The Worst-Performing Altcoins in September

## Neo (NEO) کیا ہے؟

Neo خود کو ایک ’’تیزی سے اُبھرتے ہوئے، ترقی پذیر‘‘ ایکو سسٹم کے طور پر پیش کرتا ہے، جس کا مقصد انٹرنیٹ کی اگلی نسل کے لیے بُنیاد بننا ہے — ایک نئی اکانومی، جس میں ڈیجیٹائزڈ ادائیگیاں، شناختیں اور اثاثے اکھٹے ظاہر ہوں۔

فروری، سنہ 2014 میں اس کے آغاز کے بعد، ابتدائی طور پر Antshares کے نام سے مقبول اس پراجیکٹ کے بارے میں یہ خیال کیا جاتا تھا، کہ یہ عوامی سطح پر چین کی پہلی بلاک چین ہے۔ تین سال بعد از سر نو تشکیل کے بعد اس پلیٹ فارم کو Neo کا نام دیا گیا۔

نیٹ ورک کے لیے نیا انفراسٹرکچر تیار کرنے والی، اور داخلے کی راہ میں حائل رکاوٹوں کو کم کرنے والی ڈویلپرز کی کمیونٹی کی تشکیل کے ساتھ ساتھ، پراجیکٹ کے پیچھے موجود ٹیم ایکو بُوسٹ جیسے اقدامات کا اہتمام کرتی ہے، جوکہ لوگوں کو اس حوالے سے ترغیب دینے کے لیے تیار کیا گیا ہے کہ وہ اس کی بلاک چین پر غیر مرکزی ایپس اور اسمارٹ معاہدات تشکیل دے سکیں۔

اسے اکثر Ethereum نیٹ ورک کا چینی ورژن قرار دیا جاتا ہے۔

### Neo کے بانیان کون ہیں؟

Neo، اور اس کے پیشرو Antshares کے مشترکہ بانیان میں Da Hongfei اور Erik Zhang شامل ہیں۔ دونوں ہی افراد Neo فاؤنڈیشن میں چیئر مین کے عہدے پر فائز ہیں، جس کا مقصد بلاک چین کی ترویج ہے۔

Da Hongfei کا کہنا ہے، کہ اگرچہ انٹرنیٹ ایک عظیم ایجاد ہے، لیکن اس میں بہت سی خامیاں بھی ہیں — جس کا مطلب ہے کہ روز مرّہ کے صارفین کو ہمیشہ اپنے ڈیٹا پر کنٹرول حاصل نہیں ہوتا۔ بحیثیت آنٹرپرینیور، ان کا خیال ہے کہ بالآخر بلاک چین ایپلیکیشنز مرکزی دھارے میں آ جائیں گی۔

Erik Zhang ڈیلیگیٹڈ [Byzantine Fault Tolerance](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/byzantine-fault-tolerance-bft) الگورتھم کے مصنف ہیں، جس کا ہدف یہ ہے کہ ناقابل اعتماد شرکاء کو بلاک چین آپریشن میں حصہ لینے سے روکا جائے۔ آگے جا کر یہی ٹیکنالوجی Neo بلاک چین میں استعمال کی گئی۔ اُنہوں نے اس نیٹ ورک کے لئے بنیادی ڈویلپر کی حیثیت سے بھی کام کیا، اور اب وہ حالیاً Neo 3.0 کی ڈویلپمنٹ میں ایک فعال کردار ادا کر رہے ہیں، جوکہ پراجیکٹ کے انفراسٹرکچر کی اگلی شکل ہے۔

### وہ کیا چیز ہے جو Neo کو منفرد بناتی ہے؟

Neo بلاک چین کی فروخت کے منفرد پہلوؤں میں سے ایک کا تعلق اس کی مسلسل ترقی سے ہے، جو اس بات کو یقینی بنانے میں مددگار ثابت ہوتی ہے کہ یہ مستقبل کے لیے مطابقت پذیر ہے، اور طلب میں اچانک اضافے سے نپٹنے کی صلاحیت رکھتا ہے۔ جیسا کہ اس سے قبل ذکر کیا گیا، پراجیکٹ کے کار پردازوں نے Neo 3.0 بھی بنا لیا ہے — جس کے معنی ہیں نیٹ ورک پر سکیورٹی میں اضافہ، اور فی سیکنڈ مزید ٹرانزیکشنز پر کارروائی۔

