Kategorie: Ethereum News

Polygon is the eleventh biggest cryptocurrency in the world – it really needs no introduction. Considered by many as the flagship Layer 2, it helps solve a pretty big problem – that Ethereum is a tough cryptocurrency to use.

Even Vitalik has said that the future is a roll-up economy, with Ethereum as a Layer 1, with projects such as Polygon right there so that regular people can, you know, actually use it – without taking a mortgage out to pay for gas fees.  

I hosted Hamzah Khan, Head of Defi and Labs at Polygon, to chat all things DeFi and Polygon. We bounced around a lot, but covered on great topics.

We started out technical, for any of you nerds out there. Hamzah chats about zkEVM, or zero-knowledge roll-up technology, which Polygon announced last week had gone live in testnet form, exciting many around the industry.

It was also tough to avoid the Reddit Polygon craze this has been ongoing since the weekend, with the massive NFT collection soaring to reach over three million users on the social media site. Hamzah talks of the behind-the-scenes chat with Reddit, as the company launched the NFTs on Polygon, of course.

We jumped around all of DeFi, really. We discussed how the TVL has come down so much, how Hamzah refers to TVL as “temporary value locked” given its transience, and how the reputation of the industry took a hit this past year as CeFi went under – despite DeFi trucking along so smoothly.

I got my favourite line in there as always – that Ethereum is “a blockchain of the elite” – quizzing Hamzah on what he thought about gas fees, and whether it will ever be solved. And if so, what does a future look like for Polygon?

I hosted @Polygon’s Head of DeFi, @_khanhamzah, on the @CoinJournal podcast this week

We chatted DeFi, the new zkEVM, Reddit NFTs, scalability, the future of Ethereum as a settlement layer, Vitalik’s comments on centralisation and more⬇️$MATIChttps://t.co/zYIEfqnAr6

— Dan Ashmore (@DanniiAshmore) October 27, 2022

I also put the question to Hamzah about the centralisation of DeFi. With so much of the space running on centralised stablecoins (even Vitalik said recently that Tether, Circle and other providers could influence the direction of future Ethereum forks), is one of the pillars of DeFi being compromised? And more interestingly, does it have it to be, or is there an alternative?

We dance around these and many more topics, but this is at its heart a 30-minute discussion on DeFi and Polygon, and what role Polygon could play in the future.

As always, I am open to comments either here or on Twitter – and links to listen are below.

• CoinJournal Podcast Homepage
• CoinJournal Spotify
• CoinJournal YouTube

 

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With the massive increase of cryptocurrencies today, it is becoming harder and harder for crypto investors to independently keep track of every cryptocurrency on their crypto portfolio and that is where crypto portfolio trackers like CoinStats come in.

CoinStats allows crypto investors to manage their crypto and DeFi portfolio from one place. It eliminates the need to jump from your crypto wallet to your crypto exchange of the DeFi platform to manage your crypto holdings, transactions, and trades.

Here is a comprehensive review of how this platform works including its pros and cons.

How it works

It is no doubt that CoinStats makes it easy to track cryptocurrencies on the market thus making it a great tool for crypto investors, especially those focused on areas of Ethereum and decentralized finance (DeFi). Besides being compatible with several crypto exchanges, it also allows you to sync your MetaMask, Ledger, and any other Ethereum-compatible wallet directly with the tracker.

All you need to start using CoinStats is to register for an account. You can choose to use the free plan which offers many free features although to get the most from the platform, you can choose between CoinStats Pro and CoinStats Premium plans. CoinStats has Android and iOS apps so you don’t have to worry if you don’t have access to a desktop or personal computer; you can access your account via a mobile device.

Once you create your account and sync it with your crypto wallets and crypto exchanges, you can access several tools like transaction analytics, fast trading, and instant notifications. You also get up-to-date news which is a big plus for traders since it gives an outlook of what to expect from the market movements.

CoinStats also has its own crypto wallet called CoinStats wallets that allows to access several decentralized finance (DeFi) features including staking.

CoinStats pricing

CoinStats offers a lot of powerful features for free. However, to unlock additional features, users can choose between the two paid plans: CoinStats Pro and CoinStats Premium.

The CoinStats Pro plan starts at $3.49 per month and allows users to connect up to 10 cryptocurrency exchanges and 10 different crypto wallets. Users are also allowed to track up to 1,000 transactions per month. There is also access to coin insights including propriety reviews and analysis.

CoinStats Premium on the other hand starts at $13.99 per month and allows users to connect an unlimited number of exchanges and wallets. Users can also track up to 100,000 transactions per month. Then, in addition to market insights, users also get personal account managers to help with the crypto portfolio.

There is an additional option called CoinStats Community that allows cryptocurrency trading communities to access special packages of the features included in CoinStats Pro and CoinStats Premium accounts at a discounted rate. This could be a big plus, especially if you want to save some money.

