Blockchain

Key Takeaways Blockchain indexing protocol The Graph has announced its beta integration with NEAR Protocol. Proponents hope this will increase decentralization, further paving the way for Web3. The Graph has integrated with several blockchain protocols this year. Share this article The Graph, sometimes described as a “search engine” for blockchains, has announced its beta integration with NEAR protocol, a scalable, inexpensive Layer 1 blockchain. NEAR is among several blockchains The Graph has integrated with so far, with others including Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and Celo.  The Graph Incorporates Yet Another Blockchain The Graph, an indexing protocol designed to organize public blockchain data and make it accessible to consumers, has announced its beta integration with NEAR Protocol, a Layer 1 blockchain protocol that promotes itself as a scalable, less expensive alternative to Ethereum. NEAR is The Graph’s first integrated protocol that does not use the Ethereum Virtual Machine, which can be thought of as a global processor that developers can use to create and execute Ethereum-compatible smart contracts and dApps. This will allow developers on NEAR to have access to The Graph’s blockchain data indexing, and Indexers will be able to establish and run subgraphs for indexing data to NEAR’s protocol.  NEAR’s indexing and query layer can now become decentralized, like its blockchain layer. This integration between NEAR and The Graph might serve as a further step towards a multi-blockchain future. It is hoped that the integrations will allow developers to spend more time working on their core product, rather than having to maintain a custom indexing infrastructure.  On today’s announced integration, Erik Trautman, CEO of the NEAR Foundation, said: “We started NEAR with the goal of enabling more creators to build on blockchain and to create a more innovative and equitable web infrastructure. Integrating with The Graph is an important milestone for NEAR as we continue to eliminate barriers for developers working toward a decentralized web.”  This is not The Graph’s first major integration this year. In February, The Graph Foundation initially announced its plans to integrate with NEAR, as well as with Polkadot, Solana, and Celo. The next month, The Foundation announced its support for Binance Smart Chain.  The Graph was built to be a critical component of Web3, which proponents conceive of as a decentralized Internet built on blockchains. The Graph allows for more efficient searches of blockchain data across different blockchains (such as trading volume data for an automated market maker like Uniswap), and its network consists of Indexers that serve such queries on blockchain data. In other words, the Graph helps developers find and use data on blockchains. There are roughly 23,000 developers in The Graph ecosystem. NEAR is a blockchain on which developers can build decentralized applications, like Ethereum. In contrast to Ethereum, though, it is meant to be quicker, less expensive, and “climate-neutral.” Today’s integration with The Graph comes at the start of NEARCON, NEAR’s international conference meant to celebrate the progress in the NEAR ecosystem. Yesterday, the NEAR team announced $800 million in funding toward cultivating its ecosystem.  Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.  This news was brought to you by Phemex, our preferred Derivatives Partner. Share this article The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information. You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities. See full terms and conditions. The Graph Adds Support for Binance Smart Chain The Graph is expanding to Binance Smart Chain.  The Graph Expands The Graph, the indexing and querying protocol for the Web3 ecosystem, has added support for Binance Smart Chain. Binance… The Graph Code Review: dApps Need Queries Ok, I’m going to tell you right up-front this is some sexy code, but nobody’s perfect so when I go through this, bear in mind I’m looking for things to… The Graph Expands to Polkadot, NEAR, Solana, Celo The Graph is adding support for Polkadot, Solana, and other Layer-1 blockchains. The Graph Expands The Graph will soon be adding support for Polkadot, NEAR, Solana, and Celo. The Graph…

Key Takeaways Ampleforth has launched on Avalanche. The move will allow DeFi protocols on Avalanche to use the AMPL token as a stable unit of account. Total value locked in DeFi protocols on Avalanche is currently at an all-time high. Share this article Ampleforth has completed its integration with Avalanche, allowing the AMPL token to be used in DeFi protocols on the network.  Ampleforth Arrives on Avalanche Ampleforth is the latest protocol to integrate with Avalanche. Fragments Inc., the development company behind Ampleforth, announced Tuesday that it had joined the rising Layer 1 network. The AMPL token, an Ethereum-born unit of account, can now be used to denominate stable contracts on Avalanche DeFi protocols.  Ampleforth markets itself as a direct competitor to centrally-backed stablecoins. While most stablecoins in the crypto space rely on traditional banks or lenders to back their stablecoins, the AMPL token takes a different approach.  The Ampleforth protocol’s algorithms translate price volatility into supply volatility. This means that while the price of AMPL tends to cycle around $1, the number of tokens in a holder’s wallet increases or decreases depending on whether the network grows or shrinks. This mechanism aims for AMPL to be used as a stable unit of account that is more decentralized than other existing stablecoins. By integrating with Avalanche, DeFi protocols on the network will be able to denominate stable contracts using AMPL tokens instead of existing stablecoins, providing a higher level of decentralization. Evan Kuo, CEO of Fragments Inc., said of the update:  “It is ironic that the DeFi ecosystem currently relies so heavily on centralized stablecoins for liquidity and lending collateral. With the changing regulatory landscape, it’s important for DeFi to have a financial building block that’s decentralized, uncensorable, and has some aspect of price predictability or stability.” For Avalanche, the move comes as the total value locked in DeFi protocols on the network is at all-time highs. Avalanche currently supports $8.6 billion of liquidity on the network and has attracted several DeFi blue chips from Ethereum, including Aave and Curve.  Since August, Avalanche has rallied to new highs along with several other chains amid a boom among Layer 1 ecosystems. The EVM-compatible network has climbed quickly and is now ranked 13th by market capitalization.  Disclaimer: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.  Share this article The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information. You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities. See full terms and conditions. Avalanche Meets Resistance After 24% Rally DeFi protocol Avalanche has been in the spotlight after a series of announcements that may have helped push its native token, AVAX, toward higher highs.     Avalanche Reaches Key Resistance… Avalanche Is Launching on Coinbase Pro Avalanche’s native token AVAX will soon be available to a wider audience thanks to a Coinbase Pro listing. Coinbase Pro to List AVAX Avalanche is heading to Coinbase Pro. In… How Bumper’s Price Protection Helps DeFi Users Earn Yield on Their A… Is it possible to build a DeFi protocol that counters crypto’s inherent volatility while also letting holders enjoy the upshot of their assets? Bumper Finance is a DeFi price-protection protocol that aims… Avalanche Breaks All-Time High on News of $230M Raise Avalanche has closed a $230 million funding round led by Polychain Capital and Three Arrows Capital. Leading Crypto Investors Back Avalanche Ecosystem Avalanche has landed a $230 million investment to…

