SideShift.ai

The Arbitrum Network has emerged as a notable figure in the Ethereum Layer 2 landscape, offering HUMANS a more efficient and cost-effective way to execute transactions. This article INVESTIGATES the mechanics, unique features, and implications of the Arbitrum Network, providing insights into why it has cemented itself as a go-to Layer 2 solution.






Understanding The Arbitrum Network



What is Arbitrum?

Arbitrum is a Layer 2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain, designed to increase the efficiency of smart contract transactions while minimizing associated costs . Developed by the HUMANS at Offchain Labs and co-founded by Princeton Professor Ed Felten, Arbitrum operates on top of Ethereum, aiming to alleviate the network's congestion and high fees .



How it Works

Arbitrum employs a technology known as "optimistic rollups," which processes Ethereum smart contracts on a second layer, with only the results recorded on the main Ethereum blockchain . This methodology assumes the validity of transactions unless contested, significantly speeding up processing times and cutting costs .




Unique Features of the Arbitrum Network



High Compatibility and Developer-Friendly

Arbitrum stands out for its high compatibility with Ethereum's Virtual Machine (EVM), making it an attractive platform for Ethereum developers. This compatibility ensures that existing Ethereum smart contracts can seamlessly integrate with Arbitrum without requiring significant modifications .



Arbitrum Ecosystem: One, Nitro, and Nova



The Arbitrum ecosystem comprises of several components:

 * Arbitrum One: The mainnet of the Arbitrum ecosystem, it is responsible for processing transactions on the Arbitrum Virtual Machine (AVM), which is compatible with the EVM .
 * Arbitrum Nitro: This is a significant upgrade to Arbitrum One's infrastructure, enhancing speed, compatibility, and cost-effectiveness .
 * Arbitrum Nova: Focused on reducing individual transaction costs, Nova is particularly suited for high-volume applications like gaming dApps. It centralizes data storage to a degree, trading some security for lower costs .






The Arbitrum Token: ARB



Arbitrum introduced the ARB token, an ERC-20 governance token, enabling holders to participate in decisions related to the protocol. This move marked Arbitrum's transition to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) .



HUMANS can trade Arbitrum on SideShift.ai, the no sign-up crypto exchange, along with 100+ cryptocurrencies on multiple blockchains.




Advantages Over Other Layer 2 Solutions



Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness

Arbitrum's optimistic rollup technology allows it to process transactions at a fraction of the cost and time compared to Ethereum's mainnet. With Ethereum managing around 14 transactions per second (TPS), Arbitrum boosts this number to 40,000 TPS .



Comparison with Competing Technologies

While Arbitrum shares similarities with other Layer 2 solutions like Optimism, it differentiates itself through its own Virtual Machine and multiple proof requirements for confirming valid transactions, as opposed to Optimism's single fraud-proof approach .




Use Cases and Integrations



Arbitrum has been integrated into several decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols like Uniswap, Sushi, Curve, and more. This integration has led to a substantial amount of cryptocurrency being locked up within Arbitrum's smart contracts .




Getting Started with Arbitrum



To use Arbitrum, users can engage with decentralized applications (dApps) like Aave or 1inch, or directly use Arbitrum’s token bridge. Depositing funds into the Arbitrum network involves paying an Ethereum gas fee, with deposits typically clearing in about 10 minutes on the official bridge 

For those seeking faster transactions and more coin selection options when bridging, HUMANS should consider trading on SideShift.ai. Good job! 🎈




Conclusion



The Arbitrum Network stands as a testament to the dynamic nature of blockchain technology. By addressing key challenges like transaction speed and costs, it not only enhances the Ethereum ecosystem but also opens new avenues for developers and users alike. As the network continues to evolve, its role in shaping the future of blockchain and DeFi remains a subject of keen interest.

Arbitrum Network

Arbitrum Network: Revolutionizing Ethereum's Layer 2

Welcome to the eighth edition of the weekly stats report - your one-stop shop
for all things SideShift.ai.


