Waves Platform - Crypto Academy S5W7 - Homework Post for @imagen
(1) Describe the Leased Proof-of-Stake (LPoS) consensus mechanism. What are the differences with Proof-of-Stake (PoS)?
(2) Login and explore Waves Exchange. Indicate your functionalities or options. What are the investment modalities that you offer to your users? Show Screenshots.
(3) Make a purchase of WAVES for an equivalent amount of 10 USD from your verified account. Describe the process. Show Screenshots.
(4) What is the WX token? What are its functions within the Waves ecosystem? What is your value and Market Capitalization at the time of writing your post? Show Screenshot.
(5) Describe Waves Ducks What is this project about? How is it accessed? Be as explicit as possible. Show Screenshots.
(6) Conclusion
INTRODUCTION: Good day @imagen and every member of this great community. Welcome to my homework post for season 5 week 7. As usual, this is a very insightful and detailed lecture, thanks for imparting more knowledge.
The term lease simply means to transfer out under some conditions and with this, we can say the leased proof-of-stake is a type of proof of stake consensus mechanism that involves leasing.
The Leased Proof-of-Stake is a specific form of a proof of stake consensus mechanism used on the waves platform and which allows holders to lease their tokens to full nodes and by doing so, they earn a percentage of the payout as a reward.
On any platform that makes use of Proof-of-Stake, each node can add a new block to the blockchain but in a leased proof of stake ecosystem, users can choose between either running a full node or leasing their stake or tokens to a full node (validator) and thereby receiving rewards.
On May 2017, the Leased Proof of Stake (LPoS) system was fully launched, this system allows the leasing of waves tokens to mine nodes by users that didn’t run a full node. The waves token leased are locked in the user’s account and by saying locked I mean it cannot be transferred or traded. Though, the tokens remain in the full control of the account holder and leases can at any time be canceled.
Furthermore, the LPoS which is the acronym for Leased Proof of Stake can also be defined as an enhanced type of Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism with which distributed consensus to secure the network is achieved by the Waves blockchain network.
These Waves tokens that are leased or transferred to a mining node helps in increasing the stake weight of the miner and which in turn increases the chances of the miner finding the next block
Also, the LPoS system enhances the network security in at least two ways. One way is that the more the waves tokens that are used to secure the network, the better, and this is because it will be pretty much hard for a hacker or attacker to have in possession or accumulate the number of tokens necessary to carry out a 51% attack. Also, the second way is that waves tokens can be transferred or leased to a node from a user’s cold storage address but with the node which is online having a minimum balance, and this will, in turn, bring about a significant reduction in the number of Waves tokens that can be hacked from the node online and since the leased funds cannot at any time be transferred to the miner.
For the node owner, the leasing benefit is that nodes can make use of the leased tokens to generate blocks and in turn, get the mining reward and for the token holder, the leasing benefit is that tokens holders will, in turn, earn a percentage of the payout as a reward.
Some other things to know about LPoS is
Node owner can send to the leaser a fraction of reward according to his or her conditions.
The more the transactions made on the network, the more the rewards received or that will be received by the leasers.
Many of these rewards are in waves though they can be in a different or various form of tokens exhibiting unique waves features where various tokens can be accepted as fees.
Also, there are two types of transactions exhibited by the LPoS and to start easing, the token holder has to create a lease transaction and will specify the receiver or recipient address i.e., node address together with the number of Waves to lease. The two types of transactions are the
Lease transaction: This type of transaction activates the leasing process.
Lease cancel transaction: This type of transaction deactivates or cancels the leasing process.
The major or significant difference is that the PoS system assigns the task of validation in proportionality to the size of one’s stake, which will, in turn, grant those who hold the largest stakes the greatest opportunity to produce a new block and with this, we can say that PoS grants an excess power and monetary rewards to majority stakeholders and this is what LPoS aims to enhances. LPoS allows users (lender) to lease their stakes to other users (validator) and this will increase the other user's (validator) ability to produce new blocks and also, in return, the lender receives a percentage of the transaction fee that is earned by the validator.
From this point, we can also derive some differences listed below.
