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As Lisa said in her Editorial, we have an exciting surprise to unveil in the next issue. We want the Moon Mag to reach new audiences and make it even more accessible for everyone. Building in this market is great....but the ability to change and adapt is an equally impressive skill to hone. Look for projects that have a roadmap but are not afraid to shift their plans and adjust in order to keep their long-term growth on track. Enjoy this issue, you’re invited to our birthday party next month!
For the traders reading the BEAR market is more about when you make trades, you’re playing into the probability that those trades will go in the direction of your favour. No trader is right 100% of the time, but with strict money management practices, those probabilities dictate that you will be a profitable trader over time. Trading is never about being right or wrong. It is about building your skills and being ruthless right now with your profit-taking. But if trading is not your thing, and you’re “here for the tech” and to help these amazing companies grow that we feature each month, now is the time to start watching and ascertaining your moments to DCA into some of the best future projects in crypto! Happy Trading or DCAing whatever takes your fancy and I’ll see you on the moon!
Nearly a year of Moon Mags! Wow! So much content has been delivered to so many people. I’ve been looking back at the previous issues and have found some really useful snippets of information and some projects that, upon checking them out again, are still building and growing despite the turbulent market. Don’t forget to keep checking in with your Moon bags - many projects are super accessible and have Discords, AMA’s, Twitter Spaces and many other ways of connecting with their audiences.
We are at issue 11, almost time to pop the cork on a whole year of MOONMAGS, and we have a BIG SURPRISE for everyone next month to celebrate! The market on the other hand is red red red with a touch of green right now, if you’re a BEAR this is an exciting time... Or if like me and allergic to high leverage, having small strategic bounce entries and scalps have been fun to test my skills as a trader.
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A fromnoteLisa…
GameFi Guilds: A gateway for users to blockchain gaming How to not get rugged 10 things to consider when evaluating crypto CryptoColdAXLAxelartomarketOptionsStablecoins:projectsinthealternativetheUSTNetwork&TokenStorageforWinter 4438301506 This magazine is sole property of gettingstartedincrypto.com and is not to be redistributed in any form anywhere else.
CONTRIBUTORS
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Aldrich Shillian
Kel Udeala
I’m a quantitative analyst and a mechanical engineer. I took an interest in crypto because my line of work led me down the financial trading and investment rabbit hole, and it’s only a matter of time before you reach crypto. I enjoy researching different crypto projects, and attempting to forecast their roles in the future financial and technology systems. I also find the volatility of the charts and the resulting crypto-Twitter posts very thrilling.
Daniel Jimenez
Daniel has been a blockchain technology evangelist since 2012 and is a faithful believer in the Crypto ecosystem. Daniel also writes for Coin Telegraph!
Daniel Dudek
I am a Quantitative Biology PhD student with a small addiction to crypto. One of my favorite things about crypto is its ability to revolutionize everything we do, from payments to culture. Real implementation and interoperability between projects are what I am passionate about in this space.
Aldrich (or Rhys to those in the Signals group!) has been HODL’ing since 2017 and is proud of surviving bear markets, rug pulls and still trading successfully enough to have paid off all debts. Recently, he’s jumped head-on into NFT projects - particularly ones that combine his love of gaming.
In the traditional gaming sector, guilds have served as informal communities formed spontaneously by players to support each other and advance the development of complex missions within games.
Gamefi Guilds: A Gateway for Users to Blockchain Gaming. Options in the Market
written by Daniel Jimenez
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A guild is when a group of players create an alliance for a game or games; that is, they help each other to advance in the games of interest.
The emergence of these early guilds dates back to the 2000s, when MMORPG multiplayer role-playing games began to develop and spread throughout the world thanks to the greater reach of the Internet, owing to technological improvements including the increase in bandwidth and speed.
Now, with the use of blockchain technology and the entry of play-to-earn (P2E) games, guilds have evolved and jumped onto the GameFi scene, becoming increasingly powerful and influential autonomous communities in this rapidly growing sector.
But what are Game Guilds?
As we have pointed out before, this concept is not new to the blockchain gaming ecosystem, but rather a term that comes from traditional gaming.
With this background, the Guild Games have become communities with brand names and their own list of players, who seek to compete online in special leagues recognized throughout the world for this type of game, with the aim of reaching the final goal: Win the prizes in competition and earn recognition as the best clan on your favorite gaming platform.
The guilds have even evolved with the ability to monetize content through Twitch and reach sponsorships from large technology firms, television stations and e-sport sponsors.
In essence, GameFi guilds pursue the same goal as traditional game guilds: to help each other in the completion of the common goal of finishing the game in its entirety.
Games like Everquest, World of Warcraft, Counter Strike, and RuneScape are examples of games in which players organize guilds to support each other, loot items, and go on quests together that are difficult to complete as solo players.
An example of the above is the influential e-sports organizations such as Method, Team Liquid, Team Solo Mid (TSM) and FaZe Clan, which drive game activity within the e-sports scene on famous MMORPG platforms such as League of Legends or World of Warcraft.
The difference from traditional games is that P2E games give players (and guilds) the ability to earn cryptocurrencies and non-fungible assets within the platform that can then be exchanged for real money.
Play2Earn: The natural evolution towards GameFi Guilds
Thanks to the technological development of the blockchain and its application in the field of gaming, game guilds are now catapulting onto the blockchain scene, mainly driven by play-to-earn mechanics, a decentralized way of playing to win based on assets like NFTs.
2.- Gaming asset loans: Through the Rent2Earn model, the DAOs can be organized based on the owners of the assets of certain gaming platforms who do not have the time to use it or simply only want to obtain a passive income on these assets. To do this, the assets owned by the guild as a whole are loaned to potential players in exchange for a part of their income. Players can play with expensive NFTs in exchange for a percentage of what they earn in-game.
To make games attainable to more gamers, a new business vision has emerged: the GameFi guilds: decentralized autonomous organizations formed by gamers and investors to educate, teach, and fund potential gamers in the various gaming options available in the GameFi marketplace.
With the rising popularity of the P2E sector, NFTs have become increasingly expensive for the average player in an emerging economy to invest in to get started in the game.
1.- DAO GameFi: They are basically blockchain-based companies made up of groups of players who manage their stake through internal tokens providing on-chain governance rights. Ownership of these DAO tokens allows for voting on key GameFi guild decisions such as deciding which game to play and how to share game winnings among its members.
However, as the popularity of P2E games has increased, the demand for assets to play also has increased, pushing up the prices of the assets needed to enter a platform to play.
This need led to the emergence of the first P2E guilds that were mainly seen on platforms like Axie Infinity during the COVID-19 pandemic, which managed to catapult the P2E sector and highlight a need for financing for many potential players throughout the gaming sector in general.
GameFi guilds: A solution to overcome barriers in the P2E sector
This financial challenge opened the doors to a new community of gamers organized in clans/guilds, but under the shadow of blockchain technology. The big advantage here is that unlike traditional guild games, GameFi guilds add monetary value to the player’s gaming experience. This is achieved in two ways:
For many players from emerging economies, this has created a natural barrier, as the price of NFTs needed to get started on many of these platforms has reached levels unaffordable for many players.
In the case of Axie Infinity, a P2E game that requires the use of 3 Axies pets (NFT) to start and monetize the time on the platform, the outlay required was up to $200 per pet.
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Thus, the GameFi guilds are not only important for the generation of income, but also for the communities they are creating and that are so important for the games, since if they do not manage to have a critical mass of players, they will end up disappearing due to the great competition that exists in this industry.
• It’s easier to compete for resources and land than solo, where you can easily get crushed by Game Fi guilds or other groups.
• As a player, you can earn money faster, in addition to always having a supportive community.
Benefits of joining a GameFi Guild
From the objective of collaborating with the guilds in traditional gaming, we have moved onto the main objective of making money. Venture capital investors have seen the great investment opportunity that Play-to-Earn games offer. For this reason, a lot of money has been invested in the purchase of NFTs in games, and not only to own them but to be able to attract millions of players through
With the GameFi guilds, both the blockchain gaming market and decentralized technology using crypto assets may continue to grow, as a gateway is provided for those interested in monetizing their time in front of their screens without having to make expensive investments.
