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Top Crypto Officials Willing to Cooperate With Legal Authorities for Better Consumer Protection

## ما هي ستيلر (XLM)؟

ببساطة، ستيلر (Stellar) عبارة عن شبكة مفتوحة المصدر تسمح بنقل الأموال وتخزينها. عندما تم إصدار الرمز المشفّر في يوليو 2014، كان أحد أهدافه هو تعزيز الشمول المالي من خلال الوصول إلى غير المتعاملين مع البنوك في العالم — ولكن بعد ذلك بوقت قصير، تحولت أولوياته إلى مساعدة الشركات المالية على التواصل مع بعضها البعض من خلال تقنية سلسلة الكتل.

يعمل الرمز المشفّر الأصلي للشبكة كجسر يجعل تداول الأصول عبر الحدود أقل تكلفة. والهدف الرئيسي من وراءه هو مجاراة مزودي الدفع الحاليين، الذين غالبا ما يفرضون رسوما عالية على خدمة مماثلة.

إذا كان كل هذا يبدو مألوفا، تجدر الإشارة إلى أن ستيلر كان يعتمد في الأصل على بروتوكول ريبل. وكانت سلسلة كتله قد نشأت نتيجة انقسام ثابت منه، ثم تم إعادة كتابة الكود لاحقا.

### من هم مؤسسو ستيلر؟

أسس ستيلر جد مكاليب مع المحامية جويس كيم عقب مغادرته ريبل في عام 2013 بسبب خلافات حول الاتجاه المستقبلي للشركة.

في شرح الأساس المنطقي وراء ستيلر في سبتمبر 2020، [قال مكاليب لـ CoinMarketCap](https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/2020/09/20/stellars-jed-mccaleb-crypto-doesnt-need-more-regulation-it-needs-clarity/): "يهدق التصميم الأصلي لستيلر إلى توفير إمكانية جعل العملات الورقية، وغيرها من أشكال القيمة تعمل بالتوازي مع بعضها البعض ومع الأصول المشفرة. وهو أمر بالغ الأهمية لصنع اتجاه سائد ".

حيث يركّز مكاليب على ضمان توفير ستيلر لطريقة تمكّن الناس من نقل أموالهم الورقية إلى العملات المشفّرة — وتحييد أي عقبات يواجهها الناس عادة عندما يرسلون الأموال في جميع أنحاء العالم.

وهو يشغل حاليا منصب المدير التقني لستيلر، فضلا عن كونه المؤسس المشارك لمؤسسة ستيلر للتنمية. وتهدف هذه المنظمة غير الربحية إلى "إطلاق العنان للإمكانات الاقتصادية للعالم من خلال جعل المال أكثر مرونة، والأسواق أكثر انفتاحا، والناس أكثر تمكينا".

### ما الذي يميّز ستيلر؟

الرسوم هي نقطة شائكة بالنسبة للكثيرين. ولا تقتصر التكاليف المرتفعة عند إجراء المدفوعات عبر الحدود على حلول المدفوعات القائمة على العملات الورقية مثل باي بال — فمن المعروف أيضا أن رسوم المعاملات تصل إلى مستويات عليا على سلسلتي كتل بيتكوين وإيثريوم بسبب الازدحام.

ستيلر فريد من نوعه لأن كل معاملة تكلف فقط 0.00001 XLM. وباعتبار أن سعر الوحدة الواحدة من هذه العملة المشفرة لا يتعدى سوى بضعة سنتات في وقت كتابة هذا التقرير، فإن هذا يساعد على ضمان توفير المستخدمين للمزيد من أموالهم.

لا يوجد سوى عدد قليل من مشاريع سلاسل الكتل التي استطاعت تأمين شراكات مع شركات التكنولوجيا الكبرى وشركات التكنولوجيا المالية. منها ستيلر التي تعاونت قبل بضع سنوات مع آي بي إم لإطلاق وورلد واير، وهو مشروع سمح للمؤسسات المالية الكبيرة بتنفيذ المعاملات عبر شبكة ستيلر والتعامل باستخدام أصول الجسور مثل العملات المستقرة.

