The biggest DEX in Ethereum, Uniswap, launches in Polygon Network
Image Source https://uniswap.org/
Uniswap was one of the early DEXs to emerge in the Blockchain sphere
Big Grand news for Polygon is that Uniswap, the No.#1 Defi application in layer 1 Ethereum would launch on the Polygon network. This news, got me thinking of the early days of DEFI when Uniswap app must have ruled and few(mostly crypto geeks and programers I guess) started exploring DEFI while people like me were too scared to try Decentralised Exchanges, because they were less convenient, had less volumes and I was not prepared to use hot wallets like Metamask for it. https://blog.polygon.technology/uniswap-the-1-ethereum-app-is-live-on-polygon/
Rewards for protocol users came with UNI token airdrops
Obviously those days are long gone. Last year, there was news that trading volumes in DEX like Uniswap beat that of centralised exchanges like Coinbase, which was HUGE. Then, after Uniswap grew super popular, the protocol users got airdrops of UNI tokens which turned out to be a good investment, because UNI tokens did well being a leading DEFI project token in the DEFI category.
Coingecko data https://www.coingecko.com/en/dex
*Data from Coingecko says Uniswap is the top DEX with the highest 24 hour trading volume and market dominance*
Uniswap got a contender with PanCake Swap launching on Binance Smart Chain
Pancake swap https://pancakeswap.finance/
More happened, with Uniswap getting contenders like PanCake Swap in Binance Smart Chain, and early participants of PanCake Swap too benefited by getting those Cake tokens that paid off well to early holders. These were crazy days of last year 2020, after boring years of bear market in 2018, when these kind of DEFI products were getting built and were in their infancy.
I have been so late to the world of DEFI that by that time, Uniswap became unaffordable to use as it is the no.1 DEFI application of layer 1 Ethereum. I would just read the news of UNI tokens and it’s exciting price action that had nothing to do with me personally.
Then PanCake Swap made news as well, with that DEFI AMM attracting masses as it was affordable to use as it was built in Binance Smart Chain.
Ofcourse, it did not matter that Binance Smart Chain was criticised for being centralised. Cake token, sure, was a good investment that could have been earned free by anyone for participating in the protocol providing liquidity or by reaping those yield farming incentives.
Uniswap is now becoming an affordable Dex to use!!
Anyway, now Uniswap is bound to become an affordable AMM to use. Infact, I see that Uniswap already made news for making their debut in layer 2 scaling networks like Arbitrum and Optimism. Before this, I can imagine that Uniswap was a platform that could serve only large token holders, who were rich doing transactions of high value.
The news of Uniswap coming to Polygon is huge, but it’s nothing new, as already popular DEFI apps like AAVE, Curve, 1inch that are all built in Ethereum have launched on Polygon quite a while back.
*Uniswap is becoming a affordable DEX protocol for all to use as its deployed in a number of Layer 2 scaling protocols*
The news of Uniswap coming to Polygon is huge, but it’s nothing new, as already popular DEFI apps like AAVE, Curve, 1inch built in Ethereum have launched on Polygon quite a while back. I have tried out 1inch and AAVE in Polygon and loved the experience, about which I have written in my previous articles.
My 1inch profit booking trade, less profitable due to Ethereum Blockchain’s transaction fees!! https://www.publish0x.com/investing-and-trading/my-1inch-profit-booking-trade-less-profitable-due-to-ethereu-xelnjpm https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/my-1inch-profit-booking-trade-less-profitable-due-to-ethereum-blockchains-transaction-fees-718049aa
My understanding of how DEFI lending business using crypto as collateral works for AAVE protocol https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/my-understanding-of-how-defi-lending-business-using-crypto-as-collateral-works-for-aave-protocol-f386493c
Uniswap’s community voted for the protocol to launch in Polygon
Image Source https://blog.polygon.technology/uniswap-the-1-ethereum-app-is-live-on-polygon/
Uniswap’s expansion into Polygon was approved after the protocols’ Governance vote had 72+ million UNI token holders voting for this. Well, I can just say congratulations to the Uniswap community for its expansion into Polygon, with this it is certain that Uniswap will get more users from the Polygon ecosystem , one of them being me.
However, I am satisfied with the 1inch aggregator that does all these AMM trades for me in Polygon!!
***Thank you for reading!!***
End of hospital life for me last week after mother’s discharge back home
Caught hold of the culprit medications that brought my Mom to delirium state
In my previous articles , I detailed about the hardship me and my Dad went through admitting my delirious Mom to hospital as she had overdosed on anti-depressant Clofranil 75mg Tablet SR without prescription. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/hard-struggles-of-life-admitting-a-psychic-family-member-to-the-hospital-c8299e19
Things became even more complicated because she had been taking tons of steroid tablets without prescription in the form of Wysolone tablets. Taking those steroids tablets without need and doctors guidance can be life threatening!!
*Taking steroids tablets like Wysolone without doctors prescription is dangerous*
Last week, when I searched my mother’s room as the hospital was discharging her(against our wishes), I found the tablets that she had overdosed on which made her delirious.
*2 strips of antidepressant Clofranil 75mg tablets from Mother’s room*
Hospital discharge last week done against our preparedness of handling Mom at home
Sudden news given to mother before us that she will be discharged that same day last week
It was good that I postponed her discharge again by one day, begging that stupid so called senior resident doctor to let me take care of few things before mother was discharged -
One was searching her room for these meds, as these meds are life threatening for her, and second have me deal with the medical shop, Aruna Medicals, that has been giving mother these medications. However, that women doctor refused, because she said the hospital delayed her discharge for 10 days on account of us, because we were searching for a rehab center to admit mother as we made it clear that we would not be able to manage mother at home.
After some dramas, and me telling that doctor that she is killing everyone by forcing discharge on us without even giving us a clear prior advance notice at least a day before so we can clear her room at least before taking this dangerous behaving mother charactor home. I had to sign a paper in my mother's hospital record file, which said her family member postponed discharge by 1 day against medical advise and against the patient’s consent.
Clearing medications from mom’s room quickly before her discharge
I was not allowed to go home to screen Mom’s room, because one attender mandatorily has to be there with the patient in the hospital. So it was upto my Dad to screen Mom’s room for any medications like this. My dad failed to do a thorough search job obviously, because I found these meds on one of her cupboard shelves back home, when I came to rest in the end of the day.
Anyway… this hospital did not even allow me leave to take care of some basic aspects beforehand, to ensure mother does not get access to these life threatening medications, which was awfully unreasonable I thought. Now, mother is discharged, and she’s at home somewhat controlling and dominating everything and torturing us, but I have already dealt with the medical shop, Aruna Medicals who kept giving mother medicines without prescription.
Confronting Aruna Medicals that sold those medicines illegally to mother
During the peak of the pandemic on April this year, the main man there, who I now call a criminal, sold her a bunch of medications called Alprax. My mom’s overdose of that medication, had my mother enter delirium 3 years ago, and we already requested the man that time not to give her any medications, but he kept giving her meds like Wysolone, and recently he I very certain he or his 2 other crony employees gave that Clofranil 75mg tablet.
Inside me there was anger against the main man behind Aruna Medicals, I was sure if I did something similar to his family member he would have killed me. I was hesitant to threaten the man with legal action but circumstances forced me to. Last week, I told him that he kept on giving those meds which he should not without prescription and that he was a criminal. I told him he is murdering my mother, and torturing me, and if I did something like that to his family member, he would have certainly murdered me.
He first denied outright that he gave meds to mother. Then he deviated, he said( as I expected him to) that mother brought meds from him with the prescription, then he said my Dad buys Wysolone tablets for mother without prescription. Then he said, he gave her just 2 strips of Wysolone tablets, when she asked for a bunch of Wysolone tablets(bluff, he gave her 5 strips or more). Then he said I can check the cctv camera footages, as he said after we requested him in April not to give medications, he never gave(blatant lies).
This guy is able to talk nicely, and make us stammer, (waiver in our resolve to shout at him) I told him firmly that I won’t take legal action now, because I am not in a position to do so, but if my mother gets medications from him, I would definitely do so. It was against law to sell such medications without a valid doctor’s prescription and I have ways to take his licence away for this purpose.
He told me it was my mistake that I was not able to stop my mother from going out and getting the meds, I told him again what he is doing is illegal and I can take action, so mind it!!
I also cursed him that if he gave those medications this time for which we were stuck in hospital, he will suffer for it. I knew by now, if these guys would harm me for these threats, it’s going to be hard for them, anyway I assured him that I am not taking legal action now, but as I have the medications in my possession, I can report him still, so let him beware. I told him it’s not just mother, don’t give such medicines to anybody without a valid doctor’s prescription.
So, there I did what I could to ensure mother does not get access to these medications again. Next month, hopefully, my brother will take her and manage her abroad(she can't get meds there without priscription at the United States), till then have to bear the torture of her angry tantrums, scoldings, unresonanble behavior with insults and more…
Overall, help from hospital in getting guidance for managing mother was disappointing
I have a lot to say about the unfair and arbitrary treatment of me by the hospital, who could not help us transfer mother to a rehab centre, we had selected for her because they said can’t do it without the patient’s consent. However, they kept pressuring us to find a rehab center asap and they will facilitate in having us communicate to mother about this. They actually did everything wrongly, and made mother more angry with the family for wanting to put her in rehab centre!!
Anyway, life is as it is, have to face whatever it throws at it. I am hoping for better days filled with peace, less of hate, insults and ill treatment from mother and society. I am always grateful for every kind soul who made our days in the hospital tolerable .
***More on my hospital experiences in my other articles. You can read my previous hospital stories here -***
Continuing my hospital life story with circumstances forcing my family to deal with a crisis https://www.publish0x.com/my-covid-19-life-experiences/continuing-my-hospital-life-story-with-circumstances-forcing-xglgnev
Hard struggles of life admitting a psychic family member to the hospital https://www.publish0x.com/my-covid-19-life-experiences/hard-struggles-of-life-admitting-a-psychic-family-member-to-xlznloy
New cat in my life that I unexpectedly encountered at the hospital - Sweet!! https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/new-cat-in-my-life-that-i-unexpectedly-encountered-at-the-hospital-sweet-231aeaa8
Cat flavoured day at Christmas time with a cat guest at home
Cat Garu probably prefers to have a cat tree at home instead of a Christmas tree
*Garu spending his pent up restless energy climbing cloth rack at night time*
Most humans will obviously look forward to having a Christmas tree, but cat Garu will more likely want a cat tree instead of a Christmas tree. Yes, the restless fellow was jumping on my cloth rack/cloth stand.
This was during the time I could not spend time with him as I was in the hospital last month because of my mother's drug overdose hospitalisation, the story of which I narrated in my other 2 articles here - .
Continuing my hospital life story with circumstances forcing my family to deal with a crisis https://ecency.com/hive-148441/@mintymile/continuing-my-hospital-life-story
Hard struggles of life admitting a psychic family member to the hospital https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@mintymile/hard-struggles-of-life-admitting
A surprise Cat Guest at home - Cat Kajal who I meet at the hospital
However, this Christmas month, we are back home and now I got a cat guest in my house. She’s the greenish, grey shaded friendly cat that hangs about at the Hatti Kappi Cafe in the hospital premises. You can read about her in my last week’s Caturday post https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/new-cat-in-my-life-that-i-unexpectedly-encountered-at-the-hospital-sweet-231aeaa8
New cat in my life that I unexpectedly encountered at the hospital - Sweet!! https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/new-cat-in-my-life-that-i-unexpectedly-encountered-at-the-hospital-sweet-231aeaa8
I spayed her yesterday and she’s resting now.
*Cat Kajal recovering from the spraying surgery she underwent yesterday*
Hopefully, I can release her back to her surroundings in a few days when she’s healed, I have been instructed to keep her rested till 5 days.
I am glad that inside the hospital premises, she’s safe, because outside the hospital premises there are these dogs about. If she did litter, her kittens may be in danger with dogs around in the vicinity.
I named this cat Kajal, which means eye dye in Hindi, as I felt she has beautiful eye dye shade colour.
Taking Kajal from her hang out premises was easy, as she was the most cooperative and trusting cat I have ever seen, I was able to take her by my cat bag itself.
*Easily picked up Kajal from the Cafe premises area without her putting up much of a protest*
For spaying her, I took her by carrier, but all throughout the journey this girl was tame. I am really touched by Kajal’s trust in me.
*Tame Kajal when taken for spraying to the clinic*
The only bath my cats have is a sun bath!!
My pet cats Garu and Mochu today posed for this picture in the sunshine.
They both keep relaxing in the sun around the balcony and they seem to like to have a private space there to chill about.
*Cat Garu relaxing at the balcony, graced with some sunshine on my chair*
Sunbathing is the only bath they take, there has been no water baths for them for a long while.
Anyway, Mochu is one such cat who I've known since July 2018, has never bathed. Ha, no we humans can’t keep clean without any bath for ages and only cats have the ability to be clean without taking a bath for a lifetime.
My house cats take bed and sofa comforts for granted
*Empty Bed, Mochi takes to sleep while nosey Garu wants to fiddle with the plastic sheets on*
Another nice thing about my cats is that they can enjoy home comforts as well. They are hybrid cats that enjoy the raw pleasures of shine sun and soft comforts of home beds as well.
Mochu declares a holiday but it’s Caturday silly so did this writing work for a Caturday post!!
***Happy Christmas everyone.***
Mochi says, it’s that time of the year where people don’t waste time working on the computer. Ha, silly boy, it’s Caturday silly so even if it’s christmas, I choose to work writing a Caturday post . Anyway…
***Happy Holidays!!***
Wow, already 90% of Bitcoins are mined in just 13 years of Bitcoin’s inception
90% of Bitcoins are already mined and in circulation!!
This was a “oh my God” news for me, when I read that 90% of Bitcoins of the total finite supply of 21 million Bitcoins are already mined and in circulation. This means that only 10% of new Bitcoins remain to be mined and brought into circulation. https://decrypt.co/88123/bitcoin-dips-below-50000-nearly-90-all-coins-mined
Definitely with Bitcoin’s finite supply and prospect of increasing demand this is quite a bullish news. This may be hard to believe considering Bitcoin’s recent bearish price action.
So, Bitcoin is on the way to becoming a scarcer and scarcer asset.
Bitcoin Hash rate and Bitcoin mining Difficulty at an All Time High
Other than this, the total hash rate of Bitcoin is also at an all time high. This refers to the amount of computing power with a large amount of Bitcoin miners securing the Bitcoin Network.
The Network difficulty is also on an All Time High, meaning more miners are investing on more costly mining equipment to mine Bitcoin.
*Bitcoin’s Difficulty is also on an All TIme High.* Data Source https://www.blockchain.com/charts/difficulty
To mine Bitcoin, that is to add new blocks in the Blockchain and verify Bitcoin transactions, miners have to solve complex mathematical problems and with the mining difficulty increasing, powerful bitcoin mining machines are required to solve these problems. Miners with more advanced mining equipment can mine Bitcoins faster than others which is an advantage.
Due to the cost of Bitcoin operations being high these days, there are only large mining farms that find it sustainable, being in the Bitcoin mining business.
However, the fundamentals of Bitcoin are sound with both the Bitcoin hash rate and Bitcoin mining difficulty being at an All Time High.
