Boxmining

Author: Angela Wang

  • Developing story: OKEx suspends withdrawals…but is there more to this?

    Developing story: OKEx suspends withdrawals…but is there more to this?

    What happened?

    On 16th October 2020 OKEx suddenly announced that one of their private key holders (later confirmed to be Star Xu, OK Group’s CEO and Co-founder) is cooperating with a “public security bureau” and is unable to contact them. Therefore the Exchange cannot complete authorisations for transactions and thus decided to suspend all withdrawals of digital assets/cryptocurrencies from 16th October 2020 at 11:00 (HKT).

    The Exchange did this under clause 8.1 of their Terms of Service which provides that, “8.1 Service Change and Interruption: We may change the Service and/or may also interrupt, suspend or terminate the service at anytime with or without prior notice.”

    In particular, their Terms of Service defines their “Services” as the services that OKEx offers through OKEx.com or its app. According to the Terms of Service, you must agree to be bound by it to use the Services, including of course their rights under clause 8. (Tramadol) 1 to suspend it at any time.

    This abrupt suspension has shocked the cryptocurrency community and caused prices of both Bitcoin and Ethereum to plunge. In particular prices for Bitcoin dipped from over USD$11,500 to USD$11,235 within a half-hour period. As of the time of writing, prices have still not yet fully recovered.

    Meanwhile, there are rumours circulating that there is more than what meets the eye and that this suspension was a cumulation of events that were already in motion a few days ago. Let’s take a look at some events today (16th October 2020) which may (or may not) be relevant to this:

    • 1:00a.m.: Twitter user @whale_alert tweets: 5,000 #BTC (57,033,847 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #OKEx
    • 4:00a.m.: Twitter user @whale_alert tweets: 1,180 BTC (13,588,646 USD) transferred from OKEx to unknown wallet
    • 9:00a.m.: Twitter user @whale_alert tweets: 50,000,000 TRX (1,317,074 USD) transferred from OKEx to unknown wallet.
      11:55a.m.: Chinese crypto media platform 非小號 (Feixiaohao) and UAICOIN publishes notices from OKEx that withdrawals will be suspended from 3:00p.m. onwards. This was also reported in a tweet from Co-founder of Chinese crypto media outlet @redtheminer who also notes the rumours circulating in the Chinese crypto community that over 800 accounts from a “certain large crypto exchange” are involved in cross border money laundering.
    • 12:00p.m.: OKEx announcement that it would suspend withdrawals from 11:00a.m. onwards.
    • 1:00p.m.: OKEx finally tweets their announcement on the withdrawal suspension.
    • 2:00p.m.: OKEx CEO Jay Hao tweets, reassures that all other operations are unaffected and that, “The investigation concerns a certain private key holder’s personal issue only. Further announcements will be made.”
    • 2:51p.m.: Someone asks OKEx support “Why is Star Xu’s Weibo page emptied?” and they replied, “The person you are referring to has no relation to our platform”.
    • 3:51p.m.: Twitter user @whale_alert tweets: 998 BTC (11,333,911 USD) transferred from Huobi to OKEx.

    *All times are stated in HKT unless otherwise specified.

    What will happen to Star Xu?

    Based on the news so far, the speculation is that Xu was detained since around 9th October 2020.

    According to commentary from PRC lawyers, Xu who is in criminal detention would only be permitted to meet or communicate with his lawyers. This would mean that he cannot meet his family or other staff in OKEx to handle the situation at the Exchange.

    PRC lawyers have also commented that under Chinese Law, Xu can be held in detention for a maximum of 37 days (i.e. until 15th November 2020). After this, the People’s Procuratorate (i.e. the prosecuting authorities) will need to decide whether or not to approve an arrest. If an arrest is approved then Xu would continue to be detained pending trial. However, even if an arrest is not approved, if the authorities consider that further investigation is required then Xu may either be released on bail or subject to home detention. According to the PRC lawyers, if Xu’s family does not hear anything further on 15th November 2020 then it can be assumed that an arrest was approved.

    Updates from OKEx

    According to a further announcement on 6th November 2020, withdrawals are STILL suspended. They, however, do clarify that the “concerned party” is only “actively cooperating with a public security bureau in an investigation” and NOT arrested under criminal detention.

    In a new update, they do say that they have sought legal support and guidance and by doing this has “made contact with the concerned party”. OKEx has explicitly said they cannot disclose any further information. Notably the announcement does not say whether this will result in withdrawals being able to reopen.

    This does appear to be a step in the positive direction though, since according to the commentary from some Chinese lawyers a detained person is only permitted to meet with his own lawyers, rather than that of a company he is the CEO of.

    Nevertheless OKEx in its latest Twitter post continues to reassure affected users that there has been no withdrawals from the Exchange since 16th October 2020 and that 100% of funds can be withdrawn when withdrawals can be resumed.

    A few observations

    There are reports from Chinese media that Xu was in fact already taken in by Police for investigation a week ago, whilst 2 executives that were also detained have since been released on bail. His arrest is causing a stir because he holds the private keys to OKEx’s funds, and according to Glassnode’s data, OKEx holds around 200,000 BTC i.e. USD$2.3 billion worth of Bitcoin.

    There are reports that Xu was taken in for investigation in relation to matters unrelated to OKEx. In particular, it was in relation to funds he had borrowed from a Shanxi-based underground bank for the purposes of the backdoor listing of OKC Holdings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019.

    We’ve already mentioned this in our previous newsletter about the KuCoin hack. Please take your cryptocurrencies off exchanges and store them offline in a hardware wallet. If you don’t have one yet, please consider getting one. Check out our Ledger Nano X review or buy it here.

    Withdrawals will resume on or before 27th November 2020

    On 19th November 2020, OKEx announced they would reopen unrestricted withdrawals on or before 27th November 2020. They will also be launching significant loyalty reward campaigns for their users as a show of gratitude to their community and for the inconvenience caused to them.

    We also note the announcement confirms that one of OKEx’s private key holders (likely to be Star Xu) has completed assisting investigation with authorities and has returned to his “normal business functions”. It is also confirmed that OKEx was not involved in any alleged wrongdoing or illegal activities. So for now we can all breathe a sigh of relief for Xu and OKEx.

    JUST IN: Details of OKEx loyalty programs released!

    As mentioned in the previous section, OKEx said they would launch loyalty programs for their users as a show to gratitude.

    On 24th November 2020, OKEx announced the following reward and compensation programs after withdrawals open on 27th November 2020.

    Users that made deposits, held tokens or traded during the withdrawal suspension period will be issued a one-time payment to users based on their assets and transaction conditions. The funds for this payment will come from 20% of OKEx’s total income from futures and perpetual swap transaction fees over the past 7 weeks which will be put into an incentive fund. The asset weight calculation will also be doubled for $OKB.

    Users with assets exceeding 10,000 USDT before 4:00pm UTC on 23rd November 2020 will have part of their service fees waived and refunded once withdrawals resume in the form of a rebate card valued between 100 to 1,000 USDT.

    For all users, there will be a Happy Friday Reward Program. This will start on 4th December 2020 and continue every Friday thereafter. To be eligible, users need to have daily average assets on OKEx or daily average trading volume greater than or equal to 100 USDT, and have KYC verification level 2 or higher. Users will get a BTC reward equivalent to OKEx’s futures and perpetual swap transaction fee income for that week * 10%* of the users daily average total asset value or trading volume (as the case may be)/ daily average asset values or daily average trading value of all users (as the case may be).

    Note that for the purposes of calculating the rewards, if a user’s daily average asset value exceeds 10,000 USDT, it would be calculated as 10,000 USDT. Similarly, if the user’s daily average trading volume exceeds 30,000 USDT, it would be deemed as 30,000 USDT.

    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.

  • YF Link ($YFL): Combining the best of Chainlink ($LINK) and Yearn Finance ($YFI)?

    YF Link ($YFL): Combining the best of Chainlink ($LINK) and Yearn Finance ($YFI)?

    YF Link ($YFL) combines Chainlink’s $LINK token with Yearn Finance $YFI’s yield farming/liquidity mining mechanics. The premise of this project was so it would be adapted it for use by Chainlink enthusiasts, known as “Link Marines”. Considering the LINK token itself has done quite well in 2020 so far with prices going from $2 to $15, both Link Marines and other cryptocurrency enthusiasts, of course, are interested in what YF Link is and what it had to offer. So in this article, we will take a look at the background of YF Link, the functions of, and how to get their native $YFL token.

    Background and History of YF Link

    YF Link was forked from Yearn.Finance’s ($YFI) Yearn contract by switching it to accept LINK instead of yCRV tokens. It is a community-based project started by Chainlink enthusiasts, specfically, by a “Bobby Shaftoe” and 4 other anonymous developers who announced the existence of the project and its details in a Medium post “The Idea of YFLINK is Born” on 7th August 2020. Since LINK tokens were required to be locked up to generate yield, it is thought that the launch of YF Link had a positive influence on LINK prices as the demand for these tokens increased. Indeed in the few days following the Medium post, prices for $LINK almost doubled.

    YF Link in a nutshell (Image credit: YFLINK)

    Precursor – Yearn.Finance ($YFI)

    The precursor to YF Link, Yearn Finance (YFI), was launched by Andre Cronje on 17 July 2020 as an experiment in yield farming and liquidity mining. It works by allowing the users to provide funds to a smart contract, which are then automatically distributed between dYdX, Aave, and Compound lending protocols, optimized for maximum yield.

    In return, the users earn yield profits and acquire YFI tokens. The YFI token is used for governance. The total YFI tokens in existence are 30,000.

    Learn more about Andre Cronje’s insights on the DeFi space in his interview with FTX exchange.

    How does YF Link work?

    YF Link’s YFL token provides liquidity to LINK pools on multiple Decentralised Finance (DeFi) protocols such as Aave, Balancer, and Curve Finance. Users provide funds by depositing them into these protocols, which then generate yield profits for the depositors. These users i.e. liquidity providers also receive YFL tokens as a reward, in turn, these YFL tokens can be traded on exchanges such as Uniswap.

    The amount of rewards depends on the amount of liquidity provided and the duration which they are staked. And although users funds are locked in, they can be withdrawn at any time.

    Alternatively, some people simply speculate on YFL tokens and trade them on exchanges.

    The Concepts

    The two underlying concepts used in YF Link are yield farming and liquidity mining. They both work together in synergy to incentivize users to provide liquidity. As we will see later, these 2 concepts come together to enable farmers to earn rewards and potentially gain from these activities.

    Yield Farming

    Yield farming is a method of using otherwise idle assets for beneficial purposes. It involves taking assets from users, lending them to different protocols, in exchange for gaining more assets than initially provided.

    Liquidity Mining

    Liquidity mining is a variation of yield farming, which allows liquidity providers to gain another governance asset, alongside their usual yield rewards.

    The YFL Token

    The $YFL token is the native token for YF Link with a maximum supply of 75,000 tokens. It must be noted that even creators of YF Link have said that the token should be valued at ZERO.

    The YFL token is supposed to be used for governance purposes, i.e. it lets holders submit proposals to vote and make decisions. For example, one of the first governance proposals is to have a LINK meme competition.

    At the outset, a total of 6 pools were emitting YFL tokens, with various parameters. The emission of tokens will last around 15 weeks with most of the emissions occurring in the first 4 weeks. After the YF Link contracts were deployed, the creators burned the contract keys so that no one can change this emission schedule.

    YF Link Pools: What’s the difference?

    As mentioned in the above section, when the YF Link contracts were first deployed, a total of 6 pools would emit YFL tokens. Note that as at 22 August 2020, pools 0, 1 and 2 have exhausted their YFL rewards, this means you cannot mint any new YFL tokens by staking in these pools.

    Pool 0 also called the Genesis pool (15,000 YFL tokens available)— users provide LINK and YFL is returned. This pool has exhausted its YFL rewards.

    Pool 1 LINK Balancer pool (15,000 YFL tokens available)— users provide LINK and YFL is sent to a Balancer pool. Users get BPT tokens and provide them to the YF Link pool. YFL and BAL are then returned. This pool has exhausted its YFL rewards.

    Pool 2 yCRV Balancer pool (15,000 YFL tokens available)— uses yCRV. Returns include YFL, BAL, interest from Curve Protocol, and CRV tokens. This pool has exhausted its YFL rewards.

    Pool 3 LINK Aave pool (15,000 YFL tokens available)— users provide LINK and deposit it to Aave.com to get aLINK tokens. Then you get those aLINK tokens and deposit it in an aLINK Balancer pool with YFL. From this, users will get BPT tokens which they can stake in the YFL pool. In the end, users can earn YFL, BAL and AAVE interest.

