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Crypto News

Crypto Developer Activity Surges in Asia as Solana Support Grows: Electric Capital

Crypto’s best minds are heading east, and it’s gaining at a pace that other regions are finding hard to catch up to.

Asia was responsible for 32% of global crypto developer activity in 2024, according to a report from venture firm Electric Capital. The firm recently published its comprehensive annual report, analyzing over 900 million code commits across the crypto industry.

The transformation represents a nearly threefold increase from Asia’s 12% share in 2015, while North America’s position declined from 43% to 24% during the same period.

Notably, the report only tracks the geographic location of the code commits and repository data. Information about developers’ nationalities, citizenship, or other demographic indicators do not appear to be parameters in the study.

The study’s methodology specifies that certain types of code, such as data lists and asset repositories, were excluded to effectively limit the study to code made by « active » developers.

Maria Shen, a General Partner at Electric Capital, said on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the study had to « undercount » because « we look at open-source dev activity only. »

The report shows that India stands out as a primary driver of this shift, claiming 11.7% of global crypto developer share. This places the country second only to the United States’ 18.7% share.

The surge in Asian development talent has reshaped traditional industry dynamics as well, with India now leading in new developer recruitment since 2023, outpacing all other regions globally.

More « established » devs than ever

In terms of active development on a global scale, Electric Capital says that there’s been a 7% decline this year, which means that the crypto industry lost more developers than it gained. The study notes, however, that this figure is still on a safe margin based on annual trends.

Established developers, or those with more than two years of experience in crypto, have increased 27% year-over-year. These veteran devs now account for over 70% of code commits across major blockchain ecosystems.

The report analyzed 902 million code commits across 1.7 million repositories, revealing significant changes in development patterns and platform preferences.

Ethereum maintains its position as the dominant development platform in most regions. However, Solana has emerged as the preferred choice for new developers. Solana also secured strong second-place positions across major markets including the United States, United Kingdom, China, and Canada.

New devs are building

Despite a highly volatile year, crypto is steadily attracting software talent, bringing in over 39,000 new developers in 2024. For these new developers, Solana had become the top choice by July this year. Even ecosystems outside of Ethereum and Solana are drawing numbers.

Internet Computer, Aptos, Base, Bitcoin, Sui, NEAR, Polkadot, and Polygon rank as the chains with the most number of new devs after the top two. For each of these chains, at least 1,000 new developers were brought in over the course of the last year.

This influx of new talent shows particular strength in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, which claimed 41% of new devs. This suggests growing technical sophistication in regions that were previously underrepresented in the space.

This shift in geographic distribution also signals how the crypto industry in general is maturing, branching out and outgrowing the Western hemisphere’s dominance. This means that, at least in terms of developer activity, emerging markets are driving much of the new growth.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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2024-12-15 17:45:16

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Crypto News

Ronin’s DeFi TVL Grows 149% YoY, Boosted by RON Token’s 30% Price Rise

Ronin, the Layer 1 blockchain developed by Sky Mavis, experienced a significant 149% year-over-year increase in DeFi TVL, reaching $147 million in Q3 2024.

There are several factors influencing this growth. One of the major catalysts was, however, the price surge of the RON token.

Ronin’s DeFi, NFT Demand Grows

According to Messari’s latest report, Ronin’s DeFi TVL rose from $59 million in Q3 2023 to $147 million in Q3 2024. The figure was boosted by a 30% increase in the RON token price and wider ecosystem adoption. At the same time, native token TVL fell by 36%, from 128 million to 82 million tokens, indicating less participation.

This could be because of fewer token-locking incentives, a shift to gaming and NFTs, and a preference for holding RON tokens. RON holders increased by 11,611%, reaching 527,000 in Q3 2024, with a 20% growth from Q2.

Interestingly, Katana DEX holds a dominant 99% share of the total DeFi TVL on the Ronin network, while the next two largest protocols, Sablier Finance and MetaLend, contribute just 0.0029% and 0.77%, respectively. As the main decentralized exchange on Ronin, Katana drives liquidity and token swaps for assets like RON, AXS, and SLP. While Katana’s TVL dropped 9% QoQ from $165 million in Q2 2024 to $150 million in Q3 2024, it saw a 154% YoY increase, rising from $59 million in Q3 2023 to $150 million in Q3 2024.

