Hey DEFI TIMES community,

2021 has been an amazing year for the crypto community as a whole.

We saw many new niches inside crypto emerging and maturing. NFTs, Play-to-Earn games, etc.

One of these niches is the Cosmos ecosystem, which was in its infancy only a year ago.

After IBC got introduced - approximately one year ago - almost 30 new chains have adopted it.

Some of them are established chains like Terra LUNA. Other chains are completely new chains that decided to integrate IBC from the start. There is one particular pattern that most of these newly created chains have in common: The fact that they distribute a part of the total supply to the Cosmos community - effectively an airdrop!

It’s reasonable to assume that this trend will continue going forward this year.

Today, we talk about how these airdrops work and how you can make sure to be eligible to claim most of them.

I expect more than 50 new airdrops this year alone, which could potentially yield life-changing gains in 2022.

How can you get them? Let’s find out!

📺 Watch our latest video about how to make a living of Cosmos airdrops!

How to Be Eligible for Cosmos Airdrops

It will be very hard to be eligible for every single Cosmos airdrop that is coming. However, I can give you a pattern that most projects use to reward Cosmos ecosystem members. While all projects have unique requirements, there seem to be a few that most have in common:

1. Staking ATOM: Most Cosmos airdrops are distributed to ATOM stakers and/or holders. This is probably the safest bet to be eligible for most airdrops. But why exactly ATOM? Well, ATOM is the base currency for the Cosmos network - just like ETH is the native currency of Ethereum. Cosmos projects want to reward those who secure the center of the Cosmos ecosystem: The Cosmos Hub. If you are an ATOM staker, you are valuable to Cosmos. In fact, it has become a trend for Cosmos projects to reward ATOM stakers with an airdrop when they launch. I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. The fact that ATOM stakers receive airdrops, has pushed the percentage of staked ATOM to an all-time high. Right now, more than 60% of all ATOM are staked:

2. Staking OSMO: Most Cosmos airdrops in the past have also rewarded OSMO stakers. OSMO is the native coin of the Osmosis blockchain, which is basically an interchain exchange. Osmosis was one of the first Cosmos airdrops and is a major reason why the Cosmos space has grown so much in the past couple of months. To maximize your chances to be eligible for the next Cosmos airdrop, it might be smart to consider withdrawing your OSMO from your centralized exchange to a non-custodial wallet and stake them.

3. LPing on Osmosis: Just as it’s important to stake your OSMO, it might be smart to use the Osmosis exchange in any way possible. For example, consider providing liquidity with your Cosmos assets on Osmosis. Many liquidity providers received airdrops in the past and it’s reasonable to expect that there will be many airdrops left doing the same.

The good news is that all of the above options give you a passive income while you wait for your airdrops. Even if you do not receive the airdrop in the end, you still have the chance to make a living simply by staking and LPing your assets. Good deal, isn’t it?

Stake with Non-Exchange Validators

One thing to note is that you should always stake your assets with validators that are not exchanges. For example, the top 5 validators on the Cosmos Hub are mostly exchange validators: Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.

Most airdrops in the past have excluded exchange stakers from the airdrops. This is to prevent exchanges from receiving these airdrops (as they would never claim them anyway). So make sure to stake with validators you know your trust in order to maximize your chances of receiving future airdrops.

How Much Money Will I Make Per Airdrop?

While Ethereum-based airdrops have made you fortunes in the past (Uniswap, ENS, etc.), Cosmos-based airdrops are not as rewarding. In fact, Cosmos airdrops are much smaller than Ethereum airdrops. But why is that so?

Well, first of all, Cosmos airdrops have many more recipients than Ethereum airdrops. While Cosmos airdrops reward all Cosmonauts out there, Ethereum, based airdrops reward only a fraction of all Etheruem users. For example, the ENS airdrop was only allocated to ENS users. On the other hand, Cosmos airdrops are allocated to all (or most) Cosmos users. Because the number of Cosmos users is much higher than Etherum protocol users, the overall dollar amount is smaller.

However, there will be many more airdrops in the Cosmos ecosystem than in Ethereum. That is because most Cosmos projects start - as a fact - with an airdrop in the beginning. That means the number of airdrops will yield bigger gains in Cosmos than in Ethereum… even though the dollar value of Ethereum airdrops is higher!

Conclusion

2022 is going to be the year of Cosmos airdrops. However, to maximize the number of airdrops you will receive, there are some things to keep in mind.

1. Keep your assets on non-custodial wallets

2. Stake them

3. Don’t delegate to exchange validators

4. ATOM/OSMO stakers are eligible for most airdrops

5. Don’t expect to make a fortune per airdrop

If you consider these steps, 2022 will be an awesome year for you going forward! =)

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

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Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Have you heard of Play to Earn Games?

You most likely read about Axie Infinity, which is a popular NFT game. Especially in the Philippines, Axie changed thousands of lives in 2021 by simply giving people an additional income stream.

And the best thing: Axie gave people the chance to earn money with the thing people love most: Playing games.

Axie is a Pokémon-inspired game - anyone can earn tokens with skilled gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem.

Axie Infinity has its own blockchain, where the in-game NFTs are stored. That makes Axie scalable for the masses as it doesn’t depend on slow (but high security) blockchain technology like Ethereum. While Axie is a fun game, it's also taken on characteristics of a social network and jobs platform due to the strong community.

Apart from Axie Infinity, there are dozens of other Play to Earn games on the market promising users to make money by simply playing the game.

One flourishing Play to Earn ecosystem is Harmony One.

Harmony is a blockchain, which enables a high number of transactions processed per second - a perfect environment for gaming.

Today, we go through some popular games on Harmony One that allow you to make money today.

📺 Watch our latest video about our Top 5 Coins going into 2022!

DeFi Kingdoms - Learning DeFi Made Simple

DeFi Kingdoms is the largest protocol on Harmony One in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL). And guess what… it’s a game!

When you first start playing the game, you realize that it’s actually one of the few crypto games that are fun to play. The music in the background is relaxing, and the map reminds you of an old-school game from your childhood.

This map is a nostalgic form of fantasy pixel art.

But what is the game about?

DeFi Kingdoms is a game built on Harmony that leverages NFTs. The game makes it easy for beginners to learn the concept of a DEX.

There are quite a few places that a player can visit inside the game:

The Marketplace

The heart of the game is the so-called Marketplace. This is the place where players can trade, buy, and sell in-game items. This is where the game’s own DEX comes into play. DeFi Kingdoms has its own Decentralized Exchange, where players can trade different Harmony-based tokens.

For example, players can trade ONE token for DeFi Kingdoms’ native currency JEWEL. If you are new to DeFi Kingdoms, go to the Trader, Merchant Matoya, which looks like this:

On the marketplace, you can also talk to the Druid Lazarus. He helps you buy pair tokens and invest in Liquidity Pools, which are a key part of DeFi Kingdoms. In order to invest in liquidity pools, you have to buy “Seeds” first. You buy Seeds by buying an equal amount of JEWEL and any other token. After buying the Seeds, you are ready to visit the garden.

The Garden

The most important place to visit in the Garden is the “Seed Box.” The Seed Box allows you to scroll through active liquidity pools. Once you decided on a specific pool, you can plant your seeds and let them work for you.

After you plant your seeds, you earn regular liquidity mining rewards in JEWEL.

DeFi and DEXs Made Easy

As you can see, DeFi Kingdoms is all about explaining to users the concept of a DEX in an easy way. The game has been so successful that the market cap of JEWEL exceeded $1 billion a couple of days ago.

In my opinion, we need way more games like DeFi Kingdoms because this is how we will bring DeFi to the masses.

Mars Colony - A Decentralized Colonization Framework

Mars Colony is a game on Harmony One that allows you to purchase pieces of land on Mars. The game looks like this:

After you purchase your very own piece of land on Mars, you are eligible to claim liquidity mining rewards in the game’s own currency called CLNY.

A regular piece of land gives you one CLNY as a reward per 24 hours, which is currently worth $22.

Not a bad passive income for a digital piece of land if you ask me.

Once you earn passive income, you can buy Base Stations and other upgrades.

These upgrades give you even more rewards. In total, you can upgrade your piece of land to give you 8 CLNY tokens per day.

Conclusion

Games on Harmony are exploding in popularity right now. After the success of Axie Infinity, it became clear that there is a product-market fit for Play to Earn Games.

It’s just a matter of time until another game flips Axie in number of users and market cap.

And P2E Games on Harmony are looking very promising…

Find us on:

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

There are two kinds of people in crypto:

1. Those who accept that the future is multi-chain

2. And those who ignorantly believe that their chain is “the best” and “most decentralized.”

Numer two are mostly Bitcoin maximalists and ETH maximalists. That’s fine and I really get their points. Bitcoin is the most secure chain out there. Ethereum might be the most decentralized one after Bitcoin.

However, that doesn’t mean that other chains will grow as well.

Crypto is all about testing belief systems. And if your best is wrong… crypto punishes you right away!

That’s why is essential to stay as open-minded as possible in crypto.

Why? Because then you cannot go wrong. If you are interested in everything, you are almost guaranteed to win. But if you stay closed-minded and arrogant, you are guaranteed to lose.

Let’s talk about some of the losers of this industry:

Communities and DAOs, which ignore that the future is multi-chain.

Thanks to our sponsor MetaGameHub DAO!

What is MetaGameHub DAO?

Currently, it is very hard to value NFTs. MGH DAO tries to tackle this problem by:

• providing NFT pools (investors do not have to pick single NFTs for their portfolios anymore)

• providing an NFT Price Oracle that ensures transparent NFT valuations through the implementation of machine learning, big data, and smart contracts

Are you interested in learning more about MGH?

Why Uniswap, Synthetix, etc. go Single Chain

Actions speak louder than words. One of the most interesting observations I’ve made in crypto is whether or not popular DeFi protocols on Ethereum are betting on a multi-chain future. Take Uniswap as an example. Obviously, the Uniswap team knows that the future is multi-chain; however, they are betting on a very unique type of multi-blockchain world: a rollup-centric world!

That means that Uniswap is betting on a world where Ethereum captures the majority of the network effect; A world where Ethereum scales with rollups and sidechains. It’s kind of an interesting bet to take because Uniswap is basically ignoring the flourishing L1 ecosystem outside of Ethereum. With Uniswap’s launch on Optimism, they signaled their belief and trust in the Ethereum ecosystem while ignoring everything that is taking place outside of it. Don’t get me wrong: Uniswap can launch on both Optimism and e.g. Solana, but this is certainly not what they plan to do. Uniswap stands or falls with Ethereum.

