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  • DAOVentures ($DVG): Automated advisors and Robo-fund managers in DeFi

    DAOVentures ($DVG): Automated advisors and Robo-fund managers in DeFi

    DAOVentures ($DVG) aims to simplify and create easy to use solutions for people to invest and manage their Decentralized Finance (DeFi) portfolio.

    DeFi products are difficult and complex for users to interact with, especially for newbies. Quite a number of investors still have some distrusts about the space. Others have to deal with the possibility of risk and expensive gas fees. However, DAOventures was able to identify these problems and come up with solutions.

    What Is DAOVentures?

    DAOventures is a decentralized protocol that helps liquidity providers invest in DeFi projects by employing automated advisors and robo-fund managers to help users invest in DeFi products with great returns.

    DAOventures relies on its beliefs as a guide to provide exceptional services for investors. The system uses the best strategies to consistently monitor performance, manage risk/reward ratios, as well as audit smart contract security. Some perks of the DAOventures platform include:

    What is DAOventures (Source: DAOventures website)

    Proper Risk/Reward Management

    The risk/reward ratio is a very important aspect of any trade or investment. DAOventures strategies provide users with wide-ranging products based on their risk exposure level: low, medium, or high risk so newbie and intermediate traders can make more informed decisions before executing a trade.

    Curated Information

    The protocol’s team investigates, analyzes, and backtests new Dapps to sift out the bad from the good. They do this by matching up all protocols with the best performing algorithm to meet the demands of investors.

    Security

    The core value of the protocol is security. The platform audits and reviews all products to ensure that it is safe to deploy their crypto products.

    The platform allows audits by third-party firms and performs other security tests to ensure that users’ funds are secure. Since DAOVentures is a decentralized platform, it does not own any private keys as funds are secured by users themselves.

    Transparency

    DAOventures’ investments are transparent since they can be viewed on the blockchain so users could see where and how their money is being moved, as well as be able to review and improve their portfolio to properly track their capital.

    Reduced Gas Fees

    Users can save a considerable amount of gas when they use DAOVentures. The protocol allows for a better gas calculation through properly managed pooled investment funds.

    DAOventures Tokens ($DVG)

    Liquidity providers can earn DAOventures governance tokens, denoted as DVG, which allow them to cast votes regarding changes in the protocol’s rules. The Launch for the DVG token would be done on Polkastarter, an auction protocol that is based on the Polkadot blockchain and is used for fund-raising by DeFi projects.

    DVGs are basically “tokens” on a smart contract that are developed to follow a fixed set of rules, which can be amended or upgraded through a consensus voting mechanism integrated into the smart contract. 

    The utility of DVG tokens is numerous. It will be used to incentivize LPs to drive long-term demand of the token, as well as the involvement of the DAOventures community. Users holding $DVG will benefit from staking incentives such as lower transaction fees and rewards.

    DAOventures will release a total supply of 444,444 DVG tokens for public sale. The platform will offer a discounted sale of DVG token to POLS token holders and the public before it is listed on Uniswap.

    How Does DAOventures Operate?

    The protocol works similarly to a normal VC firm in the sense that it searches for better openings for investors to create higher earnings. The technological tools that the platform uses are built through a combined effort from the professional teams.

    DAOventures Test App (Source: DAOventures ‘Test Beta App’ )

    These tools explore deep into the markets and help liquidity providers deploy their funds into desirable DeFi investments. Examples of the tools used include an automated balancer, liquidity miner, arbitrage bot, and swap token.

    DAOVentures employs smart contracts and robo-traders to help investors put money in the top-performing DeFi assets to get the best results. In addition, before smart contracts are deployed for use on the platform, they are first audited and vetted to ensure compliance.

    The decentralized processes of the platform help to eliminate counterparty risks. DAOVentures ensures that users have full control of their funds and wallets. As a result, users can interact with smart contracts individually.

    While other crypto investors find it difficult interacting with DeFi protocols, DAOventures employs algorithms to manage investors’ funds. Robo-advisors distribute all the pooled funds and deploy them to the DeFi protocol with the best ROI%.

    The products and services offered by DAOventures include:

    Yield Farming

    The platform offers various yield farming strategies for users in order to earn returns. Users can choose a yield farming strategy based on their risk level and profit target. The protocol provides users with investments based on their risk appetite.

    Lending And Borrowing

    DAOVentures plans to integrate with lending and borrowing protocols such as Uniswap in the near-term. This will help them better manage investor funds and expand the reach of DAOventures operations.

     Automated Defi Manager

    Through robo-advisors, users have the benefit of investing in the best DeFi projects and products. Investors can profit from the platform’s structured products and yield-farming aggregation via automated managers.

    Robo-trade Strategies – AMM (Source: DAOventures High-level product explanation ppt)

    Conclusion

    With the growth DeFi has seen, there is little doubt that its ecosystem is the future of finance. However, DeFi’s rise in popularity also brought along several opportunities, risks, and benefits. With that in mind, DAOventures continues to play its part to speed up DeFi’s transition to the much-anticipated future by constantly providing investors with proper solutions. The protocol aims to leverage cross-chain interoperability to provide its users with the best services.

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

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

  • What will happen to major cryptocurrency exchanges and traders? Hong Kong proposes strictest regulations against them yet.

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

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

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

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

    Current regulatory requirements for VASPs and VAs in Hong Kong

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

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

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

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

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

    Proposals put forward in the Consultation Paper

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

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

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

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

    Then the question is, what are VASPs or VAs?

    Scope of the Legislative Proposals

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

    Virtual Asset Services Providers

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

    Virtual asset exchanges

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Virtual Assets

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

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

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

    Regulatory requirements: are retail investors banned from trading cryptocurrencies?

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

    Hong Kong’s crypto community reacts to the Legislative Proposals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • SuperFarm ($SUPER): Cross-chain NFT Farming with no code required

    SuperFarm ($SUPER): Cross-chain NFT Farming with no code required

    SuperFarm ($SUPER) is a cross-chain DeFi platform aimed at easing the process of creating non-fungible tokens (NFT) while giving them the capacity to add value to their tokens. It has its own NFT marketplace which creators could benefit from. The protocol is designed to make the user’s whole blockchain journey easier. Finally, SuperFarm is a continuously growing project that could attract more partnerships from several gaming platforms.

    Background

    Elliot Wainman, the creator of EllioTrades and co-founder of Dapp Evolution Games, began his work on SuperFarm with the objective of mass adoption for the Ethereum network. Elliot’s target is to reach over 2.5 billion gamers worldwide who are looking to purchase in-game assets through NFTs.

    SuperFarm’s first fundraising round amounted to a total of $1.1 million, where prominent cryptocurrency and financial firms like Bitcoin.com, GBV Capital, Solidity Ventures, and Spark Digital Capital, and many others participated.

    Before we dive deeper into what SuperFarm does, it is important to understand what NFTs are.

    What are NFTs?

    Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) refer to digital assets that represent almost anything, from works of art or a person’s identity. NFTs cannot be duplicated and they all have distinct metadata.

    They are commonly used to create a blockchain representation of a real world asset so that they can be traded with crypto. Since NFTs are programmable, they can be attached with different characteristics and attributes according to the needs of the creator.

    What is SuperFarm?

    What is SuperFarm? (Source: ‘PART 1: Introducing SuperFarm‘ medium article)

    SuperFarm is a cross-chain DeFi platform for NFT farming without any code required, with the primary aim is of making it easier for anyone to create their own tokens and add value to them through NFT farming. And because it does not have any coding requirement on the part of the business, using the platform lessens the technical complexity of coming up with their own NFT.

