Cloud gaming allows people to play video games remotely from a cloud server. Traditionally, video games needed to be run locally on hardware like gaming consoles or Cassettes. It required both the game and the hardware to run it. But sometimes to access a larger library and enjoy a game fully, you would need a better PC.

That is where cloud gaming services came in. Through Cloud, gaming players are renting access to a remote server capable of running a variety of games, like choosing a movie to watch on Netflix.

What are Cloud Gaming Services?

To watch a movie or a web series whenever you want, we have platforms like Netflix, Amazon prime, etc. In the same way, to play a game whenever one wants, we have Cloud gaming services. 

Cloud gaming is a streaming service that provides high-quality gaming at the cost of internet bandwidth and server space, where users pay for access to advanced hardware to stream content.

The cloud gaming companies operate on a subscription basis. There are various types of subscription models for cloud gaming services. Some services charge you by the hour, or even by the minute to access their remote hardware.

How does it work?

Take Google Stadi, it uses proprietary tech based on Linux. A super-powerful server at one of the company’s data centers starts running when a user logs into the service and picks a game to play. From the data center, this server then sends a feed of that game running to users’ homes where they can communicate with it via the Chrome browser or a Chromecast Ultra.

The service logs your inputs using a controller or keyboard and sends them back to the server, which then carries them out and streams the result back to the user. This approach does introduce some input latency, but it is practically indistinguishable from a local gaming console with the proper home network conditions.

How much does it cost?

The cost of cloud gaming services completely depends on the service provider one chooses. For ex-Google stadia costs $9.99 per month whereas the Nvidia GeForce Now can be tried free with $5 per month for premium users.

5 best cloud gaming services.

Shadow

Shadow is a solitary company. They offer a gigantic gaming library, high-performance gaming, and a major accessibility period with 4k streaming in Ultra High Definition without latency issues. 

GeForce Now

GeForce Now offers an efficient cloud gaming service with only an $8 subscription with Ultra Streaming.

Vortex

It offers cloud gaming services through an app on Android and iOS with a subscription fee of $9.99. 

Project Xcloud

Project Xcloud gaming service is headed by Microsoft and currently is in the preview period.

Google Stadia

Google Stadia is one of the best cloud gaming platforms. It supports any device that runs Google Chrome and offers a 4k experience at 60fps with Chromecast.

This blog explains everything you need to know about Cloud Gaming and Cloud Gaming services. The cloud gaming market is expected to be worth 3,107 million in 2024. Cloud gaming will soon become a huge force in the gaming industry or could be the new future of the gaming industry.

Also Read: The Absolute Truth about Blockchain Technology

The post The Rise of Cloud Gaming Services appeared first on Deqode Blog.

How bad is it for the unbanked?

The unbanked population is unable to send payments with anything other than actual cash. A majority of the unbanked population includes migrant workers who work hard to send their money back home. When they have no bank accounts, the only choice they have is to send money via the ancient ‘Hawala’ system, or companies such as Western Union and MoneyGram. The catch here is that a migrant has to pay fee as high as 25% of the amount transferred. Western Union, Ria, and others garner these high fees to have their revenues in excess of $5 billion a year.

In addition, as services transition away from utilizing cash and towards digital systems, the unbanked find themselves unable to participate in the modernization of society.

Blockchain for the unbanked

Removing all the hype – if there is something blockchain can actually do miles better than any other technology – it is cross-border payments.

Sending and receiving money via organizations like Western Union, PayPal, and international bank transfers is:

• Expensive
• Has delays from one to several business days to send
• Requires bank accounts, and a lot of paperwork

Payments with blockchain can be:

• Done within minutes
• Have minimal transaction fees
• Done without creating bank accounts, in a lot of cases

Blockchain can play a huge role in extending financial inclusion to the world’s unbanked. The technology can change how we access finance. Blockchain opens up new ways of being financially independent, which is slowly becoming the norm.

The post Banking on Blockchain, for the Unbanked appeared first on Deqode Blog.

