Key facts:

Crypton transactions are private, have no associated metadata, and cannot be traced

In November 2019 the P2P network Utopia went live and Crypton (CRP), its native currency, was born.

He might not have heard of Bitcoin in early 2010 yet, but that doesn’t mean his dominance as king of decentralized digital currencies was any less inevitable in the years to come. Its advantage of being the first to act and the resulting network effect secured its future.

In today’s world of cryptocurrencies, where half a dozen new copycat digital currencies are released every day, “brand recognition,” or the attention a project receives, is absolutely paramount.

While brand recognition can help drive demand in the short term, it is not a substitute for real value in the long term. Without a real substance, attention will only carry a project up to a point. Ultimately, it is genuine, differentiated, and unique utility that will drive long-term adoption and demand for a cryptocurrency; it is this utility that secures the future of Crypton (CRP).

A year before publishing the Bitcoin white paper, Satoshi Nakamoto observed on a crypto mailing list in November 2008: ‘Governments are good at cutting off the heads of centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure networks [Peer-to-Peer] as Gnutella and Tor seem to be resisting. ” Five years later, in 2013, Edward Snowden uncovered the global scale of the US government’s surveillance and collection of our personal information on the Internet.

That same year, the anonymous 1984 Group began developing the most ambitious Peer-to-Peer project ever attempted, the Utopia P2P Ecosystem. It combines instant messaging, encrypted email, file sharing, group chats and channels, gaming, website hosting, and digital currencies, all protected by ultra-secure Curve25519 elliptical curve cryptography and supported by a network of P2P nodes without dependence on central servers.

After 6 years of secret development and 4 months of public beta testing, on November 18, 2019 the P2P network Utopia went live and Crypton (CRP) was born with 100% of the newly created coins destined for miners (already holders through monthly PoS rewards); no ICO, no IEO, no team fund, no advisor fund, no foundation fund, no marketing fund, no funds of any kind… a purely fair launch. Beyond this, the 1984 Group not only self-financed all development and public beta testing of Utopia, but continues to fund the improvement and promotion of the project through the support and promotion portal.

To understand the scope of Utopia P2P, just imagine that Signal Messenger, ProtonMail, Tor Network, Torrents, P2P Gaming, Telegram channels, and Monero (XMR) were all integrated into a single ecosystem. Except that the unique, private, and exclusive cryptocurrency that facilitates the transfer of value and trading in the Utopia P2P Ecosystem is, in fact, Crypton (CRP). Utopia offers self-hosted, unstoppable and uncensored paid APIs for websites exclusively at Crypton (CRP). Utopia offers NFTs in the form of aliases or DNS equivalents as uNS records, available for registration exclusively at Crypton (CRP).

Encrypted private messenger from the Utopia Ecosystem.

Utopia offers charge requests that can be used for billing and crypto cards that can allow monthly debits from authorized accounts with limits set exclusively at Crypton (CRP). You now have a much better appreciation of the kind of genuine, differentiated and unique utility that Crypton (CRP) offers, all courtesy of Utopia.

Most cryptocurrency projects that consider themselves privacy coins whether we are talking about Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), GRIN or BEAM, suffer from one or multiple areas of vulnerability. Among them are the absence of privacy by default, the presence of metadata or the use of obfuscation techniques that can be mined through sophisticated methods of seeding and tracking transactions. Crypton (CRP) was designed from the ground up to completely eliminate these weaknesses. All transactions are private by default, have no metadata associated with them, and cannot be tracked or their privacy reduced by any known method, as the blockchain is completely opaque.

Crypton Mining (CRP) uses a unique combination of Proof-of-Memory (PoM) and Proof-of-Routing (PoR) that supports the data caching and encrypted packet routing needs of the Utopia P2P network. New Cryptons (CRP) mining is done exclusively using the newly developed UAM bot, built from the ground up with speed, performance and stability in mind for Utopia’s peer-to-peer data transmission.

The most successful cryptocurrencies have spawned countless forks and copycat projects over the years that have divided communities, divided developers, and undermined the pent-up mindset, thereby reducing the overall potential of the project. Utopia P2P and Crypton (CRP) were designed to avoid that fate and cannot be forked or copied in any way. The state-of-the-art, self-funded development and enhancements of the last 7 years that have built the revolutionary Peer-to-Peer technology that underpins Utopia and Crypton (CRP) cannot be exploited by another team with selfish motives. There can be only one P2P Ecosystem of Utopia and its unique and fully integrated cryptocurrency is Crypton (CRP).

The Crown Platform NFT Framework enables the tokenization of assets on the Crown blockchain by the issuance of protocols and tokens. With this release, authored by technology lead Artem Brazhnikov, Crown Platform extends its functionality to serve as a decentralized and immutable registry: an asset-chain.

Starting today, individuals, businesses and institutions can become issuers of unique protocols and tokens, specifying their rules and participating in the creation of a decentralized on-chain registry linked to the CRW public-key cryptography and powered by a highly secure Masternode Proof of Stake consensus mechanism. The Crown Platform development has been focused on the usability of the framework. That is why no additional coding language is needed to program the tokens, unlike Ethereum’s ‘Solidity’ approach. As Brazhnikov puts it,

“The NFT Framework is a way to tokenize assets without writing any asset-specific code.”

The NFT Framework represents a central part of the always evolving Crown Platform ecosystem. NFT applications range from registry of digital and physical assets to the extension of Crown’s governance and consensus structures through additional possibilities of registry, authentication and documenting. This development milestone is a big step forward for the Crown Platform and its enthusiastic community, and there are more to follow.

Implementing instant NFT transactions for non-fungible asset exchange and trading are among the top development priorities, together with the soon-to-be released Bitcoin v0.17 codebase update.

Crown Stakeholders have been working on this pioneering cryptocurrency project for years, allowing Crown Platform to evolve through its Decentralized Governance and Proposal System: an algorithmic voting and funding mechanism that allows the Crown Platform project to self-sustain its path towards further technological and social innovation. By doing so, Crown Platform is creating an alternative, decentralized economy based on its native fair-launch coin, CRW.

The Crown Platform community is committed to enabling an open, decentralized, and community-governed infrastructure, supporting functionalities that leverage the potential of blockchain technology while remaining truthful to decentralization and permission-less interaction in a cryptographically secure and incentivized peer-to-peer network.

New users are joining Crown Platform every day, adding new ideas to build on its technology. If you want to get started with the Crown Platform or have any questions, you can get in touch with the community following the links below.

Question: How can a cryptocurrency you may have never heard of, Crypton (CRP), be considered a “king”, let alone wear 2 crowns?

Answer: In early 2010 you may have never heard of Bitcoin, but that didn’t mean its dominance as the king of decentralized digital currency was any less inevitable in the coming years. Its first-mover advantage and resulting network effect secured its future.

In the world of cryptocurrency today, where half a dozen new copycat digital currencies are being released every day, “mindshare”, or the attention a project receives, is at an absolute premium. While mindshare can help drive demand in the short term, it is no substitute for actual value in the long term.

Without real substance, attention will only carry a project so far. Ultimately, it is a genuine, differentiated, and exclusive utility that will drive adoption and long term demand for a cryptocurrency–it is this utility that secures the future of Crypton (CRP).

One year before releasing the Bitcoin whitepaper, Satoshi Nakamoto observed in a cryptography mailing list in November of 2008, “Governments are good at cutting off the heads of centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure [Peer-to-Peer] networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.” Five years later in 2013, Edward Snowden uncovered the global scale of U.S. government surveillance and harvesting of our personal information on the internet.

That same year, the anonymous 1984 Group began the development of the most ambitious Peer-to-Peer project ever attempted, the Utopia P2P Ecosystem. It combined instant messaging, encrypted e-mail, file sharing, group chats and channels, gaming, website hosting, and digital currency, all protected by ultra-secure Curve25519 elliptic curve cryptography and sustained by a peer-to-peer network of nodes without any reliance on central servers.

After six years of secret development and 4 months of public beta testing, on November 18, 2019 the Utopia P2P network went live and Crypton (CRP) was born with 100% of newly mined coins going to miners and holders through PoS monthly disbursements–no ICO, no IEO, no team fund, no advisor fund, no foundation fund, no marketing find, no fund of any kind–a purely fair launch.

Beyond this, the 1984 Group not only self-funded the entire development and public beta testing of Utopia, but continues to fund the enhancement and promotion of the project through the support and promotion portal. To understand the scope of Utopia P2P, just imagine if Signal Messenger, ProtonMail, Tor Network, Torrents, P2P Gaming, Telegram channels, and Monero (XMR) were all rolled into one integrated ecosystem.

Except, the single, private, and exclusive cryptocurrency that facilitates trade and value exchange in the Utopia P2P Ecosystem is in fact Crypton (CRP). Utopia offers payment APIs for self-hosted, unstoppable, uncensorable websites exclusively in Crypton (CRP). Utopia offers NFTs in the form of aliases or DNS-equivalents as uNS records, available for registration exclusively in Crypton (CRP).

Utopia offers charge requests that may be used for invoicing and crypto cards that can permit monthly debits from authorized accounts with established limits exclusively in Crypton (CRP). Now you have a much better appreciation of the kind of genuine, differentiated, and exclusive utility Crypton (CRP) offers, all courtesy of Utopia.

Most cryptocurrency projects which consider themselves to be privacy coins, whether we are discussing Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), GRIN or BEAM, suffer from one or multiple areas of weakness. These include the absence of default privacy, the presence of metadata, or the use of obfuscation techniques which can be undermined through sophisticated transaction seeding and tracing methods. Crypton (CRP) was designed from the beginning to eliminate these weaknesses altogether. All transactions are private by default, have no metadata associated with them, and cannot be traced or made less private by any known method, as the blockchain is completely opaque.

