Category: Latest News

Stacks ($STX): Bringing Bitcoin’s security to decentralised apps

Stacks ($STX) (formerly Blockstack) is an open-source network that allows developers to easily build decentralised applications (such as decentralised finance DeFi applications) and smart contracts. It also relies on Bitcoin as a backbone by reusing its computing power and blockchain for settlement and security with a new mechanism known as proof of transfer (PoX). Below, we look into PoX and everything you need to know about Stacks.

Background

Stacks is handled by a globally-distributed team that includes scientists from leading universities such as MIT, Stanford, and Princeton. On top of that, The project is a public company with its headquarters in New York.

Stacks’s place in the DeFi and broader crypto ecosystem is further cemented by being backed by notable names in the industry such as Y Combinator, Foundation Capital, Digital Currency Group, Winklevoss Capital, and LUX.

What is Stacks?

Stacks is a decentralized platform that leverages the Bitcoin platform’s security to power the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (Dapps). Interestingly, the network does not have to recreate the system’s PoW mechanism to connect to it. The project has four major layers; application, protocol, Stacks blockchain, and the Bitcoin system.

Blockstack's 4 layers — Stack’s 4 layers (Image credit: Blockstack.org)

What is Proof of Transfer (PoX)?

Proof of Transfer (PoX) and the earliest Proof of Work (PoW) are requirements to define what a miner needs to do in order to create blocks on the blockchain. The purpose of mining is to verify a transactions’ legitimacy and in return miners are rewarded with cryptocurrencies. Proof of Work is the mechanism used for Bitcoin whereby miners compete to solve a puzzle using their computer’s processing power in order to add each block to the chain.

Learn more about what REAL cryptocurrency mining looks like.

However, Bitcoin has its fair share of drawbacks. It has a very low transaction speed and is not smart contract-friendly. Therefore, second-layer solutions like the Lightning Network have tried to provide fast Bitcoin transactions but failed to power smart contracts.

As such, it has lost in the competition to Ethereum who now powers most decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Yet, with Ethereum witnessing increased congestion, new projects are shifting from Bitcoin and Ethereum’s proof of work (PoW) to platforms using proof of stake (PoS) and other energy-friendly consensus mechanisms such as proof of burn (PoB). Now Stacks wants to take this a step further with their proof of transfer (PoX).

Name	What miner needs to do to mint new cryptocurrencies
Proof of work (PoW)	Use electricity towards computations i.e. solving complex problems.
Proof of stake (PoS)	Dedicate an economic stake in a base cryptocurrency
Proof of burn (PoB)	Destroy a base cryptocurrency
Proof of transfer (PoX)	Transfer a base cryptocurrency

Proof of work and other mechanisms

Stacks Blockchain

As mentioned earlier, Stacks has four major layers; application, protocol, Stacks blockchain, and the Bitcoin system.

Stacks blockchain is the solid rock that holds the ecosystem together. It is a distributed layer by itself and allows users to create smart contracts and virtual assets. What’s interesting with this layer is that it’s not a layer two chain but connects to the BTC-powered network with a 1:1 block ratio.

This implies that whatever happens on the Stacks platform is easily verifiable on the Bitcoin platform.

How Do the Two Platforms Connect?

To interface the two independent distributed networks, the Stacks blockchain uses PoX instead of PoW. Generally, the mechanism enables miners to mine a new digital currency by transferring a base currency. In the case of Stacks, transferring BTC results in a new coin being minted on the Stacks protocol.

Apart from fronting a new consensus mechanism i.e. PoX, the decentralized platform allows its users to easily create virtual assets that are transferable, and ownership can be assigned. The assets can represent a wide range of use cases such as business models, funding, and governance.

However, to effectively cater to each of these use cases, Stacks, through the Stacks blockchain, supports different asset types such as fungible and non-fungible tokens.

Learn more about the differences between fungible and non-fungible tokens.

To power smart contracts, the Stacks blockchain uses a smart contract-centric programming language called Clarity, which provides enhanced security. Notably, the programming language is employed by leading decentralized platforms such as Algorand.

Protocol Layer

The protocol layer has the storage, authentication, financial, and naming service. Stacks’ storage system is called Gaia. It stores app data without the need for a third-party service provider.

It utilizes off-chain cloud systems such as a DigitalOcean or Azure to power super-fast data access by applications. Fortunately, the data is secured by its creator’s private key.

On the other hand, Stacks uses a decentralized feature to provide authentication. Authentication powers access to the network’s apps using a username and details on Gaia.

The financial aspect of the system supports DeFi platforms such as those providing decentralized exchanges and lending. The financial pillar is further strengthened by the protocol’s use of Clarity to drive smart contracts.

For instance, the smart contract-programming language can interface directly with the Bitcoin blockchain. Additionally, it’s reinforced to prevent security breaches and anticipate possible vulnerabilities.

Stacks has a unique naming feature called BNS (Blockstack Naming Service). Despite being decentralized, the service enables the platform’s users to give assets human-readable names. The names are secured with a combination of public and private keys.

$STX Token: What is is and tokenomics?

Activities on the Stacks blockchain are powered by a native currency known as Stacks token ($STX). It is used up as “fuel” when making transactions, interacting with smart contracts and using the BNS feature. It is also distributed as a reward to STX miners (see below).

The genesis block minted 1.3 billion Stacks tokens. Minted coins were shared among the founders, treasury, equity investors, employees, two token sales, and app mining.

Stacks token distribution (Image credit: Stacks Whitepaper)

App mining is Stacks’ way to reward developers for building high-quality applications on the Stacks network.

Stacks is available on Binance, HashKey, Crypto.com, and Kucoin. Unfortunately, its availability has been set for non-US persons only.

Stack Network’s Use Cases

From the start, the platform is built to enable privacy and allow users to control how their data is used in a world where user data is treated as a commodity for sale. And with Stacks’ use of PoX, Clarity, and other qualities, developers can ensure data privacy when creating apps, eliminate central authorities in financial products, and build fair games.

Stacks 2.0 and use cases

Stacks 2.0 blockchain is a layer-1 blockchain utilising the Bitcoin blockchain as a secure base-layer to bring apps and smart contracts to Bitcoin. Stacks 2.0 is currently in the testnet phase. The team have confirmed they are on track to reach code completion for the Stacks 2.0 blockchain by 15th December 2020 and have set a launch date for 14th January 2021.

Stacks implements proof of transfer (PoX) as a consensus mechanism and natively connects to Bitcoin. Therefore developers can ensure data privacy when creating apps, eliminate central authorities in financial products, and build fair games without the need to modify Bitcoin.

There will be 2 types of participants on Stacks

STX miners

They can spend BTC to elect leaders by sending transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, where a Verifiable Random Function (VRF) will randomly select the leader of each round. The leader then writes the new block on the Stacks chain.

As a reward, STX miners get STX tokens, transaction fees, and the Clarity contract execution fees of each block.

STX holders

Holders can participate in consensus by locking up their STX for a cycle, running a full node, and sending useful information on the Stacks network as transactions.

As a reward, STX holders can earn Bitcoin rewards and unlike in the proof of stake mechanism, there is no risk of slashing for STX holders.

Conclusion

With an increasing number of security breaches on smart contracts and blockchain platforms, leveraging Bitcoin’s security when building smart contracts puts Stacks at the top of the game. Using Clarity at the base of every smart contract keeps hackers at bay, especially in the DeFi scene where malicious actors are always on the prowl for vulnerabilities in protocols.

Additionally, Chainlink oracles provide a trusted source of off-chain data for developers, while PoX allows for a one-on-one connection to the BTC-powered blockchain.

We are certainly curious to see what the team come up with in Stacks 2.0 and whether they can live up to their aims.

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

January 1, 2023

Duck Liquidity Pool (DLP) by DuckDAO ($DUCK)
Duck Liquidity Pool ($DUCK) is a DeFi Market Maker protocol, developed by DuckDAO, one of the biggest cryptocurrency community that provides funding and marketing support to early-stage crypto projects.

The boom of decentralized finance (DeFi) in recent months has ushered in a new profit-making strategy for crypto traders, beginners and advanced alike. Decentralized exchanges (DEX) rely on liquidity pools to help power their market-makers. While the Duck Liquidity Pool is a new entrant in DeFi, it has already captured the attention of many users in the space thanks to its high APY and token burning model.

https://youtu.be/8MNKafDgW0o

What is the Duck Liquidity Pool?

