## Τι Είναι το Maker (MKR);

Το Maker (MKR) είναι το token διακυβέρνησης του MakerDAO και του Maker Protocol — ενός [αποκεντρωμένου οργανισμού](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-autonomous-organizations-dao) και μιας πλατφόρμας λογισμικού αντίστοιχα, και τα δύο βασισμένα στο blockchain [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/ethereum/) — που επιτρέπει στους χρήστες να εκδίδουν και να διαχειρίζονται το DAI stablecoin.

Αρχικά σχεδιάστηκε το 2015 και κυκλοφόρησε πλήρως τον Δεκέμβριο του 2017, το Maker είναι ένα έργο του οποίου η αποστολή είναι να τρέχει το DAI, ένα αποκεντρωμένο κρυπτονόμισμα διαχειριζόμενο από την κοινότητα με σταθερή αξία συνδεδεμένη με το δολάριο ΗΠΑ.

Τα token MKR λειτουργούν ως ένα είδος μεριδίου ψήφου για τον οργανισμό που διαχειρίζεται το DAI· αν και δεν πληρώνουν μερίσματα στους κατόχους τους, δίνουν στους κατόχους δικαιώματα ψήφου για την ανάπτυξη του Πρωτοκόλλου Maker και αναμένεται να ανατιμηθούν σε αξία σύμφωνα με την επιτυχία του DAI.

Το οικοσύστημα Maker είναι ένα από τα πρώτα έργα στη σκηνή της αποκεντρωμένης οικονίμιας ([DeFi](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-decentralized-finance)): η βιομηχανία που επιδιώκει να δημιουργήσει αποκεντρωμένα χρηματοοικονομικά προϊόντα πάνω σε blockchain με δυνατότητα έξυπνων συμβολαίων, όπως το Ethereum.

### Ποιοι Είναι οι Ιδρυτές του Maker;

Το MakerDAO, η πρώτη οντότητα στο μεγαλύτερο οικοσύστημα του Maker, δημιουργήθηκε το 2015 από τον Rune Christensen, έναν επιχειρηματία από το Sealand της Δανίας.

Ο Christensen αποφοίτησε από το Πανεπιστήμιο της Κοπεγχάγης με πτυχίο στη βιοχημεία και σπούδασε διεθνείς επιχειρήσεις στη Σχολή Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων της Κοπεγχάγης. Πριν από το MakerDAO, συνίδρυσε και διεύθυνε τη διεθνή εταιρεία πρόσληψης Try China.

### Τι Κάνει το Maker Μοναδικό;

Από τον Οκτώβριο του 2020, το DAI είναι ένα από τα πιο δημοφιλή stablecoins (κρυπτονομίσματα των οποίων οι τιμές είναι συνδεδεμένες με το USD ή άλλο παραδοσιακό νόμισμα). Είναι το 25ο μεγαλύτερο κρυπτονόμισμα με κεφαλαιοποίηση αγοράς άνω των 800 εκατομμυρίων δολαρίων και έχει περισσότερες ενεργές διευθύνσεις από το USDT — το μεγαλύτερο stablecoin στην αγορά.

Η ιδιαίτερη πρόταση του MKR είναι ότι επιτρέπει στους κατόχους του να συμμετέχουν άμεσα στη διαδικασία διακυβέρνησης του DAI. Κάθε κάτοχος token Maker έχει το δικαίωμα να ψηφίσει για έναν αριθμό αλλαγών στο Πρωτόκολλο Maker, με την ψηφοφορία του να εξαρτάται από το μέγεθος του μεριδίου του σε MKR. Μερικές από τις πτυχές του πρωτοκόλλου για τις οποίες μπορούν να ψηφίσουν οι κάτοχοι είναι:

* Προσθήκη νέων τύπων περιουσιακών στοιχείων εξασφαλίσεων στο πρωτόκολλο, επιτρέποντας στους χρήστες να υποβάλλουν νέα κρυπτονομίσματα για να κόψουν περισσότερα DAI·
* Τροποποίηση των παραμέτρων κινδύνου των υφιστάμενων τύπων περιουσιακών στοιχείων εξασφαλίσεων·
* Αλλαγή του ποσοστού αποταμίευσης DAI: οι κάτοχοι token DAI μπορούν να εξοικονομούν κλειδώνοντάς τα σε ένα ειδικό συμβόλαιο και το ποσοστό αποταμίευσης επηρεάζει την κερδοφορία αυτού του συμβολαίου·
* Επιλογή των πρακτόρων (oracles) — οντότητες των οποίων ο στόχος είναι να παρέχουν αξιόπιστα δεδομένα εκτός blockchain στο οικοσύστημα Maker·
* Αναβαθμίσεις της πλατφόρμας.