Remaining 2 million Bitcoins is expected to be completely mined only by 2140
Now, there are only about 2.1 million more virgin bitcoins that can enter circulation. However, these Bitcoins can’t be mined and brought into circulation that soon, with all remaining Bitcoins expected to be completely mined only by 2140.
This is because the issue rate of Bitcoin keeps decreasing with the process of Halving reducing Bitcoin rewards for Bitcoin miners by half, roughly every 4 years after every 210,000 blocks in the Bitcoin Blockchain are mined.
Right now, for mining every Block of Bitcoin, miners get 6.25 BTC as rewards, in the next Halving event somewhere in May 2024, mining rewards will be slashed by half with Bitcoin miners receiving 3.125 BTC for every BTC Block they mine. With less Bitcoin rewards, Bitcoin miners who don’t find Bitcoin mining operations sustainable will close shop.
Bitcoin’s tokenomics is designed to make this asset deflationary in nature
Eventually, as the supply of Bitcoin decreases while its adoption increases, Bitcoin’s price appreciates. Bitcoin’s anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto has designed Bitcoin’s tokenomics ensuring that Bitcoin remains a deflationary asset class, unlike fiat whose value erodes over time as its an inflationary instrument.
Brief peek at Bitcoin’s price action
Now, let’s check the price action of BTC.
*Chart from* *Tradingview* https://www.tradingview.com/chart/jCWaxKNy/
Bitcoin has had its fall from its Nov 8th ATH price of 68,000$ and has for now found support at the 45,000$ range. Only if it breaks the resistance of 53,084$ and finds support at the range can one confirm that Bitcoin will have an uptrend price phase again.Till then we can assume that BTC is in an accumulation phase.
Bitcoin has a lot of institutional money, so its possible whales may manipulate the price, bring BTC’s price to its old strong support level that is - 30,000$, to shake out weak hands. However in the long term, BTC remains inside a bull cycle phase.
A Look at Bitcoin and Alt Coin Dominance
Meanwhile BTC.D that is Bitcoin Dominance is at an All Time Low of 40% and is for now holding support at that range.
*Bitcoin Dominance chart from* *Tradingview* https://www.tradingview.com/chart/jCWaxKNy/
Alt Coin Dominance is at 59% range, not breaking the resistance range of 60%. It appears, investors have taken their money from Bitcoin and put it on Alt coins that Alt coin dominance has increased trying to break it’s All time High range of 64%.
*Alt Coin Dominance chart from* *Tradingview* https://www.tradingview.com/chart/jCWaxKNy/
If Alt coin dominance breaks 64% and forms support at that level, a new Alt Coin cycle may be in store. According to DataDash channel host, Nicholas Mertin, it’s only a matter of time for Alt Coins to gain further dominance. https://youtu.be/5wc26MLkhQg
This is because Alt Coin dominance will increase to Bitcoin because of adoption of these smart contract platforms for real world purposes - DEFI, gaming, blogging, NFTs etc, as Bitcoin does not have many use cases other than being a great store of value.
https://youtu.be/5wc26MLkhQg
He further says Bitcoin Dominance can fall further to 36%, with investors taking their funds off Bitcoin and investing into popular Alt coins - Matic, ETH, BNB and then into further small cap Alt coins. In this scenario, BTC price could fall till 30,000$ and find support there.
Cool!!
Conclusion
Personally, since 90% Bitcoins are mined and BTC is getting scarcer, and institutions are buying BTC to hedge against inflation, I don’t want to sell my BTCs right now, if I do it will be for selling BTC at a high to buy back the dips.
***Thanks for reading***
*Disclaimer -: This is not investment advice, just an article from a crypto enthusiast, who is no expert in this field as yet.*
New cat in my life that I unexpectedly encountered at the hospital - Sweet!!
I never expected to have something to write for Caturday, for the past one month my life revolved around hospital because my mother was admitted there after she overdosed on some un-prescribed antidepressant psychiatric medication along with steroids, and was getting geared to get as normal as possible for a person with a history of long term psychic problems as she has been having. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/hard-struggles-of-life-admitting-a-psychic-family-member-to-the-hospital-c8299e19
*You can read my story on my hospital experience checking out my earlier articles -*
Continuing my hospital life story with circumstances forcing my family to deal with a crisis https://www.publish0x.com/my-covid-19-life-experiences/continuing-my-hospital-life-story-with-circumstances-forcing-xglgnev
Hard struggles of life admitting a psychic family member to the hospital https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/hard-struggles-of-life-admitting-a-psychic-family-member-to-the-hospital-c8299e19
However, during all my hospital stay time I met a kitty, she’s a regular at the nearby Hatti Kappi Cafe stall area in the hospital premises. I have not named her, but I have a lot of spent quality time with her, with her engaged in such sweet and loving interactions with me.
https://youtu.be/03l66skUCD0
*Sweet kitty next to me!!*
Loving hug from my cat kid Garu
Meanwhile, all this time I got to spend much less time with my own cat kids, Garu and Mochu. Recently, unexpectedly my stay shift in the hospital shifted where my Dad fills in as care taker for mother at night in the hospital while I got to spend my time at home.
This is what happened, my cats decided to nap with me, with my cat Garu hugging my legs and sleeping. Sometimes, these things make me feel that my cats love me, which is touching.
The hospital kitty that hangs out at the Hatti Kappi Cafe stall in the hospital
Anyway, back to this hospital kitty. She’s a super friendly cat, who spends her time curling and rubbing herself on customers of the Cafe or general visitors who hang out in that area.
https://youtu.be/pLRQKtHLC1k
*Loving rubs from the cat, massaging my feet and wanting to play catching my feet but refraining from biting and scratching my feet*
I have seen her days earlier where she briefly visited another floor, but obviously since that was my first day hanging out in a rough fashion at hospital premises at night, I had no motivation to go after this cat.
Eventually, after my mother was shifted and admitted to the psychiatric ward, I got my chance to be acquainted with this kitty because this Cafe was on the same floor where that psychiatric ward was.
https://youtu.be/ZcdGoDN72wU
*Kitty responds to my tap on her*
The time I spent with her was a joy, a lovely treat. It was something that filled me with positive energy to continue my days being at the hospital. I then understood that the young men working at the Cafe give this kitty milk, so it comes here.
Besides that, it loves being affectionate to everyone coming there, except that some don’t like her loving rubs and curls …ha..so funny, to see them try to shoo her off!!
Start of a loving relationship with this sweet friendly kitty
One Saturday I spent the entire evening with this loving cat, as she kept interacting with me, to the extent of her sitting next to me and rubbing my arms.
Eventually, I began bringing dry food to feed this kitty from home.
Generally, she’s regular in the mornings so I find and feed her then. Less frequently, I find her coming to the Cafe area at night too.
https://youtu.be/RPCMfGQC2i8
*Feeding kitty at night, I realised she's very hungry and won't mind eating this cat dry food!!*
Initially, the kitty was very friendly with me, but eventually, she got a bit bored of me with her spending much less time with me with her signature style of loving interaction and her getting more interested in wanting to engage with something else .
My future role to ensure safety and happiness of this kitty
I have plans to sterilise this kitty next week, because if kittens come, they will be stray and will have a tough time surviving out in this harsh world. I know I will be controlling the cat population and making the life of this kitty easier after sterilisation with the constant urge of mating and procreating going away. She will be a forever happy kitty, spreading joy and love to souls like me by her loving interactions.
Grateful for the good things there in my life everyday
All in all, even though I had gone through hard and difficult times in the hospital, there were memorable times like this which just reinforced my belief that life is still always beautiful.
There were many nice things about everyday that never changed (were constant) which made my day at the hospital. I am grateful for everyone who was kind to me this time, because that really made me feel good and whole inside, tuning my mind to focus and be grateful for the good, lovely things that I get to experience everyday.
Also I am grateful to have met this grey shade sweet cat during my hospital stay.
I am really glad that during my hospital stay I made a cat friend. Now, I have been back home for the past 2 days, and today morning I went back to the hospital to feed this cat.
She’s still a regular here, waiting in the mornings to catch someone to rub herself on and then do her loving cat interactions(: Ha…I wish this never ever changes!!
***Happy Caturday!!***
Crypto joke from India that’s a crypto paranoid country?!!
Jokes are fun but crypto jokes are even more fun. It’s a joke that a crypto joke can come from my Indian country, because you see India is super serious about crypto. When I say serious, I mean they are crypto paranoid.
If possible, the attitude of the current Indian Government is to ban crypto currency, however that’s not easy to do in a democratic country, even if it’s democratic only in name.
You see, the Indian Government fears that crypto currency will threaten the financial system of the country. Ha… I think they mean that crypto threatens the position of the INR, the Indian rupee!!.
Dream tweet from the Prime Minister that talked about BTC distribution to the Indian Residents
Well, crypto taking over fiat in the future is kind of inevitable,( I may come back to this serious topic in another article sometime later.) So, there was this tweet from the official account of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which said that Bitcoin was made legal tender in the country and India has brought 500 BTC to distribute to the residents of the country.
Wah Re Wah!! ,( for those unfamiliar with that exclamation, it means wow in Hindi which is the official language of India.)
Image Source https://cryptopotato.com/india-prime-ministers-twitter-compromised-hacker-posts-a-bitcoin-scam/
Such a message from the Prime Minister of India can only be a joke or prank, for Modiji is not a pro crypto person like the president of El Salvodor, Nayib Bukele is.
Image Source
Such a message from the Prime Minister of India can only be a joke or prank, for Modiji is not a pro crypto person like the president of El Salvodor, Nayib Bukele is.
I don’t know if Modi’s 78 million followers (mostly fake I guess) took the announcement seriously, if they did, they should have known better.
The jealousy inside whenever President Nayib Bukele boasts about buying BTC dips
Image Source https://cryptopotato.com/el-salvador-buys-the-dip-purchased-another-150-btc-worth-7-3-million/
Yes, some of us sure get jealous when president Nayib Bukele keeps tweeting that he has brought the BTC dip!! . You see, whether the Government is democratic or authoritarian they won’t have problems about money to buy BTC dips easily unlike us individuals who don’t have money to buy those dips, damn, as we all know Governments have the power to print money out of thin air you see!!
Anyway…
The Indian Crypto positive tweet turned out to be unreal, as it was from a hacker!!
As I was explaining about this super positive BTC tweet that came from India’s PM Narendra Modiji’s official tweeter handle, it was from a hacker and not from the honourable office of the PM of India.
Tweet Source https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/1469786236990607361?s=20
Even before our Jack Dorsey quit as the CEO of Twitter, this social media platform was known to have experienced such episodes of twitter handles of other famous personalities getting hacked with such delicious BTC give away messages that make many of us salivate with greed.
These hackers try to extort crypto from us, through these messages embedded with philishing links, or ads with crypto addresses that ask users to give crypto for getting something else in return. So we as users must be vigilant about crypto spams and twitter crypto giveaway messages.
Hacker knows the ungenerous characteristic of India PM Modi
Now, I feel that the hacker who wrote such surreal positive BTC messages via PM Modi’s tweeter account page has understood some facts about the current PM of the country, that the country’s Government under this PM would not give out much money to the country’s citizens. This may be the fundamental basis he considered when he designed that 500 BTC give away tweet message.
For if that 500 BTC is distributed to the 1.4 billion population of India, each person will receive 0.000000035 BTC, which amounts to 0.001648$ that is 0.125453 INR. https://cryptopotato.com/india-prime-ministers-twitter-compromised-hacker-posts-a-bitcoin-scam/
Hmmm… not a substantial give away for sure… can’t buy whole peanuts with that atleast!!
**Thank you for reading!!**
Hard struggles of life admitting a psychic family member to the hospital
3 nights spent in a crowded waiting hall of the hospital along with other snoring people on the floor!!
I never thought I could withstand this, being in the waiting hall in the hospital, waiting the night here without preparation.
*It was awful having to wait 3 nights in this kind of hospital halls with people sleeping below your feet*
This experience has humbled and blended me with others suffering the worst fate, waiting in the hall sleeping here while awaiting news of the condition of their admitted loved one.
For me it was a tough day, as my mother needed to be hospitalised as soon as possible. She has entered a state of delirium because she overdosed on her psychic meds again. Her physical condition as usual was fine but mentally she was out.
Hard time with little support from the hospital
Although this was an emergency and me and my Dad have already been suffering because of her mad behavior all these days, there was no solace in the hospital.
We were made to wait in the psychiatric department, with the doctor finally concluding that she’s entered the state of delirium and she can’t be admitted in the psychiatric ward, she needs to be under medical observation in the medical ward.
According to that psychiatrist, there is a 20% chance of death for those people who have overdosed on an anti-depressant medicine like Clofranil 75mg Tablet SR like my mother did.
More struggles just to get needed medical reports of her so she can be admitted at least in the medical ward
However, in the medical department they said they can admit her only if she has a medical abnormality and we were awaiting results of her blood tests and ECG report.
We had a hard time running around to pay the bills standing in line, behind counters that were not labelled, as there were 3 to 4 counters that take payments for different and specific purposes. For instance, there was a counter which takes payments for hospital admission, another for tests, another counter for doctor appointment etc etc.
Difficulty in managing a delirious unstable person and getting her tests done!!
After these formalities, mother was wheeled to the floor where these tests were to be done, and the helper took the wheel chair away claiming she has to take it back to cater to other needy patients which really made things difficult for us.
For, although my mother could walk very well, she made a grand fuss to walk a few meters to the lab room to give her blood samples. There were dramas where she sat down on the floor, all this time since she was wheeled down to the Lab testing floor she maintained an iron grip of my hand tightly gripping my fist.
The two lady nurses who came to help declared that they did not have the strength to lift the big weight of mother from the floor.
Finally a man who was otherwise attending to treat his old Dad came to aid in lifting mother and making her sit up on the seat. After this our focus was on to ensure she never sat on the floor again.
Hard time, struggling in getting the needed tests done
Her blood samples were taken convincing mother that a wheelchair was arriving. We could not take her ECG at first because we could not make mother lie down still, while my Dad tried to free me from the iron grip of her hand. We went back with my mother's tight grip on my hand to the psychiatric department, asked for a wheelchair with permission to keep it for the whole day.
This time the nurse on the front desk herself came, as she took pity on the chaos we were going through, she tried her best to ensure that mother got permission to be admitted to the hospital without ECG, but without avail.
Still she arranged a wheelchair for mother for the whole day and with a helper’s help, somehow we took mother’s ECG report, where I was finally freed from mother’s grip. She was made to lie down still and we somehow managed to take her slippers off and keep her legs on the bed.
Tension period with doubt on weather my unstable and delirious mother would be admitted in hospital
After this, mother was taken to the Emergency Casualty ward where she would be kept until her medical reports came. Nothing was clear about whether my mother will be admitted in the hospital, it appeared like she wouldn't be admitted in the hospital if her medical report was normal. Her vitals were stable, but her behavior was unstable, with obsessive fist gripping and she was unresponsive as well.
A brief about the mental mad state of Delirium
Delirium is a state of mental confusion, an advanced and dangerous stage where the normal functions of the brain have collapsed. The person has difficulty recognizing objects, people, time. In my mom’s case this happened due to an overdose of psychiatric medication she takes unprescribed for her mental illness.
