Totalitarianism is a form of government and political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of control and regulation over public and private life.
It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism.
As a political ideology in itself, totalitarianism is a distinctly modernist phenomenon, and it has very complex historical roots. Philosopher Karl Popper traced its roots to Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel‘s conception of the state, and the political philosophy of Karl Marx, although Popper’s conception of totalitarianism has been criticized in academia, and remains highly controversial.
“Man has become the master of the world, a master unbound by any links to nature, society, and history.”
In the 20th century, the idea of absolute state power was first developed by Italian Fascists, and concurrently in Germany by a jurist and Nazi academic named Carl Schmitt during the Weimar Republic in the 1920s.
Benito Mussolini, the founder of Italian Fascism, defined fascism as such: “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”
Schmitt used the term Totalstaat (lit. ’Total state’) in his influential 1927 work titled The Concept of the Political, which described the legal basis of an all-powerful state.
Totalitarian regimes are different from other authoritarian regimes, as the latter denotes a state in which the single power holder, usually an individual dictator, a committee, a military junta, or an otherwise small group of political elites, monopolizes political power.
A totalitarian regime may attempt to control virtually all aspects of social life, including the economy, the education system, arts, science, and the private lives and morals of citizens through the use of an elaborate ideology. It can also mobilize the whole population in pursuit of its goals.
Historian Robert Conquest describes a totalitarian state as a state which recognizes no limit on its authority in any sphere of public or private life and extends that authority to whatever length it considers feasible.
Totalitarianism is contrasted with authoritarianism. According to Radu Cinpoes, an authoritarian state is “only concerned with political power, and as long as it is not contested it gives society a certain degree of liberty.”
Cinpoes writes that authoritarianism “does not attempt to change the world and human nature.”
In contrast, Richard Pipes stated that the officially proclaimed ideology “penetrating into the deepest reaches of societal structure, and the totalitarian government seeks to completely control the thoughts and actions of its citizens.”
Carl Joachim Friedrich wrote that “[a] totalist ideology, a party reinforced by a secret police, and monopolistic control of industrial mass society are the three features of totalitarian regimes that distinguish them from other autocracies.”
Rijndael is a family of ciphers with different key and block sizes. For AES, NIST selected three members of the Rijndael family, each with a block size of 128 bits, but three different key lengths: 128, 192 and 256 bits.
The algorithm described by AES is a symmetric-key algorithm, meaning the same key is used for both encrypting and decrypting the data.
In the United States, AES was announced by the NIST as U.S. FIPS PUB 197 (FIPS 197) on November 26, 2001.
This announcement followed a five-year standardization process in which fifteen competing designs were presented and evaluated, before the Rijndael cipher was selected as the most suitable.
AES is included in the ISO/IEC18033-3 standard. AES became effective as a U.S. federal government standard on May 26, 2002, after approval by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
AES is available in many different encryption packages, and is the first (and only) publicly accessible cipher approved by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for top secret information when used in an NSA approved cryptographic module.
Andreas M. Antonopoulos (born 1972 in London) is a British-Greek Bitcoin advocate, tech entrepreneur, and author.
He is a host on the Speaking of Bitcoin podcast (formerly called Let’s Talk Bitcoin!) and a teaching fellow for the M.Sc. Digital Currencies at the University of Nicosia.
Antonopoulos was born in 1972 in London, UK, and moved to Athens, Greece during the Greek Junta.
He spent his childhood there, and at the age of 17 returned to the UK.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
I am happy to share with you this chapter from my forthcoming book, The Fiat Standard, which will be out in November in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
Chapter 1: Introduction
On August 6, 1915, His Majesty’s Government issued this appeal:
“In view of the importance of strengthening the gold reserves of the country for exchange purposes, the Treasury has instructed the Post Office and all public departments charged with the duty of making cash payments to use notes instead of gold coins whenever possible.
The public generally are earnestly requested, in the national interest, to cooperate with the Treasury in this policy by
(1) paying in gold to the Post Office and to the Banks;
(2) asking for payment of cheques in notes rather than in gold;
(3) using notes rather than gold for payment of wages and cash disbursements generally”.
August 6th, 1915– His Majesty’s Government
With this obscure and largely forgotten announcement, the Bank of England effectively began the global monetary system’s move away from a gold standard, in which all government and bank obligations were redeemable in physical gold.
At the time, gold coins and bars were still widely used worldwide, but they were of limited use for international trade, which necessitated resorting to the clearance mechanisms of international banks.
Chief among all banks at the time, the Bank of England’s network spanned the globe, and its pound sterling had, for centuries, acquired the reputation of being as good as gold.
Instead of the predictable and reliable stability naturally provided by gold, the new global monetary standard was built around government rules, hence its name. The Latin word fiat means ‘let it be done’ and, in English, has been adopted to mean a formal decree, authorization, or rule.
It is an apt term for the current monetary standard, as what distinguishes it most is that it substitutes government dictates for the judgment of the market.
Value on fiat’s base layer is not based on a freely traded physical commodity, but is instead dictated by authority, which can control its issuance, supply, clearance, and settlement, and even confiscate it at any time it sees fit.
With the move to fiat, peaceful exchange on the market no longer determined the value and choice of money. Instead, it was the victors of world wars and the gyrations of international geopolitics that would dictate the choice and value of the medium that constitutes one half of every market transaction.
While the 1915 Bank of England announcement, and others like it at the time, were assumed to be temporary emergency measures necessary to fight the Great War, today, more than a century later, the Bank of England is yet to resume the promised redemption of its notes in gold.
Temporary arrangements restricting note convertibility into gold have turned into the permanent financial infrastructure of the fiat system that took off over the next century.
Never again would the world’s predominant monetary systems be based on currencies fully redeemable in gold.
The above decree might be considered the equivalent of Satoshi Nakamoto’s email to the cryptography mailing list announcing Bitcoin, but unlike Nakamoto, His Majesty’s Government provided no software, white paper, nor any kind of technical specification as to how such a monetary system could be made practical and workable. Unlike the cold precision of Satoshi’s impersonal and dispassionate tone, His Majesty’s Government relied on appeal to authority, and emotional manipulation of its subjects’ sense of patriotism.
