Welcome to Issue 22 of Popular Crypto, a newsletter about the mainstream products and services taking crypto to the masses.
In this issue:
- Visa greenlights Coinbase to issue crypto debit cards
- Torus enables 1-click DApp logins
- Authereum brings usernames & passwords to Web 3.0
- Enjin helps non-devs build on blockchain
- Unstoppable launches a browser for the decentralized web
We also show you how to stack Handshake (HNS) from home using a Coinmine One.
All that and more in this week’s issue. But first, here’s some…
🚀 Updates From Nomics
- #1. Nomics Launches Free CSV Downloads for All Cryptoasset & Exchange Pages: We’ve added free CSV downloads to Nomics.com. You can now take a CSV snapshot of our market cap index (homepage), exchange index, or any individual cryptoasset, exchange, or markets page – any page or tab with a yellow “Free CSV” button. For more, read our in-depth announcement or see the following tweet.
- #2. We’re Keeping Tabs on the 2020 Election (Markets): Nomics has always listed synthetic trading pairs or artificial markets that aren’t commonly traded. With that infrastructure in place, it was easy to add the new 2020 election markets from crypto derivatives exchange FTX. Here’s a screenshot of the PETE/BERNIE market:
- #3. Nomics Adds Seven New Exchanges & Upgrades Namebase to an “A” Transparency Rating: This week, Nomics added exchanges BiKi, BitForex, Coineal, CoinField, Prizmbit, BCEX, and CoinTiger. Meanwhile, exchange and Handshake (HNS) registrar Namebase was upgraded to an “A” Transparency Rating. This means that Namebase has provided us with highly granular (trade-level) data and full history for each trading pair. That data is now available on our website and via our market data API. For more on how we rate crypto exchanges, read the following essay.
And now, let’s see what the cryptocurrency world has brought us this week.
Clay Collins
Nomics Co-Founder
🙏 Thanks To Our Sponsor: CryptoTrader.Tax
- 🚀 Updates From Nomics
- 🙏 Thanks To Our Sponsor: CryptoTrader.Tax
- 🏇 This Week’s List
- #1. Coinbase to Issue Visa-Backed Crypto Debit Cards
- #2. Torus Enables One-Click DApp Logins
- #3. Authereum Brings Usernames and Passwords to Web 3.0
- #4. Enjin Helps Non-Devs Build on Blockchain
- #5. Unstoppable Launches a Browser for the Decentralized Web
- #6. How to Stack Handshake (HNS) With a Coinmine One
🏇 This Week’s List
#1. Coinbase to Issue Visa-Backed Crypto Debit Cards
Visa has granted principal membership to Coinbase, vesting the exchange with the power to issue their own Visa-backed payment cards. Coinbase already offers Coinbase Card, a Visa debit card that lets customers spend crypto at traditional points of sale. Principal membership gives Coinbase the freedom to fast-track new features and markets.
Coinbase is the first crypto company to be granted principal membership, which makes the announcement a milestone for mainstream crypto adoption. [Link]
#2. Torus Enables One-Click DApp Logins
Torus has launched a key management protocol that lets users access DApps with a single click. Behind the scenes, Torus distributes users’ keys across a network of independent nodes before mapping them to “verifier” accounts like Google, Facebook, and Reddit, which are then used to authenticate identity.
This design also smooths the account recovery process. Rather than rely on seed phrases (which could be lost or forgotten), users can fall back on familiar recovery methods like email and social media logins. [Link]
In addition, Torus allows users to send ERC20 and ERC721 tokens to any Gmail, Reddit or Discord account – regardless of whether the account holder has a crypto wallet. Recipients can claim their tokens later by creating a Torus account. [Link]
#3. Authereum Brings Usernames and Passwords to Web 3.0
Torus isn’t the only company working on DApp logins. This week also saw the launch of Authereum, a platform that aims to make DApps friendlier by bringing back usernames and passwords.
Authereum’s throwback UX brings security benefits that are comparable to those offered by Torus. Authereum’s smart contract can be programmed to recognize a username, password, or email address – all of which are easier to manage than a seed phrase. [Link]
Another interesting feature is the option to pay DApp transaction fees in stablecoins like Dai (DAI) and USD Coin (USDC), which can be purchased by debit card thanks to Authereum’s integration with Wyre. [Link]
#4. Enjin Helps Non-Devs Build on Blockchain
Enjin (ENJ) has released a development interface that allows non-developers to create and manage assets for blockchain-based games. [Link]
While coding is required to integrate an asset with a game, creation is code-free. Users simply fire up a project with a name, image, and description, link an Enjin Wallet, and variables like “name” and “ENJ value” are deployed to Ethereum. Assets can then be minted or distributed.
Enjin Platform relies on the ERC1155 standard, which lets a single smart contract govern an infinite number of tokens – and types of tokens. Before 1155, there were fungible ERC20 tokens and non-fungible ERC721 tokens (NFTs), but each required its own contract.
In practice, 1155 means lower gas costs and increased flexibility because it enables fungible assets like coins or points to be traded for NFTs in a single transaction. This could give rise to dynamic in-game economies centered around P2P transfer fees. [Link]
#5. Unstoppable Launches a Browser for the Decentralized Web
Unstoppable Domains is best known for its .zil and .crypto domains, which let owners transact cryptocurrency using human-readable addresses (e.g. name.zil or name.crypto). Prior to this (and efforts by Ethereum Name Service and Handshake), crypto users were stuck with long, 30+ character addresses that were impossible to remember and easy to mistype. [Link]
But there was always another use envisioned for .zil and .crypto – censorship-resistant websites. .Zil and .crypto domains are held in wallets. If site content is hosted on a decentralized network like the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), no government or other authority is able to alter it.
Unstoppable has now released the Unstoppable Browser to view these censorship-resistant sites. The browser is available for macOS and Windows, and it can view standard (centralized) sites as well as those hosted on IPFS.
For more on the browser and Unstoppable’s IPFS site builder, check out the following video.
#6. How to Stack Handshake (HNS) With a Coinmine One
Earlier this month, the Handshake network went live to support human-friendly addresses for sending crypto and interacting with smart contracts. Like Unstoppable, Handshake can also be used to create decentralized, censorship-resistant websites.
However, unlike Unstoppable, which runs on Ethereum and Zilliqa (ZIL), Handshake has its own blockchain, which can be mined for HNS, the network’s native token. HNS is used to bid on domain names, and domain owners earn HNS whenever someone registers a sub-domain.
The Coinmine One is a plug-and-play miner that lets users collect HNS without much difficulty. All it requires is an electrical outlet and an Android or iOS device. In addition to HNS, users can mine Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Grin (GRIN), Monero (XMR), and Zcash (ZEC). [Link]
For a demo, see the following video.
