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Topics - CoinEx

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1
Cryptocurrency discussions / CoinEx Academy | Kaspa, a Rising New Star
« on: April 20, 2023, 08:06:36 PM »
On April 16, Kaspa released Rust Alpha, which marks a milestone in its development. This new version will significantly improve the overall performance of Kaspa, while also laying the groundwork for more efficient and faster code library development.

What Is Kaspa?

Relying on its BlockDAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) technology, Kaspa is widely regarded as the fastest PoW network. This innovative ledger architecture is the world’s first to support parallel blocks and instant transaction finality. What sets Kaspa apart is its utilization of the PHANTOM protocol, which allows high block rates, eliminates orphan blocks, and maintains a secure PoW environment.



Market data from the CoinEx website shows that Kaspa’s native token KAS has experienced explosive growth since this March, with the KAS price reaching 0.0388 USDT on April 3, a staggering 205% increase compared to the previous period.



Was Kaspa’s sudden surge a coincidence or a necessity? What makes Kaspa stand out? This article aims to analyze Kaspa’s future potential and development opportunities from two perspectives.

Rust Rewrite to Open a New Era

Scalability is one of the most notable features of Kaspa. In November 2021, the Kaspa mainnet was launched, which was written in Golang (also known as Go). Unlike other cryptos with limited block sizes, KAS has an unlimited block size, enabling Kaspa to process more transactions per second (TPS) and making it more efficient and faster.

In July 2022, developers started to rewrite Kaspa in Rust and the Rust Alpha version was officially released this April. Rust’s ownership model and low-level control over memory management make it easier to write concurrent and parallel code, enabling the platform to process more transactions without compromising speed. It is estimated that Rust Alpha could process up to 32 blocks per second (BPS), which is 32 times faster than the previous figure of 1 BPS enabled by Kaspa written in Go. Furthermore, the Rust rewrite enhances Kaspa’s security, scalability, reliability, and maintainability.

Scalability has always been a challenge facing many networks in the crypto ecosystem. Kaspa addresses this issue by increasing the number of blocks generated and confirmed per second. After the Rust rewrite, Kaspa aims to achieve a processing speed of 100 BPS (blocks per second). That means Kaspa would handle massive transactions more smoothly and efficiently in the future, which is quite appealing to developers, users, and enterprises.



The Dark Horse of the Crypto Mining Industry Following Ethereum

Ever since Ethereum switched from PoW to PoS consensus last year, KAS has entered the radar screen of GPU miners and is widely regarded as one of the most profitable tokens for GPU mining. Kaspa leverages the KHeavyHash algorithm and optimizes security and speed based on the PHANTOM protocol, a scalable generalization of the Nakamoto Consensus (Bitcoin consensus). Slow block rates of traditional cryptos lead to wide disparities in mining income, but Kaspa’s fast block rate in the consensus layer narrows the gap, thereby contributing to mining decentralization.

By utilizing BlockDAG technology and optimizing the PoW mining protocol, Kaspa allows blocks to reference multiple previous blocks instead of a single parent block. This approach is superior to single or parallel blockchain models since no blocks are wasted or orphaned in Kaspa. All blocks are published to the ledger, ensuring that no mining capacity is wasted.

With its unique and innovative technology, Kaspa has significantly improved mining performance and gained increasing popularity among miners. According to MinerStat, KAS currently holds the top spot among the trending coins as the most popular PoW crypto.



Kaspa is a pioneer in the emerging field of BlockDAG, with a significant advantage in this innovative technology. Its scalability realizes higher TPS and BPS without compromising security. Since the mainnet launch, KAS has surged, even during the bear market. It’s noteworthy that KAS has yet to experience a bull market in a real sense. In other words, its price may increase by over 50 times during the next bull market.

Following the transition from Go to Rust, Kaspa will start smart contract integration deployment in May, further boosting its performance. In the future, Kaspa will likely become the fastest, most secure, and most scalable decentralized network in history.

*This article does not constitute any investment advice

2
Cryptocurrency discussions / Why Web3 Needs Digital Identity?
« on: April 20, 2023, 07:58:55 PM »
A Brief Introduction of Web3
Web3, which is short for Web 3.0, is the latest iteration of the World Wide Web that is being developed to create a more decentralized, secure, and transparent Internet. It is built on blockchain technology, which is a distributed ledger that enables secure and transparent peer-to-peer transactions without the need for intermediaries.



Web3 allows for new types of digital value creation and trade while also giving consumers more decentralized control over their own data and digital assets. It achieves this by enabling users — also referred to as peers — to communicate directly with one another without the assistance of intermediaries. This aids in avoiding the monopoly and power abuse that has plagued the conventional web.

The impact of Web3 on the internet cannot be over-emphasized. Web3 has revolutionized the way we manage data ownership and also improved data privacy. It has enabled new ways of value creation and exchange. Without the aid of middlemen or a central server, Web3 users can generate and trade digital assets like cryptocurrencies or non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This helps in monetizing their work and establishing direct contact with their followers, thus, creating new opportunities for musicians, artists, and other creatives.

Web3 provides more security and privacy because users control their own data and transactions. It also allows for further decentralization, which means that power and control are divided more equitably throughout the network. Finally, Web3 opens up new avenues for innovation and value generation by enabling previously unimaginable kinds of collaboration and trade. Overall, Web3 is a significant stride forward for the internet, and its effect will only grow in the coming years.

What is Web3 digital identity?
Web3 digital identity is a new approach to controlling our digital identities online that gives us back control. Web3 digital Identity helps in giving users the ability to own and manage their digital data rather than relying on large centralized corporations or governments to do it. This method is decentralized, which means it is more secure and private, and it allows us to pick with whom we share our information.



In Web3 digital identification systems, users can create and manage their identity in a secure, private and immutable manner by leveraging the power of blockchain technology, which provides a secure, decentralized and unchangeable record of digital transactions. This gives users the power to control their identity information and selectively share it with others while

maintaining their privacy and security.

Web3 digital Identity is an important advancement in the field of online identity management. Web3 digital Identity addresses the problems with conventional centralized identity systems, which are vulnerable to hacking and data breaches and may be monitored or censored by governments.

Web3 identity allows people more control over their online interactions by providing a safer, more private option that puts individuals in charge of their identification information. Decentralized apps and services that demand secure and dependable identity management might be made easier by enhanced trust and transparency. Web3 identification is ultimately a step in the right direction toward a more secure and independent digital society.

How does digital identity work in Web3?
Web3 makes use of Decentralized Identifiers to prove a user’s identity online without relying on centralized authorities. These identifiers are universally unique, verifiable, and permanent, and can be stored on blockchain networks. Decentralized Identifiers serve as the foundation of Web3 digital identity, allowing individuals to prove their identity without revealing personal information. This means that Web3 applications can use decentralized identifiers to confirm users‘ identities while giving users more control over their information. With decentralized identifiers, users can decide who has access to their personal data, giving users greater privacy and security online.

Web3 Digital Identity also makes use of Verifiable Credentials (VCs) to ensure identity information is secure and reliable. VC is an important component of digital identity systems built on the blockchain. VCs provide a secure and digital alternative to physical identity documents, allowing for easy verification of user identity. Examples of identity documents that can be issued as VCs include driver’s licenses, employee certificates, membership certifications, and digital passports.

Web3 Digital Identity vs Traditional Identity Management Systems
With the increasing importance of digital identity management, traditional centralized systems are facing security and privacy concerns. Web3 digital identity offers a decentralized alternative based on blockchain technology. In this chart, we will compare the differences between Web3 digital identity and traditional identity management systems.

WEB3 DIGITAL IDENTITY

TRADITIONAL IDENTITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS



Web3 Digital Identity Use Cases
Decentralized Social Media: Web3 digital identity enables users to control their identity information and content on decentralized social media platforms.
2. Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Web3 digital identity provides secure and reliable identity management for DeFi transactions, preventing fraud and building trust.

3. Decentralized Marketplaces: Web3 digital identity ensures secure and transparent identity management for buying and selling goods and services on decentralized marketplaces.

4. Decentralized Voting: Web3 digital identity enables secure and transparent identity management for voting systems, preventing voter fraud and ensuring fair elections.

5. Decentralized Healthcare: Web3 digital identity provides secure identity management for healthcare systems, allowing patients to control their medical records and keep their health data private and secure.

Web3 Digital Identity Solutions
Web3 digital identity solutions are created to empower users by giving them more control over their personal data and online identities. The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is an example of web3 digital identity. ENS is a decentralized domain name system that allows users to connect their traditional readable domain names with their Ethereum addresses. Space ID is another solution for web3 digital identity, Space ID is a decentralized identity protocol that uses the Ethereum blockchain. Using Space ID, users can create and manage their decentralized identity profiles, which can be used for authentication and verification purposes.

CoinEx exchange has been actively supporting these Web3 digital identity solutions or projects. For example, CoinEx has integrated ENS into its exchange, allowing users to easily transfer funds to ENS domains instead of complicated wallet addresses. CoinEx has also supported the Space ID project and listed its native token, ID, on its exchange. Through these initiatives, CoinEx is helping to promote the adoption of Web3 digital identity solutions and empowering users to take control of their online identities.

3
Shanghai Upgrade Approaching: Ethereum Protocols You Should Know

Ethereum is gearing up for its next major update, the Shanghai upgrade, scheduled to take place on April 12, 2023. The upgrade is a crucial one following the Merge last September, and it is expected to have a significant impact on the network’s more than 500,000 validators, according to data from BeaconScan, as of this March.



Shanghai Upgrade Explained
The Shanghai upgrade is a planned hard fork of the Ethereum protocol, as well as one of the vital additional steps between the Merge and Surge, as outlined by Ethereum’s scaling roadmap.

The Shanghai upgrade will implement multiple Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that will have a significant impact on the network, including EIP-4895, EIP-3855, EIP-3860, and EIP-3651.

1, EIP-4895
Since the launch of the Beacon Chain in December 2020, users interested in becoming validators on the Beacon Chain have been staking a certain amount of ETH on Ethereum to receive rewards. Staking is a one-way process in which users lock up cryptos to support the network and validate transactions and earn passive income. According to beaconcha.in, as of April 4, over 17 million ETH (worth about $32.8 billion) has been staked on the Beacon Chain.

