# Crypto Structured Products

## Structured Products

Structured products are not new. They enable retail investors’ access to derivatives and other complex financial instruments. Usually the initial principal invested is guaranteed in these products. They are complex in nature and normally managed by institutional wealth managers. Crypto Structured Products are different in a lot of ways, but the fundamental principle of hedging risks and optimising returns stays the same. With Decentralised Finance increasingly gaining traction, crypto structured products certainly have a future. Several blockchain based projects are working towards making it accessible to more and more retail investors. Composable blockchain networks have made it possible to design combined products of underlying sub-assets

## Value driven crypto investments

Easy money making, which might be a goal for a lot of individuals investing in crypto initially, is not the right vision to begin with. Like any other conventional investment, sustained growth in the wealth invested in crypto is an imperative goal. Increasingly there is a shift in the core functionality of crypto protocols to achieve this. Projects in this space are evolving new strategies and functionalities to bind with investors who see value in the longer run. This draws investors’ attention towards the core value of a project. They stick to the investment for a longer period of time. This helps in many ways. One of which is - changing the perception towards investments in crypto. Serious investors participate in the market, create value, take part in the governance and get adequately rewarded. Thus, eliminating pump and dumb schemes, quick money making tactics and other fraudulent intentions. The influencers in the market or large ticket size investors do not get to swing the market as per their will. And due to these value driven crypto investments, perhaps soon no more shall it be referred to gambling. 

## Risk vs Reward

Composable blockchain networks have enabled interesting combinations of various crypto assets which help create a safer crypto environment. Swaps, options and a few other derivatives have been engineered to mitigate the risk. Crypto structured products can help achieve the alpha, beat the market for best return. Risk adjusted, high yielding crypto structured products with decentralised on chain management certainly is the way forward for a sustained growth in crypto wealth. 

## Conclusion

Recently, value driven models in crypto have captured the attention of investors. It is a shift towards a more sustainable model. Besides, Web3 offers a plethora of opportunities for not only investment into crypto structured products but also allowing alpha creators to design their own. These DeFi projects have a [governance model](https://www.aarna.finance/aarna-dao.html) that selects the best of all structured products through voting. This is a space contributed and shared by web3 minds, alpha creators, and other crypto investors. Certainly it opens up scope for more reliable, less volatile and value driven crypto structured products to enter the market.


Crypto Structured Products are enabling high quality risk adjustment and high returns for investment. How do they contribute to value driven investment in crypto ? Read to know more

crypto-structured-products.jpeg

Crypto Structured Products are certainly the way forward to create a less volatile investment pathway and democratise the crypto investment space.

Crypto Structured Products

# Crypto Wealth Management

## The need

In crypto wealth management, there are more than one sub asset-classes to invest in - Digital Currencies, DeFi Coins, Tokens, NFTs, etc. Managing multiple assets on-chain is not only a challenge with the new entrants but also with the seasoned crypto investors. With the rise of crypto structured products and assets, wealth management is also becoming increasingly necessary. It is not very much different from traditional wealth management. However, with the advent of Web3, the crypto wealth management space is being disrupted in many ways. One of which is DeFi or Decentralised Finance. Besides, autonomous wealth management protocols are trying to remove the need. But before we delve deeper, it is important to understand how it works.

## Crypto wealth managers

The investment market for cryptos never sleeps. There appears to be a need to constantly track your portfolio and be mindful and observant of the insights to prevent losses. Traditionally, investors park aside a certain amount for investment and trust their wealth managers to choose the best investment plans/vehicles for them. Asset managers are also emerging in this space to support crypto wealth management. Interestingly, a lot of traditional wealth management firms are also entering the space and tying up with existing blockchain projects. Investment in crypto is increasingly becoming a part of the overall portfolio of an investor. Another aspect of upcoming crypto wealth management is risk mitigation through derivatives. Crypto wealth managers are coming up with structured products of interesting combinations of several underlying crypto assets. 

## Volatility and risk hedging

Market volatility is inherent to all investments and so is crypto. Often confused as the downward risk only, volatility is also about the upward swing and potential gains. In order to minimise the downward risk, Crypto wealth management firms are always on the go to create safer and balanced investment plans. The saying, “do not put all your eggs in one basket” applies to crypto investments as well. Besides volatility, there might be other kinds of risks involved like, transactional risks and the lack of regulation in the crypto market. Crypto wealth management involves strategising ways to minimise these risks in the market. Liquidity management, diversification of sub-asset class and insights based investment plans become evidently necessary. 

## Conclusion

Globally the crypto wealth management industry is expected to grow at a 25% CAGR. Currently the market size is more than 600 million USD. And if we compare this number to the number of retail investors putting aside their wealth in a crypto based portfolio, one can see we are simply scratching on the top. Institutional investors are also entering this space by striking partnerships.

Web3 is knocking around the corner and there is a rise in autonomous, decentralised crypto wealth management platforms which help you track your portfolio across public blockchain networks. Some provide you with deep insights from the market to make an informed investment. DeFi is eliminating the need for an intermediary to manage and grow your crypto wealth. It is not so far when crypto wealth management will be a common thing like traditional investment and wealth management. There will be several projects providing best crypto management services to retail investors. 

## FAQs

1: What is wealth management ?
Ans: Wealth management is an investment advisory service that helps investor manage their wealth by investing into balanced portfolio.

2: What is DeFi ?
Ans: DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance. This is an emerging space where investment and financial activities can be done without involving any central authority or intermediary.

3: What are Asset Management Protocols ?
Ans: Blockchain projects that help manage crypto assets. Check https://www.aarna.finance/ 


Crypto Wealth Management is not entirely different from traditional Wealth Management, but DeFi is disrupting this space for good. Explore the need for it and how it is done.

crypto-wealth-management.jpeg

Crypto Wealth Management is evidently the future in order to experience sustained growth in crypto wealth

Crypto Wealth Management

# safe crypto investments

#### Concerns with safe crypto investments

One of the key issues at the heart of institutions and governments around the world considering potential regulations for cryptocurrencies is how to promote a safe crypto investment environment, especially for those along the retail investor spectrum. On one side there are native crypto investors who participate in decentralised finance with a certain level of familiarity and able to distinguish the safest crypto to invest in. On the other end of the spectrum there may be those who have yet to make investments into DeFi at all, because of perhaps scepticism surrounding the legitimacy of crypto. In order to truly democratise investment in digital currencies, DeFi must become simpler to navigate, for the crypto savvy, future entrants, as well as even institutional investors. Safety is a key area to focus on with respect to these goals around simplicity and democratisation.

The goal of nearly any investor of course is to make a profit, and in the crypto space (perhaps just as is the case with nearly any investment goals) it’s important to be familiar with the possible risks, threats and opportunities that could impact investment success.

#### Challenges to making good returns

Making good returns truly depends on the unique goals – and risk tolerance – of an investor. This, in addition to factors such as education and uncontrollable market factors. Here are 3 terms to know with respect to establishing a safe investment environment as you navigate -- or consider entering -- the world of digital currencies.

#### Market volatility - 

It's vital to be aware of the risks that come with navigating a highly-volatile market. Deep diving into insights from reputable sources can provide an investor with the safest cryptos or digital assets to invest in.

#### Pump & dump schemes - 

Quite evidently, there will be players in the market who will try to influence and make good returns for themselves. You can steer clear from them by authenticating every bit of information you follow.

#### Crypto structured investment - 

A product made of underlying crypto assets with risk hedging measures to safeguard investors returns. This certainly is an emerging space. It gives a scope for democratising the crypto investment space as institutional investors are also taking interest in these investment products. 

Besides, it is important to be aware of regulations around crypto investments. Authorities around the world are constantly in the process of formulating policies to provide diverse financial market infrastructures as well as enhance the choice of investment for people. The scope of investing in crypto can vary from one country to another. It is advisable that everyone is aware of the regulatory framework before investing. 

#### Conclusion

Maximising return and hedging risks to minimise the loss is always the best strategy for any investment. Any kind of hearsay perhaps should not stop an individual from staying away from investing in crypto. Rather it is necessary to make informed decisions and build the safest crypto investment portfolio. It is certainly an emerging space and things are rapidly changing for good. New projects are diminishing the risks and focussing on inclusion of more retail investors. Remember there was a time when the Internet was new, then considered a bubble and now needs no introduction. This will be a common thing without any questions really made regarding safe crypto investments. 


Throwing light on safety concerns in crypto investments

safe-crypto-investments.jpeg

Understanding concerns around safe crypto investment space. Navigate swiftly into the world of crypto, make informed decisions to maximise returns and minimise losses

Safe Crypto Investment

Safe Crypto Investments

Blockchain technology, which underlies cryptocurrencies, exposed the world to the concept of decentralized finance a.k.a., DeFi. The blockchain has made cryptocurrency available to everyone, irrespective of the boundaries. Since blockchain has so many uses, the financial sector has had to adapt to fit the technology, which has led to the creation of a world centred on decentralized financial services, resulting in greater efficiency and reliability.

These days, it is possible to roughly divide the financial services sector including cryptocurrencies and blockchain into two groups. DeFi and CeFi, fall under this category. Despite serving to accomplish the same goal, both these categories have different ways of going about it.

## What is Decentralized Finance?

The term decentralized finance refers to the democratization of financial processes and institutions. Because DeFi uses blockchain, many parties can keep a record of transactions. It means that no single source has control over anything. Instead, everything is decentralized. It must be noted that DeFi differs from traditional banking as it provides consumers with access to previously unavailable options like a centralized transactional system. With all the substantial benefits, DeFi has expanded from a $1 billion sector in 2019 to a market worth more than $100 billion.
 
## What is Centralized Finance?
 
CeFi refers to the current financial system, when an organization or middleman facilitates financial services like trade, loan, exchange, and others, frequently acting as the prime decision-maker. The company handles consumer complaints and offers support. When a customer registers on a cryptocurrency exchange to use its services in the crypto sphere is known as a CeFi entity. To avail of the requested services, a user allows a centralized body to spend their funds, much like in real-world financial service corporations.
 
## How is DeFi different from CeFi?
 
CeFi and DeFi, both function with the same objective. They want to increase trading volume and popularize crypto trading. However, there are differences in how these two ecosystems achieve their goals. DeFi is the top option (as an investor) on the table if losing control of your money is a serious issue. While exploring cryptocurrencies, CeFi stands out as the most dependable alternative on the market if fiat conversion or cross-chain transactions are essential components.
 
Aside from these shortcomings, DeFi is a hassle-free and optimistic replacement for centralized finance, offering the advantage of improved control over financial assets. DeFi can open up financial services to the general public, which is the most crucial aspect.



it is possible to roughly divide the financial services sector including cryptocurrencies and blockchain into two groups. DeFi and CeFi, fall under this category. Despite serving to accomplish the same goal, both these categories have different ways of going about it.


understanding-defi-vs-cefi.jpg

Understanding DeFi VS Cefi 

Decentralized finance has been successful in gaining the confidence of investors. However, there are several questions about the trustworthiness and reliability of this technology. It is a result of DeFi security vulnerabilities related to the increasing frequency of fraud attacks.

Check out this piece, we have tried to outline some key pointers to secure your Defi projects from DeFi hacks! 

## How to Protect your DeFi Projects from Hacks?

Even with all the work put into creating and maintaining a rock-solid platform, the DeFi sphere still faces security vulnerabilities. Anyone who wants to succeed in this fast-paced environment, whether they are a novice user, a seasoned veteran, or somewhere in between, must have a solid understanding of how to navigate it. 

Below are some ways to save yourself from increasing hacks and exploitations in the DeFi world:

**1. A Private Key is Private For a Reason**

A private key is the only way to demonstrate that the money in your wallet belongs to you. It should NEVER be discussed with or made public. Even if a person is an administrator of a group or a member of your project team, never give them access to your private key. The only thing someone needs to steal your tokens is your private key. 

**2. Your Wallet Needs a Strong Password**

For wallet applications, you should always use a secure password or passcode. Explore the multiple password management tools online. Such tools are excellent for keeping the wallet safe. Using the same password everywhere can result in catastrophic money loss and personal data.

**3. Research Should Not Be Compromised**

No matter what project you’re working on or what project you’re planning to invest in. As an investor in the DeFi space, it is essential to do your due diligence and understand the authenticity of the contract/token you plan to interact with. As it's rightly said, better be safe than sorry.

**4. Do Not Interact with Every Project**

DeFi is a space where being nit-picky pays off. It is advised to engage only with credible and established projects. Audits, tools for multi-factor authentication, the time the company has been in business without hacks, and the community following the project are a few things to check for before diving into anything new. A brief search in the browser can widely contribute. 

**5. Multi-Factor Authentication Helps**

Having two or more layers of access to your money is particularly important for wallet applications since, in theory, it will be twice as difficult for bad actors to move money out if there are two or more tiers of access.

## Conclusion

Undeniably, one of the most potent cryptocurrency markets today is the DeFi market. A significant rise in the capital can be achieved by investing here. But, since every risk is associated with something in return, every gain encounters obstacles along the path.

Undeniably, one of the most potent cryptocurrency markets today is the DeFi market. A significant rise in the capital can be achieved by investing here. But, since every risk is associated with something in return, every gain encounters obstacles along the path.

5-ways-to-save-yourself-from-increasing-hacks-and-exploitation-in-the-de-fi-world.jpg

5 Ways to save yourself from increasing hacks and exploitation in the DeFi world

Since Blockchain technology has taken its space in the Finance sector, its components like DeFi have changed many things for the better. Privacy, security, transparency, and trust are a few of the many advantages that DeFi offers when it comes to managing our money. This phenomenon has the potential to provide us with solutions to the existing drawbacks of the financial sector. Let's understand how.

## What is DeFi?

DeFi, short for Decentralised Finance is just like a digital bank. But without any paperwork or intermediaries. You can lend & borrow, earn interest, make transactions, trade assets, etc. Decentralized apps (dApps) are the main way users interact with DeFi. There is no application to complete or an account to start as there would be at a traditional bank.

## How can DeFi Change the World Economy?

Everyone remembers how in 2008, the world financial systems collapsed. After the collapse, a decision was taken that never again would any government allow the banking system to endanger our social and economic well-being. The finance industry has evolved to play it safe by being less experimental and refusing any change that would necessitate overhauling the entire financial structure. The reason the 2008 crisis took place was because of the high risk-taking of banks.

But, the introduction to DeFi has completely changed things for us. It is a technology made for the people. There are currently a lot of DeFi-related operations happening in the crypto realm. For instance, China is introducing its digital Yuan, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). This trend is also being followed in Europe.

Although a system built on a blockchain can typically process transactions more quickly and securely, the price volatility of these DeFi tokens is a problem that has prevented widespread adoption. 

At this point, it is safe to say that interactions between businesses will also be impacted by DeFi. Decentralised applications based on smart contracts soon would start serving as an intermediary between institutions as institutions integrate into the blockchain ecosystem and the tokenization of financial assets like derivatives and securities continues to develop.

## Conclusion

Of course, every new technology has its setbacks, but that shouldn’t stop people from exploring it. There is a huge potential for developers to come up with more solutions for the finance sector and turn it into a completely decentralised process that benefits all. 

For institutions that can adapt and embrace the developments in the DeFi space, the ongoing evolution of this new financial ecosystem will present considerable growth potential.



Decentralised applications based on smart contracts soon would start serving as an intermediary between institutions as institutions integrate into the blockchain ecosystem and the tokenization of financial assets like derivatives and securities continues to develop

how-can-decentralised-finance-change-the-country-s-economy.jpg

How Can Decentralised Finance Change the Country’s Economy?

A contract or product is a derivative if its value is dependent on a base asset. It is similar to traditional trading, which includes a buyer and a seller. In derivative trading, Instead of exchanging the base asset as typical trading would suggest, the parties to this deal speculate on its price volatility, after which they agree to buy or sell it.

Any cryptocurrency token can be the base asset in crypto derivatives trading. A financial contract between two parties involves speculation on the price of the cryptocurrency in the future, based on which they mutually agree whether to buy or sell. 

As an illustration, consider a coin with the name ABC. Now, one individual thinks the price will decrease while the other thinks it will increase. You and the other speculator might write a contract speculating that if the price changes in any way, one of you will have to make up the difference in price for the other.

## Why are people exploring Derivative Crypto Trading?

Cryptocurrency brings a lot of uncertainty and volatility with it when it comes to trading. As a result, a lot of traders hesitate in obtaining and maintaining assets because they fear the mismanagement of their portfolios, heading toward losses. But derivative trading reduces the risk associated with cryptocurrencies' volatility. They work to lessen an investor's exposure to risk while also assisting them in safeguarding their asset portfolios against losses.

The derivative trading market has taken off because, with the help of cryptocurrency derivatives, market participants can avoid managing wallets and other complex market infrastructure by not holding the actual asset. And for new buy-side participants, dealing with regulated counterparties is a safer approach to gaining access to the asset class.

## Some types of Crypto Derivate Trading?

**Futures:** A futures contract is a binding contract between two parties that commits them to buy or sell an underlying asset at a given price and time in the near future. A licensed exchange is required to carry out a direct execution of such a contract. 

**Options:** This type of trading gives the trader an option but does not put him/her under the obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset at a specified price and future date.

**Perpetual Contracts:** Contracts with no expiration or settlement date are known as perpetual contracts. A trader may be able to hold onto a position indefinitely under certain conditions (such as when the account contains a specific amount of cryptocurrency, etc.).

## Conclusion
If you’re interested in the concept of derivative crypto trading, it would be advisable to read up on the market analysis before diving into it. Since anything related to crypto trading comes with a lot of uncertainty, thorough research is mandatory. 