The FRET or Future Real Estate Tokens are concentrated in Germany in the European Union. It’s also focusing on expanding across the globe to provide immense opportunities in real estate to ordinary people. Intending to revolutionize real estate, the developers build a robust token with high-security standards. The FRET allows users to access 24/7 trading facilities. Moreover, it also supports managing liquidity and capital raise. The key features of FRET are strong security standards, flexibility, and transparency. The FRET solves the primary problem in real estate or illiquid assets(such as cars, properties, arts, etc.) such as high transaction fees and longer transaction periods. The commissions or taxes across the globe for illiquid assets range from 20% to 30%. However, FRET made real estate easier and convenient by allowing 24/7 trading with immediate transactions. Also, it has lower transaction fees which attract most investors. Since FRET is launching the presale, hurry up to buy enough coins to enjoy colossal benefits. Also, grab the highest number of rewards to attain maximum financial freedom. Benefits of FRET A few benefits of FRET include the following: Minimal to zero transaction fees. Easier and fast transactions. Hassle-free trading across the globe within a few moments. Guaranteed security. High transparency. Dedicated team and robust technology. Practical and distinct goals. 2% of transaction fees are offered to the account holders. How To Purchase Future Real Estate Here’s the detailed information about how to purchase FRET. All you need to do is follow the step-by-step guide carefully. First of all, download and install the MetaMask or Trust Wallet applications. Next, buy BNB tokens and send them to your wallets(Either Metamask or Trust Wallet)). Then, navigate to the Futuretoken.io homepage and tap on the button, “BUY Futuretoken.” After completing the presale, it opens a token exchanging platform called “PancakeSwap.” Sync your wallet to this PancakeSwap. Now, decide the number of future tokens you’d like to buy and set them. After that, put the slippage to 5%. Finally, click on the swap button to purchase future tokens. FRET Tokenomics: Token Ticker: FRET Network: BSC(NEP-20) Total Supply: 100 Billion FRET Transaction fee: 5%(Charity: 1%, Token Holders: 2%, Liquidity: 2%) Token Distribution: FRET Team: 10% Marketing and Future Projects: 10% Liquidity: 40% Presale on DX: 35% Burn: 5% to 10% Contact Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurerealestatetoken/ Telegram: https://t.me/futurerealestatetoken Twitter: https://twitter.com/FutureREtoken Official Website: http://www.futuretoken.io/

Key Takeaways The first Polkadot parachain auctions will begin in November. The move is seen as a major step toward enacting multichain interoperability. DOT token is responding to the news. Share this article  A proposal for Polkadot’s first parachain auctions was approved by its community today. These parachains are said to be the “last piece of core functionality” needed for Polkadot to realize its goal of multichain interoperability. Polkadot Community Approves Proposal for Parachain Auctions Polkadot, a Layer 1 project promising to make blockchain networks interoperable with one another, took a major step toward that goal today by voting to approve a proposal to launch its first parachain auctions.  The proposal was introduced on Polkadot’s community governance discussion platform, polkassembly.io, by Web3 Foundation member Joe Petrowski. He laid out that, given the success of Kusama’s parachains, as well as Parity’s public assessment that “the code for parachains, auctions, and crowdloans is ready for an initial production release,” Polkadot should be ready for this critical move.  Parachain auctions decide which blockchain projects will be selected to receive one of Polkadot’s parachain “slots,” of which there are only a limited number that can only be changed through a governance vote. The winners of these slots win the right to develop a parachain integrated with Polkdot’s main blockchain.  The winners of the auctions are determined not by the highest bidder at the time the auction ends, but rather by who was the high bidder at a randomly selected point in time during the auction’s duration that cannot be known until the auction is complete.  There will be 11 parachain auctions divided into two batches. The first batch will start on Nov. 11, with one auction per week, and the second batch will begin on Dec. 23, with one auction every two weeks. In both cases, the auction duration will be seven days.  When asked last month about the timeline for parachain auction launches, Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood said, “It’s really just up to the governance of Polkadot… I can’t flick the switch myself.” In a nod to the nimbleness of the Polkadot governance community, just yesterday Wood tweeted:  “Whereas other chains take months or even years to deploy an upgrade, Polkadot and Kusama Network created, voted and deployed new logic on to the chain within 8 hours. All going through a secure, stakeholder-governed decentralized process.” Polkadot’s native DOT token has responded, up over 17.5% at the time of writing. Trading volume is up over 100% in the last 24 hours.  Polkadot is a protocol that enables different blockchain networks to work together. Parachains individual Layer 1 blockchains that run parallel to the Polkadot Relay Chain, where their transactions are finalized. Parachains make interoperability between blockchains possible by connecting their architecture. Currently, there are roughly 100 parachain slots available on Polkadot.  Kusama is an experimental blockchain that has been used to prepare Polkadot for parachain auction launches. (Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned DOT, BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.) Share this article The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information. You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities. See full terms and conditions. Polkadot Launches ‘Canary Network’ To Test Blockchain Inte… An early version of Polkadot has been released today, allowing developers and the broader community to experiment with new features ahead of the mainnet launch. Known as Kusama, the network… Polkadot Integrating Chainlink, First Non-Ethereum Blockchain Supporte… Chainlink is getting integrated on Polkadot, making it the first blockchain besides Ethereum to utilize the oracle platform. Polkadot to Use Chainlink Oracles Polkadot, a scalable blockchain for cross-chain applications… Polkadot Goes Live After Three Years of Development Polkadot has gone live with its first “chain candidate,” a nearly-complete version of its blockchain. The blockchain has been under development since 2017, at which time it raised $140 million… What is Impermanent Loss and How can you avoid it? DeFi has given traders and investors new opportunities to earn on their crypto holdings. One of these ways is by providing liquidity to the Automated Market Makers (AMMs). Instead of holding assets,…

Key Takeaways NFT-powered play-to-earn games have quickly risen to become the fastest-growing sector of the crypto economy. The play-to-earn model has stolen the spotlight from traditional games because of the built-in incentives that shift power from game publishers and toward players. With more than 3.2 billion gamers around the world, blockchain games are set to become one of the primary drivers for mainstream crypto adoption. Share this article The rise of NFT-powered blockchain games has transformed the gaming industry by making the players the primary financial beneficiaries and decision-makers in the ecosystem. Play-to-earn gaming looks set to be one of the biggest drivers for mainstream crypto adoption over the coming years, which is why Crypto Briefing has compiled a list of the most anticipated titles to help readers stay ahead of the curve.  Top Five Forthcoming Play-to-Earn Games  The rise of NFTs and the massive success of Axie Infinity, the most popular blockchain game to date, have propelled the play-to-earn model into the spotlight of the gaming space this year.  Axie’s native token AXS has rallied over 2,000% since the beginning of July and is currently boasting a market capitalization of around $7.6 billion. With more than 2 million daily active players, the game is currently one of the top revenue-generating protocols in crypto, second only to Ethereum, with more than $850 million in revenue generated from in-game transactions over the last 12 months.  