Hospital admission confirmation not being certain was a matter of deep anxiety for us
Anyway late in the evening, my mother’s medical reports confirmed that her vitals were fine, meaning medically she was ok. This may be good news for many, but this did not offer any respite for us, because this meant she won’t be admitted in the medical ward after being refused admission into the psychiatric ward in this hospital.
It was definitely not appropriate to take her back home, as she was not just unstable, but it was confirmed that she’s entered the state of delirium and she’s been unresponsive, and if responsive, she will be so super mad to be managed by her two stressed family members at home.
Finally we succeeded in admitting unstable and somewhat not very conscious mother in the hospital
As expected, there was a big problem in having medical ward doctors agree to have her admitted, they told to admit her in the psychatric ward that was closed for the day. Fortunately, somehow, my Dad convinced them to have her admitted in EICU and Acute medical ward, but for that she needs to provide a negative Covid test report.
So, we filled up the forms and did the billing formalities for conducting mother’s Covid test. After an hour’s wait, the Covid status report came as negative, so finally arrangements were made to get her admitted at the hospital in the EICU and Acute medical ward.
This is a kind of ICU(Intensive Care Unit), there are more categories of ICUs where patients get admitted which I learnt in subsequent days.
*Waiting hall outside the EICU ward at night becomes a sleeping quarters for admitted patients' family who are waiting to be called and attend to whatever they are told to do by the nurses taking care of the patients.*
My first night at the hospital was spent outside the EICU ward, seated in the seat that was pushed away to the side as the main seating area turned into sleeping quarters for patients’ family and attenders who were outside waiting to be called for updates or to do other obligations.
That night was cold, chilly and one man lying down opposite me was snoring. Eventually, some people with a watchman came and told him to sleep elsewhere because his snore was disturbing others’ sleep.
**Story to be continued..**
I conclude the first part of my Hospital stay stories here. For although we had mother admitted in hospital, which was a relief, we could not celebrate this as we had to undergo more pain being there for her in the hospital, without bed, using public toilet, without being allowed to see her, but were required to be there 24 hours at the hospital's seating premises for we may be called for doing things for the patient.
The system was not convenient as the watchman will call the patient’s name, and the attender will then need to present themselves, and do whatever useless things we were told to do, like give the xeror of her id document, get soap, paste and toothbrush for patient, but no one was allowed to see the patient, until we were called or the doctor comes for rounds etc. There was restlessness, discomfort, emotional pain that we could not share with anyone.
More on this later, the only solance here was that there were several people waiting on their loved ones, in very serious conditions, but they adjusted themselves to the situation, sleeping on the floor, being content using relatively dirty common toilet etc. I did not see anyone break down, so they were my inspiration.
Double Delight flavoured parenthood themed Birthday greeting card for a new Mother...
Parenthood changes things. This year my brother got to experience parenthood, and he celebrated his first birthday as a father with the addition of 2 little members to his family. I designed this birthday greeting card for him and wrote about it in this article. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/my-birthday-greeting-e-card-for-my-brother-themed-on-his-novel-experience-of-parenthood-69a559dc
*Birthday greetings designed for my brother this year*
First birthday as a mother for my sis-in- law
Now, as the year is ending, my sis-in-law just had her birthday and this is a special birthday for her too because this is the first birthday of her as a mother. As said, parenthood changes one’s life, especially motherhood. It was time for me to design a birthday card for her, with the main theme being the joys of parenthood for her.
Heart melting movements for parents as babies respond to them with love
The stars of her eyes as it’s for my brother are their two babies, whose personality is getting interesting as they grow and respond to things. Already, they show a lot of love and longing for their parents, with them smiling and reaching out their hands when a parent comes to greet them. They also pretend to cry when left alone in their cradle, just to have a parent come over and take them in their arms.
When picked up, the babies stay silent and absolutely content, showing their longing and love for parents. The babies also talk in baby style in their wordless baby language.
All these are melting parents’ hearts literally, and this love and joy is binding them, making them energised and eager to care for their lovely babies, however intensive that task is!!
They have no complaints, they are eager to give their little kins the best care that they can afford to give, in terms of loving interactions, toys, time, energy and more, to keep their growing babies happy and well!!
More amazing movements for these parents to experience...
There are more interesting times ahead for these parents, as they will get to watch their babies grow when they learn to turn, crawl, walk, run, talk. Lot of funny and silly scenes for them to behold as I am sure the babies will make a lot of blopper moves in the process of taking their baby steps in doing all these significant things mentioned above.
All the baby steps babies take from turning, crawling, walking, running, baby blabbering, talking will be special movements, and milestones, that will make parents feel wonderful, proud and involved.
I reckon parents will forever be busy quenching their budding babies' curiosity with activities, encouragement, guidance etc.
Well...enough of my talk on the wonders new parents experience by involvedly caring for their babies and into the birthday card I designed for my Sis-in-law.
***Here are the words in the birthday card I designed -:***
Happy B’day Nanda!!
*Double delight with two little ones this year…*
*So this birthday is really special with a new joyful essence,*
*flavoured by little sweet pristine souls…*
*May blessings warm you Nanda with the aura of blessedness embracing your loved ones…*
*Engaging times ahead for you new birthday mom,*
*Who is ever joyful to sing lullabies for your little sweetie pies…*
*But now it’s time for us to sing a birthday song for you Nanda…*
*Happy Birthday Nanda!!*
*Let your new world of motherhood parenthood,*
*Have you experience joys with abundant delightful surprises*
*that will keep you along with Praveen excited*
*Living times that you would all cherish!!*
***Happy B’day Nanda!!***
The Decentralised Stablecoin that’s looking to capture the Stablecoin Space - terraUST
The era of decentralised stable coins has started, this means that we have stable coins with stable value pegged to the price of US dollar, but it’s not through collateralisation with the US dollar currency.
Traditional stable coins like USTD, USDC, Pax Dollar and others are issued by a central entity and their value is maintained to that of US Dollars with these central entities maintaining reserves of US dollars.
Now, a decentralised stable coin is gaining popularity, it’s the terraUST stable coin, that’s an algorithmic stable coin, not issued by any central entity but it maintains its peg to the US dollars through a mechanism of price stabilisation, by getting swapped for currency Luna at needed times.
Terra team is now focusing its efforts in increasing liquidity of its UST coin in decentralised applications in popular layer 1 blockchains as is evident in this article. https://agora.terra.money/t/deploy-3-million-of-community-pool-luna-for-ust-liquidity-mining-incentives-across-strategic-apps-and-protocols-on-major-layer-ones/2750
What’s the point of DEFI, if the system functions using centralised stable coins!!
This is very interesting at these times as the popular centralised stable coins we are used to, look bound to be controlled by Government entities of the US, who want stable coin issuers to be licenced like banks are and be regulated by relevant Government entities. DEFI enthusiasts argue that the purpose of DEFI is destroyed if it operates using a stable coin that’s centralised and in Government control.
Dollar devaluation effect on traditional centralised stable coins
Image Source https://pixahive.com/photo/usa-one-dollar-note/
Another aspect to note are the dangers of holding traditional centralised stable coins, because their value is based on the value of US dollars directly.
So, tomorrow if the value of US dollars depreciates, then the value of these stable coins also go down, so in that sense the value of centralised stable coins is not exactly stable.
All the negative effects of inflation that depreciates the value of US dollar, will be applicable to traditional centralised stable coins as well, because these stable coins derive their value from their dollar reserves.
Troubling that popular stable coins are not 100% backed by US dollars
Also we know that these stable coins may not be 100% backed by US dollars, with the USDT stable coin being a controversial stable coin with it being collateralised by risky debt instruments like commercial paper. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/uncertainty-on-tether-stable-coin-may-be-backed-by-reserves-given-as-loans-to-chinese-companies-cb19ecd8
Recently, it was revealed that even USDC was not 100% backed by US Dollar reserves, with a small percentage of USDC reserves backed by commercial paper. However, USDC has announced that it would only be backed by USD reserves and treasury bills from September.
USDC and Pax Dollars are considered reliable stable coins because they are transparent with their audits, still such news of stable coins that are not backed 100% by dollar reserves, is enough to make us consider alternative stable coins.
Decentralised stable coins created by Terra Blockchain Ecosystem
TerraUSD is just one stable coin but the Terra ecosystem has other stable coins pegged to fiat currencies of other Nations - South Korea, Mongolia with terraKRT being the stable coin for the Sounth Korean fiat currency and terraMNT being the stable coin representing the Mangolian fiat currency.
There are already payment applications on Terra Blockchain like Chai, where payments can be done using terra stable coins like terraUST and terraKRT, instead of using fiat currencies.
Terra Stable coins maintain value with a price stabilisation mechanism with the Luna cryptocurrency
Brief explanation of how Terra stablecoins maintain their peg to the US dollars
Terra stable coins like terraUST maintain their peg by their value getting balanced by burning and minting it accordingly using the LUNA crypto currency that’s the native coin of the Terra Blockchain.
For ex, if the price of terraUST is much more than a dollar, then there is more demand for terraUST than its supply so terraUST’s supply will be increased by incentivising users to mint more terraUST by burning Luna tokens. In this instance, the price of LUNA would increase.
The opposite scenario plays out when terraUST’s value is low compared to its USD peg. Here, there is less demand for terraUST compared to its supply, so users will be incentivised to burn terraUST and mint Luna tokens, until terraUST reaches its intended value.
Luna’s price prospect is super bullish with the demand for terra stable coins increasing
It’s evident that there is going to be demand for decentralised stablecoin TerraUST in DEFI, besides this as said terra stablecoins are already used for making payments through payment apps like Chai in some countries.
Terra stablecoins and terraUST are going to be in more demand in the coming future and because of this more Luna will be burned for minting Terra stablecoins, which will result in rise in price of Luna cryptocurrency. Therefore, I am very bullish on Luna’s price prospects.
*Disclaimer : This article reflects my understanding of the subject and is not investment advice. Please do your research before investing and take responsibility for all your investment decisions.*
SOL has been most profitable for its concentrated group of large investors, not us small investors
Price wise SOL coin has been a lucrative investment in a 1 year time frame
As crypto investors, some of you may be wanting to buy SOL, the native crypto currency of Solana Blockchain. This is very natural because I myself purchased SOL when it was 39$, luckily it was on a uptrend and I started taking profits at $80, 100$, 120$ and 190$ levels so I don’t have much Solana left, but the price of SOL has been only climbing up, with SOL price making a ATH at 258$.
*Sol has gone to 240$ price from 3$ it was last year.* Trading view chart>> https://www.tradingview.com/chart/jCWaxKNy/
However, I am glad that I sold off most of my SOL coins, because I have my reasons why I am uncomfortable as a small crypto investor investing in Sol.
*Sol's price rise statistics from* *coingecko* https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/solana
Solid reason for one to be bullish about SOL coin during a bull run trend like this
True, there are fundamental reasons why SOL coin is going upwards and doing great, it’s because it has some great DEFI and NFT platforms that are popular with small investors as Solana is a blockchain with really fast transaction processing times that too with cheap transaction fees.
This is completely understandable, as Ethereum has frustrated all of us small investors with the high transaction fees and slow Blockchain processing times.
Concentration of SOL is on the wallets of large investors who are super rich thanks to SOL
Still, investors must understand that as a crypto investor the SOL coins are mostly held by whale investors, so when they dump, the price of SOL coins would bleed.
twitter tweet
*Most of the circulating SOL is distributed to insiders and venture capitalists while very less proportion of SOL is distributed to the public.* https://twitter.com/RyanWatkins_/status/1394283802009145348/photo/1
Yes, there are BTC and ETH whales, but even compared to that, the concentration of wealth with SOL whales is a lot more because big venture capital investors got to buy bag loads of SOL early on as SOL coin distribution to community members happened after SOL was first purchased by these whales.
Also only a small amount of SOL is distributed to community and small retail investors, while the majority 48% of SOL is distributed to venture capital firms, and insiders of the Solana Blockchain who are the founders, co-founders and team members.
SOL price is solid now mostly because the whales are still hodling SOL!!
The gravity of what I am saying can be felt watching this video clip where Solana’s venture capital investors joke about their investments saying that SOL made these large investors very rich as they got it all cheap, so they can sell it, but most of them are still hodling. https://twitter.com/GooseOfCrypto/status/1456002541808807938?s=20 https://cryptonews.com/news/crypto-traders-shocked-that-solana-whales-can-dump-their-cheaply-bought-sol-too.htm
Tweet https://twitter.com/GooseOfCrypto/status/1456002541808807938?s=20
So imagine, they sell their SOL, they make profits while large bunches of innocent retail investors processed with the classic FOMO spirit buys it high and experiences the depressing dumping effect of the SOL price.
Also what about retail investors hodling their SOL coins, they too will experience the downfall effect of SOL price that’s come down because a small group of SOL whale investors dumped it!!
My sentiments are completely hurt watching this crypto joke discussion among these SOL whales, so I sold most of my SOL yesterday. I have kept a bit of SOL because I need it if I have to do DEFI activity in Solana. They think it’s funny, that they have got fat rich by being early holders of SOL, that they can dump it anytime and that the price of SOL is solid only because these whales are still hodling their SOL bags. Well, I don’t find it funny a tall because this can cause small holders like me harm.
Retail investors beware, manage your SOL Holdings wisely taking profits from time to time!!
Still, many retail SOL investors can do well hodling SOL, if they brought SOL at the dips, instead of absolute highs, still taking profits is important, as the SOL price is to a large extent at the mercy of the whales!! Somehow, I don’t feel much buzz of the retail community in Solana Blockchain, it’s definitely dominated by these whales enjoying the SOL riches they are bound to further keep experiencing!!
Still, many retail SOL investors can do well hodling SOL, if they brought SOL at the dips, instead of absolute highs, still taking profits is important, as the SOL price is to a large extent at the mercy of the whales!! Somehow, I don’t feel much buzz of the retail community in Solana Blockchain, it’s definitely dominated by these whales enjoying the SOL riches they are bound to further keep experiencing!!
What I mean is SOL investors should play their investment game smartly and not get caught as the SOL investment game can be rigged against them with large investors dominating the space. Investors should be tactful by selling SOL hodlings to book profits at appropriate times and not buy SOL at risky times, with the possibility of whales dumping the SOL they got at a cheap rate!!
***Popular investor @DegenSpartan explains this better in his tweet -***
Tweet https://twitter.com/DegenSpartan/status/1456072955704709126?s=20
He also comments that by default retail investors are not in a level playing field in the SOL investment game, as large investors already got bag loads of SOL at a cheaper rate before the retail investors as they were allocated SOL tokens much earlier than the retail investors .
Tweet https://twitter.com/DegenSpartan/status/1456095196249137152?s=20
This may not be fair but we have to accept that this happens everywhere, correct?, which is why I agree with him that the SOL investment game is rigged against us retail investors, we have to play it well or we might just get rekt!!
Awaiting my free ACA tokens and a NFT for my DOT contributions to Acala’s Crowdloans
Image Source https://acala.network/
Acala kick started the crowdloan process to obtain DOT for its bid to win a Polkadot parachain slot
Tweet https://twitter.com/AcalaNetwork/status/1456542793682329608?s=20
Acala Crowdloans finally kick started on November 5th, and I was ready to contribute DOT to support Acala team who are aiming to procure enough DOT to bid and win Polkadot’s first parachain slot in the upcoming Polkadot parachain slot auctions.