Αυτή η ικανότητα συμμετοχής στη διαχείριση ενός από τα μεγαλύτερα stablecoins στην αγορά είναι αυτή που οδηγεί τη ζήτηση των MKR tokens και αντίστοιχα επηρεάζει την αξία τους.

#### Σχετικές σελίδες:

Μάθε περισσότερα για το [USDT](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/tether/), ένα άλλο σταθερό κρυπτονόμισμα συνδεδεμένο με USD

Μάθε περισσότερα για τα [stablecoins](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-stablecoin) στο CMC [Alexandria](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/categories/crypto-basics), την εκπαιδευτική μας πύλη.

### Πόσα Νομίσματα Maker (MKR) Υπάρχουν σε Κυκλοφορία;

Η έκδοση και η αφαίρεση MKR από το σύστημα διέπεται από ένα σύνθετο σύστημα αλληλεξαρτώμενων μηχανισμών που έχουν σχεδιαστεί για να διασφαλίζουν ότι το DAI καλύπτεται πάντα πλήρως από άλλα περιουσιακά στοιχεία κρυπτονομισμάτων και ότι διατηρείται η σταθερή πρόσδεσή του στο USD. Δεν υπάρχει όριο ενσωματωμένο στον κώδικα για τη συνολική προσφορά MKR.

Η αξία του DAI διασφαλίζεται από εγγυήσεις — άλλα κρυπτονομίσματα που κατατίθενται από τους χρήστες κατά την κοπή νέων token DAI και αποθηκεύονται στα λεγόμενα θησαυροφυλάκια — [έξυπνα συμβόλαια](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/smart-contract) στο blockchain Ethereum.

Κατά τη διάρκεια της πτώσης τιμών, η αξία των κρυπτονομισμάτων που είναι αποθηκευμένη στο θησαυροφυλάκιο μπορεί να γίνει ανεπαρκής για την πλήρη εξασφάλιση του αντίστοιχου ποσού DAI. Σε αυτήν την περίπτωση, το Πρωτόκολλο Maker ξεκινά αυτόματα τη ρευστοποίηση του περιεχομένου του θησαυροφυλακίου, τα έσοδα της οποίας χρησιμοποιεί για την κάλυψη των υποχρεώσεων του θησαυροφυλακίου. Εάν το ποσό του DAI που δημιουργήθηκε κατά τη διάρκεια της εκκαθάρισης δεν είναι αρκετό, το Πρωτόκολλο Maker κόβει νέα token MKR για να πουλήσει και να καλύψει το υπόλοιπο ποσό, αυξάνοντας έτσι τη συνολική προσφορά.

Ωστόσο, σε ορισμένες περιπτώσεις, το ποσό του DAI που παράγεται από τις δημοπρασίες υπερβαίνει το απαραίτητο όριο για την πλήρη εξασφάλιση — στη συνέχεια, χρησιμοποιείται από το Πρωτόκολλο Maker για την επαναγορά και το κάψιμο των token MKR, μειώνοντας τη συνολική τους προσφορά.

Έτσι, η προσφορά MKR είναι μια δυναμική αξία που αλλάζει ανάλογα με τις συνθήκες της αγοράς και τη συνολική υγεία του οικοσυστήματος DAI. Από τον Οκτώβριο του 2020, η προμήθεια token Maker σε κυκλοφορία είναι περίπου 1 εκατομμύριο, αξίας άνω των 500 εκατομμυρίων δολαρίων.

