Blockchain development
Warren Buffett-backed neobank picks Polygon for Web3 token — MATIC price eyes 100% rally
MATIC has painted a bull flag setup with a profit target sitting nearly 100% higher than its current price.
The price of Polygon’s MATIC (MATIC) coin could double by the end of 2022 or early 2023 due to a mix of extremely bullish fundamental and technical indicators.
Polygon wins high-profile clients
MATIC rose by nearly 6.5% four days after Nubank, a Brazilian fintech company backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Softbank, confirmed that it selected Polygon’s “Supernets technology” for its blockchain and digital token, dubbed Nucoin.
“Nubank plans to airdrop the digital token to its customers in the first half of 2023,” the official announcement read, adding:
“These tokens will serve as the basis for its customers loyalty rewards program and will have benefits such as discounts and other advantages.”
#Polygon is taking @Nubank from #Web2 ➡️ #Web3!
— Polygon - MATIC (@0xPolygon) October 19, 2022
In a strategic partnership with Polygon, Nubank is launching its own chain using #PolygonSupernets & thus its digital token Nucoin #onPolygon
This move will open the gateway for 70 mn+ Nubank users to the #Web3 space pic.twitter.com/Fu06Vi7IpV
As a result of the rally, MATIC was changing hands for $0.90 on Oct. 24, its highest level in three weeks.
Polygon Supernets is an enterprise-level solution that removes the complexity of blockchain development for companies looking to build their native chains. Interestingly, before Nubank, gaming company GameSwift employed the product to launch its custom blockchain.
The growing demand for Polygon products may bring a similar boom for its native token, MATIC, which serves as a utility and staking asset within the Polygon blockchain ecosystem.
MATIC eyes bull flag breakout
The Nubank news surfaces as MATIC paints what appears to be a bullish continuation pattern on its lower-timeframe chart.
Dubbed a “bull flag,” the pattern emerges when the price consolidates inside a parallel, descending channel after a strong move upward. As a rule, it resolves after the price breaks out of the range to the upside and rises by as much as the previous uptrend’s height.
Therefore, MATIC’s breakout above the flag’s upper trendline could have it test $1.85 as its primary upside target. In other words, it could see a 100% price rally by the end of 2022 or at the beginning of 2023.
Related: 3 reasons why DeFi investors should always look before leaping
Conversely, a pullback from the flag’s upper trendline could lead MATIC toward the lower trendline near $0.67.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Weekly active crypto devs drops over 26% over the last 3 months
Blockchain developer activity is one of the most crucial metrics in measuring the success of a smart contract platform — one that lacks developers will struggle to grow.
The crypto industry has seen more than a 26% reduction in weekly active developers over the last three months amid a prolonged market slump, the latest data shows.
According to Blockchain data aggregator Artemis, the four leading smart contract platforms — Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, and Cosmos experienced even higher drop-off, clocking 30.5%, 43.6%, 48.4%, and 48.9% reductions in developer activity respectively over the last three months.
Interestingly, decentralized data storage protocol Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and blockchain network Internet Computer were among the few top smart contract platforms to have seen growth throughout this period, with increases of 206.6% and 21.7% respectively.
Blockchain developers are primarily responsible for designing blockchain architecture, maintaining and upgrading infrastructure, and building smart contracts that power decentralized applications.
Blockchain developer activity is considered one of the most important metrics for the success of a smart contract platform, as one that lacks developers will likely struggle to grow.
Crypto researcher and founder of Tascha Labs, Tascha Che told her 173,700 Twitter followers on Sept. 8 that she doesn’t believe the trend is of much concern, as the fall was attributed to the exit of “tourist builders” and “tourist investors,” which will now allow legitimate builders to “have peace and quiet to get real work done.”
Active developers across all crypto protocols have dropped 30% this yr.
— Tascha (@TaschaLabs) September 8, 2022
Tourist builders are leaving along w/ tourist investors.
Finally the industry is having some peace & quiet to get real work done.
h/t @Artemis__xyz pic.twitter.com/PAGi6Yh7eo
Another Twitter user, identifying themselves as a Binance research analyst didn’t comment on the downward trend but said developer activity will be an “important metric” to consider in the years to come because of the “flywheel effect” it has on the industry.