Another good example is Synthetix. Back in July 2021, Synthetix announced that it has launched on Optimism. But will Synthetix ever launch on Solana, Avalanche, Cosmos, etc.? I highly doubt it. Why? Because they are an Ethereum native protocol. They grew up in a world where Ethereum was the only chain out there that worked. Uniswap and Synthetix are prime examples of Ethereum maximalism. In my opinion, the bet that they are taking is risky.

But there’s another example of an Ethereum native protocol that decided to launch on any chain that exists: Aave.

Aave’s Long Term Strategy

The difference between Aave and Uniswap is that Aave is chain agnostic. Even though Aave’s initial version launched on Ethereum, the protocol decided not to stay loyal to only Ethereum. In fact, Aave has already launched on many different chains, including Polygon, Avalanche. In addition, Aave plans to launch on most blockchains in the future, which means that Aave will launch on any chain that has sufficient liquidity and activity. 

Aave is always looking for the best communities and developer environments to deploy its protocol on. Until now, it worked perfectly fine!

In fact, Aave has surpassed $10 billion in liquidity when you combine their TVL on Polygon and Avalanche.

The question now is: Which strategy is better? What’s the better strategy for a protocol to not only survive but to thrive in the long term?

Capture the Liquidity on Other Chains

Aave is a great example of why it makes sense to deploy your protocol on as many chains as possible. Why? Just take a look at the numbers above. Aave’s liquidity on L1s (excluding Ethereum) has exceeded $10 billion.

That means that Aave would have missed out on billions of dollars in liquidity if it didn’t choose to launch there. That means the decision to launch on other chains simply comes down to one single question:

Do you want to capture more liquidity or not?

To me, the answer is very clear: It makes sense for protocols to be chain-agnostic.

There is lots of liquidity on Solana, Avalanche, Cosmos, etc. - Protocols, independently of their philosophy and vision of the future, should ask themselves whether or not they want to grab a piece of the pie. If they don’t want to, then… well, have fun staying poor!

Your protocol can grow a lot by just deploying it on as many chains as possible. There is one undebatable fact:

1. There’s lots of money to be made in the interchain world

You can capture it, which is good for the long-term health of your project. But you can also ignore it, which is in my opinion counterintuitive.

There is literally no downside of launching a protocol elsewhere - at least if your protocol was initially launched on Ethereum and you want to deploy it on other EVM compatible chains. There is no cost associated with copying the code and launching it on EVM-compatible chains.

No cost + value capture = moon!

That’s why protocols deciding to stay single-chain are never gonna make it. They will lose their competitive advantage to open-minded, multi-chain communities and DAOs.

In crypto, only the open-minded win! The closed-minded will lose!

And it can happen fairly quickly!

Find us on:

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

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Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Ethereum has always been the dominant smart contract platform out there.

There are two main reasons for this:

1. Ethereum was the first blockchain to enable Turing-complete smart contracts, which means that we can do whatever we want to do on Ethereum. Because it was the first, people got used to it. Metamask, Uniswap, etc… It's the Ethereum experience. In addition, Solidity and the EVM are Ethereum’s moat. Most developers program in Solidity and are not willing to switch to other languages. We are still living in an EVM world!

2. Ethereum is the most decentralized blockchain out there. Most investors are comfortable storing large amounts of money on Ethereum because nobody can take it away from them.

Both reasons have contributed to the fact that Ethereum has a market cap of almost $500 billion - insane!

However, we’ve seen a lot of flippening talks lately on Crypto Twitter.

And the question now is: Are these two reasons enough for Ethereum to stay the number one blockchain?

Or are we about to see a great repricing of L1 chains in 2022?

Let’s find out!

Thanks to our sponsor MetaGameHub DAO!

What is MetaGameHub DAO?

Currently, it is very hard to value NFTs. MGH DAO tries to tackle this problem by:

• providing NFT pools (investors do not have to pick single NFTs for their portfolios anymore)

• providing an NFT Price Oracle that ensures transparent NFT valuations through the implementation of machine learning, big data, and smart contracts

Are you interested in learning more about MGH?

Ethereum’s USP Today

Okay, so Ethereum is still the king today. So the question is: Will Ethereum keep its lead as the number one smart contract platform in the long term?

The best way to explore possible scenarios is by asking ourselves if Ethereum’s two main advantages are enough to keep it on top.

Okay, Ethereum was the first smart contract blockchain out there and therefore has the greatest variety of applications (DeFi, NFTs, etc.). Ethereum’s money lego effect allows applications to build on top of each other, which makes the ecosystem even more valuable. No doubt, Ethereum’s landscape is way bigger than all other L1s combined. There are more teams building on Ethereum than on Solana, Avalanche, etc.

This is what we have today - but of course, things like that change fairly quickly in crypto.

That’s why I don’t think that Ethereum’s first-mover advantage is enough for it to stay number one. Most developers and teams are not loyal and will switch if they can make more money somewhere else. In fact, it’s not even difficult for them to start building on Avalanche, Harmony, and co because it’s the same programming language (Solidity).

So we have one USP left: Decentralization.

Will Ethereum’s decentralization be enough for Ethereum to remain the most valuable blockchain besides Bitcoin?

It’s the same question all over again: decentralization vs. scalability - What’s worth more? What’s more important?

Well, in the end… the market will decide!

Decentralization vs. Scalability - What’s Worth More?

Buying ETH is basically a bet that decentralization is the most valuable asset in crypto. Betting on Solana is basically a bet that scalability is more important than decentralization.

Read that twice.

Which one are you betting on?

The blockchain trilemma describes it very well. We can only choose two out of three:

1. Decentralization: we can create a blockchain that does not depend on a central party.

2. Scalability: we can build vertically scalable blockchains that can scale for millions of people.

3. Security: Is your money safe? Is the blockchain resistant to hacks?

Today, we choose only two out of three. And as long as we haven't solved the blockchain trilemma, Ethereum’s dominant position is threatened.

Ethereum is choosing decentralization and security. Other L1s are choosing scalability and security.

Blockchains need to be secure. But do they really have to be decentralized?

That’s the ultimate question… and the only way to answer the question is to battle test both belief systems.

The Bull Case For Scalability

What if users really don’t care about decentralization? We have seen first hints that this is the case throughout 2021.

It started with Binance Smart Chain taking over Ethereum in daily transactions in March 2021.

It happened for a very simple reason: Most users were unable to pay for a single Uniswap transaction. Imagine the average user - a person with maybe $1,000 in total investment size. One single Uniswap trade will wipe away 5% or more of his total holdings. Most people just couldn’t afford Ethereum anymore and switched to BSC.

If you ask average crypto investors if they care about decentralization, they will probably say “yes.”

But then you ask them: “What’s more important: Decentralization or their personal finances?”

Well, most people will just prefer to keep their money instead of religiously believing in a decentralized future. And once people have opted out of Ethereum and adopted BSC, Solana, and other L1s, the decision has been made.

This is the bull case for scalable blockchains… and the bear case for Ethereum…

Will Ethereum Be Flipped in 2022?

So what does this all mean to Ethereum? Well, there are a few things that are almost certain to me:

1. Ethereum’s blocks will continue to be congested

2. Gas fees will remain sky high

In my opinion, most users, who join the crypto ecosystem, will start their journey somewhere else. Avalanche, Cosmos, Terra, Solana, BSC will onboard them. And to answer the question: Will Ethereum be flipped in 2022? 

Yes, I think there’s a possibility that other chains flip Ethereum in market cap if users turn out to favor scalability over decentralization.

I’m sure that if we are going to see a flippening, it’s going to happen next year. And it’s going to be highly interesting to see who’s going to turn out to be the winner.

Find us on:

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Ethereum’s congestion is probably the biggest problem in crypto right now.

The Ethereum community sticks to its vision to keep the chain as decentralized as possible. Therefore Ethereum does not make short-term trade-offs in favor of scalability. That’s good for ETH in the long term but short term… Ethereum is losing LOTS of market share!

This is a trend that is likely to continue as Ethereum’s sharding is still years away.

According to DeFi Llama, Ethereum currently has $160 billion in TVL and still dominates the niche of DeFi.

But other chains are catching up fast… you see where this is going.

In my opinion, it’s only a matter of time until Terra, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and co are developing their own flourishing ecosystem that could eventually become bigger than Ethereum itself.

But when could other chains flip Ethereum in terms of Total Value Locked?

And could this mean that there might be another chain replacing ETH in the market cap?

Let’s find out!

Thanks to our sponsor MetaGameHub DAO!

What is MetaGameHub DAO?

Currently, it is very hard to value NFTs. MGH DAO tries to tackle this problem by:

• providing NFT pools (investors do not have to pick single NFTs for their portfolios anymore)

• providing an NFT Price Oracle that ensures transparent NFT valuations through the implementation of machine learning, big data, and smart contracts

Are you interested in learning more about MGH?

What Makes ETH So Valuable?

Let’s start with why Ethereum is still the KING when it comes to DeFi and TVL. Ethereum was the first general-purpose smart-contract blockchain. Ethereum launched in 2015 and it had plenty of time to dominate the niche of smart contract blockchains.

Even in 2020 when DeFi became a thing, there were literally no viable alternative blockchains. Most other blockchains weren’t even launched. Avalanche wasn’t there, Solana was just an idea, and Cardano - well… let’s not talk about Cardano…

People literally didn’t have an option other than choosing Ethereum. Developers built stuff on Ethereum and users got used to their Metamask wallet. A massive network effect that lasts until today.

The most significant reason why ETH is so valuable is that Ethereum still has the largest developer community and user base. But to be honest, that might be due to its first-mover advantage. There are more and more alternative blockchains evolving that have to potential to take away a significant share of Ethereum’s network effect. But why? Well, Ethereum only has one problem but it’s so huge that it seems almost impossible to solve in the next 1-2 years.

Ethereum’s Biggest Problem

Ethereum is very careful when it comes to making short-term scalability trade-offs. The Ethereum community values decentralization over everything else. That’s why their whole roadmap is focused on creating a decentralized and scalable blockchain.

Ethereum will have two main updates in the future:

1. The Merger (6-8 months away)

2. Sharding (2 years away)

When both the Merger and Shrading have been implemented, Ethereum will both be decentralized and scalable for the masses - no doubt! But this will take time… 

I expect Sharding to take at least 2 more years to go fully live. And until Ethereum’s roadmap is finished, other base chains will have time to catch up…

And the question is: Do users really value decentralization so much that they are willing to use a slow and expensive blockchain?