### Πώς Διασφαλίζεται το Δίκτυο Maker;

Το MKR είναι ένα token [ERC-20](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/erc-20), που σημαίνει ότι λειτουργεί και προστατεύεται από το [blockchain](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/blockchain) Ethereum. Το Ethereum, με τη σειρά του, προστατεύεται από τη συνάρτηση [απόδειξης εργασίας](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake) Ethash.

### Πού Μπορείς να Αγοράσεις Maker (MKR);

Η διαπραγμάτευση token Maker είναι διαθέσιμη σε χρηματιστήρια όπως:

* [Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/exchanges/binance/)
* [OKEx](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/exchanges/okex/)
* [Uniswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/exchanges/uniswap-v2/)
* [Coinbase Pro](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/exchanges/coinbase-pro/)

Real-World Assets (RWA): Bridging the Gap Between DeFi and TradFi

Week in DeFi: Tornado Cash Back to Life, ZkEVMs Heat Up and a Polygon Identity

CoinMarketCap News, Nov. 2: MicroStrategy's Buying a Lot Less Bitcoin

MakerDAO Co-Founder's Body Discovered in Puerto Rico

On-Chain Analysis: Is DeFi Benefiting From the Last Rally?

Binance

Maker

Ledger

Coinbase

Safepal

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Binance Chain Wallet

Atomic wallet

Ethereum

Shiba Inu

Chainlink

Uniswap

UNUS SED LEO

Worldcoin

JasmyCoin

The Graph

Ondo

Axie Infinity

Gala

Aave

Pepe

SingularityNET

FLOKI

Devve

Vitalik Smart Gas

RAYN

EscoinToken

Chainflip

Compound is a DeFi lending protocol that allows users to earn interest on their cryptocurrencies by depositing them into one of several pools supported by the platform.

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

When a user deposits tokens to a Compound pool, they receive cTokens in return. These cTokens represent the individual’s stake in the pool and can be used to redeem the underlying cryptocurrency initially deposited into the pool at any time. For example, by depositing ETH into a pool, you will receive cETH in return. Over time, the exchange rate of these cTokens to the underlying asset increases, which means you can redeem them for more of the underlying asset than you initially put in — this is how the interest is distributed.

On the flip side, borrowers can take a secured loan from any Compound pool by depositing collateral. The maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio varies based on the collateral asset, but currently ranges from 50 to 75%. The interest rate paid varies by borrowed asset and borrowers can face automatic liquidation if their collateral falls below a specific maintenance threshold.

Since the launch of the Compound mainnet in September 2018, the platform has skyrocketed in popularity, and recently passed more than $800 million in total locked value.

Compound

Synthetix is building a decentralized liquidity provisioning protocol that any protocol can tap into for various purposes. Its deep liquidity and low fees serve as a backend for many exciting protocols on both Optimism and Ethereum. Many user-facing protocols in the Synthetix ecosystem, such as Kwenta (Spot and Futures), Lyra (Options), Polynomial (Automated Options), and 1inch & Curve (Atomic Swaps), tap into Synthetix liquidity to power their protocols. Synthetix is built on Optimism and Ethereum mainnet. The Synthetix Network is collateralized by SNX, ETH, and LUSD, enabling the issuance of synthetic assets (Synths). Synths track and provide returns on the underlying asset without requiring one to directly hold the asset. This pooled collateral enables an array of on-chain, composable financial instruments backed by liquidity from Synthetix. Some of the most exciting upcoming releases from SNX are Perps V2, which hopes to enable low-fee on-chain futures trading through the usage of off-chain oracles, and Synthetix V3, which aims to rebuild the protocol to achieve its earliest goal, being a fully permissionless derivatives protocol. Learn more about Synthetix on their blog or by joining the SNX Discord.

The platform aims to broaden the cryptocurrency space by introducing non-blockchain assets, providing access to a more robust financial market.

Synthetix

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.

Yearn.finance is an aggregator service for decentralized finance (DeFi) investors, using automation to allow them to maximize profits from yield farming.

Its goal is to simplify the ever-expanding DeFi space for investors who are not technically minded or who wish to interact in a less committal manner than serious traders.

Launched in February 2020, the service, formerly known as iEarn, has seen huge growth in recent months as new products debuted and developers released in-house token YFI.

yearn.finance

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.

