The last couple of years saw an exponential increase in the number of innovative blockchain networks that offer many of the same functionalities as Ethereum, but at much higher speed, efficiency and at lower costs. One of these projects is the Solana (SOL) blockchain, which was launched just a few years ago in 2019 and it’s already firmly established among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap and trading volume. The Solana blockchain is also integrated with the Zelcore wallet, and users can import any Solana based token into the app.

Let’s take a detailed look at SOL and find out why it is trending on the market.

The Solana Project

Solana was launched in 2019 by telecommunications expert and crypto enthusiast Anatoly Yakovenko, who named the project after the Solana beach in California, where he spent most of his career before launching SOL.

The idea behind SOL was to solve scalability issues associated with massive blockchains like Ethereum, because one of the major problems of the ETH network is the fact that it can’t accommodate high network traffic at fast speeds and reasonable fees. In fact, everytime there’s high traffic on the Ethereum network, the gas fees skyrocket and users enter so-called gas wars, where people are trying to outbid each other by placing exponentially higher transaction fees in order to get their transactions processed. The result of this is that ETH transactions are usually very expensive, which is a big entrance barrier for users in developing countries who would like to participate in the crypto ecosystem.

Solana tackles these issues with a highly scalable blockchain architecture based on the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which enables SOL to handle high transaction volumes in a very short period of time, without consuming much computing power, which means that the transactions on the Solana network are much cheaper compared to Ethereum.

How Does the SOL Blockchain Work?

Instead of using the popular Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain mechanism pioneered by Bitcoin and Ethereum, Solana is based on an entirely different mechanism. PoW blockchains require a lot of computing power and produce a lot of electronic waste in the form of used mining hardware. This of course has a negative impact on the environment and climate change, because each transaction on PoW blockchains needs to be processed by miners and their computers which use huge amounts of electricity.

Instead, Solana is based on the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism which requires users to stake their SOL tokens in order to participate in the blockchain as transaction validators. The users stake their tokens as a guarantee that they will only validate legit transactions, because if a network node validates the transaction of a bad actor, all of the SOL that was staked by that node would automatically be lost. This way Solana ensures that only legit transactions are approved and the staking mechanism doesn’t require miners or huge power consumption, which makes it environmentally friendly. Users that stake their SOL get awarded with a percentage of the transaction fees.

Additionally, each transaction is time stamped, enabling the network to automatically place each data block in the appropriate part of the network, without the possibility of a cyber attacker changing the location or destination address of a transaction.

Solana Features

Solana offers many of the similar features as the Ethereum blockchain, but at much lower costs and higher efficiency thanks to it’s PoS blockchain, which eliminates the possibility of network jams due to high traffic, since all transactions are approved by the staking mechanism, automatically.

High Efficiency

It’s quite common for an Ethereum transaction to cost several tens of dollars. In times of high traffic the network fee can even rise to several hundreds of USD. In sharp contrast to these fees, a standard transaction on the SOL blockchain is just a few cents. Additionally, the transaction speed on the Solana network is astonishing. The blockchain can process 65,000 transactions per second, while a single transaction only takes a couple of seconds to get validated and processed to its destination.

Smart Contracts and DApps

Solana enables developers to conduct cheap smart contracts that can be used to develop all sorts of decentralized apps (DApps). Even though Solana is such a young cryptocurrency, it already has a huge ecosystem of DApps in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi), decentralized exchanges (DEX), virtual marketplaces and yield farms. A key aspect of the SOL ecosystem are DeFi platforms that enable users to stake their SOL coins, as well as various other tokens built on the Solana blockchain and earn passive income through staking their assets. Zelcore wallet users can also browse and access any Solana based DApp through the built-in Solana Wallet adapter on link.zelcore.io.

NFTs

The Ethereum blockchain is the original birthplace of NFTs and some of the largest NFT markets are focused on the ETH blockchain, but since Solana entered the NFT scene, more and more NFT marketplaces are popping up on the SOL network. The main advantage of NFT trading on Solana are the much lower fees compared to the ETH chain. There’s no such thing as skyrocketing fees during NFT public sales, which are known to have extremely high fees when happening on the Ethereum network. The NFT trading volume on Solana is rapidly increasing, along with the number of marketplaces, which is a sure sign that SOL is here to stay on the NFT scene.

Conclusion

Solana isn’t the only high speed proof of stake blockchain on the market that’s exploding in popularity. The Cardano (ADA) and Algorand (ALGO) blockchains are also attracting a lot of attention along with high trading volumes so it definitely remains to be seen how will SOL tackle the competition, especially if we take into account that Ethereum is also shifting to the Ethereum 2.0 proof of stake protocol.

Zelcore is a full-featured Web3 platform that provides the easiest way to navigate all major exchanges and blockchain protocols, empowering people to quickly find, manage, trade and truly own their digital assets and information. Zelcore’s non-custodial wallet is built both for interoperability and security, giving users full control over their connected accounts, wallets, and private keys. Zelcore uniquely guides consumers along whatever action they want to take, whether it’s buying and storing crypto, trading and swapping assets across any protocol and exchange, and using DeFi applications.

