While plagued by a host of its own issues (hacks, thefts, market manipulation, etc.), DeFi allows market participants to conduct trade on a peer-to-peer basis using purely transparent smart contract code. As the sector develops, not only does user experience improve, but the number of products offered rises to meet those of traditional finance.

At EthCC Paris in July, CryptoPotato sat down with David Gogel, VP of Strategy and Operations at the dYdX Foundation. dYdX is one of the largest decentralized exchanges available today and draws the largest trading volumes for perpetual swaps than compared to other decentralized marketplace.

Gogel shares what he sees as the most exciting developments for dYdX going forwards, how Wall Street traders are already using the protocol, and the most likely way of onboarding new users to the ecosystem.

But first, let’s clarify where the name comes from. For many, the term “dYdX” might raise eyebrows, but as Gogel explains, it’s all about derivatives.

“dYdX is the math term for derivatives, so it just means derivatives. We’ve heard every pronunciation you can think of, and every capitalization like big D, small Y, dye-dix or did-ix, but it’s pronounced D Y D X,” Gogel clarified.

A Shift from Wall Street to Crypto

With a Wall Street background, Gogel has been a prominent figure in the crypto space for about seven years. In the interview, he detailed his journey from traditional finance to leading growth at dYdX Trading and eventually joining the dYdX Foundation.

He stated:

“I’m the VP of Strategy and Operations at dYdX Foundation. I’ve been with the foundation for about two years now. Our mission is to enable communities, developers, and decentralized governance over the current version of the protocol and future versions of the protocol.”

The Evolution of dYdX

Since its inception, dYdX has seen substantial growth, with peak volumes reaching $10 to $15 billion daily. Although volumes have declined, David confidently expressed that net flows into crypto have increased over time, with a shift from centralized exchanges to DEXs.

He explained dYdX’s dominance, saying: “Today in the perpetuals volume landscape, we’re a low single-digit market share in the one to two percent, but we’re by far the largest DEX. Even within perps, I think in the last 30 days we did close to 40 billion dollars in volume, and the second player did maybe three or four billion in 30-day volume.”

Transitioning Away from Ethereum to Cosmos

An intriguing topic in the interview was the ongoing transition of dYdX from Ethereum to Cosmos. He emphasized the historical importance of Starkware’s L2 for settlement on the Ethereum network.

He also noted that dYdX accounted for around 90% to 95% of volumes on Starkware, crediting them as “great partners.”

By the way, you can check our podcast with Starkware’s Gal Ron here.

He further elaborated on the move to Cosmos:

“The Cosmos ecosystem allowed us to be able to build a custom chain specific to our use case, which is around trading high-velocity products. So, dYdX Trading has been building the Cosmos open-source code for the last year and a half. The big difference is the order book and the matching engine will run in memory by the validators… it allows for a highly scalable system, high throughput, but also has that decentralization ethos.”

Regulatory Challenges and User Experience

When asked about the impact of the clampdown on regulated exchanges and its effects on dYdX, Gogel observed some spikes in users and volume but acknowledged that the experience is more suitable for advanced traders.

“The dYdX platform offers perpetual products, which are synthetic products that allow people to go for more advanced trades,” he explained. “It’s much more focused on the pro-retail or institutional segments.”

“We Like Bear Markets”

On the horizon, Gogel emphasized the potential migration of the user base to the new ecosystem and the exciting opportunity it brings.

“Should the community decide to vote for v4, the next 12 months are really focused on supporting a migration and then developing and growing a big ecosystem around the dYdX chain.”

His final remarks on the matter were a reminder of dYdX’s resilience and innovation throughout market cycles. Whether bear or bull, he said, “dYdX generally is a crypto OG. We like bear markets, bull markets are more fun, but the collective teams have been heads down building the last two years.”

And What About Crypto Mass Adoption?

“We see some advanced traders from Wall Street. We don’t service any US people, but there’s a lot of sophisticated trading firms that historically only traded traditional financial products” said Gogel.

“Many of them, if they trade in crypto, will trade perpetuals as a way to manage their risk and hedge. And then many of them, if they’re going to trade on a DEX, they are very familiar with order book type models.

Generally, the first DEX that they will integrate with is dYdX. I would say we’ve seen really strong adoption so far. Certainly, there’s a lot more work to do to bring more people into the ecosystem. I think regulatory clarity in different markets around the world would certainly help. I think, again, the tech does move exponentially.”

The post Wall Street Traders Are Using DeFi: Interview With dYdX Foundation’s VP of Strategy, David Gogel appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Those who’ve been following the latest gaming and NFT developments have surely heard of Animoca Brands: one of the most prominent gaming studios and VC, boasting a tremendous investment portfolio, including names like The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, Atari, Alien Worlds, Aurory, and many more.

Animoca Brands has been one of the driving forces of the blockchain gaming niche – a use case touted by many as the most prolific and powerful when it comes to implementing the technology.

During EthCC 2023, CryptoPotato sat down with Yat Siu – Animoca Brands’ co-founder and executive chairman. In an eye-opening interview, he shared his thoughts on the latest rise in popularity of crypto in Asian countries, or even a China 2.0 wave (“they see an opportunity to break away from the US”), why he is sure that there will be a second wave of NFTs and why Ripple’s win over the SEC is a breakthrough for the industry, where the next big trend will come from and when.

What made you believe in the emerging blockchain industry, and when did you first hear about Bitcoin?

I heard about Bitcoin over 10 years ago, but my interest in it wasn’t really that big. I experimented. It was more intellectual interest.

What really got me into crypto was non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are basically CryptoKitties in 2017. One of our subsidiaries was based in Vancouver, and it was involved in building CryptoKitties. And the co-founder of that business ended up becoming a co-founder of Dapper Labs, and we became investors in that business.

Since you’re talking about Bitcoin, I find that the conversation that happened with CryptoKitties back in 2017 is very similar to NFTs, with the ERC-721 standard being very similar to what we’re seeing today with Ordinals and Inscriptions.

It almost feels like history repeating itself.

What really excited us wasn’t so much about the financial aspect of it; although that’s a key component, it’s the cultural aspect. The fact that we can now actually own, basically, stores of digital culture through NFTs. Because we had a gaming background, it meant a lot to us because, as a gamer, you wanted to keep your virtual identities, you wanted to keep your weapons or your assets or things, and things that evolved you as a character in the game.

We embarked on this vision. And in the last five years, we have made over 450 investments in anything related to NFTs and Web3.

You’re based in Hong Kong. China has had a love-hate relationship with crypto. How do you view the recent developments in Hong Kong’s opening to crypto? In your EthCC 6 speech, you mentioned that Asian countries are pushing Web3 because they see an opportunity to break away from the US. Do you believe there are other reasons?

