A lot’s happened in the six weeks since Flare Networks completed its Highly anticipated airdrop—putting Spark tokens into the pockets of anyone who owned XRP.
In the wake of the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, XRP tumbled from $0.50 to lows of just $0.20… with one analyst making the dire prediction that the embattled altcoin will be a “remnant of history” by the end of 2021, while another says the only question is how much it will cost Ripple to resolve the suit.
But if the headline-grabbing drama has affected Flare Networks, the project’s done a very good job of hiding it—with the start-up making a slew of announcements as it prepares for launch.
Branching out
Flare Networks is aiming to bring “full smart contract utility to the XRP ecosystem”—and said Spark (FLR) tokens are “created through what may be the first-ever utility fork whereby the origin network, in this case the XRP Ledger, benefits through increased utility.”
But this doesn’t mean that the upcoming decentralized network is nailing its colors to one mast, as interoperability is the name of the game. Through the F-Asset protocol, “any asset from any chain can be used with full Ethereum-style smart contracts on Flare without relying on a centralized third party.”
True to form, Flare announced last month that Litecoin is going to be integrated as an F-Asset alongside XRP, bringing newfound utility to both networks.
Dogecoin is also being integrated ahead of launch—but even though 53.1% of those polled on Twitter said they back the move, there was considerable pushback from several Flare fans amid fears that the link-up will undercut the platform’s credibility.
One Twitter USER wrote: “After the current Ripple and XRP debacle and your project’s affiliations with the company, is a DOGE integration the right move? […] This project had potential.”
And another added: “Just like that the project’s reputation falls by 10 points. Pointless, absolutely pointless.”
Flare v ETH?
It’s clear that the upcoming project is aiming to take on Ethereum by enabling decentralized finance protocols and decentralized apps to launch on other blockchains with its assistance. And in a bid to woo developers, Ethereum smart contracts are fully compatible with Flare—using the same programming language.
Ethereum 2.0 is currently a long way off, and the current Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism is struggling to keep up with demand. Flare could gain a first-mover advantage when it launches, but developers also argue that the Proof-of-Stake algorithm that Eth 2.0 will rely on is flawed, as the value locked on the network must scale if it is to remain secure.
“This makes such a network economically inefficient and presents a new barrier to mass adoption, that of scaling for value. Flare doesn’t suffer from this,” the project said on its website.
Ethereum has also been long associated with non-fungible tokens thanks to its ERC-721 standard, but it seems that Flare is also planning to take on the blockchain here—inking a partnership with Gala Games and the Bitrue exchange. As part of the collaboration, assets will be mintable, transferable and tradable on Flare.
Flare has been vocal on Twitter—and tried to warn the XRP community ahead of a much publicized (and ill-fated) pumping plot, which saw naïve investors lose millions on Monday.
The day before, the network’s official Twitter account had warned:
“All our social channels are getting bombarded with “XRP Pump” links. As a member of the XRP community we cannot be more emphatic in our view that it is incredibly financially dangerous to take part in a coordinated pump. We certainly do not condone coordinated pumps of any kind but crucially in the XRP case it is also important to point out that unlike with GameStop, there isn’t a giant short position to squeeze into capitulation.”
A second airdrop?
There was a flurry of excitement following on from December’s airdrop of FLR—and now, it seems like a second airdrop is now in the works.
Those who own Spark tokens that are held on exchanges or in private wallets are going to receive another token called DAOFlare, otherwise known as DFLR for short. This asset won’t have any value until it is swapped for YieldFlare, which is set to be the native token used by Flare Finance, a decentralized finance protocol being built on the network.
Flare Networks is scheduled to go live by the middle of next year.
You May Also Like
-
December 19, 2020 -
October 9, 2020 -
January 13, 2021