Crypton (CRP) mining uses a unique combination of Proof-of-Memory (PoM) and Proof-of-Routing (PoR) which supports the data caching and encrypted packet routing needs of the Utopia P2P network. The mining of new Cryptons (CRP) is done exclusively using the newly developed UAM bot, built from scratch with speed, performance, and stability in mind for the peer-to-peer data transmission of Utopia.

The most successful cryptocurrencies have spawned countless forks and copycat projects over the years that have splintered communities divided developers and undermined accumulated mindshare, thereby constricting overall project potential. Utopia P2P and Crypton (CRP) were designed to avoid such a fate and cannot be forked or copied in anyway.

The self-funded, cutting edge development and refinements over the past 7 years that have built the revolutionary Peer-to-Peer technology supporting Utopia and Crypton (CRP) cannot be exploited by another team with selfish motives. There can only ever be one Utopia P2P Ecosystem and its exclusive, fully integrated, cryptocurrency is Crypton (CRP).

In 2012, Coinbase consisted of two guys in a San Francisco apartment. Today, it’s a colossus that dominates the crypto retail business in the U.S. while also boasting a thriving exchange for professional traders.

Coinbase has also acquired or invested in dozens of other crypto firms and, thanks to one of those acquisitions, now stores around 5% of all bitcoin in the world. So it’s no wonder that, if you ask average people to name a crypto company, they’ll say Coinbase.

This dominance is why I titled my new book about Coinbase “Kings of Crypto.” Like Apple is to cell phones or Nike is to shoes, Coinbase is to cryptocurrency. The company’s story – full of drama and infighting – is a gripping startup yarn, but also shows how one firm can change an industry. It is thanks, in part, to Coinbase that bitcoin entered the mainstream, and why crypto is becoming such a force in the larger financial world.

Coinbase’s ascendance to the pinnacle of the crypto world is no coincidence. Since its modest beginnings, founder Brian Armstrong has focused relentlessly on two things: Making its products easy to use and staying on the right side of regulators. This ensured Coinbase became the first stop for millions of novice bitcoin buyers, while also avoiding the legal scrapes that sidelined competitors.

After being slow to add other cryptocurrencies – a situation that triggered a civil war between former top Coinbase executives Asiff Hirji and Balaji Srinivasan – the company now offers nearly two dozen coins. And when it adds a coin, its influence is such that it still generates a brief price pop known as the “Coinbase effect.” Meanwhile, Coinbase last month rolled out a crypto debit card in the U.S. that lets users earn bitcoin rewards with no fee when paying with a stablecoin – finally providing a practical reason to use one.

Coinbase still has formidable rivals, of course. It also has no shortage of haters. Right from the start, critics mocked Coinbase with taunts of “not your keys, not your coins” – a knock on Coinbase’s practice of holding its customers’ funds, which Bitcoin purists regard as a betrayal of Satoshi’s ideals. Today, certain crypto cliques mock the company as stodgy and corporate compared to more free-wheeling competitors like Kraken and Binance.

For Coinbase, all of this is just noise. The company is valued north of $12 billion and, backed by blue-chip investors, is poised to be the first crypto firm to go public – a process that could bring blockchain tokens to the public securities markets for the first time. 

See also: 5% of Coinbase Employees Take Severance Offer Over ‘Apolitical’ Stance

Meanwhile, the company is quietly expanding its ties with the Wall Street banking world. Those ties include a relationship with JPMorgan, which came about after a secret meeting in 2019 between Armstrong and the bank’s powerful CEO, Jamie Dimon, who was once Bitcoin’s most prominent critic.

In short, Coinbase is on top. The question is whether it will stay there and, for now, there are three obstacles that could thwart that.

The first is regulation. While Coinbase has done a better job than any other at playing by Washington’s rules, many in the federal government still have an implacable – and often irrational – hostility to crypto. This could lead Coinbase to become embroiled in expensive and distracting investigations, which could hurt its focus and open the door to competitors. 

And while the company is learning to play the lobbying game it’s no match for the big banks, which have had their tentacles in lawmakers for decades and could push for rules that rig crypto regulation in favor of financial incumbents. There’s no sign this is happening yet but, as crypto baron Barry Silbert of CoinDesk parent DCG told me, “In the long term, it’s not Coinbase versus Binance. It’s Coinbase versus JPMorgan.” If that’s the case, Coinbase’s current alliance with the big bank could turn to a strategic rivalry where the latter has the edge working the regulators.

The second thing that could dethrone Coinbase is big, well-funded opponents. While industry giant Binance is seen as Coinbase’s main rival, its fast-and-loose style has made it radioactive to regulators and unlikely to last in the long term. Crypo OG Wences Casares told me Binance is likely to go the way of one-time giants Mt. Gox and Poloniex. Instead, the more dangerous competitors for Coinbase are likely to be banks or fintech giants like Square and PayPal, which are moving into the crypto realm with the force of a freight train. Then there is Facebook, which is already standing up a global crypto offering, and Apple, whose huge user base and privacy-conscious values make it a likely candidate to offer crypto wallets of its own. If these tech titans power into crypto, Coinbase could clean up by offering its expertise to them – or it could simply get eaten.

See also: Emily Parker – Coinbase’s ‘Mission’ Violates the Spirit of Bitcoin

Regulation and competition are external threats. The third and possibly biggest threat to Coinbase’s long-term dominance is an internal one: its culture. That culture was on display this summer when Armstrong published a blog post declaring Coinbase to be an apolitical company – a decision that led numerous employees to quit and the media to pillory the CEO as insensitive. While some praised Armstrong for speaking truths other CEOs would not say, more people saw his blog post as reflecting the narrow worldview of crypto believers – a worldview that sees itself as apolitical but is in fact a siloed ideology shared by a handful of wealthy, mostly white men. This ideology is a problem for the crypto industry as a whole, which has done a poor job of welcoming women and people concerned about diversity, but especially for Coinbase. 

Great companies create cultures where people of all backgrounds can belong – even those led by ruthless, combative leaders like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. Armstrong has long displayed the same sort of original thinking as Jobs and Musk, but he has yet to show he can attract the same sort of unswerving loyalty. To do so, and for Coinbase to succeed in the long term, he’ll have to improve the company’s corporate culture.

These three obstacles – regulation, competition and corporate culture – pose serious long-term challenges to Coinbase’s current dominance. But for now at least, no one is poised to take Coinbase’s crypto crown.

Singapore, Singapore, February 17 2021, // ChainWire //

99Bitcoins , an educational website that maintains a list of Bitcoin Obituaries made by the media, also took over the Dead Coins project. This movement effectively crowns 99Bitcoins as “the cryptoverse's undertaker”.

Deadcoins.com was created in late 2017 to document the death of thousands of altcoins that have arose during the cryptocurrency mania of that era. The idea was simple: create a list of coins that ceased to exist after the hype ended.

A coin can become "Dead" for such reasons as its development is stopped, without whoever uses or trades it, being exposed as a scam and more. So project was initially maintained by its founders, it was late outsourced to authorized cryptocurrency community add own dead coins.

“I think the dead coins project is a brilliant idea that needs a bit of polishing,” says Ofir Beigel, owner and founder of 99Bitcoins. "The fact that anyone could add a dead part themselves made the parts list very inaccurate. We spent days going through the list.e complete and sift through all the pieces that were buried alive, so to speak. For example, Bitcoin, Tron, Dogecoin, and Tether are just a few of the coins listed when we took over the project. ״

“I think the community sometimes mistakes a shitcoin for a dead coin.” Ofir adds, “We have set up clear death indicators so that it is easy for us to decide whether a part is really dead or not. That way, we still use the community entry, but make sure it goes through another filter to verify the correctness of the submission ”.

In the future, the project is expected to automatically add coins to the list through the use of APIs to index sites such as CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap. With the latest surge in the cryptocurrency market, it seems logical that plenty of new bids will arrive once the hype dies down.

Contacts

CEO

Thursday, 11th February 2021, 11:40 am

Ultimately, the plan wasn’t quite as successful as it could have been, and while some home traders did manage to make legitimately impressive sums from the stocks, their value has now returned to ‘normal’ after crashing.

But a whole new audience of would-be Wall Streeters are hooked, looking for the next dip that could signal an impending price rise.

Bitcoin price: what is the cryptocurrency, why has its shares reached record hig…

Here is everything you need to know about it.

It can be a tricky field to navigate, but if you’re confident in buying cryptocurrencies then there are places where this can be done.

One of the most popular is Binance, a global cryptocurrency exchange app, which requires registration before making a deposit and trading.

The app originated in China, and was initially developed by the one-man team of Chinese-Canadian business executive Changpeng Zhao, but later moved away from the country as China imposed increasingly strict regulations on cryptocurrency. It is now based in Malta.

It offers a near unmatched breadth of currencies in which to trade, its main selling point which has seen it become the jewel in the crown of cryptocurrency apps.

Binance itself says it is “trusted by millions worldwide”, and is “dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for users”, though it’s had its fair share of setbacks and controversies in the past.

Zhao said the transaction represented “about 2%” of Binance’s total Bitcoin holdings, and ordered a “thorough security review” will be carried out: “Not the best of days, but we will stay transparent,” he tweeted.

Last October, leaked documents were released that alleged Binance created an elaborate corporate structure designed to intentionally deceive United States regulators and secretly profit from investors.