Axie’s rise has revealed the demand for crypto-based, player-owned games where the actual financial beneficiaries and decision-makers are not the game developers or publishers. Instead, they are the players. With that, a new breed of games was born—one where players can own and freely trade in-game assets and characters to earn instead of spending money on updates. Several play-to-earn blockchain games have launched over the last year. While some flopped, others like Gods Unchained, CryptoBlades, Splinterlands, and Arc8 have gained huge momentum. Many of those who started playing these games early made significant profits, prompting crypto speculators and gamers alike to start looking for the next big hit. The following list details five of the most promising titles to date.  Lightnite Headshotting enemy players might be one of the coolest ways to stack sats, and that’s precisely the joy this game provides. Developed by Satoshi’s Games, Lightnite is a Fortnite-like online multiplayer battle royale game where every in-game interaction between players triggers a monetary reward or penalty. The Beta version is already live, whereas the full version is scheduled for release in November 2021. Lightnite implements an exciting twist on the play-to-earn model because its monetary incentives go two ways: players who outskill others in PvP combat can earn Bitcoin, while those who get shot are penalized and lose Bitcoin. Lightnite leverages Bitcoin’s Layer 2 solution Lightning Network to integrate microtransactions in the game. Every player has an in-game balance that increases in real-time when he shoots other players or picks up valuable items and decreases when he gets shot or dies. Players can withdraw their balance into their own wallets when they exit the game and then save it or spend it on whatever they’d like, real-world and in-game items included. The Sandbox Developed by Pixowl Inc., Sandbox is a virtual world that lets players build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain. Sandbox players can buy and own land, develop their own games and in-game virtual worlds, and trade in-game items such as NFT tickets to in-game concerts and amusement parks. Sandbox’s goal is to disrupt existing games like Minecraft and Roblox by providing the players and in-game creators with ownership of their creations in the form of NFTs and rewarding them for their ecosystem contributions. A limited Beta version of the game is already live, while the launch of the first open alpha is scheduled for late 2021. The limited real estate of Sandbox’s in-game territory is called LAND. It can be purchased with the in-game currency SAND, which is already issued and has a current market capitalization of roughly $697 million. Moreover, players can also trade NFTs representing all kinds of metaverse items, including avatar skins or merchandise sold in player-owned in-game stores. Notably, while Sandbox is still in development and estimated to launch in late 2022, several big names like the Winklevoss twins and Atari have already bought large plots of LAND in the game. Star Atlas Star Atlas is arguably the most anticipated blockchain game to date. It’s a space-themed, grand strategy video game set in the year 2620, built on the Solana blockchain using the groundbreaking Unreal 5 video game engine to provide cinema-quality real-time environments. Judging by the trailers, Star Atlas could be a visual spectacle.  Players will captain deep-space, crewed spaceships across an open world of galaxies to discover various celestial and terrestrial assets. Once found, these assets can be mined, refined, and traded on the Universal Marketplace. The game will feature two in-game currencies called ATLAS and POLIS, NFT-based asset ownership, built-in DeFi via the Serum decentralized exchange, and on-chain governance models like DAOs to power in-game political organizations like guilds and alliances.  Star Atlas recalls Entropia Universe or EVE Online, with play-to-earn mechanics thanks to real crypto-powered economies and next-generation graphics. If it lives up to the hype, it’s sure to be one of the space’s biggest success stories.  Illuvium Illuvium is an up-and-coming Pokémon-inspired RPG universe where players will be able to capture so-called Illuvials or NFT-based alien monsters of different affinities, classes, and abilities and battle them against other players to win Ethereum. The game is built on the StarkWare-powered Immutable X platform and is expected to be released near the end of 2021. One of the most unique aspects of Illuvium is that the primary currency for in-game purchases will be Etheruem, while the game’s native token ILV will have nothing to do with the game’s mechanics. Instead, it will serve as a governance and revenue share token. For instance, ILV holders can currently stake their tokens into…

Popop world is the first mini-platform based on blockchain ever. It is based on the Polygon blockchain, a scaling solution that provides many tools to improve the speed and reduce the costs of the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike many other gaming blockchain platforms, Popop world is a play-to-earn game that aims to revolutionize the sector of GameFi, creating a sort of social gaming platform where the community plays a central role (SocialFi). It’s not a game only for blockchain players but it’s also very interesting for every game lover. At first sight, it may seem something very similar to other platforms, but it’s not how it seems. That’s why I’m going to tell you the differences that this game has among all the others. Differences with other blockchain gaming platforms Most other gaming platforms based on blockchain offer only one or a few games. Popop world, however, at its launch will have around 20 games but soon after, it will have hundreds of games available. But how is it possible? The answer is very simple: collaboration and inclusion of the community. In fact, it will be possible for everyone with some programming abilities, to develop a new mini-game and publish it on the platform. A unique feature of Popop World. But that’s not all, in fact, all the games on the platform will be carefully selected in order to be user-friendly, easy to play, and suitable for all ages. That’s why Popop World has all the potential to became the most popular and used blockchain gaming platform. Moreover, it is also based on Polygon, a blockchain much more efficient than Ethereum, the platform where most of its competitors are based. Why does mini-game platforms will be the trend? Now that you know what is Popop World and how it stands out from all its competitors, you may be asking why I think that mini-game platforms will be the trend of the next few years. I think so because, while during the Covid period, NFT games, playable only with the computer, have become a trend, with the end of Covid there is a need for a new trend. When everyone will start to stay most of the day outside, at school, or at work, he will be no more able to use his computer to play NFT games; he will have to choose an alternative. Mini-game platforms, like Popop World, represent this alternative. In fact, they are playable everywhere, even on your smartphone, and if sometimes you get tired of a game, you can easily play another one in a matter of a few seconds, without having to change the platform. That’s why I think that Popop World is quite revolutionary and why I think that in the next few months or so mini-games platforms will overtake standard NFT games. Game mode The game mode is obviously the core section of the platform. It’s a section full of games that in the future will probably contain hundreds or thousands of them. There is a large variety of games with many gameplay ways, such as hand-to-hand speed, eye-to-eye, or strategy. Playing on Popop World will be a unique experience, similar to an amusement park. In fact, they will be integrated into the games many items that will remind you of some feelings of Disneyland, if you have ever been