Month: November 2021

PlayDapp (PLA) is an Ethereum token that powers PlayDapp, a blockchain gaming platform and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. PLA acts as the primary token for processing transactions on PlayDapp. Game developers can also receive PLA when users make in-game purchases.

What products support PLA? 

What regions support PLA?

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for PLA?

PLA requires 35 network confirmations. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts PLA?

PLA is hosted on Ethereum.

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000000000000001

Maximum: 700,000

In Oct 2021, fast-rising Blockchain gaming platform PlayDapp has revealed the addition of a Play-to-Earn feature on its flagship game ‘’Along with the Gods: Knights of the Dawn’’. This development is expected to build on the existing features offered by PlayDapp.

Play-to-Earn gaming is a rising phenomenon that has gathered steam in recent months. This is due to the positive benefits, as gamers have more freedom to build the gaming economy and receive rewards for transacting in-game assets. 

PlayDapp’s flagship game, Along with the Gods’’ Knights of the Dawn already has massive traction with thousands of gamers competing for rewards in NFTs. Players can earn on the flagship game by collecting Hero and Rune NFTs and selling them to other players for PLA tokens and other cryptocurrencies. 

Adding the Play-to-Earn feature will expand the potential for earning, and gamers can now stake PlayDapp Town NFTs for daily and weekly rewards in PLA tokens. To be eligible for daily rewards (5 PLA), players will need to stake three SR grade PlayDAPP TOWN NFTs, while weekly rewards require staking one SSR grade PlayDAPP TOWN NFT and competing in PvP to earn up to 5,000 PLA.   

The P2E staking feature on PlayDapp is lossless as gamers receive rewards in PLA tokens while still having control of their staked NFTs. In addition, to ensure the proper transition for gamers, PlayDapp has announced the launch of a P2E pre-staking period starting from October 20th, 2021. This will help players get ready to start earning when the game update releases on October 27, 2021. 

Interested players can load their NFTs into PlayDapp’s Item Manager in-game to ensure they can earn from the moment the P2E launches. 

A Fast-growing ecosystem 

PlayDapp is regarded as one of the fastest-growing blockchain gaming platforms and has achieved several milestones since its launch. In recent months, it has established strategic partnerships with top tech and blockchain platforms, including Samsung, Polygon, Chainlink, Portis, Klatyn, and LINE. 

PLA token has also witnessed major adoption and is available as a trading token in blockchain games like League of Kingdoms and COMETH. The token can also be traded on global crypto exchanges such as Upbit, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and more. 

PlayDapp’s core team consists of persons with vast experience in the gaming and tech industry. Some team members have worked in top platforms like Netmarble, Naver, Microsoft, ItemBay, and NCSOFT, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the gaming platform. 

PlayDapp team has revealed that it intends to launch a couple of features and products in the future. Some of these include, Along with the Gods Play2Earn specialized server launch, an SDK plugin launch on Naver Gamepot operation service, migrating to the popular Binance Smart Chain ecosystem, and a PvP tournament system. 

By Coinbase and Anjali Sriniwasan

DeFi Lending and Alchemix Crypto Loans

Alchemix is a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform that differentiates itself in a highly competitive field with flexible loans that automatically repay themselves over time. Built into its design, Alchemix automates the process of paying back crypto-backed loans so that, with ample time, all loans on the Alchemix crypto platform should be sufficiently paid back and liquidations should never occur. While many stablecoin-backed DeFi lending platforms exist, most leave it up to the user to manage keeping the loan collateralized and paying it off. Alchemix seeks to automate this process for users interested in receiving stablecoin-backed loans. 

The Alchemix loan repayment process functions as follows: Users deposit DAI — a stablecoin built on Ethereum — to Alchemix as collateral in order to mint alUSD, which is a synthetic protocol token that tokenizes a user’s future yield. The deposited DAI is then used to generate yield in Yearn.Finance vaults, and the yield is used to pay off the loan. Depending on the depositor’s intentions, synthetic assets like alUSD can be converted back into DAI and subsequently exchanged for fiat, or they can be put to work generating even more yield in Alchemix staking pools or liquidity pools. 

This process of repayment — which a user must typically complete manually elsewhere — is automated on the Alchemix crypto platform. Since alUSD continuously flows in as yield that is generated from Yearn.Finance, the supply of alUSD is automatically converted back to DAI at a 1:1 ratio in order to pay off the loan as yield is accrued. Alchemix’s interconnectivity with DeFi products like Yearn.Finance and DAI is a characteristic known as composability, or the ability for a crypto product to interact with other products in the space to increase functionality. 

The Alchemix Crypto Protocol’s Transmuter

When obtaining an Alchemix loan, users deposit DAI to Alchemix vaults. Upon doing so, they can borrow funds up to a 200% collateralization ratio — or one alUSD for every two DAI deposited. This is standard practice for many DeFi lending platforms, but Alchemix’s model leverages yield farming through Yearn.Finance vaults to pay down a user’s debts automatically. Users are able to choose from an increasingly wide selection of yield farming strategies in order to repay their debt.