However, crypto experts are much more forgiving.

It’s possible that Trustpilot’s majority negative reviews come from users who have lost big on the crypto market, something that is wont to happen given the notorious volatility of digital currencies.

Whoever you choose to believe on the subject, it’s worth treading cautiously when making your first forays into crypto.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warns people about the risk of investing in cryptocurrencies, referencing price volatility, product complexity, charges and fees, marketing materials and consumer protection.

What other apps are out there?

Other options to UK users are Coinbase, BC Bitcoin, Bittylicious, Cryptomate, Changelly, ShapeShift, and Bittrex.

Source link

Singapore, Singapore, 17th February, 2021, // ChainWire //

99Bitcoins, an educational website that maintains a list of Bitcoin obituaries made by the media, has taken over the Dead Coins project as well. This move effectively crowns 99Bitcoins as “The undertaker of the cryptoverse”.

Deadcoins.com was established in late 2017 to document the death of thousands of altcoins that popped up during the cryptocurrency mania of that time. The idea was simple – create a list of coins that have ceased to exist after the hype died down.

A coin can become “dead” due to a variety of reasons such as its development being halted, having no one that uses or trades it, being exposed as a scam and more. While the project was initially maintained only by its founders, it was later outsourced to the cryptocurrency community which was allowed to add their own dead coins.

“I think the dead coins project is a brilliant idea that needs a bit of polishing” says Ofir Beigel, owner and founder of 99Bitcoins. “The fact that anyone can add a dead coin themselves made the list of coins very inaccurate. We’ve spent days going through the complete list and sifted out all of the coins that were buried alive, so to speak. For example, Bitcoin, Tron, Dogecoin and Tether are just some of the coins that were listed when we took over the project.״

“I think the community sometimes mistakes a shitcoin for a dead coin.” Ofir adds “We’ve put clear death indicators in place so it would be easy for us to decide whether a coin is actually dead or not. This way we still use the community’s input, but we make sure it goes through another filter to verify the submission’s accuracy”.

In the future, the project is planned to automatically add coins to the list through the use of APIs to index sites such as CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap. With the latest rise in the cryptocurrency market, it seems only logical that a lot of new submissions are coming its way once the hype dies down. 

CEO

Bitcoin hovered close to record highs on Friday, set for gains of over 20% in a milestone week marked by the endorsement of major firms, such as Elon Musk's Tesla, while the weak U.S. jobs market continued to weigh on the dollar.

The world's most popular cryptocurrency last traded 1.1% down at $47,451, just south of a record high of $49,000 reached after U.S. banking group BNY Mellon said it had formed a unit to help clients hold, transfer, and issue digital assets.

Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency and BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, added bitcoin as an eligible investment to two funds.

Credit card giant Mastercard's plans to offer support for some cryptocurrencies also boosted bitcoin's ambitions towards mainstream finance, but many banks are reluctant to engage with it.

"We do not cover other speculative objects such as vintage cars, works of art or expensive watches", Commerzbank Research said in a note on why it would not comment on the bitcoin exchange rate that some analysts say could test the $50,000 level soon.

Elsewhere the dollar headed for its first losing week in three as signs of weakness in the U.S. jobs market dented investor expectations about the pace of economic recovery from the pandemic.

In early European trade, the dollar index edged up 0.15% to 90.55 after subdued volumes in Asia due to the Lunar New Year. It was on track to fall 0.5% for the week.

The dollar was slightly up against the yen at 104.940.

The weaker-than-expected weekly U.S. jobless claims data on Thursday added to concerns the dollar's previous rally had priced in too fast a rebound for the U.S. economy.

There has been a divergence in views among traders this year over how U.S. President Joe Biden's planned $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus package will affect the dollar.

Some see it as bolstering the currency as it should speed a U.S. recovery relative to other countries, while others reckoned it would feed a global reflation narrative that should lift riskier assets at the dollar's expense.

The euro slipped 0.17% to $1.2115, consolidating for a third day near that level as it headed for a 0.5% weekly advance.

The common currency was flat against the pound at 0.876 after official figures showed Britain's coronavirus-ravaged economy slumped by 9.9% in 2020, the biggest annual crash in more than 300 years, but avoided heading back towards recession at the end of last year.

Norway's crown strengthened slightly and pared some losses against the euro after data showed the country's economy contracted by 2.5% last year, a decline less severe than in most other European nations.

It traded last at 10.2940, down 0.1% against the euro.

These are bullish times for Ethereum and its growing community. After all, why would anyone expect anything else? A week after the deposit contract was finally filled with a few hours to spare, the much-anticipated genesis block of the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain was launched on 1 December. The said development came as a relief for many, especially those who had seen Ethereum’s history beset with unscheduled delays.

Often, however, as Ryan Sean Adams puts it, it’s best to temper one’s bullishness about a certain project by challenging its assumptions via a steel man argument of sorts. Ergo, the question – “Can Ethereum’s challengers take their chances if people don’t use its base layer chains to build on?” The same was addressed by Multicoin Capital’s Kyle Samani in a recent blogpost for Bankless.

It’s understandable why many people think Ethereum is too big to fail right now and will most definitely “win DeFi.” After all, it does have the most “moneyness” and the largest network effect. However, for all its dominance, there remain areas of weaknesses, areas Samani was quick to point out.

In support of the likelihood that a challenger chain might finally contest Ethereum’s place in the ecosystem, the Multicoin Capital exec referred to two key points. For starters, let us consider the question of DeFi and scalability.

Is it the right kind of scalable?

Pointing to the emergence of L2 scaling solutions over the next 12 months, the exec categorically claimed that they won’t be enough. According to Samani, current and L2 scaling solutions that will emerge in the near-term will be nowhere near likely to sustain the capital flows through DeFi on Ethereum. He added,

What does that mean? Well, Samani argued that while DeFi on Ethereum may be a hit, it’s not perfect since such scalability solutions often end up making DeFi slower and clunkier. Now, here’s where the catch is. The “imperfectness” of the arrangement means that other challenger chains might have a chance.

Think about it – What makes a perfect DeFi trading venue? It would require, a) A blockchain that provides a stable, predictable foundation on which transaction volumes can be scaled and, 2) A logically-centralized venue that manages risk.

Now, where does Ethereum stand if these criteria are considered? Well, contrary to what one might expect, Ethereum doesn’t satisfy both, Samani said. However, that’s not all as giving the example of Solana and Serum, the exec said, “Solana provides #1, and Serum provides #2,” with the implication being that none of these supposed challengers satisfies the two conditions presented above either.

How then is Ethereum so dominant? Well, because it was the first to move in this direction. A first-mover advantage, more often than not, counts for a lot, even if the project in question has some weaknesses. However, is it enough of an advantage to persist until eternity? I doubt that.

Do not ignore the outsider

Secondly, let’s consider the oft-ignored aspect of outsider perceptions. Why oft-ignored? Well, because the crypto-community does have a strong, vocal section of proponents who believe that the tech aspect of crypto is enough to win fans. Simply put, “pandering to the lowest denominator” in the mainstream isn’t their idea of crypto-adoption.

Be that as it may, adoption cannot succeed without “pandering” to the mainstream. Think about it – Over the past year, Bitcoin and the larger crypto-market’s performance has been given a fresh impetus by the entry of institutional investors, entities that were missing last time around in 2017. That’s not all either as one can argue that the entry of MicroStrategy, Square Inc., etc has also spurred the embrace of crypto by the likes of PayPal.

Now, consider this – What do the likes of Paypal and Twitter and Reddit and Square want more than anything else? According to the Multicoin Capital exec, it’s permissionless crypto. If that’s the case, that, more than anything else, lends competitor chains an advantage over the likes of Ethereum.

Think about it – Since these entities are outsiders, they won’t share the tribalistic sentiments that many within the crypto-community share. Until now, Ethereum’s dominance in the sector has been dictated by its position within the crypto-market. However, that may not be the case for long as most of the aforementioned entities wouldn’t care if the next big development in the space comes not out of Ethereum, but out of a competitor chain. For them, cred and reputation wouldn’t be as important as a guarantee on the protocol’s scaling capabilities.

As Samani was quick to point out, if any of these entities find a “stable foundation that scales,” they’ll jump on to it, and when they do, they’ll be well-positioned to route over a million of their users through one of these challenger chains. A million. In comparison, according to Dune Analytics, there are only over 993k DeFi users on Ethereum right now.

Final lesson

That’s the thing many Ethereum proponents don’t get – “While Ethereum has a major head start within crypto, outsider participation still rounds to 0.”

This is the bull case for Ethereum’s challenger chains. Does this mean that this is likely in the future? Well, one never knows, but Ethereum still holds all the cards in the game. It will be up to Ethereum to step up if such a development were to come to pass.

Ethereum Options OI hits new ATH on Deribit

Synthetix’s sUSD listed on Binance’s Innovation Zone

Jibin is a news editor at AMBCrypto. With over three years of experience as a political writer, he primarily focuses on the political impact of crypto developments. A graduate in Law and International Relations, his writing is by and large focused on cryptocurrencies from the political and financial perspective. A Liverpool FC fan. YNWA

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The truth about Bitcoin’s uncorrelated asset status

Crypto has outperformed all other asset classes over recent years but it’s not just a story of Bitcoin’s growth.

After increasing 100% in 2019 and 300% in 2020, Bitcoin has created more than a few millionaires, however, there are other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, Cardano, Polkadot and Chainlink that have far outperformed an investment in Bitcoin alone over the last 12-months.

The cryptocurrency market has started 2021 with strong momentum as corporate and institutional interest accelerate. “The next boom has begun,” according to Forbes and it is easy to see why.

