Weekly Recap

December 1st, 2020 - December 7th, 2020

Welcome to our 1st weekly recap for December.

Overview 

Crypto News

• [1] Visa Comes Full Circle With USDC Stablecoin Integration
  

While volatility in crypto has kept some payment companies at bay, Visa has plunged in to connect Visa’s payment system with USD Coin (USDC). USDC was developed by Circle, a company that specializes in digital payments.

• [2] 224-Year Old German Bank to Float Crypto Fund in 2021
  

According to Fundview, Hauck & Aufhäuser will roll out a crypto fund via its Hauck & Aufhäuser Innovative Capital (HAIC) GmbH subsidiary in Jan. 2021. Dubbed HAIC Digital Asset Fund I, the product will focus on Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Stellar (XLM).

• [3] Crypto Indexes Set for 2021 Launch: S&P Dow Jones Indices

S&P Dow Jones Indices announced on Thursday that it will be launching its own cryptocurrency indexes. The new products will reportedly go live in 2021.

• [4] Grayscale Absorbs $137 Million More in Bitcoin in Last 24 Hours, $12.6 Billion AUM in Total
  

According to data shared by Bybt analytics service, over the past 24 hours, Grayscale Investments fund spearheaded by Barry Silbert acquired another large amount of BTC.

Grayscale has added 7,188 BTC to its crypto holdings – that is $136,960,870 at the current exchange rate.

• [5] Grayscale Buys Almost $140 Million in BTC in 24 Hours
  

Grayscale, the Bitcoin Trust custodian and digital asset manager, has added another $140 million worth of Bitcoin to their Bitcoin Trust portfolio within the last 24 hours.

• [6] World’s First Ethereum ETF IPOs
  

The world’s first ethereum Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is undergoing an Initial Public Offering (IPO) at the Toronto Stock Exchange (pictured) under the ticker of QETH.U.

• [7] Ethereum fund to debut on the Toronto Stock Exchange
  

Next week, Canadian digital asset investment manager 3iQ will be launching an IPO of an Ethereum exchange-traded trust, The Ether Fund, on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the ticker QETH.U.

• [8] G7 Finance Ministers Support Regulating Cryptocurrencies

In its Dec. 7 press release, the United States Department of the Treasury (USDT) mentions that the finance ministers of the G7 countries voiced strong support for regulating cryptocurrencies during a recent video conference:

There is strong support across the G7 on the need to regulate digital currencies. Ministers and Governors reiterated support for the G7 joint statement on digital payments issued in October.

Radix

Radix is a layer-1 protocol dedicated towards supporting the DeFi ecosystem by building interoperable DeFi dApps and improving scalability, security, and decentralization. It had a successful token sale, and raised over $12.5mil USD.

The consensus layer of Radix features a cutting-edge, academically reviewed consensus algorithm: Cerberus, which will support the platform with multiple features. Along with a public network with linear scalability that could scale to thousands of nodes and billions of users, Cerberus also enables cross-shard atomic composability to allow DeFi applications on different shards to cooperate without stalling other applications or transactions. The algorithm is designed to deliver true transactional finality in real-time without any rollbacks.

Radix Engine v2, at the application layer of the platform, will utilize DeFi programming tools to assist developers in compiling complex financial applications with higher security using the on-ledger DeFi component library, enabling quicker market-ready builds and lower on-ledger runtime costs. Contributors to the library will be provided with an on-ledger revenue by the Radix Dev Royalties as an incentivization.

There are two goals of the ecosystem layer. The first is to improve user accessibility, beginning with partnerships with Copper and the Ren Alliance. Second, it’s to improve DeFi liquidity using the Radix ledger, which promises to be low-cost with high-throughput to allow assets to move more efficiently between DeFi applications. Radical skunkworks projects such as StakeHounds also support Radix in unlocking billions in liquidity across crypto ecosystems.

Radix ERC20 tokens are known as E-Radix (eXRD), and lauched prior to the Radix mainnet. The token sale opened on Oct 8th, 2020 with a supply of 642m purchasable E-Radix, and was intended to promote the distribution of stake and decentralization of the tokens. E-Radix supply is balanced between current market supply and demand of the tokens; market price will determine how many E-Radix tokens will be unlocked. This design is intended to promote a supply and demand equilibrium. The starting circulating supply of E-RADIX tokens was 42m, with a maximum circulating supply of 4.41Bn.