• Guilds can give or lend the expensive NFTs re quired by players to gain an edge in some games in exchange for obtaining an economic return. A clear example is found in Axie Infinity and its high initial investment.
was the pioneer at this point within the blockchain scene, now with the use of decentralized autonomous organizations, guilds are taking shape within the growing GameFi market, creating a broad ecosystem of figures around guilds such as managers, players, educators, and so forth.
Today many of these communities are evolving as DAOs to also become the professional management layer of blockchain games, seeking to attract the best players and the biggest associations, a resemblance to today’s e-sports clubs.
• It is easier to accomplish cooperative achieve ments or goals in games, since there is more organization among the players involved in it. In creasing the odds of success through cooperation improves the odds of earning more tokens.
Whilescholarships.AxieInfinity
In addition, guilds contribute to users’ gaming experience in various ways: from helping newcomers to the ecosystem learn the game faster and familiarize themselves with blockchain technology, to providing access to the skills and attributes that are necessary to overcome difficult challenges in the game.
• A community is created with managers, mentors, scouts and other figures who help build teams in the different NFT games.
Importance of GameFi Guilds
For those users who are lovers of NFTs and block chain games, joining a guild can provide several benefits:
In this way, you will be able to increase your portfolio size by receiving a per centage of the rewards obtained by the players who rent your NFT.
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• Yield Guild Games (YGG) • Merit Circle (MC) • Avocado Guild (AVG) • Good Games Guild • GuildFi • BlackPool
The following are some of the options available in the industry.
The services provided by the guilds are not limited to the rental of game NFTs. In addition to P2P rental platforms, some GameFi guilds are also devel oping services such as: Scholarships, MetaExchange (exchange of NFTs) and DAO Launchpad (for venture invest ments in GameFi projects).
The most popular GameFi Guilds in the industry
At the end of the day, if you don’t have the time or interest to join a blockchain gaming platform with the NFTs you purchased on a given platform, as an investment instrument, you can rent it out to players to enhance its utility while increasing the value of your asset as it becomes more valuable within the game, through upgrades and pow er-ups, for example.
Through guilds, investors can tap into the earning potential of play-to-win games, while gamers can skip the high price tags and go straight to what they love: gaming.
GameFi guilds are a natural presence in this ecosystem given their solution to the skyrocketing cost of entry and the ability to expand GameFi’s access to newcomers.
But it’s not just gamers who benefit from joining a GameFi guild. Those investors who hold static NFTs in their wallet can find new earnings opportu nities on certain gaming platforms and blockchain metaverses where these assets operate. Joining a GameFi guild or forming one (if you have the financial resources to do so) can be a great op tion to diversify and grow your portfolio.
1.- Yield Guild Games (YGG)
of the first GameFi guilds, originally created based on Axie Infinity, to support gamers and push the P2E trend. YGG, created in the Philippines in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic by Gabby Dixon (veteran gamer), helped organize and educate new gamers within the GameFi marketplace.
Avocado Guild is another option in this rapidly growing field since its formation, attracting over 10,000 players and a market cap of $1.7 million.
This GameFi guild offers gamers and investors an excellent environment to join the Play2Earn trend with partnerships in various games and ecosystems such as Axie Infinity, Cymbal, Big Time, and Epic Battle, among others.
4.- Good Games Guild
The guild can be compared to communities or game hubs rather than the more profitoriented guilds described above. However, it also provides many opportunities to earn cryptocurrencies. This includes an Asset Lease to Earn Program, through which players can lease their NFTs to guilds for profit. And of course, it also gives players the opportunity to become partners in exchange for a percentage of future winnings.
• GGaming Platform as a central mechanism for integrated users. A place where players begin their journey in the metaverse.
The Good Games Guild ( GGG ) is relatively new: it was created in mid-2021. Like other guilds, the guild operates through the DAO structure with its governance token GGG. The guild currently supports several games, including Axie Infinity, Mytheria, and Happy Land. It has also partnered with Titan Hunters, Gamestation, and several other well-known brands.
3.- Avocado Guild (AVG)
5.- GuildFi
They have more than 2,750 scholars to their credit with more than $124 million in assets between Axie Infinity, Big Time, Sipher or Sidus Games.
Governed by a DAO, this GameFi guild was launched in November 2021 to dabble in Axie Infinity and with plans to expand into other popular high caliber blockchain games like Hash Rush, Star Atlas, and Illuvium.
• Zones are the dedicated engines that drive business activities to add value to the GuildFi ecosystem as a whole, such as Guild Zone, NFT Zone, and Tools Zone.
This guild is focused on blockchain video games and metaverses.
GuildFi is a Web3 infrastructure that connects games, NFTs, guilds, and communities. The GuildFi ecosystem consists of:
With more than 97,000 followers on social networks, Merit Circle bases its governance on the internal token $MC, which gives it a market capitalization of close to $100 million.
Their great strength is the support they have from important VC firms in the sector including Three Arrows Capital and #Hashed.
Their market cap, at the time of writing, is $34 million and they hold the $YGG token. The guild manages more than 4600 scholars, (2021) and has investments in video games such as Axie Infinity, Illuvium, Start Atlas and The ItSandbox.wasone
2.- Merit Circle (MC)
The fifth by capitalization according to CoinGecko is BlackPool, and unlike the previous two, on their
It bases its activities on the $GF token, which has a market capitalization of about $13 million. The guild recently received a $1B investment from BNB Chain to accelerate its vision of an interconnected ecosystem of gaming, NFTs, and communities across the Web3 spectrum.
Overall, despite the adverse market conditions, GuildFi was still able to outperform the market with a total of $145,564,626 in assets under management.
7.- Other options
The above list is just a sampling of the different options on the GameFi marketplace as far as Game guilds are concerned. However, Polkastarter’s Game Guilds, GameFi.org and Real Player DAO are some interesting options that can complement the list mentioned below according to the ranking generated by Coingecko.
website they are defined as a fund that operates in the NFT industry. Their market cap, at the time of writing, is $3.8 million and they hold their BPT token.
Cyball, Apeiron and Nyan Heroes are part of the platforms where this Guild focuses on attracting players from all over the world.
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The guild works as a DAO that manages more than 600 scholars, and more than $17 million dollars in assets and has investments in video games such as Axie Infinity, Sorare, Guild of Guardians or Cometh.
6.- BlackPool
The important thing to note here is that thanks to their role in the economy of the blockchain gaming industry, the GameFi guilds are gaining more and more popularity and ground among investors and users in the industry.
That is why we have seen significant outlays by recognized companies such as Brinc, Animoca Brands, Andreessen Horowitz and Three Arrows Capital supporting guilds such as Yield Guild Games, The Avocado Guild, and RPD, among others.
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Stablecoins: AlternativesMarket to UST: Key Features, Differences, and Principles
After the extreme volatility of Bitcoin and the crypto ecosystem in general was demonstrated in 2017, investors caught on the wrong side of the price movement needed a quick and easy exit to some assets within a more stable ecosystem. Stablecoins emerged to meet this need.
written by by Daniel Jimenez
There is no doubt that stablecoin projects have come into the spotlight over the past month following the collapse of the Terra project and its TerraUSD (UST) product.
are the answer to the calls of the first investors in the crypto market who were looking for a crypto equivalent to fiat currencies such as the dollar, but based on the same decentralized ecosystem of blockchain technology.
It is a need to be able to protect yourself from volatility and at the same time from the immediate availability of value transfer offered by cryptocurrencies.
After the collapse of the UST, there has been much discussion about sustainable models of stablecoins. At this point we wish to point out that we do not intend to be judges of certain stablecoin models adopted by certain projects.
With stablecoins, it became easier to move money in, out, and between exchanges without relying on tedious banking procedures. In addition, stablecoins allow investors to have a part of their portfolio as cash, to take advantage of any opportunity in the market to purchase assets without depending on banks.
Stablecoinsgold.