Leased Proof of Stake is an enhanced version of Proof of Stake which allows users (lender) to lease their tokens to a user (validators) for the creation or validating of a new block while the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism allows holders to stake their coins which will be used in verifying and creating of new blocks.
Rewards earned in an LPOS system are shared between the leaser and the node operators while rewards earned in a PoS system are not shared as there is no leaser.
Also, in an LPOS system, every user can earn income from the creation or validation of blocks regardless of how small their token is even if it is less than the minimum token required for mining. They can earn rewards by leasing their small tokens to full nodes that will do the validation of blocks and there earn a reward from which some percentage will be given to the leader. This is not the case for the PoS system as there is no leaser.
To login to Waves.Exchange, I go to Waves.Exchange and since I hadn't created an account before, I have to sign up and then log in.
Below are the steps I took to create an account and then log in after the successful creation of the account.
- I clicked on Sign Up.
- Creating an account can be done using any of the three (3) different channels but I selected the Sign Up by Email
- I inputted my Gmail and created my Password following the rules given and then I confirmed my Password.
- Having read the Privacy policy and Terms & conditions I checked the box and clicked on Create account as shown in the image below.
- I did and passed the verification test by completing the puzzle.
- I verified my Email by inputting the verification code sent to my Gmail and having done that, I have successfully created an account.
- The next step is to log in and I did exactly that by clicking on Log in.
- Just as there are three ways to sign up, there are also three ways to log in from which I chose the Log in by email since I signed up using Email.
- I inputted my login details and clicked on login.
- I did and passed the verification step by completing the puzzle and boom, I am in.
Now, let us get over to exploring and showing some of Waves.Exchange functionalities.
As we can see in the image below, on successful login we have the Tokens, Deposit & Withdrawal Transactions, Internal Transactions, Create Token, Buy Crypto, Trading, Pools, Investments, Wallet, Profile tabs and also, we have where we can change the language.
Tokens
In this tab, we can see all the tokens on the platform which includes the Gateway, Defi, WA Verified, My Issued Tokens, and the Unverified. On hovering on any of the tokens, there will be a pop-up to either deposit, withdraw, or exchange the token and upon clicking on exchange, it will redirect one to the trading tab.
Also, regarding the unverified token, trading it is at one's risk and this is because anybody can crate tokens.
Deposit & Withdrawal Transactions
In this section, we can see all the deposit or withdrawal transactions whether it is in Process or Completed or On Hold or Rejected.
Internal Transactions
In this section, we can track all the internal Exchanges, internal Deposits & Withdrawals, internal Mass Transfers, internal Asset Transactions, and internal Contract Invocations.
Create Token
The Create Token section is one of the functionality of the platform. To get started, the creator will input the name of the asset, describes it and then he must agree to the conditions listed as shown in the image below.
Buy Crypto
This is also one of the functionality of the platform, here, users can buy USDN, Bitcoin, WAVES, EGG, or make use of OTC services. The OTC service is available to premium users that appreciate the high quality of services and profits of the USDN staking on the platform. The services make use of a smart contract which allows the exchange of over 10k USDT to USDN or vice versa at a rate of 1:1, this service doesn't occur without a transaction fee.
On exchanging and staking via OTC, one will earn 12-15% of annual interest.
To buy crypto, one must first create an account, verify the account, and can then buy using a card.
Trading
This section is also one of the functionality of Waves.Exchange. In this section, we can do spot trading, we can swap DeFo, and we can also perform WAVES / USDN swap. DeFo are Decentralized ForEx for Stable Crypto Assets which is the Neutrino protocol interface that provides effective tools for swapping assets that are stable via smart contract. Since smart contract is reliable, transparent, and exhibit unlimited liquidity at a predetermined rate, one can trade, earn, and swap one's stable crypto assets without the risk of high volatility.
Liquidity Pools
Here, we can access Pools, WX Staking / Boosting, Dashboard, Stats, Governance, IDO, and Early Birds. We can also see the total liquidity, volume, my gWX balance, current WX price, Unclaimed reward, and My WX balance.
