Boxmining

Category: Latest News

  • Top 5 Play-to-Earn NFT Games for Cryptocurrency Rewards

    Top 5 Play-to-Earn NFT Games for Cryptocurrency Rewards

    The gaming industry has always been successful as participants yearn for escape into virtual reality. Add blockchain technology, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralised finance (DeFi), and voila! An explosive market model dubbed as play-to-earn (P2E) games.

    Blockchain for gaming has long been thought of as the perfect combination. After all, blockchain solves many traditional problems of the gaming industry, in particular, transparency between developers and gamers, as well as ownership within the game’s economy. 

    Millions of gamers are adopting DeFi-based NFT games and spending several hours every day playing them, causing their popularity to shoot through the roof. Game developers are catching on and there is no shortage of new P2E games to play.

    What is the Play-to-Earn (P2E) Model?

    The play-to-earn trend is an emerging phenomenon in the gaming industry where players of NFT games get to collect lucrative rewards for playing. That’s right, you can make money while playing your favorite NFT game. How cool is that? 

    By becoming active participants in these games, players get to monetize their time and skill to receive rewards like in-game NFT assets and tokens which can be traded or sold if the gamer so chooses. The most interesting part of this model is that these in-game assets and tokens are not just limited to the game, they can be exchanged for real money and spent in the real world.

    In normal video games, players are not given complete ownership of assets bought in-app, so they can not be traded for a higher value. The price of the NFT assets that blockchain gamers are rewarded can increase with market demand, giving players the option to sell their tokens at a much higher value. 

    Some examples of how gamers can make money in P2E games:

    • Sell in-game NFT assets such as weapons, potions, avatars, cards, etc on the appropriate platform or open marketplace for real cash.
    • Earn prizes by completing quests and daily or weekly challenges.
    • Earn rewards by defeating their opponents in player-versus-player (PvP) matchups.
    • Upgrade in-game characters to possess more unique features and subsequently sell them at a higher price in the marketplace.
    • In-game staking for crypto rewards

    The Top 5 Play-to-Earn NFT Games

    Below is our list of the top 5 play-to-earn games. Each of the games listed use different mechanics to earn, while some will require an initial investment, and some are still in early development stages.

    Axie Infinity

    axie infinity

    Launched in 2018, Axie Infinity has experienced massive growth and is currently on the list of top-ranked blockchain-based games judging by its daily, weekly, and monthly active users. 

    The game is a Pokemon-inspired metaverse where players battle, collect and raise their Axies in a land-based universe, Lunacia. No two Axies are the same as each is very unique, with varying strengths and weaknesses based on their genes. 

    The game provides more than 500 Axie body parts, allowing players to have a limitless number of body part combinations to use. The categories of Axies include the Beast, Plant, Bug, Reptile, Aquatic, and Bird, and their characters can be common, rare, ultra-rare, or legendary.

    There are two game modes in Axie Infinity: battle mode and adventure mode. 

    • Battle Mode – This game mode entails a real-time battle between two players on the platform and their Axies.
    • Adventure Mode – This game mode consists of players traveling around the map and completing tasks to defeat rogue monsters (Chimera) they encounter in their journey.

    To participate in the game, players are expected to have at least three Axies, which requires an initial investment. However, they can quickly make back their investment depending on how active they are on the platform.

    Gamers earn money in the Axie Infinity game by completing activities in the Axie universe and getting rewarded with Smooth Love Portion (SLP), the platform’s native ERC-20 utility token. 

    Players use SLP to breed more Axies. However, this token is in high demand so they can sell it to other players and make a profit. SLP can be traded on a decentralized exchange (DEX) or centralized exchange like Binance.

    Another way for players to generate income is by competing in player-vs-player (PvP) battles to win leaderboard prizes, breeding their Axies, selling them on the provided marketplace, and collecting and speculating on rare Axies.

    The game also allows players to earn or buy Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), another native ERC-20 token while playing. The AXS tokens serve as governance tokens and give players the right to vote for key decisions. The team are currently considering increasing AXS rewards for their Leaderboard winners with a view to, in future, directly distribute AXS as a battle reward.

    Axie Infinity has generated more than 15,000 ETH in revenue since it was launched. Its popularity exploded so much that many individuals in the Philippines quit their day jobs to focus fully on playing the game and earning rewards.

    The team is continuing to develop the Axie Infinity gameplay and will soon launch a new generation of battle experiences (Origins) and a land-based gaming experience known as “Project K”.

    Gods Unchained

    gods unchained

    Gods Unchained is a tactical free-to-play card game that seeks to integrate certain elements of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into traditional card gaming. The platform gives players true ownership of their in-game assets. Gods Unchained is a very competitive game that requires players to strategically outwit their opponents and win cards.

    Players can accumulate the cards either by purchasing them from other players or winning player-versus-player (PvP) battles where the winner is often determined by the quality of cards and the gaming skill of players.  The game operates in a rank setting which ensures that players in the same ranks are paired together in PVP matches.

    To win a match, players will have to ensure that their gameplay causes their opponent’s life to drop to zero before theirs. Every time a player wins, they receive experience points that move them to the next level and a pack of cards to add to their collection. 

    Each card is an NFT based on the Ethereum blockchain, precisely an ERC-721 token, which allows players to have full ownership of their in-game assets the same way they own cryptocurrency.

    Players can choose to trade their cards on the platform’s native marketplace or the open market. Those who choose to sell their cards within the gaming ecosystem will be paid using the platform’s native token, $GODS. The $GODS token has not been officially launched but is expected to go live very soon.

    MetaWars

    metawars

    MetaWars is a science fiction multiplayer strategy and roleplaying game with a vast metaverse set in space. Players can monetize and earn from the game’s war economy while participating in a highly immersive space exploration through the MetaWars galaxy.

    The game offers infinite universes where players can choose their own path using a wide collection of NFTs, and even cooperate with other players in missions to impact major events across the metaverse. 

    The gameplay also allows players to widen their army with unique ships, classes, and various optimization options. Players can combine modules, weapons, devices and equip perks, helping their characters level up their strength, rank up and receive attractive rewards.

    There are 3 parts to the game: Exploration, Fleet Formation, and Combat.

    • Exploration – Players embark on a journey of discovery, traversing the vast MetaWars galaxy that is constantly evolving and shifting from the collective actions of every player. Players will unveil mysteries and defend valuables against enemies.
    • Fleet Formation – Players have the option to customize their fleet of ships and robots in order to build a perfect fleet. To succeed in this segment, players would have to strategically combine modules, weapons, and devices to fit their strategy. 
    • Combat – Planet is a player-versus-player (PvP) mode of gameplay that awards $WARS tokens as a reward to the winners. Missions are player-versus-environment (PvE) games which are necessary to upgrade strength, rank and reward rations. 

    $WARS token is the in-game and governance token within MetaWars. There will also be a secondary token called $GAM. Further details will be released during the game’s next phase of development.

    Read more in our article MetaWars ($WARS, $GAM): NFT Gaming in Space.

    The Three Kingdoms

    the three kingdoms

    The Three Kingdoms is a strategic third-generation NFT game that is based on the historical characters of the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China. The game features high-end graphics, the ability to collect NFT characters, complete quests, and join siege gameplays to earn NFTs. 

    The gaming experience is enriched with extensive history, well-developed characters, progression gameplay and more. In the game, users will be able to build their base, expand their territories, upgrade their character’s attributes, win battles and emerge victorious in PvE (player versus environment) and PvP (player versus player) battles.

    Similar to popular gacha games with their randomized loot boxes, The Three Kingdoms utilises NFTs to bring added excitement to the gameplay experience. 

    • Raffles – A raffle will be held every so often that will enable players to draw a character card at random, for a price. Players will be able to draw as many cards as they wish. 
    • Characters – Characters will be randomly assigned six attributes: attack power, defence power, energy, luck, leadership, and intellect. The combination of these attributes determines whether a card is normal, rare, super rare or legendary.
    • Quests – Another method to recruit NFTs is where players send out one of their characters to recruit other heroes. Each found hero is another NFT of varying quality, which could help strengthen their forces.
    • Farming – Special NFTs can also be farmed by staking $TTK, the game’s native currency.

    $TTK is the game’s native token, used to purchase new characters in the NFT marketplace, upgrade armies, and invest in land. It can also be staked to farm more valuable NFTs.

    The secondary in-game token, $CHI, is inspired by the actual use of Chi in Chinese history as the energy that runs through all living things. Some future uses of $CHI include the ability to besiege cities, battle other players and even fuse new heroes.

    Learn more about The Three Kingdoms in our article The Three Kingdoms: The New Era of GameFi.

    CryptoKitties

    cryptokitties

    CryptoKitties is one of the earliest blockchain games in existence. Launched in 2017 by Dapper Labs, the game allows players to collect and breed virtual kittens.

    Every Kitty is unique, possessing characters that distinguish it from other Kitties living on the Ethereum blockchain. Players can obtain a CryptoKitty by buying one in the provided marketplace or by breeding two Kitties together. Breeding the Kitties enables players to unlock rare attributes that are not present in either of them.

    CryptoKitty players earn rewards by creating a collection of Kitties. Once they have a collection, they can either decide to take them to KittyVerse where they participate in catfights and win prizes or sell them on the platform’s marketplace or on leading NFT marketplaces.

    This game was so popular that it caused the unforgettable congestion of the Ethereum network. It is currently among the top play-to-earn games in the market. 

    Conclusion: The Future of P2E

    Play-to-earn NFT games have created an avenue for gamers to be rewarded for doing what they love. While some see it as a thing to do in their leisure and earn some cash, several others view it as a day job and can earn up to $300 every day.

    P2E games are set to completely revolutionize the gaming industry as we know it. It has integrated the concept of an open economy which ensures that all participants of the game are financially rewarded. While NFTs have already taken a dominant position in the collectibles trading scene, their presence in these games and the P2E model is set to take the market even further.

    As with some trends in the crypto space, P2E games might outlive the hype and become one of the leading aspects of the entire crypto industry. As it stands, many gamers worldwide are simply ecstatic to earn as they play.

  • Occam: Complete DeFi Suite Tailored to Cardano

    Occam: Complete DeFi Suite Tailored to Cardano

    Named after the principle of theory construction, Occam ($OCC), aka Occam Finance or Occam.fi, is a decentralised exchange (DEX) and the first and most significant addition to Cardano’s DeFi landscape. 

    Designed to deliver market-leading launchpad capabilities, DEX tools, and liquidity pools, Occam is a suite of DeFi (Decentralized Finance) solutions tailored for Cardano and managed and maintained by the Occam Association, a blockchain entity based in Switzerland. Once the Occam.fi ecosystem has matured, the project will be handed over to a carefully designed Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to manage and guide it.

