All you need to know about the lending industry

For blockchain to be a viable alternative to our current centralized financial systems, it needs to support a high number of transactions. But unfortunately, many are lagging behind non-blockchain options for actual usability. Celer aims to change this, and Celer network coin is right at the forefront of the battle.

Ever thought that blockchain solutions need to be better, faster, stronger? The Celer network developers would agree — and they’re trying to change that using Celer network coin (CELR).

Using new technological advances, Celer aims to create a hub where developers can make effective Blockchain applications without sacrificing security or decentralization. We’ll explain how Celer aims to do it, why it even wants to, and whether you should get involved.

For apps developed on the blockchain to be feasible, developers usually find themselves choosing between fast transaction speeds, security, and decentralization. This is also known as the famous “blockchain trilemma”. Celer was created as a solution to ensure they won’t have to.

The Celer Network is a layer-2 scaling platform. But that might not mean much to you, so let’s explain in a little more detail.

Layer-1 protocols are the surface-level architecture in the blockchain — generally, these are the parts that relate to transactions like mining, voting, staking, and more. The best-known cryptocurrency networks are usually layer-1 protocols, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Meanwhile, layer-2 protocols are built on top of the layer-1 architecture to add extra capabilities, such as the ability to make “off-chain” transactions (which don’t use the layer-1 protocol). In the case of Bitcoin, its Lightning network is a layer-2 protocol.

You can have layer-1 architecture without layer-2 architecture, but you can’t have layer-2 architecture without layer-1 architecture.

Celer is a place where developers on any blockchain can build decentralized apps (dApps), This provides more use cases for underlying layer-1 blockchains and their cryptocurrencies.

Since layer-2 networks like Celer build on top of protocols based on the first layer, they make use of the chain’s existing security and verification protocols. This allows them to focus solely on efficiency or new functions while the original chain worries about basic functions like transactions. 

One example of a layer-2 project is Augur. Augur is a Dapp built on Ethereum that lets you bet on the outcomes of different events around the world with your ETH. This is something Ethereum alone couldn’t offer and in return, it increases the demand for the Ethereum blockchain.

Since crypto protocols need to introduce complex solutions to keep their platforms decentralized, they often end up running slowly and less efficiently. This in turn makes it more difficult for them to produce more tools on their blockchains which limits their usefulness and can limit adoption.

Celer network’s native coin, CELR, is used to ensure liquidity, stability, security, and connectivity of the economic system within the Celer network, aptly called the cEconomy.

CELR is essential for the three following processes:

CELR is also used to pay transaction fees and make payments to service providers (who make dApps) within the Celer network.

Celer network was launched in late 2018 by a self-described team of PhDs from MIT, Princeton, and UC Berkeley — many of whom formerly worked for tech giants like Google and Amazon.

The first Celer Network token sale took place in March 2019 on the Binance Launchpad. It raised $4 million in 17 minutes on the platform, with Binance accounting for 97% of the initial trading volume. Not a bad start.

In the second half of 2019, Celer partnered with TROY to improve the platform’s layer-2 trading. And in February of 2020, Celer partnered with Polkadot to bring layer-2 scaling to a new blockchain network called Parity.

When CELR launched back in 2019, it was worth roughly $0.02 per token. Its value has mostly remained between $0.001 and $0.02 ever since. The price failed to increase dramatically after its launch.

Although there was a high point at the beginning of 2021, when Celer coin’s price shot from $0.004 to $0.02, it dropped down again soon after.

Not exactly the most promising growth path for investors.

However, as mentioned earlier, Celer has successfully collaborated with two major crypto projects. These prove Celer has some traction within the industry.

Another exciting development was the launch of Celer’s mobile gaming app, CelerX. In September 2020, it became the first mobile esports platform using blockchain to bring in more than $3 million from player winnings in a month.

It’s easy to argue that the performance of Celer network coin’s price has been lackluster so far, but if you believe in the mission of the technology, you might think it’s worth taking a look at.

If you fancy investing in CELR, you can of course purchase it on an exchange. But if you don’t want to trade your crypto for it you might want to buy it on loan through platforms like MyConstant. 

We’re a P2P lending platform that lets you use your crypto for a USD of stablecoin loan. If you choose to take your loan in a crypto like CELR, we scour all the major exchanges to find the lowest price on the market at any given time and make the trade for you.

A crypto-backed loan from MyConstant also offers:

If you want to dip your toes into a CELR investment but are wary about selling your crypto, sign up for free today and see what you could be doing with your crypto today.

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As industry-focused news outlet Crypto Briefing on Aug. 17, John Wang, NEOs director of Eco Growth, said that integration with Celer is under discussion. Celers platform is a solution that enables faster off-chain transactions both for payments and generalized off-chain smart contracts.To transfer value across the network, Celer uses its native CELR tokes. According to the report, community members say that Celer is fifteen times faster than Bitcoins (BTC) Lightning Network. Commenting on the development, Wang said:A public blockchain is more than a currency: it needs to have the infrastructure for lots of users to come to it to enable people to do anything.New prospects for scaling In March, major crypto exchange Binances token launch platform, Binance Launchpad, completed a $4 million sale of CELR tokens, following two other initial coin offerings such as the BitTorrent (BTT) token sale in January and the Fetch.AI (FET) token sale in February.Earlier in August, blockchain-based decentralized application platform (DApps) Tron (TRX) released a sidechain scaling solution, the V1.0 code, designed to enhance and ensure the supposedly unlimited scaling capacity of the Tron mainnet. This will purportedly let DApps consume less energy and run with higher security and efficiency on Tron. 2Comments Editors Choice

Initially called OmiseGO upon launch in 2017, OMG Network is a subsidiary of Genesis Blockchain Ventures, a Hong Kong-based VC firm, and has recently partnered with Enya, the largest provider of secure multiparty computation in the world. OMG Network’s tech is based on Plasma, a framework conceived by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and blockchain technologist Joseph Poon. OMG Network was among the first Layer-2 scaling solutions proposed for Ethereum, which are critically important secondary tech integrations that increase a network’s transactional throughput.