Whereas Satoshi was able to launch the Bitcoin network in operational form a few months after its initial announcement, it took two world wars, dozens of monetary conferences, multiple financial crises, and three generations of governments, bankers, and economists struggling to ultimately bring about a fully operable implementation of the fiat standard in 1971.
Fifty years after taking its final form, and one century after its genesis, an assessment of the fiat system is now both possible and necessary. Its longevity makes it unreasonable to keep dismissing the fiat system as an irredeemable fraud on the brink of collapse, as many of its detractors have done for decades. Many people at the end of their life today have never used anything but fiat money, and neither did their long-deceased parents. This cannot be written off as an unexplained fluke, and economists should be able to explain how this system functions and survives, despite its many obvious flaws.
There are, after all, plenty of markets around the world that are massively distorted by government interventions, but they nonetheless continue to survive. It is no endorsement of these interventions to attempt to explain how they persist.
It is also not appropriate to judge fiat systems based on the marketing material of their promoters and beneficiaries in government-financed academia and the popular press.
While the global fiat system so far avoided the complete collapse its detractors would predict, that cannot vindicate its promoters’ advertising of it as a free-lunch-maker with no opportunity cost or consequence. More than fifty episodes of hyperinflation have taken place around the world using fiat monetary systems in the past century. Moreover, the global fiat system avoiding catastrophic collapse is hardly enough to make the case for it as a positive technological, economic, and social development.
Between the relentless propaganda of its enthusiasts and the rabid venom of its detractors, this book attempts to offer something new: an exploration of the fiat monetary system as a technology, from an engineering and functional perspective, outlining its purposes and common failure modes, and deriving the wider economic, political, and social implications of its use. I believe that adopting this approach to writing
The Bitcoin Standard contributed to making it the best-selling book on bitcoin to date, helping hundreds of thousands of readers across more than 20 languages understand the significance and implications of bitcoin. Rather than focus on the details of how bitcoin operates, I chose to focus on why it operates the way it does, and what the implications are.
If you have read the Bitcoin Standard and enjoyed my exploration of bitcoin, I hope you will enjoy this exploration of the operation of fiat.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, I believe that by first understanding the operation of bitcoin, you can then better understand the equivalent operations in fiat.
It is easier to explain an abacus to a computer user than it is to explain a computer to an abacus user.
A more advanced technology performs its functions more productively and efficiently, allowing a clear exposition of the mechanisms of the simpler technology, and exposing its weaknesses.
For the reader who has become familiar with the operation of bitcoin, a good way to understand the operation of fiat is by drawing analogy to the operation of bitcoin using concepts like mining, nodes, balances, and proof of work.
My aim is to explain the operation and engineering structure of the fiat monetary system and how it operates, in reality, away from the naive romanticism of governments and banks who have benefited from this system for a century.
The first seven chapters of The Bitcoin Standard explained the history and function of money, and its importance to the economic order. With that foundation laid, the final three chapters introduced bitcoin, explained its operation, and elaborated on how its operation relates to the economic questions discussed in the earlier chapters.
My motivation as an author was to allow readers to understand how bitcoin operates and its monetary significance without requiring them to have a previous background in economics or digital currencies.
Had Bitcoin not been invented, the first seven chapters of The Bitcoin Standard could have served as an introduction to explaining the operation of the fiat monetary system.
This book picks up where Chapter 7 of “The Bitcoin Standard” left off. The first chapters of this book are modeled on the last three chapters of the Bitcoin Standard, except applied to fiat money.
How does the fiat system actually function, in an operational sense? The success of bitcoin in operating as a bare-bones and standalone free market monetary system helps elucidate the properties and functions necessary to make a monetary system function.
Bitcoin was designed by a software engineer who boiled a monetary system down to its essentials. These choices were then validated by a free market of millions of people around the world who continue to use this system, and currently entrust it to hold more than $300 billion of their wealth.
The fiat monetary system, by contrast, has never been put on a free market for its users to pass the only judgment that matters on it. The all-too-frequent systemic collapses of the fiat monetary system are arguably the true market judgment emerging after suppression by governments.
With bitcoin showing us how an advanced monetary system can function entirely independently of government control, we can see clearly the properties required for a monetary system to operate on the free market, and in the process, better understand fiat’s modes of operation, and all-too-frequent modes of failure.
While fiat systems have not won acceptance on the free market, and though their failings and limitations are many, there is no denying the fact that many fiat systems have worked for large parts of the last century, and facilitated an unfathomably large number of transactions and trades all around the world. Its continued operation makes understanding it useful, particularly as we still live in a world that runs on fiat. Just because you may be done with fiat does not mean that fiat is done with you!
Understanding how the fiat standard works, and how it frequently fails, is essential knowledge for being able to navigate it.
This is a preview chapter from my forthcoming book, The Fiat Standard, which will be out in November in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
To begin, it’s important to understand that the fiat system was not a carefully, consciously, or deliberately designed financial operating system like bitcoin; rather, it evolved through a complex process of compromise between political constraints and expedience.
The next chapter illustrates this by examining newly-released historical documents on just how the fiat standard was born, and how it replaced the gold standard, beginning in England in the early twentieth century, completing the transition in 1971 across the Atlantic.
This is not a history book, however, and it will not attempt a full historical account of the development of the fiat standard over the past century, in the same way the Bitcoin Standard did not delve too deeply into the study of the historical development of the bitcoin software protocol. The focus of the first part of the book will be on the operation and function of the fiat monetary system, by making analogy to the operation of the bitcoin network, in what might be called a comparative study of the economics of different monetary engineering systems.
Chapter 3 examines the underlying technology behind the fiat standard. Contrary to what the name suggests, modern fiat money is not conjured out of thin air through government fiat.
Government does not just print currency and hand it out to a society that accepts it as money. Modern fiat money is far more sophisticated and convoluted in its operation. The fundamental engineering feature of the fiat system is that it treats future promises of money as if they were as good as present money because the government guarantees these promises.
