Dogami – petaverse

Remember Tamagochi - a digital pet from the past? Perhaps, the popularity of this toy, which seems quite primitive today, lies in the possibility of adopting a pet, even for those who are unable to do so for whatever reason.

For example, many people like dogs, but few of them have enough time to spend with the pets and are able to create all the necessary conditions for their care. Soon this problem can be solved by a quite realistic and colorful petaverse - Dogami.

Players (Dogamers) can adopt virtual dogs, play games and compete with others. It will be possible to interact with the pet through augmented reality using the Dogami app, available for any type of smartphone on iOS or Android.

According to developers, Dogami petaverse roadmap includes the implementation of lands saling and the dogs crossbreeding - there will be an opportunity to mint a new puppy NFT with a random gender from two virtual pets NFTs.

The game is built on the Tezos blockchain which provides low gas fees, fast data processing and, as the developers assure, clean NFTs - having very low carbon footprint due to the most energy-efficient blockchain technology. The utility token of petaverse ‘$DOGA’ can be used to raise your dog, buy event tickets, consumables and to create your digital wardrobe purchasing virtual accessories and luxury items such as caps, bucket hats, varsity jackets, bandanas, beds, bed pillows, hoodies and belt bags in the marketplace. 

By the way, Gap Inc. - American worldwide clothing and accessories retailer teamed up with  Dogami to launch the first fashion collaboration in the petaverse. Each item of the collection will be available in the game to create an individual style for your virtual pet. 

And, of course, it's worth mentioning the play-to-earn concept of Dogami. You can earn  ‘$DOGA’ completing day challenges and being rewarded for multiple days of consistent play. The amount of earnings strongly depends on your game level - at level 1, you can only earn a maximum of 5 $DOGA a day, but by level 10  it is already up to 50 $DOGA.

On September 14, first 100 Dogamers got the chance to participate in the early stage of the game and support Dogamí development. 

Even though Dogami was not yet fully launched, it already has a huge amount of attention and positive feedback, since the theme of the game has a really large audience. In this case you can only imagine the potential of the Metaverse for cats!

 

MetaFi – first social trading Metaverse

We have already written a lot about metaverses. We talked about metaverses where you can discover new lands, farm, live in a giant skyscraper, and even about a pet metaverse. We have mentioned that the fashion, entertainment, and sports industries are actively investing in their meta-future. After all, they understand the opportunities of brand promotion in the virtual world, because the metaverse is not just a realistic 3D virtual game, but a huge ecosystem with immense potential and a rapidly developing economy. According to industry experts, the Metaverse will far surpass the real world economy in the coming years.

The metaverse economy is built on cryptocurrencies - decentralized digital money based on blockchain technology. Decentralized Finance, or DeFi, is a platform that allows investors to trade financial products over a decentralized blockchain network.

Transactions do not require intermediaries such as banks or brokers. DeFi accepts investors who do not have a government ID, brokerage or bank account, proof of residency, or social security card.

What happens when you combine the Metaverse and DeFi? Welcome to MetaFi!

The developers of MetaFi claim that the current market products are not able to make Web3 truly decentralized: it is actually being traded, and talked about, on Web2. MetaFi changes this forever by making trading truly social on Web3.

The MetaFi World is divided into futuristic trading zones focused on each kind of asset -  you can trade tokens, NFTs, tokenized stocks, commodities, bonds.  

The $METAFI token is hyper-deflationary by design: the deflationary mechanism is based on the fact that as more users enter the metaverse and trade, more fees will be generated that will be used for activities that reduce MetaFi's circulating supply (buying and burning, providing liquidity, placing bets).

To enter the MetaFi world, you will need to create your virtual avatar - MetaFi Citizen and connect it with your crypto wallet.

One of the most  important features of MetaFie is the ability to communicate - participants can chat, exchange text and voice messages, images, share  knowledge and show their trades in real time. In this world, everyone is trading together and trying to beat the market using collective thinking, research and technical analysis.