Tweet
*Amount of DOT contributed by community for the Acala Crowdloans till Nov 7th* https://twitter.com/AcalaNetwork/status/1457075360399568898?s=20
Almost everybody in the Polkadot community is confident that Acala would win Polkadot’s first parachain slot because its twin Kurara won the first parachain slot in the Kusama Network, the testnet canary network also maintained by Polkadot.
*Image source*
*Acala's twin in Kusuma is Karura* https://acala.network/
Contributing DOT to Acala crowdloans is a win-win situation as investors get their lent DOT back!!
This weekend Acala and Polkadot occupied some of my time as I was set to contribute to Acala’s crowdloans.
*Acala Crowdloan form*
This was a awesome feeling, because I become a early holder of Acala’s ACA tokens this way, as for my DOT contributions to Acala’s crowdloans, I get an equal amount of ACA tokens, without actually giving away my DOT tokens off permanently as these DOT tokens would be locked in a virtual vault in Polkadot’s Relay chain and I would get them back irrespective of weather Acala wins a parachain slot or not.
Getting free ACA tokens for DOT crowdloan contributions is a priceless feeling
DEFI folks would understand the nice feeling of getting a project’s free tokens early on for putting your crypto in a yield farming vault. In this case of Acala crowdloans I get free ACA rewards for my DOT crowdloan contributions.
However, things get even nicer here as for my DOT Acala crowdloan contribution,I get more in the form of ACA bonus rewards for self referral, and for completing the tasks laid down by Acala Quest.
I also will get a free Acala art NFT which is designed by an artist who specializes in creating art NFTs of AI and Blockchain related projects.
*Checklist before venturing to participate in Acala Crowdloans*
Acala Quest game that prepares and rewards supporters for their Crowdloan contributions
Acala Quest is a simple game that ensures that you are geared up with what is required to begin your DOT contribution for the Acala Crowdloans. You have some simple tasks to perform - from setting up a polkadot{.js} extension wallet, to getting your wallet filled with DOT that you aim to contribute for the Acala crowdloans and subscribing to the Acala’s newsletter so you get updates about all news related to Acala’s crowdloan launch.
Image Source https://acala.network/acala/quests#quests
After these 3 simple tasks, only 2 more tasks remain to complete Acala Quest, that is to participate in Acala Crowdloans and claim your ACA bonus rewards and Acala art NFT.
Acala Quest did gear me for the Crowdloans by making me designate one polkadot{.js) extention wallet that I would use to contribute DOT to the Acala crowdloans, making me organised for the Acala crowdloans.
Crowdloaned DOT that’s liquid as I can use it in DEFI in lcDOT form
I opted to contribute DOT to Acala crowloans by using the Acala Liquid Crowdloan vault, which is not trustless initially as by this I will get liquid crowdloaned DOT known as lcDOT, that will have my DOT crowdloan contributions liquid as I can use lcDOT in Acala Defi. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/acalas-innovation-of-bringing-out-lcdot-to-unlock-liquidity-of-locked-dot-in-blockchain-443c03be
Initially, the DOT here will be controlled by an multisig wallet held by the Acala team, however when Acala launches as a parachain in Polkadot this DOT will be held in Blockchain in Acala’s parachain account in a trustless manner being controlled by Acala’s on-chain governance.
Rewards for my DOT contribution to Acala Crowdloans!!
Therefore, now by contributing DOT to Acala’s Crowdloans I get proportional amount of Acala’s ACA tokens + bonus ACA tokens and also lcDOT through which I can use the liquidity of the contributed crowdloan DOT in Acala DEFI + a Acala art NFT!!
Pretty sweet crypto goodies for me. Imagine, having to buy ACA tokens after it launches in Polkadot, it will be at a higher price than what I will get now. As an early ACA token holder I stand to benefit when ACA tokens appreciate in value in the near future!! Also, I can use the DOT that I crowdloaned as well in Acala DEFI, which puts my contributed DOT to work in giving me income through DEFI activities.
Not to mention that the Acala NFT may make a fortune and why not, I hear about early NFT investors making fortunes, though I have no intention of selling the Acala NFT in the near future for sure!!
Acala Crowdloan kickoff video that explained important things about Acala crowdloans
Before I participated in Acala crowdloans I watched the Acala crowdloan kickoff video that came live on Friday midnight 1.30 am(my India time), that had Acala co-founders Bete Chen and Bryan Chen along with Dan Ree, VP of growth Acala explain about how to participate in Acala crowloans. https://www.crowdcast.io/e/acala-crowdloan-kickoff
This was very helpful because I learnt something very important, that I should make sure that my wallet retains a balance of more than 1 DOT, maybe 1.3 DOT after my DOT contributions as 1 DOT is required to keep the Polkadot account alive plus more to pay for gas fees, so if by chance I have less than 1 DOT as balance then I stand to lose that DOT in my wallet because it will be considered as dust.
So, next day on Saturday, November 6th I participated in Acala crowdloans accordingly.
Today I completed my Acala Quest successfully.
So, when Acala launches on Polkadot after winning a slot in the Polkadot parachain slot auctions, I will definitely get my rewards of ACA tokens, Acala art NFT and lcDOT that I can use in DEFI. This is awesome!!
Nice to be doing more with my DOT than just Hodling it for sure!!
I have been late to Polkadot investing, as when I brought my DOT tokens they were 4$, this was at the time when Polkadot all of a sudden became top 10 crypto project with the highest market capitalisations.
I could not stake DOT as 20 DOT was required to stake and earn staking rewards, later this staking requirements were further increased to 40$, so I was a just plain hodler of DOT. Now, it’s nice that through my DOT holdings I can earn other project tokens too!!
Nice to be doing more with my DOT than just Hodling it for sure!!
I have been late to Polkadot investing, as when I brought my DOT tokens they were 4$, this was at the time when Polkadot all of a sudden became top 10 crypto project with the highest market capitalisations.
I could not stake DOT as 20 DOT was required to stake and earn staking rewards, later this staking requirements were further increased to 40$, so I was a just plain hodler of DOT. Now, it’s nice that through my DOT holdings I can earn other project tokens too!!
Of course, Polkadot and Acala needs to pass the test of functioning well after they launch, but it appears they will, as their versions of Kusama and Kurara are running well for months after their launch now.
As teams get set for opening up Parachain Crowdloans, DOT’s price hit ALL Time Highs
DOT’s price escalation to new ATH ranges as teams can prepare to launch Parachain Crowdloans
On November 1st, DOT broke the price resistance of 44$, and culminated in DOT reaching a new All Time High(ATH) price range of 54$. The big news behind DOT’s price escalation is the announcement that teams can very soon register their parachains and open the Crowdloan process.
When teams begin their parachain Crowdloan event the community of DOT Holders can lend out their DOT, which will be locked in a smart contract(virtual vault) in Polkadot’s relay chain and be used by respective participating teams to bid in the parachain slot auctions, where the team who bids the highest amount of DOT wins a parachain slot.
Polkadot community’s obvious enthusiasm for the upcoming Crowdloan events!!
As the Polkadot community has been waiting for the Parachain Crowdloan event, this news that teams can register their parachains and begin their Crowdloans soon obviously resulted in DOT’s price escalating to new ATH levels.
Tweet https://twitter.com/Polkadot/status/1455161952783814656?s=20
DOT community members who lend out their DOT to support their favorite project team to win the parachain slot auction, are guaranteed to get tokens of the project team in proportion to their Crowdloaned DOT contritributions, if the team they support wins a parachain slot.
Incase, the team they support does not win a parachain slot, their crowd loaned DOT would be returned trustlessly by the virtual vault. So by participating in the crowdloans, a investors’ DOT is not spent away, it either brings investors new project tokens or they get their DOT contributions back.
Time for Acala fans to be geared for the Acala Crowdloan event
So, the enthusiasm of the Polkadot community got reflected in Dot’s November 1st price rise.
This news got me more energised to monitor news of Acala daily, because I am lending out my DOT in the crowdloan to Acala, for more than just the project’s ACA tokens.
Generally, the DOT that investors lend out in crowdloans will be locked till the lease period of the parachain slot that the project team has won, which is 2 years.
However, Acala for its Crowdloan event gives another option for investors who want to utilize the liquidity of their crowdloaned DOT.
Investors can opt to get liquid crowd loaned DOT(lcDot) for their DOT contributions
Here, investors can lend out their DOT through the Acala Liquid Crowdloan vault, instead of lending their DOT out through the Crowdloan module. If they do that they get lcDOT which is liquid crowdloaned DOT that they can use in Acala DEFI as collateral and avail aUSD which is Acala’s decentralised stable coin and participate in various DEFI activities. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/acalas-innovation-of-bringing-out-lcdot-to-unlock-liquidity-of-locked-dot-in-blockchain-443c03be
Investors can also swap their lcDOT for DOT if they want their DOT back before the 2 year period. So, it’s great that I don’t actually lose access to my contributed crowdloaned DOT, and can use it in DEFI or even get back my crowdloaned DOT tokens any time before the long 2 year period ends.
Further ACA bonus rewards along with a Acala NFT for crowdloan participants who complete the Acala Quest!!
All this is a great deal by itself but I stand to get more if I complete Acala Quest, an interactive game that guides and prepares the supporting community for the Acala crowdloan event.
Tweet https://twitter.com/AcalaNetwork/status/1455969785683005448?s=20
By default I have already completed three tasks in Acala Quest which was - to create a Polkadot account which I already did by creating a polkadot{.js} extension wallet, my wallet address that I plan to use to send DOT to the Acala Liquid Crowdloan vault has DOT for me to contribute in the Acala crowdloans and I have also subscribed to the Acala news letter.
Now, I have just 2 more tasks to complete to be rewarded with an exclusive Acala NFT and get ACA token bonuses for completing the Acala Quest.
*Two more tasks for me to complete in Acala Quest to win ACA Bonus and an Acala NFT!!*
Wow...so I stand to get a NFT soon, which is a novel crypto experience for me because I have never owned an NFT asset. The two tasks left for me to complete the Acala Quest is actually to contribute DOT in Acala Crowdloans and then claim my free Acala NFT and bonus ACA token rewards.
This is going to be a pretty awesome experience for me, participating in Acala Crowdloans and I am looking forward for it.
***Thank you for reading!!***
Solana is a buzzing popular Blockchain, however its criticized for being very centralized
Solana is a Hot Blockchain for sure, with it having several DEFI and NFT platforms built on it. The Blockchain attracted a lot of users as it has fast transactions speeds, still this Blockchain is criticized by many to be centralised. Let’s evaluate Solana Blockchain’s level of decentralisation here.
Evaluating Solana Blockchain’s decentralisation based on these factors
Decentralisation is the degree to which a Blockchain is not centralised, i.e, controlled by few entities making the Blockchain vulnerable to be attacked by those few entities having control over the Blockchain.
There are certain factors that influence the level of a Blockchain’s decentralisation. These are - the number of core node developers that develop the basic framework of the Blockchain, the number of independent validators that validate the transactions in the Blockchain Network and the distribution pattern of the Blockchain’s native tokens.
All of these elements above, determine how much a Blockchain Network is Centralised, controlled by few entities and therefore are subject to getting compromised if those few entities choose to take control of the Network and act maliciously.
Determinant factors that make Solana a less decentralised Blockchain
***Only a single entity develops core node infrastructure for the Solana Blockchain***
Besides this, centralised Blockchains are subject to few main focal points of failure, similar to what happens when a centralised server is compromised with an entire ecosystem of apps in that Blockchain failing to function because the Blockchain’s core framework is centralised.
In the case of Solana, the core validator node is developed by a single entity, Solana Foundation who is the only core node developer for the Solana Blockchain, making Solana Blockchain have a central point of control and failure.
In contrast to Solana, Ethereum has several core node developers building the core In contrast to Solana, Ethereum has several core node developers building the core validator node for the Blockchain - Go Ethereum, OpenEthereum, Nevermind, and Besu. https://cryptobriefing.com/how-decentralized-is-solana/
**Costly Hardware requirements pose a barrier for many to run the Solana validator nodes**
Solana has 1,118 validators. The hardware requirements to become a validator for the Solana Blockchain is cost prohibitive, with validators requiring hardware employing the power of a 12 core CPU with 128GB of ram. This is because Solana Blockchain needs such powerful hardware for maintaining fast processing times of 65,000 transactions per second. https://cryptobriefing.com/how-decentralized-is-solana/
This high cost factor poses a barrier for most to become validators for the Solana Blockchain, making the Blockchain centralised with only a few entities with capital able to afford to invest in the hardware necessary to become a validator for the Solana Blockchain. https://cryptobriefing.com/how-decentralized-is-solana/
A framework which ensures that validators are indirectly chosen by Solana
The cost of running a Solana node is high, with a Solana validator spending 1.1 SOL every 24 hours for sending vote transactions. This venture would not be profitable for most because to break even itself 1$ million worth of Solana needs to be staked.
This is why Solana Foundation runs a subsidization program that supports validators who full fill certain criteria by awarding them with 25,000 SOL. This increases centralisation because validators in this way are indirectly chosen by the Solana Foundation, as they only sponsor validators that meet certain criterias set by them through the subsidization program. https://cryptobriefing.com/how-decentralized-is-solana/
Majority of the SOL tokens are held by a small group of insiders
SOL token distribution is another factor that needs to be taken into account when evaluating Solana Blockchain’s level of centralisation.
Here according to data from Messari, insiders who are Solana Labs’ team members and Venture capital firms own 48% of Sol tokens.
There are very few Sol tokens that are distributed and held by the public. A further 13% of SOL tokens is allocated to the Solana Foundation. This makes it clear that only a small group of insiders and venture capitalists hold the majority of the SOL tokens that are in supply.
***Solana’s security and validation is powered by SOL staked by these small group of insiders***
SOL tokens are used to secure the Solana network, and it is very likely that the 77% of the SOL that is staked to secure the network is delegated by these small group of insiders and venture capital firms.
This means that the Solana Blockchain is controlled and powered by this small group who own most of the SOL tokens that are in circulation and they are the majority SOL stakers that secure the Solana Blockchain. This makes Solana a very centralised Blockchain.
Projects in Solana’s ecosystem backed by few entities
Image Source https://solana.com/ecosystem?categories=defi
Most of the projects built in the Solana Blockchain are supported by a small group of prominent crypto investors and funds such as the Alamada Research, making the entire Solana ecosystem centralised with few entities behind these projects.
There is potential for Solana Blockchain to get Decentralised
***Solana has potential to get more decentralised but much of it depends on the intention of its founders.***
There will be more and more SOL tokens coming into the hands of the public, with incentives and rewards distributing more SOL to the wider community. Therefore, centralisation will be reduced with the insiders’ share of SOL tokens getting diluted.
There would be more projects by independent teams getting built in Solana and becoming part of the Solana project ecosystem, which will make the Solana project ecosystem more decentralised.
Hardware prices would decrease as well, so more validators can afford to run Solana nodes in future.
For now, however, Solana Blockchain is very Centralised, but the Blockchain’s future may be different.
Cat Misty’s fun time playing about in a cheer filled morning with me of course!!
