CMC Live: Scaling Solutions - The Path to a Multichain Future?

Technical Analysis: BTC, ETH, NEAR, PEPE, LTC, ADA, XVG and DOGE (July W2)

Technical Analysis: BTC, ETH, NEAR, ADA, FTM and AVAX (July W1)

Technical Analysis: BTC, ETH, NEAR, ADA, FTM and AVAX (June W4)

Technical Analysis: BTC, ETH, NEAR, ADA, FTM and AVAX (June W3)

## Τι Είναι το NEAR Protocol (NEAR);

Το [NEAR Protocol](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/near-protocol/) είναι ένα [blockchain πρώτου επιπέδου](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/layer-1-blockchain) που σχεδιάστηκε ως πλατφόρμα υπολογιστικής νέφους που λειτουργεί από την κοινότητα και εξαλείφει ορισμένους από τους περιορισμούς που ταλαιπωρούν τα ανταγωνιστικά blockchain, όπως οι χαμηλές ταχύτητες συναλλαγών, η χαμηλή απόδοση και η κακή διαλειτουργικότητα. Αυτό παρέχει το ιδανικό περιβάλλον για [DApps](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/de/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps) και δημιουργεί μια πλατφόρμα και φιλική προς τον προγραμματιστή και τον χρήστη. Για παράδειγμα, το NEAR χρησιμοποιεί ονόματα λογαριασμών αναγνώσιμα από τον άνθρωπο, σε αντίθεση με τις διευθύνσεις κρυπτογραφημένου πορτοφολιού που είναι κοινές στο [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/ethereum/). Το NEAR εισάγει επίσης μοναδικές λύσεις σε προβλήματα κλιμάκωσης και έχει τον δικό του [μηχανισμό συναίνεσης](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/consensus-mechanism) που ονομάζεται «Doomslug».

Το NEAR Protocol δημιουργείται από το NEAR Collective, την κοινότητά του που ενημερώνει τον αρχικό κώδικα και εκδίδει ενημερώσεις στο οικοσύστημα. Ο στόχος του, όπως έχει δηλώσει, είναι να οικοδομήσει μια πλατφόρμα που να είναι «αρκετά ασφαλής για τη διαχείριση περιουσιακών στοιχείων υψηλής αξίας όπως χρήματα ή ταυτότητα και αρκετά αποτελεσματική ώστε να την κάνει χρήσιμη για τους καθημερινούς ανθρώπους».

Το [Flux](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/zel/), ένα πρωτόκολλο που επιτρέπει στους προγραμματιστές να δημιουργούν αγορές με βάση περιουσιακά στοιχεία, εμπορεύματα, γεγονότα πραγματικού κόσμου και το Mintbase, μια πλατφόρμα κοπής [NFT](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/non-fungible-token) είναι παραδείγματα έργων που χτίζονται στο NEAR Protocol.

### Ποιοι Είναι οι Ιδρυτές του NEAR Protocol (NEAR);

Το NEAR Protocol ιδρύθηκε από τον Erik Trautman, έναν επιχειρηματία με εμπειρία στη Wall Street και ιδρυτή της Viking Education. Οι συνιδρυτές του ήταν ο Illia Polosukhin, ο οποίος έχει περισσότερα από δέκα χρόνια εμπειρίας στον κλάδο, μεταξύ των οποίων τρία χρόνια στη Google, και ο Alexander Skidanov, ένας πληροφορικός που εργάστηκε στη Microsoft και, στη συνέχεια, πήγε στη memSQL, όπου έγινε διευθυντής μηχανικής. Το NEAR Protocol διαθέτει μια μεγάλη ομάδα έμπειρων προγραμματιστών που περιλαμβάνει αρκετούς πρωταθλητές του Διεθνούς Πανεπιστημιακού Διαγωνισμού Προγραμματισμού (ICPC). Η ομάδα ισχυρίζεται ότι έχει άτομα με εμπειρία στην κατασκευή μερικών από τα μόνα συστήματα κατακερματισμού πραγματικού κόσμου σε μεγάλη κλίμακα, μια λύση που επιδιώκει το πρωτόκολλο για τη βελτίωση της επεκτασιμότητας του blockchain.