Plasma is a framework for moving bulk transactions off of the Ethereum blockchain onto “child chains” —  blockchains that exist alongside the Ethereum blockchain connected to the main network. Plasma child chains are optimized to speed up transaction processing before data is returned for final validation on the Ethereum root chain. The OMG Network is able to process thousands of transactions per second and can reduce the costs of operating on Ethereum by one third.

OMG network’s native token, OMG, was minted to raise funds for the development of the project through an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. Shortly after, OMG was airdropped to the Ethereum community—the first instance of such an airdrop on Ethereum. OMG is now used for paying transaction fees, and once OMG launches Proof-of-Stake, the token can be used as a staking mechanism and for network governance. 

Layer-2 scaling solutions are an essential part of Ethereum development, so let’s review before we get into the mechanics of the OMG Network. Scalability in this context refers to a blockchain’s ability to process a high volume of transactions both quickly and cheaply. While centralized databases like Visa are capable of processing tens of thousands of transactions per second, Bitcoin and Ethereum are only able to handle around five and 14 transactions per second respectively. This is due to the intensive mechanisms for data verification and consensus on blockchain networks that are required to maintain decentralization and security.

Without implementing successful scaling mechanisms, Bitcoin and Ethereum would be technically unable to achieve the high-volume utility of global transaction layers like Visa. In fact, both Bitcoin and Ethereum have already encountered congestion issues, backlogs, and periods of increased fees on multiple occasions. Scaling has been a subject of intense scrutiny and development in the blockchain industry. 

There are upwards of fifty projects building scaling solutions for Ethereum that champion two primary methodologies. State channels like Raiden and Celer Network create Ethereum-adjacent blockchains that transport Ethereum data ‘off-chain’ for transactions and return back generalized ‘state’ data reports. Sidechains like OMG Network use the Plasma method of layering a centralized, but transactionally efficient mirror chain on top of the Ethereum network, where bulk transactions are executed before being sent back to Ethereum for final validation. 

The OMG Network protocol utilizes an update of Plasma — called More Viable Plasma or MoreVP — to significantly increase transaction throughput. More specifically, the OMG Network bundles transactions together, compresses them into one transaction, and verifies them on the OMG Network child chain. The child chain then returns confirmed transactions to Ethereum for confirmation on the blockchain. This bundling technique enables the OMG Network to process thousands of transactions per second. Transaction costs are one-third of what they would cost on Ethereum because gas fees are paid on the bundled, compressed transaction instead of each individual transaction. 

The OMG Network child chain is controlled by a single block producing node called an Operator, which validates transactions before forwarding them to Ethereum. While Ethereum has upwards of 8000 nodes, OMG Network has only one. Proponents of state channels argue that this centralized mechanism compromises the distributed ethos of blockchain. OMG Network, however, decentralizes security through a network of computers called “ Watchers ,” which monitor the Operator and the network for suspicious activity. Anyone can become a Watcher. 

Though the child chain is operated by a centralized block producing node, the OMG Network’s security is decentralized because Ethereum’s network of nodes maintains finality on transaction approval. Likewise, the network of Watchers which monitors the network for security threats is also decentralized, providing the security and vigilance inherent in a decentralized network. Additionally, the child chain is non-custodial, which means that users’ funds never leave the Ethereum network. As a result, users will always be able to recover their funds, even if the OMG Network child chain goes offline — a feature also known as trustlessness. 

Let’s run through a traditional Ethereum transaction, and then a transaction that is routed through OMG Network. 

In a typical Ethereum transaction: 

You use your wallet to initiate a transfer of assets from your wallet address to a different wallet address or smart contract address

Then, Ethereum assigns a transaction hash — a transaction identification number — to your transaction. 

The transaction will subsequently be broadcast to the Ethereum network and put in a pool with other transactions.

Miners will eventually select your transaction, verify it, and include it in a block of the blockchain, completing your transaction.

When a transaction is routed through OMG Network: 

You first deposit ERC-20 tokens or ether into your Ethereum address.

You initiate a transaction to deposit your assets into an Ethereum smart contract.

Both the Ethereum and OMG Networks record this transaction, and the Operator creates a representation of your assets on the OMG Network child chain. 

You can then use your wallet to initiate a transfer of assets from your wallet address to a different wallet address.

The Operator takes your transaction and bundles it into a group with other transactions and records them in a block.

The Operator sends a transaction hash of all the individual transaction hashes in the block to Ethereum for validation, completing the transaction.

When you’re done transacting on the OMG Network child chain, you can initiate another transaction to withdraw your funds from the Ethereum smart contract. 

OMG Network is ERC-20 interoperable, and thus decentralized applications (dApps), wallets, custodians, and exchanges can all take advantage of its scalability benefits. For example, the OMG Network integrated with the Bitfinex exchange to allow traders to transfer, deposit, and withdraw its native stablecoin tether (USDT) via OMG. Additionally, the OMG Network provides enterprise clients with private versions of the network for use cases such as loyalty points programs. It has also proposed that the platform could be used for central bank digital currencies. A highly anticipated and influential project upon announcement, OMG Network has now proven the feasibility of Layer-2 scaling solutions, alongside the functionality of Plasma and Ethereum sidechains.

