Twelve months ago, the total value of cryptocurrency locked in staking programs was barely more than $1 billion. Today, there is $58 billion locked in decentralized finance, or DeFi. The adoption of DeFi has been a sea change that’s helped push the crypto industry into the mainstream, but it’s hardly the only one. Mainstream institutions including MicroStrategy and Tesla have poured billions of dollars into Bitcoin — and some have been buying the dip — while nonfungible tokens have evolved from CryptoKitties and CypherPunks to an artistic medium pulling in millions in bids for a new generation of digital artists …

An oracle system has launched on Binance Smart Chain — enabling developers to create DApps and decentralized autonomous organizations that are fueled by real-world data. Bridge Oracle, which first made its debut on Tron, says the expansion of its easy-to-use infrastructure is a significant milestone. Now, a diverse range of data sources can be integrated into smart contracts — boosting their utility immeasurably. Data can be fetched using HTTP and HTTPS requests, or through the computational knowledge of WolframAlpha. Oracles can be used to generate random numbers, and this infrastructure also paves the way for enterprises to integrate blockchain technology …

A startup in a blockchain ecosystem says it eliminates the conflicts of interest that are often seen on fiat platforms. Value Network enables users to create binary options markets based on their very own parameters, including asset pair, price level and time of expiration. This peer-to-peer approach means they don’t have to bet against centralized brokers, some of whom have been linked to scams and fraud in a largely unregulated space. Binary options expire at a set date in the future — with a yes or no outcome. A successful bet means users win the funds of those who had …

A smart contract platform aimed at the decentralized finance market seeks to make it easy to transfer decentralized applications from clogged, expensive Ethereum to Polkadot. The open-source project’s goal is to create easy-to-use blockchain infrastructure that will improve the interoperability of cross-chain assets, attracting developers of DeFi projects. Clover Finance wants to build a one-stop infrastructure platform that will make it simpler and less expensive for developers of DeFi projects to migrate their DApps onto Polkadot, a potential Ethereum killer that achieves scalability by running many blockchains in parallel, each with its own design and each serving a specific purpose …

A decentralized platform that provides infrastructure services for DApp developers and users says its goal is to deliver safety and stability. According to Apron, the world remains reliant on the centralized artifacts of the Web 2.0 era — and its network is designed to serve as the foundational layer for the next generation. While the team acknowledges that Ethereum has contributed to DApps exploding in popularity, they say operating nodes on this blockchain is both expensive and energy intensive — prompting a centralized support structure to emerge. Apron Network is designed to shake things up by improving the infrastructure service …

A decentralized virtual city is starting its transformation into a metaverse — enabling players to trade collectible NFTs on a scarce gaming map. MegaCryptoPolis began life as a 2D city builder game in May 2018, with the DApp running on Ethereum smart contracts. The following year, it received a 3D upgrade, and expanded to Tron in 2020. Every building that features on the gaming map is a non-fungible token owned by a player, and the team say every game action is a transaction minted on a blockchain. Now, the game’s developers have their sights set on an ambitious “World” upgrade …

Ryan Watkins, a senior research analyst at crypto analysis firm Messari, has speculated that Ether (ETH) could overtake Bitcoin (BTC) as the largest crypto asset once its Eth2 and proof-of-stake overhaul is complete. Appearing on YouTube show FinTech Today on March 18, Watkins noted that while he does not know “if or when” Ether will flip Bitcoin, he does believe Ether could emerge as the leading crypto asset in the future, due to Eth2, stating: “The selling point of Bitcoin over Ethereum as a store of value asset boils down its monetary policy being very predictable and the Bitcoin blockchain …

Colony, an early Ethereum project aimed at building decentralized governance tooling, announced today that it is preparing for a relaunch that’s been five years, multiple missteps, and a few half-starts in the making. If successful, however, the new app could be a boon for the dozens of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols currently struggling with the clumsy mechanics of DAO governance — a nearly universally-acknowledged problem in dire need of a solution. Almost a half-decade ago, the Colony blog first laid out the organization’s vision for “The Future of Work”: “By aligning the incentives of the workforce around productivity, people anywhere …

The crypto-powered Esports streaming platform Theta has partnered with South Korean social gaming platform Ludena Protocol to reward its gamers for viewing or streaming content. The partnership will see Theta protocol integrated into GameTalkTalk, Ludena’s first decentralized application (DApp) — allowing the gaming-centric social platform’s more than three million users to access Theta’s streaming services through the platform. Ludena’s users will be rewarded for engagement in the form of Theta’s TFUEL token. Theta TV to integrate GameTalkTalk The agreement will see an exclusive GameTalkTalk channel added to Theta’s streaming platform, Theta TV — allowing Ludena to tap into Theta’s audience …

From CryptoKitties to Compound, decentralized applications and decentralized finance have become increasingly popular in the blockchain space, but the sector has gone through a fair share of teething problems since DApps first appeared in 2017. DApps were popularized around the same time that Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a monumental surge in value toward the end of 2017. Ethereum quickly established itself as the protocol of choice for blockchain developers to build and launch DApps, and the success of projects such as CryptoKitties proved that people were actively looking to get involved in the space. CryptoKitties was so popular at the time …

Years on and dozens of experiments later, Ethereum still remains the number one choice among developers of decentralized applications for deploying their products and services. The “2020 Q1 Dapp Market Report” published by Dapp.com clearly demonstrates the ongoing trend, as the statistics show that 635 DApps, or roughly half of all functioning DApps on the market, are based on the Ethereum network with 616,369 active users. Even despite the seemingly gloomy mood prevailing in the global economy, Ethereum is living through its Golden Age in the rapidly developing decentralized finance market. In the first quarter of 2020, the average daily …

U.S. blockchain network Solana has teamed up with South Korean payment platform Terra to bring stablecoins into its dApp ecosystem. The Terra platform is backed by Korean eCommerce giant TMON. Solana was launched in 2019, and claims to have superior technology in terms of scaling (65,000 transactions per second), security and decentralization. The partnership enables its dApp developers to accept low cost, price-stable payments through a new token bridge technology. Solana COO Raj Gokal said the partnership expands the platform’s capabilities: “By bringing stablecoins onto our network, we aim to dramatically expand the design space for developers, opening the door …