Cross-chain messaging ensures blockchains can talk to one another, reducing fragmentation in this fast-moving industry. Zhaojun, co-founder of Multichain, tells us why it matters — and what could happen to networks that fail to embrace this "revolutionary headwind." 1. Hello! Why is cross-chain messaging so necessary? As we can all see, a multi-chain ecosystem is beginning to take shape in Web3 — and the necessity for communication between blockchains is growing. After going through various stages of evolution, Web3 DApps have now reached the point where they can execute on a single chain while being deployed on multiple chains. The …

Despite the innovations brought about by blockchain technology, a blockchain by itself does not automatically come with market data. To fix this, the trading and asset management firm Galaxy Digital has collaborated with the blockchain oracle provider Chainlink. In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Galaxy highlighted that the firm will provide its crypto pricing data to blockchains through Chainlink. The firm believes that with this data, smart contract developers will have the ability to build more advanced decentralized applications (DApps). Zane Glauber, the head of strategic opportunities at Galaxy, told Cointelegraph that they believe that the integration will have a …

Most crypto investors have probably never heard of Wintermute Trading before the Sept. 20 $160 million hack, but that does not reduce their significance within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The London-based algorithmic trading and crypto lending firm also provides liquidity to some of the largest exchanges and blockchain projects. As a crypto-native trading firm, meaning digital assets have been the core since its inception in July 2017, Wintermute’s expertise in the sector is attested by $25 million in funding from global venture capital investors like Fidelity Investments, Pantera Capital and Blockchain.com Ventures. Lending and venture capital firms have limited impact on …

BNB Chain, the native blockchain of Binance, has launched AvengerDAO, a new community-driven security initiative to help users against scams, malicious actors and possible exploits. The security-centric decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has been developed in association with leading security firms and popular crypto projects such as Certik, TrustWallet, PancakeSwap and Opera, to name a few. The AvengerDAO security initiative mainly consists of three major components, namely a passive API system called Meter, a subscription-based alert system called Watch, and a programmable fund management system called Vault. When a user on the BNB Chain interacts with any applications or counterparties, the …

BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain, entered a symmetrical triangle formation on Aug. 10, when it first faced the descending trendline at the $335 resistance. The following five weeks have been a struggle around $280, the exact intersection between the two conflicting ascending and descending patterns. A decision on whether the symmetrical triangle will break to the upside or downside is expected by Sept. 30, when the trendlines cross. Currently holding a $45 billion total market capitalization, BNB Chain token has outperformed the broader altcoin market by 15% over the past three months. The latest breakthrough in BNB …

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. Decentralized applications, or DApps, finally showed a glimmer of recovery in August as the daily average of unique active wallets rose by 3.7% compared to May. With just under a week left for the Merge, SEBA Bank has opened Ethereum staking services for the institutions. On the other side, layer-2 scalability solutions are hopeful of seeing a significant cut down in their carbon emissions post Merge. This past week, two DeFi protocols became victims …

Arbitrum is one of Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling solutions designed to improve smart contracts’ efficiency and transaction execution on the network while reducing fees drastically and adding extra privacy features. L2 networks are software that sit on top of the base layer of a blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum to boost the platform’s efficiency and offer inexpensive transactions. In recent years, Ethereum’s surge in the development and adoption of Web3, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized applications (DApps) has resulted in the platform’s excessive congestion leading to skyrocketing fees. Different solutions have been explored to resolve Ethereum’s scalability, including layer-1 dedicated upgrades. …

The assumption that Ethereum will just transition to a fully functional proof-of-stake (PoS) network after the Merge somewhat ignores the risk and effort necessary to move an asset that has a $193 billion market capitalization and 400 decentralized applications (DApps). That is precisely why monitoring vital network conditions is essential for anyone willing to trade the event which is scheduled for Sept. 14, according to ethernodes.org. More importantly, traders should be prepared to detect any alarming developments in case things go wrong. Apart from the $34.2 billion in total value locked in smart contracts, another $5.3 billion in Ether is …

New data from DappRadar suggests that gaming remains a vital organ to the blockchain industry. According to the report, the gaming sector accounts for approximately 50.51% of industry usage month-over-month (MoM), as per August numbers. While overall the numbers are a good indicator for the sector, it is a decrease from the previous month. Last month the gaming sector made up approximately 57.30% of industry usage (MoM). The data from DappRadar comes from the daily Unique Active Wallets (UAW). According to the surveyor, there are around 847,230 gaming-related UAW active daily with nearly $698 million in transactions. Gaming has long …

The decentralized application industry pushed above $40 billion in smart contract deposits in February 2021, and currently the figure stands at $59 billion. To date, “real money” continues to flow into the sector, and on Aug. 29, gaming startup Limit Break raised $200 million. The project gained popularity after the successful launch of its DigiDaigaku free-mint NFT collection. According to a report by Dove Metrics and Messari, the crypto industry saw $30.3 billion in funds raised in H1 2022. This amount surpassed the $30.2 billion seen in 2021. Excluding the $10.2 billion in funding raised for the centralized finance sector …

Ether (ETH) is the second largest crypto by market capitalization and the absolute leader in decentralized applications by deposits. Becoming a victim of its own success, the network experienced a fee hike in November 2021 when the average transaction costs surpassed $50. That's precisely why the Merge is a critical step to implementing a fully functional scaling solution. The confirmation of a transition to a proof of stake (PoS) consensus was the main driver for the rally toward $2,000 on Aug. 15. Investors were partially excited about the reduced issuing schedule and likely a transition to a deflationary scenario, but …

To many, Web3 is a concept that is equal parts promising and distant. Naturally, as the conversation continues to grow, many are now confused about where Web3 can be accessed, especially with the sheer number of self-proclaimed “decentralized applications” better thrown as “dApps” that are supposedly running and available. The caveat is that many of these projects aren’t fully decentralized, as they claim, often relying heavily on components of Web2 like centralized storage. The result is that at any time, a centralized party can disable access leaving users unable to access associated applications or, in extreme cases, compromise the dApps, …