Settling Land Conflicts

Damaged documents, wrong records, and corruption cause conflicts over ownership and keep productive land unused. For instance, after the 2016 hurricane in Haiti so many records were destroyed. This lead to a lot of land being unallocated there. In a lot of countries, the management of land registration is done offline. Hence, is subject to fraud and errors.

Blockchain and smart contracts provide a strong platform to record land titles. Using a decentralized ledger could be a more streamlined and effective way to:

• manage ownership of the land
• help avoid disputes
• Ensure that records are not manipulated or lost.

Data Collection and Due Diligence

Real estate companies need the verification of property details before lease or purchase. But, it is expensive and difficult to do so. According to one of the surveys, real estate markets are slowly improving in transparency. Still, there are many efficiencies to be gained.

By storing all property data such as floor plans or repairment logs in a secure, unalterable place – blockchain can make it much easier for investors to verify real estate details and do their due diligence. The technology could also be used to trace the journey of construction materials from the factory till demolition of parts, and recycling of the same. This would make it easier to track the quality and age of every part.

Investments

Real estate as an asset has a major disadvantage: low liquidity. Even REITs and SPVs that seem liquid don’t offer the same ease of sale of other assets. This is because they lock up funds for a considerable length of time.

Transferring properties on blockchain, converting it into small fractions – and turning it into tokens (tokenization) creates a new path to real estate investing. It can allow owners to sell their stakes in open market without ‘selling’ the property. Tokenization can also remove high barriers of investments for smaller investors. Real estate tokenization based on blockchain can enable fractional ownership of a property, which will increase market participation and unlock newer financing methods.

Project Management

Codifying real estate agreements and putting them on blockchain using smart contracts is not a new concept. There have been several POCs by various organizations for putting agreements of ownership and land transfer on blockchain. However, it is possible for complex real estate processes such as project management to be handled using blockchain.

To understand this, a project can be treated as a long list of transactions between multiple parties. These transactions can represent any type of agreement regarding payments, goals or milestones. So, project transactions could be converted into a series of smart contracts that could be automatically executed once each individual contract is fulfilled. Managing a project like this could make all parties more accountable and create a point of information for everyone involved.

There are still a few barriers to adoption of blockchain technology in real estate. But, it will slowly and significantly improve processes which are paper-based, and inefficient today.

The post Blockchain in Real Estate: The Real Deal appeared first on Deqode Blog.

Blockchain is a pretty handy technology that could work with several novel concepts, such as laying down the foundation of a smart city. But, it’s not a cure-all: one cannot apply it to all the urban issues smart city innovations aim to address. To understand this, let’s dig deeper into blockchain and smart city hype.

We live in strange times. Never before the inhabitants of the planet have witnessed so many changes happening in a small period of time – be it social, technological or economic. With this massive shift in the way we live, new challenges arise for countries, and of course, cities. 

As the world is moving towards smart cities and governments are seeking to incorporate innovations, blockchain can offer a lot. This is a widely known accepted fact: in a recent survey about smart cities, 77% percent of respondents agreed that blockchain could solve city problems that they faced. But here’s the catch: only 15% of residents could convey exactly what this meant. 

The reason behind this is that blockchain is hyped as an ideal technology solution by people – without them having an understanding of exactly what it does, or will do with concepts like smart city.

Blockchain and Smart City

Blockchain will not build infrastructure, or keep rivers clean. But, it can facilitate and optimize urban processes. Blockchain will play a role in the advancement of smart city concept – but it would be a supporting role, rather than a leading one.

The biggest benefit of blockchain for smart cities is related to public administration. As cities grow, the influx of more residents increases pressure on processes that were not exactly built with that demand in mind. This will give rise to areas that would directly or indirectly need blockchain.

Transparency of Records

Firstly, blockchain can make government records more accessible and transparent. Centralizing records has been a problem: it has given rise to maladministration and corruption. This is a huge problem in developing countries. The decentralization of government records could help with creating an open, accessible world.

