Author: marketanalysis

By Rayna Ishihara | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

What is NEO 

NEO is a blockchain-based platform that is open-source and decentralized, allowing anyone to create their own blockchain services and products. The platform is known for its fast transaction processing times, making it an attractive option for developers. 

NEO was founded by Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang in 2014 under the name Antshares, then rebranded to NEO in June 2017. It is often compared to Ethereum because it provides similar tools and capabilities for building decentralized applications, such as decentralized exchanges and price markets. As a result, NEO is sometimes referred to as “the Ethereum of China”. 

Through the use of smart contracts, NEO provides developers with the ability to digitize and automate the management of assets. A smart contract is an automated program that executes the actions required in a contract, with transactions that are trackable and irreversible. This allows for trusted agreements and transactions to be carried out without the need for a central authority or legal system. The ultimate objective of NEO is to construct a smart economy system that is network-based and distributed, powered by decentralized applications. 

Smart Economy 

NEO’s smart economy is based on three foundational pillars: digital assets, digital identity and smart contracts. 

Digital assets: NEO enables developers to manage assets digitally and automatically, without intermediaries and at no cost. The platform is open, decentralized, and transparent, allowing users to record, buy, sell, or exchange any asset type. It also supports the linking of digital assets to unique avatars and provides protection through valid digital identities, which are recognized by the law. 

Digital identity: By enabling digital identity, the Neo blockchain allows for the verification of key information about individuals or organizations participating on the platform, thus ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements.

Smart Contract: Smart contracts are utilized by NEO to execute transactions and agreements without any central governance by a legal entity. The code allows for traceability, transparency, and irreversibility of transactions. This enables different parties to engage in transactions and agreements on the platform. 

NEO Tech 

NEO uses a consensus mechanism called delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerant (dBFT) to secure its blockchain and keep its network in sync. dBFT works by using a real-time voting system to determine which computers can create the next block on the chain. Each NEO token can be staked to represent a vote, with the consensus nodes responsible for adding new blocks and receiving transaction fees in GAS cryptocurrency. 

The NEO virtual machine supports several programming languages, including C#, Java, C, C++, GO, JavaScript, Python, and Ruby. 

NEO Token 

Neo has a dual-token system separating governance rights from network usage rights, NEO and GAS. The NEO token is used for governance, where holders participate by voting for the Neo Committee, while GAS is used for the operation and storage of tokens and smart contracts. NEO has a total of 100 million tokens, with approximately 50% reserved by the Neo Foundation for ecosystem development. GAS tokens are generated every block and distributed to voters as a reward for playing an active role in network governance. NEO holders do not need to stake their tokens to claim GAS since most Neo wallets have a claim function for GAS. 

Recent updates 

The live NEO price on April 13th is $12.37 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $33,550,910 USD. It has a circulating supply of 70,538,831 NEO tokens.

Summary 

NEO is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that allows developers to create blockchain services and products. It offers fast transaction processing times and tools similar to Ethereum for building decentralized applications. NEO’s smart economy is based on digital assets, digital identity, and smart contracts, enabling trust in transactions and agreements without the need for a central authority. The platform uses delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerant (dBFT) consensus mechanism and supports several programming languages. Neo was a pioneer in the early blockchain industry not only was it the first public smart contract platform to be founded in China, it was also the first chain to use a dual token model and the first to implement a BFT style consensus mechanism.

By Rayna Ishihara | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

What is Optimism

Optimism is a layer 2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain. It aims to improve the scalability and usability of Ethereum by reducing transaction costs and increasing the speed of transactions while at the same time, taking the benefits from Ethereum’s strong security guarantees.

Optimism has a design philosophy based on four key principles: simplicity, pragmatism, sustainability, and optimism. These principles heavily influence the overall design of Optimism. Simplicity is a focus on minimal code and engineering overhead, which maximizes security and allows for collaboration with Ethereum. Pragmatism prioritizes user needs over theoretical perfection and is developed iteratively with user feedback. Sustainability aims to ensure long-term competitive operations and is influenced by simplicity. Optimism’s sense of optimism is rooted in its belief in Ethereum’s vision, and it exists as an extension of Ethereum, designed to help it succeed.

Optimism is a platform that aims to look, feel and behave like  Ethereum but with faster transaction times and lower costs. Developers can easily transition their Solidity smart contracts from L1 to L2, and off-chain code can interact with L2 contracts with minimal changes. Optimism enables users to participate in DeFi applications, as well as buy, sell, and create NFTs similar to Ethereum, but at a fraction of the cost.

Optimism Tech

 Optimism is built as an Optimistic Rollup, which is basically a blockchain scaling technique that leverages the security and integrity of a “parent” blockchain. Optimistic Rollups employ a consensus mechanism inherited from their parent blockchain, such as Proof-of-Work (PoW) or Proof-of-Stake (PoS), instead of creating their own. In the case of Optimism, Ethereum serves as the parent blockchain.

