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In the dynamic landscape of blockchain technology, Fantom has emerged as a frontrunner, offering robust solutions that transcend the limitations of traditional blockchains. From scalability to security, Fantom blockchain stands out for its innovative approach and practical applications across various industries.

Understanding Fantom Blockchain

Fantom blockchain, built on a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) consensus mechanism known as Lachesis, is designed to address the scalability issues that plague many existing blockchain platforms. Unlike traditional blockchains that rely on linear chains of blocks, Fantom uses a DAG structure where multiple transactions can be processed simultaneously. This not only enhances transaction speed but also reduces fees significantly.

Advantages of Fantom Blockchain

1. Scalability: One of the most significant advantages of Fantom blockchain is its scalability. By utilizing a DAG-based protocol, Fantom can achieve high throughput and low latency, making it capable of handling thousands of transactions per second. This scalability is crucial for applications that require fast and efficient transaction processing, such as decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

2. Security: Fantom blockchain prioritizes security through its innovative consensus mechanism and Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) protocol. The asynchronous nature of DAG ensures that transactions are validated swiftly and securely. This makes Fantom a reliable choice for enterprises and developers looking to build secure and tamper-resistant applications.

3. Interoperability: Another key advantage of Fantom blockchain is its interoperability with other blockchain networks. This interoperability is facilitated through the Fantom Opera Chain, which supports Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility. Developers can easily port existing Ethereum-based applications to Fantom blockchain, leveraging its superior speed and scalability without compromising compatibility.

4. Low Transaction Costs: Due to its efficient consensus mechanism and DAG structure, Fantom blockchain offers significantly lower transaction fees compared to traditional blockchains. This cost-effectiveness is attractive for both individual users and businesses looking to minimize operational expenses while maximizing transaction throughput.

Practical Applications of Fantom Blockchain

1. Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Fantom blockchain has gained traction in the DeFi space due to its high throughput and low transaction costs. Platforms built on Fantom, such as lending protocols and decentralized exchanges (DEXs), offer users seamless and cost-effective financial services without the bottlenecks of traditional financial systems.

2. Supply Chain Management: The transparent and secure nature of Fantom blockchain makes it ideal for supply chain management applications. By utilizing smart contracts and immutable ledger capabilities, businesses can track and verify the origin, authenticity, and movement of goods in real-time, enhancing efficiency and reducing fraud.

3. Healthcare and Identity Verification: In sectors like healthcare and identity verification, data security and privacy are paramount. Fantom blockchain’s robust security features and fast transaction processing enable secure sharing and verification of sensitive information, empowering patients and users with greater control over their data.

Conclusion

Fantom blockchain represents a paradigm shift in blockchain technology, offering scalability, security, and interoperability that are crucial for the next generation of decentralized applications. Whether in DeFi, supply chain management, or identity verification, Fantom’s innovative approach opens new possibilities for efficiency and transparency. As blockchain adoption continues to grow, Fantom blockchain stands poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of digital innovation.

In conclusion, embracing Fantom blockchain isn’t just about leveraging cutting-edge technology—it’s about embracing a future where speed, security, and scalability converge to redefine how we interact with digital ecosystems. Explore Fantom blockchain today and unlock the potential for transformative innovation.

This article explores the fundamental advantages of Fantom blockchain and its diverse applications across industries. Whether you’re a developer, investor, or business leader, understanding Fantom’s capabilities can pave the way for innovative solutions in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

POLY NETWORK

Introduction to Bitcoin Funding Rate

The funding rate is a periodic payment exchanged between buyers and sellers in perpetual futures contracts, which have no expiry date. This rate aims to ensure the perpetual contract price remains aligned with the Bitcoin spot price, balancing the market by adjusting the cost of holding positions​​.

Understanding the Funding Rate Mechanism

The funding rate can be either positive or negative, based on the price gap between the perpetual contract and the spot price, along with interest rates. A positive funding rate means buyers (longs) pay sellers (shorts), encouraging the alignment of futures and spot prices. Conversely, a negative rate means shorts pay longs, maintaining market equilibrium​​​​.

Impact on Market Sentiment

The funding rate reflects overall market sentiment. A high positive rate signals bullish sentiment, which traders willing to pay more to maintain long positions. On the other hand, a high negative rate indicates bearish sentiment, showing a preference for short selling. This dynamic plays a significant role in influencing trader behavior and market trends​​​​.