Cryptocurrency brings a lot of uncertainty and volatility with it when it comes to trading. As a result, a lot of traders hesitate in obtaining and maintaining assets because they fear the mismanagement of their portfolios, heading toward losses.

derivative-trading-in-crypto.jpg

Derivative Trading in Crypto 

The emergence of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency had a very positive impact on people who were curious about the world of investments online. But these assets had a very restricted use because of the lack of proper technology that could help them transfer those assets. Then came DeFi, short for Decentralized Finance, which offered many avenues for investors to monetise their assets efficiently.

Users can now use various passive income opportunities with DeFi by employing their idle cryptocurrencies (and other digital assets) on lending protocols, liquidity pools, and decentralized exchanges. These strategies have proved to be quite successful in generating high DeFi interest Rates. 

Below are a few strategies that can help you diversify your portfolio AND spawn higher DeFi Interest Rates.

**1. DeFi Lending**

Defi lending is a very interesting concept. The lending platforms enable users to list their crypto coins for lending purposes. Why does it stand out? It stands out because such platforms can provide crypto loans without the need for any middlemen. 

DeFi lending has proved to be more efficient than traditional lending techniques because it supports transparency, and accessibility negating the need for intermediaries. As a long-term investor, you can use DeFi Lending at your disposal and earn high-interest rates as it offers margin trading options to the users. 

**2. Yield Farming**

Yield Farming has turned many eyes ever since its launch. Token holders who practise yield farming can maximise their earnings using different DeFi systems. But how does it work? Yield farmers get paid in cryptocurrency in exchange for the liquidity they supply to various token pairs. 

Although Yield Farming can be a bit risky because of the market instability and volatility, with proper research and analytics, one can gain high benefits from this phenomenon. 



**3. Liquidity Mining**

And last, liquidity mining. Again, crypto owners get rewards for lending their assets to decentralised exchanges in this case. Liquidity miners typically receive compensation in the native token of the blockchain. They also have the opportunity to earn governance tokens, maximising the level of involvement they can have with a given project. Similar to any other liquidity pool, providers get paid according to the portion of the liquidity pool they contributed to.

## Conclusion

DeFi lending protocols have created great avenues for investors to produce high interest through their assets. But, as an investor, it is your responsibility to monetise those avenues. So, read the market trends as thoroughly as possible and make informed decisions before exploring any new investment strategy. 







Users can now use various passive income opportunities with DeFi by employing their idle cryptocurrencies (and other digital assets) on lending protocols, liquidity pools, and decentralized exchanges. These strategies have proved to be quite successful in generating high DeFi interest Rates.

100-t-case-for-crypto.png

Ways to Earn Higher DeFi Interest Rates

What does being wealthy mean? It means building your assets and making your money work for your goals. In other words, having a sizable net worth. But how does one build wealth? 

Although active investment can give you huge benefits, it also comes with risks and requires much more time and understanding. Since it’s not always a good idea to be a risky active investor, it is generally advisable to opt for ways/strategies to generate passive income efficiently. 

To help you understand which strategy would suit you the best, we have drawn differences between two major passive investment strategies coming to light in the Crypto world right now: Yield Farming vs Staking.

## What is Yield Farming?
Yield farming is a form of investment that allows users to lend their cryptocurrency assets in a permissionless way to DeFi platforms. Since, in this case, you are lending money to the bank, this is comparable to receiving interest from a bank account. Contrary to depositing money in a bank, only yield farming may be riskier, more variable, and more complicated. 

## What is Staking?
Staking allows you to stake a portion of your holdings and earn rewards. How does that work? Your cryptocurrency generates dividends while being staked because the blockchain uses it. Staking-enabled cryptocurrencies use a "consensus technique" called Proof of Stake to guarantee that all transactions are secure and confirmed without the involvement of a bank or payment processor. If you decide to stake your cryptocurrency, it joins that operation.

## Key Differences between Yield Farming and Staking
Being a nascent, average investor, the terms yield farming and staking can leave you perplexed. Often used interchangeably, these strategies have distinct meanings and features that can be tedious to understand.

Keep reading to know the major differences between Yield Farming and Staking, and find out which suits the best for you. 

**1. Mechanism**
Staking uses a Proof-of-Stake(POS) consensus mechanism. Unlike Proof-of-work, there are no miners involved in this consensus mechanism. But with Yield Farming, users can use dApps to stake their assets in a lending protocol.

**2. Incentives**
Users receive staking benefits every time a block is validated, thanks to the distribution of incentives on-chain, which creates new tokens of that currency. On the other hand, investors who opt for yield farming earn their incentives in the form of APY (Annual Percentage Yield)

**3. Security**
In particular, if there are bugs in smart contracts coding, yield farming based on more recent DeFi protocols may be more susceptible to hackers. Because stakers are a part of the blockchain's stringent consensus process, staking is considered more secure. Any system-trickery effort could cause the perpetrators to lose their staked money in an instant. 

## Conclusion
Yield Farming and Staking, both have their perks and disadvantages. To put a pin on the best strategy to generate passive income would be unfair because it depends on more than one aspect. If you’re an average investor, try learning more about all the strategies.

Research is a tool which comes in handy when you’re beginning your journey as an investor. Remember that information is your only best friend. We hope this article helped you gain some insights into the two most famous investing techniques in Crypto. 


To help you understand which strategy would suit you the best, we have drawn differences between two major passive investment strategies coming to light in the Crypto world right now: Yield Farming vs Staking.

yield-farming-vs-staking-the-best-passive-investment-strategy-in-cryptocurrency.jpg

Yield Farming vs Staking: The Best Passive Investment Strategy in Cryptocurrency

Ever since its emergence, people from around the globe have been trying to explore the use cases of DeFi efficiently. DeFi has successfully offered a variety of solutions to the traditional, centralized approach toward customer/user data. But with its growing users each day, the question of sustainability comes up? How sustainable is DeFi?

Here, we have tried to outline the role and importance of sustainability in DeFi. 

## How DeFi is Breaking the bounds of Status Quo

The new and famous financial system called decentralized finance (DeFi) is built on safely distributed ledgers, comparable to those used by cryptocurrencies. The system eliminates the authority that financial institutions, including banks, have over money, financial goods, and financial services. There is no central authority looking over your money. Everything DeFi focuses on consensus. 

There is no doubt that Blockchain has the potential to develop into a robust monitoring and transactional tool that can lower congestion, decrease corruption, build trust, and empower users. The question of interoperability and transparency has taken a backseat ever since the phenomenon of Blockchain gained some traction.

In a time of accelerated technological innovation, DeFi is offering opportunities that have been crucial for growth and prosperity in every generation before them, providing a lifeline for human progression and potential. It also enables people to take advantage of the redistribution of wealth and information. But how does DeFi do that? 

Ever since the pandemic struck, governments and economies from all around the globe have been struggling to recover from its impact. Meanwhile, the emergence of DeFi and Blockchain has presented a chance to disrupt the existing status quo to level the playing field for the underrepresented. 

One example could be accessibility. A variety of projects are in the making and lie beyond the periphery of DeFi. These projects are developed to widen the accessibility of Cryptocurrency among individuals. A remarkable array of services and layer two solutions, made expressly to increase the usability of existing financial instruments, continue to support the increased acceptance of cryptocurrencies and rebuilt finance.

## Conclusion

DeFi, Blockchain or any other technology, it's vital to understand that every technological choice should align with the vision of a sustainable future. A future with ease of accessibility for all. DeFi has come a long way and has a bright future ahead. With so many new projects launching each day, we must understand and support projects that benefit investors of all kinds without any barriers. 

DeFi is establishing itself as a pioneer in the blockchain space by breaking the social constructs amongst investors from all around the globe.

does-defi-promote-sustainability.jpg

DeFi and Its Accessibility Amongst an Average Investor

Diving into the Web3 world has exposed us to chains that form the basis of decentralization. But it is equally essential to understand that Blockchain ecosystems exist in walls. These walls restrict efficient communication between two chains.

It is where Cross-Chain Bridges come into play.

## What are Cross-Chain Bridges?

A Cross-Chain Bridge is a technology that can link different blockchains and ecosystems. It’s just like a connection between 2 points. It enables the exchange of resources and unstructured data between two autonomous blockchains for a variety of uses. So basically, this allows users to switch blockchains whenever they want to without having to lose their tokens or other assets. This phenomenon has gained a lot of traction recently because it offers a solution to the problem of interoperability that came up with the mass adoption of blockchains.

To make it a little easier for you, let us illustrate an example. Suppose you’ve been using Ethereum for a while now but you come across a blockchain that offers advanced features and gives you more avenues to earn in different ways. 

But you already have ETH and do not wish to buy tokens on the other blockchain. This is where a Cross-Chain bridge can help you. If you wish to switch to another blockchain, you can use cross-chain bridges to enshrine the ETH tokens in a smart contract that would give you access to an equal number of holdings on the second blockchain. The most popular methods of cross-chain bridges are asset exchange and asset transfer. Both of these have been playing a crucial part in the realm of blockchain.

## What are some drawbacks of Cross-Chain bridges?

But as it’s rightly said that there is no rose without a thorn, there are disadvantages to this technology as well. One of those disadvantages is uncertainty in trust. Each blockchain ledger has a different trust system. A third party could tamper with the ledgers or cause other problems if data is transferred from one blockchain to another with more or fewer miners or validators.

## What are some Cross- Chain Service Providers?

**Ripple (XRP)**
Ripple is a payment protocol that runs on a peer-to-peer, open-source, decentralised infrastructure. It facilitates smooth money transfers in any currency, including dollars, yen, euros, and even cryptocurrencies like litecoin and bitcoin. To enable swift currency conversion between multiple currencies, Ripple uses XRP(the native cryptocurrency of Ripple) in its products.

**ICON (ICX)**
ICON is an open-source, decentralised blockchain that supports smart contracts. It is an aggregator chain as it supports interoperability. As the network can immediately verify that the exchange went through successfully, it acts as a trusted intermediary between two parties in a transaction. Its native cryptocurrency is called ICX. 

## Conclusion

With the advent of Cross-Chain technology, we can now undergo a smooth transfer of assets between independent blockchain networks. Other than this, it has also aided in ensuring quicker transactions and swift token exchanges. But since there are several disadvantages to the technology, it is always advisable to do thorough research before diving into any new domain. 

A Cross-Chain Bridge is a technology that can link different blockchains and ecosystems. It’s just like a connection between 2 points. It enables the exchange of resources and unstructured data between two autonomous blockchains for a variety of uses.

cross-chain-ecosystems.jpg

Cross Chain Ecosystems 

What are the Different Types of NFTs?

One of the most contemporary things in Web3 right now is Non-fungible tokens, commonly known as NFTs. The domain is booming, and there's no shortage of projects trying to cash in on their success.

Users looking to invest in digital collectibles are highly interested in the concept of NFTs. There is a trending variety, from art and design to video games. We've all heard of traditional collectibles, like baseball cards or coins for a specific team or sport. NFTs are similar in that they're digital collectibles that people can own but differ in many ways. 

Here's a quick rundown of the different types of NFTs you might encounter in the blockchain ecosystem:

## Art NFTs

As the name depicts, they are digital representations of a piece of artwork. They represent the actual artworks or as a means of sharing and preserving the art in digital form. The most popular categories in art NFTs include Portraits, Paintings, Comics, etc. Many enthusiast artists are launching their artworks as NFTs to maintain their scarcity and uniqueness.

## Music NFTs

One of the most popular types of NFTs is Music, a digital file in MP3 or WAV format. The domain of music and media is constantly experimenting on the NFT domain, subsequently prompting one more class of crypto arts. It is feasible to mint music and media files into NFTs, empowering a person with a genuine proprietorship guarantee to get to the records. Many known artists are releasing their work as NFT and trading them over NFT marketplaces.

## Gamified NFTs

The gaming industry is heavily influenced by the applications of NFTs. They have evoked significant degrees of interest among gamers and developers. They can offer the utility of proprietorship records for in-game assets, driving the development of in-game economies. The game-related NFT includes skins, weapons, clothing items, etc. While in-game collectibles were standard prerequisites for a superior encounter of the games, non-fungible tokens can change their worth.

## Collectibles or Trading Cards

NFT collectibles are the first type of non-fungible tokens to be ever launched. They are the same as physical collectibles, like Pokemon cards or vintage mint condition toys, but in digital form. Curio Cards was the first significant NFT collectibles ever launched. After that, several other collectibles, like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cryptopunks, Cat Colony, Meebits, etc., took off.

## Avatar NFTs & Virtual World NFTs

Avatar NFTs are similar to PFPs but allow users to create avatars that represent their real-life selves in digital form. These avatars are used on social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, or other applications, where it would be nice to have an avatar representing your identity. Metaverse NFTs can be bought with real money and used in a virtual world like Second Life or VRChat. They can range from clothing items such as shirts or pants to weapons, such as swords or guns; however, they often include both clothing and weapons at once!

## Winding Up!

NFTs are digital assets that are designed to be transacted within the blockchain. There are many different types of NFTs, including collectibles, skins, and more. NFTs are a new and exciting way to use blockchain technology in the real world.







Users looking to invest in digital collectibles are highly interested in the concept of NFTs. There is a trending variety, from art and design to video games. We've all heard of traditional collectibles, like baseball cards or coins for a specific team or sport.

what-are-the-different-types-of-nfts.jpg

What are the Different Types of NFTs?

A crucial turning point in the history of finance was the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi). It made the headlines in the summer of 2020 by establishing its extensive features and deliverables, which offered the ability to help various industries and revolutionize the financial space.

Each day, new creators and developers brainstorm and create more efficient platforms for users, exploring the DeFi space, and Desapce Protocol is one such example.

## What is the DeSpace Protocol?

Let us put it in simple terms. DeSpace protocol, one of the most comprehensive DeFi aggregators in the crypto industry, was introduced recently in 2021. The platform gives a distinct possibility to bridge the gap between celebrities and their enormous fan following by combining NFTs and DeFi onto one platform via a multi-chain aggregator.
The primary goal of this platform is to develop a dependable, user-friendly, and secure ecosystem for the DeFi business that will benefit all users and the NFT cards involved. 

DeSpace is based on DeChain. It is a Layer-2 blockchain system that joins dissimilar chains and enables simple transactions across numerous bridges. With every transaction, users receive DES, a native token holding a tremendous amount of platform value. With a platform like this, celebrities and creators can bring their NFTs to their fans in a seamless manner. Be it musicians, actors, painters, or artists of any kind.

## Is DeSpace a Promising Platform?

The platform has an exceptional interface that is simple to comprehend and operate with features that keep users engaged. What sets DeSpace apart is its adaptability, as the cross-chain platform offers DeFi and NFT protocols that may be used with different blockchains. Some other perks DeSpace offers are the protocol's complete decentralization, attention to privacy, and emphasis on audibility, it is a good choice for all kinds of investors. 

It also allows users to execute various DeFi activities, such as Yield Farming, Lending, Staking, Mining, and so much more, thanks to DeLand and DeSwap. By enabling users to improve their experience by raising mining yields or obtaining space drops for Non-fungible Tokens (NFT) that they own, the platform offers a solution for the lack of utility behind NFT operations.

## Conclusion

The DeSpace platform has undoubtedly set a precedent in developing a dependable, user-friendly, and secure system in the DeFi sector for each user. 
However, there are unwanted risks associated with any new, promising technology. Therefore, it is advised to do extensive research and grasp the implications before operating on any new project or platform.





The DeSpace platform has undoubtedly set a precedent in developing a dependable, user-friendly, and secure system in the DeFi sector benefiting each user and the NFT cards involved.

defi-2-0-de-space-defi-protocol.png

DeFi 2.0 - DeSpace DeFi Protocol  | aarna Blogs 

DeFi 2.0 - DeSpace DeFi Protocol 

Decentralized Exchanges, better known as DEXs, are peer-to-peer marketplaces for crypto traders to directly transact, removing any intermediary to manage their funds. Such transactions are expedited through smart contracts, which are self-executing code agreements. As DEXs work on blockchain networks with smart contracts, every transaction incurs a transaction fee and trading fee. Solutions to solve liquidity-related problems, like AMMs (Automated Market Makers), attracted users to the DeFi space and encouraged its expansion. DEX aggregators and wallet extensions boosted DeFi platforms by optimizing swap fees, slippage, and token prices on top of presenting better rates for users. In essence, there are three main categories of DEXs, which are AMMs, DEX Aggregators, and Order Books DEXs, all of which permit users to directly transact with each other using smart contracts.


Amidst all this, 0x Labs, a global blockchain company designing DEX infrastructure for the internet, has introduced its 0x Liquidity Protocol in the market. 0x is an open-source, permissionless, DEX infrastructure liquidity protocol, built on Ethereum for designing DEXs that enables the exchange of tokenized assets on multiple blockchains, connecting liquidity providers, and incentivizing market makers to incite DeFi asset trading. At its core, the 0x protocol is a set of secure smart contracts that aid in the peer-to-peer exchange of Ethereum-based assets. Any developer who requires exchange functionality can take advantage of the 0x protocol, as it also offers developer tools customized for the ecosystem and open access to a shared liquidity pool.


0x API is a professional-grade liquidity aggregator, strengthening the prospects of DeFi applications. Their smart order routing divides your transaction across the DEX network to minimize the slippage as much as possible. Besides better pricing, faster response times, and lower revert rates than any other aggregator on the market, the off-chain order relay of 0x combined with on-chain settlement brings forth a highly gas-efficient structure to facilitate peer-to-peer token exchange transactions. The transposable nature of the protocol highlights the set of robust, audited smart contracts and flexible architecture by which the developers can directly plug their smart contracts into the 0x API. Hence, 0x has become a critical part of the expansion of the DeFi space, permitting businesses and developers to design products with native functionality for trading tokenized assets.