China’s always had a love relationship with blockchain, to be precise. It is a love-hate relationship with crypto for a couple of reasons. First of all, there’s obviously a whole currency matter, but I think the bigger issue that China had with crypto, and particularly with Bitcoin, was mining.

Because when you think about what’s important for China, it’s about energy safety. And it wasn’t very helpful that people were basically mining Bitcoin, right?

That was perhaps the bigger reason why there was a crackdown on mining in China. But separately speaking, blockchain technology, they’re very excited about. And when you think about the role of Hong Kong, Hong Kong has always been the financial intermediary of China. It’s always been the way in which money flows in and out of China, for foreign direct investment, for investments outside, and so forth.

I think when it comes to digital assets, as in crypto, it’s exactly the same. As I was talking in my ETHCC speech, it’s not a coincidence, I think, that Hong Kong was opening up to Web3 and crypto and blockchain, and then China was talking about it and releasing their own Web3 strategy paper around that. To me, they’re all interrelated and tied, but they’re one; they’re connected to each other. Meaning that you do not expect, for instance, that in the short term, you can buy crypto directly in China, but you can do it through Hong Kong, for instance. I think that could be a potential path,

but I don’t think China is going to allow the trading of crypto inside China.

Speaking on the US falling behind in Web3 and metaverse, as well as if that may change following the upcoming presidential elections.

There’s so much activity about metaverse, about Web3. They’re all trying to push it and try to become leaders in this space. And this might be perhaps the first time in a while that the US might possibly find behind in the short term.

… everyone is looking at the elections, and I think there’s some truth to the fact that they might provide hope because regardless of who wins, then it’s about policymaking rather than about politics per se.

But the Ripple case to me is really interesting because it makes the very first distinction that just one token is one per use case. A token can be viewed as nuanced. If the token is used this way, it’s security. If a token is used another way, it’s a utility. In other words, context matters.

I think the recent ruling by the judge has given new energy to the US, regardless of where the regulator wants it to go.

I think post-ripple, everyone who was scared of doing something with tokens is now like, “maybe that’s the cost of doing business. We take some risk, but it’s an acceptable risk as opposed to before when it was unacceptable.” I’m quite hopeful about that.

The gamify industry still seems very active in Japan despite the fact that we’re in a bear market, while here in the West, it seems like it’s relatively low. Do you agree with this observation? How does Animoca view this, and where is the current geo focus of Animoca Brands?

First of all, globally speaking, there’s still a positive trend on Web3. It comes from a small number, but there’s still growth everywhere around the world, even in the US. But that’s, again, because the numbers we’re starting from are low.

However, having said that, when it comes to consumer opinion, in Asia, it is very friendly. In America, it is not so friendly. In some cases, they are actually even hostile.

I would say that the gamers themselves, which is the majority of young people out there, are sharing their anti-capitalist views from the perspective of crypto. So, in other words, the same opinions that they have about someone who’s working in banking in New York and Wall Street are how they view people in crypto. So that means that Bitcoin, NFTs, and Bored Apes, to them it’s digital capitalism.

They may not articulate it in that way, but it’s the same feeling because when you look at the reactions that gamers have in America to NFTs, it is not a logical reaction. It is a very emotional reaction.

Do you expect a comeback of NFTs? Wave two? How is it going to be different from the previous one?

Absolutely, yes. First of all, I think we’re going to see more mass adoption. And that comes from culture – as it always does, right?

The pure financial nature of crypto is appealing to a subset of people who are very financially literate.

But the way that we bring mass adoption is through culture. Entertainment, gaming, fashion, all that kind of stuff. Things that we as humans identify with.

As you know, it takes several years to make a good game. Most of the games were funded in the last 12 to 18 months. Those games are going to be released in the coming 12 to 18 months. When they come out, we think we’re going to see quite a bit of mass adoption.

For entrepreneurs who’re reading this, what are the main criteria you would look for in a project before investing?

First, assume the team is technical, they know their background, and so on. And obviously, product-market fit is always an important one, but in this space, sometimes it’s hard to know. What I find so exciting about Web3 is that product-market fit can sometimes be something we never thought fit, right?

Because it’s a new industry. If you think about virtual employment, that’s not something that people would’ve thought about as a natural thing. If you thought about Play-to-Earn or if you thought about digital collectibles, these are all concepts that, five years ago, didn’t have product market fit.

We look for founders who are driven by purpose.[…] The Web3 investment style is more about shared success. How does what I built to end up creating benefits for the broader ecosystem as a whole?

Animoca Brands has grown exponentially and become one of the major players in the gaming industry. What, in your opinion, sets Animoca Brands apart from others? What would you say are the key turning points for your company?

I would say the key turning points for Animoca Brands – obviously our embrace on Web3, but more importantly – the conviction that what we’re building is of critical importance to the industry broadly.

So even though people say that we’re a gaming company because we made lots of gaming investments (we made over 140 gaming investments, and we are obviously involved with some of the biggest Web3 gaming projects), the purpose of what we’re building, which is digital property rights, and the mission to essentially create the Web3 ecosystem, which is all about what we consider stakeholder capitalism, in which every customer becomes an owner, that’s the broader mission.

What excites you and Animoca Brands?

Outside of the gaming field, I would say one area that we have been looking at is education.

Education today is a $5 trillion market, and almost nobody in crypto is looking at education.

Where will the next big trend come from?

I don’t think that NFTs are done yet, because they are like the homepage. In other words, everything will have NFTs. Everything will need NFTs in one form or another. To me, it’s a little bit going to be more like the usage of NFTs will drive mass adoption.

The mass onboarding… it hasn’t even started yet.

The post This Will Trigger Crypto’s Mass Adoption Next Years: Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Threads offer users the ability to post and share text, images, and videos and interact with other users’ posts through replies, reposts, and likes. It is closely connected to the Meta platform’s Instagram and requires users to have an Instagram account and use Threads under the same handle. 

The launch hasn’t been without controversies, igniting a burgeoning rivalry between Threads and Twitter. But let’s dive into more details about the new app that has taken the social media realm by storm.

Threads: Functions and Features

Threads – text-based public conversation app debuted to worldwide acclaim after launching on July 5th, 2023, by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 

In order to access Meta’s Threads application, individuals are required to download it from either the App Store or Google Play Store. Once downloaded, users can log in through their Facebook or Instagram credentials. The app will subsequently guide users through the process of setting up a profile and choosing their areas of interest. At this point, users are able to commence sharing text updates and participating in public discussions.

