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One of the major pitfalls of blockchain technology is the inability for blockchains to access off chain data in a trustless manner. This is called the ‘Oracle Problem’ and is what Tellor (TRB) and a handful of other blockchain projects are attempting to solve.

Solving the Oracle Problem is essential to creating true trustless and decentralized DeFi platforms. Currently many DeFi platforms rely on 3rd party data providers creating a centralized point of failure. If the data provided is inaccurate with malicious intent or not the consequences can be huge for these platforms.

Alongside Tellor in trying to solve the Oracle Problem are a number of well known projects. Such as Chainlink, Band Protocol, and others. But can Tellor compete?

In this article we will dive into the Tellor team, how Tellor works, the tech behind Tellor, the value of the Tellor token and more.

The Tellor Team

Tellors executive team hails primarily from an economics and business based background.

CEO of Tellor Brenda Loya, studied economics and was previously a supervisor with the U.S government.

CTO of Tellor Nicholas Fett, also studied economics and formerly worked for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) a regulatory body over looking U.S derivatives market. He now spends most of his time writing the code that shapes the Tellor project.

CSO Micheal Zemrose, comes from a business development background and worked as a small business consultant.

All 3 of them founded Tellor while making a previous project called Daxia. Daxia focused on creating open source software for Ethereum based derivatives contracts. They needed an oracle for Daxia and so Tellor was founded.

Tellor since October 2019 has been been invested and incubated by Maker, Binance Labs, and Consensys Grants.

How Tellor Works

To understand how Tellor works we must first understand what an oracle actually is. Blockchains by design are exist in their own silo living independently from other networks and blockchains. This is perhaps good for security but makes it incredibly different for blockchain applications to use real world data. This is what oracles aim to solve by allowing real world data be brought on to blockchains in a trustless manner.

Lets imagine a scenario where I am creating a trading platform on the Ethereum network. I want to let users bet on the price of Bitcoin, so for example if Bitcoin reaches 20000$ by the end of 2021 I will pay out 100 ETH. But how do I code the price of Bitcoin into an Ethereum contract?

Well you can’t there is no command you can use to pull the price of Bitcoin. You could use a 3rd party data provider but this completely removes the trustless and decentralized nature of your application. By using an offchain data provider you’re creating a single point of failure within your smart contract. If the data they provide you with is faulty your smart contract could be drained losing you thousands of dollars.

This is where Oracle comes in. The dictionary definition of an oracle is a “person who gives wise or authoritative decisions or opinions” and in the realm of smart contracts this is the same. Instead of going to the 3rd party data provider I can go to the Oracle and get data in a trustless and decentralized manner.

How the Oracle Works

Now that we have established the theory of what an oracle actually is how is it implemented in practice? The process is explained succinctly in the Tellor Whitepaper.

1. A user submits a query (data request) to the Oracle using TRB. This incentivizes miners to choose this query over others.
2. If other users want the same data they can tip the query to further incentivize selection by miners.
3. Every 10 minutes the oracle selects the best funded query and provides a new challenge for miners to solve.
4. Miners submit their PoW solution and off-chain data point to the oracle contract. The oracle contract sorts the values as they come in and as soon as 5 values are recieved the median value is selected and saved on-chain. Miners are then allocated their payout of TRB
5. Anyone holding TRB can dispute the validity of a mined value within 24 hours of it being mined. To do so the disputer has to pay a dispute fee. Tellor token holders then vote on the validity of the data. If the data is deemed to be false, the miner will lose their stake. If the values are correct the dispute fee is given to the miner.

The Tech Behind Tellor

The tech that secures Tellor is a hybrid Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) model. To begin mining on Tellor miners must first stake 1000 TRB. This acts as an incentive against malicious miners feeding bad data points. If after a network vote a miner has been found to have provided bad data their 1000 TRB is taken and their miner status is revoked. This process is carried out through the dispute process.

The interesting part of Tellor is that anyone who holds TRB can file a dispute with a data point. This encourages users to get involved but also ensures that data points are accurate. The lower the barrier to making a dispute the better it is for the network as a whole.

If however the miner works well and provides good data they will earn rewards, again in the form of TRB.

While many chains move away from the PoW model in favour of a PoS model Tellor is using a hybrid system. The reason Tellor outlines for using this system is to both prevent large miners from over running the network and to better align the incentives of data providers with the success of Tellor.

The Value of the Tellor Token

The Incentivisation structure for holding Tellor is multi-faceted. First and foremost is requesting or querying the network for off-chain data. This is the backbone of the network. In order to request data from Tellor you must first hold Tellor. This encourages developers of DeFi applications to buy Tellor in order to get the off-chain data they need in a trustless manner.

