Category: Crypto Reading

Posted on and Updated on by 100cryptoblock

How to earn interest on crypto?

Cryptocurrency has become an increasingly popular asset class among investors, and with it comes the opportunity to earn interest on crypto holdings. There are a number of ways for investors to get started, ranging from traditional banking products to new crypto services. In this article, we’ll explore what’s out there and how you can start earning interest on your cryptocurrency holdings today.

One way to earn interest on crypto is through traditional banking products such as certificates of deposit (CDs). CDs are deposits held at banks that offer a fixed rate of return over a specific period of time. Many banks now offer CDs that allow holders to earn returns based on the value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. These CDs typically have terms ranging from 1 month up to 5 years, with the longer-term CDs paying higher rates of interest than the shorter-term ones. This type of investment is relatively low risk, as the funds are FDIC insured and backed by a bank’s balance sheet.

Another option for earning interest on crypto is through loan programs offered by some exchanges or digital asset custodians. These platforms allow users to borrow money against their cryptocurrency holdings in order to generate income off those assets without having to sell them. All lenders require borrowers to collateralize their loans with more than enough cryptocurrency assets, so there is virtually no risk involved in this type of investment. Interest rates vary depending on the platform but are typically much higher than what one would expect from their bank account or CD investments.

In addition, some platforms now offer staking rewards for depositing certain types of cryptocurrencies into their wallets or accounts. Staking is similar to holding a “share” in a company where users receive rewards based upon the performance of a project or network they help support by holding tokens in their wallets or accounts. The amount earned depends upon how much is staked and how long it is held; however, most networks will pay out regular dividends while also offering additional bonuses and incentives based upon performance and other metrics determined by the network itself.

Finally, there are now numerous crypto savings accounts that allow users to earn passive income by simply depositing crypto into their accounts and earning yield from activities such as lending or trading within the platform’s ecosystem. These services often provide significantly higher yields than traditional banking products with minimal risk due to insurance policies provided either directly by the platform itself or through third-party providers like Aon Corp and Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC). Many also provide users with additional incentive programs like referral bonuses or loyalty rewards that can further boost returns over time when managed properly.

Overall, there are many options available for investors looking to earn interest on their cryptocurrency holdings without having to take on too much risk in the process. Traditional banking products like certificates of deposit remain popular among conservative investors while newer offerings like loan programs and staking rewards appeal more towards those who want higher yields but don’t want to tie up all their capital in one place for extended periods of time. Crypto savings accounts provide yet another avenue for generating passive income while diversifying across different networks and projects within an individual’s portfolio; however, due diligence should always be done before entering into any new agreement or product offering in order to ensure that one’s capital remains safe at all times throughout any given transaction cycle. Regardless which route an investor chooses, there are plenty of opportunities out there for anyone looking for ways to put idle Crypto assets back into motion and start earning an attractive return today!

Posted on and Updated on by 100cryptoblock

5 Notable Bain Capital Investments

Bain Capital is an alternative investment firm located in Boston, MA. The company was established in 1984 and since then has invested (and divested) a considerable amount of money into various businesses ranging from DocuSign to SurveyMonkey.

The company has two private equity subsidiaries, Bain Capital Private Equity and Bain Capital Ventures, which as of June 2020 manage a total of $105 billion in assets.

Private equity and venture firms, such as Bain Capital, usually aim to sell portfolio companies four to six years after investing in them. Here are five of the company’s notable holdings as of June 2020.

 

Acorns

Acorns is a robo-advisor that seeks to remove common barriers preventing people from investing. By allowing users to invest small amounts and spare change through micro-investing on its digital platform, Acorns makes investing more approachable. The Irvine, Calif.–based company has expanded since it was founded in 2014, now offering retirement savings accounts and debit cards in addition to its original product.

In Jan. 2019, Bain Capital invested $105 million in Acorns as part of a Series E funding round. This gave Acorns a valuation of $860 million and moved it ahead of competitor Betterment, which was valued at $800 million during its last round of funding in July 2017.

 

Brillio

In January 2019, Bain Capital signs a deal to acquire an undisclosed majority stake in this digital technology consulting and solutions company.

 

Santa Clara, California-based Brillio was founded in 2014 with the focus of helping companies manage and execute “digital transformation” by way of upgrading to more modernized solutions. This includes user experience design, digital applications, big data analytics, cloud technology, security solutions, and digital engineering.7 Notable clients include Move Inc., Eventbrite and Verizon

Lionbridge Capital

In 2014, Bain Capital bought a majority ownership position in Lionbridge Capital. Although the company was worth an estimated $157 million at the time, no information on how much money Bain paid has been released. Lionbridge is Chinese and focuses on providing financing to small to mid-size enterprises that have liquidity issues. The industries it covers are logistics, medical machinery, agricultural equipment, and heavy manufacturing.

