Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

How blockchain is disrupting the cannabis industry

Blockchain and cannabis share one main thing in common: they are both disruptive trends that are shifting how business is done around the world, and especially in the United States. Where legal producers of cannabis are concerned, blockchain can absolutely turn an industry around that has been stumped by a surprisingly slow growth curve, toward more profits in the future. This does not just apply to the cultivators, retailers and producers will also be affected by the impact that blockchain can have on an industry.What are the challenges in the cannabis industry？　　Since the legalization of recreational cannabis across many states in the U.S. and Canada, the move from illegal to legal products hasnt happened as quickly as expected. This has frustrated those who entered the market early expecting huge demand.　　Depending on your view of the industry, it might not be surprising that most cannabis is still sold through illegal channels, with 80% of volume and 60% of value coming through illegal channels in Canada. There are a number of reasons why the growth of legal cannabis hasnt been as fast as anticipated:　　Small number of retail stores　　Increased price of legal products　　Smaller selection of products　　Supply shortages in-store and online　　Apprehensiveness toward government-regulated product　　As

2021-11-14Deep Dive

Polygon leads NFT gaming growth while Axie Infinity, Decentraland retain “powerhou

Over half of the blockchain industry‘s overall activity in October came from game dApps. This is the conclusion made in DappRadar’s State of the Blockchain Game Sector October 2021 report, which analyzed activity and the number of users blockchain-based games saw last month.　　According to the report, rising cryptocurrency prices and booming interest in the metaverse were responsible for the huge growth in the gaming industry, which saw over 2 million unique active wallets (UAW) per day on average.Blockchain-based games have never been more popular　　The rise in popularity DeFi has seen in the past several months fades in comparison to blockchain games. According to the latest report from DappRadar, the number of unique active wallets (UAW) connected to games represents 55% of the blockchain industrys total, keeping up the dominance that began in September.　　And while the positive usage trend spread across almost all networks that offer games, it was Polygon that showed the biggest growth. The Layer-2 solution increased its UAW connected to games by 242% month-over-month (MoM), and by 982% when compared to August. With over 125,000 daily UAW, game transactions doubled in October when compared to last month, despite the number of DeFi associated transactions decreasing by almost 52%.　　Most

2021-11-14Deep Dive

6 sources of renewable energy that will power the future of Bitcoin mining

Yes, Bitcoin mining does consume a lot of energy — about 110 terawatt hours per year, the energy equivalent of a small country. Considering that a single Bitcoin mining farm might be running hundreds or thousands of mining rigs (roughly the equivalent of running a space heater) all day, every day, it‘s easy to see how that much energy can be created. It’s also easy to see why keeping energy costs low becomes the main concern of Bitcoin miners.　　The good news for large-scale Bitcoin mining operations is that the cheapest sources of energy are also the cleanest and most sustainable, like wind, solar, and hydropower, which are all cheaper sources than gas and coal. Additionally, the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance estimates that 76% of miners are already using sustainable energy sources.　　Still, with recent questions in the news around the source of Bitcoin‘s energy usage, and whether it can be sustainable going forward, there’s still more to do to grow awareness and adoption of renewable sources of energy.　　If you‘re looking to start a mining operation, switch electricity sources, or invest in a mining company and want to know more about where they’re getting their energy, here are the top sources

2021-11-14Deep Dive

These are the six companies that bought almost $100 Billion USDT from Tether

After several months of research, a report from Protos managed to identify exactly who acquired 70% of all USDT ever issued. The report looked at every single USDT ever sent to and from Tether across eight blockchains and layers it currently exists on, finding that the company distributed $108.5 billion in USDT since 2014.　　The majority of the funds were sent directly to market makers and liquidity providers—a staggering $96.98 billion went to just six companies.Alameda Research is Tethers biggest buyer　　Analyzing USDT flowing out of Tether Treasuries and linked blockchain addresses to specific entities, Protos divided the distribution into three categories—market makers, funds and companies, and individuals. For research purposes, market makers were defined as entities that received multiple transactions from Tether Treasuries of over $100 million USDT.　　Tether supplied these market makers with 89.2%, or just over $97 billion, of all the USDT it sent. Trading funds companies received $9.2 billion, while individuals received just $2.35 billion.　　Market makers Alameda Research and Cumberland Global were found to be the biggest fish in Tether markets, receiving around 55% of its total outbound volume. Over $49 billion of their USDT was acquired in the past year alone.　　Tether sent $36.7 billion in USDT to Alameda

2021-11-14Deep Dive

Data shows how Aave overtook Compound in DeFi lending

In an industry with plenty of fast ascents and precipitous falls, many wondered whether the platform had the staying power to remain a central institution in DeFi lending.　　Nearly 2 years later, Aave is still going strong, especially in relation to its one-time close rival. 　　This article will take a closer look at the two platforms strengths and weaknesses and explain why Aave was able to overtake Compound.Aave and Compound TVL Compared　　As of Oct. 20, the DeFi market has surpassed $200 billion in total locked-in value (TVL) at $241.575 billion, with Aaves TVL gaining the largest share at $18.89 billion. This is followed by lending protocols Curve ($18.01 billion), MakerDAO ($16.4 billion) and Compound ($12 billion).　　In the lending space, Aaves TVL has been way ahead of Compound in the last six months. This can be attributed to its model, which is similar to traditional finance, and its ability to operate in Financial Conduct Authority-encrypted assets.Comparison of Market Cap　　As of Oct. 20, Aave continues to dwarf Compound in the DeFi lending and borrowing industry with a market cap of over US$4 billion versus the latters $1.97 billion. 　　There are two other metrics that indicate Aaves strong position in the future.　　First, its circulating

