting said.
• The job, which pays between $144,128 and $172,500 depending on experience, will also require consulting with US Attorney’s Offices and investigative agencies involved in crypto investigations, as well as working with state and local law enforcement agencies.
• The director will also be in charge of communicating with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other government agencies, intelligence agencies, and the private sector about crypto technology and regulation.
• In a speech at the Aspen Cyber Summit on Wednesday, US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the formation of the new team, which she said would be made up of anti-money laundering and cybersecurity experts.

The miner expects to use its liquid-cooling technology to mine bitcoin more efficiently.

Bitcoin miner Rhodium Enterprises intends to become a publicly traded company, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in which it outlined plans to raise up to $100 million.

• The Delaware-based company, which started mining in September 2020, will trade under the ticker RHDM. The miner generated revenue, net income and adjusted EBITDA of $48.2 million, $14.9 million and $40.9 million, respectively, during the six months ended June 30, according to the filing.
• Rhodium plans to use its proprietary liquid-cooling technology to mine bitcoins cost effectively. The company said that the technology extends the mechanical life of its bitcoin miners by 30%-50%.
• Rhodium said that its 80 megawatt (MW) of power capacity is enough to run more than 22,600 miners at its “initial Texas site.” These miners have a total hashrate of about 1.8 exahash per second (EH/s).
• The company expects to add 45 MW of additional power and grow its hashrate to approximately 2.7 EH/s by year’s end.
• Rhodium is launching a second Texas mining facility by April 2022, and it has already acquired miners with approximately 225 MW of power for delivery the same month.
• B. Riley Securities is the sole book running manager of the IPO.

Source: CoinDesk

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

According to the Bank for International Settlements paper, while stablecoins may be adopted in some of these markets, they may also present wider challenges and have not been tested on a large scale.

A number of emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) have been looking at stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDC) to address weaknesses in their financial systems.

But according to a paper released Friday by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), these digital currencies may create daunting issues in these markets and not address problems that other fintech innovations are tackling.

“Stablecoin arrangements aspire to improve financial inclusion and cross-border remittances – but they are neither necessary nor sufficient to meet these policy goals,” the authors of the report, entitled What Does Digital Money Mean for Emerging Market and Developing Countries, write.”

EMDEs in Latin America and other regions have turned increasingly to stablecoins as a store of value. Stablecoins have appeal in countries where the local currencies tend to be less stable and possibly subject to capital controls because of inflation.

The Basel, Switzerland-based BIS is a 91-year organization that supports central banks’ efforts to create banking and financial stability through research and by fostering cooperation among central banks on a range of issues.

The report’s authors question whether stablecoins could “offer lasting competitive advantages over rapidly developing, evolving digital payment services,” including digital ID, e-money and mobile banking. They add that stablecoins could generate new risks related to such issues as governance, efficiency in payment processes, consumer protection and data privacy.

The authors raise concerns about CBDCs, writing that “there is a risk that in periods of systematic stress, (that) households and other agents may shift from bank deposits or other instruments into the CBDC, spurring a ‘digital run’ of unprecedented speed and scale,” and questioning “whether they are necessary or desirable for all jurisdictions.”

But the authors also write that stablecoins in particular have “drawn great – and much needed – attention to the challenges of financial inclusion and cross-border payments and remittances.” This development has underscored efforts to foster a less restrictive regulatory environment, improve “monetary and financial stability frameworks and payment infrastructures, particularly across borders.”

Source: CoinDesk

According to an AWS job posting, the right candidate will transform the way businesses transact in crypto, stablecoins, CBDCs, and NFTs.

According to a recent job posting, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is looking for a specialist to foster digital asset underwriting, transaction processing, and custody in the cloud.

The infrastructure company is looking for a Financial Services Specialist to work with global financial institutions and cutting-edge fintechs to “transform the way they transact digital assets (ex. cryptocurrencies, CBDCs [central bank digital currencies], stable coins, security-backed tokens, asset-backed tokens, and NFTs [non-fungible tokens]) from price discovery to execution, settlement, and custody.”

Amazon’s much-anticipated move into digital assets is expected to include some kind of payment token, a so-called “Amazon coin,” based on previous job postings.

Meanwhile, AWS tailoring its infrastructure to things like cryptocurrency transaction processing and custody will likely be seen as a smart move, one that IBM is also doing.

”Working hand in hand with our sales teams, solution architects, ISVs and systems integrators you will help deliver the solutions that move customers towards end-to-end digital asset underwriting, transaction processing, and custody in the cloud,” said the AWS job ad.

Locations providing crypto ATM services have increased exponentially this year, according to data compiled by a major tracking site. Bitcoin ATMs have doubled in number since January and close to 80 countries now host teller machines exchanging cryptocurrencies with fiat money.

Over 30,000 Bitcoin ATMs Operate Around the World

In a year when cryptocurrency markets broke all-time highs, the availability of digital coins has increased and bitcoin ATMs have contributed greatly. Their number has recently exceeded 30,000 — more than double the count at the beginning of 2021.

Data collected by Coin ATM Radar shows that on Jan. 1, there were 14,016 registered locations supporting automated teller services for leading cryptocurrencies. And, as of Oct. 27, their number has reached a staggering 30,011.

These Bitcoin ATMs and other crypto teller services are spread across 76 countries and run by 628 operators, according to the tracking website. The United States is the pronounced leader with more than 26,000 locations while neighboring Canada has a little less than 2,000, and the whole European Union hosts only 1,353.

Crypto teller devices have increased in Spain (155) and bitcoin-friendly Switzerland (130) but not all trends have been positive. Their numbers have declined in some other major markets such as Austria, from this year’s high of 156 in June to 140 now, and the U.K. which saw a dramatic fall from 229 on Jan. 1 to 98 as of Wednesday.

Supported cryptocurrencies vary between ATMs but most of them provide an opportunity to purchase bitcoin (BTC) and many sell one or more of the other major coins such as bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH), and litecoin (LTC). Some offer stablecoins like tether (USDT), or popular altcoins like dogecoin (DOGE). Two-way teller machines, those that can also buy your cryptocurrency, are increasing in number, too.

The top 10 operators maintain almost 68% of all crypto ATMs, or more than 20,300. Bitcoin Depot, which has been expanding its network in the U.S., is still the largest among them with 5,314 units (17.7%), while Coincloud is second with 4,028 (13.4%). Coinflip comes in third with 2,953 devices, or a little less than 10% of the world’s total.

Genesis Coin remains the leading BATM manufacturer, accounting for over 40% of the market, followed by General Bytes with more than 22%. Bitaccess is a close third with 14% of the currently operational devices. Other producers include Coinsource (6.1%), Bitstop (4.2%), Bytefederal (3.5%), and Lamassu (2.3%). Smaller companies have installed 7.2% of all registered crypto teller machines.

Source: Bitcoin News

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Slovenian authorities have drafted new legislation to govern how cryptocurrency holdings and transactions will be taxed in the country. According to local media sources, the plan, which aims to clarify the situation, was filed for public discussions this week.

Slovenia to Amend Tax Rules for Cryptocurrencies

Slovenian media reported that the Finance Ministry in Ljubljana has begun public discussions on a draft law governing cryptocurrency taxation. The bill is based on the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia’s (FURS) suggestions, which were announced in August of this year.

The modifications are designed to make the taxation of crypto assets more straightforward. Under existing standards, taxable income from virtual currency transactions is determined by the facts of each case, and the tax office is required to examine a large number of transactions performed by taxpayers, including purchases, sales, and conversions.

Individuals who exchange cryptocurrencies for fiat money will be subject to a 10% flat tax under the new legislation. Purchases bought using digital currency will be charged at the same rate. According to the Slovenian press, the annual tax liability threshold has been set at €15,000 (about $17,500).

If approved, the new tax structure will only apply to private persons, not businesses that own cryptocurrency as an asset. According to the Finance Ministry, the tax might raise between €100,000 ($116,000) and €500,000 ($580,000) each year in the first few years after it is implemented.

Other tax reforms in the EU member state will come in the shape of adjustments to the income tax law, which are set to take effect on January 1, 2022. Before they are accepted or rejected by the legislature, lawmakers have opted to discuss them further with the Finance Committee.

According to media reports, one of the primary recommendations is to lower capital gains tax and enhance the general income tax limit. The government’s intentions were challenged by center-left opposition parties, who boycotted the vote, despite the fact that 43 members of the Slovenian parliament voted in favor of the plan and three against it.

Slovenia, a small, bitcoin-friendly country in Southeast Europe, has risen to the top of the Old Continent’s crypto acceptance rankings. Cafés, restaurants, hotels, hair salons, and sports facilities are among the approximately 1,000 locations around the country that accept various cryptocurrencies for their services and offers, according to a survey from last year.

The blockchain-based “C-Coin” is being distributed to Central Retail Corp.’s 80,000 employees.

Central Retail Corp, a major retailer in Thailand, is experimenting with a digital currency among its employees. According to a Bloomberg report, once the sandbox phase is completed, the retail giant plans to expand the service to customers and the general public.

The “C-Coin,” a blockchain-based cryptocurrency, is being offered to 80,000 Central Retail Corp employees around the world as a bonus to their regular income as a reward for great performance.

While C-Coin holders can use it to pay for meals and purchase items & services from Central Retail’s partners, this is simply a pilot initiative for the company. The company’s long-term goal is to move to cashless societies and enter the e-commerce market.

According to Kowin Kulruchakorn, Central Tech’s chief innovation officer, the currency could be made available to the general public once all employees have signed up and the company has gained a better understanding of its performance. The C-Coin was established by Central Retail’s Central Tech, which also administers all of the company’s omnichannel and e-commerce technologies.

Central Retail Corp owns more than 40 department stores and high-end retail outlets in Thailand, making it the country’s largest shopping complex owner. Central Festival, Big C Supercenter, and Seacon Square are also under its control. It owns the Italian department store La Rinascente, the Danish brand Illum, and the Vietnamese supermarket chain Big C.

In Thailand, Central Retail Corp isn’t the only company working on a digital money. The Bank of Thailand indicated it was exploring a central bank digital currency, according to Cointelegraph. The initial testing phase for the digital baht is planned to begin in Q2 2022.

The report comes two days after Valkyrie Investments filed to offer 1.25x leveraged bitcoin futures ETF.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will not approve the listing of leveraged bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF).

• The SEC instructed at least one prospective ETF provider not to proceed with their plans for a leveraged funds, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
• The U.S. markets regulator wishes to limit bitcoin-related investment vehicles to those that provide un-leveraged exposure – in others words not comprised of borrowed funds.
• The report emerges two days after Valkyrie Investments filed to offer 1.25x leveraged bitcoin futures ETF.
• After dozens of applications from different providers, the SEC finally approved the listing of a bitcoin futures ETF earlier this month. ProShares’ fund started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 19 contributing in no small way to bitcoin’s price surge leading to the cryptocurrency reaching a new all time high of over $66,000.

Source: CoinDesk

Investment platform Bitpanda has hired Joshua Barraclough to lead its digital-assets exchange.

Bitpanda, Austria’s first tech unicorn, announced the appointment of former JPMorgan executive Joshua Barraclough as CEO of Bitpanda Pro, a digital-assets exchange.

Prior to joining Bitpanda Pro, which caters to experienced traders and institutions, Barraclough worked at JPMorgan in London as the co-head of digital innovation, where he was responsible for developing cutting-edge innovative businesses, products, and services that would help to transform traditional finance.

In an interview, Barraclough described the switch from a traditional bank to Bitpanda as a “no-brainer.” “As cryptocurrency investments become more mainstream, individual and institutional investors are seeking tools that allow them to pursue traditional investing methods while managing the subtleties of digital asset trading,” he said.

While there are many organizations fighting for leadership positions in the crypto space, just a handful have the proper technology, knowledge, and culture to get there, according to Barraclough.

In August, PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures led a $263 million Series C capital round for the Vienna-based investment-trading platform. The company was valued at $4.1 billion after the round. The new funds will be utilized to invest in technology, worldwide expansion, and the expansion of the company’s personnel.

Alan Howard, a billionaire hedge fund manager, as well as REDO Ventures, LeadBlock Partners, and Jump Capital, are among Bitpanda’s investors.

Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek, and Christian Trummer launched the company in 2014 as a bitcoin exchange. Since then, it has expanded to include stock, precious metals, and exchange-traded funds trading.

Bitpanda Pro was released in August of this year. Traders and firms situated in the European Union, ranging from private banks to family offices and hedge funds, use it.

Bitpanda presently employs 600 people in eight countries, with digital hubs and offices in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and London.

Source: BitPanda Pro

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

While cracking down on the cryptocurrency industry, Beijing is investing heavily in blockchain technology for government and business applications.

According to news site Chuanguan, China’s technological standardization agency, the China Electronics Standardization Institute, will establish a national standard for blockchain next year.

• At the Fifth China Blockchain Development Competition in Chengdu, Sichuan, Li Ming, director of the Blockchain Research Office at the standardization body, said the institute has produced a standard and is in the process of approving it.
• As it clamps down on cryptocurrency, China is trying to stimulate blockchain innovation and implementation in corporate and government across the country. Blockchain could be placed on par with artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing in the most recent Five-Year Plan, a document that defines development priorities.
• Li said that standards are fundamental to an industry and brought the example of WiFi or Bluetooth; without a unified standard, devices from different manufacturers wouldn’t be able to connect to the network.
• The body will look into crafting evaluation criteria around the norm once it is determined, according to the director, so that a “benign” ecology may be developed.
• The Blockchain Services Network and Xinghuo Chain are two key government projects that use a “open permissioned” protocol to keep some of the benefits of decentralization while maintaining centralized management.
• These projects likewise aim to export Chinese-made blockchain and standards.
• Last year, the International Telecommunications Union approved a set of blockchain standards established by the People’s Bank of China, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, and Huawei for financial applications.
• The institute, which is part of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, is in charge of drafting technical standards.
• Sichuan Daily, a state-run newspaper in China’s southwestern region, operates Chuanguan.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Rostin Behnam mentions the agency’s previous enforcement actions.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to its interim head, is ready to be the primary federal regulator for cryptocurrency.

If Congress expands the CFTC’s scope, Rostin Behnam, the acting chairman, told the Senate Agriculture Committee that the commodities regulator is poised to become the lead federal regulator for digital assets.

Behnam was giving testimony as part of his confirmation process for a full term as the agency’s chairman.

“The CFTC has responsibly and aggressively been pursuing enforcement cases in the digital asset marketplace for a number of years now,” Behnam said, pointing to the agency’s recent settlements with crypto exchange Kraken and stablecoin issuer Tether.

The regulator emphasized the scale of the crypto market, adding that it already has a market valuation of $2.7 trillion, with “almost 60%” of that being commodities.

“I think it’s important for this committee to reconsider and consider expanding authority for the CFTC,” Behnam said.

He recognized that regulating crypto would be a “step away” from the agency’s traditional job as a commodities regulator, but he believes the sector is big enough to justify the change.

“Given the size, the scope and the scale of this emerging market, how its interfacing and affecting customers, retail customers, and then with the scale of the growth being so rapid, potential financial stability risks in the future, I think it’s critically important to have a primary cop on the beat and certainly the CFTC is prepared to do that if this committee so wishes,” Behnam said.

Digital asset market transactions, including banking and prudential finance concerns, as well as clearing and settlement risks, were later identified as a danger by Behnam.

“We really also need to have a conversation about market regulation and sort of the exchange, the purchase and sale of these coins in a regulatory structure for both securities and commodities,” he said.

Brewing turf war?

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the CFTC’s securities counterpart, has also been working to better oversee the crypto market. The SEC has approved new bitcoin futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under Chairman Gary Gensler, who entered office earlier this year, increasing retail exposure to the digital asset market.

Gensler has stated that he feels the SEC is best positioned to be the principal regulator of cryptocurrency.