there. Every game will be short and fast, it will last around 1 or 2 minutes. By playing you will get some EXP rewards, that you will then be able to exchange with the POP token. POP token POP is the governance token of the platform. It’s an ERC 20 token based on the Polygon blockchain. It has a maximum supply fixed at 1 billion tokens, but it isn’t going to be released all at once. In fact, just a small percentage will be released after the listing, which is set to happen very soon, the majority of the tokens will be released gradually in the following years. POP tokens will have a central role in the game and you will be able to use them in many ways. For example, it will be possible to make some purchases in the game mall and buy NFT. You will be also able to stake all, or some, of your POP token in order to receive interest and earn governance rights, such as vote rights and a share of the game’s revenue. But how can you earn POP tokens? It’s very simple: you just have to play some games on the platform and earn EXP rewards, which are obtainable just by winning or reaching a certain position. Then you will be able to convert this EXP into POP tokens in the market section of the platform at a rate calculated in real-time by an algorithm. Popman NFT Popman NFTs are the non-fungible token of the platform. In order to use Popop world, you need to buy one of them. There are 10000 Popman NFT and they are divided into five levels: B, A, S, SS, SSS. B is the basic level, while SSS is the most advanced. By owning a superior level you will have some advantages in the game, like an increase in the EXP rewards, and also your NFT will be valued more as the high-level NFT are rarer. The good news is that the sale of Popman NFT will start in October 2021 and they will be available in a popular NFT marketplace called Opensea. Then in the following months, it will be created an NFT marketplace in the Popop world platform. Conclusion Popop World is a very interesting platform. The sector of mini-games is extremely promising and Popop world, at the moment, is the only blockchain platform following this trend. For its uniqueness and its features, it’s very likely that it will be a success. Website: https://www.popop.world/ Telegram channel: https://t.me/popopworldchannel Telegram group: https://t.me/popopworldcommunity Twitter https://twitter.com/popop_world Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/popopworld Discord: https://t.co/kFXhVwLVvA?amp=1 Medium: https://popopworld.medium.com/

Key Takeaways Cardano is due to launch its Alonzo hardfork on Sep. 12, but there are questions over how the ecosystem will look once smart contracts launch. According to various sources, functional Plutus dApps such as decentralized exchanges will not be ready to go live immediately after Alonzo launches. Several projects on Cardano say that they are still developing scaling solutions to address the blockchain’s concurrency issues. Share this article Cardano’s Alonzo hardfork, which brings smart contract functionality to the network, is going live on Sep. 12. However, it could be several months before DeFi comes to mainnet due to a lack of tooling and concurrency issues. Several Cardano projects say that they are developing scaling solutions that will allow them to run on the network. Cardano Not Ready for DeFi Despite Alonzo Upgrade Cardano is due to launch smart contracts as part of its long-awaited Alonzo update this weekend, but it could be months until DeFi protocols are running on the network. On Tuesday, Input Output successfully submitted a proposal to trigger the hardfork combinator for the final version of Cardano’s Alonzo update. The proposal was confirmation that Cardano’s core developers are ready to fork the Alonzo Purple testnet and upgrade it on Sep. 12. The event is highly anticipated among Cardano fans, mainly because it will bring smart contracts written in the Plutus programming language onto Cardano mainnet for the first time. The upgrade sets the stage for decentralized applications, known as dApps, to go live on the network. Charles Hoskinson has previously stated that Cardano will become a hub for DeFi and NFTs, but it turns out that it will be some time after Alonzo launches before DeFi protocols go live on the network. According to Hoskinson and other sources connected to Cardano, functional Plutus dApps such as decentralized exchanges will be added at a later stage. Decentralized exchanges, also known as DEXs, are a critical component of DeFi. One of the key reasons for the hold-up is Cardano’s EUTXO-based protocol design, which presents scaling issues for dApps. The decentralized exchange Minswap launched on testnet last week and immediately ran into problems. Users were unable to make swaps due to a transaction bottleneck, and the project had to shut down its testnet. It’s thought that other dApps could experience similar problems. Three notable dApps building on Cardano, Sundaeswap, Maladex, and OccamFi said they have conceptualized solutions that can overcome the challenges created by Cardano’s EUTXO model. Several scaling solutions have been proposed, ranging from aggregating multiple transactions to Layer 2 protocols and sidechains. However, there’ll be some months between Alonzo mainnet going live and such solutions launching. SundaeSwap has planned to launch in mid-October, and others have hinted at a similar timeline but those are tentative. In an interview with Cardano stake pool operator bigpey, Pi Lanningham, a lead developer at SundaeSwap, revealed that he thought the chances of having functional dApps immediately after the fork is very low. He said: “I don’t think you’re going to see any substantial dApps on day one of Alonzo.” Even Cardano’s founder said in a Wednesday video stream that there were many “open questions” about how the network would look following the hardfork. “Templates, abstractions, and dApps have to be built like any other ecosystem,” he told viewers. Besides the concurrency issues, Cardano does not yet offer a diverse set of wallets or tooling for dApps to integrate with. They’re expected to appear with the Plutus Application Backend updates, going live after Alonzo. In the same video stream, Hoskinson said that the only dApps to go live on day one would be “a few toy smart contracts” Input Output developed. Other than a few simple dApps, Cardano users will still be able to trade NFTs, currently one of crypto’s hottest niches. NFTs already exist on Cardano as they do not require smart contracts, though the ecosystem is significantly smaller than those on competing networks like Solana and Ethereum. Nevertheless, the Cardano community is optimistic about the months ahead. Positive sentiment has prevailed after Cardano invested in more than 160 projects through its Catalyst innovation fund. With Cardano currently at a market cap of almost $80 billion, the project’s treasury also holds over $1 billion to fund development. It appears that Cardano has the resources to build a rich ecosystem of DeFi applications—it just needs more time for it to come to fruition. Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature held less than $100 of ETH.  Share this article The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information. You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities. See full terms and conditions. Cardano’s Smart Contracts Face Major Scalability Issue Cardano, the third-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of over $82.8 billion, has become the subject of criticism as its ecosystem infrastructure does not allow for the most basic decentralized… Cardano Sets New High…