Ethereum is Losing TVL Market Share

As we discussed earlier, Ethereum is losing a good share of DeFi activity. One of the best metrics to track here is the Total Value Locked on different chains. While Ethereum had almost 100% of all DeFi TVL back in the day, it currently only has 65% (according to DeFi Llama).

A trend that is likely to continue. How do I know that? Well, just take a look at Ethereum’s TVL dominance over time.

Where Are Things Going?

So, that’s the trend we are seeing. But where are things going in 2022? What can we expect?

What we are clearly seeing is that users are moving away from Ethereum’s base chain. That’s actually not bad at all for Ethereum’s ecosystem because it’s exactly what Ethereum developers want.

To understand why… let’s recap Ethereum’s roadmap for a second.

Ethereum’s roadmap is very rollup-focused, which means that Ethereum depends on second-layer scaling solutions like Optimistic rollups and Zk-rollups. The community wants users to move away from the expensive base chain to a more scalable rollup ecosystem that is renting Ethereum’s security.

That’s also the reason why Solana, Avalanche, and co are not competing against Ethereum. They are competing with rollups and sidechains.

But we are in crypto, so there is no competition, right?

The One Thing That Is Certain

Anyway, there is one thing that is almost certain at this point: Ethereum’s base chain will lose market share throughout 2022. Both in terms of on-chain volume and TVL. The reason doesn’t have to be that liquidity is moving away from Ethereum. Liquidity can even stay inside the Ethereum ecosystem (rollups, sidechains, etc.). This wouldn’t be bearish at all for Ethereum as it’s exactly what ETH people want. And if you are worried about ETH “competitors” I highly recommend you read my latest piece about the ETH debate.

There really is no competition in crypto - we are all growing together.

The fact that Ethereum is losing TVL market share is a feature, not a bug. The only question is: Will L1s or rollups capture more liquidity?

For me, it doesn’t really matter because I know that the future is multi-chain.

Of course, if Solana, Cosmos, Avalanche, and co overtake Ethereum in TVL, this could mean that they can overtake Ethereum in market capitalization - no one knows…

So if I had to take one bet right now, it would be that Ethereum’s on-chain activity is going to decrease over the course of 2022. Whether you are betting on L2s or other L1s is completely up to you. But as so often in crypto, it’s best to stay open-minded and not maximalist.

Find us on:

• Podcast | Apple | Spotify

• News Website

• YouTube

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Cosmos is at the very beginning of its adoption cycle.

For those of you who are new to Cosmos: IBC got released only in 2021 and it’s a communication standard between blockchains.

Right now, there are 25 blockchains connected with IBC - you can view that on mapofzones.com.

One thing that I’ve noticed (especially in the last few weeks) is that the number of blockchains joining the network per month increases exponentially.

The more time goes by, the more blockchains seem to implement IBC.

This is because the attractiveness and utility of IBC exponentially rise with the number of blockchains, which are in the network.

It’s a simple network effect - and it’s playing out really well in the Cosmos ecosystem.

Today, we go through some of the reasons why Cosmos heavily depends on more blockchains joining the network.

It turns out that Cosmos really only has a bright future if the vision of “millions of blockchains” turns out to be correct.

Cosmos is a leveraged bet on a multi-chain future.

...and IBC is the tool to make it happen!

Watch our latest YouTube episode where we talk about the Builders Program by the Interchain Foundation!

The Importance of Network Effects

The phenomenon of a network effect describes the fact that the increased number of participants improves the value of a specific product. Take Facebook as a simple example:

When Facebook started back in 2004, it was a social network specifically designed for Harvard students. Even though it exploded in popularity, it didn’t serve much value to the broader society.

But the network grew and grew, and suddenly, people kept referring their friends. As more friends of yours join Facebook, you start adopting the technology. In simple words: The more friends you have on Facebook, the more valuable the network is to you.

Thanks to our sponsor MetaGameHub DAO!

What is MetaGameHub DAO?

Currently, it is very hard to value NFTs. MGH DAO tries to tackle this problem by:

• providing NFT pools (investors do not have to pick single NFTs for their portfolios anymore)

• providing an NFT Price Oracle that ensures transparent NFT valuations through the implementation of machine learning, big data, and smart contracts

Are you interested in learning more about MGH?

IBC and the Power of Network Effects

The same applies to a network of blockchains. Why? Let’s first talk about why it might be valuable for a blockchain to communicate with other blockchains.

1. Access to applications: Cosmos’ bet is that application-specific blockchains will be needed in the future. Thus, each blockchain will have a unique use case (in contrast to Ethereum’s vision, which is a general-purpose blockchain). In order for application-specific blockchains to be useful, they will need to communicate with other blockchains to access other applications. Take Osmosis as an example: Osmosis is a DEX in the Cosmos ecosystem and heavily relies on IBC. Why? Without IBC, there would be few tokens to trade on the exchange. Osmosis can only grow because IBC allows users to send tokens from other blockchains to Osmosis - providing liquidity and trade.

2. More liquidity: That also brings us to another (probably most important) point, which is liquidity. Most liquidity is currently located on Ethereum because it was the first smart-contract blockchain. That’s why it’s crucial for L1s to connect to Ethereum to capture part of its network effect. Especially very young and immature ecosystems rely on bigger and more established blockchains to grow. The reason: Liquidity. Getting liquidity is hard at the beginning and IBC allows you to easily get access to fast liquidity.

These are the two reasons why it makes sense to connect to a network of blockchains. Whenever you try to build a blockchain from scratch, it makes sense to connect to as many blockchains as possible in order to grow fast and develop your own network effect (that other blockchains can leverage in the future).

The more blockchains join a particular network, the more valuable it is for future blockchains to join as well.

We can see this with a simple example: Imagine a network where each node is connected to all other nodes.

In the beginning, when only two nodes are connected, there is only one connection. However, when a third node joins, it makes two connections. When 5 nodes are in the network, each node has to connect to four different nodes.

What we see here is exponential growth - a simple network effect. The same applies to IBC and its usefulness.

The number of connections grows exponentially as more participants join the network. In other words: 100 IBC-connected chains bring more than 10x value than if only 10 chains are connected.

That’s why IBC heavily relies on more blockchains joining the network.

The Vision of Millions of Blockchains

Now you also understand the vision of millions of blockchains being connected with IBC. IBC will only make sense if that vision turns out to be correct.

It’s a standardized communication protocol for blockchains. It’s basically about many blockchains speaking the same language.

Just as the English language turned out to become the language of the world, we need a standardized way of blockchain communication.

No doubt, we won’t be building new token bridges in 10 years from now. That process needs to be simplified. And as IBC’s network effect grows, it might make sense for most blockchains to join and profit from universal interoperability.

Cosmos is a leveraged bet to make a multi-chain future happen. That’s why the whole Cosmos ecosystem depends on IBC to reach escape velocity.

Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, and co. all need to implement IBC at some point in their life-cyle.

Only then Cosmos will win!

Will it happen? Probably…

That’s the bet we are taking… and in my opinion, it’s one of the best bets to take in crypto right now!

Find us on:

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• News Website

• YouTube

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Have you been on crypto Twitter lately?

If yes, then you most likely heard about the Ethereum gas fee debate, which is going on. There is some serious FUD on Crypto Twitter right on, which is (in my opinion) not justified.

But let’s start by exploring what actually happened.

It all started with the gas fee debate around Ethereum. Yes, gas fees are high - and yes, gas fees are lower on other chains.

That has been the case for over 12 months now and it’s not likely to change anytime soon. But in the past few days, more and more people on Crypto Twitter have claimed to have “abandoned” Ethereum and moved on to other layer-one chains.

And then Zhu Su released this tweet.

Zhu claimed that he left the Ethereum community.

He then went on to say that the Ethereum community is too rich to realize that most people cannot afford the gas fees anymore.

Zhu’s tweet was just one example. There have been numerous more tweets, which I don’t want to go through today. But you get the general picture.

Obviously, the ETH community reacted quite harshly to this.

I don’t want to go too deep into what happened but rather talk about the long-term effects of this debate.

I believe that this debate is incredibly valuable for the whole crypto ecosystem (both Ethereum and other layer ones). 

So let’s see why!

Thanks to our sponsor MetaGameHub DAO!

What is MetaGameHub DAO?

Currently, it is very hard to value NFTs. MGH DAO tries to tackle this problem by:

• providing NFT pools (investors do not have to pick single NFTs for their portfolios anymore)

• providing an NFT Price Oracle that ensures transparent NFT valuations through the implementation of machine learning, big data, and smart contracts

Are you interested in learning more about MGH?

Why the ETH Debate is Bullish For Crypto as an Asset Class

The Ethereum advocates fought back, of course. They claimed that Zhu Su would just “pump his own bags.” And in some kind of way, they are right. 3 Arrow Capital has a large position in Avalanche. They have an incentive to dump ETH – and, on the other hand, pump AVAX.

But that’s not the only thing Ethereum advocated said. They also claimed that Zhu Su was completely incorrect when he said that Ethereum stopped caring about its community. In fact, the ETH community is actively building Layer-2 solutions and sidechains.

Who is Right?

I believe that the arguments from both sides are (in some way) legitimate.

1. Yes, Ethereum’s gas fees are way too high. And yes, they don’t seem to go down any time soon.

2. On the other hand, ETH devs are actively building high-quality solutions for the long term.

Why the ETH Gas Fee Debate Will Benefit All Parties Involved

Now, the question is: Who will be the winner of all of this?

In my opinion, (and as so often in crypto) all parties will profit immensely from this discussion. But why?

The Gas Fee Debate Is Good for ETH

Let’s start with the gas fee debate. Gas fees have been incredibly high for over one year now. This will be the case until Sharding ships, which is approximately 2-3 years away.

But high gas fees are the reason why Ethereum Devs have to keep working hard until Sharding is launched. And with the discussion on Crypto Twitter, the pressure got even more intense. However, the pressure on the Ethereum community will actually be beneficial to Ethereum’s development. The more people are shitting on ETH gas fees, the harder devs work to fight against it.

That means Zhu Su tweeting bad things about Ethereum is actually good for Ethereum as a whole.

Zhu Su Pumping AVAX Legitimizes Other Layer-Ones

3 Arrow Capital is a big trading company and Zhu Su has amassed a large following of people, who copy his trades. 

In fact, I think Zhu Su’s bullish tweets on AVAX have been one of the main reasons why AVAX increased so heavily in price during the last few weeks.

The more attention there is one Avalanche and other layer-one chains, the more legitimate they become. Even though Zhu Su is mainly shilling his own bags, I believe that his tweets have a massive positive impact on the long-term legitimacy of Avalanche.