    SuperFarm NFT Farming (Source: ‘PART 1: Introducing SuperFarm‘ medium article)

    The way SuperFarm abstracts the process of tokenization is through a series of visual, beginner-friendly tools. They can customize the rules for their tokens, identify their attributes, incentivize a behavior, and more. The SuperFarm platform is easy to use but it does not compromise quality and effectiveness.

    The tokens that can be generated on the platform are ERC20 compliant. They can sell them to any supported marketplace. In fact, users can even set-up their own NFT marketplace through the platform if they want to.

    NFT Farming

    Through the platform, businesses can easily create their own farms and put up their NFTs there. Users can access them to stake on NFTs and earn incentives. There is a minimum requirement of SUPER tokens, however, before anyone is allowed to open up new farms.

    NFT Marketplace

    Users are given access to the NFT store where they can purchase NFTs through the reward points they are given from farming. It also allows users to buy NFTs with supported cryptocurrencies.

    Superverse

    Superverse is the gaming interface for SuperFarm. It is an NFT-based card game that functions on an autobattler setup. Aside from game points, some of the rewards that are available in Superverse include NFT drops from SuperFarm-partnered gaming platforms.

    There is a minimum requirement for SUPER holdings before a user is given access to the Superverse.

    SuperFarm Feature Comparison Chart (Source: ‘PART 1: Introducing SuperFarm‘ medium article)

    Superfarm Native Token – $SUPER

    $SUPER token is SuperFarm’s native utility token. It can be used as a medium of exchange or to pay for governance and transaction fees. SUPER also gives its holders access to products and programs available in SuperFarm’s gaming ecosystem, video game partners, and NFT drops.

    Since the platform seeks to be fully-decentralized in the future, its governance is community-directed. Any decision or proposal to amend or modify the platform has to go through the vote of SUPER holders. Voting power can be determined by the amount of the SUPER tokens you hold. The more you hold in SUPER, the stronger your voting power will be.

    Other purchases you can make in the platform also involves SUPER. It can be used to access some important features of the platform which are only available to holders of SUPER.

    If you want to purchase SUPER, the token is listed on Uniswap. Below are some of the use cases for SUPER.

    SuperFarm $SUPER use cases (Source: ‘PART 1: Introducing SuperFarm‘ medium article)

    Staking

    SUPER can also be staked. Users just have to lock their SUPER in a smart contract so they can earn token rewards for doing so. This reward structure comes from the collection of platform fees which are made in SUPER as well.

    Farming

    SUPER can be staked for NFT rewards too. By participating in the staking for NFTs, users can also receive exclusive NFT rewards from partner farms.

    Users can also set up their own farms on the platform. However, there is a minimum requirement of 100,000 SUPER tokens in order to do so. The purpose of the quota is to make sure that there is a low likelihood for spams, good quality of farms, and to incentivize the purchase of the token.

    NFT Drops

    SUPER holders are also entitled to NFT drop rewards. These are the NFTs available in the Superverse and partnered video games. However, to be a part of the NFT drops, users should be holding the minimum SUPER tokens required.

    SuperFarm NFT Drops (Source: ‘PART 1: Introducing SuperFarm‘ medium article)

    Conclusion

    SuperFarm is an interesting DeFi project. One of the platform’s strengths is that it has already identified who its target market is. If the project takes off successfully and gets more gamers and developers on-board, it is highly likely that it will drive people’s interest in crypto and DeFi significantly. Imagine 2.5 billion gamers jumping onto the crypto train; it will be a huge feat.

    Moreover, SuperFarm is a project that businesses can easily benefit from. If they want to create their own NFTs and market them, SuperFarm’s interface has prepared the platform for them as well. If the project achieves its objectives, it offers a promising outlook for the whole of DeFi. Looking at where it stands today, it is not impossible. The platform is easy-to-use and profitable. It belongs to the DeFi projects we have to look out for.

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

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

  • Vortex DeFi ($VTX): One-stop Gateway to DeFi

    Vortex DeFi ($VTX): One-stop Gateway to DeFi

    Vortex DeFi ($VTX) aims to provide users a one-stop access to all leading decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and protocols from a single web-based user interface.

    Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has evolved from a niche subcategory to the biggest catalyst driving the cryptocurrency and blockchain field today. It’s primarily focused on the Ethereum network, which has the majority of the DeFi share. There are, however, a large number of core DeFi protocols, combinators, and countless forks. All of this can become confusing fast.

    Fortunately, users don’t have to delve into the complex workings and nuances of these protocols, which can be overwhelming even for long-term users. Vortex DeFi is introduced to simplify the access and exposure to the sector. It has integrations with different protocols, which abstracts away the complexity in a simple and yet intuitive interface, to level the playing field and ensure greater participation.

    Background

    Vortex DeFi launched in Aug 2020 through a private investment round. It accrued interest and funding from X21 Digital, DuckDao, Moonrock Capital, Magnus Capital, Pluto Digital Assets PLC, Faculty Capital, A195 Capital, etc. A public sale will be held soon.

    It has a multicultural team, led by CEO Rahul Singh and strategic advisor Lester Lim. The other prominent team members are technical lead Arun Sunil and product lead Shaz. All team members have previous experiences in market-leading companies and blockchain projects.

    What is Vortex DeFi?

    Vortex DeFi is a web-based DeFi management system or a comprehensive DeFi aggregative solution platform, serving as a bridge between Ethereum and Polkadot. It combines the functionality and power of core protocols in a sleek dashboard to allow users of all categories to engage in yield farming. The core services provided are NFT asset management, lending and borrowing, insurance, and exchange.

    Vortex DeFi will also utilize the yEarn finance protocol to access and extract value from various lending protocols to enable automated profitable yield farming. The added advantage of cross-chain compatibility ensures that users don’t have to choose between two promising blockchains. Vortex DEFI also has several components, taking the guesswork and experimentation out of the process.

    Vortex DEFI – Components

    Vortex Ecosystem (Source: Vortex DeFi wesbite)

    V-Swap

    Being the Uniswap or Bancor equivalent of Vortex, V-Swap will offer an automated digital assets exchange on the Ethereum and Polkadot blockchain. It’s likely to offer liquidity aggregation from multiple sources, so a peer to peer exchange of tokens can be performed without a direct counterparty or orderbook.

    V-Pay

    It will offer a fiat gateway for users, so they can acquire and sell crypto assets from FIAT, in their cards or bank accounts. This is required for onboarding new users, as well as ensuring that they have a way for realizing their returns.

    V-Yield

    A yield aggregator as the name goes, V-Yield will combine yield from different sources and optimize them according to the best return rate. It will spare users from the trouble of manually finding sources and having the need to rotate them.

    V-NFTs

    An asset management, V-NFTs will allow users to manage their asset collection and swap them for each other. Given that NFTs are an illiquid asset class and their infrastructure is scattered, it’s hugely important to develop a unified interface.

    V-Insure

    DeFi protocols are rife with exploits and smart contract risks. Therefore, to onboard new users and even to retain existing ones, it’s necessary to grant them peace of mind by ensuring the protection of their funds. V-Insure will seek to insure user funds by seeking out integrations with multiple DeFi insurance protocols.

