Flare(FLR)

Flare blockchain has raised $35 million in a private round that included investment from Kinetic, Aves Lair and others, according to a press release.

The company has onboarded institutional investors such as Pantera Capital, DeFiance Capital, Keyrock and Flare Network to its MPC wallet, and secured over $3 billion in blockchain transaction volume.

RON, PENDLE, and FLR have soared the most from the mid- and lower-cap alts.

Crypto traders are always on the lookout for the next big thing. Lately, the spotlight has shifted to Pullix (PLX) – a new altcoin in Stage 6 of its presale. With over 70 million tokens sold and $4 million  raised so far, experts have pegged it as the next 20x […]

FLR has soared the most from the top 100 altcoins, but the market is overall quite stagnant.

Flare, which calls itself "the blockchain for data," gives developers access to decentralized data via its Oracle system..

Flare partners with Kinetic, a blockchain-based financial solution company, to introduce borrowing and lending to Flare’s ecosystem.

The system allows users to transform their non-smart contract assets into smart contract-capable tokens, allowing them to participate in DeFi.

The score will include both on-chain metrics and off-chain metrics such as a community rating system to determine a participant’s final score.

Eligible Binance US users should have received FLR tokens at a ratio of 1 XRP = 0.1511 FLR, the firm disclosed.

Solana's Solflare wallet recently debuted on MetaMask Snaps.

Flare plans to burn 199 million of FLR tokens immediately.

Some 198 million FLR will be burned immediately with a further 66 million set to be burned monthly until January 2026.

Data network for blockchain platforms Subsquid integrates Flare to provide historical data to developers and applications on the platform.

Solflare co-founder Filip Dragoslavic said that the integration removes the “friction” that prevented potential users from entering the Solana ecosystem.

