To find out even more about this project, check out our deep dive of [dYdX](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-dydx-dydx-features-tokenomics-and-price-prediction).

## What Is DYDX (dYdX)?

Ethereum-based DYDX ($ethDYDX) is a governance token that allows the dYdX community to truly govern the dYdX Layer 2 Protocol built on Ethereum ("dYdX v3"). ethDYDX is currently undergoing a migration from Ethereum to the dYdX Chain. More information is available [here](https://www.dydx.foundation/blog/update-on-exploring-the-future-of-dydx). If you want to migrate ethDYDX to dYdX Chain DYDX, to enable staking, security and governance of the dYdX Chain you can follow the how-to-bridge guide [here](https://www.dydx.foundation/how-to-bridge/overview). 

If you want to read about the new token utility for dYdX Chain DYDX you can read the blog [here](https://www.dydx.foundation/blog/dydx-token-mechanics)

[ethDYDX (dYdX)](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/dydx/) is the governance token for the [layer 2](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/layer-2) protocol built on Ethereum. By enabling shared control of dYdX v3, ethDYDX allows traders, liquidity providers, and partners of dYdX to work collectively towards an enhanced dYdX v3.

Built on [StarkWare’s](https://starkware.co/) StarkEx scalability engine, layer 2 is used for trading of cross-margined perpetuals on the platform. The scaling solution allows dYdX to increase transaction speed, eliminate gas costs, reduce trading fees and lower​​ minimum trade sizes on the protocol.

A total of 1,000,000,000 ethDYDX have been minted, and started to become accessible over five (5) years, on August 3rd, 2021, at 15:00:00 UTC.

## Migration to the dYdX Chain
On June 22, 2022, dYdX Trading Inc.(“dYdX Trading”) [announced](https://dydx.exchange/blog/dydx-chain) the next iteration of the dYdX protocol - the dYdX Chain Open Source Software. The dYdX Chain is a proof-of-stake blockchain network and, as such, it requires a Layer 1 (“L1”) protocol token for staking to validators in order to secure the chain and for stakers of the L1 token to [govern](https://dydx.exchange/blog/v4-deep-dive-governance) the network. Holders of the L1 token can use their L1 tokens to run a validator or stake their tokens to a validator in order to participate in securing and governing the network.
The [wethDYDX Smart Contract](https://etherscan.io/address/0x46b2deae6eff3011008ea27ea36b7c27255ddfa9) enables the migration of ethDYDX from Ethereum to the dYdX Chain.
When interacted with, the wethDYDX Smart Contract would carry out the following functions in a fully permissionless and automated manner:
Receive and permanently lock the ethDYDX tokens sent by the user to the wethDYDX Smart Contract;
Send a wrapped version of the Ethereum-based DYDX token (“wethDYDX”) to the user on a 1-1 proportional basis on Ethereum; and
dYdX Chain validators can also read and ingest the information in the wethDYDX Smart Contract such that corresponding DYDX can be distributed to users by validators on the dYdX Chain once there is confirmation that Step 1 above is complete and the ethDYDX is permanently locked in the wethDYDX Smart Contract.
More information about the migration of ethDYDX from Ethereum to dYdX Chain is available [here](http://docs.dydx.community/dydx-token-migration/start-here/introduction).


## Who Are the Founders of dYdX?

Antonio Juliano — an experienced programmer with a background in blockchain technology is the founder and CEO of dYdX Trading Inc. He first entered the crypto space in 2015 upon getting a job as a software engineer at [Coinbase](https://coinmarketcap.com/ru/exchanges/coinbase-exchange/) — a cryptocurrency exchange platform. As a Princeton University graduate with a degree in computer science, Antonio Juliano embarked on his entrepreneurial journey and founded dYdX in early 2017 . 

## What Makes dYdX Unique?

dYdX Layer 2 increases scalability of the network through use of a form of [zero-knowledge rollup](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/zero-knowledge-rollup) — zkSTARKS. The technology receives proofs, while validating a batch of transactions off-chain. These proofs are then sent back to the blockchain, where they are verified by a smart contract. zkSTARKS makes it possible to remove expensive computations from the mainnet with no sacrifices in decentralization.

