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As the popularity of crypto casinos grows, so does the need for efficient and fast transaction processing. The core blockchain networks, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, face scalability issues due to their limited transaction throughput and high fees during peak usage times. Layer 2 solutions have emerged as a critical innovation to address these challenges, offering a way to enhance transaction speeds and lower costs without compromising security.
Layer 2 solutions refer to secondary protocols or technologies built on top of an existing blockchain (Layer 1). They aim to handle a significant portion of transaction processing off the main blockchain, reducing congestion and improving overall efficiency. Some prominent Layer 2 solutions include the Lightning Network, Optimistic Rollups, and zk-Rollups.
For crypto casinos, these Layer 2 solutions offer substantial benefits. Faster transaction speeds mean users experience minimal delays when depositing or withdrawing funds, enhancing the overall user experience. Lower transaction costs reduce the financial burden on both the casino operators and the players, making micro-transactions viable and attractive.
One example is Cryptorush Casino. According to its website, Cryptorush Casino integrates Layer 2 solutions to ensure that users experience fast and cost-effective transactions, enhancing the overall online gambling experience.
Cryptorush Casino claims that the use of Layer 2 solutions ensures that transactions are processed swiftly, allowing players to focus on enjoying their favorite games, such as slots, blackjack, and roulette. With partners like NetEnt, Nolimit City, and Pragmatic Play, Cryptorush Casino offers a diverse and engaging selection of games.
Cryptorush Casino also integrates the most relevant and reliable cryptocurrencies for both deposits and withdrawals. By utilizing Layer 2 solutions, Cryptorush can offer instant deposits and withdrawals, eliminating the wait times often associated with cryptocurrency transactions. This makes it easier for players to manage their funds and enjoy uninterrupted gaming sessions.
Layer 2 solutions improve the scalability of crypto casinos like Cryptorush Casino, enabling it to handle more users and higher transaction volumes without facing bottlenecks. This scalability is crucial for maintaining smooth operations during peak times, such as during promotions or tournaments.
With these benefits, Layer 2 solutions play a pivotal role in advancing the operational efficiency of crypto casinos. By offloading transaction processing from the main blockchain, they provide faster, cheaper, and more scalable alternatives. As these technologies continue to evolve, they are likely to become integral to the future of online gambling in the cryptocurrency space, offering a seamless and cost-effective experience for both operators and users.
Upcoming AIBC event: AIBC East Europe, happening from the 2 to 4 September, Budapest.
The emerging tech field is a dynamic and rapidly changing area of expertise. As a leader in this contemporary and increasingly impactful industry, the AIBC Summit has hosted the very best, most intriguing, seminal key figures, who generously afforded the international Event their veritable wealth of knowledge. From sensational keynote speeches to insightful panel discussions, here are the top moments from speakers at all of our astounding AIBC Summits so far.
Professor Scott Stornetta is most certainly one of the key authorities in Blockchain. His work with Stuart Harber to develop the early Blockchain was seminal to say the least. Pursuing blockchain as a digital hierarchy system including digital time stamps created an integral solution against the manipulation of digital records.
One of the blockchains founding fathers, Stornetta detailed “The Long View” in his speech at the 2018 edition of the AIBC Summit. He began with what he described as “the Ancient Problem” of the concept of a contract. Explaining that they required the same components as what is still required today, witness and a record.
Speaking about the former currency of indentured contracts as a derivative of his concept. The idea of having peer-to-peer contracts without a central authority, that were interestingly torn across a jagged edge in order to provide later proof when they were fitted adjacent to each other.
I asked myself: how will we create a tear of only the bits themselves? How will we create an immutable record?
He goes on to express his aim which was to create an immutable record, digitally, to be able to split information and data into several parts in a decentralised manner, allowing only the parties involved access. His talk took an intriguing twist towards the end as Stornetta managed to build a crude blockchain with the participation of the audience.
The 2023 AIBC Eurasia summit keynote speaker did not disappoint. Gary Vee is one of the most famous serial entrepreneurs in the world, eclipsing his abilities as a business professional only with his mastery of public speaking. Widely sought after for his wealth of inspirational knowledge on a variety of integrated, innovative topics, he brought a special air to the main stage of the Summit.
Speaking about the incredible opportunity of under-priced attention in today’s professional climate. Stressing to the sizeable audience, the importance of being able to effectively garner the attention of a business or brand’s audience and consistently communicate their message effectively. How gaining a high impression rate while of great importance, means very little if you cannot personally and deeply engage with your audience.
The power has now shifted from building a community to creating engaging content that can be consumed and affect those who consume it without necessarily requiring an invested infrastructure of people behind it.
Nobody here is going to accomplish their goals unless they are able to communicate their message and get someone to do something
https://youtu.be/p5GHF7Scubc
Sometimes a conversation is more than the sum of its parts, or even the messages put across. In the case of a conversation with converse opinions, more can be learnt from the disagreement rather than a streamlined version of thoughts.
This could not have been more true of the discussion between two outstanding Crypto experts and proponents, in Tone Vays and Roger Ver.
The 2019 instalment of the AIBC Summit saw some extraordinary scenes as they argued and disagreed over several aspects related to trading either traditional Bitcoin or Bitcoin cash. The transaction fees were the first bone of contention, heating up so wildly that the audience witnessed a transaction being carried out live on stage only fuelling the debate.
Reaching such a temperature that Tone Vays even pondered out loud as to what they do indeed agree on, related to the topic. Issues about centralisation, transaction sizes both in terms of value and digital space, among many more. Despite the vast range of derivative topics discussed, a resolution did not seem to develop, aside from a quiet air of rapport.
However, that didn’t make this showdown any less valuable, as understanding how they speak to each other as experts in the Crypto space and highlighting the topics of importance within their field gave audience members a great insight. What to look out for when dealing in Crypto currencies and the problems that you will face when doing so and the alternative methods with which to deal with them.
Bringing a sprawl of knowledge from her varied multitudinal portfolio accumulated in her entrepreneurial endeavours, Dr. Sara Al Madani took to the 2023 AIBC Eurasia Summit stage to give her keynote on Dubai and the UAE’s digital re-invention and diversification of their economy.
She explained that due to the UAE’s previous lack of economic diversification, stemming from its heavy reliance on the extraction and distribution of oil, the government was put in a tighter position than most, forced to make great leaps and bounds to maintain and sustain the current infrastructure that exists.
Highlighting the complete depletion of the UAE’s oil reserves and the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, as catalysts for accelerating the government’s shift towards a digital economy. Aiming to provide economic sustainability and improve citizen satisfaction.
She concluded by echoing the encouragement shown by the UAE government to embrace the digitalisation of the economic sector.
The companies willing to embrace technology and transformation will be the ones resilient to crisis. Those who take the risk will thrive and survive – they will learn from their failures as they go.
In this wonderful fireside chat, H.E. Maria Camilleri Calleja, Ambassador of the Republic of Malta, interviewed Goodwill Ambassador, H.E. Laila Rahhal El Atfani.
They spoke with great rapport about sustainable blockchain development and the impact of emerging technologies. In particular the role these play in protecting children and their education in emerging nations, as well as supporting and developing all the infrastructures that allow women to be empowered and involved.
Emphasising the importance of blockchain and crypto in raising funds and having them transparently distributed to the causes that they believe will make the biggest differences to humanity as a whole, specifically in nations where the funding is not abundant.
They also advocated for the participation of women in the emerging technology space. Describing how as of yet the emerging tech space is dominated by male influence and urged a shift in this trend and encouraged a change in attitude within the sector.
We need to involve more and more women in this technology and future digitalisation
A truly innovative and ingenuitively seasoned presence in the computer science and robotics field. Noel Sharkey has been a key figure in both the development and responsible regulation of emerging technologies.
In his well balanced speech he would in no small part go out of his way to explain his advocacy and excitement around AI, but nonetheless attempted to evoke some ethical considerations relating to the relationship between humans and AI.
Beginning with the fascinating link between the not so recent concept of anthropomorphism and how this idea has brought around the thought process linked to the innovation of AI. How this concept was first applied to animals before psychologists and inventors wanted a shift away, towards more objective means.
He went on to explain the issues with anthropomorphising an object or machines such as an AI that is displaying machine learning. Detailing the use of what he described as “Trojan terms”, words or phrases that denote concepts and ideas that are far beyond the truth, such as guilt or cognition.
The issue with this is that you cause confusion, a sort of crossed wires as it were, that people will begin to be deceived. Emotionally attaching people to a machine that is not aware or appreciative of emotions or anything else related to the human experience.
Perhaps this is not the problem AI or AI designers have but maybe indicative of an evolution users of AI will have to undergo.
John McAfee brought his intriguingly unique style and captivating presentation skills to the AIBC Europe stage to much avail, as he deconstructed ideas such as economic freedom and how the blockchain can unlock such wonders.
The dream of economic freedom is a powerful dream and we still have that dream
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A serial entrepreneur and two-time presidential candidate, McAfee brought his unique take to explain the hindrances and the as yet, untold benefits of Crypto currencies. The illogical nature of government regulation on a decentralised system and attempts there have been to centralise Crypto, ie Crypto exchanges.
Why would you ask permission from an untrustworthy entity to permit you to use a trustless permissionless system?
He would go on to explain how Crypto by its very nature is not something that can be regulated. It is not enforceable and therefore the protection that regulation is attempting to afford people while using the Cryptocurrencies is impossible to implement, and people will use them in any which way they please. He feels the people trading in Crypto will catch on to this fairly quickly.
McAfee believed that there should not be and will not be any regulatory control over Crypto, that control from above and across Crypto currencies will be severed and those who use it will all be free and equal.
Another sensationally seminal speech at the AIBC Europe Summit in 2021 saw Crypto-entrepreneur and CEO of Safemoon, John Karony take to the stage to share lessons learned and industry leading insights.
Lessons such as the power of creating a community to share your message and narrative with. He equated this power as a great way of selling a product and building a brand. Leading on from this he would then begin to discuss his project Safemoon and its astronomically rapid growth.
A blockchain innovation company that received great rapport right out of the gate. Karony explained that respecting your potential clients is vital in ensuring a project “makes it safely to the moon”. This is ensured by instilling discipline throughout your time and within yourself, approaching your interdisciplinary tasks with the thought of quality over convenience.
He then went on to describe the length and breadth Safemoon is attempting to scale both in terms of effecting how economic developments occur but also having a hand in making far more projects viable and prosperous, all throughout Africa.
https://youtu.be/NS4ARHcmBfA
Join us for our AIBC Americas Summit in São Paulo, Brazil this June. Brazil and South America in general is a phenom of a relatively untapped hub, with untold potential that is making great strides towards many emerging technologies.
At this sensational event hosted by SiGMA in collaboration with BiS Summit, find key insights from seminal speakers, a magnificent wealth of industry leading knowledge, and insights from some of the sector’s greatest innovators along with a plethora of premium networking opportunities. 14 – 18 June, 2023.
You could also join us as east meets west when the AIBC Asia Summit graces the beautifully humid shores of the Philippine capital Manila. Bringing a tantalisingly fresh flavour with all the key tenets promised at a SiGMA event. 19 – 22 July, 2023.
To join the ranks of our sensational speakers or our insightful industry leading panellists please register your interest by getting in touch with Emily Demajo.
Citadel Securities has declared a hefty 5.5% stake in troubled bank Silvergate Capital, worth around $25 million, according to a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Ken Griffin’s behemoth market maker disclosed that it bought up 1.6 million shares in the struggling crypto-friendly bank on Dec. 31. Silvergate suffered heavy losses and since its biggest customers, FTX and Alameda Research went bankrupt on accounts of fraud.
The bankruptcy caused a run on the bank, depleting Silvergate’s funds in the process.
Griffin made an illustrious entrance into the crypto space last year by picking up a rare copy of the US Constitution, outbidding CoinstitutionDAO. Before that, Griffin was vehemently against the sector. In fact, prior to the bear market in March, he told Bloomberg:
“Crypto has been one of the great stories in finance over the course of the last 15 years. And I’ll be clear, I’ve been in the naysayer camp over that period of time.
“But the crypto market today has a market capitalization of about $2 trillion in round numbers, which tells you that I haven’t been right on this call.”
Since then, crypto’s market cap practically halved to around $1 trillion dollars, with Bitcoin taking the lion’s share at $426 billion in market cap.
Citadel buys stake in financially troubled Silvergate
Silvergate bank posted a hefty loss of $949 million for the last quarter of 2022. It laid off 40% of staff and revealed that it expects to dish out $8.1 million in restructuring costs.
The firm has also been hit with a class action lawsuit in Dec. and came under fire for its relationship with the fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried. The lawsuit alleges Silvergate and Lane aided, abetted, encouraged and substantially assisted Bankman-Fried in jointly perpetrating a fraudulent scheme upon Plaintiff and the class.