Trading Strategy and Funding Rates

For traders, understanding and monitoring the funding rate is vital. It affects profitability, with high rates potentially diminishing returns on long positions and vice versa for short positions. Additionally, persistent high or low rates can indicate over-leveraged markets or potential price corrections, serving as a crucial indicator for informed trading decisions​​.

Variations Across Exchanges

Different exchanges may calculate and apply funding rates at varying intervals, typically every eight hours. This standardisation helps maintain market stability but requires traders to familiarize themselves with the specifics of their chosen exchange. The timing and calculation method can significantly affect trading strategies and outcomes​​.

Conclusion

The Bitcoin funding rate is a pivotal factor in the cryptocurrency trading landscape, especially within the perpetual futures market. Its influence on market sentiment, price alignment, and trader profitability underscores the need for traders to stay informed and adapt their strategies accordingly.

Bluesky is often called a decentralized Twitter alternative and viewed as a competitor to the tech giant. But Bluesky was also the brainchild—and largely the creation—of Twitter. In December 2019, Twitter announced that they were funding an independent team to work on an open and decentralized social media standard. The founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, actually expressed the desire for Twitter to eventually be a client (user) of the standard that Bluesky was working on.

In August 2021, it was announced that Jay Graber, formerly a Zcash developer, would be helming the Bluesky team and its initiatives going forward. In February 2022, Bluesky became a completely independent organization following the formation of its Public Benefit LLC. In October 2022, the Bluesky app was announced to notable fanfare—with its waitlist receiving approximately 30,000 sign ups in two days. In February 2023, the Bluesky app was released in beta version on the Apple App Store (at time of writing, no Android app version is available).

Available initially for download by invite only, Bluesky opened its doors to the public in February 2024, after amassing some 3 million users since it launched in beta. Within 24 hours of its public launch, Graber claimed that 550,000 new users had signed up to the platform.

The Bluesky user experience

While still in beta (a test phase for software, video games, and apps prior to a full release), Bluesky as an app appears to be largely modeled on Twitter itself. While essentially a rival to Twitter and other Twitter alternatives, the initial reaction from some is that it feels too similar, having features like comments, likes, and reposts (like Twitter’s retweets). This includes how these posts, replies, and the feed itself are visually presented to Bluesky users. While there are some differences, they are largely minor (a post character limit of 265 instead of 280, for example). 

While the user experience (UX) for Bluesky app users has been surprisingly familiar for those who have previously used Twitter, others point out that you need to look below the surface-level UX to understand why Bluesky could be a social media gamechanger. While Bluesky is currently a proof of concept that has so far succeeded—not failed—in having certain functionalities of a centralized social media platform like Twitter, the underlying technology—and the possibilities it enables—is what all the commotion is about.

Bluesky’s innovative networking technology: AT Protocol

While the UX and the features of Bluesky resemble Twitter to a significant degree, the key goal of Bluesky isn’t aesthetics, features, or the UX—the chief goal wasn’t even to create a decentralized Twitter competitor; superseding all of these objectives was the desire to create a decentralized social network protocol that could be used by anyone. Called authenticated transport (AT) protocol, this is the technology upon which Bluesky is built. 

While Bluesky is the first major release on AT protocol, the technology is open and available for use by any user, developer, or company (in much the same way anyone can build on a public blockchain like Ethereum). This means that others could create their own social media platforms using AT protocol technology. Even Twitter could potentially be run on AT protocol as Jack Dorsey had hoped, although with Twitter’s change of ownership this may be a less likely scenario.

AT protocol enables new ways for users to transparently communicate with each other.

Thanks to these features, many see the AT protocol (not the Bluesky app) as the key innovation. While Bluesky gets all the headlines, the AT protocol could fundamentally change the social media landscape in ways that aren’t merely technical or abstract (more on that later). The AT protocol is an amalgamation of decentralized technologies (but not a blockchain writ large). In essence, the AT protocol would enable the creation of not a single social network, but a federation of social networks that could interact with each other.

AT protocol enables new ways for users to transparently communicate with each other. At a technical level, this would allow you to self-host the servers of your own company, profile, or social media platform. This is in stark contrast to existing social media platforms where the self-hosting of servers and data simply isn’t possible. The goal of such a design is to secure user data and make the user platform experience resistant to influence from corporations, governments, and other centralized entities. AT protocol has the ability to put users in control of their data and how it is used (or not used). While being able to host your own servers is an option, users that don’t want to run their own servers can simply delegate a host of their choosing and use Bluesky like any other social media app.

