Dai is a stablecoin. It is an Ethereum ERC20 token that is pegged to $1 USD — every Dai is worth $1, and will always be worth $1, regardless of how much Dai is in existence. There is no centralized authority like Tether that backs its value, and no traditional bank that backs each Dai with a real US dollar. There is nothing that can be shut down, and no centralized authority that needs to be trusted. Dai lives entirely within the Ethereum blockchain using smart contracts. *Features of Dai: 1. Dai is always worth $1 USD each 2. It can be freely traded like any other ERC20 token 3. Anyone with an Ethereum wallet can own, accept, and transfer it 4. It can be exchanged without any middleman 5. No individual person or company has control over it 6. No government or authority can shut it down *How Dai Works? Dai is a masterpiece of game theory that carefully balances economic incentives in the pursuit of one goal — a token that is continuously approaching the value of $1 USD. When Dai is worth above $1, mechanisms work to decrease the price. When Dai is worth below $1, mechanisms work to increase the price. The rational actors that take part in these mechanisms do so because they earn money anytime Dai is not perfectly worth $1. This is why Dai is always floating slightly above or below $1 — it is an endless wave function bouncing infinitely close to $1, but never quite achieving it. The farther Dai goes from $1, the more incentive there is to fix it. This is the magic of Dai. *How is Dai Created? Dai is simply a loan against Ethereum. By using the MakerDAO dApp, advanced users can take loans out in Dai against their ETH holdings. First, ETH is turned into “wrapped ETH” (WETH), which is simply an ERC20 wrapping around ETH. This “tokenizes” ETH so it can be used like any other ERC20 token. Next, WETH is turned into “pooled ETH” (PETH), which means it joins a large pool of Ethereum that is the collateral for all Dai created. Once you have PETH, you can create a “collateralized debt position” (CDP), which locks up your PETH and allows you to draw Dai against your collateral, which is PETH. As you draw out Dai, the ratio of debt in the CDP increases. There is a debt limit that sets a maximum amount of Dai you can draw against your CDP. Once you have Dai, you can spend or trade it freely like any other ERC20 token. *There are several important reasons why you would create Dai, despite the hassle: 1. You need a loan, and have an asset (ETH) to use as collateral for your loan 2. You believe ETH is going up in value. You can use your CDP to buy ETH on margin — you lock up your ETH in a CDP, draw Dai against it, use the Dai to buy more ETH on an exchange, and then use that ETH to further increase the size of your CDP. This can be accomplished without any third-party or centralized authority allowing you to do so — margin trading can be accomplished entirely on the blockchain. 3. The demand for Dai has driven the price above $1 USD. When this occurs, you can create Dai then immediately sell it on an exchange for greater than $1 USD. This is essentially free money, and is one of the mechanisms the Maker system uses to keep Dai pegged to $1 USD. Dai being worth over $1 USD encourages more Dai to be created. These three reasons are enough to ensure that Dai is continually created.
MonaCoin is an open source digital currency and a peer-to-peer (p2p) payment network. Dubbed by its creators as “the first Japanese cryptocurrency,” the coin has become somewhat of Japan’s national alternative to Bitcoin or Litecoin. Like its predecessors, the coin was created purely to serve as P2P electronic cash, a decentralized digital currency aimed at Japanese citizens. There are a few key differences that set it apart from the coins that came before it, and this guide is dedicated to drawing out these differences. Conceived in December of 2013, Monacoin was officially born on January 1st, 2014 with no premine. A Bitcoin Talk Forum on the same date details the coin’s launch and its specifications. A soft fork was executed at block 937440 to implement Segwit, a move made to keep it in line with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Vertcoin, and other payment-focused cryptocurrencies. In addition, the Monacoin team has reportedly implemented the Lightning Network for their coin. Speaking of soft forks, Monacoin is actually a hard fork of Litecoin, something we’ll take into account further as we look into its specs below. Monacoin was originally founded by the pseudonymous Mr. Wantanabe, no doubt in homage to Bitcoin’s Satoshi Nakamoto. Besides this pen name, the rest of the coin’s team is completely anonymous, so there’s nothing to report on here. In addition, the project has no visible roadmap on its site or anywhere else online. The team does seem to stay on top of updates and upgrades, however, as the Segwit and Lyra2REv2 updates and Lightning Network implementation suggest. It is popular in Japan where it was developed. It Uses Lyra2REv2 and Dark Gravity Wave v3 algorithm to ensure fairer mining opportunities, success rate and difficult levels of mining process respectively. Monacoin is the first cryptocurrency from Japan. It has received wide support and success in the country and is not crossing the national boundary to try and become a global phenomenon. While that is not going to happen in the next year or two, it does have the making of a good crypto token. It is steadily improving its service and has constantly strived to give its users the best possible experience. When Scrypt compliant ASIC miners appeared they switched to Lyra2REv2 to ensure the mining MONA remains a fair battle between miners from around the world. The instance of a Japanese national using Monacoin to buy land made news in the country and beyond, spreading the popularity of the coin.