Blockchain

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…

Share this article Tezos has successfully implemented the Granada upgrade, cutting block times in half and reducing smart contract gas consumption.  Tezos Enhances Network Capabilities Tezos has launched its seventh major upgrade.  The self-amending blockchain has successfully conducted its Granada upgrade, enhancing several existing network features. The upgrade has replaced the previous consensus algorithm, Emmy+, with Emmy*, cutting block times in half from 60 to 30 seconds. Additionally, Granada has made smart contracts deployed on the network more efficient, reducing gas consumption by three to six times the current fees. Tezos 7th Upgrade ‘Granada’ Is Now Live! 👊🏾Emmy* consensus, cutting block times by 50% 🔥Gas improvements, massively reducing gas consumption in smart contracts ✅Liquidity baking, leveraging governance mechanism and incentives to provide for public goods#Tezos #Granada pic.twitter.com/IL4zJBe9oU — Tezos (@tezos) August 6, 2021 Granada also introduces an experimental feature called liquidity banking. The new feature attempts to increase liquidity between the network’s native token (XTZ) and wrapped Bitcoin (tzBTC) by introducing a new incentive. Now, when users provide liquidity to the XTZ/txBTC pair, they can claim part of a small subsidy of 2.5 XTZ paid out every time the network mints a block.  One of Tezos’ signature features is the ability to upgrade without forking the network into two separate blockchains. This self-amendment functionality simplifies the upgrade process, increasing stability for those developing on the network.  Granada marks the third upgrade to Tezos this year. The network has experienced rapid growth, with smart contract activity increasing as more organizations choose to develop on Tezos. In April, France’s third-largest bank announced the launch of tokenized debt notes on the platform, making use of the improved smart contract functionality delivered in February’s Edo upgrade. In addition to finance, Tezos is also breaking into the NFT market. In May, Formula One team Red Bull Racing launched its first set of NFTs on the network. Since then, rival team McLaren has also partnered with Tezos to build an entire NFT platform involving McLaren Racing’s Formula One, INDYCAR, and esports ventures. Both teams stated that they chose Tezos over other potential partners due to the network’s low carbon footprint.  Disclaimer: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned BTC and 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. Tezos Adds Support for Private Transactions and DeFi Contracts Tezos’s new upgrade supports private transactions while building a niche for DeFi applications.  Tezos Promotes Privacy and Composable Contracts Nomadic Labs, Marigold, DaiLambda, and Metastate announced the new protocol upgrade… How to Trade Using the Inverse Head and Shoulders Pattern In stock or cryptocurrency trading, you may have heard of the term “inverse head and shoulders.” Also known as the “head and shoulders bottom” formation, the inverse head and shoulders chart pattern can… McLaren Racing Taps Tezos to Launch NFT Platform Another Formula One team joins the NFT rush.  McLaren Racing Links With Tezos  McLaren Racing is getting into NFTs. The popular Formula One team has partnered with Tezos in a… France’s 3rd Largest Bank Launches Tokenized Debt on Tezos Société Générale, the globe’s 17th largest bank, today announced the launch of a tokenized euro medium-term note (EMTN) on the Tezos blockchain.  Société Générale Continues Crypto Experimentation “This new experimentation,…