Threads offers its users the capability to create text posts of up to 500 characters, enabling them to include links, photos, and videos with a maximum duration of five minutes.  

The app also allows users to manage their interactions by letting them have control over who can mention or respond to them. Similar to Instagram’s functionality, users can incorporate hidden keywords to filter out replies to their threads that contain specific terms. 

Users can further regulate their experience on the platform with features such as unfollow, block, restrict, or report profiles by accessing the three-dot menu. Accounts that have been blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on Threads as well.

Limitation

Despite the hype, users have expressed their frustration over unusual limitations on profile customization. The deletion of the Threads account, for one, will result in the deletion of a user’s Instagram account as well.

This shows that the two platforms are so deeply intertwined that the removal of one will inevitably wipe out the other. The company said that it is looking into a way to delete your Threads profile separately, but for now, deactivating the Threads account appears to be the only alternative that won’t affect a user’s Instagram account. 

Note: Users can only deactivate their profile once a week.

Furthermore, in the case where a user has connected their Facebook and Instagram accounts, any desired changes to their name on Threads must first be made on Facebook. Similarly, modifying the username on Threads requires updating the corresponding Instagram profile as well.

Threads application is yet to incorporate a direct messaging functionality. It also lacks a desktop version that certain users, especially business organizations, rely on.

Currently, Threads do not have hashtags and keyword search functions, thereby restricting both its appeal to advertisers as well as its utility as a venue for following real-time events, a feature that is prominent on Twitter.

Not Available in Europe

The social media platform is currently not available to EU customers. Meta has even blocked the efforts of EU-based users from accessing Threads via VPN. As per its parent company’s privacy policy and the app’s iOS listing, Threads extensively tracks users such as collecting a range of personal data, including information that is deemed “highly sensitive” such as health and financial data, precise location, browsing history, contacts, and search history.

Meta faces legal and regulatory hurdles in the European Union due to this approach.

Furthermore, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) imposes restrictions on the aggregation of data for advertising purposes by prominent digital platforms. Meta has expressed concerns about the application of the DMA to its data practices, which has reportedly contributed to the delay of Threads’ launch in the bloc.

Recent Milestone?

Limitations asides, Threads has received an astonishing reception, crossing 100 million sign-ups within five days of launch, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The app has emerged as the reigning champion after dramatically surpassing OpenAI-owned ChatGPT as the fastest-growing online platform. 

Threads even managed to claim the top spot among free apps on the App Store.

The Great Beef: Mark Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk

The arrival of Threads, which was spun out of Instagram, is designed to serve as a prime place for public, real-time conversations. It has considerably shaken up the scene. The bone of contention lies in the resemblance when it comes to its user interface and other basic features. While the new app could end up a fad, it could also be a potent threat to Twitter, which has retained its crown as a hub of conversation for more than a decade.

Threads leverage Instagram’s extensive user base of 2.35 billion individuals instead of starting from scratch and building its own user community. The launch of Threads comes amid a period of prolonged turmoil for Twitter under its new owner Elon Musk who appears not amused by the new app. He tweeted, “Competition is fine; cheating is not.”

The already existing feud between Zuckerberg and Musk first started when the Meta chief’s $200 million satellite exploded in a pre-launch test accident on one of Musk’s SpaceX rockets. Over the years, both tech behemoths have taken subtle jabs at each other, with talks about a bizarre “cage match” hitting the headlines more recently. But the conflict has intensified between the duo as a result of Threads’ rise to prominence.

Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, even threatened to sue Meta over its new Threads app, alleging the Zuckerberg-led company of engaging in “systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”

In Twitter’s cease-and-desist, Spiro leveled accusations against Meta, claiming that over the past year, the social media giant had recruited numerous former employees, some of whom possessed and currently have access to Twitter’s “trade secrets” and other “confidential information.” Spiro further alleged that “many” of these individuals have improperly retained Twitter documents or electronic devices.

With the rivalry slowly turning into a legal battle, it will be interesting to see if the two billionaires choose to settle their differences in the cage or in the courtroom.

Final Verdict

Amidst numerous concerns about Twitter’s unpredictable rules and declining quality, the timing of Thread’s release holds particular intrigue. Threads arrives with a bold claim, presenting itself as a potential “Twitter rival” and earning the label of a “Twitter killer” by certain sections of the media.

However, only time will unveil whether this new application is successful in capturing the same cultural cachet that Twitter once did.

The post Facebook’s Answer to Twitter: A Complete Guide on Threads appeared first on CryptoPotato.

It’s perhaps safe to say that Dogecoin was the one meme coin that gave birth to a movement that would later grow to a multi-billion market with a community as passionate as none other.

Dogecoin is no longer the only meme coin worth looking into, as the likes of Shiba Inu (SHIB) have also taken center stage.

The following takes an in-depth look at meme coins, what they are, how they differ from regular cryptocurrencies, which are the largest meme coins, and some of the most frequently asked questions about them.

So buckle up, and let’s dive in.

What is a Meme Coin?

First things first, a meme coin is a type of cryptocurrency – a subsection of the industry of sorts.

In essence, a meme coin is a cryptocurrency that originated from some sort of internet meme or has another humorous characteristic.

All meme coins are cryptocurrencies, but not all cryptocurrencies are meme coins.

The above rule of thumb is a good starting point, but it’s also very generalized. That said, as the name suggests, a meme coin has some sort of meme culture embedded into its overall design. Some teams are even incorporating memes into the technical design of their token. For example, they would make it so that the maximum supply is 420 billion tokens or 69 billion tokens – all based on the meme numbers 4:20 and 69, for example.

Some of the more popular examples include Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Floki Inu (FLOKI), and others. These are all themed around the doge meme.

But that’s not all. Another huge group of meme coins and meme cryptocurrency projects, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are centered around the popular internet meme – Pepe the Frog. The largest project is called PEPE.

Meme coins are just as real as any other cryptocurrency, they are typically built on popular layer-one networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon. However, some of them, like Dogecoin – have their very own networks designed for them.

While most coins tend to focus on some sort of utility, meme coins, for the large part, focus on getting viral through the explosive nature of memes and how quickly they spread.

Therefore, it’s time for an important disclaimer. Meme coins are volatile and inherently risky. Users are strongly advised to consult a professional before investing in meme coins. Never invest more than you can afford to lose.

How Do Meme Coins Work?

Meme coins work like regular tokens that are built on top of layer-one blockchains, with small exceptions. The wide majority of them are built on Ethereum using the ERC-20 smart contract standard.