SigFig

SigFig, founded in 2007, is a robo-advisor and wealth management solution based in San Francisco. It strives to improve the retail investment industry by providing investment platforms that mix automation with human expertise. These are available for both individual and enterprise customers.

In 2013, SigFig raised $15 million in a Series B funding round from three venture capital firms, including Bain Capital. Since then, SigFig has gone on to raise more money, including $50 million in equity financing in June 2018.

Venminder

If you work in the financial industry, Venminder can help you manage risk by vetting vendors, collecting documents, reviewing contracts, and providing cybersecurity and compliance monitoring. Its clients include banks, credit unions, brokerage firms, securities firms…etc.

Bain Capital has invested in Venminder, Elizabethtown, Ky.-based company since 2013 with rounds of funding in 2016, 2018 and 2019. The initial investment funded the company’s launch as well as further market research.

Posted on and Updated on by 100cryptoblock

The Evolution of Decentralized Exchanges

This article looks at how the DEX landscape has changed since its early days.

DEXes are vital for decentralized finance operations.

Cryptocurrency trading platforms that let users trade permissionlessly and peer-to-peer have revolutionized the cryptocurrency industry.

Although contemporary DEXes boast a plethora of features and are straightforward for users, they have progressed tremendously since their early days.

DEXes have come a long way in recent years, and here’s a look at how they’ve progressed.

Decentralized exchanges first arose in 2016.

Around this time, platforms such as IDEX, EtherDelta, and ForkDelta began to crop up. These allowed users to trade cryptocurrencies with one another directly, reducing the need for OTC groups and eliminating the need for trust between parties.

However, these first-generation platforms had the same problems:

Slow, clunky UX

Limited liquidity

Partially centralized order books

Although non-custodial, many first-generation DEXes weren’t entirely decentralized and could be better classified as hybrid platforms. Consequently, they were more likely to regulatory attacks, leaving some platforms with no choice but to restrict IPs from particular regions and put into place KYC/AML policies.

The main issue, however, was their complicated user interfaces that most often needed users to transfer their tokens to the smart contracts of the platform or set up an account merely to establish limit orders. To make matters worse, the platforms were very slow too which made it challenging to trade without any hitches.

Automated market maker (AMM) exchanges have adapted and evolved to address the issues that first-generation DEXes struggled with.

The DEX space began rapidly gaining popularity in November 2018 with the release of the first major AMM, Uniswap.

This platform totally changed how people think about peer-to-peer trading by introducing decentralized liquidity pools and pricing curves.

Uniswap allowed users to deposit their assets into two-sided liquidity pools that determined the relative value of each asset by using a mathematical formula (most likely the constant product formula). Not only did this help with the liquidity problem, but Uniswap also efficiently priced newer and more speculative assets. This helped create an explosion of ERC-20 assets.

AMM became quickly popular after its development and is now employed by the great majority of decentralized exchanges. In contrast, only a small number can be considered order book DEXes. Many well-known DeFiblockchains have their own AMMs(or various types), which can be seen as Uniswap clones or offshoots. A few examples are PancakeSwap DEX (connected to BNB Chain), SpiritSwap (for Fantom network usage), and Pangolin (offshoot of Avalanche).

DEXes, or decentralized exchanges, have become popular among cryptocurrency investors for their ability to trade assets without the need for a third party. Most DEXes also offer additional features such as yield farms, decentralized lending services and launchpads.

The introduction of these new features not only resulted in a higher yield, but also opened up decentralized lending protocols like Euler and revenue-sharing permissionless liquidity pools. This allowed users to get the most out of their capital.

The majority of decentralized exchanges today don’t favor any particular asset, meaning that users can trade whatever they want as long as there’s a corresponding liquidity pool.

Recently, a new generation of DEXes has surfaced that are more platform-specific. These platforms usually have one purpose and allow users to trade aLimited number of assets within the ecosystem.

Named after the Japanese Sword, Katana is a DEX built on Ronin Chain that’s available to Axie Infinity users. It lets them trade in-house assets such as Smooth Love Potion (SLP) and AXS for other popular cryptocurrencies like Ronin (RON) and USD Coin (USDC).

XCAD Network is also developing a DEX focused on creator tokens. Users of the platform will be able to trade various permissionless creator tokens against stablecoins, providing a closed trading atmosphere for XCAD users.

Although some DApps boast millions of active users, platform-specific DEXes still rack up an impressive trading volume. The Katana DEX, for example – which only caters to Axie Infinity players – has frequently achieved $100M+ in daily trading volume and averages over $2M/day.

Most of today’s DEXes either operate on a single chain or an independent version of the DApp is available on multiple chains with no cross-chain trading capabilities. Thanks to recent advances in cross-chain technologies like bridges and atomic swaps, though, the first generation of cross-chain DEXes are now operational. These include Atlas DEX, Swappery, SushiXSwap, THORswap and several others.