EIP-4895 represents the most crucial development of the Shanghai upgrade. As the upgrade will lift the staking lockup, stakers will be able to withdraw their ETH staked and choose more flexible staking mechanisms. In short, the lockup stage of ETH will soon end, and at that time users can freely stake/withdraw ETH.

2, EIP-3855
EIP-3855 will introduce a new instruction called “PUSH0.” This instruction pushes zero when called in the contract code, which reduces Gas fees for developers and decreases storage size, thereby allowing for faster transactions on the network.

3, EIP-3860
EIP-3860 is an extension of EIP-170 that limits the maximum size of initcode and facilitates fair charging for initcode when interacting with “initcode” code, thus reducing transaction fees.

4, EIP-3651
EIP-3651 is a “Warm COINBASE” instruction. To better support COINBASE payment and make it cheaper to access COINBASE, the Shanghai upgrade will preheat COINBASE addresses during transaction execution through the protocol, reducing Gas fees and making COINBASE more accessible.

The most prominent change to be brought by the Shanghai upgrade is that it will improve the liquidity of stakers and validators by allowing them to withdraw their staked ETH. At the moment, Shapella (Shanghai and Capella upgrades) is already live on the Goerli testnet, enabling users to test the code in advance.

CoinEx Futures Ranking
To celebrate the upcoming Shanghai upgrade, CoinEx, a global crypto exchange, will launch a Futures Tradeboard ranking titled “CoinEx Futures Ranking: Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade Special Event,15,000 USDT For Grabs”.

Details of the ranking are as follows:

Duration: 04:00 April 7–04:00 April 17, 2023 (UTC)

Eligible Users: All CoinEx users (Market Makers excluded)

Selected Markets:

ETHUSDT, LDOUSDT, ANKRUSDT, ARBUSDT, ETCUSDT, OPUSDT, YFIUSDT, MATICUSDT, and SXPUSDT.

Rules

During the promotion, participants who recorded a trading volume of over 10,000 USDT in selected Futures markets can join the rank and share the 15,000 USDT reward.

How to Participate

(1) Web: Go to the CoinEx website at https://www.coinex.com, click on [Promotion] — [CoinEx Tradeboard] on the navigation bar, enter the promotion page, and click [Apply Now].
(2) App: Open the CoinEx APP, tap [Tradeboard] on the [Home] page, enter the promotion page, and tap [Apply Now].

Click on the link below to find out more about the promotion:

https://support.coinex.com/hc/articles/9653663775257

4
Cryptocurrency discussions / You Ask We Answer Vol.13-NFTFi | CoinEx
« on: March 31, 2023, 04:09:14 PM »
Regarding the event “You Ask We Answer Vol.13, Ask anything about #NFTFi to win $1000 in $CET!”, here is a response to questions about NFTFi for your reference. Please take a look.


1、What is the process for creating and trading NFT-based loans on the NFTFi platform, and what are the benefits for lenders and borrowers?

NFT lending plays a crucial role in the NFTFi ecosystem. NFTs are known for their indivisibility, meaning that they are less liquid than FTs. In addition, unlike FT holders, NFT holders cannot generate revenue by staking NFTs and have no other option but to sell their NFTs if liquidity is needed. That said, many NFT holders hope to obtain temporary liquidity without selling their assets, which has led to a growing demand for NFT lending. By staking their NFTs as collateral, holders can acquire temporary liquidity (cryptos); at the same time, liquidity providers get to earn interest.

To engage in NFT lending, users typically need to select one or more NFTs as collateral and enter the loan amount, which cannot exceed a certain percentage of the NFT’s floor price (e.g., BendDAO recommends borrowing no more than 95% of the floor price). Then, after granting authorization, users will get the corresponding cryptos.

2、Will there be more NFTFI projects added to the CoinEx trading board? What is your projection for this year?

According to NFTGO, the total market cap of the NFT market stands at nearly 1 million ETH, and the NFT trading volume in the past 7 days has exceeded 200,000 ETH. NFTFi projects, in particular, are an essential component of this thriving market and aim to enable the mass circulation of NFTs, while making them more accessible to users. Though many of the NFTFi projects remain in their infancy, surprising innovations from them may help the NFT market record exponential growth.

NFT is clearly a promising category driven by strong market dynamics. At the moment, CoinEx has listed 10 NFT cryptos, including BLUR, LOOKS, RARE, X2Y2, RARI, JPEG, SOS, BEND, NFTB, and NFTD. Going forward, we will stay attuned to NFT and NFTFi projects and provide more outstanding and innovative NFTFi assets for investors. You can stay updated on the latest market movement through our Market segment.

3、What are the pros and cons or things to be aware of when using different types of NFTFi?

NFTFi projects remain in a nascent stage, and many of them face issues such as inefficient use of capital and high-interest rate spreads. Additionally, as they have not fully resolved the problem of real-time pricing, NFTs are still less liquid than FTs. Despite that, for holders of blue-chip NFTs, acquiring temporary liquidity from lending projects is a good way to improve their capital utilization efficiency.

It should be noted, however, NFTFi projects come with a complex market landscape, and users should be careful with the security of their wallets and contracts to avoid NFT thefts.

4、How does NFTFi’s governance model work, and what role do NFTFi tokens (NFTF) play in the platform’s decision-making process?

NFTFi projects issue tokens to serve two main purposes:

1. Some NFTFi projects advocate DAO-based governance. With such projects, proposal and governance rights are returned to the community after token issuance, allowing token holders to participate in the future decision-making process. In this way, project development is not solely controlled by the founding team, but is jointly driven and managed by the community as well.

2. Tokens provide better user incentives. On an NFTFi platform, users engage in activities like trading and lending, providing liquidity and value for the platform. As such, some NFTFi projects regularly airdrop tokens to users. Such incentives constitute a positive economic model, allowing Web3 users to earn shared returns.

5、What criteria are required for #NFTFi to accept an NFT collection as collateral?

Typically, blue-chip NFT projects are accepted as collateral. These are NFTs that come with high, stable prices. For instance, NFTs like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Moonbirds, Doodles, CloneX, and Otherdeed always rank among the top ten in the NFT market, with extensively recognized market value. Therefore, most NFTFi projects only accept blue-chip NFTs as collateral to avoid the risk of dramatic price declines.

6、What is the value of each NFT based upon?

The value of an NFT depends on its market recognition. As each NFT has its own unique features, it is difficult for us to accurately capture the value of each NFT. Like traditional collectibles, different NFTs come with varying characteristics, and the attribute preferred by collectors makes an NFT more valuable. It is precisely the lack of clear valuation methods that makes NFT trading more challenging than FT trading, thereby blocking the market circulation of NFTs.

Under this circumstance, many NFT oracles are attempting to resolve the issue of price capture. For instance, Abacus oracle uses a peer incentive pricing mechanism and the Abacus Spot liquidity valuation to provide NFT pricing services. Other platforms like Upshot and Banksea are also exploring their own pricing mechanisms.

Decentralized NFT marketplace Sudoswap introduced the AMM mechanism of DEXs into the NFT market, allowing users to benefit from instant pricing as market makers on the platform. However, this method is more suited for NFT projects ranking in the middle or bottom of the market because the AMM mechanism eliminates rarity differences. Meanwhile, AMM is not applicable to blue-chip NFT projects, as they are subject to greater price differences.

Currently, the price of blue-chip NFT projects mainly depends on their floor price, which can be seen in NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea and Blur.

7、What is the main utility of #NFTFi? What types of opportunities #NFTFi provides for investors?

At the moment, the main issue with NFTs lies in their inaccurate pricing, which has led to a lack of market liquidity. Additionally, the high entry barriers of blue-chip NFTs have become a major obstacle to the development of the NFT market. For instance, Bitcoin, the №1 crypto, is sold for a whopping $28,000. Yet, retail investors can buy 0.01 or fewer bitcoins on exchanges. Meanwhile, the floor price of BAYC NFTs stands at 66 ETH (over $100,000), which is even more expensive and completely unaffordable to ordinary investors.

NFTFi has emerged to address the challenges of inaccurate pricing and high entry barriers in the NFT market by providing a range of services that include marketplaces, aggregators, lending, renting, derivatives, fractionalization, and oracles. As they help to earn interest on idle funds for investors and improve capital utilization efficiency for NFT holders, NFTFi projects create new growth opportunities for the NFT market and tokens.

8、When a borrower’s Collateral(NFT) offered after getting a loan surges up in value, more than the loan collected, if the borrower is unable to pay back the loan and the collateral becomes the lender’s, will the % surge be shared or it all belongs to the lender?

Most NFT lending projects with a peer-to-pool model don’t have a maturity date. Instead, liquidation procedures are only initiated when the collateral price falls below the liquidation threshold. When the price of the NFT collateral keeps growing, the platform will not initiate forced liquidation. However, in the case of peer-to-peer NFT lending projects with a maturity date, if the borrower fails to repay the loan and interest upon the due date, the lender can acquire the collateralized NFT and reap profits from NFT appreciation, if any.

9、Are there automatic liquidations in NFTFi? If the base prices fall, will I be liquidated and lose the asset?

Most NFTFi platforms feature automatic liquidation. The platform may initiate automatic liquidation when a collateralized NFT plummet and a certain percentage (e.g., 80%) of its floor price falls below the total loan and interest. That said, the liquidation threshold/ratio and rules vary from project to project. Once automatic liquidation is triggered, your NFT will be auctioned or transferred.

10、I think peer-to-peer lending has a high time cost and borrowers will likely take a long time to find the right lender, but have you created a useful program for matching methods?

In today’s market, NFT lending mainly includes two models: peer-to-peer and peer-to-pool.

NFTfi is a typical provider of peer-to-peer lending services. This lending model allows borrowers and lenders to negotiate all the lending conditions, including the amount, term, interest rate, and liquidation method. As such, peer-to-peer lending features smaller interest rate spreads, and since no external oracles are needed, users are not exposed to oracle risks. That said, peer-to-peer lending is subject to high time costs, and borrowers may need to spend a long time finding suitable lenders.

