Besides selling devices, companies like Ledger or Trezor need to set up different revenue streams to ensure their financial sustainability.
A favorable context for cold wallets
Recent events in the ecosystem have given a boost to the hardware wallet industry. Following the bankruptcy of FTX, many experts recommend the purchase of a cold wallet to protect its cryptos. Indeed, in a context of cascading failure, nothing beats the self-preservation of these cryptos using these proven devices.
Large centralized players like Binance have even increased their investments in such solutions. The latter even suggested that the large centralized exchanges might not be useful in the future. Funny declaration for the world number 1 of the CEX!
Wallets with remarkable longevity
One of the major differences between these two players is the way they generate revenue. Indeed, unlike exchanges, cold wallets do not charge fees for most transactions.
However, the sale of devices cannot be the only source of income for manufacturers, for a number of reasons. The first of these is that they are devices designed to last, unlike smartphones, which must be renewed regularly.
For now, it is even difficult to know exactly how long a cold wallet can last. And for good reason, the first outs still work .
The Czech Republic-based company Trezor was the first company in the world to launch a cold wallet in 2014 . After eight years, the Trezor One model is still one of the most popular cold wallets. Many customers are still using the first generation of devices as Trezor Brand Ambassador Josef Tetek reveals. He adds :
Trezor devices come with a two-year warranty. However, this does not mean that the devices fail after two years. At conferences, we regularly meet users who are still using the first edition from 2013. In general, Trezor devices are very durable and the failure rate is minimal.
The official pointed out that users can break, lose or damage their devices. They keep their Bitcoin and other assets if they keep their seed phrase intact .
Same story among users of competitor Ledger. The French company estimates the lifespan of a cold wallet to be very long. A company spokesperson adds:
Devices are built to last. Sometimes problems arise as with any product, but people are able to deal with it.
As for cold wallets in the form of a card, we are talking about a lifespan of several decades. Adam Lowe, creator of cold wallet company Arculus , says the company’s card-like device “never expires “.
So if these devices last almost forever, how do companies make money?
Growing demand!
The demand for cold wallets is growing . Over the adoption of crypto-currencies but also the multiplication of crises, the latter see their sales increase significantly.
Thus, manufacturers must hire in particular to provide the support service . A Ledger spokesperson said:
We have significantly increased our support team. This was important to us given recent events in the crypto industry and the increase in the number of people investing in cold wallet solutions.
A number of wallets have also introduced new support solutions , including self-help tools and chatbots. This is a way to process recurring requests more easily.
Tetek of Trezor says about it:
This makes it possible to deal with unexpected spikes in inquiries, such as those experienced during the recent collapse of FTX.
Indeed, this type of situation is conducive to panic but also to the request for information.
The different sources of revenue from hardware wallets
Companies have several sources of income to ensure their growth and profitability.
Ledger for example, in addition to its hardware wallet offers its software solution attached to the latter: Ledger Live . Various services, for example token swap or direct asset purchase, are offered via Ledger Live.
The company also offers its own NFT platform known as Ledger Market, a business-to-business (B2B) product tool called Ledger Enterprise, and many more tools.
Ledger has also been actively developing its devices, releasing a total of seven different cold wallets since 2014. Ledger’s latest wallet, the STAX, developed in conjunction with iPod Classic creator Tony Fadell, retails for $279. .
The latest addition to the Ledger range, the Stax (source: Ledger)
An additional cost of more than 200 dollars compared to the last generation of Ledger portfolio. A way to move upmarket for the French manufacturer, while offering a more intuitive and ergonomic solution .
On the other hand, Trezor does not offer as many services. It does not charge fees for the use of financial services via Trezor Suite, its software suite.
The other market players specify that apart from the sale of devices, they are mainly remunerated via fiat to crypto conversion fees or the use of third-party services via the cold wallet. Ruben Merre, CEO De NGrave says about this:
The user buys crypto directly from the wallet app. The hardware wallet manufacturer may charge transaction fees for this process.
Some players like Tangem say they are working on a payment solution that should generate new revenue in the future. Additionally, some cold wallet manufacturers participate in affiliate programs with large centralized exchanges. Another way to generate income.