The most obvious exception is Dogecoin. It has its native blockchain that, in some ways, mimics that of Bitcoin. It’s based on a proof-of-work consensus algorithm, but it has an unlimited inflationary supply, unlike Bitcoin’s capped supply.

Other meme coins, such as Shiba Inu (SHIB), are creating their own ecosystems and building side projects to provide additional value and engage their users.

In general, though, meme coins rely mostly on the power of the meme they are based on to build a strong community that’s passionate about it and to capture investment interest.

Are Meme Coins Safe?

Because meme coins are centered around the virality of the meme they’re based on, they also tend to be a lot more volatile compared to traditional altcoins.

For example, PEPE coin went from being worth literally $0 to achieving a market capitalization of almost $2 billion in the span of less than a month in 2023. This is an astronomical growth that is hard to even comprehend. The meme coin went on to lose more than 70% since its all-time high just weeks after that. This should give you an idea of how volatile and risky meme coins can be.

In terms of technological safety, they should be treated like any other altcoin on the market. Investors should make sure they have done sufficient due diligence to ensure they’re not putting their hard-earned money into a rug pull. Speaking of rug-pulls – there are a lot of them in the meme coin field, so make sure to be extremely careful.

Meanwhile, it’s also highly advisable that you take a look at these guides:

• What Are Rug Pulls? How to Avoid Getting Scammed?
• 6 Ways to Avoid Losing Your Funds to DeFi Scams

Common Characteristics of Meme Coins

Albeit different by design and compared to other cryptocurrencies, meme coins share some similar characteristics.

• A lot of them are built on top of a layer-one network.
• All of them are based on a popular internet meme or humorous element.
• Most of them focus heavily on the social side of growth.
• The biggest meme coins have incredibly dedicated communities.
• Their prices tend to be incredibly volatile.

These are just some of the common characteristics that most meme coins share.

The Biggest Meme Coins

There are probably thousands of meme coins out there, and a new one is being created every day. However, there are a few that have managed to stand the test of time or have exploded into the mainstream in a way that has cemented their place as a big meme coin. Here are three examples of the biggest meme coins.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin (DOGE) is the original meme coin. Founded as a joke back in late 2013, it is now the biggest meme coin by means of total market capitalization as of writing these lines in 2023 – ten years later.

It was created by Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer. The former claimed that he sold all of his DOGE in 2015.

Here are 5 facts about Dogecoin that you might not have known.

Dogecoin has received tremendous support from its community, especially after Elon Musk started following the project and even putting efforts into developing it. A representative of him, alongside another prominent figure in the cryptocurrency space – Vitalik Buterin – is part of the Dogecoin Foundation and is supposedly working toward improving Dogecoin altogether.

It’s one of the few meme coins that has its own blockchain that’s based on the proof-of-work consensus algorithm – similar to Bitcoin. Dogecoin, however, has an inflationary design and unlimited supply.

Shiba Inu (SHIB)

Shiba Inu (SHIB) was launched a lot later than Dogecoin, but it’s perhaps safe to say that it was inspired by it. It also relies on the Doge meme.

According to its “woofpaper,” Shiba Inu (SHIB) represents “an experiment in decentralized spontaneous community building.”

It’s safe to say that the experiment was successful because SHIB has become the world’s second-largest meme coin by means of both market cap and community.

The team has also launched a decentralized exchange called ShibaSwap, while also working on numerous NFT initiatives, a metaverse-based platform, and many more.

SHIB exploded in popularity in 2021, during the bull market, when it achieved a market cap of over $70 billion. While it’s nowhere near that number right now, the same is true for most of the coins, but it goes to show how viral meme coins can get.

PEPE Coin (PEPE)

PEPE coin is the latest meme coin to become tremendously viral. The cryptocurrency was created in April 2023, and by the end of the month and the beginning of the next one, it was already at a $2 billion market cap.

The tremendous interest in PEPE got it listed on all major exchanges, including Binance.

PEPE is based on the popular meme – Pepe the Frog, and it’s designed to be “the most memeable memecoin in existence.” We’ve prepared an entire video explainer if you wish to find out more:

https://youtu.be/7x83dIGd1zQ

Frequently Asked Questions

With all of the above out of the way, let’s look at some of the most frequently asked questions about meme coins.

What is meme coin used for?

Most meme coins don’t have a specific purpose, unlike traditional altcoins. Instead, they are used as tools to build massive and wildly dedicated communities, oftentimes reaching hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. Nevertheless, some meme coins like DOGE are used as a relatively common means of payment.

What makes a coin a meme coin?

The most obvious characteristic of a meme coin is that its general concept and go-to-market strategy are based on a popular internet meme. They also include very humorous elements embedded in their essence.

Which meme coin will reach $1?

We have yet to see which meme coin will reach $1. So far, the only meme coin that came close to reaching $1 was DOGE. Its all-time high is $0.73, according to CoinGecko.

Are meme coins real?

Meme coins are as real as any other cryptocurrencies. However, they are also quite different and a lot more volatile. Always make sure to do extensive research before interacting with any of the meme coins.

Will meme coins survive?

Time will tell if and which meme coins will survive. Dogecoin (DOGE) is the longest-running and oldest meme coin. It was created in 2013, and it remains the largest meme coin by market cap.

Conclusion

If history is any indication, meme coins seem to be here to stay. Of course, only time will tell if they will stand its inevitable test, but they’ve been hardwired into the crypto culture, and it’s hard to picture it without them.

Meme coins have proven that it’s possible to build tremendously devoted and dedicated communities in absurdly short periods of time, so long as there’s the right trigger.

They’ve also highlighted the volatility of this industry in a way that is hard to be mimicked by other altcoins.

Hate them or love them, the meme coin market seems to be among the most dynamic ones in the industry.

The post What is a Meme Coin? The Biggest Meme Coins You Must Know About appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Besides exploits, DeFi still faces scaling issues related to the computational power needed to power complex transactions, and the throughput needed to support the worldwide financial system in the coming years. 

As the current king of DeFi, the Ethereum network is worth assessing to identify the problems and limitations contributing to the industry’s current roadblocks. 

At Consensus 2023, CryptoPotato sat down with Piers Ridyard – CEO of RDX Works – to discuss ways in which Ethereum is not truly optimized for DeFi. He explained some of the better-suited technology underlying modern blockchains, including the newly popular smart contract platform Radix. 

Ethereum’s Clunky Programming Language

According to Ridyard, DeFi in crypto is currently lacking in three major areas: user experience, developer experience, and scalability. 

The first two issues largely stem from the less-than-ideal programming languages for developers to express their ideas for particular financial applications. One such language, he said, is Ethereum’s Solidity. 