For some experts, the rise of the crypto market in recent years can be partially attributed to the entry of stablecoins into the industry because they have inspired more confidence for investors who can enter a volatile market with the backing of a more stable haven to withstand sudden price changes of assets such as Bitcoin.
According to Binance Academy, stablecoins are a class of cryptocurrencies that attempt to offer price stability relative to unpegged cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The market value of stablecoins is tied to the value of a ‘stable’ reserve asset like the US dollar or
What are stablecoins?
Stablecoin andAlgorithmic,Types:Fiat-Backed,Crypto-Backed
Rather, we leave it up to the reader to do their research and due diligence to feel confident with the stablecoin project that best suits their needs and comfort. Therefore, we will report strictly for the purpose of exploring some models used in the industry so far for the deployment of stablecoins.
Crypto stablecoins:collateralized
Algorithmic stablecoins:
Other less popular stablecoin projects include currencies backed by commodities such as gold, commodities, precious metals, or general real estate.
They are those that base their support on maintaining a parity based on other cryptoassets or a basket of them. To counteract the higher relative volatility of backing stablecoins through cryptocurrencies, the stablecoin will hold an overcollateralized position.
Stablecoins backed by fiat currency like the dollar, euro, or Chinese yuan hold a reserve of that currency as Thecollateral.stability of its parity is maintained as long as there are verifiable holdings of said fiduciary reserves, which ends up compromising its final decentralization due to private companies that maintain fiat reserves equivalent to each token issued.
As the name suggests, they are currencies where seigniorage is governed and backed by an algorithm deployed in the project’s smart contracts. The idea stems from a whitepaper by prominent cryptographer Robert Sams, who presented his vision of a Federal Reserve stablecoin (FedCoin) that could work under this concept.
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Fiat-backed stablecoins:
in which it breaks down its Reserves indicates that 85.64% are committed in cash and cash equivalents, with more than 55% in United States treasury bills. A point in favor that has led to calm the detractors behind this stablecoin.
However,currency.
Itsreserves.latestreport
It is perhaps the most popular and used stablecoin in the entire crypto ecosystem. So called because it ‘ties’ its value to the US dollar. Since its inception in 2014 it has been involved in many financial
Without further ado, let’s look at the options that exist in the market, some of which have become less ‘stable’ than others but serve to meet the demands of the crypto market.
Since we have seen the fundamental differences on which certain types of stablecoins are backed in the market to maintain their parity with the desired value, it is important to note that the most used stablecoins in the industry are those that ‘peg’ their value to the American dollar thereby linking to the current financial system governed by this fiat
Options in the stablecoin market
1.- Tether (USDT)
it should be noted that there are many stablecoins that are pegged to other fiat currencies such as the Euro, the British pound, the IMF’s SDR; and thosefrom developing countries such as Mexico (where Tether recently announced a solution based on the Mexican Peso).
scandals due to dubious claims about its dollarbacked reserves.
In view of the above, the Tether team has managed to successfully pass external audits on numerous occasions to dispel doubts about its support, now diversified into gold, traditional currency and cash
Sinceequivalents.1USDT
is said to always be worth 1 USD, its supply is only limited by the claimed dollar
Precisely as a result of the events related to Terra UST, Coinmetrics pointed out that in Q2-2022, 7,000 billion of the total supply of USDT was erased from the board in this period, after the decoupling of Tether from the US dollar by around 5 % in May.
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Perhaps the above is the fundamental reason why Tether USDT managed to quickly recover its value closer to parity with the US dollar last May in the midst of the panic after the Terra crash.
USDC provides a mechanism that allows the token to be exchanged directly for dollars that are transferred to the user’s account from the Coinbase application.
USDC arises from the Circle company, which is part of the Center consortium (of which Coinbase is a part). Its great strength has been since its
Following the same pattern of stablecoins in the market during the month of May due to the events of Terra, the USDC also suffered the liquidation of a circulating amount of assets in this period, as revealed by the latest data released by Coinmetrics.
At the same time, this stablecoin is also operational
The USD Coin is based on a 1:1 exchange with the US dollar and achieves much of this parity because it has a reserve of fiat money in US dollars and short-term US treasury bonds.
inception, unlike its immediate competitor (USDT), the audit by external companies of its reserves to certify the support of each issued token.
2.- Circle USD (USDC)
The stablecoin is heavily backed by banking giant Goldman Sachs. It is also one of the few crypto projects that has achieved the Bit License from the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Its marketcap is around USD 69.1B dollars, positioning itself as the third largest crypto project in the industry and the first stablecoin in the market.
on the Ethereum and TRON networks, in addition to other popular blockchains on the market.
USDT works with the OmniLayer protocol, a layer 2 project for Bitcoin that allows the creation of fungible (meaning interchangeable and equivalent) tokens.
Launched in 2018, its circulating supply currently amounts to just over 55 billion USDC deployed in different blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, Tron, Algorand, Stellar, among others.
Together with Tether, Circle USD is one of the two main stablecoins supposedly backed 100% by cash or cash equivalents (bank deposits, treasury bills, commercial paper, etc).
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It is currently the fourth cryptocurrency in the market by market cap at USD 55.2B and the second stablecoin in the ranking of this sector.
DAI is part of the cryptocurrency-collateralized stablecoin group, which is backed by an oversupply of another decentralized asset, in this case, Ether Its(ETH).operation
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lies in an overcollateralization, which requires a minimum guarantee ratio of 150%, which means that the dollar value of ETH deposited in a smart contract must be worth at least 1.5 more than the DAI that is minted.
According to the scheduled compensation, if the price of DAI falls below the dollar, users are rewarded for holding their DAI through an interest rate, and the cost of creating new DAI also goes up. In this way, issuance is discouraged, scarcity is generated and the price rises again.
over the UST crash, DAI was the only one that managed to remain relatively stable. At one point DAI even rose to 1,001, which has been praised by the community that cataloged it as ‘the true decentralized stablecoin’.
DAI was first launched in 2017 by MakerDAO, whose DAO ultimately exercises governance over DAI by issuing decentralized tokens on the Ethereum
At the close of this publication, DAI maintained a circulating supply of 6.82B DAI tokens, to reach a similar market cap in US dollars, positioning itself as the twelfth cryptocurrency in the general ranking and the fourth stablecoin in the industry.
Amidblockchain.thepanic
Despite this, risk has always been present in the market and in times of uncertainty almost 40% of MakerDAO’s DAI was withdrawn as a result of liquidations, the largest liquidation event in its history according to data from Coinmetrics.
3.-
reverse process occurs. The creation of new DAI is made cheaper and the compensation rate is lowered, which stimulates the creation of DAI and lowers the price.
If the price of the DAI exceeds the dollar, the
According to the last available report from April 2022, there was an equivalent accounting between BUSD and USD tokens, at just over USD 17.6B in project reserves to guarantee its parity with the US Thedollar.great
advantage of using BUSD is that Binance Exchange users not only convert fiat/crypto to BUSD, but can use the exchange services without fees and other platform benefits to generate additional profits through DeFi practices.
Paxos Trust Company.
4.- Binance USD (BUSD)
BUSD is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYFDS) and issued by Paxos, giving it an air of security and legal compliance when endorsing it.
Like the USDC, the BUSD also suffered significant sell-offs during the May 2022 crisis due to the Terra effect.
It is one of the few stablecoins that issues an audit report on a monthly basis to independently verify at specific points in time that the total supply of BUSD tokens is consistent with USD in reserve accounts in US banks held and managed by the
BUSD was launched in 2019 by the industryleading cryptocurrency exchange giant by trading volume, Binance. Their offer is limited by reserves in dollars and they are audited monthly.
5. TrueUSD (TUSD)
The currency offers lower transaction fees than fiat currency wire transfers and higher interest rates on stored
Launchedbalances.byTrustToken,
which are protected by law and verified by thirdparty certificates. In addition, TrueUSD uses multiple escrow accounts to prevent misuse and counterparty risk.
Its launch was in 2018 with claims of regular audits as it became the first stablecoin backed 100% by the US dollar.