وعلى الرغم من امتلاك سلاسل الكتل الأخرى لأموال مخصصة للمجتمع، أي يمكنها تقديم منح للمشاريع التي تساعد على تعزيز النظام البيئي، إلا أن ستيلر تسمح لمستخدميها بالتصويت على المشاريع التي يجب منحها هذا الدعم.

#### صفحات ذات صلة: 

[اكتشف المزيد عن ريبل (XRP)، العملة المشفرة التي انقسمت عنها XLM](https://coinmarketcap.com/ar/currencies/xrp/)

[اقرأ مقابلة "كريبتو تيتانز" مع جد مكاليب من ستيلر](https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/2020/09/20/stellars-jed-mccaleb-crypto-doesnt-need-more-regulation-it-needs-clarity/)

[CMC Alexandria: أفضل مورد تعليمي للعملات المشفرة](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/)

[المزيد من المقابلات على مدونة CoinMarketCap](https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/)

### كم عدد عملات ستيلر (XLM) الموجودة في التداول؟

تم إنشاء ما مجموعه 100 مليار XLM عندما تم إطلاق شبكة ستيلر في عام 2015 — لكن الأمور تغيرت منذ ذلك الوقت. في الوقت الحاضر، يبلغ إجمالي المعرض 50 مليار XLM، ويبلغ المعرض المتداول حاليا 20.7 مليار.

في عام 2019، أعلنت مؤسسة Stellar Development Foundation أنها حرقت (دمرت) أكثر من نصف المعروض من عملتها المشفرة. ما جعل حيازتها تقتصر الآن على ما يقرب من 30 مليار XLM. ورغم أن بعض رأس المال هذا مخصص للتسويق ومساعدة المنظمة على التطور، فإن حوالي ثلثه مخصص للقيام باستثمارات في مشاريع سلاسل الكتل الأخرى.

وفي معرض شرحها لسبب اتخاذ هذه الخطوة — ووعدها بعدم حرق المزيد من XLM في المستقبل — أوضحت المؤسسة: "يمكن أن تكون سلسلة الكتل أصغر حجما وتقوم بالعمل الذي تم إنشاؤها للقيام به باستخدام عدد أقل من العملات وهذه ال 55.5 مليار قطعة ما كان مقدرا لها أن تزيد من اعتماد ستيلر"

### كيف يتم تأمين شبكة ستيلر؟

يتم تأمين هذه الشبكة باستخدام بروتوكول توافق ستيلر، والذي يوصف بأنه يحتوي على أربع خصائص رئيسية: "التحكم اللامركزي، والتأخير المنخفض، والثقة المرنة، والأمن غير المتناظر".

ومن خلال مجمّع سيولة مجتمع ستيلر، يستطيع أي شخص الانضمام إلى عملية التدقيق حسب نموذج توافق الآراء، ولا يمكن لأي كيان بمفرده أن يحصل في نهاية المطاف على أغلبية سلطة صنع القرار. يتم تأكيد المعاملات أيضا بثمن بخس وفي غضون ثوان قليلة — ويتم تطبيق الضمانات إذا حاولت أي جهات مسيئة الانضمام إلى الشبكة.

### أين يمكنك شراء ستيلر (XLM)؟

XLM، عملة ستيلر مدرجة في مجموعة من أفضل البورصات — بما فيها Binance، وCoinbase، وKraken، وBittrex، وBitfinex، وUpbit، وHuobi. من الشائع تحويل العملات الورقية إلى بيتكوين قبل شراء العملات البديلة، [ويمكنك معرفة المزيد حول كيفية القيام بذلك باستخدام دليلنا](https://coinmarketcap.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin/).