None of the companies is currently listed on the stock exchange. Also, it is not easy to access their sources of income . The latter give orders of ideas but none provides the exact amounts generated by this or that activity.
Ethereum (ETH) is the second blockchain in the world. All news about its infrastructure is the subject of close attention by observers, investors and fans of cryptocurrencies. While critical Ethereum migrations and updates sometimes take years to develop, that might not be the case this time around.
Indeed, more and more sources seem to point to a new ERC20 blockchain update for the first quarter of 2023, a few months after The Merge, just implemented in September, and its controversial consequences. While some users are starting to get used to the new standards generated by The Merge, how does the Ethereum blockchain plan to evolve in the coming months?
The Merge: still a recent upheaval
Long story short, in September 2022, the Ethereum network upgraded to its ETH2.0/Phase 1 version, changing its mode of operation from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS). These two modes of operation determine the way new blocks are generated in a blockchain.
With PoW, the original operation of Ethereum, the computing power made available by certain users with very powerful computers, is used to solve the increasingly complex transactional calculations of the blockchain. In exchange, these miners receive rewards through obtaining newly created tokens.
With PoS, it is no longer the power of the machines that matters, but the number of tokens possessed. To sum up, the more tokens the validator has to lend to the blockchain, the more likely he is to be chosen for the creation of a new block (this limits the competition). He will earn part of the transaction fees generated by this new block and the transactions listed there.
In theory, the migration from PoW to PoS has saved energy resources (no need to run overpowered machines continuously, nor the need to use miners), we are talking about an energy saving of up to 99%!
What happens to minors?
With the Proof of Stake mechanism, miners become useless, and are faced with a major problem, which is the loss of their expensive investments in very specific mining machines and graphics cards.
The price of graphics cards has also fallen by nearly 40% as The Merge approaches, which is a delight for gamers who saw with a very dim view the soaring prices caused by Ethereum miners.
Some of the miners have since sold their equipment in an attempt to acquire ETH tokens to stack, in order to continue their activity in a different way with PoS, for others they have attempted a fork continuing to use the PoW mechanism.
What is the impact of The Merge for users?
It would seem that Ethereum is now enjoying better transactional fluidity, with block times having been reduced by 10% since The Merge. As for transaction fees, they have returned to their level of two years ago.
This statement should nevertheless be qualified, because the exorbitant fees of the Ethereum blockchain in 2021 were also justified by the transactional saturation linked to the bull-run and the NFT activity. It will therefore be worth monitoring how Ethereum would react to new extreme transaction volumes.
It would therefore appear that The Merge is THE historic migration from Ethereum, and for some, the ETH blockchain would now be much closer to being a complete product. This is not at all the opinion of Vitalik Buterin, its founder, who believes:
Ethereum is only at 55% of its development and soon plans evolutions at the height of The Merge.
Codename: Shanghai
In the continuation of Vitalik Buterin’s plan, which suggests that the Ethereum route will have many other updates as massive as The Merge, the Shanghai protocol should intervene during March 2023.
Shanghai, what is it?
The Shanghai update, broadly, will allow validators to access and withdraw their staked ETH. Remember, the transition to Proof of Stake induced by the Merge requires that the validators (those who placed their tokens in staking for the resolution of operations), who replaced the miners, block a certain number of tokens to obtain remuneration in percentages of transaction fees.
The network had warned its validators that once The Merge was effective, they could not directly withdraw their tokens (logical, the blockchain must be guaranteed enough liquidity for it to operate smoothly).
The validators’ tokens are therefore now blocked, and Shanghai should remedy this, by allowing them to withdraw them (to get them out of the staking pools).
What are the risks of Shanghai?
Shanghai’s major risk is liquidity drain. Some observers feared, at the announcement of this future update, that a massive withdrawal of ETH would occur, leading to a significant drop in the price of the token.
Nevertheless, the network has already announced that these new possibilities granted to validators would be put in place at the same time as certain limits, a sort of withdrawal ceiling. Thus, the maximum of staked tokens that it will be possible to withdraw will be 43,200 ETH per day, which is already substantial (it should be specified, however, that the balance of staked ETH exceeds 10 million).
