Author: Angela Wang

Top Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges in 2022
This is an update of our previous top crypto exchanges article for 2021. A lot has changed since then and here’s what to look for in 2022.

The easiest way to start trading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin is through a cryptocurrency exchange, and in this article, we list what we consider to be the top cryptocurrency exchanges in 2022 with the beginner user in mind. For this article, exchanges which we at Team Boxmining use frequently are listed in Tier 1, exchanges we occasionally use are listed in Tier 2, down to those which we seldom or do not use at all are listed in Tier 3. However, this is only based on our personal preference only. Potential users should also always check if the exchange is supported in their country as there are geographical restrictions.

Check out our latest video where we talk about our picks for the best cryptocurrency exchanges in 2022:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRocD5PqvZ8
Best Cryptocurrency Exchange in 2022? (EXCLUSIVE trading fee discounts)

Tier 1 Exchanges

Binance

Binance supports over 100 cryptocurrencies and is available in 180 countries

Founded in 2017 and currently serving over 13.5 million active users worldwide, Binance allows you to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrency with low fees. You also have the option to earn interest on your cryptocurrencies by staking them for a period of time to earn an interest rate of between 0.5%-10%.

Binance supports trading of over 400 different types of cryptocurrencies and with more being added almost every week. In fact, Binance has become so popular as a cryptocurrency exchange that the mere news of new coins being listed can cause the tokens’ prices to skyrocket.

Cryptocurrencies can be purchased on the Exchange through a variety of ways: PayPal, bank transfer, credit card, and debit card (although they charge a hefty 4.5% fee). It is worth noting however, that users cannot simply exchange their US dollars for cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, the aforementioned purchase methods should be sufficient for most, if not all cryptocurrency traders.

As for security measures, Binance not only has an asset fund as insurance in case of misappropriated user funds but also provides two-factor authentication.

Binance also has its own native token- BNB, which comes 4th in terms of trading volume. The token can be used for various features and discounts on the exchange.

Binance does have a US version of its exchange for US users at Binance.US which was launched in September 2019. Although Binance.US will have fewer cryptocurrencies available for trading and features in order to be compliant with US regulations.

Binance is Team Boxmining’s second most frequently used exchange. Binance is easy to use, their team is always quick to respond if there are any issues with the exchange, and pioneered many of the special features we come to expect today such as Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs). Binance also caters to experienced traders with advanced trading options and plenty of analytics. Novice users will inevitably experience a learning curve, but once you find your way around, it becomes almost second nature.

Check out Binance Exchange Review 2021: Best Crypto Exchange? For a detailed look at what Binance has to offer.

Sign up for Binance here!

KuCoin

Its focus on security and intuitive design has attracted fervent supporters for KuCoin

KuCoin is a relatively new cryptocurrency exchange that has quickly developed a fervent fan base thanks to its intuitive design and high level of security. The Exchange is highly regarded for its large number of different cryptocurrency pairs, which means users can purchase a wide variety of cryptos.

The Exchange is also spreading into new regions at a rapid pace. In just 1 year their adoption rate for different countries has skyrocketed. For example, in Latin America, there was a 171% increase, in Africa a 130% increase, and in Asia a 67.5% increase.

KuCoin supports over 500 cryptocurrencies which means you can trade lots of small-cap tokens with low trading fees. At team Boxmining, we find that if we want to trade small-cap coins, we would need to use our MetaMask and then trade on different platforms and different DEXs. And if it’s an ERC 20 token you would have to pay ridiculously high gas fees which are really not practical. So, if these small-cap tokens are already on KuCoin, then you can save yourself a lot of unnecessary costs.

KuCoin also allows you to use trading bots through their mobile app. Trading bots can
automatically buy and sell your cryptocurrencies so you don’t have to be online all the time to follow the market. However, it’s not always clear how they’re investing your money, and you need to understand the cryptocurrency trading strategies they use. Also, if you’re buying and holding cryptocurrencies for the long term, these bots may not be able to help you a lot.

On the downside, Kucoin is a crypto-only exchange, which means you will need another exchange if you’re looking to purchase coins with fiat currency such as HKD, USD or CAD. That means that Kucoin is not a great option for anyone just getting started with cryptocurrency, but if you are an experienced trader then KuCoin is a great way to diversify your cryptocurrency portfolio.

SwissBorg

SwissBorg is a popular choice amongst European users and has a very intuitive and user-friendly app.

SwissBorg was launched in December 2017, they are based in Switzerland and are fully compliant with Swiss Law, making them hugely popular amongst the European cryptocurrency trading community. The Exchange is available in over 100 countries (although currently not supported in the US). Please note however that for some countries, the full range of features offered by SwissBorg may not be available.

SwissBorg supports over 30 cryptocurrencies and 16 fiat currencies. New cryptocurrencies are continuously being added and users can vote for the next cryptoasset to be listed on their app. Users can directly fund their SwissBorg accounts via bank transfer, and SwissBorg does not charge any fees for bank transfers.

Another popular feature is SwissBorg’s multi-award-winning app which allows users to access their crypto wallets and trade on the go.

To keep ahead of the yield farming and decentralized finance (DeFi) craze, SwissBorg offers their Smart Yield account for yield farming, which allows users to get exposure to farming without much prerequisite knowledge. The Smart Yield feature does this by scanning and finding a range of DeFi and CeFi (Centralized Finance).

SwissBorg’s native token $CHSB is a multi-utility token that entitles holders to lower fees when buying/selling Bitcoin, CHSB and stablecoins on the Exchange. Other benefits include being able to have 2x yield on your USDC, BTC, ETH, XRP, and CHSB holdings.

Learn more about SwissBorg with our in-depth guide- SwissBorg ($CHSB): What is it?

Sign up for SwissBorg with our exclusive link to get FREE CHSB!

Coinbase

Coinbase offers a more limited selection of cryptocurrencies but makes up for it with high security and ease of use

Coinbase was launched in 2012 and currently has over 30 million users spanning 103 countries. While Coinbase may not offer a wide variety of cryptocurrencies, the San Francisco-based exchange platform is still a top favorite among many investors due to its highly secure and easy-to-use platforms. Also, Coinbase is the first stop for many beginner traders (especially those from the US) as they have a very easy-to-use mobile app, you can directly fund your Coinbase account from your bank account. Coinbase is also particularly popular in the US since it is the first publicly listed US crypto exchange and it is compliant with US regulations.

Coinbase’s popularity stems from the fact that their platform has one of the fastest and easiest cryptocurrency buying processes, which along with their claim to have never been hacked, makes them an ideal choice for beginners who are looking to get started with cryptocurrency investment. Advanced users can also opt for Coinbase Pro, which has more trading features.

Coinbase supports hundreds of digital currencies, however, in terms of the number of cryptocurrencies supported, it definitely loses out to other major crypto exchanges in this respect. Coinbase also charges higher fees compared to most other exchanges, charging $0.99-$2.99 per purchase under a $200 transaction and an additional 0.5% fee depending on the amount traded. However many novice or infrequent traders consider this a fair price to pay for the convenience the platform offers and the fact that it is one of the few exchanges available to US users.

As mentioned earlier, Coinbase does charge higher fees compared to other cryptocurrency exchanges on the market, hence we have prepared our popular guide- Coinbase Fees: How to Avoid Them.

Tier 2 Exchanges

eToro

From social trading to crypto, eToro boasts a whopping 17 million users worldwide

Established in 2007, eToro was originally a social trading exchange that launched its cryptocurrency platform in 2018. It has since grown to a user base of over 17 million users worldwide.

The main factor to note about eToro is that it is extremely simple to use, which can be both positive and negative. eToro currently only offers the 6 major cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Etherium, Litecoin, XRP, and XLM. This means that the platform is perfect for those looking to trade in only the biggest cryptos using a simple interface.

In addition, the only fiat that this exchange deposits in is USD, which works out great if you are a US-based trader but not so much if you’re interested in dealing with other currencies.

Whilst we at Team Boxmining do not use eToro, our friends who only occasionally trade cryptocurrencies are big fans due to its simplicity. However, the downside is the lack of supported cryptocurrencies, features and trading discounts.

Kraken

Founded in 2011, Kraken is considered to be one of the more established exchanges

One of the more established cryptocurrency exchanges, Kraken was founded in 2011 then relaunched in 2013. Kraken has a wide variety of cryptocurrencies available for trade, and currently supports over 200 traders globally.

Kraken also offers margin trading and futures trading. With its margin accounts, you can borrow up to five times your account balance to trade crypto assets. Futures trading — contracts which allow you to buy or sell an asset at a set price on an upcoming date — is available for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ripple.

The Exchange also offers its own futures trading platforms. But institutional clients can take advantage of expert insights, one-on-one consultations, account management support, and more.

Kraken is hugely popular amongst European cryptocurrency enthusiasts due to its range of features.

Tier 3 Exchanges

OceanEx

OceanEX is built using cutting edge AI tech, but is a bit lacking in liquidity

OceanEX was launched in 2018 by BitOcean Global, a fully registered and licensed Japanese trading platform. BitOcean Global consists of core members with past experience from Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, and Deloitte.

With a variety of features to improve user and trading safety, OceanEX is the trading hub of the VeChainThor Ecosystem. The main advantages promoted by OceanEX are its AI security, tailor-made services, lightning fast trading, and global support. However, the platform lacks liquidity which makes buying and selling coins difficult.

Coincheck

Coincheck is the go to if you’re living in Japan

Coincheck is a Japanese-based cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2012 that also functions as a Bitcoin wallet. The platform is simple and user-friendly and boasts competitive fees, along with features such as cashback for paying utility bills. However, the coins available for trade are limited, and the majority of the additional features are available in Japan only.

Tier 4 Exchanges

Bisq

Bisq does not require user verification, which for some people is a security risk

Launched in 2014, Bisq is a decentralised exchange with servers distributed worldwide and offers a large variety of cryptocurrencies and fiats for trading.

However, unlike other exchanges Bisq does not require verification of user accounts, which raises the question of trader safety.

HitBTC

HitBTC also raises security concerns due to the nature of their KYC processes

Designed for the more experienced trader interested in dealing with altcoins, HitBTC was founded in 2013 and based in Chile.

Main concerns surrounding HitBTC are the lack of transparency and clear KYC (Know Your Customer) processes, which raises red flags about the security of the platform. In addition, users have reported that support is slow, with resolutions of issues taking up to several weeks.

Conclusion

Tier 1:
- Binance
- KuCoin
- SwissBorg
- Coinbase
Tier 2:
- eToro
- KuCoin
Tier 3:
- OceanEx
- Coincheck
Tier 4:
- Bisq
- HitBTC
Of course, this list is meant to be a guide when selecting the best cryptocurrency exchange for your individual needs, and conducting thorough research and background checks will go a long way in protecting your digital wealth. Be sure to spend some time when choosing your own exchange, and you can enjoy the peace of mind knowing that your coins are in the right hands.

In addition, exchange fees are usually a huge factor in choosing which exchange to use. Hence we have compiled our ESSENTIAL guide on How to Save Money on Crypto Exchange Fees.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
How to save money on crypto exchange fees

Fees are an unavoidable part of cryptocurrency trading- or are they? Charged by cryptocurrency exchanges on each trade or transaction on their platform, these fees can add up to quite a substantial amount, especially during the bull market when people are actively trading. Therefore, people are eager to find any way to save money on cryptocurrency trading fees, and to maintain competitiveness, many exchanges do offer discounts or perks for their loyal customers. In this article, we take a look at some of the ways in which you can lower or even have no trading fees, and the discounts offered by some cryptocurrency exchanges.

What are crypto exchange fees?

Cryptocurrency exchanges charge customers fees for transactions or trades done on their exchange. Some types of crypto exchange fees include:

Deposit/withdrawal fees

Exchanges are basically a platform for customers to trade cryptocurrencies, so they would need to deposit or withdraw cryptocurrency to the exchange platform in order to use it. Exchanges charge a fee when customers deposit or withdraw cryptocurrencies onto or from their platform.