“Most trading platforms compete with nearly identical products. MetaFi reimagines the trader’s experience: making trading fun, engaging, and social. With the Trading World, MetaFi will aggregate major decentralized protocols with deep liquidity, wrapped in a new gamified trading environment, designed to be a seamless onramp for non-crypto audience.”- Matt Danilaitis, Founder of MetaFi said. 

This month, MetaFi announced the successful completion of a $3 million funding round. So, now  ​​the company with its web-3 virtual trading platform is valued at $25 million.

The booming interest in cryptocurrencies and metaverses, as well as the opportunity to improve trading skills, communicating and exchanging experience with other participants, make MetaFi very attractive to the crypto community. Currently there are over 100,000 participants on the waiting list.

 

Is there an alternative to PoW and PoS algorithms?

What is a consensus algorithm in the blockchain? Since decentralized networks require tools to agree on decisions and to ensure overall reliability, a mechanism for coordinating system processes has been developed. This mechanism is called a consensus algorithm. It is a decision-making procedure aimed to prevent a network from centralized control and to ensure that everyone follows the rules.

One of the main differences between various cryptocurrency networks is the type of consensus algorithms used.

In the article about Ethereum Merge (http://www.inmost.pro/blog/ethereum-merge/), we talked about the two currently most commonly used algorithms: proof-of-work and proof-of-stake. Both have their pros and cons, their supporters and opponents. And while the crypto industry rapidly evolves, developers will continue to come up with new solutions searching for the perfect one.

Let us now take a look at what alternative consensus algorithms exist, although they are less popular than proof-of-work and proof-of-stake.

 

Proof-of-Burn (PoB)

Unlike the proof-of-work, this algorithm is not very energy consuming. Miners do not need to invest in physical resources - powerful hardware. Instead, they invest cryptocurrencies (coins) to be selected for mining and validation of a new block. Coins sent for burning can no longer be returned. The more coins burned, the higher the chance of being selected as a validator. The system provides a reward for miners to cover the initial cost of the burned coins within a certain time.

One of the main drawbacks of this algorithm is that it does not really reduce energy consumption, since in most cases bitcoin coins mined with proof-of-work are used for burning.

Also, this algorithm lacks speed, and since it is not yet widely used, its efficiency and security still need to be tested.

 

Proof- of- Authority(PoA)

This algorithm is based on a reputation concept that uses a limited number of block validators. Blocks and transactions are verified by pre-approved participants with confirmed identities who act as system moderators. These system moderators validate blocks and transactions.

To be selected as a validator, a candidate must be trustworthy and have no criminal record. Reputation is a major investment here, as confidence in the identity of the validator ensures the security and reliability of the entire network.

It is clear that this approach, in addition to disclosing access to the identity of the validator, has another significant flaw - centralization. However, this factor makes PoA attractive for large enterprises and private use.

 

Delegated- Proof- of- Stake (DPoS)

DPoS consensus is achieved by voting of the delegates (third parties) authorized by the stakeholders, with voting power proportional to the number of coins each user holds. We can admit that the mechanism of this algorithm also relies on the reputation of voters. In case of suspicion of manipulation or rules violation, the community can replace the delegate at any time.

Delegated-proof-of-stake was designed to be more efficient than the proof-of- stake and proof-of-work consensus algorithms, especially in terms of speed of transaction processing.

One of the main problems with DPoS consensus is the possibility of collusion between delegates. This can lead to centralization of the network and increase vulnerability to attacks.

 

Proof-of-Elapsed-Time (PoET)

This  is an algorithm that prevents high resource usage and high energy consumption. Its concept was invented by Intel. 

Determining the node that gets the privilege of adding a block is a kind of lottery in which all participants of the network have equal opportunities. Each node in the blockchain generates a random wait period and goes asleep for this specified amount of time. The node with the shortest waiting time "wakes up" first and includes a new block into the chain, passing the necessary information to the entire network. The same process is then repeated to find the next block.