Stellar

Ledger

Trezor

Trust Wallet

Math Wallet

Freighter

Coinbase

Safepal

Atomic wallet

Wirex Token

Launched in 2021, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) is an open-source, permissionless and decentralized technology. Benefits of the XRP Ledger include its low-cost ($0.0002 to transact), speed  (settling transactions in 3-5 seconds), scalability (1,500 transactions per second) and inherently green attributes (carbon-neutral and energy-efficient). The XRP Ledger also features the first decentralized exchange (DEX) and custom tokenization capabilities built into the protocol. Since 2012, the XRP Ledger has been operating reliably, having closed 70 million ledgers.

Algorand is a self-sustaining, decentralized, blockchain-based network that supports a wide range of applications. These systems are secure, scalable and efficient, all critical properties for effective applications in the real world. Algorand will support computations that require reliable performance guarantees to create new forms of trust.

The Algorand mainnet became live in June 2019, and was able to handle almost 1 million transactions per day as of December 2020. Algorand transaction metrics can be viewed here. Algorand initial coin offering (ICO) was held in June 2019, with the Algorand price of $0.24 per token.

Algorand

Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform that says its goal is to allow “changemakers, innovators and visionaries” to bring about positive global change.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Cardano.

The open-source project also aims to “redistribute power from unaccountable structures to the margins to individuals” — helping to create a society that is more secure, transparent and fair.

Cardano was founded back in 2017, and named after the 16th century Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano. The native ADA token takes its name from the 19th century mathematician Ada Lovelace, widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer. The ADA token is designed to ensure that owners can participate in the operation of the network. Because of this, those who hold the cryptocurrency have the right to vote on any proposed changes to the software.

The team behind the layered blockchain say that there have already been some compelling use cases for its technology, which aims to allow decentralized apps and smart contracts to be developed with modularity.

In August 2021, Charles Hoskinson announced the launch of the Alonzo hard fork, causing Cardano price to surge, gaining 116% in the following month. On Sept. 12, 2021, the Cardano ‘Alonzo’ hard fork officially launched, bringing smart contract functionality to the blockchain. Over 100 smart contracts were deployed in the following 24 hours after the launch.

Cardano is used by agricultural companies to track fresh produce from field to fork, while other products built on the platform allow educational credentials to be stored in a tamper-proof way, and retailers to clamp down on counterfeit goods.

Cardano

VeChainThor (VET) is a versatile enterprise-grade L1 smart contract platform whose origins began in 2015. VeChain is known as a pioneer of real-world enterprise applications, and built a distributed platform powered by Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, NFC chips and blockchain to help various industries solve data-related challenges.

VeChain solves major blockchain adoption hurdles. The platform uses an intelligent two token model, VET and VTHO, separating the protocol's Store of Value and gas fee payment mechanisms, ensuring costs can be kept low and stable. Fee delegation allows smart contracts to pay gas fees on behalf of business users, and an advanced transaction model allows data to be packaged more efficiently while ensuring finality of data.

VeChain is focused on delivering a wave of incentive-based sustainability dApps through its new platform, VeBetterDAO, working closely with Boston Consulting Group to achieve adoption across enterprise and individual users, and helping  onboard the next billion users to Web3 over the coming decade.

From supply chains to sustainability, VeChain has continuously demonstrated its leading role as a driver of blockchain in business, and is dedicated to its role as a pioneer of driving real world adoption of blockchain technology.

VeChain

Hedera is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy that allows individuals and businesses to create powerful decentralized applications (DApps).

It is designed to be a fairer, more efficient system that eliminates some of the limitations that older blockchain-based platforms face — such as slow performance and instability.

It was funded through an initial coin offering (ICO) in August 2018 and first launched open access to its mainnet just over a year later in September 2019. As part of the ICO, investors were able to purchase the platform’s native utility token (HBAR) at the lowest possible pricing.

The HBAR token has a dual role within the Hedera public network.

First and foremost, HBAR the fuel that powers Hedera services, such as smart contracts, file storage and regular transactions. Second, it's used to help secure the network, since HBAR users can stake their tokens to assist with maintaining the integrity of the platform.