The University of California Berkeley’s SETI@Home project is no longer allowing new users to participate in its ongoing search for extraterrestrial life, meaning it’s no longer able to provide a passive income stream for those who’re willing to leave their computer on 24/7. The SETI@Home project launched way back in 1999, inviting users to download a special software program that enabled them to donate their excess computing power to the initiative, which is looking for signs of alien life elsewhere in the cosmic void. But much to people’s disappointment, scientists announced in 2021 that they’re winding down the project and no longer require contributions from the general public. While the announcement was a major disappointment for participants, the good news is that there are still many other distributed computing projects that allow users to make money by renting out their idle storage space or processing power. What is Distributed Computing? It might sound incredibly technical, but the concept of distributed computing is actually a very simple one. It refers to a process where the combined resources of multiple, distributed computers are aggregated together, providing powerful compute or storage resources for heavy-duty projects. In some ways it can be likened to Airbnb, but instead of renting out your spare room or vacation home, you simply rent out your unused computing resources. To participate, you’ll need to download and install the required application or plugin for whatever project it is you want to contribute to. Then it’ll run in the background, allowing your computer’s excess resources to be used by the organization concerned. Where Can I Participate? There are dozens of interesting projects looking to borrow people’s excess computing capacity in support of various use cases: Spacemesh Mining cryptocurrency is one of the most obvious ideas for utilizing your spare capacity that comes to mind, but it’s important to choose a suitable network. While it was possible to mine Bitcoin from a PC back in the early days, its cryptographic algorithms have become so complex and its mining ecosystem so competitive that such limited hardware simply won’t do any more. Enter Spacemesh, an alternative cryptocurrency network that’s designed to serve the average joe who wants to mine a little crypto on his or her computer at home. Unlike Bitcoin’s proof-of-work consensus algorithm, Spacemesh uses a novel proof-of-space time consensus mechanism that is much less energy-intensive. It also employs a unique “race-free approach” that disincentivizes the use of massive amounts of hardware, ensuring everyone can participate and earn a passive income on their personal Mac or PC. All that’s required to start mining with Spacemesh is an Intel or AMD CPU with at least 1GB of RAM, and an always-on, unmetered internet connection with a minimum of 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. Unlike Bitcoin, where the CPU is the main factor for miners, Spacemesh relies on disk storage resources, which do not use energy when they’re idle, resulting in much lower costs. The protocol is centered on fairness, and ensures all miners are rewarded for their contributions at every EPOCH, which currently concludes every two weeks, with their exact reward based on how much storage space they commit in proportion to the network size. In addition, the protocol prevents whales from joining the system with massive storage resources – in such a case, they would face much higher overhead costs, eliminating any profit gains. In this way, Spacemesh ensures its network remains highly decentralized. HyperCycle As an alternative, PC and laptop owners can opt to join the HyperCycle network, which is a Layer-0 blockchain that’s building an artificial general intelligence network. The idea with this is to promote cooperation between AI agents by establishing a network of nodes that collaborate with one another to solve complex problems. This cooperative AI sees distributed computers aggregate their compute resources to create a “global brain”, kind of like a distributed supercomputer. AI systems can tap into this network and use its combined power to perform computing tasks that would normally be performed by sophisticated server networks. Users are required to purchase an individual software node license to participate in HyperCycle’s network and deposit a minimum of 1,024 HYPC tokens. That might sound expensive, but HyperCycle insists it’s a small price to pay to democratize access to advanced AI computation and pave the way for a future “Internet of AIs”. Fleek Network A great option for Web3 enthusiasts, Fleek Network is calling on users to participate in the industry’s first decentralized content delivery network. CDNs play a key role in the internet, ensuring that websites, images and videos can load instantaneously no matter where users are located. Essentially, CDNs are geographically-distributed server networks that enable content to be cached closer to users. When someone connects to an app or website, the content will be delivered from the closest server to their location, significantly reducing latency. Fleek Network aims to provide an alternative to centralized CDNs operated by companies like Cloudflare, which go against the ethos of Web3. Of course, it cannot build out a global server network from scratch, so instead it relies on people who’re willing to provide computing resources in exchange for rewards. It invites anyone to contribute bandwidth to its network by running a cache node, so they can accelerate content delivery to end users. Fleek Network’s approach could actually be more advantageous, as its reliance on contributors means its network can potentially extend to the smallest rural villages. Whereas most centralized CDNs are restricted to building their infrastructure in cities, Fleek will be able to operate nodes across the globe. The result is that someone living in Siberia can be served by a node from the same town, rather than connecting to a large data center several hundred kilometers away. Storj If you have plenty of hard drive space and you’re willing to