In several public pronouncements, Gensler has stated that the SEC should supervise exchanges like Coinbase because they may offer securities and monitor stablecoins, a portion of the cryptocurrency market in which each token is tethered to a fiat currency such as the dollar. He believes the SEC should also regulate decentralized finance (DeFi), which aims to recreate classic financial instruments and platforms without the use of a centralized authority.

Gensler also stated in a congressional hearing that he believes “most” tokens are securities.

Congress will have to act to clarify the crypto market’s regulation. There is no government regulator for spot crypto markets at the moment. The CFTC is in charge of crypto derivatives markets and fraud in the underlying spot market, whereas the SEC is in charge of securities and platforms that specifically aim to list and trade securities.

The majority of cryptocurrency trading platforms are regulated at the state level, which means they must obtain money transmitter licenses in each state where they do business. Because of the resources required to get over 50 distinct permits, industry groups have criticized this piecemeal approach.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

The “dogecoin killer” is now worth more over $39 billion, while HOOD is valued at $29 billion.

The shiba inu (SHIB) coin has maintained its meteoric rise in the cryptocurrency markets, rising 70% in the last 24 hours to a market valuation of almost $39 billion.

With a market value of $30 billion, SHIB has already surpassed the stock market value of trading platform Robinhood (HOOD). SHIB also owns European banking behemoths Societe Generale ($28 billion) and Deutsche Bank ($26 billion).

SHIB’s market cap, on the other hand, is significantly more likely to crash at any time. Only time will tell, and in the wild world of crypto, time is often short.

According to CoinGecko, the coin was changing hands at a miniscule $0.00007857 as of press time. The SHIB price touched an all-time high of $0.0000763 earlier in the day. The price has increased 40-fold in the last year.

A petition “made to gently request of Robinhood to please list shiba inu coin to trade” circulated on the website Change.org, causing the price of SHIB to surge. SHIB is named after the same dog breed that inspired the parody cryptocurrency dogecoin (DOGE).

“The focus on the cryptoverse was supposed to be on Ethereum 2.0 and a steady wave of [b]itcoin ETF investments, but the retail market has become fixated on shiba inu,” Edward Moya, senior markets analyst at Oanda, wrote in a daily email update on Wednesday.

CoinDesk’s traffic numbers would also bear this out.

Robinhood conference call

According to a transcript, Wall Street analysts questioned Robinhood officials on a conference call on Tuesday on whether the business could consider adding other cryptocurrencies to its platform.

“We’re hearing from customers that they want more coins,” CFO Jason Warnick said during the earnings conference call. “We’re being, you know, very mindful and diligent in this space. It’s evolving from a regulatory perspective. There’s been a number of questions raised about coins on other platforms being potentially unregistered securities.“

He added: “We think it’s the right thing, not just for shareholders and for the company, but also for customers to make sure that we, you know, apply the same kind of diligence to any new coins. … We do hear our customers and they want more features, and so we’re going to be working, you know, as fast as we can with the right balance of safety and compliance to make sure that we don’t make missteps here.”

Twitter was replete this week with speculation that Robinhood might accede to the pressure.

Some observers are concerned that the increased interest in SHIB is a sign of speculative bubbles, and that a drop in the token’s value will lead to a larger withdrawal from cryptocurrency markets.

According to most data sources, the SHIB token’s value eclipsed that of dogecoin early Wednesday.

Earlier this year, a DOGE speculation frenzy followed a multi-month price decline in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

“SHIB, also known as a ‘dogecoin killer,’ runs on Ethereum, but the use case argument isn’t quite there,” Oanda’s Moya wrote. “Shiba inu headlines are not the news that is needed to help drive crypto growth to the rest of Wall Street that is still hesitant on cryptocurrencies.“

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

The county’s Cryptocurrency Task Force will also make suggestions on other possible crypto-related policies that could be beneficial.

The county of Miami-Dade in Florida has passed a resolution establishing a task force to look into the possibility of accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of tax payment:

• The Cryptocurrency Task Force will offer recommendations around other potential policies related to crypto that could prove advantageous, according to an announcement Wednesday.
• First and foremost, the task force will explore how Miami-Dade could accept crypto as a method of payment for taxes, fees and services.
• The task force also intends to meet with Cheyenne, Wyoming-based American CryptoFed DAO, the first legally recognized decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in the U.S., and other legislators and regulators in Wyoming to discuss crypto and blockchain initiatives.
• Wyoming has attempted to attract investment in recent years through establishing itself as a crypto and blockchain-friendly state, passing legislation in April to legally recognize DAOs, companies whose governance is built on smart contracts and where decision making is shared around the organization.
• The City of Miami is another jurisdiction to have adopted such a stance, thanks to some degree to its pro-crypto Mayor Francis Suarez.

Source: CoinDesk

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

In February, the custody firm raised a $80 million Series C round, but would not reveal its valuation.

Cryptocurrency custody firm Anchorage is raising a large funding round that will value the San Francisco-based company at between $2 billion and $3 billion, according to four people familiar with the plans.

“Anchorage is about to raise at a $3 billion valuation,” said one of the people, who asked not to be named. “They’re raising a big round and it’s based on the fact that financial institutions are looking to enter this space.” Another industry insider said the valuation could land in the $2 billion to $3 billion range.

The forthcoming raise comes as crypto firms are bringing in venture capital valuations that make tech “unicorn” status look quaint. A multibillion-dollar valuation would not be farfetched for Anchorage: Last week, London-based crypto custody firm Copper said it was raising $500 million at a $2.5 billion valuation.

Crypto custody, in particular, has become a hot sector, with banks and large fintechs looking to acquire firms specializing in the storage of digital assets, or at least secure a strategic stake in them.

Back in February of this year, Anchorage raised an $80 million Series C led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Also participating in the round were Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Blockchain Capital, Lux and Indico. The firm’s valuation was not disclosed at the time.

Anchorage is distinguished as the first crypto-native firm to receive a federal banking charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), making it the first national “digital asset bank” in the U.S.

Anchorage declined to comment.

Source: CoinDesk

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

According to a new job posting, Gamestop, an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise company, is looking for a non-fungible token (NFT)-focused senior software engineer. The retail behemoth Gamestop appears to be constructing an NFT marketplace, similar to the previous job posting from the social media services company Reddit.

Gamestop Looks to Hire Engineer to Join Company’s NFT/Blockchain Team

On October 25, Gamestop, a retailer of video game merchandise and consumer electronics, posted a job opening for a senior software developer to work on a potential NFT platform. If hired, the individual will be a member of Gamestop’s “NFT/Blockchain team.”

“Gamestop is looking for a Sr. Software Engineer to join our NFT/Blockchain team,” the company’s job listing notes. “This role will be remote and will collaborate with a team of engineers, product managers, designers, and business partners distributed across the U.S. In this role, you will help design, build, and maintain highly scalable services and core API components, powering products and features that delight millions of Gamestop customers.”

Gamestop is well-known not only for its video game stores, but also for the recent Wallstreetbets debacle, which catapulted the company into the spotlight. Shorting the company’s shares was purportedly attempted by Wall Street hedge funds, and Reddit members from the Wallstreetbets forum attempted to reverse the trend with a “short squeeze.” Gamestop and a slew of other firms, including AMC, grabbed headlines this year, and their stock prices soared as a result of the Wallstreetbets debacle.

During the previous two days, Gamestop’s recent NFT/Blockchain team member job posting was a hot topic on the Reddit community r/cryptocurrency. One Reddit user commented, “That’s one of the best job listings I’ve seen in a while.” “Very clear on expectations and the requirements make sense (and [are not] artificially inflated) with wiggle room. Don’t have a degree but know your sh** professionally? Get in there,” said the Redditor.

The Gamestop job offering follows a similar NFT job listing issued last week by the business Reddit. Reddit, the popular social news aggregation and discussion site in the United States, is looking for a senior software developer to work on a platform that will contain “NFT-backed digital commodities.”

The Gamestop employment criteria are similar to those on Reddit, with the exception that Gamestop wants potential employees to be knowledgeable about crypto and NFTs. The Gamestop listing requires “NFT marketplace experience and knowledge of crypto, Ethereum, and Ethereum Layer 2 items.”

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

A group of banking authorities in the United States is figuring out how banks may offer crypto services and keep bitcoins on their balance sheets. “If we don’t bring this activity inside the banks, it is going to develop outside of the banks” stated the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). “The federal regulators won’t be able to regulate it.”

US Regulators to Set Clear Rules for Banks to Deal With Crypto

In an interview with Reuters at a fintech conference on Monday, Jelena McWilliams, the chairperson of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), said that a group of US bank regulators is focusing on creating a roadmap for banks to engage with crypto assets.

The team comprises the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). In May, Federal Reserve Vice Chair of Supervision Randal Quarles confirmed the three US agencies’ collaboration.

McWilliams said on a conference panel:

While creating clear regulations for banks providing custody services is simple, the FDIC chief explained that determining how to allow a volatile asset to be used as collateral and put it on bank balance sheets is more complicated.

She was quoted as saying: “Valuation of these assets and the fluctuation in their value that can be almost on a daily basis … You have to decide what kind of capital and liquidity treatment to allocate to such balance sheet holdings.”

In June 2020, the OCC, led by Brian Brooks, stated that national banks and federal savings associations can provide consumers with cryptocurrency custody services. However, Brooks has resigned, and Michael Hsu, the new Acting Comptroller of the Currency, has asked for a review of the OCC’s cryptocurrency standards before assuming office.

If we don’t bring this activity inside the banks, it is going to develop outside of the banks … The federal regulators won’t be able to regulate it.

Source: Bitcoin.com

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Crypstarter does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

At the end of July, the product comparison website Finder.com published its research findings from a panel of experts that predicted the crypto asset Ethereum would reach $4.5K this year. On October 25, Finder updated its “Ethereum Price Predictions Report” that polled 50 financial technology specialists and Ethereum is now expected to reach “$5,114 by the end of this year.”

Finder’s Panel Suggests Ethereum Will Be Over $5K by Year’s End

Finder, an investing companion application and product comparison website, has published numerous surveys and panel forecasts concerning the growing cryptocurrency economy. The comparison website’s researchers delve into a variety of different crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), and Ethereum (ETH). Last July, Finder’s researchers polled experts in the financial technology (fintech) sector and the group predicted that ether would reach $4.5K by the year’s end and $18,000 by the year 2025.

On Monday, Finder.com’s Tim Falk and Richard Laycock published a fresh report that polled 50 fintech specialists who discussed the second-largest crypto-asset, Ethereum (ETH). During the last 24 hours, ETH spot prices have been hovering just above the $4K range — between $4,075 and $4,250 per unit. In the latest report, 50 fintech specialists were polled from September 24 to October 11, 2021. Finder said that the researchers leveraged the survey in a “truncated mean,” which means the top and bottom 10% outliers were removed from the data.

The report shows that while ETH is expected to reach $5,114 by the end of this year, by 2025, the panel predicts ETH’s price will jump to $15,364 per unit. Experts also believe that a single ether can then more than triple by the end of 2030, reaching $50,788 per ETH. Data shows that 63% of panelists think it’s a good time to buy ether, while 9% say sell. 28% of the panel members polled say that ether holders should “hold.”

Ethereum Expected to Lose 30% of Market Share to Alternative L1 Networks, 13% of Panelists Believe Solana Can Overtake Ethereum

Another interesting statistic noted is that Ethereum (ETH) is expected to lose 30% of its market share to alternative layer-1 (L1) networks over the next year. Daniel Polotsky, the founder of Coinflip, thinks that by the end of the year ETH will be valued at $4,500. However, Polotsky thinks Ethereum’s growth may surpass the leading crypto asset Bitcoin (BTC) someday.

“Ethereum does a better job of supporting development on its blockchain and will have a more lightweight proof-of-stake mining model than Bitcoin [which] means that it can potentially be the backbone of Web 3.0,” Polotsky remarked in the survey’s notes. He added:

[This] leads me to believe that its rate of growth may even surpass that of bitcoin over the next decade.

Data also shows that one in ten of Finder’s Ethereum survey panelists (13%) believe the Solana (SOL) network will overtake Ethereum as the primary decentralized finance (defi) platform. Johannes Schweifer, CEO of Coreledger AG, is a member of the 13% that believe SOL can outperform ETH in this manner. According to Schweifer, Ethereum won’t be able to solve the network’s scaling issues.

“It was not built for high throughput, and developers know that, whereas other layer-1 solutions such as Solana are. The market will expand rapidly with their maturity and they will get the lion’s share of all new business that is not exclusively based on speculation,” Schweifer added.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Source: Bitcoin.com

The SEC v. Ripple case “seems to be going better than expected,” according to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States, he continued, “is realizing that attacking crypto is politically unpopular.”

Coinbase’s CEO on the Ripple Lawsuit, SEC Attacking Crypto

Brian Armstrong, the CEO of the Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, commented on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) enforcement action against Ripple Labs on Monday. Referencing a Forbes article titled “The crypto uprising the SEC didn’t see coming,” he tweeted:

The Ripple case seems to be going better than expected. Meanwhile, the SEC is realizing that attacking crypto is politically unpopular (because it harms consumers).

“The irony is that the people they are supposedly protecting are the ones attacking them,” the Coinbase boss added.

In reaction to the SEC, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said something similar. “Instead of working with the industry, the SEC is using their meetings with companies as lead generation for their enforcement actions,” he added, pointing out that the agency is refusing to give a clear framework for crypto. “These are the exact people the SEC is supposed to be protecting,” he said of the XRP holders who have filed a class-action complaint against the SEC.

Several Twitter users were taken aback when they saw Armstrong tweeting a nice comment about Ripple. Many others interpreted his words as an optimistic indicator that the price of XRP will shortly rise.

Some speculate that XRP may be relisted on Coinbase soon. One individual said, “Sounds like Brian Armstrong and Coinbase should be getting ready to relist XRP.” Some remain suspicious, claiming that Coinbase will not relist XRP until the dispute has been resolved. The SEC launched a lawsuit against Ripple Labs and its leaders, CEO Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen, in January, prompting Coinbase to delist XRP.

The Nasdaq-listed company itself recently ran into trouble with the securities watchdog when it tried to launch a lending program. The exchange discussed the product with the SEC but was threatened with legal action if it proceeded with the launch. This caused Coinbase to shelve the product.

Source: Bitcoin.com

Tether, the firm behind one of the most popular stablecoins in the crypto market, has stated that it would begin testing a system that will allow it to comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) travel rule. Tether will be able to seamlessly exchange trip rule data across Virtual Asset Service Providers using the system supplied by Notabene, a firm that provides ID and travel rule compliance solutions (VASPs).

Tether Eyes Compliance Solution

Tether, the corporation behind the most valuable stablecoin in the cryptocurrency market, USDT, will trial a solution that will allow it to comply with the Financial Action Task Force’s proposed travel rule. This information will be communicated between VASPs using the solution that will be tested, offered by Notabene, a software business that provides compliance solutions.

Tether’s efforts are aimed at preventing bad actors from using USDT to transport funds from or to illegal sources. This approach intends to make tether (USDT) more friendly to law enforcement agencies all across the world, as well as safer for users that utilize Tether’s stablecoin in transactions.

Tether’s CCO, Leonardo Real, stated:

It’s important that we work with other large VASPs to build this industry from the ground up. As pioneers of blockchain technology and leaders in transparency, we are dedicated to not only keeping up with new rules but helping shape them.

FATF’s Travel Rule

The FATF’s travel rule, which was proposed to be implemented by VASPs in the same way that it is now enforced for traditional financial institutions, states that the information of both parties involved in a transaction must be shared by the institutions facilitating it in order to assist in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. However, because of the pseudonymous nature of bitcoin transactions, implementing this regulation has proven challenging.

