Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Decentralized blockchain aims for Ethereum and DEX compatibility with new wrapped token

Free TON is a multi-blockchain platform that can handle thousands of transactions per second thanks to its dynamic sharding mechanisms, which create new shards as needed. As a result, it is the fastest blockchain available, according to developers.　　Despite that, the Free TON blockchain is still in the early stages of attracting DApp developers to its platform. Even with its scalability, an important task at this stage is to bring more liquidity to the platform. To do that, developers have announced the launch of Wrapped TON, a tradable TIP-3 token built on its native TON Crystal token.　　With the ability to be transferred to and from the Ethereum network freely, the projects developers see Wrapped TON — or WTON — as having two main purposes.　　First, Wrapped TON will bring the Free TON blockchain access to the liquidity available on decentralized exchanges, according to core developer Broxus. With the assistance of the newly formed Free TON DeFi Alliance, Wrapped TON has debuted on Uniswap, where the WTON/USDT trading pair is now available. At the time of writing, Uniswap had a 24-hour trading volume of $1.24 billion.　　The second goal of Wrapped TON is to promote the fledgling but high-performance, highly scalable, and secure blockchain

2021-04-22Deep Dive

How one crypto exchange is injecting a little more fun into the trading experience

A crypto exchange is embracing gamification — and enabling traders to unlock achievements based on the digital assets they buy, and how often.　　A trading platform has vowed to make crypto fun again by enabling users to unlock achievements linked to buying, selling and holding assets.　　EXMO says its new feature is designed to reward the exchanges most active customers, increase loyalty, and find a new generation of brand ambassadors.　　Gamification has become an increasingly important development in the worlds of business and marketing — and research suggests that they can have a considerable effect on things like employee morale and customer sign up rates.　　How it works　　EXMO is launching a total of 50 achievements that are going to be up for grabs, which will be divided into an array of categories. Each achievement will boast a number of levels that can be unlocked as users gain experience and confidence.　　The first five customers who manage to collect all 50 rewards are going to receive a goody bag full of EXMO-branded swag, including T-shirts, hoodies, bottles and bags. The competition will also be heating up to be among the first 30 people to rack up 30 achievements, as theyll be in the running for three

2021-04-22Deep Dive

Cartesi Partners With IMPA to Open “Smart Contract Laboratory”

With the applications of blockchain technology reaching further than many of us could have ever imagined, the benefits of implementing decentralized systems are now becoming too evident to ignore for the global economy. Payments giant Visa recently announced a partnership with Circle Internet Financial, the startup behind the Ethereum blockchain-based US Dollar Coin (USDC), and the global adoption of blockchain infrastructure seems poised to become a reality sooner rather than later.　　Research and development play a central role in technological advances and, unsurprisingly, countless hours and human resources go into the ideation of tomorrow‘s innovations. Cartesi, a project that brings mainstream software to smart contracts through a layer-2 Optimistic Rollups solution, last week announced a formal partnership with Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics) in Rio de Janeiro; this exciting collaboration will see some of the world’s smartest minds work together on future solutions related to decentralized systems and more.　　Working toward a more accessible future for smart contracts　　Cartesi is a decentralized and scalable infrastructure that unlocks the vast universe of software components supported by Linux for use with blockchain technology. As a layer-2 infrastructure for blockchains, Cartesi Machine enables both traditional and blockchain

2021-04-22Deep Dive

Cuba Adopts Cryptocurrency as Part of Communist Party Agenda

In brief　　Cuba has just elected a new president and set its public policy agenda for the next five years.　　“Advancing” the study of crypto to help boost the island nations economy is now officially part of that agenda.　　Cryptocurrency is now officially part of the Communist Party agenda in Cuba. Over the weekend, Cubas government adopted a proposal to include cryptocurrency as part of the “economic and social policy guidelines of the party and of the revolution” until 2026.　　In Cuba, public policy is discussed and decided upon in massive assemblies held by the country‘s Communist Party. During the eighth congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, attendees proposed various changes that aim to improve the country’s economy amid global economic sanctions initiated by the United States.　　The list of adopted proposals will function as a sort of general guideline that provide government bodies with objectives to accomplish over the next five years. One of those objectives will now be to “advance in the study of cryptocurrencies in the current conditions of the economy.” The idea that the island nation should explore ways to use crypto to circumvent economic sanctions had been previously discussed by government officials, but the recent measure makes it

2021-04-22Deep Dive

Coinbase Runs Risk of Delisting From German Exchanges

Coinbase is in danger of being delisted on Friday by the Deutsche Börse due to issues with proper reference codes.　　Friday could prove to be a major day in the history of Coinbase as it was announced that the Deutsche Börse is planning to delist shares from its Xetra and Frankfurt systems. Along with this, the shares of the cryptocurrency platform are down 2.1% to $313.63 as of early Wednesday. Overall, shares are down 20% from last weeks price of $381.00 at the opening.　　Coinbase stock made its long-anticipated Nasdaq debut a week ago, the biggest yet of any cryptocurrency company. CEO Brian Armstrong unloaded nearly 750,000 shares or 1.5% of his total stake for around $300 million shares on day one. Early investors sold nearly $5 billion worth of stock on the day of listing.　　Despite this hiccup, Deutsche Börse continues its commitment to expanding the range of cryptocurrencies available for trading. Litecoin ETN became the latest big name to get into business after Deutsche Börse became the first worldwide exchange to trade centrally cleared cryptos, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.　　The current product offering is comprised of over 200 ENTs and almost 1,700 EFTs as of April 20th.　　Potential delisting due