    Pool 4 Governance staking pool (20,000 YFL tokens available) — This pool will go live at 26 Aug 2020 at 1400 (UTC). Users have to stake YFL, in order to be able to vote in the Governance contract for the duration of the vote. Users are rewarded with more YFL tokens.

    Pool 5 Unintended pool (5,000 YFL tokens available)— the team deployed this pool accidentally. The creators will mine from this pool to fulfill their early mining program obligations and potentially other purposes which are to be announced.

    Conclusion

    YF Link is an interesting variant of Yearn.Finance. It is likely to enhance the utility and the liquidity of the LINK tokens as well. Some analysts are even terming it the “missing link” between the two most widely used DeFi protocols – Chainlink and Yearn.Finance.

    Since its deployment, the project has functioned normally without any bugs or exploits. It has amassed an impressive Total Value Locked (TVL) in a short period of time. It may even become the go-to protocol for people looking to stake LINK tokens for rewards in the future.

    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.

  • Polkadot ($DOT): Everything you need to know about the DeFi darling of China

    Polkadot ($DOT): Everything you need to know about the DeFi darling of China

    Polkadot ($DOT) refers to itself as a next-generation blockchain protocol that connects multiple blockchains into one network. As we’ve seen in a previous article on the hottest blockchain projects in China, Polkadot and its Co-creator Gavin Wood are highly regarded by the Chinese cryptocurrency community, who are heavily invested in this project. Polkadot is also now gaining a lot of interest in the West because of its listing on major exchanges such as Binance, OKEx and Kraken.

    The purpose of Polkadot is to enable blockchain networks to improve scalability, optimise themselves for specific use cases, work and communicate together, self-govern, and upgrade without the need for hard forks. In this article, we look at Polkadot’s current status, its role in Decentralised Finance (DeFi), the $DOT token and more.

    Here’s our video explaining what is Polkadot in less than 2 minutes!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FyLxZezPmk&t=2s

    Background

    Polkadot was launched in 2016 and is run by the Web3 Foundation, which strives to build a free and decentralized web. However, the foundation had made a contract with Parity Technologies to build its protocol. Its Founders are Gavin Wood, Peter Czaban, and Robert Habermeier. Gavin Wood, in particular, is also one of the Co-founders of Ethereum, thus bringing a sense of legitimacy and confidence in the eyes of a lot of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, especially from the Chinese audience.

    The team has extensive experience with distributed ledger systems, blockchain protocols (particularly Ethereum), cryptography, and wallet technology. Despite the lead developer being Parity Technologies, multiple independent teams have contributed to the development of Polkadot.

    What Is Polkadot?

    Polkadot is a sharded bridge-like protocol, which focuses on maintaining communication, value transfer, and pooling the security of blockchains. It allows blockchains to operate with each other in a parallel manner by unifying them into one network. The unification compounds the strengths of different blockchains and mitigates their weaknesses.

    According to the team, Polkadot is a project by developers for developers. It is aimed at connecting public and private chains, oracles, DApps, and services to seamlessly work side by side. And thus, it facilitates the connection of different independent blockchains together into a single Web3 Internet.

    Polkadot’s Building Blocks

    Polkadot is built on Substrate blockchain building framework that is derived from Parity’s experience with Ethereum, Bitcoin, and enterprise blockchains. The protocol’s state machine is compiled with WebAssembly (WASM) – a high performance virtual environment.

    Furthermore, Polkadot uses libp2p for peer discovery and communication. It is coded with C++, Rust and Golang for wide developer accessibility.

    Polkadot Governance Model

    Polkadot governance model is on-chain and well defined. It is designed to include all stakeholders in a governance council. The users can participate in the system’s decision-making by simply holding the native $DOT token. Currently, Polkadot’s Council and Technical Committee are in place, so the project and its direction is completely in the hands of $DOT holders. Governance proposals are submitted by the Council, the Technical Committee or $DOT holders. There are then voted on by the $DOT holding public.

    Status of the Polkadot Network

    Polkadot has been increasing the size of its validator sets. Now there are 274 validators operated by around 200 independant operators and backed by over 7,000 individual nominating accounts.

    This year, Polkadot launched Westend, their main long-term valueless testnet. They have also launched 2 versions of Rococo- which are Polkadot’s short-term parachains public testnets.

    Rococo

    Rococo is a public testnet aimed at testing the parachains consensus process, together with parachains built by the community and their interactions with each other.

    Rococo v1 is the latest version released on 22nd December 2020.

    PolkaBrige

    PolkaBrige is a decentralised application (dApp) platform. It also comes with its own decentralised exchange (DEX) known as PolkaBrige DEX which allows users to directly swap tokens on Polkadot to other tokens on other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain etc.

    To meet the yield farming craze, Polkabrige also has a smart farming mechanism which allows liquidity providers to earn more rewards.

    Advantages of Polkadot

    The Polkadot project is set to revolutionize blockchain technology by offering a bridge-like framework that provides the following advantages:

    1.       Limitless Scalability – Polkadot can support an infinite number of blockchains and allow them to connect together. These are known as para-chains.

    2.       Adaptable Consensus Mechanism – As different blockchains run on different consensus mechanisms, the Polkadot platform provides an open and adaptable consensus mechanism to host them.

    3.       Cross-Chain Transactions – The framework can support the transfer of value between different blockchains. It’s necessary for interoperability and true integration.

    4.       Defined Governance Mechanism – It has a defined governance mechanism, which eliminates a major problem faced by other blockchains.

    5.       Upgradeability – Polkadot can support upgrades, without having to resort to drastic hard forks to implement change.

    6.       Pooled Security – The blockchains connecting with Polkadot can be secured by a unifying security umbrella. This can help protect small chains that don’t have effective security bootstrapping.

    7. Low transaction fees– Polkadot claims it has lower transaction fees compared to Ethereum.

    Polkadot Token ($DOT)

    The Polkadot token, denoted by the ticker symbol $DOT, is the native asset of the Polkadot platform. It serves three main functions: governance, staking, and bonding. It has a total supply of 10 million DOT.

    Governance

    As mentioned before, DOT holders have the right to govern the platform. When we say ‘right’ it doesn’t mean that they are given privileges by someone. But rather, it is embedded in the protocol of Polkadot that DOT holders inherently have governance capabilities. These capabilities include changing the network fees, auctions, as well as the schedule for adding parachains — parallelized chains that execute parallel to Polkadot’s Relay Chain. Furthermore, holders also have influence over upgrades, bug fixes, and other system maintenance.

    Staking

    Decentralized networks require consensus mechanisms to ensure that only valid transactions are confirmed. Polkadot utilizes NPoS (Nominated Proof of Stake) as its algorithm for validation. And, DOT holders have the option to participate in this essential network operation.

    Basically, holders will be rewarded for staking their DOT in the protocol in exchange for risking their holdings for the validation of the network. This also serves as a disincentive for bad actors to participate in the network, as they are likely to lose their stake if they ‘misbehave’.

    The requirement for participating largely depends on the staking duration and the total number of tokens staked.

    However, it has been discovered by the Polkadot Team that some nominators are not receiving their rewards. The Team is currently working on a solution but this will take time. Meanwhile, the Team recommends those staking with less than 200 $DOT who do not have the opportunity to bond more should move to staking on cryptocurrency exchanges. At present, the following exchanges offer staking-as-a-service for Polkadot: Kraken, Huobi, MXC, and KuCoin.

    Bonding

    The last use case for the DOT token is bonding — this is the process of tying up DOT in order to add new parachains. It is an extension of the functionality of proof of stake.

    DOT 100x redenomination

    After the Council and Technical Committee was put into place, there was a community-run poll to determine how many Plancks should be considered as being one DOT token. Plancks are the smallest unit of exchange in Polkadot, this value does not change, rather it was how many Plancks comprise one DOT which was voted upon. It was decided that one DOT will now be denominated by 1e10 plancks instead of 1e12 plancks. So the new version of $DOT will be 100x smaller than the old $DOT.

    This redenomination will occur on 21st August 2020 at around 13:15 (UTC), specifically at block number 1,248,328. When this occurs, users do not have to do anything because it is only a front-end change. Also, most exchanges such as Binance or Kraken will automatically multiply users’ DOT deposits after the redenomination, i.e. if you deposited 10 old $DOT before the redenomination, you will automatically be credited with 1,000 new $DOT after the redenomination. And to protect users in anticipation of this, users will not be able to withdraw new $DOT until after the redenomination.

    Users have to meantime, bear in mind that some exchanges e.g. OKEx, MXC etc. offer trading pairs in OLD $DOT, whereas others e.g. Binance and Kraken offer trading pairs in NEW $DOT. $DOT holders and traders should check with the exchange they are trading on to see what their policies are for $DOT.

    Projects Built On Polkadot

    The Polkadot ecosystem has an enormous outreach and usage. There are currently 188 projects building on it. This includes crypto-projects related to DeFi, cryptocurrency wallets, infrastructure projects, tokens, Oracle, DAO, privacy, exchange, gaming, IoT, scaling, etc.

    A few well-known projects being built on the Polkadot protocol are Chainlink, Ankr, Celer Network, Akropolis, Ocean Protocol, 0x Protocol, imToken, etc.

    Polkadot’s Role in DeFi Projects

    The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) field relies on composability, cross-chain communication, value transfers, and protocols integrating with each other. It’s practically the entire rationale behind the Polkadot project. And as such many, DeFi projects utilize Polkadot.

    For instance, the DeFi automation and aggregation-based Akropolis project relies on integrations with Maker, Compound, Curve and dYdX,. They have collaborated and contributed greatly to the Polkadot ecosystem.

    Polkadot’s Similarities with Upcoming Ethereum 2.0

    The Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 mainnet is expected to be launched in November 2020. It will introduce the highly anticipated staking mechanism. However, its full deployment won’t be complete until a few years. Polkadot, as it appears, has an incredible similarity with Eth2.

    For instance, both blockchains support sharding, meaning that they execute processing in parallel by allowing individual shards to divide the workload and communicate with each other. They both also implement hybrid consensus models, staking mechanisms, and state-transition functions.

    Conclusion

    Polkadot is fast gaining traction in the DeFi field and the wider crypto community. Owing to the easy integration, available grants, and wide composability, Polkadot’s projects are rapidly gaining value and the Polkadot association appears to have a positive influence on the project’s token price.

    As the ecosystem further matures, it is likely to become an integral part of the blockchain field and smart contracts platform.

    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.

  • What is Solana (SOL token): explained

    What is Solana (SOL token): explained

    UPDATE:
    A lot has happened with Solana since this article was written. We’ve published another article on the latest Solana updates here.

    Solana ($SOL) is one of the hottest blockchains in 2021 – due to its incredible speed and extremely cheap transaction cost. This means Solana can support a huge number of decentralized applications without slowing down or having extremely high transaction costs (a problem currently plaguing the Ethereum ecosystem). Solana transactions can cost as little as $0.001 USD.

    Solana is taking on one of the biggest challenges with existing blockchains- scalability. Designed from the ground up to be able to process over 50,000 transactions per second, Solana is built with scalability and speed in mind. This directly competes with other payment systems like Paypal or Visa. On top of this, Solana can achieve sub-second confirmation times, meaning users do not have to wait for their transactions to be confirmed. This makes Solana an idea blockchain for decentralized finance and trading – as traders demand near-instant trade times.

    Solana achieves this incredible speed by solving how the blockchain tracks time and issue timestamps – using a mechanism called “proof of history“. Proof of history allows the Solana network to synchronize their individual clocks such that they are all in agreement with each other.

    And this is the reason why Solana was developed. With the capacity to process more than 50,000 transactions per second, Solana has attracted several crypto proponents including FTX exchange.

    Learn more about FTX Exchange.

    Check out our video on what makes Solana so hot right now.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bp16DGhWjE

    Background

    Anatoly Yakovenko founded Solana back in 2017. Yakovenko is a software engineer that formerly worked for Qualcomm and Dropbox with extensive experience in compression algorithms. He originally published the Solana white paper detailing Proof of History and how it can be used to speed up both proof of work and proof of stake-based blockchains.

    Along with Greg Fitzgerald, Solana’s CTO, as well as Eric Williams, they conceptualized a new way of dealing with the throughput problems that were present in both the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. They envisioned a trustless and distributed protocol that allows for greater scalability, which was how Solana was born.

    What is Solana? Key Innovations

    Solana brings a total of 8 innovations that are exclusive to its system. The innovations revolve around how information is sent within a network – with the objective of making Solana as fast as how data transferred.