“Solidity is like banging your head against a brick wall,” he stated. “If you want to build assets that are highly secure and you want to build financial applications that are highly secure, it’s basically impossible to make it secure in a way that is easy for developers to use.”

Ridyard’s company RDX Works is a core developer for Radix – a DeFi-focused blockchain whose native token, XRD, roared upwards by over 200% from early to mid-April. 

Unlike Ethereum and other chains, Radix uses a unique programming language called Scrypto, which is specifically focused on making financial applications easier to build and use.

Underneath Scrypto is the Radix engine which includes primitives that are part of the ledger itself, providing the essential building blocks for developers to build apps without having to start complex development from scratch. 

“You are not creating your own smart contract that then defines what it means to be a token, what it means to be a token transfer and tracking balances,” said Ridyard. “All of that is done by the ledger itself.”

The Radix engine also protects applications on the platform from “reentrancy attacks,”  a common DeFi loophole that lets a hacker continually withdraw from a smart contract until the victim goes bankrupt. Specifically, the engine prevents infinite callbacks that lead to recursive loops which let hackers drain a contract to zero. 

In February, the DeFi protocol dforce lost $3.6 million to such a bug. “A whole host of maybe half a billion dollars worth of hacks that have just been from reentrancy disappear just because of how we’ve implemented the architecture,” said Ridyard. 

Ethereum’s Consensus Mechanism

Ethereum’s “Merge” upgrade in September – which changed its consensus mechanism from proof of work to proof of stake – was widely praised as the greatest technical feat in the history of crypto. However, in 2023, even proof of stake may be proving less advanced of a mechanism than what newer chains can offer – especially on the scalability front. 

For example, Ethereum doesn’t allow for the parallel execution of transactions that would enable massive throughput. All transactions must be ordered, even if they are unrelated to each other. 

By contrast, Radix uses the “Cerberus” consensus mechanism, which obviates the need for ordering. “They can start and end whenever they need to start and end, and you don’t need to agree between them which one came first and which one came second,” said Ridyard.

Radix still comes baked in with a delegated proof of stake system that protects Cerberus. However, Ridyard doesn’t consider either proof of work or proof of stake to be “consensus mechanisms,” but rather “civil protection mechanisms.”

“A consensus mechanism, is how do the nodes come to an agreement. The civil mechanism is about, how do you defend those nodes from being maliciously attacked in the process of coming to an agreement,” he elaborated. 

Ridyard said he admired proof of stake for its energy efficiency, but noted that proof of work chains – like Bitcoin – solve certain “bootstrapping” and “randomization” problems. 

DeFi and the SEC

Besides technological limitations, DeFi and the blockchains underpinning it are currently under immense regulatory pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The agency currently seeks to regulate DeFi exchanges under existing securities exchange laws. 

While Ridyard sees a possibility that regulators “kill” DeFi in America for a period, he doesn’t envision the industry dying globally due to the overwhelming benefit it can provide certain economies. Ultimately, he believes “reading the tea leaves” of how regulators will interpret certain enforcement rules is a bit of a distraction, and that DeFi will ultimately adapt to best conform to each country’s political and economic will. 

“What the regulators are trying to do is find the handles in which they can exercise enforcement against what the government and by and large, what the voting public could consider to be the things they want and they don’t,” he said. “There is going to be some give and take.”

The post The Weaknesses of Ethereum VS Modern Blockchains: Interview With Radix appeared first on CryptoPotato.

CryptoPotato spoke with crypto market analytics firm CryptoQuant at Consensus 2023 to discuss all things related to Bitcoin’s price – including its place in the market cycle, its correlation to gold, and its role during the ongoing US banking crisis.

Bullish Times Ahead for Bitcoin

When asked about whether the bull market had returned, CryptoQuant’s Head of BD & Strategy Benjamin Brannan told CryptoPotato that Bitcoin appears to be “out of the depths of the bear market.” 

Though he personally views corrections as “always on the table,” the business development head said he’s received word from institutional clients intending to invest in Bitcoin and crypto in Q3 and Q4 2023. 

“These are from conversations that I’ve been having mainly with institutional allocators and also people who are fundraising core funds as well,” said Brannan during an interview. “They’ve been speaking with various institutions or high net worth individuals.”

Brannan added that institutions are waiting for the latter half of the year for confirmation that Bitcoin has exited the bear market, which so far is “looking to be the case.”

Bitcoin and Gold

Trading at roughly $16,500 at the start of the year, Bitcoin has rapidly appreciated to over $27,000 in response to this year’s US banking crisis, which has seen the likes of Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, First Republic, and other banking institutions fall between the cracks. 

The event has coincided with a falling correlation between Bitcoin and stocks, and a rising correlation with gold. This phenomenon is especially apparent in Bitcoin’s newfound resilience to Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, which pummeled stocks and crypto alike last year. 

Bitcoin's correlation to Gold is the highest that its been in years, surpassing its correlation to the S&P

(h/t @KaikoData) pic.twitter.com/5TDOtlm5zq

— Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) April 3, 2023

Branaan said the “rush to Bitcoin” was a sign that the market was, at least for the moment, viewing the digital currency as a “safe haven asset.” In the long term, he predicted it will behave like a mixture of stocks and gold. 

Meanwhile, Cryptoquant’s Head of Marketing, Ho Chan Chung surmised that Bitcoin is viewed as a commodity that performs well when the fiat system is not doing well. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, regulators in the United States are only in agreement that Bitcoin is a commodity, while altcoins may be securities. 

The 4-Year Market Cycle

Bitcoin is notorious for moving cyclically between bull and bears markets every four years, based on its supply issuance schedule that reduces its inflation rate within the same time intervals. While the general pattern is predictable, getting the exact timing of crypto market tops and bottoms can be tricky business. 

According to Brannan, there are some reliable indicators to identify bottoms from an on-chain perspective. One of them is Market-Value to Realized-Value ratio (MVRV), which divides an asset’s market capitalization by its realized capitalization (which values all Bitcoin based on the price each coin was last moved, and presumably sold.)

“When coins are being held at a very high unrealized loss, then I think it’s a good time to buy,” said Brannan. “If a lot of the participants are holding their coins at unrealized gains, very high unrealized gains, you can think that a lot of people are looking to sell, realize some profits.”

Derivations of MVRV, including Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) and net unrealized profit and loss (NUPL), can also help in identifying market tops and bottoms – especially when they pass key threshold ratios. 

CryptoQuant tracks MVRV ratios based on different age bands for when coin movements took place – including one day, one week, one month, and so on.

Price Predictions

When asked about price predictions for the near future, both Brannan and Chung agreed that Bitcoin likely won’t retest its $16,000 lows. 