Many NFT lending platforms have leveraged AAVE’s lending model, employing the peer-to-pool approach, in which the protocol matches the two sides and makes decisions on behalf of lenders. This approach is more efficient and enables quick matching, but with poor capital utilization efficiency, it is subject to significant interest rate spreads. For instance, if there is 1,000 ETH in the pool, but the borrower only wants to borrow 500 ETH, the interest he/she paid will be evenly distributed among all lenders, meaning that the lenders would receive a much smaller interest payment. As a result, most of the funds in the pool are not fully utilized. Moreover, under the peer-to-pool model, there may be a run on the platform. For example, the well-known NFT lending platform BendDAO experienced liquidity crunches due to the liquidation of NFTs during a market downturn.

Some projects are exploring the pool-to-pool approach, which offers lower costs and smaller interest rate spreads but also comes with long matching time and high entry barriers. Additionally, in the future, the market may witness the emergence of the peer-to-order book model, which is similar to the bond market in traditional finance.

5
Background
Since Bitcoin’s birth in 2009, blockchain technology has made great strides. While Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to dominate the market, many different blockchain networks with unique functions and applications have emerged. Blockchains cannot interact with each other because they are built with varying architectures. As blockchain ecosystems, especially DeFi, keep on growing, bridging the gap between different blockchains has become a key problem.

Cross-chain bridges have emerged as a solution to that very problem. These applications allow different assets to move across multiple blockchains. In some cases, cross-chain bridges even make information interoperability a reality. Similar to a bridge spanning two sides of a river, cross-chain bridges seamlessly transfer assets from one chain to another, enabling users to leverage the unique features of different blockchain networks. Moreover, they allow applications to transfer data and information between different chains. Despite their merits, cross-chain bridges also face challenges, especially in terms of security. For instance, in 2021, Poly Network was hacked, resulting in a loss of over $600 million worth of cryptocurrency. In 2022, about the same amount of crypto was stolen from Ronin Network, Axie Infinity’s cross-chain bridge. These cases are evidence that cross-chain bridges need more comprehensive security measures to safeguard users’ assets and data.

In recent years, zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) have made significant progress in their applications. ZKP is a powerful cryptographic tool that protects users’ data privacy and proves the effectiveness of Rollup scaling solutions. In addition, ZKP also plays a vital and unique role in the design of cross-chain bridges. With these concise proofs, the target chain can efficiently verify the state transition of the source chain, which mitigates third-party risks unrelated to the target chain and the source chain and improves the security of cross-chain bridges. Today, we will go through a number of common cross-chain bridges and explain how ZKP technology is applied to cross-chain bridges by studying several ZKP-based cross-chain bridges.

Types of Cross-chain Bridges
Crypto researcher 0xjim once divided cross-chain bridges into four categories: Team Human, Team Economics, Team Security, and Team Game Theory, according to their design and mechanisms. In particular, Team Human chains are more centralized. For example, Ronin Network consists of nine full nodes run by publicly known entities. They prove the validity of a transaction via multi-signature verification, and after a threshold is passed, the transaction is considered verified. Under normal circumstances, these validators will not do evil, but with this centralized approach, they might be attacked and become the biggest loophole, and it could be disastrous if the private keys are not properly managed.

The next is Team Economics, including Celer, Axelar, and Thorchain. These are similar to multisigs, but with tokenomics. To prevent evil doing, chains in Team Economics require nodes (validators) to stake tokens. In the case of a breach, the validator’s stake will be slashed. So, from a financial perspective, they should verify the validity of transactions with honesty.

The third type is called Team Security, which covers chains that utilize TEE or MPC to make cross-chain transfers more secure. For instance, all nodes would perform encrypted off-chain light client verification in a TEE like Intel SGX to maintain the privacy and integrity of private key management.

Finally, there is Team Game Theory, which covers LayerZero, Nomad, and Synapse. These protocols break up bridging into two separate jobs and disincentivize coordination between the two job doers. In the case of LayerZero, oracles pass block headers, and relayers pass transaction proofs. Together, the two perform the duties of an on-chain light client.

All four types of bridges rely on off-chain verification and multi-factor authentication. In particular, the first three essentially use their own PoS chain/network as a witness to transmit information between any two public chains. This faster, cheaper, and more scalable approach makes it easier for these bridges to connect to more chains, but the price they must pay is that users and liquidity providers have to fully trust the funds or data of the external validators. In other words, they rely on the security of the bridge, rather than the source chain or the target chain.

ZKP
In recent years, we have seen frequent cross-chain bridge accidents, resulting in significant financial losses. This highlights the vulnerabilities that additional trust assumptions bring to cross-chain bridges. As such, the safest design for a cross-chain bridge is minimum trust, i.e., the bridge only inherits the security attributes of the two connected chains without trusting any third party. On-chain verification is an effective way to minimize trust in cross-chain bridges. To be more specific, the target chain validates the consensus of the source chain and confirms whether the specified transaction is included in the source chain. For example, validators of the target chain can run a light client of the source chain to check the Merkle root submitted and verify that the transaction has obtained valid signatures from validators on the source chain. However, this approach has been difficult to adopt because on-chain verification is quite expensive. Validators on the target chain may find it challenging to run a light client for different source chains, and some target chains may not support the signature scheme adopted by the source chain. For instance, the validators in Ethereum PoS consensus use BLS signatures and the EVM does not have the precompile for the BLS12–381 curve used in these signatures, which renders a Solidity implementation of such a light client prohibitively expensive.

The recent progress in ZKP systems has made verifiable computation more succinct. In addition, ZKP plays a unique and vital role in the design of cross-chain bridges, just like how zk-SNARKs fuel the scaling of zkEVM projects. Verifiable computation can also generate validity proofs for chain states, and these validity proofs validate consensus for light clients with efficiency and low costs, enabling trust-minimized interoperability. In fact, cross-chain bridges utilize the succinctness of ZKPs, instead of their zero-knowledge property. In this sense, for cross-chain bridges, ZKPs are similar to the validity proof of Rollup scaling solutions.

Succinct Labs
Succinct Labs and Gnosis have co-launched a SNARK-based cross-chain bridge that allows for trust-minimized interoperability between any two Ethereum PoS chains, such as Ethereum and Gnosis Chain. This is achieved by deploying a light client in the form of a Solidity smart contract on the chain that generates proof of validity for the state of the source chain via succinct ZKPs. This approach enables efficient light client verification, which facilitates cross-chain communications between Ethereum and Gnosis Chain, thereby enabling trust-minimized interoperability. The light client tracks Ethereum block headers on Gnosis, and vice versa, without the need for additional trust assumptions. Meanwhile, a sync committee of 512 Ethereum validators randomly chosen every 27 hours confirms whether the state of Ethereum is valid. Once two thirds or more validators sign the block header, the state of Ethereum is considered valid. As such, the scheme is essentially a PoS bridge.

Succinct Labs generates zk-SNARKs via a light client using the Circom programming language and Groth16 proving system, which reduces the cost of on-chain verification. Instead of verifying an aggregated BLS signature, the light client verifies a single Groth16 zkSNARK. Apart from that, the light client must also track validators of the sync committee. Every time the sync committee reselects new validators, the current validators sign a block header containing the SSZ hash of the next committee’s public key. As the SSZ hash uses SHA-256, it is not SNARK-friendly, and a large number of constraints need to be computed. To resolve the issue, Succinct Labs created a circuit that maps the SSZ hash of the next validator set to a SNARK-friendly Poseidon commitment, which is then stored on the chain and used as an input to the BLS signature verification SNARK to ensure that the signature being verified is indeed from the sync committee validators.

The technology is still in the development stage, and the token bridge on the testnet has been launched for demonstration between Ethereum and Gnosis but has not yet been used to protect real assets. Additionally, it should be noted that the security level of the technology has not yet reached that of the Ethereum consensus.



Electron Labs
Electron Labs is a cross-chain protocol that protects cross-blockchain communication through ZK light clients. It aims to connect Ethereum with the Cosmos ecosystem (as well as other EVM chains) using IBC protocols and zk-SNARK technology. Projects similar to Electron Labs include Polymer and Gerege.

Normally, Cosmos IBC deploys light clients in the form of smart contracts on the source and target chains to verify cross-chain transactions. Similarly, to connect IBC to Ethereum, developers need to run the Tendermint light client on Ethereum as a Solidity smart contract. However, this turns out to be an extremely gas-expensive operation since it requires the verification of hundreds of Ed25519 signatures in solidity, and Ed25519 precompiles are not available on Ethereum. Therefore, rather than verifying the Ed25519 signatures directly on Ethereum, Electron Labs uses an alternative solution: it constructs a ZKP of signature validity off the chain and verifies the proof on the chain.

The on-chain light client modules on the Ethereum side will include a ZK-Proof verifier instead of an Ed25519 signatures verifier. The relayer, rather than submitting the full light client header, will just submit the proof of validity for the same. At Electron Labs, Electron Labs has built a Circom-based library that generates a zk-SNARK proof for a batch of Ed25519 signatures, making it cheaper to verify those signatures on Ethereum.

Positron is Electron’s first bridge, which went live between the Goerli testnet and the NEAR testnets. The bridge is used to demonstrate the implementation of ZKPs and on-chain light clients. During the public testing, the speed limits of RPC nodes caused latency in processing transactions on Positron, backlogging hundreds of transactions for several hours. The issue has since been resolved.

zkBridge
zkBridge is a trustless, permissionless, extensible, universal, and efficient cross-chain bridge. Any node can freely join the network to relay the block headers, generate proofs, and claim the rewards. To be more specific, zkBridge consists of a block header relay network and an updater contract. In the block header relay network, relayers retrieve the block headers from the source chain, generate proofs of validity of the block headers, and send the headers along with the proofs to the updater contract which is set up on the target chain. For the updater contract, the corresponding block headers of the source chain are stored once the associated proofs pass the verification. Furthermore, the updater contract also maintains a light-client state. Once a new block header is added, the contract renews the light-client state just like other light clients on the source chain. The updater contract also exposes a function to applications, through which an application on the target chain can obtain the block header of a given height on the source chain. After getting the block header information, the application can do more verification and build its own functions.

For fast proof generation and low on-chain proof verification cost, zkBridge uses a 2-layer recursive proof system. In the first layer, the bridge taps into deVirgo, a distributed version of the Virgo proof system. deVirgo combines distributed sumcheck and distributed polynomial commitment to achieve optimal parallelism, and is able to accelerate the proof generation by orders of magnitude when running on distributed machines. In the second layer, zkBridge uses Groth16 to prove that the previously generated proof by deVirgo indeed proves the corresponding block headers.



