## Stacks (STX) (سٹیکس) کیا ہے؟

سٹیکس پہلی پرت پر کام کرنے والا ایک بلاک چین حل ہے، جسے اسمارٹ معاہدات اور غیرمرکزی ایپلیکیشنز ([DApps](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps)) کو [Bitcoin (BTC)](https://coinmarketcap.com/ur/currencies/bitcoin/) تک لانے کے لیے ڈیزائن کیا گیا ہے۔ یہ اسمارٹ معاہدات Bitcoin میں کسی ایسی خصوصیت کو جو اسے طاقتور بناتی ہے، تبدیل کیے بغیر لائے جاتے ہیں — بشمول اس کی سکیورٹی اور استحکام۔

یہ DApps کھُلی اور موڈیولر ہیں، جس کے معنی یہ ہیں کہ ڈویلپرز ایکدوسرے کی بنائی ہوئی ایپلیکیشنز پر مزید ایپلیکیشنز تعمیر کر سکتے ہیں، تا کہ کُچھ اضافی خصوصیات بھی وجود میں آ جائیں، جنہیں کسی باقاعدہ ایپلیکیشن کا حصّہ بنانا ممکن نہیں۔ چونکہ اسٹیکس Bitcoin کو بُنیادی پرت کی حیثیت سے استعمال کرتا ہے، اسلئے نیٹ-ورک پر وقوع پذیر ہر چیز کا تصفیہ بہت زیادہ استعمال ہونے والے، اور مُدلِّل طور پر میدان عمل میں موجود شاید سب سے زیادہ محفوظ [بلاک چین](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/blockchain) — Bitcoin۔ کے ذریعے انجام پاتا ہے۔

یہ پلیٹ فارم سٹیکس ٹوکن (STX) کے ذریعے چلتا ہے، جس کا استعمال اسمارٹ معاہدات پر عمل درآمد، لین-دین کی پروسیسنگ اور سٹیکس 2.0 بلاک چین پر نئے ڈیجیٹل اثاثوں کو رجسٹر کرنے کے لیے کیا جاتا ہے۔

یہ پلیٹ فارم پہلے پہل Blockstack (بلاک-سٹیک) کہلاتا تھا، لیکن اسے سن 2020 کے چوتھے کُوارٹر میں دوبارہ برانڈ کیا گیا، تاکہ "ایکو سسٹم اور اوپن-سورس پروجیکٹ کو بلاک-سٹیک PBC سے الگ کیا جا سکے" — وہ کمپنی جس نے اصل پروٹوکول بنائے تھے۔

سٹیکس 2.0 کے مین-نیٹ کا آغاز جنوری سن 2021 میں ہوا۔

### سٹیکس کے بانی کون ہیں؟

شروع میں سٹیکس کو قابل ذکر وینچر کیپیٹل فنڈز کی ایک رینج کی طرف سے سرمایہ فراہم کیا گیا، جن میں Y Combinator، اورDigital Currency Group نیز Winklevoss Capital بھی شامل ہیں۔ اسے بلاک-سٹیک PBC نے ڈِویلپ کیا، جس کا مرکزی دفتر نیو یارک میں ہے.

بلاک-سٹیک PBC اب Hiro Systems PBC کے نام سے کام کرتا ہے، اور Stacks کے پلیٹ فارم پر تعمیرات کرنے والی کمپنیوں کی ایک وسیع رینج سے جُڑا ہوا ہے۔

بلاک-سٹیک PBC کی بُنیاد Muneeb Ali اور Ryan Shea نے رکھی۔ Princeton University سے کمپیوٹر سائنس میں MA اور PhD کرنے کے بعد، Muneeb Ali نے سن 2013 میں شریک بانی کی حیثیت سے سٹیکس کی بُنیاد رکھی، اور آج تک Hiro Systems PBC کے CEO کے عہدے پر، پلیٹ فارم کے لیے کام کر رہے ہیں