Exchanges supported by CoinStats

CoinStats supports a lesser number of crypto exchanges compared to what its competitors like Blockfolio support. The exchanges that CoinStats currently supports include Binance, Bitfinex, BitMax, BitMEX, Bitso, Bitstamp, Bittrex, CEX.io, Coinbase, FTX (native support), Gemini, HitBTC, Huobi, IDEX, Liquid, Kraken, Kucoin, Poloniex.

CoinStats, however, supports any type of trading especially if it touches on Ethereum or Ethereum-based dApps.

Pros and Cons of CoinStats

Pros

It offers free and paid plans thus allowing you to choose what to use depending on the features you want to use.

It allows any type of crypto trading.

It has mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices which allows users to track their crypto portfolios on the go.

It supports a majority of Ethereum-based tokens and crypto wallets making it a go-to crypto portfolio tracker for those involved with altcoins.

It provides 24-hour cryptocurrency reports which are very useful for daily recaps.

Users can get discounts on paid plans (CoinStats Pro and CoinStats Premium) through the CoinStats Community.

It provides users with unrivalled data and analytics that help them to trade and correct mistakes.

It provides up-to-date alerts allowing traders to capitalize on market trends.

It allows users to stake their crypto assets through the CoinStats wallet and earn staking rewards of up to 20% APY.

Cons

The free plan does not allow access to some key features meaning you have to choose one of the paid plans to access these features.

CoinStats does not support many major BTC wallets.

CoinStats does not support many crypto exchanges compared to its competitors.

Why you should use CoinStats

If you are focused on Ethereum-based altcoins then CoinStats could be a good choice for a portfolio tracker. CoinStats has focused on the Ethereum ecosystem which has set it apart from most of its competitors who have generalized their approach.

You can basically add any Ethereum wallet to your CoinStats account and trade or invest in any ERC-20 token.

CoinStats also does not limit the types of crypto trades or investments thus providing a fair playing ground especially if you want to diversify your crypto investment. You also get some market insights including analysis to help you invest better in crypto.

Final verdict

While CoinStats is not the most popular crypto portfolio tracker, it has made a name for itself within the Ethereum ecosystem making it one of the best portfolio trackers for crypto investors focused on ERC-20 tokens.

Besides the wide variety of features and relatively affordable paid plans, CoinStats have mobile apps that allow users to track their portfolios on the go.Ethereum

The post CoinStats Review: its pros, cons, and how it works appeared first on CoinJournal.

Cake DeFi has launched its Ethereum staking service and also allows users to unstake their tokens whenever they like.

Cake DeFi, the leading, fastest-growing Singapore-based fintech firm providing easy access to Decentralised Finance (DeFi), has announced the launch of its Ethereum staking service.

According to the press release shared with Coinjournal, Cake DeFi said its ETH staking service comes with added access to liquidity via a tradable token that can be sold in the open market.

Staking ETH tokens is now possible thanks to the Ethereum network’s recent migration from its proof of work to proof of stake protocol. 

While staking on the Ethereum network is now possible, Cake DeFi explained that unstaking is currently not supported by the Ethereum network. Investors will have to wait for the Shanghai upgrade to unstake their ETH, which could be a year or so later. 

Cake DeFi said it would soon make it possible for its users to stake and unstake ETH tokens whenever they wish. Dr. Julian Hosp, Co-Founder and CEO of Cake DeFi, commented that;

“ETH Staking is the latest addition to our popular Staking service. We made a deliberate decision to host our own nodes in Singapore. At the moment, Ethereum nodes are mostly concentrated in North America and Europe.  Hosting our own Singapore-based nodes will boost the confidence of investors and developers in the region and support the spirit of decentralization. Many exchanges and platforms are not offering ETH unstaking until the Shanghai upgrade, but it was important for us to provide liquidity to our ETH stakers which will be achieved via an open market.” 

Cake DeFi said its ETH Staking service would enable users to earn around 5% annual percentage yields in return. Returns in Cake DeFi’s ETH staking will also be auto-compounded every 12 hours to generate significantly more returns compared to non-compounding ETH staking, the team added. 

Cake DeFi is a fully transparent, highly innovative fintech platform dedicated to providing access to decentralized financial services and applications by enabling users to generate returns from their crypto and digital assets. It is operated and registered in Singapore and is subject to applicable laws and regulations in Singapore.

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The long-awaited Merge upgrade of the Ethereum Network was successfully completed in the early hours of Thursday, September 15, 2022. The timing corresponded with earlier predictions by Ethereum developers depending on the Ethereum hashrate.

The Merge upgrade creates a more energy-efficient blockchain network since Ethereum has since shifted from being a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. However, the price of Ether (ETH) fell sharply after the Merge and in the early hours of Friday, it was trading at $1,474.20, down about 7.93% from Thursday’s price level.

Nevertheless, analysts expect the price to surge in the coming days once investors unwind hedges that they had bought anticipating hiccups in the rollout. So far, no issues have been reported with the Merge; something that is likely to trigger confidence among investors and possibly drive the prices higher.