    Learn more about OccamFi in our interview with Mark Berger, President of the Occam Association.

    Background

    Occam Finance was built by a team of individuals based in Belgrade, Serbia. Launched exclusively as an ERC20 token in its early stages, OCC shifted towards a multichain ready infrastructure after the Ethereum-Cardano bridge was released.

    Mark Berger, the president of the Occam Association, is a crypto market veteran who founded Scalable Solutions. His vision is to prepare the crypto industry for institutional and enterprise adoption, holding advisory functions in various startups and traditional financial services.

    Several other equally notable members and advisors comprise the Occam Association’s core team, which seeks to build the Cardano community and the Occam.fi ecosystem.

    Occam Products

    At the time of writing, Occam offers three separate products:

    OccamRazer

    OccamRazer is a Initial Decentralized Offering (IDO) platform used to raise funds for startups on Cardano. It consists of a tier system that allows users to access IDOs depending on which tier investors fall into. In order to participate, users need to complete Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and own at least 150 OCC tokens. 

    OccamX

    A purpose-built Cardano DEX developed by Occam.fi as a whole. It is backed by IOHK’s cFund and EMURGO, and provides liquidity and empowers trading of any Cardano Native Token.

    OccamDAO

    An autonomous organisation that allows token holders to vote on the direction of development.

    Occam Tokens

    OCC tokens can access a premium liquidity pool and will also be used to pledge stake, invest in new products in the Occam ecosystem, and more. With OCC tokens, OccamRazer is able to put a portion of project allocations back into the ecosystem. In addition, token holders are able to continuously receive a small reward in high-quality tokens from the best projects, opening up a cascade of opportunities for token holders and ecosystem participants while providing momentum for continued ecosystem diversification. As a result, this ensures that Occam becomes a thriving, self-sustaining, and flourishing ecosystem.

    OCC tokens can be used for many purposes, most notably:

    Staking: Users are required to stake OCC tokens to participate in any IDO on the platform.

    Liquidity Mining: OCC tokens are distributed to pool participants from the liquidity pool based on their liquidity volume.

    Governance: OCC token holders will have access to the governance mechanism via voting on the changes of system upgrades, system parameters, DAO investments. However, this feature will be implemented later according to the roadmap.

    How to get OCC tokens

    You can get OCC through multiple CEXs (Centralized Exchanges) nand DEXs such as Uniswap, SushiSwap, and Gate.io. It is important to note, however, that you will need a MetaMask web3.0 wallet in order to do anything in the Occam ecosystem. 

    Alternatively, instead of buying on different exchanges, you can also earn OCC via Liquidity Mining the OCC-ETH pair on Uniswap. Rebate Rewards are the amount of OCC tokens distributed via IDO pools with a specific OCC supply, and after an IDO closes, its participants will receive a portion of the OCC tokens calculated pro-rata. Continuous Ecosystem Diversification (CED) distributes CED rewards as the tokens of the projects launched on the platform. As long as you stake more than 150 OCC for a while, you will earn a portion of the rewards as project tokens.

    Conclusion

    Occam provides an all-in-one, feature-rich ecosystem to raise and exchange capital. While catering towards traditional financial institutions, the project boasts (KYC) regulatory compliance but simultaneously claims to have all the benefits of decentralization.

    With a focus on user experience, the UI is aimed towards the institutional mass market and is primarily focused on unlocking and raising capital for upcoming IDOs through its Ethereum-Cardano bridge.

  • Formation Fi: Forget Yield Chasing, Welcome Smart Farming

    Formation Fi: Forget Yield Chasing, Welcome Smart Farming

    Formation Fi is a startup aiming to revolutionize portfolio management in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) by introducing risk parity smart farming.

    DeFi’s current obsession with speculative yield chasing often leaves out the regard for risk. With risk parity inspired smart yield farming 2.0, users get to tailor their level of exposure while receiving guidance from the protocol, which is engineered to reduce risks posed by both bull and bear cycles.

    Formation Fi’s risk parity protocol is guided by the principles of the risk parity movement adopted by top hedge funds on Wall Street, opening up a playing field that was once walled off to all but the richest few.

    What is Risk Parity?

    Risk parity is an investment strategy that aims to spread risk exposure equally across every type of portfolio asset.

    The performance of an investment portfolio is largely dictated by the risk it carries. The riskier its assets are, the higher the portfolio’s upside potential. For example, compare a 100% savings account portfolio with a 100% stocks portfolio; the former has low risk and low returns, while the latter has high risk and a greater chance of large returns. Interestingly, similar to the varying risk levels in investment portfolios, bitcoin casinos instant withdrawal services offer a dynamic environment for users seeking quick access to their winnings, enhancing the overall gambling experience. “Traditional” portfolios increase risk by concentrating money in riskier assets, while risk parity portfolios have fixed asset allocations in order to equalize risk contributions. To increase risk, a risk parity portfolio uses leverage.

    The fundamental theory behind risk parity strategies is that assets in a portfolio should be balanced by risk, not by dollars. In other words, instead of allocating more money to riskier assets to achieve a performance target, risk parity balances assets by risk contribution and then uses leverage to achieve the performance target.

    Risk Parity Smart Yield Farming: How Does It Work?

    Formation Fi’s risk parity protocol is the first chain-agnostic, algorithmic, defi yield-management platform driven by the risk parity portfolio management strategy.

    That means it’s automatic, transparent, can be tailored to everyone’s risk appetite and bag size, and won’t be tied to a single clogged chain.

    It’s the latest and the most sophisticated attempt to create a DeFi risk-parity robo-advisor to algorithmically calibrate asset allocations across core asset classes such as stablecoins, alphas, and betas based on volatility and environmental changes. All under a single unified interface that finally connects all the different DeFi tools in a clear and simple way.

    This simplicity is key.

    Chasing different yield farming strategies, different chains, and constantly changing technical layers is painful. DeFi should be as simple as a single click to make money. And it can be.

    You select your acceptable level of risk with a minimum amount of commitment determined by the algorithm in the top reserve currencies such as BTC, ETH, USDT, or BNB. The protocol will then automatically configure and recommend a chain-agnostic portfolio of yield farming strategies, tailored specifically to you and engineered to offset risks posed by both bull and bear cycles.

    The protocol also uses a small amount of leverage to boost yield while maintaining the optimal level of diversification.

    The protocol will then mint you an index token that tracks the underlying cross-chain DeFi assets and yield farming strategies. That’s all there is to it. No need to track and manage a million different assets. No need to go bankrupt from gas fees. Just let the index token do its work and track your yields in the dashboard.

    Formation Fi will save you valuable time, headaches, and most importantly, money.

    Best of all, the Formation Fi token is itself a potentially valuable crypto-asset. The index token can be sold, bought, or swapped like any other ERC-20 token. It can also be deployed into other yield farming strategies or added into a liquidity mining pool to further boost yield at the holder’s discretion. 

    Guiding Principles of Formation Fi

    Chain-agnostic

    Early DeFi is a collection of protocols, chains, dapps, tokens, pools and other inventions. Some work together, most don’t. Most only work within their own vertical ecosystems. Investing optimally across them all, one at a time, is virtually impossible manually. 

    Formation Fi takes a holistic view — aiming to be chain-agnostic and all-inclusive. From the ideals of crypto and Web3 will come the internet of value, where all blockchains are seamlessly connected through a decentralized infrastructure of bridges and relays.

    All types of DeFi assets will be able to move from point A to point B quickly and smoothly, with no barriers. Their goal is to make the network dependency irrelevant. In other words, ultimately all users of Formation Fi will be able to add any type of uncorrelated DeFi assets available in the world of Web3 to their portfolio, regardless of the protocols of the asset and those already in the portfolio and claim profits from the network of their choice.

    Low Transaction Costs

    DeFi investors have learnt that fees can eat into their capital at an alarming rate, becoming a barrier to entry for some of the more complicated protocols. Costs on Ethereum made it nearly unusable in 2020–2021 for many yield farmers, forcing them to move to other blockchains with different scalability, decentralization and security characteristics. (goldchannel.net)  

    Formation Fi will minimize users’ costs at all opportunities. There are two types of costs to consider: fund management fees and the underlying protocols’ gas/network fees. Most Wall Street hedge funds traditionally charge in excess of 30% of fund profits as management fees and carries interest. Formation Fi will not only charge a significantly lower management fee (only 5%) but will also redistribute a share of the profits to holders of the Formation Fi token, $FORM. 

    Fees for gas/network and other on-chain services such as oracles will also be kept low. For example, when it makes sense, instead of using expensive price feed oracles, Formation Fi will call sets of APIs or build their own oracles to achieve the same results. Over time and with progressive decentralization, they expect on-chain costs to reduce. Formation Fi will always strive to reduce costs and pass the savings and profits on to their users and token holders.

    Radical Simplification

    Many of the first-generation yield farming protocols were thrown together as fast as possible to catch as much of the new booming market as they could. Aspects like the user interface and automation were not top priorities. As a result, 50% of yield farming investing is repetitive and requires a high degree of understanding and attention to detail. This creates a barrier to entry for novice investors, causing confusion and increasing the probability of costly mistakes. 

    Formation Fi will make the user experience as simple and efficient as possible. They will develop algorithms and bots to predict requirements and remove repetitive tasks. They will design the user experience to be simple and a pleasure to use. Formation Fi aims to allow users to focus on investing instead of battling a screen.

    Investment over Speculation

    First-generation yield farming was about speculating on the next coin to 100x and maximizing gains out of the latest scheme. Farmers rushed in, ignorant of the risks and in the long run will lose on gas, impermanent loss, slippage and other hidden fees. 

    Formation Fi is at the lead of the second generation. They will motivate and enable users to form coherent, sensible portfolios instead of collections of random coins. Second generation yield farming is about intelligent investing — calculating quantitative risk as well as reward. 

    This methodology was pioneered by Benjamin Graham in his book “The Intelligent Investor” and employed extensively by Warren Buffet. Formation Fi takes techniques and skills learnt over decades on Wall Street and applies them through algorithms to DeFi. They aim to generate personalized funds that not only catch the market highs but also provide protection from the lows.

    Communal Effort

    DeFi is taking off because so many people can see the benefits of transparency and community governance over the centralized banks, which so often charge hidden fees and make secret backroom deals we’ll never know about. The community is what makes DeFi so compelling — but community governance is a double-edged sword. You can cast your vote and yield the reward, but you have to invest your stake and in reality, only the whales can achieve meaningful results. 