Not only Avalanche but also most other layer-one chains. Attention is shifting from Ethereum to a broader ecosystem of blockchains and I think that’s very healthy for the whole crypto ecosystem.

The future is multi-chain, no doubt.

So, if Ethereum wins, other chains will win as well. If Avalanche gains in momentum, other chains will do too.

Crypto is not a zero-sum game.

While the gas fee debate will positively impact Ethereum’s development, it will also bring more momentum to Solana, Avalanche, Cosmos, etc.

Find us on:

• Podcast | Apple | Spotify

• News Website

• YouTube

• Discord

• Twitter

• Instagram

DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Crypto isn’t the small community it used to be in 2017.

It has grown far beyond our expectations with thousands of communities - each of them having its own language and their own culture.

One of these communities is Cosmos - a network of many different blockchains, which have their own communication standard (IBC).

The Cosmos community wouldn’t be the same without one of the most important tools: Map of Zones.

If you are a Cosmos & IBC enthusiast (like me), you probably have heard of it already. It’s basically a visualization tool to monitor the internet of blockchains. Cosmos is at a point where it’s hard to keep track of everything that is going on.

So it’s more important than ever to have a simple tool tracking the role of each zone in the network.

Which blockchain has recently enabled IBC? Which one is next?

How many IBC transfers have been processed over the last 30 days... or in the last 24 hours?

These are the questions that Map of Zones tries to answer.

Just as Coinmarketcap was critical for the crypto industry to keep track of all existing coins, we need a solution to monitor the development of the internet of blockchains.

Let’s explore this exciting new tool!

📺 Watch our recent YouTube video about UMEE!

What is Map of Zones?

Map of Zones is a Cosmos network explorer that visualizes the internet of blockchains. A good way to imagine the tool is the following: It’s basically the Coinmarketcap for blockchains.

Think about the early times of Bitcoin for a second. When the first “altcoins” came up, it was very hard to keep track of every new coin popping up. That’s why people needed an updated list to get an overview of the crypto ecosystem.

The same thing is happening in Cosmos at the moment. Each week, there’s a new chain enabling IBC and connecting to the Cosmos network.

Map of zones is currently the best way to keep track of this insane growth.

Coinmarketcap solved the problem of visualizing the great variety of different coins popping up. Map of Zones basically does the same thing for chains that enabled IBC.

Now that we know what Map of Zones is all about, let’s explore the different features of this new and powerful tool.

Thanks to our sponsor MetaGameHub DAO!

What is MetaGameHub DAO?

Currently, it is very hard to value NFTs. MGH DAO tries to tackle this problem by:

• providing NFT pools (investors do not have to pick single NFTs for their portfolios anymore)

• providing an NFT Price Oracle that ensures transparent NFT valuations through the implementation of machine learning, big data, and smart contracts

Are you interested in learning more about MGH?

Key Components of Map of Zones

1. Visualization of IBC enabled chains

As discussed above, Map of Zones lists all chains that have integrated the Inter Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC). IBC is a protocol that easily allows blockchains to talk to each other. It’s a standardized protocol for blockchain communication.

It solves one of the most important problems in crypto because it removes the need to build new token bridges from scratch. As we’ve seen several times in the past, unsafe token bridges were the reason for multiple multi-million dollar hacks. IBC tries to minimize these risks by introducing a battle-tested token bridge that is easy to adopt.

Map of Zones has specialized in visualizing all chains that have implemented IBC.

Just click on each zone in the network to view different IBC related stats like the number of IBC transfers, IBC share in %, etc.

2. View IBC statistics Per Zone

Once it’s clear, which zones exist in the network, Map of Zones lets you explore more details IBC related statistics.

It also lists the most active chains in terms of the number of IBC transfers. As you can see, Osmosis has by far the most IBC transfers across the network. Please note that IBC transfers mean both in and out transfers. For example, both token transfers coming to Osmosis and coming from Osmosis to other chains count.

That’s why Map of Zones also shows the number of IBC transfers separately as in- and out-transfers. See Osmosis as an example: While Osmosis had 19,732 in the last 24 hours, only 8,989 of them were transactions coming from other chains to Osmosis.

3. Non-IBC Related Stats

Map of Zones also lets you navigate through other (non-IBC related stats), such as the number of total transactions per blockchain.

Terra is by far the largest chain in the network with hundreds of thousands of transactions per 24 hours.

Conclusion

Visualization tools are critical for humans to stay on top of all changes in a specific ecosystem.

Right now, Map of Zones is the only zone-tracking website in Cosmos. However, just as Coinmarketcap was the first coin-tracking tool and many more joined afterward, I expect many more tools to come as the Cosmos ecosystem grows.

Map of Zones definitely has the first-mover advantage and it’s on the best way to become the dominant Cosmos network explorer!

Find us on:

• Podcast | Apple | Spotify

• News Website

• YouTube

• Discord

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

NFTs are going mainstream.

It’s the first blockchain app that has ever reached the masses. As the NFT hype continues to exist (I don’t think it will ever end btw), the Cosmos ecosystem is in need of more NFT projects.

NFTs bring more users to your network.

If you don’t have them, you are missing out on a big junk of users. In fact, NFTs are one of the best forms of marketing that have ever existed. Why? NFTs are a cool, creative, and fun way to create a culture on the internet.

Word of mouth is extremely strong with NFTs.

That’s why it’s so important for the Cosmos ecosystem to get exposure to NFTs asap!

But luckily, we already have some cool projects to start with!

Let’s explore them!

📺 UMEE could be the Aave of Cosmos - and find out why!👇

Stargaze - The Digital NFT Marketplace

Stargaze is a super exciting Cosmos SDK-based NFT project. It has its own zone and plans to enable IBC after the launch to connect with the broader Cosmos ecosystem.

Originally, Stargaze wanted to re-imagine social networks. The social network was supposed to be based on token ownership and NFTs. All content would be represented by NFT (Profile avatars, etc.).

In addition, Stargaze wanted to have social tokens, which can be minted using $STARS, the native currency of Stargaze. Social tokens have been extremely popular lately with the rise of several highly active communities, such as Bankless DAO ($BANK) or Friends With Benefits ($FWB).

However, Stargaze decided to pivot their direction. In order for a social network to thrive on Cosmos, the NFT space needed to grow first. That’s why Stargaze is building an NFT marketplace.

This marketplace is focused on generative art and art in general. However, the range of NFTs sold on this marketplace will rapidly expand in the future.

Generative Art includes art pieces that have been created with the use of an autonomous system. That means Stargaze focuses on art, that hasn’t been created by humans, but rather by machines and AI.

Strangeclan - The First NFT Game in Cosmos

Strangeclan is a metaverse-based NFT game and the first NFT game ever created on Cosmos. It is built on Akash, which is a decentralized cloud.

The game includes many different NFTs that represent your character in the NFT game. At first, 10,000 unique characters will be issued to users.

The Strangeclan game will be about a series of towns fleeing a strange infection. In the game, users can discover new characters, classes, and land. Each of them is different within each town. The genesis game will feature two towns. After the launch, all other towns will be discovered in the game!

The next update, which will take place in Q4, will feature in-game Farming. This means that users will farm resources in the 3D world of Strangeclan. Even before Farming is introduced, users will be able to passively earn resources by simply holding their character.

Another cool thing is that Strangeclan will have its own marketplace. On this platform, you will be able to buy and sell in-game items - for example, digital land. Users can own a very limited supply of land NFTs inside Strangeclan - the first 1000 land plots will be even free! Just like the towns, all future land NFTs will be discovered in the game as time goes on!

Strangeclan is definitely worth keeping an eye on!

Thanks to our sponsor MetaGameHub DAO!

What is MetaGameHub DAO?

Currently, it is very hard to value NFTs. MGH DAO tries to tackle this problem by:

• providing NFT pools (investors do not have to pick single NFTs for their portfolios anymore)

• providing an NFT Price Oracle that ensures transparent NFT valuations through the implementation of machine learning, big data, and smart contracts

Are you interested in learning more about MGH?

Follow MGH on Twitter! 

Cøsmverse - The NFT Marketplace on Juno

Cøsmverse is another interesting NFT project building on Cosmos - specifically the Juno Blockchain. Juno is a fully interoperable smart contract network built with the Cosmos SDK.

Because Cøsmverse is building on Juno, it doesn’t have its own chain, which makes it different from other Cosmos-based NFT projects like Stargaze.

On Cøsmverse, you can buy, sell, mint, and explore any nonfungible token on Cosmos. The marketplace looks like this:

The marketplace is definitely in its early stages. Other (established) marketplaces like Opensea are way more complex and extensive. Cøsmverse currently has one page and very few categories.

The Future of NFTs on Cosmos

Cosmos seems ready for NFTs. While the Cosmos ecosystem is still small, we now have the first three NFT projects trying to push this space further.

The biggest returns of this exciting new NFT niche are yet to be seen. We already saw what is possible on Ethereum - so why not repeat it once again?

It might be interesting to see whether niche ecosystems like Cosmos can compete with Ethereum in the long run. Can Cosmos build cooler NFTs than Ethereum? There might be some reason good reasons why this could be the case.

However, Ethereum still has an insane network effect going, which is hard to beat. In the end, it might be reasonable to stick with Cosmos’ original vision, which is: “We all grow together.”

That’s why I can’t wait to see all ecosystems grow together and leverage each other’s network effects by using interoperability protocols such as IBC.

By connecting Ethereum with Cosmos we can do exactly that! PS: Gravity Bridge will launch soon!

Let’s see what happens next!

Find us on:

• Podcast | Apple | Spotify

• News Website

• YouTube

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Terra has passed a proposal to enable IBC on its blockchain.

This means that Terra will soon be able to seamlessly communicate with all other chains in the Cosmos network.

The Cosmos network is an ecosystem of 15 heterogeneous chains, which all talk to each other. Users can easily send tokens from one chain to another - using a technology called Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC).

Soon there will be 16 chains in the network when Terra joins the gang!

This could be a major event in the history of Cosmos. Why? Because Terra currently settles hundreds of thousands of transactions per second. Terra has a big ecosystem and this ecosystem will join the Cosmos network.

Let’s go through some Terra stats first.

📺 What is Sentinel and why could it disrupt the VPN industry?

What is the Terra blockchain?

Let’s start and explore how the Terra blockchain works in the first place. Terra is a smart contract platform, which was developed by Daniel Shin and Do Kwon in 2018. It’s built using the Cosmos SDK and the Tendermint Delegated-Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism. Currently, there are around 100 validators on Terra, but the number of validators is likely to increase to 300 in the future.

