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Decentralized Applications

IOHK, which Supports Cardano (ADA) Development, has Announced 11 Winning Proposals to Receive Funding, as part of Project Catalyst

IOHK (or Input Output Hong Kong), an organization focused on supporting open-source projects such as Cardano (ADA), a major platform for building decentralized applications (dApps), has announced the first winning proposals for Project Catalyst.

The community has spoken and 11 initiatives are now expected to acquire funding in order to further enhance the Cardano ecosystem.

As explained by IOHK, Project Catalyst is “an ongoing experiment” in exploring or looking into different ways that “decentralized” innovation and collaboration can be carried out “at its highest level.” As the initial stage in the Voltaire roadmap, it aims to challenge ecosystem participants to “pool their ingenuity, creativity and passion to identify ground-breaking projects that support Cardano’s growth,” the IOHK team noted.

Fund2 was reportedly the first time that Project Catalyst participants had the opportunity to pitch, debate, refine, and vote on various proposals using “real” ADA, which is the native cryptocurrency for Cardano’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) network. As confirmed by IOHK, this was “aimed at enhancing and bringing new value to Cardano.”

As mentioned in blog post published by IOHK:

“We challenged Fund2 participants to come up with ways to encourage Cardano ecosystem development in the next six months. With an available initial ADA fund worth $250,000, we are able to fund 11 proposals.”

The IOHK team confirmed the following funded proposals as part of Fund2:

PoolTool platform upgrade: This project aims to open up “avenues to build businesses and applications on Cardano that differentiate between stake pool operators by offering additional products.” This update is aimed at promoting infrastructure “diversity” across the Cardano ecosystem.

Ouroboros over RINA: Deploying a proof of concept (PoC) stake pool and relay solution of Ouroboros over RINA by using “Ethernet/WDM at two sites in Tokyo, Japan.”

Haskell/Plutus/Marlowe education: Developing educational material or content that aims to convey complex ideas and information in a structured manner, “supplemented with examples that inspire ideas.” This proposal aims to “make it easier for new developers and entrepreneurs.”

Create a message-signing standard: “Generating a message-signing standard to prove reserves, identity, and stake pool delegation. “

Liqwid: Cardano lending markets for decentralized finance or DeFi: Developing an open-source, non-custodial liquidity protocol to “earn interest on deposits and borrow assets on Cardano.”

Cardano for mobile (decentralized application) dApp developers: “Turning mobile platforms into the first-class citizens of the DApp world with mobile SDKs, mobile-first DApp experience and app store compatibility.”

GimbaLabs – starter kits and tools: GimbaLabs is a startup platform “providing free and open source APIs, lessons, and project-based learning resources to help people bring their ideas to life on Cardano and so drive adoption of the blockchain.”

Lovelace Academy for Marlowe and Plutus: Establishing an online academy “to attract, inspire and educate individuals and companies to create applications on Cardano’s smart contract and native assets platform.”

Sign Tx Arduino: Starting a library for code written in the C programming language that is “compatible with the Arduino development environment.” Sign local Cardano transactions in advance of smart contracts “being available to enable applications for the internet of things (IoT).”

Pet Registry DApp with ₳Pay: Helping developers “accept ADA payments on websites.” The Pet Registry DApp, built on ₳Pay, will “service a global audience in a cheaper, better way.” Devs are “inspired by successful apps and the tools needed to build them, By creating both, we can inspire and accelerate devs and their solutions.”

Japan Cardano Governance Association: Meetings & Communities & Podcasts: “supporting online/offline meetups, governance podcasts etc. for our Japanese community.”

As confirmed by IOHK, each funded team will get their ADA tokens by the end of this month, so that they’re able to start on their projects and hopefully bring them to life in the foreseeable future. IOHK also mentioned that they’re now looking forward to seeing the impact of these initiatives on the evolving Cardano ecosystem.

While 11 ideas or projects have acquired funding for now, there are several other legitimate contenders that managed to meet the community voting threshold. However, these initiatives still missed out on funding this time around. As noted by IOHK, certain projects were able to secure “community funding.” There were also some initiatives that had been approved for funding by the community, however, the treasury didn’t have enough funding needed to support their proposals for the time being.

IOHK added:

“We’ll be encouraging these proposers to resubmit their ideas for the just-launched Fund3 where relevant (with its focus on the DApp ecosystem) and we hope to see the best of these funded by the community next time. We have bold and ambitious plans for Project Catalyst in 2021, with ADA worth millions of dollars being made available to fund innovation on Cardano. Submission for proposals for Fund3 [reportedly opened on January 13, 2021].”