Most platforms that offer cross-chain swaps use a mix of bridges and decentralized liquidity pools, while others get their liquidity from DEXes on different blockchains. These usually utilize bridges to move tokens between chains.

Cosmos features many cross-chain DEXes too, like Osmosis and Crescent; however, these are limited to the Cosmos ecosystem and cannot connect assets from non-Cosmos SDK blockchains.

While a few atomic swap DEXes, like Atomex, exist currently, none has been adopted by the majority.

The digital currency exchange (DEX) industry is rapidly innovating and can be considered one of the fastest-moving sectors of the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

In a little more than half a decade, the number of decentralized exchanges has exploded. Some of these newer options are starting to stack up against centralized platforms when it comes to liquidity, features and user-friendliness.

A new generation of DEXes is being created as we speak, and Sudoswap is leading the way. They just launched sudoAMM, a DEX that uses AMM-like bonding curves to change how users buy and sell NFTs. With this innovative approach, Sudoswap is paving the way for a new era of decentralized exchanges.

A tokenized equity DEX called Nasdex was recently launched, which allows users to trade tokenized equities over the blockchain. In addition, the Terra-based DeFi hub Mirror Protocol enables users to trade synthetic equities including AMZN, AMD, and COIN. Furthermore, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) might get their own DEX treatment in the future.

A regulated CBDC DEX is currently being explored by central banks in more than 100 regions worldwide, and there is a small chance that a permissionless DEX will be launched— since most CBDCs are likely to launch on permissioned blockchains.

However, this will take several years at the earliest.

Posted on by 100cryptoblock

3-Minute Bitcoin Guides: Understanding Bitcoin Fees and How to Cut Them Down

As Bitcoin’s value continues to increase, so do the transaction fees. You can reduce your BTC fees by consolidating data packets, transacting during off-peak periods, and using SegWit.

Since Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies began to rise in 2020, the fees associated with Bitcoin transactions have been under greater scrutiny. As prices reached new all-time highs throughout 2021, this only increased the amount of attention paid to these fees. The reason for this is that when a BTC user has a higher value transaction, they also have to pay a higher fee.

There are four primary elements that affect how much you pay in transaction fees for Bitcoin: the number of inputs, the number of outputs, script complexity and multi-signature capability.

When BTC users initiate transactions, they include different bits of information. As more inputs are added to a transaction, the size of the data packet increases. Since Bitcoin blocks are limited to 4 MB, large transactions limit the number of BTC transactions that can be included in a block. Consequently, large BTC transactions will have higher fees than smaller ones.

BTC users who start transactions are also charged for the outputs. The outputs refer to what is sent to both the transaction initiators and recipients after miners have processed the transaction. Those who initiate BTC transactions must pay beforehand for the required outputs that need to be generated and sent to various BTC user account addresses.

If a BTC transaction uses script complexity to reduce the size of a data packet, increase the security of the transaction, or for some other reason, there will most likely be a fee assessed for the ‘privilege’ of using the complex script.

The multi-signature feature lowers the cost of smart contracts and BTC payments by requiring a specific number of signatures before a transaction can be completed on a platform. For using the multi-signature option, platforms charge high transaction fees to Bitcoin users. The multi-signature functionality saves BTC smart contract users money but increases their costs in transaction charges.

Try to limit the size of data packets sent for processing on the blockchain. If possible, use shortcuts or special features that can help make your transactions quicker and take up less space.

When fewer people are using the platform, transaction fees are lower and transactions processed quicker. So, it’s advantageous to process your transactions during these times.

By utilizing SegWit, you can essentially shrink the size of your data packet. The result? You guessed it- lower transaction fees and a quicker processing time for your transaction.

The Lightning Network allows you to process your transactions on a side-chain and then have the results of the transaction sent to the main blockchain. You can also process a string of transactions and then consolidate them on the Lightning Network. This will help reduce your transaction fees, speed up your transactions, and ensure that the results are recorded on the blockchain’s ledger.

Choose your cryptocurrency exchange depending on which services are most important to you, the fees they charge, and how well they fit other key criteria such as security or available payment methods.

If you want to avoid high transaction fees, choose bank transfer as your payment method. PayPal and credit/debit cards tend to have the highest fees. But before sending a transaction to the mempool, think about which payment method you’ll use and how it will affect the cost of your transaction.

You are charged less per transaction when you send one large transaction rather than multiple small ones.

Make sure you’re aware of all of the costs you may incur when using that platform before deciding on a platform to execute your transactions. You should compare numerous platforms and select the ones that assess you the least money for processing your transactions while still being efficient.

Use these methods the next time you do a Bitcoin transaction to help lower fees!