While such an arrangement would not survive in the free market, the coercion of the government can maintain it for a very long time. Government can meet any present financial obligations by diverting them onto future taxpayers or onto current fiat holders through taxes or inflation; and, further, through legal tender laws, the government can prevent any alternatives to its money from gaining traction.
By leveraging their monopoly on the legal use of violence to meet present financial obligations from potential future income, government fiat makes debt into money, forces its acceptance across society, and prevents it from collapsing.
Chapter 4 examines how the fiat network’s native tokens come into existence, using fiat’s antiquated and haphazard version of mining.
As fiat money is credit, credit creation in a fiat currency results in the creation of new money, which means that lending is the fiat version of mining.
Fiat miners are the financial institutions capable of generating fiat-based debt with guarantees from the government and/or central banks.
Unlike with bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment, fiat has no mechanisms for controlling issuance. Credit money, instead, causes constant cycles of expansion and contraction in the money supply with eventual devastating consequences, as this chapter examines.
Chapter 5 explains the topography of the fiat network, which is centered around its only full node, the US Federal Reserve.
The Fed is the only institution that can validate or refuse any transaction on any layer of the network.
Another 200 or so central bank nodes are spread around the world, and these have geographic monopolies on financial and monetary services, where they regulate and manage tens of thousands of commercial bank nodes worldwide.
Unlike with bitcoin, the incentive for running a fiat node is enormous.
Chapter 6 then analyzes balances on the fiat network, and how fiat has the unique feature where many, if not most, users, have negative account balances.
The enormous incentive to mine fiat by issuing debt means individuals, corporations, and governments all face a strong incentive to get into debt.
The monetization and universalization of debt is also a war on savings, and one which governments have persecuted stealthily and mostly quite successfully against their citizens over the last century.
Based on this analysis, Chapter 7 concludes the first section of the book by discussing the uses of fiat, and the problems it solves.
The two obvious uses of fiat are that it allows for the government to easily finance itself, and that it allows banks to engage in maturity-mismatching and fractional reserve banking while largely protected from the inevitable downside.
But the third use of fiat is the one that has been the most important to its survival: salability across space.
From the outset, I will make a confession to the reader. Attempting to think of the fiat monetary system in engineering terms and trying to understand the problem it solves have resulted in giving me an appreciation of its usefulness, and a less harsh assessment of the motives and circumstances which led to its emergence.
Understanding the problem this fiat system solves makes the move from the gold standard to the fiat standard appear less outlandish and insane than it had appeared to me while writing The Bitcoin Standard, as a hard money believer who could see nothing good or reasonable about the move to an easier money.
Seeing that the analytical framework of “The Bitcoin Standard” was built around the concept of salability across time, and the ability of money to hold its value into the future, and the implications of that to society, the fiat standard initially appears as a deliberate nefarious conspiracy to destroy human civilization.
But writing this book, and thinking very hard about the operational reality of fiat, has brought into sharper focus the property of salability across space, and in the process, made the rationale for the emergence of the fiat standard clearer, and more comprehensible.
For all its many failings, there is no escaping the conclusion that the fiat standard was indeed a solution to a real and debilitating problem with the gold standard, namely its low spatial salability.
More than any conspiracy, the limited spatial salability of gold as global trade advanced allowed the survival of the fiat standard for so long, making its low temporal salability a tolerable problem, and allowing governments worldwide tremendous leeway to bribe their current citizens at the expense of their future citizens by creating the easy fiat tokens that operate their payment networks.
As we take stock of a whole century of operation for this monetary system, a sober and nuanced assessment can appreciate the significance of this solution for facilitating global trade, while also understanding how it has allowed the inflation that benefited governments at the expense of their future citizens.
Fiat may have been a huge step backward in terms of its salability across time, but it was a substantial leap forward in terms of salability across space.
Having laid out the mechanics for the operation of fiat in the first section, the book’s second section, Fiat Life, examines the economic, societal, and political implications of a society utilizing such a form of money with uncertain and usually poor inter-temporal salability.
This section focuses on analyzing the implications of two economic causal mechanisms of fiat money: the utilization of debt as money; and the ability of the government to grant this debt at essentially no cost.
Fiat increasingly divorces economic reward from economic productivity, and instead bases it on political allegiance. This attempted suspension of the concept of opportunity cost makes fiat a revolt against the natural order of the world, in which humans, and all other animals, have to struggle against scarcity every day of their lives.
Nature provides humans with reward only when their toil is successful, and similarly, markets only reward humans when they are able to produce something that others value subjectively.
After a century of economic value being assigned at the point of a gun, these indisputable realities of life are unknown to, or denied by, huge swathes of the world’s population who look to their government for their salvation and sustenance.
The suspension of the normal workings of scarcity through government dictat has enormous implications on individual time preference and decision-making, with important consequences to many facets of life.
In the second section of the book, we explore the impacts of fiat on family, food, education, science, health, fuels, and security.
While the title of the book refers to fiat, this really is a book about bitcoin, and the first two sections build up the analytical foundation for the main course that is the third part of the book, examining the all-too-important question with which “The Bitcoin Standard” leaves the reader: what will the relationship between fiat and bitcoin be in the coming years?
Chapter 16 examines the specific properties of bitcoin that make it a potential solution to the problems of fiat.
While “The Bitcoin Standard” focused on bitcoin’s intertemporal salability, The Fiat Standard examines how bitcoin’s salability across space is the mechanism that makes it a more serious threat to fiat than gold and other physical monies with low spatial salability.
Bitcoin’s high salability across space allows us to monetize a hard asset itself, and not credit claims on it, as was the case with the gold standard.
At its most basic, bitcoin increases humanity’s capacity for long-distance international settlement by around 500,000 transactions a day, and completes that settlement in a few hours.
This is an enormous upgrade over gold’s capacity, and makes international settlement a far more open market, much harder to monopolize.
This also helps us understand bitcoin’s value proposition as not just in being harder than gold, but also in traveling much faster.