The Zelcore x FIO partnership is dedicated to the pursuit of increasing blockchain usability and building a better Web3 via solutions that offer an easier user experience for cryptocurrency transactions. With the integration of FIO Protocol, Zelcore users will be able to create their own custom FIO Crypto Handle — a simple, human-readable wallet name on the @zelcore domain (e.g. jane@zelcore) that replaces the need to handle complex public wallet addresses. Using FIO Crypto Handles, Zelcore users will be able to:

• Deposit and withdraw any token or coin — including FIO Protocol’s native utility token, $FIO — from the Zelcore Wallet using a custom, human-readable FIO Crypto Handle in place of complex public addresses
• Nearly eliminate the possibility of sending cryptocurrency to the wrong public address or blockchain via the use of this FIO Crypto Handle
• Submit FIO Requests for payment to any other FIO Crypto Handle worldwide
• Include an optional, encrypted memo with each transaction — whether sending crypto or requesting crypto — to easily keep track of each transaction’s purpose

FIO Protocol integration brings to Zelcore users an even more accessible, seamless, and interoperable cryptocurrency experience. Make sure to follow FIO and Zelcore on Twitter to be the first to know when FIO Protocol integration is live in Zelcore, and learn more about how to claim your own custom @zelcore FIO Crypto Handle and join in on upcoming FIO x Zelcore giveaways!

About FIO:

FIO, the Foundation for Interwallet Operability, is a decentralized consortium of blockchain organizations and community members supporting the ongoing development, integration, and promotion of the FIO Protocol. The protocol is an open-source, decentralized usability layer solution that works across all blockchains, and uses human-readable Crypto Handles to replace the complexity, risk, and inconvenience that comes with blockchain-based transactions using public addresses.

When many people hear the word cryptocurrency, they think of Bitcoin. Launched in 2009, the token created the cryptocurrency space. Its launch also paved the way for hundreds of other tokens, including Ripple’s XRP token.

Here, we’ll examine Ripple and XRP by pointing out key developments as well as the pros and cons of the platform and token.

Ripple’s Claim to Fame

XRP made its debut in 2012. The creators of these tokens, which are also known as a digital assets, set out to decrease the amount of time it takes financial transactions to be processed.

Their efforts resulted in the creation of the XRP Ledger. Ripple boasts being the only enterprise blockchain company of its kind. Its global network helps businesses send money with the aid of blockchain. The network uses the XRP Ledger and the XRP token to improve payment services.

Developers can build their solutions on the XRP Ledger. In turn, according to Ripple officials, financial institutions can significantly improve the speed, cost, and reliability as they relate to how people conduct financial transactions around the world. Ripple notes that its open-source, permissionless, and decentralized blockchain technology can settle transactions in three to five seconds.

Considering traditional payment processing systems can take days, this is clearly groundbreaking. Furthermore, XRP can be sent directly. No central intermediary, such as a bank, is needed.

The Ripple Difference

People who are not familiar with the cryptocurrency space may believe all tokens are the same. They may see them all as simply different variations of Bitcoin. Ripple’s XRP is an example of how that is not the case at all.

A difference between Ripple’s XRP and other tokens, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum relates to how XRP tokens are created. Unlike most tokens, Ripple’s XRP capital raise did not stem from an initial coin offering (ICO). According to the company’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple did not have an ICO.

Ripple and the SEC

On its website, Ripple proclaims that its global payment solutions “are helping transform how vulnerable populations, remitters, and small businesses worldwide, send and receive money across borders.”

To the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Ripple’s founding was suspect. At the end of 2020, the regulator announced it was suing Ripple alleging that more than $1.3 billion was raised through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering. The lawsuit specifically named the company’s co-founder Christian Larsen and its CEO Bradley Garlinghouse.

Observers of the cryptocurrency space see the case between Ripple and the SEC as a potential gamechanger because it could force the regulator to finally say: “yes tokens are securities, or they are not.” Speculators were betting that a ruling could come as soon as 2022.

SEC Fallout

Prior to the SEC lawsuit, Ripple’s business model was propelling it to be one of the leaders in the cryptocurrency space. It had clawed its way to having the third-largest market capitalization in the cryptocurrency space.

However, when the lawsuit was announced, XRP’s value plummeted. It now ranks number eight with a market cap that hovered around $37 billion at the beginning of February 2022. Bitcoin ranks number one with an $807 billion market cap, and Ethereum is second with a market cap of $367 billion.

Despite the market cap drop, Garlinghouse has been optimistic, At the end of January 2022, he referred to the headwinds in play due to the SEC’s lawsuit as being crazy and he admitted that it caused some customer losses. No matter, Garlinghouse said Ripple was starting 2022 in a “great position of strength.” He noted that the company had over $1 billion in cash.

Trading XRP

Following the SEC’s announcement that it was suing Ripple, things took a turn for the worst for how XRP could be traded. For example, the number of exchanges that allowed for XRP trading decreased. Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, was one of those that suspended XRP trading.

Specifically, Coinbase no longer allows account holders to sell their XRP tokens or trade/convert them for fiat. Holders can still view their XRP balance; deposit XRP into their accounts; and send XRP to wallets they have outside their Coinbase accounts. According to its website, no date has been set for the lifting of the suspension.

Conclusion

As cryptocurrencies have steadily gained more attention over the years, more people are learning about the many nuances that separate them from the most popular cryptocurrency — Bitcoin.

Ripple has been no exception.

The Ripple creators of XRP bucked the traditional cryptocurrency platform methodology. No ICO was held, and its tokens were not mined. Ripple set out to create a payment processing system in which transactions are settled faster and cheaper than the systems for other cryptos.

As the company flourished, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was keeping a watchful eye. The regulator eventually filed a lawsuit against Ripple alleging that it raised its funding “through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.”