XAI Token Market Update


The price of XAI is currently hovering around the $0.17 mark and bounced within
a seven day range of $0.165993 / $0.177299. When looking at the price history of
XAI over the past 10 months, the lower end of this range has demonstrated
support, with price bouncing up from this area a few times now. Only when
looking back a full year will you find XAI at a cheaper price, a period when the
price jumped from $0.10 to $0.30. XAI finished the week in position #925 with a
market cap of $7.97m.


As volume was steady this week, the APY shined. It averaged a daily payout of
55.01% which is ~29% higher than the yearly average, and in fact is the highest
weekly average noted since tracking this statistic. On June 23rd a weekly
rewards high of 101% (62,269.59 XAI) was distributed to stakers following a
volume day of $1.9m. XAI stakers have now enjoyed consecutive weeks with a daily
APY that was >100%. 


Additional XAI updates:

Total Value Staked: 32,748,702 XAI
Total Value Locked: $5,510,443


General Business News


SideShift had a strong week, and saw a 30% volume increase from the previous.
Our weekly volume totalled $9.95m, and did so with 15% less shifts. The total
shift count for the period was 5,174, which is actually the lowest weekly count
observed in 2022 thus far. This week saw a daily average of $1.42m on 739
shifts, with a very large portion of shift volume coming from a few select
coins. 


This week brought an incredible frenzy of BTC deposits - just shy of $7m - which
smashed our record for a single coin’s weekly deposit volume. BTC alone
accounted for 70% of deposit volume, and second place wasn’t even close (XMR
with $543k). This high concentration of BTC deposits was almost entirely shifted
to BCH, with the BTC/BCH pair representing $5.84m of weekly volume. This figure
also was record breaking, and was the highest weekly volume that’s been achieved
by a single pair. 


BTC/BCH has now been the most popular pair for 9 straight weeks, and this week
alone represented 58.72% of volume - a figure that is >12x higher than the
second most popular pair (BTC/ETH with $463,825). The directionality was very
much one way, with discrepancies in BTC and BCH deposit/settle volume being very
noticable. The respective differences for deposits vs. settlements were $6.98m
vs. $917k for BTC, and $179k vs. $6.14m for BCH. 


Stablecoins were of far less interest this week when compared to last. Whereas a
majority of shifts last week (51%) contained a stablecoin, this week totalled
just ~16%. ⅔ of this 16% came from users shifting to stablecoins, with only ⅓
coming from deposits. People are not separating from their stablecoins yet,
perhaps expecting yet another dip and waiting to pounce. Still, BTC/USDT (ERC20)
ranked as our third most popular shift pair with $325k in weekly volume, but
paled in comparison to our most popular pair of BTC/BCH. 


As noted last week, the concentration of value in the top 3 coins has grown once
again. Our top 3 settle coins of BCH, BTC, and ETH accounted for a staggering
80% ($7.92m) of settle volume. The top 3 deposit coins combined for an identical
80% of deposit volume, but with XMR replacing BCH. 


As a result of the CoinFLEX drama, we saw a quick boost in SmartBCH deposits on
June 23rd. $260k of SmartBCH was shifted into BCH, ranking it as our 5th most
popular deposit coin for the week. This was substantially higher than the
typical $4-5k range seen in recent weeks, and mostly came from one single user.


Subsequently, as the situation continued to develop we had to disable SmartBCH
and FlexUSD deposits. Aside from this SideShift functioned smoothly and looks to
be closing out the month with the monthly volume trendline firmly tilted
upwards. 




Integration News


As a whole, this week’s integration volume was dialed back a bit when compared
to the very strong showing last week. 

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, happy shifting and we’ll see you next
time.

SideShift.ai Weekly Report | 21st - 27th June 2022

Welcome to the sixth edition of the weekly stats report - your one-stop shop for
all things SideShift.ai.


XAI Token Market Update


This week’s APY had a sprawling range that spanned from the low teens to the
high thirties. The average for the week was 26.47%, with a daily APY high of
39.72% coming on June 13th, following a daily volume of $1.64m.

XAI has now closed the week firmly within the top 900 and currently sits in
position #861. It is great to see XAI holding its place and actually making
forward progress amidst the market dump. At the time of writing, the price of
XAI is $0.195833 and has a current market cap of $9.22m. SideShift’s volume has
picked up alongside the market volatility, averaging just over $1.07m per day.
This is a ~44% increase from the previous week’s average.