=nil; Foundation
Focusing on ZK tech development, the =nil; Foundation is established in April 2018 with the aim of supporting and promoting the research and development of database management systems and applied cryptography. It strives to provide complete technical solutions for blockchains and protocols, allowing them to generate ZKPs according to their needs. Investors behind the project include top institutional investor Polychain, as well as trending ZK protocols StarkWare and Mina Protocol.

Recently, the =nil; Foundation introduced a mainstream language circuit compiler called zkLLVM, which does not involve zkVM and can compile existing EVM implementation code written in C++ or Rust. With zkLLVM, developers can quickly build applications such as zkRollup, zkBridge, and zkOracle with low costs. In addition, as generating SNARK/STARKS proofs requires significant computational power, the =nil; Foundation has established the ZK Proof Market to help teams simplify their work and outsource certain types of computation to third parties, allowing Proof Requesters to publish proof requests for any predefined circuit and providing a competitive market with open biddings. Finally, the Proof Market’s Proof Generators execute orders and return newly generated proofs.

Previously, they created zkBridge between Mina-Ethereum and Solana-Ethereum. Using zkLLVM, developers can directly compile codes written in mainstream programming languages such as C++ and Rust into circuits, generate the necessary state or consensus proofs, and set up zkBridge. For example, Mina Protocol and Ethereum use zkLLVM to generate Mina’s auxiliary state-proof circuits and in-EVM verifiers, enabling the low-cost verification of Mina’s state on EVM.



Conclusion
Today, we have gone through several projects that build cross-chain bridges with ZKP technology. All these projects are exploring how to use ZKPs to generate validity proofs to achieve efficient and low-cost light-client consensus verification, thereby enabling trust-minimized interoperability. Although they remain in a nascent stage and are often confined to certain chains, the projects offer an innovative solution to the interoperability issue facing blockchains. We believe that as ZKP technology keeps advancing, the blockchain industry will witness the emergence of more cross-chain solutions with sound security performance.

Reference
What I Talk About When I Talk About Bridges

https://medium.com/coinmonks/what-i-talk-about-when-i-talk-about-bridges-429c16015774

Proof of Consensus Bridging between Ethereum and Gnosis Chain

https://blog.succinct.xyz/post/2022/10/29/gnosis-bridge/

Bringing IBC to Ethereum using ZK-Snarks

https://ethresear.ch/t/bringing-ibc-to-ethereum-using-zk-snarks/13634

zkBridge: Trustless Cross-chain Bridges Made Practical

https://rdi.berkeley.edu/zkp/zkBridge/zkBridge.html

=nil; zkLLVM Circuit Compiler

https://blog.nil.foundation/2023/02/02/circuit-compiler.html

6
CoinEx Spot Grid is a quantitative trading strategy. By creating grids, the system will automatically buy low and sell high, helping users take trading chances, reduce operating costs, and easily profit from volatile market conditions. Spot Grid offers three unique features, including auto order submission, auto execution, and accumulated revenue.



So, how can users create a Spot Grid on CoinEx? Today, we will show you how to trade cryptos using Spot Grid through easy steps.

I. Select Spot Grid in [Strategic Trading]
Visit the CoinEx website (https://www.coinex.com/), log in to your account, and select [Strategic Trading] under [Finance] in the top navigation bar.



2. Find [Spot Grid] on the [Strategic Trading] page and click on [Create Strategy].



Note: When creating a strategy for the first time, users need to carefully read the [Risk Reminder], and then click on [I’ve read and agree to all the above] first.



II. Create a Spot Grid
Select the target market (e.g., BTC/USDT). Spot Grid is now available in multiple markets, including BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT, XRP/USDT, ADA/USDT, MATIC/USDT, DOGE/USDT, SOL/USDT, SHIB/USDT, TRX/USDT, LTC/USDT, ATOM/USDT, and FTM/USDT. You can select a market in the drop-down list.



2. Select “Auto” or “Manual” mode according to your own needs.

(1) Auto Mode

The mode features recommended strategy parameters that are automatically generated based on the technical analysis of market prices. It is suitable for beginners using grid strategies for the first time. (Note: The recommended parameters do not constitute any financial or investment advice from CoinEx. Please evaluate whether to adopt the recommended strategy parameters at your own risk);



(2) Manual Mode

With Manual Mode, users can set the parameters by themselves based on their judgment of the current market conditions. It is therefore suitable for traders who are familiar with grid strategies. Traders can select a market according to their needs, set the price range, grid number, investment mode, amount to invest, and TP/SL triggers, and click [Create] — [Confirm] to create a spot grid strategy.





3. Once a spot grid strategy is created, the system will execute the strategy according to the pre-set parameters.

III. Check Strategy Details
You can view the strategy details in [My Strategies];



2. On the [Details] page, in addition to the detailed strategy information, you may also [End Strategy] or set [TP Price] and [SL Price].



3. Once a grid is created, you can have it terminated at any moment. When terminating the grid, you can check the investment balance of the two assets held in the strategy, which can be refunded in any of the following ways:

(1) Return both assets to the Spot account;

(2) Convert all to pricing coins (such as USDT) at the best price in the market;

(3) Convert all to base coins (such as BTC) at the best price in the market.

4. If you wish to terminate the grid, click on [Confirm], and all the orders will be canceled. Your funds will be returned to the Spot account according to the refund method selected.



Meanwhile, users can also further customize their grid strategy in Advanced Settings, which includes optional triggers for grid opening and TP/SL settings. The trading fee for spot grids is calculated the same way as that for spot trading. When a grid is terminated, all pending orders will be canceled, and the proceeds will be settled at the current market price.

In Spot Grid, both auto and manual modes use an arithmetic grid pattern, which divides the price range between the lower and upper limits of the grid into equal intervals, with the price difference between each interval being the same. Here is the equation for the price difference between adjacent grids: Spread = (Highest Price — Lowest Price) / Number of Grids.

Through these simple steps, you can now easily invest in crypto using CoinEx’s Spot Grid function. CoinEx’s Strategic Trading segment now features Spot Grid and Auto-Invest Plan to satisfy varying demands for strategic trading. If you are interested in making accumulated profits from price gaps during market fluctuations, join CoinEx now to create a spot grid strategy and earn easy crypto profits

7
Both Optimism and Arbitrum are built with Optimism Rollup, but the two differ in many ways. First, Optimism and Arbitrum adopt different dispute resolution processes to verify transactions. While Optimism uses a single-round fraud proving scheme implemented on the first layer, Arbitrum relies on a multi-round proving scheme that’s executed off-chain. In addition, the two differ in terms of EVM compatibility. Arbitrum is compatible with all EVM languages, but Optimism only supports Solidity. Although the two Layer 2 projects are launched almost at the same time, the subtle differences in design have laid the groundwork for the development of their ecosystems.

Arbitrum vs Optimism


As shown in Figure 1, thanks to its full EVM compatibility, Arbitrum allows developers to easily deploy many DeFi projects on its platform. In contrast, in the early days, Optimism had a whitelist that specified the projects that could be deployed in the ecosystem. Consequently, Arbitrum was far superior to Optimism in terms of TVL and the number of DApps from the very beginning, with the former occupying over half of the market share. However, Optimism announced the removal of the whitelist in December 2021 and upgraded the platform to reduce transaction fees in March 2022. After raising $150 million during a Series B financing led by a16z and Paradigm, Optimism has started to flourish, with a growing TVL.



Recently, as the market rebounded, the demand for DeFi transactions on Arbitrum rose, leading to a 163% surge in its daily active users in the past six months. On the other hand, daily active users on Optimism significantly fluctuated because the platform launched a series of reward campaigns. Users could interact with the network to earn tokens or NFTs as rewards, but after the campaigns ended, the number of daily active users would plummet. For instance, following the end of the Quests program in January 2023, the number of daily active users on Optimism dropped to the original level. From this perspective, it’s clear that Arbitrum relies on native applications to retain users, while Optimism is more dependent on network incentives, which allow it to attract users in the short term.



As mentioned earlier, both Arbitrum and Optimism have seen significant growth in transaction volume over the past six months, but Optimism’s growth figure slowed down after the incentives stopped in January. In terms of transaction fees, both Arbitrum and Optimism have cut down fees through network upgrades, and the increase in transactions has also reduced the transaction cost. Today, fees charged on the two networks are almost the same.

The number of projects on Arbitrum and Optimism has also grown by 145% and 235%, respectively, over the past year. As they have grown and evolved, many of the native Arbitrum projects, especially DeFi projects, have built a large user base, allowing Ethereum users to trade cryptos with minimal latency and reduced fees. In comparison, Optimism only offers a few native projects, and most projects in its ecosystem are migrated from other networks. Now, let’s check out the native projects of the two platforms to examine their pros and cons.

Projects in the Arbitrum Ecosystem
In 2023, the crypto market has picked up, and Arbitrum projects, particularly DeFi derivatives, have flourished, attracting growing user traffic.

|GMX
Launched in September 2021, GMX is a DEX that supports both spot and futures trading. Unlike the order book or AMM model used by dYdX or the Perpetual Protocol, GMX leverages a new GLP liquidity model, which enables users to provide liquidity for GMX by directly purchasing and staking their liquidity token, GLP. With this model, liquidity providers act as opponents and profit from the losses of traders in the pool. As such, the GLP price rises or falls according to the profits or losses of trading users. The advantage of the new model is that GLP pools are larger than conventional trading pair pools. In addition, as the trading price is fed by Chainlink or average prices on other DEXes, the impact of slippage is minimized.

l MAGIC
Focusing on metaverse resources, Treasure DAO (Magic) is a decentralized NFT ecosystem built on Arbitrum. The ecosystem’s development centers on economic mechanisms, with tasks linked to its economy through the governance token MAGIC. The project was initially launched in August 2021 as an NFT finance platform that supports NFT trading and lending. On Treasure DAO, users can earn MAGIC tokens by staking NFT assets such as Loot and Treasure, or AGLD (the derivative token of the Loot community). MAGIC, the governance token of Treasure DAO, runs through the whole ecosystem. MAGIC holders may participate in the project’s governance, voting, and decision-making process. The Beacon, a recently launched game developed with the support of Treasure DAO, achieved market success. In the future, as the project’s ecosystem continues to grow and expand, we expect MAGIC to record further success.

l JONES
Jones DAO is a yield, strategy, and liquidity protocol, with vaults that enable one-click access to institutional-grade options strategies while unlocking liquidity and capital efficiency for DeFi options with yield-bearing options-backed asset tokens. Jones DAO provides vaults for multiple assets and risk profiles. It generates yield through options strategies deployed on the assets deposited in Jones Vaults. With one click, users will be able to access the best yields, while unlocking liquidity and capital efficiency for DeFi options with yield-bearing options-backed asset tokens. The aim of Jones Vaults is to generate yield with sophisticated strategies. Moreover, the value of the vaults is denominated in the vault asset in order to accumulate more of the asset over time.

