A 2021 full of hardships and struggles has passed. Let us give you a pat on the back. “Well done!” Now that the old year is left behind, it’s time to refresh your mind and restart the game for 2022.

To help oil your engines, the team is preparing a month-full of events, exciting activities, and good news!

Sentre Golden Month is a once in a lifetime opportunity for visionary investors to multiply their assets. Every three days, Sentizens will be introduced to a different event, including:

The campaign will take place from January 12 to January 31.

Don’t miss out on your true golden chance to make a fortune out of 2022! Follow us for updates and news:

Website | Twitter | Discord | Telegram | Medium

We believe that the Watchlist feature is an essential part of a trader’s routine, therefore we created a dedicated page for easier access to this functionality. New features are also coming to the Market tab, stay tuned!

In order to access the existing Chart Mirroring and Watchlist functionality, please head to the Market page and under “Trader” near the top left side of the screen, please select your preferred analyst.

Once you have selected the trader, you can then select the preferred watchlist in the section underneath.

All Chart Mirroring and Chart Flagging features will remain the same, you can access the existing features on the Market page.

To continue trading, please select the Trade tab. Check out the new tab on CoinPanel now!

Originally published at https://blog.coinpanel.com.

In this article, we take a look at current movements in the DeFi landscape, showing prospective employers, as well as interested investors, new approaches to long-term retirement planning.

Following smaller pension funds in adding crypto to their investment mix (e.g. ForUsAll), the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF) made headlines when announcing (Oct ’21) investments of $25 million in Bitcoin and Ether. To this point, it’s been considered the first big traditional U.S. pension fund to add digital assets directly to its balance sheet.

“It has a positive expected return, and it manages my risk. It has a low correlation to every other asset class. ” — Ajit Singh (CIO HFRRF) via Coindesk

So far, risk aversion has been primarily rooted in the volatility associated with this asset class. 73% of institutional investors listed this as the biggest barrier (IIDA study Sep ‘21). Though, as more pension funds invest in cryptocurrencies, the general restraints are beginning to fade. One key driver can be assumed to be simply the familiarity with this maturing market. Zooming out, volatility is put into greater perspective.

“We have experienced enough market cycles (…) the kind of pullback we’ve seen in the past few months usually precedes a big upward trend” — Elena Sinelnikova (CEO Metis) via Cointelegraph

In addition, crypto talent is now wider available and can help traditional funds to explore these new territories. However, the real innovation and thus the enabler for crypto retirement plans are certainly the rapidly evolving DeFi building blocks such as Stablecoins, Yield Farming, DeFi insurance and Risk Tranches.

Stablecoins, with each coin being pegged to a presumingly stable value (e.g. $1) are gaining steam as a viable option to invest in crypto without being exposed to the risks associated with volatility. USDC, USDT, and DAI are considered amongst the safest choices as they continuously improve the protection mechanism of the coin value by boosting their collateralization with fiat currencies and other real-world assets.

These digital assets are generating attractive returns by lending them to third parties or for example by providing them as collateral for insurance policies. With more than 2 years on the market, Idle Finance is an experienced player in the field of low-risk yield generation. Idle automatically allocates all deposited funds across different battle-tested (yield generating) DeFi protocols. This leads to substantial risk mitigation, e.g. by moving them to a safe place in case of a hack. At the same time, the fund allocation towards the most profitable lending sources enables attractive returns above those of isolated yield sources (9% for USDC in Q4 2021).

A new group of DeFi insurance companies such as InsureDAO, InsureAce and Nexus Mutual are entering the market to protect crypto investors from potential risks, such as smart contract failures or hacks, as well as the de-pegging of stable coins from their attributed value. For example, if a stablecoin drops beneath its attributed for a set period of time (e.g. 80 cent value for a $1 worth token), the policyholder can make a claim. The same counts for losses if the Smart contract of a DeFi protocol has been compromised. It can be expected that more new players, as well as traditional insurance providers, will join the DeFi insurance arena, expanding both the use of cryptocurrencies as collateral for insurance claims and the protection of digital assets themselves.

