Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Onomy announces a new bridge, its hybrid DEX and Forex market are arriving to Polygon

Onomy Protocol recently announced bridging to Polygon–expanding its list of cross-chain deployments.　　Onomys application-specific Layer 1 blockchain, which is built with Cosmos Tendermint, powers a hybrid DEX and Forex marketplace, a stablecoin minting system, and a non-custodial wallet.DeFi‘s first DEX that combines AMM liquidity pools with an order book UI　　The integration will unlock Forex trading, payments, settlement, lending, and yield opportunities using Onomy’s stablecoins for Polygon users.　　Onomys hybrid DEX, dubbed ONEX, combines automated market maker (AMM) liquidity pools with an order book user interface (UI)–enabling traders to place market, limit, stop, and conditional orders.　　Meanwhile, Polygon‘s full-stack Ethereum scaling solution will empower more efficient trading –boosting the utility of Onomy’s stablecoins, called ‘Denoms,’ within its budding dapp ecosystem.　　While Onomy‘s Cosmos-based blockchain, dubbed ’ONET, is poised for high throughput and efficiency, custom bi-directional bridges to other major chains–including Polygon–leverage frictionless cross-chain swaps.On a mission to onboard the Forex market　　Issued by the Onomy reserves dubbed ‘ORES,’ Denoms are the protocols solution for plugging Forex into DeFi.　　Users are able to mint Denoms of fiat currencies they require to execute their trades by locking the protocols utility token NOM, as over-collateral.　　Their usage, however, is not limited to Forex trading. As Onomy expands into further ecosystems, Denoms

2022-01-23Deep Dive

New data shows how Solana transactions compare against Ethereum

Solana network has become one of the viable alternatives to Ethereum in recent months. Like all other blockchain networks described as Ethereum killers, Solana claims to have the solution.　　Any network with lower gas fees and faster transaction speeds will address the primary problems of Ethrerum. But Solana went one step further by claiming that it could theoretically perform 710,000 transactions per second (TPS).　　Available data has shown that the actual TPS is much lower. According to SolanaFM, the average transaction per second on Solana is 3,000. While this is a far cry from the theoretically possible TPS, its still far above Ethereum, which is around 10.　　Solana’s current transactions per second (TPS)　　Analysis of the available data provides more information about this disparity. On Solana, transactions can be classified into successful transactions, failed transactions, vote transactions, and non-vote transactions.　　The successful transactions refer to the transactions that the validators successfully validated. These transactions have been finalized and dont contain any errors. At the time of writing, the average number of successful transactions on the Solana network is 2500 per second.　　On the other hand, unsuccessful ones are only 438 per second. This means that the ratio of successful to unsuccessful transactions is 5:1.Successful Transactions /

2022-01-23Deep Dive

The Fed’s proposed CBDC: a dystopian nightmare or a necessary evolution of the dollar?

The U.S. Federal Reserve has taken its first step towards issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). And while a digital dollar is still years away even if the Fed decides to move forward with the idea, the prospect of an American CBDC should worry the crypto industry.　　In its new report, titled “Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation,” the Fed outlined the problems a CBDC would face and mechanisms it could employ to solve them.　　The report states that the introduction of a CBDC would represent a significant innovation in American money, but remains cautious about the potential problems it might bring upon the countrys monetary system.　　It presents a CBDC as a way to achieve financial inclusion, expand access to digital payment services, reduce transaction fees, and speed up remittances and cross-border transactions.　　However, diving deeper into the report reveals that these benefits would come at a cost few seem willing to pay.The first step towards an American CBDC is a very scary one　　Federal Reserve policymakers and staff have been studying CBDCs for several years, but it wasn‘t until 2020 that they became more vocal about the possibility of a digital dollar. China’s massive statewide effort

2022-01-23Deep Dive

Crypto suffers $200 billion drawdown, what’s happening?