Throughout the year, Ronin’s daily NFT buyers generally outnumbered sellers, indicating a preference for holding. In Q3 2024, both buyers and sellers grew by 17%, with the former rising from 4,400 to 5,100 and the latter from 3,700 to 4,300. This growth followed a record-high in June this year, fueled by the Coinbase Learn campaign and Ronin Carnival, which featured Axie Infinity missions, a $1 million competition from Apeiron, and free trials from 0xScope. These events led to peak engagement with 28,000 buyers and 20,000 sellers.

Zooming out, Ronin’s daily transactions grew 24% QoQ in Q3, rising from 1.8 million to 2.2 million. This growth was driven by new games and partnerships. However, average daily transaction fees fell 20% QoQ, dropping from $7,000 to $5,000, likely due to Ronin focusing on expanding its ecosystem.

Compared to Q3 2023, daily transactions skyrocketed by 2,300%, from 90,000 to 2.2 million, and transaction fees rose 4,000%, from $134 to $5,000. Active addresses also grew by 23% QoQ, while new addresses increased by 22%.

Ronin’s Security Woes

Known for being the victim of the most costly DeFi hack, Ronin was breached in 2022 when an attacker used inadequate private key security to authorize a fraudulent transaction, draining $624 million from the cross-chain bridge.

In August 2024, the platform suffered another attack, losing $12 million due to a smart contract flaw introduced by a recent upgrade.

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2024-12-15 16:43:13

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Play With Doge: 7 Games That Feature the Dogecoin Meme Pup

Dogecoin is back in the spotlight, surging to a three-year high price recently amid a broader crypto market spike, not to mention continued promotion from Elon Musk, who will co-lead a government agency called the Department of Government Efficiency—yes, the DOGE.

The original meme coin is all about vibes, and if you’re looking to bring more of that goofy fun into your life, then you can find Dogecoin and the meme dog’s likeness in several games.

From a Fortnite-like battle royale shooter to a strategic trading card game and even a casual metaverse gaming world, here are seven games to play that celebrate all things DOGE.

OpenSeason

Fortnite-like battle royale shooter OpenSeason added a custom Doge-themed biome in April. In a blog post, the game’s developers said that it is a “realm where every nook and cranny barks the tale of Kabosu, the Doge, our beloved Shiba Inu.”

The Ethereum-based shooter built the digital environment in collaboration with NFT project Own the Doge, the crypto project that owns the official Doge IP. OpenSeason is available via the Epic Games Store.

Raini: The Lords of Light

Hearthstone-style trading card game Raini: The Lords of Light is filled with crypto-themed cards. The game is dominated by crypto references, including a card of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

So of course, it makes sense that there’s a Dogecoin reference in-game. The game teased an “Unleash the Doges” card with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2022, and then eventually launched a “Chad Doge” card as an Avalanche NFT.

Super Doginals

Retro-style brawler Super Doginals is both Doge-themed and also inscribed on the Dogecoin blockchain via the Doginals protocol—that was a lot of Doge in one sentence, much wow.

Akin to classic fighting games like Streets of Rage and Fatal Fury, you control one of three characters—two of which are anthropomorphic Shiba Inu dogs—in this side-scrolling brawler as you pummel foes based on other meme-friendly creatures like apes, cats, and frogs.

Decentraland

Ethereum-based metaverse game Decentraland embraced AI last year to enable players to chat with non-playable characters, or NPCs. The added characters included Simone the Robot, 23-year-old streamer Aisa, and a buffed up Doge—who is claimed to be a lighthearted character, despite his imposing stature.

The game is free to play, though the Decentraland world is split up into 90,000 units of NFTs, known as LAND—so if you want to publicly build, you’ll have to splash the cash. But you don’t have to spend anything to wander around and chat with Doge.

