Blockchain

Ethereum competitor Near Protocol (NEAR) gains 106% as DeFi heats up

Published

2 months ago

January 16, 2021

Near Protocol (NEAR) is a smart contract platform that uses parallel processing to scale the network. This technique, known as sharding, resembles what Eth2 is aiming to achieve and Near’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism also allows token holders to stake their coins.

In the past month, NEAR has rallied by 107% and this raises questions on whether the project is making significant strides in what has become an ultra-competitive smart contract industry.

*NEAR/USDT (Binance). Source: TradingView*

Compared to its competitors, NEAR is a relatively new project as the mainnet only launched in April 2020. Unlike Ethereum, NEAR’s consensus mechanism works towards fee stabilization and according to its website, the protocol aims to accelerate the development of decentralized applications.

Interestingly, Near’s ICO took place four months after its mainnet launch. A possible reason for this is that the team raised $35 million in private funding rounds held in July 2019 and May 2020. Among its investors are Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z Crypto Investments, Pantera Capital, Electric Capital, and Ripple’s incubator Xpring.

Over the past three months, Near Protocols’ network activity has increased significantly and information on the Near Blog shows there are a couple of exciting applications already live.

*Near Protocol daily number of transactions. Source: explorer.near.org*

One is Berry Club, a yield arming app/game that lets players draw with pixels and earn collectible tokens. Another application called Paras also allows users to interact with a NFT digital art card marketplace.

DeFi integration accelerates

On Nov. 24, 2020, 1inch.exchange-backed project Mooniswap revealed their plan to build Automated Market Making (AAM) features on NEAR.The decentralized exchange’s aggregator is designed to roll liquidity and pricing from all significant DEXs into one platform.

Sergej Kunz, CEO and co-founder of 1inch, stated: “By building on NEAR, we’ll be able to experiment with sharding and be prepared for the arrival of Ethereum 2.0.”

On Jan. 19, Crypto.com also intends to launch a new pool offering $250,000 worth of NEAR tokens at 50% below the market price. Clients will need to stake CRO tokens and also meet the set trading volume requirements on the exchange.

One area of concern is there are open questions regarding how the community treasury is governed. A substantial number of NEAR tokens are being managed by a handful of people who are not required to abide by clear guidelines and rules.

*NEAR Twitter user activity vs. price (USD). Source:* *TheTie*

Data from TheTie, an alternative social analytics platform, shows that the recent price spike was accompanied by increased social network activity. Nevertheless, transfers and transactions on the Near Protocol mainnet began only three months ago.

Compared to its competitors NEAR protocol appears to be in an early development stage. Effectively delivering the Mooniswap integration will likely be an important milestone for the project and if successful, NEAR token could possibly see further upside.

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.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-competitor-near-protocol-near-gains-106-as-defi-heats-up

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Blockchain

Fund Manager Bashes Bitcoin: An Extreme Form of Libertarian Anarchism

Published

3 hours ago

March 9, 2021

Republished by Plato

As Bitcoin price makes headlines across mainstream and financial media, skeptics of cryptocurrencies have come out of the woodwork in droves.

The latest skepticism comes from Tim Bond, partner and portfolio manager at Odey Asset Management, who claims that Bitcoin has very little benefit to society, and instead is an extreme form of Libertarian anarchism. But could there actually be truth in the bold, blanket statement?

Tim Bond Bashes Bitcoin As Pointless, Vile, And Damaging To The Environment

Bitcoin is a subject that most economists, tech enthusiasts entrepreneurs, and fund managers alike are asked about these days, as the asset has ballooned from under $10,000 to more than $50,000 per » Read more

” href=”https://www.newsbtc.com/dictionary/coin/” data-wpel-link=”internal”>coin in less than one year.

Depending on who you ask, it is the most important technological revolution since the internet, while others might claim it is a bubble wait to burst.

Tim Bond, fund manager at Odey Asset Management, instead calls it “particularly vile,” “pointless,” and “damaging to the environment.”

Bond claims that Bitcoin isn’t only emitting more CO2 than most small economies, but that it is spearheading “a particularly extreme form of libertarian anarchism,” which he says is why the cryptocurrency is so popular amongst Silicon Valley types.

“If bitcoin starts to displace fiat currencies [government-issued currency that is not backed by a commodity], governments’ ability to tax, spend and redistribute will be severely impaired,” Bond continued.

bitcoin btcusd

As Bitcoin grows in value, the more disruptive power it wields | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Crypto Anarchist Future Prefers Consensus Over Forced Taxation

Bond, however, is absolutely right about at least one thing: Bitcoin could severely impact a “governments’ ability to tax, spend and redistribute” – a system that is arguably broken already.