Key Takeaways Cardano’s EUTXO-based protocol design has proven challenging for decentralized application developers. Minswap, the first decentralized exchange to launch on Cardano testnet, faced immediate scaling issues last week. While several projects claim to have solved the concurrency issue, none have publicly revealed their solutions. Share this article Cardano, the third-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of over $82.8 billion, has become the subject of criticism as its ecosystem infrastructure does not allow for the most basic decentralized applications to function without facing immediate scaling issues. Cardano dApp Developers Face Concurrency Issues Cardano is facing a major scalability hurdle. Input Output, the development company behind Cardano, announced the launch of the Plutus smart contract functionality on testnet last Thursday. Since the update went live, Minswap, the first decentralized exchange to launch on testnet, has run into severe scaling issues, raising concerns about Cardano’s capability to run smart contracts.  It’s unfortunate that we have to shut down our testnet temporarily. We have gathered enough data from our testers to improve the fundamental of our DEX. In the next few days, we’ll publish our post-mortem, our scaling solution and when the testnet will be open up again. — Minswap | FISO live! 🚀 (@MinswapDEX) September 5, 2021 Users testing Minswap were surprised to find that the dApp could only handle one transaction per block. “Looks good,” one Reddit user wrote. “But when I try to swap things, all I’m getting is ‘Transaction fail: UTxOs are being used this block. Please wait 20-40 seconds and try again.” “After we launched, some users took screenshots related to locked UTXOs on Twitter, and the rest is history,” Minswap founder and engineering lead Long Nguyen told Crypto Briefing. He added that Minswap built their protocol on Cardano because “it’s the most decentralized Proof-of-Stake chain, with more than 3,000 nodes being run by the community, and 66% being run by single node operators.” Be that as it may, it would appear that building scalable, fully on-chain decentralized applications on the blockchain has become a bigger challenge than many in the community had anticipated. Specifically, unlike Ethereum, Solana, and most other smart contract enabled-blockchains, which employ an account-based model to compute transactions, Cardano employs a novel iteration of Bitcoin’s UTXO model called Extended UTXO (EUTXO). The EUTXO model poses challenges for Cardano dApp builders because of a so-called concurrency “issue.” In simple terms, concurrency refers to the ability for multiple different agents to interact with the same smart contract at the same time.  Account-based models allow multiple users to interact with the same smart contracts by default. However, EUTXO-based smart contract blockchains pose difficulties for developers to mitigate concurrency without making compromises on security or decentralization.  Solutions for concurrency include building dApps that tolerate segmentations of state or aggregating multiple interactions to settle on the same state. For decentralized exchanges, this would mean either fragmenting liquidity into multiple pools (states) or using third-party sequencers to batch multiple transactions and settle them as one transaction in the same state. The former gravely damages capital efficiency, while the latter could potentially prove to be a viable solution. Maladex is a Cardano-based decentralized exchange that claims to have solved concurrency. Discussing the potential downsides of using sequencers to mitigate concurrency, Jarek, the project’s CEO and lead developer, told Crypto Briefing:  “Other than, depending on the way it’s implemented, degree of centralization bottleneck, [there are] none. Off-chain is a natural part of the ecosystem and just prepares transactions for the blockchain where then they’re validated and executed.” “There is this uncomfortable part that it might increase centralization,” he added. “But it isn’t any different than the centralization we’ve got with UI for each protocol.”  Jarek further argues that using dApp-layer sequencers can mitigate front-running and MEV attacks because they aggregate multiple transactions to be executed at once.  However, Chief Investment Officer at Arcane Assets and vocal Cardano critic Eric Wall argues that MEV would still be possible if the blockchain used a sequencer. Explaining how MEV could occur on Cardano, he told Crypto Briefing: “First of all, the sequencer can extract MEV by choosing to include one transaction (his own) but censor another. Secondly, the miner/validator on the Cardano base layer can look at a sequencer’s batch of transactions and reject parts of it or the whole batch if he’d rather make some of those transactions himself when he’s putting the block together.” Other proposed solutions for scaling dApps on Cardano involve implementing Layer 2 protocols and sidechains, which deal with their own unique centralization and security challenges (while such solutions are yet to go live on Cardano, at least one EVM-compatible sidechain is in the pipeline).  Already partners such as @MutualKnowledge are developing solutions like their AVOUM, which can lay an account-based model atop a UTXO-type chain for developers who prefer that way of working. Protocol upgrades like the work being done on #Hydra will add further capability. 17/n — Input Output (@InputOutputHK) September 5, 2021 The big question is whether Cardano—given its EUTXO-based design choice—can support scalable and capital-efficient decentralized exchanges built fully on-chain. While Maladex claims concurrency is “complete and utter FUD,” Eric Wall argues that it’s unlikely Cardano dApps will solve concurrency without making significant security or centralization sacrifices. He told Crypto Briefing that while dApp developers could find workarounds, they may involve “significant development challenges, UX challenges, or centralization.”  The Cardano community has hailed Alonzo as a major new step for the blockchain’s DeFi capabilities. However, the testnet results suggest that it could be at least a few more years until it lives up to its promise. Once the upgrade ships, there won’t be an explosion of DeFi protocols. Instead, Nguyen thinks it will look like Ethereum did in 2018. “The good and best dApps will slowly appear over the years to come,” he said. Share this article The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or…

Key Takeaways Cardano’s EUTXO-based protocol design has proven challenging for decentralized application developers. Minswap, the first decentralized exchange to launch on Cardano testnet, faced immediate scaling issues last week. While several projects claim to have solved the concurrency issue, none have publicly revealed their solutions. Share this article Cardano, the third-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of over $82.8 billion, has become the subject of criticism as its ecosystem infrastructure does not allow for the most basic decentralized applications to function without facing immediate scaling issues. Cardano dApp Developers Face Concurrency Issues Cardano is facing a major scalability hurdle. Input Output, the development company behind Cardano, announced the launch of the Plutus smart contract functionality on testnet last Thursday. Since the update went live, Minswap, the first decentralized exchange to launch on testnet, has run into severe scaling issues, raising concerns about Cardano’s capability to run smart contracts.  It’s unfortunate that we have to shut down our testnet temporarily. We have gathered enough data from our testers to improve the fundamental of our DEX. In the next few days, we’ll publish our post-mortem, our scaling solution and when the testnet will be open up again. — Minswap | FISO live! 🚀 (@MinswapDEX) September 5, 2021 Users testing Minswap were surprised to find that the dApp could only handle one transaction per block. “Looks good,” one Reddit user wrote. “But when I try to swap things, all I’m getting is ‘Transaction fail: UTxOs are being used this block. Please wait 20-40 seconds and try again.” “After we launched, some users took screenshots related to locked UTXOs on Twitter, and the rest is history,” Minswap founder and engineering lead Long Nguyen told Crypto Briefing. He added that Minswap built their protocol on Cardano because “it’s the most decentralized Proof-of-Stake chain, with more than 3,000 nodes being run by the community, and 66% being run by single node operators.” Be that as it may, it would appear that building scalable, fully on-chain decentralized applications on the blockchain has become a bigger challenge than many in the community had anticipated. Specifically, unlike Ethereum, Solana, and most other smart contract enabled-blockchains, which employ an account-based model to compute transactions, Cardano employs a novel iteration of Bitcoin’s UTXO model called Extended UTXO (EUTXO). The EUTXO model poses challenges for Cardano dApp builders because of a so-called concurrency “issue.” In simple terms, concurrency refers to the ability for multiple different agents to interact with the same smart contract at the same time.  