    Formation Fi is turning that around. Ultimately, through progressive decentralization, their DAO will achieve open governance by financially incentivising long-term engagement and offering exclusive original research and quantitative analysis. They will empower a new generation of yield farmers to take control of their assets, achieve better risk-adjusted results and become better investors. 

    Long-Term Focus

    Yield farming has been a fast-moving, get in and out quickly, type of business so far. The first generation of farmers were often risk-seeking ‘degens’ who loved the thrill of the 100x chase and if a coin failed, that’s ok — move on to the next one. That isn’t investing though and Formation Fi isn’t about short-term gambling. 

    Second generation yield farming is for investors who want intelligent, serious management for the long haul with safe exposure to crypto. Formation Fi’s algorithms will build personally risk-adjusted indexes for the long term that can automatically reinvest the yield across multiple chains so users can benefit from the laws of compound interest. 

    Future development, guided by the DAO community and taking advantage of progressive decentralization, will ensure a safe, intelligent and personalized haven for users.

    Constant Innovation and Safety

    Innovation is taken as given in DeFi but unfortunately, for many, is a buzzword that means hitching onto the latest craze and heading off on a dozen random paths. The biggest casualties are then the users when it all implodes, taking their invested capital with it. 

    Formation Fi has a strategic direction to build their vision of low-risk wealth for everyone. The force of innovation and safety drives the project, guided by the DAO community and regulation. The project will adopt progressive decentralization, not hide behind security audit reports, care for the TVL as if it were their own money and try to safeguard it to the best of their abilities.

    $FORM Token

    The Formation Fi protocol will enable the minting of an index token, the $FORM token, to track underlying cross-chain DeFi assets and strategies. $FORM is a triple-utility token with the following functions:

    • Governance Voting — $FORM holders vote on proposals for the FORM operational treasury.
    • Staking & Liquidity Mining — $FORM will be awarded to a user who deposits or stakes underlying digital assets to generate Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Parity or swap among the index coins.
    • Dark Pools — $FORM will confer access to investment liquidity pools which harness the wisdom of the crowd to incubate and fund the most promising new DeFi projects.

    Conclusion

    Every yield comes with risk. Formation Fi brings the risk mitigation strategies which let hedge funds conquer the stock market to crypto, for everyone to use. 

    Their focus is to better manage your risks while protecting your hard-earned yield through thick and thin. Imagine what can be accomplished as a community of smart yield farmers. The Formation Fi DAO will harness the wisdom of the crowd to make the protocol more accurate and more powerful.

    The risk parity protocol is just the first chapter of Formation Fi’s ever-expanding story. Follow Formation Fi’s development on their official channels:

    Website – https://formation.fi/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/FormationFi

    Telegram – https://t.me/FormationFi

    Medium – https://medium.com/formation-fi

    Sources:

    https://docs.formation.fi/

    https://www.financetldr.com/posts/simply-explained-wealthfronts-risk-parity-whitepaper

    https://morioh.com/p/fcf80bde60d4

    https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/formation-fi-closes-33m-strategic-sale-to-build-smart-yield-farming-20-framework

  • Sienna Network ($SIENNA): Privacy Meets DeFi

    Sienna Network ($SIENNA): Privacy Meets DeFi

    Sienna Network is a privacy-first decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that allows a completely private lending, borrowing, and trading experience with great scalability and low transaction fees. 

    Sienna Network allows users to avoid the lack of privacy on exchanges that allow others to see what users are doing and arbitrage on those transactions with front-running — a key weakness of crypto transactions today. Front-running is the act of getting a transaction first in line in the execution queue, right before a known future transaction occurs. Bots executing such front-running operations by paying slightly higher transaction fees have been a difficult problem for DeFi users.

    Background

    Banking, cryptography, and even decentralized finance go back a long way; as far back as the 12th Century when financial crime took place on the roads of Europe. In 1135, Sienna (known as Siena in 21st Century Italy) was an important trade city and heists were common. To stop the scourge of constant robberies to places such as Veneto, the Bishop of Sienna offered loans against collateral and interest to Sienna citizens and the people who traveled to the city to trade.

    At the same time, the Knights Templar initiated a network of money transfer locations so people could deposit money in the Veneto region and travel to Sienna and Venice without the risk of losing all their money and possessions. Upon arrival at either destination, traveling tradesmen could withdraw their money from a Templar location by handing in an encrypted document that could only be decrypted by the Templars.

    By today’s standards, that encryption was so primitive that the so-called algorithm could be cracked in seconds, but it set the scene for today’s intricate systems. This is where Sienna Network comes into the picture — to build on that same idea and contribute to solutions that will become the standard in privacy-first DeFi.

    What is Sienna Network?

    Until now, the activities of DeFi users have remained an open book — publicly preserved on the blockchain and forever vulnerable. This level of disclosure has created a chilling effect for the industry, discouraging even remotely privacy-conscious users from participation in DeFi, whilst concerning regulators who wish to ensure that users, private and professional alike, are properly protected. 

    Modern blockchain-based technologies fall short when it comes to preserving privacy, and Sienna Network aims to solve the same problem that has been solved by banks for their customers for many years — privacy in terms of funds and transactions, as well as computational privacy, but without the need for any third party to be involved. 

    With Sienna Network, transactions are private. Which means that the user — and no intermediary — decides if any of the data exchanged should be shared with anybody else. This occurs by default, and uses strong encryption to protect the data. 

    Sienna Network is powered by the Secret Network blockchain, a privacy-first smart contract platform by Cosmos. To share data, users need to generate a viewing key, which allows them to decrypt the contents of the data they have sent to contracts on Secret Network. Only the user can decide if they want to share this key and their viewing key only corresponds to their own transactions and cannot be used to monitor a third party’s wallet transactions.

    By building Sienna Network on programmable private smart contracts, it enables a variety of powerful new use cases in DeFi. Programmable privacy allows feeding verifiable sensitive data into a decentralized world without revealing said data. Decentralized identities, credit scores, under-collateralized loans and privacy for institutions are some important examples.

    SiennaSwap

    At the heart of Sienna Network are robust tools for the assurance of privacy to users, including the decentralized exchange (DEX) called SiennaSwap. 

    SiennaSwap lets users trade “secret versions” of popular tokens like Ethereum ($ETH) and Cosmos ($ATOM), and flip them anonymously on the platform. For now, the number of assets is limited to the bridges the project has created, hence the absence of a secret version of Bitcoin ($BTC). The bridges currently available are to Ethereum, Monero, Polkadot, Cosmos, and Binance Smart Chain. Users are able to create as many swap pairs as they wish among each of the assets.

    Leveraging Cosmos means gas fees are low and transactions are almost immediate. A typical transaction costs about $0.02, which is extremely low compared to other blockchains and protocols.

    But perhaps the most important cost that SiennaSwap seeks to omit is that of front-running, or traders cutting to the front of the queue and scooping up lucrative trades before others. This is possible due to the platform’s privacy-first approach. Using Secret Network’s protocol, Sienna Network has found a way to turn legacy public smart contracts into Secret Contracts, which allow private interactions where Third Parties cannot monitor what’s going on. This is because the data remains inside TEEs — Trusted Execution Environments; not even the node operators of the underlying network.

    What does it mean for a user? On public ledger chains where anyone with a wallet address could see others’ entire transaction history and that of their friends, with Sienna’s token and via the SiennaSwap, the wrapped ‘secret’ tokens such as secretETH the transaction history cannot be looked up and seen. This fixes several core issues including the aforesaid blight of front-running.

    Sienna Lend

    Another important product by Sienna Network is Sienna Lend which allows users to borrow and lend both public and private crypto assets. Moreover, users can deposit their tokens and earn interest from them or use their deposit as collateral to borrow a wide range of assets. These assets include stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and tokenized assets such as real estate, stocks, gold, NFTs, and more.

    The entire process will be private and no one can see a user’s earnings or other financial details.

    The Need for Financial Privacy

    Privacy is a fundamental human right — or it should be. It is a basic individual right to choose whom to share with — not just information, but other important aspects of life such as financial transactions. 

    But here a problem arises — while cash has relevant anonymous uses — larger transactions should not be anonymous because no system should enable money-laundering or the funding of bad actors. This is especially relevant at a time when the opinion of policy-makers has transmuted into a surveillance economy, with market actors required to police and report with severe penalties for failures. Whether we like it or not.

    If a crypto user sends a beneficiary an amount of tokens, both wallets are consequently linked via that transaction. This seems like a basic and fair exchange, but it also means that the beneficiary can now see the complete transactional history of that person’s wallet. This is patently an infringement of privacy and needs to be fixed.

    So, privacy matters. It is a mechanism for individuals and institutions to decide to control their data — sometimes transactionally, at other times to prove or disclose information or financial actions by choosing to share that data with relevant and selected Third Parties.

    $SIENNA Token Utility

    $SIENNA is a governance token which provides a dual function in the network’s ecosystem.

    It acts as the governance token of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), allowing its holders to vote on possible changes on both the Decentralized Exchange (DEX) and the lending protocol.

    It also powers the incentivization mechanism to encourage positive behavior from users. Users are awarded with $SIENNA based only on its actual usage, activity and contribution on the Sienna Network, whereas users of the Sienna Network and/or holders of $SIENNA which did not actively participate will not receive any $SIENNA incentives.

    The token can be bought directly on Secret Network on SiennaSwap, but wrapped versions can also be bought on Uniswap and Pancakeswap.

    Conclusion

    Until now, DeFi users have had to choose between the personal freedom of decentralized finance, or the personal privacy of centralized finance. Never were both achievable at the same time. 

    Sienna Network solves this core problem by developing a course correction for the industry, delivering all of the many benefits within the DeFi space, while at the same time protecting users from the unwanted prying of third parties. 

    Sienna Network’s users can freely interact with powerful DeFi products, enjoying the same levels of privacy, or even greater, as in centralized finance. Sienna Network will seek to spur the sector onto new frontiers, providing tools that are programmatically private. Sienna Network’s protocols will also be used to empower self-sovereign identities. 

    These factors place Sienna Network at the vanguard of privacy-first decentralized finance. Now is the time to unlock the full potential of DeFi.

