Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Edward Snowden Urges Shiba Inu (SHIB) Investors to be Cautious

Edward Snowden warned investors that dealing with the “garbage” Shiba Inu could result in appalling losses for them.　　The infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden opined somewhat negatively on Shiba Inu and its ability to bring fortune to its holders. According to him, the meme coin is nothing more than a “clone of dog money” that can turn to be a highly dangerous investment strategy.　　Do Not Mortgage The Farm to Buy SHIB　　In a recent tweet, the former National Security Agency consultant – Edward Snowden – became the next in line to comment on the current craze in regards to Shiba Inu (SHIB). Even though the self-proclaimed Dogecoin killer has registered consecutive all-time highs lately and has grabbed public attention, the American does not believe it is a wise investment.　　Snowden is not a fan of Dogecoin either. However, SHIB is even riskier as it is “not even dog money but a clone of dog money,” he explained.　　Still, the 38-year-old advised people to try their luck with the “garbage” asset Shiba Inu, as long as they invest money they are ready to lose:　　“The problem is when they get emotionally manipulated into mortgaging the farm based on a memes worth of understanding. If you want to

2021-11-02Deep Dive

Shiba Inu (SHIB) on Track to Be Listed on Kraken

San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is set to list Shiba Inu on Tuesday, according to an announcement made by the company on Twitter.　　Kraken approached the listing in an unorthodox way. Instead of making a formal announcement, Krakens product lead, Brian Hoffman, challenged Shiba Inu fans to like the post at least 2,000 times.　　This, of course, was an easily achievable target for one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency communities.　　At press time, the tweet has collected over 17,600 likes, meaning that the hottest cryptocurrency is now set to appear on the trading platform as early as Tuesday.　　Shiba Inu became available on Coinbase in mid-September. The addition of the meme coin to the largest U.S. exchange was viewed as a harbinger of the cryptocurrencys massive October rally.　　The “Dogecoin killer” is also gaining plenty of traction on other trading platforms. Earlier today, Binance announced a trading pair that allows Shiba Inu to trade against its archrival. It will become available on Nov. 2.　　Robinhood, however, continues kicking the can down the road on Shiba Inu despite the Change.org petition to list the cryptocurrency surpassing 450,000 signatures.　　Shiba Inu is up 22% over the past 24 hours, firmly holding onto ninth place on CoinMarketCap.　　For more blockchain news, please

2021-11-02Deep Dive

Top Crypto Projects We Believed in that Are Now Dead Coins

Cryptocurrencies that have been abandoned or no longer exist are often referred to as dead coins　　Dead coin trackers consider a project with less than a $1,000 trading volume in three months an abandoned project　　BitCoin Killer, OneCoin, turned out to be a Ponzi scheme that duped users of over $4 billion　　The crypto space is growing at a remarkable rate, with new projects launched all the time. As of October 29, CoinMarketCap tracks the data of over 13,300 crypto projects. More than 2,000 of these projects fall into a category known as dead coins.　　What Are Dead Coins？　　Dead coins refer to cryptocurrencies that have been abandoned and no longer exist. These projects were either used as a scam, ran low on liquidity, or had their developers flee from the project.　　The number of dead coins spiked in 2017 when every business thought it was best to launch an initial coin offering (ICO). In 2017 alone, approximately $4.9 billion was raised via ICOs. However, 80% of all 2017 ICOs turned out to be scams.　　While there is an astonishing amount of cryptocurrencies that now offer zero value and utility, today, we will be looking at some dead coins that were once popular before their inevitable demise.　　

