This column finds that an economically sustainable network will involve the same cost, regardless of whether it is proof of work or proof of stake. It also suggests that permissioned networks will not be able to economise on costs relative to permissionless networks.
The 2.0 upgrade, often called Serenity, promises higher transaction throughput and a new security model under proof-of-stake (PoS). Eth 2.0 has been in development since 2015 but had failed to gain traction due to the highly technical expertise required to pursue it, until now.
Synthetix is a token trading platform built on Ethereum. It allows to creation of real world assets, like stocks and shares to be bought and traded using crypto. Synthetix started as a stablecoin project called Havvenout, before pivoting to DeFi. Much of Synthetix' recent success can be attributed to its innovative token incentive model. SNX holders stake SNX in return for fees from the Synthetix exchange and rewards from the system's inflationary monetary policy.
Sweetcoin is an "rewards"-based is a token designed to return profit users with cash back from using the Sweetbridge platform. Sweetcoin's intended uses are three-fold: to borrow against the net present value of the coin; manage the token to ensure against the asset's devaluation; stake the token as a network operation participant. Sweetbridge describes the Sweetcoin discount token as "the cornerstone of the Sweetbridge ecosystem". Sweetcoin's value comes directly from its ability to grant monthly discounts that grow as the revenue in the Sweetbridge network grows, according to the project. The "rewards" are generated for users by locking a minimum amount of the Sweetcoin token in a wallet from month to month.
Ethereum, which launched in 2015, is the network on which its tradable token Ether (ETH) runs. In short, Ethereum acts as a platform on which developers can build projects or solutions. When a project builds on Ethereum, it may come with an asset for use within that ecosystem, likely an ERC-20 token. Whenever a person sends ERC-20 tokens must also hold ETH in the same wallet to pay for the "gas" fees associated with the transaction. ETH derives its value from these gas fees, plus its usage as collateral, its ability to be lent and borrowed, its use as a medium of exchange for trading and NFTs (nonfungible tokens), and the fact that it can be staked for interest. Also, much of the crypto-asset decentralized finance (DeFi) sector began on, and is still based on, Ethereum.
"With ongoing conversations around sustainability, the environmental impact of blockchain technology and popular, but energy-intensive, cryptocurrencies, we're pleased to share that Celo is a carbon negative blockchain. Very simply, the Celo network's Proof-of-Stake (POS) consensus algorithm naturally requires a tiny fraction of the energy usage of Proof-of-Work (POW) algorithms as used by Bitcoin and Ethereum. And at capacity, the Celo network could process up to 7 million transactions per ton of CO2 emitted by its infrastructure."
Cardano launched the first testnet for its smart contract platform, Alonzo, that will be rolled out in three phases, each named after a different color. The current blue phase will be followed by Alonzo White and Alonzo Purple, each aiming to include more users and add functionality to the network. The phases are to be rolled out at 30-day intervals, with Alonzo Purple expected to launch by the end of August.
Alonzo also will support an ERC20 converter, allowing ETH tokens to run on Cardano, making its proof-of-stake network a serious competitor to Ethereum.
Concordium's vision is to become the leading public and regulatory compliant open de-centralized world computer with Identity built-in at the Protocol level. Concordium offers secure, low-cost services for transactions, IoT data sharing, storage and more. It is a proof-of-stake-based blockchain which solves the shortcomings of classic blockchains and their non-compliant cryptocurrencies - with the introduction of protocol-level identity verification and the use of zero-knowledge proofs to replace anonymity with perfect privacy - and facilitate KYC and AML procedures for Concordium's Global Transaction Unit (GTU) payment coin. https://concordium.com/
Algorand is a Pure Proof of Stake (PPoS) blockchain designed to facilitate the future of finance. It was designed by Turing Award-winning cryptography expert Silvio Micali and is supported by the works of the Algorand Foundation.
Morgan Stanley has told its financial advisors that the bank is launching access to three funds that enable ownership of bitcoin. Two of the funds on offer are from Galaxy Digital, while the third is a joint effort from asset manager FS Investments and bitcoin company NYDIG. Morgan Stanley considers it suitable only for people with "an aggressive risk tolerance" who have at least $2 million in assets held by the firm. Investment firms need at least $5 million at the bank to qualify for the new stakes.
