Understanding the Elrond cryptocurrency

Since cryptocurrencies are now a well-talked about topic, the market has evolved and opened the doors for people to create more groundbreaking tokens. Among these, one peculiar coin called the Elrond cryptocurrency has made a name for itself with its fast transaction speeds and unique protocols. 

Although it’s relatively new, it continues to show potential as it improves as time passes. Dig further into detail about it here at the BTC Post:

Brief background about Elrond

Elrond was established in 2017 to address Bitcoin’s scalability limitations and utilize Ethereum blockchain’s versatility to the fullest. As many would deduce, the term ‘Elrond’ was taken from the fictional elf character of the same name in The Lord of the Rings who is known as the Lord of Rivendell. On the flip side, the company was founded by brothers Beniamin Mincu and Lucian Mincu along with Lucian Todea. 

The Elrond blockchain was made from scratch and has a transaction capacity of 1,000 times more than that of Ethereum and Bitcoin because of its sharding technology. It also features a native token of the same name with the ticker symbol EGLD. 

EGLD is a store-of-value asset released in July 2020 that is utilized for paying network fees when staking and rewarding validators. The minimum fee for staking is 2,500 EGLD and each transaction for staking per node costs 0.0006 EGLD.

Presently, this token has a market capitalization of around $4 billion according to CoinMarketCap. Based on their data, EGLD reached its all-time high market price of $542.58 on November 23, 2021. Meanwhile, its all-time low was at $6.54 on October 7, 2020. As of writing, EGLD is at $201.06.

Key features in the Elrond blockchain

Understanding the main features of the Elrond blockchain begins with knowing about the three important participants involved in its blockchain process, namely:

• Validators: These are nodes that process transactions and secure the network through the Secured Proof of Stake protocol. To become one, you need to stake an EGLD token. Once you are a validator, you’ll receive rewards from the transaction fees in the form of EGLD coins.
• Observers: These are passive participants in the blockchain who do not need to stake any EGLD coins. Moreover, they are not rewarded for their involvement in the blockchain process, unlike validators.
• Fishermen: These are nodes that are rewarded for verifying the validity of blocks after being proposed.
  

Now, it’s time to dive into more detail about the Elrond blockchain by looking through the details below:

Adaptive State Sharding

As its name suggests, the Adaptive State Sharding is a scaling method that divides the blockchain into several smaller pieces referred to as ‘shards’. In this process, the data is separated into different parts which are assigned and handled by certain validators. 

Contrary to regular blockchains that process one transaction at a time, this protocol allows transactions to be done simultaneously. Hence, it has a faster transaction speed compared to others.

Secure Proof of Stake (SPoS)

While most networks use the Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism, Elrond takes it up another level with their unique process called the Secure Proof of Stake (SPoS). This network allows a set of 61 validating nodes to confirm each shard and refrain from any malicious attacks.

Out of those nodes, only one will be chosen to create the next block that will be added to the chain. The selected node will put together all the transactions and propose them to other nodes, resulting in becoming part of the blockchain.

On that note, the Elrond network allows up to 5,000 transactions per second per shard.

Arwen Virtual Machine

A smart contract is a self-executing agreement between two parties written in lines of code that plays an important part in the Elrond blockchain. They are run by the Arwen WASM virtual machine that executes the program code for the smart contract functionality of the network. 

The virtual machine is made with the WebAssembly (WASM) which allows developers to create decentralized apps (dApps) and smart contracts using different coding languages. It also has a built-in royalty system that gives 30% of all transaction fees to the developers for them to accomplish their tasks.

Notably, the term ‘Arwen’ came from the name of Elrond’s daughter in The Lord of the Rings.

Metachain

The Metachain allows faster data transfer processes which comprise of a main chain and subchains. In Elrond, this functions in a special shard and has the following tasks:

• It notarizes and finalizes the shard block headers
• It manages the communication between shards
• It stores the registry of validators
• It rewards the key participants
• It handles the fisherman’s challenges.
  

Staking phases

Since the Elrond blockchain uses the PoS mechanism, EGLD tokens are not mined but are staked. This involves four different phases which are as follows:

• Phase 1 (Incentivized Delegation Queue): In October 2020, the first phase was completed pre-mainnet which is an incentivized queue for community members who staked a minimum of 10 EGLD tokens. Members get an annual return of up to 20% if they are part of this queue.
• Phase 2 (Validators Queue): The second phase started in December 2020 which opened more staking slots and allowed validators to stake or unstake EGLD.
• Phase 3 (Open Staking): During this phase, community nodes participated in the network and gave everyone the opportunity to become a staking provider by creating staking pools. This started in March 2021.
• Phase 4 (Advanced Staking features): Once phase 3 is done, phase 4 of the network will commence according to the Elrond team. However, there is no specific date mentioned. They also added that this stage will showcase more advanced staking features.
  

How to buy Elrond cryptocurrency

Here’s a step by step guide on how you can buy the Elrond cryptocurrency:

Get a wallet

Before purchasing the Elrond cryptocurrency, you need to first secure a wallet for the safety of your tokens. Go to Elrond’s wallet link by going to their website’s homepage. Once you reach the page for their wallet, press the ‘create wallet’ tab. Follow all the instructions given to complete the process.

Buy coins

Once you’ve secured your wallet, you can now buy EGLD tokens. Buy them using your card or through bank transfer, whichever is more convenient for you. Take note that paying through a card usually takes around 15 minutes while bank transfer takes up to 1 to 2 business days.

Stake your EGLD

After buying EGLD coins, you can start staking them in the Elrond network. Get up to 29% of rewards by participating in the platform. 

Start staking with Elrond cryptocurrency now!

The Elrond cryptocurrency is a breakthrough technology that solves scalability issues and has a big transaction capacity compared to other counterparts. It’s a groundbreaking innovation that is perfect for crypto enthusiasts who want to achieve big returns in the long run. Start staking on it now and reap all the benefits that come with it.