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Top NFT Projects to Follow in 2022!

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โ€œThe virtual world will open thousands of new opportunities for this new generation.โ€

~ Anuj Jasani

Introduction

With the metaverse growing rapidly, many people are looking forward to NFTs to take over the virtual world in the anticipated future. As mentioned in a survey conducted by blockchain expert webpage ‘Chainalysis’, cryptocurrencies worth above a whopping $44.2 billion have been spent in 2021 on NFTs alone! So, we believe itโ€™s safe to say that Non-Fungible Tokens are the future!

As more and more persons have become aware of the profits that investing in NFTs open doorways to, NFTs‘ popularity and utilization shall continue to increase in 2022. Presently, numerous NFT initiatives are launching everyday! From globally-famed singers to film stars and public figures, everybody’s making investments in virtual assets and flaunting them on social media, which is leading to an exponential boom in sales. Many artists are setting out their quality works as NFTs to get identified and rewarded. In a similar manner, consumers too have been looking for those initiatives that could offer the most price to their funding portfolio.  Letโ€™s break down the best NFT projects to follow this year!

Best NFT Projects to follow in 2022

  1. Bored Ape Yacht Club
Top NFT Projects to Follow in 2022

BAYC (boredapeyachtclub.com)

One of the most well-known NFT projects in the present-day world is also one of the coolest ones – the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)! Some famous names  associated with BAYC consist of talk-show host Jimmy Fallon, Future,  DJ Khaled YouTuber Logan Paul, Eminem and so many others! 

Made by the Yuga Labs, BAYC features lively apes which have various traits and rarities and have been inhibited in the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. The NFT project has a group of 10,000 different Bored Apes. Launched in April 2021, their costs have skyrocketed in merely a few months, making this series one of the quickest appreciating collectibles within the industry. The maximum price that a BAYC NFT has been auctioned for is 769 ETH or US$3.4 million! Those who own those NFTs are given a Yacht Club club card, which has many perks, such as invites to personal live shows in the virtual world and more.

  1. Axie Infinity 
Top NFT Projects to Follow in 2022!

Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity is one of the most famous NFT video games within virtual space. It is presently at the pinnacle of traded collection with a top position on Splinterlands, NBA TopShot, and WAX Blockchain closing out with above $0.5 billion in the early weeks of January.  Axie Infinity has 3 unique tokens on its game platform. The platform has lately released the Katana Decentralized Exchange (KDEX), which allows gamers to provide liquidity with AXS or SLP to farm RON. Axie Infinity has its virtual nation mapped out with an actual economy! It is certainly one of the top NFT projects to keep an eye on with excessive prospects in 2022 and the years to come.

The Axie gaming theme is quite similar to the Pokemon games. The players have gathered monsters referred to as Axies, which they breed and train for battles. Winners of these PvP battles benefit from rewards. These in-recreation monsters are represented as NFTs. Therefore, these tokens can be traded over diverse secondary marketplaces to gain liquidity.

  1. Decentraland
Top NFT Projects to Follow in 2022!

Welcome to Decentraland

Decentraland is an open, NFT based, digital world. Launched in July 2020, it is one of the latest projects amongst NFTs, and is doing surprisingly well! It is certainly anticipated that this Non-Fungible Token project shall take the NFT movement ahead in 2022. We can hope for masses of latest improvements in gameplay, quality of interaction, consumer benefits and fine user experience (UX). When people reflect upon the Metaverse today, they think about Decentraland!

Topping the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, Decentraland permits the consumer to go into the arena of digital reality wherein they can purchase land, construct houses, create avatars and literally live in virtual reality! Not limited here, owners may even exchange the virtual collectables that they make, at high profits. Likewise, you could explore, create, socialize, exchange, and stay inside it just like the bodily world. Since it is global in scope, one can emerge as a real global citizen. It is one of the most modern video games ever made due to its vast vision and does not restrict participant creativeness in any way! You could make revenue and still have a laugh at the same time.

Conclusion

Non-Fungible Token projects are converting the way we have a look at the world. For the first time in history, we’re witnessing a global motion fashioned through the internet!  NFT projects have changed the narrative that the net is just a source of information or knowledge, it has become an investment platform; thanks to NFTs! 2022 guarantees to see increasingly more use cases that impact the actual world.

With the way we’re seeing and expecting technological advancements, it’s potentially simply a matter of time until we come around to appreciate virtual artwork as much as we do, the bodily form of it. The price of a NFT can only be speculated; however similar to any other asset, it too flourishes at the wide variety of people geared up to make investments or indulge.