The Duck Liquidity Pool (DLP) is DuckDAO’s own market maker. The funds that supply its pool came from the sale of pre-mined tokens and can be accessible in many other protocols and exchanges. In the meantime, projects that are supported by DuckDAO will be the first to be able to tap the pool. The ticker for the pool is $DUCK.

The unique feature that distinguishes DLP from others is its “unilateral burn” strategy, or the one-sided token burn model. It is designed to burn 50% of all earned rewards (more on this later).

The APY level for DLP is high and its suppliers can receive as much as 50% of the profits from market making, airdrop of incubated project tokens, as well as non-fungible token (NFT) campaigns. Such a feature enables yield farmers the ability to earn profit by just providing liquidity to DuckDAO’s market maker.

To participate in the DLP, users have to lock their cryptocurrency holdings by depositing their funds in the pool. In return, they receive DUCK tokens as a reward for supplying funds to the pool.

Duck Liquidity Pool – How it works? (Source: Duck Liquidity Pool (DLP) Blackpaper)

DuckDAO’s Native Token ($DUCK)

DUCK token is the DuckDAO’s native utility token, which also powers the incentive model for the Duck Liquidity Pool. The token has the following use cases:
- Yield farming on Uniswap pools – Staking tokens help contribute liquidity to DUCK and DDIM pools. For this, they earn profit through DLP.
- Reward token for market-making profit – Half of the profit from the market maker is returned to the community who belong to the liquidity pool. If the performance of DLP is good, the profit for the yield farmers grows in proportion as well.
- Project token airdrops
- Non-fungible token as reward
Deflationary Farming: “One-Side-Burn”

This is touted by the team as “Yield Farming 2.0,” which is designed to support a deflationary, unilateral burning of tokens. To understand how this works, we must first look at how the current yield farming mechanism works.

The Usual Scenario for Most Liquidity Pools

Commonly, yield farming pools in the DeFi space look very advanced for the average trader. Not only does this create a psychological barrier to entry, but it also makes profit-making a little more difficult for someone new to yield farming.

Another issue that traders face is the inflationary structure of the incentive mechanism in most liquidity pools. This is because, in order to provide rewards to yield farmers, mined tokens have to be released into the market. This model isn’t designed for long-term effectiveness since with more reward tokens in supply over time, we can expect its value to depreciate as well.

Duck’s Unilateral Burn

$DUCK, on the other hand, is designed to support long-term yield farming strategies. Even beginners on liquidity pools can just stake and earn a part of the profit that DuckDAO’s market maker gets.

$DUCK One-Side-Burn Deflationary Model (Source: DuckDAO website)

One-Side-Burn is a deflationary model that is designed to burn 50% of the carry pair as soon as the liquidity provider decides to cash in a portion of his stake.

What happens in such a situation is that users lose one side of their liquidity as the tokens are burned. And when someone decides to exit the pool completely, his entire liquidity is also burned and further lowers the DUCK tokens in supply.

While this model may seem counterintuitive for profit-earning at first, over-time, the value of the tokens is going to be greater than what it was when a user has staked in the pool. That is why DLP’s design appears to be much better in the long run.

Duck Liquidity Pool Market-Maker Models

Project Token Purchase

DLP purchases tokens in order to facilitate buy and sell liquidity.

Duck Liquidity Pool Business Model – Project Token Purchase (Source: Duck Liquidity Pool (DLP) Blackpaper)

Project Token Borrow

DLP loans tokens against collateral in order to facilitate buy and sell liquidity.

Duck Liquidity Pool Business Model – Project Token Borrow (Source: Duck Liquidity Pool (DLP) Blackpaper)

Fixed Fee Model

The protocol can charge a fixed service fee for listings that have decided to provide buy and sell liquidity on their own.

Duck Liquidity Pool Business Model – Fixed Fee Model (Source: Duck Liquidity Pool (DLP) Blackpaper)

Conclusion

DeFi has enabled the birth of new profit-making strategies for traders in the space. However, whether existing liquidity pools can support long-term yield farming models is another question altogether. DLP’s model, which is powered by the ‘unilateral burn’ design, appears to be more promising.

To be fair, like many other pools, the profit it can generate for stakers is also influenced by the number of users joining the pool. This is why it is important to look into that as well before deciding to lock your tokens and supply liquidity to the pool.

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

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

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

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

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
Paralink Network ($PARA): expanding the potential of DeFi apps with data
Paralink Network is a platform built on Polkadot sourcing crucial real-world data for decentralised finance (DeFi) applications.

Blockchain technology has huge potential, but blockchain applications are limited by what real-world data they can access. Without this crucial real-world data, blockchain cannot be used in areas like prediction markets, insurance, litigation, or other coordination problems that rely on social institutions and corporations. This is commonly known as the oracle problem.

While several solutions, like Chainlink’s decentralized oracles, are already being used, Paralink has made its own headway through the development of a cheap and efficient solution.

Background

Jan Knezevic, Founder and CEO of Paralink, is a Slovenian auditor who had previously worked in financial units, such as KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting organizations, in 2018.

During his time there, he developed an appreciation of blockchain technology. Like many other cryptocurrency enthusiasts, he was able to recognize the restrictions of blockchain applications when exchanging real-world information.

He saw that for such applications to be useful for complex industries like the stock market, they had to have verified information flow from the real world. Realizing that the gambling industry also needed reliable data flow, especially for platforms like casino utan svensk licens, he set out to bring a scalable cost-effective solution to the problem. This led to the development of the project now known as Paralink.

What is Paralink?

Paralink is an oracle platform that provides real-world data ingress across multi-chain networks. The platform makes it possible for applications built on blockchain networks like Ethereum and Polkadot to interact with traditional web interfaces.

It is developed to help distributed systems communicate effectively with each other as well as the outside world. With Polkadot providing the supporting architecture and framework for its integration, Paralink functions as a substrate.

In addition to collecting and organizing real-world data for Blockchain application, the platform also confirms their validity. The data could be anything from sports, weather, elections to financial data, stock, foreign exchange, etc.

It can carry out all these functions through an open-source software called the ‘Paralink node’. The platform is currently designed with a focus on financial applications like the stock market and insurance.

How the Paralink Node Works

The Paralink node is the center of the platform. As stated, the node is open-source software. It is built to access and collect real-world data that channels back to smart contracts via callbacks.

Paralink Network (Image Credit: Medium)

The node can be run independently as a centralized medium for real-world data into blockchain applications. That way, the solution is much cheaper. However, it is more practical for a node to be operated by self-organizing quorums to provide a strong, sustainable data ingress service.

The node is compatible with different data protocols including JSON, HTML, XML, SQL and Grpc. The creators are working to improve its interaction on different APIs actively.

Developers can then query data from sources outside of the Blockchain using Paralink Query Language (PQL).

Currently, the Paralink node is built to support just the Ethereum and Polkadot blockchain network. However, the long term goal is to build a flexible node compatible with any public chain, thanks to the node’s architecture and open-source model.

How Paralink is Secured

To achieve the goal described in its whitepaper, Paralink has to be effectively flexible enough to be compatible with a wide range of Blockchain applications and protocols. To this end, the platform is offered in three different security models, each with varying characteristics concerning cost, convenience, and security.

Simple Ingress

This is the most cost-effective model available. Here, Paralink nodes are available for use on multi-chain networks via any third-party data source. The model is simple to implement through PQL definition. It is also fast and can certify the authenticity of multiple data sources.

It has a major drawback, however, in that it requires trust in a centralized node operator. Furthermore, it is also ineffective for complex financial applications.

Trusted Ingress

This model is an upgrade to the first-described simple ingress, which utilizes encrypting PQL results with cryptography. The results are accompanied by private decryption keys from reputable data providers.

As a step-up from the rudimentary model, it is highly functional for financial applications. Other types of applications like prediction markets and gambling platforms can be also covered.

Trusted ingress is also cheap and effortless to implement. Moreover, callback support is also available to all chains without the need for a bridge. However, it is susceptible to being breached due to a single point of failure.

On-chain Security

On-chain security is the last security model available, which does not depend on a single source for verification. Hence, it is almost impossible to break. This is especially useful for money markets, derivatives, and other financial applications that involve high-stakes.

On the other hand, the model needs linking networks (bridges) like Ethereum and Polkadot, hence, requires more chain coordination to pull off.