    Project Links

    Website — https://sienna.network/

    Discord — https://discord.gg/jZk8ggm7XP

    Telegram — https://t.me/GoSiennaNetwork

    Twitter — https://twitter.com/sienna_network

    Medium — https://medium.com/sienna-network

    Sources:

    https://sienna.network/static/documents/Sienna-Network-Whitepaper-V1.3—November-2021.pdf

    https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/frontrunning.asp

    https://scrt.network/blog/introducing-sienna-a-privacy-first-defi-protocol

    https://decrypt.co/82825/sienna-network-launches-privacy-centric-defi-crypto-exchange

    https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/07/shooting-for-greater-privacy-in-defi-sienna-network-launches-siennaswap/?guccounter=1

    https://medium.com/sienna-network/privacy-matters-9ed864973f5f

  • Efinity: The NFT Platform of the future

    Efinity: The NFT Platform of the future

    What is Efinity (EFI)?

    Efinity (EFI) is a next-generation blockchain for digital assets that has been developed by Enjin (ENJ) – An ecosystem that lets the consumer buy, sell, and distribute Non-Fungible Token (NFT) items, which was started in 2009 and has more than 20 million gamers around the world.

    EFI is a parachain for NFT that was built with a consensus algorithm based on Polkadot Relay Chain validators in conjunction with the Web3 Foundation, allowing it to have its economic framework, data, and state. 

    For your better understanding, Polkadot is a blockchain platform that enables a fully decentralized web of parachains in which people fully own their identity and data.

    The Polkadot is outlined to run two kinds of blockchains:

    Relay Chain:

    The heart of Polkadot, accountable for the network’s distributed security, agreement, and cross-chain interoperability.

    Parachains:

    Main blockchains that utilize the transfer chain’s calculating sources to verify that transactions are safe and reliable.

    polkadot relay chain

    Efinity will operate as a parachain using Polkadot Relay Chain validators, allowing it to become a self-governing financial structure, data, and environment. Aside from that, it also is attempting to address blockchain issues such as interoperability, scalability, agility, safety, isolation, and many others. The Efinity’s collator nodes are responsible for processing transactions on the Efinity parachain and the network pays out EFI (its native token) from Collator Pool to them.

    How does Efinity (EFI) function?

    As we have mentioned above, the EFI blockchain will serve as a parachain in the Polkadot ecosystem. As a result of Polkadot’s interconnection technology, Efinity will be one of a hundred blockchains that can communicate with one another, allowing developers of other parachains to incorporate Efinity (EFI) NFT into their ecosystem while knowing that they will also work in different blockchains.

    Efinity has been working on developing a paratoken that will be similar to the ERC-1155 tokens they created for Ethereum. EFI will be the first paratoken in reality. The Efinity blockchain will process approximately 700 transactions per second with a confirmation period of six seconds.

    Efinity will act as a primary platform for all fungible and non-fungible tokens. Tokens from any other chain, such as the prominent ERC-721, ERC-1155 and ERC-20 standards, are accepted by the paratoken standard. This standard is necessary as it will generate network effects by attracting growing numbers of transactions. The network that solves the problem of enabling the pricing and exchange of NFTs will inevitably gain traction. To get a bid, tokens do not need to be advertised for sale or even exist on the network. In reality, users can be rewarded for initiating bid orders or ask orders and increasing network utilization by initiating transactions that other users can complete.

    This method will automatically encourage buyers and sellers to join the network and produce network effects by encouraging users to begin transactions. Third-party apps that allow the users to transfer inside other platforms such as games or that serve as NFT markets are expected to expand on this capability.

    What Makes Efinity (EFI) Special?

    EFI is special because it prioritizes token generation, transfers, and purchases since it aims to serve NFT Highway rather than general-purpose computing blockchain. Hence, the EFI transaction cost is much smaller, which will allow the users to focus on their favourite items without thinking about how the network works.

    Efinity (EFI) Features and Advantages

    According to the EFI official whitepaper, EFI provides the same features that are offered by another handful of NFT marketplaces, such as fast transactions & low fees, fuel tanks and efinity swap.

    1. Fast Transactions & Low Fees

    Based on the EFI whitepaper, EFI can process 700-1,000 transactions per second (the Ethereum network presently processes approximately 15 TPS). When the EFI and Polkadot runtime code is optimized, TPS may be increased in the future. Plus the transactions are verified in under six seconds, allowing for the fast response times required by mainstream applications.

    enifity provides fast transaction & low fees

    Aside from that, a fee payer signature may be included in a transaction before broadcasting, allowing someone else to acknowledge responsibility for fees through a signature. This can be beneficial for businesses and producers who want to reduce transaction costs for their customers.

    1. Fuel Tanks

    Fuel Tanks are special discrete accounts that are used purely for transaction fees. Developers can choose to subsidize expenses for their customers by depositing EFI tokens into a Fuel Tank that they control. They can whitelist specific tokens, tags, transaction types, or individuals for use.

    1. Efinity Swap

    Efinity Swap is an automatic conversion mechanism that improves the efficiency of paratoken exchanges by enabling an automatic conversion of paratokens into another paratokens to fulfil current bids and ask for orders. These swaps are made possible by existing bids and ask orders. The network allows for these automated exchanges for paratokens that meet a minimum number of Bids and Ask orders.

    What is an EFI token?

    As mentioned above, the EFI token is the main utility paratoken on the network, with 2,000,000,000 tokens. 

    For nominator staking and pools, 15% of the entire supply is set aside. These tokens are given out as a reward for helping to manage the parachain over the first 8-10 years.

    On genesis, 3% was allocated to the decentralized treasury pool. 15% of the total EFI supply is set aside to autonomously reward collaborators and pools for significant contributions to the network, such as transaction processing, development of new modules, network maintenance and initiatives to extend the network. This section will be gradually unlocked over the course of several years until the entire token supply is depleted.

    The EFI Token is used for all transaction fee payments on the EFI network in which the type of transaction determines the pricing and distribution of transaction fees. Any orders filled will incur a 2.5% fee will have to divide among four pools. Developers who create NFTs have the option to charge a fee for marketplace orders. This can be set to a maximum of 25% of the total cost. 

    Below is the detail of the EFI Token information:

    1. EFI token metrics
    • Token Name: Efinity.
    • Ticker: EFI.
    • Deployment Network: Efinity.
    • Relay Chain: Polkadot.
    • Token Standard: Paratokens.
    • Contract: 0x656c00e1bcd96f256f224ad9112ff426ef053733
    • Token Type: Utility and Governance.
    • Total Supply: 2,000,000,000 EFI.
    • Circulating Supply: EFI has not launched yet.
    1. EFI Token Allocation
    • Ecosystem: 35%.
    • Staking & Pools: 15%.
    • Company: 20%.
    • Team: 10%.
    • Seed Round: 3%.
    • Early Round: 7%.
    • Strategic Round: 5%.
    • Public Sale: 5%.
    1. EFI Token Sales
    EFI toke sales

    How to buy EFI tokens

    You can buy the EFI token through several ways, which can be through DEX and CEX platforms:

    1. DEX: Uniswap, Sushiswap
    2. CEX: Gate.io, crypto.com, Coinlist Pro, MEXC

    Conclusion

    In summary, EFI could be a good investment since the future related to NFT seems bright. The affiliated relationship between Efinity and Enjin will democratize NFTs using micro-fees. It will be a game-changer for developers and businesses who require better performance on massive operations, making it a good and potential place to be invested.

  • Boba Network: Is it an improvement on Ethereum?

    Boba Network: Is it an improvement on Ethereum?

    Introduction of Boba

    Boba Network is an Ethereum Layer 2 Solution that is designed to drastically improve the speed and efficiency of ethereum. Boba uses Optimistic Rollup technology that combines outstanding open-source work with the research and development of swaps based on onramps, rapid exits, and cross-chain bridging. Boba was created because it is essentially a modified version of Ethereum, making it relatively easy to ensure Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Solidity compatibility in minimizing the efforts required to migrate smart contracts from Layer 1 (L1) to Layer 2 (L2).

    What is BOBA’s vision?

    BOBA’s vision is to gain more accessibility to the market with a larger audience by providing a more cost-effective, fast migrating process and more capacity by delivering more layers to the user. Hence, BOBA takes the benefit of Ethereum by using it as an active transaction and settlement layer to encourage more transactions in BOBA. Plus, by using Ethereum as the settlement layer will make the transactions in BOBA much faster and cheaper. 

    Therefore, together with other developers such as oolong swap, senpai swap, and others, BOBA has provided more exciting opportunities for the users to farm and trade Non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

    How to bridge to Boba on the Network?

    Currently, the developer is working on user experience to a point where they even subsidise some of the costs for bridging to Boba to reduce a couple of clicks in the process.

    This is how to bridge to Boba using $OMG 

    1. Ensure that you holding $OMG in your own private wallet, not an exchange wallet and connect your wallet to Metamask. (https://metamask.io) 
    2. Go to boba.gateway.network to connect to Boba Network using your Metamask
    connect to Boba Network using Metamask
    1. Scroll down to where it shows OMG and click Bridge
    Bridging to OMG
    1. Select “Fast Bridge to L2”
    Fast bridge to L2
    1. Enter the amount of OMG you like to bridge. Choose “Use all” to bridge them all. Then click the “Bridge”button.
    enter amount of OMG to bridge
    1. Metamask will pop up. Confirm the transaction by clicking “Confirm”. First check you happy with the gas fee, which is paid with Ethereum.
    Confirm transaction using Metamask
    1. Once the transaction is confirm, the Metamask will show confirmation of the first transaction and pop up again for the second transaction confirmation. Click “Confirm”.
    transaction confirmation

    What is the Boba currency of transaction?

    Currently, Ethereum has been used as a currency of transactions on the Boba network because most users have Ethereum. The developer doesn’t want first-time users to experience acquiring Boba token before they do any transactions. The user only has access to the bridge over Ethereum; however, if they have any other access, it would be great for Boba as there will be many different pools that the users can join in and farm. 

    What is the BOBA token used for?

    The BOBA token serves two purposes. One is to join a network where there will be rolling out the boba dial. The Boba developers will invite the whole community or token holders to participate in proposing changes in the network by voting on proposals to improve Boba.

    The second purpose is staking, where the Boba developers will be sharing a portion of the network profits with token holders who stick the tokens on the mobile network. The reason for doing this is to build an engaged community of boba token holders around the network since they need strong communities to attract more people to join Boba and achieve the vision, which is to gain more access to the large market with a large audience.  

    Where do the profits come from? 

    The profits come from the transactions that happen on the networks, which any transactions that the users do will need to burn some layer 2 gas. As a result, the network itself will need to pay Ethereum to store cryptographic proofs on the main chain to prove that the user has done the transactions correctly. 

    However, the user must reach a certain break-even point in order to earn a profit. The user must reach a minimum level of transactions that needs to happen before the network starts generating profits. For example, just like the airline or bus, if they have too few passengers, they will begin to lose money, so they must reach a certain point of passengers to generate profit.

