The cryptocurrency industry is lucrative, but sometimes it takes you for a wild ride. A few coins have crashed and burned after the recent market fall. However, there’s no doubt that the cutting-edge technology that underpins cryptocurrency will alter the way that people see money and finance.

But there are several myths floating around regarding cryptos. Let’s bust them one by one.

1. Cryptocurrencies are only used for criminal activities.

No, they are not. Just like fiat currency, anybody can use cryptocurrencies for transactions, whatever the reason. It’s a stereotype that cryptocurrencies are only used for criminal activity. Many people think this way due to the unregulated nature of digital currency.

But governments in several countries have taken steps to regulate cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies just enable transactions between two parties, and they are being used by individuals and businesses on a large scale.

2. Cryptocurrencies can replace fiat currency.

That’s over-ambitious and somewhat utopian. Although cryptocurrency can enable and facilitate many difficult transactions, particularly international money transfers and transactions in the digital/metaverse space, it cannot effectively replace fiat currency as a default mode of payment.

If you are wondering why not, here are the reasons:

-The “transaction fee” associated with facilitating transactions on cryptocurrencies is far more than the cost of using the current banking infrastructure.

-Transactions are slow. Since every transaction must be validated and is subject to the number of crypto validators or “miners” on a blockchain, it can take a couple of minutes (sometimes more than 10 to 15 minutes) for one transaction to go through.

-Cryptocurrencies are prone to sudden price changes, making them volatile.

3. Crypto is a “big bubble”

For years, people have been referring to cryptocurrencies as a bubble that will eventually burst and cease to exist. It’s true that the crypto market and many coins have crashed several times, but that doesn’t mean that the underlying technologies behind cryptocurrencies and NFTs are going to disappear. And when it comes to market crashes, every asset class is prone to that.

It should be noted that crypto as an industry is worth billions of dollars and has many use cases for businesses as well as for individuals. They are prone to sudden movements, but they are useful as they solve a host of problems in the real world.

4. Crypto transactions are anonymous

To be honest, crypto transactions are pseudo-anonymous, meaning that they can be tracked down if needed. Crypto enables anonymity in terms of your personal details like your name, address, and contact information.

However, transactions made on Blockchain are recorded with the sender’s and receiver’s crypto-wallet addresses. In many countries, authorities have made KYC mandatory for exchanges, which means your wallet address will be tracked down eventually.

5. Cryptocurrency is a scam and prone to hacks.

It’s true that you can be lured into cryptocurrency scams and, in the case of mishandling of cryptos, you can get hacked. There’s no denying that. But you have to understand that legitimate cryptocurrencies are not a scam. There is a capable infrastructure behind the scenes that records all the transactions, known as blockchain. If you buy and sell crypto sensibly, from trusted exchanges, there’s no scam in this process.

Moreover, you should have a basic understanding of crypto. Please keep your “keys” safe and sound to avoid hacks. See, all you have to do is follow best practices to keep your assets safe.

With sensible usage and regulations, crypto can be a win-win for everyone. And it can propel innovation forward.

The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.

Disclaimer: The text below is an advertorial article that was not written by Cryptonews.com journalists.

Investing in fundamentally strong projects is one way of making money in the crypto market. However, with thousands of projects flooding the space every day, it takes a lot of research to thread the needle. Even then, there’s no guarantee for long-term appreciation.

One of the best ways to survive crypto winter is to have a passive source of income, which is now possible with the introduction of Decentralized Finance. It is easy to setup and requires only little effort to maintain a growing portfolio. Below are two simple ways to see your money compound over time.

Staking ADA (Cardano)

With a proof-of-stake mechanism, Cardano is the ultimate choice when it comes to putting some extra cash in your pocket. You can either stake ADA by starting your own stake pool or delegate it to a reputed one.  The first option is more rewarding, but you have to invest in acquiring technical knowledge and maintaining a reliable server. If that’s not in your wheelhouse, you can still earn good passive income by delegating your ADA to existing pools.

Yoroi and Daedalus are two popular Cardano wallets that allow users to stake ADA, with a typical payout ranging between 3-6%.  For investors with the limited technical know-how of wallets, they can simply stake ADA on crypto exchanges like Binance and Gemini. With more than 70% of the supply at stake, Cardano is one of the most reliable income generators in the crypto-verse.