The second major incentive is miners. In order to be a miner on Tellor you must hold 1000 TRB. This encourages miners to buy TRB so they can earn future rewards down the line. If the price of TRB is to increase the number miners wanting to get involved will increase. Again driving up demand for TRB.

Demand for Tellor is also stimulated by the tipping system. If multiple users need the same data they can tip an existing query with TRB. This incentivises miners to select that query.

Finally to use the dispute system users must also hold TRB.

Blockchains by design are walled off gardens, existing in silos, independent from other blockchains. Attempts have been made at trying to bridge the gap between various technologies but the problem remains largely present.

These borders between networks reduce the financial efficiency of blockchain assets. Assets are permanently anchored to their own chain. Their financial potential and efficiency is stunted. Its bad for the holders of these assets, and its bad for blockchain as a whole.

pNetwork was founded with the aim of removing these barriers. Increasing financial flexibility and liquidity across a variety of blockchains. Creating use cases in a variety of DeFi apps and making blockchain better as a whole.

In this article we will dive into the pNetwork project to find out about the team behind pNetwork, how they are making these innovations, the value of the pNetwork token (PNT), the technology behind pNetwork and more.

The pNetwork Team

Founded in 2019, with the token launching in June 2020 pNetwork is currently being developed by two sister companies. Provable things, originally founding and developing the pNetwork. And Eidoo which joined the fray at the start of June 2020.

Eidoo has their own project and formerly their own token aptly named Eidoo. This token was then converted into pNetwork tokens (PNT). However, the Eidoo project continues, now just with PNT as the backbone.

When the Eidoo team joined Provable Things they burned 80% of the EDO tokens they held. The burn was done to ensure the Eidoo team could not exercise control over the pNetwork project.

Sometime in July the pNetwork decentralized autonomous organization (or DAO for short) is expected to launch. This will start the process of giving the community a bigger say in the project through allowing PNT holders to vote on issues. But we will discuss this at a greater depth later in the article.

How pNetwork Works

We have already stated that pNetwork was aiming to increase the financial efficiency and liquidity of blockchain. But how are they planning on doing this? The idea at its core is extremely simple and is something that has been applied by banks and governments for decades. Asset pegging.

Asset pegging is simply a term used to describe when one assets value is pegged to another asset. An example of this is in the first stages of modern banking in 17th century Europe.

In the 17th century gold was the primary method of exchange. But gold is heavy, cumbersome and generally something you don’t want to carry around in large amounts. So the first banks were formed. People would deposit their gold with a bank and get a receipt. This receipt then entitled them to the equivalent amount of gold they had just deposited, giving the receipt the same value as the gold. Except receipts are much easier to use for buying and selling goods and services than gold. So, people dropped gold and just continued using the receipts and so, paper money was born.

pNetwork does something very similar except with blockchain assets. I can’t put a Bitcoin on Ethereum network. But now with pNetwork I can transfer the value of my Bitcoin to the Ethereum network. This is done through the pNetwork dapp.

You simply open up the Dapp, send your Bitcoin to the address. In return you will receive an equivalent amount of pBTC. This pBTC is an erc-20 token that I can freely move around the Ethereum blockchain. I can use it on various decentralized exchanges, or DeFi apps, or simply keep it in my Ethereum wallet.

Like the 17th century receipt you got for depositing your gold. The pBTC you have just received is equivalent to the exact same amount of BTC 1:1. To get your Bitcoin back you simply do the transaction in reverse. You send your pBTC to the address given and in return you get the equivalent amount of Bitcoin.

These transactions are not exclusive between Bitcoin and the Ethereum chain. You can deposit Bitcoin and in return get a pBTC on the EOS network. With more planned in the future. Currently Litecoin and EOS on the Ethereum network are in testnet but a lot more are planned for the future.

At the time of writing over 680,000$ dollars has been converted into pBTC. With 630,000$ on Ethereum and over 60000$ on EOS.

The Technology Behind pNetwork

While the idea is simple, the technology that is required to make this simple transaction, trustless and in a decentralized is significantly more complex.

pNetwork uses network validators to ensure that transactions go through safely, securely, and correctly. Nobody wants to deposit their Bitcoin and get nothing in return. Alternatively nobody should be able to manipulate the system and print as much pBTC as they want economically ruining the system.

pNetwork in combination with blockchain uses two primary techniques. Trust Execution Enviroments (TEE) and Multi-Party Computation (MPC).

