Author: Mark Hampton

Few things have survived for as long as gold, and few likely will. Ever since the dawn of history, humans have been drawn to the precious metal to store value, transact, and even hold religious ceremonies in (alleged) communication with deities.

Evolving with the times

Technology takes things to unexpected places, and even something as perennial as gold hasn’t been immune to these changes. We do not transact with gold anymore, although we continue to recognize its value (and even, in some cases, start to suspect that we should go back to using it as currency). And, moving from gold to ones and zeros on a screen, we tried just about everything.

However, nothing seemed to be as good a fit for us as gold.

Gold has many unique characteristics, positive and negative, although the former outstand the latter. It’s divisible, durable, fungible, has proven itself through time, and can hardly (and not reliably) be faked. Fiat or even paper money cannot compete with this. Although gold is hard to transport, not completely liquid, and non-portable, it has continued to beat inflation simply because of its intrinsic value.

Then, crypto came along

Cryptocurrency’s greatest strength is that it can succeed, through programming, to replicate gold’s natural advantages. In the right settings and under the right conditions, we can even use it to represent physical gold ownership. And, by combining both types of super-assets, gold can become easy to transact with, store, and incredibly liquid.

V999, a cryptocurrency created by experts in precious metals, is a perfect example of this. Thanks to its founders’ expertise in international trade and blockchain technology, V999 is setting a new standard for what asset-backed tokens are supposed to be. Every V999 token is backed by 0.1 grams of gold at London’s fix price. It can also be divided up to 1/1000th of a token, creating a friendly system for even the smallest of users.

But, where’s the revolutionary part?

2020 saw crypto’s (well overdue) explosion of growth under the success of DeFi and apps like Uniswap. Suddenly, the ecosystem seemed to realize that programmable money also involved a myriad of different ways to program, automate, and grow its tremendous potential.

Thanks to this paradigm change, many, including V999, are making a change in the way we think of business models, seasoning them in the spirit of the crypto community’s values. V999 aims to create an ecosystem where retail investors and corporations, even governments, can benefit from each other’s transactions besides investing in valuable assets. Therefore, it introduces a profit-sharing system that rewards small users for using V999 to make transactions with gold while sharing similar benefits for its top players. V999 also aims to generate enterprise-level adoption with a dedicated team specialized in tailoring solutions to fit companies’ needs. The network uses the Stellar blockchain to guarantee the speed of transactions.

The times are changing.

It’s always refreshing to see technology bringing positive change along with it. With new tools come new solutions and unique philosophies, and V999 can undoubtedly be an example of how business models are reinventing themselves as we enter the Blockchain era. We sure hope we will continue to see reinventions of popular concepts come around, always with a twist that favors the retail investor!

FireProtocol, a next-generation protocol known for being the first infrastructure to use Huobi Eco Chain, has decided to migrate its DeFi products over to Polkadot to allow for better scalability and long-term growth.

The decision comes as FireProtocol has already enjoyed a great year in terms of market adoption and continues to grow its user base. As quoted by the FireProtocol team, “we made this decision out of serious considerations for the long-term development and sustainable growth of the FireProtocol ecosystem.”

Breaking Through Limitations

After a successful token sale in December, FireProtocol got off to a good start using Huobi Eco Chain, which does have some advantages according to the FireProtocol team. However, after weighing the advantages and the disadvantages, the team decided that it was best to migrate over to a more scalable and sustainable solution.

For starters, the FireProtocol team felt that Huobi’s platform does not yet have sufficient ecosystem support, and this would likely lead to a low level of adoption. Further, they cited limits on developer tools and functionality, performance limitations, as well as a lack of governance guarantees and sustainable upgradability.

Polkadot, on the other hand, offers much higher throughput, cross-chain functionality with the ability to integrate outside protocols, more development freedom, and easier upgrades. All these benefits were too much for the FireProtocol team to ignore, and with their community in mind, they decided to migrate to help ensure the best experience possible.

Built Around Versatility

FileProtocol is quite diverse as it establishes bridging services, includes an AMM-style decentralized exchange, and a lending platform for digital assets. The Loan Platform supports a variety of assets, giving traders the ability to access a wide range of credit types easily and efficiently, and the decentralized exchange provides fast and secure trading of digital assets.

FireProtocol’s governance token, FIRE, is used to power economic incentive mechanisms and help support community proposals and voting.  Users benefit from low fees and massive flexibility as the token can be used for liquidity farming on Uniswap, for example, cross-chain wrapping, and for lending and borrowing among other things.