Many big names including Tesla, Facebook, Paypal, Blackrock, Fidelity, JP Morgan, MicroStrategy, Harvard’s endowment fund and Square as well as well known billionaire investors Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller have entered the crypto space driving billions of dollars into the sector.

In fact, the total market value for all cryptocurrencies increased over $1 trillion (R15 trillion, which is about 2.5x South Africa’s GDP) over the last 12-months, from $190 billion on January 1st 2020 to over $1.2 trillion today.

Bitcoin and Ethereum, the largest two cryptocurrencies, make up over 70% of the whole crypto markets’ value and both have repeatedly broken all-time highs.

In early February, Bitcoin broke to a new all-time high of $47 066 (around R720 000) per coin, when it was announced that Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to hold instead of dollars in its treasury.

Ironically, this helped to push Bitcoin’s market value ahead of Tesla’s.

These advances have crowned cryptocurrencies as the best performing investment category of the last decade with a remarkable 46,000% return on investment.

This means that a R10,000 investment in the broader crypto market 10 years ago would be worth R4.6m today.

“We’ve been waiting for institutional players, from payment providers to corporates to hedge funds, enter the crypto space and this is now happening at a rapid pace,” says Sean Sanders, CEO and founder of crypto investment platform Revix.

Although Bitcoin remains king, Cardano (12 447%), Polkadot (+755%), Chainlink (+697%) and Ethereum (+697%) posted remarkable growth over the last 12-months.

This is in part thanks to the rise in decentralised finance (DeFi), which is a subsector of the cryptocurrency industry where entrepreneurs are building semi-automated trading and lending systems atop blockchain networks.

These returns are well ahead of Bitcoin (+311%), traditional assets like gold (up 18%), the JSE Top 40 stock index (+15%) and the S&P 500 stock index (+16%).

The influx of capital into crypto markets comes during a time of extreme and unprecedented economic uncertainty.

It marks an important shift in the public’s perception of cryptocurrencies: rather than being seen solely as a speculative asset for those looking for eye-popping returns, cryptocurrencies now maintain a much broader appeal.

Ethereum’s ether token (ETH), hit an all-time high of $1,800 on the 8th of February and has pushed the market value of all the existing ether in the world to about $200 billion.

At this level, it’s larger than the U.S. financial giants Wells Fargo ($135 billion) and Citigroup ($132 billion) as well as the 86-year-old Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley ($137 billion).

“The comparison isn’t perfect, since Ethereum works more like a network for companies and developers to build upon rather than the companies themselves. But the exercise does point to the ecosystem’s no-longer-dismissable scale,” explains Sanders.

“Ethereum has always been the lesser-known rival to Bitcoin for a mainstream audience but increased awareness and understanding of what it can offer creates more awareness causing adoption to accelerate – just like what we’ve seen with Bitcoin,” explains Sanders.

Sanders continues, “As with all emerging sectors and technologies, the journey for crypto will continue to have its ups and downs. Price corrections are a natural part of any investment market and are especially natural in the crypto ecosystem. But one thing is clear: crypto has arrived, and the time to get ahead of crypto’s mainstream breakout is starting to run short. If there’s one thing we can learn from the evolution of the internet and other technologies, it’s that it just takes some time before ideas are turned into actual usable products and crypto seems to be doing just that.”

If you’ve been watching this year’s crypto boom from afar, and want to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, or a diversified crypto basket, now’s your chance to get started today by signing up for a free account at www.revix.com.

Revix is in the business of making crypto investing secure and effortless. All levels of investors can buy and sell cryptocurrencies with ease on their online platform.

Even if you’ve never heard of Bitcoin, you can create an account with no obligations, and learn using Revix’s helpful tools and features.

Their desktop and mobile-friendly website makes it easy for anyone to buy, sell or hold cryptos just like they would stocks.

Crypto Bundles enable investors to track the broader crypto market performance or a specific sector within the crypto space at a low cost, similar to buying the JSE Top 40 index or S&P 500.

Their crypto Bundles are also automatically updated every month so you don’t have to manually buy and sell to stay up to date with the crypto market.

The minimum starting amount for any investment is only R500 so the platform is accessible to everyone. Sign-up is free, there are no monthly fees and their friendly customer support team are there for you every step of the way. You can sell your crypto investment at any time and withdraw your funds: there are no lock-up periods like there are with other investment funds.

“Buying a single cryptocurrency can be easy if you know which one to buy,” says Sean Sanders, founder and CEO of Revix.

“But many people are not confident enough to know which cryptocurrency to back, so buying a Bundle – rather like an ETF or unit trust – takes the guesswork out of it and lets the winners come to you.”

Buying a crypto Bundle rather than a single cryptocurrency makes owning a diversified crypto portfolio more convenient and less risky as you’re not exposed to the price fluctuations of just one crypto asset.

Revix’s crypto products have produced exceptional returns.

The Top 10 Bundle spreads your investment equally over the 10 largest cryptocurrencies – which covers about 85% of the crypto market when measured by market capitalisation – with each having a 10% weighting. By default, you are buying the 10 biggest success stories in the crypto space. The weightings are adjusted monthly to ensure no crypto exceeds a 10% weighting.

This Bundle includes the top performing cryptocurrencies: Ethereum, Polkadot, Cardano and Chainlink which have all significantly outperformed Bitcoin on a relative basis.

The Payment Bundle holds the cryptocurrencies which aim to become cash, like rands or dollars.

The Bundle provides exposure to the 5 largest payment-focused cryptocurrencies looking to compete with government-issued fiat currencies to make digital payments cheaper, faster and more global. These cryptos include Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Stellar (XLM) and Monero (XMR).

The Smart Contract Bundle tracks the cryptocurrencies that aim to offer an open-source, public network without any downtime, fraud, control or interference from third parties. Smart Contracts use the blockchain to allow peer-to-peer transactions without the need for third party verification.

This Bundle comprises cryptocurrencies like Ethereum that enable developers to build applications on top of their blockchains, much like how developers build mobile apps on top of the Apple mobile iOS operating system. The cryptos in this Bundle include Ethereum, Cardano, Tron, Neo, and EOS.

As the old proverb goes, “Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack.” It seems diversification in the rapidly changing world of crypto may be even more important than in other markets.

Graphics cards in 2020 are like coconut shoes in 2019. They were sold out as soon as they went on sale, making them an excellent financial product.

Original title: “A card is hard to find, when can I buy a graphics card at the original price? 》 Written: 0x49

In the early morning of September 2, 2020, Nvidia founder and CEO Huang Renxun took out the RTX 3080 from the kitchen behind him, and officially announced the launch of the “GeForce RTX 30 series” graphics card based on the Ampere architecture.

After the price was announced, countless graphics card enthusiasts cheered. The official price of the RTX 3070 is 40% of the previous generation flagship card RTX 2080 Ti, but the performance is almost the same. While the performance of RTX 3080 is increased by 40% on the basis of RTX 2080 Ti, the price is only 55% of the latter.

Affected by the press conference, Nvidia’s share price rose 3.37% that day, and continued to jump 3.8% the next day, setting a record high.

No one would have thought that such a high-performance graphics card could not be bought at the original price. This series of graphics cards were dubbed “air graphics cards” a few months later.

As the old rival of Nvidia, AMD also released its own new generation “Radeon RX 6000 series” graphics card on October 29 of the same year when the RTX 30 series was released.

However, the shortage of RX 6000 series graphics cards is even worse than that of RTX 30 series graphics cards. The number of graphics cards used in media reviews even exceeds the number sold on the entire network, so netizens have also ridiculed them as “void graphics cards.”

Those who don’t know the graphics card market can hardly imagine that the RTX 2080 non-public version sold two years ago was priced at 6,499 yuan, and now two years later, this graphics card can still sell for 8,000 yuan in the secondary market. This is simply sending money.

Graphics cards in 2020 are like coconut shoes in 2019. They were sold out as soon as they went on sale, making them an excellent financial product.

The graphics card is out of stock, and it seems that it has spread from a niche problem. Even if you swipe a station B video, there will be discussions about the shortage of graphics cards in the barrage.

Many people blame mining for the lack of graphics cards.

When it comes to mining, most people reflect on Bitcoin mining. In fact, it is not the case. Bitcoin’s graphics card mining was eliminated many years ago. Currently, ASIC mining machines are used.

When talking about graphics card mining now, I basically talk about Ethereum (ETH). Of course, there are still many currencies that are also using graphics cards for mining, but considering factors such as liquidity, market value, and profitability, most graphics cards are used for Ethereum mining.

In addition to desktop graphics cards that are used for mining, a large number of notebooks are currently bought by miners for mining because of their strong computing power with mobile graphics cards.

Ethereum’s increase in computing power in the past six months is equivalent to 1.3 million NVIDIA RTX 3080

In the past year, Ethereum’s computing power has increased by 130.46% to 361 Thash/s, which is equivalent to 6 million NVIDIA RTX 3070 graphics cards.

Starting from the official release date of Nvidia RTX 3080 on September 17, the total computing power of Ethereum has increased by about 130 Thash/s. If it is fully converted to NVIDIA RTX 3080 (calculated at 100 Mhash/s), then approximately 1.3 million copies have been added.

Of course, this does not mean that the main source of the increase in Ethereum’s computing power during this period is the graphics card. For example, the core power A10 Pro+ mining machine launched by Xindong Technology is equivalent to 7 Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics cards. Prior to this, the mining machine company Linzhi founded by former CTO Chen Min of Canaan Technology, a US-listed company, has launched Linzhi Phoenix Phoenix, an Ethereum ASIC chip mining machine. It is reported that the computing power of this mining machine is equivalent to 27 NVIDIA RTX 3080. However, Rhythm BlockBeats asked the miners about the details of the mining machine. Many miners said that they did not see the actual mining machine.