Hedera (HBAR) is the native cryptocurrency of Hedera Hashgraph, a platform that is positioned as an alternative to traditional blockchain technology and aims to excel in speed, efficiency and security.

Older blockchains tend to use a consensus mechanism like proof-of-work (PoW) to validate transactions, while younger blockchains opted for proof-of-stake (PoS). The Hedera Hashgraph system has a structure that was created from scratch particularly for the project. Hedera is based on a PoS model that is believed to increase the efficiency of transaction verification in the network, provide a high level of security, and protect the network from hacker attacks. Its ecosystem has the underlying hashgraph consensus algorithm and the global enterprise governing body.

Hedera Hashgraph is a distributed ledger technology (DLT). According to the project website, Hedera differs from other blockchains because it uses a new consensus algorithm called hashgraph. It intends to process and execute transactions faster, eliminate delays, and smooth out the TPS (transactions per second) indicator. Hashgraph is claimed to be an upgrade in transaction speed, cost, and scalability.

Core network services by Hedera:

Consensus Service (HCS). With HCS, clients send messages to the network to negotiate consensus timestamping and order. In this case, the state is stored offline, and users can define privacy and access control.

Hedera Token Service (HTS). Thanks to HTS, token creation and management are available to customers. It supports built-in tokenization.

The goal of Hedera’s hashgraph is to increase the speed of transactions. Moreover, the network is also focused on high-volume operations: micropayments, data integrity and tokenization.

Like the EVM, the Hedera network maintains a virtual machine that writes smart contracts in the Solidity programming language. On top of that, Hedera offers a set of built-in KYC and AML checks.

From a technical point of view, Hedera is a form of distributed ledger technology. It is a hashgraph, or consensus algorithm, where users agree on the order in which transactions should be performed. However, Hedera is not exactly a blockchain. It has its own distinctiveness and works differently. With hashgraph, all transaction branches are merged, no block equivalent is thrown away, and each is used to reach consensus.

One of the most noticeable features of the network is the Gossip-about-Gossip protocol. According to Dr. Leemon Baird, Hedera's inventor, within the system nodes randomly transmit data about themselves to other nodes via hashgraph using the Gossip protocol. Soon, all nodes in a cluster become familiar with each other. Then a certain data structure is formed. It consists of a payload of transactions, a timestamp, a digital signature, and hashes to the previous structures.

HBAR is Hedera's native token that powers applications on the Hedera network. HBAR is utilized to pay for network services, transaction fees, in-app payments and micropayments. Developers can pay network fees with HBAR tokens, namely: work with smart contracts, file storage and currency exchange. HBAR is used to incentivize and pay network nodes.

Hedera Hashgraph has a decentralized governance system that is set apart. All critical decisions about pricing policy, software updates, and wealth management are made by the Governing Council.

Hedera

Founded in 2017, Chainlink is a blockchain abstraction layer that enables universally connected smart contracts. Through a decentralized oracle network, Chainlink allows blockchains to securely interact with external data feeds, events and payment methods, providing the critical off-chain information needed by complex smart contracts to become the dominant form of digital agreement.

The Chainlink Network is driven by a large open-source community of data providers, node operators, smart contract developers, researchers, security auditors and more. The company focuses on ensuring that decentralized participation is guaranteed for all node operators and users looking to contribute to the network.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Chainlink.

Chainlink

Polygon (previously Matic Network) is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building multiple types of applications.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Polygon Matic.

Using Polygon, one can create optimistic rollup chains, ZK rollup chains, stand alone chains or any other kind of infra required by the developer.

Polygon effectively transforms Ethereum into a full-fledged multi-chain system (aka Internet of Blockchains). This multi-chain system is akin to other ones such as Polkadot, Cosmos, Avalanche etc. with the advantages of Ethereum’s security, vibrant ecosystem and openness.

The $MATIC token will continue to exist and will play an increasingly important role, securing the system and enabling governance.

