Ethereum
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Ethena USDe | DeFi Analysis Report
Ethena Labs has introduced USDe, a synthetic dollar on the Ethereum blockchain. USDe is designed to be crypto native, stable and censorship resistant. This is a write up of my internal research notes, this is not a sponsored post and I do not hold any exposure to Ethena or USDe at time of writing. Do your…
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Vyper Tutorial | Learn Vyper In 24 Hours
Vyper is a pythonesque smart contract language that can be compiled and deployed on Ethereum and other EVM blockchains. 90%+ of blockchain devs use Solidity but there are some big projects such as Curve using Vyper and it’s growing in popularity and tooling compatibility. The best way to get started with Vyper is to head…
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Crypto Market Thesis 2024
The crypto market has experienced significant recovery this year, with Bitcoin’s value surging from $16,500 to over $40,000. Growth was shadowed by increased regulatory scrutiny, particularly impacting centralized exchanges. The Bitcoin halving in April 2024 is poised to be a pivotal event, historically triggering market rallies. The potential January approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs could…
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eBTC How To Trade The Flippening
eBTC is an over-collateralized digital asset pegged to the price of Bitcoin which can be minted using stETH as collateral. This is a write up of my internal research notes, this is not a sponsored post and I do not hold any exposure to eBTC at time of writing. Do your own research, not investment advice.…
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Investing In Real World Assets Through DeFi
Real world assets (RWA) are tokenized digital forms of traditional finance assets. A centralized entity will raise capital by selling tokens and investing the proceeds in to an underlying asset or strategy. This has become particularly popular with bonds and treasuries due to recent rises in interest rates. The market leaders in this field by…
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Brine Finance | DeFi Analysis Report
Brine Finance is a decentralized orderbook exchange built on Starkware. They recently raised $16.5m at a valuation of $100m in a round led by Pantera Capital. This is a write up of my internal research notes, this is not a sponsored post and I do not hold any exposure to Brine at time of writing. Do…
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Hardhat Solidity Tutorial
Hardhat is an extensive framework for developing, testing and deploying solidity smart contracts. In this Hardhat Solidity tutorial you will learn how to set it up, how to create hardhat unit test tricks, working with hardhat scripts and finally some Hardhat tips and tricks for Solidity developers. Hardhat Easy Setup Hardhat is built on NodeJS…
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Celestia | Modular AppChains
Celestia is one of the most widely used scaling solutions for projects that need high throughput, cheap transactions on a dedicated decentralized public blockchain. The aim is for “developers to deploy their own blockchain as easy as deploying a new smart contract” This is a write up of my internal research notes, this is not…
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Smol dApp | MultiSafe MultiChain MultiSig Wallets
Smol dApp is like a swiss army knife of useful tools for DeFi. Their main offerings are: The product we are going to look at todays is their flagship MultiSafe wallets. This is a GnosisSafeProxy contract which requires a set number of wallets to sign off on a transaction before it goes through. For example…
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Hardhat vs Foundry
I started developing solidity with Truffle, then moved to Hardhat, then moved to Foundry, then moved back to Hardhat before eventually settling using both on a regular basis. In this article I’ll talk about the benefits and disadvantages of Hardhat and Foundry so you can make an informed decision about which framework is better for…
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The Definitive Guide To Enshrined Rollups
I believe that in the future 90%+ of transactional volume will go through enshrined rollups. So let’s take a in-depth look at what this technology is and how it is going to help Ethereum scale to a billion users. What Is An Enshrined Rollup? Enshrined rollups are a scaling solution being proposed by core developers…
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Calculating The Intrinsic Value Of Bitcoin & Ethereum
Calculating the intrinsic value of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital assets is challenging due to its intangible nature. In this analysis I’m going to discuss common methods of calculating intrinsic value and then create a model using a combination of the methods. tl;dr based on the models described below: Methods Of Calculating Intrinsic Value Store…
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The Essential Checklist For Deploying A New Token
In this article we are going to look at all the things that need doing when launching a new token to create a token deployment checklist for developers and founders. At the end there is a big list of all the token listing sites that you can submit your new token to. Unit Tests &…
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Solidity Tutorial | Gas Paying NFT
The challenge is to create a NFT contract that charges 1 ETH to mint but then stores the entire amount as collateral in a liquid staking token. As staking rewards come in they get distributed to the holders of the NFTs. At any time a user can burn the NFT to reclaim the 1 ETH.…
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Chainlink CCIP | Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol
From all the announcements at ETHcc, the release of Chainlink CCIP as a direct competitor to LayerZero for cross-chain communications and bridging technology, is perhaps the most interesting. The inherent security risks associated with bridging technology means that Chainlink are in a good position to leverage their brand and security record to gain traction in…
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How To Shuffle A Deck Of Cards In Solidity
In this post I explore how to simulate the shuffling of a deck of cards, addressing the challenges of randomness and predictability in a solidity smart contract environment where every input and output is part of the public record. Whether you’re looking to create an on-chain poker game, a collectible card game, or you’re simply…
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Tokenized US Treasuries | Ondo Finance vs MatrixDock
Tokenized US treasuries offer a yield on stablecoin holdings and with rising interest rates they are quickly gaining traction in DeFi markets. In this article I want to look at two projects to see how they compare and how the real world asset ecosystem is shaping up. Real World Assets In the last six months…
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How Many People Own Bitcoin & Ethereum?