We therefore hope that this limit is not reached every day, as this could have an impact on the price of ETH, especially in a bear market context. It should not be forgotten that validators have witnessed the crypto crash of recent weeks without being able to act on their own tokens, blocked in staking. This is, for many of them, a very frustrating situation, since they have seen their heritage melt away before their eyes without being able to sell a single token.
For a few days and despite the recent fall of FTX, the price of an ETH token has risen somewhat and stabilized around $1280. This remains a far cry from the sums of 2021 or even the $1600 before The Merge or even the $4000 at the start of the year. Nevertheless, ETH remains a cryptocurrency with significant potential continuing to evolve.
What will Shanghai bring to other users?
For the majority of users, the Shanghai implementation should not be felt, except for builders. These have so far seen their performance reduced due to the costs inherent in the Ethereum blockchain, accentuated by the software they use to receive the new reward tokens. The problem should be fixed with the Shanghai update.
One more step forward
One might think that the implementation of the Shanghai plan comes to complete and finalize The Merge, to give Ethereum all the scale and infrastructure necessary to conquer its destiny, and to compete with Bitcoin .
However, Vitalik Buterin reaffirmed it to us some time ago by revealing a roadmap that had been kept secret until now. The Merge is only the first of major steps aimed at fundamentally reforming Ethereum.
Other major transformations are coming. First there will be The Surge, this change will aim to focus on the significant improvement of the blockchain, via data fragmentation. Then The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge are other major updates to come. In summary, the Ethereum shuttle has left for a journey of which we are only at the beginning!
Right now, the top 100 major cryptocurrencies are on the rise. Ethereum rose 4% followed by Polygon, which printed a 3% rise. Bitcoin, Polkadot, Litecoin and Tron were up 2% respectively. But how to explain this sudden increase?
A potential recovery of the crypto market?
While we observed a decline in activity on Ethereum a few days ago, the entire market seems to be on the rise again today. The capitalization of the global cryptocurrency market , capitalized around $860 billion, has increased by 2% in the last 24 hours. Rising by one percent, total trading volume remained relatively flat at $37.43 billion.
For full crypto market performance, head over to CoinMarketCap . You will access the top 10, top 100 and all the cryptocurrencies on the market. You will also find their market capitalizations, their performance and all the information concerning them.
What’s going on in India?
Indian exchange ZebPay has announced the arrival of a new CEO effective December 1, 2022. Rahul Pagidipati will lead ZebPay’s operations and work with the teams currently in place. Rahul Pagidipati had already taken on the role of CEO for ZebPay in January 2020.
The former CEO, Avinash Shekhar, embarks on the entrepreneurial adventure with the launch of his company specializing in Web3.
Some specialists express their opinion on the market
Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder of Mudrex , believes Bitcoin will not stay above the $17,200 level for long. He stated :
Even though BTC touched the $17,424 mark, bulls could not hold there for long.
Even though BTC touched the $17,424 mark, the bulls couldn’t stay there for long.
Short-term support is located at $17,100, while resistance is found near $17,280, then $17,400. According to him, Bitcoin fails to break through the resistance, it could experience a further bearish reaction.
Parth Chaturvedi, Crypto Ecosystem Lead at CoinSwitch spoke on Cryptocurrency Adoption . He stated :
With all the negative news around, it’s easy to lose track of genuine mainstream crypto adoption, which saw several positive developments last week, including Fidelity and Stripe bringing crypto to the masses, alongside Telegram’s plans to launch its own crypto wallet.
With all the negative news circulating, it is normal for the general public to lose sight of the interest in cryptos. However, the latter have seen several adoptions in the past week, including the introduction of crypto by Fidelity and Stripe, as well as Telegram’s plan to launch its own crypto wallet.
All the latest market news
Recently, the fall of the giant FTX , initiated by its ex-CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, has brought up the question of centralization. Many customers lost their funds because they did not have their own private keys.
The implosion of the algorithmic stablecoin UST and its ecosystem Terra LUNA a few months before had brought fear back into the markets. The future and reliability of algorithmic stablecoins had been widely questioned at that time. As a reminder, the sum of 40 billion dollars had been volatilized in just a few days.
Ethereum developers have determined that the next hard fork of the network, called “ Shanghai ”, will be released sometime in March 2023. This upgrade, with EIP code 4895, will allow withdrawals of Ethereum 2.0 stacked on the Beacon Chain .