Ripple is defiantly fighting the allegation, but the outcome may not just benefit Ripple. It could also be a gamechanger for the cryptocurrency space in terms of forcing the SEC to clarify if cryptos are securities are not.

Cardano (ADA) is another industry leading cryptocurrency, that managed to enter the top 10 largest crypto list, seemingly as an outsider project, but actually, it was a result of years of careful research, peer reviews and massive software engineering efforts.

Let’s take a closer look at ADA to find out how it managed to become one of the largest crypto projects on the market, shadowing BTC and ETH, while being called by many crypto enthusiasts an “Ethereum killer.”

The Story Behind Cardano (ADA)

Cardano was officially launched in 2017, by a blockchain engineering company called Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK). The company was created by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, a former member of the Ethereum core developer team. Along with IOHK, the Cardano Foundation is the managing body of the project, while another company called Emurgo is responsible for integrating startups, developer teams and software projects into the Cardano blockchain. These three entities form the core of Cardano’s ecosystem.

The idea behind Cardano is to provide crypto enthusiasts and developers with an innovative blockchain that has advanced smart contract functionalities capable of launching all sorts of decentralized apps, while eliminating scalability issues associated with the Ethereum blockchain.

In order to achieve this goal, Cardano is slowly developing, over multiple project phases, called eras, and it is undergoing rigorous testing and scientific review procedures by top blockchain engineers and mathematicians who are involved in the project. The current result of this process is the highly advanced ADA blockchain that utilizes an entirely different technology compared to old school cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum.

The ADA Blockchain

The Cardano blockchain utilizes a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism, rather than the traditional Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain model of BTC, ETH and most other cryptos that can be mined. PoW blockchains primarily depend on the computing power of miners, who act as network nodes, responsible for validating and processing transactions by solving complex mathematical tasks and finding appropriate transaction hashes that prove the validity of each transfer. This process requires a lot of computing power, electricity and time.

The PoS blockchain model used by ADA, eliminates the need for miners and huge power consumption, because Cardano holders literally stake their coins and contribute to the validation of transactions, based on the amount of coins they are holding.

Users guarantee the validity of approved transfers with the coins they are staking, and in case someone approves a scam transaction, they would lose all of their staked ADA automatically. The mechanism requires very little computing power and time, plus it’s fully automated, so ADA holders automatically participate in providing liquidity to the network by putting their coins into a Cardano staking pool.

Since ADA holders are contributing to the blockchain’s security when they are staking coins, they are accordingly rewarded for their work with annual percentage yields that are regularly distributed on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, depending on their ADA staking pool’s policy.

Key Features of Cardano

Cardano is often referred to as an “Ethereum killer” because it brings numerous features that were first pioneered by the ETH network.The key difference is that ADA is providing these features at considerably lower network transaction prices, higher speed and without network congestion. There aren’t any high gas fees or long waiting periods on Cardano, while the ETH blockchain has become notorious for skyrocketing gas fees as its user base rapidly expanded during recent years.

Smart Contracts

Smart contracts were introduced on the Cardano blockchain after a key network update in September of 2021. In less than 5 months, the number of smart contracts on Cardano surpassed the 1000 threshold, bringing all sorts of developer projects onboard the ADA ecosystem.

Many of these smart contracts are related to DeFi projects such as the recently launched SundaeSwap decentralized crypto exchange, which is the first such project on the Cardano blockchain.

Another innovative ADA project powered by smart contracts is the Pavia metaverse, which is already gaining huge user attention and market capitalization, thanks to users looking to purchase NFT land plots in the first Cardano based metaverse.

Decentralized Apps

The Ethereum blockchain is by far the largest network for DApps on the crypto market, but since the launch of smart contract functionalities on the ADA chain, developers have rapidly been launching different types of DApps. You can already find everything from lending platforms, decentralized marketplaces to NFT projects on Cardano, and the quick growth of the ADA market cap is definitely a signal that the future of the network holds much more in terms of DApp development.

Piggy Token, a staking pool platform, NFT Dotz, an NFT creation app and Financial Swap, an innovative ADA DEX are just some of the examples that show the variety of DApp functionalities possible with Cardano smart contracts.

Passive Income

Given the fact that ADA is a PoS based crypto, it’s super easy to make it a reliable source of passive income. The annual percentage yield for staking ADA is anywhere between 2 and 5 percent, which is much higher than the interest offered by bank account savings policies.

You should keep in mind that Cardano is a serious project with reputable developers behind it and you can be pretty confident that the team won’t just run off with the coins you’re staking. Also, that isn’t even possible, because when you’re staking your ADA, you aren’t keeping it locked in a staking pool like many other PoS cryptos. Instead, you still have your ADA coins available in your wallet, while staking them and earning interest.

Conclusion

Cardano is growing fast and the number of active holders is constantly on the increase, thanks to the active developer team that’s working around the clock to deliver all the updates and features promised in the ADA roadmap.

In a crypto market filled with thousands of low quality projects with no real utility, Cardano is a really refreshing and promising project that deserves its spot in the top 10 largest cryptos.

That’s why crypto wallets have been invented, to enable traders to securely store their private keys with the help of storage solutions specialized for keeping crypto safe.

Let’s take a detailed look at the various types of crypto wallets and find out how they keep crypto beyond the reach of hackers.

What Are Crypto Wallets?

Crypto wallets are storage solutions that are created to keep the private keys to your crypto secure. Your private keys are the gateway to your crypto assets and if someone manages to get hold of those keys, they can access and steal your funds. Various types of crypto wallets implement a wide range of security measures to keep private keys safe.

