CWC Newsletter #29 (June 1, 2020)
By Taylor Ryker, Analyst
Top 10 Headlines of the Past Week for EOSIO
Last week saw some great announcements in the EOSIO space, with developments in decentralized finance, blockchain gaming, venture funding, user experience, Block.one, and the EOS mainnet.
Below are the top 10 headlines of the past week for EOSIO:
1. Guide to Listing EOSIO Tokens on an Exchange
2. Community Upgrades to EOSIO Developer and User Experiences: EOS Rapid, EOSX, Anchor Wallet, and WAX Labs
3. Upcoming EOSIO Developer Webinars: dfuse and EOS Nation/NovaCrypto
4. Telos and Transledger's Cross-Chain Interoperability
5. EOSIO Gaming Updates: Telos, Upland, Azarus, and Mythical Games
6. Developments in EOSIO Decentralized Finance: Newdex, Chintai, DAPP token, and eosfinex
7. Block.one Announces 34 Recipients of EOSIO VC Grants
8. EOSIO As Digital Steel
9. Block.one Votes for Block Producers
10. Winner Announced for the EOSIO Challenge
1. Guide to Listing EOSIO Tokens on an Exchange
With the growing space of decentralized finance (defi) on EOSIO, last week Alfredo de Candia announced that he published a guide for those who are interested in listing their own EOSIO token on an exchange.
After creating an EOSIO token, such as on the deWeb platform, the next step is to list the token on alcor.exchange. Before listing, please be aware that you will need to pay a small fee to list your token, about 300 bytes of free RAM to open an account, and decide which EOSIO-based blockchain to deploy on. Lastly, the platform also allows for the creation of an OTC (over the counter) market that requires a 0.25% commission.
This is an important development in defi because it allows token creators an exchange to create token liquidity, to provide access for investors and token users to buy and trade it, and to allow the token creators an opportunity to profit from their entrepreneurship.
2. Community Upgrades to EOSIO Developer and User Experiences: EOS Rapid, EOSX, Anchor Wallet, WAX Labs, and Infinite X
It seems like every week there are new announcements on upgrading the EOSIO ecosystem to make it more developer and user friendly. Last week was no different; the EOSIO community saw more releases and upgrades.
EOS Rapid, a top-21 Block Producer, tweeted that they will work on supporting EOSIO developers: "Our team has decided to focus all of our development efforts for the rest of 2020 on making EOSIO dApp developer UX the best in crypto. We are considering a lot of projects and would love your feedback to help us decide what to build first." From the feedback, EOS Rapid will work on creating a marketplace that could remedy the flaws of Amazon.
The development team behind popular EOSIO wallet and block explorer, EOSX, announced new updates. EOSX has added new features and fixed bugs to the block explorer with the goal of improving side-chains speed and reliability to match the effectiveness of their EOS mainnet's explorer. Specifically for the EOS mainnet, EOSX "added new accounts to spam filters with the goal to protect users from the many spams sent to EOS accounts."
Greymass, a respected EOS Block Producer, released a beta version of their Anchor mobile wallet for iOS. The mobile wallet is primarily an authenticator designed to serve as a portable trusted device to use with dApps and external media. Anchor interacts with EOSIO blockchains by allowing users to sign individual transactions and to sign-in to any compatible EOSIO application. If you would like to provide feedback on their TestFlight beta program, please click here.
Wax Labs is asking for community user feedback. According to Wax, "Wax Labs was created to grow the WAX ecosystem, for the benefit of all participants of the WAX community. Now, we want to give everyone the opportunity to participate in the realization of WAX Labs project, even if you're not a developer/creator." Submit your idea here.
Infinite X released an updated EOSIO developer guide this past week. The guide provides best practices and standards for the latest version of the EOSIO protocol. In addition, the guide covers the set up of EOS nodes, accounts, smart contracts, token creations, and development environments.
3. Upcoming EOSIO Developer Webinars: dfuse and EOS Nation/NovaCrypto This month (June 2020), there will be several EOSIO developer webinars to assist EOSIO developers and creators. Webinars will be hosted by dfuse, EOS Nation and NovaCrypto, and Block.one.