“If there are no such black swan events such as  Russia blowing a nuclear weapon into Ukraine, or Binance is blowing up …then we should be pretty stable in terms of meeting the low lows,” said Chung.

Chung added that Bitcoin may even surpass its previous all-time high by Q2 2024 – right around the time the next Bitcoin halving takes place. 

In the long term, Brannan said Bitcoin could realistically reach $1 million by the year 2030. Even the tightening regulatory situation in the United States could serve to benefit the asset, in his view.

“I think Bitcoin is difficult to regulate, compared to “crypto.” I think it can benefit,” he said. 

The post Institutions Intend to Buy Bitcoin in Late 2023: Interview With CryptoQuant appeared first on CryptoPotato.

At Consensus 2023, CryptoPotato sat down with representatives from Nansen, a blockchain analytics company, to discuss how things have looked on-chain since the final phase of the Merge. 

Shanghai Defies Expectations

Going into the upgrade, Nansen Content Lead Andrew Thurman said he’d predicted that net outflows from Ethereum’s staking contract would be a weeks-long phenomenon. To his surprise, his firm found that withdrawals appeared to have flattened out within a matter of days.

“We knew that entities with exposure to US regulatory, for example, Kraken and Coinbase, where there was clear indication that staking as a business was going to undergo some regulatory challenges – we know those people want to unwind their positions, so that’s a big overhang,” said Jason Xu – Senior Product Manager at Nansen – to CryptoPotato in an interview. 

This proved true to a degree. Immediately following Shapella, Kraken alone accounted for 67% of all principal ETH withdrawals from the staking contract. The firm was fined $30 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and forced to shut down its staking service prior to the upgrade. 

Coinbase – which has been issued a Wells Notice by the SEC but promised to defend itself in court – was responsible for another 11%, but the withdrawal overhang from both firms has since “flattened out.” Kraken’s and Coinbase’s shares of total ETH principal withdrawals have since changed to 34.9% and 14.1%, respectively, per Nansen’s Shanghai dashboard.

The other hypothesis, according to Xu, was that there likely wouldn’t be any heightened interest from new retail participants to start staking since they’ve already had access to liquid staking derivatives like Lido for a long time. 

Such services – which provide stakers with a 1:1 convertible liquid token for their locked, staked ETH – are expected to succeed well into the future due to the difficulty for users to stake on their own. “ETH has consistently delivered on their roadmap, the technical roadmap. So I think people are confident in ETH,” he said.

As of May 8, there is over 19.3 million ETH locked away for staking – more than before Shapella had activated. Xu added that many “smart money” investors in crypto, by Nansen’s standards, are mainly holding “different variants of staked ETH.”

FUD vs. Facts: Binance Withdrawals

Much was said regarding a supposed influx of withdrawal requests on Binance back in March, shortly after the global crypto exchange was sued by the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). 

However, when asked if these reports were true, Nansen Ecosystem Growth Manager Aurélie Boiteux said these claims “might be exaggerating a little bit.” In reality, for both Binance in that particular case as well many other large exchange withdrawals, it was really just Binance “sending to another Binance wallet.”

“We saw a lot of drama on Twitter,” she said, “ and people tend to react really too quickly, maybe just for fear, for example, by fear and anything. But so far on-chain, I don’t recall a really big issue regarding regulatory in that aspect.”

While volume can vary on the exchange from day to day, Boiteux said that volume at Binance didn’t seem to experience any statistically significant change on-chain after the CFTC lawsuit, unlike the FTX debacle in November. 

Boiteux refused to provide any specific price predictions for the future. “We do not predict the future, that we try to understand by what’s happened before, what could be a potential price, what could be a potential bear market or bull market, et cetera,” she said. 

Xu, however, remained bullish. “My opinion’s to the moon,” he said. “ That’s the politically correct answer I’m going to give.”

The post Why Didn’t ETH Dump After Shanghai? Interview With Nansen appeared first on CryptoPotato.

In less than a couple of weeks since it saw the light of day, the PEPE memecoin managed to enter the top 100 projects, getting a market capitalization upwards of a whopping $400 million.

In this guide, we will take a closer look at what the PEPE memecoin is, who created it, and why. We will also look into stories of people who became overnight millionaires and whether or not they can enjoy their riches. Let’s dive in.

What is a Memecoin?

Memes have become hardwired on the Internet. They’ve existed since the very early days of Web1 and will likely continue existing well into the future.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve also clashed with the cryptocurrency industry. While most coins tend to focus on some sort of utility, memecoins focus on getting viral through the explosive nature of memes and how quickly they spread.

Examples include Dogecoin (DOGE) – the first memecoin that attracted mass attention and has cemented its place amongst the top cryptocurrencies for many years. Others include Shiba Inu (SHIB), Floki Inu (FLOKI), and so forth.

Last but not least, we have the PEPE memecoin – a cryptocurrency that has also exploded in popularity in a way that, perhaps, no other memecoin has done before.

Brief History of the PEPE Memecoin

The PEPE memecoin was launched towards the middle of April 2023, with the first entry point on Etherscan being April 18th.

Less than three weeks later, the cryptocurrency had a market cap of over $420 million, venturing into the list of the top 100 coins by means of total market capitalization.

At the time of this writing, PEPE is traded on major exchanges such as Huobi, MEXC, OKX, and others. Apart from that, it’s also available on multiple decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap.

What is PEPE Memecoin?

Definition and Background

According to the official website, the PEPE memecoin is designed to be “the most memeable memecoin in existence.” The page has multiple references to other popular tokens such as Shiba Inu (SHIB), Floki Inu (FLOKI), Dogecoin (DOGE), and so forth.

By design, PEPE has no intrinsic value and this is clearly stated in the website:

“PEPE is a meme coin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. There is no formal team or roadmap. The coin is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only.”

It’s worth noting that this is nothing new in the field of crypto. Multiple memecoins have come into existence in the past, making no claims and outright alarming users that they have no value whatsoever.

Connection to Pepe the Frog Meme

While relying on the popular meme for its ability to go viral, the team behind PEPE makes no claims about an association with Pepe the Frog.

“PEPE coin has no association with Matt Furie or his creation Pepe th

e Frog.”

On the contrary – the goal of the token is to “simply pay homage to a meme we all love and recognize.”

As a bit of background on Pepe the Frog – it’s a cartoon character created by the cartoonist Matt Furie. Pepe made a debut in 2005 in Furie’s comic Boy’s Club. 

Purpose and Vision of the PEPE Memecoin

While joking about having no plans whatsoever, the team has laid down some expectations in the form of three different roadmap phases that can be seen below:

Tokenomics

The total token supply of PEPE is 420,690,000,000,000. In itself, the number is paying homage to the popular meme numbers 4:20 and 69.