The developers can easily access aggregated, multi-chain DEX liquidity, using 0x API, so they can retain their focus and efforts on their product. It empowers the best DeFi applications on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Celo, Fantom, and Avalanche. Using 0x API, the DeFi developers can access the 0x Protocol. The protocol supports token exchanges for fungible tokens (ERC20), non-fungible tokens (ERC721), bundles of assets (ERC1155), and other Ethereum token standards. It has two major endpoints - /swap and /order book. Businesses fascinated to implement 0x API to run their applications can start designing at 0x.org/docs/api. Developers can easily integrate with the 0x protocol at the smart contract or application layer. There are three characteristic aspects within the 0x ecosystem-

**1. Supply (Makers):** This is the unit that creates 0x orders & imparts liquidity into the system (for the Demand/Takers). Liquidity is aggregated from multiple sources including On-chain (DEXs, AMMs, for example, Curve, Uniswap, etc.) and Off-chain (Open Orderbook network of 0x, Professional Market Makers, etc.).

**2. Demand (Takers):** This is the unit that consumes the liquidity of 0x, by agreeing to trade their asset for the Supply’s asset.

**3. 0x Community DAO:** This is the unit that is the collective governing call of the 0x protocol and the ZRX token.


With increasing tokenization of assets, public blockchains supply a more efficient, transparent, and equitable financial stack, as compared to any such structure before. The protocol automatically generates orders that can be passed directly through the smart contracts to be settled on-chain. 0x liquidity protocol shows a variety of applications, including coherent NFT trading for Web3 games and assets, order books for thousands of native utility tokens on Ethereum, token liquidity defining decentralized prediction markets, stablecoins, and lending markets. Since its onset, 0x API has paved the way for more than 29 Million trades from more than 2.4 Million unique traders that, in total, representing over $69 Billion transacted across Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, Celo, and Fantom blockchains.

With the mission to fabricate a tokenized world, where all value can flow freely regardless of the blockchain it lives on, 0x is the advanced infrastructure for building DEXs and linking liquidity providers across a variety of sources. Businesses are using 0x Protocol to smoothly integrate exchange functionality into their applications and design new markets for tokenized assets and cryptocurrencies. We believe that exposing the broadest assortment of users to smart contracts, self-custody wallets, and DEX markets is crucial to driving multi-chain adoption and bringing the world on the same track of development in this domain.


It is commendable how @0xProject revolutionized the tokenized world & addressed DEX issues with LPs, asset trading & its incentives, etc. through its 0x protocol.

dex-liquidity-and-insights-on-0x-api.png

DEX liquidity and insights on 0x API 

The world of traditional gaming was disrupted when the concept of Play-To-Earn Gaming came into the market. Play-to-earn video games offer a platform for players to earn rewards that have value in the real world. It enables players to cultivate or gather cryptocurrencies and NFTs for market sale. The idea of earning real money through gaming attracted a lot of gamers to the platform, and since then, there has been no going back. 

But now, there’s a new concept in the market and the users are trying to understand more about what it offers. 

## What does Rent-To-Earn stand for?

Rent-To-Earn is another term for NFT renting. As the name suggests itself, it deals with people renting their NFTs. It is new and beneficial to people who do not possess a certain NFT but would like to use it or experience it for a short while, and can rent it from a platform that offers this service. 

## How does NFT Renting work?

So, through NFT renting, NFT owners can rent their NFTs to strangers for a definitive period and a set price. It doesn’t mean that they’re giving their NFTs away. It simply means that they’ll be renting it temporarily and will be entitled to a cut out of the earnings that the rentees make out of the NFTs. 

There are usually two ways to rent your NFTs:

**Collateralized Renting**

1. Owners can approach any online marketplace that allows NFT lending and borrowing and post their NFTs if they want to rent them out. 

2. If an interested party is willing to rent the NFT, the borrowing procedure starts immediately. The process is quite simple, both the parties, upon mutual agreement, deposit the NFT into a smart contract.

3. The Smart Contract will contain all the essential details like the duration of the rental, collateral, and other conditions.

4. Since this is collateralized renting we’re talking about, the borrower will be required to deposit collateral, which will probably exceed the value of the NFT, to maintain the safety of the lender and their assets. Other than this, the renter will also be responsible for paying a rental fee to cover the expense of renting the NFT. 

5. Post all these steps, the renter will receive the NFT and can avail of its benefits as per their requirements.

**Collateral-less Renting/ Uncollateralized Renting****Bold**

The process of collateral-less renting is pretty much the same as collateralized renting. 
The sole distinction is that, in contrast to collateral renting, the renter never receives the original NFT in this case. Instead, a wrapped NFT is created for the renter that has all the same features as the original asset, backed by the original assets. 

## Conclusion
The NFT space is expanding quickly, and with concepts like Rent-to-earn, more and more people are encouraged to enter the space without having to spend loads of money for buying an NFT. Although there are only a few rental marketplaces currently, the potential is ever thriving. 


Rent-To-Earn is another term for NFT renting. As the name suggests itself, it deals with people renting their NFTs. 

understanding-the-concept-rent-to-earn.png

Understanding the concept: Rent to Earn 

Understanding the concept: Rent-to-Earn 

Blockchain technology is gaining traction rapidly, and the craze does not appear to be stopping. Since blockchain is an immutable public ledger, Being an immutable public ledger, it gained its dominance in the market within a short period. Blockchain technology has a lot to offer, the main advantage being decentralization. Similar is the case with smart contracts. Smart contracts lie at the core of every blockchain. They are automated codes used to implement an agreement so that all parties are assured of a certain outcome, without intermediaries. 

Sadly, several security lapses are taking place on the blockchain network. Hackers commit fraud, resulting in billions of dollars going into losses. Such breaches put a dent on blockchain's credibility. Sure, there are several ways to prevent such events, but one can never be too safe. 

In this blog, we will understand how to make sure that your smart contracts are safe from such malicious occurrences.

## What are Smart Contracts?

Smart contracts prevent the issues of mistrust between two or more parties. They are like agreements, but the only difference is that they are auto-executing codes. They require no middlemen to run, saving costs and avoiding time delays. 
 
## How to Avoid Smart Contract Security Breaches?

**1. Focus on the Root of the Problem: The Development Process**
First things first, as a developer, it is essential to include unit tests in the code before launching a smart contract to the mainnet. This step is essential because, in the future, the logic can be tested in all scenarios, let it be feasible or impractical.

 Why is it essential to do so? Because this helps you make sure that the smart contract runs how it is supposed to. This way, the contract will only run codes that it should, eliminating any room for errors. 

**2. Third-Party Security Audits are Important**
A smart contract security audit is run by a group of external auditors to identify any flaws in the code. To prevent such vulnerabilities, auditors conduct a thorough examination and study of a smart contract's source code. Having regular security audits assists the contacts with being up-to-date with the security measures.

**3. Choose your Blockchain Wisely**
Research is an essential step before starting any project. In the case of blockchains and smart contracts, it is essential to understand why you're choosing a blockchain and what implications and vulnerabilities come with it. Since any data on the blockchain is open to all present nodes, risk comes free. So, understand your blockchain well before building the smart contract and be selective with its uses.

## Conclusion

Building a smart contract is not a tedious procedure but an important one. As technology keeps progressing, tech giants are turning towards automation, and the emergence of smart contracts is a byproduct of the same.

If you’re building a smart contract, pay attention to the basics, research the blockchain you’re building on thoroughly, and run the required security audits to identify any fault. Several effective practices to secure your smart contracts are available on the internet, so don’t forget to consider them. With these tips, build a smart contract that is truly secure, and eliminate any chances for breaches. 



Sadly, several security lapses are taking place on the blockchain network. Hackers commit fraud, resulting in billions of dollars going into losses. Such breaches put a dent on blockchain's credibility.

blockchain-and-smart-contract-security.jpg

Blockchain and Smart Contract Security | aarnâ Blogs 

Blockchain and Smart Contract Security 

When the market prices hike unpredictably, a short squeeze occurs. A short squeeze is not a common phenomenon because it occurs beyond what the market analysis says. It causes a rise in stock prices unexpectedly, causing the short sellers to bail out. 

## How Does a Short Squeeze Occur?

A steep increase in stock price triggers a short squeeze. As prices increase, short-sellers try to leave their short holdings. It causes a decrease in the supply of the stock and an increase in their demand. It is a demand-supply concept that is easily understandable.

As a result, the market price keeps increasing. Usually, a short squeeze is unpredictable. But there are several ways to identify a short squeeze.

## How do you Identify a Short Squeeze?

Experienced traders know what indicators to look for when the buying pressure starts penetrating the market. These indicators usually indicate when a stock is ready for a short squeeze. The indicators are:

**1. Short Interest**
Short interest is the proportion of short sellers' shares in a stock's total shares. A short squeeze is more likely to happen if the proportion of total shares of the stock, being sold short is much more significant than the average level.

**2. Relative Strength Index (RSI)** - Relative Strength Index is an identifying point on a scale of 1-100. It indicates whether the market is overbought or oversold. 

Let’s understand with an example: 

A stock with a low RSI (30 or below) is oversold. It means it is being traded at a low price and is undervalued.
 
Similarly, a stock with a high RSI (31 and above) is severely overbought. It indicates that it is trading at a high price. 

## How to Avoid Getting Squeezed?

If you’re a long-term investor, a short squeeze will always benefit you. Investors gain profit when the stock price increases. As more short sellers bail the market, the price rises, increasing the gains for buyers. But if you’re a short-seller, you'll lose money when the squeeze pushes you to buy, which will increase the stock price.

One way to prevent yourself from a short squeeze is ‘Days to Cover’, also known as a short ratio is a measurement to compare the total amount of short interest in stock with its regular volume of trading. It measures the number of days required for regular trading to produce enough trading volume to buy back all the sold short trades. 

Experts say that ten days is a general guideline. Ten days or more to cover might indicate that trade is crowded, one you might want to steer clear of to avoid getting crushed.

Now that you’re a little more familiar with the concepts of a short squeeze, you must be curious to know more about the Gamestop Saga.

## What is the Gamestop Short Squeeze, and why are people talking about it?

Founded in 1984, Gamestop is a well-known retailer of video games and consumer electronics. The company had a roaring success in its early years but took a hit around 2010. The dip happened because of the evolution of the internet and the market’s inclination towards digital games. 

Last year in February, members of a Reddit group called WallStreetBets started a movement together to buy shares of the company in bulk. It happened after they discovered that a hedge fund (hedge funds are centred on risk hedging by concurrently purchasing and selling assets in a long-short equity strategy) was storing short positions in the stock. As a result, a short squeeze occurred, which caused the hedge fund to declare bankruptcy and suffer enormous losses.

## How did the Gamestop Short Squeeze affect the investors?

The GameStop short squeeze has been beneficial to small investors. But it affected the hedge fund managers who lost billions of dollars. It should be noted that it is unlikely for GameStock shares to stay at a high price. So, the retail investors will have to sell their shares as quickly as possible or else they’ll risk losing most of their investment.

## Can something like this also happen in India?

Something like this is unlikely to happen in India because there are several regulations in place legally to stop traders from influencing stock prices. India’s regulatory system is intact and strict in a way that doesn’t give a lot of leeway to investors to manipulate the market. 

If we were to compare, lending is possible in the US because the brokers keep their shares in a pooled account. It happens because brokers have the right to lend shares to traders in the US. But in India, brokers do not have permission to lend shares. The shares are maintained in the Demat account of the specific dealer.

## Closing Thoughts

If you’re a nascent investor, and new to the market, the idea of a short squeeze might seem thrilling. But it is essential to understand that a short squeeze is a short-term event, not a long-term plan. It is a fleeting occurrence, and one has to look beyond it to understand the bigger picture. Being a long-term investor is safer and more reliable. So, do not hurry into any decisions and invest smartly.



If you’re a nascent investor, and new to the market, the idea of a short squeeze might seem thrilling. But it is essential to understand that a short squeeze is a short-term event, not a long-term plan.

understanding-short-squeeze.jpg

A short squeeze is not a common phenomenon because it occurs beyond what the market analysis says. It causes a rise in stock prices unexpectedly, causing the short sellers to bail out.

Understanding Short Squeeze | aarnâ finance 

Understanding Short Squeeze

2021 was the realm of Blockchains and the Decentralised Web. The idea of an open network fascinated the tech giants and general public. Soon came the byproduct of these two phenomena known as NFTs, which at first seemed esoteric, but eventually turned out to be liked by everyone!

## What are NFTs?
For all the nascent readers, NFTs are Non-Fungible Tokens. Let’s understand what Non-Fungible means. Fungible means ‘mutually interchangeable’. For example, a blue pen is exchanged for another blue pen. In the context of DeFi, Bitcoin is a decentralized currency, tradable for another Bitcoin. 

But non-fungible, on the other hand, means the opposite. You cannot exchange one blue pen for another because it is one-of-a-kind. Similar is the concept of NFTs. By buying an NFT you get the ownership of the work, like virtual real estate or NFT art, which is distinctive due to blockchain technology. Such NFTs do not get replicated in the NFT market is ensured through a smart contract on an NFT platform. 

Although, the concept is not altogether new. The first form of NFT ever introduced was back in 2012. They were bitcoin tokens called Coloured Coins and could represent another digital asset on the blockchain. Such a concept provides a platform for artists to obtain good value for their art. It does not matter if you are a musician or a painter, one can become an NFT creator and sell your digital art as an NFT art on any NFT Marketplace like OpenSea, MagicEden, etc., by which the person who is buying it will become the next NFT owner.

## Why is the concept of NFTs going viral?
Due to their beneficial features, NFTs have already progressed beyond digital artwork and collectibles by defining the mainstream NFTs, backed by crypto and/or a digital token. More and more NFT Projects are coming on board to offer a better user experience. Digital identification, identity, and ownership of a digital work will become more significant in a world entrenched in technology as every other person is diving into the NFT space as an NFT buyer and/or NFT purchaser.

From Social Media to Finance, all tech giants are looking for monetization opportunities in the NFT space. Twitter’s step toward integrating NFT profile verification, several NFT Marketplaces have launched. Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, announced plans to integrate NFT on their platform by the end of last October. Finally, after six more months, Reddit has integrated NFTs on its platform, based on the Ethereum blockchain. Even Disney launched NFT Collectibles in November 2012 to celebrate the Disney experience. The global gaming community is harnessing the potential of NFTs at their best, and that can be seen by the efforts being put into the development of metaverse and each & every NFT game.

Already NFT’s branches have been spreading to various genres and fields. An amazing example would be, Visa purchasing cryptopunk (An NFT project launched in 2017). They aim to help businesses understand the power of using NFTs at their disposal for building a strong and loyal community engagement. 

NFTs are still not at their peak. There is a high chance that they may well turn out to be a transitory fad. But after witnessing the mass adoption of this concept in various sectors, the question of whether they’re here to stay or not remains unanswered?


Digital identification, identity, and ownership of a digital work will become more significant in a world entrenched in technology as every other person is diving into the NFT space as an NFT buyer and/or NFT purchaser.

a-lens-on-nfts.jpg

The first form of NFT ever introduced was back in 2012. They were bitcoin tokens called Coloured Coins and could represent another digital asset on the blockchain.

A Lens on NFTs | aarnâ blogs 

A Lens on NFTs 

Stablecoin is an interesting crypto product. A stablecoin is meant to maintain its price at $1 compared to a particular Fiat currency like USD, EUR, or GBP. Their existence is meant for crypto-natives to get in & out of the dollar easily without requiring a bank’s approval for deposits and withdrawals. Most of the crypto trading volume is facilitated by stablecoins, on top of them empowering DeFi.

Some of the popular stablecoins in the market are USD coin (USDC), tether (USDT), dai (DAI), and binance USD (BUSD). Also, quite prominently, there was terraUSD (UST) in this category as well. They were the five biggest stablecoins, demonstrating roughly $160 billion in the crypto market. USDC, USDT, and BUSD are collateralized and issued by centralized institutions. These institutions possess a vast reserve of dollars supporting each coin, by which the holder can redeem it for $1 from the issuer.

UST was different as it did not have any collateral at all. It was an algorithmic stablecoin driven by the Terra protocol and supported by LUNA, a crypto token, to stay in symbiosis. When the price of UST surged (>$1), the protocol incentivized users to burn (destroy) LUNA and mint UST. When the price of UST toppled (<$1), the protocol incentivized users to burn UST and mint LUNA. This was a smart strategy. Simply put, if the demand for UST was high enough to surge its price to $1.01, the protocol minted some UST in exchange for burning some LUNA.

In May 2022, terraUSD (UST), which was supposed to stay at $1, was no longer at $1, and this situation was not good because, on top of that, the value of LUNA, its backup, was also falling. On May 7, the price of UST, the $18-billion market cap algorithmic stablecoin, which was supposed to maintain a $1 mark, began to wobble and fell to 35 cents within two days. Moreover, its associate token, LUNA, which aimed to balance the price of UST, fell from $80 to a few cents on May 12. On this date, the prices of LUNA fell 96% in a single day, pushing it to less than 10 cents, along with the official halt of Terra blockchain, for the first time, at block height 7603700, putting the network’s security at peril. Since UST plunged under $1, all endeavors to recall UST to $1 failed, both by the Terra protocol algorithm and by the lending out of LFG reserves to trading firms, and as a result, Terra’s decentralized finance applications incinerated $28 billion as a majority of investors left the Terra ecosystem. The collapse of TerraUSD stablecoin threatened the entire crypto ecosystem.

Naturally, you’d assume that the mechanism malfunctioned, but it didn’t. It functioned as designed, which can be proved by looking at the amount of LUNA issued as the protocol tried to algorithmically bring UST back to $1 while LUNA’s price was also sinking. Hence, Terra’s odyssey from the underdog phase, as a South Korean payments app, to a $60 billion crypto-ecosystem concluded as one of the biggest failures in crypto.