FireProtocol’s Long-Term Vision

With a community of strong supporters, credible backers including x21 Digital, and a highly strong team with experience working for successful DeFi projects like Celcius and others, FireProtocol’s future looks extremely bright.

The platform was developed to sit at the cutting edge of innovation, and their roadmap is proof of that. Starting in Q1 the project has offered a loan platform, followed by the listing of the FIRE token, and a Uniswap liquidity mining program. Q2 follows with a brand new staking platform, where users can stake a range of assets and earn passive income, and also easily navigate between all of FireProtocol’s services.

The second half of 2021 will bring in exciting products like cross-chain loans and derivatives trading among other features users will appreciate. All things considered, the move to Polkadot appears to be a judicious one that will strengthen FireProtocol’s core value proposition, placing it amidst the burgeoning DeFi scene that’s forming around Gavin Wood’s blockchain of blockchains.

Tether is in some bother with the SEC. It has the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, an organization composed of the SEC, the CFTC, The Fed and The US Treasury announcing late last year that stablecoins, which include Tether should be considered as securities.  If Tether is indeed classified by the SEC as a security, then it could be sued by them for not registering its USDT as such.

Couple that with another threat from the Stable Act which recommends stablecoin issuers having to comply with a US banking charter, in order to “protect consumers from the risks posed by emerging digital payment instruments” and you have a potential catastrophe on the line for Tether and other major stablecoins. If Tether does get a fatal blow on the head from these two threats, then this could have an impact on the cryptocurrency market at large and certainly on the other stablecoins.

The Stable act seeks to make 4 major reforms, all with the goal of cracking down on stablecoins and other cryptos. These include:

• Any issuer of a stablecoin must first obtain a banking charter;
• Companies proffering stablecoin services to comply with necessary banking regulations under the current regulatory jurisdictions;
• Any issuer of a stablecoin gets permission from the Fed, the FDIC, and the appropriate banking agency six months ahead of issuing and to conduct ongoing risk and impact analysis.
• All stable coin issuers have FDIC insurance to keep reserves at the Fed to ensure that all stablecoins can be instantly exchanged for USD.

What Are Stablecoins?

This is a type of cryptocurrency that is more stable than a classic cryptocurrency as its value is tied to an outside asset like the USD or even gold which helps to keep the price less volatile and more stable.

What do these new threats mean for the other stablecoins?

Well, if these rulings and acts do come into play, then this is likely to equally affect all non-regulated stablecoins, giving more than a fighting chance for the financially regulated ones to outshine the likes of Tether.

One example is the USDC, which has been issued specifically by regulated financial institutions and backed by fully reserved assets, which makes it redeemable on a 1:1 basis to the US dollar.  The USDC is governed by the Centre, which is a membership-based group that sets standards for stablecoins. As such, the USDC has quickly become the largest stablecoin ecosystem anywhere, with many companies and protocols using USDC as its standard stablecoin. A gleaming example of what can be accomplished in murky waters.

If this is the case, then we are likely to see more coins like the USDC coming into play. The other use case where stablecoins can still be used given the above potential restrictions is for a token like CHIP, which rather than being a tradable asset that could be classed as a security, is rather a transactional token for enterprise use cases.  These include industries like online gaming, esports, and gambling – three areas that have seen an explosive influx of users during the coronavirus lockdowns. These operators then would not need to create their own tokens nor hold their own reserves against other stablecoins, the CHIP does it for them. The CHIP token is issued on ERC20 Ethereum and it is tracked by the BXTB token to generate actual yield for the holders. Perhaps with solutions like these, there is some wiggle room for new innovative stablecoins that slip under the regulators’ radar.

 

Cryptos are rarely out of the news these days, but no more so than Ethereum, which is burning up the news headlines, as quickly as it can burn up the gas (mostly for NFTs, which are having a moment, and for its exorbitant transaction fees), and then, of course, there’s the king of crypto, Bitcoin which is making headlines for its astonishing price gains, and now also for the effect it is having on the environment. The same is true for Ethereum.

A recent Bank of America report shows that Bitcoin mining uses more energy than American Airlines in transporting 200 million-plus passengers each year. In fact, it emits more carbon than pretty much every other sector, on a level with major firms like carmakers and even the US federal government. It is not alone though, as Ethereum is rarely out of the news for its extraordinary usage of energy.