Para Token ($PARA)

PARA is the native governance token of the Paralink platform. Users are incentivized to hold PARA tokens in order to enjoy governance rights and earn APY based on the amount they hold (which in turn must be staked).

PARA tokenomics

There is a maximum supply of 10 billion PARA tokens. The allocation and distribution of PARA tokens are as follows:

PARA token distribution (Image credit: Medium)

The distribution system is quite similar to other crypto protocols. 13.5% of the total would be shared among the developing team after a vesting period of two years. About 18% would be kept as reserve to as a buffer. 20% would be disbursed as nominator rewards, another 20% for Validator rewards.

10% would be deployed for the ecosystem. This will serve as incentives for early Paralink adopters and relayers.

Paralink Network ($PARA) token public sale?

In an update on 1 February 2021, Paralink have confirmed that they will not be holding a public sale of the PARA token. Their reason for this is due to the inherent unfairness of the auction process, and difficulties in completing the KYC process for purchasers.

However, Paralink still wants its eventual token holders (who can purchase the token when it is listed on exchanges) to have more incentives. So the tokens that were initially reserved for the public sale will now go into the lockup rewards pool.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, the cryptocurrency industry’s future depends on how well its application can integrate with the real world. To elaborate, financial applications need to be able to exchange real-time information with real-world entities to ensure an accurate, reliable evaluation of assets for buyers and sellers — which is the basis for Paralink nodes’ development.

Blockchain networks would require secure and cost-effective solutions like this for seamless communication among the various chains, as well as the outside world before it can unleash its latent potentials.

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

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

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

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

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
Lepricon ($L3P): gamified DeFi?
Lepricon is a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) trying to realise the potential of gaming and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in blockchain by giving users a platform for gamified decentralized finance (DeFi) dApps focusing on user experience.

Background

Founded in October 2020, the project is led by Joshua Galloway (Founder & CEO), Stephen Browne (COO), and Phil Ingram (CMO). The CEO has vast experience in the digital currency scene.

For example, he served as the executive director of business development at Sors Digital Assets and as a Venture Builder for Plutus Venture Capital.

Apart from the virtual currency space, Galloway held a co-chair position on the board of directors at the International Game Developers Association (Hong Kong Chapter).

Key Lepricon partners include RioDeFi, Hex Trust, Blockwell, and Plutus VC.

What is Lepricon?

Lepricon is a layered distributed platform for developers to create DeFi-based decentralized applications (dApps) with a gaming basis. Lepricon’s mission is to incorporate optimal community involvement in dApps. Therefore, the project presents developers with an open book to decide how far they want to take NFT-themed games.

Lepricon has undergone thorough security audits, and the code is available for public review. Notably, the project moves a step further to include bug bounties on all its contracts to weed out even the smallest code malfunction.

To help with their mission are FOUR critical features. They include:
1. A native token – Dubbed L3P, the coin allows holders to participate in governance issues such as upgrades and fees charged.
2. Staking – L3P has staking functionalities that enable holders to earn rewards by participating in securing the network.
3. Loyalty protocol – Called Shamrock, it tracks community reputation and loyalty. The feature helps Lepricon reward faithful members by measuring positive contributions on the platform. Some events with a higher reputation score are staking, voting or submitting a proposal, and inviting friends to the platform.
4. dApp store – It houses and allows access to fun game content initially created around the prediction market.
The Connection Between Lepricon, Ethereum, and Polkadot

Lepricon came to life on the main Ethereum blockchain before it operated as a parachain on Polkadot.

The advantage of leveraging the Polkadot network is that it facilitates and makes it easy to interact with other decentralized protocols. For instance, it makes it easy to move data across blockchains.

Apart from the two blockchains, the network seeks to replicate the traditional gaming landscape by making Lepricon available on other leading protocols such as EOS and Cardano.

Lepricon token (L3P)

L3P is the protocol’s native currency.

The token generation event saw the creation of 777,777,777 tokens. Their distribution is as follows:
- 28% token sale via presale, private and public crowd sale;
- 25% community and staking rewards;
- 24.5% ecosystem ans partnership funds;
- 18.5% team and advisors, to be locked and released over time; and
- 4% development teams of bitpool, KQJ and fanspredict;
Others Ways to Earn L3P Tokens

Apart from buying the L3P tokens, Lepricon has incorporated other ways to mine the native token, which include:

Community Building

Exactly 2.5% of L3P tokens are set aside for mining through community building. This type of mining targets to bring more people on board the Lepricon train by distributing tokens to diverse yet relevant participants. Programs categorized in this group include bounties and airdrops. It also encompasses dispute resolution.

Yield Farming

This accounts for up to 20% of all coins in circulation.

Adoption, Prediction, and Referral

Note that mining using these methods has a promotional element. As such, Lepricon locks earned coins but with unlocking capabilities. The protocol allocates 2.5% of all minted coins to mining through prediction, referral, and adoption.

Interestingly, these tasks are very simple. For example, by opening a wallet on the protocol, you kick start mining through adoption, while when you invite friends over, you are already mining through referral. Encouraging invited friends to stake their L3P holding boosts your rewards in this category.

L3P Token Features
1. Liquidity mining – Lepricon buys back the tokens and recycles them to provide liquidity, thus safeguarding against bottlenecks in incentives.
2. Interoperability – L3P tokens are interoperable with other decentralized systems. Consequently, it improves scalability and customization.
3. Increased interaction – Lepricon’s mission is to drive interaction through gamified DeFi. The protocol’s native asset sits at the center of it all. It allows holders to play against themselves or directly connect to liquidity pools.
L3P token features

Other Crucial Components of the Lepricon ecosystem

Lepricon Launchpad

Launchpad provides a crowdfunding platform specially optimized for game artists and developers. The platform enables the Lepricon community to invest in projects that have their interests at heart. In addition, the Lepricon Launchpad enables its users to get lead access to rare virtual assets residing on the decentralized network as NFTs.

Examples of projects that can use the platform to raise funds include NFT art projects, prediction games, virtual collectible trading card games, and gamified NFTs.

Lepricon Economy

The project needs to make profits. One way it does this is by dividing dApps into individual teams and their own set of fees. For instance, a prediction dApp has a distinct development team and a fee rate. The fees can be set depending on a single prediction pool event, user transaction, etc. However, a DAO can adjust the fee parameter accordingly.

Conclusion

By incorporating gaming in NFTs, the DeFi-NFT ecosystem is bound to reach new heights. Although such an interaction seemed impossible, Lepricon is getting everything right.

From operating on the Polkadot space to launching on different blockchains, the project is keen on making dApps available and easily accessible.

Additionally, Lepricon’s focus on user experience and interface, coupled with decentralized governance, increases the playability and adoption of NFTs in the DeFi space.

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

So far, the blockchain has had an irrevocable impact on modern technology. The spread of decentralized architectures and frameworks has given birth to numerous technological innovations. Despite the technological freedom the blockchain has brought, granular and historical blockchain data is almost impossible to access. Blockchain product users and developers often have no way to explore data on the blockchain; data that are highly unstructured and unstandardized in most cases.

Through its special algorithm, Covalent resolves this issue and guarantees mass adoption for Decentralized ledger technologies (DLT), powered by a rich data infrastructure.
Table of Contents

Toggle
Background

What Is Covalent?

Covalent Use Cases

Wallets

Taxes

NFT Dashboards

What Makes Covalent Unique

Data availability

Composability

Multi-blockchain Support

No code solution

Covalent Query Token (CQT)

Conclusion

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

Founded in 2018, Covalent prides itself as a new frontier of development for enterprises, consumers, and software developers. The very first version of the protocol was built at a distributed systems hackathon back in 2017.

After winning the hackathon, co-founders Ganesh Swami and Levi Aul decided to turn the ambitious blockchain implementation into a highly secure, reliable, and easy-to-use decentralized solution. Covalent technology strives to resolve the huge infrastructure problems slowing down blockchain adoption and acceptance worldwide.

The team behind Covalent is a diverse 30-persons group of financial, marketing, and blockchain experts and engineers all with rich experience in decentralized finance (DeFi).

What Is Covalent?

Covalent is a multichain API that provides easy and quick access to deep, granular, and historical blockchain data. This efficient blockchain protocol has managed to index the whole blockchain space to empower blockchain pioneers and leaders of the future. Additionally, the solution bridges the entrenched world of centralized databases with the new world of distributed blockchain technologies.