At its peak, terraUSD (UST) was the third-largest stablecoin. Honestly, UST was a wild success in the crypto market, until the moment it was not. Now, what was the exact reason for this downfall, does not matter much, but what matters is that in adverse situations, Terra broke down completely, which was disastrous. This event supports the hypothesis that an undercollateralized, algorithmic stablecoin can depeg and lose significant value.

Stablecoin is an interesting crypto product. A stablecoin is meant to maintain its price at $1 compared to a particular Fiat currency like USD, EUR, or GBP.

dead-blockchains-investigating-the-fall-of-luna-and-terra-usd.jpeg

Dead Blockchains! Investigating the fall of LUNA and terraUSD

The applications of Non-Fungible Tokens have grown exponentially over the past few years used as digital artworks, avatars, or even in-game assets. In 2019, ETHDenver introduced a more pragmatic use case known as the Proof of Attendance Protocol or POAP.

It is a unique NFT distributed among the community to commemorate fun moments. It basically allows one to create badges to people participating in your event. The idea is to enable a new way of storing long-lasting memories of life experiences, without revealing any data in return.

Here’s a quick and quirky way to incorporate a POAP!

# **Claim POAPs**

-   Use the unique poap mint link provided in mail. Eg —  [https://app.poap.xyz/claim/jxd7z1](https://app.poap.xyz/claim/jxd7z1)
-   Add your ETH/ENS/Email Address to reserve it to your name.
-   You can mint your POAP now for free.
-   Hit the “Claim POAP Token” button.

That’s all you need to do to claim a POAP. Isn’t that simple and intriguing?

# **Adding POAP to your Metamask**

1.  Download the Metamask Mobile App and click on the top left corner of the screen.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1342/0*YlxLkopCUTvx31M-)

**2.**  Go to Settings

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1350/0*ZWRPn5T6jNX81AFb)

**3.** Add the xdai chain into networks section > Fill the required fields and tap “Add”

-   Network Name:  **xDai**
-   New RPC URL:  [**https://rpc.xdaichain.com/**](https://rpc.xdaichain.com/)
-   Chain ID:  **0x64**  (100)
-   Symbol:  **xDai**
-   Block Explorer URL:  [**https://blockscout.com/xdai/mainnet**](https://blockscout.com/xdai/mainnet/)

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1354/0*0rxwInnOFVkmkQr-)

**4.**  Go back to your wallet and tap on “Wallet”. Scroll down on the list of networks until you find xDai and click it.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1350/0*btn2JZR0DMHMAzJ1)

**5.**  In your Wallet, look out for the Collectibles tab and then tap on “+ Add Collectibles”

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*F6hws-t8W7LDcIh_)

**6.**  All your assets would be visible on the xDai Network.

**7.** Copy your Token ID into the Minting Transactions section and incorporate Smart Contracts and ID of your POAP.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1350/0*FewMNFqWOi1IZXrD)

Tap “Add” and your POAP will be visible from your Metaverse Mobile App.

For more details, Visit:

[**Website**](https://poap.xyz/) **|** [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/poapxyz) **|** [**Discord**](http://poap.xyz/discord) **|** [**Github Repo**](https://github.com/poapxyz)

# About aarnâ:

aarnâ protocol is an autonomous DeFi asset management platform on a mission to simplify the crypto & DeFi experience lifecycle for investors, with a fully on-chain ecosystem leveraging cooperative human-artificial intelligence. Our beta is ready for launch, and we’d love to be the most widely used Web3-native asset management platform in the next decade.

aarnâ protocol is designed with a holistic approach for solving the complex problem of asymmetric access & information in crypto asset management at scale and pursues this with a flywheel that connects an engine, a DAO, and machine intelligence. aarnâ has a defined roadmap for progressive decentralization of the platform.

**Social Media Handles:**

[Twitter](https://twitter.com/aarnasays)  |  [Telegram](https://t.me/aarnasays)  |  [Website](https://www.aarna.finance/)  |  [Medium](https://medium.com/@aarna_finance)  |  [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/aarna-finance)

The applications of Non-Fungible Tokens have grown exponentially over the past few years used as digital artworks, avatars, or even in-game assets. In 2019, ETHDenver introduced a more pragmatic use case known as the Proof of Attendance Protocol or POAP.

a-step-by-step-guide-to-claim-poap-s.png

A Step by Step Guide to Claim POAP’s

At the dawn of the internet, one of the major issues raised was matching up domain names and internet protocol addresses for user-friendliness. Because you would need to type out the full IP address (a string of numbers and dots) of the website you wanted to visit, you would need to use IP address 172.217.14.228 instead of google.com directly. Similarly, despite all the present advancements in the crypto sector, the traditional method of using wallet addresses for crypto-transfers is widely used instead of something human-friendly like a crypto-wallet owner’s name. That’s the point where the crypto path lines with Ethereum Name Service (ENS)!

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a distributed, open, and extensible naming system that interacts with the Ethereum blockchain. ENS aligns human-readable names such as “aarna.eth” to a machine-readable name such as a wallet address like ‘2v552dl33pi9kw’, other cryptocurrency addresses, content hashes, and metadata. ENS also supports “reverse resolution,” which works to associate metadata like canonical names or interface descriptions with Ethereum addresses. ENS runs on a system of dot-separated hierarchical names called domains, with the owner of a domain having full control over subdomains. On one hand, users can purchase and manage their domains while using ENS, and simultaneously it helps to process secure and decentralized transactions without having to deal with long and complex addresses. On the other hand, it also reduces the probability of any input errors when typing out the recipient’s address to send funds.

Under the domains of ENS, the creator and owner of the domain have control over their top-level domain and subsequent subdomains. The hierarchical nature of ENS allows the owner to configure subdomains for themselves or others, like if X owns ‘x.eth’, he can create ‘pay.x.eth’ to configure it as he wishes.

ENS Architecture: The architecture of ENS is a recipe based on two fundamental ingredients:

## The Registry
All the domain names recorded inside the ENS have an owner who owns a named domain and can transfer that domain to a new owner, called a registrant, as he must register that domain on the ENS. The ENS registry, a functionality of ENS, is a single smart contract that maintains a list of all domains and subdomains. It also includes the name of the owner and resolver of the domain. They can be changed at any point or level within the ENS and can be referred to by the owner of the registry. The owner of the domain can also change the ownership of the subdomains and transfer it to another address. So the ENS registry is purposely forthright and exists only to map a name to the resolver responsible for it.

## The Resolvers
The actual process of translating names into addresses is handled by a resolver. ENS employs any contract executing relevant standards to act as a resolver. General-purpose resolver implementations are provided to users having direct and uncomplicated requirements, such as serving an infrequently changed address for a name. Each record type, like cryptocurrency address, IPFS content hash, etc., defines a method that a resolver must implement to supply that kind of record. A new record type may be introduced without changing the ENS registry or existing resolvers.

## The Importance of ENS
ENS is native to the Ethereum blockchain and its ecosystem because it was developed for Ethereum smart contracts. ENS is not prone to security hacks as its records are indestructible and secure. Moreover, ENS supplies more transparency and easier interaction with names and addresses that allows users to create an ENS domain through an auction in which the highest bidder wins the domain name, allowing users to create subdomains and lease them. ENS has emerged as a productive solution for simplifying the crypto and DeFi sectors, especially for beginners who can rely on the ENS Ethereum domain.

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a distributed, open, and extensible naming system that interacts with the Ethereum blockchain. 

ethereum-name-service-ens.png

Ethereum Name Service (ENS)


While building DeFi protocols or any other smart contract application, various security inspections need to be done before deploying it on a blockchain mainnet. Instead of solely focussing on solidity pitfalls while reviewing the code, ensuring a dApp’s security is strong enough to make it ready for mainnet, must be followed. The contingencies towards the most popular types of DeFi security vulnerabilities, such as oracle attacks, brute force attacks, and many other threats, would be beneficial to save you and your users billions of dollars, along with a long span of aggravation. Doing your due diligence before launching your protocol is imperative, and here are a few ways to tackle the DeFi attacks:

# **Be Aware of Reentrancy Attacks**

In the reentrancy attack, the most common type of DeFi security attack like the infamous DAO hack, a contract calls an external contract before updating its state. Quoting the Solidity documentation: ‘Any interaction from a contract (A) with another contract (B) and any transfer of Ether hands over control to that contract (B). It makes it possible for B to call back into A before this interaction is completed.

Solution: Before transferring ETH/tokens or calling an untrusted external contract, one should update the internal state of the contract. There are a few strategies to do that, like using mutex locks or simply ordering your function calls in a way where you only reach out to external contracts or functions after the state is updated.

# **Avoid Common Glitches**

This point is a sort of catch-all for Solidity, but to have a secure contract, you need to build it with all of these DeFi security principles in mind. To write really impactful Solidity, you must be aware of how it works under the hood. One must consider the issue of Overflows/Underflows, Loops Gas Limit, and Avoid using tx. the origin for authorization in smart contracts, Proxy Storage Collision

# **Complete Unit Tests Coverage**

It identifies weaknesses and vulnerabilities early-on, decreasing the risk of substantial losses. As a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, remember to include “complete” unit test coverage, not merely 65% or 70%, or only “the most significant elements of a contract.”

# **Security Audit of Smart Contracts**

Always remember how essential smart contract auditing is. Do not minimize the development time by reducing the time for audit or full test coverage. Remember, if you won’t double-check your work, the hacker definitely will!

While a security audit does not safeguard a project from hacking attempts, it works pretty well to identify areas for improvement that would otherwise go unnoticed in full unit test coverage.

# **Always Get an External Audit before Deploying to Mainnet**

Consider an audit of your code as a security-focused peer review. Auditors will scan your entire codebase line by line and use formal verification techniques to check the vulnerabilities of your smart contracts. Deploying code without getting it audited or changing code & redeploying after an audit is an easy way to open yourself up to potential vulnerabilities.

# **Put together a Disaster Recovery Plan**

Depending on your protocol, it’s always best to have a contingency plan in case you get hacked. Some popular methodologies are:

-   Getting insurance
-   Installing an emergency pause feature
-   Having an upgrade plan

# **Protect against Frontrunning**

In blockchains, all transactions are visible in the mempool, which means that everyone can see your transaction and potentially make a transaction before yours to profit off your transaction.

For example, let’s say you use a DEX to exchange ETH for DAI at the current market price. Once you send your transaction to the mempool, a frontrunner could make a transaction to buy a large quantity of ETH just before your purchase, causing the price to rise. They could then sell you the ETH they purchased at a higher price and profit out of your pocket.

Fortunately, a group of world-class researchers of smart contract and cryptography, including Chainlink Labs Chief Scientist Ari Juels, are working to solve this exact problem with “Fair Sequencing Services.”

# **Uniqueness Code**

Continuing with the dForce example, the dForce contract pattern has a framework similar to the preceding Compound contracts. It demonstrates that duplicating other protocols’ coding will not safeguard your DeFi project. When someone copies a code, they must retrofit the project’s requirements to the code, which gives gaps and incompatibilities. Future exploits will be affected by these factors.

While building DeFi protocols or any other smart contract application, various security inspections need to be done before deploying it on a blockchain mainnet.

how-to-tackle-defi-attacks.png

How to Tackle DeFi Attacks?


With the advancement of applications of blockchain technology, the major sectors of the world market have highlighted the scope of development, this technology can bring to every domain. As common people, a brief outline of blockchain technology can give you insights into the evolution it is bringing in prime domains like finance, entertainment, etc. But if we go in-depth, we will find other underrated territories where blockchain is rapidly mutating the framework at its core. Here are a few of such domains:

# **Healthcare**

As of now, healthcare institutions are unable to securely share data across platforms. But with the proper application of blockchain technology, healthcare institutions may get access to better data collaboration between providers without compromising data security and integrity. This change would bring out more accurate diagnoses, more effective treatments, and more cost-effective healthcare. Moreover, a blockchain-based credential verification system is being developed for physicians, to prove they’re licensed to operate in certain areas.

Additionally, blockchain provides real-time visibility into the supply chain, which empowers the system to quickly respond against supply disruptions, making it crucial to the distribution of vaccines and medicines during a pandemic.

# **Government**

Public service management, often bogged down by bureaucracy, is yet another domain where paper-based processing, fraudulent activities, and accountability between authorities can be streamlined with the application of blockchain technology.

Authentication of voters’ identity, secure record-keeping to track votes, and trusted tallies to determine the winner are crucial requirements in elections where blockchain tools could serve as a foundational infrastructure for casting, tracking, & counting votes, potentially ending the need for recounts by taking voter fraud and foul play off the table.

In law enforcement, blockchain’s distributed ledger gives many opportunities concerning gun ownership and usage. If information related to gun possession was logged and connected through blockchain, it would be simple to track where weapons came from in the event of unlawful use. Moreover, a distributed and hard-to-falsify record kept via blockchain could provide an added layer of security to the evidence-handling process to maintain the integrity of the chain of evidence in a police investigation. Also, police can get a heads up whenever an individual involves in suspicious financial activity when they would implement blockchain for flagging specific transaction patterns.

# **Retail & CPG**

Blockchain technology can revolutionize e-commerce by minimizing transaction costs and strengthening transaction security. Many e-commerce giants are trying to develop and integrate decentralized blockchain utilities to connect manufacturers, brands, retailers, third-party sellers, content providers, and consumers, without an intermediary. Establishing a decentralized marketplace is in motion, which is designed to empower retailers by giving them total control over their retail space.

By using a decentralized ledger to record, store, and track data, blockchain will help to monitor the food supply chain and trace any contamination issue to its root. The food processor will be able to avoid sending harmful items to distributors, the retailer can cut down on or respond more quickly and effectively to recalls, and the consumer can trust that what they are buying is safe to consume.

# **Information & Communication**

Telcos can hold their position by offering blockchain-based identity management services to the customers, which would enable customers to choose whether to permit telcos to share certain types of data with certain companies, using a tamper-proof mechanism like an access token. In exchange for their data, the customer may choose to get paid or receive a discount for using that company’s services. We can also notice several messaging platforms integrating blockchain and crypto-features into their apps to enhance user security and privacy.

# **Enterprise Technology**

The inefficiency of cloud services in launching IoT products, due to vast computational resources and data storage capacity, can be resolved using blockchain’s decentralized cloud services, more connectivity and security, and computational power. Cloud exchanges, based on blockchain and decentralization, are less vulnerable to fraudulent transactions and cyberattacks. Various people and organizations would be able to offer their computing resources, spurring competition and incentivizing fair pricing.

In the current web, establishing your true identity and no interoperability on your personal information used by company servers is a major concern. Blockchain technology would decentralize the system to allow certain trusted DAOs to issue credentials to users, who can use them to prove their identities to other organizations, enhancing personal privacy and streamlining the verification process.

This would also help in conducting background checks and verifying employment histories by HRs or authorities, as employment and criminal records stored in a blockchain ledger would be free from the possibility of falsification. Business accounting is also a major division that would benefit from the transparency provided by features of blockchain, like smart contracts and verifiable transactions.

With many more domains to cover, the emerging blockchain technology is still in its embryonic stage and with its growth in upcoming years, it is not an exaggeration to state that this technology will be the future of advancement in every terrain of the global market.

With the advancement of applications of blockchain technology, the major sectors of the world market have highlighted the scope of development, this technology can bring to every domain.

impact-of-blockchain-on-healthcare-government-retail-and-information-technology.png

Impact of Blockchain on Healthcare, Government, Retail and Information Technology

# **What are Mainnets?**

A mainnet is a blockchain that facilitates the transmission of digital currencies from one sender to another. The main network, or mainnet, is where actual transactions are recorded on a distributed ledger. A testnet, on the other hand, is a test network where Decentralized apps and EDCCs are developed and tested.

An investor must guarantee that a blockchain project has a mainnet before investing in an Initial Coin Offering. The presence of a mainnet or a testnet indicates the seriousness of a project, as both elements have an impact on the price of a cryptocurrency in some way.

In the world of cryptocurrencies, the mainnet is the outcome of blockchain initiatives that enable the sending and receiving of digital currencies. When project teams determine that updates or revisions are required, mainnets are updated or revised. Crypto-based mainnet deployments, in particular, will need to incorporate a wallet system.

# **Importance of Mainnets in Cryptocurrency**

Many aspects can play a role in determining whether or not a cryptocurrency is valuable and worthwhile in the long run. When considering a cryptocurrency’s long-term durability, evaluate its transparency, wallet accessibility, acceptance, market cap, circulating supply, community size, team experience, and the management team’s determination to make continuing enhancements or adjustments.

The coin’s originality — the protocols, tokenomics, and business strategy that make transactions easier and less expensive while also providing particular functionality — is also unique. The blockchain’s dependability and security are related to this.

These characteristics are best demonstrated in a stringent testing environment. The gold standard for this is testing in a secure “testnet” set up within an existing mainnet.

Because Mainnets operate outside the borders of a single country and are not under the control of any existing authority, it has become common practice to develop a non-profit Foundation as the governmental body to assist in the development of strategies and the strategic planning of the Mainnet’s inner workings.

We haven’t seen a comprehensive view of blockchain’s potential yet because it is a relatively new idea, and these capabilities will continue developing as we add additional tools, precision, scalability, and extensibility into the mainnets.

# **Conclusion**

The future of blockchain is heavily reliant on the adoption of its use cases across various industries, as well as the ability to use it collaboratively. As the number of organizations participating in the blockchain network grows, they will need to connect.

Blockchain ecosystems could empower all participants with access to knowledge and value by leveraging the potential of collaboration. As a result, it’s critical to think about the viability of various ecosystem models for various use cases and requirements.

To understand what lies ahead for the crypto ecosystems and their mainnets, we need to understand the meaning and the importance of mainnets.



the-future-of-crypto-ecosystems-and-their-mainnets.png

To understand what lies ahead for the crypto ecosystems and their mainnets, we need to understand the meaning and the importance of mainnets.