Off-chain scaling has been one of the more popular solutions that are being considered for the issue of low throughputs on modern decentralized blockchains. Second layer platforms that would take most of the load off the actual blockchain can create an environment where it’s possible to exchange cryptocurrency in a fast, easy, and secure manner. One such platform recently saw itself become Binance Launchpad’s third ICO and is being touted as the next best thing in crypto. The name of this platform is Celer Network and we’ll be taking a closer look at its features and prospects in this article.Celer Network is a project that wants to provide an infrastructure for development of highly scalable, decentralized applications. Unlike with other two Binance Launchpad projects, Celer’s idea is nothing really new and has been addressed by several other cryptocurrency projects. Check out our review of Fetch.ai and Bittorrent token – first and second ICO launched by Binance Launchpad.Lightning Network or RSK for Bitcoin, Raiden Network or Plasma for Ethereum, and blockchain agnostic protocols like GEO, Loom, and others have all delved deep in the idea of providing off-chain solutions for issues like scalability, privacy, liquidity etc.Celer’s focus will be on scalability, looking to improve the throughput of many crypto blockchains. The project is blockchain-agnostic, meaning that its application won’t be limited to a single decentralized ledger. “It enables everyone to quickly build, operate, and use highly scalable decentralized applications through innovations in off-chain scaling techniques and incentive-aligned cryptoeconomics,” to quote the project themselves.Overall, second layer platforms have solidified themselves as popular solutions for known blockchain ailments. By moving most of the transaction activity off-chain and then simply emitting the final balances on-chain, it’s possible to scale a decentralized blockchain network to where it’s capable of handling millions of transactions per second. Celer is confident that on-chain solutions won’t bring the desired global throughputs to future decentralized blockchains and are proposing to solve this problem with their off-chain platform. Celer Network is not a standalone blockchain but a networked system running on top of existing and future blockchains. Its architecture is named Cstack; this architecture will be layered to enable faster development/maintenance. As such, Celer Network will have four main layers:cRoute – This layer is in charge of value transfer routing. It uses DBR (distributed balanced routing) to distribute payment traffic in a decentralized and trust-free manner. cRoute is transparent, decentralized, and can achieve 15x greater throughput than Raiden or the Lightning Network.cOS – This layer is the project’s off-chain Dapp development framework/ mobile-based off-chain operating system. It provides design patterns and standardization, enabling developers to handle operation, storage, disputes, and tracking of the off-chain infrastructure.cChannel – This layer is a sidechain suite that provides liquidity and assists rapid state transitions. eChannel is a generalized state channel which utilized DAG technology to support off-chain state transactions. This layer allows gaming applications, exchanges, insurance platforms, and other high throughput applications to function on Celer Network.cApps – Application layer of the ecosystem. Designed to scale and maintain user privacy.First launched token by Binance’s token sales platform was BTT – read our price prediction for Bittorrent token.Celer Network’s layered architecture is cleanly split up to allow for rapid evolution of each individual component. With its generalized state channel and sidechain suite that support fast and generic off-chain state transitions, its value transfer routing mechanism that can outperform other popular state-of-the-art solutions, its development framework and runtime environment for off-chain applications and its new cryptoeconomic model that provides network effect, stable liquidity, and high availability for the off-chain ecosystem, many see it as the solution that will unlock internet-level blockchain scalability.Celer Network token was given the ticker CELR and is of the ERC-20 standard. It has a total supply of 10 billion CELR and 6% of that were sold in a public ICO that was held on March 19th, 2019. The ICO was a one-time only event and all tokens were sold out within seconds, with the project accumulating $4 million worth of sales.  ICO investors were required to use BNB to purchase their CELR.One interesting thing about the ICO was the token price; each CELR was priced at $0.0067 per token. Public investors will be pleased to hear that his price didn’t differ much from the token’s seed sale price (11.5% of tokens were sold during this stage), which sat at $0.0065. Also worth noting is the private sale (15.5% tokens allocated) which saw the tokens go for $0.0150; all of this implies that investors should be discouraged from dumping their tokens early, meaning that the price should remain stable. Naturally this only works in theory as CELR price dropped significantly in just a couple of days since the ICO. The token currently sits at just above $0.002 which shows us that someone did in fact dump their tokens onto the market. That “someone” might be coming from one of the groups that were handed the rest of the CELR supply:Remaining 25% will be handed out to Celer nodes as mining rewards.The token will be used to drive the network’s economy (called cEconomy) and perform the following services:This economy will look to provide stable liquidity and availability to every member of the ecosystem and will include a proof of liquidity commitment, liquidity backing auction, and state guardian network.Celer Network introduces a consensus algorithm called Proof of Liquidity Commitment (PoLC). Liquidity can become a problem for off-chain scaling, and the project introduces this type of mining to incentivize liquidity providers (called Network Liquidity Providers or NLBs) into locking their liquidity into “dumb boxes” or Collateral Commitment Contracts (CCCs). While their funds are in these boxes, they can only be used to supply Celer Network’s liquidity.Liquidity Backing Auction (LiBA) is another element of the project’s economy, enabling off-chain service providers to solicit liquidity through “crowd lending”. Off-chain service providers who lack liquidity can start a LiBA on Celer and borrow liquidity for a certain amount of time; interested “whales” can provide said liquidity by bidding to stake their funds into a CCC and after some complicated mathematics takes place, one of them will become the liquidity backer. PoLC and LiBA are designed to make the process of bringing transactions off the chain simple and feeless.Final element of the project’s economy is the State Guardian Network, or a special side chain which monitors the entire ecosystem. CELR token holders can stake their CELR into SGN and become state guardians. Users who are going offline can submit their state to SGN’s and have them watch over it for a certain fee. Goal of SGN is to make sure that only the most recent states are broadcast onto the blockchain. This feature is similar to Lightning Network’s Watchtowers. The project recently saw the launch of the 2.0 version of their public testnet, alongside the release of CelerX, a layer-2 Dapp gateway mobile application/wallet. Testnet 2.0 (officially called Sirius) will see the project’s developers work on “refining user experience and expanding development framework features”. CelerX is a part of this refinement effort, as it represents a unique layer-2 platform for iOS and Android users. It contains several interactive games and even a prediction market which users can access and use with minimal transaction latency. The platform also features feeless transactions and off-chain smart contract execution. On the development framework side, the new Sirius testnet provides a variety of useful features for those who are looking to build on top of it:There’s more to the technology of the project which isn’t anything new or revolutionary but seems to be very well implemented and actively developed (project’s GitHub is regularly updated and development/community channels are generally buzzing). Near future will see the devs working on various aspects of the project’s architecture, before a full Ethereum mainnet is rolled out in Q2 of 2019. Fully functional network is expected in second half of 2019, with SGN and LiBA features set for their mainnet launches at that time. For more details, check out Celer Network’s official whitepaper and roadmap.Nothing really stands out about the project’s team, as most of the individuals involved seem to have significant experience with coding and developing. Most important members of the team are:Celer Network has made many technical partnerships with some popular blockchain-focused projects like AELF, ChainLink and QTUM. The project has received financial backing from various sources, including Arrington XRP Capital and FBG Capital. Perhaps most importantly they were invested in by Pantera Capital, a well-known supporter of some of the more successful blockchain projects on the market. Celer Network definitely stands out of the Binance Launchpad bunch mainly due to its relative readiness for real world application. While it’s still in early stages, it seems to be much closer to being implemented than Fetch.ai and at the same time doesn’t suffer from questions about its necessity that BTT struggles with. Ultimately, Celer is a project aiming to provide multiplatform scalability support for the blockchain market; whether or not their solution turns out to be effective and commercially accepted is only a matter of time.CaptainAltcoin’s writers and guest post authors may or may not have a vested interest in any of the mentioned projects and businesses. None of the content on CaptainAltcoin is investment advice nor is it a replacement for advice from a certified financial planner. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CaptainAltcoin.com