No one can provide an exact answer to “how many people own Bitcoin” or “how many people own Ethereum” because a single user can have multiple anonymous addresses on the network. We can however analyse the data available in block explorers, company reports and research posts to make an estimate. tl;dr estimates based on the…
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Automate Solidity With MEV
There are no cron jobs in Solidity or native to the Ethereum blockchain. To automate Solidity code we can either use an external service/oracle or we can incentivise MEV searchers to complete tasks efficiently on our behalf. This type of Solidity automation is very common and used widely across liquidation systems which require reliable, fast,…
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Aevo Decentralized Options Platfor
Aevo is a hybrid decentralized options protocol running an off-chain orderbook with trades routed through a dedicated EVM appChain and settled on Ethereum mainnet. The exchange is built by the Ribbon Finance team who plan to migrate Ribbons products to Aevo options. For traders and market makers it offers a decentralized alternative to Deribit. How…
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Hop Exchange | DeFi Analysis Report
Hop Exchange is a bridging protocol that facilitates cross-chain token transfers by utilizing a network of bonders. I first heard it mentioned in a keynote by Vitalik at ethGlobal Waterloo. This is a write up of my internal research notes, this is not a sponsored post and I do not hold any exposure to Hop…
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Conic Finance | DeFi Analysis Report
The latest development in the Curve Wars is the establishment of a new player. Conic Finance is gaining traction and becoming a significant player in the stable swap ecosystem. This is a write up of my internal research notes, this is not a sponsored post and I do not have any allocations at time of…
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XRP Legal Case | What It Means For Developers
In this article I’m going to be breaking down the document filed by judge Torres yesterday and consider what it means to developers working in the blockchain and web3 space. Highlights From The Ruling The full document is available here:https://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/SEC%20vs%20Ripple%207-13-23.pdf I’ve picked out some highlights Programmatic SalesHaving considered the economic reality of the Programmatic Sales,…
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Assessing Smart Contract Security Auditors
A smart contract audit can cost anything from $5,000-$250,000 USD. Within this range there is a wide range of services, some offer better value for money than others. In this article I will go through the options for founders looking to hire an auditor and some of the checks you can do to ensure you…
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Proposer Builder Separation
Proposer Builder Separation (PBS) is an Ethereum concept that aims to reduce relay centralization and redirect a proportion of MEV to validators staking Ethereum. In the current Ethereum network, validators are responsible for both proposing and building blocks. They are incentivised to coordinate with 3rd party MEV protocols which order the transactions in the blocks.…
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Gnosis Safe | The Most Secure Multisig Wallet For Your Crypto
Gnosis Safe multisig wallets are used by institutions and individuals to hold some of the largest quantities of funds on the Ethereum network. The free to use wallet includes multisignature functionality for enhanced security and control over digital assets. It is developed by Gnosis, a blockchain technology company based out of Switzerland and Germany, known…
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Ethereum Improvement Proposal | How To Submit An EIP
Submitting an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) is a straightforward process that allows you to contribute your ideas and suggestions to the Ethereum community. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to submit an EIP: What Is An Ethereum Improvement Proposal An Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) is a formal document that provides technical specifications and rationales for…
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How Wrapped Tokens Like wETH & wBTC Work
In this article we will look at how different wrapped tokens work and where the underlying collateral is stored. What Are Wrapped Tokens? Wrapped tokens are generally ERC20 tokens that represents another underlying asset, typically a cryptocurrency or real world asset. The purpose of wrapping a token is to enable its use within the DeFi…
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Snapshot | Gasless Voting for Decentralized Communities
In decentralized communities voting plays a crucial role in governance and development of roadmaps. Snapshot is disrupting the traditional DAO voting model with a gas free voting platform. This is not a sponsored post and I have no stake in Snapshot, I do however like to use and promote open source tools which enable decentralized…
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Introduction to Flash Loans | Unleashing Capital On Demand
In this tutorial on flash loans we will be creating a Solidity smart contract which takes a flash loan from Uniswap v3. This allows you to borrow huge amounts of capital with the catch that you have to pay it back in the same block or the whole transaction is reverted. James On YouTube Watch…
