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  • EVO Wallet Airdrop Guide: LIVE NOW

    EVO Wallet Airdrop Guide: LIVE NOW

    EVO Wallet is an Aptos Network wallet available on both iOS and Android. The wallet will allow users to send and receive Aptos tokens ($APTOS), store their cryptocurrencies, swap tokens, and more. In this article, we give you a complete guide on how to get a potential EVO Wallet airdrop.

    EVO Wallet Airdrop Step-by-Step Guide

    Here’s how to get a potential EVO Wallet airdrop:

    1. Download EVO Wallet here.
    2. Set up your EVO Wallet.
    3. Reply to EVO Wallet’s Tweet with your wallet QR Code. You can find your wallet QR code by going to “Receive” on the main wallet page.

    See below for more details.

    What is EVO Wallet?

    EVO Wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet for the Aptos ecosystem. It is available for download on both iOS and Android. The wallet boasts an amazing UI/UX and allows users to send and receive APTOS, swap tokens, and safe storage of their cryptocurrencies. EVO wallet also has security features such as two-factor authentication and is non-custodial.

    EVO Wallet
    EVO Wallet

    Does EVO Wallet have a token?

    EVO Wallet does not have a token, and there is no documentation available to indicate whether or not they will eventually have one. But they have done various competitions in the past where they awarded Aptos tokens ($APT) to winners.

    How to receive EVO Wallet Token Airdrop?

    EVO Wallet is currently running an airdrop campaign until 7th March 2023! Here are the following steps required in order to get a potential EVO Wallet token airdrop:

    1. Download EVO Wallet here.
    2. Set up your EVO Wallet.
    3. Reply to EVO Wallet’s Tweet with your wallet QR Code. You can find your wallet QR code by going to “Receive” on the main wallet page.

    The team did not specify what winners will receive, but it is hinted that it would be an Aptodino NFT.

    Join for a chance to get a potential airdrop!

    Little is known about the project and it is at a very early stage of development. So we expect they will have even more airdrops and giveaways in the future.

    Airdrop Review

    When reviewing an airdrop, there are several factors to consider. First, the likelihood the project will even do an airdrop in the first place. Then, to look at how many tokens the project intends to allocate towards airdrop campaigns, as well as the difficulty in participating in their airdrop. It is also important to look at the utility of the token so that there will be an actual use and purpose in participating in the airdrop in the first place. Finally, a factor to consider when reviewing an airdrop is whether the airdropped tokens are subject to any lockup period.

    Likelihood of Airdrop: EVO Wallet has done previous contests where they rewarded winners with Apotos tokens ($APT). For the current airdrop, the reward seems to be an exclusive Aptodino NFT.

    Airdropped Token Allocation: Their tokenomics is not yet available, so this information is unknown for now.

    Airdrop Difficulty: The current airdrop is very simple and only requires downloading their wallet and replying to the team’s Tweet.

    Token Utility: This information is unknown.

    Token Lockup: This information is unknown.

  • SharDex ($SDT) Token Airdrop Guide: LIVE NOW!

    SharDex ($SDT) Token Airdrop Guide: LIVE NOW!

    SharDex is now live on Shardeum Liberty 2.X, and they have launched a million-point airdrop plan. Users can earn Share Points by inviting friends and completing simple tasks on their Crew3 page. These points will be translated to token rewards in the future. In this article, we will explain what SharDex is and what you can do to position yourself for the airdrop.

    Use our invite link to sign up with their testnet (we each get Share Points)!

    SharDex ($SDT) Airdrop Step-by-Step Guide

    SharDex hinted at several ways you could get a token airdrop. Here’s how to get a potential $SDT airdrop:

    1. Enter SharDex Waitlist with Our Referral Link
    2. Claim SBT and Complete Crew3 Tasks
    3. Swap Tokens
    4. Stake $SDT in Pools
    5. Provide Liquidity and Stake LP Tokens
    6. Bridge Assets to Shardeum (For SBT Holders Only)

    See below for more details.

    What is SharDex?

    SharDex is a new trading platform that has been launched on the Shardeum blockchain. It leverages Shardeum’s dynamic state sharding to provide users with the best possible on-chain trading experience for assets. The platform includes a range of asset management solutions, such as Bridge, Swap, NFT Marketplace, Launchpad, and DAO.

    These features allow users to easily transfer assets from other chains to Shardeum, and exchange them for other assets in a secure, affordable, and user-friendly way. With SharDex, users can manage their assets more efficiently and take advantage of the benefits of decentralized trading.

    Does SharDex have a Token?

    Yes, SharDex’s ticker symbol is $SDT, as confirmed on their testnet. Please note that this is not to be confused with the Soul Bound Token (SBT), which is obtained by successfully referring 3 friends and serves as an admission ticket for their future Initial DEX Offering (IDO).

    SharDex has also confirmed in its roadmap that there will be an $SDT airdrop in the future.

    How to Receive $SDT Airdrop?

    The best way to get the $SDT airdrop is to earn Share Points on the testnet and claim the Soul Bound Token (SBT). You can also use the testnet products (i.e. swaps, liquidity pool, bridge) to qualify for a potential snapshot. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

    1. Enter SharDex Waitlist with Our Referral Link

      Use our invite link to enter the SharDex Waitlist (we each get Share Points)! Connect your MetaMask wallet and switch the network to Shardeum Liberty 2.X.

      Afterwards, bind your Twitter and Discord accounts, and you will have your own referral link to invite friends for more Share Points.

    2. Claim SBT and Complete Crew3 Tasks

      After successfully referring 3 friends, you can claim your SBT and join the SharDex NFT Waitlist for the Genesis Airdrop. Additionally, you can complete their Crew3 tasks to earn more Share Points. They are very easy to complete.

    3. Swap Tokens

      From this point on, it’s optional, but participating may increase your chances of being included in an airdrop if there are snapshot criteria for using the protocol.

      Get some $SHM at faucet.liberty20.shardeum.org, and then you can swap tokens at testnet.shardex.org/swap.

    4. Stake $SDT in Pools

      Stake some testnet $SDT at testnet.shardex.org/pools. You can choose to stake manual SDT or Auto SDT, similar to the compounding features of PancakeSwap.

    5. Provide Liquidity and Stake LP Tokens

      If you have at least 2 tokens, you can provide liquidity for certain trading pairs by depositing them at testnet.shardex.org/pool. After getting the LP tokens, you can stake them at testnet.shardex.org/farm to earn more $SDT.

    6. Bridge Assets to Shardeum (For SBT Holders Only)

      Once you have your SBT, you can use their Bridge feature. You will need some $SHM to cover gas fees. As of now, there are five test coins to bridge between seven different testnets.

    Airdrop Review

    When reviewing an airdrop, there are several factors to consider. First, the likelihood the project will even do an airdrop in the first place. Then, to look at how many tokens the project intends to allocate towards airdrop campaigns, as well as the difficulty in participating in their airdrop. It is also important to look at the utility of the token so that there will be an actual use and purpose in participating in the airdrop in the first place. Finally, a factor to consider when reviewing an airdrop is whether the airdropped tokens are subject to any lockup period.

    Likelihood of Airdrop: There will be an airdrop in the future, according to SharDex’s roadmap.

    Airdropped Token Allocation: Token distribution information will be released soon.

    Airdrop Difficulty: The tasks are straightforward and easy to complete. Simply connect your wallet to Shardeum Liberty 2.X, bind your Twitter and Discord accounts, and refer your friends using the invite link. You will earn Share Points for completing these tasks, which can be redeemed for token rewards in the future. Additionally, after successfully referring three friends, SharDex will automatically send an SBT to your wallet, which can be used as a ticket for future IDOs and airdrops.

    Token Utility: SharDex has not yet published details of the utilities of $SDT, but it is likely that they will follow a similar model to other DEX protocols, including governance rights, fee discounts, yield farming, and listing fees.

    Token Lockup: Tokenomics has not yet been published.

  • Vertex Protocol ($VRTX) Token Airdrop Guide: LIVE NOW!

    Vertex Protocol ($VRTX) Token Airdrop Guide: LIVE NOW!

    Vertex Protocol’s testnet is currently live, and they are planning to launch their $VRTX token. This means that an airdrop is very likely. In this article, we will explain what Vertex Protocol is and what you can do to position for the airdrop.

    Vertex Protocol ($VRTX)Airdrop Step-by-Step Guide

    Here’s how to get a potential Vertex Protocol ($VRTX) airdrop:

    1. Connect Arbitrum Goerli to your Wallet
    2. Claim Testnet Faucet ETH
    3. Claim Extra Testnet Funds on Vertex Protocol
    4. Deposit Funds to Start Trading
    5. Trade on Vertex Protocol

    See below for more details.

    What is Vertex Protocol?

    Vertex Protocol is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that offers fast and efficient cross-margined spot and derivatives trading, lending and borrowing for yield or leverage, and a robust risk engine for capital efficiency and risk management. It features an easy-to-use UI/UX for both Web3 and Web2 preferences, industry-leading fees, and complete self-custody of funds.

    Built on Arbitrum, Vertex leverages smart contracts for optimal liquidity and trading opportunities, multiple UIs catering to traders of different levels and goals, a high-quality software development kit, future tokenomics for strong alignment of incentives and governance rights, and seamless bridging and on/off ramp experiences directly in the dApp. With Vertex, users can enjoy a frictionless decentralized trading experience while having full custody of their own funds.