According to Jon Charbonneau, a researcher at crypto research firm Delphi Digital, the Merge marks the “biggest event in crypto since the creation of bitcoin and Ethereum. Assuming all remains well, attention will turn toward future Ethereum upgrades.”

To assist investors and traders purchase the Ethereum token after the merge, Coinjournal has prepared this brief guide on the best places to buy Ethereum.

Continue reading to find out more.

Where to buy Ethereum (ETH)

eToro

eToro is one of the world’s leading multi-asset trading platforms offering some of the lowest commission and fee rates in the industry. It’s social copy trading features make it a great choice for those getting started.

Buy ETH with eToro today Disclaimer

Skilling

Skilling is a Scandinavian based cryptocurrency broker which has a desktop website as well as apps for iOS and Android devices. It supports over 50 cryptocurrencies and it has a demo account to allow users to gain familiarity with the platform. Skilling has no hidden fees, it is an officially regulated broker and it supports a wide range of payment methods.

Buy ETH with Skilling today Disclaimer

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum was the second blockchain network to be developed after Bitcoin, which was the first blockchain to be developed. Its native token/cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) is the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

At their launch, both Bitcoin and Ethereum were designed to use a PoW consensus mechanism in confirming transactions within the networks.

However, the PoW mechanism has proved to consume a lot of energy impacting negatively on the environment. Ethereum has embarked on shifting to a PoS mechanism that is less involving, less energy-consuming, and more efficient than the PoW.

Ethereum successfully completed the migration into a PoS system through the Merge Upgrade on Thursday, September 15.

Following Ethereum’s merge, a new ad campaign is underway targeting Bitcoin’s energy use because of its proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism.

Should I buy ETH today?

Suppose you want to invest in a popular cryptocurrency that is expected to considerably rise in the coming days. In that case, ETH could be a good choice, especially after the successful Merge upgrade.

However, the cryptocurrency market is extremely volatile, and you should invest cautiously.

Ethereum coin price prediction

Despite the price fall after the Merge, analysts expect the price of Ethereum to surge possibly above $2K in the coming days once investors unwind their hedge positions since there are currently no hiccups recorded following the Merge upgrade.

$ETH social media trends

„The merge will reduce worldwide electricity consumption by 0.2%“ – @drakefjustin

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 15, 2022

 

The post ETH price falls after the Merge: here’s where to buy Ethereum appeared first on CoinJournal.

• GlobalBlock analyst Marcus Sotiriou talks about the Ethereum merge, its benefits and potential risks to the event.
• He says the yield factor and a 99.95% reduction in energy use could see DeFi flourish and catalyse investor interest.
• But it’s a ‘complex technical event’ that one.

Is the merge underrated or is it priced in? It could be a crucial question for investors as crypto enters what could be a pivotal week for crypto, according to crypto analyst Marcus Sotiriou.

The countdown to Ethereum (ETH)’s most anticipated event – the Merge – is down to hours. And despite the price hovering below $1,750 after last week’s downside, optimism is still high that the major event will succeed.

Or will it…

Is it underrated or priced in?

We saw ETH price rally in the days after the merge date announcement before the momentum fizzled out alongside the rest of the crypto market.

But price continues to struggle, currently around $1,730 since last week’s dip. For investors, one of the questions to consider going into the event is whether the ETH merge is already priced in or if the market has underrated its potential impact.

Here is something to remember about the merge.

The benefits

Sotiriou, an analyst with digital asset broker GlobalBlock, says the merge is no doubt “the most impactful event that has happened in the crypto industry thus far.”

The advantages of the changes are there. For instance, reduction in network energy usage by 99.95% is great for the ESG narrative. Basically, it helps remove one of the hurdles to increased institutional interest in ETH and the broader ecosystem – concerns over crypto mining and its energy consumption.

Another long-term implication the analyst sees is around the 5% yield for ETH investors and its impact on wider DeFi space. Knowing how to price in risk based on the yield will not just benefit retail DeFi, but institutional investors too.

“Institutional investors love cash flow,” he pointed out in the note, “so being able to receive a lucrative yield is another enticing benefit which could make ETH more investable for them.”

A ‘complex technical event’ – beneficial but with risks

Many investors see Ethereum’s transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism as a positive event bound to happen this time round after several delays. 

However, Sotiriou warns it might not be smooth sailing all at once when the Beacon Chain merges with Ethereum mainnet.

Some observers say that an unforeseen delay, or some other technical hurdle that makes the switch messy could still pop up and frustrate investors. Issues could also arise if many validators fail to update their software in time and therefore be unprepared for the new chain, or if some APIs “break in ways which many people cannot predict.”

Sotiriou sums up the risks thus:

“The Merge is such a complex technical event, which is not surrounding just one big company, but a whole decentralised network, so there are reasons why it may not play out so smoothly.”

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