### Τι Κάνει το NEAR Protocol (NEAR) Μοναδικό;

Το NEAR χρησιμοποιεί την τεχνολογία Nightshade για να βελτιώσει μαζικά την απόδοση των συναλλαγών. Το Nightshade είναι μια παραλλαγή [κατακερματισμού](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/sharding), στην οποία μεμονωμένα σύνολα επικυρωτών επεξεργάζονται συναλλαγές παράλληλα σε πολλαπλές θραυσμένες αλυσίδες, βελτιώνοντας τη συνολική χωρητικότητα του blockchain. Σε αντίθεση με τον «τυπικό» κατακερματισμό, τα θραύσματα στο Nightshade παράγουν ένα κλάσμα του επόμενου μπλοκ, που ονομάζεται «chunk». Με αυτόν τον τρόπο, το NEAR Protocol είναι σε θέση να επιτύχει έως και 100.000 συναλλαγές ανά δευτερόλεπτο και σχεδόν στιγμιαία περάτωση συναλλαγής χάρη σε ρυθμό μπλοκ ενός δευτερολέπτου, ενώ ταυτόχρονα διατηρεί τα τέλη συναλλαγής σχεδόν στο μηδέν.

Το NEAR Protocol βελτιώνει επίσης τη σύνθετη διαδικασία ενσωμάτωσης άλλων blockchain, έχοντας διευθύνσεις αναγνώσιμες από άνθρωπο και δημιουργώντας αποκεντρωμένες εφαρμογές με παρόμοια ροή εγγραφής με αυτή που έχουν ήδη βιώσει οι χρήστες. Επιπλέον, παρέχει στους προγραμματιστές δομοστοιχειωτά στοιχεία, βοηθώντας τους να ξεκινήσουν πιο γρήγορα έργα όπως συμβόλαια token ή NFT.

### Ταμείο Οικοσυστήματος NEAR Protocol

Στις 25 Οκτωβρίου 2021, το NEAR [ανακοίνωσε](https://near.org/blog/near-announces-800-million-in-funding-initiatives-to-support-ecosystem-growth/) πρωτοβουλίες χρηματοδότησης 800 εκατομμυρίων δολαρίων για το οικοσύστημα, ακολουθώντας τα βήματα διαφόρων blockchain [πρώτου επιπέδου](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/layer-1-blockchain) όπως το [Avalanche](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/avalanche/), το [Fantom](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/fantom/) και το [Celo](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/celo/). Το ταμείο θα χρησιμοποιηθεί για τη χρηματοδότηση πρωτοβουλιών που θα επικεντρωθούν στην επιτάχυνση της ανάπτυξης στο οικοσύστημα του πρωτοκόλλου NEAR. Το ταμείο περιλαμβάνει 350 εκατομμύρια δολάρια σε χρηματοδότηση από την Proximity Labs. Από το συνολικό ταμείο, 250 εκατομμύρια δολάρια θα χρησιμοποιηθούν για την επέκταση υφιστάμενων έργων και 100 εκατομμύρια δολάρια θα διατεθούν στα Startup Grant Pools, όπου δοθούν 5 εκατομμύρια δολάρια σε καθένα από 20 startup. Το NEAR θα επικεντρωθεί στη χρηματοδότηση ομάδων με επίκεντρο την [Αποκεντρωμένη Οικονομία](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/defi) (DeFi) που «ενεργά φέρνουν επανάσταση και επαναπροσδιορίζουν τον τρόπο με τον οποίο αλληλεπιδρούμε με τα χρήματα». Το NEAR αναζητά, ενεργά, έργα που βασίζονται σε [NFT](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/non-fungible-token), [DAO](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-autonomous-organizations-dao) και gaming. Σημειωτέον, επίσης, ότι το NEAR συγκέντρωσε πρόσφατα 150 εκατομμύρια δολάρια σε επενδύσεις εκκίνησης με επικεφαλής την Three Arrows Capital, με πρόσθετη συμμετοχή από τις Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, a16z, Jump, Alameda, Zee Prime και άλλες. Αυτό θα χρησιμοποιηθεί για την επιτάχυνση της υιοθέτησης των τεχνολογιών [Web3](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/web-3-0).