    Vortex DEFI Native Token ($VTX)

    The native token of the platform is Vortex DeFi Token ($VTX), ERC-20 token, which will be used to incentivize users. It has four purposes:

    1. Liquidity pools (LP) rewards are distributed in VTX
    2. Usage for staking on the platform.
    3. Holding VTX tokens allows users to save on the platform fees
    4. The team has announced plans to regularly buy tokens and burn them every quarter to reduce supply and increase the value of existing tokens.

    All of these benefits and value accrual mechanisms will motivate users to hold tokens, in anticipation of rising demand and prices.

    $VTX Token Metrics

    The VTX token has a total supply of 100M $VTX and an initial circulating supply of $0.4M $VTX.

    $VTX Tokenomics (Source: Vortex DeFi Litepaper)

    Funding Rounds

    Private Sale (concluded): 32,500,000 VTX sold at 0.0276 USD per token.(25% TGE, 75% vesting over 120 days)

    Public Sale (on 28 February 2021): 2,500,000 VTX to be sold at 0.04 USD per token. No vesting period.*

    Advantages of Vortex DeFi

    The platform offers users the advantages of a unified DeFi management dashboard, the ability to fuse several protocols together offering a seamless experience with abstracted complexity, powerful lend and earn functionality, automated rotation of funds for optimized returns, non-custodial function, and insurance against loss of funds.

    Vortex DEFI Connected Protocols

    Vortex DeFi connected protocols (source: ‘Introducing Vortex DeFi Beta & Access to the Vortex of DeFi‘ medium article)

    Vortex DEFI will have integrations with several key DEFI protocols, including but not limited to Maker DAO, Compound, Kava, Idle, Aave, Yearn, Uniswap, Nexus Mutual, Curve. This will allow for a powerful user experience, which is likely to improve penetration of decentralized finance.

    Vortex Vision

    The team hopes that Vortex will become the top one-stop solution for a user’s DeFi needs and allow them to simplify their experience. Vortex hopes to make financial applications accessible and simple for all users, regardless of their technical expertise. It will also allow saving on transaction fees (gas) by batching and combining transactions.

    Vortex can also enhance the decentralization level of DeFi protocols by ensuring broad participation and an increase in user activity. Furthermore, it will feature the DAAS (DeFi-As-A-Service) business model. Currently, the product is in development and more changes are expected as the platform launch draws near.

    Conclusion

    DEFI was founded on the principle of openness, equal opportunity, transparency, trustlessness, lack of centralized control, fast processing, and lego-like composability. It is generally presented as a superior alternative to the traditional financial system, which differs heavily from the principles of the crypto community and disallows these services to a large number of people.

    On the other hand, DeFi is accessible to almost everyone with an internet connection and a personal computing device or smartphone. However, primitive user interfaces and experiences of the existing DeFi protocols were a problem. Thankfully, Vortex will overlap the strong functionality of these protocols with an amazing and simple interface.

    Currently, there is a lack of dashboard-style platforms connected to multiple DEFI protocols, aggregating their services and offering a one-stop solution. All of this is about to change with the Vortex launch, which is likely to onboard a large number of new users as well as provide a novel interesting solution to the existing ones.

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

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

  • Litentry ($LIT): Decentralized Cross-chain Identity Aggregator

    Litentry ($LIT): Decentralized Cross-chain Identity Aggregator

    Litentry ($LIT) is a decentralized cross-chain identity aggregator, built on Substrate, that features an identity matching and identity staking mechanism.

    In today’s world, personal data and identity are everything. Some companies in the conventional world make millions by selling user data. In the decentralized world, blockchain-based firms make losses.

    For example, one user can create multiple accounts to take advantage of free airdropped tokens. Also, platforms powering decentralized finance (DeFi) have no way of tracking users’ credit history, making them charge higher collateral when issuing loans.

    Fortunately, there’s a new way to keep track of identities in the distributed ecosystem securely. Powered by Litentry, we can see blockchain-focused platforms do more than just power token swaps. It’s now possible to scan through user’s deposit and withdrawal actions on Uniswap. Furthermore, a user’s activity can also be assessed on a community-governed blockchain.

    Since the platform is so diverse, below, we look at the major highlights.

    Background

    Litentry is developed by a team of blockchain professionals based in Germany. Its founder was among the early contributors of Parity, a decentralized network. Notably, the project engineering team’s background is rooted in Ethereum.

    The protocol is funded through a Web3 Foundation grant. On its Github page, the project lists eight team members with organization permission.

    What is Litentry?

    The project focuses on decentralized identity (DID), allowing user identities to be linked to multiple distributed protocols. Litentry acts as a DID aggregator where it collects, indexes, and distributes DIDs to blockchains.

    More importantly, it performs all these activities in a decentralized and verifiable way. Notably, built on the Substrate network, the platform works towards the greater goal of eradicating identity redundancy in the Web3-powered application ecosystem.

    The problem

    In the current internet world, third parties take control of storing user passwords and data pertaining to their online activity. Unfortunately, internet users are coerced into accepting unfavorable terms and conditions, consequently lessening the grip on their personal data.

    Litentry brings the change by returning the control of user data to the users by powering a user-focused internet using blockchain technology. As such, the revenue emanating from using users’ data gets the users to share in the profits. Before Litentry, these profits went to third parties managing the user data.

    Key Features of the Litentry platform

    Apart from using decentralized ledger technology (DLT), the platform has other critical features that help it bring the much-needed revolution to the blockchain sector. Key among them include:

    1. Identity management – The platform is all about identities, and their management sits at the protocol’s core. This feature powers anonymous and independent identities emanating from applications and or services used by the user.
    2. Distributed storage – After collecting the data, the protocol stores them in a decentralized manner to enhance access from all corners of the distributed world.
    3. Identity staking – This is a unique feature. Just like staking tokens and earning rewards, Litentry enables users to stake their identities and be rewarded.
    4. Decentralized contributors – Instead of creating multiple accounts to use different platforms or services, the project allows users to use one identity to interact with various services anonymously. Interestingly, the user doesn’t have to provide passwords or any other registration details.

    Litentry Architecture

    Litentry Architecture (Source: Litentry Doc)

    To bring all the above features to life, the protocol uses a layered architecture. On the top layer is the Litentry Runtime, which sits on Substrate. The Runtime layer is a Parachain of Polkadot and employs offline workers when generating identities.

    The second layer is the User Side. Here, users flex their muscles when it comes to data under their control. Note that user data that comes from applications are anonymous, stored in a decentralized way, and cryptographically-separated.

    On the Litentry Authenticator layer, we have the mobile data hub. The hub can be used to manage a user’s different identities. Additionally, the hub can be connected to various IoT devices that the user wants.

    Next is the Litentry SDK enabling developers to fire up their creative juices to create completely decentralized applications and/or services. In addition, the Litentry IPFS data center offers users a chance to check the data attached to their identities.

    The middleware layer comprises services such as off-chain catching and query servers. It is also made up of a client-side SDK library that helps connect front-end apps with decentralized networks.

    Litentry Tokenomics

    The incentive mechanism on the Litentry platform takes into account different participants such as an identity staker, validator, external storage, node, and data buyer.

    1. Identity staker — This is the person who has an identity record and has a stake in the identities pool.
    2. Identity validator — An identity staker becomes a validator of new blocks when their identity has been confirmed.
    3. Storage — Stores all data about an identity in a decentralized manner.
    4. Node — The node is a critical component of the Litentry platform. Its work is to perform functions such as invoking off-chain workers to validate identity correctness and connecting with external decentralized storages.
    5. Data buyer — This is any entity on the blockchain that requests identity validation.
    6. Data generator — These are entities generating data and can include applications, users, or services offering migration services.
    Litentry Tokenomic (Source: Litentry Lightpaper)

    Litentry Native Token (LIT)

    Litentry’s base asset is called LIT. The network uses the asset to reward identity stakers in the identities pool. Two types of rewards the stakers get are the block reward and the matching fee.