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Kava DeFi Platform to Release Robo-Advisor Service to Automate Strategies for Financial Services and Other 2021 Updates

The Kava decentralized finance (DeFi) platform is “coming out the gates swinging” in 2021 with a “feature-packed” product roadmap – which includes two new native apps and crypto tokens, “decentralized bridges” to onboard major cross-chain digital assets, and several other features to “reinforce the safety and security measures already enjoyed by all users of Kava’s DeFi applications and services,” according to Scott Stuart, who works on Product at Kava Labs Inc.

As noted by Stuart, Kava’s 4-month “major release cycles are targeted for Kava 2021 Development.” The platform’s HARD Protocol Version 2 will include “borrowing with variable interest rates and a distribution of HARD [tokens] to both asset suppliers and borrowers.” As confirmed by the Kava team, HARD Governance will be enhanced to include “more protocol parameters quickly by the HARD community.”

The DeFi platform’s developers revealed:

“Kava has seen significant usage in 2020, as such a number of software optimizations are needed to be made in order for validators to validate blocks in a timely manner, there are also consensus tweaks to improve system performance based on production data.”

They further noted:

“Kava services including cross-chain claim and refund bots, app front-ends, price reference software, Full nodes, historical nodes, REST and API endpoints, and others are run on Kava Cloud infrastructure. Significant enhancements in standardization, security, monitoring and alerting tools have been added to Kava Cloud services that drive infrastructural and end-user services.”

An Autonomous Market Making (AMM) service and application will reportedly be launched and will operate as an on-chain liquidity pool for Kava users so that they can swap different assets on the platform for use in other financial services.

The Kava SAFU fund will be proposed in order to provide more protection to Kava users by insuring and underwriting “some portion of infrastructure and cross-chain activities on Kava.”

As noted in the announcement, the KAVA staking derivative is an asset “derived from KAVA that is staked for POS security.” KAVA staking derivatives “allow more KAVA (derivative) liquidity to be used in various financial services on Kava while not foregoing the security and rewards offered by KAVA POS staking.”

The platform’s developers claim that the safety of Kava users’ assets is “the number one objective which guides development of the Kava DeFi platform.” The Kava team further noted that risk management optimizations such as the enhanced Tendermint mempool queuing and “prioritization of critical services in the mempool will improve transaction safety.”

As confirmed in the update:

“A Robo Advisor service and application will be released to help automate strategies amongst the various financial services offered on Kava, and will increase user onboarding by opening up a larger pool of less hands-on Kava users to participate in yield generating strategies.”

A direct Ethereum bridge to Kava will also be introduced in order to onboard native Ethereum-based assets such as ETH and ERC-20 tokens including LINK and DAI. A fairly large number of users have reportedly requested that they should be able to transfer Ethereum assets directly to Kava and “this bridge should be their service of choice.”

As noted in the announcement, Kava is currently evaluating assets which will use Kava’s “audited Issuance module for USDT, USDC, WBTC, and HBTC amongst others, and will continue to do so through the first half of 2021.”

Kava has moved more than $100 million in asset value “automatically between Binance Chain and Kava.” There have reportedly been many requests to “apply a similar technology to Ethereum assets and Kava will deliver this in Kava 6, such that any project partners built on Ethereum will have access to Kava decentralized financial applications and services,” the update confirmed.

Kava remains focused on helping more users join the DeFi space. The Kava API will be launched as a standardized plugin for application developers and financial institutions to “unlock DeFi services for their users initially including borrowing, lending, and trading.” Prototypes have been integrated with partners such as Binance and Bitmax.io with “many more business integrations to come in 2021.”

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DeFi integration and layer-2 tech back Matic Network’s (MATIC) 92% rally

The exponential growth of the decentralized finance sector increased activity on the Ethereum blockchain, and this has resulted in slow transaction times and incredibly high fees. 

In the last month, Ether (ETH) price has also rallied more than 100%, and gas fees are on the rise again as demand for ETH and a resurgence in the DeFi sector accelerates.

Matic Network intends to solve the DeFi and decentralized applications scalability problem by using layer-two technology for off-chain computing.

Multiple sidechains can be used simultaneously, and each is secured by a group of validators via its proof-of-stake system. The results are then pushed to the Ethereum network, creating checkpoints.

The project aims to become blockchain agnostic, which would allow for interoperable assets in the future. Currently, the Matic Network is ERC-20-based and its MATIC token has a $156 million market capitalization.

Backed by Coinbase Ventures and Binance Launchpad, the project raised $5.6 billion during its initial exchange offering in April 2019. A number of notable projects have already integrated Matic Network’s infrastructure, including Decentraland and Maker.