93.1% of the supply has been sent to the liquidity pool, the LP tokens were burnt, and the contract itself was renounced.

The remaining 6.9% of the total supply is being held in a multi-sig wallet and is to be used for future listings on centralized exchanges, liquidity pools, and bridges. That’s at least according to the official website. You can also track this wallet with the ENS name “pepecexwallet.eth.”

PEPE Memecoin Ecosystem

The PEPE memecoin ecosystem is growing by the day. At the time of this writing on May 1st, around two weeks after its initial launch, the token already has a whopping 65K holders, according to Etherescan.

Its official Telegram group boasts over 25,000 members and tens, if not hundreds of thousands of messages per day.

Its official Twitter, albeit created in April, already has more than 133,000 followers.

Risks and Challenges

As it is with most of the memecoins that tend to go viral, this one also comes with some risks and challenges.

Market Volatility

PEPE has been one of the most volatile cryptocurrencies since its creation, and the price swings are tremendous.

For example, on May 1st, it more than doubled its price, surging over 100% for the day. While this might sound particularly attractive, it’s also important to note that it presents a set of risks.

There’s a popular saying in crypto that goes like this:

“The price takes the stairs up and the elevator down.”

This suggests that while it may seem like PEPE is going “up only,” it could just as quickly lose all of its current value. Remember, the creators themselves said that it has absolutely no intrinsic value, so it’s essentially worth only as much as someone is willing to pay for it. And while this is true for a lot of things, and the concept of value itself is a social construct, the risks are particularly amplified with freshly-minted memecoins that came out of nowhere.

In addition, there are further problems on a lot of the centralized exchanges associated with the lack of necessary liquidity to cash out one’s gains. This means that even if someone is able to pull off the trade of a lifetime, they may not have enough liquidity to cover their position.

Such is the story of a person who turned a $27 investment in PEPE into a whopping $1 million but wasn’t able to cash out completely due to various liquidity-related concerns.

Of course, if PEPE stands the test of time and gets listed on more centralized exchanges where the liquidity tends to be deeper, this concern could fade.

Security Risks

The more a memecoin gets popular, the more bad actors try to capitalize on it and scam people out of their hard-earned money.

For example, this is a message from the official PEPE Telegram group:

A few community members have reached out to us regarding dusting/token scams that are taking place in our deployer wallet as well as the CEX wallet. Anyone is able to spoof a transaction and send these tokens to our wallets. I would say that every single coin doing this is a SCAM. Lots of scam developers are dusting our wallets to make it look like we are airdropping or doing transactions with their tokens to trick people into interacting with them. Don’t buy any of these tokens or interact with the contracts, as they have the risk of draining your wallet.

In general, whenever you are interacting with the DeFi ecosystem, it’s absolutely essential to make sure you’re following some basic crypto security tips so that you don’t get scammed.

You can find more information on the above in our fully-fledged guide here.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the PEPE memecoin has undoubtedly managed to cause a stir within the cryptocurrency market, acquiring a total addressable capitalization of upwards of $400 million in two short weeks after it was launched.

Many are drawing comparisons between PEPE and other memecoins such as SHIB, DOGE, FLOKI, and so forth, but only time will tell if this meme-inspired token will be here to stay.

The post What is PEPE Coin? Is This the Next Huge Memecoin? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

It was a major upgrade following Ethereum’s transition to Proof-of-Stake (a.k.a The Merge), and it introduced a major mechanic change.

The upgrade consists of a few Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), although most of the focus is on one particular.

The EIPs in question are:

• EIP-3651: Warm COINBASE
• EIP-3855: PUSH0 instruction
• EIP-3860: Limit and meter initcode
• EIP-4895: Beacon chain push withdrawals as operations
• EIP-6049: Deprecate SELFDESTRUCT

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look and understand why the Shanghai upgrade is so important.

What is the Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade?

Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade is arguably one of the most important events in the crypto industry in 2023.

Before we dive in, did you know that it’s also commonly referred to as the Ethereum Shapella upgrade? The name comes from Shanghai – the city-host of the Devcon 2 conference, and Capella – the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga.

As we know from our guide on Ethereum’s Merge (the transition to Proof-of-Stake), the network has two layers – the execution layer and the consensus layer. The former used to be the main one that Ethereum ran on before The Merge, while the consensus layer was also known as the Beacon Chain.

With that in mind, the upgrade took part on both layers. Shanghai happened on the execution layer, while Capella – was on the consensus one. Combining both names gives us “Shapella.” However, the Shanghai name remains more prevalent, so for the sake of simplicity, we will use it in the guide going forward.

The Shanghai upgrade introduced a pivotal mechanic in Ethereum’s network, and while there are many EIPs (as seen above), one of them is critical. Namely, this is EIP- 4895.

What is EIP-4895 in the Shanghai Upgrade?

While it’s currently running on PoS, Ethereum was using the proof-of-work consensus algorithm well before The Merge took place, But the plans to transition were in play for many years when developers created the so-called Beacon Chain.

The Beacon Chain was (and still is) secured by PoS. To maintain its integrity, allow it to function as intended, and carry out transactions and smart contracts, it needed validators – just like any other PoS-based blockchains where miners do not exist.

Therefore, those who wanted to partake in the future of the so-called Ethereum 2.0 were able to stake 32 ETH to secure the Beacon chain. The ETH was staked in the Beacon Depositor contract. Validators would then earn interest on their ETH – a reward for securing the network during this development stage.

The only catch? Well, they weren’t allowed to unstake their 32 ETH until a later, undetermined date. It’s taken years for the team to successfully deliver The Merge, and now, the Shanghai upgrade, through EIP-4895, finally allowed validators to unlock their ETH.

This guide is not intended as a technical walkthrough, so if you want to learn more about how the mechanic will become possible, please take a look at the official website page for EIP-4895.

In essence, the goal was to:

Introduce a system-level “operation” to support validator withdrawals that are “pushed” from the beacon chain to the EVM. These operations create unconditional balance increases to the specified recipients.

The Beacon depositor contract, as mentioned above, contained about 18 million ETH, which accounted for roughly 15% of the total circulating supply.

Validators are now free to withdraw, albeit with some considerations, their stake and do whatever they decide with it – it becomes entirely liquid. That made this particular EIP very important.

How do ETH Withdrawals Work?

As mentioned above, there are some considerations when withdrawals were opened. First things first, there are two types of them – full and partial. Full withdrawals allow validators to exit their stake completely, taking their entire balance of ETH, including the original 32 ETH, as well as any rewards they may have accrued.