Optimistic rollups are layer 2 scaling protocols that increase Ethereum’s throughput while maintaining security. They reduce the computation load on the main Ethereum blockchain by facilitating off-chain transaction processing, leading to significant improvements in efficiency. They achieve this by bundling multiple off-chain transactions into large batches before submitting them to Ethereum, spreading fixed costs and reducing end-user fees. Optimistic rollups are optimistic by default, assuming the validity of off-chain transactions without publishing proofs. On the contrary, optimistic rollups  follow a fraud-proving mechanism  to identify discrepancies, but users must challenge rollup batches within a specific time window. Successful fraud-proofs result in transaction re-execution and a penalty for failing to provide a correct transaction.

Optimism Token(OP)

The Optimism  token (OP) is the native trading token for Optimism. It functions to provide funding for third-party development proposals and integrations on the platform via the Optimism Collective DAO. OP holders can also participate in voting on the future of the network. Although the concept has existed since 2019, the first Optimism airdrop did not occur until May 31, 2022.

The first Optimism airdrop was distributed to those who met specific criteria, including swapping tokens on Optimism’s blockchain and voting on governance proposals, before March 25, 2022. Although most of the wallets claimed their airdrop, the process had some issues. It caused the blockchain to slow down, and some users claimed OP before it was officially announced. The token’s value dropped from $4.57 to $0.79 before recovering to $1.37 by June 3.

Recent updates

The live Optimism price on April 5th is $2.25 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $83,391,257 USD. It has a circulating supply of 314,844,141 OP tokens.

Summary

Optimism is a layer 2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain that aims to improve the scalability and usability of Ethereum by reducing transaction costs and increasing the speed of transactions. It is built as an Optimistic Rollup, a blockchain scaling technique that leverages the security and integrity of a “parent” blockchain, in this case, Ethereum. Optimism follows a design philosophy based on four key principles: simplicity, pragmatism, sustainability, and optimism, and enables users to participate in DeFi applications, as well as buy, sell, and create NFTs similar to Ethereum, but at a fraction of the cost.

References

https://community.optimism.io/docs/guides/

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/optimism-ethereum/

https://capital.com/optimism-op-price-prediction

https://www.coindesk.com/price/optimism/

By Tyshe Jiang | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

What is Injective 

Injective Protocol is a decentralized exchange (DEX) platform that utilizes the technology of Injective cryptography to provide a secure and decentralized trading platform. The protocol is built on top of the Cosmos SDK, which allows for the creation of sovereign blockchains that can communicate with each other via a decentralized inter-chain messaging system. Injective Labs debuted its first project as the first fully decentralized exchange protocol in DeFi in April 2020. 

Nowadays, decentralized exchanges allow people to trade in a completely permissionless and decentralized way, but also they are slow and expensive to use. Then, Injective Labs would like to find a solution and build a decentralized exchange that is not only fast and cheap but also interoperable to trade spot markets and even people’s own derivatives. Therefore, the goal of Injective Protocol is to provide a decentralized trading platform that is fast, secure, and transparent. The platform uses a novel approach to trading by creating synthetic assets that are backed by real-world assets. This allows for the trading of assets that might not be available on other platforms, such as futures contracts and derivatives.

Injective Protocol Exchange Structure

The objective of Injective Protocol is to reduce obstacles to entry to decentralized finance (DeFi) markets, eliminate gas costs while keeping fast transaction speeds, and give everyone a distinctively decentralized and infinite trading experience. Injective Protocol offers many critical aspects to accomplish this robust functionality: 

One of the key features of Injective Protocol is its use of decentralized order books. This means that users can create and execute trades without relying on a central authority. Instead, the platform uses a decentralized network of validators to process transactions and maintain the integrity of the order book.

The Injective Chain, built on the Cosmos Tendermint standard, is a completely decentralized sidechain relayer service that serves as a Layer-2 derivatives platform, trade execution coordinator (TEC), and decentralized order book. Injective provides unrestricted access to a cross-chain decentralized derivatives marketplace. Meanwhile, the Injective Chain also employs a two-way peg for Ethereum (ETH). It has a decentralized application execution framework that is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible (dApps). The Cosmos Gravity Bridge, which allows for the movement of value between the Cosmos Hub and Ethereum, serves as the foundation for Injective’s peg-zone design, while the EVM execution framework is built on Tendermint’s Ethermint EVM implementation. This allows for strong cross-chain interoperability and liquidity.

Injective Protocol Smart Contracts

There are five types of Ethereum-based smart contracts:

Injective Coordinator Contracts make the platform easier to use both Injective’s derivative transactions on Ethereum and the Injective Chain. Staking contracts are intended to handle the essential functionality for Injective Protocol stakeholders via rewards, slashing, delegation, and governance methods. Injective Futures contracts are smart contracts that enable traders to develop, execute, and employ decentralized everlasting swaps on any market of their choosing. Smart contracts that handle the two-way peg between Ethereum and the Injective Chain are known as injective bridge contracts. Injective token contracts are ERC-20 contracts that are developed for the many applications of the INJ token.