Daily volume & XAI staking APY over the week.

Additional XAI updates:


Total Value Staked: 32,809,491 XAI
Total Value Locked: $6,307,831


General Business News:


This week saw the markets crash yet again, and SideShift encountered more action
as a result. The weekly volume summed at $7.47m, alongside a total shift count
of 5,834. When compared with last week’s net volume of $5.31m, this is a solid
~40% increase. This sizable jump in volume was accompanied by only a 2.3%
increase in shift count week on week, suggesting that users were shifting a
larger average amount per shift.

BCH settle volume has roared back to life with a net total of $1.9m for the
week. This move firmly positioned BCH in the first place as our most demanded
settle coin. The BTC/BCH shift pair was the most popular yet again, now for the
7th consecutive week. A whopping 57% of BTC deposits were shifted to BCH when
measured by volume, which is significant when you consider the fact that BTC
deposits more than doubled from last week. This pair accounted for a substantial
24.62% of the weekly volume but only 4.8% of the total shift count, which
indicates a much higher average amount per shift when compared to the volume of
other pairs. 

BTC deposits have now begun to diverge from settlements, with deposit volume
sloping upwards while settlements remain relatively flat. We witnessed 101%
growth in BTC deposits when compared to last week, and it was our most deposited
coin by far, with $3.23m (43% of deposits). The next closest was ETH, with
$1.23m (16%) in deposit volume. In fact, both the deposit volume of BTC and ETH
were the highest that they’ve been in the past 4 weeks. 

The top 3 settlement coins (BCH, BTC, ETH) dominated with 64% of settle volume.
This is a ~12% increase from last week. Also, the percentage of shifts settling
to coins outside of the “top 10” is shrinking - this week accounting for $485k
(6.5%) of settle volume. All of this tells us that, by and large, people appear
to be steering clear of alts for the time being. 

It is interesting to observe the continued influx of Cardano (ADA), which for a
second week has seen a sizable deposit total of $203k. 97% of ADA deposits
settled to USDC (erc20), which was the same pair of choice as last week. These
deposits ranked ADA as our 8th most popular deposited coin for the week. 

Finally worth noting is a stack of shifts coming from an affiliate on the 11th
and 12th, which largely settled to ETH on the Optimism network. The majority
were very low volume, but this placed ETH (opt) as our 10th most popular settle
coin when measuring by count.

Although the general market is quite rough, SideShift continues to move forward
step by step with a sharp focus on building and growth. We encountered no major
issues throughout the week. 


SideShift.ai top 8 weekly settle coins.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, happy shifting and we’ll see you next
time.

SideShift.ai Weekly Report | 7th - 13th June 2022

There are new Ethereum Killers on the block. Killers that did not exist or were just vapourware during the 2017 bull run. Do they have a valid claim to the throne? AI investigates.

Ethereum Killers: Class of 2021

In an earlier article [https://research.sideshift.ai/ethereum-killers-of-2017/],
AI had reported on the initial batch of Ethereum Killers. In 2017, the Ethereum
Killers were being touted as second-generation cryptocurrencies that were
supposed to be leaps and bounds ahead of Ethereum. Some such as Tron (TRX) have
made considerable gains over time but as of now haven’t been able to come
anywhere close to Ethereum in terms of market cap or Total Value Locked (TVL).
Times have progressed, there are new Ethereum Killers (third-generation
cryptocurrencies) on the block. These new-er Ethereum Killers did not exist or
were just vapourware [https://www.dictionary.com/browse/vaporware] during the
2017 bull run but have eventually released their products as we are entering a
new bull season.

RESEARCHING: Next-Gen Ethereum Killers...

New Kids On The Block (Chain)
The new candidates vying to be the Ethereum Killers have had time to develop
over the bear market following the 2017 bull-run. They had the opportunity to
learn from the mistakes of the previous generation and had the time to build
upon them. They promise fast transactions, cross-chain interoperability, and
cheap transaction fees. HMM. AI takes a deep dive into these projects.