پلیٹ فارم کے دوسرے شریک بانی، Ryan Shea نے اس پروجیکٹ کو چھوڑنے سے پہلے اور دیگر وینچرز کو آگے بڑھانے کے لیے سن 2013 اور 2018 کے درمیانی عرصے میں co-CEO کی پوزیشن پر فائز رہ کر خدمات سر انجام دیں — دیگر وینچرز میں ایک نئے تکنیکی سٹارٹ-اپ کی مشترکہ بُنیاد رکھنا شامل ہے، جو فی الحال خفیہ طور پر جاری ہے۔ سٹیکس میں ادا کیے جانے والے اپنے کردار سے پہلے، Shea نے ایک سوفٹ-ویئر انجنیئر کی حیثیت سے کام کیا۔

### کیا چیزسٹیکس کو منفرد بناتی ہے؟

سٹیکس وہ اوصاف حاصل کرتا دکھائی دیتا ہے جو بِِٹ-کوائن کو اتنا موُثٔر بناتے ہیں، نیز اصل Bitcoin بلاک چین کو فورک یا تبدیل کرنے کی ضرورت محسوس کیے بغیر انہی خصوصیات کو اضافی فعالیت کے ساتھ آگے بڑھاتا ہے۔

یہ Bitcoin بلاک چین کے ساتھ اپنے پروف-آف-ٹرانسفر (PoX) [اتفاق رائے طریق کار](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/consensus) کے ذریعے براہ راست جڑ کر ایسا کرتا ہے، جس میں نئے سٹیکس (STX) ٹوکن مِنٹ کرنے کے لیے مائنرز کو BTC میں ادائیگی کرنی پڑتی ہے۔ مزید یہ کہ، STX ٹوکن ہولڈرز انعام کی حیثیت سے Bitcoin کمانے کے لیے اپنے ٹوکنز stack تو کر سکتے ہیں، تاہم *[اسٹیک](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/staking)* *نہیں* ۔

Stacks نے ایک نئی اسمارٹ معاہداتی پروگرامنگ لینگویج متعارف کروائی ہے جو Clarity کے نام سے پہچانی جاتی ہے، جسے اس لیے ڈیزائن کیا گیا ہے کہ یہ اپنے غیر-مُبہم سینٹیکس (syntax) کی بدولت محفوظ اور آسان، یعنی دونوں طرح کار آمد ثابت ہو۔ یہ اسمارٹ معاہدہ سینٹرک پروگرامنگ لینگویج [Algorand (ALGO)](https://coinmarketcap.com/ur/currencies/algorand/) بلاک چین بھی استعمال کرتا ہے۔

علاوہ از ایں، سٹیکس پہلی کریپٹو کرنسی تھی جس نے USA میں فروخت کے لیے SEC کی اہلیت حاصل کی، جس کی وجہ سے اسے جولائی 2019 میں اپنے STX ٹوکنز کے لیے $28 ملین +Reg A نقد فروخت کی پیشکش لانچ کرنے کی اجازت ملی۔

#### متعلقہ صفحات:

[نمائندہ Bitcoin (WBTC)](https://coinmarketcap.com/ur/currencies/wrapped-bitcoin/) مُلاحظہ کیجیے — اصل BTC سے 1:1 کے تناسب کے ساتھ ایک ERC-20 ٹوکن سے حمایت یافتہ۔

[Bitcoin کیش (BCH)](https://coinmarketcap.com/ur/currencies/bitcoin-cash/) مُلاحظہ کیجیے — کئی اہم تبدیلیوں کے ساتھ، فورک شدہ Bitcoin۔

[CoinMarketCap الیگزینڈریا](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/side-chain) کے ہمراہ سائیڈ-چینز کے بارے میں جانیئے۔

CoinMarketCap [بلاگ](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/categories/blog) پر تازہ ترین پروڈکٹ اپ-ڈیٹس، حصّے داریوں، اور اعلانات کے بارے میں باخبر رہیے۔ 