INJ Token

The INJ token is the native utility token of the Injective Protocol platform. It serves several key functions within the ecosystem, including First, INJ token holders have the ability to vote on platform proposals and governance decisions. This includes proposals related to network upgrades, fee changes, and other important decisions. Second, validators are required to stake INJ tokens in order to participate in the network. This incentivizes them to act honestly and to work towards the best interests of the platform. Then, INJ tokens are used to pay transaction fees on the platform. These fees are used to incentivize validators to process transactions and maintain the integrity of the network. Last but not least, INJ tokens can also be used for liquidity mining on the platform. This involves providing liquidity to certain trading pairs on the platform in exchange for rewards in INJ tokens.

Recent Updates 

The INJ price on April 5th is $5.54 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $58,387,077 USD. It has a circulating supply of 80,005,555 INJ coins and a max. supply of 100,000,000 INJ coins.   

On April 2nd, Injective releases Liquid Staking with stride. stINJ (the official liquid-staked form of INJ) was made possible by Stride, a specialized app chain for liquid staking. Users may access considerably more liquidity and yield-creation possibilities across the Injective ecosystem with stINJ. Injective stakeholders will get an exclusive Stride (STRD) airdrop, allowing the community to participate in controlling the Stride DAO, which assisted in the creation of stINJ. From this, Liquid Staking improves capital efficiency and maximizes yield for users, in addition to allowing users to earn passive income through staking. 

Summary

It is remarkable that centralized exchanges have been the heart of crypto markets in an industry established on decentralization, freedom, and anonymity. Several exchanges’ coin custody methods are unclear, certain platforms are vulnerable to identity theft, and there are frequent server outages, allegations of insider trading, and exorbitant fees that harm small traders. To circumvent these constraints, Injective Labs has been working on an exchange that prioritizes decentralization. This implies that customers no longer have to furnish KYC data, transfer custody of their funds to another platform, or pay extra fees. Right now, the regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies is still evolving, which could potentially lead to regulatory risks for the INJ token and the platform as a whole.

References:

https://injective.com/

https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/injective-protocol-layer-2-decentralized-exchange-dex

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/injective/

By Tyshe Jiang | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

 What is Arbitrum

Arbitrum is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that aims to improve the network’s transaction speed and reduce fees. It is built using optimistic rollups called Arbitrum Rollup, which are a type of Layer-2 scaling solution that bundles multiple transactions into a single batch, resulting in faster transaction processing and lower gas fees. Arbitrum was created in 2021 by Offchain Labs, a blockchain company that is focused on building scalable and secure blockchain solutions. 

Ethereum is decentralized and stable, and it allows smart contracts written in a programming language that many crypto developers use. Meanwhile, it is home to a thriving decentralized finance industry. It is, however, quite restricted. The Ethereum blockchain only supports roughly 20-40 transactions per second (TPS); if this limit is reached, users are forced to fight with one another for their transactions to be included, which raises costs. 

Arbitrum’s Optimistic Rollups

Arbitrum Rollup chains operate as a sub-module within Ethereum. Unlike conventional, Layer 1 Ethereum transactions, the platform do not need Ethereum nodes to execute every Arbitrum transaction; instead, Ethereum treats Arbitrum as “innocent until proven guilty.” Layer 1 “optimistically presume” that activity on Arbitrum is obeying the regulations. If a violation happens, the claim may be contested on L1; fraud will be shown, the invalid claim will be ignored, and the malicious party will be monetarily fined. Through this Arbitrum races ahead at 40,000 TPS. Transactions cost several dollars to complete on Ethereum, while they cost about two cents on Arbitrum.

The most significant distinction between Arbitrum and Optimism is how the system settles disputes on Layer 2. Both projects are optimistic rollups that employ a challenge system that allows any validator to contest a block on the chain. This is where the two projects’ technologies diverge. Optimism re-executes the disputed transaction on Layer 1 and determines whether the party is correct. 

However, the Arbitrum team recognized that this method might greatly contribute to network congestion. Optimism must provide a huge quantity of data to Layer 1 in order to compute and settle the disputed transaction. Instead, Arbitrum subdivides the challenge indefinitely until the disputed information is so little that it can be promptly conveyed to and resolved on Layer 1. Because they both employ optimistic rollups, they both demand some faith in the validators. Arbitrum’s bridge between Layers 1 and 2 will presume the transaction is legal if all validators for a dApp collaborate in a malicious attack and no one disputes it. 

Arbitrum Nova

Arbitrum consists of two separate networks —— Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova. They are based on different technologies.

In August 2022, Arbitrum launched Nova, which is a new chain-based on AnyTrust technology and aimed to grow the Ethereum blockchain. Different from Arbitrum One chain, it was constructed with Offchain Labs’ Rollup technology. Arbitrum Nova lowers the costs more than Arbitrum One, making it one of the most cost-effective blockchains in operation. Its major role is to facilitate high-throughput DApps, particularly those focused on gaming. 

Unlike Arbitrum One, transaction data is forwarded to the data availability Committee (DAC), and only data availability certificates — not entire transaction data — are sent to the L1. Because the DAC is mandated to offer data availability to end users, Arbitrum Nova is arguably more centralized than Arbitrum One. The DAC currently has only a few members, including Infura, Offchain Labs, Google Cloud, and Reddit. Arbitrum Nova, in brief, adds various trust assumptions in order to reduce expenses.

