Key Takeaways:
–Fantom provides an efficient and multi-chain ecosystem for its users while trying to solve some of the current problems within the blockchain space.
–Fantom leverages a series of on-chain mechanisms to reach its high throughput and support multiple chains within its ecosystem.
–FTM is Fantom’s native token👛 and works as a payment unit for transaction fees.
Fantom is a fast, scalable, and cost-efficient blockchain that offers high-speed transactions and DeFi tools to build DApps on its network.
It is also one of the few layer-1s compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to port their DeFi projects from Ethereum to Fantom and vice versa.
And why is it so popular? Mainly for these reasons:
- Highly scalable 📈
- High-speed transactions ⚡
- Developer-friendly with various tools to build DeFi projects🧰
- Home to hundreds of DeFi projects🏠
- Cross-chain: Interoperable with Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum🌉
Fantom – History and Founders
The Blockchain provides an efficient and multi-chain ecosystem for its users while trying to solve some of the current problems within the blockchain space, like the blockchain trilemma: the perfect harmony between decentralisation, security, and scalability.
How Does It Work?
Fantom leverages a series of on-chain mechanisms to reach its high throughput and support multiple chains within its ecosystem. Here’s a quick rundown:
The House of Chains
Opera is Fantom’s main blockchain⛓️ and handles all transactions within the network. Users can create their own chains and adjust parameters according to their needs and use cases, like governance, security, tokenomics, etc.
All custom-built chains communicate with each other and the Opera Chain thanks to the Lachesis consensus, which we’ll explain below:
Lachesis Consensus
The consensus algorithm is called Lachesis, which is:
- Asynchronous: Validators freely process blocks at their own time⌚
- Leaderless: No participant plays a special role🟰
- Interoperable: Chains on FTM are plugged directly into Lachesis, allowing intercommunication🔀
Lachesis is a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), a type of distributed ledger technology wherein a transaction must reference a previous one to be confirmed instead of being gathered in a block.
aBFT Algorithm
More technically, Lachesis is an aBFT algorithm that combines proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus with a DAG stream. The first requires participants to stake FTM to become validators, and the latter improves performance and security.
The aBFT (asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance) belongs to the BFT family of algorithms and allows validators to process blocks at their own time without waiting for other validators to reach a consensus🤝
What DApps are on Fantom?
The ecosystem comprises hundreds of DApps from different fields, including lending🤝, yield farming🧑🌾, staking protocols💰, GameFi🎮, NFTs🖼️, and decentralised exchanges (DEX)💱.
Together, these apps constitute Fantom’s $460 million Total Value Locked (TVL), with SpookySwap dominating 22% of the ecosystem.
- Beethoven X: One of Fantom’s largest automated market makers (AMM) built on the Balancer V2 protocol.
- SpookySwap: a DEX built on Fantom and supports multiple blockchains, including Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and more. It’s governed by its community of $BOO holders.
- Geist: a non-custodial liquidity market running on the Fantom blockchain.
FTM Token
FTM is Fantom’s native token👛 and works as a payment unit for transaction fees. Users can stake FTM tokens to earn a passive income or gain voting rights in the Fantom DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation).
FTM has an ERC-20 and a BEP-2 version (the latter is not usable in the Opera Chain) —both can be found in the most popular crypto exchanges, such as Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, etc.
Users need a minimum of 1 FTM to start staking and choose their lock-up period. The higher the period, the higher the rewards, up to 365 days and a maximum of 15% annual percentage yield (APY).
However, becoming a validator requires a higher amount of FTM: 3.175,000 FTM. As of October 5th, one FTM equals $0.2257, so that’s roughly $716.597🥸
NFT Marketplaces
Fantom has a handful of NFT marketplaces that are gaining traction in the market. Most of them are simple to use, packed with features such as Launchpads and Vaults, and offer multi-chain support to allow users to trade NFTs on multiple blockchain ecosystems.
- Artion: one of the most popular NFT marketplaces. It has a user-friendly dashboard where users can mint, buy, and sell NFTs after connecting their MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, or WalletConnect.
- AirNFTs: a multi-chain NFT marketplace that keeps NFT trading fees under $1, and supports various blockchain ecosystems, including Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum layer-2 Polygon.
- PaintSwap: with over $2 million in NFT sales, PaintSwap is a feature-rich NFT marketplace with over 300 NFT collections available. It also offers staking and yield farming using the $BRUSH token.
- NFTKEY: a non-custodial platform with multi-chain support, including chains like Polygon, BSC, Avalanche, and Harmony.
- tofuNFT: a community-oriented NFT marketplace focusing mostly on GameFi projects and NT collectibles. It’s also multi-chain, supporting BSC, Avalanche, Polygon, and Optimism.
Closing Thoughts
Fantom’s ecosystem comprises hundreds of DApps leveraging its fast and cost-efficient blockchain. The blockchain is in the Layer-1 race —a race in which most competitors are trying to become the number 1 blockchain ecosystem by providing the best and most efficient infrastructure for regular users, blockchain developers, enterprise companies, and NFT projects.
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