    Apart from stakers, validators are motivated to truthfully verify the correctness of data. On the other hand, data generators enjoy benefits from the Litentry Foundation in the form of grants.

    External storage operators earn a section of the fee paid by users interfacing with the service. Others who are incentivized using LIT tokens are nodes.

    Those who pay using LIT tokens include identity buyers. Observe that these entities only have access to the winning identity or identities during an identity matching process.

    Conclusion

    The identity problem is two-pronged; users can create multiple entities to defraud a company. On the other hand, malicious actors aggregate user data and sell it to the highest bidder without profiting the real data owners.

    Fortunately, Litentry uses a layered approach to comprehensively tackle the problem to the benefit of both identity owners and decentralized platforms. Here’s to another promising project with a unique approach to solving some of the most crucial problems that often go overlooked.

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

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

  • Unido ($UDO): Crypto Banking and DeFi for Enterprise

    Unido ($UDO): Crypto Banking and DeFi for Enterprise

    Unido ($UDO), powered by Polkadot, provides enterprises crypto-asset management solutions, that specialize in governance, security, and interoperability within the crypto banking sphere guaranteeing the satisfaction of all users.

    Background

    Powered by Web3 blockchain Polkadot, Unido was founded by Chris Weddle who has over 20 years of experience within the blockchain sector. The project was initiated in 2017 and is anchored by an experienced team of finance experts, software developers, and blockchain developers. They all come from well-known financial and development firms such as Goldman Sachs, Wipro, and Macquarie.

    Unido’s Founder: Chris Weddle (Source: Unido website)

    Through the Unido project, the team has successfully managed to solve security and accessibility challenges with its distinct and dynamic implementation of a blockchain-based management tool that facilitates the handling of crypto assets.

    What is Unido?

    Unido is a technology ecosystem that addresses the governance, security, and accessibility challenges of decentralized applications, and enables companies to manage crypto assets and capitalize on DeFi.

    Unido’s distinct protocol facilitates investment in DeFi by leveraging its efficient proprietary and multi-sig key signing technology. Furthermore, users have the unique capability to manage crypto banking operations in complete security.

    Under the decentralized platform, assets management enterprises and crypto native companies are ensured agility and efficiency for the custody of their respective digital assets. This creates a strong bridge for firms and organizations to interface with DeFi networks as they remain compliant with licensing and regulatory requirements.

    The platform’s algorithm works best by leveraging, as well as supplying clients with a great deal of crypto trading, payments, and banking solutions.

    Through Unido’s user-friendly protocol, participants essentially have access to three main features all responsible for the system’s special implementation of the blockchain, namely, Enterprise Crypto Banking Suite, DeFi Vault Access, and Governance/Security features.

    Unido Features (Source: Unido website)

    Enterprise Crypto Banking Suite

    A business banking portal, through which firms can manage day-to-day operations and capital expenditure. This feature empowers users with a multi-user wallet management protocol that creates, assigns, and manages clients’ wallets.

    Additionally, it is equipped with user governance tools providing access to rights and access requirements unique to the blockchain solution. Overall, this business banking portal is a simple and intuitive instrument with an interoperable, modular architecture that provides analytics on DeFi transactions, activities, and trends.

    DeFi Vault Access

    The vault access is a multi-signature enterprise wallet or DeFi vault used to store, manage, and invest digital assets in an efficient and safe manner.

    The team behind the wallet describes it as a secured and most importantly, a well-integrated bridge into several prominent DeFi investment solutions such as UniSwap, Yearn Finance, and Balancer. Additionally, the vault provides users with a complete overview of investment opportunities within the DeFi space, as well as potential returns and benefits within specific DeFi networks.

    Supported by a portfolio performance dashboard, this feature facilitates the management and investment of digital funds.

    Governance and Security

    Through this blockchain-based feature, the Unido enterprise platform (EP) provides users with an array of security and management instruments ensuring the safety of all funds within the platform.

    The Unido platform guarantees blockchain-based security and agnostic architecture, rendering it versatile and applicable to any given on-chain use cases. Powered by a key signing technology, Unido EP ensures flexible and trustworthy governance, which provides assets access only to permitted entities and parties.

    Unido Token ($UDO)

    The platform’s utility token, $UDO, is the fuel behind Unido’s efficient implementation as it is used to drive network access, ensure transaction security, governance, and network management. Overall, the token is built on a trustworthy smart contract algorithm guaranteeing the development and expansion of the Unido network in the future.

    Furthermore, the token facilitates access to the platform’s variety of products to all users, including institutions and developers. UDO has three main use cases, being network access licenses, consumption fees, and DAO Governance.

    $UDO Tokenomics

    Total Supply: 115,000,000 UDO

    Initial Market Cap: $487,813

    Seed/Private/Pre-Public Sale Fundraising: $1,400,000

    Seed Sale: $0.04, 0% TGE, 20% monthly unlock

    Private Sale: $0.05, 25% TGE, 25% monthly unlock

    Public Sale:: $0.06, full unlock

    Deflationary Economics:

    • Phase 1: From consumption fees, 60% burn, 20% to EDF, and 20% into reserve. Phase 1 when token supply is reduced by 20%.
    • Phase 2: After enterprise products take off, 50% of fees to be invested into EDF & 50% into reserve.

    UDO Use Cases

    Network Access License

    All applications and Unido EP features will only be available via a license purchasable with the UDO token. Once the license is bought, the tokens are removed from circulation and placed into a secured smart contract until the license eventually expires.

    Companies are provided with annual licenses for the Unido platform, where fees are determined by the volume of usage for the target clients and the number of users.

    Consumption Fees

    All fees and consumption charges within the Unido ecosystem and auxiliary platform will be based on the volume of usage within the platforms. Additionally, UDO will be used to authenticate each transaction within its parent platform.

    All operations from developers will either be charged under a subscription model, Freemium model, paid model, or In-App model, all depending on the user specifications and needs.

    DAO Governance

    In general, the DAO will oversee Unido’s Ecosystem Development Fund (EDF) and allow for the subsidizing of new applications implementation and development, which will contribute to the diversification of the platform.

    Unido Ecosystem (source: Unido one-pager)

    Conclusion

    Unido EP aims to be a leader within the blockchain space by spearheading the race toward mass adoption; especially within the traditional financial sector. The platform’s drive to provide secured banking management tools is a great boost for wide DLT acceptance.

    Overall the Polkadot-based platform is a dynamic implementation of decentralized technology, which guarantees total accessibility and security through key features lacking in most solutions of its genre on the market.

    Unido Enterprise Platform is ahead of the curve as it provides a sure connection with blockchain giants, ensuring its growth and development in the future. Unido will likely become a leader within the blockchain given the protocol’s current algorithm and products.

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

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

  • Benchmark Protocol ($MARK): Supply Elastic Collateral and Hedging Device

    Benchmark Protocol ($MARK): Supply Elastic Collateral and Hedging Device

    Benchmark Protocol ($MARK) is a supply elastic, stablecoin-alternative that connects traditional finance with the cryptocurrency market by revolving around the volatility index. It provides liquidity to the DeFi space during periods of high volatility to optimize value and stability.