    Does Vertex Protocol have a Token?

    Yes, Vertex Protocol confirmed in their litepaper that they are planning to launch their $VRTX token. It is a governance token that allows users to participate in the protocol in a decentralized manner. Additionally, Vertex will create two other tokens: xVRTX, a liquid staking token, and voVRTX, a voting token that cannot be transferred. Both tokens are crucial in rewarding stakeholders at different levels of governance and participation based on their level of commitment to the protocol.

    How to Receive Potential $VRTX Airdrop?

    Time needed: 15 minutes

    The best chance to receive a potential $VRTX airdrop is to interact with the Vertex Protocol testnet. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to position yourself for the airdrop:

    1. Connect Arbitrum Goerli to your Wallet

      Go to app.vertexprotocol.com/portfolio/overview, connect your MetaMask and switch to the Arbitrum Goerli network. It will automatically connect for you.

    2. Claim Testnet Faucet ETH

      Copy and paste your wallet address at faucet.triangleplatform.com/arbitrum/goerli to claim 0.01 testnet ETH on Arbitrum Goerli. You will need this for gas fee in the next step.

    3. Claim Extra Testnet Funds on Vertex Protocol

      After you have some testnet ETH on your Arbitrum Goerli, go to app.vertexprotocol.com/portfolio/faucet. You can mint testnet wBTC, wETH, and USDC here. You can mint as many times as you like, but keep in mind they have no monetary value.

    4. Deposit Funds to Start Trading

      Go to app.vertexprotocol.com/portfolio/overview and click “Deposit”, and then approve and confirm the transaction. Keep in mind your deposits may take a few minutes to be reflected in balances.

    5. Trade on Vertex Protocol

      Once your funds are deposited, you can start trading on the spot market or perpetuals. Since these are testnet tokens, feel free to go crazy on those trades! We recommend making at least 10 trades per day to secure a position for the airdrop snapshot.

      You can check your open orders at app.vertexprotocol.com/portfolio/orders, your perpetual positions at app.vertexprotocol.com/portfolio/positions, and your account balance at app.vertexprotocol.com/portfolio/balances.

    Airdrop Review

    When reviewing an airdrop, there are several factors to consider. First, the likelihood the project will even do an airdrop in the first place. Then, to look at how many tokens the project intends to allocate towards airdrop campaigns, as well as the difficulty in participating in their airdrop. It is also important to look at the utility of the token so that there will be an actual use and purpose in participating in the airdrop in the first place. (perfumesample.com) Finally, a factor to consider when reviewing an airdrop is whether the airdropped tokens are subject to any lockup period.

    Likelihood of Airdrop: Vertex Protocol has not officially announced an airdrop. However, their testnet is currently live and they are planning to launch the $VRTX token, which means an airdrop is very likely.

    Airdropped Token Allocation: Their tokenomics is not yet available, so this information is unknown for now.

    Airdrop Difficulty: It is very simple to qualify for the airdrop. All you have to do is connect to the Arbitrum Goerli network in your MetaMask, claim testnet tokens, and start trading.

    Token Utility: The $VRTX token is a governance token that enables users to participate in Vertex Protocol in a decentralized manner. The protocol will also introduce two other tokens: xVRTX, a liquid staking token, and voVRTX, a voting token that cannot be transferred. These tokens will be used to reward stakeholders at different levels of governance and participation based on their level of commitment to the protocol.

    Token Lockup: The $VRTX token lockup period is unknown for now.

  • Crypto Airdrops Tier List 2023: Discover Rare, Thrilling, and High-Yield Gems to Skyrocket Your Earnings!

    Crypto Airdrops Tier List 2023: Discover Rare, Thrilling, and High-Yield Gems to Skyrocket Your Earnings!

    Welcome to the most comprehensive and up-to-date Crypto Airdrops Tier List for 2023! As the world of cryptocurrencies continues to evolve at a rapid pace, airdrops have become a go-to strategy for both new and established projects to gain traction and reward their communities. In this insightful guide, we’ve meticulously ranked the top airdrops of the year based on their potential rewards, project credibility, and overall excitement. Get ready to uncover hidden gems, maximize your earnings, and be a part of the most lucrative crypto airdrops of 2023!

    Crypto Airdrops Tier List 2023

    Crypto Airdrops Tier List 2023

    We have compiled the top trending airdrops this year into a tier list based on four criteria:

    • Project Credibility — Is the project backed by reputable investors or partnered with well-established, legitimate projects? Is there any public information available about the project team, and do they have prior experience in the blockchain industry?
    • Security — Is it safe to connect my MetaMask or other crypto wallets to the project’s website? Has the project been audited by a third-party security firm?
    • Cost — Does participating in the airdrop require any form of spending or investment, or is it entirely free?
    • Effort — How much time and effort do I need to invest in completing the tasks that qualify me for the airdrop? Are these tasks simple or challenging? Does it require me to be a developer, validator, or just a regular user?

    S Tier Airdrops

    zkSync

    • Project Credibility — zkSync is developed by Matter Labs, a well-known engineering team based in Europe. They have raised $458 million in financing across all rounds, backed by the likes of the Ethereum Foundation.
    • Security — The project has been audited by several top smart contract security firms including OpenZeppelin, Halborn, and Code4rena.
    • Cost — You will need to bridge ETH to the zkSync Era Mainnet via ZigZag Exchange or Orbiter Finance. Swap stablecoin pairs to minimize cost risk. You can also interact with the zkSync Era Testnet using free testnet tokens.
    • Effort — The steps are easy to follow, but it’s recommended to perform them frequently and consistently to be included in the snapshot. Actions involve bridging your funds, swapping and trading tokens, or providing liquidity. The higher the aggregate value, the more $ZKS tokens you can potentially earn.

    Grading Insight: zkSync is the most anticipated airdrop after Arbitrum. Over the past week, crypto users have bridged over $8 million in funds to the network in hopes of qualifying for the airdrop. Moreover, protocols on zkSync will also conduct their own retroactive airdrop, allowing you to earn additional rewards.

    Sui

    • Project Credibility — Sui is developed by Mysten Labs, comprising former Meta (formerly Facebook) executives and engineers. The company has raised $300 million, resulting in a valuation of over $2 billion, with backing from major investors like Coinbase and Binance.
    • Security — Sui’s security architecture is secured by Move, a Rust-based programming language independently developed by Meta. The smart contract code for Sui is publicly available for review and auditing.
    • Cost — Similar to Aptos, you can interact with protocols on Sui with free devnet tokens.
    • Effort — Building protocols on Sui requires coding experience. As a regular user, you can perform simple tasks like staking devnet tokens or minting NFTs until the mainnet launch in Q2.

    Grading Insight: Aptos, also an L1 built by former Meta developers, conducted one of the largest airdrops last year. It is very likely Sui will also follow suit.

    A Tier Airdrops

    StarkNet

    • Project Credibility — StarkNet is developed by StarkWare Industries, an Israeli software company that specializes in cryptography. They have raised $100 million that puts the company’s estimated value at $8 billion. They are partners with some of the biggest names in crypto including ConsenSys and Chainlink.
    • Security — StarkNet is audited by numerous leading security firms like Consensys Diligence and OpenZeppelin.
    • Cost — You will need to bridge ETH to the Starknet Alpha Mainnet via StarkGate. Swap stablecoin pairs to minimize cost risk.
    • Effort — Argent X wallet is required. Bridge and swap assets frequently and consistently to be included in the snapshot. The higher the aggregate value, the more tokens you can potentially earn.

    Grading Insight: StarkNet is one of the highest valued L2 project in the crypto market. More than half of its total token supply will be allocated to community incentives and ecosystem funds.

    Shardeum

    • Project Credibility — Shardeum is co-founded by Nischal Shetty and Omar Syed. Shetty is the founder and CEO of WazirX and Syed is a blockchain architect who previously worked for NASA and Shardus. The project has raised $18.2 million, backed by Jane Street and The Spartan Group.
    • Security — Shardeum ensures security through dynamic state sharding, which makes it challenging to attack due to the random assignment of nodes to shards in the network.
    • Cost — You can interact with the Shardeum betanet with free testnet tokens.
    • Effort — Mint NFTs or swap assets frequently on different Shardeum protocols.

    Grading Insight: Shardeum is developing an innovative sharding technology, and has a very large user base. They confirmed airdropping 25.4 million $SHM tokens to ecosystem users.

    Scroll

    • Project Credibility — Scroll is a globally distributed team filled with experts in zero-knowledge cryptography and distributed systems on blockchain technology. Backed by Polychain Capital, the project has raised a total of $83 million in funding rounds, bringing its valuation to $1.8 billion.
    • Security — Scroll is a hierarchical zero-knowledge proof system, inheriting security from the Ethereum mainnet. The smart contract code for Scroll is publicly available for review and auditing.
    • Cost — Scroll is currently in its Alpha Testnet phase, which means you can use free testnet tokens to interact with the protocol.
    • Effort — Bridge testnet tokens between Goerli Testnet (L1) and Scroll Alpha Testnet (L2) frequently.

    Grading Insight: Scroll is another highly popular Ethereum L2 scaling solution. The team has confirmed creating an incentive mechanism to encourage participation in the network. Start using the testnet now for free!