### فی الوقت کُل کتنے سٹیکس (STX) کوائنز گردش میں ہیں؟

حال ہی میں سٹیکس 2.0 کے ساتھ لانچ کی گئی تجدید شدہ اقتصادی پالیسی کے مطابق، نئے غیر مُقفل کردہ STX کی وہ سپلائی جو گردش میں ہے، اب اور سن 2020 کے درمیان اصل شیڈول کے مقابلے میں تقریباً 10% گھٹ جائے گی۔

بحیثیت مجموعی، سن 2050 تک تقریباً 1.82 بلین STX گردش میں ہونے کی توقع ہے، جبکہ جنوری سن 2021 تک لگ بھگ 739.7 ملین گردش میں تھے۔

[سٹیکس 2.0 قرطاس الابیض ڈرافٹ (v0.1)](https://gaia.blockstack.org/hub/1AxyPunHHAHiEffXWESKfbvmBpGQv138Fp/stacks.pdf) کے مطابق، پہلے چار سال کے دوران کل 1,000 STX فی بلاک جاری کیے جائیں گے، جو اگلے 4 سال میں کم ہو کر 500 STX فی بلاک، نیز اگلے چار سال میں مزید گھٹ کر 250 STX فی بلاک ہو نگے، اور اس کے بعد دائمی طور پر یہ 120 STX فی بلاک رہ جائیں گے۔

مجموعی طور پر، ابتدائی پیدائشی سپلائی کا 6.6% (1.32 بلین STX) بانی کے لیے، اور مزید 7.9% سٹیکس کی ٹیم کے لیے مُختص کیا گیا۔ یہ تین سال کے غیر مقفل شیڈول کے ساتھ مشروط ہیں، جبکہ ٹوکنز کا اگلا شیڈول نومبر، سن 2021 میں غیر مُقفل ہونے کے لیے ہے۔

### سٹیکس نیٹ-ورک کو کیسے محفوظ بنایا جاتا ہے؟

سٹیکس Bitcoin بلاک چین کو اپنی بُنیادی پرت کے طور پر استعمال کرتا ہے۔ [پروف-آف-ورک (PoW)](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake) پر مبنی بلاک چین کی حیثیت سے، نیٹ-ورک پر متوقع [حملے](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/51-attack) روکنے کے لیے، Bitcoin کمپیوٹیشنل اور معاشی لحاظ سے نیٹ ورک میں خرابکاری کو ناقابل عمل بنا کر ہزاروں مائنرز اور نوڈز کی مشترکہ کاوشیں استعمال کرتا ہے۔

اس سب کے علاوہ، سٹیکس اپنا ایک اتفاق رائے ماڈل متعارف کرواتا ہے جسے پروف-آف-ٹرانسفر(PoX) کہا جاتا ہے، جو مائننگ کے لئے ایک انوکھا مکینزم ہے، اور STX مائن کرنے کے لئے بُنیادی کرنسی مُنتقل کرتے ہوئے صارفین کا مُشاہدہ کرتا ہے — BTC استعمال کرتے ہوئے سٹیکس، بلاک چین کی سیکیورٹی کو مؤثر طور پر بوٹسٹریپ (bootstrap) کرتا ہے۔

### آپ سٹیکس (STX) کہاں سے خرید سکتے ہیں؟

STX کئی معروف ایکسچینج پلیٹ فارمز پر تجارت کے لئے دستیاب ہے، جن میں [Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/ur/exchanges/binance/) اور KuCoin شامل ہیں۔ دستیاب تجارتی جوڑوں اور معاونت شدہ پلیٹ فارمز کی مکمل فہرست کے لیے، [مارکیٹوں کا شعبہ](https://coinmarketcap.com/ur/currencies/stacks/markets/) دیکھیے۔

فیاٹ کے ساتھ کریپٹو کرنسیز کی خرید سے متُعلق مزید معلومات کے لیے [یہاں](https://coinmarketcap.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin/) کلک کیجیے۔

ذیل میں ایسے چند مزید آرٹیکلز پیش ہیں جو شاید آپ کو دلچسپ معلوم ہوں:

* [کرپٹو Faucet کیا ہوتا ہے؟](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-crypto-faucet)
* [کرپٹو کے ڈیبٹ کارڈز کیا ہوتے ہیں؟](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-are-crypto-debit-cards)
* [ویب 3.0 کیا ہے؟](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-web-3-0)
* [منافع جاتی فارمنگ کیا ہوتی ہے؟](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-yield-farming)
* [کرپٹو ادھار میں دینے کا عمل کیا ہوتا ہے؟](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-crypto-lending)

 Builder Highlight: BTC lending and borrowing is a must to activate the Bitcoin economy.

 is enabling access to liquidity without having to sell BTC.