On June 4, 2020, dfuse's CTO Alex Bourget will "be installing dfuse-eosio live on his laptop and give 2-3 examples of neat things that can be done as soon as it's installed. He will then take questions from webinar attendees." dfuse supports developers by offering an API that makes it "possible to stream real-time state updates, conduct lightning-fast searches and provide irreversible transaction guarantees all for the first time using a simple API call." Here is the registration link.
From June 15-18, 2020, Block.one will host a webinar "Build Your First Smart Contract on EOSIO" by Rakesh "Bob" Ghatvisave, technical writer at Block.one. The webinar will teach developers the "main technical components of EOSIO: nodeos, cleos, EOSIO.cdt, and various SDKs." Do not forget to register for the webinar.
On June 23, 2020, Patrick Schmid, CEO/CTO of NovaCrypto and EOS Nation Ambassador, will host the 2nd online EOSIO Swiss Workshop. The webinar will cover EOSIO essential dApps--Bloks.io, Scatter, Sense.chat, Everipedia, and WordProof--and features, such as EOS Nation tools, account creations, and querying an EOSIO blockchain through CURL. At the end of the webinar, there will be 3 short exclusive interviews with EOSIO builders. Register here.
4. Telos and Transledger's Cross-Chain Interoperability
Interoperability is currently one of the gold standards in the blockchain ecosystem with many developers and companies, such as ICON, Polkadot, and LiquidApps, trying to solve this issue. Transledger allows for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to move between blockchains while keeping their value. However, these interoperable transactions are slow and costly. Transledger CEO Didier Martin (former CEO of Worbli, an EOSIO sisterchain) has decided to leverage the Telos network for interoperability on Transledger.
By using the Telos network, Transledger will use Telos as a medium of exchange, which will allow Bitcoin and Etheruem interoperable transactions "to take advantage of Telos smart contracts and half-second transaction times without fees." More importantly, "using this technology, decentralized exchanges could provide trading speeds to rival centralized exchanges, but without users having to give up control of their assets. It can also bring the liquidity of high-market cap coins like Bitcoin onto decentralized exchanges for the first time."
5. EOSIO Gaming Updates: Telos, Upland, Azarus, and Mythical Games
One of the most promising sectors of the EOSIO ecosystem is currently the development of blockchain gaming. This past week, there were several blockchain gaming announcements and releases on Telos, Mythical Games, Upland, and Azarus.
Using the Telos smart contracts, popular game DOTA 2 will be the first game on the Farm game platform to allow its users to transact with crypto while playing on Steam. DOTA 2 is a "multiplayer online battle arena video game with over half a million players competing globally." Following DOTA 2, Farm's integration with Steam is poised to add other game titles such as Counterstrike and Grand Theft Auto V, which will also leverage the Telos blockchain.
On June 5, 2020, Mythical Games will showcase and exclusive gameplay and trailer debut of their upcoming release Blankos Block Party. From June 5-8, 2020, IGN is hosting a gaming event "Summer of Gaming 2020." To watch the event, IGN will livestream the event and will invite watchers to comment, vote, poll, and discuss their thoughts on what they view.
In the second week of June, the team behind popular real estate-trading game Upland will host a celebration commemorating their one-year anniversary. Between June 7-13, Upland will provide App updates, a property development roadmap, user challenges, and an Ask Me Anything (AMA). Also, Upland will introduce the Upland Contributor Network that will reward community contributions and developments.
Lastly, Azarus is a dApp that "gamifies stream watching and gameplay through an interactive challenge/reward loop that increases stream viewship, community engagement, and game retention." Last week, the Blockchain Game Alliance announced that Azarus was their newest member into the consortium. Other prominent EOSIO games are also a part of the Blockchain Game Alliance.
6. Developments in EOSIO Decentralized Finance: Newdex, Chintai, DAPP token, and eosfinex
Decentralized finance (defi) on EOSIO is beginning to rival other blockchains such as Ethereum. This past week, the space saw more developments and announcements with interoperability and token leasing.
Newdex, a widely-used EOSIO decentralized exchange, published a couple weeks ago their thoughts on cross-chain transactions. Newdex, like many others in the space, has seen the independent development of blockchains that has created much fragmentation and a lack of interoperability. In response, Newdex is planning to implement cross-chain transactions that will be able to transfer value from one type of blockchain to another with their launch of ERC-20 (Ethereum) token called Money Token (MNT).