Last but not least, in connection with protected savings options, risk tranching has to be mentioned. Here, the returns of each digital asset are divided into 2 risk-adjusted groups — the Senior and the Junior tranche. Those who pay into the Junior tranche receive a higher share of the returns (80%), but also take on additional smart contracts and financial risks. Vice versa, Senior tranches receive a smaller share of the returns (20%), but they are also repaid first in the event of a default. Thus, applying the Senior tranche, yield generation of a wide range of assets can be moved from a medium-risk to a lower-risk category. Along with a growing portfolio of tranched assets, Idle.finance launched Perpetual Yield Tranches for ETH Staking in partnership with DeFi Protocol Lido. Within the first 4 weeks, users deposited 3,900 ETH via this novel DeFi solution.

As decentralized organizations (DAOs) become more prevalent, so do their contributors and employees, of whom most are paid 100% in crypto. In addition, an increasing number of the growing gig worker community is choosing to receive their compensation in the form of digital assets. Global hiring firm Deel has reported a 10% month-over-month increase in talents seeking crypto pay since November 2020. This is one of the reasons why Opolis Employer Cooperative offers solopreneurs various service packages around an integrated payroll, including paychecks in fiat and crypto.

With the rise of this on-chain workforce and thus the immediate proximity to the DeFi landscape, payroll will eventually serve to be much more than simple salaries executed on a monthly basis. Rather, as this area evolves, key retention features such as yield-backed payroll, vesting of native tokens, and many more contributor-facing financial products are being developed.

Players such as Utopia Labs have already launched dedicated tools to help manage the payroll of a crypto-native workforce. Utopia connects directly to the central crypto wallet of a decentralized organization (usually in the form of a Gnosis SAFE). And right there, within the organization’s treasury and its payment workflows (e.g. payroll, expenses, invoicing), savings and pension opportunities are a no-brainer. Thus, Idle Finance and Utopia have started to map out opportunities to divert part of the monthly payments and overall treasury vaults into a crypto-native pension plan. Not least, to give decentralised organisations a powerful competitive advantage in addressing top Web3 talents.

DeFi is still developing at such a rapid pace that even crypto-natives having a hard time keeping up. Many new high-risk strategies with promises of high returns enter the market on a daily basis. At the same time, all these earlier experiments of the “DeFi Wild West” have resulted in battle-tested, more moderate and safer DeFi primitives. So now that a new generation of workers is entering Web3, there are some valid options for long-term saving. Especially as fiat currency inflation progresses and confidence in banks continues to wane, we will see a further move towards crypto-favored retirement plannings.

The community as we know, plays a critical in the growth of the project or any organization. One of the few things that any investor(s) finds attractive is the strength of any community. Taking into full consideration its drive and enthusiasm towards growth and productivity.

The community can clearly said to be the face of the project or the organisation as the case may be.

I’d want to put my focus on one of the varying ways the EOS community can be strengthen.

In as much as quality work is one of the key-drivers of a community. Some moments of fun and entertainment does alot to garnish the good work.

I won’t like to bother us with the various adages and words of wisdom. That pertains to working hard, smart and also involving fun and play.

I’ve worked with some projects and I got to observe some nice strategies that helped in my course of partnership with them.

In this article I’d be sharing some ways the EOS Network Foundation can help boost its community membership and also confidence.

Ways to increase community growth :-

Despite the issue of remoteness of the various team members across different continents and the Covid-19 outbreak.

Having to organise an online game/competition ceremony is one way to increase community growth. A bounty or reward could be attached to the event to help boost its competitiveness.

The games to be played ranges from Hax-ball to various board games that people would come to compete in.

The competitors in game won’t just be the community members but also family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, pets and even other community members ☺.

Welcome to week six of the all-out, 8-week NFT Giveaway campaign — The MonkeyNuts 4 MonkeyBucks NFT Giveaway!