Polygon (formerly Matic Network) is a Layer 2 scaling solution backed by Binance and Coinbase. The project seeks to stimulate mass adoption of cryptocurrencies by resolving the problems of scalability on many blockchains.

Polygon combines the Plasma Framework and the proof-of-stake blockchain architecture. The Plasma framework used by Polygon as proposed by the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, allows for the easy execution of scalable and autonomous smart contracts.

Nothing will change for the existing ecosystem built on the Plasma-POS chain. With Polygon, new features are being built around the existing proven technology to expand the ability to cater to diverse needs from the developer ecosystem. Polygon will continue to develop the core technology so that it can scale to a larger ecosystem.

Polygon boasts of up to 65,000 transactions per second on a single side chain, along with a respectable block confirmation time of less than two seconds. The framework also allows for the creation of globally available decentralized financial applications on a single foundational blockchain.

The Plasma framework gives Polygon the potential of housing an unlimited number of decentralized applications on their infrastructure without experiencing the normal drawbacks common on proof-of-work blockchains. So far, Polygon has attracted more than 50 DApps to its PoS-secured Ethereum sidechain.

MATIC, the native tokens of Polygon, is an ERC-20 token running on the Ethereum blockchain. The tokens are used for payment services on Polygon and as a settlement currency between users who operate within the Polygon ecosystem. The transaction fees on Polygon sidechains are also paid in MATIC tokens.

Polygon

Polkadot is an open-source sharded multichain protocol that connects and secures a network of specialized blockchains, facilitating cross-chain transfer of any data or asset types, not just tokens, thereby allowing blockchains to be interoperable with each other. Polkadot was designed to provide a foundation for a decentralized internet of blockchains, also known as Web3.

Polkadot is known as a layer-0 metaprotocol because it underlies and describes a format for a network of layer 1 blockchains known as parachains (parallel chains). As a metaprotocol, Polkadot is also capable of autonomously and forklessly updating its own codebase via on-chain governance according to the will of its token holder community.

Polkadot provides a foundation to support a decentralized web, controlled by its users, and to simplify the creation of new applications, institutions and services.

The Polkadot protocol can connect public and private chains, permissionless networks, oracles and future technologies, allowing these independent blockchains to trustlessly share information and transactions through the Polkadot Relay Chain (explained further down).

Polkadot’s native DOT token serves three clear purposes: staking for operations and security, facilitating network governance, and bonding tokens to  connect parachains .

Polkadot has four core components:

Relay Chain: Polkadot’s “heart,” helping to create consensus, interoperability and shared security across the network of different chains;

Parachains: independent chains that can have their own tokens and be optimized for specific use cases;

Parathreads: similar to parachains but with flexible connectivity based on an economical pay-as-you-go model;

Bridges: allow parachains and parathreads to connect and communicate with external blockchains like Ethereum.

Polkadot

Litecoin (LTC) is a cryptocurrency that was designed to provide fast, secure and low-cost payments by leveraging the unique properties of blockchain technology.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Litecoin.

The cryptocurrency was created based on the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol, but it differs in terms of the hashing algorithm used, hard cap, block transaction times and a few other factors. Litecoin has a block time of just 2.5 minutes and extremely low transaction fees, making it suitable for micro-transactions and point-of-sale payments.

Litecoin was released via an open-source client on GitHub on Oct. 7, 2011, and the Litecoin Network went live five days later on Oct. 13, 2011. Since then, it has exploded in both usage and acceptance among merchants and has counted among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization for most of its existence.

The cryptocurrency was created by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, who intended Litecoin to be a "lite version of Bitcoin," in that it features many of the same properties as Bitcoin—albeit lighter in weight.

Litecoin

TRON (TRX) is a decentralized blockchain-based operating system developed by the Tron Foundation and launched in 2017. Originally TRX tokens were ERC-20-based tokens deployed on Ethereum, but a year later they were moved to their own network.

