Skip to main content

Major Chains, Ecosystems - Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana and other Wallet Basics for DeFi

There are many different types of blockchains and it can be overwhelming to learn about without any guidance.  This will be a basic introduction into the major chains to help you have context when you dive deeper in.  The following data is from https://defillama.com/chains

Main Chain Ecosystems:

Top 12 - 3/25/22TVL BillionsTVL %mcap/TVLWallet
1 Ethereum (ETH)$123.560.6%3.0EVM
2 Terra (LUNA)$26.412.9%1.2Cosmos
3 BSC (BNB)$12.66.2%5.5EVM
4 Avalanche (AVAX)$9.94.8%2.3EVM
5 Solana (SOL)$7.23.6%4.4Solana
6 Fantom (FTM)$6.43.1%0.5EVM
7 Tron (TRON)$4.32.1%1.5EVM
8 Polygon (MATIC)$4.02.0%2.7EVM
9 Cronos (CRO)$3.51.7%3.3Cosmos
10 Waves (WAVES)$3.01.5%1.1EVM
11 Osmosis (OSMO)$1.60.8%1.7Cosmos
12 Polkadot (DOT)$1.60.8%15.2Polkdot
Total$203.9


Ethereum & Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible chains

The most popular and main original blockchain that enabled smart contracts is Ethereum.  As you can see from the data it, it still has over 60% of the Total Value Locked (TVL) of the top 12 chains.  Adding the EVM compatible chains bumps the number up to over 80%.  From a users point of view, EVM compatible chains means they can use the same wallet and interface.  The most popular for DeFi is https://metamask.io/.  This means that using these blockchains is the same interface and it is just about selecting which network you are using.  It also means you own the same wallet address on networks, making it easy to bridge assets to one network to another (because it is the same address, it removes the fear of sending tokens to the wrong address).  Another great thing about having the same address means you can track wallets and their assets and transactions with wallet trackers like https://debank.com/.

A very accessible source to keep up with Ethereum and related news is the Rollup episodes on http://podcast.banklesshq.com/.

With gas prices being very high on the main Ethereum network, most of my experience has been concentrated on the Fantom Network (from the above table you can see it has the lowest marketcap/TVL ratio).  A great resource to learn about the Fantom Network is FTM Alerts youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/FTMAlerts.  The main host, Austin, runs the channel and other shows on the channel.  One of the co-hosts, Justin Bebis, founder of Byte Masons is a great resources to listen to.  He appears to have great integrity and a good vision for DeFi and how his team is building it out https://www.bytemasons.com/. 

Cosmos

With over $30 billion in total locked value, it seems like the Cosmos ecosystem is gaining popularity.  Their main proposition is that the future of blockchains connect through an inter blockchain protocol (IBC).  The biggest project on Cosmos right now is the UST stablecoin from https://www.terra.money/.  It has become created the largest algorithmic backed stablecoin where users can get interest yields of close to 20% on https://www.anchorprotocol.com/.  If it is sustainable or not has become a pretty hot topic as the Terra network has over $25 billion in total locked value.

I'm just starting to learn about this Ecosystem, a great resource on youtube is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE1JHFSfUWcXVyzV3KGA9Fw - Cryptocito.  He has a bi-weekly show called "Splitting Atom".

Here is wallet software to interact with the cosmos blockchains https://www.keplr.app/.

Here is a great way to visualize the activity on Cosmos: https://mapofzones.com

Solana, Polkadot & others

There are many other chains like Solana, Polkadot and Cardano, etc.  with unique propositions to their approach to blockchains.  These other systems have their own wallets and I haven't dug into them deeply, but Solana appears to have a lot of venture capital money to help build out the Ecosystem.  After I get more familiar with Cosmos, I may dig into other chains if their popularity warrants it.

Summary and Takeaway

WalletTVL BillionsTVL %
EVM$163.780.3%
Cosmos$31.415.4%
Solana$7.23.6%
Polkadot$1.60.8%
Total$203.9

There are many different blockchains out there, I hope breaking them into wallet types makes it easier for you to approach and dig further.  If you have any other great resources to learn from, please feel free to share them.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

using options to recover from a big move against me when buy a stock for shareholder benefits - RCL attempt to repair position

Shareholder Benefits Owning shares of a company can entitle you to special benefits when consuming products or services.  For example, Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL) provides $100 onboard credit per Stateroom on Sailings of 6-13 nights.  With an upcoming cruise booked and most of my portfolio in cash, I decided to take advantage of this offer.  I've done a few cruises in the past and definitely enjoyed Royal Caribbean, especially having young children; and can imagine I will take more cruises with them in the future. The Purchase of Shares I didn't do any deep Fundamental or Technical Analysis, but looked at a 5 year chart seeing the stock priced at $135 before the COVID-19 pandemic, and during the pandemic reached a low of around $24.  When I purchased the shares it was $40 and dropped in price for the 2 preceding days.  Since I bought at the end of the day, I figured I would sell a call option (overwrite) the next day as the volatility was high around 85%....
Post a Comment
Read more

How does theta change through time when selling strangles? SPY, META, IEF

What is Theta? Theta is amount of value that an option position changes each day due to the passage of time.   For example, SPY closing at 411.99 and Implied Volatility (IVOL) 22.58% SPY 9/16/22 (47 DTE) Strike delta price theta 376P -0.15 3.12 -0.09 440C 0.15 1.97 -0.07 The above table shows that the 376 Put has a theta of -0.09.  This means the option will lose $9 a day (each contract represents 100 shares so -0.09 x 100 = -$9. To standardize, the theta/price is a ratio that can be used.  In our example  -$9/411.99 => -0.02%. Table of Theta for 15 delta Strangles for SPY, META, and IEF Information was pulled from market data on 7/31/2022 taking the initial strikes and seeing how the data changes for different upcoming Days to Expiration (DTE).  (15 delta Strangles for SPY correspond to 376P and 440C). SPY is the most active ETF for S&P 500. IEF is an ETF of 10 year Bonds. META is the ticker for the company formerly known as Facebook. Analysis 1) T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Best things about trading options

  1) Capital Efficient - Larger Potential Profit Buying options, the capital required will be at most the cost of the option contract, as owning an option can only go down to $0.  Because option contracts have a time component and strike component (unlike stocks), it means only option contracts will always be cheaper than owning shares. Selling options, the capital required will be based on Margin Requirements set by the regulators and potentially adjusted by the broker.  The main difference is that initial capital required to sell options is based on formulas trying to target a probabilistic move against the position and not based on the max value the shares could become.  This generally leads to about 1/5 the capital and potentially less if the account qualifies for Portfolio Margin. These lower capital requirements mean that options can have risk that is leveraged to the corresponding stock, meaning less capital is required to taking similar risks of buying stock ...
Post a Comment
Read more