    1. Proof of History (POH) – Cryptographic clock for the blockchain.
    2. Tower BFT – Solana’s version of the Practical Byzantine Fault Toleration (PBFT) system
    3. Turbine – Blockchain broadcasting protocol.
    4. Gulf Stream – Forwarding protocol without mempools.
    5. Sealevel – Solana’s parallel smart contracts.
    6. Pipelining – Transaction Processing Unit.
    7. Cloudbreak – Accounts database.
    8. Archivers – Storage of blockchain history.

    Let’s take a look at these key innovations in turn.

    Proof of History

    Solana took to the community a new solution to make a blockchain more decentralized. The PoH system embeds historical records of blockchain transactions in order to prove that transactions indeed happened before they are included in the distributed ledger.

    This is done by what Solana calls the ‘Verifiable Delay Function.’ On the Solana blockchain, transactions are embedded with timestamps that help establish the sequence of events that were processed before the latest state of the blockchain is broadcasted to the whole network.

    Transactions are entered into blocks through Solana’s sequential preimage resistant hash, simply referring to hashes that cannot be altered. These hashes are then used as an input to the next transaction. Then, these entries are timestamped to record their actual sequence and eventually, save time on having to revalidate each hash function altogether.

    TowerBFT

    TowerBFT is Solana’s version of the PBFT system. The consensus algorithm uses PoH as its cryptographic clock in order to reach blockchain consensus without incurring massive messaging overhead and transaction latency.

    Before the state of the ledger is finalized, validators vote on which version of the ledger is accurate. Then, their vote is locked out. This means that they are prohibited from making a different vote on a future version of the blockchain that does not show that the record of the previous votes on it.

    Turbine

    Solana makes it easier for data to be transmitted to every blockchain node by dividing them into smaller packets. This helps Solana address bandwidth issues and increase its capacity to settle transactions faster.

    Gulf Stream

    Solana can achieve a network throughput of 50,000 transactions per second by easing the process of block confirmation. Gulf Stream facilitates the process of transaction catching and forwarding even before the next set of blocks for confirmation are finalized.

    Sealevel

    Thousands of smart contracts run in parallel with each other to achieve a more efficient runtime for Solana. Transactions that are in the same state of the blockchain can run concurrently.

    Pipelining

    A set of blocks that contain transaction information is quickly validated and replicated across all nodes in the network. Solana does this by assigning a stream of input data onto different hardware that is responsible for each of them.

    Cloudbreak

    Solana achieves scalability with no risk of sharding by organizing a database that simultaneously reads and writes transaction input. Cloudbreak establishes a data structure where transactions are processed in software that utilizes every hardware responsible for indexing data.

    Archivers

    Solana’s network allows every node to replicate information from the blockchain according to the space available on their hardware. Archivers download their respective data from validators, and this data is accessible to the network.

    Programming on Solana

    Solana has support for smart contracts that allow developers to write decentralized applications on the network. This means it’s possible to run decentralized exchanges, lending platforms, and NFT marketplaces on Solana. The native language to program in Solana is RUST. RUST is a programming language that emphasizes performance and reliability over ease of use. This means that developing for Solana is harder than Ethereum (which uses solidity), but also can produce more reliable dapps.

    Solana is fundamentally different in terms of programming language and network design – making it very different from Ethereum (which is arguably the biggest smart contract network today).

    Solana NFT

    Solana allows users to mint, sell and trade NFTs on a larger scale. The marketplace hosts over 5.7m NFTs and the average mint cost is around US$1.5 per NFT.

    Solana allows creators to host NFT marketplaces on the Solana ecosystem.

    SolSea is Solana’s first ever NFT marketplace. SolSea offers creators tools for developing and managing their NFT collections. Other NFT marketplaces on Solana include Magic Eden, Solanart and Metaplex.

    SOL Token ($SOL): What is it and what are its uses?

    Solana’s native token or coin is known as $SOL. Currently, there is a circulating supply of 26 million SOL and it has a maximum supply of 489 million SOL.

    Staking SOL

    Solana is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network with delegations. Validators process transactions on and run the network. Since validators are also chosen based on the amount of stake they hold in the network, the biggest staked validators are likely to be chosen to input transactions on the blockchain. And when they do this, they earn rewards. Therefore validators would want to entice delegators (i.e.non-validator SOL token holders) to allocate tokens to them to stake on their behalf. Validators do this by offering lower commissions, which delegators must pay to validators in the form of a fee representing a percentage of the rewards earned.

    How to Stake SOL Tokens

    Staking SOL tokens can also be a way for users to earn a profit if they are just holding their tokens.

    1. Transfer tokens. To stake SOL tokens, users have to first transfer their tokens in wallets that support staking. These are wallets like Ledger Nano X.
    2. Make a stake account. A stake account will have a different address from the supported wallet that you will link it with.
    3. Select a Validator. After creating a stake account, you can choose from Solana’s validators to determine who you’ll delegate your SOL to.
    4. Delegate your Stake. Once you have chosen a validator, you can use your wallet to delegate your stake account to them.

    Solana partners with Serum ($SRM)

    Serum is a new high-speed non-custodial spot and derivatives decentralized exchange (DEX) built on Solana. The reason why Serum wanted to build on Solana is that it wanted to enable the best of both the centralized and decentralized worlds, that is, an exchange that is able to be resistant to censorship and non-custodial, yet fast, inexpensive, and highly liquid. And this is only achievable because Solana enables Serum to run on an on-chain central limit order book (CLOB) that updates every 400 milliseconds.

    What does this mean for cryptocurrency and DeFi traders? It means that Serum will have the lowest latency and gas costs.

    Learn more about Serum in our full review ($SRM)

    Conclusion

    The common problem with the earlier blockchains are issues concerning transaction settlement speed and bandwidth. With Solana’s new architecture powered by a new way to verify transactions and coupled with an efficient PoS mechanism, it can definitely be a strong candidate for platforms that could compete with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

    What is the best wallet for Solana (SOL)?

    The best and most user-friendly wallet is Phantom wallet. This Web3 compatible wallet can be installed directly on your browser as a “Chrome Extention”, allow you to directly interact with websites in the Solana Ecosystem. Phantom wallet is non-custodial, meaning only you will have access to your cryptocurrencies. Phantom can also be used with Ledger Hardware wallets for additional security.

    How do you stake Solana?

    Solana can be staked on the FTX platform for 6% APR rewards. Rewards are given in the form of SOL. It is important to note that unstaking requires at least 7 days – with a 10% penalty for immediate unstaking.

    How does Solana compare vs Ethereum

    Solana’s key difference with Ethereum is that it solves the scaling on layer 1 – instead of other workaround solutions. Solana was designed to be fast by improving network speed and communication between nodes. One key advantage of scaling in this manner is that it doesn’t break composability – the communication between different smart contracts. Ethereum 2.0 scales using “shards” – a technique that could potentially introduce communication issues between decentralized applications on different shards.

    How do you mine Solana?

    It is not possible to mine Solana as the blockchain is not based on proof of work consensus (unlike Bitcoin mining). Solana can only be purchased on exchanges or earned via staking mechanisms.

    Is Solana Proof of Stake

    Solana is a Proof of Stake blockchain – requiring validators to stake SOL in order to participate in network consensus. Validators have an elected leader that broadcasts the transaction order and this action is replicated in other validators.

    Is Solana ($SOL) token undervalued/underrated?

    CEO of FTX exchange Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has stated in an interview with Fortune that SOL is the “most underrated token…at least as of a month ago [July 2022]”. Despite the recent Solana hack, SBF’s opinion on the SOL token remains unchanged. SBF believes that Solana has growth potential since it has worked through two-thirds of the technical issues already. He also added that, with reference to Solana, anytime the limits of what is possible are tested, is when you figure out what needs to be refined or improved. And that, “Any blockchain would have broken if it tried to do what Solana had done.”

    Solana $SOL price prediction?

    As of early August 2022, Solana ($SOL) has been trading at around US$39. The all-time high price of SOL was $259.96 and the all-time low was $0.500801. Prices of SOL were unaffected by the recent Solana hack, much to the surprise of the cryptocurrency community. Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX exchange and Solana, Therefore, crypto analysts predict that SOL prices have the potential to continue rising to a range of not less than US$55 to potentially US$68 by the end of 2022.

    Where can I buy Solana ($SOL) crypto token?

    Solana $SOL token can be bought on most major crypto exchanges e.g. Binance, FTX, KuCoin, Gate.io, Kraken, Huobi Global, and OKX. They can also be found on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) such as Uniswap and Sushiswap.

    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.

  • SwissBorg ($CHSB): What is it?

    SwissBorg ($CHSB): What is it?

    SwissBorg provides users with tools (Wealth App, Smart Yield, $CHSB token, etc.) and the infrastructure (wider support from community, regulatory clarity etc.) to manage their cryptocurrency investments with negligible effort. Swissborg’s aim for doing this is to help users navigate the relatively new field of cryptocurrency which at times can have complex concepts and rather scattered infrastructure with little standardisation. In this article, we will take a deep look at SwissBorg: its merits, the problems it attempts to solve, and everything in between.

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

    Table of Contents

    Background

    Launched in December 2017 after having raised over USD $52 million, SwissBorg was founded by Anthony Lesoismer and Cyrus Fazel. Based in Switzerland and fully compliant with Swiss Law, the project has a multicultural team that comprises members from 200 countries consisting of highly experienced professionals having experience in major banks and investment management firms.

    What Is SwissBorg?

    SwissBorg is the first blockchain-based secure wealth management platform, aimed at simplifying the process of crypto investments, integrating with major digital asset exchanges and featuring community-based ownership. They also have a mobile version called “Wealth App” which is available for both iOS and Android platforms (see below).

    The top achievements of the project, so far, have included its successful fund-raising of USD $53 million, large community, blockchain referendums, gamified Bitcoin prediction app, and a high-performing native token.

    Supported countries

    SwissBorg is available in over 100 countries (however it is currently not supported in the US) with many more to come. Although for some countries, the full range of features offered by SwissBorg may not be available. See here for a full list of supported countries.

    Supported assets

    SwissBorg supports over 30 cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, CHSB, USDC, PAXG, ENJ, BNB, LTC, XRP and BCH. They also have ongoing votes on which other cryptocurrencies should also be listed.

    SwissBorg also supports 16 fiat currencies including EUR, USD, GBP, CAD, HKD, and SGD. Check here for a full list of SwissBorg’s supported assets.

    Swissborg supported fiat currenciesSwissBorg Network Token ($CHSB)

    The platform’s multi-utility token is SwissBorg ($CHSB), which is an Ethereum-based and ERC-20 compliant token. It has a circulating supply of 715 million out of a total of 1 billion.

    The rest of the held supply is reserved for the development and promotion of the project. The CHSB token is traded on major exchanges like KuCoin, Uniswap (v2), Yobit, HitBTC, IDEX etc. and has multiple use cases.

    Use Cases

    CHSB token powers the entire SwissBorg ecosystem. It is used for staking for platform’s fee discount and grants voting rights on the platform.

    Furthermore, it is also used for reward distribution through the “Proof of Meritocracy” concept as well as the team’s “Protect and Burn” policy. The purpose of the policy is to increase scarcity and enhance the value of existing tokens through burning the supply from generated revenue.

    Proof of Meritocracy

    SwissBorg token holders can participate in choosing the progress and development of the network through the Proof of Meritocracy policy. The CHSB token generates an RSB token, which is a referendum token for users to vote on referendum proposals. Users holding more CHSB will have more voting power. Users will also be rewarded for participating in these referendums in addition to being able to dictate the direction of SwissBorg’s development.

    Proof of meritocracy
    Proof of meritocracy

    Protect and Burn

    The Protect and Burn policy rewards long-term CHSB holders by ordering buyback and burn only when CHSB prices are going down. This is because the traditional buyback mechanisms whereby buybacks are announced in advance, short term speculators could buy the token before the buyback and sell it for a higher price shortly after the buyback when the token supply is lowered. According to SwissBorg, this traditional mechanism does not protect the token and in particular long term token holders, and is contrary to their mission to promote innovation that rewards their loyal community members.

    Every month, SwissBorg will also add 20% of their profits generated from the fees on the Wealth App to a reserve so as to protect the price of the CHSB token. If the price of CHSB arrives as a bearish-zone (using the 20-day moving average as their indicator), SwissBorg will automatically place buy orders for CHSB.

    SwissBorg DAO

    The SwissBorg DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) is the supporting body assisting with the governance of the SwissBorg ecosystem. A DAO is a development in the cryptocurrency and DLT space, which permits a democratic mechanism to run or manage a project on-chain.

    The SwissBorg DAO acts as a unifying bridge between the team and community members, allowing the latter to play an active role in determining the direction of the project and be rewarded for their efforts in CHSB tokens.