Trust Execution Enviroments

A Trusted Execution Environment is a hardware isolated sandbox. It enables users to write code which can then be verified by the tech manufacturer that the process has been executed correctly. This moves the trust away from the operator and to the tech manufacturer.

pTokens is planning on using a ‘multi-TEE’ approach where multiple different TEE’s and operators ensure that there is no single point of failure.

Multi-Party Computation

Multi-Party Computation builds upon the TEE. On the pNetwork the TEE operators/ network validators work together to issue pTokens or release the underlying asset.

This is helped by MPC. Issuing or releasing assets occurs when multiple parties jointly generate key pairs and sign transactions. When this is done it authorizes the flow of assets.

Decentralization

As of now there is only one validator authorizing transactions. This is operated in house by the pNetwork team. This is obviously centralized but is necessary to test the network and dapp.

Sometime this month the DAO and more community validators are expected to be rolled out. This will begin the decentralization of the pNetwork ensuring that it eventually does become trustless.

The Value of the pNetwork Token

When discussing any new project it is important to also discuss what gives the token its value. A project can have the best technology in the world but if there is no real value in their token what is the point of getting involved?

PNT’s value is almost entirely derived from the DAO. The DAO allows PNT token holders to get a say in the network enabling them to make proposals and vote within the pNetwork.

By participating and voting in the DAO PNT holders can earn interest on their PNT. In the first year DAO participants can earn up to 42% on their PNT and in the second year they can earn up to 21%. This incentivizes PNT holders to participate in the DAO. If they don’t participate they don’t earn interest.

PNT also partially derives value from validators. To become a validator you must first hold 200,000PNT. You may ask the question of why someone would buy that much PNT to secure a network? As always there is an economic incentive. Validators can participate in the DAO and earn interest like every other holder. However, validators also generate income from the fees generated by the issuance and release of pTokens.

But there is a catch. If validators are found to be acting maliciously, or performing poorly in terms of network capability they can be voted out by the DAO. In doing so they lose their 200,000PNT stake. This creates a double edged sword for validators. Where they are financially rewarded for good performance, and harshly punished for poor or malicious actions

As previously mentioned validators and the DAO are expected to be launched this month.

The Use Case for pNetwork

The use case for pNetwork is largely based around the DeFi ecosystem. If DeFi sees continued growth, pNetwork will flourish. However, if DeFi dies away so to will pNetwork.

The two main use cases that pNetwork cite themselves are DeFi based. These being the use of pNetwork in decentralised lending platforms and decentralized exchanges.

By using pNetwork no matter what blockchain assets I hold I will be able to access liquidity and markets on other networks. I can quickly convert my assets to my desired network and get DeFi based loans or trade on decentralized exchanges.

One of the big problems with Decentralized exchanges in the past was that they could only support tokens on their own network. If it was Ethereum based I could only buy erc-20 tokens. Now with pNetwork we can potentially create an Ethereum DEX and trade every asset in crypto.

pNetwork also works to increase the speed of blockchain. Everyone knows that Bitcoin is secure however it can be incredibly slow and expensive at times. pNetwork opens up the possibility of creating synthetic Bitcoin on incredibly fast blockchains.

Current Integrations

pNetwork’s pTokens are already integrated in a number of ways. pNetwork is integrated with the Eidoo app so users peg in and out their pTokens through there.

pTokens are also listed on a variety of Ethereum and EOS DEX’s. These include exchanges like Kyber Network, Bancor, Loopring, and Evolution Exchange.

There is however currently no lending platforms supporting pTokens as of yet.

Conclusion

The Growth of DeFi has brought a lot of interesting project to the cryptocurrency space pNetwork among them. pNetwork definitely brings something new to the table in terms of technology and its vision for the future.

While DeFi has brought attention to pNetwork and projects similar it can take it away just as easily. If DeFi does turn out to be a hyped up fad pNetwork and a variety of tokens will wither away as great as their tech may be.

But if you truly believe in the continued success of DeFi, pNetwork is an excellent place to look.

Its been an exciting week in the crypto world. TikTok Zoomers grabbed the Doge market by the leash driving price up well over 100%. The DeFI craze also continued. DeFi coin LEND on an almost year long run bull run is up over 50% in the past week. Another DeFi coin Ampleforth also rose up to 300%.

In this weekly spot we focus on the metrics that caught our eye. This data based approach helps provide solid grounding to the events of the previous week. Using the data can also help forecast future events and evaluate the fundamentals to certain cryptocurrencies and the crypto market as a whole.

Bitcoin

In terms of price it was another stagnant week for Bitcoin. Price continuing to hover steadily around the 9000$ mark. This is highlighted perfectly by the continued decline towards all time lows in FTX’s Bitcoin Volatility Token.