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum’s carbon footprint are intrinsically linked to their price. So the higher the price goes, the more miners start mining, thus increasing emissions. In turn, this means Bitcoin and Ethereum must become ever more complex to cope with the increased demand, which then necessitates more hash power, which means even more consumption of energy.

According to the BOA, Bitcoin is coveting as much energy as a small, developed country such as Greece, which populates over 10 million people. This comes at a time when firms and countries are trying to reach targets to lower their emissions.

The Bank of America said, “Given the relatively linear relationship between bitcoin prices and bitcoin energy use, it is perhaps no surprise that bitcoin’s estimated energy consumption has grown over 200% in the past two years”.

NFTs Are Hot Right Now

NFTs are the hot topic right now in the cryptosphere, but they are also hot because they are burning up energy at a rapid pace. “Space Cat” is a well-known NFT, a simple gif of a cat on his way to the moon. Sounds cute? Not if you consider that this cat’s carbon footprint is the same as a person from the EU’s electricity usage for 2 months. And that’s even before the rocket heads for the moon. According to the founder of cryptoart.wtf, a site that lets users analyze the carbon footprint of many NFTs, the average NFT uses more energy than a month’s electricity for an EU resident. The problem is that many of the marketplaces or websites that mint the art are based on the Ethereum blockchain, which has been built to be very ineffective and costly in terms of both money and energy.

Tezos is a smart contract chain that is helping to bring a solution to this problem. It is an open-source platform for assets and applications that is reaping the rewards from the focus being directed at Ethereum’s energy bill.  Many NFT artists have decided to avoid the backlash that comes with the energy consumption related to their work by choosing to launch on Tezos, which is a Proof-of-Stake chain, which promises to be more friendly to the environment than Proof-of-Work chains.

How Much Less is The Environmental Impact?

According to the University of Cambridge calculation, quite substantial. Whereas Bitcoin consumes around 130TWh of energy and Ethereum’s of 26TWh, Tezos is around 60MWh. These numbers show a huge difference, with Tezos drawing 200 million times less.

One digital artist Mike Tyka has opted for the Tezos route for his NFT collection. He says that: “Minting NFTs using Ethereum would wipe out years of trying to reduce my personal climate footprint at the click of a button,”

“After discovering some recommended alternatives, I felt that if I’m going to enter this space, I want to support what I see as the only practical and ethical future of NFTs.”

As more developers and artists seek to escape the rising fees and energy consumption of Ethereum, they will surely be moving across from the Proof-of-Work networks, to the Proof-of-Stake Networks like Tezos to hopefully do their part to counter environmental challenges and to benefit from lower fees too.

 

 

Image source: Depositphotos.com

Beyond Finance, a decentralized platform for creating and trading synthetic financial products has announced a $7.5-million round of fundraising from leading blockchain funds, including Moonwhale Ventures, A195, DuckDAO, Cryptomeria Capital, Blocksync, X21 Digital, Rarestone Capital, Master Ventures, Consensus Capital, and more. The announcement comes after the company raised the funds simply by word of mouth over the past few weeks, without any advertising in the lead-up to its initial DEX offering scheduled for early April.

Beyond Finance is building a robust decentralized platform and protocol dedicated to helping institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises, and individuals to create and trade synthetic products. Using Beyond Finance, users can use the company’s synthetic product trading platform to get access to a wide range of traditional assets — all in a transparent and decentralized user experience. Users will be able to access synthetic products by staking Beyond’s native token, BYN, investing directly in the assets, trading other synthetic assets, and loaning Ether (ETH) in exchange for synthetic tokens.

Dorji Rabten, head of operations at Beyond, said: “We are excited to share our vision of creating an easy-to-use and democratized synthetic product ecosystem with some of the best investors in the industry. Currently, accessing synthetic products can be challenging, and many offerings have critical flaws that create trust issues within various ecosystems. Beyond is looking to solve this by offering the same institutional-grade solutions and access for everyone.”

With a team comprising alumni from top companies, such as  Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Franklin Templeton, Credit Suisse, Citi, and more. Beyond’s mission is to bring decentralized finance and synthetic assets to a global population who currently does not have access and or does not know how to use these products. The potential of converting a fraction of this population implies the possibility of onboarding millions of new people into the DeFi ecosystem, as well as billions of dollars of new capital.