Bitcoin effectively combines gold’s salability across time with fiat’s salability across space in one apolitical immutable open source package.
By being a hard asset, bitcoin is also debt-free, and its creation does not incentivize the creation of debt. By offering finality of settlement every ten minutes, bitcoin also makes the use of credit money very difficult. At each block interval, the ownership of all bitcoins is confirmed by tens of thousands of nodes all over the world. There can be no authority whose fiat can make good a broken promise to deliver a bitcoin by a certain block time.
Financial institutions that engage in fractional reserve banking in a bitcoin economy will always be under the threat of a bank run as long as no institution exists that can conjure present bitcoin at significantly lower than the market rate, as governments are able to do with their fiat.
Chapter 17 discusses bitcoin scaling in detail, and argues it will likely happen through second layer solutions which will be optimized for speed, high volume, and low cost, but involve trade-offs in security and liquidity.
Chapter 18 builds on this analysis to discuss what banking would look like under a Bitcoin Standard, while chapter 19 discusses how savings would work under such a system.
Chapter 20 studies bitcoin’s energy consumption, how it is related to bitcoin’s security, and how it can positively impact the market for energy worldwide.
With this foundation, the book can tackle the question: how can bitcoin rise in the world of fiat, and what are the implications for these two monetary standards coexisting?
Chapter 21 analyzes different scenarios in which bitcoin continues to grow and thrive, while Chapter 22 examines scenarios where bitcoin fails.
I hope you enjoyed this preview chapter from my forthcoming book, The Fiat Standard, which will be out in November in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
For the first time in human history there is at the disposal of the masses a tool that eliminates the middlemen and takes trust from the hands of humans and beautifully makes it a mathematics code that cannot be breaken, hacked or tricked…
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
“A mysterious new technology emerges, seemingly out of nowhere, but actually the result of two decades of intense research and development by nearly anonymous researchers.
Political idealists project visions of liberation and revolution onto it; establishment elites heap contempt and scorn on it.
On the other hand, technologists – nerds – are transfixed by it.
They see within it enormous potential and spend their nights and weekends tinkering with it.
Eventually mainstream products, companies and industries emerge to commercialize it; its effects become profound; and later, many people
wonder why its powerful promise wasn’t more obvious from the start.
What technology am I talking about?
Personal computers in 1975, the Internet in 1993, and – I believe – Bitcoin in 2014….
The practical consequence of solving this problem is that Bitcoin gives us, for the first time, a way for one Internet user to transfer a unique piece of digital property to another Internet user, such that the transfer is guaranteed to be safe and secure, everyone knows that the transfer has taken place, and nobody can challenge the legitimacy of the transfer.
The consequences of this breakthrough are hard to overstate.
What kinds of digital property might be transferred in this way?
Think about digital signatures, digital contracts, digital keys (to physical locks, or to online lockers), digital ownership of physical assets such as cars and houses, digital stocks and bonds …
and digital money”.
– Marc Andreessen, Founder of Netscape & well-known venture capitalist, 2014
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
Bitcoin is not Abracadabra… but Bitcoin can be Avada Kedavra for the current Banking system!
Bitcoin is not Magic… but it can be for Muggles!
Bitcoin is not an “Investment” … but educating yourself about bitcoin can be!
Bitcoin is not an “Investment”… but knowing the basics and being educated about it, lowers the chances of loosing your hard earned money!
Bitcoin is not an “Investment”… but staking Sats proved to be a preety good Strategy in the Long Term!
Bitcoin is not digital money… but it’s ons of it’s first applications!
Bitcoin is not money… but is Money for the Internet!
Bitcoin is not PRICE !!!
Bitcoin is not PRICE… but the market is driven mostly by FUD & FOMO people
Fear Uncertainty Doubt
bring the market Down
Fear Of Missing Out
bring the market Up
Bitcoin is not a “Get Rich Quick Scheme” and the one’s that got rich were the one’s that were there from the begining…
Bitcoin is not voodoo people, magic people… but a bunch of smart geeks & nerds that support the bitcoin’s philosophy and what it stands for…
Bitcoin is not under no juridstiction… but it is a global p2p network of like-minded people that with the power of their equipment sustain, mantain and make the bitcoin network stronger and more decentralized!
Bitcoin is not a Coin… but an entry in a digital ledger!
Bitcoin is not illegal activity money… but bitcoin can be used in such activity… Reports show that FIAT is still the No. #1 choice for “Evil Doers” as it doens’t have an public, open and visible ledger … Duh…
Bitcoin is not evil… but bitcoin can be used to do evil! As does a Pen! It can be used to do evil! How, you would ask? If I take this ✏ and stick it up your a… who is Evil ?!? The One who invented the pen? The Pen? Me? Your a.. cause it was in the way 🤣 Perspective is a matter of opinion…
Bitcoin is not News… but instead read pools, github, exchanges, wallets… They are the ones that pave the way where bitcoin could, should or would go!
Bitcoin is not DEAD… It was already declared Dead 441 times!
1 – Bitcoin consumes too much electricity, they don’t understand POW!
2 – Bitcoin isn’t a government backed currency, you should ask who backs their government… If the answer is the Army…
3 – Bitcoin isn’t backed by gold like the the US$… Neither is the $ since ’71
4 – Bitcoin isn’t real because I can’t see it… 80% of world’s money is Digital…
5 – Bitcoin isn’t a store of value as good as Gold is… Gold had thousands of years to prove that, bitcoin only 13… give it time! It already proved a lot !!!
6 – Bitcoin’s inventor is annonymous and can’t be trusted… Who invented money then? How do money come up into existance?
7 – Bitcoin will never be largely accepted because it isn’t issued by a government… You know what else wasn’t issued by no government ? Cars, Electricity, Steam Engine, Facebook, Uber, Google, Amazon, etc bla bla bla
8 – Bitcoin can’t be a currency cause I can’t buy anything with it… I think I have shared a list with places that you can buy things with bitcoin…Quite a few!!!
9 – Whales… Beware of yapidi yap of whales cause they say one and do the opposite 🙂 😉 !!!