NEO, one of the largest and most promising blockchain networks in the market, has recently partnered with Celer Network to integrate a second layer scaling solution. Moreover, the NEO Foundation finalizes its 2019 mid-year financial report.Partnership With Celer NetworkNEO and Celer Network a partnership to improve the scalability and usability of the NEO dApp ecosystem for mass adoption. With this partnership, it will be possible for NEO to integrate Celer Networks layer 2-scaling solution and expand the usability of its dApps.In order to help power Celers State Guarding Network to secure oo-chain states, the NEO Foundation is committed to staking CELR tokens and become one of the major nodes on the Celer Network.The blog post released by Celer Network explains that the NEO dApp ecosystem needed to solve the scalability challenge. In order to do so, the blockchain network decided to work with NEO and fix this issue.NEO Foundations H1 Financial ReportThe NEO Foundation released its 2019 related to the NEO Foundation holdings in GAS and NEO, investment funds and other assets. The report also provides information about the expenditures of the foundation.The NEO Foundation spent 566,553 NEO and 62,118 GAS in order to motivate NEO core developers and support the operations of the Foundation and its global development. This is equal to over $9.97 million in NEO coins.The Foundation has also revealed they have invested 126,125 NEO in other blockchain projects. 104,358 NEO were deployed to motivate the growth of the NEO ecosystem. These two items are equal to $4.06 million.In addition to it, the NEO Foundation held 43,664,133 NEO and 4,123,533 FAS. These assets were valued at $745,750,676. The NEO the Foundation holds is equal to over 60% of the current circulating supply.They also registered other assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ontology (ONT), Ontology Gas (ONG), USD and CNY. These assets were valued at $78.6 million.With the addition of hedge funds, the total valuation of the funds held by the Foundation reaches $871 million.NEO Amsterdam HackathonFinally, the is currently planning to deploy a secure messaging app to the MainNet. The hackathon was held on September 4th and it was held in coordination with the Delft University of Technology and the University of Twente.Users had to create a messenger application such as WhatsApp or Telegram in a decentralized manner. Moreover, there should have been a focus on privacy.The winning version of the application is expected to be deployed to the NEO MainNet. At the same time, they will also be working with NeoBlocks founder and COZ member, Thomas Lobker.