Thursday evening (GMT) saw the start of the crypto market slide. Of the top 100, excluding stablecoins, only Safemoon, Leo, and BitTorrent managed to stay green over the last 24-hours.　　Before the slide, the total crypto market cap was valued at $2.029 trillion. Over the course of the night and into the early hours of Friday, a brutal sell-off ensued, wiping $200 billion from cryptocurrency valuations.　　The Fear & Greed Index dropped five sentiment points, moving from 24 yesterday to 19 today.　　Social media chatter reveals a mix of rallying cries to hold strong, including talk of this being the last opportunity to buy Bitcoin under $40,000. In contrast, others say this is the start of an enduring bear market.　　Either way, whats behind this latest drop？Investors flee crypto and tech stocks, again　　The crypto sell-off coincided with the Nasdaq dropping 1.3% to close at 14,846.46, marking a 14-week low for the tech-heavy index.　　In recent weeks, there has been a circulating narrative that investors are fleeing risk-on assets, such as cryptocurrencies and tech stocks.　　A similar pattern played out earlier this month, seeing another approximate $200 billion drop in combined crypto market valuations.　　At that time, analysts had pinned the issue on various factors, including discovering a

2022-01-22Deep Dive

WHAT IS BITCOIN BACKED BY?

People often say: “bitcoin cant be money, it isnt backed by anything.” This is an old way of thinking that originated with paper money. Prior to paper money, people used precious metal coins (such as gold) because they maintained strong monetary properties: scarcity, durability, divisibility, portability, fungibility, and acceptability (the six monetary properties).　　Paper became money because it was superior to gold in terms of divisibility and portability BUT it lacked scarcity. People reasoned that we could benefit from the greater divisibility/portability of paper money as long as it was redeemable in a form of money that was scarce. This is when money needed to be “backed” by something.　　Since we changed money to paper money that wasnt scarce, it needed to be backed by something that was.　　Since the repeal of the gold standard, politicians have retarded the meaning of the word because our money is no longer backed by something scarce. Governments say money is backed by their “full faith and credit” as an attempt to allude populations into the belief that their horrendous credit is economically equivalent to one of the scarcest commodities in the world.　　So, what is bitcoin backed by？　　Nothing. Sound money, like gold, isnt “backed.”　　Only money that lacks

2022-01-22Deep Dive

South Korea explores Metaverse plans, aims to become the 5th biggest metaverse market by 2026

South Korea is eyeing the growing Metaverse expansion and is all set to work towards developing itself as a major game player in the field.　　The countrys science ministry on Thursday unveiled plans to develop a metaverse market to lead the country ahead by becoming the fifth biggest metaverse market by 2026.Metaverse projects to include medicine, pop culture and tourism　　According to the official press release, South Korea will be working with 220 metaverse companies to create a “metaverse academy” and later produce 40,000 trained metaverse professionals by 2026 to take lead in the given domain.　　As per sources, the country is also planning to build an online Korean language institute on metaverse to facilitate global user interactions and help foreigners engage with several projects on metaverse including medicine, K-pop, tourism, and arts.　　The South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT further stated a single metaverse has the potential to create 1.5 million jobs in the virtual ecosystem.　　South Korea is one of the major markets that effortlessly fosters the virtual reality ecosystem. According to the data acquired from MSIT, the nations VR market has shown immense growth potential of over 36% in 2018 and is expected to be worth $2.5 billion by 2024.Providing support

2022-01-22Deep Dive

FTX, Nexo to launch crypto debit cards

Debit cards are becoming increasingly popular among crypto users. Leading the pack, Coinbase and Crypto.com cards, among others, are already in the market. As announced today on, American crypto derivatives exchange FTX is next in line launching a Visa card to its customers. FTX users are now allowed to sign up for the card by joining a waiting list.　　To begin with, The FTX card will be available to U.S. citizens with a valid social security number only. The announcement does not disclose when the cards will be shipped to FTX customers.Keep crypto as crypto　　According to FTXs website the Visa card will allow users to use their crypto held within their FTX account to be automatically exchanged the exact amount at the point of sale, allowing users to keep “crypto as crypto”. FTX will also protect all user funds. The FTX Visa Card will come at no cost and FTX will not charge any administrative or processing fees.　　Visa has previously approved crypto-backed payment solutions for several crypto companies including Binance, Bakkt, BlockFi, CryptoSpend, and Ledger.　　While FTX now allows its users to join a waiting list, European crypto exchange and custodial service Nexo launched their long-promised debit card on January 19th. Nexo