We have simply broken down a short list of a few of the top NFT projects that you should definitely keep in mind this year, but hereโ€™s scope for so much more. Keep discovering, signing off!

A Look at the Top 10 Secured Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) by Volume in 2022

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Uniswap, MDEX, Sushiswap among others have been listed as top 10 DEX crypto in 2022.

Introduction

If you have been buying and selling crypto, you’ve possibly invested in the usage of centralized exchanges including Binance or Bitfinex and others. To put it simply, decentralized exchanges, generally known as DEXS, allow customers to shop for and promote cryptocurrencies with each other without the want for brokers and basically make trade simpler. Users link their crypto pockets to a DEX, choose their crypto trading pair of choice, input the amount, and hit the switch button.

In the present date world, the use of a decentralized exchange (DEX) isn’t always the primary choice for almost all people, regardless of the fact that they have fun unicorns and pancakes as their logos. Anyhow, 2022 continues to witness the rise of decentralized finance, as the world inches nearer to and in the direction of decentralization.

The key trouble with centralized exchanges is that they may be ruled by means of a central authority – an organization that controls your budget and statistics, much like a conventional bank. Besides, centralized exchanges make use of the order-book version which you might have seen in traditional stock exchanges, with a listing of buy and sell orders.

The top 10 decentralized exchanges by volume are selected here for having the best marketplace value and volume, a specially objective metric. These exchanges also are prepared with the aid of using market volume from highest to lowest, on the time of writing. This can give you a great view as to what type of decentralized exchanges are available as of now and which are the most used ones right now. So, let’s break them down:

1)UniSwap

The first decentralized exchange by volume on the list – Uniswap is the primary attraction for most crypto users that play with ETH DeFi. As long as any venture is ETH-based, you will be able to locate it on Uniswap!

Uniswap is simply a decentralized protocol for automatic liquidity provision on Ethereum. One predominant hassle with illiquid assets on everyday exchanges is “excessive spreads.” With a locked total value of $21 billion and a Mcap/ TVL ratio of 0.06, Uniswap solves this problem via means of permitting everyone to become a marketplace maker.

2)MDEX

Although gas prices at the Ethereum blockchain are steadily going down, MDEX controlled to eclipse Uniswap in market cap extent while you factor in the marketplace cap volumes of MDEX and MDEX (BSC). MDEX isn’t ashamed to claim itself as the โ€˜most important DeFi ecosystemโ€™. As it has most effectively existed since January 2021 and the MDEX (BSC) being introduced in April 2021, the MDEX has already become the biggest decentralized exchange in the world! Both blockchains have over $1 billion in marketplace capitalization.

Overall, MDEX should surely be on your radar for decentralized exchanges. Its ease-of-use and what it gives customers has generated a drastic increase unprecedented for any DEX crypto.

3)SushiSwap

Sushiswap is a DEX protocol for presenting computerized liquidity on Ethereum. It is a decentralized trading and lending market. It additionally permits yield devices and staking derivatives. Sushiswap definitely comes first at the listing of culinary-themed decentralized exchanges. If you are a fan of sushi over unicorns, this could appeal to your senses!

The trading interface seems much more modern than Uniswap’s and is simply as easy to trade. Just like a replica of Uniswap V2, you could discover all of the exceptional alternatives on the top, from pools, yields and analytics. If you wish to make the best of wagering rewards, SushiSwap is a brilliant off-center DEX crypto to use; which has earned itself a total value locked at $5.5 billion and a MCap / TVL ratio of 0.2!

4)BurgerSwap

Similar to Uniswap and its food counterpart in SushiSwap, BurgerSwap also gives alternate and a percent yield from liquidity pools. What sets BurgerSwap aside are the rewards it gives for participating in governance. Hence, in case you are a regular and lively player within the vote where the protocol will move in the future, you’ll be rewarded with BURGERs (unfortunately, not literal hamburgers) via BurgerSwap. One of the primary selling factors is its โ€œdemocratizedโ€ platform. Furthermore, BurgerSwap also has Bitcoin, ETH , BCH and XRP as BEP-20 tokens.

So, in case you’re seeking out cryptocurrency alternatives outside the Ethereum blockchain and a bag that places a lot of emphasis on governance, BurgerSwap could be your culinary DEX crypto of choice.

5)PancakeSwap

PancakeSwap is an automatic marketplace maker and yield farm at the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). It’s the very last culinary swap in this listing and has the most amusing vibe out of any alternative mentioned! With a complete cost locked at $7.7 billion and a Mcap / TVL ratio of 0.4, it is definitely one of the most satisfactory and best DEXs in 2022.