    How many transactions and profits can be made?

    As for now, Boba Network can handle 54 transactions in one block. However, how much profit can be made depends on the variable since the developer will tweak the pricing structure to ensure the network is price competitive. The more volume the network processes, the more ability they can lower the cost per transaction.

    The mechanism behind Boba

    The developers have used optimistic roll-up as a mechanism for BOBA. It is a very modular system that lets the developer easily switch up and update different pieces of the optimistic roll-up system. Hence, the developer of BOBA can keep updating and adding more functionality to the BOBA system. Aside from that, by using optimistic roll-up, the developer can easily change the existing solidity code without affecting the major barrier and re-audit the smart contract since they want to make sure that BOBA is compatible with virtually all smart contracts. 

    What is optimistic rollup?

    BOBA has been called “optimistic rollup” because its system gives the users the benefit of the doubt. The BOBA system has provided the users with a community fraud detector. The community fraud detectors can allow the users to compute whether the operator is honest or fraudulent by checking every single one of the BOBA states routes and transactions that they submit to L1.

    Why not a centralised platform?

    The system is set up in which all the funds that are on L2 are on Ethereum mainstream bridges or in volts that are positioned on a theory main chain. Everything that is going on in the L2 represents tokens and Ethereum that live on the L1. When you bridge funds on the L2, BOBA will represent those funds on the L2, and when you leave, L2 will burn them. However, the actual tokens reside on the L1 permanently, so that it gives people a little bit extra security on what would happen if BOBA went down. Aside from that BOBA is an open-source project in which the code used has been audited once and is now being reaudited for a second time. 

    What is the difference between all the L-2 solutions?

    There are two main categories that Boba considers using, which is the Zero-Knowledge (ZK) roll-up and the Optimistic roll up. However, the developer has decided to use the Optimistic roll-up to run immediately and easily arbitrary solidity smart contracts compared to the ZK roll-up which cannot take arbitrary smart contracts and run on ZK layer 2. Aside from that, the cost for Optimistic roll-up is lesser compared to ZK roll up

    Conclusion

    In conclusion, people should try BOBA since many new dApps are launching and lots of farming opportunities that many robot users have enjoyed. Plus, there will be an NFT series launching, which will be a good opportunity to try BOBA.

  • Ethereum Savings Wallet

    Ethereum Savings Wallet

    Holding Ethereum has been very profitable for many crypto enthusiasts. But did you know that you can also multiply your holdings by earning interest on your Ethereum deposits through an Ethereum savings wallet? 

    When you open an Ethereum savings wallet, you can deposit your Ethereum holdings into the savings wallet. The savings wallet provider will then loan out your ETH to borrowers, providing you with a percentage of interest in exchange. It is more profitable than only relying on the price appreciation of Ethereum. You can earn interest as high as 8% for your holdings, which is far higher than what many traditional banks and other financial institutions offer on fiat currencies. 

    Thanks to the efficiencies of blockchain technology and lending markets, cryptocurrency users are able to earn high interest rates on their digital assets. And thanks to platforms like FTX Exchange, Nexo and BlockFi, it’s easier than ever to earn passive income from your cryptocurrencies. If you are interested in long-term investing, an Ethereum savings wallet can help you accrue interest while keeping your Ethereum safe.

    Why Earn Interest Using An Ethereum Savings Wallet?

    Easy Process

    You can start earning interest on your Ethereum deposits after completing a few easy steps. All you need to do is sign up for an Ethereum savings wallet, complete the KYC process, and deposit Ethereum to your savings account. That’s it! Your interest accruals will begin automatically as soon as your savings account receives Ethereum deposits. Some savings wallet providers even provide you bonuses for signing up. 

    Low Risk

    Compared to the products offering similar high interest rates, earning on your Ethereum deposits is a low-risk option. Such high returns are possible as savings wallet holders lend cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies to borrowers at very high-interest rates and share their earnings with other savings wallet holders in the form of interest. Most savings wallet providers manage the risk by making over-collateralization mandatory to borrow from them.

    Passive Income

    Passive income is income that requires minimal labor to earn and maintain. Automatic payouts by savings wallet providers means your earnings are paid directly into your savings wallet. You can either choose to withdraw them straight away, or leave your earnings in your savings wallet to compound and grow exponentially. Who doesn’t want to earn money for their Ethereum holdings even while asleep?

    24/7 Access to Funds

    Unlike traditional banks, your Ethereum savings wallet will be open 24/7. You will always have complete access to ETH in your savings wallet. Some providers even allow you to buy and sell Ethereum instantly from your savings wallet.

    Which Ethereum Savings Wallet Should I Choose?

    When it comes to Ethereum savings wallet providers, there is no shortage of options available for you to choose from. Let’s explore some of the best Ethereum savings wallets.

    FTX Earn

    ethereum savings wallet

    FTX Exchange is a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform built by professional traders Alameda Research. FTX will deposit interest earnings calculated hourly. Interest will be compounded on principal and yield you have already earned. It is really easy to get started and you can earn interest immediately after you have opted into the program.

    The FTX Earn interest rate for Ethereum is 5 – 8% APY. 

    FTX Earn tiers their interest rate differently than any other platform, in which the first $10,000 USD of deposited funds earns 8% APY regardless of coin/token. All funds beyond that earn 5% APY. There are no lockup terms for your deposits but it is worth noting that withdrawal fees do apply for ETH.

    Nexo

    earn interest from ethereum savings

    Nexo is a unique lending platform based in Switzerland. It allows you to take out loans based on the amount of cryptocurrency in your account without selling your coins and buying them back. Though you cannot currently buy or sell Ethereum through the Nexo platform, the Nexo savings wallet offers a high-yield method for investors to earn money on idle ETH.

    With Nexo, you can earn up to 8% APR for your Ethereum savings.

    Opting for the Nexo FLEX offering will give you an additional 1% interest on your ETH, as well as compounded daily payouts. Nexo also offers zero fees and top-tier security and insurance to protect your funds.

    BlockFi

    blockfi crypto savings

    BlockFi is one of the most competitive and well-known cryptocurrency savings account providers for a reason. BlockFi was founded in 2017 and is a fully regulated and licensed bank-like provider of cryptocurrency savings wallets, loans, and exchange services.

    BlockFi uses a tiered interest structure that can go up to 5% APY for Ethereum holders.

    The BlockFi platform is easy to use and gives you full transparency and control of your assets. They even have a mobile app so you can manage your savings wallet from any smart device. BlockFi is also one of the safest savings wallet providers with trusted crypto asset manager, Gemini as its custodian.

    YouHodler

    youhodler crypto savings

    Launched in 2019, YouHodler is an EU and Swiss-based cryptocurrency platform with both a web interface and mobile app. Ilya Volkov, the CEO and co-founder of YouHodler, has more than 15 years of experience in the FinTech industry, making the platform a serious competitor among savings wallet providers.

    Ethereum holders can earn 5.5% APR plus daily compounding interest on YouHodler.

    Payouts are made every week and you can start earning interest immediately after depositing ETH into your savings wallet. There is, however, a minimum deposit of $500 worth of ETH at market price to begin. Some fees may also apply.

    Celsius Network

    celcius crypto savings

    Celsius Network adopts a strategy based on the mobile market. As a result, they offer a great mobile-based solution for earning interest on your Ethereum. Built on the belief that financial services should only do what is in the best interests of the community, Celsius is a modern platform that aims to empower the unbanked. 

    Celsius offers 5.35% APY for holdings up to 100 ETH and 3.52% APY for holding above 100 ETH.

    Celsius is secured with multi-factor authentication, private key double vaults, encryption, and third-party solutions. Their assets are distributed amongst cold wallets and exchanges for additional security.

    Conclusion

    They say nothing in life is free, but clearly these people are wrong. By putting your idle ETH to work, you can significantly grow your holdings over time. With an ever-increasing number of savings wallet providers, Ethereum holders now have many different options and flexibilities to earn interest for their Ethereum. These platforms provide a great investment opportunity to generate passive income while providing holders peace of mind over the safety of their holdings.

    If the crypto economy continues to go mainstream at its current rate, it is not too far-fetched to envision more and more individuals around the globe choosing crypto savings wallets over traditional savings accounts from banks. It will definitely be exciting to see what crypto banking can accomplish next.

  • How Do Crypto Savings Accounts Work

    How Do Crypto Savings Accounts Work

    Lending and borrowing cryptocurrencies is becoming an increasingly important sub-sector of the crypto industry, one that may end up shaping how the underlying assets themselves are valued and priced in markets. Since many crypto enthusiasts invest in crypto with a long-term mindset anyway, the idea of letting assets generate a return regardless of the price appreciation of the underlying asset is an appealing one to many. (www.voiceoverherald.com)  

    With the rise of crypto savings accounts that promise high annual percentage yields (APYs), investors now have the potential to boost their earnings for crypto deposits. 

    What is a Crypto Savings Account

    The concept behind crypto savings accounts is similar to that of traditional savings accounts. You as a crypto owner can deposit your assets into a crypto savings account, which are then lent out on your behalf by a third party provider, earning you interest for your deposits. 

    The key difference when it comes to crypto savings accounts is that instead of depositing fiat currency, you will instead keep your funds in the cryptocurrency of your preference. Your funds may also be exposed to the volatility and price fluctuations of the crypto market.

    A crypto wallet is not the same as a crypto savings account, with the main difference being that the latter accrues interest whereas a crypto wallet does not. If you just keep your coins in a wallet where you own the private keys or in an exchange wallet, your investment will not earn any interest. To earn money for your crypto, you will need to open an account with a provider and deposit funds into your crypto savings account.

    For a comparison between providers, check out our guide to the Best Crypto Savings Accounts 2022.

    How Does It Work

    Before you open a crypto savings account, it is probably a good idea to fully understand what these products are and how exactly they differ from traditional savings accounts. 

    In the case of a traditional savings account, when you deposit money, you give permission to the bank to loan out the money to third parties. And in return, you earn interest from the bank.

    Similarly, when your money is invested in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, the cryptocurrency savings account provider will loan out the crypto to borrowers, and provide you a certain pre-arranged rate of interest on your crypto. The interest rates depend on many factors such as the current market rate.

    You can also earn interest on stablecoins, which are fixed to the value of the US dollar if you don’t want to be exposed to cryptocurrency price fluctuations. Because the crypto market is speculative, these accounts should be viewed as investments rather than savings accounts, because that is really what they are at their core.

    Crypto Savings VS Traditional Savings

    Despite sounding similar, crypto savings accounts have some very distinct differences from traditional savings accounts.  