From the Bloomberg Editorial Board: "In the end, the legacy of the cryptocurrency craze might be a better form of money. If so, all the commotion - not to mention all the losses between now and then - will have been worth it."
Coinbase has bought blockchain infrastructure startup, Bison Trails, which provides an easy-to-use platform to launch and run nodes on any blockchain network. Bison Trails will serve as a foundational element within Coinbase's ecosystem suite of products, while continuing to operate as a standalone product and provide its "infrastructure as a service" to its current customers. It enables holders of digital tokens to run their own validators or simply custody their holdings offline and delegate the stake to another company's validator.
Most crypto-asset users prefer to hold their crypto as part of a long-term investment strategy, according to a Binance Research global survey (61,000 crypto users across 178 countries and regions from September 15 to October 25, 2020. 39% of respondents stated that their "usage" of crypto is dominated by hodling, 28% prefer to use most of their crypto for buying other cryptos, and 22% said that they mainly use their crypto for staking and lending. The remaining 11% said that they mainly use their digital coins for payments.
Most crypto-asset users prefer to hold their crypto as part of a long-term investment strategy, according to a Binance Research global survey (61,000 crypto users across 178 countries and regions from September 15 to October 25, 2020. 39% of respondents stated that their "usage" of crypto is dominated by hodling, 28% prefer to use most of their crypto for buying other cryptos, and 22% said that they mainly use their crypto for staking and lending. The remaining 11% said that they mainly use their digital coins for payments.
MakerDAO has launched the multi-collateral version of its DAI stablecoin. But despite the rapid growth of the sector and the diversification of assets involved, DeFi is still influenced by a handful of central players: Namely, Polychain Capital, a16z, 1confirmation, and unknown MKR whales. With governance decisions largely influenced by those with the largest stakes to lose, some crypto veterans are pushing for a closer examination of MakerDAO's marketing directives.
Ethereum celebrated New Year's Day with a last-minute network upgrade, Muir Glacier, which is designed to delay the onset of the 'Ice Age'. The upgrade, named after the melting Alaskan natural wonder, patches a mistake made in the Istanbul update of December 2019. When Istanbul was put in place, Ethereum developers apparently forgot to adjust the feature known as the 'difficulty bomb'. This slows down block settlement to gradually push the network towards a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
The total supply of USDC has topped $1.8 billion, rising more than 250% since the beginning of 2020, likely spurred on by the explosion in DeFi's yield farming popularity (where liquidity providers are rewarded for staking stablecoins and other digital assets in DeFi protocols for use in loan issuance and other financial activities.) The acceleration in USDC issuance also may be powered in part by the August 27 release of USDC version 2.0, an upgrade that improved security by transitioning some administrative USDC-related tasks to on-chain processes and allowed integrated projects to pay gas fees for users when transacting with USDC. Also, it's supported by and easily obtained on Coinbase.
The smart contract required for triggering the first phase of Ethereum 2.0 has enough funds to begin activation of Ethereum's most ambitious upgrade yet, which will radically shift Ethereum's economic model, resource usage and governance. To be clear, the network itself isn't launching just yet. The launch of Ethereum 2.0 will activate a parallel proof-of-stake blockchain dubbed "the beacon chain" to run in parallel alongside the existing Ethereum network. The initial phases of its development will not impact existing users and decentralized applications on Ethereum.
he Stellar project released the 13th version of its core protocol on June 13th. Network validators will vote on whether to upgrade the network on June 18th. Like XRP, Stellar does not use Proof-of-work or Proof-of-Stake but uses its own unique approach to solve the Byzantine generals problem called the Federated Byzantine Agreement. The protocol changes focus on three key Core Advancement Protocols, Fee bumps, Fine-grained control of asset authorization, and First-class multiplexed accounts.
Peer-to-peer commerce company Origin launched Origin Dollars, or OUSD, a stablecoin whose reserves leverage decentralized finance (DeFi) so that balances grow wherever it resides, no staking or account required. OUSD will be backed one-for-one by the three big stablecoins on Ethereum: Tether's USDT, Circle and Coinbase's USDC and MakerDAO's DAI. Users can mint OUSD by depositing any of those three into Origin's new app, or they can just buy it on Uniswap. Either way, the OUSD will just start growing in their wallet, no further action needed.
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