Trading fees

This is charged by exchanges whenever cryptocurrencies are converted to other cryptocurrencies or fiat, and vice versa.

Most popular exchanges such as Binance charge trading fees based on a maker/taker structure with taker fees being higher than maker fees. Takers are when the user places an order that is able to trade immediately (whether partially or fully) before it enters the order books. They are known as “takers” because they “take” volume from the order books. On the other hand, maker fees are charged when the user places an order that goes onto the order book (whether fully or partially) i.e. “making” the market.

Interest/Borrowing/Liquidation Fees

These fees are charged when users are involved in margin trading i.e. borrowing funds to increase your position. The amount of these fees usually depends on the amount borrowed on margin together with an interest rate. Margin trading however is very risky, and one of the reasons for this is because if the trade does not go your way you would become liquidated. When this happens exchanges also charge a liquidation fee.

VIP programs

Exchanges usually offer exchange fee discounts for their frequent users. This is usually based on a VIP tier structure where frequent users (based on their trading volume over 30 days) can qualify for higher VIP tiers which entitle them to cheaper fees. The requirements for the VIP tiers and discounts offered differ between exchanges.

Binance’s VIP program requires users to have a certain trade volume over 30 days and have a specified balance of their native token known as Binance Coin (BNB). For the first VIP tier, users must have a trading volume of 50 BTC or more and hold 50 BNB or more. Check here for more details.

Binance VIP tiers (Image credit: Binance)

Coinbase does not have a VIP program. However, Coinbase charges a fee for withdrawing from their platform and for transactions. The fees are calculated based on several factors such as the payment method, size of order and market conditions etc. The amount of such fees will be disclosed at the time of the transaction. Learn more about Coinbase fees and how you can avoid them.

Kraken does not publicise their VIP program but users can email them to enquire about their Account Management services.

Exchange token discounts

Many exchanges have their own native token, and holding their token entitles users to discounts.

Binance Token (BNB) is Binance’s native token. Binance allows users to pay for trading fees using BNB, and by doing so users can get 25% off both trading and margin trading fees, and 10% off futures trading fees.

Woo X for instance also has their native WOO token. Users can enjoy discounts on maker/taker fees by holding as little as 300 WOO tokens, and only 1,800 WOO tokens are required to reach 0% maker and taker fees. The WOO token can also be used for yield farming and as collateral for borrowing and lending on various DeFi platforms. Click here for more details.

Both Coinbase and Kraken do not have their own native token.

Discounts for staking exchange tokens

Some exchanges allow users to stake the native token i.e. to lock the token up for a specified period in return for additional rewards. Some rewards include fee discounts, additional tokens (i.e. yields), increased airdrop rewards and the ability to participate in the exchange’s initial exchange offerings (IEOs).

Binance also allows users to stake their BNB in their Vault in return for BNB yields. Whilst there are no direct perks for staking BNB, as mentioned previously Binance users get 25% off trading fees when they pay with BNB.

WOO X users are required to stake their WOO tokens in order to enjoy the trading fee discounts mentioned in the previous section. Other rewards for staking include eligibility for airdrops.

Neither Coinbase or Kraken offers staking in their exchange token.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrency exchange fees can add up especially when you are a heavy user. With the many exchanges out there, competition is fierce to attract users since they make money on each transaction you do. One of the major ways to do this is to offer discounts on fees for using the exchange. Most, if not all cryptocurrency exchanges offer discounts simply for frequent or high volume users with tiered VIP programs. Exchanges such as Binance are more creative, utilising their native token or having staking programs which boost users’ rewards. At the end of the day, the rewards offered are only one aspect to consider when deciding which exchange to choose, other factors include the number of cryptocurrencies supported and security etc. Intended users, especially those from the US, should also check carefully as some exchanges may have features that are not available to US citizens.

Further reading

Coinbase Fees-How to avoid them

Coinbase Review

Binance Exchange Review

Tips and tricks to save on your Ethereum gas fees

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

January 1, 2023
INTRODUCING EGGPLANT FINANCE ($EGGP): SMART NFTS ARE THE MOST EGGCITING WAY TO DO DEFI
Eggplant Finance uses the power of Binance Smart Chain to become the next-generation gamified DeFi platform that enables users to invest in various DeFi products.

Anyone can make crypto gains with Eggplant Finance’s yield farms while collecting their favorite NFTs. Moreover, staying true to the decentralized finance’s spirit, there is no KYC (know-your-customer) policy.

Starting June 2021, Eggplant Finance will launch their anticipated limited edition Smart NFTs.

Eggplant Finance

Why Choose Eggplant Finance?

Aside from the hilariously cute Eggplant mascot, Eggplant Finance offers:
- Yield farming with Eggplant Finance is easy as 1-2-3. Simply connect your Meta Mask (or Trust Wallet) to Eggplant Finance and you can start earning crypto (up to 800% APR)
- Eggplant Finance’s native token ($EGGP) enables anyone to participate in the platform of digital art, blockchain gaming and decentralized finance.
- Trade your favorite tokens without KYC on Eggplant Finance’s swap platform.
- Collect and utilize digital artwork NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Use our NFTs to gain cool bonuses.
If you love blockchain gaming and NFTs, then you’ll love Eggplant Finance’s Smart NFTs. Read below for more details.

Buy NFTs on Eggplant Finance

Eggplant Finance NFTs Explained (Gotta catch ‘em all)

Eggplant NFTs aren’t just pretty pictures; these ‘Smart’ NFTs are integrated into Eggplant Finance’s eco-system for a fun and seamless experience.

NFT staking on Eggplant Finance

Equipped with your unique NFTs, you can:
- Trade and collect your favorite NFTs on Eggplant Finance market place
- Stake your NFTs and gain rewards (airdrops, $EGGP, additional NFTs)
- Hodl your NFTs to receive free airdrops and automatically enroll in competitions (no cost)
- Use your NFTs to gain in-game benefits (we’ve got blockchain gaming!)
- Stake your $EGGP to obtain rare edition NFTs. The NFTs enables you to gain bigger in-game benefits and VIP rates.
…. and much more! Sounds interesting? Check out Eggplant Finance’s social links below to learn more.

Eggplant Finance Socials

Website: https://eggplant.fi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Eggplant_Fi

Telegram chat: https://t.me/Eggplant_Fi

Telegram announcement: https://t.me/EggplantFi_Ann

Medium: https://eggplantfinance.medium.com Email: info@eggplant.fi

About Eggplant Finance

Eggplant Finance offers gamified DeFi investment, with an emphasis on NFTs and token utility. Powered by the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) network, Eggplant Finance empowers everyone to make crypto gains.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
Decentral Games ($DG): a decentralised crypto casino
Decentral Games is the first community-owned casino ecosystem offering a chance to participate in a seamless, anonymous and decentralized gaming ecosystem, all the while being rewarded for your participation.

Thrill-seekers from any part of the world have had the pleasure of enjoying their favorite casino games on-the-go. Despite the fact that these games have been available on the internet since the 90s, their popularity has only recently soared to the roof! This is in part thanks to the abundance and accessibility of mobile devices.
Table of Contents

Toggle
Background

What is Decentral Games?

Decentral Games Ecosystem

What is $DG token?

$DG Allocation and tokenomics

How to earn $DG tokens on Decentral Games

Governance incentives

Liquidity Incentives: mining/farming $DG

Gameplay Rewards

Decentral Games expanding into virtual land ownership?

Conclusion
Background

In 2019, with the power of Blockchain technology, a group of innovators has been able to give the online casino sphere a gigantic push forward with the formation of Decentral Games.

The founders were able to seize an opportunity to leverage the Ethereum blockchain to develop a non-custodial social 3D casino on the internet. The team, which is made up of about ten people, is based in San Ana, Costa Rica.

What is Decentral Games?

Decentral games is a casino ecosystem that is owned, governed, and maintained by its users (holders of the $DG token), through a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). Essentially, the platform allows casino game lovers to control its system and ensure that rules are followed and issues are resolved through the DAO.

The ecosystem leverages two previously existing Blockchain platforms. One is Decentraland, where its users are able to create, experience, and monetize contents and applications. The other is Matic Network, which provides seamless, fast, and cost-effective transactions on the Ethereum network.

Decentral Games puts the affairs of the game itself into the hands of its users. For instance, the users are in-charge of funds. And thanks to its open-source logic, a fair evaluation for every result (in case of disputes). Furthermore, each user is able to enjoy fast transactions and anonymous participation.

Decentral Games Ecosystem

Every element on the ecosystem interacts with the $DG token. And these interactions all happen via the dgTreasury, which serves as the casino house fund. It is open and observable to all users.

Decentral Games ecosystem (Image credit: Decentral Games)

The treasury is responsible for bankrolling and funding all games. Therefore, for it to function effectively at all times, it must always have enough funds. Fees collected from players (in $MANA and $DAI) would be collected and kept in the dgTreasury, which is also from where winnings would be paid out.

By incentivizing players to stake their digital assets, the treasury gets enough buffer to fund gaming activities.

And players who stake digital assets are rewarded with $DG tokens, a process popularly known as mining. However, this is not the only means by which you can mine on Decentral Games.

What is $DG token?

$DG is Decentral Games’ native utility token based on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard and made mainly for use on the DG platform. There are 3 main uses and ways to earn the $DG token which will be explored in detail later on in this article. These are: governance, liquidity mining, and gaming rewards.

Holders of the token can propose and vote on governance proposals concerning the features and/or parameters of Decentral Games’ ecosystem. Decentral Games also has a staking mechanism which rewards users with $DG tokens. Finally, $DG tokens are also rewarded to players for playing games with MANA or DAI.

$DG Allocation and tokenomics

At launch, a total of 1 million $DG will become accessible to be distributed strategically over 6 years. 62% (620,000 DG) would be allocated to the community, 20% (200,000 DG) to the development team with 3 years vesting, and the remaining 18% (180,000 DG) to early participants with 2 years vesting.

DG token distribution (Image credit: Decentral Games)

How to earn $DG tokens on Decentral Games

Governance incentives

As a DAO-based community, users are able to come together to deliberate on important decisions. And decisions are made through the results of a vote. With this system, the platform’s future is carved and decorum is maintained.

This system of self-regulation is known as Governance.

To submit a proposal or vote on them, you must own $DG tokens. Users can stake their token to submit proposals, as well as vote on them.

According to the encoded rules of the DAO, 1% of the total $DG supply is required to submit a proposal. While at least 4% of the total $DG supply must be pooled together within 7-days for a decision to be made.

The amount of $DG you have staked determines your voting power. Users are able to stake their tokens through the governance dashboard available to every user.

Participants in governance are often rewarded with more $DG tokens. This makes the second means by which you can mine on the Decentral Games.

It should be noted that issues deliberated and voted on are restricted to those within the platform and its eco-system itself. It does not extend to the management of the staff, assets, or affiliates. It also does not represent any right with respect to Decentral Games itself.

Liquidity Incentives: mining/farming $DG

The earning process, also known as mining, is conducted through several different processes on DG. It enables users to get $DG in return for providing liquidity to the MANA-DG and DAI-DG 98/2 balancer pools. Farming on $DG is done in 4 simple steps:
1. Hold $MANA or $DAI on your Ethereum Mainnet wallet on Metamask. and connect your wallet to Decentral Games.
2. Choose either Pool 1 (98% MANA- 2% DG) or Pool 2 (98% DAI- 2% DG).
3. Select “Add liquidity” and fill in your preferred deposit amount. If you are a first-time Balancer user you may have to sign up to 4 transactions: setup proxy, MANA/DAI authorisation, $DG authorisation, and add liquidity to pool. Once you have added liquidity to the pool, you will receive balancer pool tokens (BPTs) which can be staked to farm $DG.
4. Connect your Metamask wallet to the $DG Liquidity Farming Dashboard. Then, enter the BPT amount you wish to stake and confirm by selecting “Stake BPT”.
Farming $DG tokens (Image credit: Decentral Games)

More details on how to farm $DG are available here.