Many Contemporary cats are not of a completely shy and unfriendly nature
Cats are known to be shy creatures who would hide away from approaching humans. However, these days there are many cats that are actually friendly, playful, fun creatures.
Also even unfriendly cats can get friendly and playful in time if humans keep engaging with these feline companions in a way that cats find interesting and entertaining.
Attempts to engage with cat Misty in a way that catches her fancy
Over time, my flat’s community pet cat Misty got acquainted and friendly with me, so if I have time in the mornings especially on a Sunday, I try to spend quality time with her by entertaining her, in a way that she finds interesting.
Misty’s way of greeting me rolling over and chilling near me
Generally, when I call Misty, she greets me meowing and coming over to me. She will roll over and then chill, then if I am not entertaining enough she leaves.
This generally happens, and I have to be careful when I touch her because otherwise she will scratch me, so I make it a point to only pet her just once or twice and leave her.
https://youtu.be/W9Z40KfjmqY
The simple toy that made cat Misty’s morning very engaging
On a rare Sunday, I found a long dry solid leaf stick that I used to engage Misty in some play time, and she loved it!!
https://youtu.be/dB1k0yS_0kE
Misty was all game to join in for the play and have fun!!
The terrain of our flat campus made a great playground for her to play. She made a run to come and play as she watched me swing the long dried leaf about from end to end. She showed signals of her interest with her getting set to leap about in a crouching classic cat style upon the grass to her moving target a small distance away.
Then she played, moving about her paws to catch and bite the toy. She could not take her attention out of the moving object, watching every move of the swinging object that caressed the garden and the bark of this tree. She found it fun to follow the toy and make her cat moves to catch it.
https://youtu.be/RWcQT0samWk
Birds sounds adding charm to Misty’s play time in her natural surroundings
There were lovely natural sound effects around her natural playground with eagles and other birds emitting their distinct sound vocalisations, that are quite soothing to hear, not to mention she was surrounded by greenery and natural surfaces that she enjoyed engaging with in her way.
I too added some sound of my own to add more punch to her playtime entertainment.
This beautiful cheerful morning, spent this way by cat Misty with me, was a nice delightful experience.
***Happy Caturday everybody!!***
My 1inch profit booking trade, less profitable due to Ethereum Blockchain’s transaction fees!!
With the Big Upside move of 1inch yesterday, it was time to book profits
Yesterday, I noticed this crazy price action of the 1inch tokens I hold and I felt it’s time to take profits. This is because that candle wick is too overstretched, meaning there will be investors now booking profits.
This is why today, the price of 1inch tokens experienced a decline from 7.7 dollars yesterday to 5$ dollars today.
*Notice the over stretched green candle, it generally signifies a top. It's time to book some profits.*
Swap trade of 1inch in the Ethereum Network proved to be too damn costly!!
The problem was I brought 1inch tokens when it was about 2 dollars on 1inch Ethereum Network. Yes, can be guessed right, the problem is the crazy Ethereum fees, nothing new but it was still staggering for me to contemplate the magnitude of the fees to pay for swapping my 1inch tokens. The swapping rate was showing as 93$.
I generally take partial profits, but that option got ruled out. I had 35.16 1inch tokens that amounted to around 214$ yesterday.
Imagine, if I book partial profits selling 16 1inch tokens worth 97$, then the fees I have to pay will cancel out almost all my proceeds from the swap.
So I decided to swap my entire 35.16 1inch tokens for ETH and hodl ETH for further future gains.
Tradingview. *1inch managed to rise against ETH too...* https://www.tradingview.com/chart/jCWaxKNy/
1inch protocol discourages US traders from using its platform
Fortunately, the 1inch aggregator found a swap trade in Sushi swap that would cost 63$ in fees, so it’s at least cheaper than what I thought(90$!!), so I went ahead to do the swap.
Then I was told to check out and comply with 1inch’s terms and conditions. Here, that page told me to confirm that I was not a resident of the US, and I am not a US resident trader accessing 1inch using vpn. Ok, that’s unfair but it does not directly concern me, however, I wondered why the 1inch protocol is not implementing a similar policy for China’s resident traders?.
So it's ok if China's resident traders use vpn and trade in 1inch?...hmmm. Anyway, it does not concern me, although US and China crypto and DEFI enthusiasts have my sympathies!!
I assumed that 1inch has taken such a stance with the US resident traders, because of the prevailing regulatory uncertainty in the US with the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) inching to prosecute protocols declaring that they are trading illegally as unregistered securities. Pretty uncool of the US authority, the SEC but anyway.
Successful transaction with proper execution of the swap trade in the Ethereum Network!!
Finally, after complying with 1inch’s terms and conditions, I approved the 1inch swap to ETH that will be executed in Sushi Swap for 63$.
First time, it did not go saying the trading fees were changed. Thankfully, I verified no fees got deducted, as it happened for me once using Open Ocean protocol.
Second time my swap got executed, I sold all my 35.16 inch tokens for more ETH.
Profits you make in reality is different from actual paper gains we made
DEFI in Ethereum is only worthwhile for large crypto hodlers who made super great profits to afford the fees in trading there.
My lesson is that profit in paper is not the reality, the reality is the actual profits you make after deduction of those transaction fees etc and in Ethereum, our paper profits amount to nothing, those profits will be gobbled up by the mighty fees for sure.
***Thank you for reading!!***
Launched Bitcoin related ETFs in the US don’t actually track the real price of Bitcoin
Bitcoin's price shoot of last week after the launch of ProShares’s Bitcoin Futures ETF
Wow, so suddenly last week Bitcoin crossed over its 59,553$ resistance, breaking its previous All TIme High(ATH) price levels, with BTC having touched the price of 67,000$ before correcting now to 62,000$ levels, having formed support at its previous resistance level at 59,553$ .
The catalyst for this was being screamed all over crypto news media, with the news that finally a BTC ETF launched in the US, with the launch of the ProShare’s Bitcoin Futures ETF in the New York Stock Exchange.
Launched Bitcoin related ETFs in the US, don’t track the price of a actual Bitcoin
After this, more Bitcoin futures ETFs got launched last week, so BTC’s price skyrocketed nicely. However, it’s important to understand that all these Bitcoin futures ETF products are not ETFs that track the spot price of Bitcoin, they only track the price of Bitcoin Futures Contracts that are traded in CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange).
Here, prices are based on futures contracts that are agreements to buy or sell BTC at a predetermined price at a future date. These contracts are settled in cash with there being no actual Bitcoin changing hands between the parties involved. https://cryptobriefing.com/how-a-bitcoin-spot-etf-would-differ-from-a-futures-etf/
These Bitcoin futures ETF products will not track the actual price of Bitcoin, and the price of these Bitcoin futures ETFs would even differ from the price of an actual Bitcoin.
SEC’s reluctance of approving a real BTC ETF product
So, this is not the kind of BTC ETF product that retail investors want, they actually want a real BTC ETF product that tracks the price of actual Bitcoins, pure and simple.
However, SEC is reluctant to approve a ETF product that tracks the spot price of Bitcoin, even though it has received several applications from well known companies outlining their plans of introducing such a BTC ETF product. The reason the authority gives for its stance is that they fear manipulation of Bitcoin prices in such a BTC ETF product.
The approved ETFs are regulated since they track prices of CME Bitcoin futures contract
SEC gave its green signal for these launched Bitcoin Futures ETF products because the CME futures trading market that these ETFs track is regulated and supervised by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC).
Even these Bitcoin related ETF products were a superhit, with institutional investors buying them up, then imagine how popular a real BTC ETF product would be!!
## It would be practical for the SEC to give way for real BTC ETFs products to launch
There are early investors who are exposed to BTC by owning real BTC cryptos, nothing like it. However, there are still many investors who want exposure to BTC, but don’t want to custody BTC by their own in wallets etc, so the market demands an actual BTC ETF product which the US SEC is still not willing to approve!!
Once a real BTC ETF product is approved, it would increase adoption of Bitcoin and would do great in growing the crypto industry. SEC may have their reasons to not want to approve a BTC ETF, but it is time for them to change their stance as countries like Canada and Brazil have already given their approvals for BTC ETF products that track spot prices of BTC so there are various spot BTC ETF products out there for US investors to invest in anyway.
**Thank you for reading!!**
Acala’s innovation of bringing out lcDOT to unlock liquidity of locked DOT in Blockchain
lcDOT to unlock liquidity of locked DOT tokens that were contributed as crowd loans
Something I find cool in Blockchain is innovations which changes things from what they were before, effectively making a value addition and creating a standard that would be embraced by the industry. Acala team has made such an innovation by introducing a DOT derivative product, called Liquid Crowdloan DOT(lcDOT).
Oh yes, this is all about the DOT we supporters are set to contribute as crowdloans to strengthen Acala’s bid to win Polkadot’s upcoming parachain slot auctions that would take place on November 11th.
Incase, a team wins a parachain slot auction and launches in Polkadot, all those loyal supporters who helped the parachain team win through their valuable DOT crowd loan contributions will be rewarded with tokens of the parachain team, giving them a share in the network. All this is cool, except that the DOT that supporters contributed will be locked until the duration of the parachain slot gets over which is two years.
This is why the Acala team have created Liquid Crowdloan DOT(lcDOT), where the liquidity of the locked DOT tokens can be accessed and used by its holders in DEFI.
The Locked crowd loan DOT can be used in DEFI with its derivative lcDOT
Yes, incase Acala wins a parachain slot and launches in Polkadot, supporters who opted to contribute to crowdloans via Acala’s Liquid Crowdloan vault, will get access to their contributed DOT’s underlying liquidity with an equal amount of lcDOT asset which can be used in Acala DEFI as collateral for getting a aUSD loan or can be swaped in Acala’s AMM Dex.
Infact, in this video, co-founder of Acala, Bette Chen explains that supporters who want their contributed DOT back can exchange lcDOT for DOT in Acala Dex or use it in Acala for DEFI purposes. Cool is it not??!! https://youtu.be/woFmgo8BFhA
https://youtu.be/woFmgo8BFhA
Supporters who want lcDOT should contribute crordloans via the Acala Liquid Crowdloan vault
All details are in this article, the only compromise here is that the Acala Liquid Crowdloan vault will be a multisig wallet controlled by Acala initially, as Acala is not yet live as a parachain in Polkadot. However, later when Acala wins a parachain slot in Polkadot, the ownership of this multisig vault shifts to Acala’s parachain account that will be a completely trustless account controlled by Acala’s on-chain governance. https://medium.com/acalanetwork/acala-liquid-crowdloan-dot-lcdot-launch-on-polkadot-f28d8f561157
There is a temporary timeframe period where supporters’ contributed DOT would be in control of Acala, so there is a component of trust involved though just initially.
The advantage here is that lcDOT makes the contributed DOT liquid, instead of it getting locked for 2 years in the Crowdloan module, till which time that contributed DOT remains idil.
Can contribute DOT crowdloans via the Crowdloan module and give up access of this DOT for 2 years
Supporters can always opt to just contribute their DOT directly to the Crowdloan module, in which case their DOT will be locked in a smart contract in Polkadot’s relay chain for 2 years and will be released trustless after 2 years. However, they will not have access to this DOT in that time period, it will lie idil.
Looking forward to using lcDOT in Acala DEFI
Well, I would go with contributing DOT crowdloans via Acala’s Liquid Crowdloan vault, true there is a short time period where one has to trust Acala in controlling the vault initially, but later it will transition to trustless control inside Polkadot's Blockchain when Acala goes live as a parachain. The advantage here is I can use the liquidity of my contributed DOT in Acala DEFI(: …
All that staked 32 ETH, by validators for Ethereum 2.0 should have been a derivative product
This actually got me thinking of Ethereum where validators of the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 had to stake 32 ETH in Blockchain and they can get access to it only when Ethereum 2 goes live. Perhaps, there could have been a derivative of that staked Ethereum given out to those who staked and those who delegated their stake to validators. Then that derivative can be used in DEFI instead of lying idil. After all we all want our money to work not just sit idil(:
**Thank you for reading!!**
Mega news of last week - Polkadot Blockchain is ready for the parachain auctions phase
Finally Polkadot is ready for the important parachain auctions phase
I was amazed last week when I heard about the mega news that Polkadot is ready for Parachain auctions, this means that Polkadot will have its first parachain launched in its network by December. Parachains are like Blockchains in Polkadot that will run parallely to the main Relay Chain of Polkadot. Dapp project teams need to win a Parachain slot in the Parachain auctions to be able to launch as a parachain in Polkadot. https://decrypt.co/83375/ethereum-rival-polkadot-marks-parachain-milestone-price-surge
***Polkadot has announced that Polkadot’s parachain auctions will begin on November 13!!***
Excited Dot Holders who are looking forward to participate in Parachain crowd loans
This news is exciting for people like me who have been waiting for Polkadot’s Parachain auctions which would decide the parachains that will launch in Polkadot.
This is because I am backing the Acala team in the parachain auction competition. Teams that bid the highest amount of DOT in the parachain auctions will win a parachain slot in the Polkadot Network.
I will be able to support my favorite Dapp team by contributing DOT for the parachain auctions through crowd loans. Here my DOT would be locked in a virtual vault smart contract in the Polkadot Blockchain only to be used by my favorite Daap team for bidding purposes in the parachain auctions.
I explained about this in my earlier article about Acala preparing for competing in the parachain auctions by having opened the Acala Crowloan waitlist. You can read about it here - : https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/acala-has-already-begun-preparing-the-grounds-to-compete-in-polkadots-parachain-slot-auctions-031f633a . https://www.publish0x.com/buzzing-news-and-stories-of-interest/acala-has-already-begun-preparing-the-grounds-to-compete-in-xwwrydj
The Acala Crowdloan waitlist closed last week.
Anyway I will definitely write more about my journey preparing to participate in crowd loans that Acala will launch, for action towards this has already begun last week, with me getting guided on how to prepare for them by participating in Acala Quest. https://acala.network/acala/quests#quests
*Acala Quest - a incentivised action guide to educate DOT holders on participating in Acala crowd loans*
Polkadot’s huge price movement is to the upside!!
Anyway, another way to comprehend how big Polkadot’s parachain launch news is to take note of Dot’s price action.*\*
Dot’s price reacted to this parachain launch news by rising up as can be noted by the big price movement that happened on October 13th.
***ot is looking to break the resistance point at 42$ and then find support at that level to target breaking its ATH(All Time High) price at 50$. All expectations are that DOT price will not only break its previous ATH but also explode further.***
The reason for this is obvious, because more DOT will be brought to participate in the upcoming crowd loans and participating teams may also put more DOT on the network for the parachain auctions. Besides this, everybody is thrilled about Polkadot igniting to function because there will be functional Dapps on it very soon.
Polkadot technology is already tried and tested in Kusama and is performing well!!
Polkadot’s Canary sister network, Kusama, already has successfully proven that Polkadot’s technology, along with its parachain auctions and launches functions well. Kusama is Polkadot’s test network, with every feature implemented on Polkadot first tested and evaluated at Kusama.