Learn about how Zest launched the first on-chain Stacks lending market, with a Bitcoin market next.

CeFi platforms for BTC lending/borrowing have proven to be unreliable.

As users don't trust centralized solutions, most BTC remains idle.

There is a need for a platform to safely access Bitcoin liquidity.

 Zest, as the on-chain and open-source lending protocol, is the solution.

A robust BTC lending and borrowing ecosystem is key to making Bitcoin productive.

• Supply STX, stSTX, and aeUSDC and earn yield

• Use collateral to borrow STX and aeUSDC 

With the extra liquidity, users can then interact with other DeFi apps.

 Instead, Bitcoin markets will be launched once sBTC goes live.

To lend on Zest, users will simply need to send native BTC on Bitcoin L1.

In the background, BTC gets transformed into sBTC and deposited in Zest.

When a user starts a withdrawal, sBTC gets converted back to BTC.

Zest also has an active point system for users that provides liquidity.

All while getting yield on the assets deposited.

Additionally, borrowing allows users to gain liquidity without selling assets.

The BTC lending and borrowing will further unlock the Bitcoin economy.

This is ideal for BTC holders seeking to make their holdings productive.

Try out Zest and earn raffle tickets for a 10,000 STX prize pool 👇

#Stacks Builder Highlight: BTC lending and borrowing is a must to activate the Bitcoin economy.

@ZestProtocol is enabling access to liquidity without having to sell BTC.

Learn about how Zest launched the first on-chain Stacks lending market, with a Bitcoin market next.

🧵⬇️
@ZestProtocol What problem does Zest solve?

CeFi platforms for BTC lending/borrowing have proven to be unreliable.

BlockFi and Celsius are a few examples.

As users don't trust centralized solutions, most BTC remains idle.

There is a need for a platform to safely access Bitcoin liquidity.
@ZestProtocol Zest, as the on-chain and open-source lending protocol, is the solution.

It enables users to:

• Lend BTC to earn a yield
• Borrow against BTC

A robust BTC lending and borrowing ecosystem is key to making Bitcoin productive.
@ZestProtocol What can you do on Zest right now?

Stacks market are active, enabling to:

• Supply STX, stSTX, and aeUSDC and earn yield
• Use collateral to borrow STX and aeUSDC 

With the extra liquidity, users can then interact with other DeFi apps.
@ZestProtocol Instead, Bitcoin markets will be launched once sBTC goes live.

To lend on Zest, users will simply need to send native BTC on Bitcoin L1.

In the background, BTC gets transformed into sBTC and deposited in Zest.

When a user starts a withdrawal, sBTC gets converted back to BTC.
@ZestProtocol est is rapidly growing with $26M+ in TVL and is backed by @drapervc.

Zest also has an active point system for users that provides liquidity.

All while getting yield on the assets deposited.

Additionally, borrowing allows users to gain liquidity without selling assets.
@ZestProtocol @drapervc What is coming next for Zest?

The BTC lending and borrowing will further unlock the Bitcoin economy.

This is ideal for BTC holders seeking to make their holdings productive.

Try out Zest and earn raffle tickets for a 10,000 STX prize pool 👇
https://stacksstreets.com/

 live on stage at the Bitcoin Builders Conference!

 Head of Ecosystem Neil Harounian talked to 

 Chairperson Brittany Laughlin about forming a working group, as well as the Aptos Foundation becoming a Signer for Stacks.