Jones DAO is built for three main user groups: 1) users who don’t want to actively manage their options strategies or would like to utilize its vault to deploy strategies; 2) users who would prefer not to lock their assets and would like to keep their deposits liquid; 3) protocols planning to earn additional yields on their treasury assets.

l RDNT
Radiant Capital is a cross-chain lending protocol launched on Arbitrum and built on Layer 0. It allows users to seamlessly borrow and lend in one network by depositing collateral in another. As the fastest-growing lending protocol on Arbitrum, Radiant Capital offers a unique feature called multi-chain lending. Simply put, the protocol enables users to deposit collateral on one chain and borrow on another. With a native cross-chain market, Radiant Capital uses existing currency market models and builds a cross-chain framework locally that’s operated entirely by its community. At the moment, the project’s TVL has reached $485 million. Radiant Capital started from scratch, without any VC or seed round financing. The protocol distributes all fees to stakers as rewards, mostly paid in USDC, offering them good returns. It aims to bring together the scattered funds (about 22 billion) on the top ten interaction layers.

l DPX
Dopex is a decentralized options platform that offers liquidity to options traders through option pools while maximizing gains for both buyers and sellers of options contracts through a rebate system, as well as arbitrage functions. At its core, Dopex provides Single Staking Option Vaults (SSOVs), which allow users to lock up tokens for a specified period of time and earn yields on their staked assets. Users will be able to deposit assets into a contract. The system then sells the deposits as call options to buyers at fixed strikes that they select for end-of-period expiries. To put it bluntly, users deposit assets to sell a call/put option. By the same token, there will also be buyers purchasing a call/put option for hedging.

Dopex adopts a dual-token economy where DPX serves as the governance token and protocol fee token. This means that fees charged for purchasing calls in an option pool, swaps, fines, and strategy vaults are all paid in DPX. At the same time, 15% of all fees charged will be distributed proportionally to DPX holders after each epoch. On Dopex, rDPX acts as the rebate token. To eliminate the risk of losses arising from extreme swings, option holders receive rDPX as compensation in each epoch. Dopex users can use rDPX to mint synthetic assets or have the tokens deposited as collateral to expand their exposure.

Projects in the Optimism Ecosystem
As a latecomer, the Optimism ecosystem features only a few native projects, with a small TVL. Still, with Grant (an incentive program provided by the ecosystem), Optimism has attracted a growing number of developers.

l VELO
Velodrome Finance is a liquidity solution for protocols on Optimism. Its TVL, which now stands at $309 million, surpasses that of many other leading projects. Plus, the project’s bribery funds set a historical record. Velodrome was adapted by the veDAO team from Solidly, which was launched by Andre Cronje’s team. The veDAO team also based Velodrome’s token design on Solidly’s (3,3) mechanism.

Liquidity providers receive VELO tokens as rewards, which can be locked up to obtain veVELO, the project’s NFT governance token. Holders of veVELO enjoy governance rights that allow them to determine the weight that VELO assigns to each liquidity pool. In addition, they get all transaction fees and bribes, and can relieve vote power dilution through rebase. As bribes and transaction fees in Velodrome grow, veVELO holders will earn higher returns, which will boost the VELO price. Moreover, the high returns earned by liquidity providers will attract more liquidity to the protocol, and strong liquidity drives up transaction fees, which then creates a flywheel.

l SONNE

Sonne Finance is a native lending project on Optimism. As of March 9, 2023, the project’s TVL stands at $39.72 million, second only to AAVE among all lending projects. Sonne aims to evolve into a top lending platform with the deepest liquidity and provide the most competitive incentives for money markets on Optimism. Also, Sonne combines its tokenomics with Velodrome, allowing users to bribe Velo holders with Sonne, and the VELO earned will also be distributed to Sonne holders, which improves the overall liquidity of Sonne Finance.

l LYRA
Lyra is an option AMM protocol that allows traders to buy and sell crypto options based on liquidity pools. In response to the high slippage and risks yet poor liquidity of the existing DeFi option protocols, Lyra proposes to actively manage those problems to reduce the risks threatening liquidity providers and improve the liquidity of the AMM. On Lyra, the AMM uses the Synthetix protocol to help liquidity providers reduce the Delta risk. It calculates the overall Delta risk of the protocol and then actively hedges the risk on Synthetix to remain delta neutral, which reduces the impact of price swings on option prices and minimizes risks for liquidity providers.

l PIKA
As a decentralized perpetual swap exchange native to Optimism, Pika Protocol offers up to 100x leverage, low slippage, and cheap fees. Recently, users can trade on Pika to earn rebates in OP tokens. Plus, its TVL has grown by 55% in the past three months. The project has not yet issued tokens, but an airdrop program is expected.

l COLLAB
Collab.Land, a tool widely used by blockchain projects on Discord and TG, allows any token holder to join Discord and use the Collab.Land bot to verify their membership. Used to confirm if a user actually owns a specific asset in his/her wallet, Collab.Land is now one of the most widely used DAO tools and SocialFi products. COLLAB, the project’s native token, is mainly used for governance and application within the Collab.Land ecosystem, where holders can vote on feature requests, provide bounties, and manage the Marketplace.



Conclusion
Arbitrum and Optimism are the two most popular Rollup solutions on Ethereum. Considered DeFi powerhouses, they are both promising Layer 2 protocols with unique advantages. Although the projects are still trying to catch up with Ethereum in terms of volume and transactions, Arbitrum and Optimism have attracted a large swath of users and projects with their faster transactions and lower fees. Moreover, the two are always able to improve the user experience through each upgrade. That said, to achieve long-term success, instead of being a sidekick of Ethereum, both must build a strong ecosystem of their own. From this perspective, the race between scaling solutions involves multiple tracks. There might be just one winner or multiple winners, but the ultimate goal is to deliver benefits to users and the whole DeFi ecosystem.

All crypto assets mentioned above are available on CoinEx, but the article offers no financial advice.

8
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released a paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, which introduced a revolutionary online payment system. At the time, no one had imagined that the 9-page paper would go on to catalyze a trillion-dollar industry and revolutionize finance.

Traditional Finance: High Costs and High Thresholds
Finance, a term that comes with a long history, aims to improve the efficiency of capital utilization and encompasses a series of economic activities that allocate capital from investors to those seeking investments via market tools. Banks, for instance, collect deposits and lend money, providing idle funds (i.e., deposits) for those in need, and the same also applies to corporate financing and initial public offerings (IPOs).



In the process of capital circulation, idle-fund providers have the chance to earn returns such as deposit interest and profits from the sale of stocks/equities. As a result, plenty of activities in financial markets focus on investment and financing. Although many intend to venture into financial markets to make investments or raise funds, the majority of the global population is excluded from traditional finance.

Making investments in traditional financial markets comes with a high threshold. Investing in the secondary market, for example, requires a bank account that supports the market. Moreover, users also have to meet requirements such as identity verification and minimum deposits. According to the World Bank, over 1.7 billion people worldwide, or more than 20% of the population, remain unbanked, which denies them access to financial services.

Even in the United States, where the financial system is better-established, tens of millions of people still don’t have a bank account. After all, even the most basic traditional financial services can be expensive for retail investors. For instance, fees and requirements like account opening fees, credit card annual fees, and minimum deposits keep many low-income customers out of traditional financial markets.

Primary markets come with even more entry barriers. In the early stage, most players are private equity and venture capital firms. It is extremely challenging for retail investors to join primary markets, meaning that they miss out on many great investment opportunities. This exacerbates the issue of wealth inequality. The Pareto principle is proven right: today, the top 20% of the global population control over 80% of the world’s income and wealth.

The same also applies to financing markets. In traditional finance, companies must go through a complex process to go public. Moreover, only large institutions such as investment banks and trust companies are allowed to provide underwriting services. What this means is that companies seeking funds cannot issue shares directly to retail investors and have to go to these centralized institutions. To make matters even worse, intermediaries like investment banks and VC firms have not improved capital efficiency; instead, they have created expensive intermediary costs.

Bitcoin and Blockchain: A Quite Financial Revolution
In 2008, the world was hit by a massive financial crisis. As a result, banks and companies went bankrupt, and stock markets collapsed. During the crisis, people noticed that the legacy financial system managed by centralized institutions is not as stable as they expected. Retail investors were unaware of the bad debts facing banks. They had no idea that companies were misusing their fund to seek returns from risky investments. After the market crashed, ordinary investors could only file claims and wait for years. Eventually, only a few of them were compensated.



Bitcoin was born against such a backdrop. On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block, which contains a headline from The Times, “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” Through the message, the father of Bitcoin mocked the traditional financial industry, where centralized banks control the money supply and determine if the funds of retail investors would appreciate or depreciate, and implied that the modern financial system is just a game for the financial elites.

Bitcoin and blockchain were born to address these inequalities. The crypto space offers a decentralized, open, free, and transparent financial market, which eliminates the complex intermediary processes in traditional finance. Crypto makes it a lot easier to invest, raise funds, and pay.

With Bitcoin, the 1.7 billion unbanked population could easily make online payments, including cross-border payments that can be processed in no time, and it only takes less than a minute for them to create a crypto wallet. The crypto market based on blockchain technology provides accessible investment opportunities for more retail investors who are excluded from traditional finance. For example, on CoinEx, a global crypto exchange, users get to create an account for free and trade cryptos at any moment, even with just a few dollars in their account.

Providing a global, open, and easy-to-use innovative financial market, blockchain and crypto technology have revolutionized finance. Clearly, the crypto space is not just a party for the elites. On the contrary, it is becoming increasingly accessible. The industry is witnessing countless miracles, with significantly reduced financing costs and investment thresholds, as well as improved capital efficiency. It is making progress that’s impossible in traditional finance.