Although it is a fork of SushiSwap, it allows less expensive and quicker transactions as it runs on BSC. PancakeSwap additionally offers yield farming, lotteries, and preliminary farm offerings.

6)JustSwap

For those who are much less liable to magical creatures or food, this could simply be your DEX crypto of choice. JustSwap is powered by the TRON blockchain and makes use of TRC-20 tokens to make DeFi swaps. You can simply trade out TRC-20 tokens for different token pairings on the TRON blockchain.

Similar to the unicorn and culinary DEXs aforementioned, JustSwap simplifies token exchange. Since the protocol is new, it doesn’t have the stakeout or reward functions like so many other decentralized applications. Anyhow, it still remains the main alternative you can use your TRC-20 tokens with, which for a few is a quite a handy option. The TRON blockchain is quicker and inexpensive as compared to the Ethereum blockchain, making trading a whole lot more handy for many!

7)Balancer

Balancer is a non-custodial computerized portfolio supervisor and buying and selling platform. In a traditional index fund, the investor will pay charges to a portfolio supervisor for rebalancing the portfolio. In Balancer, the investor collects costs from buyers who rebalance their portfolio by means of following arbitrage opportunities.

Also known as BAL, it sits at a total value locked at $3 billion and a Mcap / TVL ratio of 0.05, making it one of the top DEXs of 2022.

8)OpenOcean

OpenOcean has its space in this listing as a DEX aggregator. It compiles numerous decentralized exchanges, incorporating the ones which are in this listing, like SushiSwap and Uniswap, and attempts to provide the quality charge on your preferred encryption from many decentralized apps. They managed to win over clients with their ‘no extra charges’ policy, not charging protocol charges and additionally by protecting customers should asset expenses rise or fall. The PRO model permits for the standard trading tools like candlestick charts, profit and loss settings, restrict orders and plenty more.

If you’ve got a particular token that you are looking for and need to see which decentralized bag is providing the best deal, the Open Ocean platform can be your choice.

9)HoneySwap

Honeyswap is like Uniswap, besides its restructuring round xDai buying and selling pairs. With nearly no DEX alternative presenting xDai, this is probably what you are seeking out for if you’ve developed a taste for stablecoin. The exchange gives revenue production, a way of switching ERC-20 tokens to the xDai network, and permits you to alternate your fiat for xDai.

Honeyswap does not want to stop being just a Uniswap clone. They want to conquer a big part of the decentralized economic ecosystem!

10)             1inch Exchange

1inch Exchange is the next DEX aggregator in this list. DEX makes use of liquidity protocols that facilitate buying and selling and bases its protocol on algorithms. If you are concerned that an Oasis coin is probably priced lower than a Uniswap, you may alleviate your fear with a 1-inch DEX aggregator. The platform additionally operates at the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, permitting you to diversify your trading options.

With the governance token simply launched in December 2020, 1inch appears to make waves as a part of the DeFi ecosystem, and is indeed quite revolutionary!

Conclusion

While the aforementioned decentralized exchanges should be sufficient to get you started, the complete decentralized trade area continues to be new and expand. This is simply a listing of DEXs that you could try out. Since a lot of them are open-source, making traders trust the peer-to-peer protocols, they may be looked over and tinkered with with the aid of using progressive minds. With an abundance of such initiatives coming out and so many people placing faith in decentralization, we might also stay in a decentralized monetary world earlier than anticipated!

Note:

  • The figures are as of 4th February, 2022
  • Sources: Gadgets360, Portal Cripto, CryptoNews
  • TVL = Total Value Locked
  • Mcap = Market Capitalisation

Bitcoin Mining Council sees great progress in sustainability

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Despite many prophecies of doom, Bitcoin mining has become more and more sustainable over the past year, as a report by the Bitcoin Mining Council shows.

Bitcoin mining has continued to become more sustainable despite many accusations of contributing to climate change. This emerges from a recent report by the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) . It states that electricity consumption from sustainable sources of Bitcoin increased by almost 59 percentage points between the first and fourth quarters of 2021. While it was 36 percent at the beginning of the year, the proportion is now 58.5 percent. The report defines “sustainable electricity” as electricity generated from hydro, wind, solar, nuclear or geothermal sources. In other words, it refers to clean, renewable energy technologies.

The BMC, which includes 36 bitcoin mining organizations, said the board’s companies recorded a sustainability rate of 66.1 percent in 2021. The 36 member companies account for 46 percent of the global Bitcoin hashrate.

According to the results of the Bitcoin Mining Council, Bitcoin mining consumes a total of 220 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity worldwide. This represents an increase of 17 percent compared to October 2021, when the previous report was published. This energy consumption corresponds to 0.14 percent of the total energy production in the world.