Who’s the Top Dog?

Inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain via the Ordinals protocol, Who’s the Top Dog? is a Pac-Man clone with crypto elements. Pac-Man is replaced by the mascot of the Bitcoin Runes token DOG, while the ghosts are replaced by the pups associated with popular meme coins Shiba Inu, Dogwifhat, Floki, and of course, DOGE.

It’s also playable as a built-in game on the BitBoy One handheld game console, essentially a Bitcoin riff on Nintendo’s Game Boy, which is starting to ship to early buyers.

Katana Inu

The NFT-based battle royale game Katana Inu has a sword-wielding, Dogecoin-themed playable character in-game, even using it as the game’s mascot. But it’s not just Doge: The game has tons of characters dedicated to crypto projects like meme coin NPC, an apparent Pepe tribute, and even one dedicated to Solana—yes, the cryptocurrency and network.

PixelTap

Telegram tap-to-earn game PixelTap added “The Giga Chad Doge” back in June—yep, you read that right. The story here is that the cute Doge we all know and love was struck by a “bolt of energy” that bulked the doggy up into a hyper-muscular version of himself. 

This character can be used in Pixelverse Telegram game to fight enemies and progress within the game.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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2024-12-15 15:30:52

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Crypto News

Tomarket Partners with Aptos Foundation to Launch $TOMA and Build Future Products on Aptos

[PRESS RELEASE – Victoria, Seychelles, December 14th, 2024]

Tomarket, an innovative Telegram mini-app bridging Web2 and Web3, has launched on the Aptos—a secure, scalable and feature-rich Layer-1 blockchain. Combining Tomarket’s large user base with Aptos’s advanced technology, the integration enhances scalability, user experience, and Web3 adoption. It also sets the stage for Tomarket’s upcoming $TOMA token launch, driving further growth and innovation.

Tomarket is a simple yet innovative mini-app on Telegram designed to seamlessly guide users from Web2 to Web3. By combining engaging gameplay with features like earning and trading, Tomarket simplifies blockchain technology for everyday users. Since its launch in July, the platform has experienced rapid growth, with 50 million total users, 6 million daily active users (DAU) and 13 million connected wallets. 

Originally built on the TON blockchain, Tomarket’s transition to Aptos reflects its commitment to scalability and creating user-friendly pathways to Web3 adoption. Aptos’s high speed and reliable infrastructure provides the scalability Tomarket needs to support its growing user base while delivering smooth, efficient blockchain experiences. This partnership unlocks new opportunities for both Tomarket and the Aptos ecosystem by introducing millions of active users to Aptos. This integration leverages Tomarket’s proven ability to transition users from Web2 to Web3, delivering significant growth and driving large-scale adoption.

Tomarket has launched on Aptos, offering users a range of gaming experiences aimed at fostering engagement and increasing platform activity. The deployment introduces earning opportunities through FarmingPool rewards and a referral-driven community model. Additionally, Tomarket is preparing to release a multi-chain DEX aggregator designed to enable seamless token trading.

Tomarket is launching its $TOMA token on December 20th, fully integrating onto the Aptos blockchain, which will power Tomarket’s gaming rewards, earning programs, and trading features. This launch positions Tomarket as the largest mini-app in the Aptos ecosystem, unlocking new utility for users and boosting engagement and liquidity. With Aptos’s fast and scalable infrastructure, Tomarket plans to expand its offerings by introducing more games to attract new users and increase daily activity, strengthening FarmingPool to offer greater earning opportunities and foster referral-driven growth, and launching a DEX aggregator to streamline token trading and improve user satisfaction and ecosystem liquidity.

This integration highlights Tomarket’s role as a gateway for millions of Web2 users transitioning to Web3, while aligning with the Aptos mission of creating an accessible blockchain ecosystem. Together, Tomarket is redefining how users engage with Aptos.”Integrating Aptos’s cutting-edge infrastructure marks an exciting chapter for Tomarket. As one of the leading mini-apps in the Telegram ecosystem, we’re thrilled to leverage Aptos’s scalable technology to enhance seamless experiences for our growing user base while contributing to the adoption and growth of the Aptos ecosystem,” said Miles, Core Team Member from Tomarket.

