Public blockchain platform Nervos has announced the mainnet beta launch of Godwoken.
The layer-two blockchain protocol integrates Ethereum Virtual Machine capabilities and optimistic rollup mechanics to provide instant transaction finality and low fees within an Ethereum-like environment.
Built upon the existing Nervos layer-one network, the multi-chain solution seeks to capitalize on Ethereum’s well-documented drawbacks — most notably network congestion, high gas fees and scalability — and benefit from the growing importance of layer-two alternative platforms.
This long-standing roadmap achievement follows last year’s deployment of Force Bridge, a cross-chain bridge designed to enhance the interoperability of transactions such as those between ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum and its layer-one proof-of-work blockchain protocol, Common Knowledge Base.
With both Godwoken and Force Bridge now available, the allurement for Ethereum developers to transition their decentralized applications (dApps) to Nervos and become early adopters in the expanding decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem is rising. Kevin Wang, co-founder at Nervos, shared his expectations for the future of the project:
“We’re establishing a new blockchain standard—a way for people to not only build dApps across DeFi and sectors on Nervos but also contribute to the wider blockchain ecosystem, regardless of account model, consensus mechanism, and other factors.”
Related: Nervos launches Ethereum bridge it says devs can use right out of the box
Nervos has revealed that the Godwoken whitelisting program is now open and accepting applications from dApp projects, especially those inherent on convincing Ethereum blockchain developers to build upon the ecosystem.
Community-based projects scheduled to release in the coming months include Yokaiswap, a mainnet interoperable automated market maker that is expected to facilitate annual percentage yield incentives for yield farmers.
The second biggest stablecoin by market capitalization is already a multi-blockchain project. Soon, though, USDC will live almost everywhere. According toCoindesk, it will soon be available in, “Avalanche, Celo, Flow, Hedera, Kava, Nervos, Polkadot, Stacks, Tezos, and Tron.” That will bring the total to 14; since USDC is already functional in Ethereum, Algorand, Stellar, and Solana.
The biggest stablecoin, Tether or USDT, is only available in 8 of those. Currently, the most used stablecoin is Tron’s version of USDT.
Related Reading | Is USDC’s Billion Dollar Growth A Sign Crypto Smart Money Is Ditching Tether?
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With that in mind, CENTRE said:
“We anticipate that USDC on these blockchain platforms and multichain protocols will further accelerate the use of the world’s fastest growing digital dollar currency.”
The consortium that runs USDC, CENTRE, is a joint venture between Coinbase and payments processor Circle. The information comes from, “a draft announcement from USDC administrator CENTRE obtained by CoinDesk.”
For this, we have to go back to the academy. Coinzillainforms us:
USDC is one of the fastest-growing stablecoins pegged 1 to 1 to the US Dollar.
What is more remarkable is that Circle, the company that developed the stablecoin, is actually holding the amount of money required for backing the USDC in circulation.
That’s definitely a show at USDT.Tether’s auditandlegal issueshave been a topic of contention in the cryptocurrencies community for a while now. Can they back all the Tether they’ve minted? A burning question that’s harder to answer than you’d think.
For what is worth, USDC’s independent audit ison the public recordand says:
USD Coin (“USDC”) tokens issued and outstanding less tokens allowed but not issued (218,807,037) and less blacklisted tokens = 14,697,267,257 USDC
US Dollars held in custody accounts are at least equal or greater than the USDC tokens outstanding at the Report Date and Time.
Back to Coinzilla’s academy, the stablecoin’s characteristics are:
In essence, USD Coin is an ERC-20 token that functions through the Ethereum Network. Nowadays, USDC transactions can also be settled through Algorand, Solana, and Stellar’s infrastructures.
Since the launch of USDC 2.0, the payment process is simplified, the gas fees being paid directly in USDC.
Related Reading | Circle’s Stablecoin USDC Passes Independent Audit, Fully Backed by USD
Stablecoins Are Supposed To Rule The USA in 2021
The official love affair between the US government and USDC started last January, when Jeremy Allaire from Circle announced that, “the largest US banking regulator with new guidance allowing US banks to use public blockchains and dollar stablecoins as a settlement infrastructure in the US financial system.” According to him, “Decentralized, permissionless, open source and internet mediated software is literally becoming the foundation for not just the US financial system but for the global economy.”
3/ The new interpretive letter establishes that banks can treat public chains as infrastructure similar to SWIFT, ACH and FedWire, and stablecoins like USDC as electronic stored value. The significance of this can’t be understated.