    MetaMask

    • Project Credibility — MetaMask is the most used Ethereum wallet in the world.
    • Security — All user wallets are secured with client-side encryption. With proper user practice, MetaMask is a reliable and secure option for managing and interacting with Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications. Their recent audit was conducted in March 2023.
    • Cost — You will need ERC-20 tokens. You can also buy ETH directly on MetaMask using credit cards, Apple Pay or bank transfers.
    • Effort — Bridge and swap ERC-20 tokens regularly with the built-in features in MetaMask.

    Grading Insight: MetaMask is one of the foundations of the Web3 world, which is why its token can be very valuable.

    B Tier Airdrops

    LayerZero

    • Project Credibility — LayerZero Labs is founded by a team of computer scientists from the University of New Hampshire. The project has raised $135 million from the likes of Coinbase and PayPal. LayerZero has a large ecosystem of DeFi protocols including Uniswap and Stargate Finance.
    • Security — LayerZero has commissioned over 35 audits with the most recent audits on Github.
    • Cost — You will need real funds to interact with the protocols on LayerZero. But you can also bridge Goerli testnet USDC between EVM chains using the USDC LayerZero Bridge.
    • Effort — Make small transactions, deposit funds, provide liquidity, swap assets as frequently as you can.

    Grading Insight: LayerZero has a large user base, and is backed by PayPal. It has the potential to be a core infrastructure of Web3 interoperability, which is why its token can be valuable in the future.

    ZetaChain

    • Project Credibility — ZetaChain is built by former Coinbase and Basic Attention Token (BAT) developers. It is backed by Coinbase, Binance, Polygon, and more.
    • Security — ZetaChain employs a novel omnichain approach to mitigate the risks of asset fragmentation and reduce the chances of 51% attacks. The project has been audited by PeckShield, Veridise, and QuantumBrief, and offers a bug bounty of up to $100,000.
    • Cost — The incentivized testnet currently involves testnet tokens.
    • Effort — Request ZETA tokens and swap assets between different chains frequently.

    Grading Insight: ZetaChain is featured on CoinGecko’s list of top airdrops to look out for in 2023. Its points-based system makes it easy for users to track their contribution to the network.

    Mantle Network

    • Project Credibility — Mantle Network is incubated by BitDAO, one of the largest DAOs and partner of Bybit.
    • Security — Its architecture adopts a modular approach to create a seperate, decetralized data availability layer in collaboration with EigenLayer. Smart contract code is regularly audited by the BitDAO community.
    • Cost — The incentivized testnet currently involves testnet tokens.
    • Effort — Bridge Goerli ETH to Mantle Testnet frequently. You can also complete Mantle Quests on Crew3 and Guild for a Discord role.

    Grading Insight: Developed by BitDAO, Mantle is a fully community-driven project. As such, value to the project is rewarded back to loyal supporters and users.

    Polyhedra Network

    • Project Credibility — Polyhedra Network is built by leading engineers, developers, and researchers from UC Berkeley, Tsinghua University, and Stanford University. The project recently raised $10 million in funding, backed by Binance, Animoca Brands, and Polychain Capital.
    • Security — Its infrastructure uses zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) to provide privacy extensions for Web3 with stealth address models.
    • Cost — Only testnet tokens are needed to cover gas fees.
    • Effort — Use Polyhedra CreatorTool to mint your own NFT and bridge them to other testnet blockchains. Repeat the process on different chains to enhance visibility of your on-chain activities.

    Grading Insight: Polyhedra just recently launched its testnet, which means early users are in a good position for a potential airdrop.

    C Tier Airdrops

    Fuel Network

    • Project Credibility — Fuel Network raised $80 million in funding, backed by Blockchain Capital and Stratos Technologies.
    • Security — The system is based on a fraud- or validity-provable computation system that leverages a modular blockchain for data accessibility.
    • Cost — Their Beta-2 Testnet is live. No real funds are used.
    • Effort — Fuel Wallet is required. Swap and trade tokens on SwaySwap frequently. You can also interact with other ecosystem DApps.

    Grading Insight: Fuel has not confirmed a token launch yet. But it is likely it needs a token to support its ecosystem and facilitate the functioning of the platform.

    Celestia

    • Project Credibility — Co-founder of Fuel Network, John Adler, also co-founded Celestia. The project has raised $55 million in funding, backed by Coinbase and Polychain Capital. Its total valuation is over $1 billion.
    • Security — Modular architecture is similar to Fuel Network. Celestia offers shared security to blockchains deployed on it by providing consensus and data availability inherited by all utilizing chains.
    • Cost — Its incentivized testnets require a node with decent internet connection. You will need to set up a development environment to run the Celestia node.
    • Effort — This is more suitable for developers or validators rather than users.

    Grading Insight: Limited access to general users.

    D Tier Airdrops

    Blur

    • Project Credibility — Blur is the fastest growing NFT marketplace on Ethereum, backed by Paradigm. Many Bored Ape holders and NFT whales have moved from OpenSea to Blur.
    • Security — Blur is audited by Code4rena and Dedaub. It uses multi-signature contracts for token transfers. However, Blur has a smart contract risk in its execution module, which only checks if the caller can transfer tokens. Contract owners may add addresses as callers for token transfers, so users must trust Blur before trading NFTs on it.
    • Cost — You will need ETH to bid or list on Blur. The more the better.
    • Effort — The difficulty for the Season 2 airdrop may increase due to heightened competition.

    Grading Insight: Since Blur tends to favor NFT and ETH whales, it might not be the most suitable choice for those looking for cost-free airdrops.

    Key Takeaway

    It is important to note that lower tier rankings does not mean that the airdrop is not good. It is simply because they are not as accessible as the higher tiered ones to everyday users. All of these crypto airdrops are the most trending this year, offering high value to early users.

  • Conflux Network ($CFX) 2023: China’s Blockchain Project Set to Soar

    Conflux Network ($CFX) 2023: China’s Blockchain Project Set to Soar

    News of potential quantitative easing in China has led crypto experts to believe that there will be a surge in the value of Chinese blockchain projects. As such, Conflux Network ($CFX), one of China’s public blockchain, has seen a whopping 1600% price increase in 2023. In this article, we will explain what Conflux is, and why $CFX should be on your watch list this year.

    If you are interested in another Chinese crypto project, Alchemy Pay ($ACH) is also a top Chinese project this year.

    What is Conflux?

    Conflux Network is a public blockchain platform designed to support high-performance decentralized applications (dApps). It aims to address some of the limitations of existing blockchain networks such as slow transaction processing times, limited scalability, and high fees. It uses a novel consensus algorithm called Shanghai Tree-Graph that enables high throughput while maintaining decentralization and security. The algorithm allows multiple blocks to be generated in parallel and then merged into a single chain.

    Conflux Network also supports a range of smart contract languages, including Solidity, the most widely used language for Ethereum smart contracts. This means that developers can easily port their existing dApps from Ethereum to Conflux Network and take advantage of its faster transaction processing times and lower fees.

    Who is the Team behind Conflux?

    Conflux Network was founded by a team of researchers and developers from Tsinghua University in China and the University of Toronto in Canada. The co-founders of Conflux Network are Fan Long (CEO) and Xiaolong Wang (Chief Scientist). The team also includes a number of other experienced researchers, developers, and advisors from various fields, such as computer science, blockchain, and finance.

    Why is $CFX Pumping?

    The current price surge of $CFX seems to have strong support from retail investors, as indicated by social media metrics and fundamentals. This came as a result of two significant developments made by Conflux:

    On 15th February 2023, Conflux announced that they are developing blockchain-based SIM cards in partnership with China Telecom, one of the largest wireless carrier in China (390+ million movile subscribers). The trial program will first launch in Hong Kong later this year, followed by key mainland China locations such as Shanghai.

    Earlier in late January, Conflux partnered with Little Red Book, the Chinese equivalent of Instagram, to provide NFT services for the social media platform’s 200 million users. The news prompted a 90% increase in CFX’s price.

    $CFX Price Prediction 2023

    Looking at the technical aspects, CFX has experienced a significant increase in price which has caused it to become very overbought. This can be seen in both the daily and weekly charts where CFX’s relative strength index has risen above 70, indicating that the uptrend is close to its limit.

    Additionally, the Conflux Network token is currently testing the $0.28-$0.41 range as a resistance level, which was previously a support level between May and November 2021. If CFX falls back from this resistance area, its price could drop to the range of $0.097-$0.141, which is its main downside target.

    Source: Cointelegraph

    This range also coincides with the token’s 50-week exponential moving average (50-week EMA) at around $0.108, which is approximately 65% lower than the current price levels. On the other hand, if CFX manages to break above the $0.28-$0.41 range decisively, its price could rise to $0.84, which was the resistance level during the May-September 2021 period.

    Will $CFX Continue Its Momentum Throughout 2023?

    From a fundamental standpoint, $CFX is part of the “Chinese coins” narrative that is trending in 2023. With the potential of quantitative easing in China and crypto expansion in Hong Kong, people on the Crypto Twitter space are actively searching for investment opportunities in the Chinese market, taking advantage of any potential rally. $CFX still has a relatively small market cap, but has the potential to deliver strong returns for its investors if its momentum continues. And its momentum will likely continue if continuous development is seen in the Asian market.

  • Aptos vs Sui Blockchain: Similarities and Differences

    Aptos vs Sui Blockchain: Similarities and Differences

    Which Layer 1 Blockchain is “Better”?

    In the past year, layer 1 (L1) blockchains have exploded, facilitating ecosystem pumps throughout the market. L1s have become a viable alternative blockchain to Ethereum, the OG. They offer better scalability, lower fees, native DApps, risky meme tokens, massive APYs and more.