Minimalism: The Driving Force of Universal Finance
With its low threshold and costs, the crypto market has presented exciting opportunities to retail investors. But not all platforms in the market have embraced this idea. As the crypto industry evolves, we have seen many pro-only platforms that continue to pile functions upon functions. However, from the perspective of financial service providers, helping beginners complete their first crypto transaction is no easy task, and some product designs may drive away retail investors.

From the concise yet insightful Bitcoin white paper to the simple design of decentralized projects, we can tell that ease of use has always been a key principle of the crypto industry. The same should also apply to crypto products: ideally, products should be practical and user-friendly.

In this respect, crypto platforms hold different views. While most platforms in the industry try to serve professional investors, CoinEx advocates minimalism. The exchange provides beginners with simple guides, comprehensive help documents, focused page interactions, and intuitive visual guidance to minimize the necessary operations, allowing users to buy, sell, and invest in cryptos in the most convenient way possible.

CoinEx’s smooth experience stems from its product philosophy. For instance, the exchange mentioned in its blog that before developing a new feature, they’d always consider whether users actually need it. The CoinEx team believes that many products out there no longer provide convenience but have instead become a burden to users. Members of the team constantly remind themselves to avoid complexity and stay committed to practicality and ease of use. Today, CoinEx has met that goal as many of its users are newcomers to crypto.

Though crypto products are becoming increasingly diverse and complex, there are still players like CoinEx that remain restrained and insist on “Making Crypto Trading Easier”. With easy-to-use product design, simple investment operations, and considerate customer services, CoinEx respects every user, reduces their workload, and makes it easy for retail investors to get started with crypto trading.

Globally, many users still cannot access convenient financial services, and there is a long way to go before we can achieve universal finance. That being said, in a crypto market that advocates minimalism, the cumbersome intermediary processes will gradually disappear, thereby enabling direct cooperation between investors and project teams. This trend will shift the power from elites to more retail investors, effectively improving capital efficiency. Meanwhile, more people will be able to profit from crypto finance, addressing wealth inequalities with crypto.

9
Cryptocurrency discussions / How Web3 Redefines the New Finance?
« on: March 10, 2023, 04:28:29 PM »
A new Internet model is gaining momentum, and traditional finance is witnessing disruptive innovations. Everything could be redefined in this era, an era known as Web3, or the era following the Internet. In fact, the concept of Web3 was first proposed as early as 2014, but it didn’t go viral until the wave of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and the metaverse in recent years. As a result, institutions, governments, and VC have flocked to this industry, giving birth to numerous applications. So what exactly is Web3? How does Web3 redefine the new finance?



How Web3 Redefines the New Finance
Web3 has many characteristics, including decentralization, artificial intelligence, Semantic Web, middleman-free and permissionless, and ubiquity. As a new generation of the Internet supported by distributed ledger technology and based on blockchain, Web3 represents a collection of fundamental technologies for building the metaverse, with major innovations in openness, privacy, joint development, and decentralization enabled by technologies such as blockchain and smart contracts.

Today, Web3 has seen various financial services such as decentralized lending and decentralized insurance. Take the lending business as an example. Under the Web3 framework, decentralized lending has evolved into new lending models such as over-collateralization, liquidity pool, and flash loan.

The decentralized lending we see today is mainly for crypto assets, and there has been a complete business model based on Web3.

Compared with traditional lending, decentralized lending has significant characteristics, mainly including:

First, decentralized lending helps to protect personal privacy. The centralized lending process focuses on relevant individuals or enterprises. Before giving loans, banks need to evaluate whether individuals or enterprises can repay the loans. By contrast, decentralized lending does not require anyone to identify himself. Yet the borrower must provide collateral, which will directly go to the lender if the borrower fails to repay the loan.

Second, decentralized lending can reduce business costs and improve efficiency. With smart contracts, decentralized lending effectively reduces manual errors and repeated operations, thus saving business costs. In addition, smart contracts can reduce the time-consuming paperwork required in traditional bank loans, which improves business efficiency.

Third, decentralized lending has access to funds from around the world, which makes it easier for borrowers to get loans with lower interest rates.

Web3 focuses more on user privacy and security as well as innovative technologies than Web2, as evidenced by the utilization of artificial intelligence to support the interaction with the machine and advanced analytics. Another advantage of Web3 lies in the decentralized network that returns data ownership to users.

Overall, Web3 has significantly outperformed Web2 in terms of technology, application and data state. Breaking the traditional limitations of Web2, Web3 has redefined the new finance.

Breaking the shackles of traditional finance, CoinEx makes crypto trading easier

As with Web3, CoinEx, a global crypto asset trading platform, is also working on new finance. Exchanges constitute part of the infrastructure of the crypto industry, and, as the easiest gateway for the general public to the Web3 industry, CoinEx plays a vital role in the crypto space.

As an indispensable part of the Web3 era, CoinEx has always adhered to its commitment. In 2022, CoinEx redefined its slogan to “making crypto trading easier”. With easy-to-use products, asset-light investment models, and considerate customer service, the exchange helps the general public embark on the crypto adventure effortlessly. Aiming to break the shackles of traditional finance and lower the threshold to crypto trading, CoinEx makes it easy for anyone around the world to engage in the Web3 era. On this newbie-friendly exchange, investors worldwide will enjoy a smooth, easy crypto journey.

10
As the concept of Web3 gains popularity, a growing number of people have recognized the irreplaceable role of crypto technology in the future development of the Internet. Although Web3 remains in its infancy, its technical features have made it the utopia for Internet users: Web3 rebuilds Web2 with crypto technology, allowing users to take full control of their identities and data. In the Web3 world, users take the reins in their own hands, disrupting the monopoly of traditional Internet giants.

Although Web3 has been repeatedly questioned, the crypto market has seen countless new applications that focus on Web3. Moreover, the world of Web3 has attracted plenty of entrepreneurs, office workers, and speculators. Today, let’s check out what are they up to in Web3.



1. Entrepreneurs embrace Web3 to build a powerhouse of business startups
As Hong Kong releases a series of crypto-friendly signals, more and more entrepreneurs are shifting their focus to the city. Since 2022, Hong Kong has rolled out a number of crypto policies, including the Policy Statement on the Development of Virtual Assets in Hong Kong and the Conclusions on Discussion Paper on Crypto-assets and Stablecoins. Moreover, the city has also established a Web3 hub and allocated HKD 50 million to bolster the development of the Web3 ecosystem. It is therefore clear that Hong Kong is embracing Web3 and striving to become a global center of cryptocurrency.

Over the years, as the crypto market goes through its ups and downs, crypto giants like FTX and BitMEX have emerged from Hong Kong. However, for several reasons, FTX crashed to the ground, and the crypto market in Hong Kong remained dormant for a while. But since last year, the city has introduced a series of powerful policies, and its crypto-friendly government has also been promoting Web3 developments. As a result, Hong Kong has become a new cradle of an increasing number of crypto institutions, providing fertile soil for startups. Meanwhile, more and more entrepreneurs are turning their attention back to Hong Kong. For instance, Justin Sun previously announced his plans to move to Hong Kong.

2. Office workers venture into Web3 to take the reins in their hands
In Web3, the market is no longer monopolized by Internet giants but is shared by individual users who control their own crypto assets. The boom of Web3 has attracted not only entrepreneurs but also office workers to the field. As Web3 continues to evolve, many new positions have been created in the crypto industry, such as Web3 developers and engineers. Attracted by perks like telecommuting and decent salaries that come with those new Web3 positions, many office workers have forayed into Web3 to escape from conventional working environments. More importantly, unlike in Web2, which is dominated by traditional Internet giants, in the Web3 world, users are in charge, and workers work hard for the benefits of themselves, rather than centralized institutions.

It is worth noting that Web3 developers can build Web3 applications on compatible public chains with high TPS and low fees. For instance, CoinEx Smart Chain (CSC) has focused on incubating Web3 applications since 2022. Compatible with EVM, CSC uses the PoS consensus mechanism and offers high TPS and low fees. Aiming to build an enabling development environment for Web3 developers, the chain provides funding support for outstanding Web3 projects. Furthermore, CSC also hosted the MetaFi global hackathon to attract more promising Web3 projects and facilitate their development, making itself a good choice for Web3 developers.

3. Speculators invest in Web3 projects to seek high returns
Speculation has been an inherent feature of Web3 ever since its inception. For crypto speculators, Web3 might present a chance to make a fortune, helping them go from rags to riches. In Web3, most speculators are retail investors who intend to get handsome returns by investing in Web3 projects.

As we all know, GameFi projects centering on the Play to Earn model are one of the icons of Web3, and their tremendous popularity has sent Web3 to stardom in the non-crypto world, introducing Web3 to a growing number of conventional consumers and users. Additionally, a large number of GameFi projects are available on crypto trading platforms, which builds a bridge that connects ordinary individuals with the Web3 world and earns Web3 a large user base.

In the world of Web3, many speculators are gamers who hope to earn profits by buying low and selling high. As such, they don’t really care whether Web3 could realize data sovereignty and decentralization. Instead, Web3 speculators are more concerned about whether Web3 could present new market legends and help them make a fortune.

CoinEx, a global crypto exchange, has listed multiple outstanding, innovative GameFi projects to help more speculators invest in crypto with ease and seek high returns. Aiming to make crypto trading easier, the exchange follows the same doctrine with Web3, as it intends to break free from traditional financial shackles and market monopolies, build a bridge between global investors and the crypto space, and help more people enjoy the perks of crypto finance.

It is noteworthy that CoinEx has introduced the GameFi tag to help users identify premium GameFi projects. By clicking on different tags in the [Market] webpage, users can pick their favorite crypto categories and invest in cryptos for profit.



4. Conclusion
Entrepreneurs, office workers, and speculators are all key components of Web3. In the Web3 world, they are the ones who are constantly pushing for progress. In the future, Web3 will be the key to the advancement of crypto technology. We believe that Web3 will soon play a greater role in reaching out to non-crypto users. Furthermore, as Web3 infrastructures evolve, more Web3 applications will emerge, which will empower the crypto ecosystem.

11
The digital marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade, and with the emergence of Web3, we are witnessing a new wave of evolution. Web3 brings with it exciting opportunities for businesses to capitalize on but also challenges that marketers must address.