    Background

    Founded by David Mass, the Benchmark protocol aims to bridge the digital currency market to traditional financing. The project was set in motion by a team composed of investors, blockchain engineers, and financial experts to strengthen security and the efficacity of loan collateral within the blockchain.

    The sudden selling pressure experienced by the crypto market in march of 2020 prompted the team to act as they understood the risks within DeFi. The Birth of Benchmark exhibits the unique drive of the ambitious team behind the platform.

    Ultimately, Benchmark’s team looks to be a household name within the market by staying relevant within the mainstream DeFi space and optimizing their product to the needs of the blockchain.

    What is Benchmark Protocol?

    Benchmark Protocol is a supply-elastic collateral and hedging system driven by a volatility index. Simply put, the Benchmark Protocol lessens liquidation events and hedges risk with its very own cryptocurrency, the $MARK token.

    Benchmark Protocol Dashboard (Source: Benchmark Protocol website)

    Furthermore, Benchmark’s algorithm functions as a rule-based utility that adjusts supply, and is supported by the CBOE volatility index (VIX) and deviations from the target metric, which is equal to 1 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) unit. The Benchmark team believes that implementing the SDR creates a larger and far more efficient use case rather than exposure to just one currency.

    The Benchmark Protocol provides a dynamic and supply-elastic token in the MARK token, as it manages to connect traditional capital markets to DeFi. The platform’s protocol is unique and efficient; completely separate from the crypto market prices and trends.

    The protocol prides itself as an ideal hedge exhibiting total transparency with all users and transactions making a secure and reliable solution for the DeFi sector. Its immutability is robust enough to prevent systematic risk arising from cease and desist orders.

    Benchmark’s innovative approach has isolated the recurring issue of overshooting the target peg within the varying market conditions. Through the MARK token, the platform can effectively rebalance supply within a 5-hour window after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ensuring the reduction of arbitrage activity for token users.

    The distinct algorithm effectively adjusts to trends within DeFi while implementing traditional finance market strategies. The protocol actively monitors and regulates the total supply of tokens to compensate for anticipated price movements. This method helps in reducing excessive amplitudes of price percentage changes.

    SDR

    SDR Breakdown (Source: Benchmark Protocol website)

    Since its implementation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the international reserve asset SDR has been an important factor concerning the health of the international financial system. SDR value is supported by five currencies: the Euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, U.S. dollar, and British pound sterling.

    The Benchmark Protocol has been targeting the SDR’s historic price of $1.4075, with a long-term view utilizing macro-exposure to the world’s most established currency basket. The SDR is a superior and secured peg that will not face a tough path should the US Dollar experience strong inflation.

    The Benchmark Protocol primarily benefits from SDR diversified and global currency risk instead of single currency risk, which will attract more users globally, thereby, contributing to the growth of the project long term.

    Volatility Index (VIX)

    Described as the market’s “fear indicator”, VIX is a real-time market index used to estimate the market’s expectations for the relative strength of near-term price changes and volatility typically within the S&P 500 index (SPX).

    The blockchain-based platform relies on the VIX as an accurate and suitable predictive element for price development. The VIX enables the platform to be ahead of its competitors by allowing it to be more dynamic and proactive in the DeFi market.

    The Press

    The platform values Liquidity providers a great deal, as they are essential for the proper operation of the MARK token as a stable collateral utility. Furthermore, liquidity mining is an essential component of the Benchmark Protocol during the bootstrap phase.

    The Press is the second phase of Benchmark’s liquidity providers rewards distribution program. It is the largest token allocation with 27% of the total supply provided to liquidity mining initiatives that compensate the liquidity providers’ active participation in the Benchmark network. The Press will feature core MARK Pairs, such as MARK-ETH and MARK-USDC on Uniswap.

    The team plans to implement The Press for a period of 3 to 7 years, all depending on distribution velocity.

    MARK Token

    Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Mark Token is Benchmark’s native asset. MARK is an ERC-20 utility token and was released to the market while taking into consideration SDR and the VIX. So, MARK is secured to the world’s most stable currency (the SDR). Additionally, the token’s rebalances are smart and fast, derived from VIX.

    Overall, Benchmark’s native token can be described as a supply-elastic collateral utility designated to increase liquidity during periods of high volatility and in direct correspondence with global equities markets.

    MARK is a dynamic digital asset separate from other crypto implementations as it does not rival traditional fiat or paper currencies, which enables token holders to rely on a global currency risk profile versus a single currency risk profile. Additionally, through the platform’s utility token, users are shielded from inflation and further benefit from collateralization of risks.

    XMARK Token

    xMARK is another ERC-20 utility token within the platform, which represents MARK but is not affected by rebases. xMark is designed to help move the platform towards on-chain governance. The token is minted by holders staking MARK tokens within the single-asset staking platform and is currently available on Binance Smart Chain and Quickswap.

    Conclusion

    Overall the Benchmark protocol manages to deal with the issues of volatility and inconsistency within the blockchain elegantly. Through MARK and xMARK utility tokens, users are ensured that rules-based, non-dilutive, and supply-elastic collateral will facilitate their crypto journey.

    The DeFi sector is set to benefit tremendously from such technology, which provides a unique product that is currently lacking in the blockchain.

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

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

  • SushiSwap ($SUSHI) Explained

    SushiSwap ($SUSHI) Explained

    Before we begin

    We’ve been closely following the events involving SushiSwap and its founder “Chef Nomi”. This article will not be making any comments or conclusions on Chef Nomi’s actions or how SushiSwap is or should be run. This article is simply an explainer on what SushiSwap is and how to use the platform. As with all yield farming projects, SushiSwap involves a huge amount of risk. Anyone intending to participate in yield farming should do full research and consider carefully the risks involved beforehand.

    What is SushiSwap ($SUSHI)?

    SushiSwap is the newest decentralised finance (DeFi) liquidity pool platform. With SushiSwap, people can add their tokens into the liquidity pools and earn. In this article, we’ll have a look at the Sushi Swap platform and how to participate in the liquidity pool. Anyone can participate.

    Sounds interesting? Let’s dive into it.

    Summary

    • SushiSwap is a platform that allows anyone to provide liquidity. In return, the person gets rewarded with token(s) and SUSHI tokens. 
    • As of September 4, 2020, there are 1 billion dollars of locked liquidity.
    • Possibility of very high APY (up to 1,000%) on some liquidity pools. You can check the current yields on SushiBoard.

    Why is SushiSwap so popular?

    Sushi Swap markets itself as an “improved and community-friendly” Uniswap. Unlike a traditional exchange like Binance where they employ market makers, SushiSwap is a community-oriented platform where users provide liquidity. In return, they get rewarded. Indeed, the users are the market makers.

    SUSHI token

    SUSHI tokens are given as rewards for liquidity mining. The token allows its holders to participate in the governance of the platform and entitles them to a portion of the fees paid to the protocol by traders. For the governance of the platform, SUSHI holders can submit a SushiSwap Improvement Proposal (SIP) which token holders can vote on with their tokens.

    Of course, some people also speculate on the prices of SUSHI and the token can be traded on major exchanges such as Binance, FTX and OKEx exchanges.

    Advantages of SushiSwap

    There is no KYC (Know Your Customer) policy. This means anyone can trade and contribute to the liquidity pools. The platform is permissionless, meaning anyone can contribute millions of dollars without asking for permission. 

    Earn tokens from Sushi Swap. SUSHI is Sushi Swap’s native token. When you contribute to the liquidity pool, you earn sushi tokens. You can exchange SUSHI for ETH. 

