Chainlink the leading Oracle provider with hundreds of partnerships — Secure data management for blockchains
Chainlink (LINK) is middleware that is needed to connect smart contracts with data in the real world, in a secure and trustworthy way. Smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain need to interact with data that is off-chain and this exactly the focus of Chainlink. It was launched in 2017 with an ICO that raised $32million. The software went live in June 2019 and in blockchain jargon it is called an `oracle`. It makes secure API connections between public blockchains and data sources possible. The partners using these oracles, use the LINK token to make payments for providing and accessing data.
2020 has been a year of exponential growth for Chainlink, as they have been announcing one partnership after another (over 110 partnerships year to date). From big tech firms like Google and Oracle, to large crypto players, like Binance, Ethereum Classic, 0x, and Dapps (Decentralized Apps) like Etherisc, SwipeWallet.
The LINK token is the largest Oracle token currently, with a market capitalization of $4.3billion, ranking 5th after Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and XRP. The LINK year-to-date return is over 600%. LINK tokens in circulation are 350million and the total supply is 1trillion[1].
Augur a decentralized prediction market governed by reputation, that has no taken off yet
Augur (REP) aims to build a decentralized prediction market so that there are no trust issues around reporting and payouts. Anyone can create an event and get the crowd`s wisdom to create a bet. Then, REP token holders can stake their tokens and buy or sell shares to bet for or against the possibility of the crowd prediction. REP token holders are not only traders but also reports of the results. The Augur smart contract will instantly allocate the profits to the winning wallets.
Augur presold 80% of the 11million total supply of REP tokens in 2015 in an ICO presale that raised $5.3million. The remaining 20% were allocated to the team. Augur went live in 2018. It currently has a market capitalization of c. $180million and a year to date return of roughly 100%.
Augur is one of the first decentralized application Ethereum. In late July this year, Augur upgraded to version 2. This upgrade includes among other items, an improved user experience and the ability to denominate bets in the Dai, the dollar pegged stablecoin of the Maker Dao ecosystem.
0x the infrastructure and tools to build decentralized exchanges
0x (ZRX) is not a decentralized exchange (DEX) itself but is building a suite of products for DEXs. For example, it offers a faster and cheaper way to manage order books. This is done through off-chain messaging while transactions are settled on the blockchain. This is the so-called `Relayers` of the 0x protocol. It also offers a simple way to offer crypto purchasing on an application or a website.
The DEX market is growing and as of August 2020, the daily trading volume was $2billion a week. In 2019, the volume for the entire year was $2.3billion. 0x has contributed significantly to the this growth with its continuously improving infrastructure that improves liquidity for DEXs like Nuo and allows to build better new Dapps, like 0x Mesh (a DEX to swap ERC tokens)
0x raised $24 million in Ether in August 2017 and allocated 1 billion ZRX tokens from which 500,000 are in investor`s hands.
ZRX is mainly a governance token, which means that holders have voting rights. Also ZRX tokens can be staked which means holders earn ETH rewards for providing liquidity to the network.
0x is enabling the growth of decentralized finance on Ethereum. Its current market capitalization is over $300million.
Efi Pylarinou is a global Fintech & Blockchain influencer — №1 Woman influencer in the finance sector by Refinitiv Global Social Media 2019.
[1] All data is as of Sep 8, 2020.