Brittany and Neil shared the aim to bring fresh innovation and expanded resources to Bitcoin development, with both foundations committing to the formation of a new working group, and the dedication of the Aptos Foundation's R&D team to joint projects with 

Aptos Labs Head of Ecosystem Neil Harounian said “We have an internal R&D team at Aptos . . . and now that entire R&D team is excited to be working with Stacks on a few things that will come to market soon.”

Bringing Aptos deeper into the Bitcoin L2 world 🧡 3/3

Stacks 🤝 @Aptos live on stage at the Bitcoin Builders Conference!

🟧 @AptosLabs Head of Ecosystem Neil Harounian talked to @StacksOrg Chairperson Brittany Laughlin about forming a working group, as well as the Aptos Foundation becoming a Signer for Stacks.

Learn more 1/3 👇 
Brittany and Neil shared the aim to bring fresh innovation and expanded resources to Bitcoin development, with both foundations committing to the formation of a new working group, and the dedication of the Aptos Foundation's R&D team to joint projects with @StacksOrg 2/3
Aptos Labs Head of Ecosystem Neil Harounian said “We have an internal R&D team at Aptos . . . and now that entire R&D team is excited to be working with Stacks on a few things that will come to market soon.”

Bringing Aptos deeper into the Bitcoin L2 world 🧡 3/3

SEC Ends Investigation into Bitcoin Scaling Network Stacks Without Enforcement Action

Bitcoin Layer-2 Network Stacks Witnesses Surge in Active Users

Crypto Market Faces Strong Headwinds as Bitcoin Drops Below $60,000

Week in DeFi: Arbitrum Airdrop, Euler Exploit and DeFiLlama Drama

What Is Stacks? Features and Tokenomics

Binance

Stacks

Ledger

Trezor

Trust Wallet

Math Wallet

Leather

Hiro

ALEX Lab

Render Network  is the leading provider of decentralized GPU based rendering solutions, revolutionizing the digital creation process. The network connects node operators looking to monetize their idle GPU compute power with artists looking to scale intensive 3D rendering work and applications to the cloud. Through a decentralized peer-to-peer network, the Render Network achieves unprecedented levels of scale, speed, and economic efficiency. On top of a decentralized GPU computing network, Render provides a platform for artists and developers to build services and applications for the emerging digital economy.

Render

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

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

Injective also provides a next-generation, highly interoperable smart contract platform based on CosmWasm, with advanced interchain capabilities. Injective is custom built with the Cosmos SDK and utilizes Tendermint-based Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, providing instant transaction finality with the ability to sustain lightning-fast performance (25,000+ TPS).

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

Injective

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

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

Founded in 2017, Chainlink is a blockchain abstraction layer that enables universally connected smart contracts. Through a decentralized oracle network, Chainlink allows blockchains to securely interact with external data feeds, events and payment methods, providing the critical off-chain information needed by complex smart contracts to become the dominant form of digital agreement.

The Chainlink Network is driven by a large open-source community of data providers, node operators, smart contract developers, researchers, security auditors and more. The company focuses on ensuring that decentralized participation is guaranteed for all node operators and users looking to contribute to the network.

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

Chainlink

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

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

Artificial Superintelligence Alliance

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

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

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

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

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

Arweave

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

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

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

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

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

THORChain

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

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

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

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

Celestia

Aave

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

Internet Computer

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

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

Synthetix

Uniswap is a popular decentralized trading protocol, known for its role in facilitating automated trading of decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens.

An example of an automated market maker (AMM), Uniswap launched in November 2018, but has gained considerable popularity this year thanks to the DeFi phenomenon and associated surge in token trading.

Uniswap aims to keep token trading automated and completely open to anyone who holds tokens, while improving the efficiency of trading versus that on traditional exchanges.

Uniswap creates more efficiency by solving liquidity issues with automated solutions, avoiding the problems which plagued the first decentralized exchanges.

In September 2020, Uniswap went a step further by creating and awarding its own governance token, UNI, to past users of the protocol. This added both profitability potential and the ability for users to shape its future — an attractive aspect of decentralized entities.