    As smart investors, we know that when an ecosystem is performing well, its underlying token is a great opportunity to make substantial profits. And with the Solana and Nomad hack happening recently, other L1s have become increasingly popular as investors are looking for a more secure and innovative blockchain.

    Aptos and Sui are among the most discussed L1s recently, with many venture capitals (VC) expressing investment interest in them.

    Both show a lot of promise to blockchain veterans as these web3 startups are formed by ex-Meta (formerly Facebook) blockchain developers as well as their infrastructure being based on Meta’s abandoned blockchain intiative, Diem.

    However, both teams have vastly different approaches to tackling the issue of blockchain scalability. In this article, we will compare and contrast Aptos and Sui, and consider which L1 blockchain you should be more bullish on.

    What is Aptos?

    Aptos is co-founded by Mo Shaikh (CEO) and Avery Ching (CTO), both former Meta employees who have years of experience as a senior developer and engineer in the blockchain industry.

    The team behind Aptos, also known as Aptos Labs, consists of an impressive group of PhDs, researchers, engineers, designers and strategists. Moreover, the team at Aptos has been aggresively expanding. They recently acquired several former Solana staff, most notably Austin Virts, former Head of Marketing at Solana.

    Aptos utilizes key elements of the former Diem blockchain as well as Move, a Rust-based programming language independently developed by Meta. Aptos claims the network will be able to process over 130k transactions per second using its parallel execution engine (Block-STM), which will mean lower transaction costs for users.

    See also: Aptos Blockchain Guide: the Next Big Innovation in Blockchain Scaling (Layer 1)?

    What is Sui?

    Sui is co-founded by Evan Cheng (CEO), Sam Blackshear (CTO), Adeniyi Abiodun (CPO), and George Danezis (Chief Scientist). They were former senior leaders of Meta’s advanced blockchain research and development organization.

    They were responsible for creating some of the most advanced open source components such as the programming language, execution engine and cryptography of the Diem blockchain.

    Sui is a decentralized, permissionless L1 blockchain designed to allow creators and developers to build experiences for web3 users. Similar to Aptos, its proof-of-stake network will scale horizontally and organise data such that transactions are executed in parallel. This greatly reduces computational power and transaction costs.

    Although both Aptos and Sui use Move as their programming language, their versions differ from each other, as such that their infrastructure operates distinctively on a fundamental level.

    See also: Sui Blockchain Guide: Revolutionary Scalability Solution?

    Aptos vs Sui Comparison

    Programming Language

    Both Aptos and Sui use Move, a Rust-based programming language, for parallel execution, but Sui uses has a different version of it.

    In short, Move is an executable bytecode language used to create smart contracts as well as custom transactions on the blockchain. According to Diem’s whitepaper on Move, it focuses on two major digital assets: scarcity and access control. Scarcity imposes limitations on asset creations, preventing any double-spending, while access control manages ownership and privileges.

    It differs from other programming language like Solidity because of its use of resources, which is drawn from the mathematical concept of linear logic. In linear logic, formulas are treated as fundamental resources that can only be used once. In the case of Move, “a resource can never be copied or implicitly discarded, only moved between program storage locations“, hence their name “Move”. This mechanism was designed to maximize security without adding complications to transactions, reducing gas fees.

    Aptos generally follows the textbook design of Diem’s whitepaper. On the other hand, Sui has a slightly different object model from Aptos. Its storage system is object-centric, which means that you can see most things on the blockchain, including addresses and transactions. These are represented as “objects.”

    Sui’s version of Move makes it clear when an object is owned, shared, mutable or immutable, whereas Aptos does not. Moreover, Sui’s ownership API is cleaner than that of Aptos, as it shows the blockchain design more clearly.

    Architecture

    Though both Aptos and Sui use proof-of-stake as their consensus mechanism, the consensus algorithm behind it is different.

    Aptos employs parallelization by dynamically detecting dependencies and scheduling execution tasks using BlockSTM, which is a derivative of the HotStuff consensus protocol.

    Sui implements Narwhal and Tusk as their consensus algorithm, which is a DAG-based (directed acyclic graph) mempool used for parallelization at the execution layer. The protocol is asynchronous which means it can withstand DoS (denial of service) attacks.

    In terms of security, Sui has a slight edge over Aptos.

    Scalability

    Instead of home validator case or large-scale decentralization, both Aptos and Sui aim to optimize scalability by maximizing network capacity, similar to Solana. However, the bottleneck would most likely be state growth in the ecosystem.

    To address the state growth bottleneck, Aptos prioritizes heterogeneous validators (constrained CPU and storage), whereas Sui plans to shard data storage efficiently, and scale its resources horizontally.

    Tokenomics

    There are five major components of the Sui economic model:

    Sui blockchain’s economic model (Source: Medium)

    SUI token: SUI is the native coin of Sui.
    Gas fees: all network operations on the platform require gas fees. Gas fees are rewarded to participants in the proof-of-stake mechanism. It can also be used to prevent spam and denial-of-service attacks.
    Storage fund: In order to compensate future validators for the storage expenses of previously stored on-chain data, Sui’s storage fund is used to distribute stake rewards over time.
    Proof-of-stake mechanism: Used to select, incentivize and reward platform operators i.e. the validators and SUI delegators.
    On-chain voting: for voting and deciding on governance and protocol upgrades.

    On the other hand, Aptos has no coin yet and its whitepaper has yet to be published. However, Aptos has launched their testnet in March and its developer community has been very active. For more information on their testnet development, you can read our previous article here.

    Funding

    Aptos Labs has raised $350 million in total from FTX Ventures, Jump Crypto, a16z, Tiger Global, Multicoin Capital, among many other capital ventures. Currently, Aptos Labs has 28 investors.

    Sui is fast catching up after its latest Series B funding round in September 2022. Mysten Labs, the company behind Sui closed a US$300 million fundraise in this round. This brings Sui to a combined raise of US$36 million so far, after adding up the $36 million from Series A. Sui also states that they are currently valued at over US$2 billion.

    Development Status

    Aptos launched its Mainnet in October 2022 and developers can now build on Aptos. They are also currently working on improving the gas schedule in 3 parts. In the short term, to have dynamic NFT gas reduction. Then, in the medium term, to have gas-efficient data structures. Finally, the long-term plan is to adopt demand-driven gas costs.

    Sui has recently finished their Sui Testnet Wave 2. Their Sui wallet is also up and running, albeit in the Devenet stage. Nevertheless, you can install the Sui wallet and request Devnet SUI tokens to try out the wallet. The Sui wallet currently has features such as sending, staking, and minting their Capy NFTs. Users can also register their domain name on Sui Name Service. (https://casadelninobilingual.com/)

    Conclusion

    It is still too early to say which one you should be more bullish on. Both projects have been developing rapidly and have done an excellent job of optimizing its current design. But whatever the case is, Move technology is most likely here to stay as it shows a lot of promise in blockchain scalability and security.

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    Is Aptos blockchain the same or related to Sui blockchain?

    No, Aptos and Sui and completely different and unrelated projects. The only connection between the two projects is that both teams have previously worked in blockchain development at Meta (formerly Facebook).

    Is Aptos blockchain better than Sui blockchain?

    It is still too early to say which one you should be more bullish on. Both projects have been developing rapidly and have done an excellent job of optimizing its current design. But whatever the case is, Move technology is most likely here to stay as it shows a lot of promise in blockchain scalability and security.

    Is Sui blockchain better than Aptos blockchain?

    It is still too early to say which one you should be more bullish on. Both projects have been developing rapidly and have done an excellent job of optimizing its current design. But whatever the case is, Move technology is most likely here to stay as it shows a lot of promise in blockchain scalability and security.

    What are the similarities between Aptos and Sui blockchain?

    Both Aptos and Sui use Move, a Rust-based programming language, for parallel execution on the blockchain, but Sui has a slightly version of it than Aptos.

    What are the differences between Aptos and Sui blockchain?

    Sui’s version of Move programming language makes it clear when an object is owned, shared, mutable or immutable, whereas Aptos does not. And although both blockchains use proof-of-stake as their consensus mechanism, the consensus algorithm behind it is different. Aptos uses BlockSTM for parallel executions, which is a derivative of HotStuff protocol, whereas Sui uses Narwhal and Tusk, a DAG-based mempool used for parallelization at the execution layer.

  • Aptos Blockchain Guide: the Next Big Innovation in Blockchain Scaling (Layer 1)?

    Aptos Blockchain Guide: the Next Big Innovation in Blockchain Scaling (Layer 1)?

    Aptos, a repurposed blockchain initiative of Meta’s abandoned web3 project (formerly Facebook). Its mainnet and token launch were hugely anticipated owing to its revolutionary infrastructure that might just surpass all other layer-one protocols. All you need to know about Aptos is in this article, made simple to understand and updated in real time.

    What is Aptos?

    Origin of Aptos

    Aptos also known as Aptos Labs is a web3 startup focused on building a scalable layer-1 blockchain. I know what you’re thinking, not another new smart-contract layer claiming to be more scalable than the others.

    But Aptos is not a new entity of its own, in fact, the company was founded by developers who formerly worked on Diem, Meta’s blockchain initiative that was abandoned in January. This means that the project already has a solid foundation to build its products off of.