9 – Bitcoin is not this, bitcoin is not that but they all swarm around the bee’s honeypot as if it were honey 🤣🤣🤣
I forgot…In the meantime, little unsignificant countries like El Salvador, mine bitcoin with 🌋 !!!
And still newspapers, investors that bite their whatever not having invested when it was under $1, and a hole portion of the world are all saying…
Etc bla bla bla Yapidi Yapidi Yap
Never Forget The Golden Rules:
Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto!!!
Don’t Trust, Verify!!!
Don’t Believe, Do your own Resesearch and due diligence!!!
Save your Wallet’s Mnemonic Phrase in at least 3 places for safe-keeping!!!
WE ARE SATOSHI
When you’re ready…Timothy C. MayHal Finney
Poem of the Legacy
From the ashes of the long forgotten past, A bright mind wrote a code that would for ever last… A code so powerful and strong, That would change the world for oh so long…
The code he wrote and set it free, For the humankind legacy to be… To change the lives of future generations to come, He wrote the code and he was gone…
Oh, bright mind your legacy will last, For generations to come and be thankful about the past… Nobody knows who you might be, Some do and say Kudos to You for Ethernity!
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
Mining Pool Payouts explained: PPS vs. FPPS vs. PPLNS vs. PPS+
What is a Mining Pool?
Mining Pools
A Mining pools is a hub where a group of Crypto currency miners share their processing power to the network in order to solve the blocks quicker.
The rewards will be split equally based on the amount of shares that they contributed in finding a block.
Pool mining was introduced during early Bitcoin mining days when solo mining became non-viable.
The more powerful your hardware is, the more shares you’ll submit, the more shares you submit, the more you’ll earn.
In order for the pool to pay its miners each pool uses its own payment scheme. Two of the most popular option is PPS and PPLNS.
Pay-Per-Share (PPS)Pay-Per-Last-N-Shares (PPLNS)
The first thing a miner has to decide is which pool mining payout is best for their requirements.
PROP (proportional), FPPS (Full Pay Per Share), SMPPS (Shared Maximum Pay Per Share), ESMPPS (Equalized Shared Maximum Pay Per Share), CPPSRB (Capped Pay Per Share with Recent Backpay), PPS (Pay Per Share), PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Share) and lastly PPS+ (Pay Per Share Plus).
Among them PPS and PPLNS are the two types of payment models that are mostly used by mining pools currently. Before we explain both PPS and PPLNS we’ll make a short note on mining pool.
There are numerous payment systems (over 15), but the vast majority of the pools operate on a PPS, FPPS, PPS+ and PPLNSbasis.
However, before trying to understand the different settlement models, it is important to come to a consensus on some terms used in crypto mining.
Block Reward: Block reward refers to the new coins issued by the network to miners for each successfully solved block.
Hashing Power: Hash rate is the speed at which a computer completes an operation in the cryptocurrency’s code. A higher hashrate increases a miner’s opportunity of finding the next block.
Luck: Luck, in mining, is the probability of success. Imagine that each miner is given a lottery ticket for a certain amount of hashing power they provide. If they are to provide 1 TH/s hashing power when the overall hashing power in the network is 10 TH/s, then they would receive 1 of 10 total lottery tickets. The probability of winning the lottery (in this case finding the block reward) would be 10%.
Transaction Fees: Some networks (like Bitcoin) also have substantial amounts of transaction fees rewarded to miners. These fees are the total fees paid by users of the network to execute transactions.
Pay-Per-Share (PPS)
PPS offers an instant flat payout for each share that is solved. With this payment method, a miner gets a standard payout rate for each share completed. Each share is worth a certain amount of mineable cryptocurrency.
After deducting the mining pool fees, the miners are given a fixed income every day. Therefore, under the PPS mode, the returns are relatively stable. Miners are exposed to risk here. They may not get the transaction fees.
It is ideal for low priced orders for an extended period. This model becomes lucrative during a bearish run of a particular coin.
Pay-Per-Last-N-Shares (PPLNS)
With this payout, profits will be allocated based on the number of shares miners contribute. This kind of allocation method is closely related to the block mined out. If the mining pool excavates multiple blocks in a day, the miners will have a high profit; if the mining pool is not able to mine a block during the whole day, the miner’s profit during the whole day is zero.
Notably, in the short term, the PPLNS model is highly correlated with a pool’s luck. If the luck factor of a particular mining pool decreases in the short term, the miner’s income will also decrease accordingly (the opposite case of the mining pool being lucky in the short term is possible too). However, in the long term, the luck factor tends to average out to the mean.
Hence, this model is ideal for fixing orders on a big pool that has a high chance of finding a block within the order time limit. Or a standard order which will have miners connected for a longer time.
Pay Per Share + (PPS+)
PPS+ is a blend of two modes mentioned above, PPS and PPLNS. The block reward is settled according to the PPS model. And the mining service charge /transaction fee is settled according to the PPLNS mode.
That is to say, in this mode, the miner can additionally obtain the income of part of the transaction fee based on the PPLNS payment method. This was a major drawback in the PPS model.
Full Pay Per Share (FPPS)
With this pool payout, both the block reward and the mining service charge are settled according to the theoretical profit. Calculate a standard transaction fee within a certain period and distribute it to miners according to their hash power contributions in the pool. It increases the miners’ earnings by sharing some of the transaction fees.
With the PPS and FPPS payment methods, you will get paid no matter if the pool finds a block or not. This is the most significant advantage over PPLNS. The risks and rewards are higher with the PPLNS plan.
The decision on which mining plan to choose from needs to be preceded by the decision of choosing the right mining infrastructure.
Difference between PPS vs PPLNS payment models?
PPLNS
PPLNS stands for Pay Per Last (luck) N Shares. This method calculates your payments based on the number of shares you submitted during a shift.
It includes shift system which is time based or by number of shares submitted by the miners on the pool.
Your pool may find blocks consistently or in overtime it may have huge variations in winning a block and that ultimately affects your payments. PPLNS greatly involves luck factor and you’ll notice huge fluctuations in your 24 hour payout.