#### Σχετικές σελίδες:

Ρίξε μια ματιά στο [Iota (MIOTA)](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/iota/) - Ένα άλλο blockchain για το Διαδίκτυο των Πραγμάτων.

Ρίξε μια ματιά στο [Ethereum (ETH)](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/ethereum/) - Το πιο δημοφιλές blockchain για έξυπνα συμβόλαια.

Μάθε πώς λειτουργούν τα DAO στη [βαθιά μας βουτιά στα DAO](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/a-deep-dive-into-how-the-top-daos-work).

Μάθετε τα τελευταία νέα για την αγορά crypto και τις τελευταίες πληροφορίες για τις συναλλαγές με το [ιστολόγιο της CoinMarketCap](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/categories/blog).

### Πόσα Νομίσματα NEAR Protocol (NEAR) Υπάρχουν σε Κυκλοφορία;

Η συνολική προσφορά NEAR είναι 1 δισεκατομμύριο token, σύμφωνα με την ακόλουθη κατανομή token:

* 17,2% - Κοινοτικές Επιχορηγήσεις
* 11,4% - Επιχορηγήσεις Λειτουργίας
* 10% - Προικοδότηση Ιδρύματος
* 11,7% - Πρώιμο Οικοσύστημα
* 14% - Βασικοί Συνεισφέροντες
* 17,6% - Υποστηρικτές
* 6,1% - Μικροί Υποστηρικτές
* 12% - Ενδοκοινοτικές Πωλήσεις

Το NEAR Protocol λάνσαρε το κεντρικό του δίκτυο στις 22 Απριλίου 2020 με 1 δισεκατομμύριο token NEAR να δημιουργείται κατά την έναρξη. Το 5% της πρόσθετης προσφοράς εκδίδεται κάθε χρόνο για την υποστήριξη του δικτύου ως ανταμοιβές εποχής, εκ των οποίων το 90% πηγαίνει σε επικυρωτές (4,5% συνολικά) και το 10% στο ταμείο πρωτοκόλλου (0,5% συνολικά). Το 30% των τελών συναλλαγής καταβάλλονται ως εκπτώσεις σε συμβόλαια που αλληλεπιδρούν με μια συναλλαγή, ενώ το υπόλοιπο 70% καίγεται. Το token NEAR χρησιμοποιείται για:

* Τέλη για την επεξεργασία συναλλαγών και την αποθήκευση δεδομένων.
* Εκτέλεση κόμβων επικύρωσης στο δίκτυο μέσω πονταρίσματος token NEAR.
* Χρησιμοποιείται για ψηφοφορίες διακυβέρνησης ώστε να καθοριστεί ο τρόπος κατανομής των πόρων του δικτύου.

### Πώς Διασφαλίζεται το Δίκτυο NEAR Protocol;

Το NEAR χρησιμοποιεί μια παραλλαγή του μηχανισμού συναίνεσης [απόδειξης συμμετοχής](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/proof-of-stake-pos) που ονομάζεται Doomslug. Το Doomslug βασίζεται σε δύο γύρους συναίνεσης, όπου ένα μπλοκ θεωρείται οριστικοποιημένο μόλις περάσει τον πρώτο γύρο επικοινωνίας. Αυτό επιτρέπει την σχεδόν στιγμιαία περάτωση, ζητώντας από τους επικυρωτές να παράγουν εκ περιτροπής μπλοκ αντί να ανταγωνίζονται απευθείας με βάση το ποντάρισμά τους.

