The University of Cambridge, through the Cambridge Centre of Alternative Finance (CCAF), has rolled out a multi-year research initiative with 16 key financial institutions like WorldBank, IMF, and MasterCard to shed more light on the rapidly evolving crypto-asset ecosystem.
The research initiative dubbed the Cambridge Digital Assets Programme (CDAP) seeks to paint a picture of the opportunities and risks presented by the crypto space through an evidence-based public dialogue.
Per the announcement:
“It is designed to address the broader ecosystem trends and issues through impactful research outputs that can help guide public opinion, inform regulation and policy discussion, as well as support evidence-based decision making by individuals and institutions globally.”
Moreover, the new programme intends to offer greater clarity about the digital asset ecosystem and value transfer systems by providing data-driven insights. Other players in the collaborative research include Visa, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, Invesco, and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
Bryan Zhang, CCAF’s executive director, welcomed the initiative and noted:
“The growing adoption of digital assets increasingly blurs the lines between roles, responsibilities and applicable rules, stretching the boundaries of long-term institutional arrangements.”
CDAP’s research agenda will be categorized into three workstreams: emergent money systems comprising crypto-assets, enterprise and consumer tokens, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and stablecoins.
Michel Rauchs, CCAF’s digital assets lead, stated:
“We believe that this programme will provide decision-makers with the objective analysis and empirical evidence that they need to navigate the digital assets maze.”
A recent study from Visa showed that building wealth and the financial way of the future were the primary drivers of owning cryptocurrencies.
Furthermore, insights gained entailed cryptocurrencies being part of the popular consciousness and were poised for additional growth, especially in emerging markets.
To protect the blockchain networks from eavesdropping and quantum computing attacks, JP Morgan Chase, Ciena, and Toshiba have shown the feasibility of a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system in groundbreaking research.
In a statement, the research team disclosed that the QKD network can offer speeds of 800 Gbps for mission-critical blockchain applications irrespective of environmental factors.
Yasushi Kawakura, Toshiba America’s vice president, believes that the QKD project is a stepping stone towards averting quantum attacks on the blockchain ecosystem.
The QKD network is an integration of JP Morgan’s P2P blockchain-based network called “Liink”, Toshiba’s proof of concept network infrastructure, and Ciena’s Waveserver 5 platform consisting of 800 Gbps optical-layer encryption.
Therefore, it is based on quantum physics and uses a solid two-way communication framework.
Marco Pistoia, the head of the FLARE Research group at JP Morgan Chase, welcomed the strategic partnership and stated:
“This work comes at an important time as we continue to prepare for the introduction of production-quality quantum computers, which will change the security landscape of technologies like blockchain and cryptocurrency in the foreseeable future.”
Given that the quantum computing era is on the horizon, Steve Alexander believes research and development are crucial for optimal results like Ciena’s first-ever 800 Gbps encryption.
The chief technology officer at Ciena explained:
“With more sensitive information being distributed across fiber-optic networks every day, robust encryption is of vital importance.”
Quantum computers are still in the developing phase and are deemed superfast than standard computers.
JP Morgan has been crafting a name for itself in the blockchain/crypto space. For instance, it created a business unit dubbed Onyx to house its digital currency and blockchain efforts.
The leading bank also recently set foot in the metaverse through a virtual lounge.
The global crypto market capitalization is currently hovering around $2 trillion, according to data from CoinMarketCap. However, Raoul Paul, one of the most vocal mouthpieces in the digital currency ecosystem, expects the market cap to top $250 trillion by the end of the decade.
The digital currency ecosystem has seen steady growth in recent times. By 2021, the global crypto market cap topped $1 trillion for the first time. The cryptocurrency ecosystem soon smashed the $2 trillion last year as the major assets, particularly Bitcoin (BTC), recorded a massive institutional embrace soaring to an All-Time High (ATH) above $68,700 in November.
To Raoul Pal, the digital currency ecosystem has not attained the same level of adoption as other mainstream traditional investment products. Raoul, who is now the CEO of RealVision, a crypto investment Think Tank, believes that “there’s a reasonable chance” the industry will grow to the $250 trillion valuation level if the level of adoption in the space continues.
“If I look at the total derivatives market, it’s $1 quadrillion. I think there’s a reasonable chance of this being a $250-trillion asset class, which is 100x from here, which would be the largest growth of any asset class in all of history in the shortest period of time,” he said while speaking on the Bankless Brasil podcast.
To Raoul, attaining this valuation point might mean that more than 3.5 billion people will be using it within the defined time frame.
“That will pretty much dovetail in with the idea that 3.5 billion people are using it — that’s just extrapolating the growth numbers of the network. So, if [there are] 3.5 billion users in 2030, the market cap’s going to be something like $250 trillion,” he added.