Holding Gnox Token (GNOX)

In a bid to drive greater adoption, Gnox simplifies DeFi earnings even for a layman. Anyone can buy and hold GNOX to earn consistent passive rewards distributed by the protocol. There’s no need to set up any wallets or delegate your holdings to a validator. The Gnoxian ecosystem works on the reflection model where the treasury funds are invested into liquidity pools and the proceeds from these investments are shared with GNOX token holders.

In addition to DeFi rewards, holders also receive 1% of the tax applied on each transaction. The rewards grow proportionally to the number of tokens in eligible wallets, and they will continue to appreciate with the growing strength of the treasury. Long-term holders can greatly benefit from this new standard in tokenomics that provides yield farming as a safe service with guaranteed returns.

Join presale: https://presale.gnox.io/register

Website: https://Gnox.io

Telegram: https://t.me/gnoxfinancial

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/gnox_io

Tron is a decentralised, smart contract-compatible Layer One blockchain. On it, developers can build decentralised apps, issue tokens, process transactions, and use decentralised financial instruments for staking, lending, and trading. Think of Tron like Ethereum, and TRX like the token Ether. In the words of Tron’s founder, Tron is to Ethereum what Android is to iPhone.

Tron aims to decentralise the web through smart contracts and decentralised applications. The idea is to create a net in which there are no middlemen or centralised powers. They call this vision ‘Web 4.0.’

What is Web 4.0?

Think of web 4.0 like BitTorrent-The world’s ultimate file sharing platform. BitTorrent was the largest peer-to-peer file sharing hotspot on the internet. With over 100,000,000 active users. On the site, users could upload any file, and any user could access and download it. No restrictions.

Tron actually acquired BitTorrent in 2018.

Tron also purchased a decentralised social network called Steemit which possessed an active, raving user-base that held independence and decentralisation as a core value. These users don’t need to worry about the platform taking their accounts down for expressing an unpopular opinion or belief.

The web as of today is incredible, and there is no doubt we are living in an incredible time, especially for content creators. However, the regulations, rules and restrictions placed on these creators by large conglomerate corporations seem pretty far from a utopia.

The entertainment industry 

To better understand the current state of the internet in comparison to Web 4.0 let’s look at the online video industry. 

Right now, if you’re a creator who wants to produce videos and share them with the world in hopes of making money, no matter how independent you want to be, you are at the whims of companies such as YouTube, Instagram, and Vimeo. In fairness, uploading your content to these platforms is very easy, and the companies do have a very effective method for connecting advertisers and creators so money and promotion can be attained on both sides.

These platforms are great, but, the creator doesn’t have control over their work. At the snap of a finger, the platform can take the content down, can restrict it in select countries, and monetisation of content largely falls into the platform’s hands. YouTube creators are estimated to make sub 1% of advert revenue generated on the videos of content creators.

The music industry 

The same goes for the music industry. Artists are tied into strict contracts that leave the majority of money generated from the art in the hands of the record companies. We can see with Web 4.0, that artists are finally taking control back and getting their fair share. Just recently, Snoop Dogg sold 44 million dollars worth of NFTs connected to his latest album. No middlemen involved. Web 4.0 allowed Snoop’s fans to buy directly from him.

Note, Tron isn’t solely focusing on file-sharing, content and social platforms. Tron is also attempting to lead the change in the decentralised finance space, a sector very popular in the cryptocurrency world.

Tron launched its own decentralised exchange through which users can exchange tokens, provide liquidity and partake in staking. They also launched the JUST network.

The gaming industry 

Last but not least. TRON is dabbling in the crypto gaming space which has been booming with games like Axie infinity and Star AtlasGames of the present typically ask players to pay to win. The more you put into a game, the more you get, the easier it is to win. The beauty of the games being built on Web 4.0, is that instead of the pay-to win-model, a new play to earn model has begun to cement itself.

The wide variety of sectors TRON is targeting means the utility token associated with the TRON ecosystem, TRX, has rocketed in value. Like Ether for Ethereum, and BNB for Binance smart chain, think of TRX as the fuel that TRON runs on, like gas to power a car, or the electricity that powers a house.

TRX use cases

1. Grants users of the TRON network voting rights and governance of the network.
2. Allows developers to develop, build and issue decentralised apps and tokens in the TRON ecosystem.
3. Make payments over the network from peer-to-peer transactions, and pay gas fees to keep the network operable.

Ethereum vs Tron

In the words of Tron founder and CEO— “Ethereum is like the iPhone, Tron is like Android. At the end of the day, everyone will have a smartphone, but everyone can not afford an iPhone. What matters most is affordability and scalability.”