E-Radix Distributions

E-Radix can be converted 1:1 to Radix tokens when the mainnet is live in Q2 2021. Once launched, 5.19Bn Radix tokens will be created and released following the same unlocking schedule as the E-tokens. The starting circulating supply of Radix tokens will be 51.9m tokens, in addition to any E-Radix tokens exchanged for Radix.

Radix Distributions

The Network Emissions for Staking Rewards are capped at 12B Radix tokens and are to be released over a minimum of 40 year period. 200m E-Radix is allocated towards Liquidity Incentives, to be distributed over a 6-month period to community members who provides liquidity to the E-Radix token. An additional 2.4Bn Radix tokens will be created and locked into a Stable Coin Reserve of the Radix Mainnet, to future-proof towards the long-term integration of stable coins as part of the network.

*Founder/Team will get no E-RADIX tokens and will only have their allocation of price-locked RADIX tokens with the initiation of mainnet.

Community distribution and allocations of Radix tokens.

Fundamentals

eXRD is currently trading at $0.090 with a circulating supply of 380 Million coins and a max supply of 4.41 billion coins. The current market cap is $$34,448,379 USD.

Weekly Recap

November 23rd, 2020 - November 30th, 2020

Welcome to our 4th weekly recap for November.

Overview 

Crypto News

• [1] Bitcoin hits the home page of The Wall Street Journal
  

After rallying 80% in two months, Bitcoin (BTC) is recapturing media interest from the top end of town, with The Wall Street Journal discussing the cryptocurrency’s adoption among institutional investors on the site’s home page on Nov. 23.

• [2] Japanese Financial Giant SBI Group Debuts Lending Product for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP
  

Japanese financial giant SBI Group has announced a cryptocurrency lending service in its Sept. 24 press release.

It will be offered through the company’s cryptocurrency-oriented arm SBI VC Trade.

• [3] Binance Confirms Support for XRP’s Flare Networks Snapshot and Airdrop
  

Binance has announced that it will support XRP’s Flare Networks snapshot and airdrop of Spark tokens and is the latest major exchange to support the event.

• [4] IOTA Partners With Pantos for European Blockchain R&D Lab
  

IOTA in collaboration with Pantos is looking to promote blockchain and DLT interoperability under the aegis of a new research laboratory dedicated to the two emerging technologies.

• [5] US Director of National Intelligence Urges SEC to Support Bitcoin and Crypto Companies: Report
  

John Ratcliffe, the US Director of National Intelligence, has reportedly penned a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) expressing concern about China’s control over Bitcoin and crypto.

• [6] Anticipation of Post-Covid World Fueling Bitcoin Boom and Gold Slump, Says Weiss Ratings
  

Crypto rating agency Weiss Ratings is reporting that the anticipation of a post-Covid world is serving as fuel for Bitcoin’s ascent while other safe-haven assets like gold are losing their luster.

• [7] Guggenheim opens door to bitcoin exposure for $5 billion macro fund via Grayscale’s GBTC
  

The firm, which invests across asset classes on behalf of companies, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds, wrote in a filing on November 27 that it might “seek investment exposure to bitcoin indirectly” via Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust product (GBTC) through its Macro Opportunities Fund.

• [8] Thousands of New Nodes Launch Ahead of Ethereum 2.0

Thousands of new nodes have joined the ethereum network in the last few days to reach 11,162, one of its highest number in years.

There were some 8,000 nodes on November 15th, with it beginning to jump on the 22nd from 9,500 to more than 11,000.

Weekly Recap

November 16th, 2020 - November 23th, 2020

Welcome to our 3rd weekly recap for November.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • [7] The Dollar Loses 10% Against Chinese Yuan

  The dollar has lost significant value against the Chinese Yuan (CNY) since May of this year.

  It has dropped from $1 buying you 7.2 CNY to now just 6.5 CNY, its lowest level in two years.