In this article, we will explore the concept of Web3 marketing and discuss how it is evolving, the trends that are emerging for 2023, how it will impact businesses, and the challenges that marketers may face. With this knowledge, businesses can start preparing for the future of marketing in Web3.



What is Web3?
Web3 is a term used to refer to the next generation of the internet. It is a concept that envisions a more secure, private, and interconnected version of the internet where users are in control of their data and the applications they use.

Web3 consists of decentralized applications (dApps) running on a distributed peer-to-peer network, where data is stored in a decentralized ledger (blockchain) and transactions are verified by consensus. It represents a shift from the current centralized web infrastructure towards a more distributed, secure, and open technology stack.

What is Web3 Marketing?
Web3 Marketing is a form of digital marketing that focuses on the use of blockchain technology to market products and services. It takes a more customer-centric approach to marketing, leveraging customer data to better understand their needs and behaviour and create more personalized, tailored experiences.

Web3 is primarily characterized by decentralization, making it a key component of its marketing to create better trust and transparency for customers.

Decentralization helps in Web3 marketing by creating a more secure and transparent digital environment. By decentralizing the web, data is distributed more evenly amongst multiple nodes, which makes it harder to attack or manipulate.

This makes it more secure for users and businesses to operate online and reduces the risk of data breaches and other cyber-attacks.

Decentralization also helps in marketing by creating a more transparent system that allows for better tracking of customer data, more efficient advertising campaigns, and better overall insights into customer behaviour. This makes it easier for businesses to understand their customers and target their campaigns more accurately, resulting in better and more effective marketing efforts.

Decentralized advertising, a feature of Web3 marketing, provides users and marketers with increased control, privacy, and openness. This is achieved by bypassing opaque exchanges, granting marketers more control of their programmatic sales and a better understanding of ad spending.

Furthermore, users are enabled to control the flow of ads into their browsers, apps, and devices, as well as send signals of interest or disinterest to brands and marketers. This allows for comprehensive privacy controls, such as displaying which data is used for advertising and which advertisers are bidding for ads.

How Marketing is Evolving to Web3?
The evolution of digital marketing from Web2 to Web3 is bringing about a shift in the way that companies interact with customers, as well as how they store and manage data.

In Web2, digital marketing was focused primarily on attracting customers through search engine optimization, social media, and content marketing. Web3 has enabled companies to create more secure and transparent records of customer interactions and transactions, as well as store data in a decentralized manner.

This means that companies can securely store and share customer data without needing to rely on a centralized third party, allowing for more efficient and secure customer interactions.

In addition, Web3 allows for better tracking of customer interactions and transactions, enabling more precise and accurate analytics. This allows companies to better understand customer preferences and behaviours, and better target their marketing strategies.

Finally, Web3 also allows for automated and decentralized marketing strategies, such as smart contracts and automated payments. This could drastically reduce the costs associated with marketing and customer acquisition.

Web3 Marketing Trends 2023
The latest trends in Web3 marketing include:

Decentralized Advertising: Decentralized advertising (DAds) allows businesses to advertise their products and services on distributed ledger technologies like Ethereum. This enables businesses to create targeted campaigns that reach their target audience more efficiently and effectively.
Tokenization: Tokenization is the process of linking a digital asset to a token or cryptocurrency, which can be used for a variety of purposes, such as loyalty programs, payments, or crowdfunding campaigns. This is a great way for businesses to reward their customers, promote their products, and raise capital for their projects.
Data-driven Marketing: With the help of distributed ledger technologies, businesses can collect and analyze customer data in order to better understand their target audience and tailor their marketing strategies accordingly.
Predictive Analytics: Predictive analytics allow businesses to anticipate customer behaviour and take proactive steps to ensure they remain competitive in the market.
Automation: Web3 marketing also leverages automation technologies, such as smart contracts, to automate mundane tasks, freeing up resources and allowing businesses to focus on more important tasks.
How Will Web3 Marketing Impact Businesses?
Web3 marketing is a revolutionary concept that has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses market their products and services. It is a new form of digital marketing that uses decentralized blockchain technology to enable businesses to connect with their customers in a secure, transparent, and efficient manner.

The key benefit of Web3 marketing is that it offers businesses the ability to securely store and share data with customers in a way that is reliable, secure, and transparent. This technology is expected to make it easier for companies to track customer engagement, analyze customer behaviour and preferences, and better understand customer needs. By collecting data on customer behaviour, businesses can create more targeted and personalized marketing campaigns. This can result in increased sales and increased loyalty.

In addition to providing businesses with more personalised customer marketing, Web3 also gives businesses greater control over their data. Businesses can store and manage their customer data in a secure and immutable manner, ensuring that all the data is safe from unauthorized access or manipulation. This allows businesses to better protect their data from malicious actors, as well as ensure that the data is accurate and up-to-date.

Finally, Web3 is expected to enable businesses to streamline their processes and reduce costs. By streamlining processes, businesses can reduce their operational costs and increase their efficiency. This can result in increased profitability and improved customer satisfaction.

Overall, Web3 marketing is expected to have a significant impact on businesses. This technology offers businesses the ability to securely store and share customer data, create more targeted and personalized marketing campaigns, and streamline their processes. All of these benefits can result in increased sales and improved customer satisfaction.

What are the Challenges of Web3 Marketing?
Web3 marketing is the future of digital marketing and presents many exciting opportunities, but it also presents some challenges.

As this type of marketing is still relatively new, there is a lack of established best practices, making it difficult for companies to know how to best engage customers on this platform.

Additionally, Web3 marketing requires a deeper understanding of blockchain and the ever-evolving landscape, as well as a more strategic approach to engaging customers. As Web3 technology is still developing, so too are the tools and platforms that marketers need to use to be successful.

Finally, Web3 marketing requires more resources, such as data and analytics, which can be costly and time-consuming to develop.

Despite these challenges, Web3 marketing still offers a great opportunity to reach customers in a more meaningful way and stand out from the competition. With the right knowledge, resources, and strategy, Web3 marketing can be a powerful tool for success.

12
CoinEx is thrilled to announce a special “Fee Discount” promotion in collaboration with fiat service provider Simplex. The two-week campaign, which kicks off on February 22, shows CoinEx’s appreciation for the ongoing support and trust of its users. During the promotion, all CoinEx users will receive a 2.5% fee discount for purchasing USDT, USDC, BTC, and ETH through Simplex. This will bring down the regular 3.5% rate to just 1%, allowing CoinEx users to make substantial savings when they buy cryptos via Simplex.

What’s more, unlike the previous fiat trading promotion, which was limited to new users, the current campaign is open to all CoinEx users. Additionally, the 2.5% discount offered this time, which is for all users, is even more generous than the 1.5% discount only to new users in the previous promotion.



This is the 7th time that CoinEx has teamed up with a third-party fiat service provider to host joint promotions. During the past year, the exchange continued to expand the channels for buying and selling cryptos with fiat, improved the fiat trading experience, and hosted multiple fiat trading promotions jointly with fiat service providers. CoinEx has worked to provide users with more exclusive benefits like discounts and help them easily deposit and withdraw cryptos on the exchange at low costs.

Simplex is the very first fiat deposit/withdrawal service provider to be supported by CoinEx, and it also happens to be the fiat service provider that has the most extensive collaboration with CoinEx. Founded in 2014, Simplex is a FinTech company licensed by the EU that provides guaranteed fraudless payment processing solutions and focuses on providing payment solutions for buying cryptos with credit/debit cards. On Simplex, users can now purchase more than 130 cryptos with over 115 fiat currencies.

In March 2020, CoinEx and Simplex reached a global strategic partnership, which marks a major milestone in crypto deposit/withdrawal services on CoinEx. With Simplex, CoinEx users can buy cryptos with nearly 100 fiat currencies using Apple Pay, PIX, Visa, and Master Card (credit or debit).

The details of the CoinEx & Simplex promotion are as follows:

I. Duration

8:00 on Feb 22, 2023 - 8:00 on Mar 8, 2023 (UTC)

II. Participation requirement

All CoinEx users

III. How to participate

1. Go to the CoinEx “Fiat” page:

(1) Web: Click [Fiat] on the navigation bar of the CoinEx website;

(2) App: Tap [Fiat] on the CoinEx App homepage;

2. Select the fiat and crypto you need;

3. Select Simplex as your preferred service provider;

4. Follow the step-by-step instructions provided by Simplex to complete the purchase or sale.

IV. Services available on Simplex

Fiat to Buy

USD, EUR, JPY, KRW, ARS, BGN, BRL, CAD, CHF, CLP, COP, CZK, DKK, GBP, HUF, IDR, ILS, INR, KZT, MAD, MXN, MYR, NOK, NZD, PEN, PLN, QAR, RUB, SEK, TRY, VND, ZAR, AUD, HKD, PHP, RON, SAR, SGD, IQD, BYN, UAH, JMD, BOB, PYG, ISK, TZS, GHS, OMR, LKR, BHD, MOP, AED, PAB, LBP, MNT, TWD, MUR, KES, THB, GTQ, KWD, BWP, HRK, PKR, BDT, NGN, JOD

Supported Crypto: USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH

Payment Method: Visa, Master Card, Apple Pay, PIX

To date, CoinEx has introduced several deposit and withdrawal promotions together with many fiat service providers, offering faster and cheaper deposit and withdrawal services. For more information about fiat trading promotions, please follow CoinEx’s announcements on the official website or SNS platforms.

Going forward, CoinEx will continue to improve its fiat trading services and provide a wider range of channels for buying/selling cryptos with fiat currencies, helping users from all over the world trade cryptos with fiat currencies. As it works with more fiat service providers, the exchange will offer more benefits to CoinEx users through exclusive promotions.

13
Recently, as internet companies around the world announce their adoption of ChatGPT, the concept of AI has gone viral. Meanwhile, in the crypto market, coins related to AI have soared, leading to extensive FOMO reactions. Yet still, today’s AI sector remains in its infancy in terms of both software and hardware.

In 2022, the valuation of internet companies took a plunge, and they seemed to have hit a bottleneck in terms of product development and user growth, which is natural because it is impossible to attract new funds without new market narratives. However, ChatGPT has made all the difference. Driven by our curiosity and passion for AI, the project has amassed nearly 100 million users in just two months.

