The Internet Computer has released a roadmap for 2022 and beyond, indicating plans to roll out integrations with Bitcoin and Ethereum by the end of the year.
The Internet Computer is a public blockchain and protocol that allows developers to install smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) directly on the blockchain. It was incubated and launched in May 2021 after years of development by Dfinity — a nonprofit based in Zurich.
The #ICP #BTC integration will prompt a new wave of DeFi applications built to leverage the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Full story:https://t.co/kexreQTw20 pic.twitter.com/bQkKdel7r5
— DFINITY Foundation (@dfinity) January 27, 2022
The direct Bitcoin integration will be launched as part of Dfinity’s “Chromium Satoshi Release,” which is planned for Q1 2022. It will add smart contracts to the Bitcoin blockchain using “Chain Key cryptography,” displacing the need to use a bridge that can open the network up to malicious actors.
Dfinity community member Berto Parga Pena explains that Chain Key cryptography is “one of the fundamental breakthroughs enabling the Internet Computer to scale to millions of nodes.”
“It is a set of cryptographic protocols that orchestrate the nodes that make up the Internet Computer and the engine that drives it and makes its operation possible.”
“Smart contracts on the Internet Computer will be able to hold, send and receive Bitcoin, without the need for private keys,” wrote Director of Product at Dfinity, Diego Prats, in a Jan. 29 roadmap post.
Meanwhile, integration with Ethereum is slated for Q3 2022 with the “Vanadium Vitalik Release.” Dfinity is yet to publish any further details about the integration, but Vice President of Communications, Michael Less, explained to Cointelegraph:
“So when you make a transaction on the internet computer in Bitcoin, it actually changes the Bitcoin ledger versus what you see today, with a bridge. It’s like a wrapped Bitcoin or wrapped Ether.”
Less explained that Dfinity has chosen to prioritize these integrations to help facilitate its vision for a “multi-chain future.” He said, “If Bitcoin is going to be around forever, how do we actually provide? The best user experience is to combine all these networks directly.”
In December, Dfinity enabled smart contracts (called “Canisters” in its ecosystem) to hold their own balances of ICP tokens. The ICP currently supports 250,000 queries per second, executed with 1-2 second transaction finality.
1/ Announcing the new post-Genesis roadmap to ensure #InternetComputer remains the most powerful general-purpose blockchain for building infinitely scalable Web3 dapps
Titanium: Mid Q1
Chromium: End Q1
Carbon: Q2
Vanadium: Q3
Iridium: Q4
Futurium: 2023https://t.co/WHpU4dkHqk
— DFINITY Foundation (@dfinity) January 28, 2022
“ICP on Canisters was the important feature that made it viable, and it will probably go crazy once direct integration with BTC and ETH are released,” Lead software engineer at Dfinity Kyle Peacock told Cointelegraph.
On Jan. 28, Cointelegraph reported that the Internet Computer blockchain had welcomed its first decentralized exchange (DEX) Sonic, with at least two other exchanges in the works.
Upcoming Polychain Capital-backed DEX “InfinitySwap” appears to be orienting itself to capitalize with this upcoming integration with Bitcoin. According to Lee, it will allow users to stake their BTC as liquidity providers.
Related:First DEX on Internet Computer launches, others coming soon
The ICP token rose 56% in the first five days of the new year amid a flurry of optimistic news, however, it was one of the worst-performing crypto assets in 2021 dumping 97% from its May all-time high. On Jan. 4, Binance announced it would list a financial instrument that would enable traders to directly swap ICP to and from Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH).
The idea for a perpetual world computer was inspired by Ethereum technologist Dominic Williams, who became Founder and Chief Scientist at Dfinity.
The first decentralized exchange on the Dfinity Foundation’s Internet Computer blockchain went live this week, following up on the recent release of a new whitepaper. And according to information shared with Cointelegraph, there are already two other exchanges in the works.
The first version of the new DEX called Sonic launched to mainnet on Sunday. There are initially only three pools for token swaps using its native token Internet Computer Protocol (ICP): InterICP/WICP (wrapped ICP), ICP/XTC (Cycles Token), and WICP/XTC. Users can also earn rewards for providing liquidity.
Sonic, the first DEX to launch on the Internet Computer, is now live.@sonic_ooo offers a suite of DeFi products for the #InternetComputer blockchain, operating on a gasless AMM. ⛽️
DeFi on the IC has arrived. https://t.co/IjClg4LRxo pic.twitter.com/CH3f3qgIVM
— DFINITY Foundation (@dfinity) January 22, 2022
Dfinity Head of Comms Michael Less told Cointelegraph that Sonic plans to redefine what it truly means to be an example of decentralized finance (DeFi). Sonic has sub-one second transaction finality and is entirely run on the IC’s public blockchain network without any gas fees.