Partial withdrawals only allow validators to access the excess (balances over the 32 ETH) needed to run a validator node.

Within every single block that’s added to the network, 16 validators are able to make partial withdrawals.

In essence, a total of 1,800 validators can unstake fully.

Other Ethereum Improvement Proposals in the Shanghai Upgrade

The other proposed improvements were aimed at reducing gas fees during periods of very high network congestion and activity.

EIP-3651 aims to lower the gas costs that are associated with the maximal Extractable Value payments when accessing the COINBASE address. In this particular sense of the word, COINBASE refers to a solution that allows developers to receive new tokens and not the popular US-based exchange.

EIP-3855 is designed to introduce a new instruction that pushes the constant value 0 onto the stack. It’s also aimed at lowering gas costs, but more so for developers. The other proposal, EIP-3860, aims to reduce the fees in other instances, and the same is true for the last EIP-6049 to a certain extent.

Conclusion

The Shanghai (Shapella) upgrade is a landmark development for Ethereum on its path to achieving security, decentralization, and scalability.

It also removes a huge burden on validators and provides a clear outlook on the network state now that validators have the option to freely remove their stake at will.

The post What is the Ethereum Shanghai (Shapella) Upgrade? Everything You Need to Know appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The cryptocurrency market has been through a literal rollercoaster in terms of price, regulations, and overall development.

Exchanges imploded, multi-billion dollar ecosystems collapsed, regulators are stepping in now more than ever, banks are shutting down, and whatnot. And it almost seems as if time is flying.

In 2021, CryptoPotato attended Solana’s Breakpoint in Lisbon and had the chance to talk to Brandon Millman – the CEO of the largest self-custody wallet on Solana – Phantom. Fast forward some 15 months later, and we spoke to him again – this time during ETH Denver in 2023.

Why is a Solana-native wallet at ETH Denver? Phantom is currently in its multichain beta, adding both Ethereum and Polygon chains to its wallet experience. Brandon and his team, previous 0x engineers, are returned to the Ethereum community to debut Phantoms wallet.

Let’s dive in.

A Vortex of Ups and Downs: From 2021 to 2023

Q: So, the last time we talked was during Breakpoint in Lisbon in 2021. It’s safe to say that the industry is nowhere near where it was back then. Let’s dive right into it – what has changed for you guys since then?

A: November 2021 saw the crypto market cap hit an all-time high. It was an amazing year for all of crypto. One thing that was very interesting was the NFT market on Solana really taking off in 2022. I think it started going in August 2021 and then switched to full gear in 2022.

Up until August or September 2022, there was a lot of NFT activity on Solana (pre-FTX scandal) — much of it by Magic Eden. Together with Phantom, this delivered an unrivaled NFT experience and helped contribute to substantial growth.

What we noticed was that Solana attracted a really different demographic than Ethereum. There was not much overlap – Solana had a much younger crowd, which was a perfect match for new NFT projects that were more affordable and attainable. Not to mention, this group of collectors was predominantly US-based.

Obviously, toward the end of the year, there was the FTX debacle. Due to FTX’s proximity to the Solana ecosystem, some projects were caught in the blast radius. At the same time, FTX caused a massive flight from centralized exchanges to non-custodial products. It was an interesting dichotomy where on one hand, Solana wasn’t doing so great, but we were getting a large influx of people fleeing from not only FTX but also other centralized exchanges – everyone was scared.

Q: Where did the FTX collapse catch you?

A: I was in Lisbon for Breakpoint 2022. It was such an amazing conference – so many developers and builders, and it was really packed with awesome stuff. The news broke when I was on the plane back.

At first, I didn’t understand it – there was a tweet from SBF about the strategic buyout from Binance, and I didn’t understand what I was reading – I thought, “oh, that’s crazy, Binance is buying FTX?” But then more news came out, and I started to worry about the entire industry. FTX was such a prominent public figure in mainstream crypto.

In general, I was glad that the US didn’t take a completely knee-jerk reaction in terms of regulation. I thought the government would try to start shutting all of our industry down immediately.

Solana’s Collapse and its Unexpected Surprises

Q: From one of the quickest-growing ecosystems, Solana crashed and burned in 2022 following the scandal with FTX. How has the community changed since then? What’s the biggest difference you’ve noticed?

A: The Solana community has been really resilient. There’s a very strong, genuine core that’s very loyal and has stuck around. Developer activity continued to grow.

But in general, people remain loyal to Solana. There were a lot of competing layer-ones coming out, and some people left, but the majority of people stayed.

Venturing to Ethereum and Polygon: New Avenues for Phantom Wallet

Q: Have you considered adding support for other networks in the aftermath of the bear market?

A: Phantom currently has a multi-chain wallet extension and mobile app in beta with support for Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon – all under one app. It’s being used by 70K beta testers at the moment, and we are moving toward the goal of launching it publicly within the next month.

Once that’s out, Phantom will become the MetaMask replacement for Ethereum and Polygon. That’s the configuration we will be in when we launch, and we are always evaluating the other ecosystems and chains.

Q: What would be your advantage against MetaMask?

A: I would say we have three different core advantages.

Being a multichain-first wallet, users will be able to utilize Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon all at the same time without having to switch networks. They are connected to all of them at the same time and can see an aggregated view of all assets.

Phantom also excels at safety features. We spend a lot of time building features such as transaction simulation before you sign something, automated NFT spam filtering – like how email spam filters work, and many others.

Lastly, we make sure that our wallet has the best NFT features possible – the above security features and also selling NFTs directly from within the app, rich metadata about floor price, purchase price, and so forth.

When Phantom Wallet Token and What’s the Next Big Trend?

Q: How has the broader market decline impacted registrations altogether?

A: During these more bear market periods, the userbase does become quite zero-sum – it’s not a lot of new users, but it’s a lot of the same users from across ecosystems. We will be mainly focused on catering to existing users.

Q: We asked you this back in Lisbon, but I can’t not ask it again – when Phantom token?

A: We want to create longevity, and it’s not clear how a token fits into that.I think there’s more risk than reward with the token at the moment, so it’s not currently on our roadmap.

Q: Where will the big next trend come from?

A: One thing that’s been interesting is that a lot of trends almost always come out from nowhere. There are these very crypto-native ideas that get very popular. People are excited about Web3 gaming. I’m still waiting to see what’s going to happen there.

I could see more niche crypto games, maybe something with a token – that becomes very popular – something more experimental. That would be my guess.

The post 15 Months Later, What Changed Since November 2021? Interview With Phantom Wallet CEO appeared first on CryptoPotato.