    1. Interest Yields – Crypto savings accounts offer much higher rates of return than traditional banks, reaching as high as 8% to 12% APY. To put this in perspective, the average savings account yield sits at just 0.06% APY according to recent data by the FDIC.
    1. FDIC Insurance – Major banks have insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This insurance guarantees that, even if your bank loans out the money you deposit into your account, your funds are protected. You won’t lose money when you put it into a traditional savings account because the FDIC backs your account. Crypto savings accounts do not have FDIC insurance.
    1. Access to Funds – In a traditional savings account, you are free to withdraw your money at any time with no fees or restrictions. Crypto savings accounts may limit access to your coins for a set period of time after you deposit them into your account. They may also charge you a fee for withdrawing your funds before a select date. However, many platforms do not have minimum lockup periods, allowing you to take out your investment at any time. These platforms are also open 24/7, unlike traditional banks.

    Benefits of Crypto Savings Accounts

    Crypto savings accounts have several positive impacts both to the individual investor as well as to the overall cryptocurrency economy.

    1. Passive Income – Crypto savings accounts provide an automated method to grow crypto portfolios over time. For someone already fully invested in bitcoin, they simply need to deposit that bitcoin into a crypto savings account and can immediately earn additional interest paid in bitcoin.
    1. Greater Liquidity – Crypto savings accounts provide an incentive to convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency. By drawing in more participants to the crypto economy, greater liquidity can be attained leading to eventual price stability for the asset.
    1. Increased Adoption – Long time holders of crypto are incentivized to move their crypto out of storage and into the markets, facilitating adoption and helping innovate new use cases for crypto.
    1. Higher Demand – Interest rates are important in financial markets because they fill the gap between people with a surplus of assets and the people who need the assets because they have a use for them. High interest rates being offered can be seen as high demand for the underlying crypto assets.

    Risks of Crypto Savings Accounts

    While the prospect of earning 8% or more in a savings account seems attractive, investors should know that there are also risks involved. Cryptocurrency in general comes with risk and one should only invest once they are fully aware of the risks associated with these investments.

    1. Price Volatility – The value of cryptocurrencies are volatile and can easily lose their value. Cryptocurrency is not backed by the government so if something happens to cause it to lose its underlying value, then investors would lose their principal invested amount.
    1. Lock Up Risk – Some crypto savings accounts are very flexible, allowing investors to withdraw at any time. Others may have lock up periods or additional fees for excessive withdrawal activity. Generally speaking, the more restrictive accounts will offer the higher interest rate while the more flexible accounts tend to offer the lower interest rates. Make sure to do some research before committing to a provider.
    1. Pledge Risk – When you deposit your assets into a crypto savings account, you no longer control the crypto and are pledging it as collateral. For example, when you deposit at a bank you are staking a claim to a bank’s liability. It is a similar situation with the crypto savings account. If the crypto provider goes under due to a mismanagement of their business or an adverse market event, you will not be able to get your assets back.
    1. Smart Contract Risk – Decentralized finance (Defi) lenders use automated coding called smart contracts to loan and allocate capital. This coding is viewable by everyone so it is quite transparent. Everyone is incentivized to make sure the coding is solid.  However, a previously undiscovered error in a smart contract may open the door for a hacker to find their way in. Though not exempt from the risk, lenders who have been around longer and whose products have stood the test of time are generally less likely to be exposed.

    Things to Consider Before Getting Started

    Thanks to the rising popularity of crypto savings accounts, there has also been an increase in the number of providers. But how do you know which platform is the best choice for your investment needs? Here are some of the things you should research before selecting a crypto savings account:

    • Compound interest
    • Crypto market availability
    • Security
    • Supported coins
    • Withdrawal restrictions
    • Private key access policy
    • Loan-to-value (LTV) rates

    Compound Interest

    Compound interest is calculated based on both the initial deposit and the accumulated interest. It will make a sum grow at a faster rate than simple interest, which is calculated only on the principal amount. Not all providers offer compound interest so before deciding, it is recommended to inquire whether or not they apply compound interest to their savings accounts.

    Crypto Market Availability

    It is preferable to choose a savings account that has crypto market access. This will help you buy crypto through the platform and set up your account. Having access to the market also saves a lot of time and documentation.

    Security

    One of the most important aspects of choosing a crypto savings account is its security measures. Every company has its own security policies to safeguard the assets you save, so it is recommended to look for savings account providers who offer two-factor authentication (2FA). 

    Apart from 2FA, many companies also provide cold storage as an additional layer of security.

    Supported Coins

    Thousands of cryptocurrencies are available in today’s market, and there is nothing worse than selecting an account provider that does not support the coins you are holding. Before you deposit your crypto into an account, be sure to verify that the provider supports that crypto.

    Withdrawal Restrictions

    Some crypto savings accounts have withdrawal limits that cap the amount you can take from your account over a specific period of time. These withdrawal limits can put your money out of reach when you need it most, like during a financial emergency. Not only that, but you may also have to pay fees to withdraw your money. These fees can add up if you are an active crypto trader who makes a lot of transfers in and out of your account, in which case it would be more beneficial to find a provider that offers unlimited free withdrawals.

    Private Key Access Policy

    Unlike traditional savings accounts that allow you control over your money, not all crypto savings accounts allow you to keep control over the keys to your crypto. Noncustodial wallets like Coinbase leave you in control of the private keys to your crypto. You are the sole owner of your digital assets across transactions on the platform. Custodial accounts like Nexo require you to hand over your private keys, trusting the platform to manage it on your behalf. Thus, it is recommended to always verify the company policy related to crypto key access and understand ownership swapping.

    Loan-To-Value (LTV) Rates

    Another important point to research is the loan-to-value rates or the LTV rates. The LTV rates represent what the platform is ready to risk. It must be noted that the more robust LTV a platform has, the better it is for you.

    Bottom Line: Should You Open A Crypto Savings Account?

    While a crypto savings account can produce exceptionally lucrative returns for long-term investors, it is important to remember that the cryptocurrency market is known for its volatility. Crypto savings accounts might accrue interest like a traditional savings account, but they do not have the same financial protections that are awarded to traditional banking institutions.

    If you do decide to open a crypto savings account, treat it as an investment account instead of a separate checking account. Keep your emergency funds somewhere safe, and never invest more money than you can afford to lose in cryptocurrency. 

    FAQ

    What is a crypto savings account?

    Crypto savings accounts work in a similar way to traditional bank savings accounts. In a nutshell, you lend money to an institution which lends your assets to borrowers in need of liquidity. Except, crypto savings accounts deal exclusively in cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

    Are crypto savings accounts safe?

    Yes. Every crypto savings account provider has its own security policies to safeguard your assets. It is recommended to look for account providers who offer two-factor authentication (2FA) and/or cold storage.

    How much interest can I earn for my crypto deposits?

    That depends on the platform you use and the type of cryptocurrency you deposit. As an example, FTX lets account holders earn up to 8% APY on all crypto deposits, while BlockFi offers up to 9.5% APY on stablecoins.

    Are crypto savings accounts a reliable retirement investment strategy?

    No. Considering the volatility of the crypto market, there are a lot of risks associated with crypto savings accounts. These accounts should be viewed as investments rather than savings accounts.

    Sources:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2021/05/17/what-are-the-risks-of-crypto-savings-accounts/?sh=61b866591417

    https://apyguy.com/best-crypto-savings-accounts/#What_are_Crypto-Based_Savings_Accounts

    https://www.coinratecap.com/en/blogDetail/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-crypto-savings-account

    https://financeplusinsurance.com/risks-associated-crypto-savings-accounts/

  • IAGON ($IAG) Token Utility Model

    IAGON ($IAG) Token Utility Model

    Everything you wanted to know about Iagon‘s IAG token and its usage IAGON’s Shared Storage Economy.

    Disclaimer: 

    The presented $IAG token utility model in this article is not finalized and may be subject to updates/changes. 

    $IAG basics 

    Currently, the $IAG token is an ERC-20 token only. It’s tradeable on Uniswap, Gate.io and Bitrue. $IAG can be stored on any ERC-20 token compatible wallet.


    As it moves to Cardano, IAGON plans to make its token usable and accessible on the Cardano blockchain. This will be done with the help of a two-way ERC20-CNT bridge.  The IAGON team is working on their very own bridge solution for IAG tokens.

    Remark: 

    Currently, there is no official Cardano ERC20-CNT bridge launched. Existing converters that are on the market are either wrappers or mint functions. At this moment and to our knowledge, none of the converters burn a supply from one chain and mint on the other chain.

    $IAG Token Utility Details

    The $IAG token represents a ÂŽshareÂŽ in the IAGON ecosystem, providing holders with a portion of the revenue generated through the decentralised storage exchange.

    Additionally the $IAG token will be used as an additional reward for resource providers and for ADA holders delegating to our Cardano stake pool.

    Also, there will be an option for the iagon ecosystem fund to buy $IAG tokens from the open market with the aim to refill our ADAGIO reward pool for stakers and resource providers on a regular basis. 

    For $IAG Holders

    $IAG token holders can earn yield by providing liquidity in either Ethereum or Cardano liquidity pools.  

    There are 2 additional revenue streams that $IAG stakers can benefit from, on top of the yield from the liquidity pool:

    $IAG stakers can earn a portion of the transaction fees from the decentralized storage exchange, used by the customers and resource providers on the IAGON network. This reward will be based on the amount of $IAG tokens staked and  the trading volume in the storage exchange.

    When a resource provider commits to provide their resources to the network, their commitment is handled by our rewards DAO, ADAGIO, and their reward is locked until the end of the commitment period (at least 1 month). 


    During the period when the reward is locked, ADAGIO generates yield on it through providing liquidity. This yield is distributed among the resource providers, the $IAG stakers and IAGON.

    Usually, staking gives only a portion of the fee from the liquidity pool you’re staking in. However, the utility of the $IAG token ensures that stakers can earn yield from two other revenue streams as well as passive income for staking.

    For Resource Providers

    Once Iagon has launched their Storage Exchange Marketplace, anyone will be able to make a profit by committing resources [storage]. 

    The rewards for providing resources will be based on the supply and demand in the decentralised storage exchange. 

    • Anyone will be able to trade their resources for stable coins by committing their resource to ADAGIO, the resource provider rewards DAO
    • The rewards are locked until the end of the commitment period, and are subject to slashing in case of unwanted node behavior impacting the performance and health of the network (frequent disconnects, attempts at changing or deleting the stored data)
    • At the end of the commitment period, resource providers are able to claim their reward
    • While the rewards are locked, ADAGIO will allow the resource provider to earn yield on it, effectively increasing the reward over time
    • By leaving the reward locked with ADAGIO for a longer period of time, the rewards will accumulate over time, greatly increasing the earnings

    In addition to this, resource providers will occasionally earn $IAG tokens as a bonus incentive to commit storage.