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Uniswap Market Maker Bot | Managing Token Liquidity On Uniswap
In this tutorial I am going to go through how I built a market maker bot to manage liquidity on Uniswap v3 for a token pair. The idea is to create a automated trading bot which buys tokens when price falls below a base line value and sells tokens when price is above the base…
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Web3 Investment Thesis
This Web3 investment thesis covers the potential disruption from decentralized permissionless computing. As blockchains scale it’s going to be possible to use smart contracts to enable users to store their own data creating the opportunity for a new era of decentralized applications. Web3 Disrupting Data Web3 disrupts the way we store data online by using…
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Sign In With Ethereum Tutorial
To sign in with Ethereum using Metamask we will be using the ERC4361 specification that allows Ethereum accounts to authenticate with off-chain services using a standard message format. This technology offer users a self-custodial alternative to centralized identity providers that generally use email:password credentials. In Web3 applications we can improve user experiences and establish a…
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EigenLayer | DeFi Analysis Report
EigenLayer is a protocol which allows Ethereum stakers to restake their ETH. This is a write up of my internal research notes, this is not a sponsored post and I have no stake currently in EigenLayer. EigenLayer is being developed by EigenLabs which is headed by CEO Sreeram Kannan. Sreeram has an academic background and…
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ERC20 Carbon Credits | Creating A Depleting Token
Carbon credits are used to tokenise finances put towards carbon offsetting. On-chain products often have a purchase and burn mechanism where a user must first purchase the token on a DEX and then manually execute a transaction to burn the token. I had the idea to create a automatically depleting token which you just hold…
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zkEVM | Are Zero-Knowledge Rollups The Future Of Ethereum Or A Ticking Time Bomb?
zkEVM is a zero knowledge Ethereum virtual machine, credited as being “the ultimate solution to Ethereum scaling” The Ethereum ecosystem continues to grow alongside concerns around its scalability and privacy. A new technology currently being rolled out aims to address these issues through the implementation of zero-knowledge rollups. In this article, we’ll take a closer…
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How To Stake Ethereum | Earn More Yield With Ethereum Staking
Staking Ethereum has become a popular way for crypto investors to earn passive returns on their holdings. Liquid staking tokens like stETH make this process easily accessible. You can buy staking tokens and effortlessly enjoy the rewards of staking Ethereum without having to manage the technicalities of running a node. Lido Finance were first to…
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Remixd Tutorial | How To Take The Solidity IDE To The Next Level
I’ve gone full circle from Remix > Hardhat > Foundry > Remix I find that I enjoy coding most when I’m experimenting with ideas and proof of concepts within the Remix IDE at https://remix.ethereum.org However for more serious projects I inevitably find myself moving out of creative mode and into testing mode in either Hardhat…
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RAILGUN 2.0 | ZK Privacy Protocol
Railgun just announced the launch of version 2.0 this week and in this article we are going to explore the zero knowledge wallet and discuss why privacy protocols are important. In August 2022 Alexey Pertsev was arrested and he has been imprisoned without trial ever since. He was a developer on a ZK mixer called…
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Timeframe & Budgets For Web3 Development
In this article I’m going to provide a timeframe, gantt chart and budget costs for web3 development projects. This assumes a medium sized project for something like a new, innovative DeFi protocol consisting of 5-10 interconnected smart contracts and around 1000 lines of code plus an external audit and dApp frontend. If you are just…
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POAP vs NFT | A Guide With Examples
In this article we will look at what POAPs are and how their technology is built on top of NFT standards. We will also look at how to create simple POAPs and NFTs. In the conclusion I’ve put together some thoughts on why I think POAPs should only be used for fun and not for…
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Ethereum DevCon Bogotá Write Up
In this post I’m going to try to summarise some of the most interesting talks at from DevCon 2022. Here’s a video summary about the key takeaways from the conference. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/kgiAV7z1fwo |Subscribe The main topics for this years event were: One of the best things about the event is…
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Trading The Merge
Once or twice a year the crypto markets align to provide exceptional trading volumes and volatility. I believe the Ethereum merge will presents one such opportunity for low time frame system trading. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/3ltpF4UGir4 |Subscribe About The Ethereum Merge The merge is happening in just a few days. This is…