“Tron will centrally have a greater market share than Ethereum like Android does.”

This being said, as of 2022 the projects are slowly diverging. TRON did hold many advantages over Ethereum when it came to the infamous issues of blockchain scalability. But Ethereum and many other blockchains including Solana, Cardano and Algorand are tackling scalability themselves.

So the question becomes if Tron is Ethereum’s Android, which Android is it? Are we looking at a powerhouse like Samsung or Google, or are we looking at cPhone, or telePhonie? We made the last two up, but you get the point. There are lots of blockchains out there looking to topple Ethereum, and Tron is a very cool project, but all things considered, The statement made by Tron’s Founder is very grande.  

Solving Ethereum’s scalability issues

The mechanisms used by both are different. Ethereum currently uses the OG consensus mechanism of Proof of Work (PoW) in which validators compete to solve puzzles in order to earn a reward for completing the puzzles. This is not an effective method for fast, affordable transactions. Typical Ethereum transaction fees are around $20, compared to $0 on Tron which uses a different consensus mechanism.

Note, Ethereum is looking to move to a mechanism called proof of stake, in which users stake their Ether tokens and in return, operate a Validator’s node. In return for staking their tokens, they earn a piece of every transaction that’s processed. For effective measures on dealing with gas fees check out our crypto school piece on gas fees.

So what mechanism does Tron use? Tron uses a consensus mechanism called ‘delegated proof of stake’ (DPoS)

Delegated proof of stake.

Delegated proof of stake is similar to the proof of stake. However, to tackle issues of decentralisation, if you don’t have enough tokens to stake and become a validator, you can borrow your coins to someone who can and still benefit from the validating

This is how Tron is able to achieve a transaction cost of $0.

Transactions per second:

Ethereum: 15

Tron: 2,000

Time to confirm a block

Ethereum: 1 block every 15 seconds

Tron: 3 blocks every one second

Transaction fees

Ethereum: $20

Tron: Free

So, looking at the networks objectively, it’s clear that Tron offers a more scalable solution. It’s cheaper and faster. However, Tron falls short in comparison to Ethereum when it comes to relevancy. Ethereum has a much greater market cap and a lot more liquidity. There is more money, more users, more applications and more substance on Ethereum. Think of Ethereum as the coolest club in the world, and Tron as a great club, that unfortunately just doesn’t have the recognition.

For Cryptonary’s transparent opinion on TRON, check out the Ratings Guide here.

Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVICE. Only you are responsible for any capital-related decisions you make and only you are accountable for the results.

The Ethereum blockchain is by far the most developed of its kind. The size of its user base and the sheer number of developers building on the platform is incomparable to the other blockchains in its realm. However, the Ethereum blockchain is plagued with several issues. Specifically, high costs and slow transaction times.

That’s where Tezos comes in. Tezos is a proof of stake blockchain built to evolve over time without the need for a hard fork. It has grown substantially over the past two years. However, it is important to note that there are pros and cons to this.

Let’s dive in! Learn what Tezos is, how it works, what it’s trying to accomplish, and whether you should be interested in it

What is Tezos?

It’s a self-amending layer 1 blockchain (L1). An L1 is essentially a platform on which applications can be built, smart contracts can be executed, and tokens can be created. 

Examples of L1s include Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche. The main purpose of these platforms is to enable developers to build products in a decentralised manner. Users can then interact with these products without the need for a middleman. 

Entertainment, social media, finance and other fields have made their way into the decentralised world through these dApps (decentralised applications). L1 blockchains are the foundations on which all of this is built. Picture a city-the buildings themselves are the dApps, and the land they’re building on is the L1.

What makes Tezos special is that it’s designed to evolve and develop over time. Token holders who stake their Tez (Tezos utility token also known as XTZ) can vote on the changes they want to see. This gives governance of the blockchain to token holders.

This process is called ‘baking’, in which users stake 8,000 XTZ tokens to become eligible.

Stakers can vote on proposals in a four-step procedure that lasts 23 days. Proposals voted on by the majority are then put in a test net and if approved, go live within 2 days.

This is a type of governance which can be seen across a wide array of blockchains in the cryptocurrency space. 

Tezos consensus mechanism – Proof of Stake

To partake, holders must stake their tokens. Staking does two things. Firstly, it secures the network and, secondly, stakers are rewarded with both governance and XTZ from transaction fees. This is known as a proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Tezos specifically uses a liquid-proof of stake method which basically means tokens don’t have to be locked in for a set period.