Wallets are generally divided into hot and cold storage solutions.

Hot Wallets

Hot storage or hot wallets are all crypto wallets that rely on a constant internet connection to operate. These wallets are divided into web wallets, desktop wallets, and mobile wallets. It’s important to note that a single wallet can have multiple versions of their software, compatible with both web wallet and mobile wallet format, or desktop and mobile.

These wallets can implement a wide range of security features in order to keep your private keys safe. Passwords, passphrases, recovery phrases, anti-phishing protection, and two-factor authentication are some of the key security measures used by hot wallets, which make it extremely difficult for cyber attackers to access them.

Web Wallets

Web wallets are only accessible through an internet browser. You need to go to the wallet provider’s web address and enter your user credentials to access the platform. These wallets don’t require users to download and install any programs on their devices and they are often custodial clients, which means that your private keys are stored on the wallet’s central server or website and it’s protected by your password and seed phrase. However, some web wallets are non-custodial and they don’t store private keys on company servers, which is generally considered more secure.

Desktop Wallets

Desktop wallets are only accessible through PCs or laptop computers and they require users to download the wallet software to their device and install it. The wallet is then run just like any other program, from the desktop of your computer.

Desktop wallets are usually considered more secure than web wallets because they are always non-custodial and the private keys are kept on your computer and not on the wallet provider’s server. This means that if the wallet’s website or server gets hacked, your private keys are still safe because they are on your PC.

Mobile Wallets

Mobile wallets come in the form of specialized smartphone apps that are downloaded and installed on your mobile device. These wallets are also non-custodial, giving you control over your private keys, which means the key thing you need to worry about is keeping your phone safe from potential hacks.

Mobile wallets and desktop wallets are as safe as the device you’re using them on is safe, that’s why it’s highly advised not to click on any unverified links and be aware of potential scams.

Additionally, top-quality hot wallets like Zelcore, which is both a desktop and mobile wallet, come with numerous security features such as the new D2FA anti-keylogger protocol that makes it impossible for cyber attackers to access your wallet even with a keylogger virus.

Cold Wallets

Unlike hot storage, cold wallets don’t rely on an internet connection to store your private keys. The fact that these wallets aren’t connected to the internet is one of the reasons they are considered more secure than hot wallets, but actually using a hot wallet is just as secure as using cold storage, if you choose the right wallet with top of the line security measures like Zelcore.

Cold wallets are generally more suitable for storing high volumes of crypto that aren’t frequently accessed because accessing your cold wallet takes more time than just opening your hot wallet and sending assets to a third-party address such as a crypto exchange platform.

There are two types of cold storage: hardware wallets and paper wallets.

Hardware Wallets

Hardware wallets come in the form of specialized USB devices with state-of-the-art encryption methods for storing private keys on them. These devices don’t require an internet connection while storing your private keys and they come with all the security measures included in hot wallets, with additional safety features for combating manual hack attempts.

The only time a hardware wallet is connected to the internet is when you’re transferring funds to or from the device, but the internet connection never really reaches your private keys, because the wallet firmware creates a barrier between the connection and your private keys.

Paper Wallets

A paper wallet is an old-school crypto storage method. It’s literally a piece of paper with printed public addresses and private keys on it. The keys are printed both in alphanumeric and QR code form, so you can easily scan the keys with a third-party wallet app and import your paper wallet balance.

While paper wallets definitely can’t be hacked, they might get torn or otherwise damaged. If you accidentally spill some liquid over a paper wallet it can become entirely useless and your funds will be lost.

Conclusion

All types of crypto wallets tend to provide strong security for private keys, but in the era of massive cyberattacks, only a selected few crypto wallets really live up to the task. That’s why you should always look for a crypto wallet that uses multiple encryption methods and thorough security protocols to ensure your private keys are safe at all times.

That’s why crypto enthusiasts and financial experts launched the first crypto exchanges in 2010. These exchange platforms were called Bitcoin exchanges, because BTC was the only crypto on the market at the time. Soon enough, as developers started launching altcoins, crypto exchanges started expanding their portfolio of supported cryptocurrencies.

Let’s take a look at how centralized crypto exchange platforms work and why they are one of the most popular means of exchange and trading on the crypto market.

Centralized Cryptocurrency Exchange Platforms

A centralized crypto exchange platform is operated by a single company that owns the platform and acts as a central authority that regulates all of the platform’s daily operations. The platform’s security, supported cryptocurrencies, account registration protocols and offered services are all defined by the company that owns the exchange and the data flow is usually facilitated by central servers protected by robust cyber security measures in the case of top quality exchanges.

There are more than 400 crypto exchanges on the market and a large portion of that number is made of centralized platforms. Unfortunately, a lot of those platforms have low market liquidity and poor platform safety. Also, a lot of crypto exchanges are operated by shady individuals without proper regulatory licenses for operating in the regions where they are providing their services.

That’s why it’s best to stick to the most popular platforms with high liquidity, huge trading volumes and a lot of positive user reviews. Some of the most popular exchanges on the market include Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, and Binance, but there’s a lot of additional platforms that also provide top quality services. A great way to find out which exchanges are worth using is by browsing the Exchanges tab on Coinmarketcap and monitoring the platform scores.

