Alonzo Upgrade Opens the Door for Cardano DApps

Ardana is a decentralized stablecoin hub which will bring the necessary DeFi primitives needed to bootstrap & maintain any economy to Cardano. Ardana offers an on-chain asset-backed stablecoin and a decentralized stable-asset DEX.

The Ardana token (DANA) is the utility and governance token of the Ardana ecosystem which provides stakers with access to a share of the fees from Ardana and allows those who hold it to vote on changes to the project’s parameters. 

# Ardana Ecosystem

Ardana is an on-chain asset-backed stablecoin protocol and decentralized exchange stable asset liquidity pool built on Cardano. The stablecoin is overcollateralized with on-chain Cardano native assets, facilitating borrowing. The decentralized exchange allows for highly capital-efficient trading between stablecoins and identical assets with low risk income for liquidity providers from fees. 

Users will be able to mint stablecoins of different currencies and swap between them on Danaswap, facilitating a rapid low cost international foreign exchange system accessible to all.



Ardana

Daedalus

Lace

Cardano

Snek

IAGON

Minswap

Book.io

Indigo Protocol

Hosky Token

KubeCoin

AdaSwap

Efinity is a cross-chain NFT platform developed by Enjin and built on Polkadot. Efinity was created as the next generation blockchain for digital assets with the aim of adapting to the challenges of the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to the project.

The main specialization of the Efinity project is the NFT space. With the protocol, traders and gamers can create, distribute, transfer, sell and buy NFTs. Efinity aims to remove barriers to entry into the NFT space/decentralized gaming, and to simplify user experience and digital asset governance.

Efinity Token powers the entire Efinity ecosystem, EFI aims to prioritize the generation, transfer and purchase of tokens using an inter-chain infrastructure of protocols resulting in lower transaction fees. As for incentives, rewards on PoW blockchains with NFT functionality go to miners who create/trade tokens, thereby forming a community.

One of the long-term goals of Efinity is to become a hub for both fungible and non-fungible tokens, accepting tokens from any other chain, facilitating the pricing and exchange of NFTs, increasing transaction volume, and creating network effects.

In December 2021, the project won the Polkadot parachain auction, and in March 2022, Enjin launched their flagship parachain Efinity on the Polkadot Relay Chain — a blockchain platform that provides a decentralized parachain network where people havecontrol over their data and identity.

Efinity Token

Acala Token

COTI markets itself as the first enterprise-grade fintech platform that empowers organizations to build their own payment solutions as well as digitize any currency to save time as well as money.

COTI is one of the world’s first blockchain protocols that is optimized for decentralized payments and designed for use by merchants, governments, payment DApps and stablecoin issuers.

COTI Pay is the first application. It describes itself as a fully encompassing finance on the blockchain. The COTI Group launched in March of 2017, while the Staking Platform Launched on Jan. 1, 2020.

It is an ecosystem that is designed specifically to meet all of the challenges associated with traditional finance, including latency, fees, global inclusion and risks. This is done through the introduction of the DAG-based protocol as well as infrastructure that is completely scalable, private, inclusive and fast.

The ecosystem has DAG-based blockchain, proof-of-trust consensus algorithm, multiDAG, GTS (Global Trust System), a universal payment solution and a payment gateway.

COTI

Wilder World

Secret (SCRT) is a privacy-oriented blockchain built on Cosmos. Its smart contracts are called Secret Contracts and allow DApps to use private data on Secret, similar to how smart contracts operate on other blockchains. However, Secret Contracts transfer encrypted inputs into encrypted outputs without exposing data. This is made possible thanks to the encrypted contract states during the execution.

Data privacy is guaranteed by combining encryption protocols and key management within a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). This allows Secret Contracts to compete for several privacy-related use cases that traditional blockchains have found difficult to accommodate. For instance, private voting mechanisms or credit scoring applications become possible since they do not expose sensitive user data on-chain with Secret.

