Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Understanding The Concept Behind Ethereum’s Gas Fees

The Ethereum ecosystem is a major player in the crypto space, being the second-largest by market cap. It can arguably be termed as the most diverse and interesting blockchain currently thanks to its Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Decentralized Applications (DApps). The phrase ‘Ethereum gas fees’ has as a result been popping up quite often in the crypto world.　　However, the mention of this phrase has not been in a positive setting. Many times, people have recounted getting huge transaction fees to their distress, in the name of Ethereum gas fees. This article aims to get a grip on what is meant by this phrase, inclusive of relevant calculations.　　A Brief on Ethereum Gas Fees　　An Ethereum gas fee, or just gas, refers to the value of pricing or fee required to conduct a successful Ethereum transaction. It is the fee needed to execute a contract on the Ethereum blockchain. The fee is priced in small subunits of ETH termed Gwei, also called nanoeth. The scale is 1 ETH: 1 billion Gwei.　　The purpose of this gas is to enable a secured but decentralized self-execution of DApps such as smart contracts. It does so by allocating resources to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). In turn,

2021-04-13Deep Dive

Asia’s Untapped DeFi Economy A Boon For Binance?

Asia has an untapped DeFi market as per financial analyst and investor Joseph Young. According to his observations, this could provide an ideal user base for Binance Smart Chains DeFi ecosystem.　　“DeFi isnt so popular in Asia. DeFi bluechips only started to see some popularity on South Korean exchanges in the past month or so. Binance Smart Chain is becoming popular in Southeast Asia due to its low fees. There is a chance BNB secures a relatively untapped market.”　　While the appeal of DeFi platforms over regular traditional finance products is great, Ethereums extremely high gas fees are crippling these platforms.　　Ethereums High Gas Fees Challenging DeFi Users　　DeFi is definitely gaining popularity: the total value of assets locked in Ethereum protocols surged from $1.25 billion to well over $40 billion. The number of DeFi users was 110,000 in February 2020 but stood at ~1.4 million a year later.　　But the skyrocketing transaction fees on the Ethereum network have made DeFi expensive for users. This threatens the benefits that DeFi brings to cryptocurrency as the high gas fees make the platform less accessible to casual users.　　Ethereum made news in February when its gas fees increased by 20% in a matter of 24 hours, with the

2021-04-13Deep Dive

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is issuing NFTs for these 6 stocks

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), one of the world‘s largest exchanges by daily trading volume, today said it would issue non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for stocks listed on its platform. Six NYSE listings would be minted as the ’First Trade NFTs on the blockchain.　　The move is the first-of-its-kind and a landmark for the NFT market, which was valued under $200 million in 2019 but has since surged to a $25 billion behemoth.　　NFTs are blockchain-based representations of tangible or non-tangible assets that prove the true ownership of the underlying asset with whoever holds those NFTs. These can range from the quirky to the serious, and from digital pizzas to CryptoPunks to real-estate.　　NFTs before Bitcoin on the NYSE　　The six publicly listed firms to be offered as NFTs would be music-streaming service Spotify, cloud-computing player Snowflake, video game development firm Unity, delivery giant DoorDash, online gaming platform Roblox and end-to-end e-commerce and logistics network Coupang.　　“These non-fungible tokens memorialize a company‘s First Trade using the blockchain’s digital ledger and provide irrefutable proof of authenticity and ownership,” the firm explained, adding that the First Trade is the exact moment a company became public, creating a rare, one-of-its-kind digital collectible for retail investors.　　The NFTs are available

2021-04-13Deep Dive

Who Will Follow Coinbase’s Path to Wall Street?

Is there any doubt now that crypto is going mainstream？ Even my mom is tired of me saying “hows my Bitcoin？” (as I show her my Bitcoin wallet just to be that guy.)　　We are moving fast into a digital economy. Cryptocurrencies are the new stocks.　　I will undoubtedly buy Coinbase when it goes public. I just won‘t be a buyer of the country’s premier cryptocurrency exchange on Wednesday, because I dont like to chase. I suspect it will rise by double digits. I want to see where it ends up trading after a month or two on the market before I think about it.　　“It is another step for cryptocurrencies being perceived as shifting further into the mainstream,” says David Jones, chief market strategist for Capital.com, a commission-free crypto exchange. “If this continues, and there are no signs yet of that stopping, then exchanges for buying and selling should do well. It is by no means a perfect comparison of course, but listed shares of exchanges such as NasdaqNDAQ and the London Stock Exchange have respectively done very well over the years.”　　Coinbase filed its Form S-1 Registration Statement for its initial public offering in February after saying in December that it was

2021-04-13Deep Dive

Binance offers Tesla stock token, could Coinbase (COIN) follow?

Crypto exchange Binance has announced the launch of a new product, tokenized shares of publicly traded companies. The first to be listed is Elon Musk-led carmaker Tesla.　　Trading with these tokens will be available with zero commission and accessible to all users of the exchange via their account. According to an official release, each TSLA token on Binance will represent one share of Teslas equity stock.　　Binances product, according to the release, will be backed by actual Tesla shares stored in a “depository portfolio” based on Tesla securities.　　The product has been launched in cooperation with CM-Equity AG and asset tokenization platform Digital Assets AG, according to Binance. The exchange stated the following in its post:　　Tesla stock tokens on Binance will have a minimum trade size of one-hundredth of a stock token, representing the same fraction of a Tesla share. Stock tokens are priced and settled in Binance USD (BUSD), a regulated stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar and issued by Paxos Trust Co.　　Binance opens up to new possibilities　　Users interested in dealing with tokenized shares on Binance must adhere to traditional market trading hours. In addition, they must complete a Know Your Customer (KYC) process.　　Binances product will give its users access to a