    Iagon Ecosystem Fund

    A portion of both the transaction fees from the storage exchange and the yield provided by the locked rewards go back to Iagon. These funds will be used to fund further development of the Iagon products, cover operational costs, and buy back $IAG tokens for the Iagon treasury. 

    The tokens in the treasury will be used to provide community reward schemes, such as resource provider bonus incentives, additional stake pool rewards, early testing rewards etc.

    $IAG tokens give you access to a passive revenue stream and multiple utilities, which is why they can be potentially valuable. 

    IAGON token utility model (Source Iagon)

    How the IAG token will work*

    In simple words, the whole process will look like this:

    1. Resource provider commits storage to ADAGIO [rewards DAO]
    2. ADAGIO sells the storage on the storage exchange
    3. The transaction fee is split among ADAGIO and IAG stakers
    4. The reward (payment for storage) is passed from the exchange back to ADAGIO
    5. The rewards are locked until at least the end of the commitment period (at least one month)
    6. While the rewards are locked, it earns a yield through ADAGIO (providing liquidity and other such mechanisms), increasing the reward.
    7. IAG stakers earn a portion of this yield as well
    8. After the lockup period, they can claim their reward + their portion of the yield.

    *Disclaimer: 

    The presented $IAG token utility model is not finalized and may be subject to updates/changes. 

    Meantime, the IAGON team is open for discussion and encourages their community to input and share ideas about token utility. 

    About IAGON

    IAGON aims to revolutionize the cloud by developing a storage platform and a processing platform where anyone can profit from shared resources. The whole value proposition circles back to the potential of blockchain technology by letting device owners join the storage and processing power grids to create a completely decentralized data cloud and supercomputer.

    Website | Twitter | Telegram | Blog | CoinGecko | CoinMarketCap 

  • Keep3rb BSC Network ($KP3RB): The First Keeper Network on Binance Smart Chain

    Keep3rb BSC Network ($KP3RB): The First Keeper Network on Binance Smart Chain

    keep3r bsc network

    Keep3rb Network is a decentralized keeper network built on Binance Smart Chain for projects that require external DevOps and external teams to find keeper jobs.

    DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle (SDLC) and provide continuous delivery with high software quality.

    Keep3rb network provides a seamless platform to connect DevOps teams (Keepers) with project teams that require DevOps tasks (Jobs).

    This project is not to be confused with Andre Conje’s Keep3r Network ($KP3R).

    What is a Keeper

    A keeper is the term used to refer to an external person or team that executes a job. Keepers can also be bots, scripts, other contracts, or simply EOA accounts that trigger events. 

    The job can be as simple as submitting a signed TX on behalf of a third party, calling a transaction at a specific time, or more complex functionality that requires extensive off-chain logic. Each time a keeper executes a job, they are rewarded with $BNB, tokens, or the system’s native token $KP3RB.

    Jobs might require keepers that have a minimum amount of bonded tokens, have earned a minimum amount of fees, or have been in the system longer than a certain period of time.

    At the most simple level, they simply require a keeper to be registered in the system.

    With the keeper network being decentralized, It is up to the keepers to set up their DevOps and infrastructure and create their own rules based on what transactions they deem profitable.

    What is a Job

    A job is the term used to refer to a smart contract that requires external DevOps or a team to perform an action. The action needs to be performed in goodwill and not as a malicious act to harm the project. For this reason they register as a job, and keepers can then execute on their contract.

    Becoming a Keeper

    how to use keep3r bsc network

    To join as a keeper, you need to connect a wallet and register a bond. You do not need to have $KPR3B tokens to participate as a keeper, you can join as long as you have a wallet to hold your tokens. 

    There is a 3-day activation period before you can activate as a keeper. Once the three days have passed, you will be able to activate your bond. 

    Once activated, you are officially a keeper on the network and will be able to select jobs from the Keep3rb network jobs list.

    Registering a Job

    Keep in mind that the Keep3rb network does not get in the way of the job. They do not define nor restrict the action taken, hence its decentralized nature. Incentive mechanisms are available for all parties involved to ensure tasks are carried out efficiently. There are 2 core ways to create a job:

    • Registering a job via Governance – you can register a job simply by creating a new proposal via governance. If governance approves, no further steps are required.
    • Registering a job via Adding Liquidity – you will need to provide liquidity to one of the approved liquidity pairs (for example KP3RB-BNB). You put your LP tokens in escrow and receive credit. When the credit is used up, you can simply withdraw the LP tokens. You will receive 100% of the LP tokens back that you deposited.

    Job Credits

    Each job has a set amount of credit they can award keepers. You do not need to purchase KP3RB tokens to receive credits. Instead you are required to provide liquidity in Keep3rb network’s job liquidity pools.

    kp3rb job liquidity pool list

    You can remove your liquidity at any time, so you do not have to keep buying new credits. Your liquidity provided is never reduced and as such you can remove it whenever you no longer would like a job to be executed.

    There are 3 primary payment mechanisms to pay keepers and these are based on the credit provided:

    • Pay via liquidity provided tokens (based on ‘ addLiquidityToJob ‘)
    • Pay in direct BNB (based on ‘ addCreditETH ‘)
    • Pay in direct token (based on ‘ addCredit ‘)

    Governance

    Keep3rb governance by design has a low overhead, it is not meant to be protocol intensive. The focus is simply on reviewing and approving jobs, and if absolutely required mitigate disputes or blacklist keepers.

    Only bonded keepers may participate in governance. To participate in governance a keeper must first bond $KP3RB, once bonded they can delegate voting rights to either themselves or another party.

    The core function of governance is to approve and include jobs, when liquidity is provided for a job, a proposal is automatically created to include them for review. Bonded keepers will review the contracts and decide if they should be included. It is important that jobs code defensively, assume keepers will only include your job to maximize their returns, as such maximum payment thresholds have been implemented.

    As a last resort, governance has certain rights over managing keepers, these include lodging disputes, slashing, revoking access, and resolving disputes.

    Job Interface

    Some contracts require external event execution, an example for this is the ‘ harvest() ‘ function in the yearn ecosystem or the ‘ update(address, address) ‘ function in the uniquote ecosystem. These usually require a restricted access control list. However, these can be difficult for fully decentralized projects to manage, as they lack DevOps infrastructure.

    These job interfaces can be broken down into 2 types, no risk delta and harvest. No risk delta is similar to an ‘ update(address, address) ‘ in uniquote, which has no risk to execution. ‘ harvest() ‘, as seen in yearn, can be exploited by malicious actors using front-running deposits. 

    For complete information on how these codes are executed, you can refer to the official Medium post by Keep3rb network.

    $KP3RB Token

    According to Coinmarketcap, the platform’s native token $KP3RB stands at a token supply of 211,450. No further details about token supply and distribution are provided at present.

    Conclusion

    Keep3rb network aims to facilitate DevOps projects in a decentralized environment. The scope of the Keep3rb network is not to manage these jobs themselves but to allow contracts to register as jobs for keepers, and to allow keepers to register themselves to perform jobs. Due to its decentralized nature, both the keeper and job can define and set their own parameters and rules as they choose. 

    It will be interesting to see how BSC’s first keeper network performs and how it will change the DevOps market and its practices. 

    keep3rb network

    To learn more about Keep3rb network and the project’s future developments, check out their official channels listed below:

    Website – https://keep3rb.network/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/keep3rb

    Telegram – https://t.me/keep3rb

    News –  https://t.me/kp3rbnews

    Medium – https://keep3rb.medium.com/

    GitHub – https://github.com/keep3rb-network

    Sources:

    https://docs.keep3rb.network/docs/keepers

    https://keep3rb.medium.com/introduction-to-keep3rb-network-f116f94ede79

    https://www.bsc.news/post/keep3rb-first-keeper-network-on-binance-smart-chain

    https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/keep3r-bsc-network/

  • MetaWars Launches With Successful Results, Discusses Future Plans

    MetaWars Launches With Successful Results, Discusses Future Plans

    MetaWars, the next-generation sci-fi strategy game, has officially launched the $WARS token. MetaWars successfully developed the best tokenomics for its ecosystem with the help of marketing partners that led to the release of the $WARS and $GAM tokens on the blockchain.

    A Quick Recap About MetaWars

    MetaWars is a sci-fi focused strategy game that enables players to earn through gameplay. Players can embark on their journey in a highly-realistic space environment during the game with the help of NFTs in the form of resources and mechas. The game’s play-to-earn feature enables players to fight, trade, and play while earning NFTs and additional rewards. For more information check out our full Metawars guide.


    The Legacy So Far

    MetaWars released their pre-launch NFT auction from the 21st to the 27th of October, which allowed buyers to purchase valuable in-game assets and supplies. The event garnered huge success, nearing a total of 1,000 bids by the end of the auction.

    The project continued their impressive feats on the day of their launch on the 27th of October, with an initial listing price of $0.008 on PancakeSwap skyrocketing over 100x.

    The staking pool and dapp also went live recently for the community to stake $WARS tokens. Players, in turn, earn $GAM tokens, an in-game utility token that will play a vital role in the MetaWars universe.

    Launch Highlights

    • The pre-launch NFT auction successfully obtained close to 1,000 bids and raised a total of 2,000 BNB.
    • MetaWars’ $WARS tokens were sold out in a flash on all three launchpads — Polylauncher, GameFi and Red Kite — within minutes.
    • The very first MetaWars game trailer and demo was released to the public in order to show a glimpse of the immersive gameplay — interested parties can view the clip here.
    • Staking of $WARS and $WARS-BUSD LP went live on MetaWars’ dapp, access it here.
    • MetaWars’ Discord server remains active with more than 22,000 members to date and an invitation contest is currently underway that will enable participants with the most invites to earn limited in-game asset NFTs.

    Future Plans 

    Following a hugely successful launch, MetaWars is currently working on its adventure game, with plans to release it later this month. The NFT staking feature is also currently in the works and will be announced to the public in the near future.

    More details about the game will be announced soon. To follow up with MetaWars’ updates and developments, follow their social media channels below.

    About MetaWars

    MetaWars is a play-to-earn next-generation blockchain gaming experience. Explore and battle throughout the universe. Fight, trade, and earn robots, ships, and planetary terrain backed by in-game NFTs. The $WARS token will become the anchor of an entire universe up for grabs.