Key Takeaways Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox wants to move Zcash to Proof-of-Stake. The primary concern isn’t the environment, but greater security at a lower cost. Wilcox believes the value proposition of privacy coins has never been greater than now. Share this article Zcash is considering moving away from the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm to the lighter, faster, and more eco-friendly Proof-of-Stake, Zooko Wilcox told Forbes.  Zcash Founder Says Proof-of-Stake is Proven Zcash may be ditching Proof-of-Work in favor of Proof-of-Stake. The plan to change the privacy coin’s consensus algorithm comes more than two years after user rebekah93 first proposed the move in a Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) to the community.  Proof-of-Stake is a mechanism used to secure blockchains. Unlike Proof-of-Work blockchains like Bitcoin, which rely on an energy-intensive mining process, Proof-of-Stake allows users to secure the network by staking crypto tokens rather than providing computational power. In Proof-of-Stake blockchains, validators are randomly selected to add new blocks to the chain instead of having miners compete to find the block’s hash fastest. Ethereum is planning a merge to Proof-of-Stake as part of its Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, and most newer blockchains that have launched in recent years use Proof-of-Stake over Proof-of-Work. According to founder Zooko Wilcox, Zcash is starting to think about the potential transaction. He told Forbes that the consensus algorithm is now “proven” and has already been successfully implemented in a number of cryptocurrencies, including Cardano, Cosmos, Algorand, and Tezos. While Wilcox acknowledged the environmental concerns surrounding Proof-of-Work, his primary motivations for the shift have more to do with the greater—to his belief—security and performance benefits Proof-of-Stake offers. He said: “I think Proof-of-Work has some security flaws, as has been demonstrated by the 51% attacks that have occurred (when a miner controls a majority of computing power on the network and can steal tokens). And I think Proof-of-Stake can provide a much more powerful kind of security and at a lower cost.” His views on the security proposition of the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism are in line with Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin. Both argue that 51% attacks are much easier to recover from in Proof-of-Stake protocols because bad actors can quickly be identified, and the community can coordinate to slash the attacker’s funds in a “minority user-activated soft fork.” The same process requires a hard fork and is significantly harder to execute in Proof-of-Work-based systems.   Since the Forbes interview, Wilcox has published a blog post via Electric Coin Company, the company that launched Zcash, titled “Should Zcash switch from Proof-of-Work to Proof of Stake?” In it, Wilcox presents several arguments of the supposed merits of the move, including improvements in security, energy efficiency, and decentralization. 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. Monero’s Riccardo Spagni Arrested on Fraud Charges Former Monero lead maintainer Riccardo “Fluffypony” Spagni has been arrested on charges of corporate fraud. Spagni Arrested for Invoice Fraud The charges are unrelated to Spagni’s role at Monero. Rather,… 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,… Signal Mentions Zcash, Lightning As Possible Options Signal announced last week that it plans to introduce cryptocurrency payments. Now, it has published further details on those plans. More Than Just MobileCoin? Last week, Signal announced support for… Tezos to Add Zcash’s Sapling Privacy Features Tezos developers have announced plans to introduce new privacy features based on Zcash’s Sapling protocol in the coming months. Shielded Data In dApps Once Sapling is added to Tezos, developers…

Key Takeaways DeversiFi now lets users move stablecoins to and from Polygon via a bridge. Users who transfer tokens to DeversiFi will be able to trade, earn yield and withdraw funds to Ethereum. The bridge currently supports USDC, USDT, and DAI. Share this article DeversiFi has become the first DEX to enable a Layer 2 bridge with Polygon. New Bridge Between Polygon and DeversiFi DeversiFi, a Layer 2 decentralized exchange built on Ethereum, has launched a bridge with Polygon for cross-network transactions. In a Tuesday press release, the project announced that users can now transact three stablecoins (USDC, USDT, and DAI) on a new bridge connecting the exchange to the network. With the solution, stablecoins can be sent back and forth between DeversiFi and Polygon without touching Ethereum mainnet. Polygon has emerged as the most popular EVM-based commit chain in recent months. It’s used by hundreds of dApps, particularly those in the DeFi space. The likes of Aave, Curve, and Balancer have all launched on the network in recent months, helping attract more than $8 billion in total value locked and 125,000 active daily users. DeversiFi is based on Starkware, a Layer 2 scaling solution leveraging ZK-Rollups on Ethereum. It enables off-chain trading of ERC-20 tokens that can be verified on-chain through its smart contract. Users who transfer tokens will be able to trade on the Layer 2 exchange, earn yield, and withdraw assets to Ethereum mainnet. Last month, the exchange announced that it would organize a fair launch of its native tokens through a liquidity mining program. For such events, the bridge will let users migrate their stablecoin liquidity to DeversiFi without having to pay gas fees on Ethereum. Elaborating on the benefits of this bridge, DeversiFi CEO and co-founder Will Harborne said: “Polygon has onboarded a whole new wave of users into DeFi on its low cost commit-chain. With the launch of this new bridge, the Polygon and DeversiFi communities, for the first time, can move seamlessly between the two DeFi ecosystems without ever touching layer 1 Ethereum, all for free.” The bridge will initially be free to use, though a transaction fee may be added at a later stage. Following Polygon’s huge growth in 2021, centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, OKEX, and Huobi have all announced support for Polygon wallets. Unlike centralized exchanges, though, DeversiFi is the first Layer 2 exchange to support Polygon through an on-chain bridge. This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi 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. Layer 2 DeFi Platform DeversiFi Plans Fair Token Launch Layer 2 DeFi platform DeversiFi is launching its native DVF token using a new fair launch distribution mechanism called “DeversiFi Launch Market.” DeversiFi Plots Fair Token Launch DeversiFi is promising… 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,… DeversiFi DEX Announces New Token and Airdrop DeversiFi, a layer 2 DEX backed by Bitfinex, ConsenSys, and Ledger, has announced a new governance token and airdrop. DeversiFi Token Expected Later This Year DeversiFi, previously Ethfinex, has introduced… Polygon Transactions Explode After DeFi Expansion Polygon’s on-chain activity suggests exponential growth over the last month, largely driven by DeFi projects expanding to the platform. Polygon Experiences DeFi Growth  As Ethereum faces scaling issues and high…