Facilitation of property buying and selling

Title registries are prone to fraud. They often aren’t updated in a timely fashion. The introduction of blockchain would provide an immutable history of transfers and sales. In turn, this will introduce transparency in a situation where multiple departments work with different versions of the truth.

Cybersecurity of public goods 

Electricity is the bedrock of the modern world. It is pretty much a need for every individual. While it’s true that the government of every country has a number of security measures in place, there is still a singular, central grid in most countries. It is a fact, that any central grid can be hacked.

The distributed nature of the blockchain technology means that there is no single point of failure, which can reduce the possibility of large-scale threats. Also, the data transmitted between parties is encrypted, hence it is not transmitted across open lines. Another benefit is that fraud can be detected easily. Once data is put in the system – it cannot be changed without establishing a consensus of stakeholders.

Finally, one of the central themes of the Smart City concept has been to optimize data to make urban growth more efficient. Blockchain clearly has an important role to play in this. As blockchain systems get more familiar, the applications will expand. This would make the technology as one of the bases – the support system of the next-gen civilization.

The post Blockchain and Smart City: Talk of the Town appeared first on Deqode Blog.

We are now entering the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and at its forefront are two emerging technologies: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain. As predicted, both the technologies will contribute trillions of US dollars to the global economy introducing progressive shifts in every aspect of our life.

For those who still need an introduction to them, AI is the intelligent human brain – and blockchain is simply a public immutable, decentralized database used to store encrypted data. AI can mimic the human mind and make intelligent decisions based on intellectual thinking, while blockchain can securely store highly sensitive data and automate trust between multiple parties.

AI and blockchain together can help us in the following

1. Data Security
2. Improved Trust on Robotic Decisions
3. Decentralized Intelligence
4. High Efficiency 

Data Security

Data is the new gold – and privacy of this gold is a growing concern, especially after the recent Facebook scandal of 2018, in which 50 million users profile data was targeted without their consent and used for political advertising purposes by Cambridge Analytica, a third-party political firm. This concern can together be solved with blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. 

Blockchain is known for storing sensitive and personal data in a diskless environment. Information stored inside a blockchain is highly secure. The database holds data that is digitally signed, which means only their ‘‘respective private keys’’ must be secured, which enables AI algorithms to work on secure data and thereby ensures more trusted and reliable decision outcomes.

Better Trust on Robotic Decisions

The decisions made by AI devices are difficult for users to understand and trust, so they become dysfunctional. Blockchain records transactions in decentralized ledgers on a point-by-point basis. The records on a blockchain do not tamper, during the human-involved auditing process, the decisions made by AI are easier to accept and trust. Recording the decision-making process of an AI system on a blockchain would increase transparency. The decentralized approach can help us eliminate the need for a third-party auditor.

Decentralized Intelligence

The centralized data storage becomes highly sensitive in terms of privacy and security when it involves personal and sensitive data about users, activities, health records, and financial information. Large-scale data collection exposes the scaling and capacity related issues of centralized infrastructure where AI applications need to process big datasets. Blockchain-based decentralized storage will help secure the data storage across the participating networks. 

In these systems, each node keeps a publicly encrypted copy of the whole database to ensure data availability for the desired user. The respective user can use their data whenever needed.

High Efficiency

Multiuser business processes, which involve multiple partners such as individual users, business firms, and governmental organizations, are inefficient due to multiparty authorization of business transactions. The integration of AI and blockchain technology will enable intelligent Decentralized Autonomous Agents for automatic and fast validation of data transfers among different stakeholders.

Conclusion

Blockchain has its weaknesses, such as security, scalability, and efficiency, while AI has its fair share of problems with trustworthiness, explainability, and privacy. The alliance of these two technologies seems flawless; they could complement each other to revolutionize the next digital generation. Blockchain will bring trust, privacy, and explainability to AI. In return, AI can help build a machine learning system on the blockchain with better security, scalability, and more effective personalization.