To date, TrueUSD has partnered with 5 big-name banks to handle its reserves, including Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank.
True USD (TUSD) is another of the stablecoins within the fiat-backed group, in this case for the US dollar.
This stablecoin was also affected during the events of the month of May and currently has a marketcap of about USD 1.2B, which places it at number 38 in the general ranking of cryptocurrencies and in the fifth position of stablecoins.
this company also has other similar products such as the Australian dollar (TrueAUD) and British pound (TrueGBP) pegged stablecoins to name a few.
TrueUSD is a collateralized ERC-20 token that seeks to differentiate itself from other stablecoins by providing transparency regarding its reserves,
This stablecoin is another of the bunch backed by fiat money, in this case the US dollar. As mentioned above, it is associated with Binance’s BUSD and currently operates the coin called Pax Dollar (formerly Paxos Standard).
Although the five stablecoins mentioned above are the most representative in the market due to the volume they generate, there are other alternatives in the industry, some less stable than others.
1.- Pax Dollar (USDP)
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It was created as a response to the Tether imprint controversy following its unverified $1.8 billion backing claim with Deltec Bank & Trust Ltd.
At press time, TrueUSD was the last on the list of stablecoins that have crossed the USD 1B market cap threshold.
Other options
It is currently the seventh largest stablecoin in the market by marketcap and cryptocurrency number 52 in the general ranking of the crypto market with just over USD 780 million in capitalization.
USDN tokens are burned when their tokens are redeemed, unlocking WAVES, the core token of the Waves blockchain.
It is currently in sixth position in the ranking of stablecoins in the market, and number 46 in the general ranking of the cryptocurrency market.
Although it is unique to the Waves protocol and part of the Waves protocol-backed algorithmic stablecoins, just like DAI, a user can mint USDN when they lock their WAVES token in Neutrino smart contracts.
Paxos Trust Company launched another stablecoin in September 2019, this time backed in gold called PAX Gold (PAXG), which complements its fiat/commodity-backed stablecoin offering with USDP.
2.- Neutrino USD (USDN)
USDN is used as collateral for other Neutrino stable assets. This is the mechanism by which USDN maintains its 1:1 parity with the US dollar.
It is also audited monthly by BBM LLP, an independent accounting firm, to ensure 1:1 GUSD/USD parity.
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It is currently the tenth stablecoin by market capitalization with just over 300 million dollars and is in the top 100 of the global ranking of crypto assets.
Gemini states that “the cash portion of these GUSD reserves may be eligible for FDIC ‘passthrough’ insurance for Gemini customers, in the event of the failure of a bank holding the US dollar portion of the deposit of the GUSD reserves.”
It is another stablecoin launched by an exchange, this time by the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini Exchange on September 9, GUSD2018.is
3.- Geminis Dollar (GUSD)
based on the ERC-20 Ethereum protocol and, like its peer BUSD, is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
5.- Fantom USD (fUSD)
4..- Tron USD (USDD)
Foundation, the makers behind the stablecoin created an fUSD to USDC exchange interface that allows users to buy fUSD and redeem their positions to avoid liquidations.
So far the project has failed to maintain parity with the dollar.
The project, despite being young, is among the top 60 in the general cryptocurrency ranking and has a market cap of just over USD 700 million, which allows it to rank as the eighth stablecoin in the market.
Tron USD is currently one of the largest stablecoin projects recently launched and is part of the market algorithmic stablecoins based on the Tron blockchain network.
Despite this, there are some concerns about USDD due to the high APY percentages they offer through various protocols to liquidity provider pools.
USDD is secured by the over-collaterization of multiple mainstream digital assets like TRX, BTC and USDT. According to their website their collateralization ratio is currently 324.13%.
Its launch paradoxically occurred during the month of May 2022, and despite the crisis in the sector due to the Terra effects, the project has remained afloat and experienced rapid growth in terms of its circulating supply.
Another project that was recently launched in May was Fantom’s stablecoin fUSD. This stablecoin is overcollateralized and can be minted using Fantom (FTM), USDC, DAI, Tether wrapped as collateral (fUSDT), or SpiritSwap Fantom(SPIRIT).
With the extreme volatility of the market that is repeated cyclically due to the fluctuations of the price of Bitcoin and its influence on the rest of the crypto market, investors have been taking refuge in more stable alternatives such as those offered by the projects in charge of ‘issuing ‘stablecoins.
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As of press time, USDX is recovering its price close to dollar parity, after the Kava Labs team announced the divestiture of UST as part of its crypto asset backing basket for the USDX stablecoin.
This article, more than a value judgment, tries to share some of the existing alternatives in the market to the Terra UST. It is up to each reader to do their due diligence to educate themselves when exposed to these crypto assets.
Located in 19th rank among the stablecoin options on the market, we find Kava USD (USDX), a stablecoin that was severely affected after the events of May.
However, the crisis of May 2022 with Terra and the crash of its algorithmic stablecoin UST, has taught the market and users in general a great lesson, that nothing is certain in this world of bytes, so exposure to certain ‘decentralized’ protocols and products deserves further financial education on the tokenomics of these projects to avoid exposure to losses.
Do Your Due Diligence
6.- Kava USD (USDX)
With outflows of just over $60 million in liquidations since May 9, USDX lost its peg to the dollar due to its exposure to UST as one of its collateral assets.
Network validators collectively maintain threshold signature accounts on other blockchains, which allows them to lock and unlock assets and ‘states’ across external blockchains.
Axelar Network & AXL Token
How does it achieve this? The Axelar base layer is aware of the ‘state’ of external blockchains at any point, creating the ‘incoming bridges’ from other blockchains.
Axelar Network, with its native token AXL, is a permission-less cross-chain communication protocol and gateway that enables communication across various blockchain ecosystems. The network empowers developers to build decentralised and permissionless applications that work across multiple blockchains and blockchain ecosystems, allowing users to interact with any asset or application from any blockchain – a oneclick user experience.
The significant growth in the number of blockchain ecosystems seeking to offer unique value propositions has created the issue of capital fragmentation.
written by Kel
The Axelar technology stack provides a decentralised network, protocols, tools, and APIs that allow simple cross-chain communication. The network connects existing stand-alone blockchains such as Bitcoin, Stellar, and Algorand and interoperability hubs like Cosmos, Avalanche, Ethereum, and Polkadot.
As a result, blockchain interoperability has become an essential topic for developers. It has also become an important topic for investors who want to leverage decentralised finance (DeFi) solutions across various chains without having to set up multiple wallets and initiate complex transactions to move capital across chains.
All Data Is Current at Time of Writing Circulating Supply: TBD Max Supply: 1,000,000,000 Total Supply: 1,000,000,000 Wallet: Keplr Wallet Axelar resources/mainnethttps://docs.axelar.dev/ContractNetworkAddresses:
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The network posts these ‘blockchain states’ on different blockchains (the ‘outgoing bridges), ensuring seamless background communication to facilitate multiple on-chain activities in a single system. The Axelar network is essentially a decentralised cross-chain read/write data oracle, allowing validators and liquidity providers to bridge assets across different networks.
• Seed: 13.4%.
Community programs (incl. insurance fund):
Where to Purchase
AXL Token Axelar’s initial coin offering (ICO) took place on CoinList from the 9th of March to the 16th of March 2022. The tokens sold during the ICO will unlock in July, and exchange listings will follow shortly after the unlocks. AXL is yet to be available on centralised exchanges (CEXs) or decentralised exchanges (DEXs). Axelar aims to bridge assets to the Cosmos ecosystem and already has Keplr wallet integration in anticipation of token liquidity after unlocks. Hence, it is reasonable to assume AXL will be available on the Osmosis DEX.
• Company operations: 12.5%.
• Core team: 17%.
• Series A: 12.64%.
https://t.co/wEQzWvhnYRDiscorddationhttps://medium.com/@axelar-founMediumhttps://t.co/lt3w20lMZCTelegramhttps://twitter.com/axelarcoreTwitterpdfuploads/2021/07/axelar_whitepaper.https://axelar.network/wp-content/Whitehttps://axelar.network/Website35.96%.Paper
Backers: 29.54%
• Series B: 3.5%.