“It is completely running on a public blockchain, where it cannot be shut down — you can’t shut it down, it runs perpetually,” he said, explaining that its current primary focus is an upcoming integration with Ethereum, which is slated for Q3 this year.
“You’re going to be able to bring your Ethereum assets into Sonic, and it will be like Uniswap but with no gas fees and lightning fast.”
There are already plans for a Sonic V2, which will add a token Launchpad, DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) tools, and its own native SONIC governance token. The launch date for Sonic V2 is yet to be confirmed.
According to information shared with Cointelegraph, there are at least two other DEXs that will be joining Sonic on the IC “in the next few weeks”, including InfinitySwap and ICP Swap.
Internet Computer is a public blockchain and protocol aimed at running a truly decentralized internet by allowing developers to install smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) directly on the blockchain.
It was incubated and launched after years in development by Dfinity in May 2021 – a nonprofit based in Zurich.
The new white paper “The Internet Computer for Geeks” released on Jan 21 goes back to basics, explaining the fundamentals of how the IC uses smart contracts to power the emerging Web 3.0 decentralized ecosystem.
Related: Internet Computer: Correction risk rises after ICP price gains nearly 60% in 5 days
According to Dfinity, there are over a thousand developers building on the IC blockchain. Projects include social media DApps such as Desocial, DSCVR and Distrikt; Metavserse projects such as PokedStudios and IC Gallery, and gamefi projects such as Cube Run and MetaSports Basketball.
Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins remain under pressure as supports give way and bears sell at each rally attempt. This negative sentiment pulled the Crypto Fear & Greed Index to 10/100 on Jan. 8, one of its lowest readings ever. In comparison, 2021 had started on a bullish note with the reading hitting levels of 93/100, indicating “extreme greed.”
This weak opening in the new year has not unnerved Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone who remains bullish. He said in a recent analysis that Bitcoin may rally to $100,000 and Ether (ETH) to $5,000 this year.
Crypto market data daily view. Source:Coin360
However, some analysts argue that Bitcoin may struggle to maintain its bullish trend in an environment where interest rates are rising. Holger Zschaepitz questioned whether Bitcoin could hold up without “rock-bottom rates and trillions of dollars in central bank money and government stimmy.”
Could Bitcoin bounce off the strong support, attracting buying in select altcoins? Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may remain positive in the short term.
BTC/USDT
Bitcoin’s downtrend has reached the strong support at $39,600. The price formed a Doji candlestick pattern on Jan. 8, indicating indecision among the bulls and the bears.
BTC/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
Both moving averages are sloping down and the relative strength index (RSI) is near the oversold zone, indicating that the path of least resistance is to the downside. If bears pull the price below $39,600, the selling could intensify and the BTC/USDT pair could start its journey to the next strong support at $28,805.
On the other hand, if the price rises from the current level, the pair could rise to the 20-day exponential moving average ($45,876). If the price turns down from this level, it will suggest that the sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on rallies. That will increase the likelihood of a break below $39,600 I .
The bulls will have to push and sustain the price above the moving averages to indicate a possible change in trend.
BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The 4-hour chart shows that the selling momentum picked up on a break and close below $45,456. The bulls are attempting to arrest the decline at $40,501 but the recovery attempt is likely to face strong selling near the 20-EMA.
If the price turns down from the 20-EMA, the bears will attempt to sink the pair below $39,600 and extend the downtrend.
Alternatively, a break and close above the 20-EMA could push the pair to the 50-simple moving average. If bulls push the price above this resistance, it will suggest that bears may be losing their grip.
LINK/USDT
Chainlink (LINK) has been trading in a large range between $15 and $35.33 for the past few months. The bulls have pushed the price above the moving averages and the RSI has risen close to the overbought zone, indicating that buyers have the upper hand in the short term.
LINK/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The bears posed a strong challenge near $27.61 for the past few days but the bulls did not allow the price to dip below the 20-day EMA ($23.23). This indicates that the sentiment has changed from sell on rallies to buy on dips.
If bulls maintain the price above $27.61, the LINK/USDT pair could rise to 30 and thereafter to the overhead resistance at $35.33. This bullish view will invalidate if the price turns down from the current level and breaks below the moving averages. The pair could then drop to $18.
LINK/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The 4-hour chart shows that the price has broken above the overhead resistance at $27.61. The bears will now attempt to stall the up-move at $30. If the subsequent correction does not break below $27.61, it will increase the possibility of a rally to $35.33.
On the contrary, if the price turns down from the current level, it will suggest that the break above $27.61 may have been a bull trap. The bears will then try to pull the price below the 50-SMA. If they do that, the next stop could be $22.
ICP/USDT
Internet Computer (ICP) broke and closed above the downtrend line on Jan. 4 which was the first indication that the downtrend could be ending. The bears tried to trap the aggressive bulls and pull the price back below the 20-day EMA ($29) but failed.
