The cryptocurrency space has only grown since its release in 2009. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be released by a faceless hero we all have grown to love. Satoshi Nakomoto a name we do not really know if it is real or for single individual or by a group of people but it is believed by the crypto space that Satoshi is a pseudo for the person or persons who created bitcoin. Bitcoin came and changed the way the financial system is viewed especially with the decentralization it came with. Users since then have been able to have full control over their assets. This has been possible by the use of a blockchain.
Although, blockchains have come with decentralization, freedom and full ownership over funds, there have been shortcomings with the blockchains released. Bitcoin of course as the first has had the most shortcomings with the notable one being scalability. The reason why bitcoin has been like this is because it was concerned majorly with security more than scalability. Bitcoin concentrates more on the security of your btc than the speed of completing your transaction. That is why it takes about 10 - 15 minutes to complete one transaction on a bitcoin blockchain.
This was a concern and due to that crypto enthusiasts got to work and created another blockchain that solved bitcoins shortcomings. The Ethereum blockchain was developed to take care of these. What did it concentrate mainly on?, scalability. Ethereum decided to up the rate at which transactions were completed to much less than 10 minutes. It was also decided that Ethereum would serve as more than just a store of value that believe bitcoin is. Some people liken btc to gold as a reserve but Ethereum has aimed to be seen as more than that. Ethereum can be seen in the same way as the app store of Apple and the play store on Android devices. It houses a lot of apps but in this case, decentralized applications (dApps). The Ethereum network which was developed by a host of founders including Vitalik Buterin, Dr Gavin Wood, among others saw the need to widen the crypto space and provide an easy platform for developers to come and add their contribution to the crypto space.
Aside dApps, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) were built on the Ethereum blockchain. What would be the essence of having a decentralized financial system if we did not have decentralized exchanges we could operate on. It would fit the model of finance Satoshi Nakamoto was looking for. This also led to the creation of decentralized finance (defi) which would give crypto users more options than just sending and receiving of coins. These developments carried out on Ethereum have been the revolution of crypto and has seen it move to other levels. Eventually, it has led to the development of a lot of cypto use cases.
Introduction Of More Crypto Projects And The Blockchain Trimela
Crypto is open source meaning any developer can have a peep at your source codes and maybe make some changes to it to create theirs. It is also an open space that has allowed everyone interested in crypto to make their contribution. After both bitcoin and Ethereum, it was still obvious a lot more needed to be done. Developers have had different ideas to want to materialize and although some have been able to bring that to fruition, others are still working to and others have failed.
There became the need to diversify the crypto space and give people options to invest in what they wanted to. After all, that freedom to do what you want with your money is what crypto is all about. Not just that but the shortcomings of the crypto projects to be decentralized, secure and scalable at the same time needed to be addressed. Like in bitcoin, there is decentralization and security but scalability is absent. Ethereum has decentralization, security and is faster than bitcoin but it still not scalable. This led to the term blockchain trimela.
The blockchain trimela is the inability of blockchains to have all 3 of the features talked about. Security is important in anything you do and some people do not mind waiting for 15 minutes as long as they get what they want safely but others want all the 3. There are a lot of crypto projects like Polygon, Hive, Fantom, Avalanche, Arbitrum, DOGE, SHIB, Polkadot, SOL, Teraa and a whole lot more. I simply cannot list even up to a quarter of them. They have all been released over time for several reasons but with an aim of solving blockchain scalability.
The Solana (SOL) blockchain boats of having the fastest transaction speed but Fantom is not one to look over. Fantom blockchain boasts of completing transactions in seconds or rather a second while still maintaining security and decentralization. The Polkadot blockchain is another that boasts of this but Polkadot has been able to do something none of these blockchains have been able to.
Blockchains Must Work Together
Not until some years back, the blockchains have been independent from each other or in other words are standalone. Blockchains primarily allow just the transfer of tokens within the blockchains and the ones that allow the transfer of coins to other blockchains have to do that by wrapping their tokens. To use btc on the Ethereum blockchain, the btc has to be wrapped to become a wrapped btc. This way, it is pegged to the same value as the ETH and it can be used on the Ethereum blockchain. This problem is termed as blockchain interoperability. Before a coin is wrapped to be used on another blockchain, an order is placed to a custodian and the custodian locks the coin that is being converted. The wrapped version is sent to the customer and after using, the customer initiates another other to the custodian and the original coins are sent to the customer. The wrapped versions are burned.