Once users have deposited DAI with Alchemix to mint alUSD they have an array of options. The Alchemix crypto protocol employs a pegging mechanism for the platform’s synthetic tokens called the Transmuter. It ensures that users can exchange alUSD for DAI at a 1:1 ratio. Yield generated from Yearn.Finance vaults is sent to the Transmuter and converted into DAI continually as it flows in. Users can deposit their alUSD to the Transmuter smart contract, which rewards them with DAI in proportion to the amount they have staked. When they withdraw these DAI rewards, an equal amount of alUSD is burned. Users can also use the Transmuter to swap their alUSD back to DAI, which is easier to convert to fiat currency if the crypto-backed loan was taken in order to make a purchase in fiat. 

At all times, a user’s loan collateralization ratio must be at least 200%. If the collateralization ratio drops below this level, then a user may choose to liquidate part of their collateral to retain the appropriate level of collateralization. If the collateralization ratio exceeds 200% due to yield generation, then a user can withdraw DAI or mint more alUSD until it reaches a 200% collateralization ratio again. For the sake of flexibility, users are also able to settle their crypto loans early — should they need access to their underlying collateral — by repaying their debt with either alUSD or DAI, which are treated the same in the Alchemix system. Once a user has zero alUSD debt remaining, they can withdraw all of their deposited collateral. 

Alchemix Staking and ALCX Liquidity Pools

Alchemix relies on platform participants to contribute to its liquidity pools and staking pools in order to facilitate its lending mechanism. These pools also present an opportunity for users to generate further yield on their synthetic assets like alUSD. As a reward for staking in Alchemix staking pools or providing liquidity to Alchemix liquidity pools, users can earn a proportional amount of ALCX tokens — the platform’s native governance token.

Upon the platform’s launch, there are two staking pools:

• alUSD: Users can stake alUSD to earn ALCX. This pool exists to help establish a peg for alUSD as close as possible to $1 USD.
• ALCX: Users can stake ALCX to earn ALCX. This pool exists to provide a less risky opportunity for risk-averse ALCX holders to earn rewards.

There are also two Alchemix liquidity pools that utilize Sushi Liquidity Provider (SLP) tokens: 

• ALCX/ETH SLP tokens: Users can stake SLP tokens to earn ALCX. This pool exists to provide liquidity for the ALCX token.
• alUSD/DAI SLP tokens: Users can stake SLP tokens to incentivize holding alUSD until the alUSD/DAI pair finds sufficient liquidity. 

Alchemix Governance and the ALCX Token

Alchemix uses its native token — ALCX — for platform governance through a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). ALCX token holders have the ability to vote on protocol parameters, the development of new features, funding, and the structure of the DAO itself. The Alchemix DAO receives 10% of the entire platform’s Yearn.Finance profits, and uses the funds to pay its developers, cover infrastructure costs, award development grants, and fund other projects as determined at the community’s discretion. 

The ALCX token was initially released via a fair launch, without any early investors or the development team setting aside their own supply. The protocol is designed to function optimally when the majority of ALCX token holders are platform participants themselves. 

ALCX does not have a hard cap on its token supply, though it does adhere to a set release schedule that reduces issuance weekly over time — rewarding early platform participants most heavily for their early contributions. ALCX rewards will finally reach a flat weekly release of 2,200 ALCX per week three years after launch. It is projected according to this schedule that the total token supply will be somewhere near 2.4 million ALCX at the close of this timeframe. 

The Alchemix DAO initially received 15% of the projected token supply three years after launch, with another 5% reserved for bug bounties to reward security auditors for reporting potential bugs in the protocol’s code. The remaining 80% of ALCX tokens can be earned by staking certain tokens in the platform’s staking and liquidity pools. Through this mechanism, those who actually contribute to the platform will receive ALCX tokens and have the ability to participate in community governance. 

Alchemix Crypto-Backed Loans and the Future

Launched in March 2021, Alchemix is still a very young DeFi protocol. While the Alchemix crypto platform is relatively new, it is quickly adding compatibility with more cryptocurrencies and types of collateral, as well as offering users more ways to customize the structure of their crypto loans. Alchemix also intends to implement additional decentralized applications (dApps) to expand its ecosystem. 

Alchemix is already a platform for users interested in capital-efficient loans that allow their collateral deposits to generate yield in the background. It offers several unique features and benefits to users, such as the ability to customize their loan structure and yield strategy, borrow against stablecoins without risk of traditional liquidations, and enjoy low-maintenance lending with crypto-backed loans that amorize themselves automatically. Alchemix also presents a lucrative opportunity for participants to deposit collateral in order to mint synthetic assets that they can then stake and provide liquidity for — even if they never intend on withdrawing funds from their crypto loan.

Which products support ALCX? 

What regions support ALCX? 

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs 

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for ALCX?

ALCX requires 35 network confirmations. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts ALCX?

ALCX is hosted on Ethereum. 