  • [6] XRP Utility Fork Incoming

  Crypto investors who register their XRP in an eligible account will receive free Spark tokens in a 1:1 ratio when the Ripple-backed blockchain company holds its “snapshot day” on December 12th. Recipients will retain ownership of their XRP holdings while receiving the new tokens.

  • [5] Bitcoin shortage is real, and PayPal is the cause, Pantera Capital claims

  In a newly published report, crypto investment firm Pantera Capital says a Bitcoin shortage is at the heart of the recent price surge and that the majority of newly minted BTC is being scooped up by PayPal.

  • [4] New Ethereum 2.0 Testnet Successfully Launches

  Some 3.2 million testnet eth and more than 100,000 validators are now staking on it, showing significant demand to test the new Proof of Stake ethereum blockchain which is expected to go out imminently.

  • [3] Trump Nominates Crypto Supporter to Serve as the Head Bank Regulator for 5 Years

  His nomination by President Trump still requires the Senate to confirm him before he becomes the official Comptroller of the national bank regulator.

  Before his nomination appears before the Senate house, he has to first scale through the confirmation hearing of The U.S. Senate Banking Committee which oversees the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

  • [2] Bitfinex Derivatives launch IOTA, Chainlink, Uniswap perpetual swaps

  Bitfinex’s derivatives platform is in the news today after it announced the launch of its perpetual contracts for IOTA, Chainlink, and Uniswap. Each of these contracts will offer users maximum leverage of up to 100x, leverage that is typical of such contracts and they will be settled in Tether (USDt) tokens.

  • [1] Crypto Community Rejoices as SEC Chairman Steps Down

  Jay Clayton, the current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced he will be stepping down from his position by the end of 2020.

  During his tenure, Clayton has blocked all proposals for a Bitcoin ETF and waffled on whether tokens like XRP are indeed securities.

Elrond

Elrond is a blockchain with unique architecture, employing a Secure Proof of Stake (SPoS) consensus for security and an Adaptive State Sharding scheme for high scalability. By offering an EVM compliant engine for smart contracts, the platform looks to ensure native interoperability to languages such as Rust, C/C++, C#, and Typescript. The team consist of individuals with backgrounds associated to Google, Microsoft and Intel and those were part of the NEM blockchain platform.

The project raised $3.2 million by selling 25% of the token supply in an exchange offering on Binance Launchpad in 2019. As the blockchain transitioned to it’s mainnet during July 2020, the total token supply was reduced from 20 billion to 20 million.

Secure Proof of stake is a method of consensus that combines eligibility through stake and rating with random validator selection, along with an optimal dimension for the consensus group. The BFT-like consensus protocol provides security through the randomization of nodes. Each node in the shard may determine the members of the consensus group at the beginning of a round. The aggregated signature from the last block is used as a randomization factor for this process. A weight factor of rating will be introduced to promote meritocracy among the nodes, in addition to the stakes of nodes in consideration. The Bellare and Neven multi-signature scheme will also reduce the number of communication rounds as part of the signing algorithm.

Fig. 10: Shuffling the nodes at the end of each epoch

Meanwhile, Adaptive State Sharding brings a 1000x improvement to the ecosystem by utilizing parallel transaction processing by combining all three sharding types (State, Transactions, and Network) into the network. Elrond can reportedly process up to 10,000 TPS with a 5-second latency.

Fig. 12: Network throughput measured in transactions per seconds with a global network speed of 8 MB/s

The Network Structure of Elrond consists of Shards, Metachain, and Nodes.

Shards are smaller partitions of the network and are used for scaling. Individual Shards processes a portion of the state of accounts, smart contracts, blockchain, and transaction processing in parallel with each other.

Metachain is the blockchain that runs in a specialized Shard. Its main purpose is to notarize and finalize the processed Shard block headers, facilitating Shard communication, storing and maintaining a registry of Validators, Epoch management, and processing Fisherman challenges, rewards, and penalty.

Nodes are computers, smartphones, or servers running the Elrond client and relaying messages between peers. Nodes can perform the roles of Validators, Observers, or Fisherman to provide different support levels to the network and earn proportional rewards.

