Moonbeam

What is Moonbeam? 

• Moonbeam is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchain that allows Ethereum-based applications to deploy on Moonbeam and provides a cross-chain approach to integrate smart contracts with other chains in the Polkadot ecosystem.
• The Moonbeam network offers various features including deploying Solidity smart contracts, Web3-compatible API, oracle data feeds, bridges that connect Moonbeam to existing Ethereum network.
• The Moonbeam platform also expands the base Ethereum feature set with additional features such as on-chain governance, staking, and cross-chain integrations.
• The platform supports all EVM-based code and tools which are designed for developers to easily migrate their dApps from Ethereum to Polkadot with minimal changes.
• In January 2022, Moonbeam launched the Moonbeam crowdloan on Polkadot. It is a way to support over 80 projects in Moonbeam ecosystem that would like to deploy to the Polkadot ecosystem.
• GLMR token is a utility and governance token of Moonbeam that is used for transaction fees, staking, liquidity mining, and governance system.

Key Metrics

Ticker	GLMR
Token Name	Moonbeam
Token Type/Protocol	Polkadot blockchain
Total Token Supply	1,008,237,285
Current Circulating Supply	See Coinmarketcap
Market Capitalisation	See Coinmarketcap
Token Creation Date	17 December 2021
Can it be mined?	No

Who is behind Moonbeam?

Moonbeam network was founded by Derek Yoo, the CEO of PureStake, a platform that provides secure and reliable public blockchain infrastructure to developers, projects, and enterprises.

Stefan Mehlhorn, who is a specialist in early-stage company management and operation, works as the chief operations officer at Moonbeam and PureStake. He previously worked with Samsung Pay, Candibell, LoopPay, Permessa, and Thinking Phone Network.

What is the purpose of Moonbeam?

Moonbeam aims to provide an easy-to-use tooling of Ethereum for building decentralized applications (dApps), this will substantially decrease the barrier to entry for successful Ethereum dApps that would like to move to other platforms. It also provides a cross-chain functionality that allows developers shift existing workloads to Moonbeam and extends the reach of their applications to new users and new assets on other chains.

Insights:

• Moonbeam brings significant activity to the Polkadot ecosystem in the same way as Moonriver brings dApp deployments and usage to the Kusama ecosystem.
• The primary development framework for building applications on Polkadot is a Rust programming language-based Substrate framework which provides a set of tools for creating blockchains. Moonbeam platform can also connect popular tools such as MetaMask, Hardhat, Waffle, Remix, and Truffle via a complete set of Web3 RPC endpoints.

• Moonbeam comprises the following main components:
  • Polkadot: Polkadot facilitates cross-chain communication and interoperability by connecting multiple blockchains into one unified network.
  • Parachains: Parachains are independent blockchains (Shards) which can connect to Polkadot.
  • Crowdloans: It is a method for projects to fundraise for a parachain slot on the Polkadot network. Crowdloan participants can show their support for a project by locking up their DOT in exchange for a reward from the project team. When the parachain lease expires, the locked DOT is returned to the user.
  • Slot Auctions: Projects would have to win a slot in the parachain auction to operate as a parachain on Polkadot. Moonbeam won the second slot auction via a crowdloan, therefore Moonbeam secured a Polkdaot parachain for 96 weeks starting from 17 December 2021.

• The Glimmer token (GLMR) is used for the following functions:
  • Transaction Fees: Users pay GLMR token for gas fees and smart contract execution.
  • Staking: Users can stake GLMR token to become a validator or delegate to participate in the network consensus and earn GLMR tokens.
  • Governance: GLMR token holders have a right to participate in voting on the network.
  • Liquidity Mining: Users provide liquidity on Decentralized Exchanges (DEXes) built on the Moonbeam network to reward a portion of the exchange fees as a GLMR token.

• The Moonbeam crowdloan raised around 36 million DOT tokens from over 200,000 participants through the Moonbeam Foundation dApp, supporting exchanges, wallets, and liquid staking providers.

Risks:

• There is high competition among other Ethereum-based projects, Moonbeam would have to bring its core innovative products out to compete with other competitors.

News and Updates:

• XDAO, an infrastructure platform for creating and managing DAOs, integrates with Moonbeam and Moonriver to provide the flexible XDAO tooling.
• Blockchain Monster Hunt officially launched on Moonbeam. It is a game that runs entirely on the blockchain itself and adds to the flourishing ecosystem of NFTs and games on Moonbeam.
• On 15 January 2022, Celer network announced that cBridge supports Moonbeam network’s asset bridging between 15 chains.
• On 11 January 2022, Moonbeam was the first fully operational parachain on polkadot. Moonbeam brings many new integrations, activities and users to Polkadot ecosystem.

Community & Whitepaper Links

Official Website: https://moonbeam.network/
White Paper: https://docs.moonbeam.network/

Disclaimer
*As cryptocurrency and digital tokens involve high risks, investors may lose all their investment money and should study information carefully, making investments according to their own risk profile.