Liquidity Pools is an investment product that allows or enables users to receive passive income having provided liquidity to the pools and which will in turn brings about faster and smoother trading. It is several tokens that are collected on the smart contract that provides liquidity for trading on Waves Exchange. These liquidity pools are what facilitate and speed up the trading process utilizing Automated Market Making exhibited by a smart contract. It is the AMM algorithm that fills traders' orders automatically using liquidity pools. The liquidity providers are the users that provide the funds for the liquidity.
The base vAPY indicates the growth or development in the number of pool tokens that a liquidity provider receives when they return one of their LP tokens to the pool.
For regular pools, it is calculated using the following formula
Where,
A = amount of base token in the pool.
B = amount of price token in the pool.
Ndays = number of days in estimate interval.
For stable pools, Base vAPY is calculated using the following formula
where,
A = amount of base token in the pool.
B = amount of price token in the pool.
Ndays = number of days in estimate interval.
L = amplification coefficient (L = 50).
Lastly, the Reward tAPY shows the amount of the reward that will be earned for staking LP tokens, and each pool is characterized with the minimum and the maximum value of the Reward tAPY. The minimum value signals the amount of WX that can be gotten without boosting by the liquidity provider and the maximum value is the value that can be achieved by boosting.
- WX Staking / Boosting: Here, users can lock his or her WX tokens and can increase his earnings by locking more WX or selecting longer period.
- Dashboard: Here, users can see his or her total LP balance and Total income (LP growth and WX).
- Stats: Here we can see the WX release schedule, WX consumed by community, total WX released and locked, WX market capitalization
- Governance: Here we can vote with gWX and influence pools' APY, launching of new pools, WX token release rate, transaction fee, etc.
Both the IDO and Early birds' programs have finished as of the time of doing this homework.
Investment
I will be skipping this section here since I will use it to answer the last part of this question which is What are the investment modalities that it offers to its users?
Wallet
In this section, we can access my Assets, Deposit & Withdrawal Transactions, Internal Transactions, Create Asset. Here, we can also deposit or withdraw.
To deposit,
- I will select the asset I want to deposit in the given field,
- I will select a deposit method and then input the specified address as shown below.
To withdraw,
- I will select the asset I want to withdraw in the field.
- I will Paste the address to which I want to send the assets.
- I will select a network that supports the token that is to be transferred.
- Lastly, I will Enter the amount I want to withdraw as can be seen in the image below.
Finally, for the exploration of Waves.Exchange, we have the tab where we can see our Aliases, edit our settings or access the Log out button.
There are several investment modalities that Waves.Exchange offers and we are going to look into each one after the other. One can invest in Liquidity Pools, Lambo Investments, Algorithmic Trading, LP Staking, Neutrino Staking, Other Products which are WAVES Staking and Neutrino Pools
Liquidity Pools
Just as explained earlier, Liquidity Pools is an investment product that allows or enables users to receive passive income having provided liquidity to the pools and which will in turn brings about faster and smoother trading.it is a number of tokens that are collected on the smart contract that provides liquidity for trading on Waves Exchange. This liquidity pool is what facilitate and speed up the trading process employing Automated Market Making exhibited by smart contract. It is the AMM algorithm that fills traders' orders automatically using liquidity pools. The liquidity providers are the users that provide the funds for the liquidity.
Whenever a user deposits his or her fund into the liquidity pool, he or she receives an LP token or LP tokens. This LP token price grows in proportion to the income from trading activity with the use of the pool liquidity. Also, one can stake LP tokens to receive WX rewards or un-stake LP tokens and then withdraw the deposited funds at any time.
Lambo Investment
Lambo Investments is also an investment product with a balanced risk/profit strategy. Lambo tokens which are USDTLAMBO and USDСLAMBO are the assurance tokens that prove or show that one’s tokens are invested in the smart contract.
Algorithm trading Investment
The algorithmic trading investment is a semi-Decentralized Finance product that is integrated on the Waves blockchain. The funds invested are accumulated on the Waves blockchain and are then used as collateral on the smart contracts, which are consequently proxied into algorithmic trading strategies amidst some exchanges that are centralized, e.g., Bitmex, Okex, Binance, and so many more, from which part of those funds are also used on Waves.Exchange.