## What is the allocation of ethDYDX?
A total of 1,000,000,000 ethDYDX have been minted, and started to become accessible over five (5) years, on August 3rd, 2021, at 15:00:00 UTC. 

The five-year allocation of the total supply of ethDYDX was initially as follows:

- 27.7% is allocated to Investors
- 14.5% is allocated to User Trading Rewards
- 15.3% is allocated to Employees and Consultants of dYdX Trading or Foundation
- 5.0% is allocated to Retroactive Rewards
- 5.2% is allocated to Liquidity Provider Rewards
- 7.0% is allocated to Future Employees & Consultants of dYdX
- 24.2% is allocated to Community Treasury
- 0.6% is allocated to Liquidity Staking Pool
- 0.5% is allocated to Safety Staking Pool

Since the launch of ethDYDX, several governance proposals have resulted in changes to the initial allocation. The updated allocation as of the start of Epoch 31 (December 19, 2023) is reflected in the pie chart below. 

The updated allocation of ethDYDX tokens as of the start of Epoch 31 (December 31, 2023) is as follows:
**- 27.7% (277,295,070 $ethDYDX) to past investors of dYdX Trading Inc.**
**- 15.3% (152,704,930 $ethDYDX) to founders, employees, advisors, and consultants of dYdX Trading Inc. or dYdX Foundation**
**- 7.0% (70,000,000 $ethDYDX) to future employees and consultants of dYdX Trading Inc. or the dYdX Foundation**
**- 14.5% (144,693,506 $ethDYDX) based on the Trading Rewards Formula**
	- In [DIP 16](https://github.com/dydxfoundation/dip/blob/master/content/dips/DIP-16.md) and [DIP 20](https://dydx.community/dashboard/proposal/11), the dYdX community voted to reduce trading rewardsby a total of 2.3M $ethDYDX. (958,904 $ethDYDX from DIP 16 and 1,294,520 $ethDYDX from DIP 20). The 2.3M $ethDYDX will accrue in the Rewards Treasury and can be used by the dYdX community with a [governance vote](https://docs.dydx.community/dydx-governance/voting-and-governance/governance-parameters).
	- In [DIP 29](https://dydx.community/dashboard/proposal/16), the dYdX community voted to reduce trading rewards by ⅓ from Epoch 30-32 on dYdX v3 to the following values:
* Epoch 30: 1,054,795 $ethDYDX
* Epoch 31: 527,398 $ethDYDX
* Epoch 32: 0 $ethDYDX

**- 5.0% (50,309,197 $ethDYDX) is allocated to Retroactive Mining Rewards**
	- After Epoch 0, 24,690,803 unclaimed $ethDYDX from the Retroactive Mining rewards program were transferred to the Community Treasury.
**- 3.2% (31,643,838 $ethDYDX) based on the Liquidity Provider Rewards Formula(s)**
	- In [DIP 24](https://github.com/dydxfoundation/dip/blob/master/content/dips/DIP-24.md), the dYdX community voted to reduce Liquidity Provider Rewards by 50% from 1,150,685 $ethDYDX per epoch to 575,343 $ethDYDX per epoch. The excess 575,342 $ethDYDX per epoch will accrue in the Rewards Treasury and can be used by the dYdX community with a [governance vote](https://docs.dydx.community/dydx-governance/voting-and-governance/governance-parameters).
	- In  [DIP 29](https://dydx.community/dashboard/proposal/16), the dYdX community voted to reduce Liquidity Provider rewards by ⅓ from Epoch 30-32 on dYdX v3 to the following values:
*  Epoch 30: 383,562 $ethDYDX
*  Epoch 31: 191,781 $ethDYDX
*  Epoch 32: 0 $ethDYDX