In the last quarter of 2022, withdrawals reached a record-breaking $8 billion, with is largest customers being now-bankrupt FTX and Alameda Research.
Silvergate’s stock price is down 87% year-to-date, from $121 to $15 at the time of writing.
[mcrypto id=”167585″]
Finding a crypto exchange that meets all your needs can be overwhelming; that’s why we’ve put together a list of crypto exchanges you can trust. Whether you’re trading on your desktop or using crypto apps, this table offers a snapshot of platforms that excel in security, features, and user experience.
[crypto-exchanges term_id=6414]
A crypto exchange is a specialized marketplace that allows you to trade cryptocurrencies. Unlike traditional financial markets, which trade assets like stocks or commodities, crypto exchanges deal exclusively with digital or virtual currencies like coins or tokens.
Let’s have a look at most important features:
Now that we’ve explained what crypto exchanges are, it’s vital to see how they operate. The mechanics behind these platforms can seem intimidating at first, but the basics are relatively straightforward.
Here, we walk you through the intricate details of crypto exchanges as we discuss order books and the market place in general, in other words, the where. Then we look at different types of exchange orders, or the how, and we round it off by discussing the what, or, different types of trading pairs and currencies, fees, and how to make transactions.
When you decide to buy or sell crypto, your order goes into an order book, a real-time, continually updated list of buy and sell orders in the marketplace. Market makers place orders that add liquidity to the market, making it easier for market takers to trade crypto.
Different types of crypto exchange orders include:
Most crypto trades happen in pairs, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, forming the trading pair BTC/ETH. However, the range of trading pairs an exchange offers depends on the availability of various cryptocurrencies on that platform.
A more extensive range of available cryptocurrencies gives traders the flexibility to diversify their portfolio, engage in arbitrage, or explore lesser-known altcoins. Additionally, many safe crypto exchanges also offer fiat deposits and withdrawals, as well as trading pairs with fiat currencies like USD or EUR.
Every crypto exchange has its own fee structure. Generally, there are two types of fees—a maker fee for adding liquidity to the market, and a taker fee for taking liquidity away. The actual transaction fee is usually a small percentage of the trade volume.
Finally, a critical part of using an exchange is how you deposit and withdraw funds. Some exchanges accept direct bank transfers, debit and credit cards, e-wallets like PayPal, or even gift cards. You can also move crypto between digital wallets.
If you start searching for the best cryptocurrency exchanges, you’ll quickly realize that not all platforms are created equal. Below, we break down the key features you should look out for.
Basic trading features include the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Look for an intuitive trading platform that offers a user-friendly interface, simple order books, and real-time price charts. For instance, the buy or sell process should be as easy as entering the amount and clicking a button.
These are meant for experienced traders. Crypto options exchanges offer advanced features like conditional orders, futures trading, detailed analytical charts, historical data, and back-testing capabilities. They can also offer algorithmic trading, allowing users to set complex trading parameters that execute automatically based on market conditions.
Margin trading allows you to trade using funds provided by a third party. Unlike regular trading accounts, margin accounts enable traders to access additional funds, thereby leveraging their positions. However, it comes with higher risks, including the possibility of losing more than your initial investment.
The best crypto exchanges not only offer multi-platform accessibility but also operate in numerous countries. This accessibility includes a web-based platforms, desktop apps, and mobile apps for trading on the go.
A top-tier crypto exchange offers multiple customer support options, including live chat, email, and phone support. The response times should be fast, helping you resolve any issues you encounter.
Security is the most important thing when trading digital assets. Reputable exchanges use a variety of security measures, such as encryption protocols, two-factor authentication, multi-factor authentication, and cold storage for safeguarding your assets and personal information.
Some exchanges offer staking and rewards as an added benefit. Staking allows you to earn additional coins by holding and locking your cryptocurrency in a wallet to support the network’s operations.
Crypto lending features enable you to lend crypto holdings to other traders or the platform itself in return for interest. This provides an avenue for earning passive income on your cryptocurrency assets.
For those constantly on the move, the availability of crypto apps for mobile trading can be a decisive factor. These trading apps allow you to trade, check prices, and manage your portfolio right from your smartphone or tablet.
When you’re looking to trade crypto, it’s essential to understand the types of crypto exchanges available. Generally, these platforms fall into two categories: centralized and decentralized exchanges. Let’s see what makes each type unique.
Often reffered to as DEXs, decentralized crypto exchanges are the epitome of blockchain’s ethos—decentralization. These exchanges function without a central governing body, facilitating peer-to-peer trades directly between users, much like marketplaces. Your assets and personal information are under your control, providing an extra layer of privacy and security.
However, these exchanges may lack convenience, such as intuitive interfaces or a broad range of trading options, which are typically found in centralized platforms. Examples of DEXs are Uniswap and PancakeSwap.
In contrast, centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs) operate under a single entity that oversees all transactions. These platforms, which work similarly to brokerages, usually offer a smooth trading process with a wide array of trading pairs and advanced features. They often come equipped with enhanced user interfaces and customer support, making them a go-to choice for those new to the crypto market.
Nevertheless, this convenience comes at the cost of having to entrust your assets to a third party or private companies, which could make you susceptible to hacking risks. Well-known CEXs include Coinbase and Kraken.
Whether crypto traders prioritize security and control over liquidity and user experience will largely influence the choice between decentralized and centralized crypto exchanges. Here’s a quick rundown of the pros and cons of each option:
| Decentralized Exchanges | Centralized Exchanges |
 DEXs are less susceptible to large-scale hacks. |  Being centralized makes them targets of hackers. |
| Typically less user-friendly with fewer features | Intuitive interfaces, often with advanced trading features and analytics. |
| You have complete control over your funds and personal information. | The exchange controls your funds, not you. |
| May lack depth in trading books. | Wide range of supported crypto assets and trading pairs. |
| There’s usually no need for the KYC processes. | Mandatory KYC processes can be intrusive. |
| Generally no dedicated support team to assist you. | Robust support via email, chat, and sometimes phone. |
| Quick to list new and varied types of crypto assets. | Can have higher trading fees and hidden costs. |
| Transactions may be slower due to blockchain confirmations. | High trade volume and liquidity allow for quick and efficient trades. |
A critical component of your cryptocurrency trading journey is understanding crypto exchange fees. With options ranging from crypto exchanges with no fees to platforms with complex fee structures, grasping the nuances can help you make smart decisions and find the cheapest crypto exchange for your trading needs.
Let’s start with trading fees, which are the costs directly linked to buying and selling cryptocurrencies. These fees are often calculated as a percentage of your total trade volume. Some platforms add a twist by distinguishing between maker and taker orders, with maker fees usually costing less since they add liquidity to the market.
Be cautious of exchanges touting “zero fee” transactions; they often use spread-based pricing that can be more expensive in the long run.
If you’re planning to move your assets, withdrawal fees at crypto exchanges should be on your radar. These fees can differ widely depending on the cryptocurrency and the exchange in question. So, when you’re making a crypto exchanges fees comparison, don’t overlook the withdrawal fees; they can impact your total trading costs significantly.
Beyond trading and withdrawal fees, some additional charges may lurk in the shadows. Engaging in margin trading? You’ll be charged fees for borrowing funds. Platforms like Coinbase and Gemini have higher fees for using their quick-buy features.
Using a credit or debit card for transactions? Beware of additional premiums from both your card issuer and the exchange. To sidestep some of these costs and get lower fees, consider using cash or wire transfers.
Finally, don’t forget about network fees, sometimes also known as miner fees. These are not set by the exchange but are necessary for processing transactions on a blockchain. While many centralized exchanges absorb this cost, decentralized platforms often pass it directly to the user.
When it comes to pinpointing the top platforms in the crypto space, there are key elements we consider to rate crypto exchanges. The factors outlined below are not just buzzwords; they are fundamental for secure, efficient, and profitable trading.
While many platforms claim to be licensed crypto exchanges, not all of them meet rigid regulatory norms that ensure your money is as secure as it would be in a vault. On the flip side, fake crypto exchanges are ticking time bombs, often disappearing overnight with your funds.
That’s why security protocols such as two-factor authentication, multi-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, and cold storage options are essential features to look for.
Exchanges employ multiple risk management practices to protect users from market uncertainties. This often includes advanced trade types like stop-loss orders, as well as transparency reports that showcase the health of the exchange’s fund reserves.
Top ratings can be misleading. We go beyond the stars, testing the apps, trading and platforms, and dissect customer reviews to gauge real-world issues such as withdrawal delays or software glitches. Verified user experiences from credible sources give you the real truth about what it’s like to trade on a particular platform.
The most trusted crypto exchanges offer more than just blogs and how-to guides. Look for exchanges that offer live webinars, expert-led courses, and even one-on-one coaching. These are the platforms that truly invest in your financial literacy, equipping you to make better trades.
Low trading volume might mean your big sell order could crash the price of a thinly traded asset. A high trading volume not only suggests the exchange is popular but also that it offers high liquidity, making it easier to buy or sell assets without affecting market prices. Plus, more volume often leads to tighter spreads, meaning you might get better deal prices.
Trading fees can eat into your profits, but the financial bite doesn’t stop there. You need to be aware of not just trading fees, but also withdrawal fees and any hidden charges. A transparent and reasonable fee structure is usually a good indicator of an exchange’s overall approach to customer experience.
Therefore, we examine the fee structures to ensure there are no unpleasant surprises. In essence, reputable crypto exchanges that we select offer the following significant advantages:
Enhanced security: Top-tier exchanges use state-of-the-art security protocols to protect your assets and personal information.
Regulatory compliance: A reputable exchange often follows strict legal guidelines, which improves safety of your funds.
Rich feature sets: Advanced trading tools, various types of orders, and a wide variety of supported cryptocurrencies are common features. This can offer you variety of options in the long run.
Transparent fee structure: No one likes hidden costs. Reputable crypto exchanges clearly state their transaction fees, maker fees, taker fees, and any other costs upfront.
KYC or Know Your Customer is far more than a compliance checkbox; it’s your first line of defense in ensuring that your funds won’t end up entangled in some shady business. While non-KYC crypto exchanges may lure you in with the promise of anonymity, the lack of oversight can be a double-edged sword. On the other side, a regulated crypto exchange with a robust KYC process minimizes these risks. Find an outline of the crypto KYC process below:
To initiate the KYC process, head over to the dedicated section usually labeled as “KYC Verification” or “Identity Verification” within your account dashboard. You’ll find a series of steps to follow, which will guide you through the verification process.
During this phase, you’ll be asked for specific personal details to verify your identity. These details usually include your full name, date of birth, and address. Ensure that you enter these accurately, as they will be cross-referenced with your identification documents later.
Next, you’ll be required to upload clear, legible copies of government-issued identification. This could be your passport, driver’s license, or a national ID card. Follow the on-screen instructions to capture or scan the required documents. Make sure that the images are clear and that all four corners of the document are visible.
Yes, even crypto gets personal. Hold your ID next to your face and snap a selfie. The aim is to match the picture in your ID to your face, thereby ensuring that you are indeed who you claim to be.
After you’ve submitted all the necessary information and documents, you’ll need to wait for the exchange to review and approve your KYC details. This waiting period varies from one platform to another, but you’ll generally receive a notification once the process is complete.
So you’ve passed KYC. Congrats! But you’re not done. Wrap up your security measures by enabling 2FA. This involves scanning a QR code or entering a unique string of characters into a 2FA app like Google Authenticator or, if you’re old-school, getting codes via SMS.
If, however, you’re tempted to opt for crypto exchanges without KYC for the sake of convenience, be aware that a layer of security and regulatory protection will be stripped down.
After signing up, you’re probably eager to get trading. But first, you need to deposit some funds. We’re transforming this sometimes nerve-wracking operation into easy-to-follow steps.
Start by heading to the official website of your chosen crypto exchange. Once there, locate the “Log In” or “Sign In” button, usually at the top-right corner of the page. Use the credentials you set up during your account creation.
Upon successful login, you’ll land on your account dashboard. Here, look for a tab or menu option that says “Deposit,” “Wallet,” or “Funds.” It’s like your online piggy bank within the exchange, where your cryptos will reside temporarily.
Once in the deposit section, you’ll have to specify which cryptocurrency you’re looking to deposit. Let’s say you choose Bitcoin; the exchange will then generate a unique deposit address for your Bitcoin transactions. This is essentially your crypto PO box where funds will be received.
Switch over to the external wallet holding your Bitcoin. There, paste the deposit address you just generated. Enter the amount of Bitcoin you’d like to send, making sure it’s above any minimum deposit requirements the cryptocurrency exchange has specified.