Trading Features

Centralized crypto exchange platforms offer a huge variety of trading features for both crypto beginners and experienced traders. You can place buy, sell, limit and stop loss orders as the most basic trading order types, but many exchanges also offer advanced tools such as margin trading and futures trading with crypto leverage options that can increase your potential gains manyfold.

The trading interfaces of centralized crypto exchanges always feature detailed market charts, where you can monitor the price fluctuation of a selected cryptocurrency or a specific trading pair. Charts are very important for understanding the market sentiments regarding a particular asset, because you can see exactly how the demand for a crypto is changing along with its price.

Many exchanges also offer advanced technical analysis tools that help traders draw conclusions from the market data in the price charts, and implement advanced trading strategies in order to maximize profits.

Another key feature of centralized exchanges are order books. An asset’s order book lists all of the market orders and trading deals of a specific crypto or trading pair on that platform. You can see the exact prices at which people are willing to buy or sell an asset and form your trading prices accordingly.

Finally, you also have your own, personal order book that lists all of the trading deals and market orders you’ve made on the platform.

Trading Fees

Crypto exchanges act as middlemen between interested crypto traders. They connect individuals who are willing to buy or sell certain assets and they guarantee that a deal between two parties will really go through, without the possibility of one side scamming the other. This convenience makes crypto trading on exchanges quite secure and that’s the main service from which platforms gain profits.

Profits are generated from platform trading fees which are usually kept quite low by most of the popular exchanges, since they have enormous trading volumes that allow them to provide services at low fees.

The most popular crypto exchange platform fee policy is the maker and taker fee model. When you simply take advantage of the current average market price of a cryptocurrency, you’re taking liquidity away from the exchange platform and you’re a market taker. On the other hand, if you’re placing buy or sell orders at prices that are different from the average market price, you’re influencing the demand for a certain crypto and you’re adding liquidity to the exchange platform. Market makers are always awarded with lower fees than market takers, as a token of gratitude for adding platform liquidity. Additionally, the more you trade during a 30-day period, the lower will your fees be.

Platform Safety

Centralized crypto exchanges are prime targets for cyber attackers and hackers who are always looking for ways to breach platform security and steal assets from users and exchanges. That’s why the best exchange platforms apply extensive security measures to keep their crypto trading operations safe.

A lot of the popular exchange platforms keep over 90% of platform assets in offline, cold storage, out of the reach of any cyber attackers. These cold wallets are often kept under 24-hour video surveillance and sometimes they are even protected by armed security guards. The same goes for company servers in order to protect any type of manual hacks.

As far as user accounts, two-factor authentication (2FA) is one of the most common means of securing that only legitimate users conduct transactions on an exchange platform and many exchanges also have KYC (know your customer) protocols that require users to prove their identity in order to prevent money laundering and scams.

Even though the most popular centralized exchanges are quite secure, it’s always better to move your crypto to a reliable wallet like Zelcore, after you’re done trading, instead of keeping your assets on an exchange platform.

Negative Aspects of Centralized Crypto Exchanges

Even though buying and exchanging crypto on centralized exchange platforms is one of the easiest and most secure ways to invest in cryptocurrency, there are multiple negative aspects of centralized exchanges that users should be aware of.

• High Fees: When you conduct a direct peer-to-peer trading deal, you don’t need to pay any additional fees, except the standard blockchain fee for the network you’re using. Centralized crypto exchanges on the other hand charge fees for facilitating transactions and acting as intermediaries. Some exchange platforms charge quite high percentage fees, which amount to huge amounts of money for active traders.
• Centralized control of trading: All of the trading operations on centralized exchanges are controlled by the company that operates the platform and a lot of sensitive data is stored on central servers. This can potentially be very risky if cyber attackers manage to breach a platform’s security measures. Additionally, centralized exchanges can pull the plug on trading activities at any moment and they sometimes do so without any prior warning for users.
• Government tracking of trading activities: A lot of centralized exchanges have KYC protocols in place, which require users to provide extensive personal information. Exchanges claim to use this information to prevent money laundering, but it can also be a source for government agencies to track fiat money traffic on crypto exchanges and monitor the financial status of users without their consent.
• Financial Manipulation: The fact that centralized exchanges are controlled by the companies that own them also opens space for huge financial manipulation. Exchanges can potentially manipulate asset prices on their platforms, lie about trading volume and conduct insider trading activities.

Conclusion

It’s still possible to conduct peer to peer crypto trading deals, without the use of centralized exchange platforms, but using a trustworthy exchange is probably one of the best ways to engage in crypto trading. Reputable exchange platforms offer a broad range of trading tools, a strong selection of cryptocurrencies and state of the art security measures to ensure users have a flawless trading experience.

The most important things when choosing a centralized crypto exchange is to pay attention to the user feedback, the security measures and the fee policy.

A Bitcoin transaction is the most basic day to day operation for crypto traders and BTC enthusiasts. It’s quite easy to initiate a transaction from your crypto wallet, especially if you’re using a wallet which provides exceptional user experience such as Zelcore. All you need to do is specify how much BTC you wish to send to a third party address, input the destination address, approve the transaction, and the coins are on their way.

However, a lot of crypto traders don’t really know the exact mechanism behind BTC transfers. Let’s take a closer look at the technology behind BTC transactions to find out how they work.

Bitcoin Blockchain Basics

The Bitcoin blockchain is the first cryptocurrency network in the world. It was launched in 2009 by anonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto, with the aim of providing people with decentralized, digital cash that’s far more versatile than traditional, fiat money.