Gameplay Rewards

But perhaps the most important means of mining on the platform is through gameplay. As you are enjoying the thrill of your games, you get rewarded in DG tokens.

Rewards are distributed based on specific activities you perform during gameplay. Some of those activities involve placing a wager, playing with multiple players on the same table, referring other players, and having your avatar wear DG non-fungible token-based wearables when playing.

You can bring your digital assets into the ecosystem using MANA or DAI tokens, both of which are fast and effective transactional stablecoins that run on Ethereum and are noted for their value exchange stability.

So in addition to any winnings players may receive, they will also receive $DG.

Available games on Decentral Games

At present, a good number of popular casino games are already available on Decentral Games. These include: Blackjack, Roulette, Slots, Backgammon, and Poker.

Decentral Games expanding into virtual land ownership?

On 21 January 2021 Decentral Games has transferred 403 Decentraland LAND parcels to the $DG DAO worth USD $500,000. Each of these land parcels is a unique and transferable non-fungible token representing 16×16 meters of virtual space in a specific location on the Decentralad map. Users can choose to own adjacent land parcels for building structures such as casinos and galleries. (https://escapecitybuffalo.com/)

$DG holders will be able to create proposals to direct how these land parcels should be developed.

Conclusion

As people spend more hours within virtual worlds, Decentral Games aims to grow to hundreds of thousands of users by the end of the year. And since it is part of a greater ecosystem called Decentraland, the casino platform can easily tap into a vast network of users.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
DAO Maker ($DAO): can retail investors become venture capitalists?
One notable challenge for every startup is finding the required capital to set up businesses. This is where concepts like venture capital help such businesses to meet the required level of capital to help them blossom. However, this has traditionally been a field accessible by funds and institutions with ample resources.

DAO Maker is here to improve the process for both parties by respectively creating growth technologies and funding frameworks for startups, and reducing risks for investors.

Background and Team

The Founder of DAO Maker is Christoph Zaknun who entered the cryptocurrency space in 2017. The idea of private permissionless money and the gains associated with cryptocurrency lured him further into the creation of ICO DOG, a platform that allowed for investing in token presales.

His Co-founder, Giorgio Marciano, also acts as DAO Maker’s CTO. Marciano has over 16 years of experience in developing software and products.

Other notable team members include Hatu Sheikh, who has overseen over 35 crypto assets marketing campaigns, and Malte Christensen, who works as the COO and Head of Sales, Dima, who works as the Head of Visual Communication.

What is DAO Maker?

DAO Maker is a provider of a participation framework that allows retail investors (small-scale investors) to participate in global retail venture capital. Essentially, the primary goal of DAO Maker is to raise a fundraising platform that would allow for equal participation of crowd equity and tokens.

The reality is that most of these small-time investors are likely unable to afford to invest large sums of money in venture capital. DAO fills the gap by enabling the average man on the street an opportunity to grow his own capital. This creates a win-win situation, the business is able to effectively provide a new source of funding while at the same time helping to improve the lives of many.

Achievements of DAO Maker

The platform has over time proven itself to retail investors. In the last 2 years, over 70,000 unique retail investors were signed up and allowed to participate in the funding of early-stage ventures. Apart from attracting investors, DAO Maker has also been able to attract startups with enormous potential to join the burgeoning ecosystem.

Advantages of DAO Maker

One major reason these startups join the DAO Maker ecosystem is simple: it provides them a safe, decentralized, and free environment that allows them to reach their potentials. In addition, the platform also has one of the leading solutions that would allow for the growth of these companies.

As a result, the ecosystem has seen a marked increase in the demand for its services, which enabled them to begin working on a permission version.

DAO Maker’s approach to fundraising stands out since not only does it connect startups with funding, it also assiduously works to assist them in facing challenges in the initial stages of their development.

This is why the track record of the fundraising platform has defied many market cycles.

DAO Maker’s Venture Bond

DAO Maker’s new flagship product is Venture Bond. It allows startups to issue bonds that users can access, whilst users benefit from close to zero-risk venture investments.

Venture Bonds work as follows:
- startups issue Venture Bonds;
- users purchase these bonds, giving the startups a principal sum of money;
- startups then use the principal sum generated by bond purchases to generate interest through insured margin funding activities in decentralised finance (DeFi) or centralised finance (CeFi);
- the generated interest serves as the funding for the startups;
- the startup will then deposit tokens/equity to the Venture Bond holders; and
- when the Venture Bond matures, the principal sum is returned to the buyer, so they are left with both their initial funding and also any newly acquired tokens or equity.
DAO Maker’s Venture Bonds (Image credit: DAO Maker)

Other DAO Maker Services

Other notable services of DAO Maker are Refundable Strong Holder Offering and Dynamic Coin Offering.

Strong Holder Offering

Strong holder offerings are designed to build a community that would actively participate in providing an increased level of awareness for a company, and at the same time, induce confidence by imposing a strict refund policy.

DAO Maker strong holder offerings (Image credit: DAO Maker)

Dynamic Coin Offering

For dynamic coin offerings, 100% of the circulating supply is backed by a notable portion of the funds raised during the sale.

DAO Maker then escrows this fund through a trusted and insured custodian, allowing the platform users the opportunity to claim a refund within a specified period.

Social Mining

One of the earliest offerings of DAO Maker is Social Mining, which has played a pivotal role in the successful launch of some tokens in the space. The software was conceptualized in 2018, and since then, it has seen various upgrades and usage, which made it an essential part of the DAO Maker community.

What social mining does is simple; it enables any project to create token-based incentives that encourages community members to offer value. In other words, it helps energize a project’s community to participate in its growth and development.

The first use of this software was with LTO Network, where it served as a core component in the community creation of the project, and subsequently enjoyed tremendous growth despite the bear market of 2018. Despite the notable success of this first project (LTO), there were still some notable lapses like the dependence of the software on centralized involvement, which negated the core idea of building a decentralized and self-organizing community in the first place.

However, since then, the team of developers have developed the software to allow pluggable DAOs and also allowing for stake-based voting. The voting allowed the community to determine the value each token holder contributed to the project. This voting system became a quite effective distribution network that was decentralized as token holders were the ones in charge.

As it stands, work has already begun on the two key pathways social mining is being geared to: granting permissionless support for tokenized startups and permissioned access for equity startups.

DAO Maker Token ($DAO)

DAO, the protocol’s native token currently allows its holders to stake in the platform and enjoy governance power in submitting proposals, as well as vote on them.

By participating in governance, stakers would also receive a part of the fee generated from the source. And in order to promote long-term participation, the staked DAO tokens are locked for a period of time.

As can be seen below, more utilities for the DAO token are in the works.

DAO token utilities (Image credit：DAO Maker)

Conclusion

The idea behind DAO Maker is to create a platform where startups can enjoy early stage exposure from retailers. Thus, DAO Maker could be a single platform that elevates the capabilities of ordinary retail investors. The platform would also enable them to be issued with equity, while others are issued with tokens. All in all, the platform will enable varying levels of downside protection as early-stage startups face inevitable risks in their early days.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
E-money ($NGM): Rethinking stablecoins?
e-Money is aiming to reimagine the stablecoin. Traditional stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a value that is pegged to a particular asset. But this has its drawbacks- for example, sudden market crashes of the underlying asset can result in the stablecoin being unable to keep up and maintain its peg.

e-Money distinguishes itself with its novel token- an interest bearing stablecoin that can shift in value to accommodate economic pressures.

Check out our interview with CTO Henrik Aasted Sørensen:

Currency-backed Stablecoin: E-money (NGM) w. Henrik Aasted Sørensen

Background

The team behind e-Money is Block Finance A/S while their motive is to create a platform that can bridge blockchain with the traditional financial system. This way, stablecoins can find a stronger use case and attract greater adoption as it promises an alternative means of exchange, free from the interference of financial middlemen or large institutions.

The platform is built on top of the Cosmos chain, which is also the same network where some of the biggest decentralized exchanges are developed. Furthermore, e-Money promises a faster, easier, and cheaper method of making peer-to-peer transactions worldwide.

What is e-Money?

e-Money is a blockchain-based payment platform that aims to make peer-to-peer payments and money transfers cheaper and more accessible digitally. With e-Money, Block Finance A/S intends to do away with the intermediaries present in most traditional financial services by introducing ‘currency-backed’ stablecoins.

Later in this article, we will talk about the difference between this token class, as well as algorithmic and collateralized stablecoins. Basically, eMoney’s own currency-backed stablecoins serve as the backbone of e-Money’s frictionless digital asset for cross-border transactions.

The team behind e-Money established the coin to usher in a new model for stablecoins that has the following characteristics:
- Completely backed with actual bank deposits and government bonds;
- Can support multiple currencies;
- Lower transaction charges;
- Quick transaction settlement times; and
- Interest-bearing.
How does the e-money stablecoin work:?

e-Money is an innovation from the original concept modeled for collateralized stablecoins. One of its differences, however, is that it can hold interest. This is similar to how savings accounts in traditional banks work, making them a viable alternative store of value compared to other stablecoins that also fluctuate based on the movements of the whole crypto market.

Bank reserve v Currency-backed tokens

e-Money’s currency-backed token does not ensure a 1:1 peg with the fiat it represents. Instead, its price depends on the value held by the currency plus the interest accrued on the reserves of e-Money on the represented fiat.

Annually, the supply of the e-Money token will be inflated by 1%. And unlike algorithmic stablecoins, the value of a currency-backed stablecoin does not depend on the need to manage its overall supply, monitor the performance of its underlying reserve, or collect transaction fees.

Features of e-Money

Cosmos and Tendermint Deployment

e-Money is developed on top of the Cosmos chain, making it interoperable with other blockchain ecosystems. However, e-Money’s system maintains its independence from other chains through the implementation of a ‘sovereign zone.’

Cosmos is used to enable inter-blockchain communication (IBC), a feature known to many as the ‘internet of blockchains.’ Through the Cosmos Hub, e-Money’s platform can frictionlessly interact with other blockchain networks should they need to be implemented on different platforms.

Tendermint deployment is also another remarkable feature of the platform as it helps achieve faster transaction settlement times without compromising data integrity and security through a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism.

Validator Network

Since the platform secures blockchain consensus through stakers, validator networks are put in place to ensure the security of the network. Therefore, e-Money implements the validator service accessible in the Cosmos Hub and IRISnet’s IRIS Hub.

The main task of validators is to confirm the authenticity of blockchain transactions involving e-Money, as well as to ensure the integrity and health of the whole network. Currently, there are already over 40 validators working to maintain the security of the platform.

e-Money’s Decentralized Exchange

Along with the currency-backed stablecoin, e-Money also has a decentralized exchange platform where users can access cryptocurrencies available in the Cosmos ecosystem.

It bears some differences from a typical decentralised exchange (DEX). Here are some of them:
- Payments needed for trades are only for transaction fees;
- Transaction fees can be paid with your preferred token;
- There are no listing requirements to use the DEX, any token is already tradeable once supported by the platform;
- Higher liquidity since token balances can be sold on different orders; and
- Faster transaction throughput through an on-demand block generation method.
Risk Management

To manage the risks that are likely to be experienced by stablecoin holders, e-Money implements an interest mechanism that helps its currency-backed stablecoin maintain its value despite economic fluctuations.

To further mitigate the risks of partnering with single financial institutions to back their stablecoins, e-Money is collaborating with several banks. This spreads the risk that most collateralized stablecoins face when dealing with escrow accounts. e-Money is also putting a portion of their collateral into low-risk government bonds.