After hitting “Send” on your external wallet, you’re not done just yet. It’s good practice to verify your transactions using a blockchain explorer. Simply paste your deposit address into the explorer to check the number of confirmations. Typically, you’ll need to wait for at least 3–6 confirmations, depending on the cryptocurrency.
Once the required confirmations are complete, your exchange account balance should update automatically. If you see the funds, congratulations! You’ve successfully deposited crypto into your exchange account.
While we’re at it, never forget to triple-check the deposit address. One wrong character can send your funds into crypto oblivion. Be aware of minimum deposit thresholds to avoid unnecessary headaches. And if your funds are taking longer than expected to show up, don’t hesitate to reach out to customer support.
To this day, Binance holds the title as one of the largest crypto exchanges by trading volume and user base.
The regulation of crypto exchanges varies wildly depending on the jurisdiction. In the US, for example, exchanges need to comply with several financial laws and are overseen by the SEC, CFTC, FTC and IRS. Generally speaking, regulated crypto exchanges are considered more secure and reliable as they adhere to legal requirements aimed at protecting consumers.
Anonymous crypto exchanges allow users to trade cryptocurrencies without undergoing extensive identity verification procedures. These are also known as crypto exchanges without KYC. While this may sound convenient for crypto investors, it also raises security and legality concerns. and allows you to trade confidently.
“Islamic Coin has a huge potential in Malta”, says Malta-based Islamic financial expert Reuben Buttigieg speaking with AIBC News. “The main thing is that the mechanisms of how crypto functions are very much in line with the principles of Islamic finance provided that no speculation is done on the particular gain.” he adds.
His Highness Sheikh Hazza bin Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the UAE royal family has been appointed advisor to to the Swiss-based Shariah-compliant digital money venture Islamic Coin.
Reuben Buttigieg points out that the speculation on bitcoin is against the principles of Islamic finance whiles the use of coins to finance business and operations and the collection of funds from many people is exactly in line with what Islamic finance promotes.
He explains that the crowd funding element could be a huge boost for the Islamic finance world and in fact the various initiatives in various parts of the world.
Buttigieg adds that Malta had an opportunity way back to make an entry into Islamic banking in 2013. Unfortunately did not materialise. “We have have not realised the huge potential that Islamic banking has should Malta be open to the Islamic finance principles particularly given its geographic position”.
The advisory role of Sheikh Hazza in the Sharia-compliant crypto market is expected to attract investors from the Islamic world to the digital money venture.
“It is a great pleasure to join such a diverse and focused team and work together on bringing unique and life changing solutions to the Muslim world and beyond,” Sheikh Hazza said.
Sheikh Hazza will be joining some of the big names from the Islamic finance world such as Sheikh Dr. Nizam Mohammed Saleh Yaquby, referred to by Bloomberg as ‘the Gatekeeper’ of a $2 trillion market for Islamic financial products. Hussein Al Meeza, one of the founders of the Dubai Islamic Bank and Emaar Properties will be pivotal in establishing an ecosystem for the crypto project.
A spokesperson for Sheikh Hazza added “He will also be involved in supporting the innovation and philanthropy work of the company.”
The Swiss-based Haqq Association includes other members from the Abu Dhabi and Dubai ruling families. They include Sheikh Khalifa bin Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mohammad bin Khalifa bin Mohammad bin Khalid Al Nahyan and Sheikh Juma bin Maktoum Al Maktoum.
Co-founded by Mohammed AlKaff Al Hashmi, Hussein Mohammed Al Meeza, Andrey Kuznetsov and Alex Malkov, Islamic Coin has recently secured $200 million from private investors.
Related articles:
Islamic Finance and Banking – too good an opportunity to miss (aibc.world)
Modern technologies, especially the AI ChatGPT and Tesla’s autopilot are advancing so fast that it becomes harder and harder for the average person to catch up with it. Because of this, alternative ways to make money become more and more important. Cryptos recently gained popularity, and it becomes crucial to understand how they work. Below, we will analyze why 2023 is the year to learn about crypto and will provide steps on how to do it.
In order for a beginner to understand what we are talking about, you will need to know what these terms mean. For knowledgeable readers, just continue reading the next title.
• Bitcoin dominance – means what percentage of the crypto market is Bitcoin.
• Crypto market capitalization – shows what is the total price of all cryptos combined.
• FUD – fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Marketing trick to promote the perception of fear and doubt.
• Meme coin – A coin created as a meme or joke, without real-world uses. Popular meme coins include Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
Understanding these terms will make it easier to know what we are talking about in the article below.
From spectacular crushes and bankruptcies like FTX, Luna, and 3AC in 2022, the worst things seem to be behind for the crypto market. These events made fraud and scam projects go away, as the financial crisis made it clear that bad practitioners wouldn’t survive in highly volatile market conditions.
Because of this, what remains are relatively safe and legit projects. To analyze all the important events and tendencies, a regular person will need proper knowledge about crypto. There are sources where crypto education is easily accessible. We will mention some of these sources here, including Binance academy and other well-established sources.
To quickly summarize the current situation in the crypto market, let’s check what the major cryptocurrency, BTC, is doing. Despite all the negative and pessimistic news and FUDs, Bitcoin started to rise again. BTC hitting 21k again appears to be a strong bullish sign.
Since the US Fed is going to stop raising interest rates sometime in 2023, what can happen after this point can only positively affect the crypto market.
From recent events, investors became aware of crypto frauds and scams. Because of this, crypto investors are more knowledgeable and will analyze crypto deeply with technical and fundamental tools.
Creative white papers and meme phrases won’t be enough to maintain investors’ interest. Investors will check if the crypto project has real-world uses and products and if it is truly a new and innovative project. They will use all the metrics and technical analysis tools too. Any get-rich-quick cryptos will immediately be dismissed by investors in 2023.
Before analyzing the crypto coin or token, it is important to see the bigger picture and know what the crypto market is doing. For this, there is one useful method. It is called Bitcoin dominance, and we will compare it to crypto market capitalization to see the overall picture.
Metrics like the relationship between Bitcoin dominance and crypto market capitalization will show if the alts season is open.
If Bitcoin dominance is increasing, but total crypto market capitalization is decreasing, this means that funds are going out of the crypto market. But if bitcoin dominance is decreasing, but total market capitalization is increasing, this shows that altcoins season is starting.
After this, it will be clear what to expect from the crypto market. To further get valuable knowledge about the crypto market and how to analyze charts, investfox.com offers high-quality data and resources.
There are other resources for gaining powerful wisdom in cryptos, one of them being the famous coin market cap. You can see how BTC dominance changed in the last 24 hours. This will enable beginners to see if altcoins are going up or down.
Another great source for education is Binance academy. Binance is a centralized crypto exchange but has years of experience, and they seem solvent and legit, they even provided proof of reserves to show that they are not using clients’ cryptos for any shady activities like the famous fraud FTX was.
2023 is going to be a very good year for cryptos as all negative events are gone. Investors will try to analyze new cryptos in search of new Shiba Inu and Dogecoin more deeply. Bitcoin dominance and other important metrics will show how the crypto market is behaving and what to expect from it.
Good and reliable study materials will make it easier for newbies to understand more about cryptos. Sources mentioned in this article should be sufficient to start learning about cryptos now.
A new report by the United States’ highest authority on defense and security, The Pentagon, is intensely critical on the emerging technology. The main criticisms include issues of centralization, outdated software and vulnerability to attacks.
The report “Are Blockchains Decentralised, Unintended Centralities in Distributed Ledgers”, has galvanized debate on Blockchain’s role in a number of industries with fintech, security, big tech being amongst the forefront of this growing concern. Possibly the most harsh finding of the report was that a number of actors within a supposedly decentralized Blockchain’s ecosystem are able to
“exert excessive and centralize control over the entire blockchain system.”
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon’s research arm, contacted Trail of Bits to investigate Blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum during the course of this aforementioned study. The security research organization found that only four entities in Bitcoin and two entities in Ethereum are required to disrupt their respective ecosystems. Moreover, 60% of all Bitcoin traffic moves through only three ISPs with the organization making note of outdated and unencrypted software and protocols in use.
The Trail of Bits report stated that “the safety of a blockchain depends on the security of the software and protocols of its off-chain governance or consensus mechanisms.” The researchers also studied third-parties vital to their respective ecosystems such as mining pool sites with shocking results.
“ViaBTC, a leading global mining pool, assigns the password “123” to its accounts. Pooling, another mining organization, does not even validate credentials at all, and Slushpool—which has mined more than 1.2 million Bitcoin since 2010—instructs users to ignore the password field. Combined, these three mining pools account for about 25% of the Bitcoin hash rate, or total computer power.”
The report also noted some inherent issues in the decentralized superstructure of Blockchains such as Bitcoin with the concluding statements noting that
“The majority of Bitcoin nodes have significant incentives to behave dishonestly, and in fact, there is no known way to create any permission-less blockchain that is impervious to malicious nodes without having a TTP.”
This critique comes at a vital time in the evolution of the ecosystem. On one hand, the rise of Crypto Winter brought forth by the collapse of Terra-Luna and the Celsius Network have placed the nascent industry under unprecedented amounts of pressure and criticism. On the other, some of the largest institutional investors, respected advisory firms, Venture Capital groups and Big Tech giants are delving headfirst into the industry and its related aspects such as the Metaverse. With concerns on how genuine “decentralization” might be easier said than done, only time will tell how this report will effect the industry down the line.
With the peninsula being known for its natural beauty, rich cultural landscape and fantastic delicacies, the Balkans are renowned for having some of the most quintessentially Mediterranean vistas and experiences. From the Adriatic coastline of Split to the fairytale-esque castle of Lake Bled, the region has a lot to offer the world. This being said, something that fewer may know is the fact that the nations of the Balkans are incubating a nascent but powerfully growing technical expertise when it comes to frontier technology such as Blockchain, AI and more. Therefore the region may not only be a rich adventure into the past but my also serve as a window into the very near future.
Join us in Belgrade for the best the industry has to offer and for a window into the future of Deep Tech. To learn more about sponsorship and speaking opportunities or to inquire about attending the event, please contact Sophie at [email protected]
Romex Jha, CEO International of ZB Group, served as a moderator for a panel discussion that took place on March 21st during the AIBC Dubai Summit. The panel was about the necessity of payment providers for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies in a fruitful debate with other key leaders in the cryptocurrency space.
There was a broad consensus among the panelists that there is a possibility for crypto to be accepted on a large scale; but the process requires far more moving pieces than the market is now able to accommodate. Currently, the most popular trading pair in crypto is BTC to USDT, and its popularity continues to grow.
Payment providers play a crucial role in fueling this growth. Furthermore, ensuring that supply and demand for crypto are aligned. In spite of this, the discourse has advanced significantly in a short amount of time. If it continues to advance at this rate, it will be intriguing to watch where the industry stands in a few short years.
Gaming, social networks, internet security, and brand presence on social media were all discussed at the conference. The Summit strived to leave attendees with new ideas and insights regarding the industry’s near future. This even included Akon, the world-famous pop star and creator of Akoin, who was a special guest at the event. His pioneering work in spearheading the future of Blockchain in Africa has left its mark on the entire continent with his debut of the Akoin MasterCard being a tangible example of payment providers leading the charge on Mass Adoption.
AIBC is not limited to its audience in the Middle East. Conventions will be hosted in Toronto, Malta, Belgrade, and Nairobi between 2022 and 2023, among others. If this indicates anything, it is that the Bitcoin-aligned conversations taking place in Dubai are in high demand around the world. Thus, it reflects well on the future of the industry.
As the event expands in scope, so does the extent of the dialogues. 47% of AIBC Dubai attendees are decision-makers in this sector, indicating the importance of the event and the people who are participating in it. In spite of the fact that Europe has the most prominent decision makers influencing the digital age, the involvement from policy-makers of Developing countries will definitely begin to balance out as knowledge expands.
At one time, there were real questions about whether or not cryptocurrency could be used on a global scale. Now, discussions are based on the many steps that can be taken for this to happen. The way people debate has changed. Before, the question was always “if” this could happen. Now, the questions are “when” and “how.”
There is a presumption that crypto will attain the heights that people originally doubted it could get. As a result, conversations are becoming increasingly pragmatic. Considering where crypto will go next, the future holds a wealth of opportunities for cryptocurrency.
It’s hard to say what its next move will be on the market. It is still growing at an exponential rate and hundreds of new cryptocurrencies are coming out all the time. But it will definitely need a breakthrough like the ones platformed at AIBC before. At the end of the day, one thing is for sure: a future based on crypto is closer than it has ever been.
Following the massive success that was AIBC Asia, the Summit’s first ever physical debut in the Americas is set to take Toronto by storm this June. Uniting the best and brightest in the emerging tech world, AIBC Americas will feature leading policy makers, executives, technologists and visionaries in groundbreaking areas such as AI, Blockchain and Quantum Computing. The Summit will be composed of three days of thought-leading panels, inspiring keynotes and a massive amount of opportunities to network, leaving our delegates several steps closer to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Join us from the 6th till the 9th of June in Toronto!