The team plans on using the funds raised to scale the platform, onboard new developers, and provide support for the upcoming BYN token launch, which will help incentivize and attract users to the platform. Beyond’s IDO is tentatively scheduled for early April, which will allow community members to participate in the company’s public token sale. More details will be released closer to the date on Beyond’s official channels.

About Beyond Finance

Beyond is a decentralized platform for creating and trading synthetic financial products designed to suit the needs of the synthetic creator. These synthetic products can be made to track prices of underlying assets, such as currencies, commodities, stocks, exchange-traded funds and more. Each synthetic product can be made to represent $1 or more complex products, such as leveraged/inverse ETFs.

These synthetic products are governed by the Beyond protocol and collateralized by BYN tokens. Deep liquidity is created for synthetic products through our automated market maker that is built on our protocol. Bid/ask orders can also be used on the trading interface for controlled trading orders. BYN token holders are incentivized to stake and provide liquidity to the synthetic products, as it allows the token holders to be rewarded with additional BYN tokens.

 

The rollercoaster of cryptocurrency prices started off on a wild ride in 2021, exceeding records previously set and abating the significant losses crypto investors had to endure ever since 2017. After its tumble at the end of 2017, Bitcoin broke records, reaching its greatest ever highs in March of 2021, topping the $62,000 mark.

And though the asset has retreated to $57,000, many analysts suggest Bitcoin can and will resume its rally with new targets set at $100,000, $150,000 and even $200,000 by year-end. Such predictions are positive signs for those seeking to invest in Bitcoin. But despite their growing pricing and limited emission, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remain high-risk. Yet, investors still have a chance of multiplying their capital by relying on new solutions that can negate most of the risks involved and ensure the security of crypto investments.

A Sober Look

Bitcoin has proven to be the most volatile of all instruments ever to grace the financial market and has outstripped the value-storing capacities of gold many times over based on statistical and monetary parameters. Though Bitcoin has eased its charge to new price milestones, the prospects of its growth are still there on the technical analysis charts.

As the market mulls Bitcoin’s next moves, those who have not yet bought the asset are pondering the risks involved in making market entry. The fears of stepping into a bubble or suffering losses like in 2017 are real and are making investors, both new and existing, uneasy about whether it is time to increase their shares of portfolios with new digital assets.

But while private investors are hesitating, large companies are already working with cryptocurrencies and investing in Bitcoin. PayPal launched its Bitcoin acceptance channel in mid-2020, Elon Musk’s Tesla invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in early February 2021, and  MasterCard has announced its decision to start accepting Bitcoin mere days later.

Given the growing levels of adoption and interest towards Bitcoin, the opportunities and channels for purchasing them are open. But those who prefer guarantees and stability have several interesting new investment products based on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that can be considered.

New solutions on the market allow investors to minimize risks and ensure the safety of their crypto investments. Among such instruments is Gekkoin, which hedges risks using advanced approaches, allowing new users to enter the cryptocurrency market.

The Gekkoin Solution

Gekkoin is an investment platform consisting of a host of instruments, which include a multicurrency crypto wallet, an exchange, payment services, and investment options. All of the instruments operate based on the internal EURG token pegged to the Euro that allows users to manage cryptocurrency assets and earn profits on digital assets using financial structured products.

The integrated Gekkoin wallet gives users access to such coins as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, and offers standard options like storage, exchange, and transfers. All of the ecosystem’s main functions are available through the EURG internal cryptocurrency at a fixed 1 to 1 ratio to the Euro.

The main instruments for investors offered on Gekkoin are its structured deposits that allow users to generate returns at higher rates than those offered on bank deposits. The product gives access to several strategies guaranteeing a yield of up to 4% annually. The deposit system is designed to suit any class of users with adjustable levels of risk.

The safe strategy provides guaranteed returns of 2% to 4% per annum even in terms of the falling cryptocurrency market, but users can also gain from 16% to 20% of value growth from a selected cryptocurrency.

The structured deposits maintain the original investments with loss protection, while users can adjust risk levels and receive from 20% to 25% of the increase in the value of the selected cryptocurrency in case of price changes.

Price fluctuation protection is also integrated into Gekkoin solutions and is applicable to the main strategies on offer. The balanced strategy allows users to negate any losses while retaining initial investments in case of negative price dynamics, or minimize loss to 3-5% of the portfolio, while positive price changes lead to 20-35% gains. The dynamic strategy is riskier with chances of losing 10-30% of initial investments during price drops, or grants 30-50% gains in case of price increases.