Lido DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) which provides staking infrastructure for multiple blockchain networks.

Most notably, the platform provides a liquid staking solution for Ethereum, allowing users to stake their ETH and receive stETH (Lido staked ETH) tokens in exchange, which represent the user's staked ETH and staking rewards.

Lido DAO is secured by a mix of decentralized governance, audited code and smart contracts. The Lido protocol runs on Ethereum with help from smart contracts that process user deposits and distribute staking rewards, among other functions. Several third-party security firms have audited Lido’s smart contracts in order to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.

The platform’s native token is LDO - which also serves as the governance token for Lido DAO. Holders can participate in governance proposals and vote on key decisions such as board adjustments, new integrations and platform updates. LDO holders have the right to determine the development and operation of the platform.

Lido currently supports staking for Ethereum and Polygon only with the recent sunsetting of Solana.

Lido DAO

Stacks is a Bitcoin Layer for smart contracts; it enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to use Bitcoin as an asset and settle transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Bitcoin is the largest, most valuable, and most durable decentralized asset. The Stacks layer unlocks $500B in BTC capital using the Bitcoin L1 as settlement for decentralized applications.

Stacks has knowledge of the full Bitcoin state, thanks to its Proof of Transfer consensus and Clarity language, enabling it to read from Bitcoin at any time.

All transactions on the Stacks layer are automatically hashed and settled on the Bitcoin L1. Stacks blocks are secured by 100% Bitcoin hashpower. In order to re-order Stacks blocks/transactions, an attacker would have to reorg Bitcoin.

Stacks

Filecoin is a decentralized storage system that aims to “store humanity’s most important information.” The project raised $205 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017, and initially planned a launch date for mid-2019. However, the launch date for the Filecoin mainnet was pushed back until block 148,888, which is expected in mid-October 2020.

The project was first described back in 2014 as an incentive layer for the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), a peer-to-peer storage network where users pay for data storage and distribution services in $FIL. Filecoin is open protocol and backed by a blockchain that records commitments made by the network’s participants, with transactions made using FIL, the blockchain’s native currency. The blockchain is based on both proof-of-replication and proof-of-spacetime.

Filecoin is open-source and decentralized, which means that all governance is in the hands of the community. On the Filecoin platform, developers have the opportunity to create cloud file storage services like Dropbox or iCloud. Anyone can join Filecoin and start storing their data or earn money by providing space for someone else's funds. The creators of Filecoin opted for their blockchain technology to run the network and their token with their own consensus.

$FIL is the native currency of Filecoin that powers the entire network and all processes. Clients pay for transactions in FIL tokens. Miners place FIL as collateral, guaranteeing their services.

The developers claim that Filecoin solves the problem of inefficient file storage and retrieval. Customers can find the right solution with an efficient set of tools and its core development, IPFS.

Filecoin

The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying data for networks like Ethereum and IPFS, powering many applications in both DeFi and the broader Web3 ecosystem. Anyone can build and publish open APIs, called subgraphs, that applications can query using GraphQL to retrieve blockchain data. There is a hosted service in production that makes it easy for developers to get started building on The Graph and the decentralized network will be launching later this year. The Graph currently supports indexing data from Ethereum, IPFS and POA, with more networks coming soon.

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

To date, over3,000 subgraphs have been deployed by thousands of developers, for DApps like Uniswap, Synthetix, Aragon, AAVE, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, DAOstack, Decentraland and many others. The Graph usage has been growing at over 50% MoM and hit over 7 billion queries during the month of September 2020.

The Graph has a global community, including over 200 Indexer Nodes in the testnet and more than 2,000 Curators in the Curator Program as of October 2020. To fund network development, The Graph raised funds from community members, strategic VCs and influential individuals in the blockchain community including Coinbase Ventures, DCG, Framework, ParaFi Capital, CoinFund, DTC, Multicoin, Reciprocal Ventures, SPC, Tally Capital and others. The Graph Foundation also successfully completed a public GRT Sale with participation from 99 countries (not including the U.S.). To date as of November 2020, The Graph has raised ~$25M.