We are very excited to announce that Celer Network partners with Binance Labs as a mentor for the Binance Labs Incubation Program.Binance Labs is the venture arm of Binance and an initiative to incubate, invest, and empower blockchain and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, projects, and communities. Binance Labs Incubation Program is a 10-Week On-Site incubation program designed to identify and help top early-stage blockchain projects deliver something that has strong product market fit. This partnership will allow Celer Network team to share experiences and lessons learnt in the early product growth phase, technically empower the new projects with Celer Network’s advanced layer-2 scaling platform and organically grow Celer Network’s ecosystem.Celer Network shares the same vision of product market fit with a proven track record. Recently, Celer Network launched Sirius Testnet along with CelerX, the user entry point to Celer Network on mobile platforms. Within one month, CelerX quickly acquires 22,000 monthly active users, has more than 20% 7-day retention ratio and engages each active user for more than 12 mins per day. One interactive game application, Gomoku, in CelerX is played 110,000 times monthly, generating more than 4 million transactions on the testnet. Even though Gomoku is the only decentralized application on Celer Network and still runs on testnet, it has become one of highest-DAU blockchain applications and achieves the level of user engagement statistics resembles centralized applications. What’s more, Celer Network’s growth is truly global with users coming from 58 different countries.“Mo will be a valuable mentor at the Binance Labs Incubation Program as Celer has been focusing on product market fit and user adoption since day one. We also expect to see and will support synergies and new growth points amongst Celer Network and the project teams through their interaction during the program,” said Ella Zhang, Head of Binance Labs.Dr. Mo Dong, CEO and Cofounder of Celer Network comments: “We truly appreciate and applaud the efforts and vision shown by this great incubation program from Binance Labs. This is exactly what blockchain industry needs right now. We thank Binance Labs for the opportunity to onboard us as a mentor. We look forward to meeting all the new teams and sharing our experiences on product growth, marketing, community and technology. We will also look out projects that are good fit for Celer Network ecosystem.”Together, we hope to bring mass adoption to blockchain technology.Founded by four PhDs from MIT, Princeton, UC Berkeley and UIUC, Celer Network is a leading layer-2 scaling platform that enables fast, easy and secure off-chain transactions for not only payment transactions, but also generalized off-chain smart contract. It enables everyone to quickly build, operate, and use highly scalable decentralized applications through innovations in off-chain scaling techniques and incentive-aligned cryptoeconomics. For more information, visit: https://www.celer.network/Binance Labs is an infrastructure impact fund and an initiative launched by Binance to incubate, invest in, and empower blockchain and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, projects, and communities. The mission of Binance Labs is to solve the problems that matter most to the ecosystem and change the world for the better. Learn more about the Binance Labs Incubation Program at https://www.binancelabs.co/.Layer 2 Scaling Solutions: Bring Internet Scale to Every Blockchain

Blockchain technology provides a beneficial layer of openness and transparency that current centralized networks cannot, but some private data isn’t meant to be shared publicly. 

How many people want to use a network that shares their financial details and identifying information to everyone, for example?

That’s the issue that Secret Network aims to solve. By enabling programmable smart contracts that run on blockchain and compute within trusted execution environments, shielding the data from the nodes themselves, Secret Network promises the transparent benefits of blockchain with the kind of security and privacy that users demand from web services.

Here’s a look at how Secret Network works and what the community behind it hopes to achieve with the project.

Secret Network is a blockchain built specifically for data privacy. By supporting encrypted inputs, outputs, and smart contract states, Secret Network enables programmable smart contracts that keep user data safe. If coins like Monero and Zcash are the privacy-centric evolution of Bitcoin, Secret Network’s smart contracts are like an evolution of Ethereum’s own smart contracts, building upon that premise while enabling the secure transfer of private data.

Secret Network was born out of Enigma, a startup that developed the concept of a decentralized protocol for secret smart contracts. Enigma raised $45 million in a 2017 initial coin offering (ICO), but faced enforcement from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020 that forced a settlement with the SEC.

Ultimately, the community around Enigma decided to continue that vision as an independent, decentralized project, which is how the current version of Secret Network was born. A swap allowed holders of Enigma’s Ethereum-based ENG token to trade 1:1 for SCRT, the native coin of Secret Network used for governance and paying fees. Enigma remains involved as one of the key players in the community supporting development of Secret Network.

Secret Network is a layer-1 blockchain with its own consensus and on-chain governance, built atop the Cosmos /Tendermint framework. It relies on a network of distributed nodes that perform the computation of smart contracts built on Secret Network, but the nodes use a trusted execution environment (TEE)—like a black box—to do so away from prying eyes.

It’s similar to how a smartphone processor uses a TEE to handle sensitive data like fingerprints, but it’s a blockchain node instead. The network bills its smart contracts as “secret contracts,” as they’re designed to preserve the privacy of the data held within. The SCRT (“Secret”) coin must be staked by nodes to participate in the network, plus it is used to pay fees and transfer value.

There’s a lot to like about blockchains as far as being immutable and transparent, but that kind of openness limits the kind of data that can be safely handled by many blockchains—particularly top-secret data that people or companies wouldn’t want seen by just anyone. 

Secret Network aims to plug that hole by providing the layer of privacy and security while still keeping what people like about blockchain technology—the best of both worlds, in theory. While it’s not the only company attempting to fill that void, it’s a concept that could be key to driving the future of certain decentralized apps (dapps), particularly in the realm of decentralized finance (DeFi).

Secret Network is designed to empower decentralized applications that demand a level of privacy not found on many other blockchain networks. By using a trusted execution environment and keeping private data away from both the public and node operators, it can handle sensitive information that users and organizations might not otherwise be willing to share.

The network’s operators have proposed a wide number of potential use cases, including credit scoring and lending dapps that ensure privacy, machine learning capabilities that still retain privacy in the process, and improving the ability to safely share and monetize data. More widely, Secret Network could potentially be useful to any dapp that handles sensitive data.