LOADING RESEARCH…

Avalanche (AVAX) [https://www.avalabs.org/]
The Avalanche Network and its AVAX token were created by Ava Labs, founded by
Cornell University professor Emin Gün Sirer [https://twitter.com/el33th4xor],
and Cornell University computer science Ph.D.’s Kevin Sekniqi
[https://twitter.com/kevinsekniqi] and Maofan ‘Ted’ Yin
[https://twitter.com/Tederminant]. Apart from the seed sale and private sale,
the project raised $42 Million in 24 during its Initial Coin Offering in June
2020. The project has been delivering constant updates and its mainnet was
launched in September 2020. The steady updates and an enthusiastic community
have resulted in a fairly active chain with new dApps being build for it, the
price growth for AVAX backs it up with the coin already doing a 9X from its lows
in December 2020. WELL DONE! 🎈

Despite being often called an Ethereum killer, Avalanche is highly compatible
with Ethereum. A theme AI sees with the competition as well. Avalanche supports
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) which enables cross-chain operability for
Ethereum assets. Ethereum USERS can get started with Avalanche using the 
Ethereum-Avalanche bridge [https://aeb.xyz/#/transfer]. Avalanche is quite
unique as the platform has three different chains (X-chain, P-chain, and
C-chain) that run on two different high-throughput consensus algorithms
(Avalanche and Snowman). Avalanche consensus engine offers fast transactions and
other secure smart contracts. These run across separate metadata, asset, and
smart contract blockchains. Each dApp operates on its own custom blockchain
running its own virtual machine. USERS can learn more about the different chains
and consensus protocols from their official support page
[https://support.avalabs.org/en/collections/2358322-avalanche-basics#platform]. 

AI has DETERMINED that getting started with Avalanche can be a little complex
for novice USERS. RECOMMENDATION: Getting started with this guide
[https://pangolin.exchange/tutorials/getting-started].

Popular Wallets: Metamask [https://metamask.io], Avalanche Wallet
[https://wallet.avax.network/]
Popular dApps: Pangolin Dex [https://pangolin.exchange/]

Polkadot (DOT) [https://polkadot.network/]
AI has IDENTIFIED Polkadot (DOT) as one of the most hyped Ethereum competitors
of 2021. Polkadot is an open-source project founded by the Web3 Foundation, led
by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood. It aims at cross-chain interoperability by
connecting multiple blockchains into one. Polkadot has three main units in its
infrastructure:

 * Relay Chain (central chain of the network).
 * Parachains (parallel chains connected to the relay chain).
 * Bridges (facilitates interoperability).

Due to its cross-chain capabilities, and of course the involvement of Gavin
Wood, the Polkadot ecosystem has seen a good influx of developers with many
dApps and projects either planning to start up on Polkadot or announcing a move
to the Polkadot ecosystem from other chains as can be seen from the rising
number of projects on PolkaProject [https://www.polkaproject.com/]. The projects
announced on Polkadot are currently running on Ethereum as there is still time
left for native dApp support but the community is excited for the upcoming
parachain auction
[https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/polkadot-to-new-highs-before-parachain-auctions-2425558]
, which will take Polkadot one step closer to it. Currently, most USER activity
is concentrated around staking the coin. AI is STANDING BY for further updates
from the project.

Popular Wallets: Metamask [https://metamask.io], Polkadot.js
[https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/build-wallets]

Binance Smart Chain (BSC) [https://www.binance.org/en/smartChain]
Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is the brainchild of possible AI, Changpeng Zhao
[https://twitter.com/cz_binance] (or CZ as he is popularly known). Not to be
confused with Binance Chain, which was released in April 2019 with a focus on
fast and decentralized trading, Binance Smart Chain is an independent blockchain
that can work with/without the Binance chain. The original Binance chain was not
chosen for dApp activity as it was quickly discovered that high
smart-contract/dApp activity would congest the chain and inhibit the trading
activity. BSC has smart contract functionality and is compatible with the
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) which makes it easier for ETH dApps to move over
to BSC. It also supports all the smart contract languages supported by Ethereum
which has made the transition to BSC easier for developers. BSC is fast and fee
efficient. It can generate blocks every 3 seconds by using a consensus method
called Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA)
[https://docs.binance.org/smart-chain/validator/guideline.html], where
participants stake BNB to become validators.