You may also like: https://deqode.com/blog/blockchain-iot/

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Blockchain and its decentralized nature are clearly the saviors of the original IoT vision. The real promise blockchain brings to IoT is to automate trusted services through code intermediating the flow of data. This is not just between companies and their customers – but across entire ecosystems. The technology makes it impossibly hard for hackers to corrupt the data through increased authentication and its inherent property of immutability. With this, blockchain also has the potential to deliver cross-platform compatibility and manage millions of connected devices on various platforms by making a standard machine-to-machine smart contract.

“By 2019, as IoT adoption grows in major industries, governments, and consumer sectors, 20 percent of all IoT deployments will have basic levels of blockchain services enabled.” – IDC

As of today, IoT finds a majority of its use-cases in remote watching, device automation, and information collection. Within the next decade, it will have self-governing interactions of connected devices. These devices will be capable of making smart choices on their own without needing any human assistance.

In the future, blockchain will boost the IoT economy with Machine-to-Machine interactions. For example, a smart fridge will be able to deduce the time for replenishing and will automatically make an order using smart contracts, and submit payment for the purchased items using crypto.

Communication Gap: Issues Associated with Blockchain in IoT

In any major IoT network, there will be a need for billions of devices to stream data and interact continuously. Blockchain technology, currently, is not equipped to deal with this type of transaction throughput.

Somewhat related to this is the cost of emitting transactions on a blockchain. Transaction fees make a lot of older blockchains unsuitable for the type of continuous micropayments that are typical in M2M communication.

However, the idea of blockchain-based IoT is still on the cards. An intensive amount of research at companies like Blaze Protocol focuses on making the high-throughput no-fee decentralized network a reality. Specialized IoT-focused networks are also in development. IOTA is an ambitious project replacing the blockchain data structure with a directed acyclic graph, doing away with blocks, and having no transaction fees.

Blockchain and IoT’s combination is something that the entire industry is looking forward to. The technology is creating a promising future of secure and efficient M2M interconnectivity.

The post Blockchain for IoT: The solution for Machine to Machine communication appeared first on Deqode Blog.

If you frequent crypto forums, you must have come across several questions raised on crypto’s deflationary nature. This article – picking up its points from a famous, anonymous posts on one such forum, examines the same – addressing inflation, deflation in crypto – and fixing the flawed analogy between crypto, and fiat or gold.

Inflation, in the context of modern economics, can be thought of as a way of guaranteeing that the currency does not act as a store of value. This is so that other financial instruments (majorly, bonds) could fill this role instead. Individuals and businesses with a lot of wealth – and who want to preserve it – choose to purchase bonds. Here, what they are technically doing is lending their money. This ideally provides interest – that counteracts the depreciating value of the currency. 

Putting this simply, one of the key reasons behind inflation is to guarantee that lending remains high with the idea that people with excess wealth (or savers) can transfer those savings to people who want to put the money to work. For the economy, this is considered good.

Now, the reason the fiat system needs (government) bonds to act as the store of value, rather than the currency itself, is actually because bonds are the real money in fiat systems, not the currency we use every day.

Our everyday currency represents the liabilities of the banking system, whereas bonds represent the assets of the banking system. Monetary systems never want liabilities to act as stores of value, or even worse for them, to appreciate in value. So, since fiat represents the debt of the banking system, it is in the banking system’s interests that their debts are always decreasing in value.

Now, taking Bitcoin in contrast: BTC represents the assets of the system, not the liabilities. It is in the interests of the system and its security that the value of its assets is appreciating. When this appreciation occurs, miners expand, liquidity goes up, the ecosystem grows, and the security of the network increases. This, in turn, increases demand for its use.

When you invest in bitcoin, what you are doing is investing in the Bitcoin Network. It is because of your investments that the network continues to grow and mature, just like a company. Something worth noting here is that Bitcoin is effectively the flagship for the entire crypto industry. An investment in bitcoin is equivalent to an investment in the broader crypto economy. The reason so much activity has occurred in this space since 2017 is in large part because of the amount of investment that went into bitcoin.