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum:  0.000000000000000001 ALCX

Maximum:  307 ALCX

By Gemini and Coinbase

Kyber Network is a decentralized, blockchain-based protocol that facilitates the exchange of tokens without an intermediary and provides liquidity for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. At the time of this writing, Kyber Network is integrated with more than 100 applications, and powers KyberSwap, Kyber Network’s decentralized exchange (DEX). Kyber Network is governed by the holders of its native KNC token through KyberDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

Kyber Network Provides Critical Liquidity to DeFi

Before examining Kyber Network’s design, let’s first unpack why liquidity is important to the DeFi ecosystem. In the cryptocurrency community, liquidity refers to several things: the ability to exchange an asset without substantially shifting its price in the process, the amount of trading activity in a market, and the ease with which an asset can be converted to cash. Liquidity is essential to healthy, functional, user-friendly markets, but can be difficult for new DeFi protocols to both attain and retain.

In traditional financial markets, liquidity providers are centralized entities like banks and financial institutions. However, utilizing centralized entities to provide liquidity in DeFi markets would run contrary to the ecosystem’s ethos of decentralization. As a result, permissionless protocols like Kyber Network have emerged to take their place. Kyber Network’s mission is to create a world in which any token of value can be used anywhere for swaps in any wallet, as well as for payment services, and other newly developed financial products.

How Does Kyber Network Work?

Kyber Network consists of a set of smart contracts that can be implemented on any smart contract-capable blockchain, though it is only implemented on Ethereum as of December 2020. The protocol aggregates liquidity from a variety of reserves, including token holders, market makers, and decentralized exchanges, into a single liquidity pool on its network. Anyone can provide liquidity to the network. Kyber Network enables its three primary users — decentralized applications (dApps), vendors, and crypto wallets — to execute instant token swaps without the use of a trusted third party.

Let’s run through two types of trades.

In every trade, there is the token that represents the core asset. Ether (ETH) currently acts as this token in the Ethereum implementation of the protocol, so any trade must involve an exchange of ETH for another token. Imagine that you want to trade ETH for BAT, Brave’s Basic Attention Token:

• You send your ETH to the Kyber Network smart contract.
• The contract then queries all of its reserves for the best ETH to BAT exchange rate.
• The contract then sends the ETH to the reserve with the best ETH to BAT exchange rate.
• Finally, that reserve then sends you your BAT.

Now let’s imagine that you want to trade BAT for DAI. In this example, since you are not trading directly in ETH, some additional steps are required because ETH is the core asset:

• You send your BAT to the Kyber Network smart contract. 
• The contract then queries all of its reserves for the best BAT to ETH exchange rate.
• The contract then sends the BAT to the reserve with the best BAT to ETH exchange rate. 
• That reserve then sends ETH to the contract. 
• The contract then queries all of its reserves for the best ETH to DAI exchange rate. 
• The contract then sends the ETH to the reserve with the best ETH to DAI exchange rate.
• Finally, that reserve then sends you your DAI.

Despite the second trade involving more steps, both trades are completed in a single blockchain transaction. Likewise, with Kyber Network, all trades are instantly settled on the blockchain and are either executed in full or reverted. In other words, your trades should never be partially executed (though they may be partially executed on other types of exchanges). Additionally, all exchange rates offered by reserves are publicly verifiable if you query the smart contracts.

When integrated into dApps, DeFi platforms, and crypto wallets, the Kyber Network has a wide range of use cases. For example, a dApp that would like to accept users who do not hold its native token can integrate the Kyber protocol to allow for in-app token swap and token conversion functionalities. These features enable the dApp’s users to utilize any Kyber Network-supported token and simultaneously enable the dApp to receive payment in the token of its choice.

KyberDAO and KNC

Holders of KNC can participate in the governance of Kyber Network through KyberDAO. By staking their tokens, KNC holders can vote on the network’s fee model, rebates for reserves, and other proposals, and also earn staking rewards denominated in ether. KNC is a deflationary staking token, which means its supply will decrease over time. KNC is only an ERC-20 token as of December 2020, but Kyber Network anticipates that it will also be implemented on other blockchains in the future. Nonetheless, its supply will be managed as if it were a single token, and Kyber Network is developing technologies that will enable the transfer of KNC across blockchains.

Kyber Network’s broadly integrated protocol offers an on-chain, decentralized solution to DeFi’s liquidity challenges and provides ERC-20 tokens with ecosystem-wide utility.

What products support KNC?

What regions support KNC?

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Crypto to crypto trading pairs

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

How many confirmations are needed for KNC?

KNC requires 35 network confirmations. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts KNC?

KNC is hosted on the Ethereum blockchain.

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.01 KNC

Maximum: 121,000 KNC

On April 20, 2021, KNC (Kyber) deployed their new token and swap contracts. You can reference KNC’s tweet for more on the token swap. While we won’t support the new smart contract at the time of the initial token swap, we will support it a later date in 2021. 

What do I need to know about the KNC token swap?

The new KNC smart contract will be available on Coinbase and Coinbase Pro.

New smart contract

Coinbase will not support the new smart contract at the time of the token swap. You won’t be able to trade (buy/sell) the new token. You can still trade the older version of KNC before the conversion tha occurs later in 2021. 