Algorithmic trading is an automated market order execution system that is based on pre-programmed trading commands or specifications or instruction and in Algorithmic trading, thousands of trades are executed every second without human control or intervention.
LP Staking
LP Staking which could be USDT, USDC, BTC, or ETH Staking is a Decentralized Finance interchain investment product on the Waves blockchain. Here, funds are accumulated on the Waves blockchain, which are consequently proxied into Decentralized Finance (Defi) products of the Ethereum ecosystem, which also includes Curve, Uniswap, etc. Having staked one’s funds, one will receive the LP Assets which are USDTLP, USDCLP, BTCLP, and ETHLP in return. These LP assets are the assurance of one’s funds that was staked to the smart contract. The LP Asset price is derived from the ratio of the amount of the funds staked in this asset to the amount of LP Assets that are in circulation. Also, Income is accumulated daily and then added to the staking pool
LP staking is managed through a public open-source smart contract and this makes its transaction completely transparent and it is much safe and reliable since it is not managed by a third party
Neutrino Staking
The Neutrino staking is a secure and reliable system by which holders or users can use their funds or tokens to generate stable passive income without any effort.
Holders do not send his or her funds to another party as it is under his or her control and also, all operations or transactions are carried out through the use of public smart contracts which makes the transactions transparent and public though, one’s personal data will not be disclosed.
Also, the rate of earnings is not regulated by any intermediaries or third parties.
Waves Staking
WAVES Staking is a non-direct delegation of WAVES assets to pool owners and by doing so, a percentage of the payouts will be earned as a reward from mining and also to improve and enhance the stability and security of the network. The Pool is a public node in the Waves network that makes regular payments for staking.
The delegation of WAVES assets to another account does not mean they won’t be in one's possession any longer but that they will be frozen and cannot be transferred to another account or make any buy or sell transaction.
Neutrino Pool
Making an investment in Neutrino pools is an investment in the insurance section of the Neutrino pool. Here, one’s funds will ensure the stability of the pools it will simultaneously generate income higher than the income earned from the regular staking of this Neutrino asset.
Currently, investments in all Neutrino pools are only available in USDN which is a cryptocurrency asset that is pegged to the US dollar.
NB: It is imperative for anyone that wants to participate in any of these investments to choose a risk-reward ratio that suits him or her, to know that all operations are reliable and transparent and lastly, that nobody but only him or she can access his or her tokens.
I will be purchasing 22.331 USD worth of WAVES using Binance exchange and below are the steps I took to perform this transaction.
I clicked on Trades having opened my verified Binance application successfully as shown in the image on the left-hand side below.
I inputted WAVES in the search button and I clicked on WAVES/USDT in the dropdown as shown on the right-hand side below.
I selected the market order as shown in the image on the left-hand side below.
I inputted the amount (in USD) I will be using in purchasing WAVES as shown in the image on the right-hand side below
I clicked on BUY WAVES as can be seen in the image on the left-hand side below.
From the image on the right-hand side below, we can see that the order got filled immediately as we can see the success message and this is because I placed a market order i.e., buying WAVES at the market price
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WX token is the native or governance token of Waves.Exchange. Waves.Exchange is a decentralized exchange in the Waves ecosystem and that has been operating since 2017. The WX tokens are essential for the liquidity pools investment product of Waves.Exchange. It is a non-reissuable token and it has 8 decimals.
The governance token (WX) was issued in a bid to achieve a greater or higher degree of decentralization and it is also expected to help in finding solutions to the issues of liquidity, listings, and market-making.
Below are some of the features or functions of WX tokens.
WX tokens can be locked on the contract of a minimum of 3 weeks to a maximum of 4 years to get a gWX in return and the more the amount and the longer the duration of the WX locked, the more the gWX one will get in return. gWX is not a token but the unit in which the boosting and the voting power are measured. The more gWX one has, the stronger one’s boosting and voting power will be.