Community sale: 5%.
Token Company:Allocation29.5%.
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Core Team
Sergey Gorbunov Co-Founder | Engineering
The Axelar team consists of highly bright and experienced individuals with significant experience in other successful and innovative blockchain projects.
Sergey is an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada – one of the world’s best schools for Computer Science – and has held the position for the past six years. He was on the founding team of Algorand, where he was involved in various business and technical aspects of the company and led the cryptography group. He received his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Toronto, and his PhD from MIT, where he received the Sprowls Doctoral Thesis Award for best thesis. He is interested in building cryptographic primitives, protocols, and systems that enable new applications in untrusted and distributed environments and has co-authored many cryptographic protocols and standards. bio.htmlhttps://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~sgorbuno/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiosvlachos/
After receiving his master’s degree in Physics from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, Christian received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, focusing on performance optimisations for distributed ledger systems. He has 10+ years in software engineering and systems research, including working for over seven years at Objektkultur Software GmbH in Karlsruhe, Germany, a software company offering IT services and consulting.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-gorenflo-8a3394124/
Before co-founding Axelar, Georgios was also on the Algorand founding team, where he was Head of Mathematics and contributed to designing and developing the Algorand consensus mechanism. He is a Gold Medal International Math Olympiad with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a master’s in Computer Science, both from MIT.
Christian Gorenflo Software Engineer
GusCryptographerearnedabachelor’s
degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Calgary, and a PhD in quantum information and cryptography at the University of Waterloo. He has also worked as a Decentralisation Engineer and a Cryptographer at Consensys, the software company behind the widely known Metamask wallet. Gus is also a co-author of qTESLA, a postquantum signature scheme, and a zero-knowledge Proofs (ZKP) library, which is gaining prominence as an emerging narrative in blockchain privacy and security.
Gus Gutoski
Georgios Vlachos Co-Founder | Engineering
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ggutoski/
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As app chains and their applications proliferate, they will need trustless and decentralised protocols, tools and APIs to pull data from other blockchain ecosystems. To truly understand the potential of app chains and decentralised protocols such as Axelar Network, consider another blockchainbased application called STEPN, a move-to-earn exercise application on the Solana blockchain. STEPN saw explosive growth because it catered to normal retail users and obfuscated any blockchainrelated requirements for its users even though the ‘back end’ ran on the Solana blockchain. As the market winds down, we witness copycat and novel projects taking this approach. Because cross-chain interoperability has almost become a requirement, any such application in the future will likely rely on projects like Axelar to leverage the power of disparate blockchain ecosystems – to leverage faster processing speed, unique DeFi applications, or total value locked (TVL).
Moving on from Web3 applications to more traditional DeFi applications, Axelar seeks to ensure that the TVL in DeFi platforms become crosschain. For instance, Axelar is bringing Bitcoin to Cosmos-interconnected chains, which is now live on the testnet. Bitcoin, in this case, will first come to the Axelar network through CGP – a protocol connecting multiple autonomous blockchain ecosystems and routing across them. From there, it will flow to other cosmos-interconnected chains through the Inter‐Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol. Various DeFi protocols such as Osmosis and others will be able to leverage Bitcoin in their platforms, add more trading pairs, and increase overall liquidity. Bringing the TVL of the Bitcoin network into the Cosmos ecosystem via Axelar Network will also accrue value to token holders via a share of the validator pay-outs for securing the integrated network bridges.
The Axelar Network uses Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus to secure the network and validate transactions on chain. Its AXL token supports such critical functions as; a medium for transaction fees and any other fees for network usage, staking, exercising governance over proposals, and rewarding ecosystem builders and community contributors. Validators earn token rewards for producing new blocks, participating in multiparty signing, and voting on external chain states. Token holders can delegate their tokens to a validator’s staking pool and earn a portion of the validator’s rewards. Given that Axelar seeks to be the base interoperability layer for web3, ensuring interoperability between blockchains, blockchain hubs, and app chains, it will create demand for the AXL token, which will increase in value as validator numbers grow to integrate more bridges and blockchain ecosystems.
In the summer of 2020, during a particularly harsh bear market, we saw some DeFi-related crypto projects rally, leading to investors and market analysts coining the term ‘DeFi summer’. The DeFi summer signalled the advent of DeFi 2.0 projects in this last bull cycle when developers saw the immense interest the early DeFi projects (DeFi 1.0) garnered.
The next iteration of app chains and their apps will leverage the ease of deployment and robust architecture of the Axelar Network. As a result, the network and its native token will see significant value accrual.
Market opportunity
What does AXL do for investors?
We are witnessing a similar signal of what is yet to come in the next cycle. In the last cycle, we saw the birth of application-specific chains (app chains) – independent blockchains used explicitly for a specific set of custom-designed applications. These app chains and their applications have positioned themselves to drive blockchain adoption. But one fundamental problem is the fragmentation of the value accrued in each disparate blockchain – this where decentralised networks, protocols, tools, and APIs that allow simple cross-chain communication like Axelar Network will thrive.
Having completed its testnet iteration, mainnet rollout, and bridged to some Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVM) and Osmosis projects, the Axelar team are currently onboarding more assets and chains, supporting new cross-chain applications, and deploying security improvements. Next on their agenda is deploying a scaling strategy to support high throughput applications, allowing developers to deploy customised security policies, and expanding the ecosystem of applications and solutions around the network.
The roadmap
With the significantly growing interest around Web3 and interoperability between blockchains and their associated ecosystems, projects like Axelar will have a critical role in providing developers with more accessible solutions to deploying applications and leveraging the value stored in disparate blockchain ecosystems. Furthermore, it can drive Web3 and blockchain adoption by empowering projects to deploy easily accessible applications that easily draw on the power of blockchain technology without the need for heavy engineering integration and effort. The project can enable the easier and quicker flow of value across blockchains. It can be essential for the future of DeFi, all the while accruing value for investors and validators.
Conclusion
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Cold Storage for WinterCryptowrittenby
RHYS
Crypto prices sure aren’t what they used to be. The recent market downturn has slashed prices across the board, with most coins down by 60-90% from their alltime highs. As a result, there have been high-profile collapses, liquidity difficulties for major crypto players, and a risk of contagion spreading throughout the market as the question of who is exposed to what gets very quickly answered.
There are a few different types of wallet, but broadly they fall into two main categories; hot and cold wallets. Hot wallets are connected to the internet (and therefore the blockchain network) and allow you to transact quickly and easily from your PC or smartphone with the security and convenience of a password or PIN of your choosing. You’ll likely be familiar with these if you’ve ever used Defi, DEXs or NFT marketplaces. They are quick and easy to set up and are available on most common web browsers as plugins, or dedicated phone apps, allowing your to explore Web3 and use your crypto on Dapps and other sites.
How do wallets work, and what kinds of wallet are there?
These events – coupled with other macro factors that we’re all too familiar with – have combined to make for difficult trading at an individual and institutional level, and offered a sharp reminder that even some of the safest looking assets and platforms can hit the buffers. And when they do, it can suddenly be difficult to get hold of your assets. Exchanges, yield providers and other offerings can pause or remove the ability to withdraw your tokens at very little notice, as we’ve seen with Celsius in recent weeks and other exchanges in the past.
Wallets consist of two components; a public key and a private key. The public key is your address on the blockchain and is visible to everyone, an open ledger of all your transactions and holdings. On Ethereum, you could type this key into Etherscan and see all this information easily and track where funds have been sent to and received from. Your private key, then, gets you access to the contents of that address, sort of like a bank card given you access to your bank account. You use your private key to sign transactions when sending cryptocurrency or interacting with smart contracts – and it should be kept secret, secure and only used by you. In essence, your wallet of choice brings these two keys together and allows you to access the coins you hold on the network without having to sign every individual transaction with your private key over and over. Without both keys combined, your holdings are inaccessible and transactions become impossible.