دیگر بہت سی بلاک چینز کے برعکس، اس نیٹ ورک پر دو مقامی ٹوکنز بھی موجود ہیں: NEO اور GAS۔ جہاں NEO ایک سرمایہ کاری ٹوکن کا کردار ادا کرتا ہے، اور لوگوں کو بلاک چین کی بہتری سے متعلق رائے دہی میں حصہ لینے کی اجازت دیتا ہے، وہیں GAS نیٹ ورک پر انجام دی جانے والی ٹرانزیکشنز کی فیس ادا کرنے کے لئے استعمال کیا جاتا ہے۔

چند دیگر بلاک چین پراجیکٹس بھی اسی حد میں رہ کر ترقیاتی فنڈ چلاتے ہیں، جس حد تک Neo چلاتا ہے۔ EcoBoost کا آغاز سنہ 2019 میں ہوا، اور اس کی تشہیر ایک ایسے اقدام کے طور پر کی گئی جوکہ "اضافی صلاحیت کے حامل پراجیکٹس کے لیے مکمل معاونت" فراہم کرتا ہے — جس میں مالی امداد، تکنیکی معاونت اور سوشل میڈیا پر ترویج بھی شامل ہے۔

#### متعلقہ صفحات:

[GAS کے متعلق مزید جانیے، جوکہ Neo کا دوسرا مقامی ٹوکن ہے](https://coinmarketcap.com/ur/currencies/gas/)

[Neo کا موازنہ Ethereum سے کس تناظر میں ہو سکتا ہے؟](https://coinmarketcap.com/ur/currencies/ethereum/)

[کرپٹو کے بارے میں ہماری ’’کیسے کیا جائے‘‘ پر مشتمل ہدایت نامے دریافت کیجیے](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/categories/how-to-guides)

[کرپٹو کی انڈسٹری میں کیا ہو رہا ہے؟ جواب ہمارے بلاگ میں جانیے](https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/)

### فی الوقت کُل کتنے Neo (NEO) کوائنز گردش میں ہیں؟

اس تحریر کے وقت کل 70.5 ملین NEO گردش میں ہیں — جبکہ کُل سپلائی 100 ملین پر مشتمل ہے۔ NEO ٹوکنز مائن نہیں کیے جاتے، اور درحقیقت، یہ تمام 100 ملین، بلاک چین کے آغاز پر تشکیل دیے گئے۔

ان ٹوکنزکی تقسیم کاری 50/50 کی بُنیاد پر کی گئی — جن میں سے تصف ٹوکن سیل میں حصہ لینے والے افراد کو، اور دوسرا نصف ڈویلپرز اور NEO کونسل کے مابین تقسیم کیا گیا۔ اس وقت، اس بات کی تصدیق کی گئی تھی کہ یہ فنڈز ایسے دیگر بلاک چین پروٹوکول میں سرمایہ کاری کے لیے استعمال کیے جائیں گے جوکہ تنظیم کی جانب سے معاونت یافتہ ہیں۔

اسی دوران، کسی بھی نئے بلاک کے تخلیق پر کم و بیش ہر 20 سیکنڈ بعد GAS تشکیل ہو جاتا ہے۔ وجود میں آنے والے ٹوکنز کے تعداد میں ہر سال درجہ بدرجہ کمی واقع ہو جاتی ہے، ایک اندازے کے مطابق 100 ملین کی کُل سپلائی کو گردش میں آتے آتے 22 سال لگ جائیں گے۔

### Neo نیٹ ورک کو کس طرح سے محفوظ بنایا جاتا ہے؟

جیسا کہ ہم اس سے قبل ذکر کر چکے ہیں، کہ Neo Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance کا استعمال کرتا ہے، چناچہ اندازے کے مطابق اس کی بلاک چین ہزاروں ٹرانزیکشنز فی سیکنڈ انجام دینے کی صلاحیت رکھتی ہے۔

Neo کے مطابق، dBFT کا میکانزم، Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance الگورتھم سے متاثر ہو کر بنایا گیا ہے۔

ڈیلیگیٹٹڈ پروف-آف-اسٹیک کے ساتھ کُچھ مُماثلتیں بھی ہیں، جس کا دار و مدار اس بات پر ہے کہ دونوں مفاہمتی میکانزمز ٹوکن رکھنے والوں کو کس طریق کار کے تحت ٹرانزیکشن کا عمل انجام دینے والے ڈیلیگیٹس کے لیے وووٹنگ کی اجازت دیتے ہیں۔

dBFT کے ذریعے، کم از کم دو تہائی ڈیلیگیٹس کے متفق ہو جانے پر بلاک چینز میں مزید بلاکس شامل کئے جاتے ہیں — اور امید یہ کی جاتی ہے، کہ یہ نیٹ ورک کی کارکردگی میں رکاوٹ ڈالنے والے بُرے کرداروں سے محفوظ رہنے میں مددگار ثابت ہو گا۔