**- 26.1% (261,133,225 $ethDYDX) to the Community Treasury**
**- 0.6% (5,779,608 $ethDYDX) to users staking $USDC to a Liquidity Staking Pool**
	- In [DIP 14](https://github.com/dydxfoundation/dip/blob/master/content/dips/DIP-14.md), the dYdX community [voted](https://dydx.community/dashboard/proposal/7) to set the rewards associated with staking $USDC to 0. The 383,562 $ethDYDX previously distributed to $USDC stakers will accrue in the Rewards Treasury and can be used by the dYdX community with a [governance vote](https://docs.dydx.community/dydx-governance/voting-and-governance/governance-parameters).
**-0.5% (5,289,934 $ethDYDX) to users staking $ethDYDX to a Safety Staking Pool**
	- In [DIP 17](https://github.com/dydxfoundation/dip/blob/master/content/dips/DIP-17.md), the dYdX community [voted](https://dydx.community/dashboard/proposal/9) to set the rewards associated with staking $ethDYDX to 0. The 383,562 $ethDYDX previously distirbuted to $ethDYDX stakers will accrue in the Rewards Treasury and can be used by the dYdX community with a [governance vote](https://docs.dydx.community/dydx-governance/voting-and-governance/governance-parameters).

**Note:**
The token allocations for Investors, Employees and Consultants of dYdX Trading or Foundation are subject to transfer restrictions,
ethDYDX accruing in the Community and Rewards Treasury can be used by the dYdX community with a [governance vote](https://docs.dydx.community/dydx-governance/voting-and-governance/governance-parameters).

Out of the allocations stipulated above apprximately ~34% of total ethDYDX supply is currently in circulation.


## How Is the dYdX Network Secured?

DYDX is an [ERC-20](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/erc-20) token deployed on the [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/) mainnet. dYdX’s layer 2 scaling solution is built on StarkWare’s ZK-STARKS technology and relies on Ethereum blockchain to verify transaction proofs.

**When Will DYDX Trading Begin?**

DYDX token first became available for purchase in September 2021.


## Where Can You Buy DYDX?

DYDX is currently available for purchase on the following exchanges: [Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/binance/), [Huobi Global](https://coinmarketcap.com/ru/exchanges/huobi-global/), [KuCoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/ru/exchanges/kucoin/), [Gate.io](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/gate-io/), [Kraken](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/kraken/), [Poloniex](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/poloniex/), [Uniswap (V3)](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/uniswap-v3/), ​​[OKEx](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/okex/), [LBank](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/lbank/), [Sushiswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/sushiswap/), [Crypto.com Exchange](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/crypto-com-exchange/), [0x Protocol](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/0x-protocol/), [XT.COM](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/xt/), [BitZ](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bitz/), [WhiteBIT](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/whitebit/), [1inch Exchange](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/1inch-exchange/), [WOO Network](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/wootrade/), [CoinDCX](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/coindcx/), [Deepcoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/deepcoin/), [Cryptology](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/cryptology/), [BKEX](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bkex/), [DigiFinex](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/digifinex/), [Pionex](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/pionex/), [BW.com](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bw-com/), [BitMart](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bitmart/), [AEX](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/aex/), [ZBG](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/zbg/), [MEXC](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/mxc/), [BiONE](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bione/), [Bibox](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bibox/), [Hoo](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/hoo/), [Hotbit](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/hotbit/), [Decoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/decoin/), [Bitrue](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bitrue/), [HitBTC](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/hitbtc/), [Tokocrypto](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/tokocrypto/), [Mandala Exchange](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/mandala/), [CoinW](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/coinw/), [BigONE](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bigone/), [ZT](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/zt/), [AOFEX](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/aofex/), [WBF Exchange](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/wbf-exchange/), [CoinBene](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/coinbene/) and [Bitget](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bitget/).

Cryptocurrency newbie? You can read more about how to enter the market and how to buy BTC, DYDX or any other token in CoinMarketCap education portal — [Alexandria](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/).


dYdX (ethDYDX)

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Mina Protocol is a minimal “succinct blockchain” built to curtail computational requirements in order to run DApps more efficiently. Mina has been described as the world’s lightest blockchain since its size is designed to remain constant despite growth in usage. Furthermore, it remains balanced in terms of security and decentralization. The project was rebranded from Coda Protocol to Mina in October 2020.

