Before getting down and dirty with the rumbling mess that crypto Twitter has become over the last week, let’s try to understand this new web-based phenomenon that the entire blockchain community is going gaga over.

The rise of technological innovation in the 20th century paved the way for the internet. The first phase of the internet is now called Web 1.0 — with the creation of connected computers which evolved to the world wide web. The worldwide web in the 90s up to the start of the new millennium was simply a place where users derived content from the companies and websites. There was no community-based activity where two parties could interact with each other. One side pretty much absorbed all the information coming from the other.

The second development in the internet of things emerged and took full form in the 2010s. Web 2.0 is very much in full effect and thriving today — which has transformed content consumers into content creators. Now, applications on the internet allow people to communicate with each other directly, such as social engines like WhatsApp and Telegram. Content creation allows consumers to share their content through a variety of websites and applications like YouTube and TikTok. And there are community-based platforms where you can interact, chat and share your experiences with millions around the globe — such as Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. But Web2.0 is very much centralized since a small number of multinational companies have a monopoly over the Web 2.0 consumer market. These companies are known as the big tech or the four horsemen among the tech space — including Facebook (Now Meta), Amazon, Apple and Microsoft.

The latest transition that is evolving from the world wide web is focused on creating a more individualized, autonomous and secure online environment. While the first-ever cryptocurrency, Bitcoin was created as a decentralized alternative to regular fiat currency, Web 3.0 exists to do the same thing with the internet.

The centre of Web 3.0 exists on Ethereum — the largest altcoin in the world. Being the second-largest cryptocurrency in the decentralized space, Ethereum provides many real-world use cases, a rare trait for a majority of the tokens that exist today. Via Ethereum — cryptocurrency has witnessed a huge spike in innovative use cases using blockchain technology — Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Non-Fungible tokens (NFTs) and many other blockchain-based protocols.

While Ethereum is not the sole network that deploys these protocols, it has monopolized this space by being one of the first networks to successfully deploy smart contracts and new decentralized protocols. Smart contracts are lines of code that exist on blockchains, acting as a set of legalized terms that settle transactions, make them irreversible and air-tight. Many projects built using smart contracts often release their own versions of tokens, which help govern and regulate the blockchain network.

Web 3 is the idea of integrating smarter contract-based applications like NFTs to create a decentralized internet that is not controlled by large and bureaucratic organizations.

Conceptually, Web 3.0 is a great move towards making the internet decentralized. While the large tech giants are controlling a monopoly over users and making billions — security and privacy are other reasons for concern.

Giants like Facebook have been in the middle of a brewing pot of organizational and user distrust- facing several legal disputes with the government regarding data manipulation to target billions of users. Web 3.0 is a way to diminish such illegal activities — since it promises to be a place where users can make their own rules, are given autonomy to do so and can co-exist in a harmonious world where privacy and security are at a maximum.

But the problem is that the ones capitalizing on the success of Web 3.0 in the future are the same conglomerates and organizations that this phenomenon has vowed to protect users against. Large investors have already spent $27 billion on Web 3.0 to be the future of the internet. Social media companies like Reddit and Discord are implementing Web3.0-esque protocols on their platforms, while Adidas and Nike have been releasing their own range of NFT projects. Quite recently, the Web 3.0 scene burst out into mainstream media through Facebooks’s recent rebranding.

The Mark Zuckerberg owned company changed its official name to Meta — signalling a long-term focus on this new phenomenon that we call the metaverse. The metaverse promises to be a virtual space where people can co-exist in decentralized environments created using blockchain technology. NFTs will be the world’s digital currency, while platforms like SAND and Decentraland are already building up to be decentralized worlds where people can interact on.

But critics have been against the Web 3.0 space due to the number of large VC’s and money-hungry corporates that have been pooling in their resources and assets to make Web 3.0 a reality. Facebook, the same company that has created an aura of distrust and the need for more user privacy on the internet is now at the forefront of the metaverse and the decentralized internet. This is one of the main issues of Web 3.0, according to Jack Dorsey.

Twitter has often been the centre for crypto-related news and discussions — but has also proved to be a breeding ground for commotion and advent criticism that has recently been taking over the space. Such was the case when Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter shared his views on Web 3.0.

It all began when Dorsey responded to a tweet by famous American rapper and singer, Cardi B.

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1473089482576564225?s=20

The reply was followed by another tweet from the popular billionaire’s handle, this time calling out Web 3 and the people backing it.

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1473139010197508098?s=20

The Tweet attracted the viewpoints of parties from both sides of the mix, including the opinion of a member whose beliefs on the crypto space have been interpreted as nothing short of financial advice by the mainstream public.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1473165434518224896?s=20

The reply was a clear diss at this phenomenon being nothing short of an overhyped idea that is still in its development phase. The Tweet was followed by a flourish of unfollows and arguments that ended on a sour note, to say the least.