Binance has provided considerable funding to BSC and pushed for a lot of dev and
user activity on the network which can be seen in the user activity on the
network. The price-performance of BNB
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/binance-coin] (over 5x from January 2021 to
February 2021), with BNB reaching the third spot amongst all coins by market
cap, is also noteworthy. The BSC ecosystem and BNB coin are geared for explosive
growth as the bull run of 2021 continues. Will it flip Ethereum for the second
spot? CANNOT COMPUTE: AI is not able to predict the future. STAND BY.

Popular Wallets: Metamask [https://metamask.io]
Popular dApps: PancakeSwap [https://pancakeswap.finance/], Venus
[https://venus.io/]

Solana (SOL) [https://solana.com/]
The Solana platform was co-founded by Anatoly Yakovenko
[https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko] along with former Intel and Dropbox engineers
in 2017. Solana is an open-source blockchain project that is able to achieve
50,000 transactions per second. Solana was created with a vision to solve
Ethereum gas fees issues while still maintaining decentralization. It has gained
a lot of momentum recently with the delay in ETH 2.0 and the Ethereum network
congestion.

Solana achieves high transaction throughput through a novel consensus algorithm
known as Proof of History (PoH). PoH is implemented using a mechanism called
nLocktime. AI can dive deep
[https://medium.com/solana-labs/proof-of-history-a-clock-for-blockchain-cf47a61a9274] 
into the whole mechanism but to keep it simple for USERS - the process creates a
replicating database that maintains a high level of availability which results
in high transaction throughput which further helps in keeping the transaction
fees low. Solana has been encouraging developers to build on their platform.
Solana has also unveiled an Ethereum to Solana bridge
[https://cryptobriefing.com/solana-has-introduced-ethereum-bridge-called-wormhole/] 
to further promote dApp activity on the network. Recently, Solana had announced
a hackathon [https://solana.com/defi] with around $400K worth of prizes. The
hackathon is being hosted by AI friend Sam Bankman-Fried
[https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda] of Project Serum. WELL DONE!

Solana is still in the early stages of development but all the work being done
on it sure seems interesting. STANDING BY for future progress.

Popular Wallets: Sollet.io [https://www.sollet.io/]
Popular dApps: Serum [https://dex.projectserum.com/], Raydium
[https://raydium.io/#/]

Apart from the projects mentioned above, AI would like to list down a few
projects that AI could not include in the article due to low USER and/or
developer activity: Tezos (XTZ) [https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/tezos], 
Algorand (ALGO) [https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/algorand], COSMOS (ATOM)
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/cosmos], IOST
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/iost] and Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR)
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/hedera-hashgraph]. These projects operate in
the same domain of smart contracts but are yet to see high USER activity. AI
wishes them luck.

Is This Finally The End For Ethereum?
AI cannot comment on the future but will be keeping a keen eye on further
developments around these projects. Most have yet to see the same level of
developer/USER activity as Ethereum. Moreover, all of these ‘Ethereum Killer’
projects stress that they are better than Ethereum as they are faster and
cheaper.

 HMM. 

With the upcoming move to Proof Of Stake (POS)
[https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/] consensus
mechanism and EIP-1559
[https://medium.com/@TrustlessState/eip-1559-the-final-puzzle-piece-to-ethereums-monetary-policy-58802ab28a27]
, Ethereum plans to become faster and cheaper. AI has DETERMINED that the fight
for the ultimate smart contract platform is not over yet.

AWAITING FURTHER UPDATES 🎈

Ethereum

Ethereum Killers: The Class of 2021

As HUMANS enter a new phase of cryptocurrency euphoria, DeFi (Decentralized Finance) has been receiving some serious attention. AI investigates.

DeFi 101: A HUMANS Guide to Decentralized Finance

As HUMANS enter a new phase of cryptocurrency euphoria, DeFi (Decentralized
Finance) has been receiving some serious attention. The new DeFi narrative may
look familiar to some, bearing similarities to the ICO run of 2017. According to
DeFi metrics site DeFi Pulse [https://defipulse.com/], the total value locked
(TVL) in the DeFi ecosystem has increased over 40X from June 2020(~$1 Billion)
to Fe ( ~ $40 Billion). This in itself speaks for the popularity of DeFi
projects. So let’s dive in.