What Bluesky and AT Protocol mean for social media users

In the current landscape, major social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Youtube) are largely siloed ecosystems that don’t interact with each other. If you are on multiple social media platforms, you likely have different followers, friends, and content—and view different content. And if you don’t like a social media network you are using, you don’t have a lot of good options. While you can always use an app less, stop using it, or find an alternative, it can often be a hard choice to make.

If you decide to leave, you often find yourself in a smaller ecosystem than the one you left. Further, you often have to start over by creating a new account, adding new friends and follows, and so on. Beyond that, you may find that many of the people you want to engage with don’t use these social media alternatives. Regardless of your reason for disliking a platform or certain aspects of it (over/under moderation, the algorithm, data privacy, censorship, and so on), users often continue to use these platforms due to a lack of viable alternatives and the headache associated with starting from scratch on a new social network.  With AT protocol, one key feature is the ability to port over a social media profile to another network—without losing the key data and social contacts you value. 

For example, let’s say you have a Bluesky account with a username handle, hundreds of contacts, messaging history, and so on. If for some reason you didn’t like how Bluesky was operating, you could simply port over your entire account to a Bluesky alternative that is built on the AT protocol and continue as if nothing changed. This solves one of the major pain points of leaving and joining social networks.

Not to say that you would necessarily want to leave Bluesky, however, as it allows for a great degree of customization and user control not available on other social media platforms. One goal of Bluesky is to revitalize transparent and public conversation on social media by tamping down on the disinformation and authoritarian manipulation sometimes found in the digital social media landscape.

The U.S. State Department is offering dark web informants cryptocurrency bounties in exchange for information on hackers seen as threats to the country, per CNN.

The State Department’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program offers up to $10 million for the “identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, participates in malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure.”

This isn’t the first time the state department has launched an initiative like this. In fact, the RFJ program has been in place since 1984. Since then, the government has paid over $150 million to over 100 people who “provided actionable information that put terrorists behind bars or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide.”

The program addresses several other key national security issues beyond ransomware, including terrorism financing, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and North Korea.

The “malicious cyber activities” mentioned above are defined specifically as ransomware, intentional unauthorized access to a protected computer, and intentionally causing damage to a protected computer.

“Within our program there’s a tremendous amount of enthusiasm because we’re really pushing the envelope every chance we get to try and reach audiences, sources, people who may have information that helps improve our national security,” a State Department official told CNN.

The RJF program has paid out rewards via money transfers or even by delivering suitcases full of cash.

But according to CNN, the State Department is now open to paying informants with cryptocurrencies.

The RJF program and cryptocurrency

According to CNN, the RJF program is pivoting its payment mechanisms to include cryptocurrency payments.

“Finding people where they are and reaching them with the technology on which they are most comfortable, I think, is the name of the game for Rewards for Justice,” a State Department official told CNN.

According to Erez Liebermann, a former Justice Department cybercrimes prosecutor, this comes as no surprise. “It is inconceivable that the government has not used cryptocurrency to pay undercover informants or sources,” he told CNN.

This, in turn, is welcome news for cryptocurrency advocates. Neeraj Agrawal of crypto think tank Coin Center told CNN “We have long suspected that law enforcement agencies were taking advantage of the properties of cryptocurrencies. It is great to see the administration recognizes the role that cryptocurrencies can play in promoting activism.”

That may well be true, but the Biden administration is also acutely aware of the role cryptocurrencies can play in ransomware—one of the government’s most prioritized national security risks.

Last month, the U.S. government established a new task force whose focus was on tracing cryptocurrency payments made in cyberattacks.

The United States vs ransomware

Ransomware—and the broader threat of cyber warfare—has been brought into sharp focus for the Biden administration.

Earlier this summer, the United States was rocked by two major ransomware attacks—the Colonial Pipeline and JBS ransomware attacks respectively.

In May, the ransomware group DarkSide stole over $90 million from the American gasoline pipeline firm Colonial Pipeline. One month later, JBS plants that process about one-fifth of America’s meat produce were hit by ransomware hackers. The company eventually paid $11 million to the hackers after the attack.

Following these high-profile ransomware episodes, the Department of Justice elevated ransomware to a priority level similar to terrorism.

Poly Network, a decentralized finance (DeFi) interoperability protocol that was hacked for over $600 million last week, has announced that it will launch a $500,000 bug bounty program to prevent such exploits from happening again.