Polkadot is not a Layer 1 Blockchain, its called as a Layer 0 Blockchain
What’s cool about this is, Polkadot Blockchain is talked about to be a Blockchain that will have fast transaction times and be interoperable. While every other Blockchain out in the crypto world is a layer 1 Blockchain, Polkadot team says that its Blockchain is a Layer 0 Blockchain. https://decrypt.co/83375/ethereum-rival-polkadot-marks-parachain-milestone-price-surge
This means that applications that will come up and build on Polkadot after winning a parachain slot will be Layer 1 Blockchains, because Polkadot simply combines all Blockchains, while it remains the main chain that secures these Blockchains.
Ethereum needs Layer 2 Blockchain to function with fast speeds and reasonable costs
We will get to know how this Layer 0 Blockchain functions soon. Ethereum is a Layer 1 Blockchain that requires Layer 2 protocols like Matic to function in a speedy and cost effective way and a criticism about that is that Ethereum’s ecosystem is fragmented and not easy to deal with, as different protocols need to be accessed, to avail the benefits of scalable transactions that are reasonable!!
DOT price should go up with DOTs getting locked for the parachain auctions
Another aspect to remember is that with the Polkadot parachain auctions coming up, investors who will contribute DOT through crowd loans to parachain slot winning Dapp teams will have their DOT locked up till the end of the parachain slot period, which is 2 years.
So, these DOTs won’t be sold anytime soon, and with more parachain auctions happening and more DOT locked up the price of DOT in the near future would go up.
I may have some of my DOT locked up, to be an early holder of ACA tokens of Acala, if Acala manages to win a parachain slot that is.
***Anyway thanks for reading everybody!!***
My Cats at high, middle and low spots of the house - Caturday Entertainment
The towering cat Garu on my study table!!
*Cat Garu almost towering over all the objects on my study table*
Cat Garu is the only animated creature on the table, clarifying it so people don’t mistake him for a doll!!
He likes posing with objects and showpieces sometimes…
My cats pose with some interesting merchandising
To make his sleeping pose look different, Garu curls up napping next to this pillow cover picturing a proud kitten.
Mochu wants to show you guys another merchandise bestowed with a cat persona feature with this message - ***“You Work, I watch and judge”***
After posing with this merchandise, I feel Mochu is watching me so he can judge, looks like he understood the message of the T-shirt!!
The domestic Top Cap at the under level
I am so used to seeing cat Garu on top spots of the house that it surprised me to find him at a very under point of the house, underneath the bed!!
Yes, Garu is easily a domestic top cat, but there are creatures that can climb way higher than him.
A real tree climbing creature - The Monkey!!
This Monkey climbed up the tree from the compound wall, having passed over the borders of the tennis court fence, and then bingo, the monkey went up on the branches of the tree!!
Content ground level cat jumps up on middle spots of the house
Back home, here is a snap of Mochu on the washing machine, he is a content ground level cat in general.
However, he has no issues of leaping to the middle level spots in the house.
Happy Caturday as cats exit to continue on with their lives
Mochu says that it’s time to end the Caturday show for today, as he jumps down from the spotlight to do something else, probably go play with buddy Garuji.
**Happy Caturday!!**
Uncertainty on Tether - stable coin may be backed by reserves given as loans to Chinese companies
China’s shadow is still on the crypto world indirectly!!
One hears a lot of China in the crypto world, what with all that crypto crackdown news that has been creating FUD in the crypto market, leading to dips in prices of Bitcoin. Right, this may be old news and the crypto market may have forgotten it and got tired of it, however, there are more Chinese associations with crypto, with the potential to cause turmoil to the crypto market again!!
I know, China...China...China forming headlines of late even after we have reconciled with this Covid pandemic gifted by them to the world.
Yes, the world economy rocked to the news of the Everglade crisis, where the Chinese real estate company has more than 300 $ billion of debt that it may not be able to repay. The complete dramatic reaction to this phenomenon may not have yet unfolded, but fears of catastrophic effects of this lingers on the world economy.
Anyway, this post is not about the Everglade crisis, it’s about the stable coin Tether, the ever popular USDT that has the largest amount of trading volume in major exchanges and is the top most base stable coin that is paired with cryptocurrencies to trade in top exchanges.
***Yes you get the picture - BTC/USDT, ATOM/USDT, DOT/USDT etc…***
No guarantee of Tether’s USDT value being equal to that of the dollar!!
Now, we all are aware of USDT being a controversial stable coin, as Tether whose parent company is Bitfinex, has not been transparent with audits to reveal whether every USDT that’s minted and in supply is completely backed by US dollar reserves.
Tether’s total marketcap is $69,460,457,766 as per data from Coingecko, so to be a reliable stable coin, USDT should be backed by $69,460,457,766 of US dollars, as every USDT that’s minted and in circulation should be backed by 1 dollar, pegged at a ratio of 1:1.
So, there are serious concerns and doubts on the matter of whether USDT’s value is backed adequately for it to be actually equal to the value of a dollar.
News that Tether’s reserves may be backed by loans given to Chinese companies - OMG!!
Now, all this is known news, but there is a fresh dose of news that should worry crypto followers, investors even more, because this highlights suspicions on the quality of assets that back USDT.
A Bloomberg article has claimed that Tether has given billions of dollars of loans to large Chinese companies, including Everglade. So, Tether holds commercial papers of these Chinese companies that Tether may be using as reserves to back the value of USDT. https://cryptobriefing.com/report-alleges-tether-owns-billions-in-chinese-debt/
Ouch, that’s a bombshell of a news which you can read about in this article -
https://cryptobriefing.com/report-alleges-tether-owns-billions-in-chinese-debt/
Of course, these claims are strongly denied by Tether, but what’s evident as it was even earlier is that Tether’s reserves are not completely backed by dollar reserves, and a large portion of its reserves are backed by commercial papers of companies which is a financial debt instrument.
Tether has itself made public attestations saying that it holds debt instruments like commercial paper as reserves backing the value of USDT. The amount of USDT reserves backed by this commercial paper loan instrument is 30$ billion dollars which is definitely huge.
Warning for investors to avoid having crypto transactions using USDT as far as possible
Now, with this [Bloomberg news](https://cryptobriefing.com/report-alleges-tether-owns-billions-in-chinese-debt/) raising concerns on the quality of loans backing Tether’s reserves, I am convinced that its wise to avoid having USDT dealings as much as possible and try to use other stable coins instead - BUSD, USDC, HUSD, TUSD etc, I hear these stable coins are well audited so its not risky to hold them like it is to hold USDT!!
However, the problem is that not all cryptos have trading pairs with other stable coins. For instance, when I went to book profits on my HIVE trade in Binance exchange, the trading pair that was available then was HIVE/USDT and HIVE/BTC, so I had to do trade in USDT.
Fortunately, yesterday Binance had listed the HIVE/BUSD pair to trade so I have put up the order to rebuy HIVE (which has now corrected from the price I booked profits) using BUSD. I am trying my best not to use USDT coin as far as possible, however I feel many exchanges have not listed other stable coin pairs for us to use as alternatives to USDT.
Tether’s reputation is already bad
Other than this its known news that Tether is currently being investigated by various law enforcement agencies - U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The reputation of Tether is all grimy with mud and early this year Tether had to pay up a fine of $18.5 million to the New York Attorney General to settle a case, which claimed that Tether was conducting “illegal activities” in New York.
***Thank you for reading my article, have a great day!!***
The might of Bitcoin stronger than the World’s most popular financial instruments
Justified anger with the Governing powers on their inefficient management of the economy
As an angry bird on the current state of how the Government has managed the economy, I have calmed down thinking of Bitcoin.
***True, the economic condition is uncertain, there is inflation, possibility of currency devaluation, unemployment. While our money in banks may not be safe because it’s not in our custody. So if the bank’s borrowers default on loans, then there will be NPAs(non-performing assets) and the principal deposits of customers are in danger of getting eroded. This is quite frightening.***
Imagine in withering business conditions , the Corporates who borrowed money can very well fail to return it back, because their business is not doing well!!
Also we all are angry that our tax money is not utilised well to serve Citizens, they are mainly used to serve the interests of big Corporates, industrialists etc, and the poor remain poor, while the rich grow richer.
Angry Bird calms down becoming a Bitcoin Bird
So, me as a angry bird becomes a Bitcoin bird singing these lines in the tune of “Mighty, mighty Red” song from the Angry bird movie -
https://youtu.be/cfS89ITESTM
*“Mighty, mighty Bitcoin to rescue me,*
*Defender of our wealth and liberty*
*Empowering Wealth ownership, Hedging against fiat inflation , freeing us from being power controlled ,*
*Mighty Mighty Bitcoin to Rescue me*
*Tra la la la...la la la ...tra la la la… la, la, la"*
Anyway… in reality the Governments of the World have the power to make Bitcoin quite difficult for its Citizens to access ):, but still for me as a Bitcoin Hodler I feel secure in all this economic crisis…
Bitcoin outperforms other established and giant Financial instruments of the World!!
***Now, there is another reason why we can address Bitcoin as “Mighty, mighty Bitcoin”, because it has [outperformed the most popular financial asset classes of the world ](*** ***https://cryptopotato.com/surpassing-sp500-apple-google-gold-and-silver-bitcoin-is-up-90-year-to-date******)like stocks of big companies, popular stock indices, and our traditional hedging against fiat inflation instruments like Gold and silver.***
Check this chart out, it shows Bitcoin’s performance against the World’s biggest financial investment instruments - stock indices S&P 500 and Nasdaq, traditional commodity asset classes - Gold and Silver , and stocks of the world’s biggest companies - Apple, Google, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft in a 1 year period.
As you can see none of the above financial instruments have given returns in percentage amounts of Bitcoin. Most of these companies still have market caps above Bitcoin but have given much less returns.
*That’s right Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, gold and silver have higher market capitalisation than BTC for the time being but still have given lower returns than BTC baby!!*
Also don’t forget to note that Gold and silver have given negative returns which means it yielded a loss for a 1 year holder of these assets.
All these companies are the giants, the might biggies in the financial world but Bitcoin is mightier than them all, atleast I like to think that way!!
Mighty power of Bitcoin to do good!!
Some heart warming news has come on how Bitcoin can be used by Governments to do good as well.
For example, the Bitcoin Fund established by the El Salvador Government making provisions to keep Bitcoin reserves as Bitcoin is made legal tender there, has now got a 4$ million surplus, that’s profit amount on the 700 BTC they purchased.
El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele has said he has plans to build a pet hospital with that 4$ million surplus without selling any of the 700 BTC that the Government procured . More on that can be read here -
https://cryptopotato.com/el-salvador-president-use-bitcoin-profits-for-massive-pet-hospital/
*Again what echoes here are these lines - “Mighty, mighty Bitcoin…”*
Personally, I am no fan of president Nayib Bukele for his move to make Bitcoin legal tender in his country because the president is known to be a dictator and has a lot of corruption charges on him. Even so, it’s lovely news that the president intends to do some good with Bitcoin(:
***God Bless us Bitcoin Holders!!***
*Disclaimer - I am not giving financial advice, this article is for entertainment purposes only and I hold no responsibility over any investment decisions readers take after reading my article.*
Into my cats world where cat Garu digs up a hole and wins a wrestling match!!
Early today morning after I finished my meditation to make breakfast, my two cats have already gone into their state of slumber on my bed of course.
They look curled up and comfortable, pressed together as if they have a bond in sleeping merrily.
It’s good that when cats get bored they try not to complain and get to do one of their favorite activities by falling asleep.
Although my sheep coloured cat Mochu loves laying about with my ginger cat Garu, it’s not that they don’t do duels.
Here is one duel where cat Garu succeeds in driving Mochu out of the bed.
https://youtu.be/5lrO7lS7ka0
Cat wrestling has these cats paw boxing, biting and rolling on each other, quite entertaining to watch sometimes.
Speaking about entertainment, cat Garu exercises by scratching cardboard boxes and this cat has succeeded in making a neat hole where it can dip its paw. Neat!!
https://youtu.be/DZdT6gfhwRc
FInally, a nice massage for cat Garu given by cat Mochu through his loving licks that appears to relax Garuji.
https://youtu.be/nw-EJqiYqHc
Nice thing about my cats is that I need not buy them any catnip flavoured toys to get them lively and active. I just need to introduce to them a natural element, like this giant vibrant leaf. It's bound to have them get excited with curiosity as they get busy checking out their freebie toy I procure from outside.
https://youtu.be/1P8cy9dT-F0
***That’s all folks. Happy, happy Caturday.***
Today’s crypto hodlers progress to use crypto to participate in the Blockchain ecosystem and benefit
Cryptos are no more just investments to sell and book profits through speculation
These days it’s essential for crypto enthusiasts to do more than just buy cryptos and hodl them in non-custodial wallets because cryptos are not just instruments to engage in trading in a hope of making exponential profits. Cryptos these days are used in various dapp applications where they are deposited, staked, spent, loaned etc.
Since the past 2 years, crypto enthusiasts are locking up their cryptos in Blockchains to use it in various dapps ranging from Decentralised Finance, Gaming, Social Media and various other Decentralised Application Platforms.
Cryptos are utility tokens required for active participation in various DApp platforms
The Total Value Locked (TVL) into Decentralised Finance(DEFI) apps is estimated to be more than 175$ billion byDEFILama. If we further consider the total value locked in Blockchains in other Dapps belonging to other niches like gaming and social media, then there will be more value locked in Blockchains. https://defillama.com/home
So, gone are the days where crypto enthusiasts just held on to cryptos and used it merely to trade for profits. The Blockchain Era has ushered in well and truly now with cryptos getting used, proving that they are digital assets of value. It goes without saying that this Blockchain era is very exciting for crypto enthusiasts as they dabble with various Dapps.
From an Idle crypto hodler to a DEFI enthusiast
Image Source https://pixahive.com/photo/cryptocurrencies-for-profit/
Until recently, I was a crypto enthusiast who just held crypto in a desktop wallet and did not use it for any other purpose. Eventually, as new Dapps came into existence in other Blockchains other than Ethereum, I took my time and got into the DEFI world using Polygon. This was an interesting experience.
I wanted to try DEFI using Binance Smart Chain when it arrived but at that time, I was not able to because I was such a newbie to DEFI that I didn't even know how to use Metamask and I had to learn how to configure the Metamask wallet to Binance Smart Chain Network besides many other things, so I gave up.
Later, I dedicated enough time and entered into the DEFI world via Polygon, learning how to configure Metamask to other networks. So I have my Metamask configured to Binance Smart Chain and Polygon Network too, and have swapped tokens in Orion Dex, lent and borrowed in Aave and swapped cryptos at 1inch exchange.
My practical learnings about DEFI, smart contract wallets etc
All this experience provided me with an enriching learning experience that gave me more understanding of smart contract wallets, DEFI apps etc. So, I know what a smart contract wallet is, when earlier I did not know what such a wallet was, as I only knew desktop wallets that do not have smart contract abilities; Atomic Wallet.
After this, I learnt that every Blockchain has an inbuilt wallet that interacts with Dapps in its Blockchain ecosystem. So like Ethereum has Metamask, Cosmos Blockchain has Keplr wallet, Solana has sollet.in, Polkadot has polkadot{.js} extension etc. This has enabled me to check out some dApps in Cosmos like Osmosis with the keplr wallet and Solana’s Serum with the sollet.in wallet.