The digital currency ecosystem is growing at a fast pace, as is visible on all fronts. While no one can really see the future, there is a general expectation that the industry will attain the valuation point as predicted by Raoul soon.
It is largely believed that one of the primary reasons Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin (BTC) was to solve the financial inequality amongst people.
The design of the digital currency and the blockchain backing the new form of money has largely driven new innovations into the space.
From the surface, it appears that big corporations are cashing out more from the digital currency ecosystem based on the enormity of their investments. However, in reality, retail investors are the biggest beneficiaries of the crypto revolution. This is because the rules that have been established by the mainstream or traditional financial system that naturally gives advantage to institutional advantage do not apply in the decentralized world of digital currencies.
The Equalizing Game
Cryptocurrencies are an innovation that seeks to offer the same products and services as the financial institutions offer, but in a more flexible and decentralized manner. One of the ways this innovation is being brought to life is via Decentralized Finance (DeFi), a financial system coordinated by a predefined set of codes called Smart Contracts.
There are various expressions of DeFi and through developers’ creativity, lending, swapping, and derivatives, products now exist in the digital currency world. Unlike traditional brokers, where requirements are necessary to be met before being granted access to these products, accessing DeFi lending is free from bureaucracy, paperwork, or vetting processes inherent amongst banks.
Other products in the DeFi space are like that, and funds are free from monitoring as individuals keep custody of their digital currencies by themselves through unhosted wallets.
Thus far, many different people have access to crypto-related products, regardless of their nationalities, races, education, age, and economic status. No financial innovation has given the insight to integrate as many people as cryptocurrencies have done from history. From the millions of crypto users around today, one can conclude that the journey towards mainstream financial inclusion has been quite promising across the board.
One of Asia’s biggest Venture Capital firms, Chiron Partners, has launched a $50 million ecosystem fund christened the Chiron Terra Fund I (CTI), aimed at supporting innovative projects that are emerging from the Terra blockchain ecosystem.
The firm announced that the CTI will support the projects. In addition, the Fund will involve in decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT), and metaverse related initiatives. The primary motivation behind the massive investment is to reposition Chiron Partners as one of the committed accelerators of developing promising, disruptive, and emerging technologies.
“We’re thrilled to have Chiron Partners join the booming Terra ecosystem as a valuable resource to help equip ecosystem projects and builders with capital, strategic expertise, and other guidance,” says Do Kwon, Co-Founder and CEO of Terraform Labs.
Terra is a high-performing blockchain hinged on using fiat pegged stablecoins to power global payment systems. In a bullish move to support the growth of the innovative projects emerging on the Terra ecosystem, the protocol raised a $150 million fund from renowned venture capitalists back in July to support these projects. These funding models similarly move from competing blockchains, including Avalanche and the Binance Smart Chain, respectively.
Furthermore, Terra recently completed its Columbus-5 upgrade, significantly improving scalability and enhancing network interoperability. From here, as many as 160 projects are on track to make their way to the Terra ecosystem as from Q1 2022.
“The Terra ($LUNA) ecosystem’s growth potential, particularly after the latest Columbus-5 upgrade and announcements on Risk Harbour insurance wrapped protection, is limitless,” said Jake Cormack, Founding Partner and COO of Chiron Partners.
The positivity surrounding the Terra ecosystem is highly reflective in the native digital currency LUNA, which has surged over 13,000% in the Year-to-Date period, according to data from data analytics platform, Coingecko.
Nearly every segment of the crypto sector underwent explosive growth in 2021. The steady inflow of institutional funds could possibly be interpreted as a signal that the best is yet to come.
For new users, figuring out how to obtain cryptocurrency can be a tedious task, and the challenge of securing the assets off exchanges is another hurdle some investors find difficult to overcome.
Here’s a rundown of some of the most used cryptocurrency soft wallets that support a wide swath of tokens and offer users access to decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFTs), staking opportunities and airdrops.
MetaMask
MetaMask was originally launched to support the Ethereum blockchain and decentralized applications (DApps) that run on top of it. It is now available as a browser extension and smartphone application.
The company launched in 2016 and has largely benefited from a first-mover advantage to become one of the most popular and widely integrated wallets, and it is one of the few to support nearly every blockchain network.
A quick scroll through the supported networks on Chainlist, a platform that provides a list of Ethereum Virtual Machine- (EVM)-compatible networks and instructions on how to add any listed network to their MetaMask wallet, shows hundreds of blockchain networks supported by MetaMask including many of the top smart contract competitors.
Currently, MetaMask supports Avalanche, Fantom, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, HECO Mainnet, Optimism and Arbitrum, and it’s easy for users to use various bridges to transfer tokens between the supported networks.
MetaMask has also integrated a swap feature directly into the wallet to give users access to an aggregated list of decentralized exchanges (DEXs). According to data from Dune Analytics, the daily swap volume on MetaMask swap has steadily increased throughout 2021.
