With the Ethereum merger now behind us, it is likely that other blockchain and cryptocurrency projects will receive increased attention. Let’s take a look at three projects that will be particularly interesting in the coming week.
3. Ethereum PoW (ETHW)
EthereumPow is a blockchain that is the result of a hard fork from Ethereum. While the Ethereum project transitioned to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism after the merge upgrade on September 15, EthereumPoW maintains the previous proof-of-work consensus mechanism. On the same day, the EthereumPoW project also launched its mainnet.
EthereumPoW was founded by crypto investor and former Ethereum miner Chandler Guo. The project appears to be mostly supported by ex-Ethereum miners looking for new ways to use their mining hardware after the Ethereum mainnet abandoned proof-of-work.
Why EthereumPoW? This week could be pivotal for the WETH markets
The next week could tell us a lot about whether EthereumPoW will be a project with staying power or will be quickly forgotten. ETH holders on several cryptocurrency exchanges have received their ETHW allocations, and of course the tokens can also be accessed by those holding ETH in their wallets at the time of the fork.
Initially there was a lot of selling pressure for ETHW as users not interested in the project dumped their ETHW “airdrops”. On September 15th alone, the coin’s price plummeted from a local high of $45 to as low as $9.30 before the market recovered slightly. This week we will be on the lookout for whether the coin can establish some sort of price support or if the price will continue to drop.
A worrying sign is that there doesn’t seem to be much interest from developers to build projects on EthereumPoW, and many of the leading Ethereum-based projects have explicitly stated that they are committed to the Proof-of-Stake chain. Regardless of the long-term prospects of the project, the ETHW markets could be very volatile and interesting to watch over the next few days.
2. BNB (BNB)
BNB is a token launched by cryptocurrency exchange Binance in 2017. BNB serves two main functions. Token holders will gain access to special benefits when using Binance – these include lower trading fees, access to the exchange’s Launchpad and Launchpool programs, cashback on Binance Visa card purchases, and more.
The token will also be used as a native asset of the BNB Chain blockchain. BNB Chain is a variant of Ethereum that offers users significantly lower transaction fees and allows developers to easily deploy EVM-compatible decentralized applications. Formerly known as Binance Coin, BNB has now undergone a major rebrand.
Why BNB? BNB Chain’s Google Cloud Partnership and Binance’s “Soulbound” Tokens
The BNB Chain project recently announced a partnership with Google Cloud, the cloud computing arm of tech giant Google. According to BNB Chain, they will work with Google Cloud to help Web3 and blockchain projects built on top of BNB Chain to develop and scale their products.
BNB chain projects can leverage Google Cloud’s cloud infrastructure to build their projects and leverage the platform for on-chain data analysis and encryption. In addition, select Web3 projects built on top of BNB Chain will benefit from “accelerated access” to Google for Startups’ cloud program.
There was also an exciting announcement from Binance related to the BNB chain launching Binance Account Bound (BAB) tokens. BAB tokens are an example of non-transferable or “soulbound” tokens and are available to Binance users who have completed the exchange’s identity verification process. Users can mint their own BAB token and use it to verify their identity on selected BNB chain projects to gain access to exclusive opportunities.
1. Cardano (ADA)
Cardano is a blockchain project that started in 2017. It works via a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and integrates smart contract functionality to support decentralized applications like DEXes. The Cardano blockchain also supports custom tokens that use the same architecture as the network’s native asset ADA. The Cardano project consists of three main organizations: IOHK, which leads the technical development of the project, the Cardano Foundation, which promotes the adoption of Cardano, and Emurgo, which focuses on collaborating with companies.
Why Cardano? The Vasil hard fork is approaching
The Cardano mainnet will receive the highly anticipated Vasil upgrade on September 22nd. According to Cardano developers Input Output, Vasil is the most significant upgrade to Cardano to date. The upgrade was previously postponed because developers needed more time to test after spotting bugs in the code.
VASIL UPGRADE: DATE CONFIRMED?
After the successful completion and extensive testing of all core components as well as the confirmed community readiness, together with @cardanostiftung can today announce September 22 for the #Vasily Upgrade to the #Cardano main net. ?$ADA
1/9— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) September 2, 2022
After the upgrade is complete, users can benefit from increased network capacity and lower transaction fees. The upgrade will also give Cardano’s smart contracts framework Plutus a boost. This will allow developers to build more sophisticated decentralized applications on the Cardano blockchain.
Per input output, Cardano holders and users do not need to take any steps to prepare for the Vasil upgrade as the transition is expected to be “seamless”.