Metamask wallet configured to connect to other Blockchains beyond Ethereum
Lastly, Blockchains like Polkadot plan to be accessible to Metamask users, so when Polkadot launches, one may be able to connect with Polkadot Dapps through Metamask. The Metamask wallet will obviously require to be configured to the Polkadot Network that time, like the wallet is configured for Binance Smart Chain and Polygon Network.
Never too late for crypto enthusiasts to progress beyond the basic crypto hodling activity
If there are crypto hodlers out there who have not checked out the world of DEFI still, do take time to set up a smart contract wallet like Metamask and kick start your DEFI experience. Once you have metamask you can try out various DEFI apps in Polygon, and Binance Smart CHain etc.
This experience will be very enriching, exciting and beneficial.
**Thank you for reading my article, have a great day.**
Your Communications in WhatsApp are not very secure and private as you think - Part 2
Realising that WhatsApp communications are not as secure and private as it is advertised to be
My previous article , introduced the topic of WhatsApp not being such a private and secure app as the company claims to be, because it is just a false allegation that the end to end encrypted chats in the messaging platform can’t be read by the company. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/do-you-know-that-your-whatsapp-communications-are-not-really-private-and-secure-46405bc8 https://scroll.in/article/1004897/investigation-your-whatsapp-messages-are-far-less-private-than-you-think
WhatsApp indirectly and discreetly hire contract workers to review content of WhatsApp messages that any user flags as inappropriate violating the accepted guidelines of WhatsApp. This means that the WhatsApp chats that are flagged by users for having messages, videos, images that are spam, related to child pornoghraphy, are related to terrorist communication are reviewed by these contract workers.
WhatsApp also makes use of an Artificial Intelligence program to scan these flagged chats for such unaccepted content as well.
Therefore, when WhatsApp claims that the end-end encrypted chats in WhatsApp are so secure and private that the company themselves cannot read it, is a false allegation. WhatsApp is not transparent about its power and activities of scrutinising messages as well.
Extensive unencrypted Personal information of users collected by WhatsApp
My earlier article itself had some of my readers communicate through comments that they were not aware about WhatsApp having the ability to read their encrypted messages. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/do-you-know-that-your-whatsapp-communications-are-not-really-private-and-secure-46405bc8
***Now, more worrying aspects of WhatsApp platform’s privacy will be disclosed here which will reveal that WhatsApp collects a lot of unencrypted user data, which really reveals a lot about any user of WhatsApp messaging platform even if the messages they send using WhatsApp are end-to end encrypted.***
*This unencrypted data about users that WhatsApp collects is metadata information that gives plenty of clues about the identity of the WhatsApp users.* The metadata collected has details about a WhatsApp user’s phone number, status message, profile photo, names and profiles of the WhatsApp groups a user is part of, a user’s location, IP address, unique mobile phone ID, the last time the user was online etc.
This unencrypted data about WhatsApp users is always available with WhatsApp for scrutiny, and is provided to law enforcement agencies working under Government authorities when asked.
WhatsApp’s Artificial Intelligence algorithm scans through this Metadata information regularly, as it uses this data to see if it associates with any suspicious account activity or has an unusual messaging pattern that can categorise the message as a spam account.
Privacy in WhatsApp is almost a joke, it’s only private in name
***So, even if WhatsApp is somewhat private because of the well boasted end-to end encryption feature, in actuality the only thing that is private is whatever messages that are exchanged, but everything else is revealed including the details of whom the messages were sent to.***
Also, when an encrypted message is reported to be inappropriate by a WhatsApp user and is therefore made open for review by WhatsApp’s hired contract workers, previous four messages including the offending message become visible for review.
So, things are less private than most users expect or imagine the WhatsApp platform to be.
To understand more about how un-private and un-secure WhatsApp platform is, please read this scroll article that explains this in more detail. https://scroll.in/article/1004897/investigation-your-whatsapp-messages-are-far-less-private-than-you-think
Reference article - https://scroll.in/article/1004897/investigation-your-whatsapp-messages-are-far-less-private-than-you-think
***Thank you for reading, have a great day!!***
Do you know that your WhatsApp communications are not really private and secure?
Image Source https://scroll.in/article/1004897/investigation-your-whatsapp-messages-are-far-less-private-than-you-think
Ever since Facebook purchased Whatsapp in 2014, the privacy of the world’s largest messaging app has been degraded, so unfortunately the truth is Whatsapp is not as secure and private as its millions of users imagine the app to be.
The majority of WhatsApp’s 2 billion global users believe WhatsApp’s assurances of being a privacy preserving, reliable messenger app.
WhatsApp’s assurance is even displayed on the screen before a user begins messaging, it reads - *“No one outside of this chat, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to them.”*
This assurance is false and it’s very important for us to understand this as users of WhatsApp.
The basis on which Whatsapp gives its users the assurance of Privacy
WhatsApp’s claim to be a privacy preserving messenger centers around the application applying “end-to-end encryption” feature, where chats and messages exchanged through Whatsapp are encrypted.
Here, the chats, messages sent in Whatsapp are going to be in an unreadable format and will open up only to the person who that chat or message is sent to, which is the intended destination point of that message/chat.
All this is true, but read on…
WhatsApp's capability to read all it’s user messages even though its encrypted
Facebook and instagram are not privacy preserving apps because the “end-to-end encryption” feature is not integrated there but, it’s not true that the messages exchanged in Whatsapp can’t be read by WhatsApp employees. They can be read and are read and moderated by WhatsApp.
WhatsApp uses the services of thousands of contract employees, situated in offices of Austin, Texas, Dublin, Singapore whose job it is to screen through scores of private WatsApp messages for inappropriate content using a special facebook software. This is done to messages that are flagged as inappropriate by a Watsapp user and then backed as inappropriate by WhatsApps’ Artificial Intelligence algorithm.
These contract workers, will have to judge weather the Whatsapp content is inappropriate examining weather the image, text, video that flashes on their screen is spam, related to child porn, is a terrorist communication etc, generally within a span of 1 minute,
WhatsApp markets itself as a privacy preserving app which is not entirely true
WhatsApp is not transparent about its content moderation activities and does not disclose any details about those policing activities. This is not the case with its social media siblings, facebook and instagram as these apps put out quarterly transparency reports with details on the number of accounts they have moderated for objectionable content.
Whatsapp keeps claiming that the company gives utmost importance to privacy of its users and the app is designed keeping in mind the users' right of privacy while they take needed measures to prevent abuse.
However, there are lots of instances where WhatsApp has disclosed user conversations under pressure from powerful entities like Governments etc, and this lack of reliable privacy in WhatsApp which should worry users, especially users who are Citizens of countries that have authoritarian Governments.
More on this in my other subsequent articles…
Conclusion - Let’s take data privacy seriously, its important!!
I will delve further on this Whatsapp privacy issue in my subsequent articles.
**Reference article** - https://scroll.in/article/1004897/investigation-your-whatsapp-messages-are-far-less-private-than-you-think
I urge everyone to read the above scroll article, based on which I have written this piece because it’s important to understand how secure and private your communications are on whatsApp. https://scroll.in/article/1004897/investigation-your-whatsapp-messages-are-far-less-private-than-you-think
Generally, many of us don’t take data privacy very seriously, however, we must understand that we have the right to privacy and it's important for a lot of reasons, including safety from intimidation by big powers and other entities etc.
**Thank you for reading, have a great day!!**
Acala has already begun preparing the grounds to compete in Polkadot’s Parachain slot auctions
Guess which project is gearing up to compete in Polkadot’s parachain slot auctions
The time for Polkadot to start its parachain auctions may come very soon as signals are on that dapp projects are preparing for the parachain auctions.
Few days back, I noticed an ad on the brave browser about Acala inviting users to register for the Acala Crowdloan waitlist. https://acala.network/acala/learn/what-are-crowdloans?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=161234708&utm_content=161234708&utm_source=hs_automation
This means that Polkadot’s DEFI Hub is preparing for Polkadot’s parachain auctions.
Pretty cool!!
Acala is one of the projects expected to win a parachain slot to build on Polkadot
Acala needs to win a parachain slot in Polkadot’s parachain auctions (that’s yet to be announced) to build on Polkadot. However, everyone is pepped about Acala because its twin Kurara is doing great as a DEFI platform after it’s launch in the Kusama Blockchain.
People already expect Acala to be a well functioning DEFI platform for people to engage in activities of availing decentralised loans, providing liquidity, trading, staking in derivatives and earning lucrative APY’s on their deposits of digital assets.
Therefore, there would be a lot of community support for Acala to win the Polkadot parachain slot auctions whenever that begins.
Much awaited event for the Polkadot community is Polkadot’s Parachain slot auction
Whenever Polkadot is ready for dapp projects to go live on it’s Blockchain, there will be an announcement made about the conduction of the first round of Polkadot’s parachain slot auctions.
Here, projects will contest to win a slot in the parachain slot auctions through bidding. The project that bids the highest wins a parachain slot.
The bidding currency for the Polkadot auctions will be in the DOT tokens of course.
Acala has invited its supporters to enroll for the Crowdloan waitlist
Acala, is preparing for competing in Polkadot’s parachain auctions, by inviting it’s community supporters to register for the Acala Crowloan waitlist, which is a prelude before the actual launch of Crowdloan process. https://acala.network/acala/learn/what-are-crowdloans?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=161234708&utm_content=161234708&utm_source=hs_automation
Acala Network's tweet https://twitter.com/AcalaNetwork/status/1439812258872320000?s=20
Registered supporters then would be invited to participate in contributing to Acala’s Crowdloan where Acala enthusiasts would lock their DOT tokens into the virtual Crowdloan vault that’s built as a smart contract inside the Polkadot Blockchain.
These DOT tokens will strengthen Acala’s bid for the Polkadot’s parachain slot auctions.
Crowdloan amounts are locked in a smart contract and are not controlled by the Acala team
As mentioned, the lent Dot tokens are stored inside a Crowdloan vault which is a smart contract inside Polkadot Blockchain, so they are not controlled by the Acala team. These lent Dot tokens are crowdloans lent by the community to support and strengthen Acala’s bid for the project to win a parachain slot in Polkadot’s parachain slot auctions.
Rewards for Crowdloan contributors for their DOT contributions
The supporters who contribute DOT as parachain loans to Acala, get rewarded with Acala’s ACA tokens for the DOT they lent while they get their principal DOT tokens back after 2 years automatically by the smart contract, as they are programmed to release the tokens at this specified time period.
This arrangement ensures that ordinary Acala enthusiasts get early access to ACA tokens and Acala’s various financial dapps, which is an advantage as they benefit by being an early adopter of the Acala protocol while also being an early holder of the Acala’s native token ACA.
Therefore, when Acala launches, the early supporters of the protocol will get a fair share of the Acala Network ownership this way with ethical and fair distributions of ACA tokens.
More details about Acala’s Crowdloan waitlist can be read here… https://acala.network/acala/learn/what-are-crowdloans?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=161234708&utm_content=161234708&utm_source=hs_automation
Conclusion
My last article about Acala, talked about Acala team building Acala EVM+, for EMV based dapps to launch in the Acala Network and benefit with exposure to Acala DEFI. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/ethereum-dapps-can-get-into-acala-the-defi-star-expected-to-come-up-in-polkadot-86ea8a76
So Acala has taken steps to be compatible with Ethereum too. I have also read that bridges to Bitcoin and Ethereum would be there so one can expect Acala to be interoperable having cross chain interaction capabilities.
Acala project has been supported with backing from prominent venture capital firms - Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital, Hypersphere besides other top firms, which only shows that Acala DEFI platform maybe having what it takes to be a good DEFI platform.
Hopefully, we can checkout the Acala platform and see it for what it is when it launches on Polkadot after the project secures a parachain slot after winning Polkadot’s parachain slot auctions.
The big Cardano disappointment as the Blockchain has scalability issues to sort out
Unfortunate that Cardano Blockchain has got unexpected scalability issues to sort out
Until now, Cardano remained a promising Blockchain without it actually being a Blockchain where live functional dapps can be built. Everyone was waiting for September, the time stated for Cardano to undergo the Alonzo Mainnet upgrade that would give Cardano smart contract abilities.
Now, Cardano has completed this milestone which is good news of course, because we at the very least can get to see how Cardano fares as a Blockchain platform for dapps. Unfortunately, I feel that Cardano Blockchain enthusiasts have reason to feel disappointed, because Cardano is not really ready for launching fully scalable, onchain dapps as of now. This is because it faces concurrency issues which is a scalability hurdle for the Cardano Blockchain. https://cryptobriefing.com/cardanos-smart-contracts-face-major-scalability-issue/
Various Blockchains have useful DEFI applications for users to utilize these days
What one as an active crypto DEFI user sees is that there are already other Blockchain Platforms out there that have shown us their potential as a host platform for great functional dapps.
*So many Blockchains that have live functional dapps apps in today’s age. List from* *DefiLama* https://defillama.com/chains
Therefore, if Cardano fails to deliver on its promises, crypto investors will flock to invest in Blockchains that have live DEFI apps that they can dabble with.
Solana and Binance Smart Chain
Yes, we are already very familiar with dapps of Binance Smart Chain, but apart from Binance Smart Chain, Solana has been making headlines of late and I have used Serum Dex of Solana’s Ecosystem to trade my Sol crypto and book sweet profits.
Polkadot Blockchain looks geared for launch of functional Dapps
Polkadot, looks like a Blockchain that when launched would be immediately dapp ready as its Canary testnet chain Kusama has well functioning parachains launched in it.
So, investors can be confident that dapps that come up in Polkadot when parachain launches eventually happen would be ready to use.
One can test Acala DEFI in Polkadot with its testnet interface Acala Mandala, this makes DEFI enthusiasts excited about Acala when it gets launched in Polkadot.
Attractive DEFI platforms in the Terra Blockchain
Anchor Protocol and Mirror protocol are functional popular DEFI apps in Terra Blockchain.
Cosmos Blockchain has proved itself as a capable platform for hosting functional dapps
Then there is Cosmos Blockchain, which two has several functional dapps and two DEFI apps with Osmosis and Gravity Dex launched. Both these DEFI projects are functioning fine in their basic form.
Everyone had expectations from Cardano to be a great Blockchain Platform for dapps
Therefore, a DEFI investor’s expectations from Cardano Blockchain were high, which is why when investors like me heard about this concurrency issue that Cardano Blockchain faced when the first dapp launched on Cardano’s testnet a few weeks back, I got disappointed.
The Dapp that launched on Cardano’s testnet shutdown soon due to scalability issues
Minswap was the first dex to launch on Cardano’s testnet, it faced scalability issues immediately after it got deployed with the dapp being able to process just one transaction per block which surprised users who tested the platform.
Tweet https://twitter.com/MinswapDEX/status/1434604812914466816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1434604812914466816%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptobriefing.com%2Fcardanos-smart-contracts-face-major-scalability-issue%2F
Cardano’s unique concurrency issue as it functions using the EUTXO model to compute transactions
The issue that MInswap faced was a concurrency issue which is unique to the Cardano Blockchain because it computes transactions using a different model from other Blockchains as Cardano functions using the Extended UTXO (EUTXO) model. https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/09/10/concurrency-and-all-that-cardano-smart-contracts-and-the-eutxo-model/
The EUTXO model is challenging Dapp developers in the Cardano Ecosystem as in this model, concurrency issues are sprouting up where multiple users are not able to interact with a smart contract at the same time. https://cryptobriefing.com/cardanos-smart-contracts-face-major-scalability-issue/
Most other Blockchains in existence like Ethereum and Solana use an Account-based model to compute transactions in which there is no concurrency issue that Cardano faces.