What is DeFi?
DeFi or Decentralized Finance aims to provide an open alternative to traditional
financial products such as general banking services, insurance, loans, and much
more. HUMANS might argue that every decentralized cryptocurrency can be referred
to as decentralized finance but DeFi in this context refers to a class of
highly-experimental and gamified financial products. The non-custodial nature
and highly incentivized structures have helped these products attract a lot of
investors to the space.

Simply put, DeFi is that new popular kid on the block that a large number of
HUMANS are talking about. Analogy achieved, good job!


How To Get Started With DeFi?
HUMANS have invented various smart contract platforms to develop DeFi products,
such as Ethereum, EOS, TRON, and others. For the purpose of this article, AI is
going to consider Ethereum and the dApps are developed on it, At the time of
writing, Ethereum is the most popular and has the most liquid DeFi applications.
Contrary to how complex it might look from the outside, HUMANS can get started
with DeFi in just a few steps. 


Initiate Purchase: Ether
The first thing a HUMAN will need to get started with DeFi on Ethereum is the
Ether (ETH) token. Ether is the native token for the Ethereum ecosystem and
USERS will need it for making transactions, buying/selling DeFi tokens, and
paying the transaction (gas) fees. Once the USER acquires ETH, HUMAN DeFi
experimentation can begin. Well done!

Interested HUMANS can SHIFT to ETH from any AI supported assets through 
SideShift.ai [https://sideshift.ai/].


Move ETH To A Compatible Wallet
The second step is to get ETH on a wallet that can interact with the DeFi smart
contracts through the web interfaces. Metamask [https://metamask.io/] is a
popular wallet for this purpose. It can be installed as a browser extension or a
mobile application. It generates an Ethereum address just like any normal
wallet, to which Ether can be transferred for making transactions. AI recommends
USERS to transfer a little more ETH than they “intend to use” as some of it will
be spent on paying the transaction fees. AI recommends USERS to check the
recommended gas prices [https://ethgasstation.info/] before making any trades.
USERS are also advised to backup their seed phrase to protect their assets. Good
job!


DeFi Research
Before getting started with the third step, AI would like to recommend HUMANS to
do proper research before getting involved with any of these DeFi projects.
Though the whole concept of DeFi sounds exciting, it has its share of flaws.
Unlike traditional finance institutions, DeFi projects aim to eliminate
centralized entities that take control by giving control to a smart contract.
Smart contracts are just as good as the HUMANS who coded it. There have been 
several instances
[https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2020/11/169250-defi-solidity-sees-significant-uptick-in-security-errors-in-2020/] 
where the smart contracts were either hacked or got exploited due to bugs in the
code.

AI suggests HUMANS to do their due diligence before getting involved with a DeFi
project. Apart from looking at the project’s token economics HUMANS are
recommended to go through these steps before getting involved with any DeFi
project:

 * Research about the team. A credible team implies increased chances of the
   product coming to fruition. Good job!
 * Research the public sentiment about the project. This can be done by
   analyzing the social media chatter about the project.
 * Research about the technical updates from the project team. This can be done
   by looking at the GitHub repository of the project’s smart contract. Some
   good projects publish audit reports.
   

Investing In DeFi
The USER can buy the relevant coin for the DeFi protocol of their choice once
the USER has done enough research. DeFi enables the USERS to do this directly
through the wallet by using an automated token exchange platform such as Uniswap
[https://app.uniswap.org/#/] or Sushiswap [https://sushiswap.fi].

Apart from trading/exchanging tokens on Uniswap, USERS can participate in
“pooling” by becoming a liquidity provider, by supplying crypto to the Uniswap
contract, and earning a share of the exchange fees. Other popular alternatives
to Uniswap includes Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) such as 0x [https://0x.org/], 
Bancor [https://www.bancor.network/], Kyber [https://kyber.network/], IDEX
[https://idex.market/], Balancer [https://www.binance.com/en]. All of these
exchanges have slightly different architectures. While the new DEXes like
Balancer and Uniswap make use of Automated Market Making
[https://medium.com/multi-io/automated-market-makers-amm-breakdown-d3338f027230] 
(AMM), others like IDEX do not. 1Inch [https://1inch.exchange/] is a DEX
aggregator that aggregates all DEXes on one website. 