As a result, in the crypto industry, efforts to comply with the travel regulation sometimes rely on blockchain analytics and other technologies to give data. Tether isn’t the only corporation attempting to increase the level of scrutiny placed on transactions involving its products. Binance, one of the first exchanges to do so, used a comparable technology, provided by blockchain intelligence startup Ciphertrace, to meet with travel regulation requirements in July.

After a successful test, Tether plans to adopt Notabene’s system to better monitor USDT transactions. At the time of writing, the Tether transparency website shows that there are about 70,687,988,377 tethers in circulation.

Source: Bitcoin.com

While the native token of the blockchain network Solana has risen 31.4% in value this week, the Solana-based perpetual swap platform Drift Protocol has raised $3.8 million from strategic investors. Drift announced the introduction of its alpha mainnet at the same time, following months of “grinding, hard work, debugging, and constructing security guardrails.”

Solana Perpetual Swap Exchange Drift Reveals Mainnet Launch, Raises $3.8 Million

While centralized exchanges such as Binance, FTX, Bybit, and Bitmex provide crypto-based perpetual swaps, decentralized finance (defi) competitors are vying for their share of the trade volume.

dYdX, Mango Markets, and MCDEX are just a few of the decentralized apps (dapps) that are aiming to develop in this direction. The Drift Protocol, a Solana-based perpetual swap network, debuted its mainnet on October 25.

“We successfully launched our mainnet at the Solana’s Chicago Hacker House, working with the guidance of Bartosz, Jordan, and alongside the rest of the residents (HXRO and Mango teams),” the project noted on Monday. Additionally, the project announced the “Drift Alpha Ticket” non-fungible token (NFT) collection and detailed the platform’s team raised $3.8 million from investors. Drift explained on Monday:

The Drift Alpha Ticket is a collection of 1,500 NFTs exclusively released by Drift through rewarding early Discord users and its partnership with defi and NFT projects on the Solana network.

Multicoin Capital, a thesis-driven investment business, led the $3.8 million round of funding, according to Drift. Jump Capital, QCP Capital, Not3Lau, and Alameda Research have also joined the group, in addition to Multicoin Capital.

The project seeks to support SOL and ETH coins, aiming to be a “one-way path to become Solana’s top decentralized futures exchange.”” The Drift Alpha Ticket, Drift details, “is a way for the team to identify and reward its early adopters and believers.”

Solana (SOL), the native token of the Solana network, has been skyrocketing in value this week, climbing to sixth place in terms of market cap. Solana’s value increased by 31.4 % this week, 51.4 % in the last month, and 11,467 % year to date.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Source: Bitcoin.com

One of the most significant issues that people outside the “smart world” experience is a lack of trust while interacting with other parties. Because of the lack of transparency, people wind up wasting a lot of time and money on middlemen before closing a deal.

Smart contracts, on the other hand, address the aforementioned issue by removing intermediaries and increasing transparency in the system.

The Ethereum-Cardano conundrum

Since its beginning, Ethereum has been in the space. It is, without a doubt, the uncrowned prince of smart contract technology. With the passage of time, though, competition has increased, with Cardano being one of the most recent to enter the fray.

The ever-increasing gas fee on Ethereum has long been a source of anxiety for members of the community. Several times this week, the charge has surpassed 250 gwei and 350 gwei.

In reality, when compared to the weekly average, the fee was slightly higher at the time of writing.

Cardano-based smart contracts can, in effect, take use of Ethereum’s aforementioned weakness. If it succeeds, smart contract clients will not hesitate to switch networks.

Cardano is a newcomer to the space, and as the saying goes, new utility equals new acceptance. Cardano, on the other hand, hasn’t shown anything yet. The number of contracts that have been completed has been rather modest.

According to Statista’s chart, the rounded transactional volume increased dramatically after the Alonzo hard fork. It hasn’t been able to maintain those levels, however. In fact, it has been steadily declining over the previous few days.

Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that Cardano arrived at the appropriate time in this market. Because it has the luxury of time, it can experiment and learn what works and what doesn’t, something other platforms may not have when they decide to join later.

Cardano is the first blockchain to be built on the basis of peer-reviewed research and evidence-based methods. As a result, numerous analysts have already claimed that it has a higher and better output efficiency than Ethereum.

A new Ethereum-to-Cardano bridge is currently being created. NFT authors will be able to simply transfer their non-fungible tokens from the energy-intensive Ethereum blockchain to Cardano through this bridge. In retrospect, this would be excellent for the acceptance of the latter network.

Another X-Factor

Another important criterion for determining where different networks/protocols stand is development activity.

In comparison to Ethereum, Cardano has been able to maintain relatively high levels of development activity. Cardano had the upper hand over its equivalent even at the time of writing.

As a result, Cardano has a golden opportunity to compete with Ethereum in the future.

Cardano, on the other hand, would have to offer top-notch cross-chain interoperability, rapid transactions, and predictable fees, among other services and facilities, to emerge victorious.

It’s off to a good start, but only time will tell if it will catch up to Ethereum’s popularity.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Source: ambcrypto

Adobe, the American multinational computer software company behind Photoshop and a host of other Creative Cloud features for multimedia professionals, has announced a partnership with leading NFT marketplaces OpenSea, KnownOrigin, Rarible, and SuperRare to launch a feature in Adobe Photoshop that will allow creators to create images as NFTs.

The functionality will include attribution information and display credentials for NFT artists, transforming these photos into non-fungible tokens with metadata that can be seen and shown on the websites of OpenSea, KnownOrigin, Rarible, and SuperRare. If a wallet address matches the recorded and validated address on an image minted as NFT, a blue “match” icon will be displayed with OpenSea’s implementation.

“This partnership furthers our commitment to empowering users with more tools as we collectively rethink how we transfer digital goods on the internet. Working in tandem with market leaders like Adobe and the growing NFT community, we will keep providing features to increase trust and transparency across the metaverse.” OpenSea said in a statement.

The new functionality, initially dubbed the “prepare as NFT” option within its UI, would allow producers and potential NFT buyers to rapidly check the attribution of NFTs created with Adobe Photoshop, Stock, Behance, and other major Adobe products and workflows.

“Our goals with NFTs at this stage are simple: How do we help creatives get credit for their work, and how do we help folks who are already creating NFTs showcase their work, no matter where they mint it? This gives collectors and marketplaces valuable information about the true creator of a work of art.” shares Andy Parsons, Director of Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative.

The function is now in public beta, which means it will almost certainly be improved when it is tested in the open, according to Parsons. The application will also allow users and NFT buyers to see detailed information about who minted a given piece and when it was minted. Scott Belsky, Adobe’s Chief Product Officer, stated in an interview with The Verge’s Nilay Patel via the Decoder podcast that the tool will use an open-source cryptographic mechanism to securely sign photos with a creator’s identity. The IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) network, a content-addressable, peer-to-peer hypermedia distribution protocol, is linked to the digital signature.

There’s no word on whether pseudonyms or artist names will be verified as such, or if they’ll be signed with real names. NFT authors would also be able to link their social media accounts and wallet addresses to the image using the new NFT content attribution mechanism.

“By adding your social media and wallet addresses to your content credentials you can further assure consumers that you are indeed the creator of your content. A crypto address is also useful if someone wishes to mint their work as crypto art.” Adobe said in its official press release.

Adobe is publishing the NFT content’s complete metadata as “Content Credentials” as part of its Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), an initiative aimed at addressing disinformation through digital content provenance. Adobe announced the program in 2019, in collaboration with Twitter and The New York Times. As a result of the endeavor, numerous well-known technology companies, including Qualcomm Technologies, Intel, and Microsoft, have joined the effort to develop “pragmatic, adoptable standards for digital provenance.”

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Source: CryptoDaily UK

All entities, including banks that are already regulated, have to register.

After months of waiting, the Bank of Spain has finally issued instructions on how to register to offer crypto-related services in the country.

• Institutions are instructed to apply through an electronic registry, after which the central bank will take up to three months to consider the application.
• The process was first announced by Spain’s central bank in June, with a promise that instructions on how to proceed would be issued in due course. These instructions have now finally arrived.
• Much of the uncertainty related to whether existing mainstream financial institutions, such as banks, would have to register since they are already regulated entities.
• The Bank of Spain has now made it clear that they do: “The obligation to register in this registry applies to all natural or legal persons who are in any of the above cases and provide virtual currency exchange services for fiduciary currency and custody of electronic purses, regardless of whether they are also registered in other administrative records in the Bank of Spain or in other competent authorities.”

Source: CoinDesk

Tesla believes cryptocurrencies could emerge as a “liquid alternative to cash” over the longer

Tesla, the majo electric vehicle manufacturer headed by Dogecoin proselytizer Elon Musk, has hinted that it may soon look to restore support for crypto payments.

In a September quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), the firm stated it “may in the future restart the practice of transacting in cryptocurrencies,” suggesting Tesla is eying resuming support purchases made using digital assets.

The company also expressed its long-term belief in crypto assets as a store of value and means of payment, stating:

“We believe in the long term potential of digital assets both as an investment and also as a liquid alternative to cash.”

Tesla previously accepted Bitcoin as payment for electric vehicle purchases between January and March of this year. The move came as part of a broader Bitcoin embrace from Tesla, with the firm also investing $1.5 billion worth of its treasury into BTC during the first quarter of 2021.

However, support for Bitcoin was quickly shelved after the firm faced criticism for supporting BTC despite perceptions that proof-of-work mining has a negative impact on the environment.

In June, CEO Elon Musk indicated that Tesla would consider resuming support for Bitcoin payments once at least half of the Bitcoin’s network hash rate is powered by renewable energy.

The report comes amid news that Tesla’s market cap topped $1 trillion after securing a landmark deal with car rental company Hertz. Tesla’s share price also rallied about $1k for the first time ever.

Much to the dismay of Shiba Inu Coin holders, Elon Musk tweeted this weekend that he only holds Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin.

On Monday, Twitter user Shiba Inu Holder tweeted to Elon Musk asking how much SHIB he is holding, to which Musk replied: “none.”

“Out of curiosity, I acquired some ascii hash strings called ‘Bitcoin, Ethereum & Doge’. That’s it,” he added.

Source: Cointelegraph

Bitcoin dominated this week’s inflows, with a 99% share. Last week, Bitcoin received $70 million in weekly inflows.

According to a report released Monday by CoinShares, investors pumped a record $1.47 billion into digital asset investment products last week, propelled by a surge in cryptocurrencies and the introduction of the first bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund.

Last week, bitcoin (BTC), the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, soared to an all-time high of $66,974.

In February, inflows totaled $640 million, setting a new weekly high. The inflows into crypto funds over the last week have brought the year-to-date total to $8 billion.

Bitcoin-focused funds dominated last week’s inflows, accounting for 99 percent of all cryptocurrency fund inflows. During the prior week, inflows into bitcoin-focused funds were at $70 million.

“This is a direct result of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allowing a bitcoin ETF investing in futures and the consequent listing of two bitcoin investment products,” said a report by CoinShares.

On Oct 15, the SEC approved the first bitcoin futures ETF, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, and the announcement drove bitcoin’s price above $60,000 for the first time in six months.

On Oct. 19, the ProShares ETF began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BITO.

Ether fund flows

Ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, the world’s second-largest, also reached an all-time high last week at $4,361 on Oct. 21.

Although the ETH price climbed, funds focused on the cryptocurrency saw outflows for a third consecutive week. Outflows from ether-focused funds totaled $1.4 million last week, according to CoinShares.

“This is minor profit-taking as the price closes in on all-time highs,” said the report.

Other altcoins saw inflows including Solana (SOL) at $8.1 million, Cardano’s ADA currency at $5.3 million and Binance coin (BNB) at $1.8 million.

Source: CoinDesk

Merchants and banks will be able to incorporate cryptocurrencies into their services as a result of the partnership.

MasterCard has partnered with Bakkt to provide the option to purchase, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies to MasterCard’s network of merchants, banks, and fintech organizations. MasterCard is calling this new offering, Crypto-as-a-Service and has decided to offer digital assets to its network of users to give them more variety when it comes to money and payments.

Mastercard and Bakkt, a digital asset platform, have launched a partnership to allow merchants and banks to incorporate bitcoin into their offers. Customers will be able to collect loyalty rewards in a new way thanks to the collaboration of the two companies. Users can purchase, trade, and keep digital assets through Bakkt’s custodial wallets, and customers can receive and spend loyalty incentives through bitcoin, according to Mastercard.

The action moves cryptocurrencies one step closer to bridging the gap between it and the traditional credit card payment sector. According to Bakkt’s senior vice president of loyalty incentives and payments, the company is also appealing to younger customers.

“As brands and merchants look to appeal to younger consumers and their transaction preferences, these new offerings represent a unique opportunity to satisfy increasing demand for crypto, payment and rewards flexibility,” Bakkt’s Nancy Gordon said in a statement.

Bakkt began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “BKKT” earlier this month after a SPAC deal. Shares surged in trading Monday, rising over 150% and crossed $26 per share.

Last week, American Express CEO Stephen Squeri said he doesn’t currently see crypto as a threat to traditional credit cards.

The Bakkt-Mastercard tie-up is a continuation of the card company’s recent foray into the crypto sector, following last month’s acquisition of compliance firm CipherTrace.

Source: CoinDesk

An official Chinese tax newspaper has called on the government to impose taxes on digital currencies, despite the recent show of hostility towards the industry by the government.

An official Chinese tax newspaper has called on the government to impose taxes on cryptocurrencies, despite the recent show of hostility towards the industry by the government. The article, which was attributed to the state tax agency, further called for clarity regarding Bitcoin property declaration, liquidations, mergers and acquisitions, and more to avoid tax evasion. 

China has been unequivocal in its hard stance against crypto.

China has been unequivocal in its hard stance against the crypto industry. It has banned ICOs, chased off exchanges, curbed banking access for players in the industry, and booted out miners over the past few years. However, despite clearly not leaving any room for digital currencies, the China State Tax Administration believes that the government should define taxation policies for the sector. The Asian country banned BTC years ago and has continued to reiterate this stand. In an article on China Tax News, the administration’s Loudi Taxation Bureau called on the government to go even further and legally define other related activities.

The bureau wants more regulations around cryptocurrencies. 

“At the same time, China should improve the relevant property declaration and registration mechanism and carry out real-name registration and dynamic tracking of users who hold a large amount of virtual currency,” the bureau stated. It also wants the Chinese government to define policies related to reorganizations, fines and confiscations, liquidation, bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, and more “to clarify the handling of virtual currencies to avoid the loss of national taxes.”. While the government has claimed that the clampdown is to protect investors, many have said that Xi Jinping’s administration is anti-Bitcoin as it represents the ultimate freedom in a state governed by a communist regime. 

Source: Coinnounce

The NEAR Protocol announced that it was launching an $800 million funding initiative. The funds would be earmarked towards the growth and development of the NEAR ecosystem, with the largest allocation from the fund set to go towards the protocol’s DeFi sector.

As a result of the announcement, the price of the NEAR token has skyrocketed, pushing up by almost 30%.

A Monumental Announcement

NEAR’s announcement that it is launching its $800 million funding initiative is a record of sorts and includes $350 million in funding that Proximity Labs announced during the previous week. The announcement strongly boosts the already high momentum that the NEAR ecosystem has been undergoing over the past year. The NEAR Protocol will look at giving all communities access to the funding, with a stronger focus on decentralized Finance (DeFi).

DeFi On NEAR

With NEAR’s focus on DeFi, it is important to acknowledge that DeFi and DeFi projects on NEAR have hit a significant milestone, with over $150 million in Total Value Locked (TVL). NEAR hopes that with the current funding, it can grow DeFi and the TVL quickly and securely, with the protocol also focusing on NFT, Gaming, and DAO-focused projects.

Breakup Of The Funding Initiative

NEAR has also shared details of how the funds from the funding initiative will be allocated. Out of the $800 million, $250 million have been earmarked for already existing projects and will be distributed over a period of four years. $100 million will be distributed amongst a group of 20 startups, while a further $100 million will be allocated towards the development of the NEAR Protocol’s international communities.