The cause of concern regarding PoET is a recently discovered vulnerability in Intel's technology, which serves as a foundation of the protocol. In addition, the reliance of consensus on third-party technologies - Intel, runs against the paradigm that cryptocurrencies are trying to implement with blockchain networks - removing the need for trust in intermediaries.

 

Proof-of-Capacity (PoC)

It allows mining equipment to use the available hard drive space on the network to determine mining privilege instead of using the computing power of the device. The larger the hard drive, the more possible solution values ​​can be stored on it, the higher is the chance for the miner to match the required hash value from his list, providing a better chance of achieving a reward.

Despite the fact that the mining process is part of this protocol, it is considered to be less energy consuming as there is no need for super powerful hardware.The disadvantage of this protocol is insufficient security and vulnerability to malware attacks.

This is far from a complete list of existing consensus algorithms.The listed algorithms are used quite infrequently. They have good potential, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. 

Even though proof-of-work is still the most commonly used algorithm today, Ethereum's recent move to proof-of-stake looks like a bit of a gold rush among companies looking for the perfect consensus algorithm to move the industry forward.

 

Ethereum after Merge – what have changed?

The Ethereum upgrade - one of the most impressive achievements in the blockchain industry, finally has been finished.

"And we finalized it!... Happy merge all! This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem," said Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in a tweet. 

So, what has changed since Ethereum switched to Proof of Stake, except that ETH costs have dropped 20% in the last 7 days.

Since the preparations for the Merge in the Ethereum community have been ongoing for several years, it is currently unlikely that the event itself will cause significant changes in the overall development of Web-3.

There are prerequisites for a positive trend in the NFT segment - as many artists and users have had antipathy towards blockchain technologies due to the environmental impact of high energy consumption. By switching to proof-of-stake, Ethereum became much more eco- friendly. In fact, less than an hour after the Merge was completed, a user spent 36 ETH - about $60,000 - to mint the first NFT on the proof-of-stake network. It is a panda face image called "The Transition."

At the same time, the eco-aspect had a crushing effect on the miners, who appeared to be the most suffered side of the Merge. It is possible that some miners will choose to mine on another chain instead of selling the gear.

Of course, the biggest concern and criticism of the past-merge Ethereum is that it is moving toward centralization. Proof-of-stake depends on users buying, holding and staking large amounts of the network's cryptocurrency.

And while control of the Ethereum network will no longer be concentrated in the hands of a few publicly traded mining syndicates, critics insist that previous powerful players will simply be replaced by new ones. Lido, a kind of community of validators, controls over 30% of the stake on the Ethereum proof-of-stake chain. Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance - the three largest crypto exchanges - own another 30% stake in the network.

“Since the successful completion of the Merge, the majority of the blocks — somewhere around 40% or more — have been built by two addresses belonging to Lido and Coinbase. It isn’t ideal to see more than 40% of blocks being settled by two providers, particularly one that is a centralized service provider (Coinbase)”- explained Ryan Rasmussen, crypto research analyst.

Since decentralization is the main component of Web 3 concepts, this problem should be solved for the successful development of Ethereum and keeping ahead of competitors in the future.

Therefore, the Merge cannot be considered as the final transformation of Ethereum. The challenge is in keeping upgrading the network to adapt it to the decentralization concept and to increase security and speed.

As Buterin admitted, the Merge is just the beginning. "To me, the Merge just symbolizes the difference between early stage Ethereum, and the Ethereum we've always wanted to become," he said. "So let's go build out all of the other parts of this ecosystem and turn Ethereum into what we want it to be.

No matter how much the traditional financial sector resists the advance of cryptocurrencies, they will inevitably take a dominant position in the future. And there is no doubt that the evolving Ethereum is one of the main pillars of this industry.

 

Tips for successful development process for IoT team

Many sources describe the challenges and failures dealt with by the companies launching IoT projects. 

In this article, I would like to look into this aspect from the perspective of IoT app developers. 