2021-11-13Deep Dive

Discord cancels its Ethereum plans days after ETH tease

Popular social media platform, Discord, appears to have shelved its plans of integrating Ethereum and non-fungible tokens into its platform after facing a throng of backlash from community members who were unhappy with this new development.Discords debunks Ethereum speculation　　Jason Citron, the CEO and co-founder of the big shot social media platform revealed via his official Twitter page that Discord has no current plans to integrate ETH into its operation.　　According to Citron, Discords current focus is on how to protect its users from spam, scam and fraud which have become quite rampant in recent times on the social media site. However, he did not rule out the possibility of the firm integrating these features in the future.　　In his words, “We have no current plans to ship this internal concept. For now were focused on protecting users from spam, scams and fraud. Web3 has lots of good but also lots of problems we need to work through at our scale. More soon.”Why Discord is backing out　　Discords CEO earlier in the week had hinted that the site was working towards integrating crypto features into the platform, however, users of the site reacted negatively to this scoop despite the optimism that greeted the news

2021-11-13Deep Dive

Introducing Random Edge: The First Fair On-Chain NFT Auction Platform

Random Edge is a transparent, verifiably random, and ultimately fair NFT auction platform that offers a shot at glory for those that participate. Time and time again there have been stories of individuals making life-changing wealth with NFTs. These kinds of stories often drive people to mint as many possible NFTs during an auction/mint, hoping to strike gold when the images are revealed. Unfortunately, the playing field is often skewed in favor of insiders, influencers, savvy coders, and others in the know.　　Random Edge eliminates these inefficiencies and provides users with a level playing field by being up-front about the way their auctions work and promising only one thing: that one lucky participant will receive the majority of the funds collected from the minting event.　　By leveraging Chainlink VRF, Random Edge is able to provide transparent, verifiably random results that cannot be gamed. There are no insiders, no influencers, and no gimmicks. The way it works is simple:　　Users will purchase NFTs for a flat fee per NFT　　They will receive an NFT with a randomly assigned ID　　Once the max supply is hit or the time limit has been reached, Random Edge will call a function that uses Chainlink VRF to randomly choose one

2021-11-13Deep Dive

Few reasons why Ethereum decoupling from Bitcoin might have to wait

Ethereum has comfortably established itself above the $4500-mark, while Bitcoin continues to trade north of $65000. Now, even though the top two assets have more or less similar quarterly ROIs, BTC charted 49% three-monthly ROI v. USD while ETH reaped 55% ROI over the same timeframe.　　Here, it can‘t be denied that Bitcoin has largely been the driving force behind the crypto-market’s gains.　　BTC v. ETH　　The ‘Ethereum flipping Bitcoin’ narrative has been around for quite some time now. However, ETHs straight-up northbound movement since 1 October has further fueled the narrative that Ethereum could decouple from Bitcoin and also, flip the top asset.　　Nonetheless, the fact remains that “Bitcoin is digital gold” is a much clearer and well-established narrative than “Ether is oil for Dapps.”　　That being said, Bitcoin‘s market dominance and first-mover advantage have always fueled rallies triggered by BTC’s price hike, followed by Ethereums and then, other altcoins.　　In fact, most cryptos, especially Etherum, still have a high correlation with BTC.　　Notably, while the BTC v. ETH correlation score seemed to be dropping, it still held above 50%.　　Now, towards the beginning of November, the ETH-BTC one-month realized correlation went down to as low as 60%. However, it soon picked up. At the same time,

2021-11-12Deep Dive

Bitcoin ranging around 914 827, 80 South African Rand ($60 000)

Bitcoin is the fast-growing Cryptocurrency in the world. A lot of South Africans have been following bitcoin as a first interest in crypto investment, some smart investors have turned to millionaires because of the Bitcoin. Bitcoin has reached a new high a few weeks back, let us take a look at the technical analysis and see where the bitcoin might be heading, this is just a forecast and not a financial investment advice.　　Monthly Chart　　The month of October has been one of the most active months of bitcoin, we can see a very bullish candle that has the most amount of momentum compared to the past four months. In most cases when a new candlestick starts it usually leaves a wick on either side. The month of November can be bearish at the beginning but the overall momentum for Bitcoin is at the upside, but we see a little bit of sellers exhaustions also on the current October candle.　　Weekly Chart($60 000)　　Bitcoin is priced based so it is advisable that if you trade it you must pay attention to price, because in most cases that is where it will react. We see it is ranging around $60 000 price which also has

2021-11-12Deep Dive

Ethereum’s Arrow Glacier upgrade delays Difficulty Bomb until June 2022

Ethereum is set to undergo a scheduled upgrade at block number 13,773,000, which should take place around December 8th.　　The Arrow Glacier network upgrade will delay the difficulty bomb until June 2022, which is when developers believe Ethereum will be running on Proof-of-Stake (PoS).　　Arrow Glacier will give miners time to breathe as Ethereum transitions to POS　　According to Tim Beiko, the chair of all core developers at the Ethereum Foundation, pushing back the Ice Age/Difficulty bomb has also been done in the Byzantium, Constantinople, and London network upgrades.　　The EIP-4345 Difficulty Bomb was scheduled to go off in December 2021 and exponentially raise the difficulty level for miners on the network. However, as the difficulty bomb only affects Proof-of-Work networks, it was decided to delay the bomb on the mainnet and run the Proof-of-Stake transition on the Ropsten test network.　　No other changes other than EIP-4345 have been included in the upgrade. The change will delay the difficulty bomb until June 2022, when developers hope the current Ethereum mainnet will merge with the Beacon Chain marking the end of Proof-of-Work Ethereum.　　However, if “the merge” isnt ready by June 2022, EIP-4345 will be delayed further.　　In order to be compatible with the Arrow Glacier upgrade, node

2021-11-12Deep Dive

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