The Future of Crypto Ecosystems and their Mainnets

As companies use blockchain to drive greater transparency and precision across the digital information ecosystem, they’re amplifying awareness of the technology in sectors ranging from finance to infrastructure and even the entertainment sector. Here are the latest innovative ways in which companies are harnessing the power of blockchain technology in these three major domains.

## Financial services
Blockchain integration in finance has created the revolution of Decentralized Finance (DeFi). From a global perspective, banks serve as the critical storehouses and transfer hubs of value as digitized, secure, and tamper-proof ledgers, blockchains could fulfil the same responsibility, adding enhanced accuracy and information sharing into the financial services framework. JPMorgan Chase, the 200-year-old & world’s leading global financial services firm is facilitating to and fro real-time international payments with its clients through its JPM Coins. Other leading banks like Citigroup & Goldman Sachs are running trials with blockchain. It is a popular analysis that blockchain can rattle the $5 Trillion banking industry by disintermediating the basic services that banks provide, from payments to clearance and settlement systems.

Facilitating payments is highly profitable for banks. International B2B transactions alone are expected to reach a total value of $35T in 2022, according to Juniper Research, however, blockchain technology offers a secure and cheap way of sending payments that eliminates the need for verification from third parties and overpower processing times for traditional bank transfers.

Investing sector is also impacted by blockchain technology. We can see impact tokens integrated with smart contracts, incentivizing activities that support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Disintermediation of capital formation is also adapted by the crowdfunding industry by giving pledgers the ability to directly fund creators.

Another finance sector absorbing the concepts of blockchain is mortgage/lending. Conventional banks/lenders provide loans based on credit reporting, however, blockchain provides a cheaper, more efficient, and more secure method to do the same for a broader pool of consumers, using a cryptographically secure, decentralized registry of historical payments; so consumers could apply for loans based on a global credit score. Moreover, the insurance industry is directing its blockchain applications on operational efficiency improvement. They are experimenting with blockchain to drive down costs, increase speed to market, and provide better customer experiences.

## Infrastructure & Energy
Since blockchain could serve as a public ledger for a massive number of devices enabling them to mediate communication between them autonomously, several companies are incorporating this technology to allow any device to securely connect, interact, and transact independently, along with managing software updates, bugs, or energy management.

Construction is another highly regulated industry that employs a wide variety of tradespeople to take on very complex projects. It is a difficult and time-consuming task to validate their identities, quality of work, and credibility. A blockchain-based framework could resolve these issues by making it easier for general contractors to cross-reference and track progress across multiple teams. While sourcing construction materials from credible places and ensuring their quality could be implemented using blockchain technology, the incorporation of smart contracts simply automates issuing timely payments linked to project milestones. The application of blockchain in real estate can help with recording, tracking, and transferring land titles, property deeds, liens, and more, ensuring the accuracy and verifiability of all documents.

Energy management has been the most centralized industry historically. In the US and UK, centralization of authority to allow someone to transact in energy lies in the hands of established power holding companies like Duke Energy or National Grid or with a reseller that buys from a big electricity company. Blockchain’s distributed ledgers could minimize (or eliminate) the need for such intermediaries, changing the traditional energy-exchange process. An open-source blockchain platform would enable utility companies’ customers to transact in ‘decentralized energy generation schemes’ to generate, buy, and sell energy to other people.

## Entertainment
Smart contracts of blockchain technology bring fairness in content sharing for creators, along with automatically disseminating the revenue on purchases of creative work according to predetermined licensing agreements. Moreover, the cost of video traffic by decentralizing video encoding, storage, and content distribution could dramatically reduce using blockchain disrupting Netflix, YouTube, and other players in the video distribution market.

In the world of gaming, blockchain enables gamers to attain a more even playing field for competing, getting rewarded, and exchanging digital assets, as digital tokens are securely exchanged for cryptocurrency without third-party investment. This model, termed Play-to-Earn, allows the gamers to use one perfected character or set of skills and items across digital worlds via blockchain’s distributed ledger, thereby quickly earning rewards and exchanging them through one decentralized source. NFTs and the Metaverse make the model more profitable to gamers. Axie Infinity, the NFT-based online video game, became very popular in 2021 as the players were not just earning tokens for in-game purchases, but also crypto exchange for real money. The game’s sales spiked from roughly $20K in Q1 2021 to a peak of $246.32M in Q4 2021.

There is also an urgent demand to reinvent social media networks as platforms where users are paid for the content they create, and they can also maintain anonymity. Blockchain technology and tokenization have also affected the art industry by giving a way to global access to the art market and reducing transaction costs.

As this new concept of blockchain technology grows, we will be looking forward to transformations in every sector of the global market. This technology has the potential to penetrate every barrier and establish a better structure for every sector.

As companies use blockchain to drive greater transparency and precision across the digital information ecosystem, they’re amplifying awareness of the technology in sectors ranging from finance to infrastructure and even the entertainment sector.

impact-of-blockchain-in-financial-entertainment-and-infrastructure-industries.png

Impact of Blockchain in Financial, Entertainment and Infrastructure Industries

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has experienced a wave of enthusiasm for Ethereum and other smart contract platforms like Binance Smart Chain, Solana, etc. We can see the popularity of Yield Farming for token distribution, the surge in volumes of flash loans, and the growth of tokenized BTC on Ethereum.

Meanwhile, we couldn’t help but notice automated market maker protocols regularly encountering high liquidity, competitive volumes, and an increase in the number of users.

But many of us often wonder about what AMM is in-depth and the risks attached to it. Let’s find out.

# **AMM**

An automated market maker (AMM) is the underlying protocol that intensifies a decentralized exchange (DEX) via the trading of digital assets in a permissionless and automatic procedure, using crypto liquidity pools as complements, instead of a conventional buying/selling market. Instead of using an order book like a traditional exchange, AMM relies on a mathematical formula, or pricing algorithm, to price assets. Each protocol uses this formula in its own way for the specific use-cases they target. For example, Uniswap uses a x b = k, where ‘a’ and ‘b’ are the respective amounts of the two tokens in the liquidity pool, and k is a fixed constant, which means that the pool’s total liquidity always remains constant. The connection between all of them, however, is that they determine the prices algorithmically.

# **Liquidity Pool**

Liquidity providers (LPs) put funds into liquidity pools. One could imagine a liquidity pool as a huge amount of funds that traders can trade-off. In return for supplying liquidity to the protocol, LPs receive fees from the trades occurring in their pool. The rewards are determined by the protocol. But why drawing liquidity to the pool is so important? The framework of AMMs implies that the liquidity is inversely proportional to the slippage of large orders. And that, in turn, may attract more volume to the platform, and the cycle goes on.

The slippage issues vary with different AMM designs, but it’s important to remember that the pricing is determined by an algorithm. Hence, it is determined by the amount of change in the ratio between the tokens in the liquidity pool after a trade. If the ratio varies by a wide gap, the amount of slippage will increase.

# What is Impermanent Loss?

In simple terms, when the price ratio of deposited tokens changes after you deposited them in the pool, impermanent loss occurs. The bigger the change, the bigger the impermanent loss. It is why AMMs work best with token pairs of a similar value. If the price ratio between the pair remains in a relatively small range, the impermanent loss is also insignificant.

“Impermanence” considers that if the assets go back to the initial prices where they were deposited, the losses are mitigated. But if you withdraw your funds at a different price ratio than when you deposited them, the losses are very much permanent. In some cases, the trading fees might mitigate the losses, but it’s still crucial to consider the risks.

# A thorough Analysis of Impermanent Losses

Let’s take the ETH-USDT fund pool as an example to quantitatively analyze the risk of AMM. Suppose that the market maker deposits x0 ETH and y0 USDT into the fund pool at the price of P0, and the market maker’s assets will become xn ETH and yn USDT at the price of Pn. There are the following five market-making groups:

**1.Group 1,**  which wants to hold USDT for a long time, participates in market making, hoping to convert into USDT to maintain positive returns.

Under the xyk AMM model, its rate of return = yn/y0 -1 = (Pn/P0)^.5 -1 for the market-making group without considering the fee income.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*g-ncPd21uqLo6ifc)

Figure 1- Mining profit and loss of market maker group 1

**2. Group 2,**  which wants to hold ETH for a long time, participates in market making, hoping to convert it into ETH to maintain a positive income.

Under the xyk AMM, its rate of return = xn/x0 -1 =(P0/Pn)^.5 -1 for group 2 without considering the fee income.

.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*B2FJpiB6XaUANZzJ)

Figure 2 Mining profit and loss of market maker group 2

**3.**  **Group 3,**  which wants to hold both ETH and USDT for a long time, participates in market making, hoping to convert into USDT to maintain a positive return.

Its rate of return = 2yn/(x0*Pn + y0)-1=2*(P0Pn)^.5/(Pn+P0) -1 without considering the fee income.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*bye8orPFXJqqX5NV)

Figure 3 Mining profit and loss of market maker group 3

**4.**  **Group 4**, which wants to hold both ETH and USDT for a long time, participate in market making, hoping to convert into ETH to maintain a positive return.

Its rate of return = 2yn/(x0*Pn + y0)-1=2*(P0Pn)⁰.5/(Pn+P0) -1 without considering the fee income.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*OczyYG99XulMN64A)

Figure 4 Mining profit and loss of market maker group 4

**5.**  **Group 5**,  _sushiswap single-sided solution_: depositing ETH, borrowing equivalent SIL, and returning SIL when withdrawing.

Its rate of return = (2xn — (y0)/Pn))/x0 -1= 2(P0/Pn)^.5 — P0/Pn -1 without considering the fee income.

However, the sushiswap single-sided solution cannot hedge impermanent losses, but the market maker’s assets will have the risk of returning to zero when the price falls by 75%.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*pzPhTsC3WPNPpbrX)

Figure 5 Mining profit and loss of market maker group 5

Based on the quantitative analysis of the above five groups, the profit and loss of automatic market makers are related to price. Group 1 bears the risk of price falling, group 2 bears the risk of price rise, and groups 3 and 4 face losses whether price rising or falling known as impermanent loss in the industry.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has experienced a wave of enthusiasm for Ethereum and other smart contract platforms like Binance Smart Chain, Solana, etc. We can see the popularity of Yield Farming for token distribution, the surge in volumes of flash loans, and the growth of tokenized BTC on Ethereum.

An Analysis of AMMs & Impermanent Losses

When Elon Musk declared that Tesla would stop taking Bitcoin payments owing to the environmental impact of mining, green cryptocurrencies surged into the news at the end of 2021. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, the amount of electricity consumed by bitcoin mining in a year could boil enough water for all cups of tea drank in the UK for 30 years.

But it is only fair to do that, isn’t it? As nature is in alarm mode, we need to take more environmentally friendly steps.

# **But what are Sustainable Cryptocurrencies?**

Due to the abundance of computing required, cryptocurrency mining is a process requiring a lot of energy. Alternative models with a low environmental impact have been introduced to cut emissions connected with the first digital currencies: the so-called green cryptocurrencies.

Green cryptocurrencies are built on breakthrough processes that decrease blockchain technology’s carbon footprint. So many of these aspects can also be applied to existing, more damaging cryptocurrencies in the search for more sustainable approaches. The same is the case with Ethereum, the technology that powers most non-fungible tokens (NFT), which promises to use a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus method to cut its energy consumption by 99.5 per cent.

# **What are some emerging Green Cryptocurrencies?**

Bitcoin mining consumes a frightening amount of fossil fuels, as per environmentalists. There are, however, alternative, ecologically responsible cryptocurrencies that inflict less harm to the ecosystem. These could help alleviate some of the concerns about cryptocurrencies and the environment.

Smaller currencies may have a lesser carbon footprint than more famous ones, but this could simply be due to fewer transactions. However, some digital assets are more energy-efficient, which means they have a minimal environmental impact.

So, let’s have a look at some of those energy-efficient cryptocurrencies that are gaining traction these days:

**1.Chia (XCH)**

Rather than the mining, proof-of-work approach used by bitcoin, which relies heavily on computer processors, chia’s “farming” operation uses hard drives — a phenomenon known as proof of space. Chia, according to TRG Datacenters, is a stellar example of sustainable coin crypto designed to be much less energy-intensive.

The Chia Network is a blockchain and smart transaction framework that helps everyone run a decentralized network utilizing available hard drive space. The Chia Network uses proof-of-space-time rather than proof-of-work. XCH, Chia’s token, can be obtained by storing a particular quantity of data for a certain duration of time. XCH was established in 2017 in response to the increased energy consumption of cryptocurrency mining.

Unlike all the other cryptocurrencies, Chia was created by the pioneer of BitTorrent, Bram Cohen. People sought to purchase more storage space on which to farm XCH when the platform was introduced, limiting the availability of hard drives in China.

**2. IOTA**

IOTA, as a cryptocurrency, has not been as price erratic as many other tokens. But it has been frustrating for investors looking for the same returns as early Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other altcoin purchases. Because IOTA leverages Fast Probabilistic Consensus for consensus and only requires Proof of Work in part, the network’s overall energy consumption is significantly small.

**3. Signum (Signa)**

Burstcoin was rebranded as Signum in June 2021, and its symbol was changed to SIGNA. Following a substantial decline in the value after the currency was taken off the market from Poloniex in May 2019, a hard fork has declared the original Burstcoin useless.

Burstcoin was perhaps the first blockchain to leverage Turing-complete smart contracts, which allow non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be formed and used in on-chain games. Since it has been utilizing Proof of Capacity rather than Proof of Work since 2014 and recently upgraded to Proof of Commitment with the launch of Smart Tokens, Signum is likely to remain one of the most environmentally friendly, sustainable cryptocurrencies.

The world of blockchain and DeFi is growing each day and creating milestones with each step. The fact that we have the option to explore green and sustainable cryptocurrencies is mindblowing in itself. So our suggestion to you would be to go green!

When Elon Musk declared that Tesla would stop taking Bitcoin payments owing to the environmental impact of mining, green cryptocurrencies surged into the news at the end of 2021.

green-and-sustainable-cryptocurrencies.jpeg

Green and Sustainable Cryptocurrencies

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has completely transformed the cryptocurrency market. Traders are interested in this domain, both as a promising infrastructure project within the crypto industry and as an opportunity to profit off turbulent token fluctuations.

At the same time, this turbulence has a flip side: a rather high risk. Let’s go through a few strategies for the DeFi market that can minimize these risks on a DeFi protocol.

From the beginner phase, investors adored the DeFi investing domain, since decentralized finance gives them more control over their money. And while early on decentralized finance floated toward loans and credit, DeFi is now at least 5 full-fledged, interconnected fragments: blockchain, decentralized exchanges (DEX), decentralized derivative platforms, loans and credit, & insurance.

Despite its relative firmness, the DeFi segment is still prone to risks, as an investment. The volatility in the tokens of various projects undeniably pulls new investors. However, high yield also means high risk. There are several efficient ways or strategies for managing risks in DeFi.

# **Strategy #1: Position Sizing**

Position sizing formulates how many crypto coins or tokens a trader is willing to buy. The probability of realizing huge profits in crypto trading tempts traders to invest 30%, 50%, or even 100% of their trading capital. However, this is a disordered action that puts you at serious financial risks. The golden rule is: never put all your eggs in one basket. Here are three approaches to achieving position sizing.

-   **Enter Amount vs Risk Amount:**  This approach considers two different capitals. The first involves money you are willing to put in every single deal. Traders are advised to analyze this amount as the size of each new order they take, regardless of its type. The second is the money at risk, i.e. the money that you afford to lose if the trading fails.
-   **Elder’s Sharks & Piranhas:**  This approach relates to diversifying your investments which brings forth two basic methods:

Limiting every position to 2% risk. Dr. Alexander Elder, who is credited with the concept, correlated risk to a shark bite. At times, you would wish to risk a huge capital, but the risk would be huge and disastrous as a shark bite.

Limiting trading sessions to 6% per session. In a losing streak, you may end up disposing of everything you own little by little. Elder correlates this risk to a piranha attack, which takes small bites of its victim until it devours it all.

-   **The Kelly criterion:**  It is a formula developed by John Larry Kelly in 1956. It is a position sizing approach that defines the percentage of the amount to risk. It enhances long-term trading.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/984/0*TqvydEzNuAVl0p7d)

# **Strategy #2: Diversified Portfolio**

In this strategy, investors fill their portfolios with the most assuring, underrated, and non-overlapping DeFi projects. This compresses the risk of the portfolio losing significant value because of a single asset. You can identify assuring tokens by their market cap to total value locked (TVL) ratio. Tokens with the minimal correlation of these values can be considered underrated, which means there is logic to expect these assets to “catch up” with others in their valuation and growth. Therefore, by buying these cryptocurrencies, traders stabilize their portfolios for the medium & long duration.

For additional diversification of your risks, you can choose projects on different blockchains, such as Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain. Another way is to select negatively correlated tokens, meaning that when one token is highly turbulent in day trading, you should choose a more stable asset for balance.

Diversifying your portfolio by including an insurance project is even better since the demand for safeguarding capital within the decentralized finance ecosystem is only going to increase. Having such tokens in your investment portfolio will help you to significantly counteract an adverse situation if one were to suddenly occur.

# Strategy #3: Staking

You can also minimize your risks of value loss with stake-able tokens. The cryptocurrencies of certain DeFi projects offer the feature to profit just by storing them. For example, users of the international cryptocurrency exchange CEX.IO can earn up to 16% annual interest for storing their tokens. And the gain from staking rises when the coin’s price rises. For example, if a trader invests $100 in XYZ token at $0.20 per coin, with 16% interest for staking they would get approximately 580 XYZ at the end of the year as their reward. If in that period the price has increased from $0.20 to $0.40, the trader would get $232 when they cash out. Considering the coin’s price surge, the profit increases to 132% instead of 20%.