A large number of graphics cards are used for mining is a market factor rather than the main factor that really causes a shortage of graphics cards. The sooner miners buy graphics cards, the sooner they can benefit from mining. For miners, graphics cards are their productivity tools, so they are willing to buy graphics cards within a certain range higher than the official price, which results in ordinary users (such as gamers or scientific researchers) not being able to buy them at a reasonable price (what kind of The price is reasonable, which is beyond the scope of this article.

If manufacturers can increase the supply, then miners and ordinary users can get graphics cards at reasonable prices. Therefore, the imbalance between supply and demand is the main reason for the shortage of graphics cards.

In 2020, the global demand for the chip industry will increase due to the epidemic. As Bloomberg reported recently, the global semiconductor industry is facing a crisis of core shortage. According to public information, Nvidia’s RTX 30 series graphics cards are foundry by Samsung and adopt 8nm technology. The foundry that currently meets this manufacturing process is the S1 plant in Qixing, South Korea, which is a production line built in 2005. In March 2020, employees of the factory were infected with the new crown virus, but officials said that the operation of the factory would not be affected.

The reason why AMD is out of stock is also the same. AMD’s RX 6000 series graphics cards are all made by TSMC and adopt 7nm process. However, TSMC’s production capacity is only about 150,000 wafers, of which AMD’s CPU Ryzen 5000 series and graphics card RX 6000 series have only obtained about 30,000 wafers. The remaining capacity is allocated to game consoles from Microsoft and Sony.

According to previous experience, there are only two possibilities for ordinary users to buy graphics cards at the original price. One of the tokens for mining with graphics cards plummeted. The miners were unprofitable, sold graphics cards in their hands and no longer bought a large number of new graphics cards from the market; on the other hand, they expanded production capacity for graphics card manufacturers to satisfy miners and ordinary people. User needs.

Since October 2018, the computing power of the entire Ethereum network has begun to experience a huge decline. In less than half a year, the computing power of the entire network dropped by 50%.

With reference to the price of Ethereum, it can be found that the increase in the price of Ethereum drives the growth of computing power, but the fall in the price of Ethereum has a serious lag in the impact of computing power. As the price of Ethereum drops step by step, after reaching a certain threshold, miners will shut down the mining machine and sell the graphics card they hold. Miners dumping the mining machines they hold regardless of cost are also called “mining disasters.”

Assuming that the current difficulty and computing power of the entire Ethereum network remain unchanged, the electricity bill is calculated at 0.34 yuan/kWh, and the NVIDIA RTX 3080 is priced at 8,500 yuan. Without considering the sale of second-hand graphics cards, the current payback period for this graphics card is 99 days .

Rhythm BlockBeats produced the impact of Ethereum price changes on the return cycle of using RTX 3080 under the above assumptions:

Increase production or launch mining special cards

Increasing output is obviously the best solution at present. However, as mentioned above, the current demand for chips in all walks of life in the world exceeds its production capacity, and it is obviously impossible to increase the output of graphics cards in a short time. In a recent interview, both Nvidia and AMD stated that inventory in the first quarter of 2021 will be extremely tight, and it is expected that the shipments of graphics cards will be further delayed than expected in the next few months.

In addition to increasing production capacity, providing graphics cards exclusively for mining is another solution. This method was used by Nvidia in 2017.

For Nvidia and AMD, they do not like the influx of miners to buy their graphics cards. Because as a consumer electronics product, a specific group of miners holds a large number of graphics cards, which may undermine the strategy and product price positioning of the manufacturer’s previous plans. Take the “dessert-level” graphics card GTX 1060 6G launched by NVIDIA in 2016 as an example. The official price of the non-public version is 1999 yuan. However, when the Ethereum mining boom came, the card was priced at more than 3,000 yuan for a long time, which exceeded the price of NVIDIA’s sub-flagship graphics card GTX 3070 Ti at 3499 yuan. When the mine disaster approached, the market was flooded with a large number of GTX 1060 priced at three digits.

The most direct result is that the GTX 1060 is the most popular graphics card held by gamers on the market today. According to the latest data from January 2021 on Steam, the gaming platform with the most users, 9.75% of the users on the entire platform currently use GTX 1060. It should be noted that Steam has 120 million monthly active users.

In order to alleviate this situation, Nvidia castrated the video output port, modified it with the core of GTX 1060, 1070, and 1080, and introduced P106, P104, and GP102 dedicated graphics cards for mining. However, the business was suspended in August 2018 before the mine disaster.

Recently, Nvidia’s Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress publicly stated at the 19th JPMorgan Chase Technology/Automotive Forum that if cryptocurrency has a strong demand for mining dedicated graphics cards, Nvidia may restart the product line.

However, the premise that Nvidia has launched a dedicated graphics card for mining still requires sufficient production capacity to manufacture chips.

Of course, everything has to wait for the end of the epidemic. Perhaps, a few months later, the graphics card market will return to normal.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

LAS VEGAS, February 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – ISW Holdings, Inc. (OTC: ISWH) (“ISW Holdings” or the “Company”), a global brand management holdings company with commercial operations in Telehealth and Cryptocurrency Mining, is pleased to announce that, prior to going online with its new ASIC s17 miners, the Company has signed a comprehensive Hosting and Maintenance Agreement (the “Agreement”).

“As we continue to bring our miners online, we want our shareholders to be able to track the expansion and profitability of the Company’s mining activity given the sharp rising trend in Bitcoin prices,” commented Alonzo Pierce, President and Chairman of ISW Holdings.

According to the Agreement, Scrubgrass Generating Company, LLP, based in Kennerdell, PA, will provide electricity and Bit5ive, LLC (“Bit5ive”), will serve as the official provider of mine uploading services.

Management notes that this is a critical factor as the Company prepares to bring another 840 ASIC miners online as part of its next three Pod5 datacenter mining units.

The initial power demand for the additional three Pod5 mining pod units, equipped with a total of 840 additional miners, is approximately 4 MW. At current prices, these units will produce approximately $9.9 million in annualized revenues from mining activity.

“It currently costs about $11K in computing power to mine a single Bitcoin,” added Pierce. “Bitcoin is pricing at over five times that level, making this is an exceptional ROI opportunity, and our responsibility to our shareholders is clear: continue to invest, expand, and execute.”

About ISW Holdings ISW Holdings, Inc. (ISWH), based in Nevada, is a diversified portfolio company comprised of essential business lines that serve consumer product demands. Our expertise lies in strategic brand development, early growth facilitation, as well as brand identity through our proprietary procurement process. Together, with our partners, we seek to provide a structure that meets large scalability demands, as well as anticipated marketplace needs. We are able to meet these needs through a variety of strategic innovative processes. ISWH is creating and managing brands across a spectrum of disruptive industries. It maneuvers its proprietary companies through critical stages of market development, which includes conceptualization, go-to-market strategies, engineering, product integration, and distribution efficiency. The company has also partnered with a well-known software development and consulting company, Bengala Technologies LLC, which is developing significant enhancements in the supply chain management space; and the partnership has a vitally needed patent now pending.

For more information, visit www.iswholdings.com

Forward Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology including “could”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “potential” and the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. While these forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business, actual results will almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions, projections, assumptions or other future performance suggested in this report. Except as required by applicable law, we do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements so as to conform these statements to actual results. Investors should refer to the risks disclosed in the Company’s reports filed from time to time with OTC Markets (www.otcmarkets.com).

Company Contact: info@ISWHoldings.com

Public Relations EDM Media, LLC https://edm.media (800) 301-7883

DeFi Wizard Raises $750k from Blockchain Investment Bigshots, to Simplify Multi-chain DeFi Legos

99Bitcoins takes over the “Dead Coins” project to become the cryptocurrency undertaker

The Highs and Lows of Bitcoin and Why You Don’t Need to Sell It

ISW Holdings Negotiating Purchase of Additional 300 to 900 Cryptocurrency Miners in Preparation for Phase 3 Expansion in Mining Operations

Elon Musk Advises Crypto Users To Secure Their Crypto Keys Properly

Bitcoin Surges After Tesla Bought $1.5 Billion Worth of BTC

ISW Holdings Announces Pod5 Crypto Mining Pod Set to be Powered Up on February 12

Wisebitcoin Launches Professional-Grade Crypto Exchange

Singapore, Singapore, 26th February, 2021, // ChainWire //

Unifi Farms Beta Launches on Unifi Protocol to Pioneer No-Stake Farming

Unifi Protocol announces the launch of Unifi Farms. The most revolutionary part of Unifi Farms is there is no staking of the liquidity token required. The public beta launch of Unifi Farms V1 will take place on not one, not two, but six different blockchains at once. 

Unifi is proud to announce the upcoming public beta launch of Unifi Farms V1 on Binance Smart Chain!

Unifi Protocol is not a clone of other DeFi projects, which has led to some very unique innovations.  Unifi Farms will continue this tradition of shattering expectations and introducing features on Unifi Farms not being offered anywhere else in DeFi!   

Unifi Farms will have several advantages over old-fashioned DeFi farms.  The one that will likely be the most revolutionary with Unifi Farms is there is no staking of the liquidity token required! Welcome to the world of true auto-farming on Unifi, where we refer to it as No-Stake Farming.

Why is farming without staking so revolutionary?