put it to work, Storj offers a viable opportunity with its decentralized cloud storage network, which it presents as an alternative to services like Dropbox, Box and Amazon Web Services. It claims to have some big advantages, including greater privacy with guarantees that content stored within the Storj network will never be monitored or censored. All content stored on people’s hard drives is fully encrypted, and only the owner has the keys required to access it. The other key selling point is that content is automatically distributed across multiple devices, eliminating the risk of downtime that would prevent users from accessing their files. To rent out your extra disk drive space to Storj, all that’s required is to download its application, install it, and then select how much storage capacity you want to contribute. Once activated, that portion of your hard drive becomes a part of the Storj network so you can no longer use it yourself. Instead, you’ll be compensated for renting it out. One of the requirements, obviously, is that you must be willing to leave your computer up and running and ensure it’s always online, in return for payments made to your bank account each month. Hyperlink Hyperlink refers to itself as the “World Supercomputer”, but is really a global network of computers that anyone can join to earn passive income. Users donate their computer’s resources to host third-party websites, mobile applications and content. Its services are offered as a low-cost alternative to businesses that don’t want to invest in their own infrastructure or traditional cloud computing services. One of the advantages of Hyperlink is that it claims to offer significant earnings potential for users, saying it’s possible to earn up to $8,600 per year by connecting a desktop or laptop to its network and leaving it running 24/7. Users can even contribute an entire server if they happen to have one lying around. Another bonus is that Hyperlink offers flexible payment options, allowing users to receive their earnings through PayPal, bank transfers, credit card payment and more. In future, Hyperlink will expand its network to include tablets and smartphones too. What Are The Downsides? There actually does not seem to be a lot of downsides to earning a passive income, but those considering it should be aware that by running these programs and keeping their computer switched on 24/7, it may degrade its performance and lifetime. However, the reality is that most people don’t normally use the full capacity of their machine, so they can afford to contribute without really noticing any performance impact. And of course, it’s always possible to use an external storage device if you do need more disk space. Then again, if you do need to perform intensive computing tasks yourself, it might be worth investing in a more powerful machine, or even a second computer that you can leave running and forget about. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The University of California Berkeley’s SETI@Home project is no longer allowing new users to participate in its ongoing search for extraterrestrial life, meaning it’s no longer able to provide a passive income stream for those who’re willing to leave their computer on 24/7. The SETI@Home project launched way back in 1999, inviting users to download a special software program that enabled them to donate their excess computing power to the initiative, which is looking for signs of alien life elsewhere in the cosmic void. But much to people’s disappointment, scientists announced in 2021 that they’re winding down the project and no longer require contributions from the general public. While the announcement was a major disappointment for participants, the good news is that there are still many other distributed computing projects that allow users to make money by renting out their idle storage space or processing power. What is Distributed Computing? It might sound incredibly technical, but the concept of distributed computing is actually a very simple one. It refers to a process where the combined resources of multiple, distributed computers are aggregated together, providing powerful compute or storage resources for heavy-duty projects. In some ways it can be likened to Airbnb, but instead of renting out your spare room or vacation home, you simply rent out your unused computing resources. To participate, you’ll need to download and install the required application or plugin for whatever project it is you want to contribute to. Then it’ll run in the background, allowing your computer’s excess resources to be used by the organization concerned. Where Can I Participate? There are dozens of interesting projects looking to borrow people’s excess computing capacity in support of various use cases: Spacemesh Mining cryptocurrency is one of the most obvious ideas for utilizing your spare capacity that comes to mind, but it’s important to choose a suitable network. While it was possible to mine Bitcoin from a PC back in the early days, its cryptographic algorithms have become so complex and its mining ecosystem so competitive that such limited hardware simply won’t do any more. Enter Spacemesh, an alternative cryptocurrency network that’s designed to serve the average joe who wants to mine a little crypto on his or her computer at home. Unlike Bitcoin’s proof-of-work consensus algorithm, Spacemesh uses a novel proof-of-space time consensus mechanism that is much less energy-intensive. It also employs a unique “race-free approach” that disincentivizes the use of massive amounts of hardware, ensuring everyone can participate and earn a passive income on their personal Mac or PC. All that’s required to start mining with Spacemesh is an Intel or AMD CPU with at least 1GB of RAM, and an always-on, unmetered internet connection with a minimum of 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. Unlike Bitcoin, where the CPU is the main factor for miners, Spacemesh relies on disk storage resources, which do not use energy when they’re idle, resulting in much lower costs. The protocol is centered on fairness, and ensures all miners are