    The team has defined different roles for community members to participate as. Here are some of these roles:

    Digital Artist

    A digital artist (more understandably a content creator) is a community member, tasked by the team, to develop arts, pictures, texts, presentations and videos etc. about the SwissBorg project.

    Translator

    A translator is an important member of the community, responsible for translating important documents or articles, related to the SwissBorg project. SwissBorg DAO leverages the power of incentivized multi-cultural participants to get one of the most difficult yet important jobs done. (mva.la)

    Promoter

    A promoter is responsible for spreading the word about the project on various social media platforms. They play an important role in increasing adoption and usage by promoting the project. Thus, also directly enhancing the value of the token.

    Moderator

    A moderator (better understood as an admin on forums and telegram groups) is responsible for regulating the communication on the SwissBorg’s project channels. The various duties include promoting a healthy discussion, removing inappropriate content, modulating the flow of discussion and enforcing group rules.

    Campaigner

    A campaigner (a real-world promoter) is responsible for networking with different people and organizing events, to better promote the project. They may hold group meetings, AMA’s, city meets, etc., to promote development and cohesion of the SwissBorg community.

    Business Introducer

    A business introducer (commonly understood as an ambassador) is a SwissBorg community member, who strives to arrange in-person meetings of the SwissBorg team with prominent influencers, investors, business partners etc.

    Cyber Virtuoso

    A cyber virtuoso (known as a developer) is responsible for developing tools, scripts, softwares etc. to help develop the SwissBorg ecosystem. They may also be tasked with creating step-by-step tutorials and supporting documents for the project.

    SwissBorg Wealth App

    The Wealth App is the principal and smart command-and-control centre of SwissBorg. It allows users to build, monitor, and manage their crypto portfolios, permitting easy and secure wealth management.

    The dashboard is simple but powerful and intuitive, taking the guesswork out of cryptocurrency investing.

    The users can fund their accounts with USD, EUR, GBP, and CHZ. The withdrawals can be made to the local bank of the user’s choosing. Furthermore, a limited number of crypto-assets are supported, in a similar manner to Coinbase, ensuring quality.

    However, new assets are regularly added, if they fit the inclusion criteria. The app is available on both IOS and Android operating systems.

    The smart engine offers users the opportunity to buy crypto-assets at the best rates and lowest slippage, from multiple exchanges. Furthermore, it is AI-powered, offering valuable insights about the investments (history, performance, deposits, withdrawals, etc.), which assists the user in making informed decisions.

    All of these features allow people to employ sophisticated techniques for portfolio management with relative ease.

    SwissBorg Smart Yield

    SwissBorg’s Smart Yield is a feature on its app which allows users to potentially earn passive income through Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Centralized Finance (CeFi) platforms without much pre-requisite knowledge. The Smart Yield feature works with top platforms such as Compound, Curve Finance, Binance, Aave, and Uniswap.

    SwissBorg’s CHSB Yield 2.0

    SwissBorg’s latest CHSB Yield 2.0 program aims to be a community-centered and sustainable approach to promote the growth of the SwissBorg ecosystem. It has various yield tiers which according to the Team will provide attractive returns for CHSB token holders. Holding more CHSB in the yield program affects your returns. Currently, the lowest tier of holding 0-2k CHSB in their Standard Account generates a maximum of 12.58% yield. Those with the Genesis Premium account type can earn up to 25.17% yield.

    The difference between SwissBorg’s CHSB Yield 2.0 and their Smart Yield program is that Yield 2.0 is paid out of SwissBorg’s own treasury- i.e. an internal transfer. This means that there is no risk of DeFi hacks or impermanent loss (Learn what is Impermenant Loss in our video here). Also, with the reward structure of Yield 2.0, smaller holders benefit from accelerated growth whilst at the same time, larger CHSB token holders are rewarded in the long term.

    Conclusion

    SwissBorg ran one of the most successful fundraises back in 2017 and has delivered a powerful product. SwissBorg solves the major problem of managing wealth and making cryptocurrency investments accessible to everyone.

    The Wealth App offers a one-stop solution for crypto investments, combining deposit, buying, trading, management and withdrawal facilities, all under a clean and minimal interface.

    Moreover, SwissBorg is fully compliant with all relevant regulatory frameworks, which ensures that users can invest and take part in the digital assets field while being certain about the legality.

    The community-based democratic outlook of the team ensures that all members can take part in the evolving ecosystem. The product is currently available in more than 60 countries and with more to come, making it truly global.

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

    January 1, 2023
  • ChainLink ($LINK) guide: A key link in the DeFi space

    ChainLink ($LINK) guide: A key link in the DeFi space

    ChainLink ($LINK) has been a standout project in the cryptocurrency industry since its creation in 2017 by San Francisco based company, SmartContract. The Company is renowned for being a decentralised oracle solution, they act as a middleware agent between traditional data sources, blockchain projects and smart contracts (which drive Decentralised Finance (DeFi) projects) using their $LINK token. Partnership wise, the Company has been linked with national governments like the Chinese government and are consistently building new partnerships with major brands. Clearly, ChainLink is a company that any crypto or blockchain enthusiast should have an understanding of, so here we have compiled a complete guide to this revolutionary project.

    ChainLink has prominence because they solved the Oracle Problem. The oracle problem originates from an issue with smart contracts, which are coding instructions that would automatically execute under specific conditions on blockchain networks. Smart contracts are. also immutable, cost effective and self-executing, so technically they are perfect for automating transactions which are transparent and have zero chance of failure. These smart contracts derive their data from “Oracles” (i.e. data sources, APIs etc) , and this is where the problem lies. Smart contracts are only as “smart” as the information fed to them by the oracles. If you feed a smart contract with malicious code or bad data, the smart contract will still process it anyway because it is just code, and what comes out would be incorrect or unpredictable. This is known as the “Oracle Problem”.

    That all changed when ChainLink worked out how to retrieve and share information from the Oracles without jeopardizing the security of the blockchain. This was by creating a decentralized blockchain that bridges between the Oracles and the smart contracts. While researching this, I stumbled upon a 스포츠토토 사이트 추천, which provided insights into secure and reliable platforms for sports betting. The system is built on a collection of individual nodes that act as smart contracts on their own to gather the information and, as a result, have created a smart contract infrastructure. Now, instead of having to blindly trust a source, smart contracts can access resources like data feeds, traditional bank account payments, and web APIs.

    ChainLink infrastructure
    ChainLink infrastructure (Image credit: Data Driven Investor)

    Why is this important? It is because ChainLink believes its technology will do away with traditional legal agreements and instead the information will be stored on blockchain forever. 

    ChainLink is also relevant to the cryptocurrency industry because its Oracles also provide a solution for decentralized applications (dapps) as they too provide a bridge to the outside world.

    The $LINK token is ChainLink’s native cryptocurrency and was set up on the Ethereum network using an ERC677 token whose functionality is based on the ERC-20 token standard, it also boasts ‘transfer and call’ functionality. The $LINK token is used as staking for a bidding system for provision of information and for rewards, as will be seen in the following paragraph.

    The decentralized oracle network works through a two way system between those who wish to purchase data and those who bid to be the providers of the said data. Providers, also known as “Node Operators” stake ChainLink’s $LINK tokens to make bids to the intended data purchaser. If they win, they must provide the information required by the purchaser on chain through their APIs. The “winning” Node Operator’s payout is determined by the number of operators using the site, and the Oracles implement this decision. Payouts are in the form of the $LINK token. 

    This system has a number of benefits. When ChainLink is popular with Node Operators, then their value increases. Not only that, but Node Operators are also rewarded for accumulating $LINK tokens through easier access to larger contracts, also increasing $LINK’s value. Those who act maliciously, however, are punished by removal of $LINK tokens. 

    As you can see the $LINK token allows for self regulating governance of the ChainLink network. Some have suggested that payouts needn’t be in $LINK, but rather any other cryptocurrency would have done the job. Yet, ChainLink’s price performances in recent times have suggested the team in San Francisco were right to go down the native token route.

    The $LINK token can be traded on exchanges and is gaining in popularity too. Currently it ranks as the 8th highest market cap according to Coingecko. Available on most major exchanges like Coinbase Pro, Binance and OKEX ChainLink’s token has been a standout performer in recent months. Check out our Coinbase Pro review, Binance review and OKEX review.

    Unlike other companies who rely on PR and word of mouth to promote themselves, ChainLink has gone about it by courting various companies and governments around the world. Their CEO Sergey Nazarov has been on a charm offensive for a while and has secured numerous allies. This is because ChainLink provides businesses the benefits of decentralization, trust and immutability, all without them having to make a new system. Here’s some of ChainLink’s key partners.

    Other Cryptocurrencies- Bitcoin and Hyperledger

    In terms of the cryptocurrency field, ChainLink’s oracle services are available on other blockchains such as Bitcoin and Hyperledger. This openness has also opened up the door for a number of high profile partnerships with other blockchain projects that have made commentators and traders take notice of the Company.

    Synthetix Network

    In March 2019, ChainLink and Synthetix announced a partnership with the aim of improving the Synthetix platform’s price feeds. SNX, the company’s native token, receives data feeds using Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network. 

    Celer Network

    ChainLink has been used by Celer to bring accurate real world data to their layer-2 scaling solution. Now, payments executed off chain can be registered on chain making the real world and blockchain more cohesive. Their joint statement described their union as, “a combination of off-chain conditional state transition with an on-chain oracle dependency. Or put it simply, introducing the capability to combine real-world information and layer-2 scalability.”

    ChainLink and their oracles are not just reserved for the cryptocurrency industry. The use cases and partnerships stretch to major internet companies like Google. The search engine company integrated ChainLink’s oracles for its blockchain cloud service. According to a blog post, the oracles will help with data communication between Big Query and other blockchains on the cloud.  

    Chinese Government Blockchain Service Network (BSN)

    In June, the Chinese state backed Blockchain Service Network (BSN) announced its intentions to bring ChainLink in on a consultancy and application basis to help develop the BSN. Reports at the time suggested ChainLink will foster the creation of a “service hub” which would form the bedrock of its “internet of blockchains.” For a full breakdown of the partnership which also involved Cosmos, click here. 

    SWIFT 

    SWIFT is a major financial institution/telecommunications company which connects the banking world. They have brought ChainLink on board and are regularly using their technology. SWIFT began using ChainLink’s technology as now any real-world money transfer can be sent into the blockchain from SWIFT via Chainlink. So ChainLink now allows cohesion between traditional banking and the crypto sphere. 

    Other partnerships

    The partnerships don’t stop there. ChainLink has teamed up with betting company, BetProtocol to provide decentralized Esports and Sports Oracles on their website. DocuSign, an online contract company has also brought them onboard. 

    Overall, it is clear that ChainLink is an important figure within the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Quite how important the oracle technology proves to be will be easier to judge as the world understands and develops blockchain technology. Though currently, all signs point towards a more optimistic outlook

    As for the $LINK token, they are clearly a standout which has risen rapidly in the past few months, having gone from $3.72 in early May 2020 to reach a new all-time high of over $14. In fact, as a Forbes report noted in July 2020, the $LINK token has “soared 1,000% in just over 12 months”. One factor in the token’s recent success is the increase in partnerships since 2019. Another reason is definitely the recent DeFi fever, especially since ChainLink and the DeFi space are so interlinked as ChainLink provides oracles for the smart contracts that power various DeFi projects.

    We can also see that people also have positive thoughts on the project, a huge majority of users on Coingecko voting positively.

    Zeus Capital, purportedly an asset management and research firm published a report on 15th July 2020 accusing Chainlink of being a classic “pump and dump”. The Report alleges ChainLink of using techniques such as inside trading, artificial transactions, overhyping the project, and questioning whether ChainLink actually has partnerships with companies like Google and Oracle. According to Zeus Capital, this was to drive up the price of $LINK prior to the team dumping the coin onto innocent investors. They concluded their Report saying that “Based on our findings we have opened a short position in LINK and recommend you doing the same with a target price of USD0.07 and potential upside of nearly 100%.”

    In addition to promoting the Report through advertisements on Twitter, screenshots have also been circulating saying that Zeus Capital was offering Twitter cryptocurrency influencers rewards of up to 5 Bitcoin to post price analysis indicating that LINK prices would fall.

    Twitter user @iceberg trolls Zeus Capital asking for 5 BTC to post bad chart and Zeus Capital actually seems to accept the offer.

    Supporters of ChainLink retaliated, accusing Zeus Capital of spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD). On the day the Report was published, prices for LINK went up to $8.73. Meanwhile, the real Zeus Capital, a prominent investment banking operation based in London came forward on 20th July 2020 to say it did not produce the Reports.