Expected in mid-June, Chintai will release their next token-leasing market for the DAPP token. DAPP tokens power the DAPP Network, which provides affordable resources to create dApps, EOSIO blockchains, and cross-chain interoperability to name a few. With a leasing market, developers are able to access DAPP tokens at a fraction of the cost of owning DAPP tokens outright.
If you are interested in leveraging the DAPP Network, take a look at DAPP Solutions, a company that provides consulting and development services within this space. DAPP Solutions has an updated website to handle your questions and needs.
Eosfinex announced that they will launch their beta decentralized exchange with the liquidity of Bitfiinex. CTO of Bitfinex Paolo Ardoino said: "We believe providing the EOS community with the Bitfinex's liquidity pool via the eosfinex platform will have a major impact on the ecosystem and users who prefer to trade on a non-custodial platform. Liquidity has been a major issue for DEX's and we hope that by providing the best of both a centralized and decentralized exchange will be able to grow the EOS community."
7. Block.one Announces 34 Recipients of EOSIO VC Grants
Last week, Block.one's EOS VC Grants Program announced that they have awarded 34 grants to support companies that promote the growth of the EOSIO protocol.
EOS VC Grants Program, which began in December 2019, awarded $50,000 to projects to projects and companies that "represent a diverse array of industry sectors, global locations and varying stages of development. From developer tools to tree planting, the grantees will use the award to complete project milestones on their path to building solutions for general and commercial use."
Many of the grant recipients are not only on the EOS mainnet but also on other EOSIO sisterchains. Projects on WAX and Telos like Karma and Havuta, respectively, were awarded grants. It seems that Block.one is committed to supporting the entire EOSIO ecosystem and not specifically the EOS mainnet.
8. EOSIO As Digital Steel
EOSIO community member Malik Corbett wrote an illuminating piece on EOS as digital steel. Speaking to the stereotypes that bitcoin is digital gold and Ethereum as digital oil, Corbett suggests that we should conceptualize EOSIO and EOS as digital steel.
Corbett's thesis that EOS is digital steel is best summarized through this passage: "The EOS token is an important computational commodity for developers who desire to gain access to a public computational resource to build web applications. In the same way that construction workers use steel to build skyscrapers." Corbett adds more thoughts and context in the article, and I highly recommend you read if you have time.
9. Block.one Votes for Block Producers
Last week Friday, Block.one announced that they started voting for Block Producers. With 10 million votes, Block.one casted their vote for 10 Block Producers and are planning to vote for over 50 Block Producers in the coming weeks in a rotation. The initial 10 Block Producers consist of a group of large exchanges to startups who have helped the EOS mainnet grow. This is a positive sign indicating that Block.one will become more involved with the governance of the EOS mainnet.
Everything EOS's YouTube podcast raised some good points about Block.one's Block Producer votes. They explained that Block.one will begin to provide more guidance on their voting criteria, which will incentivize Block Producers to become more active in the community or align more with Block.one and token holders. Their initial vote for 10 Block Producers is a gradual progression in making in-roads with the EOS Block Producer community.
Over the weekend, EOS community leader Colin T. and Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer discussed Block.one's votes. Colin raised concerns about the fact that 3 of the 10 voted Block Producers were large exchanges. Blumer responded by echoing what Everything EOS said in terms of a gradual progression: "We've outlined the criteria for this round of an initial rotating vote where we are highlighting 50+ BP's which have contributed to the EOS ecosystem. More criteria will emerge as we narrow the number of parties we vote for and increase the amount of tokens we vote with." After some back and forth, Colin issued a video response indicating that he understands Blumer's stance.
10. Winner Announced for the EOSIO Challenge
Early this spring, Block.one held an EOSIO Challenge where they put up $200,000 as a reward for any developer(s) who could implement an Ethereum smart contract on the EOS mainnet. Last Friday, Block.one announced that the winner of the EOSIO Challenge was Syed Jafri.
The significance of this development is that Ethereum could be run on an EOS smart contract and by making it easier for Ethereum (Solidity) developers to leverage the EOS network for their dApps. If you are interested in porting an Ethereum dApp onto the EOS mainnet and/or develop an Ethereum dApp on the EOS mainnet, check out Jafri's open-source code.
Disclaimer: KJ Kingsley is not a financial advisor and holds the digital tokens or cryptocurrencies represented in the content above. This content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained in this post constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by myself to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the author’s employers.