Covalent’s unified API enables access to the richest and most secure data infrastructure within the decentralized ecosystem. Additionally, through its immense data infrastructure, The API allows users to scrutinize numerous well-known and specific blockchain protocols. This gives endless possibilities to participants in terms of transparency and total visibility throughout decentralized networks.

The covalent network’s unique API implementation offers incredible access to historical transaction activity, positions, and token balances to many top Defi and NFT projects. Currently, the protocol is working with the likes of Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, and Avalanche to provide substantial, granular, and accessible data.

Covalent Use Cases

Overall, the full extent of the protocol’s use cases is relatively unknown. However, developers and partners within the platforms have come up with multiple ways to leverage data provided by the protocol.

Wallets

There are over 200,000 ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum and growing all thanks to the composability of DeFi Solutions. Under the Covalent algorithm, wallets are well structured, as they show real-time and historical balances, positions, and most importantly, portfolio value for all of their assets.

Taxes

All DeFi actions are taxable, and having easy access to such data facilitates blockchain transactions and makes firms compliant. Covalent is the only protocol in the market that provides this service for decentralized exchanges (DEXs).

NFT Dashboards

Mainstream blockchain products like Chainguardians and NFTX rely heavily on the platform’s Investor tools to show price trends, liquidity, and ROI of collectibles to educate their clients.

How Covalent works (Image credit: Beginners Guide to Covalent)

What Makes Covalent Unique

It is no doubt that Covalent is special in regards to other solutions within the market. The platform’s incredible algorithm is rooted in 4 main features, which allows Covalent to provide clients with the best transparency and visibility tool in the blockchain sphere. The features are:

Data availability

Covalent’s infrastructure is responsible for every transaction, contract, and wallet address under its ecosystem. Hence, this blockchain solution is accountable for billions of rows of data and terabytes of data, unlike most projects on the market that provide smaller or minuscule amounts only.

Composability

Composability is viewed as an important tool for DeFI implementations, as it grants users the ability to build financial solutions leveraging building blocks from a multitude of projects. Therefore, Covalent’s immense multichain API ultimately enables developers to instantly construct scalable and data-rich applications powered by a granular data infrastructure. (Xanax)

Multi-blockchain Support

One of the platform’s greatest strengths is its multichain support, as the covalent team is currently working with customers on 7 different well-known blockchain networks, with many more set to join and rely on the protocol soon.

In general, the Covalent team works closely with technical and business teams of their customers across the blockchains networks to ideate, plan, and execute a turn-key solution for developers building on top of their blockchains.

No code solution

The multichain API firmly believes in no-code solutions for clients and participants. Therefore, no overpriced and complicated SQL queries, no subgraph development and maintenance, and no need to invest in highly-skilled developers to simply retrieve blockchain data, which can be a huge waste of engineering time. With one fast and secured API, customers are sure to be satisfied.

Covalent Query Token (CQT)

CQT is the platform utility token and is primarily a proof-of-stake governance token powering Covalent’s rich and robust network. Additionally, the token facilitates the democratization of the multichain solution and enables the creation of blockchain data apps in Covalent’s vast marketplace.

CQT will primarily serve as a governance token, giving voting rights to holders concerning the system’s parameters such as new data sources, specific geolocations, and data modeling requirements. CQT will also be used as a staking asset within the multichain API.

Conclusion

The Multichain API aims to organize the world’s blockchain information, enabling more transparent blockchain actions and transactions. Covalent has successfully managed to resolve issues concerning transparency and visibility within the blockchain.

The platform’s unified API has indexed billions of blockchain data points in the scope of empowering blockchain leaders of tomorrow. It is fair to conclude that Covalent is ahead of its competition, as more than 7 prominent blockchain networks rely on the services of this protocol.

The team’s continuous drive to elevate and scale blockchain technologies is a testimony of the platform’s innovative ecosystem built to bring forward key attributes of decentralization in complete transparency and visibility. Overall, Covenant is set to impact the blockchain space positively, thereby contributing to the worldwide adoption of decentralized technologies.

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

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

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

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

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
January 1, 2023
GammaX Exchange Token Airdrop Guide: LIVE NOW
The GammaX Exchange beta testnet is now live. Users can complete simple tasks to earn points in exchange for GammaX tokens. The more points you earn, the more tokens you can receive. In this article, we will explain what GammaX Exchange is and how to position yourself for the upcoming airdrop.

GammaX Exchange Airdrop Step-by-Step Guide

Here’s how to get a potential GammaX Exchange airdrop:
1. Sign Up for Beta Testnet here.
2. Answer Quizzes on Learn-to-Earn Platform
3. Share Referral Link
4. Follow GammaX Exchange on Twitter
See below for more details.

What is GammaX Exchange?

GammaX Exchange is a decentralized platform for trading derivatives that provides the best of both worlds: the speed and liquidity of a centralized exchange and the security and governance of the blockchain. With audited smart contracts on StarkWare L2, GammaX ensures security and custody of users’ assets.

The platform also offers a fast and easy user experience with an optimized off-chain order book, matching engine, and intuitive user interface. GammaX’s unique tokenomics and rewards system incentivizes genuine trading and retention while discouraging fraudulent activities such as wash trading and pumping/dumping of the token value.

Investor Funding

GammaX Exchange is backed by some of the biggest names in the crypto industry such as StarkWare, Alchemy, Cobo, Matrixport, Dexterity Capital, and Kyber Ventures. In August 2022, the team successfully closed a $4 million seed round, with Genesis Trading being one of the investors just before the FTX collapse.

Does GammaX Exchange have a Token?

Yes, GammaX Exchange plans to launch their own token. The tokenomics details are not out yet, but they have recently launched a rewards platform to incentivitize users for using the protocol. You can earn pre-token Gamma Points by completing various tasks on the GammaX rewards platform. These points will most likely correspond directly to your airdrop rewards once the token is launched.

How to Receive GammaX Token Airdrop?
The best way to receive GammaX airdrop is to sign up for their beta testnet (rewards platform) and complete tasks to earn pre-token GammaX Points. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
1. Sign Up for Beta Testnet
  Sign up at gammax.exchange/beta-tester/?referral=44FA987 with our referral code (we each get 200 extra points)! Once you have signed up, 100 points will be automatically credited to your account.
  
  You can see your points and other account details at gammax.exchange/dashboard.
2. Answer Quizzes on Learn-to-Earn Platform
  There are multiple courses available on gammax.exchange/learning-rewards. These courses involve watching video guides on certain crypto topics and then doing a quiz. You can earn up to 300 points for completing each course.
3. Share Referral Link
  You will automatically receive your referral link upon signing up. If it doesn’t appear, please contact customer support by clicking the “chat” icon located at the bottom left corner of the screen.
  
  You can share your referral link with friends, and you will receive 200 points for each friend who signs up using your link (limited to 2 referrals per day).
4. Follow GammaX Exchange on Twitter
  After following GammaX on Twitter, fill out this form with your wallet address and Twitter handle. 400 points will be credited manually every Monday.
Airdrop Review

Likelihood of Airdrop: GammaX has launched a rewards platform for users to earn points from completing tasks on the beta testnet. These pre-token points will correspond to your airdrop rewards once the token is issued.

Airdropped Token Allocation: We do not yet know how much they will allocate for the airdrop. But for the time being, there is no limit to the Gamma Points you can earn.

Airdrop Difficulty: The tasks are very easy to complete. All you have to do is watch the video guides and complete the quizzes for points. Additionally, you can refer to friends with your referral link and follow GammaX on Twitter.

Token Utility: Their token utility is unknown, but it is likely it will follow the model of other decentralized exchanges (i.e. reducing transaction fees, providing liquidity).

Token Lockup: There are no available tokenomics yet.

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

BitStamp Exchange Review (2023): Well-established Exchange on Security and Regulation

Bitstamp is a Luxembourg-based cryptocurrency exchange that offers users a secure platform to trade Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) against fiat currencies (USD, EUR, GBP) and deposit/withdraw fiat currencies using credit/debit cards. In this Bitstamp review, we’re going to share how Bitstamp works, its fees, who it works best for and whether or not it’s safe. What is more, you’ll know if Bitstamp is the right exchange for you.

What is BitStamp?