To safeguard your portfolio against major fluctuations, you can invest in stablecoins that provide staking, such as Dai. On one hand, the passive yield from your tokens can increase your total profit from investing in the DeFi sector, and on the other hand, it can cushion potential losses if the market ramps down. Additionally, traders can restrict their losses to the amount of their prospective staking reward. As soon as the losses on their positions get near to the profit they would get from staking, traders can simply close them.

# Strategy #4: Hedging

In the fundamental hedging process, while buying an asset on an exchange, traders open an opposing position in the associated derivative at once. These derivatives could be futures, alternatives, or contracts for difference. So if a trader buys XYZ on the exchange, to hedge the risk of the asset losing value they would immediately sell a contract for a difference for the same amount. In the end, if XYZ gains in price, the losses on the contract for difference would be cushioned by the rise in the cryptocurrency’s value. However, if the price for XYZ decreases, this difference would be covered by the contrasting position on the contract for difference.

Derivative trading is offered by specialized platforms where you can use them to gain from turbulence in the prices of cryptocurrencies without having to physically buy them and hedge assets you’re holding. A contract for difference permits traders not to participate directly in DeFi and escape the technical risks, uncertainty, and complexity linked with it. To manage risks, most of the platforms use automatic safeguard orders, such as stop-loss and take-profit.

Many platforms allow users to draw out maximum profit from fluctuations in the DeFi market and, if necessary, apply strategies to efficiently protect their capital.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has completely transformed the cryptocurrency market. Traders are interested in this domain, both as a promising infrastructure project within the crypto industry and as an opportunity to profit off turbulent token fluctuations.

risk-management-strategies-for-defi.jpeg

Risk Management Strategies for DeFi


Thousands of initiatives are vying for broad cryptocurrency acceptance, with blockchain technology used for different business and consumer demands. The market valuation of the cryptocurrency business has increased dramatically in the preceding year.

However, many individuals are still confused between coins and tokens. So, let’s clear things up and explain what the distinctions are.

# **Utility Tokens**

These are assets developed for a particular function that is utilized. These tokens can be swapped for a digital product, benefit, or service, facilitating interaction and use of decentralized applications (dApps) as well as access to decentralized finance services (DeFi), such as Ethereum (ETH).

Ethereum is one of the most popular blockchain networks today because it is much more than simply crypto. It’s a decentralized, open-source public service that uses blockchain technology to provide smart contracts and safe cryptocurrency trading without the use of middlemen. It’s also essential for DeFi and, more recently, non-fungible tokens (NFT).

In practice, however, the application of these terms is rarely as precise. As the blockchain market is still in its inception, the terms “coin” and “token” are frequently interchanged. On the other hand, most industry insiders agree that a coin is money and a token is virtually anything else.

# **Security Tokens**

A security token is a digital asset that symbolizes ownership or other rights and is used to transfer value from one asset to another. Security tokens are the digital equivalents of traditional investments such as stocks, bonds, and other assets. For example, instead of issuing shares, a corporation that wishes to generate cash for an expansionary project could issue fractionalized ownership of their company via a digital token. It might then sell this token on an exchange that accepts digital security tokens to investors.

When you buy a tokenized form of a stock, you get the same profit shares and voting rights as if you sold the shares via a conventional stockbroker. The only variation is that a token is electronic.

Security tokens differ from utility tokens as they are considered investments. As a result, they are susceptible to the same legal oversight as other investment products.

# **Coins**

A digital coin’s function is to serve as a payment option. It acts similarly to money as a measure of value, a store of value, and a medium of exchange. A crypto coin is similar to the original coins we carry in our pockets; the difference is that it is digital and not governed by a central bank.

Both crypto coins and tokens are comparable on the surface, but they are distinct entities: all coins are tokens, but not all tokens are coins.

Surprisingly, many people are clueless if they are purchasing crypto tokens or crypto coins. At its most basic level, the main distinction between them is their functionality.

Defining each type of coin and token is a crucial step toward gaining a better grasp of how blockchain technology is being used by companies. They assist individuals and businesses to avail advantages of digital money while avoiding unpredictability.

Thousands of initiatives are vying for broad cryptocurrency acceptance, with blockchain technology used for different business and consumer demands. The market valuation of the cryptocurrency business has increased dramatically in the preceding year.

token-classes-explained-coin-vs-utility-token-vs-security-token.jpeg

Token Classes Explained: Coin vs Utility Token vs Security Token

Over the years, the enormous growth of bitcoin and blockchain has been phenomenal. Decentralised Finance (DeFi), a blockchain-based finance platform that eliminates centralised financial middlemen is the prime reason for this rapid growth.

Although being decentralised, it nevertheless provides investors with multiple alternatives for passive income, making it unique. Liquidity mining is one of these methods.

What exactly is liquidity mining, and how might it help DeFi? Let us understand this further.

## What is Liquidity Mining?
Liquidity mining is an investing approach in which DeFi protocol participants donate their crypto assets in order to make it easier for others to trade on the platform. Participants receive a percentage of the platform’s fees or newly created tokens in exchange for their contributions.

Now, because a DEX demands liquidity to facilitate trading between distinct token pairs, this incentive technique allows users to provide liquidity to help facilitate those trades. It means that the majority of liquidity pools are between trading pairs, with users depositing one of two cryptocurrencies depending on the pool.

In 2020, the compound received a positive response after unveiling the DeFi Liquidity Mining concept. Total value locked (TVL) for liquidity mining has hovered around $97 billion after its inaugural.

$97 billion! Isn’t the amount huge? But that is major because anyone can adopt this method. It is also one of the key reasons for its appeal among trade participants.

## What are some benefits of liquidity mining?
Liquidity mining has turned out to be quite a beneficial investment strategy. It not only aids the liquidity providers but also, the DeFi platforms and the blockchain community. Let’s have a look at some of its benefits down below.

**1. Distribution of Native Tokens**

Providing liquidity mining gave both institutional and low-capital investors a fair probability. If you put money into a liquidity pool, you may receive benefits in terms of native tokens that you can use to vote, depending on the protocol and farm parameters.

Although liquidity mining eliminates bias, it is imperative to remember that providing tokens to liquidity providers does not remove token distribution disparity. The premise of token distribution remains the same: the bigger the investment, the higher the return.

**2. Open Governance**

Given that everyone can partake in liquidity mining regardless of their stake, anyone can also acquire governance tokens and hence vote on project development proposals and other important decisions taken by stakeholders. As a result, a more inclusive paradigm arises, in which even tiny investors can contribute to the growth of a marketplace.

**3. Benefiting DeFi**

As participation in liquidity mining is compensated, the DEX’s native token can benefit hugely from the cash inflow into the protocol. Developers and their DeFi innovators are becoming incredibly interested in this engagement strategy.

Traditionally, start-ups were limited to funding their projects, but community incentivization offers an unusual alternative to establish traction. More participants will join, and the space will grow as long as the benefits make sense and the protocols give more than sufficient security.

## The Bottom Line
The blockchain industry is still emerging, and it remains to be identified whether liquidity mining will prove to be successful over the long term crypto investment strategy. You should be keen to put your money in liquidity pools if you have a solid understanding of liquidity mining and its inherent risks and rewards. High yields that bolster your portfolio and allow you to earn continuous passive income are possible with the ideal method. While other passive investment strategies may have advantages, liquidity mining is relatively easy to implement.

Liquidity mining is an investing approach in which DeFi protocol participants donate their crypto assets in order to make it easier for others to trade on the platform. Participants receive a percentage of the platform’s fees or newly created tokens in exchange for their contributions.

a-beginner-s-guide-to-liquidity-mining.jpeg

A Beginner’s guide to Liquidity Mining

Blockchain, crypto, NFTs, metaverse, and decentralized finance have all picked up steam in the latest years of their potential and capacity to redefine how we interact with the world. With the continued implementation of these new technologies, outdated systems are beginning to crumble.

Since 2018, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has been the talk of the world of cryptocurrencies for various obvious reasons. DeFi is a permissionless innovation, a goal for greater financial inclusion, and procedures underlying wealth sovereignty. At the same time, another technological advancement in the shape of the metaverse has risen.

Binance has unveiled MetaFi, a novel concept aiming at tapping into the infrastructures required to support virtual economies that operate in parallel with the real world.

What? What does that even mean? To understand this further, keep reading.

# **The Concept of MetaFi**

MetaFi is an amalgamation of two words: metadata and DeFi. MetaFi is a new paradigm shift that seeks to standardize blockchain technology for large-scale Web2 applications such as games, networking sites, and the metaverse. It would result in a unified standard that would aid inaccessibility. The goal is to create a common blockchain standard that improves interoperability across virtual worlds by bringing everything together.

The convergence of these multiple crypto primitives enables a full-fledged parallel economy that uses blockchain to supply people around the world. MetaFi, a combination of meta and DeFi, aims at building metadata and other technology standards for use across networks, such as NFT and gaming metadata standards.

Even though many of these applications will be used in the metaverse, the word Meta can be taken as “all-encompassing” or “a means to an end,” rather than an acronym for the metaverse.

# **How does MetaFi Work?**

MetaFi harnesses the presence of metadata to facilitate interoperability for assets on most blockchains in development. A link to the allied image is in the metadata of an NFT, for example. You can also link metadata to a bitcoin (BTC) transaction, allowing you to add more encrypted information.

Any blockchain, however, will make assets machine-readable. The sortable is achieved by useable metadata standards. If all blockchains display their metadata in the same way, an NFT marketplace development might try to examine and sort NFTs from many blockchains.

# **What Challenges does MetaFi Face?**

Because MetaFi may be regarded as an all-encompassing ecosystem centred on information widely used in virtual reality, it has a set of software and hardware requirements. These limitations present difficulties not only for those who are developing the MetaFi but also for users and gamers who want to participate in it.

-   The MetaFi NFT interplay is the most massive obstacle for Metaverse DeFi convergence. For buying, selling, or borrowing against an NFT, owners must have a strong insight into its value. NFT appraisals, on the other hand, are a point of anxiety for lenders.
-   The fractionalization of NFT in diverse MetaFi crypto applications brings a whole new set of legal and governance concerns.
-   Furthermore, merging DeFi with metaverse is complicated by the diverse standards used by different blockchain networks.

# **The Bottom Line**

MetaFi is a groundbreaking novel phenomenon in crypto with practically limitless applications. This concept is required to spawn even more MetaFi applications and more creativity in the crypto realm, whether in the metaverse, gaming, or other sectors, even if we are still a long way from seeing it, thoroughly implemented and widely used.

Blockchain, crypto, NFTs, metaverse, and decentralized finance have all picked up steam in the latest years of their potential and capacity to redefine how we interact with the world. With the continued implementation of these new technologies, outdated systems are beginning to crumble.

meta-fi-amalgamation-of-de-fi-and-metaverse.jpeg

MetaFi: Amalgamation of DeFi and Metaverse


Since mid-2020, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) has picked up steam. DeFi has demonstrated that decentralising financial services at scale are viable, even though it is still in its initial days.

Algorithms and decentralised computer algorithms will dictate how value is created, exchanged, transmitted, and converted into financial products and derivatives in the not-too-distant future. As a newer technology, DeFi replaces old financial infrastructure and ushers in an age of ‘integrated value exchange,’ the financial industry, which has traditionally played this function, will evolve.

# **Understanding DeFi**

The term “decentralised finance” refers to Ethereum and blockchain-based applications. Because DeFi uses blockchain, many parties can keep a record of transactions. It means that no single source has control over anything. Instead, everything is decentralised. It is essential since traditional centralised systems can limit transaction speed, flexibility, and clarity, leaving users with less absolute authority over their assets.

DeFi differs from traditional banking in that it provides consumers with access to previously unavailable options. DeFi has expanded from a $1 billion sector in 2019 to a market worth more than $100 billion. Legacy financial institutions, in addition to crypto traders, recognize the significance of being ahead of this technology.

# **Is DeFi Unique?**

Accessibility is that one trait that can make anything go viral, therefore, DeFi has been blooming since the very start. Using blockchain technology at our disposal to transform the finance space has been a treat for all the people who are into finance.

Another notable benefit is the concept of composability, which allows anyone to integrate existing DeFi solutions to create a new one. The scalability of such a network, made up effectively of blocks of interlocking components, implies that long term financial inventions and requirements may be readily built on top of it and interconnected, all under the management of smart contracts.

# **How DeFi will Reshape the Future**

A variety of macro and technological developments have added to the rapid expansion of DeFi in recent years. DeFi is quickly evolving and expanding to parallel the traditional financial services ecosystem, whether through decentralised exchanges, lending and borrowing of multiple asset types, or insurance products. With so many traits like being built on a distributed ledger, DeFi applications can operate independently of a centralised operator with frequent administrations democratically, giving users choice over the application’s or protocol’s future.

This new type of decentralised financial technology may influence the progress of centralised financial institutions, with DeFi being regarded as a cheaper, faster, and more relevant alternative.

With a plethora of benefits for users, DeFi is set to revolutionise the finance industry. We are only 1% into the DeFi disruption, and for the time being, we are simply seeing the foundations of a new metropolis. However, DeFi isn’t a renovation. Our financial system is being completely reformed.

# **About aarnâ:**

aarnâ is an all in one platform that incorporates blockchain engineering, financial expertise, and data science to create crypto wealth. Avail insightful financial advice and deep insights driven by blockchain data, along with managing multiple CeXs, DeXs, numerous tokens and complex crypto products in one place with focus on optimization and enterprise-grade security and privacy.

Our journey started in 2022 in Delaware, USA with a passion for democratizing crypto prosperity by creating a seamless engine that amalgamates technology [blockchain engineering], people [financial expertise], and data [artificial intelligence]. We are determined to build a comprehensive asset management product that reduces asymmetric access to quality investments.

Stay Tuned and follow our Social Media Handles for regular updates!!

[**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/aarnasays) **|** [**Telegram**](https://t.me/aarnasays) **|** [**Website**](https://www.aarna.finance/) **|** [**Medium**](https://medium.com/@aarna_finance)

Since mid-2020, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) has picked up steam. DeFi has demonstrated that decentralising financial services at scale are viable, even though it is still in its initial days.

will-defi-be-the-next-big-thing.png

Will DeFi be the next big thing?

Reaching out to all the potential cryptocurrency investors, we have an exciting opportunity for you. Your search for an incredible giveaway ends here, so get ready to experience something extraordinary.

It gives us immense pleasure to announce the aarnâ giveaway. Your hard work and determination will not go unseen, as aarnâ has prepared prizes beyond your expectations.

**To enter the giveaway,**
1. Follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/aarnasays) and [Medium](https://medium.com/@aarna_finance).

2. Follow our [Telegram Channel](https://t.me/aarnasays)

3. [Join aarnâ engine and connect your wallet](https://engine.aarna.finance/portfolio)

4. Tag your 5 friends in the comments section.

5. Like, Retweet and Spread the Word!!

6. Share your views about DeFi on the Telegram Channel.

**Timeline:**
24th May 2022–4th June 2022

**Reward Distribution:**
**1st Place — $150 USDT

2nd Place — $120 USDT

3rd Place — $100 USDT

4th Place — $80 USDT

5th Place — $50 USDT**

Stay Tuned for more updates! If you face any roadblocks for participating in the giveaway, contact us at https://www.aarna.finance/

## About aarnâ:
aarnâ protocol is an autonomous DeFi asset management platform on a mission to simplify the crypto & DeFi experience lifecycle for investors, with a fully on-chain ecosystem leveraging cooperative human-artificial intelligence. Our beta is ready for launch, and we’d love to be the most widely used Web3-native asset management platform in the next decade.

aarnâ protocol is designed with a holistic approach for solving the complex problem of asymmetric access & information in crypto asset management at scale and pursues this with a flywheel that connects an engine, a DAO, and machine intelligence. aarnâ has a defined roadmap for progressive decentralization of the platform.

### Social Media Handles:

[Twitter](https://twitter.com/aarnasays) | [Telegram](https://t.me/aarnasays) | [Website](https://aarna.finance/) | [Medium](https://medium.com/@aarna_finance)

It gives us immense pleasure to announce the aarnâ giveaway. Your hard work and determination will not go unseen, as aarnâ has prepared prizes beyond your expectations.

aarna-500-usdt-giveaway.jpg

aarnâ $500 USDT giveaway

With the pandemic drifting away after a prolonged period, the businesses and incomes are coming back on track, and people are looking forward to resuming their investment goals rapidly. When you see the market, the crypto industry is on a trend, gravitating investors’ interest. However, the account of being a new concept amongst people and beginner investors in maximum parts of the world is a typical mindset of the majority to consider it unstable and/or unreliable.

Comparing the strategies people have been using for a long time in the market, one would fear losing his money in the volatile crypto market as they neglect this domain to invest and are influenced by negative reviews of the numerous amateur investors. One needs a balanced strategy to build his own experience in the crypto investment market with low-risk investment and significant profits. Here, DCA kicks in!

Dollar-cost Averaging (DCA) is a reliable strategy used by market investors for a long time. DCA works by minimizing the risk of investing or purchasing assets along with high price volatility. It focuses on investing a predetermined amount of money at regular intervals regardless of asset price or ups and downs of the market, instead of investing a lump sum amount at once. To analyze the strategy of Dollar-cost Averaging thoroughly, we will walk you through a simple example.

**For example, the initial price is $100 for X cryptocurrency, and you choose to invest $100 every week.

Week 1: $100 per coin & you buy 1 coin. Total invested = $100

Week 2: $50 per coin, you buy 2 coins. Total invested = $200

Week 3: $200 per coin, you buy 0.5 coins. Total invested =$300

At the end of 3rd week, you now own 3.5 coins of X at an average price of $85.71 per coin.**

It is how Dollar-cost Averaging works. By investing the same amount at every pre-decided interval of time, no matter what the market is doing, you will buy more cryptocurrency when the market is low and less when it is high. On average, you will get fair prices and significant overall profit. The fundamental part lies in investing on a fixed schedule which will build you a strong investing position in the near future.

