## Τι Είναι το USD Coin (USDC);

Το USD Coin (γνωστό με το δείκτη του, USDC) είναι ένα [stablecoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-stablecoin) που είναι συνδεδεμένο με το δολάριο ΗΠΑ σε βάση 1:1. Κάθε μονάδα αυτού του κρυπτονομίσματος σε κυκλοφορία υποστηρίζεται από 1 δολάριο που διατηρείται στο αποθεματικό, σε συνδυασμό μετρητών και βραχυπρόθεσμων ομολόγων του αμερικανικού Δημοσίου. Η κοινοπραξία Center, η οποία βρίσκεται πίσω από αυτό το περιουσιακό στοιχείο, λέει ότι το USDC εκδίδεται από ρυθμιζόμενα χρηματοπιστωτικά ιδρύματα.

Το stablecoin κυκλοφόρησε αρχικά σε περιορισμένη βάση τον Σεπτέμβριο του 2018. Με απλά λόγια, το μάντρα του USD Coin είναι «ψηφιακό χρήμα για την ψηφιακή εποχή» — και έχει σχεδιαστεί για έναν κόσμο όπου οι συναλλαγές χωρίς μετρητά γίνονται όλο και πιο συνηθισμένες.

Έχουν αποκαλυφθεί αρκετές περιπτώσεις χρήσης για το USD Coin. Εκτός από το να παρέχει ένα ασφαλές καταφύγιο για τους trader κρυπτονομισμάτων σε περιόδους αστάθειας, εκείνοι που βρίσκονται πίσω από το stablecoin λένε ότι μπορεί επίσης να επιτρέψει στις επιχειρήσεις να δέχονται πληρωμές σε ψηφιακά περιουσιακά στοιχεία και να ταρακουνήσει μια σειρά από τομείς, όπως η αποκεντρωμένη οικονομία και το gaming.

Συνολικά, ο στόχος είναι να δημιουργηθεί ένα οικοσύστημα όπου το USDC θα είναι αποδεκτό από όσο το δυνατόν περισσότερα πορτοφόλια, χρηματιστήρια, παρόχους υπηρεσιών και dApps.

### Ποιοι Είναι οι Ιδρυτές του USD Coin;

Η Κοινοπραξία Center έχει δύο ιδρυτικά μέλη. Ένα από αυτά είναι η εταιρεία υπηρεσιών ομότιμων πληρωμών Circle, ενώ η άλλη είναι το χρηματιστήριο κρυπτονομισμάτων Coinbase. Κι άλλες επιχειρήσεις κρυπτονομισμάτων είναι ανοιχτές στο να συμμετάσχουν σε αυτήν την κοινοπραξία.

Εξηγώντας το σκεπτικό πίσω από το USDC, οι συνιδρυτές του Circle, Jeremy Allaire και Sean Neville, έγραψαν: «Πιστεύουμε ότι ένα ανοιχτό διαδίκτυο ανταλλαγής αξίας μπορεί να μεταμορφώσει και να αφομοιώσει τον κόσμο πιο βαθιά, εξαλείφοντας τελικά τα τεχνητά οικονομικά σύνορα και επιτρέποντας μια πιο αποτελεσματική και χωρίς αποκλεισμούς παγκόσμια αγορά που συνδέει κάθε άνθρωπο στον πλανήτη».

Το 2020, η Circle και η Coinbase ανακοίνωσαν συλλογικά μια σημαντική αναβάθμιση στο πρωτόκολλο και το έξυπνο συμβόλαιο του USDC. Ο στόχος αυτών των βελτιώσεων είναι να διευκολύνουν τη χρήση του USD Coin για καθημερινές πληρωμές, εμπόριο και ομότιμες συναλλαγές.

### Τι Κάνει το USD Coin (USDC) Μοναδικό;

Η αγορά stablecoin έχει γεμίσει τα τελευταία χρόνια — αλλά το USD Coin έχει ως στόχο να ξεπεράσει τους ανταγωνιστές του με διάφορους τρόπους.