As you know each week we have been giving away an increasing number of Monkeys while the minimum amount of $MBS you must hold in your Solana wallet in order to be eligible increases as well. Including week six, we have given away 50 Gen Zero Monkey NFTs to loyal $MBS holders!

This week you needed 1200 $MBS in your wallet to be eligible and we raffled off 12 Gen Zero Monkeys. Next week, you will need 1400 $MBS with 14 Monkey NFTs up for grabs!

Check out this week’s winners:

Much MonkeyLove

Oren Langberg

Head of Marketing

About MonkeyLeague:

MonkeyLeague is the next-gen esports game on the metaverse that enables players to Play, Compete, and Earn.

MonkeyLeague combines high-production-value, multiplayer gaming with Solana blockchain, NFTs, and decentralized finance to deliver an exciting, turn-based, play-and-earn soccer game that’s easy to learn yet hard to master.

Get on the MonkeyTrain:

Discord | Telegram | Twitter | Youtube | Twitch | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit

Check out the MonkeyLeague Sneak Peek!

This form of borrowing is possible with the use of smart contracts in DeFi Transactions. Smart contracts set out the rules for flash loans. It usually requires the borrower to pay back the full loan amount before the transaction is completed.

If this rule is broken, the smart contract automatically reverses the transaction and the loan is cancelled as if it never happened.

Flash loans happen usually in a few seconds or minutes. This is how they can offer unsecured loans as the borrower must return the full amount borrowed almost immediately.

Put this in relatable terms, imagine taking a loan from a bank to make an buy an asset and you are required to repay the entire loan in a few minutes.

Sound impractical, even impossible.

However, Flash loans are very useful in DeFi. It has three major uses cases: Arbitrage, Collateral Swap and Self-Liquidation.

Arbitrage

Arbitrage refers to an immediate trade of an asset in different markets to make a profit from tiny differences in the asset’s listed price. Traders tend to move between various crypto exchanges in search of little differences in the prices of various crypto assets.

For instance, imagine BTC/USDT is trading on Binance at $39,131.26, while the same BTC/USDT is trading on Bitfinex at $39,120.00. That’s an $11.26 difference. A trader can buy BTC on Bitfinex and sell on Binance to make a profit of $11.26 per BTC sold. This example uses centralized crypto exchanges, however, the same applies to decentralized exchanges (DEx) like dYdX, UniSwap, PanCakeSwap etc. Flash loans are used to take advantage of a price arbitrage on DExs, this is because of their instant nature and their applicability across the blockchain.

Here is an example of a person exploiting the price arbitrage on Curve and UniSwap.

Here the DAI/USDC is trading on Curve at $1, while DAI/USDC is trading on UniSwap at $0.99.

A trader can exploit this opportunity using a flash loan by doing the following (as shown above):

Collateral Swap

This involves a quick swap of the collateral used to back a user’s loan from one asset to another.

This helps DeFi users swap the collateral they initially provided on a DeFi lending platform.

In this example, a person used their ETH as collateral for a loan taken in DAI on the Compound lending platform and they want to swap the ETH for BAT.

A user can swap the ETH for BAT using a flash loan by doing the following (as shown above):

Self-Liquidation

In DeFi, there are liquidation penalties or fees for loans, it currently ranges around 3% to 15% depending on the platform.

DeFi liquidation occurs when the price of the asset used as collateral falls below a certain pre-determined point. This is usually to prevent a situation whereby the value of the collateral is too low to cover the loan borrowed.

In a situation where the value of the collateral reaches the liquidation point, the smart contract sells the crypto asset to cover the debt. The user loses the asset and is charged the fee.

DeFi users can use flash loans to self-liquidate to repay the loan and recover the asset used as collateral to avoid getting liquidated and paying the fee.

In this example, the user took a loan in DAI with ETH as collateral from Compound. The price of ETH is decreasing and is approaching the level of liquidation, the a take a flash loan to avoid getting liquidated by the smart contract by doing the following:

These are the most common use case of flash loans and there are more that are yet to be discovered. These use cases should how useful flash loans are in DeFi. However, flash loans are often subject to attack. These are called Flash Loan Attacks.

