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Surging Interest in ‘Yam’ Yield Farming — But Is It Too risky?

The latest craze in the DeFi sector is a new yield farming protocol called Yam which promises ‘equal opportunity’ staking with no premine, no founder shares, and a zero value token at launch.The experimental Yam Protocol is the talk of Crypto Twitter right now — with many excited about the big potential returns, while others worry about the risks. The recently launched project offers an elastic supply token, similar to Ampleforth, that can expand and contract depending on market conditions, with the aim of seeking eventual price stability and a peg

Building on Taproot: Payment Pools Could Be Bitcoin’s Next Layer Two Protocol

This article is about a technological concept based on the proposed Taproot protocol upgrade. If you’re not yet familiar with the basics of how Taproot works, it’s recommended that you first read this explainer.Taproot, a potential upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol first proposed by Bitcoin Core contributor Gregory Maxwell, is in its late stages of development. The technology consists of a clever combination of crypto-tricks that would let users hide complex smart contracts inside regular-looking transactions — the complexity is only ever revealed if parties to a contract are uncooperative.Leveraging

Q&A: How Blockchain Could Transform the Art Industry

The art world has had a tough time lately. The coronavirus pandemic has forced many galleries and museums to close, with sales of premium pieces also affected.But there could be a solution that helps the industry get back on its feet and achieve much-needed digitization: blockchain. Here, we talk to Niko Kipouros, founder and CEO of 4ARTechnologies, about how this technology could transform the way we purchase and own artwork — and even ensure that the provenance and authenticity of masterpieces are never doubted.1. What are the biggest challenges facing

Chinese State Grid Launches Blockchain-Based Blackout Insurance Policy

A branch of China’s state-backed grid released its first blockchain-powered blackout insurance policy issued to the chairman of a local company that needed to compensate for a power outage loss suffered recently.According to Shupeidian, Zhejiang Ningbo Power Supply Company, in partnership with Yingda Taihe Property Insurance Co., Ltd., released the policy to a sprinkler manufacturing company in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.Both companies believe that the process of issuing insurance via a blockchain network provides a commercial solution to compensate for the loss caused by an electric outage in a faster and

BTC and ETH Crypto Derivatives in Demand, Market Expected to Grow Further

The crypto options market has been evolving rapidly over the second quarter of 2020. According to TokenInsight’s recent crypto derivatives industry report, trading volumes are seeing a 166% year-on-year increase compared to Q2 2019. The derivative products driving these volumes are futures and options. While futures grow with traders betting on a bullish price sentiment, both open interest and volumes of options have reached all-time highs.All-time highs On Wednesday, open interest in Ether (ETH) options hit an all-time high of $351 million on Deribit and $37 million on OKEx. In fact, open

Bitcoin is Almost as Big as Bank of America

All the speculative capital invested in Bitcoin (BTC) at the moment totals just a few billion dollars shy of Bank of America's market valuation.Bitcoin's current market cap sits just over $217 billion, according to Cointelegraph data at press time, while Yahoo Finance shows Bank of America's market cap holding slightly over $226 billion — a comparison introduced in a recent article from The Next Web. Bitcoin's market cap climbing in comparisonAlthough it has endured its fair share of dramatic price fluctuations, Bitcoin's price has grown substantially in 2020, rising past several

TikTok Ban: The Beginning of a New Age in Social Networks?

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that forbids American companies to transact with Tencent and Bytedance. The ban comes after a long debate involving alleged data mining from apps like WeChat and TikTok. Following the ban, Tencent shares fell 5%. American companies will effectively have 45 days to stop transacting with these companies. The ban is sparking worldwide debate regarding the boundaries of national security. Is this an opportunity for decentralized social media platforms to step up? Tencent and the Yuan Plummet The announcement was immediately felt on

Curve Finance Guide – How to Make Money with Curve (CRV)

The Curve Protocol is one of the largest and most used projects in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space. It is integrated with most DeFi protocols and has seen rapid adoption in a short window. It’s essentially the most competent automated market maker (AMM) out there for stablecoins and wrapped tokens. Curve’s most valuable accomplishment has been giving people incentive to contribute liquidity and earn rewards over their idle assets. A community-based project, the protocol innovates continuously and is now progressing towards total decentralization.  In this guide, we take a look

BitBlockBoom Is Bringing Bitcoiners Back Together

Gary Leland is hosting the third installment of the BitBlockBoom conference in Dallas, Texas on August 29, 2020. But this year’s event is decidedly different: this is set to be the first well-attended, in-person Bitcoin event held in the United States since the Covid-19 outbreak began. Because of the unique situation he’s in, Bitcoin Magazine wanted to check in with Gary and understand more about the preparations he’s making to ensure that BitBlockBoom is both a successful and safe event for everyone attending. Flip: I think you’re the first well-known

Why Klaytn and Link Will Catalyze Blockchain Adoption in Asia

In the last two years, popular messaging giants in Asia and Europe have announced plans to launch a blockchain-powered cryptocurrency. In Asia, Kakao’s Klaytn and Line’s Link platform have launched and are quickly gaining momentum, but Facebook and Telegram’s cryptocurrencies have not fared so well. Messaging Giants Pushing Blockchain Adoption As it stands, Kakao is by far the most dominant mobile platform in Korea with a market share of 97% in the country. Kakao subsidiary Ground X began development of Klaytn back in 2019, after raising $90 million in both

DEX Trading Volume Tops $4 Billion in July 2020

The meteoric growth in the trading activity for decentralized exchanges (DEX) is not slowing down as the total volume for July exceeds $4 billion. Monthly DEX volumes have been on a tear since the start of 2020 with increasing returns seen in the last three consecutive months. DEX platforms continue to attract massive trading volume and their native tokens are reportedly providing greater returns than centralized exchange (CEX) counterparts. DEX July 2020 Volume Sees 12x Year-on-Year Growth According to data from on-chain analytics platform Dune Analytics, the total DEX volume

The Scam and Fall of YFI Clones

After the success of yEARN finance (YFI), a yield farming token which saw a rise in price from $35 to over $4000, a number of cryptocurrencies are trying to copy its success. These include the likes of YFFI, YFII, and Asuka, however, they’ve all witnessed 100% drops and a conspicuous exit scam. Encouraging Words Fueled by DeFi platforms where any token with an address can be traded for anything else, these are the days of Wild West token swaps. To clone the YFI token, developers only had to copy code