    Sushi Swap model: 0.25% go directly to the active liquidity providers and 0.05% get converted back to SUSHI and is rewarded to sushi holders. 

    Sounds interesting? Let’s visit Sushi Swap’s home page.

    SushiSwap beginners guide 

    When you first arrive on Sushi Swap’s home page, you’ll see this:

    Sushiswap.fi homepage
    Sushiswap.fi homepage

    Click on “Unlock Wallet” or “See The Menu”, either way you will need to connect your ETH wallet in order to this platform. 

    Sushi Swap has the option to use MetaMask, WalletConnect or many other non-custodial wallets. Pick the one of your choice.

    Connect wallet
    Connect wallet

    Give permission for Meta Mask or Wallet Connect to connect to Sushi Swap. Once you’re connected, you’re ready to add your tokens into the liquidity pools. (hummingbirddental.ca)

    Liquidity pools
    Liquidity pools

    You’re presented with various liquidity pools (LPs). Each liquidity pool has a different annual percentage yield (APY).

    In this example, I’ll contribute to the ETH-USDT pool. I add my USDT into the liquidity pool. In return, I’ll get a percentage of USDT and SUSHI tokens. Think of Sushi Swap as a “community revenue share” model.

    Contribute to liquidity pool
    Contribute to liquidity pool

    To contribute to the liquidity pool, click “Approve USDT-ETH UNI-V2 LP” and give your Meta Mask permission to move your tokens into the liquidity pool. 

    Now what? You wait. The “SUSHI earned” box should populate with your earned SUSHI. You can withdraw your SUSHI token anytime by clicking on “Harvest”.

    2020 roundup and new roadmap!

    Many things have happened within the Sushiswap ecosystem in the last months: it is now time for a quick recap and to look at what the future will bring to this project!

    The number of all the partnerships finalized by the protocol is countless, but one of the most important ones, if not the most important, is certainly the merger with Yearn. The news also sparked controversies: Sushiswap was still considered a sort of “copycat” of Uniswap by some, and when Andre Cronje (Yearn’s father) wrote an article on how it is difficult to build in Defi and how conversely it is easy for anyone to just copy other people’s code, this wasn’t seen as really coherent. The collaboration was born to allow the two teams to cooperate on Deriswap.

    Nevertheless, Sushiswap has been evolving so much that, according to Mira Christanto (one of Messari’s data analysts) they have “put their past behind” and, not being backed by Venture Capitals, they can move faster than competitors. January has seen a real growth in Sushiswap’s TVL (now at $2.1 billion), mostly at the expense of Uniswap’s.

    Among the important milestones in 2020, we find Onsen, the new Sushiswap liquidity mining incentivization program which replaces the old Menu of the week. It brings communities together into the ecosystem and allows voted tokens to become accredited and participate in the mining program. The website also has a new layout of and a lite version.

    2021 Roadmap

    As the new year has already begun, it is also interesting to have a look at what Sushiswap is working on for 2021. The team released a long and detailed roadmap in early January. Notable upgrades are the following:

    • Mirin will be the new upgraded version of Sushiswap’s V3 protocol. It will include many new features like franchised pools, double yield, dynamic yield rebalancing, and many more as you can read here.
    • Bentobox (which should have launched in January) was born in the team’s mind as a new Lending Platform. While they were was working on its code though, it became something more. In simple terms, it will be a single vault that holds all tokens for any protocols and future extensions. It will support several oracles and it will also benefit all the $SUSHI holders.
    • Miso (Minimal Initial Sushi Offering) will be a sort of token launchpad, designed to drive new projects’ launches on the platform. It will include crowd sale options, IDOs (Initial Dex Offering), auctions, and more. We could think of it as something similar to Binance’s launchpad.
    • As Ethereum fees are and will keep growing in the next future until ETH2 will be a reality, most platforms are studying alternative solutions for their users such as Layer 2 possibilities. Unlike Uniswap, which is working on Optimistic Rollups, Sushiswap decided to move in sync with the greater Yearn ecosystem and thus will probably offer Zk-rollups options.

    Together with all these big news, Sushiswap is also planning to move to a new domain as the old one, in their view, is not enough to describe the diversity of the platform anymore. A transition to a fully decentralized governance structure is also planned by the end of 2021. Last but not least, Sushiswap has created a proposal page for people to express their ideas on what they would like to see on the platform. Everyone can be a chef is the place where you can voice your opinion if you like to suggest new ideas.

    FAQs

    Is it risky to provide liquidity to SushiSwap?

    The pool could get hacked if the code isn’t audited. There have been cases of hackers draining funds from smart contracts. It helps if the code is audited by a reputable firm. In the case of SushiSwap, it has been given a “security review” (not an audit) by Quantstamp. 10 issues were identified but they do not appear to be fatal. Subsequently, Peckshield had completed an audit on SushiSwap. They found no critical or high severity issues relating to business logistics but 2 high severity opsec issues that need to be fixed through extra care with deployment.

    What is the reward model of Sushi Swap?

    0.25% go directly to the active liquidity providers and 0.05% gets converted back to sushi and is distributed to active SUSHI holders.

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

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

  • 1inch Exchange, Mooniswap and Chi GasToken: The ultimate review and guide

    1inch Exchange, Mooniswap and Chi GasToken: The ultimate review and guide

    1inch Exchange is a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, designed to roll liquidity and pricing from major DEXs into one platform, offering users the cheapest trades, lowest slippage, and access to a wide range of ERC-20 tokens. According to CoinGecko the exchange has support for 152 Coins and 158 trading Pairs and a Total Volume of over US$ 4 billion. We also take a look at the Exchange’s automatic market maker (AMM)-Mooniswap and their Chi GasToken.


    Summary

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

    Let’s look at some of 1inch Exchange features in detail.

    Overview

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

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

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

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

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

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

    How Does 1inch exchange work?

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

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

    How to swap tokens

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

    Swap tokens
    Swap tokens

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

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

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

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

    verify your token swap
    Verify your token swap

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

    approve transaction in wallet
    Approve transaction in wallet

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

    Transaction successful
    Transaction successful

    How to place a limit order

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

    Place limit order
    Place limit order

    Staking tokens on 1inch

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

    Stake tokens
    Earn feature allows users to stake tokens in various liquidity pools

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

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

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

    1inch Exchange fees

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

    1INCH token: What is it?

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

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

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

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

    1INCH tokenomics

    The current total supply is 1.5 billion 1INCH tokens.

    On 26th December 2020 (i.e. launch day), 6% of the total supply will be issued. Other tokens will continue to be released over time as follows:

    • 30% has been allocated to community incentives which will be unlocked and distributed over 4 years.
    • 14.5% will go towards protocol growth and a development fund, also to be unlocked over a 4-year period.

    Is 1inch Exchange safe?

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

    Chi GasToken

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Mooniswap: What is it?

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

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

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

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

    comparison of uniswap and mooniswap income
    Comparison of Uniswap V2 LP income with potential Mooniswap LP income on different pools

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

    Conclusion: Pros and cons of 1inch Exchange

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

    Pros

    • The Exchange’s interface is very clear and intuitive with a good track record without any hacks so far.
    • 1inch exchange does not charge any withdrawal fees, except for the network fee.
    • Liquidity is a significant issue on decentralized exchanges. Not only is liquidity low on DEXes in general, but this liquidity is further fragmented across several different DEXes, worsening the problem making large-volume trades susceptible to significant slippage. 1inch solves this by splitting orders across exchanges yet keeping the trade within one transaction.
    • Chi GasTokens help users, especially those who trade on a daily basis and arbitrageurs, to reduce gas costs for their transactions.
    • Their novel automated market maker (AMM) used in Mooniswap capitalizes on user slippages and protects traders from front-running attacks.