Developers’ challenge to work out a way to deal with the concurrency issue
Therefore, Cardano dapp developers have the concurrency issue to deal with, which definitely poses a challenge for them. However, several dapp projects have said that they have found a solution to the concurrency problem, details about their solutions are yet to be revealed.
There are possible workarounds for the concurrency issue but the question here is whether those solutions to the concurrency issue work without compromising on the criteria of decentralisation and security that Cardano Blockchain always claimed it would have for so long.
Some possible solutions to scale dapps in Cardano
One of these solutions is the use of third part sequencers that aggregate transactions by batching them together so that they go down as one transaction and settle down in the same state as one transaction. https://cryptobriefing.com/cardanos-smart-contracts-face-major-scalability-issue/
However, this may introduce an element of centralisation.
There are other possible scaling solutions or dapps in Cardano like layer 2 protocols and sidechains. They all will have their own specific challenges of centralisation and security to deal with. https://cryptobriefing.com/cardanos-smart-contracts-face-major-scalability-issue/
My Decision to remove investments from Cardano and put it in any other functional smart contract Blockchain
Cardano finally disappointed me and as a investor who likes to use dapps in Blockchains, I liquidated most of my ADA and waiting for a opportunity to use the money to buy cryptos of any other Blockchain that has shown its potential - Solana, Polkadot, Cosmos, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain.
My birthday greeting e-card for my brother themed on his novel experience of parenthood
Different kind of birthday for my dear brother
Sunday I spent my time designing Birthday greeting card for my brother, who has become a new parent this year on May 19th. Two baby twin girls were born and they are now there to celebrate these kinds of occasions for many more years to come.
So, the highlight of my brothers life now is his baby girls which is why my birthday greeting card featured his babies this year(:
Well, when I say the babies are the highlights of my brother’s and sis-in-law’s life, I emphasize a lot of things which I cannot explain in words. This has all got to do with the feeling of parenthood, however let me try to elaborate.
New parenthood starts with the hard work of baby care
These babies are bringing a lot of happiness and joy to my brother and sis-in-law. It is hard work being a parent, taking care of twin babies. Sacrifices of sleep are the norm, as babies need to be looked after for feeding, diaper changing, and entertaining them as well.
However, without complaints, parents do this because they unconditionally love their little ones.
Love powers them with patience, gentleness to care for babies and endure inconvenience(:
Delight in watching the little ones take their first ever baby steps to everything
Sweet all this. However, it’s a special movement for parents. They look forward to every developing aspect of the baby as they grow - from their smile, laugh, those gugu gaga baby talks (babies respond with baby noises, pretty cute actually).
Basically, parents take pride in seeing their infant kids grow up and at this point - there is a delight to witness the babies get their first teeth, which will empower them to eat and chew and discover new tastes(must be an exciting experience for them). There is a delight and excitement in babies doing their first turn, crawl, walk etc.
The brand new clean soul of babies is divinity in pristine form
Babies are very innocent, pristine souls, which is just a soul stirring feeling. What I mean is there is not an inkling of evil in the baby's soul, as they are creatures that are brand new and know no evil, and their being depends on how they evolve as they grow up.
The precious darlings of my brother make the theme for this birthday prose message
*Precious darlings of my brother and sister-in-law*
So, for new parents the darlings of their world are their babies, and understanding this theme I made this card.
***The sentences I composed wishing my brother happy birthday***
***are below -:***
*Happy Birthday Praveen and good wishes to*
*your family companions,*
*Who will be there to celebrate*
*many more times ahead with you.*
*Bright flavors are sparkling for you (Praveenji) in the coming years,*
*with two bright stars in thy’s life,*
*And you along with your soul mate (Nanda) are set to grow further*
*The pulse of natural excitement is at play as*
*new experiences await*
*as these little kins of*
*you both (Praveen and Nanda) grow*
*A important chapter in thy’s life has started,*
*As you along with your counterpart are*
*entrusted with the role of parents…*
*Let the experience of parenthood be*
*enriching, exciting*
*and fulfilling…*
*In that note,*
*Let every birthday bind the family and*
*initiate enthusiasm for celebrating*
*every movement of life with love,*
*merriness to gel you all with*
*Everlasting togetherness and strength…*
**Thank you for reading. Cheers for the day!!**
Ethereum Dapps can get into Acala - the DEFI star expected to come up in Polkadot
Customized Acala EVM+ for EVM based dapps to get deployed in Acala Ecosystem
Image Source https://medium.com/acalanetwork/scale-ethereum-based-defi-to-polkadot-with-acala-evm-now-fully-evm-compatible-with-full-access-to-cd3afd525f96
DEFI project Acala, that’s expected to come live in Polkadot, has built Acala EVM+, which will enable Ethereum Dapps that are built using the Ethereum Virtual Machine(EVM) to deploy on Acala through Acala EVM+. https://medium.com/acalanetwork/scale-ethereum-based-defi-to-polkadot-with-acala-evm-now-fully-evm-compatible-with-full-access-to-cd3afd525f96
The Acala EVM+ will provide for an Ethereum compatible environment for these EVM based Dapps, where EMV based smart contracts can be deployed on Acala EVM+ using the same tooling used in the Ethereum Network - Metamask, Truffle, Waffle. There will be minimal changes required for EVM based Dapps to be deployed in Acala EMV+. https://medium.com/acalanetwork/scale-ethereum-based-defi-to-polkadot-with-acala-evm-now-fully-evm-compatible-with-full-access-to-cd3afd525f96
Ethereum DEFI users can get into Acala DEFI switching to ‘Acala Market’ Network in their Metamask
Ethereum DEFI users can log on and get access to Acala Defi from their Metamask wallet itself, where they need to switch networks from Ethereum to “Acala Market”.
The Acala platform they use will be fast and get capabilities provided by Polkadot’s Substrate framework.
This means that though the Acala EVM+ is customised to be Ethereum compatible, it does not inherit problems of the Ethereum Network; scalability, network congestion and high fees.
Ethereum DEFI users will get liquidity of the DEFI assets in Acala’s ecosystem
Ethereum DEFI users can access Acala’s DEFI ecosystem and gain exposure to liquidity available in Acala’s DEFI market which will have DEFI using DOT tokens, DOT derivatives like Liquid DOT; LDOT, decentralised native stablecoins like Acala Dollar; aUSD besides natively issued USDC and USDT tokens.
*Acala's DEFI ecosystem can be checked out in its* *testnet form - Acala Mandala* https://apps.acala.network/
EVM based Dapps inside Acala EMV+ will be interoperable with other Polkadot parachains
Daaps in Acala EMV+ will be interoperable with assets of other chains inside the Polkadot ecosystem, while other parachains in the Polkadot ecosystem can get access and engage with assets of these Dapps on Acala EMV+.
Cross-chain interoperability for Dapps in Acala EMV+
Acala will provide for bridges to Bitcoin and Ethereum networks, so users get cross chain liquidity. Dapps in Acala EVM+ will also be interoperable with any Blockchain network Acala Network is bridged to, so cross chain liquidity benefits users here as well.
*Acala DEFI can be checked in its* *testnet form - Acala Mandala.*
*Bridges of Acala to other Networks giving users cross chain liquidity* https://apps.acala.network/
Summarized main points from the post
Overall, when Acala launches in Polkadot there will be the expected DEFI activities using assets of the Acala ecosystem(DOT, LDOT, aUSD, aUSDT, aUSDC) but more than that any Ethereum dapp can get into the Acala ecosystem by getting deployed in Acala EVM+.
Once this is done, these EMV based Dapps will be interoperable with all the assets of the Blockchain Network Acala gets bridged to. All this sounds pretty good.
Conclusion
Let’s see what happens when Acala launches in Polkadot, but before that we have to watch how Polkadot’s parachain auctions scene unfolds. Everyone expects Acala to win a parachain slot in Polkadot as ts twin Kurara won a parachain slot at Polkadot’s Canary Network Kusama.
My understanding of how DEFI lending business using crypto as collateral works for AAVE protocol
From AAVE protocol's website https://aave.com/
Wondered how lending DEFI businesses run sustainability using crypto as collateral
Initially, few years back I would have been afraid to invest in cryptos, as I would not be able to adjust to its volatility but over the years I have learned to cope with its price ups and downs, because it’s actually exciting and not that risky if you learn to invest more smartly.
However, I could not understand how the lending and borrowing side of business in DEFI using crypto works, because of the price volatility of the crypto collateral used for these purposes.
Cryptos are subject to a fluctuating value and are more volatile than traditional collateral like real estate used for taking loans. The price of the underlying crypto asset has to cover the costs of the loan liabilities incase of default in payments.
I am now understanding how DEFI borrowing and lending operations function sustainably even though these protocols use crypto collaterals for these purposes.
Ventured to check out the lending DEFI protocol AAVE in Polygon
I started dabbling with DEFI ever since I got into the Polygon ecosystem, which is an alternate network to check out some well established Ethereum DEFI apps in a cost effective and convenient way. https://read.cash/@bulletgelly/a-crypto-enthusiasts-first-proper-defi-experience-using-the-polygon-network-c244263d
One of the first DEFI apps I tried out was AAVE which is a very popular non-custodial DEFI borrowing and lending platform known to be secure to use as its a well established audited protocol.
Understanding the way AAVE protocol works
I started off by depositing my Matic and Ethereum cryptos to earn interest. These deposits earn interest because they are assets which are lent to borrowers.
After doing this, I took my time to understand AAVE to figure out how the protocol functions by reading the faq and risk parameter details given in AAVE document links here - https://docs.aave.com/faq/borrowing and here https://docs.aave.com/risk/asset-risk/risk-parameters .
Earning interest as a LP provider by lending cryptos in the AAVE protocol
Then I understood that by depositing my cryptos for lending in the protocol I have become a Liquidity Provider(LP) for AAVE and I earn interest and rewards in Matic tokens. I earn interest for the amount given for lending and I get rewards for participating in the AAVE protocol.
Borrowing against deposited crypto collateral to earn more Matic tokens
After this I ventured further more by borrowing against my lent cryptos and this is where I got some understanding of how these protocols function sustainably using crypto collateral.
As a borrower it’s true I have to pay back the loan amount with interest but I also get rewarded again in Matic for participating in the AAVE protocol in Polygon Blockchain. Here I earn more Matic by borrowing against my deposits.
*Borrower needs to pay interest on the loan borrowed, but earns Matic rewards for participating in the protocol*
I borrowed Matic crypto which I again deposited to earn more interest. I am able to understand that people borrow more crypto to earn more interest in ways like this.
The idea is simple that one earns enough Matic through interest earned by lending and through protocol participation rewards that will easily compensate for the interest one has to pay back when repaying the loan amount borrowed.
Understanding the risk parameters of these DEFI protocols to prevent liquidation of collateral
However, one has to be aware of certain crucial aspects of the way the DEFI protocol functions, when venturing to do these borrowing activities so that the deposits we have provided as collateral don’t stand to get liquidated.
***This is why when participating in any DEFI protocol we must understand the risk parameters involved.***
The risk parameters to understand here are the Loan to Value (LTV) ratio, Liquidity Threshold, Health Factor(HF) and more such parameters whose explanation is given in the document links I provided earlier.
Borrowing amounts are fixed and limited by the LTV ratio
Since the underlying value of the crypto collateral is subject to fluctuation according to market conditions, it is made possible for the borrower to only borrow amounts that are a certain percentage of the collateral value.
*Loan to Value Risk Parameter*
For example, in my case for the Matic and Ethereum cryptos I have given as collateral, I can borrow only 62% of my collateral value. However I have taken a loan amount that is equal to only 46% of my current collateral value.
This is LTV ratio, where one is allowed to take loans that are only a percentage portion of the crypto collateral provided.
This ensures that the loan value taken is lesser than the value of crypto collateral so generally loans taken against crypto collateral are over collateralized making allowance for the possibility of the crypto value to fluctuate downwards.
This practice is followed to ensure that the value of the loan taken is always covered by the value of crypto collateral provided.
Liquidation of Collateral if its value falls below what’s permitted in the Liquidity Threshold parameter
AAVE protocol has rules on when your crypto collateral is subject to get liquidated which is defined in the risk parameter known as Liquidity Threshold.
In my case if the value of my loan goes to 72% of the crypto collateral I have provided then my loan will be considered under colaterised and is subject to get liquidated.
Liquidity threshold defines the maximum limit to which the loan value can rise against the given collateral, as a rise beyond that percentage limit will trigger liquidation of the collateral provided.
There are liquidators that are incentivised to liquidate collateral that have crossed the Liquidity Threshold limit.
Keeping track of the Health Factor value to know the safety status of the collateral against liquidation
A very important parameter for borrowers to keep an eye on is the ***Health Factor (HF)***. The Health Factor denotes how safe your crypto collateral is against the risk of liquidation.
***The thumb rule is to maintain a Health Factor value >1, as when the HF value reaches 1, one’s collateral is subject to liquidation.***
The HF value will fluctuate according to the fluctuation of the value of the collateral provided against the loan value. Therefore, when the value of the crypto collateral provided appreciates against the loan value , there will be an increase in HF factor and when the value of the crypto collateral declines against the value of the loan, the value of the HF factor reduces.
The value of the HF sets according to the changes and variations that happen with the Liquidity threshold.
Monitor the risk parameter values on a daily basis to ensure one’s collateral is not at the risk of getting liquidated
All these parameter values will be available for users to monitor in the dashboard of AAVE platform. It’s a good practice for borrowers to monitor their Health Factor values and take steps to ensure that their collateral status is safe against the possibility of liquidation.
*Risk parameter data should be monitored on a regular basis from the dashboard*
One can either repay back the loan with interest(that should not be an issue as interest for lending and for protocol participation would be accrued), or add more collateral to bring the value of the collateral to maintain safe LTV and Liquidity threshold levels.
Monitor the price of cryptos and hold crypto collateral accordingly
*Matic price chart taken from* *trading view* https://www.tradingview.com/chart/jCWaxKNy/
*Safer to borrow with crypto collateral when crypto prices are experiencing an upside momentum, and not borrow with crypto collateral when prices are going to decline to the downside.*
For the past month, the value of my cryptos(Ethereum and Matic) that I have deposited as collateral has been increasing so I considered it safe to borrow against my collateral at a time when crypto prices are experiencing price rises being in a bull run.
I am keeping an eye on crypto prices, their next major resistance levels where the crypto prices will be subject to a price correction phase etc, based on which I will close my loan position while I earn some additional Matic for all these DEFI activities.
This is all I understood from my DEFI lending and borrowing experience from AAVE.
AAVE has made provisions to maintain protocol Solvency
AAVE maintains ecosystem reserves, where a portion of the interests the protocol generates is kept in a collector contract. This is called reserve factor and all the rewards protocol participants get come from this ecosystem reserve.
AAVE’s reserve factor provision is a safety module made to maintain the protocol’s solvency. The cost of providing additional incentives by the protocol will be covered by the reserve factor.
***Thank you for reading my post. Good day!!***
@bulletgelly