    Zeus Capital then doubled down on their allegations against ChainLink by publishing a follow-up report on 31st July 2020 titled “Exposing Chainlink’s Pump and Dump Scheme”. They also doubled down on their stance in the Report: “The current tokenomics and lack of commercial applications cannot justify LINK’s price. As a result, we recommend short selling LINK with a target price of 7 US cents”. The Follow-up Report also concludes with a disclosure that they hold a short position on $LINK.

    Despite these damning reports, prices for LINK continued to remain strong. This meant that those who were shorting LINK, i.e. counting on prices to drop, were getting squeezed out of their positions. This all came to a head on the morning of 8th August 2020 when prices for LINK crossed over the USD $11 threshold. During that time, data showed that millions worth of Chainlink short positions were partially or fully liquidated. A notable example of this was a short position worth around USD$20 million which seems to have been entirely liquidated, leaving the wallet pretty dry with only USD $299.66 remaining.

    It is noted that there is no conclusive evidence to say that any of these liquidated accounts belonged to Zeus Capital. However one thing is certain- ChainLink, helped by its supporters i.e. the Link Marines were able to successfully shake off the FUD. And as at the time of this update, LINK prices had peaked at USD$14.34, almost double the prices when the first Report was published.

    2020 has been a favorable year for Chainlink ($LINK). It has been one of the best performing coins and secured its spot in the top10 assets ranking by mcap. It is now sitting at n°9 with a market cap close to $8 billion dollars.

    Chainlink is widely recognized as the most used oracle in crypto and has been a backbone for Defi’s explosion. Many are the collaborations announced, over 300, not only on the Ethereum blockchain. Chainlink is also expanding to other chains such as Polkadot and Tezos. Results have exceeded expectations and the company has also been recognized, among 6 other blockchain companies (Lightning Labs, MakerDAO, Elliptic, Bitmark, Ripio, Veridium Labs) by the World Economic Forum among the 100 most promising Technology Pioneers of 2020.

    The team has allegedly doubled its size and acquired important strategic pieces. Ari Juels, now Chief Scientist at Chainlink Labs, was one of the 2 writers of the first Proof of Work paper. He has also developed Deco, a privacy-preserving technology now acquired by Chainlink, at Cornell University together with other researchers.

    “Deco allows oracles to attest to the validity of information in trusted databases/systems without exposing it to the public or even the oracle itself using … Zero-Knowledge Proofs. Essentially, the oracle can join a user-initiated web session to attest to some requested information— possibly to verify someone’s identity, approve their financial information, or check key government records”.

    The data will never leave the selected database so the info will remain stored in trusted locations, enhancing the privacy and usability of the blockchain. An important possible application could be transactions that can meet KYC (Know Your Customer) or AML (Ant Money Laundering) requirements without exposing sensitive information on-chain.

    2021 looks certainly promising. The company will continue with its focus on security while bringing as much data as possible on-chain, from different sectors. This will provide huge improvements and development to the whole crypto space.


    Sources: Decrypt, Maxbit

    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.

  • Coinbase Review: MUST READ

    Coinbase Review: MUST READ

    Coinbase is one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange and is well known because unlike other exchanges, is based in and subject to US regulations. The Exchange is split into several categories, Coinbase– for retail users, Coinbase Pro– their professional trading platform for individuals, Coinbase Prime– for institutional clients. In this review we highlight each of their various features and controversies that you need to know.

    Key Advantages of Coinbase

    • Regulated under US law.
    • One of the few exchanges available for US citizens.
    • Maintains an insurance policy against theft or hacks.

    Key Features and Functions

    Coinbase Pro
    Coinbase Pro

    One point to note is that Coinbase only offers spot trading, unlike other exchanges which offer other products such as derivatives, futures trading etc.

    The Exchange is split into several categories catering for different types of users. Coinbase is for retail users, Coinbase Pro for individual professional traders and Coinbase Prime for institutional clients. This distinction is because they each have different functions to cater for the user. By way of example the main difference between Coinbase and Coinbase Pro are that Coinbase Pro offers charting tools, real-time order books, among other tools to help the advanced trader make most out of the Exchange. Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Prime both offer cheaper transaction fees and more supported cryptocurrencies. However they are still substantially fewer than other Exchanges out there.

    Coinbase Pro interface
    Coinbase Pro interface

    Despite only offering spot trading, Coinbase does have its own suite of products to assist users in getting started. For example it has its own wallet, and allows users to earn cryptocurrencies by participating in their courses.

    Coinbase products
    Products offered by Coinbase

    History of Coinbase

    Coinbase was launched in October 2012 and is based in the United States. Their headquarters are located in San Francisco, California. It is also becoming widely used in Europe where it has an operating license. It currently has over 30 million users and over USD$150 billion being traded on the Exchange.

    The Exchange has currently expanded to over 100 countries across the globe.

    [wp-compear id=”5176″]

    Supported Countries

    Coinbase is available in over 100 countries. Most notably the US, which a lot of Exchanges cannot support due to regulatory issues. However whilst Coinbase says it is “available” in some countries, it may not offer the full set of services i.e. being able to “convert” between different cryptocurrencies, and to “buy and “sell” the same. Check here for the services available for your specific country.

    Supported Cryptocurrencies

    Coinbase supports 91 cryptocurrencies- relatively fewer compared to other major exchanges such Binance. Also, the availability to buy, sell, send and receive a particular cryptocurrency depends on (a) whether you are using Coinbase or Coinbase Pro; and (b) your location.

    Check here for the full list of Coinbase’s supported cryptocurrencies.

    We can see that Coinbase is actively trying hard to list more cryptocurrencies. Whilst its current cryptocurrency support is sufficient for most average traders, they do lag behind their competitors in this respect. So unless we see more listings in the future, we will be keeping our score of 3.8/5 for cryptocurrency support…for now.

    Payment Methods

    Coinbase provides a variety of payment methods and most importantly, allows traders to pay in their local currency. However there are regional restrictions for payment methods. Below is a helpful list of the accepted payment methods for various countries.

    • Bank deposit: Europe, US, UK
    • Debit card: Available for most countries including Australia, Canada, Chile, Europe, Mexico, UK, US.
    • Credit card: Australia, Singapore
    • Paypal: Canada, Europe (most countries), US and UK

    You can check here to see the accepted payment methods for your specific country. Although we noticed that the information on supported payment methods is slightly different from the information on their other page.

    The Exchange also has its own Coinbase Card– a Visa-based debit card allowing customers to make purchases online and in-store using cryptocurrencies. However it is currently only available to UK and European customers.

    Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

    Cryptocurrency

    There are no fees for cryptocurrency deposits onto Coinbase. As for withdrawals, Coinbase will only charge you the relevant network fees required for sending your funds.

    Fiat

    Not all fiat deposits or withdrawals are free, and the amount depends on the method used. Coinbase supports fiat deposits/withdrawals via ACH, Wire (USD), SEPA (EUR) and SWIFT (GBP).

    Coinbase fiat deposit withdrawal fees
    Coinbase fiat deposit withdrawal fees (Image credit: Coinbase)

    Trading Fees

    Coinbase charges different fees depending on whether you are on Coinbase, Coinbase Pro or Coinbase Prime. Fees are cheaper for the latter 2 due to the larger volume by these traders.

    Coinbase charges its fees based on a maker-taker fee model. Placing an order at market which is filled immediately incurs a taker fee between 0.04% and 0.50%. Conversely, if you place an order which is not immediately matched the order is placed on the order book. When another user puts in an order and matches yours on the book you are charged a maker fee between 0.00% and 0.50%. The taker and maker fees are reduced if the value traded is higher.

    For stablecoin pairs specifically (e.g. USDC/USDT to DAI/PAX, or to fiat etc), Coinbase charges 0.01% and 0.00% for taker and maker fees respectively.

    Controversies

    In late February 2020, Coinbase was identified as one of the entities working with Clearview AI, a controversial facial recognition technology provider who was facing legal threats from Apple and Google for lack of scrutiny into its practices. Coinbase admits to testing Clearview’s software but denies that customer’s data was used in any of such tests. (https://yellowtail.tech/)

    The Exchange has come under fire from users during the Bitcoin price dump on 10th May 2020. On 10th May 2020 at 17:26 Pacific Time, the Exchange’s website and mobile app both experienced outages. 10 minutes later Coinbase came out with a notice saying that it was still investigating this outage, by 18:14, service had been restored. However during this time the price of Bitcoin tumbled from USD $9,500 to $8,100, leaving users only able to helplessly watch the crash and unable to trade.

    Coinbase is pretty much infamous for crashing during huge fluctuations in Bitcoin prices. On 29th April 2020, the Exchange suffered an outage whilst Bitcoin prices shot up to just under USD $9,000. And AGAIN on 10th May 2020.

    Needless to say, users are not happy with the situation, with some noting that Coinbase “crashes” when there is a huge change in Bitcoin prices. And whilst some attribute this to the Exchange being overloaded with users, others are not satisfied with how Coinbase has not fixed this over the years considering the high fees charged from users.

    As to the latest crash on 1st June 2020, Coinbase says that the Bitcoin price spike led to an increase in traffic by 5 times in only 4 minutes. As a result their autoscaling system was overwhelmed and created a backlog which meant that new survey requests were dropped or timed out. Coinbase however alleges that they are working on reducing the impact of price-related traffic spikes.

    Is Coinbase safe in 2022?

    Coinbase

    The Exchange has top of the range security features. Additionally, being licensed in the United States, users have additional protection since Federal laws apply.

    In terms of the Exchange’s method for fund storage, only 2% of customer funds are held in hot wallets. The other 98% is kept in secure cold wallets in different parts of the world. So far, it has not been hacked…yet. Also, Coinbase has an insurance policy that insures against theft of cryptocurrencies resulting from security breaches, hacks, employee theft or fraudulent transfer.

    On account security, Coinbase advises its users to use two-factor authentication. The system supports either short messages sent to the registered mobile phone number, Google Authenticator, among other reliable ways to prevent malicious account login.

    HOWEVER, storing substantial assets in exchanges is not recommended as exchanges are prone to hacks. The best practice is to only leave enough assets for day-to-day trading on exchanges, the remainder should be stored offline on hardware wallets for.

    To learn more about hardware wallets, check out our reviews on the Ledger Nano X and Trezor Model T.

    Is Coinbase affected by the liquidity issues at FTX?

    Coinbase issued an announcement on 8th November 2022 concerning transparency, risk management, and consumer protection. In the announcement, Coinbase confirmed they have approximately US$15 million worth of deposits on FTX which they use to facilitate business operations and client trades. However, they do not have any exposure to Alameda Research, and no loans to FTX.

    As at 10th November 2022, there do not appear to be widespread reports of issues with withdrawing or trading funds on Coinbase. Their status page is also only showing that there are delayed withdrawals on the Polygon Network ONLY but a fix has been implemented. Therefore, it appears that Coinbase is not affected by the issues surrounding FTX exchange.

    Conclusion: Coinbase exchange pros and cons

    Pros

    • Coinbase has remained one of the most secure and reliable cryptocurrency exchanges.
    • The Exchange maintains an insurance policy against hacks and theft, which is reassuring for users.
    • Generally available in many countries, including the US with many payment options.

    Cons

    • Fee structure is highly confusing and not the cheapest out there.
    • Lack of features.
    • Not many supported cryptocurrencies compared to other exchanges.
    • Seems to be unable to handle sudden surges of users and has a history of crashing during periods of high price volatility.

    Final Score

    Services offered: 3/5
    Cryptocurrency support: 3.8/5
    Fees: 3/5
    Security: 4.5/5
    Final Score: 3.6

    To learn more, check out our review of the Top Cryptocurrency Exchanges of 2023!

    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.

  • Top Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges

    Top Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges

    UPDATE: Which are the best exchanges THIS YEAR? Top Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges (2023)

    For this article, exchanges that 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. Potential users should also always check if the exchange is supported in their country and if there are any geographical restrictions. 

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

    Name:
    Binance
    Ease of use:
    4.9 Star Rating
    Fees:
    4.5 Star Rating
    Rating:
    4.5 Star Rating
    Full Review:
    HERE
    Sign Up:
    HERE
    Name:
    Coinbase
    Ease of use:
    4.6 Star Rating
    Fees:
    3 Star Rating
    Rating:
    3.5 Star Rating
    Full Review:
    HERE
    Sign Up:
    HERE
    Name:
    Bybit
    Ease of use:
    4.8 Star Rating
    Fees:
    4.4 Star Rating
    Rating:
    4.5 Star Rating
    Full Review:
    HERE
    Sign Up:
    HERE
    Name:
    Phemex
    Ease of use:
    4 Star Rating
    Fees:
    4 Star Rating
    Rating:
    4.3 Star Rating
    Full Review:
    HERE
    Sign Up:
    HERE
    Name:
    OKX
    Ease of use:
    4.2 Star Rating
    Fees:
    4.1 Star Rating
    Rating:
    4.4 Star Rating
    Full Review:

    HERE

    Sign Up:
    HERE

    Tier 1 Exchanges (Active Trading)

    Binance

    Binance
    Binance Exchange Website

    Binance was founded in 2017 and currently serves over 13.5 million active users across the globe. Unlike Coinbase and Kraken, Binance supports a wide range of altcoins (i.e. cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin). This attracts more people to transfer their Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin from other exchanges to Binance to explore the altcoin world.