The blockchain has the form of a linear string of data blocks, which contain BTC transaction data. These blocks are set from first to last block and the content of each block is immutable, which means that the contents can’t be changed after they are approved and added to the chain. Block data immutability is a key aspect of blockchain security, since it makes sure that no one can tamper with the approved blocks and change the destination address of the approved transactions.

The only way someone could manage to steal funds from approved blocks is if they managed to take control of at least 51% of BTC network nodes, thus gaining the authority to change the contents of data blocks. This is nearly impossible, because there are thousands of BTC full nodes, run by independent miners.

Each block contains a maximum of 1MB transaction data, which must go through a complex verification process in order to reach its destination address.

BTC Addresses

Bitcoin addresses are a vital component of the blockchain because they serve as virtual, blockchain locations for storing BTC. Your Bitcoin address, also known as a public address is the blockchain location where someone can send you BTC. It’s totally safe to share your BTC address with third parties who are supposed to send you Bitcoin.

The private address, or private key on the other hand is a sort of blockchain password that proves your ownership over the bitcoins in your public address and it let’s you manage those funds as you wish.

You can’t initiate a BTC transaction if you don’t have the appropriate private key for your public address. Private keys are regulated by crypto wallets and they are usually kept on the device you’re using to access your wallet, if the wallet is a non-custodial wallet like Zelcore.

Bitcoin Transactions

Bitcoin transactions can best be described as cryptographic messages sent out through the blockchain. These messages contain various information about the funds you’re transferring, such as sender and recipient address, transferred amount, transaction ID (TXID), transaction hash and transfer timestamp.

When you’re sending some BTC through the blockchain, you’re actually sending information through blockchain network nodes that are responsible for validating your transfer and acknowledging that a certain amount of BTC has changed ownership.

The TXID serves as a unique identifier of each transaction on the blockchain. No two transactions are identical, because every single one of them has a unique ID, which enables users to track their transaction through a BTC blockchain explorer platform.

A transaction timestamp is used to label each transaction with the exact time it was processed through the blockchain, which is another useful characteristic for tracking transactions. It is also used for setting transactions within data blocks in a chronological order.

Finally, there’s the transaction hash. Each transaction has a unique hash which is used to process it by miners through the blockchain. Miners need to use their computing power to reveal the right 64-digit hash for each transfer before they can process the transaction to its destination.

How BTC Transactions Work

When you start a BTC transaction, the first thing that happens is your transfer goes to the memory pool (mempool), where it waits alongside other pending transfers for a miner to pick it up and start processing it. Miners play the role of network nodes in the BTC blockchain, with the help of their strong mining rig computers. Since the BTC network is fully decentralized, it is the responsibility of random miners to process transactions and verify their validity, in exchange for transaction fees and block rewards of fresh Bitcoin.

After a miner picks up your transaction for processing, they use their mining rig’s processing power to find the right hash for your transaction through trial and error. This process requires a lot of time and energy, so miners team up in online mining pools, where they combine their processing power to find transaction hashes faster, and share the rewards.

Once a miner finally finds the right hash for your transfer, they present it to the rest of the BTC network as proof of work (PoW). Additional miners then check the validity of the hash and once the process is finished, your transfer gets added to the next block of the blockchain, and it reaches its destination address. The miners involved in the validation of your transfer get rewarded with fresh BTC and your transaction fee. The whole transaction process takes an average of 5 to 10 minutes thanks to the joint computing power of miners in BTC mining pools.

Conclusion

The complex technology behind BTC transactions is usually taken for granted by crypto traders, but it’s actually quite important to understand how Bitcoin transactions work. After all, BTC is the most popular crypto on the market and it’s only natural that Bitcoin traders should take the time and learn about the mechanism behind the 21st century digital gold.

This is because it’s so easy to launch a token on the Ethereum blockchain and anyone with a bit of programming knowledge can do it. After all, the resources for launching Ethereum tokens are open-source and available to all.

Let’s take a look at ERC20 tokens and find out which are the most popular Ethereum tokens on the market.

ERC20 Tokens

Ethereum enables developer teams to launch their cryptocurrencies on top of the ETH blockchain through smart contract functionalities and token standards. A token standard is a set of rules created by Ethereum developers. The most popular Ethereum token standard for fungible tokens is the ERC20 token standard.

It’s far easier for developers to just launch crypto on the ETH network than to create their own blockchain infrastructure which requires extensive programming and a lot of financial assets. That’s why the fact that Ethereum enables users to launch ERC20 tokens free of charge is a great contribution to making crypto development accessible to anyone with some programming knowledge. Many popular cryptocurrencies with multi-billion dollar market caps are ERC20 tokens.

These are some of the most popular cryptos built on the ETH blockchain as ERC20 tokens.

Chainlink (LINK)

Chainlink (LINK) is a decentralized blockchain oracle service whose goal is to provide users with advanced smart contract functionalities by enabling more versatile connectivity between smart contracts and the blockchain. LINK uses oracles, which are similar to blockchain network nodes. These oracles are responsible for validating transactions and processing data through the network. Oracles enable smart contracts to validate real-world events and integrate data within the blockchain. For example, Chainlink has secured a partnership with Accuweather, which enables LINK oracles to integrate weather data with the blockchain, thus providing real-time weather updates through the LINK network.