In this blog: how you can receive $SEFI, recent @secret_swap growth and improvements, upcoming bridges (including #BSC and beyond), and more!$SCRThttps://t.co/GCxGf8T30B

— 𝕊ecret Network (@SecretNetwork) March 17, 2021

With the ENG-to-SCRT token swap concluding in January 2021, effectively closing the book on the old Enigma project, Secret Network is trying to build towards a future that embraces interoperability with other blockchains. A lack of cross-chain compatibility could limit Secret Network’s appeal and ultimately keep it from being as widespread or useful as the community developers intend it to be.

Secret Network is also making a big decentralized finance push with its Secret DeFi initiative, and launched a SecretSwap decentralized exchange in February 2021. According to the Secret Network FAQ , “part of our vision has always been bringing privacy to every blockchain,” and it calls out Cosmos inter-blockchain communication and interoperability as another potential initiative on the roadmap.

Beyond that, Secret Network appears focused on attracting more developers to build their dapps on the blockchain, thus demonstrating more use cases in the process. It’s not the only blockchain with privacy-focused smart contracts ( Oasis Network is another example) and there are other potential solutions to the dilemma of handling sensitive data on blockchain—such as secure multi-party computation. Whether Secret Network’s solution ultimately stands above others currently on the market or even on the horizon remains to be seen.

Binance Launchpad, the exclusive token launch platform of global cryptocurrency exchange Binance, today announced the launch of its next supporting project, Celer Network, a testnet deployed solution bringing Internet scale to every blockchain, on March 19, 2019 at 9am EST, 10pm GMT+8. Celer Network has created the blockchain industry’s first known solution to comprehensively allow developers and companies to build, operate and utilize interactive and low-cost decentralized applications that match the user experience of centralized applications. Bringing on Celer Network to Launchpad is also part of Binance’s mission in supporting and responding to the market needs in prioritizing infrastructure and development tools to advance robust utility frameworks and tangible use cases. “The lack of valuable solutions and good user experiences of blockchain-based technologies are caused by its limited scalability possibilities which have been a major hurdle towards unlocking its significant adoption potential to date,” said Binance CEO and Founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). “Celer is currently at the forefront of solving this challenge with the early demonstrations of its sustainable crypto economics construct and layer-2 blockchain architect powering it.”Through its blockchain-agonistic, layer-2 scaling technology and incentive-aligned crypto economics architecture, Celer Network enables instant, easy and secure blockchain transactions. Celer Network’s testnet currently hosts Ethereum transactions, and its finality latency, to be 20,000 times faster with zero-fees for smart contract transactions, which is positioned to unlock blockchain’s innovation potential on a larger scale for various real-world use cases and solutions such as interactive gaming, general pay-per-use services, non-custodial financial assets exchanges, microinsurance; and decentralized derivative exchanges, electricity power exchange and Internet services. This February, during its testnet launch, Celer Network released CelerX, the earliest layer-2 application platform for iOS and Android, backed by an advanced off-chain scaling platform where CelerX users have tested and continue to use its instant and payment-free application for the skill-based game, Gomoku.This is Binance Launchpad's third inaugural project of 2019 following the post-ICO era to help transformative blockchain startups raise funds needed to develop its products aiding in cryptocurrency adoption by providing them with Binance’s advisory resources and access to its ecosystem. Binance Launchpad hosts high-quality token projects, hoping to create a higher standard for the token launch market and continuing to help projects raise awareness and capitalBinance Launchpad continues to conduct a rigorous vetting process to select projects that are compliant, have strong teams and products with large scalability potential that benefit the global cryptocurrency community. Learn more about Celer Network and its tokenomics from Binance’s in-depth research report here: https://info.binance.com/en/research/CELR-2019-03-05.htmlAlso, join Binance’s AMA with Celer Network’s CEO and Founder, Mo Dong, on Friday, March 8, 2019 at 10pm PST to ask and learn about Celer’s tokensale and layer-2 scaling platform. Stay tuned for the latest updates via the official telegram here: http://t.me/celernetworkTo learn more about Binance Launchpad and pre-registration information for Celer Network, visit: https://launchpad.binance.com/Binance Launchpad is the exclusive token launch platform for entrepreneurs to bring the most transformative crypto projects to life, with the help of Binance users around the world. Projects accepted to launch on Binance Launchpad will have greater access to resources and support from across the Binance ecosystem.Binance is a blockchain ecosystem comprised of Binance Exchange, Labs, Launchpad, Info, Academy, Research, Trust Wallet and Charity. Binance Exchange is the leading global cryptocurrency exchange, with users from over 190 countries and regions. Capable of processing more than 1.4 million orders per second, Binance is the largest crypto exchange by trade volume and one of the fastest in the world. The platform focuses on security, robustness, and execution speed — attracting enthusiasts and professional traders alike. For more information, visit: https://www.binance.com