Terra is a special purpose blockchain, which means that it is specifically designed to be used in a certain way: The blockchain focuses on the creation of stablecoins but also has a native currency called LUNA. People use LUNA mainly for governance and utility.

However, the most interesting feature of Terra is the fact that the blockchain is designed to mint stablecoins. The flagship product of Terra is UST - a stablecoin that has seen significant growth. At the time of writing, UST is the 5th largest stablecoin on the market - with a market cap of $2.7 billion… not something you can easily ignore!

The minting of these stablecoins is inherently different from other stablecoins, such as Dai. Quick recap: You can mint Dai on MakerDAO by simply locking in collateral. Every Dai is backed by more than $1, which is how Dai can keep its peg to the dollar.

Stablecoins on Terra are not over-collateralized like Dai. UST uses an elastic monetary policy to ensure price stability and sustainable growth. It uses a dual token mechanism to keep UST pegged to the dollar. This sounds more complicated than it actually is. Let’s go through a simple example:

For UST to keep its peg to the dollar, two currencies are important:

• UST

• LUNA

To mint the stablecoin UST, you have to burn an equivalent amount of LUNA. So, imagine the current price of UST is $1 and LUNA’s price is sitting at $40. In that case, you have to burn 25 LUNA in order to mint 1,000 UST. On the other hand, if you want to mint 25 LUNA, you have to burn 1,000 UST → it works in both directions!

This concept is crucial for UST’s price stability. Arbitrageurs make sure that UST keeps its peg. When UST is below $1, arbitrageurs will burn one UST to get $1 worth of LUNA. When UST is above $1 dollar, they will burn $1 worth of LUNA to get one UST.

That’s how we can be sure that UST is always worth $1 - even though it is not over-collateralized. LUNA is a volatility absorption tool, also capturing rewards through seigniorage and transaction fees.

What Happens When Terra Enables IBC?

When Terra enables IBC, the blockchain will connect to all other chains in the Cosmos network. Users will be able to seamlessly transfer Terra-based tokens to the Cosmos Hub, Osmosis, etc.

This could set free an incredible amount of liquidity to move freely across IBC-compatible chains.

Every single asset sitting on Terra can easily be transferred to all other chains in the Cosmos network.

What happens when $2.7 billion worth of UST will be set free?

The free market will decide where they are best allocated. For example, part of that liquidity could go into Osmosis pools to earn trading fees and liquidity mining rewards.

Right now, there are just over $400 million staked in Osmosis pools. What happens when UST holders realize they earn hundreds of percent per year simply by staking stablecoins?

UST is just one of the hundreds of coins that are waiting to be released!

Thanks to our sponsor MetaGameHub DAO!

What is MetaGameHub DAO?

NFTs are one of the fastest-growing asset classes in the world. However, the NFT market is overheated! Newcomers find it hard to enter it, as the market is too illiquid and risky. Besides, the valuations of single NFTs are mostly intransparent. MGH is solving these problems by: 

• providing NFT pools (investors do not have to pick single NFTs for their portfolios anymore)

• providing an NFT Price Oracle that ensures transparent NFT valuations through the implementation of machine learning, big data, and smart contracts

Are you interested in learning more about MGH? Get more information on

https://www.metagamehub.io/ and follow MGH on Twitter! 

IBC is a Positive-Sum Game

IBC will bring lots of additional benefits to UST holders. The blockchain space is not a zero-sum game… it’s positive-sum!

The fact that Terra will enable IBC will benefit both Terra and all other IBC-compatible chains - all parties win here! It’s a network effect that is in favor of all participants.

The utility of the network rises exponentially with each new zone entering the network.

Quick example, imagine two states of the Cosmos network.

1. 1,000 connected chains

2. 10,000 connected chains

Under normal conditions, you would expect 2) to be worth tens times more than 1). However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. 2) is exponentially worth more than 1). It’s the power of the network effect that you shouldn’t underestimate.

Conclusion

Terra is set to enable IBC, which will connect it seamlessly to all other chains in the Cosmos network. This will have a huge impact on the Cosmos ecosystem because Terra is one of the largest blockchains out there.

UST alone has a market cap of $2.7 - not something that is easy to ignore.

It’s safe to say that Terra won’t be the last chain, which enables IBC.

This is only the beginning of the internet of blockchains.

Find us on:

• Podcast | Apple | Spotify

• News Website

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Crypto gaming is on fire!

At this point, crypto gaming (GameFi) has become a completely new ecosystem in crypto. It’s a new way to make money. The concept is simple: Play games and get rewarded.

The gaming industry as a whole was worth over $90 billion in 2020. It’s another billion-dollar market that crypto is set to disrupt.

We started with finance, went on to go after art… next up is gaming!

How do I know that? Well, GameFi has undoubtedly hit product-market fit. My assumption is based on two facts:

1. People love to play games

2. People love to make money

Create a game that s super fun to play and include the possibility for users to earn money with it. The perfect combination!

Today, we have a variety of projects building the future of gaming: GameFi!

Finance + Gaming = 😎

Making money while playing... it’s the dream of every teenage boy!

Turns out this dream came true with GameFi!

But to understand how it works, let’s explore the largest crypto game right now: Axie Infinity!

📺 Watch our recent video about stablecoins coming to Cosmos!

Axie Infinity - The Gamer’s Dream

Axie Infinity is a crypto game, which has seen significant user adoption in 2021. 

The rules are simple: you create a team of three creatures called Axies. These Axies have various skills and you can fight with them against either a computer-controlled opponent or other real-life players.

Usually, Axie wouldn’t be all that different from other video games. But Axie was one of the first mainstream games to leverage NFTs. NFTs create scarcity in a digital world… your Axies are actually worth something!

Axie Infinity creates an economy around Axie NFTs because it takes time and effort to mint an Axie NFT.

By playing Axie Infinity, you earn tokens. You can use these tokens to breed another monster NFT.

That means your time is actually worth something.

1. You play Axie Infinity

2. You get rewards in form of Axie NFTs

3. You can use these NFTs to mint more NFTs

Believe it or not, there are actually people in the Philippines who earn more money with Axie Infinity than with their regular jobs. Some articles came out describing that playing four hours of Axie Infinity yields more than the minimum salary in most regions of the Philippines - crazy!

That’s the future of gaming!

GameFi introduced a new form of UBI - without any government involved!

Just the free market doing its thing!

GameFi Will Change the Gaming Industry Forever

Now that we understand how GameFi works, let’s think about what it can do for humanity.

As we discussed, Axie Infinity is already changing lives in the Philippines. People there play Axie Infinity and earn actual money.

They are having fun and earn more than working regular jobs.

I’m sure some people even got crazy rich along the way.

Just take a second and appreciate how beautiful this is: Financially weak people have the chance to significantly increase their living standards by simply doing what they love: Playing cool games!

This simple fact makes GameFi superior to all other forms of gaming.

Would you rather play a game without any compensation or get paid for it? The answer is rather easy!

I have no doubt that many more popular games will adopt NFTs and financial incentives in the future.

Rethinking Universal Basic Income

If you take this one step further, you realize that GameFi has the potential to change the world for the better.

Why? Because it’s a completely new form of Universal Basic Income (UBI).

Universal Basic Income is the idea that every citizen in a particular country receives an equal amount of money on a regular basis.

Proponents of this idea claim that it would raise the living standards and average well-being of the population. However, there are some problems left to be solved. For example: Where does the money come from?

It’s safe the say that we have to make at least some trade-offs:

• Do we need to raise taxes?

• Maybe print more money?

GameFi seems to be the perfect solution to the Universal Basic Income problem. GameFi is not a top-down concept imposed on the people; it’s a bottom-up phenomenon, which emerged naturally.

People can choose to participate… or to opt out!

Crypto has come up with another form of UBI. And it seems to be superior to the original idea.

Conclusion

Right now, the niche of GameFi is in its infancy. However, have no doubt that it will positively impact society in a big way.

It’s a new form of UBI – and we will see many different games adopting it in the future.

The concept is so superior to ordinary gaming that I think most companies in the gaming industry will have to adopt it.

I’m definitely keeping a close eye on where the GameFi industry is heading!

Find us on:

• Podcast | Apple | Spotify

• News Website

• YouTube

• Discord

• Twitter

• Instagram

DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

The Cosmos ecosystem has many opportunities to earn some yield! There are plenty of zones that you can use today.

The network looks like this:

One of the most interesting opportunities is Osmosis.

It’s a decentralized exchange, that has its own zone.

Right now, Osmosis is the best-kept secret in the yield farming space.

It has incredible returns… and few people know about it!

That’s why we talk about it today.

How can you use Osmosis and how can you use the returns to your advantage?

Let’s get the alpha!

🚀 Listen to our episode with Osmosis founder Sunny Aggarwal!

What is Osmosis?

Osmosis is a decentralized exchange in the Cosmos ecosystem. The user interface is extremely smooth and simple.

Osmosis is built using the Cosmos SDK, which means that it is designed to process thousands of transactions per second. The exchange allows developers to build, design, and deploy their own customized AMMs.

In addition to that, Osmosis is IBC compatible - The zone can communicate with all other zones in the Cosmos network, which enabled IBC as well (such as the Cosmos Hub, Regen, Akash, and many more).

The native asset of Osmosis is OSMO - a governance token that provides a decentralized coordination method for token holders to decide the strategic direction and all future changes to the Osmosis protocol.

OSMO holders can vote on governance proposals and set different parameters for the protocol, such as swap fees.

OSMO is an inflationary token, which is regularly issued as staking rewards, liquidity mining incentives, developer vesting, and to the community pool:

• Staking Rewards: 25%

• Developer Vesting: 25%

• Liquidity Mining Incentives: 45%

• Community Pool: 5%

As you can see, OSMO is highly inflationary (especially at the beginning of its existence). But that’s exactly why the OSMO rewards are extremely high at the moment.

Before we explore how you can take advantage of that, let’s first explain how Osmosis works.

How high are the rewards on Osmosis?

Okay, as we touched on earlier, Osmosis is a paradise for yield farmers at the moment.

Let’s take a look at some of the pools on the OSMO exchange:

As you can see, the rewards are currently extremely high for most pools. The rewards vary from pool to pool. For example, if you provide liquidity to the CRO/OSMO pool, you receive approximately 230% per year!

As you can guess, the high rewards on Osmosis have caused the TVL to go up significantly over the past few weeks. When Osmosis was released (June 2021), the TVL was sitting at just under $50 million. Right now, it’s very close to $430 million - an 8.6x after the launch!

High rewards make people invest their money and time into Osmosis. But how can you actually profit from it?