“In addition to the previous 500k proposal for MrWhiteHat, PolyNetwork officially announces a separate 500k bounty program open for top security agencies,” the protocol’s developers announced on Twitter today.

The project has referred to the attacker as “MrWhiteHat” following several exchanges between them and Poly Network.

A bug bounty is a common practice in the tech world where companies offer monetary rewards to tech-savvy individuals—including hackers—for discovering vulnerabilities in their software. The idea is to create an incentive for coders to not publicly disclose or exploit any “bugs” but rather to report them and get the corresponding reward.

Poly Network developers also offered a similar $500,000 bounty to the hacker who recently stole $600 million worth of cryptocurrencies from their protocol.

“Since we believe your action is white hat behavior, we plan to offer you a $500,000 bug bounty after you complete the refund fully. Also we assure you that you will not be accountable for this incident,” they wrote in a message attached to an Ethereum transaction.

The hacker later said that while they saw the offer, they decided to ignore it and just send the remaining funds back.

“The Poly did offered (sic) a bounty, but I have never responded to them. Instead, I will send all of their money back,” the hacker noted in another transaction.

The hacker returned all of the stolen funds—minus $33 million in USDT stablecoins frozen by Tether—last Friday as promised.

Per today’s announcement, Poly Network’s reward program will launch on DeFi bug bounty platform ImmuneFi on August 17 and will offer coders up to $100,000 for individual bugs, totaling $500,000.

Meanwhile, Poly Network developers also published a new roadmap today, highlighting the steps the platform plans to take after the record-breaking hack. These include patching existing vulnerabilities, a mainnet upgrade, and returning lost funds back to users.

Non-fungible token (NFT) crypto collectibles like artwork and videos exploded in popularity in early 2021, but several blockchain-based video games had already been building in the space before most people took notice.

When NFTs hit the mainstream, the promising crypto game Axie Infinity by indie studio Sky Mavis took off. And when the wider NFT market cooled a bit after all of that hype… well, Axie Infinity got even bigger.

Axie Infinity is inspired by Nintendo’s beloved Pokémon series, and sees you collect and pit adorable monsters against each other in cartoonish combat. Getting started isn’t simple or cheap, however, and there’s a vastly larger upfront investment needed than your average PlayStation or Xbox game. The upside, however, is that you own your Axie NFTs and can resell them, plus its “play-to-earn” approach rewards you with crypto tokens that can be exchanged for money.

It’s a bold new vision for gaming—and it’s catching on. Here’s how to get started.

What is Axie Infinity?

Axie Infinity is a monster-battling game where you pit teams of cute monsters called Axies against each other in battles.

The game runs on the Ethereum blockchain with the help of Ronin, a sidechain that helps minimize fees and transaction delays. It’s primarily focused on turn-based battles, either against computer-controlled Axie teams or live opponents over the Internet.

In-game items are represented by NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. These cryptographically unique tokens can be linked with digital content; in Axie Infinity’s case, the Axies and land plots that populate the game. Unlike conventional in-game items, the NFT confers ownership on the buyer; you can trade Axies on the game’s marketplace for real money.

You can also breed Axies, which lets you build potentially more powerful teams and yields additional NFTs to sell on the marketplace. Some Axie NFTs have sold for as much as 300 ETH apiece, or more than $600,000 as of this writing.

How does Axie Infinity work?

As mentioned, Axie Infinity is built entirely around NFT items—and right now, there’s no way to play unless you buy the three Axie NFTs needed to create your first team.

They can be purchased from the official Axie marketplace via your Ronin wallet, which you’ll connect to the game. You can play on PC, Mac, Android, or iOS and take your Axies into battle to win rewards.

What’s so special about it?

Axie Infinity takes the fun and alluring premise of Pokémon and adds the element of ownership into the mix. These Axies belong to you and yield tangible rewards: Smooth Love Potion (SLP) crypto tokens that can be exchanged for money. The upfront costs will be a major roadblock for many players, but it’s a game that rewards players the more time and effort that they put into it.

“Play-to-earn” might sound like a marketing phrase or a gimmicky hook, but we’re already seeing evidence of a player-owned economy taking shape around the game.

For example, there are thousands of “Axie scholars” through programs like Yield Guild Games and others, in which Axie owners loan their NFTs to other players to use and earn with. The profits are divided amongst the parties, and in countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, people are playing Axie to support their families. Whether that proves to be a sustainable model remains to be seen, but it’s a potentially powerful and revolutionary idea that is already being put into practice.