On the contrary, a few groups of investors would argue that the best way to score high gains is to invest a lump sum amount of money at once. It is true, but it does not recognize an individual’s tolerance for risk. Historical statistics clearly highlight that lump sum investments always exceed the return of partial investments, however, that comes at an extensive risk. When markets go up, using your lump-sum investment money to buy crypto and generate profit takes full advantage of market growth. But it is impossible to time the market with accurate precision, especially for the beginners in the market. This strategy would give them a prominent exposure to the crypto market, accompanying a massive risk.

It is too hard to determine the market’s structure at any point in time. It can either be a span of distribution where the asset is about to fall big, or it can be an accumulation span where market giants buy plenty of coins and surge the asset high. No matter which situation the market falls into, it puts the investors at risk. For some, the loss of an investment may be a manageable blow, but for bulk of investors or beginners, such a loss can be a harsh blow to their bread and butter. Dollar-cost Averaging helps you to put your foot in the market without the risk of losing it all. It takes advantage of the market’s natural volatility by lowering the average price you pay for the crypto.

People normally accumulate a lump sum amount and invest when the time is appropriate. It would be great if we could buy a cryptocurrency when the market is low and sell it when it is comparatively high. Regrettably, investors endeavor to ‘time the market’ often has an adverse effect, and they eventually buy and sell with poor timing. Dollar-cost Averaging helps you invest a fixed amount regardless of the market’s fluctuations, aiming to avoid your temptation to time the market, along with shielding your losses in case of sudden market decline.

Dollar-cost Averaging (DCA) is a reliable strategy used by market investors for a long time. DCA works by minimizing the risk of investing or purchasing assets along with high price volatility

dollar-cost-averaging.png

Dollar-Cost Averaging

Web 3.0 (also known as web3) is the Internet’s third iteration, which integrates data in a decentralized manner to include a faster and more customized user experience. It is created with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the semantic web, and it leverages the blockchain security system to keep your data safe. The properties of web 3.0 are decentralization, openness, and tremendous user utility.

The semantic web’s premise is that it understands and analyzes the context and meaning of data. As a result, when a person looks for an answer, web 3.0 provides a precise and relevant result.

But Web3 is still in development and isn’t thoroughly defined. The key notion is that it will be decentralized. Rather than being regulated by corporations and governments, Web3 will be linked to Metaverse to some extent.

Want to know some of the major features that make it the talk of the town?

1.  **Trustless —** Users have the flexibility to connect openly and discreetly without the risk of a mediator, resulting in “trustless” data.
2.  **Open —** Web 3.0 will enable users to access the internet at any time and from any location. Web-connected gadgets will no longer be constrained to computers and smartphones in the future, as they were in web 2.0.
3.  **Permissionless —** Anyone, including users and providers, can participate without a controlling organization’s approval. As a result, neither consumers nor suppliers require permission from a governing body for participation.

Web 3 allows traditionally centralized products to implement cooperative systems of governance. Tokenization can take the form of a joke, a work of art, or a person’s social media content. The gaming industry is an outstanding example of a fundamental shift. Gamers frequently express their dissatisfaction with the faults and bugs in their favourite video games. With Web 3, players can invest in the game and discuss how it should run on Web 3.

One of the benefits of dApps (Web3 Applications) is that they can store data on a decentralized blockchain rather than having databases stored on a few servers. This system allows dapp users to have better oversight and insight into how the platforms work, while also separating the single points of failure that Google and Amazon servers pose. Web3 promises censorship protection, zero downtime, and enhanced transparency through decentralization.

It is understandable why Web3 can be considered the next generation of the internet. With benefits like data privacy, consistent services, objectivity, data accessibility, no restrictions, and one profile for all services, Web3 has the potential to reign over the internet space like no other.

Web 3.0 (also known as web3) is the Internet’s third iteration, which integrates data in a decentralized manner to include a faster and more customized user experience. It is created with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the semantic web, and it leverages the blockchain security system to keep your data safe. The properties of web 3.0 are decentralization, openness, and tremendous user utility.

main-components-of-web3-0.png

Main Components of Web3.0

Decentralised finance or DeFi refers to financial services developed on open-source blockchains rather than proprietary systems. A smart device with an internet connection is the only requirement to manage assets without centralised financial mediators. DeFi automates trust and security while providing complete transparency to all parties involved.

DeFi has quickly grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. The total value of DeFi contracts has increased from $650 million to $43.50 billion since the beginning of 2020. If you’re still clueless about how to get into this market, we’ve got your back!

Read ahead to know 4 Not-To-Miss DeFi Investment Strategies that will help you in developing an amazing portfolio of your own!

## 1. Borrowing and Lending Crypto
To loan or lend crypto assets via DeFi, you only need to submit collateral. Banks do not undertake credit checks before approving a loan. Instead, a smart contract acts as a digital “middleman” that regulates rates based on the coins present in a liquidity pool.

People who lend tokens to the liquidity pool frequently hope to profit from interest. In the DeFi protocol, over-collateralized loans are frequent, which signifies that borrowers insure the loan with crypto worth more than the loan amount. However, DeFi lending and borrowing differ from conventional lending and borrowing in more dimensions than only the technicalities of decentralised money markets: interest rates can be very low.

## 2. Hold On for Dear Life
Hodlers hold on to their coins despite a fall in the market because HODL disapproves of all trading based on short-term price movement. Most investors consider an asset or currency to be a negative asset when its price decreases. HODL investors, on the other hand, keep their assets and coins rather than selling them. HODLing is a viable idea for novices since it does not need the same level of obsessive focus as day trading. Instead of basing their investing strategy on short-term price fluctuations, HODLers keep their cryptocurrencies, anticipating frequent price hikes. It is essential to remember that HODLing through fluctuations can be fruitful.

## 3. DeFi Index
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) track the prices of numerous assets at once in traditional finance, such as an S&P 500 ETF that tracks the price movements of all 500 companies in the index. Assets you’re investing in are crypto tokens, thus, DeFi indexes are similar.

The primary lure for investors, identical to ETFs, is that tokens in a particular index are generally selected depending on rigorous criteria such as size or variability. It gives investors the liberty to effectively outsource the research and studies that would otherwise be necessary to choose tokens for their portfolio to the index operator.

## 4. Yield Farming and DeFi Staking
**- Yield Farming**
Yield farming is a more comprehensive investing system that involves lending, borrowing, and staking to increase profits through interest and staking incentives. Yield farming delivers extraordinary returns in DeFi, but it also accompanies colossal risks.

**- DeFi Staking**
Staking is one of the most basic methods to put your cryptocurrency to use. You contribute to market liquidity and help ensure the safety and reliable operations of decentralised financial services by locking up your inactive assets. Most DeFi platforms offer governance tokens as staking incentives, which can be held as voting power or transferred. The longer you stake your DeFi assets, the more you gain, much like traditional savings. Staking is a safer passive investment approach than yield farming because it does not entail high rates of interest or collateral levels.

## Conclusion
DeFi has a huge potential to grow into a trillion-dollar market, and nothing is stopping it now. If, as a newbie, you’re still nervous about what strategies to use, As a result, “HODLing” and “Buy And Sell Tokens” may be the best options for you. If you are familiar with the ecosystem, however, utilising the various tools provided by this rich ecology is the way to go.

There is nothing that will help you more than research. We hope this article helped you in navigating through your DeFi journey!

Decentralised finance or DeFi refers to financial services developed on open-source blockchains rather than proprietary systems. A smart device with an internet connection is the only requirement to manage assets without centralised financial mediators. 

4 NOT-TO-MISS DeFi Investment Strategies

Starting with basics, DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance. It is a blanket term for a collection of blockchain-based financial solutions. The concept is to allow anyone with access to the internet to lend, borrow, and bank without the use of middlemen. One of the most rapidly emerging sections of the blockchain and decentralized web ecosystem is DeFi.

DeFi is driven by blockchain, the technology that powers Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies, in which a set of entities, rather than a single one, keeps track of transactions. DeFi, on the other hand, expands the definition of these activities beyond simple transfers to provide more complex financial processes.

The Ethereum framework, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, is being used to build DeFi applications. The applications are utilized to produce sophisticated financial transactions. Ethereum’s propensity for smart contracts, executing transactions automatically, allows this to happen.

# Investing in DeFi

You can earn more crypto by investing in DeFi in multiple ways. The three most popular investment choices are:

1. Buy And Sell Tokens, which enables you to obtain DeFi currency at a cheaper price and sell it when the price rises, as it does with most cryptocurrencies.

2. The second alternative is Interest-Earning, in which you join a lending platform and lend your money to borrowers instead of interest. Always double-check the platform before releasing your money.

3. Yield Farming is another approach for investment, enabling you to transfer your crypto assets between multiple projects to equip the network with the needed liquidity to facilitate transactions while earning interest.

The diversity of investment opportunities and growth in the market makes DeFi an attractive and potentially very lucrative investment.

However, if you know which measures to take and which tools to use, this process may be relatively simple.

So be ready to get started because we’ll tell you three basic steps that are everything you need to know before you dive into the DeFi world.

**1. Creating a Wallet**

Your crypto wallet is a digital storage location for the cryptocurrencies you’ll need to partake in DeFi protocols.

**2. Buy Crypto Coins**

To engage in DeFi protocols, you’ll need crypto coins. Ether coins or ERC-20 tokens are considered a good option since most protocols are built on Ethereum.

**3. Get into Protocols**

When working with a protocol, the basic workflow is to go to their website or app, connect your wallet so that their platform can view your cryptocurrency, and follow their instructions to initiate trading, yield farming, or whatever else the protocol was created for.

Some protocols allow investors to lend crypto, trade crypto, stake (or lock up) crypto for a return, participate in liquidity pools and generate income when trades are completed in their pools and engage in yield farming, among other things.

**There are currently over 100 DeFi projects in the crypto space. As a result, identifying the appropriate project, particularly for new investors, can be difficult. Take the first step and then read up on crypto ownership, storage, and investing for beginners. Once you take this step, you’ll be good to go!**

Starting with basics, DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance. It is a blanket term for a collection of blockchain-based financial solutions. The concept is to allow anyone with access to the internet to lend, borrow, and bank without the use of middlemen. One of the most rapidly emerging sections of the blockchain and decentralized web ecosystem is DeFi.

how-to-invest-in-defi.jpeg

How to Invest in DeFi

DeFi is an encompassing term for a multitude of public blockchain apps and ventures aimed at disrupting the conventional financial world. DeFi refers to financial applications built on blockchain technologies, generally leveraging smart contracts, and is driven by blockchain technology. According to several crypto enthusiasts, decentralized finance is a revolutionary next step in finance. A new venue like this may provide people with new possibilities to earn money while also contributing to a larger-than-life community-run goal.

While being a part of such an emerging space for making money, a few mistakes here and there come in handy. To identify the mistakes in their nascent stage, read more below.

Common Mistakes to avoid while Investing in DeFi

## 1. Not Reading enough about the Space you’re about to Invest In

How did you become interested in Defi? What are your information gathering methods? Perhaps you’ll subscribe to a YouTuber with extensive knowledge of DeFi or personnel associated with a corporation. Nonetheless, it is always preferable to gather a variety of viewpoints rather than learning from a single source of information. It will assist you in gaining a greater understanding of the DeFi and Crypto world and a better picture of the current market condition.

You must acquire information since what may be a sensible investment for one person may not be appropriate for another due to differences in risk tolerance or investing goals.

## 2. Making Basic Functional Errors

By nature, blockchain transactions are permanent. While a bank may be able to refund funds to your account in the event of an error or fraud, all crypto transactions are irreversible. That implies users must send tokens to the respective addresses and also provide their addresses to others so that they can receive transactions.

## 3. Not Keeping Seed Phrases and Private Keys Safe

Users must have a private key — a strong, unique string of characters that allows access to a cryptocurrency “address” and the funds included within it — to utilize DeFi apps and services. In conventional banking, a private key supplements the standard username or email and password approach for managing an account.

Because the private key or seed phrase is all that is essential to access funds from an address, and there are no respected administrators to assist people if they lose their keys, it is vital to keep it safe.

## 4. Not Looking For Secure Interfaces

Scammers are out to defraud you. To steal money, they develop fraudulent interfaces, ask for your private keys on social media and messaging sites, and apply other methods. Take care to deal with only an authentic version of a DeFi application, browser extension, software downloaded from an app store, or a site interface.

## 5. Misunderstanding the ‘Makers’ in DeFi World

It’s okay to get confused between the Makers in DeFi. A quick insight to understand them individually!!

- Maker Foundation
MakerDAO was established with the help of this entity. With that procedure completed, the Maker Foundation is methodically working towards its long-promised separation while also aiding the DAO in becoming self-sustaining and fully decentralized.

- Maker Protocol
Users can self-generate DAO using the Maker Protocol and collateral deposited in a smart contract-based escrow. The DAO stablecoin, Maker Collateral Vaults, Oracles, and Voting are currently part of the Maker Protocol.

- Maker DAO
The worldwide community of MKR token holders preserves the stability of DAO and the security of the Maker Protocol by voting on significant criteria such as the Stability Fees imposed on Vaults, debt ceilings, and the addition of new collateral types through the Protocol’s blockchain voting system. MakerDAO is a decentralized independent organization made from the Maker Protocol and the Maker community.

## 6. Confusing between Sai and Dai

The original single-collateral Dai token was Sai. Sai was decommissioned in November 2019 with the deployment of Multi-Collateral Dai (MCD). Users were asked to move their Sai to Dai at the time. Users can still redeem Sai for its underlying ETH collateral, however, that option is no longer in service. Because both Sai and MCD are referred to as Dai, and certain platforms have been sluggish to alter their wording, if you still have Sai in your wallet, you may mistake it for MCD.

## Conclusion
Despite some of the difficulties associated with functioning on the cutting edge of innovation, the world of decentralized banking is on its way to glory. It’s difficult to anticipate how this space will evolve as the ability to build financial services becomes more progressive. However, at the juncture where Defi and fintech collide and integrate, budding financial technology will become an element of a new financial system.

DeFi is an encompassing term for a multitude of public blockchain apps and ventures aimed at disrupting the conventional financial world. 

mistakes-to-avoid-while-investing-in-de-fi.jpeg

Mistakes To Avoid While Investing in DeFi

Is it possible to imagine a world without banks? A world where, for example, you could purchase a house directly from the seller instead of having to go through the complications of dealing with agents, lawyers, and banks. This liberating notion that unlocks a whole new financial system seems beyond reach — or it was until the idea of Decentralised Finance (DeFi) came into being. Now, its presence in the financial market is so imposing that the predicted market size for cryptocurrency is $1087.7 million by 2026. Despite its growth potential and the liberty it affords to the world of finance, mainstream financial institutions have not been able to accept cryptocurrency primarily due to its volatile nature.

## What is the Meaning of DeFi?

There is an exciting history of innovation richly embellishing the genesis of DeFi — with the idea going back to as far as the 1980s. However, certain economists argue that decentralised finance emerged in 2009 with the launch of Bitcoin. In its simplest definition, DeFi is a system that allows customers to access financial products without the interference of middlemen or centralised financial agencies such as banks, brokerages, or exchanges. DeFi aims to replace the traditional and inflexible financial world with a more inclusive, transparent, and safer system of financial transactions. The technology that is fuelling this financial disruption is called blockchain.

## Understanding Blockchain Technology in Decentralised Finance

The financial applications for DeFi are built on blockchain technology. It is a decentralised ledger that electronically stores a record of all the transactions made on the network. Meaning, blockchain shares all the information in a decentralised manner across a peer-to-peer network that confirms every transaction without the need of a central clearing authority. Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) wherein the details of a transaction are recorded in various places at the same time, unlike traditional databases that have a central place for data storage.

The information on the blockchain network is collected in groups termed “blocks” that have a particular storage capacity. When this capacity is reached, the block is closed and linked to the previous block thereby forming a chain of data. This is why the technology is termed blockchain. When it is implemented in a decentralised format, this structure creates an irreversible data timeline that prevents the recorded information from being edited. The blockchain technology can be better understood when one learns how it works:

- When someone makes a transaction request it is broadcasted on a peer-to-peer network that comprises computers known as nodes
- This network of nodes employs certain algorithms that validate the transaction and the user status
- As the transaction gets verified it is stored with other transactions to create a new data block for the ledger
- This new data block is included on the existing blockchain in an immutable manner and finally, the transaction is completed

The potential of blockchain lies beyond cryptocurrency as this collaborative technology can be used to improve business software and impart greater security to transactions. To offer financial instruments in a secure manner, blockchain technology uses smart contracts. Let us understand smart contracts in greater detail.

## Understanding Smart Contracts and its Benefits

Any understanding of blockchain is incomplete without the knowledge of smart contracts. As the name suggests, smart contracts are automated agreements that eliminate the need for intermediaries to validate a transaction. Smart contracts stored on a blockchain are coded algorithms that enforce a set of rules that have to be agreed upon by every individual using the blockchain network. Smart contracts affirm that a programme on blockchain would work only when the predetermined conditions are met. Smart contracts on blockchain come with certain crucial advantages to the world of finance including: -

- Eliminating the need for a central intermediary
- Greater transparency as the data is stored on the decentralised architecture of the blockchain network
- Eliminating human error by automating the executions and transactions when the pre-decided conditions are met
- Imparting greater security to the financial transactions as smart contracts use encryption at a blockchain level

Decentralised finance has created numerous opportunities to enable a transparent and robust financial system that is not controlled by a single authority. DeFi offers an alternative financial system that is structured to be governed by the community of users to eliminate the inefficiencies of the traditional financial system. The technology that it employs to attain this objective is central to knowing how it is set to liberate the world of finance. Therefore, to benefit from this financial disruption an initial understanding of the underpinning technology is considered imperative.