    Cons

    • Even with helpful tutorials by the 1inch team, there is still a steep learning curve to make use of the many features the Exchange has to offer. New crypto investors are restricted from trading in this platform since it does not accept any deposit method other than cryptos.
    • The infinity unlock feature might act as a potential point of attack for hackers. Even though unlocking transactions one at a time is slightly more expensive, it is more secure as users aren’t always linked to the protocol should it be compromised.
    • We have seen the dominance of Uniswap grow tremendously over a small time period. If a single DEX ends up becoming far more significant than its competitors, the role of DEX aggregators could diminish.

    In conclusion, we find that the benefits of the 1inch Exchange far outweigh the drawbacks as it attempts to solve some of the direst issues plaguing the growth of the DeFi ecosystem. The platform is definitely geared towards traders with a bit more experience, particularly those who trade the major cryptocurrencies and across multiple DEXs. Over time as users overcome the initial learning curve and user experience improves in this industry, 1inch might emerge as one of the most important trading platforms for the rapidly expanding DEX ecosystem.

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

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

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

    What is The Graph?

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Background

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

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

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

    How Does The Graph Index Data?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Key Roles

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

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

    The Graph Council

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

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

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

    GRT Token ($GRT)

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

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

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

    GRT token distribution at mainnet launch

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Indexer Staking

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

    Mainnet now live!

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

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

    Graph Roadmap: What’s next?

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

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

    Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

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

  • How To Stake Ethereum 2.0 on Allnodes?

    How To Stake Ethereum 2.0 on Allnodes?

    Staking on Ethereum 2.0 is finally live. However, the process of connecting your Ethereum (ETH) coins can be a bit tricky. It’s not all about sending 32 ETH to the contract. Doing so would end up with you losing your funds. In this tutorial, we will cover how to connect to the ETH staking contract through a validator node. Furthermore, we shall be using Allnodes, a non-custodial platform for hosting nodes.

    How To Set up an ETH 2.0 Validator?

    First, your Ethereum wallet should have the 32 ETH coins needed by the contract. Note that interacting with the Ethereum blockchain is done through MetaMask. Therefore, you need to fund your MetaMask through a hardware or a software wallet.

    Allnodes Ethereum 2.0 Staking Landing Page (source: Allnodes Ethereum 2.0 website)

    The journey starts on Allnodes. The platform takes care of the technical bit of hosting nodes for a relatively low fee, although it depends on the hosting package chosen. The platform supports multiple payment methods, including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

    Click on Ethereum staking on the upper right corner, and on the new window that opens, select “Host ETH 2.0.”

    If you’re new to Allnodes, create an account; otherwise, login to your account.

    Select you’re your plan.

    Connect to MetaMask.

    ETH 2.0 Launchpad

    Click on “Open ETH 2.0 Launchpad” then “Get started.”

    Ethereum 2.0 Launchpad (source: https://launchpad.ethereum.org/)

    There are subsections on the left pane of the welcome screen, such as introducing eth2 phase 0, signing up, and responsibilities, among others. In addition, it holds information on the expected income. On the responsibilities section, for example, it states that a validator node only earns rewards when it’s actively participating in the network. Unfortunately, the effects of a node being offline are equal to the profits of it being online.

    Other critical sections:

    • Risks of slashing – If a node gets compromised or it misbehaves, its stake is slashed, consequently reducing its staking power.
    • Backup Mnemonic – They are special words that are used for recovering deposited ETH. For maximum security, the mnemonic should be written on paper instead of saving on a computer.
    • Transfer delay – For now, interacting with the deposit address is one way. As such, you can only deposit and not withdraw or transfer the coins.
    • Long term committed – Ethereum has a commitment statement noting that validator nodes are in it for the long haul and they can’t go back to previous versions such as ETH 1.0.

    On the client selection pane, there’s the option to run ETH 1.0 client. While this is possible, it’s costly and needs some technical knowledge.

    Generating Key Phrases for ETH 2.0

    The next window is for generating key pairs. First, select the number of ETH 2.0 validator nodes you need. Note that each node requires depositing 32 ETH into the Ethereum staking contract.

    Next, select between Linux, Windows, and Mac operating systems.

    For this example, we’ll be setting up an ETH 2.0 validator node on a Windows-powered computer.

    The intimidating part about this part is that it uses a command-line interface (CLI) instead of a graphical user interface (GUI), which is what non-devs are used to.

    Downloading and Using CLI

    Download the CLI from Github by clicking on the link “get it from developers.” When on the download page, select the release that coincides with your computer’s operating system.

    Extract the zipped folder to reveal the file called “Deposits.”

    The “Deposits” file is a CLI interface.

    To get it to run as required, hold the SHIFT key and right-click on the file to bring up the option “Open PowerShell window here.”

    On the previous download page, below the list of available downloads, copy the command code and paste it on the open CLI window. Note that this window should have a blue background color.

    CLI window

    Follow the instructions on the screen for the command to run successfully.

    Choose language and select a password. PLEASE remember this password; we shall need it later.

    The CLI will generate a unique mnemonic. The mnemonic helps you unlock your staked ETH when transfers finally go live. Therefore, put it on paper for safety and press “Enter.” Input the phrase.

    In the folder with your CLI download, a new folder named “validator keys” will be created. Inside this folder, we have two files; Deposit data and Key store.

    Depositing The Files on Launchpad

    On the “Upload Deposit File” section, hit “add file” and drag and drop the deposit data file (Deposit.in).

    Click “Continue” and connect to your MetaMask wallet, which should have 32 ETH.

    Read the summary, “Initiate the transaction,” and double-check the Ethereum deposit address.

    Confirm the transaction on MetaMask. You can view the transaction status on Etherscan after it’s successful.

    Back To Allnodes

    Let’s pick up from where we left on Allnodes. Confirm that you’ve generated ETH 2.0 phrases, deposit data, and have put in 32 ETH to the contract.

    The next step is to choose the hosting plan.

    Drag the files in the specified order. That is, the deposit data file, key store file, and provide the password we generated earlier on the CLI interface.

    The next window on Allnodes shows the status of your node.

    Note that you can use Allnodes to run multiple ETH 2.0 validator nodes.

    And, that’s it.

    Note that you can view the status of the deposit on the Beacon Chain by using the same address that you used to deposit your coins to the ETH 2.0 staking contract.

    Manage your Allnodes account

    To keep up ETH 2.0 node, you need to top up the node which requires a payment of around US$5 per month until the release of ETH 2.0. ETH 2.0 is expected to be launched in around 2 years. In return, at every epoch you would be able to earn a bit of ETH in return.

    Update: Returns on my Allnodes node?

    As of June 2022, my validator node balance is at 35.45202. This means I have earned a total of around 3.45 ETH since I set it up 2 years ago in 2020. Note that results may vary and those who set up their node earlier (as was in my case) were able to enjoy a 16% APY.

    Conclusion

    Ethereum 2.0 is being continuously developed by the Ethereum Foundation to be able to run on a wide range of computing devices. The above tutorial on how to set up an ETH 2.0 validator node using Allnodes covers every corner of the process. However, critical details such as mnemonics and passwords should be kept secure since they determine access to the deposited coins.

