This Week in Blockfolio Signal — Ethereum, Tezos, Polkadot, iExec
Every week we comb through hundreds of Blockfolio Signals to bring you the most significant team updates with brief analyses to help you understand the latest developments in blockchain.
But first, in macro crypto news this week:
- MicroStrategy Invests Another $175M in Bitcoin, Up to $425M
- More Than $1B in Bitcoin Has Been Tokenized for DeFi
- Uniswap Launches Governance Token and Performs Airdrop
- Kraken Becomes First Crypto Exchange to Charter a US Bank
- India Plans to Bring Law to Ban Crypto Trading (again)
Top Blockfolio Signals of the past week:
- Ethereum Proposal for Serenity Phase 0 Submitted
- Tezos Blockchain Selected by Societe Generale-Forge for CBDC
- Polkadot Launches Treasury to Fund Proposals
- iExec Chosen by European Commission as Key Partner of “OntoChain”
Ethereum Proposal for Serenity Phase 0 Submitted
“After months of delays and sandbox testing, Ethereum 2.0 is nearly ready for its first step. The proposal for the first part of Ethereum 2.0 dubbed “Serenity Phase 0,” is responsible for bringing about the highly anticipated proof-of-stake (POS) consensus mechanism. The new POS chain, known as the “Beacon Chain,” will be built alongside Ethereum’s existing network in the coming months.”
— Jason Hamlin, Blockfolio Ecosystem Insights
Summary
- Core developer Danny Ryan has submitted a proposal for the first and most critical phase of Ethereum 2.0, moving it closer to its launch.
- The proposal, dubbed “Serenity Phase 0,” is responsible for bringing about the highly anticipated proof-of-stake (POS) consensus mechanism — an efficient method for validating transactions on the Ethereum network.
- The new POS chain, known as the “Beacon Chain,” will be built alongside Ethereum’s existing network in the coming months.
- Phase 0 marks just one stage of a staggered 6-phase launch of Eth 2.0, with the latter phases expected to extend well into 2022.
Significance
This signifies that ETH2.0 is finally ready for its first step. While there have been months of delays, with Phase 0 under deliberation and a multitude of tests underway, a November launch isn’t looking so far fetched after all.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $379. View ETH on Blockfolio.
Tezos Blockchain Selected by Societe Generale-Forge for CBDC Experiment
“Societe Generale — Forge has selected the Tezos blockchain for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) experiments.
On July 20, 2020, Banque de France selected Societe Generale — Forge as part of its call for applications to experiment the use of Central Bank Digital Currency for interbank settlements. The experiment will explore the feasibility of financial securities being digitally settled and delivered in Central Bank Digital Currency.”
— Chris Ghent, Head of Communications, TQ
Summary
- Societe Generale — Forge has selected the Tezos blockchain for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) experiments.
- A pool of technology providers and advisors — which includes Nomadic Labs (one of the largest R&D centers in the Tezos ecosystem) — will participate in the project, contributing its technological expertise
- The presence of Tezos and Nomadic Labs in this selection highlights the quality of the development teams and the strong technical fundamentals of the Tezos blockchain.
Significance
This a great opportunity for Tezos to demonstrate the performance and security features of their blockchain that would make it ideal for financial use cases such as CBDCs.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $2.51. View XTZ on Blockfolio.
Polkadot Launches Treasury to Fund Proposals
“Polkadot has launched the Polkadot Treasury to fund proposals from developers within the community and multiple proposals have already been submitted.”
— Jason Hamlin, Ecosystem Insights
Summary
- Teams building on Polkadot can now submit their projects to be funded by the Polkadot Treasury, which complements the Web3 Foundation Grants Program and aims to expand the community.
- The Treasury is a pot of funds collected through transaction fees, slashing and staking inefficiencies. If the Treasury ends a budget period without spending all of its funds a percentage of them are burned.
- One way of administering these funds is via a spending proposal, which can be initiated by any holder of DOT, Polkadot’s native token. Funds can also be used to tip community members for their work in different areas.
- The first proposals submitted for Council review fell into the following categories: infrastructure deployment, continued operations projects, and software development proposals.
Significance
The establishment of the Polkadot Treasury will help to accelerate development on the platform and attract talented developers and designers to build on Polkadot. This comes as Polkadot also announced that projects will be able to mint their own tokens in 2021.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $5.28. View DOT on Blockfolio.
iExec Chosen by European Commission as Key Partner of “OntoChain”
“Announcement: The European Commission has announced iExec as a key partner of ‘OntoChain’, a €6 million funded EU project.
The project is part of the European Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative.The next few years are going to be interesting for iExec’s role in this project!”
— Blair Maclennan, International Community Manager
Summary
- The European Commission has announced the €6 million funding of ‘OntoChain’. The project is part of the European Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative.
- Being one of 7 core partners, iExec brings expertise in blockchain and confidential computing.
- OntoChain marries the worlds of the Semantic Web and Blockchain to deliver a new software ecosystem for trusted, traceable, and transparent ontological knowledge management.
Significance
Working on OntoChain presents a unique opportunity for iExec to bring decentralized cloud computing solutions to new domains and markets, helping develop new applications. This in turn will increase awareness and adoption of their decentralized cloud computing network.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $1.18. View RLC on Blockfolio.
Quote of the Week:
“We acquired 21,454 BTC via 78,388 off-chain transactions, then secured it in cold storage with 18 on-chain transactions. Bitcoin scales just fine as a store of value.”
— Michael Saylor, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Microstrategy
Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you our top Blockfolio Signals again next week.
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Jason Hamlin
Ecosystem Insights & Development @ Blockfolio
Blockfolio Signal is a first-of-its-kind communications platform built exclusively for token teams to connect and engage with their communities. Over 400 token team CEOs and team leaders actively use the platform to provide relevant project updates directly to Blockfolio’s 5 million+ users. Learn more at www.blockfolio.com/signal.
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