Savings! Everyone agrees the high network fees on Ethereum have a large impact on the farming rewards earned by liquidity providers.  Even on low cost networks such as Binance Smart Chain, the network fee is a cost that reduces the benefit of farming. 

To participate in most farms, the user pays at least five network fees.…

Bengaluru,, India, 24th February, 2021, // ChainWire //

In order to give shape to their ‘one-click DeFi contracts creation’ dream, Defi Wizard has raised a total of $750,000 from X21 Digital, AU21 Capital, Amsterdam-based TRG Capital, DeltaHub Capital, NGC Ventures, and ExNetwork.

Speaking on latest development Defi wizard founder and CEO, Anand Kamath said: 

“It gives us immense pleasure to announce that our platform, DeFi Wizard has attracted the attention of leading blockchain investors and funds.”

DeFi Wizard aims to help cryptocurrency companies and businesses seamlessly create digital assets, without any hassles, with the objective of becoming an all-in-one token creation platform. 

This recently concluded fundraising round is an important milestone for Defi Wizard. It will fuel the development of the platform along with operations/maintenance.

Other ways in which Defi wizard will receive assistance is with liquidity bootstrapping for Uniswap listing, alongwith added global and regional promotional efforts to generate awareness for the platform. 

Defi wizard is a dashboard for building DeFi (decentralized finance) smart contracts with a few clicks. It offers real-time programmer analytics and allows users to create smart contracts for ERC20 / BEP20 / EDST, staking, yield farming, governance, cross-chain bridge, gasless relayer baked in.

As per the latest statistics, more than five projects are already using DeFi Wizard’s staking services and more than $100M AUM has been locked through the smart contracts generated through the…

Singapore, Singapore, 17th February, 2021, // ChainWire //

99Bitcoins, an educational website that maintains a list of Bitcoin obituaries made by the media, has taken over the Dead Coins project as well. This move effectively crowns 99Bitcoins as “The undertaker of the cryptoverse”.

Deadcoins.com was established in late 2017 to document the death of thousands of altcoins that popped up during the cryptocurrency mania of that time. The idea was simple – create a list of coins that have ceased to exist after the hype died down.

A coin can become “dead” due to a variety of reasons such as its development being halted, having no one that uses or trades it, being exposed as a scam and more. While the project was initially maintained only by its founders, it was later outsourced to the cryptocurrency community which was allowed to add their own dead coins.

“I think the dead coins project is a brilliant idea that needs a bit of polishing” says Ofir Beigel, owner and founder of 99Bitcoins. “The fact that anyone can add a dead coin themselves made the list of coins very inaccurate. We’ve spent days going through the complete list and sifted out all of the coins that were buried alive, so to speak. For example, Bitcoin, Tron, Dogecoin and Tether are just some of the coins that were listed when we took…

Bitcoin has had an exceptionally trying week, and it doesn’t bode well for March — a month that’s traditionally bearish for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.

After hitting record highs of $58,300 last Sunday, Bitcoin suffered a dramatic reversal of fortunes — crashing to $46,000 on Tuesday. Elon Musk might not have helped matters… in the run-up to the correction, he had tweeted that BTC and ETH seemed high.

Analysts and investors alike breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday when Bitcoin managed to retake $50,000 — with some proclaiming that the asset had undergone a “healthy correction.” But this narrative proved shaky when BTC plunged yet again on Friday to lows of $44,454.84.

All of this comes amid a backdrop of unease in the traditional markets, and this week’s price activity suggests BTC faces an uphill struggle if it’s going to appreciate further. Generally, analysts are looking for $50,000 to become an established support before expecting any bullish continuation.

A flurry of good news throughout the week may have prevented things from going bad to worse for Bitcoin. Early in the week, two institutions announced they were doubling down on their BTC buy-ins. 

MicroStrategy purchased an additional 19,452 coins, with CEO Michael Saylor declaring that his company has no intention of slowing down. It came after Square announced it had purchased 3,318 BTC for $170 million — following on from a $50-million spending spree in October 2020.

Bitfinex and Tether also announced that they had reached a settlement with the New York attorney general, linked to ongoing allegations that Tether misrepresented the degree to which USDT stablecoins were backed by fiat collateral. Under the terms of the deal, both companies will have to pay $18.5 million in damages, report on their reserves periodically, and stop serving customers in the state.

On Friday, JPMorgan helped to cheer up the markets by telling clients that allocating 1% of a portfolio to Bitcoin would serve as a hedge against fluctuations in stocks, bonds and commodities.

Moving beyond Bitcoin, there’s been a lot of movement in the altcoin markets. 

Last week, Binance Coin had stolen the show with a stunning triple-digit surge that helped it become the world’s No. 3 cryptocurrency. Fast forward to this week, and it’s now been overtaken by Cardano’s ADA.

A fresh wave of optimism and buying volume on Friday pushed its price to a new all-time high, and momentum for the project has been building throughout February. Open interest for ADA futures also rose to $580 million, surpassing Litecoin to become the third-largest derivatives market.

All of this comes as an exodus from the Ethereum blockchain continues, with 1inch becoming the latest DeFi project to expand to Binance Smart Chain.

As the old saying goes: “The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day.”

The sun was certainly shining on Elon Musk when the week began. One analyst had suggested that Tesla had made $1 billion in profit since making its Bitcoin investment. That’s more than the profit generated by selling electric vehicles (what it’s known for) across the whole of 2020.

Alas, that was before the carnage seen on the crypto markets. To make matters worse, Tesla’s share price has dropped by more than 20% from the highs of $890 seen on Jan. 26. These joint factors prompted Musk to lose his crown as the world’s richest man. Some analysts wasted little time in attributing TSLA’s crash to its association with Bitcoin.

But there’s another threat on the horizon, with reports suggesting that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could investigate Musk’s alleged impact on BTC and DOGE through his many, many tweets.

The billionaire made a concerted effort to shrug off these concerns, suggesting he would even welcome such a probe.

We’ve been learning a lot more about Coinbase this week as it gears up to launch on the stock market. One particular hipster-ish announcement came when the exchange declared that it’s held Bitcoin and other cryptos on its balance sheet for nine years.

Coinbase sought to package this announcement as a paean to other corporations that might be considering a similar move — touting itself as an authority in advising institutions about how to deal with their own prospective investments.

In other news, the company submitted its S-1 report to the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. The filing revealed that the exchange generated revenues of $1.1 billion in 2020 — 96% of which came from transaction fees. Net income in 2020 came in at $327 million… a stark contrast to the $46 million loss seen the year before.

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $46,609.99 , Ether at $1,470.17 and XRP at $0.43. The total market cap is at $1,429,222,267,885.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Fantom , Pundi X and Cardano. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Dodo , Horizen and Venus.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis . 

“As gas price stays too high, we see a lot of projects, tokens and users coming to BSC, and this is the right moment for 1inch to expand to other blockchains.”

Sergey Kunz, 1inch co-founder

“Since our founding in 2012, Coinbase has held bitcoin and other crypto assets on our balance sheet — and we plan to maintain an investment in crypto assets as we believe strongly in the long-term potential of the cryptoeconomy.”

Coinbase

“Incredible scale for a technology that critics claimed couldn’t scale.”

Ryan Watkins, Messari researcher

“It’s very rare to see pre-GPU era bitcoins move, it only happened dozens of times in the past few years. And no, it’s probably not Satoshi.”

Antoine Le Calvez

“The company now holds over 90,000 bitcoins, reaffirming our belief that bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, can serve as a dependable store of value.”

Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy CEO

“[I’m] very positive on Bitcoin, very happy to see a healthy correction here.”

Cathie Wood, Ark Investment Management founder

“We are now sitting on 2.35x the previous cycle ATH OF 20k. WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED.”

Bitcoin Archive

“Square believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment, providing a way for individuals to participate in a global monetary system and secure their own financial future.”

“I think you can expect that we’ll have a billion people storing their value — in essence, a savings account — on a mobile device within five years, and they’re going to want to use something like Bitcoin.”

Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy CEO 

“We’ve experienced 2018 & 2019. This is nothing.” 

Michaël van de Poppe, Cointelegraph Markets analyst

“I do think people get drawn into these manias who may not have as much money to spare. So, I’m not bullish on Bitcoin, and my general thought would be: If you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out.”

Bill Gates, Microsoft founder

“But we’re now to the point where ETH 1.0 — oh, we need ETH 2.0 so soon, come on, Vitalik, get it going, man — ETH 1.0, most regular users are priced out of using the majority of applications on Ethereum.”

Lark Davis, crypto influencer

“I lost most of my life savings and haven’t received a response from a human. I’d think they would refund or they would lose all their customers. I’m sick to my stomach but will join the lawsuit with plenty of proof(screenshots) if not refunded.” 

u/dtk6802, Reddit user

“In our view, many institutional investors are entering with a buy-and-hold mentality given their understanding of Bitcoin as digital gold.”

Martin Gaspar, CrossTower research analyst

“I think Tesla is going to double down on its Bitcoin investment.”

Dan Ives, Wedbush analyst

We love an outlandish prediction here at Hodler’s Digest… and Michael Saylor certainly delivered the goods this week.

The MicroStrategy CEO declared that Bitcoin will be the savings method of choice for a staggering 1 billion people in just five years’ time. That’s despite the fact that just 21 million BTC exist… and his company already owns 90,000 of it.

Saylor’s comments came after U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen launched her latest attack on Bitcoin, describing it as “inefficient.”

In a confident interview with CNBC, he declared that Bitcoin “is the dominant digital monetary network,” adding: “I think you can expect that we’ll have a billion people storing their value — in essence, a savings account — on a mobile device within five years, and they’re going to want to use something like Bitcoin.”