Curve is a decentralized exchange for stablecoins that uses an automated market maker (AMM) to manage liquidity.

Launched in January 2020, Curve is now synonymous with the decentralized finance (DeFi) phenomenon, and has seen significant growth in the second half of 2020.

In August, Curve launched a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), with CRV as its in-house token. The DAO uses Ethereum-based creation tool Aragon to connect multiple smart contracts used for users’ deposited liquidity. Issues such as governance, however, differ from Aragon in their weighting and other respects.

Curve DAO Token

THORChain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that allows users to easily exchange cryptocurrency assets across a range of networks including Bitcoin and Ethereum without losing full custody of their assets in the process.

With THORChain, users can simply swap one asset for another in a permissionless setting, without needing to rely on order books to source liquidity. Instead, market prices are maintained through the ratio of assets in a pool (see automated market maker.

The native utility token of the THORChain platform is RUNE. This is used as the base currency in the THORChain ecosystem and is also used for platform governance and security as part of THORChain's Sybil resistance mechanisms — since THORChain nodes must commit a minimum of 300k RUNE to participate in its rotating consensus process.

THORChain was funded through an initial DEX offering (IDO) which launched through the Binance DEX in July 2019. Its single-chain chaosnet launched in April 2021, the multi-chain upgrade was launched in April 2021 and Mainnet is now live as of Jun 2022..
Learn more here

THORChain

Monero was launched in 2014, and its goal is simple: to allow transactions to take place privately and with anonymity. Even though it’s commonly thought that BTC can conceal a person’s identity, it’s often easy to trace payments back to their original source because blockchains are transparent. On the other hand, XMR is designed to obscure senders and recipients alike through the use of advanced cryptography.

The team behind Monero say privacy and security are their biggest priorities, with ease of use and efficiency coming second. It aims to provide protection to all users — irrespective of how technologically competent they are.

Overall, XMR aims to allow payments to be made quickly and inexpensively without fear of censorship.

Monero

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

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

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

NEAR Protocol is a layer-one blockchain that was designed as a community-run cloud computing platform and that eliminates some of the limitations that have been bogging competing blockchains, such as low transaction speeds, low throughput and poor interoperability. This provides the ideal environment for DApps and creates a developer and user-friendly platform. For instance, NEAR uses human-readable account names, unlike the cryptographic wallet addresses common to Ethereum. NEAR also introduces unique solutions to scaling problems and has its own consensus mechanism called “Doomslug.”

NEAR Protocol is being built by the NEAR Collective, its community that is updating the initial code and releasing updates to the ecosystem. Its declared goal is to build a platform that is “secure enough to manage high value assets like money or identity and performant enough to make them useful for everyday people.”

Flux, a protocol that allows developers to create markets based on assets, commodities, real-world events, and Mintbase, an NFT minting platform are examples of projects being built on NEAR Protocol.

NEAR Protocol

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

Arweave is a decentralized storage network that seeks to offer a platform for the indefinite storage of data. Describing itself as "a collectively owned hard drive that never forgets," the network primarily hosts "the permaweb" — a permanent, decentralized web with a number of community-driven applications and platforms.

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

The Arweave network uses a native cryptocurrency, AR, to pay "miners" to indefinitely store the network's information.

The project was first announced as Archain in August 2017, later rebranding to Arweave in February 2018 and officially launching in June 2018.

Arweave

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that aims to become sound global money with fast payments, micro fees, privacy and larger block size. As a permissionless, decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash requires no trusted third parties.

Bitcoin Cash was created as an alternative to the first and most valuable cryptocurrency — Bitcoin (BTC). In 2017, BCH developers modified the BTC code, releasing their software version and a full-fledged competitive product, which split Bitcoin into two blockchains: Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is a result of a hard fork in the blockchain due to differences in the community over Bitcoin scaling and the SegWit upgrade. Moreover, another hard fork, which divided Bitcoin Cash into two parts, Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV, took place in the fall of 2018.

The scaling debate involved two sides: small block supporters opposed increasing block size as it could lead to blockchain centralization and vulnerability by making it harder to host full nodes. Large block supporters, however, advocated for a faster solution, concerned that rising transaction fees could hinder growth.