AIBC brings you this handy monthly roundup of the most important and ground-breaking news from the Web3 landscape.
This month South Korea has committed a sizeable chunk of money to creating a national Metaverse project. It’s a good time to do so, since prices of NFT land have skyrocketed in 2021 and are expected to keep doing so this year.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan has become the first bank to open a virtual branch in Decentraland while Tools of Rock, the NFT company and art collection, has opened the world’s first permanent Metaverse concert venue in The Sandbox.
In NFT news, the Murals to the Metaverse project, by six Californian street artists, has discovered a great new use for the tokens: preserving street art from oblivion by making
KMPG is the latest big name to purchase an NFT. In February, they acquired a piece from the World of Women collection for a cool 25 ETH.
Not all news in the NFT space is good however: trading platform OpenSea is experiencing a downturn in trading volume following a couple of incidents that have damaged its reputation.
The 20th century was one of the national cars, but will the 21st be the century of the national Metaverses?
South Korea seems to think so.
The country’s ministry of ICT, Science, and Future Planning has pledged 223.7 billion won (around $186.7 million) to create a Metaverse ecosystem with the goal of supporting the growth of digital content and corporate growth in South Korea.
In an official statement published last week, the Ministry said the funds will be spent on completing four major objectives in creating an all-encompassing Metaverse titled “Expanded Virtual World.”
This platform should allow for expanding the virtual industrial growth of cities, education, and media.
As part of the initiative, content creators will get support on multiple fronts to attract the right kind of talent to help build the Metaverse platform. A developer contest and a hackathon are also planned.
“It is important to create a world-class metaverse ecosystem as the starting point to intensively foster a new hyper-connected industry,” said Park Yungyu, head of communication at the Ministry.
The Metaverse platform is part of a broader push for the “Digital New Deal” in South Korea which is a set of policies aimed at fostering the growth of digital technologies.
In addition to all this, the government agency expects this Metaverse to have a global reach since there will be seamless access to south Korean companies. It also plans to provide support for business growth by offering financial support and technological development.
Tech industry insiders are saying this funding is a positive signal and shows that the Korean government is interested in Metaverse.
“Outstanding companies building a digital economy in the metaverse will be able to thrive with the Korean government’s support,” concluded Jason Ye, co-founder of blockchain ecosystem accelerator DeSpread.
According to reports coming from the media, the virtual land market in the “big four” Metaverses (Decentraland, Somnium Space, Cryptovoxels, and The Sandbox) has exceeded €440 million in 2021. This figure is projected to double this year.
The Sandbox is the Metaverse that saw the largest NFT virtual land sale last year. A plot sold for a staggering €3.8 million this last December.
As the concept of Metaverse exploded last year during the Covid pandemic, many high-profile brands, companies, and celebrities have purchased virtual land to use for various projects.
Some Metaverse project founders are cautious, however. Artur Sychov, CEO and founder of Somnium Space, decried the influx of financial speculation into the Metaverse.
“There is a lot of hype and there are a lot of, unfortunately, players in the market which try to take advantage of people,” he said.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t understand why they’re buying and they’re trying to speculate on it, which is an absolute no go and they should never do that”.
Sychov further explains that all this may be causing a bubble.
“It creates this kind of bubbly thing where people say, ‘Oh my god, OK, there’s an ability to earn some money and I will buy this [land] parcel. Whatever that parcel is, I would never even build [on it or] take care of it. I’ll just buy it and hope that I will sell it later for a higher price,” he explained.
In the beginning, before Mark Zuckerberg pushed the Metaverse hype into overdrive when he announced his company is rebranding to Meta and will pursue this tech as the main objective, NFT land was meant to allow creators and users more engagement with the virtual worlds they inhabit.
For now, however, it seems that speculators are winning. But, if it is any consolation for the rest of us, there are ways to rent virtual NFT land and fractionalization is in the works too which will eventually enable a Metaverse land parcel to be owned by more than one person.
JP Morgan has become the first bank to have a significant presence in Metaverse with the opening of the Onyx Lounge in Decentraland.
Within the lounge, visitors can buy virtual plots of land, and make other cryptocurrency purchases. Before users enter the lounge, they are greeted by a tiger and an avatar of JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon.
“The Metaverse will likely infiltrate every sector in some way in the coming years, with the market opportunity estimated at over $1 trillion in yearly revenues,” said a report the bank has released alongside with the unveiling of the virtual lounge.
The bank has said they plan to play a major role in Metaverse and that it could help with issues such as fraud prevention and account verification.
“This democratic ownership economy coupled with the possibility of interoperability, could unlock immense economic opportunities, whereby digital goods and services are no longer captive to a singular gaming platform or brand,” the JP Morgan report states.
As NFT art rises in popularity, new uses for it are being discovered. Murals to the Metaverse is a collection, by six street artists, that lives on the blockchain.
Before that, these were real murals on the fifth floor of Oakland, California’s most iconic building – The Tribute Tower.
All the murals were scanned into 3D models and then enhanced using augmented reality. For the next two weeks, the artist group led people through the exhibition space, on an immersive tour.
But the most interesting thing comes after this. After only a few months, all the murals were destroyed. Not without being turned into NFTs, however.
Now on the blockchain, art can live forever. It’s an interesting project that highlights the ephemerality of street art. Many murals fade, get painted over, or torn down.
“Buildings can crumble, weather can cause damage, and developments can impede views,” explains artist Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith, aka Wolfe Pack, who led the project. “By scanning a mural and turning it into an NFT, we forever immortalize the art.”
NFT art has definitely opened up new possibilities for artists, especially around getting compensated for their work. And many expect that as people buy real-estate in the form of virtual land, artists may be commissioned to make them prettier.
But the Murals to the Metaverse project has pointed to a new and interesting use for NFTs which is to actually preserve for posterity the kinds of art, such as street murals or installations, that have an inherently short life span in the real world.
Popular Metaverse platform The Sandbox is now richer for one more type of experience it can offer, thanks to former the Bachelor star JJ Lane. Leading onto the Web3 evolution and Metaverse becoming an increasing trend lately, we will see how many users this will attract.
Lane is also the founder of the Tools of Rock NFT music platform, which launched its NFT art collection in August of 2021 and has since seen exponential growth as a company.
For the concert venue, the company has partnered with Lorretta Chen and Ruel Sarmiento, founders of the Smobler Studio, a digital agency and design studio.
While there have already been several concerts in the Metaverse (such as the Travis Scott one in Fortnite), this is the world’s first dedicated venue for music events.
“What we have seen in the last two years with COVID-19 is that tour revenue, once a staple for artists, is not certain any longer…But the TOR concert venue will never close! A venue that’s open globally, 24/7/365, has minimal overhead, and allows the fan unparalleled access to their favorite artists is what will make the Metaverse so powerful for all participants, Lane explains about the vision behind the project.”
It remains to be seen which starts will be attracted to this concept, but the digital venue has also promised a range of “green room” features to entice them to engage with the Web3 world.
KPMG, one of the “Big Four” auditing and consultancy houses, has purchased the Woman #2681 NFT from the World of Women collection.
The blue-skinned female avatar sold for 25 WETH (around $75,000) and was then transferred to a separate wallet. The company has also revealed it owns the kpmgca.eth domain, the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain that makes wallet addresses easier to use.
This acquisition of a piece of NFT art comes after the audit company has announced it had added Ether and Bitcoin to its balance sheet in February of this year.
KMPG said the reason behind these purchases was to be able to better advise clients looking to enter the [cryptocurrency, NFT, and Metaverse] space.
“NFTs unlock a new channel for organizations to engage with their customers, while also underpinning innovation through the secure digitization of assets,” Benjie Thomas, managing partner at KPMG in Canada, said in a press release. “Having now gone through the process, we are well-positioned to guide our clients around building a corporate NFT strategy, including acquiring and safeguarding NFTs.”
As for World of Women, it’s a NFT art collection that has had a supercharged flight to the top of the NFT charts, touting an 8.5 ETH (some $24,000) floor price on OpenSea. Famous actress Reese Whitherspoon is in on it, with her media company Hello Sunshine partnering with the project in February.
KPMG isn’t the first finance heavyweight to jump into the NFT waters. In 2021, Visa made headlines after purchasing a CryptoPunk NFT for $150,000.
Over the past weeks, trading volume across OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplaces, has been in a downtrend. This is according to information from the data analysis company DappRadar.
In the past 30 days, DappRadar data reveals that trading volume has fallen by 10.02%.
These are better numbers than late February when compared to January 25 the volume on February 25 was down more than 46%
Experts consider the downturn to be a result of recent incidents on the platform.
In January, due to an issue with the user interface, some users were able to purchase NFTs below their actual price. According to details released by the company, an issue would arise when users create listings for their NFTs and then transfer those NFTs to a different wallet without canceling the listing.
OpenSea is not able to cancel the listing on behalf of the users, OpenSea explained at the time.
Tackling the issue, the platform released a smart contract update in late February requiring all users to move their listings to Ethereum to the new smart contract.
Then, however, it seems the company fell victim to a phishing attack.
Company representatives stated that the affected users (around 17 of them) have at some point approved the malicious smart contract.
The AIBC Balkans/CIS Awards will take place on the 23rd of August, 2022. The gala evening will celebrate the industry’s highest achievers, bringing bright ideas under the spotlight and recognising the contributions shaping the future of emerging tech.
The awards will also feature a live auction, where luxury items, including specially commissioned artworks will go under the hammer. Proceeds will be diverted to SiGMA Foundation, which runs a number of charitable projects across the globe.
2023
Nominations & Self-Nominations Open
2023
Nominations & Self-Nominations Close
2023
Shortlist announced & vote for finalist open to public & judges
2023
Voting Closed
2023
AWARDS NIGHT
Nominations &
Self-Nominations Open
Nominations &
Self-Nominations Close
Shortlist announced &
vote for finalist open
to public & judges
Voting
Closed
Join your friends or treat your employees to a table – we’ve got great prices on tickets for the Balkans/CIS Awards!
[aibc-sitting-tab continent=”Balkans/CIS Gaming Awards” one_seat_price=”225€” one_table_price=”2.000€” package_price=”3.000€” package_price_sub1=”2.000€” package_price_sub2=”2.000€” main_package_price=”34.500€” main_package_price_sub=”2.000€”]
Give recognition where it’s due by nominating someone whose work has created a positive impact on the gaming industry.
VOTE
[aibc-get-awards term_id=6192 continent=”cis”][aibc-get-awards term_id=6192 continent=”cis” lazy_loading=”yes”]
You can see all the judges here. They have been meticulously chosen from a crowd of experts, industry veterans, and business leaders from the sector! Want to get involved as one on the judges? Kindly contact [email protected].
[aibc-people-lists term_id = “6195, 6196” person_name = “YES” person_image = “YES” person_position = “YES” person_company = “YES” person_company _logo=”yes” person_language = “NO” person_email= “NO” person_phone= “NO” person_skype= “NO” appearance = “Regular” hostsort=”yes”]
A live auction will take place during the awards ceremony, with luxury items and specially commissioned
artworks going under the hammer for charity. All proceeds are diverted towards SiGMA Foundation projects
Oil painting representation of the beauty of future innovation and how darkness can emerge with it.
Oil painting on loose Canvas.
Oil painting of the statue of Atlas holding up the world of Crypto on his shoulder.
Oil painting on loose canvas.
[aibc-charity-items-slider-new continent=”CIS”]
All proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards the SiGMA Foundation.
Find out more about the SiGMA Foundation’s work here.
HOW ARE NOMINEES SELECTED FOR THE AWARDS?
Anyone working in the emerging tech industry can nominate a company, project, or person in one of the listed categories. The five best nominations will be shortlisted with the winner to be selected through a combination of judges (70% votes) and the public (30%).
Deadline to nominate: 2023 | Deadline to vote: 2023 | Winners revealed: 2023
HOW CAN I NOMINATE FOR THE AWARDS?
You just need to click here – easy peasy!
Contact us for more details in order to have exclusive VIP visibility during the Awards Night – [email protected].
[aibc-mt-last-winners slider=”yes” elements=”148641, 122059″ descriptions=”Mysa, PalletPal”]
winners 2018
[aibc-mt-last-winners slider=”yes” elements=”122088, 122076″ descriptions=”Pynk, Photocert”]
winners 2017
[aibc-mt-last-winners slider=”yes” elements=”122088, 122076″ descriptions=”Pynk, Photocert”]
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2022 Toronto
2022 Dubai
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[aibc-newsletter]
The AIBC Awards will be held in May 2023 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Alongside premier networking opportunities, the opulent event brings together luminaries in the industry for an evening of recognition and celebration of achievement.