For more information, users can visit Tomarket’s Telegram announcement.

About Tomarket

Tomarket is a decentralized platform combining gaming, earning, and trading into an accessible ecosystem. With its innovative approach and massive user base, Tomarket is committed to driving blockchain adoption on a global scale. Tomarket is backed by Foresight X and Bitget Wallet.

For more information:Website | Telegram

For media inquiries, users can contact media@tomarket.ai

About Aptos

Aptos is the secure, scalable, and feature-rich L1 blockchain of choice for both developers and users—delivering the best performance, the highest throughput, and lowest latency. Aptos is the first blockchain to use the Move programming language, and is designed with simplicity in mind for the best builder experience. Aptos is the top choice for next-gen use cases, real-world applications, and the millions of users that come with them. If it’s happening in Web3, it’s happening on Aptos.

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2024-12-15 07:26:41

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Crypto News

Bitcoin Is Flying High—These Countries Are Considering a National Reserve

Some countries are mulling a national Bitcoin reserve amid a historic market run-up that has pushed the world’s largest cryptocurrency to new heights in recent weeks, with BTC topping $100,000 for the first time earlier this month.

United States President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly thrown their support behind a bill to stock the Federal Reserve with the asset, and will soon be in position to potentially make that a reality.

Government officials in Brazil have also put forth legislation to realize that possibility, while politicians in Poland and Russia have endorsed the idea of adding the digital currency to their nations’ balance sheets.

El Salvador led the charge on this front, making Bitcoin legal tender while gradually amassing BTC for its own reserve starting in 2021—and now President Bukele is taking a victory lap.

While it’s unclear whether other countries will actually stockpile Bitcoin anytime soon, one thing is obvious: Interest in holding the token as a reserve asset has reached a fever pitch. Here’s who is considering a national Bitcoin reserve.

United States

Several U.S. lawmakers have made pushes to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve.  

Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming last spring unveiled a bill called the “Bitcoin Act” that calls for the U.S. to acquire as much as 200,000 Bitcoin annually over a five-year period, or up 5% of the token’s total supply.

The Bitcoin would be kept in a « decentralized network of secure Bitcoin vaults operated by the United States Department of Treasury,” with token acquisitions being accomplished through a diversification of existing Federal Reserve funds such as bonds, loans and gold.

President-elect Donald Trump similarly endorsed a “strategic Bitcoin stockpile” last July at BTC 2024 in Nashville—one of many such crypto-related promises that he’ll be expected to honor once in office.

“It will be the policy of my administration…to keep 100% of all the Bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires into the future,” Trump said at the event.

At the state level, efforts to create Bitcoin reserves are also underway.

A Texas lawmaker put forth a bill last week that would order the state to create a Bitcoin stash, with funds in the reserve being held for at least five years. Meanwhile, a similar bill was proposed in Pennsylvania in November.

Brazil 

Brazil’s government has proposed a bill that would green-light a national Bitcoin reserve. 

The Sovereign Strategic Reserve of Bitcoins (RESBit) would account for 5% of Brazil’s international reserves, according to the proposed legislation, filed on November 25. It aims to diversify the Brazilian Treasury’s assets.

Incorporating Bitcoin into the Treasury “will reduce Brazil’s exposure to exchange rate fluctuations and geopolitical risks, increasing economic resilience,” Federal Deputy Eros Biondini said in the proposed bill.

Under the proposal, Brazil’s Central Bank would manage the Bitcoin reserve in partnership with the Ministry of Finance. Those funds would be used to back Brazil’s CBDC, called Drex. The Bitcoin would be stored in cold wallets, according to the bill.

Poland 

Polish presidential candidate Sławomir Mentzen has advocated for the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve, as well as for the passing of crypto-friendly laws and regulations in Poland. 

“If I become the President of Poland, our country will become a cryptocurrency haven, with very friendly regulations, low taxes, and a supportive approach from banks and regulators,” Mentzen said in a recent post on X (formerly known as Twitter).