Regulatory concerns are also dealt with. In fact, e-Money’s team has already begun working with regulatory agencies in the EU to determine their status and plan their road ahead. They have legal counsels and advisors who are directly working on EU financial regulations.

Cosmos stacks, like e-Money, have already been audited and subjected to adversarial testnets. This ensures that the risk of users experiencing a problem with the platform is mitigated even before they are rolled out.

2 e-Money Tokens

There are two token classes supported on the e-Money platform. They are (1) Next Generation of Money (NGM); and (2) e-Money, a currency-backed stablecoin, which is a fiat currency represented onchain.

Next Generation of Money (NGM) Tokens

NGM token is primarily used for staking, as well as a reward incentive for users. Users can lock their NGM tokens on smart contracts for staking, or use them to nominate validators they trust to maintain the network. Annually, the NGM supply will be inflated by 10%, and then distributed proportionally to stakers.

NGM tokens will also be the backbone of e-Money’s operations, with token rewards being the only source of funding for the platform.

NGM token

e-Money Tokens

e-Money, its currency-backed stablecoin, can represent several cryptocurrencies. Its main function is to support the exchange of currencies between e-Money users. They can be used for payments, remittances, and transaction fees.

Supported fiat currencies will have their own representation on the e-Money platform. These are currencies like EUR, CHF, SEK, NOK, JPY, USD, and GBP. Support for more tokens will be introduced soon.

e-Money token class

e-Money Token Metrics

The NGM token has an initial total supply of 100,000,000 $NGM and a circulating supply of 6,364,516 $NGM.

Funding Rounds

Seed Round (concluded) :2,285,000 NGM sold at 0.10 USD per token. 12 months vesting period.*

Private Sale (concluded): 6,700,000 NGM sold at 0.25 USD per token. 6 months vesting period.*

Public Sale (on 19th January 2021): 300,000 NGM to be sold at 0.50 USD per token. No vesting period.*

*The initial vesting date was 4th November 2020 at 1:00pm CET.

Token allocation

Marketing Costs: 280,000 NGM (0.28% of total supply)

Market Making Fees: 33,333 NGM. (0.033% of total supply)

Exchange Listing Fees: 600,000 NGM. (0.60% of total supply)

Liquidity Provisioning (Float): 1,193,026 NGM. (11.9% of total supply)

Customer Acquisition: 8,300,000 NGM. 8.3% of total supply)

Ecosystem Fund (Grants): 10,000,000 NGM. (10% of total supply)

Treasury: 60,000,000 NGM. (60% of total supply)

e-Money Token Sale

On 19th January 2021 at 12:00 CET, e-Money will launch the public sale of its NGM token on Polkastarter. This will be in the form of an Initial Decentralised exchange Offering (IDO). 300,000 NGM tokens will be available for sale at USD$0.50 each.

Conclusion

Stablecoins currently on the market have huge drawbacks. Problems with collateralization and the performance of their underlying assets can cause uncertainty on their value. For instance, MakerDAO’s DAI had encountered some problems when ETH crashed last March 2020, creating difficulties in maintaining its peg.

e-Money is proposing a potentially promising alternative. By being collateralized in its issuing currency and interest-bearing, they are resilient against the at-times volatile economic climate. It is also simplified as its underlying fiat reserve is calculated automatically, and transparent with the help of quarterly audits by Ernst & Young to ensure Proof of Funds.

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

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

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

Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:
More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
Poolz.finance ($POOLZ): boosting the potential of cryptocurrency projects?
What is Poolz.finance ($POOLZ)?

Poolz.finance ($POOLZ) aims to be the bridge between cryptocurrency projects and early investors.

Poolz.finance has already integrated Ethereum, Polkadot and Tomochain. Projects can simply sign up with a simple Google form on the Poolz official site and they would help launch token sales on the Poolz platform.

In addition to launching token sales, Poolz can also help projects fundraise flexibly by allowing them to specify lock-in periods whereby only after the specified period expires can investors receive tokens for their swapped amount. On the other hand, pools of tokens camn also be created for a project’s token so investors can get immediate access to the project’s tokens.

To catch up with the yield-farming craze, Poolz also provides staking-as-a-service, allowing projects to set up staking for their token. And with that of course also brings concerns for security, which Poolz does recognise and therefore can allow projects to request token audits.

Check out our interview with CEO and Co-founder Guy Oren.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efMxFtJLTY8&feature=youtu.be

Poolz decentralized NFT auction house

Poolz is also capitalizing on the popularity of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) by allowing cryptocurrency projects to auction their NFTs on the Poolz auction house. Poolz has integrated the ERC-721 standard, which allows developers to code the owners’ identity and address into the NFT- making each token unique and ensuring that each NFT only has one owner.

During this initial phase, projects can sell their NFTs for ETH and DAI. However, it is expected that more payment methods will be accepted in the future, such as the project’s native cryptocurrency or other stablecoins.

$POOLZ token holders get exclusive benefits on Poolz’ NFT auction house such as price benefits and special access to the “last call” feature. Poolz’ “LastCall” feature comes after the conclusion of the “open” auction phase. Once the “open” auction for the NFTs are closed to the public, the “LastCall” phase opens whereby the NFT pool is exclusively open for POOLZ token holders to make their bids- thus increasing their chances of getting a winning bid before the auction finishes.

What is the $POOLZ token and its uses?

$POOLZ is Poolz Finance’s native ERC-20 token. $POOLZ token is mainly used as user incentives, governance, staking, token burns and project development.

Incentives. include exclusive benefits in the NFT auction house and better swap ratios for pools running on their platform.

Governance. The Poolz platform will implement the Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism. This allows POOLZ holders to have voting rights when they stake their tokens in specific wallets.

Staking. According to the Team, POOLZ token holders can get passive income from staking them in particular ERC-20 wallets. In return, these token holders will get staking rewards.

Token burn. Poolz will use 16.67% of its daily earnings to buy $POOLZ tokens from the market and burn the same, subject to an upper limit of 20% of the POOLZ supply. This keeps the supply of tokens low.

Project development. Poolz has reserve tokens that are allocated for future development such as marketing, exchange fees for listings, and long-term liquidity.

$POOLZ tokenomics

1/3 of the total $POOLZ token supply is locked and will be released over a period of 10 years. The Poolz team believes this model will ensure a low supply and keep prices high, and to show that they intend to stay with this project for the long haul.

The allocation of $POOLZ is as follows:
- 2.2M POOLZ (44%): Public and private sale
- 800,000 POOLZ (16%): Staking rewards. This will be circulated in the form of average annual yields to those who stake their tokens in a compatible wallet. 80,000 POOLZ will be released each year for 10 years (i.e. 1,539 tokens per week).
- 800,000 POOLZ (16%): Swapping rewards. These will be rewarded to liquidity providers on the participating pools on the platform. 80,000 POOLZ will be released each year for 10 years (i.e. 1,539 tokens per week). This may be subject to change via governance decisions.
- 600,000 POOLZ (12%): Reserve. This will be for future initiatives and to support the community.
- 375,000 POOLZ (7.5%): Team. For incentivizing the Poolz team and will be distributed over 6 months of equal vesting after a lock-in period of 1 year.
- 125,000 POOLZ (2.5%): Advisors. Given to advisors as incentives over 1 year of monthly vesting.
- 100,000 POOLZ (2%): Liquidity fund. This is for providing liquidity on Uniswap and other exchanges.
$POOLZ token sale
- Total Supply: 5,000,000 POOLZ
- Initial Market Cap: USD $423,500
- Fully Diluted Valuation: USD $3.5M
- Private and public sale: 2.2M POOLZ (44% of total supply) will be allocated for private and public sales.
- Pre Seed: 100,000 POOLZ at USD $0.35: 3 months initial lockup, then 8.33% released monthly.
- Strategic Round: 400,000 POOLZ, at USD $0.455: 10% released upon Token Generation Event (TGE), then 9% released monthly over a period of 10 months.
- Private Sale 1: 700,000 POOLZ, at USD$0.47775: 20% released upon TGE 20%, then 20% released monthly.
- Private Sale 2: 900,000 POOLZ at USD $0.50050: 25% released on TGE, then 25% released monthly.
- Auction Pools: 100,000 POOLZ at USD $0.7: no lockup period.
The USD$1m private sale of POOLZ has already been completed and was oversubscribed by 25x. More details on the private sale.

POOLZ token release schedule (Image credit: Medium)

$POOLZ public token sale

On 15th January 2021, $POOLZ will do a public sale by way of an Initial DEX Offering (IDO) and Uniswap listing.

The IDO will be held on the Poolz platform itself so that after it goes live, you can directly buy $POOLZ from their own platform. Afterwards, $POOLZ will be available on Uniswap. There is no minimum purchase amount for this IDO.

Note the IDO has sold out in 18 seconds

How to buy $POOLZ on Uniswap

The $POOLZ token will be listed on Uniswap from 15th January 2021 onwards, meaning that users will be able to buy $POOLZ on Uniswap. Buying $POOLZ can be done in 4 easy steps:

Step 1:On Uniswap, select which cryptocurrency you want to trade $POOLZ with in the “From” row. Note that Ethereum is set as the default.

Step 2: Set to swap for $POOLZ tokens. In the “To” row, enter the correct Poolz address. Be very sure that the address is correct or else you could risk losing your funds.

Step 3: Enter the amount of $POOLZ token you want to obtain. Once you’ve entered the amount of $POOLZ token you want to buy, double-check the swap details and click “Confirm swap”.

Step 4: Confirm purchase on MetaMask. After confirming on Uniswap, you will be taken to MetaMask to confirm the payment. Click “confirm”. Once the payment is processed you will receive $POOLZ tokens in your MetaMask wallet.

Is Poolz safe?

Poolz Finance engaged Arcadia for an independent security audit of its smart contracts. Poolz reports that Arcadia did not find any issues with their smart contracts.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
Mithril Cash ($MIC), Mithril Share ($MIS) and Mithril Bond ($MIB): Heading the algorithmic stablecoin trend?

Mithril Cash ($MIC) is taking decentralised finance (DeFi) to the next level. In order to bridge the blockchain and traditional financial world, decentralized finance (DeFi) has brought a new innovation: stablecoins. Stablecoins are merely cryptocurrency tokens that are designed differently. They are not volatile in value and are usually pegged to fiat currencies or a basket of stable assets. Mithril Cash is taking stablecoins to the next level.

Doing away with the collateralization requirements usually encountered in most stablecoins, Mithril Cash devised a stablecoin that is purely-governed by math and economics. While it maintains a particular value, it is not the same as other stablecoins that require the backing of fiat or crypto assets.

https://youtu.be/d8CCGVKxD_Q
Mithril Cash (MIC)| The NEW Algorithmic Stablecoin Trend

Background

Mithril Cash is a community-based project aimed at introducing a new alternative to the stablecoin options available to users today. According to the team behind the Mithril, they chose the Basis Cash model because it has shown better performance than other stablecoins in terms of resilience and adoption.

The economic model of Mithril Cash is simple. It works in as much the same way that central banks determine the target value of fiat money. By releasing and purchasing bonds, Mithril Cash guides the overall supply of the token to keep its value to its pre-defined target.

Mithril Cash, Mithril Share, Mithril Bond

What is Mithril Cash?

Mithril Cash ($MIC) is an algorithmic stablecoin that came from a fork of the Basis Cash protocol. Its target value is pegged at MakerDAO’s multi-collateral USDT token, or roughly 1 USD. And to achieve and maintain this value, it has smart contracts designed to control its supply, as well as buy and sell bonds.

Algorithmic stablecoins like Mithril Cash, and its parent Basis Cash, follow an economic model that differs from that of other forms of stablecoins.