The most substantial allocation of $350 million would go towards a new DeFi development DAO. NEAR has secured the backing of the biggest names in the industry, with backers including the likes of Coinbase, a16z, and Pantera. It also includes a project that Y Combinator incubates. Prior to the current announcement, the NEAR protocol already had allocated $45 million across over 120 projects.

The Next Sharding Phase  

NEAR’s grant announcement comes a day before #NEARCON, The NEAR Protocol’s conference to be held in Lisbon. The NEAR Protocol will also be launching its next sharding phase later in the year. The launch will see the protocol go from one shard to four shards, significantly increasing scalability without compromising security.

Focus On NFTs And DAOs

NEAR’s ecosystem is also looking at including NFTs and video games, with 10,000 NEARNaut NFTs that will be launched in December. Additionally, 25,000 NEAR tokens were awarded to Vorto-Gaming, a play-to-earn project backed by ConsenSys.

NEAR has also launched the On-Chain Communities (OCC) platform Astro. The launch of Astro will reinvigorate DAO communities. As a result of these announcements, the NEAR token has shot up by nearly 30%.

Source: CryptoDaily UK

Walmart has installed 200 Bitcoin ATMs in its stores across the United States, with plans to add 8,000 more in the coming months.

Walmart Partners With Coinstar and CoinMe

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, has partnered with Coinstar, a coin-cashing machine company, and CoinMe, a crypto-cash exchange, to install 200 Bitcoin ATMs across the country as part of its foray into the cryptocurrency world. Its locations can be found all throughout the United States.

According to a Bloomberg report, Bitcoin ATMs will be installed in Walmart shops across the United States, allowing customers to buy bitcoins at any of various locations. Over the next few months, Walmart plans to install at over 8,000 shops across the United States.

Sam Doctor, the Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Research at BitOoda, stated in an interview with Bloomberg that while Bitcoin ATMs are already popular in the United States, Walmart wants to make them more accessible.

He said, “Walmart expands Bitcoin access to more people, though, and gives it further legitimacy among skeptics, should they roll it out beyond an initial pilot.” According to Coin ATM Radar, there are over 25,000 Bitcoin ATMs in service stations and grocery stores across the United States right now. Coinstar presently has over 4,400 kiosks in 33 states that accept Bitcoin purchases.

Source: FX Empire

During the retreat, founders, innovators and influential minds presented various solutions that can help conserve the ocean and combat climate change.

Huobi Group, a leading blockchain company, recently sponsored crypto experts to attend the Oceans 4.4 retreat held in the British Virgin Islands.

The 5-day retreat took place from October 9-14th. It was hosted by renowned entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson at his home on Necker Island. The event aimed to raise awareness of the water crisis affecting millions of people across the world.

During the retreat, founders, innovators and influential minds presented various solutions that can help conserve the ocean and combat climate change.

The Huobi representatives contributed to the discussion on how to tackle various issues contributing to environmental degradation. They also promised that Huobi would make climate commitments aimed at saving the ocean.

Commenting about the event, Jeff Mei, the Director of Global Strategy at Huobi Group, reiterated his company’s commitment towards improving society:

“As we continue to grow our business presence around the world, we are taking an increasing interest in the communities we operate in. Furthering social impact initiatives will be one of Huobi’s key goals going forward, and we will look to work with like-minded stakeholders that share our values.”

Huobi Group’s Blockchain Summit 2021

The Oceans retreat was a precursor to the upcoming Huobi Summit 2021, which will commemorate the blockchain company’s 8th founding anniversary.

The summit, set to take place on November 8, will host an online industry forum to discuss cutting-edge crypto and blockchain projects. Huobi Group has invited government leaders such as former Federal Reserve head Alan Greenspan and numerous business founders to participate in the event.

Huobi has been at the forefront of creating a more sustainable world. The Seychelles-based blockchain startup is involved in various initiatives geared toward fostering global blockchain development for the benefit of the society and global economy.Advertisement

Contributing to a Brighter Future

Huobi Group leverages its resources and influence to create a fair and equitable future for all. Through its philanthropic arm, Huobi Charity Limited, the company taps the blockchain and cryptocurrency to tackle societal issues like poverty, healthcare, education, and more.

Huobi is committed to applying blockchain tech towards environmental development and bringing positive change to the world through innovation and social initiatives. Such efforts could help foster blockchain and crypto adoption by proving that the technologies can be a force of good for the environment.

More crypto industry participants need to join efforts to integrate environmental protection measures to silence critics who oppose the emerging sector.

Source: FX Empire

In a job posting for a senior engineer, the social media giant said that a “rapidly growing team” was looking to build “the largest creator economy on the internet.”

Add Reddit to the list of big brands entering the non-fungible token (NFT) market. The social media site intends to build an NFT platform for buying and selling crypto collectibles, the company tipped in a job posting.

• In the posting for a senior engineer, Reddit noted “a new and exciting, rapidly growing team that aims to build the largest creator economy on the internet, powered by independent creators, digital goods and NFTs. We are looking for strong engineers and leaders to help us seed the team, set its strategy and build for the future.”

• The initiative comes amid NFTs’ skyrocketing popularity that has spurred a wide array of companies to kickstart different initiatives. Earlier this month, crypto exchanges Coinbase and FTX.US have said that they are building NFT marketplaces.
• Reddit said that it was looking for someone who could “design, build and ship backend services for millions of users to create, buy, sell and use NFT-backed digital goods.”
• Reddit’s platform draws 430 million monthly visitors for news updates and widely read discussion threads.
• Reddit noted in the posting that “fans of today’s biggest creators and brands are now flocking to buy digital goods directly from them – to support them, to gain exclusive access and to feel a greater sense of connection with them. Over time, we believe this will only grow.”

Source: CoinDesk

Solana has surpassed XRP to become the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, and it might return to the $200 level if current momentum continues.

Solana is getting close to $200 once more.

For the past few hours, the cryptocurrency market has been in a downward trend. Despite reaching a new all-time high a few days ago, Bitcoin and the other major cryptocurrencies have been trading in the negative.

Despite the market’s overall bearish trend, Solana remains one of the best performers. With a market valuation of more over $56 billion, Solana surpasses XRP to become the sixth-largest cryptocurrency.

SOL could test its all-time high level of $213 again in the next days if the bullish trend continues. Solana achieved its current all-time high on September 9, but has yet to reclaim it. Solana would require the assistance of the broader cryptocurrency market to surge to a new all-time high. Following the rise earlier this week, the larger crypto market is currently in a consolidation phase.

Solana’s TVL has surpassed the $12 billion mark.

Recent reports that the Total Value Locked (TVL) on DeFi protocols on the blockchain topped the $12 billion mark for the first time in history fueled Solana’s latest mini-rally. Ethereum is still the world’s most popular DeFi blockchain. However, in recent months, Solana has seen tremendous progress in this sector.

The growth in Solana’s TVL is due to the cryptocurrency’s price increase in recent weeks. Solana has a possibility to beat Cardano and become the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap if it continues on its present pace and surpasses the $200 level.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Proximity Labs is investing $350 million towards NEAR’s DeFi development.

Proximity Labs, an NEAR ecosystem research and development company, has announced a $350 million grant for companies, organizations, and individuals developing decentralized financial applications (DeFi) on the NEAR blockchain. Curve.Fi, Sushi, Dodo, Kyber, Woo, and native NEAR applications like Ref, Burrow, Onomy, and Trisolaris have launched or are in the process of launching on NEAR’s safe and scalable blockchain, and many more will be updated.

The DAO award would distribute up to 40 million NEAR tokens over four years to promote expanding initiatives, with a current worth of approximately $300 million. The application process is the same for all grant-funded projects, ranging in size from $5000 to several million dollars.

Recent updates on NEAR

TVL (Total Value Locked) has crossed $150 million on NEAR in the last few weeks as core infrastructure and projects have begun and rolled out. This TVL comprises NEAR assets like Ref, Skyward, and OCT, as well as Ethereum-based assets like ETH, DAI, USDC, and USDT exchanged over Rainbow Bridge. The growth of this project has increased the number of wallets on NEAR, which now has over 1.3 million active accounts.

Because of its unique Nightshade architecture, the NEAR protocol is regarded as a significant layer 1 blockchain for DeFi applications. Instead of requiring all network nodes to complete the entire transaction, this design allows transactions to be performed on shards. This method of processing allows separate servers to store and process tiny chunks of the blockchain in simultaneously. As a result, NEAR’s one-of-a-kind design enables unlimited blockchain scalability with minimal, fast, and safe transaction fees.

Because of its quick transaction processing, cheap fees, and access to NEAR’s extensive financial capabilities, the combination of sharding on NEAR with DeFi makes decentralized finance accessible to everyone.

The NEAR platform offers a diverse set of tools and frameworks for developers working in a variety of industries. NEAR has attracted projects from a variety of blockchain platforms, including Aurora (Aurora’s EVM virtual machine built on Rust that allows Ethereum native programs to operate on Aurora without difficulty) and Octopus ( a sidechain for operating Web3 application-specific blockchains, aka appchain). There is presently no other layer 1 blockchain that gives the same level of flexibility as NEAR.

About NEAR

NEAR is a high-performance blockchain that is designed to be lightning fast, safe, and infinitely expandable. The goal of NEAR is to build a network that will let billions of people to access the next generation of the internet.

NEAR was developed by a team of award-winning engineers and entrepreneurs with the purpose of making it easy to use, comprehensive, and environmentally friendly. A16Z, Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain.com, Baidu Ventures, and GFS Venture are among the prominent venture capital firms that have invested in NEAR.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will launch a digital currency on Monday aimed at improving the payments system in the West African nation, according to the central bank.

The eNaira, which took several years to develop, will “make financial transactions easier and seamless for every strata of the society,” the Central Bank of Nigeria said in emailed statement on Saturday. The digital currency will complement the physical naira.

The Abuja-based bank in August selected Bitt Inc. as a technical partner to help create the digital currency. It announced plans to introduce the virtual ledger four months after banning cryptocurrency transactions in February, saying they were a threat to the financial system.

Source: Bloomberg

Crypstarter is pleased to welcome Ms. Minh Huynh, a professional venture investor, as the new member of the Advisory Board as a Strategic Advisor for the Crypstarter project.

Minh Huynh has more than 15 years of experience in investment banking and PE investment management and is currently serving as the Director of a regional PE fund. She has extensive experience investing in companies in Southeast Asia, particularly in Education, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Retail, Manufacturing, FMCG, and Financial Services. She completed the Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA Program and holds a Master’s degree in Economics under an Erasmus Mundus scholarship.

Crypstarter intends to create a bridge between local and regional blockchain initiatives, owing to its strong development direction as a blockchain network. With Ms. Minh Huynh on the Advisory Board, Crypstarter is anticipated to build its ecosystem in a sustainable manner, with a clear roadmap, and to aggressively expand into new markets and regions while also representing the community’s interests.

About Crypstarter

Cryptstarter is a proof-of-stake blockchain network. It uses cutting-edge technology to provide unparalleled security and durability to decentralized applications. And it’s secured by the CST Cryptographic platform. The other benefits add on i.e. transaction speed and very low fees, apart from that the ability to mine more coins with our POS technology by joining our Staking Program. It offers Crypstarter ecosystem which exposes features of decentralized exchange, Crypstarter Echohub, Decentralized Applications and Crowdfunding platform.

Cardano’s Alonzo Hard Fork Combinator là một trong những nâng cấp quan trọng nhất đã xảy ra trên mạng Cardano. Được triển khai chỉ hơn một tháng trước, bản nâng cấp mang các hợp đồng thông minh và dịch vụ Tài chính phi tập trung (DeFi) vào hệ sinh thái Cardano.

Ứng dụng phi tập trung (DApps) trên Blockchain của Cardano

Alonzo Hard Fork Combinator cho phép các nhà phát triển phát triển và triển khai các dApp trên chuỗi khối Cardano. Điều này đã cung cấp một sự thúc đẩy đáng kể cho mạng của Cardano, khi giao thức tiếp tục công việc của nó với sự cộng tác của các nhà phát triển, giúp họ triển khai các ứng dụng phi tập trung của họ trên mạng.

Với việc triển khai thành công Alonzo Hard Fork Combinator, các nhà phát triển đang chuẩn bị tập trung vào giai đoạn tiếp theo của Cardano, Kỷ nguyên Babbage.

Điều gì tiếp theo cho Cardano

Kỹ sư phần mềm tại Input Output, Kevin Hammond, đã đưa ra một cái nhìn sơ lược về những gì Cardano đang làm tiếp theo, chia sẻ một bản cập nhật tiết lộ rằng IOHK đã sẵn sàng tiến tới Kỷ nguyên Babbage, giai đoạn tiếp theo của Cardano.

Kỷ nguyên Babbage được đặt theo tên của Charles Babbage, một nhà toán học được coi là “cha đẻ của máy tính”. Kỷ nguyên Babbage về cơ bản sẽ giải quyết mọi vấn đề có thể còn sót lại sau khi nâng cấp Alonzo.

Cải tiến hiệu suất được đề xuất

Một số cải tiến hiệu suất được lên kế hoạch triển khai trên blockchain trong Kỷ nguyên Babbage. Theo Hammond, những cải tiến này đã được thực hiện trong một thời gian đáng kể nhưng vẫn chưa chính thức ra mắt.

Các vấn đề sẽ được giải quyết là cải thiện tốc độ chìm, cùng với một số vấn đề về hiệu suất được các nhà phát triển và nhà khai thác tập trung kể từ khi Alonzo Hard Fork Combinator đi vào hoạt động. Những cải tiến được coi là quan trọng vì chúng sẽ đảm bảo rằng người dùng trên mạng có trải nghiệm tương đối mượt mà khi làm việc trên Cardano.

Nâng cấp ngôn ngữ lập trình

Plutus, ngôn ngữ được sử dụng trên mạng Cardano, cũng đang được nâng cấp đáng kể. Nhà phát triển tiết lộ kế hoạch cải thiện ngôn ngữ bằng cách giới thiệu một phiên bản mới của Plutus trên blockchain. Các khía cạnh cụ thể của tập lệnh Plutus của mạng Cardano cũng sẽ được cải thiện, điều này sẽ cho phép khối lượng giao dịch nhanh hơn và lớn hơn trong mỗi khối.

Phiên bản mới cũng sẽ bao gồm một số tính năng bổ sung, mà người dùng của Cardano đã yêu cầu khá lâu.

Phân cấp hơn nữa

Ngoài ra còn có các kế hoạch nhằm phân cấp blockchain Cardano hơn nữa. Cardano đang tìm cách cung cấp cho cộng đồng của mình nhiều quyền kiểm soát hơn đối với những gì xảy ra trên mạng và hướng đi của mạng.

Công nhận chuỗi cung ứng dựa trên chuỗi khối

Nó cũng được tiết lộ tại Cardano Hội nghị thượng đỉnh Năm 2021 Strait Brands sẽ hợp tác với IOHK, với kế hoạch nhúng Atala SCAN vào quy trình sản xuất và phân phối của họ. Atala SCAN cung cấp giải pháp lý tưởng để ngăn chặn việc làm giả hoặc dán nhãn sai sản phẩm nhờ công nghệ blockchain.

Tuyên bố từ chối trách nhiệm: Bài viết này chỉ được cung cấp cho mục đích thông tin. Nó không được cung cấp hoặc nhằm mục đích sử dụng như lời khuyên pháp lý, thuế, đầu tư, tài chính hoặc các lời khuyên khác.

Nguồn: Crypto Daily™

Facebook đã chọn Coinbase làm đối tác lưu ký để thử nghiệm Novi, một ví tiền kỹ thuật số mới cho phép mọi người gửi và nhận tiền ở nước ngoài ngay lập tức, an toàn và không tính phí.