ARB Token

Arbitrum decided to airdrop its new ARB token on March 23, 2023, allowing holders to vote on protocol decisions. Arbitrum is therefore completing its long-awaited move to a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). In total, 12.75% of the ARB token supply would be airdropped to different Arbitrum ecosystem early players and DAOs. The average airdrop quantity is 1,250 tokens. Other users may earn far more, with over 4,000 addresses set to receive 10,250 ARB tokens per address. 

The Arbitrum DAO will employ the ARB token for governance. Token holders will be able to vote on decentralized governance choices that will be enacted on-chain once passed. The voting procedure will take between 21 and 37 days before the proposal may be passed and implemented.

Recent Updates 

The Arbitrum price on March 30th is $1.36 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $1,664,265,878 USD. It has a circulating supply of 1,275,000,000 ARB coins. 

Summary

Arbitrum is a Layer-2 scaling solution that improves Ethereum’s scalability by bundling transactions together, which increases the network’s throughput and reduces transaction fees. Meanwhile, Arbitrum uses optimistic rollups, which are a secure and trustless way to scale Ethereum. This means that users can be confident that their transactions are secure and that the network is resistant to attacks. However, there are some aspects that needed to consider. First, if users are withdrawing directly from Arbitrum to Ethereum, they must typically wait 1 week before receiving their funds on L1. Users can use fast-bridge applications, but these platforms could not ensure security. Meanwhile, Arbitrum has many competitors such as Polygon and Optimism. Polygon is a Layer-2 scaling solution that uses sidechains to improve Ethereum’s scalability. It offers fast and cheap transactions and supports the deployment of decentralized applications. 

Disclaimer: Please note that the contents of this article are not financial or investing advice. The information provided in this article is the author’s opinion only and should not be considered as offering trading or investing recommendations. Please conduct your own due diligence before making any investment decisions.

References:

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/arbitrum/

https://decrypt.co/resources/what-is-arbitrum-speeding-up-ethereum-using-optimistic-rollups

https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-arbitrum

By Tyshe Jiang | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

What is SSV

SSV.network is a project that aims to provide a decentralized oracle network for off-chain data on the Ethereum blockchain. The project’s name “SSV” stands for “Secure Scuttlebutt Vessel,” which is a reference to a decentralized social network protocol called Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB). SSV was originated as a research piece by the Ethereum Foundation back in 2019 and developed in 2022. 

When Vitalik revealed that Ethereum will be switching from a PoW to a PoS architecture, the team wanted to offer new opportunities to experiment with staking in the crypto world. The ssv.network team pursued incorporating more people in the network, as anybody can become a validator and receive ETH incentives. The goal of the project is to go a step beyond Staking-as-a-Service by creating something more safe, inclusive, and favorable to long-term decentralization. Therefore, SSV is an open source protocol that anybody may use to gain access to decentralized staking on the Ethereum blockchain. The protocol works by establishing a decentralized staking infrastructure that allows an Ethereum validator to be distributed.

SSV Tech 

The SSV Network is a purpose-built staking infrastructure that enables the distributed functioning of Ethereum validators. To do this, the network divides each validator key  called KeyShares across four non-trusting nodes. Non-trusting nodes, as the name implies, do not need to trust other nodes to function. Since there is no single point of failure, a malfunctioning node cannot degrade network performance. Each node performs validation chores collectively using a consensus technique and is managed by a consensus layer.

Through this process, operators can configure their node to run their KeyShares in whatever way they see appropriate using ssv.network. They can use various validator clients on entirely different infrastructures and be located anywhere in the world. This enables SSV stakeholders to spread their validators and risk. SSV will continue validating even if one of the nodes executing a validator is defective, has poor performance, or commits a slashable violation. This is fantastic for validator liveness and security.

The SSV network is powered by three key participants: operators, stakeholders, and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) members. Operators are in charge of supervising validators and carrying out various tasks on Ethereum’s PoS execution layer, known as the Beacon Chain. Annual operator costs are fixed in SSV tokens by the operators. Stakers get incentives by depositing their ETH with operators, who subsequently aid with the security of the Ethereum network. Stakers must select at least four preferred operators, allocate validator KeyShares to them, and pay a yearly fee to them. Apart from operator costs, stakeholders are subject to network fees set by the DAO. Meanwhile, DAO members assist in network governance and the decentralization of protocol and treasury ownership. Everyone with an SSV token can participate in the DAO and vote on critical SSV Network decisions.

SSV Token

The SSV token (SSV) is a native token for the SSV Network protocol to function. The SSV token is linked to the network’s protocol and is vital to the system’s adoption and success. The token may be used to pay network and operator costs as well as for governance. In terms of governance, the community uses SSV to vote on and influence the protocol, the treasury, and the ecosystem as a whole. Meanwhile, operators can set their own rates and receive an annual payment from SSV stakeholders. The DAO treasury receives a portion of the fees collected by the operators. When more ETH is invested in the SSV Network, the operators and DAO treasury will get more fees, resulting in good growth for the protocol.

Recent Updates 

The live ssv.network price on March 16th is $39.82 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $49,060,609 USD. It has a circulating supply of 10,000,000 SSV coins. 