If you maintain your mining on a single pool then your payouts will remain consistent and it only differs when new miners join or leave the pool.
PPS
Pay Per Share pays you an average of the number of shares that you contributed to the pool in finding blocks.
PPS pays you on solid rate and is more of a direct method which completely eliminates luck factor.
In PPS method regardless of the pools lucky at winning blocks you’re going to get 100% payout at the end of the day. This is because there is a standard payout set for each miners based on their hash power.
It won’t be more than 100% or less than that and with this PPS method you can easily calculate your potential earnings.
On the other hand with PPLNS payment system on average you can either get more than 100% or less than that. It is based on how lucky the pool is at finding blocks.
Should I choose PPS or PPLNS?
This is one of the common questions most miners have initially.
Should I choose Pay Per Share or Pay Per Last N Share pools?
If you are the person who don’t switch pools often then PPLNS is definitely for you as such pools are good at rewarding its loyal miners.
Pay Per Share: No matter what, if you need a fixed payouts at the end of the day to liquidate or for whatsoever reason then your choice would be PPS.
Pay Per Share works well for large mining farms who can calculate and have statistics based on their mining power.
PPS is good for large miners but really bad for pool owners as there is a guaranteed payout for work no matter if the pool hits the block or not.
For this reason and because of pool hoppers (not loyal miners of the pool) most of the mining pools have switched to PPLNS payment model.
Pay Per Last N Shares: If you are the one that is looking to accumulate and hold more coins then PPLNS is recommended.
For each block that your pool finds you’ll get a share based on your hashrate.
Unlike PPS, in PPLNS you’ll get payouts more often and in the long run you’ll be rewarded more with PPLNS than PPS.
However due to huge variance it’s really hard to calculate your mining income.
PPLNS is good for both mid-range miners and pool owners as the payouts is only based on the blocks found.
If your pool is more lucky then you’ll see payments more often. This is the reason why miners stick to a pool where there is more hash power assuming the pool finds block very often.
You can find more comparison of mining pools payment system here.
How to find out if a pool is PPS or PPLNS?
Cryptocurrency mining can be a lucrative process. However it’s very important that you find out what payment scheme your pool is using before committing your hashing power.
Most of the mining pools has this information listed on FAQ page or at payouts page. If you’re unable to find this information then the only option is to contact the pool support.
Hope the information on this page is helpful for you to decide the right mining pool.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
On January 3rd, 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto published the Genesis Block with the first 50 Bitcoins on Sourceforge. He also left a message on the blockchain at the time, quoting the headline in the British newspaper Times:
On January 3, 2009, the minister was on the verge of bailing out the banks.
Nakamoto started writing the white paper in 2008 and published it in October of that year.
The concept of a decentralized, anonymous, trusted currency emerged after the 2008 financial crisis, which left responsibility for the banks.
Satoshi neither supports the modern banking system nor does he like partial reserve banks.
A partial reserve bank is a bank that takes deposits and issues loans or investments, but only has to reserve a fraction of its liabilities for deposits. Basically, the bank is using money that it doesn’t own.
Satoshi wants to get rid of banks and seedy middlemen whom he believes are corrupt and unreliable. As such, he created a more community-centric digital currency.
13 years later, Bitcoin is still going strong with a market cap of nearly $ 900 billion. It is currently held by billionaires, banks, celebrities, governments, and corporations. This is evidence of how far BTC has come in its brief existence.
The precarious banking situation and economic uncertainty are also in crisis again.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
The Potential Orwellian Horror of Central Bank Digital Currencies
As citizens around the world are confronted with the severe curtailment of political, economic and cultural freedoms associated with COVID-19 risk mitigation strategies (e.g., lockdowns, mandatory vaccinations and/or vaccine passports), new risks to economic freedom and prosperity are quickly emerging which citizens must be aware of and remain vigilant about.
One of these risks which is developing with rapid pace are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). According to a Bank of International Settlements (BIS) 2021 survey:
86% of central banks are actively researching the potential for CBDCs;
60% were experimenting with CBDC associated technology; and
14% were deploying CBDC pilot projects.
The development of CBDCs potentially represents one of the largest changes to modern banking and finance (as well as the global financial system) in decades, even though, as noted by the BIS, the concept was proposed by American economist, James Tobin, in 1987.
Current Structure of Currency
As noted by the International Monetary Fund in 2021, economies around the world currently operate under a “dual monetary system” comprising of:
Publicly-issued currency by central banks in the form of physical cash (coins or banknotes) and central bank reserves which constitute legal tender (i.e., form of currency or money which are legally recognised as a means of payment to settle financial obligations such as debts, taxes, contracts, legal fines or damages); and
Privately-issued currency by private commercial banks, telecom companies and specialised private payment providers – that is, digital forms of legal tender that are issued and held by non-government financial institutions (e.g., bank deposits or balances held in payment systems such as Paypal or Alipay).
An important distinction of this dual system is that physical cash and central bank reserves are the liabilities of central banks, whereas privately-issued currency is the liabilities of private sector payment providers.
Definition of CBDCs
CBDCs are digital or virtual forms of physical cash represented through an electronic record or digital token that is issued and regulated by a country’s central monetary authority (i.e., its central bank) via a centralised ledger.
CBDCs are centralised, which stand in stark contrast to privately-issued cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin) which are decentralised and unregulated.
CBDCs are not uniform and central banks have an immense range of legal, technical, operational and administrative design options to achieve their stated public policy objectives. Importantly, the policy intent of CBDCs will be neither uniform across jurisdictions nor static in time. Instead, they will tend to be a function of a country’s economic, political and social context.
Thus, in assessing whether a proposed CBDC will, in net terms, improve or impair the function of a monetary system and broader economy, each CBDC will require individualised scrutiny and assessment.
NatWest, one of Britain’s largest lenders, is set to appear in court in London to respond to charges that it failed to properly scrutinise a gold-dealing client that deposited £365m ($502m) with the bank—£264m of it in cash.