Secret

Moonriver is an Ethereum-compatible, smart-contract parachain on Kusama. It is intended to be a companion network to Moonbeam, where it will provide a permanently incentivized canary network. New code will ship to Moonriver first, where it can be tested and verified under real economic conditions. Once proven, the same code will ship to Moonbeam on Polkadot.

It does this by providing a full EVM implementation, a Web3-compatible API, and bridges that connect Moonriver to existing Ethereum networks.

This allows developers to deploy existing Solidity smart contracts and DApp frontends to Moonriver with minimal changes.

Moonriver

Audius is a decentralized music streaming protocol initially built on POA network, but now living on Solana. Audius was launched to remedy the inefficiencies of the music industry, which is plagued by intransparent music rights ownership and intermediaries standing between artists and their audience.

Audius aims to align the interests of artists, fans, and node operators through its platform powered by its native AUDIO token. Artists can upload music, stored and distributed by content and discovery nodes, that fans can listen to for free. Currently, Audius rewards content creators through rewards like featuring in the weekly trending lists. In the future, it plans to integrate stablecoins for artists to offer paid content, as well as artist tokens that give fans the ability to access exclusive content, potentially cooperating with platforms like Rally.

Audius

What Is Velas (VLX)?
Velas is a pioneering solana L1 Fork with Full EVM blockchain bridging the gap between EVM familiarity and unparalleled performance.

Velas is an highly unique dual-chain architecture, seamlessly merging the best of both worlds: the robust security and established developer ecosystem of the EVM with the lightning-fast transaction processing capabilities of Solana. This hybrid approach unlocks a treasure trove of possibilities for Ethereum projects seeking to escape congestion and scale to new heights.

The defining feature of Velas lies in its full EVM compatibility. Existing Ethereum smart contracts can be migrated seamlessly with a single click, eliminating the need for costly code rewrites and preserving the valuable expertise invested in the EVM ecosystem. This one-click migration paves the way for a smooth transition, allowing developers to leverage their existing skills and tools on a platform built for speed and scalability.

It leverages the power of Solana’s parallel transaction processing to deliver lightning-fast speeds exceeding 75,000 TPS. This translates to near-instantaneous transaction finality and minimal fees, a stark contrast to the congested and expensive environment of Ethereum. For dApps and users, this translates to a smoother, more efficient experience.

But speed is just the beginning. Velas is also:

Decentralized: No central authority controls the network. Power is in the hands of the community through a secure Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Carbon-neutral: Velas is committed to sustainability, utilizing a green PoS mechanism that minimizes energy consumption.

Accessible: Building on Velas is a breeze with its extensive developer tools and EVM/Solidity support.

Velas

Moonbeam is an Ethereum-compatible smart contract parachain on Polkadot. Moonbeam makes it easy to use popular Ethereum developer tools to build or redeploy Solidity projects in a Substrate-based environment.

Moonbeam is much more than just an EVM implementation: it’s a highly specialized parachain that mirrors Ethereum’s Web3 RPC, accounts, keys, subscriptions, logs, and more. The Moonbeam platform extends the base Ethereum feature set with additional features such as on-chain governance, staking, and cross-chain integrations.

Moonbeam’s Ethereum compatibility is unmatched:

Minimal Changes: developers can use existing Solidity smart contracts right away, with no need to rewrite or reconfigure

Use Existing Developer Tools: connect popular tools like MetaMask, Hardhat, Waffle, Remix, and Truffle via a complete set of Web3 RPC endpoints. Use well-known Javascript libraries such as Web3.Js or Ethers.Js.

Unified Accounts, Addresses, and Signatures: use your existing Ethereum H160 accounts & ECDSA signatures to interact with Moonbeam

Tap into the Most Integrations on Polkadot: use existing oracles, bridges, wallets, and other tools that are already building on Moonbeam

Moonbeam provides integration and connectivity between Polkadot Parachains as well as with other chains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin via bridges. Moonbeam was started in 2019 by Derek Yoo of Pure Stake.