    Key Features of Aptos Blockchain

    Aptos utilizes key elements of the former Diem blockchain and Move, a Rust-based programming language independently developed by Meta. The company also claims the network will be able to process over 130k transactions per second using its parallel execution engine (Block-STM), which results in low transaction costs for users.

    For context, most blockchains either execute smart contracts sequentially or require a massive parallel workload for improved performance, which requires a lot of power. Aptos differs from other blockchains because a single failed transaction will not hold up the entire chain. Instead, all transactions are processed simultaneously and validated afterwards. The ones that failed are aborted and re-executed, thanks to their STM (software transactional memory) libraries which detect and manage conflicts.

    As a result, the combination of these technologies streamlines the entire network’s throughput capacity, which has been a major bottleneck for other layer-1 blockchains. This is a short summary of Aptos’ smart contract execution according to their white paper published in August 2022. Their model is based on cloud infrastructure as a scalable and cost-efficient platform for building widely-used applications.

    Aptos enables DeFi projects to be built on its blockchain. So far, there are over 30 DeFi projects on the ecosystem. These projects include decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and liquid staking. An example of this is Aries Markets– a margin trading protocol.

    Who is the Team behind Aptos?

    Aptos is co-founded by Mo Shaikh (CEO) and Avery Ching (CTO), both former Meta employees who have years of experience as a senior developer and engineer in the blockchain industry.

    The team consists of a battle-hardened group of PhDs, researchers, engineers, designers and strategists. They are the original creators, designers and builders of Diem.

    What’s Happening with Aptos?

    Aptos Funding

    Aptos has been securing a sizeable amount of funding from numerous crypto heavyweights despite the bear market. In March 2022, the company received $200 million in funding from a16z, Tiger Global, and Multicoin Capital, among many other venture capitalists.

    In July, the company raised $150 million in a Series A financing round led by Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto.

    Moreover, during the Venture Round on 15th September, Binance Labs doubled down on Aptos, bringing up the blockchain startup’s valuation to a massive $4 billion according to Bloomberg. With the new funding from Binance, Aptos quadrupled its valuation in six months as per Crunchbase’s report.

    A few days later on 28th September, an undisclosed amount was also raised during the Venture Round by Dragonfly Capital.

    Being backed by Binance Labs is a good sign that the project shows promise. In fact, Yi He, co-founder of Binance and the head of Binance Labs, chose to invest in Aptos in part because of the Move programming language the company is using to build its blockchain.

    Aptos Team and Ecosystem Expansion

    Moreover, the team at Aptos has been actively hiring, most notably they have acquired several former Solana staff such as Austin Virts, former Head of Marketing at Solana.

    Not only Solana staff but a lot of hardcore Solana proponents have jumped ship for Aptos as well. With the narrative of Aptos being the next Solana, people are speculating whether investors actually believe in their tech long-term, or it is simply a pump and dump for venture capital firms (VC) and whales to make back their money due to the series of liquidation across the market. VC-heavy projects should be considered a red flag, but in the case of Aptos, there is more than meets the eye.

    Aptos Testnet

    Aptos has been focusing on driving the growth of their ecosystem. Since May, Aptos has launched their testnet campaign named “Aptos Incentivized Testnet” (AIT) and is divided into four stages according to their roadmap: AIT1, AIT2, AIT3 and AIT4. The goal is to invite and reward node operators, developers, ecosystem builders, and auditors alike to deploy applications and stress-test the decentralized network, ensuring the community is ready to launch a production-grade Aptos mainnet. Each stage focuses on executing different deliverables that contribute to the overall function of the blockchain.

    AIT3 concluded on 9th September 2022, preparing for the final testnet which will lead to the mainnet launch if successful. Throughout the series of testnets, millions of transactions have been carried out, tens of thousands of nodes have been put up, and more than 1,500 have forked the Aptos-core repository. The codebase is open-source and the project has onboarded well over 100 projects. Teams such as Pontem Network, Protagonist, PayMagic, MartianDAO, Solrise Finance and more have already been building and testing on the network.

    Furthermore, Aptos also has a grant program to offer project teams and individuals non-dilutive funding in order to further develop the ecosystem. One thing is certain that the earliest projects to develop on a blockchain are the ones that tend to moon if the blockchain is successful.

    Aptos Mainnet Launch

    Aptos Labs officially launched its mainnet “Aptos Autumn” on 12th October 2022, making it the first blockchain to debut Move technology. The mainnet is currently using the latest version of AptosBFT (version 4), which leverages a Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus protocol with responsive production optimization. To put it simply, this mechanism quickly minimizes the impact of failed validators on throughput and latency, significantly improving the blockchain’s performance. Aptos team has announced that they are developing AptosBFT (version 5) and will release it in a future upgrade.

    The Aptos Bridge

    The Aptos Bridge went live on 19th October 2022, powered by LayerZero, a trustless omnichain interoperability protocol. With this deployment, users will be able to move USDC, USDT, and ETH into Aptos from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain. Users can also withdraw their funds out of the Aptos ecosystem, but as of now, there will be a 3-day transfer window to keep the network stable. According to LayerZero Labs, this will decrease as stability and time in production increase.

    Another thing to note is that there is a rate limit to the bridge, starting at an outbound value cap of $1 million every 24 hours. As stability and time in production increase, this will also increase. Finally, since Aptos is an entirely new ecosystem, native assets outside of the APT token do not exist. This means that the only way to get other assets into the ecosystem is via “wrapped assets” from other chains.

    Aptos Goes into Web3 Gaming

    Aptos has recently announced its partnership with NPIXEL, a Korean Triple-A gaming studio. NIPXEL have been behind popular massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as Gran Saga, which boasts 4 million downloads since its launch in Korea and Japan.

    Aptos and NPIXEL are joining forces to create METAPIXEL, a Web3 gaming ecosystem. This partnership sees NPIXEL creating games on the Aptos network. The goal of their partnership is to create a triple-A game that boasts true ownership of game assets.

    Partnership with Google Cloud

    Google Cloud and Aptos Labs have announced an expansion of their partnership, which now includes Google Cloud running a validator for Aptos. Additionally, Aptos has selected Google Cloud as the preferred infrastructure provider for its ecosystem, and the two companies will collaborate on an accelerator program through the Aptos Foundation that supports Web3 startups and developers working on Aptos.

    Moreover, Aptos and Google Cloud will collaborate in hosting global hackathons and other events. The purpose of these hackathons is to bring decentralized developer communities together to collaborate and address common challenges. They will also invite both the Google developer community and the Aptos community to participate and work alongside engineers from both companies to deploy projects that can be quickly scaled globally. In line with their joint events at Bitcoin, Consensus, and Converge last year, they also plan to continue engaging their communities through happy hours and panels in 2023.

    MoonPay Fiat On-Ramp Integration into Petra Wallet

    Aptos Labs and MoonPay have teamed up to make it easier for billions of people to join the web3 space. This means that users can now purchase APT using Apple Pay. Aptos Labs’ wallet, Petra, now features an easy-to-use interface for exchanging value within the Aptos ecosystem. The partnership began in November 2022 when APT became available on MoonPay.

    The integration of the MoonPay fiat on-ramp into Petra was a crucial step in enhancing the web3 user experience. The fiat on-ramp makes it easy for both new users and early adopters to get started on the Aptos network, as they can purchase APT using a variety of payment methods, including Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

    Securing Move as the Underlying Programming Model

    To ensure that Aptos is secure, their team has been developing bug-free code through a combination of disciplined software engineering practices and the right tools. This includes mandatory code review, continuous testing and integration, and best practices in the Rust ecosystem.

    Moreover, Aptos has contracted auditing companies (Certik, Holburn), conducted community auditing, and worked closely with OtterSec. They also run a bug bounty program that offers rewards of up to $1,000,000 for critical bugs and $100,000 for crash bugs. Aptos has invested in fuzzing and added redundancy through a paranoid mode in the Move Virtual Machine.

    Lowering Gas Fees with Community-Driven Feedback

    Aptos is engaging with community builders to improve its ecosystem, with a focus on reducing gas fees. The team has analyzed on-chain data and interviewed builders to gather insights. Their three-stage plan includes reducing costs for dynamic NFTs, developing gas-efficient data structures, and creating a demand-driven gas model.

    The current gas framework combines execution and storage fees, leading to an unbalanced gas price. The team will separate storage and execution fees and provide storage refunds to solve these issues. The team is committed to delivering these improvements in the coming months to better serve the network’s demand.

    What is the APT token?

    APT is the native token of the Aptos platform. The APT token is used to pay for transaction and network fees on Aptos.

    Fees will be charged on all transactions on the network and are specified in Aptos tokens. Validators will have the opportunity to prioitise the highest-value transactions on the Aptos network, and to discard transactions of lower value. The result is that the blockchain would still be able to operate efficiently when the system is at capacity. Eventually, network fees will also be deployed so that the cost of using Aptos would be proportionate to the costs of deploying hardware, maintenance, and node operation.

    In addition, APT can be used for governance voting on upgrades to the protocol and on/off-chain processes, and to secure the blockchain by way of a proof-of-stake model.

    Validators holding a minimum number of staked APT tokens can participate in transaction validation on the Aptos blockchain. The benefit of being a validator is that they can decide on the division of rewards between themselves and their respective stakers. On the other hand, stakers can select any number of validators to stake their tokens with in order to receive a pre-agreed split of the rewards. Rewards will be distributed to validators and stakers at the end of every epoch.