2021-11-01Deep Dive

TEN31 LAUNCHES: A NEW BITCOIN VENTURE CAPITALIST FIRM

Ten31 is a new organization named after October 31, the birthday of the Bitcoin white paper. The venture funds ethos is tied to its namesake, with a mission to partner with, invest in, and support exclusively Bitcoin companies whose mission is hyperbitcoinization.　　On October 31, 2008 the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto posted the Bitcoin White Paper on the cypherpunks mailing list, a day that forever altered the course of humanity.　　Satoshis email announcing Bitcoin to The Cryptography Mailing List　　Ten31 commented, “Our mission is to partner with, invest in, and support great Bitcoin companies creating infrastructure for a Bitcoin monetary system. We believe bitcoin is the tool that will facilitate the freedom of mankind and unlock individual sovereignty and human flourishing.”　　Ten31 mission statement predicates on hyperbitcoinization, a single purpose which everyone regardless of skillset can contribute to. “We know not everyone can be shadowy super coders, but there are skills others have at their disposal to contribute to the ecosystem. We believe the traditional venture capital model falls short in its potential impact on the space, and thus we have purposely designed Ten31 to be different from traditional VC.”　　In the spirit of Bitcoin, Ten31 funds are called “Low Time Preference Funds”, in which a

2021-11-01Deep Dive

Why Tron’s Justin Sun Withdrew Over $4 Billion From Aave

Key takeaways　　DeFi protocol Aave (AAVE) saw an 18% drop in TVL on Friday.　　Investigations revealed that the drop was linked to the withdrawal of $4.2 billion worth of tokens by Trons Justin Sun.　　Suns move was likely due to concerns arising from the recent Cream Finance hack according to Colin Wu.　　On Friday, Ethereum based lending and borrowing DeFi protocol Aave (AAVE) saw the total value locked (TVL) on the platform drop about 18%. On investigation, it was discovered that the withdrawals were made by wallets connected to the founder of TRON and CEO of BitTorrent, Justin Sun who withdrew around $4.2 billion worth of ETH, WBTC, and Stablecoins from Aaves lending pools.　　While the CEO has not commented on the withdrawal leaving the community to speculate on his decision, cryptocurrency journalist Colin Wu has proffered an explanation that seems to have some precision to it.　　The industry insider said Suns move may have been prompted by concerns over the security of the DeFi protocol especially following the recent exploit that saw another DeFi protocol, Cream Finance (CREAM) lose $130 million to hackers.　　The Aave governance proposal in question was put forward by on-chain protocol management firm Gauntlet “to disable borrowing of $xSUSHI, $DPI, and the

2021-11-01Deep Dive

Cardano (ADA) is on track with its “digital transformation” of Ethiopia

This month, the IOHK team, headed by Charles Hoskinson, has been in Africa meeting entrepreneurs and politicians in a bid to further the Cardano cause.　　In doing so, Hoskinson and the team “dropped by” Ethiopias Ministry of Education for a follow-up on the student credential system first mentioned in August.　　“Dropped by the MOE today to discuss the digital transformation of Ethiopias educational credentials. Five million students on schedule.”　　The credential system set out to overhaul the academic records of 5 million students by putting information, such as attendance and grades, on the blockchain to capture the data and provide a digital identity system.　　Hoskinson told Bloomberg that this is the initial phase of the program. Later on, the intention is to use it as a springboard to launch a national ID system in the country. This would see a step up in numbers to 110 million users.　　“Its our intention to compete amongst others for the whole national ID system, which is about 110 million people.”Cardano is making a splash on the global stage　　The Cardano Atala Prism project in Ethiopia was ranked the 14th (out of 50) most influential project in 2021 by the Project Management Institute (PMI).　　“As the largest blockchain deal ever signed