According to the surveys taken by our IoT team that participated in IoT solutions development, we have faced the following issues that we will definitely take into account in the upcoming projects and that may be helpful to other developers:

Communication

Communication is the main factor of our teamwork. In the case of IoT project, it implies not only communication between teammates but communication and correct connection between IoT device and application.

It means that in the process of development, it’s extremely important for the development team to have an IoT device on hand. The IoT device is a must-have for the development team.

Collaboration

No other projects demand collaboration between various teams with a specific expertise. It's an absolutely reasonable approach because it’s impossible to have a satisfying level of expertise in each demanded technology. So, managing IoT project requires virtuoso communication and a clear understanding of which division is responsible for what, as well as a clear understanding of the tasks for each stage and each link in the chain with a clearly defined result of the work.

Project Business Goals

Thus, even in the MVP stage it is extremely important to understand business goals of your project. The main goal of the Internet of Things is to solve a business problem, but not to surprise techno geeks with a cool idea. You just need to concentrate on the problem, and the technology will follow. A clear idea will enable the whole team to find better solutions and build development processes.

Apps for Clients

And one of the most important points for the app development team - the Customer often thinks more about connected devices than about the application itself.

However, it is the application and data that create demand for connected devices, but not vice versa. It’s important to remember that even a tiny IoT project can unveil significant business opportunities. 

But one of the strongest indicators of IoT maturity is the use of analytics. Adding analytics revolutionizes the project. When you analyze IoT data, you get information that can be used to achieve business goals and objectives. So, don't miss out on opportunities on your way.

The issue of security is so obvious to everyone that it’s not even worth being mentioned.

So, let’s make IoT development processes a happy way for incredible results.

 

The Merge – Ethereum is on the edge of grandiose changes!

The whole crypto community holds its breath waiting for the most grandiose event that is about to happen. Ethereum is on the edge of the most significant event in its history. A large-scale update called The Merge is planned for the Ethereum network, which involves changing the consensus algorithm from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

The goal of the upgrade is to make this blockchain platform more scalable, secure and decentralized.

The actual activation of the Merge will happen with the "Paris" update, around September 15th, when the cumulative Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) reaches 58750000000000000000000. TTD specifies the final Proof of Work block, after which the Proof of Stake consensus takes over.

With the change of consensus the era of mining will finally be closed. After the transition of Ethereum to PoS, miners in the network will be replaced by validators. They will confirm new transactions with the help of stakes and receive a reward in Ethereum coins (ETH) for this work.

To clearly understand what is happening, let's take a closer look at the basic concepts of the blockchain and figure out what consensus algorithms are and what are the pros and cons of PoW and PoS algorithms.

Each blockchain has its own protocol as a set of rules and actions, aimed at transferring data. Protocol is a critical component of Blockchain technologies that allow interaction of network nodes, transmission of data and block mining confirmation. A node is one of the many devices that runs the blockchain protocol software and usually stores a history of transactions. Nodes are connected to each other in a decentralized network. 

The consensus algorithm ensures that the rules of the protocol are followed and that all transactions are authentic. In other words, it is responsible for ensuring that all the nodes of the network agree with the adding of a new block. In this way, the consensus algorithm maintains the integrity and security of the network.

Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake are currently the most used and well-known consensus algorithms. In fact, there are many more consensus algorithms, but for now we will consider only these two.

 

Proof-of-work (PoW)  is used widely in cryptocurrency mining, for validating transactions and mining new tokens. It is a mechanism that allows the decentralized Ethereum network to come to a consensus or agree on things like account balance or the order of transactions. This prevents users from “double spending” their coins and ensures that the Ethereum network is extremely difficult to hack or to fake.

To participate in a transaction, network members need to solve an arbitrary mathematical puzzle to find the hash and publicly prove the work done in order to avoid cheating the system.

A hash function is a function that converts an array of input data of arbitrary length into a bit string of a fixed length, performed by a certain algorithm. The conversion performed by the hash function is called hashing. The result of the conversion is called a hash.  The hash calculation process requires a lot of energy, which only increases as more miners join the network.