Key Takeaways Coca-Cola will issue its first NFT collectibles to commemorate International Friendship Day on Jul. 30. Inspired by video-game loot boxes, the NFT pack will include a Friendship Box packed with four 1-of-1 NFT collectibles, plus more surprises only to be revealed when the Box is opened. Coca-Cola will donate all proceeds from the OpenSea auction to Special Olympics International. Share this article The auction will begin at 12:01 am UTC on Jul. 30, and close at 8:00 pm UTC on Aug. 2. Coca-Cola Adopts NFT Technology Coca-Cola is stepping into the NFT space.  In collaboration with Tafi, a custom 3D content creator for virtual avatars, and Virtue, a creative agency born from Vice, the drinks brand is creating its first digital collectibles collection to commemorate International Friendship Day. Proceeds from the sale will go to Special Olympics International, Coca-Cola’s longstanding partner. Selman Careaga, president at Global Coca-Cola Trademark, said in a press release:  “We are excited to share our first NFTs with the metaverse, where new friendships are being forged in new ways in new worlds, and to support our longstanding friend and partner, Special Olympics International. Each NFT was created to celebrate elements that are core to the Coca-Cola brand, reinterpreted for a virtual world in new and exciting ways.” The NFT pack, called The Friendship Box, is inspired by “shared moments of friendship” and will be auctioned off at the NFT marketplace OpenSea as a single lot. It will contain four 1-of-1 multi-sensory NFTs plus exclusive mystery items revealed only to the winning bidder when the box is opened. The Friendship Box, which is a rare NFT itself, is packaged as a loot box that “reimagines Coca-Cola’s highly collectible 1956 retro vending machines for the metaverse.”  Packed in the Coca-Cola vintage cooler NFT are also The Sound Visualizer, an audio-based NFT capturing the experience of opening, pouring, and sharing a Coke drink, the Coca-Cola Friendship Card, an NFT reimagining the design of the brand’s famous friendship-inspired trading card from the 1940s, and perhaps the most interesting NFT of the bunch: the Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket, a futuristic take on the brand’s old delivery jacket uniforms. The jacket also features a unique 1-of-1 unlockable version that can be worn in Decentraland. To celebrate the launch of the first Coca-Cola NFT auction, Decentraland is organizing a virtual “can-top” party in the metaverse featuring surprise guests to entertain the crowd. Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned 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. Shopify Will Let Its Users Sell NFTs in Storefronts Shopify has given some users the ability to sell NFTs in their storefronts, according to the president of the company. Shopify President Introduces NFTs Shopify is an e-commerce platform that… Efficient Market Hypothesis: Does Crypto Follow? The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is a concept in financial economics which states that security prices reflect all the available information about a financial instrument. EMH is one of the… Sushi Gives Away “LSD” NFTs to Announce Trident AMM The Sushi team announced its new automated market maker by giving away copies of an LSD-themed NFT titled “Bad Trip”.  Sushi Reveals New AMM “Trident”  Sushi is looking to compete… OpenSea Raises $100M for Multi-Chain NFT Plans The NFT space has a new unicorn: OpenSea.  OpenSea Plans Multi-Chain Move OpenSea, one of the leading marketplaces for the NFT space, has become the latest crypto unicorn.  The firm…