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Aligning Founders, VC’s and Stakeholders Interests In A Smart Contract
The blockchain sector prides itself on openness and transparency. Except that is when it comes to early stage VC deals and token allocations. In this article we are going to look at an experimental solidity smart contract which lays out terms, vesting schedules and milestone bonuses on-chain. Team Allocations and VC Unlock Schedules This is…
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Ownable vs Permissionless Smart Contracts
One of the beautiful things about smart contracts is they can be permissionless where the developers relinquish control to the community and all users are treated equally. However less than 20% of the top 50 protocols by TVL on Ethereum are using fully permissionless contracts. In this article we will look at why this is,…
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Zero Knowledge Proof | How ZKP Works In Blockchain Applications
Zero knowledge proofs offer a method for developers to prove data validity or knowledge of data without revealing the data or additional information about the prover. Zero knowledge proofs are becoming widely used in blockchain applications from smart contracts like Tornado Cash to ZKrollups which are layer 2 blockchains on top of Ethereum. In this…
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3 Examples Of How To Use Assembly In Solidity
Ethereum developers can directly use assembly in Solidity to improve the performance of their code. When OpenSea released the Seaport upgrade it reported the use of assembly reduced gas fees by 35% saving it’s users an estimated $460m per year. Today we are going to go through some simple examples of how and when to…
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Solidity for Beginners
Solidity is the programming language used to develop smart contracts on Ethereum and other compatible blockchains. In this “Solidity for Beginners” tutorial I will take you from setting up solidity tools to deploying your first contract. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/yM6oRMdMiTM |Subscribe Tools & Setup We will be starting in Remix which is…
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GameFi 2.0 | Sustainable Tokenomics & Business Models
GameFi utilises digital assets such as cryptocurrency tokens and NFT’s to create internal economies within games. In this article I look at how tokenomics can be designed to create sustainable business models for gamers, investors and developers. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ul_Mza9IyYE |Subscribe GameFi 1.0 Play2Earn Growing up I played computer games on…
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Bear Markets | How Human Psychology Works Against Us
Is loss aversion causing long-term underperformance in our portfolios? In bear markets I find it harder to rebalance my portfolio and allocate capital to riskier investments. This creates an unintentional de-risking in bear markets where there is a better long-term risk to reward. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/6F1Cpk14stE |Subscribe Not a financial advisor,…
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Hardhat Plugins & Hacks For Solidity Developers
Hardhat provides a lot of features out of the box but with the addition of some 3rd party plugins and some additional code snippets we can add custom functionality to streamline our testing and migration processes. Top 3 Hardhat Plugins These plugins add a lot of functionality to make your life as a developer easier…
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Blood in the streets for crypto markets
A year ago I outlined my 60/40 digital asset portfolio which was 60% crypto and 40% USD stablecoins. One of the biggest benefits to this portfolio is that during market downturns it leaves you with capital to deploy. Today has been one of the most chaotic days in crypto markets ever and I’m going to…
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Tokenomics Boilerplate | Governance Tokens, Uniswap Buy-Backs and Staking in Solidity
In DeFi a projects success is greatly tied to the effectiveness of the tokenomics. Governance tokens can be distributed to the users to incentivise growth and fees can be used to buy these back on exchange. In this Solidity tutorial we are going to deploy a governance token, a Uniswap v3 liquidity pool, a buy…
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When Will Ethereum 2.0 Launch & The Triple Halving Event
Ethereum 2.0 is the biggest update that the crypto sector has ever seen. A series of rollouts will include a migration to proof of stake, sharding and the highly anticipated triple halving event. This article will discuss the roadmap for these rollouts, what changes each update will implement and the possible effects. Ethereum 2.0 Roadmap…
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Smart Contracts Simply Explained
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance Decentralized finance is built on smart contracts. The code that enables users to lend, borrow and swap tokens is all run on Ethereum’s virtual machine. Smart contracts are written (mainly) in the language of…
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History of Cryptocurrency | How Bitcoin & Ethereum Created A Trillion Dollar Asset Class