ICP/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The bulls again pushed and closed the price above the downtrend line on Jan. 8. The moving averages are on the verge of a bullish crossover and the RSI has jumped into the positive zone, indicating that bulls are attempting a comeback.
If buyers push and sustain the price above $38.02, the ICP/USDT pair could rally to $45.79. This level may again act as a stiff hurdle but if crossed, the up-move may reach $58.30.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns down from the current level and breaks below the 20-day EMA, it will indicate that the breakout above the downtrend line may have been a bull trap.
ICP/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The 4-hour chart shows that bulls have pushed the price above $33.29 but are struggling to clear the hurdle at $38.02. This suggests that bears continue to sell near the overhead resistance. This has kept the pair sandwiched between the two levels.
If bulls push and sustain the price above $38.02, the pair could extend its up-move. On the contrary, if the price turns down from the overhead resistance, the bears will attempt to pull the pair below $33.29. If they manage to do that, the pair could drop to the 50-SMA.
Related:Even after the pullback, this crypto trading algo’s $100 bag is now worth $20,673
LEO/USD
UNUS SED LEO (LEO) has been trading in a gradual uptrend for the past several weeks where the 50-day SMA ($3.55) has been acting as a strong support.
LEO/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView
The bears attempted to pull the price below the 50-day SMA on Jan. 7 but the bulls did not relent. This resulted in a strong rebound on Jan. 8 which pushed the LEO/USD pair back above the 20-day EMA ($3.69).
The bulls will now attempt to drive the price above the all-time high at $3.92. If they succeed, the pair may resume its uptrend and reach $4.25. This positive view will invalidate if the price turns down and plummets below the 50-day SMA. That could start a correction to $3.40.
LEO/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The pair has been trading inside an ascending channel pattern. The bears mounted a strong resistance near $3.85, which may have attracted profit-booking from short-term traders. That pulled the pair down to the support line of the channel where buyers stepped in and arrested the decline.
The bulls are again attempting to push and sustain the price above $3.85. If they manage to do that, the pair could start its journey toward the resistance line of the channel. The bears will have to sink and sustain the price below the channel to invalidate the bullish view.
ONE/USDT
Harmony (ONE) has been trading between the 20-day EMA ($0.27) and $0.33 for the past few days. This suggests that bulls are buying on dips and bears are selling on rallies.
ONE/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The rising 20-day EMA and the RSI in the positive territory suggest advantage to buyers. If bulls drive the price above $0.33, the up-move could resume. The ONE/USDT pair could then attempt to rise to $0.38.
Contrary to the assumption, if the price breaks below the 20-day EMA, it will suggest that bears have overpowered the bulls. That could pull the pair down to the 50-day SMA ($0.24) and later to $0.21.
ONE/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The 4-hour chart has been rising inside an ascending channel pattern. Although bulls pushed the price above the channel, they could not sustain the higher levels. This suggests that bears tried to trap the aggressive bulls.
The price dipped back into the channel but a minor positive is that it bounced off the 50-SMA. This indicates that sentiment remains positive and bulls are buying on dips.
If the price rises above the 20-EMA, the pair could again rally to the resistance line of the channel. A break and close above this level could signal a pick up in momentum. Conversely, a break and close below the 50-SMA could pull the pair down to the support line of the channel.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Internet Computer (ICP) has entered 2022 with a bang.
The ICP price rose by over 56% in the first five days of the new year, reaching a 30-day high of $38 on Jan. 5. Its massive upside move accompanied a spike in trading volumes, underscoring a strong and healthy bullish sentiment for now.
ICP/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView
At the center of ICP’s recent price rally was a flurry of optimistic news.
That includes Binance’s decision this Tuesday to list a financial instrument that would enable traders to directly swap ICP to/from Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH) and the launch of Terabethia, a cross-blockchain bridge, on Dec. 22 that enables Ethereum’s ERC-20 tokens to exist natively on the Internet Computer blockchain.
Additionally, a rally across the smart contract platform tokens, especially in the last seven days, may have boosted traders’ appetite for ICP.
Nevertheless, ICP remains at risk of paring its recent gains entirely as it trended lower inside its multi-month descending channel range.
In detail, the Internet Computer token price reached the channel’s upper trendline on Wednesday, thus exposing itself to selloff risks. That is primarily due to the trendline’s history of limiting ICP’s upside attempts, as shown in the chart below.
Meanwhile, recent data also shows that a pullback from the upper trendline pushed the ICP price towards the channel’s lower trendline. For that reason, ICP risked falling to new price lows despite its bullish rebound.
Resistance confluence
More cues for ICP’s pullback setup came from an another resistance near $37.70 and overvaluation risks posed by the token’s daily relative strength index (RSI).
The $37.70-level, which helped ICP limit its bearish exposure between September and November 2021, coincides with the 0.236 Fib line of the Fibonacci retracement graph drawn from the circa $89-swing high to the $22-swing low.