Once Coinbase supports the new smart contract later in 2021, Coinbase will automatically convert all the KNC tokens in your account and trading will be enabled. If you have KNC in your Coinbase accunt, we’ll notify you a few weeks before the conversion once a conversion date is determined. 

Moving KNC Tokens

You have the option to move your KNC tokens out of Coinbase any time before the conversion date. 

Sending and receiving KNC Tokens

When sending/receiving KNC tokens, please check what version of KNC tokens you currently hold. Exchanges and wallets might have or have not updated to the new token contract, and your funds might be lost if you send an unsupported version of KNC. The Ethereum contract address for the old KNC token is: 0xdd974d5c2e2928dea5f71b9825b8b646686bd200.

Will I be able to deposit the new KNC token to Coinbase before the conversion? 

No. Coinbase KNC wallets supporting the new smart contract won’t be available until afterthe conversion later this year.  We’ll announce this date on Twitter once we know.

What happens if I deposit the new KNC token into my Coinbase account before the conversion?

If you transfer the new KNC token from another exchange to Coinbase before the upgrade then the token will not be accessible or available for withdrawal from Coinbase until the KNC smart contract is supported.

What happens if I deposit the old KNC smart contract after it’s deprecated on Coinbase?

These deposits would not be supported and would be treated as an unsupported digital currency. Depositing unsupported assets in your Coinbase account will cause you to lose them.

Sending and receiving

Old KNC: You will be able to send & receive the old KNC before update/conversion.

New KNC smart contract: You will not be able to send & receive the new KNC smart contract before the upgrade/conversion.

After the upgrade, sending and receiving the new KNC tokens will be enabled on Coinbase Pro but sending and receiving old KNC tokens will no longer be available.

What happens to my KNC after the mandatory conversion to the new KNC smart contract?

As previously mentioned, all of your KNC tokens will automatically convert to the new smart contract and your new KNC tokens will be available in Coinbase products. You’ll then be able to buy, sell and convert KNC on Coinbase products.

Will we support the new KNC token on Pro trading books?

Yes, but only after Coinbase supports the conversion later this year.

What does this mean for KNC in my standalone Coinbase Wallet?

If you have KNC in your Coinbase Wallet, KNC funds will not convert to the KNC. You will need to follow the instructions outlined by KNC in their Migration Guide. 

By Gemini and Coinbase

Mask Network is a portal that allows users to seamlessly send encrypted messages, cryptocurrencies, and even DApps (Defi, NFTs, DAO) over the top of social networks without migrating, and thereby creating a decentralized Applet(DApplet) ecosystem. In short, we want to bridge the New, Open Internet right on top of the current one.

An Overview 🔍

Instead of creating a new platform, Mask Network aims to bridge Web2 (the current web) and so-called Web3, to empower the general public to use the better web within the current mainstream platforms, without using any API or centralized server.

Our Vision 🚩

People live on the Internet. The current version of the internet consists of big techs after big techs where people essentially have to give up control of their own autonomy and cannot even get a breathing room in between the platforms. Many want to overthrow them by starting new ones.

We don’t — We want to create something above them. Cryptography and Web 3 technology (including blockchain, decentralized storage, and peer to peer networks, etc) is enabling us to pull off the job.

The historical reference is the Operating system vs Web browser. Microsoft Windows used to be the ‘evil’ dominant player, taking over 90% of the OS market share. But the Internet (more specifically, Web) changes everything. Everyone still uses operating systems, but the pie has been significantly diluted by the Internet. The web browser is built inside the operating system and sucks in most of the operating system usage gradually and effectively — became the operating system. Microsoft had to preinstall IE to fight back against Netscape — finally leading to DOJ’s action against Microsoft.

Now onto the social networks. Some 90% of the global Internet users are social network users. Social networks have become the infrastructure that few can bypass. Directly competing against those giants seems infeasible. What if we can create something over-the-top of them that people want? Lots of problems have arisen in social networks. They can barely do cross border payments, no space to permanently store files, no real secure encryption. They monetize based on our data and labor and we have little bargain power to stop that.

Is there something that can fix all those problems? The rise of peer to peer networks, blockchain, decentralized storage, collectively denominated as Web 3, are giving us a silver lining. We want to piece them together and give ordinary users a whole new Internet inside the existing one.

What Have We Done and How Has it Been Received

Mask Network has been up and running for almost a year. In the earliest version back in July 2019. The basic function it provides is sending and receiving encrypted posts (tweets/fb posts) with access control. This is achieved without having a centralized server. We also kept UI consistency with platforms to reduce on-boarding costs.

What products support MASK? 

What regions support MASK?

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Crypto to crypto trading pairs

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

How many confirmations are needed for MASK?

MASK requires 35 network confirmations. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts MASK?

MASK is hosted on Ethereum.

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000010000000000

Maximum: 33,069

By Mask Network and Coinbase

Civic is a blockchain identity verification technology that allows consumers to authorise the use of their identities in real-time. It allows businesses and financial institutions to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of background checks.

