Solana

Solana is a blockchain platform that is designed to bring blockchain technology to the masses. It is fast, scalable, and energy-efficient, making it the perfect choice for developers and users alike.

One of the most striking features of Solana is its speed. With block times of just 400 milliseconds, Solana can process transactions much faster than most other blockchain networks. This development represents a significant advancement for users, as it eliminates the need for prolonged waiting times for transaction processing.

Another important aspect of Solana is its decentralisation. The network is validated by thousands of nodes that operate independently of each other, which aims to ensure that data remains secure and resistant to censorship. This is a crucial feature for any blockchain network, as it ensures that no single entity has the power to control or manipulate the network.

Scalability is also a key feature of Solana. The network is built to handle thousands of transactions per second, making it ideal for large-scale projects. Additionally, fees for both developers and users remain less than $0.01, which makes it an affordable option for everyone.

Energy efficiency is also a major focus of Solana. The network uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which eliminates the need for energy-intensive mining. Additionally, Solana has implemented a proof-of-history mechanism that allows it to validate transactions even faster. This makes it an environmentally friendly option, as each Solana transaction uses about the same energy as a few Google searches.

The team behind Solana is committed to making blockchain technology accessible to everyone. Co-founder Anatoly Yakavenko and many others on the team have a background in building cell phone networks, which has influenced their focus on scalability and efficiency. They believe that for people to build the projects that will get the public using blockchain technology, you need to make it as easy and painless as possible for people to experiment and use the technology.

In conclusion, Solana is a powerful, fast, and energy-efficient blockchain platform that is designed to bring blockchain technology to the masses. It is ideal for developers, users, and anyone in between. Its fast block times, decentralised architecture, scalability, and energy efficiency make it a great choice for any project. Additionally, its low transaction fees and easy-to-use interface make it a perfect choice for anyone looking to explore the world of blockchain technology.

Solana: A new architecture for a high performance blockchain

Solana | Solana Community: Join our ecosystem

Solana | There are no bad questions about... blockchain basics

New Listing: Solana (SOL) 

Polkadot

Polkadot is a next generation blockchain that establishes an ecosystem of computers that can each operate their own blockchains. It incentivises a global chain of computers to use a blockchain and is thought by many to be one of the most innovative projects in the world of cryptocurrency.

Polkadot was founded in 2016 by Gavin Wood, the co-founder of Ethereum. Before Polkadot, Wood was also the founder of Parity Technologies and the Web3 Foundation. He also developed Solidity, the programming language for writing applications on Ethereum. The Polkadot Foundation conducted a series of capital raises from 2017-2019. In October 2019, the Polkadot Ecosystem Fund was created, providing money for projects built on the Polkadot network. Finally, the Polkadot mainnet launch occurred in May 2020.

As traditional blockchains were not built to communicate with each other, this provided an opportunity for the creation of a network that connects all other blockchains. Polkadot can act as a multichain connector across multiple networks, which generally would not be able to communicate otherwise.

Polkadot achieves this by hosting its blockchain network known as the ‘relay chain’, which is the primary chain for Polkadot and is responsible for its consensus mechanism, cross-chain interoperability, and shared network security.

The ‘relay chain’ then hosts data structures, known as parachains, which run parallel to the ‘relay chain’. These data structures come in various forms and can be customised based on their needs. Parachains can act across multiple blockchains and work simultaneously. This allows Polkadot to achieve vast levels of interoperability and network scalability.

To further understand the relationship between the various chains and how consensus is maintained, view a detailed description on Polkadot’s site 

Polkadot's vision is to create an ‘Internet of Blockchains’ with many use cases, including payment networks, marketplaces, prediction markets and more!

It's evolving ecosystem that currently holds approximately 100 parachains for use. To access these, Polkadot designed an auction system whereby teams can bid for available slots to build their projects with. The network allows projects to raise funds internally or source support from the Polkadot community via a crowd loan system. The chosen project is provided lease rights between 12-96 weeks and needs to lock up DOT as collateral during the nominated usage time. Once the timeframe expires, all DOT is returned, and teams can choose to reapply for a parachain.

The first parachain auction was held on November 11th, 2021. The network believes the combination of auctions, defined lease timeframes and crowd loans incentivises the best possible projects to gain the limited spaces available. Furthermore, the competition encourages consistent innovation among bidders who will compete to gain parachain leases.

To learn more about Polkadot, see the below resources:



Polkadot FAQ | What is Polkadot Used For?

New Listing: Polkadot (DOT) 

Avalanche


Avalanche (AVAX) is an open-source platform that provides support for smart contracts and enables developers to create decentralised applications (dApps). The enterprise blockchain allows projects to be deployed in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem.

AVAX is the native token on Avalanche, and acts as a staking mechanism and is required to run a node on the platform. These nodes receive rewards for participating in consensus and distributing transactions across the network. It also provides users with the ability to tokenise securities, trade digital assets and more.

Ava Labs launched Avalanche in 2020 with the goal of delivering a scalable solution while maintaining decentralisation and security, focusing on lower costs, fast transaction speeds, and eco-friendliness.

With Avalanche, users can create an unlimited number of customised and interoperable blockchains. To operate a blockchain on the Avalanche coin, AVAX, one must pay a subscription fee.