Meanwhile, the RSI reading at press time came out to be near 67.50. A value above 70 will make ICP an overbought asset that may amount to a certain degree of price correction/consolidation. Should it happen, the ICP price could risk falling to the 0 Fib line near $22.
Related: Dfinity insiders alleged to have illegally sold ICP and harmed retail investors
Conversely, closing above the $37.70-level could have Internet Computer eye $47.50 as its next upside target.
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.
Real Vision chief executive Raoul Pal is saying that one “interesting” crypto project could be a good bet for the next crypto bull market.
In a new interview on investment YouTube channel FamilyOffice, the former Goldman Sachs executive says he’s eyeing under-the-radar altcoin Internet Computer (ICP).
“Everybody hates it because the VCs [venture capitalists] got in really early. It was suddenly worth a huge amount of money. The coin sank 95%, but I think it’s interesting.
I think it’s potentially something for the next cycle because there’s a lot of smart people working on that. There’s a lot of development taking place. There’s not a huge network effect yet of distribution of the tokens, so it’s not provable yet.”
Internet Computer is a crypto project developed by Swiss-based not-for-profit scientific research organization Dfinity. The blockchain project aims to replicate the speed, power, and scale of the internet without relying on centralized systems such as firewalls, cloud computing infrastructure and databases. Internet Computer also enables developers to create websites, enterprise IT systems and internet services by installing their code directly on the public Internet.
ICP, the project’s utility token, is trading at $27.93 at time of writing and is up more than 3% in the past 24 hours.
Pal has previously said Internet Computer “is clearly the biggest in ambition of any project in the space.”
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Dfinity Foundation is boosting its developer ecosystem with a $215 million grant. This is to help further the development of decentralized applications (DApps) on the Internet Computer blockchain. Over 115 teams have benefitted from this grant and more are expected to do so as time goes by.
NewsBTC sat down with Lomesh Dutta, Vice President of Growth at Dfinity Foundation, to talk about the Internet Computer Developer Ecosystem Program, how it’s distributed, and the impact it has had on the blockchain since inception.
NewsBTC: Why was the Developer Ecosystem Program set up?
Lomesh Dutta: The CHF 200m ($215m) Internet Computer Developer Ecosystem Program is a resource that helps developers finance the building of decentralized apps (dapps), tooling, and infrastructure on the Internet Computer. The Internet Computer is the world’s first blockchain that runs at web speed and can scale without bound.These capabilities empower developers to design new applications and tooling without being hindered by proprietary infrastructure or the limitations of conventional blockchains.The ecosystem program is designed for entrepreneurs, developer teams, and community members, supporting the growth of a new ecosystem of dapps and services on the open, decentralized web.
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NewsBTC: So far, only $2m out of the $215m grant program has been handed out. Are there plans to ramp up this figure?
Lomesh Dutta: The developer grants program is a subset ofthe overall ecosystem program. For instance, to supercharge gaming on the Internet Computer we just announcedAchievement Unblocked —a $10 million grant pool for gaming developers in partnership with United eSports to demonstrate how blockchain gaming will progressively enter the mainstream.
Related Reading | Cash App Launches Bitcoin and Stock Gifting Feature For The Holidays
The grant program is designed to offer non-dilutive financing in the form of developer grants to teams building on the Internet Computer.I think the best way to look at the grant program right now is not the amount funded but rather by the number and the quality of teams that have been bootstrapped by the program. All grants are awarded in tiers of $5,000, $25,000, and $100,000. These initial grants help teams build early prototypes and raise larger grants, VCs, and very soon community grants. So far, over 115 teams have received funding from the grants program.
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What is super exciting is that very soon (if the community accepts the proposal), ICP holders can easily make their staked ICP available for “autonomous contribution” to decentralization auctions. This is essentially a community-powered fund that could easily be in billions of dollars and would be available to the ecosystem projects that are building on the Internet Computer.In return, those contributing their staked ICP will receive governance tokens for the associated ecosystem project — allowing them to shape the direction of the project.
Beyond financial support, our team also offers technical support to our developer partners and grantees and often offers ad-hoc help with co-marketing, design, and UX.
Moreover, the Internet Computer provides functionality and utility that many other blockchains cannot, including unbounded smart contract capacity to innovate beyond what is currently conceivable in dapp development. This means there are both technical and marketing support and revenue-generating opportunities on the Internet computer that go far beyond the initial grant.
NewsBTC: Dev activity has been ramping up on Internet Computer. What effect, if any, has this had on the blockchain?