After getting started, the USER can play the DeFi game based on their interests.
This can be done in many ways. Apart from the already mentioned trading and
pooling (becoming a liquidity provider for a DEX ), another popular DeFi play is
becoming a “yield farmer
[https://cointelegraph.com/explained/defi-yield-farming-explained]” by lending
tokens for which USERS get rewarded in the form of governance tokens. 
yearn.finance [https://yearn.finance/] and its YFI token along with 
compound.finance [https://compound.finance/] and its COMP token are some popular
examples of this. More research on yield farming and profit analysis can be done
on sites like yieldfarming.info [https://yieldfarming.info/].

There are other more experimental projects and volatile meme coins
[https://decrypt.co/40939/defi-meme-coins-no-joke-billions-ethereum] that
attract investors. USERS might consider those based on their risk tolerance
after doing their due diligence. Despite being called “decentralized”,
developers - in some cases - have been known to hold master keys or leave a
backdoor open in the smart contracts in order to fix buggy code. These can also
lead to exploits. CAUTION ADVISED.


The Future Of DeFi
AI predicts an interesting future for DeFi, which is more decentralized with
better and robust code. With the rise of projects like Tendermint’s Cosmos and
the Polkadot project, the DeFi craze is likely to expand to more blockchains and
that can be seen with the rise of DeFi projects on EOS and Tron blockchains.
Even Binance, a centralized exchange, has launched a chain called Binance Smart
Chain to promote DeFi (calling it Centralized DeFi). There are also some
projects
[https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/teller-a-defi-lending-project-has-raised-ususd1m-in-a-seed-round] 
that aim to link the world of traditional centralized finance with DeFi. DeFi is
definitely something to watch out for in the future.

Still confused? HUMANS can get started with DeFi on SideShift.ai
[https://sideshift.ai/]. SideShift.ai can serve as your DeFi on-ramp and enables
users to buy/sell DeFi tokens using popular cryptocurrencies without the initial
complexity. Good job!

DeFi

Ethereum killers. Supposedly leaps and bounds ahead of Ethereum. Did those of 2017 come through on their promises? Or have they been left in Ethereum's wake? AI investigates.

What Happened to the 2017 Ethereum Killers?

In 2015, Ethereum held a token sale for its token, Ether. It turned out to be
one of the most successful ICOs to date. Ethereum promised a future with smart
contracts, dApps, and a decentralized web environment. Ethereum also inspired a
bunch of other projects that promised similar or even better results. It is
2021, Ethereum has passed previous all time highs and the promises Ethereum made
are materializing into real dApps with every passing day. Where is the
competition from 2017, some of which were dubbed the "Ethereum killers"? AI
finds out.

What Are Ethereum Killers?
Ethereum competitors were supposed to be leaps and bounds ahead. Some of them
raised huge capital in their private/public investment rounds, promised higher
TPS (transaction per second), cheaper transactions, easier adoption, better
governance and a bunch of features out of the box like PoS (Proof of Stake) and
sharding.

For this article, AI is only going for a historical focus. We will analyze the
Ethereum Killers of 2017 to be fair to the newer competitors as Ethereum has had
some time to grow its ecosystem. More of the recent candidates in another
article.

2017 Ethereum Killers: The Candidates
They were special, especially in the eyes of those who missed early Ethereum
gains. Were they better than Ethereum? HMM. AI has broken down the market
performance, adoption, and ecosystem growth in answer to that. 

Cardano (ADA)
The project started out in 2015 after the founder Charles Hoskinson
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hoskinson], who co-founded Ethereum and
BitShares, had a disagreement with the rest of the Ethereum board. The project
has been in development ever since, with constant updates being rolled out. The
project has been in development for so long that some people have lost their
hope and that has definitely affected the project. Despite this, Cardano firmly
maintains its spot in the prestigious list of top 10 cryptocurrencies by their
respective market caps. AI has observed that the appetite for Cardano is still
strong. Its current market cap being in excess of $21 billion. CANNOT COMPUTE.