Mining hardware just keeps getting better

Another factor contributing to Bitcoin’s sustainability is improved mining equipment. Over the years, mining hardware manufacturers have focused on devices that use less energy. Their operators – in particular, of course, members of the Bitcoin Mining Council – have increasingly committed themselves to reducing the COโ‚‚ footprint. More importantly, overall bitcoin hashrate has since increased from 140 EH/s to 192 EH/s โ€” a 37 percent increase.

This fact is all the more remarkable when you consider that Bitcoin prices are currently tending to go in the opposite direction. One might think: The miners are bullish .

Gamer vs NFTs: where does the displeasure come from?

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In recent months, the gaming community has taken a very clear stance against the NFT plans of major game distributors. Developers are also mostly critical of NFTs. The reasons for this lie primarily in the alleged motives of the publisher. (Also Read: Helium Network (HNT) Price Prediction โ€“ how to benefit from the IoT boom)

Whether it’s League of Legends or Fortnite , the virtual item business in video games is booming. These items often only change the appearance of weapons or your own character. The so-called micro-transactions have nevertheless risen to a serious monetization model for games that were otherwise available either for a fixed price or completely free of charge. Valve , the company behind the gaming platform Steam, is already going one step further. Behind titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 entire markets emerged where the items are sold and traded. Wouldn’t the introduction of NFTs be the next logical step here?

At least that’s what the big distributors thought. Companies like Ubisoft began experimenting with NFT platforms. GSC Game World had even bigger plans for its much-anticipated shooter title, Stalker 2 . Because the coupling of game objects to NFTs would have even paved the way for the game into the metaverse.

In both cases, the gaming community went on the barricades. They flooded an announcement trailer for Ubisoft’s “Quartz” platform with dislikes and also publicly announced their displeasure with Stalker 2 . The consequence: Ubisoft was surprised by the negative headlines, but told CT Team that they would continue with the support of a “strong but rather quiet community”. Meanwhile, GSC Game World rowed back. On Twitter , the company announced an end to all NFT plans for Stalker 2 .

But where does the displeasure of the community come from? And how do game developers feel about the plans of their distribution companies?

Developer studios don’t think much of NFTs

As far as the latter question is concerned, a new survey provides quite clear results. In the run-up to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the organizers conducted a survey among 2,700 developers. NFTs and paying with cryptocurrencies were also on the questionnaire.

Both points revealed a persistent rejection. This was 70 percent for the integration of NFTs and 72 percent for crypto payments. Only 28 percent said they were at least slightly interested in NFT offerings in their video games. For crypto payments, the figure was 27 percent. The authors of the study nevertheless note an increase in interest here.

The gaming news portal Kotaku also published some statements that were collected anonymously in the course of the survey. When it comes to NFTs, one statement is particularly interesting:

You will drive a wedge into the heart of this industry. It’s going to become very clear what people’s motivations are, and it’s not going to be pretty.

The question raised here about the motivations behind the NFT implementation seems crucial to the entire debate. It brings us back to the gaming community.

Gamers have never been fans of micro-transactions

The New York Times spoke to some community members as part of their research on the topic. Your statements paint a clear picture. Because gamers’ criticism of NFTs is not primarily based on a lack of understanding of the technology. For most, it is more about the fact that the introduction of NFTs is not associated with any game-changing innovations. The only priority would be to maximize profit. A player who took part in the online protest against Stalker 2 ‘s NFT plans was quoted by the newspaper as saying:

The studio abused its popularity. It’s so obvious that they’re out for profit instead of just making a nice game.

However, according to the Times , this criticism is not a new phenomenon. Because the increasing monetization of additional content and the triumph of micro-transactions has been a thorn in the side of the gaming community for some time. In the NFT integration, they therefore recognize the immediate continuation of this trend.

In the last 10 years we’ve seen all kinds of plans and we’re tired of

said another interviewed gamer. If the game distributors still want to make their NFT plans palatable to the community, they will probably have to take a different approach than before.

Helium Network (HNT) Price Prediction โ€“ how to benefit from the IoT boom

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Helium (HNT) is building the world’s first wireless peer-to-peer network for the Internet of Things (IoT). What does that mean and how can investors benefit from it?

Everyone is talking about the Internet of Things and more and more machines are communicating with each other worldwide. Be it the rubbish bin that asks you to empty it by radio, the e-scooter that provides information on the way as to whether its battery is still working or the air conditioning system that automatically adapts to the real weather conditions: everything should be networked, everywhere, anytime and that of course, as inexpensively as possible.