    It is suited for entry-level crypto traders due to its huge array of tradable cryptocurrencies. Binance supports trading of over 400 different types of cryptocurrencies 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. 

    The popularity of Binance has made its CEO Zhao Changpeng (CZ) a personality in the cryptocurrency community. His words/actions now have a significant influence on the cryptocurrency markets.

    Cryptocurrencies can be purchased on the Exchange through a variety of ways: PayPal, bank transfer, credit card, and debit card (although they charge a substantial 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 cryptocurrency traders.

    As for security measures, Binance has an asset fund as insurance in case of misappropriated user funds and also provides two-factor authentication.

    Binance also has its own native token- BNB, which ranks 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 at Binance.US. 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. It is easy to use, their customer service team is very responsive, and Binance is credited with pioneering 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. (softlay.com)

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

    Sign up for Binance here!

    KuCoin

    KuCoin
    KuCoin

    KuCoin has unique assets and an extensive list of tradable coins. The Exchange is highly regarded for its large number of different cryptocurrency pairs, which means users can purchase a wide variety of cryptos. 

    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 need to use MetaMask and then trade on different platforms and DEXs. And if it’s an ERC 20 token you would have to pay ridiculously high gas fees which is not economical. So, if these small-cap tokens are already on KuCoin, then you can save a lot of unnecessary costs.

    KuCoin also allows you to use trading bots through their mobile app which automatically buy and sell your cryptocurrencies so you don’t have to follow the market 24/7. However, it’s not always clear how they’re investing your money, so you still need to understand the cryptocurrency trading strategies they use.

    On the downside, KuCoin has in the past been plagued by poor Know-Your-Customer (KYC) procedures. At first, it allowed traders to deposit and withdraw large amounts of Bitcoin i.e. 50 Bitcoin per day without providing personal details. They have since changed their KYC policies and now you can only withdraw up to 2 Bitcoin per day without a “Verified” account i.e. an account that has completed the KYC procedures.

    In addition, Kucoin is a crypto-only exchange, which means you will need another exchange for buying cryptocurrencies with fiat currency such as HKD, USD or CAD. That means Kucoin is not the most ideal option for newcomers to cryptocurrency, but if you are an experienced trader then KuCoin is a great way to diversify your cryptocurrency portfolio.

    SwissBorg

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

    SwissBorg was launched in December 2017, as per their name they are based in Switzerland and are fully compliant with Swiss Law, making them hugely popular amongst Europeans. The Exchange is available in over 100 countries (although currently not supported in the US), and it is noted the full range of features offered by SwissBorg may not be available in every country.

    SwissBorg supports over 35 cryptocurrencies and 16 fiat currencies. New cryptocurrencies are continuously being added and users can vote for the next one to be listed. Users can directly fund their SwissBorg accounts via bank transfer with 0 charges.

    Another popular feature is SwissBorg’s 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 also has a native token $CHSB- 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 a 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 exchange
    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, it 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, and 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 fully compliant with US regulations.

    Coinbase’s popularity stems from the fact that its 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. Advanced users can also opt for Coinbase Pro, which has more trading features.

    Coinbase supports hundreds of digital currencies, but nevertheless still loses out to other major crypto exchanges in this respect. For US customers, there are no restrictions on transacting the following cryptocurrencies:

    • Bitcoin (BTC);
    • Ethereum (ETH);
    • Litecoin (LTC);
    • Bitcoin Cash (BCH);
    • Ethereum Classic (ETC); and
    • Ripple (XRP).

    Here’s a chart of the cryptocurrencies supported by Coinbase depending on your location.

    Most common forms of payment are accepted by Coinbase, for example credit and debit cards.

    Whilst it is generally secure, Coinbase has been under fire recently for suffering outages when there were huge fluctuations in the prices of Bitcoin in March, April AND May 2020. These outages left many users powerless to do any trades when they needed to the most. Potential users should bear this issue in mind when considering whether or not to use Coinbase.

    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 of the platform and as it is one of the few exchanges available to US users.

    Check out our Coinbase review for an in-depth look at this exchange. And as mentioned, Coinbase does charge higher fees compared to other exchanges on the market, hence we have our popular guide- Coinbase Fees: How to Avoid Them.

    Tier 2 Exchanges (Seasonal Trading / specific coins)

    PrimeXBT

    PrimeXBT
    PrimeXBT

    PrimeXBT is also one of the newer players in the cryptocurrency exchange space, having been launched in 2018. Credit is given to this Exchange for being one of the most transparent we have come across. Their website is a one-stop resource for anything you wanted to know about the Exchange and they also have in-depth tutorials on how to use its various features.

    The Exchange is lacking a bit in supported cryptocurrencies, currently, they only support 7 cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, USDC, USDT, LTC, XRP and EOS. In addition, only withdrawals and deposits in BTC are supported. However, what they lack in cryptocurrency support they make up in ability to trade other asset types such as commodities, stock indices and Forex.

    The ability to customise your trading screen and annotate charts is probably something long-awaited by technical analysts and serious traders and will keep them coming back to the Exchange.

    Check out our PrimeXBT review and guide.

    Kraken

    Kraken
    Kraken

    Kraken has a substantial presence in Europe, and listed cryptos have fiat pairs. It was founded in 2011 then relaunched in 2013. Kraken offers trading in over 50 cryptocurrencies- full list here. However, some cryptocurrencies are not available in specific countries.

    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.

    Learn more about futures trading with our Futures Trading Guide.

    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. 

    Bittrex

    Bittrex
    Bittrex

    Bittrex is reliable and offers reputable services. Bittrex I used extensively in the past because they listed lots of coins. However, I eventually moved away from Bittrex because Binance overtook them in terms of coin selection.

    Bittrex will be removing the following markets after 31 May 2019: BTC-COVAL, BTC-SALT AND BTC-XCP. And the following markets after 6 July 2019: BTC-LUN, BTC-NEOS, BTC-THC and BTC-TKS

    Poloniex

    Poloniex
    Poloniex

    I also used Poloniex extensively in the past. However in my experience, their Know Your Customer (KYC) process took a long time. In my case it took 3 months to complete. This was unacceptable especially when it was during the bull market.

    Customer support on Poloniex isn’t terrible, so they still seem to be a good exchange.

    Poloniex’s geofencing announcement

    However if you are a U.S. citizen, you may need to be aware of Poloniex geofencing assets for U.S. customers. On 29 May 2019, the markets for ARDR, BCN, DCR, GAME, GAS, LSK, NXT, OMNI and REP will be disabled for US customers.

    Once the market has been geofenced, customers can still withdraw those tokens from their wallet so long as Poloniex supports it globally. However, customers will not longer be able to see their deposit address or generate a new deposit address.

    Huobi, OKEx

    Huobi
    Huobi

    Huobi and OKEx were the main titans of China. They had lots of Chinese users before the Chinese government cracked down on cryptocurrency trading in the country.

    OKEx
    OKEx

    This was known as the “Golden Vacuum” since it obliterated a lot of Huobi and OKEx’s dominance. This destabilized the two exchanges giving way to others like KuCoin and Binance to take charge.

    We still consider them as Tier 2 exchanges because they still hold onto some of their past customers and because they have the technology for the future.

    There are rumours that the Chinese government allows these exchanges to operate but keeps tabs on their transactions.

    BitMEX

    BitMEX
    BitMEX

    BitMEX is mostly a margin trading exchange allowing enormous leverage (i.e. up to 50 times). Leverage trading is when you do not own the physical bitcoin but you own trading contracts.

    Unfortunately, BitMEX does not operate in the United States and be careful not to login to your BitMEX account there, your account will get banned.

    Although we have heard of some Americans that use VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to mask the country of origin so as to bypass this restriction.

    This is NOT recommended.

    BitMEX has poor customer support. It took us 3 months of emails to unban our account when we accidentally logged into BitMEX in the United States.

    Tier 3 Exchanges (Possible risks / issues)

    Bitfinex

    Bitfinex
    Bitfinex

    Although Bitfinex is a reputable exchange, its recent struggle with the New York Attorney General for US$850 million loss of customer funds lowers its credibility. We will have to see how Bitfinex will overcome this struggle.

    Apart from the case, it has a strong BTC/USD trading pair.

    To stay up to date with what is happening at Bitfinex, click here.

    OceanEx

    OceanEx
    OceanEx

    OceanEX is launched by BitOcean Global, a fully registered and licensed trading paltform in Japan. It’s created by a core team of members with past experience from Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, and Deloitte. OceanEX boasts a host of AI security features to improve user and trading safety. OceanEX is the trading hub of the VeChainThor Ecosystem, with all VeChain assets listed and VeChain trading pairs. Whilst it has many attractive features, we found liquidity lacking on many assets and difficulties both buying and selling various coins.

    To learn more about VeChain and its ecosystem, check our Vechain guide.

    AscendEX (formerly known as BitMax)

    AscendEX
    AscendEX

    I tried this exchange since I received a lot of requests from viewers.

    However I am skeptical of exchanges that use the “Transaction Mining” model. Transaction Mining is where you gain credits or exchange tokens in return for trading.

    This directly incentivises wash trading on the platform, which is where a trader simultaneously sells and buys the same assets.

    This in turn creates misleading reports on the trading volumes on the exchange.

    Tier 4 Exchanges (avoid these exchanges)

    HitBTC

    HitBTC
    HitBTC

    These three exchanges have very questionable practices.

    For example, HitBTC does not have a real KYC policy. They do not seem to have much issue with you depositing large amounts of funds. However if you trade or want to withdraw a lot they will just ban or suspend your account until you communicate with them. This has happened to me personally and when we researched this and found that many others had the same experience.

    Lately there has been a new wave of users complaining about having to provide excessive detail about the source of their funds.

    There are also some users who have done their own investigations and concluded that the Exchange is insolvent.

    YoBit

    YoBit
    YoBit

    The exchange has a troublesome withdrawal process.

    Conclusion

    Tier 1: Binance, KuCoin, SwissBorg, Coinbase

    Tier 2: PrimeXBT, Kraken, Bittrex, Poloniex, Huobi and OKEx, BitMEX

    Tier 3: Bitfinex, OceanEx, AscenDEX (formerly BitMax),

    Tier 4 (avoid): HitBTC, YoBit

    In conclusion, conducting a background check on a cryptocurrency platform before signing up is the best way to avoid losing your digital wealth. Following the above list is one huge step towards this goal.

    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.

  • CBDCs: Pros, Cons, and Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

    CBDCs: Pros, Cons, and Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

    CBDCs are government-backed assets that would offer users an official way to explore existing fiat currencies in a digital manner. Stablecoins have become very popular cryptocurrency options because they function with little to no volatility, providing access to decentralized currencies without the risk of depegging in value. These assets offer stability to crypto enthusiasts who are uninterested in other assets with sudden price swings. As the number of stablecoins increased over time, many countries began to notice and eventually began exploring government-backed stablecoin cryptocurrencies, called Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about CBDCs, and their pros and cons. 

    This is a comprehensive review of CBDCs. If you want to know more about the history of CBDCs, we have also previously written about CBDCs here.

    What are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)?

    A CBDC is a digital form of legal tender pegged to a country’s national currency. These digital currencies are under the control of central banks, which issue the assets, govern their supply, and create related policies. CBDCs have now gained a lot of traction in the financial space. Today, countries are either launching CBDCs or doing research and analysis into the economic and technical feasibility of establishing a national digital currency.

    How Do CBDCs Work?

    CBDCs address specific concerns around crypto volatility, government backing, and transparency through distributed ledger technology (DLT). In traditional finance, banks keep track of all user transactions in a ledger for account records and audits. With distributed ledger technology, there are several copies of CBDC transaction records stored and managed individually, although uniformly updated. It also allows for much easier tracking of spending compared to cash, which is data many governments would like to have.

    Separate financial entities (usually branches of a country’s central bank) manage these records in a distributed manner via DLT. This type of distributed ledger is known as a permissioned blockchain because the central banks have total control over access and distribution, usually only authorizing a few entities to perform specific administrative roles, including altering rights and accessing records. This is in direct contrast with permissionless networks, like most leading blockchains, which allow anybody to perform transactions without needing permission from a central authority. 