The first miner who is lucky to find a solution gets the right to add a block to the chain. Moreover, it gives the  ability to receive a reward for the work done and this is the main motivation for mining. All nodes are competing with each other, increasing the capacity of computing resources in order to be the very first node to receive a reward.

The main disadvantages of PoW:

  • Mining requires an enormous amount of energy. Nodes in the network are competing with each other, constantly performing complex calculations. But as a result, most of the work is done for nothing, since the reward goes to only one node. Bitcoin mining consumes more energy than countries like Switzerland or Greece;
  • Low speed and poor scalability. PoW blockchains are sorely lacking in speed. For example, the maximum throughput of the Bitcoin network is only 7-10 transactions per second. Such low rates are not suitable for mass and everyday use;
  • Users have to pay fees to miners for the verification of transactions. The more users in the network, the higher the commission. For the small transactions, commissions can even exceed the amount of the transfer itself;

 

Proof-of-Stake (PoS)  reduces the amount of computational work required to validate the blocks and transactions that keep the blockchain secure. Computing power (block validation) is replaced by staking. Staking is the process of blocking cryptocurrency assets in order to earn rewards or interest.

This algorithm gives the right to create the next block in the blockchain to the node that has more balance - the amount of resources, for example, cryptocurrency coins. The node does not receive a reward for the creation of the block. The reward is paid for the transaction. 

The main advantages of the PoS algorithm:

  • Low power consumption compared to PoW algorithms;
  • No special equipment needed;
  • High speed and scalability. For example, the transaction amount increases up to 2000 per second;
  • Low commissions;
  • Participation in the evolution of the project. Validators are taking part in voting on the future development of the project;

 

But aside from the fact that Proof-of-Stake is younger and less tested compared to Proof-of-Work, the biggest concern about the PoS algorithm is the risk of centralization. The validators, who have the larger amount of coins, will eventually control the majority of the network. Therefore, blockchain developers have been working on new versions of the PoS algorithm in recent years to solve this issue.

So, what will happen when the cumulative difficulty of Ethereum mining  finally exceeds the assigned TTD value? After crossing this milestone, there will be no more mining here. Network users (wallets) will stop accepting blocks from miners and will be waiting to get them from PoS validators.

The updated version of the protocol after the transition is called “Paris” and will continue the line of European capitals after: “Berlin” and “London”. On the evening of September 11, almost 84% of wallets were ready for the transition.

To become an Ethereum validator, you need to have at least 32 ETH as a deposit. In order to optimize the calculations, staking participants are divided into committees -  groups, the members of which are determined randomly. They include from 128 to 2048 validators. 

Time in Proof-of-Stake Ethereum is divided into slots (12 seconds) and epochs (32 slots). A randomly selected validator proposes blocks in each slot. This validator is responsible for creating a new block and sending it to nodes in the network. A committee of validators votes to agree on the validity of the block that was proposed. Committee members are shuffled after each epoch. 

By June 2022, the energy consumption of the Ethereum blockchain was 112 TWh per year. As a result of replacing mining with staking, this amount will decrease by 99.95%. This will not affect the operational processes of the protocol and the economics of projects, but it will allow Ethereum to avoid criticism from the “greens”. In addition, Ethereum will become more attractive to investors who take into account environmental issues. The developers claim that after PoS implementation, each node will require no more electricity than a regular PC.

The Ethereum roadmap includes the implementation of a technology called sharding, which is necessary to increase the scalability of the blockchain. Sharding is the division of a common database into fragments and distributed storage of information by nodes. This update will allow the Ethereum network to grow in line with the increasing load.

Sharding will reduce hardware requirements and allow the node to run on laptops and smartphones. The update is planned to be integrated in 2023, but the final date depends on the effectiveness of the Merge - transition to Proof-of-Stake.

There is no doubt that the Merger is one of the most significant events in the history of cryptocurrencies, which may have far-reaching consequences, from unpredictable fluctuations in the price of Ether to global changes in the crypto industry at all.