The DeFi boom and search for projects offering interoperability
recently sent Ren’s price and total value locked to new all-time highs.
Interoperability between blockchains is rapidly becoming one of the
buzz phrases being thrown around when discussing decentralized finance
and the coins most likely to rally during an altcoin bull run.
The
rapid growth of DeFi, its ever expanding total value locked and soaring
ETH gas fees further highlight the sector’s need for a layer 2 option
that also supports the ability to transact value across different
networks.
REN’s open protocol is designed specifically to fill
this need by providing interoperability and liquidity between the top
blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Zcash.
Over the past
three weeks the price of REN has increased by more than 200%, going from
$0.251 on Dec. 27 to a new all-time high of $0.778 on Jan. 20 driven by
a record $369 million in 24-hour volume.
Three
reasons for the recent price surge in the price of REN include the
announcement of a collaboration with Google, the continued increase in
total value locked on the platform and the ability to earn passive
income in multiple cryptocurrencies through the operation of a darknode.
Google software pivot boosts sentiment, addresses RENvm scaling issues
On Jan.19 the REN team tweeted:
Ren
has been researching & building on @Asylodev, an open and flexible
framework by @Google. @GCPCloud confidential computing relaxes RenVM’s
economic constraints, allowing for an unbounded scaling solution.
#RenVM.”
Not long after the tweet, REN price began to
rally to a new all-time high. As mentioned in the tweet, Asylo is an
open and flexible framework from Google designed to help build portable
applications that run on Secure Enclave hardware.
The secure
enclave hardware allows users to run general-purpose applications in a
secure environment where both the data, and the application itself,
cannot be compromised by anyone, including the user. This makes for a
more secure experience for all parties involved and helps protect
against malicious code and backdoor attacks.
Asylo also makes it
possible to port an application from one type of hardware to the next,
meaning that developers can support multiple implementations with
relative ease, including Intel implementations, AMD implementations, and
any others that appear in the future. The diversity of choice this
allows is an important feature to ensure decentralization on the
network.
Total value locked soars to a new high
Community engagement and added value are key factors when it comes to the long-term success of a blockchain project.
Since
the release of the Ren virtual machine mainnet (RenVM) in May 2020,
engagement on the platform has steadily increased as Bitcoin holders now
had another way to bring their BTC to Ethereum and the growing DeFi
space.
As seen in the chart below, the total value locked on the
Ren platform reached a new all-time high of $653.6 million on Jan. 20
and a total of 14,670 BTC are locked on the platform to create renBTC.
The list of assets that RenVM supports continues to grow with BTC, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Zcash (ZEC), Filecoin (FIL), Terra (LUNA), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Digibyte (DGB) currently available to transact on the Ethereum and Binance blockchains.
Development is currently underway to make it possible to interact on the Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL) and Cosmos (ATOM) networks as well, which would further enhance the interoperability provided.
Darknodes, passive income and a decreasing supply
The
third driving force behind the recent price appreciation of REN relates
to the Ren token use case and how it can help users earn passive
income. RenVM is a network of virtual computers that make up a virtual
machine, which are also referred to as Darknodes.
REN token
holders who wish to operate a darknode need to lock up 100,000 REN which
wiil enable them to process transactions on the network and earn a fee
in the form of the token transacted. Thus, a darknode operator has the
opportunity to earn passive income in the form of multiple different
cryptocurrencies from one location.
As
can be seen in the above graphic, 17.13% of REN’s total supply is
currently bonded on the platform and supports the operation of
darknodes.
During the most recently completed cycle, the network
as a whole earned $839,128 in fees in the form of BTC, ZEC, FIL and BCH.
The total network fees collected since the launch of the RenVM equals
$2.975 million.
The continued addition of new tokens and
interoperability with new blockchains will likely see increased usage of
the network and an increase in the amount of fees earned. At the
current price of $0.6157 it costs $61,570 to operate a darknode.
As
activity on the network increases, the amount of fees generated will
also increase, making it even more lucrative for token holders to
operate a darknode. This has the potential to lead to further price
appreciation from REN as every new darknode results in a direct decrease
in its circulating supply.
The
views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do
not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment
and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research
when making a decision.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/defi-surge-rising-tvl-and-new-partnerships-underpin-ren-s-100-rally