How can you provide liquidity to Osmosis to get those high rewards?

Let’s find out!

How can you use Osmosis?

Step 1 - Buy ATOM: You can buy ATOM on all major exchanges (Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Crypto.com, etc.). Once you have ATOM in your exchange wallet, you are ready to go!

Step 2 - Install the Keplr Wallet: The Keplr Wallet is basically the Metamask of Cosmos. Its user interface is just as simple. Once you have created a wallet and secured your private key, you are ready to send ATOM to your new wallet.

Step 3 - Send ATOM to Keplr: Send ATOM to your wallet - make sure that you select Cosmos Hub as the destination.

Step 4 - Go to Osmosis: Go to the Osmosis interface. Make sure it’s the official web page.

Step 5 - Transfer ATOM on Osmosis: Using the Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC) feature of Keplr, you can now transfer ATOM from the Cosmos Hub to the Osmosis zone. IBC enables different zones to exchange value with each other.

Just go to the “Assets” page on Osmosis and click on “deposit ATOM.”

Step 6 - Deposit Assets to Osmosis Pools: Now it’s time to deposit some funds into the OSMO pool of your choice. That can be any pool you like.

Let’s assume you want to deposit funds into the OSMO/CRO pool.

First, you will need to buy OSMO and CRO. You can do that on the Osmosis exchange interface. Once you are ready, you click on the OSMO/CRO pool and on “add/remove liquidity.”

After you added liquidity, you are ready to earn! =)

Conclusion

Osmosis is the Uniswap of the Cosmos ecosystem. It’s just as simple to use and… a lot cheaper!

It’s not clear for how long the rewards will stay this high because liquidity is growing at an insane speed. The more liquidity is sitting in OSMO pools, the less return you receive on your assets.

However, the combination of the simple user interface and high rewards have made Osmosis extremely popular in the last few weeks!

And it’s a perfect way to get started with the Cosmos ecosystem!

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

It seems like the NFT hype cycle is coming to an end.

This doesn’t come as a surprise. In fact, it was expected.

In crypto, we have hype cycles, which come and go. Hype waves are nothing new!

No doubt, NFTs were another hype wave in the crypto markets. That doesn’t mean that NFTs are a fad and they will go away soon. Quite the opposite is true: NFTs will change the world… it’s a revolutionary technology!

However, the NFT hype cycle seems to fade right now…

Now, the question is: What’s next?

Let’s go through some possible scenarios!

Listen to our latest episode on NFTs with the LEGEND Adam Draper!

DeFi Is Due For Another Run Up

DeFi has been lagging attention for months now. Even though some of the top layer one projects (Like Avalanche, Solana, Cosmos, etc.) have been performing extremely well, we are yet to see another DeFi-Summer-like scenario.

Especially DeFi Blue Chips on Ethereum, have been underperforming the market. Just take a look at the Aave chart. From the outside, it looks like nothing is really happening in DeFi at the moment:

But when you look closer at how fast DeFi moves, you start to see the big picture. Even though Aave’s price has not been performing well, the community is still working hard to provide incredibly valuable products.

For example, Aave is currently building a decentralized social media platform. In addition to that, Aave is also building Aave Pro, which is an institutional-grade lending and borrowing platform. Aave is truly building awesome products… and prices are yet to catch up!

I’m sure that DeFi is set for another all-time high soon. We are doing nothing less than changing the world because DeFi is revolutionizing the financial system… building globally accessible, fair, and open financial services for everyone!

Sure, gas prices on Ethereum are quite high at the moment. That’s why I personally believe that the next DeFi hype wave will take place on other base chains (Solana, Avalanche, Cosmos, etc.) or on L2 solutions (Optimism, Arbitrum, etc.).

But DeFi is not the only candidate for another big crypto hype wave.

DAOs and Social Tokens

DAOs are going to change the way we work on the internet. DAOs are basically a whole different type of organization we have never seen before. Their structure is completely bottom-up. Nobody is in charge. There is no CEO... no executives.

DAOs are a social experiment questioning the way we work today. There are no applications, contracts, and regular salaries. But the process is quite simple: You provide value, the community decides that your work is valuable, and you get paid for your work.

You can work for multiple DAOs at the same time. Nobody will ever be excluded based on skin color, race, or sexuality. In fact, the nature of DAOs is inherently open, inclusive, and empowering.

It’s safe to say that DAOs are changing our understanding of what work means to us. However, we are yet to see a “DAO season.”

This “DAO season” could come sooner rather than later. 

As the DAO space grows, we will see more and more people promoting the idea! It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy!

Play To Earn Games

Play to Earn Games are a very new niche in crypto… and it’s something I personally haven’t researched a lot about!

But Play to Earn games have the potential to bring crypto to the masses - just like NFTs.

NFTs have become big in such a short time because they are fun to use…  and you can even make money with them!

NFTs were destined to be the first crypto app to ever reach the mainstream. Just like NFTs, Play to Earn Games could become big in the near future.

The concept is very simple: Users can earn real money or other rewards by simply playing a game!

One of the coolest Play to Earn Games is Axie Infinity. Axie Infinity players earn NFTs or that they can sell for real money. Especially in the Philippines, the game has become extremely popular. Axie Infinity players earn three times as much as the minimum wage - simply by playing.

Could this be the next big thing?

Decentralized Social Media

Decentralized Social Media was supposed to be one of the early use cases of crypto. However, building a great social media platform on top of a blockchain turned out to be way more difficult than expected!

One of the early attempts was Steemit. In 2017, Steemit had massive momentum, hundreds of thousands of daily active users, and billions of dollars in market cap.

The problem was that the underlying blockchain wasn’t scalable enough for millions of users. And after the bull run of 2017… it collapsed!

Since then, we haven’t seen any good attempts to build another decentralized social network… until Aave came along and announced that it will build the next Twitter on Ethereum.

Could this start the next crypto hype wave?

Maybe not in the short term. Aave’s social media protocol is still in early development and they are yet to announce a launch date. Initially, it was planned to launch in late 2021, but I could even imagine it to take until Q1/Q2 2022.

But once it’s launched… we could see interesting things happening.

Decentralized social media protocols are overdue to find a product-market fit!

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

This week, Solana went down!

This came as a shock to the whole Solana community. But it wasn’t unexpected.

But what exactly happened?

Let’s take a look at the official statement of the Solana Foundation:

"Solana Mainnet Beta encountered a large increase in transaction load which peaked at 400,000 TPS. These transactions flooded the transaction processing queue and caused the network to start forking. This forking led to excessive memory consumption, causing some nodes to go offline. Engineers across the ecosystem attempted to stabilize the network but were unsuccessful. The validator community elected to coordinate a restart of the network."

So, there were bots spamming the network with over 400,000 transactions per second, which caused the network to fork.

Shortly after 1:30 a.m. Eastern time (on Wednesday) the network went live again.

Looking back, it wasn’t a catastrophic event… but it highlights the need for reliable infrastructure!

Solana currently stores billions of dollars.

All of this money is stored in Solana’s smart contracts. Therefore, the bug basically put all of this money at risk… billions of dollars!

Rest assured, the funds are safe. But it’s safe to say that Solana is built on untested technologies. And do you really want to store the majority of your wealth there?

We need reliable and decentralized infrastructure for this industry to thrive!

Sure, this bug ultimately made Solana more robust… but Solana still has a long way to regain trust from all the people involved!

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Curve on Arbitrum

Curve launched on Arbitrum and will start a DAO vote to bring CRV rewards to its Arbitrum pools.

Celo Optics Bridge

Celo Optics Bridge has been deployed - users will be able to bridge any ERC-20 between Ethereum, Celo, and Polygon.

Coinbase Wallet supports L2s

Coinbase Wallet announced its support for L2s.

NFTX Marketplace launched

NFTX, which is an NFT index fund project, launched an NFT marketplace!

Aave about to deploy on Avalanche

Aave created a governance proposal to deploy on Avalanche!

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Cosmos is growing at an exponential rate!

And it’s becoming a respectable part of the DeFi ecosystem.

Cosmos aims to connect all blockchains with its Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. It’s a protocol that allows different chains to talk to each other. That’s why IBC could be a core component of what the future of interoperability will look like.

IBC transfers are going through the roof right now. In the last 30 days, there have been over 780,000 IBC transactions! And the number is growing steadily...

Think about it for a second: Within the Cosmos network, over 780,000 transactions have been sent between different zones.

Zones are basically blockchains in the Cosmos network.

But what are the most important zones that people use today?

Today, I give you a broad overview of the most important zones in Cosmos.

Which ones can use today? And how can you use them?

Let’s find out!

Cosmos Hub

The Cosmos Hub was the first of thousands of different zones. It’s essentially the center of all zones. The native taken on the Cosmos Hub is ATOM, which most people perceive as the primary coin to capture the value of Cosmos’ network effect.

Using ATOM, you can run a validator node and secure the Cosmos Hub. You can contribute to the security and governance of the Cosmos Hub. If you don’t want to run your own validator node, you can delegate your ATOM to other validators, from which there are currently 149.

We already have the first apps on top of the Cosmos Hub. For example, the Gravity DEX launched earlier this year - it aims to be the most secure cross-chain DEX protocol and the central DEX in the Cosmos ecosystem. By using the Gravidity DEX, you get immediate access to all tokens from IBC connected chains.

The main way to use the Gravity DEX is Emeris. Emeris’ vision is to become a one-stop portal for all crypto apps - no matter what blockchain they run on.

Today, it’s not fully launched, but you can already use the Gravity DEX supporting several tokens today! Right now, it’s still in beta, but this will change soon!

Osmosis: The Uniswap of Cosmos

Osmosis is the largest DEX in the Cosmos network and has its own zone! The zone is IBC-compatible, which means that it can talk to all the other zones in the network.

Osmosis is by far the most active chain when it comes to IBC transfers:

IBC transfers are cross-chain transactions - so, basically, information being sent from one zone to another. Over 358,000 IBC transactions have crossed Osmosis in the last 30 days, which is an incredible number!

When it comes to IBC transactions, Osmosis even surpasses the Cosmos Hub, which currently only settles 219,000 IBC transactions per month.

Osmosis is an automated market maker (AMM) protocol. It has strong incentives for liquidity providers rewarding them for their contributions.

The rewards are just incredible at the moment. APYs range from hundred percent to several hundreds of percent:

The strong liquidity incentives made Osmisis’ TVL go through the roof. Over $400 million are currently locked in Osmosis’ smart contracts.

Osmosis is a fork of Balancer, which is part of the reason it took off in the first place. Its interface is very simple to use and people got used to it already in some kind of way.