What makes Celer different? Please read our 2018 Annual Report — Part I Technology Innovation.As the new year approaches, Celer Network team wishes everyone a wonderful new year! Thank you all for your continued support. Since we first came out of stealth in Q1 2018 with some early supporters, we have seen significant growth in Celer Network’s vision, technology, team and community. We would like to share our 2018 highlights with all of you! Our Annual Report 2018 is composed of four parts:In the next four days, we will release each part separately. 🙌Celer Network aims to bring Blockchain technology to mass adoption. It is an Internet-scale, trust-free, and privacy-preserving off-chain scaling platform where everyone can quickly build, operate, and use highly scalable decentralized applications. It provides unprecedented performance and flexibility through innovations in off-chain scaling techniques and a crypto economics model designed based on game theory principles to bring essential value to the off-chain ecosystem.Celer Network is founded by PhDs from MIT, Princeton, UC Berkeley and UIUC and has an all-star engineering team with years of industry experiences from top startups or tech giants like Google, Amazon, Cisco, Oracle, HP and more.Celer Network continues to lead the technology innovation in the space of off-chain (or “layer-2”) infrastructure with many the world’s first: we led the cutting-edge research and development of layer-2 scaling; we delivered the world’s most advanced off-chain scaling Testnet; we released cWallet: the first-ever mobile wallet supporting Celer Network; we released first-ever mobile native off-chain SDK; we delivered on our promise of being “blockchain agnostic” by supporting two architecturally very different blockchains, Ethereum and DFINITY, at the same time.On the research front, we were the first to propose a complete technology and crypto economics architecture for the layer-2 scaling space. We were the first to publish a full spec of off-chain smart contract design and a three-layered off-chain technology architecture. We also introduce the first-ever layer-2 crypto economics design with the CELR token driving State Guardian Network, Proof of Liquidity Commitment and Liquidity Backing Auction (CESC talk). These mechanisms together solve the fundamental challenges of state availability, data connectivity and liquidity shortage. Our crypto economics model is now widely recognized by the entire community with our submission accepted by high-profile academic and developer conferences like CESC and Ethereum Devcon 4.We have also launched Celer Network’s first production-grade Testnet with code name Centauri (as the closest star system to earth). Centauri is the world’s first off-chain scaling Testnet with multi-hop generalized state channel network support. There is no other system running in the world where end users can be seamlessly connected together by a generalized state channel network and run general purpose off-chain smart contracts. Centauri is currently running on top of Ethereum’s Ropsten Testnet with both ETH and ERC-20 support. Not only being the first, Centauri’s transaction performance gain is a stunning 20,000X improvement: a transaction on Celer takes only about 25ms to 100% finality while an Ethereum layer-1 transaction usually takes more than 450s (30 confirmations) to be considered final on major exchanges. This level of latency reduction will directly translate to entirely revolutionized blockchain user experience. As for TPS, Celer Network keeps a horizontal scaling paradigm and therefore can increase TPS simply by adding more nodes.Along with the Testnet, we released Celer Network SDK on three platforms: Android, iOS and a Go client. With these SDKs, developers can build a long list of off-chain dApps including pay-per-use micro-services with SLA guarantee, instant machine to machine IoT payment and services, prediction market and decentralized assets exchanges with instant off-chain order matching, non-custodian hybrid exchanges, highly interactive blockchain games (such as Blackjack, Monopoly, Chess and Texas Hold’em), online micro auctions, micro insurance and many more. We would like to highlight that we are the world’s first to deliver a mobile native off-chain transaction SDK as we believe mobile platforms will be a prevailing platform for blockchain application adoption. You can access our SDK for Android here and for iOS here.Leveraging the Celer Network SDK, we have built and released alpha version of cWallet, the first-ever mobile wallet built with Celer Network support. Blockchain applications are in desperate need of good UX and many of the UX challenges are deeply rooted in the lack of scalability today. We have a focus on end user access to Celer platform from day 1.With cWallet, we confidently show that Celer Network Testnet is not an “obscure black console” or some exciting numbers on a website. Instead, Celer Network is something every user can touch and try today with instant off-chain payment and highly interactive fun games. See a video demo of cPay and cGomoku. We have received overwhelmingly positive feedbacks from the community. cWallet serves as not only an entry point to Celer Network, but also a reference design for our future crypto wallet partners to quickly provide a pattern for our partners to integrate with Celer Network. Finally, we have used cWallet to collect important feedbacks from users in terms of onboarding Celer Network platform and that has helped us to design a better user experience to onboard new users to the crypto world.Celer Network set out to a general layer-2 platform that brings Internet scale to every blockchain. We are delivering our promise by supporting multiple blockchains with drastically different architectures. We currently support all EVM-compatible blockchains, such as Ethereum, Thunder Token and Oasis Labs, and also support an entirely different programming paradigms proposed by DFINITY. However, with our cChannel abstraction, users and developers interacting with upper layer APIs won’t notice the differences in the underlying blockchains, and can focus on just building and using better apps. This layered abstraction brings a new level of interoperability that makes Celer Network a potential “narrow waist” in the broader blockchain ecosystem like TCP/IP is for the Internet architecture. Checkout our smart contract open source repo here.We have always believed that user adoption is paramount for blockchain’s progression and is the only way to progress to the next phase of blockchain industry. To this end, we released our user-facing app cWallet alpha on Android and iOS platform. cWallet allows users to access to cApps: cPay, a simple payment app with instant transaction and no fee; cGomoku, a board game where you can bet some testnet ETH with your friends on the outcome of the game, in an entirely trust-free way.Also, come and celebrate holidays with Celer Network by participating our cGomoku Pop-up Challenge and win ETH. Thank you for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow for our Part II update: Product Market Fit and User Adoption. Happy New Year!! 🙌Layer 2 Scaling Solutions: Bring Internet Scale to Every Blockchain

TL;DR Breakdown

Hermez Network has launched its mainnet. The network hopes to reduce Ethereum gas fees by collapsing several transfers into just one transaction.  With the rise in the popularity of Ethereum blockchain, traffic has skyrocketed and so has the gas fees. This has forced some users to start considering a few alternatives, notably Binance Smart Chain.