2021-11-01Deep Dive

5 charts to uncover your next long-term DeFi investment

It‘s not uncommon for a project to generate hype, only to collapse weeks later. That’s why its especially important for retail DeFi investors to 1) have a framework to analyze projects, and 2) apply this framework before jumping in.　　The decentralized nature of DeFi lets anybody participate. Its surprising how little technical expertise or cash is needed to bootstrap a project or token. The results can be catastrophic for investors who decide to invest without doing due diligence.　　Luckily, the flipside of decentralization is that data is transparent and readily available. The data does not lie, so this is where an intelligent investor should first look.　　When investigating a project, you cant go wrong by starting with 3 metrics and 5 charts.　　Total locked value　　Chart 1: TVL Growth　　Chart 2: TVL Distribution　　Market cap　　Chart 3: MC/FDV Ratio　　Chart 4: MC/TVL Ratio　　Token price 2) the total supply of the token is extremely large.　　Investors should consider FDV carefully, focusing on the length of time the project has been online and the token supply schedule.　　Some examples of projects with low ratios are:　　Fruit: MC/FDV Ratio is 0.002%　　StakedZEN: MC/FDV Ratio is 0.077%　　Hanu Yokia: MC/FDV Ratio is 0.17%　　The MC/FDV ratio allows investors to assess whether a token price is overheated. Thats because a

2021-11-01Deep Dive

Inside the blockchain developer’s mind: What is a testnet?

Blockchain testnets are an interesting subject because they come in all shapes and sizes. So, in this post, my goal is to leverage my inside experience as the CEO of Koinos Group (developers of Koinos) to demystify testnets and perhaps give some insight into why they seem to have such an impact on price.　　The most obvious place to start is with the name: testnet. The purpose of a testnet is to test a network. At a very high level, there are two “flavors” of testnet. The first is a testnet that is released prior to a mainnet (main network), and the second is a testnet that is released after a mainnet is already in operation. The functions these serve are similar, but the context in which they are released dramatically impacts the perception, and impact, of the release.　　I‘ll start with the second kind of testnet because, in a way, this is the more straightforward context. When you’re talking about existing networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, testnets serve two primary functions. The first is that they are a live environment in which developers can test their decentralized applications. Every good developer knows that theres no such thing as perfect code, so

2021-11-01Deep Dive

Tethered Up: How Stablecoins Plan To Stay Stable

Many heads turned to the idea that a token meant to serve as a backed stablecoin may actually be manipulating the game. In enters Tether. These were heavy considerations especially with all of the beauty going on in the crypto world.　　Here is quick dive into what happened during the trials earlier this year, and how things have played out for the parties involved since.A New York State Of Affairs　　A complaint filed earlier this year claimed that Tether (USDT) had knowledge around the volatility of cryptos total market capitalization, including a skyrocketing $795 billion in late 2017. Five crypto traders were the plaintiffs who claim they purchased cryptocurrencies at inflated prices and suffered financial losses as a result. As a result, the suit represented anyone in the United States who inflated prices may have harmed during this period of time.　　The defendants‘ lawyers argued that the case would fall apart, with the accusation that Tether printed its USDT stable coins without any solid backing.Another lawsuit In 2019 resulted in a settlement for both parties. The New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced that the office was investigating Bitfinex. What made things sticky is that Tether also came into the spotlight due

2021-11-01Deep Dive

Memecoin Floki Inu targets Londoners in new advertising campaign

Although doggy-inspired meme coins are generally viewed with suspicion, the recent success of Shiba Inu demonstrates investor appetite for them exists.　　However, not all Dogecoin clones are equal. Shiba Inus success is partly down to its developing ecosystem, including a DEX, NFTs, staking, and supporting tokens in $LEASH and $BONE, which are live and operational right now.　　With Floki Inu lacking similar functionality, are the people behind it wasting their advertising spend？Is Floki Inu the next Dogecoin？　　Dogecoin‘s monumental rise earlier this year saw it post +15,000% gains in the five months to May. For that reason, it’s understandable that people are looking to copy the original.　　At present, theres no shortage of doggy-themed tokens being launched, including the newest kid on the block, FlokiGravity, up 290,000% today. Or Baby Floki Billionaire, which is relatively more established, having started on Binance Smart Chain on October 3, making a 1,300% run-up from launch to its all-time high on Saturday.　　Rightly or wrongly, as eluded to above, a significant aspect of their appeal is the millionaire-making potential they are seen to have.　　Keen to cash in, the team behind Floki posted a tweet on October 6 promoting their advertising campaign. It centers around the tagline “Missed Doge？ Get

2021-11-01Deep Dive