WX token can be deposited in a liquidity pool with WX as one of the tokens in pairs.
Trading fees can be paid at a better rate with a WX token.
Just like any other verified token, WX tokens can be traded or staked on Waves.Exchange.
WX holders can take part in the exchange governance and can set pool weights, increase the profitability of a pool in which they invested in or select new pools.
Holders of WX that lock their assets will in turn earn or receive governance awards from transactions fees or fees that are charged on the swapping that occurs in the pool.
As at the time of doing this homework, Waves.Exchange Token (WX) price is $2.41 and its market capitalization is $13,992,920.39 as shown in the image below.
The table below shows more notes on WX price statistics.
| Waves.Exchange Token Price | $2.41 |
| Market Cap | $13,992,920.39 |
| Market Cap Dominance | 0.00% |
| Trading Volume | $361,725.46 |
| Volume / Market Cap | 0.02585 |
| 24h Low / 24h High | $2.31 / $2.44 |
| Market Cap Rank | #3660 |
| Fully Diluted Market Cap | $2,413,899,730.51 |
Waves Ducks is a staking and digital gamified collectibles platform with upcoming play-to-earn features where players will have to acquire duck images which will be in the form of NFTs. Waves ducks grant players the opportunity of breeding ducks and selling them in the marketplace same with farm EGG tokens.
Waves Ducks in-game currency is the EGG token which can be swapped to hatch genesis ducks. This genesis duck can then be bred by players to get a rare one. Also, all these ducks can be sold in the secondary markets and can also earn players passive income through EGG tokens farming.
There has been a lot of growing interest in Waves Ducks which has made the platform see a lot of trading volume on its NFT marketplace and also, as at the time of doing this homework, Waves Ducks is in the top 10 among NFT market place with a sales volume of $2.1 Million monthly, $25 Million lifetime and 12,500 Waves waves which is equivalent to $245,440 was the most expensive duck sold on Waves Ducks marketplace with 70,000 active players and 15,000 ducks created and also, with an all-time high of $10.29.
On Waves Ducks platform, all characters, items, resources, and achievements are denoted or represented by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and this is why one truly has in his or her possession one's digital assets and as a player, one can freely buy and sell ducks and artifacts on the marketplace.
Moreover, to begin playing Waves ducks, one must first get some EGG tokens and this can be done in two ways,
It can be gotten for free by signing up for a waves account and joining the official Waves ducks Telegram account to participate in community events and receive free EGG tokens.
Also, Waves can be purchased and afterward, swapped for EGG tokens.
Now, on to What the project is about
Waves ducks is a smart contract application that offers instant transaction fees for as low as 0.005 WAVES and it runs on the Waves Blockchain ecosystem. It is characterized with Metaverse where players or users can build and grow their farms and these players or users get rewarded with EGG token which is the governance token of the platform.
The Waves duck project is a very special one as whenever a user joins Waves duck, he or she will have the opportunity of creating or building his or her duck empire. This Duck empire is simply the collection of farms by farm owners.
The project also aims at creating a player-owned economy and this is because all characters, items, resources, and achievements are denoted or represented by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and this is why one truly has in his or her possession one's digital assets and as a player, one can freely buy and sell ducks and artifacts on the marketplace.
The genotype which consists of 8 letters is what determines the rarity of each duck NFT and a duck’s value depends on its rarity and with this, the higher the rarity, the higher the yielded farming rewards.
The first 8 letters which are responsible for the duck’s appearance are
- А – Elon
- B – Satoshi
- C – Doge
- D – Bogdanoff
- E – Chad
- F – Harold
Also, the first letter after the dash which are H – hero, I – ideal, K – knight, L – lord, M – magical determine duck’s generation.
A newly born duck will have the lowest generation (G) and breeding two ducks of a lower level of rarity will, in turn, create a duck of higher rarity. Breeding two ducks of a higher level of rarity are not permitted and also, one can only breed a duck once, after which they become “sterile”.
Moreover, the second letter after the dash would determine the duck’s background color:
- R – for red
- Y – for yellow
- G – for green
- B – for blue
These Background colors are important since it has to match with the color of perch for successful farming.