You can find out more about Osmosis by watching this interview with Sunny Aggarwal!

Akash Network

Akash Network is basically a decentralized cloud. The vision is to disrupt the centralized cloud industry (dominated by Amazon, Google, and co). By decentralizing this industry, Akash aims to significantly decrease the storage cost. Another goal is to create an environment with more competition among storage providers.

Their official docs describe the vision in the following paragraphs:

“The decentralized cloud is a shift from computing resources being owned and operated by the three large Cloud companies (Amazon, Google, and Microsoft) to a decentralized network of Cloud providers running open-source software developed by a community and creating competition in an open marketplace with more providers.”

Akash has its own zone in the Cosmos network and is IBC compatible. Because of its unique vision, Akash is definitely one of the most remarkable projects in the Cosmos ecosystem.

Watch this interview we did with Akash CEO Greg Osuri if you want to find out more about Akash!

Sentinel

Sentinel is a decentralized peer-to-peer bandwidth marketplace, which supports decentralized VPN applications. Just as all other Cosmos protocols, it’s built on the Cosmos SDK.

A decentralized VPN takes privacy features to another level because it can’t be compromised by a central party. It cannot be shut down because it doesn’t have a central server where it’s running. That’s why it’s more resilient than a centralized VPN.

Dan Edlebeck, co-founder of Exidio, who contributed to the development of Sentinel explained it in the following way:

“Sentinel is the first project that focuses on offering privacy at the network level to any blockchain or dapp. Once integrated, these blockchains or applications will be able to provide their users with both privacy and censorship resistance. Simply, the purpose of the Sentinel ecosystem is to empower universal access to the internet in a trusted and provable manner.”

Sentinel Network allows you to sell bandwidth on the marketplace. For doing so, you will be rewarded in $SENT - the native token on the Sentinel zone.

Conclusion

The Cosmos ecosystem is growing pretty fast. Just a year ago, there was no single app up and running on Cosmos. But today, things look differently!

The projects that I mentioned today, are just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to dive deeper and have a more extensive overview of all the apps on Cosmos, then check out this website.

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Interchain Security is a topic that hasn’t been discussed in the broader crypto ecosystem.

Why? Because it’s a topic, which is native to the Cosmos ecosystem. Cosmos is basically a network of blockchain. The Cosmos SDK makes it easy for anyone to build a completely new blockchain from scratch.

It’s a revolutionary technology… and the ultimate bet against chain-maximalism.

Some people would claim that Cosmos’ approach is very similar to Polkadot’s approach.

But why are both projects valued so differently?

While Polkadot is valued at a $30 billion valuation, ATOM (the native coin of Cosmos) is only sitting at an $8 billion market cap.

The answer is pretty simple: Polkadot has shared security and Cosmos doesn’t. Shared security is the fact that parachains on Cosmos have to lock in DOT in order to be secured by the Relay chain.

Shared security increases demand for the native token DOT.

Today, Cosmos does not have shared security. Every single blockchain in the Cosmos network has its own validator set. Each zone is responsible for its own security.

That’s a fundamental issue and it’s part of the reason why DOT has a better value proposition than ATOM.

But this could change soon as Cosmos is well on its way to implementing its own version of shared security…. Interchain security!

📺We are hosting the BIGGEST Cosmos conference in Europe on November 5! Watch this video to find out more!

What is Interchain Security?

Interchain Security could massively strengthen the value proposition of ATOM. To understand why we first have to explore what this essentially means.

Interchain security is a type of shared security in the Cosmos ecosystem. It aims to bring more utility to ATOM.

ATOM is the native currency of the Cosmos Hub. Right now, the Cosmos Hub is just another zone in the broader Cosmos ecosystem. While every zone has its own native currency, ATOM does not have a special status. This is likely to change because interchain security will enable ATOM to be used to secure all other zones. Right now, we can only use ATOM to secure the Cosmos Hub.

The original purpose of the Cosmos Hub was to make the Internet of Blockchains easier to use. However, today the Hub is still lacking potential use cases. By introducing Interchain Security, the Cosmos Hub will be responsible for securing the Internet of Blockchains.

That means all zones in Cosmos will depend on the security of the Cosmos Hub. All zones share the security of the Cosmos Hub.

Shared security, in essence, describes the fact that a superior network is responsible for securing a subordinate network. One of the best examples is the concept of optimistic rollups. Optimistic Rollups depend on the security of the Ethereum main chain. Every single transaction on the rollup is also stored on Ethereum.

Interchain Security is a type of shared security. The official announcement post of Cosmos describes the relationship in the following way:

Shared Security

Shared security is a family of technologies that include optimistic rollups, zk-rollups, sharding, and Interchain Security.

Interchain Security

Interchain Security is the Cosmos-specific category of Shared Security that uses IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication).

Cross Chain Validation

Cross Chain Validation is the specific IBC-level protocol that enables Interchain Security.

What Interchain Security Means to ATOM

Interchain Security could be the last piece of the puzzle to make ATOM one of the most valuable assets in the crypto universe.

The question you have to ask yourself is: Why should people buy a particular cryptocurrency?

For example, people buy ETH because they have to cover their transaction fees (which are very high at the moment). The simple fact that Ethereum block space is scarce, ensures demand for ETH. In addition to that, EIP-1559 will turn ETH into a deflationary asset in the future. That means, people also use ETH as a store of value similar to Bitcoin. ETH’s value proposition is perfectly fine!

Previously, we couldn’t say the same stuff about ATOM! Block space on the Cosmos Hub is not scarce at the moment. Quite the opposite is true: We have plenty of block space there! And there’s very little demand for ATOM just to cover transaction fees. Also, ATOM is not a deflationary asset because it doesn’t have a burning mechanism similar to EIP-1559. In fact, ATOM is inflated every year! ATOM is being inflated based on the number of staked ATOM. This results in an annual inflation rate of anywhere between 7% and 20%.

With the introduction of interchain security, there is a lot of demand for ATOM. ATOM’s primary use case will be to secure the internet of blockchains.

People will buy ATOM not only to secure the Cosmos Hub but also to secure any other zone.

Shared security is the way to go for Cosmos… and it will give ATOM a similar value proposition as DOT!

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

September 7 was a historic day. 

On Tuesday, this week, El Salvador officially recognized Bitcoin as legal tender. It was a big moment for the whole Bitcoin community because El Salvador is the first country in history to do so!

And what happens when a country recognizes Bitcoin as legal tender? Right, it’s going to buy BTC!

Nayib Bukele announced El Salvador’s first Bitcoin purchase on Twitter:

This is not a random tweet of another guy bragging about his BTC purchase. This means that the first country IN THE WORLD has bought Bitcoin.

Think about it for a second…

El Salvador has bought 200 BTC on September 7, 2021.

But things got even wilder. Just a few hours later as Nayib Bukele tweeted that El Salvador bought another 200 BTC.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin purchase may not have pumped the price, but there’s so much more to this news than just making the Bitcoin community rich.

This is the “Hello World” of countries adopting Bitcoin!

Currently, we see two big trends of Bitcoin adoption:

1. Companies putting Bitcoin on their balance sheet

2. Nation-states adopting Bitcoin

While the first trend is much more established, the second one is just in its infancy. El Salvador is literally the first country to recognize Bitcoin as a legal tender. However, it has almost become clear at this point that this is only the start - and many more countries could be following very soon.

What’s super interesting to observe is how El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption will benefit the country in the long run.

When the first publicly listed company (MicroStrategy) started to buy Bitcoin, it had a positive impact on its stock performance. While Bitcoin was exploding, MicroStrategy stock increased as well.

As the public saw the positive impact of Bitcoin, more and more companies started to buy Bitcoin… and suddenly a network effect evolved!

We could see the same pattern with countries adopting Bitcoin. Other developing nations (Panama, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, etc.) are exploring similar strategies right now. And they will take a close look at whether Bitcoin positively impacts El Salvador.

All in all, super interesting times lay ahead of us!

It took Bitcoin 12 years to be adopted by the first nation-state!

Let’s see what the next 12 years will look like!

📺 Check out our latest interview with Kyle Samani where we discuss the future of NFTs!

MCDEX live on Arbitrum

MCDEX, a popular DEX on Ethereum, is now live on Arbitrum! Users can trade perpetuals with up to 25x leverage.

Kwenta launches perpetual futures

Kwenta will launch perpetual futures on Optimism. To get users on the platform, they will also host a trading competition.

dYdX Airdrop Update

Rewards claimed after the recent dYdX airdrop can now be transferred!

Lido on Solana

Lido has launched liquid staking on Solana! Check it out!

ParaSwap live on Avalanche

The Avalanche Ecosystem is growing very quickly!

Subscribe to our newsletter to level up your crypto game!

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

The metaverse is a strange place. Its final form is very uncertain at this point. What will it look like ten years from now?

We can only guess - but we see first hints.

In essence, the metaverse is a collection of items, digital identities, balances, and objects stored on a decentralized ledger… like Ethereum!

Today, we explore one of the most exciting topics of the future metaverse: identity!

📺 Subscribe to our YouTube channel to dive deeper into DeFi and web3!

The "Hello World" of the Metaverse

The term metaverse has existed for quite some time now, and we are yet to find a standardized definition of what it means to society.

In a recent Twitter thread, Vitalik gave his definition of the metaverse, and he came to two possible answers.

He says the metaverse is defined as either:

1. Some kind of virtual reality on the internet where people can jump into, or

2. A shared state of objects, items, and identities, which we can transfer on the internet across different platforms and realities.

If you ask me, I prefer the latter as a standardized description.

At this point, it has become clear that we will have multiple virtual realities in the future. We will see Facebook, Fortnite, and other companies bringing virtual reality products to the market. They will all look different, and there will be thousands of them.

What they will all have in common is the shared state of objects. For example, you will be able to transfer your favorite weapon from Fortnite VR to another one. This particular item isn't unique to the Fornite game itself. But it's an object that exists across multiple realities simultaneously. But how does that work?

This is only possible if the object is stored as an NFT on a trustless blockchain like Ethereum. Ethereum will be the layer that every single metaverse builds on.

With the emergence of blockchains, we now have scarce assets on the internet. NFTs are unique digital items with explicit owners. If I own a CryptoPunk, I can prove it by simply generating a signature with my wallet. I can then take the CryptoPunks with me across different platforms and realities.

Think of the metaverse as a collection of virtual realities that share the same state of existing objects. The front end will run on centralized servers… but the important stuff (what you own) will be stored on decentralized ledgers.

But if there are multiple realties… who are you? What is your identity across the metaverse?