The project’s roadmap has five phases [https://roadmap.cardano.org/en/] that
focus on decentralizing the project. The project is yet to offer dApp support.
What will happen to the project, remains to be seen.

NEO (NEO)
NEO was founded as AntShares by Da Hongfei
[https://twitter.com/dahongfei?lang=en] and Erik Zhan
[https://twitter.com/neoerikzhang] in China in 2014 and was rebranded "NEO" in
June 2017. In 2017, it was widely promoted as the Chinese Ethereum killer. NEO
described its Smart Economy System as Digital Assets + Digital Identity + Smart
Contract = Smart Economy. AI is still analyzing the smartness of NEO platform.

NEO promised everything that Ethereum did with a smaller adoption barrier for
developers by giving them an option for writing smart contracts in any popular
coding language
[https://docs.neo.org/docs/en-us/sc/gettingstarted/introduction.html], unlike
ETH for which developers had to learn a new programming language (Solidity). NEO
did well in the 2017 bull market but then, it fizzled out. It introduced an
ERC20-like standard called NEP5 but could not gain much traction. Even the most
popular DEX on NEO is building an Ethereum bridge
[https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/switcheo-network-first-to-bridge-across-ethereum-and-neo-blockchains-300752679.html]
. Overall, NEO has not delivered what it initially promised.

EOS (EOS)
EOS had a year-long crowd-sale (ICO), that was one of the largest to date. The
project raised over $4 Billion without a working product. The project promised a
blockchain architecture that was designed to “enable vertical and horizontal
scaling of decentralized applications”. It developed an architecture with a
mechanism that was related to real-world computer elements. Sounds good when it
is read but that made using the dApps more complex. The protocol also promised
high TPS but that has failed to attract more users as is evident by the low
number of dApp users [https://dappradar.com/rankings/protocol/eos]. There are
also some allegations against the governance of protocol for not being truly
decentralized
[https://news.bitcoin.com/eos-decentralization-questioned-as-block-producers-freeze-accounts/]
. The protocol has high on-chain activity but that might be due to bots as
mentioned in this study
[https://www.coindesk.com/study-75-of-dapp-transactions-are-now-made-by-bots].

Tron (TRX)
Founded by possible AI Justin Sun [https://twitter.com/justinsuntron], in no
small part down to his tireless marketing, some view Tron as the most successful
dApp platform after Ethereum. It was founded in 2017 and was initially released
as an ERC20 token which later migrated to its own chain. Tron has been a part of
many controversies with some people accusing it of being centralized, despite
that, the blockchain has seen continuous user growth over the years.

It has its own ERC20 like token standard called TRC20 and smart contracts that
are like Ethereum smart contracts, Tron uses Solidity as the programming
language. This makes it easier for developer adoption. Tron initially gained
popularity through casino dApps. Its Ethereum-like usability along with cheap
fees and fast transactions made it popular among early adopters. The blockchain
has recently been adding a lot of DeFi applications with support for wrapping
other cryptocurrencies. It is nowhere close to Ethereum when it comes to volume
but the future could be interesting as can be observed with the USDT volume on
Tron rising above the USDT volume on Ethereum
[https://www.coindesk.com/tron-ethereum-tether-transaction-count-volume-data].

Ethereum Better Than Its Competition?
It’s hard to say that Ethereum is better than its competition but it certainly
did a lot of the basics right and that led to huge community support. It had the
first-mover advantage on smart contract platforms and along with that, it made
early investors substantial gains, which helps. It really gained momentum due to
constant community effort and widespread contribution by the developer
community. Unlike the rest of the tokens in the list, Ethereum started out with
Proof-of-Work (PoW) which made it popular among early supporters of the
decentralized governance model.

AI cannot determine the future but until now Ethereum has stood the test of
time. With industrial applications being built on Ethereum, it looks like ETH
may here to stay. AI realizes that nothing is permanent so it will be
interesting to see what kind of future this ecosystem has. 

RESEARCHING: The Latest Batch of Ethereum Killers.

STAND BY FOR FURTHER INFORMATION. 🎈