Dorsey ended up unfollowing various corporate figures like Tyle Winklevoss (Co-founder of Gemini), Brian Armstrong (CEO of Coinbase) and even got blocked by Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz.

Dorsey and many others belong to a faction of crypto-investors that have been termed as ‘Bitcoin maximalists’. He believes in the steadiness of the token and has the view similar to others, that Bitcoin can become a global currency. Many such maximalists also believe that other cryptos may be a threat to the future of Bitcoin’s global dominance.

Since Bitcoin is supposed to give users the ultimate benefit of a decentralized network — being censorship-resistant, providing extreme data security and privacy.

Ethereum’s network on the other hand seems to trade a chunk of its decentralized authoritativeness for more throughput and use cases. But the truth is that the future of Web3 does rely on the success of Ethereum. Its smart contracts system combined with the various Layer 2 network protocols that are being deployed on the native network is increasing efficiency and throughput. Bitcoin on the other hand would need to scale up tremendously and deploy several L2 protocols to develop such a framework for Web 3 harmony.

But the main difference is that Bitcoin is ultimately gearing up towards existing as a global currency. After El Salvador’s adoption of BTC as a legal tender, more and more policymakers have been circulating the possibility of more such events like this in the coming years.

Ethereum and altcoins on the other hand are gearing towards using blockchain technology to adapt it to a different environment. It is very much BTC vs fiat currency and Ethereum & Web3 vs Web 2.0. Yet, this will probably not stop the two largest cryptocurrencies from butting heads in the future.

The Vested Sale is the major and unique benefit of the TruePNL Launchpad sales system, as it allows to get allocations in the most promising early-stage projects and get the tokens at rates lower than the listing price.

We carefully study and hand-pick every project before opening a Vested Sale. As Vested Sales are launched before the Public rounds and token listing on a DEX/CEX, TruePNL acts as a VC, assisting the projects to raise funding and get early supporters. Obtaining an allocation from a private/seed round, therefore, provides an additional assurance of a potential upside for our community.

Vested Sales are currently open to all registered and KYC verified users.

To get an allocation in a Vested Sale, you need to complete the following easy steps:

5. Your allocation will be displayed in the “My Investments” section as soon as the Vested Pool is filled and the sale of the project is closed.

6. To claim your tokens, follow our announcements with detailed instructions. the tokens are being released in accordance with the vesting scheme, which can be found on the project’s page.

7. Degen Gang — is a social metaverse incorporating play to earn gaming; allowing the community of ‘gang members’ to socialize, support each other and compete. The ‘Degen Bar’ HQ acts as a virtual space tying together the numerous meta-verses currently available on the blockchain.

8. Degen Gang is supported by NetVRk, x21, Bitboy, Flur, LilMoonLambo, BlueMoon Group.

9. You can find the whitepaper here. and view the collection on OpenSea here.

10. 
    

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The Ukrainian government and non-profit organizations amassed more than $19 million in cryptocurrencies as the help in the war with Russia. According to Elliptic, the donations digital assets include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether. Also, experts consider crypto-assets to be a vital form of crowdfunding during the Russian military invasion since they enable transactions to be completed rapidly and without the constraints imposed by regular banking institutions. Nearly 56% of the $18.9 million in donations are for Bitcoin, 32 % for Ethereum, and 11% for other cryptocurrencies (including stablecoins, such as Tether, USD Coin, Dai, etc). On February 28, the 115.3 BTC and at least 1961 ETH had been gathered.

Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine has impacted global markets, including the cryptocurrency industry. However, the surge of asset sales is lost, and the exchange rate of key virtual assets falls too. This was the conclusion reached by analysts at the worldwide Grayscale Investments after studying the factors influencing the price of crypto-assets. Thus, the analysts say there is a great connection of the Bitcoin rate with the S&M 500 and PCT stock indexes at the beginning of 2022. According to reports, the recent surge in risky assets has been halted by news of Ukraine’s preparations for war.

Large market players predict that further Russian auctions may result in a decline in the currency rate. On the other hand, the quotes have already found their bottom since the market is already falling in anticipation of further Russian Federation military actions. At the same time, Grayscale experts believe that if the rates continue to decrease in the coming days or weeks, the sellers’ momentum will worsen. However, in addition to the geopolitical scenario, the impact on the crypto industry may be triggered by an increase in interest rates by the United States Federal Reserve.