PayPal will expand its cryptocurrency offer in Luxembourg in the coming days. This is the first time the company has rolled out its crypto service in a European Union country.
The new management of the exchange platform FTX has hired investigators from the consulting firm AlixPartners to find the billions of dollars that have disappeared.
Here we are ! The last hours of the IMPT presale are counted. And with it, the last tokens to acquire. With over $17 million raised in a matter of weeks, this is arguably the most anticipated green crypto project of the year.
And since all good things must come to an end, there are only 1 day and 16 hours left before the presale ends. Recall that the token is available at a price equivalent to 1 IMPT = $0.023 . However, the adventure is not over. It is now that things are accelerating with a first listing on the Uniswap exchange on December 14, 2022.
Hurry to invest in IMPT for guaranteed gains!
It is rare that you may hear these terms from us. But this time, investing in IMPT is almost the guarantee of making short-term gains. Because its first listing will take place on the Uniswap platform with a starting price set at $0.0253.
This therefore means an immediate gain of 10% on your phase 2 investment, if you decide to sell the moment IMPT comes out on Uniswap. Of course, it is possible that the price of IMPT will drop right after its release as Tamadoge may have. But remember that this kind of project takes time to set up and that nothing is fixed before the final realization.
If you want to take your gains immediately , you will have to be among the first to sell on the platform to avoid suffering a potential temporary drop in the token.
The developers do not intend to stop there with new listings planned for very soon . We will have the opportunity to find our green token on “exchanges” like LBank or ChangellyPro soon.
The listing on Uniswap thus marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. The objective now is to publicize the project and gain credibility . With such a presale and strong support from more than 10,000 brands, one can imagine that IMPT will not have much difficulty in finding its place among the most prestigious listings.
IMPT is getting a lot ahead of its roadmap
If we look in detail at what was planned by IMPT on its roadmap, we notice that the listings are made in advance. These were only planned for Q2 2023 once all the marketing actions had been carried out.
But it seems that the success of the project has propelled IMPT to very important listings. This news is encouraging for the future. This shows that the platforms have confidence and are ready to engage with the team!
Second good news, the release of the marketplace is scheduled just after the token listings on the roadmap ! It is likely that the latter faces its entry earlier than what the roadmap provides. If so, the developers will have achieved the feat of putting their project on paper, making it known and releasing it in just a few months!
Why IMPT could be an environmental revolution?
If this crypto is more talked about than another, it is for the seriousness of its team as well as its solid concept. IMPT will take the form of a marketplace where a whole host of carefully audited environmental projects will be presented.
Companies will then be able to invest in these projects and recover carbon credits. A carbon credit represents a ton of CO2 captured in the atmosphere. They are, among other things, essential to justify a neutral carbon footprint as a company.
This measure greatly influences a company’s ESG score , which determines whether it has good sustainability. Investors are very attentive to this data and decide whether or not to invest based on the results obtained. Thus, investment in environmental projects is a real Eldorado for any company wishing to obtain large investments.
It is also for this reason that major brands such as Apple, Chanel, Hugo Boss, support this project. In total, more than 10,000 brands have committed to join the IMPT adventure.
As you will have understood, IMPT alone represents a golden opportunity for any company wishing to go green. And that is precisely why its token could explode in 2023 .
How to invest in IMPT before the end of the presale?
Do you want to invest in IMPT before the final gong? Now is the time to do it! To do so, follow these steps to complete your purchase:
Get your crypto wallet: you absolutely need a wallet to be able to obtain IMPT tokens. Register, for example, on sites like MetaMask or TrustWallet which are the market leaders.
Replenish your wallet with USDT or ETH tokens: IMPT works with the Ethereum blockchain. You will therefore need to acquire ETH or USDT tokens to exchange them for the famous green tokens.
Connect your wallet and make your purchase: go to the official website and click on the “connect wallet” button to buy.
All you have to do is claim your tokens once the presale is over.
The end of the presale will be an opportunity for all investors to finally recover their tokens. If you are already in possession of IMPT tokens, you will need to retrieve the contact address that will allow you to see your tokens on your wallet.
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