Blockchain interoperability has been a problem and Polkadot has attempted solving that. Polkadot believes that for the crypto space to enter into a new age, they must communicate with one other. They must do more than just transact coins and actually share real data. That is why Polkadot is does not make use of the Ethereum Virtual Machine or the bitcoin blockchain but makes use of the relay chain. Through the use of the relay chain, blockchains like bitcoin and ethereum can communicate and share data. Polkadot has not only solved interopability but it has also solved security by the use of parachains and the NPoS. With this, validators of the platform are nominated and the nominators back them by staking their DOT. If the validator you nominated turns out to be scam, you lose your staked assets.
If all blockchains could communicate with one another freely and share data, there probably would not be a need for wrapped tokens and the whole crypto verse will just be giant market of endless opportunities. It already is a market of endless opportunities but these sort of shortcomings are not making us the real potential of the the crypto verse. There already are a lot of projects to be excited about and more yet to come.
The Introduction Of Non Fungible Tokens And The Metaverse
One other thing I have passionate about the crypto space is the fact that it keeps on evolving. Not long ago, we had tokens that were for everyone and owning one of them did not necessarily mean you had something very special. These are fungible tokens. There needed to be a way for users to have some special tokens that when you owned, meant it was unique to you. More like copyright if I can say. It would be that way but that would still not stop the idea of crypto. You would be able to change ownership and trade it on the market. This led to Non fungible tokens (NFTs).
To be very honest, I do really understand the NFT crypto space but it is a booming one that a lot of us seem to like. It has been a big deal since crypto enthusiast started to take note of them and they have already grown in use cases. What I like about NFTs is that artists get realization for their work and can sell it off for millions of dollars. Some NFTs cost a lot and to own them, you must have a lot of money. Others do not cost so much when purchased but when they are left for a while, they potentially increase in value and you can make some serious profit. When you possess an NFT, it is specific or special to you and that is why it is called non fungible.
Its use cases has not been limited at all. Artists use it like I have said, musicians use it as well as royalties and it is added to blockchain games. In some games, you can purchase some special NFT guns which can give you some real power. Unlike in games like call of duty that we can all step to the market with some coins and get similar guns, when you purchase an NFT gun in a blockchain game, you are buying something special. NFTs have become part of the crypto space that we all will have to learn what they really are in the future.
Another interesting thing that was the talk of crypto especially last year in 2022 was Metaverse. Its hype has reduced but I believe some works are still being done to bring metaverse to fruition. The whole concept behind metaverse looks like one for the future that would in some ways help. Metaverse really gained recognition when CEO of web2 platforms facebook, instagram and twitter Mark Zuckerberg announced that the parent name of these platforms were going to be changed to Meta.
This got everyone talking and for the entire year when the name was indeed changed, metaverse was the topic for discussion. It looks like when it is implemented though, it will be a force to be reckoned with. It is sometimes seen as just games probably because of the use of the VR but it is a lot more than that. You have an avatar in metaverse which can be customized based on what you like and it can represent you even in business meetings. The whole concept is an interesting one in my opinion and it should be one to watch. There has already been a real life use as a metaverse courtroom was used a few months ago.
Crypto Battles With The Government
This subject is probably one that has brought a lot of talks and concern. The crypto verse is meant to be decentralized and free from the single authority as seen in the government controlled financial institutions. The government simply cannot understand why their citizens want to have control over their funds. It has become pretty obvious they are not even ready to learn about the crypto space. If they had an open mind, they would realize the crypto verse is not one to battle with but to accept because it has so many use cases.
Granted, the crypto verse with the idea of anonymity makes it have a bad application because scammers can hide behind that to commit crimes but the centralized systems they have built are not the safest options. Why would you want to regulate a system of finance that its major goal is to take power away from you. Some massive plays have been put in place in the past already and some are brewing.