About Civic Coin:

Civic (CVC) is a cryptocurrency based on Ethereum. This is what powers the Civic’s identity verification mechanism. Upon verifying their information using Civic, users may safely share and verify personal information with service providers. This eliminates the regular re-verification requirements. Service providers may give CVC to users and verifiers in exchange for this convenience.

Jonathan Smith and Vinny Lingham founded Civic in 2015.

Primary features of Civic

CVC coin is an ERC20 token. This means that you can store it on any wallet that supports Ethereum.

• Civic is a network of decentralised applications built on Ethereum that focuses on verifying and requesting information about one’s identity.
• It enables people to use the blockchain to verify their age when purchasing beer from vending machines.
• The Civic ecosystem is composed of three distinct components: Users, Requesters, and Validators.
• The user is in complete control of their data as it is stored locally on their mobile device. They can share the information with whom they want to.

Is Civic a promising cryptocurrency?

Civic coin price currency has increased over 200% in 2021 and by around 800% in the previous year.

According to different civic currency price forecasts, the coin still has the opportunity to grow. There may be a higher upside potential after the coin resumes its ascent to the peak.

Suppose you missed the Civic Coin’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO). In that case, you could purchase it on third-party cryptocurrency exchanges such as CoinSwitch Kuber.

How to use Civic coins?

It is more than a coin and aims to serve as both a wallet and an identification card. You may use it to build a safe and handy personal database. It can save virtually anything you desire, from your passport details to your medical history.

Pros & Cons of Civic coin

Pros

• Civic securely verifies the identity of any user without requiring a username and password.
• It does a thorough background check on the individual by examining publicly available information such as social media accounts. This effectively prohibits the creation of false identities and identity theft.
• It seeks to address real-world issues and has enormous development potential.
• As their technology is patented,  it may be advantageous against competitors in the future.

Cons

The platform may face stiff competition soon. More blockchain applications may emerge in the future as the size of the identity verification business is huge. Thus, Civic must establish several relationships and enter the mainstream market soon to flourish.

Which products support CVC? 

What regions support CVC? 

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs 

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for CVC?

CVC requires 35 network confirmation. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts CVC?

CVC is hosted on Ethereum. 

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000000000000001 CVC

Maximum: 1,130,000 CVC

By coinswitch and coinbase

Braintrust is the first decentralized talent network that connects highly skilled tech freelancers with the world’s most reputable brands, aligning the interests of both talent and enterprises. This week, we sat down with the Braintrust team to discuss what they are building, its use cases, recent traction, and their thoughts on Web 3.0 more broadly.

1. To begin, what is Braintrust and what problem does it solve?

Braintrust is the first decentralized talent network that connects highly skilled technical freelancers with the world’s most reputable brands like Nestle, Porsche, Atlassian, Goldman Sachs and Nike. Braintrust’s unique business model allows talent to retain 100% of their earnings and enables organizations to spin up flexible, skilled teams on-demand at a fraction of the cost of traditional staffing firms. This new business model that limits fee extraction and enables community ownership is uniquely enabled by a blockchain token.

Since coming out of stealth in June 2020, Braintrust has grown gross services volume (GSV) from $3.5 million in 2020 to a $31 million GSV run rate in 2021, growing over 34% on average each month. Braintrust’s community has scaled its use, adoption and talent earnings, with 215% growth in the talent community and individual hourly rates for talent on the network averaging nearly $100 per hour–all without any fee extraction.

2. Are there certain industries that your marketplace focuses on?

Braintrust’s talent community primarily focuses on large, complex technology and design projects spanning software, machine learning, data analytics, and related functions. Examples might include creating a health insurance shopping platform for a major insurance carrier, or the staffing of five full-stack engineers for a transportation company.

Braintrust attracts top tech talent from companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and more—and it’s currently focused on four core categories involved in agile software development and IT:

• Designers (Graphical + UI/UX)
• Engineers / Architects
• Product and Project Managers
• Quality Assurance

Currently, approximately 50% of the talent on Braintrust is based in the U.S., with the other 50% based in 100+ different countries around the globe.

3. There are many marketplaces out there for global talent. Why use blockchain? Why is decentralization important?

What makes Braintrust unique is its model: the marketplace is decentralized and user-controlled. Other platforms like Toptal, Upwork, Gigster, etc., take 20-40% of what the talent makes on the platform and ownership is highly concentrated among a few people and investors. Braintrust takes 0% of what the talent makes, and it’s controlled by its token governance community. This approach enables Braintrust to attract and retain higher-quality talent. Blockchain technology is what enables Braintrust to cut out the middlemen and keep incentives aligned. This dramatically reduces costs for clients and increases the earnings of talent by eliminating hefty fee extraction, and therefore attracts the best people in the world who keep 100% of what they earn on the Braintrust platform.