The native token AVAX is a utility token and serves as the medium of exchange for Avalanche’s ecosystem. In other words, the token is used as currency within the network, typically for fee collection in transactions, incentives and many other use cases. 

It is also used for staking AVAX, which serves to secure the network. Stakers are then rewarded with more AVAX. Some users stake AVAX to earn passive income on the network. 

When the Bitcoin blockchain was launched in 2009, it paved the way for the design and invention of blockchains that came after it, including Ethereum. With today’s wide-scale use of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols, however, the technical limitations of the original blockchain design became more apparent.

Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus, for example, inhibits decentralisation to an extent due to its resource-intensive validation process. Transactions also tend to be slower. Most Ethereum apps today use layer-2 scaling solutions to address these issues. By using layer 2, transactions are taken away from the main chain. They are then rolled in neat “bundles,” which are sent back to the Ethereum chain, taking pressure off Ethereum.

Although effective, this solution adds layers of complexity, making the network open to certain security threats. So, how can a blockchain keep everything within a layer-1 protocol that is decentralised and scalable, but also secure?

Enter Ava Labs, the founders of Avalanche, who came up with a brilliant three-blockchain solution to address the top problems that plague blockchains. In September 2020, Ava Labs US launched the Avalanche blockchain after raising $6 million USD during their financing round. Their subsequent token sales — private and public — amounted to $48 million USD.

The three people behind Avalanche are Kevin Sekniqi, Maofan “Ted” Yin and Emin Gün Sirer. A pseudonymous group called Team Rocket first released fundamental information about the protocol in May 2018 on the InterPlanetary File System.

A group of researchers from Cornell University then developed the technology, led by Cornell professor of computer science and software engineer, Emin Gün Sirer. He was assisted by two of his doctoral students: Maofan “Ted” Yin and Kevin Sekniqi.

The AVA codebase for the Avalanche consensus protocol became open-source in March 2020, making it available to the public. Avalanche’s initial coin offering (ICO) ended in July of 2020, followed by the launch of Avalanche in September of the same year.

What problems does Avalanche (AVAX) solve?

As mentioned earlier, Avalanche was built to address many of the issues most blockchain networks face. By providing an alternative to networks such as Ethereum, platforms like Avalanche work to combat centralization within the crypto space.

Two of the top issues that Avalanche addresses are:

Avalanche was deliberately designed with scalability in mind. On par with top-tier payment processors like PayPal and VISA, Avalanche has sub-second transaction times.

Avalanche is also tremendously powerful and efficient, having the capacity to process up to 6,500 transactions per second with sub-second finality. This is a vast improvement on Ethereum’s limitations in terms of the number of transactions that can be processed per second.

Considered by many as an Ethereum competitor, Avalanche also trumps Ethereum in terms of gas fees. Fees on Avalanche are more affordable than Ethereum by a wide margin.

Fees on the network are used for various purposes such as for creating and minting assets, staking, transaction fees and blockchain creation, after which these fees are burned, permanently reducing the number of AVAX within the platform.

According to Avalanche’s Twitter account “AVAX is a hard-capped, scarce asset used to pay fees and secure the network.” in response to used fees being burned. Burned AVAX can be checked on burnedavax.com 

To stay up to date on the latest from the AVAX community or learn more about upcoming features, please visit AVAX community page.

To learn more, visit the AVAX basics page.

Avalanche Basics | Avalanche Support (avax.network)

New Listing: Avalanche (AVAX)

Aave

 is now available for trading on BTC Markets.

Aave is a decentralised finance protocol that allows people to lend and borrow crypto.

Lenders can earn interest on their crypto, while borrowers can put up their holdings as collateral in order to take out flash loans from a special liquidity pool.

It is built on the Ethereum blockchain and is a deflationary digital asset. Holders of the Aave token can also vote and decide on the outcome of Aave Improvement Proposals (AIPs).

Start trading Aave today! 

https://app.btcmarkets.net/buy-sell?market=AAVE-AUD

New Listing: Aave (AAVE)

The Sandbox

 is now available for trading on BTC Markets.

The Sandbox is an Ethereum-based gaming metaverse that enables users to create, sell, use, and monetise their own virtual reality NFTs. The Sandbox uses its native token SAND to underpin the in-game economy.

SAND can be earned through playing games and contests in The Sandbox or purchased on cryptocurrency exchanges.

By using the SAND token, The Sandbox promotes decentralised governance and allows users to share their views and ideas about the development of the project.

https://app.btcmarkets.net/buy-sell?market=SAND-AUD

New Listing: The Sandbox (SAND)

Decentraland

Decentraland (MANA) is a token built on the Ethereum blockchain that powers the Decentraland virtual reality platform. In this virtual world, users purchase plots of land using MANA that they can later navigate, build upon and monetise. MANA can also be used to pay for in-world goods and services.

Decentraland is one of the growing number of projects to use a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) structure for governance decisions. MANA holders control how the Decentraland metaverse behaves by proposing and voting on policy updates and the types of content that are allowed within the metaverse.

https://app.btcmarkets.net/buy-sell?market=MANA-AUD

BTC Markets Blog

New Listing: Solana (SOL)

New Listing: Polkadot (DOT)

New Listing: Avalanche (AVAX)

New Listing: Aave (AAVE)

New Listing: The Sandbox (SAND)

New Listing: Decentraland (MANA)