The rise in swap volume has also come alongside rumors that MetaMask will eventually release a token of its own and many users are anticipating an airdrop.
Phantom
Phantom is a popular software wallet and browser extension available for Solana network users.
Similar to MetaMask, the Phantom wallet has a built-in DEX that allows users to make direct swaps within the software, thus avoiding the risk of connecting to a scam website or paying gas fees to transfer the funds out of the wallet to another exchange.
There are rumors that Phantom could launch its own token and airdrop a portion of the supply to early adopters. So far, however, this is nothing more than pure speculation and nothing has been mentioned by the developer yet.
The wallet also has an NFT tracking feature and users can also transact with available NFT marketplaces.
Similar to other wallets, Phantom users can stake Solana (SOL) tokens without needing to transfer the assets. Recently, the team announced a partnership with MoonPay that will allow users to use fiat currency and credit cards to purchase tokens in the Solana ecosystem.
We’re live on @Phantom!
MoonPay’s integration will make onboarding even easier for those new to the @Solana ecosystem, bringing a fiat on-ramp directly to Phantom’s 1M+ users.
Full details here https://t.co/34hAnnxLyr pic.twitter.com/08IpTfAbCB
— MoonPay (@moonpay) November 17, 2021
The project is also developing smartphone applications that will allow users access to the Solana network directly from their smart devices.
Keplr
Keplr wallet is the first inter blockchain communication- (IBC)-enabled wallet and browser extension for the Cosmos network that allows users to store and access tokens within the ecosystem.
It currently supports more than 15 networks including Cosmos, Secret Network, Kava, Crypto.org, IRISnet and Persistence, and the team regularly adds support for new chains with several projects currently under beta access.
Holders of the supported tokens are able to stake their holdings directly through the Keplr wallet and the app works on Android and iOS devices.
UPDATE: Keplr Mobile is now LIVE
See our latest post for the app store links:https://t.co/LUyHzzekHE
— Keplr Wallet (@keplrwallet) October 14, 2021
At the moment, there are no rumors of a possible Keplr token or airdrop to users, but one can never be sure about what might happen in the crypto sector. If Keplr integrates popular features like its own swap interface or an NFT marketplace, then the chance of a native token is always a possibility.
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The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Veteran U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo is unperturbed that the growth of digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC) is a threat to the dominance of the U.S. Dollar.
Adeyemo is optimistic that the current path the U.S. economy is charting through the signing of the Infrastructure Bill will help keep the Dollar’s dominance intact.
“As our economy grows, it is an opportunity for the global economy to grow and as that happens, the dollar will remain the dominant currency in the world as well,”
The Treasury Executive says despite the potential benefits that digital currencies brandish, some risks are often attached to their adoption and usage. However, he believes the risks can be curtailed by collaborating with regulators in other countries to help reduce the chances of using them for illicit transactions.
“We know that digital assets have the ability to be used by those who want to illicitly move money through the system in a way that doesn’t touch the Dollar and that we can’t see as easily. But we do think that ultimately working together with countries around the world, we can address this risk by calling on the creators of digital assets to follow the rules around anti-money laundering more closely,” he said.
Another clear major threat of using digital currencies, which according to Adeyemo, involves Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), is bypassing sanctions levied by the American government.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), about 110 economies are actively developing CBDCs, with Russia amongst the pack. In fact, the Kremlin has announced plans to launch a pilot test for its digital Ruble in 2022, after which it will decide whether to launch the new form of money officially.
Adeyemo noted that even though “a digital ruble or other digital currencies come into place, there will still be scope for our sanctions to have an impact on their economies simply because the global economy is still inter-connected.”
The robust nature of the U.S. economy and the Dollar’s relevance in global transactions have made the world’s reserve currency shielded from the various risks the advent of cryptocurrencies presents.
The Watr Foundation, in partnership with blockchain platform Algorand, recently launched a project to provide ESG scoring for different commodities with a special focus on climate change. While the project has a clear environmental focus, the platform will also include labeling for everything from how a company treats its workers to the number of people participating in an asset’s ecosystem by gender.
Watr Foundation council president Maryam Ayati said in a statement:
“We believe this next iteration on resource models should be co-created in mutually-owned profit models. It is a privilege and comfort to be collaborating with the pioneers of decentralized technology, blockchain, industry, and environmental products in bringing this blockchain ecosystem to life.”
Algorand COO Sean Ford said “Watr’s vision to enable a commodities market that is grounded in transparency, environmental responsibility and activism by all participants is aligned with Algorand’s leadership as a carbon-negative network.”
In September Algorand released a protocol upgrade to improve their smart contracts and unveiled a $300 million fund aimed at DeFi projects.
The Avalanche Foundation has unveiled its plans to fuel the growth of its ecosystem through Blizzard, a $200 million fund secured from its partners.