Braintrust’s blockchain-powered model aligns the incentives of the network itself with the people building it. This is made possible by awarding control and user ownership through BTRST tokens based on contributions to the network. The token powers the entire decentralized network’s governance, incentivizing the community to build the network through referring clients and inviting and vetting new talent. It has a fixed supply of 250 million tokens, meaning the total number of tokens in circulation can never surpass that amount. This blockchain approach is in stark contrast to Web 2.0 models, where a centralized platform would extract disproportionate value in the form of high fees paid by its knowledge workers.

Not only does this put more control in the hands of the community, it has the potential to help grow the network rapidly.

4. What has been your acquisition strategy for top talent and how do you incentivize them to refer other qualified candidates?

Braintrust’s user-ownership structure has enabled a strong talent acquisition model built on BTRST, driving down talent acquisition costs to nearly zero while scaling demand rapidly. Today, almost 50% of Braintrust’s new client acquisition and talent acquisition is driven by referral programs based on BTRST tokens. These referral programs are called Connectors. Anyone can sign up, get a unique code and start adding their network to Braintrust. When those connector-introduced users start transacting, the Braintrust network pays out rewards programmatically to the connectors as a percentage of the transactions — or Gross Services Value (GSV) — they produce. Connectors earn tokens for each successfully paid invoice, giving them more network ownership for helping drive talent and value to the network.

The combination of platform growth and community growth illustrates how Braintrust’s unique tokenization model aligns the incentives of freelancers with the marketplace itself.

5. What are some of the brands hiring on Braintrust? What have you learned from those early adopters?

Braintrust’s highly skilled, vetted talent attracts enterprises and organizations across the business spectrum. Since June of 2020, Braintrust’s client community including Pacific Life, Nestle, and Stanley Black & Decker has more than tripled in size, while the average project size has grown to $57,000, with some as large as $300,000. In addition to project size, jobs on the platform have more than tripled in 2021.

6. Traditional marketplaces tax their users with fees. How does Braintrust make money?

Braintrust charges a flat 10% success fee to the client (employer). Braintrust is a “public good” not-for-profit, and the project’s goal is to fulfill its mission of creating a decentralized talent marketplace, and make the network more useful for everyone that controls it and runs their business on it.

7. What are the primary use cases for your native token, BTRST?

The BTRST token has a number of uses, including:

• Governance: BTRST token holders can discuss ideas for improvements, propose changes, and vote on governance proposals. Because each token represents one vote, users who hold more tokens have greater say on how the network develops.
• Bid Staking: In a competitive market, talent may stake tokens to stand out, offering their tokens as collateral, which they would lose if they fail to deliver on the contract (based on community-based adjudication). Clients can also stake tokens, which go to qualified applicants if the clients don’t go forward with the job — encouraging talent to apply knowing they will be compensated for the time they spend crafting a proposal. Token bid staking helps “un-stick,” or reduce friction, in the marketplace, keeping it more transparent by addressing mismatches of supply and demand.
• Career Benefits: The tokens are also expected to be redeemable for special perks offered by other community participants exclusive to the Braintrust community, including free and discounted software, products, and career resources. Users can also earn tokens by taking courses on Braintrust Academy, a community-run organization, which teaches talent valuable skills to help them earn more on the network.

Note: BTRST tokens do NOT represent equity, debt, a claim on profits, or dividends and do not constitute any financial instrument of any business or organization.

8. What crypto trends are you most excited about in the next six months?

There have been a number of major technological shifts in the last 20 years that have reset the technological landscape, whether that be the rise of mobile computing or of cloud computing. New tech giants have risen out of these macro shifts in how we use technology in our daily lives, and have basically cornered the market on innovation.

Web 3.0 is another one of these major tectonic shifts, and we’re beginning to see it move beyond the experimental phase and to very real, very tangible use cases. Because of the decentralized nature of this particular new model, these new use cases are growing adoption and usefulness at a clip that’s never been seen before. That’s because Web 3.0 isn’t about amassing swollen organizations with tens of thousands of employees; instead, it’s all being driven by large numbers of people engaging and taking part as contributors and beneficiaries.

In that way, it’s really two trends converging to create something incredibly powerful. The first is the continued maturity of Web 3.0 tech and its open nature that gives anyone the opportunity to build cool, useful things. The second is that enough people are understanding that the old way — centralized institutions that call the shots and make the rules — is not beneficial to them as users.

Together, this ownership economy and the rise of Web 3.0 are going to spark some incredibly cool projects that bring more and more people into crypto, not just as curious onlookers or speculators, but as users of protocols and tools that are enhancing their lives.

9. What is the best way for the community to get involved with Braintrust?

Stay connected to us on Discord, Twitter and Telegram to hear the latest — and start earning tokens as a community member by helping build the Braintrust network.

Which products support BTRST? 

What regions support BTRST? 

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Crypto to crypto trading pairs 

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

How many confirmations are needed for BTRST?

BTRST requires 35 network confirmation. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts BTRST?

BTRST is hosted on Ethereum. 

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000000000000001 BTRST

Maximum: 125,000 BTRST

By CoinList and Coinbase

Orion Protocol (ORN) is an open-source decentralized blockchain platform that acts as a liquidity aggregator for centralized and decentralized exchanges. Orion Protocol was created with the goal of providing cryptocurrency users and traders with the best rates for trading tokens and coins across multiple exchange markets and platforms.