Market Outlook

The cryptocurrency market is in perpetual motion and that makes it exciting and profitable. It is never too late to experience its potential, the only question is which solution to select to minimize risks. Gekkoin offers a comprehensive approach that combines the best of the traditional financial market with the innovation of DeFi.

 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

If you are familiar with blockchain technology, you must acknowledge how DeFi is revolutionizing finance. Decentralized Finance or DeFi, is a spectrum of financial instruments and protocols that assists individuals to manage their money. It is a unique, secure, and simple system that decreases the reliance on customary financial institutions, such as banks, platforms, and fiat currencies.

This brand-new money management system empowers its users by providing a cutting-edge alternative against the slow and traditional banking system. Also, it fills up the loopholes that remain hidden in the current customary financial infrastructure. The process is entirely based on the transparent protocols of smart contracts which can be utilized in various tasks, such as asset purchase, renting, investing, etc. The simpler user interfaces and less time wasted are the biggest pro-factors for DeFi to breathe life into money management.

Finding a reliable DeFi Solution

There are various companies offering services to developers who are interested in creating DeFi apps. One such organization is PolkaFoundry that provides a complex and versatile platform that can be utilized by freelance and professional developers. By design, the platform is a single-stop solution for all dApp application developing needs.

Inherited from decentralized blockchain, DeFi applications are not governed by any central entity. This makes the interaction between two or more parties more transparent and higher operational security is guaranteed by the underlying smart contracts. This is one of the reasons why DeFi is favored as a great alternative and a competitor to traditional finance offerings.

The future is huge for DeFi applications. Introduced in 2019, the applications themselves have many use cases for the masses, as well as their development frameworks, provide greater flexibility for the ever-increasing number of blockchain developers. A few benefits that ensure a progressive market for these applications in the future are:

• DeFi is automated and reliable.
• Accessible to nearly anyone with an internet connection
• No geographical restrictions
• No KYC required
• No centralized entity
• Can create massive ROI for investors

PolkaFoundry explained

The PolkaFoundry is a production platform for DeFi and other blockchain applications. Its advanced algorithms and interoperability provide insane benefits to its users. This dApp factory works seamlessly with the blend of Web 3.0 ecosystem and DeFi workspace.

The following outlines few key attractive features of why PolkaFoundry platform is a powerful platform to build DeFi apps,

• Users can directly benefit from the true scalability of Substrate and Polkadot.
• It consists of built-in special DeFi-services that ensure that the created application manages to access data, identify identities, and store data.
• The unique UX-feature, when enabled, showcases the dapps to a greater number of audiences.
• The platform is also EVM-compatible; users can directly switch from ETH.

Popular Use Cases of the Platform

The dApp factory can be utilized to develop applications for a variety of business use cases. The list below outlines a few specific use cases the PolkaFoundry platform is best known for;

• Decentralized Loaning Platforms: PolkaFoundry links the apps to trustworthy vetting sources to automate loan decisions.
• Marketplaces or Auction Center: PolkaFoundry is UX- enabled. This assists the DeFi tool to tempt a bigger population interested in the dApps, such as collectors and artists.
• Cross-chain DEX: Via authorized bridges, DEX can be interchanged with cryptocurrencies, such as BTC, ETH, NEO, etc., and tokens on parachains.
• DeFi Solutions: As mentioned previously, PolkaFoundry provides users incredible interoperability and exceptional scalability. Thus, the EVM support can directly be employed to involve ETHEREUM derivatives applications into the Polkadot network.
• Decentralized Insurance: The dApps created by a user can incorporate PolkaID for identification, verification, and even automated insurance payment in case of an actual-life event.
• Prediction Markets: PolkaFoundry’s dApps can calculate data instantaneously and the randomness in the output is trustworthy for determining any measurable prediction.

Final Thoughts

In the past three years, the value of crypto assets under DeFi protocols has increased 4,500%, with the total value locked in DeFi exceeding $40B. These exponential growths suggest a promising future for these tools and dApps. Currently, multiple crypto-based businesses are launching their DeFi applications and other dApps to boost their market value and overall turnover.

The future looks great for PolkaFoundry as it gears up to deliver a working DAO before the end of 2021. Although various DeFi tools and dApps genuinely provide financial freedom to its users, one should always be aware of scams and dysfunctional applications. Therefore it positions PolkaFoundry in a pretty good place to deliver value in a rapidly developing marketplace.

