Filecoin (FIL) vs Storj (STORJ): Decentralizing cloud storage

 Although cloud storage was a great innovation, it lacked backup protection and was controlled by a central authority. However, with blockchain technology, secure, cost-effective, and decentralized storage platforms have been launched. Storj and Filecoin belong to this category of platforms.

 Filecoin was founded in 2017 by Protocol Labs but the mainnet was launched in 2020 to serve as a platform for data storage and retrieval. It uses a proof-of-storage consensus mechanism which is made up of proof of replication and proof of spacetime to validate operations on the network. It occupies the second layer of the Interplanetary File System (IPFS). FIL is used to settle transactions.

 Storj was founded in 2017 by Storj Labs on the Ethereum network as an easy-to-use and affordable cloud storage platform. It makes use of farmers and renters; farmers provide storage space, and renters buy this space from them. Data are stored on the network using a sharding mechanism. STORJ serves utility purposes for payment and rewards.

 While Filecoin can store and distribute data, Storj can only store them. Storj was developed majorly for developers, but Filecoin supports a market for trading raw data. Moreover, Storj promises durable data storage. Of the two, Filecoin is more decentralised; Storj is both centralised and decentralised.

 Both support transactions between their service providers and users. Filecoin is made of a free match market where clients and data providers can freely interact. Whereas, Storj uses a market maker model where clients pay the platform to get their data services. Both don’t charge migration costs; Storj accepts payment directly from users, while Filecoin uses its blockchain to solve service and settlement matters.

 Filecoin uses an EC algorithm, whereas Storj depends on the Ethereum blockchain. In a world continually embracing decentralisation, Filecoin provides decentralised storage services. FIL is worth $23.69 right now with a market cap higher than STORJ with over $3.5 billion, showing that it’s experiencing mainstream adoption.

 While it would make a great investment, you should do proper research before investing. Deal wisely and only invest spare cash.

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PancakeSwap (CAKE) vs Sushiswap (SUSHI): The better DEX token

 Decentralised exchanges are platforms where users can conduct trades in a permissionless way without any intermediary. DEX tokens are used as governance tokens and for staking. They can be as a store of value. DEXs support the operations of DeFi platforms.

 PancakeSwap and Sushiswap are two of the most popular DEX platforms. They are both forks of Uniswap and are also automated market makers (AMMs). In essence, users provide liquidity pools by using the platform, thereby earning rewards.

 PancakeSwap was developed on Binance Smart Chain by anonymous developers and launched in September 2020. It uses smart contracts to aid the swapping of tokens. Users can swap or exchange their LP tokens for another token. Also, it supports yield farming and staking of tokens. PancakeSwap can be accessed from Metamask, Trust Wallet, Ethereum Wallet, Binance Chain Wallet, and Math Wallet.

 Sushiswap was released on the Ethereum network by Chef Nomi and 0xMaki in August 2020. However, ownership of the platform has been transferred to Sam Bankman-Fried. It can be accessed through Lattice, Coinbase Wallet, WalletConnect, and Metamask. Asides from yield farming and staking of tokens, users can also borrow and lend tokens. It uses the Minimal Initial Sushiswap Offering (MISO) to support the launching of new projects in its ecosystem.

 Due to being forks of Uniswap, they share various similarities. However, the cost of a transaction differs, with users paying 0.2% on PancakeSwap and 0.3% on Sushiswap. Moreover, Sushiswap is more flexible than PancakeSwap. Between the two, PancakeSwap has more traders with a market cap of $2.17 billion to $906.6 million of Sushiswap.

 Likewise, PancakeSwap supports NFTs and lottery in its ecosystem. It also has a separate token for unstaking CAKE. CAKE costs $8.15 right now, and SUSHi sells for $4.7. CAKE is the better DEX token of the two, and with the continuous adoption of the DEX, it will keep growing.

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Bill Miller: Bitcoin is an insurance against financial catastrophe

  • Legendary investor Bill Miller compared Bitcoin to an insurance policy, noting that it may lack intrinsic value but duly comes in handy in case of a catastrophe.

  • Miller said he still holds a significant portion of Bitcoin in his portfolio.

  • BTC price climbed above $45,000 on Thursday, jumping above the resistance level amid high volatility in the market.

Bitcoin is what investors need to hedge against financial catastrophe, legendary investor Bill Miller said in an interview with CNBC.

According to the fund manager, who in January revealed that he held a significant chunk of his personal wealth in Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency acts „like an insurance policy.“

Explaining his analogy, the famed investor told CNBC that people go for insurance even when they know that the policies do not have intrinsic value.

The former chief investment officer at Legg Mason Capital Management Value Trust said that it is exactly this factor (a lack of intrinsic value) that makes people want to get insurance. It’s not because they wish to see their property destroyed or hope to get into an accident, but because the insurance always comes in handy if the calamity ever happened.

Bitcoin is insurance against financial catastrophe,“ he explained in comments referenced by Insider. 