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) January 4, 2021
Recently Randal K. Quarles, the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision,considerably raisedthe stakes:
In my judgment, we do not need to fear stablecoins. The Federal Reserve has traditionally supported responsible private-sector innovation. Consistent with this tradition, I believe that we must take strong account of the potential benefits of stablecoins, including the possibility that a U.S. dollar stablecoin might support the role of the dollar in the global economy. For example, a global U.S. dollar stablecoin network could encourage use of the dollar by making cross-border payments faster and cheaper, and it potentially could be deployed much faster and with fewer downsides than a CBDC.
Will stablecoins like USDC and USDT substitute the Digital Dollar project? Could they be an alternative to CBDCs? We’ll have to wait and see.
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The Nervos Foundation has announced the launch of a fund in collaboration with CMB International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank.
The $50 million fund named “InNervation” will be used to make early investments in startups that are building blockchain-based user-centric products. Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, dApps, and nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces will be a particular focus of the investments.
Nervos is a Chinese blockchain project based on a Layer 1, Proof of Work, public permissionless blockchain protocol. It claims to allow any crypto asset to be stored with the same security and immutability as Bitcoin but also enables smart contracts and layer-two scaling.
Nervos launched its Common Knowledge Base (CKB) blockchain network in 2019 with a focus on scalability. The project sought to target DeFi and launched a $5 million fund of its own in February.
According to the new announcement, the $50M fund will be deployed over a three-year period, with startups receiving initial investments between $200,000 and $2 million to support project growth on the Nervos blockchain ecosystem. Priority will be given to projects that are either building on Nervos or have plans to migrate or integrate it into their products.
Hong Kong incorporated CMBI has been exploring the use of dApps with Nervos since 2019 and was an early investor in the blockchain network. The bank is an integrated financial institution providing comprehensive and professional services, owned in entirety by China Merchants Bank (CMB), one of the country’s top commercial banks
Chief Investment Officer at CMBI, Samuel Wang, stated: “They’ve made no compromises in building their infrastructure and we are committed to supporting Nervos and the expansion of its dApp ecosystem.” Nervos co-founder Kevin Wang stated:
“Our team has been working diligently to ensure developers and teams have access to a variety of tools so they can create, customize, and connect their dApps, protocols, and more across multiple chains,”
Startups that receive funding will have access to a suite of Nervos layer-two tools that have previously been in development and are now ready for use. These include a decentralized exchange, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible layer called Polyjuice, and a permissionless rollup framework called Godwoken.
There is also a cross-chain bridge called Force Bridge which is expected to enable support for Bitcoin, Tron, EOS, and Polkadot by the end of this quarter.
The Nervos Common Knowledge Base (CKB) saw huge gains earlier this year as L2 and DeFi development progressed.
China’s Nervos Network has launched a $5 million fund to support projects building decentralized exchanges, lending platforms, and other DeFi protocols.
According to a Feb. 10 announcement from Nervos, the fund will be used to provide cash grants and direct support to fintech and blockchain entrepreneurs.
In particular, Nervos is looking to back Defi teams building trustless decentralized exchanges, synthetic asset solutions, identity protocols, lending solutions, prioritizing projects striving for interoperability across multiple blockchain networks.
Grant applicants building on the Nervous blockchain will also be eligible to receive hands on support from Nervos’ core developer team.
Nervos is a Chinese-based open-source public blockchain that enables layer-two scaling solutions and is aiming to build an “universal, Internet-like public network.”
Nervos described the fund as a response to “backlash and controversy” regarding the centralized finance sector. In recent weeks, a retail-driven short-squeeze targeting the stock of struggling game retailer GameStop saw Robinhood and other mainstream trading platforms suspend trade in the shares.
Kevin Wang, co-founder of Nervos, said:
“People are becoming increasingly interested in blockchain and crypto because of the barriers in traditional finance, but users need to be able to easily transact on the blockchain for the space to grow and scale.”
Nervos also emphasized the “antiquated” systems underpinning legacy trading systems, such as centralized governance and inefficient settlement processes.
Nervos launched it’s CKB blockchain in 2019 with a focus on scalability. The project sought to target DeFi and asset tokenization from inception, and launched its CKB foundation to support developers working to improve the security, decentralization, and speed of the DeFi ecosystem.
Last year saw Nervos emphasize interoperability, launching a bridge between Ethereum and the CKB network in December, and a “universal passport” allowing developers to program for multiple blockchain through a single interface in the same month.
Nervos was also among the initial cohort of permissionless blockchains to integrate with China’s Blockchain Service Network last year.