Đối với chương trình thử nghiệm, Coinbase đang hỗ trợ Novi thông qua Coinbase Custody, giúp bảo mật tiền của người dùng bằng khả năng lưu trữ lạnh độc quyền, được tách biệt hoàn toàn của Coinbase để quản lý khóa cá nhân.

Người dùng Novi có thể tham gia thử nghiệm có thể nhận được Pax Dollar (USDP) thông qua tài khoản Novi của họ, tài khoản Novi sẽ giữ tiền gửi bằng Coinbase Custody. Người dùng Novi sau đó sẽ có thể chuyển USDP cho nhau ngay lập tức.

Tiền của người dùng Novi sẽ được giữ trong Coinbase Custody Trust Company, một công ty giám sát đủ điều kiện và một công ty ủy thác có mục đích hạn chế ở New York. Coinbase Custody Trust Company được quản lý bởi Bộ Dịch vụ Tài chính New York và là công ty ủy thác theo luật ngân hàng của bang New York. Người dùng Novi cũng được hưởng lợi từ chương trình bảo hiểm hàng đầu của Coinbase Custody, bao gồm chính sách tội phạm thương mại trị giá 320 triệu đô la.

Coinbase Custody là một nền tảng tiền điện tử gốc và người giám sát quản lý an toàn 180 tỷ đô la (tính đến 30/6/21) tài sản tiền điện tử trên nền tảng của nó. Trong chín năm qua, Coinbase đã phát triển chuyên môn sâu về cơ sở hạ tầng tiền điện tử an toàn và có thể mở rộng, mà chúng tôi đã xây dựng ban đầu để cung cấp năng lượng cho các ứng dụng bên thứ nhất của riêng mình. Sau đó, chúng tôi đã sản xuất cơ sở hạ tầng này và hiện cung cấp các giải pháp cơ sở hạ tầng an toàn của mình cho phần còn lại của thị trường. Điều này bao gồm các giải pháp giám sát hàng đầu của chúng tôi, thực hiện giao dịch theo thuật toán đa địa điểm, hỗ trợ đặt cược, tài trợ, truy cập bất chấp, tuân thủ và phân tích dữ liệu thị trường và trên chuỗi.

Chúng tôi tin rằng trong tương lai, mọi công ty sẽ là một công ty tiền điện tử, bao gồm các nền tảng fintech, ngân hàng, phương tiện truyền thông xã hội, công ty trò chơi và thương hiệu tiêu dùng. Mục tiêu của chúng tôi là cung cấp cho họ những công cụ tốt nhất có thể để người dùng của chính họ có trải nghiệm hạng nhất và tham gia vào kinh tế tiền điện tử.
Để tìm hiểu thêm về bộ sản phẩm và dịch vụ đầy đủ của Coinbase Institutions, hãy nhấp vào đây.

Coinbase hiện hỗ trợ Pax Dollar (USDP) theo mã ban đầu là Paxos Standard (PAX), được đổi thương hiệu vào ngày 24 tháng 8 năm 2021.

Nguồn: Coinbase Medium

Chiếc ‎máy tính chúng ta sử dụng ngày nay đã trải qua những tiến hóa cải tiến qua nhiều thế hệ khác nhau. Ví dụ, máy tính thế hệ đầu tiên (1940-1956) đến máy tính thế hệ thứ năm (hiện tại và hơn thế nữa). Những thế hệ này đã cố gắng mang lại một sự phát triển mới dẫn đến việc sử dụng nhanh hơn, rẻ hơn và hiệu quả hơn. Cũng giống như sự phát triển của máy tính, công nghệ blockchain đã phát triển theo thời gian.

Và sau thế hệ thứ nhất Blockchain 1.0 là Bitcoin, thế hệ blockchain thứ 2 là Etherium đã nâng tầm cho công nghệ Blockchain với việc ra mắt hợp đồng thông minh, góp phần việc phát triển các ứng dụng dựa trên Blockchain được phát triển mạnh mẽ và bùng nổ hơn, nhưng Blockchain 2.0 lại bị giới hạn ở khả năng mở rộng số lượng giao dịch vì cơ chế đồng thuận Proof of Work (PoW) và thời gian xác thực giao dịch cũng tăng khi càng nhiều đồng ETH được đào. Vì vậy các thế hệ công nghệ blockchain mới được ra đời là Blockchain 3.0 và Blockchain 4.0 để giải quyết các vấn đề nút thắt của thế hệ blockchain 2.0. Trong bài viết này, chúng ta sẽ thảo luận và phân biệt 2 đồng tiền đại diện cho Blockchain 3.0 là Cardano (ADA) và Blockchain 4.0 Solana (SOL). 

CARDANO VÀ SOLANA – MỤC TIÊU VÀ QUÁ TRÌNH PHÁT TRIỂN

Cardano‎‎ là một blockchain thế hệ thứ ba. Trong khi Blockchain thế hệ thứ nhất và thứ hai đã mang lại cho thế giới một sự tiến hóa lớn trong đổi mới phân cấp và bảo mật, nó lại thiếu khả năng mở rộng và tốc độ xác thực giao dịch lại chậm. ì thế Cardano được ra đời với mục tiêu giải quyết các vấn đề về khả năng mở rộng và khả năng phát triển hệ sinh thái. ‎Cardano đặt mục tiêu trở thành một nền tảng có khả năng mở rộng và bền vững hơn để chạy các hợp đồng thông minh, xây dựng DApps và cải thiện các blockchain truyền thống như Ethereum. Cardano với đồng coin ADA được thành lập vào năm 2015 bởi Charles Hoskinson – đồng sáng lập đồng Etherium và Bitshares, và chinh thức vận hành sau khi huy động được 60 triệu USD trong một đợt ICO vào năm 2017.

Cardano được cho là nền tảng blockchain đầu tiên phát triển với phương pháp tiếp cận theo hướng nghiên cứu khoa học. Ngay những ngày đầu dự án, Charles Hoskinson và các đồng sự đã đem White Paper và mã nguồn của Cardano tới khắp các trường đại học để xây dựng cộng đồng phát triển và chứng thực bởi các nhà khoa học.

Cardano được hỗ trợ bởi ba tổ chức riêng biệt về cả quyền sở hữu và lãnh đạo. Cardano Foundation là một tổ chức độc lập, có trụ sở tại Thụy Sĩ, giám sát sự phát triển của hệ sinh thái Cardano, IOHK (Input Output Hong Kong với CEO là chính Charles Hoskinson) thiết kế và xây dựng Cardano và Emurgo (Nhật Bản) là công ty vì lợi nhuận hỗ trợ Cardano cũng như đầu tư trong các dự án thương mại phát triển hệ sinh thái ecosystem trên nền tảng blockchain Cardano.

Khác với các đa số các đồng crypto khác thì Cardano được xây dựng với cấu trúc 2 lớp (layer) và thuật toán Ouroboros được vận hành trên cơ chế xác thực đồng thuận theo cổ phần, hay còn gọi là Proof of Stack (PoS). Thuật toán Ouroboros hiện nay là giao thức PoS duy nhất an toàn về mặt toán học đã được chứng minh và lý thuyết của Ouroboros đã được kiểm tra bằng khoa học. Hiện nay, thuật toán Ouroboros đang được phát triển với sự trợ giúp của ĐH Edinburgh, ĐH Connecticut, IOHK và Viện Công nghệ Tokyo.

Mặc dù Cardano không còn được nhắc tới nhiều nhưng Cardano vẫn là nền tảng blockchain có hệ sinh thái lớn thứ 5 trên toàn thị trường.

Solana được cho là đại diện của thế hệ Blockchain thứ tư, Blockchain 4.0. Nhóm phát triển Solana có trụ sở tại San Francisco, California, Hoa Kỳ và được thành lập vào năm 2018 bởi các cựu chuyên gia từ các công ty công nghệ lớn như Qualcomn hay Intel, đứng đầu là Anatoly Yakovenko. Khác với Cardano, Solana được quản lý bởi công ty Solana Lab Inc, có trụ sở tại Delaware, Hoa Kỳ.

Solana là một Smart Contract Platform hiệu suất cao. Solana giới thiệu nhiều công nghệ mới và độc đáo, để cung cấp cho người dùng tốc độ giao dịch cùng khả năng bảo mật cao, với khả năng mở rộng lên tới hàng trăm ngàn giao dịch mỗi giây thông qua việc nâng cấp phần cứng. Có thể nói Solana hiện đang là Smart Contract Platform có tốc độ xác thực cao nhất hiện nay trên thị trường.

Solana không sử dụng cấu trúc 2 lớp như Cardano mà vẫn sử dụng cấu trúc 1 lớp như các đồng tiền kỹ thuật số khác nhưng phát triển công nghệ xác thực mới là Tower BFT là sự kết hợp của Proof of History và Proof of Stake cùng các công nghệ tối ưu thuật toán cho phần cứng để đẩy nhanh tốc độ cũng như số lượng xác thực giao dịch của hệ thống. Solana nổi lên với tốc độ xử lý xác thực giao dịch cực nhanh (0.4s) với chi phí cực rẻ chỉ vào khoảng 0.01 USD cho một giao dịch.

NHƯ VẬY, có thể thấy Cardano và Solana là 2 dự án cryptocurrency smart contract platform có định hướng phát triển khác nhau. Cardano là tổ chức có tầm nhìn tập trung vào việc sẽ mang blockchain ứng dụng không chỉ trong DeFi mà còn ở ngoài đời thực hơn. Cardano tạo ra một platform phát triển với mục đích tạo ra nền tảng bền vững hơn trong quá trinh vận hành và mở rộng được bảo chứng mạnh mẽ hơn bởi giới học thuật trong từng bước phát triển. Cardano chọn phương án tối ưu mở rộng bằng cách cấu trúc phân tầng layer và mở rộng tách bạch mạnh mẽ hơn. Hiện nay, mặc dù đã ra mắt tinh năng smart contract vào tháng 09/2021 nhưng trong suốt quá trình phát triển và vận hành Cardano chưa gặp phải một vấn đề nào lớn về kỹ thuật.

Trong khi đó, Solana lại muốn tối ưu 2 mục tiêu là tốc độ xác thực và chi phí giao dịch bằng những công nghệ mới như Proof of History (PoH) và các công nghệ tối ưu khả năng xử lý thuật toán đến từng phần cứng của node. Solana được phát triển chủ yếu nhằm mục đích giải quyết vấn đề khả năng mở rộng của blockchain và vẫn giữ phân cấp với bảo mật làm trọng tâm. Solana đặt mục tiêu trở thành một mạng lưới nhanh và hiệu quả hơn Ethereum, Cardano và tất cả các blockchain khác ngoài kia. Mặc dù thế, do là đồng crypto được phát triển bởi chỉ một đội ngũ nên Solana trong giai đoạn phát triển sẽ thiếu ổn định hơn là Cardano và đã bị 2 lần hệ thống bị shut donw và phải hard fork vào ngày 3/12/2020 và 14/9/2021. Đặc biệt là sự cố ngày 14/9/2021, Solana đã phải chịu sự gia tăng đột biến trong các giao dịch lên tới 300.000 transaction trong 1 giây (TPS) gây tắc nghẽn mạng, và kết quả là Solana phải shut down hệ thống suốt 18 tiếng để khắc phục. Điều này đã tác động đáng kể đến các DApp chạy trên Solana. Solana được coi là Blockchain nhanh nhất trên toàn cầu và là một trong những blockchain rẻ nhất, nhưng một blockchain không được phép bị ngưng trong một khoảng thời gian đáng kể như vậy. Điều này đã tạo ra một cảm giác hoài nghi cho người hâm mộ Solana trên toàn thế giới. ‎Ngoài ra, qua sự cố này nhiều người lại đặt câu hỏi về tinh phi tập trung của Solana khi mà việc shut down hệ thống này chỉ được quyết định bởi 19 pool Stack sở hữu tới hơn 33% số lượng coin SOL đã phát hành trong hệ thống.

THUẬT TOÁN VÀ CƠ CHẾ ĐỒNG THUẬN

CARDANO

Cardano sử dụng một thuật toán Ouroboros theo giao thức đồng thuận cổ phần Proof of Stack (PoS). Giao thức Proof of Stack có thể hình dung cơ bản như là hình thức xổ số. Trong đó người tham gia xác thực, được gọi là Validator, phải góp vào một số coin nhất định như là tiền đặt cọc, được gọi là stacking (góp vốn). Và mỗi đồng coin đặt cọc đó gọi là một Stack (cổ phần), tương tự như một tờ vé số. Hệ thống sẽ lựa chọn ngẫu nhiên một Stack để chọn Validator sở hữu Stack đó là đại diện xác thực giao dịch. Sau đó Validator đó sẽ được thưởng một lượng coin nhất định. Do đó, khi ai góp càng nhiều Stack thì cơ hội được chọn càng cao, cũng giống như xổ số mua càng nhiều vé thì cơ hội trúng càng lớn. Vì vậy, có một hình thức nhiều người sở hữu đồng ADA góp vốn vào một node để gia tăng tỷ lệ thắng Validator gọi là Pool.

Thuật toán Ouroborus thiết lập mức độ bảo mật tương tự như Bitcoin và đảm bảo rằng không có giao dịch nào trong quá khứ có thể thay đổi được. Sự đồng thuận của Cardano làm giảm đáng kể việc sử dụng năng lượng và tính toán vì nó không yêu cầu cấu hình khai thác cụ thể. Theo số liệu thống kê, Cardano chỉ sử dụng 6 gigawatt giờ năng lượng hàng năm, trong khi Bitcoin được ước tính sử dụng 115,85 terawatt giờ. Thuật toán Ouroboros còn có khả năng  phát triển các block (Cardano gọi là Epochs) theo 2 chiều và có khả năng phân chia thành các blockchain phụ. Ví dụ như thời điểm game CryptoKitties (CK) bùng nổ thì lượng giao dịch trên ETH tăng đột biến vì CK dùng nền tảng Etherium làm phương tiện giao dịch NFT. Dẫn tới việc mạng lưới của ETH bị nghẽn và quá tải. Nếu ứng dụng huật toán Ourobonos của Cardano vào game CK thì Cardano phân token của game CK thành một hệ thống blockchain phụ độc lập và không ảnh hưởng tới hệ thống blockchain Cardano chinh. Và những người nắm giữ đồng ADA vẫn có thể giao dịch trên các nền tảng blockchain phụ này mà không ảnh hưởng tới hiệu suất hệ thống chính nên khả năng mở rộng hệ thống của Cardano gần  như là vô hạn.

Ngoài ra, sự khác biệt của của Cardano so với các platform khác nằm ở việc được xây dựng trên cấu trúc 2 lớp được gọi là Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL) phụ trách việc tính toán với giao dịch và Cardano Control Layer (CCL) phụ trách xử lý các smart contract. Với việc phân tách 2 tầng này sẽ giúp hệ thống bảo mật vì những validator ở tầng CSL sẽ không biết được smart contract có gì và ngược lại những lập trinh viên xây dựng smart contract sẽ không biết số lượng giao dịch trong contract là bao nhiêu và cũng không thể can thiệp được. Đồng thời việc phân lớp như vậy cũng giúp hệ thống blockchain phân bổ tài nguyên và làm gia tăng tốc độ xác thực giao dịch cũng như mở rộng của Cardano.

SOLANA

Nhưng PoS có một khuyết điểm là sẽ tốn chút thời gian để hệ thống chọn lựa ngẫu nhiên một node tham gia stacking để làm validator. Đội ngũ phát triển của Solana đã đưa ra một cơ chế đồng thuận mới là gọi là Tower BFT là sự kết hợp của cơ chế đồng thuận Proof of History (PoH), bằng chứng đồng thuận lịch sử, và Proof of Stake (PoS), cơ chế đồng thuận trên cổ phần gần giống như Cardano để làm giảm thời gian xác thực một transaction xuống còn 0.4s.  