    In addition, it’s worth noting that the process happens on three platforms, Allnodes, ETH 2.0 Launchpad, and CLI. Therefore, the three systems must harmoniously work together to get the desired outcome.

    FAQs:

    What if You Don’t Have the Full Amount?

    Good question. First, NO. a validator node needs the full amount.

    Can the ETH 2.0 Staking Contract Take Less Than 32 ETH?

    However, you can still stake a lower amount only that it will be through third parties such as participating cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.

    Can I withdraw the rewards I earn from staking?

    NO, not until ETH 2.0 reaches Phase 1, which is likely to be in 1 year or possibly more.

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

  • KIRA Network ($KEX): What is it?

    KIRA Network ($KEX): What is it?

    KIRA Network ($KEX) is an interchain exchange protocol that allows users to earn block and fee rewards while staking any digital assets, such as cryptocurrency, stablecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

    Background

    KIRA is developed by a strong team consisting of full-stack developers, blockchain engineers, back-end developers, and technical architects. The team is led by Milana Valmont (CEO) and Mateusz Grzelak (CTO).

    In the past, Valmont had held different roles which include being a blockchain consultant at Adcoin, as well as a strategy advisor at KNOKS. Grzelak had also held prominent positions in firms such as Settle Finance, Barclays, and Bity.

    KIRA Network’s strategic partners include AlphaBit, TRG Capital, Swingby, and Math Wallet. In addition, the team also includes Roger Lim from NGC Ventures and Alssio Treglia from Tendermint.

    What is KIRA Network?

    KIRA Network is a blockchain-based protocol that brings liquid staking into the DeFi market. It enables access to all virtual currencies, digital fiat, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within a cross-chain ecosystem.

    KIRA Network: Liquid Staking
    KIRA Network: Liquid Staking (Image credit: KIRA Network Whitepaper)

    With liquid staking, liquidity providers can stake any digital asset. Consequently, they earn incentives emanating from new blocks and transaction fees.

    The protocol’s idea of liquid staking stems from the current staking space. Here, centralized cryptocurrency exchanges provide crypto trading, acquisition, as well as act as a hub for a host of digital currencies.

    Currently, a large number of those coins that are available for staking are found on centralized exchange platforms. For this reason, KIRA wants to change this by providing a decentralized platform that mirrors what traditional virtual currency exchanges offer.

    As such, even small actors in the PoS ecosystem will have access to liquidity and evade security risks found on centralized platforms. Also, the protocol removes the cap on fee and block incentives for liquidity providers.

    KIRA Network: 8 Key Pillars

    To have a profound impact on the DeFi scene, KIRA Network is supported by eight pillars, which include:

    Security

    Using the Multi-Bonded PoS (MBPoS) consensus mechanism, the network can harness its security from staked assets. In addition, MBPoS helps remove the barrier as to which virtual assets can be staked and/or can attract rewards.

    Utility

    KIRA uses IXP (Interchain Exchange Protocol) to provide market access to the wide range of assets staked on the system.

    Liquidity

    KIRA supports liquidity provision through staking derivatives. The platform has a 1:1 ratio between staking derivatives and staked tokens.

    Expansibility

    The protocol uses validators to ensure the credibility of transactions. Also, the validators operate Initial Validator Offerings (IVOs) that allow investors to raise funds for new projects without affecting their liquidity.

    KIRA Network: On-chain IVO
    KIRA Network: On-chain IVO (Image credit: KIRA Network Whitepaper)

    Investors delegate their tokens to the validators while the validators mine new tokens. Correspondingly, the former earn block rewards.

    Upgradeability

    Upgrading the system relies on developers. Therefore, to drive development, the protocol uses an on-chain contracting system as an incentive scheme.

    Sustainability

    To ensure the platform has long term viability, it uses an on-chain governance structure. To elaborate, the governing body touches on the network’s economic aspects that include inflation and interest rates.

    Scalability

    KIRA tackles scalability by removing restrictions on the number of validators and the stake value. In turn, this makes it possible to introduce shards or zones.

    KIRA Network: DeFi zones
    KIRA Network: DeFi zones (Image credit: KIRA Network website)

    Interoperability

    The Network makes use of Polkadot, Cosmos, and other cross-chain systems to power liquid staking. Notably, this staking mechanism does not discriminate against cryptocurrency assets.

    KIRA Token ($KEX)

    KEX is KIRA Network’s native token. Apart from being used as a staking token on the network, KEX is also used as a base asset upon which other currencies are valued.

    Additionally, KIRA’s native currency is a requirement when participating in the system’s governance issues. Moreover, it’s used to reward holders, delegators, and validators. Note that KEX holders are rewarded by being offered low transaction and exchange costs.

    In contrast, delegators earn almost 99 percent of all block rewards and close to 50 percent of all network fees. Validators, on the other hand, earn a commission depending on their configuration and sit on the system’s governance table. Their earnings could go up to 50 percent network fees.

    KEX is allocated to developers/team (15%), advisors (7%), the KIRA Foundation (20%), as well as reserve and liquidity (26.6%)

    $KEX Token Allocation
    $KEX Token Allocation (Image Credit: “KIRA Network Token Metrics” medium article)

    KIRA Network ($KEX) – Public Sale

    KEX token is not available to trade yet and the public sale is soon to be announced. KEX will be launching ERC-20 KEX token on Ethereum network before KIRA Network is launched with the initial supply of 300,000,000 KEX token. Users will be able to swap for the native KEX token with the equal amount of value once the mainnet is launched.

    KIRA Network has raised 3.6M during the seed (priced at $0.025) and private sale rounds (priced at $0.05), with a vesting period of 18 months starting at mainnet launch. All seed and private round participants will receive approximately 2.5% of their token after finalization of all stages of the public round distribution.

    Public round has a $400k cap, token price at $0.075. Find out more here.

    Governance on KIRA Network

    The protocol uses a governance structure that slowly hedges away from full dependency on stake and or wealth distribution. Governance is guided by rules that exclusively put whitelisted actors to execute on-chain actions that are cleared for execution.

    KIRA Network: Governance Structure
    KIRA Network: Governance Structure (Image credit: KIRA Network Whitepaper)

    On top of these rules are parameters and individually assigned permissions. The network puts checks and balances on its governance model through operators, a voting council, an electorate council, and a proposal council.

    Notable KIRA Network Partnerships

    To drive the adoption and usability of the KIRA protocol, the platform has partnered with notable players in the DeFi Space. Some of the most conspicuous are:

    • KIRA and Finance.vote – The partnership enabled KIRA to provide liquidity to Finance.vote’s social trading layer. For this reason, it opened a new revenue stream for Finance.vote users by allowing them to conduct yield farming using digital assets in their portfolios.
    • KIRA Network and Math Foundation – Here, the Math Foundation benefited from staking KEX (KIRA’s native token) tokens and the interaction with KIRA’s MBPoS.
    • KIRA Network and Swingby – The partnership brought staking functionalities to Skybridge users. Skybridge is a decentralized inter-chain asset bridge.
    • KIRA and Blockparty – This partnership made Blockparty one of KIRA’s validators.

    Conclusion

    From crucial partnerships to using a new consensus mechanism, KIRA Network is keen on expanding the possibilities in the DeFi space for liquidity miners and yield farmers. Furthermore, the protocol’s eight pillars help it to enhance security, sustainability, utility, scalability, among other functionalities that are key in driving DeFi adoption.

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

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

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

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

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

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