Initially, the project was created with the aim of providing full ownership rights to makers of digital content. The main goal is to help content creators (who receive only a small part of the income) and encourage them with more rewards for their work. How: invite content consumers to reward content makers directly (without intermediaries like YouTube, Facebook or Apple).

The TRON software supports smart contracts, various kinds of blockchain systems, and decentralized applications aka dApps. The cryptocurrency platform uses a transaction model similar to Bitcoin (BTC), namely UTXO. Transactions take place in a public ledger, where users can track the history of operations.

Therefore, the platform was built to create a decentralized Internet and serves as a tool for developers to create dApps, acting as an alternative to Ethereum. Anyone can create dApps on the TRON network, offer content, and in return receive digital assets as compensation for their efforts. The ability to create content and share it openly without hesitation regarding transaction fees is an undeniable advantage of TRON.

TRON

IOTA is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that features unique architecture and an open-source product suite for individuals, businesses, and institutions to use in Web3. It is built on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) called the Tangle, which can be pictured as a multi-dimensional blockchain. It enables the exchange of data and value on a decentralized platform through direct and secure transfers, executed on and immutably recorded on the network.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive into IOTA.

Together with its staging network Shimmer, IOTA aims to offer solutions to establish a secure and permissionless infrastructure that can drive the economy of the future. It enables the development of decentralized applications through automated trust in the form of Ethereum-compatible smart contracts, an advanced consensus algorithm, and thoughtfully balanced incentives.

IOTA delivers tools for creating and managing custom Layer 2 (EVM) chains, deploying smart contracts, minting native tokens and NFTs with distinctive features, and introducing digital identities to users.

Launching in 2024, IOTA 2.0 will be a protocol upgrade that rebuilds IOTA’s architecture to deliver full decentralization. You can find more about it here.

IOTA

In a nutshell, Cosmos bills itself as a project that solves some of the “hardest problems” facing the blockchain industry. It aims to offer an antidote to “slow, expensive, unscalable and environmentally harmful” proof-of-work protocols, like those used by Bitcoin, by offering an ecosystem of connected blockchains.

The project’s other goals include making blockchain technology less complex and difficult for developers thanks to a modular framework that demystifies decentralized apps. Last but not least, an Interblockchain Communication protocol makes it easier for blockchain networks to communicate with each other — preventing fragmentation in the industry.

Cosmos’ origins can be dated back to 2014, when Tendermint, a core contributor to the network, was founded. In 2016, a white paper for Cosmos was published — and a token sale was held the following year. ATOM tokens are earned through a hybrid proof-of-stake algorithm, and they help to keep the Cosmos Hub, the project’s flagship blockchain, secure. This cryptocurrency also has a role in the network’s governance.

Cosmos

Decentraland (MANA) defines itself as a virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to create, experience, and monetize content and applications.

In this virtual world, users purchase plots of land that they can later navigate, build upon and monetize.

Decentraland was launched following a $24 million initial coin offering (ICO) that was conducted in 2017. The virtual world launched its closed beta in 2019 and opened to the public in February 2020. Since then, users have created a wide range of experiences on their parcels of LAND, including interactive games, sprawling 3D scenes and a variety of other interactive experiences.

Decentraland uses two tokens: MANA and LAND. MANA is an ERC-20 token that must be burned to acquire non-fungible ERC-721 LAND tokens. MANA tokens can also be used to pay for a range of avatars, wearables, names, and more on the Decentraland marketplace.

Decentraland (MANA) is a decentralized virtual world platform with software based on the Ethereum blockchain, where users create, test and monetize content. In short: users buy virtual plots of land as NFTs with MANA tokens on the Decentraland platform. Progress in the game depends only on players themselves, their efforts and their imagination.

The digital platform is completely owned by its users. Within the Decentraland metaverse, participants can explore the virtual world, purchase plots of land that can be monetized, create works of art, own non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and take part in a decentralized autonomous organization of the platform Decentraland DAO. Due to the DAO, the community influences the development vector of the project.