 

Did you get the memo? Everyone is talking about NFTs. If you are a late adopter, then allow us to fill you in on the exciting world of NFTs. In 2021 everything can be tokenized, it’s a way of turning an object, a contract or simply an asset into a token which can gain or lose value. Most crypto coins are fungible, this means that you can swap one for another eg. if you hold an Ethereum coin, you can swap it for another, there is really no difference between the two. NFTs or Non Fungible Tokens though are different. These are unique tokens which cannot be replaced by another,  in the same way that the Mona Lisa cannot be replaced for the Night Watchman.

And talking about pieces of art, this is one of the most popular new styles of NFT. You take a piece of digital art, or even a song or any digital media, such as Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, who has turned his first ever Tweet into a token and is currently auctioning it off, (it’s somewhere around the $2.5 million level). Would you pay $2.5 million for this? Probably not, but someone would. In the world of art, the price of a piece is whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

There are plenty of other cases of NFTs which have made the news which include someone tokenizing a piece of Banksy artwork and then burning the original. Genius? The jury’s out. Other examples include; Mark Cuban using Tokenized Tweets which minted NFTs from Tweets, and is built on a decentralized platform called Polygon. Aavegotchi, a marketplace for DeFi-staked Crypto Collectibles which sold 10,000 portals for their DeFI + NFT game and managed to raise more than 5.5M$+ and another marketplace built on Polygon, called Arkane which allows you to sell your game items or creations in the form of NFTs.

Slow Down! DeFi, Decentralized, What?

We missed a key piece in this puzzle. What is DeFi? Everything on the blockchain is decentralized, meaning there’s no middleman, it’s just you the buyer and me the seller. DeFi is decentralized finance, which is basically any kind of financial app that is on the blockchain. So, if I am looking for a loan, I don’t need to go to a bank any longer and meet an actual human being and sign a contract. I now do it through the blockchain and smart contracts, which verify every transaction for me, taking away the need for an intermediary like a bank or a broker, and removing the element of human error and even fraud.

Back to the interesting world of NFTs. All of these auctions and all of these marketplaces must take place somewhere. We mentioned Polygon earlier, and this one of the major platforms allowing marketplaces and developers to build decentralized apps. Polygon is an interesting company. It was known as Matic, but it changed its name as the company developed. It’s objective is to bring the world of blockchain one step closer to mass adoption. They do this with their multi-chain approach to the blockchain, with their 2 Layer chains, which is known as the “Internet of Blockchains”. They make it possible for developers to link chains and build basically anything they want. So far they have hosted over 90 Dapps (decentralized apps) and have over 200,000 users, so they are definitely busy. This project, like most blockchain projects, has its own coin which sits at the centre, the MATIC. The better the company does, often the better the coin will perform, gaining or decreasing in value depending on the utility behind it. So Polygon are a major player in the NFT game, and one worth knowing about.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

2021 is proving to be another massive year for the blockchain space. Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols has hit $45 billion with NFTs raking in over $200 million in sales in the past 30 days.  As March gets into gear, there are several major blockchain launches scheduled that you definitely won’t want to miss and a few recent launches to keep on your radar.

From protocols to NFT platforms, the following projects represent some of the most promising teams, product-market fits, and communities. Many have launched or will be launching public sale rounds on various launchpads to offer an opportunity for public participants to support the projects. This means a chance to participate if you were too late to the private sale.

Here is the list (in no particular order) if the most promising blockchain launches this month.

DAFI Token Launch

Telegram: https://t.me/dafiprotocol
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dafiprotocol

DAFI’s protocol has been in development since 2018, and now its initial token launch is set for March 2021. The primary purpose of the project is to bring sustainability and inflation control to DeFi. Many DeFi protocols have struggled to manage hyperinflation via excess supply as they have sought to reward early adopters.

DAFI will link user adoption to a synthetic token called DFY, which gets released whenever DAFI is staked to a particular protocol. These synthetic tokens can be burned in exchange for DAFI. The number of synthetic units available is directly proportional to the expansion of the protocol using them. What this does is tie adoption incentives to the long-term growth of a project. DAFI is the first universal solution that enables inflation in blockchains to be tied to the demand for a token (via the synthetic DFY) rather than the supply.

DAFI will be launching their SHO (strong holder offering) on DAO Maker on March 17th with an initial price of $0.00333.

Splyt dApp and Token

Telegram: https://t.me/splytcore
Twitter: https://twitter.com/splytcore

After completing its whitelist campaign with 10,000 sign-ups, Splyt is set to launch its MVP in March 2021. Splyt is a new protocol focused on decentralized e-commerce with a sustainable edge. The project employs smart contracts and tokens to offer database and search engine functionality for decentralized e-commerce retail.