Shining a spotlight on some of the most intriguing and creative tech projects to challenge the conventional role of technology are the tech players changing the face of the industry as we know it – it’s time to BUILD the future.
TBD
Nominations & Self-Nominations Open
TBD
Nominations & Self-Nominations Close
TBD
Shortlist announced & vote for finalist open to public & judges
TBD
Voting Closed
TBD
AWARDS NIGHT
Nominations &
Self-Nominations Open
Nominations &
Self-Nominations Close
Shortlist announced &
vote for finalist open
to public & judges
Voting
Closed
Join your friends or treat your employees to a table – we’ve got great prices on tickets for the Americas Awards!
[aibc-sitting-tab continent=”Americas Gaming Awards” one_seat_price=”$225″ one_table_price=”$2250″ package_price=”$4500″ package_price_sub1=”$2250″ package_price_sub2=”$2250″ main_package_price=”$35,000″ main_package_price_sub=”$2250″]
Give recognition where it’s due by nominating someone whose work has created a positive impact on the gaming industry.
VOTE
[aibc-get-awards term_id=6144 continent=”america”][aibc-get-awards term_id=6144 continent=”america” lazy_loading=”yes”]
You can see all the judges here. They have been meticulously chosen from a crowd of experts, industry veterans, and business leaders from the sector! Want to get involved as one on the judges? Kindly contact [email protected].
[aibc-people-lists term_id = “6268, 6269” person_name = “YES” person_image = “YES” person_position = “YES” person_company = “YES” person_company _logo=”yes” person_language = “NO” person_email= “NO” person_phone= “NO” person_skype= “NO” appearance = “Regular” hostsort=”yes”]
A live auction will take place during the awards ceremony, with luxury items and specially commissioned
artworks going under the hammer for charity. All proceeds are diverted towards SiGMA Foundation projects
[aibc-charity-items-slider-new continent=”Americas”]
All proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards the SiGMA Foundation.
Find out more about the SiGMA Foundation’s work here.
HOW ARE NOMINEES SELECTED FOR THE AWARDS?
Anyone working in the emerging tech industry can nominate a company, project, or person in one of the listed categories. The five best nominations will be shortlisted with the winner to be selected through a combination of judges (70% votes) and the public (30%).
Deadline to nominate for 2023: TBD
HOW CAN I NOMINATE FOR THE AWARDS?
You just need to click here – easy peasy!
Contact us for more details in order to have exclusive VIP visibility during the Awards Night – [email protected].
winners 2019
[aibc-mt-last-winners slider=”yes” elements=”27251, 25519, 27296, 29958, 29287, 25611, 30109, 26466, 24332, 26146, 29366, 420146, 30867, 30636, 31029, 146421, 98708, 419091, 189940, 448615, 419263, 448615, 24140, 30669, 26339, 434547, 430393″ descriptions=”iGAMING CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR, CORPORATE SERVICES PROVIDER OF THE YEAR, ONLINE GAMING MEDIA OF THE YEAR, ONLINE CASINO PROVIDER OF THE YEAR, LIVE CASINO PROVIDER OF THE YEAR, ONLINE SPORTSBOOK PROVIDER OF THE YEAR, GAME PROVIDER OF THE YEAR, RISING STAR TABLE GAME OF THE YEAR, PLATFORM OF THE YEAR, UNIQUE SELLING POINT OF THE YEAR, ONLINE SLOTS & RNG GAMES OF THE YEAR, RISING STAR OPERATOR OF THE YEAR, ONLINE CASINO OF THE YEAR, CRYPTO CASINO OF THE YEAR, SPORTSBOOK OPERATOR OF THE YEAR, AFFILIATE PROGRAM OF THE YEAR, AFFILIATE OF THE YEAR, SPORTSBOOK AFFILIATE OF THE YEAR, ESPORT PRODUCT OF THE YEAR, RESPONSIBLE GAMING OF THE YEAR, GAMING FUND OF THE YEAR, WORKPLACE OF THE YEAR, CSR CONTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR, ONLINE PAYMENT SOLUTION OF THE YEAR, ALTERNATIVE BANKING SOLUTION OF THE YEAR, HOSTING PROVIDER OF THE YEAR, ASIAN PLATFORM OF THE YEAR”]
winners 2018
Anyone working in the gambling industry can nominate a company, project, or person in one of the listed categories. The five best nominations will be shortlisted with the winner to be selected through a combination of judges (70% votes) and the public (30%).
Deadline to nominate: TBA | Deadline to vote: TBA | Winners revealed: TBA
Anyone working in the gambling industry can nominate a company, project, or person in one of the listed categories. The five best nominations will be shortlisted with the winner to be selected through a combination of judges (70% votes) and the public (30%).
Deadline to nominate: TBA | Deadline to vote: TBA | Winners revealed: TBA
Anyone working in the gambling industry can nominate a company, project, or person in one of the listed categories. The five best nominations will be shortlisted with the winner to be selected through a combination of judges (70% votes) and the public (30%).
Deadline to nominate: TBA | Deadline to vote: TBA | Winners revealed: TBA
winners 2019
[aibc-mt-last-winners slider=”yes” elements=”142812, 122059″ descriptions=”Mysa, PalletPal”]
winners 2018
[aibc-mt-last-winners slider=”yes” elements=”122088, 122076″ descriptions=”Pynk, Photocert”]
winners 2017
[aibc-mt-last-winners slider=”yes” elements=”122088, 122076″ descriptions=”Pynk, Photocert”]
2022 Toronto
2022 Dubai
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2022 Toronto
2022 Dubai
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[aibc-newsletter]
Everyone is talking about the Metaverse, NFTs, and the blockchain. One of the hottest new technologies that have emerged in this space is known as Polygon. It and its associated token — MATIC, have been the talk of the blockchain town for a while now.
And it’s pretty clear why. It’s a very promising and innovative technology that promises to solve a lot of issues not just in the blockchain world but also in the Metaverse and in web3. These are all new visions of the Internet and how we could use it.
And make no mistake, key players in Silicon Valley do believe this is the future. Mark Zuckerberg has renamed Facebook’s parent company to Meta. And venture capitalists and throwing obscene amounts of money at blockchain and Metaverse projects.
Understandably, people are excited about all this. All this new technology holds a promise of creating, if not a better, then at least a more interesting world.
What is the place of Polygon in the future of the blockchain and the Internet? What is Polygon in the first place? Can you use it right now and how to do it?
If you want to get in on the ground floor of this exciting new tech and you need information, look no further than this handy FAQ we’ve put together. We’ll answer your questions so you’re in the blockchain loop.
Everything you need to know about Polygon and MATIC, as well as how you can use them today, is right here. So, keep reading to discover the wonders of it all.
It’s time to start and we’ll start right at the beginning. How does it all work? And what is it all, actually? It’s some pretty advanced stuff, to be sure. You will hear phrases such as “Internet of blockchains” and “web3” and “wrapped Ether.”
It can all seem quite daunting at first, but worry not. You can soon learn all about it and impress your friends with your deep and thoughtful knowledge of the crypto and blockchain sphere. Not only will you have so much to talk about at the next dinner party when people bring this stuff up (and for Mark Zuckerberg’s big new project, we made a whole Metaverse FAQ for you too) but you’ll know how to actually use it.
And it’s good to know how to use it, because you can buy NFTs, visit the Metaverse, and even avoid those pesky gas fees.
Polygon is not just another chain and token, however. Its vision aims to radically change not just how blockchains operate but also the entire Internet. It’s a vision based on connectivity, interoperability, and scaling. Eventually, if the developers of Polygon succeed, they plan to go beyond their native Ethereum into a system in which any blockchain could connect to any other blockchain to exchange information and assets.
But we’re getting slightly ahead. Let us now answer some basic questions about this new happening in the blockchain scene.
Polygon is what is in technical terms called a secondary solution for blockchain scaling. It sits on something called layer2 (more on that later) and is also a sidechain.
That’s a lot of technical terms (and we will get into it) but for now let’s say that Polygon is a network that exists parallel with the Ethereum network and allows for a lot of things to happen that the Ethereum network doesn’t.
The company, previously known as the Matic Network, was founded by blockchain developers Sandeep Nailwal, Jaynti Kanani, and business consultant Anurag Arjun.
In the last year, since it rebranded to Polygon, the project has seen growing popularity thanks to the value of its token MATIC and thanks to the promise it represents for a new vision of the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Right now, this vision is primarily focused on making transactions on Ethereum faster. This is something that the famous blockchain network has struggled with since its inception. The low number of transactions it can process leading to high “gas fees” (transaction fees in Ethereum parlance).
That’s what Polygon is most famous for. It uses a technology called Plasma to process transactions off-chain before finalizing them on the main Ethereum chain. This way, gas fees through Polygon are much lower.
This is extremely important for things that create a high volume of transactions such as NFT marketplaces and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
However, that is only one part of what makes Polygon so exciting. The developers have clearly signaled they want to be much more than just a scaling solution for Ethereum.
Central to this vision is the concept of an internet of blockchains, which would bridge all Ethereum-based chains into a single network to enhance scaling, create interoperability and bring forth a blockchain environment that is truly interconnected.
As it stands, each blockchain right now is a world unto itself or a silo as they call it in the IT world. The driving idea behind Polygon has implications for the entirety of the Internet and especially the decentralized Web3 and the Metaverse.
It started originally as an independent blockchain that enabled its own projects, the network has since pivoted to being an Ethereum sidechain.
Now, however, Polygon has expanded its vision to eventually become an “internet of blockchains” that will allow, via bridging, for many different chains to be connected and interoperable.
The main thing about all this is that the Polygon network is compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine that makes it approachable to those developers who are used to working with Ethereum and building apps on it.
Its security model is also optional, meaning that sovereign platforms don’t need sacrifice their independence for the sake of security if they don’t want to do so. It should be flexible enough going forward to make any scalability solution a part of it, beyond what it can currently do.
How is all this achieved?
At the heart of how Polygon works is the proof-of-stake concept. This is contrasted with proof-of-work, which is how the Ethereum Mainnet functions.
These are highly technical terms, so we will need to spend a bit of time explaining it.
Proof of work, essentially, is what it says on the tin. It’s a way for one party to prove to another party that a certain amount of computational effort has been used. You may not be surprised to learn that this is all cryptographical in nature. That’s where crypto gets its name, after all.
In the cryptocurrency world the purpose of proof of work is not really to prove the computational puzzle bit to instead of deter the manipulation of data of the blockchain by establishing a high barrier of necessary energy and hardware usage in order for someone to be able to do it.
That is the main security feature of all blockchains, also. But POW does come with certain drawbacks.
Not just that they have been criticized for their high energy usage and environmental implications. Because the amount of work necessary is high, the blockchains that use POW are not exactly fast. In fact, the Ethereum network can only process about 14 transactions per second leading to high gas fees.
Enter proof of stake.
Proof stake selects transaction validators based on the proportion of their holdings of the associated cryptocurrency. POS arose as a popular method of validation in 2012 with Peercoin and has since been used by many projects. Its main benefit is that it is much faster than POW systems.
Now that the basics of how it all works are known, we’ll get deeper into the matter. Polygon is an interesting application of blockchain technology with the potential to be truly game changing. So, it’s worth knowing about what’s underpinning it.
The best way to think about the architecture of Polygon is in terms of layers. It’s like an onion basically.
So, let’s peel those layers and see how it all fits together.
There are four of these layers present. The Ethereum layer, security layer, Polygon networks layer, and execution layer.
Ethereum is a set of smart contracts which are running on, you guessed it, the Ethereum network. These are the smart contracts that handle stuff like transaction finality and staking, and which allow for communication between Ethereum itself and the various Polygon chains.
Security runs alongside Ethereum and provides validation.
Polygon networks are the ecosystem of chains built on the Polygon. Each of these has their own communities and produces their own blocks.
Then finally, there is the execution player which is the implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine that Polygon uses to execute the smart contracts.
In order to achieve all this, a number of different technologies are used. We’ll go over the specifics later but for now here’s a quick rundown of the most important ones.
The main part of all this is the Polygon Proof of Stake (POS) chain. This is an Ethereum sidechain that adds a proof of stake security layer to the blockchains that are launched on Polygon.
Then there is the Plasma chain that allows for Polygon’s famous scaling technology. Assets (tokens, NFTs, etc.) are moved between the root chain and the child chains via so-called bridges.
But the tech behind this project is constantly evolving. At the end of 2021, Polygon acquired Mir, a startup working on so-called “zero knowledge rollup” cryptography. In press materials, Polygon has expressed they see this as the future of blockchain scaling.
Polygon has also launched several other ZK-rollup technologies, proving that it is ever-evolving on the bleeding edge of cryptocurrency and blockchain development.