    Website | Twitter | Telegram | Reddit | Discord

  • What Are NFTs?: Explained

    What Are NFTs?: Explained

    Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are taking the art and gaming worlds by storm. Digital artists and gamers are seeing their lives change thanks to new communities and methods of earning and selling. Celebrities are joining in as well as they recognize a new opportunity to connect with fans. 

    From fine art and music to cats and rocks, these digital assets have exploded within blockchain news, some selling for millions of dollars. Some experts claim that NFTs are changing the landscape of investing forever, while others are convinced they’re a bubble poised to pop any day now.

    NFTs have certainly been causing a splash and controversial debates – but what are they exactly?

    What is a Non-Fungible Token (NFT)?

    NFTs are tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items. They let us tokenize things like art, collectibles, even real estate. 

    In economics, a fungible asset is something that can be readily interchanged – like money. They can be exchanged because their value defines them rather than their unique properties. For example, you can swap a $100 note for five $20 notes and it will have the same value.

    If something is non-fungible, it means it has unique properties so it can’t be interchanged with something else or divided into smaller units. It could be a house, or a painting such as the Mona Lisa, which is one of a kind. You can take a photo of the painting or buy a print, but there will only ever be one original painting.

    In the same way, NFTs are scarce digital assets with distinctive characteristics, making them difficult to swap for another similar asset because it will likely not have the same value. Therefore, digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.

    How do NFTs Work?

    NFTs exist on a blockchain, which is a distributed public ledger that records transactions and is maintained by thousands of interconnected computers around the world. The blockchain’s advanced encryption and peer-to-peer network secures the proof of ownership of NFTs, ensuring that no one can modify the record of ownership or copy and paste a new NFT into existence.

    To create an NFT, it has to be “minted” from digital objects that can represent both tangible and intangible items, including:

    • Art
    • GIFs
    • Videos
    • Collectibles
    • Music
    • Virtual avatars and video game skins
    • Designer sneakers
    • Tickets to a real world event
    • Deeds to a car
    • Legal documents

    Even tweets can be an NFT. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sold his first ever tweet as an NFT for more than $2.9 million.

    Ownership is managed through the uniqueID and metadata that no other token can replicate. NFTs are minted through smart contracts that assign ownership and manage the transferability of the NFTs. When someone creates or mints an NFT, they execute code stored in smart contracts that conform to different standards from regular tokens.

    The owner or creator can also store specific information inside them. For instance, artists can sign their artwork by including their signature in an NFT’s metadata. NFTs can also contain smart contracts that may give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.

    Examples of NFTs

    The NFT world is relatively new. In theory, the scope for NFTs could be anything that is unique or requires proof of ownership. Here are some examples of NFTs that exist today:

    How and Where to Buy NFTs?

    If you are keen to start your own NFT collection, you will need to acquire some key items. First, you will need to get a digital wallet that allows you to store NFTs and cryptocurrencies. 

    You will likely need to purchase some cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), or Binance Coin (BNB), depending on what currencies your NFT provider accepts. You can buy crypto using exchange platforms and then you will be able to move the funds to your wallet of choice.

    You will want to keep fees in mind as you research options. Most exchanges charge at least a percentage of your transaction when you buy crypto. Different NFT providers also have different gas fees which are fees you need to pay when you make an NFT purchase. 

    Once you’ve got your wallet set up and funded, there’s no shortage of NFT sites to shop. Currently, the largest NFT marketplaces are:

    • OpenSea – the original peer-to-peer NFT marketplace, and the largest. Offers NFTs of everything from in-game items and collectibles, to artwork, music, GIFs, and more. To get started, all you need to do is create an account to browse NFT collections. You can also sort pieces by sales volume to discover new artists.
    • Rarible – one of the leading NFT marketplaces on Ethereum, Rarible is a community-owned platform that showcases a wide range of digital art and collectibles. Similar to OpenSea, you can buy and sell all sorts of media. Sellers also have the option to create more than one NFT for a single image, selling it more than once.
    • Axie Marketplace – NFT-powered video game Axie Infinity plays host to the second-largest NFT marketplace. It trades exclusively in Axies, which are cute, PokĂ©mon-like digital pets which players can buy and trade on the Axie Marketplace. Unlike art NFTs, which are collected for collecting’s sake, Axie Infinity’s NFTs have a purpose: you can use them in-game to battle against monsters and other players, earning tokens that can be put towards breeding new creatures.
    • CryptoPunks/Larva Labs – One of the most popular NFT collectibles on the Ethereum network, CryptoPunks is a series of 10,000 randomly generated characters with a pixel art aesthetic and unique attributes. CryptoPunks can be purchased at creator Larva Labs’ marketplace, where the majority of sales take place.
    • BakerySwap – BakerySwap is one of the first to be launched on Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The NFT marketplace makes up one section of the platform, which also allows users to trade and swap liquidity assets directly with each other. 
    • Enjin Marketplace is the ideal choice for Enjin-based NFTs. The Enjin Wallet can help in listing and purchasing gaming collectibles and items easily. The marketplace offers game item collections, community-backed collectibles, and gamified reward programs.
    • Foundation – Foundation bills itself as a “creative playground” for artists. It’s played host to a number of notable sales, including the NFT of iconic Internet meme Nyan Cat, Edward Snowden’s first NFT and an audiovisual digital collectible created by producer Richard D. James, better known as Aphex Twin. Foundation’s marketplace is simple to operate, letting you place bids on timed auctions just like you would with a regular auction site.
    • KnownOrigin – KnownOrigin has a much smaller all-time trading volume because it aims to provide a more curated, gallery-like experience for the discerning NFT connoisseur. All of its artwork files are held on IPFS, which provides a measure of protection for the underlying assets. With a strong focus on digital art, this is a marketplace that shuns the crazier aspects of the NFT world, so you’ll find no wacky avatars or cute monsters here. 

    Gaming Potential of NFTs

    NFTs have seen a lot of interest from game developers. NFTs can provide records of ownership for in-game items, fuel in-game economies, and bring a host of benefits to the players.

    In a lot of regular games you can buy items for you to use in your game. But if that item was an NFT you could recoup your money by selling it on when you’re done with the game. You might even make a profit if that item becomes more desirable. 

    For game developers – as issuers of the NFT – they could earn a royalty every time an item is resold in the open marketplace. This creates a more mutually-beneficial business model where both players and developers earn from the secondary NFT market. 

    NFTs also make it possible so that if a game is no longer maintained by the developers, the items you’ve collected remain yours. In-game items can outlive the games themselves so even if a game is no longer maintained, your items will always be under your control. This means in-game items become digital memorabilia and have a value outside of the game.

    Decentraland, a virtual reality game, even lets you buy NFTs representing virtual parcels of land that you can use as you see fit.

    Is it Profitable to Invest in NFTs?

    NFTs are speculative assets. Because they are new and have limited historical performance that you can use to judge them, they are a risky investment. However, you can’t dismiss them either because you can purchase them in small amounts.

    Investing in NFT assets is purely a personal decision. One person might choose to buy NFTs because they have money to spare. Another one may buy a piece because it holds meaning for them. The value for NFT assets is not fixed or driven by technical, fundamental or economic indicators that usually influence the stock prices; instead, it is determined by what buyers are willing to pay for it. As a result, an NFT holder might be forced to resell it at a lower price than what they paid for it.

    However, NFT assets also have the potential for mind-boggling gains depending on the traction and value the asset is able to obtain over time. When the collectible series CryptoPunks were initially released, you could obtain one for free. Today, one CryptoPunk can sell for millions of dollars.

    NFTs also seem to be here to stay, as traditional industries are starting to appreciate the value of NFTs. For example, renowned auction house Sotheby’s has created their Sotheby’s Metaverse where NFT artwork is being auctioned- with bidding on some items exceeding 1 million USD for some works. 

    CryptoPunks, created by Larvalabs is also seen by many in the NFT space as a “sure win”. Top CryptoPunks NFTs have been sold for nearly US$8mil, and 1000s of CryptoPunks are still being offered for sale.

    top CryptoPunks NFTs sold
    Top CryptoPunks NFTs sold (Image credit: Larvalabs)

    Controversies Surrounding NFTs: Are NFTs Bad For The Environment?

    While a lot of money is circulating in the NFT market, there is some controversy linked to these trendy digital collectibles especially pertaining to the environment – particularly in terms of contributing to climate change.

    Making NFTs requires a significant amount of energy, and protesters are extremely worried about the huge effects of this craze on the environment. The creation of some of these NFTs is consuming as high as 192 kWh.

    While artists have promised to make carbon-neutral artwork, the cryptocurrency systems will not allow the verification of such promises. For instance, Bitcoin, Ethereum and others are founded on a proof-of-work system that makes the users’ financial records secure, which still consumes a lot of energy as well.

    The impact on the climate is actually what is holding back many brands from joining the NFT bandwagon. However, companies and individuals are expanding their revenue streams, so these NFT controversies will not last forever. Also, the art and design community is hungry for NFTs that are changing hands at astronomical amounts of money. The initial intent for creating NFTs was to give artists the opportunity to assert digital ownership of their art; however, the fact they are becoming more elitist is creating tension.

    The buy-in fees for NFTs are prohibitive for many people, and the price of a single art piece is extremely high, causing the public to rate the marketplace as a playground for the superrich investors. It also makes the majority of the artists feel disadvantaged, yet this sphere was created for them to have more control of their work.

    Conclusion

    It’s difficult for some to wrap their minds around the concept of NFTs, but that’s understandable. Why would someone spend millions of dollars on something they can’t even touch? Well, think of it this way: The same way art collectors wouldn’t mind giving up an arm and a leg for a one-of-a-kind Picasso painting, there are virtual art lovers who see the true value in owning the original source of a scarce, culturally-relevant digital asset. 

    Whether or not NFTs are here to stay, they have certainly become a new plaything for art and crypto enthusiasts alike, and there is real money to be made if you can make it happen. NFTs gives new meaning to digital art and blockchain adoption, and the prices seen at sale indicate it is a real part of the future of art, and collectibles in general.

    That said, approach NFTs just like you would any investment: Do your research, understand the risks—including that you might lose all of your investing dollars—and if you decide to take the plunge, proceed with a healthy dose of caution.

    Sources:

    https://ethereum.org/en/nft/

    https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56371912

    https://www.creativebloq.com/features/what-are-nfts

    https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/nft-non-fungible-token/

    https://decrypt.co/80595/best-nft-marketplaces

    https://www.one37pm.com/nft/finance/best-nft-marketplace

    https://www.laptopmag.com/features/what-are-nfts

    https://startup.info/everything-you-need-to-know-about-nft-assets/