Summary

SSV.network is designed to be decentralized with no single entity or group has control over the network. This makes it resistant to the risks of centralization of ETH staking, which not only benefit individual stakers and staking providers, also strengthens the Ethereum protocol itself. Meanwhile, The network uses cryptographic techniques such as threshold signatures to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the data being transmitted, making it highly secure. However, the use of oracles and validators to verify data can result in a delay between the time the data is generated and the time it is available on the Ethereum blockchain. Not only that, SSV.network relies on the Secure Scuttlebutt protocol to transmit data, which could be a potential point of failure if the protocol were to experience issues or be compromised in some way.

References:

https://ssv.network/

https://learn.bybit.com/altcoins/what-is-ssv-network-crypto/

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ssv-network/

https://medium.com/poloniex/what-is-ssv-network-ssv-11a54b52e5e5

By Tyshe Jiang | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

What is Neo

Neo is a software network that aims to serve as a platform for users to transact and develop decentralized products and services. The public also called Neo as “Ethereum of China”, since they share some similarities, such as the capacity and tools for creating decentralized applications for various purposes. Neo was founded in 2014 by Da HongFei and Erik Zhang who organized an initial coin offering for Antshares (ANS)  to establish the “smart economy”. Then in 2017, they changed the name to Neo.  

Meanwhile, Neo provides users with extra functionalities that allow Dapps to be driven by external data. Neo is home to a decentralized file storage system, an Oracle system, and a digital identity system that allows users to construct their own tokenized identities based on real-life identities. The main idea of Neo is to digitized the assets. 

Another problem Neo solved is trust. Nowadays, we have three ways to gain trust from the society: community trust, technology trust, and law trust. Since with the development of technology, technical trust easy and cheap to have where community trust cannot be hard to achieve or the cost of rule of law trust is very expensive. Both Neo and Ethereum try to solve the trust problem through building a smart contracts ecosystem. Meanwhile, with the digitized assets, the whole trade could be executed to the exact specification of the contract without the involvement of other party.

delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance

Neo uses the delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerant (dBFT) which is very similar to Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) as its consensus method for the machines that execute its software. The dBFT protocol allows for the processing of more transactions, up to 10,000 per second. Users can stake or lock their NEO Token to represent a vote. The more to stake, the more vote power the user has. All owners who stake NEO then vote for the consensus nodes, who are responsible for creating blocks. For proposing and adding new blocks to the Neo blockchain, consensus nodes receive the network’s transaction fees.  

In other words, the system leverages a real-time voting system to determine which computers running the software can create the next block on the Neo blockchain. Therefore, anyone who owns NEO can help operate the network. Although Neo does not have a completely unique use case because there are several platforms that support smart contract operations and Dapp construction, the first being Ethereum, Neo does bring new capabilities to improve Dapp production.

NeoContracts

Another problem Neo solved is the ways to write and execute smart contracts. First, by Ethereum Virtual Machine, the developers can learn and use Soildity language to write smart contracts. But learning a new language would be time consuming. Second, developers can also use Docker on Fabric to run the smart contracts, which also be called chain code. The problem here is that users can run any programs on Docker. So when running Dock on different nodes, it might give different results. So it would be harder to reach to a consensus, which is the thing developer do not want to see. 

Then, Neo developed a new protocol called NeoContracts. It different from other smart contract-based protocols in that developers may construct apps using current popular languages (such as C# and Java) rather than learning a new one. 

NEO Token

There are two native cryptocurrencies in the Neo network, NEO and GAS. NEO holders participate in governance by voting for members of the Neo Committee, which governs the Neo blockchain. The Neo Committee performs particular functions, such as keeping the network alive and altering crucial blockchain settings. The Neo Foundation kept around 50% of the 100 million NEO created at genesis to stimulate the growth of the Neo ecosystem. The Neo White Paper contains the release timetable.

The Neo network charges GAS for token and smart contract execution and storage, reducing node resource abuse. System costs are destroyed, but network fees are dispersed to consensus nodes, offering a financial incentive for their services.

Recent Updates 

The Neo price on March 7th is $11.46 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $78,493,635 USD. It has a circulating supply of 70,538,831 NEO coins and a max.   supply of 100,000,000 NEO coins. 

Summary

The development method and direction of NEO are quite different from the DeFi ecosystem we are familiar with. NEO has its own complete “smart ecosystem”, including oracle machines, domain name services, consensus mechanisms, and unique digital identity mechanisms. Although it is similar to Ethereum, it is slightly different, and it is more in line with the regulatory approach expected by the government. First of all, Onchian, the company soldered by the founder of Neo, provides distributed ledger business application services for businesses, and even cooperates with local governments. Last but not least, NEO would rise as a result of forthcoming Hong Kong crypto legislation. Additionally, being one of the largest China-based currencies and platforms on the market, NEO appears to be the primary benefactor of this news. 