The most common way of doing this is using a cryptocurrency wallet. Outside of exchanges and crypto-purchasing platforms, holding and transacting in cryptocurrency means using the blockchain that the asset was created on. In the old days, this was a complex task that required a fair deal of technical knowledge, patience, and even good old paper to send coins over the network. Nowadays, we use crypto wallets to make the process easier and more convenient – and for substantial, long-term holdings, you’ll want a cold wallet as we’re covering in this article. If you’ve ever used Defi, DEXs or major NFT marketplaces like Opensea, there’s a good chance you already have a type of “hot” wallet and are familiar with the basics. Wallets allow you to hold your crypto on the blockchain and control it yourself – nobody can take it away from you without using your “keys” to transact it away, which you can secure in a variety of ways
Cold wallets (or cold storage) are not connected to the internet, keeping your private keys away from your devices and therefore safer from hackers, theft or other potential security mishaps. Whereas hot wallets upload data to and from a server to authenticate various elements of your use of the wallet (which could be intercepted or hacked), cold wallets use industry-grade encryption to ensure that your private key is secure. They’re much less convenient, but offer a range of features to keep your crypto much safer, and in some cases, offer options to secure other elements of your digital life too.
This might get you thinking about the alternatives, like self-custodying your crypto. Sure, the yield is nice, but no yield is worth losing substantial portions of your net worth if a company goes under. 12% of nothing is still nothing. This is where the adage “not your keys, not your coin” sprung from – a shorthand reminder that giving someone else control of your crypto, no matter how trustworthy, still carries inherent risk to your assets… and unlike your fiat deposits in a bank, they’re generally not protected by consumer protections or insurance schemes.. So how can you secure your assets under your own jurisdiction? How do you hold on to your “keys” so to speak, and self-custody your Bitcoin, Ethereum or other assets? And how do you do this for the long haul?
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Cold storage options
Moving on to hardware wallets. Hardware wallets are devices that connect to your phone or computer before you’re able to make transactions. Your private key is stored on an encrypted chip within the device which cannot be read, secured by a PIN number that only you will know.
We’re going to look at 4 hardware providers here, but it is worth noting that what all of these devices do is store your private key. You can also store your private key and/or recovery phrase with more lowtech options such as a paper wallet (writing your private key by hand, or printing it out) or things like billfold plates – credit-card sized pieces of metal with your key or recovery phrase stamped into it. It goes without saying that you should then keep these hidden and/or locked away, ideally checking on them regularly to ensure their integrity, and completely separate from your hardware device.
Firstly (and perhaps most importantly), if you are setting up a cold wallet, keep your keys OFF your smartphone/computer, and create a new wallet rather than importing an old one. The whole point of creating some cold storage is to create an “airgap” between your crypto and the internet, to protect against hackers or thieves accessing your device and taking your coins. An airgap is a step between your private key and your device or the internet.
It should go without saying then that creating a Word file back-up of your keys is a big no-no, as is taking a photo of your private key, seed phrase, or PIN number. And in particular never upload or store these in the cloud. Keyloggers could read what you type and send your keys directly to a hacker, they could just search your device for a tell-tale document or photo, or even intercept unencrypted data transmitting these files to or from your device. Not great for your security - particularly if this has already happened, unbeknownst to you. No cold wallet is secure if your keys are compromised through bad data hygiene.
Hot wallets, therefore, are useful for day-to-day transacting and should be thought of similarly to your actual wallet. You’d likely keep some money in it to use in Dapps and other things, but you wouldn’t want to keep too much value in them, particularly if using a portable device that could be an easier target for theft. Cold wallets are more like vaults or safe deposit boxes – much less convenient for accessing your holdings, but much more secure and a better option for any sizeable holdings. Securing your crypto long-term is what we’ll be looking at in more depth below - rounding up a variety of cold wallet options, as well as some crypto security food-for-thought.
This is usually achieved by your key being encrypted by a hardware wallet and transactions being confirmed on the wallet itself, so your private key is never shared with your computer or any potential ne’er-do-wells. Setting up a new wallet (and therefore new private key) starts you off with a clean slate and a proper airgap - importing an old wallet that might’ve been compromised would undermine your efforts to secure your crypto.
Next, if substantial amounts of your net worth are in crypto, consider multiple wallets to hold your crypto. Rather than load up a single wallet with all your holdings, consider splitting your crypto across multiple options in case something happens to a single one. Mistakes happen and it’s better that you only lose a portion of your coins if anything were to go wrong. Diversifying your portfolio applies just as much to security as it does to assets.
Thirdly, make back ups and failsafes. As mentioned above, this does not mean uploading your keys or passwords to the cloud. As we will go into below, you have many hardware options for cold storage, but you can also create hard-copy, physical prints of your keys or recovery phrases that you can store securely, separate from your wallet itself. Consider what you would do if your hardware wallet failed or was stolen.
Self-custody security considerations
Then consider what you would do if your second option was inaccessible or destroyed. Obviously the extreme that you can take this to depends on the size of your portfolio – but self-custodying means being responsible and keeping your money in your hands. Nothing worse than being a certain guy from Newport in the UK, with millions of pounds of Bitcoin stuck on a single hard drive in a landfill, never to be accessed again. If you’ve got the coins, spend a tiny portion of your worth on making sure you keep them.
Ledger https://www.ledger.com/
Trezor https://trezor.io/
When plugged in, your computer or phone never gets to “see” your private key, nor do any transactions get transmtited containing this essential strip of data. Using one of these minimises the ways your wallet could be targeted - if they’re stolen, they have failsafes. If they were hacked, they’re encrypted. If your phone/laptop was accessed, your private key was never visible. While they can’t stop you aping into bad projects, they can stop bad actors getting to your funds.
In addition, the Trezor Model T offers U2F and FIDO2 authentication, which means you can use your Trezor as an authenticator for logging in securely to sites such as Facebook, Gmail, Github and Binance. It offers you the option to doubledown on the security of your digital life. While there are other options to do this which might also have wider compatibility, if you’re serious about digital safety and want to take the step up from mobile authenticators like Google Authenticator or Authy, then this might be a nice added feature for you.
Ledger is one of the biggest players in the hardware wallet space and their Ledger Nano X is consistently rated highly by tech writers, crypto enthusiasts and hodlers of all stripes. While it’s not the cheapest option at around $150, it’s also far from the most expensive and strikes a great balance between price, features, support and security – making it a good value pick. Ledger has integrations with major software wallet providers such as Metamask which gives you the flexibility to use the device to access the whole of Web3, and supports over 5,000 cryptocurrencies. If you’ve got a diverse portfolio, there’s a good chance the Ledger Nano X has you covered.
for splitting your portfolio across multiple wallets, or creating back-up devices should you lose your “main” wallet. The S’s also come in a variety of colours, if that’s your thing.
Trezor – like Ledger – also offer a slightly lower priced option for those that don’t need the doeverything nature of the Model T. The Trezor Model One ($85) was THE original hardware wallet and still goes strong today, showing just how reliable it has been for the crypto industry. For the cut in cost, you get a smaller monochrome screen, slightly lower security without the FIDO2 offering and on-device PIN/passphrase entry (although still far above what most people are likely to need), a few less coins supported (including Monero, Cardano, Ripple and Tezos) and a different connector offering. For most users, the Model One is more than sufficient, but the Model T is there for the power user or ubersecurity minded.
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It has Bluetooth for use with compatible devices, adding an extra layer of convenience if you’re transacting on-the-go with security kept strong by the encryption between Nano and your phone. Navigating and confirming transactions is simple with some on-device buttons, and it’s size means it’s easy enough to keep on hand or easily sequest away. Additionally, the Nano X features a PIN entry failsafe (3 wrong entries and the device will factory reset, keeping it safe from thieves) as well as other security features which will keep your crypto safe. If you don’t need Bluetooth support, want a slightly smaller device, or just want to save a bit of cash, Ledger also sells the Nano S ($59) and the Nano S Plus ($79). Both of these devices offer the same high-grade encryption of the X and the excellent compatibility and support, but remove Bluetooth from the mix and differ in connector offered (the Nano S uses MicroUSB, while the newer Nano S Plus has a USB-C connector). These are also available in packs on the Ledger website – perfect
Another long-term player in the hardware wallet market, Trezor has created the Rolls Royce of hardware wallets with a price to match. The Trezor Model T ($295) secures your crypto, but can also be used to secure the rest of your online life too. For crypto, the Model T offers support for 1200 cryptocurrencies (so you’re probably covered if you deal in the majors which would be sensible if you’re hodling long-term), with all transactions being confirmed on the device itself via a relatively large colour touchscreen. The on-device nature of things means your PIN and passphrase stays safe from any keylogging on your laptop or phone, minimising your risk of attack.