### آپ Neo (NEO) کہاں سے خرید سکتے ہیں؟

NEO، کئی ایکسچینجز سے خریدا جا سکتا ہے — جن میں Binance, Poloniex اور HitBTC شامل ہیں۔ لیکن یہ عالمی سطح پر دستیاب نہیں، اور بعض پلیٹ فارمز اس کی معاونت بھی نہیں کرتے، جیسے کہ Coinbase۔

بہت سے ایکسچینجز، ایسے ٹریڈنگ کے جوڑے پیش کرتے ہیں جو NEO کو Bitcoin سے جوڑ دیتے ہیں۔[اپنی فیاٹ کوBTC میں تبدیل کرنے کے بارے میں مزید یہاں سے جانیے۔](https://coinmarketcap.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin/)

Ledger

Trezor

Trust Wallet

Math Wallet

Neotracker

Neon Wallet

Atomic wallet

Flamingo

Nash

The EOS Network is an open-source blockchain platform that prioritizes high performance, flexibility, security, and developer experience. As a third-generation blockchain platform powered by the EOS virtual machine, EOS has an extensible WebAssembly engine for deterministic execution of near fee-less transactions.

EOS is the market's most scalable, divisible, and programmable digital currency. EOS is a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) network where stakeholders have the authority to select node operators. Due to the decentralized nature of the token distribution on EOS, power doesn't reside in the hands of block miners, but rather all parties involved in the EOS Network.

The EOS Network is attractive because of its technology and community. It allows developers to build projects that other blockchains cannot support. The network is straightforward and has multiple tools and educational resources to help users acclimate to the blockchain.

Dash is an open-source blockchain and cryptocurrency focused on offering a fast, cheap global payments network that is decentralized in nature. According to the project's white paper, Dash seeks to improve upon Bitcoin (BTC) by providing stronger privacy and faster transactions.

Dash, whose name comes from "digital cash," was launched in January 2014 as a fork of Litecoin (LTC). Since going live, Dash has grown to include features such as a two-tier network with incentivized nodes, including "masternodes," and decentralized project governance; InstantSend, which allows for instantly settled payments; ChainLocks, which makes the Dash blockchain instantly immutable; and PrivateSend, which offers additional optional privacy for transactions.

Dash

Tezos is a high-performing blockchain and open-source platform for assets and applications, with a strong focus on code security, on-chain governance, and decentralization. Tezos 2.0, the upcoming step in the evolution of Tezos, aims to improve scalability (via layer 2s), composability, and to implement support to mainstream programming languages (like Javascript, Typescript, Python, and many others).

Initially built with formal verification in mind, the Tezos protocol enables builders to avoid bugs when developing smart contracts, making it particularly suited to applications that require a high degree of security and certainty.

Tezos’ LPoS (Liquid Proof-of-Stake) consensus mechanism enables any stakeholder to take part, directly or by delegation, in the consensus process, and to be rewarded for securing the network. Rather uniquely, Tezos’ on-chain governance system also enables stakeholders to create and vote on protocol upgrade proposals. This pioneering system allows the protocol to self-amend and upgrade itself without leading to a split (or fork) in the blockchain, empowering the community without slowing down innovation.

First proposed in 2014 and launched in 2018, the Tezos Mainnet has a proven track record of running uninterrupted ever since, having earned a strong reputation for technical excellence and a supportive community.

Tezos

IOTA is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that features unique architecture and an open-source product suite for individuals, businesses, and institutions to use in Web3. It is built on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) called the Tangle, which can be pictured as a multi-dimensional blockchain. It enables the exchange of data and value on a decentralized platform through direct and secure transfers, executed on and immutably recorded on the network.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive into IOTA.

Together with its staging network Shimmer, IOTA aims to offer solutions to establish a secure and permissionless infrastructure that can drive the economy of the future. It enables the development of decentralized applications through automated trust in the form of Ethereum-compatible smart contracts, an advanced consensus algorithm, and thoughtfully balanced incentives.