Dai (DAI)

Dai (DAI) is one of the most popular ERC20 tokens on the market. It’s a stablecoin based on the Ethereum network and it works based on advanced computer algorithms that keep the value of Dai coins pegged to the US dollar. One DAI is always worth one USD. The algorithm behind DAI carefully manages multiple crypto treasuries and accordingly redistributes coins, making sales and purchases, in order to keep the value of DAI tied to the US dollar. Stablecoins are very important for the whole crypto market because they provide traders with the ability to keep a portion of their crypto portfolio immune to market volatility.

Basic Attention Token (BAT)

Basic Attention Token (BAT) is an ERC20 token that has fascinating real-world applications, due to its partnership with the privacy-focused Brave browser. The Brave browser blocks all types of invasive ads and pop-ups, enabling users to browse the web unbothered and they can also earn BAT rewards through the Brave Rewards program. Brave Rewards are awarded to users for watching approved ads on the Brave browser. You can choose how many ads you want to watch per hour and get paid in BAT tokens for your attention. Users can also tip their favorite creators and websites with BAT tokens.

Shiba Inu (SHIB)

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is one of the top trending ERC20 tokens on the market. It’s a meme coin, just like Dogecoin (DOGE) and it’s often referred to as “Dogecoin killer.” The token was launched on the Ethereum blockchain in 2020 and it quickly managed to attract a substantial number of users. While SHIB doesn’t have any real-world utilities, it’s a clear example of the unpredictability of the crypto market, where even meme coins can sometimes achieve huge market caps and popularity.

Uniswap (UNI)

Uniswap is one of the largest decentralized exchange platforms on the Ethereum blockchain and UNI is their native ERC20 token. You can find almost any ERC20 token on Uniswap and you can buy it with UNI tokens, or other ERC20 cryptos. The platform utilizes Ethereum smart contracts to make sure no one can take advantage of another party in an exchange deal and it’s known for providing users with reliable services. You can also earn nice staking rewards by staking UNI tokens on the platform and providing it with liquidity.

Aave (AAVE)

Aave is a top-quality DeFi platform that’s focused on lending crypto. It’s one of the top decentralized apps on the Ethereum blockchain in terms of market cap and staked assets, which are measured in billions of USD. AAVE is the native ERC20 token of the platform and you can earn high annual percentage yields for lending crypto on Aave. The platform is a great choice for borrowing assets, but anyone who wants to borrow some crypto needs to provide some collateral that ensures the debt will be paid. AAVE is a great illustration of advanced DeFi utilities on the Ethereum blockchain.

Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)

Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is Bitcoin on the Ethereum blockchain. The value of each WBTC is tied to the original Bitcoin. Additionally, WBTC has smart contract functionalities because it’s an ERC20 token, which means that it can be used for much more than just digital cash transactions like the classic Bitcoin. Users can take loans, stake, and earn interest on Ethereum DApps while using this ETH-based version of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

The Ethereum ecosystem is huge, thanks to thousands of ERC20 tokens, decentralized apps and DeFi platforms that use Ethereum as their native network. Ethereum continues to inspire countless developer teams to create and launch their projects on one of the most versatile and constantly developing crypto networks in the world.

Unlike company stocks which mostly change the price a few percent over several months, crypto is much more volatile, which means traders can earn considerably more profits from trading cryptocurrency than stocks, in a much shorter period of time. This of course is only possible if a crypto trader manages to make all the right moves in terms of buying cryptos when their price is low and selling when the price is high. However, digital currencies are very susceptible to sudden price crashes and a trader can easily lose a lot of money fast on the crypto market.

There are numerous factors that contribute to the price of cryptocurrencies and learning to read these factors is of high importance for successful traders. Let’s take a look at which factors form the price of cryptocurrencies.

Factors That Influence Crypto Prices

There are dozens of factors that can directly or indirectly influence the price of cryptocurrencies to some extent, however, these 7 factors are considered to carry the most weight regarding crypto prices.

Supply and Demand

Supply and demand are of key importance for a cryptocurrency’s price. Most cryptos have a predetermined number of coins, also known as a hard cap. For instance, the Bitcoin hard cap is 21 million coins, but some other popular cryptos like Ethereum don’t have a hard cap and an infinite number of coins can be put into circulation.

The developer teams behind crypto projects always pay close attention to the market demand for their coin and that’s why they usually implement a self-regulating inflation mechanism that makes mining or minting new coins more difficult over time, in order to keep their crypto scarce and more valuable. If certain crypto has lots of coins in circulation but low market demand, then the price of the coin is surely going to stay quite low. On the other hand, if there’s a scarce amount of coins on the market, but there’s a high demand for those coins, the price is surely going to stay consistently high like in the case of BTC.

Adoption Rate

The more people accept a certain cryptocurrency as a valid financial asset, the more its popularity grows, along with its price. If a cryptocurrency doesn’t have a strong user base that utilizes its functionalities, it can hardly achieve any considerable price increase.

Development Roadmap

Use-cases and real-world utility are very important for the market valuation of a cryptocurrency. Providing people only with digital cash services worked for Bitcoin because it was the first crypto on the market, but all other digital currencies need to provide some authentic and useful functionalities to their users in order to become popular and increase in value. A solid development roadmap, along with clear accomplishments is something that considerably contributes to a crypto’s price.

Crypto Availability

Some cryptocurrencies are quite hard to acquire because you need to create an account on a less popular exchange platform to buy it or it supports a less known blockchain network that isn’t compatible with popular crypto wallets. In these cases, a lot of people just don’t want to go through all the hassle and rather choose crypto that is more easily available to purchase, either through their wallet or through a popular exchange platform. The Zelcore wallet is a great example of a crypto wallet that supports thousands of tokens and coins across various blockchains, making all of the most popular cryptocurrencies available for users, along with the possibility of direct crypto purchases through the Zelcore app.