So it can be conclusively stated that Bitcoin is closer to US Treasuries than to US fiat currency.

When people invest in Treasuries, they are actually investing in the US government – helping it to remain strong and grow. When people invest in bitcoin, they are investing in the Bitcoin Network, helping it to remain secure and grow.

This is where I would want to address the mistakes people make when they talk about Bitcoin. The first mistake people make when talking about bitcoin being deflationary is in mistaking it for a currency like US fiat. But, it is actually closer to US Treasury bonds (which represent the REAL base currency of the US fiat system). There’s a reason behind why US Treasuries act as such great stores of value, and why everyone wants them. It is because the US government is the most powerful institution on the planet. People’s trust in it isn’t going to disappear anytime soon. 

For Bitcoin to compete with the US Treasury bond, it must become equally as trustworthy, and for that to happen it must be seen as a network so essential to the world that everyone knows it isn’t going away anytime soon.

In context of crypto inflation, it goes without saying that bitcoin must also be deflationary. Treasury bonds are valuable and act as the real base money of the world’s economy because they act as stores of value. Bitcoin must do the same. Will bitcoin always fluctuate in value? Obviously. But so do Treasury bonds. And so, just like the value of Treasury bonds determines the fate of the world economy, Bitcoin in such a future scenario would have a similar impact. 

The critical thing to note here is that bitcoin must eventually become the most trusted network in the digital age. Since networks will replace institutions as the centers of trust, in being the most trusted network, bitcoin would effectively become the most trusted source of value.

There are very real problems with Treasury bonds and the design of the fiat system which the crypto-system will slowly replace. But the fundamental premise, that at root money must act as a store of value, is as true today as it ever was. The issue occurs when people don’t realize that bonds represent the foundation of the monetary system.

So, crypto isn’t comparable to fiat currency or even to gold.

The problem with the fiat money analogy is simple. Fiat money does not act as the primary store of value in the modern monetary system. When we talk about inflation being necessary to modern money, people don’t understand that this requires that such money is ultimately backed by a store of value which is effectively deflationary (bonds). Bitcoin is more akin to the bonds which are backing fiat money. So, we need to look towards crypto inflation with that outlook. Also, the gold analogy, while simple, doesn’t exactly work either because gold is strictly a commodity whose utility is not influenced by investment in it. People who talk about Bitcoin as digital gold imagine bitcoin as a kind of commodity. But unlike gold, the more investment into Bitcoin – the more the network evolves and grows.

This new era of cryptocurrencies and crypto inflation introduces a world in which we are no longer forced to use a single currency. Once you have a situation where companies like Facebook have their own currency, then you have a wide-open marketplace of currency and competition. Under such a system, inflation, as it were, becomes a natural part of the system.

The post On Crypto’s Inflation and Deflation: Why Bitcoin is Bitcoin and shouldn’t be compared to fiat or gold appeared first on Deqode Blog.

They have the freedom to sell any amount of their shares whenever they want, and they can do this even with some other online markets. In other words, digitization of real estate using tokens on the blockchain is real estate tokenization.

Benefits of Tokenizing Real Estate

The general benefits of real estate tokenization include

Access additional capital

Real estate owners and developers can offer smaller investment denominations by dividing a property through a blockchain-based system, expanding distribution to a broader and more diverse investor group.

Lower illiquidity discounts & liquidity premiums

For highly illiquid assets such as real estate, institutional investors have often had an advantage over individuals due to the steep illiquidity discount associated with the majority of commercial real estate investments. 

Enhanced price discovery

Today the real-time pricing information is paper-based, and it stores asymmetrical information by all parties. A digital secondary market for individual real estate properties will enable real-time pricing information.

Improved transparency 

The use of a blockchain-based system enables the programming of rights, restrictions, and data associated with the underlying property into the tokenized digital asset. Everything that has happened in the past is public to anyone who might want to look.

Automated Processing

Smart contracts can automate the wills and rights process.