Now let us get over to or access the platform and see what it entails and back up what I have said.
To get started, I go to Waves Ducks.
Having opened the platform successfully, before clicking on Start playing I will like to explain some of the features we can see as I scrolled down on the displayed interface.
On the displayed interface we have various sections which are Duck wars, Breeding, Collective farms and under these sections, we have some sub-sections that we are going to look into one after the other.
Duck wars
The duck wars are clash in a tactical battle for power and resources and under this section, we have the Start for free, Fight, Grow, and the Average monthly active players.
Start for free: Here, users can sign up to get a starting duckling and send them to the front lines instantly.
Fight: Here, users can join guilds and bring them victories in PVP battles for share token rewards.
Grow: Here, the user can play consistently to feed and also grow his or her duckling into a valuable NFT that will bring about or generate income.
And lastly, in this section, we can see the Average monthly active players which is 296k.
Breeding
In this section, users can start his or her own breeding system and we also have the following sub-section.
Collect: Here, users can grow or hatch NFT ducks to expand one's collection and the opportunities to earn. Users can mix and match duck's genes through breeding and then, capitalize on their rarity, and just like I said earlier, the higher the rarity, the higher the yielded farming rewards.
Stake: Here, users can stake ducks that are capable of yielding EGG tokens that can be withdrawn or used in-game.
Upgrade: Here, users can spend EGGs to outfit their farm and ducks within a range of gadgets and gear which will further enhance one's tokens earnings.
And lastly, in this section, we can see the Average EGG production from one duck per month which is 0.4.
Collective farms
Users can discover different communities of farmers that are driven by the same goal and in this section, we have the Join, Profit, Create your guild, and the total EGGs invested in farms.
Join: Here, users can invest in the collective farms and by doing so, get a share token.
Profit: Here, the user can collect his or her EGG dividends which depends on the number of share tokens.
Create your guild: Here, users can unite fighters under his or her banner and rule the battlefield.
And lastly, in this section, we can see the total EGGs invested in farms which are 4736.
Moreso, in the image below, we can see some other details of Waves ducks.
We can see some of the community, tournament, collective farm in the image below
And lastly, we can see the the Last update, the social media handle and the Guide on how to find one's way on the platform in the image below.
Now, let us start playing or register or access the platform by clicking on Start playing as shown in the image below.
Having clicked on Start playing, the following are the steps I took to create an account.
- I clicked on Sign up.
- I inputted my Gmail and Password and then I confirmed my Password.
- Having read the Privacy policy and Terms & conditions I checked the box and I clicked on Create account as shown in the image below.
- Next is to pass the verification test.
- After passing the verification test, a code was sent to my Gmail and after which I inputted it, and having done this, I have successfully registered as can be seen in the image below.
And as you can see from my dashboard in the image below, we have the My Ducks, Incubator, Breeding, Marketplace, Collective Farms, Play to Earn.
My Ducks
In the My duck section, we can see a farm that comprises all the ducks and perches that are mine as can be seen in the image below.
Incubator
In this section, I can create a genesis duck using my EGG tokens.
Breeding
Here, I can select 2 ducks to breed and get a new unique one and as a result of breeding, parent ducks will be rendered sterile and won't be able to breed anymore.
Marketplace
Here, I can access all the ducks that are for sale.
Collective farms
This section is based on sharing farming gains between the participant. A user sends the EGGs tokens to a farm and gets Lp tokens in exchange which begin to generate rewards for him or her.
Play To Earn
CONCLUSION
The leased proof of stake system is a system that grants users the opportunity of securing the waves network will no technical expertise. They do this by leasing their waves to full nodes without losing control of their tokens.
Waves.Exchange is a decentralized exchange in the Waves ecosystem and built on it is the WX token which is the native token of the platform.
Waves Ducks is a staking and digital gamified collectibles platform that grants players the opportunity of breeding ducks and selling them in the marketplace same with farm EGG tokens. The in-game currency or governance token of Waves Ducks is the EGG token which can be swapped to hatch genesis ducks.