Lomesh Dutta: The developer activity is absolutely mind-blowing. Nearly 13,000 IC smart contracts (we call them canisters) have been deployed since genesis, representing a roughly 20% week-over-week growth in developer adoption. Canisters are the next evolution of smart contracts, and unlike their predecessors, they run at web speed and can store data in memory. This gives them the unique advantage that any form of internet application we know about can be built completely on-chain
Related Reading | Billionaire Ray Dalio Explains Why He Owns Bitcoin And Ethereum
We’re talking about services easily as large and complex as Facebook, Youtube, etc., all running on-chain. I think the world will be in complete awe with what they are about to witness once some of these projects start adding decentralized governance and token incentive mechanisms to supercharge their growth.
NewsBTC: What would you say has been the biggest pull of Internet Computer blockchain for developers?
Lomesh Dutta: Internet Computer is the only blockchain where developers can build web-scale dapps and games completely on-chain. These dapps run at web speed and do not require end-users to have a wallet or spend tokens to interact with smart contracts. If your ambition, as an entrepreneur, is to build the next Facebook, then you wouldn’t want to settle for any of that friction. Developers are building mass-market applications that run at web scale. Once these projects start implementing decentralized governance and tokenization, we expect several unicorns will emerge out of the Internet Computer ecosystem in very short order.
NewsBTC: One of the most popular dapps on IC is OpenChat. Given that it is competing against established messaging giants like WhatsApp and Signal, how confident are you in the project?
Lomesh Dutta: The main benefit of Openchat over Signal or Whatsapp is that Openchat runs completely on-chain, is totally decentralized, uncensorable, and is community governed. For example, WhatsApp infamously announced that their privacy policy now required users to accept that their account details, location, IP addresses, and more will be shared with Facebook. They had little choice but to accept the new policy or eventually lose all access to their account.
ICP trading at $23 | Source: ICPUSD on TradingView.com
This could never happen on OpenChat. By its very design, neither the developers nor anyone else could modify, censor, or scrape any user data. This makes us increasingly confident in the blockchain’s future, as more users become disillusioned by the combination of data harvesting and censorship currently happening in many social media platforms.
NewsBTC: To wrap up, give us a brief run-down of how Internet Computer is doing. Any exciting projects in the pipeline?
Lomesh Dutta: For one, we’re very excited to talk about the upcoming integration with both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks. With Bitcoin, the Internet Computer isn’t utilizing insecure and cumbersome bridging and wrapping services which effectively entrust users’ funds to a third-party smart contract. Instead, the Internet Computer will leverage its Chain Key Cryptography to integrate with Bitcoin directly. This will give each IC Smart Contract its own Bitcoin public key, enabling them to hold, send and receive their own Bitcoin natively.
As a result, the Internet Computer smart contracts will gain access to bitcoin liquidity, and bitcoin will realize powerful new smart contract functionality — opening up the much-discussed possibilities of DeFi capabilities on bitcoin. This power, combined with IC’s native abilities and ultimately bridging to the Ethereum blockchain, will serve as a powerful means to bring together the whole of web 3.0 and the backbone of the coming Metaverse.
Lastly, to make sure that this ecosystem stays decentralized and in the hands of the people, Dfinity is instilling an ecosystem-wide tokenized governance system for apps on the IC blockchain, dubbed the Service Nervous System (SNS). The SNS upgrade will allow users to vote on the direction of any given platform — from the granular, such as user interface upgrades to the more substantial, including control over app features and user incentivization models.
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This also means entrepreneurs and developers can bypass the need for VC funding, as the governance system will earmark an allocation of governance tokens for a given service. For example, this could break down to something like 25% to developers, 25% to the community, and 50% for a treasury reserve. Truly, whatever model is needed can be created and deployed.
We believe this places the Internet Computer at the center of the revolution that is unfolding. Not only does it solve all of the scaling issues present in legacy chains, but it also does so in a way that inclusively brings them along for the ride. This should unlock the true possibilities of web 3.0.
On Wednesday, Psychedelic, a Web 3.0 development studio building solutions for the Internet Computer, launched Terabithia, a cross-chain contract communication and asset mirroring protocol. Beginning with the Internet Computer (ICP) and Ethereum (ETH), users will have the ability to mirror and use any ETH tokens, fungible and nonfungible, on the Internet Computer blockchain and vice versa, effectively turning ICP into a layer-two scaling solution for ETH.
The protocol attempts to tackle the problem of Ethereum network congestion and high gas fees. The Internet Computer, meanwhile, uses a “reverse gas model” where developers supply the funds needed to run the applications or contracts that use their gas, known as “cycles.”
When asked about the technological capacities of the Internet Computer network, Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist of ICP developer Dfinity, told Cointelegraph:
“The Internet Computer is pretty fast. For example, while Solana is the closest competitor in terms of speed, the IC is approximately 700% faster, boasting 250-millisecond reads and 2 second writes/updates.
According to Williams, Internet Computer is “far more effective at storing data than most other chains.” Whereas Ethereum currently costs $199 million to store a gigabyte worth of data annually, the same amount of storage costs just $5.52 per year on Internet Computer. “This allows for decentralized apps that actually run at web speed, with unbounded capacity” in terms of data or cost, he said.