In addition, users have access to interactive applications, in-world payments and peer-to-peer communication. The 3D world resonates with many participants as Decentraland has many applications, both entertainment for gamers and business for investors.

Two types of tokens called MANA and LAND govern operations in Decentraland. They also allow users to interact with the platform.

MANA is the official currency of Decentraland. It’s an ERC-20 standard token that powers the Decentraland platform. With MANA, users can purchase plots of LAND, as well as pay for in-game items and services.

MANA gives its holders the right to vote in Decentraland DAO. MANA can be purchased on a cryptocurrency exchange or by selling collectibles on Decentraland Marketplace. The owner of tokens converts them to wrapped MANA, or wMANA, and then commits them to the DAO. One wMANA equals one vote. MANA can be exchanged for fiat currency and other digital assets.

As for LAND, it’s a non-fungible token (NFT) based on Ethereum (ETH). It is used to track ownership of land parcels aka digital real estate. Like MANA, LAND is part of the protocol and confers voting rights, but LAND does not need to be fixed in the DAO. One LAND is equal to two thousand votes.

Players choose what to do with their land. Owners store tokens in crypto wallets and buy necessities with MANA tokens on the Decentraland Marketplace. Moreover, on the marketplace, participants can manage or exchange LAND tokens (priced in MANA). Holders use the marketplace to transact or transfer in-game items. All transactions are conducted, regulated and registered via the Ethereum blockchain.

Decentraland combines an online gaming space and blockchain technology. All control over the rules is given to the players, and token holders vote on in-game and organizational policies. The original goal was to form a decentralized virtual reality, but in practice, Decentraland has turned into a massive NFT market.

A special role in Decentraland is assigned to NFTs, such as collectibles, virtual equipment and real estate (LAND). However, for new players who want to join the universe and seize NFTs, the entry barrier will be high.

The Decentraland protocol is built on three levels using Ethereum smart contracts. On the consensus layer, the ownership of LAND is tracked and managed. The land content layer displays the content of the Decentraland virtual world. Finally, on the real-time layer, participants interact with each other.

The platform was co-founded by two blockchain experts, Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano, in 2015. Officially it was launched a year later and became available only in February 2020, gradually turning from a 2D experiment into a full-fledged 3D world.

To sum up, Decentraland is a decentralized game and a 3D virtual reality platform where players own lands and create limitlessly. Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) software is at the core, and governance is in the hands of the community. Through the native token MANA, players participate in any proposals for managing and improving the ecosystem, the auction system, and the in-game policy.

Decentraland

Dogecoin (DOGE) is based on the popular "doge" Internet meme and features a Shiba Inu on its logo. The open-source digital currency was created by Billy Markus from Portland, Oregon and Jackson Palmer from Sydney, Australia, and was forked from Litecoin in December 2013. Dogecoin's creators envisaged it as a fun, light-hearted cryptocurrency that would have greater appeal beyond the core Bitcoin audience, since it was based on a dog meme. Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted several tweets on social media that Dogecoin is his favorite coin.

Dogecoin

Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain system that features its own cryptocurrency, Ether. ETH works as a platform for numerous other cryptocurrencies, as well as for the execution of decentralized smart contracts.

Ethereum was first described in a 2013 whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin. Buterin, along with other co-founders, secured funding for the project in an online public crowd sale in the summer of 2014. The project team managed to raise $18.3 million in Bitcoin, and Ethereum’s price in the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) was $0.311, with over 60 million Ether sold. Taking Ethereum’s price now, this puts the return on investment (ROI) at an annualized rate of over 270%, essentially almost quadrupling your investment every year since the summer of 2014.

The Ethereum Foundation officially launched the blockchain on July 30, 2015, under the prototype codenamed “Frontier.” Since then, there has been several network updates — “Constantinople” on Feb. 28, 2019, “Istanbul” on Dec. 8, 2019, “Muir Glacier” on Jan. 2, 2020, “Berlin” on April 14, 2021, and most recently on Aug. 5, 2021, the “London” hard fork.