Proof of History (PoH) nhằm mục đích giảm tải cho các nút mạng trong các quá trình xử lý khối bằng cách cung cấp một phương tiện mã hóa thời gian vào blockchain. Trong một blockchain thông thường, đạt được sự đồng thuận theo thời gian một khối cụ thể được khai thác cũng là một yêu cầu cũng như đạt được sự đồng thuận về sự tồn tại của các giao dịch trong khối đó. Dấu thời gian (timestamp) rất quan trọng bởi vì nó cho mạng (và bất kỳ người quan sát nào) rằng các giao dịch diễn ra theo một trình tự cụ thể.

Ý tưởng của PoH ở đây là thay vì tin tưởng vào timestamp của giao dịch, thì chúng ta chứng minh rằng giao dịch này xảy ra trước hoặc sau một sự kiện nào đó.

Ví dụ khi chúng ta chụp ảnh với trang bìa của một tạp chí, điều đó có nghiã là chúng ta đang tạo một bằng chứng cho thấy rằng bức ảnh của chúng ta được chụp sau khi tờ báo đó được xuất bản. Với Proof of History, bạn có thể tạo một ” bản ghi lịch sử ” chứng minh rằng một sự kiện đã xảy ra tại một thời điểm cụ thể.

Triển khai cụ thể đó là sử dụng hàm băm (SHA256) chạy liên tục với đầu ra trước đó được sử dụng làm đầu vào tiếp theo. Vì thế, chúng ta có thể chắc chắn rằng thời gian thực đã trôi qua. PoH giải quyết thách thức về thời gian và do đó làm giảm trọng lượng xử lý của blockchain, làm cho nó nhẹ hơn và nhanh hơn.

Giao thức xác thực PoH của Solana sẽ chọn ra một người Validator ban đầu bằng giao thức PoS để xác thực giao dịch khối, được gọi là Leader. Đồng thời sinh ra một mã hash đầu ra để xác thực giao dịch đã diễn ra, quá trình này gọi là Proof of History Generator (PoH Generator), thiết lập bằng chứng xác thực lịch sử. Sau đó, các Leader được chọn xác thực sau sẽ phải có cùng một mã hash với Leader đầu tiên để xác thực các giao dịch sau đó trong khối. Nếu xác nhận Leader đó có cùng mã hash thì giao dịch lập tức được thông qua chứ không cần phải chạy xác thực lại từ đầu.

Nhưng nếu hệ thống các Leader ấy có một Leader ghi sai và mã hash không khớp thì làm sao hệ thống phát hiện ra bằng thuật toán? Solana đã giải quyết vấn đề này bằng cách kết hợp PoH với với một giao thức bảo mật có tên Tower Byzantine Fault Tolerance (Tower BFT), cho phép người tham gia đóng góp token để họ có thể bỏ phiếu về tính hợp lệ của hàm băm PoH, được gọi là Verifier. Verifier nếu phát hiện một Leader tạo ra có hàm băm sai sẽ lập tức đá ra khỏi khối và tiếp nối một Leader khác vào thay thế.

Như ví dụ ở hình dưới đây, hệ thống của Solana dùng PoS để chọn ra Leader đầu tiên và sinh ra mã hashOxdeadc0de và đầu ra Signed của mã hash là OxcOdeb10b. Sau đó với sự kiểm tra và xác thực của các node Verifier. Block thứ 2 tiếp theo chỉ cần có mã hash và input trùng với Signed của Leader đầu thì giao dịch sẽ được xác thực ngay lập tức. Còn như block thứ 3 thì không có mã hash trùng thì Leader của Block thứ 3 đó sẽ bị đá ra khỏi Block và lựa chọn Leader tiếp theo.

Ngoài ra, Solana còn phát triển và triển khai thêm 7 công nghệ để giúp tối ưu thuật toán với phần cứng để đẩy nhanh tốc độ giải mã và xác thực lên mức nhanh nhất bao gồm

• Turbine: là một công nghệ giúp tăng tốc truyền dữ liệu trong hệ thống. Trong hệ thống phân tán, việc tăng số lượng nodes sẽ trực tiếp làm tăng lượng thời gian cần thiết để gửi tất cả dữ liệu đến tất cả các nodes. Do đó, Block dữ liệu sẽ được chia thanh các mảnh nhỏ (packets) đvà được phân tán đi khắp các nodes trong hệ thống.
• Sealevel: là một công cụ xử lý giao dịch song song được thiết kế để mở rộng quy mô theo chiều ngang. Sealevel được sử dụng để tìm tất cả các giao dịch không chồng chéo xảy ra trong một block và chạy chúng song song.
• Gulf Stream: là công nghệ phân chia dữ liệu về các giao dịch chưa được xác nhận giữa các nodes trong hệ thống: các nodes xử lý chậm sẽ đảm nhiệm này và sẽ chuyển dữ liệu cần thiết tới các node nhanh – các nodes khả năng cao sẽ tạo block dữ liệu mới. Điều đó cho phép các Validator thực hiện các giao dịch của họ trước thời hạn, giảm thời gian xác nhận và chuyển đổi các leader nhanh hơn. Hơn nữa, nó làm giảm áp lực bộ nhớ lên các Validator.
• Cloudbreak: được thiết kế như một kiến trúc trạng thái được tối ưu hóa để đọc và ghi đồng thời trên cấu hình RAID 0 của ổ SSD. Bằng cách kết hợp Sealevel với Cloudbreak, trình xác thực có thể bắt đầu thực hiện các giao dịch trước khi chúng được mã hóa thành một block, điều này cho phép tối ưu hóa hơn nữa thời gian của block và xác nhận độ trễ.
• Pipeline: là kỹ thuật để tối ưu phần cứng thêm một lần nữa quá trinh xử lý các giao dịch trên từng node. Pipeline sẽ phân chia các tác vụ xử lý tới từng bộ phận của một máy tinh (node) như kernel, GPU, CPU, RAM,… để tối ưu tốc độ quá trinh xác thực. Do đó, có thể nâng cao khả năng xác thực của một node trong hệ thống lên bằng cách nâng cấp phần cứng.
• Archiver: Trên Solana, việc lưu trữ dữ liệu được giảm tải từ các Validator xuống một mạng các nút có tên là Archiver. Các Archiver sẽ lưu trữ các phần nhỏ của trạng thái và sắp xếp theo thời gian, mạng sẽ yêu cầu các Archiver chứng minh rằng họ đang nắm giữ dữ liệu. Tuy nhiên, công nghệ này chưa được ứng dụng tại thời điểm này. 

NHẬN XÉT

Nếu xét về cơ chế đồng thuận thì Solana có ứng dụng công nghệ Tower BFT mới hơn, nhanh hơn Cardano nhưng Cardano lại có khả năng phát triển phân tán và mở rộng linh hoạt hơn với khả năng phân blockchain phụ của thuật toán Ouroborus cũng như bảo mật hơn với cấu trúc 2 lớp layer CSL và CCL của Cardano. Cấu trúc phân tách của Cardano cũng được cho là bền vững và ít xung đột hơn là Solana.

TỐC ĐỘ XÁC THỰC VÀ PHÍ GIAO DỊCH

Tốc độ xử lý giao dịch của Blockchain được tinh trên số lượng giao dịch trên 1 giây, hay còn gọi là Transactions per second (TPS)

CARDANO

Cardano theo công bố có thể lên tới 1000 TPS, nhưng thực tế hiện nay TPS của Cardano đang xấp xỉ 275 TPS với thời gian xử lý khoảng 20s cho một Block xác thực.

Nhưng với bản nâng cấp Hydra mới công bố bởi Charles Hoskinson, nền tảng Cardano sẽ tăng tốc độ xử lý lên tới 1.000.000 TPS và khả năng thời gian xác thực giao dịch gần như tức thời. Hydra là một giải pháp mở rộng Lớp 2 CCL được thực hiện qua giao thức Proof of Stake của Cardano, đồng thời phù hợp “rất tốt với mô hình Pool Stacking”. Nó thực hiện các kênh state cho phép xử lý nhanh các khoản thanh toán và hợp đồng thông minh ngoài blockchain (ngoài chuỗi). Các mô phỏng đã chỉ ra rằng mỗi “đầu Hydra” hiện có thể xử lý khoảng 1.000 TPS. Với 1.000 pool xếp chồng, mỗi nhóm xử lý 1.000 TPS, Cardano có thể đạt được thông lượng lên tới 1.000.000 giao dịch mỗi giây.‎

Phí giao dịch trung bình cho một giao dịch là khoảng 0,16-0,25 ADA, tính theo USD là khoảng 0.1 – 0.21 USD. Cardano thực thi một khoản phí giao dịch tối thiểu.

SOLANA

Solana thực tế hiện nay có TPS vào khoảng 2000 TPS và tối đa được ghi nhận lên tới 300.000 TPS. Nhưng con số trung binh có thể ghi nhận được là khoảng 50.000 TPS – 65.000 TPS. Solana là một blockchain tương đối mới với các ‎‎DApps‎‎ mới phát triển chạy trên nó. Một câu hỏi được đặt ra là “Làm thế nào một ‎‎DeFi‎‎ nhỏ có thể tạo ra nhiều giao dịch như vậy? Có một lời giải thích đơn giản cho điều này: Theo cơ chế đồng thuận của Solana, các nút xác nhận bỏ phiếu phê duyệt / xác nhận trạng thái của Blockchain (giao dịch). Mỗi phiếu bầu cũng được coi là một giao dịch, và cũng vì giao dịch ở Solana rẻ, có một số lượng lớn các giao dịch bị hủy trong mạng, cũng được tính là giao dịch. Vì vậy, ~ 50.000 TPS là một con số hợp lệ. Người sáng lập Solana, Anatoly Yakovenko cũng đã trả lời câu hỏi tương tự vài tháng trước là khoảng 40% phiếu bầu, 40% là serum order messages, hủy / mua / bán. ‎Tốc độ hoàn tất xác thực và ghi một block cũng rất nhanh chỉ khoảng 0.4s. So với 275 TPS với 20s cho hoàn tất của Cardano là một sự khác biệt rất lớn.

Phí giao dịch của đồng SOL rơi vào khoảng 0.00025 USD, rẻ hơn tới 800 lần so với Cardano. Có thể nói Solana đang là native token có tốc độ cao nhất và phí giao dịch thấp nhất thị trường hiện nay.

TÍNH PHI TẬP TRUNG

Tính phân tán phi tập trung là một trong các yếu tố tiên quyết cho sự minh bạch và bảo mật của các hệ thống Blockchain. Nhưng sự cố sập hệ thống vào ngày 14/9/2021 vừa rồi của Solana làm nhiều dấy lên câu hỏi về tính phi tập trung của nền tảng blockchain này. Vì khi hệ thống bị quá tải và nghẽn, quyết định shut down hệ thống chỉ được thông qua bởi 19 pool stack chiếm tới hơn 30% số stack của hệ thống. Điều này cũng có trong White Paper của Solana là mọi quyết định của hệ thống sẽ được thông qua và thực hiện nếu có trên 30% số stack đòng thuận. Sự việc này làm nhiều người lo ngại các quyết định sau của hệ thống sẽ bị một bộ phận nhỏ người nắm nhiều coin tham gia stacking kiểm soát. Nhưng có lẽ tại thời điểm này, đây tạm được coi là sự đánh đổi để lấy tốc độ của Solana vì validator càng mạnh, stack càng nhiều thì tốc độ xác thực của hệ thống sẽ càng nhanh.

Cardano cũng sử dụng giao thức xác thực PoS và cũng có những validator lớn nhưng lại giới hạn số lượng coin tham gia stack vào một pool, và được đo lường chỉ số là K-parameter. Nếu một validator lớn nào stacking quá giới hạn của K-parameter sẽ được đẩy sang stacking vào pool khác. Như vậy sẽ đảm bảo tính phi tập trung của Cardano. Hiện nay K-parameter trong một pool của Cardano là 500, tương đương 64 triệu ADA nhưng trong tương lai K-parameter có thể đẩy lên 1000 với giới hạn chỉ 32 triệu ADA cho một pool mà thôi.

HỆ SINH THÁI ECOSYSTEM

CARDANO: Chậm mà chắc.

Được ra đời trước vào năm 2015 và chinh thức vận hành vào năm 2017, nhưng mãi tới tháng 9/2021 vừa rồi tại sự kiện Alonzo Hard Fork, Cardano mới giới thiệu chức năng hợp đồng thông minh smart contract trong network của mình, điều đó có nghĩa là bây giờ các nhà phát triển có thể xây dựng DApps trên blockchain Cardano. Trong vòng 24 giờ sau khi công bố, nền tảng này đã ghi nhận hơn +140 dự án phủ rộng ở nhiều mảng khác nhau như DeFi, AMM Liquidity, Lending, Stablecoin, NFT, Wallet,… Có thể nói, Cardano đã có đủ bộ sưu tập trong mọi mảng của DeFi Stack. Tuy nhiên do việc mới thực thi smart contract gần đây, các dự án DeFi của Cardano vẫn mới ở trong giai đoạn đầu và hệ sinh thái của Cardano chưa kết nối với nền tảng Blockchain lớn như Etherium nhưng định hướng phát triển bền vững và công nghệ đầy hứa hẹn như HYDRA có thể đẩy tốc độ xác thực giao dịch lên 1.000.000 TPS nhanh nhất thị trường hứa hẹn sự phát triển nhanh chông sau này.

Cộng đồng Phát triển

Ngoài phát triển thị trường DeFi, Cardano cũng có các dự án tạo cộng đồng hỗ trợ các nhà phát triển ứng dụng phi tập trung vào hệ sinh thái của Cardano bao gồm:

1. Project Catalyst:

Project Catalyst hoạt động như một kênh quỹ cộng đồng toàn cầu của các nhà phát triển ở hệ sinh thái Cardano, cho phép họ trình bày ý tưởng, nhận được sự hỗ trợ của các cố vấn đến từ Cardano, sau đó nhận được giải thưởng và tài trợ về vốn từ các supporter. Cho đến nay Project Catalyst đã được thực hiện 7 mùa, và sau mỗi đợt Project Catalyst diễn ra, số lượng người tham dự và số ý tưởng được submit vào vòng cuối sẽ tăng lên đáng kể. Project Catalyst diễn ra vào tháng 8/2021 đã thu hút hơn 814 ý tưởng, trong đó có 150+ ý tưởng được cấp vốn và 4 triệu đô được phân phối thông qua $ADA.

2. Cardano Developer Portal:

Nếu Project Catalyst như một cuộc thi crowdfunding, thì Developer Portal như một cánh cổng để hướng dẫn các developer tiếp cận, tìm hiểu, học hỏi và xây dựng các ứng dụng trên nền tảng blockchain Cardano. Đây là dự án có vai trò quan trọng nhất trong hệ sinh thái phát triển Ecosystem của Cardano.

3. cFund:

cFund là kết quả của sự hợp tác của 3 tổ chức, bao gồm Wave Finance, IOG và Cardano Foundation. cFund sẽ hoạt động độc lập với Project Catalyst. Tuy nhiên họ đều có mục tiêu chung là sẽ cố gắng mở rộng tầm ảnh hưởng và ứng dụng của Cardano đến với mọi thị trường chứ không riêng thị trường DeFi.

Wave Financial là tổ chức tài chính đang quản lý tài sản lên đến 500 triệu đô, họ sẽ cố gắng vừa đầu tư vừa định hướng cho các dự án phát triển. Đến nay, cFund dã rót vốn cho 7 dự án dựa trên nền tảng Cardano dưới đây.