Το Ίδρυμα NEAR είναι ένας μη κερδοσκοπικός οργανισμός με έδρα την Ελβετία, αφιερωμένος στη συντήρηση πρωτοκόλλων, στη χρηματοδότηση του οικοσυστήματος και στην καθοδήγηση της διακυβέρνησης του πρωτοκόλλου. Το πρωτόκολλο έχει δημιουργήσει επίσης μια γέφυρα με το Ethereum, επιτρέποντας στους χρήστες να μεταφέρουν token [ERC-20](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/erc-20) από το blockchain Ethereum στο NEAR.

### Πού Μπορείς να Αγοράσεις NEAR Protocol (NEAR);

Το NEAR είναι διαθέσιμο στα [Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/exchanges/binance/), [Huobi Global](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/exchanges/huobi-global/), [Mandala Exchange](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/exchanges/mandala/), [FTX](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/exchanges/ftx/) και [OKEx](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/exchanges/okex/).

NEAR Protocol

MyNearWallet

HERE Wallet

Ledger

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Trezor

Math Wallet

Binance Chain Wallet

NEAR Protocol is a layer one blockchain that enables everyone to create without limits.

Near

Ref Finance

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

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

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

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

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

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

RenderToken (RNDR) is a distributed GPU rendering network built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, aiming to connect artists and studios in need of GPU compute power with mining partners willing to rent their GPU capabilities out. Conceived in 2009 by OTOY, inc. CEO Jules Urbach and launched in 2017, RNDR held its first public token sale in October of that same year, followed by a private sale period lasting from January 2018 – May 2018, wherein a total of 117,843,239 RNDR were sold at a price of 1 RNDR = $0.25 USD equivalent of token.
During the private sale period, early adopters were onboarded onto the RNDR Beta Testnet, where beta node operators and artists worked collaboratively with the RNDR team in building and testing the network, up until its public launch on April 27th 2020.

Render

Fantom is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) smart contract platform providing decentralized finance (DeFi) services to developers using its own bespoke consensus algorithm.

Together with its in-house token FTM, Fantom aims to solve problems associated with smart-contract platforms, specifically transaction speed, which developers say they have reduced to under two seconds.

The Fantom Foundation, which oversees the Fantom product offering, was originally created in 2018, with the launch of OPERA, Fantom’s mainnet, coming in December 2019.

Fantom is an open-source decentralized smart contract platform for DApps and digital assets that was created as an alternative to Ethereum. Fantom has the goal of overcoming the limitations of previous generation blockchains and balancing three components: scalability, security and decentralization. The project offers a set of tools to simplify the process of integrating existing DApps, as well as a detailed staking reward system and built-in DeFi instruments.

Fantom is a Layer-1 blockchain that uses a scratch-built consensus mechanism and independent consensus layer, Lachesis, to facilitate DeFi and related services on the basis of smart contracts. Lachesis provides security for other layers as well, including Opera, Fantom's EVM-compatible smart contract chain. The long-playing mission of the project is to “grant compatibility between all transaction bodies around the world.”

One of Fantom's key strengths is its performance and efficient transaction processing, namely thousands of transactions per second, where transactions are settled in 1-2 seconds, and the cost is fractions of a cent per transaction. As a result, Fantom provides higher scalability but at a lower cost.

The ecosystem is based on two main technologies: Lachesis protocol and Opera.

The Lachesis protocol is the core consensus layer that secures the Fantom network by providing both transaction speed and security.

Lachesis is an aBFT consensus engine that uses a directed acyclic graph (DAG) algorithm. How it works: network data can be processed at different times, and the network filters the participants, allowing only one third, which are allocated due to erroneous or malicious behavior, without compromising network processes.

Fantom's Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerant (aBFT) Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism maintains the efficiency of the entire network, its design provides security at maximum speed. Fantom developers emphasize that the PoS mechanism is a leaderless phenomenon — there are no leaders of blocks and participants, and anyone can join (or leave) the network of nodes at a convenient moment.

The key qualities of Lachesis are: asynchronous, leaderless, Byzantine fault-tolerant, and near-instant finality.