Orion Protocol collects liquidity from a great variety of exchanges so that users can get the best rates and lowest fees for their trades. The system collects the liquidity from exchanges to transform it into a single API that finds the best routes for users. The system is also based on order books, so when an order is made, the aggregator immediately searches for multiple routes until it delivers the most suitable trading rates for network users.

With Orion Protocol, trades become simple and easy as traders don’t need to search for the best rates themselves, which would require them to find, access, and compare various exchange platforms. Users also don’t need to get used to a multitude of APIs and features on different exchanges. Network users can manage and access their assets with Orion’s non-custodial solutions. Orion addresses one of the biggest issues on centralized exchanges: hacking, by providing non-custodial solutions for asset management.

How Does Orion Protocol Work?

Orion Protocol forms an entire ecosystem for traders by unifying the whole crypto market in a single API. Orion offers a full suite of features, tools, and products for traders and crypto users, which includes a portfolio management application, trading terminals, enterprise trading, liquidity boost, app store, and DEX launcher.

With all these widely available features and products at their disposal, users can trade tokens and cryptos at the best available rates. Orion seeks the most optimal routes so users don’t have to search through different exchanges to find the best trading opportunities. Users can also manage their assets within a single application with the Orion portfolio management app, which shows all relevant trading data for individual traders.

Network users can also access the Orion app store and buy and access apps that may help them with trades. Some of the available apps are payment integration systems and trading bots. Orion also has an extension for enterprise trading that companies and firms can integrate with their systems. Exchanges, both centralized and decentralized, can also use Orion’s liquidity boost extension as a built-in feature to contribute to the overall liquidity.

Who Are the Founders of Orion Protocol? (History of Orion Protocol)

Orion Protocol launched in 2020 with its utility token ORN. Orion Protocol was founded and developed by Alexey Koloskov, who is also the CEO of the protocol, and his team. The CSO of Orion Protocol, Yanush Ali, claims that Orion Protocol is what the cryptocurrency industry needs to resolve some of its biggest issues.

The project was created with the aim of reducing risks, such as hacker attacks, that sometimes happen on centralized exchanges. The project also addresses the fact that decentralized exchanges, although far less prone to malicious attacks, are underdeveloped. Orion resolves these issues with aggregate features and a series of products available in the Orion market and app store. The main goal of the team is to create a one-stop ecosystem for traders and crypto users.

What Makes Orion Protocol Unique?

One of the factors that make Orion Protocol unique is the goal of the project, which is to reduce the risks involved with trading on decentralized and centralized exchanges. Orion Protocol also finds the best trading routes for network users with the most favorable fees and trading rates. The project aims to create a one-stop ecosystem for traders and cryptocurrency users.

Traders and crypto users can make the most out of liquidity on the protocol, manage their assets, and access apps for trading and other purposes. As a unique project that unifies multiple crypto trading and blockchain-based services, Orion Protocol simplifies trading by finding the best options for traders in an instant.

What Gives Orion Protocol Value?

Orion Protocol’s value is defined by a variety of specific factors, which include the technical capacity of the project, its technology, the activity of the dev team, and mainstream use and adoption. The roadmap plans also contribute to the overall value of the project, while Orion Protocol plans to introduce a price oracle and high-margin DEX trading.

The market value of the Orion Protocol token (ORN) depends on a multitude of specific factors, among which is volatility. The cryptocurrency market has proven to be more volatile than traditional financial markets, like the stock market. The value of ORN may depend on important events and elements like roadmap developments and the activity of the dev team, updates and upgrades, partnerships, integrations, mergers, and other important news.

How Many Orion Protocol (ORN) Coins Are in Circulation?

There are currently 31,995,000 ORN in circulation out of a total of 100,000,000 ORN ORN. The Orion Protocol token is supply-capped, which means that its supply is limited and no new tokens should be minted beyond the token generation event. The finite supply acts as an anti-inflation mechanism, meaning that ORN could be a good store of value in the long term. There are also mechanisms in place to regularly remove tokens from the circulating supply and burn them, such as those used for licensing fees and refunds, making the token deflationary.

The number of ORN coins in circulation multiplied by the current price of Orion Protocol equals the market cap. The market cap determines the rank of ORN among its cryptocurrency peers and decides its market share.

Other Technical Data

Orion Protocol enables non-inflationary staking that increases the annual percentage rate for the liquidity of the ecosystem. The protocol employs a Delegated Proof of Broker staking. This mechanism has two components, Broker Stakers and Non-broker Stakers. With DPoB, Orion Protocol preserves the value of ORN as it regulates rewards for staking. DPoB collects rewards from 13 different revenue sources instead of minting new ORN tokens to incentivize network participants.

Brokers or Broker Stakers execute trades in the system, and Non-broker Stakers stake their ORN tokens to choose Brokers. The network participants are rewarded with network fees, which is how the value of ORN is preserved.