“It is high time Polish politicians also look to the future,” the politician said in another X post. 

The far-right nationalist candidate is running third in the polls in the Eastern European country. It is unclear if Mentzen’s political opponents also support the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

Russia 

In December, Russian parliament deputy Anton Tkachev proposed creating a national Bitcoin reserve, state-news agency Ria reported.

The push came after several Russian legislators in November suggested creating a “stash of” crypto in “the state Treasury,” despite opposition from Russian State Duma Committee Chairman Anatoly Aksakov. 

They also succeeded in passing legislation legalizing crypto mining and the use of digital assets for international payments this fall. 

Russia’s recent change of tune on crypto suggests the Eastern European country could revisit the issue of a strategic Bitcoin reserve, which at least one of its top officials has previously expressed support for.

In a 2021 interview with Russian news outlet Interfax, Deputy Minister Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Pankin expressed an openness to partially replacing the country’s U.S. dollar-backed reserves and trade settlements with other currencies, including cryptocurrencies. 

Russia could replace U.S. dollars with various national currencies as well as “in the future, probably…some kind of digital assets,” Pankin told the outlet.

Japan

Japanese lawmaker Satoshi Hamada submitted a formal request to his nation’s legislature in December to initiate a discussion about creating a national Bitcoin reserve for Japan.

Hamada’s party holds just two seats in Japan’s National Diet, however there are other Bitcoin backers in the legislature—in October, Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki proposed tax cuts and regulatory reform for crypto holders and companies alike in Japan.

Edited by Andrew Hayward and Sebastian Sinclair

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on November 30, 2024. It was last updated with new details on December 15.

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2024-12-15 15:16:35

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Crypto News

Nano Labs Secures $36.25 Million After $5.5 Million Bitcoin Acquisition

Chinese fabless integrated circuit design company Nano Labs has announced the successful closing of a $36.25 million private placement.

The transaction, which was first disclosed in November, involved the issuance of 5,611,459 Class A ordinary shares at a purchase price of $6.46 per share. The shares were priced at $6.46 each, and the transaction was structured to include payments in US dollars, Bitcoin (BTC), and USDT (Tether).

The latest development comes just a day after the company revealed purchasing approximately 55.6 BTC. Its stash is worth around $5.5 million. The company made this investment through Hashkey, a licensed virtual asset trading platform based in Hong Kong.

The Huangzhou-based company also announced that it will continue to closely monitor the developments in the Bitcoin market and adjust its investment strategy accordingly.

Last month, Nano Labs began accepting Bitcoin payments for its products. The company, known for its high-tech solutions, opened a Coinbase account to facilitate these transactions, responding to the increasing demand for cryptocurrency payments across industries.

This decision also came amid financial struggles for the company. Nano Labs faced a steep decline in stock prices since its public offering in 2022.

The company had then issued a statement saying,

“Nano Labs’ acceptance for payments in Bitcoin aligns with its long-term vision of staying at the forefront of technology advancements and delivering added value to clients worldwide. With this new capability, the Company is positioned to attract a broader range of partners and customers who value progressive financial option.”

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2024-12-15 12:23:42

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Crypto News

BTC at $97K, HYPE has Massive Airdrop, VIRTUAL hits $1.4B FDV

BTC at $97K, HYPE has Massive Airdrop, VIRTUAL hits $1.4B FDV

BTC nears $100k again, ETH underperforms. BTC whales acquired $1.5bn BTC during dip. ETH defi TVL hits 2-year high, surges past $80bn. ETH co-founder moves $72mn ETH to Kraken. BTC ETFs inflows hit ATH in November. BTC to $132k in 2025: OKG. $13.6bn in BTC options expire Friday. HYPE hits $450m on launch, $4.5bn FDV. XRP continues to outperform majors. BTC DeFi to dominate crypto in 3 years: Hoskinson. HK central bank subsidises tokenised bond issuance. Coinbase halts USDC earn program in EU. Stablecoins to reach 10% of M2: Stan Chart. Debanking wave tied to Warren: Armstrong. Taiwan fast-tracks stricter crypto AML rules. USDX stablecoin receives $45mn in financing. Justin Sun eats banana artwork bought for $6m.