Account-based models allow multiple users to interact with the same smart contracts by default. However, EUTXO-based smart contract blockchains pose difficulties for developers to mitigate concurrency without making compromises on security or decentralization.  Solutions for concurrency include building dApps that tolerate segmentations of state or aggregating multiple interactions to settle on the same state. For decentralized exchanges, this would mean either fragmenting liquidity into multiple pools (states) or using third-party sequencers to batch multiple transactions and settle them as one transaction in the same state. The former gravely damages capital efficiency, while the latter could potentially prove to be a viable solution. Maladex is a Cardano-based decentralized exchange that claims to have solved concurrency. Discussing the potential downsides of using sequencers to mitigate concurrency, Jarek, the project’s CEO and lead developer, told Crypto Briefing:  “Other than, depending on the way it’s implemented, degree of centralization bottleneck, [there are] none. Off-chain is a natural part of the ecosystem and just prepares transactions for the blockchain where then they’re validated and executed.” “There is this uncomfortable part that it might increase centralization,” he added. “But it isn’t any different than the centralization we’ve got with UI for each protocol.”  Jarek further argues that using dApp-layer sequencers can mitigate front-running and MEV attacks because they aggregate multiple transactions to be executed at once.  However, Chief Investment Officer at Arcane Assets and vocal Cardano critic Eric Wall argues that MEV would still be possible if the blockchain used a sequencer. Explaining how MEV could occur on Cardano, he told Crypto Briefing: “First of all, the sequencer can extract MEV by choosing to include one transaction (his own) but censor another. Secondly, the miner/validator on the Cardano base layer can look at a sequencer’s batch of transactions and reject parts of it or the whole batch if he’d rather make some of those transactions himself when he’s putting the block together.” Other proposed solutions for scaling dApps on Cardano involve implementing Layer 2 protocols and sidechains, which deal with their own unique centralization and security challenges (while such solutions are yet to go live on Cardano, at least one EVM-compatible sidechain is in the pipeline).  Already partners such as @MutualKnowledge are developing solutions like their AVOUM, which can lay an account-based model atop a UTXO-type chain for developers who prefer that way of working. Protocol upgrades like the work being done on #Hydra will add further capability. 17/n — Input Output (@InputOutputHK) September 5, 2021 The big question is whether Cardano—given its EUTXO-based design choice—can support scalable and capital-efficient decentralized exchanges built fully on-chain. While Maladex claims concurrency is “complete and utter FUD,” Eric Wall argues that it’s unlikely Cardano dApps will solve concurrency without making significant security or centralization sacrifices. He told Crypto Briefing that while dApp developers could find workarounds, they may involve “significant development challenges, UX challenges, or centralization.”  The Cardano community has hailed Alonzo as a major new step for the blockchain’s DeFi capabilities. However, the testnet results suggest that it could be at least a few more years until it lives up to its promise. Once the upgrade ships, there won’t be an explosion of DeFi protocols. Instead, Nguyen thinks it will look like Ethereum did in 2018. “The good and best dApps will slowly appear over the years to come,” he said. Share this article The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or…

Key Takeaways MEV stands for “Miner Extractable Value” or “Maximal Extractable Value.” It refers to the extraction of value from Ethereum users by reordering, inserting, and censoring transactions within blocks. MEV is one of Ethereum’s biggest issues, with more than $689 million extracted from users of the network year-to-date. Share this article By leveraging their discretionary power to sequence transactions within blocks, miners can extract value from decentralized application users on Ethereum, greatly diminishing the user experience and threatening the stability of the network. MEV, The Invisible Tax On Ethereum Users MEV is an abbreviation of “Miner Extractable Value” or “Maximal Extractable Value.” It refers to profits that can be made by extracting value from Ethereum users by reordering, inserting or censoring transactions within blocks being produced. It typically affects DeFi users interacting with automated market makers and other apps.  Interestingly, the problem of MEV in Ethereum was first identified in 2014—a year before Ethereum launched—by an analyst coder and long-time algorithmic trader operating under the pseudonym Pmcgoohan.  Horrified by what happened in 2008 and the outfall of the global financial crisis, when Pmcgoohan first heard about Ethereum and the idea of a programmable blockchain promising distributed and equitable markets, he became enamored. To use his own words, it “blew his mind,” and he was “so excited about it,” but when he looked at Ethereum’s pre-Genesis draft documents, he was taken aback to find a critical flaw. Pcgoohan recognized that miners had total control of the transaction inclusion and ordering process, which meant that they could leverage this power to extract value from unsuspecting users of the protocol went it went live.  While some instantly recognized the shortfalls of Ethereum’s proposed design, Pmcgoohan was, unfortunately, ahead of his time, and his warning fell largely on deaf ears. That is until, in 2019, a group of researchers highlighted the issue by publishing a paper called Flash Boys 2.0, where the “MEV” term was first coined to describe the problem Pmcgoohan had referenced years earlier. Subsequently, Georgios Konstantopoulos’ and Dan Robinson’s Ethereum is a Dark Forest, and Samczsun’s Escaping the Dark Forest articles, published in Aug. and Sep. 2020 respectively, cemented MEV as a fundamental concept in crypto-economics and highlighted its importance as one of the most challenging and pressing issues the Ethereum research community faces today.  These texts revealed that MEV was not merely a theoretical issue, but a real phenomenon already occurring at a significant scale with concerning consequences for Ethereum users. Why MEV Occurs In Ethereum, miners are responsible for selecting and aggregating transactions into blocks. Crucially, they have full autonomy in deciding which transactions from the mempool—an off-chain space where pending transactions await confirmation—they’ll include in the blocks they mine.  As miners, validators, and sequencers optimize for profit, they tend to select and order transactions by the highest gas price or transaction fees. However, the protocol does not require transactions to be ordered according to fees. Miners can leverage their discretionary ability to reorder transactions to extract additional profits from users. This “irregular” stream of revenue is MEV.  