Cardano không chỉ tập trung phát triển hệ sinh thái blockchain mà còn cả các hoạt động cộng đồng của Cardano. Cardano Foundation đã trực tiếp tài trợ cho nhiều dự án đầy tham vọng, và một số đã được đề xuất trên Project Catalyst, tạo ảnh hưởng sâu sắc của Cardano lên cộng đồng xã hội.‎

‎Để phát triển tác động xã hội của Cardano, một số dự án đang hoạt động ở châu Phi, ví dụ, EMPOWA làm cho bất động sản có giá cả phải chăng cho tất cả mọi người hoặc Grow Your Stake chuyển tất cả các phần thưởng ADA trong việc cung cấp nước bền vững cho các cộng đồng kém phát triển.‎

Ngoài ra, Cardano cũng được đánh giá cao trong việc triển khai các dự án thân thiện với môi trường như Green Stake Pool, hay gần đây là OpenLitterMap là cơ sở dữ liệu mở dựa trên siêu dữ liệu Cardano, định vị thùng rác và rác thải.

SOLANA: Phát triển thần kỳ với công nghệ mới

Solana loại bỏ các vấn đề về khả năng mở rộng mà hầu hết các nền tảng blockchain hiện tại mắc phải. Ví dụ: nền tảng Ethereum bị tắc nghẽn và sa lầy do có rất nhiều dự án DeFi đang xây dựng trong hệ sinh thái. Tuy nhiên, blockchain Solana sử dụng các công nghệ mới để lưu lượng giao dịch của mạng tỷ lệ thuận với băng thông của nó.

Theo các thử nghiệm được thực hiện vào tháng 3 năm 2020, Solana được chứng minh có khả năng đạt 56.000 TPS (giao dịch mỗi giây). Điều này mang lại cho Solana một lợi thế vững chắc so với các nền tảng blockchain phổ biến khác, như Bitcoin (có thể xử lý khoảng 7 TPS) và Ethereum (khoảng 15 TPS), hay như Cardano (275 TPS).

Hơn nữa, hệ sinh thái Solana đã đạt được những tiến bộ vượt bậc nhằm đạt được khả năng tương tác; nó đã được kết nối với hệ sinh thái Ethereum thông qua Bridge Wormhole. Wormhole cho phép người dùng giao dịch giữa Ethereum và Solana, đồng thời chuyển đổi mã thông báo ERC-20 thành tiêu chuẩn SPL của riêng Solana.

Các nhà phát triển dApp (ứng dụng phi tập trung) cũng có thể tải xuống mã phần mềm Solana từ Solana Lab’s Github, giúp việc bắt đầu xây dựng trong hệ sinh thái Solana đơn giản hơn. Thêm vào đó, các dApp trên chuỗi khối Solana được phát triển bằng Rust, một trong những ngôn ngữ lập trình được sử dụng nhiều nhất hiện nay, giải quyết các vấn đề liên quan đến sự an toàn của bộ nhớ và đồng thời chuỗi.

Hiện nay, Solana đang là nền tảng blockchain có tốc độ tăng trưởng dự án nhanh nhất với hơn 400 ứng dụng/dự án đang triển khai và phát triển.

NHẬN XÉT

Cardano có tổ chức và cộng đồng quy củ hơn Solana và nhiều dự án ứng dụng giải pháp vào đời thực hơn với việc chỉ tập trung vào DeFi như Solana. Cardano do ưu tiên tính xác thực khoa học trong thuật toán hơn nên mọi tinh năng đều phát triển rất thận trọng. Vì thế, Cardano cũng chậm trễ hơn khi mới đưa ra tính năng smart contract vào tháng 09/2021 gần đây và điều này cũng ảnh hưởng tới tốc độ phát triển của hệ sinh thái Ecosystem của Cardano so với Solana.

Về khả năng tiếp cận lập trình smart contract, Solana có lợi thế lớn hơn là Cardano vì Solana sử dụng ngôn ngữ RUSH kết hợp với các ngôn ngữ lập trình quen thuộc như C, C++,… Trong khi đó, Cardano lại sử dụng ngôn ngữ lập trinh riêng tên là Haskell, là ngôn ngữ lập trinh mà được cho là chính xác hơn và sử dụng phương pháp xác minh toan học để hạn chế lỗi. Cũng vì thế là tốc độ tăng trưởng các dự án của Solana (nhất là DeFi) nhanh hơn Cardano nhiều lần. Solana còn có lợi thế trong cuộc đua DeFi với việc Cardano chưa thực sự có dự án Bridge với các blockchain lớn như Etherium so với Solana có Wormhole.

Solana với tốc độ xử lý và TPS cao nhất thị trường hiện nay là khoảng 60.000 TPS với mức phí trung binh rẻ nhất là 0.00025$ cũng gây sự thu hút của các nhà phát triển DeFi hơn. Nhưng với việc Cardano chuẩn bị triển khai HYDRA có thể nâng TPS của Cardano lên tới con số khủng khiếp 1.000.000 TPS hứa hẹn sẽ là một cuộc cách mạng của thế giới blockchain và thu hút rất nhiều dự án DeFi phát triển trên nền tảng blockchain Cardano. Và cũng vì tinh ổn định cao hơn nên Cardano có tiềm năng được ứng dụng vào các hệ thống lớn cần sự ổn định như ngân hàng, tài chinh,… tốt hơn.

HỆ SINH THÁI TÀI CHÍNH PHI TẬP TRUNG DEFI

CARDANO:

Vào tháng 9 năm 2021, nhóm Cardano đã đưa tính năng Hợp đồng thông minh Smart Contract đến Cardano thông qua một sự kiện Alonzo Hard Fork. Để đóng góp vào hệ sinh thái Cardano, vô số dự án nổi bật đã sẵn sàng tham gia vào blockchain, cho đến nay con số đã hơn 100 dự án. Khi được xây dựng trên chuỗi khối Cardano, các DApp đó sẽ kế thừa mọi tính năng công nghệ tiên tiến của chuỗi khối.

Infrastructure:

• Adapools là một công cụ dựa trên trang web để giám sát các nhóm và phân tích dữ liệu trên chuỗi khối Cardano. ADApools được tích hợp vào Ví Yoroi và Ví Daedalus để tạo sự thuận tiện cho người dùng.

• Blockfrost là một nền tảng dựa trên web để cung cấp các dịch vụ API trên chuỗi khối Cardano. Nó loại bỏ sự phức tạp để khách hàng có thể tạo các ứng dụng phi tập trung của riêng họ trên Cardano.

AMM DEX:

DEX (Sàn giao dịch tiền điện tử phi tập trung) hiện đang là xu hướng và có thể được coi là ứng dụng thành công nhất của De-Fi trong không gian tiền điện tử. Do đó, vô số dự án DEX đầy hứa hẹn đang được phát triển trên Cardano. DEX sẽ thu hút rất nhiều sự chú ý và mang lại cho hệ sinh thái Cardano một khối lượng và tính thanh khoản khổng lồ. Có một số DEX đáng chú ý như sau:

• ADAX là một giao thức thanh khoản tự động hoàn toàn phi tập trung và không bị quản lý.
• Mirqur là một DEX tối ưu nhất, cho phép người dùng ủy quyền ADA trong nhóm của họ để kiếm phần thưởng ADA và MQR.
• SundaeSwap là một sàn giao dịch phi tập trung riêng, có thể mở rộng trên blockchain Cardano.
• Orion Protocol là một gateway đầu cuối để thu hút mọi CEX, DEX và nhóm hoán đổi vào một nền tảng phi tập trung.
• Ray Wallet là một nền tảng phi tập trung cung cấp Hợp đồng thông minh cho tất cả mọi người.
• Minswap là một công ty khởi nghiệp Việt Nam mang đến sàn giao dịch phi tập trung đa nhóm (multi-pool) trên nền tảng Cardano.

Derivative DEX – Phái sinh phi tập trung:

MatrixSwap là một nền tảng giao dịch đa chuỗi phi tập trung vĩnh cửu (Decentralized multi-chain Perpetual Trading) được triển khai trên Cardano, Polkadot và Polygon. Vào tháng 9 năm 2021, họ đã có một IDO tung ra mã thông báo MATRIX trên nền tảng Cardstarter. Là nền tảng giao dịch phái sinh duy nhất trong hệ sinh thái Cardano là một lợi thế cạnh tranh cao.

IDO Platform:

LaunchPad là một ý tưởng tuyệt vời cho các công ty khởi nghiệp đang cần vốn. Giờ đây, các nhà đầu tư có thể tham gia tài trợ cho các công ty khởi nghiệp để các dự án sẽ mở rộng quy mô ý tưởng của họ nhanh nhất có thể khi các nguồn tài trợ sẵn có xuất hiện. Do đó, chắc chắn LaunchPad sẽ là nhân tố chính thu hút vốn cho hệ sinh thái Cardano.

• Cardstarter là một nền tảng tăng tốc và hoán đổi phi tập trung, cũng là bệ phóng cho các dự án khởi nghiệp. Ví dụ, Oracle Charli3 C3 đã là một IDO thành công trên Cardstarter. Hiện tại, nhiều dự án nổi bật đang chờ giải quyết trên Cardstarter đã sẵn sàng để được khởi chạy.
• OccamFi là một nền tảng IDO dành cho các dự án gây quỹ.
• TrustPad là một nền tảng gây quỹ đa chuỗi dành cho các công ty khởi nghiệp mới, hỗ trợ nhiều blockchain khác nhau như Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Polkadot và Cardano.
• Vent Finance là một nền tảng gây quỹ cho các ý tưởng của công ty khởi nghiệp có giao diện dễ sử dụng bất kể trải nghiệm trước đây của người dùng trong không gian tiền điện tử.

Cho đến hiện tại, Cardstarter và OccamFi là các nền tảng IDO đầu tiên cho các công ty khởi nghiệp của Cardano, nhưng chúng hiện được xây dựng trên chuỗi khối Ethereum, đang chờ triển khai trên Cardano. Trong vài tháng gần đây, họ đã tung ra Charli3, một Oracle phi tập trung của Cardano đã bùng nổ về giá với lợi tức đầu tư (ROI) hơn 40 lần.

Tuy nhiên, để tham gia vào IDO, các nhà đầu tư cần một số tiền lớn vì yêu cầu đầu vào thường tốn rất nhiều token. Và chiến lược đầu tư này được đánh giá là mạo hiểm vì các dự án đã ra mắt trên IDO đôi khi bị ảnh hưởng bởi các yếu tố bất ngờ.

Oracle:

Oracle là một mảnh ghép không thể thiếu trong hệ sinh thái Cardano. Nó kết nối dữ liệu của thế giới bên ngoài với chuỗi khối Cardano chỉ trong nháy mắt. Hiện đã có 3 dự án lớn được phát triển để triển khai trên Cardano.

• Charli3 là một nền tảng Oracle phi tập trung được xây dựng trên Cardano. Với một IDO cực kỳ thanh công, Charli3 hiện là một dự án Oracle mới nổi chịu trách nhiệm thu thập dữ liệu trong cuộc sống thực vào các blockchain thông qua API.

• Ergo là một sổ cái UTXO trên cơ sở blockchain được xây dựng để tạo các Hợp đồng thông minh an toàn trong không gian De-Fi.
• Wolfram Alpha, công cụ tìm kiếm đối thủ của Google là một trong những đối tác của Cardano. Dữ liệu của Cardano, Ethereum và Bitcoin được tích hợp vào công cụ thông minh tính toán của Wolfram Alpha.

Lending/Borrowing – Cho vay / đi vay

Hiện nay, Cho vay là một ứng dụng được sử dụng rộng rãi trong thế giới De-Fi. Nó cung cấp các khoản vay mà không có cấp trung gian. Hơn nữa, giao thức cho vay cung cấp cho người dùng kiếm tiền lãi bằng stablecoin hoặc tokens của họ.

• MELD là một giao thức ngân hàng và không lưu ký được xây dựng để cho vay / đi vay. Giờ đây, họ đang mở Cung cấp nhóm cổ phần ban đầu (ISPO) cho ủy quyền của ADA để kiếm tokens MELD.

• Liqwid là một giao thức lãi suất mã nguồn mở và không giám sát được xây dựng cho Người cho vay và Người đi vay, được tài trợ bởi Project Catalyst.

StableCoin:

Không giống như các blockchain khác, stablecoin là native token được phát hành trên chuỗi khối Cardano, không phải thông qua Hợp đồng thông minh. Trong tương lai gần, sẽ có nhiều loại stablecoin mới được người dùng yêu cầu trên thị trường tiền điện tử. StableCoin cũng là “cửa ngõ” để các nhà đầu tư bước chân vào hệ sinh thái blockchain.

Stablecoin đóng một vai trò quan trọng trong không gian tiền điện tử vì nó cho biết dòng tiền của hệ sinh thái. Hiện tại, nhiều stablecoin được hỗ trợ bằng tài sản là các tiền tệ quốc gia như USD hay EUR được phát hành bởi các công ty không đáng tin cậy. Tuy nhiên, các stablecoin được xây dựng trên nền tảng Cardano được phân cấp hoàn toàn.

• AgeUSD là một stablecoin được tạo ra với sự hợp tác chung của Emurgo, Ergo và IOHK trên blockchain Ergo
• Ardana là một AMM DEX tập trung vào giao dịch stablecoin và nó sẽ phát hành các stablecoin được hỗ trợ bằng tiền điện tử dUSD, dEUR, …. Nó sử dụng các công nghệ blockchain để áp dụng cho thị trường Forex.
• STASIS cùng với Occam.Fi đã bắt đầu dự án phát hành một loại stablecoin mới trên chuỗi khối Cardano cho châu Âu.

Payment:

COTI là một phương thức thanh toán tích hợp Thanh toán Cardano vào các trang web, thương mại điện tử và thanh toán di động của họ. Dần dần, Cardano được chấp nhận rộng rãi trong nhiều phương thức thanh toán trên khắp internet.

Wallet

Hơn 1,5 triệu ví hiện đang hoạt động, điều này cho thấy nhu cầu lưu trữ token ADA trên chuỗi ngày càng tăng. Do đó, nhiều Ví phi tập trung đã hỗ trợ ADA để người dùng có thể kết nối với các sàn giao dịch tập trung CEX và ứng dụng DeFi khi mạng chính Cardano được khởi chạy.

• Daedalus là một ví mã nguồn mở cho ADA cùng với Cardano ngay từ đầu. Nó được xây dựng để phát triển cùng với Cardano nên nhiều chủ sở hữu giữ ADA của họ trong ví Daedalus. Hiện tại, Daedalus là cách lưu trữ ADA phổ biến nhất.
• Yoroi Wallet là một ví nhẹ của Cardano. Nó được thiết kế và phát triển bởi Emurgo và IOHK. Hơn nữa, Yoroi Wallet có mặt nhiều trên trình duyệt web và hệ điều hành di động như iOS và Android.
• GeroWallet là một ví chạy trên chuỗi khối Cardano cho phép người dùng giao dịch, đặt cược, tận dụng tài sản tổng hợp và mua tiền điện tử trực tiếp bằng tiền fiat. Vào tháng 5 năm 2021, GeroWallet đã có IDO thành công trên Cardstarter; giá khởi điểm của IDO là 0,008 USD.

NFT và Marketplace

Bên cạnh việc De-Fi đang là xu hướng hiện nay, chúng ta cũng đang chứng kiến sự gia tăng của các NFT đang thu hút nhiều sự chú ý của phương tiện truyền thông và mọi người. NFT là một ứng dụng phi tập trung, nơi mọi người có thể tạo ra những tác phẩm hay sản phẩm kỹ thuật số độc nhất. Với khởi đầu là trò chơi NFT CryptoKitties, NFT đã trở thành một thị trường màu mỡ được ủng hộ bởi rất nhiều nghệ sỹ nổi tiếng. Một số dự án NFT nổi bật có ứng dụng Cardano:

• Bondly Finance là một nền tảng kỹ thuật số cung cấp các bộ sưu tập cho các dự án, thương hiệu và nghệ sĩ. Tuy nhiên, hệ thống đã bị tấn công bởi một bên không xác định, gây ra nhiều thiệt hại và giá token giảm xuống;
• ADAZOO là một trò chơi NFT.
• CNFT là một thị trường Cardano NFT, một nơi để đúc, mua, bán và giao dịch NFT.
• THEOS là một công ty khởi nghiệp cung cấp cho khách hàng tạo NFT của riêng họ.
• ARTANO sử dụng việc triển khai Học máy và Trí tuệ nhân tạo để cải thiện và tùy chỉnh các NFT.