Since Jan. 1, MATIC has rallied 92%, but the token is still 23% below its Dec. 2019 all-time-high at $0.44.

MATIC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Matic Network initiated deposits and withdrawals on its mainnet on June 20, 2020, and a few days later, it began offering staking capabilities. Tokenholders were then able to delegate their staking to validators and share revenue.

On Sep. 10, 2020, Matic released its proof-of-stake token bridge, allowing faster transfers between the Ethereum and Matic networks.

Since August 2020, Matic’s BEPSwap decentralized exchange has been running on a beta version, and its liquidity has dropped about 25% from it’s $40 million peak.

In September 2020, Matic Network launched its final staking phase by adding community-run validator nodes while increasing slots to 100. The team intends to gradually shut down all Matic Foundation nodes, allowing the community to choose from public validators.

DeFi and altcoin season appears to be pushing MATIC higher

Over the last few weeks, a handful of projects have chosen to launch on Matic Network, including the game SkyWeaver, Aavegotchi Crypto Collectibles, the collectible game Drakon IOI and Fire Protocol OS.

Furthermore, on Jan. 6, the MATIC token listed on Huobi Global and offered an $80 premium to new users who onboarded with full Know Your Customer verification.

Matic Twitter user activity vs. price (USD). Source: The Tie

Data from The Tie shows that the recent price spike has been accompanied by a considerable increase in social network activity, but it’s difficult to determine whether the uptick in Twitter users is the primary driver behind MATIC’s price action.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

DeFi integration and layer-2 tech back Matic Network’s (MATIC) 92% rally

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Bullish crypto events of 2020 that will drive historic adoption

The year gone by had many ups and even more downs, mainly due to the global outbreak of a devastating virus that has crippled nations and killed millions. But for those in the crypto and blockchain community, 2020 finally showcased the true potential of the technology. 

There were, arguably, more developments last year that will have long-lasting positive effects on the industry than during the entire history of distributed ledger technology and Bitcoin (BTC). So, here are the top five developments of last year in the decentralized tech sector that will leave a lasting memory and a strong legacy for years to come.

BTC price breaks $20,000

Bitcoin price did a lot more than just break the $20,000 price mark that was originally set during the 2017–2018 bull run. First, the $20,000 mark fell. Soon after, so did $30,000. And now, even the $35,000 mark has been taken over.

Those seemingly wild predictions of a $45,000 Bitcoin price by the end of 2021 may not be so distant after all. What’s more is that the infamous stock-to-flow model developed by crypto trader PlanB, which predicts a $100,000 price for Bitcoin, is playing out as suggested.

So, yes, prices go up, but they can also go down. This has happened before and may happen again, right? In theory, however, many things have changed, not least the general perception of Bitcoin. This has been evidenced by the shift in demand from retail investors to institutional ones.

Bitcoin welcomed numerous high-profile companies that joined the industry for their own various needs, from firms choosing to hold BTC as a reserve, like Microstrategy, to the rise of crypto investment funds like Bitwise and Grayscale — and who knows which individuals are investing through those. All that is known is that they are willing to put billions into crypto. And then in late October, the real big news arrived…

PayPal launches crypto option

PayPal, a company that was originally founded with similar fundamental beliefs to Bitcoin itself, not only announced its foray into but actually entered the crypto space in 2020, at least in the United States. Additionally, it has been reported that PayPal is now one of the biggest buyers of Bitcoin as the company builds up reserves to satisfy customer demand.

The single word that sums up this development is “adoption.” Some 28 million merchants and over 361 million users all around the world will now be exposed to the “baby” version of owning and using crypto. According to the company, it is the custodian and is essentially just selling shares in its BTC holding. In doing so, it’s not following the traditional way of how people own crypto, and that’s fine.

To the average user, crypto is way too difficult to comprehend — all the cold and hot wallets, the passcodes, the 12-word recovery phrases, etc. PayPal is offering an easy-to-use way to get into the ecosystem, and once that happens, some may actually go the full way to discover more about how this technology should be utilized.

The halving

The Bitcoin halving was touted to be the big make-or-break moment for the crypto industry. It took place, yet not much actually happened. Various commentators expected BTC’s price to pump then crash, while others foresaw a drop-off in the network hash rate. Although those things did happen to a certain extent, it was nowhere near as dramatic as expected, and that was a very good thing.

The Bitcoin mining reward halving is an event that happens roughly every four years and cuts in half the amount of BTC that miners earn for discovering a block. This is a hard rule coded into the blockchain that limits the supply to just 21 million BTC and, in doing so, mimics gold’s finite supply.