rewarded for their contributions at every EPOCH, which currently concludes every two weeks, with their exact reward based on how much storage space they commit in proportion to the network size. In addition, the protocol prevents whales from joining the system with massive storage resources – in such a case, they would face much higher overhead costs, eliminating any profit gains. In this way, Spacemesh ensures its network remains highly decentralized. HyperCycle As an alternative, PC and laptop owners can opt to join the HyperCycle network, which is a Layer-0 blockchain that’s building an artificial general intelligence network. The idea with this is to promote cooperation between AI agents by establishing a network of nodes that collaborate with one another to solve complex problems. This cooperative AI sees distributed computers aggregate their compute resources to create a “global brain”, kind of like a distributed supercomputer. AI systems can tap into this network and use its combined power to perform computing tasks that would normally be performed by sophisticated server networks. Users are required to purchase an individual software node license to participate in HyperCycle’s network and deposit a minimum of 1,024 HYPC tokens. That might sound expensive, but HyperCycle insists it’s a small price to pay to democratize access to advanced AI computation and pave the way for a future “Internet of AIs”. Fleek Network A great option for Web3 enthusiasts, Fleek Network is calling on users to participate in the industry’s first decentralized content delivery network. CDNs play a key role in the internet, ensuring that websites, images and videos can load instantaneously no matter where users are located. Essentially, CDNs are geographically-distributed server networks that enable content to be cached closer to users. When someone connects to an app or website, the content will be delivered from the closest server to their location, significantly reducing latency. Fleek Network aims to provide an alternative to centralized CDNs operated by companies like Cloudflare, which go against the ethos of Web3. Of course, it cannot build out a global server network from scratch, so instead it relies on people who’re willing to provide computing resources in exchange for rewards. It invites anyone to contribute bandwidth to its network by running a cache node, so they can accelerate content delivery to end users. Fleek Network’s approach could actually be more advantageous, as its reliance on contributors means its network can potentially extend to the smallest rural villages. Whereas most centralized CDNs are restricted to building their infrastructure in cities, Fleek will be able to operate nodes across the globe. The result is that someone living in Siberia can be served by a node from the same town, rather than connecting to a large data center several hundred kilometers away. Storj If you have plenty of hard drive space and you’re willing to put it to work, Storj offers a viable opportunity with its decentralized cloud storage network, which it presents as an alternative to services like Dropbox, Box and Amazon Web Services. It claims to have some big advantages, including greater privacy with guarantees that content stored within the Storj network will never be monitored or censored. All content stored on people’s hard drives is fully encrypted, and only the owner has the keys required to access it. The other key selling point is that content is automatically distributed across multiple devices, eliminating the risk of downtime that would prevent users from accessing their files. To rent out your extra disk drive space to Storj, all that’s required is to download its application, install it, and then select how much storage capacity you want to contribute. Once activated, that portion of your hard drive becomes a part of the Storj network so you can no longer use it yourself. Instead, you’ll be compensated for renting it out. One of the requirements, obviously, is that you must be willing to leave your computer up and running and ensure it’s always online, in return for payments made to your bank account each month. Hyperlink Hyperlink refers to itself as the “World Supercomputer”, but is really a global network of computers that anyone can join to earn passive income. Users donate their computer’s resources to host third-party websites, mobile applications and content. Its services are offered as a low-cost alternative to businesses that don’t want to invest in their own infrastructure or traditional cloud computing services. One of the advantages of Hyperlink is that it claims to offer significant earnings potential for users, saying it’s possible to earn up to $8,600 per year by connecting a desktop or laptop to its network and leaving it running 24/7. Users can even contribute an entire server if they happen to have one lying around. Another bonus is that Hyperlink offers flexible payment options, allowing users to receive their earnings through PayPal, bank transfers, credit card payment and more. In future, Hyperlink will expand its network to include tablets and smartphones too. What Are The Downsides? There actually does not seem to be a lot of downsides to earning a passive income, but those considering it should be aware that by running these programs and keeping their computer switched on 24/7, it may degrade its performance and lifetime. However, the reality is that most people don’t normally use the full capacity of their machine, so they can afford to contribute without really noticing any performance impact. And of course, it’s always possible to use an external storage device if you do need more disk space. Then again, if you do need to perform intensive computing tasks yourself, it might be worth investing in a more powerful machine, or even a second computer that you can leave running and forget about. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Wider metrics suggest a flare-up in inflation in months ahead, which may trigger a sharp repricing of interest rate expectations, bringing downside volatility to risk assets, including bitcoin.

