Decentralized Storage Tokens Outperform Bitcoin, Soaring 62%

•Decentralized storage protocols have grown in use recently, leading to increased attention and a surge in the value of their native tokens.
•Filecoin’s FIL token has jumped 62% over the past week, outperforming Bitcoin and Ether.
•Storj (STORJ) and Siacoin (SC) have also climbed 16%, according to CoinDesk’s Computing Index.

Increased Use of Decentralized Storage Protocols

The recent growth in usage of decentralized storage protocols has gained attention, leading to a surge in the value of their native tokens. Filecoin’s native utility token FIL saw a jump of 62% over the past week, outperforming Bitcoin and Ether which rose by 10% and 7% respectively during the same period. Additionally, Storj (STORJ) and Siacoin (SC) have both climbed 16%, as seen on CoinDesk’s Computing Index.

Filecoin Virtual Machine

Filecoin is readying its Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) for March unveiling which will create a “runtime environment” for smart contracts. The FVM is expected to enable new applications through smart contracts, increasing Filecoin’s usage further. Colin Evran from Protocol Labs tweeted that writing smart contracts on Filecoin allows users to create perpetual storage contracts with their own storage market cloud solutions, data DAOs and DeFi contracts.

Competitive Pricing

Messari research analyst Mihai Grigore said that due to competitive pricing compared with Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), decentralized storage is an appealing choice for Web 2 entities seeking cost-effective alternatives for storing large amounts of archival data,.

Cryptocurrency Markets

On Tuesday BTC was reaching $51K while ETH was trading at around $1,675 after closing at $1583 on Monday night but both couldn’t keep up with FIL’s performance over the past week where it stood above $8 dollars per token. Other digital assets such as Polkadot overtook Ripple to claim 4th place on CoinMarketCap while DogeCoin continues its rally surging by more than 20%.

Conclusion

Overall cryptocurrencies are seeing positive price movements this week with many altcoins outperforming BTC & ETH like FileCoin’s utility token FIL which surged by more than 60%. Decentralized storage protocols are becoming increasingly popular due to their competitive pricing compared with traditional service providers like Amazon S3 making them an attractive option for Web 2 entities seeking cost-effective alternatives for archiving data.

Monad Labs Raises $19M to Create ‚Ethereum Killer‘ Blockchain

• Monad Labs, founded by the former team from traditional finance (TradFi) giant Jump Trading, raised $19 million in seed funding to develop a new blockchain.
• The blockchain will employ the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and will be Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible.
• Monad plans to address issues of high-cost and low reward of many layer 1 blockchains by its new protocol that it claims will be able to process 10,000 transactions per second.

Monad Labs Raises $19M

Tech startup Monad Labs, founded by the former team from traditional finance (TradFi) giant Jump Trading, raised $19 million in seed funding to develop a new blockchain. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital with the participation of 70 other investors including Placeholder Capital, Lemniscap, Shima Capital and Finality Capital as well as angel investors such as Naval Ravikant and Cobie.

Monad Blockchain Features

The Monad blockchain will launch on a testnet in the coming months with mainnet deployment planned for later this year. It will employ the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and be EVM compatible so projects on Monad can interact with EVM software platform where developers create interoperable decentralized applications on Ethereum network. The blockchain is designed to set industry standards for speed, transparency, security and scalability.

High Cost & Low Reward Issue

Builders have been held back by high cost and low reward on many layer 1 blockchains which affects innovation and mass adoption of dapps by developers. To address this issue, Monad made key changes to consensus and execution layers which enable it to process 10,000 transactions per second at low cost with high rewards for stakeholders.

Monad’s Interoperability Feature

To make sure that users can seamlessly interact across different blockchains without any restrictions or limitations imposed by protocols or networks themselves, Monad has integrated an interoperability feature into its protocol architecture allowing users to move assets between different chains easily without any hassle or risk involved.

Conclusion

Monad Lab’s newly launched blockchain promises to bring significant improvements over existing layer 1 protocols addressing issues faced due to their high costs and low rewards while also providing an innovative interoperability feature that allows users to seamlessly interact between different networks without any restrictions or limitations imposed by protocols or networks themselves.

Italy Sets Up Crypto Environment to Meet EU’s New Laws: Central Bank Governor

• Italy’s central bank governor Ignazio Visco has announced the country’s regulators are preparing for Europe’s upcoming crypto regulations.
• Surveys show only 2% of Italian households own crypto and the exposure of Italian intermediaries to the market is limited.
• Bank of Italy is working with Consob and Ministry of Economy to set up authorization and supervision activities laid out in MiCA framework, which will be voted on in April.

Italy Preparing Crypto Environment to Meet EU Regulations

Italy’s central bank Governor Ignazio Visco has announced that the country’s regulators are preparing a supervisory environment anticipating European Union laws for regulating crypto assets. Although surveys show only about 2% of households own crypto, Bank of Italy is taking steps to ensure it meets the forthcoming Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) rules for service providers.

Survey Results Show Limited Exposure To Crypto Market

Bank of Italy surveys have shown that only about 2% of Italian households hold „modest amounts, on average“ of cryptocurrencies. The exposure of Italian intermediaries to the market was also very limited, indicating that last year’s crypto market collapse did not have any „systemic consequences“ on „the real economy,“ according to Visco.

MiCA Rules For Service Providers

The MiCA rules will require licensing requirements for all crypto issuers and service providers including cryptocurrency exchange platforms when they come into effect in April. In order to meet these requirements, Bank of Italy has been working with local financial markets regulator Consob and the Ministry of Economy and Finance on setting up authorization and supervision activities outlined by MiCA.

Mandatory Registration Requirement For Crypto Firms

Previously, Italy had set up a mandatory registration requirement for all cryptocurrency firms operating in the country but as yet none have been vetted by regulators. As of Monday there were 91 virtual asset service providers registered with Bank Of Italy.

Applications Of Distributed Ledger Technology Being Examined By Regulators

Additionally, Bank Of Italy is looking into various applications of distributed ledger technology such as blockchain that could help enhance regulatory oversight over digital assets trading activities within its borders.