China has been one of the countries that is strongly against the implementation of cryptocurrencies having resulted to completely banning crypto in the country a few years ago. This forced crypto miners out of the country and crypto still is not allowed in the country. Another country that followed what China did was Hong Kong but they have softened their stands. Hong Kong announced that by June this year, license would have to be taken for retail crypto trading. The country already has two registered crypto exchanges who have submitted applications to be allowed to operate and allow retail trading. Other countries ask for licenses from crypto platforms whilst some others have banned the entire thing. The most recent one that is causing a lot of problems is the United States and their journey to get rid of crypto. They believe that by creating a digital united state dollar, CBDC, there would be no need for stablecoins or other forms of crypto.
A country other governments could learn a thing or two from is the government of El Salvador. El Salvador is the first country to accept crypto as legal tender in their country and is allowing their populace use bitcoin as currency. This undoubtedly is a step in the right direction because crypto is here to stay. The sooner governments stop fighting it and take the time to sit down, listen open mindedly and learn about crypto, they would accept it and stop fighting.
Crypto Changes The Faith And Direction Of Social Media
Blogging on leofinance
If there is something I am very proud and happy about crypto, it is the willingness to adapt. We all have used centralization based social media platforms and so this should be one that catches the eye. We tend to text and enjoy ourselves on twitter, facebook, instagram and other web3 platforms. One thing we did not realize is that, we were just wasting our data and time on such platforms. They may provide us with entertainment but they take more than they give. That is why and how come crypto enthusiasts realized the social media market needed exploiting and saving. From there, blog to earn was birthed.
I say blog to earn although, web3 platforms are far more than blogging to earn but admittedly that is the driving force. This led to the introduction of my favorite crypto project so far; hive. Hive was introduced and it has been changing the social media game. Hive rewards users for using the platform. If you are a content creator on the hive blockchain, you can earn cryptocurrencies as long as you publish your own content. The one thing hive frowns on is plagiarism which means that when you publish your content and it is exactly copied from the web, you can earn something.
Hive has a lot of communities you can make contents in based on what you like. There is a gaming community, sports community, movies and reviews and ,my favorite, the community for everything finance related. The finance community is the Leofiance community which I must admit is doing a lot of good works. Leo finance originally focused on long form contents and so before you could publish contents in the community, it had to be related to finance, crypto, economics, politics, fin tech, business, among others.
However, because the future of social media is evolving and people seem to like short contents more, this has caused the leofinance team to move towards short contents, microblogging. It is twitter like and so what you do on twitter, you can on leo finance but better. You are free to post what you want and you earn while at it. You micro earn HBD, hp and the $LEO. $LEO is the secondary token or the utility token for the community that will have a lot of use cases. It is doing a lot of good in the bear market right now and we think a lot more people should get involved.
Ways Crypto Can Help The World And What Drives The Market
Cryptocurrencies have been doing a lot of good despite the fact the governments are against it. If you have not seen how crypto has been helpful, you should just check how helpful it was during the Russia - Ukraine war. When the war started, crypto sent aid to Ukraine way faster than the centralized banking systems did. The crypto space raised so much to help the Ukrainian government buy some things to help the country.
<crypto helping the people of Ukraine
Another way crypto has helped is that it has introduced blockchains which are used by private entities to provide more security, more transparency in their businesses. The crypto space has also provided a diverse platform for investments giving people a lot of options to invest in. You can invest in a multitude of projects.
Though, there are scams in the crypto space, if you do good research, that potential of being scammed can be reduced greatly. That is why we are always advised to invest with money we are okay losing and also advised to perform enough research.
Crypto like hive is doing so much by helping communities in countries like Ghana with borehole projects and books distributions. This goes a long way proving that crypto is not for single authorities but for us all.
Although, the crypto market is not controlled by one person it is influenced by certain factors. When there is news that affects crypto like the suing of Binance by SEC right now, crypto value goes down. BTC is usually what is affected but because it has a high market dominance, it influences the prices of the other coins.
Another thing that affects the market of crypto is statements and actions from the big names. Big names include those that are valued in crypto like Elon Musk. Elon Musk tweeting about Hive or leofinance would take the price of hive high because more investors will invest. If something negative is said too, the value of your crypto could go down drastically.
Ultimately, the crypto market is affected by human sentiments or emotions. When the investors and traders are happy, the price is good and when they are panicking, the price goes down.
Undoubtedly, the crypto space is one everyone should hop into because it is one for the future. It is going to be here for a long time. The introduction of crypto has changed how financial system looks and has a lot more changing to do.
Thank you.
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