Williams further added that “the unbounded capacity also means that NFTs can be stored entirely on-chain.” He claimed that Internet Computer is the only blockchain to store nonfungible tokens completely on-chain “and the only one to enable zero-fee transactions.” He further added that “NFT metadata is regularly stored ‘off-chain’ typically due to the cost of data and the inability of many blockchains to scale.”
Related:Smart contracts are coming to Bitcoin through Dfinity’s Internet Computer
Last month, the total value locked on layer-two solutions on Ethereum reached an all-time high of $5.64 billion. Crypto enthusiasts have been migrating to such networks to escape soaring gas prices. While the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 upgrade may transition its consensus mechanism from proof-of-stake to proof-of-work, it does not solve the core problem of low transaction speeds, which currently only amount to 30 transactions per second.
Altcoin Daily host Austin Arnold is listing three altcoins that he says are “about to go crazy”.
In a new video, Austin tells his one million YouTube subscribers that the altcoins in question are Dfinity Foundation’s Internet Computer (ICP), the bridge currency XRP, and blockchain oracle network Chainlink (LINK).
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Kicking off the list with Internet Computer, Austin says that the crypto project focused on becoming a decentralized global computing platform, is planning to introduce smart contract functionality to Bitcoin.
“Internet Computer smart contracts will gain access to Bitcoin liquidity and Bitcoin will gain powerful new smart contract functionality without the need for insecure and cumbersome trusted bridging services.
So this could be big – a DeFi [Decentralized Finance] ecosystem for Bitcoin is a major industry initiative. It would mean the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, could be used for lending, yield farming, derivatives, liquidity pools and more.”
Turning to XRP, Austin says the developer Ripple Labs has encountered a setback in the lawsuit filed against it by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“…Ripple filed a motion back in August 27th requesting information about whether SEC employees had purchased and traded Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP. The United States Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn rejected this motion on Tuesday…
…so what this means to you as a potential XRP holder is that Ripple will have to find another way to prove to the SEC that XRP is not a security. That’s of course the SEC’s point of view. They’re the ones that are suing Ripple and the case is heating up.”
In the case of Chainlink, Austin says that the blockchain oracle network’s recent integration with decentralized cold storage aggregator Coldstack is bullish.
“…big green flag for LINK holders. Here’s the reason Chainlink was chosen – because in their [Coldstack] words ‘Chainlink is the industry standard in blockchain oracles’.”
Austin also quotes Coldstack’s CEO Alexander Shishow showering praise on Chainlink.
“In a direct quote from Coldstack CEO… ’There really isn’t any substitute for Chainlink – if we want to provide the best data storage solutions for our users, then it makes sense to use the best oracle service provider in the industry.’”
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.
The first-ever NFT drop on Internet Computer (IC), ICPunks, was affected by technical glitches.
Most users reported they could not load the application and claim their NFT.
While the minting process was over in 30 minutes, users have spoken out about the poor user experience.
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Internet Computer, a scalable blockchain developed by the Dfinity Foundation, faced technical glitches in its first-ever NFT drop.
Internet Computer Struggles With NFT Drop
On Sept. 1, Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) launched its first ever NFT collection called ICPunks. However, the whole process was marred by network issues.
ICPunks is a collection of 10,000 unique, randomly generated clowns, and is a play on the American Hip-hop duo the Insane Clown Posse, with which the network shares the ICP acronym. ICPunks could be minted for free; however, when users tried, they reported being unable to load the application and claim their NFT.
A report by Igor Lilic, who heads developer relations at Dfinity stated the network was “not serving real user traffic anywhere close to the theoretical maximum rate.” The final result was that the subnet hosting the NFT canister (smart contract) struggled to properly interact with the ICPunks’ website.
The NFT minting went live at around 20:00 UTC on Sept. 1.According to the ICPunks developers, 180k people were online to claim the free NFTs, and it was the first time the network had experienced such a high volume of traffic. Soon after the minting began, users reported not being able to interact with the NFT dApp.
What appears to have happened is that a particular subnet, an individual network within the Internet Computer that hosted the NFT contract, could not manage the amount of traffic. The current subnet architecture has not been configured to handle a high volume of users interacting with it.
The nodes within that subnet (pjljw) had been configured to limit users’ requests to query and update calls whenever it detected very high traffic. This was implemented to avoid spam attacks and prevent denial of service on the network. Unfortunately, this safeguard backfired.
@IcPunks #ICPunks #icp what is this … why can’t I claim it pic.twitter.com/xgafxteeIj
— Tomasz Kordyla (@Tkordy) September 1, 2021
Other canisters within the subnet NNS app and Distrikt were disrupted too. Outside subnets within the IC also “experienced degraded performance” due to high traffic.