Global IoT industry revenue was $ 110 billion in 2017 . Forecasts assume that this value will increase to around 1.6 trillion US dollars by 2025 .

Almost all IoT devices need to be constantly connected to the internet. However, current solutions such as mobile communications, WiFi and Bluetooth are suboptimal and the 5G network is also struggling with problems. This is because these technologies are often too expensive, too power-hungry or too limited in their range. The crypto project Helium wants to tackle exactly this problem.

What is the Helium Network?

Helium is a decentralized blockchain network for IoT devices. The project was founded in 2013 by Amir Haleem, Shawn Fanning and Sean Carey . The Helium team aims to build a wireless IoT network that will enable devices around the world to connect wirelessly to the internet without the need for power-hungry GPS hardware or expensive cellular plans.

The HNT token is at the heart of Helium’s decentralized blockchain network. This can be used for payments and in governance votes within the network. As a result, Helium has created a two-sided market for vendors and users who need Internet for their IoT devices. The project wants to completely decentralize such a market that is currently controlled by monopolies.

Wireless Internet connectivity is set to become a competitively fueled commodity, available anywhere in the world at a fraction of the current cost. In this ambitious mission, Helium is supported by well-known venture capital firms, including Khosla Ventures, FirstMark Capital, GV (formerly Google Ventures), HSB/MunichRe Ventures and others.

How does the helium network work?

Helium uses the existing internet and builds a decentralized network for IoT devices on top of it. Anyone can join this network. Users can easily set up a Helium mini router in their own home and make Internet available for other IoT devices. Verified IoT devices can then access the connections, for example, or data that is of interest to certain groups can be tracked. For example, Lime ‘s e-scooters, which are also Helium’s partners, can access these hotspots to save costs.

The entire system behind it is very open, since anyone can participate in this network. Both end users and companies can buy HNT hotspots and operate them independently. In addition, blockchain technology and a new consensus algorithm called proof-of-coverage should be used to guarantee that both provider and user data are secure .

In addition, the proof-of-coverage algorithm makes it possible to verify at any time where a hotspot is located in the physical world and whether its data can be trusted.

In addition, each Helium hotspot has a so-called Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN), which has a range that is almost 200 times greater than that of an average WLAN router. The various IoT devices can therefore connect to the networks inexpensively and without a WLAN or SIM card. In addition, the connection via LoRaWAN should be more energy-efficient than via WLAN.

At the beginning of 2021 there were almost 15,000 helium hotspots worldwide. There are now over 536,000 helium hotspots distributed around the globe.

Especially in the last few months, helium has experienced enormous hype in the USA, Europe and China, which is also reflected in the HNT price. At the beginning of January 2021, HNT was still trading at $1.27. A single HNT token now costs $27.35 (as of February 1, 2022) – and still significantly less than the previous high of $55.22 that the token of the Helium network reached in November last year scored

How to earn HNT tokens

The Helium network rewards all those who make Internet available for IoT devices via a so-called Helium hotspot with HNT tokens. These hotspots are physical devices required for mining and transferring data on the HNT network. But why is the HNT token valuable at all?

The HNT token is required to conduct transactions on the Helium network. In addition, companies that want to use the data from hotspots must buy HNT and then destroy it. This reduces the total offer of all HNT and in return the companies receive so-called data credits. You can use this to pay for access to data.

There are currently five different Hotspot models listed on the Helium store , ranging in price from $410 to $577. These hotspots are available in both indoor and outdoor models.

However, the models are so popular at the moment that manufacturers have not been able to keep up with demand since the beginning of April. It can therefore take three to four months to get your helium hotspot delivered. If you don’t want to wait that long, you can try your luck on Ebay . However, the various devices sell for several thousand euros there. But you don’t necessarily have to spend so much money to share in the hype, because there are now rental options for the devices.

Helium mining can be extremely profitable

Making money from helium hotspots can be extremely profitable. However, how much you can earn depends on where you position your helium hotspot. On the one hand, it is important to be within range of other hotspots.

On the other hand, it is also important not to be surrounded by too many hotspots. Compared to the USA, there is still great potential for growth, especially in Germany and the rest of Europe.

Currently, the best places are urban areas, although the largest cities have already passed their greatest potential. Each hotspot has a range of around 15 kilometers. However, this can be expanded by placing the hotspot higher or by installing an antenna. Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to be the first in your area to set up a hotspot. That’s because you can dramatically increase your earnings over a short period of time by adding more hotspots in the same area.

Helium mining can currently be extremely profitable, especially in smaller towns where there are not too few but also not too many helium miners.