How to digitize real estate

The digitization of real estate in real estate tokenization includes three steps:

1. Deal structuring
2. Technology selections
3. Token distribution

Deal Structuring

In real estate tokenization, the deal structuring consists of a variety of elements, including jurisdiction, asset type, shareholder types, and applicable regulations.

1. Asset

Assets, simply put, are the specific properties.

2. Legal structure

Digitization of real estate requires a legal cover around the individual properties to securitize and create an investment vehicle.

The most common structures we have seen to-date are:

• Single asset Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) – SPV is a separate legal entity created by an organization. As it is a separate legal entity, if the parent company goes bankrupt, the special purpose vehicle can carry its obligations. Tokens represent shares of the SPV.
• Real estate fund – A real estate fund is a type of mutual fund that primarily focuses on investing in securities offered by public real estate companies. Tokens represent ownership shares or units in the fund. 
• Project finance – Tokenization can be used as a new mechanism for raising funds for a project. Depending on deal size, tokens may be made available to retail investors as well as accredited investors.
• Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) – It allows individuals to invest in large-scale, income-producing real estate. Token holders have the same rights to operating income from the REIT that traditional investors have today. REITs are costly to perform; however, they are advantageous in that they are available for retail investors.

3. Shareholder rights

Based on the legal structure, determine if investors have the right to dividends or governance of the entity or property. You may also choose to offer multiple tokens that represent different investment classes. For example, you can create a token that represents preferred equity in a property with a liquidation preference, and another token that represents common equity.

4. Investor types

The legal structure may dictate to which types of investors the deal will be made available. The target investor group will reside in the jurisdiction.

5. Execution regulation

The location of the property or the SPV, the size of the capital raise, and the type and location of investors will be on the applicable execution regulation. It’s important to note that execution regulation may also determine the tax treatment of the tokens as well as solicitation restrictions.

Technology Selection

Secondly, after the finalization of the legal structure for the property, decide the technology.

The three critical decisions would be:

1. Blockchain token – Determine the blockchain platform to build and which has the rights to store tokens. The platform should also allow the owner to transfer those rights to anyone and transfer the complete ownership to someone else in a legal way.

2. KYC / AML Vendor – To determine a KYC vendor that can integrate with the primary platform and the digitized security infrastructure.

3. Primary / Secondary Marketplace – To determine the success of the capital raise and the ability for investors to access liquidity. By this, we can decide the exchange for trading. 

Token Distribution

Thirdly, after the technology decision, the next step is to launch the token and distribute it to investors.

1. Acceptable funds – To determine the options to accept different types of payment methods easily. Stable coins can also be used to purchase real estate.

2. Token launch – A web-app will host the token launch.

3. KYC – In this, the investor will go through the KYC process for verification and linking of their digital wallet.

4. Token Distribution – After the registration of investors, tokens can either be sent directly to investors accounts or list the digitized real estate on a primary issuance platform. After investors make the purchase, they will receive the digitized securities.

Download a free e-book on real estate tokenization by clicking here.

Suggested Reading: How to invest in cryptocurrencies

The post Real Estate Tokenization: A Handy Guide to Tokenize Real Estate appeared first on Deqode Blog.

Stablecoins may be the key for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. Read more to find out how.

2017 was a golden period for Bitcoin. It reached its peak value of $13,860 against 1 BTC in December, but not for long. Six months later it was surfing at $6,387. Another six months later, it reached $3,689. As of writing this blog, bitcoin surfs at $10,908. 

The volatility associated with cryptocurrency has been one of the major issues which have hindered the adoption of cryptocurrency as the primary source of the exchange of value.

And so, the question still lingers: Can Cryptocurrencies be Big enough to Compete with Fiat Currencies?

Experts have been trying to answer this since the dawn of crypto-technology. Bad credit loans. The World Economic Forum predicts that around 10% of the world’s GDP will be held in the form of tokenized assets by 2027. If we take 2018’s global GDP as a reference point, which amounted to 80 trillion US Dollars, then 10% of that would be 8 trillion US Dollars. If we factor inflation into that equation and GDP growth in general, then the market for tokenized assets is looking to be immense by 2027, at least according to the World Economic Forum.