Moonbeam

Bloktopia is a decentralized metaverse backed by and built on Polygon. In Bloktopia, a decentralized virtual reality skyscraper made up of 21 levels (as recognition to 21 million Bitcoin) acts as a central hub for users to have access to crypto information and immersive content in one place. The so-called Bloktopias can educate themselves in the basics or more advanced crypto learnings, earn revenue by owning virtual real estate, play games, build networks and more. Moreover, advertisers and sponsors can monetize the platform’s userbase through a dedicated NFT mechanism. By providing a VR experience for the crypto community, users can engage in an immersive environment according to Bloktopia’s four core pillars: learn, earn, play and create.

Bloktopia

Anchor Protocol is a lending and borrowing protocol offering up to 19.5% yield on stablecoin deposits. Lenders can deposit their UST and earn attractive rates on their investments while simultaneously benefiting from low volatility. Borrowers can turn their LUNA collateral into productive assets without giving up control of it.

Anchor Protocol can thus attract risk-averse investors looking for high-yield, low-volatility investments and increase demand for UST. This advances the adoption of UST as a stablecoin and subsequently the adoption of the Terra project in DeFi. With the increasing adoption of Terra, whose founders are behind the launch of Anchor Protocol, the price of LUNA will increase.

Anchor Protocol

Kadena is a proof-of-work blockchain that combines the PoW consensus mechanism from Bitcoin with directed acyclic graph (DAG) principles to offer a scalable version of Bitcoin. Kadena claims it can provide the security of Bitcoin while being able to offer unparalleled throughput that makes the blockchain usable to enterprises and entrepreneurs alike. Kadena's unique infrastructure is decentralized and built for mass adoption because of its multi-chain approach.

Kadena promises industrial scalability that can support global financial systems and can be scaled as necessary. It also vows to remain energy-efficient at scale and deliver more transactions with the same energy input, another difference to Bitcoin. Moreover, Kadena offers crypto gas stations, which allow businesses to pay for their customers' gas fees and remove a massive pain point in adopting blockchains for business.

Kadena has already scaled its network from 10 to 20 blockchains and can do so again in the future, if necessary. This final addition to Kadena was its private Kuro layer-two blockchain, which supports up to 8,000 transactions per second across 500 nodes.

Kadena

Gods Unchained is a free-to-play tactical card game that gives players true ownership of their in-game items. Led by the former game director of Magic The Gathering: Arena, the game focuses on competitive play, which means players must strategically outsmart their opponents by building decks that are able to combat a wide variety of tactics. In Gods Unchained players completely own their digital items, giving them the freedom to trade, sell and use their cards any way they like – just like owning real, tangible cards.

GODS is an ERC-20 token used as premium currency within the GU ecosystem. The tokens will be used to:

Create an NFT.

Used within the marketplace and for in-game purchases.

Distributed as a reward to players.

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

Gods Unchained

Harmony is a blockchain platform designed to facilitate the creation and use of decentralized applications (DApps). The network aims to innovate the way decentralized applications work by focusing on random state sharding, which allows creating blocks in seconds.

According to the project’s website, Harmony is expected to introduce cross-shard contracts and a cross-chain infrastructure by the end of 2021.

Harmony

Established in July 2020, TrustSwap is a diverse Web3 ecosystem creating secure infrastructure for blockchain builders and communities. The TrustSwap Launchpad is a leading Launchpad and IDO service, achieving the #1 spot on Cryptorank in 2023 for All-time High Returns and Average Returns. TrustSwap has launched over 55 projects with a collective fundraising of over $70 million.

TrustSwap is also the parent company of The Crypto App and Team Finance, which offer a suite of multi-chain services including crypto portfolio tracking, token and liquidity locks, minting, staking, and vesting-as-a-service.

