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

Comparing the exposure of ETF, futures, and index options for S&P 500 (SPY, SPX, ES) and Nasdaq 100 (QQQ, NDX, NQ)

The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100 are two of the most popular stock indexes.  Below are tables that show different ways of getting exposure to these stock indexes. S&P 500 Index Exposures: Product Price multiplier exposure SPY equivalent shares option contract exposure SPY equivalent option contract exposure SPY ETF 445 1 $445 1 $44,452 1 ES Futures 4,463 50 $223,156 502 $223,156 5 MES Futures 4,463 5 $22,316 50 $22,316 0.5 SPX Index 4,463 100 $446,312 1004 $446,312 10 XSP Index 446 100 $44,631 100 $44,631 1 1 SPX Index option has roughly the same exposure as 10 SPY ETF options From the above table, you can see that depending on how much exposure you want, you can pick from a variety of products.  For pure delta exposure, SPY ETF and ES Futures are the most liquid.  For options, SPX Index and SPY options have the most liquidity.  There are definitely other ETFs, like IVV, VOO, or SPLG with lower expense ratios, but suffer from options volume and have a wider bi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trading Ethereum (ETH) merge? Are the CME Ethereum Options on Micro Futures markets reasonable?

Ethereum Merge Brief Background Most people are aware of Proof-of-Work (consensus mechanism to validate blocks on the blockchain - this is done with miners solving math problems (work)).  Ethereum, the second largest Crypto Currency is moving from a Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake (consensus mechanism that validates blocks through a validator (like voting) system).   The main reason for doing this is to get away from miners wasting electricity solving useless math problems to a system that doesn't waste energy on miners.   One argument against moving to Proof-of-Stake, is that it becomes more about controlling a large number of validator nodes (so in a sense, the larger validators have more say, whereas Proof-Of-Work rewards are more 'fair' as it is randomly distributed. Either way you look at it being positive or negative, it is an event that can be traded as the current estimated merge date (the date the blockchain switches from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake...
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