Although MEV is most frequently associated with miners, it is neither a Proof-of-Work nor an Ethereum-exclusive issue. Moreover, “miner extractable value” is a somewhat misleading term. In reality, the majority of MEV extraction today comes from so-called “searchers”—usually arbitrage traders and bot operators—actively seeking and identifying MEV opportunities on-chain and capturing them in different ways, whereas miners only indirectly profit from these traders’ transaction fees. MEV exists on all smart contract-enabled blockchains with a party responsible for transaction ordering, including validators in Proof-of-Stake-based systems like Ethereum 2.0 and rollup providers on Optimistic Rollups. Understanding the MEV Game  The best way to understand the MEV game is to look at it through the lens of the key players, including miners, searchers, users, decentralized applications, and protocol developers. The miners or block producers are responsible for sequencing transactions and deciding which transactions to include in blocks and in what order. Miners can profit from the MEV game in two ways: first, by selling scarce block space to non-miner MEV extractors through so-called Priority Gas Auctions (PGA) in exchange for exorbitant transaction fees, and by capturing MEV directly through reordering, including, or censoring transactions to profit from on-chain liquidation or arbitrage opportunities for themselves. MEV also involves the end-users, such as people taking out on-chain loans or trading on decentralized exchanges. Users are the most exploited party in this game as they emit some amount of value that can be captured by miners and non-miner MEV extractors. Decentralized applications and protocol developers play an auxiliary role. The former create MEV opportunities through their design and the incentives they produce, while the latter establishes the game’s base rules such as giving block producers power to sequence transactions, which is what makes MEV possible.  Finally, central to the MEV game are the searchers or the DeFi traders and bot operators who seek to identify MEV opportunities and capture them in different ways. The two primary ways searchers participate in the MEV game are by bidding exorbitant gas prices in on-chain PGAs to have their transactions strategically placed at specific positions within blocks by miners, and by expressing transaction ordering preferences to miners off-chain using novel MEV extraction tools like Flashbots. The Searchers’ Typical MEV Extraction Process Searchers start their MEV journey by monitoring the Ethereum blockchain using bots and automation tools for potential profit extraction opportunities. When they spot an opportunity, searchers analyze the logic behind the trade, conceptualize the attack vector, and create a bundle—one or more transactions grouped and executed in the order they’re provided—designed to materialize its MEV extraction goal when mined. Searchers’ transaction bundles can refer to other users’ pending transactions in the mempool and target specific blocks for inclusion. Once a bundle is created, a searcher will usually send it to a miner using off-chain networks like Flashbots’ MEV-Geth. This allows them to avoid the public transaction pool and express their transaction ordering preferences fast and risk-free (they save on gas…

Key Takeaways MEV stands for “Miner Extractable Value” or “Maximal Extractable Value.” It refers to the extraction of value from Ethereum users by reordering, inserting, and censoring transactions within blocks. MEV is one of Ethereum’s biggest issues, with more than $689 million extracted from users of the network year-to-date. Share this article By leveraging their discretionary power to sequence transactions within blocks, miners can extract value from decentralized application users on Ethereum, greatly diminishing the user experience and threatening the stability of the network. MEV, The Invisible Tax On Ethereum Users MEV is an abbreviation of “Miner Extractable Value” or “Maximal Extractable Value.” It refers to profits that can be made by extracting value from Ethereum users by reordering, inserting or censoring transactions within blocks being produced. It typically affects DeFi users interacting with automated market makers and other apps.  Interestingly, the problem of MEV in Ethereum was first identified in 2014—a year before Ethereum launched—by an analyst coder and long-time algorithmic trader operating under the pseudonym Pmcgoohan.  Horrified by what happened in 2008 and the outfall of the global financial crisis, when Pmcgoohan first heard about Ethereum and the idea of a programmable blockchain promising distributed and equitable markets, he became enamored. To use his own words, it “blew his mind,” and he was “so excited about it,” but when he looked at Ethereum’s pre-Genesis draft documents, he was taken aback to find a critical flaw. Pcgoohan recognized that miners had total control of the transaction inclusion and ordering process, which meant that they could leverage this power to extract value from unsuspecting users of the protocol went it went live.  While some instantly recognized the shortfalls of Ethereum’s proposed design, Pmcgoohan was, unfortunately, ahead of his time, and his warning fell largely on deaf ears. That is until, in 2019, a group of researchers highlighted the issue by publishing a paper called Flash Boys 2.0, where the “MEV” term was first coined to describe the problem Pmcgoohan had referenced years earlier. Subsequently, Georgios Konstantopoulos’ and Dan Robinson’s Ethereum is a Dark Forest, and Samczsun’s Escaping the Dark Forest articles, published in Aug. and Sep. 2020 respectively, cemented MEV as a fundamental concept in crypto-economics and highlighted its importance as one of the most challenging and pressing issues the Ethereum research community faces today.  These texts revealed that MEV was not merely a theoretical issue, but a real phenomenon already occurring at a significant scale with concerning consequences for Ethereum users. Why MEV Occurs In Ethereum, miners are responsible for selecting and aggregating transactions into blocks. Crucially, they have full autonomy in deciding which transactions from the mempool—an off-chain space where pending transactions await confirmation—they’ll include in the blocks they mine.  As miners, validators, and sequencers optimize for profit, they tend to select and order transactions by the highest gas price or transaction fees. However, the protocol does not require transactions to be ordered according to fees. Miners can leverage their discretionary ability to reorder transactions to extract additional profits from users. This “irregular” stream of revenue is MEV.  Although MEV is most frequently associated with miners, it is neither a Proof-of-Work nor an Ethereum-exclusive issue. Moreover, “miner extractable value” is a somewhat misleading term. In reality, the majority of MEV extraction today comes from so-called “searchers”—usually arbitrage traders and bot operators—actively seeking and identifying MEV opportunities on-chain and capturing them in different ways, whereas miners only indirectly profit from these traders’ transaction fees. MEV exists on all smart contract-enabled blockchains with a party responsible for transaction ordering, including validators in Proof-of-Stake-based systems like Ethereum 2.0 and rollup providers on Optimistic Rollups. Understanding the MEV Game  The best way to understand the MEV game is to look at it through the lens of the key players, including miners, searchers, users, decentralized applications, and protocol developers. The miners or block producers are responsible for sequencing transactions and deciding which transactions to include in blocks and in what order. Miners can profit from the MEV game in two ways: first, by selling scarce block space to non-miner MEV extractors through so-called Priority Gas Auctions (PGA) in exchange for exorbitant transaction fees, and by capturing MEV directly through reordering, including, or censoring transactions to profit from on-chain liquidation or arbitrage opportunities for themselves. MEV also involves the end-users, such as people taking out on-chain loans or trading on decentralized exchanges. Users are the most exploited party in this game as they emit some amount of value that can be captured by miners and non-miner MEV extractors. Decentralized applications and protocol developers play an auxiliary role. The former create MEV opportunities through their design and the incentives they produce, while the latter establishes the game’s base rules such as giving block producers power to sequence transactions, which is what makes MEV possible.  