Hey Readers👩💻,
It’s time for another bi-weekly newsletter, and this week, we’re discussing:
- ⭐️ Mainnet Launch Meter.io
- ⭐️ Mina Protocol Mainnet Launch
- ⭐️ Updated Solana Foundation Delegation Strategy
- ⭐️ Seoul Government ICON Announcement
- ⭐️ NEAR and Band Protocol Collaboration
- ⭐️ Launch of Anchor protocol by Terra Money
- ⭐️ New EUR stablecoin Lugh by Casino x Societe Generale x PWC Launched on Tezos
- ⭐️ First NFT App of The Cosmos Ecosystem, Uptick Launches on Irisnet
- ⭐️ Upcoming Sentinel Network Mainnet Launch
Mainnet Launch Meter.io
On March 18th, 2021, Meter.io announced their final, fully functioning Mainnet called Tesla. The new release was deployed to Mainnet on March 19th, 2021, at 1 am UTC, and staking will start at the first epoch after block height 9,470,000 (roughly Monday, March 22nd). The first on-chain MTRG auction will start 24 epochs afterwards.
Meter.io is a highly decentralized Ethereum scaling solution with a metastable gas currency. It connects to Ethereum and other blockchains through a Layer 2 Protocol.
- ✅ For more information about Meter.io, click here.
Mina Protocol Mainnet
Meter.io wasn’t the only network that launched its Mainnet these last two weeks. After long anticipation, Mina, the world’s smallest blockchain, has also released their Mainnet. The release candidate was launched on the 16th of March, 2021, after which, if all criteria are met, the RC will, within the next few days, be certified as Mina’s Mainnet. All block rewards, SNARK fees, account balances, and transactions that were part of the RC will count towards the mainnet, as the RC itself becomes Mina’s mainnet.
- ✅ For information on the criteria or to read what happens if criteria aren’t met, please click here.
Updated Solana Foundation Delegation Strategy
In other news, the Solana Foundation has updated its delegation strategy. The update entails two different aspects of the auto-delegation strategy. First, the skip-rate threshold calculation has been adjusted in the following ways:
- At the end of each epoch, the unweighted average of all block producer skip rates is calculated.
- A fixed threshold for maximum skip rate is added to the cluster average.
- Validators who have skip rates above the new threshold have their delegations removed for the subsequent epoch.
Additionally, an infrastructure concentration threshold has been put in place to reduce validator and stake concentration at individual data centres.
- ✅ For the complete update note, check here.
Seoul Government ICON Announcement
On the 15th of March, 2021, the Seoul Government announced the mass implementation of contactless online reservations for more than 7,000 public services within South Korea. The technology used for this operation is Loopchain, the core blockchain engine of the ICON Network.
NEAR and Band Protocol Collaboration
Other exciting news for the Proof-of-Stake blockchain ecosystem is NEAR’s announcement that they will be integrating Band Protocol to empower developers with scalable and extensive data oracle coverage. The goal of this collaboration is by combining the scalability and high performance of both protocols’ architectures to create a flexible platform to support developers building on Open Finance and Open Web.
- ✅ For more information about the collaboration, click here
Launch Of Anchor Protocol By Terra Money
In more launch news, the DeFi Protocol Anchor created by Terraform Labs (the team behind Terra Money) has officially launched on the 17th of March 2021. Terra is a blockchain that is focussed on creating different stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies. The most well-known is the US dollar token (UST). Anchor works as a savings protocol on top of Terra and provides a fixed 20% APY interest rate to UST depositors.
Additionally, the Anchor app will also accept liquid staking derivatives from PoS chains as collateral loans. The first collateral on Anchor is bLUNA, a staking derivative of Terra’s native token LUNA. This will be followed by other blockchains like Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL), and Cosmos (ATOM), and Ethereum 2.0 (ETH) as collateral on the supply-side. Anchor is the first inter-chain DeFi application that combines rewards from PoS blockchains with paying stable high-yield interest rates to users.
New EUR stablecoin Lugh by Casino x Societe Generale x PWC Launched on Tezos
Good news for EUR stablecoin fanatics, a new alternative, Lugh, backed by Group Casino, Societe Generale and PWC, was launched on Tezos Network. Lugh is a French startup and stablecoin committed to providing a transparent, secured and stable digital asset. Initially, the asset will only be available on the French cryptocurrency exchange called Coinhouse. But, this is just the first step; in the future other blockchain applications will be able to leverage the asset.
Uptick NFT App Launched on IRISnet
On March 12th, 2021, IRISnet announced the first NFT App (Non-Fungible Token) launch of the Cosmos Ecosystem. Uptick Network (previously known as StarryMedia Dev) is focussed on blockchain decentralization technology and application scenarios driven by token economics, emphasizing real-life, digital asset management and personal data management. The network use cases involve e-ticketing, public transportation, consumer market, sports, health, social eCommerce, marketing, and advertising. However, the Uptick Network team’s current key aspect is NFT assets related protocol, standard and application, including interchain transfer and interoperability.
Upcoming Sentinel Network Mainnet Launch
Finally, keep your eye out for the Mainnet launch of Sentinel Network, currently planned for the 27th of March, 2021. The Cosmos-based network is focussed on level security and privacy for Web 3.0.
- ✅ Have a look at their Twitter for the latest information and updates.
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DISCLAIMER: This is not financial advice. Staking, delegation, and cryptocurrencies involve a high degree of risk, and there is always the possibility of loss, including the failure of all staked digital assets. Additionally, delegators are at risk of slashing in case of security or liveness faults on some protocols. We advise you to do your due diligence before choosing a validator.