As there are so many different things happening in the network, it can be hard to grasp exactly what Polygon is actually used for and what it does.
In reality, the whole thing is very much in the beginning stages. Polygon promises a different take on the blockchain, one that’s interoperable and open and where communication between different chains is straightforward and easy.
At the moment, the main feature of Polygon is its ability to process transactions faster than the Ethereum blockchain network. We already explained the tech behind it, the Plasma chains and ZK-rollups that are the developers are working hard on implementing fully.
In essence, the reason why this technology has become so widely talked about and used is because it offers a solution for gas fees on the Ethereum network.
So, today, people use Polygon mostly for this purpose. Where this has most value is in NFT trading and in NFT-based video games. These activities create a large number of transactions and the way Ethereum works can turn them prohibitively expensive.
This is why so much of what’s on offer on OpenSea and other NFT marketplaces runs on the Polygon network. Metaverse platforms such as Decentraland also often use Polygon.
With NFTs and games such as Axie Infinity becoming so popular it’s likely that this technology will become more and more important to enable fast and cheap transactions that can keep up with the volume of player, trader, and investor activity.
For developers, Polygon offers a lot of interesting features and services that help them make better apps. It provides what it calls “the core components and tools to join the new, borderless economy and society.”
By using this tech, developers can make blockchains that combine the best features of standalone chains which are sovereignty, scalability, and flexibility and Ethereum that offers security and interoperability.
All of this fits into the vision of a world where it’s easy to launch blockchains that can communicate with each other. Even now, for developers interested in crypto space, Polygon is an option that allows them to get off the ground much faster than if they were to build everything on their own. And of course, all that while being Ethereum-compatible.
Being an interoperable network of many chains means that many tokens can essentially be part of the large network such as Wrapped Ethereum that can run on Polygon.
There is a native currency token for Polygon and it’s called MATIC (a reference to the previous name of the entire project) and it can be used to store tokens for protecting the network or for exchange payments. Following the rebranding and the unveiling of the new blockchain vision, MATIC has surged in value.
MATIC is also the utility token for Polygon and a financial incentive for those who want to contribute to the network. It has a key role in the process of staking where users can participate in the network’s consensus mechanism to validate transactions in return for tokens.
The value of this coin has increased considerably over time due to the surging popularity of Ethereum in 2021 which was driven by a strong interest in NFTs, play to earn games, and decentralized finance.
MATIC’s value rose from $0.018 and a market capitalization of $81 million to a market cap of $20 billion and an all-time high value of $2.92 in December of 2021. Like most coins, MATIC too has taken a hit in the beginning of 2022 with its value in January hovering around $1.6.
The primary use of MATIC remains to offer incentive to users to participate in the verification process through staking. Users can earn rewards by doing this, thus there is real financial incentive to helping with the stability and security of the “internet of blockchains.”
While proof of stake is not the only important technology underpinning Polygon, it is one of the key things that allows it to do what it does and to one day fulfil its new vision of what the blockchain world should be.
This is a highly technical subject, but in order to understand what Polygon is all about you have to understand the tech that goes into it.
Proof of stake is most often contrasted with proof of work. In cryptography, both are solutions for verifying transactions on a blockchain. Both are consensus mechanisms to keep distributed data secure.
Why is this important? Because technically, anyone could just write whatever they want onto a blockchain. Wait, what, you may be saying? Why don’t they just use passwords like the rest of us?
Well, you see, the point of a blockchain is that it is a public ledger not controlled by any single entity. If there’s no single entity in control then there’s nobody to issue and control passwords and whatever other credentials.
Both POS and POW are solutions for how to make sure what is being written on the blockchain is valid and fair.
In POW this is done through very complex mathematical puzzles. In order to solve the puzzle, a really large amount of computational Power is needed. And also, electricity. For instance, Bitcoin mining now accounts for around 1% of the world’s electricity usage which is more than some small developed countries.
These validators in a POW system, also known as miners, are essentially racing to be the first to finish the puzzle and then claim the prize — in the form of newly mined coins.
That it all should be hard and taxing is exactly the point. Writing bullshit onto the blockchain becomes prohibitively expensive and the math puzzles are such that once proof is derived other participants in the networks can easily check if the answer is true.
One huge drawback of POW is that it is slow. As already mentioned, Ethereum that uses POW can only process around 14 transactions per second, and while that may sound like a lot, it really isn’t. Especially with all those NFTs being traded all the time.
So, that’s why POS has emerged as a way to shorten transaction times and also address some of the environmental impact of it all.
Instead of a system where miners race, in POS the machines of coin owners are used. Owners offer up their coins as collateral for the chance to validate blocks. Validators are selected randomly, thus eliminating the advantage that huge mining farms have in a POW system.
While POS does have some issues like the infamous 51% attack (if someone owned 51% of all coins, they could do whatever they want) the likeliness of such an event is too small to be a serious to threat to Polygon or Ethereum or really any other blockchain using this technology.
Anytime when Polygon is described, you will hear that it is a layer 2 solution. What exactly is that, however?
A layer 2 solution sits atop blockchains (which are unsurprisingly called layer 1) and typically have the aim of improving scalability and efficiency. They are third-party solutions that integrate with layer 1 networks in order to add functionality that isn’t present in the original blockchain.
Generally, this entails shifting a portion of the blockchain’s protocol transactional burden to a side-system architecture which handles the processing and reports back later to the main (layer 1) network.
This way, transaction speed can be improved as work is offloaded from the main chain onto a sidechain. It’s a key component of scalability which is the capability of a technological platform to handle increasing numbers of users and the volume of their actions on the network.
It’s clear why this is so important for Ethereum as its popularity has been surging, bringing a large number of people who were interested in purchasing and trading NFTs or participating in various play to earn games that live on the Ethereum chain.
Polygon is not the only game in town when it comes to this, but has recently emerged as the most popular one. For Bitcoin, there is the Lightning Network which has much of the same ideas and architecture as Polygon.
Of course, the original blockchains are always trying to improve as well. Layer 1 scalability solutions are emerging too, and Ethereum is slowly moving towards a POS system as well.
Nevertheless, since it is harder and slower to change original networks, it is likely that layer 2 solutions will always have a place in the blockchain world as they can produce innovation much faster. This has many benefits both for the networks themselves and for the users.
Ever since it was rebranded there has been a lot of talk about Polygon and the internet of blockchains. Borrowing a turn of phrase from internet of things, this is a specific vision of how not just how the blockchain world but how the internet itself should work.
Eventually, the internet of blockchains should encompass related technologies and concepts such as Web3 and the Metaverse.
Web3, of course, is the idea that the internet should be decentralized and under the control of ordinary users. Unlike, for instance, the current social media platforms, which are controlled by Big Tech giants.
For the blockchain world, the internet of blockchains means a system in which all the different blockchains are interoperable and connected. Assets move freely between them with no limits and they are no longer separate silos. The best thing of all is that the specific chains still retain their sovereignty and their original value, community, and rules.
In the Metaverse space, this could open up the possibility of having interoperable worlds that run on various chains. In this future, assets such as in-game items, wearables for avatars and others could be easily transferred from one world and one game to the next. This would help the Metaverse feel more like the real world and less like a loosely connected series of video games.
Polygon does it by building a network of interoperable Ethereum-compatible chains. But there are other projects out there that are trying similar things. One of them is Cosmos. It also tries to address issues such as scalability. Cosmos has its own technology and chain and is based on the byzantine fault tolerant consensus algorithm, a kind of proof of stake model.
So, overall, the idea of the internet of blockchains is a vision of an interconnected ecosystem of chains along which data of all types can flow free. If that vision is achieved it will transform how cryptocurrencies are bought and sold, and what people can do with their virtual assets such as NFTs.
A sidechain is a separate blockchain that runs parallel to the mainnet of another blockchain. Sidechains are closely connected with Ethereum as this is the network where most are deployed and the sidechains implementations are based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Sidechains have their own consensus algorithm which can be proof of authority, proof of stake, or byzantine fault tolerance, among others.
On Ethereum, which is where the Polygon chains run, this means that developers can use their Dapps (decentralized apps) on a sidechain, just by deploying the code to that sidechain. Everything else will work just like the mainnet.
Of course, Polygon has evolved to be much more than just a sidechain but this is the basic idea of what it tries to do. A lot of chains running in parallel, that can talk to each other through the Ethereum mainnet.
But what are the benefits of sidechains? What do they actually add to the blockchain ecosystem?
The main one is scalability. We’ve used this word a lot already, but it’s a for a very good reason. In computing in general, but especially in blockchains, scalability is among the chief concerns. As all projects want to be used by as many people as possible, the amount of computational power necessary to process all the activities can rise exponentially.
Sidechains can optimize transactions in various ways. Proof of stake instead of proof of work is one way but transactions can also be moved from one chain to another that contains other optimizations that work better with a given kind of transaction. For instance, maybe someone creates a chain that’s optimized for use with play to earn games or one that is all about NFTs.
There is also the innovation they can bring. Adding new features, ideas, and processes to existing chains with a lot of stakeholders is hard. A consensus may be slow to reach or it won’t be reached at all. Sidechains let new ideas be tested faster. And of course, if the ideas turn out to be good and useful, they can eventually be integrated into the main chain.
Plasma is an Ethereum-related technology that allows for the creation of so-called “child chains” that can process transactions before periodically being finalized on the Ethereum blockchain.
The Ethereum main chain then serves as a layer of trust and arbitration. The child chains essentially provide fast and low-cost transactions but only support a limited number of types such as token transfers and swaps.
What makes Plasma advantageous over some other implementations of this tech? It’s about how the child chains interact with the main chain.
Just like a sidechain, Plasma has a consensus mechanism that creates blocks but the root of each Plasma chain block is published to Ethereum. So, these roots basically act like “save points” in the blockchain. This alleviates one of the main concerns with sidechains: that they could stop producing blocks and lock up everyone’s funds.
This means that by design, Plasma is a safer tech than sidechains.
While some of the functionality is sacrificed for this extra security (remember Plasma cannot do general computation like Ethereum, only transactions and swaps) it’s worth it for most applications.
Plasma allows for faster and cheaper transactions while at the same time offering a very high level of security compared to non-Plasma sidechains.
This is why Plasma is one of the key components in what Polygon is trying to do.
We have now gone over in some detail through the tech behind Polygon that lets it do what it does. Now it’s time to see why does it all matters? What kind of benefits does this all bring to Ethereum and the world of blockchain in general?
What are some of the most interesting and exciting Polygon solutions that are out there and what do they do?
With all the buzz that Polygon has generated, it must be doing something (or a lot) right. Indeed, it is, since this technology is addressing some of the biggest issues around Ethereum while also building a new vision. For both Ethereum and the blockchain.
Central to this is the idea of interconnectedness that is enabled by Plasma and Polygon’s POS Chain among other solutions that are running on the network.
Here we’ll go over them to give you an understanding of why all of this matters and what can be expected in the future as technology starts maturing more and new things are implemented.
Over time, all this does have the potential to become very important for the future of exciting stuff such as the Metaverse and NFT trading. As more and more people get into these activities, more transactions will be made on the blockchains.
Being able to conduct them in a fast, cheap, and secure way will become paramount. And whoever gets there first will be very influential and also make a lot of money.
Ethereum has emerged, alongside Bitcoin, as the main player in the cryptocurrency space and one of the most popular platforms to use for various blockchain applications.
What sets apart Ethereum from other blockchains is the smart contract, essentially an app that runs on the blockchain. This “general computation” has enabled Ethereum to not just be a ledger of currency transactions but a platform on which apps can run.
This has seen Ethereum become home to decentralized apps (Dapps) that run the gamut from finance to NFTs to play to earn games.
But it’s exactly this popularity in various applications that has caused gas fees (transaction costs) to become very high on the Ethereum Mainnet. In particular, the rise of NFTs has dramatically increased transaction volumes.
This is a problem, since for some smaller transactions, gas fees have become prohibitively expensive.
What if you just want to transfer some Ether to a friend? Or pay for something that isn’t very expensive? The gas fees could easily be much higher than the value of the transaction.
It’s this challenge, the challenge of scalability and speed, that Polygon is most poised to solve.
With transactions moved off to the Plasma sidechains or the Polygon POS chain, they become faster and cheaper with a minimal sacrifice of security. And because Polygon is hard at work going from optimistic rollups to zk-rollups, security could be significantly improved very soon.
Another challenge for not just Ethereum but the blockchain space in general is interoperability and connection. As it stands, most chains are worlds unto themselves, relying on dedicated third-party exchanges to turn one cryptocurrency into another.
Technology such as Polygon could change all this. For instance, decentralized finance apps could run on Polygon and take assets from many different places.
Polygon Edge is one of the solutions used to build Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks, written in the programming language Go.