The funding for Blizzard was pooled from the foundation itself, as well as other prominent blockchain investors, including Ava Labs, Polychain Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Dragonfly Capital, CMS Holdings, Republic Capital, R/Crypto Fund, Collab+Currency, Lvna Capital, and Finality Capital Partners amongst others.
With the fund, more than 320 projects that are currently resident on the super-fast, cheap, and eco-friendly blockchain and new emerging ones will be able to gain access to the funding to scale.
“The last two months have shown incredible growth across Avalanche, with users, assets, and applications joining the community in record-highs,” says Emin Gün Sirer, Director of the Avalanche Foundation. “Blizzard will play a key role in further accelerating this growth and solidifying Avalanche’s position as the premier home for projects and people pioneering the next era in our space.”
The capital from Blizzard will be targeted at four key areas, including DeFi, NFTs, enterprise, and culture applications. The fund will be used to take equity positions in new projects, buying up the tokens of promising startups, and “various forms of technology, business development, and ecosystem integration support,” the foundation confirmed.
The move by Avalanche to fuel the growth of its ecosystem takes a cue from similar moves that other prominent blockchain protocols have made. Back in October, Binance launched its $1 billion funds to promote a plethora of growth activities on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
Blockchain networks understand the digital buzz currencies are creating today. Protocols also understand the future of finance, and Web3.0 is also a function of the unique opportunities that blockchain protocols can bring to the table. Armed with this knowledge, many blockchain networks want to be well-positioned to maintain their relevance ahead of the imminent future in which blockchain and cryptocurrencies will rule.
Protocol upgrades are one of the biggest drivers of momentum because they show developers’ dedication to fixing bugs, incorporating user requests and adding new features that make the protocol competitive and shore up the token’s value.
One project that has seen its token price rally to a new all-time high following the launch of a highly anticipated upgrade is Terra (LUNA), a blockchain protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins like TerrUSD (UST) to create a global payments system.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $23.81 on Sept. 21, the price of LUNA surged 108% to establish a new record high at $49.55 on Oct. 4 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked to $2.5 billion.
LUNA/USDT 1-day chart. Source:TradingView
Three reasons for the price breakout in LUNA include the launch of its Columbus-5 upgrade which introduced a LUNA burning mechanism, the protocol’s adoption of the IBC standard which opens Terra to the Cosmos ecosystem and an increase in DeFi applications and total value locked on the protocol.
Columbus-5 arrives
Columbus-5 launched on Sept. 30 and according to Terra developers and independent analysts, the upgrade is the most significant development to happen to the protocol to date.
1/ Columbus-5 is now officially live as the new Terra mainnet!
Welcome to the future of Terra https://t.co/EFnQnFr2lB
— Terra (UST) Powered by LUNA (@terra_money) September 30, 2021
One of the notable changes to come along with the upgrade was a modification to the project’s tokenomic model which leads to all LUNA used to mint UST being burned, instead of going into the community pool.
According to data from Terra, there were $832 million worth of LUNA burned in the genesis block of Columbus-5.
This change has introduced deflationary pressure to the LUNA supply and it could help boost its price in the long term as demand for UST grows.
Inter-Blockchain Communication standard
A second reason for the boost in LUNA’s momentum was its integration with the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) standard which allows the Terra network to communicate and interact with protocols in the Cosmos ecosystem.
This integration opens up Terra and its UST stablecoin to more widespread adoption throughout the Cosmos ecosystem and make it the stablecoin of choice for applications and chains in the network.
With a larger pool of projects now having access to UST, this could lead to a further deflation in the supply of LUNA becaus more will need to be burned in the process of minting new UST.
Related:Evolve or die: How smart contracts are shifting the crypto sector’s balance of power
The total value locked in the Terra ecosystem is surging
A third reason for the bullish price moves in LUNA has been the network’s growing ecosystem of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that have helped push the total value locked on the protocol to a new all-time high.
According to data from Defi Llama, the total value of assets locked on the Terra network reached a record $10.07 billion on Oct. 4 right as LUNA price was breaking out to a new record high.
Total value locked on Terra. Source: Defi Llama
Currently, Terra’s TVL is above $10 billion and the top-ranked platform in terms of TVL is Ancor Protocol (ANC) with $3.86 billion. ANC is the main avenue for minting UST by pledging LUNA or Ether (ETH) as collateral.
Other notable DeFi protocols on the network include Lido (LDO), which has a TVL of $3 billion, Mirror (MIR) with a TVL of $1.38 billion and Terraswap which has a $1.32 billion TVL.
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for LUNA on Sept. 26, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. LUNA price. Source:Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for LUNA began to pick up on Sept. 21 and reached a high of 73 around one hour before the price began to increase 108% over the next two weeks.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