Oil and gas companies are keen to use gas that would normally be flared off to run bitcoin mining operations. But environmentalists claim the practice merely perpetuates the use of fossil fuels.

Moreover, the surging interest in Shiba Inu can also be attributed to anticipation around the mainnet launch of Shibarium, the ecosystem's layer-2 scaling solution. Over the past few months, speculations around the...

Flare Network announces strategic partnership with Oracle Daemon. Oracle Daemon developers will build and develop several user tools. The collaboration aims to enhance the user experience and data quality on the network. Flare Network, a highly scalable Layer 1 blockchain providing high-integrity data to developers, has announced a strategic collaboration with Oracle Daemon, a group of talented developers working on blockchain and Web 3 solutions. The Oracle Daemon developers have previously been original data providers for the Flare Time Series Oracle on both the Flare and Songbird networks. Announced Monday, the collaboration aims at developing a new suite of user tools that enhance the user experience, provide better quality data, and introduce new features on Flare’s network. Speaking on the latest collaboration with Oracle Daemon, David Pangerl, CEO & Founder of Oracle Daemon, said: “We have been building on Flare from the start, and with this collaboration, we will develop a number of important new tools to benefit the growing network.” The developer group will build out three main user tools, namely the multi-wallet management tool, advanced data provider analytics tools and the auto-claiming executors. The multi-wallet management tool aims to streamline users' accounts and provide a detailed overview of all their balances in multiple wallets. The tool will allow users to manage funds in multiple wallets and accounts, offering simplified access to monitor and control their wallets. The advanced data provider analytics tool is the crop of the three features set to be added to the Flare network. Oracle Daemon will develop a detailed analytics tool specifically tailored to data providers. By leveraging the tool, data providers can gain valuable insights into their performance metrics, including data quality, reliability, and usage. As a data oracle, Flare aims to provide the highest quality of trustless data, and this tool will help data providers achieve this. “I’m most excited about the advanced data provider analytics,” Pangerl said on developing the advanced data providers analytics tool. “Flare is the only blockchain focused on giving developers access to quality data at scale. So, whatever we can do to support and optimise the data provision process will benefit the whole network.” Finally, the collaboration will see the addition of auto-claiming executors, which will automate all existing token-claiming processes. These executors help users collect rewards and later on disburse the rewards to the user. With multiple rewards up for grabs, manual token claiming can be some work for the user. The auto-claiming executor will encompass several rewards, including data provider rewards, validator rewards, FlareDrops, FTSO delegation rewards, and escrowed fund unlocks. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