SWAP token is the key to accessing guaranteed allocations in top-tier IDOs via the TrustSwap Launchpad. Staking more SWAP tokens longer increases your SWAP Score and unlocks higher allocations as well as other perks for top stakers.

TrustSwap

Celsius (CEL) is an all-in-one banking and financial services platform for cryptocurrency users.

Launched in June 2018, it offers rewards for depositing cryptocurrency, along with services such as loans and wallet-style payments.

Users of the platform receive regular payouts and interest on their holdings. Celsius’ native token, CEL, performs a variety of internal functions, including boosting user payouts if used as the payment currency.

Celsius

Serum is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and ecosystem that brings unprecedented speed and low transaction costs to decentralized finance (DeFi). (DeFi).

Serum is the only high-performant DEX designed around a fully on-chain central limit order book and matching engine. Ecosystem partners can compose with Serum’s on-chain orderbook to share liquidity and power their trading features for institutional and retail users.

In light of the popularity of DeFi and the growth of DEXes on Ethereum, users and developers are limited by high gas costs and slow transactions. Serum aims to resolve these traditional problems of DeFi, as well as issues of centralization, low capital efficiency, and liquidity segmentation.

The SRM utility and governance token enables users to receive discounts on protocol fees and voting rights; 100% of exchange fees flow back to SRM via buy-and-burn, staking rewards, and ecosystem grants.

Serum

Aurory is a next-generation studio building a universe of interoperable web3 games. Two original IP’s were born from this universe, which are actively shaping the future of the Aurory player experience.

The first of these two IP’s are Aurorians. A collection of 10,000 anime style NFT characters that double as both a PFP, as well as a playable avatar with various in-game perks.

The second are Nefties. These magical creatures have been designed as non-fungible tokens NFTs with a unique set of stats that influence their performance in-game. They serve as companions on each player’s journey, and can be hatched, traded, collected, and used in battles.

Aurory currently hosts two playable games (both in alpha) which continue to evolve in a live-ops development format:

Seekers of Tokane: A JRPG, where players embark on a dangerous rogue-like adventure through the world of Tokane, collecting and battling fierce Nefties in epic turn-based combat.

Aurory Tactics: A PvP timeline-based battling game where players must learn how to best use their Neftie creature's abilities, competing against opponents to rise to the top of the leaderboard for rewards and glory.

The project proudly boasts one of the most experienced executive and development suites in blockchain gaming, with dozens of talents from established gaming studios, such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Rovio, Warner Bros, and more.

Aurory

Ultra is a publishing platform and ecosystem for video games and video game content. Ultra’s mission is to do away with the current monopoly held by publishing platforms like Steam and provide new opportunities to game developers, players, and influencers. Ultra promises a solution that is more equitable to players and developers alike. Players can benefit from immediately playable games, earn UOS by using the platform, and access platform-exclusive games. At the same time, developers benefit from access to more effective marketing tools and the potential for 20% higher sales revenue.

Besides content and game publishing, Ultra offers a demand-side and service-side platform for advertisers, the opportunity for players to resell their used games, and a platform-exclusive app.

Ultra

Origin Protocol develops web3 technologies with the intention of bringing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) to the masses. The protocol’s unique tooling and diverse partnerships help in realizing these goals. Origin Protocol has two flagship products: Origin Story (governed by OGN), and Origin Dollar (governed by OGV).

Origin Story is a white label NFT marketplace solution that works with disrupters in various sectors by leveraging non-fungible tokens. The platform hosts NFT marketplaces and tooling in various industries, including the real estate, profile picture, music, art and entertainment industries.

Some of Origin Story’s partners include Roofstock onChain, Pudgy Penguins, Sappy Seals, Paris Hilton, 3LAU, BT, Inspiration4, and The Doge Pound. Origin Story Marketplaces seek to cast a wide net in various industries being impacted by NFTs, rather than focusing on any one area in particular. Investors may see OGN as the ‘picks and shovels’ approach to investing in NFTs.