Validators act like the typical stakers of a blockchain. They are nodes within the network that processes transactions and security using the consensus mechanism to earn fee rewards.

Observers are passive members of the network and act as record keepers. Full Observers maintains the complete history of the blockchain, and Light Observers are limited to 2 Epochs of blockchain history. EGLD tokens are not required for their participation, and likewise, they are not rewarded.

Fishermans are nodes that verify block validity after their proposal. Invalid blocks from malicious actors are challenged and removed. This role can also be filled by validators that are not part of the current consensus round, or by Observers.

Conceptualized in 2018, the project is nearing completion.

Fundamentals

EGLD is currently trading at $7.74 with a circulating supply of 14 Million coins and a max supply of 20.4 Million coins. The current market cap is $3,936,269,055 USD.

Weekly Recap

November 6th, 2020 - November 13th, 2020

Welcome to our 2nd weekly recap for November.

Overview 

Crypto News

Polkadot / Kusama

Polkadot

Polkadot is a blockchain platform that was founded in 2017 by Dr. Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum. It is an open-sourced project with over 100 participating developers across multiple teams, assisted by institutions such as Inria Paris and ETH Zurich.

The platform was the result of Dr. Wood’s desire to support and advance the “Web 3.0” vision of a decentralized web. Along with the Web3 Foundation, the Polkadot whitepaper was published to address the lack of critical technology and the solution, interoperability.

Para-chain and Relay Chain connections.

This is achieved through the concept of para-chains, in which multiple chains can communicate with a core main chain known as the relay-chain. Any blockchain platform that is compliant with the Polkadot Relay Chain API can be a para-chain. Others that aren’t natively compatible can be connected through “bridges”. Platforms can utilize the para-chain mechanic to run their own transactions and communicate with other chains through Polkadot. There is a support limit of 100 para-chain, and the slots will be auctioned off in un-permission candle auctions, one at any given time.

There are also para-threads, which are lower throughput, pay-as-you-go model para-chains.

Polkadot/Kusama Structure Overview

Validators are the stakers of the network and works to secure the Relay Chain by validating proofs from collators and participating in consensus with other validators in the network. Information within exchanged para-chain blocks are first verified, and Relay Chain blocks are produced based on validity statements from peers within the network. Validators are recompensed with block rewards, including transaction fees, in DOT. Non-compliance with the consensus algorithms will result in the removal of all of the offender’s staked tokens.

Polkadot natively supports Substrate, a modular framework that was developed by Parity Technology, to assist in the creation of blockchain products and is quickly becoming a standard in the industry. Any Substrate-based project can be supported as a para-chain, allowing for ease of adoption.

The project raised several hundred million dollars in their series of sales and ICO, which has provided the funds required to build and foster the development of the platform. The Web3 Foundation, Parity Technologies developers, and capital partners such as Polychain Capital will also be supporting the project. Polkadot’s platform officially launched on 26th May 2020, and its token listed soon after in August 2020.

Kusama

Kusama is a cousin-chain of the Polkadot network, founded in 2019. Aptly dubbed as the canary-net, Kusama’s intended purpose is to serve as Polkadot’s experimental community research and development network. It is where developers and teams can test Polkadot functionalities such as runtime upgrades, on-chain governance, para-chains, para-threads, and etc. in a live environment.

Comparing the cousins.

Upgrades to the Polkadot platforms are also likely to be deployed to Kusama before the Polkadot mainnet. Kusama has a modified governance parameter with shorter time gaps between governance events, allowing faster growth.

As a parallel of Polkadot, Kusama is built using Substrate and uses nearly the same codebase as Polkadot. Both act as their own independent networks, but will be likely bridged together in the future for cross-network interoperability.

Fundamentals

DOT is currently trading at $4.48, with a market cap of $3,936,269,055 USD. The current circulating supply is 877,680,090 DOT coins and the max. supply is not available. 

KSM is currently trading at $38.21 USD, with a market cap of $323,602,069 USD. The current circulating supply is 8,470,098 KSM coins and the max. supply is not available.

Weekly Recap

November 1st, 2020 - November 6th, 2020

Welcome to our 1st weekly recap for November.