What is it and how does it work? Edge is a custom-built Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) implementation which allows developers to continue building their chains using whatever smart contract languages they are familiar and comfortable with such as Solidity or Vyper.
Edge is a modular system focused on extensibility and developer experience. It supports some of the most popular wallets such as MetaMask, and is compatible with Ethereum tools and libraries.
It supports communication with multiple blockchain networks, enabling transfers of tokens using the centralized bridge solution. It uses the Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus mechanism which can work as a Proof of Authority or a Proof of Stake system.
Essentially, Edge is a set of tools that lets developers quickly bootstrap a sidechain that is compatible with Polygon and Ethereum.
Using Edge, it’s easy and streamlined to put up a new chain, and once there’s a new chain, certain transactions can be moved to it. The more sidechains there are, the more scalability there is.
Polygon PoS is a layer 2 scaling solution that achieves scale by using sidechains for off-chain computation. It achieves security by using the Plasma framework and a decentralized network of PoS validators.
The native token of this system, MATIC, is what is used to account and exchange gas payments on the network. MATIC is also used by validators to secure the network, ensure proper computation. It is then rewarded to those same validators when they secure blocks.
Architecturally, the PoS Chain consists of the Ethereum layer, which is a set of contracts on the Ethereum network. A Heimdall layer is a set of proof of stake Heimdall notes running in parallel to an Ethereum network and monitoring the contracts on that network.
Additionally, a Bor layer (this is a fork of Go Ethereum) is a set of block-producing nodes that are shuffled by the Heimdall nodes.
Staking (which is essential for how validation works here) is done on the set of smart contracts on the Ethereum network. Heimdall nodes are what monitors this set on the Ethereum network and they select the Bor nodes which produce the blocks on the Polygon PoS.
If all that sounds very technical, it’s because it is. But the gist of it is that the provides the security necessary for all of this to work properly.
Hermez is an open-source zk-rollup that is optimized for secure low-cost token transfers on Ethereum.
It is meant to integrate into the “fabric of Ethereum” as the developers say, in order to enable low-cost token transfers. With high throughput, a decentralized and open-source architecture, and computational integrity, Hermez is exactly the kind of solution that Polygon was made for.
Developers claim that this solution can reduce transfer costs up to 90%. In their vision, Hermez will become an inclusive, resilient, and efficient payment network for the next generation of cryptocurrencies to ensure everyone has the freedom to transact.
Another innovation of Hermez is in the way it handles block creation with a socially-responsible bent. Creators are selected through a burn auction, but rather than burning all of the tokens, 40% of the winning bid is returned as a donation to be reinvested in Ethereum public goods through Gitcoin funding grants in a mechanism called Proof-of-Donation.
Hermez is definitely a project to keep an eye on, due to the fact it attempts to solve an important problem around transaction speed and volume. As more and more people are brought into the fold of the blockchain and cryptocurrency transactions, the need for open and scalable solutions will only intensify.
Avail is a new project by the people behind Polygon, announced in June of 2021. They call it a “robust general purpose scalable data availability layer.” Yes, it’s definitely a mouthful and like everything else about the blockchain, sounds incredibly complicated, mostly because it is.
So, let’s unpack it all and see what it’s about.
As always with Polygon-related projects, it is touted as a completely new take on how future blockchains would work.
The focus of this project is on data availability. Essentially, a new type of blockchain will check the order of and the deposited data before sending confirmation to the consensus and thus providing a verification of authenticity.
In turn, this provides a common data availability layer that can be used by execution environments such as standalone chains, sidechains, and off-chain scaling solutions. In the long term, Polygon developers hope that this will enable a wide variety of experimentation on the execution environment side.
So, the point is to create a system where standalone chains and side-chains can bootstrap validator security without having to create and manage their own set of validators.
Most Polygon solutions are about increasing connectivity between chains and so is the case with this one. Avail should make it easier to run sidechains and also more secure.
The rise of decentralized finance has created sizeable congestion on the Ethereum network and is part of the reason why gas fees have ballooned.
Addressing this is one of the main objectives of Polygon in general. But the developers have also launched Nightfall, a solution aimed more than institutional and enterprise users, especially investors.
One of the main needs that such users have is privacy and Nightfall aims to address this. Polygon has developed this solution in cooperation with EY, one of the so-called Big Four accounting companies.
The idea is to make it easy to conduct transactions for enterprises. This is achieved by using an optimistic rollup layer that lets other actors check for errors in transactions and blocks that are proposed on the chain and submit fraud proofs. The zero-knowledge proof layer is used for privacy while the optimistic rollups enable scalability.
Nightfall enables transactions that are cheap, secure, and private. Corporate, enterprise, and institutional actors such as investors can use it to make private transactions on the public Ethereum network.
Polygon Zero is yet another of the zero-knowledge rollup implementations made by the project’s developers. What sets this one part is “the power of Plonky2.”
While that name is quite funny, the “prover system” actually does something very useful. Namely, it is able to generate ZK proofs much faster than any other tech.
This allows for what is called “horizontal scalability” meaning that the protocol is not limited by the weakest node in the network but only by the total computational power available.
In practical terms, Plonky2/Polygon Zero can generate ZK proofs in 170 milliseconds on a commodity laptop.
Transactions can be executed off-chain and then efficiently proven to Ethereum. Which, basically, is the entire point of Polygon.
Obviously, any solution that increases security while also increasing speed is exactly what the blockchain needs right now. This is why ZK-rollups are so important and why so many of the Polygon projects are aimed in that direction.
One of the main benefits of Polygon is its ability to connect different chains into one “internet of blockchains” in addition to making transactions cheaper and faster.
A key component of this is called bridging. That is what allows Polygon to transfer data between itself and Ethereum (and one perhaps to other blockchain networks too).
As the number of different chains is growing, transferring data between them has been challenging in crypto space. This is especially important for Dapps which want to target as many users as possible.
So, in order for users to interact with Dapps, assets must be transferred to Polygon. This is achieved through a process called bridging. There are two Polygon Bridges: the POS Bridge and the Plasma Bridge (we explained them above).
They can both move stuff from Polygon to Ethereum, but utilize different security mechanisms.
In short, the point of Bridges and the process called “bridging” is to move data (tokens, blocks, assets) to and from the many sidechains using Polygon tech into the main Ethereum network. This, essentially, right now, is the entire point of Polygon.
It’s only through bridging that data can move between chains, and that is what allows for the interconnected and interoperable world of blockchain that is at the heart of the Polygon vision.
In one word, yes.
Basically, gas fees exist to quantify and compensate for the computing power that’s necessary to process and validate transactions.
Ethereum miners are given these gas fees as a reward for verifying and processing transactions, just the same as on the Bitcoin blockchain. This arrangement is necessary in order for a permissionless network (which blockchains are) to remain secure and trustworthy.
Now, the reason why gas fees are such a stumbling block on the Ethereum network while not really being a big deal for Bitcoin, is that Ethereum is not just about token transactions, it can perform general computation as well thanks to the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Since Polygon is compatible with the EVM and because transactions on the chains built on Polygon also need verification and processing, there are gas fees here too.
Luckily, because tech like Nightfall, Plasma, and POS, do what they do, transaction (that is gas) fees on Polygon remain much lower than on the Ethereum Mainnet, despite occasional spikes caused by heavy Dapp use and NFT trading.
Web3 is the newest, and if you ask some people, the most exciting concept for the future of the Internet. What is it exactly?
Well, it’s a decentralized Internet that puts users in control, to summarize it briefly. It relies on technology such as the blockchain that allows for distributed and permissionless networks outside of the control of the so-called Big Tech players.
Web3 is all about Dapps, especially decentralized finance ones, such as Hermez, that are supposed to allow free transfer of assets and value across the Internet without any intermediaries in a way that is secure and fast.
This vision of the future of the Internet is also tightly interwoven with the Metaverse, especially those Metaverse implementations that run on the blockchain (usually Ethereum) such as Decentraland and Cryptovoxels.
So, where does Polygon fit into this idea?
Well, as more and more people get into the Metaverse, NFT art collection, trading with crypto, and other activities that will be central to Web3, there will also be many more transactions on the blockchains.
And none of it will actually work properly if gas fees are very high. How can you trade a nice NFT avatar hat in a game with a friend if the transaction cost goes several times over the value of the actual item?
Not to mention possible slowdowns that negatively impact user experience and engagement. The solution is obviously to find a way for transactions to be fast and cheap while still retaining most of the security features.
Polygon is one such solution. And as such, it could become very important for Web3. Remember that this idea is all about openness, interconnection, scalability, and interoperability. That is exactly what Web3 needs if it is to become the next big thing.
What are the top 5 projects running on the Polygon network?
It’s hard to count just how many Dapps are actually running across Polygon’s vast sidechains. The ecosystem is vast, and has DAOs, wallets, DeFis, NFTs, and various tools running in it.
So, we’ve prepared a list of the top five most interesting and popular to give you an idea of what’s going on.
Quickswap
A decentralized permissionless exchange (DEX), Quickswap is a Dapp that is powered by Polygon’s layer 2 scalability infrastructure. Using layer 2 for transactions, Quickswap allows for trading any ERC20 assets at fast speeds with near-zero gas costs.
It’s a great option for those who hold a lot of different tokens and want to exchange them for one another.
Arc8
Arc8 is one of those play to earn that are very popular right now. When players download the app (for Android and iOS) they can compete in various games from versions of Solitaire to a bite-sized RPG to fast racers that require lightning-fast reflexes.
It’s a very enticing concept for gamers who can now earn actual tangible rewards for what they’ll be doing anyway. Arc8 is powered by the token GMEE which is available for purchase on exchanges.
Players then compete head-to-head and earn rewards. It’s an exciting meeting of eSports and the blockchain, basically.
Aavegotchi
Did you enjoy Tamagotchis when you were a kid? Want to recapture that feeling of caring for a little digital creature but also maybe make money in the process?
Then Aavegotchi is the Dapp for you.
These are rare crypto collectibles living on Ethereum and Polygon backed by ERC721 tokens. There’s a lot to do with these ghostly creatures, at least of all trying to turn the really rare ones for profit.
The game has introduced many innovations into the blockchain and play to earn sphere including collateral stakes, dynamic rarity, DAO game mechanics and more.
Coorest
For people whose interests lean more towards environmentalism, there’s a Dapp for that on Polygon too.
This Dapp is all about yield-bearing assets and CO2 tokens that can be traded on the blockchain.
The goal is to create an ecosystem for farm and agricultural investing that ensure a sustainable mode for CO2 compensation.
All of this is done through a concept called proof of carbon compensation. Via the platform, retail and institutional investors will be able to compensate their carbon footprint by buying and burning tokens, giving them proof of compensation in return.
Right now. Coorest is in the idea stage, with a white paper released and the Dapp launching soon. But you can buy a pretty NFT tree from them right now, so that’s something.
Gelato Network
Let’s say that you’re a developer working on a Web3 project and you need to automate some tedious work of smart contract executions on EVM-compatible chains.
What you’ll want then are bots. Now, it should be said, not all bots are bad. This isn’t about hacking or posting annoying comments on social networks.
Instead, it’s about automating trading actions on decentralized exchanges.
This is very helpful for developers of such Dapps that require a lot of routine and same transactions to be completed over and over.
Gelato Network supports the Ethereum, Polygon, Fanton, Arbitrum, Binance Smart Chain, and Avalanche.
Polygon (or MATIC Network as it used to be called) is one of the few projects that are known as layer 2 scalability solutions. Some of the other popular ones are Avalanche and Arbitrum.
But there’s definitely the most buzz around Polygon. Polygon was renamed in February 2021 when it also pivoted from providing just a sidechain solution for Ethereum to its current goals of increased interoperability and being an integral part of the Ethereum ecosystem.
Since then, its popularity has skyrocketed and its token MATIC has increased in value, seeming somewhat resistant to fluctuations that have occurred in the crypto world at the beginning of 2022.
Now, the developers have also launched a host of new solutions such as Nightfall, Zero, and Hermez, all aimed at addressing various challenges of Ethereum and making it faster, cheaper, and secure.
Polygon is not the only “internet of blockchains” attempt of course. Polkadot and Cosoms have also emerged as competitors in this space. They all essentially want to create a Web3 “internet of blockchains” that will feature true interoperability and the ability to send crypto assets (tokens, NFTS, etc.) from one chain to the other without limitations.
As it stands, any one of these projects could emerge as the leading solutions in the field. It’s too early to tell what the future of Web3, Metaverse, and decentralized finance is, but it’s likely it will involve blockchain scaling and interoperability solutions.
It was in 2021 when Polygon first started gathering a lot of buzz and its coin, MATIC, surged. This was driven largely by the explosion of interest in NFTs, play to earn games, and decentralized finance.