    Governments may choose CBDCs because they retain control over certain aspects, such as the total supply of digital currency. On the other hand, popular cryptocurrencies have a hard supply cap that may be impossible to alter. For instance, the Bitcoin network will create only 21 million coins. Once all 21 million Bitcoins are mined, there can be no more new Bitcoins. But CBDCs can be continuously created. Since central banks are responsible for maintaining financial stability, they may choose to reduce or add to the total supply in circulation whenever they consider it necessary.

    Types of CBDCs

    There are two categories of CBDCs, largely based on the intended uses:

    Retail CBDC

    Retail CBDCs are nation-backed digital currencies used by everyday consumers and businesses. People use retail CBDCs like they would use petty cash, without worrying about security or government regulations, even though the assets are under the government’s purview. Additionally, retail CBDCs promote financial inclusion, and also help to lower costs and environmental factors associated with printing cash.

    Wholesale CBDC 

    A central bank primarily creates wholesale CBDCs with financial institutions as their main target, as this type of CBDC facilitates easier and quicker payments between financial institutions. The process of settling transactions using wholesale CBDCs is also more efficient, as permissioned blockchains help institutions resolve risks associated with liquidity and third-party payment processors. Wholesale CBDCs also improve cross-border transaction efficiency.

    CBDCs Around the World

    Several countries have begun experimenting with blockchain CBDCs, while others have already launched their own iterations. So far, more than 100 countries have officially begun exploring CBDCs, with some in the research, development, or pilot stages. As of July 2022, 10 countries have officially launched CBDCs. Some of them include: 

    • China: Digital Yuan/ e-CNY (DCEP)
    • Sweden: e-krona
    • Bahamas: Sand Dollar
    • Nigeria: eNaira
    • Eastern Caribbean Area: DXCD
    • Marshall Islands: Sovereign (SOV)
    • Russia: Digital Ruble
    • Cambodia: Bakong

    To learn more about specific CBDCs, see our review of China’s Digital Yuan/ e-CNY (DCEP) here. 

    Which is the world’s first CBDC?

    The Bahamas ‘Sand Dollar’ is the world’s first CBDC to be released and available nationwide. The Sand Dollar was released on 20th October 2020 to all 393 residents of the Bahamas. Each Sand Dollar is pegged to the Bahamian dollar, which is pegged to the US dollar.

    Pros and Benefits of CBDCs

    CBDCs potentially offer the following benefits to a nation’s financial framework:

    Simplifying Monetary Policy Implementation

    One major challenge with traditional monetary policy implementation is that it depends on intermediaries within the financial system. As wholesale CBDCs streamline the flow of funds in financial institutions, retail CBDCs establish a direct connection between central banks and the citizens that use their currency. This connection to end users effectively improves the process of implementing policies, as the central bank has first-hand knowledge of users’ needs.

    Financial Inclusion 

    CBDCs make fund distribution much easier. They potentially provide more financial inclusion by making services available to people or regions with limited banking opportunities. With CBDCs, central banks can extend access to basic financial services without building an expensive banking infrastructure. 

    Efficient Cross-Border Transactions

    CBDCs enable faster and more secure fund remittance between countries. This significantly reduces the transaction fees required to send and receive funds to and from citizens in the diaspora, as well as allows the transactions to be completed in seconds or minutes instead of days or weeks.

    Further Deter Illegal Financial Activity 

    A distributed and transparent ledger makes it easier for central banks to keep track of transactions and prevent illegal activity. Moreover, where these illicit transactions occur, they are easier to trace, and could even be reversed or frozen.

    Growth of the Fintech Sector 

    CBDCs support the growth and development of the fintech industry. With the global adoption of CBDCs, the fintech space is gradually witnessing a new technological landscape that creates new jobs and opportunities.

    Cons and Drawbacks of CBDCs

    Like any innovation, CBDCs also have drawbacks users must consider. These disadvantages include:

    Traceability and Lack of Anonymity

    Since central banks manage CBDC transactions through a ledger, they have full control over transaction records. This method does not allow for user anonymity and is in direct contrast with the anonymous nature of most other cryptocurrencies and cash.

    Threat to Privacy

    Privacy is one of the key drivers behind cryptocurrency adoption. CBDCs may require that central authorities intrude on private users to monitor transactions and combat financial crimes like money laundering. No longer will there be private transactions, as everything is recorded on a ledger controlled by the country’s central banking entity.

    High Risk of Cyber Attack

    A central bank’s digital currency may attract malicious parties who want to swindle large amounts of money from one source. CBDCs must use top-of-the-line cybersecurity measures to prevent breaches effectively.

    Creating a social credit system?

    Maajid Nawaz, a social activist and co-founder of British think tank Qiulliam, has suggested that CBDCs can essentially create a social credit system. For example, people can be barred from spending their CBDCs on buses or trains, which will effectively limit their freedom to travel as they wish.

    Differences Between CBDCs and Cryptocurrencies

    Apart from centralization, here are some other ways in which CBDCs differ from cryptocurrencies: 

    • The use cases of CBDCs include payments and monetary transactions. On the other hand, crypto assets have selected applications, and not all institutions and companies accept cryptocurrencies as a payment option.
    • There is generally more value to safety with CBDCs. In a stable political and inflationary nation, CBDCs maintain their value over time since they are a fiat currency of the issuing country. For decentralized crypto assets, the cryptocurrency’s value depends on market speculation and user sentiments, which makes them much more volatile.
    • Central banks can maintain all aspects of CBDCs, including planning and deployment. On the other hand, cryptocurrencies have a decentralized decision-making process. 

    Conclusion 

    Considering the efforts and attention that central banks have dedicated to CBDCs, mainstream adoption of these assets is all but imminent. Global adoption of CBDCs will effectively boost the crypto industry’s growth as more people begin to carry out CBDC transactions and look for viable alternatives. CBDCs will also help central banks penetrate a country’s unbanked or underbanked population, which is fantastic for their underserved citizenry. 

    In the end, nations may enjoy better financial stability from CBDCs. With a centrally regulated, government-backed digital currency in circulation, central banks can enact monetary policies easily and with more transparency in distribution. CBDCs could eventually become the standard for local payments and also for cross-border transactions.

  • 5 Reasons to be excited about Ethereum (According to Vitalik)

    5 Reasons to be excited about Ethereum (According to Vitalik)

    Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin recently discussed in his blog post his excitement about Ethereum and its potential. He admits that originally, he was more general about what Ethereum can achieve. But now, after so many projects being developed on Ethereum, he is shifting his gaze to applications already known to work. In this article, we look at some Vitalik’s reasons as to why we should be excited for Ethereum and its potential.

    What is Ethereum?

    Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. It provides a decentralized virtual machine known as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The EVM can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes. Ethereum also provides a cryptocurrency token called “ether” ($ETH). Ether ($ETH) can be transferred between accounts and used to compensate participant nodes for computations performed. Ethereum was proposed in late 2013 by Vitalik Buterin and launched in 2015.

    To learn more about Ethereum, check out our article: Ethereum 2.0 is coming- Here’s what you NEED to know.

    Ethereum development roadmap
    Ethereum development roadmap (Source: Twitter)

    Reason 1: Ethereum as a form of payment

    In countries with fewer links to the global financial system or with extreme inflation, cryptocurrency (and Ethereum) is a valuable asset. Vitalik realised this in December 2021 when he was able to pay for meals using cryptocurrency in Argentina.

    One obstacle to the more widespread use of cryptocurrency, according to Vitalik, was high transaction fees. At the time, fees cost about a third of his meal, and several minutes to confirm. However, since he and the restaurant owner had Binance wallets, they were able to transfer the funds instantly for free.

    Since then, there have been significant improvements to the Ethereum network. After the Ethereum Merge transactions are being processed at a much faster and more stable rate. Scaling technologies such as rollups will even further push Ethereum’s scalability. Technologies such as social recovery and multisig wallets with account abstraction are also improving wallet security. It may take years for these technologies to mature, but progress is certainly being made.

    Donations are a notable use case for cryptocurrency. For example, we saw donations being made to Ukraine and refugees relying on digital currencies as a form of payment.

    To learn more, check out our article: Crypto war- The role of cryptocurrencies in the Russian-Ukraine conflict.

    In addition, countries’ adoption of CBDCs (e.g. China’s DCEP/e-CNY) has led to serious concerns about financial surveillance and control. According to Vitalik, cryptocurrency is the only technology that can combine digitalization with privacy.

    This makes payments one of the major reasons to be excited for Ethereum and its potential.

    Reason 2: Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

    Vitalik also sees huge potential in DeFi. In particular, he considers the following DeFi products to be especially important:

    • Decentralized stablecoins: Decentralized stablecoins are considered a secure and stable digital money. Essentially, halfway between holding crypto assets and withdrawing to fiat currency. They are also usually pegged to a reserved asset, such as the US Dollar, making it less volatile than most cryptocurrencies. Decentralized stablecoins have added aspects of being fully transparent and non-custodial. An example of decentralized stablecoins is the DAI token, DUSD or EOSDT.
    • Prediction markets: Prediction markets have been a reliable part of the DeFi landscape since Augur launched in 2015. They have been gaining traction ever since, demonstrating their utility in the 2020 US election. Allowing people to predict (and profit) from the outcome of the 2020 US elections. In 2022, both crypto-based prediction markets such as Polymarket, and play-money markets like Metaculus are becoming even more popular. Crypto-based prediction markets are advantageous, as they are more trustworthy and accessible worldwide. Vitalik expects these markets to continuously grow in terms of usage and value over time.
    • Other synthetic assets: Major stock indices and real estate have the potential to be replicated in the same way as stablecoins. However, there is a challenge in creating an appropriate balance of decentralization and efficiency to make these assets available at reasonable rates of return.
    • Glue layers: These will be necessary to allow users to easily trade between different assets, such as ETH, centralized or decentralized stablecoins, synthetic assets, etc.
    Polymarket is a popular platform allowing users to make predictions on current events
    Polymarket is a popular platform allowing users to make predictions on current events (Source: Polymarket)

    Reason 3: Blockchain Identity

    Vitalik is bullish on blockchain identity. Blockchain identity uses blockchain technology for aspects of identification such as basic authentication, attestations, naming, and proof of personhood. An example mentioned by Vitalik is the Sign In With Ethereum (SIWE) standard. The SIWE standard lets users log into websites similar to how we use Google or Facebook to automatically log in. But with SIWE, we can log into sites without fear of Google or Facebook accessing our private information, or locking our accounts. SIWE is currently used in end-to-end encrypted email, Skiff and many blockchain-based alternative social media projects.

    Also, ENS allows usernames to be used with proof-of-personhood systems. This can enable users to prove that they are actually human. This is especially useful for airdrops and governance, as it ensures fairness and prevents abuse. Proof-of-attendance protocol can also confirm a person’s participation and thus their eligibility for airdrops and participation in governance.

    Vitalik believes that each of these applications has its individual uses. But the true utility will be seen when these aspects are all combined. For example, users can log on to Blockscan chat using Ethereum, making them visible by their ENS name. Then, to fight spam, Blockscan chat could “verify” accounts by examining their proof-of-attendance protocols. This verification process could show information on a user’s participation, and even verify token balances or a proof-of-personhood profile. In turn, it can be determined whether the user should be eligible for rewards and perks.

    Reason 4: DAOs

    DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) are smart contracts that represent an ownership or control structure over an asset or process. Vitalik believes there is still room for improvement for DAOs, particularly in terms of ensuring they are not abused. For example, DAOs are crucial for the long-term survival of decentralized stablecoins. But, there have been cases of malicious actors abusing DAOs to drain DeFi projects out of hundreds of millions.

    Reason 5: Hybrid applications

    Finally, Vitalik believes there are applications that can take advantage of both blockchains and other systems in order to improve their trust models. For example, voting can utilise systems such as MACI to combine blockchains, ZK-SNARKs, and a limited centralized (or M-of-N) layer for scalability and coercion resistance. This will allow voting to be censorship resistant, auditable, and private.

    Conclusion

    According to Vitalik, we are only at the beginning stages of building applications that will push Ethereum’s potential even further. Currently, these applications face the challenges of the limits of present-day technology, such as the lack of scalability of blockchains. There will also be other challenges to come, such as privacy issues.

    However, there are numerous reasons to be excited for Ethereum, because all these problems can be solved. Vitalik believes that it will require us to look beyond the quest for excitement and short-term profit. Because sometimes, it is the more stable and boring applications that become the most useful and valuable in the long run.