IOTA delivers tools for creating and managing custom Layer 2 (EVM) chains, deploying smart contracts, minting native tokens and NFTs with distinctive features, and introducing digital identities to users.

Launching in 2024, IOTA 2.0 will be a protocol upgrade that rebuilds IOTA’s architecture to deliver full decentralization. You can find more about it here.

IOTA

Qtum (pronounced ‘“quantum”)  is a proof-of-stake (PoS) smart contract open-source blockchain platform and value transfer protocol. It aims to bring together the strengths of Bitcoinand Ethereumin one chain. Qtum is built on Bitcoin's UTXO transaction model, with the added functionality of smart contract execution and DApps. Recently, the platform added support for DeFi applications. As of March 2021, there are more than 20 tokens created on the Qtum blockchain.

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

The project was announced in March 2016 and held an ICO a year after, in March 2017, which brought its founders $15 million USD. The Qtum main chain was released on Sept.13, 2017. Initially, the Qtum coin was issued as a ETH-20 token, but with the launch of the mainnet, it was converted to native blockchain.

Qtum

Ontology is a project designed to bring trust, privacy, and security to Web3 through decentralized identity and data solutions. It is building the infrastructure to provide trusted access to Web3, allowing individuals and enterprises to rest assured that through regulatory compliant digital identity solutions, users and their privacy come first.

The Ontology blockchain is a high speed, low cost public blockchain. It is designed to bring decentralized identity and data solutions to Web3, with the goal of increasing privacy, transparency, and trust. To achieve this, users and enterprises are provided with the flexibility to build blockchain-based solutions that suit their needs, while also ensuring regulatory compliance. Through Ontology’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), Ontology ensures frictionless compatibility with Ethereum, the first step in the creation of the Ontology Multi-Virtual Machine and further interoperability for the chain.

At its launch, Ontology chose to forego the popular initial coin offering (ICO) model in favor of a series of community distributions and airdrops of its ONT cryptocurrency.

This helped to quickly establish both organic price discovery and a passionate community and helped the project to avoid subsequent regulatory scrutiny.

For example, for a brief period any person who signed up for the Ontology newsletter received an airdrop of free 1,000 ONT, which reached a value of $10 per token soon after the token became listed on major exchanges like Binance.

Ontology launched its own MainNet on June 30, 2018 and has been up and running smoothly since.

Ontology

Zcash is a decentralized cryptocurrency focused on privacy and anonymity. It uses the zk-SNARK zero-knowledge proof technology that allows nodes on the network to verify transactions without revealing any sensitive information about those transactions.

Contrary to a common misunderstanding, the majority of cryptocurrencies on the market, including Bitcoin (BTC), are not anonymous, but rather pseudonymous; while they do not explicitly reveal the identities of their users, each user has their own public address or addresses which can be traced back to them via the methods of data science and blockchain forensics.

Zcash transactions, on the other hand, still have to be relayed via a public blockchain, but unlike pseudonymous cryptocurrencies, ZEC transactions by default do not reveal the sending and receiving addresses or the amount being sent. There is an option, however, to reveal this data for the purposes of auditing or regulatory compliance.

Zcash was first released on October 28, 2016, and it was originally based on Bitcoin’s codebase.

Zcash

Theta Network

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

Stellar (XLM) is a peer-to-peer (P2P) decentralized network created in 2014 by The Stellar Development Foundation or Stellar.org. The network officially launched in 2015 with the purpose of connecting the world's financial systems and ensuring a protocol for payment providers and financial institutions. The platform is designed to move financial resources swiftly and reliably at minimal cost. Stellar links people, banks, payment processors and allows users to create, send and trade multiple types of crypto.

The basis of the network is its native digital currency - XLM or Lumens. XLM acts as an intermediate currency for operations and is also used to pay transaction fees. How it works: the protocol converts money in a few seconds, first into XLM, and then into the requested currency.

The Stellar payment protocol is based on distributed ledger technology -- an open-source development, community-owned and distributed by community. The crypto asset of the Stellar platform helps with cross-border transactions, overcoming the problems of high fees and slow procedures. XLM is more focused on assisting individuals transfer money than they are with institutions. Thus, Stellar offers access to financial systems, and people can send money at low cost and promptly around the world.

Moreover, Stellar serves as a decentralized exchange and marketplace, with a built-in order book that tracks ownership of Stellar assets. Platform users can manage buy/sell orders, as well as select and set their preferred assets in settlements. XLM is a built-in coin that helps reduce transaction fees.

