building-empires-on-blockchain1

_posts/2025-02-21-building-empires-on-blockchain.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "Building empires on blockchain"
+date:   2025-02-21 14:12:06 +0000
+categories: blockchain
+---
+## Overview
+
+Cryptocurrencies have become mainstream news with early entires like Bitcoin
+soaring in value as speculators rush in to reap the rewards of its popularity.
+But for most people, the machinery that makes all this work is hidden from
+view in a sea of social media. In this article, I hope to disentangle the
+meme coin from the blockchain and show that behind all the media hysteria there
+lies a highly utititarian system that can be a huge benefit to mankind.
+
+## Bitcoin
+
+You would have to lead a very sheltered life not to have heard of Bitcoin.
+According to Wikipedia, "Bitcoin was invented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto,
+an unknown entity (person or persons)". But in practice it is just another
+project hosted on Github like millions of others.
+
+Today, go into any gas station in the U.S. and there are vending machines
+for bitcoin which in a country where other forms of gambling are restricted
+makes it the exception.
+
+Bitcoin was originally run on ethusiast's PCs. You could download and build
+the code and run it in the background to create "value" in the form of bitcoins.
+But very soon big business became involved and PCs became expensive GPUs
+and the GPUs became custom ASICs until it was no longer viable for individuals
+to mine bitcoin. Now bitcoin is mined in vast warehouses in Kazakstan and
+other places with cheap energy. Bitcoin uses more energy than many medium
+sized nations.
+
+The only real use of Bitcoin is to own Bitcoin, making it a bit like a popular
+dance tune naming itself. Attempts have been made to add extra services to
+bitcoin such as BRC-20, but other networks, especially Ethereum do this a lot
+better and cheaper.
+
+Bitcoin uses a network of computers, a bit like Bittorrent or Napster, to
+create chains of blocks of transactions. Each transaction on bitcoin
+represents the transfer of bitcoin from one account to one or more other
+accounts. The miners, who have to do hard sums to win a competition,
+get to pick which transactions are included in a block and are paid
+a reward - in bitcoin - for doing so.
+
+## Ethereum
+
+The Ethereum chain was an offshoot of Bitcoin devised by bitcoin magazine
+editor Vitaly Dmitrievich Buterin (Vitalik). Vitalik wanted bitcoin
+to be more useful than just a store of "wealth". He worked with other
+computer scientists like Gavin Wood to add a virtual machine to Ethereum
+known as the EVM.
+
+The EVM enables Ethereum to be used like a stock exchange, trading not just
+one token, ETH, but many others besides. There are currently hundreds of thousands
+of tokens traded on Ethereum.
+
+The EVM has become the dominant force in blockchain trading with $60bn of tokens
+and $122bn in stablecoins and $182bn in "bridged tokens" currently available on the platform.
+Ethereum collects $800M in fees per day at the time of writing and trades $1.9bn per day.
+This compares to the London Stock Exchange which has $3.4tn despite Brexit.
+So blockchains are still behind traditional markets, but much could change in the
+next decade.
+
+See https://defillama.com/chain/Ethereum
+
+Ethereum now uses a "proof of stake" consensus mechanism which means that you
+do not need the vast warehouses in Kazakstan to power it and it is still possible
+to run an Ethereum node on an ordinary server.
+
+## Other chains
+
+There are many other blockchains of which this is an abbrevaited list:
+
+* Aptos
+* SUI
+* Solana
+* Fuel
+* Nano
+* Zcash
+* Polygon
+* Arbitrum
+* Optimism
+* Cardano
+* Avalanche
+
+See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blockchains for a more complete list
+
+
+## How trading works on a blockchain.
+
+If you want to buy some token using Euros, for example, you must first convert
+your Euros into a "stablecoin" such as EURC using an "on ramp" which
+is usually a centralised service. You pay circle.com via Swift and circle
+then mints you some of their token in return.
+
+https://www.circle.com/eurc
+
+Likewise, if you want to convert EURC to Euros, you contact circle.com
+who will reverse the process.
+
+Stablecoins, such as EURC and USDC track the value of "fiat" currencies
+such as the Euro or USD and are often the first port of call in the
+blockchain experience.
+
+It is easy to do this through web servcies like "Metamask" which also handle
+your "wallet" or private key that enables you to send transactions to the network.
+
+EURC is a smart contract that stores your balance in secure storage or "state".
+you can see the source code of this contract here:
+
+https://etherscan.io/token/0x1abaea1f7c830bd89acc67ec4af516284b1bc33c#code
+
+You can use this contract to transfer EURC from yourself to other users
+on Ethereum.
+
+## Swaps
+
+On Ethereum, there is a standard called "ERC20" which enables tokens of different
+kinds to be exchanged.
+
+Special contracts called Automatic Market Makers or AMMs for short allow you to swap
+tokens of one kind for another. So for example, if you wanted to swap your EURC
+for USDT, a dollar tracking stablecoin, you can do this using an AMM.
+
+The top AMM contracts on ethereum are:
+
+* Uniswap V2
+* Uniswap V3
+* Curve
+
+But there are many, many others. Each provide a different fee structure.
+
+AMMs work by getting investors to put value into the market in the form of
+a pair of tokens. This creates "liquidity" in the market and allows
+other users to swap between two or more different tokens.
+
+Uniswap uses a hyperbolic curve to determine price depending on the
+reserves of tokens on either side. Curve uses a modified hyperbola
+and is used primarily for stablecoin trading.
+
+As the amount of token on one side of the trade changes, the price
+of the swap is determined by the curve. If a reserve becomes depleted
+its price will rise, incentivising investors to put more tokens
+on that side.
+
+These contracts have come to dominate with Uniswap holding roughly one third
+of the market on Ethereum.
+
+The authors of these contracts have become billionaires leading to the Curve
+Finance CEO buying two mansions in Melbourne.
+
+https://www.theblock.co/post/232464/curve-finance-ceo-michael-egorov-wife-mansions-australia
+