Bitstamp is one of the oldest and most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges in operation. It is registered in Luxembourg and headquartered in the UK, and caters to both beginner and experienced traders. Customers can exchange bitcoin (BTC), XRP, ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), and bitcoin cash (BCH) with each other and against fiat currencies (USD, EUR, GBP). They can also deposit and withdraw fiat currencies using their credit and debit cards. The trading and currency dashboards are clearly laid out and easy to use, making it a great choice for both novice and experienced traders.

Bitstamp was founded in 2011 as a European alternative to Mt.Gox. Bitstamp offers a secure and accessible middle ground between advanced trading and trading for beginners. With its user-friendly interface, advanced security measures, and a variety of trade types, it is a great choice for both experienced traders and those just starting out in the world of cryptocurrency.

Bitstamp offers users the ability to deposit and withdraw funds using their credit and debit cards, although this is usually more expensive than using a bank transfer. It has a solid security record, although it was subject to two cyberattacks in 2014 and 2015. Since then, it has managed to operate without incident and has been fully regulated by the Luxembourg government in 2016, making it a reliable and secure platform for users.

The BitStamp Team

The exchange company is led by CEO Nejc Kodric, with CTO David Osojnik, CFO Edward Kemp, and COO Vasja Zupan as key team members. Bitstamp offers a secure and reliable platform for customers to buy and sell digital assets, with a focus on providing a safe and secure trading environment. The company is committed to providing customers with the best customer service and support, and is constantly innovating to ensure customers have the best experience possible.

Key Features of BitStamp

BitStamp key features include:

Trusted Crypto Exchange for Global Traders: Bitstamp is a leading cryptocurrency exchange that offers traders from around the world a secure and reliable platform to buy and sell digital assets. With high liquidity and a fiat-to-crypto gateway, It is one of the most trusted and established exchanges in the industry.

Regulated Exchange: Bitstamp is the world’s first fully-licensed European cryptocurrency exchange, regulated by the Luxembourg Financial Industry Supervisory Commission (CSSF). It is a secure and reliable platform for trading digital currencies, offering users a safe and compliant way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

Buy cryptocurrencies with a bank card: Bitstamp offers a convenient way to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with a bank card. Customers can instantly buy digital currencies with their bank cards, making it easy to get started with cryptocurrency trading.

Low SEPA transfer fees: For Europeans, SEPA transfers are a low-cost way to deposit and withdraw cash directly to and from their bank accounts. SEPA transfers are more affordable than wire transfers, making them a great option for those looking to buy or sell cryptocurrency.

Mobile Application: Bistamp’s mobile app allows users to trade cryptocurrencies on the go, with support for both Android and iOS devices.

Perfect for Beginners: Bitstamp is a user-friendly cryptocurrency exchange that offers both beginner-friendly and advanced trading interfaces, making it easy for anyone to buy and sell digital currencies.

In summary, Bitstamp is a secure and reliable cryptocurrency exchange, offering a wide range of trading options for both novice and experienced traders. With over 9 years of experience, Bitstamp has proven its security and high liquidity, making it a great choice for those looking to buy and sell digital assets.

Key Advantages of BitStamp

Fiat Trading

Bitstamp is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies with fiat currencies. It supports USD, GBP, EUR, and Swiss Francs, making it a great option for beginners who are just getting started in the crypto world. It also offers a secure platform and low fees, making it a great choice for those looking to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. With its easy-to-use interface and wide range of fiat currencies, Bitstamp is a great choice for those looking to get started in the crypto world.

Payment Methods

Bitstamp makes it easy to get started with cryptocurrency trading, offering users the ability to fund their accounts with credit cards and bank transfers. This makes it simpler than ever to buy and sell digital currencies.

Security

Bitstamp is one of the most secure cryptocurrency exchanges on the market, with almost all of its funds kept in cold storage and fully insured. In 2015, Bitstamp was hacked and 19,000 Bitcoins were stolen, worth around 5 million USD. However, no customer funds were lost and the platform was completely rebuilt to prevent future hacks. The exchange has worked hard to ensure customer safety and security, and is now one of the most trusted exchanges in the industry.

Finally, it also offers its users two-factor authentication, text message alerts, and PGP encryption to keep user information private.

Fees

Bitstamp offers some of the lowest fees in the market, making it an ideal choice for new traders. Fees vary depending on the payment method and location, but are generally low and easy to understand.

Customer Service

Bitstamp is committed to providing excellent customer service, with a UK-based helpline for emergencies and a detailed FAQ page. They respond to user emails within three days, ensuring traders are kept happy and satisfied.

Reputation

Bitstamp is a reliable and professional crypto exchange, with links to financial institutions worldwide and full licensing. It has been audited by Ernst & Young, one of the Big Four accountancy firms.

Mobile App

Bitstamp’s mobile app has been highly rated by users, receiving an impressive 4.8 out of 5 stars on the Apple Store. This is a testament to the quality of the app, which provides users with a convenient and secure way to access their accounts.

Key Disadvantages of BitStamp

Coin Selection

Bitstamp is a popular cryptocurrency exchange that offers a limited selection of around 70 digital assets for trading. These include Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP). While this selection is suitable for beginner traders, more experienced traders may prefer an exchange with a larger selection of trading pairs, such as Binance, which offers more than 1400.

User Friendliness

Bitstamp is a professional trading exchange that can be difficult for new users to understand. For those with no trading experience, Coinbase may be a better option as it is simpler and easier to use.

BitStamp Fees

Bitstamp is a cryptocurrency exchange with a competitive fee structure. Cryptocurrency deposits are free, while withdrawals incur a fixed network fee which differs per cryptocurrency. An exception to this is when customers withdraw bitcoin using BitGo Instant, which costs 0.1% of the amount being transferred, and when they withdraw Ripple IOUs, which costs 0.2% of the transferred amount. Bitstamp’s fees are cheap compared to many rivals, making it an attractive option for those looking to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

Currency/Withdrawal Fee	Bitstamp	Kraken	Bitfinex	Coinbase Pro
Bitcoin (BTC)	0.0005 BTC	0.0005 BTC	0.0004 BTC	Free
Ethereum (ETH)	0.001 ETH	0.005 ETH	0.00135 ETH	Free
Litecoin (LTC)	0.001 LTC	0.001 LTC	0.001 LTC	Free
Ripple (XRP)	0.02 XRP	0.02 XRP	0.1 XRP	Free
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)	0.0001 BCH	0.0001 BCH	0.001 BCH	Free

International wire transfers have a deposit fee of 0.05% (minimum of â‚¬7.50) and a withdrawal fee of 0.1% (minimum of â‚¬25). European customers making a SEPA bank transfer deposit funds to Bitstamp free of charge, while SEPA withdrawal costs â‚¬3.00. Bitstamp offers customers a secure and convenient way to buy and sell digital currencies with competitive fees. The platform is designed to make it easy to buy and sell cryptocurrencies with fiat currencies, with no hidden fees or charges. Customers can also benefit from the low fees associated with SEPA transfers, making it an attractive option for those looking to buy and sell digital currencies.

Any amount purchased directly with a bank card comes with a 5% fee on Bitstamp’s behalf, and may have additional fees charged by the card issuer. Bitstamp offers a secure platform for users to buy and sell digital currencies, with a range of features and tools to help them manage their investments.

It offers competitive trading fees, with a starting rate of 0.50% for users with a 30-day trading volume of less than $10,000. This rate is lower than many other exchanges, making Bitstamp an attractive option for traders.

The minimum trade amount at Bitstamp is 25 EUR/USD or 0.001 for BTC-denominated pairs. Bitstamp charges a 0.50% fee for any trader whose 30-day volume is less than $10,000. Other exchanges like Kraken and Bitfinex tend to charge less per trade, with Kraken offering a 0.16% fee for market makers and 0.26% for takers, and Bitfinex charging 0.1% for market makers and 0.2% for takers. Bitstamp is a reliable and secure platform for traders looking to buy and sell digital assets.

It offers low-cost SEPA deposits and withdrawals, and discounts for high-volume traders. Although it is not the cheapest option out there, it is still a cost-effective choice for low-volume traders. The platform is secure and reliable, and offers a wide range of trading options. It is a great choice for European traders looking for a secure and cost-effective trading platform.

Is BitStamp a Wallet?