The network maintains a high level of security.  XLM holders must have at least one token in order to remain active on the network. This nuance performs a global goal - the execution of network transactions efficiently and with minimal time costs. Plus, Lumens offers protection against flood attacks by making microtransactions too expensive for hackers with no chance of profit, which keeps Stellar Network safe from serious threats.

The target audience of Stellar is the inhabitants of developing countries, ordinary users who are provided access to the global economy through fast, simple and inexpensive transactions. Stellar Network makes extensive use of Lumens to produce live convection as well as to send cash in multiple currencies; currency is sent from one peer, and the recipient can receive the amount in another currency. This feature is beneficial when a transaction is made between currencies without widely traded pairs.

Support for multi-currency transactions is another competitive advantage of Stellar, and the ability for cross-currency transactions has only enhanced processes with foreign operations. Moreover, stable speed and low transaction costs are a privilege that users receive.

This functionality is powered by a development called Anchors (a bridge between different currencies and the network), which simplifies the exchange within the network and helps speed up the whole process.

In summary, the benefits of Stellar (XLM) include:

Stellar

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

NEM is a blockchain platform that was launched in March of 2015. It was one of the pioneers of the cryptocurrency industry, and sought to improve on the imperfections found on other chains at the time. It was one of the first non-turing complete chains to feature user-defined tokens (called mosaics), namespaces, multisignature accounts, and a P2P reputation system based on EigenTrust++. Its most notable contribution to the space is the proof-of-importance consensus mechanism, which sought to reward on-chain activity and deter the concentration of wealth commonly associated with proof-of-stake. Its client, NIS, is written in Java.

NEM has a global community. It sees the most utility as an alternative form of payment for businesses and vendors, and has a variety of social media apps built on top of it in Japan, such as nemgraph, a community-driven owned and operated alternative to Instagram.

In December 2021, NEM was hard forked by a pseudonymous team of cryptocurrency experts and enthusiasts alike. Titled Harlock, this hard fork signaled the community’s intent to take NEM from a shadow of its former self into the world’s leading payments platform for on-chain and off-chain media content.

VeChainThor (VET) is a versatile enterprise-grade L1 smart contract platform whose origins began in 2015. VeChain is known as a pioneer of real-world enterprise applications, and built a distributed platform powered by Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, NFC chips and blockchain to help various industries solve data-related challenges.

VeChain solves major blockchain adoption hurdles. The platform uses an intelligent two token model, VET and VTHO, separating the protocol's Store of Value and gas fee payment mechanisms, ensuring costs can be kept low and stable. Fee delegation allows smart contracts to pay gas fees on behalf of business users, and an advanced transaction model allows data to be packaged more efficiently while ensuring finality of data.

VeChain is focused on delivering a wave of incentive-based sustainability dApps through its new platform, VeBetterDAO, working closely with Boston Consulting Group to achieve adoption across enterprise and individual users, and helping  onboard the next billion users to Web3 over the coming decade.

From supply chains to sustainability, VeChain has continuously demonstrated its leading role as a driver of blockchain in business, and is dedicated to its role as a pioneer of driving real world adoption of blockchain technology.

VeChain

Waves is a multi-purpose blockchain platform which supports various use cases including decentralized applications (DApps) and smart contracts.

Launched in June 2016 following one of the cryptocurrency industry’s earliest initial coin offerings (ICO), Waves initially set out to improve on the first blockchain platforms by increasing speed, utility and user-friendliness.

The platform has undergone various changes and added new spin-off features to build on its original design.

Waves’ native token is WAVES, an uncapped supply token used for standard payments such as block rewards.

Waves

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

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

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

Monero

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

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.

Uniswap

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

Chiliz is the leading digital currency for sports and entertainment by the eponymous Malta-based FinTech provider. It operates the blockchain-based sports entertainment platform Socios, which enables users to participate in the governance of their favorite sports brands. Multiple fan tokens by Socios.com are an example of that. For sports clubs and associations, fan tokens offer a way of connecting with their fans and unlocking new revenue streams.

For instance, fans can participate and influence club-related decisions through surveys and polls, such as messages the captain should wear on his armband. The company aims to bridge the gap between being an active and a passive fan. Chiliz has developed partnerships with some of the biggest sporting institutions in the world: FC Barcelona, Manchester City, Juventus Turin, and Paris Saint-Germain. It also boasts partnerships with the UFC and gaming organizations. By purchasing CHZ, fans get access to various fan tokens and literally have a stake in their club.