    At present, the maximum reward rate for stakers starts at 7% per annum and this amount is evaluated at every epoch. The maximum staking reward however will decrease by 1.5% per year until it reaches 3.25% per year. However, all reward amounts and mechanisms can be changed by governance voting.

    Aptos Token Listing

    Binance announced the listing of Aptos (APT) on their exchange and trading of the APT token commenced on 19th October 2022, 01:00 UTC. The spot trading pairs include APT/BTC, APT/BUSD, and APT/USDT, and withdrawals for APT will open on 20th October 2022, 01:00 UTC. Moreover, the listing fee for APT is at 0 BNB and users can now start depositing APT in preparation for trading.

    In addition, Binance will add APT as a new borrowable asset on cross margin and isolated margin within 48 hours from 19th October 2022, 01:00 UTC. Both margin pairs include APT/BUSD and APT/USDT.

    Where can I buy the Aptos ($APT) token?

    Aptos and MoonPay have recently partnered up to allow Petra wallet fiat on-ramps. So users can now buy APT using Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

    The APT token can also be purchased and traded on the following exchanges: Binance, Coinbase Exchange, OKX, and Digifinex.

    Start trading $APT on Binance and enjoy 20% off trading fees by signing up here.

    Is Aptos Worth Investing?

    Aptos offers unique and promising features that cannot be found in other layer-1 protocols (except for Sui which is also a Diem-based blockchain). As such, Aptos has the potential to compete with Ethereum and Solana in terms of scalability and overall network capacity.

    However, Aptos is heavily backed by venture capitals (VC), and in light of the VC bankruptcy domino effect toppling across the industry, investors should be cautious when dealing with VC-heavy projects. In fact, according to Aptos Explorer, its total supply is over 1 billion and more than 800 million of the tokens are actively staked, suggesting that early investors, private buyers, and the Aptos team collectively control 80% of the token supply.

    Nevertheless, at the end of the day, Move technology is most likely here to stay as it is a revolutionary programming foundation for blockchain scalability and security. And with decades of experience in the blockchain industry as well as Meta, Aptos Labs stakes its reputation on the long-term success of the blockchain.

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    What is Aptos?

    Aptos is a layer-1 blockchain that uses key elements of the former Diem blockchain and Move, a Rust-based programming language independently developed by Meta.

    How to buy Aptos?

    Binance announced the listing of Aptos (APT) on their exchange, and will be available for spot trading at 19th October 2022, 01:00 UTC.

    Does Aptos have a coin?

    Binance announced the listing of Aptos (APT) on their exchange, and will be available for spot trading at 19th October 2022, 01:00 UTC.

    When is Aptos ICO?

    Binance announced the listing of Aptos (APT) on their exchange, and will be available for spot trading at 19th October 2022, 01:00 UTC.

    Who is the Aptos team?

    The Aptos team consists of researchers, designers and engineers of Diem, Meta’s blockchain initiative that was abandoned in January 2022. Aptos currently has 60 employees on their team.

    Who is the founder of Aptos?

    Aptos Labs is co-founded by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, both former Meta employees who have years of experience in the blockchain industry.

    Is Aptos funded?

    Aptos Labs has raised $350 million in total from FTX Ventures, Jump Crypto, a16z, Tiger Global, Multicoin Capital, among many other capital ventures. Currently, Aptos Labs has 28 investors. Aptos Labs also received an undisclosed amount in strategic investment from Binance Labs, bringing its valuation to $4 billion.

    What is the Aptos testnet?

    Aptos has an incentivized testnet program where the Aptos team welcomes community members to help with testing. The first testnet was Aptos Incentivized Testnet 1 (AIT1) where the community and the Aptos team created and deployed a decentralized network for over a week. Those who met a 95% participation rate were rewarded. Eligible individuals who were unable to meet the original expectation, but still participated in at least 5% of the testing rounds were also offered 50% of the rewards.

    Aptos Incentivized Testnet 2 (AIT2) was concluded in late July 2022.

    The latest Aptos Incentivized Testnet 3 (AIT3) opened for registration on 19th August 2022 and will launch on 30th August 2022. Participants that meet the team’s success criteria will receive 800 Aptos tokens. For more details and signup, check out the Aptos blog.

    Is Aptos Labs listed on any stock exchange?

    Aptos Labs is a private company and is not listed on any stock exchange.

    What is the price of Aptos Labs (APTOS) cryptocurrency?

    Aptos Labs (APTOS) does not currently have a cryptocurrency token. Binance announced the listing of Aptos (APT) on their exchange, and will be available for spot trading at 19th October 2022, 01:00 UTC.

    Is Aptos the same or related to Sui?

    No, Aptos and Sui and completely different and unrelated projects. The only connection between the two projects is that both teams have previously worked in blockchain development at Meta (formerly Facebook).

    Is Aptos worth investing?

    Aptos shows a lot of promise but investors should be cautious as the project is heavily funded by venture capitals. But at its core, Aptos’ programming language, Move, is most likely here to stay as it offers better scalability and security compared to other layer-1 blockchains.

    Is Aptos backed by Binance?

    Aptos Labs received an undisclosed amount in strategic investment from Binance Labs, bringing its valuation to $4 billion. In fact, Yi He, co-founder of Binance and the head of Binance Labs, chose to invest in Aptos in part because of the Move programming language Aptos is using to build its blockchain.

    Is there any Aptos $APT token airdrop?

    Early Aptos network participants were given an airdrop of APT tokens. A total of 20,067,150 APT tokens were airdropped to 110,235 participants.

    How do I participate or be eligible for an Aptos APT airdrop?

    Previous Aptos users who had completed an application to join the Aptos Incentivized Testnet or minted an APTOS:ZERO testnet NFT were eligible to claim APT tokens. Those who were eligible to receive APT tokens were notified by the Aptos team via email. There are no plans for further airdrops for the time being.

    Which wallet support Aptos?

    Petra Wallet and Pontem Wallet are native non-custodial wallets for the Aptos ecosystem, and can integrate with many Aptos DApps.

    Why is Aptos dumping?

    Aptos’ price usually comes under pressure whenever there is a token unlock event. This is because early investors will typically sell those unlocked tokens to take profit. The next one will unlock on February 12, 2023.

    What is the price prediction for Aptos in 2023?

    Aptos will most likely increase in value, as the narrative for layer-1 blockchain scaling solution is trending in 2023.

  • Meme Coins 2023: How Smart People Get Rich Investing in Them

    Meme Coins 2023: How Smart People Get Rich Investing in Them

    2023 started off with the explosive rise of Bonk ($BONK), a Solana-based meme coin. In the process, some people made a lot of money, and some did not even have to invest a dime as they were eligible for $BONK airdrops as Solana users. It is important to remember that meme coins are purely speculative and extremely volatile, but smart traders are able to recognize patterns and trends, allowing them to capitalize on these opportunities.

    What are Meme Coins?

    Meme coins are cryptocurrencies that are created for the purpose of entertainment and humor. They are often based on popular internet memes. Dogecoin is the most famous example, a dog-themed token based on the viral Doge meme in 2013.

    What started as a joke quickly became a driving force in the crypto market. Thanks to Dogecoin’s success in 2021, the meme coin market rapidly expanded, and is now valued over $17 billion in total market capitalization.

    Why are Meme Coins So Popular?

    Investing in meme coins present a low-entry barrier. Since meme coins are typically valued at pennies per token, investors can acquire large amounts of tokens for a relatively small price. As a result, investors can gain significant profits if these tokens spike up in price. Many investors view meme coins as a way to make a quick profit, as they are often volatile and can be traded for a profit.

    In contrast to actual blockchain projects such as Ethereum or Aptos, meme coins have no utilities at all. They are less about technology and solutions, and more about fun and community engagement. Additionally, meme coins are often seen as a way to show support for a particular meme or cause, which can be a powerful motivator for investors. Instead of complex blockchain terminologies, meme coin communities focus on building on their biggest facility — humor. Because of this, meme coins are a good at exposing newcomers to the crypto space.

    The Psychology Behind Investing in Meme Coins

    The originator of the term “meme” is Richard Dawkins. In his book “The Selfish Gene”, he explains that when a cultural meme becomes viral and is attached to an exchangeable value, it can theoretically become an actual currency. With blockchain technology, memes can literally become cryptocurrencies.

    As such, they have become increasingly popular in the cryptocurrency space due to their ability to post rapid gains and reach incredible market capitalization and popularity levels in a very short period. This phenomenon can be attributed to two main factors: Social Media Hype and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).

    Social Media Hype

    We are currently living in the Internet age, where our average attention span is short. As such, memes could prove to be a powerful marketing tool because they are simple, entertaining, and engaging. When used properly, memes are a low-effort marketing strategy that can drive organic engagement.

    Generating hype via social media channels has been a successful strategy for many meme coin projects. By creating shills and utilizing prominent influencers and mainstream celebrities, projects can generate excitement and attract potential investors, even if there is limited information available about the project. This growth, although organic, is based on “unverified beliefs” and inflated utility. Meme coins have been particularly successful in leveraging this strategy, leading to a surge in their token prices.

    Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

    The volatile nature of the crypto market is often driven by ambitious investors who jump into new projects with the hope of making a profit or not missing out on the project’s potential success. This fear of missing out on further profits has been a major factor in the success of meme coins.