In the coming years, the tone of the cryptocurrency market will be set by environmental projects, which will be increasingly used for mining around the world. New technologies and developments will be implemented in different parts of the world. And maybe even in outer space - such ideas and proposals already exist and are being discussed within the professional community. Interesting discussions took place at the Bitcoin Miami conference in the USA at the end of May. Bitcoin mining was one of the key topics in the latest report by Messari, a leader in cryptocurrency market research and analysis. The authors believe that the green agenda will increasingly dominate in this field, and it will be the driving force of the industry in the years to come.On the one hand, environmental friendliness will grow into an actual trend, and crypto enthusiasts will adhere to ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Investing approach - environmental, social, governance aspects of investing. On the other hand, this trend will be supported by economic considerations, and the high cost of energy. As for this point, Messari analytics highlights a very indicative example for Bitcoin mining cost: in 2021, the mining of 1 bitcoin cost American miners in Texas about $5-10 thousand, and the coin itself was trading at around $50-60 thousand; its value went down in 2022, and the best price was estimated at $20 thousand with $15-20 thousand of mining cost. Serhiy Tron, Owner of White Rock Management, speaking at the Bitcoin 2023 conference As the coins value decreased, miners actively went looking for ways to reduce their energy costs. First of all, by making mining more environmentally friendly. The interest in hydroelectric power and electricity generation by flaring gas, byproduct of oil production, has grown tremendously. The latter technology not only provides cheaper energy for cryptocurrency mining, but also significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. Reduction of the negative impact of mining on the environment. "Being environmentally friendly is not just a fashion trend, but an economically profitable direction for mining. In some regions, the share of renewable energy in this field amounts to 40%, and even exceeds 70% in other regions. I think that interest will keep on growing, and global oil and gas corporations will cooperate more actively with the cryptocurrency industry. For example, our company has various projects in the U.S. underway: gas flaring in Texas and hydropower near Niagara Falls in the state of New York," said the founder of one of the world's largest mining companies, White Rock Management, Serhiy Tron. White Rock Management, along with 250 other companies, has joined the Crypto Climate Accord for environmentally friendly and safe cryptocurrency mining. With operating offices in Canada, Sweden, Kazakhstan and the United States, the company implements a number of green projects and has plans to develop data centers in Switzerland and the U.S.Tron believes that coal, oil and gas constituents will gradually be outed from the energy consumed by miners. A similar opinion has been voiced by Coin Metrics co-founder Nick Carter, who has high hopes about the use of energy from flare gas in bitcoin mining; he believes this type of fuel can completely cover the needs of all miners worldwide inside the next 10 years. Crypto analysts' predictions regarding the development of alternative sources are backed by energy experts.A new report from a global energy think tank Ember emphasizes that the global energy system will very shortly enter a “new era of reduction of fossil fuel production”. Gas and coal generation volumes are expected to decrease, with alternative sources in extensive use.Ember's findings note that at the end of 2022, the expansion of wind and solar power accounted for 80% of the growth in electricity demand, and when combined with hydropower and bioenergy, 92% of the growth. By the end of 2023, low-carbon sources are expected to provide 100% of the growth in energy demand. Analysts provide an interesting example: the solar power plants launched worldwide last year would be powerful enough to supply an entire country like South Africa for a year, and wind power plants would provide almost the entire 12-month supply for the United Kingdom. "The price/quality principle will be always at work. Miners will do everything to reduce their costs, and increase their income from cryptocurrency mining, while preventing methane emissions and being environmentally conscious along the way. This, in my opinion, is worth the support of local authorities in different regions. For example, by tax incentives or other means," says financial analyst Vladyslav Kravets. Particular interest in "green" mining is growing in the U.S. Local Marathon Digital Holdings launched the King Mountain data center in Texas, with a capacity of 280 MW, carbon-neutral by 70%. In addition, this spring the company announced a joint project with Zero Two, designed to construct two new 200 MW and 50 MW zero-carbon sites in the UAE (Abu Dhabi). Also, BIT Mining Limited reported building a 57.2 MW facility in the same state, running by 85% on clean energy. This does not come as a surprise, since the Americans have been growing generally more interested in cryptocurrency as of late. The bigger it is, the greater the interest of local miners in more environmentally friendly and cheaper crypto mining. The analytics service Ahrefs recently estimated that the word "Bitcoin" has been looked up 1.9 million times in Google search in the U.S. over the past 12 months. It topped the search ranking, coming before the scandalous former president Donald Trump, news, Elvis Presley, Disney and Spider-Man. "For years, Texas was considered the home of the American shale gas and oil revolution, but it has now become the go-to place for cryptocurrency miners. Miners have realized that energy from flare gas can be used profitably to mine crypto. Our company is using it already. Also, this way we significantly reduce CO2 emissions. Around 400 million tons of carbon dioxide make their way to the atmosphere annually, but the crypto community can reduce this figure significantly," assures Serhiy Tron. There is no doubt that the miners’ interest in green energy will grow as the interest in cryptocurrencies as such multiplies. This process is gradually spreading around the world, although not always in transparent ways.For example, in May, during the bankruptcy of BlockFi and Celsius, it was revealed that Druk Holding & Investments (DHI), a state-owned investment bank in the Asian Kingdom of Bhutan, was secretly (without public knowledge) mining bitcoin. This country employs hydropower, with natural availability of high-altitude mountains with fresh air that allow cooling down the equipment. Mining is carbon-neutral and, as DHI assures, self-sustaining.The interest in cryptocurrencies is increased in the Seychelles, and local Finance