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

The Mina network has a size of only 22 KB, which is miniscule when compared to Bitcoin’s 300 GB blockchain.

Mina

Flow

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

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

Aptos is a Layer 1 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain that employs a novel smart contract programming language called Move, a Rust-based programming language that was independently developed by Meta (formerly Facebook)’s Diem blockchain engineers.

Aptos’s vision is a blockchain that brings mainstream adoption to web3 and empowers an ecosystem of DApps to solve real-world user problems.

The PoS blockchain can achieve a theoretical transaction throughput of over 150,000 transactions per second (tps) through parallel execution.

In March 2022, Aptos raised $200 million in a seed round led by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Other crypto heavyweights like Tiger Global and Multicoin Capital took part in the funding round. Fast forward to July, the startup raised another $200 million in a Series A round with participation from Dragonfly, Apollo Global, Franklin Templeton, Animoca, Jump Crypto and others.

Two months later, Binance Labs made a strategic investment of an undisclosed amount in Aptos.

On Oct. 18, 2022, Aptos announced the mainnet launch, while the Aptos genesis occurred on Oct. 12, 2022.

Aptos

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

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

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.

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.

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

GMX is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for trading perpetual cryptocurrency futures with up to 50X leverage on popular cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH and more. The platform launched in September 2021 as Gambit Exchange. To date, GMX has a total trading volume of over $130B and 283K total users, making it the leading derivatives DEX on Arbitrum and Avalanche.

GMX runs on the Arbitrum and the Avalanche blockchain. These ecosystems are connected to the exchange via Synapse — a cross-chain bridge.

The 1inch Network unites decentralized protocols whose synergy enables the most lucrative, fastest, and protected operations in the DeFi space.

The 1inch Network's first protocol is a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator solution that searches deals across multiple liquidity sources, offering users better rates than any individual exchange. The 1inch Aggregation Protocol incorporates the Pathfinder algorithm for finding the best paths across over 400+ liquidity sources on 12 chains: Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Optimism, Arbitrum, Fantom, Gnosis Chain, Klaytn, Aurora, zkSync and Base.

In just over two years the 1inch DEX aggregator has reached 1M users and surpassed $150B in overall volume on the Ethereum network alone.

The 1inch Limit Order Protocol facilitates the most innovative and flexible limit order swap opportunities in DeFi. The protocol’s features, such as dynamic pricing, conditional orders, and extra RFQ support, power various implementations, including stop-loss and trailing stop orders, as well as auctions.

The 1inch Wallet is a multichain mobile platform that provides an easy-to-navigate interface with secure storing, transaction, and staking capabilities. This versatile wallet was built from the ground up to streamline interacting with 1inch’s features.

The 1INCH token is the governance and utility token of the 1inch Network. 1INCH holders can stake their tokens to participate in the 1inch Network's DAO governance, including the 1inch DAO Treasury management. Also, holders can choose resolvers and earn a part of their fees.

With the 1inch Fusion, users can stake 1INCH tokens to receive Unicorn Power (UP), then subsequently delegate their UP to any 1inch Fusion Resolver to start receiving rewards from them. When staking, there is the option to set a custom or preset lock period. User’s st1INCH tokens cannot be unstaked/withdrawn without penalty until the designated lock period expires.

In December 2020, 1inch raised $12 million in Series A funding, led by Pantera Capital, with others including ParaFi Capital, Blockchain Capital, Nima Capital, and Spartan Group. The funding round was conducted through a SAFT (simple agreement for future tokens) sale.

In December 2021, 1inch has closed a $175 million Series B round, led by Amber Group. Among about 50 investors that participated in the funding event are Jane Street, VanEck, Fenbushi Capital, Alameda Research, Celsius, Nexo, Tribe Capital and Gemini Frontier Fund.

1inch Network

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

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

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

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

Aave

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.

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

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.