A few notes on proof of stake. The mechanism works differently from that of proof of work (the mechanism used by Ethereum).

The difference between PoW and PoS is that instead of anyone being able to validate transactions, validators must first stake tokens to have the chance to validate. There is also no block reward. Instead, validators are incentivised by taking a small fee from every transaction they validate.

This means the problem of high fees and slow transaction times faced by Ethereum are comfortably tackled by Tezos. Once again, there are always cons going in the opposite way. 

Note that Ethereum is planning to move to this PoS mechanism in 2022, and many other blockchains including Solana and Cardano also use PoS. Since demand is so high on Ethereum, this change alone probably won’t be enough to affect these fees, and further upgrades will be necessary.

The self-amendment process

Because the DeFi space is so new, problems are encountered every day. This means innovations and updates need to be made on a regular basis to keep things operating smoothly. Usually, it takes a lot of work to make these changes and updates, and sometimes the community disagrees with what should be done. This typically results in either a long wait time or a fork in the network. 

A fork requires people on the network to upgrade their software and sometimes hardware to continue securing or building on the network. Tezos resolves this issue by making it very easy to make changes on the network. Hard forks are also avoided. For more on hard forks check out our pieces on the hard fork that separated Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, and Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash respectively.

A big question we pose to you, as cool as this is, we must question the competency and intentions of the people voting in this process. We can’t always assume that the people voting on these decisions know what is best. 

The Granada upgrade

This was a development that occurred in 2021 in which block creation time was reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds. It also resulted in a reduction in gas costs by 33% for smart contracts.

Smart contract evolution

Like many other L1s, Tezos is smart contract compatible, which is why dApps can be built on it. What’s cool about Tezos is the language that developers use to code on the platform. It’s called Michelson, and developers have many positive things to say about it including its high security and usability. Compared to Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), Michelson is very easy to build on, making it more accessible to newbie developers, however, this means apps already on Ethereum will have to be completely rebuilt in order to be deployed on Tezis, something that will, of course, be a hurdle to the expansion of the blockchain.

For Cryptonary’s transparent opinion on Tezos, access the Ratings Guide here.

Disclaimer: NOT FINANCIAL NOR INVESTMENT ADVICE. Only you are responsible for any capital-related decisions you make and only you are accountable for the results.

Smart contracts are one of the most innovative mechanisms to emerge in the 21st century. Smart contracts are basically agreements that can be written in code and stored on the blockchain so they can be tracked and authenticated. Think of them as a regular legal contract, but instead of a lawyer verifying terms, the verifying is done by a computer.

Platforms like Ethereum first popularised smart contracts. As Ethereum is the second-biggest cryptocurrency, there was a lot of liquidity (money) involved, which led to the development of lots of apps and financial instruments on the blockchain. While Ethereum was the first, it is far from the last. Due to the scalability issues Ethereum faces, a huge space in the market formed for other smart contract-enabled blockchains to emerge. Solana, Cardano, Avalanche and NEAR protocol are some of them.

The blockchains that are best able to tackle the issues Ethereum is facing are positioned to take a big share of the layer 1 blockchain market.

What Is NEAR Protocol (NEAR)?

NEAR Protocol is a layer-one blockchain designed to eliminate some of the scalability issues blockchains face; low transaction speeds, low throughput, and poor interoperability. Achieving this would make NEAR a perfect hub for developers looking to build decentralised apps.

Meeting the team

Erik Trautman, a Wall Street entrepreneur, and Illia Polosuckhin, an engineering manager at Google founded NEAR in 2020. The pair secured over $50 million in funding within 4 months thanks to their partnership with VC firm Y Combinator.

NEAR Protocol is led by its founders but run by the NEAR Collective, a community dedicated to updating the code and releasing updates to the ecosystem. Their goal is to build a platform that is secure and easy to use for developers and users alike.

How does Near work?

Delegated proof of stake.

Delegated proof of stake is similar to proof of stake. However, to tackle issues of decentralisation, if you don’t have enough tokens to stake and become a validator, you can lend your coins to someone who can and still benefit from validating. NEAR calls their DPoS mechanism ‘doomslug’. Quite the name!

Nightshade Technology

NEAR uses its Nightshade technology to improve transaction throughput massively. Nightshade is a variation of sharding. This involves individual sets of validators processing transactions in parallel across multiple sharded chains. Nightshade improves the overall capacity of the blockchain. Sharding occurs when data is split into smaller chunks for storage reasons. Picture a highway broken down into multiple roads to massively reduce congestion

As a result, the protocol achieves up to 100,000 transactions per second with near-instant transaction finality, whilst keeping transaction fees at virtually zero.