Bitstamp is an online platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, but it is not a wallet. Wallets are used to store and access cryptocurrency codes, and they can be either hot (online) or cold (offline). Bitstamp is not a wallet, but it does provide a secure platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. It also offers a range of features such as two-factor authentication, multi-signature accounts, and a variety of payment methods. Bitstamp is a reliable and secure platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, but it is not a wallet. To store and access your cryptocurrency codes, you will need to use a wallet.

It is important to never keep all your cryptocurrency online, and a combination of hot and cold storage is the best way to ensure your funds are secure. For added security, a hardware wallet such as the Ledger Nano X is recommended. This device is similar to a USB stick and provides an extra layer of protection for your crypto assets. With Bitstamp, users can rest assured that their funds are safe and secure.

Who Is Bitstamp Best For?

Bitstamp is a secure and reliable platform with millions of satisfied users. It offers a professional design and features that are ideal for experienced users, but may be confusing for beginners. The platform is easy to use and provides a safe and secure environment for users to buy, sell, and trade digital currencies. It also offers a variety of features, such as low fees, fast transactions, and a wide range of payment options. Bitstamp is a great choice for those looking for a reliable and secure platform to buy, sell, and trade digital currencies.

This exchange is a great choice for beginner crypto traders who want to get started quickly and easily. The exchange offers fiat trading and credit card purchases, making it easy to get started. Bitstamp is a perfect choice for users who don’t want to wait to start trading. The exchange also offers a range of features and tools to help users make informed decisions.

Conclusion

Bitstamp is a trusted crypto exchange, renowned for its security and customer-focused team. With a user-friendly interface, it’s becoming one of the world’s most popular crypto exchanges. If you’re looking for a secure and reliable platform to trade cryptocurrencies, Bitstamp could be the perfect choice for you.

January 1, 2023

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

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

Toggle
Background

What Is SwissBorg?

Supported countries

Supported assets

SwissBorg Network Token ($CHSB)

Use Cases

Proof of Meritocracy

Protect and Burn

SwissBorg DAO

Digital Artist

Translator

Promoter

Moderator

Campaigner

Business Introducer

Cyber Virtuoso

SwissBorg Wealth App

SwissBorg Smart Yield

SwissBorg’s CHSB Yield 2.0

Conclusion
Background

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

What Is SwissBorg?

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

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

Supported countries

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

Supported assets

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

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

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

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

Use Cases

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

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

Proof of Meritocracy

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

Proof of meritocracy

Protect and Burn

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

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

SwissBorg DAO

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

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

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

Digital Artist

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

Translator

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

Promoter

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

Moderator

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

Campaigner

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

Business Introducer

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

Cyber Virtuoso

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

SwissBorg Wealth App

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

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

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

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

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

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

SwissBorg Smart Yield

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

SwissBorg’s CHSB Yield 2.0

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

January 1, 2023

Persistence ($XPRT): Bringing DeFi to institutions?

Persistence ($XPRT) is an asset-based lending/borrowing and debt issuance/management hybrid protocol, bringing the power of real-world assets to DeFi. It does so by facilitating crypto-assets borrowing, using real-world assets as invoiced NFTs, and then using them as wrapped financial products.

Persistence One is designed to enhance the transfer of value between the two worlds of finance by enabling value transfer through seamless interoperability via on-off ramps. It was developed to promote open and inclusive finance in addition to solving inefficiencies in payments and financing.

Check out our interview with CEO and Co-founder Tushar Aggarwal

https://youtu.be/rGNtrNUyTEY

Bridging DeFi and traditional finance- Persistence w/ Tushar Aggarwal

What is Persistence?

Persistence is an asset-based lending/borrowing and debt issuance/management hybrid protocol, bringing the power of real-world assets to DeFi. It does so by facilitating crypto-assets borrowing, using real-world assets as invoiced NFTs, and then using them as wrapped financial products.

Background And History

The project was launched in January 2020. The Persistence team is multicultural and consists of experienced members with sound technical backgrounds. They come from various traditional finance and blockchain companies. As such, they are familiar with the limitations of the current DeFi and centralised finance (CeFi) systems and are aware of what needs to be improved.

Persistence protocol is led by CEO Tushar Aggarwal and CTO Deepanshu Tripathi, both with legacy finance applications development experience. The team believes that three core elements namely Capital, Technology, and Media are crucial for the success of a project and work to establish a balance between them.

How does Persistence work?

Their mode of operation lies in four steps of (1) tokenization; (2) trading; (3) the origination of debt and (4) its securitization. The process begins with tokenizing real-world assets’ invoices as NFTs. This is done so that the assets can be represented adequately on the blockchain.

Next, comes the trading of such NFTs against stablecoins.

Stablecoins are then borrowed by putting real-world assets representing NFTs as collateral, the birth of loans. The fourth and last step is the packaging of the loans into different pools to create fixed income investable products – a process known as securitization of debt.

Why use blockchain?

A key question at this point relates to the reason and advantages of using blockchain for such activities. The mission of Persistence is to increase the speed and efficiency of value transfer, as well as make it more secure. As it happens, blockchains specialize in such matters.

Some advantages for Persistence to use blockchain for their operations includes:

It allows for capital movement in a trustless, borderless, and “free from time constraints” manner.
Blockchains permit invoices, letters of credit and bills of lading, etc. to be tokenized and turned into divisible assets as NFTs.
Introduces the decentralized exchange for uncensorable and secure trading of real-world assets against stablecoins.
Results in the creation of debt marketplaces for lending/borrowing.

Persistence’s approach

Persistence has applied a dual-focus approach for the successful execution of the project. The institutional focus utilizes the asset-based lending use case for physical commodity traders and financiers. Secondly, is the crypto focus, which allows blockchain-based assets to integrate with real-world yield-bearing assets.

Persistence blockchain system

As a Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain system, the protocol has three layers of Persistence chains (app-chains deriving security from the main-chain and its validators), Persistence SDK (a plug and play module system powering functionality on the network), and Persistence dApps (finance-based applications).

Its design principles are chain sovereignty (independent secure blockchain operation), liquidity, and usability for business purposes. The Persistence protocol blockchain system is privacy-preserving by default yet legal and regulatory-compliant, is integrated with FIAT on and off-ramps, and allows for simplification of processes.

Persistence SDK is by far the platform’s most important implementation of the blockchain. The Software Development Kit is a system of highly effective modules that enable the creation of marketplaces, yielding to a fast and comprehensive exchange of value.

Overall, the SDK protocol is characterized by four key features, being accessibility, liquidity, innovation, and sustainability. These factors power the protocol and allow the Persistence One platform to elevate physical commodities on-chain as NFTs.

Additionally, through the SDK factors, the platform can efficiently implement crypto with real-world use cases ensuring a continuous stream of sustainable income. By doing so, it unlocks a huge potential for MSME businesses in the DeFi sphere through untapped liquidity; thereby providing tremendous opportunities within the crypto space.

Persistence’s asset-based lending platform Comdex

The protocol has developed the Comdex decentralized commodities trading and financing platform that connects commodities traders, while also providing financing facility to sellers. It is commodity agnostic and can allow for trading diverse groups of commodities, ranging from metal to food products.

Comdex, for regulatory compliance, would require Anti Money Laundering (AML) / Know Your Customer (KYC) checks before on-boarding. It would also feature a trader’s right access system to determine access to particular commodities, opening trade, executable trade size, etc. On top of everything, all activities will be recorded on the open blockchain.

Comdex is the result of a partnership between the Persistence One dynamic team and trading entrepreneurs in Singapore that rely on the platform’s ecosystem to bring forward blockchain integration. As per recent developments, the Comdex protocol has been gaining traction within the blockchain.

Comdex has already managed more than $55 million in transaction volume, far ahead of its competitors in terms of assets on-chain.

What is pLend, Persistence’s lending platform?

Backed by real-world assets, Persistence Lend or pLend is a stable coin lending platform that facilitates the supply of liquidity to pools for all Comdex transactions and dealings. pLend empowers stablecoin holders and enables them to supply liquidity, generating huge returns from real-world income and assets.

So far, pLend’s unique implementation has bridged the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and DeFi. The lending platform will allow users to engage in the $65B global trade within the financing sector.

Overall, pLend guarantees participants huge returns on their assets without the need of often unsure mainstream DeFi solutions.

AUDIT.one

Described as a subsidiary to Persistence One, AUDIT ensures top-tier validation services for leading PoS networks through secured Tier 3 and 4 data centers across the globe equipped with a multi-cloud architecture.