While the world is getting to know the likes of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club and getting hyped to participate in the latest online trend, the gas fees on Ethereum went up because of all the blockchain activity.
It’s no wonder that many developers and users began flocking to Polygon’s scaling solutions, which in turn sent the price of MATIC shooting up.
In reality, what happened is very simple. So many Dapp developers and NFT artists needed a way to enable various actions on the blockchain. But on the Ethereum Mainnet, those transactions can be very expensive due to gas fees. Prohibitively so. And a lot of Dapps, NFT collections, and P2E games by nature require a lot of transactions.
Enter Polygon and the other few scaling and sidechain solutions.
Perhaps it was fortuitous that all this coincided with the rebrand for Polygon (previously known as Matic Network) and them unveiling their vision for the “internet of blockchains.” It certainly got people interested and talking.
According Dune Analytics, Polygon’s bridges currently hold around $6.6 billion in value, second only to Avalanche which holds $7.8 billion. Comparatively, Arbitrum, another layer 2 contender, holds $2.5 billion.
This definitely speaks of how popular Polygon has become and in a very short period of time. Of course, Web3 and Metaverse are all the rage right now, and Polygon plays right into that.
In terms of popularity one of the best ways to measure it when it comes to any online app or solution is by the number of users.
According to data from Polygonscan, the Polygon network had its first spike of users in June of 2021 when the number of active PoS chain addresses claimed to over 100,000 users. Active addresses mean unique wallet addresses that had transactions on the chain as senders or receivers.
October was a banner month for the network when the number of users ballooned to nearly 500,000 actually managing to surpass the Ethereum Mainnet. January 2022 saw the number climb even higher to nearly 600,000.
Since then, the user numbers have stabilized at around 300,000.
These user counts are just additional proof of Polygon’s popularity.
Another sign of the network’s popularity can be glimpsed through the number of people using the popular OpenSea NFT platform through the Polygon network. According to Dune Analytics, this number has steadily grown since September of 2020, reaching over a million users in February of 2022.
It’s not a surprise that Polygon is used so much for NFT purposes, since gas fees are an important factor for NFT collectors and traders.
Even right now, Polygon is clearly very useful. That’s reflected in the rising popularity and the high user numbers. But, why all the buzz in the industry around it and other scalability solutions?
Exactly what is the future hinted at here?
Everyone is talking about Metaverse and Web3 and scalability solutions are a part of all this. If a lot of people get into this online second life and the associated NFT, play to earn games, and other digital pastimes, this will generate a lot of activity on the blockchain.
Then also, there are decentralized finance apps which to a lot of people represent the future of online finance. Away from banks and classic institutions, allowing for things like microloans, crowdfunding and more.
Like everything else in the world, all of this will require infrastructure to support it. That is what Polkadot, Cosmos, Ethereum, and Polygon want to eventually become. The race is on to be the solution that will power web3 and Metaverse.
Another good way to judge the popularity of Polygon is to see just how many Dapps are running on it. Dapps, of course, are distributed apps. Unlike “classic” apps you have on your computer and phone that are running from a server farm somewhere and are controlled by a single entity, Dapps run on the blockchain.
On Polygon, there are currently over 7000 Dapps running as of January 2022. That’s quite a lot. This means there are a massive number of developers choosing Polygon as the home for their projects.
Why are so many Dapp devs choosing Polygon? Gas fees mostly. Running a Dapp on Ethereum can be both expensive and slow as all transactions are “written” directly into the main ledger. But, if your Dapp runs on Polygon instead, then all those many transactions are bundled together saving massively on gas.
So, with over 7000 Dapps running, it can be said that Polygon is one of the most, if not the most, popular blockchain platforms for DeFi development. Many say that decentralized finance is the future of all finance, and if that’s true, Polygon will be a big part of that future.
On the value front, MATIC has been steadily rising for the last year. That’s not surprising at all, given the buzz surrounding its parent network Polygon.
Its rise has been nothing short of meteoric. A year ago, MATIC stood at around $0.8 and since May of last year, when the buzz started, it has climbed to a steady range of about $1.8-$2.0.
Now clearly, cryptocurrency prices are all very volatile, but this is as good an indication as any of Polygon’s popularity.
The value of the MATIC coin, used for staking and gas fees on the network, reflects the utility of this coin. As more people and Dapp developers get aboard, its value will be in line with that.
Like any proper coin, MATIC can be purchased for fiat currencies at any of the major exchanges such as Binance or Crypto.com.
If you hold other cryptocurrencies, you can also exchange them for MATIC. If your currency is already on the Polygon network, then you can a DEX Dapp such as QuickSwap to quickly exchange with minimal fees.
Most likely, you don’t own any and the ones you do aren’t on Polygon. No problem.
If you don’t currently have any cryptos or want to purchase with fiat, the easiest option is to first purchase MATIC on Binance or Crypto.com. Then withdraw your MATIC to a wallet of your choice. Popular wallet choices for Polygon’s network include MetaMask, Exodus, and many others.
Whatever hardware, software, or cloud wallet you have will most likely be able to connect to the Polygon network and send and receive MATIC tokens.
This means that getting ahold of MATIC is easy and fast. Also, for now at least, minimal transactions for purchasing MATIC with fiat currency are low. Binance will only ask for €15, for instance. If you just want to dip your toes, now is the time.
It’s hard to speculate on how the price of any token will go. But if current events are any indication, there’s reason to be optimistic about MATIC.
The network had a great month in October of last year, when the number of users grew to around 500,000, surpassing the Ethereum Mainnet. In January 2022, the figure had risen to about 600,000.
This is good news, as well as the 7000 Dapps that are currently running on the Polygon network.
Add to this all the buzz around “internet of Blockchains” and the fact that MATIC has been quite resistant to the general crypto downturn that happened in the early months of 2022, and again, there’s reason to be optimistic about it.
But, it’s important to consider that Polygon is not alone in its vision. Polkadot, Cosmos, Avalanche, Arbitrum, and others are all trying to crack the same Ethereum and Blockchain challenges. Nobody knows right now who will emerge as the main and leading solution, and logically, whoever does will also have the most valuable token.
Of course, investing in any cryptocurrency is extremely risky, so if your thoughts are going in that direction, caution is always advised.
The two main uses of MATIC are staking to become a validator on the PoS chain and paying gas fees on the Polygon network. So, you’ll always need at least some MATIC if you’re doing transactions on Polygon even if you don’t want to stake or do anything else.
Luckily both MATIC and the gas fees are cheap right now. Outside of this, there’s no reason why you couldn’t send some MATIC to pay for something, if that person will accept it
Another fun use of MATIC is for purchasing various meme coins. There’s no reason why you couldn’t become a Dogelon Mars (ELON) millionaire right now. All you need to do is head over to a DEX and spend a few MATIC to become rich in meaningless data held on a blockchain. What a time to be alive.
After all these technical guides and talking about the future of the blockchain and Internet, it’s time to finally see what fun uses Polygon and MATIC have. Can you buy NFTs? Can you use it in the Metaverse? Are there implications for the iGaming industry?
The answer to some of these questions is yes.
The blockchain and by extension Polygon have implications for all these areas.
It’s a really interesting and unique technology that promises to address a lot of problems not just in the blockchain sector, but also in Metaverse and web3. These are all fresh perspectives on the Internet and how we may utilize it.
Note, however, that Polygon is really at heart an infrastructural solution. That means that, at least right now, the uses of all this for direct engagement with iGaming, NFTs, and Metaverse are limited. But all that can easily change. And there are fun things you can do right now with Polygon and MATIC.
So, let’s get right into it.
In the Metaverse field, there are many applications that can take advantage of Polygon.
We have already mentioned the gas fees many times, but we’ll mention them again, because they’re a real bother. This is why already some Metaverse projects are choosing to run on both Ethereum and Polygon to give users more options.
And many of the users are choosing Polygon because of the lower gas fees and faster transactions.
It’s this that might make Polygon even more popular for Metaverse applications than it already is.
In many of the Metaverse worlds there are NFT items and/or play to earn mechanics. These rely on the blockchain to verify uniqueness, authenticity, and ownership. With more people playing, the transaction number increases as well.
And since Ethereum is famously congested… you get the rest. Using solutions such as Polygon allows for the higher volume of transactions that are necessary for NFT trading, play to earn games, and Metaverse to function as intended.
With all of the above said, let’s now look at some of the projects in the Metaverse space that are utilizing Polygon for various reasons.
Decentraland
Decentraland is a name you’ll see often when people are talking about Metaverse. It’s a virtual world running on the Ethereum network where players can enjoy games, social activities, and much more.
Like many Ethereum-based projects, Decentraland has partnered with Polygon to offer low cost and fast transactions. Scenes in Decentraland can now choose to use the Polygon network to handle transactions. What’s really good for players is that this is handled via meta-transactions so they don’t have to switch networks in their browsers.
Decentraland also uses Polygon to handle NFT item transactions in its Marketplace.
Aavegotchi
This NFT game featuring cute pixelated ghosts is also transitioning from Ethereum to Polygon. This was approved with a 76% vote through its DAO and was mainly triggered by high gas fees on Ethereum. At one point, it would have cost a new player over $300 in gas fees just to begin playing by opening a portal from which the Aavegotchis are summoned.
Neon District
This is a game for players that are looking for something a bit edgy and gritty. Set in a dystopian cyberpunk city, it features pizza delivery and street fights to the death.
A unique system makes NFTs worth more the more players develop them.
It doesn’t have its own coin, yet. But there are two versions, one on Ethereum and one on Polygon and it’s not surprising that the Polygon one is more popular due to lower costs and faster transaction times.
Terra Virtua Kolect
And here’s another NFT-based game that’s moved from Ethereum to Polygon. A collectibles platform available on mobile PC, it provides a unique AR and VR experience.
Can you guess why it moved to Polygon in August of 2021? That’s right, lower gas fees and faster transactions. There’s a clear trend right now, in which many Metaverses are moving to Polygon in order to take advantage of its more flexible and faster infrastructure when compared to Ethereum.
Next Earth
Next Earth is another Metaverse project that gives true digital ownership over avatars and lets players decide important things through DAOs.
It migrated from the Binance Smart Chain to Polygon at the beginning of 2022.
Right now, the project is focused on building a self-sustaining economy and it is clear why Polygon was the best choice of network for that with its fast and cheap transactions.
Next Earth has also recently launched its own token, also running on Polygon.
While you cannot use MATIC to gamble, at least yet, there are other ways in which it is likely that Polygon and the world of the sidechains might meet in the future.
For instance, Polygon has recently implemented Verifiable Random Function, a technology made by the start-up Chainlink. This tech is all about provable randomness, such as with NFTs and other game items. As digital ownership of in-game items increases, players will want to know for sure that what they have is unique and fairly generated.
There are obvious implications for iGaming here. As gambling takes off in Metaverse, provable randomness will become very important and that is something that the iGaming industry is really good at doing.
For now, however, all of this is hypothetical. But it is likely that as more and activities move to Metaverse, so will gambling. Decentral Games already operate a few casinos in Decentraland. These currently run on Ethereum and MATIC is not one of the currencies that can be used. But that can change very easily.
As MATIC is primarily a utility token, you cannot use it right now to buy NFTs directly. But you can still benefit from using the Polygon network for your NFT needs.
This is because the Polygon network has lower gas fees and the transactions are faster.
OpenSea, one of the most popular NFT marketplaces, allows for transactions to be made on Polygon. Melon, an NFT marketplace for influencers, runs on the Polygon network and uses WETH (Wrapped Ethereum) running on Polygon.
Decentraland also has in-games assets that can be purchased with its token MANA on the Polygon network.
Many Metaverses also feature support for Polygon in one form or another. For those who plan on purchasing and trading a lot of NFTs, it makes sense to switch over to Polygon due to the better transaction environment.
If for any reason, you ever want to transfer your tokens and NFTs from Polygon to Ethereum Mainnet, that can be easily achieved through bridging. So, there’s really no reason not to give Polygon a try, as you only stand to benefit from it.
We have said before that the rise in Polygon’s popularity has been at least partly driven by the increase in the volume of NFT trade.
So, it’s clear from there that Polygon can indeed make it better. How exactly?
Through faster and cheaper transactions, basically. When you purchase an NFT, you want the gas fees to be as low as possible. It’s the same when you’re selling as well. Why would you let exorbitant gas fees cut into your profit?
With Polygon you don’t have to. Polygon’s gas fees are orders of magnitude lower than those of Ethereum.
And because Polygon is so committed to Ethereum and security, it has emerged as a reputable and trustworthy blockchain network. So, this isn’t moving your tokens and NFTs to some shady chain where God knows what can happen to it.
Polygon is used and trusted by millions.
All in all, Polygon is fast, cheap, and safe. What more could a blockchain, Metaverse, or NFT enthusiast ask for?