But, the issue of volatility may be a barrier to this.

Stablecoins aim at breaking this barrier, providing a rock-solid solution for the adoption of cryptocurrencies as a basic medium of exchange. Stablecoin gets the best of both worlds – the decentralization, security, immutability, and transparency of blockchain and the trust and stability of fiat currencies.

BitUSD was one of the first stablecoins which were introduced in the year 2014 on the BitShares platform. Separate pools of BitShares were kept as collateral for backing the stablecoin. Tether, the most popular stablecoin right now was also introduced in the year 2014. Tether is at present the seventh-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization and first in terms of a stablecoin.

Different types of assets back Stablecoins, namely four-

• Fiat currency-backed Stablecoins
• Asset-backed Stablecoins
• Cryptocurrencies backed Stablecoins
• Non-collateralized Stablecoins

Fiat currency-backed Stablecoins

Fiat currency-backed cryptocurrencies are the most common currencies, which exist and are popular among the community. Currencies such as USD Dollars, Euro, and Yen back these cryptos. Some examples of fiat currency-backed cryptocurrencies are
Tether, TruUSD, GeminiUSDC, and PAX.

Asset-backed Stablecoins

These cryptocurrencies are backed by precious metals such as Gold, Siver, and Platinum which are much more stable than fiat currencies and can even appreciate with time. DigixGold (DGX), Tiberius Coin (TBX), and SwissRealCoin (SRC) are some of the asset-backed stablecoins.

Cryptocurrencies backed Stablecoins

Here, a cryptocurrency backs other cryptocurrencies. This way, the concept of decentralization strengthens since everything is present in the blockchain. The collateralization ratio (the ratio of the distributed collateral value and the current risk or maximum risk of a collateralized receivable, expressed as a percentage) is kept higher in this case, compared to fiat-backed cryptocurrencies, to cope with the highly volatile crypto market. Traders can switch from highly volatile cryptocurrencies to stablecoins when the market seems highly unstable. Maker DAO’s DAI is the most prominent one with a current market cap of USD 79,838,260.

Non-Collateralized Stablecoins

As the name suggests, these stablecoins aim to maintain stability without relying on a collateral reserve. Logic is coded on Smart Contracts which manipulate the price back to the peg by changing the money supply. This process creates new coins when the price goes up and destroys coins when the price goes down. This model is known as Seignorage Shares. Sugarcane (SAGA), Havven (HAV), and Basis are examples of Non-Collateralized Stablecoins.

Stablecoins – The Better Crypto?

Stablecoins would make the payment methods as simple as ABC. Our day-to-day transactions will become a piece of cake since the transfer of money will be instant and will require minimum transaction fees. Stablecoins will act as global currency which can be transacted in any country and be extremely helpful when buying commodities in a foreign country without having to exchange them when moving from one country to another, unlike fiat currencies. 

Cross Border Payments which currently take up to a staggering 37% processing fee and a transaction period of 3-10 days will be reduced to a 2-3% transaction fee and instant transfer. A worker employed in Canada can send his salary to his family in Manila in no time at a minimal fee.

The use of Smart Contracts can be taken heavily and payments in corporations can be automated. Not just this, there can be loan payments, insurance payments, and international payments which can be automated thus easing international trade and services.

One of the major reasons blockchain technology is not going mainstream is its complexity and lack of knowledge among the masses. The concept of cryptocurrency will become easier for people to understand because 1 dollar can be equated to 1 unit of that stablecoin.

Instability

When we think of blockchain the first thing that comes to our mind is decentralization. But with stablecoins, there is one single organization responsible to maintain the assets against the issued stablecoins. This makes the system centralized and thus highly regularized.

With assets being maintained by lone organizations, there is a lack of transparency which can be resolved only with fair and regulated audits. 