  • Binance futures trading: How to guide

    Binance futures trading: How to guide

    Crypto futures trading allows traders to have exposure to cryptocurrencies without the need to own the underlying crypto asset. Binance exchange offers futures trading to users through Binance Futures, which has 279 trading pairs. This article provides a guide on how to trade on Binance Futures.

    Get 20% off fees when signing up for Binance with the following link!

    What is Binance?

    Binance was launched in 2017 and is arguably the world’s most popular centralized cryptocurrency exchange. It has over 2 billion average daily volume and 72 million site visits daily. The Binance ecosystem includes Binance exchange, BNB Chain, Trust Wallet, Binance card, and other services.

    What is crypto futures trading?

    Crypto futures contracts create an obligation for parties to exchange the asset at a predetermined price and date. On most cryptocurrency exchanges, however, the parties can settle for the cash equivalent. But, the trade must take place. 

    Traders use futures trading to profit from market movements by going either “long” or “short” on a futures contract. Going “long” means that a trader purchases a futures contract expecting it would increase in value in the future. And if the value of the cryptocurrency does increase, the long trader would profit. On the other hand, a trader going “short” means they are hoping prices will drop.

    Learn more about crypto futures trading with our guide- Crypto Futures Trading: What is it?

    What is Binance Futures?

    Binance Futures allows users to trade crypto futures contracts on Binance. It has 279 trading pairs and has the second-highest 24-hour trading volume amongst all crypto derivative exchanges. Binance Futures offers USDⓈ-M Futures and COIN-M Futures. These are perpetual or quarterly contracts settled in USDT/BUSD, or cryptocurrency respectively.

    Binance Futures also has interesting features such as a leaderboard, showing traders with the highest ROI or PNL. Other traders can follow these top traders and see what positions they are holding, as well as copy their trades.

    For traders who are more competitive, Binance Futures has a battle mode where you can guess whether prices will rise or fall within the next 1 or 5 minutes. Then, you will be matched with another player who predicted in the opposite direction. Players will still gain points regardless of whether they win or lose. Points can then be used to earn further rewards.

    Binance Futures trading fees

    Binance uses a maker-taker fee structure. Maker trades are orders that go on the order book partially or fully e.g. limit orders. Taker trades are executed immediately before entering the order book. Market orders are a type of taker trade. The fee charged depends on which type of trade. As maker trades add volume to the order books and thus “make” the market, it is in an exchange’s interest to have more of these orders. Therefore, maker fees are usually lower than taker fees.

    Binance also has a 9-tier VIP structure which offers progressively lower fees for users with high trade volume and substantial BNB holdings. Users who use BUSD, Binance’s USD stablecoin, or BNB for settling fees are also rewarded with lower trading fees.

    The lowest tier, i.e. “Regular users” are traders with a past 30-day trading volume of less than 15 million BUSD or hold 0 BNB. For regular users, the maker/taker fee for USDⓈ-M futures trading is 0.02%/0.04%, and for COIN-M futures, the maker/taker fee is 0.01%/0.05%.

    Highest tier users i.e. VIP 9, users must have a past 30-day trading volume of over 25 billion BUSD and hold over 5,500 BNB. VIP 9 users enjoy a maker/taker fee of 0.00%/0.017% for USDⓈ-M futures trading, and for COIN-M futures, the maker/taker fee is -0.009%/0.024%.

    Binance futures trading fees
    Binance futures trading fees (Source: Binance)

    Extra discount! Enjoy 20% off fees when signing up for Binance with the following link!

    Pros and advantages of trading on Binance Futures

    Binance is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges. According to CoinGecko, Binance has the second-highest trading volume with over US$35 million being traded in 24 hours. Here are some of the pros and advantages of crypto trading on Binance Futures:

    • Many trading pairs. Binance Futures have 279 trading pairs, giving traders a wide range of options from popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin ($BTC), to meme coins such as Shiba Inu ($SHIB).
    • Low trading fees and generous fee structure. Maker/taker fees start at 0.02%/0.04%. However, Binance Coin ($BNB) and BUSD holders, and high-volume traders are entitled to discounts, bringing trading fees to as low as 0.0100%/0.0207%.
    • Low minimum trade amount. Traders can start with a minimum trade amount of 0.001 BTC on the BTCUSDT Perpetual market.
    • Binance offers up to 100x leverage. This allows more experienced traders to potentially maximise their gains.
    • Binance has trading tools such as Grid Trading, TWAP, Advanced TP/SL, and Multi-Symbols Trading Page for maximum trading efficiency.

    Cons and disadvantages of trading on Binance Futures

    • Futures trading is not available in the US. So US traders will need to use other exchanges for futures trading.
    • Users must pass the verification process in order to begin using Binance Futures.

    Is Binance Futures trading safe?

    Binance has a US$300 million Insurance Fund to protect traders. The Fund acts as a safety net to protect bankrupt traders from adverse losses whilst ensuring that winning traders are paid in full. The purpose of Binance’s insurance fund is to limit counterparty liquidations. Counterparty liquidations are where the positions of opposing traders are automatically liquidated in order to cover a bankrupt trader’s position. The insurance fund takes the remaining positions when a trader in liquidation has less than 0 USDT after all their positions are liquidated. These remaining positions would be offloaded onto the market gradually and liquidation fees will be collected from users that do not result in bankruptcy.

    Binance also has a Cooling-Off Period function to help traders prevent compulsive trading behaviours. It works by preventing traders from trading futures-related products on the exchange for a predetermined period.

    How to start trading on Binance Futures

    Trading on Binance Futures only requires 5 simple steps.

    1. Sign up for a Binance Account

    To sign up AND get an additional 20% off trading fees click here.

    Alternatively, on the Binance main page, click register and enter your details. Don’t forget to fill in GQWT3T1T for the Referral ID in order to be eligible for 20% off trading fees.

    You can sign up with your phone, email, Google, or Apple accounts.

    2. Open a Binance Futures account

    Go to Binance Futures and click Open Now, if prompted, you can enter GQWT3T1T as the Futures referral code in order to enjoy 20% off trades. Then, complete and get all the answers correct on the 14-question quiz on how to use Binance Futures.

    3. Complete the verification process

    Click Profile and then Verification. Follow the steps and fill in your personal information. A government-issued ID (e.g. a passport) and address proof must be provided, and you must also pass the facial recognition test.

    4. Make a deposit into your Binance account

    Binance allows you to deposit fiat or cryptocurrencies into your account. To deposit, click on your profile and go to Dashboard. Under Fund your Account, you can choose to Buy crypto using Mastercard, Visa, Google, or Apple Pay. Users can also choose to Deposit crypto from other exchanges or their hardware wallet.

    5. Start trading

    On Binance Futures, choose between USDⓈ-M and COIN-M Futures Contracts. On the top left-hand corner (marked in yellow), you can choose which futures contract to trade.

    Choose which futures contract to trade
    Choose which futures contract to trade (Source: Binance)

    On the left-hand side, there are various tools to help you identify patterns or trades such as trend lines, arrows, or Fibonacci retracement. You can use these tools to annotate your charts.

    Binance Futures chart tools
    Binance Futures chart tools (Source: Binance)

    On the top right-hand side of the page, you can select the Margin Mode. Users can choose between Cross or Isolated margin modes. Cross-margin mode means that the entire margin balance will be shared across open positions. However, if there is a liquidation event, the risk is that their entire margin balance and any open positions may be lost. Isolated margin mode, on the other hand, allows traders to manage their risk on individual positions by restricting the amount of margin allocation. The benefit of isolated margin mode is that if a position is close to being liquidated, users can allocate additional margin to that position.

    Select Cross or Margin Mode on Binance Futures
    Select Cross or Margin Mode on Binance Futures (Source: Binance)

    Set your Leverage (if any) by clicking on the top right-hand corner. Traders can set the leverage from 1x to 125x. However, traders should be careful that setting high leverage could result in significant losses in the event of a liquidation.

    Set leverage on Binance Futures
    Set leverage on Binance Futures (Source: Binance)

    On the right-hand side of the page, you can also select the type of order (e.g. Limit, Market, Stop Limit, etc), the order price, and size. For a more automated yet managed trading experience, traders can also select TP/SL i.e. when to take profits, or stop loss. Finally, traders need to select between a Buy/Long, or Sell/Short order.

    Is Binance Futures safe?

    Binance Futures comes with security features expected from every reputable cryptocurrency exchange. Binance Futures requires users to have passed the KYC verification before they can start trading. Before trades are executed, users must also have enabled 2FA authentication and will be sent an Anti-Phishing Code for verification.

    Binance Futures also has a nearly US$300 million insurance fund to protect bankrupt traders from adverse losses. It also ensures that profits of winning traders are fully paid out.

    Finally, if users really need help, Binance offers customer support in 17 different languages via Live Chat or email.

    Conclusion

    Trading futures contracts are a great way for cryptocurrency traders to profit from fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices. Furthermore, Binance Futures is a popular exchange for traders of any level to trade futures since they have a large number of trading pairs. Binance Futures also has the benefit of a huge insurance fund, helpful tutorials, and customer support to ensure that customers have a straightforward and secure trading experience.

    Enjoy 20% off fees when signing up for Binance with the following link!

  • Crypto Futures Trading: What is it?

    Crypto Futures Trading: What is it?

    Crypto futures trading is a type of derivative financial contract. It creates an obligation for the parties to exchange the crypto asset at a predetermined price and date. In this article, we look at what is crypto futures trading.

    What is futures trading?

    Futures are generally named based on the month they expire. For example, a March crude oil futures contract will expire in March and is based on crude oil as an underlying asset. You can also find contracts for other commodities. 

    Traders use the term futures broadly for a whole asset class. And there are multiple futures contracts available based on different types of assets. For example: 

    • Commodities such as crude oil, corn, and wheat;
    • US bonds, or any other government-backed financial bond;
    • Precious commodities like silver and gold; and
    • Index futures such as the Dow Jones Industrial Index.

    For example, a BTCUSD quarterly contract uses BTC as an underlying asset and expires quarterly.

    What is crypto futures trading?

    In crypto futures trading, traders can gain exposure to cryptocurrencies without actually needing to possess the underlying crypto asset. However, there are risks involved with futures trading such as high price volatility.

    Traders use futures trading to take advantage and profit from market movements by going either long or short on a futures contract. Going “long” means that a trader purchases a futures contract expecting that it would increase in value in the future. On the other hand, a trader going “short” means they are hoping prices will drop.

    Here is an example of a futures contract:

    Adam enters into a long futures position when BTC was trading at US$15,000 whilst Bob enters into a short futures position. BTC prices rose to US$20,000 and both Adam and Bob agree to settle their positions. For Adam, BTC was worth more at settlement than when he entered the long position. So Adam makes a profit of US$5,000 from the exchange, being the price difference between the two times. On the other hand, Bob is holding a losing trade since he was holding a short position. So Bob must instead pay the exchange the deficit loss of US$5,000.

    Crypto futures trading
    Crypto futures trading (Source: Binance)

    Difference between options and futures contracts trading

    Futures and options contracts are not the same. An options contract does not impose an obligation on the buyer or the seller. Rather, an options contract gives the parties the option to buy or sell a crypto asset at a fixed price on a specified expiry date. There are 2 types of options contracts: call contracts which give traders the right to buy, and put options which give traders the right to sell.

    On the other hand, in a futures contract, the buyer has to take possession of the underlying asset, and the seller has to sell that asset. The parties can settle for the cash equivalent, which is what happens on most cryptocurrency exchanges. However, the trade must take place. 

    Pros of crypto futures trading

    Here are some benefits (pros) of crypto futures trading:

    • Crypto futures contracts allow traders to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies and possibly profit from their price movements without holding the cryptocurrency itself.
    • Traders can bet against the direction of the market and profit from it. Long traders predict the price of a crypto asset will increase. Whist traders which go short would profit if prices drop.
    • Trading crypto futures with leverage allows traders to potentially have more gains with only a fraction of the total cost. This, however, comes with risks.

    Cons of crypto futures trading

    Here are some risks (cons) of crypto futures trading:

    • Cryptocurrency markets can be very volatile. And unlike traditional markets, cryptocurrencies are traded 24 hours a day. This means traders must constantly check the direction of the market.
    • Leveraged trading is very risky and could lead to substantial losses.

    Conclusion

    Crypto futures trading is a good way to gain exposure to cryptocurrency trading without holding the underlying cryptocurrency. It is also a hugely popular financial product that is offered on most crypto exchanges. Traders however should take extra care and ensure they have appropriate trading risk mitigation strategies in place to manage their portfolios. You would never invest more than you can afford to lose, especially when cryptocurrency markets are by nature extremely volatile.