If the Internet still cannot provide new market narratives in 2023, then ChatGPT, like blockchain, might become a buzzword that will be touted by major corporations and imitated by start-ups. For crypto users, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the following trending projects.

1. Alethea AI
https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*RTzMlvMJ2SC_-SEE-exQcw.png

Alethea AI is a decentralized protocol that leverages AI technology to create smart, interactive NFTs, aka iNFTs. Founded in 2020, the project has introduced CharacterGPT, which allows users to generate NFT characters with different features by providing simple descriptions. Additionally, Alethea AI has launched AI metaverse Noah’s Ark and character generator MyCharacter.AI, and its native token ALI is being used for governance across the ecosystem.

Alethea AI boasts massive potential, and the recent boom of the NFT market also proves that NFTs are a major part of the crypto future. As such, we are very confident in the project’s market prospect.

2. Fetch.AI
Featuring the combination of blockchain and AI at its core, Fetch.AI, an AI lab, was established in Cambridge, UK in 2017. Users can develop and deploy tokenized products and platforms on the Cosmos-based AI platform built by Fetch.AI. It should be noted that both the CEO and CTO of Fetch.AI are from Deepmind, the company behind Alphago. In March 2019, the project’s token FET was listed on Binance IEO. In March 2021, Fetch.AI raised $5 million in a fundraising campaign.



Although the project is backed by strong institutions and an outstanding team, it failed to deliver any hit blockchain projects over the last few years. As Fetch.AI has no obvious advantage in terms of product and technology, the FET price plummeted. Despite the surging price of FET enabled by the boom of ChatGPT, chasing clout is never a valid long-term solution. Still, at the moment, as an emerging industry, the AI sector is spending money like water, and whether Fetch.AI could survive depends on whether it could obtain continued financial support and launch hit products in the future.

3. SigularityNET
In late 2017, SigularityNET raised $36 million during the ICO boom. According to CoinEx, SigularityNET’s token AGIX now ranks №1 among all AI coins listed on this world-renowned crypto exchange. At the same time, amidst the current AI coin craze, the token managed to record a monthly growth rate of 611.82%, topping all the other AI coins.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*xvsZ8tXFR7XA3wOkmy89nw.png

SigularityNET is a decentralized AI service platform, and its core mission is to enable developers to reach a beneficial technological singularity and help users acquire products and services released by developers with AGIX payment on the platform.

SigularityNET has recorded exceptional on-chain and off-chain performance, and it is reported that the project has been successfully applied to Sophia, a social humanoid robot.

Looking back at the crypto space, from the LSD boom to the AI craze, the market desires new narratives, and a price surge is almost guaranteed whenever there’s a popular trend in the non-crypto world. That said, the market is also very fragile. For example, recent news that the SEC shut down Kraken’s on-chain staking service has led to negative market reactions, which indicates that there is still a long way to go before the next crypto bull. This recent market rebound is a rare opportunity for investors who missed out on previous booms. However, as we’ve all learned from the FTX crash, extra prudence is required when we look for a gateway to the crypto world.

During the past few months, I have become a fan of CoinEx, which is one of the few long-established crypto exchanges. In the past five years since its inception in 2017, the exchange has always put users first and is fully committed to providing easy-to-use, convenient, secure, and efficient crypto trading services. Last year, it also redefined its brand slogan to “Making Crypto Trading Easier”.

To date, CoinEx has provided a versatile selection of crypto services, spanning spot trading, futures trading, margin trading, AMM, mining, crypto finance, and CoinEx Dock, for more than 4 million users across over 200 countries and regions. Furthermore, the exchange has also listed 600+ premium cryptos and 1,000+ trading pairs, meeting most user demands.

Disclaimer: No investment advice is provided in this article, and all data mentioned herein are for reference only. You should not rely on the information provided herein to make any investment decision, and you will be fully liable for your own investment decisions.

14


On February 14, NFT marketplace Blur launched its native token, BLUR, and kicked off its third round of airdrop at the same time. Despite being blacklisted by OpenSea, Blur has managed to break OpenSea’s long-term monopoly in the NFT market and is now a worthy opponent to OpenSea in the race for market dominance. According to NFTGO, as of February 12, OpenSea and Blur stand as the top two NFT platforms based on NFT trading volumes recorded in the past 30 days. In particular, OpenSea registered about $450 million, and Blur followed closely behind with around $350 million.



In just one year, Blur has grown rapidly, evolving from a newcomer to a formidable rival to OpenSea, which demonstrates strong backing and ingenious operating tactics.

1. Versatile Functionalities
Blur has introduced many innovative features since day one. It is not only an NFT marketplace but also an NFT aggregator. More specifically, the Blur aggregator consolidates information from NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea, LooksRare, and X2Y2, allowing users to trade NFTs on multiple platforms through a single portal (including Blur’s own). Despite OpenSea’s long-standing dominance in the NFT market, Blur has brought changes to the market, and users have hailed it as a multifunctional platform that combines the best of OpenSea and GEM.

Blur has integrated its marketplace with an aggregator to provide traders with a concise, user-friendly, and professional interface that meets the demand for high-frequency NFT transactions with faster and more convenient trading. Additionally, Blur has migrated and optimized NFTNerds’ functionality with batch purchase features for professional traders, attracting more new users. Unlike other NFT platforms, Blur does not charge users fees, but instead sticks to zero rates and customizable royalties, which caters to the needs of ordinary NFT traders.

Blur has gained traction mostly because it is backed by a strong team consisting of developers from prestigious institutions such as MIT, Twitch, Square, Y Combinator, Five Rings Capital, and Citadel. Such strong backing is expected to help Blur continue to update its features to stay innovative and dynamic.



2. Novel Marketing Strategies
Since its launch, Blur has taken the marketing strategy of airdrop-based user acquisition to the extreme. Although airdrops are not a new tactic in the crypto space, Blur’s airdrops are frequent and long-lasting. To be more specific, the airdrop on February 14 is already its third airdrop campaign, and the two previous airdrops both lasted a long time. Moreover, the Blur airdrops also continued to expand in scale. According to official sources, this will be the last and largest Blur airdrop. Based on Blur’s airdrop eligibility requirements, we can tell how its marketing strategies progress. For instance, each Blur airdrop has targeted different user groups, with the first focusing on user acquisition, and the second attracting new users and incentivizing sellers to expand the project’s user base.

In addition to the expanding scale and coverage, Blur has cleverly incorporated user loyalty into airdrops to encourage active trading: the more loyal you are, the more BLUR tokens you could get through airdrops. Meanwhile, by setting reasonable eligibility criteria, the platform has promoted the adoption of its features to make itself stickier.

Conclusion: A Strong Platform With Bright Market Prospects
Looking back on the growth trajectory of Blur, it’s evident that the platform’s moves, whether in product design or user operations, have all been strategic and purposeful, making it a role model for other blockchain projects. Blur has emerged as a dark horse in the NFT market, and its success is by no means an accident. The project has shattered the status quo of the NFT market through professional, innovative features and set itself apart from others with uniquely defined products and functions. Offering a diversified NFT marketplace, Blur has enabled progress in the NFT sector. BLUR, the platform’s native token, was listed on CoinEx on February 15, and users can now seamlessly deposit, withdraw, and trade BLUR on this global crypto exchange.

* No financial advice is provided herein.

15
According to the Crypto Exchanges 2022 Annual Report released by TokenInsight in January, last year, the top 10 centralized exchanges recorded $40.87 trillion in total trading volume (spot+derivatives), while the figure registered by the top 10 decentralized exchanges reached $1.33 trillion, which, on average, accounted for 3.15% of the whole market. The figures indicate that most crypto transactions take place on CEXs, which are the most popular platforms for buying/selling cryptos among investors.

On CEXs, fiat trading mainly includes two models: C2C trading and B2C trading. On CoinEx, users can directly buy and sell cryptos with fiat currencies via third-party fiat currency service providers with a suitable price and payment method through the “B2C fiat trading model”.



On CoinEx, users can now buy or sell mainstream cryptos such as BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC on the Fiat page with nearly 100 fiat currencies. Moreover, the exchange also supports multiple payment methods for fiat deposits and withdrawals, spanning VISA, Master Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Bank Transfer, and SEPA.

Since 2020, CoinEx has kept improving its fiat trading services and expanded the fiat channels to enable convenient, fast deposits/withdrawals. According to official information, in 2022, CoinEx partnered up with 6 new third-party fiat service providers. At the moment, the exchange supports over 10 third-party fiat service providers, i.e. MoonPay, Banxa, Guardian, Simplex, Mercuryo, Paxful, XanPool, Advcash, LoopiPay, and Remitano. It is noteworthy that CoinEx is the first CEX to cooperate with LoopiPay, which further expanded the exchange’s crypto deposit/withdrawal channels.

Apart from the expanded deposit and withdrawal channels, CoinEx also launched 0% fee campaigns to bring users more benefits for buying/selling cryptos. Through those events, CoinEx users can buy/sell cryptos with 0% fees through the designated service provider. Meanwhile, by co-hosting events with fiat service providers, CoinEx introduces more investors to the crypto world with cheaper costs and greater ease.

As it teams up with a growing number of secure, compliant third-party fiat service providers, CoinEx provides fiat trading services for users in almost every corner of the globe. For instance, Simplex and MoonPay are accessible to the majority of users in Europe and the US; Remitano covers most Southeast Asian countries; users in Australia, the UK, and certain European countries can buy/sell cryptos through Banxa; LoopiPay is available to users in Brazil. CoinEx users from almost everywhere around the world can now find a suitable fiat service provider to buy/sell cryptos on CoinEx with ease.

More specifically, CoinEx users can start to trade crypto with fiat by logging in to the CoinEx website (https://www.coinex.com/) and clicking [Fiat] on the homepage. Next, they need to select the target fiat currency to access third-party service providers supporting that currency; then, after completing the relevant operations according to official instructions, users will be able to buy/sell crypto with fiat effortlessly.



Expanding the channels for buying/selling cryptos and making the crypto space more accessible have always been the goals of CoinEx. In 2023, the exchange will partner up with more fiat currency service providers and offer more fiat channels for buying/selling cryptos. As it improves its fiat deposit/withdrawal services, CoinEx will help users from all over the world trade cryptos with fiat currencies, making crypto trading easier.

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