Safepal S1
Finally, the Safepal S1 is a Binance Labs-backed hardware wallet that might just win the prize for the most engineered device on this list, as well as somehow managing to be the cheapest at just $49. In contrast to a lot of the other wallets listed here, the Safepal S1 doesn’t do USB. Instead, signing transactions involves scanning QR codes with the wallet’s integrated camera and your device. Safepal considers this a method of creating a “true airgap” as little data flows between the Safepal and your smartphone. Chuck in support for 30,000 cryptocurrencies, the same industry-standard security of the others, and the lowest price on this list, what’s not to love?
This isn’t necessarily a problem – and as long as you keep your private keys available in an alternative form, you can recover your crypto through other tools and even onto other devices later.
The device does not support Metamask at the moment due to Metamask software re-writing, but ShiftCrypto have set out to include this in the future which is great news for usability long-term.
https://shiftcrypto.ch/
But with a smaller track record of success and support, it’s something to bear in mind when planning your backups and how viable it could be long term. In theory, if Safepal developers were to stop for whatever reason, you might struggle to be able to transact in the same fashion - although support at the moment looks great, with them already supporting things like LUNA2 despite the chains’ relatively recent creation. You might even consider Safepal as a cheap option for a minority portion of your stack to try it out or as a back-up, while keeping your bigger chunk of change stored with one of the established brands. The options are there.
https://www.safepal.io/
Their device supports U2F like the Trezors, which allows it to act as a login token for a number of popular sites and crypto exchanges, enhancing your security as you go about your trading. It also allows you to create encrypted backups of your private key on a microSD card, which gives you the option of easily restoring access to another BitBox should your original one fail. This comes with the caveat of keeping that card safe, secure, locked away and protected from damage… But it offers an additional option for your backups that some other tokens don’t.
Well… Convenience and track record. The S1 is a fair chunk bigger than a lot of the options on this list, which isn’t a huge dealbreaker as it’s still only the size of a credit card. However, the big downside is a lack of support for other tools and software. Ledger, Trezor and even BitBox integrate (or are looking to integrate) with other major platforms like Metamask to give folks a convenient route into Web3, while still retaining the security of a hardware wallet. But because of the unique nature of S1’s operation, it really only works within the Safepal app.
BitBox from ShiftCrypto
BitBox has a few other neat features that might tempt you when weighing this against the similarlypriced Nano X or the cheaper products here.
While BitBox offers two devices – one for Bitcoin alone, with the other supporting the aforementioned 1500 coins – they’re both priced the same. It doesn’t really make much sense not to go for the multi-support device unless you’re a stringent Bitcoin maxi or want to have your Bitcoin and other coins held in separate wallets.
A newer entrant to the market, ShiftCrypto are a Swiss crypto security firm producing an alternative to the old guard of Ledger and Trezor. Priced to sit in the mid-range of these devices at around $140, BitBox supports for over 1500 coins, connectivity via USB-C for smartphones and computers, and on-device touch controls for signing transactions to control your crypto.
The BitBox comes with a MicroSD card included, which means you are essentially getting the device and a complimentary separate back-up option in one go, although you would then be tied into using a BitBox again to restore from the card.
Final considerations
Self-custody is a huge step towards independence from the big platforms that underpin our crypto experience day-today. Exchanges and service providers offer massive convenience, low fees for transacting and other perks for using them, but are not immune to systemic risk or contagion in difficult market conditions as we’re now seeing. As Mt Gox hodlers will tell you, even the most invincible-looking companies can fail, and by putting your portfolio into cold storage, you can take responsibility for your crypto future and mitigate against some of that risk exposure. It comes with added work needed to keep things safe and secure, but if you can take these steps, your holdings will be secured on the blockchain and out-of-reach of failing businesses.
There’s nothing stopping you putting things back onto exchanges when you need them for trading or exchanging to fiat, and fees are generally relatively low to move off and on exchanges/service providers if you have a substantial portfolio, particularly if you’re only moving a few times here and there. Those fees – and the cost of a few pieces of hardware from the list above – will be a worthwhile investment to keep your crypto safe, whatever the winds might blow.
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industry is built upon the concept of self-custody. The benefit of crypto is the fact that these public blockchains can cryptographically prove who owns a particular asset and is accessible to the public, removing the need for an intermediary to custody your assets. This is both good and bad. Good in the sense that you are able to take complete control of your finances but bad in the sense that the transaction is final once made. It doesn’t matter if you were scammed or made a simple mistake. If there is an accidental charge on your credit or debit card, you can petition the transaction to get your funds back. Depending on the wallet type, will confer a certain amount of protection of your funds. Cold wallets confer the highest protection of your crypto funds. These wallets are physical devices that store your keys and are not directly connected to the internet and therefore more secure and less vulnerable to attack. A Ledger is one example of this. The physical device stores your keys and for a transaction to be made, you need to connect it to the internet and approve the transaction on the physical device. Hot wallets are software-based and always connected to the internet, opening up a wide variety of attack vectors.
10 things to consider when evaluating crypto projects
These attack vectors can be in the form of hackers accessing your keys through a vulnerability in the software, government regulation, or other technical vulnerabilities. Within each of these storage types, there are a variety of products differing in quality. While hot wallets support a wide variety of networks and are convenient for accessing DeFi and Web3, cold wallets offer superior protection but are typically limited in the networks supported and inconvenient for readily accessing Web3. Take the time and energy to invest in both storage options to ensure your funds remain safe.
DudekDanielbywritten
Abstract
Let’s Define Being Rugged
1. Storage - Hot Wallet vs Cold Wallet Storage is extremely important as this new
How to not get rugged:
The cryptocurrency space is the most innovative space of our generation. Blockchain technology is one of the core technological developments contributing to the time in which we currently live being labeled the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. The world has unlocked the ability to assign value to the intangible, bank the unbanked, generate new business models for creators to directly bring value to their audiences, and, most importantly, enable individuals from all walks of life wherever they are on the planet to participate in a global market. We are changing the way the masses express value, conduct business, and digitally identify themselves. With all of this amazing innovation and hype, there are A LOT of scams, memes, and ways to lose money. In this month’s deep dive, I will share with you 10 ways to avoid losing money in this exciting new frontier. These will be things to consider when evaluating crypto projects and also things you should know in general.
To set the framework for this article, I am defining rugged as en entry into a project where you lose value from malicious acts of the creators or when you are scammed out of your funds. There is extreme volatility in this market and just because your project drops more than 75%, it doesn’t mean you are being rugged. Ethereum is experiencing this from the highs right now yet we do not deem this as a rugging event.
2. Phishing Attacks
Sources of funding can be tied to partnerships but this section more directly relates to which groups are actually funding the project, i.e. investment firms, VC funds, etc.. We see time and time again VC funds pumping a project to the heavens enabled by their ability to fund marketing campaigns and generate hype. VCs and seed investors cannot exit their positions unless the liquidity necessary is present. Therefore, while VCs and other large investment firms provide funds to the teams to develop, caution is required because depending on when you are buying could mean that you are exit liquidity. When evaluating funding sources, looking into the track record and composition of assets held by them is extremely informative. Do these sources have a track record of dumping on retail at peak prices and liquidity? If so, you may want to avoid those projects at certain times to avoid the risk of losing the value of your position.