As for Opera, it's an application development layer or Fantom's mainnet deployment platform, permissionless and open-source hosting DApps. Thanks to EVM integration and support for the Solidity programming language, Fantom has a full set of smart contract capabilities, which allows users to seamlessly interact with Ethereum platforms while maintaining the advantage of Fantom's transaction efficiency.

The Fantom Foundation concluded that removing block leaders improves network security, so Opera uses a PoS model and leaderless validators (validators do not determine which blocks are valid).

In addition to being a fast, secure and cheap payment platform that enables to make fast and secure payments at minimal cost, Fantom also features on-chain governance where users vote with FTM tokens (one token equals one vote). Of the features: users have the right to express the degree of agreement / disagreement on a scale from 0 to 4.

FTM is the native utility in-house PoS token of Fantom that powers the ecosystem and is applied for payments, network fees, staking, and governance. FTM forms the backbone of transactions, and allows fee collection and staking activities, along with the user rewards the latter represents.

Fantom

The Internet Computer blockchain incorporates a radical rethink of blockchain design, powered by innovations in cryptography. It provides the first “World Computer” blockchain that can be used to build almost any online system or service, including demanding web social media, without need for traditional IT such as cloud computing services. As such it can enable full end-to-end decentralization.

Internet Computer

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

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.

The Graph

Injective is a blockchain built for finance. It is an open, interoperable layer-one blockchain powering next-generation DeFi applications, including decentralized spot and derivatives exchanges, prediction markets, lending protocols and more.

Injective uniquely provides powerful core financial infrastructure primitives that applications can leverage, including a fully decentralized MEV-resistant on-chain orderbook. In addition, all forms of financial markets such as spot, perpetual, futures and options are fully on-chain. The decentralized cross-chain bridging infrastructure is compatible with Ethereum, IBC-enabled blockchains, and non EVM chains such as Solana.

Injective also provides a next-generation, highly interoperable smart contract platform based on CosmWasm, with advanced interchain capabilities. Injective is custom built with the Cosmos SDK and utilizes Tendermint-based Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, providing instant transaction finality with the ability to sustain lightning-fast performance (10,000+ TPS).

The Injective ecosystem includes 100+ projects and over 150,000 community members globally. Injective is backed by a group of prominent investors such as Binance, Pantera Capital, Jump Crypto and Mark Cuban.

Injective’s core exchange module provides state-of-the-art capabilities including an advanced on-chain order book and matching engine for spot, perpetual, futures and options markets, resistance to Miner-Extractable Value (MEV) through frequent batch auction order matching, and zero gas fees for users.

Injective natively uses IBC and is highly-interoperable with multiple layer 1s, including, but not limited to, Polygon and Solana (through an upcoming Wormhole integration). It is also uniquely built to be interoperable with Ethereum, through its own decentralized ERC-20 token bridge, making Injective the first network within the Cosmos ecosystem to natively support Ethereum assets.

Smart contracts are implemented on Injective through CosmWasm, allowing for multi-chain smart contract transactions to occur seamlessly. Injective, however, is the only blockchain that enables automatic smart contract execution. This capability serves as a powerful building block for developers to create novel use cases that would not be possible on any other chain.

The use cases intended for INJ include but are not limited to: protocol governance, dApp value capture, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) security, developer incentives and staking. Further details regarding each of these use cases can be found below:

Protocol Governance: The INJ token governs every single component of Injective, including chain upgrades. Since its mainnet launch, the Injective community has actively contributed to governance, with all proposals passing through a DAO governance vote. The comprehensive governance page is available here.

Protocol Fee Value Capture: 60% of all fees generated from dApps enter an on-chain buy-back-and-burn auction to maintain the deflationary nature of INJ. The burn auction page is available here.

Tendermint-based Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Security: INJ is used to secure the Injective blockchain using a proof-of-stake mechanism. Validators and delegators can both participate in staking.