    The price growth that follows the hype marketing is further augmented by FOMO and widespread hype. This trend has enabled meme coins to gain hundreds of thousands of followers, mainly due to their meme culture, before they adopted a reasonable utility. Additionally, as meme coins generally appeal to less experienced retail investors, they tend to jump on the bandwagon in hopes of making profit and being part of a large community.

    The Risk of Investing in Meme Coins

    While meme coins can be a great way to make a quick profit, they also come with a certain amount of risk. As with any investment, there is always the potential for losses. Additionally, because meme coins have no utilities, they are purely speculative assets. Therefore, they are often highly volatile, meaning that prices can change quickly and without warning. As such, it is important to do your research and understand the risks before investing in meme coins.

    Key Takeaway

    At its core, meme coins are purely speculative, and investing in them is somewhat of a gamble. However, smart traders are able to identify trends before they break out. Because meme coins typically rely on hype, they monitor activities on the niche market via social media channels or word-of-mouth. Because these tokens are usually valued at pennies per token, they are able to secure a position before any price surge or drop. But from that point on, it is really just a bet.

  • The Flippening: Will Ethereum Overtake Bitcoin in 2023?

    The Flippening: Will Ethereum Overtake Bitcoin in 2023?

    The Flippening Narrative: Bitcoin vs Ethereum

    The concept of the “Flippening” has been increasingly gaining traction in the crypto space. It refers to the hypothetical moment when Ethereum (ETH) surpasses Bitcoin (BTC) as the most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The Flippening is important because it would signify a major shift in the overall direction of the crypto landscape, signalling a change in investor sentiment and adoption patterns.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lQ8bz9QRBo

    While the Flippening is not set in stone, there are compelling data that indicate it is coming, and sooner than you think… Here’s why:

    The Case for Bitcoin

    Being the world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has maintained its throne on the crypto market since its genesis block in 2009. It is often considered as the safest digital store of value by investors, with its limited supply structure similar to the scarcity of gold, hence its nickname “digital gold.” As such, Bitcoin is usually the primary choice of cryptocurrency for financial institutions looking to get involved. As far as mainstream adoption goes, Bitcoin has led the way so far.

    However, Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus model is highly energy-intensive, sparking criticisms of the network’s impact on the environment. Additionally, the usage of Bitcoin is only limited to exchanging and storing value. This is where Ethereum has much more to offer.

    The Case for Ethereum

    As the second most valuable cryptocurrency, Ethereum is designed to be used as the foundation of a decentralized, blockchain-based internet — an idea that is become known as Web3. Apart from exchanging and storing value, Ethereum introduced smart contract functionalities that allows developers to do all kinds of innovative and creative things on the network. This brought about a proliferation of financial products that have enabled a much broader range of investors.

    Ethereum earned its nickname “digital oil” because it is a utility-based asset like oil, fuel or gas, and its value is largely dictated by supply and demand mechanisms. Similar to how the world’s global supply chain is fueled by crude oil, Ethereum lays at the heart of the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space as well as GameFi and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market. And as the Web3 landscape progresses, demand will increase as more and more people are recognizing the potential of a decentralized internet. It is only a matter of time when Web2 evolves to Web3, and Ethereum is at the centre of that.

    Do “Ethereum Killers” Hinder the Flippening?

    It is worth noting that Ethereum faces competition from other prominent layer-1 blockchains such as Aptos, Cardano, Solana, BNB Chain, Polkadot, and Avalanche. There is a trending “Ethereum Killer” narrative in which user adoption will be distributed amongst these blockchains instead of focusing on Ethereum only. However, most of these blockchains in fact depend on Ethereum, as one way or another they are associated with the network’s smart contract. As shown in the image below by Cryptowatch, all of the top layer-1 blockchains are closely correlated with Ethereum’s price action.

    Source: Cryptowatch

    Comparing Market Share between Bitcoin and Ethereum

    As of 11th January 2023, Ethereum’s market share increased by 3% among global crypto assets, signalling its dominance on the rise. According to Coinmarketcap, Ethereum’s market dominance is at 19%, valued at around $856 billion. On another note, Coingecko’s metrics were slightly different, indicating Ethereum’s dominance at 18.3%. But both aggregation websites show that Bitcoin’s market dominance is decreasing, from 40% to 38%.

    It is unclear whether this trend will continue, but according to data sourced from Blockchain Center, the Flippening has been on an uptrend since July 2021. And we are nearly halfway for it to happen. It is also worth noting that Ethereum came closest to the Flippening in 2017, when Bitcoin’s market dominance’s dropped by 40.6% and Ethereum took over 32% of the market amidst the situation.

    Source: blockchaincenter.net

    In reference to the data provided by Blockchain Center, there are also other metrics apart from market cap that determines the Flippening. As of now, Bitcoin is still by far superior in trading volume, which is a crucial metric for adoption usage. However, Ethereum has Bitcoin beat in active addresses, transaction count and volume, and total USD transaction fees.

    Outperformance of Ethereum will be primarily driven by the strength of its post-Merge fundamentals. The upcoming Shanghai Upgrade will significantly reduce the risk and opportunity cost of staking ETH, which is likely to attract participation from more crypto users.

    Key Takeaway

    Despite Ethereum’s increasing adoption and market dominance, Bitcoin still reigns supreme in the crypto space. In fact, Bitcoin saw significant adoption in 2021-2022 from retail and institutional investors, public companies, and even countries. As of now, El Savador and the Central African Republic (CAR) have adopted Bitcoin as a legal currency. This is a monumental step towards mainstream adoption.

    But that is not to say the Flippening will never happen — it is certainly a possibility. After all, both Bitcoin and Ethereum have different visions. Bitcoin aims to become the global reserve currency, whereas Ethereum aims to become the infrastructure of a global digital economy. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) applies to both assets, but it all comes down to supply and demand mechanisms. If demand in digital money is higher, then Bitcoin dominates. But if demand in utility-based asset in building out a decentralized ecosystem is higher, then Ethereum is generally favored.

  • 2022 Crypto Recap: The Good, The Bad, and The Uglies

    2022 Crypto Recap: The Good, The Bad, and The Uglies

    The crypto industry had a tumultuous year in 2022, with coins tanking at the start of Q2 and never rallying, signalling the beginning of a crypto winter. To make matters worse, the collapse of Terra Luna and FTX led to a devastating contagion across the industry. Despite the challenges, we shouldn’t forget about the progress and achievements the industry has made. Here’s a brief recap of some of the biggest news in 2022.

    Crypto’s Role in the Russia-Ukraine War (February)

    During the Russia-Ukraine war, cryptocurrencies have been immensely valuable to Ukrainian refugees. Russian attacks have destroyed critical infrastructure, rendering many Ukrainians inaccessible to withdrawing money from ATM machines. Therefore, many Ukrainian refugees relied on digital currencies sent from relatives or donors abroad to purchase goods and services.

    All that is needed for them to access their cryptocurrency wallets is a mobile phone and internet access, which was being provided by the thousands of Starlink satellite internet dishes provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX at the time.

    Feds Interest Rate Hike (March)

    Despite Bitcoin reaching an all-time high of $69000+ in November 2021, what follows is a series of market decline. This is in part due to the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing its first interest rate hike in March to fight increasing inflation. As a result, the macro backdrop began to worsen, not only affecting crypto assets but also every other investment asset class. This also called into question Bitcoin’s reputation as an inflation hedge as Bitcoin itself started to trade in tandem with Nasdaq tech stocks, according to the New York Times.

    Collapse of Terra Luna (May-July)

    The collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem in May 2022 was one of the most devastating black swan events in crypto history, wiping at least $60 billion off the market which triggered a dangerous domino effect across the industry such as the fall of several high-profile crypto firms, namely Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital, and Celsius Network.

    Amid the crash, the UST algorithmic stablecoin, which was supposed to maintain a $1 peg via on-chain mechanisms with Terra’s native token LUNA, depegged, bottoming out at $0.006. This was caused by a massive continuous selloff on both UST and LUNA, resulting in a death spiral. Terraform Labs (TFL) developers and founder Do Kwon are facing multiple investigations as well as lawsuits into its collapse. (Canadian Pharmacy) As of now, South Korean authorities and Interpol have issued a warrant for the search and arrest of Do Kwon and his accomplices.

    Recovery Plan of Terra Luna Classic (August)

    As of now, the Luna Classic blockchain is managed and governed by the community after Terraform Labs (TFL) developers abandoned the chain in support of Luna 2.0. On August 26th 2022, governance was restored as citizens of Luna Classic could delegate, stake, and vote for the future of the ecosystem. Proposals and the associated implementations are being passed by the Terra Classic Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).

    Feds Sanction Tornado Cash (August)

    On 8th August 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions against Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused Ethereum mixing service that obscures the trail back to the fund’s original source. They claimed that Lazarus Group, a cybercrime group run by the North Korean government, has been using Tornado Cash to launder illicit funds.

    Moreover, one of the developers for Tornado Cash was arrested in the Netherlands. The crypto community and privacy advocates bashed Netherlands authorities as the developer was simply writing code and had nothing to do with illicit activities. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also criticized the move as he himself used Tornado Cash to make donations to Ukraine’s cause.

    Ethereum Merge (September)

    On 15th September 2022 at 06:42:42 UTC at block 15537393, the Ethereum Merge was completed. This meant a merger of the Ethereum mainnet execution layer and the Beacon Chain’s consensus layer, transitioning from the proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake. This landmark update brings major changes to the network, including a 99.95% reduction in energy consumption and a 90% cut in ETH issuance.

