Web3 (312)

Authored by Kiwi Yao, researcher @OKX Ventures 2023 was a big year for account abstraction (AA), as the arrival of the ERC-4337 Ethereum standard brought new opportunities for users of the network. ERC-4337 gave access to smart wallet contracts, and its progress since launch has brought new capabilities.

NFTs cemented their spot in cryptocurrency during the 2021 bull run. During this period, the NFT space experienced unprecedented growth and adoption. Therefore, NFT rarity became crucial to determine their value. An NFT holder must consider the asset's unique characteristics that differentiate it from other NFTs in the collection to determine its rarity. Some features that could differentiate the NFT include accessories, skins, and backgrounds.

As the crypto industry expands, new and inventive projects are constantly being introduced, creating a competitive environment where some initiatives struggle to get noticed in the bustling crypto community.

In traditional finance, a borrower must deposit collateral and pass credit checks before receiving a loan. However, with decentralized finance (DeFi), borrowers can access loans without providing coll

Aave , formerly ETHLend, is a decentralized non-custodial borrowing and lending protocol that lets users deposit assets into liquidity pools to earn returns and borrow assets at a variable or fixed interest rate. It was launched in 2017 by Stani Kulechov, following a $17.8 million initial coin offering (ICO). Aave also allows users to take out uncollateralized, ultra-short duration loans known as .

Blockchains are usually self-contained systems and lack the ability to communicate with other chains, creating difficulties for users when transferring money. The purpose of building what the crypto space call ‘bridges’ is to address this issue. Through , individuals can efficiently transfer their funds between different chains. Cryptocurrency bridges promote blockchain interoperability and enhance the ease of digital asset transfer. 

Polygon, a well-known Ethereum-scaling and infrastructure development platform, has gained significant popularity in the blockchain community. Its primary focus is to enhance scalability on the Ethereum network and facilitate fast and secure off-chain transactions. Payment processors and off-chain smart contract users value these features greatly.

With the rise in cryptocurrency adoption, blockchain-based smartphones have recorded a growing interest in the market. The awareness of data privacy, financial inclusion, and security has changed how users store data, transact monetary values, and communicate. Increased privacy, security, and decentralized smartphone features have given birth to a new generation – crypto phones.

Optimism is a popular Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) blockchain designed to increase scalability. As a result, bridging is an essential part of using the technology. Optimism increases efficiency by processing transactions off Ethereum and periodically syncing them. This results in transaction fees and processing speed being significantly lower than Ethereum, making one of the most popular Ethereum L2 solutions. 

After venturing into the crypto scene, it doesn’t take long to encounter a ‘whale’. But what are they exactly, how'd they get this title? In simple terms, whales are individuals who hold a significant amount of cryptocurrencies. As a result of their whale-sized holdings, these individuals or organizations can have significant influence over the prices of cryptocurrencies as they buy and sell assets. 

Siacoin is a decentralized cloud storage solution based on blockchain and cryptographic technology. Through Siacoin, anyone can store data on the blockchain without compromising their identity and dat

 Tezos (XTZ) has seen a noticeable price increase over the first week of 2023.

The blockchain industry has been focusing on developing Web 3.0 for several years now. This has led to the development of the metaverse, interoperability, decentralized finance (DeFi), and other produ

Token lockup refers to restricting the transferability of tokens, including those received from airdrops, an initial coin offering (ICO), or a sale event for a specific period. During the lockup perio

Since the creation of cryptocurrency, the price of the assets have absolutely skyrocketed. Those who recognized the potential of cryptocurrency and invested early, knew it was only a matter of time be

Solana is a popular competitor to Ethereum, offering high performance and fast transaction speeds. Users can bridge to Solana from Ethereum and other chains to explore its ecosystem. Solana uses a combination of Proof of History (PoH) consensus mechanism alongside Proof of Stake (PoS), to get to a theoretical capacity of 710,000 transactions per second (TPS). Solana’s smart contracts have created a thriving ecosystem of DeFi and NFT marketplaces. 

Arbitrum is a popular Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) solution, making bridging in and out of it essential. Arbitrum uses a method called “optimistic rollup,” where smart contracts are executed off-chain and only the final output is posted to the Ethereum blockchain. It has a significantly larger transaction throughput, making it faster and cheaper than Ethereum. Arbitrum is also an Ethereum equivalent blockchain, making it easy for developers to move their applications from the Ethereum chain.

Blockchains are typically isolated systems and can't interact with other chains, making it inconvenient for users to move funds. Blockchain bridges are built to solve this. Blockchain bridging allows users to move their funds from one chain to another quickly. Cryptocurrency bridges enable blockchain interoperability and make digital asset transfer even more convenient. 

Blockchains are independent networks that cannot communicate with each other. To address this issue, developers have created blockchain bridges . These bridges enable users to seamlessly transfer their funds between different chains. By facilitating blockchain interoperability, cryptocurrency bridges make the transfer of digital assets even simpler. 

Getting familiar with cryptocurrency bridging is essential to your crypto journey. If you’re looking for a detailed guide on how to bridge to Polygon, you’ve come to the right place. Let's explore how to bridge ETH to Polygon using Polygon’s portal and OKX Swap. Additionally, we’ll walk through a centralized bridging process using OKX to bridge USDT from Ethereum to Polygon.

As cryptocurrency continues to gain popularity, protecting the safety and security of customer funds is crucial. One way to achieve this is through Proof of Reserves (PoR) audits, which provide transparency and verification of a platform's solvency.

In 2023, thanks to developers like Casey Rodarmor from the Bitcoin dev community, inscriptions became a buzzword in the crypto space. But what are they? Similar to NFTs, you can view them as digital artifacts. Inscriptions are, in short, metadata within the blockchain. For example, if we were to examine , the metadata is encoded on a satoshi, the smallest unit of . For total clarity, ordinals are a means of tracking individual satoshis, which you can attach data to via inscriptions.

Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, launched its original mainnet back in 2017. However, three years later, in September 2020, the exchange decided to launch its second

Atomic swaps, also known as cross-chain swaps or atomic cross-chain trading, refers to the process of exchanging of one cryptocurrency for another between two parties without the need for a centralize