The fall in developer activity follows a crypto market downfall from April to mid-June, which saw the entire crypto market cap slashed from $2.1 trillion to $890 billion.
Related: Ethereum dominates among developers, but competitors are growing faster
Cardano’s Vasil hard fork proposal submitted: Countdown commences
From July 3 the four-week window for application developers and exchanges to test the upcoming Cardano upgrade begins before it's launched onto the mainnet.
Cardano (ADA) blockchain developer Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) has submitted an update proposal to hard fork the Cardano testnet, kicking off the countdown for the network's Vasil mainnet upgrade.
The Vasil upgrade is slated to bring “significant performance and capability upgrades” to the blockchain, with IOHK describing the fork as the “biggest and best upgrade to date” providing a higher throughput, improved script performance for developers and lower costs.
One of the most significant updates pointed out by the team is the implementation of diffusion pipelining aimed at improving the blockchains' scalability for decentralized applications (DApps).
The update will allow faster block creation as they can be transmitted without full validation.
If everything goes smoothly, the upgrade to the testnet will take place July 3, with the mainnet upgrade scheduled for roughly around the end of July. The Cardano community requested four weeks minimum to allow time to test and upgrade applications on the testnet, and IOHK says the hard fork for the mainnet will take place “once everyone is comfortable and ready.”
The Cardano mainnet upgrade was previously supposed to take place on June 29 but was delayed by a month on June 22 citing several outstanding bugs. IOHK has called the project the “most complex program of work we’ve undertaken”.
IOHK’s “prime concern” is ensuring the upgrade is managed in a “safe and secure” manner. It reports the Vasil node is creating over 75% of the testnet network’s blocks and believes there is “good chain density to proceed safely.”
The last significant upgrade to the blockchain was in September 2021 with the Alonzo hard fork which brought in long-awaited smart contract functionality for the first time using Plutus scripts, a smart contract development language purpose built for Cardano.
The upgrade was widely considered to be a disappointment as Cardano still only has 11 DApps according to DeFi Llama. The co-founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson previously predicted there would be “thousands of DApps” on Cardano by 2021 and believes developers are waiting for the Vasil upgrade to launch their projects.
The Vasil node is named in honor of Vasil Stoyanov Dabov, an artist and Cardano community member and ambassador who passed away in December 2021 after a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.
Related: Can Cardano's July hard fork prevent ADA price from plunging 60%?
Cardano is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain and touted as a so-called “Ethereum Killer” which aims to beat Ethereum (ETH) by providing better scalability, transactions per second and lower fees.
Currently, its native coin ADA sits in eighth position with a $15.7 billion market capitalization at a price of around $0.45, down 85% from its all-time-high of over $3 in September 2021 according to data from CoinGecko.
Vietnam Launches Blockchain Association to Conduct Research and Suggest Regulations
A newly established blockchain association aims to help Vietnam promote its digital economy and position the country on the world’s technology map. The organization looks to unite Vietnam’s experts in the field and seek cooperation with blockchain communities around the globe for the research and development of blockchain solutions. Vietnam to Expand Implementation of Blockchain […]A Low-code Approach to Building NFT Marketplaces
Tehran Government Bans Iran Blockchain Association
The Ministry of Interior of the Islamic Republic has suspended the Iran Blockchain Association (IBA). The measure comes after the organization allegedly breached government regulations. IBA unites participants in the country’s growing crypto sector who are engaged in blockchain technology development. Iranian Authorities to Review IBA Dealings With Crypto Exchanges The Iranian government has moved […]Polygon’s New $100M Fund Aims to Attract Next Million Defi Participants
As part of its ongoing efforts to make the decentralized finance ecosystem more accessible through infrastructure development, this layer2 scaling solution has introduced a $100 million fund designed to lower the barriers to entry for yield farming and lending. #Defiforall to Support Development Over Next 2-3 Years Decentralized finance (defi) has emerged as one of […]