Take MakerDAO for example. DAI, its own stablecoin, is backed by Ether ($ETH) and other partnered cryptocurrency assets locked in collateralized debt positions ($CDP) to maintain its dollar peg. Or Circle’s USDC which, in order to maintain its value at 1 USD, has a counterpart of real, fiat USD stored in an escrow account.

How does Mithril Cash work?

Mithril Cash functions differently. It is supported by a purely algorithmic mechanism that determines the demand for the stablecoin and adjusts it accordingly to keep its value at 1 USDT. In order to make it a reliable stablecoin, smart contracts that fulfill the algorithm behind MIC are set to maintain its price between 0.99 USD to 1.01 USD.

How to mine Mithril Cash?

Mithril Cash can be mined! The mining period is 5 days. You can mine MIC using the following cryptocurrencies: Mithril (MITH), CREAM, DAI, USDT, ESD, USDC, SUSD, FRAX, BUSD, yEarn Finance (YFI), Compound Finance (COMP), AAVE, Curve Finance (CRV), SUSHI and Chainlink (LINK).

Note that the objective of Mithril Cash is to push the price to $1. So how does it do this and what happens?

What happens when Mithril Cash is above $1?

When Mithril Cash trades above $1 it goes into a expansionary phase. MIC token supply will increase to guide the price back towards $1. During this expansionary phase, users can redeem MIBs for MIC at a ratio of 1:1. If MIC trades at $1.01 during seigniorage time, more MIC will be minted and distributed to MIS token holders who staked their MIS in the Boardroom.

What happens when Mithril Cash is below $1?

When Mithril Cash trades below $1, it goes into a contractionary phase. Like its parent Basis Cash, the system backing Mithril Cash will begin issuing MITH Bonds. These bonds hold a value of one MIC each and are redeemable for one MIC as well once it goes beyond 1 USDT.

To illustrate this more simply, if the MIC drops to less than 1 USDT, users can purchase more MICs and redeem corresponding MITH bonds. This process burns a corresponding MIC with the aim of reducing its total supply in circulation. This cycle should go on until MIC goes back up to the value of its peg.

On the other hand, if MIC goes above 1 USDT, then more MIC is minted and those who hold MITH bonds can redeem them first too. The rest of the newly-minted MIC go to the holders of MITH shares.

MITH Share ($MIS)

MITH Share ($MIS) refers to the token held by those who stake their assets to the protocol. Thanks to their stake, they are also entitled to receive new MIC supply in circulation. This distribution happens whenever the demand for the stablecoin grows and prompts the minting of more MIC.

To stake, they have to lock their tokens to the Boardroom contract. They can claim their share of MIC in proportion to the amount that they have staked as well, as long as the MITH Cash Treasury is full.

You can also mine Mithril Shares using MIC-USDT-LP and MIS-USDT-LP.

MITH Bond ($MIB)

MITH Bond ($MIB) is created and redeemed to influence the circulating supply of MIC in the protocol. MIC holders can buy them at any given time. But in order to attain a profitable margin in doing so, they are incentivized to purchase them at times that 1 MIC is lower than its target value.

Whenever necessary, MITH bondholders can freely exchange their holdings for MIC tokens stored in the MITH cash treasury. Through this process, bondholders receive 1 MIC every 1 MIB that they redeem. However, this can only be done when the Treasury shows a positive MIC balance. And like other bonds, MIB does not expire.

Cash Pools

Mithril operates two cash pools secured by smart contracts. These two pools govern the total value of one MIC and the overall direction of the protocol.

MITH Cash Treasury

MITH Cash Treasury governs the whole process of bondholders making withdrawals. Users who redeem their bonds through the Treasury are entitled to a similar amount of MIC, but only on certain conditions.

First, the oracle’s feed of an MIC’s price reflects that it is above 1 USDT. Another is that the Treasury must have a positive balance of MIC. Like a circuit breaker for the stock market, bondholders are not allowed to redeem when the MIC is below 1 USDT.

Boardroom

Boardroom refers to the smart contract which MITH Shareholders, or stakers, interact with to receive their share of MIC if there is an excess in the total supply. Those who stake MIS tokens get MIC as rewards if MIC trades at or above $1.01 during seigniorage time.

What is seigniorage time?

The first seigniorage will be on 5th January 2021 at 2:00am (UTC) and thereafter at 24-hour intervals. At this time, if MIC trades a $1.01 or more, Mithril Cash will be printed and distributed to holders of Mithril Share ($MIS) who have staked their coin in the Boardroom.

Conclusion

What’s difficult with most stablecoins is that they are either centralized or they can become volatile. Tether’s USDT may have proven to be stable but it is still under the mercy of governments since it a company-issued fiat-backed currency.

As for volatility, we’ve seen what happened with MakerDAO’s DAI during the cryptocurrency market drop last March 2020. Its value was rocked hard by the fall of ETH, which even resulted in multiple positions getting liquidated. Pegging the value of a stablecoin on something which might exhibit momentary fluctuations defeats the purpose.

Mithril Cash is a promising step forward in coming up with a more reliable stablecoin. MIC is more purely-governed by market economics than the movement of its peg. And without the dependence on huge collateralization requirements, this stablecoin model might even be able to withstand unexpected cryptocurrency shifts should they happen at any point in time.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

January 1, 2023
What will happen to major cryptocurrency exchanges and traders? Hong Kong proposes strictest regulations against them yet.

On 3rd November 2020, Hong Kong’s Financial Services and Treasury Bureau (“FSTB”) issued a Public Consultation on Legislative Proposals to Enhance Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Regulation in Hong Kong (“Legislative Proposals”). Specifically one of the proposals concerns cryptocurrency exchanges referred to in the Consultation Paper as virtual asset services providers (“VASPs”)

These regulations are not yet enacted. The FSTB says it welcomes written comments from the public on the Legislative Proposals on or before 31st January 2021.

Current state of regulation of VASPs and Virtual Assets (“VAs”) in Hong Kong

Current regulatory requirements for VASPs and VAs in Hong Kong

The FTSB notes that VAs are not considered as legal tender and are not generally accepted as a means of payment in Hong Kong. However, they are aware that there are some VA trading activities operating locally. In light of this, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) issued a position paper in November 2019 (“SFC Position Paper”). The SFC Position Paper outlined some regulatory standards similar to those applicable to licensed securities brokers and automated trading venues, for licensing of VA trading platforms. Notably, this was only an opt-in and voluntary regime and ONLY applied to those platforms which enabled clients to trade VAs with securities feature. Those platforms which solely traded non-securities VAs are not covered.

Hong Kong as a member jurisdiction of the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”)

The FATF comprises of 39 major worldwide economies and oversees the implementation of the FATF Standards, which are comprised of 40 Recommendations and 11 Immediate Outcomes (“Standards”). Member jurisdictions do mutual evaluations to see if they comply with these Standards which are updated from time to time. One of the more recent additions to the Standards was in February 2019, where jurisdictions were required to subject VASPs to the same range of anti-money laundering (“AML”)/counter-terrorist financing (“CTF”) obligations applicable to financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions.

Hong Kong was subject to a mutual evaluation and a Report on Hong Kong was published in September 2019, where the FATF will specify recommendations on areas for improvement. Hong Kong is scheduled to undergo a regular technical compliance assessment in February 2023 and an effectiveness assessment in June 2024. The Legislative Proposals are specific in that they “…will be expected to have introduced AML/CTF regulation for the VASP…sectors…” So it is quite apparent their intention that the Legislative Proposals will be passed into law in time for June 2024.

The Legislative Proposals specifically notes that other FATF member economies have either set up or are setting up their own regulatory and supervisory regimes for VASPs.

Proposals put forward in the Consultation Paper

Specifically, the Legislative Proposals suggest amending the current Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap. 615 of the Laws of Hong Kong) (“AMLO”). Here’s A summary of the Legislative Proposals:

Expanding the scope of the AMLO to cover VASPs (currently VASPs are not included).

Implement a licensing regime for VASPs where any person intending to conduct the regulated business of a virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong will be required to apply for a licence from the SFC and also need to meet a “fit and proper test” similar to that required of other financial sectors. Licensed VASPs will then be subject to the AML/CTF requirements under Schedule 2 of the AMLO and “…other regulatory requirements for investor protection purposes”. Schedule 2 of the AMLO basically sets out requirements relating to customer due diligence and record-keeping, and special circumstances. Examples of this include identification checks and to continuously monitor business relationships.

Give the SFC powers to supervise a VASPs’ compliance of the AMLO requirements.

Then the question is, what are VASPs or VAs?

Scope of the Legislative Proposals

The Legislative Proposals specifically covers VASPs and VAs, so it is important to know their definition. This is set out in the Legislative Proposals.

Virtual Asset Services Providers

The Legislative Proposals takes the definition of VASPs from that of the FATF and is defined as, “…a VASP is a person who, as a business, engages in specified activities involving VAs. The specified activities cover (i) exchange between VAs and fiat currencies; (ii) exchange between one or more forms of VAs; (iii) transfer of VAs; (iv) safekeeping and/or administration of VAs or instruments enabling control over VAs; and (v) participation in and provision of financial services related to an issuer’s offer and/or sale of a VA.”

Virtual asset exchanges

The Legislative Proposals proposes to designate the business of operating a VA exchange as a “regulated VA activity” under the AMLO and require a VASP licence from the SFC and subject to passing the “fit and proper” person test and other regulatory requirements.

Specifically a VA exchange is proposed to be defined as “…any trading platform which is operated for the purpose of allowing an offer or invitation to be made to buy or sell any VA in exchange for any money or any VA…”

The Legislative Proposals, however mention that “peer-to-peer trading platforms” will not be considered as a VA exchange and thus not subject to the licensing requirements. According to the Legislative Proposals, peer-to-peer trading platforms are platforms that only provide a forum where buyers and sellers post their bids and offers, with or without automatic matching mechanisms, for the parties themselves to trade at an outside venue. However, the actual transaction must be conducted outside the platform, and the platform is not involved in the underlying transaction. If for example the platform comes into possession of any money or any VA at any point in time, they would still be considered a “VA exchange”.

VA activities outside of exchanges (OTC desks etc): Are they covered?

However there are other businesses dealing with VAs that aren’t exchanges. For example VA payment systems, VA custodian services and over the counter trading and crypto ATMs (Genesis Block Hong Kong comes to mind).

According to the Legislative Proposals, they already have interface with financial institutions (e.g. when converting into fiat). This means that their money flow is already traceable for AML/CTF purposes and are already subject to the statutory obligations of reporting suspicious transactions etc. Hence the FSTB says they will nevertheless keep in mind the evolving landscape in relation to these activities and the licensing regime will be kept flexible so it may be expanded to cover other VA activities if the need arises in the future.

Virtual Assets

The FSTB also intends to adopt the definition of a VA as provided by the FATF but in more specific terms. The proposed definition is that a VA is, “…a digital representation of value that is expressed as a unit of account or a store of economic value; functions (or is intended to function) as a medium of exchange accepted by the public as payment for goods or services or for the discharge of a debt, or for investment purposes; and can be transferred, stored or traded electronically.”

What is not covered under the scope of a VA would be central bank digital currencies (China’s DCEP comes to mind), financial assets (e.g. securities) which are already regulated by the SFO, and closed-loop limited purpose items that are non-transferable, non-exchangeable and non-fungible (e.g. gaming coins).

However stablecoins (i.e. VAs purportedly backed by some form of asset to stabilise their value) are covered by the definition of VAs.

Regulatory requirements: are retail investors banned from trading cryptocurrencies?

If the VA business falls under the definition of a VASP and are not other VA activities which are excluded, they will be subject to the licensing regime. With reference to the existing opt-in regime, the Legislative Proposals proposes to empower the SFC to impose licensing conditions on licensed VASPs and regulatory requirements. One such requirement that is particularly concerning to cryptocurrency enthusiasts is the requirement that VASPs should only offer services to “professional investors”. However the Legislative Proposals suggest that this restriction should only be required at the “initial stage” and note that the SFC will continue to monitor the market and reconsider this position as the market matures in the future.