2021-04-22Deep Dive

Young Koreans Flock To Crypto

6 out of every 10 Koreans who are investing in crypto for the first time are in their 20s and 30s. 2.5 million accounts were opened across the top four Korean exchanges over the first three months of the year. Korean authorities were concerned as to the risks for these young investors in what they considered a risky sector.　　According to an article today in the The Korea Herald, based on a report released by the opposition People Power Party, many young Koreans were attracted to Crypto as opposed to more traditional forms of investment, and this was raising concerns over the risks these young people were now exposed to.　　The report cited that of the 1.58 million new account holders, 63.5% were in their 20s to 30s, while 1.5% were teenagers.　　Concerns are being voiced in the Korean government over a “potential bubble being formed in the crypto sector” and there were calls to “crack down on illegal transactions and fraud”.　　“The recent crypto fad reminds of the Tulip mania in the past as people are passing over a ‘ticking time bomb’ that is imminent to explode anytime soon,” said Lim Jong-in, the dean of the Graduate School of Information Security at

2021-04-22Deep Dive

Why Bitcoin Could Be The Key For The Future Of Clean Energy

Much has been said lately about Bitcoin‘s impact on the environment. Mainstream media has been especially keen on declaring BTC’s consensus mechanism (Proof-of-Work) a potential danger for the future of the planet.　　A White paper published by Square and ARK Invest, as part of “The Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative”, makes the opposite case and argues Bitcoin is in fact a “key driver of renewable energys future”. The research paper claims Bitcoin mining along with renewable energy to facilitate an “energy transition”.　　Thus, energy asset owners could become the “bitcoin miners of tomorrow” operating a resilient electricity grid. BTC miners have certain characteristics which can sustain this new energy model. First, miners are geographically agnostics, with a “flexible and easily interruptible load”, as the White paper claims.　　As such, they are “unique energy buyers” appropriate to face the clean energy sectors main challenges: low production when demand rises and intermittency. The research claims the following:　　Bitcoin miners, on the other hand, are an ideal complementary technology for renewables and storage. Combining generation with both storage and miners presents a better overall value proposition than building generation and storage alone.　　Bitcoin Leverage The Cleanest And Cheapest Form Of Energy　　The Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), metric use to

2021-04-22Deep Dive

More Users Flock to Crypto in Argentina, Peru

Crypto adoption is on the rise in South America, where Argentinians have opened at least two million crypto trading accounts, while Peruvian traders have broken new ground.　　Per Infobae, a “number of industry sources reported” that Argentines have been increasing their crypto buying in recent months.　　However, the media outlet noted that the experts agreed the market was in an “experimental stage” that meant that “two million accounts does not equate to two million active customers.”　　The media outlet quoted Andrés Ondarra, the CEO of Bitso Argentina, as stating that the companys Argentinian operations have seen 375,000 customers join since it began operating a year ago.　　Ondarra added that the coronavirus pandemic had led to “the adoption of cryptocurrencies by large companies, as well as new, different customer profiles.” He added: “A lot of liquidity has begun to be generated.”　　The CEO claimed that the bitcoin (BTC)-peso market has in recent months risen to become “equivalent to half of what the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange moved” over the same period.　　The reports authors noted that while a large portion of investors is still people looking to escape peso hyperinflation by “dollarizing” their fiat via BTC purchases, the picture is diversifying.　　USD sales are still limited at banks

2021-04-22Deep Dive

Why XRP Holders Could Be Key In Lawsuit Against Ripple Labs

Former federal prosecutor James K. Filan has been involved with the lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) versus Ripple Labs and two of its executives. Accused of the alleged illegal sale of an unregistered security, the token XRP, Filan has shared his opinion on the case, presented crucial documents, and discussing with the community an important subject.　　According to Filan, the XRP community, with their active role and participation, is making “a huge impact” on the case. As evidence, the lawyer said the court from the Southern District of New York handling the case has increase accommodation for the public from 500 to 4,000 people.　　The court has also opened an international call-in number for any person interested in listening to the discovery conference. This session will take place on April 30th and will regard the SEC contacting foreign regulatory entities to build its case against Ripple Labs. The defendants consider this to be a violation of Federal Procedure and the Hague Convention.　　A petition To “End The War” On XRP　　Another community effort has been led by lawyer John E. Deaton. In March, Deaton introduced a formal pre-filing pleading. Later, judge Analisa Torres granted him permission to represent over 10,000

2021-04-22Deep Dive

How IBM Will Turn Patents In NFTs With Its Blockchain

IBMs partner IPwe will tokenize patents as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to a press release. The company will build an infrastructure to store the NFTs. The objective is to improve the way patents are traded. IPwe hopes to “bring new liquidity to this asset class for investors”.　　Hosted on IBM Cloud, IPwes platform operates as a “global patent marketplace”. On it, users can research, seek, and transact with Intellectual Property. The company has operations in over 50 countries worldwide.　　Per the release, the cooperation aims to offer corporations and investors a transparent platform to trade their patents. A company could use a patents NFT and add it to its balance sheet. Thus, there could be a “transformation” in how this asset class is commercialized around the world. IPwe CEO Erich Spangenberg said:　　“The use of NFTs to represent patents will help create completely new ways to interact with IP. This is expected to benefit not only large enterprises that have significant intellectual property, but it will bring new opportunities to small and medium enterprises and even individual IP owners. We believe it will usher in new offerings by financial services firms.”　　How Will The NFTs Be Traded On IBM Blockchain　　IPwe platform will allow NFTs

2021-04-22Deep Dive

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