Governments like the United States establish control over society through their money, and without that leverage, society won’t be as compelled to comply with taxation and other forms of control.

While much of this infrastructure was designed for the benefit of civilized society, governments have abused this control and how they redistribute wealth is a major ongoing economic problem that only Bitcoin has the potential to fix.

Related Reading | Why March Is The Bloodiest Month In Bitcoin History

By removing the government from the equation, it will require community consensus – something the crypto industry does well – to handle redistribution in the future.

Bitcoin has several key benefits that give the unique cryptocurrency its underlying value. It cannot be counterfeited, there are only 21 million BTC available ever, and much more. However, the greatest benefit of all could be the fact that governments can control it – something that Bond clearly can’t comprehend.

Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com

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Source: https://www.newsbtc.com/news/bitcoin/bitcoin-libertarian-anarchism/

Blockchain

Chiliz (CHZ) rallies 60% to a $1B market cap as fan token offerings expand

Published

5 hours ago

March 8, 2021

Republished by Plato

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) are two of the hottest concepts in the crypto sector, and each is altering the way projects and companies interact with the public on a wide scale.

One project that is looking to apply these concepts into a framework for sports fan engagement is Chiliz, a blockchain platform created by the Socios fan engagement platform. The project is designed to allow fans to purchase branded Fan Tokens that let them influence their teams through the popular vote.

According to the project website, all Fan Tokens are minted on the Chiliz blockchain with on-platform voting being executed through a series of smart contracts.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that over the past month, the price of Chiliz (CHZ) has increased 760%, going from $0.022 on Feb. 8 to a new all-time high of $0.189 on March 8. CHZ trading volume also hit a 24-hour record at $1.92 billion.

*CHZ/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

The platform currently offers Fan Tokens for some of the most popular sports teams in the world, including FC Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, AS Roma, Galatasaray and Atletico de Madrid.

Token launch sparked a strong rally

Momentum for Chiliz began to gather steam at the end of 2020 when the platform partnered with Binance to launch the ACM Fan Token for AC Milan on Feb. 24. The launch generated $6 million in revenue for the CHZ ecosystem.

ACM is part of a network of 23 major sporting and esports organizations that also have plans to work with Chiliz on launching Fan Tokens.

CHZ price received an added boost on March 2 when CEO Alexandre Dreyfus announced that the project would allocate $50 million to expand operations to the United States, and there are already plans to start working with local leagues and sports franchises.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for CHZ on March 1, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. CHZ price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ score hit a high of 66 on March 1, less than 5 hours before the price of CHZ began to break out above $0.06. Following the price rise and consolidation above $0.11, the VORTECS™ score climbed to 69 on March 6, two days before the price surged to a new all-time high.

Currently, Chiliz is in ongoing talks with Formula One, and if the team is able to onboard popular U.S. sporting teams, the project could be well positioned to see further growth as blockchain technology and NFTs become more ingrained into the sports industry.

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

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Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/chiliz-chz-rallies-60-to-a-1b-market-cap-as-fan-token-offerings-expand

Blockchain

Decentralized esports tournament series looks to bring traditional gamers to crypto

Published

5 hours ago

March 8, 2021

Republished by Plato

Non-fungible token-focused investment firm Polyient Games is launching a new online tournament to introduce mainstream gamers to the crypto space.

In an announcement today, Polyient Games said it would be partnering with esports tournament platform Community Gaming for a $100,000 series featuring games using non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The esports games will reportedly “function as a method of introducing mainstream gamers to the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain assets” by allowing players to acquire digital collectibles and use NFTs as in-game items.

“The marriage between decentralized technology and gaming will be one of the most significant themes of the coming decade,” said Craig Russo, co-founder of Polyient Games. “Our work with Community Gaming on this brand new decentralized tournament series serves as a major step towards bringing mainstream adoption to this new industry.”

In addition to esports games, the tournament will reportedly feature blockchain games including trading and battling game Axie Infinity and Ethereum-based digital trading card game SkyWeaver. All games will reportedly utilize Polyient Games’ decentralized exchange for in-game currencies.

The first event of the $100,000 tournament will begin on March 29, with prizes paid out in U.S. dollars and Polyient Games’ native token, PGU.

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Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/decentralized-esports-tournament-series-looks-to-bring-traditional-gamers-to-crypto