A helium miner in Berlin-Mitte was able to generate between 2,000 and 3,000 US dollars a month in income for its owners last year . In the meantime, such earnings are no longer possible in the federal capital – between 50 and 150 US dollars are currently possible, as we have verified in a random sample. With a hotspot in such a position, it would currently no longer be possible to get your entire investment back within a month.

If you want to find out how profitable helium mining can be in the respective regions, you should take a look at the helium explorer map . On this map you can see in which areas there are already helium hotspots and, after selecting the individual hotspot, you can display details about its income.

Conclusion

Helium grew very slowly after its launch, but now the network effect seems to be causing the project to grow exponentially. From around 7,000 hotspots in August 2020, the Helium network has grown to over 30,000 hotspots by early May 2021 and to over 500,000 hotspots by February 2022. However, the enormous growth of the past few weeks and months has left its mark: Today, in most regions where a great deal of money could be earned within a short period of time, it is no longer possible to earn back one’s investment directly.

However, Helium’s technology appears to be working and it’s likely that the number of hotspots will continue to increase. Overall, Helium is therefore a project that still has a lot of potential and could significantly help the growth of the IoT industry worldwide.

Nevertheless, it must be noted that the bottlenecks at the hotspot suppliers and the resulting sharp rise in acquisition costs are categorically ruling out many small investors at the moment. In addition, it is still unclear how secure the Helium Hotspot network really is. There are still many unanswered questions about data protection.

OpenSea receives US $ 300 million from funding round

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The OpenSea non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace starts 2022 with a bang and receives a cash injection of $ 300 million.

OpenSea canย look back on anย extremely successful year 2021ย .ย In the past 30 days alone, the NFT platform has processed transactions valued at over $ 2.5 billion.

On January 4th, the company announced that it had raised around $ 300 million in a financing round led by Paradigm and Coatue.ย Devin Finzer, CEO ofย OpenSeaย ,ย was delightedย with the success of the financing roundย in a blogย postย :

We are excited to work with these incredible partners, thinkers and developers. You are a great addition to our Web3, NFTs, and Consumer Experience team.

In addition to the general expansion of the team, the financing round is intended to advance OpenSea in three other central areas:

1. Accelerate product development and user experience

The investors therefore want to work with OpenSea to give even more people access to NFTs. On the one hand, this should be achieved by simplifying the operation of OpenSea. On the other hand, OpenSea is to be integrated on other blockchains in addition to Ethereum and Polygon in order to reach a large number of communities.

2. Improve security and reliability

In addition, OpenSea plans to use the investments to improve its customer support and the security of its NFT marketplace. There are now 60 employees working in these areas. This number is expected to increase to over 120 employees by the end of 2022.

3. Targeted investments in the NFT space

In addition, the NFT trading platform plans to start a special NFT funding program in the first quarter of 2022. The aim of this funding program is to promote key players within the NFT ecosystem in a targeted manner in order to shape and support the future of the NFT space.

The valuation of the crypto start-up has nowย risenย to overย 13.3 billion US dollarsย as aย result of the financing roundย and shows how strongly the trading center has grown in recent months.

OpenSea trading volume is booming

In the year 2022, too, OpenSea seems to have a great future.ย Both the financing round and the data fromย Dune Analytics show that investors remain bullish.

NFTs valued at over US $ 800 million have been traded on OpenSea since the beginning of 2022. In addition, January 3, with a daily trading volume of just under $ 260 million, narrowly missed a new record for the NFT marketplace.

Those: https://dune.xyz/rchen8/opensea

According to Dune Analytics, the NFT marketplace saw a higher trading volume of $ 322 million on August 29, 2021 only. It will be exciting to see when OpenSea can break this record.

Bitcoin (BTC) turns 13 and continues to move sideways

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13 years ago today, the time had come: The Bitcoin blockchain was brought to life by its inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.ย The first transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain was initiated on January 3, 2009.ย Its unknown inventor had written a message in the first Bitcoin block, the so-called Genesis block.ย Back then, nobody could have imagined what would become of it 13 years later.

Happy Birthday Bitcoin!ย 13 years ago today, or to put it another way, 716,921 blocks ago, Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block with 50 BTC back then.ย That was the beginning for the oldest and most successful blockchain in the world, which today claims a market capitalization of almost 900 billion US dollars.

Genesis Block and Bank Rescue

The anonymous inventor launched the Bitcoin network just two months after the Bitcoin whitepaper was published. In the white paper that he published on October 31, 2008, he explained how the new monetary system works. Around two months later, the theory turned into practice.