Hệ sinh thái Cardano sẽ là khu vực lý tưởng để các dự án NFT phát triển và lớn mạnh.

SOLANA:

Solana hiện là một trong các nền tảng blockchain mới phát triển nhanh nhất. Cho đến thời điểm hiện tại, Solana đã có hơn 400 ứng dụng được phát triển. Hơn nữa, đây không chỉ là các ứng dụng tài chính phi tập trung (DeFi) (mặc dù các ứng dụng DeFi chiếm phần lớn). Chuỗi khối Solana cũng là nơi lưu trữ nhiều ứng dụng khác, bao gồm các nền tảng xã hội phi tập trung và các ứng dụng trò chơi blockchain NFT. Dưới đây, chúng tôi phác thảo một số ứng dụng Solana phổ biến trong hệ sinh thái Solana.

StableCoin:

Anatoly Yakovenko, người sáng lập ra Solana và là chủ tịch của Solana Foundation đã từng nói stablecoin là “mạch máu của DeFi [tài chính phi tập trung] và là trụ cột quan trọng của cộng đồng tiền điện tử nói chung.” Đồng thời StabeCoin cũng là một trong những thước đo hữu ích để đánh giá xem dòng tiền liệu có đang đổ vào hệ sinh thái hay không. Vào ngày 9/9/2021, đồng tiền stablecoin phổ biến nhất thế giới Blockchain Tether cũng đã ra mắt đồng tiền USDT trên nền tảng Solana. Với việc tích hợp Solana, Tether hiện hoạt động trên tám blockchain: Algorand, Ethereum, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni, OMG Network và Tron.

Cho đến ngày 13/9/2021 đã có 2.49 tỷ USDC (đồng stablecoin USD của Circle và được bảo trợ bởi ngân hàng Golman Sach) và 1.14 tỷ USDT được phát hành trên Solana.

Độ tăng trưởng của các đồng stabecoin USDC và USDT trên Solania. Nguồn: @ S◎lanians

DEX – Sàn giao dịch tiền điện tử phi tập trung

Cũng giống như Cardano với nhu cầu giao dịch đang tăng trưởng rất nhanh của đồng SOL, rất nhiều dự án đã phát triển các sàn DEX để đáp ứng nhu cầu đó. DEX trên Solana và các nền tảng blockchain khác nói chung có 2 dạng là Automated Market Maker (AMM) và sổ lệnh trực tuyến Order Book. Một số dự án AMM DEX nổi bật trong hệ sinh thái Solana là:

• Dự án AMM thông thường: Raydium, Orca, Saros Finance, SenSwap.
• Dự án AMM dành cho loại tài ổn định (stable assets): Merucial Finance, Saber.

Bên cạnh đó còn có các dự án với thiết kế đặc biệt như Cyclos với thết kế giúp tập trung thanh khoản,…

Ngoài ra, sàn DEX Order Book nổi tiếng nhất trong cộng đồng Solana là Serum. Sử dụng Serum DEX, người dùng có thể giao dịch tài sản chuỗi chéo từ các blockchain khác nhau, bao gồm cả stablecoin và mã thông báo được bao bọc. Hơn nữa, là một dự án mã nguồn mở trên chuỗi khối Solana, Serum DEX cho phép các nhà phát triển thiết kế các dự án tài chính cá nhân của riêng họ.

Bằng cách sử dụng Order book thay vì mô hình tạo thị trường tự động (AMM) truyền thống, người dùng có thể tạo khớp lệnh hoàn toàn tự động nhờ sổ lệnh giới hạn tự động phi tập trung. Đổi lại, điều này mang lại cho người dùng nhiều sự lựa chọn và kiểm soát hơn đối với các giao dịch của họ. Trải nghiệm người dùng Serum DEX phản ánh thời gian giải quyết gần như tức thì từ blockchain Solana. Hơn nữa, chi phí giao dịch trung bình là 0,00001 đô la, làm cho Serum DEX trở thành sàn giao dịch phi tập trung rẻ nhất trong lĩnh vực tài chính phi tập trung (DeFi) tại thời điểm viết bài.

Ngoài ra, Serum còn không chỉ là một DEX Order-book thông thường mà còn là một pool chung cho toàn bộ dự án phát triển trên nó.

Ngoài Serum, một vài sàn DEX orderbook khác cũng cho trải nghiệm người dùng tốt như Dexlab, SolApe và Aldrin.

Lending / Borrowing:

Mảng Cho vay Lending / Borrowing là mảng có nhiều sự tăng trưởng nhanh nhất trong thời gian qua. Đã có nhiều dự án ra sản phẩm và bắt đầu thu hút người dùng, bên cạnh đó còn có nhiều dự án khác đã có devnet và khả năng sẽ ra mắt trong thời gian tới.

Tổng quan về các dự án Lending trên Solana:

• Debt Protocol (model tương tự Maker): Parrot.
• Money market (Model tương tự Aave, Compound): Port Finance, Solend, Larix, Apricot Finance, Jet Protocol, Acumen, Everlend, Zero Interest, Solaris.
• Lending P2P: Oxygen.

Derivative – Phái sinh

Trong đầu tư tài chinh, phái sinh (Devirative) là một thị trường bảo hộ và tăng trưởng giá trị tài sản quan trọng. Do đó, Derivative luôn là một mảng quan trọng phải có trong DeFi của Solana cũng như các thị trường khác. Trên nền tảng Solana đã được nhiều nhà phát triển các dự án Derivate gồm nhiều nhánh như: Options, Margin Trading, Prediction, Index,… Dưới đây là một vài dự án Derivative đáng chú ý trong nền tảng Solana.

• Đòn bẩy Giao dịch (Margin Trading): Mango Market.
• Tổng hợp tài sản (Synthetic Assets): Synthetify.
• Chỉ số tài chinh (Index): Symmetry.
• Hợp đồng giao dịch không kỳ hạn (Perpetual): Drift Protocol.
• Hợp đồng Quyền chọn (Options): PsyOptions, Zeta Markets, Unk Finance.
• Dự báo (Prediction): HedgeHog.

Aggregator

Aggregator là công cụ tổng hợp các mức giá tốt nhất từ các nền tảng DeFi – bao gồm DEX, lending và liquidity pool – vào một nơi để người dùng có thể tối ưu hóa giao dịch của họ. Nếu không sử dụng Aggregator, người dùng phải truy cập từng sàn giao dịch khác nhau, so sánh giá trên từng sàn để có được giao dịch tốt nhất và sau đó thực hiện từng cái một theo cách thủ công bằng hợp đồng thông minh. Việc kiểm tra giá thủ công để có các giao dịch hoán đổi tốt nhất như thế này không cho phép bạn theo kịp các cơ chế hoặc lộ trinh giao dịch phức tạp. Các Aggregator không chỉ giúp cho bạn kéo giá tốt nhất mà còn cho phép người dùng so sanh và kết hợp các chiến lược bằng cách kéo và thả các khối để tạo ra chiến lược tốt nhất.

Aggregator có hai loại chính là Dex Aggregator (Coin98 Exchange, 1Inch) và Yield Aggregator (Yearn). Tuy nhiên ở thời điểm hiện tại trên Solana mới chỉ có Yield Aggregator.

Các dự án về Yield Aggregator tiêu biểu gồm: Solfarm, Sunny, Solyard, Francium.

Asset Management

Mục đích của Asset management giúp người dùng quản lý được mọi tài sản và vị thế của mình ở trên một giao diện duy nhất, hoặc ủy thác tài sản cho mình để một bên khác quản lý.

Dự án về Asset Management nổi bật nhất trên Solana là Solrise Finance, các devnet campaign trước của Solrise là khá thành công và thu hút người dùng. Tuy nhiên dự án vẫn chưa ra mainnet ở thời điểm hiện tại.

Wallet:

Wallet là một phần không thể thiết khi tham gia Crypto nói chung, việc lưu trữ, chyển giao tài sản là một trong những nhu cầu cơ bản của người dùng. Những sản phẩm wallet tốt nhất hiện tại cho hệ Solana gồm: Coin98 Wallet, Phantom, Solet, Solflare.

Explorer:

Tương tự Ethereum có Etherscan, BSC có Bscan, người dùng cần một nơi để xem được thông tin giao dịch trên Solana. Các explorer nổi bật nhất hiện tại có thể kể đến như: Solana Beach, Solana explorer, Solscan.

Dashboard:

Người dùng hàng ngày trải nghiệm rất nhiều tác vụ với nhiều dự án khác nhau. Ví dụ: Farm trên Saber, Trade Margin trên Mango, mua các NFT khác nhau,… Vậy làm thế nào để ta có thể quản lý tất cả mà không bị bỏ lỡ các thông tin quan trọng. Các dApps Dashboard giúp giải quyết vấn đề này. Các dự án dashboard tốt nhất Solana hiện tại bao gồm: Step Finance, Sonar, ApeBoard.

NFT: Marketplace, Gaming, Collectibles (Sưu tập), Music, Infrastructure và DeFi x NFT

Do Solana đã có Bridge Wormhole kết nối giữa Solana với nền tảng blockchain chính của NFT là Etherium, các dự án NFT của Solana khá sôi nổi với nhiều dự án game NFT hay Marketplace được phát triển. Cộng với chi phí giao dịch cực thấp và tốc độ của Solana, việc mua bán và trao đổi, sưu tầm NFT căng trở nên thuận lợi và đơn giản.

Marketplace NFT của nền tảng blockchain có 2 dạng chính là General Marketplace và Specific Marketplace. Trong đó General Marketplace là chợ giao dịch tập trung các NFT tương tự như OpenSea, còn Specific Marketplace là chợ được các dự án sẽ tạo ra một thị trường riêng chỉ để giao dịch các NFT của minh. Thường Specific Marketplace được các Game NFT áp dụng như Axis Infinite.

Marketplace:

Hiện nay, các dự án General Marketplace tiêu biểu trên Solana là : Solanart, DigitalEyes, Solsea. Ngoài ra còn có các dự án khác với cơ chế khác biệt nhưng chưa ra sản phẩm, như Burnt Finance với cơ chế đấu giá NFT, NFracTion với cơ chế phân mảnh NFT,…

Infrastructure:

Dự án Framework để bất kỳ ai không biết code cũng có thể tạo marketplace cho mình như Metaplex (wordpress cho NFT), hay tạo ra unity-wallet để chúng ta có thể kết nối ví ngay trong trò chơi và chi trả các vật phẩm trong game như All-Art Protocol.

Music:

Audius sau khi chuyển kho nhạc sang Solana thì mới thực sự bùng nổ, trở thành nền tảng nghe nhạc trực tuyến phi tập trung lớn nhất hiện tại và giá token Audio của Audius đã tăng hơn 20 lần.

DeFi x NFT:

Đây là nhánh kết hợp giữa DeFi và NFT rất tiềm năng, ở đây chúng ta có thể dùng NFT làm tài sản thế chấp để đi vay tiền hay tài sản khác… Dự án nổi bật DeFi x NFT nổi bật trên Solana hiện nay là DeFi Land với ý tưởng game hóa các tác vụ DeFi thông qua giao diện game nông trại.

Gaming:

Tốc độ cao và chi phí cực rẻ của Solana mở ra nhiều cơ hội mới trong việc phát triển các games NFT với model “play-to-earn”, là hình thức thưởng cho những người chơi quy đổi tài sản trong game ra tiền thực tế thông qua token SOL. Sau đây là một số dự án game NFT ấn tượng nhất trên Solana:

• Star Atlas: là tựa game chiến thuật lấy bối cảnh của việc thám hiểm không gian, nơi các người chơi có thể khám phá vũ trụ, chiến đấu, xây dựng cứ hạm, mua bán và giao dịch các vật phẩm trong game.
• Aurory: là tựa game PvE/PvP, nơi người chơi sẽ vào vai các nhân vật và đi khám phá, sưu tầm NFT và chiến đấu với người chơi khác.
• Open Era: là tựa game MMORPG được lấy cảm hứng từ các game kinh điển như RuneScape và cả game MMOs thế hệ mới như Albion Online. Động lực chính đằng sau Open Era là người chơi có thể phát triển thể giới ảo của riêng minh.
• Project SEED: là tựa game RPG nơi người chơi sẽ vào tạo, chiến đấu nâng cấp trang bị và cấp độ cho nhân vật của minh.

Collectibles – Lưu trữ sưu tầm.

Collectibles là một trong những mảng nhận được nhiều dòng tiền nhất của NFT trên Solana. Ở thời điểm hiện tại, tuy số lượng dự án được phát triển ở mảng collectibles rất nhiều nhưng chất lượng chưa được cao.

Một số dự án được đánh giá cao nhất trong mảng Collectibles bao gồm: Degenerate Ape Academy, Solraians.

Một số mảng khác của DeFi:

Ngoài các nhánh trên, ta còn rất nhiều mảnh ghép khác với tính năng khác nhau trên Solana mà ta nên quan tâm, bao gồm:

• Oracle: Pyth Network, Switchboard.
• Unlock Liquidity: Marinade Finance, Socean.
• Launchpad: AcceleRaytor, Solanium, Solstater.
• Social: Only1.

TỔNG KẾT

Cả hai nền tảng Cardano và Solana đều có một cộng đồng phát triển và đầu tư rất lớn với tiềm năng được đanh giá rất cao. Mỗi nền tảng có thế mạnh và định hướng phát triển riêng.

Cardano với nền tảng khoa học có khả năng vận hanh ổn định và tính ứng dụng cao không chỉ mỗi nền tảng DeFi mà còn ở các giải pháp dự án thực tế. Cardano cũng được cho là phù hợp với các nhu cầu nền tảng giao dịch ổn định như ngân hàng, ngoại hối,… Tiềm năng của Cardano sẽ còn mở rộng với cấu trúc linh hoạt và tách bạch với tính phi tập trung cao. Tốc độ xác thực giao dịch của Cardano hiện nay chưa quá cao nhưng với với tinh năng HYDRA mới được giới thiệu và đang trong quá trinh tích hợp vào hệ thống thì tốc độ của Cardano sẽ lên cao nhất thị trường với 1.000.000 TPS. Lúc ấy có thể chi phí giao dịch cũng sẽ được giảm đáng kể.

Solana lại là nền tảng blockchain có hiệu suất cao nhất hiện nay với tốc độ cực xử lý cực nhanh 0.4s và chi phí giao dịch rẻ nhất thị trường chỉ với 0.00025 USD. Là bệ phóng mạnh mẽ cho các hoạt động DeFi phát triển và chi phí thấp cho nhà đầu tư. Mặc dù thế, Solana lại thiếu ổn định hơn Cardano và có vài lo ngại về tinh phi tập trung của Solana sau sự cố quá tải ngày 14/9/2021.

Ở thời điểm hiện tại, Cardano với đồng ADA sẽ phù hợp hơn với các nhà đầu tư đòi hỏi tinh ổn định và bền vững cũng như niềm tin vào tương lai khả năng ứng dụng các thực tế trong Ngân hàng, Chứng khoán,… Còn Solana với đồng SOL sẽ phù hợp hơn với các nhà đầu tư tài chinh DeFi vì chi phí rẻ nhất và tốc độ nhanh nhất thị trường. Hiện nay đồng Solana cũng đã được gián tiếp ngân hàng Goldman Sachs bảo trợ bằng việc tích hợp nền tảng StableCoin USDC với đồng SOL của Solana. Mặc dù đồng USDC mới giới hạn giao dịch trong nước Mỹ và một số nước trong danh sách.