Developer Incentives: 40% of fees generated by users on dApps built on Injective go directly towards incentivizing new developers building on Injective which brings an ever growing funnel of builders to Injective.

Injective

Arbitrum is an Ethereum layer-two (L2) scaling solution. It uses optimistic rollups to achieve its goal of improving speed, scalability and cost-efficiency on Ethereum. Arbitrum benefits from the security and compatibility of Ethereum. Another benefit is the higher throughput and lower fees compared to Ethereum. That is made possible thanks to moving most of the computation and storage load off-chain.

Arbitrum’s native token is called ARB and is used for governance. Offchain Labs, the developers behind Arbitrum, announced the shift to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structure — the Arbitrum DAO. ARB holders can vote on proposals that affect the features, protocol upgrades, funds allocation and election of a Security Council.

Arbitrum has an ambitious roadmap for 2023, which includes: Launching its own layer-three solution called Orbit; Enabling developers to deploy programs written in popular programming languages like Rust, C++, and more using Stylus; Expanding its validator set to include more independent institutional validators; Moving its protocol to layer two with Arbitrum One.

On March 16, 2023,  Arbitrum announced their highly anticipated airdrop of ARB. The token will be airdropped to early users and DAOs building on Arbitrum, with 12.75% of the total supply to be distributed. Recipients were rewarded on a point-based system depending on their interaction with the Arbitrum network until a cutoff date of March 1, 2023. The token generation event is on March 23, 2023.

Arbitrum

Immutable positions itself as the first layer-two scaling solution for NFTs on Ethereum. According to Immutable, its blockchain does away with Ethereum’s limitations like low scalability, a poor user experience, illiquidity, and a slow developer experience. Instead, users benefit from instant trading and massive scalability while enjoying zero gas fees for minting and trading NFTs without compromising user or asset security.

Thanks to this technology, users will be able to create and distribute assets like ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens on a massive scale. Chris Clay, the game Director of Gods Unchained, a project already building on Immutable, stated that Immutable allows Gods Unchained to implement a new meta-system that was previously impossible. In this fashion, Immutable aims to create a world-class experience for users and developers alike.

Immutable

Optimism (OP) is a layer-two blockchain on top of Ethereum. Optimism benefits from the security of the Ethereum mainnet and helps scale the Ethereum ecosystem by using optimistic rollups. That means transactions are trustlessly recorded on Optimism but ultimately secured on Ethereum.

Optimism is one of the biggest scaling solutions for Ethereum with over $500 million in TVL. It is home to 97 protocols, the biggest being Synthetix (SNX), a derivatives exchange, Uniswap (UNI), a DEX, and Velodrome (VELO), an AMM. Users can begin their journey on Optimism by adding the chain on their Metamask and bridging tokens like ETH to the L2. On May 31, 2022, Optimism conducted a highly anticipated airdrop of its OP token.

Optimism

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

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.

Bitcoin

Founded in 2017 and launched via IEO on Binance in March 2019, Fetch.AI is an artificial intelligence (AI) lab building an open, permissionless, decentralized machine learning network with a crypto economy. Fetch.ai democratizes access to AI technology with a permissionless network upon which anyone can connect and access secure datasets by using autonomous AI to execute tasks that leverage its global network of data. The Fetch.AI model is rooted in  use cases like optimizing DeFi trading services, transportation networks (parking, micromobility), smart energy grids, travel — essentially any complex digital system that relies on large-scale datasets.

Fetch.ai

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

Launched in 2011 by Pixowl, The Sandbox is a blockchain-based virtual world allowing users to create, build, buy and sell digital assets in the form of a game. By combining the powers of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the Sandbox creates a decentralized platform for a thriving gaming community.

According to the official whitepaper, the Sandbox platform’s main mission is to introduce blockchain technology in mainstream gaming successfully. The platform focuses on facilitating a creative “play-to-earn” model, which allows users to be both creators and gamers simultaneously. The Sandbox employs the powers of blockchain technology by introducing the SAND utility token, which facilitates transactions on the platform.