Finally, central to the MEV game are the searchers or the DeFi traders and bot operators who seek to identify MEV opportunities and capture them in different ways. The two primary ways searchers participate in the MEV game are by bidding exorbitant gas prices in on-chain PGAs to have their transactions strategically placed at specific positions within blocks by miners, and by expressing transaction ordering preferences to miners off-chain using novel MEV extraction tools like Flashbots. The Searchers’ Typical MEV Extraction Process Searchers start their MEV journey by monitoring the Ethereum blockchain using bots and automation tools for potential profit extraction opportunities. When they spot an opportunity, searchers analyze the logic behind the trade, conceptualize the attack vector, and create a bundle—one or more transactions grouped and executed in the order they’re provided—designed to materialize its MEV extraction goal when mined. Searchers’ transaction bundles can refer to other users’ pending transactions in the mempool and target specific blocks for inclusion. Once a bundle is created, a searcher will usually send it to a miner using off-chain networks like Flashbots’ MEV-Geth. This allows them to avoid the public transaction pool and express their transaction ordering preferences fast and risk-free (they save on gas…

Key Takeaways Solana is a high-throughput Layer 1 blockchain offering fast, low-cost transactions. The project has been described as one of the strongest competitors to Ethereum. Solana has had a big year, with SOL climbing in value and rapid development in its DeFi ecosystem. Share this article We explain how Solana and its fast-growing ecosystem have established a place at the forefront of the cryptocurrency space. A New Ethereum Competitor In early June, Solana made headlines after closing a $314 million private token sale round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain.  The funding came on the back of the fast-growing ecosystem developing on Solana, and rising status as one of the leading competitors to Ethereum, the most widely used public blockchain. In the past, the huge demand for Ethereum block space has led to network congestion, resulting in very high transaction fees.  This congestion has created opportunities for Layer 2 solutions, sidechains, and new Layer 1 networks that are aiming to build scalable dApps beyond Ethereum. Solana is one of these Layer 1 networks.  The project was founded in 2017 amid the ICO mania when its team raised more than $25 million in private and public rounds. The mainnet beta was finally released in March 2020.  Solana found recognition for its 400ms block time and high throughput of 50,000 transactions per second, thousands of times higher than Bitcoin and the current version of Ethereum, which both depend on Proof-of-Work consensus (Ethereum plans to move to Proof-of-Stake sometime in the future).  With a focus on scale for mainstream adoption, Solana can theoretically scale up to 700,000 transactions per second, as outlined in the whitepaper. How Does Solana Achieve Scalability?   Solana’s architecture explains how the network achieves such high scalability. The blockchain’s sea level runtime enables horizontal parallel processing of transactions. This means that Solana can continue to scale with validator GPU improvements, which keeps fees low as transactions scale.  According to Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana Labs, the level of scalability that the network promises is proportionally tied with computing hardware. Essentially, the network can execute tens of thousands of smart contract transactions in parallel, using as many GPU cores as are available to validators. The main drawback with Solana is that specialized hardware that can cost thousands of dollars is required to run a validator.  With other features like Proof-of-History and the consensus algorithm Tower BFT,  a Proof-of-History-optimized version of BFT, the goal of the project is to have a distributed system that can scale transactions proportionally with the network bandwidth.   Furthermore, Solana allows for transactions to scale in parallel with network bandwidth. This means it can scale as usage of the network grows without relying on sharding or Layer 2 solutions.  There are over 900 validators on Solana today. Although Ethereum is still the most decentralized smart contract network, Solana is more decentralized than many other Layer 1 chains, including Polkadot, Cosmos, Binance Smart Chain, and Fantom.  The Solana Ecosystem Many new projects have chosen to build on Solana to benefit from its high throughput and ultra-low transaction fees.  Taking advantage of Solana’s low cost and instant sub-second block finality, high-efficiency blockchain, the rapidly expanding DeFi ecosystem now consists of dozens of dApps.  The ecosystem includes decentralized exchanges (HydraSwap, Orca), automated market makers (Raydium, Popsicle Finance), yield aggregators (SolFarm, Solyard), stablecoin swap platforms (Mercurial Finance, Saber), wallets (Solflare, Phantom, Solong), NFT marketplaces (Solanart, Sollectify), derivatives (Parrot, Mango Markets), and gaming (SOLife, Sollamas, SolPunks).  Many infrastructure-based projects like data analytics tools, block explorers, oracles, and launchpads have also been built in the last six months.  Like Ethereum, Solana’s biggest area of growth has been decentralized finance. Solana’s fast block times and low transaction fees have proven attractive for onchain trading protocols. For DeFi traders, real-time block finality allows for accurate accounts margin values and real-time profit and loss calculations. Another big contributor towards Solana’s DeFi boom was Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX exchange and one of the network’s biggest supporters. In August 2020, Bankman-Fried announced the launch of Serum, a fast, non-custodial decentralized exchange. Serum became a great catalyst for Solana’s rapid growth. Bankman-Fried’s confidence in Solana was enough to bring in massive levels of liquidity to Serum by onboarding some of the leading market makers, including Alameda Research (which he founded) and Jump Trading. Alameda Research has also invested in many emerging projects in the ecosystem.  While functioning as a Solana-native decentralized exchange, Serum provides a trading experience similar to centralized exchanges by using a Limit Order Book executed on the network.  An order book allows for features such as limit orders and instant profit and loss updates for more control and precision in trading. Moreover, any other project on Solana can plug into the liquidity of Serum’s on-chain order book. Traders can place limit buys and sell orders, which can get matched up through Serum. Various kinds of trading and finance projects have now integrated with Serum’s order book.  In the last year, Serum has become the core infrastructure that powers several Solana projects, including Radium, an automated market maker that bears some similarities to projects like Uniswap. In return, these projects are helping to drive Serum’s trading volume. Solana’s fast block time allows for high fidelity oracle data thanks to projects like Pyth Network. This enables accurate information to be shared across various stakeholders and settled on-chain in real time.  Solana hosts many popular stablecoins to ensure deep liquidity and scalability to support order book-based DEXs. Stablecoins are considered one of the fundamental elements of DeFi. Just recently, the USDC supply on Solana crossed over $1 billion.  Aside from stablecoins, many Ethereum-native DeFi projects have deployed their code on the network or are looking into ways to expand in the future. Aave, Ethereum’s top lending market, hinted that it would launch on Solana via Neon Labs earlier this month. With the infrastructure in place, new projects built on Solana are also benefiting from the so-called “Solana summer.” A new derivatives trading dApp on Solana, Mango Markets, recently raised…