This occurs when a borrower is able to trick the lender into thinking that the loan has been repaid even when it has not. DeFi systems are beginning to develop methods and technology to protect against these attacks.

Sources and References:

It can be confusing and overwhelming to start learning if you’re unsure what questions to ask or find any information for your research. So, here we have highlighted some of the most important questions to ask when researching your crypto.

Does the project’s website look legit?

When looking for a project to invest in, ensure the website has all its information listed. It should also have recent updates and current content with what’s happening now in society. Otherwise, people might think they’re not getting accurate feedback from this organization!

How exactly does the project approach the challenges that the businesses in a field have?

The crypto project has to think about getting out ahead of the competition. The business world is challenging, and there are always new challenges that strive for success in this competitive climate. But if you’re not first with an innovative solution, then someone else will take your place!

Is it a token or a coin? Does the project build on an existing chain, or does it have its Blockchain?

Investing in the cryptocurrency world is all about knowing your stuff. If you don’t, people will take advantage of that and drain your wallet dry! A perfect example would be when someone finds an exploit on a project’s chain that allows them access for free transactions, so make sure they know how it works and what kind of security measures are implemented afterward (or before).

What is the total amount of tokens issued, will there be a hard cap to the maximum amount?

A few people accumulating large amounts is never good for the price. But, on the other hand, if you have unlimited funds, competition will be below, and your decision on what to do with all those coins could affect demand in a big way!

What are some ways developers might reduce their stakes? For example, they could burn them after use instead of holding onto them — this deflationary mechanism helps keep prices stable by decreasing supply over time. Did they have an initial crowd sale where contributions were limited or did previous holders sell off some tokens prelaunch before releasing total circulation figures into the public domain?”

What is the consensus algorithm of the chain a crypto project uses?

Imagine a world where the power to decide who is right and what should happen lies with just one person. That has been nigh-impossible until now, but it might become a reality soon enough, thanks to blockchain technology!

Nodes in a blockchain are run by several parties depending on the consensus algorithm. It can be either good or bad, but it’s worth noting that there are different types of nodes for every application with varying levels of decentralization. How much power any one person has over your data depends entirely upon which network you subscribed too!

What does the project’s road map say?

Road maps are a great way to understand what your crypto project wants you to achieve in the next year, and it’s essential not just for software development. For example, Crypto projects often take longer than expected because they’re so complex!

Who are the strategic partners?

Established partnerships are a crucial component of any crypto project because they help the team tap into additional resources, get publicity, and learn from their experiences. Quality over quantity is always vital when it comes to having partners- so if you have been working with a prestigious company or institution, then make sure that this detail gets listed on your website!

Establishing good relationships within one’s industry isn’t just beneficial for business growth and helps build credibility, positively impacting public opinion about new technologies like Blockchain.

Are developers contributing regularly to the project?

After uncovering the pros and cons, you must gather as much information from every source. Then, you should be able to make an informed decision on whether or not this crypto project will work for your needs!

These might include experts who know these coins and their pros/cons. List them out so that when all this data has been compiled together, it can accurately portray what kind of risks we’ll be taking by investing in one coin over another.

How can you buy the token or coin?

That’s a great question! You have two options: either from an exchange, where your investment might get lost due to technical issues and fraudulent activities, or send funds directly by making sure they are locked up until the purchase date. For crypto projects with an ICO (initial coin offering), tokens usually won’t be listed on any exchanges before that specific date. So when we invest, our money will effectively sit on hold for a while as there isn’t much else available like this space right now.

How high is the market cap?

The market cap of a coin or token is the weight that represents its price. If this number seems too high, it may mean people are holding onto significant amounts for manipulation purposes and could lead to pump-and-dump schemes. The costs would get pumped up quickly before being sold off at an even higher rate than what was initially bought to profit from other investors looking out for “get rich quick” schemes.