Presently, a total of nine networks has entrusted AUDIT.one with approximately $120M worth of assets, including Cosmos, Terra, Matic Network, and NEAR. Additionally, well-known networks like Polkadot and Ethereum 2.0 have shown interest in the Persistence-based protocol.

Persistence token ($XPRT)

Persistence has a native token known as $XPRT built as an ERC-20 based token (for now) and has a 100M supply). Its main uses are staking (for participation in network security), community governance (allowing holders to vote on important matters), rewards (for contributing to the network), and work token (deriving value from the activities on the network).

XPRT StakeDrop

The StakeDrop campaign is made possible through the pStake protocol that guarantees the issuance of representative tokens (stk Tokens) on Ethereum which are backed by the staked assets.

In the case of ATOM; illiquid staked ATOM tokens can be converted to liquid representative ER-20 tokens that can be utilized within the immense and growing DeFi space, backed by the Ethereum blockchain. This means that newly staked ATOMS will now be able for use as collateral when borrowing different stablecoins.

Through this system, participants are provided with the opportunity to implement differential strategies in accordance with their needs within the blockchain.

pStake offers a unique way to stake PoS tokens and in the near future, a percentage of all tokens staked via pStake will also be staked through the AUDIT.one validator, thus ensuring the growth of both protocols within the blockchain.

Benefits of staking Persistence token ($XPRT) (Image Credit: Persistence)

Can Persistence successfully appeal to institutional clients and companies?

The current DeFi infrastructure isn’t conducive to institutional clients and companies. This is mostly because current DeFi projects have institutional red-flags such as pseudo-anonymity, open transaction and activity details, having no legal compliance, having only crypto-based settlements, and having complexities transferred to the users (gas payments, security, key management, risk management, etc.)

However, the Persistence protocol offers verifiable anonymity, hidden transaction details and records, is legally compliant, has FIAT-based settlement guarantees and simplified process – gas payments, security and key management run by the platform. It also provides an institutional-grade infrastructure that these clients are used to.

Conclusion

Persistence is a strong contender for overcoming the obstacle to DeFi being widely used by institutional clients, companies and enterprises. It does this by offering anonymity, hidden transaction records and most importantly, be legally compliant. In these respects, Persistence can help blockchain move from a speculative phase to being used in the real world, including traditional finance.

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

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January 1, 2023

Mithril Cash ($MIC), Mithril Share ($MIS) and Mithril Bond ($MIB): Heading the algorithmic stablecoin trend?

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

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

https://youtu.be/d8CCGVKxD_Q

Mithril Cash (MIC)| The NEW Algorithmic Stablecoin Trend

Background

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

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

Mithril Cash, Mithril Share, Mithril Bond

What is Mithril Cash?

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

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

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

How does Mithril Cash work?

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

How to mine Mithril Cash?

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

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

What happens when Mithril Cash is above $1?

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

What happens when Mithril Cash is below $1?

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

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

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

MITH Share ($MIS)

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

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

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

MITH Bond ($MIB)

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

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

Cash Pools

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

MITH Cash Treasury

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

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

Boardroom

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

What is seigniorage time?

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

January 1, 2023

Glitch ($GLCH): world’s first “for-purpose” DeFi protocol?

Glitch is a platform that seeks to complement the Ethereum network by providing a protocol specifically for DeFi applications.

Ethereum brought the possibilities of blockchain technology to life by birthing many crypto-based protocols that leverage its smart contract feature to build incredible financial applications. The sporadic development of these applications, however, has weighed down the Ethereum network, causing congestion and inefficiencies.

While many are placing their hope on the full-deployment of Ethereum 2.0, other innovators don’t have that patience, and therefore, are creating their own solutions, such as Glitch.

Background

Sean Ryan, the founder of Glitch, is a business development expert who had contributed to the creation and acquisition of several SAAS products and companies before the creation of his blockchain project.

Ryan has advocated for the cryptocurrency industry since 2015 and has developed a passionate interest in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) systems over the years.

He created Glitch in August 2020 and was able to leverage his finance and business development experience to put together an incredible team to build a DeFi solution now known as Glitch Protocol.

Hong-Kong serves as the platform’s development base.

What is Glitch?

Glitch protocol is a blockchain super protocol constructed to support and provide a working framework for decentralized financial applications to be built upon, and is designed to work in symbiosis with the Ethereum platform.

It aims to be a scalable solution, providing increased throughput that would enable the process of thousands of transactions every second.

Described as the world’s first “for-purpose” DeFi protocol, it offers a smart-contract platform for facilitating decentralized applications (dApps). In addition to the support it provides, the Glitch protocol also provides an enhanced user experience and efficient cross-chain interoperability.

How does Glitch Work?

As a solution that prioritizes user experience, it is designed to work effectively to remove redundancies caused by non-functional applications. However, its primary selling point is its high scalability, cost-effectiveness, and significantly increased throughput.

The core concepts and features responsible for bringing these ideas to life are explained in the next few paragraphs.

Consensus Mechanism

The Ethereum platform used the same framework as Bitcoin to improve its consensus mechanism from a Proof of Work (PoW) to a Proof of Stake (PoS) system. Glitch protocol, on the other hand, employs a faster consensus mechanism known as Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPOS).

In the DPOS mechanism, stakeholders reach consensus by outsourcing the network’s security to third-parties known as ‘block producers.’

These individuals are authorized to create a new block every 0.5 seconds. Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is imposed on block producers to prevent block creation on multiple forks. Despite having a bypass to this limit, the protocol would automatically change consensus to the longest chain.

What’s unique to Glitch’s consensus mechanism, however, is that voters do not select the block producers. Instead, each stakeholder is given an equal chance at block creation. This is to ensure fairness in the governance system.

The Vault

The Vault is the system by which profit is distributed on the Glitch protocol. An immutable vault on the Glitch Blockchain collects 20% of all network fees and other revenues generated from the dApp. The deposit is automatic and shared among stakeholders on the network.

This revenue-sharing model encourages active participation in the network while fostering community support. The model also creates a positive feedback loop where the community supports developers and is incentivized to continually do so.

This loop drives the protocol forward, which maintains the platform’s progress.

Token Wrapping

Token wrapping on Glitch involves mirroring ERC-20 tokens from Ethereum on its platform with its GRC-20 token standard.

Users with tokens on the Ethereum network can register their Ethereum address on the Glitch protocol. Their tokens can then be mirrored as a Glitch coin during an initial snapshot.

This way, developers can simulate products and dApps from Ethereum while benefiting from the faster throughput and circumventing the high transactional costs they would otherwise have to work with on ETH. And while token wrapping is currently being developed for ERC-20 tokens alone, there are plans to incorporate other blockchains.

Glitch Token ($GLCH)

The Glitch Protocol allows the use of a single token, known as Glitch Token (GLCH), for all transactions and dApps be built across its ecosystem. This ensures consistency for all applications that utilize the network. In addition, users can exchange GLCH tokens on Uniswap.

The total supply for the native token (GLCH) in circulation is 88,888,888 GLCH. After the public sale, 15% of the total supply (i.e. 13,333,333 GLCH) will be openly circulating.

What is GLCH token? (Image credit: Medium)

Glitch GLCH Token Distribution

8,888,888 GLCH had been sold in the seed round at $0.03375 / GLCH. 0.625% of tokens will be released weekly for 4 months.

22,222,222 GLCH had been sold in the private round 1 at $0.0675 / GLCH. 3.125% will be released weekly for 2 months.

• 4,444,444 GLCH had been sold in the private round 2 at $0.07875 / GLCH. 1.125% will be distributed weekly for 1 month.

• 13,333,333 GLCH had been allocated to the public sale at at $0.09 / GLCH. There were immediately unlocked upon listing on 11 January 2021 at 6:00am PST.

Glitch Rewards Program

Glitch Finance had provided initial liquidity on the GLCH/ETH pair on Uniswap. To incentivise users to provide liquidity, Glitch has a LP Rewards Program where they have allocated 888,888 GLCH (i.e. 1% of the total supply of GLCH) for rewarding participants. This program will run for 3 months starting on 17 January 2021.

Glitch DAO

The Glitch Protocol is governed by a network called the Glitch DAO (Decentralized Anonymous Organization). The DAO’s members are stakeholders who locked up their Glitch tokens in various pools.