References:

https://neo.org/

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/neo/

https://www.kraken.com/learn/what-is-neo

https://kriptomat.io/cryptocurrencies/neo/what-is-neo/

By Tyshe Jiang | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

What is FLARE

Flare is a layer one  Ethereum Virtual Machine and runs the proof of stale consensus that brings smart contract and interoperability capabilities to blockchains. The network has two open native interoperability protocols: the State Connector and the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO). Flare was founded mainly by three people: Hugo Philion, Sean Rowan, and Dr. Nairi Usher in 2022.

At first, the team planned to create a chain that would allow the tokens from layer 1 networks to be used with the smart contracts. Then the team shifted their focus to research more and engineer the platform. They aim to connect all layer one blockchains as what we saw right now using three methods: cross-chain interoperability, secure data acquisition, and information delay.

By using Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), users can do the execution and deployment of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. It also provides a platform for developers to create decentralized apps (DApps). The EVM performs a similar function on the Flare Network by executing smart contracts and hosting DApps. As a result, Ethereum developers can easily switch to the Flare network.

Interoperability Protocols

The Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO) is a decentralized oracle for time series data, such as asset prices, data indices, and more. An Oracle brings real-world information or information from other blockchains. Unlike Chainlink, Flare provides decentralized oracles to the blockchain world. FTSO supports the platform to run smart contracts on the network that provides continuous estimations for data securely. The system is intended to encourage the reporting of correct pricing. At launch, the system will provide pricing in USD for XRP, ETH, BTC, and other cryptocurrencies. 

The State Connector enables the state of an external blockchain to be captured in a decentralized manner on-chain. Through this, Flare can track the state of the connections in another blockchain for safer bridges. This is achieved by using two core protocols: the request-commit-reveal (RCR) and the branching protocol. The RCR protocol’s objective is to collect user queries and proofs about blockchains, whereas the branching protocol’s purpose is for the network to accept or reject these.

FLR Token

The Flare token (FLR) is the native token of the Flare crypto ecosystem, which has been called Spark. The FLR token, like many other native tokens, is used to engage with smart contracts and pay transaction fees. Users may also wrap FLR into WFLR, allowing the asset to be utilized for oracle delegation and as collateral in a variety of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. It may hold in a margin or arbitrage trading account to cover any possible losses made by a trader when trading with leverage. Also, the holders can participate within protocol governance. Last but not least, FLR also incentivized delegation to the FTSO to support the provision of reliable decentralized price data. 

Recent Updates 

The Flare price on Feb 28th is $0.038730 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $10,908,026 USD. It has a circulating supply of 11,999,991,148 FLR coins. In December 2022, there was a snapshot saying that the XRP holders are eligible to exchange one XRP for one XRP. Right now, the airdrop begins but gradually to avoid dumping.  

Summary

Flare is a pretty new platform, So its future is hard to predict. However, according to the current data and research, its ability to make blockchains interoperable, and Flare Crypto uses a new consensus mechanism called Proof of Stake Time (PoST) which allows it to process many more transactions than other cryptocurrencies and attracts new investors. Flare Crypto also has built-in decentralized user exchanges which all trade directly with each other without having to go through a centralized exchange. But one of its competitors is Chainlink, which has already toke a lot of market share and exposure. And the airdrop still needs to last for 36 months, and the variables of inflation and token are not easy to control. 

References:

https://flare.network/ftso/

https://flare.network/wp-content/uploads/Flare-White-Paper-v2.pdf

https://beincrypto.com/learn/flare-network/#h-how-does-the-flare-network-work

By Tyshe Jiang | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

What is HIVE

Hive is a decentralized network platform for sharing and storing digital information, as well as a blockchain-based financial ledger based on the Delegated Proof-of-Stake algorithm (DPoS). In other words, Hive is a social network of applications and services that allows you to connect, share, and discover using blockchain technology.  It was founded with a large group of decentralization supporters, concerned that public blockchains were sliding into the hands of corporations, resolved to take action to safeguard their cause on March 20, 2020.

In this era where information and data are kings, people’s information and even some private information that people fill in on social networking sites are supervised by companies or governments. Hive solves this problem through blockchain technology. Let social platforms essentially create a platform where there is no censorship and free speech. So hive is actually the same service that Facebook and Twitter provide to users. Also, anyone can create an account for free and start interacting with the ecosystem without investing in any HIVE coins. 

Delegated Proof-of-Stake

Hive uses the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) as its consensus mechanism, which is mainly reliant on users putting their money into HIVE coins. Users in the DPoS protocol elect delegates (also known as Witnesses) to validate transactions and create new blocks on the blockchain on behalf of the investors. Generally, there will be 20 elected Witnesses participating in the production of new blocks. This can reduce the number of network nodes and keep the block time around 3 seconds. At the same time, any user can stop supporting and delegate Hive to Witness at any time. This incentivizes witnesses to operate honestly, reducing the chance of centralized control of power  over the network.

Proof of Brain Protocol

The interaction between people on social platforms is very important, so Hive has Proof of Brain protocol. When the users publish their content, they have 7 days to receive upvotes or downvotes to get the final grade. 