Miller also commented on his crypto portfolio, noting that his earlier allocation in BTC grew exponentially during the bull market to Bitcoin’s peak in November. Although the holdings had taken a hit during the recent market slump, the investor said he still held a „big position.“

On overall adoption of cryptocurrencies, the investor says the trend will see major banks, endowments, and pensions funds add Bitcoin to their balance sheets. According to him, the move by KPMG Canada is the beginning of a major shift.

Bitcoin was trading around $45,350 at the time of writing, about 3% up in the past 24 hours and over 22% up this past week. Today’s market action saw the cryptocurrency sharply fluctuate as markets reacted to fresh inflation data from the US.

The run to intraday highs above $45,600 included a sharp decline below $44,000, but analysts are bullish the crypto bull market is not over yet. 

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Terra (LUNA) jumps 18% in seven days: this is what is fuelling LUNA’s price rise

Terra (LUNA) has seen a tremendous rise over the past week as it tries to correct the recent price drop that resulted from the recent crypto market plunge. At the time of writing, it was trading at $56.30 after a 2.4% rise in the last 24 hours.  

LUNA is the native token of Terra, a blockchain protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins to influence the price of global payment systems. It has a trading volume of $1,202,143,126, a circulating supply of 400 million LUNA coins, and a total supply of 819 million.

Let’s now focus on why the Terra (LUNA) has been rallying in the last seven days.

Forces behind current Terra (LUNA) price rise

One of the reasons behind the current uptrend is the announcement of Terra’s sports sponsorship deal with Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Washington Nationals, a major milestone for the growing blockchain that can be termed as the first-ever decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) vote on sports sponsorship deal in history.

According to last week’s formal proposal from the DAO on Terra’s governance platform to the LUNA community, Terra offered $38.5M for a five-year sponsorship deal for the Nationals.

In the proposal they said:

‘’We started dedicated sports coverage at Bitcoinist last year, and we can firmly say we’ve never seen a sports sponsorship deal quite like this one. It is the first time we’ve seen a community vote through a DAO mechanism – most certainly around a deal secured with a ‘big 4’ league (which consists of the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA) in North America… ’We’ve covered quite a bit of ubiquitous sports sponsorship and partnership deals throughout the past year or so, and admittedly, an MLB team was not on our shortlist. The NBA has arguably been the leader in crypto-related deals, including a league-wide deal with Coinbase, and vocal team owner advocates, such as Mark Cuban. Additionally, other headline deals, such as Crypto.com’s acquisition of the downtown Los Angeles arena naming rights, and the NBA’s broader initiatives into blockchain-related properties (think Dapper Labs and Top Shot) have given the league a particularly unique position.’’

MLB has previously worked with Candy Digital and Topps around NFTs; however, the team’s specific deals have been few and the same applies to the NHL and NFL which have also shown limited engagement in blockchain and crypto so far.

For Terraform Labs and Terra, it’s a unique move not only because of the league but also because of its location in the US policymaking, Washington DC.

The deal comes at a time when Terra’s UST stablecoin has established itself as the leading decentralized stablecoin. Terra ecosystem is longing to establish growth that will go beyond the blockchain’s flagship Anchor Protocol product.

In a statement released by the Nationals, Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon stated:

“By approving this sponsorship deal, the community has a new way to engage and educate the public, including the policymakers doing important work in Washington, D.C., about decentralized money and the burgeoning technology that underlies it.”

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Concordium lists native token on BitGlobal and Bitfinex

Concordium, a public, proof-of-stake blockchain with a built-in identification layer to meet the regulatory requirements, has officially listed its native token CCD on leading crypto exchanges Bitfinex and BitGlobal, Invezz learned from a press release.

Trading opens on February 10 and 11

CCD token trading will open on Bitfinex starting at 10:00 AM CET on February 10, 2022. Trading on BitGlobal will open on February 11, 2022 at 10:00 AM CET.

Suite of advanced trading features

Founded a decade ago, Bitfinex is one of the world’s oldest crypto trading platforms. It offers a suite of highly advanced and diversified trading features, charting tools, and unparalleled support. BitGlobal offers a user-friendly digital asset ecosystem with increased liquidity and tighter security measures of international standards.

BitGlobal is designed to enable every user to trade, participate, or contribute to the digital assets ecosystem with ease.

Trade CCD for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether

Users of both exchanges will be able to exchange CCD for BTC, ETH, and USDT. At first, the exchanges will only support spot trading of the token. The blockchain will bring CCD to more exchanges moving forward, thereby increasing the liquidity of the token and enabling its wider utilization.

Key to blockchain interaction

As the native token of the Concordium platform, CCD is key to blockchain interaction. It can be used to pay for applications via the blockchain’s technology and to pay transaction fees to the validator nodes that secure the network and process transactions. These fees are euro-stable, known in advance, and deterministic.

Classified as payment token by regulator

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority has classified CCD as a payment token. This means it can be used to settle transactions on-chain, for collateralization, and for all other use-cases applicable in Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

The CCD token will power different ecosystems built on Concordium, lending a special focus on innovation and regulated DeFi as well as decentralized fintech.  

A fair governance structure

The Concordium Foundation will develop and implement a fair governance structure that allows the project to evolve over time. Ultimately, CCD holders will possess the right to vote on-chain in Concordium’s decentralized governance.

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