Splyt enables asset listings to be tokenized, which in turn means that sellers can offer bounties to affiliates and other parties that help facilitate trade or transactions. Splyt is designed to replace rent-seeking intermediaries and bridge the gap between consumers and online retailers.

The dApp is scheduled for its mainnet launch in March 202. The minting of its native token, called SHOP, will also happen in March with a final IDO to be held on Paid Ignition.

AIOZ Network IDO

Telegram: https://t.me/aioznetwork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AIOZNetwork

AIOZ Network is a layer 1 blockchain-based Content Delivery Network (CDN), offering a decentralized streaming platform on the AIOZ blockchain. Currently, AIOZ has nodes spread out across the world and a suite of products including AIOZ Tube (a video-sharing platform), AIOZ OTT (a subscription video service), and AIOZ TV (a live streaming app).

The project is making strides in improving the current CDN industry by offering a better streaming experience that is less costly, more scalable, fast, and offers various incentives. While no hard date has been set, AIOZ is expected to launch an IDO on Paid Ignition in the near future, with March being rumored as a possibility.

Ethernity Chain IDO and Staking Program

Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/WKqxzZV7I14xItLT
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ethernitychain

Ethernity Chain enables NFTs to be minted and traded all on-chain. Ethernity combines DeFi and NFTs to deliver exclusive access to rare and collectible content produced by some of the world’s most renowned digital artists.

Ethernity also allows public figures to endorse works and raise money for charities of their choosing. Following on from its private fundraising round in February 2021, has since launched their IDO on Polkastarter on March 8th and have seen a parabolic rise in public interest since launching on Uniswap. Currently, Ethernity remains one of the most searched projects on both CoinGecko and Dextools. Ethernity will soon be launching a staking program to earn STONES, which can be used to redeem curated and exclusive Ethernity NFTs in the future.

Kylin Network Uniswap Launch

Telegram: https://t.me/KylinOfficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kylin_Network

Kylin is creating a cross-chain data economy on Polkadot that will give parachains access to accurate pricing and other market data. It’s also creating decentralized oracles and a marketplace for data trading. Kylin’s advanced data analytics will give Polkadot projects the tools they need to access information stored on other chains and within traditional financial markets.

Having completed its Balancer liquidity auction, Kylin has since launched KYL on Uniswap, giving Ethereum users a chance to interact with Kylin before it makes its Polkadot debut. Kylin has amassed a community of over 10,000 token holders since launching.

PolkaFoundry Dual-IDO

Telegram: https://t.me/PolkaFoundry
Twitter: https://twitter.com/polkafoundry

PolkaFoundry is a one-stop Production Hub for DeFi applications built on Polkadot. PolkaFoundry’s infrastructure allows developers to tap into various resources to build the latest and greatest DeFi applications. These include open lending platforms, decentralized insurance, cross-chain decentralized exchanges, NFT marketplaces, and more.

PolkaFoundry recently partnered with Kylin Network to provide high-quality data oracle data to its dAppsm, which will be able to access real-time data sources to reinforce increased accuracy and reliability in the DeFi space.

PolkaFoundry will be conducting a dual-IDO on both DuckSTARTER on March 14th through March 16th and ZENDIT on March 16th (2pm to 3pm UTC).

My Neighbor Alice on Binance LaunchPool

Telegram: https://t.me/MyNeighborAlice
Twitter: https://twitter.com/myneighboralice

My Neighbor Alice is a multiplayer builder game where users can buy and own virtual islands, collect and build exciting items, and meet new friends. Built by a team of blockchain veterans, My Neighbor Alice combines many trending blockchain experiences into a fun narrative and ecosystem built for players that appreciate the gameplay experience and for NFT fans (from any experience level).

My Neighbor Alice recently launched on Binance LaunchPool, allowing people to farm ALICE tokens using BNB, BUSD, and CHR. ALICE tokens will be available to purchase on Binance starting on March 15th.

Raze Network

Telegram: https://t.me/Raze_Net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/raze_net

Raze Network is a Substrate-based cross-chain privacy protocol building a cross-chain privacy middleware for DeFi and Web 3.0. Using its privacy layer, Raze offers end-to-end anonymity for the entire DeFi and Web 3.0 stack. They do this by applying zkSNARKs to the Zether framework to build a second-layer decentralized anonymous module which will be imported as a substrate-based smart contract.