After that, the protocol will choose a set of content that is published by the users with the highest final ratings over a certain time period. The newly minted Hive is subsequently distributed to the top content creators and curators (users who upvoted the content and their comments). Since curators are also compensated, users are more likely to vote on high-quality material, which has a larger chance of receiving a high score. Users can also downvote material to reduce its possible final score. Through this, the users would also spend more time on Hive platform, which let Hive have more exposure. 

Steem is also another network that uses proof of brain protocol. Hive is a Steem hard fork formed as a result of community dissatisfaction over the impact of Steem, Inc., the corporation that operates the Steem network, on the network itself. 

Hive Token

Hive has three cryptocurrencies:

1. HIVE: HIVE is the Hive network’s native cryptocurrency, and it is available in liquid form. This implies that users may simply share HIVE with one another. They can tip or donate to their favorite content providers. Users that actively participate in HIVE are also rewarded. 
2. Hive Power(HP): it is the non-liquid (staked) form. Users can stake HIVE to their account through the “powering up” process to get Hive Power. Although HP cannot be used to trade, it can be delegated to Witnesses.
3. Hive Backed Dollar(HBD): HBD is a stablecoin that can be exchanged for HIVE on a decentralized exchange. 1 HBD should always be equal to $1 USD of HIVE and can be exchanged quickly via the network’s internal market, but there is no fiat reserve to support the HBD. The main advantage of HBD is that Hive-based eCommerce businesses may price things in HBD rather than the more volatile HIVE currency.

Recent Updates 

The Hive price on Feb 21st is $0.467854 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $30,310,160 USD. It has a circulating supply of 460,387,174 HIVE coins.  

Summary

In Hive’s white paper, its goal is to become a blockchain solution for enterprises, and for anyone to develop their own applications. Moreover, Hive is an open and secure public database of digital data that is not owned by any organization, but users themselves. So, the users for Hive are growing. And, since Hive transactions are free and fast, individuals or businesses can develop and use their dapps. As such, Hive has the potential to become one of the most widely used Web3 blockchains in the world.

References:

https://hive.io/about

https://hub.easycrypto.com/hive-blockchain

https://coinrivet.com/guides/altcoins/what-is-hive-blockchain/

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/hive-blockchain/

By Tyshe Jiang | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

 What is Threshold

The Threshold network is the first network that builds the bridge between the two decentralized protocols: NyCypher(NU) and Keep Network(Keep). By doing so, it can provide a more secure and private network. Meanwhile, Threshold combines the structural elements from both of the networks to allow users to guarantee user sovereignty over their digital assets on the public blockchain. The assets could be crypto or even user data and company information contained in the smart contracts and DApps or even NFTs. It is launched in January 2022 and approved by both Keep and NuCypher communities. 

To be more specific, Threshold takes off-chain containers to encrypt, store, and transmit private data. These off-chain containers termed “keeps,” are available to develop smart contracts while maintaining user privacy and network openness. Through using NyCypher, Threshold can manage information. It can process and encrypt data without revealing it or limiting the permissions of visitors to protect the network. 

Apart from that, Threshold also brings more liquidity to the Ethereum ecosystem through the tBTC bridge, which connects Bitcoin to Ethereum. So there is no intermediary in this process, meaning the whole system would be more secure and have high privacy. 

Threshold Network Token

T is the native token of the Threshold Network. It serves as both a utility token for the network and as a governance token for Threshold DAO. T token holders can earn in the network in four ways: Staking, providing liquidity, BTC/tBTC, and Threshold Dao.

Staking is obvious, it is to encourage the holder to stake T tokens in order to get rewards. Token holders can become validating nodes by staking. The payment for validating nodes is determined by the quantity of tokens invested. Running a node helps to protect the network and provide cryptographic services to it. The total value of staked tokens on Threshold Network is currently $92 million.

Meanwhile, Token holders could also receive a return by placing their assets into liquidity pools. Bitcoin holders may securely bridge their assets to Ethereum in order to engage in earning in DeFi projects and the future web3 domain through tBTC. Moreover, Threshold DAO token holders can vote on Threshold DAO governance. They may also vote on future network projects.

Threshold Dao

Threshold DAOs are also very essential for decentralization.  As mentioned above, it can provide a community and a platform to vote for community-driven projects, but it also helps run the entire network. This is achieved through Threshold DAO’s three-tiered governance system. The three-tiered system is used in a way that allows each person to be accountable to the other two, like a central government system.

The StakerDAO is made up of holders who stake their T tokens on the network. They are responsible for delegating votes, executing proposals, and submitting proposals on-chain. Every member must have a stake in the network, and their voting power relys on the size of their stake.

The TokenHolder DAO consists of T holders who deposit into the tBTC. tBTC is a scalable bridge between Bitcoin and Ethereum that allows consumers to excahnge BTC for tBTC, an ERC-20 token that can be used throughout the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem. Each tBTC token is completely supported and matched by at least one BTC in reserve. Token holders also have voting rights and so on like the Staker DAO. Token Holder DAO also manages the Treasury and makes T mining decisions, and has the right to veto Staker DAO proposals.

The Elected Council DAO has nine seats in total. Four of these seats are reserved for Keep Network members, four for NuCypher members, and one for an elected independent member. This elected council of members decides on staker awards to encourage token holders to become network stakeholders. It can also veto detrimental suggestions to protect accountability and ensure the network’s decentralization.