Ultimately, the fact that Bitcoin’s price and fundamentals remained almost unaffected has led some to believe that the industry has reached a certain level of maturity. Perhaps this resilience was what ultimately led some of the biggest corporations, economists and investors to reconsider their stance on cryptocurrencies in general. The fact that the supply of Bitcoin is running out became even more apparent as the year went on.

Coinbase IPO

It’s now in fashion for companies to go public, so it’s great to see that some crypto-native companies such as Coinbase are also joining in on the fun. It was half expected that such a move would come soon due to the overall regulation-open approach employed by the company, which was clearly set to appease U.S. regulators when the time was right.

What the move means, in essence, is that traditional investors will be able to sink millions into Coinbase equity — as much as $28 billion, in fact, according to Messari. The draft of the listing was also carefully timed with the jump in the price of top cryptocurrencies, and this will hopefully play into the exchange’s hands as it will no doubt face intense scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ultimately, Coinbase can shine light into a dark alleyway leading up to mass adoption by investors and users alike. Other so-called “unicorns” may follow its example in 2021, so in a way, Coinbase is sticking its neck out. But it may pay off if they are granted the initial public offering and become the first truly major crypto company to do so.

Ethereum and DeFi

Bitcoin has investors, and Ethereum has its users, and the latter certainly stepped up in 2020 to make the decentralized finance boom a reality, finding use cases for all those decentralized applications that had been touted to change the game for some time.

All was calm before the month of July when it was announced that a highly anticipated project by the name of Compound launched its own token, COMP. It proved to be an instant hit, securing numerous listings on high-profile exchanges and establishing a new trend in DeFi.

The basic methodology behind Compound is simple: The platform acts as a decentralized lending protocol that pays interest to users that add their crypto to the pool. However, once funds are added to the pool, the platform issues an equivalent amount of cTokens that can be used as collateral on a loan, meaning that one token of any kind can be used twice.

As COMP’s price started to pump, it wasn’t long before other projects caught on to this new trend and began to unveil competing protocols or projects that supported the ecosystem. Just over one month later, Yearn.finance was launched and took the yield farming phenomenon to a whole new level.

Then came the decentralized exchange Uniswap, which also joined in on the action by opening up its own pools, and with its open listing policy, countless DeFi projects flocked in to list their tokens on the exchange. However, it also made an impact through its use of automated market makers, an idea developed in 2017 by Bancor. 2020 was really the year that AMAs took off through driving users to make transactions in tokens that are built upon the Ethereum blockchain. This ultimately brought thousands of active users onto the Ethereum network.

What’s more is that the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade was finally initiated after several lengthy delays. The combination of Eth2, the recently renewed interest in altcoins and the DeFi boom has certainly brought back interest in Ethereum and the Ether (ETH) token itself, propelling it to well over $1,200, a level not seen in almost two years, and close to its all-time high of around $1,450. Now, just seven days into the new year, some are certain that $2,000 will be coming fairly soon.

Bullish crypto events of 2020 that will drive historic adoption

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Blockchain data gets simpler as The Graph launches mainnet

The Graph Network launched its mainnet on Dec. 17, allowing developers to easily search, index, use and publish data from public blockchains. 

This is made possible through a global and open network of Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, called subgraphs. These form the basis of many of today’s most popular decentralized applications.

The transparency of public blockchains is often lauded, but even though they contain a wealth of useful data, querying them for data is not particularly easy. The Graph’s business development lead Tegan Kline describes it as, “kind of like the web without Google.”

One may think why this is necessary. After all, there are plenty of analytical tools out there already which can pull useful information from blockchain data.

But these applications generally work in a centralized way, and likely took months of development work to build. The Graph sees itself not as a competitor, but as a facilitator to these tools. Kline told Cointelegraph:

“The Graph is not an analytics company. We expect analytics companies to spin up on The Graph, as The Graph allows them to easily pull data from the blockchain. You can think of The Graph as an open data layer on top of the blockchain.”

Anybody can create and publish their own API for use by the community, receiving a portion of the fees when that subgraph is queried. All query fees and rewards are made in Graph Tokens (GRT) which have also gone live with the mainnet.

Some of the projects that have been using The Graph in its pre-mainnet “hosted” form include Uniswap, Aave, Synthetix, CoinMarketCap, Chainlink and CoinGecko.

In fact, the 3800+ subgraphs currently deployed include 21 of the top 25 DeFi apps. UniSwap founder Hayden Adams explained the appeal of using the project:

“The Graph has done great work so far in making smart contract data easy to monitor and use. The design of the new system will attract more developers to build their own subgraphs, leading to better access to information. Once we know more, we can build better.”

Blockchain data gets simpler as The Graph launches mainnet

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