With the cryptocurrency markets making quite a noticeable recovery in Week 30 we are already looking forward to the potential gains of Week 31. Throughout Week 30 the total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose from $1.44 trillion to $1.65 trillion, which is one of the highest weekly relative increases in a while. In addition, Bitcoin rose back above $40,000 and kept trading above that valuation for more than two days. Is this the bullish signal we have all been waiting for? Which coins do you think can climb even higher? Find out three high-potential ideas below.
1. Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is an open-source distributed blockchain that pioneered smart contract functionality. It operates as a decentralized virtual machine that can execute scripts. The smart contracts operate in a fast, immutable and trustless manner, while the speeds and capabilities of the Ethereum blockchain are going to further increase when Ethereum 2.0 is fully launched. Ethereum’s native asset Ether (ETH) is currently the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Although it can also be used as a currency for transactions between different nodes, it is more commonly used to execute smart contracts. The Ethereum blockchain also hosts a number of ERC20 tokens with different utilities – these include Exchange tokens (BNB, OKB, HT, UNI), DeFi tokens (LINK, MKR, COMP, SNX, ZRX…) and several stablecoins such as USDC, DAI, TUSD, and USDT.
Highly Anticipated London Hard Fork to Take Place on August 5
Although we already listed Ethereum in our top 3 coins to watch article for Week 29, the London mainnet upgrade is such an important milestone for the second-largest cryptocurrency project, that it requires another mention. We are now getting closer to block number 12,965,000, which will trigger the hard fork. It is now almost certain that the hard fork that consists of five Ethereum improvement protocols (EIPs), will execute on August 5. The most important is EIP-1559, which will make Ether gas costs more predictable and include a transaction fee burn feature that could potentially turn Ether into a deflationary asset. Although we are talking about a major hard fork, no action will be required by ETH holders, unless otherwise prompted by their cryptocurrency wallet service provider.
In addition, the hype around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) appears to be gaining new momentum, especially if we are judging by the Ethereum-based NFT series CryptoPunks, which captured the attention of several Ether whales. Five of the top 10 pixelated CryptoPunks portraits have changed hands in the past few days, among which, one sold for $6 million worth of ETH. The record-breaking sales drove the average price of a CryptoPunk NFT up by 53% in the last week of July. As of August 1, an average collectible NFT representing a portrait from the Crypto Punks series was valued $135,000.
But it is not only the prices of NFTs that are going up. Since we last wrote about Ethereum two weeks ago, the price per ETH has climbed by more than $500. ETH is currently changing hands at a price of $2.490 per coin but the price could further shoot up in the hours preceding the hard fork.
2. Neo (NEO)
The NEO project started its journey in 2014 under the name “AntShares” and launched its first mainnet in 2016 following a successful initial coin offering (ICO). Soon after that, in 2017, the project rebranded to NEO. Holders of the NEO token periodically receive GAS, which is used for deploying and running smart contracts and dApps on the NEO blockchain. Both tokens (NEO and GAS) have a maximum supply of 100 million coins. What makes NEO stand apart from other tokens is that is indivisible, meaning that the smallest amount of NEO one can hold is 1 NEO and that the NEO blockchain relies on a dBFT (delegated byzantine fault-tolerant) consensus algorithm. The NEO platform also supports issuing custom tokens, with NEP-5 being the most commonly used standard for NEO-based tokens.
NEO Rolls Out the NEO N3 on the Mainnet
A few days ago the NEO team announced that they will be rolling out the highly anticipated NEO N3 to the mainnet on August 2 following successfully completing the testnet deployments. The revamped version of the NEO Legacy with an improved governance system and optimized architecture, NEO N3, is now already live on the mainnet. Besides already mentioned improvements, NEO N3 also introduced platform-native decentralized storage and data oracles. Combined with the platform’s multi-language support, NEO aims to remain a leading community-driven blockchain platform. Both NEO N3 and NEO Legacy currently coexist, and the forces of the NEO team are currently aimed at ensuring a smooth transition between the two versions. As stated by the team, the most critical step in the transition will be token migration, which will take on a two-step approach. NEO notes that the Early Bird migration will start one week following the NEO N3 genesis, this is August 9, while Mass Migration will start on September 1. During Mass Migration the NEO Foundation will run a special Token Migration Incentive Program to ensure that as many tokens as possible will be migrated to the newly-launched blockchain. Details regarding token migration can be found in the official blog post.
3. Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network (DON) that provides data and price oracles, which act as a reliable feed of information for some smart contracts. Chainlink’s cryptocurrency price and real-world data oracles have seen numerous implementations and their popularity is still increasing. Their oracle service is one of the most reliable and trustworthy services available and the connection with smart contracts is end-to-end secured, leaving very little space for the manipulation of the execution of smart contracts. The platform ensures quality data by incentivizing providers of good data feeds. On the other hand, nodes that submit bad data will be punished by losing some of their staked LINK tokens. The project launched in 2017, when it also raised $32 million of funding through an ICO.
Chainlink will organize its first Smart Contract Summit this week
The Chainlink team is organizing Chainlink’s first-ever Smart Contract Summit this week. The SmartCon, which will last from August 5, 8:00 AM to August 7, 6:00 PM EDT, will be packed with keynotes, panels, and workshops from more than 200 industry-leading speakers from the world of blockchain, DeFi and NFTs. On what is going to be the largest Chainlink event this year, the organizers are expecting more than 1000 attendees from all around the world, who will familiarize themselves with the latest innovations in hybrid smart contracts, cross-chain communication, and scaling security in the DeFi sector. Without a doubt, the event will help spread the word about Chainlink’s oracles and their versatile use cases. In addition, researchers and engineers from Chainlink Labs will shine a light on the progress of Chainlink 2.0. You can find the full schedule, list of speakers and registration form for the SmartCon here.