Overview 

Crypto News

Related News

• [15] Bitcoin Volatility Expected to Rise After the US Presidential Election

While the United States prepares for the results of the 2020 Presidential Election, a number of data points and traders expect some significant cryptocurrency price fluctuations this week. Statistics from skew.com show bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility has increased to 59% while 3-6 month stats jumped over 62%.

• [15] Russia’s Major Bank Subsidiary Greenlighted to Launch Bitcoin Offering in Switzerland

According to a press release, after two years of effort, Gazprombank’s subsidiary in Switzerland has been authorized to offer crypto custody and trading against fiat currencies to selected institutional and corporate customers.

• [15] Binance CEO Addresses Report About Rumored FBI Investigation and Regulatory Evasion

According to a bombshell Forbes report dated Oct. 29, there is some “speculation” that Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume, is currently being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Ocean Protocol V3

Introduction

Ocean Protocol is a DEX platform whose goal is to empower data-ownership and decentralizing servers. It is a culmination of blockchain, data sharing framework, and ecosystem related services. Providers and consumers can utilize the platform to share, stake and trade data access whilst retaining transparency, traceability, and security for all stakeholders involved using datatokens.

A datatokens is an interoperable ERC20 that represents both the value and the access permission of a registered dataset which could be a copyrighted IP or encrypted data on a storage device. A user must send 1.0 datatoken to the data provider to acquire the license to use that dataset.

Datatokens can also be used as the interface that connects data assets with blockchain and DeFi tools via DeFi composability within Ocean. Each data service in Ocean Protocol will also be assigned its own data token and can be leveraged as their equivalent. For example, crypto wallets can become data wallets, crypto exchanges to data marketplaces, or DAOs as data co-ops. This interchangeability allows Ocean to act as an on-ramp & off-ramp for data assets across DeFi platforms.

“Ocean is an on-ramp for data into ERC20 datatoken data assets on Ethereum, and an off-ramp to consume data assets.”

The Ocean marketplace serves as an intermediary between data providers and consumers, and stores a record of registered data holders and consumer transactions. However, none of the registered data are kept on-chain. The platform only facilitates access links, and owners can upload and store their data behind their respective firewalls and encryption.

In this data economy, the $Ocean Token is the commodity that drives the platform, and is the default unit of exchange. This utility token is used to stake on data, governance, and trading. It can be earned through multiple means. Stakers are given a cut of the transition fees as a liquidity provider, sellers are given the majority of their sales revenue, or a user could build your own Ocean-based marketplace where they can earn a cut of every data asset sold on their own market.

The $Ocean Token’s mechanics are based on a Web3 sustainability loop model.

As of October 27th, 2020, Ocean Protocol’s V3 platform went live. Which meant the Ocean Market has also exited beta and entered public access. The team has contracted security audits, and their architecture has also been updated as shown.

Source: Ocean V3 Architecture Overview

Ocean Protocol has additionally announced an early-stage program for Web3 community integration and growth called Ocean Shipyard, which has set aside up to 20 million Ocean Token over the next 2 years to fund projects and teams interested in building on Ocean.

Fundamentals

OCEAN is currently trading at $0.44 USD, with a market cap of $182,499,539. The current circulating supply is 414,026,837 out of a total supply of 613,099,141 $OCEAN

Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ocean-protocol/

Monthly Recap

October, 2020

Welcome to our monthly recap for October.

Overview 

Crypto News

Related News

• [15] Ripple Launches New Service Utilizing Crypto Asset XRP to Fund Instant Cross-Border Payments
  

Financial institutions and money service providers using the San Francisco startup’s XRP-powered, cross-border payment product, On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), can borrow Ripple’s native currency for a one-time fee via an approval system that will move faster than legacy financial options, according to a press release.

• [15] Ripple Wires Nearly 100 Mln XRP, While RippleNet and ODL Now Available in 55+ Countries
  

According to data shared by the XRPL Monitor bot, San Francisco-based tech behemoth Ripple has conducted several large transactions, transferring approximately 100 mln XRP between its wallets and sending part of the money to its ODL corridor in Europe.