    This is a significant achievement in the history of blockchain, allowing the Ethereum network to scale effectively as demand for Web3 and DeFi increase. Since Ethereum is the mother of all smart contract platforms, this could put Ethereum in a position to rival Bitcoin in adoption and even value.

    Downfall of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried (November)

    On 11th November 2022, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) filed FTX, FTX US, and Alameda Research for bankruptcy in the U.S. Once hailed as one of the top crypto exchanges, the sudden collapse of FTX came as a shocking blow to the entire crypto industry, setting off yet another contagion across the space. This affected 130 affiliated companies including several high-profile firms such as BlockFi, Genesis Trading, Grayscale, KuCoin, Gemini, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Sequoia Capital, and Galaxy Digital.

    Apparently, SBF was misappropriating customer funds for his own benefits without customers’ consent and knowledge, conducting unethical flywheel schemes with Alameda Research. As a result, SBF had been arrested in the Bahamas, facing many criminal charges including securities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance law violations. However, on 22nd Decemeber 2022, the disgraced FTX founder was released on a $250 million bail.

  • 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.

  • The Graph ($GRT) – The Next Level of Decentralized Apps

    The Graph ($GRT) – The Next Level of Decentralized Apps

    What is The Graph?

    The Graph ($GRT) is a decentralized and open-sourced indexing protocol for blockchain data. Developers can build and publish different APIs, which are referred to as subgraphs, and perform queries through the GraphQL.

    The platform can easily be used to look for any Ethereum data conveniently through simple queries. This addresses the common problem faced by a lot of other blockchain indexing platforms.

    Blockchain applications face difficulties in keeping properties like finality, chain reorganization, and security in their process of fulfilling query tasks. These are also potential complications that applications usually address, but unfortunately make the process of querying time-consuming. The Graph has a workaround for this, and it is built exactly for that purpose.

    Through “subgraphs,” The Graph indexes blockchain data, which users can access via the GraphQL API. According to the team, they will make it fully decentralized in the future, where more nodes will be involved and made responsible for maintaining the index.

    The interest for the platform is steadily growing. In fact, they hit over a billion queries last June 2020. This was right at the time when decentralized finance was also gaining much institutional attention.

    The Graph’s Daily Query Volume (Source: ‘1 Billion Monthly Queries’ medium articles)

    Background

    Yaniv Tal, co-founder and CEO of The Graph, together with his team, has created an indexing protocol meant to ease the process of accessing blockchain data. Tal and his co-founders had personally witnessed themselves how difficult it was to actually create new applications on the Ethereum blockchain.

    Thanks to their experience on applications, they have found out that there is actually no decentralized indexing and querying softwares yet for blockchain. The problem back then was that developers had to come up with their own method to gather data and transform them from different sources.

    The mission of the platform, which Tal and his team developed, is to help create applications that require no servers and make Web3 accessible to everyone.

    How Does The Graph Index Data?

    To index Ethereum-based data, The Graph uses the “subgraph manifest.” This refers to the description of a subgraph containing data about smart contracts, blockchain events, and the procedure in mapping event data with one another, before they are all kept in the platform’s database.

    The flow of the data from transactions, subgraph manifests, and the database follows a particular structure. All of it begins with decentralized applications that are adding data to the Ethereum blockchain through the help of smart contracts.

    All of that data will contain a record of all events and transactions up until the point that they have achieved finality. Then comes the Graph Node, which scans the whole blockchain database, gathers new data, and filters out those that are relevant to the queries that users make. To make the indexing much easier, it identifies every information that answers the questions from subgraphs.

    GraphQL is the link between blockchain data and the application that a user wants to provide it with. But then again, it is through the Graph Node that users can deliver searches to the platform. After the whole process, users can finally look at the results of their query from their applications.

    Basically, this is how the cycle of data query and indexing works in the platform. Users can refer to the Graph Explorer to scan through the subgraphs that are already in the platform. Each of these subgraphs have a playground where users can perform queries through GraphQL.

    How the Graph Works? (source: https://thegraph.com/docs/introduction#how-the-graph-works)

    As of latest, The Graph can support the indexing of data coming from Ethereum, IPFS, and PoA networks. There are more networks that the platform will support in the future. But right now, they already have more than 2,300 subgraphs deployed, which developers for applications utilize. Some of these applications are AAVE, Aragon, Balancer, DAOstack, Uniswap, Synthetix, and many others.

    There is a lot of institutional support for The Graph network. Michael Anderson of Framework Ventures, said in a press release that they “couldn’t be happier to back Yaniv and the team, and we look forward to helping grow the decentralized network when it launches.”

    Hayden Adams of Uniswap also shared how useful the platform was for their analytics needs: “As a company we don’t manage or run our own databases. … Right now it’s pretty difficult to get historic data from the Ethereum blockchain in an efficient way.”

    Their plan, apart from expanding to other blockchains soon, is to make it community-owned and governed in the future. This is also in response to the shift of many blockchain applications to a decentralized model of governance.

    Key Roles

    The platform’s whole ecosystem is composed of the following:

    The Graph’s Protocol Roles (source: The Graph Network In Depth)
    • Consumers – These are the users who pay indexers for their searches. It could also be web services or any other software linked with The Graph.
    • Indexers – These are the nodes that maintain the indexing function of the platform.
    • Curators – Using GRTs, curators identify to the subgraphs the information that is valuable for the platform’s index.
    • Delegators – These are other stakers who delegate their GRT to existing indexers and earn a portion of the rewards run by nodes.
    • Fishermen – They check whether the network’s response to queries is accurate.
    • Arbitrators – They decide whether an Indexer is malicious or not.

    The Graph Council

    The Graph plans to decentralize its governance in the future. This will most likely be similar with MakerDAO and Compound. At the point of the protocol’s maturity, the team plans to launch a Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) that would allow core interest groups to participate in important protocol decisions.

    Similar to other DAOs, the Graph Council, which will be the governing body for the technical parameters of the protocol, is also in charge of how The Graph Foundation allocates its native, utility tokens.

    Among their basic functions include decisions on allocating grants and ecosystem funding, protocol upgrades, protocol parameters, and other emergency decisions.

    GRT Token ($GRT)

    The Graph Token, or $GRT, is its native ERC-20 based token, which can serve as a medium of exchange and the reward distributed to community participants who function as Indexers, Curators, and Delegators.

    GRT token distribution
    GRT token distribution (Image source: The Graph)

    GRT also has a vesting and distribution schedule ranging between 6 months to 10 years depending on the bucket. Around 12.5% of the total token supply (i.e. 1,224,999,438 GRT) is expected to be in circulation at launch. However this figure is exclusive of stakeable but locked tokens.

    GRT token distribution at mainnet launch

    The Graph launched its mainnet at 9:00a.m. (PT) on 17th December 2020. Upon launch, GRT has been distributed to all of the participants of the public sale. Members of The Graph’s Curator Program also received an initial USD $1,000 worth in rewards, with the remainder to be distributed to them on a quarterly basis based on their contributions to the Program.

    The Graph Foundation also received around 20% of the supply for the future development of The Graph. In particular, contributors who want to help building on The Graph can apply to their Grants Program, around 1% of the total supply of GRT will be allocated to support these participants in 2021.

    Here’s a graph showing the GRT circulation over the course of 5 years from the date of launch (i.e. 17th December 2020 at 9:00a.m. PT)

    5-year GRT circulation schedule by Bucket
    5-year GRT circulation schedule by Bucket (Image source: The Graph)

    Indexers that assisted during the Testnet phase have also ben rewarded between USD$10,000 to USD$100,000 in GRT as a reward for their contributions.

    In addition, around 2% of the total GRT has been granted to several Education Programs and loans totalling around 2.5% had been made to independent ecosystem partners.

    Indexer Staking

    In order for users to stake in the nodes that operate the whole platform and sell their services in the query market, they have to lock their GRT. In return, they are given financial rewards. If the indexers work maliciously, like altering data intentionally, the GRT that they staked will be slashed.

    Mainnet now live!

    The Graph Network launched its main net on 17th December 2020 after 3 years of development! According to the team the mainnet launch includes the following components: Deployment of The Graph Network contracts on Ethereum mainnet, deployment of the GRT contract, distribution of GRT to takeovers, launch of the Bug County Program and new docs for network roles.

    With the mainnet launch, Indexers will first stress test and improve performance before supporting real query volume, which will be upwards of 5,000 queries per second. Of course, there will be rewards for Indexers who will now begin earning on-chain indexing rewards and query fees.

    Graph Roadmap: What’s next?

    Now that mainnet has launched, The Graph will continue building. The Team has stated that the Graph Foundation will work on building a production-ready Graph Explorer dApp and Gateway that will support all network contributors.

    The Graph is also open to any individuals or third-parties that want to build for the network and as mentioned previously, they an apply to the Grants Program or collaborate with other community contributors.

    Conclusion

    Looking at the current boom of the DeFi space, we can see how important it is for developers to be able to freely access blockchain data. Making the process faster and less difficult for everyone could potentially influence the growth of the space as well as its reliability, security, and capacity.

    Everyone saw the need to create a bridge of information between applications and blockchain data. The Graph sought out to answer that.

    And with the deployment of smart contracts that depend on user data, The Graph has proven itself to be easy to use, cost-efficient, and fast. The platform is seen as a promising tool to empower everyone in the community, especially those who are developing more use cases for the blockchain.

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

    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.