Minister Naadir Hassan stated in April that his government is working out the requirements for the registration and licensing of specialized companies. Also, state authorities in Europe's Liechtenstein have recently declared they’re going to allow their citizens to use bitcoin to pay for public services. Although the head of the government, Daniel Risch, did not specify when such a possibility was to come in effect, but was adamant that it eventually would. Regardless of what goes on in the crypto market and no matter what skeptics say about this industry, the interest for it does not decrease. Even after significant price swings of several coins and frightening statements about the crypto-winter. Steady focus of the investors and hi-tech companies is backed not only by the projects that’s been already greenlit, but with new developments, ideas and discussions that do not stop. At the end of May, for instance, active debates on the future development of the market and its prospects took place in the United States, at the Bitcoin Miami conference. “Rather interesting and large-scale event, which was helpful not for professional players alone, but for the curious newcomers as well. Highly-esteemed and acknowledged experts were represented at the event: Christopher Grilhault des Fontaines from Dfns, Joseph Ziolkowski from Relm Insurance, Domenic Carosa from Banxa and many others. Not only current problems were discussed, but some new developments, including those in the space industry, were spoken of openly, too. Quite gripping and productive. Once again, we were able to make sure that Bitcoin remains a powerful asset, and amid the challenging situation in the global economy and growing rates of inflation everywhere, attention and trust to Bitcoin is on the steady rise”, summed up Serhiy Tron. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Crypto is less decentralized than you think. Or to put it differently, crypto is more centralized than you think. From the blockchain networks run on a few dozen AWS nodes to the DeFi protocols equipped with a 2-of-3 “killswitch,” crypto contains enough chokepoints to extinguish all life in an industry that was founded on an ethos of decentralization. While every new project scam, bankruptcy, and subpoena reinforces the maxim “Don’t trust, verify,” crypto’s feet of clay might not always be permeable. Beneath the surface, those tasked with building the networks, protocols, and bridges that support the entire industry haven’t given up hope of achieving a fully decentralized stack, free of central points of failure, the way Satoshi and the cypherpunks always imagined. And they’re not just dreaming of better times: they’re building their way towards a fully decentralized future, one brick at a time. Defining DeFi “Decentralized finance” (DeFi) is a broad term that’s routinely used to describe everything from protocols on smart contract networks to the entirety of web3 and non-custodial crypto. What’s indisputable, is that whatever DeFi is, it isn’t centralized. Insofar as possible, it should be free of centralized levers that can be unilaterally controlled or commandeered by cartels. If special interest groups, financial monopolies, or state actors can freeze it, sanction it, or shut it down, it isn’t decentralized: it’s just another piece of decentralization theater. Decentralization theater is any project, token, or protocol that flies under the banner of non-custodial crypto when in reality it’s as centralized as the Federal Reserve. But to be fair to DeFi projects, the majority aren’t trying to deceive: they’re just constrained by the tools available to them right now, many of which are still tightly controlled by their core team. These teams are working towards decentralization, we’re promised. But when? When is true decentralization? The Blocks That Make Up a Decentralized Stack The greatest area of DeFi that needs greater decentralization is storage and data provision. Decentralized applications require fast, reliable, and censorship-resistant access to data on demand, while provisioning as much of it as possible off-chain to avoid blockchain bloat and prevent bottlenecks. The first truly decentralized Content Delivery Network (CDN) is being developed by Fleek. Fleek’s decentralized edge network provides an alternative to traditional compute and content delivery networks. Because it has no central authority, content delivery is reliable and censorship-resistant. It’s essentially a decentralized Cloudflare, providing on-chain apps with data on demand, minus the presence of a killswitch that centralized providers have routinely used to block content. There’s more to decentralization than distributed storage of course. Fleek has thought of this, and is developing Fleek.xyz as a web3 infrastructure solution. Essentially, it will provide all the nuts and bolts that developers need to connect to a CDN to create a blockchain-based platform or application. Storage, computation, hosting, and domains are just some of the products that Fleek.xyz will eventually offer. While that pretty much takes care of the middleware required to create truly decentralized applications, what about at the top of the stack, where application meets end-user? Here there’s also innovation occurring, as developers strive to create wallets and distribution platforms that are less centralized than incumbent solutions. Several of the leading web wallets have caught flak for either their reliance on heavily centralized infrastructure or their excessive data retention policies. Neither of these characteristics is aligned with the underlying ethos of crypto. Already, users in certain geographic regions have seen their IPs banned due to OFAC-compliance fears. There are also issues with centralized app stores that are extremely reluctant to list crypto-powered apps. Apple’s App Store, for instance, compels developers to release heavily neutered apps that don’t contain a crypto wallet. Greater availability and access to decentralized app distribution stores is required. This too, is being worked on, but there is still more to be done in breaking away from the Apple/Google duopoly that dictates access to smartphone apps. Slowly Then Quickly From an end-user perspective, decentralization can be hard to judge. It is after all an amorphous concept that lacks a visible manifestation of its true state. Nevertheless, behind the scenes crypto imagineers are pioneering new solutions that will allow web3 and DeFi to achieve their full value proposition: decentralized, distributed, censorship-resistant, and always available. We’re not there yet, but with each new protocol, network, and application that emerges, the industry is inching closer to achieving a fully decentralized stack. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

State lawmakers passed a proof-of-reserves bill and legislation covering crypto firms' usage of flare gas, both awaiting Texas Governor Greg Abbott's approval or veto as of May 29.