Hong Kong’s crypto community reacts to the Legislative Proposals

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX Exchange gave his thoughts on the Legislative Proposals. He noted that it is still in the consultation stages and that whether or not an exchange “is” in Hong Kong so as to be covered by the Legislative Proposals are subtle and non-obvious.

OSL, which is the only known recipient of “approval in principle” from the SFC under the current opt-in licensing regime appears more positive. On Twitter, OSL mentions that the Legislative Proposals significantly supports OSL’s strategic objective to be the first choice for regulated digital asset ventures and that it can balance market supervision and development, and provide investors with better protection.

OKEx has not made any comments on this. We don’t see this as surprising considering they have more pressing issues to deal with, such as the fact that OKEx withdrawals are still suspended due to the arrest of Star Xu.

Same can be said for Huobi, which is also dealing with rumours concerning the arrest of a Senior Executive by Chinese local officials.

Bitmex of course is also in a bit of hot water, as civil and criminal proceedings have been respectively issued by the US DOJ and CFTC against BitMEX, its CEO Arthur Hayes, together with other key personnel and affiliates. Their CTO was also arrested in the US.

Meanwhile, Leo Weese, Co-founder at The Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong gives his take in a blog post. He notes that whilst he is not opposed to regulation per se, the Legislative Proposals “…a massive overreach of the SFC’s mandate and a de facto ban of Bitcoin in Hong Kong”. In particular, Weese criticises the Legislative Proposals as confusing and unclear, noting also that it is the most restrictive proposal compared to any other FATF member economies. However, it can also be considered that it is merely the SFC’s initiative to implement FATF decisions rather a conspiracy to ban Bitcoin. Finally, Weese expects significant push back against the Legislative Proposals given previous resistance against previous initiatives aimed at money laundering.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

January 1, 2023
Keep3r Network ($KP3R): Everything you need to know about Andre Cronje’s latest experiment
Keep3r Network ($KP3R) (“Keep3r”) appeared out of nowhere on 28th October 2020 with a Medium article by its creator, Andre Cronje. It is described by Cronje as an “…agnostic, easy to implement, incentivization layer for routine ecosystem maintenance.” Cronje is arguably the the “Father” of decentralised finance (DeFi) and Yield Farming, being the creator of the widely successful yEarn Finance ($YFI) which eventually spawned multiple clones and projects inspired by YFI. Keep3r is another one of Cronje’s experiments, and as per his usual “I test in prod” approach- he will launch the product FIRST, then do the necessary testing etc. Despite Cronje’s repeated and clear warnings on this, many still hope for a quick profit and thus throw their cryptocurrencies at the product as soon as it goes live.

Background

As mentioned in the introduction, Keep3r Network had small beginnings as a Medium article and subsequent Twitter post by creator Andre Cronje. Owing to his reputation in this space (his first project YFI grew from USD$0 to USD$300 in market capitalisation in a mere 2 months and spawned the current DeFi wave), many see that whatever Cronje touches turns into gold and so “aped” in by buying up the KP3R token as soon as it listed on Uniswap. Immediately upon launch, prices of KP3R were going up at the rate of around USD$1 per minute. This of course resulted in the word being further spread around social media, and more people decided to join in because they did not want to miss out on this opportunity.

What is Keep3r Network ($KP3R)?

Keep3r Network ($KP3R) can be described as a “job matching” network for Job posters looking for “Keepers” to do tasks for them, together with an incentive mechanism for all the parties involved.

What are Keepers?

Keepers are persons/teams with technical knowledge who are able to take up Jobs, for example, flash liquidation, providing Uniquote price feeds, collecting harvests, and Metawallet batch executions. These are simple manual tasks but can be tedious as it needs to be done regularly. For example, collecting harvests from yield farming is something that generally needs to be done every day. These tasks are usually done by the programmer i.e. Cronje himself, but it would be time-consuming for them to do.

What are Jobs?

In the Keep3r Network, anyone can add a particular Job for someone to do. Jobs are smart contract calls that want an external entity to perform an action in good faith and without any malicious intent or outcome. So they would register themselves as a Job on the Network and provide the relevant documentation and details such as job name, address etc.

The Keeper i.e. the person/team would then register themselves as being able to perform the job and execute on the Job’s contract. Keepers have the freedom to set up their own DevOps, infrastructure and create their own rules to complete the job.

This process is all done on-chain, and the advantage of this is that everyone can confirm that a particular task has been done.

The Keep3r Ecosystem

Having discovered that the Keep3r Network has the potential to be more than a job registry, creator Andre Cronje has decided to combine all of his projects under the Keep3r ecosystem to be one large liquidity ecosystem: options liquidity mining (olm), fixed forex and some other v3 liquidity incentives Cronje has in the works as follows.

Keep3r Eden

Keep3r Eden is a rule set to order transactions within a block in a way that is fair and transparent. This is important for the Keep3r Network since it prevents keepers and jobs from being front-run yet giving them priority access to block space.

Keep3r is partnered with Eden Network. Through Keep3r’s acquisition of 602,409 EDEN, Keep3r is able to guarantee that it will be an anchor slot tenant. This allows Keep3r jobs to by default have the benefits of MEV and front running protection, as well as priority block inclusion. And if users use the Eden RPC, they also have private transactions.

Keep3r’s Fixed Forex

Fixed Forex aims to bring forex markets into DeFi by allowing for deep on-chain forex liquidity- this provides an alternative to USD denominated stable coins (i.e. USDT, BUSD etc).

Keep3r’s Fixed Forex is a liquidity incentive and fee claim system for Iron Bank’s Fixed Forex. The IBFF and veIBFF tokens will be merged with the KP3R and vKP3R tokens. At the same time, the fee claim of approximately $60k/week will move to vKP3R.

Fixed Forex is partnered with zarp.cash, their token ZARP is a cryptocurrency pegged to the price of the South African Rand (ZAR) on a 1:1 ratio. For security, ZARP tokens are stored in a treasury account and are independently audited by Kempen Audit. Therefore, according to the team, “ZARP is the only fully backed, transparent and audited stablecoin for the South African Rand”. ZARP is intended to be used as a representation of the Rand in DeFi. Other currencies such as EUR, KRW, GBP, CHF, AUD and JPY.

Keep3r OLM (Options Liquidity Mining)

Keep3r’s generalized OLM platform for projects allows them to have an instant options-based reward incentivization program. vKP3R holders benefit from this platform as 1% of all exercised option fees will go to them- this will mean around $100k/week in fees will go to vKP3R holders.

Keep3r v3 liquidity incentives

There is a liquidity mining program launched on Keep3r v3 for Uniswap v3. Liquidity providers (LPs) will be able to deposit their UNI v3 NFT positions and earn KP3R. 50% of fees earned will be distributed to vK3PR holders.

Keep3r wonderland

Keep3r Wonderland (also known as DeFi Wonderland) is an activist fund that provides capital and developmental support to protocol development projects.

What are $KP3R tokens?

$KP3R is the native token for the Keep3r Network and having more KP3R represents a higher “reputation” in the Network. As an example, say a Job requires someone to collect a harvest from the YFI contract. This task could impact the prices of different cryptocurrencies and lead to people front running. So you want the person completing this task to act in the interests of everyone and not be selfish.

This is where the KP3R token comes in. Those who complete tasks are rewarded with KP3R, this will be equivalent to the gas spent on the transaction plus a premium, the amount of which depends on the complexity of the Job. The more KP3R tokens you have, the higher your “reputation” in the space and as a result you can take on higher-end jobs. It is also worth noting that there is a mechanism for slashing your bonded KP3R if you are found to be a malicious actor.

By default, this is in the form of bonded KP3R but you can unbond it to become normal KP3R.

Advantages and disadvantages of keeping bonded KP3R

Advantages of keeping bonded KP3R include:
- Higher bonds increase the types of Jobs Keepers can qualify to do;
- only bonded KP3R grants voting rights in governance; and
- bonded KP3R cannot be exploited. This is in case a Job introduces an exploit.
Yet the disadvantage of keeping bonded KP3R is that you cannot immediately recoup ETH for Keeper transactions. Meaning that Keepers had to keep an unbond days amount of ETH as a float. A solution to this is MetaKeep3r (see below).

What are $rKP3R tokens?

rKP3R are redeemable KP3R tokens. They are wrapped KP3R tokens that have the option to be exercised as a KP3R CALL option at a 50% discount at any time. Note however that once created, you only have 24 hours to exercise the CALL, failing which the option will simply expire.

rKP3R can be earned by providing curve.fi/factory. liquidity to ib forex assets or uniswap v3 liquidity to KP3R/ETH (with more pairs to come soon). Furthermore, all distributed KP3R rewards will be in the form of rKP3R for composability with Curve Gauges, Sushi Onsen, etc.

Holders of rKP3R can redeem for the KP3R CALL by selecting “claim” on fixedforex.fi/options. It will then display under “strike” the USDC amount you would have to pay for the amount of KP3R should you choose to exercise the option and the expiry date. If you wish to exercise this option, simply click “redeem”. The amount of USDC would be transferred to the treasury address which then distributes all fees to vKP3R holders.

Keep3r partners with Chainlink

Keep3r tapped into Chainlink’s highly secure and fault-tolerant oracles to advance its services. Although the two have similar functionalities, they serve different target markets.

For example, Chainlink serves companies that require loads of always-online, secure, and fault-tolerant data i.e. the Fortune 500 companies.On the other hand, Keep3r is developed for apps yet to become a Fortune 500. That is, companies still in the research and development stage. Therefore, the coming together of the two protocols smoothens the process of switching to Chainlink when an application’s off-chain data needs to increase.

Most importantly, the cooperation allows Keepers who have already done a substantial number of jobs to become eligible to be part of Chainlink’s node operators running critical jobs. When Keepers upgrade to become Chainlink node operators, they will transition from using K3PR to using LINK for payment and staking.

$KP3R prices

$KP3R launched at around USD$1 per token. However, due to speculators rushing in after hearing of a new Andre Cronje project, prices for the token shot up by 27x within 40 minutes- at around the rate of USD$1 per minute. As word quickly spread about KP3R, more people bought in for fear of missing out, resulting in prices skyrocketing even higher.

Prices reached an all-time high of USD$1,385.62 on 11th November 2021.

Keep3r how-to guide and tutorial

For more details, please check out the Keep3r Network documentation.

How to register as a Keep3r

On Keep3r Network, connect your Metamask wallet. If you don’t have one yet, check out our Metamask guide.

Create a bond by clicking “add”, input your amount of KP3R (you can even join without any tokens by inputting “0”) and confirm by clicking “add” again. After 3 days you will be able to activate your Keeper.

Create a bond

How to perform jobs

Currently available jobs are listed on the main page. You can click on them to find out more details about the job such as the relevant documentation and the credits (in the form of KP3R) you can receive for the job.

Job detail

With the newest update, you can also use OpenZeppelin Defender with Keep3r Network. OpenZeppelin Defender is a wrapper for smart contract developers to automate maintenance tasks such as calling specific functions to manage the protocols on these contracts. This is helpful to developers as traditionally they would have to periodically do these tasks manually. Furthermore, the underline layer is written by the OpenZeppelin team (a security audit firm) which would bring stability to the DeFi ecosystem.

How to register a Job

Jobs can be any system or task that requires external execution. Jobs can be registered in 1 of 2 ways, either through governance or the contract interface.

Registering a job through governance is probably the easiest method as it only requires you to submit a Governance proposal which includes the relevant contract as a job. No further action is required if your governance proposal passes. Cronje has stated in his interview with Synthetix that currently, it is relatively easy to pass this proposal as the quorum requirements are not high.