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance The history of cryptocurrency starts long before Bitcoin. Blockchain’s have been around since the 1980’s and Bitcoin was built not as a totally novel concept but on top of other works like Nick Szabo’s…
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Understanding Squeeth | A Token To Track ETH² From Opyn
Squared ETH or Squeeth is a perpetual options protocol that provides unlimited upside leverage with no liquidations on long positions. Squeeth isn’t just a tool for traders, it can be used as a hedge for liquidity providers on Uniswap and it can provide a funding rate yield in sideways markets. This article starts at the…
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Crypto Market Thesis 2022 & Current Portfolio Holdings
This article outlines my thoughts and predictions for crypto markets heading in to 2022. At the end of the article I share my allocations and plans for this year. Crypto Market Thesis Video James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/ogBcbwuasWw Bitcoin Market Outlook Crypto markets have cooled off significantly since summer 2021 but expectations are…
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Blockchain Developer Roadmap | A Guide To Learning Blockchain Development
This blockchain developer roadmap lays out a framework for learning blockchain development. It should provide a wealth of resources and information for aspiring blockchain developers. Blockchain Developer Roadmap James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/h-IcAZX7250 Understanding The Moving Parts There are a number of roles within the blockchain sector and an understanding of what each…
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How Many Bitcoin and Ethereum Are There In Circulation
There can only ever be 21 million Bitcoin ever created. However many are lost, a small fortune lies dormant in the wallets of the mysterious founder Satoshi, and some has been stolen and blacklisted. To calculate the circulating supply of Bitcoin now and in the future we need to take all these factors into consideration…
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How To Stake Ethereum, Luna or Solana| LIDO Staking Tutorial
As Ethereum moves to a proof of work network it opens up the possibility to stake our assets to gain a yield. We can do this by running our own validator node on the network… or we can use a liquid staking platform. In this lido staking tutorial I’m going to look at the LIDO…
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Testnet Faucets | 13 Testnet Details Including Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Avalanche, Solana & Bitcoin
Testnet faucets provide a risk free way to experiment with DeFi and cryptocurrency. You enter your address and get testnet tokens for free which hold no value. In this article I’ll be providing the latest details for all available public testnets. At the end I carry out some analysis to gain insights into developer activity…
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Bitcoin vs Ethereum | Everything You Need To Know About BTC & ETH
The Bitcoin vs Ethereum debate is passionately argued by maximalists for both sides. This article and video explains the fundamental differences in how they work, what makes them unique and why Ethereum carries more risk and potential reward. Bitcoin vs Ethereum [Video] James On YouTube Fundamental Differences In 2008 an anonymous developer using the pseudonym…
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Crypto Portfolio | What I’m Hodling & Why In 2021
In this article I’ll go through my crypto portfolio and explain why I’m holding each of the digital assets. I’ll also be discussing the principles behind the portfolio and how I manage it. The Crypto Portfolio 2021 This is what my crypto portfolio looks like as of July 2021. I’m not a financial advisor, not…
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Optimism Tutorial | How To Use Optimism On Ethereum
In this Optimism tutorial we will be looking at what Optimism layer 2 is, how to use it and how to develop smart contracts on the Ethereum layer 2. What is Optimism & Layer 2? Optimism is a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum which offers lower transaction fees. For consumers who are used to…
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Arbitrum Tutorial | How To Use The Ethereum Layer 2 Solution
This Arbitrum Tutorial explores what Arbitrum is and how it works, the opportunities layer 2’s present for investors and developers, before testing the deployment of smart contracts on the Arbitrum network and calculating gas fee reductions. What Is Arbitrum? Arbitrum is a layer 2 scaling solution for the Ethereum network. The L2 has opened it’s…
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How To Create A New Token And Uniswap Liquidity Pool
In this article I will create a new token and make it available to swap on a decentralised exchange. I’ll be deploying a solidity smart contract to mint an ERC20 token on Ethereum and setting up a liquidity pool on Uniswap v3. Create A New Token & Liquidity Pool [Video] This video provides an overview…
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Solidity Tutorial | For Developers Coming From Javascript, C++, Python
In this Solidity tutorial I’ll be going through the work flow to develop smart contracts on Ethereum using the Solidity programming language. Solidity Developer Tutorial [Video] James On YouTube Introduction To Solidity Smart Contracts Solidity is the programming language of Ethereum and many other blockchains that use the Ethereum virtual machine. A developer will write…