In block zero, i.e. the Genesis block , a message was also hidden with the first transaction:

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks

Satoshi Nakamoto

This news relates to the cover story of The London Times newspaper of the same name.ย For many crypto enthusiasts, the reference is clear.ย You see in this message a criticism of the current banking and financial system hidden.ย After all, in the wake of the financial crisis, there were bank bailouts and major social unrest.

With the narrative โ€œBe your own bankโ€, the Bitcoin phenomenon has become an antagonist of the existing, centralized banking system. Libertarian circles in particular see Bitcoin as an opportunity for a monetary system that does without the state and banks.

What happened to Bitcoin

As successful as Bitcoin is currently (excluding the current sideways phase), the cryptocurrency is now more than ever in the hands of traditional financial players. In the meantime, it is just as much institutional investors as private individuals who hold Bitcoin as an asset. In the course of this, states and regulatory authorities are creating regulatory guard rails for the former โ€œCypherpunk moneyโ€.

Bitcoin has established itself not as a currency, but as a store of value. The fact that digital gold protects purchasing power is now seen as the primary use case of Bitcoin. The payment function in the sense of a currency has long been secondary.

However, this in no way diminishes the added value that Satoshi Nakamoto brought to the world 13 years ago. The countless millions pouring into Bitcoin every day show that there is a demand for a digital safe haven that cannot be manipulated by central banks and states.

And although the price cannot currently serve as a birthday present, the hashrate has at least set itself an all-time high: a proud 203.5 EH / s.

$ 5 billion burned in Ethereum (ETH): What You think about it

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More than 1.2 million ethers have been burned since the Ethereum hard fork โ€œLondonโ€. Equivalent to: $ 5 billion.

On August 5th the time had come: Ethereum received theย upgrade EIP-1559 implementedย with the hard fork โ€œย Londonย โ€.ย In addition to expanding the block size and introducing a uniform basic fee, the Ethereum Improvement Proposal also contained a combustion function: the transaction fees have been burned since then and thus removed from the amount in circulation.ย The balance after less than five months: Over 1.2 million ETH have been burned since โ€œLondonโ€, as data fromย Dune Analyticsย show.ย Equivalent to: $ 5 billion.

Ethereum fire accelerator

The ongoing hype about NFTs, DeFi and blockchain games, which are essentially based on the Ethereum blockchain, is responsible for the overheating internal combustion engine.ย With over 135,000 ethers burned (USD 500 million), the NFT marketplaceย Opensea isย the largest instantaneousย waterย heater.ย The decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap V2 ranks third with 112,000 ETH (458 million USD).ย The play-to-earn game Axie Infinity is in eighth place with over 16,000 ETH (59 million US dollars).

Deflation in moderation

In terms of price development, the combustion mechanism is not insignificant. Supply and demand determine the price – also with Ethereum. The throttling of the amount in circulation can cause excess demand in bullish market phases and thus boost the price.

Another side effect: deflation. If more ether is removed from the amount in circulation than miners add new ones, the inflation rate gradually levels off. In the event of high trading activity, the mechanism ultimately leads to a shortage of ether stocks. This happened on a few trading days in September, October and November on which up to 16,800 ethers were burned a day. In contrast, the ether supply is currently growing by an average of 13,000 to 14,000 ethers per day.

A tiresome subject

One side effect that was actually intended is still a long time coming: the reduction in transaction fees. EIP-1559 has doubled the block size to 25 million gas units. The background: With the transaction level remaining the same, the enlargement ensures a 50 percent utilization. This is supposed to push the basic fee down to an affordable level.

Only: the rush to Ethereum has not decreased.ย On the contrary, at the beginning of the year it was decentralized finances and NFTs that clogged the transaction channels, metaverse worlds and blockchain games such as Axie Infinity, Decentraland or The Sandbox joined them in the middle of the year.ย According toย Bitinfochartsย , the average transaction fees (gas fees) are currently 0.0099 ETH – around 37 USD.

Ethereum (ETH) on its way to becoming a deflationary asset

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Ethereum is on its way to becoming a deflationary asset and could soon become an even scarcer cryptocurrency than Bitcoin – how can that work?

Almost five months ago,ย on August 5, 2021ย , the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) -1559 went live.ย Since then, the monetary policy of the second largest cryptocurrency has changed fundamentally.ย In 2022, ETH could even become a deflationary asset.

EIP-1559 has reformed the fee system of Ethereum and introduced a โ€œbasic feeโ€ that changes dynamically depending on the network load. This part of the transaction costs must be paid in Ether for every Ethereum transaction. The entire โ€œbasic feeโ€ paid is then permanently removed from the amount of ether in circulation (burned).