As the concept of DeFi is relatively new and its scope seems to be constantly expanding, there is a lot of misinformation and ambiguity surrounding it. To truly avail oneself of its benefits, the need of the hour is to seek a clear understanding of this newly emerging ecosystem of financial applications and the technology underpinning it.

understanding-the-technology-behind-de-fi.png

Understanding the Technology Behind DeFi

Understanding the difference between centralisation and decentralisation explains the emergence of DeFi as an alternate financial approach. The tools and technology employed by DeFi propose a social structure that restores control in the hands of people as opposed to a centralised authority withholding all information.

Any responsible individual concerning themselves with social philosophy and the moral compass it uses for guidance has at one point or another, knowingly or unknowingly, encountered the decentralist thought. Decentralisation is when power is delegated and distributed amongst the members of society instead of it being controlled by a central authority. Areason why decentralisation is regaining admirers in the current social structure is because it is believed to have the potential to solve some emerging problems of our age. The modern decentralist believes that decentralisation can promote better social welfare when compared to the centralising approach of our time.

## The ongoing debate: centralisation vs decentralisation

Decentralist philosophy can be better understood when compared with centralist thought. According to wilhelm röpke (a german economist and social critic), a “centrist” looks at society from the top downwards whereas the “decentrist” outlook is bottom upwards. Where the former seeks security and happiness in the subordination of the individual and small groups by strictly organising the community, decentrists believe in the independence and autonomy of the individual and small groups. In essence, centralist ideology views humans as a collective whole whereas decentralists are concerned with the fate of each individual. The contrasting ideologies are seen to emerge within various sectors such as administration, culture, housing, industrial organisations, and more. However, the most relevant ones for us currently, are the clashes of the two ideologies in the sectors of economy and technology. The genesis of the decentralist thought in the economy led to the emergence of decentralised finance more commonly known as DeFi and as data became the most important asset, we are moving to the decentralisation of the web through web 3.0.

## Evolutionary journey of decentralised finance

DeFi may be the buzzword of the new financial age owing to the rise of cryptocurrency, but there is a lot of misinformation and confusion leading to ignorance followed by ill-judged financial decisions. To steer clear of this cluster of misleading information, every individual must acquaint themselves with how it all started.

When the financial market suffered colossal losses in the recession of 2008, individuals were forced to observe the role that money plays in a crisis. This train of thought proposed another question: what is the role of the banks and the government in money? Finally, observing the financial downfall of the common man, the question matured to the one we have been seeking an answer to since 2008: why is our money controlled by central banks? Eventually, the need for a more “honest currency” after the loss at wall street led to the emergence of bitcoin — the holy grail of decentralised value exchange.

Bitcoin was the first to achieve a secure, decentralised blockchain network that enabled financial products to be accessed by individuals without the interference of a central third party. The revolutionary blockchain network transferred the trust from centralised agencies to a collective agreement by using independent computers. these computers, compelled by an incentive serve two important functions that central banks did but with better efficiency as they eliminated human error: -

- maintaining a secure ledger by recording financial transactions and
- affirming that this information is correct
Now, ethereum builds on the innovation of bitcoin and enables a more convenient version of traditional financial functions such as sending and streaming money around the globe, borrowing funds with and without collateral, growing your financial portfolio, and much more.

## Why do we need DeFi and how can it benefit us?

Unfortunately, our current financial system is characterised by tight control and is highly opaque. contrarily, DeFi is built for the digital age. It is a financial alternative that not only affords control and visibility of your money but also provides an opportunity to explore the global financial market. This is a liberating concept in a society where even now billions of people don’t have a bank account or their payments are blocked because they don’t have the required documents such as a government-issued id. With cryptocurrency, however, you can engage in the traditional financial functions with convenience and ease simply by having a stable internet connection. DeFi favours the privacy of transactions (something that centralised banks often ignore) and does not discriminate amongst its users promising financial status to all its user members.

The three most important benefits of DeFi include:-

- banking opportunities for everyone
- privacy of transactions
- end-to-end financial network without any third-party interference

To conclude, DeFi is set to revise our understanding of the financial structure through the blockchain network that facilitates a more secure, convenient, and privacy-respecting model. it aspires to give birth to a new world from the internet — outside of the structure of power and hierarchies that are associated with money.

Understanding the difference between centralisation and decentralisation explains the emergence of DeFi as an alternate financial approach. The tools and technology employed by DeFi propose a social structure that restores control in the hands of people as opposed to a centralised authority withholding all information.

the-philosophy-backing-defi.png

The Philosophy Backing DeFi

The world of crypto investments is split between distinct dichotomies. on the one hand, there are crypto enthusiasts who are on top of the developments made by DeFi applications (dApps) that are constantly introducing innovative ways to upheave the aged financial system. on the other hand, are the masses who are perplexed by the technology and the protocols that DeFi aims to replace as financial literacy was never encouraged by institutional finance for nearly a century — creating a culture of insufficient information about capital markets.

Information is an important commodity in financial markets as it forms the basis of decisions and analysis. In the world of digital currencies, the abstract concepts that are not translated for common understanding are creating a culture of elitism that is preventing a large demographic from reeling in the benefits of DeFi.

## To begin with, the crypto market is too much to take

Whether it is understanding the underlying blockchain technology, the multiple dimensions that cryptocurrencies function on, their ever-expanding scope, the market fluctuations, the crypto market requires richly informed investors who can constantly keep themselves updated. The dizzying pace of innovation within the crypto market is only expanding and its exclusivity to certain investors leads to “information asymmetry.”

## Information asymmetry in the crypto market

In simple terms, information asymmetry means unequal distribution of information between the parties involved. when it comes to DeFi or the crypto-sphere, the early adopters — whether they are enthusiasts or technologists — tend to have more in-depth information which enables them to make more informed decisions as compared to novice investors who don’t have access to relevant or updated information. The profit generated in this case is at the expense of the masses who don’t have the information that their counterparts do.

A prominent cause for the volatility prevalent in the crypto market is this information gap amongst investors. The clickbait content forwarded by media outlets and fed to readers under the guise of “expert opinions” is often not verified and can influence investment sentiments. when tesla states that it won’t accept payments through crypto, its price drops whereas when elon musk mentions ‘doge’ on his twitter, the price of dogecoin rises.

The lack of understanding of the rules of the crypto markets and the high speculation make it challenging for both new and a majority of experienced inventors too, to navigate their way and profit from this growing investment avenue. It is not only important to gather information for informed investment decisions, but the quality and accuracy of the information also needs to be verified. for most who are new to the crypto market, access to this information is challenging. However, to mitigate the volatility in the crypto market, investors will have to work on securing information from reliable avenues so that the market is not heavily influenced singularly by investor sentiments. Or till such a time that an intelligent aggregation platform is available that addresses both complexity and information asymmetry, and enables the mainstreaming of DeFi.

The DeFi landscape is complex and the dizzying pace of innovation within the sector further adds to the worries of novice investors exploring the domain. While early-adopters and enthusiasts stay updated with the relevant information, for mass adoption newcomers must also have equal access to reliable information to make informed investment decisions.

the-impact-of-information-asymmetry-in-the-cryptocurrency-market.png

The Impact of Information Asymmetry in the Cryptocurrency Market

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) took the investment market by such a storm that according to the NFT marketplace tracker nonfungible by the march of 2017more than $500M in USD had been exchanged over its sales. However, despite the explosive hype, there is a lot of confusion around understanding NFTs and navigating their way forward.

## What are NFTs?
NFTs are exclusive digital assets that are managed on a blockchain network. however, the confusion arises herein: NFTs don’t represent the actual asset but only a record of its sole ownership. as the terms of transaction differ from NFT to NFT, here are the criteria that define ownership of NFT-

· Rare and unique: Each NFT is unique in the sense that it cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. every digital asset is one of its kind.

· Interoperable: NFTs can be traded and transferred across crypto wallets and marketplaces. this enables users to trade their NFTs on different platforms, for instance, selling the skin of a video game gun.

· Immutable: Once the NFT is encoded on the blockchain, it cannot be tampered with which allows owners to validate the authenticity of their digital asset.

· Ownership: Holding the NFT confirms the ownership of the digital asset.

The process of owning an NFT is simple. an individual only needs to have a crypto wallet that can be connected to the NFT marketplace which will enable them to mint or list their NFTs.

## The growth of NFTs
While NFTs aren’t new, their recent hype can be attributed to the “wealth effect” wherein individuals spend more as their net worth increases. in this scenario, towards the end of Q1 ‘21, the price of ether exploded by 1000% and bitcoin surged by 600% which meant significant returns to early crypto buyers. Meanwhile, those who would purchase expensive NFTs were already settled in the crypto marketplace.

Owing to their immense popularity, NFTs present a huge potential for gaming and digital artists who can sell their artwork directly to users. Recognizing its scope, reputed brands such as Taco Bell, Pringle’s, NBA, as well as celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan hopped on the NFT train to auction their digital assets.

## The Challenges and Drawbacks of NFTs
Following are the challenges that might hinder the progress of NFTs: -

· The lack of credence on the NFT system as the transactions can be both expensive and slow

· Despite “smart contracts” on the blockchain, its legal enforceability is questionable

· The environmental impact owing to the colossal carbon footprint of blockchain networks

Despite the challenges, NFTs have an immense growth potential that goes beyond the gaming and digital art ecosystem. It can enable brands to come up with new ways for distribution and monetization and also allow companies to delve deeper into DeFi and NFTs as evolved financial services. as the applications and protocols continue to build on this latest tech, its demand in the coming years is sure to surge.

To know more, you can read the article here.

The article by CBI Insights elaborates the journey of NFTs from provenance to its way forward. In reference to the same, the following article briefly demystifies the concept of NFTs and explains where it’s headed in the world of tech.

the-abc-of-nft.png

The ABC of NFT

A fascinating theory proposes the potential and scope of decentralized finance (DeFi) particularly through the lens of ETH. The theory by Lucas Campbell posits that despite the fluctuations and the volatility, cryptocurrency is inevitably set to position itself under a $100T asset class in the near future. the foundation of this hypothesis rests on two primary factors: -

1. Firstly, we are about to witness the greatest wealth transfers in modern history

2. Secondly, market movement is determined by capital flow

Campbell sites the [“Great Wealth Transfer”](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/21/what-the-68-trillion-great-wealth-transfer-means-for-advisors.html) study proclaiming the handover of more than $68T from baby boomers to millennials and gen x over the following two decades with the former being the primary beneficiaries. He pairs this knowledge with the “inelastic market hypothesis” which states that an asset’s market valuation is determined by the type of asset and its subsequent liquidity. using the hypothesis, he calculates the tentative elasticity for Bitcoin to be around 20.

Putting two and two together, the $100T case for crypto proposes an important question: with the greatest wealth transfer in modern history to the generation that holds more liberal investment ideas towards “internet money,” how much of the wealth will trickle into DeFi investments?

To understand the theory in greater detail, you can access the full article [here](https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/100t-case-for-crypto-lite).

The following article is written in reference to the thought experiment on the surge of DeFi proposed by Lucas Campbell in his $100T Case for Crypto article. It predicts the growth of DeFi by combining the theories of the great wealth transfer and the inelastic market hypothesis.

$100T Case for Crypto 

If you were to come across Decentralised Finance (DeFi) in the initial years of its genesis, you would more likely than not dismiss it as a hoax. Now, however, the concept of cryptocurrency emerging through the desire to decentralise finance using a mysterious technology called blockchain is set to irreversibly transform the way we view money. As digital technology scaled astronomical heights, a pressing question in the mind of every investor is: how did it come such a long way?

## What is Decentralised Finance?

Before we explore the rise of decentralised finance, a simplified definition of the new concept is essential to detangle and unravel the mystery associated with it. for as long as we know, governments have issued money, and to use it people have had to go through banks or brokerages. the concept of these “middlemen” or “centralised financial agencies” comes with its own set of flaws and regulations. To have a bank account, an individual needs a government-issued ID, social security number, or proof of address, etc. which if an individual does not possess, they cannot hold the bank account.

Contrarily, with decentralised finance, financial products become available on a public decentralized blockchain network. This eliminates the middlemen by enabling buyers, sellers, lenders, and borrowers to interact amongst themselves or through software rather than a single company or institution facilitating transactions. This brings down human error significantly while restoring the control of money in the hands of people instead of centralised institutions.

## Decentralisation of the Internet: web 3.0

Decentralisation is not restricted to finance. It is a school of thought stemming from a realisation slowly permeating the society that privacy has transformed into a mythical concept in this new world. This understanding not only concerned the aficionados of the financial ecosystem but proliferated amongst the creators of technology. the false sense of security social media users had, received harsh blows when cybercriminals hacked and revealed personal data stored with reputed corporations such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. this evoked an important question: why is all our personal data controlled by centralised authorities like Google and Facebook? and more spookily, can they manipulate us with this data so easily at their disposal?

In 1989 what were the early days of the world wide web, connections with friends were made through desktop computers that talked to each other. In its second phase of development — web 2.0 — this communication and sharing of information was reliant on intermediaries such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon. now, web 3.0 endeavours to restore the control in the hands of the people without having to rely on centralised operators by employing a peer-to-peer connectivity.

Decentralisation whether it is in finance or use of the internet is therefore an alternate approach. one that aims to foster a more respectable lifestyle by acknowledging the importance of privacy in a world where data is one of the most valuable assets.

## The rise of Decentralised Finance

DeFi has been the most crucial aspect of exploring the potential of cryptocurrency as an alternative to traditional money. Several fintech leaders believe that DeFi was the desired answer to the financial crisis of 2008 when improper financial regulation brought the world’s economy to its knees. It created a need for an alternative financial ecosystem that was secure, transparent, and dependent on each individual functioning within it instead of a single centralised authority.

In the pandemic-troubled world, the financial backdrop was dismal and characterised by an unsettling rise of inflation and steep unemployment. As individuals started to work from their respective homes with their spending reduced, there was a newfound interest in investing which drove the stocks of crypto markets to soaring heights. The system of DeFi that was steadily growing since late 2019 suddenly escalated and prompted appealing innovations.

Here are a few prominent reasons why DeFi is set to continue on its growth trajectory:-

1. Steadily growing appeal
There is no denying that DeFi is a fascinating concept that has an enduring appeal as it allows you to be in control of your finances without external interference. moreover, the timing for these innovations could not have been more right. Owing to the technology of DeFi, traditional intermediaries could be replaced with low-cost and efficient smart contracts that guaranteed transactions without third-party interference. This innovation is headed to shape the future of finance.

2. The Innovation
Decentralisation in finance received a real-life application with the invention of Bitcoin in 2009 and ever since has been revolutionizing the financial landscape. the two significant innovations underpinning Bitcoin were: -

> The blockchain ledger technology that securely and immutably maintains the ledger with user transactions imparting enhanced network security. Not only does the blockchain ledger technology cut down operational inefficiencies but also promotes transparency by giving control of all the information and transactions to the users instead of a centralised authority

> The creation of an open network of users called “miners” that lend computing power to secure the network by “mining” bitcoins

3. The scope
Following the innovations within the sector, users could do much more than just hold cryptocurrency. They could now use it as an alternative to most traditional financial services. The foundation of our digital future soon grew to enable users to send and stream money across the globe, borrow funds, save their digital currency, expand their financial portfolio, trade the tokens, and do much more. In effect, cryptocurrency has the potential to help fund your aspirations owing to the burgeoning innovations in the sector that continue to expand.

4. The favourable market landscape
The value and number of DeFi projects have dramatically increased as more and more people are interested in its revolutionary innovation. This first wave of unique and value-driven financial offerings is increasing the excitement for investors. However, it is important to bear in mind that this is still a niche market that will encourage competition. Its steadily-growing pace will increase benefits for users in the days to come, further strengthening and growing the market.

5. DeFi’s growth potential
DeFi has opened up a world for capital investments and the concept is redefining our understanding of financial systems. its vision of building a new financial system is coming closer to actualisation (naturally, with some hiccups hick-ups along the way). Since 2020 DeFi has grown at an astonishing pace mainly owing to the development of innovative applications on the Ethereum Blockchain.

DeFi is inclusive in its approach, unlike traditional financial systems. DeFi permits uninterrupted interaction with the system anytime, anywhere, with any amount. This in itself is liberating for the people who are well acquainted with the hassles and processes of bank transfers internationally. The recent hype for DeFi is fuelled by the advancement of buying and lending protocols.

As cryptocurrencies cover all the functions that a traditional financial system promises (and with better efficiency) it is already at its next stage of maturity. moreover, with its steady growth, it even has the potential to surpass traditional financial systems.

To conclude, there is a lot to learn about decentralised finance especially since the concept itself is in a nascent phase and is constantly evolving. While initially, it might appear vague and complex, it is important to remember that every technological innovation has met its own set of hurdles initially. The rise of decentralised finance is prompted by greater financial control, development of innovative applications, constantly expanding scope, and a most favourable financial market. Although we are still trying to define and explore its scope, what we can definitively say is that cryptocurrency is here to stay.

The DeFi movement is a promising revolution in the world of finance improving speed efficiency, security, and transparency in transactions.

blog journal

learn all things crypto and aarnâ

what is aarnâ protocol?

how do i sign up on aarnâ?

how to invest using aarnâ engine?

can i buy nfts on aarnâ?

do i need to transfer my funds to aarnâ to invest in crypto?

who can join aarnâ dao?

does aarnâ aggregate all defi investments available in market?

on what blockchain does aarnâ operate?

who are alpha creators?

does aarnâ have its own wallet?