That’s why crypto availability is an important factor in a token’s price. The easier it is to get hold of a cryptocurrency, the more people will choose to acquire it and contribute to its price.

Media Coverage and Community Support

Media coverage, especially social media can make or break a cryptocurrency. Getting good reviews from crypto influencers on YouTube and having a positive media buzz on Twitter and Facebook can really push a crypto’s popularity up, along with its price. However, the process can also go downwards if a crypto project has many issues and the developer team is unresponsive.

Additionally, community feedback is also an important factor for a cryptocurrency’s price. Discord is considered a key crypto community hub and if developers rile up the Discord community of their project, they can easily have a price crash that originated from the community’s dissatisfaction.

Pumps and Dumps

Pumps and dumps are a very annoying but realistic factor for crypto price changes. This is a trading tactic designed to create a crypto bubble by placing an enormous amount of purchase orders for certain crypto, by organized trader teams or trading bots in order to inflate a currency’s price. Once the price is sufficiently inflated, the party responsible for the pump suddenly cashes out those massive purchases, which results in a price crash for that specific crypto. The only ones who benefit are the people who organized the pump and dump, while the rest of the holders suffer a loss, due to the sudden price crash.

Real-World Events

Cryptocurrencies aren’t immune to real-world events such as economic and political turmoil. For example, when China banned cryptocurrency mining in 2021, the global Bitcoin hash rate temporarily went considerably down, which negatively affected both Bitcoin and the rest of the market.

Conclusion

Monitoring these factors helps crypto enthusiasts and traders alike in anticipating crypto price fluctuation, but it’s important to keep in mind that there’s no decisive factor that can be considered as the most important when it comes to forming crypto prices.

Buying an NFT is done through specialized NFT marketplaces that regularly present new NFT collections by creators from all over the world. Some markets offer users the opportunity of direct purchases, while others work through auction bids, which build up tension and excitement among buyers. The excitement usually reaches its key point when a purchase is made and the buyer finally becomes an owner of an NFT.

However, many crypto newcomers don’t really know what to do with NFTs after they buy them, apart from storing them in their crypto wallet.

Let’s find out what you can do with an NFT after you’ve purchased it.

It Depends on the Type of NFT You Bought

There are many different types of NFTs, since the basic concept behind non fungible tokens is the tokenization of any unique piece of data, art or real-world asset. So essentially, what you can do with an NFT is largely determined by the type of NFT you’ve purchased.

Gaming NFTs

The online gaming industry has been going through huge transformations lately, with NFT games based on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency becoming increasingly popular. Games like Axie Infinity, Decentraland, Sandbox, Thetan Arena and others are attracting millions of users and NFTs are a key part of their ecosystem.

When you buy an Axie NFT or a hero NFT for Thetan Arena, you’re buying a unique gaming character which can be used to win battles, gain crypto rewards and unlock new missions in these games. In case you buy an NFT that represents land or a house in the Decentraland or Sandbox metaverse games, you’ll have unique in-game access to your piece of virtual real-estate in these trending NFT games.

There are dozens of popular NFT based games and many of them allow users to generate crypto rewards just by holding their NFT or to buy special in-game items and upgrades.

Artwork

Artwork is definitely the most popular NFT content on the market. Just like real world paintings and drawings are unique pieces of art, without any copies, NFT artwork is a digital form of that uniqueness.

There’s not much you can do with an artistic NFT after purchasing it, except to occasionally spend some time admiring the artwork of your NFT, but that’s exactly what real-world paintings are also used for, to enrich your visual experience and relax by watching them.

Music NFTs

NFTs are a huge opportunity for musicians to gain more control over their music by selling songs as NFTs, paired with unique visual art and extra content for their fans. When you buy a musical NFT, you’re directly supporting the artists whose music you’re listening and each time you buy an NFT from a certain performer, you’re tipping them directly for their music.

Additionally, you can truly own the music you like, through music NFT platforms like Royal, which enables users to purchase streaming rights and song shares. Owning NFT song shares can earn you royalties on the music you’ve invested in, just by holding an NFT of a trending song or album.

Digital Collectibles like Trading Cards

Just like rare stamps or football trading cards are real-world collector’s items, NFTs also come in the form of digital collectibles. NFT trading cards are a big trend and participating in trading card collections can earn you many benefits in specific collector communities. You can earn crypto rewards, access to exclusive content, merchandise and higher ranks within a trading card community by holding the right cards.

Popular NFT trading cards include NBA Top Shot, Curio Cards, SoRare and Candy Digital.

Internet Domain NFTs

Internet domain NFTs surely aren’t as popular or attractive as gaming or artwork NFTs, but they are extremely useful and carry huge benefits for buyers. When you purchase an internet domain as an NFT, you are the exclusive owner of that web domain,while purchasing a domain through a third-party web provider incurs service fees and you don’t manage your domain directly.

If you purchase a domain as an NFT, you’re cutting out any middlemen and you have full control over the domain.

Conclusion

These are just some of the most popular types of NFTs and ways that you can benefit from them after a purchase. There are many additional types of NFTs, because literally anything such as a Facebook status or TikTok video can be tokenized and turned into an NFT.

Before you purchase an NFT, you should look into the various use-cases and benefits of that NFT, however, if you’re a trader, the sheer resell potential of an NFT might be enough motivation to purchase it.