The Glitch DAO has a unique structure, which employs two different DAO models to govern the protocol at its different stages. These two models have been engaged as a solution to conflicting incentives that are borne out of the need to support both Ethereum-based dApps on the Glitch network, as well as native dApps built from scratch on Glitch.

This difference in product-based risks the problem of exclusion if the DAO was based on either platform (Ethereum or Glitch).

The first model is an off-chain voting system, which uses an oracle to assign voting weights to either platform. This way, the potential exclusion would be mitigated. Yet, this model is vulnerable to fraud through oracle manipulation, especially when there is a substantial TVL (Total Value Locked) on native Glitch products.

The other model is the on-chain DAO, which would see the establishment of two separate DAO’s that govern and support the Glitch Protocol on their platforms. Both DAO would contribute to the progress of the ecosystem.

For the time being, before the TVL becomes significant, the off-chain DAO model would be used.

Conclusion

Most DeFi enthusiasts agree that the current financial system has to be decentralized for the ideal of a free market to come to pass. Transactions and processes should be transparent and accessible by anyone with interest.

With the power of blockchain technology, this revolution is closer to home than ever as DeFi Innovators are already building applications for the Ethereum 2.0 platform. All that is needed now is a good network of smart contracts that is fast and efficient.

Protocols like Glitch would help achieve that outcome as a complementary protocol to the Ethereum.

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

Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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January 1, 2023

APY Finance: yield farming DeFi robo-advisors?

APY Finance is a project that aims to attract more people to the decentralised finance (DeFi) wave, promising automated profit-generating opportunities through its own protocol.

Governed by smart contracts, APY Finance achieves decentralization on aspects such as portfolio management, strategy execution, and protocol governance. It also offers one of the most profitable yield farming options in the space without the exorbitant gas fees that traders suffer from on other platforms.

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Background

The motivation for the APY Finance project is to provide today’s traders with a wide array of yield farming strategies. One problem that they’re trying to solve is the complexity of the technical knowledge required to fully maximize the potential gains that investors can make in DeFi.

With just a click away, APY Finance helps its users take advantage of the compounding value of their assets by way of liquidity mining. APY supplies liquidity to some of the best exchanges in the space, such as Uniswap, 1inch Exchange and SushiSwap. Users just have to deposit their assets in the smart contracts and it will do the rest.

APY Finance DeFi protocols — APY.Finance allows users to connect with major DeFi protocols (Image credit: APY.Finance)

What is APY Finance?

APY Finance is a decentralized yield farming protocol that offers different profit strategies out of a single, unified liquidity pool. It gives traders exposure to different DeFi projects with just one deposit which effectively diversifies their portfolio while mitigating all the potential risks involved (e.g. smart contract risks or price volatility).

APY Finance implements an automated portfolio rebalancing mechanism that adjusts itself based on risks and potential yield. In addition, the protocol promotes cheaper transaction costs on the platform, with over 99% of gas savings on rebalance fees for traders and 80% gas savings on deposit and withdrawal fees.

APY Finance interface (Image credit: APY Finance)

APY Liquidity Pool

APY Finance features one liquidity pool powered by smart contracts that are in charge of depositing and withdrawing via one currency. The pool aggregates the holdings of investors into a single pool of liquidity. When users make deposits, they receive APT tokens as a representation of their share in the liquidity pool.

The liquidity contracts governing the pool are backed by Ethereum-denominated Chainlink aggregators. The main purpose of these contracts is to determine the value of the pool’s outstanding reserves.

APY Portfolio Strategy

APY’s portfolio strategy is also governed by smart contracts called “strategy contracts.” They follow certain parameters based on the types of assets supported by the pool and execute adjustments based on different trading sequences, among others.

Types of Assets

There are three asset types that compose APY’s portfolio strategy: input assets, intermediary assets, and output assets.

The input assets, such as DAI and USDC, are required assets for users who want to start yield farming.

The intermediary assets, such as cDAI and yCRV, are the tokens locked in smart contracts while the strategy is operating.

And finally, the output assets, such as COMP and CRV, are the yield tokens given to the traders.

Types of Sequences

There are also different sequences that affect the yield farming strategy of the protocol. These sequences also perform specific functions.

The entry sequence covers the deposit of input assets into strategy contracts. This takes form, for example, by way of contracts facilitating the deposit of input assets, such as DAI, for the minting of intermediary assets, such as cDAI. (Xanax)

The loop sequence sustains the strategy for optimal yield. This can be seen from the contracts swapping output assets, such as COMP, for input assets to mint new intermediary assets. These newly-minted assets are then reinvested back into the strategy contract.

The exit sequence unwinds the whole strategy. This automatically redeems intermediary assets into the currency of the input asset so the trader can withdraw his holdings.

But basically, what the sequence covers is the whole life-cycle of the strategy. Its continuous aim is to ensure that the user can easily deposit funds in one currency and earn through an automated trading strategy.

The APY manager is the interface that allows users to process their deposits, withdrawals, adjust portfolio strategies, and earn yield.

Yield Approximation

The protocol also computes for the optimal yield on a user’s deposit. Users can have a view of the estimated yield in order to make adjustments to their chosen strategy should they wish to do so.

Risk Score

Strategies are attributed with risk scores which can be affected by different market factors. Users can update the risk score for strategy contracts to limit the amount of risk that they are willing to tolerate. The risk scores are also valuable in determining the estimated yield for strategy contracts.

APY Token

APY is APY Finance’s native utility token. It is used for the transaction fees, rewards program, and the protocol’s governance mechanism.

APY holders are given the opportunity to vote on different protocol parameters, such as strategy changes, as well as the inclusion of new portfolio strategies.

Liquidity miners also earn APY tokens when they deposit stablecoins in the protocol’s liquidity pool. The platform implements a per-block reward for liquidity providers.

Governance

The initial phase of the program will be run by DeFi experts who will develop the yield farming strategies for the protocol and monitor them for potential issues. Until the platform reaches a point of stability, the team behind APY Finance will begin the process of progressive decentralization.

Conclusion

APY Finance is an interesting use case for smart contracts in DeFi. It can address the psychological barrier that keeps people from tapping yield farming options, which is probably one of the fastest-growing areas in the DeFi market. And since the platform is decentralized, the whole strategy for optimal yield profit can be owned by its community.

However, like many other platforms that depend on automation, the security and reliability of its smart contracts should be scrutinized carefully by the users before they decide to deposit their assets. But looking at where the project stands today, it appears to be a strong competitor in the yield farming and liquidity mining market.

January 1, 2023

Category: Latest News

Background

What is Stacks?

What is Proof of Transfer (PoX)?

Stacks Blockchain

How Do the Two Platforms Connect?

Protocol Layer

$STX Token: What is is and tokenomics?

Stack Network’s Use Cases

Stacks 2.0 and use cases

STX miners

STX holders

Conclusion

What is the Duck Liquidity Pool?

DuckDAO’s Native Token ($DUCK)

Deflationary Farming: “One-Side-Burn”

The Usual Scenario for Most Liquidity Pools

Duck’s Unilateral Burn

Duck Liquidity Pool Market-Maker Models

Project Token Purchase

Project Token Borrow

Fixed Fee Model

Conclusion

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

Background

What is Paralink?

How the Paralink Node Works

How Paralink is Secured

Simple Ingress

Trusted Ingress

On-chain Security

Para Token ($PARA)

PARA tokenomics

Paralink Network ($PARA) token public sale?

Conclusion

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

Background

What is Lepricon?

The Connection Between Lepricon, Ethereum, and Polkadot

Lepricon token (L3P)

Others Ways to Earn L3P Tokens

Community Building

Yield Farming

Adoption, Prediction, and Referral

L3P Token Features

Other Crucial Components of the Lepricon ecosystem

Lepricon Launchpad

Lepricon Economy

Conclusion

Background

What Is Covalent?

Covalent Use Cases

Wallets

Taxes

NFT Dashboards

What Makes Covalent Unique

Data availability

Composability

Multi-blockchain Support

No code solution

Covalent Query Token (CQT)

Conclusion

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

GammaX Exchange Airdrop Step-by-Step Guide

What is GammaX Exchange?

Investor Funding

Does GammaX Exchange have a Token?

How to Receive GammaX Token Airdrop?

Airdrop Review

What is BitStamp?

The BitStamp Team

Key Features of BitStamp

Key Advantages of BitStamp

Fiat Trading

Payment Methods

Security

Fees

Customer Service

Reputation

Mobile App