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DeFi Crypto Assets Start 2021 By Thundering Higher

DeFi Cryptos Soar In 2021

Although we’re just beyond 2 weeks in, 2021 has started off with a burst for the cryptocurrency world.

Amid political chaos in the United States, the value of cryptocurrencies have risen significantly and so far this year. Bitcoin started 2021 around $29,000; and in two weeks time is has already soared above $40,000. More than a few analysts are predicting a 6-digit Bitcoin price this year.

Nevertheless, it’s not only about Bitcoin; beyond BTC, there has been an explosion in coin prices across the board, as cryptocurrency funds see record inflows. This is especially true with DeFi coins and tokens. At press time, we took a look at five major DeFi assets listed on coinmarketcap. In no particular order:

  1. Chainlink (LINK) Chainlink started the year around $12 and has gained as much as 83%, reaching a high above $22.00. LINK is a decentralized oracle network which aims to connect smart contracts with data from the real world. Chainlink was developed by Sergey Nazarov, with Steve Ellis as the other co-founder. It held an ICO in September 2017, raising $32 million, with a total supply of 1 billion LINK tokens. LINK, the cryptocurrency native to the Chainlink decentralized oracle network, is used to pay node operators.
  2. Ren (REN) Ren started the year around 34 cents and has gained as much as 85%, reaching a high above 63 cents. Ren (REN) is an open protocol built to provide interoperability and liquidity between different blockchain platforms. Formerly known as Republic Protocol, Ren launched RenVM, its virtual machine mainnet, in May 2020, having completed a $34 million initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018. The protocol’s native token, REN, functions as a bond for those running nodes which power RenVM, known as Darknodes. Ren aims to expand the interoperability, and hence accessibility, of decentralized finance (DeFi) by removing hurdles involved in liquidity between blockchains.
  3. Sushiswap (SUSHI) Sushiswap started the year around $3 and has gained as much as 153%, reaching a high above $7.60. SushiSwap (SUSHI) is an example of an automated market maker (AMM). An increasingly popular tool among cryptocurrency users, AMMs are decentralized exchanges which use smart contracts to create markets for any given pair of tokens. SushiSwap launched in September 2020 as a fork of Uniswap, the AMM which has become synonymous with the decentralized finance (DeFi) movement and associated trading boom in DeFi tokens. SushiSwap aims to diversify the AMM market and also add additional features not previously present on Uniswap, such as increased rewards for network participants via its in-house token, SUSHI.
  4. Aave (AAVE) Aave started the year around $90 and has gained as much as 114%, reaching a high above $203.00. Aave is a decentralized finance protocol that allows people to lend and borrow crypto. Lenders earn interest by depositing digital assets into specially created liquidity pools. Borrowers can then use their crypto as collateral to take out a flash loan using this liquidity. Aave (which means “ghost” in Finnish) was originally known as ETHLend when it launched in November 2017, but the rebranding to Aave happened in September 2018. AAVE provides holders with discounted fees on the platform, and it also serves as a governance token — giving owners a say in the future development of the protocol.
  5. Uniswap (UNI) Uniswap started the year at just about $5 and has gained as much as 80%, reaching a high of $9.00. Uniswap is a popular decentralized trading protocol, known for its role in facilitating automated trading of decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens. An example of an automated market maker (AMM), Uniswap launched in November 2018, but has gained considerable popularity this year thanks to the DeFi phenomenon and associated surge in token trading. Uniswap aims to keep token trading automated and completely open to anyone who holds tokens, while improving the efficiency of trading versus that on traditional exchanges. Uniswap creates more efficiency by solving liquidity issues with automated solutions, avoiding the problems which plagued the first decentralized exchanges. In September 2020, Uniswap went a step further by creating and awarding its own governance token, UNI, to past users of the protocol. This added both profitability potential and the ability for users to shape its future — an attractive aspect of decentralized entities.
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Blockchain News Cryptocurrency News Ethereum News

Creator Of First ICO Developing Blockchain DeFi Platform For UBI

Karma Finance

Universal Basic Income (UBI) Planned In 30 U.S. Cities

UBI is increasingly being recommended as a possible strategy to help mitigate the economic consequences of an extended coronavirus pandemic.

Almost all the UBI programs currently being piloted propose direct, unconditional cash payments to citizens, a lot like how many welfare payments are actually distributed today.

Based on data from Welfare and Health Studies at the Cato Institute only 30% of funds allocated to government welfare programs end up in the hands of the people who benefit from it. For private charities, an average of 82% of funds reach those that want it, while fund-raising and administrative expenses account for the remaining 18%. If numbers that are very much the same are actually assumed for UBI programs, 70% of funds will go towards a UBI program’s administrative expenses rather compared to its intended recipients.

The use of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is able to transform how UBI is actually implemented, making it cost effective, most importantly, and, secure, transparent. The primary benefit to using blockchain technology will be the elimination of bureaucracy, resulting in 100% of funds reaching UBI recipients.

Karma Finance, founded by Antoine Sorel Neron, the designer of the first Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in cryptocurrency, is actually developing a new Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platform that is going to allow users to choose either to get a weekly UBI payment or perhaps to participate in the community reward pool. Owners participating in the reward pool is going to be strongly incentivized to provide the funding required for the UBI program itself.

“Decentralized finance and UBI are actually a natural fit, particularly as we are working to build economic resilience in cities across the country,” said Neron, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side. “Decentralized finance is actually meant to produce a far more inclusive and open financial system for everyone. We might not have the ability to make it happen for the world’s billion plus poor just yet, but at least we are able to build a practical solution to help regular folks who’ve been affected by COVID, even as government budgets start to be more strained. This’s exactly where the public is able to step in to help.”

Karma Finance is going to be the first DeFi application built for UBI.

About Karma Finance

Karma Finance launched on August thirty one, 2020, with the goal of providing a privately funded Universal Basic Income solution via blockchain and smart contracts. A community based project aimed at empowering users impacted by COVID and other economically devastating events, it uses a unique decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol which allows Karma’ angels’ to stake Ethereum cryptocurrency for the benefit of other users that receive direct UBI payments from the product.