2022-01-22Deep Dive

94% of financial advisors received questions about crypto last year

Bitwise, a leading provider of crypto index funds, and ETF Trends, a noted source of news and analysis in the ETF space, recently released the findings of their fourth joint survey of financial advisor attitudes toward crypto.　　Financial advisors who manage roughly half of all wealth in the US, are becoming increasingly bullish on crypto.Advisor engagement in the space is growing　　The survey pooled 600 financial advisors, who answered a list of questions on crypto assets and their use in client portfolios.　　The results suggest that advisor engagement in the space is growing, as the percentage of those allocating to crypto in client accounts increased significantly–from 6% in 2019, and 9% in 2020–to 15% in 2021.　　According to the report, an additional 14% of advisors said that they will “probably” or “definitely” allocate in 2022.　　Meanwhile, those advisors who currently reported an allocation in client accounts plan to either “maintain” (42%) or “increase” (58%) that exposure in 2022.　　However, 80% of advisors who allocate to crypto in client accounts reported holding crypto at a weight of 5% or less in portfolios.　　Interested in finding out how financial advisors are learning about the new market, this year‘s survey inquired about the respondents’ primary sources of crypto education.　　Roughly the

2022-01-22Deep Dive

El Salvador Plans to Offer Crypto-Based Loans for SMEs

The government of El Salvador plans to offer small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) $10 million in crypto-based loans as of the first quarter of 2022.　　Acumen, a Solana-based lending and borrowing platform, will provide U.S. dollar funding to El Salvadors National Commission for Micro and Small Enterprises (Conamype), a government entity that plans to allocate financing to local informal entrepreneurs and self-employed workers, Conamypes president Paul Steiner told CoinDesk.　　Acumens loans will have an annual interest rate of 6% to 7%, although it could reach up to 10%, Acumens project manager Andrea Gómez told CoinDesk.　　According to Steiner, 86% of the companies in El Salvador operate in the informal sector and do not have access to banking services. Of that percentage, 98% rely on unregistered lenders offering loans at annual interest rates of 2,300%, on average, he added.　　“They are loan sharks charging between 20% and 25% per month. That is what we want to avoid,” Steiner said.　　According to Steiner, the government has been in talks with Acumen since October 2021, following the approval of bitcoin as legal tender in the Central American country. In parallel, it holds negotiations with different crypto lending platforms looking to provide loans to Salvadoran SMEs, Steiner said, adding

2022-01-21Deep Dive

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sets New All-Time High

Mining difficulty on the Bitcoin network increased by 9.32% and hit an all-time high of 26.64 trillion on Jan. 21, at 3:07 UTC, beating the previous record set on May 13, 2021.　　The difficulty is automatically adjusted based the amount of computational power on the network, or hashrate, to keep the time it takes to mine a block roughly stable at 10 minutes. The higher the hashrate, the higher the difficulty, and vice versa.　　On May 13, 2021, bitcoins mining difficulty hit a record 25.04 trillion, as primarily Chinese and North American miners deployed their machines.　　The difficulty started dropping later in May when miners in China, at the time the biggest bitcoin mining country, went dark to comply with a regulatory crackdown. Hashrate and difficulty kept falling until late July.　　Most miners from China estimated that they would come back online in Q1 2022, so “we can attribute a good bit of this increase [in difficulty] to Chinese miners finally coming online in North America,” Whit Gibbs, CEO of Compass Mining, told CoinDesk.　　As Chinese miners found new homes for their operations, and new facilities came online, the hashrate and difficulty started to increase. By December, the hashrate had almost recovered from its July

2022-01-21Deep Dive

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