Ethereum’s own purported goal is to become a global platform for decentralized applications, allowing users from all over the world to write and run software that is resistant to censorship, downtime and fraud.

Ethereum

Avalanche is a layer one blockchain that functions as a platform for decentralized applications and custom blockchain networks. It is one of Ethereum’s rivals, aiming to unseat Ethereum as the most popular blockchain for smart contracts. It aims to do so by having a higher transaction output of up to 6,500 transactions per second while not compromising scalability.

This is made possible by Avalanche’s unique architecture. The Avalanche network consists of three individual blockchains: the X-Chain, C-Chain and P-Chain. Each chain has a distinct purpose, which is radically different from the approach Bitcoin and Ethereum use, namely having all nodes validate all transactions. Avalanche blockchains even use different consensus mechanisms based on their use cases.

After its mainnet launch in 2020, Avalanche has worked on developing its own ecosystem of DApps and DeFi. Different Ethereum-based projects such as SushiSwap and TrueUSD have integrated with Avalanche. Furthermore, the platform is constantly working on improving interoperability between its own ecosystem and Ethereum, like through the development of bridges.

Avalanche

Uniswap is a popular decentralized trading protocol, known for its role in facilitating automated trading of decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens.

An example of an automated market maker (AMM), Uniswap launched in November 2018, but has gained considerable popularity this year thanks to the DeFi phenomenon and associated surge in token trading.

Uniswap aims to keep token trading automated and completely open to anyone who holds tokens, while improving the efficiency of trading versus that on traditional exchanges.

Uniswap creates more efficiency by solving liquidity issues with automated solutions, avoiding the problems which plagued the first decentralized exchanges.

In September 2020, Uniswap went a step further by creating and awarding its own governance token, UNI, to past users of the protocol. This added both profitability potential and the ability for users to shape its future — an attractive aspect of decentralized entities.

Uniswap

Solana is a highly functional open source project that banks on blockchain technology’s permissionless nature to provide decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions. While the idea and initial work on the project began in 2017, Solana was officially launched in March 2020 by the Solana Foundation with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Solana.

The Solana protocol is designed to facilitate decentralized app (DApp) creation. It aims to improve scalability by introducing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain.

Because of the innovative hybrid consensus model, Solana enjoys interest from small-time traders and institutional traders alike. A significant focus for the Solana Foundation is to make decentralized finance accessible on a larger scale.

Solana

Tezos is a high-performing blockchain and open-source platform for assets and applications, with a strong focus on code security, on-chain governance, and decentralization. Tezos 2.0, the upcoming step in the evolution of Tezos, aims to improve scalability (via layer 2s), composability, and to implement support to mainstream programming languages (like Javascript, Typescript, Python, and many others).

Initially built with formal verification in mind, the Tezos protocol enables builders to avoid bugs when developing smart contracts, making it particularly suited to applications that require a high degree of security and certainty.

Tezos’ LPoS (Liquid Proof-of-Stake) consensus mechanism enables any stakeholder to take part, directly or by delegation, in the consensus process, and to be rewarded for securing the network. Rather uniquely, Tezos’ on-chain governance system also enables stakeholders to create and vote on protocol upgrade proposals. This pioneering system allows the protocol to self-amend and upgrade itself without leading to a split (or fork) in the blockchain, empowering the community without slowing down innovation.

First proposed in 2014 and launched in 2018, the Tezos Mainnet has a proven track record of running uninterrupted ever since, having earned a strong reputation for technical excellence and a supportive community.

Tezos

Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency originally described in a 2008 whitepaper by a person, or group of people, using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. It was launched soon after, in January 2009.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer online currency, meaning that all transactions happen directly between equal, independent network participants, without the need for any intermediary to permit or facilitate them. Bitcoin was created, according to Nakamoto’s own words, to allow “online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”

Some concepts for a similar type of a decentralized electronic currency precede BTC, but Bitcoin holds the distinction of being the first-ever cryptocurrency to come into actual use.