2024-11-30 16:26:01

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Crypto News

Bitcoin, Ethereum ETF Streak Continues With Massive Net Inflows: Weekly Recap

US investors continued to pour money into the spot Bitcoin ETFs after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential elections, and the streak extended into the past five trading days.

The Ethereum counterparts have also enjoyed the momentum by attracting almost a billion dollars within the past week.

BTC ETFs Keep the Momentum Going

The initial 11 and now 12 spot Bitcoin ETFs have already broken several records in terms of massive net inflows in their first year. This is particularly true for BlackRock’s IBIT, which quickly became the largest of the bunch and continues to be the favorite among investors.

The past five trading days solidified the recent trend that started even before the elections. On Monday, December 9, the funds attracted $489.1 million in net inflows, followed by $438.5 million on Tuesday, $223.1 million on Wednesday, $597.5 million on Thursday, and $428.9 million on Friday, finishing the week strong.

Overall, the total numbers for this period shot up to $2,167.1 billion. Although it is lower than last week’s, it still means that more than $2 billion has been poured into the ETFs within just several days.

IBIT led the charge during four of the trading days, with $394.1 million on Monday, $295.6 million on Tuesday, $431.6 million on Thursday, and $393 million on Friday. It saw no reportable flows on Wednesday, while Fidelity’s FBTC stood out with $121.9 million on that day.

These substantial net inflows have positively impacted BTC’s price as the asset is up by 3% on a weekly scale and sits close to a new all-time high.

ETH ETFs Are Doing Well, too

The Ethereum ETFs have also enjoyed the past several weeks following their sluggish start. Their streak began even further back—on November 22—and they have yet to see a day in the red since.

Once again, they recorded impressive numbers in the past week, attracting $149.8 million on Monday, $305.7 million on Tuesday, $102 million on Wednesday, $273.7 million on Thursday, and a more modest $23.6 million on Friday. The total now stands at $854.8 million.

Interestingly, ETH’s price is actually down on a weekly scale by 2.5%. The asset jumped above $4,000 during the previous Friday but has been unable to maintain its momentum and now sits below $3,900 following a turbulent week.

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2024-12-15 13:13:27

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Blockchain isn’t ready for logins (yet)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the internet login system is essentially as old as the internet itself. In the 1960s and 1970s, as the first computer networks took shape, so too did the need for user authentication. ARPANET, the predecessor to today’s internet, implemented the first formal login systems when it began operations in 1969. These pioneering systems required users to input a username and password to access network resources, something billions of people would do trillions of times in the years since.

With the dawn of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s, web-based logins quickly became a staple, providing a gateway to personalized digital experiences. Yet, these early forays into user authentication were often marred by shockingly lax security standards. Many developers at the time saw little issue in storing passwords as plain text or—astonishingly—embedding them directly within HTML code.

As the internet matured, so too did our approach to login security. The introduction of server-side scripting languages like PHP in the mid-1990s allowed for more secure password storage and verification. Encryption and hashing algorithms became standard practice, and two-factor authentication emerged as an additional layer of security.

Despite two-factor authentication and password managers, and despite the leaps and bounds made in other aspects of our digital lives, the basic username-password combo has stuck around like an unwanted party guest.

The Scale of the Login Challenge

Enter blockchain — or not. Because despite blockchain making leaps and bounds in industries from healthcare to logistics, logins are one area where distributed ledger technology (DLT) hasn’t proven useful.

Ok, so let’s talk about why. For context, LastPass conducted a survey that stated that the “average user has ~70 passwords to manage, and that users could log in 20-30 times per day.”  NordPass, in a similar survey stated that “average users spend about 15 minutes of each day logging in and out of accounts.” At 30 seconds to 1 minute per login, that means NordPass’s survey would imply roughly 15-30 logins per day.

