This article contains what moves I am making in the market today. The market is incredibly bearish and uncertain, passive income strategies prevail during these lows. Some tokens benefit from bearishness, Apollo discusses the details below.
Polkadot Recap
To better understand Polkadot, check out our article [here]. Polkadot is a layer zero blockchain, layer zero is the foundation, this allows blockchains to build upon it [1]. Layer one blockchains are the likes of Ethereum, Avalanche, Solana etc. Layer one is where the smart contracts and decentralized applications interact. Polkadot sets itself apart by created a base layer of interoperability, this allows many chains to be interwoven into one large ecosystem. Parachain technology is part of what makes this function, parachains are explained in the article above.
Moonbeam was the second parachain to win an auction for Polkadot. This is important because large investors have backed the project with massive amounts of the DOT. Remember DOT is required for auctions, this DOT is then locked for a period of time, and off the market entirely. Moonbeam is now live and has been thoroughly tested through its test network Moon River. We covered Moon River in a article in October, we will switch it to free reading with this article [Moon River].
Ethereum for Polkadot
For starters, Moonbeam and the GLMR token are immediately Ethereum compatible. This is important because it allows for Metamask useage and bridges to and from Ethereum. Metamask being the most popular web-wallet allows for users to send GLMR tokens directly from exchanges, we have been using Kucoin. Since you cannot onramp fiat (dollars) directly into Kucoin as an American you will want to onramp on Coinbase Pro then send a cheap token such as AVAX or LTC to Kucoin to reduce network fees.
Moonbeam takes Ethereum smart contract language and enhances it, allowing for on-chain voting, staking, and cross chain features [2]. The key benefits for GLMR are immediately apparent, the fees and speeds heavily outperform Ethereum. Ethereum remains king when it comes to security and decentralization but paying 100$ for a simple swap is not attractive to most users. Since we have heavily tested Moon River and its applications, we were able to hop right into the Moonbeam ecosystem with ease.
The Moon River test network is a great way to test out new Moonbeam applications with real economic conditions. This allows the foundation to try new upgrades or ideas before risking the value-locked on Moonbeam. This is what makes Polkadot so attractive, DOT has the Kusama (KSM token) network for testing. Strong projects launching on Polkadot have test networks that are tested for months at a time before the main network goes live.
Moonbeam Metrics & Upgrades
Moonbeam recently hit 1-million transactions on January 20th. Over 100k wallets have been created, 700 ERC-20 tokens exist on Moonbeam, and more and more users are staking on the network. GLMR staking rewards were as high as 500% 2 months ago. As more users join the network the APY drops over time, but passive income is always a benefit. Proof of stake blockchains also use over 95% less energy than their proof of work counterparts (think Bitcoin). Over 95 million DOT tokens were locked for the Moonbeam parachain. Users who locked their DOT will receive GLMR tokens as a reward when the parachain auction timeframe is completed.
The Moonbeam parachain will maintain a slot for almost 2 years, the DOT raised equaling over 1 billion dollars. This is a major vote of confidence from institutional investors and retail alike. If Moonbeam is successful, it will always have the funds to win another auction in the future when the first auction expires.
Moonbeam has been upgrading alongside Ethereum, recently they added a burning mechanism that burns some GLMR tokens with every transaction (EIP-1559 on Ethereum). This mechanism removes tokens from the maximum supply forever, with enough volume this could potentially outpace the inflation caused by staking rewards. Moonbeam allows users to bridge assets from Moon River with ease. This is incredibly important because this allows users to test our farming, NFTs and other opportunities on a test network before bridging to the real thing.
Moonbeam has over 160 million dollars of total-value locked, an important metric. The amount of reddit subscribers for GLMR is up over 4x since launch. Daily transactions are growing on the weekly timeframe, along with the percentage of total staked GLMR. Looking into GLMR when it is boring, and far from the all-time-high is attractive. Do remember to always do your own research. None of this is financial advice. Check out our recent articles for information on how to leverage the Moonbeam ecosystem to your advantage, even when BTC is showing weakness. Stay safe out there!
[1] https://blog.tokenmetrics.com/layer-0-blockchain-protocols/
[2] https://moonbeam.network/