The other method i.e. contract interface is slightly more complex and requires calling the add liquidity to job function on the Keep3r contract. However, you must not have any current active jobs associated with the account to do this and you can only create a Job through this address every 14 days.

How to collect credits for Jobs?

As seen in the Job interface, completing Jobs gets you credits in return. To collect these credits you will need to provide KPR-WETH liquidity in Uniswap, and you will be given an equal amount of KPR tokens in return. Note you are not required to purchase KPR tokens.

By default, this is in the form of bonded KP3R but you can unbond it to become normal KP3R.

MetaKeep3r: How Keepers can instantly recoup their gas fees

According to Cronje’s Medium article, MetaKeep3r keeps the “maintenance” of Keepers to a minimum. By using MetaKeep3r with OpenZeppelin defender, Keepers can instantly recoup their spent gas in the form of ETH. This is really important considering there had been previous “gas wars” when DeFi fever was at its highest- basically any benefit that could have been derived from a particular transaction was less than the amount of gas fees which was required to execute the transaction.

As mentioned previously, Keepers that complete Jobs are rewarded with KP3R. By default, this is in the form of bonded KP3R, and whilst keeping bonded KP3R has its advantages, one issue is that ETH cannot be immediately recouped.

Now with MetaKeep3r, you can immediately get ETH in return for trading bonded K3PR. How this works is that MetaKeep3r would keep the bonded KP3R and swap it for ETH as compensation for gas spent on Uniswap.

Note however that a minimum bond of 100 KP3R is required for MetaKeep3r.

Special thanks goes to Alvin and Crypto Warrior from our Telegram community for their valuable input into this article!

Further resources

Videos

Boxmining explains Keep3r Network and his story with KP3R
Synthetix discussion about Keepers with Andre Cronje from Keep3r.network

Articles

Andre Cronje Medium
Keep3r Network documentation

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

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

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

Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:
More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
1inch Exchange, Mooniswap and Chi GasToken: The ultimate review and guide
1inch Exchange is a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, designed to roll liquidity and pricing from major DEXs into one platform, offering users the cheapest trades, lowest slippage, and access to a wide range of ERC-20 tokens. According to CoinGecko the exchange has support for 152 Coins and 158 trading Pairs and a Total Volume of over US$ 4 billion. We also take a look at the Exchange’s automatic market maker (AMM)-Mooniswap and their Chi GasToken.
Table of Contents

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Summary

Overview

How Does 1inch exchange work?

How to swap tokens

How to place a limit order

Staking tokens on 1inch

1inch Exchange fees

1INCH token: What is it?

1INCH tokenomics

Is 1inch Exchange safe?

Chi GasToken

What is the Chi GasToken? Does it really help save transaction fees?

Mooniswap: What is it?

Conclusion: Pros and cons of 1inch Exchange

Pros

Cons
Summary
- 1inch is a non-custodial DEX aggregator, with all trades being performed within a single transaction from a user’s Ethereum-based wallet.
- Popular DEXs integrated into the 1inch protocol include Oasis, Kyber Network, Uniswap, Mooniswap, Balancer and many more. This means that users can swap between nearly any kind of ERC-20 token.
- The native 1INCH token is both a governance and utility token.
- The platform has its own gas token “Chi” to help users, especially seasoned traders and arbitrageurs, to reduce gas costs for transactions.
- The 1inch team has also introduced Mooniswap, a next-generation automated market maker (AMM) with virtual balances, enabling liquidity providers to capture profits otherwise captured by arbitrageurs.
Let’s look at some of 1inch Exchange features in detail.

Overview

DEXs have becoming increasingly popular among users with their varied advantages over its centralized counterparts namely self-custody, increased security, listing autonomy and diversity of coins.

However, some of the major drawbacks come in the form of thin order books with low liquidity leading to high slippage and expensive transaction cancellations. Moreover, as every order gets submitted to the blockchain, anyone can see a transaction before it gets mined. This visibility leaves every trade susceptible to interception as front runners can pay a higher gas price to incentivize the network to mine their transaction first.

1inch Exchange is a non-custodial DEX aggregator that aims to tackle the issues of the thin order book and front running.

Users can swap as well as place limit orders for a wide variety of tokens.

It is designed to roll liquidity and pricing from all major DEXs into one platform therefore trades via 1inch can be split across exchanges, to minimize slippage and provide the best pricing possible for the desired trade. Mooniswap, Oasis, Kyber Network, Uniswap, 0x Relays and others are all integrated into the 1inch protocol.

The price and liquidity available from each platform are clearly displayed to the user, along with gas fees. This saves the user both time and clicks, avoiding the need to open multiple exchanges and assess the order books. (www.traveltalktours.com)

How Does 1inch exchange work?

1inch Exchange was founded in May 2019 by Sergej Kunz and Anton Bukov, two Russian developers who came together to audit smart contracts. Before founding 1inch, the duo participated and won several bounties at hackathons for MakerDAO, Set Protocol, and Kyber Network.

To get started, visit https://1inch.exchange/

How to swap tokens

The 1inch.Exchange will greet you with the following interface with the option to swap tokens:

Swap tokens

You can choose which different DEXs you want to place your swap offer on. This is the defining feature that gives users access to a much bigger order book than what would otherwise be available on individual DEXs.

Users connect their Ethereum wallet, by clicking the yellow “Connect Wallet” button. Once connected, users can select which assets they would like to exchange, and the best available rates. They can also toggle on/off specific exchanges, depending on their preferences. Scrolling down, users can also view the exchange rate going at each individual platform, as well as how much it varies from the best price.

Exchange rate on each platform is displayed and difference with best price

After selecting the assets and the amount to swap, to proceed with the trade, click “SWAP NOW”.

Verify your token swap

A user will then be asked to confirm their trade. Ensure that the details are correct, and then select “VERIFY”.

Approve transaction in wallet

Finally, the user will need to approve the transaction within their wallet, and the trade will be processed on the blockchain.

Transaction successful

How to place a limit order

Users can also choose to place a limit order on 1inch exchange by clicking on the top right option next to swap:

Place limit order

Staking tokens on 1inch

Moreover, by clicking on the “Earn” tab next to the limit Order, 1inch provides a platform that allows users to stake tokens and collect revenue from several liquidity pools like Aave, Compound, Uniswap, Balancer, Mooniswap, and so on.

Earn feature allows users to stake tokens in various liquidity pools

Most decentralized applications (dApps) ask users to allow the app to interact with their wallet.

Because 1inch is a non-custodial application, it needs to continuously interact with various crypto wallets.

1inch calls has integrated a feature called “infinity unlock,” which once unlocked, allows trading activity to occur unhinged. This saves in gas fees each time the application calls to verify an unlock. For power users who interact with DeFi protocols, this can ultimately save them a lot of money.

1inch Exchange fees

1inch exchange does not charge any withdrawal fees. The only fee is a network fee which is charged by the exchange the user is routing through (e.g. Uniswap, Kyber Network etc), the amount of which depends on the gas price at the time of transaction execution. Since this fee is charged by the other exchange, 1inch does not actually benefit from this fee in any way. However, users do have the option of saving gas fees by using 1inch’s Chi GasToken.

1INCH token: What is it?

On 26th December 2020, the independent Board of the 1inch Foundation released the 1INCH token.

Free tokens are being distributed to the community to celebrate the launch of 1INCH token. Wallets that have interacted with 1inch until 12:00a.m. on 24th December 2020 (UTC) will get 1INCH tokens provided that 1 of the 3 conditions have been met: (1) at least 1 trade before 15th September 2020; (2) at least 4 trades in total; or (3) trades for a total of at least USD$20.

The token is both a governance and utility token. As a governance token, 1INCH will be used to govern its network protocols and thus allowing it to be governed under the Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) model.

To catch up with the farming phase, 1inch has also started a new liquidity mining program with 6 liquidity pools (1INCH-ETH, 1INCH-DAI, 1INCH-WBTC, 1INCH-USDC, 1INCH-USDT and 1INCH-YFI). This is to bootstrap the 1inch Liquidity Protocol by using the 1INCH token as a utility connector token. To incentivise people to participate, 1INCH tokens will be distributed to users that provide liquidity to these pools. Furthermore, during the first 2 weeks of this program (i.e. until 9th January 2021) an additional 0.5% of 1INCH’s total supply will be distributed to liquidity providers.

1INCH tokenomics

The current total supply is 1.5 billion 1INCH tokens.

On 26th December 2020 (i.e. launch day), 6% of the total supply will be issued. Other tokens will continue to be released over time as follows:
- 30% has been allocated to community incentives which will be unlocked and distributed over 4 years.
- 14.5% will go towards protocol growth and a development fund, also to be unlocked over a 4-year period.
Is 1inch Exchange safe?

1inch Exchange is a non-custodial DEX aggregator. This means your cryptocurrencies are not held by the Exchange at any time, unlike some centralised exchanges where your cryptocurrencies are stored in their wallets for trading. It is also worth noting that 1inch Exchange so far has a spotless record of not suffering any hacks or vulnerabilities so far.

Chi GasToken

Chi Gastoken, known as “Chi” was launched by 1inch in June 2020.

The innovative project placed first at DeFi’s “Hack Money” event in May 2020 and was made available to users thereafter.

Gas is similar to fees banks charge on money transfers. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to predict the exact size of the gas fee due to market volatility. You can monitor the Ethereum network’s gas fee on a daily basis on Eth Gas Station.

What is the Chi GasToken? Does it really help save transaction fees?

The Chi GasToken is an ERC20 token meant to be used on 1inch exchange to pay transaction costs. Chi is pegged to the Ethereum network’s gas price. When the gas price is low, the Chi price is also low, and the vice-versa.

The idea is similar to the GasToken token concept but with some improvements: Buying (minting) Chi saves you 1% in comparison to minting GasToken (GST2). Whereas the selling (burning) of Chi saves you 10%, compared with GST2.

Mooniswap: What is it?

Automated market makers (AMM) are smart contracts that create a liquidity pool of ERC20 tokens, which are automatically traded by an algorithm rather than an order book. This effectively replaces a traditional limit order-book with a system where assets can be automatically swapped against the pool’s latest price.

Unfortunately, traders conducting front-running can steal from liquidity providers by trading on the price swings making this problem undeniably important.

In August 2020, the 1inch team released their novel automated market maker (AMM), Mooniswap. This new AMM can keep most of the slippage revenue in the pool by maintaining virtual balances for different swap directions. When a swap happens, a market maker does not automatically apply the invariant algorithm and displays the new prices for upcoming trades. The AMM improves exchange rates for arbitrage traders slowly, over approximately a 5-minute time period. As a result, arbitragers can collect only a portion of slippage, while the rest remain in the pool shared among liquidity providers. By such a delay in price updates, the market maker creates a highly competitive environment for arbitrageurs forcing them to perform trades at less profitable prices, which in turn add value to the liquidity providers.

The team has done multiple simulations of Mooniswap performance based on real-world data and compared the results with Uniswap V2. Below, you can find the charts that display trading volume, cumulative price slippage, the income of Uniswap V2 liquidity providers, along with the prediction of Mooniswap liquidity providers income.

Comparison of Uniswap V2 LP income with potential Mooniswap LP income on different pools

On average Mooniswap is expected to generate 50% to 200% more income for liquidity providers than Uniswap V2 due to redirection of price slippage profits.