To be conservative, let’s assume the lowest number here — 15 logins per day.  The world has a population of 8 billion people, of which 85% have access to smartphones, which could be a proxy for access to technology where logins are required.

Therefore, a super rough estimate of logins across the entire world per day is .85 x 8 billion x 15 logins, which equates to ~102 billion logins a day, or 1.2 million per second.

The Cost and Scalability Problem

Ethereum, one of the most popular blockchain platforms, can handle only around 6 zero-knowledge proof verifications per second. For blockchain to singularly replace traditional login systems, we would need the capacity of nearly 200,000 Ethereum-like blockchains working simultaneously — and that’s before we account for other transactions that happen on these networks. Simply put, blockchain in its current form lacks the scalability to manage even a fraction of the world’s daily authentication demands.

But capacity isn’t the only problem. The cost of verifying logins on a blockchain like Ethereum could be extremely high.  As a base case, let’s assume that the cost in gas units per login is the absolute minimum cost per transaction on Ethereum which is 21,000 gas units  For reference, right now, Ethereum is priced at $2,400 per ETH. Let’s break it down.

Assume that one gas unit on Ethereum costs 5 gwei, and 1 gwei equals 1/1,000,000,000 ETH. This means 240 million login verifications, each using 21,000 gas, would cost around $60.5 million per day, with Ethereum priced at $2,400 per ETH.

And to top it off, all that cost would be burnt on Ethereum, meaning no one in the network would earn any revenue from it.

This is not sustainable.

Logins simply can’t cost as much as verifying a transaction on a public ledger. The decentralization of blockchain, while offering great security and transparency bonafides, comes with a financial premium that makes it impractical for something as mundane yet ubiquitous as logging in to your favorite website.

Squaring the Circle

Still, zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) offer a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak landscape. ZKPs allow users to prove their identity without revealing any sensitive information — a far cry from today’s world, where personal data is scattered across thousands of databases, each a potential target for hackers. In theory, blockchain-powered logins using ZKPs could usher in a new era of privacy, one in which passwords and usernames are relics of the past.

But theory and practice rarely align so neatly. While ZKPs may solve some privacy concerns, they introduce other issues, namely the need for significant computational resources and the current high cost of verifying these proofs.

As mentioned earlier, Ethereum struggles with these demands, and while other blockchains like zkVerify are working to drive down costs dramatically, the technology is not quite ready for widespread deployment. And then there’s the challenge of user experience. Most internet users aren’t cryptography experts, so any new system needs to be as seamless as the current, albeit flawed, username-password combination.

UX issues shouldn’t be sniffed at either. Just because something is technically superior, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be widely adopted (take the Linux OS as a great example). The industry must combine both if it is to succeed.

While logins shouldn’t carry any direct costs, they often do, hidden in the services we use. Worldcoin offers a blockchain-based login solution using retina scans to authenticate users with zero-knowledge proofs, verified on the Optimism blockchain. Although this process costs just $0.0033 per login, when scaled to 240 million logins per day, the expense reaches an unsustainable $800,000 daily.

While this is a 98.5% reduction compared to Ethereum, the system operates on a different, more centralized layer, trading off decentralization for scalability. In contrast, cloud services like AWS Cognito offer a much cheaper alternative, costing $0.0025 per user per month, making the blockchain option 98.5% more expensive. Clearly, blockchain logins have room for improvement.

So, where does that leave us? Blockchain has the ingredients to disrupt logins, if not a clear recipe to get it done. As advancements in cost efficiency and scalability—such as zero-knowledge-powered Layer 2 solutions—continue to develop, we could be approaching a tipping point. While blockchain-based systems currently struggle to compete with the low-cost, high-speed infrastructure of cloud providers like Amazon and Google, the scales are tipping in its favor.

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2024-12-15 12:00:55

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Coming Soon: MYRIAD Public Beta


Decrypt and Rug Radio are evolving their interconnected media ecosystem with MYRIAD’s on-chain prediction markets, launching soon in public beta. Register now at myriad.markets!

2024-12-02 17:56:55

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