We have to mention that the Ukrainian government legally collects donations in Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether. The wallet addresses were published on the country’s official Twitter account, as well as the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. Vitalik Buterin, creator of the Ethereum cryptocurrency, and Justin Sun, author of the Tron crypto-project, both voiced fear that Twitter accounts may be stolen. However, the Ukrainian mission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) stated that the authorities do accept cryptocurrency donations. Furthermore, everyone may join the campaign and help to halt Russia’s large-scale invasion of independent Ukraine. Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation, announced the crypto wallet for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether to raise funds to fight the aggressor. The collected cryptocurrency will go to support the National Police, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine:

BTC — 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P

ETH — 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14

USDT (trc20) — TEFccmfQ38cZS1DTZVhsxKVDckA8Y6VfCy

Valentyna Bereza, Team bit4you.

Locking Tokens:

The first action that takes place in porting assets between networks is the locking of origin network tokens onto hashport. These tokens are sent to a smart contract (or multi-signatured account in the case of HBAR). The purpose of this locking action is to safekeep the originating network’s tokens and prevent them from being utilised in any way while there is a representative form of the same tokens readily available on a foreign network.

Minting Tokens:

In order to create the representative tokens on the destination network, the smart contract endpoint residing on this destination network “mints” these tokens. Minting is a more common term in the blockchain/DLT space, as it is involved in creating any token on the blockchain or other type of distributed ledger. Tokens are minted to represent an asset on a blockchain, and depending on its use within the decentralised economy, it is given a specific functional value. This value is derived based on some form of pre-determined parameters and then distributed or actively procured by those who wish to hold it and believe in its value. Whether or not new tokens can be minted and the timing of those mints is specific to the token and the project backing it. These rules are typically determined and laid out in the “tokenomics” section of most platforms’ whitepapers (typically a short document outlining a project’s vision). The parameters of a platform’s tokenomics are coded into their smart contract to automatically and immutably carry out the appropriate minting process at the correct time.

In an interoperability solution, the minting of tokens runs through the platforms’ smart contract endpoints on each attached network respectively. After native tokens arrive at the portal’s smart contract, the contract then mints the equivalent value onto the destination chain in a token standard supported by the destination protocol. So now that you have your representative tokens minted on your foreign destination network in-hand, what happens when you want to go back to the origin network? This introduces the final step process known as burning.

Burning Tokens:

The process of burning tokens only occurs with representative tokens and is triggered when a user decides to move from the foreign network to either of another foreign network or back to the originating network from which the representative tokens were generated from. As a result of the burning process the representative tokens are permanently removed from circulation. When the user submits the transfer request to hashport, the representative tokens are initially locked onto the platform and subsequently burnt upon obtaining a supermajority of transaction signatures from hashport’s validators. Upon successful burning of the representative tokens, hashport releases/unlocks the user’s original tokens back to their originating wallet. The amount of original tokens a user receives will be equal to the equivalent amount of the burnt representative tokens, less transfer fees collected by hashport. Representative tokens are burnt by sending them to a “frozen” or “burn” address to which no person or entity has access to the keys; typically an account zero. Confirmed transactions on DLT networks are immutable, meaning they cannot be altered once confirmed. Hence, sending tokens to an unavailable wallet essentially removes those tokens from existence.

Conclusion:

Now that we have a better understanding of the process of locking, minting, and burning tokens, let’s quickly put it altogether and take a look at how these processes are utilised on hashport. The infographic below explains each step to help illustrate what is happening during transactions. This walkthrough will not include a description of each stage but will highlight the parts of a transaction that include the topics and processes we have talked about so far:

The very first step of a transaction on hashport involves a user visiting app.hashport.network and submitting a porting request. You can see in step one (top left corner of the diagram) that once a user submits a request for a transaction, the portal locks the original tokens onto the platform. The following two steps involve the transaction being picked up and verified by hashport’s validator swarm. Once the transaction is immutably logged via the Hedera Consensus Service (HCS), the associated smart contract on the destination network mints the equivalent amount of representative tokens onto the user’s destination network.

Working in the opposite direction in step one (bottom right corner of the diagram) a user sends the representative tokens on the destination network back to hashport’s smart contract endpoint. At this point the validator swarm again picks up the porting request and verifies the transaction via supermajority signature. In step four, once the transaction has been logged via HCS, the destination network smart contract signals to burn the representative tokens and subsequently unlock the original tokens, releasing them back to the user’s originating network wallet.

Locking, minting, and burning tokens are essential processes to interoperability. hashport utilises each to bring users fast, secure, and cost-effective interoperability transfers. To explore worlds of possibilities today, port your assets with hashport at app.hashport.network.

About hashporthashport is the enterprise-grade public utility that facilitates the movement of digital assets between distributed networks, extending their functionality in a quick, secure, and cost-effective way. In order to remain platform-neutral, hashport functions without the use of a proprietary token. The network is built on a robust and performant architecture, secured and operated by a group of industry-leading validator partners from around the world. hashport has passed a rigorous security audit and follows industry best practices; regularly performing comprehensive network tests to ensure the integrity of the network.

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