- >News
- >Five Underrated Projects in the Cardano Ecosystem
Five Underrated Projects in the Cardano Ecosystem
Cardano is a layer one proof-of-stake blockchain founded in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson. Hoskinson was one of the original co-founders of the Ethereum blockchain along with Vitalik Buterin and Dr. Gavin Wood. He left the Ethereum project to establish the for-profit Input Output Hong Kong company of which the Cardano blockchain was built.
Cardano relies on rigorous academic peer-reviewed research before it launches any new technology. Cardano is designed to address some of the biggest challenges facing blockchain technology in its stability, scalability, and interoperability.
In September 2021, Cardano launched the Alonzo hard fork which enabled the development and deployment of smart contracts on the blockchain. Due to the rigorous nature of Cardano’s peer-reviewed research, it has taken longer to develop its dApps ecosystem. Here is a look at 5 of the most promising projects that will make up the foundation of dApps on the Cardano blockchain.
World Mobile Token
The World Mobile Token is a blockchain-based solution for telecommunications infrastructure. The goal of the project is to develop a sharing economy around telecommunications and to connect the 3.7 billion people globally that are still unconnected to the internet. By connecting the unconnected people to the internet, World Mobile Token also opens up a multitude of opportunities for these people. Having a decentralized digital ID enables access to online banking, microcredit loans, healthcare, online education, as well as unlocking 3.7 billion new content creators and innovators.
The problem that World Mobile Token is trying to solve is how to make the creation and maintenance of telecommunications infrastructure affordable and sustainable. This is a particularly difficult problem in remote and underdeveloped regions where the cost to develop the infrastructure using traditional means is simply not cost-effective.
The whole process begins with World Mobile Token providing remote hardware configurations (air nodes) to these remote locations. These hardware configurations will be connected to legacy telecommunications networks (aether nodes). Users can then download the World Mobile Token software app (earth node) on their phone and connect to the hardware in their area. How blockchain technology helps is through secure data management storage. Users purchase data which they can then load to their app. When a user interacts with the internet their data will be monitored and then stored on the blockchain.
The rewards for using the app and providing information to be recorded on the blockchain are then shared between World Mobile Token and the community the air node is located in. These rewards can be used to pay off the balance of the air node which incentivizes people to use the dApp. These profits can be used to pay off the balance of the hardware which then becomes community-owned and operated as a small business creating lasting sustainability in the area.
Liqwid Finance
Liqwid Finance is an open-sourced, algorithmic, non-custodial interest rate protocol. What this means is that it creates liquidity pools for lenders and borrowers. The interest rates are automated through a type of automated market maker (AMM) which is calculated based on the lender supply and borrower demand for any particular asset.
Liqwid Finance is one of the flagship DeFi protocols on the Cardano blockchain. By using an automated market maker users remain in full control of their assets when they go to borrow or lend rather than depositing them with a centralized custodian. All liquidity pools on Liqwid Finance are exclusive to a native asset on the Cardano blockchain. The project creates a robust and secure marketplace where borrowers can find competitive rates, and lenders can earn passive income on their crypto assets.
Minswap
Minswap is an automated market-maker (AMM) decentralized exchange (DEX) that supports multiple pricing functions for a single liquidity pool. Traditionally centralized exchanges have been backed by large trading firms or brokerage houses with deep capital funding. They would earn profits through the spread that the centralized exchanges were offering. Minswap leverages the concepts of DeFi and AMM to allow individual retailers to pool their funds and provide the same service as the trading firms. Through pooling funds, individuals can become the market markers and earn the profits off of the spread, while traders gain access to competitive rates.
Liquid Finance enables users the ability to lend and borrow against their Cardano assets through AMMs. Minswap builds on this and enables users to trade pairs directly with each other as a decentralized exchange. Both provide large volumes of liquidity to the space and help build out the Cardano blockchain by providing fluid transactions of Cardano native assets. SundaeSwap is another project that is trying to help build out the Cardano ecosystem by providing an additional decentralized exchange protocol.
anetaBTC
The problem anetaBTC is trying to solve is how to enable users to leverage the value of their Bitcoin on other blockchain projects. By enabling users to leverage the value of their Bitcoin, anetaBTC also provides much-needed liquidity to DeFi applications on other blockchains. It does this by creating a synthetic wrapped Bitcoin asset that transfers the full value of the Bitcoin on a 1:1 basis. Holders of anetaBTC are then able to access several applications through a wrapped Bitcoin application including yield-earning products, futures derivatives, and lending.
AnetaBTC is not the first project to introduce the concept of a wrapped Bitcoin. In 2019 the first wrapped Bitcoin product WrappedBTC was available on the Ethereum blockchain. It was developed by BitGo, Kyber Network, and Ren.
There are two main differences between the WrappedBTC and anetaBTC. The first is simply that they are developed for different blockchains. Wrapped BTC runs on the Ethereum blockchain, whereas anetaBTC was developed for the Ergo and Cardano blockchains. The second and more important difference between the two projects is that anetaBTC is entirely decentralized whereas WrappedBTC is centralized and runs through BitGo as a custodian. This means BitGo has full legal control over all of the locked Bitcoin wrapped in wBTC whereas anetaBTC allows users to keep full control of their BTC. AnetaBTC achieves this through fully-audited open-sourced smart contracts that allow Bitcoin holders to directly mint and redeem anetaBTC when they choose.
SingularityAI
SingularityAI is a decentralized AI network that lets anyone create and share AI services at scale. It performs on both the Cardano and Ethereum blockchains.
The products that are offered through Singularity AI include an AI marketplace, an AI publisher, AGIX staking, and a meta marketplace. The AI marketplace allows users to search and trial from a library of AI algorithms that users can integrate into their own applications.
The AI publisher provides a hub for creating, editing, and managing a selection of AI services that users can use to then launch onto an online marketplace. AGIX staking provides 30-day staking periods where users can directly stake their AGIX tokens. The meta marketplace enables users the ability to create their own marketplaces which they have full control over. Users can tailor the marketplace and integrate AI services to their preferences.