Despite the congestion, the subnet (pjljw) canister was able to finish the NFT drop, and the minting of 10,000 NFTs was finished within 30 minutes.
In the end, the main complaint from the perspective of end-users was poor network performance. The user experience was so bad that several NFT claimers posted about the incident on social media, aggressively calling out the NFT drop, some even claiming that the whole thing was a “scam.”
Today’s incident is not the first to demonstrate network issues with IC. Several days before the NFT drop, a developer from DFinance, a DeFi project building on IC, reported network issues during a testnet event of only 9000 users.
Anticipating the hype around the launch, the ICPunks team had already migrated website hosting from IC to their centralized servers. Despite hosting the website themselves, the team admitted that the Internet Computer was “very laggy.”
Community members have also pointed out that the subnet was single-threaded and used only 1 of 64 cores. Therefore, ironically, during the NFT drop, while the subnet maxed out its performance, other cores were idle. This means the subnet was running at a much lower hardware capacity than it should have been.
Critics say IC is not suited to execute a large-scale NFT launch, let alone implement a web-scale dApp platform. Kyle Peacock, a Software engineer at Dfinity, admitted that IC’s “current architecture needs to change to support high traffic events like this”
NFT Drop Adds To Previous Criticism
The Dfinity Foundation raised more than $200 million from the top crypto VCs, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Polychain Capital.
However, after the network genesis, the Dfinity Foundation faced intense criticism for its token distribution. Many critics even accused the insiders and VCs of front running and selling tokens leading to a 95% price collapse. Now, the project has come under fire in the last few days for its inability to host its first NFT mint.
While the team has touted IC’s capability to achieve web scalability and become a world computer, the very first NFT drop on the network failed to corroborate their claims. The network is still in the beta phase, and therefore it is hoped that the IC team will improve the network infrastructure soon.
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Bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery is facing stiff resistance near the $35,000 mark but Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone remains bullish. In his latest analysis, McGlone said that the probability of Bitcoin hitting $60,000 is greater than the price dropping to $20,000.
Institutional investors seem to be using the weakness in Bitcoin to build their positions. Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest added more than 450,000 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust in two separate buys in the past week, increasing their holdings to more than 9 million shares. In addition, Edge Wealth Management and Rothschild Investment Corp also added GBTC shares to their portfolio.
Crypto market data daily view. Source:Coin360
However, not everyone is so bullish on Bitcoin. Analysts at Delphi Digital have pointed out that Bitcoin is testing the support at the 12-month moving average and a break below it could result in further downside. Kevin Kelly, a certified financial analyst at Delphi Digital, said a break below $30,000 could prove to be bearish for Bitcoin.
If Bitcoin remains range-bound, traders are likely to shift their focus on select altcoins, which may surprise to the upside. Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may continue to attract buying interest in the short term.
BTC/USDT
Bitcoin rallied and closed above the 20-day exponential moving average ($32,974) on July 23, indicating that the selling pressure is reducing. The bulls are currently attempting to push the price above the 50-day simple moving average ($34,301).
BTC/USDT daily chart. Source:TradingView
If buyers succeed, the BTC/USDT pair could challenge the critical short-term resistance at $36,670. A breakout of this resistance could attract further buying, clearing the path for a possible rally to the $41,330 to $42,451.67 resistance zone.
The 20-day EMA has started to turn up and the relative strength index (RSI) has risen above 54, indicating a minor advantage to the bulls.
If the price turns down from the 50-day SMA but rebounds off the 20-day EMA, it will suggest that the sentiment has turned bullish. The buyers will then make one more attempt to clear the hurdle at the 50-day SMA.
Alternatively, a break below the 20-day EMA will indicate that bears continue to sell at higher levels. The pair could then retest the support at $31,000.
BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:TradingView
The 4-hour chart shows that bears are aggressively defending the overhead resistance near $35,000. The pair could now drop to the 20-EMA where buyers are likely to step in. If the price rebounds off the 20-EMA, it will suggest that the short-term sentiment has turned bullish.
The buyers will then again try to clear the hurdle at $35,000. If they succeed, the pair could rally to $36,670 where bears may again pose a still challenge. If the bulls do not give up much ground from this resistance, it will suggest that short-term traders are not booking profits at this level.
This will improve the likelihood of a break above $36,670. This bullish view will invalidate if the price turns down and breaks below the 20-EMA.
ETH/USDT
Ether (ETH) reached the 50-day SMA ($2,165), which is likely to act as a strong hurdle because the bears had stalled the previous rally at this resistance on July 7.
ETH/USDT daily chart. Source:TradingView
If the price turns down from the current level but finds support at the 20-day EMA ($2,046), it will suggest that the sentiment has turned bullish. A strong rebound off the 20-day EMA will enhance the prospects of a breakout of the 50-day SMA.