In November 2021, the number of ETH burned reached a new all-time high of 360,000 (almost 1.3 billion US dollars).ย Compared to the previous month it was an increase of 19 percent.

Quelle: Watch the Burn

Although the burn rate fell in December, it is expected to increase in the long term as the adaptation of the ETH network continues.

Which decentralized apps burn the most ETH?

The NFT marketplaceย Openseaย was responsible for most of the ethers born within the last 145 days (~ 135,000 ETH).ย This is followed by ETH transfers in second place (~ 127,000 ETH) and Uniswap V2 in third place (~ 113 ETH).

Those: https://ultrasound.money/

According toย Ultrasound.Moneyย , Ethereum currently has an annual inflation rate of 1.8 percent.ย This means that the smart contract platform is only marginally above theย Bitcoin inflation rate (1.79 percent)ย .

If the market demand for Ether continues and the use of decentralized applications on Ethereum increases, that could soon change. Ethereum could experience deflationary development for the first time in its history and undercut Bitcoin’s rate of inflation. It is quite possible that in the year 2022 we will see the first month in which Ethereum has a negative inflation rate (deflation).

Are excessive fees a death sentence for Ethereum?

While high fees are a major obstacle for many small investors, they are not necessarily a death sentence for a blockchain network. Institutional investors in particular are willing to pay the higher ETH fees in exchange for fast transaction processing, the high potential for returns and the elimination of third parties.

In addition, a variety of NFTs onย OpenSeaย consistentlyย sellย for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.ย Anyone who transacts in this asset class simply doesn’t care about the high fees in comparison to the benefits derived from them.ย The year 2021 has shown that institutional investors are quite ready to pay high fees in exchange for the security of digital assets (NFTs or capital in DeFi) and returns (interest or speculation).

Nevertheless, it is clear that the Ethereum Mainchain with its current fee model is not competitive in all smart contract sectors. In the area of โ€‹โ€‹crypto gaming or other microtransaction applications in particular, the ETH mainchain is simply too expensive.

Ultimately, despite the imminent implementation of Ethereum 2.0, Ethereum willย have to switchย toย Layer 2 scalingย solutions in order to also reach non-wealthy users.

We can already see how a large number of scaling solutions aim to achieve precisely these niches.ย In addition toย Polygonย ,ย Arbitrum, Optimismย and theย Immutable Xย scalingย solutionย specially designed for gaming,ย there is already a flourishing ecosystem of Ethereum Layer 2 platforms that are very likely to experience another wave of adaptation in 2022.

The market that never sleeps: Bitcoin corrects

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On the second day of the week after Christmas, the crypto market is initially corrective mood.ย Compared to many a Christmas crash, Bitcoin and Co. get off lightly this year.

If traditional markets and the crypto market differ in one aspect, it is in this one: While the stock market is tied to strict trading hours (on the Deutsche Bรถrse Xetra, for example, trading is allowed from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every weekday), cryptocurrencies are traded around the clock – even during public holidays. The order books of the Bitcoin exchanges around the world match positions at any time of the day or night without having to adhere to common structures such as working hours. The pricing mechanism in the crypto market can thus be described as much more efficient than that of classic markets.

This fact becomes all the more evident on public holidays. Because while stock exchanges fall into collective hibernation at Christmas time, trading on the crypto market continues. So it is not surprising that some price developments can be reported in Kryptoland even in the contemplative time. Unfortunately not a positive one from the cops’ point of view.

The key currency Bitcoin (BTC) corrected by 3 percent within 24 hours on the second day of the week after the holidays and is trading at 49,234 US dollars at the time of writing.ย With this, the crypto currency No. 1 gets off lightly.ย The smart contract coin Solana (SOL) even has to accept a price minus of 4.8 percent and Terra (LUNA) is the whipping boy of the day with minus 8.3 percent.ย BTC-ECHO editor Moritz Drahtย dedicatedย a detailed story to the latter coin in theย December edition of the Kryptokompassย .ย There he gets to the bottom of the mechanics of the network, which among other things protects the stablecoin TerraUSD (UST).

Bad memories of 2017

The losses may be painful for the individual investor. Compared to the sometimes chaotic price movements during the Christmas season of previous years, these were calm holidays. Some may remember: Christmas 2017, for example, marked the climax of the most recent crypto hype: In December 2017, the largest bubble in the sector to date burst and Bitcoin rushed from the high of just under 20,000 US dollars to a third of its value within a few weeks. That would be like Bitcoin standing at $ 15,000 in February 2022.

But there can be no talk of such horror scenarios these days. The most recent correction may well be pushed into the realm of healthy course corrections; after all, Bitcoin is also 4.7 percent up on seven days.