Recent Updates 

The Threshold price on Feb 9th is $0.040713 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $41,728,801 USD. It has a circulating supply of 8,494,630,242 T coins and a maximum supply of 10,000,000,000 T coins. On Jan 23rd, Coinbase Assets announced its roadmap to add Threshold, which leads to a 94% surge in the T coin value from $0.0245 to a high of $0.046. After passing through Coinbase’s review process, Threshold would be listed on the exchange. On Jan 31st, Threshold’s tBTC launches minting for only Decentralized, Permissionless, Scalable BTC Bridge to DeFi. 

Summary

In today’s society, as the demand for privacy and data security continues to increase, Threshold’s advantages will become greater, and it will attract more investors’ attention.

References:

https://learn.bybit.com/altcoins/what-is-threshold-network-token/

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/threshold/

https://phemex.com/academy/what-is-threshold-t-network

https://blog.threshold.network/thresholds-tbtc-launches-minting-for-only-decentralized-permissionless-scalable-btc-bridge-to-defi/

https://www.axios.com/2023/01/31/threshold-network-bitcoin-ethereum-bridge

By Tyshe Jiang | Crescent City Capital Market Analyst Intern

What is CFX

Conflux is a new safe and reliable public blockchain with high speed and scalability that promotes cross-border and multi-chain collaboration in the continent and beyond. It is launched in 2018 by the Conflux foundation and based in China. And it is the only state-endorsed public blockchain in the country. As a result, it serves as a home for blockchain projects in the Asian countries and strengthens its crypto ecosystem.

Tree Graph 

The most unique thing about CFX is that it uses a hybrid model incorporating with PoW (Tree-Graph) and PoS consensus mechanisms to secure the network. In Conflux ledge, each blocks would reference some other blocks with one of them being its parent block, which looks like a tree. With its cooperation with a PoS consensus, it increases Conflux’s security and efficiency.

Meanwhile, Conflux also uses Greedy-Heaviest-Adaptive-SubTree(GHAST) consensus algorithm, which has been updated from GHOST a few years ago. GHAST can be used to determine the pivot chain through heaviest subtree rule. From the Genesis block, select the subtree with the largest number of blocks as the next block on the main chain. For example, Block A and Block B are the two subtrees of the Genesis block. A block has six blocks and B has five, so block A is chosen as the next block on the main chain. Meanwhile, GHAST also allows the Conflux nodes to detect some attacks through adducting the weights of the blocks so that slow down the time of confirming transactions, especially when people try to generate two balanced subtrees that may hurt the liveness. By applying this, Conflux can eliminate “51% attacks”. 

The Tree-Graph ledger and the GHAST consensus allows Conflux nodes to produce new blocks fast without fear of forks in the ledger network security, allowing the system to achieve both high throughput and low transaction confirmation time.  

Scalability

Shuttleflow is a Conflux cross-chain solution for integrating bitcoin and ethereum user assets. Meanwhile, developers can also enjoy unmatched scalability on the interoperable network. The distinctive feature of this scalability is that it is achieved without losing decentralization. The network’s 6000 Transaction Per Second (TPS) rate is among the fastest in the crypto world. When compared to popular networks such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, it is quicker. 

CFX Token

CFX token functions as a utility and governance token in Conflux Chain, which allows token holders to pay transaction fees, receive rewards through staking, rent storage, and participate in network governance. CFX also rewards and incentivizes miners who are in charge of guaranteeing the Network’s security. Like other chains, the more CFX users hold, the more weight their vote has. The token may also be used by developers to generate bonded storage for their DApps. To do this, they will enter into a smart contract and earn interest on it. A percentage of the interest collected by staking is sent to miners to help secure the network. The token may be purchased on a variety of cryptocurrency exchanges. 

Recent Updates 

The CFX price on Feb 1st is $0.05821 with a 24-hour trading volume of $18,856,535 USD. It has a circulating supply of 2,090,735,404 CFX coins.  On Jan 26th, CFX surged by 38% to trade above $0.076. The reason behind this surge is because Conflux token will integrate with an application called Red Little Book, which is a Chinese version of Instagram, to let users display their NFTs on the platform. According to Conflux Network and Qiangua’s 2022 Red Little Book Active User Portrait Trend Report, Little Red Book has over 200 million monthly active users. According to Ming Wu, Conflux’s CTO, Conflux is becoming a “important bridge” for uniting “prominent internet  industry heavyweights” in China that have begun efforts to embrace web3.

Summary

Based on Conflux’s tree-graph structure blockchain system, the founding team is also a strong group of people in the blockchain field, and now through the launch of more new platforms, Conflux has more exposure and future growth. 

Disclaimer: Please note that the contents of this article are not financial or investing advice. The information provided in this article is the author’s opinion only and should not be considered as offering trading or investing recommendations. Please conduct your own due diligence before making any investment decisions.

References:

https://developer.confluxnetwork.org/

https://coinmarketcap.com/headlines/news/conflux-token-soars-following-nft-partnership-with-chinese-version-of-instagram/

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/conflux-network/