How Is the Orion Protocol Network Secured?

The system is secured through the use of automation and staking for voting and liquidity, while the protocol also performs regular and thorough audits. With the launch of the Orion Protocol mainnet, the network was fully audited for security purposes by CertiK. CertiK is a security company that ensures and checks the overall correctness of smart contract operations.

How to Use Orion Protocol

Orion Protocol is a multi-purpose decentralized finance system that aggregates the best routes for crypto traders to facilitate low fees and top trading rates. Users can access Orion Protocol to trade their assets instead of searching through multiple exchange platforms to find the best rates for various cryptocurrencies and tokens.

Orion Protocol also delivers an entire ecosystem of applications and services for traders, enterprises, and individuals, so users can take advantage of liquidity, trading terminal, app store asset management, wallet integration, and staking rewards. ORN tokens are used as the main method of payment on the network, as a reward for stakers, and for staking. ORN can also be traded in the crypto market for a profit.

How To Choose an Orion Protocol Wallet

ORN can be stored in any wallet that supports ERC-20 tokens and the type you choose will likely depend on what you want to use it for and how much you need to store.

Hardware wallets or cold wallets like Ledger or Trezor provide the most secure option for storing cryptocurrencies with offline storage and backup. However, they can require more technical knowledge and are a more expensive option. As such, they may be better suited to storing larger amounts of ORN for more experienced users.

Software wallets provide another option and are free and easy to use. They are available to download as smartphone or desktop apps and can be custodial or non-custodial. With custodial wallets, the private keys are managed and backed up on your behalf by the service provider. Non-custodial wallets make use of secure elements on your device to store the private keys. While convenient, they are seen as less secure than hardware wallets and may be better suited to smaller amounts of ORN or more novice users.

Online wallets or web wallets are also free and easy to use, and accessible from multiple devices using a web browser. They are, however, considered hot wallets and can be less secure than hardware or software alternatives. As you are likely trusting the platform to manage your ORN, you should select a reputable service with a track record in security and custody. As such, they are most suited for holding smaller amounts of cryptocurrencies or for those making more frequent trades.

Kriptomat offers a secure storage solution, allowing you to both store and trade your ORN tokens without hassle. Storing your ORN with Kriptomat provides you with enterprise-grade security and user-friendly functionality.

Buying and selling ORN, or trading it for any other cryptocurrency, is done in mere moments when you choose our secure platform as your storage solution.

Orion Protocol Staking

Orion Protocol depends on staking for liquidity and for voting, while the staking system is based on a Delegated Proof of Broker consensus mechanism.

What products support ORN?

What regions support ORN?

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for ORN?

ORN requires 35 network confirmations. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts ORN?

ORN is hosted on the Ethereum blockchain.

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000000000000001

Maximum: 16,667

By kriptomat and Coinbase

The XYO Network, short for XY Oracle Network, is offering a people-powered location network built on the blockchain. In a nutshell, the XYO Network is a trustless cryptographic location network that enables layered location verification across many devices and protocols. The network utilizes a cryptocurrency called XYO to function.

XYO taps into the Ethereum blockchain to allow users to “call out” for specific queries that revolve around location requests.

The XYO Network is a project launched by a company called XY, which has been around since 2012 building location technology solutions for autonomous drones, self-driving vehicles, smart cities, and space exploration. The first product XY launched is XY Findables, a network of over 1 million people connected by Bluetooth and GPS devices. These devices are essentially little fobs that can be attached to frequently misplaced items such as keys, backpacks, dog collars, etc.  

How Does XYO Network Work?

The XYO Network contains four primary pillars: Sentinels (The Data Gatherers), Bridges (The Data Relayers), Archivists (The Data Storers), and Diviners (The Answer Aggregators).

1. Sentinels gather location information through radios, sensors, and other methods. These act as the location witness.
2. Bridges take data from Sentinels and relay it over to Archivists. These act as location data transcribers.
3. Archivists store the information for Diviners to analyze it.
4. Diviners serve as oracles and analyze all the location heuristics to provide answers to queries and assign accuracy scores. Diviners then relay these answers back into a smart contract.

The XYO Network debuts an original Proof of Origin consensus algorithm combined with Transient Key Chaining to ensure that ledgers flowing into the network are valid while making it impossible to falsify the chain of origin for the data. The XYO Network stores the information on a public blockchain called the XYOMainChain.

Who Would Use the XYO Network?

Beyond the technical guts of the XYO Network lays a multitude of use cases that span several industries.

An example noted in the whitepaper is for eCommerce merchants who use XYO to offer a premium “payment upon delivery” service to its customers. The merchant would write a smart contract (on Ethereum’s platform), XYO would track the location of the package every step of the way until fulfillment, and only once it has arrived does the vendor gets paid.

Which products support XYO? 

What regions support XYO? 

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs 

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for XYO?

XYO requires 35 network confirmation. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts XYO?

XYO is hosted on Ethereum. 

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000000000000001 XYO

Maximum: 2,770,000 XYO

By ALEX MOSKOV and Coinbase