Volume on a number of Bitcoin derivatives exchanges has also reached new quarterly lows.

In some other Bitcoin based metrics it was not as stagnant. Using data provided by Glassnode we can see that Bitcoins mining difficulty after slowing down over the past few weeks has once again propelled itself to new all time highs.

The number of Bitcoin wallets holding more than 0.1BTC again reached new highs.

Ethereum

Like Bitcoin, Ethereum has remained steady with traders waiting to see which way the chips will fall. Continuing to orbit to 250$ level.

Mirroring Bitcoin again the number of ETH wallets holding coins has again continued to increase. With the number of ETH wallets holding more than 0.1ETH reaching new highs.

Wallets holding more than 32ETH also reached new highs. Both metrics boding well for the continued adoption of Ethereum.

Altcoins

Chainlink

The larger altcoin that stood out this week was LINK with its continued growth in both price and user growth. Its price continued to climb making all time highs as LINK Marines rejoiced.

LINK Exchange inflows also rocketed. Presumingly to do with holders taking some profits on its price increase.

Fundamentally LINK also made gains. (May be in line with price increase) The the transaction volume of LINK also made a 5 month high.

Alongside this the percentage of LINK tied up in smart contracts made new highs. Demonstrating the interest in LINK smart contracts.

KyberNetwork

Speaking of smart contracts after KyberNetworks Katylast upgrade its supply in smart contracts jumped up 4% to 20%.

USDT

USDT as ever remains a vital tool for the cryptocurrency industry. This week the amount of USDT being held on exchanges reached a new 4 month low. This may be symptomatic of the lack of volatility in the major crypto markets or holders putting their Tether to use in other ways for example through DeFi.

Launched in 2017 by Alex Mashinsky the founder of the famous internet protocol VoIP. Celsius is a cryptocurrency based P2P lending platform. The platform like others was founded with the intent of enabling users to seek loans that benefit all users of the platform.

The platform works by enabling people to deposit cryptocurrency to the Celsius Network. They can then request a loan in US dollars. Alternatively people can deposit their cryptocurrency on the platform and accrue interest in the cryptocurrency they deposited or Celsius Tokens.

Loans are handled automatically by the system and require no user interaction. There is also no fund lockup. Users are free to deposit and withdraw their cryptocurrency as they please.

Yesterday Celsisus announced the launch of support for Ethereum Classic. This means that holders of Ethereum Classic can deposit their coins on to the platform and earn interest.

Founder and Chairperson of Ethereum Classic Labs, James Wo, had this to say:

Financial inclusion and diversity were key founding values of ETC Labs that hold true today. We’re excited to see ETC added to the Celsius wallet and made available to its 120,000 users,

James Wo

This adds Ethereum Classic to a list of over 20 supported currencies varying from majors like Bitcoin and Ethereum, to stable coins. Currently Ethereum Classic deposits are earning just over 6% APR if you choose to accrue more ETC, while if you choose to earn in CEL tokens the APR is just over 8%.

According to the Celsius Network website they currently have over 40,000 active wallets as well as over $300 million dollars in assets and with the addition of ETC this may be set to increase.

BitMEX founded in 2014 and most notably known for its cryptocurrency derivatives products has today announced the launch of BitMEX Corporate.

BitMEX Corporate is, as the name implies, BitMEX’s attempt at on boarding large corporate clients going into the future. These corporate clients can range to large financial institutions, to hedge funds, and trading firms.

In an email sent to users BitMEX outlines the benefits to corporate clients of signing up to the scheme:

• Corporate legal structure – Ensuring that accounts are property of the business rather than any individual
• Improved Service – Corporate clients will be assigned with a dedicated relationship manager.
• Improved Security – Clients will be given additional options in terms of account security.
• Increased rate limits on their account
• Incentive Programmes – Access to products incentive schemes, and market maker programs.

BitMEX’s attempt at increasing their corporate client base is a further signal of the increasing trend of both the increasing institutional presence in the cryptocurrency (typically taking the form of financial institutions wanting to trade cryptocurrency derivatives) and the push by cryptocurrency firms to onboard these corporate clients.

It is already known that large trading firms such as Alameda Research and Circle as well as a host of others use the platform. However, this is BitMEX’s attempt at making corporate onboarding easier.

Other popular exchanges such as Binance, FTX, and OKex have similar schemes for business clients.

Binance the exchange founded in 2017 has today gave a quick glimpse of their plans to launch options trading on the platform.

A tweet made by the official Binance Twitter account today shows a picture of what appears to be patch notes of a future update. Within the patch notes support for options trading is mentioned.