Karura Swap Launches First DEX in Polkadot Ecosystem

Key Takeaways Pontem partners with Polkadot node provider to finalize experimental test network for Facebook’s Diem blockchain. The partnership with PinkNode means the Pontem team can deploy nodes on Kusama, Polkadot’s canary network. Pontem aims to help Diem introduce new features by testing them in the Polkadot ecosystem. Share this article Pontem, an experimental network for Facebook’s Diem project, has teamed up with Polkadot-based node infrastructure provider PinkNode. Behind Pontem’s New Deal Pontem has partnered with PinkNode, an infrastructure-as-a-service provider on Polkadot. The partnership will let Pontem deploy an experimental test network for Facebook’s Diem blockchain, formerly known as Libra. Diem is an ambitious blockchain project from Big Tech mainstay Facebook but is not open to public participants due to its permissioned nature. As a result, developers and entrepreneurs working on Diem may find it difficult to build open source solutions that can compete to the level of innovation with public blockchains such as Ethereum or Polkadot.  This is where Pontem comes in. Founded in 2020, Pontem uses Substrate, Polkadot’s software development kit, to build a blockchain with a codebase almost identical to Diem’s. The project aims to help Diem onboarding new features and solutions by first testing them in the Polkadot ecosystem. To this end, the project recently raised $4.5 million from several venture funds including Mechanism Capital, Kenetic Capital, and Animoca Brands.  The PinkNode deal will allow Pontem to deploy nodes and other API endpoints on Kusama, Polkadot’s canary network, to finalize its network.   Due to deploying the nodes and API endpoints, Pontem will help developers interested in Diem test new features in the Polkadot ecosystem before directly submitting them to Diem. This will also enable new projects on Diem to test their product-market fit on Polkadot.  Boris Povod, the founder of Pontem, said of the partnership: “With Pinknode acting as our primary infrastructure provider, their reliable and secure API endpoints will be a key building block to completing our joint goal of improving Polkadot’s current infrastructure, while also allowing us to work towards our goal of becoming the experimentation network for Diem. We look forward to what this partnership will bring.” Through Polkadot’s interoperable network, Pontem also plans to build a bridge that connects the Diem blockchain with Ethereum, the network that underpins the burgeoning decentralized finance space and contains more than $55 billion in total value locked. According to Pontem, connecting the two networks will expose Facebook’s 2.7 billion users to DeFi. Slated for launch in 2021, Diem will issue fiat-backed stablecoins that can be integrated with Facebook’s banking and e-commerce services, a strategic move that faced a lot of resistance from regulators.   This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi 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. Facebook’s Crypto Testnet Averages 6 Transactions Per Second  Facebook’s testnet has been live for over a month as the Libra Association prepares for the next stage with broader participation among members.  Facebook’s Libra Moves a Step Ahead  The… What Is Diem? Introduction to the Facebook-Backed Stablecoin The Facebook-backed Diem Association has finalized plans to launch its Diem cryptocurrency in early 2021. Here’s all there is to know. What Is Diem? Diem is a stablecoin similar to… Efficient Market Hypothesis: Does Crypto Follow? The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is a concept in financial economics which states that security prices reflect all the available information about a financial instrument. EMH is one of the… NFTs Are Coming to Polkadot as Kusama Deploys Ethereum Alternatives NFTs on Polkadot may arrive sooner than expected thanks to its canary network Kusama. NFT Projects Expand on Kusama Many of Kusama’s initiatives share a common goal of deploying NFTs…