There are thousands of cryptocurrencies in circulation today. Aside from the main cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), these other coins are alternative coins (Altcoins). Their creators came up with them to solve issues Bitcoin faced. Such issues included energy efficiency, transaction speeds etc. Let’s look at three altcoins (SRM, RAY, and LINK) in the crypto markets today.
Serum (SRM)
It is a permissionless blockchain ecosystem, and decentralized exchange (DEX) built on Solana. Its purpose is to make decentralized exchanges more efficient by giving the DeFi space similar benefits to those of a centralized exchange. An example of these benefits includes adequate liquidity during trades which afflicts many new DEXes.
Serum solves this problem by using one of the world’s leaders of liquidity used for financial applications, Jump Trading. Alameda Research backs the software by Bankman-Fried backs software. Additionally, it ensures that the correct market price for services rendered is accurate and accessible at all times.
It uses order book-style exchange such as Uniswap, which offers a familiar interface. This might attract traders who want good user experiences in their centralized exchanges. Because of the fast speeds Solana offers and its low transaction costs, Serum attracts many investors.
Raydium (RAY)
Raydium is a liquidity provider and an automated market maker (AMM) that uses the Solana blockchain like the Serum DEX. It works within the Serum ecosystem to bring existing and new projects within the ecosystem. Compared to other AMMs, Raydium uses Serum’s entire order book and depth to ensure faster trades and token swaps. Thanks to Serum’s liquidity advantage, Raydium has better yield earning functionalities.
Because of its access to the Serum ecosystem and Solana blockchain is cheaper and faster than other AMM DeFi protocols. Therefore, seasoned traders will appreciate its advanced trading features. These benefits include access to TradingView charts and the ability to set limit orders. Raydium also offers the professional trading experience of a centralized exchange without any centralized entity holding onto your assets.
Chainlink (LINK)
The purpose of the Chainlink (LINK) coin is to decentralize the oracle network. Its ecosystem is on the LINK network and uses the LINK token. First, it’s used to connect smart contracts on the blockchain to real-world applications. It allows smart contracts to access resources such as APIs, payments, reliable data feeds etc.
It serves as the middleware between off-chain and on-chain systems. By allowing smart contracts access to off-chain resources, they can execute arrangements and real-world applications without external proof of performance.
Secondly, it aims to solve the inability of the smart contract technology to interact with resources, not within the node network. Smart contracts cannot perform to their maximum capabilities without access to such resources as GPS data for cabs and payment gateways for online shopping.
Finally, Chainlink uses data providers called oracles to act as “messengers” between external data sources and the blockchain smart contracts. It incentivizes the oracles to give it accurate data by assigning a reputation score. When the oracles provide useful data and adhere to the software’s rules, they get LINKs, Chainlink cryptocurrency.