Binance CEO ‘CZ’ also posted a screenshot from the Binance mobile app with an options trading tab shown.

With this prospective launch Binance will join a handful of other crypto exchanges to launch options trading such as Deribit and FTX.

Some have however pointed out a hypocrisy within this future launch. Only recently Binance made the decision to delist a number of leveraged tokens. These leveraged tokens were created and popularized by previously mentioned exchange FTX. These leveraged tokens would allow users to gain leverage on a number of coins so a 1% gain in a certain altcoin would increase the value of the altcoin by up to 10%. The same was true of losses however.

Binance undertook the decision to remove these tokens citing that they were too risky, and that FTX had not created enough informational material for Binance users.

The decision to remove leveraged tokens contradicts the launch of options trading which are a much more complex and risky financial instrument.

On the 13th of March Bitcoin had one of the most gut wrenching declines in its history. Prices falling from 8000$ to just under 4000$. Prices have since made a recovery but on first reflection we still see that the event has caused some aftershocks.

One such aftershock is the decline in active Bitcoin deposits on a number of top exchanges. Via data provided by TokenAnalyst we can look at Binance‘s active deposits. Here we see that since the crash actives deposits have fallen 7% from 261,000BTC to 244,000BTC.

However it is important to note that this just brings deposits back to levels seen at the start of the year.

We see a similar trend on Huobi with deposits falling 6.5% from 390,000 to 365,000BTC

BitMEX which is typically by volume the largest derivatives exchange in crypto, was by far the most effected. With deposits falling over 24% from 316,000BTC to 240,000BTC.

But what is the explanation for these large movements in capital? Well its impossible to say for certain what has caused these large outflows however we can speculate on certain theories.

One rather simplistic but probable theory is that its simply the everyday movement of Bitcoin. With no collective ulterior motive. This is at least partially true. Both institutional and retail traders are constantly moving Bitcoin with no seeming economic motive.

Many have pointed out that correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P500 has been high since the crash. With the S&P500 having some of its worst days in history around the time of Bitcoins crash. Accompanying this were global macroeconomic concerns. These in combination may be causing people to withdraw their Bitcoin from exchanges in favor of less speculative assets or assets which are more liquid. This is also probable explanation.

What these don’t explain however is why BitMEX’s deposits were so much more effected than the other mentioned exchanges. This may be due to growing concerns surrounding BitMEX.

One such concern is an unconfirmed rumor that BitMEX will be enforcing more stringent KYC measures which many cryptocurrency traders are naturally averse to.

Another is the loss of faith in BitMEX as a platform. At the bottom of crash when price kept falling with no bottom in site BitMEX went offline for 15 minutes. When it returned price sharply increased. Many traders called shenanigans after the event but BitMEX responded by simply saying they were DDoSed.

Sam Bankman-Fried CEO of another large exchange FTX and quantitative trading firm Alameda Research went as far as to say that BitMEX had to go offline to prevent Bitcoin going to zero on the platform.

When looking at the data no exchange seems to have absorbed any of the withdrawn Bitcoin from BitMEX so it will be interesting to see how the crypto exchange landscape develops over the next few months.

In this review of PrimeXBT we will assess the platform based on 4 key criteria which are essential to any trading platform. Safety and Security, Trading Fees, Markets, and Standout Features.

In the midst of global turmoil both traditional financial markets and cryptocurrency markets have for lack of a better word ‘shit the bed’. At the time of writing this the total cryptocurrency market capitalization is down 50 billion dollars in the past 7 days.

Trading in the past 12 hours has brought Bitcoin from just under 8000$ to just above 6000$. Bitcoin may have been the loss leader causing prices to fall in other cryptocurrencies however it did not fair the worst by any means.

Many altcoins are down over 30% some even over 40%. However the one to that went the lowest was Chainlink by far. A flash crash on Binance’s LINK/USDT market occured at 10:45 UTC time bringing prices down to 0.0001 cent a Chainlink.

The Chainlink price sharply recovered however and now prices are now at a more regular level of $2.50. Still down 35% on the day.

There are a number of theories as to why the price fell so sharply. The most probable being that some large whale either market sold all of his chainlink in attempt to dump his bags before prices went lower, not understanding the lack of liquidity. Or, a whale accidentally fat fingered the market sell button completely clearing out the order book. Cascading stop-loss triggers may also be another cause.

The cheap Chainlink was probably grabbed by algorithms detecting the large unexpected decline in price evantually bringing prices back to normal. But if you were lucky enough to pick up some cheap Chainlink congratulations.