My Two Satoshis
Volume XXX: March 22nd, 2022
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Market Cycles:
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ETH:
Coin Analysis: Ape Coin ($APE) - Bored Ape Yacht Club
Bored Ape Yacht Club, alongside Crypto Punks are perhaps the flagship NFT collection. What makes Bored Apes in particular so special is that the shockwaves this collection has sent into the world has happened in less than a year. Bored Apes were able to be minted from the smart contract at 0.08 ETH (~$200) in May 2021, now the cheapest NFT sells for over 100 ETH (~$300,000). Obviously, anyone who had the vision and diamond handed BAYCs the whole time deserves these astronomical returns. The cherry on top however, is that Yuga Labs, the company who birthed the BAYC brand, decided to make a coin, $APE to fund its future endeavors, while also rewarding current Ape holders. Yuga Labs describes the rationale for minting a coin as “a token for culture, gaming, and commerce used to empower a decentralized community building at the forefront of web3. With this extra funding and capital, Yuga Labs is going to build an immersive world for BAYCs, which includes Land, a Game, interactions with other popular NFT collections - think punks, cool cats, toadz and more. Crypto enthusiasts like myself, have often derided Bored Apes for its celebrity endorsement, the crowd it attracts and more, however, when the community receives a $100,000 free airdrop as a gift for holding the NFT and we see the future planned by Yuga Labs it is really something to sit up and take notice of.
The video above is mesmeric, and hopefully a peak into the future of NFTs, that don’t just exist as pictures on the internet but characters in an immersive decentralized world, where the best players, early adopters and more are financially rewarded for their efforts.
Blockchain 101: LayerZero Labs
LayerZero labs, a Vancouver based crypto startup, has made a lot of noise in the crypto space recently due to its unique protocol, which has drawn investments from major crypto players. Binance Labs, FTX, and Sequoia Capital are a few of those major players who have invested in LayerZero. These investments have led to the startup reaching unicorn status earlier this week.
Layer 1 blockchains is a concept we have discussed in previous newsletters. Layer 1 blockchains are simply just base networks such as Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and Avalanche. These are just some of the popular ones, but there are hundreds of others that all offer their users a unique service that the others do not. A significant problem with having such a large number of unique blockchains is that the majority of them are not interoperable. This simply just refers to the ability of a blockchain to communicate and access information with another blockchain. Bridging is a solution that already exists to address this problem, but bridging is notorious for being insecure and inefficient. This is where LayerZero Labs becomes relevant. Their platform utilizes an “Oracle” and a “Relayer” to transfer data in between blockchains. When a user transfers data from the original blockchain, the Oracle will forward the data to the new blockchain, and the relayer will then submit a proof of transaction. This is done on the destination chain, and once this is complete, the data will be available on the new blockchain. LayerZero’s platform offers more security and reliability than the current bridging systems that exist.
LayerZero has the potential to seamlessly connect all the major and minor blockchains to a point where users aren’t even aware that it is being utilized. This will provide dApps with the tools to reach a larger audience, and further support the growth/adoption of crypto.
If you are interested in learning more about LayerZero Labs and how the protocol works, we recommend checking out the following article.