Raze has closed its seed and private rounds backed by funds such as Master Ventures, Signum Captial, Moonwhale, CMS, and more. While no hard date has been set for the company’s upcoming public sale, it is suspected to be launching within the next few weeks. Stay tuned to make sure to secure a spot when this announcement is confirmed.

 

Image by Mudassar Iqbal from Pixabay

As more people look for safer alternatives to store and transfer their wealth, stablecoins have emerged as a viable option with practically no restrictions. These fiat-pegged crypto assets allow users to store value reliably, but do nothing to account for inflation of the fiat backing the asset.

e-Money has developed a new stablecoin, one more akin to a tokenized bank deposit than a fiat-pegged currency, as it fluctuates based on incurred interest rates. e-Money combines the best aspects of the three most popular stablecoin models: algorithmic stablecoins and collateralized stablecoins (which include crypto and currency-backed stablecoins), to provide additional value to end-users. Built using the Cosmos blockchain, e-Money is interoperable between networks, allowing for platform sovereignty alongside easy integration with other blockchains.

The Trouble With Algorithmic and Collateralized Stablecoins

Prior to the introduction of e-Money, there have been three categories of stablecoins that provide value to users, but have inherent problems. These categories, currency-backed stablecoins, crypto-backed stablecoins, and algorithmic stablecoins, are still very popular but can be improved.

Users tend to flock to the options that provide a reliable peg on the underlying asset, including during times of volatility. Unfortunately, to date there has not been a mainstream stablecoin that is immune to violent market swings. This has kept many people at bay from participating from more traditional markets and has caused stablecoins to be viewed as a potential regulatory risk.

The future viability of these stablecoins depends greatly on the relationship stablecoin issuers have with banks. If regulators bring forward new rules or issuers can’t cover the operational costs from interest held in reserves, there could be a potential price decoupling. There is also the problem of relying on a centralized institution responsible for maintaining the asset’s stability.

Algo stablecoins mitigate the problems of a centralized power structure, but present unique issues of their own. One of the main obstacles is that the collateral is not in the same asset the stablecoin is pegged to, adding risk and putting pressure on the project and its ability to maintain the peg. Currency pegs hold their price via over-collateralization, but this is only effective if the collateralized asset price doesn’t drastically decrease in value. If this happens, there will not be enough value to justify the peg, and the entire ecosystem can collapse.

A final problem, one that will stifle the ability for algo stablecoins to reach mainstream adoption, is their inability to meet the needs of large buyers. Companies with billions or trillions of dollars of assets under management will have no way to interact with this type of system, as it cannot support the transaction level they require.

e-Money Combines the Best From Each

e-Money offers a solution that innovates on both models of stablecoins, providing an asset-backed option that changes in price based on inflation. e-Money stablecoins are interest-bearing currency-backed stablecoins reflecting various world currencies. They are also fully collateralized, interest-bearing, capable of providing immediate finality of transactions, cost-effective, and fully transparent. Additionally, e-Money is already working with multiple European banks to hold its stablecoin deposits and the company is audited regularly by Ernst and Young, one of the most respected Big Four accounting firms in the industry.

Users can send these stablecoins anywhere instantly, meaning they are borderless, permissionless, and efficient, enabling usage across web3, for local businesses, remittance, and even corporate settlement. e-Money inflates the supply of all its stablecoins by one percent each year, resulting in a controlled divergence meant to benefit stakeholders over time.

With this stablecoin system, e-Money is not working towards replacing fiat currency, but wants to act as a layer two solution that will enhance overall asset usability. Since e-Money uses Cosmos’ blockchain framework for its infrastructure, the network can handle thousands of transactions per second, setting the groundwork for a globally adopted platform.

Additionally, the company recently announced a collaboration with Avalanche, e-Money’s stablecoins will join top-five fiat-backed stablecoins TrueUSD (TUSD) and BiLira (TRYB) as fiat-backed stablecoins native to Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem.

e-Money is expanding beyond the USD-dominated stablecoin market to deliver trusted currencies that can be used in both retail and cross-border payments. By launching on Avalanche, e-Money users will be able to send and receive stablecoins with sub-second finality, and low transaction fees. Providing predictable and interest bearing value to stablecoins is an innovation that will help users better manage their assets, something e-Money is hoping will empower people everywhere.

Image by moritz320 from Pixabay