In the case of crypto-backed currencies, there is always the risk of asset crypto crashing thus auto-liquidating the stablecoins. This makes the whole system volatile and unpredictable. It would meaning going back to the same problem which was meant to be resolved.

Cryptocurrencies are still in their nascent stage and this is even more true with stablecoins. But stablecoins do have the potential to disrupt governments’ monopoly in issuing currencies and create a level playfield for fares markets. The future of cryptocurrencies is still on thin ice and only time will tell how it fairs with challenges thrown at it time and again. Stablecoins may hit the nail on the head with its ability to get the best of both worlds.

Must Read: Move Language Tutorial: Building Token on Libra using Move

The post Stablecoins: The End of Volatility in Cryptocurrency appeared first on Deqode Blog.

Esports: The Next Big Play

Esports has emerged as one of the highest potential markets on the planet with a broad audience, aged 16-36. Also, the current esports market has an estimated revenue of $700M with an active audience of nearly 200M. The market has a CAGR of a staggering 33%. At the same time, it is limited to the top 1000 players and about 100 teams, who together hold the biggest share of money in esports: the $300M sponsorships and media rights sales pie, $120M in advertising revenue, $100M of prize money and $40M in player compensations and salaries.

The esports market revenue was $0.5Bn in 2016, $0.7Bn in 2017, $1Bn in 2018 and is projected to grow to $1.5Bn in 2020 with a 33% CAGR.

Blockchain in Esports: Dynamic Duo

Esports has seen a lot of attention from the blockchain community. It is a multi-billion industry that will continue to grow exponentially in the coming years. With an industry that has so many participants, only a small percentage goes back to the players and brands. There isn’t a self-sustaining ecosystem for both of them. The industry has turned into a commercialized one-way street for corporations and payment providers to take advantage of a vast majority of gamers, developers and game publishers. Blockchain could help put an end to these issues.

Not a Messiah

Before moving further, and discussing the use-cases of blockchain in esports, we need to establish that there are a lot of articles on the web who claim that that esports needs blockchain, but that’s clearly not true. Esports will keep growing without the help of blockchain – the industry is already growing 11% year-on-year, with billions of revenue.

So, esports doesn’t need blockchain to grow, but to improve.

Esports: The Lag is Real

Esports industry has huge potential that is presently hampered by two major problems that are discussed below:

1. A tiny percentage of the billions in revenue that the industry generates goes back to the actual players. When it does, it goes to only a few elite gamers. Millions of amateur gamers don’t see any money for their efforts. Streaming or betting on the outcome of matches and tournaments are the best ways to earn money in the gaming industry, and they’re not reliable income streams.

2. Esports industry is highly fragmented. A vast majority of games aren’t cross-platform, so, the user base gets divided into console, PC, and mobile. also, there are games that differ from each other quite drastically. For instance, esports enthusiasts who like Counter-Strike might not care about League of Legends, and vice versa. Each game has its own user base and its own revenue stream. This makes it very difficult for the industry to improve and grow collectively.

Blockchain in Esports: Fast Travel

1. Gamers have to put a lot of trust in the organizers of the esports tournament and are at risk of being defrauded. This could happen to pro gamers as well. Blockchain can eliminate that risk and make esports for casual gamers trustless and much more secure – because there’s no centralized entity pulling strings from behind the curtain. Everything is recorded on the blockchain – and cannot be changed by a third party. The awarding of prizes can be encoded into a smart contract that will automatically pay the winner when the tournament is over.

2. Blockchain will allow Esports to become less fragmented. Using dapps, anyone can create a single universal gaming profile for all games. As a result, this will help with all the relevant stats for all games across all platforms, which can be recorded onto the blockchain, ensuring their authenticity and transparency.

Conclusion

Blockchain in esports will allow the industry to become transparent, more secure, and less fragmented. Also, It will give people a better chance to earn money from gaming. It will speed up esport’s future – where gaming is no longer seen as a pastime, but as a profession instead.

Also Read: Victory Royale: How Blockchain Could Fix Fortnite

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