In some ways this is an obvious factor to pay attention to but a project with a doxxed team is less likely to rug compared to one that is anon. A truly doxxed team creates a sense of public accountability and introduces potential criminal charges depending on the jurisdiction if any wrongdoing is found. In the US, if you are a doxxed team and are launching a token, your identity is tied to a public record of your action within the space. The SEC or other governmental agencies will come after you. Both the IRS and SEC are ramping up efforts to persecute wrongdoers within the space. Well, maybe not the SEC… If you are an anonymous team, you don’t have the same level of public accountability and can potentially get away with scamming or rugging individuals
Social media activity is an important indicator for growth of a project but can be difficult to evaluate during a time when all communication platforms host fake activity. For example, projects are able to buy followers creating the illusion of a high activity. One way to evaluate this is to look on-chain at the number of unique wallet address vs the twitter/ social media following. We also know that bots are extremely prevalent in discord channels, on twitter, in telegram, etc. In discord, teams are able to implement certain levels of security standards that protect the channel from a bot invasion. If the project you are looking into has no precautions set, you might want to consider the possibility that the channel is exhibiting artificial activity to attract participants to dump their tokens on. When you experience a large community with real human activity, this reduces the risk of being rugged.
who do not do proper due diligence. This is not saying anon teams are malicious, but there is a risk curve in the space and doxxed teams are under more scrutiny than undoxxed. You can also see the quality of the team. If the team is comprised of Web2 industry leaders with experience in building a company or various products, it will be less likely that you will be rugged than a team with no experience.
6. Social Media Activity
While storage is an important factor, regardless of the type of storage solution, phishing attacks are the most common attack vector and penetrate all forms of security. This is because they prey not on technological vulnerabilities but on the vulnerabilities of human nature. If you follow a link by a “trusted individual” and supply your seed phrase, you will lose your funds. Human nature will always be a vector of attack and the best thing you can do to prevent this is to never click suspicious links or supply your private keys or seed phrase to anyone, no matter who they are.
3. Partnerships
5. Funding Sources
Partnerships are extremely important in this industry. Whether it’s technologies building together or marketing partnerships, it is important to evaluate the partnerships on their merits and not the total number a project has. For example, if a dozen crypto projects with little funding partner with each other relying solely on the value of their tokens and the market tumbles, the entire connected network can lose funding to continue building. This happens during every crypto winter. Projects wither and die from a lack of funding. Compare this to a crypto project partnering with a large global company. They then have the resources and connections to continue building through market downside. If the large company has an extended network, this will also provide higher potential growth and validity to the project you are entering into. A project partnering with Disney is more valuable and reassuring than a crypto project having a dozen or more partnerships with unknown crypto projects. Real partnerships with actual upstanding companies will decrease the likelihood of the project being a scam.
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4. Doxxed Team
There is always chat about how “everything is a ponzi” because price appreciation increases as more people buy into the product but there are crypto projects that are legitimate ponzi schemes. By definition this is a form of fraud where early investors are paid from the fees of later investors. This can be easy to identify especially if the project has no other way of generating the revenue that is promised to the early investors. When new projects are launched, people skilled in data analysis can easily debunk the token models presented and often do. You will notice they will be considered “FUDders.” This is different from burn or percent
This truly relates back to the age old phrase “do proper due diligence”. Doing your own research is absolutely essential in this space and it combines everything we are discussing here but I want to add emphasis on being weary of new projects. Projects that have accumulated an enormous amount of value are less likely to be rug pulled but this is obviously a probability. Literally nothing in life is definitive unless they are the laws of physics that govern the universe. Even the people that question Bitcoin supply valid reasons to question it’s existence and place within our financial system. Whether you like this or not, it’s true. If it were found that any communist nation was responsible for the inception of Bitcoin, this would cause a quick crash to zero. Again, all outcomes are assigned a probability just like everything in life. This doesn’t mean it’s true. People have a difficult time dealing with this concept. When exploring a brand new project, a lower probability of success should be assigned as with the higher risk. As you move to more lower cap projects, you are moving further out onto the risk curve. The main point here is to not take anything at face value, assess a probability of success, and avoid being pressured into buying anything. This market is volatile and pressuring people into buying by churning human emotions is what scammers do best. Act rationally, be skeptical, and don’t trade based on emotions. Be robotic and data driven.
7. The Opportunity is “Too Good to be True”
Any project promising you guaranteed returns will likely be a scam and you will potentially be rugged. There is no such thing as guaranteed appreciation of value or profits. This tactic takes advantage of people in unfortunate financial situations who feel desperate and need the money. Unfortunately, those who fall victim to this type of scenario will be worse off than when they started. There is no technology which is guaranteed to be the best. The market will dictate this. Avoid being rugged by avoiding extremely high appreciation promised in a short time frame. One example of this would be entering into a “pump and dump” group. Coordinated buying to pump up price results in extreme sell pressure. Whoever is the last to buy in the group risks losing their money. This is different from High APY’s in DeFi where APR is driven by the amount of liquidity in the pools, number of participants, and tokenomics. Early stage DeFi projects can have high APRs in the beginning but gradually decrease with the number of individuals in the pool. This comes with it’s own set of risks but is different from the concept of “Too Good to be True” opportunities.
8. Pay Attention to Tokenomics to Avoid Ponzi Schemes
distribution mechanics. There are projects that promise revenue to early investors from the fees of later investors with no other way of generating that revenue distrubuted. These type of models that fit the literal definition of a Ponzi Scheme should be taken with extreme caution to avoid being rugged.
9. Be Weary of New Projects and Don’t Feel Pressured
A Few Final Words
The cryptocurrency space has undergone a cambrian explosion of creativity and with it, thousands of tokens. It’s important to dissect what the actual purpose the token has. This is the issue that regulators across the globe have with this new frontier of innovation. How do they regulate crypto? What should it be classified as? What purpose do the tokens actually have? Full stop, thousands of the tokens in existence are highly likely to be securities in that the technology the teams are developing is nowhere near complete or isn’t even functional and the token is primarily used as a fundraising mechanism with no true need within the platform other than an incentive mechanism to increase adoption. For thousands of these “governance” tokens, once they pump, the developers give up, cash out and you are left holding the bags. Often times, teams will simply fork some defi code, give it a new creative name, create a website, shill the project, and exit when liquidity arrives. In addition to this, the number of tokens allocated to retail in circulation typically never exceed the number of tokens held by the development team and the user-interface for enabling everyone to actually participate in governing the network is poor, resulting in a false sense of governance. Compare this to a token with the primary function as a commodity or a medium of exchange on the network for services rendered. For example, in a decentralized cloud computing network, if I want to use bandwidth to perform a task, I need to pay in the native token of the network. The token functions as a medium of exchange. This distinction can be noticed very easily in multi-token systems where one token is used as governance and one is used as the medium of exchange. What value does the governance token have when more than 75% is typically allocated to the team compared to the token that is used for services rendered on the network?
And last but not least…
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The core point I am trying to convey is that an individual should think about what utility the token has in the ecosystem, who is accruing the most value, and is the token even necessary? How will these factors related to utility influence the price appreciation of the token? These are the questions you should be asking to avoid being rugged. Even now, we are seeing projects like Optimism developing their platform first, being funded by donations and grants, and then aidropping a token to early adopters of the platform based on their activity. The token wasn’t used primarily as a fundraising vehicle to develop their platform.
This is an extremely exciting market capable of financially changing lives. The gains we experience in this market are unlike any other market in existence. It can feel like a lottery at times. When you are up big, you feel like a god but absolutely terrible when the market nose dives or your project gets rugged. These are some of the ways I have been able to make decisions within this space and I am sure there are other tips people have as well. I encourage everyone to share their ways of assessing projects within this space. The purpose of this article is to provide you with information to use that will aid in navigating this chaotic space. You will not agree with everyone’s assessment and it’s more common than not to get rugged. It happens to everyone. What is important is to learn from it to help make better decisions in the future and maybe don’t throw all of your net wealth into a lowcap memecoin that will likely go to zero. Diversify, take calculated risks, and try to do as much research as you can.
10. What Does The Token Actually Do?
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