Last year global banks were hit with $10.4bn in fines for money-laundering violations, an increase of more than 80% on 2019, according to Fenergo, a compliance-software firm. In January Capital One, an American bank, was fined $390m for failing to report thousands of fishy transactions. Danske Bank is still dealing with the fallout of a scandal that erupted in 2018. Over $200bn of potentially dirty money was washed through the Danish lender’s Estonian branch while executives missed or ignored a sea of red flags.
Digital privacy – including financial privacy – is readily available via encrypted communication, and peer-to-peer value transfer solutions. However, the latter quality can scarcely be expected to be implemented in CBDCs by governments eager to control their population.
The continued efforts of central banks to position CBDCs as advancement from analog systems via labels such as ‘Digital Dollar’, requires us to point out the obvious: fiat currencies have been predominantly digitally native for decades, and are stored and moved as bytes. A meaningful departure from the current state of banking technology would necessarily have to include the creation of digital bearer instruments which would not depend on the use of middlemen.
However, this would effectively void the need for demand deposit accounts (“checking accounts”) entirely, as the technical limits of bytes are based in physics. In simple terms: any user would be able to move bytes labelled as fiat currency entry from a yield-bearing state to the recipients yield-bearing account.
With that the ability of financial service providers to extract fees from the movement of bytes would vanish, after all users tend to not put stamps on their emails. This, somewhat obvious conclusion, even made it into several CBDC research papers, and promptly caused the commissioning central banks to halt any development of a CBDC, realizing that fees for payments today comprise on average 30% of commercial bank revenues, these institutions would largely seize to exist.
DO NOT LISTEN for anyone’s opinion on this matter !!!
Opinions are a dime a bucket anyway !!!
Not even mine !!!
DO ALWAYS YOUR OWN DILIGENCE AND RESEARCH !!!
And when the time will come… You shall know the best choice to make for you and future generations to come !!!
It’s actually more about them than us !!!
But we will pave the way for them…
Let’s not make it and Dystopical Orwellian one people !!!
IMHO (In My Honest Opinion) CBDC’s are nothing more than “1984” v 2.0 !!!
But who am I ?¿ but just a leaf in the wind…
Here below are some links that could be a great place to start making your own Research and due diligence !!!
Sharing is caring they say, so here you are people :
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregators, also known as liquidity aggregators, compile the exchange rates of numerous DEX platforms and show you a list of platforms offering the best value for your crypto trades.
Moreover, you can access a deeper pool of liquidity by trading on multiple DEXs using a single trading dashboard. Think of them as the search engines of the DeFi landscape, scouring DEXs for the best deals so that you can swap your crypto assets with the lowest fees.
Although it is a DEX in its own right, 1Inch’s main USP is its position as a top DEX aggregator across multiple blockchains. The network supports trades across major ecosystems like Ethereum and Binance and smaller networks like Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
As an aggregator, 1Inch gives you access to over 120 liquidity sources, with 68 on Ethereum, 39 on Binance, and 24 on Polygon. With daily trading volumes averaging close to $300 million from 300,000+ active users, it is one of the most active DEX aggregators in 2021.
The native token of the 1Inch DEX is also called 1INCH. It functions as both a utility token and a governance token for the protocol. 1INCH is a multi-chain token available on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain.
1Inch is one of the best DEX aggregators for crypto rookies, with detailed documentation and a well-developed Help Center filled with starter guides, FAQs, and more.
Slingshot grew out of DEX.AG, a DEX aggregator platform created in late 2018 as part of a hackathon event. At its launch, it supported seven major DEX, including Uniswap, Kyber, and DDEX.
After million-dollar funding rounds, DEX.AG was rebranded as Slingshot in November 2020. Slingshot works on Ethereum-based protocols – Polygon (formerly MATIC) and Arbitrum One. Across the two, you get access to over 326 exchanges/liquidity sources.
Slingshot is a very popular choice among experienced cryptocurrency traders due to its relative simplicity and advanced functionality. The average daily volumes touching over half a billion dollars is a testament to the platform’s popularity.
However, due to a threadbare interface and lack of easily accessible website FAQs, guides, and documentation, Slingshot is not a very beginner-friendly DEX platform.
Totle is a DEX aggregator that also dips into synthetic asset providers, allowing traders to engage with tokenized assets of many shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, the platform seems to be dormant, with no updates since mid-2021 and a lack of stats on any major crypto platform.
ParaSwap is a versatile DEX aggregator supporting Ethereum, Binance, Polygon, and Avalanche blockchains. In addition, it has a native token for liquidity and governance purposes called the PSP.
While it is one of the more feature-packed and beginner-friendly DEX aggregators, ParaSwap is still in the growth phase. In 2021, the platform reported 1.4 million total users over time, with daily transaction volumes peaking around $150 million.
ParaSwap allows you access to swap and payment options across 75 DEX platforms, focusing on better market rates and cheaper gas fees. In addition, decentralized applications (dApps) can also integrate with ParaSwap to better streamline token swaps.
Like 1Inch and Slingshot, Matcha is both a DEX aggregator and a decentralized exchange in itself. Powered by 0x Labs, the platform focuses on transparency, lower fees, smart order routing, and easier access.
Thanks to a recent partnership with MoonPay, Matcha can now accept payments in fiat currencies, a first for DEX platforms. This could be very useful for newcomers – you can directly purchase cryptos using regular currency on Matcha and start trading immediately.
Matcha provides access to over 50 liquidity sources and DEX platforms across three blockchain systems – Ethereum, Binance, and Polygon. Despite being one of the younger platforms on this list (launched in 2020), Matcha boasts over 2.5k daily traders. Its daily volumes are close to $150 million.
Uniswap is a DEX platform based on the Automated Marker Maker (AMM) model. After its launch in November 2018, the DEX has seen a meteoric rise among crypto circles. As of Q4 2021, it routinely tops the charts of DEX platforms with the largest daily volumes with $5.5 billion.
The platform is currently in its third iteration – Uniswap V3. Based on the Ethereum Blockchain, Uniswap gives you access to over 50 liquidity pools, with 285 cryptocurrencies across more than 350 markets. The USDC-ETH pair alone accounts for over $1.8 billion worth of trades each day.