Ένας από αυτούς αφορά τη διαφάνεια — και την παροχή στους χρήστες της διαβεβαίωσης ότι θα μπορούν να αποσύρουν 1 USDC και να λάβουν 1$ σε αντάλλαγμα χωρίς προβλήματα. Για το σκοπό αυτό, λέει ότι μια μεγάλη λογιστική εταιρεία έχει επιφορτιστεί με την επαλήθευση των επιπέδων ρευστών διαθεσίμων που τηρούνται στο αποθεματικό και τη διασφάλιση ότι αυτό ταιριάζει με τον αριθμό token σε κυκλοφορία.

Σε αντίθεση με ορισμένες επιχειρήσεις κρυπτονομισμάτων, η Circle και η Coinbase έχουν επίσης επιτύχει συμμόρφωση με τους κανονισμούς — και αυτό βοήθησε στο άνοιγμα δρόμων για διεθνή επέκταση. Και τα δύο έργα είναι επίσης καλά χρηματοδοτούμενα, δίνοντας στο stablecoin βεβαιότητα.

#### Σχετικές σελίδες:

[Τι είναι ένα stablecoin;](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-stablecoin)

[Μάθε για το USDT, έναν από τους μεγαλύτερους ανταγωνιστές του USDC](https://coinmarketcap.com/el/currencies/tether/)

[Λεπτομερείς ορισμοί για stablecoins στο γλωσσάρι του CoinMarketCap](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/)

[Blog του CoinMarketCap: Ανάλυση σε βάθος και χαρακτηριστικά](https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/)

### Πόσα USD Coin (USDC) Υπάρχουν σε Κυκλοφορία;

Είναι λίγο δύσκολο να δώσουμε έναν ακριβή αριθμό εδώ — καθώς θεωρητικά, ο αριθμός USDC που μπορεί να υπάρχει είναι απεριόριστος. Νέα νομίσματα δημιουργούνται σύμφωνα με τη ζήτηση, κάθε φορά που κάποιος θέλει να αγοράσει ένα με ένα ταπεινό δολάριό του.

Ωστόσο, υπήρξαν παράγοντες που βοήθησαν την έκρηξη δημοτικότητας του USD Coin όλα αυτά τα χρόνια — ειδικά το 2020. Ένας από αυτούς είναι η ξαφνική, απότομη αύξηση της δημοτικότητας της αποκεντρωμένης οικονομίας. Το USDC είναι συνηθισμένο θέαμα σε πολλά πρωτόκολλα [DeFi](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-decentralized-finance), δεδομένου του τρόπου με τον οποίο χρησιμεύει ως ράμπα προς το ευρύτερο οικοσύστημα.

### Πώς Διασφαλίζεται το Δίκτυο USD Coin;

Όλα τα USDC που κυκλοφορούν είναι στην πραγματικότητα token ERC-20, που βρίσκονται στο blockchain Ethereum. Ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα πλεονεκτήματα είναι πώς μπορεί στη συνέχεια να ενσωματωθεί σε εφαρμογές που βασίζονται στο Ethereum. Όπως αναφέραμε προηγουμένως, η ασφάλεια και η εμπιστοσύνη σε αυτό το stablecoin παρέχεται αποδεικνύοντας ότι τα δολάρια ΗΠΑ διατηρούνται με ασφάλεια σε ένα αποθεματικό.

### Πού Μπορείς να Αγοράσεις USD Coin (USDC);

Όπως θα περίμενε κανείς, ένα από τα πιο ενθουσιώδη χρηματιστήρια που προσφέρει το USDC είναι το Coinbase, δεδομένου του τρόπου με τον οποίο το χρηματιστήριο συμμετείχε στη δημιουργία αυτού του stablecoin. Το USD Coin μπορεί επίσης να αγοραστεί και να διαπραγματευτεί στα Poloniex, Binance, OKEx και Bitfinex, καθώς και σε αποκεντρωμένα χρηματιστήρια όπως το Uniswap.

Το USDC αγοράζεται συνήθως με Bitcoin — και αν είναι η πρώτη φορά που αγοράζεις Bitcoin, φρόντισε να δεις τον αναλυτικό οδηγό μας [εδώ](https://coinmarketcap.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin/).

Visa Claims that 90% of Stablecoin Transaction Volumes Are Not Initiated by Humans

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Bitcoin Hits Highs of $26,500 — Sending Prices to Highest Level in Nine Months

USDC

Ledger

Coinbase

Cobo

Safepal

HyperPay

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Binance Chain Wallet

Sollet

SolFlare

Backpack

Phantom

Atomic wallet

USDC is a faster, safer, and more efficient way to send, spend, and exchange money around the globe.