Human readable Addresses

NEAR Protocol also makes onboarding more user-friendly. It uses readable addresses (names) and builds decentralized applications with interfaces that are more similar to those people are familiar with (such as Apple and Android apps). For example, instead of using long wallet addresses, people see the names of people they are interacting with. This can be done on Ethereum. For example, we have Cryptonary.ETH. However, this cost us like $100. NEAR gave us Cryptonary.NEAR for free. Consider how much easier this makes the process of getting more people into crypto.

What else makes NEAR so special?

NEAR also make things easier for developers by providing them with simple components to help them start projects like token contracts or NFTs more quickly. This is similar to what Shopify and Wix do to help people launch businesses and websites.

The platform is also compatible with multiple wallet applications and includes interoperability modules to provide developers with a comprehensive, intuitive and scalable ecosystem.

Tokenomics

NEAR is an inflationary utility token similar to many others we have discussed throughout our Simply Explained series. New tokens come from rewards for stakers, and tokens can be used to govern the NEAR protocol.

Many early investors have their tokens locked until certain dates. Keep an eye on those dates as many early investors are expected to dump when their tokens when they’re unlocked which would crash the price.

So what do you think of NEAR Protocol? Are you invested, and if so why? How does it hold up against its competitors and do you think it can effectively tackle the scalability issues discussed above? Comment below.

For Cryptonary’s transparent opinion on NEAR, check out the Ratings Guide here.

Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVICE. Only you are responsible for any capital-related decisions you make and only you are accountable for the results.

What is Cosmos trying to do?

Simply put, the team at Cosmos is looking to solve the scaling and fragmentation problems that currently plague the crypto world.

Scalability issues, such as speed, affordability and accessibility make it difficult for beginners to enter the crypto space.

Interoperability (the interaction and communication between blockchains) is fragmented. We consistently see blockchains pop up but often, nothing gets built on them due to the difficulty of entry for developers.  

Fragmentation and Interoperability

Remember when you were a kid and half of your friends were on XBOX, and the other half were on PlayStation? It sucked right? It would be so much better if, regardless of what platform they were on, you could play the game with them. 

Well, this is what we mean by fragmentation. There are lots of blockchains out there, but very few of them can interact with one another.

Cosmos is making blockchain technology less complex for developers, by using a modular framework that simplifies decentralized apps.

They are also using something called an “Interblockchain Communication protocol.” This basically means they’re making it easier for blockchain networks to communicate with each other. This should, in theory, fix the issue of fragmentation that we went over in our gaming console analogy.

Speed and affordability

Like other projects in the space, Cosmos is looking to innovate past the proof of work (PoW) mechanism for verifying transactions. At this point, we are all aware of why PoW is so inefficient. Cosmos is looking to solve this issue through many scalability measures.

Cosmos, like many other modern projects in the cryptocurrency space such as Solana and Cardano, seeks to solve the issues of PoW by using a proof of stake (PoS) mechanism. 

Users stake their ATOM tokens, and in return, they can operate a Validators’ node. As a reward for staking their tokens, they earn a percentage of every transaction that’s processed. A nice addition that Cosmos has implemented for security purposes is that if nodes are found to be acting dishonestly they are penalised and lose their tokens. Also, the more ATOM tokens you choose to stake, the more likely you are to be chosen to validate.

Blockchain 3.0

Cosmos’ mission is to ensure that its infrastructure is easy to use. Its software development kit (Cosmos SDK)  focuses on transferability. This means a network can be easily built using code that’s already out there. It doesn’t need to be built from scratch.

The Cosmos SDK & Tendermint

The Cosmos SDK (software development kit) was used to build some high-value projects, for example, Terra. However, activity on Cosmos does not add a lot of value to its native token ATOM as there is not a lot of value accrual other than the purchase of the token for utility/governance/staking purposes. As a platform for settling transactions and building blockchains, it’s great. However, the real beneficiaries of Cosmos are the projects that are built using the technology.

Cosmos uses the Tendermint BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance) engine – an algorithm that allows developers to create custom blockchains on the Cosmos Hub, the intermediary between all blockchains on the Cosmos Network, without having to code them from scratch.

Share your thoughts below.

Disclaimer: NOT FINANCIAL NOR INVESTMENT ADVICE. Only you are responsible for any capital-related decisions you make and only you are accountable for the results.