While not a DEX aggregator per se, Uniswap is still a great option to consider due to its sheer size and reach. Most of the other aggregators on this list have Uniswap as a major partner and source of trading options.
PancakeSwap launched in 2020 to work like Uniswap, but on the Binance Smart Chain instead of Ethereum. Like Uniswap, PancakeSwap is a DEX platform with an AMM operating model, with an additional focus on yield farming based on the native CAKE token.
Regardless of the sweet and syrupy “cake” theme, PancakeSwap is a major force on the DeFi scene, thanks to the sheer size of the Binance blockchain. It easily slots into the top three most active DEX platforms, with daily volumes exceeding $2.6 billion.
The platform is user-friendly, with detailed community guides, troubleshooting articles, and customer support. In addition, you can trade in over 30 major cryptos backed by an equal number of high-quality liquidity pools.
Is based directly on Uniswap, with a fork in the original code created by its anonymous developer who goes by the pseudonym Chef Nomi.
Right from the outset, SushiSwap has courted controversy. To generate liquidity, its founder encouraged users to deposit in Uniswap tokens, leeching away almost $810 million from Uniswap in a “vampire attack.”
Chef Nomi then proceeded to withdraw his liquidity from the project, generating a massive controversy. Ultimately, he backtracked and returned all funds, relinquishing his control over the project to a new team.
Since these early missteps, SushiSwap has maintained healthy growth rates in the crowded arena of Ethereum-based DEX/AMM platforms. It currently ranks in the top ten list, with daily volumes of close to $800 million across 400+ markets.
dYdX is a major DEX platform with a heavy focus on reducing the inflated gas prices on Ethereum. It is one of the few platforms to offer gasless deposits to new users who deposit above a certain threshold. The platform has plans to make this a permanent feature.
dYdX is also working closely with StarkWare to deploy a Layer 2 scalability engine designed to reduce gas costs and trading fees further. Using Ethereum Smart Contracts, dYdX enables traders to invest in the crypto-equivalent of futures trading and other derivatives.
Due to its unique position on the Ethereum ecosystem, dYdX has managed to gain ground on other more popular DEX platforms like Uniswap. As a result, at the end of 2021, dYdX is ranked second on the list of the most active DEX platforms, with daily volumes of $5.4 billion.
Instead of Ethereum or Binance, the Raydium platform operates on the highly promising Solana blockchain. As a result, the Ethereum-competitor has a vibrant developer ecosystem, and its cryptocurrency has grown at least 16,000% since January 2021.
The increased interest in the Solana blockchain has also helped Raydium, an AMM platform based on the Serum DEX.
The platform gives access to over 430 trading pairs, with Solana-USDT being the most popular.
The native token, also called Raydium, is the foundation of all future apps and projects on the Solana and Serum ecosystems.
The project’s primary focus is to function as the engine of DeFi on Solana. However, with current daily volumes already reaching $300 million, Raydium shows a lot of promise for future growth.
Launched in 2020 as a less expensive, more efficient alternative to Ethereum, Avalanche blockchain focuses on decentralized apps.
Its AVAX token has hit all-time high demands in late 2021, thanks to positive media coverage and high-profile partnerships with entities like Deloitte.
This surge has also propelled TraderJoe, the major DEX platform based around Avalanche blockchain, to the top of the DEX pile in recent times. Its pole position in the blockchain ecosystem has helped drive TraderJoe’s daily trades close to $1 billion.
You can trade major cryptos, stake and gain the native JOE token as rewards, lend other cryptos and farm yields on the TraderJoe platform. With low fees and over 170 markets, TraderJoe is a top target for anyone interested in the Avalanche ecosystem.
Top Pick: Uniswap
The Top pick is Uniswap, for its deep liquidity pools, its user-friendliness, and its commitment to continuous innovation.
As the various DeFi ecosystems continue to grow and expand, the importance of DEX aggregators and AMM platforms will increase further.
These platforms serve a vital purpose, finding liquidity and facilitating transactional activity across multiple blockchains.
To say that the future of DeFi, and by extension, the future of finance as we know it, hinges on DEX aggregators would not be an overstatement.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
“This is a book I want every athlete, aspiring leader, entrepreneur, thinker and doer to read. Ryan Holiday is one of the most promising young writers of his generation.”
George Raveling, Hall of Fame Basketball Coach
“Ryan Holiday is one of his generation’s finest thinkers, and this book is his best yet.”
Steven Pressfield, author of “The War of Art” and “Gates of Fire“
“Ryan Holiday has written a brilliant and engaging book, well beyond his years… It is invaluable.”
Brian Koppelman, screenwriter and director, “Rounders”, “Ocean’s Thirteen” and “Billions”
Ego Is the Enemy
“While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive, visionary geniuses who remade the world in their image with sheer, almost irrational force, I’ve found that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition.” – from the Prologue
Many of us insist the main impediment to a full, successful life is the outside world. In fact, the most common enemy lies within: our ego. Early in our careers, it impedes learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure, it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back.
The Ego is the Enemy draws on a vast array of stories and examples, from literature to philosophy to history. We meet fascinating figures like Howard Hughes, Katharine Graham, Bill Belichick, and Eleanor Roosevelt, all of whom reached the highest levels of power and success by conquering their own egos. Their strategies and tactics can be ours as well.
But why should we bother fighting ego in an era that glorifies social media, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion? Armed with the lessons in this book, as Holiday writes, “you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you’ve set out to achieve.
RYAN HOLIDAY
Ryan Holiday is a strategist and writer. He dropped out of college at nineteen to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of “The 48 Laws of Power”, and later served as the director of marketing for American Apparel.
His company, Brass Check, has advised clients like Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as many prominent bestselling authors.
Holiday has written four previous books, most recently The Obstacle Is the Way, which has been translated into seventeen languages and has a cult following among NFL coaches, world-class athletes, TV personalities, political leaders, and others around the world.
He lives on a small ranch outside Austin, Texas.
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