Investors generally would opt for decentralized finance (DeFi). One of the main attractions of DeFi was its low transaction fees. Sadly, Ethereum appears to be clearing out profits due to its high gas fees. To solve the Ethereum gas fees problem, Hermez Network has come up with a couple of solutions.

Presently, every single transaction attracts a fee, regardless of the size of the transaction. Most of the transactions can be made to occur at the same time, resulting in increased transaction cost. What Hermez Network does is to compress several thousands of these transactions in batches. This is expected to cut ETH transaction fee by as much as 90%. In doing this, Hermez would not be adding to the processing burden of the network.

Users on the Hermez Network can verify transactions and place them in batches using a hardware. These transactions that have been batched can now be stored on Ethereum’s blockchain.

Whoever gets to process the transactions is usually determined in an auction where the coordinators bid. Bidding is done using HEZ, the native token for the Hermez Network. Whoever wins the bid is given a 10 minutes time window to handle as many transactions as they can. At the end of the transactions, the transaction fees are awarded to the coordinator.

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The latest cryptocurrency exchange and payment service to join the Visa network is Crypto.com.

According to a press release released on Wednesday, Crypto.com has entered into a multinational alliance with the credit/debit card payment giant, including being a primary member of Visa’s network in Australia.

According to the press release, Crypto.com’s partnership with Visa is part of the company’s attempts to extend the scope of its crypto Visa card.

Crypto.com’s Visa card is currently accepted in over 30 countries worldwide, including the United States, Canada, and countries in Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Crypto.com expects to begin direct Visa card issuance in the region, and the company says it will leverage its presence in Australia to achieve broader market penetration for its card service globally.

In addition to its physical Visa card offering, Crypto.com will reportedly start issuing virtual cards in Europe.

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek commented on the Visa partnership:

“Signing the global partnership with Visa and becoming a principal member with the world’s leader in digital payments affirms our commitment to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency.”

The business also announced the introduction of its fiat loan scheme, called “Spending Force,” as part of the official communiqué. Crypto.com Visa cardholders will be able to use the cryptocurrency balance in their wallet as credit collateral to invest fiat in merchant networks that accept Visa payments for this latest offering.

Earlier this month, Crypto.com announced the development of a $200 million crypto investment fund to benefit entrepreneurs in the field. Crypto.com is also a member of the Aston Martin Formula 1 racing team, which is making its comeback to the F1 circuit following a 61-year absence.

It’s been a while since the introduction of Bitcoin. And this cryptocurrency is now among the most popular digital currencies. Almost everybody wants to invest in it because it has captured nearly every investor’s attention. Some people specialize in the purchase and sale of Bitcoin for profits.

Currently, several platforms allow traders to purchase and sell Bitcoin to make a profit from the margin. Platforms like crypto superstar use upgraded trading bots that do more than equating numbers. Instead, the bots consider the trader’s activity. They analyze trends and prices on behalf of the user. That way, the bots enable the system to make more precise decisions for the trader.

Nevertheless, some people are still skeptical about Bitcoin trading. They wonder whether somebody can hack this cryptocurrency and manipulate prices or trading activity. But, can somebody hack Bitcoin?

It’s difficult for a person to hack this cryptocurrency’s network. However, users still face the risk of having somebody steal their coins from a crypto exchange. Thus, you always risk losing your funds in a Bitcoin exchange or digital wallet.

The Bitcoin network uses blockchain technology. And this technology is not easy to hack. There is no central server for storing data in blockchain technology. With blockchain, an extensive network comprising computers in different places stores the data.

And these computers are constantly verifying and checking the accuracy of the crypto records. Therefore, hacking the Bitcoin network is more challenging because hackers have to breach many servers to collect information.

For instance, when hackers attempt to steal from a single vault room, they can easily do that. But an attempt to commit a heist from different rooms that have vaults and each has information in bits regarding single vault access is challenging. However, it is not impossible.

Since the introduction of this cryptocurrency in 2009, nobody has managed to hack the entire network. However, some people have hacked crypto exchanges and digital wallets. As such, the fact that nobody has hacked the Bitcoin network as a whole doesn’t mean it’s completely risk-free. Potential risks exist in different stages of trading this cryptocurrency.

People trade Bitcoin in crypto exchanges and store it in digital wallets. As such, it’s not difficult for a person to access your wallet and possibly steal your coins. However, most platforms use a 2-factor authentication method for security purposes. If a hacker accesses a user’s personal information, they can infiltrate your wallet and even steal your coins. Therefore, take precautions to ensure the safety and security of your funds.

Since Bitcoin is a digital or virtual currency, you can only purchase and sell it online. You should also have a digital wallet to store your coins and a crypto exchange to trade this cryptocurrency. To ensure that you don’t end up losing your hard-earned money, choose a reputable wallet or Bitcoin exchange. Look for a platform with appropriate safety measures to ensure that criminals won’t hack your account and get away with your coins.

An ideal crypto exchange is secure and cost-effective. It’s also easy to set up an account with and use from any device. What’s more, it accepts different payment methods. And most importantly, it employs effective security measures.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are worth more than $280 billion. Since their introduction, cracks, hacks, phishes, and hijacks have threatened their existence. But up to now, these threats and assaults have not had a significant impact. Nevertheless, some criminals have stolen money from digital wallet owners and crypto exchange users.

Therefore, Bitcoin users should look for platforms that use effective security measures to avoid losing their money. For instance, an investor should choose a platform that uses a 2-factor authentication measure to avoid losing their money.