Microsoft founder Bill Gates had a big warning for Bitcoin buyers this week.

Speaking to Bloomberg, he warned: “Elon has tons of money, and he’s very sophisticated so, you know, I don’t worry that his Bitcoin would randomly go up or down.”

Gates said it would be a mistake for the average investor to blindly follow the mania of optimism surrounding Musk’s market moves, telling those who aren’t billionaires to “watch out.” 

Criticizing Bitcoin’s energy consumption, he added: “I do think people get drawn into these manias who may not have as much money to spare. So, I’m not bullish on Bitcoin, and my general thought would be: If you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out.”

This isn’t to say that Gates thinks digital currencies are a bad thing. He just believes that they should be transparent, reversible and (essentially) centralized.

As you’d expect, a post-mortem is now fully underway after this week’s carnage in the crypto markets.

Curiously, data from Santiment suggests that the initial crash may have been linked to a huge transaction that took place after Sunday’s all-time high of $58,300. The transfer of 2,700 BTC — worth $156 million at the time — was the second-biggest transaction of 2021.

It’s possible that this whale cashing out contributed to unbearable selling pressure in the market, which snowballed into the largest one-hour candle in Bitcoin’s history. If enough alarm bells weren’t ringing, this self-same wallet also dumped 2,000 BTC just before last March’s infamous flash crash.

A prominent crypto influencer has warned that Ethereum’s competitors will continue to siphon away users should Eth2 fail to launch soon amid ever-increasing gas fees.

Lark Davis said Ethereum’s skyrocketing fees has meant that only “rich investors” can afford to use the network, prompting smaller users to switch to competitors like Binance Smart Chain.  

Describing the current gas fee prices as “totally loco,” Davis urged Ethereum developers to expedite the launch of Eth2 in response to the skyrocketing to prevent a further exodus of users to cheaper alternatives. He added: “We’re now to the point where ETH 1.0 — oh, we need ETH 2.0 so soon, come on, Vitalik, get it going, man — ETH 1.0, most regular users are priced out of using the majority of applications on Ethereum. […] A transaction on Uniswap costs $50 on average these days, and that is just crazy.”

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TL;DR Competent, organised, compliant – the best combination the crypto world has to offer So far we’ve covered Waves, a massive, well-funded and highly-organised crypto project; and TurtleCoin, a tiny grassroots coin with an extremely active following. This time, we’re looking at a unique crypto initiative that sits somewhere between the two: Crown Coin. Crown is a regular, mined crypto with an established track record (founded 2014), a small but active community, and some competent devs who are passionate about bringing a new approach to decentralised applications. The fact that it’s a Masternode coin that pays out regularly if you make the investment and effort to set up a node really doesn’t hurt either. Crypto investment is risky and the markets can be highly volatile. Do your own due diligence before buying. No responsibility is accepted for investment decisions made on the basis of this analysis. At first, Crown is a little hard to get your head around without some help, but it’s essentially about connecting regular applications with blockchain technology. Whilst Ethereum allows you to build decentralised applications (dapps) entirely on the blockchain, Crown aims to take a smarter and more scalable approach to this by allowing ordinary applications to hook into the blockchain. Businesses will be able to register identities and run applications, plus use an instant payment API, all on the blockchain. It’s a smart approach and the team has already signed up its first real-world businesses. Compliance is a huge concern for the Crown team, who are committed to doing things in a way that is sustainable in a climate of evolving regulation. It’s a mined coin – there was no ICO, avoiding future issues that may arise around securities legislation – and because it’s merge-mined with bitcoin the hashrate is huge, making it an extremely secure blockchain. There’s a firm emphasis on working tech over hype, so ‘marketing’ is not something large amounts of money are being thrown at until all the pieces are in place. The community is relatively small but active, and there are frequent meetups in various locations around the world. Masternodes and System Nodes are critical to the Crown ecosystem. Originally a DASH fork, the team has created a model where there are layers to the network: the miners, who receive part of the block rewards, and then the Masternodes (10,000 CRW requirement) and System Nodes (500 CRW requirement) who will process transactions and support the payment and business APIs. The price of CRW (around $2.40) means that these are currently a very attractive price, and although a Masternode will be out of reach for many investors, System Nodes are much cheaper and have a better ROI from staking income. At current prices, a Masternode costs about $24,000 and nets the holder about $540 per month. There’s a handy calculator at https://crowncentral.net. A slice of block rewards is reserved for bounties, and Masternodes can be used to vote on proposals which automatically pay out a respectable chunk of CRW for these at regular intervals. This is an excellent way to fund development and avoids the need for either a controversial ICO or donation campaign. Crown is one of those jewels in crypto: an overlooked project that looks like it’s doing everything right and has a firm vision for the long term – in terms of tech, compliance, marketing and strategy. If the team succeed in delivering that vision (and there is every indication they will) then there is no reason to doubt that Crown will be integrated in a wide range of business applications. It’s one that rewards holders in the short-term via Masternode staking, but also has amazing potential beyond that. Assessment: Already profitable due to Masternode and System Node payouts; significant room for additional growth on the basis of comparable projects. Approach: Acquire an initial stake (possibly over time to average costs) sufficient for a Masternode or one or more System Nodes; sell revenues to de-risk or hold them to compound in new System Nodes. For more information, visit https://crown.tech. Red hot news, scorching wit and searing opinion pieces from Crypto Inferno. Join us on Telegram: https://t.me/crypto_inferno Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoInferno/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CryptoInferno_ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CryptoInferno/

Adoption is a word you’ll hear on an almost daily basis in the crypto space. It can though mean different things to different people. For some, it’s all about just getting more people into buying crypto and thus pushing the prices up. For them, adoption means nothing more than higher profits.

To those of us who aren’t solely focussed on enriching ourselves, it’s a broader term. We want to see crypto continue to take bigger and bigger chunks out of the traditional financial system. We want to see it loosen the grip that fiat currencies and banks have over our everyday lives. To us, crypto is more than just an asset class: it’s a medium of exchange that we can use on our own terms.

There has been no shortage of headlines over the last few years about businesses waking up and smelling the crypto. An increasing number of stores and companies now accept payment for goods and services in BTC and other cryptos, allowing us more financial freedom than ever before. But all the hype around being able to buy your morning latte using crypto (back when we were able to do that sort of thing) has hidden another important area of adoption from view.

We’re spending more of our lives online, especially as lockdowns drag on. Many of us are spending some of that time playing games online too and it’s here that crypto adoption finds another frontier. Blockchain-based games are taking off in popularity and they’re using crypto to power their in-game ecosystems. Transactions made within these games are going to play an increasingly major role in driving adoption of crypto forward in a whole other direction.

There are two main features to blockchain games. We’ve already covered the first: the integration of cryptocurrency for in-game payments and/or the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within the games themselves. NFTs allow gamers to own unique assets within games that can be traded with other players or transferred across platforms. A good example would be a rare weapon in Fortnite.

Then there’s the nature of blockchain itself: an incorruptible database which can store information about who owns which items and what they are worth. This would enable them to be traded safely, with buyers having confidence that their items are genuine and sellers have a record of the sale being finalised. Smart contracts can be used to make the whole process seamless and entirely transparent.

There are also consequences for game data too. By using blockchain, players’ progress can be tracked and cheating made all-but impossible. The days of nefarious gamers hacking extra skills or unlocking higher levels could be numbered.

Blockchain is opening up a whole new world of possibilities for gamers. Not only is it allowing them to immerse themselves even more in the games they play, but it is also giving many the opportunity to monetise their hobby. Great players can earn tangible rewards for their skills, while those with an artistic leaning can design and sell desirable, collectable in-game items. The potential is vast and the game devs are only just getting started.

As you can imagine, the blockchain gaming space is growing fast, with new titles coming out all the time as demand increases. As with regular gaming, there are good, bad and indifferent blockchain games, catering to all sorts of tastes. But we’re not interested in those. We’re concerned with the titles that are setting the pace for the rest of the sector and laying early claim to classic status.

So, here in no particular order are ten of the blockchain games we’re most excited about. It’s a tough job playing a whole heap of games to find the best ones, but someone’s gotta do it.

This virtual world platform has been around since 2012 as a regular iOS, Android and Windows game, but pivoted towards blockchain when bought by Animoca Brands in 2018. The game is all about the creativity of its users and the content they generate all contributes to the ever-expanding Sandbox multiverse.

The Sandbox takes its lead from games like Minecraft and Roblox, but seeks to concentrate power and ownership in the hands of its users rather than the developers. It uses NFTs to enable users to own their creations and reward them for building and maintaining the game’s ecosystem.

Users can create in-game objects through the VoxEdit function and then sell them in the Sandbox’s online marketplace. The game makes use of three separate tokens to allow them to do this. SAND is an ERC-20 token and the main in-game currency which functions as ‘the basis for all of the ecosystem’s transactions and interactions.’

LAND consists of NFTs representing digital real estate which can be bought to develop as the player chooses. If the LAND is developed successfully it can be rented out or sold at a profit.

Finally, there are ASSETS: these are player-created ERC-1155 tokens that can also be traded in the marketplace and represent the content generated by the users.

If you want to buy LAND then you’ll first need to load up on SAND and buy through one of the presales that take place on the game platform itself. ASSETS can also be bought here.

The Enjin platform is fast becoming a hub for blockchain game developers, as it builds ‘a product ecosystem that will help humanity create advanced virtual economies through the power of blockchain technology.’