Ethereum

Shiba Inu

Chainlink

Pepe

Uniswap

UNUS SED LEO

Lido DAO

The Sandbox

Axie Infinity

Wormhole

Ethena

Maker

JasmyCoin

Render

Immutable

Brett

Lybra Finance

ClearDAO

IX Swap

Amino

Launched in 2014, Tether is a blockchain-enabled platform designed to facilitate the use of fiat currencies in a digital manner. Tether works to disrupt the conventional financial system via a more modern approach to money. Tether has made headway by giving customers the ability to transact with traditional currencies across the blockchain, without the inherent volatility and complexity typically associated with a digital currency. As the first blockchain-enabled platform to facilitate the digital use of traditional currencies (a familiar, stable accounting unit), Tether has democratised cross-border transactions across the blockchain.

Tether USDt

DAI is an Ethereum-based stablecoin (stable-price cryptocurrency) whose issuance and development is managed by the Maker Protocol and the MakerDAO decentralized autonomous organization.

The price of DAI is soft-pegged to the U.S. dollar and is collateralized by a mix of other cryptocurrencies that are deposited into smart-contract vaults every time new DAI is minted.

It is important to differentiate between Multi-Collateral DAI and Single-Collateral DAI (SAI), an earlier version of the token that could only be collateralized by a single cryptocurrency; SAI also doesn’t support the DAI Savings Rate, which allows users to earn savings by holding DAI tokens.

Multi-Collateral DAI was launched in November 2019.

Binance USD (BUSD) is a 1:1 USD-backed stable coin issued by Binance (in partnership with Paxos), Approved and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), The BUSD Monthly Audit Report can be viewed from the official website. Launched on 5 Sep 2019, BUSD aims to meld the stability of the dollar with blockchain technology. It is a digital fiat currency, issued as ERC-20 and supports BEP-2.

BUSD

Launched in July 2017, Binance is the biggest cryptocurrency exchange globally based on daily trading volume. Binance aims to bring cryptocurrency exchanges to the forefront of financial activity globally. The idea behind Binance’s name is to show this new paradigm in global finance — Binary Finance, or Binance.

Aside from being the largest cryptocurrency exchange globally, Binance has launched a whole ecosystem of functionalities for its users. The Binance network includes the Binance Chain, Binance Smart Chain, Binance Academy, Trust Wallet and Research projects, which all employ the powers of blockchain technology to bring new-age finance to the world. BNB is an integral part of the successful functioning of many of the Binance sub-projects.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

TUSD is the first digital asset with live on-chain attestations by independent third-party institutions and is backed 1:1 with the U.S. dollar (USD). So far, it has been listed on more than 100 trading platforms such as Binance and Huobi and is live on 12 mainstream public chains, including Ethereum, TRON, Avalanche, BSC, Fantom, and Polygon.

TrueUSD is attested to in real-time by an independent, industry-specialized accounting firm in the U.S., to ensure the 1:1 ratio of its USD reserve to the circulating token supply and the 100% collateral rate. With the integration of Chainlink PoR, TrueUSD becomes the first USD-Backed stablecoin to secure minting and further ensure transparency and reliability. Users can access the relevant data via the official website tusd.io at any time. TUSD is granted statutory status as authorized digital currency and medium of exchange in the Commonwealth of Dominica, a country in the Caribbean, effective on October 7th 2022.

TrueUSD

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

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

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.

Bitcoin Cash

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.

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.

SHIB is a decentralized, community-led currency held by millions across the globe. Since its inception in late 2020, the Ethereum-based SHIB token has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon, and is now accepted as a form of payment at hundreds of locations, either directly or through third-party intermediaries.

Shiba Inu coin was created anonymously in August 2020 under the pseudonym "Ryoshi." Ryoshi says about himself that he is a nobody and not important and that the efforts to unmask his identity, even if successful, would be underwhelming.

This meme coin quickly gained speed and value as a community of investors was drawn in by the cute charm of the coin paired with headlines and tweets from personalities like Elon Musk and Vitalik Buterin.

Since release SHIB now trades on the ecosystem's proprietary DEX, ShibaSwap.