If that happens, the bulls will try to push the price to the downtrend line. A breakout and close above this resistance will signal a possible change in trend. The gradually rising 20-day EMA and the RSI above the midpoint suggest a strong comeback from buyers.
Contrary to this assumption, if bears pull the price below the 20-day EMA, it will suggest that bears are in no mood to relent. The pair could then plummet to the strong support at $1,728.74.
ETH/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:TradingView
The bears are aggressively defending the psychological level at $2,200. The pair could now correct to the 20-EMA where the buyers may step in. If the price rebounds off the 20-EMA, the bulls will make one more attempt to push the pair above $2,200.
A breakout and close above this overhead resistance will open the doors for a possible rally to $2,400. Contrary to this assumption, if bears pull the price below the 20-EMA, the decline could extend to the $2,000 support. A break below the 50-SMA could result in a decline to $1,728.74.
ICP/USDT
Internet Computer (ICP) dipped below the $28.31 support on July 20 but the bears could not capitalize on this weakness. This suggests that bulls are accumulating at lower levels.
ICP/USDT daily chart. Source:TradingView
The bounce off $26.92 picked up momentum and the bulls pushed the price above the 20-day EMA ($38.53) on July 24. This is the first indication that the bearish sentiment could be ending. The 20-day EMA has flattened out and the RSI has risen to the midpoint, which also suggests that the selling pressure could be easing.
If bulls drive the price above the 50-day SMA ($47.33), the ICP/USDT pair could rise to the overhead resistance at $59.42. A breakout and close above this resistance will complete a double bottom pattern, indicating the start of a new uptrend.
The pattern target on the upside is $90.53. This positive view will invalidate if the price turns down from the current level and breaks below $26.92.
ICP/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:TradingView
Both moving averages have turned up on the 4-hour chart and the RSI is in the positive zone, suggesting that bulls are in control. The buyers are likely to defend the 20-EMA on the downside.
If the price rebounds off the 20-EMA, the pair could rise to the psychological level at $50. This level may act as resistance but if bulls do not give up much ground, the up-move may continue and the pair may rise to $59.42. Conversely, a break below the 20-EMA could pull the price down to the 50-SMA.
AAVE/USDT
Aave rebounded off $212.54 on July 20 and rose above the horizontal resistance at $280 on July 23, which suggests strong buying at lower levels. The price is currently stuck inside a symmetrical triangle.
AAVE/USDT daily chart. Source:TradingView
The moving averages are on the verge of a bullish crossover, indicating that bulls are attempting a comeback. If the price rebounds off the moving averages, it will suggest a change in sentiment from sell on rallies to buy on dips.
A breakout and close above the downtrend line will complete the symmetrical triangle pattern. The AAVE/USDT pair could then rally to $347.53 and later to $400.
On the contrary, if bears pull the price below the moving averages, the pair could again gradually slide to the support line of the triangle. A break below the triangle may turn the tables in favor of bears.
AAVE/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:TradingView
The bulls are facing stiff resistance at the psychological level at $300 but if they do not allow the price to sustain below the 20-EMA, it will increase the possibility of a break above the downtrend line. If that happens, the pair may move up to $347.53 in the short term.
Alternatively, if the price sustains below the 20-EMA, the pair could drop to $268 and then to the 50-SMA. A strong bounce off this level will indicate buying on dips. The bulls will then again try to push the price to the downtrend line. A break below the 50-SMA will signal that bears have overpowered the bulls.
Related:Powered by the people: 3 altcoins whose tweet volume spiked before a strong rally
LUNA/USD
Terra protocol’s LUNA token has bounced back sharply from $5.58 and reached the overhead resistance zone at $7.96 to $8.72. The bears had halted the previous recovery attempt by the bulls in this zone on July 11.
LUNA/USD daily chart. Source:TradingView
If bulls push the price above $8.72, the momentum could pick up. The gradually rising 20-day EMA ($7.03) and the RSI above 59 suggest the path of least resistance is to the upside. The LUNA/USDT pair could then rally to the downtrend line.
This level may again act as a resistance but if bulls do not give up much ground, the pair could attempt to break above the downtrend line.
This positive view will invalidate if the price turns down from the current level and breaks below the 20-day EMA. Such a move will indicate that buying dries up at higher levels. The pair could then drop to $5.58.
LUNA/USD 4-hour chart. Source:TradingView
Both moving averages on the 4-hour chart are sloping up and the RSI is in the positive territory, indicating that bulls have the upper hand. If bulls can sustain the price above $7.96, the possibility of a retest of $8.72 increases.
If bulls can drive the price above $8.72, the short-term uptrend may pick up momentum and the pair may rise to $10. This level may act as resistance but if bulls can flip $8.72 to support, the uptrend may continue.
Contrary to this assumption, if bears pull the price below the 20-EMA, it will suggest weakness in the short term. The pair could then drop to the 50-SMA.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