It offers a platform on which to build blockchain games and mint the tokens that power them, while also offering wallet and marketplace services too. Its native Enjin Coin (ENJ) is an ERC-20 token that backs the in-game assets issued by games on the platform, thus allowing them to be freely traded.

One of the most exciting games on the Enjin platform has to be The Six Dragons, a fantasy-themed open-world RPG in which players can ‘explore endless lands, farm for valuable materials, craft more than 300 unique items, trade items with other players and improve their arsenal using powerful enchants.’

As with The Sandbox, the emphasis here is all on the user. The game prides itself on being shaped and run by its players and thus truly decentralised in the best blockchain tradition. The fantasy genre is a pretty well-worn one in both traditional and blockchain gaming, but The Six Dragons looks amazing and gives players plenty of scope to explore the game’s world while acquiring and trading a wide variety of items.

The ability to design and craft items to then use or sell has to be earned, thus rewarding players who participate in the game and help grow its ecosystem. For users wanting to buy Enjin Coin to use in the game, Binance is once again the best bet, though other exchanges do support it.

A recent Coin Telegraph article put it nicely when it stated that blockchain games have more in common with crypto investing than more mainstream games like Call of Duty. This is particularly true of Axie Infinity, a game that takes its lead from Pokémon and Crypto Kitties. Here players buy and breed cute little creatures called Axies while battling other players in PvP mode, or the game’s AI in PvE.

Players need to buy a minimum of three Axies to get started, with the cheapest starting from 0.0421 ETH (around $75). This means a pretty hefty initial investment, but time and effort spent on the game can net you a return, as winning battles earns you Small Love Potions (SLPs). These are the game’s utility tokens and can then be used to breed more Axies, which can then be sold to other players. The higher an Axie’s breed count, the more expensive it becomes.

SLPs can be traded on Uniswap, enabling dedicated players to earn from their endeavours. Axie Infinity also has a governance token in the form of Axie Infinity Shards (AXS). These can be staked, used to buy NFTs in the game’s marketplace and give holders a say in how the network is run. AXS can also be traded on Uniswap and, of course, Binance.

The graphics and gameplay of Axie Infinity aren’t for everyone, but all crypto fans must applaud the news that some players have even been able to earn a living from playing. A fine example of blockchain working for the little guy.

Collecting football cards briefly consumed my life when I was a kid and I know plenty of people who’ll admit to spending way too much time playing fantasy football as adults. Sorare has brought the two together for the blockchain generation and some of their collectable digital cards have already changed hands for eye-watering sums of money.

Gamers assemble a team of five players by buying cards at auction on the Sorare marketplace, or by trading them with other payers. Cards are valued according to the players on them and by the numbers produced. Each player has only one unique card produced per season, which makes them the most valuable type to own. The current season’s unique card for Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe was bought for over €55,000, which should give you an idea of the levels of engagement of some gamers.

Your fantasy team of five players will then win points depending on the performance of those players in real-life games. Gamers can win more cards or pay-outs in ETH if their team does well. ETH functions as the in-game currency, though gamers can fund their accounts with fiat as well.

As with any self-respecting blockchain game, the potential to earn from playing is there, either by selecting an all-conquering team or by buying astutely and selling those cards when they’ve gone up in value.

Blockchain also ensures that gamers can trade their card with confidence, knowing that they’re not buying fakes and having access to the full history of every card on the marketplace. You can thus see what the card your looking at has sold for previously, helping you decide whether or not to invest. While some cards may change hands for a footballer’s weekly wage, there are plenty of cheaper options for those looking to start small.

If playing God is your thing and you were a fan of SimCity back in the day, then MegaCryptoPolis3D is the blockchain-based answer to your prayers. It’s a city-building MMO dApp built on Ethereum and allows you to buy, develop and monetise a plot of land within the decentralised game map.

To begin playing, you need to connect your Web3 wallet (eg MetaMask) to your game account, which will enable you to begin buying land and developing it. As with the other games on this list, the more you’re willing to invest, the more you’ll be able to earn. Providing services, selling advertising space and collect taxes on the land you own are just some of the ways in which you can earn from playing the game.

Last year also saw MegaCryptoPolis3D go DeFi, with the launch of its $MEGA token. This opens up a whole new set of options for players and includes yield farming, liquidity mining and trading on any DEX.

The game runs on both Ethereum and TRON and is available for both desktop and mobile.

Sci-fi dystopias are another recurring theme of blockchain games and Neon District is one of the best in this niche. This RPG has a cyberpunk theme and sees players battling enemies in Unity City, ‘filled with crime syndicates, oracles, cogs, genetic mods, winding plots and a morally-questionable cast of characters.’

Players fight their way through Unity City, picking up new skills and unique pieces of kit, all represented by good old NFTs. These can then be traded in the game’s marketplace, where ETH is once again the main currency, while some are changing hands on third-party sites like Rarible.

The game is sumptuously designed by the devs at Blockade games, the team behind the now sadly-defunct Plasma Bears. It features enemies to battle, puzzles to solve and ‘trading card game battle mechanics’ to master on your quest through the seething backstreets of the enormous cityscape. Its first season is geared towards single-player mode, while the upcoming Season 2 will expand the scope of the game with a co-operative feature which will allow players to fight alongside each other.

It may seem a little premature to be recommending a title that hasn’t even been fully released yet, but Age of Rust just looks too good to ignore. This single-player first-person game casts you as Quinn 7, a 22nd-century hacker ‘sequenced and stored away for the future.’ Now you must cross the universe, exploring abandoned space stations and the remnants of once-great civilisations on distant planets, all while dodging the attentions of rogue AI.

The gameplay looks astounding and Age of Rust should find itself the jewel in the crown of the Enjin platform once it’s released via Steam later this year. The in-game items to own and trade are what you’d expect from a game of this nature and players can expect to tool up with a wide variety of weapons, equipment and extra skills to take on those pesky robots.

The in-game puzzles will come in three forms. Adventure progress such as finding a hidden door or passageway will move the story along. Crypto puzzles can be solved to earn rewards of up to 4 BTC, 35,000 ENJ and other NFT rewards, while crypto treasure hunts span the game, offering a 20 BTC bonanza to the eventual solver. All of this, coupled with the in-game NFT marketplace, offers a host of economic incentives to get gamers hooked.

Another Enjin title that is still in testing ahead of its release is 1on1 fantasy PvP 9Lives Arena, which features different warrior classes doing battle in ‘a competitive arena built around practice, preparation, and permadeath.’

This last point raises the stakes considerably: each warrior has nine lives and you lose a life whenever you lose a battle. Once your warrior loses their ninth battle then only their stats remain, commemorated on a statue. You meanwhile, will have to set about training and nurturing a new champion.

Once you’ve chosen your warrior from the likes of Viking, Gladiator, Samurai and others besides, you can customise them to your heart’s content. Weapons, skins, skills and more can be collected, while winning battles will unlock yet more rewards. A companion called Ooogy (yes, really) will help you as you train your warrior amidst the ruins of ancient Atlantis and successful warriors can get the chance to craft their own weapons which can then be sold or exchanged with other players.

Virtual worlds are big business in the blockchain world and, along with its rival The Sandbox, Decentraland is one of the dominant platforms. Built on Ethereum, it works in a similar way to its big rival, with users buying up land to develop and monetise as they see fit.

The Metaverse is divided into a limited number of LAND parcels, each represented by its own ERC-721 NFT. The in-game currency meanwhile is MANA, an ERC-20 token which can be used to buy LAND and customise it.

The whole Decentraland Metaverse is comprised of 90,601 individual plot of LAND, each of which is 100 square metres. Users can develop these as they wish, though large parts of the metaverse are divided into broadly themed districts. These districts came about from crowdsales of MANA tokens and are permanently owned by their buyers who cannot trade them.

Because Decentraland is a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), MANA token holders have a say in the project’s governance and how the metaverse is run. MANA can be earned in-game or bought on a number of exchanges, though the best liquidity is, of course, to be found on Binance. The in-game marketplace has a vast array of things to spend it on.

Part of the genius of Decentraland is how it mimics real life while giving its players far more control than they’d get outside of the metaverse. LAND holders can sell advertising space, lease their digital real estate out to others or use it to host paid-for experiences, all of which is mostly beyond the scope of folks like us in the big bad world. Power to the people indeed.

Last on our list, but by no means least, is Infinite Fleet, another space-based MMO due for release later this year. Players will take command of the United Sol Federation starship to do battle with the Atrox aliens. Your arsenal of ships and other weapons can all be upgraded and a co-operative mode will enable you to team up with friends to fight the good fight together.

The in-game currency is INF (not to be confused with the native token of the Infinitus project, which shares the same ticker). The project has some eye-catching support, with investment having come from both Litecoin creator Charlie Lee and Blockstream CEO Adam Back. Blockstream itself is also heavily involved with the creation of INF, issuing it on its own Liquid Network. The supply of INF is fixed, like bitcoin’s, and will be issued to players via a ‘Proof-of-participation’ model.

Infinite Fleet is already generating a lot of excitement amongst blockchain gamers and looks set to give Age of Rust a run for its money when both are released in the near future.

As developers and gamers wake up to the promise of blockchain, expect to see yet more titles appear over the coming months and years. The combination of blockchain and gaming should prove a win-win for both gamers and developers, with players getting more say in how their favourite games are run and maintained, as well as greater control over their assets and the chance to make money from their endeavours.

Devs too stand to benefit from this new gaming frontier. Funding will be easier to raise through gaming communities and token sales and auctions can be harnessed to drive the hype around emerging projects. The future’s bright, the future’s blockchain.