Conclusion: Pros and cons of 1inch Exchange

Here are some pros and cons of 1inch exchange based on our user experiences:

Pros
- The Exchange’s interface is very clear and intuitive with a good track record without any hacks so far.
- 1inch exchange does not charge any withdrawal fees, except for the network fee.
- Liquidity is a significant issue on decentralized exchanges. Not only is liquidity low on DEXes in general, but this liquidity is further fragmented across several different DEXes, worsening the problem making large-volume trades susceptible to significant slippage. 1inch solves this by splitting orders across exchanges yet keeping the trade within one transaction.
- Chi GasTokens help users, especially those who trade on a daily basis and arbitrageurs, to reduce gas costs for their transactions.
- Their novel automated market maker (AMM) used in Mooniswap capitalizes on user slippages and protects traders from front-running attacks.
Cons
- Even with helpful tutorials by the 1inch team, there is still a steep learning curve to make use of the many features the Exchange has to offer. New crypto investors are restricted from trading in this platform since it does not accept any deposit method other than cryptos.
- The infinity unlock feature might act as a potential point of attack for hackers. Even though unlocking transactions one at a time is slightly more expensive, it is more secure as users aren’t always linked to the protocol should it be compromised.
- We have seen the dominance of Uniswap grow tremendously over a small time period. If a single DEX ends up becoming far more significant than its competitors, the role of DEX aggregators could diminish.
In conclusion, we find that the benefits of the 1inch Exchange far outweigh the drawbacks as it attempts to solve some of the direst issues plaguing the growth of the DeFi ecosystem. The platform is definitely geared towards traders with a bit more experience, particularly those who trade the major cryptocurrencies and across multiple DEXs. Over time as users overcome the initial learning curve and user experience improves in this industry, 1inch might emerge as one of the most important trading platforms for the rapidly expanding DEX ecosystem.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
ERC Tokens Explained: What are they?
ERC (Ethereum Request for Comment) token standards are built upon and utilise the Ethereum blockchain. Most of us have only heard about the vastly used ERC-20, while becoming more familiar with the ERC-721 and ERC-1155 token standards thanks to the growing adoption of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) by upcoming projects. This article gives an overview of what are ERC tokens, their various types, and functions.

Summary
- ERC tokens are special forms of smart contracts that utilise the Ethereum blockchain, rather than having their own blockchain like Bitcoin.
- They can have different functions and even a combination of features.
- ERC tokens can be Fungible, Non-fungible, and Semi-fungible.
What is a token and how do we classify them?

First of all, ‘tokens‘ are programmable digital units of value that are recorded on a distributed ledger protocol such as a blockchain. Basically, ERC20 tokens are special forms of smart contracts that utilize Ethereum’s blockchain. They can also be described as digital assets which are not the main currency of that blockchain. While $ETH and $BTC both have their blockchain and are thus far considered as coins, tokens don’t.

There are different types of tokens. Utility tokens differ from the rest because they usually offer a wider functionality than, for example, a means of payment (coins, like $BTC) or voting power on a platform (such as governance tokens, like $UNI). They can combine multiple purposes, are integrated into an existing protocol and used to access its services. They also provide network activity, which ensures strength of the platform’s economy.

To easily understand how they fit into the blockchain ecosystem, we need to understand how Ethereum works first: we can think of it as an operating system on top of which applications (smart contracts) can be built (written), just like developers build applications for Android and iOS. One difference being that applications on Ethereum can be decentralized (Dapps). Once we have these platforms, we can (if we want) create tokens, each time choosing the most appropriate standard for our purpose.

Years ago, when there was no standard in use, it was far more complicated for developers to make smart contracts interact with each other; they had to create specific implementation standards to develop a token and launch it on Ethereum’s network. Then, the ERC-20 came out and that heavily simplified the process.

Another distinction is between Fungible and Non Fungible tokens.

Fungible Tokens

In this case, each token is equivalent to all the others and they are interchangeable (1 $BTC will always be equal to any other 1 $BTC).

ERC-20

First proposed in 2015, it’s the industry standard and most accepted one. It makes the initial distribution of tokens extremely easy, so it became massively used in the 2017 ICOs craze. The ERC-20 contracts are composed of 6 mandatory functions and 3 optional ones.

ERC-20 contracts

6 mandatory functions:
- balanceOf(): keeps track of the balance in each user wallet
- totalSupply(): shows the current total supply in circulation
- transfer (): lets the owner send a specific amount to another address
- transferFrom(): allows a smart contract to automate the transfer process and send a given amount of the token on behalf of the owner
- approve(): approves the withdrawal of tokens from the owner’s address to the receiving address. It also guarantees that nobody could create more tokens out of nothing, keeping the supply under control
- allowance(): makes sure that the owner has at least as many tokens as the amount set in the approve function; the transactions added to the blockchain have been proved valid
3 optional functions:
- name(): pretty self explanatory!
- symbol(): 3-4 letter abbreviation
- decimals(): it is impossible to write decimal places in Solidity- only whole numbers, so this function is needed. Most tokens use 18 decimals
How to send ERC-20 tokens?

There are two ways of sending ERC-20 tokens, depending on if you want to send them directly or delegate the function to a smart contract. You can either:
- call the transfer() function to send tokens to another wallet address
- call the approve() function and then transferfrom() from the receiver contract
Besides the ease of use and the popularity that this standard immediately gained among the community, its main flaw soon became obvious, causing millions of dollars worth of tokens to be lost forever in smart contracts.

Limitations of ERC-20 tokens and what are wrapped tokens?

What happens if you simply use the transfer() function to send tokens to a smart contract which is not made to receive them?

The transaction will succeed and these tokens will be credited to the receiver address, but they won’t be recognized by the recipient and they will remain there forever, unusable.

Another limitation is that since $ETH itself was obviously created before the ERC-20 standard was even developed, it is not compliant with it (nor with other standards). That is why to interact with many contracts, we need to “wrap” $ETH into $WETH (wrapped ether, which IS an ERC-20 token, pegged to $ETH 1:1).

To solve the various flaws, new standards were proposed. The most famous ones are the following.

ERC-223

Summary:
- prevents funds to be lost
- half as expensive
- backwards compatible
This standard was proposed by a Reddit user known as “Dexaran”; it focuses on security and tries to fix the main flaw of its predecessor, by using a unique, new transfer() function, which allows tokens to be sent to either a personal address or a smart contract. Moreover, it includes a tokenFallback() function that checks the receiving contract for the same function.

Basically, if the receiver is a regular address (not a contract), the transfer will be similar to the ERC-20 one, while if the receiver is a contract, the tokenFallback() function will be triggered. If the receiving contract does not have this function, the transaction will fail but all the funds will be returned to the sender address.

Simplifying the transfer and reducing it to just one single step, the process will also be cheaper (less gas fees!). The ERC-223 standard is backwards compatible with the ERC-20, as it keeps all of the original functionalities and solves the biggest issues. The ChainLink ($LINK) token has been described by its developers as “an ERC20 token, with the additional ERC223 ‘transfer and call’ functionality of transfer, allowing tokens to be received and processed by contracts within a single transaction”.

The ERC-223 standard has never been finalized.

ERC-777

Summary:
- makes transactions smoother
- allows for approved operators
- standard for minting/burning tokens
- backwards compatible with ERC-20
This standard was developed by Jacques Dafflon and Jordi Baylina, it is similar to ERC-20 and it relies upon the ERC-1820. Before that, developers couldn’t identify the functions which can be implemented by smart contracts. By creating a central registry of contracts on the network, the ERC-777 can use it to identify the interfaces a smart contract uses.

Its uniqueness is the friction reduction in transactions. It also defines a new set of functions, for example it uses send() instead of transfer(), authoriseOperator() instead of approve(), tokenReceived() handler function instead of tokenFallback().

It also allows for more customization, a list of approved operators so that people can approve smart contracts to move tokens on their behalf, and creates a standard for minting and burning tokens (very useful for particular projects).

A pure ERC-777 is not compatible with ERC-20 but the standard described how to make it compatible.

The ERC-777 standard became finalized on May 6th, 2019.

Other fungible tokens

There have been many other proposals combining some aspects of different standards into each other.
- ERC-827 combines some of the advantages of ERC-223 and ERC-20 standards, it enables token transfer for a 3^rd party to spend it
- ERC-664 is mainly centered on modularity and makes it possible to update token contracts
- ERC-677 provides a safe way for new contracts to transfer tokens to external contracts
- ERC-621 can increase or decrease the token supply
- ERC-884 allows companies to use blockchain to maintain share registries
Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

These tokens are unique: each one can have a different value ant they are not replaceable. NFTs enable the tokenization of individual assets. They can often be found in games or you can imagine them as digital pieces of art, real estate… basically anything you like. Unique tokens can be further modified adding new “tools”, hence increasing their value overtime (like new bodyparts on a racing car). Check out our video on NFTs:

Non-fungible tokens explained

ERC-721

It became famous with CryptoKitties. The contract is composed by 8 functions plus 2 optional ones. Most of them are the same or similar to the Fungible counterparts, with few important differences.

ERC-721 contracts

8 mandatory functions:
- name()
- symbol()
- totalSupply()
- balanceOf()
- ownerOf(): retrieves the address that owns whichever NFT ID number is searched; ownership is defined by simply having the token
- approve()
- takeOwnership(): transfer the tokens from another address that currently holds them
- transfer()
2 optional functions:
- tokenOfOwnerByIndex(): allows NFT IDs to be searched through a list of tokens owned by the user; it is necessary if we want more ntfs
- tokenMetadata( ): retrieves the metadata, i.e. info for identification
While when new ERC-20 tokens are created, the supply simply increases. In this case, things are more complicated. We have to monitor the metadata, and that is expensive in gas fees. ERC-721 defines a storing method.

A problem with this standard is that if we want to send more NFTs to someone, we will need as many transactions as the number of tokens sent.

Along with the ERC-721, a few other Non Fungible standards have been proposed, like the ERC-875 and the ERC-998.

Semi Fungible Tokens (SFTs)

In some cases, NFTs and FTs do not provide the required level of flexibility that is necessary to build new projects. As we have said, Fungible tokens are all “equals” while Non Fungible ones are unique.

But what if we need something that is neither Fungible nor Non Fungible? Like seat tickets?

Seat tickets (or supermarket vouchers, lottery tickets etc.) are 99% equal to on another with a very small difference, like a serial number that makes them unique, preventing double-spending/selling. When we buy a seat ticket, we don’t want someone else to have the same exact token and be able to use it if he arrives before us at the cinema.

In these circumstances Semi Fungible Tokens come in help: they hold their value until they are sold, changing from Fungible to not Fungible anymore.

The Multi Token Standard: ERC-1155

This one was created by Enjin in 2018 for its Gaming Multiverse.

In all the other standards we have considered, we need to deploy a different contract for each type of token (one contract for all the same ERC-20s, one contract for each unique NFT). It is like being at the supermarket and not being able to buy all of the groceries we want at the same time, having to proceed one item after the other, from shelf to register, continuously. If we want to be able to buy a bunch of stuff at the same time, we need a new standard, and that is the ERC-1155. It allows for different “items” to be stored and created in the same contract (FTs, SFTs and NFTs), with the least possible amount of data; it is cheaper and more convenient.

For example, in a game we may exchange a currency (ERC-20) and/or NFTs (ERC-721) with other gamers; the ERC-1155 makes it possible. Moreover, it can execute a deterministic smart contract function by simply sending a token to an address (i.e. sending a token to an exchange address, the exchange could immediately return another token back to the sender’s address).

Practically, a single smart contract can mint infinite tokens forever (and it allows to save fees!)

Learn more about the ERC 1155 token

Conclusion

Overall, among the Fungible tokens, some people think that the ERC-777 should be the designated one to become widely adopted. It offers, for example, more ways to protect our funds. Nevertheless, none of the above standards is without flaws and inherent risks. As a matter of fact, there are multiple reasons why ERC-20 is still the most popular one, and we can’t forget to mention that a new standard would create a lot of issues and interoperability problems, at least at the beginning.

If we consider the Non Fungible world, we are yet to see an explosion in adoption, but more and more platforms and games are coming out and it will probably be one of the trends of the next years. There are different platforms where you can go and buy collectibles directly with your Ethereum wallet (such as Metamask). One of the most famous and used is Rarible.

Only time will tell us which will be the next standard in use; proposing a solution and having the community embrace it are two very different things.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023