2021-04-13Deep Dive

How PKT Cash Provides an Economic Incentive to Connect Bandwidth to the Decentralized PKT Network

PKT Network offers a revolutionary new way for diverse internet users across the planet to contribute to an open-source internet service protocol. This has a number of advantages in the real world. It provides easy-to-access, affordable internet communication for all sorts of people, and it also avoids the restrictions and limits of many state-influenced or monopolized ISPs.　　One key feature of the PKT Network is how it offers an economic incentive for people to connect bandwidth to the decentralized network, with its own coin called PKT Cash. The model for this coin will help the network grow its reach by providing a real financial benefit for those who choose to connect and share bandwidth. Lets have a look at how it works in a little more detail.　　How PKT Cash Incentivizes People to Connect Bandwidth　　When a node connects to the PKT Network, it supports the system by both using bandwidth and CPU time to mint new PKT Cash. With PKT Cash as incentive, miners increase their computing output and scale infrastructure, which both helps them get more coins and also helps increase the bandwidth of the PKT Network for all users.　　PKT Cash has been built for scalability, including microtransaction capabilities, and is

2021-04-13Deep Dive

How Student Coin is Fostering Tokenization Among Academic Institutions

The past few years has been filled with talk about cryptocurrencies and how it has changed everything. Just over a decade ago, the concept that you dont need a bank to perform transactions would have been waved away as an afterthought.　　Cryptocurrencies changed this by offering an alternative route to traditional banking services. Low transaction fees, secure platforms, and the ability to keep money beyond government control were the initial reasons many resorted to cryptocurrencies.　　With time, the crypto industry began to expand to include more sectors tackling real-life problems using blockchain technology. This grew to other sectors like using blockchain technology for data management and building decentralized apps.　　One area that has been exploited in recent years is tokenization. Tokenization which is the process of issuing blockchain to represent a real-tradable asset, has led to possibilities.　　A revolutionary blockchain project, Student Coin is offering an ecosystem that brings tokenization to the academic sector.　　Student Coin　　Student Coin is a blockchain project designed to create an environment for students and organizations to build tokens. It also offers a comprehensive suite of products that ensures blockchain adoption is fostered within the academic sector.　　Built on Waves and Ethereum, the Student Coin ecosystem combines the two blockchain networks to

2021-04-13Deep Dive

Why Are Bitcoin ATMs Appearing Everywhere? And Are They Worth It?

The number of Bitcoin ATMs across the globe has increased by 70% over the last six months according to a report by Trading Platforms. America and Canada lead the market in terms of the most ATMs in operation, with the US accounting for 84% of all Bitcoin ATMs globally.　　One of the explanations for this boom lies in the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies by mainstream investors. With investorial support of Bitcoin having significantly increased over the last year, the interest in cryptocurrency ATMs has also increased.　　A Bitcoin ATM is essentially the same in format as any other automated teller machine, and allows a person to purchase cryptocurrency by cash or debit card. At the present moment, Bitcoin is the most popular currency supplied by crypto ATMs, however there are an increasing number of ATMs that supply altcoins.　　The regulation of Bitcoin ATMs in America varies from state to state. At present, 35 states in America do not require a money transmitter license (MTL), but most ATM machines will need to comply with AML and KYC policies to prevent these machines from being used to launder money or finance illegal operations.　　California, Georgia, and Florida, for example, permit the buying and selling of

2021-04-13Deep Dive

Is The NFT Craze Over?

In 2020, the total sales of NFTs amounted to $250 million, while February alone saw sales of $220 million.　　At its height on February 21, weekly NFT trading volume reached $196.4 million.　　In March, Mike Winkelmann, a digital artist known as Beeple, sold an NFT artwork for $69 million.　　However, things may have taken a downturn, with the average price of an NFT now $1,256 from $4,000 at its peak.　　For weeks, the media has been brought to a standstill by a flurry of sales surrounding the crypto asset class non-fungible tokens, popularly known as NFTs.　　Enter The NFT Season　　NFTs – unique digital assets in a blockchain used to represent digital forms of objects such as music, art, videos, and images, have been around since as early as 2012 – 2013 when Colored Coins entered the crypto space. However, they received renewed interest in 2021, constantly being in the headlines.　　NFTs hit the media hard with a string of outstanding, or, in some peoples eyes, scandalous, sales of digitized tokens. The NFT mania made its way into the music, gaming, sports, poetry, art, and luxury industries.　　Some sales made people question whether we all lost it during the lockdown. Many observers have linked the sudden interest in

2021-04-12Deep Dive

Why ADA could run hotter than Bitcoin and make 10x gains

After breaking in the crypto top 10 by market cap and with 3.597% gains over the past year, Cardano (ADA) seems to be laying low. At the time of writing, ADA trades at $1,24 with 1.7% profits in the daily chart and 6.4% in the weekly chart.　　ADA moving sideways in the 24-hour chart. Source: ADAUSDT Tradingview　　Cardanos native token and its platform are moving towards a major milestone. Targeting a Q3 entry into DeFi with Hard Fork Combinator Alonzo.　　Bullish investors are betting on ADAs further appreciation. Analyst Justin Bennett claims this token next rally will happen by the end of April. Around this time IOG should be stress-testing its smart contracts platform, Plutus.　　A day ago, Bennet said to be building a “sizeable” ADA position and set support at $1.10 to $1.30. Over the next months, according to the analyst, ADA could go as high as $10.　　On the Cardano‘s native token recent price action, the analyst said it moving sideways is an indication of a “fair game”, a sign that ADA’s price is not overvalued. Bennet added:　　ADA moving sideways for 6 weeks tells me the market doesn‘t believe it’s overvalued at all. I don‘t buy markets that are going vertical. I buy

2021-04-12Deep Dive

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