The answer is now quite simple. So, to find out, let's first describe what identity looks like in the real world.

What Does Identity In the Real World Look Like?

In the real world, identity sticks with you. You are born with it. And your identity never changes throughout your life. Your passport is your method of identification, and without it… you are lost!

Most people in developed countries are fine with that. Their identity gives them high status around the world. If you have an American passport, you can travel freely anywhere in the world (with some exceptions).

The problem becomes clear when you are born in a non-trustworthy country, like third-world countries. Can you trust your government to store your identity correctly?

Of course, you can always go and get yourself another ID in another country; but your underlying identity will always remain the same. You cannot change it. You are not in control of your identity!

The problem because clearer when you try to define identity. What is identity even? Is it something that you're born with, or is it something that you choose?

You are born with your unique body, and you will never get rid of it. But your mind changes all the time - you can actively influence your way of thinking. The moment you define identity as your human spirit, mind, and unique collection of thoughts, you start to realize that your identity changes all the time.

Throughout your life, you choose who you are and who you want to become. But your body, your physical self, will always stay the same.

In the real world, you can actively influence your spiritual identity - not your physical one. Governments give you an ID. In plain words, your identity is bestowed upon you by nation-states.

In the metaverse, your mind, body, and identity are three separate entities. You can actively choose all of them. You can choose who you want to be and how you want to look.

In the metaverse, you choose your identity… and the mind-body dissociation becomes crystal clear!

The metaverse Doesn't Impose Identity on You

The metaverse doesn't bestow your identity upon you. Only nation-states do! The metaverse is utterly neutral because you can choose your own identity.

You choose who you are and who you want to become!

In the metaverse, you can buy individual NFTs representing yourself. You can choose between millions of web3 avatars to embody yourself on the internet… in the metaverse.

This avatar is exchangeable and transferable across all metaverses.

If you have access and control over your web3 wallet, you control your identity. You can buy and choose any web3 avatar on the open market. You can even design and mint your own avatar on an NFT minting platform like Rarible.

It's just a matter of time until NFTs become official methods of identification in the Ethereum nation-state.

On Ethereum, NFTs are your identity. Your avatars and ENS domains represent your ID and passport.

And you can actively choose them, buy them, and trade them.

Your identity suddenly is a transferable and exchangeable entity.

It's something you can choose; you make your own decision!

The Pseudonymous Economy in the Metaverse

Making your identity exchangeable has other positive second-order effects. As the economy in the metaverse emerges, the pseudonymous economy will come to life.

In the metaverse, we won't share our real-life identities. Instead, we work under a pseudonym (our web3 avatar and ENS domain).

The working environment in the metaverse is inherently fair. The only metric you are judged by is the output you produce.

In the real world, people are still judged by their skin color, sexuality, etc. Discrimination in the real world is based on certain prejudices.

This is not the case in the metaverse because you can choose your own identity there. The working environment in the metaverse is fairer than in the real world. In the metaverse, we are only judged based on what we produce. Our actual output matters!

That's how the metaverse could contribute to solving the growing problem of prejudice and biases. Instead of making naive claims to look past gender or race, we take that information away entirely.

By not revealing our real-world identity and using avatars, we establish a working environment free from racism, prejudice, and bias.

Conclusion

Identity in the metaverse is very different from what we are used to. While nobody knows what the final version of the metaverse will look like, we know today that it could solve some of humanity's biggest problems.

The metaverse doesn't impose an identity on you. You choose who you are and who you want to become.

Avatars represent yourself in the metaverse. You can buy these avatars on the open NFT market.

Identity in the metaverse will be exchangeable and tradable.

I'm looking forward to seeing the economy in the metaverse emerge. While we're still far away from a future where everyone lives inside the metaverse, it's safe to say that we have just recently discovered a world-changing technology here.

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

NFTs are in the spotlight of everyone's attention. They are the first crypto app ever to reach the mainstream. Right now, I'm as excited as never before about NFTs, and I genuinely believe they are revolutionary.

However, as this is a DeFi-focused newsletter, I'm currently thinking about whether DeFi could have another hype wave soon - similar to summer 2020!

DeFi influencers (including me) have tried to meme the term DeFi Summer 2021. But apparently, DeFi Summer turned out to be NFT Summer! =)

The question now is whether DeFi could have another bright moment soon!

To answer the question...

Let's first explore the nature of crypto hype cycles in general.

📺 Watch the latest episode of “This Week in Cosmos” with the Cosmos legend Sunny Aggarwal!

About Crypto Hype Cycles

In crypto, we see the same pattern all over again. One particular niche dominates the market sentiment for some time. Then a bubble emerges… which ultimately pops at some point.

In summer 2020, it was DeFi.

In early 2021, people were excited about Bitcoin, hard money, and institutions' putting bitcoin on their balance sheets.

In mid-2021, retailers were going crazy about meme coins. Gas prices were skyrocketing because people were aping into the latest token - with no utility at all!

And now, everything's about NFTs. Wherever you go, you hear people talking about Non-Fungible-Tokens. Your best friends stay up late to catch an NFT drop from their favorite influencers.

And that's fine! In crypto, we always have hype cycles. But nobody can deny that these cycles come to an end at some point. Mostly, it happens when market participants start losing their minds. DeFi summer 2020 is the perfect example: It all started very slowly when Compound introduced yield farming. In addition, we had the first projects (like Kyber) launching cash-flow-producing tokens. The KNC token lets users earn a piece of the protocol's revenue.

The pattern is always the same: First, developers build great stuff. Then, people get excited and tell their friends about it. As a result, everyone makes money, which leads to more companies trying to make short-term gains. 

That's how you know the hype cycle comes to an end. In DeFi summer, the top signal was "food tokens." Whenever you see ridiculous products dominating the market sentiment... it's time to get out!

NFTs Are At the End of the Market Cycle

The same thing is happening with NFTs right now. Don't get me wrong…  I love NFTs, and I believe they will change the way we present ourselves in the metaverse.

But NFTs are in an obvious bubble right now. Remember the hype cycle pattern:

1. World-changing products enter the market

2. People get excited

3. The market sentiment shifts from long term thinking to short term gains

4. Ridiculous products dominate niche

5. The bubble pops

It all started with CryptoPunks. CryptoPunks have been around for years now, and they are truly changing the way we identify ourselves on the internet. They are the faces of the metaverse. If you want to dive deeper into punks and understand what they mean to the Ethereum community, then I highly recommend checking out this interview I did with Michael Tant:

I believe CryptoPunks are revolutionary, and they will be around for many years to come.

But in the last few weeks, the NFT hype got out of control. Too much useless stuff is being traded. Just go on OpenSea, and after some time… you will inevitably stumble upon invisible NFTs!

INVISIBLE NFTs… wtf?!

That says it all, I guess!

In my opinion, NFTs are in stage four. And it won't be long before another crypto hype cycle comes to an end.

History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.

Will DeFi Have Another Hype Cycle?

The question is, what comes after NFTs? We know that crypto attention usually moves in cycles. Something else could replace NFTs when the cycle ends.

So what is next?

Well, there isn't a lot of stuff to choose from. In my opinion, DeFi is way overdue to have another bull run.

Why?

Many reasons come to my mind, but the most obvious one is that people don't care about DeFi anymore since NFTs have entered a "bubbly territory." Just take a look at the Google Trends chart.

Since May 2021, Google searches for "DeFi" have fallen by over 50%...

I do not doubt that interest in DeFi is set for another all-time high soon. What we are doing is nothing less than changing the world. We are revolutionizing the financial system… building globally accessible, fair, and open financial services for everyone!

But we need an accelerator… something that speeds up the next big DeFi wave!

And what could be better marketing than fast, simple, and scalable transactions? In my opinion, the next DeFi wave won't happen on the Ethereum main chain. It will take place on other L1s.

We are set for another DeFi wave - but not on Ethereum!

To me, it has become clear that Avalanche, Solana, Cosmos, and others are most likely to kick off this next DeFi bull run.

When it comes to DeFi, most eyes are on L1s right now. It all started with Avalanche launching its $180 million incentive program.

They announced that Aave and Curve, two major DeFi blue chips, are deploying their protocols to the Avalanche mainnet.

At the same time, Solana's price is exploding.

The Cosmos ecosystem is expanding as never before… It seems like something is brewing here!

People demand fast and cheap transactions. They currently can't get them on Ethereum; however, they certainly can on Avalanche and co.

The same applies to L2s, of course.

DeFi could have another bull run on fast and cheap transaction layers. Maybe it might take a while for it to finally kick-off.

But one thing is sure: As soon as the NFT cycle ends… another crypto niche is will take over the public’s attention.

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.

Hey DEFI TIMES community,

Binance is facing heavy regulatory uncertainty around the world and it doesn’t seem to stop.

For example, Japan and Malaysia have warned that Binance is operating in their countries without a license. Also, the UK, Italy, and Netherlands’ authorities have expressed similar concerns.

The latest news broke yesterday and it comes from one of the crypto-friendliest countries in the world: Singapore!

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has added Binance to its Investor Alert List. The Investor Alert List writes down unregulated institutions which have been initially perceived as being licensed/regulated.

Apparently, Binance is not yet licensed in Singapore. While this move won’t impact any services provided by Binance, it shows once again that Binance is in trouble right now.

Singapore is just the tip of the iceberg here!

Binance HAS TO comply with regulations all around the world... otherwise, their core business could go down very quickly!

CZ understands this very well! Just a few days ago, Binance introduces mandatory KYC for all services.

This is a bold move and I could imagine that Binance will lose many customers after this decision!

Centralized crypto companies will be in big trouble soon. It’s the same discussion all over again: Centralization vs. Decentralization. 

In the end, centralized crypto companies will have to comply with everything regulators demand.

The only organizations that are immune to regulations are truly decentralized protocols!

Regulation is the ultimate test of how decentralized a project really is.

📣 WATCH our recent interview with Alex Svanevik from Nansen!

Arbitrum launches mainnet

After the recent Optimistm launch, the Arbitrum mainnet has also opened for end-users! A big step towards L2 mass adoption!

Check out the TVL after the announcement:

Projects launching on Arbitrum

After Arbitrum opened its mainnet for end-users, we had a number of projects announcing their deployments.

Kavaswap launch

Kava has launched KavaSwap, which is a cross-chain AMM protocol.

Celer Network <> Optimism

Celer cBridge has connected to Optimism, another popular L2 solution using optimistic rollups.

CREAM Finance exploited

CREAM Finance has been exploited! Over $29 million dollars have been removed from the liquidity pools.

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.

Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.